Notes From Planet Three

Books I Read 2011

2011-12-31T22:59:00.000-08:00

Under the Dome by Stephen King ****
Drood by Dan Simmons *****
Black Hills by Dan Simmons ****1/2
Confessions of a Wave Warrior by Eric Soares ***
The Golden Spruce by John Vaillant *****
Storms of My Grandchildren by James Hansen ***1/2
The Making of the President 1960 by Theodore H. White ****
The Making of the President 1964 by Theodore H. White ****
The Making of the President 1968 by Theodore H. White ****
The Making of the President 1972 by Theodore H. White ****
Triplanetary by E.E. "Doc" Smith ***
Solo by Vicki McAuley ****
Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey ****
Hitchens vs. Blair: Be It Resolved that Regligion is a Force for Good in the World edited by Rudyard Griffiths ****
Harperland: The Politics of Control by Lawrence Martin ****
The Fifty Foot Detective by John Swartzwelder ***
The Wave by Susan Casey ****
The Devil's Teeth by Susan Casey ****
Freedom(tm) by Daniel Suarez ****
Fordlandia by Greg Grandin ****
Starman: The Truth Behind the Legend of Yuri Gagarin by Jamie Doran and Piers Bizony ***1/2
The Armageddon Factor: The Rise of Christian Nationalism in Canada by Marci McDonald ****
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson ***1/2
The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick ***1/2
The Final Theorem by Arthur C. Clarke and Frederik Pohl **1/2
Monster Hunter: Vendetta by Larry Correia ***
The Tiger by John Vaillant *****
The Fat Paddler by Sean Smith ***
Marshall McLuhan by Douglas Coupland ****
Crawling from the Wreckage by Gwynne Dyer *****
Just When You Thought It Was Safe: A Jaws Companion by Patrick Jankiewicz ***
The Jaws Log by Carl Gottlieb ***1/2
Paddle to the Amazon by Don Starkell ***1/2
Paddle to the Arctic by Don Starkell ***
Kabloona in the Yellow Kayak by Victoria Jason ****
From Russia With Love by Ian Fleming ***
Dreadnought by Cherie Priest ***
Paul MacCartney - A Life by Peter Ames Carlin ***
The Greatest Game by Todd Denault **1/2
Blood Rites by Jim Butcher ***
Zero History by William Gibson ***
A Dip in The Ocean by Sarah Outen ***
Atlantic by Simon Winchester ***
The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos by Brian Greene ***
Spook by Mary Roach **1/2
Stiff by Mary Roach ****
Packing for Mars by Mary Roach ****
Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi ***
Blackout by Connie Willis ****
All Clear by Connie Willis ****

DVDs I Watched 2011

2011-12-31T21:58:00.000-08:00

Iron Man 2 ***
The Nanny Diaries ***
Developing Project Apollo ***
Live From The Moon ***1/2
Titanic II *
TRON: Legacy **
Despicable Me ****
The Green Hornet ***
Lifeboat ***1/2
Source Code ****
Green Lantern ***
Sea Kayak with Gordon Brown Volume 2 ****
Cars 2 **
Rise of the Planet of the Apes ****

Movies I Saw 2011

2011-12-31T20:57:00.000-08:00

Rango ****
Thor **1/2
Super 8 ***
Captain America ***1/2
Cowboys and Aliens ***
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows ***
The Adventures of Tintin ***1/2
Hugo ****1/2

Books I Read - 2010

2010-12-31T23:59:00.000-08:00

Keeping Our Cool: Canada in a Warming World by Andrew Weaver ****
The Road by Cormac McCarthy ***
More Information Than You Require by John Hodgman *****
Have a Nice Doomsday: Why Millions of Americans are Looking Forward to the End of the World by Nicholas Guyatt ***1/2
Watermind by M.M.Buckner **1/2
Stepping Stones of Ungava and Labrador by Nigel Foster ****
Space Vulture by Gary K. Wolf and John J. Myers ****
The Conviction of Richard Nixon by James Reston, Jr. ***1/2
Frost/Nixon by Sir David Frost ***
Evolution: The Triumph of an Idea **** by Carl Zimmer
Diamonds Are Forever by Ian Fleming ****
Hunter S. Thompson by Jay Cowan *****
My Life as Prime Minister by Jean Chrétien ***
Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded: A Decade of Whatever by John Scalzi ****
The Invaders by James Rosin ***
Days of Infamy by Harry Turtledove ***1/2
End of the Beginning by Harry Turtledove ***1/2
John A: The Man Who Made Us by Richard Gwyn ****
Critical Mass by Whitley Streiber ***
Last Chance to See by Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine *****
God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens ****
Weapons of Choice by John Birmingham ****
Designated Targets by John Birmingham ****
Final Impact by John Birmingham ****
Not One Drop by Riki Ott ***
Rocket Men by Craig Nelson ****
Facing Ali by Stephen Brunt ***1/2
Magnificent Desolation by Buzz Aldrin ***
The Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins ***
Carbon Shift: How Peak Oil and the Climate Change Crisis Will Change Canada edited by Thomas Homer-Dixon ***
Julian Comstock by Robert Charles Wilson *****
Scar Night by Alan Campbell ***1/2
Iron Angel by Alan Campbell***
God of Clocks by Alan Campbell***
Rowboat in a Hurricane by Julie Angus ***1/2
Citizen of the World: The Life of Pierrre Eliott Trudeau Volume One 1919-1968 by John English ****
Just Watch Me: The Life of Pierrre Eliott Trudeau Volume One 1968-2000 by John English ****
Where Men Win Glory by Jon Krakauer *****
The Selling of the President by Joe McGinniss ***
The Greatest Show On Earth by Richard Dawkins ****
The End of Faith by Sam Harris ***
Monster Hunter International by Larry Correia ***
The View From the Bridge by Nicholas Meyer ***1/2
The Age of Persuasion by Terry O'Reilly and Mike Tennant ***1/2
The Breach by Patrick Lee **1/2
Without a Paddle by Warren Richey ****
The Simpsons: An Uncensored, Unauthorized History by John Ortved ***
Gretzky's Tears by Stephen Brunt *****
Playing With Fire by Theo Fleury ****
On Celtic Tides by Chris Duff ****
Rowed Trip by Colin Angus and Julie Angus ***1/2;
Southern Exposure by Chris Duff ****
Agent to the Stars by John Scalzi ****

DVDs I Watched - 2010

2010-12-31T22:30:00.000-08:00

District 9 ****1/2
It Might Get Loud ****
Hancock **1/2
Star Trek - The Original Series Season Three ***
Moon ****1/2
The Aristocrats *
Galaxy Quest ****
Inglourious Basterds ****
Doctor Who: The Waters of Mars ***1/2
Doctor Who: The Ends of Time ****
Paddle to Seattle *****
This is Canoeing *****
Dream Result ****
Terminator: Salvation ***
Ed Wood *****
Glen or Glenda * (or *****)
The Haunted World of Edward D. Wood Jr. ****
Capitalism: A Love Story ****
The Men Who Stare At Goats ***
Africa Revolutions Tour ***1/2
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus ****
Rush - Beyond the Lighted Stage ****
Earth II ***
Kung Fu Hustle ****
Special Bulletin *****
Genesis II **
Strange New World *1/2
Planet Earth *
When You're Strange ****
True Blood Season Two ***
Fight Club ****
Mega-Shark vs. Giant Octopus * (or *****)
King Kong 1933 *****
Dark Star ****
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai *****
Superman/Batman: Apocalypse ***
Family Guy: It's a Trap! ***1/2
Kick Ass ***

Movies I Saw - 2010

2010-12-31T21:00:00.000-08:00

Sherlock Holmes ***
Alice in Wonderland ***
Toy Story 3 ****
Inception ****
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One ****
TRON: Legacy **
True Grit ****

