A static image for Opera browser users  •  Too much serious talk this week. The long weekend is coming up so here is one of the more important ska tunes from my youth from an Old Grey Whistle Test broadcast of The Specials circa 1980. I feel so Flea-like using YouTube and all. Especially when it …

Not to mention the rules of natural justice and the US Constitution.  Gee. The newly adjusted US Supreme Court has found that the detainees actually have inalienable rights to justice as well!  •  “The US Supreme Court has ruled President George W Bush overstepped his powers and breached the … read more »

Everyone is all a flutter over the news last week that the United States Government has been tracking international financial transactions. Canada's Privacy Commissioner has now joined in:  •  “Canada's privacy commissioner is considering whether to launch an investigation into allegations that …

Man it has been quiet around here for a couple of days. It's like nothing's been happening. But the English press is stirring it up in preparation for Portugal. And Thierry Henry takes the high road. I am booking lunch tomorrow for the second half of Germany v. Argentina and Saturday may well be a …

We visited the Museum of the Earth to the west side of Ithaca up route 96 the road to Trumansburg the other week and I forgot to post the pictures. This place was extremely kid friendly, well-resourced and interesting. I don't know why there are so many well set up places in the Ithaca area though …

I used the telestrator to illustrate the flooding at Gary's folks place east of Cortland NY. Quite illustrative if you ask me. He reports:  •  “I have had it with the rains, which are forecast to continue till Monday, and am glad to be home. Serious evacuations to the south and east, including …

This year's return of the Mets to Fenway in inter-league play and the first return of Pedro Martinez since he moved from the Red Sox were celebrated before last night's game with a presentation I caught on NESN of the great Sox players of the 1986 series in which Boston collapsed and the Mets won …

From the excellent BBC archive on the Somme  •  There is a lot of talk about failing to remembering the lessons of the past but it, as usual, is a call for selective memory and a selection at one person or party's call for their cause rather than your interests. Timely to note, then, that there is …

Spare a thought for Gary who wrote me this evening as he sits in the storm passing through central New York today:  •  “We went for a ride to do errands and had lunch at the parents. At that point, the river had covered their drive a bit. Later, as we tried to get home, the roads west were all …

Want to be in on the ground floor of something? Beau's Brewing Company releases its first production this Saturday, pouring their lagered ale for one and all on Canada Day at VanKleek Hill in eastern Eastern Ontario, closer to Montreal than Ottawa.  •  This is a family operation focusing on one …

Good games today:  •  Brazil vs. GhanaSpain vs. France  •  I hope Mr. Lovely, Thierry Henry scores a bucket - if France ever figures out that giving him the ball is the key to winning. See him here taking on half the opposition.  •  Yesterday I laughed at the Swiss. I pointed at the screen and …

It just goes to show that there are few principles left standing once any one gets their hands on the PIN for a great big fat bank account:  •  “New Brunswick Premier Bernard Lord said Mr. Flaherty's suggestion that the provinces raise taxes to pay for key programs is not an option. "Six months …

This is the day in the semi-demi finals when teams that will lose to other better teams play each other for the right to lose later to other better teams.  •  Italy vs. Australia - who cares?  •  Switzerland vs. Ukraine - who cares at all?  •  Saturday's Germany Argentina game, by contrast, may be …

Even as bloggers slow down or drop out, the links to the right still need to be sort of maintained or groomed. So I am looking for good topical blogs in the areas of music and sport. Have a look, wouldja? And if there is any more ROW blogs that would be good, too. I looked at a trusted blog index …

I quite like Bill Thompson's columns on the experience of digital technology over at the BBC. He is not simply a booster. This one on the need to come up with classification structures or risk the equivalent of the void - cacophony - is useful:  •  “I set up a rich and complicated hierarchy of …

Well so much for Holland and - after the ref's yellow and red card whipping out skills - I suppose the real winner today turns out to be England as they will likely meet a Portuguese team without its core, especially if Figo gets a red card on the review for that sweet little head butt. One Dutch …

Collective flights, hotels and meals for conference? $27,687. Collective revenue from last month? $12.74.  •  When ideas get mixed up, people think funny things. Note empty chairs in room.

