When you read stuff like this:
We’re allowing candidates to use [Facebook] on a very limited extent…
Tag Archives: bad ideas
How can it still be before time?
Remember The Land Before Time? I do. It was a well-regarded 1988 animated movie about tiny dinosaurs separated from their parents. It had a happy ending (sorry if I spoiled it for you) but for a young kid watching it, there were some tense emotional moments there.
For some reason (greed), its makers decided to turn this story into an industry. They produced 11 sequels, about one every year and a half. Instead of a well-written, gritty adventure story that can be enjoyed by young and old alike, they turned it into a musical farce that a four-year-old would quickly find boring.
Their latest outing comes out on DVD this week. I just saw a commercial for it on TV. I know all movies pick and choose what critics they’ll quote, but in this case the only two quotes were from a parenting magazine. In fact, it was Parenting Magazine. This magazine. Somehow I don’t think their movie critics are as harsh as the L.A. Times or Roger Ebert.
This spring, they’re adding a Cartoon Network TV series to the empire.
God help us all.
Bring in the Bloc Pot (and have them bring some for everyone)
There’s already a petition up to get the wacky fringe party in televised debates in the upcoming Quebec election. It has over 1100 signatures so far.
Yeah. Good luck with that.
Rgrs iz krstl clr in itz txt msgs lol.
Rogers, my cellphone provider, felt it necessary today to text me this message:
Change that boring ring ur callers hear 2 a cool tune w/CallerRingTrax. It’s fun & easy! Reply YES 4 more info. 2 opt out of mktg msgs reply STOP
Aside from the fact that it’s spam that I never asked for, and the fact that it’s insanely inconvenient and insults my intelligence, I can’t help asking the question: What is a 55-year-old technophobe who doesn’t speak l33t supposed to do when he receives this message and wants to stop further ones? Is it just assumed that everyone with a cellphone writes messages like a desperate-for-acceptance 12-year-old?
When polling goes bad
A new “poll” has determined that rich kids work hard, are responsible for their money and give to charity.
How did this scientific endeavour come up with these conclusions? It asked the rich kids what they thought of themselves.
Now strangely they find out the rich kids paint themselves in a positive light. And since rich kids wouldn’t lie or anything, it must be true.
Oh, and the control variable? You know, asking the not-so-rich kids what they thought of themselves as a basis for comparison?
They didn’t bother doing that.
And since “they” is a “wealth management company”, I guess we’ll just have to trust that they don’t have some sort of hidden agenda here.
Test the Nation: CBC stumbles out of the gate
So CBC has been running ads for this Test the Nation “event” that came out of some brilliant mind in the senior programming boardroom.
I’m not quite sure what the point is. It seems to be some sort of nationwide IQ test, complete with break-the-stereotypes revelations where they show stupid surgeons and smart tattoo artists.
What struck me on their website is this “mental gym” quiz. Ten surprisingly difficult questions about logic, memory etc. Below the big link to the test is a list of the top 5 finishers so far.
Apparently all five answered the questions 100% correctly in under a second and a half.
Could have something to do with the fact that you can take the test over and over again and the answers never change.
Telus caves in
The surge in media attention that has thrust Telus into the hot, sweaty spotlight has gotten too hard for the overly sensitive wireless provider, who has pulled out of its porn services to cellphones, leaving its johns stroking their heads wondering where their next climaxes are going to come from.
And yet Videotron still has SexTV on its lineup.
The Guy Lafleur disco album
Some things are best left in the past. Il fait beau dans l’métro this is not.
Udder failure
Maybe the Vachibou wasn’t such a good idea after all (byline is one of my J-school classmates who’s clearly more successful than I am).
Highway robbery
I can’t even think of any prostitutes who would charge $1,000 for two hours of entertainment.
Logic triumphs again
1. New superhospital will have fewer beds than the hospitals its replacing. Big shots say that’s fine because despite an aging population, hospitals are more efficient and fewer beds will be needed. Also, flying monkeys will sprinkle pixie dust on patients to speed their recovery.
2. Maisonneuve-Rosemont hospital has run out of beds in the ER and has 85 patients on stretchers. This news item has no relation to the previous one.
HD-DVD set free
Proving once again that information cannot protect itself, HD-DVD has been hacked, which will make copying them possible.
BoingBoing’s Cory Doctorow makes the point eloquently: When will these companies stop trying to fight a battle that will only get harder for them?
The other side of Montreal
This Uncyclopedia page about Montreal has been circulating the local blogs. It makes no sense and is unfunny for anyone over the age of 15, so it’ll be spreading like wildfire soon.
He peed freely
Charges dropped against the National War Memorial urinator Stephen Fernandes. He had been charged for the all-encompassing “mischief” (which is legalese for “old people were offended”).