Binks Is Here

Just a bit of an adventure I had in the snow earlier. I was trying to get to a geocache but I figured that, if it was still there, it was buried by a ton of snow.

Just a bit of a video clip from New Years; I had intended to do a couple of clips from thoughout the night, but it didn’t end up happening.

For the curious, Danger did indeed show everyone his legs (as did Stew… Not sure why…)

We went to Swiss Chalet a few days ago; and my meal came with a built-in surprise!

It was there, nestled into the fries.

I didn’t have the guts to ask for plum sauce…

Saw this article from the UK. It’s talking about people charged with speeding by speed cameras; comparing the “pre-speed camera” rate of charges to “post speed camera” charges.

It found that the number of men aged 60 and over receiving penalty points for speeding increased by 540 per cent between those periods. Among women aged 60 and over, there was a 1,200 per cent rise, though starting from a very low base.

By contrast the number of drivers under 25 being caught for speeding grew by only 18 per cent.

These are some pretty striking numbers. Speed cameras can only measure one thing - speed. They can’t measure safety or age or how cute the blonde is. All they do is measure speed and issue tickets.

These numbers seem to indicate that women 60 and over are stopped and charged 12 times LESS then they ought to be, and that men 60 and over are stopped 5 times less.

In comparison, there’s only a 20% increase in young drivers being charged.

So, maybe young drivers aren’t so bad after all, but in fact police just charge them more than they charge any other group (perhaps up to 12 times as much as some other groups…).

Here’s an older post I’ve found lying about - I intended on going into the point in more depth; but I think it’s pretty clear - for how-to content especially, it’s often much easier to quickly scan text and pictures then to scan video.

As does audio. On the internet, there are a lot of times I prefer text and pictures.

Text and pictures are easy for me to scan through - I don’t need to selectively fast forward through something when I can just hit CTRL + F and enter my search term. Unless you’re doing a show that you expect to have weekly subscribers to, add video in 30 seconds or less chunks to illustrate a particular point that you’ve mentioned in the text.

This is an older post, and describes the saga of finding the name and phone number of the high school I attended. For a point of reference, UW publishes its address and phone number at the bottom of every page on its website

“Crap, I need the name, phone number, and address of the school that I attended!”

Google search for name of school

“Hmmm… no address here….”

Open most recent newsletter in futile hope of finding school address. In the end, I merely scroll down to get the name of the school board.

Google name of school board

School board site –> Schools –> School Websites

“Oh, there’s the school address”

Nowhere was it available on the actual site of the school. Had to go to a random page on the board site.

Old post I never published, I’m publishing it now…

Interesting case from the CBC.

A 44 year old stripper was recently asked to leave her job, and she’s claiming that it was a case of age discrimination. It’s an interesting case to argue. She shouldn’t be fired simply because of age, instead she should be fired if she cannot fulfill the “bona fide job requirements”. If you’re in a widget factory, this is easy. How many widgets are you producing? How many widgets does the average worker produce? If what you produce is significantly less then the average, then you aren’t meeting the job requirements and should be fired.

In this case, though, I can’t really think of a clear-cut job requirement. Perhaps the requirement is to attract men to the club - but there’s not a whole lot of peer-reviewed studies on what exactly it is that would attract men best. When you consider that there are many different types of clubs out there, which appeal to different groups, it’s hard to come up with a definite answer.

In this case, perhaps age itself is a sort of job requirement - “See sexy 20 year old women” looks a lot better on a poster than, “See 44 year old women who have refused to let themselves go”. The age itself seems to have a direct appeal.

Perhaps this, then, is more analogous to the case of actors being selected for particular roles. Discrimination on the basis of race is illegal, but if you’re doing a movie about Muhammad Ali you can’t very well put a white guy in the lead role; so race itself becomes a determining factor. I don’t believe that “historical accuracy” is an excuse for racial discrimination though, so it sounds like they’re arguing that the commercial success of the film would be negatively impacted if another racial group was put in the lead role. I’d be interested in seeing how they would come up with numbers to justify a position like that - U-571 was about a British team, but the entire film was American-ized for some reason; strict adherence to identifiable groups in the name of historical accuracy isn’t really rigidly enforced.