2010-09-11T01:14:00.000-07:00

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

International Talk Like WIlliam Shatner Day

2010-03-22T07:27:00.000-07:00

Books I Read in 2009

2009-12-31T23:59:00.002-08:00

Duma Key by Stephen King ****1/2
Double Wonderful by John Swartzwelder ****
The Terror by Dan Simmons *****
How I Conquered Your Planet by John Swartzwelder ***
Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War by Michael J. Neufeld *****
The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks ****
Live and Let Die by Ian Fleming ***
Wild Cards: Inside Straight edited by George R. R. Martin ***
Spook Country by William Gibson **1/2
Stupid to the Last Drop by William Marsden *****
Recursion by Tony Ballantyne *1/2
Tar Sands by Andrew Nikiforuk *****
The Upside of Down by Thomas Homer-Dixon ****
One Jump Ahead by Mark L. Van Name ***
Nixonland by Rick Perlstein *****
The War Within by Bob Woodward ****
Bring on the Apocalypse: Essays on Self-Destruction by George Monbiot *****
What Really Sank the Titanic by Jennifer Hooper McCarty and Tim Foecke ***
Dead Men Scare Me Stupid by John Swartzwelder **1/2
The Mirrored Heavens by David J. Williams ***1/2
The Ten-¢ent Plague by David Hajdu ***1/2
Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirkey *****
Climate Wars by Gwynne Dyer *****
Outlaw Journalist: The Life and Times of Hunter S. Thompson by William McKeen ****
Strip Tease by Carl Hiaasen ****
Paingod and Other Delusions by Harlan Ellison ****
Kayaking the Inside Passage by Robert H. Miller ****
Old Man's War by John Scalzi ****
The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi ***1/2
The Last Colony by John Scalzi ****
Zoë's Tale by John Scalzi ****
Was Superman a Spy? by Brian Cronin ***
Moonraker by Ian Fleming ****
The Exploding Detective by John Swartzwelder ****
Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks ****
Rolling Thunder by John Varley ****
Crossing the Ditch by James Castrission ****
Titanic's Last Secrets by Brad Matsen ***1/2
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess *****
Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher ***1/2
Ancient Gonzo Wisdom: Interviews with Hunter S. Thompson edited by Anita Thompson ****
The Boys on The Bus by Timothy Crouse ****
The Greatest Sc-Fi Movies Never Made by David Hughes ***1/2
Earth vs. Everybody by John Swartzwelder ***1.2
When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris ****
A Man Without a Country by Kurt Vonnegut ****
Hammered by Elizabeth Bear ***1/2
Scardown by Elizabeth Bear ***1/2
Worldwired by Elizabeth Bear ***1/2
Dark Summit by Nick Heil ***1/2
Shakespeare: The World as Stage by Bill Bryson ****
Blindsight by Peter Watts ***1/2
Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell ***1/2
Superclass by David Rothkopf **
The Areas of My Expertise by John Hodgman *****
The Gum Thief by Douglas Coupland ****

Movies I Watched in 2009

2009-12-31T23:59:00.001-08:00

Valkyrie ***
Frost/Nixon *****
Coraline ***1/2
Watchmen ****
Knowing *1/2
X-Men Origins: Wolverine **
Star Trek *****
Up *****
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince ***1/2
Julie and Julia ***
A Christmas Carol (2009) ***1/2
Avatar ***1/2

DVDs I Watched in 2009

2009-12-31T23:59:00.000-08:00

Doctor Who - The Complete Fourth Season ****1/2
Battlestar Galactica Season 4.0 *****
Spaced: The Complete Series *****
Sputnik Mania ***
Burn Before Reading ****
The X Files: I Want to Believe ***
Zack and Miri Make a Porno ***1/2
Dark City *****
Charlie Wilson's War ***
The Invaders - Season 2 ***
My Name is Bruce ***1/2
W. ****
Dirty Harry ****
Ghost Town ****
Man on Wire ****
Pineapple Express ***
Tropic Thunder ****1/2
Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder ****1/2
Doctor Who: The Five Doctors ***
Death Race *
Lost - Season Four ****
Doctor Who: The Three Doctors ***
Robot Chicken: Season 1 *****
Eastern Horizons ****
Robot Chicken: Season 2 ***1/2
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly *****
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea Season 4 Volume 1 **
Slumdog Millionaire ***1/2
Religulous *****
Twilight **
Bolt *****
Robot Chicken: Season 3 ****1/2
Caprica ***1/2
Quantum of Solace ***
Mission: Impossible - Season 6 ***
Magnum Force ****
The Enforcer ***
Harlan Ellison: Dreams with Sharp Teeth *****
The Spirit ***
Direct From the Moon ***1/2
Corner Gas -- Season 6 ****
Watchmen: Tales of the Black Freighter ***1/2
Fanboys ***1/2
Moon Machines *****
Robot Chicken: Star Wars: Episode II *****
Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead ***1/2
Torchwood: Children of Earth *****
True Blood - Season One ***1/2
Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog *****
The Office: Season Five *****
Crossing The Ditch ***1/2
Battlestar Galactica - The Plan ***1/2
Sea Kayaking with Gordon Brown ***
The Wonder of It All ***1/2
Monty Python: Almost the Truth - The Lawyer's Cut ****
Family Guy - Something Something Something Darkside *****
Robot Chicken Season Four ****
IMAX: Mark Twain's America **1/2
IMAX: Galapagos ***1/2

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-25T00:01:00.000-08:00

Linus

2009-12-19T00:01:00.000-08:00

Linus left us three years ago today.
His person still misses him very much.

Copenhagen climate change conference: 'Fourteen days to seal history's judgment on this generation'

2009-12-07T14:02:00.001-08:00

This editorial calling for action from world leaders on climate change is published today by 56 newspapers around the world in 20 languages
Copenhagen climate change summit - opening day liveblog

Editorial
The Guardian, Monday 7 December 2009
Article history

Today 56 newspapers in 45 countries take the unprecedented step of speaking with one voice through a common editorial. We do so because humanity faces a profound emergency.

Unless we combine to take decisive action, climate change will ravage our planet, and with it our prosperity and security. The dangers have been becoming apparent for a generation. Now the facts have started to speak: 11 of the past 14 years have been the warmest on record, the Arctic ice-cap is melting and last year's inflamed oil and food prices provide a foretaste of future havoc. In scientific journals the question is no longer whether humans are to blame, but how little time we have got left to limit the damage. Yet so far the world's response has been feeble and half-hearted.

Climate change has been caused over centuries, has consequences that will endure for all time and our prospects of taming it will be determined in the next 14 days. We call on the representatives of the 192 countries gathered in Copenhagen not to hesitate, not to fall into dispute, not to blame each other but to seize opportunity from the greatest modern failure of politics. This should not be a fight between the rich world and the poor world, or between east and west. Climate change affects everyone, and must be solved by everyone.

The science is complex but the facts are clear. The world needs to take steps to limit temperature rises to 2C, an aim that will require global emissions to peak and begin falling within the next 5-10 years. A bigger rise of 3-4C — the smallest increase we can prudently expect to follow inaction — would parch continents, turning farmland into desert. Half of all species could become extinct, untold millions of people would be displaced, whole nations drowned by the sea. The controversy over emails by British researchers that suggest they tried to suppress inconvenient data has muddied the waters but failed to dent the mass of evidence on which these predictions are based.

Few believe that Copenhagen can any longer produce a fully polished treaty; real progress towards one could only begin with the arrival of President Obama in the White House and the reversal of years of US obstructionism. Even now the world finds itself at the mercy of American domestic politics, for the president cannot fully commit to the action required until the US Congress has done so.

But the politicians in Copenhagen can and must agree the essential elements of a fair and effective deal and, crucially, a firm timetable for turning it into a treaty. Next June's UN climate meeting in Bonn should be their deadline. As one negotiator put it: "We can go into extra time but we can't afford a replay."

At the deal's heart must be a settlement between the rich world and the developing world covering how the burden of fighting climate change will be divided — and how we will share a newly precious resource: the trillion or so tonnes of carbon that we can emit before the mercury rises to dangerous levels.

Rich nations like to point to the arithmetic truth that there can be no solution until developing giants such as China take more radical steps than they have so far. But the rich world is responsible for most of the accumulated carbon in the atmosphere – three-quarters of all carbon dioxide emitted since 1850. It must now take a lead, and every developed country must commit to deep cuts which will reduce their emissions within a decade to very substantially less than their 1990 level.

Developing countries can point out they did not cause the bulk of the problem, and also that the poorest regions of the world will be hardest hit. But they will increasingly contribute to warming, and must thus pledge meaningful and quantifiable action of their own. Though both fell short of what some had hoped for, the recent commitments to emissions targets by the world's biggest polluters, the United States and China, were important steps in the right direction.

Social justice demands that the industrialised world digs deep into its pockets and pledges cash to help poorer countries adapt to climate change, and clean technologies to enable them to grow economically without growing their emissions. The architecture of a future treaty must also be pinned down – with rigorous multilateral monitoring, fair rewards for protecting forests, and the credible assessment of "exported emissions" so that the burden can eventually be more equitably shared between those who produce polluting products and those who consume them. And fairness requires that the burden placed on individual developed countries should take into account their ability to bear it; for instance newer EU members, often much poorer than "old Europe", must not suffer more than their richer partners.

The transformation will be costly, but many times less than the bill for bailing out global finance — and far less costly than the consequences of doing nothing.

Many of us, particularly in the developed world, will have to change our lifestyles. The era of flights that cost less than the taxi ride to the airport is drawing to a close. We will have to shop, eat and travel more intelligently. We will have to pay more for our energy, and use less of it.

But the shift to a low-carbon society holds out the prospect of more opportunity than sacrifice. Already some countries have recognized that embracing the transformation can bring growth, jobs and better quality lives. The flow of capital tells its own story: last year for the first time more was invested in renewable forms of energy than producing electricity from fossil fuels.

Kicking our carbon habit within a few short decades will require a feat of engineering and innovation to match anything in our history. But whereas putting a man on the moon or splitting the atom were born of conflict and competition, the coming carbon race must be driven by a collaborative effort to achieve collective salvation.

Overcoming climate change will take a triumph of optimism over pessimism, of vision over short-sightedness, of what Abraham Lincoln called "the better angels of our nature".

It is in that spirit that 56 newspapers from around the world have united behind this editorial. If we, with such different national and political perspectives, can agree on what must be done then surely our leaders can too.

The politicians in Copenhagen have the power to shape history's judgment on this generation: one that saw a challenge and rose to it, or one so stupid that we saw calamity coming but did nothing to avert it. We implore them to make the right choice.

