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I have to agree with PJ Onori's response to the whole Pat Robertson fiasco -- "I find it sad that one must resort to a news broadcast on Comedy Central for the most sane coverage of our nation's news." Yup. It does say something when Jon Stewart has relevancy, and the media that is relied upon for news no longer does.

Inhabitat has a posting on some cool Tetris inspired shelving from Brave Space . It's shelving in the shape and proportions of Tetris blocks. With the shelves, you can assemble, reassemble and play with your furniture. The pieces are sold individually, and are friggin' expensive. However, if you have the money, there's nothing that says cool like being able to assemble your own furniture from Tetris pieces. When you really think about it though, there is no reason why you couldn't just build the pieces yourself. It looks easy enough. Be sure to check out the other posts at Inhabitat , for some really cool designs that could make your living that more interesting.

Droogle Canada -- this is amusing site -- slightly drunk, but that's what happens when you're a search engine that has sampled over 25,000 drinks. Enjoy! And remember, drink responsibly!

CIO Magazine is carrying an article by process guru, Michael Hammer , on the evolution of CIOs from being the head of technology, to becoming the process evangelists, process owners, and in the jargon of IBM -- who Hammer uses an example -- business transformation executives. Hammer points to process focus as a role well suited to the IT executive, and one that IT needs to adopt in order to remain relevant in a rapidly evolving business landscape that sees the classic role of IT going into extinction. IT functions are becoming commoditized; outsourcing opportunities loom large for businesses that view their IT organization as an expense; and new applications are giving power to tech-savvy business users to serve themselves. It's change or die. Relevancy -- that is what IT can gain from becoming process focused. And IT is well suited for the task. IT already has a view across organizational boundaries via the systems they support -- visibility that is required, as processes t

Finally saw Kaena: The Prophecy -- and it was a superb movie. It is a French produced, SciFi, CGI-animated movie, that uses classic themes to deliver a nice adventure story. The visuals are spectacular -- graphically rich, with constant, fluid motion -- it's a feast for the eyes, and can probably only be appreciated on a large screen. The imagery is so intense, that it will bear watching multiple times -- even without sound. The plot: Kaena is a young girl living with a tribe of humans on the Axis -- a world above the world -- a world that is a huge entanglement of vines, supporting an entire ecosystem. The human tribe harvests sap from the vines for offerings to its gods -- gods that hide a terrible secret and will kill to keep it so. Things are not well with Kaena's world -- the vines are drying up, and there are constant quakes. Where are the gods that the people, led by their priest, pray to? Kaena doesn't believe the gods care about her people. She keeps drea

The movie wasn't bad, as I was expecting -- it did go direct to video, but I'm not sure why. The movie can stand alone from the other Prophecy movies, as it is set in Europe, with new characters, that doesn't build on the characters already explored. (That's me saying that only having seen two of the previous movies.) It's the usual mumbo-jumbo with the good angels trying to prevent the two warring groups of bad angels from destroying humanity. What's good about the movie is the mystery, the pulling together of the pieces to solve the puzzle. I won't bore you with the details. There is some violence, some blood, but not the cool factor of the first movie. The atmosphere was missing, and that made it less scary. Worthwhile rental for a slow night.

Baseline magazine 's August issue has a cover article chronicling the fist fight between Barbie and the Bratz dolls . The article is really about competitive intelligence. Mattel, the maker of Barbie dolls, had the information that showed Barbie's popularity was waning. Girls wanted "attitude and ethnicity, not pert and pale." Tweens "were losing interest in traditional Barbie, attracted to pop stars in heavy makeup and trendy clothes." For tweens, Barbie was a baby toy. Mattel knew the phenomenon called age compression was occurring in their consumers -- girls wanted to grow up fast -- and Mattel wasn't doing anything about it. MGA, the maker of Bratz dolls came along at the right time -- when the industry was making a shift -- and had the right product to capitalize on the shift. In the first six months of their introduction, MGA sold $20 million of Bratz dolls. It would take 14-months for Mattel to follow with My Scene dolls that matched MGA

BushFlash presents: anti-George W. Bush propaganda. On a completely unrealted front -- I just got there from BushFlash -- check out the sick and twisted animation of the Non-Livingtons .

