Category: News

Foiled. By agents of SPECTRE, no doubt.

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

We tried to go see Casino Royale today, but it was sold out. Drag.

The movie theatre was abnormally busy; at first we thought it was related to all the suburbanites who drove into the city to see the Santa Claus Parade [warning: WORST WEBSITE EVER], but that seemed unlikely as those folks were all pushing their strollers to wherever they’d parked their Caravans. It’s not that popular a movie (in North America, anyway); it didn’t even win the box office weekend, losing to a bunch of animated penguins.

.:.

The elephants are as mad as hell, and they’re not gonna take it anymore.

All across Africa, India and parts of Southeast Asia, from within and around whatever patches and corridors of their natural habitat remain, elephants have been striking out, destroying villages and crops, attacking and killing human beings. In fact, these attacks have become so commonplace that a new statistical category, known as human-elephant conflict, or HEC, was created by researchers in the mid-1990s to monitor the problem.

Call me insensitive, but I’m rooting for the elephants.

[tags]casino royale, santa claus parade, angry elephants[/tags]

Adverse to human health and happiness indeed

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The Bush administration has appointed Eric Keroack head of the federal Office of Population Affairs, which is responsible for federal family planning program and budgets. Dr. Keroack is also the medical director of A Woman’s Concern, “an organization that opposes premarital sex, contraception and abortion.”

My guess is that this is Bush’s way of saying “fuck you” to the Democrats, who can do little about this, if anything at all.

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Making a Johnny Cash / Neko Case concert CD doesn’t make much sense. Then again, maybe it makes all kinds of sense.

.:.

If you haven’t checked out today’s Daily Dose of Imagery, you really should. In general, if you don’t look at that site every day, you really should.

[tags]bush, eric keroack, office of population affairs, johnny cash, neko case, daily dose of imagery[/tags]

What's the Deal With the Hulk's Pants?

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Via Cinematical we learn that Bill O’Reilly is very concerned about horror movies. What delicious irony; most of the world thinks that Bill O’Reilly is a horror movie.

.:.

Seen Reading is a very cool little blog written by Julie Wilson, set here in Toronto, where she spots what people are reading and writes about it online. I’ve found a new favourite morning read. [via Torontoist]

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My brother points out why you should always read more than just one newspaper. Bonus: if you stick around for the comments, you can see him flick a narrow-minded Ontarian in the ear. Metaphorically, of course.

.:.

Right, off to dinner.

[tags]cinematical, bill o’reilly, seen reading, julie wilson[/tags]

Ben Hur race: ass lightning or spiked chariot wheels?

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Sorry about the lack of blogging over the past couple of days. I’ve been kind of heads-down with work, errands and this stats assignment. The assignment’s mostly done though, so I can relax for a few days.

Today we ran around town doing a bunch of things:

  • We went to see the World Press photo exhibit at BCE Place, which was pretty compelling. Some of the images were disturbing, none more so (to me, anyway) than the little girl crying after seeing American troops shoot her parents at some checkpoint in northern Iraq. She was covered in blood and looked terrified. You get the sense that the girl is completely, utterly lost to the world. There’s no saving her. It was awful. If the American public thinks it’s getting the real story about Iraq, they haven’t seen that picture.
  • We shook that off (pictures of animals and sports on the way out dulled the ache) and walked over to our condo’s new sales centre. They have two furnished model suites ready for viewing, one of which is ours. It was good to get in there and finally see & feel what our unit will be like. There are some minor differences — our ceilings will be 9 feet, not 8 feet like in the model, we have a huge balcony, and our unit will be much higher — but it was still a thousand times better than trying to imagine things based on a floor plan. Nellie blogged about it yesterday, and included a picture.
  • We picked up some scrumptious breads and a pie (whose scrumptiousness I can’t vouch for as yet) at All The Best, got nostalgic for lunch at the Quail & Firkin (I had a C.O.B. and many fries, after which I felt awful) and picked up a new bed for the cats at Canadian Tire. After that, and some grocery shopping, I was ready to come home and have a half-nap. Getting my ass up for the stats assignment…Herculean.

.:.

We also watched a movie called Stardom (imdb | rotten tomatoes), directed by Denys Arcand and starring (rowr) Jessica Pare. It wasn’t great, but I laughed at the parts where they skewered celebrity culture. My favourite: the “Annual Slalom for Bosnia” charity event.

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The religious right is whipping the TV industry like a rented mule. Beating it like a red-headed stepchild. Smacking it like it stole something. NBC has agreed not to show Madonna singing a song from atop a cross during her TV special, airing next month.

.:.

From tederick we find this story about a woman who experienced the feeling of lightning shooting out her ass. Zowie! Is there anything Croatians can’t do?

By the way, kudos to tederick for the use of a post-carbonite-Han quote. Don’t try that at home, kids.

[tags]world press photo, condo, quail and firkin, all the best, stardom, nbc, madonna, tederick, ass lightning, han, carbonite[/tags]

The Nobel peace prize

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This year’s Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to a man and a bank for their work and theories on micro-credit and other  grassroots methods of eliminating poverty. When I first read this I thought it was the prize for economics, but after re-reading it realized the press release was for the peace prize.

Muhammad Yunus has shown himself to be a leader who has managed to translate visions into practical action for the benefit of millions of people, not only in Bangladesh, but also in many other countries. Loans to poor people without any financial security had appeared to be an impossible idea. From modest beginnings three decades ago, Yunus has, first and foremost through Grameen Bank, developed micro-credit into an ever more important instrument in the struggle against poverty. Grameen Bank has been a source of ideas and models for the many institutions in the field of micro-credit that have sprung up around the world.

I find this very interesting; early in my international business class we had a debate about whether poverty breeds (or contributes to) terrorism, and the Nobel committee seems to be saying that it does. For my part, I agree; I think poverty breeds desperation and ignorance (through lack of education), two factors that increase the likelihood of terrorism on a macro scale.

Thoughts?

[tags]nobel peace prize, muhammad yunus, grameen bank, micro-credit[/tags]

How not to take a loss

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

This plane crash story from New York is getting weirder and weirder.  There’re now reports that Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle was on the plane when it crashed into the building. I’d heard it was his plane, but apparently they’ve now found his passport near the wreckage.

Was he just really broken up about the ALCS loss to Detroit?

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I see that Americans, having run out of foods to deep-fry, have begun deep-frying Coke. Brilliant. [via Joe]

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I’m always angry at myself for not going to see art and photography exhibits, so I’m going to try really hard to see the World Press Photo 2006 exhibit at BCE place before the 22nd. [via Torontoist]

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More pictures tonight if I have a chance.

[tags]cory lidle, new york plane crash, deep-fried coke, word press photo 2006[/tags]