Mr. Nag and I are taking a road trip to the Gaspe.
Sunday, August 27, 2006
Saturday, August 26, 2006
On This Day 1962: Abortion mother returns home
I'm old enough to remember this story:
This woman was a host on Romper Room. Needless to say, she lost her job. She was 30 years old at the time and this was her 5th pregnancy! No wonder she needed tranquillizers. She was remarkably poised throughout the whole ordeal.
Sherri Finkbine, a TV presenter from Phoenix in Arizona, was denied
an abortion in her home-state following intense negative publicity surrounding her case. The 30-year-old mother decided to terminate her fifth pregnancy after discovering that tranquilizers she had taken in the first few weeks of her
pregnancy contained the drug Thalidomide.
This woman was a host on Romper Room. Needless to say, she lost her job. She was 30 years old at the time and this was her 5th pregnancy! No wonder she needed tranquillizers. She was remarkably poised throughout the whole ordeal.
Lots and Lots of Webcams
These webcams were found automatically through a variety of clever search techniques. Their owners might or might not have intended for them to be public. But they obviously are. Many of them are security cameras in companies or semi-public places.
Via Ursi's Blog
Top Signs That Watching the Simpsons Has Had a Big Impact on Your Life
1. You have 4 fingers on each hand.
2. You live in a small town somewhere in the USA that has access to anything you can imagine, despite it being small.
3. Your mother and your little sister wear strapless evening gowns with pearls.
4. No matter what your boss never recognizes you.
5. Your school has a singular tree on its property.
6. Your sister still has a pacifier at the age of thirty.
7. Your next door neighbors have names that rhyme or at least sound alike.
8. Your local convenience store clerk charges $12 for a carton of milk.
9. You would pass up anything to write your name in wet cement.
10. Your bus driver practically lives in Mexico.
More ...
Via Bifurcated Rivets
2. You live in a small town somewhere in the USA that has access to anything you can imagine, despite it being small.
3. Your mother and your little sister wear strapless evening gowns with pearls.
4. No matter what your boss never recognizes you.
5. Your school has a singular tree on its property.
6. Your sister still has a pacifier at the age of thirty.
7. Your next door neighbors have names that rhyme or at least sound alike.
8. Your local convenience store clerk charges $12 for a carton of milk.
9. You would pass up anything to write your name in wet cement.
10. Your bus driver practically lives in Mexico.
More ...
Via Bifurcated Rivets
You're nicked
Mugshots were invented in Britain in the 1840s as a weapon against crime, but they were taken up most enthusiastically in the United States, where the compulsory police portrait is almost a rite of passage. Giacomo Papi presents villains, stars and victims who have faced the lens.
Some of these are very familiar; others,like the one on the left, are not.
Sometimes police photographers indulged their imaginations: a transvestite accused of luring a woman into marriage is stripped ...
Some of these are very familiar; others,like the one on the left, are not.
Sometimes police photographers indulged their imaginations: a transvestite accused of luring a woman into marriage is stripped ...
Friday, August 25, 2006
Beaver Hall Group
Saw the NFB film, By Woman's Hand, tonight and will definitely seek out the work of these artists when I'm in Montreal next week. The portraits and the landscapes are so evocative; how is it I have not seen them before now.
It might seem that art historians require only art to go about their
business. In fact, they also need stories to link the works together and make them jump off gallery walls. Canadian art history has often seemed at a disadvantage when stacked against the glamorous narratives of European art . Madness, mistresses, absinthe, scandals at the Salon , but really, we just need a little spin.
Take the women of the Beaver Hall Group. The work is there, from vivid post-impressionist landscapes to pared-down modernist portraiture. Now, with a brisk, approachable book by Toronto-based art historian Evelyn Walters, so are the stories.
The Women of Beaver Hall: Canadian Modernist Painters concentrates on 10 Montreal women associated with the Beaver Hall Group in the 1920s and '30s. "We had a swell time actually," declared Anne Savage, looking back at their years of creative camaraderie. In a quiet, quintessentially Canadian way, they did.
The Gurkha - When a Hummer won't do
These vehicles are designed for use in war zones. If you feel you need one perhaps you should examine what's going on in your life.
