Space Ring

Just when you thought you've heard the bizarre, comes this little gem. A group of scientists have come up with a way of battling global climate change caused by heating up of the planet due to greenhouse gases. Their suggestion would cost somewhere between $6 to $500 trillion dollars, and calls for a dramatic effort to control the planet's climate. Their suggestion is for a space ring to be constructed around the planet, which would reflect just 1.6% of solar radiation, but be enough to overcome the slight rise in global temperatures. The ring could be constructed of small particles shepherded by spacecraft -- or small spacecrafts connected in orbit. The ring would be erected around the equator, providing shade primarily to where the planet is the hottest. If the particle solution is used, the materials could come from mining the Moon. A side effect of the ring would be the nightly illumination. We'd be able to see reflected sunlight, similar to the Moon's, at night from the ring.

As bizarre and scary as this idea is, it does have a basis in science. The planet does endure periods of lower temperature when volcanoes spew material into the atmosphere that reflects sunlight back into space. In fact, some have suggested that smoke from smoke stacks could be laced with metallic particles so that more material could go into the atmosphere to reflect sunlight. This is all great in theory, and makes for interesting speculation -- but you've just got to know, there are really mad scientists in the world -- it's just not stuff of science fiction.

Let's see here folks: we don't know much about the dynamics of the planet. In fact, there are still idiots out there that don't think global warming is happening, or admit that the planet is getting warmer, but don't think humans are the cause. If we can't agree on the basics, you just know that we don't have the whole climate thing well understood as yet. Having ideas of controlling the weather, much less the entire climate is downright scary. What if things went wrong? How would we know things are going wrong? The whole idea of fixing things by further manipulating the natural environment is the wrong approach. Instead of trying to control, we should be trying to coexist -- to live with the natural processes of the planet. Does that strike as such a bizarre idea?

Same Sex Marriage

Canada joins Belgium and the Netherlands in legalizing gay marriages across the entire country -- despite the efforts of the conservatives and religious wackos. Another reason for me to be proud to be Canadian. If two people want to get married, what should it matter to anyone else? I like to use the analogy of interracial marriages. It wasn't too long ago when such a thing was seen as an affront to the sanctity of marriage -- whatever the fuck that means. How different is this? Marriage isn't about having kids; it's not about raising kids -- because if it was, we would have to force married couples to have kids and single parents from raising them. Marriage is about two people sharing their lives together -- for better or for worse.

The 'Advertorial'

You may not have heard of the 'advertorial' before, but if businesses have their way, you're going to be seeing a lot more of it, and won't even know you're viewing paid advertising. Advertisers are desperate. More and more, the lines are being blurred between what is paid advertising and what is news, opinions or entertainment. Already magazine spreads are filled with pages that pose as articles -- and you would be duped into reading the "article" if you didn't see the Special Advertising Section note on the page header. Then there is product placements in everything: television shows, movies, video games, books and music. Some advertising has become entertainment -- where the "show" stars the product.

Things are about to escalate as businesses try even more for your eye. Now, advertisers are looking to buy articles -- they're looking to buy editorials -- where a product would be the feature of the article or editorial. Advertisers are definitely desperate. Our eyes and dollars are becoming more difficult to reach. We've reached advertising saturation, and are doing a TiVo to stop the soliciting advertising popups. We're cornered however, because as desperate as advertisers are, big media is even more desperate as traditional ad dollars fly to other channels. There is a price for your eyes and wallets, and the media companies that once adhered to a separation between advertising and editorial content have a dollar figure in mind -- and you've been sold out.

An aside -- the Devil's Dictionary defines advertorial as, 1) spurious; disingenuous; karmic; and, my favourite, 2) the dildo of literature — while in theory somewhat like the real organ, in practice a perpetually frustrating disappointment.

GE's Citizenship Report

GE has joined the ranks of major companies issuing comprehensive statements about their efforts outside the regular business of making money -- on things such as corporate governance and responsibility, as well as the environment. With the report, "Our Actions," [PDF] GE aims to tell the story of how GE does business, their impact on the communities they work in, and their efforts to be a good citizen of the world. The report, which is surprisingly candid and large, used the Global Reporting Initiative 2002 Sustainability Reporting Guidelines. GE is known as a management trendsetter, and hopefully this report, which critics argue as being not as complete as it could have been, will nudge other corporations to become more transparent and open to employees, shareholders and the public. True, GE is doing this because it makes business sense to be transparent, open and honest -- they're not doing this for altruistic reasons -- but nevertheless, the report is a step in the right direction, and may show other businesses, that sometimes, honesty does pay.

Other companies that have published corporate responsibility reports, include: IBM, Sunoco, HP, and Gap [PDF].

Last Weekend

Last weekend, my wife and I happened on the Barbados on the Water Festival at Toronto's Harbourfront Centre. It was the first time I've been to that festival -- the summer festivals at Harbourfront Centre actually kicks off next weekend. It was a bit cooler than is usual for the summer, but nevertheless, what we saw of the festival was great. We saw Andy Earle and his band perform, and joined by Structcha (sp); we also caught the Israel Lovell Foundation dance company performing. Between the shows, we checked out the Music Garden, and took too many photos -- which you can check out by following the thumbnail links below.

