Sharing is just a symptom of a bigger issue

One of the most amazingly accurate articles about what's wrong with the entertainment industry and why their war on piracy is not only useless, but completely missing the point. Excerpt:

"The seven step, ten minute download process (which will be about ten seconds when US internet speeds catch up with the rest of the world) is the real enemy the studios should be trying to tackle. Right now, the industry is still stuck in the past, and is crawling oh-so-slowly into the future. They still believe people are going to want to buy DVDs or Blu-rays in five years, and that a movie ticket is well worth $15. Netflix is the closest thing they have to an advocate, but the studios are trying to drive them out of business as they see them as a threat, not a solution. It’s mind boggling.

The primary problem movie studios have to realize is that everything they charge for is massively overpriced. The fact that movie ticket prices keep going up is astonishing. How can they possibly think charging $10-15 per ticket for a new feature is going to increase the amount of people coming to theatres rather than renting the movie later or downloading it online for free? Rather than lower prices, they double down, saying that gimmicks like 3D and IMAX are worth adding another $5 to your ticket."

Stones=No

Hard to take us seriously now.....

"We're gonna be in the Hudson"

Remember flight 1549? The one that ditched into the Hudson River in New York after a bird strike? Now there's a real time 3D re-enactment video of how that whole thing went down. All I can say is that pilot has some skills.

He was very much into a stall situation when he hit that water. What I didn't realize was that it seems they may have gotten one of the engines re-started just before they ditched, but it was too badly damaged to give them any power. One can only imagine how things would have been different if there was no river.

Batmoose

T-Rex trying....

I got a good chuckle over this site, hosting illustrations of T-Rex trying (but failing) to do everyday things with its short little arms.

So funny.

Best tribute to Oscar yet

OK, it's an indirect tribute, but what the heck.

As per usual with Jimmy Kimmel schtick, Matt Damon gets no respect.

Things I learned this week 26 Feb 2012

• Obama can sing.
• Federal scientists in Canada are not allowed to speak to reporters without the 'consent' of media relations officers in the Conservative government.
• Bridesmaids is a funny movie.
• Vic Toews doesn't even understand what's in his own bill (C-30).
• We can now watch replays of supernovas that happened centuries ago via their reflections in interstellar dust clouds.
• Freddie Mercury rushed to record the vocals to new songs right up until the day he died.
• If you format a couple dozen complete rows in Excel with fill colour (all the way to the right-most column), Excel will be so bogged down, it will refuse to do a lot of things - insert new rows among them.
• Diane Finley in conversation with the press admitted that while Canada could likely afford to sustain Old Age Security, said.... "there are other things we would like to spend our money on". (I think she meant 'our' money)
• The Tragically Hip got a street named after them in Kingston Ontario (where they're from).
• According to the Conservatives, when you release facts about a person from public documents, it's sleazy politics. But when you give false information to citizens so that they miss their chance to vote, that's just campaigning.
• Historically (500 years ago), people used to sleep, not 8 hours in a row, but in two 4 hour chunks, separated by a couple of hours of being awake.
• France has abolished the term Mademoiselle from all official documents because it suggests a woman is 'available'.

Suite deal

The City of Calgary is offering a Secondary Suite Grant Program.  It offers a grant of up to $25,000 to cover 70% of the costs of developing or upgrading a legal secondary suite. Participants must commit to having the suite available to rent for at least 5 years at no more than average market rent for secondary suites.

Even some new homes are being marketed in Calgary with pre-built, legal secondary suites. Two show homes in the community of Walden feature secondary suites, which add $50,000 to the cost of a typical new home. The new suites have separate entrances, individual furnaces and hot water heaters and laundry facilities, with dedicated parking for tenants.

The program started in 2009 and ends May 2012. Unfortunately, I don't think they did a very good job advertising it as I'm only hearing about it now, 3 months before it ends.

Before and after iPhone

On the left - before the iPhone. On the right - after the iPhone.

ACTA redux

What is ACTA, you ask? Read on - the White Noise redux:

Basically, the US entertainment industry convinced the US government that not only did America need tough copyright laws to save the industry, but the US needed to convince the rest of the world to adopt similar strict copyright laws. America knew that would be difficult, so they visited countries, held secret meetings and threatened trade sanctions if they didn't comply. These countries signed under duress. Except Canada. We signed willingly.

Then the leaders of many of those countries slowly started to realize that if they were seen by their citizens as supporting ACTA, they would be thrown out of office. So one by one, countries have been reconsidering and indicating that they will not agree to ACTA. To date: Bulgaria, The Netherlands, Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Slovakia, Cyprus, and Estonia. But not Canada.

Watch this space.....

[read the wikipedia article for detailed information here]

Hinterland who's who

Where we learn about the habitat of the Albertan silver-haired hose-head. A loving parody of both Bob & Doug and the ancient CBC vignette.

This is still one of my favourites of the Great White North II series that Bernie and I did 5 years ago.

My goodness. 5 years! It doesn't seem that long ago.

AA meeting....

God Bless America

This is a new film by Bobcat Goldthwait.

I may have some difficulty explaining why I am so looking forward to this movie.

Do you go right or left?

Turns out, the tie is his body

Espen Fadnes - human aircraft

I thought the jet sound was fake, but apparently, the sound you hear in this video from the camera on the ground is real. A guy flying by in a flying wing suit doing 250km/h (155mph) does in fact sound like a jet.

First (and last) take your cat to work day

Thanks to Carla for the tip.

My first Edward Gordon!