"It can stop a bullet from an AK-47, shrug off a roadside bomb, and it makes a Hummer look like a chick car. The $200,000 (U.S.) Gurkha is coming to a road near you , thanks to a King City-based company that is finding itself in demand because of the global war on terror. 'They are pretty awesome machines,' says William Whyte, owner of Armet Armored Vehicles Inc., the company that builds the Gurkha. 'We've been stopped on roads with people taking pictures and wanting to know what they are.' The Gurkha can go more than 150 kilometres per hour , plenty fast for a military vehicle , and is the highest level of protection you can get next to sitting in a tank, Whyte says. It certainly looks fierce enough.
The squat 8,620 kilogram vehicle looks every bit the ticked-off hedgehog, bristling with testosterone and armour plating."
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Firefighters Shot At For Not Helping Cat
This would never happen to Mr. Nag - he is a cat fancier and would never ignore the cries of a feline in distress.
"KINGMAN, Ariz. (AP) -- A man angry at firefighters who refused to rescue a cat from a tree was arrested after he started shooting at the fire crew, officials said."
"KINGMAN, Ariz. (AP) -- A man angry at firefighters who refused to rescue a cat from a tree was arrested after he started shooting at the fire crew, officials said."
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Tom and Jerry Go Cold Turkey?
Scenes that appear to glamorise smoking are to be edited out of Tom and Jerry cartoons following complaints to Ofcom, the broadcasting watchdog, that they are not appropriate to be shown to children.
The complaint, published yesterday by Ofcom, was about two cartoons - Texas Tom and Tennis Chumps - transmitted on Turner Broadcasting's children's channel, Boomerang. More than half (56%) of the channel's audience are aged four to 14.
In Texas Tom, Tom tries to impress a female cat by making a rollup cigarette while Tennis Chumps sees Tom's opponent in a match smoking a large cigar.
Via Cynical-C Blog
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Operation: Kill Kermit
Most nights, armed men stomp through the Perigord-Limousin Regional Park in southwestern France with orders to shoot ... frogs. But not just any amphibians. They're after Rana catesbeiana , the North American bullfrog , introduced to France in 1968 by a French aviator who liked the idea of the critters croaking in his garden. They're now an ecological menace.
Weighing up to a kilo, these voracious predators gorge on crustaceans, fish, other frogs, salamanders and even the occasional bird. 'It's capable of attacking anything it can swallow,' says Tony Dejean, the naturalist at Perigord-Limousin leading the operation. Worse, it was recently discovered that bullfrogs carry chytrid fungus, which kills other amphibians.
Via Mental Floss
Weighing up to a kilo, these voracious predators gorge on crustaceans, fish, other frogs, salamanders and even the occasional bird. 'It's capable of attacking anything it can swallow,' says Tony Dejean, the naturalist at Perigord-Limousin leading the operation. Worse, it was recently discovered that bullfrogs carry chytrid fungus, which kills other amphibians.
Via Mental Floss
Claude Lelouch's Rendezvous
On an August morning in 1978, French filmmaker Claude Lelouch mounted a gyro-stabilized camera to the bumper of a Ferrari 275 GTB and had a friend, a professional Formula 1 racer, drive at breakneck speed through the heart of Paris.
Via Ursi's Blog
Via Ursi's Blog
Monday, August 21, 2006
Outdoors Is Definitely Where It's At
First we got the lawn furniture then the Weber barbeque then the outdoor stereo speakers. What next? Why this8-Foot Inflatable Home Theater Designed for Watching Movies, TV & Sports in the Back Yard. We need never enter our house again!
Sunday, August 20, 2006
Children of Hoarders
This is one complaint the younger generation of nags will never have about me. They probably have a long list of legitimate gripes but we won't go there.
We are not children just whining about growing up in a messy house. Growing up in a Hoarder's home has effects that go far beyond living amongst the accumulation of possessions. Hoarders hide behind closed blinds-isolating themselves from the outside world.
We hid behind those blinds with them.
Grown, we still do, but from our own homes.
We, the adult children of hoarders are just now finding our voices to speak up about growing up with our parents having a serious condition called 'Hoarding'.
Via Cruel.com
We are not children just whining about growing up in a messy house. Growing up in a Hoarder's home has effects that go far beyond living amongst the accumulation of possessions. Hoarders hide behind closed blinds-isolating themselves from the outside world.
We hid behind those blinds with them.
Grown, we still do, but from our own homes.
We, the adult children of hoarders are just now finding our voices to speak up about growing up with our parents having a serious condition called 'Hoarding'.
Via Cruel.com
Smokers - the new deviants
I'm not a smoker (does this mean I'm intelligent?) but I think this story in today's Toronto Star is unbelievable:
There are all sorts of behaviours that people indulge in that are not intelligent: involvement in serial dysfunctional relationships, gambling, drinking, overeating.... Shouldn't the employer have to prove that the behaviour is interfering with the employee's ability to perform the job?