Russia's Martian Missions

Russia is planning two missions to Mars, in their continuing attempt to explore the planet. Russia has sent 17 probes to Mars, of which only 3 were successful. The new missions, planned for 2009 and 2015, would land a craft on Phobos and place a lander on the Martian surface.

The Phobos mission is quite intriguing, as it has been speculated that the Martian moons may make a suitable site for a Mars base. There is also the ongoing questions as to the origins of the Martian moons. The 2009 mission would land on Phobos and release a rover that will spend three years conducting science. At the end of the mission, the samples collected would return to Earth.

Mass vs. Niche, Free vs. Paid: The March Toward Open Media

Just read a blog post on the Media Center Blog, decrying the death of mass media due to the proliferation of free, niche media. I had to respond.

Sorry, I don't buy the argument that citizen journalism, aka free media, will lead to the collapse of the giant media organizations. What it means is that big media will need to change, just as the music and movie industry is having to change. There are more than one way to generate revenues from media when the distribution channel changes.

The other premise, that smaller media companies will be worse off than large companies for the market is stupid. Smaller media companies can become more focused, more responsive to the market, and a hell of a lot more independent from the corporate interests that that's big media serve.

The evolution of mass media is coming -- those unable to change and respond will die. Those evolve or are built from the ashes of the dead will be better equipped to serve the market that awaits them. There is a bold new future ahead -- change is coming -- and only those with a vested self-interest in the status quo should be afraid.

Why Taiwan Matters

As China continues to lick its lips in anticipation of someday getting Taiwan, we should all be concerned. For those not in the know, China and Taiwan have had an interesting history, starting with Mao's ascension on the mainland, that resulted in a exodus of 2 million Chinese nationalists to Taiwan. The native Taiwanese were not happy with the move, and the unrest that followed resulted in martial law being declared by the Chinese minorities. It was only in the last 20 years or so that Taiwan gave up martial law and embraced democracy. Since then, Taiwanese have expressed a desire for independence from China -- which has at times caused China to hold military exercises in the waters between Taiwan and the mainland, and also prompted the US to send carrier battle groups to the region. The standoff today has China with anti-secession laws authorizing the use of military force should Taiwan declare independence, and Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian vowing to declare independence should Taiwan be attacked by China.

So what do we care? As this BusinessWeek article declares: "The global economy couldn't function without it." Taiwan businesses manufacture the engines of today's digital economy. Oh sure, the Koreans, the Chinese, the Indians and the first world nations contribute -- but Taiwan is the low cost operator that has brought down prices in everything from chips to the devices that use those chips. Taiwan manufactures a myriad of digital equipment under someone else's name. More and more design is being pushed to Taiwanese engineers. The ideas of the first world countries come to life in Taiwan -- to the amount of US$125 billion in revenues for the top 25 tech companies this year.

Should we worry? It doesn't hurt, but because of its global importance -- and importance to China itself, the chances of China doing something stupid are really slim. More and more, Taiwan is moving manufacturing to low cost China. In fact, if it wasn't for the Taiwanese management experience, China wouldn't be enjoying the rapid growth it's now enjoying. Like it or not, China has a dependence on Taiwan right now -- how long that lasts is a different story -- for now though, it should go a long way in tempering any indulgences in national pride China may want to make good on.

Spyware Ain't Just for Porn and Gambling

Big companies with well known brands also leverage spyware and adware to get their messages out to potential customers. Hero to the common folk, NY Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, says those companies can no longer play dumb -- and will be held accountable. Spitzer made news on this topic for targeting the purveyors of spyware, but is now turning his sights on the businesses that keep spyware vendors alive. Some very well known names and brands use spyware: Orbitz, Priceline, Expedia, Vonage, JC Penney, Capital One, Mercedes, Monster, Sprint and Sony to name a few. Some get their ads delivered unknowingly via spyware -- but that just isn't an excuse. Even if that sorry excuse is used to stay out of jail, it's just stupid. Any business with a brand that's worth anything would think twice about not wanting to know the details of how their messages are getting out. Your brand is priceless. Spyware alienates potential customers and customers alike -- why would you ever take the chance of damaging your brand?

Ring of Fomalhaut

Hubble Space Telescope has detected the Great Eye of Sauron 25 light years away. It's a newly formed solar system around the star Fomalhaut, in the constellation Pisces Austalis. The ring is offset from the star, most likely because of unseen planets are gathering stray dust within the radius of the ring. The large, outer ring around the star is most likely a cometary belt similar to our Kuiper Belt.

Fomalhaut is around 200 million years old, and offers a unique opportunity for the study of an early solar system formation.

Force Field

NASA is looking forward to future missions to the Moon, and possibly Mars -- involving people -- and are working on a host of issues that astronauts would have to contend with on their missions. One of the biggest issues is shielding astronauts from charged particles from the Sun or extrasolar sources. A novel concept that never took off, other than in SciFi, is the force field. NASA is currently looking at the possibility of erecting force fields around bases on the Moon.

The current idea being explored is to surround astronauts with a powerful electric field [PDF] with the same charge as incoming charged particles. Since like charges repel, the incoming charged particles would be bounced back into space. The leading design sees inflatable, conductive spheres about 5 metres in diameter being mounted above a lunar base. Negatively charged spheres would be higher, blocking all negatively charged particles, while positively charged spheres would be lower, blocking positively charged particles that make it through.