I have been wanting to own an Edward Gordon print for a long time. I have my eye on a glicée that I'd like to get someday, but much of his work is great.

I came home to an Edward Gordon today. Darlene found it on kijiji in Halifax and they shipped it here.

Yay!

Apologies for the reflection artifacts and linear distortion, but that's what happens when you're in a hurry and use a phone camera......

Sassy Siri

This is what the fearful society does

According to an FBI article, coffee shop owners, baristas and other customer service folks to be on the lookout for anyone using cash to pay for coffee and other small ticket items. This because people paying cash are typically trying to prevent a paper trail and might be terrorists.

I hope CSIS doesn't have the same philosophy, otherwise, I could be on a watch list. I use cash almost all the time.

I'll call it "The Cuppa - your single serve beverage dispensary"

As you probably know, I own a Keurig coffee maker. I have discovered what is the most annoying part of being a Keurig (and I'm guessing Tassimo too) owner. The buying of the cups (or in the case of the Tassimo - the discs).

What I mean is that you can buy boxes of the same flavour (12, 18, 24, 40 per box), but with the exception of a few lame combo-boxes, you can't buy a box of 12, 18, 24 or 40 of any combination of flavours you want. The Timothy's kiosk almost has it going on at Crossiron Mills mall, where they let you mix and match, but they only have Timothy's flavours, maybe a dozen varieties if you're lucky. Do you know how many varieties of coffee, tea and other hot beverages are made for the Keurig? Like freaking over 200! Check 'em out.


Well, I have a business idea. I'd like to operate a Keurig / Tassimo shop that not only sells the machines at decent prices, but I would have in stock every flavour that is made and offer to sell them in any mix and match combination you want. Of course, getting to choose your own flavours outright would cost a little more, but I think it's worth it.

As an added bonus, we would have samples for tasting. You want to see if that Cafe Escapes Chai Latte is any good? Let us make one for you - on the house. Buy one of our machines and we'll throw in 2 boxes of product for free. Buy 2 single flavour boxes, we'll give you a mix and match box for the same price.

But that's not all. I'm thinking that all of Darlene's amazing baking recipes would sell like hotcakes at this store. Pies, mini pies, cupcakes, muffins, cakes, cookies - all made from scratch and no preservatives. When you come into our store, all you'll smell is great hot beverages and the best baked goods you've ever tasted in your life.

Who's in?

Things I learned this week 19 Feb 2012

• The Ontario Catholic Teachers union thinks wi-fi in schools is unhealthy.
• According to Canada's public safety minister, if you're not in favour of internet service providers to give subscriber data to police and national security agencies without a warrant, you're "with the child pornographers".
• We seem to have passed the point where it is permissible to laugh at Olivia's cuteness. "Why are you laughing?"
• Four former B.C. attorneys general are calling for the legalization of marijuana.
• Holding a flag clenched between your bare buttocks and running as the Queen's motorcade drives past will cost you about $800.
• Apparently, we don't quite have enough Starbucks in Canada (referring to Target partnership with Starbucks in new store openings)
• An electric powered Smart car is coming to Canada later this year.
• Who put the ram in the rama lama ding dong.
• Why raccoon and panda bears have black eyes (thanks Ricky Gervais).

People watching

I love people watching. I love it for every reason anyone would like to watch other people. I like to watch their presence, their poise, their style, the way they interact with their surroundings - including other people.

This morning, I'm in line at a Tim's to get a quick caffeine / sugar fix, and I'm watching the people in line in front of me. The store is filled with young people, obviously on their way to the slopes based on the their outfits. I'm watching a woman, who is behind a girl not only sporting what some men would refer to as a body built for performance (take that as you will), but she has donned ski attire that leaves little to the imagination. It shows off every element of her physique. The woman behind cannot stop measuring this girl up and down with her eyes, not with appreciation, but with utter disdain and contempt. The look on her face and the rolling of the eyes say it all.

It was very entertaining.

Canadian government MPs don't like looking bad on TV

A Canadian Conservative MP doesn't want medium-wide camera shots in the broadcasts of Parliament on Friday afternoons. Fridays are when many MPs travel to their home ridings the camera angles used show a largely empty House of Commons. An MP chaired a committee to revise the rules and asked the CIO to change the camera shots, because it reflects badly on Parliament. The CIO said no.

Here's an idea - using the miracle of modern technology, they could put text overlays across the empty seats to explain where the MP is. Text overlays could read "On their way back to their riding", or "Having a late lunch with the entertainment industry", or "Tweeting funny posts to #TellVicEverything from the back of the limo".

Mini me's

That's just scary.

The sky is not falling at all

Much of what government sponsored entertainment industry subsidization, such as SOPA, PIPA, Bill C-11 and ACTA is based on, is the premise that the content creation industry is in dire straits thanks to things like the internet. Nothing could be further from the truth.

All of the following are trending up over the last few years:

• Worldwide box office
• Global TV & Film spending
• Feature films produced worldwide
• Book publishing revenues
• Book titles produced
• eBook revenues
• Global music industry value
• Music transactions
• Artists' share of US music revenue
• US Video game related companies
• Worldwide video game industry

Not just 'up'. 'Up with a bullet'. Check out the info-graphic here. Check out the full report here.

Cat breading

If you can think it - it is on the internet.

For example, cat breading.

No, it's not about preparing a cat to be consumed. Yeah, I knew you were thinkin' it......

Ooo Noo!

An oversimplified, but cute video about moving to cleaner energy.

What they think I do

In the spirit of the numerous "This is what society / my mom / my boss / my friends think I do versus what I really do" posters, I made this about my job.