iamgerg

Finally got around to reading Harry Potter, I'm on the 4th book. Anyone want to tell me why this thing is so big? I mean it is only with this book that I can actually see the third dimension to some of these characters.

I know there are a lot of fans out there, I know some of you write fan fic, (Which I actually understand now because holy crap are there things I wish were explored.)

But seriously, why do you think Harry is so engaging to people. I could find a number of books on my shelves that I would choose over Rowling... I understand the fascination with the world, it's intriguing but surely there's more to it. What has Rowling done that's so captivated people?

I don't get it.

Writing a paper on the connections between science and science fiction, between the birth of the atomic age, and the end of the Apollo project. I'm looking for inspiration/motivation anyone feel the urge to free associate about this topic?

ETA: Lest you think I'm trying to get someone to write my paper for me, it is mostly finished, I just need some things to fill in the edges, and when you look at something for a month, it all becomes like static on a dead channel.

I am listening to an internet radio station (Pandora.com) that is not available to Canadian IP addresses because of licensing litigation by American record companies. I am listening to it through a program designed to overcome content censorship in countries such as China.

Is it ethical for me to bypass content regulations regulated by trade legislation? If it isn't, is it then legal for us to provide tools for this to happen for political content in other countries? Keeping in mind, that I am not generating or disseminating this content, I am simply listening to a publicly disseminated broadcast.

If it is ethical, is it then ethical for private interests to block such content under normal circumstances?

(for those of you who download I'm sure this isn't a tough question. But those who recognize the problem with downloading, I'm interested in what you think.)

Does the Second Amendment allow for the protection of the people only from the the tyranny of government, or does it protect the people from the tyranny of corporations that undercut that government?

Do people have a right to take action against corporations that oppress them, or just governments?

If corporations are individuals under the law, can a corporation be imprisoned "by the judgment of his peers?"

If an institution invests a sum into a company that exceeds the value of that company, is it un-capitalist to demand a say into the running of that company?

If a government uses its power to limit a market, is that any less capitalist than if a corporation uses its power to limit a market?

As the US moves away (in theory) from some of its more draconian security measures other countries have decided to go in the other direction. Following Britain's lead, the government of New South Wales in Australia has decided to introduce reintroduce laws to allow police to search the homes of and hack into the computers of their citizens. (this despite the supreme court declaring such things illegal in 2006.)

Maybe the government has always been this creepy and I just never noticed, but it seems to me that many governments seem incapable of understanding the fundamental rights of their citizenry.

In a word? Yes! Since the Launch of their YouTube Channel Monty Python's sales on Amazon has gone up 23,000 percent (source)

if you have a love of pork and hate your heart, do I have the thing for you.

Now in its 33rd year of trying the universe failed again to kill me this year. But I, like the sidekick in a zombie movie, know it is only be a matter of time.

So until I join the teaming masses of the undead, I still plan to go into next year making the best of it... Waiting for my chainsaw scene.


Happy New Years everyone.

So in order to secure a loan for $700 billion the US Government voted to raise the legal debt ceiling to 11.3 Trillion Dollars. This is bad enough I suppose, but it makes you wonder, how did they end up with such a round figure. I mean it isn't like the amount is around 700 billion, it's $ 700,000,000,000.00 on the nose. So how did they come up with that number? Well in an interview with forbs.com, a Treasury spokes woman explained, "It's not based on any particular data point... We just wanted to choose a really large number."

I know Americans have guns, and I know that there are militias that don't trust the government, so why hasn't anyone decided to start a revolution against the government.

So there was a propane explosion in Toronto.

Before there has been complete picture of what happened.
Before an investigation had been completed.
Before any contributing factors had been established.
Before the initial cause could be determined.
Before an investigation had even truly begun.
Before one of the victims had been positively identified.
Before one of the firefighters had been buried.

There were three separate class action lawsuits filed.

...and people wonder why I have no faith in humanity.

"I eventually came ashore here in Hong Kong, some 35 years ago, due to a rather stunning revelation. I was posted ashore for a while by my company to study this new art called containerization. We were experimenting with the first use of containers on services to the tropics. I remember part of the tests entailed painting some containers black and the others white to see how they reflected the tropical sunshine and handled heat and humidity. One trial entailed sending a consignment of rubber condoms some to Sydney in white containers and others to Melbourne in black containers to see which of the contents survived the journey. A later study of birthrates in both locations provided the answers. It’s why Sydney is now more crowded than Melbourne."

John Meredith
(The University of Western Ontario’s annual Hong Kong Convocation on March 30)

I would call my Prime Minister a Pussy, but I might get sued for Libel.

I relish the day when that (in the opinion of some) anal retentive control freak is removed from office.

Be thankful for your cowboys and philanderers America, you could have ended up with an economist.

Has the media reached the point where they are unable to exhibit even the most basic abilities when it comes to language... every minor political kerfuffle has to be something-gate. City councilors get Elton John tickets before anyone else and we get ticketgate, the Prime Minister's chief of staff says you shouldn't take a campaigning politician too literally, and we have NAFTAgate.

Now I understand buzzwords, truly I do, and had this trend been spawned by some MBA infested corporation, or from the social underbelly of a silicon valley tech farm, I could understand it, but this comes from those who claim to make a living from the exploitation of the English language. How can anyone have anything but contempt for such non-sense.

Jeff Healy Dies at 41

He was one of Canada's most gifted musicians IMHO, never mind the fact that he has been blind since the age of one.

I don't know how well known he would be outside of Canada (he did have a platinum album in the US), but if you ever saw the movie roadhouse with Patrick Swayze , he played the musician Cody.

"All my friends are fuck-ups, but they're fun to have around."*

*note, this in no way resolves them from at times deserving a swift kick in the ass!

This makes my geek heart happy

Every so often I despair that I'm not living on a space station even though this is clearly the 21st century... and what's the point of living in the future if you can't do it on a space station?

And then I read something like this about physicists reorganizing photons to make them more uniformly distributed in a laser beam, and it hits me that I really am living in the future.