Space: 1899

Do not suffer fools gladly

Ahmadinejad at Columbia

The remark that clearly struck a chord with the audience above any other regarded his feelings on homosexuality. Ahmadinejad said during the question-and-answer portion: "In Iran we don't have homosexuals like you do in your country. In Iran, we do not have this phenomenon. I do not know who has told you that we have it."

The audience responded in unison with a jeering laughter and boos.

It's too...big

Comparison of images sizes: average HD, 17" and b&w 9"

Devin Faraci at CHUD is lamenting the fact that TOS Star Trek does not really survive the transition to HD and a large screen.

The long shots looked amazing, but as soon as the camera cut to a close up of someone's face, I was filled with horror. Make-up drips off everyone's face, but there's still not enough foundation to cover the lunar landscape of Sulu's cheeks. And one of the boasted about improvements of the HD version of Trek - that Spock's skin coloring was, for the first time in history, presented as originally conceived - was the most distracting. Spock looks badly jaundiced, and his lips are a deep pink, like Nimoy was gorging on cotton candy between takes. His ears are egregiously fake, and I think you can see the line between the prosthetic and Nimoy's real ears on a number of occasions. The only thing worse than Spock's thick yellow make-up, though, is the way that it often just stops at his neck, really fakening up the whole image.

He's right of course. Star Trek was never meant to be viewed on anything as large as an average HD screen. I once saw an episode on a movie screen, and the wooden doors, zippers and make up became a distraction. That, and after having seen the 2nd Matrix on Imax, I can say some things where never meant to be that...big.

Read more here.

Idiot criminal uploads photos of self from stolen iMac

Last week a number of computers were stolen from our office in Vancouver, BC. One of those computers was a shared iMac with Flickrbooth, an app that automatically uploads photo booth shots to our flickr account, installed on it. Just this morning a friend called to tell us that there are photos of whoever has the computer now in our flickr stream! Obviously the guy didn't know he was uploading images of himself and his awesome tattoos.

Read more here at Boing Boing.

Peanut Butter disproves Evolution

The blinding stupidity behind this clip is a wonder to behold.

Xcite!™ Xposed!™

At this point I must state that I am not an Xcite!™ customer.

As only an American could envision, you are born into Second Life sexless. Well not so much sexless as genital-less.

Embarrassing.

No sir, not embarrassing, because you're going to take care of it with another American concept. Free Enterprise comes to the rescue in the form of Xcite!™

Xcite!™ is the Microsoft of Second Life, by far the largest suppler of "The Finest Sexual Equipment". Thus equipped, you are compatible with all the other Xcite!™ users. No software issues. It is so MS-like in fact, many Xcite!™ users are genuinely surprised that some would choose another brand (overheard once: "If you want to have sex in Second Life, you have to have Xcite!™").

Xcite!™ is usually the first place newbies go to fill their "sexual equipment" needs, normally on no better advice that from another recent newbie saying "It's what everyone buys".

So before all the fun, we too have to go dick, umm excuse me, cock shopping (my apologies to our female readers for a lack of info for them, but I do know Xcite!™ makes a wide range of Clits, just for *you*).



The Xcite!™ main store has a wide selection for all budgets.



Thoughtfully packaged *sexual survival kits*. Before you have a heart attack, those prices are in Lindens, the currency within Second Life. That 1,200L is about $4.80 U.S.

And this doesn't included all the other wonderful bits available: Xcite!™ shoulders, Xcite!™ lips..I believe there is even an Xcite!™ whip.

But we came to buy a cock. If you are looking for the very best, look no further than the X3.



This sizable fully functional and tintable Hindenburg-like creation is the must have of 2007. On its first day of release, proud new owners were seen across Second Life, whipping out X3s, comparing size and animations. This competition guaranteed that most users had theirs dialed up to "Horse".

And one did not buy the X3 directly. No, you first had to buy the X2 (if you were not already a proud owner) and then *upgrade* to the X3. What a feeling of entitlement it must give!

[There are stories that the early X2 had a bug during the upgrade process, causing it to scurry away like the baby chestburster in Alien...]

Once worn, the X3 user is greeted with dialog boxes and buttons (a HUD, or "heads up display"), taking all that silly guesswork out of cybersex. Xcite!™ is truly for those who don't know (or possibly care) what real sex is actually like (remember gentle readers, these products are designed and made by *programmers*...I rest my case).