This editorial will be published tomorrow by 56 newspapers around the world in 20 languages including Chinese, Arabic and Russian. The text was drafted by a Guardian team during more than a month of consultations with editors from more than 20 of the papers involved. Like the Guardian most of the newspapers have taken the unusual step of featuring the editorial on their front page.

This editorial is free to reproduce under Creative Commons

'Fourteen days to seal history's judgment on this generation' by The Guardian is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.
Based on a work at guardian.co.uk.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/sep/02/guardian-environment-team
(please note this Creative Commons license is valid until 18 December 2009)

The Biggest Threat to the World: Canada

2009-12-01T08:15:00.001-08:00

George Monbiot's latest column from the Guardian, which focuses on Canada and the tar sands, deserves to be reprinted in full. We must do better than this, and that starts with politicians with vision and purpose, unlike what we have now on either side of The House.

When you think of Canada, which qualities come to mind? The world's peacekeeper, the friendly nation, a liberal counterweight to the harsher pieties of its southern neighbour, decent, civilised, fair, well-governed? Think again. This country's government is now behaving with all the sophistication of a chimpanzee's tea party. So amazingly destructive has Canada become, and so insistent have my Canadian friends been that I weigh into this fight, that I've broken my self-imposed ban on flying and come to Toronto.

So here I am, watching the astonishing spectacle of a beautiful, cultured nation turning itself into a corrupt petro-state. Canada is slipping down the development ladder, retreating from a complex, diverse economy towards dependence on a single primary resource, which happens to be the dirtiest commodity known to man. The price of this transition is the brutalisation of the country, and a government campaign against multilateralism as savage as any waged by George Bush.

Until now I believed that the nation that has done most to sabotage a new climate change agreement was the United States. I was wrong. The real villain is Canada. Unless we can stop it, the harm done by Canada in December 2009 will outweigh a century of good works.

In 2006 the new Canadian government announced it was abandoning its targets to cut greenhouse gases under the Kyoto protocol. No other country that had ratified the treaty has done this. Canada was meant to have cut emissions by 6% between 1990 and 2012. Instead they have already risen by 26%.

It is now clear that Canada will refuse to be sanctioned for abandoning its legal obligations. The Kyoto protocol can be enforced only through goodwill: countries must agree to accept punitive future obligations if they miss their current targets. But the future cut Canada has volunteered is smaller than that of any other rich nation. Never mind special measures; it won't accept even an equal share. The Canadian government is testing the international process to destruction and finding that it breaks all too easily. By demonstrating that climate sanctions aren't worth the paper they're written on, it threatens to render any treaty struck at Copenhagen void.

After giving the finger to Kyoto, Canada then set out to prevent the other nations striking a successor agreement. At the end of 2007, it singlehandedly blocked a Commonwealth resolution to support binding targets for industrialised nations. After the climate talks in Poland in December 2008, it won the Fossil of the Year award, presented by environmental groups to the country that had done most to disrupt the talks. The climate change performance index, which assesses the efforts of the world's 60 richest nations, was published in the same month. Saudi Arabia came 60th. Canada came 59th.

In June this year the media obtained Canadian briefing documents which showed the government was scheming to divide the Europeans. During the meeting in Bangkok in October, almost the entire developing world bloc walked out when the Canadian delegate was speaking, as they were so revolted by his bullying. Last week the Commonwealth heads of government battled for hours (and eventually won) against Canada's obstructions. A concerted campaign has now begun to expel Canada from the Commonwealth.

In Copenhagen next week, this country will do everything in its power to wreck the talks. The rest of the world must do everything in its power to stop it. But such is the fragile nature of climate agreements that one rich nation – especially a member of the G8, the Commonwealth and the Kyoto group of industrialised countries – could scupper the treaty. Canada now threatens the wellbeing of the world.

Why? There's a simple answer: Canada is developing the world's second largest reserve of oil. Did I say oil? It's actually a filthy mixture of bitumen, sand, heavy metals and toxic organic chemicals. The tar sands, most of which occur in Alberta, are being extracted by the biggest opencast mining operation on earth. An area the size of England, comprising pristine forests and marshes, will be be dug up – unless the Canadians can stop this madness. Already it looks like a scene from the end of the world: the strip-miners are creating a churned black hell on an unimaginable scale.

To extract oil from this mess, it needs to be heated and washed. Three barrels of water are used to process one barrel of oil. The contaminated water is held in vast tailings ponds, some so toxic that the tar companies employ people to scoop dead birds off the surface. Most are unlined. They leak organic poisons, arsenic and mercury into the rivers. The First Nations people living downstream have developed a range of exotic cancers and auto-immune diseases.

Refining tar sands requires two to three times as much energy as refining crude oil. The companies exploiting them burn enough natural gas to heat six million homes. Alberta's tar sands operation is the world's biggest single industrial source of carbon emissions. By 2020, if the current growth continues, it will produce more greenhouse gases than Ireland or Denmark. Already, thanks in part to the tar mining, Canadians have almost the highest per capita emissions on earth, and the stripping of Alberta has scarcely begun.

Canada hasn't acted alone. The biggest leaseholder in the tar sands is Shell, a company that has spent millions persuading the public that it respects the environment. The other great greenwasher, BP, initially decided to stay out of tar. Now it has invested in plants built to process it. The British bank RBS, 70% of which belongs to you and me (the government's share will soon rise to 84%), has lent or underwritten £8bn for mining the tar sands.

The purpose of Canada's assault on the international talks is to protect this industry. This is not a poor nation. It does not depend for its economic survival on exploiting this resource. But the tar barons of Alberta have been able to hold the whole country to ransom. They have captured Canada's politics and are turning this lovely country into a cruel and thuggish place.

Canada is a cultured, peaceful nation, which every so often allows a band of Neanderthals to trample over it. Timber firms were licensed to log the old-growth forest in Clayaquot Sound; fishing companies were permitted to destroy the Grand Banks: in both cases these get-rich-quick schemes impoverished Canada and its reputation. But this is much worse, as it affects the whole world. The government's scheming at the climate talks is doing for its national image what whaling has done for Japan.

I will not pretend that this country is the only obstacle to an agreement at Copenhagen. But it is the major one. It feels odd to be writing this. The immediate threat to the global effort to sustain a peaceful and stable world comes not from Saudi Arabia or Iran or China. It comes from Canada. How could that be true?

2009-11-16T13:07:00.001-08:00

Gay Scientists Isolate the Christian Gene

2009-09-19T20:20:00.000-07:00

2009-09-11T20:05:00.001-07:00

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

We All Live on the Greenland Ice Sheet Now

2009-09-01T20:57:00.001-07:00

By way of serendipitous happenstance, a couple of separate but related news nuggets jumped out at me as I surfed the net today. First, Bernie posted some links over at one of our other blogs (The Central Ganglion) on some climate change matters, particularly on the 10:10 Climate Change campaign, an effort to get everyone to reduce their carbons emissions by 10% in 2010. (More info here, and George Monbiot writes about it here.)
But Bernie also noted that the Greenland ice sheets are melting faster than most predictions. 10% of the world's fresh water is tied up in the Greenland ice sheets and that fresh water is moving into the Atlantic Ocean a lot faster than anyone has imagined. And that's bad news for the future.
According to an article in the Guardian, "Helheim, an enormous tower of ice that calves into Sermilik Fjord, used to move at 7km (4.4 miles) a year. In 2005, in less than a year, it speeded up to nearly 12km a year." Another glacier, Kangerdlugssuaq, is now moving 24mm (about an inch) every minute, making its movement visible to the naked eye. Where the glaciers meet the sea, the glacial calving events are now big enough to generate seismic events transmitted through the earth, and these events actually help speed up the glaciers. That's a feedback loop few people had ever thought of.
And while comptemplating that worrisome news, I found this story at The Adventure Corner by Olaf Malver reporting on his just completed kayaking trip to eastern Greenland. He describes passing 12 mile-long tabular icebergs the likes of which his 55 year-old Inuit guide has never seen before. These icebergs can only make their way south because so much of the Arctic Ocean has opened up during the summer. Olaf, who has camped along eastern Greenland for fifteen years, also noted that many of the fresh water pools at his favourite campsites have dried up, and he also comments on receding glaciers.
As the author of the Guardian article noted, "We all live on the Greenland ice sheet now. Its fate is our fate."

The Odd Box

2009-07-23T20:04:00.001-07:00

Something Smells

2009-07-22T20:32:00.000-07:00

I'm glad to see that its recent near-demise has taught those oh-so wise powers-that-be at GM the error of their ways, that they must make products that people want, and that make sense in the new economic and environmental paradigm. Their first new offering since billions of taxpayers dollars bailed them out? The Cadillac men's fragrance line.
"Cadillac, the new fragrance for men is part of the recent Cadillac renaissance: Hot new products and redesigns that capture the mantra of life, liberty and the pursuit," said Alwyn Stephen, a director of Beauty Contact, the company that holds the fragrance licence. "Our fragrance is a relevant extension of the Cadillac lifestyle. The design pays tribute to the opulence and extravagance of past eras, as well as the luxury and ease of today."
According to the Toronto Star, the line includes a spray, aftershave lotion, deodorant stick, hair and body wash. Some products will come in translucent glass bottles with sleek metal caps. The retail price for a 100 millilitre bottle of the eau de toilette fragrance will be $73.
Ferrari tried this a few years ago -- they couldn't give their cologne away. Porsche and BMW tried and failed at this idea as well. No doubt the deodorant will be popular because this stinks. Did anyone run this by GM's new owners which are, um, me?

