I'm not dead yet! SO it's been a while since i posted anything here, and probably the few who *were* reading my maunderings have long since given up on me.

But, hey.

just came across this little beauty on IMDB:

Bond Bosses Bemused by Chilean Controversy

James Bond producers are baffled by the diplomatic incident they caused by shooting Bolivian-set scenes for Quantum Of Solace in neighboring Chile - all over a war that ended 125 years ago. Carlos Lopez, the mayor of Baquedano - 1000 miles south of the Chilean capital Santiago - was detained by police this month after he drove a truck onto the 007 set, to protest the shoot.

Film maker Michael G. Wilson admits he had no idea Chile still held a grudge over a 19th century conflict between the two countries. He tells AOL Movies, "Some people in Chile are unhappy. I suppose we knew there was a war between them 125 years ago, but we weren't aware it was still an issue."

The disturbance was the latest in a string of problems to hit the production - last month a man was arrested for allegedly stealing the headlamps from Daniel Craig's car while he was busy filming scenes for the movie, and in February the 007 star was reportedly caught up in a gun battle between rival gangsters while shooting in Panama. Quantum Of Solace is set for release later this year.

Oh, come on. Wilson's the adopted son of Cubby Broccoli and has presumably lived much of his life in the British Isles - and he's surprised about people carrying a grudge over a war a mere hundred and fifty years ago?

As Flanders and Swann said of the Irish:

...he blows up policemen -
or so i have heard -
and blames it on cromwell
and william the third...

Labels: Bolivia, Chile, James Bond

  ¶ 8:26 AM 0 comments links to this post

  Does Anyone Really Know What Time It Is?
Poodwaddle.com
Poodwaddle.com

Poodwaddle.com

Poodwaddle.com

Labels: cumulative, statistics, world clock

  ¶ 4:10 AM 0 comments links to this post

  Again With the Lists to Rank:
Best Underrated Band Another list from unSpun; halp compile a definitive list of the best underrated bands.

Labels: list, rate, underrated bands, unspun

  ¶ 2:20 PM 0 comments links to this post

  Street Sign   ¶ 9:31 PM 0 comments links to this post

  Yet Another List to Rank... "Best PIXAR Film"

  ¶ 7:19 PM 0 comments links to this post

  Another unSpun List - Bond Films If you read the last couple posts, you know the drill - rank the Bond films in your order of preference.



  ¶ 1:54 PM 0 comments links to this post

  The Greatest Folk Album Ever? Help compile and rank the list at unSpun.. Another list from unSpun - this time we're ranking the best folk album of all time. Take a look at the list, adjust the rankings to suit your preferences, or even add an album you figure has been unfairly left out.

Personally, i gotta say that i question whether some of thse are " folk" - the Dirt Band's Will the Circle be Unbroken is definitely what most people would call "country", but someone thought it belonged on the list, and apparently some have voted for it, so...

De gustibus and all that.

Vote.

Labels: albums, best album, folk music, list, ranking, unspun

  ¶ 11:32 AM 0 comments links to this post

  Best English Invasion Band? unSpun is a new online ... thing ... which maintains lists of things for visitors to assign ratings to - sort of an ongoing survey to decide, for instance (as below), the greatest English Invasion Band.

The interesting part is that you are not limited to what the person who created the lkist decided to put in - if, for instance, the Zombies aren;'t on the list, and youthink they should be - you can put them on for others to rate.

You can also create lists of your own, or search for lists - there are localised lists, like "Best Seafood in Atlanta"...

Click here to go to the main unSpun site...

  ¶ 4:17 AM 0 comments links to this post

  Don't Raise the Bridge, Lower the River! Way way back when Detroit was just beginning to overcome its bad case of “Not invented Here” in the matter of disc brakes, discs were first fitted as an extra-cost option on luxury cars.

And Ford began getting a much higher-than-normal incidence of total brake failures on its disc-equipped Lincolns; especially odd in that virtually all the systems that failed (if they survived the subsequent festivities intact) were perfectly normally functional when tested later.

Finally, they realised that people driving Lincolns wth that big ol’ power brake pedal were doing what they always did, using the brake pedal as a foot rest.

With drum brakes, that doesn’t matter (much) because it takes a firm specific pressure on the brake pedal (even with typical Detroit hair-trigger power brakes of the period) to bring the brakes into play, and neither the srums nor the shoes have a direct connection to feed heat into the brake lines.

But with disc brakes, the slightest pressure on the pedal can cause the pads to move in just enough to touch the discs lightly. And disc brake pads have a direct, low-resistance thermal path straight into the brake lines. And disc brakes get hot – red hot in racing and aircraft applications; almost that hot in civilian car applications.

So the heat from the pads was causing the brake fluid to literally boil in the lines, introducing vapor that rendered the brakes non-functional.

And, of course, tested later, after they cooled, they operated pretty much normally.

So, what did Ford do? Did they move the pedal to discourage people from using it for a foot rest? Did they reduce the sensitivity of the brake servos (or put some sort of positive-action requirement, like the slack in a gun’s trigger) to kep it from happening?

Did they, courageously and sellessly, set out to convince their richest customers that they were operating their cars improperly and in violation of what the Owner’s Manual said?

No, they specified a brake fluid with a higher boiling point.

Which brings us to this little tidbit from New Jersey:

From Huffington Post:

Student Tapes Teacher's Sermon, School Says 'No More Taping'

Over at Blue Jersey, we revisit the story of a Kearny high school teacher, David Paszkiewicz, who told his students that 'that evolution and the Big Bang were not scientific, that dinosaurs were aboard Noah's ark,' and "you belong in hell" if you "reject" Christianity. He also singled out a Muslim student to tell her that she is definitely going to hell.

- snip -

In December, the Kearny school board continued to obfuscate who was at fault, silently implicating the young student who had secretly taped Paszkiewicz's classroom sermons for fear officials wouldn't believe him.

- snip -

This morning, the New York Times tells of Kearny's official reaction:

Student's Recording of Teacher's Views Leads to a Ban on Taping

   ¶ 11:39 AM 0 comments links to this post

  This is a test. Been gone a while, just got back, noticed some changes in the software...   ¶ 10:15 PM 0 comments links to this post

  A Scout is Loyal, Trustworthy... and a stukach?

Be loyal, kind and don't steal Movies

LOS ANGELES [AP] -- A Boy Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, etc., etc. He is also respectful of copyrights. Boy Scouts in the Los Angeles area will now be able to earn an activity patch for learning about the evils of downloading pirated movies and music.

{snip}

Scouts will be instructed in the basics of copyright law and learn how to identify five types of copyrighted works and three ways copyrighted materials may be stolen.

Scouts also must choose one activity from a list that includes visiting a movie studio to see how many people can be harmed by film piracy. They also can create public service announcements urging others not to steal movies or music.

{Click Here for the whole story}

So you can't be gay and be a Boy Scout, but you *can* be a Scout and be a grass for the movie industry.

Money talks, logic walks.

(Note that, while, so far at least, the movie industry is the official moving force behind this, the "activity patch" shows both a reel of film and a CD... How long you figure it'll be before RIAA manages to buy the right people and get this rolled out nationally?)  ¶ 1:30 PM 0 comments links to this post