It was a day very, very much like this day in Vancouver — hot, sunny — except it was in Winnipeg, and therefore much [...]]]> Can you remember what you were doing forty years ago? I can remember what I was doing exactly forty years ago. (Full disclosure: I usually can’t remember what I did last week.)

It was a day very, very much like this day in Vancouver — hot, sunny — except it was in Winnipeg, and therefore much hotter (and sunnier (and, it must be noted, mosquitoier)). And right around now I was exiting the Polo Park Cinerama theatre, having just had my 13-year-old mind blown by 2001: A Space Odyssey, a book I’d just read but was no closer to understanding after seeing Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece of formalist freakouterry.

I was rushing home from 2001 on that day-after-my-Mom’s-birthday so many years ago, so that I could watch the moon landing on television. I loved all things space, and from that point until my second year in the University of Calgary’s astrophysics program, I wanted to work for NASA, I wanted to fly to space and I wanted to be a part of the first space colony.

I still want that last part, if for no other reason than it will now be possible to live and work in an environment in which all the mythologies of the millennia have been reduced to mere history, intellectual curiosities. I wonder if it’ll even happen within my lifetime? I can’t see Halliburton getting involved in anything so beneficial-to-science or unencumbered-by-greed, so prolly not.

Anyway, my parents couldn’t have pried my eyes from our television set that night, so they kinda gave up and let me stay up until well past 1AM to watch the moon walk itself. Are there any comparable events today which brings a family together around the television, filled with hope and fear and excitement, as much as did that event? I think: no.

Patrick Farley on America’s Same-Sex Marriage Debate

More evolved societies — the ones which considered the pink arguments somewhere between “wrong” and “ludicrous” before granting full marriage equality to gays and lesbians — must look at the U.S. flavour of this debate as [...]]]> Webcomic artist Patrick Farley nails the American same-sex marriage debate in graphical form:

Patrick Farley on America’s Same-Sex Marriage Debate

More evolved societies — the ones which considered the pink arguments somewhere between “wrong” and “ludicrous” before granting full marriage equality to gays and lesbians — must look at the U.S. flavour of this debate as a cringing reminder of our own foot-dragging on an issue steeped in ignorance and outright lies.

(Via BoingBoing)

Video: Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus Trailer

(via Towleroad)

Springtime in Toronto is always… interesting when it comes to our roadways. No city is immune to potholes but every year, Toronto’s potholes are increasingly epidemic. Here’s why you had to laugh: City Councillor Karen Stintz has proposed corporate-sponsored road repair in the city:

“People realize and they know that the potholes are [...]]]> You had to laugh.

Springtime in Toronto is always… interesting when it comes to our roadways. No city is immune to potholes but every year, Toronto’s potholes are increasingly epidemic. Here’s why you had to laugh: City Councillor Karen Stintz has proposed corporate-sponsored road repair in the city:

“People realize and they know that the potholes are bad and the roads need to be fixed and we do have budget problems,” the Eglinton-Lawrence rep admitted. “So if we can be creative around how we solve it, it’s better for the citizens, it’s better for the streets and it’s better for City Hall.”

But the Mayor is (rightly) skeptical:

“I wouldn’t want the city to be dependant on a boon year in auto sales, therefore your roads get fixed,” [Mayor David] Miller said. “You need to repair the roads properly, it’s something that should be paid for through the property tax system.”

A couple of weeks earlier, CITYnews covered the pothole situation in Toronto with a quote from dreamboat Councillor Glenn Debaeremaeker:

“You can be on a road with no potholes Monday and Wednesday there’s a pothole.”

Indeed. But CITYnews explains away the pothole situation in a manner not unlike the way we often hear summer=hot explained (“the Earth’s position causes warmer temperatures because it’s closest to the Sun during summer”):

Potholes are a reality for an aging city infrastructure that contends annually with wild fluctuations in temperature which force concrete to expand and contract as water enters the cracks and seasons shift.

Which is to say… yeah, but… no. (The Earth’s tilt causes warmer temperatures in summertime, by the way; it’s as far from the sun during the summer as it is in winter).

The large fluctuation in temperatures is problematic for Toronto, and does deteriorate concrete and asphalt through water freezing and thawing and then the cracks and the potholes and the frustration.

And it’s frustration not just for motorists concerned about the assault on their suspensions. Cyclists are rightfully enraged by the increased danger caused by swerving to avoid potholes. And pedestrians in downtown Toronto are well acquainted with rainwater collected in the potholes and projected toward the sidewalks by typically-conscientious downtown motorists.

But I hafta tell you… that Civil Engineering degree doesn’t hang above my toilet for spending four years in art college, and Toronto doesn’t have a really shitty pothole situation because of our freeze-thaw cycling; Toronto has a really shitty pothole situation because the repairs are not made properly. I’ve actually observed several road-repair crews in action in the downtown core.

And this is what I saw:

1. Road-repair crews in Toronto use shockingly substandard asphalt. Asphalt is a concrete-like mixture of gravel, sand and viscous, bitumen (think: tar) and its quality and longevity depends very much on the proper proportion of each, combined under heat to make the bitumen flow better. There are cheats, of course, such as using solvents to avoid the heating of the mixture.
   If you guessed that cheats are used in Toronto, you’re on the right track, but it’s not just cheating. No, the asphalt used in much of the repairs to Toronto’s roads barely has enough bitumen to hold the gravel together, too. Predictably, it starts to spall within hours of application.



