Dear Tim Hortons: Really?

Joe.My.God. reports that Tim Hortons is sponsoring an anti-gay-rights event held by the so-called “National Organization on Marriage” in Rhode Island: Tim Hortons Sponsors NOM Event.

Now, Timmy Ho’s doesn’t strike me as being the world’s most progressive organization—I don’t see them sponsoring Pride events any time in the near future—but appending their corporate name to something this far in the other direction strikes me as both unethical and unwise.

Feel free to contact them to note your distaste.

Toronto Parks and Rec = Photoshop Disaster

So I headed over to the Toronto Parks and Rec site to see when my strike-affected yoga might recommence, and I was greeted by this monstrosity:

Immediate reaction: check blogs to ensure this horrorshow has been recorded for posterity. And indeed it has, over at Photoshop Disasters, which even managed to acquire the original photo. City of Toronto: Token Brilliance

And oh man, they cite a National Post article. All I can assume is that somewhere, a man with a goatee and a pitchfork is putting in an order for ice skates, because I am in agreement with NP on this one…this was insane. Was the original family, delightfully non-WASPish, somehow not diverse enough?

News Roundup

Toronto Star: Terrorism suspect on hunger strike at Kingston jail

Ryerson Free Press: Secret trials in Canada

Toronto Star: Czech Roma to sue board for `biases,' lawyer says

Globe & Mail: Supreme Court rules on tainted evidence

Montreal Gazette: Refugees to Canada in Catch-22 situation: Advocate

Big step forward: “Gay sex decriminalised in India”

C/O the BBC: “Gay sex decriminalised in India”

Re-donculous: Police go mental on Father's Day photoshoot

Dallas - Unfair Park - How a Heartwarming, Kick-Ass Father's Day Photo Shoot Ended Up Face Down in Handcuffs on the Addison Airport Tarmac

Anonymous sources

BoingBoingGadgets has a story on the anonymous sourcing of info on Steve Job's health, which features this hilarious graphic: Given the reliance on such sources (both as human sources and as the initiators of press reports used as "evidence" in court cases, I fins this pretty funny.

How to help with hashtags

From BoingBoing:

Cyberwar guide for Iran elections

Is CSIS untrustworthy?

My personal and professional experience with them has been, let's say, uneven. Over the last few weeks especially, I have more than once declared that I was moving abroad out of lack of faith in the government, and especially the intelligence sector.

This story is therefore both validating and infuriating:

Judge orders recall of CSIS witnesses in Harkat case (CBC.ca)

Best TORCHWOOD quote?

Jack: That's weird. Because when I'm about to murder someone I'm really careful not to talk to myself about it while I'm in the street.

Tosh: No, sure. I mean, that's lesson one.

(from 1x07, "Greeks Bearing Gifts")

What law owes to science fiction

Interesting item over at Whatever about the possibility that the Neanderthals died out because we ate them:

Technically It’s Not Cannibalism If They’re Not the Same Species

The comments are particularly tasty (ba-dum-dum)

I am particularly fond of the conclusion:

Even if it wasn’t cannibalism, I would still call it murder, since “murder” in my book (that book being a science fiction book) involves killing sentient creatures, whether they’re of the same intelligent species as you are or not. This is why one needs science fiction, incidentally: to model such legal conundrums. You’re welcome.

Which reminded me of a discussion (by which I mean argument) I once had with a post-colonial lit prof who insisted--INSISTED--that there was nothing wrong with cannibalism, that communion in Christian churches was cannibalism, and it was just another example of the intense and undeniable evil that is western society that we forced the South Pacific Islanders and other groups to stop being cannibals because of our own narrow-minded hang-ups.*

I of course pointed out that, while I agree that ritual cannibalism isn't particularly immoral (especially funerary cannibalism), it does cause prion disease and was probably a good idea to avoid it.

 

 

*Which was itself part of a longer argument over whether everything bad that has ever happened in or around a colonized society was entirely the fault of the colonizers, my point being that it's extremely racist to assume that any such society is so passive that they are incapable of screwing up without help.

TDS best argument against DADT ever

Clip from May 14

Also, on the torture photo issue, I have to say that while I support transparency, I get that it may not be necessary to release everything, when you've released all the substantive/significant information, releasing more information which won't add to the information, but will add to the outrage, is unnecessary.

In a perfect world, I’d be liveblogging my bus ride

Once again I am off to work on a Sunday morning, albeit relatively late morning, and I left work relatively early yesterday. None of this prevents me from being utterly handbagged. Sarah needs a huge coffee, or frankly, to break into my stash of wake-ups.

Because yes, I do have a stash. In fact, the past weeks in trial would not have been as smooth without them. You see, one cannot have coffee in the courtroom, which I find pointlessly cruel. We have water, which we spill with some frequency. But no coffee. It is perhaps the one thing the Respondents and us can agree on. I’m tempted to ask the boss to ask the judge for an exception to be made.

What we do instead is leave our cups on the table in our conference room (a misnomer, since it seats about four, but I refuse to call it a “breakout room”. It then gets cold, unless you (like me) think to bring a travel mug.

US military misplaces vials of bioagent, world shrugs

Of course, as Wired reports, it's not as concerning as it sounds...

"Army Biolab's Missing Vials May Never Be Found (Which, Oddly, Isn't That Scary)" (Wired)

My first thought was: "We still have warships?"

Canadian, British, U.S. vessels foil pirates in Gulf of Aden

A Canadian warship helped thwart a pirate attack as part of the NATO mission to keep vessels safely moving in the Gulf of Aden, officials said Sunday. (Full story @ CBC)

This is a real thing, and everyone must know of it (NSFW, but awesome)

Ron Jeremy + Sci-Fi/Horror movie = WIN

http://oneeyedmonstermovie.com/

No seriously, that's the title. And again, NSFW

Abdelrazik disaster continues

Ottawa cites international obligations in denying citizen's return home (Globe & Mail)

The government has unveiled new and unprecedented reasons barring the return of Canadian citizen Abousfian Abdelrazik, claiming every country he might fly over on the way home from Khartoum needed to give explicit permission.

This is flat out wrong. I only hope the Federal Court doesn't buy into this nonsense.

Me like caffeine

... and animated GIFs.