Whiny Conservatives: The National Post

Our beloved newspaper The Toronto National Post is upset that other media outlets covered their possible closing due to bankruptcy.

Whether it is because they dislike our founder or our owners, or because of our longstanding editorial support for Israel or our small-c conservative voice, or our irreverence, a lot of people -- particularly in the media--appear to relish the thought of the Post's voice being silenced. Fortunately, many people disagree, including our many print and Web readers, our advertisers and employees, and those who simply understand the importance of diversity of opinion across the media landscape and in the national conversation.

The possibility they may just be a crappy newspaper never enters their heads.

Read more here.

Larry Johnson: Idiot of the Day

Yeah, we believe you Larry, sure we do.

Larry Johnson's agent claims he's appealing the KC Chiefs decision to suspend the running back for dropping a gay slur this week -- but the real story is that the agent claims he "didn't realize" the F-word was offensive in the first place.

TMZ spoke with Peter Schafer -- who is also Johnson's lawyer -- who explained:

"We know the N-word is unacceptable, that's not disputable -- but f*g? I'm learning that there's a segment of our society that finds it offensive and that it should not be used. I didn't realize that, but I do know now..."

FYI -- Johnson was suspended for conduct deemed "detrimental to the team."

Of course, something like this brings out that segment of "society" that is delighted when some group is called names, and claims surprise this might be hurtful...

"NO word is offensive just because some thin-skinned super-sensitive moron somewhere doesn't like the word and claims to be offended. Everytime I hear someone bitch and moan about a word they don't like to hear, I get the urge to knock their friggin teeth out to give them a REAL reason to cry!"

The braindead live.

9000 year old burial items unearthed in Sweden

Swedish archaeologists are marveling over a collection of 9,000 year old artifacts recently uncovered at an excavation site central Sweden.

Parts of a bow, a paddle, and the wooden shaft of an axe are among the discoveries recently unearthed from the Stone Age settlement Kanaljorden outside of Motala, according to local media reports.

Read more here.

Stockton Utah council votes to kick mayor's ass

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

Newsday makes itself irrelevant

As promised, Newsday launched its new pay wall site today, which only allows full access for print subscribers of the newspaper and customers of its Cablevision sibling, Optimum Online.

The site is clearly doing its best to make sure online readers know what they are missing. As revealed last week, all stories, photos and video are accessible only to subscribers. Others get a headline and brief summary. But any further information requires a log-in and password. Non-subscribers to Optimum Online or the print edition can pay $5 per week.

Read more here.

We Are Douchebags

We Are Douchebags - watch more funny videos

Avatar trailer II

Mayor of Stockton Utah: Idiot of the Day

Good work Mayor Rydalch, now the whole world knows you're a moron.

A traffic stop involving a young officer and the son of a small-town mayor has the whole town talking. The mayor of Stockton tried to fire the officer for issuing his son a ticket.

Cpl. Joshua Rowell told KSL News he was just doing his job. He said he acted professionally when he wrote the driver a ticket and was shocked when he was suddenly asked to hand over his badge.

Read more here.

Don't you wish you could attend this meeting?

Special Town Board Meeting shall start at 7:30 pm at the Fire Station:

1. Request from Officer Josh Rowell to speak at the Special public meeting.
2. Status report on the investigation of Officer Rowell – Mayor Rydalch
3. Public comments and discussion.
4. Discussion and possible vote for reinstatement of Officer Josh Rowell with back wages.
5. Adjourn

Coffee and pie will be served as they run the Mayor out of town on a rail.

MTV: Nasty foreigners can come in, but you won't like it

This happy little message awaits you if visit the U.S. MTV site, but don't happen to live in the U.S.

The MTV USA website (www.mtv.com) is optimized for users within USA. While Users outside of USA are welcome to visit, many features of the site (including most videos) will not work for users outside of USA. We strongly encourage you to visit your local site instead.

Translation: We aren't actually a "web" site, but an internal U.S. intranet site, so piss off.

The Watford Borough Council: Idiots of the Day

Only council-vetted "play rangers" are now allowed to monitor youngsters in two adventure areas in Watford [U.K.] while parents must watch from outside a perimeter fence.

The Watford Borough Council policy has been attacked as insulting and a disgrace by furious relatives who say they are being labelled as potential pedophiles.

Read more here.

Brain dead British politician thinks this will make us buy bad CDs

Lord Mandelson, the business secretary, warned internet users today that the days of "consequence-free" illegal filesharing are over as he unveiled the government's plan for cracking down on online piracy.

Mandelson, speaking at the government's digital creative industries conference, C&binet, confirmed that the internet connections of persistent offenders could be blocked – but only as a last resort – from the summer of 2011.

