Update on TiVo and BBC

Oh, oh looks like TiVo made an enormous PR blunder. I wondered how the BBC had managed to force everyone on their network using TiVo to record a specific program. It seems that it was TiVos idea, a new "feature" they aer implementing to reassure networks that they won't lose consumer eyeballs. Naughty naughty TiVo - i won't be buying your product now no matter how convenient it might be.

Spit or swallow? It's all about the sauce

Natalie Krinsky reminiscing on how she "learned" to give a blowjob. Very funny, very pithy!

The Dancing Queen

Oh the sacrilege! What scoundrels! Take them to the Tower! Off with their heads I say!

A well done Flash site - play with the options - make Queen Liz dance away her jubilee!

115 French candidates are crime suspects

And the burning question of course is "And you're surprised?" As Lord Acton once said - "Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely". Excuse my cynicism but all politicians are corrupt. The desire to be a politician is the desire for power over others. Even those who enter politics with the noblest of intentions are corrupted by the mechanisms required to be elected. Does anyone with even an ounce of intelligence between their ears really believe that someone can achieve elected office at the national level without having first sold their soul to one devil or another? I think not. There's a lot of truth behind that old joke - "How can you tell if a politician is lying?" - Are his lips moving?

By Philip Delves Broughton in Paris
(Filed: 31/05/2002)

More than 100 candidates in France's parliamentary election next weekend, including at least one government minister, are under criminal investigation, it has emerged.

During the presidential campaign the extreme Right leader, Jean-Marie Le Pen, criticised France's establishment for its tolerance of scandal in public life. When one in five voters supported M Le Pen, it seemed the political class would be scared into cleaning up its act.

But an investigation by Le Parisien newspaper showed that out of 8,663 candidates in the parliamentary elections, 115 are the subjects of criminal inquiries....MORE

Never mind Olympics, we have World Beer Games

In the end "culture" co-opts everything. Nothing is sacred, not even a man's beer. Silliness abounds and , no doubt, armageddon looms

Record label searches out undiscovered stars in margins of rock history

All you aging rockers out there - remember when you played in a garage band in the 60's hoping to make it big and you had a "reputation" in your local community, maybe even did a little touring? Well there's hope for you yet! Haul out those old instruments - fire up the old Fender amps - crank them to 11 :-) and read this article.

My Apologies

If you've had trouble geting to this page it is because I've had to update my DNS server entries today. It takes up to 72 hours to propogate new settings across the Internet so some may have had difficulty.

Regards
The Dynamic Driveler

A blasphemy trial out of the 17th century

Thanks to The Pagan Prattle for passing this story along.

How to guarantee that your religion will be criticized, mocked and reviled 101.

Seems like the muslims weren't quite satisfied with taking on Salman Rushdie now they want to try the French writer Michel Houellebecq on charges of inciting racial hatred because of comments made by one of his characters in his most recent novel Platform and comments he made in an interview about that book. It seems like radical muslims have a real problem with the concept of fiction and in doing so they certainly lend credence to Houellebecq' interview comment about Islam when he calls it "the most stupid of all religions". And here I thought the witch wars were over....17th Century here we come.

BBC forces viewers to record its new sitcom

TiVo owners beware. Is this what we can expect from Hollywood and the big networks in the future? I surely hope not.

By Matt Born
(Filed: 30/05/2002)

The BBC was accused yesterday of Orwellian tactics after digital video machines in thousands of homes were switched on remotely to record Caroline Aherne's new sitcom Dossa and Joe. The move was described as the equivalent of junk mail.

Many of the 50,000 households that own TiVo machines awoke on Friday to discover that the 30-minute programme had been downloaded on to their recorders without having asked for it....MORE

Cool Pics From Space

You can see some great shots of the earth taken from the Space Station...HERE

Thanks to my good friend Mike on the Bike for passing this along. If you're in the Ottawa area and need a good dentist, go see Mike :-)

Thanks

A great big thanks goes out to The Laughing Muse for showing me how to add the new "Permalink this Drivel" and "Similar Drivel" features on this site!

Privacy and Security on your PC

There is an excellent multi-part article on computer security going on over at Extreme Tech. You are encouraged to read this article I guarantee that few of you will know all the data in it.

2 Cheers for Gateway

At least there is one hardware manufacturer that is trying to stand up to the RIAA, Hollywood and Führer Hollings et al. and drill some sense into them. Here's a ZDNet interview with Ted Waitt Gateway's CEO. Good on you Ted (now how about making a decent computer)!

The New Improved Belief-O -Matic

It slices, it dices....oh sorry wrong commercial :-)

Yes folks try out the new Belief-O-Matic and through the wonders of 21C computer science you too can discover thereligion of your dreams. A mere twent questions,that all, 20 questions and your belief structure will be revealed! Take the QUIZ now. You won't be dissapointed!

Why you can see below how mine turned out, and I haven't burned in hell yet!

1. Unitarian Universalism (100%)
2. Neo-Pagan (94%)
3. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (92%)
4. Liberal Quakers (91%)
5. Mahayana Buddhism (87%)
6. New Age (82%)
7. Secular Humanism (75%)
8. Theravada Buddhism (74%)
9. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (74%)
10. Bahá'í Faith (71%)
11. New Thought (71%)
12. Taoism (67%)
13. Scientology (61%)
14. Reform Judaism (61%)
15. Jainism (58%)
16. Orthodox Quaker (56%)
17. Hinduism (53%)
18. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (51%)
19. Nontheist (47%)
20. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (45%)
21. Sikhism (44%)
22. Jehovah's Witness (35%)
23. Orthodox Judaism (34%)
24. Islam (28%)
25. Seventh Day Adventist (22%)
26. Eastern Orthodox (16%)
27. Roman Catholic (16%)

Thanks goes to Jewish Buddha for bringing this important public service to our attention! :-)

It's about bloody time!

We've all been there, at least those of us over 30 these days (and I saw that milestone a long long time ago). You know the scene, you get on a bus or you're in fast food restaurant or a mall when you're confronted by youths with attitude. Baseball caps on backwards, hooded sweatshirts several sizes too big, baggy jeans even more sizes too big and a perpetual in your face sneer. No respect for other people's space, privacy, comfort and frequently possessions. What most of us choose to do is ignore them., try and pretend they don't exist and hope they'll go away. Clearly these children are products people who are clueless on parenting (after all these kids only represent a small, but highly visible, percentage of young teens). Parents that grew up during the 60s and 70s and never finished maturing themselves.

The following story is a ray of hope for those of us who have confronted these budding lifers in the past. here's a quote from the story to whet your appetite:

What happened on the train was more significant than any official follow-up: it was the unofficial enforcement of civility and decent public behaviour which used to be commonplace between grown-ups and the young.

So unusual is it now that these boys were startled beyond comprehension or ability to cope. They were first astounded, and then afraid. This entire encounter was completely outside of their experience. They had been defied by what they expected to be a cowed, passive, disparate collection of on-lookers.

You can read the full story HERE

what kind of D&D character are you?

Thanks to Fractured Perceptions for pointing out this fun site. Check it out and take the quiz

I Am A: Chaotic Evil Elf Thief Mage


Alignment:
Chaotic Evil characters are the most 'evil' people out there. They are willing to do anything to get ahead, and will kill anyone who stands in their way. A chaotic evil person sees no value in order and governments, and believes to the utmost in the tenant that 'Might Makes Right'.


Race:
Elves are the eldest of all races, although they are generally a bit smaller than humans. They are generally well-cultured, artistic, easy-going, and because of their long lives, unconcerned with day-to-day activities that other races frequently concern themselves with. Elves are, effectively, immortal, although they can be killed. After a thousand years or so, they simply pass on to the next plane of existance.


Primary Class:
Thieves are the most roguish of the classes. They are sneaky and nimble-fingered, and have skills with traps and locks. While not all use these skills for burglary, that is a common occupation of this class.


Secondary Class:
Mages harness the magical energies for their own use. Spells, spell books, and long hours in the library are their loves. While often not physically strong, their mental talents can make up for this.