Live Science is reporting that geophysicists that reported the Earth's inner core spins faster than the surface of the planet in 1996, will be confirming that results in the journal Science. Over 700 to 1,200 years, the Earth's inner core apparently gains one full extra spin over the surface of the planet. This knowledge could lead to a better understanding of how the Earth generates its magnetic field. The Earth's core operates like a giant electric motor, in which the spin of the motor is driven by a magnetic field. In the Earth's core, liquid iron rise and fall from the liquid outer core onto the solid inner core. The rising and falling of the charged liquid iron generates a magnetic field that rotates the inner core "like a huge rotor in an electric motor ."

Just watched the Lair of the White Worm -- Ken Russell's adaptation of the Bram Stoker's novel -- which I've never read, but I may now put on my hit list. The movie is ... well ... funny. Intentionally so. The scene where Lady Marsh burns her snake and ladders game ... she gazes into the fire and whispers, "Rosebud." Hugh Grant plays a funny Lord James D'Ampton -- unintentionally, while sipping tea. Then there is Peter Capaldi Angus Flint, a Scott, who had to put on the outfit and play the bagpipes. And there were more like that. The horror bits ... well, good vs. evil; the christian god vs. some snake god ... that's the white worm for you. The plot that's strung together is rather silly, and again, I think it was done intentionally so -- sort of a campy horror. Lady Marsh returns in spring to her village to bring back her long sleeping snake god with a virgin sacrifice -- a snake god that's been sleeping for some time since Lord D'A

According to a study by Paul Irwing and Richard Lynn , to be published in the British Journal of Psychology, men are smarter than women -- due to genetic differences in intelligence -- men have larger brains than women. This shows up in men having a slight advantage over women in IQ tests, getting more Nobel prizes than women, and having more chess grandmasters than women. People who are about to take this too seriously, should note that Lynn has in the past published papers arguing that there are differences in intelligence between different racial groups . I'm not sure if these "researchers" have factored the environment, social or economic conditions into their study. It would seem to be the intelligent thing to do. It's also interesting to note that the researchers are both men. Psychologists no less.

Summary of summaries that I recently read. MarketBusters by Rita Gunther McGrath and Ian C. MacMillan -- Marketbusting is described as an action taken by a company that gives it a decided edge on its industry peers. This book offers five core marketbusting strategies, and lists forty supporting moves that a company can take within those strategies to go gangbusters on the competition. It's aimed at the executive types that actually work on strategies that steer businesses -- but, as I was reading the summary, I was thinking of it from my perspective, and on how I can apply some of the thinking with respect to my internal customers. If you're a department within an organization, think of these strategies as proactive steps to prevent yourself from being outsourced. The five strategies and related moves: Transform your customer's experience. Moves: 1) Replace the existing consumption chain with an alternative. 2) Use technology to combine or replace links within a c

Saw this movie last night too. Yup -- three movies, one night. This one was a blast from the past, as I had seen it way back then. I think I actually saw it on TV in the late 80s -- it had it's theatrical release in 1987. I remember it being very funny. Maybe my tastes have been refined (honed?) over the years -- or memory is a lair -- either way, it wasn't as funny this time around. That's not to say it was without humour. It had its moments, and is definitely one of those movies you want to watch late at night when there's absolutely nothing else on. This time around, it was interesting catching the many now familiar faces, when they were younger, and were desperate for a gig. There was Arsenio Hall, Michelle Pfeiffer, Joe Pantoliano (still without hair, but wearing a rug), Lana Clarkson, David Alan Grier (lacking any soul), B.B. King (trying to save Blacks without Soul), Rosanna Arquette, Steve Gutenberg, Robert Picardo (with hair), and the list goes on and

This is a very weird movie , starring Brendan Fraser, Ashley Judd and Viggo Mortensen. Fraser plays a guy raised by some religious fanatics -- they're killed by a mob and he gets away. He's found in a forest and is nursed back to health by Judd, who lives in the forest with her mute boyfriend, Mortensen. Mortensen has this habit of wandering in the forest for days. Fraser is nursed back to health when Mortensen is away -- and he slowly falls for Judd. When Mortensen returns, jealousy finds Fraser. Lots of weirdness ensues. Is Judd a witch? As some believe? Is the forest evil? Why is Fraser's dead parents talking to him? Enticing him to do the lord's murderous duty?

