Binary Translater

The web application of the day the Binary Translater from NickCisk allows you to communicate in your computer's, or your computer nerd's favorite code.

10 go to program
20 use program
30 laugh
40 repeat

01010100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01110111 01100101 01100010 00100000 01100001 01110000 01110000 01101100 01101001 01100011 01100001 01110100 01101001 01101111 01101110 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01100100 01100001 01111001 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01000010 01101001 01101110 01100001 01110010 01111001 00100000 01010100 01110010 01100001 01101110 01110011 01101100 01100001 01110100 01100101 01110010 00100000 01100110 01110010 01101111 01101101 00100000 01001110 01101001 01100011 01101011 01000011 01101001 01110011 01101011 00100000 01100001 01101100 01101100 01101111 01110111 01110011 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01100011 01101111 01101101 01101101 01110101 01101110 01101001 01100011 01100001 01110100 01100101 00100000 01101001 01101110 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100011 01101111 01101101 01110000 01110101 01110100 01100101 01110010 00100111 01110011 00101100 00100000 01101111 01110010 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100011 01101111 01101101 01110000 01110101 01110100 01100101 01110010 00100000 01101110 01100101 01110010 01100100 00100111 01110011 00100000 01100110 01100001 01110110 01101111 01110010 01101001 01110100 01100101 00100000 01100011 01101111 01100100 01100101 00101110 00001101 00001010 00001101 00001010 00110001 00110000 00100000 00100000 01100111 01101111 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 00100000 01110000 01110010 01101111 01100111 01110010 01100001 01101101 00001101 00001010 00110010 00110000 00100000 01110101 01110011 01100101 00100000 01110000 01110010 01101111 01100111 01110010 01100001 01101101 00001101 00001010 00110011 00110000 00100000 01101100 01100001 01110101 01100111 01101000 00001101 00001010 00110100 00110000 00100000 01110010 01100101 01110000 01100101 01100001 01110100

How to get Charitable Funds From Cats

Thanks Geek Humor

Timeline: Modern German City in the 3rd Reich

At altenativehistory.com there is an interesting timeline of a modern German city sent to the 1940. here is a good quote: ...then he would merely do the best he could to not end up with his back to the wall, facing grim Grenediers with shouldered rifles... he would do his duty, and hope for the best.

Nigerian Scam Letter

Here is a Nigerian Scam Letter that was recently sent to me from the Ivory Coast. The spelling and grammatical errors are entirely the fault of the sleaze who emailed me this screaming letter. John Etembe is famous enough from previous scams here is an earlier scam letter used as example of why you should never trust anyone from West Africa.

PERMIT ME TO INFORM YOU OF MY DESIRE OF GOING INTO
BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP WITH YOU.
I AM MR JOHN ETEMBE, THE ONLY CHILD OF LATE MR AND
MRS.ETEMBE,MY FATHER WAS A VERY WEALTHY COCOA
MERCHANT BASED IN ABIDJAN, THE ECONOMIC CAPITAL OF
IVORY COAST BEFORE HE WAS POISONED TO DEATH BY HIS
BUSINESS ASSOCIATES ON ONE OF THEIR OUTING TO DISCUSS
ON A BUSINESS.
WHEN MY MOTHER DIED ON THE 21ST OCTOBER 1994, MY
FATHER TOOK ME SO SPECIAL BECAUSE I AM MOTHERLESS.
BEFORE THE DEATH OF MY FATHER ON 29TH JUNE 2005 IN A
PRIVATE HOSPITAL HERE IN ABIDJAN. HE SECRETLY CALLED
ME ON HIS BEDSIDE AND TOLD ME THAT HE HAS A SUM OF US$
10,500,000 (TEN MILLION FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND,
UNITED STATES DOLLARS) LEFT IN A SUSPENCE ACCOUNT IN
LOCAL BANK HERE IN ABIDJAN, THAT HE USED MY NAME AS
HIS ONLY SON FOR THE NEXT OF KIN IN DEPOSIT OF THE
FUND.HE ALSO EXPLAINED TO ME THAT IT WAS BECAUSE OF
THIS WEALTH THAT HE WAS POISONED BY HIS BUSINESS
ASSOCIATES.THAT I SHOULD SEEK FOR A FOREIGN PARTNER
IN A COUNTRY OF MY CHOICE WHERE I WILL TRANSFER THIS
MONEY AND USE IT FOR INVESTMENT PURPOSE,
(SUCH AS REAL ESTATE MANAGEMENT).
PLEASE, I AM HONOURABLY SEEKING YOUR ASSISTANCE IN THE
FOLLOWING WAYS.
1)TO PROVIDE A BANK ACCOUNT WHERE THIS MONEY WOULD BE
TRANSFERRED TO
2)TO SERVE AS THE GUARDIAN OF THIS FUND SINCE I AM A
BOY OF 20 YEARS
3)TO MAKE ARRANGEMENT FOR ME TO COME OVER TO YOUR
COUNTRY AFTER THE MONEY HAS BEEN TRANSFERRED.
MOREOVER,I AM WILLING TO OFFER YOU 15% OF THE
TOTAL SUM AS COMPENSATION FOR YOUR EFFORT/INPUT AFTER
THE SUCCESSFUL TRANSFER OF THIS FUND TO YOUR
NORMINATED ACCOUNT OVERSEAS.
FURTHERMOIRE, YOU CAN INDICATE YOUR OPTION TOWARDS
ASSISTING ME AS I BELIEVE THAT THIS TRANSACTION WOULD
BE CONCLUDED WITHIN SEVEN (7) DAYS YOU SIGNIFY
INTEREST TO ASSIST ME.
ANTICAIPTING TO HEAR FROM YOU SOON.
THANKS AND GOD BLESS
JOHN ETEMBE
PLS REPLY HERE FOR SECURITY REASON:
john_etembe2004@yahoo.fr

The Easter Bunny Hates You

DS9 Quote

A man with a deathwish is a danger not only to himself but to the rest of his team. - Odo

Isn't it Sad When Cousins Marry

Looking the history and politics of Arab "nations" one is often confronted with a difficulty in building nation states. Steve Sailer wrote Cousin Marriage Conundrum: The ancient practice discourages democratic nation-building to address so of the difficulties that inbreeding presents to nation building. In a similar vein is this article by de Atkins, an American military officer wrote in 1999, Why Arabs Lose Wars. Such happy reading.

