The Day Before...

The following is from an advertising campaign for the Cape Times.

Monday, September 10th 2001, the day before aeroplanes struck the World Trade Centre in New York.


Sunday, August 5th, 1945, the day before the Atom bomb was unleashed on Hiroshima.


Tuesday, June 15th, 1976, the day before the riots erupted in Soweto.


Tuesday, November 21st, 1963, The day before John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas

Quoting... Steven Weinberg

With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.
- Steven Weinberg

Quoting... Clement Atlee

Democracy means government by discussion, but it is only effective if you can stop people talking
- Clement Atlee

Boston Legal - Homosexuality

Another classic delivery from Alan Shore

Hi, I'm a Liberal

Global Warming


Branding


Crossing Dressing

TorrentSpy Ordered To Start Tracking Visitors.

TorrentSpy Ordered To Start Tracking Visitors.

A court decision reached last month but under seal until Friday could force Web sites to track visitors if the sites become defendants in a lawsuit.

TorrentSpy, a popular BitTorrent search engine, was ordered on May 29 by a federal judge in the Central District of California in Los Angeles to create logs detailing users' activities on the site. The judge, Jacqueline Chooljian, however, granted a stay of the order on Friday to allow TorrentSpy to file an appeal.

The appeal must be filed by June 12, according to Ira Rothken, TorrentSpy's attorney.

TorrentSpy has promised in its privacy policy never to track visitors without their consent.

"It is likely that TorrentSpy would turn off access to the U.S. before tracking its users," Rothken said. "If this order were allowed to stand, it would mean that Web sites can be required by discovery judges to track what their users do even if their privacy policy says otherwise."

The Motion Picture Association of America, which represents Columbia Pictures and other top Hollywood film studios, sued TorrentSpy and a host of others in February 2006 as part of a sweep against file-sharing companies. According to the MPAA, the search engine was sued for allegedly making it easier to download pirated files.

Representatives of the trade group could not be reached for comment.

The court's decision could have a chilling effect on e-commerce and digital entertainment sites, said Fred von Lohmann, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. He calls the ruling "unprecedented."

SOURCE: C|Net News (Complete Article)

I don't really have anything to say about this. I just thought I'd post this as a "public service" to those of you naughty people out there who frequent TorrentSpy. Does anyone know where TorrentSpy is based? I thought most of these are usually located in either the Scandinavian countries or the BeNeLux countries - If they are, how does a US court achieve jurisdiction?

Heroes -- Zeroes 2

A while ago I posted Heroes -- Zeroes, here is the sequel: Heroes -- Zeroes 2 - enjoy.


PS. I'm really digging the new You Tube player... very cool stuff. Click the menu button after the clip is done to see what I mean. Also a big fan of being able to get the embed code and URL without having to go to You Tube.

H/T Darrell

My Problem With Atheism

An atheist is someone who does not believe in God, an all powerful force, a mighty deity or what have you - in short, an atheist is the polar opposite to a canonist.

A canonist believes without a doubt that there is a God. The rationale for their belief stems from an intangible yet resolute faith.

An atheist believes without a doubt that there is no God. The rationale for the their belief stems from a deficiency of scientific evidence.

Here's my dilemma with atheists: some, if not most, are willing to accept even the very slimmest of possibilities that intelligent extra-terrestrial life may exist. I mean with the millions of galaxies, containing billions of planets, it's a pretty arrogant notion to emphatically state that Earth could be the only one blessed with life. So without empirical data, they are, even on a minuscule level, open to the suggestion, which is fair enough.

However, with all the wonders in our infinite universe, they're not receptive to even the slightest inclination of an all powerful force. It does not have to be a god or God in the way we have made him/her/them out to be, but just "something" out there.

In my mind, an atheist & religionist make equally little sense in that one is sure there is no God or gods, while the other is sure there is. Given that there is no actual data to support the existence of deities does not controvert the possibility that there might be something out there.

Not all the evidence is in. Everything we know now, is not, by any stretch of the imagination, all we will ever know. So, the way I see it, being an atheist requires at least some amount of... faith.

Now I have a feeling someone might bring up Dawkins' "Flying Spaghetti Monster". It's true that it is pretty unlikely that such a beast exists, but no one can say with certainty that it doesn't exist anywhere in the universe.

Or is my reasoning specious?

This about sums it all up

Came across this this morning

Quoting... Friedrich Nietzsche

All things are subject to interpretation whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.
-Friedrich Nietzsche

Connery Says Never Again

Connery bows out of Indiana film.

Sir Sean Connery has announced that he will not be playing Harrison Ford's father in the next Indiana Jones film.