Deity:
Mask is the Neutral Evil god of rogues, thieves. He is also known as the Lord of Shadows. He appears as a lithe man, shadowed, wearing dark clothing. His followers believe in stealth and wariness. They wear black and gray clothing, and carry weapons and armor similar to that of a thief. They frequently wear masks to conceal their identity. Mask's symbol is a dark, checkered mask.


Find out What D&D Character Are You?, courtesy ofNeppyMan (e-mail)

Quantum wormholes could carry people

Ah the stuff that dreams are made of. When I first started reading science fiction back in the early 70's there was only speculation on how the limitations general relativity put on mass, approching the speed of light, could be avoided. It was all wild speculation and it wasn't until Hawking brought black holes to our attention that there was a glimmer of hope.

Tne New Scientist reports on a new discovery that points to a possible solution to the travel at the speed of light problem.

The wonderful thing about science is that it always ends up being more fantastic than even the most "out there" SF writer can imagine. In computer chips we have Moore's law that states that every 18 months the number of transistors that could be placed on a single chip will double, that chip sizes will halve, prices will halve and speeds will double. There should be another law (and maybe there is - I just don't know of one) that describes the exponential growth of knowledge in science in general like Moore's does for computer chips.

Prior to say the Victorian era, maybe even as late as pre WWI, it was possible to be a Generalist. That is you could have a very thorough education in all the arts, humanities and sciences. Today, particularly in the sciences, not only is that impossible, it isn't even possible to be a generalist in one of the root sciences such as biology or physics. Such has been the growth of knowledge over the past 100 years that it requires one to specialize in ever more discreet sub-specialties at very early points in one's education.

Such specialization has both postive and negative effects. On the positive side it focusses research at very deep levels. On the negative side it means that there are fewer people who are able to recognize connections between research done in multiple disparate disciplines.

Supernova poised to go off near Earth

Got enough to worry about? Are you sure? Come on you can handle little bit more can't you?

As if we didn't have enough on our minds these days now we find that:

a student at Harvard University has stumbled across the terrifying spectacle of a star in our galactic backyard that is on the brink of exploding in a supernova. It is so close that if it were to blow up before moving away from us, it could wipe out life on Earth. ...MORE

Neuroscience vs. Cloning

Discoverd a link over on Biology & Evolution to an interesting article in the Economist on the dangers of unftettered research in neuroscience. The article looks at the current furor over cloning and asks why we aren't equally concerned with research into mind control.

Holey Piercings Batman!

Well for all you body piercing freaks out there here's a great online body piercing game you can play for free http://www.mildred.com/

Memorial Day

I just want to take this opportunity to wish my American friends and readers a reflective and enjoyable Memorial Day. A day to reflect on and honour those fellow citizens who sacrificed their lives so that we could live the lives we have.

From your neighbour to the north
Doug Alder
A proud Canadian

Resources for victims of clergy abuse

If you have suffered sexual abuse at the hands of your clergy here are some websites that may be of assistance to you.

Silent Lambs   For Jehovah Witnesses

Survivors Network  For victims of priests

FactNet  Cult and Mind Control

The linkUp  Survivors of Clergy Abuse

See this Wired article for more details.

Thanks to Ye Olde Phart for bring this article to our attention.

Radio on the Internet

Here's a useful tool for those of you who like to listen to radio feeds while working on your computer.Radio Locator (formerly the MIT list of Radio Staions on the Internet) allows you to search for stations by format, location, call letters, frequency and whether they have a streaming feed or not.

Hollywood's Next Assault

Kiss goodbye to the digital world you have grown to know. Kiss goodbe to innovation and economic growth and properity. Hollywood is very close to getting its way once and for all and when it does your ability to communicate electronically will be stifled once and for all - at least in the US. Get out there folks! Quit sitting on your asses and write your senators, write your congress critters, write your unelected president. Do whatever it takes to get this insanity stopped or your future IS going to suffer dramatically.

Hollywood Wants to Plug the "Analog Hole"

The Big Picture

The people who tried to take away your VCR are at it again. Hollywood has always dreamed of a "well-mannered marketplace" where the only technologies that you can buy are those that do not disrupt its business. Acting through legislators who dance to Hollywood's tune, the movie studios are racing to lock away the flexible, general-purpose technology that has given us a century of unparalelled prosperity and innovation.

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) filed the "Content Protection Status Report" with the Senate Judiciary Committee last month, laying out its plan to remake the technology world to suit its own ends. The report calls for regulation of analog-to-digital converters (ADCs), generic computing components found in scientific, medical and entertainment devices. Under its proposal, every ADC will be controlled by a "cop-chip" that will shut it down if it is asked to assist in converting copyrighted material -- your cellphone would refuse to transmit your voice if you wandered too close to the copyrighted music coming from your stereo.

The report shows that this ADC regulation is part of a larger agenda. The first piece of that agenda, a mandate that would give Hollywood a veto over digital television technology, is weeks away from coming to fruition. Hollywood also proposes a radical redesign of the Internet to assist in controlling the distribution of copyrighted works.

This three-part agenda -- controlling digital media devices, controlling analog converters, controlling the Internet -- is a frightening peek at Hollywood's vision of the future. ...MORE

Boys of Summer Indeed!

WIth the furor going on about Mike Piazza whom some reporters suspect is gay...it got me thinking. Baseball is replete with gay references....

OUT: what is worse than being OUT in baseball..shurely..

SWITCH HITTER: Say no more indeed...

BOTTOM of the inning : Gad !

BALLS: Base on, hit by, new ball etc....

BULL PEN: Oh you big bull you !

BAT: Yeah right...

BOYS OF SUMMER: Oh Fire Island I hear you calling

BAT BOY : Oh bless me father etc...

TO THE SHOWERS; oh Babe is that a bar of soap on the floor ?

NICK NAMES: Babe....( Bambino to his pals), Yogi, Say Hey Kid, Joltin Joe , Ty, Stan the Man ! I need not go on...


Thanks to my old buddy - Mike on the Bike for writing this and passing it along!

Watching the Detectives

Australian civil libertarians didn't take a courtroom loss sitting down -- they fought back

Dateline: 5/23/02

Police in Sydney, Australia, have their knickers in a bind, and it's no wonder! Local civil libertarians are doing their best to throw a monkeywrench in the works of a scheme to unleash drug-sniffing dogs on the public at large without the courtesy of a warrant.

New South Wales law enforcers have been trying to carry out public pat-downs for about two years. In 2000, they started sending dogs into public places to sniff passers-by for hints of forbiddent intoxicants. No individualized suspicion was required before a dog was sent to whiffing at a trouser leg -- everybody was considered fair game.

In October of last year, people who believe that police should be subject to at least mild restraints on their pawing and groping of the general public had reason to celebrate after a court ruled the searches unlawful. But the celebrations were short-lived as the state simply passed new legislation giving canine Kojaks a free pass to go snuffling through public places once again without worrying about the old requirement for "reasonable suspicion."

Rather than simply complain about the unpleasant turn of events, the New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties joined with the Redfern Legal Center to create Snifferdogalert.com, a Web site intended to gather and disseminate information on the location of sniffer dogs throughout Sydney. The dogs' locations are reported to the site by teams of volunteers throughout the Sydney metropolitan area. Within three seconds, the information is relayed out as text messages to the mobile phones of people who have registered to receive information about the areas in which the dogs are operating.

Pretty cool, eh? ...MORE

Oh Heavenly Wind

Yes dear readers, we here at Doug's Dynamic Drivel spend copious amounts of our alloted time on this plane of existence searching the far corners of the Internet to bring you the weird, the bizarre and the absurd. The following product certainly qualifies for that category.

Are you among the millions who suffer from flatulence as a result of a medical condition or diet? Like many others, are you concerned about taking more medication? If so, the Flatulence Filter is your solution. It is a super-activated carbon/foam filter concealed in a simple chair cushion. It absorbs the odors immediately -- Guaranteed!

The cushion is 15" x 17" x 1" thick and is enclosed in a gray tweed fabric cover. As you can see in the photos, it looks like any normal seat cushion.

The air treatment system employs a carbon air filter which absorbs the flatulence odor.

This same filtration technology purified the air breathed by the astronauts in the Space Shuttle program, and was used in the soldiers gas masks during the Gulf War.

