http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7292981.stm

Really? What can you say to something like this? It always amazes me when people claim that there’s no harm in having these different beliefs. I suppose not, as long as you don’t classify ‘blinding yourself through stupidity’ as ‘harm’.

Just one thing though:

“Their retinas were damaged due to direct exposure to the sun,” Dr Annamma James said.

I doubt that their retinas were directly exposed to the sun, I imagine that a few lenses, corneas, fluids, and around 150 million kilometers got in the way slightly. It would perhaps be more accurate to say “Their retinas were damaged due to stupidity.”.

“The main conservative opposition party, Fidesz, insists that the government must find the money.”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7287210.stm

How is it that so many people manage to miss the most basic, fundamentals of how governments work, including those actually within those circles? Let’s all take a deep breath, that’s it, now repeat after me.

“Governments don’t have any money.”

Try again.

“Governments don’t have any money.”

The only money that any government ‘has’ is what they’ve taken from the public in taxes, fees, more taxes, more fees, taxes on the taxes etc. In other words, yours and mine, or in this case the population of Hungary. They can’t just ‘find’ money. They can only take it from us, and if you vote to prevent that, guess what? They have no money.

Oh and if you think somehow they could dip into their own (undoubtedly well lined) pockets…

Governments don’t do that either. Perhaps they should.

Six questions to ask every prospective candidate to separate the wheat from the chaff:

1. Do you believe that Creationism should be taught alongside Darwin’s Theory of Evolution?

2. Do you believe that prayer has any chance of providing any practical help in times of emergency?

3. Do you believe that astronomers and astrologers should be given equal funding?

4. Do you believe that any major industry will effectively self-regulate itself, without the need for external controls?

5. Do you believe that UFOs are spacecraft full of aliens?

6. Do you believe that people will voluntarily limit themselves to combat global climate change?

If they answer yes to any of these, you know not to vote for them. This doesn’t necessarily mean you will get good government - just somewhat intelligent government.

Surely that has to be better?

It’s more or less the end of the ‘vette season here in the ‘great white north’; if I’m lucky the weather might stretch out to another few weeks of patchy driving for the ZR-1. It seems strange to imagine I only took delivery of ‘The Dragon’ on that icy night back in February; the summer has had a peculiar timelessness to it.

The first couple of months were filled with immense frustration, having taken delivery and then having to place him in storage where I couldn’t even get access particularly easily. After the journey up from Detroit he was covered in road gunk and looked a complete mess, like taking in a stray puppy and then not giving them a bath and a warm place to stay.

I admit it; I pushed to get him out. We were lucky to have a fairly mild winter, which helped and I hoped to get him on the road for my birthday in March. That didn’t happen, but I did have my first real ride in him a week later. (Yes, that is snow in the background.)

So how was it? How did Achilles feel when he rode Xanthus? How would it feel to be a Dragon rider on Pern?

At first I was almost in awe of the Z, hardly daring to ‘loosen the reins’; though I have driven some fairly fast cars, nothing could prepare me for the sheer explosive nature of the Z when you ‘get on it’. The power kicks in and you think you must really be kicking ass, then a quick glance down informs you that you still have around half the rev band available! The power curve on the LT5 is quite simply awesome; the closest I have come to it previously was on the Jaguar V-12 engine, that red-lined at 6800RPM but had 25% less power.

One of the things that surprised me a little with the ZR-1 was how brutish the car felt. After reading everything I could on these cars for the last seventeen years, I had expected a more ‘refined’ feel to it. Mine was more like an untamed Beast, ready to snap and bite at any moment. The only time it felt vaguely controlled was with the power key firmly in the ‘off’ direction.

A very early modification I made was the installation of one of Marc Haibeck’s updated chips; this was really the thing that made the difference. Afterwards the car had even more power, but now the delivery was silky smooth yet still just as ‘eager’ when called upon. The transformation was really staggering; the Dragon really was ‘tamed’.

The change to our lives was also quite a discovery. As relative newcomers to Vettedom and Canada we didn’t have many friends, so when we bought the car we also joined the local Corvette club. Suddenly we found ourselves with a bunch of new social contacts; not only that, we found that everywhere we went we were greeted as friends by an amazingly diverse set of fellow owners. When you own a Corvette, other owners really aren’t strangers; they’re just friends you haven’t been lucky enough to have met before.

Then there is the Registry itself, the members of which have been so helpful and encouraging in so many ways and always ready to provide helpful advice, or playful sociopathic banter, as appropriate. Our first ‘real’ road trip was to meet BobbyHi, from the registry forum; we spent five magical days in the Z for an all too brief visit. Not only did he make us feel truly welcome, he even helped us clean the Dragon after the long journey. Brotherhood of the Beast indeed!

Some myths need clearing up. Owning a ZR-1 will not get you recognized immediately as a superstar sex-symbol; in fact you probably won’t get much attention at all. Even other Corvette owners will blithely dismiss the Z as ‘just another C4′. If you are looking for that kind of attention you probably don’t want the KOTH. No ‘vette can be called a ’sleeper’, but the ZR-1 comes close (as it was designed to).

Open the hood and put the beautiful LT5 on display and you’re sure to start gathering some attention though. Most people still won’t know what it is, but they’ll realize that they’re in the presence of something strange, legendary and beautiful.

Something that most definitely isn’t a myth though is the ‘permagrin’ feature that was hand built in to each and every ZR-1 ever built. The process for finding this feature varies somewhat from car to car but generally goes something like this: start the car, edge out onto an open road with not much traffic around, cruise around a few miles then drop him into third and hit the gas! The acceleration pushes you back hard in to the seat, the car grabs the road like it had claws instead of wheels, and hurtles you forward to illegal speeds in a staggeringly brief period.

Congratulations! You just unlocked the permagrin and awoke the Beast.

Throughout the summer we spent numerous weekends and evenings cruising somewhere with the Dragon. It really didn’t matter where too much; driving the ZR-1 is living - everything else is somehow dull and unexciting in comparison. We went for hikes, driving off then changing into boots to walk a trail. We went on cruises with our (I originally wrote ‘the’ here and realized it was much more than that) club. The club events typically involve more eating than driving but are still bags o’fun(tm) nevertheless. We took Kyla, our four-legged canine beast, in the car (gasp, shock, horror!) and drove off to places to walk with her. In fact we tried to combine the Z with everything we did.

The Dragon took it all in his stride, never phased, always ready to do more and go just that little teensy bit faster.

The culmination this year was just last week. We finally had some vacation and did a road trip around New England - Albany, Boston, Portland and finally back to Canada and Ottawa. It was very much a journey of discovery; we only had the loosest of plans and had no real expectations of what we’d find. It was a chance to see places we’d never seen and mostly a chance to drive places we’d never driven, in the most incredible Corvette ever. As can be imagined, there were things we’d probably not do again, and there were things that we’d very much like to do more and explore further.

The roads through Adirondack Park were incredible, not only for the beautiful scenery but also the sheer fun of driving. Route 2 from Albany over to Boston was an unexpected pleasure. It had everything: tight corners, twisty fast sections and changes of elevation that were nothing short of breathtaking.

One constant was the ZR-1, the Beast, King of the Hill… our Dragon. He never missed a beat and took everything in his stride. On the few highways we took he was impeccable, on the twisty back-roads he was simply awesome.

Whenever I open up the garage to take the Dragon out, it still sends a shiver through every pleasure center. When I park up somewhere and return I feel a thrill as I approach just from seeing him sat there. The Z takes even the most mundane of trips and turns it into a wondrous journey.

So, what’s it like owning a ZR-1? Magnificent, spine-tingling, thrilling, and above all, inspiring.

Long Live the King!

(Originally published in ‘Heart of the Beast - Issue 12′ by the ZR-1 Net Registry)

Strange use of the word ’stunned’ on the CBS page.

http://www..cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/15/world/main3504859.shtml?source=RSSattr=HOME_3504859

“it is only one piece of evidence and it’s one person’s view, the
viewfinder of one individual,” said RCMP Cpl. Dale Carr, adding that
something made the Mounties take the action they did.

hmmmmm… blatant police sadism? The common police mindset that the
they have the right to act in any gung ho brutal fashion that they want?

“The RCMP urged the public not to rush to judgment.”

Yes.. don’t you naive public people rush to any judgements… err…
like the police do…

Phil Plait, the Bad Astronomy guy (I don’t really want to call him the Bad Astronomer ), recently brought up a post by Will Wheaton, known almost entirely for playing the part of the endlessly-irritating Wesley Crusher on the equally endlessly-irritating Star Trek: The Next Degeneration.

For what it’s worth, I like a lot of what appears in the Bad Astronomy site, including Phil’s blog posts. I also don’t have any problem with him ‘diversifying’ as some do; he has a right to his own views and politics and I support his right to express those things, even if I don’t necessarily always agree with them. I also don’t have anything against Will Wheaton (apart from the aforementioned role, and I guess that’s the show producer’s fault rather than his personal responsibility).

The article by Wheaton is one of these along the lines of nasty-rich-and-powerful-old-media just don’t understand the web and are trying to kill it off or control it. They don’t understand how it has changed the world and set all of us free to become newly-discovered overnight dotCelebs(tm) in a new and better dotRenaissance(tm) and not only that it won’t cost anything either.

The main gist seems to be that nowadays anyone can post anything online - youtube, blogs, gallery etc. So now magazines, newspapers, movie companies and the like, are just dinosaurs doomed to extinction by the fall of the digital asteroid.

What so many people who live on the Internet fail to realise is that this ‘freedom’ is itself the problem; removing barriers to ‘publishing’ sadly doesn’t mean we all become overnight Shakespeares or Mozarts or Kubricks. All it means is that every talentless prat in the world can now attempt to force his or her detritus on an unsuspecting (and largely uncaring) world. Talent requires somewhat more than an illegal copy of (insert creative software package name here) and the ability to click on a nice friendly ‘upload’ button.

Some of the responses on the Bad Astronomy post have put forward another viewpoint: that the products of ‘old-media’ at least guarantee a certain basic level of quality to the book/movie/article. Come again? If that’s the case you people must have access to a whole network of TV channels that I don’t, you must have different movies coming to your theaters than I have appearing in mine and your book stores must be full of books I’ve never heard of. In fact TV became so bad that when we moved over to Canada, we just didn’t bother getting any. We have a TV, we watch occasional DVDs (99% of which are complete rubbish) and that’s it - we have no TV ‘channels’.

It’s not really that old-world-media provides quality and new-world provides errr… doesn’t. The quality is almost universally bad - it just ranges from bad to very bad in most cases. And if nasty-old-media is dead then they sure don’t seem to know it. What was the biggest media event this summer? Harry Potter? The Transformers movie? Something with Disney Pirates in it? Yet-another-Marvel-comic-turned-into-a-disappointing-movie (YAMCTIADM - also ™)? What it certainly wasn’t, was something from youTube, or BookLocker, or in fact anything from the Internet.

There’s no doubt that there have been some ’successes’ in the ‘new media’ world. I’ve heard of a couple of youTube people being made offers that undoubtedly wouldn’t have come their way if it wasn’t for their online activity. I’ve also heard of a couple of writers being picked up after self-publishing on places like BookLocker. The point is that once their talents are discovered - they’re being picked up by ‘bad-old-media’ and the Internet has just been a vehicle for them to get noticed. What I don’t hear is people saying, “Hey no, we don’t want your filthy stinking nasty-old-media money, we prefer to stay as we are, freezing cold and hungry thanks very much.” Even Phil Plait has books published by nasty-old-media. And as for Will Wheaton - well we already mentioned his past ‘evil history’.

So if nasty-old-media is dead or dying and we’ve finally got the uppers on those selfish money gougers that must be good - right? Instead of giving them all that money, now we… oh yeah, we give it to Google, and Microsoft and youTube, and presumably all of those wannabee authors are making BookLocker a tidy sum too.

Replacing one set of rich controlling media companies with a new set hardly seems to be progress.

In fact, it’s quite easy to say how new-media is the best thing since sliced (insert product placement here) bread when you’re not actually relying on it to pay for that bread. The expenses of the Bad Astronomy site are, I’m sure, more than covered by Phil Plait’s undoubtedly generous University stipend (and the proceeds of his book sales). He boasts how he has 30,000+ readers, a substantial fraction of any astronomy magazine, but what has he done with those readers? All he’s really done is drawn away 30,000 of people who at one time would have probably bought magazines and provided employment and helped to convince them that everything should be free. Oh… and collected a rather nice audience for his next book (and I applaud him on doing that!). He even says, “My publisher appears happy to have me working hard on the ‘net to promote the book as well.”

Phil also makes a good argument for the speed of publishing on the Internet. But again, speed isn’t everything. In 2006, members from the Duke Lacrosse team were charged with raping a black dancer. The news was splashed about the Internet at the speed of light. The responses came in from all sides just as quickly - it was a violation, the worst kind of sexual assault and bigotry committed by a bunch of sadistic, selfish, over-privileged white boys. The only problem was… it didn’t happen. The evidence was fudged, the prosecutor lied in court (that would be Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong lest we forget), withheld evidence, and the victim’s testimony was shaky at best. Eventually the case was dismissed, but by that time the boys were already tarnished. Opening the box is a lot easier than closing it again - just ask Pandora.

Speed of information dissemination is no boon if the information itself is incorrect, or from a tainted source. The Bad Astronomy site itself is littered with posts about people publishing bad information; in fact as the title suggests, that was its prime motivation for being created. Speed kills - not just people, but objectivity.

Most of the success stories I have heard that have come ‘from the Internet’ have come about not because of the Internet but rather the people involved. They were determined, they plugged away, they kept on beating on those doors, bugging people, pleading with people, irritating the hell out of people - until eventually someone said, “Oh Jesus, just buy the damn thing if only to shut them up.” They have been a success because they had the essential characteristics of successful people - resilience, persistence and sheer bloody-mindedness.

They used the Internet for sure; but if it hadn’t existed, they’d undoubtedly still have succeeded - because of those characteristics. Without the Internet being there, they’d have just found another way.

I once heard that Billy Gibbons said in an interview that ZZ Top was: “an overnight success, it just took seventeen years to get there”. In the ‘instant world’ that most people seem to live in, it seems scandalous almost sacrilegious to say this, but success takes those three things: resilience, persistence and sheer bloody-mindedness. Yes, you may get lucky. Yes, you really may be an ‘overnight success’, it does happen - just don’t hold your breath. It takes hard work.

According to this report
http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2007/04/24/cold-fx-edmonton.html?ref=rss

Edmonton is ’stockpiling’ Cold-fX to protect it’s residents in case of a flu pandemic. Sounds very progressive and positive. Except…

Well, except for the fact that they are buying “enough product to help 5,000 people”. (more…)

According to this report a number of schools who were presented with free classical books had them returned as being ‘too boring’ for current students.

I can sympathise to an extent. When I first studied Shakespeare in class it was mind-numbingly dull, the presentation was fundamentally flawed - Shakespeare’s work are plays meant to be performed, not read as if they were novels. Nor were they meant to be analysed and pored over until every bit of fun and entertainment was wrung from it until all that remains is a ‘carcass fit for hounds’.

Once I saw Shakespeare performed (especially by the RSC) I was hooked and realised just what these great works were all about. Not only that, I could then go back and ‘read’ the plays and gain an even greater understanding of them so that when I watched them again for a second or third time (which I did willingly) I was able to get even more out of the repeated performances.

What was needed wasn’t that these works be abandoned, but simply that they should be presented well.

Where my understanding and sympathies run dry though, is in reading the quotes from the ‘librarians’ at these thankless schools, who hold the opinion that Manga comics and “magazines” (and I’m sure my assumptions of puerility en masse are not entirely unfounded) some how equates to ‘reading’. (more…)

I just took delivery of my Corvette ZR-1 last night. What a fantastic feeling to think that it’s finally here after all these years of dreaming.

The event itself was a bit of a suprise. I contacted the shipping company at around lunch time and was told it would be next week as they didn’t have a transporter coming up this way till then. Then at about 4.30pm I got a call and the guy says “I’m delivering your Corvette, I’ll be there about 8.30!”

Ten out of ten for nice suprises, but -1000 for customer contact skills. Also to make things worse, the storage facility I am going to use till Spring closes at 7pm.

So at the appointed time I go out to meet the transporter at a nameless Husky gas station on Highway 17. It’s pitch black and -7C, I have knots in my stomach from excitement and worry and I feel like a stolen car dealer - now where did I leave my ski mask?

The first thing I see as we pull up is the distinctive wide rear of the ZR-1, I’ve thought about these cars and ’studied’ them so much I barely have to glance at it to recognise the shape. It’s dirty, filthy in fact, covered in road grime and gunk, barely recognisable as the car I saw a few weeks ago. But it doesn’t matter, it’s mine and I’m about to drive the King of the Hill. The Beast.

(more…)

Okay… had to happen I guess. We have a problem, not of the Houston variety.

When I bought the ZR-1 we did an exchange of the car title (ownership record) and money via mine and the sellers respective banks. This was all well and good, protects people from possible problems etc. All nice and clever and simple.

Except, as I mentioned in a previous post, it meant I ended up with the title and it needed to stay with the car for import purposes. Couldn’t be a copy, has to be the original.

So I went to my post office, said “I need to send this to the US fast and secure.” the Canada Post lady said I needed to use their xpresspost delivery and it would cost $14. Seems a lot of money I think but what the hell, I want it done quick. After sealing the title inside the envelope and filling in everything, paying my money etc. she then adds ‘It will take 6 working days, and tomorrow doesn’t count.”

Why Wednesday doesn’t count as a working day for Canada Post is a mystery. I’m not happy about this, 6 days isn’t what I would call ‘fast’ for delivery to a destination I can drive to in 8 hours. Unfortunately by now I’d paid my money, sealed everything up and didn’t feel I have any choice any more.

So here we are, over a week later and the letter still hasn’t got to the destination. I’m tracking it online and it apparently crossed over to the US on the 9th, it’s now the 15th. Now, slow is one thing, but 6 days to travel the hours drive from the border to the destination?

At this rate it would have been quicker to send it by pony express - using dead ponies!

Naturally I phoned Canada Post to see what was happening. The helpful man on the other end of the line informs me that all mail is now routed through New York due to “Homeland Security”. And what has just happened to New York?

Umpteen feet of snow… So the title is stuck in a snow drift, somewhere…

If I had hair, I’d probably be tearing it out right about now.