Alas while viewing audiences felt that while the Mac Guy may have proved his case, most of them wanted to pummel the smug little twit into a coma and jump on his bleeding body until the cops arrived.

…

The Mac Guy was Justin Long, whose agent has confirmed that he is no longer hawking Macs for Apple and was getting on with his memorable film career. When the ads came out, Seth Stevenson, ad critic for Slate, complained that Long was just the sort of unshaven, hoodie-wearing, hands-in-pockets hipster we’ve always imagined when picturing a Mac enthusiast.

The internet never ceases to amaze.

My initial reaction, after stumbling upon the site from the drupal showcase, was that this had to be a gag site. I mean, it’s billed as a site for goat lovers and it features goat classifieds!

Sure, there are probably a fair amount of people who would be indifferent upon finding a site dedicated to goats, but I’m from the generation that grew up hearing “that blows goats.” Plus, it doesn’t help that I can’t help repeating the following joke whenever goats or the Rolling Stones are even peripherally related to a subject:

What’s the difference between the Rolling Stones and a Scottish shepherd?


The Rolling Stones sing “hey you, get off of my cloud.”


A scottish shepherd says “hey, McLeod, get off my ewe!”

Zwicker said readers should find the fifth chapter very exciting. Its title is “The Shame of Noam Chomsky and the Gatekeepers of the Left”. You can probably guess the general drift of its contents. Sneak preview: it turns out that Chomsky, the famous MIT linguist, is an apologist for the CIA, and, worse, “he is a member of the community of apologists for the official story” about 9/11, Zwicker said. “When I really started to research him, I was shocked.” For instance, Chomsky never questioned the assassinations of John K. Kennedy, his brother Robert, or American black Muslim leader Malcolm X. “There’s something very strange here,” Zwicker said.

Noam Chomsky participates in the further dissemination of CIA propaganda? Really? That’s like claiming Stephen Lewis goes to Africa for the sex tourism.

It would be easy to dismiss Zwicker’s sensational claims for the over-the-top drivel that it is. But then we’d be missing the real troubling aspect about gonzo anti-right wingers like Zwicker: their spurious claims compromise the voice of thoughtful and legitimate dissenters to the policies of the Bush government. There are much more immediate and more important issues to hold the US regime’s feet to the fire to such as the admitted outright lies used by the hawkish White House as the pretext to invasion of Iraq. Is it too much to ask for Bush haters to crucify him for the right reasons? There’s no need to go over the top when you already have a president and cabinet that everybody and their uncle has documented to be incompetent warmongers.

Glaven’s comparison of Zwicker to Michael Moore is apt. Both film-makers are egotistical blowhards who distort and manipulate their forums for self-promotion. They appeal to a spoon fed sensationalist fringe and end up doing more to hurt the left-wing than help it. Just like the Bush government, conspiracists like Barrie Zwicker doesn’t even pass the smell test.

The only benefit I see from this reclassification is that it is now 11% more likely that any randomly chosen planet in our solar system will turn out to be Uranus.

One of those layers is a comic-within-a-comic known as Tales of the Black Freighter, a macabre pirate story that intertwines with the main plotline to reflect a growing sense of dread in the real world of graphic novel. Moore’s use of this device is fascinating, but now Steven at Crinklink has put in the legwork and pieced together all the Tales of the Black Freighter panels to provide an uninterrupted collection of the comic-within a comic. He calls it Marooned (The Reconstruction), and it’s a unique and interesting read in it’s own right for fans of Moore and Gibbons’ magnum opus.

Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, writers of the upcoming Transformers movie, told fans that the movie will take a real-world approach to its depictions of the robots that can change from everyday objects such as cars into futuristic fighting machines. “In translating this thing to live action, … all of these Transformers are being designed in the movie such that, when they transform, there’s no cheating,” Orci said in a a live video Q&A on Yahoo! on Aug. 18. He added: “It’s very much what it would realistically look like if a Transformer was sitting right there as a car, and it turned into the character that you know.”

As a consequence, some of the everyday incarnations of well-known characters may change for the movie: Bumblebee, for example, is now a Camaro instead of a Volkswagen. “All the vehicle decisions were made based on literally sitting and staring at the actual vehicles and seeing how they would actually transform and deciding based on what is going to be the coolest version of seeing this live,” Orci said.