He added that a "legislate and enforce" strategy was the only way to protect the intellectual property rights of content producers.

Read more here.

Hopper invasion

A Universe from Nothing

Lawrence Krauss gives a talk on our current picture of the universe, how it will end, and how it could have come from nothing.

Klingon Propaganda

Gordon Ramsay: Blind leading the blind

TV chef Gordon Ramsay has admitted to undergoing a cosmetic procedure on his chin after taking advice from music mogul Simon Cowell...

..."Simon Cowell suggested now I'm a success in America, I should do something, so I had a filler put under the deep crevices. It hurt," he said.

Read more here.

Iceland just got 100% healthier

McDonald's is to close its business in Iceland because the country's financial crisis has made it too expensive to operate its franchise.

The fast food giant said its three outlets in the country would shut - and that it had no plans to return.

Read more here.

Idiot Italian politician sues 4609 Youtube commenters

Guess how Italian politicians take care of comments on YouTube against them? On 22 October, Cuffaro laid charges with regard to the first 4609 comments on a video clip on You Tube, entitled 'Costanzo Show: Totò Cuffaro aggredisce Giovanni Falcone' (video clip posted on You Tube on 14 January 2007).

[Salvatore] Cuffaro against YouTube, in fact Cuffaro against 4,609 comments of that number of users, in fact that’s now become 4,667 while I have been writing, and tomorrow, probably 10,000 or who knows how many will be added in the next few hours out of solidarity with the first 4,609.

Read more here.

Those Northwest pilots were surfing porn!

None of their stories really hold water, now do they....

The pilots of the commercial jetliner that last week overshot its destination by about 150 miles have said they were using their laptops and lost track of time and location, federal safety officials said Monday.

Read more here.

Rogers renaming frenzy continues

From the "You have to be fucking kidding" files...

[Toronto] city council has approved naming a portion of Jarvis St. to Ted Rogers Way to honour the former President and CEO of Rogers' Communications Inc.

It is the block of Jarvis St., between Bloor Ave. and Charles St., which runs right beside the Rogers' headquarters.

How can it be called "Ted Rogers Way"? It's a two way street...but I digress.

Toronto councillor Kyle Rae was first approached about the idea.

He said, "It's the least we could do in recognizing a man who gave so much, built so much, employed so many and transformed an industry."

Company executives have said Rogers' philanthropy is evident across Toronto and this is a fitting was to immortalize him.

Their goddamn logo is certainly evident across the city. Only "company executives" think he needs more honouring, the rest of us have had quite enough of Rogers and their branding.

A statue to their arrogance would endanger air traffic. Guess the Skydome wasn't enough for them.

The reactions have begun on Twitter: @dominionpundit If you drive Ted Rogers Way,do you get charged per second,have shitty service and have neg option billing?

@jeffpeter Jarvis St to be renamed Ted Rogers Way. Parking is to be rounded up to the nearest hour, cars subject to a $6.95 Spot Access Fee.

Isn't there a new dump or landfill that could use a name?

Jon Landau: Pretentious Statement of the Day

Re Avatar:

"When we started it was a little like the people at NASA who first went to the moon," he said.

"When John Kennedy said they were going to put someone on the moon, they didn't really know how they were going to do it and when we started we had an idea but we had no idea how we were going to do it either."

Read more here.

"Darwinism remains controversial" among easily confused

More than half of adults in a survey of 10 countries thought school science lessons should teach evolutionary theories alongside creationism.

Among those who knew of Darwinism, on average 53% felt other possible perspectives should also be taught.

The figure was 68% in Argentina, in the poll for the British Council, which promotes educational opportunities.

In Great Britain 60% felt this way. In Egypt, 27% said such theories should not be in science lessons at all.

Read more here.

Steve Meade, Terrorist

Alarming video of Steve Meade, terrorist, armed only with a car, a too loud sound system and zero musical taste.

Baby dancing the stanky legs

Scientology called out for its bigotry and pettiness

In a stunning move, Haggis [the Oscar-winning writer-director whose credits include “Crash,” “Million Dollar Baby” and “Letters From Iwo Jima,”] has written a letter explaining his exit [of Scientology] to Tommy Davis, the celebrity wrangler for Scientology and the son of Scientologist actress Anne Archer. The veracity of the letter has been confirmed by a friend of Haggis.

Two things seem to have pushed the popular, amiable Haggis over the edge. One was Scientology’s backing of Proposition 8 in California banning gay marriage.

The other is more personal. It turns out that Haggis and his wife, actress Deborah Rennard, came into Scientology through her parents, of all things. But at some point, Rennard was ordered to break off from her parents and have nothing more to do with them because they’d violated some code of the sect. This heartbreaking situation has finally taken its toll.

