The Most Awesomest Toy Ever

Remote controlled airplanes for under $50 Canadian. 300 foot range and you get about 10-15 minutes of flying time off a charge (you recharge on the remote control - roughly equal time flying and charging).

The model I tried was largely made of pretty durable seeming foam and well protected props. It had a pretty low top speed, but that was good because no one in the park ended up feeling threatened by our presence. I have heard that when they fly out of remote control range the props keep spinning at the rate you had them going at - can result in a long chase.

The same company makes a tank that drives up walls and across ceilings and a higher end float plane that can land on water.

All my childhood dreams coming true!

Apocalyptic Fantasies

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, "President" of Iran, worked a prayer for Armageddon into his well received speech at the UN.

Oh, Almighty God, all men and women are your creatures and you have ordained their guidance and salvation. Bestow upon humanity that thirsts for justice, the perfect human being promised to all by you, and make us among his followers and among those who strive for his return and his cause.

As I understand it the "perfect human" refers to the Mahdi, a character who's presence signifies the start of Qiyamah. At this point all the unbelievers will be tossed into hell and the world converted to a perfect Islamic society.

And we all live happily ever after - oh, wait...

Nuclear VS Nucular

A strange anecdote from a guy that attended a press event with George W. Bush:

And one more thing: twice during his meandering conversation, the President deployed the word "nuclear." Both times, he pronounced it flawlessly --- as "new- clee-ar," not "nuke-cule-ar." Considering the huge press attention on the mis-pronounciation of this single word, nothing shocked me more about meeting the president than hearing him, in private conservation, avoid a mistake for which he's become celebrated in public.

If he can say "nu-clee-ar" in private, why does he still say, "nuke-cule-ar" when he speaks on camera? Could it be possible that there's some mischievous intent here-- that the President deliberately gives his own spin to the word just to provoke pompous pundits into paroxysms of supercilious rage? It seems like a far-fetched explanation, I'll admit, but after seeing the President's infectiously feisty mood this Friday, I wouldn't put it past him.

Hows that for conspiracy theory material? Or perhaps this anecdote was actually planted by Karl Rove to make you think that Bush is smarter than he is believed to be...

California Sues Automakers

That's... an interesting tactic to fight global warming. If the lawsuit succeeds, no one will dare sell cars in California anymore (or candy, or pretty well anything else), so I guess that's a win. And California will have extracted a nice chunk of change that will eventually come from the pockets of all Americans (not just Californians).

Damn hippie Republicans.

I don't really understand these lines in the article though:

California has also targeted the auto industry with first-in-the-nation rules adopted in 2004 requiring carmakers to force cuts in tailpipe emissions from cars and trucks.

Automakers, however, have so far blocked those rules with their own legal action -- prompting one analyst to say California's lawsuit represents a way for California to pressure car manufacturers to accept the rules.

How can automakers be avoiding California's wonderful laws with "legal action"? I thought that you could only sue the government if the government lets you. Is that only a Federal thing?

Belinda Stronach: Homewrecker

Stronach has had a pretty dramatic public life ever since she entered politics; lost the Conservative leadership race, won a Conservative seat, jumped ship to the Liberals for a Cabinet position which she promptly lost when the Liberals lost the next election (also dumping the then-deputy leader of the Conservative party in the process), and now has allegedly helped break up a well known hockey player's marriage.

Canada's Tourist GST Rebate Eliminated

As of April 1st, 2007 it is gone!

About time - it's not like we're some third world nation that desperately needs tourism to keep the money coming in. A nice number of Federal jobs should be eliminated too.

And maybe, just maybe, this will cause the damn "duty free" stores to close - thereby eliminating the queue jumping parking lots at the border.

Chirac Takes A (Posthumous) Cue From Arafat

The official English translation of a recent speech is subtly different from what he really said regarding the Iranian nuke program.

Specifically, English speakers come away thinking he's taking a harder line than he really is.

Breaking News: Electronic Voting is Stupid

Well, anonymous electronic voting at least.

A group from Princeton has published a paper and made a video demonstrating just how easy it is to fully compromise a Diebold voting machine.

Basically you don't have to believe in conspiracies to doubt election outcomes anymore - you simply can't be sure how many groups have successfully "hacked" a given voting machine. An embarrassment to every State that has purchased these piles of crap.

