The Eternal Gaijin

We've watched Canadians move SOTB for many, many years. We've seen our dollar valued less than Canadian Tire money. We've seen towns like Messina and Kittery do quite well in cross-border shopping despite the appalling exchange rates. Now, the dollar is up. And the Yanks are coming up North in a Guns for Healtcare exchange program. American moves to Canada reach record high The number of Americans admitted to Canada last year reached a 30-year high, with a 20 per cent increase over the previous year and nearly double the number that arrived in 2000. Who's coming and where are they going? "When looking at the differences over the past few years in the real numbers between the two countries, Canada is undoubtedly narrowing the brain drain," the study said. The most educated immigrant group comes from the U.S, with nearly half possessing a bachelor's degree or higher, the study found. Ontario was the most popular destination for Americans, followed by B.C a...

...is that all it took to get the impeachment process started? More criminalizing of political amnesia. A new low for the secular progressives. Now, excuse me, I have to go pray. Crooks and Liars » BREAKING: House Democrats Introducing Bill To Investigate Impeachment Of Alberto Gonzales MSNBC just reported that Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA) announced he will be introducing a bill tomorrow that would require the House Judiciary Committee to begin an impeachment investigation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. At the beginning of the report MSNBC’s Chris Jansing says this bill was being presented by a group of House Democrats, but Inslee is the only one mentioned. More details to come… Powered by ScribeFire .

The reason to read this article in Reason Magazine isn't that it touches on drunk astronauts; it's the 3 versions of Rocket Man by Mr Wm Shatner. Reason Magazine - Hit & Run > NASA's Rocket Men Really Were High as a Kite... Powered by ScribeFire .

We can't let the party really get started on Fridays without a press release from the Ministry of Buzzkill, So here's a thought: let's see what they have to say. Experts dismiss case for cannabis reclassification | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited Drug experts today said there was still insufficient evidence to reclassify cannabis, after a report suggested the drug could increase the risk of schizophrenia by at least 40%. The Labour MP Brian Iddon and Professor Robin Murray, of the Institute of Psychiatry, said there would be no benefit gained by restoring cannabis to a class B drug. I would consider that to be a self-evident point. Still, this idea of a lot of people developing schizophrenia because of dope seems like a nasty point. How bad is it anyway? Prof Murray said: "Individuals who - perhaps with some mild predisposition - would not otherwise have developed schizophrenia will do so because of taking cannabis. It's a bit like how people with only a min...

Apparently Marcus Brigstocke's rant last week brought about a few letters and emails. And his retort is well worth it. At One Good Move Powered by ScribeFire .

Well, it's a small gesture to make atheism a bit more public. Not that I wasn't public. But now I have something I could put on a headband. Anyway, PZ Myers has more: Pharyngula: Come out! Powered by ScribeFire .

Your Score : Very Logical You are 100 % Logical. Excellent! You rival Spock in Spockiness. Live long and prosper. Link: The How Logical Are You Test written by masterfiremaam on OkCupid Free Online Dating , home of the The Dating Persona Test -- From: The Eternal Gaijin Lost Somewhere in Kobe, Japan "Words Cannot Describe What I Am About To Tell You."

You Are An Atheist God? No thanks. You're not buying into any religion. They're all bunk to you. You rather focus on what you know is true. You may be a passive non-believer or a rabid atheist activist. But one thing is for sure... no one's going to make you go to church! Are You an Atheist, Agnostic or a Believer? -- From: The Eternal Gaijin Lost Somewhere in Kobe, Japan "Words Cannot Describe What I Am About To Tell You."

'Tis the season to be Potter, tra la la la la, la la la la. I haven't read the books and I didn't like the first two movies so I may not actually be an expert. I might see the new movie. What is interesting is that the Xtians get their thongs in a bunch over Harry Potter. There's all the huing and crying about witchcraft and devil worship and such. I never understand the panic. Jon Stewart would say it's just mean-spirited dickery . To me it's always been a touchstone for the lack of reality in the fundie camp. To not know that Harry Potter isn't real seems plausible for people who only ever read one book. And it's a book filled with magic anyway, so maybe Hagrid really did rescue Harry from wicked step-parents. Sara over at Orcinus has a really good essay which takes the idea to a deeper level that I ever did. Orcinus But once you've rejected the reality-based world in favor of a mythic worldview, you are -- by definition -- building your life on...

