bush statue: i hope there are pigeons in baghdad

Ali Fadel, current mayor of Baghdad, wants a statue of Bush erected in the middle of the capital of Iraq. The previous mayor was assassinated on January 4th for his pro-American stance. Says Wonkette: "Glad the Iraqis will have something to tear down for the next invasion."

Link to New York Post article.

iraqi voter turnout

The Globe and Mail reports that voter turnout in today's election in Iraq is estimated at an encouraging 60% of eligible voters (link). Keeping in mind that these people were risking their lives to get to polling stations, it's interesting to note that that number is very close to the 60.7% turnout from the 2004 US election, an election whose winner would become (or remain) one of the most powerful people on the planet (link). And that number was America's highest since 1968.

Maybe Bush is so good at exporting Freedom and Democracy that he forgot to leave some behind in the States.

On a Canadian side note, our voter turnout last year was 60.5%, but that's the lowest it's ever been. (Link to Statscan source.)

quiz: do you know what i look like?

For those of you that know me, I'm on page 61 of the latest issue of Spin magazine (with the Killers on the cover). It's a photo of a Wolf Parade show in Montreal. Also please buy a copy and mail it to me, 'cause I don't have six bucks on me right now.

arcade fire media roundup

This is not a music blog. Arcade Fire is probably the only band that gets any press here at Small Flightless Bird, which may or may not indicate a lack of breadth and/or depth in my musical taste. Personally, I think it's just because I know you'll like them, which can't be said about very many bands.

The group has been out of Montreal on tour for a while, which means I haven't seen them play since their cd release. Fortunately there are so many other people excited about them that there are quite a few video and audio recordings of various types available on the internet. Here's a list:

• Power Out, live, July '04 (link) - A great video of a live performance of one of my favourite songs of theirs.
  
• "The Turnpike", Dec. '04 (link) - An episode of a tv show, with interviews and a live set.
• Streaming audio (link) - Three tracks from their album, "Funeral", on the band's label's website.
• CBC Radio 3, Nov. '04 (link) - An article, plus four excellent in-session tracks.
• KCRW session, Jan. '05 (link) - Video of a more mellow performance. Six songs and an interview.
• Conan O'Brien, Feb. '05 (link) - Laïka performed live on Late Night.
  
• San Fran, live, Jan. '05 (link) - Bits of video from two cover songs (also photos here).
  
• Bradley's Almanac (link) - A great source for Arcade Fire news and things. Bradley's got mp3's from a live show and the KCRW appearance (link and link), as well as news on a DVD and a music video (link, scroll down a bit), the latter of which he promises to show us as soon as he gets permission.

Other things: Arcade Fire homepage (link) ; fan page (link) ; tour dates (link) ; album (link)

get married! ...that is all.

So a third pro-marriage journalist has acknowledged receiving money from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to promote marriage. Bush and company have now officially told everybody to cut it out.

As creepy as this all is, I find two facts especially bizarre: One, that each of these people have independently stated, in one way or another, that they didn't see anything wrong with getting this money, promoting the Bush platform in the course of their journalistic work, and not telling anybody about it.

And two, that the Bush administration is shelling out tens of thousands of dollars to promote "marriage". Just... marriage. Get married people! I don't care who you are or what you do, just find someone and marry them. Quickly. Get divorced a couple months later, I don't care.

Link to USA Today article. Via Wonkette.

man escapes avalanche by peeing

From Ananova.com:

"Rescue teams found Richard Kral drunk and staggering along a mountain path four days after his Audi car was buried in the Slovak Tatra mountains.

He had 60 half-litre bottles of beer in his car as he was going on holiday, and after cracking one open to think about the problem he realised he could urinate on the snow to melt it, local media reported."

Link to full article. Thanks, Angie!

shroud of turin may now be genuine

In 1988, carbon dating tests on the Shroud of Turin (a piece of cloth believed by some to have served as Jesus' burial shroud) showed the material to be only a few hundred years old. After performing further tests, however, Raymond Rogers is now arguing that the 1988 tests used fragments that had been woven in as patches in more recent history, and that the rest of the cloth is much older. He places the age of the shroud between 1,300 and 3,000 years. (Link to BBC article.)

go visit fafblog

Fafblog. Seriously, Fafblog. Why aren't you over there reading it right now?

small flightless bird's quote of the week

Ok, there are two of them, but they're from the same speech.