I donno, the whole topic leaves me rather confused. I wonder what the precedent-setting cases are in this area (or maybe there just aren’t very many court challenges?). I mean, I wonder all the time too about restaurants - why is it that I can’t remember the last time I had a male server? (I literally cannot, and I’ve been trying to pay attention at least since the start of university) The role of server, which looks to be fairly lucrative most of the time (so far as summer jobs go…) looks to be an almost exclusively female one. But look in the kitchens and dish pits - that’s where you’ll find the guys.

This is an old post I found lying about; figured I’d publish it

Fuck. I don’t think it’s parody.

Apparently McDonalds is supporting “sexual perversions”. Yeah, they’re part of the Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce. I agree - crazy sounding group, no question. But, sexual perversion?

Here’s an article I dug up. (”dug”… it was actually the first hit on Google)

Sure, there’re some crazy-ass things in the “article” (if it can so be called that):

A spokesman for McDonald’s restaurants says those who oppose same-sex “marriage” are motivated by hate.

Notice the scarequotes on marriage.

Earlier this month, the American Family Association (AFA) called for a boycott of the hamburger giant because of the company’s promotion of the homosexual agenda.

Homosexual agenda? Is that like the gay mafia?

And those are just the first two lines of the “article” (if it can so be called that).

Scariest shit? The first comment:

“Scripture teaches Christians to love God and to hate sin, which is how homosexuality is depicted in both the Old and New Testaments. However, from a practical perspective, a national chain that promotes homosexuality, probably also hires homosexuals. Thus, as a practical precaution to avoid possible infection from the HIV/AIDS virus, stay away from McDonalds restaurants. Call it a boycott or call it practical concern for personal and family health, but stay away!”

Bolding my own.

Sure, debate the value of gay marriage if you insist, at least there MIGHT be a halfway reasonable stance in there - but we’re talking about the facts of disease transmission here. Come on dude, if you tell the guy behind the counter you want lots of special sauce between your buns, you should realize he’s having anal intercourse with you pretty fast. Short of that, what are you doing to pick up HIV from some burger flipper? Playing vampire? Chug the spit? Eating human flesh?

I guess HIV is sort of like anthrax or the plague, except it only affects gay people and is transmitted by “gaywaves”, which is like spreading by air, water, and telepathy ALL AT ONCE. Who knew?

Most of the comments are slight variations on this theme. I figured it was all a parody, until I saw just how MANY of them there were!

God gave us the reproductive organs he did for a reason. A male and female’s organs compliment each others because they were made for each other. THAT is natural. I can put my hand through drywall. That doesn’t mean that it is natural to do so (or, meant to be) Neither is sex between two of the same gender.

Biology through a comparison to drywall? Really? That’s the best you could come up with? Really? Are you sure? What about painting drywall? What’s the biological analogy there? Or was he talking about fisting? I’m not really sure…

So… I think I’m gonna stay away from the US… it generally seems crazier down there.

From the “news site”’s “Prohibited Activities”

Neither AFN content, nor any links to OneNewsNow.com, may be posted on any website, transmitted through any electronic delivery system (i.e. “email”), or published in any print publication that engages in any of the following:

* Any behavior or speech, or advocacy of any behavior or speech that, in the sole opinion of the management of the American Family News Network, is contrary to biblical standards of morality (Example: encouraging sex outside of marriage);
* Crazyass Assload More Restrictions

Yeah… I’d like to see them cite precedent prohibiting one from LINKING to another site.

Here’s their shitty ass policy!

And remember everyone! Have sex early and often!

Got a mug from the dons. Saw this sticker on the bottom:

Way to take pride, China. Clearly a sign of competent workmanship.

Here’s the recipe, if you want to try it on your own.