Cornhole

If you're old enough to remember this, then you're old enough to hang out with me.



Here are supposedly the 50 most interesting articles on Wikipedia. As I stumbled upon this, I also found the single most addictive website for an information junkie like me: tvtropes.org.




So apparently there's a game in Cincinnati called "Cornhole". That's right. And even a movie about it. Need I even comment? If you're like me (and I know that you are), this is what first came to mind:



This guy agrees. Apparently, Bengals Quarterback Carson Palmer is a big proponent of playing "cornhole" with your children. There's even a shockwave cornhole game.

The comments to this article about the game are priceless. Some samples:

"Cornhole" is the only name they could come up with? Good thing basketball didn't originate in Cinci or we might be watching game three of the "Rimjob" finals tonight.

I wonder when Hell's Kitchen will feature a salad tossing competition.

You know that Cornholed -- the Movie, has already been filmed and is "in the can".

Ebert & Roper gave it two thumbs in.

Is this anything like the Gloryhole Invitational?

Kids play this at birthday parties and whatnot in Chicago but it's called "beanbag toss".... Because we're not fuckin hicks, that's why.

My understanding is that in order to rack up killer cornhole scores, you have to have a a wide stance.

The game is especially exhiliarating when you come from behind.


The traditional snack during a game of cornhole is fudge. After the game, the participants pack everything up.

See? Deonandia is entertaining AND educational!

I leave you with this, put together by Facebook friend Graham S. about my recent adventure trying to get rid of the mushrooms infesting my houseplants:

Nuit Blanching

One of the joys of no longer living in my rapidly deteriorating apartment building is no longer having to deal with neighbours on the edge of sanity. In my final days in my old place, I was entertained by a series of notices places on the public board. The first, by management, encouraged dog owners to not allow their animals to urinate by the front door. A reasonable request, I thought, but one that elicited all sorts of irrational commentary from the menagerie of pooch-toting weirdos who cluster in that particular hovel. Perhaps you can make out some of the vitriol:




While I'm showing off the low-res crappy photos taken from my smartphone, dig this great decal I saw on the side of a car:



A couple of weekends ago (Oct 3), I attended nuit blanche in Toronto. If you've never heard of it, it's a magnificent free evening, inspired by similar events in Europe, in which, from 7pm till dawn, the entire city is turned into an art installation.

I arrived with my curmudgeon hat squarely fitted to my blockhead, and roundly enjoyed mocking some of the sillier things I saw. But I cannot deny that the overall experience was magnificent. There were literally hundreds of exhibits spanning the entire city, with unlikely venues like shopping malls, grocery stores, sidewalks, parking lots, corner stores, private homes and alleyways all transformed into glittering art galleries.

My voyage through the night was one dipped in surrealism, as if I was exploring some trippy parallel universe or post-Apocalyptic meta-world. I was particularly impressed by four experiences:

(1) a continuous awards show in which any passerby can step onto the stage and be heralded for being a star

(2) the Drake Hotel's use of its wall to project audience Twitter tweets, sent to the hash tag "#bumpinyournuit". The lag time was so great that I was not able to see my own tweet ("Boogers! Boogers!") Instead, I give you two images of other people's tweets:




(3) Something called "The Apology Project", wherein a battalion of weirdos with paper bags on their heads bump into you and apologize profusely, in a display of classic Canadian passive aggression.

(4) "Dance of the Cranes", in which two construction cranes atop growing skyscrapers dance a synchronized ballet to classical music, beneath glittering, mesmerizing moonlight.



There are some better photos of the Crane Dance here.

Overall, Nuit Blanche was a wonderful experience, made more so for the spectacle of seeing hundreds of thousands of people peacefully shuffling about Toronto in the wee hours, engaging in somewhat intellectual explorations, all for free.

In Other News...

The Other Ray sends us Charles Darwin's blog from the Beagle voyages. And P-Dawg sends us this, about the classic "3-body problem". Yes, it's nerd humour. If you don't get it, too bad for you.

Blog? I Have A Blog?

Oh yeah, I have a blog! All this twittering and Facebookery have distracted me of late. What else? Oh yes, I just bought property! The horror and stress of adopting a mortgage has drained me of energy, such that the thought of creating cohesive blog-worthy sentences has been unappetizing.

But here I am. Where to begin? Oh yes, some random surfing brought me to this site:

Rochelle's Japanese Experience

It's relevant because Rochelle has used a photo of me in her post, clearly cobbed from this location. I don't mind, really. I just think it's funny.



