Details you don't want in your heroic story

In BC, a 12 year old boy delivered his own brother when his mother went into labour. She was 2 days past due date, so when Kelly McParland makes note that she didn't seem to have this well thought out, he does have a bit of a point. I'd assume that the labour came out of the blue, and she didn't have time for the paramedics to arrive. (I'm giving the benefit of the doubt here.)

What struck me though wasn't so much the circumstances of her going into labour, it's what the 12 year old boy was doing when she went into labour:

Gaelan, who lives in Campbell River, had been watching a movie about showgirls on television at about 2 a.m. on Sunday morning

I wonder why a 12 year old would be watching "a movie about showgirls" (read: Showgirls) at 2 am?

Note to my friends - should I do something amazing to get me in the news, please claim I was watching Citizen Kane. Thanks.

Random Thoughts - June 22, 2011

• It seems to be the norm, but Bell put their foot in their mouth again. Saying that it's preposterous that consumers should be able to see content on all cellphones and tablets is backwards and wrong thinking. You can sell access to the content and make money. As well, exclusive content does not drive people to particular providers - the hardware and vertical integration does. You'd think that Bell would have learned this by now - it's not like their Mobile NHL has dragged the customers to them.


• Kayden Kross wrote an interesting letter attacking porn piracy (site is probably NSFW, but there is no actual nudity in the article.) She makes a strong point that the pirates could have worked with the porn industry and both could have made a lot of money. But her conclusion only looks at one part of the equation. Instead of blaming the pirates for causing a race to the bottom, she shoud also consider why the porn industry couldn't put together an equivalent website to the porntubes of the world, supported by both subscription rates and ad revenue. If it worked for anime, why couldn't it work for porn?


• Unlike other privacy complaints we have seen, the complaint against eHarmony seemed to be resolved in a sensible manner. Privacy commissioner receives a complaint, investigates, the advises the site of the issues and their recommended way of resolving it. The website responds by saying they are working to implement similiar methods to resolve the issue and also advises of alternate methods to complete the action. Win, win.


• From the category of teh awesome: Patrick Stewart is starring in a production of the Merchant of Venice which is being put on by the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford-upon-Avon. The twist? The play is set in Las Vegas

Random Thoughts - June 21, 2011

• To continue my recent Tropicana kick, I present this: John Curtas visited Bacio recently, and he agrees that the gnocchi is gummy. Considering when he visited Bacio, Chef Carla Pellegrino was in the restaurant, it's a safe assumption that it is something with their preparation instead of a one-off occurence. It's also encouraging that the other dishes he sampled were up to his standards.


• While on the subject of Vegas, Vegas Inc. declared McCarran Airport as a highlight of Vegas. As somebody who travels through Terminal 2 of McCarran, I have to disagree. The benefit of flying into Terminal 2 is that you can get a cab almost immediately after landing, since it's a pretty quiet terminal. The downside is that the terminal really has nothing in it - a Pizza Hut or Burger King for food, a newsstand, but nothing too spectacular. If anything, it's the perfect compliment for your feelings when you are leaving Vegas - reserved to allow you to begin to revert to "real world" mode, and melancholy to reflect your sadness on leaving the city.


• In the coolest thing to be seen in a long while, 10 Sports Illustrated writers drafted teams and then simulated them via Strat-O-Matic. I actually disagreed with the first pick in the draft, but won't spoil it for you.


• Dr. Sanjay Gupta writes a fantastic article about Nick Charles' battle with terminal bladder cancer.


• This sounds odd: Deep Fried Kool-Aid.


• James McAvoy has limited any chance he has of ever working with James Cameron


• Getting Blanked brings the baseball related funny.

Random Thoughts - June 10, 2011

Some random thoughts for a Friday...