Also available is the flatulence filter pad which can be inserted into one's undergarment.

Let em rip!

Soccer is a Political Statement

Linked below is a fascinating article By Simon Kuper of the New YouK Times on how the world outside of North America views soccer. It is a game of passion, regional and national pride. It determines the fates of governments.

It's a long article but woth reading and requires registration with the NYT to access.

The World's Game Is Not Just a Game

By SIMON KUPER

n early 1994, Osama bin Laden spent three months in London, where he visited supporters and bankers and went to watch the famous soccer club Arsenal four times. Before returning to Sudan just a step ahead of being extradited to Saudi Arabia, he bought his sons gifts from the club's souvenir shop. His affection for the game did not stop him from getting involved in a plot to massacre the American and British teams at the 1998 World Cup in France; still, bin Laden told friends he had never seen passion like that of soccer fans.

This seems to have been a common view inside Al Qaeda. On the videotape the Department of Defense released in December of bin Laden reminiscing with a foreign sheik about the Sept. 11 attacks, soccer crops up twice. The first time, bin Laden recalls a follower telling him a year earlier: ''I saw in a dream, we were playing a soccer game against the Americans. When our team showed up in the field, they were all pilots!'' In the dream, Al Qaeda won the game.

On the same videotape, another Qaeda member recounts watching a television broadcast of the World Trade Center attacks. ''The scene was showing an Egyptian family sitting in their living room. They exploded with joy. Do you know when there is a soccer game and your team wins? It was the same expression of joy.''

Bin Laden and his henchmen had hit on a truth about soccer. The sport, which in the U.S. is chiefly a placid entertainment for children, arouses in the rest of the world collective passions that are matched by nothing short of war. And unlike any other sport -- indeed, unlike almost any cultural phenomenon -- soccer is distinguished by its political malleability. It is used by dictators and revolutionaries, a symbol of oligarchy and anarchy. It gets presidents elected or thrown out, and it defines the way people think, for good or ill, about their countries.

The World Cup, which begins on Friday in Japan and in South Korea, will be watched by billions. The spread of satellite dishes has taken the world's best teams to the farthest-flung places. People in Shenyang or Khartoum, who have no idea that Manchester is a town in England, now support Manchester United. A statue of the team's star, David Beckham, adorns a Buddhist temple in Bangkok. Osama bin Laden, if he is alive, will presumably be among those billions sitting in front of the television, and all of them, with the exception of most Americans, will appreciate the roiling political context in which the game is so often played.

Intelligent Republicans - who'd a thunk it

It's good to see some conservative republicans who are questioning Dick Cheney's attempts to cloak the white house under every greater depths of secrecy. It's even better to see them take issue with his pathetic attempts to smear anyone who raises questions about secrecy with an anti-american label.

(FindLaw) -- Vice President Dick Cheney is at it again: More secrecy. Now he wants to bury the intelligence information given to President Bush on August 6, 2001 -- over a month before the terrorist attacks. Indeed, Cheney wants Congress, far more generally, to keep its investigative nose out of issue of what intelligence the Bush Administration did, or did not, have about terrorism prior to September 11.

Nor does Cheney want Congress creating a high-level commission to look into this issue. In resisting any investigation, the Vice President advised Congress threateningly, "Be very cautious not to seek political advantage by making incendiary suggestions." Furthermore, Cheney has even gone so far as to warn the Democrats that they could be aiding the enemy by going where the Administration does not want them. The accusation takes aim not just at the wisdom, but also at the purported lack of patriotism of such an investigation.

According to The Washington Post, White House political types have been putting the word out to their network of conservative radio talk show hosts throughout the country to rally the troops, set the dogs loose, and shout the Democrats down. Secrecy, however, is a tough sell, so they're going to have to attack some of their own as well.

Even some Republicans are sharply critical of the secrecy policy

Increasingly, stalwart conservative supporters of Bush and Cheney have become critical of what columnist Robert Novak calls their "passion for secrecy," noting that they only have themselves to blame for the public and Congressional reaction. ...MORE

Praising Cod, and Puns for the Halibut

Here's a wonderful exchange of bon mots between two restaurants in Houston Texas thanks to Prentice Riddle's Blog. I have chosen to put the entire text here as it is only available online from Google's archives, which can disappear.

Los Angeles Times
Praising Cod, and Puns for the Halibut Houston: Adding spice to city's restaurant scene, Indian eatery takes aim at a neighbor's marquee. The fish house diligently plays the straight man.
By MEGAN K. STACK
TIMES STAFF WRITER

May 12 2002

HOUSTON -- When heat quivers over rush hour at one of the busiest intersections in town, when the thick air is a sickly swirl of crawfish etouffe and chicken masala and tortilla soup all a-simmer in the restaurants crowded together on the tar, there isn't much for a weary driver to do but peruse the jumble of billboards.

"Order Kalamari, Get a Pappa's T-Shirt Free," suggests Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen, a Cajun fish house.

Next door, Khyber North Indian Grill shoots back: "Squid Pro Quo."

"Come Try Our Stuffed Flounder," Pappadeaux urges another day.

"On What Charge?" puns Khyber.

This is the story of an Indian immigrant with an insurgent spirit and a bottomless appetite for wordplay who found his soapbox, canvas and stage in the form of a roadside marquee. But his torrent of daily puns is something of a tragicomedy in plastic, for Mickey Kapoor has spent nearly a decade trying to needle a rise out of his stoic neighbor, to no avail.

"Every Tuesday's Fat Tuesday!" the seafood house enthuses.

"Praise the Lard!" Khyber smirks.

Theirs is a quintessential dispute in this city of patchwork ethnicity, this thriving immigration hub that knows no zoning laws. It is a landscape that is seldom pretty but almost always interesting, with its haphazard mix of fortunetellers, Montessori schools and Vietnamese grocery stores. It is also a city of cars, a town that exists in the frame of a windshield.

"What am I supposed to do, put a price up there? It's just so dull," Kapoor said. "Instead, I go for the moral low ground."

He's built up a loyal following: Kapoor's phone shrills with impatient calls from marquee-watchers if he hasn't drummed up a fresh pun by lunchtime. Hundreds have strolled into his brick eatery of brass hookahs and Afghan carpets not to nibble on his saag paneer but to meet the man who calls himself the "Marquee de Sade."

Kapoor found his calling eight years ago, when he sank wearily into the park bench outside his brand-new Indian eatery. This was his third Houston restaurant; he'd been working his way in from the outskirts of town for years. As real estate goes, he'd finally arrived, with a slice of concrete on a bustling intersection midway between the wealthy River Oaks enclave and Rice University.

It's a moment Kapoor now refers to as "one little cosmic accident." His eye fell on the sign next door. "Go Rockets!" he read--and snorted to himself. How dull, he thought. How banal. Was that any way to root for the home basketball team? Obviously, his new environs needed a creative infusion. And so he posted a retort: "And Please Come Back!"

That first mischievous shot started a steely--and one-sided--war. Day after day, for eight sarcastic years, each manager at the seafood house has played the straight man to Kapoor's relentless clowning. Pappadeaux is Felix to Oscar, George to Gracie, Rowan to Martin.

"Our Crab Fingers Are Delightful!" Pappadeaux chirps.

"Let No Crab Give You the Finger," snickers the peanut gallery next door.

Pappadeaux has borne the ribbing with the deliberate oblivion of a kid who has convinced himself that the bullies will get bored and leave him alone--if only he ignores their jeers. Manager Jennifer Brewer said she doesn't mind the signboard next door. She's new on the job, she said, and so are the other managers.

"I haven't even seen anything that makes sense as far as dogging us," she said.

It's an impressive show of restraint from a restaurant whose customers pass under the shadow of a massive pink and orange trout to cross the threshold. A frame of soggy boardwalk rings the base of Pappadeaux's marquee. A motorboat is wedged through the signpost, as if some drunken fisherman ran aground, hopped down to earth and wandered off into this ghostly jungle of traffic lights and strip malls.

Pappadeaux's unflinching equanimity is a sore spot for Kapoor, who dreams of a neighbor who'd fire back a block-letter rejoinder. "Oh, these poor guys," Kapoor said in one of his few quiet moments. "They've taken such a beating over the years."