...a TV network executive once said that no-one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public. Given the last 6 years of politics, abuses of power and this article, I would add intelligence as well. Creationism museum attracts big crowds - Focus on Faith - MSNBC.com Less than two months after opening, a northern Kentucky museum dedicated to promoting creationism has drawn 100,000 visitors, causing some growing pains, museum officials said. The milestone visit — the honor went to a Buffalo, N.Y., family — means the $27 million museum is on pace to easily shatter the first-year attendance projection of 250,000 visits, officials said. Powered by ScribeFire .

I've liked Stephen Pinker since former co-worker SK introduced me to The Language Instinct. And he's one of the few public intellectuals who's an atheist and not constantly under fire for being so. (Witness Hitchens' series of ass-handing-tos debates with mail-order Rev. Al Sharpton or anything Richard Dawkins says) In defense of dangerous ideas :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Other Views Do women, on average, have a different profile of aptitudes and emotions than men? Were the events in the Bible fictitious -- not just the miracles, but those involving kings and empires? Has the state of the environment improved in the last 50 years? Do most victims of sexual abuse suffer no lifelong damage? Did Native Americans engage in genocide and despoil the landscape? Do men have an innate tendency to rape? Did the crime rate go down in the 1990s because two decades earlier poor women aborted children who would have been prone to violence? Are suicide terrorists well-educated, mentally...

Is it even possible to get to law school, let alone through it, being so blissfully unaware of the function of WRITING? Tip to Republicans: Paper is not like Microsoft Word. If you fold the paper before you finish the memo the words are still there. Crooks and Liars » BREAKING: Documents Contradict Gonzales’ testimony Powered by ScribeFire .

I've been a fan of Marcus Brigstocke for a while. It started with "We are History," a brilliant satirical take on "Time Team." (And that's my shout out to the British fans) and his attempts to learn and perform in French for a reality TV show . On the BBC's The Now Show he delivers some great material and this little rant is one of the best. Esp for someone who keeps going to visit our buddies at XtianGov't.ca. (Aren't I due for another trip? Sheesh.) onegoodmove: Petulant Pricks Petulant Pricks Well done. Marcus Brigstocke on the BBC's Now Show delivered a lovely rant directed at the people of the book, could we please have our planet back. It does sound like he's been reading Richard Dawkins book the The God Delusion and now you can pre-order the paperback edition. P.S. As a counter point, Pharyngula has a link to the benefits for teachers of religious edumacation in Kansas . Powered by ScribeFire .

Boing Boing has one of the great Catch-22 stories: Boing Boing: Secret list of buildings you can't photograph Secret list of buildings you can't photograph The DHS says that it's against the law to photograph "sensitive" government buildings, but they won't publish a list of these buildings, so it's impossible to comply with the law. The rub is that if you get caught breaking the law, you'll get shaken down, have your name and personal information taken, and go into a file, presumably forever. The bottom line is that McCammon was caught in a classic logical trap. If he had only known the building was off-limits to photographers, he would have avoided it. But he was not allowed to know that fact. "Reasonable, law-abiding people tend to avoid these types of things when it can be helped," McCammon wrote. "Thus, my request for a list of locations within Arlington County that are unmarked, but at which photography is either prohibited o...

I've got a Japanese exam to run off to today so I won't be doing much of a post.Still, thanks to Dispatches from the Culture War, I've got this video for people.It's a religious Blazing Saddles campfire scene. Low, low, low brow. Via Dispatches

It's not just a theory. Get over it. Stop using the argument. Evolution is Not Just a Theory: home You've been told that "evolution is just a theory", a guess, a hunch, and not a fact, not proven. You've been misled. Keep reading, and in less than two minutes from now you'll know that you've been misinformed. We're not going to try and change your mind about evolution. We just want to point out that "it's just a theory" is not a valid argument. HT to Bad Astonomy Powered by ScribeFire .