"I don't think rehashing potential mistakes some think may have been made in the war on terrorism, specifically in Iraq, is something that should be brought up as a reason to vote against Condoleezza Rice for Secretary of State."

That was from Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison's (R-TX) Senate Floor Speech from Rice's Senate confirmation hearing. Full text of the speech is available here. Another juicy bit:

"This has strengthened our country, to stay the course in the war on terrorism. The stabilization of Iraq is a step forward to promoting peace worldwide."

Oh, right, because Iraq's been stabilized. I forgot about how that totally happened.

also pillows

I think this may be really bad form, to just post yesterday's episode of patches here, but it's a really funny one and you should click on it to get to the strip's homepage, where you can read other episodes.

bush asks for another $80 billion for war

Well, Bush continues to reinforce the concept that "Iraq is a success" through constant repition. Meanwhile, Iraqi insurgents have killed another twenty people three days before elections, and Bush is asking Congress for another eighty billion dollars, most of which will help fund operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I don't even know what to say. Just go read Fafblog's take on it.

i had a bagel for lunch, thanks for asking

Steeph asks, "What do bloggers eat?" I ask, "Why doesn't everyone understand that 'blog' is a terrible word and should be outlawed?" Steeph ignores my question and compiles data on bloggers' uses of the words "breakfast", "lunch" and "dinner" over the course of a few months. The result: well, you'll just have to head on over and see.

Link. (Thanks Waxy!)

lord of the rings jokes are always funny

(Thanks, Waxy!)

everyone's favourite 2004 albums

In the spirit of Metacritic, the people or person at Amy's Robot have (or has) compiled a list of the top albums of 2004, based on 60 top ten lists. At the top:

10. Morrissey – You Are the Quarry
9. Loretta Lynn – Van Lear Rose
8. The Libertines – s/t
7. Interpol – Antics
6. The Arcade Fire – Funeral
5. Wilco – A Ghost is Born
4. Brian Wilson – Smile
3. Kanye West – The College Dropout
2. The Streets – A Grand Don’t Come for Free
1. Franz Ferdinand – s/t

Link. (Thanks, Waxy!)

no, the name does not make sense

I just discovered Waxy. Sure, we've all seen them linked to by BoingBoing, often as much as seven times a day, but have any of us ever had the courage to actually visit the site? Well, I'm here to tell you that I have, just recently in fact, and in the spirit of said linkblog, my next three posts will be courtesy of the good people at Waxy.

UPDATE: The elusive Waxy (a.k.a. Andy Baio) left a comment, expaining both his existence and his website's name:

" 'The good people at Waxy' is just little old me. I'm glad you like the site. As far as the name, it's a shortened version of my online handle 'Wax Pancake.' Plus, it's a short and memorable (I think) domain."

don't hate on the pope in poland

In Poland today, Jerzy Urban is fined $6,500 for satirizing Pope John Paul II in a weekly newspaper of which he is the editor-in-chief. Says BBC,

"In his article, titled Walking Sadomasochism, Mr Urban referred to the Pope's frailty, describing him as 'the Brezhnev of the Vatican' and an 'impotent old man'."

... I don't get it.

(Link to BBC article)

new stop-motion tim burton movie

Click for larger image.

It would appear that aside from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Tim Burton is also working on a new stop-motion feature called Corpse Bride. Due for release in September 2005, the film is "based on a 19th Century Russian folktale, where a man mistakenly weds a corpse" (according to the Tim Burton Collective). You can see a trailer for Corpse Bride here.

'i don't understand this'

The Globe and Mail reports that the Washington Post reports that an unnamed Canadian official claims that Bush tried to bully Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin into signing up to his ridiculous missile defence plan:

"[Bush] leaned across the table and said: 'I'm not taking this position, but some future president is going to say, Why are we paying to defend Canada?' " the official was quoted as saying.