But his remorse is short-lived.

"Hiring Today 3-5," Pappadeaux announced one morning.

"My You Do Start Them Young," Khyber cooed.

Kapoor doesn't confine himself to tormenting the fish restaurant next door. He's angered animal rights groups with "Let Our Kharma Run Over Your Dogma." One Mother's Day, he quipped, "If Gandhi's Mother Had Cooked Like This, He Might Never Have Fasted." That aphorism brought the wrath of thousands--"it seemed like thousands, anyway"--of his fellow Indians.

To the dismay of the disgruntled, Kapoor delights in every second of scandal. "When they get offended," he explained, "you've scored."

That's just one of the laws of the billboard war, whose etiquette is far more nuanced than it looks. There are two kinds of rules: those Kapoor cheerfully disregards and the ones he follows religiously. Years back, when Pappadeaux managers complained they were being harassed, the two eateries hammered out a rough agreement. Kapoor promised not to disparage the food or the staff. He's been breaking his word ever since.

"Obviously, here we are insulting the food, which means we are breaking a ground rule," he said, pointing in the general direction of his signpost and arching his brows. It was a Secretary's Day, and the Pappadeaux billboard gushed: "Your Secretary Will Fall in Love With Our Blackened Tuna."

"As They Say Love Is Blind," Khyber said.

Predictably, the rules Kapoor embraces are the ones he dreamed up for himself, the ones designed to make wordsmithing a more complex sport. He doesn't like to repeat himself, even when Pappadeaux trots out the same old platitudes. Even trickier: He doesn't think it's fair game to parrot the words in the original message.

Born in India and raised in London, Kapoor is a die-hard pun maestro in wire-rimmed glasses. Take away his coffee cup and he'll snap, "That's a coffee-right infringement." He calls it an affliction, says he hears voices in his bald head.

When it came time for his citizenship interview, Kapoor almost talked himself out of the United States. He couldn't resist, not when the somber man across the table asked, "Do you believe in the overthrow of the U.S. government by force or subversion?"

"I'll take subversion," Kapoor replied.

Kapoor remembers his questioner leaning forward and saying, very seriously, "This is not a multiple-choice question."

"In that case, vehemently no," a remorseful Kapoor said.

"He thought, 'Oh, the little brown man doesn't understand,'" Kapoor said, and he choked on a fit of laughter. "Lucky for me."

He got his citizenship anyway.

I'd love to go to Houston just to shake Kapoor's hand -just my kind of person - Doug

Doom 3

For all you rabid gamers out there look at these:

Shot 9
Shot 10
Shot 11
Shot 12

Hi-res screen shots from Doom 3. It looks like it is going to be an awesome game!

Ring of Thieves

From Forbes Magazine

Ring of Thieves
Neil Weinberg, 06.10.02

MCI introduced Walter Pavlo to a world of armed thugs, duffel bags stuffed with cash and phony accounting. Now, sitting in a South Carolina prison, he points a finger back at his former employer.
Walter Pavlo has plenty of time these days to walk the track inside South Carolina's secluded Edgefield prison. He takes a daily stroll with Mark Whitacre, the Archer Daniels Midland whistle-blower who is serving a ten-and-a-half-year sentence for fraud. Surrounded by drug convicts, camp fences and rolling woodlands, they chat about their pasts and draw parallels to the scandals swirling around big corporations now--at Enron, at Arthur Andersen, in telecom. ...MORE (registration required)

Ring of Thieves

From Forbes Magazine

Ring of Thieves
Neil Weinberg, 06.10.02

MCI introduced Walter Pavlo to a world of armed thugs, duffel bags stuffed with cash and phony accounting. Now, sitting in a South Carolina prison, he points a finger back at his former employer.
Walter Pavlo has plenty of time these days to walk the track inside South Carolina's secluded Edgefield prison. He takes a daily stroll with Mark Whitacre, the Archer Daniels Midland whistle-blower who is serving a ten-and-a-half-year sentence for fraud. Surrounded by drug convicts, camp fences and rolling woodlands, they chat about their pasts and draw parallels to the scandals swirling around big corporations now--at Enron, at Arthur Andersen, in telecom. ...MORE (registration required)

New Canadian Flag

Now that's Customer Service - not!

The following comes from an obviously "satisfied" cable customer in England.

Dear Cretins,

I have been an NTL customer since 9th July 2001, when I signed up for your 3-in-one deal for cable TV, cable modem, and telephone. During this three-month period I have encountered inadequacy of service which I had not previously considered possible, as well as ignorance and stupidity of monolithic proportions.

Please allow me to provide specific details, so that you can either pursue your professional prerogative, and seek to rectify these difficulties - or more likely (I suspect) so that you can have some entertaining reading material as you while away the working day smoking B&H and drinking vendor-coffee on the bog in your office:

My initial installation was cancelled without warning, resulting in my spending an entire Saturday sitting on my fat arse waiting for your technician to arrive. When he did not arrive, I spent a further 57 minutes listening to your infuriating hold music, and the even more annoying Scottish robot woman telling me to look at your helpful website.... HOW? I alleviated the boredom by playing with my testicles for a few minutes - an activity at which you are no-doubt both familiar and highly adept.

The rescheduled installation then took place some two weeks later, although the technician did forget to bring a number of vital tools - such as a drill-bit, and his cerebrum. Two weeks later, my cable modem had still not arrived. After 15 telephone calls over 4 weeks my modem arrived... six weeks after I had requested it, and begun to pay for it. I estimate your internet servers downtime is roughly 35%... hours between about 6pm -midnight, Mon-Fri, and most of the weekend.

I am still waiting for my telephone connection. I have made 9 calls on my mobile to your no-help line, and have been unhelpfully transferred to a variety of disinterested individuals, who are it seems also highly skilled bollock jugglers. I have been informed that a telephone line is available (and someone will call me back); that I will be transferred to someone who knows whether or not a telephone line is available (and then been cut off); that I will be transferred to someone (and then been redirected to an answer machine informing me that your office is closed); that I will be transferred to someone and then been redirected to the irritating Scottish robot woman...and several other variations on this theme.

Doubtless you are no-longer reading this letter, as you have at least a thousand other dissatisfied customers to ignore, and also another one of those crucially important testicle-moments to attend to. Frankly I don't care, it's far more satisfying as a customer to voice my frustrations in print than to shout them at your unending hold music. Forgive me, therefore, if I continue.

I thought BT were shit, that they had attained the holy piss-pot of god-awful customer relations, that no one, anywhere, ever, could be more disinterested, less helpful or more obstructive to delivering service to their customers. That's why I chose NTL, and because, well, there isn't anyone else is there? How surprised I therefore was, when I discovered to my considerable dissatisfaction and disappointment what a useless shower of bastards you truly are. You are sputum-filled pieces of distended rectum - incompetents of the highest order.

British Telecom - wankers though they are - shine like brilliant beacons of success, in the filthy pus-filled mire of your seemingly limitless inadequacy. Suffice to say that I have now given up on my futile and foolhardy quest to receive any kind of service from you. I suggest that you cease any potential future attempts to extort payment from me for the services which you have so pointedly and catastrophically failed to deliver - any such activity will be greeted initially with hilarity and disbelief - quickly be replaced by derision, and even perhaps bemused rage.

I enclose two small deposits, selected with great care from my cats litter tray, as an expression of my utter and complete contempt for both you and your pointless company. I sincerely hope that they have not become desiccated during transit - they were satisfyingly moist at the time of posting, and I would feel considerable disappointment if you did not experience both their rich aroma and delicate texture.

Consider them the very embodiment of my feelings towards NTL, and its worthless employees.

Have a nice day - may it be the last in your miserable short life, you irritatingly incompetent and infuriatingly unhelpful bunch of twits.

Advanced Propulsion Comes of Age

NASA is known worldwide for routinely putting people into Earth orbit. The agency is also revered as the only organization that has flung humans at escape velocity speeds to the Moon. However, NASA could also be known as an agency that's going nowhere fast.