Apollo @ 40

2009-07-20T23:59:00.000-07:00

2009-07-20T21:30:00.000-07:00

2009-07-20T20:30:00.000-07:00

2009-07-20T13:15:00.000-07:00

2009-07-20T12:00:00.000-07:00

2009-07-20T00:01:00.000-07:00

Where does the time go....

You Gotta Love Buzz Aldrin

2009-07-17T19:01:00.003-07:00

Inside the Asylum

2009-07-11T21:30:00.000-07:00

Days after announcing her intention to step down as the Governor of Alaska, two new ethics complaints were filed against Sarah Palin. She and her staff were quick to respond.
“Although the governor would not have thought it possible, the latest complaint rises to a new level of absurdity in alleging that she has been paid for interviews that she has given to the news media. It is amazing to me that anyone could think that, let alone put their name behind it and once again seek to distract state officials and needlessly increase their work load. The state is losing the value of some of its expenditures when public servants are pulled away from important assignments to deal with far-fetched and mean-spirited allegations,” Palin’s chief of staff Mike Nizich said in a release announcing the filing of the recent complaints.
Palin herself said this: “The only saving grace in this recent episode is that it proves beyond any doubt the significance of the problem Alaska faces in the ‘new normal’ of political discourse. I hope this will be a wake-up call – to legislators, to commentators and to citizens generally – that we need a much more civil and respectful dialogue that focuses on the best interests of the state, rather than the petty resentments of a few.”
Strangely enough, at no point did Palin or her chief of staff ever deny the charges.
Smoke, meet mirrors.

80% of What...?

2009-07-09T12:28:00.000-07:00

One fact is being left out of today's announcement that the G8 nations will lower their greenhouse gas emissons by 80% by the year 2050.
One thing, though: 80% of what? I can't find the baseline that they're using in any new report. Is it 80% of 2009 emissions? Or 2006 emissions as outlined in the Canadian government's 2007 legislation (whose mandatory emissions targets don't actually begin until 2012)? Or are they using 1990 emission levels as perscribed under the Kyoto Protocol? (Canada is obligated under Kyoto to cut it's emissions 6% from its 1990 levels; by 2006, our emissions had increased 21.7%.)
Saying its an 80% cut is meaningless without knowing where you starting from, but no media outlet has figured that out.
More egregious are the words of our so-called Environment Minister, according to the CBC (emphasis added):

Canadian Environment Minister Jim Prentice said achieving the lower emissions by 2050 is only an aspirational goal of the developed countries. But it meshes well with Canada's plan to reduce its emissions by up to 70 per cent by 2050, he said.
Canada will not need to change its policies to achieve that goal, he added.

Fire this man immediately. He clearly has no business being our environmental steward.

Canada: Last Place

2009-07-08T21:00:00.001-07:00

According to this story by the CBC, Canada ranks dead last among the G8 nations in the WWF's annual Climate Change report. The article states:

"Nowhere else on Earth do fewer people steward more resources, yet Canada now stands dead last amongst the G8 nations in protecting our shared home from the threat of dangerous climate change," said Keith Steward, director of WWF-Canada's climate change campaign, in a statement Wednesday.
Canada's greenhouse gas emissions are steadily increasing, and its per capita emissions are already among the highest in the world, says the study, conducted by Ecofys, a renewable-energy consulting firm.
"A plan to curb emissions was developed last year but has not been implemented," the report says.

Germany, the UK and France top the list as they have already achieved their Kyoto targets, whereas our Prime Minister seems to think that they are unattainable.

2009 rankings in the G8 Climate Scorecard (WWF/Allianz)
1. Germany
2. UK
3. France
4. Italy
5. Japan
6. Russia
7. U.S.
8. Canada

2009-07-03T09:14:00.001-07:00

Kayaking at Newcastle Island

2009-06-26T20:06:00.000-07:00

Helluva Day

2009-06-25T20:58:00.000-07:00

A golden angel. A little boy lost.
Yes, The Poster adorned my wall, and yes, I bought Thriller on vinyl all those years ago.
We are reminded once again of the fragility of our mortality, and of the necessity to stop and smell the roses, for we will not pass this way again (reincarnation notwithstanding).
I suspect that Farrah did stop and sample the roses' fragrances on occasion, but that Michael just paid someone to do it for him.
I don’t like roses, I’m not a “flower” guy. But I love to kayak, and metaphorically that’s pretty much the same thing.

In Case You Haven't Figured It Out Yet... We're Doomed

2009-06-23T19:55:00.000-07:00

And here is yet another study warning of cataclysmic melting of glaciers and the expected and catastrophic sea level rises that will go along with it, this one a study of Nunavut's Sam Ford Fiord.

I'm A PC...and I'm The President

2009-06-22T07:42:00.003-07:00

Chatham Island Kayak Trip

2009-06-18T20:05:00.000-07:00

Kayaking into Esquimalt Harbour

2009-06-12T20:02:00.000-07:00

Kayaking Up the Gorge

2009-06-06T20:01:00.000-07:00

And I Did....

2009-06-03T22:20:00.001-07:00

GoAnimate.com: Dance Trek by spuzzum42

Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!

You Could Waste a Lot of Time Here

2009-06-03T20:24:00.001-07:00

Found this site and made a little birthday movie for Karl....
GoAnimate.com: Happy Birthday, Karl by spuzzum42

Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!

Bush Eats Kitten!

2009-05-31T10:30:00.000-07:00

Kayaking Around James Island

2009-05-30T20:00:00.000-07:00

Why Are We Allowing a War Criminal into Canada Today?

2009-05-29T09:15:00.000-07:00

Kayaking Around Albert Head

2009-05-26T20:00:00.001-07:00

Mulroney: He's Having Our Cake...and Eating It, Too

2009-05-25T08:58:00.000-07:00

There's one thing about this sordid Mulroney-Schreiber thing that I don't get.
Mulroney says that starting in 1993 he was paid $225,000 by Schreiber in three installments of $75,000 each. In cash. In brown envelopes. In hotal rooms.
Mulroney did not claim this money on his taxes for six years because, he claims, as the payment was a retainer, he didn't have to declare this income until his retainer ended. That sounds fishy to me, but I'm no tax lawyer, so let's take Mulroney at his word and assume that Mulroney was acting in good faith based in this belief.
Mulroney finally declared this income and paid taxes on it in 1999. As Schreiber's legal woes grew, Mulroney decided the retainer was concluded, declared the income, and paid taxes on it.
Er, but wait a minute. Mulroney declared this income under the Canada Revenue Agency's Voluntary Disclosure Program. According to their website, this program:

require that the disclosure be voluntary, complete, involve the application or potential application of a penalty, and generally include information that is more than one year overdue.

This CRA program allows people who have been overdue in reporting taxes to pay unreported back taxes, and at the time that Mulroney paid his taxes, at a discount of 50%.
But wait another minute. This procedure is only for "information that is more than one year overdue." According to Mulroney, this information wasn't overdue -- according to him, it wasn't payable until the year he claimed it: 1999.
So Mulroney either was years in arrears in reporting this income and reported it under the VDP, thus allowing for a 50% tax discount, or he reported it on time, but reported under a program it wasn't eligable for and scored a 50% tax discount.
Either way, he handled it inappropriately and ripped off hard-working Canadian taxpayers.
(And why did Mulroney leave this amount of cash in a safe for six years? Why not put it in a bank and get at least some interest on it? For someone who seems well-versed in how to use the tax system, this seems a very odd course of action. But I digress.)

Star Trek: Insurrection

2009-05-24T09:58:00.000-07:00

What a piece of crap.