Meanwhile, almighty Zod's quest to prevent me from walking continues unabated. First, he dislodged a lumbar disc on my right side. Then he did so on my left side. Then he sent thugs to push me over in a cafe, bruising my knee and giving me a lip for several days. And now he got me drunk so I passed out on my floor in an awkward position, waking up with my disc herniated yet again. AUUUUGHHHH!

In yet more random news, my MicroSoft column will now be carried by MSN.ca. Yayyy, more readers!

Meanwhile, Cousin Ajay sends us news of Bebe Gloton, the breast-feeding doll. No comment.



And in other news, Chamika sends us the Best Che Guevara T-Shirt Ever:



Lastly, the Other Ray sends us... um... Christian porn.

That is all.

Pluggity Plug Plug

Today, it's all about me!

There's a new article up at Skiffy.ca. This time it's a review of the really tremendously good Torchwood: Children of Earth miniseries.

My latest column is up at The MicroSoft website.

My most recent radio interviews are now archived on the reviews page (finally updated after 5 years of idleness).

And if you're in Toronto this coming Friday, July 24th, come on down to Ryerson University where I will be judging the first ever SpeakOut Slam Poetry contest! I'm sure it will be a lot of fun, so don't sit at home watching TV, come out and jeer --I mean support-- your local slam poets.

In Other News...

Sean M. sends us The 10 Most Awesome In Search Of episodes. He also points us to the, um, Indian He-Man:



How can we top that? Well, how about news from The Other Ray that someone is claiming to have been impregnated from ...wait for it... sperm from a swimming pool. Yeah.

Ray also sends us the following chart showing just which human broadcasts aliens are presently listening to. We're all screwed; you know that, right?

Daily Funnies

Am busy cleaning my apartment, so I don't have time for you people right now. You get three things today:

1. Thanks

Thanks to Dr Qais Ghanem for inviting me and a friend back on to CHIN radio Friday to talk about Guyana. I'll link to the MP3 as soon as I have it.

Thanks to the CBC's Andreanne Baribeau and Nora Young for having me on the radio show "Spark" yesterday to talk about Twitter haikus. The show will be broadcast on the 10th, I believe.

Thanks to the Muchmor public school in the Glebe, where I was invited to speak to a class of 9 year olds. A special thanks to the little girl who proposed building a giant yoyo filled with mail, that we could drop from a helicopter to deliver mail to remote people; and to the little boy who insisted on giving me a minute, blow-by-blow recap of Jurassic Park 2.

2. Angels and Demons

I hate Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. I'm sure the plot was okay, but it was so poorly written that I felt myself getting dumber with every page. I had to stop after the first chapter lest I be rendered into a retarded lemur.... or, worse yet, a Republican.

So I went to see the movie version of Angels and Demons with trepidation. The first half hour was head-slappingly retarded, with dialogue that was likely written by George Lucas. The nex hour or so was surprisingly good, with excellent direction. Then the ending was more chimp-level cliched nonsense. Why do bother?

3. Daily funnies:

You're Fired!....Guv'nor.

Cousin Ajay sends us this. Is funny:




Cousin Ajay also sends us this, with the comment that he fears it might turn kids retarded:



Cousin Ajay is on a roll. (It's a figure of speech; he's not actually riding bread.) He also sends us Helen Keller's twitter feed. Go look.

Special Ed sends us Captain Kirk's Best and Worst Moments. (Yes, it's the real Kirk, not this new poser.) The list is missing the bit where Kirk has nasty Captain sex with the hyperfast accelerated woman who can kill him with a scratch, yet somehow manages to avoid any and all abrasions. That's skill.

Special thanks to Dr Qais Ghanem for hosting myself and Dr Robert Huish on Dr Ghanem's radio show last Friday. Hopefully the MP3 of the interview will be posted very soon.

A further thanks to the organizers of the CSEB student conference this weekend for inviting me to be a judge in theit epidemiology poster competition. Ironically, this weekend I also judged a literary contest with co-judge Shanthi Sekaran. Shanthi's new book is getting a lot of attention; I can't wait to read it.

What am I doing now? Procrastinating. How? By watching the UK version of The Apprentice. Man, I love this show! Well, I love most things British. It's so delicious watching Brits argue. Their turns of phrases sound so cute and alien to me that it's impossible for me to get too emotional about it, only highly entertained. And I love that their equivalent of Donald Trump, Sir Alan Sugar, is an enormous prick who doesn't take shit from anyone, and whose firing decisions appear to be both consistent and justified! What a change!

Okay, back to TV...

Until I Have Time For a REAL Post...

