Sam Harris

Nico flying

Nico flying
Originally uploaded by jstonernusa

Cool Pic of Nico catching the frisbee at Parkway Park, next to our house.

Amazing video, watch in its entirety

Wow...(click title to read)

This girl gets her boyfriend to kill her parents and this is what she says "I don't know why, I guess it is one of those stupid things that people do".

Paris Hilton

Michael Moore was scheduled for a full hour on Larry King live tonight but got bumped for Paris Hilton. You may not like Michael Moore and I am sure Paris Hilton is easier to look at but really, he is talking about something (the US health care industry) that affects over 300 million people and Paris Hilton is a spoiled rich kid that did some time in jail because she drinks and drives. This is the absurdity of it all. Somewhere someone decided that she is a bigger story than a movie that addresses the failings of the US health care system. Oh well, instead of realizing the health care situation now and perhaps being interested to go see the movie and then mobilizing to petition the government for change, people can sleep better tonight knowing Paris is out of jail.

Krav Maga on Discovery Channel

Ready to dumb down your brain-conservapedia is here!!!

Finally sugar coated information that fits neatly into the little box inside your brain where the world is not what it is but what you imagine it to be. Log on to this site an alternative to wikipedia and you never have to think for your self again. http://www.conservapedia.com/Evolution

What I am reading

This book is very good and very scary at the same time....

Visit this page if you are interested and click through the various statistics presented. 

Schools out forever (Alice Cooper)

The only school in a small town off the southern coast of Newfoundland has closed its doors for the last time.

Grand Bruit, on Newfoundland's south coast, has just a few dozen permanent residents.
(CBC)
The students of Grand Bruit All Grade school — all two of them — have finished exams and will move away to attend high school in the fall.
It is a bittersweet moment for the school's only teacher, Karen Walters.

"It's sad that the school is closing. It's not very often schools close because there's no kids left," Walters said.

"The community is coming to its ending point. There's no possibility of families moving back to Grand Bruit without a school."

Millions shun bank accounts in the U.S. (Click title to read full article).

Millions shun bank accounts in the U.S.
Last Updated: Monday, June 25, 2007 | 10:35 AM ET
The Associated Press
Grandma stuffing money under the mattress isn't the only one living outside the banking system.

As many as 28 million people in the United States are foregoing traditional financial institutions because of mistrust, cultural and language barriers or a belief that by the time all the bills are paid, there will be nothing left for an account.

That can be expensive and risky. People can run up big fees to cash cheques, pay bills and meet their other financial needs. Walking around with large amounts of cash can make them a target for thieves.

The bankless are estimated to earn hundreds of billions of dollars a year in income.

Seeing a business opportunity, banks are trying to draw in these potential customers. So, too, are check-cashing businesses and retailers, including Wal-Mart.

Many people, however, still resist, preferring to remain in the financial shadows.

Working for Facebook...

This is where facebook is located physically (about 20 min from me)

Benefits of working for Facebook - for any techies out there (almost as good as Google in Mountain View or Apple in Cupertino)

Facebook rewards its engineers with great salaries and options packages, plus numerous benefits and perks:
Medical, dental and vision plans with no premium for employees
401(k) plan
21 vacation days per year, plus 8 company holidays and 2 floating holidays
Complimentary catered breakfast, lunch and dinner daily
Complimentary beverages and snacks
Dry cleaning and laundry service onsite
Free downtown parking permit
Subsidized gym membership
Catered Friday Happy Hours at the office
$600/month housing subsidy if you live within one mile of the office
Standard-issue 24" LCD monitors and your option of 15" Apple MacBook Pro or IBM ThinkPad
Worldwide notoriety by having your face on sample Facebook Flyers

Times flies

These Headphones are awesome for the price.

So I was looking for a good pair of headphones and did not want to spend $350 on a pair of Bose noise reduction headphones (or cans as they call them in the UK). After much research online I discovered that Bose is overrated and overpriced. An awesome pair of "good" entry level headphones are Grado Sr80s. They are not not noise reduction but really, you should only be using noise reduction headphones for noisy environments like on a plane. Most noise reduction headphones are not known for their "great sound" they merely spare your hearing so you don't have to crank the volume to drown out the crying baby three rows back. A really good pair of noise reduction headphones are made by JVC and they are the JVC HA-NC100 Noise Cancelling folding headphones. In fact you can get both pairs for less than half of what you would pay for a pair of Bose headphones.