Read more here.

Bigots wish to remain under the rocks from whence they came

Come on now, if God is really on your side then wear your bigotry with pride! Let us all know you think taking away rights is the right thing to do.

The fierce fight over same-sex marriage in California and elsewhere is creating pressure to recognize a new free-speech right that could keep petition signatures secret.

The Supreme Court voted last week to block release of the names of more than 138,000 people in Washington state who signed petitions seeking to repeal a same-sex domestic partner law in a ballot scheduled for Nov. 3.

The Supreme Court's intervention set off a broad debate among election-law experts and 1st Amendment scholars over what is private and what is public when it comes to politics.

Is signing a petition and delivering it to the government a public act, like voting on a bill in the legislature or contributing money to a campaign? Or is it more like casting a secret ballot at the polling place?


Read more here.

What were those pilots doing, fucking?

The co-pilot of a Northwest Airlines flight that overshot the Minneapolis, Minnesota, airport by 150 miles says he and the pilot weren't asleep and they weren't arguing...

..."But other than that, I cannot tell you anything that went on because we're having hearings this weekend, we're having hearings on Tuesday. All that information will come out then."

Read more here.

Apple Applies for Patent on OS With Embedded Advertising

May they burn in Hell if they ever implement it.

"Want to launch Microsoft Office? Sure, but first a word from our sponsor." That somewhat surreal scenario could become a reality, based on a patent application filed by Apple, which was published today by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. If this is ever implemented on your Apple hardware, your Mac, iPhone, or Apple TV may require you to watch and interact with advertisements in order to use them.

Read more here.

Baby Sucker

The Walt Disney Company is now offering refunds for all those “Baby Einstein” videos that did not make children into geniuses.

They may have been a great electronic baby sitter, but the unusual refunds appear to be a tacit admission that they did not increase infant intellect.

The videos — simple productions featuring music, puppets, bright colors, and not many words — became a staple of baby life

Sounds like any show on television, parents could have just let junior watch TV all day, with similar effects.

Especially FOX, they have the best puppets.

Read more here.

Lessons in pretentious marketing

re the Kindle:

We didn't want it to be 'techie' or trite, and we wanted it to be memorable, and meaningful in many ways of expression, from 'I love curling up with my Kindle to read a new book' to 'When I'm stuck in the airport or on line, I can Kindle my newspaper, favorite blogs or half a dozen books I'm reading.'"

Kindle means to set alight or start to burn, to arouse or be aroused, to make or become bright. The word's roots are from the Old Norse word kyndill, meaning Candle. "I verified that it had deep roots in literature," adds Hibma. "From Voltaire*: 'The instruction we find in books is like fire. We fetch it from our neighbours, kindle it at home, communicate it to others and it becomes the property of all.'" No other name could hold a candle to Kindle.

What's disturbing is that marketing people actually believe this stuff.

Product names this decade have be particularly hard on the ear: Blog**, Google, iPod for example, unpleasant words that grate. Perhaps that's their purpose?

*Voltaire may have written this in French, but what do I know.
**I do realize "blog" isn't a product of marketing, but it fits the trend.

Uganda is the one with the dangerous perversion

The minds behind this hideous law are the twisted ones, as the provisions of the law clearly show.

A coalition of twenty-two Ugandan professional and civil rights advocacy groups have joined together to denounce the barbaric Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2009 that was introduced before Parliament last week. The Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Constitutional Law describes the bill as not just an “anti-homosexuality” bill, but also as “the ‘Anti Civil Society Bill,’ the ‘Anti Public Health Bill,’ or the ‘Anti-Constitution Bill,’” or more specifically, “the Anti Human Rights Bill.” And they liken the bill’s measures with some of the more repressive practices of the Idi Amin era.

The coalition points out eight specific constitutional articles which the proposed bill violates, and a long list of people who would be put at risk of serious criminal penalties should the bill pass. This list includes not only LGBT people themselves, but also parents, teachers, landlords, doctors, human rights activists, religious counselors, publishers, and even Internet cafe operators.

Read more here.

iWatch: the world Marcus Gee wants

LAPD's iWatch ad.

Screw a camera on every corner, how 'bout one of these?

Titan the Robot is the stage name of any one of a number of human dancers who perform dressed in an android costume created by Cyberstein Robots Ltd in 2004.

The costume is approximately 2.2 metres (7' 3") tall and 47 kg (7.5 st) and increases to 350 kg (55 st) including the performer and onboard equipment. It was designed by Nik Fielding, who runs Cyberstein from Torquay, Devon, England. Titan has performed at a variety of public and private events, from the Commonwealth Games and Alton Towers to bar Mitzvahs and shopping centres. Titan has appeared on Channel 4 television and BBC Children In Need. When asked by The Times what skills potential performers would require, Nik Fielding replied "They’d need to be good at playing Xbox because that’s what it’s like in there."