Locations of Roman Legions

If you ever wondered if the XII Fulminata was stationed in Egypt, Syria or Judea or in all three provinces consult this chart.

The Complete War Poems of Wilfred Owen

BBC3 is reading Wilfred Owen's poetry in five minute chunks.
Asleep - Strange Meeting
A Terre
The Parable of the Old Man and the Young - SIW
1914 - Dulce et Decorum Est - Futility
The Letter - Insensibility
Disabled - Happiness
The Spring Offensive - The Dead Beat
Has Your Soul Sipped? - Exposure
Le Christianisme - The Unreturning - The Next War
The Chances - Mental Cases - Six O'Clock in Princes Street

Borat Saved by House

True story!

Movie Timelines

The Movie Timeline is a combination of many different movie timelines. Andy Dufresne was wrongly sentenced to Shawshank a few short months before someone else was framed - Roger Rabbit... or

1988

First appearance of Akira's true powers (Tokoyo, Japan - Akira)

Bill & Ted meet Rufus for the first time, and begin to travel through time (Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure)

I haven't added the date of Aguirre's trip down the Amazon yet.

Chris Rock's Rules of Safety

How not to get your Ass kicked by the police.

1. Obey the Law
2. Use Common sense
3. Stop Immediately
4. Turn that shit off
   
5. Be Polite
6. Shut the fuck up
7. Get a white friend
8. Don't ride with a mad women
   

The Eyes Have It

This is an amusing ad for MicroJerk's IPod copy. I don't really see the connection to selling boxes of crippleware and this very cool piece of anaimation. In the ad a creature with many eyes (an Argus?) gives one of his eyes to a creature with no eyes. This is supposely about the Zune's sharing feature. The problem is the that shared items, songs, videos, are erased on the sharee's machine after 3 uses or 3 days. If the ad followed Zune and Microsoft's policies the creature that gets the eye would lose it after 3 days because it lacks a end user license or a valid serial number or because it was a time limited demo.

Exercise in Rhetoric

Here is an election ad from Argentina that is both positive and negative at the same time. First the lines are arranged in a negative way then the text rescrolled and everything is happy. The words and sentences are arranged like an optical illusion to show either a cup or faces. There was a similar ad earlier this year put out by AOL in the UK in "Bad" and "Good" the same facts and images were used to argue opposite points.

(thanks Bestadsontv)

Your Cheating Heart

In American Prospect, Rick Pearlstein, has a depressing view of the recent American election. The Republicans lie, cheat and steal. It is what they do well.

CSI Fragment

We continue to perform the routine motions of our life until the moment of our death.

How Long do I Have Left

The Proceeding of the Athanasius Kircher Society has a story about a patent for a watch that tells you how many years, months, days and secounds you have left alive. Doesn't this sound alot like the Heinlein story, Life-Line. In the story Life-Line an inventor creates a machine that tells how much time you left and then is murdered on day, hour that he predicts.

Sad Little Kiwi

Topographical Map Server

Canada now has put its entire topographic map database online. The map server, Toprama, does two things better than Google maps. You can get the contour elevation and spot elevation. And the best feature is that you can distances that don't depend on driving directions. Not that driving directions are not useful but if want to find out the width of a bay you want the distance from two points not the drivable distance betweeen them.

The limitation is that the source for the Top maps can be out of date. Google depends on satellite information that is relatively un processed. The map above has the elevation in feet. I was looking at Toronto and the Greenwood Racetrack was still showing.

Genealogy of Influence

We all know the philosopher family tree of Socrates to Plato to Aristotle. That is Socrates taught Plato who taught Aristotle. Aristotle taught Alexander the Great, but that is another story. People can be influenced by people long deadby shards of thought fossilized in books. This chart, the Mike Love Genealogy of Influence, is meant to chart the interconnection and relationship between such disparate individuals as Votaire, Dickens and Asimov. Andart has some outtakes and analysis of the Genealogy of Influence.

More on the cultural genealogy from AndArt. Even more network trees from AndArt.

Why is There Combat in Gaming

Tim Carter answers the question of why games are continued to be overstuffed with combat in an effort to please the players.

"I've always been one to believe we put things into games for reasons other than pandering to some animalistic, self-propogating desire on the part of gamers."

Warning Signs for a New Age

A Swede has come out with a new line of warning signs. Anders Sandburg has explains the need for all of these new signs along with logarithmic scaling of risk. Here is explaination for the sign above, Lack of Internet Connectivitity. Anders Sandburg's blog, Andart, is so choke full of cool, cool stuff that goes on regular rotation.

Lack of internet connectivity: today a nuisance, tomorrow a serious problem and possibly even damage risk. As our exoselves become more and more dynamic and linked to our biological minds a loss of connectivity could cause breakups of our extended minds.

(thanks RG)

Dark Redwall

I have enjoyed the various Redwall TV series. It is set in a medival world populated by funny animals. In the Alt history discussion board is a timeline for a Dark Redwall. The story of Redwall is of a good triumphing over evil, in this timeline evil wins. Cue evil laughter.

New Phrase

New phrase of the day is Intentional Community. I wonder if this phrase was coined to get away from the dirty hippie connotations of commune. But why use a 8 syllable phrase when a 2 syllable word is available.

Odd Tolkien Bio

At Wikipedia while trying to get to the JRR Tolkien page I ended up on an alternative bio. Don't look now it was only there for a short time. Here are the highlights:

Famous director, author, actor, politician, biologist and hockey player (as well as frequent mentor to Batman's younger cousin Manbat), J.R.R.S.F.B.A.B.C.D.E.F.X.Y.Z. Tolkien is the historian who discovered that the true history of the earth was being covered up by the world's governments, who did not want the general population to know of the existence of dragons, elves, hobbits, magic, etc, in order to maintain control over their people.


