April 19, 2010
Reader Tips
Good evening ladies and gentlemen, welcome to SDA Late Nite Radio. Tonight, for your delectation, here are Mstislav Rostropovich and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields performing Franz Joseph Haydn's Concerto for Cello N° 1, II, & III, in C Major (24:27).
|
Your Reader Tips are, as always, welcome in the comments.
April 18, 2010
They Can't Help Themselves
That's funny... just last week nobody was talking presumption of innocence... they were all, to a man, just screeching non-stop about hookers & blow.
It's why, when I receive a request from a "journalist" to remove an old post from the archives, who states it's embarrassing and shows up on Google searches, where it might interfere with his ability to find work as a freelancer ...and that I've probably come to my senses since writing it...
In the interest of fairness, I asked if he'd revisited the drive-by he pulled for Pat Martin back on May 22nd of 2006, in light of events of early June.
You mean the case where most of the charges were stayed and the crazy guy in Toronto was buying fertilizer and going out to some farm for target practice with a bunch of kids, and the cops were watching them all along? You mean that's why they added the swat squad to the motorcade? I would put in one of those email joke faces there, but I can't stand them. If I were to re-visit the wider topic, it would be how Harper and Obama get along so well.
Yeah, that one.
Tim Naumetz, meet the blogosphere.
It happens when thousands of fed up Canadians cancel their newspapers, click off the televisions, and turn to the net in search of sources who don't treat them like idiots.
So, that "Google rank" thing? It's not a bug - it's a consequence.
More Pavilions At Folkfest
Where’s the minaret, I also asked her? Why don’t we just declare Sharia law? She was surprised by my alarm and really didn’t say anything, or if she did, I couldn’t hear it despite being silent myself. I asked her if she really didn’t understand why it was a bad idea for a public space, the public library, to use religious symbols in its carpeting. No answer.
Back To The Well
A lot of people had forgotten...
[...] the shameful incompetence that led to the Waco massacre that — unlike the blamed Limbaugh, etc. — actually inspired Timothy McVeigh, but by bringing it up again Clinton is reminding people, and undermining the elder-statesman role he was trying to carve out. Bad move. Either he’s losing his touch, or they’re getting desperate.
What Would We Do Without Scientific Forecasts?
"Presumably at another point during Tarantola's "chain of events'' something will occur to convert all of us into promiscuous gay men."
h/t JMH
Reader Tips
| Good evening ladies and gentlemen, welcome to SDA Late Nite Radio. Tonight, for your delectation, here is episode 16 from the second year of the Hogan's Heroes series: Art for Hogan's Sake ¤, II ¤, & III ¤. |
Your Reader Tips are, as always, welcome in the comments.
April 17, 2010
Y2Kyoto: But Just You Wait!
Related - "It's always illuminating when the people who tell us nightly about the absolute certainty of anthropogenic climate-change demonstrate their ignorance about how the Earth works."“We believe the reduction of ice has not been important in triggering this latest eruption,” he said of Eyjafjallajokull.
Distinguished Lecture, Documentary & Interview Symposia
 |
We Don't Need No Stinking Giant Fans
Most folks leave things they don’t understand alone—they don’t try and turn the house upside down hoping it all comes out right. But that isn’t how McGuinty rolls—at least on this file.
Instead he is placing billions of your tax dollars and your children’s tax dollars on a bet that a mix of unproven wind, solar and other exotic means of electricity generation will one day put a meaningful dent into Ontario’s supply of energy. It is a high-stakes gamble—with about the same odds as winning the lottery.
Nevertheless, McGuinty last week announced his government was offering contracts for 184 renewable energy contracts. By some estimates this converts into an $8 billion investment. This is on top of billions more spent through at least four other outlandishly rich contracts designed to attract investors.
Whom has the province attracted? Well, they include such corporate luminaries as 2225054 Ontario Limited and 6718710 Canada Corporation. Others such as Zep Wind Farm LP signify that these outfits are organized as limited partnerships which means the investors who anted up the money to make the FIT application were able to write off at least part of their investment on their personal taxes. So as a taxpayer you are an enabler of this bit of speculation.
Most of these companies didn’t exist five years ago. Many likely formed just to apply for the FIT contracts. This is the cast of characters to whom McGuinty has decided to hitch Ontario’s energy future.
h/t Manotick
If The Vatican Was In Yemen
Could priests still be pedophiles?
Actually, I hope Yemen gets gay marriage. That way, 54 year old men could marry 9 year old boys, and still nobody would care.