Check it out...

An sign of intelligence from space? Now if only we could find a sign of intelligence here on Earth. (BOW! HELLO! TRY THE VEAL, I'M HERE ALL WEEK!)

(Video of alien intelligence here.)

The BBC apparently stands for "British Broadcasting for Christ" because it's received 115 complaint emails since announcing its new Head of Religion is a Muslim.

Um... why does the BBC need a "Head of Religion"?

I'm sure many of you have seen this:




Well, it's a lie!!!



So revel in your pervishness, my droogies.

Remember my review of the new Star Trek movie? Recall that it's a JJ Abrams project, much like two of my favourite TV shows: Lost and Fringe. Well, I just finished watchin the season finales for both shows...

...Wow! Now that's writing! HOWEVER... JJ is showing his unmentionables. All three products --Fringe, Lost and Trek-- rely heavily on either time travel or alternate realities. I'm a little sick of this science fiction crutch. Suddenly I'm not too optimistic about the continuing resolution of either of the TV shows. I'll let you know.

I'll leave you with some Facebook goodies. First up is my new profile pic, the Hasselwat:



And lastly, here's the profile pic of my friend Sara F. Looks like he's been out all night drinking, no?

Real Women

I regularly Google random words and phrases. Don't ask why. Just assume it's part of my charming quirkiness. Well, today I Googled "real women", then clicked on "images". One of the earliest hits was this.

Please only click the link if you're fully emotionally and spiritually prepared. Afterward, you may need this.

The Sexual Adventures of Savita Bhabhi

Having one of those mornings when I feel I have squirrels in my pants:



And how is this for progress? India has a somewhat mainstream pornographic comic: The sexual adventures of Savita Bhabhi:



Meanwhile, Darth Vadum sends us this real-life attempt by a doofus to get out of jury duty:


That is all. As you were.

Wasn't Arthrotec Some Kind of Japanese Cartoon Robot?

Being laid up at home with a bad back has compelled me to download and watch a LOT of TV, even though I gave away my TV set 4 months ago in an attempt to wean me from the glass teat. Last night, I watched 6 straight episodes of season 2 of Celebrity Apprentice. Jesse James is my new hero! (And Melissa Rivers is just freakish.)

Last week, in full lumbar pain mode, I watched the entire 5th season of Entourage. And since I Google absolutely everything as I watch, know what I learned? That Jason Patric is the grandson of Jackie Gleason! Bet you didn't know that.

And speaking of lying on my back in lumbar pain... three cheers for Arthrotec!

And speaking of TV, Mary Ellen sends us the following photo, the only comment for which I will make is, "But in what order?"



Now, as you know, I sort of play sitar, and I've often had a fondness for a certain Guns'N'Roses song, "Sweet Child of Mine", which I actually sang aloud in India 13 years ago. Well, Sarah M. sends us this:

Indian Sweet Child of Mine

Moobootica and Further Douchebaggery

I don't have a TV anymore, so while visiting my parents I took the time to surf as many channels as I could. Today I came across something called bpmtv, which is ridiculous silly crap. But it did have one segment featuring the "cheesiest" dance videos of all time. Some were just atrocious. So I thought I'd share a few with you.

First up is, um, "I Need A Vacation" by Paul Lekakis:



I like how Paul adds some hot chicks to the video just to ...you know... preserve some doubt.

Next is one that is clearly intentionally ironic, but nonetheless ridiculous. It's "Biker Shorts" by Canada's Stink Mitt:



I've saved the cheesiest for last. It's by the excellently named German band Moonbootica, a song called "Roll The Dice". It's mesmerizingly atrocious in its transcendent douchebaggery:



After all that, I think we all need some ear bleach. I give it you now in the form of the wonderful Susan Boyle appearing here on "Britain's Got Talent". I implore you to watch the whole thing. It will make you happy.

TV Shows and Electric Sheep (No Dreaming Androids, Though)

Quick post today. I just watched the 2009 Easter special of Doctor Who, titled "Planet of the Dead". Ohhh, it was atrocious! As much as I love David Tennant's version of The Doctor, I'm now pleased that he's leaving the show, if this turd of an episode is what we can expect from the franchise's future.



On the other extreme is a little noticed gem on Fox TV called Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. The 2nd season finale aired earlier this week, and it seems unlikely that the show will be picked up for a 3rd season, making the episode the likely series finale. (See Skiffy.ca's review of the first season.)

