E-Filler Archives

Are we getting jerked around by the producers of the Simpson's? Once again, after a long week, I was planning to sit down at 8PM and turn on my favorite yellow family. Lo-and-behold, it's not on. Not only is the season premiere in Novemeber, but half the time during the 'regular season' it's not on anyway!!! What's the deal here? Are all TV shows this spotty? I feel ripped off.

Wow, for an inside look at the situation in the Ukraine, go here.

First of all, the big news is that an exhibition CFL game will be played in Atlantic Canada in the spring of 2005. I think this is a first. No one knows where the game will be played, but my money's on Nova Scotia since I'm guessing this a way to feel out how strongly the region wants the next expansion team (which is planned to join the league in 2008). All we know right now is that Toronto will be pretending to be the home team.

Also, the Ti-Cats have a new logo. Consider: old logo; new logo. It's okay, I guess. The old logo has been around since I can remember.

Speaking of the Ti-Cats, I think I told Dan the other day that the Toronto Argonauts were the oldest sports team in North America or something. According to their website, they are indeed the oldest sports franchise in North America. They were founded as a rowing club in 1872 (which explains why they're called the Argonauts) and started playing football the next year.

However, according to the Ti-Cats' website, Hamilton started playing football in 1869, 4 years before the Argos. The problem is that they were the Tigers until they merged with another team (the Flying Wildcats) to form the Tiger-Cats in 1950. So I guess technically the Argos are the oldest team, but...you know.

Canada just signed a 5-Billion dollar deal for some new helicopters...I just hope we didn't buy them from England...

Today there is an article on Slashdot about a company who claims to have produced the first LED floodlight. LEDs are nothing new, but for years they produced only very low light levels. The two lights on the front of your PC (the green and red ones...and if you're really cool the blue one) are examples of LEDs. LED stands for Light Emitting Diode. They are extremely low power, low heat and rarely burn out.

So, what does this mean for the lightbulb industry? Since this new generation of lightbulb will never/rarely burn out, the market for these once disposable products is going to change forever. Lightbulbs are going to cost a fortune, and I'm predicting that you're going to see a used market for lightbulbs. How wierd is that?

Has this ever happened before? Many products have gone from permenant to disposable, but how many have gone the other way? Think of the hankerchief (I can't even spell it), now replaced by Kleenex. The disposable camera. Plastic bags have replaced the basket or cloth bag. The list goes on...

I read this interesting article on CNN, here. Coming from a comp-sci background, are the Microsoft claims again open-source software valid? Or is this just simply an attempt to force its way into emerging foreign markets? Any validity to conspiracy theorists who claim Microsoft can use the software to undermine a state's functions, or use it to pry into thier records?

I went to www.hmv.ca (who apparently is owned by Amazon.com) today to check out the price of two albums:
Weezer - Green Album - $17.99
Weezer - Maladroit - $17.99

I figured since I've enjoyed these two albums on the...uhhhh radio...enough over the last two years, I'd buy them. Well, they're each $17.99...a bit on the high side, but what else did I expect from the recording industry? Anyway, personal gripes aside, I was initally pleased to see that there was a "great buy" available on the website:

"Great Buy! Buy Together Today: CDN$ 35.98"

And I almost went for it...that was close. I wonder how many people failed to notice that the "great buy!" was simply the regular prices of both albums? Seems a little sneaky to me.

Wow, that didn't take long.

Already the Russians are working to defeat the US missle defense system. Way to go Bush! It's obvious what a huge success the missle defense program is going to be. (That last part was scarcasim.)

George W. Bush will make his first official visit to Canada on November 30. Bush has been to Canada twice as President: once for the G8 conference in Kananaskis in 2002, and once for the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in 2001. I'd be surprised if he's ever been in Canada outside of those two occasions. He's never made an official visit to Canada, however.

In 2003 there was talk of Bush coming up for an official visit to see Jean Chretien, but they never got their schedules co-ordinated. Well, either that or he just didn't like Chretien.

...and they will NOT let it go. Sure Paul McCallum missed the kick, but to blame the whole thing on one guy? Com'on...I'm particularly shocked by the words of the GM, Roy Shivers:

"It's fair to blame (McCallum)," Shivers was quoted in the Regina Leader-Post. "It's a team game, you're supposed to do your job. All I ask is for everybody to do their job. He didn't do his job today."

"There was nothing wrong with the snap, nothing wrong with the hold, I don't want to hear that," Shivers continued. "We had 39 other guys busting their ass off and we get let down."

The whole article can be found here.

Well, it had to happen. Wendey's 'Unofficial Spokesman' is officially unofficial. They finally canned this guy and his sorry commercials...maybe they'll replace him with the guy from the Canadian Tire ads. Ha Ha!

I think I have a new favorite website; Wikipedia. For those who don't know, Wikipedia is a free, Wiki based encyclopedia. The main idea behind the Wiki concept is that the readers of the page can update it and correct wrong information. Information that is incorrect will eventually be corrected by someone else. Anyway, the whole process seems to work pretty good, and I've found Wikipedia to be a useful source for information on almost every topic imaginable.

Gilles Duceppe says he doesn't eat babies for breakfast...but how do we know for sure? Can he be trusted?

Gilles Duceppe attempts to put rumors surrounding his diet to rest.

I thought I should post something in recognition of Remembrance Day:

In Flanders Fields
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

- John McCrae

Here is a link to the Random Slashdot Article Generator mentioned around the lunch table today (for those in attendance).

For those not fortunate enough to dine in the Grad Club (or even less fortunate and don't go to UWO) it was mentioned that there was a random Slashdot.org article generator website. If you don't read slashdot you might not find it amusing, but to those of us who do (or did), it should provide a chuckle or two. You see, the thing is the articles on slashdot follow a horribly boring pattern...if you read it long enough you'll see what I mean.

In case you needed another reason to dislike the Bloc, here it is: One of their MPs wouldn't give some Canadian veterans a new Canadian flag...WOW. Talk about disrespect. Whether the Bloc likes it or not, they're still part of Canada. How can members of the 'Canadian government' not support Canada or at least their Canadian constituents?!? The whole thing is mind boggling.

Anyway, it looks like they've caved in after all the bad press (I can't find the link now). Still, it shouldn't take bad publicity to do the right thing.

Phone conversation between horny girlfriend and "e-athlete". Yes, he really does use words like "roflcopter", "lolerskates" and "STFU".

I am going to be seriously upset if Paul Martin signs on to this missile defense non-sense that the US keeps making noise about. First off, the system is essentially useless. The technology isn't there yet, and the preliminary trials have been dismal.

Second, there is very little threat of being attacked by balistic missiles. What country is going to shoot at the US?? Anyone who does knows that their country will quickly become a large crater. There is literally 0 threat of a ballistic attack. I think a more realistic threat is the smuggling of small WMD devices into the US (especially through container ports, based on the media coverage they have been receiving lately).

Needless to say, if we (Canadians) allow ourselves to be bullied into joining this missile defence program, it will be a huge mistake and an incredible waste of money. We'll be building a system that doesn't work, and will never be used. (I guess the latter cancels out the first, but what a waste of $$$!!)

For those of you who don't know, Ken Jennings has been on a Jeopardy win streak since last season. I've posted about him before (check the archives). Anyway, today he set a new record for game show winnings, weighing in somewhere around $2,195,000. Wow.

Well my neighbors to the south, if you still don't know who to vote for, let me help:

VOTE FOR KERRY