Friday, November 28, 2008

Rick Mercer on Harper's plan to destroy democracy in Canada

globeandmail.com: Like a trip to Baskin Robbins
Well we almost found out. Because if Stephen Harper got his way on this, democracy would have changed forever. And not a single citizen will have gotten to vote on the matter.

email to cell phone txt msg

How To Send Email To Any Cell Phone (for Free) | MakeUseOf.com

Want to send a short email to a friend and get it delivered to his/her
cell phone as SMS? If you know your friends’ phone numbers and the
carrier they are on then you can easily send emails to their cell
phones directly from your email program.

Hungry in America

Report: 36 million Americans food insecure - UPI.com

More than 36 million Americans, including 12.4 million children, are food insecure, officials of a U.S. non-profit group said.

Feeding America, a U.S. hunger-relief organization, said the actual
number of Americans forced to skip meals and survive without adequate
nutrition is even greater than the report indicates because it is based
on statistics from 2007.


"It is important to note that the U.S. Department of Agriculture
numbers released today are 2007 figures and do not take into account
the unprecedented economic crisis that our country is currently
facing," Vicki Escarra, president of Feeding America said in a
statement.


Holiday Movies with trailers

Photos in a petri dish

Oldest dope stash found - 2,700 years later.

TheStar.com | sciencetech | 2,700-year-old marijuana found in Chinese tomb
OTTAWA – Researchers say they have located the world's oldest stash of marijuana, in a tomb in a remote part of China.

The cache of cannabis is about 2,700 years old and was clearly ``cultivated for psychoactive purposes," rather than as fibre for clothing or as food, says a research paper in the Journal of Experimental Botany.

The 789 grams of dried cannabis was buried alongside a light-haired, blue-eyed Caucasian man, likely a shaman of the Gushi culture, near Turpan in northwestern China.

Harpocrite Backroom Dealer whining about backroom deals

Harper slams Liberal/NDP “backroom deal”, forgets he came to power through “backroom deal” himself « Paulitics
Actually, it’s worse than even that: MacKay and Harper were making “backroom deals” (the PC/Alliance talks) on top of “backroom deals” (the MacKay/Orchard Pact), the latter of which actually forbade the very existence of negotiations or — you guessed it — “backroom deals” between the former PCs and Canadian Alliance.

I don’t seem to remember Harper thinking “backroom deals” were so bad when he was the chief beneficiary of them.

CTV/Conservative manipulations

Accidental Deliberations: Expert manipulations

Call it anti-reality animus or just the result of staff cuts. But take a look at who's actually behind CTV's report which breathlessly claims that "experts" don't think a coalition government can work.

More on the Coaltion Government

James Laxer: Opposition Parties: Too Late to Turn Back Now
As it now appears, we could be heading for a Liberal-NDP coalition government with the Bloc providing support in Parliament. These three parties hold the majority of seats in the House and they won the majority of votes in the recent election. In forming a new government, they will be acting in the best interest of Canadians and will be taking a crucial step in the revitalization of democracy in this country.

Coalition of the majority - a step closer to happening

Peterborough Politics: Coalition Rounding Into Shape???
If these combined reports are the least bit true, it really looks like the pieces are falling into place. Will it happen??? I won't say until I see it with my own two eyes, but it's looking all the more likely. It's taken some amazing events to get us to this point and I can't help but think that it will take some even more amazing events to stop this coalition from happening. The way that things are going this week, anything sure is possible and nothing seems outside of the realm of possibility.

Sookie Stackhouse Boxed Set (the series that True Blood is based on)

Amazon.com: Sookie Stackhouse Boxed Set (Sookie Stackhouse/True Blood): Charlaine Harris: Books

Sookie Stackhouse Boxed Set (Sookie Stackhouse/True Blood)

Because so many people have become aware of these books as a result of
the TV series, a word about the differences between the two is in
order. There are both definite similarities and some sharp differences
between the two. The books focus much more on Sookie and less on the
lives of the supporting characters, not surprising given that Sookie is
the narrator in the novels. Sookie's narrative voice is for me one of
the joys of the books and I miss that very personal perspective when I
watch the TV series. The books are also far less sexual than the
series, though there are several sex scenes (though it never descends
to the pure porn found in the Anita Blake books). The series differs
sharply from the books when it deals with characters other than Sookie.
For instance, Tara in the books is a minor (and white) character. Jason
plays a far smaller role. Just about everything touching Tara and Jason
cannot be found in the novels. Sam and Tara are not involved. Without
giving spoilers, Lafayette cannot be regarded as an important character
in the books. On the other hand, Eric is as important as the other
three main characters in the books, Sookie, Bill, and Sam. Still, based
on all but the last 2 or 3 episodes of Season One of the TV show,
Sookie's story there is pretty close to that is the first novel in the
sequence.

William Gibson's novels

The Latex Vac-Bed - something for your Xmas wish-list?

Who are the Deccan Mujahideen?

Mumbai - what happened, and more news and views

Global Voices Online » Mumbai, India attacks 2008

On November 26, 2008 the city of Mumbai in India came under attack
in at least seven different locations in an unprecedented sort of
terror. A combination of gun fire, blasts, grenade blasts have been
used to attack cinema halls, hotels, hospitals, and other public
places. According to media sources 26 armed terrorists came to Mumbai
in rubber boats and landed at the Gateway of India. They captured
vehicles from the street on gun-point and moved to various targets
which included Taj Mahal Hotel, Oberoi Trident Hotel, Ramada Hotel,
restaurant Leopold Cafe, Mumbai Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST)
railway station, Metro movie hall, Cama Hospital, police headquarters
and other prominent places in the city.


The terrorists so far killed 101 people and injured around 300.
Media reports say that the terrorists searched for British and US
nationals in the hotels and at least 100 people have been held hostage
at the Taj Mahal and Oberoi Trident hotels.


An organization called Deccan Mujahideen has taken responsibility for the attack. The police have seized the boats which carried the terrorists.


A Buffy The Vampire Movie in the making?