Will Clinton Successfully Rewrite History?

It's not looking so good for the guy. Hillary must be pissed...

Clinton's Director of the FBI, Louis Freeh, has a pretty unflattering memory of Clinton's supposed dedication to fighting terrorism.

I was trying to refrain from discussing the ancient history dredged up by the ABC miniseries. I mean, yeah Clinton's a weasel, but that was established before he was elected. Somehow over the past few weeks though I have ended up even less impressed than before with his performance as President. He's going to end up somewhere with Carter and Nixon in my "lamest Presidents" ranking.

I predict that it will take a few more terms with Republican Presidents before the world is sufficiently calm enough for the US to elect another Democrat (barring a civil war within the left that totally changes the face of the party).

Canada's 3 Tier Health System

Rafe Mair on the obvious two tiers: the regular system, and the expedited sytem for hockey players, firefighters, and people that happen to be related to a doctor.

What he doesn't mention is that the US acts as our "escape valve" - anyone that wants prompt treatment or a treatment that is considered too expensive to be covered can hop across the border to get it. Which is not to say that I would rather have the degenerate US system, but it seems a mighty shame that we are exporting all that money that would stay here if we managed to develop a stable private/public health care system.

Military Happenings

• Norway's contribution to the NATO force in Afghanistan can't be deployed anywhere that there might ever be fighting because they are "not sufficiently trained to take part in combat and not properly equipped to do so either".
  
  
• The US is working towards establishing a missile defence site in Poland that would be a first line of defence against launches from the Middle East. It would also give Europe a significant advantage if Iran decides to commit suicide after (inevitably) developing nukes.
  

Breaking News: ADD Drugs May Have Side Effects

A decade after normal people realized that medicating children probably isn't a good idea and 7 years after The Simpsons did a full episode about Bart turning paranoid and delusional due to ADD medication, Health Canada has released a warning that most AD(H)D drugs can have some pretty nasty side effects.

Doesn't really inspire a lot of confidence in the "testing" they do before allowing the drugs to be sold.

Wicked in Portland

Drove to Portland last weekend to (among other things) see the musical Wicked.

Based on the book by Gregory Maguire, the premise is that the events depicted in the Wizard of Oz are factually correct but wildly misrepresented. The Wicked Witch of the West turns out to be not so evil and mostly just misunderstood.

While I am not a huge fan of musicals (I tend to lose focus during the non-plot driving songs), the story and production values were excellent. Very much worth seeing if you get the chance. I plan to read the book now, which I hear is much darker than the musical.

The seats in the Keller Auditorium are brutal though. They seem to be made for people even shorter than I am; I pity the (6 foot +) fool that has to sit in those things for very long.

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Semi-related notes:

• If driving across the BC/Washington border anytime soon, stay away from the Pacific Truck Crossing. It has been demolished for construction, resulting in waits both before and after crossing. To add insult to injury, they actually have a guy on the Canadian side that forces the line to stop and let in the queue jumpers that drove through the duty free parking lot.
• The Four Points by Sheraton hotel in Portland is nice, new, clean, and has a great staff. Unfortunately it also has thin walls and really noisy air conditioning. Not recommended if you have a pregnant wife who can't sleep unless the air is super cold.
  

Burning of a Lifelike Pope Effigy

This post is pure genius.

The Show Trial Continues...

The chief judge trying Saddam Hussein's case has been removed for making comments in court to the effect of "oh, you weren't really a dictator" after the prosecution claimed otherwise.

Why, oh why, would you have a show trial if you weren't confident of the verdict? And to try Hussein under Iraqi law is inane; as big a monster as he was, it clearly wasn't against the local "law" for him to kill his subjects when he was in power (because he was a dictator, and all government authority flowed from him).

I imagine that in the civilized world we would consider it horribly wrong if people could be tried under laws that were passed after the "crime" was committed.

A summary execution would have been better. A military tribunal would have been better. Almost anything would have been better (although after the Milosevic debacle I am not inclined to think that the Hague would have been a good choice).

Thailand Coup

Thailand has just undergone its 18th coup since WWII.