Heading out soon and don't feel like doing a real post. BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Computers crack famous board game Christopher Hitchens - An Atheist Responds - washingtonpost.com A Blog from Hell: Informed bigotry versus Ignorant tolerance Meta and Meta: Next Question Journal Entry denialism blog : Why do people believe in conspiracy theories? The Bronze Blog: Twoof is Wewative The Bronze Blog: The 9/11 Twoofer Credo And a quick thought: Dispatches from the Culture Wars: Quote of the Day: Pascal Men never do evil so cheerfully and so completely as when they do so from religious conviction. Blaise Pascal And one more: onegoodmove: Lost and Found Lost and Found I recall the story of the philosopher and the theologian. The two were engaged in disputation and the theologian used the old quip about a philosopher being like a blind man, in a dark room, looking for a black cat—which wasn't there. "That may be," said the philosopher; "but a theologian would ...

Your Score: Spiteful Loner You are 71% Rational, 28% Extroverted, 71% Brutal, and 28% Arrogant. You are the Spiteful Loner, the personality type that is most likely to go on a shooting rampage. In high school, you were probably that kid who wore all black and who sat alone in a corner of the lunch room, drawing pictures of dead babies. You are a rational person and tend to hold emotions in very low-esteem; not only that, but you are also rather introverted, meaning you probably bury any emotions you feel deep inside yourself, like all of the bodies in your backyard. Combine these traits with your dislike of others and your brutality, and it seems that you would be quite likely to shoot innocent people in a rampage. Most likely, you also have low self-esteem. Hell, I get low self-esteem just looking at you. This is only yet one more incentive to go on a shooting rampage, because you wouldn't care if you died as a result. Granted, you probably h...

I skulk around Bad Astronomy fairly frequently. Phil Plait is a writer with a conversational style and clear vision. And he drops both of them like a hammer on another pack of creationist crud. Read on: Bad Astronomy Blog » Another passel of creationist lies Usually, when someone spouts creationist garbage, it’s because they’ve been misled. We have a case of this, in spades, in the Evansville (Indiana) Courier Press, where a highly deluded creationist has written an editorial so full of crap I’m tempted to call a septic cleaning crew. Powered by ScribeFire .

I wonder what's happening with our friends over at the Theocratic Authoritarian Christiangouvernement page? Christian Government - Timothy Bloedow Ooo, another newsletter. Seems hot on the heels of the last one I chewed on. Shouldn't sit on them so long in the future. So, what we got this time? (Please remember I do this so you don't have to.) Media coverage and promotion for “State vs. Church” My two recent U.S. media interviews took place as planned. Thank you for praying for these opportunities. Praying got you the spots. Should get a better agent. Might get you on a big network, not just a couple of Xtian ones. If you type "Christian government" into the Google search engine, our website is right at the top of page 1 of the websites listed by Google. We more reality based types have to get Fuck Christian Government further up the list. Other websites, both friendly and hostile, continue to discover our website, which expands the influence of our Biblical mess...

Via Uncredible Hallq The Uncredible Hallq: Classic neocon joke Q. How many neocons does it take to screw in a light bulb? A. That's an interesting question, one that I'm sure future historians will investigate in detail. Look, let me address this issue up front: I don't know who's been installing light bulbs or who hasn't. That's none of my business. There's a lot of different views, there's a range of views, and a lot of concerns, and we are working to accommodate those concerns. We know at this point that we still have some work to do and we are working very hard to address these issues. We're not making estimates. At this point what you've had are some fairly -- you had some dramatic testimony and comments -- by the way, you can expect people to be ventilating these differing points of views in coming days. Our view is you have to have a resolution that offers a solution. And you're going to have people -- there is sometimes, you'll ...

