This cute little duck was given to me by Carol. He watches over me while I play at my computer. I like him so I took a picture of him and shared him with you. I think I've lost my mind.

You can look at a larger version of this cute little guy on my Flickr account.

Powered by a 6.5-litre V12 engine that produces an impressive 631bhp at 8,000 RPM, the LP640 goes from 0-62mph in just 3.4 seconds. It has a top speed of 210mph and features an aerodynamic design made from steel/carbon fiber. Video after the jump.

[source techblog]

I actually laughed out loud at this video during the 'race' between the Lamborghini and a VW GTi. Just typing it makes me giggle. It's as silly a race as you think. I have yet to drive one of these monsters myself, but the day will come. I get giddy just thinking about it. But as a passenger? No way. That would make this little control freak flip his hairy wig. I wish there was a way I could drive the roller coaster I'd go on one. It's all about control.

Okay, I haven't watched 24 since season 2. But if Chunk from The Goonies is one of the bad guys I think I'll check it out again.

Martin Scorsese and friends
Martin Scorsese accepts the Oscar for best director for The Departed. Fellow directors, from left, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, look on. (Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press) [source CBC]

How cool. Four of my heroes in one place. But what's with mini Scorsese? I knew he was small, but this is ridiculous. The photo has not been doctored at all. This has to be some strange optical illusion. That or he's an Italian American hobbit.

Oh well, hobbit or not, Marty has his Oscar. Although I'm thinking he should have gotten one for Goodfellas, one for Taxi Driver, one for Raging Bull and one for Casino. Even though I very much liked The Departed, those were better films, especially Goodfellas.

I don't usually post things to both of my sites (this is on zombiefreak.com as well), but I'm pretty excited about this movie, Fido, about a boy and his zombie. It was made here in BC and some folks I know from my stint on the Razzie nominated Wicker Man worked on it. No razzie for fido. It looks kind of fun.

Craig Ferguson speaks on his past problems as an alcoholic and why he will not ridicule Britney Spears and her shaved head crisis. Must watch!

This video takes a while to load as it's 12 and a half minutes long but it is very much worth watching. As one who has 'been there' I can say that Mr Ferguson is speaking my language. Well done Mr F.

Carol loves to be afraid of sharks. They're misunderstood for sure and get tons of bad press. I find them beautifully fascinating, but a part of me fears them too. This movie looks like it's out to change people's perception of the world's most 'perfect predator'.

The annual Talkers Magazine Heavy Hundred ratings are out and a couple of of favourite guys come in at number 6:


Congrats to Opie and Anthony! You guys rock (Jimmy too... Frrrrunkis!)

Speaking of Jimmy Norton, I love his new character, Boardroom Jimmy, on O & A. Here's a clip (Very NSFW. Cover up the kiddies' ears):


Oh look who came in at number 12 - It's 'hoo hoo'. What an ass. I love how O and A are picking on him about being the second most famous Howard Stern right now. "Hoo hoo Robin!" Get over yourself. Putzo.

Yikes. That's awful. Repulsive. This is appalling... I loved every second of it!

But still my all time favourite hockey video is of Jarkko Ruutu, last year as a Canuck, embarrassing Calgary Flambé Dion Phaneuf by tripping him after Phaneuf throws down his gloves for a scrap:


I miss Jarkko. One of those players I'd love to see come back.

No, this is not one of the sets at Bag End from Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy. A human sized Welsh family of four lives in it. It took the owner and his father in law, with the help of friends and passersby, 4 months (1000-1500 man hours) to build. The cost? A comfortable £3000 ($7000 CAD).

The house was built with maximum regard for the environment and by reciprocation gives us a unique opportunity to live close to nature. Being your own (have a go) architect is a lot of fun and allows you to create and enjoy something which is part of yourself and the land rather than, at worst, a mass produced box designed for maximum profit and convenience of the construction industry. Building from natural materials does away with producers profits and the cocktail of carcinogenic poisons that fill most modern buildings.

