Three (Extra) in the Morning

Because my daughter is reading quietly to herself (wow... this is new) so I'm sneaking a little blogging (read: surfing) in...

7. Canadian Labour Congress May Reverse Position on IP Policy: This is a good article that looks at where the CLC presently stands on Intellectual Property policy and where they could be headed if a proposed resolution gets passed... yeesh, next week from the looks of it. Seems they could be coming down in favour of the WIPO's internet treaties --- treaties which are being opposed by many consumer and education groups --- and they'll also be supporting a strict enforcement-based approach to copyright enforcement. A worrying about-face from the CLC. If you're suspicious of copyright laws, that is. Which I'm.

8. Baseball = Making Out Metaphor Explained, Finally: Generally speaking, stick-figure webcomics inhabit a rung or two below even student newspaper comics. This one, however, is very good. Update: Hahahaha, this one is too.

9. Indian Matchbox Cover Art: Because the world needs more India.

Aaaaaand... my daughter is now roaming about so I'm off...

Six In The Morning

1. Canada Failing on Climate Change: The environment commissioner is upset with Ottawa's lackluster performance on climate change. Gosh, who saw that coming?

2. University of Vermont Rethinks Ben Stein Speech: Apparently something he said about science made him unsuitable as a commencement address speaker. Could it have been this quote from Expelled, maybe? "I was thinking to myself the last time any of my relatives saw scientists telling them what to do they were telling them to go to the showers to get gassed." Go back to the gameshow, Ben.

3. Beware of Zombies: The atheist bus is coming to Canada, but we can only hope a band of merry pranksters will start doing this to Regina road signs.

4. Writer Threatened for Being Thorough: Dr Ben Goldacre, author of the Bad Science column for the Guardian, devoted a blog post to debunking claims about vaccination made by a UK radio show host. To illustrate his concerns, he posted the relevant sections from the radio show: 44 minutes worth. As a result, he's been contacted by the radio station's lawyers for copyright infringement.

5. Bill Gates Infects Nerds With Malaria... Psych: Claiming, "Not only poor people should experience this," Gates started his TED 2009 talk by releasing a jar of malarial mosquitos into the audience. Only it turned out later the jar was empty and he was just "making a point." Your first instinct was right, Bill. You should've used real mosquitos.

6. Chemistry or Life? I don't read Russian, but the message on these anti-Coca Cola posters is pretty clear. Cool design.

Downer Of A First Post

Oh, dammit.

Lux Interior has died. I need to go play some Cramps and make wild noises now.

What Hath Mick Jagger Wrought?

First the Stones at Mosaic Stadium, then The Eagles at Credit Union Centre, and now Mr. Vegas himself ... in Swift Current ...

A Sizable Slitherer

Scientists have announced the discovery of the fossilized* remains of the world's largest snake. The animal, found in Colombia and thought to have lived around 60 million years** ago, is called Titanoboa cerrejonensis and is estimated to have been around 12.8 metres (42 feet) and 1135 kg (2500 lbs), which is freaking huge. The longest snake currently living is the reticulated python and that tops out under 10 metres (The record is just under 33 feet long). The heaviest on record was a 182.8 kg (403 lb.) captive Burmese python.

So this thing would've been one huggably fat monster.

More on the big-ass ancient snake here.

Now, you might not care. You probably don't. But there are people in this city who do. They are the silent but devoted keepers of icky pets, from snakes to lizards to frogs to bugs. And by god, this blog is for them too.


*Or Jesusized, for those who believe science is pretend.
** about 2,600 years Biblically.

Six In The Morning

Your Humpday update!


1 AFFORDABLE HOUSING? The Sask Party government plans some investment. (Leader-Post.)

2 THEY'RE UP TO SOMETHING! The opposition NDP says Brad Wall and company need to be more forthcoming about their nuclear plans. (Leader-Post)

3 TILMAN Speaks. (Leader-Post)

4 MORE GUNS TO MORE PEOPLE The Americans want to arm Afghan militias, but critics say this might just mean better-armed criminals. (Guardian/AP)

5 CARDED A charge card company tightens up the rules for debt-happy Canadians. (Toronto Star)

6 TRADE WAR? WHO SAID ANYTHING ABOUT A TRADE WAR? Obama makes noises that sound like a retreat from his previous position. (Globe And Mail, Salon)

(And about that... I was two-thirds asleep yesterday morning when I heard something on the CBC from some pundit who said something about U.S. protectionism being "unethical" (or maybe it was "immoral"). Can't remember the details, the cat was on my ears making it hard to hear. Okay, look: I know U.S. politicians might be (are) just pandering to voters and political donors with the "buy U.S.A." rhetoric but that said, there's something profoundly ETHICAL about a country talking about putting it's own citizens/workers/industries first. This is a problem critics have always had with free trade agreements: they put foriegn interests on the same field as domestic ones and local needs/interests lose out. This is one of the criticisms levelled at TILMA (the BC-Alberta Trade Investment Labour Mobility Pact) actually--that it will reduce Provincial government's abilities to make decisions in the public interest on things like investment and tendering and professional standards .)

