Posts by D. H. McKee

Starships Dimensions

Ever wanted to compare the sizes of Star Trek ships to Babylon 5 ones? Ever wanted to figure out how big that Millenium Falcon really was?
No?
Probably don't want to check out this site then. Besides, it's only mostly accurate, and has some glaring discrepancies, such as showing the Death Star 2 as five times as wide as the original Death Star (or 125 times the volume at 268082573.1063km3)
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We went to war just to boost the white male ego

The key question remains . why did we go to war? It is not yet answered. In the end, it is likely that a host of responses will produce a cognitive stew, which does, at least, open the way to offering one.s own notion. We went to war, I could say, because we very much needed a war. The US economy was sinking, the market was gloomy and down, and some classic bastions of the erstwhile American faith (corporate integrity, the FBI, and the Catholic Church, to cite but three) had each suffered a separate and grievous loss of face.

Dunkin’ Donuts worker killed over coffee, says cop

...no one pegged him as someone who would kill over too much sugar in his coffee.

Chrétien ready to ease pot possession law

Calling his government "activist" and "not afraid to take on controversial issues," Prime Minister Jean Chrétien cast a nod at youth last night and vowed that marijuana would soon be decriminalized.
It was the first public pronouncement from Chrétien that possessing small quantities of marijuana would be decriminalized in Canada.
"We will soon introduce legislation to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana," he told a Liberal party fundraiser. Amid applause, he quipped, "Don't start to smoke it right away! We're not legalizing it."

Hoping for good cycling weather

Really been enjoying the weather, with the exception of the past couple of days. Hopefully the weather will be nice...

UNIX Haters

The funny thing is Micro$oft's hosting it.
"I liken starting one's computing career with Unix, say as an undergraduate, to being born in East Africa. It is intolerably hot, your body is covered with lice and flies, you are malnourished and you suffer from numerous curable diseases. But, as far as young East Africans can tell, this is simply the natural condition and they live within it. By the time they find out differently, it is too late. They already think that the writing of shell scripts is a natural act."
"Modern Unix is a catastrophe. It's the "Un-Operating System": unreliable, unintuitive, unforgiving, unhelpful, and underpowered. Little is more frustrating than trying to force Unix to do something useful and nontrivial. Modern Unix impedes progress in computer science, wastes billions of dollars, and destroys the common sense of many who seriously use it. An exaggeration? You won't think so after reading this book. "
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When is too much fanfiction?

OK, this is pretty weird. Anne Frank fanfiction. Really, these people should get a life.

Gambling, Gods, and LSD (2002)

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Directed by Peter Mettler
(Not enough gambling or LSD for my taste)
While the movie description is "a transcendental film by Peter Mettler," it incorrectly states "transcendental" instead of "boring". This docu-diary, was shot by Mettler in his globe-trotting journeys between 1996 and 1999. While soul-searching, is more than an hour longer than it needed to be. It clocks in at over three hours, and in that time, Mettler takes us to four main locations (Toronto, Las Vegas, Switzerland, and India, respectively), all the while shaking the camera like a monkey with A.D.D. and a bout of seizures. Harsh? Try sitting through three hours of this. And yes, I understand it was a hand camera doing a world tour, although there was at least one scene which looked steady-cammed.

Life after Moses Znaimer

Even when he's nowhere near the building, he's still the biggest newsmaker at the CHUM Television nerve centre on Queen St. W.
Moses Znaimer officially relinquished his various roles at CHUM Ltd. on Friday . from an undisclosed location, outside of town . bringing to a close speculation about his future with the company he helped build from a small regional broadcaster to a burgeoning, innovative national network with an international profile.
He'll continue to be associated with CHUM as director, chairman and executive producer of Learning Skills Television and The Learning Annex in Alberta, obscure properties he and CHUM jointly own.
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The New McCarthyism

They asked if they could come into the apartment. "Do you have a warrant?" Brown asked. "And they said no, they didn't have a warrant, but they wanted to just come in and look around. And I said, 'Sorry, you're not coming in.' "
One of the agents told Brown, "We already know what it is. It's a poster of Bush hanging himself," she recalls. "And I said no, and she was like, 'Well, then, it's a poster with a target on Bush's head,' and I was like, nope."