Originally, I'd complained that she show has a stylistic dysfunction: everyone clearly drew their wardrobe from the same trailer. They all wear the same brand of jeans and cowboy boots. But once you're over the growing pains, Terminator benefits from one fantastic quality: it's unpredictable. This second season in particular, I had no idea where any of the story lines were headed --a rarity in American television! But the finale was singularly powerful. Its final scene, in particular, was touchingly acted with much depth and gravitas. If it really is the final moment for the whole show, then it ends on a very high note.

It's so good, in fact, that I'm not particularly intrigued by the new Terminator movie, which apparently does not adhere to the TV show's fascinating canon.


In Other News

Thanks to Richard von E. for this: LED sheep art! Must be seen to be believed.



And if sheep aren't your thing, Dawn L. sends us this and this.

Mmmmm.... Espresso....

News from England: a girl has 7 shots of double espresso, has to go to the hospital, and is now on a campaign to warn everyone about the evils of caffeine.

Why is it that every time some dumb-ass overdoses on something banal, they then think it's their right and responsibility to preach to the rest of us --who aren't overdosing on it-- about how horrible a thing the banal item we aren't abusing is?

And why is that the preceding sentence is so poorly constructed? I blame the double espresso I just had.

Meanwhile, religious groups are pissed about losing their rights to deny the rights of others. Seriously. Leads us to this.

That's all I gots for you today... except to add that Deonandan.com is now up to version 4.0! Yayyy, I'm a big boy!

Filler

Every week crusty newspaperman EK Hornbeck sends me further reports of classic old newspapers going bust. The internet is killing traditional print media! But what to do? Here's an idea forwarded to us from Cousin Ajay. It's from Saving Newspapers: The Musical:



So I saw Watchmen. It's not for everyone, but of course I enjoyed it. EK Hornbeck sends us this disturbing bit of Watchmen-related news.

Hey remember my trip to India a couple of years ago? It seems my lecture at JNU (Nehru University) in New Delhi is listed under "distinguished visitors" on the university's website. Apparently I'm a "renowned Canadian writer". If only Canadians thought so!

Meanwhile, JJ sends us this entertaining talk from TED by Elizabeth Gilbert on "genius". Yes, this is the woman who wrote, Eat, Pray, Love, that annoying book that pops up on every reading list of every woman whose profile I've browsed on a dating site.

At Least It's Not High In Cholesterol.... Oh Wait, It Is.

First off, from Dawn we get....



From Chamika comes news that the old 1960s Spiderman shows are now available free online. Speaking of Spidey, Nasty Nicky B sends us this.

Meanwhile, don't get me started on this guy.

Special Ed sends us this list of the top 20 all time heroes of pop culture. James T Kirk only made #12. Bastards.

From Darth Vadum we get news that blow jobs can cause throat cancer. Or at least that's my boil-down from the very vague article. The BBC article states that [men and women with newly diagnosed throat cancer] who had evidence of prior oral HPV infection had a 32-fold increased risk of throat cancer. Of course they didn't specify whether we're talking about fellatio or cunnilingus here, and that might make all the difference. To the article's credit, they made no causal links, since this is an associative study. But still, causation is fun. And that's what blogs are for.

Porn Star Stewardesses: What A Wonderful Time To Be Alive!

Ack! I'm wearing reading glasses right now. READING GLASSES! How did this happen?

Don't know if you've heard, but it seems a RyanAir "air hostess" has been outed as a porn star. The best part of this story is the way the airline is sticking behind her (so to speak). Instead of playing the ridiculous anti-freedom moral card and insisting that the hostess's personal activities have some relevance to her job, their position is "What people do before or after they work for us is their business."

Hallelujah, brother!

Mind you, their highly ethical stance might be a bit more worthy of celebration if this wasn't the same company that is considering putting pay toilets in their planes and on making calendars of their employees in bikinis.

In Other News...

For my fellow writer friends, be sure to visit the Google Book Settlement page and to assert your rights over whatever content Google might have digitized without your permission. Now, I'm on record as being a fan of piracy and open access.... and that includes piracy of my written works. But if you'd a chance to get some cash out of a billion dollar corporation that made profit out of your works without your permission, go to it. The Writers Union of Canada advises writers not to opt out of the settlement.

Lastly, want to see some great presentation software? Check out gapminder.org!

Definitely Not Battlestar Ga-craptica

Scene from the Battlestar Galactica finale "Daybreak", featuring my two favourite characters, Caprica Six and Gaius Baltar

Happy birthday to William Shatner, who turned 78 on Sunday. Wow. 78. Further wow: I know William Shatner's birthday.