It's worth mentioning that the Ontario government's anti-smoking website is addressed http://www.stupid.ca/.
'A job advertisement saying that `smokers need not apply' would not seem to fall under any of the prohibited grounds (under EU legislation),' Vladimir Spidla, the commissioner for employment and equal opportunities, wrote to Stihler, who showed the letter to the press.
This would have pleased the employer who placed the ad, call-centre director Philip Tobin, who reportedly told Irish radio in May, 'If these people (meaning smokers) can ignore so many
warnings and all that evidence then they haven't got the level of intelligence that I am looking for. Smokers are idiots.'
In other words, if you're addicted to nicotine, a substance that studies have repeatedly shown to be more difficult to withdraw from than heroin, you're too dumb to answer the phone.
There are all sorts of behaviours that people indulge in that are not intelligent: involvement in serial dysfunctional relationships, gambling, drinking, overeating.... Shouldn't the employer have to prove that the behaviour is interfering with the employee's ability to perform the job?
It's worth mentioning that the Ontario government's anti-smoking website is addressed http://www.stupid.ca/.
Saturday, August 19, 2006
Girl Gone Wild
I'm on my own tonight - no rules, it's party time! Do I flash my rack at my webcam and make out with other girls? Actually, no. But I do eat two plates of these - in front of the computer! 
Today's Urban Def
Canadian girlfriend:
When your buddy keeps saying he's got a girlfriend, but you never meet her. Imaginary girlfriend.
Vince: 'Trevor, why haven't we met your girlfriend? You've been dating for over a year.'
Trevor: 'She's really busy.'
Vince: 'Oh, yeah, I forgot how busy Canadians can be.'
Trevor: 'What?'
Mike: 'Vince is just saying you've got a Canadian girlfriend, that's all.'
When your buddy keeps saying he's got a girlfriend, but you never meet her. Imaginary girlfriend.
Vince: 'Trevor, why haven't we met your girlfriend? You've been dating for over a year.'
Trevor: 'She's really busy.'
Vince: 'Oh, yeah, I forgot how busy Canadians can be.'
Trevor: 'What?'
Mike: 'Vince is just saying you've got a Canadian girlfriend, that's all.'
In my view, dressing children in these should be illegal.Thank You Neatorama
Neatorama posted a link to my blog yesterday. Amazing what it did to my traffic.
Friday, August 18, 2006
Pernod Ricard leads rum war at the Havana Club
"MIAMI, Aug 18, 2006 (AFP) - The well-dressed crowd swayed to tropical jazz and the Cuba-chic mood was tinged with a touch of nostalgia as exiles sipped Havana Club, a famed rum now at the center of a bitter trademark dispute.
Cuban-born jazzman Arturo Sandoval belted out notes at his Miami club as bar staff concocted Cuba Libres, mojitos and other Cuban cocktails, pouring out liberal measures of the rum many associate with sultry Havana nights.
Havana Club, which had been absent from US markets for decades because of a trade embargo on communist-run Cuba, is now making a comeback as a Puerto Rican rum.
Bacardi, which produces the new incarnation of the old favorite, insists its product is the real stuff, based on the original recipe it bought from the original owners after the communist government seized their assets in Cuba.
But Pernod Ricard � which sells Cuban-produced Havana Club around the world, except in the United States, in a joint venture with the Cuban government � says Bacardi has no rights to the brand and is misleading customers."
The Red and The White - 1967
Download of this movie available (a little cumbersome).
"The year is 1919 - After the revolution, during the civil war, the Soviet forces defended the new regime from foreign intervention and foreign-backed White (counter-revolutionary) forces at times on 21 fronts. This is the story of the opposing forces on one front, where Hungarian volunteers had joined the defense. The place is an abandoned monastery used by each side -when it captured the position- as a field hospital and garrison.
In 1919, Hungarian Communists aid the Bolsheviks' defeat of Czarists, the Whites. Near the Volga, a monastery and a field hospital are held by one side then the other. Captives are executed or sent running naked into the woods. Neither side has a plan, and characters the camera picks out soon die. A White Cossack officer kills a Hungarian and is executed by his own superiors when he tries to rape a milkmaid. At the hospital, White officers order nurses into the woods, dressed in finery, to waltz. A nurse aids the Reds, then they accuse her of treason for following White orders. Red soldiers walk willingly, singing, into an overwhelming force. War seems chaotic and arbitrary. "
Via Wood's Lot
Snowglobes
Walter Martin and Paloma Munoz's impressively dark snowglobes.