What an attractive and cosy looking home. Not only original and inexpensive but environmentally responsible too. I want a hobbit house!

For more pictures and information on this house check out A Low Impact Woodland Home.

BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) -- Two clowns were shot and killed by an unidentified gunman during their performance at a traveling circus in the eastern Colombian town of Cucuta, police said Wednesday.

The gunman burst into the Circo del Sol de Cali on Monday night and shot the clowns in front of an audience of 20 to 50 people, local police chief Jose Humberto Henao told Reuters.

One of the clowns was killed instantly, and the second died the next day in hospital.

"The killings had nothing to do with the show the victims were performing at the time of the incident," Henao said in a telephone interview. "We are investigating the motive."

With an entrance fee of under 50 cents, Circo del Sol de Cali attracts mostly poor Colombians. It pitched its tents in Cucuta, near the border with Venezuela, earlier this month.

"The clowns came out to give their show, and then this guy came out shooting them," one audience member told local television. "It was terrible."

[source CNN and Digg]

Perhaps some psycho was suffering from coulrophobia (fear of clowns) and took things way too far.

Not only is it awful for the clowns and their families, but imagine what the children who were at the circus are going through. Yikes!

And I am absolutely NOT talking about the snack food. In this context I am using the word poppycock this way:

pop·py·cock (pŏp'ē-kŏk') Pronunciation Key
n. Senseless talk; nonsense.

[Dutch dialectal pappekak : pap, pap (from Middle Dutch pappe, perhaps from Latin pappa, food) + kak, dung (from kakken, to defecate, from Middle Dutch kacken, from Latin cacāre; see kakka- in Indo-European roots).]

Online Etymology Dictionary
poppycock
1865, probably from Du. dialect pappekak, from M.Du. pappe "soft dung" (see pap) + kak "dung," from L. cacare "to excrete."

[source dictionary.com]

Apparently I used the word improperly in a couple of posts here on my blog in referring to a snack made for me by my wife. How do I know I misused the word? I got a letter:


*** Let me qualify before continuing. I am feeling particularly grumpy today so a poorly written letter from a corporate lawyer wasn't a welcome thing this morning.***

Here we go:

You spelled my name wrong. My last name is Browne not Brown, which is a colour or the last name of a favourite cartoon character of mine.

Second our postal code is incorrect. I'm not sure what country you're trying to send mail to but it's not Canada.

Third, you spelled your own product name wrong in the second paragraph of the letter. Perhaps you should add your product's name to your word processor's dictionary so the mistake doesn't happen again. Just a helpful hint.

Finally, I immediately changed the wording in the offending posts on our "company's websites" (personal blogs... wtf?). The snack my wife makes for me at Christmas time will be from this point on referred to as censored snack. See posts here: post one and post two from my blog and this one (I think the main offender as it shows up on page one of google using the offending word and 'recipe' in a simple search) from Carol's blog.

When Google crawls us again this referral will go away.

Our sincerest apologies to the company in question. We will never ever refer to you or your products again. Also we shall not ever purchase or consume your products again, but will choose a competitor. Also we hope many people who read our blogs will respond in kind.

Fiddle faddle... one of Dad's favourite words. He used it to replace another word that starts with F and is sometimes coupled with 'off'. Which is something I'd like to tell a certain letter writer.

Here's an edited video from one of the offending posts:

The Bugatti Veyron tested to see if it really can do 407 km/h.

I'm one of those kids who grew up in Canada right in the midst of the switch to metric so miles per hour still means something to me. So, 407 kmh = 252.90 mph. Holy guacamole! That's fast.

Thanks to Scotty for the link.

I loved the music of Kraftwerk in the 80's. Now it's making a comeback:


Thanks to mark from HNR for the link.

I am a robot!

XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio have jointly announced that they have entered into an agreement to combine the two companies - in an all-stock merger - with a combined enterprise value of $13 billion.

Sirius' superstar CEO Mel Karmazin will head the new company as its CEO, and Gary Parsons will also retain his title as Chairman as the new company. The new company's board of directors will consist of 12 directors, four independent members designated by each company, as well as one representative from each of General Motors and American Honda.