Apropos of nothing: Melissa G. sends us Hamlet's Facebook page! And as usual, Dawn L. sends us someone's top 5 weirdest fetishes. Does this count as a Daily Perv Link (TM)? Heck, why not. The piggy-back rides sound particularly odd to me.

As I currently await the most recent episode of Heroes to finish downloading, I'm reflecting on the series finale of the "re-imagined"Battlestar Galactica, a show considered by many to be the best American TV show ever witnessed on free television. I had previously listed what I consider to be the best sci-fi finales in TV history. I'm not quite sure Galactica lives up to that list, but it is an extraordinarily well produced and evocative ending. Unlike many who've written about it, I'm not the least disappointed.

Expect a full review of the finale on Skiffy.ca sometime very soon. I will say, though, that I'm unsure of how I feel about Bob Dylan's "All Along The Watchtower" playing such a prominent and unironic role in the finale. Music has long been BG's "other" character, pushing mood and content further than I think any previous TV score has managed.

The secret Cylon "summoning" music was one of this season's open secrets. Composer Bear McCreary has been candid about borrowing heavily from the Dylan song to elicit the summoning tune. Without giving away too much of a spoiler, it was a bit of an anachronism to have the Hendrix version erupt later in the show, even having Starbuck utter the line, "There must be some kind of way out of here" before engaging the Galactica's FTL drive.

The brilliance of the finale, as I hope to make clear in a future article, is in its reliance on character, rather than plot, to tie the elements together. No plot could have satisfied the legions of rabid fanboys eager for resolutions to all the show's lingering mysteries. The right approach, then, was to relegate exposition to deus ex machina, and to focus both on the rightness of character reaction and on some underlying theme or messaging.

Here's a fan-made compilation of scenes from the series, accompanied by McCreary's version of "All Along The Watchtower".

In Other News...

And further apropos of nothing, here are a few random photos from the past couple of weeks.

Giving my talk at the WHO simulation in Montreal.


At a "bhangra and Caribbean" party in Toronto this past weekend.

Meanwhile...

Image courtesy of Dawn L. Does it count as a Daily Perv Link(TM)? Sure, why not.

From E.K. Hornbeck comes this story of John McCain's idiot daughter complaining about her love life. Cry me a river, baby. Sample of her idiocy: "I am not only turned off by people who voted for Barack Obama, but I am also turned off by people that voted for my dad." Really? So you're essentially turned off by pretty much anyone who voted... unless he spoiled his ballot or voted for a loser third party candidate.

Jeez.

Meanwhile, Nadya "Octomom" Suleman's story is so ridiculous that I found myself talking about her to my class of first year undergrads today. Here's an interesting take on our own hypocrisy when dealing with her.

Speaking of Octomom, I think I found my Hallowe'en costume for next year:


And here's the "Octomom" Denny's special: "14 eggs, no sausage, and the guy next to you has to pay for it."

Meanwhile, know of an interesting immigrant in Canada? Why not nominate him/her for the Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Awards?

Meanwhile, Brad Parker sends us this great collection of art work done by prisoners in New Delhi. Here are two of my favourites:




By the way, everyone and his/her dog has been sending me this article about inter-racial dating. I'm not sure why. I have no comments.

I have no more meanwhiles for you today.

What? You Want A Title, Too?

This is pretty cool. I got it from Dawn's Facebook page. It's a list of history's weirdest cases of mass hysteria. People are so lame.

Also in the cool category, Richard sends us this video of something called "Red Bull Crushed Ice", which is a sort of extreme skating event:



It gets better. Nasty Nicky B points out that I'm not the only one noticing the clearly Irish origins of President Bartholomew Paddy O'Bama, with the song, No One As Irish As Barack Obama.

Check out the following drawing by artist Dusty Abell, showing all the skiffy icons from the 70s. Amazing how a crap decade can seem some awesome in retrospect, no?


What to hear something fascinating? It's something I've noticed about my own records keeping practices with respect to this and my other websites. In the digital age, content is updated so rapidly that there is little or no record of what came before. In other words, for the first time in history, the written word is no longer a record of history. One fellow is taking it very seriously, and is taking steps to combat this trend. But it's an aspect of the paperless revolution that few saw coming.

Lastly, in a sign of the arrival of the genre, The Guardian has a list of the science fiction novels "everyone must read". Some questionable choices there, such as Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin, a lot of books I've never heard of, and a saddening tendency to confuse space opera and fantasy with true skiffy. Oh when will they learn? IO9 takes a crack at them here.