These are very different from the Niagara Falls, Empire State Building, etc. snowglobes we are used to. Call me morbid but I like them.
Andrew Young's Undiplomatic Gaffe
ooops....
"The sheer satisfaction generated by a good gripe-fest can often be reason enough to gather folks in the spirit of anti-corporate activism. Wal-Mart Stores, for one, has seen myriad organizations and Websites dedicated to criticizing it.
But one group, 'Working Families for Wal-Mart' has been different.
An unlikely assortment of clergymen, businesswomen, and the singer Pat Boone, it has sought to exhort the 'good things' about the retail giant and spread the message of its positive contributions to society at large. (No guesses as to who was funding it, of course)
The big coup for Wal-Mart (nyse: WMT - news - people ) came when civil rights leader and former U.N. ambassador Andrew Young, 74, agreed to head the group.
Since February he has lobbied minority groups and communities to accept the retail chain in their neighborhoods. Till now, that is.
Following what he later called 'racist shorthand,' Young has quit his post as the head of 'Working Families for Wal-Mart.' In an interview with Thursday's Los Angeles Sentinel, he defended the charge that Wal-Mart runs mom-and-pop stores out of business saying 'those are the people who have been overcharging us.'
The rub came in his elucidation: 'I think they've ripped off our communities enough. First it was Jews, then it was Koreans and now it's Arabs, very few black people own these stores.' "
Via Metafilter
"The sheer satisfaction generated by a good gripe-fest can often be reason enough to gather folks in the spirit of anti-corporate activism. Wal-Mart Stores, for one, has seen myriad organizations and Websites dedicated to criticizing it.
But one group, 'Working Families for Wal-Mart' has been different.
An unlikely assortment of clergymen, businesswomen, and the singer Pat Boone, it has sought to exhort the 'good things' about the retail giant and spread the message of its positive contributions to society at large. (No guesses as to who was funding it, of course)
The big coup for Wal-Mart (nyse: WMT - news - people ) came when civil rights leader and former U.N. ambassador Andrew Young, 74, agreed to head the group.
Since February he has lobbied minority groups and communities to accept the retail chain in their neighborhoods. Till now, that is.
Following what he later called 'racist shorthand,' Young has quit his post as the head of 'Working Families for Wal-Mart.' In an interview with Thursday's Los Angeles Sentinel, he defended the charge that Wal-Mart runs mom-and-pop stores out of business saying 'those are the people who have been overcharging us.'
The rub came in his elucidation: 'I think they've ripped off our communities enough. First it was Jews, then it was Koreans and now it's Arabs, very few black people own these stores.' "
Via Metafilter
African Craft USB Drive.
Core77 wrote about USB drives made by local craftsmen in Sao Tome e Principe, a West African country:
Sao Tome e Principe is a West African country with a population of about 150.000, located on the Guinea Gulf along the Equator. SEED 2006, a Design and Social Economy project financially supported by the Portuguese Cooperation and developed by designer Pedro Alegria, introduced USB flash card design to local craftsmen, all of whom had never seen or heard of such things before. The end result merges traditional 'forgotten' craft with hot technology on the rise, sustaining the working families' needs and offering unique craft-designs to the masses.
When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts
As the world watched in horror, Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans on August 29, 2005. Like many who watched the unfolding drama on television news, director Spike Lee was shocked not only by the scale of the disaster, but by the slow, inept and disorganized response of the emergency and recovery effort. Lee was moved to document this modern American tragedy, a morality play witnessed by people all around the world. The result is WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE: A REQUIEM IN FOUR ACTS. The film is structured in four acts, each dealing with a different aspect of the events that preceded and followed Katrina's catastrophic passage through New Orleans. Acts I and II premiere Monday, August 21 at 9pm (ET/PT), followed by Acts III and IV on Tuesday, August 22 at 9pm. All four acts will be seen Tuesday, Aug. 29 (8:00 p.m.-midnight), the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina."
Ronald McHummer
This month McDonald's is giving away toy Hummers - 42 million of them, in eight models and colors - with every Happy Meal or Mighty Kids Meal. That's right: The fast-food chain that helped make our kids the fattest on Earth is now selling future car buyers on the fun of driving a supersized, smog-spewing, gas-guzzling SUV originally built for the military. Use the Ronald McHummer Sign-O-Matic to tell us what you think of this misguided marriage of two icons of American excess.