Star Trek: Generations

2009-05-24T09:56:00.000-07:00

Kirk, Scotty and Chekov are on board attending the launch of the Enterprise B when the ship is forced to respond to a distress call. A couple of ships have been caught by a strange ribbon of electromagnetic energy (the nexus). For the fourth time in seven movies, the Enterprise is the only ship in position to respond to this distress call. (For the third time in seven movies, the Enterprise is still in Earth’s solar system when the call comes in. Doesn’t Starfleet keep any other ships in the neighbourhood?) The Enterprise responds and saves some of the people (including Guinan and Dr. Soran) on board the ships caught in the nexus, but an energy bolt from the nexus vaporizes a portion of the Enterprise and, presumably, Kirk along with it.
Flash forward 78 years. The Enterprise D receives a distress call from a solar research station, while Captain Picard receives some distressing personal news. His brother and nephew have been killed in a fire. Meanwhile, Data has decided it’s time to install the emotion chip that will allow him to experience emotions for the first time. The Enterprise crew discovers that the Romulans have wrecked the station, leaving among the few survivors, Dr. Soran. But after further investigation on the station, LaForge and Data discover that Soran has built a weapon that will destroy stars. Soran returns to the station and fires his weapon at the local star, and escapes thanks to some Klingons he has been working with.
Guinan explains to Picard about the nexus, and how she and Soran were in the nexus but plucked out just in time by the Enterprise B. The nexus is a place of joy and harmony, she says, and that everything you could want was there. Picard and Data realize that Soran is blowing up stars to alter the course of the nexus so that it hits a certain planet, where Soran will once again enter the nexus, this time permanently. Unfortunately, the next star he needs to blow up will kill hundreds of millions of people.
Picard beams down to stop Soran, while the Klingons duke it out with the Enterprise. This time, the Klingons manage to fatally injure the Enterprise before they themselves get blowed up. The Enterprise crashes on the planet. Picard cannot stop Soran who launches a rocket that blows up the sun, and alters the course of the nexus to the planet and it absorbs both Picard and Soran.
Picard finds himself having Christmas dinner with his wife and kids. Except he doesn’t have a wife and kids. He realizes this is some sort of illusion. Guinan appears, and explains that she is but a shadow of the real Guinan left behind when the Enterprise B transported her away. She tells Picard that he can leave and return to anytime he wishes. He wants to go back and stop Soran, and Guinan suggests there might be someone here who can help him: Kirk. Picard convinces Kirk that all in the nexus is an illusion, and together they return and defeat Soran, but at the cost of Kirk’s life. Picard returns to his all but destroyed Enterprise, and gathers a few effects, and leaves. The End.
This film has serious problems. The opening prologue on the Enterprise B is great; brisk, fast-paced and exciting. The first scenes in Picard’s timeline, involving a promotion ceremony for Worf, are also well done, but after that, with the exception on the spectacular crash sequence, the film’s pacing somehow goes off-kilter and it drags terribly in some places. The movie plays like a tv episode (I was waiting for a preview for next week’s movie at the end), and the constant alternating between an emotive scene, then a bit of action, then a bit more emotion, then some action, kills the momentum this film desperately needs. It seems to take a lot of time to get nowhere, and many things are tossed in for no apparent reason than to kill time. The Klingons, for one, could been cut and no one would have missed them.
Another major problem here is that most of the important plot points have all been done in previous Star Trek movies:
- the death of a major character;
- a madman on a deranged/spiritual quest;
- the old “give the unemotional character emotions and play him for laughs” routine;
- the old “blow up the Enterprise” routine;
- the old “kill off part of the captain’s family” routine, or, more specifically, kill off the younger generation of the captain’s family so the captain can emote and wax philosophically on the nature of life, death, blah, blah, blah;
- a strange unexplainable interstellar phenomenon causing havoc and destruction;
- and Klingons running amuck.
Data even rescues his cat, à la Alien. In addition, we’re treated to two hackneyed TNG clichés: the “alternate universe/timeline,” much overused in the last season of TNG; and Geordi shouting that’s there a warp core breach as the Enterprise begins her death throes. (Geordi saying, “Coolant leak! We have a warp core breach!” should be added to the TNG drinking game.) In fact, the Enterprise crew’s memory is slipping: Geordi doesn’t order the warp core ejected, a trick he’s done numerous times in the past; and when the Klingons discover the Enterprise’s shield frequency and blast a photon torpedo through them, no one thinks to change the shield frequency, another trick they’ve done numerous times in the past. (Of course, the Klingons are no better -- when the Enterprise finally gets off a good shot, they just sit and watch it come towards them. Hardly the sort of thing a warrior would do.)
Another major disappointment is the long-awaited meeting between Kirk and Picard. During their initial meeting in the nexus, the film picks up considerably, but upon their return to reality, the climatic fight scene is poorly staged, sloppily edited, and, quite frankly, an embarrassment. Ultimately, their encounter is giving short shrift and the very thing that should have made this a very special movie instead marks another disappointment. In fact, most of the supporting cast is barely seen after the opening scene: Worf and Crusher seem to have disappeared completely, Troi has very little to do, and Riker spends most of time stoically barking orders. Data, at least, gets to steal some scenes with emotion chip subplot, but even that started to wear thin. Malcolm McDowell makes the most of the thankless role of Soran, but even he as the villain has surprisingly little to do.
This week’s episode, er um, I mean this movie’s plot hinges on the mysterious nexus, and it is here that it opens holes big enough to fly a Klingon Assault Group through. If “part” of Guinan has been left behind, is part of Picard left behind? Or Soran? Or Kirk, for that matter, to be revived for the next movie? In the nexus, how come Guinan is able to find Picard? Why couldn’t Soran find him? (A neat scene would have been Picard fighting an intellectual battle with Soran in the nexus, and Kirk fighting the physical battle with Soran outside the nexus. Oh, well....) If Picard and Kirk can exit the nexus at any time, why do they choose to do so at a time when Soran still has all the advantages? Why not earlier on in the proceedings when they have the advantage over Soran? Or why, when it was obvious that Kirk was fatally injured, didn’t Picard just let Soran win again and re-enter the nexus, meet Kirk again and take another go at Soran? The could’ve tried any number of times until they got the result they wanted. (Why wouldn’t Kirk go back and try to save Edith Keeler? Or even back to his own time? Or back to his own time and leave Soran in the nexus? Why wouldn’t Picard go back and make sure the Borg never take him over?) The nexus is implied as the cause of Guinan’s strange “sixth sense.” Will Picard, having undergone the same experience as Guinan, now have this same strange awareness? Don’t hold my breath. Soran is blowing up stars to force the nexus to arrive at a certain planet because, we are told, that ships get blown up if they too close to the nexus; yet we’ve already seen earlier in the film Kirk, Guinan and Soran enter the nexus from ships! The nexus passes through the planet and leaves it unharmed. It blows up ships, but leaves planets intact! Soran is using a chemically powered rocket to deliver his technobabble payload to the sun. It takes only eleven seconds for this rocket to go from the planet to the star! He’s created a faster than light chemical rocket! And the sun blows up instantly, none of this waiting around a few minutes for the light of the explosion to travel back to the planet (physics is so damn annoying, anyway).
Star Trek: The Quest for Bucks continues. The once mighty franchise is now in the hands of people who only care about delivering product, not satisfying entertainment. They believe that mindless Trekkies will watch any mindless pap that appears before them. Trouble is, they may be right.

2009-05-19T21:51:00.000-07:00

Star Trek Wars

2009-05-18T19:33:00.001-07:00

Watch My Favorite Movie (Star Trek vs. Star Wars) and more funny videos on CollegeHumor

STS-125 Atlantis Solar Transit (200905120002HQ)

2009-05-17T16:49:00.001-07:00

STS-125 Atlantis Solar Transit (200905120002HQ), originally uploaded by nasa hq photo.

Awsome photo! See more at http://www.flickr.com/photos/nasahqphoto/

Caddy Bay to Willows Beach Paddle

2009-05-10T17:43:00.000-07:00

Fascinating....

2009-05-05T18:39:00.001-07:00

Trekkies Bash New Star Trek Film As 'Fun, Watchable'

Happy Star Wars Day!

2009-05-04T00:07:00.000-07:00

May the 4th be with you.

Telegraph Bay Paddle

2009-04-22T17:42:00.000-07:00

Happy Earth Day

2009-04-22T07:16:00.000-07:00

In the Wind

2009-04-16T20:04:00.000-07:00

Last week we paddled on a windy in Cadboro Bay.
Here's the slideshow.

What Really Sank the Titanic....

2009-04-15T02:20:00.001-07:00

Now We're Talking....

2009-04-13T09:36:00.000-07:00

see more pwn and owned pictures

Cadboro Bay Paddle

2009-04-10T08:01:00.000-07:00

A few days ago we tested some Advanced Element inflatable kayaks. Here's the slideshow.

You Know You've Made It....

2009-04-09T08:33:00.000-07:00

...when you become stamps.

Free At Last!

2009-04-04T06:48:00.000-07:00

Linus

2009-03-28T01:57:00.000-07:00

Linus would have been 19 today.
His person misses him very much...

This Man Is An Idiot

2009-03-26T18:39:00.000-07:00

...but it's funny because I don't know him...

Utterly Twisted...

2009-03-12T19:54:00.000-07:00

...but very funny. Frank Miller's Charlie Brown.

Even Lex Luthor Needs a Bailout...

2009-03-11T13:06:00.001-07:00

"Lex Luthor Bailout" with Jon Hamm - watch more funny videos

Live From Ottawa....

2009-03-09T19:29:00.001-07:00

Barack Obama and some other guy....

What I Found Sleeping On My Deck One Afternoon...

2009-03-08T20:08:00.001-07:00

Hundreds Attend Global Warming Protest

2009-03-08T10:40:00.000-07:00

2009-03-06T06:28:00.000-08:00

Clean Coal

2009-03-05T18:28:00.001-08:00

...by the Coen brothers. (Yes, those Coen brothers...)

And the News Just Keeps Getting Better....