Old Year's Night

In the final minutes of 2008, I have nothing important to share with you. Instead, you get, from EK Hornbeck, a fascinating list of Ten Things That Won't Survive The Recession. And over at Skiffy.ca, we have a new article: 2008 Science Fiction Year in Review.

Tomorrow I will have my traditional New Year's post of things I am thankful for. So until then, have a drink for me... 'cause I'm sick in bed!

Porter Airlines Continues to Rock

How much does Porter Airlines rock? I was scheduled to fly from Ottawa to Toronto today at 2:30pm. Yesterday, at 2pm, Porter calls me up to say that a big snowstorm is about to hit Toronto, and they'd like to offer me the option of flying out that very night, with no change penalties attached.

I jumped at it. I ran home, packed as quickly as I could, then dragged my enormous bag (all with a bulging 4th lumbar disc, mind you) 20 minutes through the snow to the Lord Elgin Hotel, where I awaited the airport shuttle.

Now, you must understand that Ottawa is gripped with a transit strike, on top of a crap load of unexpected snow. So the streets are packed with atypical drivers and taxis are nowhere to be seen. Miraculously, an airport limo drives by and asks me if I'd like a ride. (These limos usually cannot pick up fares; they only deliver from the airport). I jumped at it.

Miraculously, in what is usually a 20 minute drive, we made it to the airport in just over an hour. The airport shuttle was nowhere to be seen, mind you. (I was later told that it is running three hours late.) I rushed to the Porter check out counter with two hours to spare before my 7pm flight.... and those lovely Porter people told me that if I wanted to leave for Toronto right away they would waive the change fee yet again!

So within three hours of getting that emergency phone call from Porter, they had me snug and safe in Toronto. Right now, the predicted snowstorm rages outside my window, and I'm sure the airports are shut down for the day. Hats off to you, Porter!

One of the side effects of living in Ottawa, land of much cold and crappy public transit, is that now that I'm in Toronto, I don't think twice about trudging through a blizzard to take the subway downtown. My parents are horrified that I would venture forth in this weather, but they clearly do not appreciate the relative luxury of an underground subway system!

In Other News...

Darth Vadum sends us the following corporate logos, altered to reflect today's changing economic climate:







Next, here's a fun game for the whole family! See if you can hit George W. Bush with a shoe!

Lastly, as reproduced from my Facebook note, here's some sad news (it's an Internet meme, so don't be congratulating me on my cleverness... though I am pretty clever):

Please join me in remembering a great icon of the entertainment community. The Pillsbury Doughboy died yesterday of a yeast infection and trauma complications from repeated pokes in the belly. He was 71.

Doughboy was buried in a lightly greased coffin. Dozens of celebrities turned out to pay their respects, including Mrs. Butterworth, Hungry Jack, the California Raisins, Betty Crocker, the Hostess Twinkies, and Captain Crunch. The grave site was piled high with flours.

Aunt Jemima delivered the eulogy and lovingly described Doughboy as a man who never knew how much he was kneaded. Doughboy rose quickly in show business, but his later life was filled with turnovers. He was not considered a very smart cookie, wasting much of his dough on half-baked schemes. Despite being a little flaky at times, he still was a crusty old man and was considered a positive roll model for millions.

Doughboy is survived by his wife Play Dough, three children: John Dough, Jane Dough and Dosey Dough, plus they had one in the oven. He is also survived by his elderly father, Pop Tart.

The funeral was held at 3:50 for about 20 minutes.

Off to the weekend!

Links 'R' Us

From D.L.'s Facebook page, here are "6 insane discoveries that science can't explain". Forget that it comes from Cracked magazine. The examples are pretty interesting. They left out some gems, though, like the Piri Reis map, made famous by Gavin Menzies, and the mysterious Yonaguni underwater relics, which you can see in this video:



Also from Cracked, here are the 7 dumbest things done by airport security.

Next up, care for a brief primer on a particular aspect of one of my favourite historical eras, the Great Game? About.com has a nice summary of the British army's experiences in Afghanistan during this period.

Dig this, various ex-girlfriends! Apparently, snorers burn more calories! Ha! Reminds me of this blog post.

And for no reason:

What? Work?

I've got so many things I want to blog about --the ascension of Michael Ignatieff to the leadership of Canada's Liberal Party, the possibility of military intervention in Zimbabwe, the misuse of the word "sarcasm" on dating profiles-- that the possibilities are endless!

But, see, I gave away my TV to my mother last week and I suddenly find myself unable to properly procrastinate tonight. Gasp! I feel like working! So that's what I'm going to do.