Via Metafilter
NPP
The US National Priorities Project Database shows how money spent on the war or tax cuts to the wealthy could alternatively be spent on health care, education, etc.
Via Folderol
Via Folderol
Thursday, August 17, 2006
No Surprise Here
The Canadian Auto Workers union has declared political independence after delegates to the union's constitutional convention voted to formally sever ties with the New Democratic Party.
And the union's high-profile leader, Buzz Hargrove, admitted yesterday he's still angry over his treatment by the NDP after the last federal election.
Hargrove's endorsement of a party or a candidate means squat in terms of delivering his members' votes. However, provincial NDP campaigns that receive money and workers from the CAW may be in trouble. It will be interesting to see whether Niagara CAW locals will support the NDP in Welland to the same extent they have in the past. The CAW has always been able to count on Kormos, can he count on them for cash and union releases in 2007?
And the union's high-profile leader, Buzz Hargrove, admitted yesterday he's still angry over his treatment by the NDP after the last federal election.
Hargrove's endorsement of a party or a candidate means squat in terms of delivering his members' votes. However, provincial NDP campaigns that receive money and workers from the CAW may be in trouble. It will be interesting to see whether Niagara CAW locals will support the NDP in Welland to the same extent they have in the past. The CAW has always been able to count on Kormos, can he count on them for cash and union releases in 2007?
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
PEZ MUSEUM JAPAN
PEZ MUSEUM JAPAN???2
Baby Nag has a Pez collection he accumulated over the years. It's rather impressive. Perhaps he should start a blog...
Via gmtPlus9
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Who believes in evolution?
Evidently Canada doesn't matter but look at the US! 
Science has just published a short comparative study of international acceptance of evolution.
Science has just published a short comparative study of international acceptance of evolution.
I am not an animal - yeah right
"KOOKY comedian Andy Dick went bonkers at the Comedy Central roast of William Shatner on Sunday night - licking the faces of Farrah Fawcett, Carrie Fisher and Patton Oswalt before biting Post reporter Mandy Stadtmiller on the hand during a bizarre backstage meltdown.
Dick's face-licking frenzy began after Oswalt made a crack about the scraggly star's rollerskate-licking turn in Jessica Simpson's video, 'A Public Affair.' Dick retaliated by unleashing his tongue on Oswalt's face before turning it on Fawcett, Fisher and 'Star Trek' actress Nichelle Nichols during the taping at the Radford CBS Studio in Studio City, Calif.
Backstage at the after-party, a drunken Dick groped an appalled Stadtmiller, tried to kiss her, proclaimed his love for her and finally bit her hand.
'Baby please,' Dick repeated six times. 'Put in something nice,' he said after urinating in front of the horrified journalist in his dressing room and offering her cocaine.
'They're so mean,' he ranted. 'I'm not weird. Maybe I'm a little weird, they make me out to be a monster, I'm not a monster . . . "
300-meters panoramic recreation of Moscow
This installment of miniatures recreates Moscow in 70th years of the last century and is being sold. The auction is set to August 4-th with initial price 10,3 million rubles (around $380.000).
Via Coudal Partners
Overweight 'top world's hungry'
There are now more overweight people across the world than hungry ones, according to experts.
Right on, Melinda!
In the fight against AIDS, condoms save lives. If you oppose the distribution of condoms, something is more important to you than saving lives. - Melinda Gates
Monday, August 14, 2006
Fidel Castro Bought 'Em Off the Ave With the Tags Still In 'Em
The Cuban Young Communists released four photos of Fidel Castro this weekend to prove that the President of Cuba is not only still alive, but also still the best-dressed man in Latin America. Fidel rockin it old school, as is his wont holds up a newspaper, still excited about making the cover of state-run media years after the thrill may have worn off for other revolutionaries-turned-despots.
Ottawa mother rattles U.S. race
"WASHINGTON - Civil rights lawyer Ellen Simon appeared to be comfortably cruising to victory in next month's Democratic primary in Arizona, earning herself a longshot bid for the U.S. Congress.
Then came a determined voice from the north.
Suddenly, an obscure party primary with no national profile has become one of the hottest, dirtiest and most litigious political races in the United States.
For that, one can thank Pamela Tanner of Ottawa.
She injected herself in the race by posting comments on political blogs in Arizona about her longstanding child-support battle with Blaine Tanner, Simon's husband and the man once immortalized on the front page of the Star as one of Canada's most notorious deadbeat dads."
