Get a kick out of this… can you be crueler than your mama?

Very fun game to play.

I’m meaner than mama and got 603 points.

Play the full size version and complain on PETA.org.

This sick event happened 30 years ago today…

It was the event that introduced the phrase - drinking the Kool-Aid.

The mass suicide was preceded by Congressman Leo Ryan visiting the compound with a news crew to prove all was OK…

His statement “there are people here who believe this the best thing that happened to them their whole life” proved to be deadly wrong.

During Ryan’s visit, a few of the believers asked if they could join the Congressman on his return ride home.  The confrontations mounted, with Jones at first saying anyone who wanted to go was free to leave.  Jone’s depression grew as the size of the departing contingent swelled.

Ryan and the defectors headed for the local airstrip, but would never get off the ground. Some of Jones’ “security” people opened fire on Ryan, killing him and several others, including an NBC reporter and his camera-man whose camera eerily rolled on, catching it all for history.

900 died and Jim Jones died of a gunshot wound.

One of the unimaginable act that parents committed - 303 children were killed by Jones loyalists using syringes to squirt cyanide down their throats, while the parents sat by, waiting for their turn.

Hopefully we’ve learned to be wary of those that lead - especially when it comes to religious cults.

The video was a new online ad launched over the weekend for the company’s pain reliever Motrin.

The commercial was targeted at mothers who need relief from back pain from carrying — or, as the ad says, wearing — their babies in a sling.

I also hear it’s International Baby Wearing Week… oops.

Here’s the offending ad:

And here are a sampling of the reactions:

Line of the day: “I’m not easily offended”.

eBay Canada says it will disclose information on its “power sellers” to Canada Revenue Agency this week. The release of data is in response to a ruling by the Federal Court of Appeal last April.

The court ordered eBay to turn over to the tax agency the names and gross sales figures of Canadians who earn at least $1,000 a month from online sales for three straight months.

In a recent letter to affected customers, eBay said it strenuously objects to the federal requests, but it must comply.

At least they warned them.

In 2006, Revenue Canada started looking into whether power sellers had reported all their eBay earnings on their 2004 and 2005 income taxes.

It’s estimated about 32,000 Canadians make all or part of their income selling on eBay.

Meantime, many more Canadians are shopping online, with 2007 sales rising to $12.8 billion, Statistics Canada says.

h/t CBC

This GM “bailout” video below captures what is at stake (divide by 10 to understand the Canadian ramifications):

Direct impact:

239,000 employees

775,000 pensioners

2,000,000 relying on them for health benefits.

Suppliers:

$156 Billion in sales

610,000 workers

14,000 Dealers with

740,000 employees

Chapter 11 is the probably the only hope. A bailout, regardless of the size, won’t change the root cause of the problem.

They have to drop the social programs, the unions, and re-invent themselves to be competitive once again.

Or they can throw $50 billion or so at them to stall their death for a little while, and enlarge the impact.

Imagine if your business has to support three people for every employee.

These aren’t carmakers anymore - they’ve become social institutions.

Welcome to the future.

Old one from Rick Mercer.

The good news is that real estate is going down fast. Now you can get a 400 sq. ft. apartment for under $300K.

Vancouver’s new Mayor Gregor Robertson will not only head our city for the 2010 Winter Olympics, but he also promises to solve an issue that has no one has been able to fix.

“Job No. 1 is calling together an emergency task force on homelessness and working on solutions to getting people off the street into a safe place to live as quickly as possible,” said Robertson, a 44-year-old businessman and former MLA, who won the Mayor contest in a landslide.

“We will bring out brightest minds together and end homelessness in Vancouver,” said Robertson.

You’d think that with an average expenditure if $44K per homeless person, they’d manage to at least get them a room.

The East Hastings area is the fastest growing area of Vancouver… it attracts the homeless from across Canada due to the the quality of drugs and services down there.

Good Luck Greg, you’ll need it.

photo credit: tris

You Go Girls…

photo credit: Yodel Anecdotal

I get this question from website owners at least once a week:

“How do I get my site on Google?”

Finally Google has put together an easy guide to what they look for and best practices to follow. All the steps are easy to do.

The interesting thing about this guide is that the basics - that have existed for years -still rule.

You can read their post here, or download the guide directly from this link.