• Compare and contrast time. Adam Daifallah on Wednesday about the Conservative Party of Canada's success:
  

  Another point has been the professionalization of the Conservative Party. Before Harper first won, the Tories had a weak, gaffe-prone communications operation. Since winning government, the Conservatives have (for better or worse) become a case study in professional political organization, from its tight scripting to message control to the way it has defined its political opponents, especially the last two Liberal leaders. It would be difficult to find another political party in the Western world today that has a better-oiled communications machine than Harper’s Tories.

  
  And his co-author Tasha Kheiriddin on Thursday, regarding the $50MM spent on Muskoka upgrades:
  

  The report also makes you wonder about the communications plan in the Prime Minister’s Office. The government took major heat over the budget for security costs when it was made public. Yet, as Fraser points out, officials knew that they were likely to come in under budget – so shouldn’t someone have advised the Tories to downgrade the estimates, to minimize public opposition to the price tag?

  
  That's the best communication machine of all Western world political parties?


• Speaking of the National Post, Canada's best sports columnist, Bruce Arthur, has a fantastic article about how non-fans of the Canucks or Bruins feel about the series: No One is Pure in the Stanley Cup Final. And Down Goes Brown takes a contrarian stance by giving us positive things associated with both teams.


• Toronto arrests their creepy weirdos who violate women by taking photographs up their skirts. Meanwhile, in Franklin County, Ohio, they make it much easier. (Money quote: "She speculates that men, who didn’t take half the population into account, designed the stairs." You think?)


• Kelly McParland is confused that Shania Twain claimed to not be able to sing due to the trauma of her divorce, but has now announced a residency at Caesar's Palace. Maybe he missed the fact that it will start in December 2012?

Some Random Thoughts on the Celebrity Apprentice and other things that pop into my head

A quick view behind the curtain here. When this posts, I'll be flying to Las Vegas. Right now, I'm going through my final preparations, making sure I have all of my tickets/reservations, that I have everything packed and in general that I haven't forgot anything. So some hurried thoughts:

- That red carpet skit at the start would have been much funnier without the lame "you're fired" bit at the end.
- The entire John Rich/Def Leppard interaction was fantastic. Between the blank stare when Rich went on about his kickdrum stuff, and Def Leppard
- David Cassidy insulting and making fun of Richard Hatch about going to jail, and then talking about getting what's coming to you when you take the low road was just a bit awkward.
- Donald Trump: Peace Negotiator is not destined to be successful.
- Donald Trump does a worse job in wrangling in the people who are getting too far off topic.
- With that said, Gary Busey was note perfect in his appearance in the finale, until he actually got to shwo what he was talking about on the Omaha Steak thing.
- The kickdrum argument was possibly the most inane cliffhanger "setback" ever. Heck, the whole argument was inane, as shown by how easy it was solved.
- So, why is John Rich getting all these donations, while Marlee Matlin isn't?
- Of course, we're getting a lot of John Rich's failures, so Marlee Matlin will win.
- How in the sweet blue fuck do you fuck up your timing on Def Leppard?
- Seriously, I still don't get how you end up saying "Time to go now, only 30 minutes before our headliner is supposed to show." For somebody who's been incredibly point on before this task, AND A PERSON WHO GIVES CONCERTS FOR A LIVING, how do you fuck up this schedule/timing?
- Your solution? I'll just jump up and perform myself. Not that awkward.
- You know, in wrestling there's a thought that if you fuck up a spot, you don't go back to it. That's what John Rich did when he had them sing that Retro 7Up opening again.
- Oh, and John Rich still loses. Between the timing and the not meeting the executives, he can't win.
- Speaking of awkward, that planned clinking of the cans by the executives was uber-awkward.
- Star Jones decides to bring up the black woman card against Nene Leaks. Whoops.
- Marlee Matlin's reaction to John Rich's extra fund raising was necessary, but came across as desperate.
- Hearing the crowd while they were showing the pretaped footage is still offputting. I don't want to hear it
- Donald Trump knows how to sell some things, for example putting his black cowboy hat on.
- If only Trump hadn't already announcedhe wasn't going to run for President. Then his "announcement you have all been waiting for" tease would have had more meaning.
- The musical performance was pretty good. And I'm happy that they finally integrated the ASL version of applause. I realize it's an verbal medium as well, but still.
- So the people who think Marlee should win are the people who were the first three to go, and Gary Busey. Not a great endorsement.
- Holy crap John Rich won. How did that happen?
- No really, how did that happen?

