E-Filler Archives

Until this weekend, I never really had to deal directly with mice. I was at my girlfriend's place and unfortunately for her, she has a few unwanted pets. So, I wandered over to the local hardware store to get some mouse traps. Pretty straight forward right? Well, as it turns out I've really been behind the times with my knowledge killing tools. The sheer quantity of different rodent removal products is mind-boggeling. Who thinks up horrible creations like "glue traps" and "electronic mouse traps" (this one even has a video!)? The instructions for this particular trap makes the live release optional ("if desired")...so they expect some people to throw away the trap filled with live mice?!?

Call me old fashioned, but I find killing a mouse with the old-style trap the most humane (as far as killing them is concerned).

I finally found a full length clip of the CNN reporter reporting on floods in a canoe. Seconds later, two men walk in front of the camera, showing she's floating in just a few inches of water.

The clip is prefixed with another report of how the Bush administration 'staged' an interview with some soldiers in Iraq...(the jury is still out on that one, so just ignore it).

Mirror #0 <-- Use this one
Mirror #1

To follow up on tonight's discussion (sorry for those who weren't there, but I'm sure you'll figure out what went down):

The Wikipedia moon landing article is not disputed.
The Holocaust article is not disputed.
The Mother Theresa article IS disputed.

And here is a link to an article discussing a possible change on the US' nuclear weapon use policy.

Last but not least, David Copperfield plans to knock up a girl without sex on stage...I don't know how reputable this source is.

For those not familiar with YTMND, you probably never will be: it doesn't make much sense. Nonetheless, we were talking about it over breakfast today. Here are some YTMNDs everyone should be familiar with (sound is necessary):

1. Picard
   
2. Paris Hilton doesn't change facial expressions
   
3. Another girl who doesn't change facial expressions
   
4. Peter Griffon lives
   
5. Brian Peppers sexual predator. If you don't know who Brian Peppers is, Snopes can help you out
   
6. not really a classic YTMND, but for some reason I can't get enough of What is love?
   

There was some disussion of what a Gael is, as the Mustangs were playing the Golden Gaels today. Dan didn't believe me that "Gael" could be short for "Gaelic".

Gael
Function: noun
1 : a Gaelic-speaking person
2 : a person whose ancestors spoke Gaelic

Take that, Dan.

As many of you know, I'm a big fan of PhD Comics. Somedays it's like looking into a mirror. But one thing I'm not a big fan of is the feature 'Cecilia's Blog'. Cecilia is one of the characters in the comic...she's not real...and she has a 'Blog' on the PhD Comic's website...and it's not funny. I don't understand why they even bother with it? Could someone please explain this to me?

Before I would just ignore it, but it has now spread to the RSS feed...*sigh*

For those of you who missed it, there was an article in the UWO Gazette yesterday on the short history of the Alex P. Keaton (the bar, not the character). It's available here. For those who don't know, the APK is a pub on Talbot St. that we occassionally visit, and will also play the home of 'Beef Terminal' this weekend (Mike swears it's a band).

I got a phone call today from a lovely woman named Jennifer who works for the Government of Canada, so I thought it might be a good time to write something about it. I recommend listening to the phone call, though keep in mind I've edited it quite heavily (mainly for brevity).

Once upon a time (fall 2004, actually), about 1300 graduate students at UWO applied for an OGS scholarship, because they didn't have any money, and they wanted some. The Faculty of Graduate Studies saw all the applications and decided, in their infinite wisdom, that the best thing to do would be to make a webpage, available to the public at large, with the name and social insurance number of every applicant. And the webpage stayed up for some time before a couple of sharp cookies in the math department discovered the webpage and said "hmm...maybe putting SINs on a public webpage isn't such a great idea". So, they told FGS about it so that FGS could take down the page. In their infinite compassion, FGS decided the best way to help out the students they had screwed over would be to stop returning all calls.

So starts the headache. I filed a complaint with the police, then went downtown to bounce around government agencies a bit. Eventually I found myself talking to someone at the Investigations and Control office, who volunteered to start an investigation. Then today I got the phone call.

I should say, I've been pretty impressed by government workers. Everyone I've talked to has been quite sympathetic and helpful. And then listening to the voicemail today, the line "apparently you can find a lot of things on the web" cracked me up.

At last week's pub night (shameless plug), Doug won a drinking bird. This is a drinking bird I've had for at least 10 years collecting dust (the novelty wears off after a few years), but never bothered to investigate how it might work. Enter Wikipedia.