I just saw this French movie , starring Vanessa Paradis, Jason Flemyng, Benoît Poelvoorde and Jean-Pierre Marielle. It was hilarious. If you like b-movies, you'll enjoy this fine representation of the bad art. (Yes, I used art to describe the movie.) What's it all about? Well, Paradis plays a musician -- there's a stretch for you -- and Flemyng her boyfriend. Poelvoorde plays a sleazeball from the music industry who just wants to get into Paradis pants after they've first met. That's the setup. Now add a father who doesn't like the boyfriend, as he blew up his bar -- and is sentenced to prison. He escapes as hovering aliens with tentacles land on Earth and are hell bent on killing everyone. They decide to start in a small Frech hick town (is there even such a thing?). The music industry guy is infected by the aliens and becomes a bad ass who wants to do something not-so-nice to the girl. The boyfriend escapes from prison as the aliens start the killi

A very addictive online game based on Google's image search. Enjoy!

I just read a Forrester "Best Practices" report titled: The Marketing of IT . As the article introduced one of the biggest problems facing IT, I kept shouting (quietly, as I was on the subway), "Yes! That's what I keep facing!" Or telling people -- or something like that anyway. The report resonated with me. I'll spare you the details of the resonating -- and because going into the details will open some can of worms I'd rather not get into. Forrester summarizes the problem with: IT's inability to market effectively cements its cost center role in the enterprise: communicating status but not value, fulfilling requests but not solving problems, and partially deploying technologies but not delivering expected results. How's that for a loaded gun? IT stumbles -- and it's an industry wide problem. Long, the exclusive domain of the geeks -- and I mean that in with the utmost respect -- the role of IT has changed as business has grown in

Because I thought they were amusing, interesting, or otherwise, sites that you couldn't live without: Vista Window Company -- not just another multi-billionaire's company. In fact, they probably don't even make millions. Meet the World -- a Brazilian artist using the flags of the world to introduce you to the country's population. GigPosters -- a site that archives the posters used promote shows and events. Check out some cool art by some happenin' designers. Weight Watchers Recipe Cards, circa 1974 -- see a disgusting blast from the past. People actually ate that shit. (Some still do.) Source: eWeek.

I read this sad tale of racism in the most unexpected of places, in the latest Wired magazine [see Blood Feud , available online on Aug. 29th]. It all began a long time -- when blacks were freed of slavery in America with the 13th amendment to the US constitution. Natives, who had also kept some black slaves, freed their slaves -- and those blacks, continued to live as part of the native tribes they belonged to -- marrying, living and becoming part of the tribes. The black-natives voted in elections, sat on tribal councils and received benefits. Everyone got along. Then in 1906, US senator, Henry Laurens Dawes, in an attempt to "civilize" native territory, set up what became known as the Dawes Roll . A commission of white clerks from Washington descended on Oklahoma and set about to give 160-acre plots of land to natives. The commission was deluged by applicants -- and surprisingly, some were whites and blacks, claiming to have native heritage. The clerks, mostly by

Yet again, NASA's shuttle fleet -- or what's left of them -- have been grounded . This time until 2006, due to the continuing problems NASA is encountering with the foam insulation on the external fuel tank. It was a similar problem that caused Columbia to break apart as it re-entered Earth's atmosphere. NASA then went on to spend over $200 million in two years trying to prevent the foam insulation from coming off -- all for naught it would appear. NASA's new focus on the shuttle is to ensure that the last components of the space station can be lifted to orbit before the shuttle fleet retires in 2010. Hopefully by then, replacements will be flying -- but don't hold your breath.

