Magic and A Few Laughs

I found a few clips from various Penn & Teller magic shows on YouTube a few days ago. Then I found some full episodes from a show they did in England called “The Unpleasant World of Penn & Teller”. They are good for that gory magic that Penn & Teller are known for and if you are going to watch “Penn & Teller: Fool Us” a new show thats in production. I suggest you check them out.

Look in the related videos for more episodes.

The Future of Hard Copy Media

Image via Wikipedia

First Blockbuster went broke and closed, and now this.

Struggling British entertainment retailer HMV has sold its 121-store Canadian unit to Hilco UK, raising 2 million pounds ($3.2 million) to cut debt and help the firm stay in business.

The move by the 90-year-old firm to sell the Canadian business comes days after HMV’s shareholders backed the 53-million-pounds disposal of its Waterstone’s book chain to Russian billionaire Alexander Mamut.

Earlier this month HMV, which has issued four profit warnings this year, secured its immediate future with a 220 million pounds refinancing deal that will effectively involve the British taxpayer taking a stake in the group.

“The board has fully explored the options available to it for HMV Canada, and believes that a sale to Hilco is the correct decision for the business at this time, whilst reducing the operating leverage in the continuing group,” said Chief Executive Simon Fox.

“The group is focusing on clear and tightly defined plans for transforming HMV into a broad-based entertainment business.”

(Article from Reuters)

I’m hoping this doesn’t mean that HMV is closing too. Although I do watch the occasional movie and tv show online, I still prefer having a hard copy and I usually buy them from HMV. Although things are looking up with the line about “transforming HMV into a broad-based entertainment business”. I’m guessing that means adding new products and services.

What Happened to PC Gaming

I was sent this hilarious video about what has happened to PC gaming because of people cheating and hacking. I laughed and any true PC gamer will too.

The video is from the freddiew Youtube channel. I suggest you check out some of his other videos.

What’s The Stupidest Thing You’ve Heard This Week

Image via CrunchBase

I’ve heard some really stupid things. Mostly things I read on social networks. The best example of this is Twitter. All you have to do is look at the trending topics and you will feel sorry for humanity. Don’t even think of clicking any of them and reading some of the tweets associated with them. You will want to shoot yourself.

Then there are tweets related to Justin Bieber (or as I like to call him “He-who-shall-not-be-mentioned-in-a-tweet”). Whatever you do, if you value your sanity, DO NOT click his profile, or mention him, or search for people mentioning. You will feel so sorry for these people. The worst thing is when you @reply him. Then, one of a few things will happen. If you say something nice, you will get lots of retweets. If you say something mean, you will get angry people tweeting you. Finally, for either, you will get people saying “follow me” in a few different ways.

But,

The stupidest thing I’ve heard all week, was

Marry me Justin Bieber

A tweet sent to the aforementioned Bieber by a person who I will not name because they’ve embarrassed themselves enough.

When was the last time you changed your mind?

About two minutes ago. I wasn’t going to sit and write this post but changed my mind at the last minute and decided I probably should.

It’s a bit silly asking when you last changed your mind. You change tour mind loads of times every day. How many times do you think “I should…” and don’t? That’s changing your mind. Or if you are about to do something and decide it’s a bad idea, that’s changing your mind.

In the time you wasted reading this drivel, you probably thought of a thousand things to do but changed your mind and decided to keep reading.

Now for gods sake stop reading and go do something productive.

Do you think you’d make a good president?

No. Of course I wouldn’t be a good president/prime minister. I’d be an awful choice.

Sure I have lots of ideas, and suggestions about what to do to change the country for the better. Or at least ideas that I think are good. And how hard can it be to stand in front of the camera and look good an say a few words in a commanding and political way?

The thing about being president/prime minister is that everyone thinks they will be good at it. We all have these ideas of things we want to do and things we want to change. But what about all the other things you have to do. Being president is more than just saying “let’s do this” and smiling for the camera.

But we all know that all we would do is screw up the country even more. There are people who are professionals for that. Let’s leave it to them.

Canada Post: Making Itself Obsolete Since 2011

Canada Post has finally started the final few steps to becoming obsolete. They have gone on strike. Well, actually the bosses locked out the workers until they reached a contract agreement but to you and I it is the same thing. We’re not getting any mail.