"Most of our side was trying to explain the politics, how it was difficult to do," he said.

But Mr. Bush "waved his hands and remarked: 'I don't understand this. Are you saying that if you got up and said this is necessary for the defence of Canada, it wouldn't be accepted?' "

Link to Globe article, Link to original Washington Post article
(Free registration required for both)

rise of the machines

In one of the most frightening military technology developments I've ever heard of, the U.S. is planning to send a bunch of remote-controlled machine gun toting robots to fight insurgents in Iraq. The BBC has somehow managed to file this story as if it were a completely normal thing to happen; they seem, in fact, not to find any problem whatsoever with these things:

"Unlike its human counterparts, the armed robot does not require food, clothing, training, motivation or a pension. ...However, the robot will rely on its human operator, remotely studying footage from its cameras, for the order to open fire."

I mean, is it just me, or this an insane idea? Have the people involved with this project never seen any of the four gazillion movies where armed robots turn against their human masters? Robots malfunction! It's chaos theory! It's the ghost in the machine!

Seriously though, this is ridiculous. This thing will make mistakes and its operators will make mistakes. The only difference will be that now, making mistakes will be a hell of a lot easier:

"A US officer who helped test the robot said it was a more accurate shot than the average soldier because it is mounted on a stable platform and takes aim electronically."

*Shudder* Link to BBC article.

my favourite was the oreo dory

the umbrella mouth gulper eel

After reading this random person's livejournal post titled "nightname creatures of the deep sea" I am officially never going swimming again.

happy day-after-inauguration day!

Hey, did you know that yesterday's Bush inauguration cost over forty million dollars? Yep, even though we're in the middle of a disastrous military operation, and even though a deadly tsunami just killed more than 220,000 people, the little-cowboy-president-who-could had the guts to throw the most expensive inauguration celebration in history. Ah hell, who wouldn't want to celebrate winning an election by an astounding two percent of the popular vote?

"Defence giants Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin each gave $100,000 to the inaugural committee, and oil companies ChevronTexaco and Exxon Mobil each gave $250,000." Source: BBC Online

You can also check out John Stewart making fun of Bush's inauguration speech here.

one same sex partner = many opposite sex partners?

Up here in Canada, the ol' gay marriage debate is brewin' again. The most recent bit of news today is that apparently Conservative party leader Stephen Harper accused Prime Minister Paul Martin of being pro-polygamy because of his strong action toward legalizing gay marriage.

'Justice Minister Irwin Cotler had earlier denied there was any link between the two issues. "We don't see any connection – I repeat, any connection – between the issue of polygamy and the issue of same-sex marriage," he said Thursday.'

Phew! For a second there I thought Stephen Harper might have had a good point, seeing as how the two issues are so closely related. Thanks for clearing things up, Justice Minister Irwin Cotler! (That is an actual quote, by the way.)

Link to CBC article

kite-flying or playing on open roofs

This image is taken from an Indian "educational chart" on bad habits.
Found here, via this BoingBoing post.

hop on the arcade fire gravy train

Oh hey, Bradley's Almanac has mp3s (here) of a whole live set the Arcade Fire did for the Santa Monica radio station KCRW. It's nice and accoustic and features a brand new track ("Intervention") and a Magnetic Fields cover. By the way, if Win sounds like he's singin' funny, it's because he has a cold, apparently.

worst directions ever

(click for larger image)

I was in Calgary a while back. After getting lost driving through the city's endless suburbs, we pulled over and asked some people at a gas station to help us out. A girl who was working there eagerly pulled out a scrap of paper and a pen and began drawing a map for us. You can see the finished product to the right.

Highlights:

• 14th street runs into large, ill-defined "Downtown" area
• Directions seem kind of circular
• Right turn onto unnamed street with the word "Left" written above it
• Right turn onto another unnamed street
• "Country Hills West" misspelled as "Contry Hillswest"
• Directions given do not correspond to actual roads in any way

Our first clue that there was a problem should have been when we offered to just buy a map so she could show us where we were and she said she wouldn't be able to find it.

fifty helens agree: nobody likes bush

Kids in the Hall references aside, here are two pieces of interesting news: 1) Most of the world thinks that Bush's reelection has made the world more dangerous, and 2) a big majority of Americans now think the war in Iraq was unjustified.