His written work is characterized by disputes over the ownership of jewelry, and the hand injuries that occur as a result.

He was also reputed to be the head of a secret society of monarchists who use film to undermine democracy and return the West to the Dark Ages. This secret order is called The Royal Society for Counter-Strike revolution.

Ate a lot of corn and peas.

Advertising and the Maladjusted

For advertising award program, ShowSouth, a site was created to show how advertising types are not really suited for any other line of work.

Biblical Passage to live for .

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. reference

Indian Ocean Slave Trade

The Middle Passage has been covered in many stories, books and histories but their is another story. The other half of the story of the western slave trade is the arab slave trade that wasn't limitied to Africa. Saudi Arabia only outlawed the slave trade officially in 1962. The blog Trade Routes concentrates on the history trade routes here is a story about the Indian Ocean Slave Trade.

Ad for Restraint

I saw this ad earlier this year on Best Ad on TV. The problem is that it doesn't promote one condom brand over another.

Proto Typical Campaign Ad

Here is an ad for some kid that looks like every other American election ad.

The New Beetles

Nosing around in the Rummy's Wiki entry I see that a slime-mode beetle is named after him, agathidium rumsfeldi. One blogger has provided a comparison of Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld and their beetle namesakes.

Monkey Death Wish

Monkey Death Wish, a very silly monkey teases equally silly but more dangerous tigers.

YouTube Hits and Intellectual law

Slate recently had a feature on the top hits of YouTube. Now that YouTube has real money behind it, after the purchase by Google, much of the features, clips of copyrighted material, of it are disappearing. Comedy Central clips have been pulled. On the show On The Media there was a discussion of the expected content drought on YouTube. It all turns on a content rights, there is copyright material, copyfree material, and copyright material that is free to use, sort of. If you consider land the same way as copy rights, there is public space, there is private space, and there is some private space that can be used by the public.

There are No Accidents

There is a great new ad put out by what used to be called Workman Comp. A woman has a bad accident and then points out her "accident" was expect because she and the store wasn't following the correct safety procedures.

Do You Have Feelings of Inadequency?

Listen to this ad which is an promotes booze in the same manner as a pharma ad.

ChiCom Propaganda

I went to the same school as Norman Bethune. Or should I say school building as his high school became my elementry school. Bethune has a good reputation as someone who saved alot of lives. He was like a medical missionary going aboard to do good work. Instead of spreading the gospel along with medical care Bethune was a communist intent on spreading world wide revolution. This led him to associate with the tyrant above, see here for the murderer's memory of this meeting. How could anyone become a communist in Stalin's time.

A book has been put together that covers Chinese Communist posters, Chinese Propaganda Posters: From Revolution to Modernization. A website has been put up by the author, Stefan Landsberg's Chinese Propaganda Posters, with many of the same posters covered in his book as well as updates on recent ChiCom posters and themes, SARS and Bejing 2008.

The Old Watering Hole

The Nkorho Game Reserve has a webcam on one their local watering holes. Ah, the relaxing sounds of wildlife.

Death Metal Fans

In today's Toronto Star is an article about the odd people who collect hearses. Actual Death Metal is not normally covered in the Auto section

Back to the Future Penology

The British started transportation as punishment, deportation of convicts to Australia, because their prisons were overcrowded. A stopgap measure was using derelict warships, hulks, as cheap prisons. Now I hear of news that prison hulks are having a comeback. Creepy.

If you want to read more about the original prison hulks here is a journal written by a Crapaud POW, The Floating Prison. If want to learn about the type of criminal who ended up as guests of His Majesty. The Old Bailey has put their proceeding online for 1674-1834. You can read everyday about the poor bastards who had it so much worse.

Beetle Bailey, Today's Soldier?

In a recent Comics Curmudgeon there was an interesting comment about Beetle Bailey:

Fred P.says:
I can only hope that Beetle Bailey is not representative of life in today’s Army. The Camp Swampy crew- what with its gaggle of layabout soldiers, inept officers and only one hot secretary- simply doesn’t exactly inspire one’s confidence as to their battlefield proficiency. Just think- if our Army actually was as portrayed in Beetle Bailey, and America ever did have to go to war, there’s NO WAY we could ever win! Why, we’d just wind up stuck in some endless quagmire, with leadership that entirely lacks the imagination and competence to achieve … uh … achieve … um … oh shit!

Oooh, Economic History

Whenever I read works of fiction or history I always try to translate the monetary units in some thing meaningful. There is a tendency to assume that if something costs a dollar, a small amount to us now that it is always a small amount. I am happy that my favorite cost of living/infaltion calculator, How Much Is That?, has branched out from EH.com. The new site, Measuring Worth, also has growth and inflation rates.

Weirdly The Simpsons was able to display the relative value of money. The story is a retelling of Huckleberry Finn. Huck and Tom, Bart and Nelson go a general store. When they balk at the prices the store keep has justifcation.

Apu: If you think my prices are high, go across the street! [indicates the 99-cent store, which sells luxury items like grand pianos and crystal chandeliers

Declining Telephone Cost

This is chart showing the revenue for international calls re miniute. The inflation adjusted results are even worse. The per minute revune goes from a high $28 in 1964 to $5 in 1993 to nearly nada now. The Chart came an Economist report on telecoms.

The $50,000 Bathtub

In a recent New York Times Magazine devoted to home decor one full page ad had a picture of a tub with the same relative proporotions of a cafe au lait mug. No pictures are available because the manufacturer, Boffi, only has a flash site. Here is the PDF.

The Architecture of Happiness

Alain de Botton is a philosopher who has written a book about architecture, The Architecture of Happiness, and its affect on us. Winston Churchill said that "We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us". Botton's recent book is how architecture can make us feel better. He discusses his book on NPR.