2009-02-13T20:24:00.000-08:00

Good Against Evil

2009-02-13T18:48:00.000-08:00

This is a 1977 tv-pilot about a writer (played by Dack Rambo) who teams up with a priest (played by Dan O'Herlihy) to battle a devil worshiper (Richard Lynch) and his merry band of cronies.
Rambo's character meets and falls in love with a woman that unfortunately for him has been chosen by Lynch and his group to give birth to the Anti-Christ. It's all very 1970s, and clearly designed to cash in on the success of the movie The Exorcist; the climactic scene is in fact the exorcism of a young girl just as in the more popular (and better) film.
The only other notable feature of the film is that it's the first television appearance of Courtenay, BC's own Kim Catrall, now famous for playing Samantha Jones on Sex and the City.
And then there's the DVD cover which has nothing at all to do with the movie. Does that look like 1977 American tv to you?

Sign of the Times....?

2009-02-12T20:23:00.000-08:00

Idaho Transfer

2009-02-07T15:43:00.000-08:00

Scientists are working on a matter tranference system, but they discover that their system can be used not only to send people from place to place, but to the future. They discover that 56 years in the future, some calamity has destroyed mankind. So the project scientists have been sending research teams to the future not only to determine what happened, but also to make preparations for permanent habitation. Only young 20-somethings can make the trip; older adults die if they attempt to make the journey.
Karen (played by Kelley Bonahan) joins her sister Isa at the facility, which is run by their father. Karen is a troubled teen but joins Isa for a transfer to the future. Isa injures herself, and Karen, trying to save her sister, performs the transfer back incorrectly and Isa dies.
Karen is not dealing with her guilt very well, but she joins the expedtion to the future.
Then something happens in the past, and the transfer system no longer work, and the group of young is trapped in the future. The group decides to head out to Portland where other groups are planning to meet up, but Karen discovers something and disillusioned, she heads back to the transfer station. There, Karen is attacked by one of the group who has gone mad and also returned. Karen discovers that the transfer machine is working again and transfers herself to....well, that would be telling.
This is an intriguing little film directed by none other than Peter Fonda. Fonda's directing career lasted only three films; it probably didn't help his career that the distributor of this film went bankrupt just as the film was released. Shot against beautiful Idaho scenary, it must have looked great during the short time it played on a big screen. It's a slow and haunting movie that is aiming higher than it can reach, but it is worth a look.
The cast is mostly unknowns, but they do a good job. The only star of note is Keith Carradine, two years before he would star in and win an Oscar for best song in Nashville.

Various Health Updates

2009-02-05T20:58:00.001-08:00

Mom has improved some physically. The danger has certainly passed, but she is still very weak and mostly confined to bed. The physio people get her up for a little walk every day and she sits in a chair for a few hours, but she really shows no interest in getting up herself. Mentally, she has good days and bad days. Early this evening she was reciting Robert Louis Stevenson with my sister, later she couldn't understand why she was in the hospital -- clearly, she's not sick and she should go home. My sister told her she could go home, even just for a visit (which my sister never said, of course).

Tuesday, I had my cataract surgery on my left eye. All went well, and the eye is doing fine. The only problem is that now I can't read.
No seriously, I can't read the newspaper. Some books I can read, computer monitors are okay. Obviously I will need glasses... reading glasses at least. But it will take six weeks for my eye to heal and stabilize before I can get a prescription. And then I'll join the four-eyes club!

Shadow of Chinatown

2009-02-01T14:22:00.000-08:00

This 1936 film is feasture-length version of a 15-part serial. It stars Bela Lugosi five years after his success in Dracula, and many years before he fell in with Ed Wood's gang.
A beautiful Eurasian girl and a mad scientist (that would be Lugosi) have been hired by a European import firm to destroy a group of Chinese merchants so they can take over their business. A scrappy newspaper reporter and her hunk boyfriend decide to investigate.
It's a bit of a light-hearted lark, and horribily over-acted in parts, but some of the action scenes are ingenious and well-done. Bela barely appears in the movie at all, probably a smart move.

This is Not Logical

2009-01-29T20:22:00.001-08:00

From straight.com...

Mom Update

2009-01-28T20:36:00.001-08:00

So Mom has been slowing down a fair bit over the last year. She's been slowing down and her memory has been getting a little wonky this last year, but last week she really went down hill.
My sister Brenda and I started being at home with her 24/7 starting last Wednesday because she was very wobbly and couldn't walk by herself without someone steadying her. During the week we took her to her doctor, for bloodwork, and for a CT scan. Over the course of the week, she became porgressively weaker, and had more periods of disorientation. She started doing things that were out of the ordinary, like deciding it was time to get up at 3:30 in the morning. (Ask me how much sleep I got that night. On second thought, don't.)
On Saturday, Brenda couldn't get her out of bed, and she was mumbling the same sentence over and over again. Brenda called an ambulance. By Sunday, mom was basically in a coma and unresponsive. She had double pneumonia, a blood infection and the doctor also suspected a stroke. He's not sure, because the CT scan shows so much brain degeneration that it's probably masking any evidenceof a stroke. He's frankly amazed that she was still breathing.
Anyway, it looked pretty bad -- the doc was asking about mom's wishes concerning the the withdrawal of medication and such. But yesterday morning, surprisingly pratically everyone, she woke up.
Which is good.
The bad thing is that she is being held in a Nazi torture chamber and the doctors and nurses are not treating her but pumping her for information. She was being held in restraints -- yes, my mother was in restraints! -- because she is kicking at any nurse who comes near her. She recognized the family, or rather, recognized who we are supposed to be. When I refused to call the police for her last night, she said. "Oh. They got to you, too. HELP! PLEASE CALL THE POLICE!!"
She said she knew I wasn't the real John because THEY didn't do a good job on my make-up.
My other sister lives in Montreal. When we asked her where my other sister lived, she looked at us smugly and said, "Well, that just confirms it, doesn't it? HELP! Police!! Somebody call the police!!"
This morning, she was no better. But the doctor had a small hope that she is possibly withdrawing from a sedative that she was prescribed that she has not been given since she was in brought into the hospital. So they've put her on another sedative which they plan to keep her on for a few days, then slowly wean her off of.
My mother, the 84 year-old junkie.
The new sedative has no withdrawal effects. Tonight, mom was quiet, waking up, then drifting off to sleep. She let the nurses do their thing. She didn't mention anything about a torture chamber, but didn't seem very trusting of the situation either. She is still very confused about what's going on and doesn't seem to be aware of what happened to her and how she got there. And she's still very sick.
Day by day at this point. Physically, she's getting better, but mentally she's in La La land at the moment.
And I have cataract surgery on my left eye next Tuesday.
How's your week going? :)

Inner Harbour Paddle

2009-01-26T18:05:00.000-08:00

Here's a slide show from our kayak paddle in the Inner Harbour last week.

Eternal Evil

2009-01-25T14:52:00.000-08:00

Paul Sharpe, a tv commercial director, has been studying astral projection under the tutelage of a mysterious woman named Janus. At first, projecting his spirit out of his body brings him a sense peace and contentment. Unfortunately, while he sleeps his spirit has been taking unauthorized trips and killing people in a muderous rage, including his own family.
This is a 1985 Canadian film, also known as The Blue Man. Why, I don't know. It stars Winston Rekert as Sharpe, a familiar face on Canadian tv probably best known as the star of Neon Rider,and Karen Black as Janus. Eagle-eyed viewers should also be able to spot Lois Maxwell, the orignal Moneypenny from the Connery/Moore James Bond films.
The film plods along at its own pace and manages to overcome its inexpensive look and feel to deliver a couple of good scares.

This is Why You Use Paper Ballots Instead of Voting Machines

2009-01-22T12:16:00.000-08:00

The Bush Dictatorship: 8 Years in 8 Minutes

2009-01-21T19:22:00.000-08:00

Keith Olbermann sums up eight years of George W. Bush in eight minutes.

(Thanks to Karl for passing this one on...)

The Wrong Man

2009-01-20T09:00:00.000-08:00

I remember being woken up by a frantic phone call.
Planes. New York. Buildings. War.
It didn't make a lot of sense, frankly. I had no frame of reference for what I was being told. I switched on my TV just in time to see the first tower fall.
Mouth agape, comprehension still elusive.
Eventually I arrived at work, and found co-workers huddled around computers streaming radio broadcasts.
"They have no idea what they just woke up," I said.
Turns out, none of us did.

The Presidency of George W. Bush is irrevocably tied to 9/11. At first he spoke with restraint and clarity in response to the attacks, but that only lasted about 24 hours. Then it became apparent that I what feared was actually being contemplated: Pax Americana -- American forces tearing a swath across the globe, making the world "safe."
The irony is that this is exactly the plan that Bush's neo-con advisers had wanted him to follow anyway, even without a 9/11-type tipping point, and this is exactly what bin Laden expected him to do.
Bush believed that he was a man destined to live out a defining moment of greatness, and he threw himself down this ruinous path chasing that moment.
But Bush was never great. Not at anything, except having a famous last name and falling in with people who were willing to exploit it. His moment of destiny was the moment that he became President, thus proving the old adage that anyone could become President, even a party-hopping ex-frat boy drug user who had failed at almost everything he tried.
The wrong place, the wrong time. The wrong man.

Pax Americana didn't succeed, mostly because the Neo-Cons, drunk on hubris and their own press clipping, believed they knew better than anyone else. I guess when your invasion of a foreign country is based on lies, soon you actually start believing them. They forgot that the mission was to get bin Laden.
In WW II, it took 2068 days for the Allies to get Hitler. Now after 2688 days, Bush is gone but bin Laden is still out there. A free man.