Another charming aspect of Xcite!™ products are their chattiness. Once *touched*, it will emit an endless stream of text based "erotic" responses (or on special occasions, audio of someone faking an orgasm). Ripped from the pages of very bad 50's porn (oh um, about which I know nothing), it has a very bad habit of turning up in very public spaces (usually the result of newbie exuberance at finally experiencing sex in any form. "Hey everybody! I'm getting laid on the dancefloor!")

God forbid you should be near someone having an Xcite!™ orgasm (again, these happen in clubs while dancing). It doesn't so much resemble an orgasm as someone being kicked in the back by a horse...repeatedly.



The Master/Slave movement is big in SL, and they are not forgotten. Finally, ChainAnywhere 2.0 Technology. No more runaway slaves ruining your garden party.



There's something for everyone. But we will leave the Furries and Gorians for a later date.

Oh and by the way. If you're really looking to purchase the best dick in SL, ask the black guys, duh.

Mattel apologizes to China over recalls

What the fuck??

U.S.-based toy giant Mattel Inc. issued an extraordinary apology to China on Friday over the recall of Chinese-made toys, taking the blame for design flaws and saying it had recalled more lead-tainted toys than justified.

"And Mattel takes full responsibility for these recalls and apologizes personally to you, the Chinese people, and all of our customers who received the toys,"

What a joke! Never has ass kissing been so out in the open.

Read more here.

Second Life's Infidel Burka

And it comes loaded with goodies



(nod to secondlifeherald.com)

$1 Cdn = $1 US

The Canadian dollar reached parity with the U.S. greenback on Thursday for the first time since November 1976, capping a spectacular 62 per cent rise in less than six years.

Read more here.

Who cares?

TOS/DS9 Tribbles side by side

The worst cartoons...ever?

Rocket Robin Hood



The Mighty Hercules

CBC Radio taglines not everyone’s favourites

In case you’ve missed it, CBC Radio is using a new series of taglines to promote its regional programming. But the phrases like Totally Toronto and Very Vancouver aren’t ringing well with some people. (Montreal bucks the alliteration trend with So Montreal. I guess Mostly Montreal wasn’t quite right.)

Ah, marketing people, gotta love 'em.

Ok, so you don't. Like Totally.

Read more here.

The Biggest Ever BitTorrent Leak: MediaDefender Internal Emails Go Public

Oooo the scary guys at MediaDefender.

I'd only caught bits and pieces of this story.

Until now.

When TorrentFreak reported that Media Defender (MD) was behind the video site MiiVi, they cast doubt on us. Now, in what is surely the biggest BitTorrent leak ever, nearly 700mb of MD’s emails have gone public. When MD’s Randy Saaf found out we rumbled MiiVi he said, “This is really fucked.” This is too, but much more so.

This story has me very amused.

Read more here.

Video response to Osama

Mystery of the nearly men

Once we thought of them as mere brutes. But a series of recent discoveries shows the Neanderthals in a haunting new light. Steve Connor reports on a dark skeleton in humanity's cupboard

Read more here.

New evidence on the role of climate in Neanderthal extinction

The mystery of what killed the Neanderthals has moved a step closer to resolution after an international study led by the University of Leeds has ruled out one of the competing theories – catastrophic climate change – as the most likely cause.

Read more here.

Experts ponder twilight of the Neanderthals

The great "whodunnit of palaeontology" has been given a new twist with findings that our enigmatic cousins, the Neanderthals, were in all likelihood not killed off by a mini Ice Age, as some authorities contend.

Read more here.

China Airlines paints over name, logo on wreckage of jet at Naha Airport

Ha!

China Airlines has painted over its name and logo on the wreckage of a passenger jet that exploded in flames at Naha Airport in Okinawa moments after passengers slid down emergency chutes to escape.

The airline painted over the name "China Airlines" on the left-hand side of the aircraft and the company's logo on the plane's tail fin.

After the accident, photographs and video footage of the jet continued to appear in news reports, and the company apparently painted over the name and logo to limit further damage to its image.

Haha too late!

Read more here.

Toronto is now Canada's Seattle

Cause now the CN Tower is just another Space Needle.

The iconic skyline silhouette of the world-famous CN Tower, long billed as the tallest free-standing structure in the world, has been eclipsed by a new Middle Eastern monolith.