Er, that's about it. I'mstill stunned over John Rich actually winning.

Trying to make sense of it

As a follow up to yesterday's post, I ran the numbers for playoff, LCS and World Series teams against teams that miss that cut off for 1998-2010 (1998 chosen because it was the first year with full expansion.)

The pattern stayed the same - the playoff/non-playoff divide had playoff teams winning 56.53% of the time, while the LCS/non-LCS divide has LCS teams winning 56.00% of the time. After thinking about it, I'm a bit more comofortable with why this is happening.

It's going to seem like a simple explanation, but the reason this happened is because the non-LCS population of teams is better than the non-playoff population of teams. Playoff teams that lose in the divisional round have an overall win percentage of 54.93% in the following year, and have a winning percentage of 50.83% against LCS teams.

(I will note that if you compare LCS teams to non-playoff teams, LCS teams win 57.05% of the time, which is the phenomenom that I was expecting to see.)

I still have reservations about the testing method that Levitt used - baseball win percentages generally speaking range between 40% and 60%, so I don't know if a comparison of straight win percentages is the best method to show the comparison. But since there isn't really an equivalent win/loss for the random pairings that Levitt used, I don't know how to solve this. As well, there is a related argument to be made that MLB teams are already divided into varying ranges of elite talent teams, while the poker population tested contains talent levels that range from elite to poor. The argument basically is that if you put an MLB team up against, say, a beer league team, you would expect the MLB team to win 99% of the time, if not 100%. In the poker population, you already have the equivalent of MLB teams against beer league teams, so you would expect the random pairing win percentage to be higher.

I still wish to test the basketball playoffs, to see if there's something there. But I am glad to understand why cutting at a highter threshold ends up providing a lower win percentage. Sometimes it takes doing a bit more work and a second look to understand better what's going on.

Grind My Gears: A random thought as I catch up on my DVR

I'm watching this week's Poker After Dark, and a situation arose which has annoyed me with a lot of the televised poker that will no longer be on television is on television currently.

They are playing PLO, and Phil Ivey just went all in against Patrick Antonius. Ivey has a pair of aces, while Antonius has KK99. Antonius in theory only has 4 outs - 2 kings and 2 nines. However, thanks to the hole cams, we know that other players have already folded both kings and 1 nine, leaving Antonius only one out. But the graphics on the screen and the announcers act as though Antonius has all 4 outs available to him. Why not be honest about this and give us the correct odds?

(What makes this case particularly irksome is that in a previous hand, the graphics and announcers reflected the true situation, noting a folded card as being an out that is no longer available to a player.)

Random Thoughts - February 9, 2011

A few quick links today:

• Rappers prefer the Blackberry. I don't know why this surprises me, but it does.


• Mark Evans tells us not to multitask. Why? Because he can't multitask.


• Christopher Hitchens pays tribute to Ronald Reagan as only he can:By a large backhanded compliment


• In other Reagan news, Ron Reagan is not pleased that Sarah Palin was selected to speak at a tribute to his father.


• Eligible for election to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2015? Isaac Bruce, Torry Holt, Kurt Warner and Orlando Pace. Maybe we can just declare 2015 to be the celebration of the 1999 St. Louis Rams?


• Peter King takes Roger Goddell to task for censoring James Harrison's remarks during media day, calling Harrison's remark an interesting quote from one of the biggest stars in the game. Two points:
  1) Harrison is not anywhere close to one of the biggest starts in the game (Super Bowl or otherwise).
  2) How was what he said any different than what he said and done in the past? Harrison doesn't like the new rules on hits. We know this. It's not interesting that he would say this again.

