Grokster vs. Hollywood starts soon

Just wanted to bring back an earlier post. It seems that I've been right in my thinking that file sharing actually can help the RIAA in its sales! Those stupid bastards are still going to try and get things shut down. Wonder if it's possible to find odds one who will win the case? Oh, and here's a link that proves my point. Gah!!!

A New Creed

A New Creed

We are not alone,
we live in God's world.

We believe in God:
who has created and is creating,
who has come in Jesus, the Word made Flesh,
to reconcile and make new,
who works in us and others by the Spirit.

We trust in God.

We are called by the Church
to celebrate God's presence,
to live with respect in Creation,
to love and serve others, to seek justice and resist evil,
to Proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen, our Judge and our Hope.

In life, in death, in life beyond death, God is with us.

We are not Alone.

Thanks be to God.

US Sells F-16s to Pakistan

Now this has really got me wondering. There must be something behind this to all of a sudden encourage the government to allow this sale to Pakistan. Are they trying to destabilise the region? Pakistan and India have gone to war before, and this is obviously going to piss off India... also, this is a big boost for Lockheed Martin, a major weapons manufacturer in the US.

Lockheed Martin designed and builds the F-22... they're not exactly hurting for cash, but they were talking of shutting down the plant that manufactures the F-16. They also won the competition to build the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF / F-35). But corporations never do stop hungering for that next deal, do they? So, perhaps this is just about money... This deal is giving me a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach, and I'm not sure why.

Just looking at it... the Indian Air Force flies all Russian and European-built aircraft. Now, the Americans F-15s were recently beaten solidly by the Indian Air Force when the Americans didn't have AWACS to help them out... both countries have nuclear capability... maybe this is a way for them to start up something (bad) between the two countries. If India and Pakistan were to start warring again, I don't doubt that China would take more than a passing interest in it. That puts all three countries, which are the fastest growing economic segment of the world into a distracted position... especially if nuclear weapons become involved. F-16s are capable of dropping nuclear bombs. Pakistan wouldn't stand a chance against India's air force, I'll tell you that.... but a nuclear war is good for nobody. Though, it might make a US use of nuclear weapons a bit less taboo, wouldn't it?

from here:

India, however, insists that by selling F-16s to Pakistan, the United States was disturbing the current military balance in the Subcontinent.Washington has rejected the charge.

Maybe this is enough provocation for India to make a pre-emptive strike on Pakistan? They are still working on a fragile peace in the Kashmir region... I don't like it.

Lots of questions here... gonna have to do some more research.

Mac killed my Inner Child

An oldie, but a goodie... (link in title)

Molitor Gets Life for Killing Jessica Nethery

From the London Free Press:

Molitor -- convicted in the vicious stabbing death of ex-girlfriend Jessica Nethery -- yesterday apologized to her relatives, his own family and all of Sarnia before being sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 14 years.

Deducted from that are the three years he's already spent in custody, meaning he will become eligible in 2016.

That's a start, but I think he should never be allowed parole. Frankly, I hope he screws up in jail and has his parole chances revoked altogether. Feh. I'm trying to think how I, or Jessica's family could ever forgive this monster, but I can't right now. This boy is dangerous, and by 2016, I might have children of my own. I don't want them to have to live in fear of any murderers who have been released from prison. Prison isn't really a punishment for the offender, in actuality it's there to keep the rest of us safe from them and releasing him (and someone like Karla Homolka) is probably the worst thing we can do. Our justice system needs a lot of work to make sure these kind of sentences don't happen anymore.

Gore Vidal on the Demise of America as it was

Just finished reading an interesting interview with Gore Vidal (link in title), where he expands on why he thinks America is done for. It makes me want to get as far away as possible from that country. Like swimming away from a sinking ship... I fear that Canada might be taken down in the whirlpool when America completely self-destructs. I'm still afraid for this world, very, very afraid. But as one of America's presidents said, "There is nothing to fear, but fear itself."

GordNet Radio

The other night I was fiddling with Winamp, and wanted to be able to listen to the music that was playing on my computer on the main floor while I was in the basement, and happened upon a plugin for Winamp, which allowed me to retransmit whatever was playing in Winamp onto a network or the Web.