Then came a determined voice from the north.
Suddenly, an obscure party primary with no national profile has become one of the hottest, dirtiest and most litigious political races in the United States.
For that, one can thank Pamela Tanner of Ottawa.
She injected herself in the race by posting comments on political blogs in Arizona about her longstanding child-support battle with Blaine Tanner, Simon's husband and the man once immortalized on the front page of the Star as one of Canada's most notorious deadbeat dads."
Sunday, August 13, 2006
Websites that changed the world
To celebrate the 15th anniversary of the web The Observer assembled a list of sites that have become the virtual wallpaper of our lives:
1. eBay.com
2. wikipedia.com
3. napster.com
4. youtube.com
5. blogger.com
6. friendsreunited.com
7. drudgereport.com
8. myspace.com
9. amazon.com
10. slashdot.org
11. salon.com
12. craigslist.org
13. google.com
14. yahoo.com
15. easyjet.com
1. eBay.com
2. wikipedia.com
3. napster.com
4. youtube.com
5. blogger.com
6. friendsreunited.com
7. drudgereport.com
8. myspace.com
9. amazon.com
10. slashdot.org
11. salon.com
12. craigslist.org
13. google.com
14. yahoo.com
15. easyjet.com
UBS Studies Purchasing Power Around the World
A global comparison of purchasing power in 71 cities around the world. Among their findings:
- Four European cities and Tokyo most expensive.
- Highest wages in Scandinavia, Switzerland and the US.
- With the highest net wages, Zurich and Geneva, followed by Dublin, Los Angeles and Luxembourg, lead the pack in purchasing power.
- People in Asia work the longest hours – almost 50 days more per year than Western Europeans.
- Asian workers at least partially compensate for low purchasing power through longer working hours.
- Seoul has the highest, Paris the lowest working hours.
- Oslo, London, Copenhagen, Zurich and Tokyo are the world’s most expensive cities in relation to a standardized basket of 122 goods and services.
Cruzin Cooler
If I were a beer drinker I'd definitely get one of these. Hell, I might get one anyhow.
Cruzin Cooler combines two basic necessities of life, the ability to have cold food or a beverage handy along with the means to get somewhere, without walking. With modern technology, the Cruzin Cooler is light-weight and comes in various sizes and is available in gas and electric models, with a 10 mile range on electric models and 30 miles on the gas models.
I could even bring Max along with me!
Saturday, August 12, 2006
A Foxy Film
Kogitsune Helen (Helen the Baby Fox)
Seven-year old Taichi (Arashi Fukasawa) is shunted to the remote Hokkaido home of a veterinarian (Takao Osawa) when his camerawoman mom travels on a Pacific photographic assignment. Feeling neglected, the tyke takes pity on a deaf, blind, mute fox he names after Helen Keller.
The trailer is enough for me, I'd turn into a blubbering moist mass if I ever had to watch the whole movie. Oddly enough, foxes happen to be one of my secret weaknesses - I love their red colour, their sharp noses and their bushy tails. I have always wanted to find and tame one and turn it into a little suck. So far no luck.
Via Grow a Brain
Seven-year old Taichi (Arashi Fukasawa) is shunted to the remote Hokkaido home of a veterinarian (Takao Osawa) when his camerawoman mom travels on a Pacific photographic assignment. Feeling neglected, the tyke takes pity on a deaf, blind, mute fox he names after Helen Keller.
The trailer is enough for me, I'd turn into a blubbering moist mass if I ever had to watch the whole movie. Oddly enough, foxes happen to be one of my secret weaknesses - I love their red colour, their sharp noses and their bushy tails. I have always wanted to find and tame one and turn it into a little suck. So far no luck.
Via Grow a Brain
Matt Savage, Fourteen-year-old jazz pianist
Matt Savage, Fourteen-year-old jazz pianist . What an amazing young man! He was diagnosed with autism when he was three, started piano lessons at six and has gone on to forge a giant musical reputation for himself. The music is remarkable and so is he.
Via Bifurcated Rivets
Via Bifurcated Rivets
Friday, August 11, 2006
Coronation Street Quote
Les Battersby about his cow of a wife Cilla, "I gave that woman my heart."
To which Cilla's daughter, Fizz, replies, "Let's hope she didn't trade it for a pint and a pickled egg."
Doctored billboards make a statement
If you were at Dundas West subway station this week, you might have noticed a billboard making a stronger-than-average statement about George W. Bush.