Alternative Climate

Chris Wayan has explored different earths in his collection of tilted Earths, Tilt. The image above is from an earth, Seapoles, where the poles are located in the pacific and indian oceans. He doesn't make dogmatic pronouncements on the likely hood of the resulting climates but provide enough qualifiactions. Most alternate history/geology develops more narrowly. This is more of a speculation. In the alternate world Dubia, land of global warming, he is more pointed and personal, as could be expected.

Another Explanation about Star Trek

In a thread about Karl Marx moving to the US there is a suggests that socialism (and communism) would then spread in 19th century America. The thread begins with a discussion about Techno-Socialism. The discussion breaks down into an explanation of proper industrial development. Since the Gilded Age after the US civil war was a period of rapid industrial development and the concentration of wealth any action that would prevent the Robber Barons from either robbing or reduce their swag would then prevent industrial development. This attitude to Scarface some much for some theoretical goal is as scaring the commies. The agreement is that a lack of suffering will lead to lower pig iron production. Then the argument is that the US with early socialism would merely be a mere northern Brazil. But the US resembles Brazil. Brazil and US were among the last practitioners of slavery. Slavery and the production of slaves were the main exports and were also important industrially. Both countries have wide income and wealth disparities to this day.

Buried in the thread amidst the ravings about the lack of inequality was this amusing Star Trek analogy.

My pet theory on Federation society is that its a techno-communist state. The vast majority of citizens live lives of leisure and hedonistic pleasure, supported by automated production facilities. A tiny minority of self-starters work; in government sponsored research labs, or Starfleet, or administration. This results in terribly inefficient designs, such as TV remote phasers that cannot be aimed, warships with most space taken up with civilians and research labs, usage of torpedoes to carry warheads when matter transmission technology should make it a simple matter to transport warheads directly into contact with enemy shields, etc. With Starfleet made up of essentially hobbyists on a lark, there is massive rank inflation, with most of Starfleet being made up of officers with almost no enlisted personnel, as well as terrible command decisions such as taking the entire command staff of a starship on an away mission with only one anonymous security trooper for escort.

Plague Books

A recent BoingBoing entry was about plague books. I go to the article about Steve Johnson's favorite books about plagues. I am shocked however when I discover that I have 3 of the 5 books on the list. But then I also have books about torture.

The No Enumeration Election System

American election laws were once the freest and most open in the world. They were one of the first countries to get rid property qualifications. In 1850 when nearly all white american men could vote only about 1/7 of British men could vote. The Reform act of 1832 gave the vote to men who paid at least £50 in rent. In today's terms, based average incomes, that is monthly rent between $4K to $7K . That was then. After the high point of democracy that was also witnessed deTocqueville came their civil war, reconstruction and desire by the losers to keep blacks down. Since there was no legal way to disenfranchise many other dubious methods were tried, see Jim Crow.

Today the yanks have among the lowest voter participation rate in the world. They have registration. The discusion on Talk of the Nation was about Carter-Baker Commision on Federal Election Reform. One of the recomendation of the commision was the requirement for photo ID for voting and registration. There were 2 members of the commission in on the discssion. One, a Spencer Overton, and here, talked about the systemic barriers to voting now and the further burden of photo ID as a requirement for those without drivers licences or passports. He suggests that everyone should be given IDs first and then have the requirement for them. He so disagreed with the finding that he wrote his own minority report, available here. Another commisson member, Sharon Priest, considered the whole idea of going door to door to build up a voters list a waste of time. If people don't take an interest in their local affairs and go to effort to vote they shouldn't depend on the government to help them. She then outlined all the steps for enumeration explaining that it is crazy government interference. Unfortunately Canada doesn't do enumeration during elections anymore. But it still the best way to maintain a voter's list. With no door-to-door enumeration the voter's list for home owners remains more complete than for the more mobile/transient renters.

Maurice Sendak talking about his Demons

Maurice Sendak has always been an scary illustrator. He makes children's books that have real menace in them. I remember Where the Wild Things Are from my childhood. His recent work involves child abduction. This is the topic for a kid's book. Check out Sendak talking why he puts children in danger, there is also audio slide show that highlights some of his spookiest images.

New Software

The Comicbook Reader is a sequential image viewer specially designed for viewing scanned comic books. This free ware program, and protocol, replaces the PDF format. PDFs are good for moving around completed documents. This pprogram is better than the Microsoft Image Viewer because it can maximize the images.

I just downloaded some Heavy Metal and am now enjoying the reading thorough them.

Roman Architectural Manual found again

When I was younger I read / glanced through/ leafed a book on roman architecture. The book is, The Ten Books on Architecture. Evidently the "books" are probably scrolls. The one fact I can remember from reading this book is the proper proportions of columns. Since then all columns that are too thin or too thick (very rare) seem very wrong. I am happy to find a full version of this book on a university website. It is there along the text of the latin original.

Enjoy.

Newsgroup Humor

In a thread about The League of Extraordinary Germans comes this very netcentrentic back and forth

Hermanubis
Mister Fifty Five

Wouldnt Schwarznegger get Austria? (Before German annexation of Austria? Hmp!)

Nek
Proud to be Nek

Wouldn't "wouldnt" get an apostrophe? And "Hmp" have an extra h? Although I think we could allow the Anschluss in this case, y'know.

Hermanubis
Mister Fifty Five

Would it be the Internet if no-one ever nitpicked your lack of an apostrophe in 'would't' and your misspelling of 'hmph'?
(I really don't think so...)

Zombie War

A horror author was on radio talking about his recent book about the Zombie War. The amusing thing is that he was able to get everybody who called in to relate stories about the recent Zombie War. Everybody goes along with the sick joke. The book except was not as amusing as people getting undead fever.

Cooooooooooooool Wax

Cool Wax is a blog devoted amusing and odd recording. Here are some the odd recordings, Colonel Saunders own version of Mexican Music, Don Rickles insulting TV, and Music to read James Bond to.

Pleasantly Odd.