"If anything could have pulled me out of retirement, it would have been an Indiana Jones film," the 76-year-old said in a statement on its website.

"But in the end, retirement is just too damned much fun," he continues.

SOURCE: BBC News

Indiana Jones is the second film Sir Sean has opted not to partake in - the first being the iconic role of Ganfalf the wizard in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. He cites not understanding the role Gandalf for dismissing it; but his recent decision on Indy 4 baffles me. Of course, it's his prerogative to accept or reject any role he wishes, and to stay in retirement. However, and maybe this is just a fan speaking, I had hoped that he would reprise the role of Dr. Henry Jones Sr. for a few reasons.

• It would make his rationale for abstaining from Lord of the Rings more credible. If he knew in his heart of hearts that he was indeed permanently retired, a simple, "Thanks, but no thanks, I'm out of the business would have sufficed when turning down Gandalf the Grey.
  
• I'm a devout fan of the Indiana Jones franchise and the introduction of Indy's dad in the most recent installation added a whole new dimension to the character of Indiana Jones which the film makers will now be limited to explore.
• Finally, I am a great enthusiast of Sir Sean Connery himself. I've enjoyed his work since I was a child watching him on mission after mission and the original super secret agent 007. Being the fan that I am, I really hated seeing Mr. Connery end his near fifty year career on such a sour note as "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" - a film that sounded great on paper but was so horribly executed. Connery deserved a far better exit which Indy 4 would have handily provided.

Running For Political Office for GOP's 101

Family guy nails it again.

Jesus & Mo - Holy

Here's another chuckle from Jesus & Mo.If you're having trouble reading the text, click to see it at full size.

Shift Happens

You've probably already seen this, but I think it's worth seeing again.

Darfur still getting uglier...

Another satellite image of Darfur.
Click for a clearer picture.

Quoting... Johnny Carson

Democracy means that anyone can grow up to be president, and anyone who doesn't grow up can be vice president.
- Johnny Carson

Group Memorials @ Think Moderate

A while ago I mentioned that I would be contributing to Think Moderate. I just wrote my first entry - feel free to swing on by and check it out at this permalink.

Late Breaking News!

Bush declares Cold War over

Prague - US President George Bush declared on Tuesday that the Cold War has ended and Russia was "not our enemy" and should not be concerned about the extension of the US anti-missile shield in Europe.

"The Cold War is over. It ended. People in the Czech Republic do not have to choose between being friends of the US or friends of Russia. You can be both," Bush said during a joint press conference with Czech President Vaclav Klaus and Premier Mirek Topolanek.

Source: IOL (Complete Article)

In other breaking news: The North won the Civil War and the Germans Lost WWII. Join us next week where we will examine the applications of the newly invented wheel. Also, don't miss our special report - Advances in Science: Fire

Canada dethrones Australia as friendliest nation!

Australia Loses Out in Latest Anholt Nation Brands Index

Sydney, May 31st, 2007 – Aussies are no longer the friendliest people in the world, according to the Q1 2007 edition of the Anholt Nation Brands Index (NBI) powered by GMI (Global Market Insite, Inc.), a provider of global market intelligence solutions. Canada took Australia’s crown as the world’s friendliest nation, and China knocked Australia out of the Top 10 nation brand financial valuations by making its debut in Brand Finance’s 2007 Nation Brand League Table, climbing from 12th place in 2005 to ninth this year. Australia, whose nation brand valuation ranked ninth in 2006, goes down two places to number 11 in 2007.

Source: Anholt Nation Brands Index

Well that settles it. After experiencing the amiability of Canadians first hand, on Jun 1st, 2007; it turns out that just the day before we were named the friendliest nation in the world by Anholt Nation Brands Index. Don't really have much to say on the matter except... We're #1!.. Oops, I hope I don't screw up Canada's ranking in the humility rankings.

Just plain silliness

Toronto is friendly

So I was meeting Alana at the Queen's Park subway station this afternoon, and while I was waiting for her, I apparently had a mild blackout and supposedly "fell" and hit my head on the railing I was leaning against. I have no recollection of said events, save the word of two very kind women who came to my immediate assistance. They near insisted on taking me to the closest hospital and were adamant about not leaving me alone, and they didn't, despite my assurances that I was okay. They did not leave my side until Alana showed up.

I neither got their names, nor thought to ask for them. The chances of those altruistic women ever coming across this lowly blog are as great as getting hit by lightning on the way to cash a winning lottery ticket. But on the very very slim chance that either or both of them do happen to stumble across TFTH, I would like to extend my deepest thanks to the both of them for their act of genuine compassion.

My thanks to you.