There are still many hurdles to overcome, but it seems like we may soon see SciFi become reality.

(Nothing But) Flowers

(Nothing But) Flowers by the Talking Heads is one cool song. Click to listen [7MB, MP3] to a live version by a band I've never heard of -- Guster. They actually do a good rendition of the song. Nothing weird was done to it.

It's an interesting thought -- I think most of us want to do right by the planet, but how many of us would actually want to give up this lifestyle?

Pirating Apple

Can digital piracy be an indirect marketing route to generate sales via legal channels? Chris Seibold takes that assumption with a post on the Apple Matters site. Take the piracy of music online -- surely there are those that have actually gone out and picked up a CD by an artist they've newly discovered. What about the ancillary products? T-shirts? Concert tickets? Other albums in the artist's catalogue? Could the move to the Intel architecture for Apple actually spur the curious to download a pirated copy of OS/X for their existing Wintel box? If OS/X works out of the box on Wintel machines, you bet the curious will -- especially if an underground movement starts to write device drivers and optimization parameters for the OS on Wintel. You never know, a golden age of Apple could emerge. Apple could end up selling a lot more than they planned on -- especially to users of non-Apple boxes.

Avalanche to beat BitTorrent

Microsoft's researchers are developing a P2P protocol that promises performance gains of 20-30% over BitTorrent. The protocol, known as Avalanche, solves a problem with the current version of BitTorrent -- the problem of getting the final missing pieces of a file. Downloaders sometimes have to wait quite some time for those elusive last pieces to arrive. Avalanche solves this problem by leveraging on the concept of parity checking -- which adds information on the linear distribution of pieces to each torrent chunk. As you near completion of a download, the missing pieces you're waiting for can actually be reconstructed from the pieces you already have.

Microsoft stresses that Avalanche is for legal file distributions only, and wasn't make to pirate copies of Windows and Office faster.

Spyware in BitTorrent

eWeek is reporting that BitTorrent is no longer clean. The file format and peer-to-peer network has been hijacked by Direct Revenue and Marketing Metrix Group, to distribute their Aurora product. Once installed, Aurora takes you into popup hell and doesn't let go.

Whale Burger

Japan continues to hunt whales for scientific purposes -- as if the world believes that bullshit. Whales have been a traditional part of the Japanese diet, but industrial whaling has reduce stocks worldwide. Rather than curtail their hunt, Japan is planning on increasing their hunt to up to 900 minke whales. This is despite the International Whaling Commission asking Japan not to.

Popaganda: The Art & Subversion of Ron English

I went to see this documentary with a friend Monday night. The documentary follows the exploits of Ron English, he of hijacking billboard fame, and includes a smidgen on the culture jamming movement, especially those that skirt the law in defacing public billboards and parodying pop culture.

For those who don't know Ron English, check out this site that is dedicated to everything Ron English. English takes some credit for personally causing the demise of Joe Camel. He also targets MacDonalds in his art, and does some stuff with Kiss and Jesus that simply makes little sense. He's a pretty good artist, and with his billboard hijacking, has succeeded in becoming the very thing he expressed his art against -- he's become a brand, a pop culture icon.

The documentary itself just followed English's exploits. There wasn't much insight or analysis of his art or person. It was more of a fanboy documentary -- even a bit promotional of his art. Not that it was necessarily a bad thing. After the show, I actually felt inspired -- until I remembered English's words: "If you're going to do this, you have to get a lawyer." He's constantly being sued by Corporations not too happy to see their brands parodied -- and being thrown in jail for defacing private property.

Google's Secrets

Ever wondered how Google ranks sites? Well, quite a bit of the secret is now out with US Patent Application 20050071741. Well known is that Google relies heavily on relevant inbound links to rank a site -- what is not known is the details behind how the link information is used. Google apparently ages the links. Getting linked is important. However, if your site gains a lot of links quickly, it's probably indicative of some manipulation in the works. Google keeps tabs on how links change over time, and if they remain. The anchor words are also important for the site. If you the same anchor words are used over and over, it again indicates manipulation. More information on the patent is available on Buzzle.com.

Anime Biz: Still an Adolescent

Just read an article from BusinessWeek on the anime business, and why, despite its legions of fans, is still not a profitable business for anime studios. Anime is huge in Japan, and is growing export for the country. Anime is also very influential, influencing movie producers, fashion and western culture. What it has done to Japan is whole lot different. In fact, of the three top grossing movies in Japan, three are anime -- the biggest being Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away, which also won the 2003 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Yet, despite critical acclaim and cult like following, the anime business isn't as robust as the animation industry of North America.

Why? The artists. There is no industry. There are some 440 animation studios in Japan -- not much consolidation has occurred. Artists are bad business people. In fact, they routinely cut deals to sell their creations outright to distributors and toy makers, who make billions, while the artists hardly break even. In the US for example, while Shrek 2 was making $437 million, Spirited Away only managed $10 million. Even Katsuhiro Otomo's much anticipated Steamboy, only raked in $11 million in the US. The biggest problem is mass appeal. Only about 10% of anime actually make any money. Spritied Away and Steamboy, while brilliant on their own, don't have the mass appeal of Shrek or the Incredibles -- and that's what the Japanese artists need to learn. They need to give up a little to make a killing from their business.