Sure, the world opinion thing is getting old, but it's a new study and each time they release one of these things, Bush's international support is shown to have crumbled even further. This latest one was performed by BBC World Service in 21 countries; only India, Philippines and actually-you-forgot-Poland thought the world was now safer. (Link)

But this new poll of actual Americans is a little more interesting, because it shows a significant shift in attitude. As you'll see in the handy pie chart to the right, 56% of respondents thought that "the situation in Iraq was not worth going to war over." (Link)

new co-blogger

Things are gonna shape up around here, now that Jared has signed on to post on Small Flightless Bird. You may remember Jared from such previous ventures as Junkyard Jew (link) and some other website he had before. Please be kind: he's new.

(You can read Jared's biography on the About page.)

world of webcomics

You should go see the new comic from Wigu creator Jeffrey Rowland. It's called "The TV Network Channel", and it just started yesterday, which means you can get in on the ground floor! The basic premise is that there'll be scenes from a new totally made-up tv show every week, and it seems to be starting out well. This week: Science Cop! Here's a link to the TV Network Channel.

And then over at Achewood yesterday, Ray and Roast Beef basically just dissed all other webcomics. It was pretty funny. You can read the episode here.

and i would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for you pesky cops

My roommates and I were talking about this story last night. We decided that if you really hated someone, haunting their house would be basically the most fun thing ever. Excerpt from an article (Link):

"The Austrian owner of the castle in Laces, Belzano, became increasingly jittery from the clanging and banging and called the police ... Instead of an apparition, they caught a 42-year-old Polish woman on camera. She had spent her nights masquerading as a phantom to scare the estate owner. Police said she was motivated by 'a personal rancour' against the manager of the cultural centre in the estate."

Link to full article, Link to good ol' b-to-the-oingboing who got the scoop on us

zhao ziyang dies

The former leader of the Communist Party of China, Zhao Ziyang, died after a series of strokes at 2301 GMT Sunday. Zhao had been under house arrest since 1989, when he opposed the use of military force against the protesters in Tiananmen Square. The photo on the right shows him tearfully appealing for the demonstrators to leave.

The Tiananmen Square protests were set off by the death of another pro-reform politician, Hu Yaobang. Security has been tightened at the Square in case of new reformist demonstrations.

Link to related BBC article

now that's what i call a sticky situation

So this construction worker in Colorado had a nail embedded in his skull, and only found out about it when he went to the dentist for a toothache. Excerpt from an AP article:

A nail gun backfired on Lawler, 23, on Jan. 6... The tool sent a nail into a piece of wood nearby, but Lawler didn't realize a second nail had shot through his mouth, said his sister, Lisa Metcalse.

Following the accident, Lawler had what he thought was a minor toothache and blurry vision. On Wednesday, after painkillers and ice didn't ease the pain, he went to a dental office where his wife, Katerina, works.

"We all are friends, so I thought the (dentists) were joking ... then the doctor came out and said 'There's really a nail,'" Katerina Lawler said. "Patrick just broke down. I mean, he had been eating ice cream to help the swelling."

Link to full article, Link to related BoingBoing post

secret underground conspiracy... revealed!

It's pretty easy to look at the way the Bush administration has been acting since 2000 and accuse them of imperialism, of working for American global dominance under the guise of "spreading democracy" or "liberating countries" or whatever. But the funny thing is, all these take-over-the-world plans of theirs are actually right out in the open for anyone to see!