In performance, Titan moves about freely in an open area and uses music and comedy to interact with spectators. Shows last for about 30 minutes and can be mixed with a walkabout.

Marcus Gee: Idiot of the Day

This Marcus Gee is a real piece of work.

If he's not insulting people who may not want a condo in their neighbourhood, he's advocating a police state:

If CCTV still creeps you out, remember that you’re already on camera every time you walk through the mall, enter a parking garage or go to the bank machine. If you’re not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about. If you’re committing a crime, watch out. There may be cameras watching. The more the better.

People like Mr. Gee are the real danger.

Read more here.

Jan Moir: Lying Sleaze Bag "Journalist" of the Day

Jan Moir, "journalist" for England's Daily Mail, is standing by her nasty article concerning the death of Stephen Gately.

In it, she goes out her way to attack civil partnership with this jem: "it strikes another blow to the happy-ever-after myth of civil partnerships.".

In the usual non apology apology, she "has expressed regret over her Daily Mail column on late Boyzone star Stephen Gately, while maintaining that aspects of his death were "sleazy".

But she insists that there was nothing homophobic in the column, published on the day before the singer's funeral.

I express regret in calling her a lying sleaze bag of a journalist, but there is nothing personal meant....

Read more here and here

Europe proves that the entertainment industry actually runs the Net

One of those lightning moments, when the way things are are lit up for all to see.

They must run the Net, you don't seem to be able to be thrown off for any other reason.

The European Parliament has given the green light for member states to cut persistent file-sharers off from the net.

It has dropped an amendment to its Telcoms Package which would have made it hard for countries to cut off pirates without court authority.

It follows pressure from countries keen to adopt tough anti-piracy laws.

The French government has just approved plans which could see pirates removed from the net for up to a year.

The UK's file-sharing policy is also likely to include a clause about disconnecting persistent offenders....

...An amendment to its forthcoming telecoms legislation was designed to protect citizen's rights to internet access

Fuck citizen's rights, there's money at stake!

Read more here.

Microsoft shamelessly copies Apple

Opening of the Microsoft Store. Uh. I don't know which is worse, the rip off or their total lack of shame.

The Censored Eleven

The Eleven (mostly) Warners Brs. cartoons banned from television in 1968.


























Read more here.

Tai Chi or citizen's arrest?

Twitter and Facebook to sleep with the Devil

In a stunning one-two punch, Microsoft will announce separate nonexclusive deals today with both Facebook and Twitter to integrate their real-time feeds of status updates into the Bing search service.

According to sources, Microsoft (MSFT) digital head Qi Lu will announce the deal onstage in a few hours at the Web 2.0 Summit.

BoomTown reported earlier today that the Microsoft data-mining deal with Twitter was poised to be announced.

Read more here.

Zod Kitchens

Fire as wrecking ball tradition alive and well in Montreal

Plus ça change...

More than 100 firefighters battled a major fire Tuesday night on the future site of a major redevelopment project on Montreal’s St-Laurent Boulevard.

The fire started around 7:30 p.m. in a vacant building next to the Café Cleopatra, between Ste-Catherine Street and René Lévesque Boulevard.

The fire started on the third floor of the building, said Richard Laporte, the Montreal Fire Department's chief of operations.

Adjoining buildings were evacuated.

One firefighter suffered minor injuries after falling through a hole in the building.

The cause of the fire was suspicious, Laporte said, adding there may have been squatters living inside.

Earlier this month, the City of Montreal approved plans to redevelop the city’s red-light district. The plans include the construction of a 12-storey office tower.

The Café Cleopatra has been one of the last holdouts fighting the plan.

I can see a black person from the couch

Sarah Palin is going to sit down with Oprah Winfrey.

Harpo Productions announced Tuesday that the former governor of Alaska and Republican vice presidential candidate will appear on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" on Monday, Nov. 16.

According to Harpo, the interview will be Palin's first about her new book, "Going Rogue: An American Life," and it will be the first time Palin and Winfrey will meet.

Paint fight for Samsung Corby

8 - The Mormon Proposition trailer

Glenn Beck: Idiot of the Day

Yes I know, the man could win this prize everyday.

Eminem in Klingon

More Government attempts to control/oversee/break the Internet

Canadian government again this time. via Michael Geist:

As I posted earlier today, the Electronic Commerce Protection Act comes to a conclusion in committee on Monday as MPs conduct their "clause by clause" review. While I have previously written about the lobbying pressure to water down the legislation (aided and abetted by the Liberal and Bloc MPs on the committee) and the CMA's recent effort to create a huge loophole, I have not focused on a key source of the pressure. Incredibly, it has been the copyright lobby - particularly the software and music industries - that has been engaged in a full court press to make significant changes to the bill.