Play of the game  •  Even with his kicky hissy fit in 1998 and the near one in 2002, if it were not for Beckham England would be exactly nowhere at all as far as football goes. The man of the match was actually Ashley Cole who undid the Ecuadorian plan to move the ball forward solely on the … read more »

I am sufficiently dimwitted to have not twigged to the fact that this weekend is a single break amongst six where I am not on the road in some way or another. How luxurious is the ability to do nothing. And I have. But this is something you really ought to try. Frozen scallops. Get your morter and …

Clearly I am in disagreement  •  I had no idea I would be so well prepared for the Sweden Germany game yesterday - which is more than Sweden can say. I think I can only gather up two flags and the jersey for Holland this afternoon but both flags are cloth rather than poly so that give bonus points …

A beautiful summer weekend and what is there better to do than watch TV. Here are the weekend's games:  •  Germany vs. SwedenArgentina vs. MexicoEngland vs. EcuadorPortugal vs. Netherlands  •  Germany should win but I have a big Swedish flag and a sister-in-law-in-law from there so who knows. I do …

Here it is, just past the middle of the solar year and once again I did not build my own private Stonehenge nor did I celebrate the solstice by spinning about in loose but body covering clothing in earth tones in the presence of others spinning about in the same sort of loose clothing. I have been …

I noticed that this group of blogs are now #3 on Google for "World Cup Chat" - and I thought that was odd. Not as odd as #1 for Kerry + policies for a whack of weeks during the 2004 election but no one was really paying any attention to policies I suppose. But chat responsibly as the world is …

Last time I checked I did not care what was on CBC TV. Not because it is a hot bed of socialism, as some famous bores might go one about, but because it is simply pretty bad. That being said, I am almost moved by this stunned decision:  •  “CBC programming executives scrambled to do damage control …

Summer job 1982  •  It's summer. Odd that I wait for months for spring to arrive but then summer slips in the door like the trickster it is. I am already waiting for the weeks to start slipping by. The first day of summer seems to have become the day on which fall appears to be on the …

Did I mention that I am excited about this game? That I have had my 1986 flags from Holland couriered and have pulled out the 1996 orange jersey, set up the big screen and ordered the taxi to get me to it? Holland is an extraordinary place, a nation which exists from hundreds of years of national …

During the last Gen X 40 rewards program event at The Nines in Ithaca, I mentioned to one loyal reader the burden on blogging - based largely on the expectation I have set up to be a regular writer. Yet I am amazed how this blog morphs and how these days, for example only, there is much more pie …

I have to confess I watched a northern sport last night - the Red Sox and Washington. Like NASCAR, I am finding it very difficult to get into the southern sport of ice hockey but good for Carolina bringing home the Stanley Cup.  •  Elsewhere, there are four games on tap:  •  Ecuador vs. Germany in …

Directions to Doug's - at "A" on the map  •  We had to hunt a bit in Cortland to find Doug's, just of the I-81 about an hour or so north of the PA border but then we realized that it was quite near the turn off for #13, which is the road to Ithaca that we had always used. While the mall parking … read more »

I am a godfather of a blip. Woot! Click on through the image to get to the full story as printed in a Washington state paper, The News Tribune of Tacoma. Here is the story at the AP's own asap website.

Is this tourney still on? Who is playing? Togo and the Swiss! Saudi and the Ukes!?!? These are the days that I was born to experience. Sad when the good game is Spain vs. Tunisia. I say Togo, the Ukraine and Spain win today. Switzerland will likely win but it would be good for Togo to get through …

Who knew an evening in Watertown could be so nice. First, it was stinking hot - though not as stinking hot as the next night - but stinking hot enough to make Genesee Light a viable option at the game.  •  But before that there was the pie. It was twice in seven evenings that we went to the …

Stinking hot looking down into Ithaca  •  You are right. I set up daily World Cup chat and before the thing is half done I take off for a weekend. We'll just to make you feel better it was 92° F down there today, there are two banjos in the house even if only temporarily and I am keeping all the …

It has to be the best ever - because I say so. It appear that we are in the era of the say so and we might as well join in, when anyone can make anything up and call it science, patriotism, ethics or law and divide the nation with consequent calls to action. Now is the hour to join the fight to …

Back from the  •  first 45 at lunch.  Apparently, England is playing for the rouge,  •  confusing fitba for CFL.  First half entirely aimed at putting the ball  •  past the net as opposed to in it.  Greater style points the greater the  •  distance between ball and net.   Dwight York took two for …

Loverly shipyard photos at the BBC.