Leopard

Mac OS X Leopard edition comes out in October and anyone that is exposed to it will wonder why they did not get a Mac sooner. Click here to watch Steve Jobs keynote address at WWDC (worldwide developer conference) 2007. To preview Leopard in all of its awesomeness click here and then click the "take the tour" button.

iPhone

So this is the new iphone from Apple. It is pretty awesome. Technology is increasing at an exponential rate. Imagine telling someone living in 1989 that their cell phone would be able to do this. APPLE ROCKS!!!!

Save Darfur

New music on iTunes. The Greenday version of "working class hero" is awesome.

10 commandments for motorists CLICK TITLE FOR STORY ON REUTERS

I agree with the pope (weird for me to say that) that cars bring out the primitive in people although I think praying in cars is probably as distracting as talking on cell phones. I have almost been run off the road on more than one occasion by people that would probably be nice and docile if you met them in a restaurant or at work. 

I think people behave the same way in bars as well. There you have alcohol and its power to cast an illusion of invincibility over you combined with sweaty close proximity to others. In a bar it is a herd mentality like cattle. The littlest noise for cows or an innocent bump and subsequent spilling of a $5 beer for humans can lead to all sorts of chaos.

Anyway in cars I think people revert back to some kind of primitive competition on the highways. I have often had people pass me using the right exit lane only to cut in front of me at the last minute before they would have to exit. I have also had people pass me on the left only to cut me off at the exit and then we both come to the stop light at the same time. Mind you I don't drive slow to begin with. People cannot stand to follow behind someone perhaps because they tend to have to follow behind others for every other aspect of their lives. I guess cars make people feel free.

I think people should stop and realize that there is a person in the other car like you and would you act this way to that person face to face. If nothing else it may actually prevent you from getting shot or stabbed if the person you mistreat on the road happens to be unstable and armed (not an unlikely scenario in large metropolitan centers).

Safari browser from Apple now for windows

Kicks internet explorer's ass. Download from apple, now works on PCs not just Macs.

Planet Earth

Experience the planet as never before with the most ambitious factual series ever produced about the planet earth. Created by the BBC and shot entirely in high definition, this groundbreaking eleven-part series is the ultimate portrait of the planet, providing an unparalleled view of the world's finest landscapes and incredible footage of creatures that could never be filmed in the wild before.

look for it on CBC

The seamy side of donated clothing

A shirt's journey

The seamy side of donated clothing

Google, an awesome company

Google is next to the Shoreline Ampitheater where I go for concerts. It is in Mountain View, California (about 10-15 min from me). I love google because it offers awesome products usually for free. They are even providing free WIFI service for the entire city of Mountain View. This video shows what it is like to work there. Too bad I am not a techie.

Humanism

What is Humanism?
As Kurt Vonnegut succinctly described: being a Humanist means trying to behave decently without expectation of rewards or punishment after you are dead.
Humanism is a progressive lifestance that, without supernaturalism, affirms our ability and responsibility to lead ethical lives of personal fulfillment that aspire to the greater good of humanity.


for more FAQs click here

SICKO

Michael Moore's new movie is called "Sicko". It shows the corruption of American health care. There are more people in the US with no coverage at all (40 million) as there are people in Canada (30 million). This movie is not even about them, this movie is about the 250 million Americans with insurance who inevitably realize that their coverage is not all they thought it was. Working in this system I can really relate to this movie. I personally had a patient go home with a blood pressure of 60/40 because she did not want to pay the deductible for a hospital room. She left against medical advice and her husband was told to wake her up periodically through the night and to call 911 if he could not wake her.

I also had a trauma patient that was self employed. He got into a motorcycle crash on the freeway and refused the ambulance not wanting to pay the bill. He said he already pays about $10000 a year for him and his wife and did not want an ambulance bill on top of that. I did not tell him that a visit to a typical trauma room costs $30 to 50,000 anyway (so I am told)

Finally, I know someone else admitted for one night with a migraine who got an MRI in the morning. The bill was $25000 but she only paid $35. Still, though $25000????

The US ranks 37 in the world for health care (Canada is only 30 by th way) behind Costa Rica. Not really the greatest then is it???? What good is it to have all the guns when you people are not healthy????

