"Do not go gentle into that good night. Blog, blog against the dying of the light"
Tuesday, August 07, 2012
Comparing Olympic athletes
The New York Times has a fascinating interactive graphic which compares today's athletes to Olympians back to 1896, in the sprint, the freestyle and the long jump.
The difference between the sprint winner in 1896 and today is only about 3 seconds. That said, the fastest 8 year old today could have won a medal in 1896.
Monday, August 06, 2012
Dirty Harry, the honey badger
h/t Balloon Juice
And I was telling my husband about TBogg's hilarious post and his description of Harry Reid as the honey badger, because he doesn't give a shit, and I found out my husband hadn't heard of the honey badger so I was delighted to watch this again with him:
Worst driving in the world
If you google "worst drivers" you will get to Russia pretty quickly. Like this:
""
And here's another:
Apparently many Russians equip their cars with video cameras -- not surprising. But lots of other countries also have their supporters.
""
And here's another:
Apparently many Russians equip their cars with video cameras -- not surprising. But lots of other countries also have their supporters.
Sunday, August 05, 2012
The other moral to this story
As well as backing things up, the other moral to this story is:
Don't link everything.
Photo parade
Some of the animal photos from a collection of emotionally powerful photos:
A dog named Leao keeps watch by the the grave of his owner who was killed in a landslide in Rio de Janeiro.
A firefighter gives water to a koala during the devastating Black Saturday bushfires that burned across Victoria, Australia, in 2009.
A girl in isolation for radiation screening looks at her dog through a window in Nihonmatsu, Japan.
Greg Cook hugs his dog Coco after finding her inside his destroyed home in Alabama following the Tornado in March, 2012.
A dog named Leao keeps watch by the the grave of his owner who was killed in a landslide in Rio de Janeiro.
A firefighter gives water to a koala during the devastating Black Saturday bushfires that burned across Victoria, Australia, in 2009.
A girl in isolation for radiation screening looks at her dog through a window in Nihonmatsu, Japan.
Greg Cook hugs his dog Coco after finding her inside his destroyed home in Alabama following the Tornado in March, 2012.
Saturday, August 04, 2012
Huh!
As well as Barak Obama's birthday, here's some of the other stuff that happened on August 4:
1892 - Lizzie Borden's parents are found murdered
1914 - Germany invades Belgium; Britain and Canada declare war
1921 - Rocket Richard is born
1944 - Anne Frank and family are arrested by the Gestapo
1964 - the Gulf of Tonkin incident
1987 - the Federal Communications Commission suspends the fairness doctrine.
2005 - Paul Martin announces Michaelle Jean will be Governor General
2010 - Proposition 8 is overturned
And its Johnny Cash day in Arkansas.
Thursday, August 02, 2012
I won, we lost -- an interview with Michael E. Mann
Paul Dechene from Planet S Magazine in Saskatoon Sask made a bet two years ago with a local talk show host that climate change would be proven within the next decade.
So following the extreme weather across the continent this summer, Dechene interviewed climate scientist Michael E. Mann last week about whether he has won the bet already.
And the bad news is -- yes, Mann says he has.
About this summer, Mann says
Posted also at Daily Kos.
So following the extreme weather across the continent this summer, Dechene interviewed climate scientist Michael E. Mann last week about whether he has won the bet already.
And the bad news is -- yes, Mann says he has.
About this summer, Mann says
... the data is coming in. It’s showing exactly what the models predicted: increases in certain types of weather extremes, warming of the globe, warming of the oceans, warming of the land, the dramatic retreat of arctic sea ice, a loss of ice from the major ice sheets, increase in sea levels.So are the climate change deniers willing to change their views and admit they were wrong? Well, not so much. Mann describes their reaction:
. . . the day before yesterday, a large piece of the Petermann Glacier broke off of Greenland, a piece larger than Manhattan. [Twice the size, in fact.] A major chunk of ice.
I could point to the most recent June measurements that showed the largest retreat of sea ice as of June in the history of records. Or I could point to the fact that, thus far this summer, all-time records for warmth in the U.S. are running at a ratio of more than 10 times what we’d expect from chance alone. Or I could talk about the fact that just in the last week NOAA [the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration] announced that basically we have now achieved a new record for the magnitude and extent of drought in the U.S. — and that’s including the Dust Bowl.