The felt beak had broken off mine, so I glued it back on. Hopefully that doesn't affect the cooling of the head bulb too badly. The instructions given with it suggested that it was probably pretty complicated in its operation, but I had no idea it would be as complicated as the article describes.

Andrew sent me this funny link today. I hadn't seen it before, but it might be old news...

And what do you suppose a dead body smells like? The hallway in my building has a horrible stench in it, and at the end of the hall where the smell is (not mine, thank goodness) there are newspapers piling up in front of one of the doors. Is it garbage or is it a corpse? Only time will tell...

Alberta is considering paying the first two years of undergrad. They must be really desparate to spend money if they're considering educating people.

*Warning: Ranting ahead*

The Simpsons has single handedly sent public support for nuclear power back 30 years. IANANP (I am not a nuclear physicist...in fact at this point in my life, I'm not much of anything at all) but this letter in today's Toronto Star is laughable (emphasis mine):

The Star accurately lays out many of the challenges to satisfying Ontario's energy needs, but falls victim to a myth promoted by the nuclear lobby — that nuclear power is emissions-free. In fact, carbon dioxide emissions produced by mining tonnes of ore and then purifying the traces of uranium within are similar to the emissions produced by burning fossil fuels to generate an equivalent amount of electricity. Coupled with nuclear reactors' proven track record for being unsafe, unduly expensive and unreliable, and with the fact that the radioactive wastes they produce will remain deadly for hundreds of thousands of years, one sees a strong argument against relying on nuclear plants in Ontario.

Please tell me this person is crazy? How could mining a few tons (if that?) of Uranium generate more greenhouse gases than burning thousands of tons of coal? (Again, IANAM but this seems a little over the top.) And the 'proven track record for being unsafe'? With hundreds of thousands of operating hours on record, we have 2 incidents to speak of. (Chernobyl, the worst, everyone cites it, and Three-mile-island, partial meltdown...1 suspected long-term fatality...see Wikipedia) Not to mention, these reactors are OLD. How does a car from the 60s compare to an '05 model? Exactly. Let's wake up Ontario...time to invest in a clean, safe and viable energy alternative.
/Rant

Since I announce all the other new Palm models on here, today should be no exception.

The Palm TX was released today; from the specs it looks like a pretty decent little unit. 128MB of internal memory (the older T5 has 256MB), Wifi (the first to have this), a 300+Mhz processor (the T5 has ~400Mhz), colour screen, and the other usual assortment of bells and whistles (like Bluetooth). No camera, which is probably not an issue for most people, and no cradle. This seems like the norm for Palm devices these days, although I must say, I find the cradle for my older Vx model to be really handy.

Finally, the price: $399CDN (+ tax ;)

Looks like a decent unit, but I'll reserve judgement for when I've seen a few reveiws... (*cough* iPod Nano *cough*)

I mentioned this briefly today at breakfast. From the Canadian Press: diver's suspension has been overturned.

Here's my understanding of the story in a nutshell:

• 2002: Arturo Miranda (31 years old, on the national diving team) fills in for some 13 year-old girl's regular coach for five days in Germany;
  
• 2004: Arturo (33) and girl (15) hook up during nationals in Calgary;
  
• 2004: despite the fact that "there was no dispute the sexual conduct was consensual", said girl "complains" about the incident to Diving Canada;
  
• 2005: Diving Canada suspends Arturo for 6 months. Arturo appeals the ruling;
  
• 2005: there were "procedural flaws" in the initial ruling, and the matter is turned over to the Sports Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada;
  
• a few days ago: Sports Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada rules that Arturo and girl did not have a coach/athlete relationship (due to him coaching her only for a few days, 2 years prior). Arturo's suspension is lifted, and Diving Canada has to pay his legal costs.
  

The ruling was pretty clear: since Miranda was not her coach, they're just two regular consenting people, and it's none of their business to censure it. Unless the older person is in a position of trust or authority, the age of consent is, of course, 14 in Canada.

Kind of makes me wish I went into diving.

I saw this over at www.ytmnd.com and thought I'd share:


I checked the page over at Guiness and it's since been changed.

Yesterday I saw a black Dodge Magnum with tinted Windows. I think that car would make a really cool herse.

There's been a lot of talk on here recently about sons having sex with their moms and keeping their bodies around for 20 years, or guys having anal sex with strange women in the dark who turn out to be men. For all our psychological health, I thought it might be a good change of pace to have some wholesome fun.

So, let me just say, kittens and bunnies are outstanding.

I'm sure we've all known people who could be considered a "Mama's Boy" to varying degrees...but hopefully you don't know anyone like this. He's truly raised the bar.