http://openmedia.ca/meter

Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are about to impose usage-based billing on YOU.

This means we're looking at a future where ISPs will charge per byte, the way they do with smart phones. If we allow this to happen Canadians will have no choice but to pay MUCH more for less Internet. Big Telecom companies are obviously trying to gouge consumers, control the Internet market, and ensure that consumers continue to subscribe to their television services.

These Big Telecom companies are forcing small competing ISPs to adopt the same pricing scheme, so that we have no choice but to pay these punitive fees.

This will crush innovative services, Canada's digital competitiveness, and your wallet.

We urgently need to send a clear message to Ottawa, saying that we won't stand by while some of the most profitable companies in the country indiscriminately add new fees to our Internet bills. Enough is enough.

UPDATE: The CRTC just made a decision that paves the way for new internet fees to be added to your bill. To stop this we need to raise our voices now more than ever.



Click here to sign a quick and easy petition:

3 songs by The White Stripes!

Such a great album. Download torrent here, although, let's be honest; you're probably better off downloading the discography. Also, buy the albums here while they last.




What a great mike.



I put this version in cuz it's embedable, BUT, this video of Denial Twist rocks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DodG8IcnOZk

Saturday night! Going to see New Country Rehab tonight at the Mansion. No, Dan Ackroyd doesn't own it anymore. :( But first, dinner with my new Joel Plaskett friend (is it possible that she likes him more than me?.. I doubt it, but we're about to find out) Clara, who, funnily enough, is dating the bassist in New Country Rehab. Small fucking world. Even in Kingston.

So, what's going on in Egypt?

I was going to do this myself (honest), but this seems like a pretty fair assessment/cop out for me to take.

http://promotingpeace.tumblr.com/post/2969260999 (via BoingBoing)

Some additional commentary, also via BoingBoing.. comments section!.. Look out!

http://blogs.aljazeera.net/middle-east/2011/01/28/imagining-new-egypt
After a good summary of the situation, the writer adds:
"I have started getting reports from citizen journalists that government-hired thugs will make sure that nothing about tomorrow is peaceful. They say that in several low-income parts of Cairo and Alexandria, government-hired thugs were seen to be splashing petroleum over parked cars. This to prepare for protests in which they'll light vehicles on fire when the time is right for them.
"They've also heard rumours that the intelligence services will release a separate group of thugs under the name Akhwan al- Haq, or Brothers of Truth, a trumped-up extremist group, that will charge through the streets with swords and caustic acid to splash on the protesters - thus placing all the blame of a peaceful uprising gone violent on a certain kind of Islamic extremism."
 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/27/egypt-riot-security-force-action
Guardian reporter Jack Shenker recounts his beatings and arrest by Egyptian officers. While detained inside an Egypitian police facility where protesters were being beaten, he says, when he identified himself as a British reporter, a high-ranking officer punched him and yelled "Fuck you and fuck Britain."

Update: 

 "Confirming what a few have reported this evening: in an action unprecedented in Internet history, the Egyptian government appears to have ordered service providers to shut down all international connections to the Internet. (renesys.com)

--

Basically, at this point I'm apparently content in a single media source (being lazy) and ripping off BoingBoing. Whaddya gonna do?

I swear at some point this weekend some real content is gonna make it's way up here... and if not, whaddya gonna do! ;)

Also, happy, happy Friday! See below:

Update:

A good one: http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/01/whats-happening-egypt-explained

Also US implications.

And we were glowing like the metal on the edge of a knife

Guess who just picked up the Bat Out of Hell album!



Other than the fact that Lord "Meat Loaf" looks like he's about to keel over (would love to see this as an SNL short, preferably with Meat Loaf himself), this is an incredible song. That's right. Paradise by the dashboard light is incredible.