The Project For The New American Century is a non-profit group in Washington whose goal is to promote "American global leadership". That's right, they just came right out and said it! But if you want to get really creeped out, check out this partial list of current and former members:

• Donald Rumsfeld
• Paul Wolfowitz
• Jeb Bush
• Richard Perle
• Richard Armitage
• Dick Cheney

So although the Bush administration does a fine job of at least avoiding discussion of these kinds of things, the fact that this group exists, and involves top Bush administrators, and was gunning for the U.S. to invade Iraq as far back as 2000 (the idea itself, of course, is much older) is public knowledge. Heck, the PNAC even has its own website! Here's an inspiring excerpt:

We seem to have forgotten the essential elements of the Reagan Administration's success: a military that is strong and ready to meet both present and future challenges; a foreign policy that boldly and purposefully promotes American principles abroad; and national leadership that accepts the United States' global responsibilities.

Link to Wikipedia article on the PNAC

liz, this one's for you

I found a funny new comic called "Alien Loves Predator" (Link), wherein the two title characters share an apartment in Manhattan. Aside from the jokes, it's also funny because Alien and Predator are enemies in the movies or comics or something. Don't read it, though, because it's offensive sometimes.

in webcomics today

• Cat and Girl: Cat summons the devil... with terrifying results involving nachos. (Link)
• Wigu: One of my favourite strips, Wigu ended on New Year's Eve. Author Jeffrey Rowland promises a new strip begining two days from now. (Link)
• White Ninja: A turtle pesters White Ninja to buy him tobacco. (Link)
• Buttercup Festival: It also ended, out of the blue, just yesterday. Author Elliott G. Garbauskas has promised not to start a new strip. Dang. (Link)
• Achewood: Todd the squirrel is out of jail, and boy is he shankin'. (Link)

this made my sick day

(i don't know who made it)

free roadsworth: update

Montreal street stenciller Roadsworth's story (discussed here previously) has been picked up by the Globe and Mail. A copy of the article can be found here: link. Head on over to Zeke's (link) for more updates. (Thanks to the good people at Optimus Crime.)

Image (right): my personal favourite Roadsworth creation. Click it to get to a gallery of images of Roadsworth's work.

we get it - you don't like mondays

So you may have heard that the L.A. Times is dropping Garfield from its comics page (link). This may not interest you in the least, since you're probably not from L.A. and you probably don't read the comics page anymore and even when you did you were probably always a little puzzled as to why Garfield was still around. I mean, this strip is like the opposite of humour. Example:

But what you may not know is that Garfield was never meant to be funny, or memorable; rather, it is, and always has been, a money-making vehicle. According to this Slate article,

"[Creator Jim] Davis makes no attempt to conceal the crass commercial motivations behind his creation of Garfield. Davis has the soul of an adman—his first job after dropping out of Ball State, where he majored in business and art, was in advertising — and he carefully studied the marketplace when developing Garfield. The genesis of the strip was 'a conscious effort to come up with a good, marketable character,' Davis told Walter Shapiro in a 1982 interview in the Washington Post. 'And primarily an animal. ... Snoopy is very popular in licensing. Charlie Brown is not.' So, Davis looked around and noticed that dogs were popular in the funny papers, but there wasn't a strip for the nation's 15 million cat owners. Then, he consciously developed a stable of recurring, repetitive jokes for the cat. He hates Mondays. He loves lasagna. He sure is fat."

The article goes on to explain exactly how Davis managed to build up an empire that earns between $750 million and $1 billion a year without getting on anyone's bad side.

"Garfield's origins were so mercantile that it's fair to say he never sold out—he never had any integrity to put on the auction block to begin with. But today Davis spends even less time on the strip than he used to—between three days and a week each month. ... By comparison, Davis spends nearly every morning working on 'concepts for new products.' "

(link to full article)

u.s. gives up on trying to find iraq wmds

The US has officially given up on trying to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. If you recall, the claim that Saddam Hussein possessed such weapons was originally used to justify invading the country, until Bush clarified the whole thing:

"When I said that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction which could fall into the hands of terrorist groups such as those responsible for September 11th, what I meant was that he was an evil dictator who needed to be removed. It was a metaphor." ¹

Link to BBC article.

1. Fabricated quotation based on actual events.

horoscopes

Aries: (March 21—April 19)
You’ll soon learn, the hard way, that a rabid wolf won’t stop attacking just because you’re crying at it.