Hayao Miyazaki's latest is Howl's Moving Castle, and it has already earned critical acclaim. It is open in theatres already. I'm planning to see it -- anyone wants to come with me?

Worldwide Short Film Festival -- SciFi Out There

The finale of the WWSFF was on Sunday night, and I caught the not-so-late-night show. Again, like with the other shorts I saw, this compilation was mixed. There were a couple of standouts, a few with potential and then some duds. What follows includes some spoilers. You've been warned.

Skylab -- In 1979, NASA's Skylab came plummeting down. I was in Guyana at the time, and I remembered being scared that something really big and heavy was going to fall from the sky and kill us all. Apparently the film makers of this short had the same childhood experience. Skylab is falling, and for Benj Handle, the world was ending. His mom was also remarrying and he didn't really like his stepdad to be. The short had potential, but it got wasted. It was a personal story -- but that was it -- just a story -- no SciFi -- just what Skylab meant to the filmmaker as a child.

The Eiffel Tower (Eiffeltornet) -- A guy wakes up from a dream, where he's running around Paris in search of the Eiffel Tower. The world has changed slightly -- shifted -- and it's a significant shift. So what. It was a Twilight Zone episode -- only in the Twilight Zone, the guy wakes up and language was changed. Same story. Blah.

9 -- It's a strange world in this animated short. "9" faces off against a monster that's been killing off his brethren and stealing their souls. The animation was excellent, even if it was for a simple story. The design, stylized characters and animation style was unique and beautiful. If there was dialogue to the story, it would have been more effective.

Cost of Living -- The Cigarette-man (aka Cancer-man) from the X-Files was the surprise in this film. He's out looking to buy a replacement body, but can't even afford the cheapest model available. He has cancer and less than a year to live. He can get a new body, but only if he accepts payment terms that puts him into slavery for the next 100 years. Is it worth life? He chooses ... a very thought provoking film. Simple, yet a highly effective story.

Echo -- This was a silly animated piece. It's a music video. The premise was a good one -- the execution, just dumb.

Blake's Junction 7 -- I suppose you had to have seen Blake's 7 to get this short. It had potential, was kinda funny in places -- but I had no context.

Buck's Big Bang -- An OK animated short -- fanciful, with a bit of humour. Animation was nothing special -- story OK.

The Fifth Moon (La Cinquieme Lune) -- This short told the story of Vassili, a Soviet cosmonaut, who walked on the Moon. Well, the footage was never released you see, as Soviets buggered up the staging of the fake movie that was going to get them to the Moon before the Americans. I don't think this was a true story. Interesting idea -- well executed.

Worldwide Short Film Festival -- Freaky Midnight Mania

Another WWSFF series I indulged in this past weekend was the Midnight Mania Freaky show. Previously, Midnight Mania has been reserved for the horror crowd -- and this year, there were two shows: Freaky and Creepy. I chose Freaky based on the more appealing descriptions from the site. Freaky was not horror -- so I can only assume that Creepy was the horror show. Too bad. Not that Freaky was bad -- but it wasn't entirely good either. Forewarned, spoilers follow.

Exhibit 42 -- Before you touch the displays at the art gallery, you would do well to see this short. One art piece on display is a fish in a blender that's plugged in. It's tempting. Just flick the switch and watch ... art? One patron flicks the switch and his entire world is transformed. He's taken, bound, and is hung over blades, about to repeat the fish's fate. Too bad he was only day-dreaming.

Shaolin Delivery Boy -- What happens when a Chinese-Canadian actor can't get roles -- even as a Chinese character, because he doesn't have a Chinese accent and knows no kung-fu? He turns to his whitey friend to teach him how to be Chinese. His white friend turns out to be quite good at the whole accent and kung-fu thing. The movie was hilarious, as the white-master, teaches his Chinese-student how to be Chinese. I definitely need to see this again.

Learn Self Defense -- Meet George. He's mild-mannered, a good guy, who goes to church on a regular basis. But what happens when George gets taken advantage of? George learns the art of self defense -- especially the part where a wrong + a wrong + god = good; and that self defense starts with a good preemptive strike. A hilarious animated parody of the George W. Bush presidency.

The Netherbeast of Berm-Tech Industry -- When the boss puts a stake through the heart of an employee, he claims it's because the dead employee was a vampire. He then takes a bullet and heads off to find the werewolf in HR. The movie started out like the pointy-headed boss of Dilbert fame gone wacko -- until the employees realize that they've been exposed. The boss has found out that there really are monsters working in his company. Good dialogue, great idea, but it sort of fizzled at the end.

Slim -- Slim shows up for dinner at his would-be girlfriend's house, only to be roped into a shot-gun wedding by her Dad. He's going to marry her younger sister, who has some bleeding problem that will eventually kill her. Slim escapes. I don't get it. It was weird, and I have a distinct feeling it lacked intelligence.

Fallen Art -- This was a superbly animated short. At first, I thought it was hand-drawn animation, but it must have been computerized. The story is of some lunatic that have soldiers drop to their death, because he's collecting art of dead splattered bodies, which he animates using some weird machine. Weird story, but the animation was amazing.