Great, so Bumblebee goes from being an awkward but lovable beetle to a complete loser-sports car. Admittedly, the alternate mode is somewhat in character, Bumblebee is pretty unreliable and a wannabe, but a Camaro still seems an odd choice.

The son of a reporter from Ain’t It Cool News calls Bumblebee’s new look pimpin’. Maybe he’s right, but Bumblebee is the last autobot who should probably be described as pimpin’. Jazz is pimpin’. Even Tracks or Sideswipe could be considered pimpin’. But Bumblebee? Bumblebee is the little freckle-faced autobot with a leaky tailpipe that’s more putz than pimp.

You don’t know how afraid I am that some twit will change Ironhide’s vehicle mode to a Hummer (according to Wikipedia it’s currently a GMC Topkick pickup truck). Oh look, they’ve already made Ratchet a Humvee… Sigh.

Rebagliati says the TV character is a blond, blue-eyed Olympic snowboarding gold medallist from Whistler who is shown driving drunk and womanizing. —CBC

May it’s just because I find his monotonous voice and vacant stare annoying, but I don’t see the resemblance. Why would Rebagliati be confused with an alcoholic, when we all know he smokes marijauna? Plus, I won’t even begin to make a reference to Lance Bass in regards to Rebagliati’s likelihood of womanizing.

Perhaps the entire scenario is just another clever ploy by Roots to sell olympic sweaters?

Mohammed, a Pakistani prison inmate, awoke recently to discover an intact glass light bub in his anus. According to his doctors, the operation to remove the object was a success, however they doubt the prisoner’s claim that fellow prisoners or police drugged him before inserting the light bulb.

There is no further illumination as to how or why Mohammed’s rectum was used as an ad-hoc light socket.

The Question

Have you ever made a copy of a copy of a copy, to the point where, after enough iterations, the blurry words look like they were written on a 1947 Olympia typewriter with a bad ribbon?

Over the decades, Star Trek has become so insular, so strictly defined, and placed so many layers upon itself that some of the essence of what made us love it in the first place has been lost. The all-too-reasonable desire to protect the franchise may now be the cause of its stagnation.

Imagine buying a new Porsche and leaving it in the garage all the time, because if you take it out on the road, it might get scratched. But that is exactly what’s happened to Star Trek. The Porsche’s still clean and polished, but we’re driving around in a nice, reasonable family car.

It’s time to throw caution to the wind and go out for a drive…a real drive…

“A copy of a copy”… I wholeheartedly agree. The existing Star Trek canvas is so messy with caked on with redundant plots and limited characters that it would be profoundly refreshing to wipe it clean and start from scratch. It would help get rid of a lot of continuity related detritus, and, if it is even remotely close to being as good as the Sci-Fi Channel’s BSG remake, it would be the first bit of Trek that I would actually look forward to seeing since ST:TNG went off the air.

Unfortunately, Paramount, in it’s wisdom, chickened out and opted for a prequel rather than a bold revamping. I suppose this only goes to further demonstrate how absolutely brilliant the new Battlestar Galactica series is. It takes guts to say a franchise needs to be fundamentally reconstituted. I suppose it speaks volumes that TPTB for Star Trek really do seem to worry more about upsetting the applecart than finding ways to engage their fanbase.

I still think that even the current Trek continuity could be revived into something interesting, but it would still require a massive upheaval in regards to the conventions of plot, style and character that Trek has accumulated over the decades. Yet, if Paramount is opposed to offering Trek a fresh start without having to worry about affecting existing continuity, it certainly wouldn’t want to introduce anything that makes waves in the (apparently static) universe that Trek already exists in.

Too bad.

Star Trek really does seem creatively deceased, doesn’t it?

… - at what point is a nerd unsalvageable? At what point are they so insane, so caught up, so trapped in a web of their own minutiae that they aren’t just stalking their hobby, they’ve kidnapped their hobby, tied it up in their basement, and force it to watch while they masturbate to the Star Wars Holiday Special? At what point are nerds simply incapable of being better nerds? At what point are exile, euthanasia, or chemical castration the only alternatives to a lifetime of sad nerditry? Here’s a hint - when they decide they need to dispute the number of clones in the Clone Army.

Great point. Maybe three million clone troopers does sound like a low figure, but so what? Just retcon it in your head. Heck, if the internal logic of Star Wars minutiae can survive canonized facts such as midi-chlorians, then it can certainly survive a supposed dearth of clone troopers.