Hugh Panero will continue in his current role until the close of the merger. Further management appointments will be announced prior to closing.

The combination creates a nationwide audio entertainment provider with combined 2006 revenues of approximately $1.5 billion based on analysts' consensus estimates.

Follow the jump to read what's in store for customers and investors under this new merged entity...

[more at source: orbitcast]

So far I'm unimpressed.

I wonder what's going to happen with Opie and Anthony and Howard Stern (hoo hoo)? They absolutely despise each other and now they'll have to work together. O and A believe had a hand in Howard having them fired before. I wonder if we're about to see it happen again? Ugh. I hope there's room for the two with the new merged company. If not we'll be ditching our subscription. Howard Stern is boring.

Carol and I went to the Chinese New Year Celebrations. We took lots of photos. The dragon in the above photo came form a picture I took today.

Here's the best one that I took:


There are a few more of the better ones in my Flickr set right here.

I also took some video:


The above band that was playing at Tinseltown Mall. Clearly the lead singer spent more time working on not saying Herro than being on key. The next song they did was "Tie a Yellow Ribbon". I kid you not.

Finally, when we got home, Carol and Moosh posed for a photo to celebrate as well:

Remember this video I put on YouTube last week?:


It was mentioned in The Globe and Mail about three quarters of the way down the page in this article is says:

You're a star

Congratulations to Sean McCormick. You're posted on YouTube under the headline "Sportsnet F-Bomb," with video and audio showing you using the f-word during a Rogers Sportsnet telecast. When the picture disappeared for a few seconds, McCormick, a Sportsnet anchor, obviously thought the audio also was off.

A spokesman said the network received two complaints.

The video has had over 1000 views just today.

Humans! is a 60 second global awareness PSA sensationalizing the excessive, all-consuming nature of the human being. This cute and naive Earth stands no chance against such an insatiable parasite. Witness its utter demise in a fun and sickening kind of way.

Nicely done by the folks at Three Legged Legs! Check out their site there's plenty more amazing video to ogle.

Twingly screensaver is the coolest thing I've seen in a long time:

Twingly screen saver is visualizing the global blog activity in real time. Forget RSS readers where you see only what you’re interested in. With Twingly screen saver you get a 24/7 stream of all (viewer discretion advised) blog activity, straight to your screen.

source [digg]

Download the sceensaver....

Gone Daddy Gone is one of my all time favourite Violent Femmes songs. I guess my age is showing. Gnarls Barkley covered the tune and made this rather adult themed and Kafka-esque video to go along with it:


Hilarious, sexy and creepy. A brilliant mix of CG animation and live action.

I've seen this everywhere lately I just had to post it. It's a wonderfully artistic take on Web 2.0 for the non nerds. Brilliance.

I actually have one! This, fairly acurrately, is me:


More on my type:

ENFP

outgoing, social, disorganized, easily talked into doing silly things, spontaneous, wild and crazy, acts without thinking, good at getting people to have fun, pleasure seeking, irresponsible, physically affectionate, risk taker, thrill seeker, likely to have or want a tattoo, adventurous, unprepared, attention seeking, hyperactive, irrational, loves crowds, rule breaker, prone to losing things, seductive, easily distracted, open, revealing, comfortable in unfamiliar situations, attracted to strange things, non punctual, likes to stand out, likes to try new things, fun seeker, unconventional, energetic, impulsive, empathetic, dangerous, loving, attachment prone, prone to fantasy

favored careers:

performer, actor, entertainer, songwriter, musician, filmmaker, comedian, radio broadcaster/dj, some job related to theater/drama, poet, music journalist, work in fashion industry, singer, movie producer, playwright, bartender, comic book author, work in television, dancer, artist, record store owner, model, freelance artist, teacher (art, drama, music), writer, painter, massage therapist, costume designer, choreographer, make up artist

disfavored careers:

data analyst, scientist, researcher, financial advisor, business analyst, govt employee, office manager, mathematician, investment banker, office worker, computer tech, it professional, network engineer, strategist

I'm not sure about the anti IT stuff as I love the geeky stuff too. :)

More personality tests at similar minds.

