Pop Wisdom And Logic
Moby's opinion on the debate:

My note to the far-right would be: you can’t have it both ways. If you genuinely believe in the sanctity of life then you cannot support the death penalty and you cannot allow people to buy automatic assault weapons and you cannot support wars that result in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent people. And if you genuinely believe in states rights then you can’t pass intrusive federal legislation when the states do things that you arbitrarily disagree with.

And on a funnier note, Gawker's take on the whole debate:

If god existed, would she make Vin Diesel a star? No she would not. Case closed.

It's All In The Angle Of The Story
From a discussion on Plastic on the possible ban of .50 caliber rifles, someone points out that a shotgun can fire a slug of roughly the same weight as a .50 bullet.

Here is one humorous reply:

I think this whole discussion is a classic tempest/teapot scenario, but given your knowledge of the subject I think you're being a little disingenuous in suggesting that the weight of the slug makes a 12-gauge shotgun comparable to a rifle firing a .50BMG round. There is some difference in muzzle velocity, is there not? And a corresponding difference in the energy of the round? And consequently of effective range?

I'm by no means an authority on firearms or their use, but I would suspect that the best way to kill someone with a shotgun from 1500 meters away would be to convert the range entirely into the vertical axis and drop the weapon on his or her head.

Just One Thing To Say...
About yesterday's episode of LOST:

Someone installed a Clapper inside the hatch!

Path Of The Pedal
I have often wondered what It would be like to ditch the cube for a bike courier job. This guy: A Coder in Courierland, actually did it.

The story is very interesting, detailing what is involved in the courier life. Interesting bits like what they deliver (most often legal paper but occasional odd things like film reels and bags of blood), nicknames for pedestrians (Flesh Pylons) and what they ride (everything from fancy dual-suspension rigs to 30 year old fixed gear bikes).

Not something to try while paying a mortgage but it still makes me dream. Although in my dreams it's never -20, so I guess I need to move to San Francisco.

One Made Up Story Fighting Another
So the vatican is denouncing the NOVEL "The Devinci Code". My mother told me they put it on "The Index", I had no idea what she was talking about. Once I looked into it and found out that they want to put this book on the same list as philosophers like Locke, Kant, Rousseau and authors like Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas and Balzac, it just seems to put Dan Brown on a whole other level. This is not a dig at Mr. Brown's work (I devoured this book as well as Angels and Demons) but I just can't place him in the same category as those authors. Like my friend dante said, this just seems to give more legitimacy to the book than if they had just ignored it.

Techno Lust
Oh! I think I just had a little techno orgasm...

I may be behind the times for some but this combo is new to me:
- Take digital pictures
- Import pictures into Picasa
- From within Picasa, email the pictures using GMail to your Flickr upload-by-email address
- Setup Flickr to automatically post your picture to you Blogger account (also works with TypePad, LiveJournal, Movable Type and many other).

That is some great inter-connectivity between some of my most favorite applications. This is what the Internet/Technology is about, allowing you to do great things like this. Yeah, I know I am blowing this out of proportion but it's just very cool.

Long Exposure Fun

134_3420-1
Originally uploaded by emineau.

5 second exposure, looking west from downtown Montreal

Sureal Moment of the Day
A consultant that brings in pictures of his wife and kids to put on his desk on the second day of a two month contract: a tiny bit unusual

A consultant that logs into an online dating website (ReseauContact): unexpected but still ordinary

That they are both the same person: Weird

Wierdest Spam Ever

Subject: Gouranga
Call out Gouranga be happy!!!
Gouranga Gouranga Gouranga ....
That which brings the highest happiness!!

Sounds like Engrish to me.

But apparently it's Hare Krishnas: UrbanDictionary.com, fourth definition. More info on this site: "Gouranga" spam - who's behind it and what it's about. It seems it can be blocked easily as it is coming from one address.

Homebrew Lasertag
Having played a lot of LaserQuest, this project was very impressive to me:
MilesTag - DIY Laser Tag System. From the electronics diagrams to the syntax of the IR transmissions, all home made. It has many possibilities that surpass most of the commercial systems available. Watch for the Trogdornator gun.

Observations From The Passport Office
- It opens at 7:30 am, really early for a federal service
- I though I would be smart and and show up just at opening time. I showed up at 7:36, I was 50th in line
- The office is on the eight floor of the building, they make everyone cute down stairs and then make people go up in groups that fit in the elevators after giving them a ticket to make sure they get back in line in the same order after you get off the elevator
- They have two people who make sure your application is complete with all the paperwork needed before they make you go into the waiting room. Once they have checked your application is complete, they give you a numbered ticket.
- The passports are no longer made locally. They are all issued and mailed out of Ottawa to your home, unless you pay extra for the rush version where you can come pick it up in at the office
- Total time from queue up to exit: 50 minutes. Considering the amount of people, I found this system highly efficient. Bravo

Plastic: Boeing, Boeing, Gone - CEO Ousted For Workplace Affair: From the comments:

personally, if I was owner of a business I would positively encourage affairs amongst my workers.
Gives them an incentive to drag their arse in every day, and there is no better team building exercise than regular sexual intercourse. - by chatsubo