It's not the ridiculous high gas prices that gets me -- although it contributes a bit to my distaste for oil companies, oil corporations and just about the entire industry -- it's the constant ups and downs. Tonight, I drove 15-minutes to pick up my daughter from the subway, and along the way, I saw the gas price change at one station from 90.5 to 89.5. A one cent drop in 15-minutes. Other gas stations along my route had different prices. It also makes me cringe when I see the massive line-ups when there is a one cent drop. The psychology of the masses is truly amazing. If people had to fill up with 50-litres of gasoline, then a one-cent difference would amount to 50-cents out of their pockets. People sustain brutal line-ups, tempers flaring, to save fifty-cents! Don't you get it people? The gas bars are aware of you psychological dysfunction, and are playing you. Don't bother going in there and harassing the clerk -- which I've seen some people do -- they

Today, I happened to look at the Charing System Gauge , otherwise known as the Battery Indicator, of my car and was in for a little bit of a shock. The indicator was down to low, sometimes dropping below low, and it wasn't indicating any charging as I was driving. We've had severe rainfall here in the last couple of days, and I'm not sure if that was a contributing factor. The battery isn't that old, so it can't be age. Tonight I decided to lift the hood of the car to look at the mess of machinery under it. I'm mechanically challenged. The stuff under there scares me. The battery was sitting there with acid all over the terminals. So, I got a brush from my trunk and brushed off the acid, inhaling deeply of the resulting noxious cloud. Now I have this metallic taste in my mouth. I think I will gargle with some household chemicals later in an attempt to exhale fire. That feeble attempt at fixing the problem didn't really fix shit. The battery still

In a speech to the Canadian Association of Police Boards, Canada's Minister for Justice and Attorney General, Irwin Cotler, revealed plans to introduce new lawful access legislation in the near future. The legislation will allow law enforcement officials to intercept internet communications and access data pertaining to internet usage, by Canadians. Disturbingly, discussion papers being circulated on the legislation by the government, points to a complete lack of oversight. Police would be able to request information from an ISP on a user, without having to obtain a court order, as is the case today. This legislation is highly suggestive of similar legislation that has been enacted in the US in the guise of combatting terrorism. Canada is following the US lead in not giving a damn about the privacy rights of its own citizens.

Sarah Boxer writes about the evolution of comic books from the printed media to the digital, in the NYTimes. Comics haven't fully made it on the web. They're either limited by the necessitity to scroll to see the entire page, which makes the final product inferior to the printed page -- or, they've become inferior animation -- neither comic or full blown animation. It's clear that innovation hasn't reached the digital comic book as yet -- and to some degree, the digital comic book shares the same problems that other printed artform has in the translation to the web. The biggest problem is in the appreciation of the art by the end consumer. The digital world still hasn't given end consumers the touch, feel, smell -- the initimacy -- that printed on paper art provides -- be it a novel, a comic book or a piece of art. It's not tactile. It can't be savoured. It's just not real enough. There's something personal in appreciation of art that t

I'm listening to a fascinating interview of Lisa See, author of " Snow Flower and the Secret Fan . " The interview, conducted by Dr. Moria Gunn, discusses See's discovery of an ancient Chinese written language, nu shu , known only to women in a remote Chinese province. [clip] The language has been kept secret for 1,000 years, and See's discovery, inspired her to write her latest novel. The interview also goes into some details of ancient Chinese practice of feet binding, in which, over a period of two years or so, a child's feet, at the toes, would be folded back to meet the heel. The bones would be broken, and basically the women would be left to walk on their big toes.

Yahoo! recently claimed that their search engine index had grown to 20 billion items, over twice as large as Google's 8.1 billion. Quite the bragging rights that gave Yahoo!. An independent study however, by the NCSA, has found that while Yahoo!'s claims can't be verified, Google remains the search engine with the most. Consistently, Google kept returning more results, especially for obscure searches, which this study focused on. (Both Google and Yahoo! truncates results after 1,000 results, so the researchers decided to look at obsucure searches.) Yahoo! only returned 37.4% of the results that Google did.