Gruesome Ketchup Ad

The Campaign Against Landmines, a New Zealand group has come with a way to raise awareness by using ketchup packages. To get at the ketchup you have rip off a foot. Here is Adfreak discussing this advertising method. Here is some more news coverage with a clip of the ketchup package in action.

More Hitler Humor

Jokes told at a Hitler Roast.

Cats That Look Like Hitler

Not everyone thinks that a Website devoted to Cats That Look Like Hitler is a good use of bandwidth. Still good for a laugh.

This is probably the worst website I have ever seen!! Why on earth is this entertaining!? The pictures are of the same dam cat! Next thing it will be birth marks that resemble countries or celebrities!!! GET A LIFE!!!

- anonymous

Julius Ceasar, What a Guy

A Welsh historian has come out with a new political biography Julius Caesar, A Life of a Collossus. Good discussion on NPR's Talk of The Nation.

Reformed Hacker on Security

Kevin Mitnick is a reformed hacker. He is also a convicted hacker who only won the right to use computers, cell phones, or any other electronic or communications technology 3 years after he was paroled. He was on Talk of the Nation talking about the different ways other people can get information about you from different government and non-government organizations like utility companies. Listen to the scary and needful story on privacy.

Horror Movie Writer has Horrifying Experience

At the 5:00 PM Wedesday screening of The Abandoned at TIFF one of the writers of the film related his own recent experience.

One of the writers of the film before the screening told his own personal horror story. The writer was/is staying at the Delta Chelsea a few doors down from where some people were murdered. At 5 am he was woken up by ETF cops banging on his door. the ETF cops in full gear with assault rifles. He was questioned if he heard anything and told to stay in his room. He stuck his head a while later and asked a cop what was going on and was told to watch TV. After flipping around he found the story about 2 Germans and one Switzer killed in the room next door. When the writer was escorted off the floor to a new room, the hallway is filled with policemen. On the walls of the hallway was smeared blood. This is the appropriate introduction to a horror film.

The Manchester Sound from Vivaldi

The Manchester Sound is a famous variety of pop music. Here is a group on the Early Music Show preforming Vivaldi's Manchester Sonatas.

Pro Corporate Ideologues

There is anger in western Canada against the Canadian Wheat Board. There is anger because the CWB is working for farmers instead of screwing them over. If the wheat board was a private company using their marketing power for its benefit the right wing ideologoes would be very happy. Because the wheat board is working to make money for farmers instead of making money from farmers, see international grain companies, it is seen some sort of commie group going against the natural order of things. And not encouraging business sewctors thatmake money on grain handling.

Here is a discussion and news reports On The Current about the Canadian Wheat Board. Here is also an additional newsreport from CBC.

"The Great Divide: How Westerners and Muslims View Each Other

This is Pew study that looks way that muslims and non-muslims view each other. Look at part of this survey. Westerers and muslims look at the same scene of veiled and unveiled women and take opposite conclusions from the same data. Different world views come from different attitudes to the individual. We in the west believe it is wrong to oppress people. The muslim world comes from the attitude that slavery has always existed, always will exist and that for you and your clan to retain social status no one in your family must look or dresses like a slave. This is the explantion for the various kinds of veiling, since slaves don't wear veils.

Cool Blog: TV in Japan

Like it says TV in Japan weirdness by the bucketload.

9/11 Conspiracy Theories

The editors of Popular Mechanics a magazine have examined 9/11 conspiracy theories. Popular Mechanics is the right kind of magizine to look at this issue. It only deals with stuff not policy. The article examines the way what can seem like unexplainable details are unexplainable only if you don't understand science and technology. The Dale Gribbles of the world will always suspects the authorities and experts who ever they are. Here are the editors on NPR discussing their risposte of the conspiracy theories.

Ted Rall admiting his Impotence

We all want to be the voice in the wilderness that are eventually believed and followed. Ted Rall has railed at a large number targets from Generalissimo Bush to 911 widows. In his latest cartoon he admits that no evidence of crimes and misdemeanors are enough to move Americans.

For cult fans out there be it for alien possession, moon god or moonies here are the last words of Jim Jones spinning conspiracy theories as his people drink the Koolaid.

New Film Festival Blog

I, Baron von Feldspar, wish to direct you to my new Blog, Feldspar's Film Festival 2006, about Toronto International Film Festival. This is an entirely new blog to get around TIFF strictures blog limitations. (see below).

PROHIBITED CONTENT - The following types of content may not be posted on your blog or on the Toronto International Film Festival's website:

1. Any content that is libelous, defamatory, hateful, obscene, profane, harassing, embarrassing, pornographic, abusive, threatening or offensive.
2. Any content that furthers or promotes illegal activities.
3. Any content that solicits personal information from other users that may identify one or more such users.
4. Any content that violates any intellectual property or proprietary rights, including without limitation copyright and trade-marks.

Since I cannot guarantee that on my regular blog, Feldsparia, I have never posted obscene material or libelous material that is insulting to thieves, murderers, Republicans, Communists or Jihadis I have created this new blog just for the film festival. I think that limitation on "obscene" is a little rich from TIFF since every year the festival has a Ye Olde Traditional Porn Documentry. YOTPD is also a sound that shows up in such documentries. This year the YOTPD is the movie S&Man.

The World of Star Wars in Our Reality

Over at the Alternative History Discussion Board there is a long and popular thread about the Death Star ending up in our continuum. The scenario is based on Mimas, a moon of Saturn, see above, that kind of looks like the Death Star. Much fun is had by all, except those killed by Vader.

Odd View of Family Values Murderers

In a New York Times story, also here, here and here, about a Pakistani family wacking their daughter because she was according to her mother “she was simply a daughter who did not obey”. It charactizes the conflict as between as parents with "conservative social and religious traditions and their Westernized children." If people think they have the right and duty to murder thier disobidient children they are more than conservative they are from some primative tribe beyond the pale. It has the mistake of that the Italians along with other western countries have not been civilizing the thuggish barbarians in their midst.

Why do we import more barbarians in our midst?

