Wednesday, May 30, 2007

House of Commons Demands Takedown of YouTube Video

From michaelgeist.ca:

Earlier this month, I wrote a column highlighting the requirement to obtain permission from the Speaker of the House of Commons to use political clips that air on CPAC. The column argued that the current rules do not protect parody and should be scrapped by granting broad leeway to reuse clips for a broad range of non-commercial purposes. As if on cue, the Tea Makers Blog reports that the House of Commons (presumably acting on behalf of the Speaker) sent a notice and takedown notification to YouTube, asking it to remove a parody video of a Parliamentary committee hearing appearance by CBC President Robert Rabinovitz. The clip has been reposted to MySpace, yet the incident highlights the fact that the concerns associated with this form of online speech are real. Without a change to the rules, takedown notices involving political speech are likely to become more common in Canada.

I agree. This is a dangerous move by our government, and I urge all to repost the video (even if it is not really funny)

CSPAM

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Verschärfte Vernehmung

Please pass this information on to everyone you know...

from Andrew Sullivan:

Here's a link to the blogs that have discussed the fact that the Bush administration's term "enhanced interrogation" was coined in 1937 to describe exactly the same techniques authorized by Bush, Cheney, Tenet, and Rumsfeld. The term was coined by the Gestapo. The original post, with historical documentation, is here. Please read it. Please send it to others. We have to wake people up to what is being done in their name. There is a better way to get intelligence, and before the goons and thugs of the Bush administration, the U.S. used to practise it. We still can return to honor and excellence in interrogation - instead of shame and failure.

Friday, May 25, 2007

Women in Art

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Motley Crue: Throw Paris Hilton In Jail

Oh yeah baby.

Motley Crue have made it known that they’re not big fans of “shitty porn star” Paris Hilton by supporting a ‘Throw Paris Hilton In Jail’ petition.

In answer to an online petition asking the Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, to show leniency, the aging rockers have put their full support behind a rival petition asking the Governor to ensure Paris serves her full 45-day sentence.


Read more here, though note the article seems to be just the teeniest bit on Hilton's side.

New Clovis-Age Comet Impact Theory

Two University of Oregon researchers are on a multi-institutional 26-member team proposing a startling new theory: that an extraterrestrial impact, possibly a comet, set off a 1,000-year-long cold spell and wiped out or fragmented the prehistoric Clovis culture and a variety of animal genera across North America almost 13,000 years ago

Read more here and here.

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Salvador Dali on "What's My Line?"

Monday, May 14, 2007

Teachers stage fake gunman attack on sixth-graders

You flaming idiots

Staff members of an elementary school staged a fictitious gun attack on students during a class trip, telling them it was not a drill as the children cried and hid under tables.

The mock attack Thursday night was intended as a learning experience and lasted five minutes during the weeklong trip to a state park, said Scales Elementary School Assistant Principal Don Bartch, who led the trip.

"We got together and discussed what we would have done in a real situation," he said.


Read more here.

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Thailand

Thailand's National Legislative Assembly approved a controversial law this week which could seriously effect how Thailand's internet users use the web. The main effect of the bill is to outlaw any attempt at bypassing government censors to access any of the thousands of sites that have been censored due to their moral or political purposes.

Another arrogant government that thinks they know better than their citizens.

Fools

Read more here.

Jail the Bitch

and throw away the key

"Paris Whitney Hilton is an American celebrity and socialite. She is an heiress to a share of the Hilton Hotel fortune, as well as to the real estate fortune of her father Richard Hilton. She provides hope for young people all over the U.S. and the world. She provides beauty and excitement to (most of) our otherwise mundane lives… We, the American public who support Paris, are shocked, dismayed and appalled by how Paris has been the person to be used as an example that Drunk Driving is wrong… This petition is to ask Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to pardon Paris Hilton for her mistake. Please allow her to her return to her career and life."

Arrogant bitch

Monday, May 07, 2007

Rudolph W. Giuliani

We look upon authority too often and focus over and over again, for 30 or 40 or 50 years, as if there is something wrong with authority. We see only the oppressive side of authority. Maybe it comes out of our history and our background. What we don't see is that freedom is not a concept in which people can do anything they want, be anything they can be. Freedom is about authority. Freedom is about the willingness of every single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do.

What a load of shit.

Bayeux Tapestry



Animated

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Modern Man, Neanderthals Seen as Kindred Spirits

The article's title is very dumb, it is filled with speculation, and I don't think some "paleoanthropologists" really understand what 10,000 years means, but...

Read more here.

For more guesses...

Climate – and not modern humans – was the cause of the Neanderthal extinction in the Iberian Peninsula.

Read more here.

Toronto's most expensive condo

Pretension in Toronto hit new highs with the announcement of yet another condo...and its asking price...

A planned condominium building in Yorkville will feature the city's most expensive penthouse --a $16-million unit.

The creation of a 9,000- square-foot space atop the soon to be built Four Seasons Hotel marks a coming of age for Toronto, co-designer Brian Gluckstein said in a recent interview.


A coming of age! LOLOLOLOLOL

Sorry, I'm better now...

"Before, [Torontonians with money] did not value communal living," Mr. Gluckstein said. "Now people with affluence want this type of lifestyle."

The lifestyle of which he speaks will allow residents to travel freely without worrying about property maintenance; to cater dinner parties from the condo's adjoining restaurant; or to go down a hallway to receive a manicure, pedicure or massage at the 28,000-square-foot spa.

"It's a level of service few people in houses can afford," he said.


Yawn

Read more here.