Oh Trent Reznor, what's in that head of yours? I guess we know a bit more after this very creative campaign.

From Digg:

Nine Inch Nails Concept Album Builds Story With Websites From The Future

A set of websites have emerged in support of the new Nine Inch Nails album "Year Zero". The first of the sites was discovered by fans who noticed highlighted letters on the back of a nine inch nails shirt for a tour that kicked off this weekend. This led to the discovery of various IP addresses and an entire story of the future built through sites.

more: link

Here's a screenshot I took of one of the websites, anotherversionofthetruth.com:


Looks innocuous enough, but go to the site and drag your mouse over the graphic and it changes to something else entirely.

Yesterday an mp3 was 'found' on a USB drive in Portugal where the band was playing. Here is "Violence in my Heart":


Interestingly, when viewed through the spectrum analyzer in the Fruity Loops program the noise at the end of the song creates an eerie picture of a hand reaching downward:


There are other websites and marketing materials to explore as well but it would take me hours and pages of writing to cover exactly what others have found so far. If you want to explore further check out the often updated forum post at echoing the sound.

Wow. I love viral marketing especially the calculated and artistic depth of campaigns such as this one. Having done some myself I can tell you there's more coming for sure and these folks had tons of fun putting this together. A dream gig would be to do this kind of thing full time. I'm brewing a little something of my own right now. *wink wink*

Oh, one last thing on this. There's a phone number (1-310-295-1040) you can call to here a creepy phone message if you like, but I'll save you the long distance charges. Here's the message (NOTE - It contains some not safe for work language):


I will buy this CD as I always buy NiN stuff, but this one seems to have earned my cash a bit more. I can't wait until they come around on tour so we can see them.

Ooh, that smarts. I'm sure it sucks to be Lisa Nowak right now.

The song by The Phantom Surfers reminds me of The Archies cartoon I used to watch as a kid.
[source boingboing]

Road to Guantanamo is a film everyone should see, but not many have.

I wasn't sure what to expect before putting this film into the DVD player tonight. I picked it up on the strength of an interesting synopsis:

Part drama, part documentary, Road to Guantánamo focuses on the Tipton Three, a trio of British Muslims who were held in Guantanamo Bay for two years until they were released without charge.

Little did I know how disturbed I would be by this film about young Muslim Brits who were merely in the wrong place at the wrong time.


Here's the trailer:


Upon further reading I found out that the MPAA deemed the film's poster 'inappropriate' as it shows a disturbing image of a mistreated prisoner. You can see for yourself. I've given you a choice, just click the link if you want to have a look:

Taken in the context it is meant to be seen in the poster is nothing but appropriate.

What did this films show me? It enlightened me as to how naive I was in 2001, blinded by anger and fear after what happened in New York city. It took me back to exactly how I felt then and that to me, action, however it came, was justified. I'm embarrassed to say that I was wrong.

Yes, the suicide bombers of September 11, 2001 did a horrible thing and the Taliban sound like nasty folk too. I'm not questioning that at all. I am questioning what 'we', and by we I mean the countries in the coalition that invaded Afghanistan, did in response to those acts. I'm not sure how more death and the abuse of the rights other human beings sets right those wrongs.

Perhaps we should treat everyone by the standards we ourselves would expect if in similar circumstances. The biggest one is the idea that everyone is innocent until proven guilty. Where the hell is that for those being held at Guantanamo? It doesn't appear to apply in these cases.


Why haven't more people seen this? I try not come off like a conspiracy theorist so I won't even go there, but there has to be real reasons why. Perhaps it's a case of the truth hurts. If you don't see it it isn't there. Right?

The box office was tragically low as per IMDb at only $316,694 (28 July 2006). When films like Eddie Murphy's Norbit (panned by critics) are opening to box office counts of $34.2 million in a single weekend and films like this one are going unnoticed I have to ask myself what is wrong with this world.