To help put some "momentum" into NASA, the agency is pushing forward on a nuclear propulsion and power initiative. Welcome news in contrast to the past. Over the years, NASA's advanced propulsion agenda has done little but advance in age....MORE

A Worthwhile Initiative

I heard from an old friend, Kerr Culuhain, today regarding a new organization that he's involved in. I'll let him tell you about it in his own words

Officers of Avalon started as an e-group for police officers and expanded to include other people working in the field with cops. It was the brainchild of Officer Tricia Mullensky (Lady Kiara) of the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth Police Department, who started the e-group in 1999. Gradually other Pagan officers like me joined. I'm the current spokesperson for Officers of Avalon.

We've had a tremendous response to our announcement of our evolution into an organisation representing the Pagans working emergency response professions. We've heard from people in Australia, Canada, Ireland, the UK and the USA. At the moment, Officers of Avalon has two levels of membership:

Full Members:
Current Police Officers - Reserves- Specials -Aux.
Retired Police Officers
Firefighters
Retired Firefighters
Paramedics
EMTs
EMS Dispatchers (Police- Fire- EMS)
Corrections Officers

Associate Members:
Anyone who is interested in the above, or is a Doctor, Registered Nurse, etc.
Persons who wish to belong to EMS or become a Law Enforcement Officer.
Also Security Guards Etc.

Our e-group is free and will remain so. We are discussing membership fees to cover other membership services at the moment.

Officers of Avalon wants to show the world that we follow a valid and respectable spiritual path. We want to show the people of the free world that some of the people who are defending that freedom are Pagans like us. We want to establish a support network for those Pagans within the emergency services who do not yet feel that they can safely make their Pagan beliefs public.

One of the reasons that we are doing this is to challenge the so far unchallenged radical Christian element within the police and emergency services that are disseminating information calculated to scare people into the pews and, at the same time, prolong the discrimination that we have been on the receiving end of for decades. They're doing this by presenting themselves as "experts" trying to protect the public. We're not taking this nonsense any longer. We have a unique opportunity and position to take advantage of here. We've had enough. We take the first step in three weeks when I will be a presenter at the National Youth Gang Symposium in Orlando: I will be educating 1,400 police officers about youth involved in Wicca and Neo-Pagan religions.

Our web site , www.officersofavalon.org, is up and running. Please write to us to join. Our e-mail addresses are:

info@officersofavalon.org
webmistress@officersofavalon.org

Our mail address is:

Officers of Avalon, PO Box 79005, Dartmouth, MA, 02747

Please help us get the word out to other Pagan emergency personnel. We won't be able to contact the Pagan emergency personnel out there by writing to police chiefs and the CEOs of organisations: Many of these are Christian and won't pass this information one. Any support that you can offer will be appreciated.

Bright Blessings
Kerr Cuhulain, author
(aka Detective Charles A Ennis, Vancouver Police Department, Youth Services Unit)

Kerr is the author of the best book, The Law Enforcement Guide to Wicca, for shattering stereotypes people hold about Wicca. Kerr's latest book Wiccan Warrior came out in March 2000. It sold out in two weeks and was reprinted in a big panic by surprised Llewellyn staff. It went on to win the 2001 Coalition of Visionary Retailers award for best personal/biographical book at the International New Age Trade Show. It is now published in three languages: English, Portuguese (in Brazil) and French. His next book, Full Contact Magick, comes out this September. Two more books, one a safety book for field workers and the other, Blue Magick, an account of what it has been like to be a Pagan cop, are presently sitting on his agent's desk. Kerr has also been writing investigative articles for Law & Order Magazine.

The Twin Towers

This picture was taken by a guy returning on a cruise this past summer (July 28, 2001). It is a sunrise over lower Manhattan.

HE Writes: As I watched the beautiful skyline of New York City float past me I noticed the sun was about to line up just behind the twin towers. I was lucky enough to snap the picture at exactly the right moment. If you look at the sun rays it is almost prophetic. - a little spooky.

When I show this picture to anyone they almost always asks for a copy. I just want to share it with all who want it. Please take this picture and share it with anyone and everyone who likes it. I've been printing them like crazy on my home computer to give to those that want a copy.

Thanks go to my friend Donna J. for passing this along!

Why the Titanic Sunk

This beautiful photograph of an iceberg was taken off the coast of Newfoundland. While the photographers name is unkown it was supplied by a rig manager for Global Marine Drilling, out of St Johns. With a clear, calm day and the sun almost directly overhead a diver was able to get into the water and take this incredible shot. The estimated weight of this iceberg is 300,000,000 tons

Thanks go to my friend Donna J. for passing this along!

Get a Life!

I can certainly agree with the following sentiments:

Two final warnings: if you think that forwarding a pyramid-scheme chain letter online is any more legal than forwarding one via the post office, think again; and if you think that broadcasting a “You're my extra-special best friend” message to everyone in your address book marks you as a caring person, get a life....MORE

National Writers Union

The National Writers Union has filed a brief of Amici Curiae in the case of Eric Eldred vs. John D. Ashcroft. This is great news that the writers are appearing before the court on behalf of the petitioner. The CTEA needs to be rolled back and it's good to see the writers backing this effort. And for all of you Science Fiction fans out there Ursula K. leGuin, arguably one of the best SF writers ever, is president of the National Writers Union :-)

Great Google Batman!

Google is once again showing why it is the industry leader. Google has always been innovative and responsive to their users. With the advent of Google Labs they have taken customer service a step further.

Google is testing new features, but instead of testing them in the back room and then foisting them off on a public that may not want them, they have chosen to set up a test site and let their users test and comment on the new features. Currently they are testing:

• A Glossary: Find definitions for words, phrases and acronyms


• google Sets: Automatically create sets of items from a few examples
• Voice Search: Search on Google by voice with a simple telephone call
• Keyboard Shortcuts:Navigate search results without using your mouse

Give them at try!

The Fallability of Evidence

In recent years prosecuting attorneys have had the "brilliant" idea that they can analyze the chemical composition of bullets found at a crime scene and then compare those results with ones obtained from bullets found in a suspect's possession. If the compositin matched hte suspect was guilty. They believed, and have convicted many people on this belief, that no two batches of bullets have the same chemical composition.

Not so says New Scientist.

The idea is that if two bullets have the same chemical signatures, they must have been made at the same time from the same batch of smelted lead. British firearms expert Jonathan Spencer, from the forensic services firm Keith Borer Consultants in Durham, says it is also common for this link to be made in court cases in Britain.

But New Scientist has learned that this assumption is plain wrong. An examination of detailed records held by manufacturers of the lead used to make ammunition shows it is impossible to prove that any two bullets come from the same batch.

Death row

"If you're in a court of law, you really need to do your homework, because you're putting people in jail or on death row," says Erik Randich, the forensics consultant and metallurgist based at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory who made the discovery....The researchers examined records for 1998 to 2000 held by Sanders Lead Company in Alabama and Gopher Resources Corporation in Minnesota. They found many instances where it was impossible, using the FBI's chemical profile standards, to distinguish between batches poured months apart. Another analysis of an earlier set of Sanders records revealed the same problem.

The researchers also found small but measurable differences in the composition of lead samples taken at the beginning and end of the same batch, probably due to oxidation of the trace elements. That means it is impossible to say whether any two bullets were made on the same day or come from the same box.

"You'll find bullets that are indistinguishable that were made months apart," says Randich, who presented his results last week to a meeting of the American Chemical Society in Orlando. Randich and Tobin, along with analytical chemist Wayne Duerfeldt at Gopher Resources and metallurgist Wade McLendon at Sanders, will also publish their findings in a future issue of the journal Forensic Science International.

Yet another reason (as if there weren't enough already) to put an end to the death penalty

To read the whole article click HERE

Six arrested over 'Nigerian e-mail' fraud

At last someone gets busted for this crap - too bad here's probably hundreds more doing it. Now if only they could do something about all the MLM "pyramid" schemes on the net.

By Graeme Wearden
ZDNet (UK)
May 21, 2002, 7:15 AM PT

Six people were arrested in South Africa over the weekend on suspicion of being involved in the infamous "Nigerian" e-mail and letter fraud.