I just read Henry Mintzberg 's " The Manager's Job: Folklore and Fact " in the Harvard Business Review -- originally published in the July-August 1975 issue, and republished in 1990 -- but still, very true today. Mintzberg recaps the classical understanding of the manager's job, as one that plans, organizes, coordinates, commands, and controls -- borrowing this definition from Henri Fayol . He cautions however that, "at best, they indicate some vague objectives managers have when they work." It is by no means what a manager really does. If you're a manager, think about this. Are those really the functions of someone in command? Mintzberg goes on to site research into what a manager really does on the job to create his own definition of what management is. He first introduces and dispels four myths about the manager's job, and in the process, laying to rest Fayol's definition. 1. Folklore: The manager is a reflective, systematic plann

Before the Internet hit prime time, kiddies looking for some online action hooked up to a network of Bulletin Board Systems and made their world a bit smaller. Now, Jason Scott of TEXTFILES.COM and the Internet Archive , have teamed up to bring Scott's extensive interviews that were conducted for a documentary project on BBSes, online -- free, under a Creative Commons license for all to enjoy.

The Register is reporting that Google has lost an AdWords case to GEICO . Apparently, while not allowing the use of GEICO's name in the content of AdWords, Google had sold the trademarked name in keyword search advertising. That is, if you searched for GEICO using Google, then you would end up seeing advertising from whoever bought that term -- even though the name GEICO would not appear in the ad itself. I don't agree with the ruling. Google should be able to sell advertising against any search term if they so wish. Google search is not a public service -- it's a private business. In effect, GEICO is saying that Google has a responsibility to them to ensure that when an internet user searches for GEICO, they don't see advertising for other insurance companies. I don't think Google has such a responsibility. They haven't violated GEICO's trademark in anyway. I'm sure this loss is going to open a can of worms for Google.

BusinessWeek latest issue has a cover article on the coming global dominance of China and India. It's more of the same that has been making the rounds in the media lately, but this article provides a timely and updated summary. BusinessWeek explains that "in the coming decades, China and India will disrupt workforces, industries, companies, and markets in ways that we can barely begin to imagine." Those in the developed nations should take note. If companies adopt a wait and see attitude, they will find themselves surpassed by those that are today taking steps to leverage the might of the two emerging giants. You can see the signs of China's success in their cities that are being systematically being transformed by gleaming, state of the art infrastructure. India on the other hand is grappling slowly with its change. The transformation is happening, but the infrastructure accompaniment is slow to change. In some ways, this has result in two countries that are

Terry Pratchett 's new Discworld novel will be released in the second week of September. Thud! will chronicle the further mis- adventures of Commander Samuel Vimes and the City Watch of Ankh-Morpork. I'm looking forward to the novel, as there's always a dry spell between Pratchett books -- and he's an author that I am a little obsessive about. The man has wit and hilarity in his scribe. The teaser e-mail that brought the news of the forthcoming novel included the following descriptive:   It started out as a perfect day -- the sun was shining, the birds were singing, and Commander Sam Vimes of the City Watch shaved himself without a single nick. And then he went to work.   THUD!   Suddenly, Vimes is in the thick of looming disaster -- he's got an unsolved murder to crack, an impending war born of age-old animosity to avert, a new recruit he'd really rather not hire, not to mention a pesky government inspector asking all the wrong questions. So I looked

I've completed J.K. Rowling 's latest excursion into the magical world of Harry Potter. If you haven't read the book as yet, go on, read further, there are no spoilers. I wouldn't do that to you. If you've read the previous five books, you need to relish the sixth -- enjoy it. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince is a bit of a departure from the previous five novels -- or, if you're perceptive, it continues on the trajectory of the other five books, departing as expected. Departed how? Well, the novel has grown in size from the previous novels. There are a lot more pages, and lot more of it deals with character exploration. Harry and his friends are now rapidly approaching their 17th birthdays, so there's lot to tell about them. Tumultuous emotions -- both anger, jealousy, love -- yes, there is someone that makes Harry's heart go thump in the night. The main characters do get equal pages with Harry. You also see Harry's world treating h

I just got to this site via a friend. Some very humorous flash funnies. I love it!