Reader Tips
| Good evening ladies and gentlemen, welcome to SDA Late Nite Radio. Tonight, for your delectation, here are Depeche Mode performing Enjoy The Silence ¤ § (1990, 4:17). |
Your Reader Tips are, as always, welcome in the comments.
April 16, 2010
Cleanup on gate eleven
Sometimes the answer is right under our noses:
Here's a solution to all the controversy over full-body scanners at airports.
Have a booth that you can step into that will not X-ray you, but will detonate any explosive device you may have on you.
It would be a win-win situation for everyone and would eliminate this crap about racial profiling. This method would also obviate the need for a long and expensive trial. Justice would be swift and quick.
This elegant solution would also benefit people flying standby:
I can just see it now: You're in the airport terminal and you hear a muffled explosion. Shortly thereafter, an announcement comes over the PA system, "Attention standby passengers, we now have a seat available on flight number...."
Rick And The Volcano
Now is the time at SDA when we intellectualize!
SANCHEZ: I’ll tell you what people will complain about when they hear that statement. It’s the sense that there is a push among certain people in our country for almost non-intellectualism. In other words, the smarter you are, the less we’re interested in what you have to say.
KAPLAN: Anti-intellectualism- yeah.
SANCHEZ: Right, anti-intellectualism.
SANCHEZ: I was just asking Chad, how can you get a volcano in Iceland? [Myers laughs]. Isn't it too- when you think of a volcano, you think of Hawaii and long words like that. You don't think of Iceland.MYERS: Right.
SANCHEZ: You think it's too cold to have a volcano there. But no! There it is.
It's hard to believe that a major cable network employs a man who's unaware that the interior of the earth is extremely hot, several million degrees.
h/t bruce wayne riley
Reader Tips
Good evening ladies and gentlemen, welcome to SDA Late Nite Radio. Tonight, for your delectation, here are Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek, John Densmore, & Robby Krieger, as The Doors, performing Light My Fire ¤ §, in 1968 (9:58, live).
|
Your Reader Tips are, as always, welcome in the comments.
April 15, 2010
Free Saskatchewan!
The Government claims Saskatchewan's Human Rights Commissioner is recommending the human rights tribunal here be scrapped. And it is being considered.
The Commissioner feels the perception of the tribunal is that it isn't independent enough. Because of that Justice Minister Don Morgan is considering the change, "and its not seen as being independent or at arm's length."
Only four to five complaints a year end up in front of the tribunal the rest are dealt with though the Commission, "trying to deal with the complaints that come in at a preliminary level by way of mediation."
If the change goes ahead those few complaints that aren't resolved at the Commission level will end up at the Court of Queen's Bench, with the cost the same as before a tribunal. Morgan maintains he hasn't yet made any decision.
Another Good Day To Not Be A Newscaster
"The eruption under the Eyjafjallajokull glacier continued to spew large amounts of ash and smoke into the air..."
We Don't Need No Stinking Giant Mirrors
Margaret Wente keeps stealing all my best topics;
So who are the winners? The companies that harvest the subsidies. They're flocking to Ontario like fruit flies to a bowl of overripe peaches. The government is trying to create a feel-good story by showcasing the little guys - such as schools that want to install solar roofs, and native-run wind companies with names such as Mother Earth (despite the fact that little guys are the most inefficient operators of all). But it's the big guys who are the biggest winners - multinational corporations such as the Korean giant Samsung, with which Mr. McGuinty struck a $7-billion deal, and Brookfield Renewable Power, which plans to generate more power than all the little guys put together.
But wait, there's more!
The government will pay Mr. Creeggan and other solar producers around 80 cents a kilowatt hour for the power they sell back to the grid. That's about 15 times more than the current spot price that consumers now pay for power.
This helpful tip for Mr. Creeggan, straight from the SDA Suggestion Box - "...just hook up the AC into the output circuit of the solar panels."
The Sound Of Settled Science
21 of 44 chapters in the United Nations' Nobel-winning climate bible earned an F on a report card released today. Forty citizen auditors from 12 countries examined 18,500 sources cited in the report – finding 5,600 to be not peer-reviewed.
Contrary to statements by the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the celebrated 2007 report does not rely solely on research published in reputable scientific journals. It also cites press releases, newspaper and magazine clippings, student theses, newsletters, discussion papers, and literature published by green advocacy groups. Such material is often called "grey literature."
"We've been told this report is the gold standard," says Canadian blogger Donna Laframboise, who organized the online crowdsourcing effort to examine the references. "We've been told it's 100 percent peer-reviewed science. But thousands of sources cited by this report have been nowhere near a scientific journal."Based on the grading system used in US schools, 21 chapters in the IPCC report receive an F (they cite peer-reviewed sources less than 60% of the time), 4 chapters get a D, and 6 get a C. There are also 5 Bs and 8 As.
