PM plans own media centre

The Prime Minister's Office, which has long had a rocky relationship with the national media, has been working on a secret project to build a new, government-controlled briefing room at the cost of $2 million, documents obtained by the Star show...

...The result would be a little fancier than the National Press Theatre and, most important, give the PMO a lot more control over who gets in and, quite possibly, what gets filmed and broadcast.

Ah, modern, open government. We must rid ourselves of this man.

Read more here.

The ‘Good Germans’ Among Us

“BUSH lies” doesn’t cut it anymore. It’s time to confront the darker reality that we are lying to ourselves.

Read more here.

Ralph Nader

Ralph Nader, activist, author and lecturer, shared his views in the matter of the "Next Steps for the Peace Movement," at a panel discussion on Oct. 11, 2007. The event was held at Bus Boys and Poets, in Washington, D.C.

Star Trek XI

"Next Star Trek movie budget now at $150 million"

Paramount seems quite serious this time out. B&B are gone! Woohoo!

Top director, bigger budget, a cast where some are actually under 30.

Or 40 for that matter. Or 50...

I love the fact some fans are feeling left out, as this movie is set in Kirk's era. Ha, suck it.

TOS is still the best of all Star Trek *steps away from computer*.

Now calm down. TNG has better effects (at least later on), and Patrick Stewart was the best actor to appear in any ST, but much of TGN is unwatchable now (just one too many holodeck stories, and Beverley and Troy bonding...and fucking Sherlock Holmes).

DS9 fires no one these days (and it turned Worf into a pussy), and Voyager was the idiot nephew of the family no one likes to mention now (yeah yeah I know, Seven of Nine...she did revive the tradition of cheese in ST (lost since Troy was made to wear a uniform), so hats off to her).

And Enterprise, poor Enterprise. This bad tempered little disaster was so un Star Trek, even the creators left that name off it at first. Special notice for bringing soft core porn to the series.

As for this upcoming film, I am eager to see how they re-imagine the look and feel of TOS, but taking it beyond the "cardboard" sets of the 1960's.

Sorta like...

Liberals win in Ontario

So where is the promised February holiday, aka Family Day?

Hum?? Where??

*Update*

OMG, he actually did it. Read more here.

Though no one will say so, this is why they won.

Black Button

Burma shuts down last communication links

Burma's regime is targeting the last remaining communications links that brought images of the bloody crackdown on the recent pro-democracy protests to the outside world.

Evil cowards

Read more here.

Bush Admin Launches National Abstinence Campaign

Amusing if it weren't so backwards. Let's just say creepy and leave it at that.

(notice how by preventing gays from marrying, they are also implying they should never have sex...)

Google logo tweak sends critics into orbit

Should the world's most-used search engine be more of a Yankee Google Dandy?

Google Inc. occasionally features light-hearted doodles on its colorful home-page logo to commemorate special occasions. But now they are drawing criticism from conservatives for not being more patriotic.

The Mountain View, Calif., company bathes its logo in stars and stripes every Independence Day, but last week's decision to honor the 50th anniversary of the Sputnik launch -- the second "g" in Google was replaced with a drawing of the Soviet satellite -- is being blasted by some conservatives.

Not only did Google honor an achievement by a totalitarian regime that was our Cold War enemy, they griped, but it did so without having ever altered its logo to commemorate U.S. military personnel on Memorial Day or Veterans Day.

These people are such...wait for it...idiots. I'm still annoyed the Russians were left out of the opening space flight montage from the opening credits of "Enterprise".

Conservatives are correct in condeming though "Google's decision to self-censor its search engine in China to comply with the Communist government's online rules..."

Read more here.

TOS widescreen

What with the original Star Trek's special effects being updated and a "wide screen" HD version shown in Japan (not so much wide screen as close cropped images to simulate wide screen)

My thought, which I've mocked up above, is not to crop the image, but add to it to fill the wide screen image. This, and a complete digital make over of the whole series, not just cleaning the image, but enhancing it to correct some of the more unkind characteristics of 60's TV lighting...



Here I've used the camera pan of this shot to piece together the whole image.

I feel Paramount will do this, to keep Star Trek generating money as long as possible.

Woohoo!

Sign in local store. I love it.

On Torture and American Values

Once upon a time, it was the United States that urged all nations to obey the letter and the spirit of international treaties and protect human rights and liberties. American leaders denounced secret prisons where people were held without charges, tortured and killed. And the people in much of the world, if not their governments, respected the United States for its values.

The Bush administration has dishonored that history and squandered that respect. As an article on this newspaper’s front page last week laid out in disturbing detail, President Bush and his aides have not only condoned torture and abuse at secret prisons, but they have conducted a systematic campaign to mislead Congress, the American people and the world about those policies.

Read more here.

Jim Carrey - Message for Ban Ki Moon on Burma

Demonstrating the iPod Touch

Chester shows Dolores the new iPod.

Classy

Canadian Beaver Buzz. Dam Good.

Like Young

"Like Young" from 60's Montreal. Ooooo, a hit!

The first song is Bobby Vee "I'll make you mine" from February 1964. A shameless Beatles rip off.



The second song "Please don't go away" by Johnny Tillotson, doesn't appear to be on Youtube, so in its place is another that represents the um, music Mr. Tillotson produced.

The Red Baron

This is an effect reel for a German language film about the Red Baron.

Oooo Ahhhhh

I have held a cigarette case signed by the man himself.