Paul Graham has written quite the essay extolling the virtues of open source and blogging (and I would add wikis and other social computing to the mix) for business. He asserts that the biggest lesson open source and blogging has to teach business isn't about technology -- it's about the forces that have been driving the movements. Blogging and open source leverage the web as a platform to foster collaboration -- bringing people together to do things they love to do, for free -- unlike business, where people don't necessarily work on the things they love. Working for the love of it always produces results that surpass what business can produce. Graham takes a swipe at the professionals -- their elitism, culture and environment -- and what they have achieved with business. He believes that their culture is rapidly being surpassed by a culture of collaboration and cooperation -- where real results are being achieved, by ordinary people, doing the extraordinary -- workin

The US has decided to disregard a NAFTA ruling that says it has violated NAFTA rules by applying contervailing and anti-dumping duties to Canadian softwood lumber exports. The US has applied the duties because softwood lumber is harvested from publicly owned lands in Canada, while they are harvested from private lands in the US. The US considers the harvesting from public lands a subsidy. I don't know the details of the case, or what the NAFTA rules says about cases like this, but it won't stop me from drawing a conclusion: namely that the US is correct. I'm sure we make the lumber from public lands cheaply available to the lumber industry. I also have a problem with the Canadian government allowing our forests -- that's yours and mine, as it is public -- available for private companies to savage and then sell cheaply to hungry American industries. Here's one time where I actually am agreeing with the US government. I hope the Canadian federal government doe

There are numerous articles I wish to share, comment on, and simply offload from the last few weeks. I haven't had a chance. Blame the interruption of life. But that's a good thing. No it is. Raunchy Burger King -- Burger King's has gone and done it again with marketing that targets the 18-to-34 set. First they had Subservient Chicken -- now, they have Coq Roq . Guys dressed as cocks, playing rock music. They certainly got some attention -- especially for the sexual overtones . Podcast: David vs. Goliath -- Apple, the iPod and especially some do-it-yourselfer evangelists have combined to make podcasting one of the fastest technology adoptions in recent times. In less than a year, podcasting has moved from the realm of the geek domain of early adopters to the mainstream media companies. Sure, podcasting's potential is still being realized -- but, already the popular shows are more and more becoming those of the large media companies. Blogging As You Go Bel

Further evidence that the American Empire truly is declining -- George W. Bush has come out in favour of teaching students in American schools, not just the theory of evolution, but also " intelligent design ."

Nature has a neat article summarizing recent results coming from the new light being shed on sperm . Long thought of just the "delivery boys" for male DNA to the egg, studies are now questioning whether there isn't more going on in the sperm. The studies promise to bring further understanding to fertility and the evolution of sex. Studies are showing that defects in sperm can result in the disruption of embryo development and could be a cause for miscarriages. Sperm can be broken into three sections: the tail, that propels the sperm to its destination; the mid-section that has an array of mitochondria to power the tail; and the head, that contains the DNA, but also messenger RNA and proteins. It's the RNA and proteins that are causing researchers to question their understanding of sperm. When the sperm enters the egg, the entire sperm goes in -- tail and all. It isn't only the DNA that is released into the egg, but also the RNA and proteins. The proteins t

Wired's latest cover article examines technology's navel lint of the past 10-years -- the years of excitement, the ups and downs, the bazillions that was made and lost, and how we're all better for where it got us. Wired credits Netscape going public 10-years ago with giving the power to the people -- acting as a catalyst for the growth of the web, and allowing such concepts as blogs, wikis, peer-to-peer and open source to in turn be a catalyst for social transformation. Yes, social transformation. The web, the internet, and all those hyperlinks out there didn't amount to a squat in the world of commerce when compared to its impact on culture. Today, we hardly know what the internet truly is -- it's vast, interconnected, redundant, etc., etc. -- but what does all of that truly mean? We can physically describe it and understand how its parts function to make the whole -- but what the impact of the internet on us is hardly understood -- and what lasting effect i

In celebration of the Year of Physics, the journal Nature is making available online, the 1921 special issue that celebrated Einstein's theory of general relativity. The issue includes articles by Einstein, Cunningham, Dyson, Lorentz, and Eddington. Now, how often do you find such giants in one publication?