The military has taken control and claims to be loyal to the Thai royalty. As near as I can tell, this coup is entirely related to domestic problems; the elected government has been involved in a number of scandals over the recent years.

Apparently no blood has been shed so far.

Survivor Lacks Sufficient Racism

Bent Corner on how this season of Survivor is disappointingly free of the racism that we were promised. In fact, the segregation largely removes any chance of casual racism.

This was the closest I've ever come to watching Survivor, but I was pretty sure that they wouldn't populate the islands with Crips, Bloods, Klansmen, and Triad gangsters. I am surprised that there is no direct conflict between the groups - seems to defeat the entire purpose.

Ex-PLO Terrorist Supports Israel

A strange story - after reading the Hebrew Bible, Walid Shoebat dropped out of the PLO and made a career of travelling the world speaking against anti-Semitism. And this isn't just "killing Jews is bad" kind of talk; he actually sides with Israel against the "international community"/UN/Hague.

More Do-It-Yourself Profiling on Airplanes

12 passengers briefly arrested after a flight returns to Amsterdam shortly after takeoff. Their crime appears to be being jerks while flying Muslim (behavior that if done by frat boys would have pissed off the other passengers/crew, but not resulted in a security incident).

A Jew is evicted from a Montreal flight for praying too enthusiastically. It doesn't matter what you look like - if you can't keep the crazy toned down for the couple hours while on a plane then it is going to be a problem.

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And finally, a young, Arab/Persian looking man (I'm guessing about the age and looks to a certain extent) is forced to change shirts before being allowed to fly out of JFK. This all comes from his own account of the incident, and yet he still isn't presented in a very flattering light - while he writes eloquently and calmly, he seems to have a very naive view of the universe.

Firstly, he doesn't acknowledge that wearing a shirt expressing a viewpoint is an inherently confrontational act; you have to take some responsibility for being challenged about it. This is why lots of people with strong political beliefs would never put the corresponding bumper sticker on their car.

Now, on to the text of Raed's article:

He asked me if I had any other T-shirts to put on, and I told him that I had checked in all of my bags and I asked him "why do you want me to take off my t-shirt? Isn't it my constitutional right to express myself in this way?" The second man in a greenish suit interfered and said "people here in the US don't understand these things about constitutional rights". So I answered him "I live in the US, and I understand it is my right to wear this t-shirt".

Unsurprisingly, the security agents were too stupid and poorly educated/trained to realize that if Raed did have a constitutional right to wear the shirt then they would have had no standing to enforce the request (and maybe they had no intention of doing so...). While the issue here is complicated by the TSA's status as a government agency, the fact is that the non-governmental airline had clearly decided that Raed wasn't going to be flying with that shirt (because of numerous passenger complaints) and had merely asked security to take point in case things got ugly. And luckily, businesses are still largely allowed to pick their clientele as they like.

In the end, Raed got a free t-shirt to wear (purchased by the airline) for the duration of the flight. He was also asked to switch seats to the rear of the plane, which was apparently a horrible ordeal. All the points he raises in his negotiations (ex. what does the Arabic text say?) with the airline are red herrings - the security staff was stupid to even respond to them because they had no bearing on the situation.

If this had happened with any of the other airlines recently in the spotlight he would have been flying the following day instead.

Fall TV Starting

As of last Sunday, The Simpsons and Family Guy are both running new episodes. Neither one opened with a masterpiece, but they were solid.

Battlestar Galactica doesn't start until October; to prepare (and fill the aching void), you should be watching the "webisodes" that are being released two per week until October. Each webisode is 2 to 3 minutes long and covers events between seasons 2 and 3. They should be watched in order. Americans can see them on the SciFi.com website - the rest of us need to find alternate sources *cough* YouTube *cough* BitTorrent *cough*.

Next week (Tuesday) The Unit is back for its second season. This is an interesting one - written by David Mamet (and the dialog really shows it sometimes), the show follows a special forces team that travels the world killing bad people and mocking the French, with a reality check provided by the goings on back on base where their families live.

Tolls For All!

As of September 5th (aka Dreaded 1st Day of School), I have completely reversed my opinion on tolling all the Greater Vancouver bridges/tunnels.