Or are we?

By going “on strike” Canada Post has effectively sealed its fate as a company. Just the threat of going on strike showed a 16% drop in use of Canada Post so you can imagine what this full blown strike has done.

This is the problem with unions. I understand the need for them but they are not helping the workers any more. All they seem to want is as much money as they can get and they won’t stop until they get it. The whole purpose of the union is to protect the worker from the business owners. They make sure that working conditions are good, wages are paid, people aren’t getting dismissed for unfair reasons, and they negotiate contracts on behalf of the workers. This seems to be too difficult for them to do nowadays.

By going on strike in a business like Canada Post, a business where their are other options to choose from (Email, FedEx, UPS, paying bills online) you aren’t acting in the interest of the workers. Canada Post has probably lost so much business that it might have to cut jobs. Jobs that might not have to have been cut if there hadn’t been a strike.

So, good luck Canada post. We all enjoyed having you around but if you keep up like this, everyone is going to use online bill paying, email, and FedEx. Which is where most of your workers will be too.

Why You Always Want To Drive Yourself

The Concept Image of The Autonomobile

I was watching Top Gear recently, and they mentioned a proposed car called the “Autonomobile” which is proposed to be build by 2040. It’s an electric car made to go low speeds and… it drives itself.

Now you might think this is a great idea. You never have to worry about the strain of driving, you can just sit back and relax while the car takes you there. But it is a terrible idea. It has been said that half of all plane crashes are caused by pilot error. We all know that planes can fly by themselves and they can take off and land using instruments. So theoretically, planes should be able to take off, land, and fly, on their own. And this should theoretically lower plane crashes by 50%.

But…

Would you want to get on a plane without a pilot?

Its the same thing with cars that drive themselves. No matter how smart the man or woman who designed this is, you still don’t have control of the car. I don’t know about you but I kind of like being in control of machines. There have been too many movies about machines trying to kill us for us to really trust machines that much. And as Jeremy Clarkson put it,

“its a brilliant idea, designed by very smart people, but one day you know that this will be bought by a man named Keith, and he is going to wake up one morning and think he can service it himself and you won’t be able to relax in your autonomobile because you know that Keith is in his, coming the other way”

And you won’t be able to steer out of the way of Keith because the car is driving itself.

What War Is Worth Fighting

Image via Wikipedia

To keep it simple, one that threatens me. Sounds selfish but if I’m going to put my life on the line to fight for a cause, it has to be one I believe in. One that affects me. It could be a threat on my country or even a direct threat to my safety.

To give examples, lets look at the current Canadian “combat mission” (don’t call it a war, thats politically incorrect) in Afghanistan. If a recruiter asked if I would join the armed forces to defend my country by fighting in Afghanistan I would say no. Last time I checked Afghanistan wasn’t attacking Canada.

It makes me sound anti-…something. War? Canadian? Troops? I don’t think I’m any of those. Actually, I might be a little bit anti-war. Then again, so are lots of people. I’m definitely not anti-Canadian. I love my country almost as much as Americans love theirs. And certainly not anti-troops. I support the troops. I think they are the best Canadians we have and we all should be proud of them. But I wouldn’t join them.

We all have our own talents and skills and it just so happens that mine aren’t armed forces related. Perhaps if one day there is a threat to me or my country then I would consider it but not until then. Its a personal choice. I’m not discouraging people from joining up, if they want to then thats their choice. All of our troops should be applauded for their bravery. If you see a Canadian soldier you should go up to them and say “thank you” for representing your country and keeping peace around the world.

If you ever disagree with their causes just remember that they didn’t have a choice about where they were deployed, but they went and did their best. And for that they should be thanked.

Stuff For Twitter People

Tomorrow (june 20th) is the tenth Tweetgasm, a monthly tweetup for twitter people of toronto. It takes place at the gladstone hotel usually in the melody bar at 7:30. This month the theme is “Pretty In Pink” which means that if you are wearing pink you get in free. If not you have to pay a $5 cover.

Here are some pictures from a previous Tweetgasm

Tweeting

 

A performance by @misslatejuly

Dancing

The always present DJ's

Thats just a taste of some of the things that go on at tweetgasm. You should all consider dropping by this month or maybe another time. Theres a facebook event here or follow @photojunkie who organizes it and will give you more information