Study: Multiple Stab Wounds May Be Harmful To Monkeys -- From: The Eternal Gaijin Lost Somewhere in Kobe, Japan "Words Cannot Describe What I Am About To Tell You."

Nutritionally speaking this is a god-send to me and my wife. Curry may combat Alzheimer's | The Register US researchers have isolated a compound in turmeric - commonly used in the UK's national dish chicken tikka masala and other more deadly curry concoctions - which "may help stimulate immune system cells that gobble up the brain-clogging proteins that mark Alzheimer's disease", Reuters reports. Dr Milan Fiala of the University of California Los Angeles and colleagues note in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that they'd already shown that curcumin "may affect the brain cells of Alzheimer's patients", but wanted to pinpoint the "precise factor" responsible. Click here to find out more! They eventually fingered bisdemethoxycurcumin, and blood samples from Alzheimer's patients demonstrated that it "boosted immune cells called macrophages to clear a protein called amyloid beta, which clogs the brains of Alzhei...

An increase in terrorist threat due to the Iraq War. The bad news in the National Intelligence Estimate. - By Fred Kaplan - Slate Magazine The National Intelligence Estimate that was released today—titled "The Terrorist Threat to the Homeland"—amounts to a devastating critique of the Bush administration's policies on Iraq, Iran, and the terrorist threat itself. Its main point is that the threat—after having greatly receded over the past five years—is back in full force. Al-Qaida has "protected or regenerated key elements" of its ability to attack the United States. It has a "safe haven" in Pakistan. Its "top leadership" and "operational lieutenants" are intact. It is cooperating more with "regional terrorist groups." And there are hints that the swarm organization that is talked about at Global Guerillas all the time is seeping into the consciousness of the intelligence community in the US. One major reason for al-Qaida...

Cast a wide net and see what you get. Works for the dolphin fishermen. BBC NEWS | UK | Half of terror suspects released Half of terror suspects released More than half of those arrested in the UK on suspicion of terrorism since September 2001 have been released without charge, according to figures. Home Office statistics show 669 of the 1,228 people arrested in terrorist investigations were later freed. Powered by ScribeFire .

Hakuho, Kotomitsuki overpower opponents | The Japan Times Online Hakuho, Kotomitsuki overpower opponents NAGOYA (Kyodo) Newly promoted grand champion Hakuho and promotion-chasing sekiwake Kotomitsuki stayed firmly in the lead with undefeated records, overpowering their respective opponents on the ninth day of action at the Nagoya Grand Sumo Tournament on Monday. Powered by ScribeFire .

Just cause Iraq worked out so well, here we go with part two of the story. Cheney pushes Bush to act on Iran | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited The balance in the internal White House debate over Iran has shifted back in favour of military action before President George Bush leaves office in 18 months, the Guardian has learned. The shift follows an internal review involving the White House, the Pentagon and the state department over the last month. Although the Bush administration is in deep trouble over Iraq, it remains focused on Iran. A well-placed source in Washington said: "Bush is not going to leave office with Iran still in limbo." Powered by ScribeFire .

Via One Good Move onegoodmove: Evolution - Creationism More Americans accept theory of creationism than evolution < Only 14% of those who said they didn't believe in evolution cited a lack of scientific evidence as the reason, and that's why they call it faith. Or blind ignorance. Christ! Theory of Creationism. It's like the Theory of the Brontosaurus. What's the theory? Ummm, I dunno. God, I guess. [Resumes scratching ass and sighing] Powered by ScribeFire .

jj over at unrepentant old hippie has noticed a few odd referrals in the comments. And they come from... the Christy gov't types. unrepentant old hippie: They're stalking us The article that ran in the Christian government newsletter a few weeks ago, "Secular Humanists Have Discovered Christian Government.ca!!!", is running again this week as an opinion piece on something called the "Christian Civic League Record", another chock-fulla-nuts fundie site (I perused it a little and probably lost about 10 IQ points in the process). Our offensive blogs are linked, with appropriately dire warnings about profanity and blasphemy. No doubt lured by the promise of evil, wicked, bad craziness, a couple of these folks have dropped in here already. *waves* They like us, they really really like us... So, in deference to the visitors, let's keep the fucking profanity to a minimum, eh? Hahahaha! I'll have to start checking my own referrals. It's like blind dat...