Windchill Warning

It’s minus 14, but with the wind chill it feels like minus 24.What if you don’t go out? How does it feel then? It feels like you should get a real job, that’s how it feels. It’s minus 28 outside, but it feels like you are blessed, because your old boiler is working its heart out, it thinks this weather is just dandy. Your apartment is so hot that you open a window and suck in the cold thin air through your nose. You are outside in the stillness of minus 43, but you feel like you are on the moon. You wonder what it’s like to be dead. It’s minus 27, but it feels like you haven’t done your creative work this winter, again, and soon you won’t have the cold to keep you in, pinned to your desk. It’s minus 9, and yes it does feel like minus 25, because you’re not smart enough to dress warmly enough unless it’s minus 25. Other days the conditions can be exactly the same, but you feel like a winter animal, something fat, a seal or a polar bear, happy as a clam and warm right down to your tootsies. It’s minus 20, but it feels like a normal, pre-climate change winter, and for that you are grateful. It’s minus 21, but the sun is coming up so much earlier now, you’re not sure you can face another spring, you just had summer, it seems. Time goes so much faster when you get older. It’s minus 22 and the conditions are perfect for the creation of crystals in the snow. There are diamonds everywhere you look and you wonder why this wasn’t on the weather report, like “Severe Risk of Wonder,” and jokesy admonitions like “Boy it’s looking pretty magical out there folks, better take care out there, don’t want you to get hurt in any flights of fancy.” It’s minus 27, but the rabbits love it, sitting in silent contemplation of the moonrise. You and the rabbits feel gypped: some stupid groundhog somewhere has said that winter is almost over. If it’s true, the rabbits will have to start changing into their spring pyjamas. You will just have to cope with the absence of cold, the promise of spring. It’s minus 33, and you wonder why they keep telling you how you feel, how they never even come close.

(photo depicts a Regina bunny in warmer times)

Stephen Harper Is Still Prime Minister

Ignatieff's Liberals help the Tories pass the budget. What was it Tommy Douglas said about white cats and black cats?

Nobody Ever Dies Of Boredom Covering The Saskatchewan Court System...

Color me gobsmacked.

Jim Hopson's press conference told us nothing, which was understandable, because (a) he's not privy to the police investigation, (b) anyone facing charges is innocent until proven guilty, (c) nobody is really going to know anything until the trial starts, (d) the alleged incident involved a minor, so it's more than likely that the judge will impose a media blackout, and (e) there's a one-in-a-10-million chance that the accuser is from the Rachel Marsden School of Attracting Attention To Yourself.

The first media stories said the RPS investigation began last August or September, but charges weren't laid until today (3 February) which means ... what? The sex crimes division is understaffed? The investigation dragged on? The investigating officers wanted to make sure their case against Tillman was air-tight?

There'll be a lot of ink spilled between now and the trial date, but little of it will comment on the two groups most affected by this -- the claimant (assuming, once again, that she's not making this up, and given whatever claim she lodged with the RPS has withstood the five-to-six month investigation) and the family of Eric Tillman (he's married, and, I think, the father of two children). Instead, Roughrider fans and the Leader-Post will be more worried about what this does to the team, as if the whole club was involved in these escapades.

On Pittsburgh, Home Of The Championship Steelers

This, my friends, is a sandwich.

Pittsburgh is basking in Superbowlular glory, so it seems like a relevent time to sing the city's praises (have I mentioned I've been there and really liked it?).

Pittsburgh is great. It's got a dynamic, compact downtown. It's got the Warhol Museum. It has one of the best dinosaur fossil collections on the continent at the Carnegie (promounced "car-naggy") Museum.

It's got the Penguins, even if they're having a stupid year. It's got the sublime Monterey Bay Fish Grotto, where I had an amazing wasabi bloody mary last February.

It's got the Superbowl Champion Steelers.
Best of all though it's got regional haute cuisine in the form of sandwiches stuffed with French Fries and coleslaw. They're the pride of place dish at Primanti Brothers Restaurant, a downtown sandwich shack a few blocks from the hotel that says they invented 'em.

Truly, the food of champions! (And yes, I did eat it.)