The killing, and a series of other unrelated slayings involving immigrants that followed, has stirred anti-immigrant statements from some residents and groups. It also has prompted front-page debate about what can happen when conservative beliefs collide with the mores of more permissive societies, and has highlighted the generation gap between parents who have immigrated to Italy from countries with conservative social and religious traditions and their Westernized children.

Too Many Clicks - Gamastutra Article

Civilization is a great game. However after you it requires increasing attention and player involvement in the the later turns than in the earlier epochs. Too Many Clicks is a Gamasutra article on the too many things that players have to in too many games.

Oil Crisises Past

New Nigerian Scam Letter

We have probably all recieved a copy of the Nigerian Scam letter. I have recieved this scam in hand written letters, in email and occasionly from non nigerians. In my spam mail acount I have received another dubious request, this time supposely from the wife of the disgraced ANC official Zuma. Zuma was a dubious character before he was a rapist. He was part of the the ANC. Can you trust a political party with its own flag and armed wing.

from "lindi_zuma@terra.es"

Dear Beloved,
I am wife of Sacked Deputy President of South Africa, Mr. Jacob Zuma.

It is out of desperation that I am sending you this mail.My Husband and I need your assistance in fronting for us as owner of funds that are his which might come under nvestigation soon if the fund's ownership is not changed soonest. As my Husband's finances are increasingly becoming the source of investigation by our detractors. The source of these fund's which my Husband earnings would not validate, will further sink him into the cesspool dug by our enemies.

It is because of the dire strait we find ourselves that we resolved to reach you and ask or your assistance in this matter.We are averse to letting those we know here into this deal because we are no longer sure of who our friends are.You will be handsomely rewarded you choose to help us partnerhip in this project.I will be expecting to hear from you and will disclose further details to you upon your response.Do well not to disclose the contents of this mail to anyone.

Best Regards,
Mrs.Lindiwe Zuma.

Invisible Atom: A Reaction

A saw Invisible Atom by the 2b theatre company on sunday. It was an interesting tragedy. Tragedy happens when people revolt against fate and doom themselves in the attempt. In classical tragedy someone tries to avoid evil being done themselves. In Invisible Atom a man attempts to avoid doing evil and so dooms himself. Of course one no more avoid evil then death. We are all collaborate with some sort of unsavory and unethical behavior. At most we can choose our evils like we choose our poisons. But evil like death is part of all of lives.

Check it out when it shows up in your area.

The History of Bowman Trading & Salvage

Along time ago in a galaxy far far way I, Baron von Feldspar was a merchant prince who started, with some unindicted co-conspirators, my own shipping line in the Spinward Marches. At the Traveller Wiki Major Heddon has documented some of the history of Bowman Trading and Salvage.

Appropriate Surname

I was listening to an program on How Does the Human Body Cope with Heat? on NPR. The discusion went on about the ability of humans to cope or not with heat. One of the panelists was a heat expert named Larry Sonna, pronounced sauna.

Annother Take on Cartoon Violence

Remember the cartoon jihad earlier this year. A cartooon fan has produced a fake BBC News webpage full of cartoon violence

part 1
part 2

What can Muslims doing in the west safely

In a thread about
Heathrow Airport employee with all-area access pass among suspected jihadists arrested

In the Western world, what can Muslims be allowed to do, and what must they be prevented from doing? Clearly, anyone who claims that he takes his worldview from the Qur'an, and the Hadith, and the model of Muhammad, uswa hasana, al-insan al-kamil, must be taken seriously. We, the Infidels, have to find out what it means to derive your worldview from the Qur'an, the Hadith, the biography of Muhammad. We cannot guess at this. We cannot assume that Islam, more or less, must be just like other religions, or other belief-systems that are called religions. We have to find out. We cannot find out by listening to Muslims who practice taqiyya-and-tu-quoque. And since the actual contents of Qur'an and Hadith and Sira are, for Infidels, so horrifying in what they directly express and in what they imply, anyone aware of the contents of Islam, the tenets of Islam, the attitudes to which Islam not distortedly but naturally gives rise, must -- however charming, however mild-mannereed, however seemingly acceptalbe in all other respects, must be held to a knowledge of, and acceptance, what is contained in that Qur'an, those Hadith, that model of the Perfect Man.

What then can we allow Muslims in our societies, whether they come from Muslim countries, or happen to have been allowed to settle here, or are among those targetted for the campaigns of Da'wa among disaffected, alienated, psychically or economically marginal people all over the West (from the ditzy lord to the melancholy bicycle-delivery boy, the first looking for an explanation and justification of his upper-class-twit existence, and the second trying to find a structure for his existence, something that will order him about from dawn to dusk, and what's more, provide a grid for viewing the universe and a convenient scapegoat -- the Infidel -- for everything).

We cannot allow them to study, obviously, nuclear physics. We cannot allow them, obviously, to study those aspects of biology, or chemistry, or materials science, that might aid in the manufacture of weapons. Dr. A. Q. Khan in Holland, and Drs. Germs and Anthrax (examples of the liberated Iraqi women who under the previous regime were allowed to study in Great Britain, and bring their deadly knowledge home). We cannot allow them to study encryption, or very much to do with computers beyond the most elementary. We cannot allow them to work for any companies or in any academic departments where they might acquire such knowledge. We cannot allow them to be airline pilots, or part of an airplane crew. We cannot allow them to run our busses or trains. For now we think we can allow them to drive taxis -- but think of a taxi plowing in to a "Salute to Israel" parade, or into this or that gathering of Infidels for any reason, should someone have a lapsus. We cannot allow them, can we, to sort the mail (anthrax), or even to deliver it, if they will find mail not to their liking, or decide to target those who receive that mail not to their liking. We cannot allow them to engage in the indoctrination of our children, whether small or in universities, if they will continue to fill the minds of the unwary ("Gosh, Prof. Khalidi or Prof. Farooq or Prof. Dabashi" is "really brilliant" and "I learned so much about Islam." I'll bet you did.).