Burj Dubai, a soaring Y-shaped needle of glass and stainless steel, is now two metres taller than the 553-metre downtown Toronto tower that guards the Lake Ontario shoreline, the developer, Emaar Properties, said in a release Thursday.

The building, slated to have an interior designed by Giorgio Armani, also has scaled 150 livable levels, the largest number of storeys for any building in the world.

Burj Dubai had already beaten Taipei 101, which at 508 metres has been holding the tallest-building title since it opened in 2004.

There will be much lamenting here, as yet another nail in the coffin of "world class city" is driven home. But worry not, the rich can still have beautiful views of the formerly great tower from their 2 million dollar condos...

I love it.

‘I’ve stood around too long’

Excellent story out of Nova Scotia...Having met mindless bullying in my life as well, this story is very heartening.

Two students at Central Kings Rural High School fought back against bullying recently, unleashing a sea of pink after a new student was harassed and threatened when he showed up wearing a pink shirt.

The Grade 9 student arrived for the first day of school last Wednesday and was set upon by a group of six to 10 older students who mocked him, called him a homosexual for wearing pink and threatened to beat him up.

The next day, Grade 12 students David Shepherd and Travis Price decided something had to be done about bullying.

"It’s my last year. I’ve stood around too long and I wanted to do something," said David.

They used the Internet to encourage people to wear pink and bought 75 pink tank tops for male students to wear. They handed out the shirts in the lobby before class last Friday — even the bullied student had one.

David [one of the organizers] said one of the bullies angrily asked him whether he knew pink on a male was a symbol of homosexuality.

He told the bully that didn’t matter to him and shouldn’t to anyone.

No it shouldn't, but it does to the brainless.

Read more here.

Microsoft updates Windows without users' consent

Huh?

Microsoft has begun patching files on Windows XP and Vista without users' knowledge, even when the users have turned off auto-updates.

Many companies require testing of patches before they are widely installed, and businesses in this situation are objecting to the stealth patching.

Wtf? I don't use MS myself.

Read more here.

Kathy Griffin (and to a lesser extent Jesus)

Before Kathy Griffin won a creative arts Emmy last weekend for her reality show, "My Life on the D-List," she joked that an award would move her to the C-list.

She was right: "C" as in censored. The TV academy said her raucous acceptance speech will be edited when the event, which was taped, is shown Saturday on the E! channel. The main prime-time Emmy Awards air the next night on Fox.

"A lot of people come up here and thank Jesus for this award. I want you to know that no one had less to do with this award than Jesus."

"This award is my god now!"

The comedian's remarks were condemned Monday by Catholic League President Bill Donohue, who called them a "vulgar, in-your-face brand of hate speech.

And boy, they should know.

Read more here.

2Clix sues Whirlpool founder

Some software company, 2Clix, is suing an Australian internet forum..because they were criticized.

Poor whining babies. Hope they get their ass kicked right out of court, to a chorus of laughter.

They just opened themselves up to a whole heap of ridicule.

Planet wide.

Idiots.

Read more here and here.

Viking ship

An archaeologist using radar technology said Monday he has found the outline of what he believes is a 1,000-year-old Viking longship under a pub car park in north-west England.

Read more here.

Torture

Much has changed since this scene from Star Trek was aired...

He's not crazy, he's an idiot

If only it was that easy. I'm not a big South Park fan, but sometimes they nail it.

Bin Laden

IMHO, it is not the same guy in both pics...

What say you?

The Neolithic Revolution

For decades archaeologists have rightly respected the Neolithic period c. 8500 BC as a revolutionary era of the most profound change, when the wiring of mankind’s brain shifted from transient hunter-gathering to permanent settlement in farming communities. Hearths, temples, articulated burials, whistling ‘wheat’ fields and security replaced the uncertain ravages of seasonal running with the pack. Or so stereotypes maintain.

Now, from the remote shores of Budrinna on Lake Fezzan in Libya, and Melka Konture on the banks of the River Awash in Ethiopia, a series of stunning discoveries are set to challenge the originality of the Neolithic Revolution. After 39 years of surveys and excavations, Professor Helmut Ziegert of Hamburg University presents his results as a world exclusive in Minerva (pp. 8-9). In both African locations he has discovered huts and sedentary village life dating between an astonishing 400,000 and 200,000 Before Present

Read more here.

Fort Lauderdale

The mayor of Fort Lauderdale seems to be out of his mind, and now dangerously so...

Read more here.