Secret U.S. Endorsement of Severe Interrogations

With virtually no experience in interrogations, the C.I.A. had constructed its program in a few harried months by consulting Egyptian and Saudi intelligence officials and copying Soviet interrogation methods long used in training American servicemen to withstand capture.

There is a high probability that Bush is a war criminal.

Read more here.

Dove Onslaught

Idiot soccer player sends nude pic to teenage girl

PREMIER League star David Nugent tried to score with a pretty teenager — by sending her a mobile phone photo of his TACKLE.
The desperate Portsmouth and England striker stripped off and took the snap after she failed to return his calls.

But the girl, 19, showed 22-year-old Nugent the red card, and forwarded the naked picture to all her pals in Preston, Lancs — where he used to play.

Last night one of them said: “I couldn’t believe it when I saw a picture of Nugent’s k**b, I nearly collapsed laughing.

“There are a lot of Preston fans who are still cheesed off about him leaving — so this is payback.

“He must be nuts to send a picture like that to someone he’s just met.

School District Halts Shakespeare Production

It was supposed to be a two-hour Shakespearean comedy attended by 700 Higley Unified School District sixth-through 12th graders.

But it was not to be.

About 40 minutes into the play, a district official halted the show Monday at the Higley Center for the Performing Arts.

"We stopped the show because we feel that this was inappropriate and not a kind of performance that we want them to see," said Tara Kissane, the district's director of visual and performing arts.

"There was inappropriate language and the content was very suggestive. I don't care what students hear on the streets, that's not what we believe in presenting to our students," Kissane said about the "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged).

Kissane did not give specific examples of what she deemed inappropriate.

Our Shakespeare was censored in high school as well. We never mounted a play, but the text version were cut, to take out the naughty bits. We were taken to Polanski's Macbeth, and our teacher almost died.

Read more here.

The Human LCD

South korea: boys cheering for their soccer teams. the most amazing thing is that they do this with their CLOTHES (not holding up cards). they have a jacket that is one color on the back, one on the front, and that they can open or close to show a third color shirt on the inside. One school has also figured out how to use their pants to make shading.

Global Hypocrisy on Burma

As the Burmese military brutally cracks down on a popular uprising of its citizens demanding democracy the question on many minds is – so what is the world going to do about it?

From the trend visible so far the answer is simple- nothing at all.

Nothing, that is, beyond the usual condemnations and pious appeals for ‘peaceful dialogue’ and the posturing at international forums in support of the Burmese people.

Nothing more than sending a lameduck UN envoy to negotiate with the paranoid Burmese generals. Negotiate what? Funeral services for their innocent victims mowed down like rabbits on the streets of Rangoon?

Read more here.

Lennon photo found after 50 years

A photograph of a teenage John Lennon has been unearthed after being locked in a cupboard for 50 years.

The 1958 picture of the 17-year-old Beatles legend wearing a camel hair coat and with a quiff was uncovered by the BBC's Inside Out North West.

Read more here.

Evil wins as the world does nothing

Thousands dead in massacre of the monks dumped in the jungle.

Fake

An NHS trust [in the U.K.] has admitted superimposing an image of a government minister into a publicity photograph for a hospital building project.

Culture Secretary James Purnell [far right] was late for the photo at Tameside General Hospital in Greater Manchester, turning up after three other MPs had to leave.

The MP agreed to have his photograph taken in the same spot, but says he did not agree to the images being merged.

"We apologise if anyone feels misled by this, but we took the judgement that the image of all our MPs on site supporting this excellent new project, was too good an opportunity to miss."

Ha ha ha...bullshit. Also, whoever did it has poor Photoshop skills.

Pure Evil

The repression in Myanmar.

Any government that resorts to this is evil and needs to be removed. No question.

Men were shouting at the soldiers in English: "Fuck you. Go fuck yourself".

Soliders there, mutiny, do the right thing.

That Folsom ad

Having worked with the "leather community" I'm more shocked they were able to do anything creative.

But of course, "the conservative group Concerned Women for America is complaining about the hypocrisy of it..."

The bread and wine representing Christ's broken body and lifegiving blood are replaced with sadomasochistic sex toys in this twisted version of Da Vinci's The Last Supper," CWA said on its Web site.

"'Gay' activists disingenuously call Christians 'haters' and 'homophobes' for honoring the Bible, but then lash out in this hateful manner toward the very people they accuse," said said Matt Barber, CWA's policy director for cultural issues.

"In their version of The Last Supper, Christ, Who gave His life for our sins, is despicably replaced by sin itself as the object of worship."

CWA is calling on California politicians -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sens. Feinstein and Boxer among them -- to "publicly condemn this unprovoked attack against Christ and His followers.

"We further challenge the media to cover this affront to Christianity with the same vigor as recent stories about cartoon depictions of Mohammed and other items offensive to the Muslim community," CWA said.


So if the fags to it, it's an "unprovoked attack" but if say...



...does it, that's ok?

Or perhaps...



See more Other Last Suppers: Where’s the Outrage?.

Afghans call for 'death to Canada'

I hate what we're becoming. Hear that Harper?

Angry Afghans took to the street yesterday chanting "death to Canada" and calling for foreign troops to go home following a series of raids on suspected insurgent homes.

Protesters said international soldiers killed a religious leader and his brother during the raids Tuesday in Senjaray, a community on the outskirts of Kandahar city. It is in the Zhari district, a hotbed of Taliban activity west of the city.

"Death to Canada," some chanted. "Death to foreigners."

Read more here.

Be Afraid

Be very afraid

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...