Birthday -- As my friend who saw this with me said, "Somebody has some issues." The whole thing was weird. Mira's Mom wants to keep her in a womb, and not let her out. A real womb. With blood, and a vagina in the ceiling. Weird -- and possibly stupid.

Egg -- Captain Ahab is sailing the egg white, looking for the elusive golden yoke. Interesting animation, weird story -- with parts that made no sense. There were chicken people who were being fed -- and one eventually ate the egg that had Captain Ahab in it. The show's MC asked the audience to make her "little heart happy" by giving her a "Yaar!" when the lights went down. The crowd never stopped, and continued doing it throughout the show. Goes to show you what happens when you get a group of "freaks and geeks" in the room. When the lights are on, they're fairly quiet -- when the lights go out, they then to play with themselves in the dark.

Mom In Store Now! -- This was an anime gone live. Live action of every stupid Yu-Gi-Oh cartoon. I wished I hadn't seen it.

Father's Day

Today is Father's Day -- my daughters took me out to Tim Hortons, where we had something that passed either for breakfast or lunch, depending on the mood. We then went to Henrys, where I salivated on the Sony F828. That's one beautiful camera. But I don't need it, neither do I have the $1,000 to spend friviolously. My girls were going to buy me either the TCON 300S or a wide angle lens for my Olympus E10, but Henrys didn't have it. The camera is now old. So, I might get it off eBay eventually. First, I'll have to see more of my crap on eBay to earn money to plop down on what amounts to another toy. Again, not something I need, but something I want.

While at Tim's, I sketched a fatman salivating too -- his want was a donut.

Worldwide Short Film Festival -- Slap 'n Tickle

I went with a friend to see Slap n' Tickle of the WWSFF Friday night, at the Innis Hall Theatre, in Toronto. The show was hilarious, for the most part -- there were a couple of shorts that just didn't work. The ones that worked had humour -- the ones that didn't, just didn't make sense, or tried to be serious. The following is a quick synopsis of the show -- don't read if you don't want spoilers.

Who Makes Movies? -- This is a hilarious spoof of the MPAA's anti-piracy campaign -- a spoof of the commercials you're forced through when you visit a theatre to watch a Hollywood movie. This spoof is geared towards saving the porn industry from piracy. Randy Palmer, a fluffer working in the industry, waxes eloquent on the plight of the little people that are a part of the porn industry -- the little people that are hurt when porn movies are pirated. The parody works, and had me laughing out loud from beginning to end.

Pillow Talk -- A bored and lonely housewife decides to spice up her life with the telephone repairman when he comes calling. Her husband has troubles getting it up, and won't get help. It just happens that her phone keeps breaking and is in constant need of service. When she gets pregnant, things go down hill rapidly. Until her husband finally gets up the courage to go to a clinic for help. Then she's laughing, as she no longer needs the telephone repairman, and she her husband won't know who her baby's father really is. The movie is quite well made, and hilarious.

Quicktime Interruptus -- What happens when a guy tries to watch a porn video online? Well, he falls into pop-up hell. Soon as the video gets going, those nasty pop-ups appear on his screen, blocking the action. This one was one minute long, but a one minute well wasted.

Hamoudi & Emil -- This was a funny short that follows the misadventures of Hamoudi & Emil, two twelve year old buddies that are spying on the neighbour suntanning, trying to get a glimpse of her breasts. Try as they might, they have no luck however. They can't get by her husband, nor faith it seems. They eventually turn to Allah for help -- and while they don't succeed with their neighbours wife, they young Casanova's do manage to get the attention of a couple of girls. Hamoudi & Emil's quest for love for funny -- although the film sort of ended abruptly.

Cario Calling -- Another funny short. Ahmed moves from Egypt to Montreal and seems to be leading a successful bachelor life -- a life that's turned upside down when his Mom shows up with marital plans for him. He has to chose which Egyptian girl he's going to marry. Mom finds out the hard way that Ahmed just isn't into girls when she accidentally comes on her son and his gay lover. She wasn't going to leave until she saw him married however -- and since gay marriage is accepted in Canada, Ahmed married a Canadian. At least that's the story Mom is going to tell the folks back home.

Tumshie McFadden's Bid For Ultimate Bliss -- Another funny short -- sort of. Tumshie is on a mission to find gratification for all his senses at the same time. Can he drink a beer, smell the oil from his model train, watch his favourite dart player make that dramatic throw, hear the perfect tune and have sex with his girlfriend at the same time? He's a sensualist extraordinaire -- and manages to screw it all up. The short was funny because of the Scottish accents -- it wasn't spectacular.

Toy Joy -- It has potential but fizzled at the end. What happens when a couple is reunited in bed? Their jealous sex toys try to find things to do amongst themselves. Like I said, it had potential. But then it just ended. Seemed rather pointless.

Forced Entry -- This was funny, and apparently it's an old joke. A man breaks into a house at night, takes a knife and some cord, and bounds a sleeping couple. The woman is terrified, and the husband tells her to just cooperate -- take one for the team. Give the rapist what he wants so they don't both get killed. The rapist leans over her, whispers in her ear, then leaves for the bathroom. The wife turns to the husband, and informs him that the rapist is actually looking for vaseline. Apparently he's more interested in the husband than the wife. She sarcastically tells her husband to be brave and take one for the team. He wasn't expecting that -- and it was easy for him to tell her to be brave.