We cannot allow them to rise in government where they might sit on key Congressional commmittees, or sit in on meetings of high officers, and learn all kinds of things about potential war plans, or even about where weapons are stored, and how. We cannot allow them to treat, in some cases, Infidels if we have reason to believe that at any minute, for reasons we do not understand, a formerly mild-mannered doctor, supposedly as gentle and sweet as the next, has under his knife someone who suddenly, to him, represents the Infidel at his most evil, his most Shaytanic.

We cannot allow them to take over newspapers, or rise high in television, if we think, if we know, that they will subtly or not-so-subtly engage in propaganda to prevent our right understanding of Islam. Look at the effect, in the BBC, or some of the French papers, of large contingents of Muslims in the Arabic-language services, and the effect such people must have on non-Muslim colleagues.

We cannot allow them to...

Well, you think about it. You fill in the rest. You decide if, upon studying the contents of this belief-system, what functions and jobs you think it reasonable to entrust to those who still claim, who still identify themselves, as Muslims.

Mahar Arar's Problems

There was an article in The Saturday Star about Mahar Arar. The article contrasted the treatment and surport that Arar from Canadians as a whole and the cold shoulder that he has recieved from his own Muslim community. The 17 jihadists who were arrested in Toronto and area have been surported by the general Muslim community. But the Mahar Arar's problem is that he wrongfully arrested for being violent jihadist. If he truly was part of the jihadi movement he would be widely supported by the Muslim community which is generally in favor of violent religious revolution.

Invisible Atom

Some friends of mine will be performing in Toronto. The one-man play Invisible Atom will be running at the Harbourfront Summnerworks Festival next weekend August 11-13. Here are the dates and times. There is more information at the website of 2b Theatre Company. Unfortunately it is flash site. Here is some copy screen scrapped from the flash:

Suspended in a very precise moment in space and time, Atom tells his story of fortune and misfortune, taking the audience on a wild journey of the imagination and covering topics from economics to classical physics.

This “tour-de-force” by 2b artistic co-director Anthony Black keeps you laughing as it questions the nature and acceleration of our progress.

Walking Tanks

There are some people who are very into the idea of walking tanks. The whole game system Battletech, wiki entry, is based on tanks on legs. The problem is that a low profile is winning feature for tank. A tank standing on 10 or 15 legs is bazooka bait. Walking tanks show up in sci-fi setting where there is sufficent technology for grav tanks. Grav Tanks are alot better walking tanks. They can get as high, or higher, walking tanks and then go to ground. Check out Hammer's Slammers, David Drake's fictional exploration of the use grav tanks. Some Japanese fan has built his own walking, shuffling tank that looks a little like the AT-ST Walker from Star Wars. Look here for an archive of spaceship images.

Mel Gibson on the side of Terrorists

Mel Gibson's views have never been very well hidden. The causes he surports are known if not well advertised. He built a Church for a Roman Catholic schismatic group that split after Vatican II. Mel's father Hutton Gibson is a rabid bigot and holocaust deniner. What I think is interesting is that this editorial cartoon, by Lalo, is only one many that linked his antisemitism with the crazy violence of Islamic terrorists. This is going to damage Mel's career forever. What really made anti-semitism unfashionable in a way it wasn't before WWII, in fact many western democracies had levels of official antisemitism up to and during WWII, was the identifiaction of antisemitism with our enemies. These cartoons identify anti-semitism as part of our enemies belief system. However if we begin to sympathize with the people who want to kill or convert us and who also have a hate-on for jooooos, then we should worry.

Weird and Cute Japanese Beer Ad

I never thought Miss Kitty levels of ultra-cuteness could be used to sell beer. Here is the Beerchan flash ad.

Depressing Cartoon and Commentary

Comic Curmudgeon riffs on the depressing nature of panel.

I know Pluggers doesn’t usually do continuing storylines, but I’d like to see the new, bleaker Pluggers follow Rhino-Man for the next few days:

• “Plugger venture capital.” (Rhino-Man is rooting through a dumpster, looking for bottles or cans he can return.)
• “Plugger Zoloft.” (Rhino-Man is passed out in his battered easy chair, surrounded by empty cans of Milwaukee’s Best.)
• “Plugger liquid assets.” (Rhino-Man is selling his blood.)
• “This is how a Plugger’s wages are garnished.” (Two Bear-Men are cutting off one of Rhino Man’s thumbs.)
• “Plugger therapy.” (Rhino-Man has a shotgun in his mouth.)

Cat Model

In Get Fuzzy, Fuzzy has a scheme for fame and fortune by becoming a model.

Being Evil in History

YWUA is a term in SHWI that means "you wake up as". It means you take over the body and mind of some character.Today their was a YWUA thread, Second Guessing Hitler, that suggested some ethical amorality. The thread begins:

What would you do if you were Hitler starting in early 1941, you had all his evil intentions, but a little more ability to delay gratification and benefit of hindsight.

Humans as Parasites

Simpsonians at the Actor's Studio

I have always hated the program Inside The Actor's Studio. I have problems for with this program and the Method with is taught at the Actor's Studio. The host James Lipton adopts worshipful uctousness to his guest meatpuppets that grates, previous Ken Lipton hate on. The Actor's Studio is also to heavily worshiped as training ground for some very good actors. The case of the studio, its method and its alumni brings to mind two competing quotes about Eton; "the battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton", "every battle thereafter was lost on the playing fields of Eton". There are times when it is worth watching.

Here is the cast of the Simpsons on Inside the Actor's Studio, 22 meg file. What is interesting is the Simpson actors take on a look of their characters when they do their voices. The funniest part for me is the little clip they show of Rainier Wolfcastle at the Actor's Studio. Similarly check out the comparison of Andy Serkis doing Gollum's voice looking a bit like Gollum, below the stuff on The Polar Express.

Youtube links instead of the 22 meg file.
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

New Spaceport in the Desert

A small desert town in New Mexico is planning to build their own spaceport. This is a couple steps up from the facilities at Vulcan, Alberta. This isn't a sci-fi venture but a base for Virgin Galactic which sounds like a sci-fi venture itself.