The copyright lobby's interest in the bill has been simmering since its introduction, with lobbyists attending the committee hearings and working with Liberal and Bloc MPs to secure changes. The two core concerns arise from fears that the bill could prevent surreptitious use of DRM and block enforcement initiatives that might involve accessing users' personal computers without their permission.

Read more here.

Staffordshire Knot found in Staffordshire Hoard

Archaeologists have discovered a Staffordshire Knot symbol among the treasures of the Staffordshire Hoard, making the county sign 500 years older than previously thought.

The discovery comes as it emerged a National Lottery bid is being put together to keep the Hoard in the region.

Images of the knot were found on a gold artefact, not previously displayed, that was dug up from a field near Brownhills this summer.

The symbol was believed to originate from the 11th century, but the gold artefact dates back to at least the sixth century.

Read more here.

Vikings burn cute little bunnies in ovens

Residents in Stockholm are divided over reports that rabbits are being used to make biofuel.

The bodies of thousands of rabbits are fuelling a heating plant in central Sweden, local newspapers say.

Read more here.

Marcus Gee: Yet another condo apologist

Toronto is known as a city of interiors. Little or no thought it given to the impact of new building on their surroundings or neighbourhoods, as long as the trend of "intensification" continues.

Any critics of this trend are written off as wild eyed country bumpkins "swarm[ing] out with torches and pitchforks to get it cancelled...It's a weird vestige of small-town thinking."

Yup, if you can't counter your critics with logic, insult them. How dare people care about the character of their surroundings. Ingrates.

Read more here.

Mormon Elder: Our right to be total pricks is in danger

I have no problem with religious people keeping their beliefs to themselves, but some seem incapable of understanding that concept.

The anti-Mormon backlash after California voters overturned gay marriage last fall is similar to the intimidation of Southern blacks during the civil rights movement, a high-ranking Mormon says in a speech to be delivered Tuesday. Elder Dallin H. Oaks refers to gay marriage as an "alleged civil right" in remarks prepared for delivery at Brigham Young University- Idaho, a speech church officials describe as a significant commentary on current threats to religious freedom.

In an interview Monday before the speech, Oaks said he did not consider it provocative to compare the treatment of Mormons in the election's aftermath to that of blacks in the civil rights era, and said he stands by the analogy.

"It may be offensive to some -- maybe because it hadn't occurred to them that they were putting themselves in the same category as people we deplore from that bygone era," he said.

Read more here.

Oaks Apartments: Idiots of the Day

ALBANY, Ore. - At the Oaks Apartments in Albany, the management can fly their own flag advertising one and two bedroom apartments - but residents have been told they can't fly any flags at all.

Jim Clausen flies the American flag from the back of his motorcycle. He has a son in the military heading back to Iraq, and the flag - he said - is his way of showing support.

"This flag stands for all those people," said Clausen, an Oaks Apartment resident. "It stands for the people that can no longer stand - who died in wars. That's why I fly this flag."

But to Oaks Apartment management, Clausen said, the American flag symbolizes problems..."someone might get offended."

Read more here.

Tocondo approves yet another condo

I'm shocked, shocked! How dare residents oppose housing for rich fucks who only care about their interior space!

They had a bevy of heavy hitters among them — planners, authors, lawyers, professors, a doctor — when they argued against a developer's plans for a $60 million, 29-storey condo project on a quaint street near Yonge and Bloor.

They even made a model of the proposal out of cake and Rice Krispies and served pieces to councillors at city hall Tuesday.

But in the end those opposition voices, nearly 30 in total, lost out as Toronto and East York community council approved the tower at the corner of St. Mary and St. Nicholas Sts.

Read more here.

Airports enter the porn industry

Another outrageous invasion of privacy. Damn you Al Qaeda for giving our "authorities" an excuse for doing things they've always wanted to do all along.

A trial of a scanner that produces "naked" images of passengers has begun at Manchester Airport.

The authorities say it will speed up security checks by quickly revealing any concealed weapons or explosives.

But the full body scans will also show up breast enlargements, body piercings and a clear black-and-white outline of passengers' genitals.

The airport has stressed that the images are not pornographic and will be destroyed straight away.

Bullshit. The celebrity images alone will fetch a pretty penny on Ebay...

The article is filled with the usual official statements that we all know are untrue. Observe:

The airport has stressed that the images are not pornographic and will be destroyed straight away.

"This scanner completely takes away the hassle of needing to undress."

the radiation levels were "super safe"

the black-and-white image would only be seen by one officer in a remote location before it was deleted.