The Animal Rescue Site

Click here to visit the site and see how you can help animals.

Fox News is retarded

I am sitting at the Honda dealership, waiting for my car to be serviced and of course, Fox news is on the TV. They keep showing the same footage over and over and over and over and over of these two chicks in Florida fighting each other and one of them has brass knuckles and the other ended up with a concussion. Some jackass recorded the fight on his cell phone or something and posted it online. Anyway, they have had every expert on there by now and seem to be going down the route that teens today are sleep deprived and this lead to aggressive behavior.

So Fox news analyzed a cell phone video and came to the conclusion it is all due to a lack of sleep. Is the target audience of Fox News retarded or undereducated or both? Also why do all the newscasters look like porn stars?? Fox News is not news but the is to News what WWE is to sports. At least people that watch WWE however, tend to know that it is not real.

Christopher Hitchens on CBC's The Hour

PART 1

Christopher Hitchens on CBC's The Hour

PART 2

Human cost of illegal immigration

Crazy, what people will do to come to the US and how many die trying to do so.

They Die in Brooks County
An Observer Web Feature
Images of the Dead
Related Stories
Images of the Dead
There is a human toll to illegal immigration. The corpses of men, women, and children who perished trying to enter the country are routinely found in Brooks County. They are photographed by law enforcement officials and private citizens. Police use the photos to investigate the deaths. Private citizens bring them to their elected officials and urge action. We include here a sample gallery of the dead, which we hope will illustrate the human cost of immigration policy. These images were not included in the Observer’s print edition because they are graphic and disturbing.

Click here to visit page

Arcade Fire - Rebellion (Lies)

More on BFD

So Sum 41 kicked ass, and represented Canada well. Cold war kids were surprisingly good, since I only really knew one song they sang. The Bravery were pretty cool as were the Kaiser Chiefs. When Social Distortion did a cover of Johnny Cash's "Ring of fire" that was a definite high point. Queen's of the Stone Age had just the right amount of 'Cowbell' and Christopher Walken would have been proud. We left after Bloc Party played "banquet" by then I was over it as we had been there for like 8 hours.

Went to BFD yeasterday it was awesome

some of the bands are listed above. It started at 1130 am and end at about midnight. Long day.

Adopt a Wolf

Forget what you think you know about wolves, most of it is probably from Hollywood and Hollywood is full of ignoramuses like Paris Hilton. These animals need our help, they are about to be taken off the endangered species list. For more click the link above.

Click Here to visit site

Click Picture for a larger view

Nursing shortage

Nursing shortage a global problem, convention told
Last Updated: Wednesday, June 6, 2007 3:28 PM NT
CBC News
The widening problems that Canadian hospitals have in hiring nurses are nothing unique, international delegates to a nursing convention in St. John's say.


A lack of job satisfaction is an impediment to recruiting new nurses, says Patsy Doyle, who works in Cork, Ireland.
(CBC) "It's become an epidemic in Ireland, to be truthful," said Patsy Doyle, a nurse from Cork, Ireland, who is attending a conference of the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions.

"We know that it's a global shortage of nurses … At this time, people would prefer to work in any job bar nursing, because the job satisfaction — what used to be a hallmark of nursing — isn't evident anymore," she said.

A similar refrain was echoed by participants from other countries, who said a worldwide shortage of nurses is causing extra stress in the workplace, and limits the quality of care.

"The most frustrating thing a nurse has to face is going home at the end of the day knowing that they haven't provided the care that's required by their patient, simply because there aren't enough nurses," said Brett Holmes, general secretary of the New South Wales Nurses Association in Australia.

Continue Article

Delegates heard, though, that there are success stories, such as in California.

"By reducing our workload, we're able to keep nurses in California, and we've drawn nurses from other states, and we've drawn nurses back into the profession," Deborah Burger, president of the California Nurses Association, told CBC News.

In many Canadian jurisdictions, though, that is not likely to happen any time soon.


'Nurses are working 16 hours, [and] double shifts have become a routine,' says Teena Noseworthy, who works in eastern Newfoundland.
(CBC) Teena Noseworthy, a branch president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Nurses Union, said working nurses are asked to bridge gaps that are becoming deeper and more frequent.

"The phone doesn't stop ringing, and we have to go in to work for the fourth consecutive shift, or stay on because there's no relief," said Noseworthy, who works in Clarenville.

