B5
"The Avalanche has already started: It's too late for the pebbles to vote"
- always has been my favourite line from a perennially under-rated show.
Babylon 5 for me sounded the death-knell of the Star Trek stranglehold on science fiction. Both it and Star Trek DS9 premiered around the same time, with the same "important bus station in space" concept, but B5 seemed to evolve into something bigger and better than that and I'd look forward to episodes in much the same way I now look forward to Battlestar Galactica.
I guess that's why DS9 scores so close to Babylon 5 in this quiz. I'm just glad that I got on the right crew.
You scored as Babylon 5 (Babylon 5). The universe is erupting into war and your government picks the wrong side. How much worse could things get? It doesn't matter, because no matter what you have your friends and you'll do the right thing. In the end that will be all that matters. Now if only the Psi Cops would leave you alone.
Via the Flea, who has found Serenity
Test is here.
Oppression Cakes
I'm surprised that someone didn't tell them how much of a groaner "Freedom Fries" was when it was tried out as the patriotic replacement for french fries.
Iran renames Danish pastries
In Zartosht street in central Tehran, cake shop owner Mahdi Pedari didn't cover up the words "Danish pastries" on his menu, but put the new name next to it.
"I did so just to inform my customers that Rose of Mohammad is the new name for Danish pastries," he said.
Some customers took immediately to the new name. But others asked for "roses of Muhammad" — "gul-e-muhammadi" in Farsi — with a laugh or even with sarcasm, apparently unenthused about the new form of protest.
"I did so just to inform my customers that Rose of Mohammad is the new name for Danish pastries," he said.
Some customers took immediately to the new name. But others asked for "roses of Muhammad" — "gul-e-muhammadi" in Farsi — with a laugh or even with sarcasm, apparently unenthused about the new form of protest.
Obviously, political thought/word-police enforcements sound just as stupid in Farsi as they do in English...
Of course, it goes without saying that I'm insulting the concept and not the Prophet, but it's safer in these cartoon fatwa times to be ever so precise and state it blatantly up front...
Rose of Mahammad sounds nice, actually, but wouldn't it make sense to use it for something else like, oh, I don't know... A FLOWER??
Unclean
My brother once told me that his coworkers think him crazy because he uses the sanitizing machines at work more often than any of his coworkers.
He works at one of the nuclear plants in Ontario.
I wonder what he'd make of this:
Computer mouses found in cyber cafes have been ranked as the second most bacteria-infested items in a list of commonly touched objects.
The survey, carried out by the Korea Consumer Protection Board, found shopping cart handles to be the worst of the worst. Typically, they contain an average of 1100 colony forming units (CFU) of bacteria per 10 sq cm.
The computer mouses, were found to have an average of 690 CFU - more than twice the concentration found on doorknobs and handles in public toilets.
The survey, carried out by the Korea Consumer Protection Board, found shopping cart handles to be the worst of the worst. Typically, they contain an average of 1100 colony forming units (CFU) of bacteria per 10 sq cm.
The computer mouses, were found to have an average of 690 CFU - more than twice the concentration found on doorknobs and handles in public toilets.
But it gets worse:
Girl's Science Project May Make You Rethink That Drink Order
Her project won the science fair at the New Tampa school, and she hopes to win a top prize at the Hillsborough County Regional Science and Engineering Fair, which starts Tuesday.
The 12-year-old compared the ice used in the drinks with the water from toilet bowls in the same restaurants. Jasmine said she found the results startling.
"I thought there might be a little bacteria in the ice, but I never expected it to be this much," she said. "And I never thought the toilet water would be cleaner."
Her discovery: Seventy percent of the time, the ice had more bacteria than the toilet water.
The 12-year-old compared the ice used in the drinks with the water from toilet bowls in the same restaurants. Jasmine said she found the results startling.
"I thought there might be a little bacteria in the ice, but I never expected it to be this much," she said. "And I never thought the toilet water would be cleaner."
Her discovery: Seventy percent of the time, the ice had more bacteria than the toilet water.
Must.
Go.
Wash.
HANDS!!!
Legal Minions unleashed
Great. I come back without blogging liability insurance. I wasn't away that long! Has it come to this?
Kinsella v. Ottawawatch.com and Mark Bourrie
Firefox is groovy
This blog design looks so much better in Firefox than it does in Internet Explorer [sigh]...
In Firefox I used .png images as backgrounds to give that neat "smoked-glass tint" effect, and I've looked at it in IE and the stupid MS program renders the .png as a solid grey. There's a workaround in IE, using the "opacity" properties, but it wants to render everything - text, background, article images, etc. - transparent.
Just wanted to geek out and bitch about Microsoft. I don't think that anyone's ever dared do that before
.Use Firefox. See my blog in all its beauty and glory.
Mercy
A half-listened-to CBC radio-doc (yeah, I listen to CBC Radio, OK? There I admitted it.) was whining about how the Canadian Women's Hockey team's impressive 16-0 win over the Italian hosts and 12-0 over Russia endangered the existence of the sport of Women's Hockey as an Olympic event.
Pure Fuddle-Duddle, horse-twackey. They'd take crap for losing...Now they're taking crap for winning too well?
TSN gives the whiner a voice
And defenceman Angela Ruggiero questions why the Canadian women put 16 goals past Italy and 12 past Russia.