1. PARADISE
BOY:
I remember every little thing
As if it happened only yesterday
Parking by the lake
And there was not another car in sight
And I never had a girl
Looking any better than you did
And all the kids at school
They were wishing they were me that night
And now our bodies are oh so close and tight
It never felt so good, it never felt so right
And we're glowing like the metal on the edge of a knife
Glowing like the metal on the edge of a knife
C'mon! Hold on tight!
C'mon! Hold on tight!
Thought it's cold and lonely in the deep dark night
I can see paradise by the dashboard light

GIRL:
Ain't no doubt about it
We were doubly blessed
'Cause we were barely seventeen
And we were barely dressed
Ain't no doubt about it
Baby got to go and shout it
Ain't no doubt about it
We were doubly blessed

BOY:
'Cause we were barely seventeen
And we were barely dressed
Baby doncha hear my heart
You got it drowning out the radio
I've been waiting so long
For you to come along and have some fun
And I gotta let you know
No you're never gonna regret it
So open up your eyes I got a big surprise
It'll feel all right
Well I wanna make your motor run
And now our bodies are oh so close and tight
It never felt so good, it never felt so right
And we're glowing like the metal on the edge of a knife
Glowing like the metal on the edge of a knife
C'mon! Hold on tight!
C'mon! Hold on tight!

Though it's cold and lonely in the deep dark night
I can see paradise by the dashboard light
Paradise by the dashboard light
You got to do what you can
And let Mother Nature do the rest
Ain't no doubt about it
We were doubly blessed
'Cause we were barely seventeen
And we were barely-

We're gonna go all the way tonight
We're gonna go all the way
And tonight's the night...
We're gonna go all the way tonight
We're gonna go all the way
And tonight's the night...

RADIO BROADCAST
OK, here we go, we got a real pressure cooker going here,
Two down, nobody on, no score, bottom of the ninth,
There's the windup, and there it is, a line shot up the middle,
Look at him go. This boy can really fly! He's rounding first and really
turning it on now, he's not letting up at all, he's gonna try for
second; the ball is bobbled out in center, and here comes the
throw, and what a throw! He's gonna slide in head first, here he
comes, he's out! No, wait, safe-safe at second base, this kid
really makes things happen out there. Batter steps up to the
plate, here's the pitch-he's going, and what a jump he's got,
he's trying for third, here's the throw, it's in the dirt-safe at
third! Holy cow, stolen base! He's taking a pretty big lead out
there, almost daring him to try and pick him off. The pitcher
glances over, winds up, and it's bunted, bunted down the third
base line, the suicide squeeze is on! Here he comes, squeeze
play, it's gonna be close, holy cow, I think he's gonna make it!

II. LET ME SLEEP ON IT
GIRL:
Stop right there!
I gotta know right now!
Before we go any further!
Do you love me?
Will you love me forever?
Do you need me?
Will you never leave me?
Will you make me so happy for the rest of my life?
Will you take me away and will you make me your wife?
Do you love me!?
Will you love me forever!?
Do you need me!?
Will you never leave me!?
Will you make me happy for the rest of my life!?
Will you take me away and will you make me your wife!?
I gotta know right now
Before we go any further
Do you love me!?
Will you love me forever!?

BOY:
Let me sleep on it
Baby, baby let me sleep on it
Let me sleep on it
And I'll give you an answer in the morning
Let me sleep on it
Baby, baby let me sleep on it
Let me sleep on it
And I'll give you an answer in the morning
Let me sleep on it
Baby, baby let me sleep on it
Let me sleep on it
And I'll give you an answer in the morning

GIRL:
I gotta know right now
Do you love me?
Will you love me forever?
Do you need me?
Will you never leave me?
Will you make me so happy for the rest of my life?
Will you take me away and will you make me your wife?
I gotta know right now!
Before we go any further
Do you love me?
And will you love me forever?

BOY:
Let me sleep on it
Baby, baby let me sleep on it
Let me sleep on it
And I'll give you an answer in the morning
Let me sleep on it

GIRL:
Will you love me forever?

BOY:
Let me sleep on it

GIRL:
Will you love me forever!!!!

III. PRAYING FOR THE END OF TIME
I couldn't take it any longer
Lord I was crazed
And when the feeling came upon me
Like a tidal wave
I started swearing to my god and on my mother's grave
That I would love you to the end of time
I swore that I would love you to the end of time!
So now I'm praying for the end of time
To hurry up and arrive
'Cause if I gotta spend another minute with you
I don't think that I can really survive
I'll never break my promise or forget my vow
But God only knows what I can do right now
I'm praying for the end of time
It's all that I can do
Praying for the end of time,
So I can end my time with you!!