Four of those detained were Nigerian, one was Cameroonian and the sixth was South African. Police in South Africa believe that the six are part of an international fraud and drug-dealing cartel, sending out thousands of e-mail and letters in an attempt to defraud...MORE

Important Copyright Case

There is an important copyright case going before the US Supreme Court soon. It involves a challenge to the CTEA (Copyright Term Extension Act). Congress has extended thelength of time that a work is protected under copyright laws 11 times in the last 40 years so that now works are protected for 70 years or more after the author's death. This absurdity is preventing many famous works, authors long dead, from entering the public domain.

Here's an excerpt from the brief being presented to the court:

...because of CTEA, works authored from 1923 on, which would initially have begun to fall into the public domain in 1998, will now remain under copyright until the end of 2018 at the earliest— a term of 95 years, unless extended again. Because of CTEA, future copyrights will now extend for the life of the author plus 70 years, or for works made for hire, 95 years, unless ex-tended again. These terms contrast with the Framers’ initial term of 14 years, renewable once if the author survived. Act of May 31, 1790, ch. 15, § 1, 1 Stat. 124. As applied to an author who produced throughout a long lifetime in the pattern of Irving Ber-lin, the current rule would produce a term of 140 years.

The entire brief can be read here. Let's wish this cae good speed and good luck, success would be a boon to literature.

Tit for Tat

How many of you remember the various Clinton hit lists that made the rounds on the net during his presidency. you know the lists I'm talking about, the ones that claimed Clinton and his cronies were responsible for the murders/deaths of a lot of people who knew the Clinton's dirty secrets. Yup ultra right-wing Republican's had a field day smearing old Bill with nothing more than hearsay and specious speculation. Well well lookey here at what I found. yup tit for tat........ROAR!

Bush is Unfit for the Job

The Shrub once more has proved he is not fit to hold his office. Instead of doing what is best for the Cuban people (not Castro, but the ordinary everyday Cuban people) and opening up trade he has chosen to bend over and hand the Miami Cuban mafia the vaseline.

The existing trade embargo against Cuba does not hurt Fidel Castro or his henchmen. They get whatever they want. No, like all such embargos it is the common folk, the peasantry and lower classes that suffer. If we learned anything from the fall of the Soviet Union it is that increased trade and increased communications is a major factor in the demise of tyranny.

The cuban ex-pats are a major political force in Florida politics and it is obviuos that if relations with Cuba were normalized these people would lose a great deal of political clout. It is in their perceived "best" interests for Castro to remain in power if they want to continue excercising their political power.

Perhaps we shouldn't ask why Bush isn't taking actions that would get Castro out of power but why he's taking actions that guarantee Castro will remain in power. What's in it for Bush? Votes. That's right folks, like a craven coward, he puts his own political gain ahead of the welfare of the cuban people he so dearly wants us to believe he cares about.

PR Watch

As onegoodmove points out the organization PR Watch is providing a valuable public service by "exposing the activities of secretive little-known propaganda-for-hire firms that work to control polictical debates and public opinion."

Go check out their website

Big Brother is Watching

Thanks to Dan Lyke and friends for pointing this article out

CBS) It is America's new reality: security and surveillance. From intense scrutiny at airports to expanded government authority to track Internet use, federal agents now watch American citizens more closely than ever, reports CBS News Correspondent John Blackstone.

Such scrutiny seemed over the line to retired phone company worker Barry Reingold, after the FBI got interested in remarks Reingold made at his health club. After loudly criticizing the war in Afghanistan, Reingold had some unexpected visitors a few days later.

"I said, you know, 'Who's there?' And they said, 'It's the FBI,'" said Reingold, 60.

Reingold says the two agents wanted to know more about his locker room outburst. ...MORE

XFiles Wrap Up

Just watched the final Episode of the X Files. I haven't watched it very much the past three years so I was a little behind in the plot lines. However, I must say that overall they did a pretty good job of tying up a lot of the loose ends. I particularly liked seeing Cancer Man show up again (and seeing him blown to bits at the end too). I did find his final explanation of the "truth" to be a bit much...dragging te mayan calendar into it and all but what the heck everyone familiar with that culture is already aware of the Dec 22, 2012 armegeddon date so i guess it was kind of a natural for them to use it.

This series really paved the way for a new style of television. Unlike Rod Serling's Twilight Zone which was perceived and marketed as "horror", something unnatural etc. the X Files made conspiracy and he paranormal normal.

I suppose the aftermath of the events of 9/11, in terms of heightened patriotism and an aversion to criticizing one's government contributed to the X Files ratings decline and cancellation. I can only hope that as people regain their senses that once again a series will arise that will cause viewers, at some level, to look upon their governments activities with a suspicious eye. As Lord Acton said, "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely". No governments can be trusted. They will lie to, cheat, and even murder their citizenrry in order to maintain power. It is a very naive person indeed who believes that just because his government was "democratically" elected then it is a government that can be trusted.

OPEC Chief Warned Chavez About Coup

Information is rapidly coming to light that seriously implicates the US gov't in the failed coup attempt in Venezuela.

It looks like the threats of middle east oil nations to cut back oil production in protest over the US' one-sides support of Israel in the current round of Israel/Palestine problems, caused American oil companies, with the support of the US gov't to foment a coup. Venezuelan president Chavez is a strong supporter of OPEC and during the course of his democratically elected gov't has increased Venezuelen oil revenues by increasing the tax that oil producers must pay Venezuela to export their oil. This of course pissed off the American oil companies (Venezuela is the largest exporter of oil to the US) and they have set out to remove Chavez from office by ANY means.

It is fully expected that the US will back another coup against Chavez and this time it will be a bloody one, more like the one they fomented in Chile when they put the butcher Pinochet into power. THe difference this time is that the 80% of the population that supports Chavez is armed to the teeth and more than willing to fight back, unlike the opposition in Chile which didn't stand a chance. If Chavez is unseated in any way other than a democratic election expect to see a full scale civil war in Venezuela within the next two years.

For more information on this situation keep an eye on Greg Palast's website. Palast is an internbationally renowned journalist who has uncovered this scandal.

Men Do Make Passes At Women Who Wear Glasses

Thanks to Richard Bennet at Omphalos who brought this Sexy Specs article to our attention.

Site Subscriptions

I installed Bloglet yesterday forseveral reasons:

   1)I think the Bloglet concept is a cool idea.
   2)I was curious to see if I actually had any readers :-)

So today I was pleasantly surprised to get the following email from Bloglet 9they update site owners each day):

Your site stats for 5/18/2002:

Your site "Doug's Dynamic Drivel" received 2 new subscribers today.
It has 3 total subscribers and is ranked #126 on Bloglet.

So thank you to the 3 of you who have already signed up for email updates and I hope that means you are enjoying my journal.

Guerrilla Gardening

This is just so Vanvouver. The city of my birth, and soon to be my home again, encourages local gardeners to take part in greening the city. While in other cities across North America people must sneak out in the dead of night to plant (visions of ninja-clad gardeners weilding trowels and pitchforks fill my head)to transform some neglected piece of civic real estate the City of Vancouver Engineering department not only encourages residents to take
over those little bits of public real estate that go untended by civic authorities but actively assists them in doing so.

Places like the center of traffic circles or traffic bulges that would traditionally only merit a sowing of grass seed from the city are transformed by resident gardeners that live nearby into wonderous gardens of beauty. The engineering department delivers fresh compost at least once ayear to gardeners who register with them, and also assists them in choosing the right type of plants.

This is just such a wonderful project and I offer my hearty congratulations to the city for having the forsight to go in this direction.

The Meaning of Meow

Yes my cat speaks to me. Now if only I could figure out what he's trying to say

IQ Test

so you think you are a genius eh? Well try your hand at this IQ test. Good luck you're going to need it......well actually luck doesn't have anything to do with it. Bwaaaahaaahaa

How to be A Blogging Pundit

This is just waaaaaay too droll. Way to go Norman.