Well, it’s usually just a recycling of some previously discredited talking point. They’re very good at that. It’s the zombie approach to climate change denial. Some of these myths don’t die no matter how many times you strike them down.Zombie denialists -- what a great image!
Frankly, they’re on the ropes right now with the events that are unfolding. They appear very shrill and completely without credibility when they’re denying the reality of climate change when we’re literally seeing it out our windows and on our TV screens. What you’re seeing now is climate change deniers on the defensive. Rather than being on the offense and attacking the science, they’re crying out in their shrill voices, “No, there’s no relationship at all between what you’re seeing; don’t believe those extreme weather events. Listen to the talking head denying climate change rather than your lying eyes.”
Posted also at Daily Kos.
Tit for tat
Booman makes up a story about Mitt Romney -- or maybe it really is true after all, you never know. It certainly deserves some detailed investigation, maybe even some congressional hearings. Is it irresponsible to speculate? No, it is irresponsible not to:
Mitt Romney isn't really a Mormon. He's an atheist who only went along with his father's faith so he could duck the Vietnam draft. He didn't actually try to convert anyone when he was in France either. In reality, he spent all his time in Monte Carlo gambling and buying high-end hookers. When his daddy found out what he was doing, he made him come home and marry his high school sweetheart. Actually, he only made him marry her after the second time she got pregnant. The first time, they got an abortion. Then Romney started using some of the mafia connections he had made in Marseilles to import heroin. By the time he became governor, they were flying it straight into a secret airport they set up in the Berkshires. When one of the pilots started to talk, Romney had him killed.
The smoking gun
I believe the smoking gun in the Black "wink-and-nod" case is the over-the-top hysterical reaction from the Harper Cons to the idea -- the very idea! -- that such an honourable, independent, hand's off minister like Jason Kenny would ever think to interfere in the decisions of his department. (/snark)
First somebody gets the bright idea to report Guidy Mamann to the law society -- the Harper Cons think lese-majeste is now a crime -- then today we get this huffy and pompous reaction to the lawyers' petition, from Kenny's spokesperson Ana Curic:
It was the PMO.
First somebody gets the bright idea to report Guidy Mamann to the law society -- the Harper Cons think lese-majeste is now a crime -- then today we get this huffy and pompous reaction to the lawyers' petition, from Kenny's spokesperson Ana Curic:
“Baseless accusations of misconduct and reckless character smears, by someone holding himself out to be an expert, poison the public discourse and debase the legal profession,” Ms. Curic said.By the way, I'm sure it actually wasn't Kenny who gave the nod to Conrad Black.
“Instead of engaging in kneejerk outbursts of blind solidarity, these lawyers might consider the long-term damage to their profession of elevating activism above professionalism.”
It was the PMO.
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Conservative hearts are two sizes too small
This is one of the ads made by the Toronto agency BBDO in 2007 on behalf of the UN Refugee Agency, with the goal of raising Canadian support for refugees.
Unfortunately, they didn't work too well on the Harper Cons, who still appear to think that refugees are the scum of the earth. Now the Liberal's immigration critic Kevin Lamourex is blasting the Harper Cons and Jason Kenney for the failure of their refugee policies.
First, for their yahoo ideology:
"There was a great deal of suspicion that [denial of health care] was a decision that was made on the whim, that there was no real consultation, there was no real studies. We haven't seen that and we would like to see the evidence," he said at a news conference in Ottawa.And second for just plain meanness:
"Good government policy is made when you have evidence-based policy decisions and we haven't seen any evidence and we're calling for the minister to provide that," the critic said.
Lamoureux was heavily critical of Kenney's performance as a minister and said that he chooses to "demonize" refugees, often by referring to them as "bogus." His language is insulting and inflammatory, according to the Liberals, and it sends a message that Canada is no longer a welcoming place for refugees.The government's own website gives us some valuable information about how successful many refugees have been in Canada and how much they contribute to the country.
"It's something that is very destructive, I believe, and the Liberal party is calling upon the minister to behave in a more ministerial manner and look at refugees as people that contribute immensely to our country," he said.
I guess Kenny hasn't seen this yet or he would have ordered it taken down because it doesn't fit the party line.
Sunday, July 29, 2012
Medal madness
Please, please, please, could a Canadian athlete win a medal in something in the next three days?
Because that's about how long it will take until the Canadian press starts up with another hysterical pitty party about how awful it is that Canada hasn't won a medal yet, and why have we spent all this money with NOTHING to show for it, and what a disappointment all our athletes are, and how its really all the coaches' fault, and those officials are soooo mean to us...
