Announcing sinking glob

What's with the Globe and Mail? The Glob has been around a long time. Sort of way back before the Confederation of the Not Obama Nation (NON). Indeed it was the first loser news rag to declare itself a “national newspaper” sometime in the 1970's.

Even with the title, its national sales did not approach the daily circulation of the mighty Toronto Star. But the Star never claimed to be a national paper. The Glob possessed a stable of good writers and columnists for the longest time. All that history though imbued The Glob with a distinctive level of arrogance.

At the beginning of this month, The Glob raised its copy price from a $1.25 to a whopping $1.50. Take a moment and suck this in.

Take another time sucking moment.

Okay enough. I just want to state the exact under the breath surprise comment I muttered when I read the notice. I am quoting this from me which meant that this got me talking to myself. I said. “Just from what fucking planet are these guys smoking?”

Now I am the first to acknowledge that I don't have the degree initials attached to the collegial group of intellects that run the Glob. The implication is this. They increased the amount of money charged to read the same news service fed material that one can get off the internet for free.

The Glob claims that it is the first of business newspaper. Indeed that is somewhat true. But what is equally obvious is that they fail to read their own news copy. To the publishers of the Glob. Hey! Dudes! There is a freaking DEPRESSION going on.

The price of newsprint has plummetted. The internet is challenging the newspaper and television media for media supremacy. Subscription lists for the old style newspapers, are shrinking. There are now free dailies and newspapers on the racks in the transit and subway stations competing for the ad copy and quantity of ads. Companies are chopping costs not excluding advertisement costs. The major driver for ad costing is the circulation. Traditionally all prices raises have triggered circulation declines. The Glob's publisher sees decliningl revenues. Their solution, raise the copy price.

Three words sum this idea of a price increase. “Stupid, stupid, and stupid.”

New approach to transit

Up there guarding the skies in the Grumman Beercat, one reflects on the stolid substance of disingenuous ambiguity. A lark.

Where are you? A voice required the answer.

In the sky, I replied.

The plane soars. Its giant rotax engine tuned out to 230 knots on level. I skim the horizon for TTC Buses.

Mary Fam Day

Today is Family Day. Its a holiday. I am posting this to tell you that there will be no blyg posting today. If you are a federal person then I am sorry. Keep up the good work sucker.

Mehmoreee

The TWNBMB may suffer a blow the end of the month. The only real taxpaying industry in the tiny community finally got a clutch of incompetent managers. They've tossed the keys on the table, and appear to be walking away.

Over the years TWNBMB, dodged fatal bullet after bullet. The industry is a Kraft Pulp Mill. Indeed, on the North American Continent, TWNBMB was the carefully chosen site for the first one of the type. So this is a really old plant.

Kraft is not the cheese, rather it is named for a science and engineer who designed an efficient way of chemically removing the lignin or glue that bound cellulose fibers to each other. The process was developed coincidently and through the Second World War.Originally the production was small. No one actually knew how in large scale how the Kraft process would work.

Later the mill operations were to be expanded but subsequent managers and corporate owners mismanaged the facility. It was a cash cow for a long time, which seemed to always lose money mostly due to creative bookkeeping. Today creative bookkeeping isn't required to generate a loss. At the moment it must be run at half speed since it cannot buy the extra acid needed to maintain production levels.

The closing didn't even make the news in Southern Ontario. Beyond that, I will comment no further at this moment. Even in one's own blog one cannot appear to be too insensitive. Besides there is a very outside chance that it yet may be saved, and another bullet dodged. Even if they do avoid closure at this time, some day bullet will get them.

Last year's catch installed

Good news! Just came back from the Post Office. I got my fish back from the taxidermist in Saskatchewan.

Me and the buddies put this up in my library this afternoon. It took some time and a couple of cases of beer. But its worth it.

I caught this little guppy on last year's fishing trip on Lake Scugog. At the time I only had my spinning rod, worms for bait and some 5lbs test. That's why it took an hour or so to land this critter. I think its a pike?

I needed much of the meat. I had a hunch that skeletons look cooler than the whole animal. Looking like I was right huh. The meat was stripped away from the bones. So the taxidermist fellow and me had a lot of good eating every Friday this year past.

Now I did have a picture of me landing this but after taking the pic I accidently forgot to put my cell phone in a safe place while I took a shower. It got wet. And the thing shorted out before I could transfer the image into a computer and safe keeping. C'est le vie.

Now you can see this live but I need you to write ahead and make a reservation. Right now there is a five year waiting list. Demand is demand.

