Use The Lies

The thrust of this Globe & Mail article is to reassure Canadians that we will, in fact, have an H1N1 vaccine before those in other countries - even though we have only just begun clinical trials and have no plan or date for rolling it out.

What is interesting, is that in the sidebar of the article there is a video titled "Swine flu vaccine available in U.S."

And yet the Globe headline, "Canadians will get H1N1 shots faster than others: official" stands, catching unawares those too lazy to read beyond the headline and first paragraph.


Update (15OCT09): More from Reuters about how others are getting shots faster; "Britain to start swine flu vaccination Oct. 21"

Blogs Are Dead

You know it. I know it. This blog has suffered because of it. Why? I'm micro-blogging with the world in the Twitterverse. And Facebook. And Flickr. If you want to, you can follow my tweets here: @LaSpage.

See this old Wired article for proof of the blog's demise.

2010 Uniblahs

The Olympic uniforms for Team Canada have been revealed! Are they modern? Do they match? Is there any continuity? Do they look like uniforms? No. Those four models could just be a group of people you see any day in town.

Of course, it makes sense that athletes are just given regular street clothes this year since all this cold-weather gear probably won't be seen much by the public. The opening ceremonies are being held indoors where t-shirts will suffice, and parkas and toques will be ridiculous.

Local Top Gear

Too bad the plate isn't on a much nicer car. Like that brand new Gallardo Spyder I saw downtown yesterday...yum!

Debate Reform

Tom Axworthy's think tank has come up with a report and recommendations for how campaign debates should be run in Canada. I'd have to say that I'm on board with most of these recommendations, but I don't know if I can agree to having Gilles blocked from the English language debate. The reason stated in the article (that Quebec Anglophones would be denied access to his debate) is an excellent reason, but mine is selfish - I just love hearing him speak and what he has to say to the other leaders. But the best thing in there would have to be about taking away the power from the insane networks that control who can debate and when. That nonsense last year with Jack and Steve trying to block Liz from the debate? Insane crap. Let's get Elections Canada involved!

LeRoi Moore - Not Forgotten

After Dave Matthews Band (DMB) co-founder LeRoi Moore passed away last summer, the band continued their tour and played a video tribute to their fallen saxophonist during encore breaks. The video was set to the beautiful song #34 and I haven't seen it since last year. On September 7th this year, the day that would have been his 48th birthday, DMB presented a new web page dedicated to celebrating LeRoi's memory. The site is fairly extensive and I found the video, so I'm embedding it here. Thanks for the memories LeRoi!


Find more videos like this on LeRoi Moore

McLaren's New 600bhp Supercar

It's called the MP4-12C and isn't scheduled to go on sale until 2011, but the teasers are out and the car is hot.



Facts:
-3.8 litre V8 twin turbo developing 600bhp
-0 to 60mph in 3.4 seconds
-lowest carbon output per hp of any car currently on the market (including hybrids)

A short vid from the BBC here shows some interesting features of this F1 inspired car.

Windmills!!

Brabe and I got entirely too excited about being near these bad boys!

Gorge!

Post-rain storm a phenomenal, intense double rainbow appeared (that this
pic does not do justice), and post-rainbow the pink sunset ruled the stage
backdrop.

Overheard In The Office #4

"I can't watch that movie."

"Why not?"

"I can't watch Tom Cruise movies because I'm distracted by his tooth. Every time I see him, all I can think is: tipped lateral incisor!"

Letter to Brabe #5 / Letter to Wookiee #9

Movits!!






Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings on Letterman last year.

Bleeding Hearts = Less Bleeding

A new Canadian study, released yesterday, reaffirms the obvious conclusion that right-wing politicos and their worshippers can't seem to grasp. Throwing youth in jail/detention centres teaches them a lesson - not to stop pursing crime, but rather to continue and/or escalate their crimes. I am once again not at all surprised to find that the approach of "bleeding heart liberals" produces less crime than the "tough on crime conservatives" - are you?

Think this will change Harper's course? Or pry open the closed minds of hardcore right-wingers even a tiny bit? Absolutely not. Don't they believe that learning and changing ones mind is a sign of weakness?

Letter to Brabe #4 / Letter to Wookiee #8

After all this time, it's still an all-time favourite! And I was wrong, it's Brabe's hat being blown off near the end that I loved, not the squirrel's head.

Sorry the quality isn't great, but it's all that TheTube had to offer!

The Things I Reference

It's no wonder nobody understands what the frak I’m telling them.

“I passed this guy on my commute and I had to laugh, I mean, what’s the point dude? He’s in a Jag XK8, but he’s driving it like it’s the Pazyryk Ice Maiden!”

Robert S. McNamara

1916 - 2009

I have much respect for the man, particularly after watching Errol Morris's documentary, "The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara." (transcript). A sad day indeed.

From the NY Times:

"In the film, Mr. McNamara described the American firebombing of Japan’s cities in World War II. He had played a supporting role in those attacks, running statistical analysis for Gen. Curtis E. LeMay of the Army’s Air Forces.

“We burned to death 100,000 Japanese civilians in Tokyo — men, women and children,” Mr. McNamara recalled; some 900,000 Japanese civilians died in all. “LeMay said, ‘If we’d lost the war, we’d all have been prosecuted as war criminals.’ And I think he’s right. He — and I’d say I — were behaving as war criminals.”

“What makes it immoral if you lose and not immoral if you win?” he asked. He found the question impossible to answer."