Do you Know Your Bushisms

ROAR! Check this out. I got 8 out of 10 correct :-)

Bad News for Modern Snake Oil Salesmen

A new National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) effort to develop standard reference materials (SRMs) for a number of popular botanical dietary supplements will provide tools that manufacturers can use to improve quality control during production, that researchers can use to ensure that their laboratory analyses of test substances are accurate, and that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) can use in monitoring marketed products and, when appropriate, in enforcement actions. Ultimately, consumers benefit because these efforts will ensure that marketed products contain what they are supposed to contain...MORE

The Music of the Sphere's

...an international group of astronomers [1] has found that the giant star xi Hya ("xi" is the small greek letter [2]; "Hya" is an abbreviation of "Hydrae") behaves like a giant sub-ultra-bass instrument. This star is located in the constellation Hydra (the Water-Monster) at a distance of 130 light-years, it has a radius about 10 times that of the Sun and its luminosity is about 60 times larger. ...MORE

Proof Cosmic Irony Exists

We're all pretty certain that the dinosaurs were wiped out by giant asteroid strike but what is truly ironic is that it was a similar meteor strike that allowed the dinosaurs to arise in the first place.

See this article for more information

Showering Increases the Risk of Cancer

Well as someone who hates baths, indeed hates water that comes up over his knees, but who loves long hot showers this report was the last thing I needed to hear.

CHAPEL HILL -- Trihalomethanes -- byproducts of interaction between chlorine used to disinfect water and organic matter found in raw water -- increase significantly in the bloodstream after showering, a new study shows. Public health experts suspect the chemicals may boost the risk of cancer and contribute to reproductive problems such as miscarriage ...MORE

Your Stolen Art? I Threw It Away, Dear

A real tragedy for art lovers.

ARIS, May 16 — For years Stephane Breitwieser, a youthful-looking Frenchman, traveled through Europe working as a waiter, and in his off hours visited out-of-the-way museums where he looked for opportunities to walk off with what he liked. He stashed stolen oil paintings, rare musical instruments and other art objects in his private collection in his mother's home in Mulhouse, in eastern France, investigators said.

Last November his luck ran out at a museum in Lucerne, Switzerland, and he was arrested on charges of stealing a bugle. On learning of the arrest, the police said, his mother chopped up the oil paintings, which were left for trash collection, and dumped other art objects in a canal....MORE

I have an excuse!

I am cursed with a bad short term memory. I always have been. I can never remember people's names. Always remember their faces but never their names. Now, as an ex-smoker of many years I have an excuse. apparantly nicotine has been shown to possibly reduce "neuronal plasticity" which could cause cognitive problems.

China plans record-breaking reforestation

Well it's about time they came to their senses. China has very little of its original forests left and as a result of the massive over harvesting in recent decades they are suffering some severe environmental damage. They have just announced a plan to reforest an area the size of sweden over the next decade. I hopethey pull it off.

American Hypocrisy

As a follow up to the last post.

Why is it that the US can slap massive import duties on Canadian softwood lumber (SL), over trumped up charges of gov't subsidies to SL producers but we can't do the same to them over their massive US$173 Billion farm subsidy?

Shrub is quick to tell the world - oh don't subsidise your agriculture let it perform on the free market. Oh free trade is where we want to be, anything else ant-business. Yup, seldom has a bigger hypocrite been sent to Washington than Bush Jr. Here's a look at what the real world is saying about this new obscene US farm subsidy:

Africa

England

Asia

The real world (i.e. the world outside of the US) call it like it is, hypocrisy at its very worse.

Canadian Farms in Danger

I come fom a prarie farming family (Pipestone Manitoba) and I am also a professionally trained cook. I love food and I love cooking it. I choose my ingredients carefully and i like to see a good diversity of ingredients within any particular class of ingredient. I don't want to see just one type of green been, I want to see a dozen different varieties.

As such, I am very concerned with the trend of canadian family farms being replaced by multinational mega farm companies. Such companies typically use monoculture farming practices as that produces the best bottom line for them. This is bad for cooks and it is even worse for genetic diversity in crops that can then protect our food production capability against natural or man made diseases.

More farmers leaving the land

Last Updated Wed, 15 May 2002 16:25:45
OTTAWA - There are fewer people farming in Canada according to the latest figures from Statistics Canada. Though there were almost 247,000 farms in the country last year, that's down more than 10 per cent from the 1996 census.

The downward trend started in 1941 and has continued since then. ...MORE

Where's the beef?

At last Vancouver comes to it's senses!

Murray McMillan

Vancouver Sun

Wednesday, May 15, 2002

Who would have thought that the intersection of Georgia and Burrard would become Ground Zero for beef consumption? Our reputation as a vegetarian-friendly California North is being cast aside thanks to a trend that is meatier than ever...MORE

That's the way it goes

Sometimes life just plain sucks. First I lose my job and can't find anything over minimum wage in this region. Then my partner of 8 years and spouse for 6 has decided we need to go our seperate ways. Now we must, of necessity, sell our home here in Rossland.

So for my friends in Vancouver - I'll be heading back your way as soon as the house sells.

Damn I'm going to miss Rossland though and this house. This is my home. This is what speaks to my heart and I will grieve that loss.

Woo Woo

Everything is up and running on the new server. Thank you Rackforce Tech Support! You guys did a great job! Thanks for figuring out what happened to the cgi-bin directory.

comments working

the comments function is now working

Squishy cellphones add a buzz to calls

Ok guys call it what you want, try and justify this a zillion different ways but really if you want a vibrating dildo just go buy one - quit trying to reinvent the wheel :-)

The Zen TV Experiment

In Adam Curry's Big Lie article he mentions he Zen TV experiment. This is a fascinating subject that strikes deeply into the heart of what we today deem reality. It shows us how our perceptions are manipulated through forces inner and outer and by doing so forces us to examine ourselves and our concepts of truth more closely. For a look at the experiment click HERE

The Big Lie

If you are in the habit of accepting what you read in the newspapers and what you see/hear on TV news as the truth then you really should read this article by Adam Curry.

You see Adam Curry was a friend of Pim Fortuyn the Dutch politician that was assassinated last week. The media frenzy that followed consistently portrayed Fortuyn as a hard right wing racist equivalent to France's Le Pen. Nothing could be further from the truth. Please read Adam's article and thanks to Dave Winer for passing it on.

Comments Feature

It's been brought to my attention that the comments feature is not working. I'm not certain what is wrong with it but I am trying to fix it. In the meanwhile if anyone has anything to say about anything here please email me doug@thealders.net

Time Capsule

I was checking out some other blogs and came across an article on consumptive.org about living in Japan and showing visting friends around. It made me think about my own time spent living in Japan and what it was like arriving there initially.

The following is a rather lengthy letter I wrote to friends of mine in LA a short while after I arrived in Nara in September 1976.

Hi! Thanks ever so much for your hospitality during my brief stay in LA. I'm glad that I took the opportunity to rest up for four days as the rest of the trip was quite incredibly hectic. The China Air flight left LAX at 12:10 am and flew to Honolulu where we stayed for about 70 minutes. I was really pissed off at myself for having gotten rid of all my American money in LA, as the guy sitting next to me, on the plane, ran out of cigarettes 20 minutes out of LA and was bumming mine and I had only taken 1 1/2 packs on board with me. So by the time we reached Honolulu the supply was getting low and I did not have the money to buy more their and neither did he. This was further frustrated by the fact that we could not get any from the stewardesses on the flight either - for some incomprehensible reason. I ran out 1/2 way to Tokyo, but luckily a Japanese businessman in the next seat forward discovered our plight and conferred a pack of Japanese fags on us.

The flight was altogether 13 hours of boredom and an exploration into the realm of sado-masochism. It was impossible to sleep as it was too noisy and crowded to get comfortable, but the only alternative was to watch a John Wayne movie. I'm not certain which was worse, trying to sleep (futilely)or watching the movie. I finally compromised by changing the channel selector on my sound console and watching John Wayne while listening to classical music. It was the least of possible evils - tortures.

Thus after eating several meals of regurgitated plastic pasteboard in an atmosphere that was decidedly on the cool side of freezing and after being conscious (in a loosely defined manner that is) for approximately 28 hours we arrived at smog bound Haneda International Airport; which is for those of you ignorant in worldly affairs, Tokyo, and stepped off the plane into 85F and 85% relative humidity and instantly became soaked with perspiration. This was however merely the beginning of what turned out to be an experience that would have made even Dante hesitate before undertaking such a trial of the soul.