Neighbourhood Watch -- This wasn't funny. Wasn't that entertaining. In the subburbs apparently, there's a lot happening between neighbours that take their dogs for a walk. It all comes crashing down however, when a dog eats the panties during one of the nightly trysts. The movie was kind of serious -- not that funny.

Broadcast 23 -- This is a Bigfoot story of a different kind. Scientists researching Bigfoot get more than they bargained for when they broadcast recording number 23 in the wild. They thought it was a greeting -- instead, it turned out to be a mating call. Chaos and humour ensues.

Worldwide Short Film Festival -- Int 9

I took my wife to a WWSFF showing -- International 9, Sundancing, at the Innis Hall Theatre, in Toronto. The films we saw were previously previewed at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. My wife has declared that I will never take her to see such bad films again. We have different tastes. I didn't find any of them bad -- stupid maybe -- ineffective maybe -- artsy fartsy maybe -- and one was definitely disturbing. If you don't want to know what the films are about, don't read any further, as I'll be giving away spoilers.

Small Town Secrets -- This was a personal film of Katherine Leggett. She grew up in small town USA -- USA the good, where her parents had deep secrets that they kept from most, including their children. At an early age, Leggett's parents divorced. Mom shared a home with another single mom. Eventually, the women cut a door between their rooms. What Leggett didn't know until later, was that her mom was a lesbian, and her partner had moved in with her. Together, they raised their children. Another shock would come later on in life when Leggett found out that her dad is gay, and he moved in with his partner. The story is told via a webcam chat between Leggett and her parents. OK, personal story -- touching at points, but it lacked a lot of emotion. I didn't really care.

In The Morning -- The movie was brutal. It starts out with a young Turkish woman being raped on the street as she's walking home alone. Her rapist tells her she shouldn't be alone, proceeds to rape her, as she first struggles, then sobs. He tells her she's pretty at the end. The painful act is depicted. The minds of such men need examining -- preferably after their brains have been extracted. She's pretty? You raped her you bastard! Don't tell her she's pretty -- that's telling her because she's pretty, you had to brutalize her. I don't understand the mind that would commit such an act.

The brutality of the film hardly stops there however. The scene is followed by a group of men discussing the dishonour that was done. The father says his friends no longer visits. The men all agree that something must be done about the dishonour visited upon them, they're just debating the 'what' and 'who' of it. The father insists that his son must restore the family honour, as he's thirteen years old, and will not face stiff punishment from the law. It's finally agreed, and the father borrows a gun to give his young son.

We then see the young woman that was raped. She's doing chores at home. Her young brother is about to leave the house, and there's tears in his eyes. You know he's going to do his duty. She doesn't know. She tells him to be home in time for supper. He turns and shoots her repeatedly. She dies. He collapses in a corner crying.

My reaction would have been typical of most. I was shocked. I shouldn't have been, after having read the recent post from aka.alias on honour killing. I know what honour killing is. It's this really fucked up belief by some men that when their women are raped or even looked at the wrong way by men, that their honour is lost and the only way of restoring it is by taking the life of the women in question. There is nothing honourable about it. I've thought about my reaction, my surprise, and it has a lot to do with my cultural upbringing. As I was watching the movie, I was thinking vengeance. I was thinking revenge. The woman being raped was in pain. Something was being stolen from her that could never be given back.

Go back to the scene where the family men are discussing the dishonour that was dealt to them. From my cultural point of view, they were plotting revenge. But it wasn't the case. The family men were discussing very openly the murder of another family member. The dad was passionate about the murder of his little girl. She had dishonour him by allowing herself to be raped. That's a fucked up culture. It's fucked up when a father doesn't love his child -- when a father treats his daughter as nothing more than a thing -- at best property. Did he ever love her? Does he have capacity for love, other than for himself? He obviously doesn't love his son either. How can a man want his child murdered after she was hurt? Did he ever held her as a baby, lovingly in his arms? Was she ever precious to him? If he had loved her -- if she was his daughter -- he would want to kill whoever hurt her. He would want to remove any pain she's ever felt.

If it's a cultural thing, that's a fucked up culture. You people -- and you know who you are, you fucking primitives -- you've never going to progress beyond shit you've been wallowing in for the last few thousands of years until you leave such stupid ideas behind. You have a culture that will die because you're not changing -- if you don't care for or value the lives of you children, you have no future. If you don't care for or value the lives of your females -- the ones primarily responsible for the sustaining of your people, you will all die. You're all living on the glory of the past. You've done nothing great since the glory days thousands of years ago. Those of you who have accomplished anything, has done so individually -- you have not accomplished much as a society. It's because you have a fucked up society.

The movie was based on a true story that occurred in 2003. The young woman in question was sixteen-years old when her life was taken. She was pregnant.

It's Like That -- This was an animated film, narrated by three children who were interviewed over the telephone. They were detainees in one of Australia's Immigration Detention Centres. At times, it was difficult to understand the children -- nevertheless, it was clear that the kids were being held somewhere behind bars, and they were unhappy about it -- unhappy about being separated from family. It was a sad story -- although the film could have done with the context upfront, instead of leaving it to the end.