Open punalty box

(this one's for you Rusher!)

Considering the international performance of the United States of America over the last decade, the term “terrible country” comes to mind. Is the recent change any better? Now its an Obamanation.

Yer cheatin heart

Further testing is required. Chance comes walking with one of those moments of realization. I stumbled on a way of cheating on a blood pressure test. Maybe.

First step to do. Slouch in chair. Second. Fold the legs back or under a chair as the medical professional (medpro) applies the tourniquet or cuff. The air then squeezes the arm to a point. When the air is finally slowly released from the cuff, discreetly straighten out your legs onto the floor.

This should lower the blood pressure reading. I figure as much as ten points.

Wait. Hold on! Now the ears can hear the hooting, “Gord, ya moron! Why ya cheatin' on a blood test!”

Point taken. Basically your cheating yourself. But I got pissed at my team of medpros. You see I went in to get treatment for a knee and my dysfunctionalating back. Doc tests my blood pressure. I get drugs lowering my blood pressure but nothing for the back.

An allegory. Take the car to the mechanic to change the brakes.

Mechanic says, “Hey your muffler's noisy.”

I said, “Ya I know, I like it that way. I don't wanna fix the horn.”

Oh yea. Oh yea. The mechanic says the government packed with idiots says he's got to fix the muffler and the horn. But fixing the horn and muffler, he neglected to fix the brakes. Now, I can hit your progeny in silence.

Same thing. I know my blood pressure is high. Its like saying its dark at midnight. What the fuck does anyone need to fix it for? Back hurts.

If I die of high blood pressure fine and dandy, then the back don't hurt. Until then, lets keep this back pain lower. Little things really start to bug you as age corrupts the future corpse. Hence, I figured out this way to lower the appointed measure without having to eliminate salt and bacon. Besides things like this, - freakin' fun.

More eyebull

Circumstances, and an eye sty (see sic pic) why contributed to my missing quite a few days of internet conductivity. Hence the unusual numbers of submissions and postings this fine Thursday. Actually there aren't more than normal just shorting the capacitor. If its too much I am truly sorry.

Bondable

Barry Bonds may have caught a break. No one wants to link a number of plastic bottles of piss to him. This of course must be done as a sworn witness in a court before a judge and a jury of piers. The last bit troubles me. I wouldn't want my fate decided by a baker’s bunch of half wharves.

Bonds of course may get to stay out of jail. The judicial banning of this evidence makes this a reality. Despite that, those samples will still be valuable to those voters three and one half years from now who will be deciding on Barry Bonds inclusion into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.

For some reason though, this exclusion doesn't have the bite it once did. Pete Rose did those dishonored a valuable service. People remember him simply because they have constantly argued about him. His name is out there in the public.

Global cooling

Paleontologists have found the fossils of an ancient migratory sea turtle in the high arctic. It indicates an earth much warmer than it is now. I'm not very surprised. It was an ocean after all. Turtles live in water. Makes it easy to swim. No heat makes cold. Cold makes ice. Makes it hard to swim.

Fossils for Presedint

Paleontologists found vertebrae from a very large snake in South America. Frankly if true, its one huge snake and luckily a long extinct species. It apparently hunted equally huge crocodiles. This explains the lack of giant crocodiles. And explains the futility of being a large snake. Please take notes Rush Limbaugh.

Do not be surprised if there is a push for US Republicans to push Limbaugh into running for President. I can't think of a more entertaining idea for the use of a living fossil.

Linkin

Probably my favorite piece of writing remains to be Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg address. This little speech concise, precise and incisive, brings the emotion to surface. However, this effective literature shouldn't be used for a personal model to rebuild a nation. Rather the speech only honors its heroes. It is after all is said and done, a eulogy.

Eye mess

The head of the European Union, Barosso met with Prime Minister Putin these past few days in a trade summit meeting. Barosso went off topic quickly. Rather than discuss trade on the agenda, Barosso aggressively went after Putin about human rights inside the new Russia.

When Barosso pressed he stated that he had discussions on human rights with President of Russia, Medvedev, Putin paused a moment. His chilling reply, “Medvedev is not here to respond.”

Before Putin became an official politician, he was the head of the infamous KGB. He was also a KGB field agent inside free Europe and East Germany for over 15 years. Putin knows what buttons to push.

The picture of Putin in emotional response to Barosso is included today. I showed an ex-patriot Russian this photo. The thousand word translation isn't necessary.