Instead of an unflattering picture of the U.S. President beside the words 'Don't read enough?' -- part of an ad campaign for an audiobook company -- a picture of outspoken Bush opponent, rapper Kanye West, appeared next to him with the line: 'Isn't Kanye an A-Rab name?'
Working under the alias fauxreel, which is also the name of his 'photo-based creative studio,' the man responsible for these and seven other billboard manipulations over the past year is Dan Bergeron. He believes it is unfair that only people with money get to have their say on billboards, although he sees his work more as professional development than an attack on advertising culture.
Gwyneth's African Ad Inspires Imitators
The mocking flows fast & furious regarding Gwyneth Paltrow's 'I Am African' ad.
Only in Japan -- Hello Hilton
Just when you thought Paris Hilton mania couldn't get any bigger, Sanrio, the folks behind Hello Kitty, have taken it to another level. They have created a signature Hello Kitty figure with a Paris Hilton look. Sorry folks, it's only available in Japan.
Via A Welsh View
Wal-Mart backs down and allows Chinese workers to join union
Too bad they won't allow their North American workers to do the same.
Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retail company, conceded defeat yesterday in a two-year battle against the world's largest labour federation, by offering to support the formation of labour unions at its 60 stores in China. The American supermarket giant - which is notoriously reluctant to support workers' organisations throughout its global empire - said it would cooperate with the government-controlled labour federation to establish unions for its 28,000 Chinese employees.
Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retail company, conceded defeat yesterday in a two-year battle against the world's largest labour federation, by offering to support the formation of labour unions at its 60 stores in China. The American supermarket giant - which is notoriously reluctant to support workers' organisations throughout its global empire - said it would cooperate with the government-controlled labour federation to establish unions for its 28,000 Chinese employees.
Thursday, August 10, 2006
Four sacked over 'sex romp' claim
Perhaps they stripped down because it was so hot and one thing led to another but the vomit bit is puzzling - must have been the result of too much Newcastle Brown.
Four civil servants have been sacked and a further five disciplined after an investigation into claims that staff romped naked in their Tyneside office.
The antics are alleged to have taken place at the Newcastle office of the Rural Payments Agency in June.
Staff have also been accused of jumping naked from cabinets, holding dance competitions and having sex in toilets.
Managers said the allegations were 'overblown' but that 'inappropriate behaviour' had taken place.
The agency was set up to make payments to farmers from Euro subsidies - many thousands of whom have been left penniless because of a massive backlog.
The lurid claims, made by a whistleblower, also included allegations staff at the office vomited in cups and left them to fester in cupboards.
Four civil servants have been sacked and a further five disciplined after an investigation into claims that staff romped naked in their Tyneside office.
The antics are alleged to have taken place at the Newcastle office of the Rural Payments Agency in June.
Staff have also been accused of jumping naked from cabinets, holding dance competitions and having sex in toilets.
Managers said the allegations were 'overblown' but that 'inappropriate behaviour' had taken place.
The agency was set up to make payments to farmers from Euro subsidies - many thousands of whom have been left penniless because of a massive backlog.
The lurid claims, made by a whistleblower, also included allegations staff at the office vomited in cups and left them to fester in cupboards.
Poll: 60 percent of Americans oppose Iraq war
Aug 9, 2006: Sixty percent of Americans oppose the U.S. war in Iraq, the highest number since polling on the subject began with the commencement of the war in March 2003, according to poll results and trends released Wednesday.
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
Who Loves Ya, Baby?
A new trend in Paris graffiti: Telly Savales and Robert Wagner. Who'll be next? Robert Falk, Eric Estrada, William Conrad? I still prefer Monsieur le Chat.Things a Man Should Know About Drinking
Here are rules 4-8:
4) Never order a frozen drink in a place that serves pickled eggs.
5) Actually, never order a frozen drink.
6) It's also not a bad idea to eschew the pickled pigs' feet, although their presence is fairly strong evidence that you've accidentally stumbled upon a real tavern.
7) For the sake of the children, leave the pistol at home.
8) Grappa is to lighter fluid as ouzo is to lighter fluid.
Read the rest..
Via Grow a Brain
4) Never order a frozen drink in a place that serves pickled eggs.
5) Actually, never order a frozen drink.
6) It's also not a bad idea to eschew the pickled pigs' feet, although their presence is fairly strong evidence that you've accidentally stumbled upon a real tavern.
7) For the sake of the children, leave the pistol at home.