Of course, if you see the "officer" winking at you knowingly, you've made a new friend...

Read more here.

Dumb criminals shouldn't use Facebook

A man on the run, wanted for fraud by US authorities, inadvertently revealed where he was hiding through a series of extravagant Facebook updates.

Cameroon-born Maxi Sopo's messages made it clear he was living the high life in the Mexican resort of Cancun.

He also added a former US justice department official to his friend list who ended up helping to track him down.

Read more here.

Toyota: Idiots of the Day

The perils of letting children lead your marketing.

If you thought someone was stalking you, wouldn't you want to buy a Toyota Matrix?

A bizarre "terror marketing campaign" for the vehicle, produced by Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles and creative studio Mekanism, harassed consumers via personalized e-mails. One target is taking Toyota to court.

Last year, Amber Duick received a series of nine e-mails from a fictitious character dreamed up by the campaign (complete with a MySpace page). The character told Amber he was coming to stay at her house to avoid the cops, and even sent her a motel bill for $78.92. According to AdAge, Duick was so frightened that she slept with a machete and mace near her bed.

The last email Duick received included a video that notified her how she had been fooled, and explained that this was an effort to market the Matrix. The campaign, which targeted thousands of consumers, invited people to nominate their friends to be victims of the prank, which is how consumers' personal information was acquired.

Read more here and here

Frightening Future Face of the GOP

From the sparkling new site of the Republican party.

GP, hummm...

Presenting President Gomer Pyle 2038.

Guardian gagged from reporting UK parliament

The Guardian has been prevented from reporting parliamentary proceedings on legal grounds which appear to call into question privileges guaranteeing free speech established under the 1688 Bill of Rights.

Today's published Commons order papers contain a question to be answered by a minister later this week. The Guardian is prevented from identifying the MP who has asked the question, what the question is, which minister might answer it, or where the question is to be found.

The Guardian is also forbidden from telling its readers why the paper is prevented – for the first time in memory – from reporting parliament. Legal obstacles, which cannot be identified, involve proceedings, which cannot be mentioned, on behalf of a client who must remain secret.

The only fact the Guardian can report is that the case involves the London solicitors Carter-Ruck, who specialise in suing the media for clients, who include individuals or global corporations.

O...k

Following press reportage about dumping off the coast of Africa, Waterson & Hicks, a UK law firm acting for Trafigura, a multi-national oil and commodity trader, ordered and received this confidential report (the so-called "Minton report") into toxic dumping practices by its client along and on the Ivory Coast. The report reveals a number of toxic dumping incidents and appears to be the report behind the extraordinary secret October 11, 2009 gagging of the Guardian newspaper. WikiLeaks believes the Guardian was gagged to prevent it reporting the following Parliamentry question:

Paul Farrelly (Newcastle-under-Lyme) - To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of legislation to protect (a) whistleblowers and (b) press freedom following the injunctions obtained in the High Court by (i) Barclays and Freshfields solicitors on 19 March 2009 on the publication of internal Barclays reports documenting alleged tax avoidance schemes and (ii) Trafigura and Carter-Ruck solicitors on 11 September 2009 on the publication of the Minton report on the alleged dumping of toxic waste in the Ivory Coast, commissioned by Trafigura.

It appears WikiLeaks nailed it:

The existence of a previously secret injunction against the media by oil traders Trafigura can now be revealed.

Within the past hour Trafigura's legal firm, Carter-Ruck, has withdrawn its opposition to the Guardian reporting proceedings in parliament that revealed its existence.

Labour MP Paul Farrelly put down a question yesterday to the justice secretary, Jack Straw. It asked about the injunction obtained by "Trafigura and Carter-Ruck solicitors on 11 September 2009 on the publication of the Minton Report on the alleged dumping of toxic waste in the Ivory Coast, commissioned by Trafigura".

David Heath MP: 'The public have a right to know what is said in the House of Commons'

The Guardian was due to appear at the High Court at 2pm to challenge Carter-Ruck's behaviour, but the firm has dropped its claim that to report parliament would be in contempt of court.

Another epically arrogant corporation, who's actions have now shown more light on them then if they'd kept their months shut and lawyers leashed.

Read more here.

Bobtown Pennsylvania: Dumbest People in North America

A small community in Greene County is embroiled in controversy after local officials decided to ban trick-or-treating this year.

Instead, Bobtown will hold a four-hour Halloween party.

Supervisors in Dunkard Township say they are taking the steps for safety reasons.


Even the Grinch says "Man, that's cold!"

Read more here.

Tree electrocutes self

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Rush Limbaugh to judge Miss America

Just when you thought American couldn't get any stranger...