The Youth In Us -- This film tells the story of a young couple who are in love with each other, but the guy will eventually pull the plug on the life support system for the girl. It's a sad, unhappy movie -- bittersweet maybe, because you don't find out until the end that the girl is paralyzed and on life support. The film was effective -- but not something I want to see again.

West Bank Story -- This was a hilarious short. It's a parody of the West Side Story. It's a musical comedy about an Israeli soldier and a Palestinian girl who are in love with each other. It's also the story about the rival fast food joints: Hummus Hut and Kosher King. It was very, very entertaining.

Berocca -- This movie was weird. Perhaps it had meaning, and if it does, and somebody gets it, drop me a comment. I didn't get it. It follows a disabled salesman and his autistic son as they travel the backroads of Northern England. There wasn't a plot to the movie -- just a series of events. I chalk this one up to artsty-fartsy bullshit.

Staring At The Sun -- This was more of thriller? SciFi? A man is obsessed with knowing his future. He finds someone who can tell his future, but the answer isn't given to him -- he eventually forces the answer -- only to find out that the answer was that his death. I saw that one coming. I think I've seen that movie on a Twilight Zone episode before.

Build Your Own Batsuit

How Stuff Works has an entry on how the Batsuit works -- makes the whole thing seems almost plausible. It's silly -- but fanboys will love it.

Deep Impact

At approximately 1:52AM (EDT) on July 4th, NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft will collect data as its impactor probe carves a crater a size somewhere between a house and a stadium, in the nucleus of comet Tempel 1. Launched on January 12th from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Deep Impact has traveled 431 million kilometres in 173 days to encounter Tempel 1, which has been traveling through space at 37,100 km/h. It's a mission described as "the astronomical equivalent of a 767 airliner running into a mosquito," by mission scientist Don Yeomans.

About 22 hours before the encounter, Deep Impact will release the 1 metre wide, 372 kg impactor and settle back to observe. Two hours before the impact, as the 1 billion ton Tempel 1 comes hurtling at 10.3 km/s, the impactor will switch to autonomous navigation mode and move itself into a collision trajectory. On impact, a crater up to 14 stories deep will be created, revealing what is below the surface of Tempel 1's nucleus. From 500 km away, Deep Impact will have about 13 minutes to observe before being bombarded by comet guts. Observations will be radioed back to NASA. The encounter will not cause an detectable alteration in Tempel 1's speed or trajectory as it continues on it's way in orbit around the Sun.

Studying comets is key to understanding our early solar system, as comets have remained relatively unchanged since the solar system was formed about 4.6 billion years ago. The tale, as we're taught in school, tells us that comets condensed in the outer solar system during its formation. Initially, comets resided in what is now known as the Kuiper Belt -- a flat belt of comets located beyond the orbit of Pluto. In the early solar system, the gravitational influence of the outer giants propelled some comets into a sphere around the solar system, called the Oort Cloud. Comets from the Kuiper Belt are short period, while those from the Oort Cloud are long period -- falling into orbit around the Sun due to gravitational perturbations.

Tempel 1 is from the Kuiper Belt. Since comets have resided beyond the reach of the Sun's heat most of their lives, they have remained relatively unchanged since the formation of the solar system. They represent a record of the material that went into the creation of the solar system. Equally important is the composition of comets -- they are 50% frozen water and 10-20% carbon. The terrestrial planets are actually quite poor in water and carbon, and it is believed that comets delivered water to Earth and seeded the planet with life. Comets may also have been responsible for some of the mass extinctions that have engulfed the planet in the past.

Deep Impact is part of NASA's ongoing fast, cheap and high impact missions under the Discovery Program. Other missions from the program have included:

Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) -- the first spacecraft to orbit and land on an asteroid, Eros, in February 2000.

Mars Pathfinder -- delivered a robotic lander on Mars on July 4, 1997.

Lunar Prospector -- entered lunar orbit on January 12, 1998.

Stardust -- the spacecraft flew through the coma of Comet Wild 2 on January 2, 2004, collecting samples, and will return to Earth on January 2006.

Genesis -- the spacecraft collected solar wind samples beyond the Moon and returned to Earth on September 8, 2004.

Comet Nucleus Tour (Contour) -- was lost six weeks after launch, on August 15, 2002.

Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging (Messenger) -- the spacecraft will arrive at Mercury in September 2009 to begin detail mapping of the planet.

Dawn -- the spacecraft will be launched in May 2006, and will travel to two of the most massive asteroids in our solar system: Vesta in 2010, and Ceres in 2014.

Kepler -- to be launched in the fall of 2007, the mission of Kepler is to find Earth-like extrasolar planets.

Other cometary missions that have increased or will be increasing our knowledge of comets, are:

International Comet Explorer -- executed a flyby of Giacobini-Zinner in 1985, and Halley in 1986.

Halley was also visited in 1986 by ESA's Giotto, the Soviet Union's Vega 1 and Vega 2, and Japan's Sakigake and Suisei spacecrafts.

Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9's collision with Jupiter in 1994 was observed by the Hubble Space Telescope, and the Galileo and Ulysses spacecrafts.

Deep Space 1 -- made a successful encounter with Comet Borrelly.