Those who like Bush perceive him as a strong leader. But he wasn't. He was so weak that he bought into every stupid and destructive idea his clique of Neanderthal advisers whispered into his empty head.
Perhaps his rigidity was mistaken for strength. But sticking to your plan no matter how far reality diverges from your hoped-for reality isn't strength, it's inflexibility. In Bush's case, it was a disastrous liability.
Bush didn't even come through for his constituent base, the people who actually like him and think he's done a good job. He failed the neo-cons, he failed the religious right. He failed everyone.

We all know that this is the century that the American Empire finally falters. Bush pushed that time frame up by at least a generation or two. He praised free market capitalism, but was forced to to use the tools of socialism to save the business elite. He denied there was a need for fuel conservation, and now there's no oil. He denied the need for financial regulation and now there's no economy. He denied that climate change existed, and now there's no time.

So, George, what are you going to do now? Start a new oil company and run that one into the ground too?
Or perhaps you'll be dealing with the creation of your "Presidential" Library. That should be an easy job -- you only read one book of any consequence while you were "President": My Pet Goat.
So long, Bush. And good fucking riddance, too.

Fool:
1: a person lacking in judgment or prudence
2 a: a retainer formerly kept in great households to provide casual entertainment and commonly dressed in motley with cap, bells, and bauble b: one who is victimized or made to appear foolish : dupe
3 a: a harmlessly deranged person or one lacking in common powers of understanding b: one with a marked propensity or fondness for something (a dancing fool) (a fool for candy)
4: a cold dessert of pureed fruit mixed with whipped cream or custard

Bush: By the Numbers

2009-01-17T14:07:00.000-08:00

Bernie linked to it over at his blog FOB, but in case you missed it, here's Harper's magazine index of Bush: By the Numbers. Bernie quoted a few choice numbers, and I've picked a few other ones. Read 'em all here.

Months before September 11, 2001, that Cheney’s Energy Task Force investigated Iraq’s oil resources: 6
Hours after the 9/11 attacks that an Alaska congressman speculated they may have been committed by “eco-terrorists”: 9
Number of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and North African men detained in the U.S. in the eight weeks after 9/11: 1,182
Number of them ever charged with a terrorism-related crime: 0
Days since the federal government first placed the nation under an “elevated terror alert” that the level has been relaxed: 0
Number of box cutters taken from U.S. airline passengers since January 2002: 105,075
Percentage of Americans in 2006 who believed that U.S. Muslims should have to carry special I.D.: 39
Chances an American in 2002 believed the government should regulate comedy routines that make light of terrorism: 2 in 5
Date on which Bush said of Osama bin Laden, “I truly am not that concerned about him”: 3/13/02
Portion of his presidency he has spent at or en route to vacation spots: 1/3
Date on which the White House announced it had stopped looking for WMDs in Iraq: 1/12/05
Years since his acquittal that O. J. Simpson has said he is still looking for his wife’s “real killers”: 13
Percentage change since 2000 in U.S. emigration to Canada: +79
Portion of all U.S. income gains during the Bush Administration that have gone to the top 1 percent of earners: 3/4
Increase since 2000 in the number of Americans living at less than half the federal poverty level: 3,500,000
Percentage change since 2001 in the average amount U.S. workers spend on out-of-pocket medical expenses: +172
Percentage change since 2002 in the number of U.S. teens using illegal drugs: –9
Percentage change in the number of adults in their fifties doing so: +121
Change since 2001 in the percentage of Americans who believe humans are causing climate change: –4
Number of total additions made to the U.S. endangered-species list under Bush: 61
Average number made yearly under Clinton: 65
Days after Hurricane Katrina hit that Cheney’s office ordered an electric company to restore power to two oil pipelines: 1
Days after the hurricane that the White House authorized sending federal troops into New Orleans: 4
Number of press conferences at which Bush has referred to a question as a “trick”: 14
Number of times he has declared an event or outcome not to be “acceptable”: 149
Average percentage of Americans who approved of the job Bush was doing during his second term: 37
Percentage of Russians today who approve of the direction their country took under Stalin: 37

Death Warmed Up

2009-01-15T18:05:00.000-08:00

This 1986 New Zealand thriller is a hokey horror-revenge movie. I've had two tries at watching this movie before I could watch the whole thing. That's dedication, let me tell you. A teen is hypnotized and ordered to kill his parents. After blowing them away with a shotgun (and taking out a lamp as well, just to be safe), he's locked in the looney bin with no memory of having done the awful deed.
He's released seven years later, and decides to take his revenge on the man who hypnotized him, but the man is now the head of a large pyschiatric institute and he seems to be creating his own army of mutant zombies. I guess. I don't know, it's hard to follow.
There's a car chase that looks straight out of The Road Warrior. There's lots of blood and heads blowing up. If you like that sort of thing, this is the sort of thing you'll like.

2009-01-14T15:35:00.000-08:00

As A Former Gas Station Employee...

2009-01-14T07:10:00.000-08:00

...I found this really funny.

Survivors Of Gas Station Explosion Mourn Tragic Loss Of Gasoline

Alien Zone

2009-01-13T19:16:00.000-08:00

This is an odd 1978 film. It's an anthology film: four short films, and a framing story.
The framing sequence involves a man visiting a town for a convention (and to cheat on his wife). He gets lost in a storm as he tries to make his way back to his hotel and ends up being taken in by the town mortician (played by the late Canadian actor Ivor Francis). The mortician shows the man some of the bodies lying in state in his establishment and tells the story of how each of them died.
He tells four stories. The first is about a teacher who hates children who goes home and is killed by -- gasp! -- children. The second story, the worst of the lot, is about a man who lures women to their deaths in his apartment. There seems to be little point to this story, unless they were trying to be funny and failed utterly. The third story concerns an American and a British police detective trying to outdo the other with the powers of there deductive reasoning. This sequence stars veteran actors Charles Aidman and Bernard Fox and is actually entertaining. There's some genuine wit in the script and Aidman and Fox are having a great time chewing the scenery. The fourth story concerns a man who has no time for the less fortunate people of the world, until he ends up being one himself.
Finally, our cheating convention goer has had enough and heads back out into the storm, only to be confronted by the husband of the woman he was cheating with. Looks like the mortician has another customer.
I can only imagine that the title, Alien Zone, is some sort of homage to Rod Serling, because there ain't no aliens in this movie. Clearly, this is in the flavour of a Twilight Zone, or Night Gallery, and as a basic idea, it doesn't work too bad. The mortician has an endless supply of corpses to tell stories about, each one is a little mortality play with a twist ending, and then there's the final twist in the framing story. However in execution, this movie doesn't cut it. The script is mostly awful (save for the two detectives' story), the acting worse (again, save for the detectives), the direction just as bad, and the film looks like it was made for about $14.95.
If you do watch it, turn it off after Aidman and Fox have done their bit. That's the only part worth watching.

Doomsday Machine

2009-01-13T17:58:00.000-08:00

Our film opens with an American spy breaking into the Chinese Embassy. With the help of another agent on the inside, she discovers that the Chinese have built a doomsday bomb. She reports to her superiors that the bomb will go off in just over two days.
We jump to the seven-man crew of the first US Venus probe preparing to launch for it's two year trip. For some reason, the launch has to be hurried, and three of the men are ordered to be replaced by three female officers.
Then comes the launch. The crew are strapped in into La-Z-Boy recliners wearing motorcycle helmets. No, really. Recliners and motorcycle helmets. Someone sacrificed their living room furniture for this movie. They use stock footage of an Apollo take-off, but the rocket in the movie is more along the lines of a classic Destination: Moon big-finned space-ship. Then suddenly it looks like a round space station. Then it becomes a different round space station. Then it's a different finned rocket!
Anyway, it turns out that the Pentagon decided to put the women on board just in case the Chinese ending up destroying the world. And before you can say, "Whoops, apocalypse!" the earth is laid waste in a montage of clips from Japanese monster movies.
The astronauts realize that the future of the human race now depends on them, so naturally they pair off and start arguing. They have to dodge meteors from the remains of the Earth. Interestingly, the meteors made from the bits of earth come from in front the ship, not behind it where the Earth is.
It turns out that they need to drop a bunch of weight from the ship in order for it to land on Venus safely. Some people will have to sacrificed. In a remarkable coincidence, the bitch female astronaut and the bastard male astronaut luckily get sucked out of an airlock.
As they come in to land, two of the astronauts go outside to repair the ship and are believed lost. But they find an old Soviet Venus probe and manage to make there way to it.
Now things get strange, because the ending of the film was never shot in 1967, and when filming resumed in 1972, none of the actors were available. Probably they didn't want to available. Anyway, the last scene of the movie is the two astronauts who board the derelict Soviet craft. They are filmed in spacesuits with opaque visors so that you can't see that they aren't the original actors, and their dubbed voices really don't resemble the original actors' either.
Anyway, they board the Soviet ship and are trying to get it going. They spend an inordinate amount of time bumbling around silently in the dark until a disembodied voice announces to them that the American ship has been destroyed. It turns that Venus is home a race of super-powerful intergalactic busybodies who speak in stilted English: "Last of Man, listen. Of this, we will tell you." They decide that instead of allowing the last two humans alive to land, they will propel the spacecraft on a journey beyond the rim of the universe. Whatever the hell that means.
This film originally began life when filming began in 1967 as Armageddon: 1975. For reasons lost to obscurity, the film was never finished and it was shelved. In 1972, someone got hold of the film and added additional scenes, namely the teaser scene at the beginning with the secret agent, and the ridiculous ending.
Look for Casey Kasam (America's Top Ten and the voice of Shaggy from Scooby-Doo) as a Mission Control Officer, and Mike Farrell (B.J. from tv's M*A*S*H) with one line of dialogue as a reporter.