“He will bring a thrilling new dimension to the competition and we know that the 2010 Miss America Pageant will be filled with new twists and exciting opportunities with him as one of our national judges.”

Woohoo! Diet pills for everybody!

Read more here.

Does a caveman walk in the woods?

Among the many surprises associated with the discovery of the oldest known, nearly complete skeleton of a hominid is the finding that this species took its first steps toward bipedalism not on the open, grassy savanna, as generations of scientists – going back to Charles Darwin – hypothesized, but in a wooded landscape.

Read more here.

Yahoo denies Iran allegations

Let's hope the charge is false, or we have a dangerous situation on your hands...

“The allegations in the story are false [Yahoo collaborated with the Iranian regime during the election protests, providing to the authorities the names and emails of some 200,000 Iranian Yahoo users, according to a post on the Iranian Students Solidarity (Farsi) blog]. Neither Yahoo! nor any Yahoo! representative has met with or communicated with any Iranian officials, and Yahoo! has not disclosed user data to the Iranian government. Yahoo! was founded on the principle that access to information and communications tools can improve people’s lives, and Yahoo! is committed to protecting and promoting freedom of expression and privacy.

Read more here.

Et U2 Bono? Idiot of the Day

More than 30 years a rock star, Nobel peace prize nominee and honorary knight – but what does Bono have to do to become a Twitter trending topic?

The band's frontman became a villain on the web today moments after he turned up as a support act at the Tory conference. While the Tories hoped Bono's surprise address – via a giant videoscreen – would provide a shot of welcome celebrity pizzazz, the singer could hardly have imagined his appearance would have such a swift impact on his profile.

Many of the responses on Twitter were hostile as the tag #BonoToryScum quickly spread over the social networking site. "Look for U2's new song called Where the Streets Have No Low-Income Housing," tweeted Deadeye_Dick.

Read more here.

Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize

OH NO, it has the word "Peace" in it! Countdown to some Republican calling it anti-American in 3...2...

Update: it begins:

RedState.com is just a little caught off guard because he “did not realize the Nobel Peace Prize had an affirmative action quota for it.”

NASA's moon bomb bombs

NASA has successfully bulldozed two spacecraft into the moon's south pole in a search for hidden ice, but without the promised live photos.

First a 2.2-ton empty rocket hull smacked the moon's south pole at 7:31 a.m. EDT Friday. Then four minutes later the camera-and-instrument laden space probe made its death plunge.

The smaller probe had five cameras and four other scientific instruments and NASA had touted live photos on its web site. But those images didn't occur...

Read more here.

Republicans reward childish behaviour

America' Party of the Tantrum continues to embarrass itself, at least in front of thinking people...

Wilson becomes Republican rock star [thus proving CNN knows little of rock...]

In the days after Joe Wilson shouted "You lie!" at President Obama during his address to Congress last month the South Carolina congressman reached out to several of his longtime confidantes.

A graduate of Washington and Lee University, a school with a strict honor code*, and a veteran of the Army Reserves, Wilson was worried he had disappointed those close to him by showing a lack of civility.

"Joe has always operated as a gentleman, and I think for anyone to question if he was continuing to do that is something that concerned him," his friend Ed McMullen said.

* an honor code that seems optional if your the party out of power, or if your president is black...

Read more here.

Levi does Manhattan

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Scientists discover massive ring around Saturn

Scientists at NASA have discovered a nearly invisible ring around Saturn -- one so large that it would take 1 billion Earths to fill it.

The ring's orbit is tilted 27 degrees from the planet's main ring plane. The bulk of it starts about 3.7 million miles (6 million km) away from the planet and extends outward another 7.4 million miles (12 million km).

Read more here.

The Staffordshire Hoard

Dinosaurs on German television

Apple drags feet over Flash

One of the most common technologies for watching video on a computer will soon be available for most smartphones.

Flash software is used to deliver around 75% of online video and is the key technology that underpins websites such as YouTube and Google Video.

Until now, many smartphones and netbooks have used a "light" version of the program, because of the limited processing power of the devices.

The new software is intended to work as well on a smartphone as a desktop PC.

Adobe, the maker of Flash, said it should be available on most higher-end handsets by 2010, although Apple's iPhone would continue not to use the software.

Read more here.

Buried Coins May Hold Key To Solving Mystery Of Ancient Roman Population

Using a mathematical model to predict population trends based on ancient coin hoards, a UConn biologist and a Stanford University historian have concluded that the population of ancient Rome was smaller than sometimes suggested.

Although the first century BC in Italy has been extensively studied, and much is known about the great figures of the era, including Cicero, Caesar, Virgil, and Horace, some basic facts – such as the approximate population size of the late Roman Republic – remain the subject of intense debate.

Read more here.