Brian Mulroney

Brian Mulroney, former Prime Minister of almost all of Canada, is saying in his *memoirs* that Pierre Trudeau did not have the "moral authority" to govern.

Where to start...Mr Mulroney seems to forget the untold damage he did to Canada.

...When Irish eyes are...

Nasty man, always has been.

Wait until they write his history...

The Great Pyramid

A group in Dessau, Germany, has received funds and famed architect Rem Koolhaas as an adviser in its quest to build the world's largest structure.

Dubbed a "monument for all of us" the new "Great Pyramid," which is estimated would take about 30 years to complete, would be about 1,900 feet tall and 10 times larger than the Great Pyramid of Egypt.

Read more here.

Nuclear Warheads Mistakenly Flown Across U.S.

An Air Force squadron commander has been relieved of his command after five nuclear weapons were mistakenly loaded aboard a B-52 and flown cross-country from North Dakota to Louisiana last week, NBC News reported.

Five 150-kiloton warheads were attached to cruise missiles that were flown from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana to be dismantled, but they should have been removed, according to officials.

Military officials insist the warheads remained "under control" at all times and did not pose a danger.

Read more here, once you come out from under the bed...

Greenpeace Video

Wow. You're for us or against us.

Condos

Moving on in the face of change and urban renewal can be difficult. In the case of about 20 businesses at the southeast corner of Yonge and Bloor Streets, the prospect of relocating has suddenly become all too real.

Bazis International of Concord is scheduled to construct a 79-storey complex at the site and intends to start demolition in December. And so recently it sent out lease-termination notices. That's when reality set in.

How dare they whine. Rich people need proper housing too!

...the price range for its condos: $300,000 for a one-bedroom unit to over $2-million for a full-floor penthouse of close to 10,000 square feet.

Oh thank God, I thought they wouldn't be affordable.

Oh and btw, this is not urban renewal (no condo project is)...

Veronika Belovich, Bazis's director sales and marketing, said: "We're trying to make the city better. This is a junky corner and we want to make it a fabulous area."

Oh sorry, I must be mistaken...

Read more here.

Family Day

LOLOLOLOL

No, I'm not laughing because our premiere is called Dalton McGuinty. It's even better than that.

We are in an election campaign here in Ontario, and the current government is, umm, concerned about their standing in the polls....

So!

Ontarians can expect a new holiday in February if the Liberals are re-elected next month.

Premier Dalton McGuinty has proposed a new holiday called Family Day aimed at recognizing the importance of Ontario families by giving them more time to spend with their loved ones.

He says adding Family Day to the calendar will give Ontario workers a total of nine long weekends per year.

Glass is not as transparent.

Read more here.

'Clearest' images taken of space

A team of astronomers from the US and the UK has obtained some of the clearest pictures of space ever taken.

They were acquired using a new "adaptive optics" system which sharpens pictures taken from the Mount Palomar Observatory in California.

The images are twice as sharp as those from Hubble Space Telescope.

Read more here.

Zeke's Gallery cont...

Zeke's Gallery closes its door for good tomorrow.

Chris Hand, an outspoken advocate for fringe art, opened the alternative art gallery on St. Laurent Blvd. almost 10 years ago. But the decade has taken its toll and Hand wants a change of pace.

C. Gobeils says this: Yes, it's the end of an era. I hope Montreal appreciates Zeke's Gallery. I personally got smashed on whisky there just two weeks ago at his last concert. It was a Japanese pyjama pop band called Lullatone. I was hung over for two days. Sort of a tribute to Zeke's genius sort of thing...

Read more here.

Dancing in Second Life

Hadrian at Sagalassos

We made headlines earlier this season with our unexpected discovery of an extraordinary statue of the emperor Hadrian at the Sagalassos Roman bath. Now we can add some details to our first account of the discovery and present an initial interpretation of the find.

Read more here.

Nova Bus

Worse piece of crap bus in the world. Period.

Designed by people who have never, ever rode an actual bus.

It seems Montreal "is stuck with 480 of these lemons, which it now needs the money to replace as quickly as possible".

Read more here, en français

Rovers Resume Driving

After six weeks of hunkering down during raging dust storms that limited solar power, both of NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, have resumed driving.

Opportunity advanced 13.38 meters (44 feet) toward the edge of Victoria Crater on Aug. 21. Mission controllers were taking advantage of gradual clearing of dust from the sky while also taking precautions against buildup of dust settling onto the rover.

