the pod bay door

¦¦ This morning I woke up, hit the snooze alarm a couple times, then had a shower, and made a smoothy with orange juice, some strawberries, peach yogurt, a banana and some wheat germ. I watched Sports Centre on TSN. Then I drove to work. Now I’m at work. I credit my inspiration for this entry to this site. Thanks, Stephen.

¦¦ Tired of getting those scam emails from various diplomats in Nigeria who want your money? A guy named Brad Christensen (this might be his site) has had enough, and has been scamming the scam artists. It’s brilliant stuff. (Thanks, Bill Barol/Blather.)

¦¦ BTW, check out Quatloos, a US public educational website that covers financial scams. (I love it that this website gets its name from an episode of the original Star Trek series, called The Gamesters of Triskelion. That’s the one with the three talking brains, who wager on combat games involving alien species. What currency do they use? Quatloos. Migod, here’s the entire script!)

¦¦ Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi) is the recent full-length Academy award-winning animated feature from legendary Japanese animation director Hayao Miyazaki, creator of the critically acclaimed Kiki’s Delivery Service, and Princess Mononoke. It tells the story of a little girl named Chihiro, who enters what appears to be a deserted theme park with her parents after they become lost while driving to their new home in a new city. While her parents take a break to eat, she wanders off and is discovered by a boy named Haku, who tells her she must leave the area. She runs back to her parents, only to discover that they are still eating, and have morphed into giant pigs. Thus begins an adventure that features the some of the oddest characters and weirdest twists I’ve ever seen in a full-length cartoon.
Read more »

¦¦ My brother Chris advised me of an incredible story about what happened when it was discovered that Brian Walski, an award-winning photographer for the LA Times, submitted a photo for publication on the front page of the 31 March 2003 LA Times that was actually a composite of two pictures. Covering the war in Iraq, he shot two photos moments apart, then merged them to improve the composition. The subject was the use of human shields. Check this fascinating photo ethics case study (requires Flash), which highlights the flaw in the composite photo, and then shows you where the two photos were cropped. The Times has printed a retraction of sorts.

¦¦ Did you hear about the giant Antarctic squid?

¦¦ The 30 March 2003 Herald published a brilliant rebuttal by Silver Donald Cameron to the national spanking US Ambassador Paul Cellucci gave Canadians recently about our lack of support in the war on Iraq. I think we need to be reminded often of the points made in Cameron’s letter, and Americans need to know more about the history between our two nations. The again, all that matters in the States these days is the now. It’s as if Canada is only as good as the last war it supported. After reading Cameron’s letter, with its historical detail, I’m prouder today to be a Canadian.

¦¦ On a more serious note, Warner Bros is asking fans of the classic Looney Tunes to complete a survey on upcoming LT home video and DVD products. Check out some of the packaging options being considered by WB for the LT DVDs.

¦¦ For Reasons Unknown, the problem I’ve had all week connecting from home to my website has dissipated for now. I’ll leave well enough alone and end talk of it here.

¦¦ We have war, a new disease, airlines in bankruptcy, really cold and unseasonable weather, and in the midst of all that, this.

We’re in a time when being publicly critical is not in vogue. Kathleen Parker is an American journalist whose nationally syndicated column runs in >300 papers, including the Salt Lake City Tribune. When Tribune staffers learned that her 19 March 2003 column was an unflattering piece about Ed Smart, father of Elizabeth Smart, they petitioned the editorial page editor not to run her column, which is what happened. In the eyes of other Tribune editors and columnists, it amounted to censorship. Parker contends that since the return of Elizabeth Smart to her family, Ed Smart has been mugging before the cameras non-stop, and that he’s, well, kinda creepy. Do you agree? (Do you care?)