If you have a WordPress blog use this plugin - it does a lot of the tagging for you.

See you on Google.

Found this great list of Obama’s promises from his “Blueprint for Change,” his campaign speeches and advertisements.

It’s worth printing out and putting it away.

Hope and change is going to be a bit harder than he has let on.

Here’s the list from the Investor’s Business Daily site:

Taxes

• Give a tax break to 95% of Americans.

• Restore Clinton-era tax rates on top income earners.

• “If you make under $250,000, you will not see your taxes increase by a single dime. Not your income taxes, not your payroll taxes, not your capital gains taxes. Nothing.”

• Dramatically simplify tax filings so that millions of Americans will be able to do their taxes in less than five minutes.

• Give American businesses a $3,000 tax credit for every job they create in the U.S.

• Eliminate capital gains taxes for small business and startup companies.

• Eliminate income taxes for seniors making under $50,000.

• Expand the child and dependent care tax credit.

• Expand the earned income tax credit.

• Create a universal mortgage credit.

• Create a small business health tax credit.

• Provide a $500 “make work pay” tax credit to small businesses.

• Provide a $1,000 emergency energy rebate to families.

Energy

• Spend $15 billion a year on renewable sources of energy.

• Eliminate oil imports from the Middle East in 10 years.

• Increase fuel economy standards by 4% a year.

• Weatherize 1 million homes annually.

• Ensure that 10% of our electricity comes from renewable sources by 2012.

Environment

• Create 5 million green jobs.

• Implement a cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

• Get 1 million plug-in hybrids on the road by 2015.

Labor

• Sign a fair pay restoration act, which would overturn the Supreme Court’s pay discrimination ruling.

• Sign into law an employee free choice act — aka card check — to make it easier for unions to organize.

• Make employers offer seven paid sick days per year.

• Increase the minimum wage to $9.50 an hour by 2009.

National security

• Remove troops from Iraq by the summer of 2010.

• Cut spending on unproven missile defense systems.

• No more homeless veterans.

• Stop spending $10 billion a month in Iraq.

• Finish the fight against Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaida terrorists.

Social Security

• Work in a “bipartisan way to preserve Social Security for future generations.”

• Impose a Social Security payroll tax on incomes above $250,000.

• Match 50% of retirement savings up to $1,000 for families earning less than $75,000.

Education

• Demand higher standards and more accountability from our teachers.

Spending

• Go through the budget, line by line, ending programs we don’t need and making the ones we do need work better and cost less.

• Slash earmarks.

Health care

• Lower health care costs for the typical family by $2,500 a year.

• Let the uninsured get the same kind of health insurance that members of Congress get.

• Stop insurance companies from discriminating against those who are sick and need care the most.

• Spend $10 billion over five years on health care information technology.

Let’s see if he keeps any - I bet he’ll actually make good on less than 15% of the ones that are measurable.

photo credit: azrainman

photo credit: niallkennedy

If you haven’t visited Lifehacker before, now is a good time to check it out - they have a great article on how to speed up your slow PC. Takes a little knowledge, but if you follow the article you’ll be able to do what they are advising and get that ol’ clunker of yours going again.

It’s the The Complete Guide to Speeding Up Your PC’s Startup… and in 15 minutes you’ll be good to go.

Also, make sure you read the article on common Windows performance myths.

Or, you could sneak out of the house and get on of those great new MacBooks

Here’s a good documentary on the Great Lie of Our Time.

It’s over an hour long, so grab a coffee.

I’ve been a skeptic for a lot of reasons… and in case I’m wrong, Vancouver could use a good warming - it would do a lot for the economy.

Only 5 more months of winter to go out here.

Is this a sign of the times?

The people voted - mainstream America has said that want to preserve the meaning of marriage as a man and a woman.

So if the gay community wants the same rights a married couple, push for civil union. No difference, and it leaves religion out of the equation. They get what they want - the rights a hetro couple has.

I never thought I’d see the hate coming from the gay cause like we are seeing today. Not since the Rodney King riots have we seen hate and venom like this. And from the most unlikely group to promote hate.

It’s an attack on democracy and also proof that the agenda runs a lot deeper than meets the eye.

From Worldnet

Matt Barber, director of cultural affairs for Liberty Counsel, called the statements “hate crimes” for their intent to create violence against someone based on their beliefs.