Insane. One of NASA's greatest successes.

Read more here.

Fuck you Yahoo

Internet giant Yahoo has asked a US court to dismiss a lawsuit accusing it of complicity in rights abuses and acts of torture in China.

The firm filed a motion for dismissal saying its Chinese subsidiary had no choice but to comply with local laws.

You had a choice, you chose the wrong side that's all...

Yahoo is so full of shit on this one.

Ethical responsibilities

In its 40-page response to the lawsuit, filed with a federal court in San Francisco, Yahoo acknowledged releasing information to the Chinese government.

But it argued that there was little connection between the information the firm gave and the ensuing arrests and imprisonment of its users.

Yahoo said that while it did not condone the suppression of people's liberties, the firm had been compelled by local laws to hand over the information that was requested.

"Defendants cannot be expected, let alone ordered to violate another nation's laws," the company said in its filing.

Fuck you Yahoo

The internet firms argue it is better to offer Chinese users some information than none at all.

Fuck you Yahoo

Read more here.

Aliens vs. Predator 2

O!

Lost city found at Stonehenge

A renowned archaeologist, who shot to national prominence last year with his amazing discovery of Stonehenge's lost alter stone by a roadside in Berwick St James, now claims to have found the famed lost city of Apollo in the land around Stonehenge.

Read more here and here

Is Castro Dead?

There's an strangely ominous post on celebrity news site PerezHilton.com tonight wondering aloud if Cuban dictator Fidel Castro has died.

Read more here.

If he is, the American gloating will be awful to behold.

Cuban foreign minister says Castro "fine"

Tired old war rhetoric

More Canadian soldiers die, and the premiere of Quecbec says...

Dismissing criticism in Quebec of the war, Charest said a decision was made for Canada to be in Afghanistan until 2009.

"We, as citizens of Quebec, have a duty to support the men and women who are there and who are doing this work in our name and are making the biggest sacrifice that can be asked of a human being," he said.

"Supporting the Troups" seems to mean "shut up and quit asking questions".

Too American for my taste.

And in a related story...Petition Circulates To Rename Stretch Of 401 'Highway Of Heroes'.

Quebec police admit they went undercover at Montebello protest

Quebec provincial police admitted Thursday that three of their officers disguised themselves as demonstrators during the protest at the North American leaders summit in Montebello, Que.

However, the police force denied allegations its undercover officers were there on Monday to provoke the crowd and instigate violence.

What a load of bullshit. The rocks say otherwise.

The Quebec provincial police will not comment any further on the affair, a spokeswoman in Montreal said.

Quebec Justice Minister Jacques Dupuis was made aware of the news, but a spokesman from his office said he will not comment on the matter either.

Fucking typical. Trust in so called authority is eroded even more.

Wouldn't the name of who gave the order to do this be of greater interest?

Read more here.

He's dead Jim

Too funny. Obviously no Star Trek fans involved here.

Source.

Were they cops?

Sure looks like it.

Peaceful protesters stop police provocateurs from starting a riot at the Stop the SPP protests in Montebello Quebec. CEP President Dave Coles confronts men with rocks and sticks.



Oh and look, everyone seems to have the same boots. Fancy that.

Battle Cry

This video depicts the attitude that the body of Christ needs to embrace for these days that we are living. To be offensive in the advance of the Kingdom of God.



Psychotic

British dwarf's penis gets stuck to hoover

Yes!

Read more here.

Archaeologists solve riddle of site of original Montreal settlement

A nondescript brown warehouse filled with old barrels and rickety pallets is an unlikely site for the spiritual heart of a city.

Yet beneath the worn cement floors of one such warehouse lies what archaeologists believe are the first permanent buildings of the settlement that became Montreal

Read more here.

Poutine

The inventor of poutine has died.

L'inventeur de la poutine, Jean-Paul Roy, est décédé avant-hier à Drummondville. Le créateur de la célèbre «fromage-patate-sauce» régalait les Québécois de ce délicieux mets depuis plus de quarante ans.

«Le dernier des Mohicans est parti, c'est un moment historique pour le Québec», affirme Daniel Leblanc, aujourd'hui propriétaire du restaurant où M. Roy a inventé la poutine. Pour lui, la mort du créateur du plus célèbre mets québécois est un événement d'une grande tristesse

Read more here.