Random Thoughts - February 8, 2011

One thing that is missed in the ongoing brouhaha over Usage Based Billing for the Internet here in Canada is that Bell has given us an idea as to the cost of what 1 GB of transferred data would cost. With their cap system already in place, Bell offers a 40 GB "Insurance Policy" at a flat rate of $5. This is offered regardless of whether your cap is 25 GB, or 75 GB.

If you assume that Bell is not offering this Insurance Policy at less than cost(which I thinking is a safe assumption), we can calculate that 1 GB of transferred data costs less than $ 0.125 (as $5 / 40GB = 0.125 $/GB). If that's the case, why are they charging overage fees at 16-24x that rate? Heck, if the goal is to move to a true Usage Based Billing system, why not charge, say $25 for the actual connection to Bell's internet connection, then charge $0.15 per GB transferred?

***

One surprising development coming from the coverage of the UBB fiasco is to see where the national newspapers have come down. The Globe and Mail, owned in part by large ISP - and main proponent of UBB - Bell, has been anti-UBB, going so far as to publish an editorial condemning the decision of CRTC. Meanwhile, the National Post, right-wing and supporter of free-market based economic policies, have carried Bell's water for this issue, generally publishing pro-UBB pieces while paying lip service to the anti-UBB group.

This is the opposite than you would expect given both papers' ownership and editorial policies. It's fascinating to watch, and it will be interesting to see if either side changes their position as time goes on.

***

Quick links:

• Larry Granillo of Baseball Prospectus determines which game Ferris Bueller attended on his day off.


• The wife of the British Parliment's Speaker of the House posed provocatively for a British newspaper. She also says their taxpayer paid residence has a sexy view. She also admits to previously being a binge drinker and having one night stands prior to being married. This causes a stir in British politics, with the pictures being referred to as "nude" (though she is covered by a bedsheet) and her single life (prior to being married and being in the limelight) is pilloried. All this is ridiculous - she is guilty of very bad judgement, but not much else.


• I'm floored by these findings: Popular kids more likely to be bullies. Of course they are - part of what makes bullies successful is the validation of their actions by their peers. If they are popular, they are more likely to get that validation, which then emboldens them even more, creating a never ending loop of bullying.


• And finally, Rick Mercer exposes Gino Vannelli's sinister ambitions. He's only in it for himself! (h/t to Aaron Wherry)
  

Random Thoughts - February 2, 2011

(Trying something new, similiar to the Monday Musings that I have done in the past. It should cover stuff that isn't big enough for an actual blog post, but still enough to put a paragraph or two together. Let me know what you think!)

This story from the Daily Beast on the spoiling of Survivor is huge, if true. In short, a spoiler from the Survivor Sucks forums was sued by Mark Burnett's production company for spoiling Samoa. He gives up his source for the season - Russell Hantz, the biggest Survivor star since Rupert Boneham, and the soon to be star of the next Survivor season.

If the allegations are true, then CBS and Mark Burnett are in a bit of a situation. On one hand, they have fought dilligently to stop any information from getting out, believing that it would ruin the season. On the other hand, they are in a position of possibly having to punish their big draw on the upcoming season and likely do so in a public manner (if they do it discreetly, how will it act as a deterrent to the rest of the world?). It will be interesting to see how Mark Burnett and CBS eventually react to this.

(I use allegations very strongly here; the end of the Daily Beast article gives a better idea of who the spoiler from Survivor Sucks is, and it gives you the impression that he is confrontational and willing to hold a grudge. As well, Hantz's story is not really available; we should wait until he's able to tell his side of his story before truly passing judgment.)