“This is not just a matter of some people blowing off steam because they’re not happy with a political outcome. This is criminal activity,” he said. “The homosexual lobby is always calling for ‘tolerance’ and ‘diversity’ and playing the role of victim. They claim to deplore violence and ‘hate.’ Here we have homosexuals inciting, and directly threatening, violence against Christians.”

On the “Queerty” website, “Stenar” asked, “Can someone in CA please go burn down the Mormon temples there, PLEASE. I mean seriously. DO IT.”

“I’m going to give them something to be f—ing scared of. … I’m a radical who is now on a mission to make them all pay for what they’ve done,” wrote “Jonathan.”

Liberty Counsel’s Barber said, “This is not free speech; these are ‘hate crimes’ under the existing definition. Imagine if Christian websites were advocating such violence against homosexuals. There’d be outrage, and rightfully so. It’d be national front-page news. Federal authorities should immediately investigate these threats and prosecute the perpetrators to the fullest extent of the law.”

On yet another site, “Americablog,” “scottinsf” wrote, “Trust me. I’ve got a big list of names of mormons and catholics that were big supporters of Prop 8. … As far as mormons and catholics … I warn them to watch their backs.”

“I hope they all rot in hell, those servants of a lying, corrupt devil! BAN RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISM,” wrote Angelo.

One contributor went so far as to threaten to take out his frustrations on his own family.

“You want me to come back to Idaho for Christmas? Oh wait, my partner and I can’t share the same bed? We can’t show any affection or any outward sign of our love for each other? Well sorry family … no Uncle Adam and all his expensive gifts and delicious cooking for you. Your childrens’ presents will now be donations in their name to the equal rights organization of my choosing. As will their and your birthday presents, graduation presents, and everything else I give going forward.”

The writer continued, “Remember, I’m angry. And I’m strong from my years at the gym and really am ready to take my frustration out on someone or something.”

Barber said the Human Rights Campaign, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and “other leaders within the homosexual lobby” should call immediately for an end to such threats.

There were suggestions of a different type of violence, too.

“Hope the gay waiters at their hotel p—ed in all the drinks they served these cretins,” “Jake” wrote about protectors of traditional marriage.

“If you’re planning a heterosexual wedding in California … be prepared for picketers. Designate someone to watch the parking lot … You’re going to have lots of unexpected expenses. Add $500 to your budget for security. … Be prepared for the flowers not lasting to the reception or the tuxedos showing up two sizes too small or the music at the reception being a way too loud or the cake tasting a little funny,” stated another threat. “Be afraid. Be very afraid. We are everywhere.”

Another even listed addresses of Mormon facilities. Mormon, Catholic and other religious groups were active in supporting the marriage definition.

“I do not openly advocate firebombing or vandalism. What you do with the information is your own choice,” wrote Jeremy.

photo credit: MSLUCKYgurli

The Federal Court of Appeal has struck down the government’s monopoly on supplying medical marijuana.

Eric Nash can barely contain his excitement waiting to hear from Health Canada whether he can start growing marijuana for 250 patients. Nash believes commercial agricultural production of pot is around the corner and the sky’s the limit.

His local company, Island Harvest, has cleared the industrial security regulatory hurdles so the company meets the standards set by Ottawa to grow the much-demonized plant.

“Our vision is to have a sustainable commercial agriculture operation,” he said. “There’s no reason we can’t achieve that. Look at the number of compassion clubs, look at the number of people using marijuana to relieve a headache or pre-menstrual cramps!”

That’s one of the fundamental reasons behind the court ruling Oct. 27-  the medical marijuana program set up by Ottawa isn’t working.

The government sells maybe $1 million a year worth of the pot produced, and compassion clubs across the country sell about $10 million worth of cannabis products.

The BC market is $1.8 billion - just shy of the $2.3 billion we spend on tobacco.

It only confirms that the government is completely inept at business - It can’t even make a go of selling pot.

More on the story here..

photo credit: Riude

A cool Firefox application… search YouTube for local video - it shows the results to you on a map.

The YouTube team just released an application that merges Google Gears geolocation and the video geo search. Using this demo application, you can find nearby videos based on your location. It will add the plugin you need automatically.

Have fun.