Apple and iMovie

Apple's move of downgrading iMovie is one of epic stupidity, but I'll let The New York Times say it better...

Read more here.

Zeke's Gallery cont...

The Continuing Adventures of Mr. Hand

Read more here.

Hotel mistakes Nobel laureate for bag lady

She was wearing a Mayan dress, the traditional attire of indigenous people in central America, and the hotel's response was also traditional: throw her out.

Staff at Cancun's five-star Hotel Coral Beach appear to have assumed this was another street vendor or beggar, so without asking questions they ordered her to leave. Except the woman was Rigoberta Menchú, the Nobel peace prizewinner, Unesco goodwill ambassador, Guatemalan presidential candidate and figurehead for indigenous rights.

Read more here.

Commentators noted the irony of upmarket resorts discriminating against real Maya while trying to attract tourists with fake Mayan architecture and spectacles.

Priciest condo in tallest tower goes to youngest billionaire

Oh, it's so good to know that Toronto's billionaires don't have to slum it in a mire 16 million dollar condo...

In the battle for one-upmanship in Toronto's luxury real estate market, Alex Shnaider has revealed a convincing hand.

The enigmatic Toronto billionaire says in an exclusive interview he has decided to keep what has been billed as Canada's most expensive condominium, valued at up to $20 million, at the Trump International Hotel & Tower for himself.

Thank God, I was so worried for him.

Read more here.

The Professions Strike Back

A glimmer of hope here:

The Bush Administration has finally achieved something unprecedented. The organized bar–with a vote just one short of unanimity–has declared one of Bush’s executive orders illegal and vowed to seek Congressional action to override it. And psychologists appear poised to join their legal colleagues in an equally harsh denunciation. It’s about torture. Remember Bush’s claim, “We do not torture”? Except, of course, we do, and on Bush’s personal orders.

Read more here.

Archeologists discover footprint made by sandal of Roman soldier

Archeologists have discovered a footprint made by the sandal of a Roman soldier - one of the few such finds in the world - in a wall surrounding the Hellenistic-Roman city of Sussita, east of Lake Kinneret.

Read more here.

An important move to institutionalize management of reincarnation

In one of history's more absurd acts of totalitarianism, China has banned Buddhist monks in Tibet from reincarnating without government permission. According to a statement issued by the State Administration for Religious Affairs, the law, which goes into effect next month and strictly stipulates the procedures by which one is to reincarnate, is "an important move to institutionalize management of reincarnation." But beyond the irony lies China's true motive: to cut off the influence of the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual and political leader, and to quell the region's Buddhist religious establishment more than 50 years after China invaded the small Himalayan country. By barring any Buddhist monk living outside China from seeking reincarnation, the law effectively gives Chinese authorities the power to choose the next Dalai Lama, whose soul, by tradition, is reborn as a new human to continue the work of relieving suffering.

Unbelievable, but then again anything China does shouldn't really surprise.

Read more here.

Top Ten

Following the recent trend of online Top Ten lists (The Ten Best Movies Ever...or at least since 1980 because we having actually seen one made before that), I present:

Ten Recent Trends I Just Don't Get (in no particular order)

1) Borat
It's depressing that even to this day, the most searched for item on this blog is Borat, and why I hate him. If you can watch his work and still have to wonder, I give up on you.

2) Paris Hilton
I stood amazed as the media and large dim witted segments of the population actually took this woman seriously (see item 6). WTF?

3) American Idol
Nasty piece of work all around. Video equivalent of slowing down to watch a traffic accident (this includes much of the Reality TV genre).

4) Americans
Or at least Bush type Americans. They endure once what many endure daily, and become the very thing they claim to hate. Shame on you. Boo!

5) Creationism
I understand why some might want to believe this, but to push it into schools is wrong. Science it is not.

6) Beckham
And "Beckhamania". Completely media driven, he and wife are "everywhere". Shame he's not that pretty, and has a squeaky little mouse voice (this could just as well be Justin Timberlake...)

7) Umbrella
Holy fuck, that song. The most annoying hook this decade. Fags in Second Life love it. Case Closed.

8) Superhero movies
Without exception, they are overblown pseudo-profound wastes of time (of course, if you haven't seen a movie made before 1980, then Batman Returns *is* great art).

9) Fox News
I had Fox News on cable for awhile (until they wanted us to *pay* for it, and I said Fuck that), and it was truly fun to watch. But taken seriously? Never. O'Reily would be at home in the Reich (see item 4).