BOY:
It was long ago and it was far away
And it was so much better that it is today

GIRL:
It never felt so good
It never felt so right
And we were glowing like
A metal on the edge of a knife

Phil Rizzuto!

Charlie Louvin passes away

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/27/arts/music/27louvin.html

“When it comes time for the harmonies to come in, I will move to my left because my brother and I always used to use one microphone,” he said of performing solo. “Even today, I will move over to the left to give the harmony room, knowing in my mind that there’s no harmony standing on my right.”

Coolest postcard ever +

Just received the coolest postcard ever. Yes, that is a piece of the Berlin wall in the centre of it! Amazing.

This came from Justyna, who also just finished her Basic Outdoor Survival Course, just outside of Winnipeg.

Here's an exerpt from her email:

We spent 5 days learning all kinds of survival techniques and sleeping in all kinds of makeshift homes. One night was in a tent, for one they gave a parachute per 9 people and we slept under those, one night we piled snow for a couple of days into these huge mounds and then dug little homes inside the mounds (2people/mound) and slept in those one night. They were like a little igloo/cave combination i guess, except that we didn't cut blocks of ice and pile it, we just dug into huge piles of snow. They're called quinzees. And our last night was in little cabins.

So on the 6th day we got dropped off at the edge of a lake with a gps coordinate, a pair of snowshoes and a backpack of equipment (including a piece of a parachute, saw, shovel, radio, knife, 12 candies at 50 calories/candy and 3 little packets of juice crystals to mix into your water). Our last meal was a rabbit that my fireteam parter killed and i gutted (it was boiled rabbit though so it didn't taste that great.) Then we were by ourselves for 3 days with not much but a brain full of knowledge. Let me tell you, it was an adventure.

The coldest it got was -37 deg C. But the many tasks we had to accomplish in 3 days (shelter, continuous fire, smoke signal tower-took hours to build, rabbit snare, a number of signals for the plane to see, and continuously boiling snow over the fire in my little canteen cup) kept me very busy. Surprisingly I didn't feel hungry until the 3rd day (they had deprived us of food a bit in the 5 days leading up to it so my stomac had shrunk a bit already by solo time.) It did get a little lonely though and i got a little anxious every evening at sundown (which was around 6pm) as my pile of firewood never seemed to be big enough and the nights were long and cold. I collected wood in between every little task i did (like cutting down trees or gathering boughs-which was a never ending task as you need boughs for everything you have to build,) and giant piles up to my waist would burn out in an hour or two. i was pulling full dead christmas trees out of the ground (in the swampy areas there were many dead ones) and even those burned out as quickly as i could collect them.

When it came to evaluation time on the 3rd day, my tasks were all deemed to be good and i didn't have to re-do any of them (unlike my comrades, most of whom had to either re-build or upgrade their smoke tower signal). We all got to light our smoke signals at the end of the exercise. They were like mini volcanoes that turned into infernos (they work both for day and night cause of the massive plumes of gray smoke that come out of it during the day-no plane can miss that, let me tell you, and the fire tower that's created afterwards works great at night for a signal). Pretty cool to see!

Assuming you passed, there were 3 things you could have had written for each component on your course report: passed, barely passed or easily passed. My course report reads "Easily passed all PO Checks". Yea, that's right!

--

I think it's time I admit that my younger female cousin may be tougher than me. ;)

Ted Talks Spreadsheet

A Ted Talks spreadsheet? Searchable, with descriptions? Links? Simply Perfect.

http://on.ted.com/23

Awesome Baby Yoga

беби-йога, платона и лена

Link to original article here (from BoingBoing). Sometimes the video has trouble loading apparently. GO to the original link.

The first thing everybody here thought when they saw your baby-swinging video was “Holy shit!” Then they thought, is it real or fake? So: Is it real? If so, who is the baby?
The child was born in the Black Sea region. Her name is Platona, and she was two weeks old when we took that video. We have a lot of children like her here. They are early readers, singers, talkers, swimmers. You haven’t seen anything like it anywhere!! And there’s swimming with dolphins, scuba diving with them… 


At the end of your video, it looks like you’re trying to get the two-week-old baby to walk. Is mobility the goal of your baby yoga?
Yes, more mobility, and other goals. First off, more trained skills. Second, more freedom. Third, independence. We learn from nature and teach our offspring to survive.