Taurus: (April. 20—May 20)
The stars think you should have turned right at those stoplights back there, but they haven’t been here in, like, seven years.

Gemini: (May 21—June 21)
A helpful hint to ease your paranoia, Gemini: when a phone is wire-tapped, it makes a barely audible click which sounds similar to many normal household noises.

Cancer: (June 22—July 22)
This week, try focusing more on improving yourself through thoughtful contemplation and physical exercise and less on senseless murder.

Leo: (July 23—Aug. 22)
I sure hope you didn’t listen to your horoscope last week, Leo. At the end, it was supposed to say, "...but only if you want to lose control of your bladder."

Virgo: (Aug. 23—Sept. 22)
For the last time, Virgo, butterscotch pudding is not just butter and scotch.

Libra: (Sept. 23—Oct. 23)
You may not accomplish all your goals this week, Libra, but you’ll certainly stub your toe trying.

Scorpio: (Oct. 24—Nov. 21)
You will regret having friends who take everything literally after you suggest going out and getting "hammered."

Sagittarius: (Nov. 22—Dec. 21)
On Thursday, Mars will enter the house of Aries after passing through the big dipper, which means dick all.

Capricorn: (Dec. 22—Jan. 19)
You will abandon your longstanding plan to write a novel after reading the dictionary’s surprising and disappointing definition of the word "write".

Aquarius: (Jan. 20—Feb. 18)
Remember when you promised God that if you got better, you’d start going to church? And then you got better but still didn’t go to church? Watch out this week, cause God came by, asking if anyone’s seen you. And he was carrying a crowbar.

Pisces: (Feb. 19—March 20)
The stars are saying, "Quick! Look behind you!!" ...Now they’re laughing.

partout en tout temps

I found this button on the street outside my apartment (click for larger image). It is from la Sûreté du Québec, which is the provincial police force here. Their slogan, "Partout en tout temps", means "Everywhere At All Times", which is not at all creepy.

imperial presidency

This article by Noam Chomsky is a good read. It is mostly about war crimes as well as the differences between what the people want, what the US government wants, and what the US government says it wants. (Link) Excerpt:

"We can see right on today’s front pages why the Justice Department was right to be concerned that the President and his advisers might be subject to death penalty under the laws passed by the Republican Congress in 1996.

...Two weeks ago, the NY Times featured a front-page story reporting the conquest of the Falluja General Hospital. It reported that 'Patients and hospital employees were rushed out of rooms by armed soldiers and ordered to sit or lie on the floor while troops tied their hands behind their backs.' An accompanying photograph depicted the scene. That was presented as an important achievement. 'The offensive also shut down what officers said was a propaganda weapon for the militants: Falluja General Hospital, with its stream of reports of civilian casualties.' And these 'inflated' figures – inflated because our Dear Leader so declares – were 'inflaming opinion throughout the country' and the region, driving up 'the political costs of the conflict.'

Let’s go back to the picture and story about the closing of the 'propaganda weapon.' There are some relevant documents, including the Geneva Conventions, which state: 'Fixed establishments and mobile medical units of the Medical Service may in no circumstances be attacked, but shall at all times be respected and protected by the Parties to the conflict.' So page one of the world’s leading newspaper is cheerfully depicting war crimes for which the political leadership could be sentenced to death under US law. No wonder the new moderate Attorney-General warned the President that he should use the constitutional authority concocted by the Justice Department to rescind the supreme law of the land, adopting the concept of presidential sovereignty devised by Hitler’s primary legal adviser."

bring forth your god and i will chase him off the earth

Behold: Time Cube! (Link)

"Your midday is someone else's midnight, someone else's sundown and even someone else's sunup. Do you know that time is a simultaneous 4 corner square that rotates to a 4 day time cube within 1 - 24 hour rotation of Earth? You are educated stupid and unable to know Nature's 4-Day Time Cube Creation.