What a yucky feeling.

Here are some links from the film's web site to help you 'Get Active':

amnestyusa
ACLU
witnesstorture.org

For we Canadians:

amnesty.ca
human rights watch is good too.

To close, here's a little trivia about the film:

Two of the actors (Riz Ahmed and Farhad Harun) and two of the ex-detainees were detained temporary and interrogated at the airport by the British police when they returned from the Berlinale-festival where the movie got the Silver Bear. According to BBC-news Ahmed said he was asked if he intended to make any more political films.

Disgusting.

Here comes the pre-attack spin:

Iranians 'at highest levels' meddling in Iraq war: intelligence officer ... of course

Blowup? America's hidden war with Iran Doesn't hidden mean 'out of view'?

U.S. sending third carrier strike group to Gulf. Why not?

'We would welcome your troops with flowers...' (I bet)

Iranian Remains Defiant on Nuclear Program They're asking for it. Right?

And interestingly... Iran, Venezuela To Open Air Route

This has to stop somewhere. It sucks being this powerless to do anything about a situation. Watching people kill one another isn't how I'd planned to spend my days, but it's in my face all the time. I can't help but be affected by it. Time to write a letter to an MP.

Watch the canucks.com exclusive debut of the Sedin Twins' new "Just Like Us" NHL commercial. Shot last week at the Sutton Place Hotel by director Scott Weinstock, the new ad features Daniel and Henrik dancing at a bachelor party.
300k | 700k (windows media player required)

Cool ad even Paulie the Leafs fan would like I think. Until the ad is up on YouTube (I could do it but I won't) here's a little something with a whole lot of not safe for work language obviously done by a couple of Canucks fans bashing away at Edmonton Coilers star Ryan Smith:

Look at what Rosie said on the view just hours before Anna Nicole Smith is found dead:


How much do you want to be Anna Nicole saw this and was upset about it. Ugh. I don't like Rosie. First it was a scrap with The Donald, then it was racist remarks against Chinese people and now this.

Rosie's a voodoo witch. No doubt about it. Her powers are growing with every incident. Who will she do in next?

Rosie's email address is conspicuously missing from The View website. Perhaps a lot of hate mail today?

Rosie, you're an unfunny cuckoo bird.

Anna Nicole Smith dies

Reality TV star and former Playboy playmate Anna Nicole Smith was pronounced dead Thursday after being found unconscious in her Florida hotel room. A nurse was with her and her bodyguard performed CPR in the room, police said. An autopsy is scheduled for Friday, police said.

[source CNN]

Sad, but not surprising. She seemed like a rather tortured soul and after her son's death in September we didn't hear much from her at all. All kinds of rumours already surrounding her passing. I guess you're tabloid fodder in death as well.

Lots at TMZ.com

In keeping with the nerdy Star Trek theme of late I just had to post this. Sorry.

[source miss cellania]

A pair of human skeletons lie in an eternal embrace at an Neolithic archaeological dig site near Mantova, Italy, in this photo released February 6, 2007. Archaeologists in northern Italy believe the couple was buried 5,000-6,000 years ago, their arms still wrapped around each other in a hug that has lasted millennia. REUTERS/Enrico Pajello/Handout (ITALY).

[source yahoo.com]

I'd love to know what the story is behind these two. Scientists will do their best to figure it all out I'm sure. Perhaps we'll never know the true circumstance surrounding their being buried together. Perhaps we need to call in David Caruso from CSI Miami for some cornball one-liners on the case:


A couple of weeks ago O & A spent a number of days on the above video. Funny stuff.

%++Table(digg3)++%
Live broadcast with no dump button? Silly Sportsnet.

The Canucks won the game too! Wee!

Beware of Robert Goulet, for he will mess with your stuff once you fall asleep.

That was one of Carol's favourite Super Bowl ads. Perhaps because her mom doesn't like Robert Goulet because, it has been said, Elvis didn't like him.