"Unique" dinosaur footprints discovered in France

A set of dinosaur footprints uncovered in eastern France and dating from 150 million years ago has been authenticated by scientists as a unique discovery.

The well-preserved footprints, between 1.5 and two meters in diameter, were discovered in Plagne in the French Jura by a team from Claude Bernard university in Lyon, eastern France.


Read more here.

God doesn't want you equal

More hateful people hiding behind the Bible, this time in Washington State.

"Protect our children". Who's protecting them for mind withering people such as are behind this ad?

Britain's Royal Mail wants you sick and unemployed

Websites that help people find jobs or hospitals have been hit by legal action threatened by the Royal Mail.

The threat was issued against the company supplying them, and many other sites, with postcode data.

Royal Mail said the legal action was threatened to stop "unauthorised access" to the postcode data...

...Commenting on its action the Royal Mail said: "We have not asked anyone to close down a website.

"We have simply asked a third party to stop allowing unauthorised access to Royal Mail data, in contravention of our intellectual property rights," it added in a statement.

So fuck you and close down anyway...?

Read more here.

Taiwanese Army

They're going to need a wider painting

McDonald's to open in the Louvre.

In a move guaranteed to wipe the famous smile off Mona Lisa's mug, McDonald's is planning to open an eatery inside France's great temple of culture: the Louvre museum.

The London Telegraph reported the restaurant will open next month in the underground shopping plaza beneath I.M. Pei's glass pyramid in the museum courtyard.

Read more here.

God was a liberal pinko

There is an effort afoot to make a version of the Bible that is more acceptable to conservatives.

I am the Word, and the Word has a liberal bias...

I'd love to see what they do with the early bits. The Snake will have the face of Darwin.

Liberal bias has become the single biggest distortion in modern Bible translations.

Some highlights:

Utilize Powerful Conservative Terms: using powerful new conservative terms as they develop;[4] defective translations use the word "comrade" three times as often as "volunteer"; similarly, updating words which have a change in meaning, such as "word", "peace", and "miracle".

Combat Harmful Addiction: combating addiction by using modern terms for it, such as "gamble" rather than "cast lots";[5] using modern political terms, such as "register" rather than "enroll" for the census

Accept the Logic of Hell: applying logic with its full force and effect, as in not denying or downplaying the very real existence of Hell or the Devil.

Express Free Market Parables; explaining the numerous economic parables with their full free-market meaning

Exclude Later-Inserted Liberal Passages: excluding the later-inserted liberal passages that are not authentic, such as the adulteress story

Jesus forgives her, and we can't have that!

Read more here.

A Still More Glorious Dawn Awaits

Carl Sagan sings.

Microsoft makes a visit

My stats show a little visit from Redmond.

file:///D:/Blog/Blog_19/blog_20038.html

Do they have a file open on this blog at Microsoft? How innnteressting.

This also happens to be post #666 of this year. Coincidence, I think not.

UK dig finds Roman amphitheatre

British archaeologists have unearthed an amphitheatre at a ancient port outside Rome which may have played host to emperors such as Hadrian and Trajan.

The team, led by the University of Southampton, say the arena could have held up to 2,000 people and been used for gladiator games or animal baiting.

Read more here.

Another cringe worthy Microsoft video - Windows 7 Party!

Cudos to Microsoft for finding the four most insincere people on the planet.

John Derbyshire: Idiot of the Day

My apologies to the other idiots out there, even they could not reach such heights of stupidity.

John Derbyshire, a British-American conservative author and columnist for the National Review, has written a new book titled We Are Doomed: Reclaiming Conservative Pessimism. The book contains a section called “The Case Against Female Suffrage.” Yesterday on his radio show, Alan Colmes asked Derbyshire to articulate his argument.

DERBYSHIRE: Among the hopes that I do not realistically nurse is the hope that female suffrage will be repealed. But I’ll say this – if it were to be, I wouldn’t lose a minute’s sleep.

COLMES: We’d be a better country if women didn’t vote?

DERBYSHIRE: Probably. Don’t you think so?

COLMES: No, I do not think so whatsoever.

DERBYSHIRE: Come on Alan. Come clean here [laughing].

COLMES: We would be a better country? John Derbyshire making the statement, we would be a better country if women did not vote.

DERBYSHIRE: Yeah, probably.

Read more here.

Beaches residents fight condo

Lord be Praised!

Beaches residents flocked to an Ontario Municipal Board hearing today to fight a proposed four-storey condo project they fear will block off Lake Ontario.

The development, which would span the beachfront between Munro Park Avenue and Neville Park Boulevard, would dwarf surrounding houses, block views of the lake and could harm the fragile environment of the lakefront, homeowners said.

What else are condos for?

Read more here.