...I have demonstrated absolute proof of "Cubic Creation", through its attributes of 4 simultaneous 24 hour days within a single rotation of Earth. I have $10,000.00 that I will wager that Cubicism transcends and disproves Theism Creation."

in the news

• Haddock is the New Cod: According to the CBC, haddock stocks are booming off the southwestern coast of Nova Scotia, making them set to... Ah, whatever. I really only wanted to link to this article because the headline caused me to picture Charlize Theron wearing haddock on the cover of a magazine in the grocery store. (Link)
  
• North Korea vs Hippie Hair: North Korea has unveiled its Spring 2005 TV line-up, and the hottest-looking show has got to be "Let Us Trim Our Hair in Accordance With Socialist Lifestyle" (actual title). It is part of a larger propaganda movement in the impoverished Communist state designed to discourage Western World-style haircuts and modes of dress. A similar program films long-haired men in public, hidden camera-style, and actually broadcasts their names and addresses. According to sources, Joan Rivers has not yet been contacted for guest-hosting. (Link)
  
• Soccer Player Salutes Mussolini After Successful Match: Paolo di Canio totally gave the fascist salute after his team, reportedly called "Lazio", beat another local team ("Roma") by a measly 3-1. According to the BBC, Lazio is thus historically linked to fascism ("the principles and organization of Fascists", OED) since "it was Mussolini's team and he was often seen in the stands". Man, soccer football is so weird. (Link)

iraqi insurgents now outnumber coalition forces

Check out this article from the Times Online. Excerpt:

The number is far higher than the US military has so far admitted and paints a much grimmer picture of the challenge facing the Iraqi authorities and their British and American backers as elections loom in four weeks.

"People are fed up after two years without improvement," he said. "People are fed up with no security, no electricity, people feel they have to do something. The army (dissolved by the American occupation authority) was hundreds of thousands. You’d expect some veterans would join with their relatives, each one has sons and brothers."

swimming

I went swimming outside today, in a snowstorm remarkably similar to the one in the photo on the right [which shows the view from my back porch - click to see a larger image]. The pool was heated - not enough to make up for the frozen ears, but heated all the same. After a few minutes my hair and eyelashes were covered with snow. I was told it looked like premature greying.

Lucky for us the air was mostly still today; I've done this before in a strong and constant wind, and that was not nearly as pleasant. The snow was driving in from the west, though, so each time we headed that way for another lap it became difficult to keep our eyes open.

The whole bizarre experience ended with a dip in a hot tub, a few minutes in a sauna, and a hot shower, after which I headed back out into the blizzard to make my way home. If I can only find someplace to do that for free I'll make it a daily winter ritual.

things of 2004

Well, everyone else seems to be doing all these year-end year-in-review things. So we here at Small Flightless Bird, always at the cutting edge of what was sorta popular a little while ago, are ready to present a similar special feature. It is tentatively titled, "The Best Things of 2004!"

• Best Children's Television Show: Spongebob Squarepants (link)
• Best Pingu-Themed Game: Crazy Sledging (link)
• Best Quotation: "Call [the NBA] the TBA, the Thug Basketball Association, and stop calling them teams. Call 'em gangs." - Rush Limbaugh (link)
  
• Best Word: apotheosis (link)
  
• Best Strong Bad Email: Trogdor (link)
  
• Best Cheap Plateau-Area Montreal Eatery: Patati Patata
• Best Jesus Videos: these ones (link)
• Best Album: Fleetwood Mac, "Rumours" (link)
• Best Anti-Bush Website: McSweeney's Daily Reason to Dispatch Bush (link)
• Best Webcomic: Achewood (link)
• Best Frightening News Story: "Hungry Killer Bullfrogs On The Loose in B.C." (link)
• Best Movie Starring Will Ferrell: Anchorman (link)

new year's panoramas

Happy New Year. It's not too late to buy me a present, you know. Anyway, to celebrate the untimely demise of 2004, I'd suggest checking out these QTVR 360-degree panoramas. QTVR panoramas are always awesome! (from boingboing)

who's the boss

As mentioned, Ed has a great site called Who's The Boss, where readers comment to vote on a daily who-would-win-in-a-fight matchup. Head on over soon, because the first round is almost finished.