Dear Lord is it a nightmare out there. Loads of accidents every day, and even when there aren't I still end up spending an extra hour a day in gridlock. This morning Oak Street Bridge was backed up halfway through the Massey Tunnel.

Toll away! Whatever it takes to make my commute smooth again...

McCain's Presidential Viability

David Frum on why John McCain will never become President.

Frum has acknowledged a couple of historical errors in the column, but the basic idea is this: Americans like candidates with strong managerial track records and Senate experience just doesn't cut it.

More Mini Movie Reviews

• Talladega Nights: Very stupid, but pretty damn funny. Sacha Baron Cohen (Ali G/Borat) is pure genius as the French driver. Sadly, there was less cougar than implied by the trailers.
  
  
• Red Eye: A silly movie, but remarkably entertaining. Cillian Murphy is destined for great things - he has a pretty intense presence. In fact, his role as the villain is probably what made this movie watchable for me.
  
  One thing that stuck with me is how female characters always need an excuse to be bad-asses in movies, whereas it would be acceptable for guys to go from being nice to killing machines under the same circumstances. Unfortunately for Cillian, our heroine has a traumatic past that perfectly excuses her eventual un-ladylike behavior.
  
  
• Little Miss Sunshine: A dark(ish) comedy, probably one of the best movies of the year. The dysfunctionality of the family reminded me of The Royal Tenenbaums.
  
  
• Broken Flowers: Another "I'm getting old" role for Bill Murray. I enjoyed it in spite of the awkward cuts and slowness, but I can't claim to know what was going on, or even if there was anything going on...
  

Fusion Voting

I hear that Fusion Voting is the next big thing in Oregon.

As near as I can tell, Fusion Voting allows parties to list other parties' candidates as their own. The purpose seems to be to provide a concrete system to calculate how much a given endorsement is worth (which seems reasonable), and to allow people too stupid/lazy to remember the endorsements to vote along the (third) party line (which I'm not a big fan of, but then, the same goes for listing the regular party name by the candidate).

It doesn't help the plight of "real" third-party candidates at all though. Go Approval Voting!

Another interesting aspect of Fusion is that it lends itself to a rather unpleasant form of attack; what is stopping someone from creating the "Muslim Jihad" party and endorsing a candidate? Assuming a fairly uniformed voter on average, that kind of line on the ballot would probably give some pause. Well, maybe not for the big elections, but imagine seeing that attached to a school trustee that you have only read 4 sentences about.

The fact that Fusion was banned in most states is kind of weird. I don't think that it would be all that effective in defeating an opponent, especially if the "other side" started creating single issue parties to do endorsements as well.

It's most likely a waste of money to draft and debate all that legislation to get this passed, but whatever floats your boat I guess. With any luck, the time spent on this will prevent the legislators from passing as many truly offensive laws...

Update: Thinking a little more about it, it seems clear that the "Muslim Jihad" attack outlined above could easily be prevented by requiring an endorsement to be accepted by the candidate. This extra step would cost in terms of government paperwork though.

Another attack would be running candidates with the same name as the guy you want to lose. Under a non-Fusion system it would be obvious which Bob Smith belongs to which party - with Fusion the ballots would need extra clarifying information explaining the various connections. Combine that with butterfly ballots with hanging chads, and you have yourself a non-deterministic election!

So, for little to no benefit, there would be extra voting confusion and a lot of money spent. Say no to Fusion.

Armitage Makes a Half-Assed Apology

From David Frum again: Finally acknowledging his role in the Valerie Plame debacle, Richard Armitage has apologized to everyone except the people actually harmed by his weaseling. (While Libby and Rove spent years under public scrutiny, Wilson became a bestselling author and to the best of my knowledge Plame still works for the CIA even after the apparent abuse of her position.)

There seems to be little doubt that the only reason he respected the Justice Department's request to keep quiet was out of hope that it would give Fitzgerald time to dig up unrelated dirt on Bush. Likewise, the JD had no reason to make that request except that they wanted an excuse to keep digging.

Why is no one being fired?

One of Bush's biggest weaknesses has been his tendency to give second chances where none are deserved; a good President would have cleaned out the snakes in the State Department and CIA a looooong time ago (don't know whether he has that kind of jurisdiction over the Justice Department...).