Sorry....

2009-01-10T12:02:00.000-08:00

...been too busy to post lately. I've playing this new computer game I got for Christmas....

End of the World

2009-01-05T19:05:00.000-08:00

This 1977 film stars Christopher Lee as Father Pergado. The good Father witnesses a bizarre fatal accident, then discovers that an alien has taken his form and is going to destroy the world. Meanwhile, a scientist is detecting strange messages from space that seemed to predict a devastating earthquake that occurred in China. More messages from space arrive predicting more disasters, but the scientist also detects messages from earth in response. Turns out the message is coming from a convent run by Father Pergado. Or at least the alien that as taken him over.
Yes, the nuns are all aliens. Clearly the writer has issues with Catholicism.
This is just bad. This is a pay cheque movie -- let's cash our cheque and go home.
The professor's computer makes the sound of the Enterprise bridge from Star Trek. No, I swear! Someone got hold of a Star Trek sound effects record (this was 1977 after all) and made a loop out of it to run anytime someone fires up a computer. Also, a lot of other sound effects sound suspiciously like they came out of Star Wars. I kept hearing lightsabres for some reason.
No argument, this is awful. It's not even bad enough to be cheesy.

Throw Your Own Shoe at Bush!

2009-01-05T18:29:00.000-08:00

Thanks to the wonders of modern technology you can throw your own shoe at Bush.
Try one here and another here.

Embryo

2009-01-02T18:18:00.000-08:00

In this 1976 film, Rock Hudson plays a veterinarian who strikes a dog while driving during a rainstorm. He takes the dog to his lab to try and save it, but the situation quickly becomes more complicated as he realizes that the dog is pregnant and is too badly injured to survive. He tries to save the puppy fetuses, but they all die save one. It will die too, unless he uses an experimental growth hormone he's been working on. He save the pup, but it grows at an accelerated rate.
He discovers that if he treats puppy with the drug, its growth rare is accelerated, but off the drug the dog ages at a normal rate. The dog also seems to be of above average intelligence, but unbeknowst to the doctor the dog also has an evil viscous streak. He decides to try the same experiment on a human embryo.
He gets hold of a living 14 week-old human fetus and using his growth hormone is able to bring it to term in a matter of days. Unlike the puppy, the baby continues to age even without the treatment and in a matter of weeks she grown into Barbara Carrera. Like the puppy however, she also also has a vicious streak.
This is a long, dragged out movie that takes a long time getting anywhere. Roddy McDowall has a brief cameo that livens things up, but otherwise it really drags. It also never really addresses the ethical questions it raises. It was made two years before the first "test tube" was born, the perfect time for a thoughtful examination of these issues, but it dodges those questions to concentrate instead on being a slowly-building thriller. It fails on that count, too.

2009-01-01T00:01:00.000-08:00

Happy Gnu Year!

Books I Read in 2008

2008-12-31T23:59:00.000-08:00

Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks ****
Casino Royale by Ian Fleming ****
A Time Odyssey Book One: Time's Eye by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter ***1/2
A Time Odyssey Book Two: Sunstorm by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter ****
A Time Odyssey Book Three: Firstborn by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter****
The Android's Dream by John Scalzi ****1/2
Fatal Tide by David Leach ****
American Armageddon by Craig Unger ****
Death Masks by Jim Butcher ** 1/2
The World Without Us by Alan Weisman *****
Beyond the Horizon by Colin Angus *** 1/2
Legend by David Lynn Goleman **1/2
Summer Knight by Jim Butcher ***1/2
Get Shorty by Elmore Leonard ***1/2
Pattern Recognition by William Gibson ****
Grave Peril by Jim Butcher ***
Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill *****
Freefall by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens ***
Fool Moon by Jim Butcher ***1/2
Blaze by Richard Bachman (Stephen King) ***1/2
Spin by Robert Charles Wilson ****
Axis by Robert Charles Wilson ****
Amazon Extreme by Colin Angus ***
Lisey's Story by Stephen King ****
Storm Front by Jim Butcher ***1/2
This New Ocean by William E. Burrows ****
The Regulators by Richard Bachman (Stephen King) ****
Desperation by Stephen King ****
World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie Wars by Max Brooks *****
Saint Vidicon to the Rescue by Christopher Stasheff *
Red Lightning by John Varley ****
Lost in Mongolia by Colin Angus ***
The Tommyknockers by Stephen King ***
Event by David Lynn Golemon **1/2
Jim Morrison: Life, Death, Legend by Stephen Davis *****
From a Buick 8 by Stephen King ****
Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman ****
Gonzo: The Life of Hunter S. Thompson by Jann Wenner and Corey Seymour *****
Live from Cape Canaveral by Jay Barbree **1/2
I Am America (And So Can You) by Stephen Colbert ***1/2
Insomnia by Stephen King ****
Armed Madhouse by Greg Palast *****
Blind Lake by Robert Charles Wilson ****

Movies I Watched in 2008

2008-12-31T23:58:00.000-08:00

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button ****
The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008) **1/2
The Dark Knight *****
Hellboy 2: The Golden Army ***1/2
Wall-E *****
Get Smart ****
Young@Heart ****1/2
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull ****
Iron Man ****
Speed Racer ***
Hurricane on the Bayou ***1/2
Roving Mars ***1/2

DVDs I Watched in 2008

2008-12-31T23:57:00.000-08:00

Corner Gas: Season 5 ****
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) *****
National Treasure: Book of Secrets **
Run Fatboy Run ***
Frost/Nixon: The Original Watergate Interview *****
My Name is Earl Season Three ***
Futurama: Bender's Game *****
Rush - Snakes and Arrows Live ****
Gonzo: The Life and Work of Hunter S. Thompson ****1/2
The Starlost - The Complete Series *
The Who at Kilburn: 1977 *****
The Simpsons - The Complete 11th Season *****
Slacker Uprising ***1/2
King Corn ***1/2
The Police: Certifiable *****
Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles Season One ***1/2
Mission: Impossible - Season Five ***1/2
Looney Tunes: The Golden Collection Vol. 6 *****
This is the Sea 4 ****
Capricorn One ***1/2
Live Free or Die Hard ***
Torchwood - Season 2 ****1/2
3:10 to Yuma ****1/2
The Deep ***
Heroes - Season 2 *** 1/2
Quark - The Complete Series ***1/2
The Office - Season 4 *****
This is the Sea 3 ****
This is the Sea 2 ****
This is the Sea ****
Aliens vs Predator: Requiem *1/2
Eureka - Season Two *** 1/2
Eureka - Season One ***1/2
Days that Shook the World ***
The Dresden Files ***1/2
Get Smart - The Complete 1994 Series **
Robot Chicken: Star Wars *****
Get Smart's Bruce and Lloyd: Out of Control ***
The 4400 - Complete 4th Season ****
When We Left Earth ***1/2
Death of a President ***1/2
The Nude Bomb ***1/2
Get Smart Again ***1/2
Mission: Impossible - Season 4 ****
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee ****
The Darjeeling Limited **1/2
Sharkwater ****1/2
The Invaders - Season One ***1/2
A Crude Awakening ***
Dead Man ****
Buffalo 66 ***
Juno ****
Justice League: The New Frontier ****
Bonnie and Clyde ****
The 11th Hour ****
seaQuest DSV - Season 2 **
Cloverfield ****
Beowulf ***
There Will Be Blood ***1/2
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story ****
Sunshine ****
Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street ***1/2
Family Guy: Blue Harvest *****
Get Smart - Season 5 *****
Get Smart - Season 4 *****
The Mist ****
Battlestar Galactica - Season 3 *****
Manufactured Landscapes ***1/2
Get Smart - Season 3 *****
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer **1/2
Get Smart - Season 2 ****1/2
Jay and Silent Bob Do Degrassi *** 1/2
No Country for Old Men ****1/2
Trailer Park Boys - The Movie *** 1/2
Get Smart - Season 1 *****
In the Shadow of the Moon ****
Into the Wild ****
Lost Season Three ****
Torchwood Season One ****1/2
Shrek the Third **
Stranger Than Fiction ***
Extras - The Complete Series ****
Hot Fuzz ****
Doctor Who - Season 3 ****
Hearts of Darkness - A Filmmaker's Apocalypse ****
Close Encounters of the Third Kind *****
Blade Runner - The Final Cut *****
Galactica 1980 - The Complete Series *
The Doors ****

Remember the Great Internet Crash of 2007...?

2008-12-31T11:56:00.000-08:00

No?
Maybe this will jog your memory....

The Day The Shoe Stood Still

2008-12-26T02:53:00.000-08:00