*******

When the iPad came out, it was viewed as a threat to eReaders. It was a singular device that could be used not only to read books, but to watch videos, listen to music and surf the internet, while an eReader just allowed you to read books. As well, the iPad would be linked to Apple's iTunes suite, which would have an iBooks section to purchase new books. Amazon, Barnes and Noble and the other eReader makers moved to mitigate the effect of the iBooks section by offering applications that allowed users to read books purchased through their online stores on the iPad. Now it appears that Apple is on the defensive, as they have implemented tighter controls on eBook applications.

This looks like a plain attempt on Apple's part to take a cut of the revenue of the existing eBook retailers in one way or another. They're giving the other retailers a choice - give us 30% of all revenues derived from purchases initiated on apps from our hardware, or don't be on our hardware. If they do remove themselves from Apple hardware, that would likely drive people who used their Apple iPad to read books from Amazon, Barnes and Noble etc. to find another method to read their books - which convieniently would be found on iTunes via iBooks. Either way, it's a sign that Apple's grand plan to take over the eBook world hasn't quite worked out as they planned, and they are trying to strongarm their way back into the market.

*******

Quick hits:

• You know, if you are going to go out of your way to discredit somebody, you should probably make sure you aren't still doing business with them.


• I don't wish to make light of vandalism, but is writing something on a car covered in dust really a serious case of vanadalism?


• One person receives a phone call from the ruling party of Canada for fundraising, then claims to have been told that there would be an election on March 29th by a phone solicitor. How exactly does this get to be a story about an election being called for March 29th? Where is any sort of coroborating evidence of this?


• Is Morgan Freeman to Tyler Perry possibly the worst downgrade in acting talent for a character since George Lazenby as James Bond?


• At a risk of coming off poorly, I won't discuss the order of the women listed in Slashfood's 10 Hottest Women in the Food Industry for 2011. I will say that save for the picture of Gail Simmons, they seemed to choose the worst possible photo to show the attractiveness of the women in question.

Monday Musings - Wednesday January 5, 2011 Edition

As good of time as any to wheel this out again...

• Reason #1 why large lottery groups are not a good idea. It's a truth that there's a tipping point to every group of people where you end up with too many involved and it just becomes a cluster. In this case, 19 people might have been too much.


• Really, St. Joseph's Catholic High School? This is the battle you want to fight? Welcome to ridiculous levels of pressure from people who would otherwise have been uninterested observers.


• Guy Giorno leaves the Prime Minister's Office, then chooses to fight all those who he feels wronged him on his Twitter feed. Way to reinforce people's perceptions of the work you did.


• Cool link - Moe Dorion, Globe and Mail photographer, explains how to photograph hockey games


• Dirk Hayhurst, writer of The Bullpen Gospels, says goodbye to Toronto Blue Jays fans. Dustin Parkes of the fantastic Getting Blanked blog, says goodbye to Dirk.


• Speaking of books and Getting Blanked, their first book club meeting on January 31. Don't now if I'll be able to make it, but it sounds like a fantastic time. Details here.


• Finally, in honour of Roberto Alomar's election to the Baseball Hall of Fame, I present the two videos that most people will remember him for.
  First, a link to Alomar hitting the 2 run home run off of Dennis Eckersley in the 1992 ALCS
  Second, well, I shouldn't have to tell any Toronto-ite what this video is:
  

Monday Musings - November 1, 2010

It's back!

• I'm shocked it took so long for this to have been done: The Linux Credit Card. If you get it, the Linux foundation will get $50 for every activation, and a percentage of all purchases. This is a fantastic and no lose situation to support Linux, and is a creative way for Linux to make money.


• Dustin Parkes demonstrates how to dress up like Brian Wilson (SF Giants version) for Hallowe'en. Granted, Hallowe'en has passed and next year nobody is going to understand the joke next year, but, uh, wear it when the Giants win the World Series! (Yes, I have decided to support the Giants in the World Series. #6org will serve as a consolation prize.