Woofzitzit

One or two dogs die accidentally by stepping on some sidewalk plates, Toronto city fathers go snitty. All stops are pulled. All work crews will be lying on wet city sidewalks repairing the city infrastructure.

Thousands of electrical plates are all over the cityscape. They are about six inches across, imbedded in the pavement protecting a buried pot of electrical connections. Apparently, Hydro crews or more likely independent contractors hired by tender by the city made them. They often connect traffic control lights to the grid, so they are very common. Also they have been around for years.

Dogs walk barefeet along the sidewalks. It was already known that many of these plates had stray voltage. One youngster apparently got a shock. Which begs the question of what the hell the kid was doing since the only way to get a shock is to provide a circuit? This stray voltage must be repaired. However the municipal response was way over the top.

The plates have have to be individually inspected, checked and repaired. Usually every Hydro crew consists of three or more people. So through the city, at least two crew in bright oranges lie down screwing around, now with consent.

Waste of Times

“Garbage”, scream “Garbage.” Scream it loud. Scream it in the dark. Toronto's garbage bin strategy hit a major snag on the way to success.

The new economic Depression caused falling demand for recycled crap. And all commodity prices are demand driven.

Late last summer the Toronto City Council decided to force launch a garbage gathering program employing recycled products and bins on wheels. Blue bins and gray bins now line street like one of those Civil War parades south of the 49th.

They were also supposed to be a labour saver. But many is the stream of curses trying to drag the hundred pound monsters over the banks of snow. The bins programs designed for the burbs of Florida works in the summer.

So the Toronto City Council succeeded. They now have to raise taxes further. The recycled products are now going to be a very expensive way to fill land.

Put'em up.... Put 'em up...

[auth. Feb. 7, 2007]

I used to like watching boxing. It was another world. Now, I am solidly against it. Indeed I am now solidly opposed to boxing, hockey fights, extreme fighting and any deliberate sports activity where the human head is struck to obtain a questionable, short lived victory.

A legal consenting combat between two adults, so say defenders. The participants are willing. It is an ancient sport.

In what they say, I totally agree with. I don't disagree. Were that the only reason, I would too stand behind legalized, and did often support staged human fighting.

Why the change? Rather than those valid arguments, solid medical evidence continues to accumulate in showing the long term serious damage that concussions bring. Its all about concussions.

Each human encounters several accidental situations causing concussions. Having a sport that deliberately causes concussions as the ultimate goal of the strategy, any license must not be given. The goal of boxing is to knock out the opponent to win victory. Even winning a match on points gets a definition of technical knock out or TKO.

Suppose the sports of mixed marshal arts (MMA), professional hockey, professional wrestling and boxing, banned head strikes and scored with body shots only, I would change my mind. I used to like watching those sports. Any sport that undertakes to alter its regulations must be backed up by its fans. Its a no brainer.

For instance the sport of American style football, is now searching for answers for the multitudes of concussions that football players endure during their playing career. Mind you that research is finding that even small concussions are damaging and tend to be cumulative. The effort of the National Football League (NFL) should be commended. New helmet designs are appearing. And one must understand one thing. Concussions in football are generally all accidental.

The National Hockey League defends fighting as part of the game. Over recent decades those fights are largely staged or deliberate. Again the main feature of hockey fighting is to lay a beating on the opponents head. The rest of the hockey player is fairly well protected. There is more than enough chances for accidental concussions to occur during hockey play, but an intentional intent to give an opponent a concussion only piles the damage on.

From all the evidence then fighting must be banned in sports. In boxing a participant is disqualified if they deliberately punch opponents in the nuts. Rules can be changed in any sport to allow a measure of personal safety. The Marquis of Queensbury rules demonstrate that. These were major sports adjustments in that time. Similarly any head strikes on an opponent causes the disqualification of the person that threw the punch.

Here is the perspective. We protect the testicles with onerous prohibitions but we fail to protect the individuals brain? What gives?

Now I am not going to list the science regarding concussions. Two reasons. First unlike the tobacco smoking information, the there is nothing beneficial about getting concussed. Second the readers of this blig are intelligent people who will look up the information themselves. Further absenting the evidence from this blig should encourage that learning experience. If one studies the effects of concussions on individuals apply it on your personal view on the patterns of fighting discussed.

His Royal Annoyanc e

He's probably a very good guy. His intentions beyond ego, totally ethical. I don't know him personally. People shouldn't be judged through the media. At the present time society tends to form their view of a person through the visage created by the media. Despite this, Julian Fantino, itinerant police enchilada, continues to be totally annoying.