In fact to expand on this point, I would like to suggest the following list of further suggestions for recognizing when you are certifiably an unsalvageable nerd:

• You believe that the victor in hypothetical battle between the Death Star and and the Starship Enterprise or Borg Cube matters.
• You effect your SCA faux-english accent in real life because you think it makes you sound eloquent.
• You own replica sci-fi/fantasy weaponry (master lightsabers, bat’leths, phasers, swords featured on Highlander) and try to find excuses to bring them with you into public.
• You quote from sci-fi and fantasy as often as a fundamentalist quotes from the bible.
• You say “Move ‘zig” in public with the smug knowledge that you are one of the select few who have any idea what you mean.
• You wear a trenchcoat whenever possible, even during warm and sunny days, as if it represents the height of fashion.
• You have a conniption anytime someone is under the impression that:
  • Rumble is Blue
  • Han Shot Second http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_Shoots_First
  • Picard is better than Kirk

Don’t Panic.

Canadian musical legend Stompin’ Tom Connors is furious at the CBC, accusing the broadcaster of snubbing his new musical special.
Stompin’ Tom Connors estimates that he’s out $200,000 after producing a musical special he said CBC wanted.

“If this is not a complete snub to Stompin’ Tom Connors by Canada’s own television network, then I’d like to know what is,” Connors wrote in an open letter.

…

Now he’s asking Federal Heritage Minister Bev Oda to appeal to the CBC to air the show.

CBC spokeswoman Ruth Ellen Soles said there have been discussions over the years about running a Stompin’ Tom Connors special on the CBC, but that the network did not commission this program. —CBC

Kavinay is confused. Kavinay wonders if people who refer to themselves in the third person understand how stupid and pompous they sound? Obviously, if Stompin’ Tom was an athlete or rapper, he would probably be given a little leeway on the account of ebonics. How does an aged country and folk singer learn such a pretentious way of talking about himself? Worse, Stompin’ Tom has chosen to invoke the third person at a time when his argument is already suspect—the show wasn’t commissioned and no contract means no payment. Even worse than that, the CBC’s news service is publicizing this story on Stompin’ Tom’s outrage and further making the legend look a bit like a half wit.

When will people learn that only a man who has been irradiated with gamma-rays and has the ability to fling tanks like toothpicks has the credibility required to refer to himself in the third person?

Oh and while we’re on the subject:

Dear Federal Heritage Minister Bev Oda

Could you please also air reruns of Prisoners of Gravity, Forever Knight and Street Legal too. Kavinay will feel snubbed if the national broadcaster fails to provide the Canadian programming that Kavinay asks for.

Thanks,

Kavinay

p.s. if no air rerun, Kavinay smash!

¹ Stompin’ Tom has always seemed an entertainer who Canadians feel mildly patriotic about merely because of the collective private joke we share while observing his quirky act.

Maybe I just grew up in a cynical era, but it frightens me how much I trust and depend on Google.

But Dalton McGuinty, Ontario’s Premier, might be right. The senate should not even exist:

“My preference is that we eliminate the Senate,” Dalton McGuinty said Thursday night in Toronto after attending an Ontario Liberal party event.

“We’re 40 per cent of the country by way of population and at least 40 per cent by way of contribution to the GDP,” McGuinty said.

“But we only have 22 per cent of the Senate seats.”

McGuinty pointed out that Ontario currently has only 24 members in the 105-seat Senate. — CBC

McGuinty wants to maintain Ontario’s political preeminence, but his idea is a reasonable position for us disaffected westerners. Why? Because no Canadian Senate, past, present or future, will be configured in a manner that will grant an equal voice to any province besides Ontario or Quebec. Even an elected Senate will not have any ability to prevent provinces from strong arming federal policies to their favour. Only an equal senate, with the same number of senators from each province, will bring any positive new dimensions to Canada’s political equation.

Realistically though, is there any hope of equal senate representation in a country that can usually confirm a newly elected government via polls from just two key provinces? Merely electing senators will just lead to another house divided along geographic lines and even less meat and potatoes legislation getting passed. What would be the point?

The senate is an ineffective, vestigial body that can never be sincerely reformed into a distinct law making institution. Simply delete the impotent and sleepy institution that Social Studies teachers are forced to tell us “provides a sober, second look at federal policy.” The only downside is that students will likely be forced to learn even more about the bloody Coureur des bois.