8) Grappa is to lighter fluid as ouzo is to lighter fluid.
Read the rest..
Via Grow a Brain
More Doctors Prescribe Camels
Before they had Joe Camel they had doctors shilling for them. Mr. Nag dragged home a pile of old Popular Science mags that he found in someone's garbage and they're full of stuff like this.
Edited: My dad points out that this might account for our current doctor shortage.
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Kerouac's original `On the Road' will be published
It's literary legend, how Jack Kerouac wrote his breakthrough novel ``On the Road' in a three-week frenzy of creativity in spring 1951, typing the story without paragraphs or page breaks onto a 119-foot scroll of nearly translucent paper.
In fact, the Lowell native revised the book many times before it was published six years later, and while the scroll came to symbolize the spontaneity of the Beat Generation, the early, unedited version of the novel never reached the public.
Now, in time to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the novel's publication, the version of ``On the Road' that Kerouac wrote on the scroll will be published next year in book form for the first time, said John Sampas of Lowell, the executor of the writer's literary estate and the brother of his third wife, Stella. It will include some sections that had been cut from the novel because of references to sex or drugs.
The agreement between the Kerouac estate and the New York publisher Viking Penguin is an important development for literary scholars and Kerouac fanatics who have never had access to the original draft.
Via J-Walk
In fact, the Lowell native revised the book many times before it was published six years later, and while the scroll came to symbolize the spontaneity of the Beat Generation, the early, unedited version of the novel never reached the public.
Now, in time to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the novel's publication, the version of ``On the Road' that Kerouac wrote on the scroll will be published next year in book form for the first time, said John Sampas of Lowell, the executor of the writer's literary estate and the brother of his third wife, Stella. It will include some sections that had been cut from the novel because of references to sex or drugs.
The agreement between the Kerouac estate and the New York publisher Viking Penguin is an important development for literary scholars and Kerouac fanatics who have never had access to the original draft.
Via J-Walk
AOL offers disturbing glimpse into users' lives
AOL's publication of the search histories of more than 650,000 of its users has yielded more than just one of the year's bigger privacy scandals.
The 21 million search queries also have exposed an innumerable number of life stories ranging from the mundane to the illicit and bizarre.
For its part, AOL has apologized for a researcher's disclosure of the massive database and has yanked the file from its Web site. It was too late: The database already had been mirrored.
Check out excerpts from the AOL search logs, with each user's search terms included in chronological order.
Via Daily Jive
The 21 million search queries also have exposed an innumerable number of life stories ranging from the mundane to the illicit and bizarre.
For its part, AOL has apologized for a researcher's disclosure of the massive database and has yanked the file from its Web site. It was too late: The database already had been mirrored.
Check out excerpts from the AOL search logs, with each user's search terms included in chronological order.
Via Daily Jive
Monday, August 07, 2006
Chinese 'anger bar' is a big hit
A bar in eastern China has come up with a novel way of attracting clients - they are allowed to beat up the staff.
The Rising Sun Anger Release Bar in Nanjing lets customers smash glasses, rant and even hit specially trained workers, state media reported.
The owner, Wu Gong, told China Daily that he was inspired to open the bar by his experiences as a migrant worker.
Most of his customers were women working in the service or entertainment industries, he said.
The bar employs 20 men who have been given protective gear and physical training to prepare them for the job.
Clients can ask the men to dress as the character they wish to attack.
I think I've been to a few of these bars in North America. Not being Asian they don't have a "formal policy" about abusing staff , it's done in a more informal way.
The Rising Sun Anger Release Bar in Nanjing lets customers smash glasses, rant and even hit specially trained workers, state media reported.
The owner, Wu Gong, told China Daily that he was inspired to open the bar by his experiences as a migrant worker.
Most of his customers were women working in the service or entertainment industries, he said.
The bar employs 20 men who have been given protective gear and physical training to prepare them for the job.
Clients can ask the men to dress as the character they wish to attack.
I think I've been to a few of these bars in North America. Not being Asian they don't have a "formal policy" about abusing staff , it's done in a more informal way.
Philip Beesley Architect Inc. - Niagara Credit Union Virgil Branch
It was weird seeing this image on Coudal Partners. The building is just down the road from me. While I thought it was an improvement over the old building, it didn't knock me out or anything.
A Bitch For Max?
If your dog is looking for a date, then we have the answer... Doggie Dating can help you find a partner for your dog or bitch.
Search our list of hopeful canines or you can register your own pet with us to find them the ideal date.
Via Presurfer
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