A CNet article postulating on the potential danger of the personal data being amassed by search engine companies paints a scary picture. Google has been taking the brunt of the fear of what it could do with the personal information, but consumers remain relatively unconcerned because the Google brand represents such trust -- but we should never forget that Google and the other online giants that gather personal information, are private companies, and are not necessarily providing a public service for altruism. Search engines knows where you're been online, what you've done there, and by combining data, could infer why you're doing it. Could such data be used to build a risk profile on individuals? Could the law enforcement authorities use such information to scan for citizens who may pose a danger -- in profile only -- to the public? You bet. Alternatively, more and more of such information is seeping into the public domain exactly because search engines are so good.

Yahoo! has launched the beta version of their audio search . The new search engine has apparently catalogued audio files from around the internet -- music and voice, including those on sale at online music stores. In one fell swoop, Yahoo! has moved to position itself as the gateway to online music stores, the same way other search engines, especially Google, has positioned themselves as the gateway to great information storehouse of the internet. Interestingly enough, the results for music searches provides a list of competing online music stores, one of which is Yahoo!'s Music Unlimited store. It opens the possibility that Yahoo! could use it search function to undercut prices offered by competing stores, by automatically adjusting prices in the search results . Whoever said that internet search was a public service?

I just finished Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke. It's taken me quite some time to finish the 782-pages tale of English magic, English magicians and whole lot more of just plain English. I'm now all Englished out. Clarke's novel is set in the late nineteenth century, and follows the adventures of one Mr. Norrell, a boring, bookish, selfish and very British, magician, and his quite different pupil, Jonathan Strange -- who grows beyond his master and eventually becomes a rival. I won't dwell to much on the story, as summaries are available online. The story is an enticing one, and has garnered comparisons with J.K. Rowling -- although that seems to be more from people who haven't read Clarke's novel, because the comparisons couldn't be more wrong. Rowling is entertaining -- Clarke on the other hand has a good story on her hands, but goes on to suffer the reader with her Jane Austen imitative. In fact, Clarke's writing has more i

I was at the Masala! Mehndi! Masti! South Asian festival at Toronto's Harbourfront Centre tonight, with my youngest. The festival started on Wednesday of this week, and will run through the weekend to Sunday. Early predictions put the visitors to the festival at topping 100,000 people. From what we saw tonight, I'm sure they will surpass that number. There were a lot of people there. So many, that it made leaving -- even early -- like pushing through molasses. It was a good night though. The wind was great coming off the lake -- it wasn't cold, nor hot. Almost perfect. My youngest and I dined on Indian food -- there were many stalls under the food tent, and every one of them was Indian, serving pretty much the same things. We caught two performances: Tantra and Tina Sugandh . Tantra played classical Indian music, and the guys were really good. An old idiot in front of us kept shouting out at them to play some "raaja" between each piece they played.

43 Places -- this is a blog-type community that makes the world a smaller place. It allows users to share the places they live in with the world. It also allows travellers to share their experiences of different places they've visited. The community it creates, allows people who wish to visit places, to ask questions of those who live there, or have traveled there. An interesting concept. If you have a blog, 43 Places will also help you get your posts at 43 Places to automagically update your own blog. DONTCLICK.IT -- this is an experiment in interface design ... I think. The interface of this website can be navigated by moving the mouse around, no clicking required. If however, you can't break from the clicking habit, they suggest the mousewrap -- a painful way of getting you off the habit. Yotophoto -- this is a photo search engine that targets free-to-use stock photos and images. You search for an image, read the license terms, and then use the photo in your p

I've uploaded some of my vacation photos from Tobermory to my Webshots account . Enjoy, and tell me what you think!

Another Philip K. Dick novel is being adapted to the big screen. Starring Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr., Woody Harrelson, Winona Ryder and Rory Cochrane, A Scanner Darkly tells a tale set in the not too distant future, where the war on drugs has been lost, and an undercover cop is set against his friends. It's a Philip K. Dick story, so it's bound to be good if the adaptation doesn't screw too much with it. The movie has an interesting twist with the use of interpolated rotoscoping to transform the live action footage to animation. The trailer gives a preview of what's in store for us in 2006. It looks visually stunning.