Tony Blair's Britain
Where the foxes caper unmolested, the government packs your school lunch and the English Defense League has formed a gay division;
As a gay man who is also a Buddhist I never thought I'd vote for the BNP. But having friends attacked by packs of Muslim youths simply for being gay I'm changing my opinion and will be voting for the BNP since nobody else will protect us. The BNP may not be exactly pro-gay but unlike the Muslims they don't want to kill us.
h/t Robert
Dear Mr. President
"Right now, Israel doesn’t trust the commander in chief because Mr. President, it seems that you don’t know what you’re doing".
Or worse yet - he does.
(link fixed)
Reader Tips
Welcome to the Wednesday (EBD) SDA Late Nite Radio.
Recently there's been a bit of a behind-the-scenes scandal at the LNR studios: one particular commenter, Loretta, claims that another commenter - let's call her "Carol" - has been boasting about having an affair with Loretta's husband. A rather steamed Loretta writes, via email,
"She's absolutely full of it. When my husband picks up trash, he puts it in a garbage can. And that's what Carol looks like to me - pitiful trash. If she comes anywhere near me I swear I'm going to grab her by the hair and lift her off of the ground."
"I'm not saying my husband is a saint - 'cause he ain't - and that he won't flirt with other women. What I am saying is that if Carol doesn't back off I'm going to show her what a real woman is. She thinks she's hot stuff? Well, if she's got the guts, she should say to my face all this stuff she's been saying to other people."
"She's been boasting about this supposed mutual attraction between her and my husband; well, mark my word, if she doesn't shut up she's going to find herself on a one-way trip to Fist City."
I felt it was in the interests of public safety to publish the warning. Now, leave me out of it.
The thread is open for your Reader Tips.
April 14, 2010
The Sound Of Settled Science
You mean that big, glowing ball in the sky can actually affect the climate?
When the Sun’s magnetic output is low, winters in Europe tend to be cooler than average – whereas higher output corresponds to warmer winters. That is the conclusion of a new study by physicists in the UK and Germany that looked at the relationship between winter temperatures in England and the strength of the Sun's magnetic emissions over the last 350 years. The group predicts that, global warming notwithstanding, Europe is likely to continue to experience cold winters for many years to come.
Those wacky physicists!
h/t Don
Dear Asteroid,
So, I'm working away here, catching up on non-blog projects as bits and pieces of the Helen Guergis scandal de jour trickle out of the radio.
I think it was the word "miscarriage" that caught my attention.
I once thought I knew how to recognize a political scandal - an American president lying under oath; operatives diverting public funds into party coffers; a cyclist killed in a pique of road rage.
As it turns out, a scandal can be brought forth into existence through the singular act of a political reporter speculating before a camera while using the word "unclear".
This presents a dilemma for me, as a blogger.
I have emails in my inbox, opened but unmentioned. Lots of them. Rumours, allegations, "word on the street" stuff.
A recent word on the streeter pertains to a Liberal member of parliament's rumoured relationship with a well-known CTV personality.
That's pretty juicy stuff, I suppose - we'd all recognize the names. But, it's all I have - a couple of emails. It might not be true. If it's proven to be true, it's still sort of personal.
And that's the dilemma. I don't know what to do with that. So, when I don't know what to do with a story that involves unsubstanciated claims about the personal affairs of others, I turn to our betters in mainstream journalism and ask myself, "What would Bob Fife do?"
" Yes, Lloyd, while there's no indication that the parties in question have done anything illegal, it could raise conflict of interest questions in the minds of some, and prove embarrassing to the network."
"Thanks Bob - we'll be watching for that one."
Maybe I could simply find a few quotes by respected CTV speculationists and replace the names they use with the names given to me and attach the word "unclear".
With a question mark for good measure?
'Maybe Mickey I. can't pronounce "Guergis"'/Mr Zsohar Upperdate
'...One wonders whether the oh-so-progressive and feminist Toronto Star (or any other media outlet) will look askance at the Mickster's referring to a female politician as a "missus".
...
Upperdate: Only Don Martin in the National Post seems to have noticed Ms Guergis' relegation to missus:
...Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff now refers to Helena Guergis as "Mrs. Jaffer," a cheap tactic to smear a woman who goes by her maiden name. Perhaps Conservatives should refer to Mr. Ignatieff as Mr. Zsohar, given that his wife Zsuzsanna goes by the name on her birth certificate, but having met her I'd say her name would link to a character improvement...'
