Icelandic knucklehead terrorizes Torontonians with "art"

Oh my, this is rich. Last Wednesday night OCAD Integrated Media student Thorarinn Ingi Jonsson staged a fake bomb attack at the Royal Ontario Museum. In attempt to "recontextualize" the bomb, he managed to tie up emergency services for several hours, scare the crap out of a lot of people, and best of all, thwart an AIDS fundraiser, costing organizers $100,000 in lost funding. Not only did this budding art dynamo forego consulting a calendar to see what exactly his 'piece' would be disrupting, when it came time to call-in the bomb to ROM staff, he didn't have any idea who to contact, so poked randomly at the Museum's automated telephone system until he got an answer. Jonsson's astounding lack of forethought—and common sense—goes some way in explaining why he is still unrepentant despite the collective disgust , and embarrassment, expressed by Torontonians.

Way to go OCAD. You've raised the bar once again.

Poppa Neutrino

"Poppa doesn’t work, pay rent, listen to doctors or kiss institutional butt. He prefers to invent his life as he goes along, whether he’s building a raft out of scraps and sailing the Atlantic, inventing a new football play or touring the world from Mexico to Russia with his band, the Flying Neutrinos. But don’t discount the intellect that Poppa uses to back up his wit and daring as leader of his tribe. That’s right, tribe. Family is what you call the Waltons. The collection of wives, children, step-children and believers who make up the Neutrinos defies categorization."

See for yourself.

Shanty Town Art Blogging

Dionisio Gonzalez:




More here.

Renewable Energy News of the Day

Google is getting into the renewable energy business. The capital markets aren't happy about it.

I like this idea as a new source of energy... but I haven't seen any numbers on the marginal cost of generation to be able to evaluate how cost effective it is.

The Lucky Winner Is...

I wonder if there will be a lottery to decide who get to do it.

Good Angles

I like that Jeff Harris stuff. He must also be commended on a most excellent website design.

And now some funny pics for the day:






More.

Everyday day day day day day day

Projects like this really satisfy the voyeur in me. Jeff Harris has taken a picture of himself—or had someone else take it—everyday for almost 9 years now. Without seeing the pictures you might think this narcissistic behaviour; but after wading through several months worth of images, it becomes obvious self-love is not the driving force behind this epic art project. What I find most interesting is the vast diversity in his day-to-day activities—or perhaps it's simply a keen ability to recognize, and document, those seemingly banal moments that in retrospect have great value.

He also has nice rubber boots.

FACE MELTERS

My homeboy DJ Bilbao has been cooking up some killer jamz over here. You can thank me later.

Wee small little peoples

Admittedly, I know nothing about the person that creates these miniatures. His/her name is—according to the blogger profile—Slinkachu, and he/she is from London. PEEP IT!

Efficiency vs. Consumption

Apparently, increasing energy efficiency doesn't lead to net energy savings because consumers use those savings to increase their consumption. So I guess it is a better idea to raise consumption costs through some carbon tax-like program rather than mandate efficiency.

The Annapolis Conference

It seems a little absurd to me that anyone thinks a middle east peace conference dealing with the Israel-Palestine question could be sucessful without addressing the fact that Hamas is still in control of Gaza. Any agreement, or framework for agreement, on a two-state solution simply could not be implemented in half of a prospective Palestinian state without Hamas onside. There seems to me to be three paths moving forward: (1) Political acceptance and engagement of Hamas by Fatah, Israel and the Western powers; (2) Palestinian civil war until either Hamas or Fatah ultimately prevail; (3) Continuing the status quo of Israeli disengagement and retreat behind the seperation wall. I would like to see #1 happen, but I'm almost certain #3 will happen for the forseeable future.

Antonio Lamer

In honour of the passing of former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Antonio Lamer, a link to what he has been quoted as saying was the most important decision issued during his tenure: Reference re Sucession of Quebec. I've seen current Chief Justice Beverly McLachlin speak before, and she has said the same thing. The decision was authored by "The Court", as opposed to crediting a single author as a symbol of the unanimity of the court and the significance of the decision. The case discusses the structure of the Constitution and the jurisprudential basis of informing constitutional analysis with unwritten underlying constitutional values and principles (in contrast with the textualism/originalism doctrine applied by some US Supreme Court justices such as Antonin Scalia). The decision attempts to answer the question of whether our constitutional system contemplates the unilateral sucession of Quebec by the National Assembly. The Court found that a clear majority vote on a clear question by the people of Quebec for sucession did not allow unilateral sucession, but gave rise to an obligation on the part of Government of Canada to negotiate in good faith with Quebec. This decision was the basis of Stephane Dion's Clarity Act. The first section of the decision deals with the constitutional authority of the federal Parliament to enact a provision in the Supreme Court Act that allows the Supreme Court to answer reference questions from Parliament (this was not a case per say, but a non-binding advisory opinion). This section is little dry and heavy on the application of doctrines of federalism and statutory interpretation. The part that answers the question on the sucession of Quebec starts at paragraph 32. Enjoy.

Perks

I'm so pampered.

Mega-Churches = Mega-Fun

Concentration of mega-churches in the US. Looks like southern California, Seattle, Dallas, Denver and Atlanta are winning.