Presbyterians Against Reality

Via David Frum: The official publisher for the Presbyterian church is printing and distributing a book that apparently not only accuses Bush of staging 9/11, but claims that the USA needs to be overthrown in the same way Jesus did the Roman Empire... Yes, it looks like my 5 year break from mocking Christians might be coming to end.

Now, are all Presbyterians crazy, or just their ivory tower clergy? :-)

Rather and Mapes Together Again

After being turfed from CBS for their "fake but accurate" reporting on GWB, Dan Rather and Mary Mapes will be working together again on Rather's new show.

Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E

Nextwave is a new Marvel comic series that more-or-less takes place in the regular Marvel universe. Starring B talent and parody characters from other series, there are some inspired re-interpretations of past Marvel events.

Very funny, very clever. If you dig comics at all, you should should be reading this.

Nano Fabrication Simulation

A 5 minute computer generated simulation of how a home nanotechnology fabricator might work.

Very exciting stuff!

It's too bad that within days of these being publicly available some jerk will figure out how to build bombs with them and set out to destroy the Earth...

Justice Department Less Weasely Than Previously Suspected

A long analysis from Andy McCarthy (a former federal prosecutor) on why the Justice Department investigation into the Plame "leak" might not have been as partisan as it looked. Very few nice words about the key players in the State Department though.

It's a Sad Day, by Crikey

Steve Irwin, aka The Crocodile Hunter, has died from a stingray barb to the heart (Australia has only had 3 stingray related deaths in 100 years).

His gift for making scary animals seem approachable spawned the current generation of wildlife exploration shows.

Update: A lot of Croc Hunter critics are taking this opportunity to recall the "feeding a croc while holding his infant son" incident. I submit to you that a baby held by a croc feeding Irwin is significantly safer than a baby held by a parent carefully walking across an icy driveway. Which is not to say that you should walk across any more icy driveways than you have to, but the outrage there was way out of proportion. If you keep a mid to large sized dog in the same house as a child you are a far more negligent parent.

Mini Movie Reviews

Worth Seeing

• Corpse Bride: Not nearly as good as The Nightmare Before Christmas, but still entertaining.
  
• Walking Tall: A straightforward "regular guy who happens to be a 7 foot tall muscleman uses violence to right horrible injustices" kind of story. But then, I've had a soft spot for The Rock ever since he appeared to me in a dream and told me how to solve a TCP/IP networking problem for an Air Traffic Control system... Did I mention that it was filmed in Squamish, BC?
• Clerks II: By far the most crude Kevin Smith movie thus far, it is a worthy successor to Clerks. You don't want to see it unless you are sure that the Internet has properly desensitized you.
• A Scanner Darkly: Probably too true to the book - it is really weird. But in a good way. Some confusing moments, even for those of us that have read the book. Good performances all around.
  
• Hoodwinked: Very budget animation, but an awesome story that retells the tale of Little Red Riding Hood.
  

Not Worth Seeing

• Flight Plan: Ladies and gentlemen of this supposed jury, it does not make sense! If Chewbacca lives on Endor, you must acquit! The defense rests.
• Cars: Tedious and boring for adults, let alone children. Impressive animation I suppose, but who really cares? And what's with all the sexual innuendo in children's movies these days? Creepy, even if the kids don't catch it.
• Lord of War: I feel like this one should have grabbed me, so it was extra disappointing that it was just kind of pointless.
• The Ant Bully: Promising story, but it turned into a whole bunch of bland sermonizing by the enthusiastically communist ants.
• Superman Returns: About 8 hours too long. A couple interesting plot points and Lex Luthor and his gang were fun, but unless you like the Superman mythology this one probably isn't for you.
  

The Economics of Mass Transit

A geology professor at the University of Wisconsin has a seemingly thorough analysis of the costs of using mass transit rather than driving. I've become a "you'll pry my steering wheel from my cold, dead, hands" kind of guy over the years, and his analysis really resonates with me. In Vancouver, if it's bad to drive somewhere it will be almost certainly be worse to take the bus. The Skytrain is really our only effective mass transit.

His idea to make it legal to drive through red lights if there is no cross traffic strikes me as insanity though. (He calls it oncoming traffic, but I think he has his terminology mixed up. Or I do.)