• The Rally to Restore Sanity produced some good signs and placards. Talking Point Memos compiles some of the best.


• The Edmonton Oilers announced they were going to introduce cheerleaders to their home games. Fans revolted against this idea. Sean Leahy decides to go to Carolina Hurricane Storm Squad members to find out their view, and they have interesting views on the value of a cheer squad.


• Things that make me happy: Geoff Molson talks about owning the Canadiens


• Tasha Kheiriddin has a good final takedown of the government's use of 10 percenters.


• Shockingly, Elmore Leonard - who doesn't own a cell phone or use a computer - doesn't like eBooks.


• Dave Perkins forsees a future where sports betting will be allowed in Ontario Casinos, thanks to internet betting. I welcome this sort of thinking.


• Grange has an amusing post on how to write an appeal petition. (BTW, start reading his blog if you are interested in poker, legislation, poker legislation, or just fun writing.


• And your (late to the party) video of the week...Gordon Pinset reads Justin Bieber's autobiography:
  

Monday Musings - October 11, 2010

So, no real list for this week's Monday Musings because there's only one thing I think you should be reading:

Favre situation makes us confront sexism by Jason Whitlock is the take on the Brett Favre sexting drama.

(Okay, I'll throw in Alphonso Smith's fantastic touchdown dance):

Monday Musings Addmentum - August 30, 2010

I felt really bad about not including a funny video in this week's Monday Musings. Luckily for me, the comic strip Luann came through with quite possibly the most horrible song/music video in a long time. May I present to you Hey Boy!

Monday Musings - August 30, 2010

• Little known fact about me - I'm a Star Trek: The Next Generation geek of sorts. So this casing note fascinated me in so many different ways. I mean, it's one thing to imagine J.D. Roth as the unintentionally annoying Wesley Crusher, but Reggie Jackson or Wesley Snipes as Geordi? Denise Crosby as empath Troi? MY MIND IS BLOWN!


• Most shocking thing about this Michelle Beadle profile at Fanhouse? She spent 3 years in Peterborough "listening to Our Lady Peace." Peterborough always struck me as more of a Tragically Hip town.


• I still have to write about the Montreal Canadiens' Mount Puckmore entry (cliff notes - I only have one complaint though I understand the choice). I can conclusively say that it was miles better than the New York Rangers entry. Jaromir Jagr, really?


• There is a lot of truth in this letter/article by Tim Rindlisbacher. My one fear is that he is singling out MMA only because it is the flavour of the week. When boxing still exists, it needs to be included in any discussion about concussions.


• This just in: The Western world is weird. It's actually an interesting article about different cultures react to the Ultimatium problem, and how that might reflect upon our cultures.


• Playstation designer explains what the symbols mean on the button, disappoints geeks around the world with lame explanation.


• PokerBob provides an interesting wrinkle to the "poker is a skill game" discussion.

Monday Musings - August 23, 2010

• I don't care what you do CJ Spiller, I refuse to get excited about this Bills' season and your fantastic team oriented attitude.


• Adventures in bad headlines, part XVII...
  Headline: Sexy video gets Shakira in trouble.
  Story: Shakira was filmed dancing in a Barcelona fountain for a promo video for her latest song. She failed to get a permit from city hall and now has been fined.


• The Toronto Star brings up a valid comparison of Chicago's waterfront to Toronto's.


• Hugh MacIntyre makes a valid point about there being no majority government in Canada in the near future. However, he misses the mark when he says that playing to the soft nationals in Quebec won't work because the Harper government tried that in 2006-2008 and the soft nationals still voted for the Bloc. Harper did himself in by cutting funding to the arts, which ended up killing him in Quebec. We don't have a good test of whether the soft nationals would be amenable to the wooing of the federal government.


• I can't wait for Cougar Life's response to this.


• Vivid is trying to make a 3D porn parody of Avatar. It's actually a good (SFW) article which helps to lay waste to the claim that porn drives advancements in technology.