And. I. Do. Not. Want. To. Hear. It
UPDATE: Thank you, Jesus. And congrats to Emilie Heymans and Jennifer Abel.
Because that's about how long it will take until the Canadian press starts up with another hysterical pitty party about how awful it is that Canada hasn't won a medal yet, and why have we spent all this money with NOTHING to show for it, and what a disappointment all our athletes are, and how its really all the coaches' fault, and those officials are soooo mean to us...
And. I. Do. Not. Want. To. Hear. It
UPDATE: Thank you, Jesus. And congrats to Emilie Heymans and Jennifer Abel.
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Who's zoomin' who
The contrast between Heather Mallick's coverage of the Douglas inquiry and Christie Blatchford's is getting wider every day.
Blatchford decided before the hearing even began that Lori Douglas is virtuous and innocent, while the complainant Alex Chapman is a slimy and duplicitous nutcase. Mallick, in contrast, has sympathy for Chapman's circumstances and questions how Douglas could have been so ignorant for year after year of everything her husband Jack King was doing.
They agree on only one thing -- that King was and is an offensive buffoon.
I find Mallick to be the better reporter overall -- I get a clearer picture of the inquiry from her stories. Still, it was in Blatchford's tenth story about the inquiry that we finally found out that Chapman had reason to complain about the cosy-wosy world of Manitoba justice:
Blatchford decided before the hearing even began that Lori Douglas is virtuous and innocent, while the complainant Alex Chapman is a slimy and duplicitous nutcase. Mallick, in contrast, has sympathy for Chapman's circumstances and questions how Douglas could have been so ignorant for year after year of everything her husband Jack King was doing.
They agree on only one thing -- that King was and is an offensive buffoon.
I find Mallick to be the better reporter overall -- I get a clearer picture of the inquiry from her stories. Still, it was in Blatchford's tenth story about the inquiry that we finally found out that Chapman had reason to complain about the cosy-wosy world of Manitoba justice:
Two years ago, when Mr. Chapman decided the confidentiality agreement he’d signed and reaped $25,000 for in 2003 wasn’t worth the paper it was written on and went public with his story, Mr. King was belatedly charged and pleaded guilty to professional misconduct at the Law Society of Manitoba and was reprimanded.
In fact, there’s at least the possibility that had TDS [Thompson Dorfman Sweatman] and the Law Society not so firmly closed ranks around if not Mr. King then Ms. Douglas back in the day, and charged Mr. King with misconduct in a timely way, Mr. Chapman might have been satisfied that he had been properly heard.
As the testimony of Ian Histed, the lawyer who handled Mr. Chapman’s complaint (as well as two of his civil lawsuits against the Winnipeg Police), Mr. Chapman had some reason to regard the Manitoba justice system with suspicion.
Sharp on the heels of Mr. Histed filing Mr. Chapman’s first lawsuit against the police, Mr. Chapman was again arrested in what the lawyer says was a clear tit-for-tat; sharp on the heels of Mr. Histed demanding money from TDS, Mr. Histed was hauled before the Law Society on a complaint from another client and found himself facing a discipline committee with two TDS lawyers on it and one ex-TDS lawyer.
It is, in other words, pretty clear that the Manitoba bar and judiciary is a closed little club, with Mr. Chapman, as a litigious black man, and Mr. Histed, as a John Candy-like character with a big mouth, regarded as crass outsiders.
Mr. King may have been thrown under the bus by his firm — he was fired — but it was a quiet disposal.
Lawyers at the firm were just told Mr. King was leaving (they were shown a prepared statement, which left the room when the managing partners did, presumably to limit the rumour mill), no one reported Mr. King to the Law Society, and though he was treated for depression for almost a year, he nonetheless bounced back and started practicing again.
As for Ms. Douglas, less than two years after the scandal had emerged in its then-discreet and nicely contained way, she was appointed to the Queen’s Bench on her third try, and later elevated to associate chief justice.
From Mr. Chapman’s perspective, it must have looked as though no one much gave a damn that his then-lawyer had, in his words, tried to get him into bed.
Just you wait
The Telegraph says
Mitt Romney is perhaps the only politician who could start a trip that was supposed to be a charm offensive by being utterly devoid of charm and mildly offensive.But what he said about England will be forgotten as soon as he says something even more stupid about Israel.
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
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