''I'm upset that Canada has been running up the score, especially against the host nation,'' Ruggiero was quoted Monday on SI.com, Sports illustrated's website. ''There was no need for that. They're trying to pad their stats . . . Canada is running up the score for whatever reasons - personal, short-term.''
While Canada has outscored its opponents 28-0, the Americans have been only slightly less prolific, winning 6-0 and 5-0 against better opponents - Switzerland and Germany.
''I'm upset that Canada has been running up the score, especially against the host nation,'' Ruggiero was quoted Monday on SI.com, Sports illustrated's website. ''There was no need for that. They're trying to pad their stats . . . Canada is running up the score for whatever reasons - personal, short-term.''
While Canada has outscored its opponents 28-0, the Americans have been only slightly less prolific, winning 6-0 and 5-0 against better opponents - Switzerland and Germany.
Jeez, do you think that it comes down to the good old-fashioned concept of GOAL DIFFERENTIAL?
But tiebreakers are decided first by the deadlocked teams' record against each other and then by goal differential. Davidson said the Canadians can't afford to leave anything to chance or risk losing the right of last line change as the home team in a playoff game if goal differential was factored in.
Ruggiero's acting as if this is the first blowout in Hockey history. The Americans are facing some tougher opponents, but if they had faced Italy and Russia, would they not have done the same thing?
You want a balance of talent in a mature sport. Women's Hockey isn't that mature yet. The best in the world are still getting better.
I believe that the sport will mature to the point of people like me actually PAYING to see good Women's hockey, rather than jumping on the bandwagon every four years when the Olympics come around. (C'mon, admit it: that's what Molson Patriots do.)
And the hand-wringers want them to slow down so that the laggards can catch up? Is this the way the best get better?
This attitude is even infecting our team:
Canadian star Hayley Wickenheiser would like to see a mercy rule in international play.
''The IIHF might want to look at a 10-goal differential,'' she said. ''It's been pretty disappointing. I was . . . surprised it was like that. I thought it was going to be closer. That's not great hockey.''
''The IIHF might want to look at a 10-goal differential,'' she said. ''It's been pretty disappointing. I was . . . surprised it was like that. I thought it was going to be closer. That's not great hockey.''
Mercy? "We do not train to be merciful here, mercy is for the weak. A man confronts you in the street he is your enemy. An enemy deserves no mercy..." Sorry, too much Karate Kid as a child...
Hmmm, outside of crappy movies or TV shows, how many teams have been considered great because they were merciful?
Were the Edmonton Oilers of the 1980's "merciful" to their opponents? How 'bout the 1970's Canadiens? No? Mercy would dictate that some team should "let" the Toronto Maple Leafs win a Stanley Cup so the suffering of long-time Leafs fans can finally come to an end (or at least they could shut up about 1967.) Who the hell would want to watch that game? No one wants to watch a team that isn't trying their absolute best.
When I thought of doing this entry I found that Darcey had beat me to it. Peruse the comments there for more discussion.
Meet the new Boss
So while the blog was sleeping we supposedly had an election that
Seriously though: the last time someone crossed the floor I got all huffy and name-cally...now I'm just a little despressed and deflated by the whole thing. Was everyone expecting that the Conservative Government would be all that different once the keys were handed over?
The interesting thing will be if the old Liberal trick of pissing everyone off early, followed by showers of Federal gold later to sooth the savage electorate will bear fruit for the Conservatives this time 'round.
While I was thinking about old Who songs my darlin' wife Rue revived the optimistic self-interested money-grubber in me when she asked if this effects those cheques that we're supposed to be getting in July...
Sometimes self-interest can be a comfort. And a government can break some promises without too many consequences as long as it keeps some of the big ones.
Undead
Remember when I said that this blog was dead and that I had nothing left to contribute?
Well, it seems that I was mislead...or misguided...or mis-whatever her name was...
Nope.
Seems like this blog won't die.
I tried to kill it, but that damned "domain-name renewal" email kept coming and coming and coming.
I thought that I should just let it die.
I can't.
I'm back.
Maybe not the same, but I'm back.
Kraut's Dead, Baby, Kraut's Dead
Well this is it: stick a fork in me, my Bratwurst is done.
The Kraut is no longer Raging.
This Blog is finished. I have killed it.
Let me ask you bloggers a question: do you own your blog, or does your blog own you? What happens when you view other bloggers' retirement not as a sad occasion, but as something to be envied, because, you see, they are free. They've gotten out of the grind.
I promised that if blogging ever got to be a chore I would give it up. I should have given it up months ago.
I've gotten tiresome and repetitive and I've got nothing left to contribute.
Better to just end it now, gracefully like so many others seem to be doing these days...
If you wanna shoot the breeze (or anything else for that matter) drop me a line at ragingkraut[at]yahoo[dot]ca and we'll relive old times, talk about girls and get in trouble with our significant others...
Red Ensign Triple X
Red Ensign Standard #30 is now up at Quotaliciousness.
The lastest collections of writings from members of the Red Ensign Brigade for the last two weeks.
| October 2008 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S | M | T | W | T | F | S |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |||
| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
| 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
| 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
| 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | |
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Gross Display of Most Naked Capitalism
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-- One of the Original Red Ensigns carried by the Penticton 1st Volunteers. It was present at Vimy Ridge when our little Dominion stood up and became a nation worth fighting for...
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