In the mean time, I want to alert you to four things. First, is this ridiculous CBC "show" called "Being Erica", which masquerades as a video blog. Man, I hate stuff like that.

Second is this video from The Other Ray of a 67 year old dude demonstrating a work-out regimen that would make you and I vomit and pass out. He's my new hero:



Third, from EK Hornbeck comes an expose about the prevalence of fake university degrees.
Um...uh.... no comment.

Finally, I leave you with a video of a lecture I attended two years ago by Nobel laureate Amartya Sen... just to prove I'm not all about just old man work-outs and dead pin-up models. To access the video, click here.

If Bettie Page Had Lived...

...Today, she'd be doing duets with... Oh never mind. RIP, Bettie. You made my world just a little bit better.


In other news...

From DL's Facebook page, here's a list of some of the weirdest animals on Earth. The goblin shark is particularly, um, problematic.

Here's a report on how George Bush, in his final days in office, is working extra hard to make sure we're all fucked. These seem relevant:




Lastly, today's Daily Perv Link is all about chickens. And you know what they call a male chicken, right?

The Goddamn Batman

I don't know why. It just seemed appropriate.

First up today: check out Barack Obama's random act of kindness. The man continues to impress.

From EK Hornbeck comes two interesting links. First up, our old friend Russel Smith tells us about outsourcing to India for.... grammar and writing services. Not too surprising, for a variety of reasons.

Next up, as EK puts it, "So much for the 11th commandmant -- 'thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow conservative...'" as he points us to this Washington Times article blaming Harper for Canada's recent governmental crisis. If you don't know, the Washington Times is a very right wing paper owned by the Moonies. Weird but true. Some key quotes from the editorial:

"Mr. Harper is now attempting to deflect blame for a crisis that he created..."

"If his government does not have the votes to carry out its initiatives, he should face the music in the House of Commons..."

"Mr. Harper's decision to reopen old wounds in Canada's already-fractured political landscape bespeaks an appalling lack of tact."

Some more EK Hornbeck bits... (the man has been busy). First, news from Italy that Berlusconi plans to "regulate the Internet". Aieeee! Regulation is bad enough. Regulation by an Italian president? Aieee!

Apparently Barack Obama's African grandfather was tortured by British soldiers for his supposed association with the Mau Mau. One hopes that this familial history will give the incoming President a saner view of the complexities of guilt-by-association in the developing world context, and of the horrors of torture in particular.

Lastly, EK sends us this laughable little bit about the UK Foreign Office putting on a show about "human rights". What they need is a visit from the Goddamn Batman.

Now, everyone has been sending me this article about the decline of the male animal. Yes, it's true. Epidemiologically, there's been an observation that biological "maleness" has been on the decline for some years now. It probably has to do with environmental contamination, too many hormones in our food, overuse of phytoestrogenic soy products and overuse of the female contraceptive pill, which releases female hormones into the water supply. And you wonder why I'm obsessed with my muscle mass? Muscle counteracts, to some extent, the environmental estrogenic effects.

And finally.... screw the Goddamn Batman. This is a real hero.

Morning of Blogs

8:AM and migraine free! In my neverending quest to delay going to the gym, I'm doing an early morning blog post today. I'm still catching up on my hundreds of emails that accrued while I was away, so if I owe you a reply, keep your panties on. I'll get to you.

Here are some random links that showed up while I was in Guyana...

A link on how to write a good resume.

Check it out: India landed a probe on the moon! Curry's on me!

Check out this enormous private library.

Good news: a civilian successfully sues his former employer for unlawfully firing him due to his blog posts. Bad news: it was in Sweden.

Lastly, here's a photo of Deonandia favourite, Eric Margolis, in his Halloween costume this year:


The Other Ray sends us this Dr Who related comic. Similarly, Sean M. sends us this link of the Top 10 Dr. Who Episodes of all time. Poignant now that David Tenant has decided to step down as The Doctor :-(

Lastly, Darth Vadum sends us this real radio commercial from a few years ago:



Reminds me of one in Toronto, the content of which was: "Do it Greek style at Christina's!" It was an add for a Greek restaurant, not the ...um... other thing.

That is all. Off to the gym. Maybe.

Filler Fest

The way I blog is that I typically have 3 or 4 topics chosen days in advance, with links and arguments also saved. The problem with this method is that it assumes I'll be in the correct mood to chart out a cogent argument when the time comes to attack a particular pre-assigned topic.

Well, today I'm not. So instead you get another "filler" link fest!