Psychic, cops . . . all clueless | The Japan Times Online On March 27, the naked corpse of Lindsay Ann Hawker, a 22-year-old conversation-school instructor from England, was found buried in a sand-filled bathtub on an apartment veranda in Ichikawa City, Chiba Prefecture. Tatsuya Ichihashi, age 28, occupant of the apartment, is wanted in connection with the slaying. His whereabouts remain unknown. Yeah, the guy snuck out of a room full of cops and got away. But what can they do about it. 120 some million people in the country, how do you find a fugitive. Well you could try police work but that's hard. I know lets bring in a pro: The bizarre aspects of the slaying continue to provide grist for the media mill. In the June 30 installment of its "Tokuso! Terebi no Chikara Special," TV Asahi brought in a celebrated British psychic, "Dream Detective" Chris Robinson, to "assist" the police in tracking down the culprit. Oh, for fuck sake people. Have you neve...

Us: Judge rules Canada's pot possession laws unconstitutional A Toronto judge has ruled that Canada's pot possession laws are unconstitutional after a man argued the country's medicinal marijuana regulations are flawed. Them: cannabisnews.com: Drug Czar Gives Warning The nation's top anti-drug official said people need to overcome their "reefer blindness" and see that illicit marijuana gardens are a terrorist threat to the public's health and safety, as well as to the environment. John P. Walters, President Bush's drug czar, said the people who plant and tend the gardens are terrorists who wouldn't hesitate to help other terrorists get into the country with the aim of causing mass casualties. Walters made the comments at a Thursday press conference that provided an update on the "Operation Alesia" marijuana-eradication effort. Thus Spake the Gaijin. Powered by ScribeFire .

Your Personality is Very Rare (INTP) Your personality type is goofy, imaginative, relaxed, and brilliant. Only about 4% of all people have your personality, including 2% of all women and 6% of all men You are Introverted, Intuitive, Thinking, and Perceiving. How Rare Is Your Personality? From: The Eternal Gaijin Lost Somewhere in Kobe, Japan "Words Cannot Describe What I Am About To Tell You."

Nice to see the Freudian slip and the slapdown that it brings. onegoodmove: The Constitution A Presidential flunky, Sara Taylor, shows an appalling lack of knowledge about government service and the constitution. Patrick Leahy gives her a well deserved upbraiding. “I know that the president refers to the government being his government — it’s not” — Patrick Leahy (tip to Eric) Powered by ScribeFire .

..all the time I used to spend as a kid stealing butter tarts out of the freezer between baking weekend and Christmas I was doing something totally Canadian. CANOE -- JAM! Books: How many Canadianisms do you know? Katherine Barber has two words for Canadians who don't know their own lexicon: butter tart Powered by ScribeFire .

Politically incorrect. Why is it always a smoke screen for factually incorrect? Or rude as fuck?  That's all people mean when the say politically incorrect. So what does that have to do with Psychology Today? Glad you asked. Psychology Today: Ten Politically Incorrect Truths About Human Nature Human behavior is a product both of our innate human nature and of our individual experience and environment. In this article, however, we emphasize biological influences on human behavior, because most social scientists explain human behavior as if evolution stops at the neck and as if our behavior is a product almost entirely of environment and socialization. In contrast, evolutionary psychologists see human nature as a collection of psychological adaptations that often operate beneath conscious thinking to solve problems of survival and reproduction by predisposing us to think or feel in certain ways. Our preference for sweets and fats is an evolved psychological mechanism. We d...

Arrgh. Ahoy mateys. Actually, I should stop that as apparently it's not completely true. Check out the evidence: From: Link via Boing Boing Now to the various American lobbies putting pressure on Canada in these areas: STFD, STFU, and GTFBW!!! Got it?

