The Amazing Hyperbolic Chamber

[humour]

I found this Onion piece via SciAm Observations, which I found via Slashdot. It was published over half a year ago, but I had to link to it, because it's killing me. Seriously. I am approaching death.

Scientists announced the invention of their new hyperbolic chamber thusly: "The divine flame kindled by our new hyperbolic chamber will cast its light down through the centuries, making the Promethean fire that brought forth life on earth seem like a brief and guttering spark. Behold - we recast the cosmos in the image of the ultimate!"

Home Video

[films]

Since I don't have cable television any more - and as there are no new Battlestar Galactica episodes for me to watch - I've started poking around the internet for a televisual fix. The Google directory led me to a neat site called Atom Films.

There's a short film there called Home Video, by a fellow named Ed Boase. Extremely creepy. I recommend it.

One of the reviews complains (rightly) that the synopsis gives away too much... so if you want a fuller effect, go straight to the "watch film" button under the thumbnail picture without reading the paragraph on the right. It's a really short paragraph, but the film is only four minutes, so it doesn't take much to explain the whole idea.

Big, Bad, Beautiful Sony

[tech]

I must admit it: I'm a total sucker for Sony designs. I think their electronics are simply the sexiest in the world. Lately, I'd been eyeing their flash memory MP3 players, especially the NW-E507. I'm not going to provide a link to that (do a search and you can find information on it easily enough anyway).

Here's the thing. From what I understand, most of Sony's so-called MP3 players don't natively play MP3s. You need to use their proprietary file transfer software that, presumably, converts your MP3 into a file that the player can read. Either that, or it's intended to enforce proper "digital rights management." Windows has perfectly good drivers for accessing removable drives, but that's obviously not good enough for Sony.

As if it weren't bad enough that Sony seems to harbour a truly venomous disdain for open standards and cross-compatibility, now, there's the infamous rootkit. I have a large library of MP3s ripped from store-bought CDs that I feel I should be allowed to play, without having a multinational corporation looking over my shoulder. Needless to say, this all doesn't sit well with me.

There has been a call for a boycott of the CDs in question. Well, I'm going to take it further. With a heavy heart, I've decided to boycott all Sony products (that is to say, no new purchases) until I see some kind of admission of wrongdoing at the corporate level.

Still, I'm so enslaved by the Sony Style(TM) that I find myself making excuses for them. If it were any other company, the black mark would be indelible. But because it's Sony, I'm all too eager to wash it off. I really want to feel that gorgeous E507 sitting in my hand. But no. I'd be willing to live with the half-assed MP3 support, but this rootkit business is too much. I'm not going to give in.

An Angel, the Moon... and Mars!

[photos]

Read more about it on flickr.

Factional Cleansing

[politics]

Following up on my previous post... I just thought of another possible secret motivation for Paul Martin to have called the Gomery inquiry:

He knew just enough about the shady goings-on with the Sponsorship Program to know that the public inquiry would give him the opportunity to toss out a bunch of former Chrétienites from the Liberal Party. Or, even if he didn't know anything, he thought it likely the opportunity would come to pass.

The Gomery Report

[politics]

Given that I take a certain small amount of interest in political matters, I suppose I should comment on one of the biggest political events in Canada of the last year. I refer, of course, to the release of John Gomery's first report on the sponsorship program. I haven't actually read the report myself - I'm not that interested - so you can take my commentary however you please on that basis.

Having seen loads of testimony in the lead up to the report, either directly on CPAC, or indirectly in other media like the CBC, there were few surprises, save one, perhaps, mild surprise: the apparent complete exoneration of Paul Martin.

Someone said it's "the best possible result that Paul Martin could have hoped for." Very true. Very convenient, isn't it? Very convenient. Too convenient?

I'm not going to suggest that Gomery is a Martin crony who was hired simply to clear Martin's name. Other people with more time and more motivation would have rooted out any links between the two men and cashed in that political currency long ago. No, I'm going to suggest some other possibilities. These are just speculation on my part.

1. Maybe there are no explicit links between Martin and judge Gomery, but the judge is biased and Martin knew it when he appointed Gomery to the commission.
2. Martin knows more than he has let on, so he already knew what conclusions Gomery was likely to draw, and he gambled that he would be able to claim ignorance credibly.
3. Martin really knew nothing, and has been completely up-front about everything. He just has a heck of a lot of guts, and called an independent commission of inquiry knowing that it could very well cost him his political career.

He may appeal to ethics and principles when talking about the inquiry, but make no mistake: Paul Martin called the commission on the belief that it will, in the end, help him politically. The risk that he incurred in that decision depends on how much he was involved with the whole affair. As such, I suspect the truth is probably a nuanced combination of all of the above.