10) Top Ten Lists
Does anyone really care? Any list is just the opinion of the writer(s). My list is as good as yours (better even, I've seen movies made before 1980).

Tombstoning

From Wikipedia:

An extreme sport involving diving off a fixed point such as sea harbour walls, bridges, rocks and cliff faces into water. The sport's origins can be traced to United Kingdom west country.

Yes, Darwin is right again. People are now jumping off high places into the sea.

Read more here. Try and keep a straight face because these are seriously stupid people.

"People of all ages are still not getting the message.

"Jumping from any cliff or structure into water is dangerous. It could result in serious injury or death."

Never "buy" anything that is DRM

Google shuts down video service

Google is shutting down its premium video service, leaving users who have bought or rented content unable to view their videos in the future.

In an e-mail to users the web giant said that money spent on videos would not be refunded.

Those motherfuckers!

Read more here.

Middle Asia Digs Suggest a New View of the Dawn of Civilization

For decades, school children have learned that human civilization emerged about 5000 years ago along the Euphrates River in Mesopotamia, along the Nile, and along the Indus River. But archaeologists working in a broad arc from the Russian steppes through Iran and onto the Arabian Peninsula are finding evidence that a complex network of cities may have thrived across the region in roughly the same era, suggesting a dramatic new view of the emergence of human civilization.

Read more here.

The Spectrum

I note the passing of the Montreal Spectrum (1982-2007), a venue I never myself went to (a fact that causes Montreal jaws to drop).

Read more here.

Rally held after Truro council rejects pride flag

More than 100 people showed up at a Truro, N.S. park to protest council's lack of support for the gay community.

Last week, city politicians voted not to fly the gay pride flag during the community's inaugural pride week celebrations. The local county government did vote to allow the flag to be flown...

...People who attended the rally were particularly miffed with the Truro's Mayor Bill Mills, who cited his Christian beliefs as his reason for voting against the move.

"The mayor of Truro has embarrassed a lot of Christians by interpreting the bible in a very unfavourable way," said Rev. David Fletcher, an Anglican priest. "If we want to shout bible passages back and forth, my bible bullet would come from Galatians in Chapter 3, where St. Paul says that in Christ, there is no more exclusion."

Last week, he [Mayor Mills] said, "There are writings in the Book of Romans chapter one, to name a few -- basically I have to go with that conviction, and I know it's not a popular one."

Not with me it's not. I'm personally tired of the religious motivations behind this kind of shit. If you want to hate, do so openly and not from hiding behind writings that may nor may not have anything to do with your particular "beliefs". Trust me, hiding behind the Bible doesn't make you look any better, not one bit.

Montreal police upset over Youtube videos

Montreal Police Service has asked the video sharing website Youtube to alter videos it considers slanderous.

There are more than 100 videos on the website showing Montreal police officers at work

Like this one...?

Russia plants flag on Arctic floor

What the fuck

Russian explorers dived deep below the North Pole in a submersible on Thursday and planted a national flag on the seabed to stake a symbolic claim to the energy riches of the Arctic.

My fave quote:

"This isn't the 15th century. You can't go around the world and just plant flags and say 'We're claiming this territory'," Canadian Foreign Minister Peter MacKay told CTV television.

It's always the 15th century in Russia.

Read more here.

Why we must close the net

Yes, Elton John wants to close down the net.

“I do think it would be an incredible experiment to shut down the whole internet for five years and see what sort of art is produced over that span."

No, I think we should shut down Elton John for 5 years, think of the explosion of art that would cause.

What a flaming idiot.

Read more here.

Antonioni, The Yardbirds and Blow Up

Michelangelo Antonioni has died. Here is a scene from his 1966 film Blow Up (shamelessly Ripped Off by dePalma), featuring the Yardbirds. A co worker in 2000 claimed his father was one of the crowd watching.

He didn't point out who...

A Brief History of House Cats

It may be that "nobody owns a cat," but scientists now say the popular pet has lived with people for 12,000 years

That's 84,000 in cat years...

Read more here.

Impeach Bush and Cheney now

My fear is these people will not go peacefully

It's All Because (The Gays Are Getting Married)

Oded Gross sets the record straight

Bush answers a question in Nashville

Q Mr. President, music is one of our largest exports the country has. Currently, every country in the world -- except China, Iran, North Korea, Rwanda and the United States -- pay a statutory royalty to the performing artists for radio and television air play. Would your administration consider changing our laws to align it with the rest of the world?