"Nurses are working 16 hours, [and] double shifts have become a routine."

Just last month, the Canadian Nurses Association warned that the country's nursing schools are producing more graduates than the number of jobs that will be filled. As a consequence, the CNA warned, many graduates will be recruited in the U.S. rather than work as casuals.

Death Cab for Cutie - I will follow you into the dark

One of the simplest yet saddest songs you will ever here.

Death Cab for Cutie - Soul Meets Body

This is one my favorite songs of all time.

Tiny Island Makes Climate a Priority

Click title to visit page and listen to this NPR story.

Imagine if you lived on an island Country of only 20,000 in which there are areas where you could throw a rock from one side of the country to the other. This is what you have with the tiny island of Palau 600 miles southeast of the Philippines and this island is slowing disappearing into the ocean.

David Suzuki's carbon neutral idea

To solve the problem of climate change, we all need to take account of our personal carbon emissions and make continued efforts to reduce them wherever possible.

...Purchasing high quality carbon offsets from projects such as wind farms also helps support the transition to a sustainable energy economy by providing an additional source of revenue to developers of renewable energy.

While voluntary offset programs should not be seen as a substitute for comprehensive government regulations to reduce greenhouse gases (e.g. through implementation of the Kyoto Protocol), they are a step in the right direction, and an opportunity to demonstrate leadership on climate change.

...If you wish to offset the emissions from electricity, you can use either carbon offsets or a special product known as a "Renewable Energy Certificate" (REC), which is like purchasing renewable energy.

...Airlines and travel agents are starting to offer customers the option to offset their flights, and some airlines are offsetting all of their flights.... Movie studios have offset the emissions from the production of feature films and documentaries, and media companies such as BSkyB and MTV are offsetting the emissions associated with their broadcasts Major conferences (e.g. United Nations World Climate Research Programme) and conventions have offset their emissions Organizations as diverse as as Wells Fargo, Whole Foods, the EPA and the city of Vail, CO have purchased large quantities of renewable energy certificates to offset their electricity use Large companies like HSBC, Swiss Re, and Vancity have committed to making their entire operations carbon neutral Many businesses are now offering carbon neutral products or services, such as carpeting, clothing, flower deliveries, and taxi rides Some utilities are offsetting their emissions and allowing their customers to purchase carbon neutral energy Governments (such as the UK) are offsetting the flights of their employees The World Bank has committed to being carbon neutral Schools and churches are voluntarily offsetting their emissions Rock bands like the Rolling Stones, Coldplay, and Dave Matthews Band have offset the emissions associated with their concerts and albums Many people are now offsetting their weddings (including air travel by guests) The list continues to grow – best-selling books, grocery store chains, and even entire cities are all offsetting their emissions.

...As part of its ongoing commitment to sustainability, and to demonstrate that taking responsibility for one’s greenhouse gas emissions is straightforward and inexpensive, the David Suzuki Foundation has implemented a carbon neutral program in its offices.... Due to the many problems with tree planting projects, the David Suzuki Foundation only purchases offsets from energy efficiency and renewable energy projects.

...Finally, write a letter to your political leaders and let them know you've taken responsibility for your greenhouse gas emissions, and encourage them to enact legislation making it easy for everyone to do so.

While reducing energy use should always be the first priority, purchasing carbon offsets is one way to encourage the transition from fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy, and show your support for action on climate change.

The video sums it all up for me

Christopher Hitchens Bests Sean Hannity

Christopher Hitchens Rips Jerry Falwall a new one

Prelude to the end of Cheap gas

Now uncommon, this may become common
original link: http://www.cbc.ca/cp/Oddities/070605/K060504AU.html

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - A woman was held up during a fill-up. The woman was pumping gasoline Sunday morning when a man stuck something in her back, told her it was a gun and ordered her to start filling up his sport utility vehicle instead of her own car, said Salt Lake City police Detective Jared Wihongi.

...The woman put $15 worth in the other vehicle's tank before her debit card reached its limit.

Wihongi said surveillance video at the station showed two men in a large, white sport utility vehicle with Wyoming license plates.

...The woman was so shaken up by the incident she didn't call police until about three hours later.

kaiser Chiefs - Ruby

Muse - Starlight

Wolfmother - Joker and the Thief

Arctic Monkeys - Fake Tales of San Francisco