So, dear readers, take this brief moment of life, of respite from this harrowing tale of woe and adventure, to compose yourself in preparation for the trials about to assault your sensitivities.

Traveling by bus from the plane to the terminal we were soon confronted by that awesome symbolic figurehead of authority that strikes fear into the hearts of guilty and innocents alike, the customs officer.

Struggling across the tarmac, crumbling under the weight of my possessions, both physical and metaphysical, I approached the Nippon first line of defense only to fail to pass on my first attempt. I had offended the great god Bureaucracy, a most mysterious and inscrutable deity, by not filling out my disembarkation card correctly. After atoning for this sin by standing in yet another line for 20 minutes I approached the second line of defense with even great trepidation. There stood my potential nemesis - the inspection officer - coolly glaring down at my quacking dehydrated soul and in halting, yet sneering, English informing me that I was in the wrong line-up ( editors note: the lack of English signage was appalling)Fifteen minute later I had miraculously passed this line of defense and a deceptive glow of bravado began to infuse my spirit. Woe to the poor unfortunate who falls prey to those fleeting rulers of transient emotion, for they are certain to fall victim to that inevitable law of the cosmos; i.e. what goes up must come down!

Such a fate did await and ultimately befall this humble pilgrim. Entering the reception area of this architectural Venus fly trap I discovered that i had been betrayed!

Steady gentle reader for we must all undergo these trials and tribulations in order to come to an awareness of our self and reality. One must always remember even whilst amid such perdition, that time is but a fleeting thing that soon passeth away delivering us unto that which knows no time thus freeing us from the trials of this purgatory.

Yes I had been betrayed, betrayed most foully by my own trust in the benevolence of my fellow man, by my undying trust in that most sacred of emotive ties, friendship. By my sadly unrealistic assumption that others would do unto me as i would to them. Innocently did I enter that portal of Hell, but innocently I did not leave. There did I stand, a lone foreigner amidst the 18,000,000 natives expecting the companionship, the solace, the unreserved empathy of my friend, my sole contact amidst this riot of confusion, Mylan. Yes dear child of innocence I cannot deceive you; Mylan was not there to greet me and guide me through that stormy path of existence.

My faith in humanity shattered I dragged myself to a phone and placed a long distance call to his sister-in-law in Kyoto only to learn what my soul feared worst, he had been unable to leave Kyoto. He had English classes to teach that day, that unforgettable day. I ask you, gentle ones, would you have stayed home and left your friend stranded, cast to the fates, for a mere thirty dollars in wages that could have been recovered the next day? I will say no more the judgment is yours and our makers!

Falling back on my Darwinian heritage I flung myself into prime survival mode and synchronizing all chakras proceeded to boldly confront my fate - reality. Off I went in search of that savior of all beleaguered voyageurs; the multilingual native. Beware intrepid traveler for he is but a figment of your imagination when needed most.

Again, finding no help from this quarter I proceeded to strike out on my own. Ah! but the Tao does not come so easily. After brazenly blazing my way through the labyrinths of this megacomplex I finally arrived, less five pounds of combined body salts and water, at the offices of C.P. Air Cargo, conveyor and holder of my traveling trunk and sole worldly possessions, intent on claiming what was rightfully mine and to arrange for its transportation to Kyoto.

Sigh! You have, by now, undoubtably guessed the direction of this episode of karmic installment. The office was closed and would not be open until the following Monday, today being Saturday. Faced now with the awesome task of retracing my footsteps to the reception area I determined to confront my dilemma, to stay or go on, and to proceed to Kyoto and arrange shipment from there. Retracing my steps I arrived back at the reception area short another pound or two, at the point of collapse from fatigue. I had now been awake for about 31 hours. Now through the mercy of the gods I was able to find with no trouble the counter at which I could purchase a bus ticket to the Tokyo train station.

After completing that task I was faced with a 20 minute wait. This proved almost fatal to my plans. Upon sitting down I was faced with a bitter battle against sleep, to which I nearly succumbed. Rescued at the last minute by an intrusion upon my unconsciousness by, of all things, an English speaking Japanese native of Germany. I managed to climb on board the appointed vehicle and proceed to the train station.

My experiences at the airport pale before the memory of what awaited me here at the station. Alighting from the bus I was faced with hat eternal decision - which door should I pass through? Sadly, perhaps, it is our fate to never know until it is too late, if at all, whether we choose rightly or wrongly.

Undaunted by the swarming riot of reality that assaulted my, by now, hallucinatory awareness i proceeded through what appeared to be the main portal of that giant edifice to mechanized humanity. Here I confronted the first friendly and intelligent looking native I could find with my only password to refuge "Kyoto" combined with my newly found capacity for non-verbal communication, purely emotive communication, directly dependent on my shift into primal survival mode. Sensing my distress this kind gentleman escorted me to the ticket booth and then disappeared. May his gods bless him for the former and damn him for the latter. Finally obtaining my ticket for the Shinkansen bullet train to Kyoto I was again left on my own to find the right track and train. I had 20 minutes to do so.

The magnitude of the nightmare that followed through my search for the train is beyond the ability of my meager penmanship, nay even beyond the powers of words alone to describe. Let it suffice that i impart to you only the barest details of that Stygian journey.

Carrying my 50lb suitcase. art portfolio and wearing a Levi jacket and felt stetson (for lack of any other place to put them), alternating between the expulsion of profuse quantities of perspiration and sudden chills combined with fatigue so great I could barely lift my suitcase (indeed I dragged it halfway) I confronted numerous natives as politely as I could and through showing them my ticket and being on the verge of tears and collapse they would take pity and try and tell me the way - to no avail I understood nary a word. Finally one fellow in desperation over my lack of understanding, grabbed my ticket and suitcase and headed off towards some stairs motioning me to follow. I followed him to the top and across a lobby, there he had to leave me as without a ticket he could go no further. Returning my belongings to me he signed to me that i would have to show my ticket to a man standing at one of the gates in front of us. I said goodbye to him and thanked him (I shall be eternally grateful to him) and went through the gate. The gatekeeper pointed out the direction I had to go in - more stairs. Many stairs, hundreds of stairs, thousands of stairs, millions of stairs, an eternity of stairs before I reached the top. Time was running out. I had 7 minutes to find and board the train./ Two eons elapsed before I reached the top, the universe collapsed upon itself and expanded gain several times before I reached my immediate goal. But still I had to find the train with 4 minutes to go. The only thing I could read on my ticket was the departure time and I was all too aware of that. Coming out onto a platform at the top of the stairs there were two trains there for me to choose from. In my rush, my supply of adrenalin almost exhausted, I almost thrust my ticket at the first person I saw and begged to know which train it was. He indicated the one on the left (may all his gods bless him unto eternity) and showed me that one of the numbers on my ticket indicated the car I was supposed to be in. It was #1 and I was standing outside of #8. i had only a few minutes to make my way down the line of cars to find mine. Summoning up what little reserves of energy I had left I threw myself down the platform and into car #1 and sat down - no collapsed doesn't even do it justice - into the first empty seat. I had only sat there for 20 seconds or so when a man informed me by pointing out the seat number on it that I was sitting in the wrong seat, his seat. Kindly however, he helped me move to my correct seat halfway down the car and no sooner was I reseated than we got underway.

On either side of me were seated middle aged japanese businessmen, neither of whom could speak english. The one on my right soon departed for the bar car and i was left with the one on my left who really insisted on trying to speak to me. I think his english vocabulary was at most 50 words. However, it was pleasant even though I would rather have slept and helped to pass the time until Kyoto. THe train ride was nice. the train was thoroughly air conditioned and I was completely dry by the time I arrived in Kyoto. I was wet again within one minute of getting off the train however i had regained some of my strength during the 3 hour rest. So I sought out a phone and phoned Mylan at a phone number his sister-in-law had given me and he gave me his address to give a taxi driver. This was the final stage and the final trial of the journey. I blindly wandered down the stairs from the platform to the ground level (the Shinkansen is a monorail)and luckily stumbled my way to the correct exit wit