I tried it out on my network and had it up and running within 5 minutes... very impressive! So, later that night I tried slipping it through my router so that I might share what I'm listening to with whoever wants to hear it. Thus, GordNet Radio was born. It won't be a 24/7 stream (yet?), but whenever I'm on the computer (which is far too much of the time), I'll probably have it running (as long as it doesn't interfere with my other programs).

If you want to listen in, you can check the status here (if no page comes up the server isn't currently running) then you can play the stream in Winamp by going to Add -> Add URL and pasting

http://gord.is-a-geek.net:9000

into the bar and hitting add. I hope some of you at least give 'er a try... there's quite a variety of music on my computer these days, so there's bound to be something for everyone. Enjoy! :)

For those of us that remember Myst

This cake is for you.

I remember playing Myst years and years ago. Anyone else?

I know you're out there... I can hear you breathing

Does anyone even read this thing anymore? Seriously, I don't mind posting just to fill up Blogger's servers... but I'd really like it if people posted comments... don't be afraid, I don't bite! I know you're out there, d226-60-95.home.cgocable.net, Kitchener-HSE-ppp3565202.sympatico.ca, rcgate.vnet.wnec.edu, and others! I'd love to hear from you all! Comment! :)

Cheapness is in my blood

I bought an air conditioner and a futon today. The air conditioner cost $200 (which is a sweet deal), and the futon cost $225 (another good deal - it has a really good burgundy matress that would probably cost $300 on its own). So, $425 later I'm feeling a little nauseous. Interestingly enough, when I spent a fortune at Aviation World, and getting my pictures framed I had a headache for a few *days... coincidence? Probably... but still!



*three days, actually... but it actually started the day before I went to Aviation World

Neat Link

I was doing a search for stuff on the Avro Arrow and happened upon this dude's site. He makes stained glass airplanes (three dimensional, even!) that look just like the real thing. I'm very tempted to purchase an airplane or two!

Picture Time (Part 3)

This is a layout of the apartment I'll be moving to (it's definitely not to scale). Going clockwise from the top left, the rooms are to be: my office, bathroom, kitchen/dining area, living room, and bedroom.
I'm pretty set on the colours for the living room (the "I'd Rather Be Flying" print will be there) and kitchen (the kitchen is already painted), but I don't know where to go with the bedroom and office. Any suggestions would be welcomed! :)

Picture Time (Part 2)

A print for my office "Avro CF-105 Arrow" - This one will be framed with a white black undermat, and white overmat with a black metal frame. I'll be sure to post pictures of both once I get them back from being framed!

Picture Time! (Part 1)

So, the other day I was on my way home from Kingston, and stopped at Aviation World in Toronto to pick up a book, and maybe a couple of pictures for my new apartment (moving May 1, by the way!). This first one is called "I'd Rather Be Flying" by Tom Blackwell.

Bush's Foreign Friends

Go to Google and type in "bush's foreign friends", then click "I'm Feeling Lucky"

400 World Trade Centres

This week is the second anniversary of the United States' "unprovoked invasion of Iraq", and well over 100,000 people have been killed for... democracy? oil? freedom?

Here's an article that summarises what people over there are thinking. Things do not look good.

Every day it's more difficult for me to believe that good will come of this "liberation."

Canada's Most Popular Blog

(Link in Title, as usual) I heard about this on CBC today on my way home from Kingston... talk radio can find you some pretty interesting stuff!

"One ring to rule them all..."

Found this one on /. . Lord of the Rings: The Musical is coming to Toronto! I'm officially the king of the nerds for caring! =)

It is not democracy that's on the march in the Middle East

What the US campaign [in the Middle East] is clearly not about is the promotion of democracy in either Lebanon or Syria, where the most plausible alternative to the Assad regime are radical Islamists. In a pronouncement which defies satire, Bush insisted on Tuesday that Syria must withdraw from Lebanon before elections due in May "for those elections to be free and fair". Why the same point does not apply to elections held in occupied Iraq - where the US has 140,000 troops patrolling the streets, compared with 14,000 Syrian soldiers in the Lebanon mountains - or in occupied Palestine, for that matter, is unexplained. And why a UN resolution calling for Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon has to be complied with immediately, while those demanding an Israeli pullout from Palestinian and Syrian territory can be safely ignored for 38 years, is apparently unworthy of comment.

Linkage

I always wondered what was up with that sixth toe...