Ice Cream Headache

Newstory:
Ice-cream treat led to boy's fractured skull

A Spanish Anti-National Anthem

Their has been some political conflict in the US over illegal emigration. Despite being both illegal and open to abuse and fraud, from both employers and employees. There are alot of different interest groups in favor of illegal immigration or the non-enforcement of laws. Business interests are in favor of a pool of insecure and easily cheatable workers, they bring down wage rates for US citizens and discourage unionization. There are other groups in favor of the current regime. The Hispanic population are in favour of growing the number of its interest group. Within this group are hispanic extremist groups, of whom La Raza is the mildest, these groups want to do take back the US southwest. Their are US "liberals", who are generally to right of most right wing parties in the developed world, they are "voices in the wilderness", but ignored. Finally there is one last group in favor of current state of non-enforcement of immigration laws, moslem extremist groups in the US and abroad. The oppenents of current strategy of subsidizing bad employees are derided on all sides as redneck vigliantes.

That was then however the recent (late April) protests about the reform, or deform, of immigration law. There have been some odd hicups of a crowd promoting their patriotism and love of the US were found carrying flags of a foriegn country, Mexico. Now there is a new spanish verison of The Star Spangled Banner. This new verison is being promoted by same groups that have have being pushing for perment amnesty, see here for the song, lyrics and story.

My Counter-Strike Stats on $Kingpin$

I have never been a great Counter-Strike player. My technique of reconnaisence by fire is now riskier. If you kill teammates "accidently" you might be banned. Lately since I reentered the world of Counter-Strike I have mainly been playing at one server, $Kingpin$. Too many single map servers. The other advancement which don't like is the superhero mod. I like Kingpin because it has a wide range of maps including Blahhh and Gahhhhh and doesn't merely run dust forever. Up til today every time I checked my stats at $Kingpin$ I was always in last place. Today I was 1561 place out of 1910. Whoooeee.

Actually I think I reset my stats by missing a couple of days.

Conspiracy Theories

Many humans distrust reality. The blind workings of history in which chance and stupidity are at least as important as any concious design are unsettling to many. Conspiracy theories provide meaning. The problem with most conspiracy theories is that they are like Pre-Copernican astronomy in that they have to be way to complicated to work. But the complicated simplicity of conspiracy theories are comforting. Who can forget that after 911 Arabs postulated that it was all a Jewish plot, here is one example from pro-nazi David Irving's site. Hamas, the governing Palistinian terror group/party/army, thinks that the Masons are an arm of the world wide zionist conspiracy, probably becasue the Protocols of the Elders of Zion mention them. After all who knows the power of their secret handshakes. Here is an interesting site devoted to Conspiricism, it explores all the various way conspiracy theories are formed and promoted.

There are ways we can look on the crazies who see plots behind everything from polio vaccines to death of a Fiat heir. For such people reality is no defense if it doesn't comform to their twisted fantasies.

Or you could play this entire phenomenom for laughs and play Illuminati. This is a game where you construct your own network of plotters to take over the world. You might have Network TV, Bankers, the Mafia, Trekkies, and the Boyscouts in on your plot. Oddly enough the connections that are made in Illuminati are at least as plausible as "real" conspiracy theories.

Anti-Slavery Group

I was reading a story about the lax punishment given to a convicted Saudi slaveowner. When the abolition movement began there was resistance to abolishing slavery by muslim nations. Saudi Arabia bowed to American pressure and officially abolished the slave trade in 1962. The abolitionist movement was founded in Christian ethics. Muslims on the hand saw reasons to keep slavery because their prophet Mohammed the Pedophile, The Rapist, The Thief, The Murderer, was also Mohammed the Enslaver. The biggest practioners of slavery today are criminal networks, many of whom are muslim like Turkish and Albanian gangs, and Muslim Arabs like the Saudis. Here is an group anti-slavery called iAbolish. Go there and read the spooky stories.

The History of Animation, Animated

Roman Roads Through the Alps

I have been following a devoted to trade routes called The Trade Routes Resources Blog. Here is a monograph on Roman roads in the Alps.

Frog Museum, not the Louvre

Some demented taxidermists stuffed and posed dozens of frogs. Years later an institution called The Frog Museum was founded. There are only a few pictures on the website. Still if I was passing through switzerland I would make a special stop to see the frogs.

Things To Do in Jail

There was an episode of OZ that spent 5-10 minutes on all the different ways of creating shivs. It is a design problem because the raw materials are limited to what a prisoner has access to. Which leads to an arty site, now offline unfortunately. A shiv is a primarily a home-made stabbing tool. All the shivs in this exhibit were confiscated at a high security lifer prison.

An NPR program, Talk of the Nation, is having a special this week on prison life. The first program was about solitary confinement, later programs will be about prison overcrowding, and from solitary to freedom. CBC's The Current had an segment today, 8/3/06, about managing sexual offenders.

How Crappy Games get Funding

We are told that computer games are made to expand on our wildest dreams. However before a game can be made it needs to be funded. There was a recent Gamasutra article, The Game Proposal, about the convoluted path a game must tread in order to receive funding. Proper bureaucratic forms must be followed and the game must be completed. A friend of mine, Tim Carter, has responded with his own rebuttal to this funding process. Of course if present trends continue we will only sequels and movie tie-ins as games in the future.

I can't find the article, but I recently read an Interview with the head of Atari who was gushing in praise of the profit margin of sequels.

Folk song about Mining found on SHWI

O come you young fellas
so handsome and fine,
and seek not your fortune
way down in the mine.
For the mine it will rot you
and seep in your soul,
'til the blood of your body
runs black as the coal.
Where its dark as a dungeon
and damp as the dew,
where the dangers are many and
the pleasures are few.
Where the rain never falls and the
sun never shines,
O seek not your fortunes in the dark
dreary mine.

--- some folk song about mining ---

from the thread Confederacy: Vicious Dystopia or Not?