Fantino creates a media experience out of every senior post he takes on. Presently he is the head honcho of the Ontario Provincial Police. He came to that post after a presidential like stint in the post of being in charge of the emergency services in Ontario. No one ever heard from anyone in that post before or since. Fantino managed to make the news pages about once a month.

For example, when he was Chief of Police in Metro Toronto. By sheer chance so goes the line, Fantino happened to be at the Canadian National Exhibition, arresting a pick pocket forcing him to the ground in front of a newspaper photographer who also, happened to be at that place, at that time, to record a rare incident in a city of over three million. If that was a coincidence the Muses of Serendipity worked much overtime in that paradise.

Picture this, will ya

A couple of late nights ago the "Colbert Report" issued a comic prod at Amtrak. A photographer had been challenged by Amtrak security and eventually charged with illegal trespass. The photographer publicly claimed foul as he was responding to Amtrak's Photo contest.

Okay the audience howled in outrage as Stephen Colbert went into his rant about what a bunch of idiots Amtrak were. I am paraphrasing but that is the jist of the rant. Once a semi-pro photographer I too was laughing and flabbergasted at the same time.

The next day I went to check further on the internet. In short, get more information. In the course, of investigating I went to the contest rules still available at Amtrak. I found that I was very wrong to take a clown like Colbert even seriously.

Here's what I found. Colbert's construction is totally without merit. Unfortunately the truth is less humorous than an idiot's fancy. The Amtrak Security was legally well within their right to challenge and charge him with trespass.

First. If any fault strayed into Amtrak's realm it was extreme laziness. The web page dealing with the photography contest was still posted despite the fact that the contest for photos for the 2009 calendar ended July 2008. The date was unequivocal.

Second. In the web page it details quite clearly that while photographers can photograph in most public areas of Amtrak, there were several stations and properties where advanced permission was required. If not given, the web page clearly and in very simple language stated that the photographer could be charged with trespass.

So here lies the real truth. The photographer cast as a hero by some, really failed to acquire permission from the station master or property manager in charge. The photographer lied with respect to the contest. There was no contest. The contest had expired.

Apologists would say the photographer was only getting ready for next year's contest supposing that this was going to happen. Yet this excuse exposes weakness because he still would have had to follow the conditions of the contest. He did not have permission to take photographs on their property. And since it would have been for next year's contest, he did have time to read the rules many times over.

Bogarted

New lyrics and phrase for an old song.

"Don't Phelps that bong my friend, pass ooooooover to me."

Get Real

(auth. Feb. 1. 2009)

In the modern world of movie promotion, the best clips are used in other media to entice the movie-goer into committing cash. Hasn't anyone told Steve Martin that he isn't phunny?

One Pink Panther flick by this guy was bad enough, now there sprouts a sequel. With the economic downturn, I do hope its all his money that was invested. Remember, according to the best clip axiom, which is now polluting television adverts, is a pope falling off a balcony. Oh slap my knee!

The economy isn't the only thing that is bankrupt in America. Hollywood America appears bankrupt of any ideas. Steve Martin busting a hernia trying to be Inspector Clouseau is one sample. Another example was the passing movie "Get Smart".

Most of the people who liked the movie probably didn't get the original television series. The original thrived because it grew out of the fear generated by the Cold War and the movie run of the best James Bond ever. Today Get Smart tv reruns appear infantile. The show was very topical to a culture that lived under the imminent threat of nuclear annihilation.

A major problem with the Get Smart directors and producers is that they didn't "get" Smart. They turned Maxwell Smart into a competent. Actually Steve Martin would have done better as Smart than the pathetically mundane actor Steve Carrell. They authored the movie as a reflection of character which is the standard screenplay formula of all Hollywood screenplays in today's commercially motivated movie industry.

The original Get Smart was a satire focussed on technology. Instead the director and screen writers focussed on a romantic comedy between Carrell and bug eyed beauty Anne Hathaway as agent 99. Totally wrong and a lost opportunity.

What is amazing about the Get Smart movie creators is that they don't understand modern technology. They went back on the old fall backs like the cone of silence and shoe phones. If one thinks the old technology was hilarious, this brain trust missed the entire potential that modern technology holds for satire. The television creators of the Get Smart television series did get the technology. While a shoe phone is old hat to the modern person at the time of the early sixties that technology was leading edge.

Huh. Another satire tonight. Its Stupid Bowl night. See the parody of what was once a good game.