Stardust -- flew within 236 km of Comet Wild 2 on January 2, 2004, and is scheduled to return to Earth with samples in January 2006.

Rosetta -- was launched by ESA on March 2, 2004 on a mission to orbit and deliver a lander on Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014.

Microsoft Censors Blogs

Microsoft is teaming up with the Chinese government to ensure that the Chinese population never sees blog entries mentioning "human rights" or "Taiwan independence" among other sensitive words. MSN Spaces in China, which is operated as a joint venture with the Chinese government backed Shanghai Alliance Investment Ltd., pops-up a warning message that reads:

"This message contains a banned expression, please delete this expression."

when users post entries using banned words. Shanghai Alliance Investment is run by Jiang Mianheng, a son of former President Jiang Zemin.

Microsoft isn't the first large American company to capitulate to the demands of the Chinese government. Microsoft joins Yahoo and Google in this regard. This is part of Chinese government's efforts to curtail the freedom of their bloggers. The government has given bloggers until June 30th to register their blogs, after which date, unregistered blogs will be shut down. These large companies frequently site compliance with local laws as the excuse for capitulating to the Chinese government. A totally lame excuse when you think about it, as the excuse could similarly be used to curtail freedoms in the Middle East and other backward regimes. If South Africa for instance was still a state under apartheid, would Microsoft and their ilk help the regime in curtailing the freedoms of its citizens? Probably. This is no different from other companies in other industries that have cozy relationships with other regimes, while they practice the new form of imperialism -- raping and pillaging with wanton disregard for the backs its building its profits on.

China represents such a huge market, with untapped potential, that Bill Gates would kiss Chairman Mao's ass if he had to, to gain a toe hold. And so much for Google's "do no evil" -- apparently, evil committed against the Chinese isn't really evil.

Most Earth-like Extrasolar Planet Discovered to Date

The most Earth-like extrasolar planet to date has been discovered orbiting Gliese 876, about 15 light years from us. The planet has about 7.5 times the mass and twice the radius of Earth. It's most likely a rocky planet -- instead of the usual large, gas giants that have been discovered to date. The rocky planet orbits Gliese 876 every two days in a near circular orbit. The Gliese 876 system includes two other gas giant planets.

Gliese 876 is an M dwarf star about one-third the size of the Sun, and is located in the Aquarius constellation.

Just a bunch of links

I'm tired. Been a long day, and getting longer by the minute as I stay awake to hammer out a useless post. Here are a bunch of totally unrelated sites that I came across recently. Enjoy, and forget that your day is getting longer as you spend time on useless sites.

World O Meters -- a collection of useless projections based on 2003-04 data. The JavaScript program taps into your computer clock to figure out when it is, and projects statistics covering world population, governments and economics, education, the environment, food and energy. Overwhelming numbers for the little blue marble.

Bloogz -- this is yet another blog ranking tool on the net. It "assesses how popular websites and the topics of Blogs are, according to the number of visitors and quotes that can be found." Why do you care? Want to see what wave is moving through the blogosphere? Check this site out.

Funnyfox -- check out these funny Firefox web commercials. Too funny! (What's more funny? I watched it using IE! ... yeah, get a life, I know.)

Store Wars -- check out this flash movie that parodies Star Wars with vegetables. See the Organic Rebellion in action and learn the ways of the farm. It's funny!

Movies

Barbarian Queen -- Oh, what a bad, exploitation movie. Made in 1985, the movie sought to take advantage of the Conan craze. There was no sorcery, just a lot of bad gladiators, warrior women, who can kick ass, but sometimes can't defend themselves when their tops are being torn off. What a crappy b-movie. The plot: evil emperor guy is nasty, rapes and pillages villages. Unfortunately he picked the wrong village. After killing most of the villagers, and taking the rest as slave, he retires to his castle to prance around torturing some captives and plan his big gladiator joust. Unfortunately, it all goes wrong when the Barbarian Queen from the village comes seeking revenge and her prince, who was enslaved by the dastardly evil emperor. A lot of cheesy fights ensue.

Bloodsucking Redneck Vampires -- Another load of crap I watched. It was funny, but sometimes unintentional. The premise: a vampire seeks to turn a redneck town into her vampire army to defeat a gay, french Van Helsing type that's after her. Unfortunately, the town's residents are rednecks -- stupid, stupid rednecks -- who keep killing themselves accidentally after being turned into vampires. The acting is bad. I've never seen worse rednecks in a movie.

Flesh for the Beast -- This is a haunted house movie that fails miserably. The entire movie is a cliche. There are demons and zombies haunting a house. A crew is brought in to clear the evil and restore the house. A stupid crew. First thing they do is split up. From there, the movie loses all sense of a good horror movie. The good guys get killed off one at a time. There is no character development. You kinda start cheering for the next victim to meet their untimely demise just so you can get to the end of the movie faster.

The Chronicles of Riddick -- Saw this one with my daughter -- unlike the crap above. It was pretty good. The story? Whatever. The acting? Whatever. The action? Cool! The special effects? Over the top cool! Definitely a movie to watch for the effects. The plot isn't a bad one either. The writers certainly set out to create a franchise. Whether they capitalize on it with future movies is another story. [That's a pun!]