1. From Manoj comes this great video of an animal confrontation on the African savannah. If you watch it, make sure you watch the WHOLE thing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU8DDYz68kM

2. From Linda GF comes this mildly amusing (hilarious to academics) video of an unusual conference presentation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yL_-1d9OSdk

(The associated PDF is here.)

3. Ed Wong sends us info about the Bloggies, the annual blogging awards. Know of anyone you'd like to nominate?

4. Cousin Ajay sends us this very important site celebrating ...um... male mammaries:

http://manboobs.co.uk/

5. EK Hornbeck sends us this discussion that explores the needs of public health versus the civil libertarian mindset:

http://www.reason.com/news/show/119236.html

6. EK also sends us Jackie Mason's take on exercice:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBD0AfwNoQA

7. Here's a note to Rogers customer service and marketing: I'm already a customer, but a good way to lose me as a customer is to phone me every week to try and sell me new products. So stop it already!

8. Today's Daily Perv Links (TM) are here and here. This is where I remind everyone that I am not advocating these acts, merely keeping track of them for largely epidemiological purposes. Please consult the disclaimer.

9. Lastly, here's an animated GIF I stole off of someone's MySpace page. It looks sooo familiar. Can someone tell me what it's from?

A Fractured What?!

(Note: Before reading this post, please consult the very serious Deonandan.com disclaimer.)

OK, scroll down to where they talk about me, but don't laugh.

The return of an old favourite: our daily perv link!

Here is an article on the various injuries one can acquire while doin' the nasty. For a long time, I've had a mortal fear of getting a "fractured penis". Oh, this is real, my droogies. Just look at this... or don't.

As has long been anecdotally suspected, the statistics now show that, at least in Australia, women are punished more leniently for paedophilic crimes than are men. Hmmm.

Thanks to Rondi for this video of female Arab psychologist Wafa Sultan givin' it to 'em on Al-Jazeera television. What's amazing to me about this clip isn't so much the content of Sultan's words or the responses of her detractors, but rather the fact that on a cable news show a guest was allowed to speak for many minutes on end without an annoying big-haired host interjecting with some inane comment. Makes me want to subscribe to Al-Jazeera!

As I've already reported here, courtesy of Darth Vadum's on-the-spot journalism, proto-nazi Ann Coulter has taken to publicly using the offensive term "raghead" in her various appearances around the US. As one commenter on the right-wing Western Standard Blog put it:

"Ah, dear Ann Coulter. She reminds me of an aging porn star who, as her beauty fades, must resort to increasingly depraved sexual acts in order to turn a buck. Ann is at the stage where she's doing beastiality [sic]."

What is amazing about all this isn't that Coulter is predictably a publicity whore and clearly a racist in the old-fashioned knuckle-dragging "me hate you because you look strange" mold, but rather that the blogosphere has erupted with comments coming to her defence! Most common are the type typified by another commenter on the Western Standard Blog:

"During WW2 we called the enemy Krauts and Japs and Nips etc etc...Big deal"

That's right. It is now okay to openly defend the usage of racial slurs. If we do otherwise, the terrorists will have won. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, since it's also de rigeur to openly advocate for the legality and morality of torture. How did we get here? My God, how did we get here?

This reminds me of one of Charley Reese's best observations: that during wartime, to dehumanize the enemy is to prolong the war; in order to negotiate for peace, it is necessary to see your opponent as desiring of peace, and for him to see you as trustworthy, not driven by primal hatred. It is not so far-fetched, then, to suggest that the neocons' thirst for war-without-end (in the finest Orwellian tradition) is a factor behind the increasingly common incidents of high-profile Conservatives resorting to racist and dehumanizing epithets for their nominal "enemy". It is thus not surprising to see shadow-born bigots now emboldened to take their stupidity and hatred into the light, like this fool.

We in Canada are buffered against much of this nonsense by our comparative lack of modern racial tension. But we are a bunch of hypocrites in many ways, not the least of which being our stance on the American actions in Iraq and Afghanistan. Want to see what I mean? Hold your nose and go here: www.canadianally.com

The site is real. It is registered to the military attache resident in the Canadian embassy in Washington, DC.

While the Canadian public has repeatedly stated its opposition to being a part of the US's so-called "Global War On Terror", and while our governments have supposedly acquiesced to this desire, we are nonetheless marketing to the USA that we are in-step with their war plans. As proudly mentioned on the site, Canadians are responsible for "5,000 tactical airlift, patrol and (ship-based) helicopter sorties" in the Persian Gulf region since 2001; I wonder what operations and theatre hose sorties were involved in, hmmm? Cough-Iraq-cough.