Should Americans try “baby yoga” at home?
Americans should be able to do a lot of this themselves, in order to pass something on to their children. An immobile American loses their naturally given reflexes (swimming, reaching, stepping—they have machines that do this for them). That’s why, in parallel with their children, the parents learn to do these things: dive, swim, run, jump, bend and much more. Our workshop is called “family active lifestyle.”

Did you know that YouTube took the video down because it was in violation of their policy on “shocking and disgusting” content? What is your response to that?
Did they notice that the babies aren’t crying—they’re even laughing—and that this system has been used for over thirty years in Russia and the children are all alive and healthy? If you need more proof, the best thing is to come see us.

--

If you don't think I'm trying this with the next baby I see you're obviously delusional.

Rationally, this does seem like good foundational exercise for a baby's development. Errr... but maybe with less swinging over the head.

Baby yoga users claim that it's uses are innumerable. Their children could reportedly learn to walk and swim earlier. You can see these early practices being incorporated with the two-week old in the video above. They claim that their babies become fearless. Although no studies have concluded that the baby-swinging harms or helps children.

Some comments from other sites...

SamanthaMT

posted:
20/01/2011

No child deserves to be treated in such a manner. I fear for that child and I wish I had the authority to prosecute that woman. 2 weeks old?!

Barb

posted:
19/01/2011

I think this is very harmful to a baby, if I were to do this in the United States they would want to take me to jail!!

Here's a Westernized, more estrogen infused version. I got through about 3 x 3 seconds of this crap session for bored mothers.



"Give me the baby... I'm going to swing it!!" Insert sarcastically evil yet somewhat sincere look here.

What London is doing for folks that bike to work (not cyclists... )

Watching this video is not a waste of your time.



I love the blue. Hopefully it doesn't get slippery.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/01/success-for-london-bicycle-superhighways-boris-johnson-video.php

In other words, London's bike superhighways are incredibly successful, as the front-page GOOD story remarks. According to the findings in study by Transport for London, there were 70% more cyclists out on the streets of London in October of 2010 than there were the previous year.
GOOD has more:

that means that the number of bikers on the streets pre-superhighways was 70 percent lower than it is now that the superhighways have been installed. That's some effective bike promotion, if I've ever seen it ... Will other cities see this information and start doing more for bike lane planning than simply laying them on the side of the street?

That's right -- bike use everywhere jumped, not just on the superhighways. The safe, elegant lanes evidently inspired more folks to dust off their old ten-speeds and hit the roads.
It should also be pointed out that the spike in cycling also coincides with London's bike-share program, which we've written about at length here on TreeHugger.

This development is fantastic -- people want to ride bikes in cities. It's cheap, efficient, and fun. But most of the time, it's terrifying. It's why I don't ride a bike in New York -- no way I'm heading into Manhattan traffic during rush hour. New York is also making strides in its bike lanes, too, however. If they work as well as London's, that's all it will take -- count me in.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/01/london-bike-superhighways-70-increase-cycling.php

I feel a country/gospel kick a comin'

...or something like that. Harmonies, 5ths, guitar pickin'. Kicked off after listening to Howl this morning, and getting this song stuck in my mind:



I.
I will walk with Jesus, till I cant go any more,
And I will stay with Jesus, till I can't go another mile,
And people will see all the good that's concealed,
And people must know, not to feel any sorrow,
Cos I will not stand by and watch you cry.

II.
I will stay with Jesus, till I can't stay any more,
And I will stand with Jesus, till I can't take another stone,
And people will see all the good that's concealed,
And people will know, not to feel any sorrow,
Cos I will not stand by and watch you cry...

EDIT: This song has been on repeat all morning. So awesome. 












Mom, DO NOT read into this, but do enjoy it!

Brief Moments

My buddy Mitch, who's currently studying down in Chicago, posted a video recently, "Public Light and Space", where he parallels his art, change, and criminal law, or, more specifically, the idea of rehabilitation.




"...of being able to replace old ideas with new ones..."

Mitch is one of those dudes who is talented and works hard. He's not only pro-li-fic-ic, but is responsible for my favourite Nuit Blanche installation eva: