The Secrets Of Vancouver BC, Canada

He Forgot To Say Flash Sucks

Steve Jobs released a great article on why Apple doesn’t allow flash to play on its iPhone, Ipod and iPads.I have long disliked flash on the web, not only because it does nothing to help your website get found, but also because it is so proprietary. As a Mac user from the beginning, I couldn’t agree with him more.

Thanks Steve for clearing the air:

Thoughts On Flash

Apple has a long relationship with Adobe. In fact, we met Adobe’s founders when they were in their proverbial garage. Apple was their first big customer, adopting their Postscript language for our new Laserwriter printer. Apple invested in Adobe and owned around 20% of the company for many years. The two companies worked closely together to pioneer desktop publishing and there were many good times. Since that golden era, the companies have grown apart. Apple went through its near death experience, and Adobe was drawn to the corporate market with their Acrobat products. Today the two companies still work together to serve their joint creative customers–Mac users buy around half of Adobe’s Creative Suite products–but beyond that there are few joint interests.

I wanted to jot down some of our thoughts on Adobe’s Flash products so that customers and critics may better understand why we do not allow Flash on iPhones, iPods and iPads. Adobe has characterized our decision as being primarily business driven–they say we want to protect our App Store–but in reality it is based on technology issues. Adobe claims that we are a closed system, and that Flash is open, but in fact the opposite is true. Let me explain. More »

Spock Finally Makes The Journey

Vulcan has invested a lot in the trying to capitalize on the relationship to Star Trek. If you’ve ever seen pictures of those that attend the conventions, it might strike you as odd. But it beats the city up north that spent a small fortune on an Easter Egg.

Vulcan received its name in 1915, from a surveyor of the Canadian Pacific Railway who named it after the Roman God of Fire.

VULCAN, Alta. — Despite a spell of unwelcoming hail, rain and snow, Mr. Spock finally arrived in the small Alberta town of Vulcan on Friday, ending what some say has been a 10-year quest to bring the half-human, half-Vulcan home.

Dressed casually in a grey sweater and black pants, a beaming Leonard Nimoy arrived without his trademark Vulcan ears to hundreds of cheering fans Friday afternoon outside the Vulcan Tourism Centre before joining a parade down the town’s main drag to help celebrate the town’s new status as the Star Trek capital of Canada.

By the time the 79-year-old actor offered his “live-long-and-prosper” handprint and unveiled a bronze bust of his most famous character, the sun was shining and the crowd had surged to an estimated 2,500 people.

“Wait until Bill Shatner hears about this,” said Nimoy. “I have been a Vulcan for 44 years. It’s about time I came home.”

Check out their visitor website here… it’s a one-of-a-kind for a city tourism site. The video below has gotten 35,000 views. Not bad for a small town in Alberta. Plus they made it on the Telegraph in the UK with a photo gallery of the event.

Simpsons Throw Some Support

Great opening of the Simpsons in support of South Park, which was censored by the network last week for attempting to depict the Prophet Muhammad.

h/t

Sunday Video: What Life Would Be Like Without Infomercials

If you watch the infomercials, we are all basically screw-ups…

How many of these common goofs has Billy Mays solved? Can you name the 51 products?

Thank God for infomercials

Pushing Mom Over The Line

What happens when you run a home-based business…

Best quote “I wondered why he asked me if the 1st floor could take 40,000 lbs.”

Great viral video ad – not sure his mom feels the same.

At Least We Now Know Global Warming Doesn’t Cause Earthquakes

The BoobQuake 2010 in on tomorrow April 26th – The national day of cleavage.

If an earthquake is caused…The science is settled. You can watch the live stats on earthquakes here.

Why Obama Will Lose Congress

A great video to kick off the final few months of Obama’s power… with the first half of his term a complete disaster, videos like will go a long way towards the Dems losing congress.

Hopefully, November means the end to the US shift to socialism… let’s hope he hasn’t done permanent damage to the USA and the world.

Time Magazine likened the theme to violence and Fawkes, and was forced to recant:

UPDATE: I notice quite a bit of electronic dust this post has stirred up on the interwebbing. A couple points: First, as I suggest in the post, the tale of Fawkes has been so thoroughly appropriated by so many that it is just not right to associate the latest appropriators with the intent of the original criminal in 1605. The RGA is not calling for a violent uprising here. It is tapping into well-established online anti-government memes. (Remember 1984.) The Wachowski brothers, who were themselves referencing a comic book adaptation of the Fawkes story, were not calling for violence when they made their movie. Ron Paul supporters were not calling for violence when they decided to raise $4 million in 2007. To suggest that this is what the RGA is doing now is, it seems to me, overly simplistic and inflammatory. Second, there has been some speculation in the comments that the RGA fed me the Fawkes reference. They did not. But the connection is not exactly a stretch for anyone who has closely followed Republican politics online (and yes, here I am counting Paul as a Republican). Aside from the Remember November refrain, the classical music, the near-apocalyptic crises messages, the suggestions of totalitarian intent, the imagery of Castro and marching soldiers, the sound of a ticking clock all points to a well established online narrative, where Fawkes thrives as a sort of folk hero for all ideologies. These sorts of videos are made to go viral. They are intended to be edgy, provocative. They are meant to tap into running passions, online story lines. This one is very successful at accomplishing its viral mission.

Will Everyone Remember:

The $787 billion stimulus bill

10%+ unemployment rate that was promised to stay under 8% with the stimulus?

The government takeover of General Motors and Chrysler?

Obama’s global apology tour?

Allowing Iran to become nuclear while Israel is threatened with it’s very existence?

Bill Clinton accusing  T.E.A. Party members and other concerned Americans as being equal to Timothy McVeigh?

The gangster-styled politics and back-room deals used by Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and Rahm Emmanuel to cram Obamacare down the throats of America?

The racist accusations used by Democrats and the Obama administration whenever they are questioned about their policies?

The Democrats and the Obama administration use of “Rules for Radicals” as a handbook to demonize groups such as the T.E.A. Party?

And best of all – Obama’s public responds, taunts and tantrums of any criticism.

Nixon would blush at what the Obama administration is doing.

Meme Ideas for the Everybody Draw Mohammed Day Event

Now that the “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day” event on May 20 looks to be going viral, what are the folks, who are not blessed with drawing skills, to do?

In response to the Islamic website RevolutionMuslim.com threats led last week to Comedy Central bleeping a “South Park” speech about fear and intimidation, a cartoon event: “Everybody Draw Muhammad Day” — was spawned

A poster cartoon “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!” has become the rallying point… not at all what the cartoonist intended to occur.

“I made a cartoon that went viral but [this campaign] isn’t really my thing,” Seattle cartoonist Molly Norris tells Comic Riffs, characterizing her cartoon as merely a personal response to Comedy Central’s censorship. “Other folks have taken it over” — an unintended appropriation she clearly distances herself from.

That takeover includes a Facebook page titled Everybody Draw Mohammed Day.

As of Sunday morning, the page had exceeded 2,400 “confirmed guests.”

In the spirit of Western Canada, I think we should put some life back into the “Crasher Squirrel Meme”.

My contribution…

Mohammed Squirrel

For You Potheads

Blame it all on Marijuana. A classic 70s video.

Smokey McBongwater is my favorite insult. Comment: anyone else notice that this video is 4 minutes 20 seconds long

1970s Anti-Marijuana Commercial