It's NOT an antidote to the South Park episode. It just takes it further, but without the Tom Cruise jokes. Secrets of Scientology The Secrets of Scientology The Church of Scientology is a rich and vengeful religious cult, or as one critic puts it, "a cross between the Moonies and the Mafia." But it would be a mistake to dismiss its underlying technology as harmless or ineffective. Scientologists know a great deal about thought control, social control, rhetorical judo (defeat by misdirection, deft use of logical fallacies) and high pressure sales, though as victims of their own technology, they wouldn't characterize it that way. Powered by ScribeFire .

Oooh, there's a newsletter from the 30th of June. Christian Government - Timothy Bloedow Today I want to continue my response to Redeemer University professor David Koyzis' critical review of "State vs. Church" in the ChristianWeek newspaper. This is a short commentary, but it would be too long if I included my final point, so I will wrap up this response to Koyzis' review in a 3rd commentary next week. Might be interesting... I am also hoping to write soon about the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision against the left's use of racism to exploit ethnic minorities. Let's keep rooting for the complete annihilation of that wicked and dehumanizing notion of affirmative action (and related state-ist, group rights concepts). (You can learn more about the serious thinking of conservative blacks by visiting websites on my links page under the sub-title, "Introducing Canada to "Black" conservatism." Eh, American court decisions and stuff. M...

Sun did not cause recent climate change: U.K. study Solar radiation is not the cause of recent global warming, two scientists say in a report published by Britain's Royal Society, the country's science organization. The study was undertaken partly to rebut a TV documentary that argued natural solar radiation, not human activity, is the cause of global warming, the BBC reported. Powered by ScribeFire .

Boing Boing: Exploded view of Steorn's perpetual motion device Exploded view of Steorn's perpetual motion device Based on the published photos of Orbo (Steorn's perpetual motion device that didn't work when it was demonstrated for the first time in public on July, 2007), a fellow named Axle has drawn an exploded view of the gizmo. Powered by ScribeFire .

Ever since Friend SRGN gave me a Latin copy of How the Grinch Stole Christmas , I've kinda wondered if there's been a Latin revival brewing. It appears that the number of people crying out for more public Latin has hit the critical mass needed to push the Catholic Church into one of it's boldest modernizing moves in years: the re-introduction of the Latin Mass. BBC NEWS | Europe | Pope ends Latin Mass restriction Pope Benedict has lifted restrictions on celebrating the Latin Tridentine Mass, pleasing some traditionalists. Traditionalists in the Mel Gibson mode. Rift-healing The late Pope John Paul II partially relaxed the prohibition in the 1980s, allowing bishops discretionary powers to let priests celebrate Mass in Latin if members of the congregation asked for it. The Pope wanted to heal a rift with ultra-traditionalists who rebelled against Second Vatican Council changes. Traditionalists like Mel Gibson. Surely this will heal all those nasty rifts within the church. A...

Looks like Hakuho is doing well in his yokozuna debut. Hakuho retains share of lead | The Japan Times Online Mongolian grand champion Hakuho churned out another convincing win with a demolition of Wakanosato, while yokozuna Asashoryu disposed of Dejima to stay one off the pace at the Nagoya Grand Sumo Tournament on Tuesday. In the day's penultimate bout at Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium, Hakuho was never in trouble as he calmly put his opponent in an armlock after a short exchange following the face-off and tugged the winless No. 2 maegashira to the dirt to keep a perfect 3-0 record. Technorati Tags: sumo , japan , update Powered by ScribeFire .

The Panda's Thumb has a quick blurb about recent 'suspicious packages' left at a biology department in the States. The Evolution Creationism Bullshit debate has hit a new low. And people wonder why there's a backlash against the anti-science crusaders. The Panda's Thumb: Creato-Terrorism It was only a matter of time. The creationists, frustrated at continued legal losses and the complete lack of respect they receive from scientists, have finally past the threshold from trying to distort science in schools to attacking science in a more direct fashion. Today’s Denver Post contains a very short piece about an unnamed “religious group” leaving threatening packages at the CU Boulder ecology and evolutionary biology department, just up the road from where I work. (I’m a little disappointed that our campus didn’t receive this honor – but then again I could do without security crawling all over the place, making sure we have our ID badges displayed properly, etc.) T...