• Ryan Durling at Something's Bruin puts together a summary of what has happened between the Toronto Sun and the Pension Plan Puppets, explaining why it's so infuriating.


• Jay Mariotti was arrested on suspicion off domestic assault on Saturday. Sports by Brooks compiles many of Mariotti's columns on the subject of athletes and domestic abuse.


• And finally, how to catch a foul ball like a man. (h/t: Dustin Parkes at The Score)
  

Monday Musings - August 16, 2010

• MTV tries to explain whythe Expendables topped box office while Scott Pilgrim vs. the World failed. They basically nail it, but I can't believe I missed the obvious comparison: Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist.


• The Mill-town looking to steal from the Steel Town!


• When the Joe Posnaski/David Cameron war of words was raging, I was going to post something. But the folks at Fire Jerry Manuel sum up my feelings here


• David McKee reads the tea leaves and comes to the conclusion that the Rio is going to be sold to Colony Capital. While the Star Trek convention move to the Rio does seem to indicate that something is up there, I'm not sure that it means that the Rio is sold. It could just mean that Harrah's is going to move the World Series of Poker, and they don't want to announce it until the November Nine, when all the attention will be on them. (Of course, now that I've committed this to the interwebs, the Rio sale will be announced tomorrow.)


• Will Carroll contemplates the dichotomy of being categorized as a blogger, but not actually having a blog.


• News that I might be too excited over: Johnny Carson's Tonight show footage is hitting the web.


• One of the best Toronto Star headlines ever: Hello girls! Bounce is back


• The Ontario government seems to be trying to lock up my vote. First, they start down the path of legalizing online gambling, and now they're allowing MMA events in Ontario.


• And finally, a tribute to the Montreal Expos (h/t Toronto Mike)
  

Monday Musings - August 9, 2010

• If only Law and Order wasn't cancelled - can you imagine what they'd do with this ripped from the hedlines story?


• John Moore enables crime and is personally responsible for the spending of $9 billion to build new jails.


• Speaking of Canadian Crime, Colby Cosh destroys the latest Conservativ plan to get tough on crime


• This new feature makes me want to go to Disneyland.


• Las Vegas is finally getting tough on the scourge of society: The Hula-Hoop


• And finally, the hit that's sweeping the nation...See My Dong! (Video from Deadspin; back story here.) (Also probably NSFW)
  

Monday Musings - July 26, 2010

• Leading off, we've got a fun and interesting article by Stephen Marche explaining how Conrad Black and the Black Bloc are similiar


• Speaking of Conrad Black, it takes a lot for me to agreee with a Toronto Sun editorial (especially in these days of utter lunacy), but I agree with this one.
  One thing that's been bugging me about some Black supporters is their insistence that he was forced to give up his Canadian citizeship by Jean Chretien. Chretien did put barriers in front of Black when Black wanted to become a member of the House of Lords. But ultimatly Chretien forced Black to choose what was more important to him: being a Canadian, or being a member of the House of Lords. Black chose the House of Lords and thus to renounce his citizenship, showing where his priorities lied. I'm not sure why Canada should bend over backwards for him now that he's decided it's more convienient for him be in Canada.


• Damn you Joey Lawrence, why do you have to come across as a nice guy in interviews? (Also, how are you younger than me?)


• This profile of Abdullah the Butcher in the New York Times is a bunch of awesomeness. You get Abdullah essentially mocking a promoter, Tommy Rich working the reporter and Abdullah working the marks for more cash. (In a related note, I own the referenced DVD and will probably review it once I actually watch it.


• Give the Daily Star credit: When they screw up, they don't half ass it (Daily Star website might be NSFW)

Monday Musings - July 11, 2010

Not a true Monday Musings this week, as I'm still reeling from the news that the Internet is over.

For the counterpoint, here is Mike Howlett explaining how Prince isn't giving away his new album for free.