(Link in Title) *Sniff* Makes me proud to be a Sarnian... and can you believe that they're delaying shutting down the OPG Coal plant in Courtright? Way to go, "The Environmentally Conscious Liberals"...

None of Us Are Free

None of us are free if one of us is chained.

Llama, llama, duck

Strangest link of the day - The Llama Song

God is at work in our world...

I just read a beautiful, amazing story. God still moves among us. This is proof that He can work through any medium He wishes.

North Korea in Pictures

I just spent the last hour or so looking at some fascinating/frightening pictures of North Korea. I'm not really sure what made me want to look them up, but here they are, one album is more censored than the other, I think. What a strange, strange place. I imagine that North Korea is a lot like the Soviet Union before the end of the Cold War. Neither album shows the kind of suffering that the people of North Korea are going through while their leaders are essentially starving them all to death (from what I've read other places). Please pray for this country, and its people.

Freeloaders?

(Just a note to my American (at least one, that I know of) reader(s): When I rag on the US, it's not that I have anything against the average US citizen... it's your government, and in some cases specific institutions as is the case this time...)

"The influential Wall Street Journal published an angry editorial this week, saying Canadians are freeloaders who count on U.S. defence protection without giving anything in return."

Now, I have to tell you that I'm confused. Canada, the country that doesn't go around pissing people off, is a country of freeloaders? Wow, I must have missed something. I'm not one to say that we're on everyone's A-list, but really, which country in the world is ticked off enough with Canada to actually launch an attack on us? Let's do some thinking, shall we? Forgive me, I'm not an expert in foreign affairs, but I'll do the best I can here.

North Korea

North Korea doesn't like too many countries. Frankly, even their only real ally that they had left, China, is even starting to get a littile irritated with them because of the nuclear weapons flap that's going on right now. For the time being, I think their major target is our southerly neighbours, the USA, who have been absolutely unhelpful when it comes to the ongoing negotiations. North Korea is not going to be dragging their army across the Pacific Ocean anytime soon, nor are they going to be launching missiles at us.

Iran

Ok, so Iran. What exactly are they going to do militarily? Besides, Canada hasn't been flying drones over their country in preparations for not going to war with them. I think this is another case of "they've got bigger problems".

Libya

Yeah, right...

Terrorists

Well... we haven't been torturing any prisoners lately, and we haven't generally been poking our nose in other people's business either. Not that that really matters. We're not exactly the poster-boy of foreign policy, but I haven't seen bin Laden warning the "Canadian infidels". But, we're still at risk, nonetheless. The problem with terrorism, as Spain, Israel, or Ireland can tell you, is that there's not a whole lot you can do to stop it. You could take away everybody's rights and make them absolutely paranoid that the terrorists are out to get them, but that doesn't help. All you can do is try and address the problems that are making the "terrorists" want to kill you... trying to wipe them out just isn't going to work. People seem to have forgotten that Timothy McVeigh wasn't Islamic, he didn't have brown skin, and he didn't have a turban. Terrorists don't have any identifying characteristics, thus there is no way to find them all. And let's not forget it only takes one to do damage.

To conclude, if you can think of anyone who's threatening enough to Canada that we need protection by the US, I'd like to hear it, just so I can start writing to my politicians to increase the Canadian Forces' funding even more. (BTW - I'm glad to hear that the Canadian Forces are getting a budget increase... maybe they'll be able to repair and upgrade their equipment from its budget-starved state. Shame on our government for not doing this sooner.)

Best quote of today...

Caught this one over at Daily Kos, and I nearly fell off the couch when I read it.


"Bush, so incompetent, he can't even do the wrong things right."



The article I was reading was about how the US Secretary of State is "snubbing" Canada by delaying a scheduled meeting in April with the Canadian government. The perceived snub is apparently because of Canada's refusal to participate in the ridiculous Ballistic Missile Defense program. "If you're not going to do what we tell you, we're just not going to talk to you! So there!" Childish much?

This is the program that has been completely unsuccessful, and has only managed to even get the countermeasures off the ground in 5 out of 9 tests. The administration doesn't even realise that the system isn't going to do any good... I'm sure they remember Sept. 11, 2001 (seeing as they bring it up at every opportunity)? I don't think nuclear missiles are the problem they should be worrying about... perhaps foreign diplomacy? Or would that be too easy?

For a change, I'm actually proud of our government for not bowing down to an increasingly frightening administration south of the border.