Canada tokes at 4 times world average: UN Canadians use marijuana at four times the world average, making Canada the leader of the industrialized world in cannabis consumption, a recent United Nations report found. My wife is very anti-drugs and will definitely have a lot to say about this. Me, I don't use but I don't care much about drugs. I do care about rational public policy and as such I think we should tear down the existing policies and redraw them around a minimal harm and medical rehabilitation framework. That's why my wife and I don't talk about these things much. And for the British Tory point of view: Tories highlight cannabis dangers in drug blueprint | Politics | The Observer The health risks of cannabis are so great that it should now be reclassified as a class B drug, carrying much greater penalties for possession and trafficking, says David Cameron's new blueprint for dealing with Britain's growing addiction problems. Meaning it should be re...

Thanks to Boing Boing for following up on this. Click through for the video. It's great. Boing Boing: Video of Steorn CEO explaining why its perpetual motion device failed at demo Excuses, excuses. Watch Steorn's CEO explain why his perpetual motion gizmo, Orbo, failed to work as hoped when it was unveiled at a gallery in London last week. Powered by ScribeFire .

PS3 is coming down in price. BBC NEWS | Business | Sony cuts Playstation price in US Sony is slashing the price of its PlayStation 3 games console by 17% or $100 in the US to boost sales. As a result the PS3 will now cost $500 (£249), between $100 and $200 more than versions of the Microsoft Xbox 360 and twice as much as the Nintendo Wii. Powered by ScribeFire .

It is a glorious romp. TheStar.com - entertainment - 50 glorious years of 'kill da wabbit' At any other time, the film would not have been made. Imagine the pitch: "Let's steal time and funding from our other projects so we can go way over budget making a cartoon with no jokes, and no real gags. The score will be a German opera. Kids won't get it. Most adults won't get it, but I don't care because I think it's funny." Powered by ScribeFire .

I love sumo. It's a great sport to watch and a great experience if you go to the stadiums and watch all day. It has hit on harder times recently. Freakanomics explores collusion and cheating in sumo. Attendance is down; gaijin rikishi are up. I don't think the gaijin thing is helping attract Japanese viewers -- too likely to be seen as a foreign invasion. Because of this, and despite the foreigner thing, there are a lot of hopes that Hakuho's promotion to yokozuna will bring a bit of life back to the ol' girl yet. Adding an extra yokozuna who will provide a challenge to Asashoryu's dominance of the last few years may ratchet up the tension and with that the excitement. All eyes on Hakuho in debut as yokozuna | The Japan Times Online Newly promoted Mongolian yokozuna Hakuho will be looking to pull sumo out of the doldrums and prove his elevation to its top rank was no fluke when the Nagoya Grand Sumo Tournament starts Sunday. Japan's national sport hit a new lo...

Friend DEG apparently studied the Laws of Thermodynamics from the same Professor of Quipology as Mark Frauenfelder: Mark Frauenfelder: You Can't Beat the Odds at the Entropy Casino - Business on The Huffington Post 1. You can't win. (You can't create or destroy energy in a closed system.) 2. You can't break even. (You can't convert one form of energy to another with 100% efficiency.) 3. You can't get out of the game. (You can only achieve 100% efficiency at absolute zero, but it's impossible to cool anything down to absolute zero.) Friend DEG put it this way on his first trip back to Ottawa on his winter break from U of Guelph (Go Griffins!) and it's stuck with me since. Now, how's this come up today? We'll there's more and more about Ye Olde Free Energie Machine that failed in the UK recently. And if anything tells you you don't get something for nothing (TANSTAAFL, boys and girls) it's the first law. Anyone designing a car engine...