2. The asphalt is applied by crews without proper equipment or training. On the two most recent occasions I’ve witnessed pothole repairs, the crew consisted of two workers, shoveling shitty “asphalt” from the back of a pick-up truck, stepping on it, then tamping it down with the back of their spades. Use a roller to smooth it over? As. IF.
   Making matters worse is that not enough asphalt is used to even fill in the holes completely. Within hours, the edges of the repairs are pressed back down into the potholes.
3. If the pothole repairs are supervised and/or inspected after the repairwork, someone needs to lose their supervisor and/or inspector jobs. I’ve never seen supervision or inspection.

If Toronto can’t afford road repairs to the extent that we need corporate sponsorship, maybe we should think about doing the repairwork properly the first time around. So, please, CITYnews, stop with the bullshit explaining-away of our crappy road situation with that specious nonsense about freeze-thaw cycles. Because… yeah. BUT NO.

ADDENDUM: Then and Now…

Hey, remember this repairwork, reported here in early 2008?

Well, a month after I posted that photo, the asphalt was repaired. A year later? This:

One Year Later (click to enlarge)

Oy. And vey.

Michael Geist writes often (and relentlessly) about the absurdity [...]]]> Bill C-61 is an absurd new law, touted as “made in Canada” but crafted by greedy American corporations and brought to the table by Canadian legislator — uninformed fools who, for want of a better expression, don’t know shit about fuck (that would be Stephen Harper’s Conservatives).

Michael Geist writes often (and relentlessly) about the absurdity of this proposed law and I’ve mentioned it here, too. To refresh: digital format-shifting — i.e. ripping a CD or DVD which you purchased to your iTunes and then to your iPod and then merely backing up those files to a DVD — will be an offense, as will keeping an episode of Fringe on your DVR beyond a “reasonable” length of time. Want to go back and watch the premiere? Tough; it’s not yours to keep. But the wrongness and FAIL doesn’t end there.

Your absolute best resource is Michael Geist’s site, but this recent film will, in 11 minutes and 20 seconds, explain succinctly Bill C-61′s affront to creativity, culture and, well, common sense. The majority of Canadians will become criminals under the proposed law, and while you may whinge that there’s no way in hell they could possibly enforce such a law, the potential for selective enforcement looms large.

And we know how that “selective enforcement” thing usually goes (*cough*bible*cough*)… Check it out:

Video: C-61

(via Doctorow at BoingBoing).

CRESAPTOWN, Md.  —  You’ve heard of kosher salt? Now there’s a Christian variety.

Retired barber Joe Godlewski of Cresaptown, Md., says he got tired of hearing television chefs recommend kosher salt, so he did something about [...]]]> File under: The Unending Capacity of American Christianists to Trivialize Their Own Faith and, Not Uncoincidentally, Look Like Totally Retarded Idiots:

CRESAPTOWN, Md.  —  You’ve heard of kosher salt? Now there’s a Christian variety.

Retired barber Joe Godlewski of Cresaptown, Md., says he got tired of hearing television chefs recommend kosher salt, so he did something about it.

By next week, his trademarked Blessed Christians Salt will be available from Memphis, Tenn.-based Ingredients Corporation of America.

The company says it is sea salt that’s been blessed by an Episcopal priest.

Technically, all salt is kosher since it’s a naturally occurring mineral. And kosher salt is named for the way it is used, not its religious affiliation.

But that’s immaterial to Godlewski. He plans an entire line of Christian foods if the salt takes off, with an undisclosed share of the proceeds earmarked for Christian charities.

Now, you can be forgiven if you were not aware that kosher salt is called “kosher” not because it conforms to proscriptions in the Torah but because its purity and coarseness aid in making meats conform to those proscriptions. If I hadn’t dated a passel of hot, Jewish men, I probably wouldn’t know this fact. On the other hand, if I’d had the brilliant idea to market an alternative to the kosher variety of a common mineral, you’d better fucking believe I’d do a bit of research and not make a damned fool out of myself.

Then again, there’s a certain class of American Christianist who’s so oblivious to the damned foolishness of the way they shoehorn the most ridiculous concepts into their understanding of their “faith”. I shudder to think that the salt might find its way onto the surface of communion wafers: “Take, eat, for this is my lightly-salted body.”

And, for the record… Will the Godlewski-created “Christian Salt” actually cause the television chefs of whom he is so tired to stop using kosher salt? The unending, unbridled dumbfuckery of this “inventor” is the week’s biggest chuckle.

Also? Godlewski. Heh. Salt of the mirth, that guy.

And the very next year, in 2019, courtesy Microsoft:

I’m not sure which one I like better.

Gay Comics #22, Winter 1944

I mean, the physics of the whole scenario is wack. There’s NO WAY that cake’s icing would fly up like that!

Via Blamblog comes a little gadget that BStewart will pee his pants over… The Atheist Bus Sign Generator

(sign generated by DeadRobot)

(For the record, I totally did pee my pants.)

See also: this and this and this.

ADDENDUM:

(inspired by Rick)

Reminder: People, it’s National Condom Week. Use ‘em, y’all.

(Image courtesy Joe.My.God.)

ADDENDUM: Before someone else points it out, no, das pope doesn’t really wear snazzy, red Prada shoes. He wears Jesus.

Your Host as Homo erectus, from “Devolve Me”, Courtesy Open University

Happy 200th, Mr. Darwin.