THE PRESIDENT: Help. (Laughter.) Maybe you've never had a President say this -- I have, like, no earthly idea what you're talking about. (Laughter and applause.) Sounds like we're keeping interesting company, you know? (Laughter.)

Look, I'll give you the old classic: contact my office, will you? (Laughter.) I really don't -- I'm totally out of my lane. I like listening to country music, if that helps. (Laughter.)

Read more here.

Let the Cincinnati bashing continue!

Let's have a gay old time!

Let's all take a delightful trip to the "Answers in Genesis, the Creation Museum"!

Read more here.

Cincinnati bigots caught perpetrating petition fraud

Ugh, some people

Busted in Ohio. Some not-so-smart anti-gay peeps from an outfit called Equal Rights Not Special Rights have pleaded guilty to falsifying petition signatures in an attempt to repeal an anti-discrimination measure on the books that protects gays. A state rep is caught up in the mess as well.

Read more here.

Marine Thriller Dance

Generation Chickenhawk

Max Blumenthal takes us on a hilarious and shocking tour of the College Republican National Convention, where the GOP's next generation cheer on the war in Iraq, then make sorry excuses for why they can't serve. Also featuring Tom DeLay, brainwashed evangelical youth, and moving interpretive dance by Blumenthal.

Homeland

The increasing use of the term "Homeland" in reference to the United States has always grated on my ears. As you can hear in this clip, it bugged the writers here too.

Star Trek outtakes

wfmu.org today posted a collection of Star Trek outtakes. What fun!
I have taken a small sampling and edited it together with the scenes from the original show.

Happy viewing!

We are not amused

From the Daily Mail:

This is the extraordinary moment the Queen lost her temper and stormed out of a photoshoot, after a celebrity photographer dared ask her to remove her crown.

The astonishing footage is taken from a new BBC documentary entitled A Year With The Queen and captures the moment when Her Majesty lost her cool.

During the programme photographer US celebrity snapper Annie Leibovitz sizes up the Queen in her full regalia and ventures: "I think it will look better without the crown, because the garter robe is so..."

Before the photographer can finish saying "extraordinary", the Queen raises her eyebrows, fixes the snapper with an icy stare, and snaps: "Less dressy? What do you think this is?" pointing to what she is wearing.

TV cameras follow the Queen storming off with an official lifting the large train of her blue velvet cape off the floor as the Queen tells her lady-in-waiting: "I'm not changing anything. I've had enough dressing like this thank you very much."

Pope Bozo

Is he nuts?

Pope Benedict XVI has reasserted the universal primacy of the Roman Catholic Church, approving a document released Tuesday that says Orthodox churches were defective and that other Christian denominations were not true churches.

Read more in disbelief here.

Despite the harsh tone of the document, it stresses that Benedict remains committed to ecumenical dialogue.

''However, if such dialogue is to be truly constructive, it must involve not just the mutual openness of the participants but also fidelity to the identity of the Catholic faith,'' the commentary said.

HAHAHAHHAHAHA, whatever

Fish Heads

Eat them up. Yum

The Tinyness of the Medieval Mind

Floods are judgment on society, say bishops.

The floods that have devastated swathes of the country are God's judgment on the immorality and greed of modern society, according to senior Church of England bishops.

Read more here.

Ringo on Laugh In

Paris' World, Class Privilege, and the Political Moment

By Paul Minot at DailyKos

Like many of you, I come to DKos to get away from Paris Hilton and all the other tabloid obsessions of the MSM. However, the number of recent threads alluding to Miss Hilton led me to question the presumption of her political irrelevance—and after some thought, it came to me that her recent travails just might be the harbinger of a significant shift in the public zeitgeist. (Bear with me now....)

Read more here.

I agree with much of what he has to say, but I also lay a large portion of the blame at the feet of her extremely dim witted "fans" to take anything this woman does seriously.

Most frightening quote by a "fan" recently, in a blog's comments:

Well I for one feel sorry for Paris. I happen to love her. She's young, rich, gorgeous, famous, blonde, dumb as a fetus, and LOVES to party!

Here ends Western Civilization

Wonderful

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

Add to My Profile | More Videos

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.

Women in Art

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.

Salvador Dali on "What's My Line?"

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.

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

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

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.