Tsilhqot'in Shout-outs

Congrats to the Tsilhqot'in First Nations in the Chilcotin area between Bella Coola and Williams Lake for being the first aboriginal group in Canada to successfully claim aboriginal title rights. Aboriginal title is a Constitutional right (s. 35) to collective ownership of traditional lands. The test, from Delgamuukw v. British Columbia, is extremely onerous and requires proof of exclusive occupancy of the lands from the time of confederation - 1871 for BC. The hefty 473 page decision can be found here. It's an interesting read. It goes into some detail about the history of the group, first contact and subsequent relations between the Tsilhqot'in and early settlers, and the group's culture and relationship with the claimed land.

Shout-outs also to my future colleagues at BLG who acted for the Province.

Fun with Tasers

Another person murdered with a Taser yesterday, while in custody in Halifax.

And another summarily tortured with a Taser for speeding in Utah.

Smart Cities

Is it just coincidence that I have lived in two of the "smartest" cities in the world?:

Vancouver isn't just another pretty face.
In fact, the city has made the first cut as one of the world's smartest cities, in a selection by a New York-based think tank that focuses on economic development in the broadband economy.

Vancouver was named among the top 21 smartest cities of the world. In January it finds out if it has made the short list of the seven top cities, with the final winner for 2008 to be announced in May in New York.

Waterloo, Ont., won the top honours for 2007, and this year Fredericton and Edmonton join Vancouver among the Canadian cities eligible for the short list.

Probably not.

Fun with Carbon

This website is cool. It tracks and ranks carbon emissions from every power plant in the world, and shows the aggregate emissions at the power company, state, country and continent levels.

Congratulations Nanticoke for coming in as highest net emitter in Canada at 17.6 million tons CO2 per year.

Some Balance...

To balance the morbidity of Democratic Kampuchea... Kittenwar!

Cambodian Genocide Blogging

This guy ran Tuol Sleng (S-21) prison during the Cambodian genocide. I went there when I was in Phnom Penh and it was probably the most disturbing thing I've ever seen. Almost all of the 14,000 people, including women and small children, who passed through the prison were tortured, then killed in the Choeung Ek killing fields outside the city. This was also where the practice of waterboarding was perfected to extract false confessions from prisoners.... as it is used by the American government today. Here are some photos from my trip:

And of course... the prison rules:

Fun with Excel

More here.

Banner option number one:

Photo Bucket and Banner Image

I have a photo for the banner, but don't know where this supposed photo bucket for dropping images into might be located... Anyone?

The Salmon, the Beaver, the Eagle & the Otter

B and I went to Garden Bay on the Sunshine Coast over the weekend. Our host, my boss, took us down to the creek that runs below his house to help break down a beaver dam that was blocking the salmon from swimming further up stream to the next lake. The dwindling numbers of these important fish have warrented such action.

After a day, several fish had made their way up the small waterway--and the beaver had made substantial gains in rebuilding his fortress. We knocked down the dam again and crossed fingers a few more fish would get passed before that busy beaver built it up again. But the fish only had that day to take advantage of the opening; when my boss returned today to check on their progress, here's what he found:

"The beavers built up the dam a little bit overnight, but I pulled it apart again. Saw a bald eagle ripping apart one of those two salmon we saw just above the bridge at the bottom of the trail. Didn't see a single live fish below the dam site today. A family of otters probably swam up the creek and killed all the fish. Hopefully some had spawned before they died."

That's so intense! Bald eagles and otter families gorging on three-foot long, 35-pound fish?!

Here's a backgrounder on Mixal Creek:
Mixal Creek is the only waterway that connects Sakinaw Lake, Hotel Lk, Catherine Lk, Mixal Lk and Garden Bay Lk together. Coho salmon and trout use this waterway to access these lakes and to spawn. In recent years, Mixal Creek has seen a drastic decline in numbers of returning Coho salmon, and as a result, Department of Ocean and Fisheries has begun closely monitoring and making improvements to the creek to encourage a healthy salmon population. Watch video of Coho Salmon spawning in Mixal Creek. (Scroll down)

Yellow Tail's all Around

The only difference between a bordeaux grand cru and cheap table wine is a fancy label and a few hundred dollars:

The second test Brochet conducted was even more damning. He took a middling Bordeaux and served it in two different bottles. One bottle was a fancy grand-cru. The other bottle was an ordinary vin du table. Despite the fact that they were actually being served the exact same wine, the experts gave the differently labeled bottles nearly opposite ratings. The grand cru was "agreeable, woody, complex, balanced and rounded," while the vin du table was "weak, short, light, flat and faulty". Forty experts said the wine with the fancy label was worth drinking, while only 12 said the cheap wine was.

Well.... i'm really only trying to say something to piss off the wine fans so they will post a retort.

Lenny Bruce is Dead v. 2.0

At the request of mike d, the group blog is back in action. Let's hope we get some posts by someone other than me this time.

Again, a few tips for posting. Use these scripts for indenting quotes and linking, except replace "{" and "}" with "<" and ">". You won't be able to see the scripts if I post them as they are suppose to be used because the script will just be applied.

{blockquote}This is my test{/blockquote}
{a href="http://www.google.com" target="_blank"}Link{/a}

Those scripts will give you these:

This is my test

Link