Steve sings 'Dont Worry Be Happy' - remixed by Dru Boogie
Our buddy Dru Boogie (who is responsible for a ton of remixes on the show) took the audio of Steve singing in the production studio and mixed it into a fantastic version of 'Don't Worry Be Happy'. Amazing job, Dru!

Opie & Anthony played this over and over and over. If I had a cellphone that didn't suck I'd use it as my phone's ring tone. I think I'll listen again. God it's irritating.

"That's terrible I'm sorry."

Our downstairs neighbour, Bennett, says that when he lived in LA he was often pulled over for DWB. Apparently hasn't happened to him since he moved here to Canada. I guess that's my contribution to black history month. Being the whitest a white person can be I honestly don't know much. I'm kind of embarrassed at how ethnocentric I am sometimes. A little exploration couldn't hurt.

After over 12 hours of trying to install Windows Vista, downloading countless drivers that didn’t work and dealing with lots of hardware conflict issues, Anthony figured he was finally qualified to give others a very useful tutorial on installing Windows Vista on a computer running Windows XP. See for yourself how to SUCCESSFULLY install Windows Vista!

[source foundrymusic.com]

Opie & Anthony are the best! O & A party rock!

Churches in Indiana and across the country are scrapping traditional Super Bowl viewing parties in wake of the NFL’s stance that mass viewings of the game on big screen TV’s would violate copyright law.

The issue came to light Thursday when the Star reported that the NFL had told Fall Creek Baptist Church in Indianapolis that its plans for a Super Bowl watch party in front a big screen TV would be illegal.

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said Thursday the league stands by its interpretation of copyright law and would look into any violators that comes to the league’s attention. The main concern for the league, Aiello said, is groups that charge admission to watch games and those that use a TV screen larger than 55 inches to show the game.

A story about Fall Creek’s plan to cancel its game viewing plans prompted dozens of calls and more than 500 email comments to the Star’s website Thursday. Aiello said media from around the country have been inquiring with the league as well.

In Indianapolis, home of the AFC Champion Colts, Indian Creek Christian Church and Castleton United Methodist Church are among those who have cancelled plans to watch the game in their churches.

The issue came to light after the NFL confronted Fall Creek about its promotion of a “Super Bowl Bash” at the church that would bring together congregation members to watch the game with a projection TV.

Aiello said the league has a longstanding policy against “mass out-of-home viewings” of the Super Bowl, even if the hosts don’t charge admission. The NFL makes an exception to that, however, for sports bars that show televised sports on a regular basis. And that point has been a point of considerable anger among people who have contacted the newspaper in response to the story.

via Digg digg and the indystar

Good thing our TV is only 52" or we'd be in trouble. We don't charge admission and I think only Bennett and Scotty are showing up for the game anyway.

Some of these copyright laws are downright retarded. The NFL doesn't even want some people in broadcasting (Opie and Anthony) or gambling websites to use the words Super Bowl. When I worked at that place we had to call it 'the big game' or some other lame name in our ads. We were not allowed to say Super Bowl at all. I see that's still in effect from the ads on their site today.

So as Anthony said on their show yesterday:

Super Bowl Super Bowl Super Bowl Super Bowl Super Bowl Super Bowl Super Bowl Super Bowl Super Bowl Super Bowl Super Bowl Super Bowl Super Bowl Super Bowl Super Bowl Super Bowl Super Bowl Super Bowl Super Bowl Super Bowl Super Bowl.

Come and get me.

These guys do...

Enzo Ferrari hits 339 Kmh on Alberta Highway

Here’s an awesome video from ZR Auto, an exotic car dealership in Calgary, Canada. Dealer principal Zahir Rana’s personal collection of mad whips include an Enzo Ferrari, a Novitec Rosso F430 F1 Supersport and several miscellaneous other Ferraris, V-12 Lamborghinis, and Porsches. Watch how fiercely the Enzo and Novitec accelerate in comparison to the Gallardos.

[source madwhips via digg]

For our American friends 339 km/h = 210.64 mph. In other words 'ZOOM'!