Did you know thta today would be the most important day in your life? The day that Trinidad and Tobago takes on the old master as an equal - at least when the whistle first blows. Consider the history of the place:  •  “Trinidad was visited by Christopher Columbus in 1498 but was not colonized …

This is quite the thing:  •  “Months before the arrests of 17 terrorism suspects, Canadian spies called on the suspects' mothers and fathers, asking them to keep an eye on their children and alleging they were embracing "extremist ideology." "CSIS officers had approached some parents to let them …

Yes, it's a school bus next to a fire  •  No big grand tours this summer - just a CNY hop and then a New England lay around. Going to new places like Brattleboro, VT for a night which allows us to find Curtis BBQ just up the road in Putney. I am receiving some resistence familially as to …

Truly historic days. The only first Tuesday and Wednesday in the history of the 2006 World Cup. There will never be another.  •  Too bad for plucky uncoached Togo yesterday. You have to like France, though - wins the Cup in 1998 and not one goal since. Canada now has a shorter no goal streak in … read more »

Though I am many years past when I lievd in Nova Scotia, I call myself a Bluenoser and love elections there. Yesterday's was a classic and a good-ish outcome, though the numbers might be reversed:  •  “Last night, the Conservatives were elected or leading in 23 seats, four short of the 27 needed … read more »

Statistically few people here also go to our sister station A Good Beer Blog. If you were wanting to do it but felt like you needed an invitation, today is the day as I am really pleased with how this picture turned out.

Like most of the most interesting things on the internet this is both neato and fairly pointless: a widget which will tell you in real time which BBC story is most popular in which region...  •  Click on the picture to be inextricably drawn in.  •  Nice to see that Asian traffic is up 6%. Critical …

Mongery noting with Ian making three excellent  •  observations on the idiocy of certain pop culture referencing in our time of fear.*  •  “*Please review here for backstory on fear. Please also note continuing and keen lack of interest in issues relating to AttendsTM-based reality.”

Whoopee! It looks like we are going with the nukes!  •  I suppose I really do not care as I look out the window at the reactor plume of Oswego and Pickering is an hour and a half drive to the west. Interesting to note that the plentiful northern Ontario hydro is not so cost efficient because of … read more »

You can see that you have to get sick of this or obsessed as it is simply incessant. Brazil v. Croatia will be the game, though France and Switzerland is no dud either. Togo's coaches have all walked over not getting paid. Here are my guesses:  •  South Korea vs. Togo: Korea wins 5-1; France vs …

In the good old days of the 90s when optic fibre was first rolled out it was rolled out with a whacking pile of capacity that was imagined to be forever too much - people thought it silly and a boondoggle foisted upon the unsuspecting. I wonder if the day is near that the ceiling of that capacity …

Even if Paul Wells has signed Harper's sheet for permitted to access to the exercise of the (and our) now freedom-ette of the press, he is also a fine writer by times, like this encapsulation of Ken Dryden, distant relative in law, contained in a larger piece about the Liberal leadership debate on …

The shadows. All I see are shadows.  •  I don't know if I can bear this concept of World Cup chat every day. You forget that there are games like Angola-Portugal where the good team stops playing to win by 17 goals and starts playing not to lose because it would be so embarassing to lose to Angola …

This is fun. Sure Grit hacks are going to the hoosegow and sure the campaign promise was to clean up Fat City...but surely accountability was not to apply to really importand Tories.  •  “Former Stephen Harper insiders -- including Derek Burney, the powerful former civil servant who led the …

Team GX40  •  ...but now I am so I am a big loser. We zipped across and I didn't even take a picture for you:  •  TnT ties! Reminds me of how I felt on 16 June 1990.  •  Got made fun of by a US border guard again and got the chilly and very professional treatment from the Canadians on the way back …

Yes, we have daily chat now but only about World Cup. So work "Ecuador?!?!" into your comments and you will be fine. I'm off to watch Paraguay.

Can anyone find the email and telephone for the new Office of Policy Alteration in Ottawa? They made a further announcement on the tradition of the Peace Tower flag and I just want to be sure to get the next press release in July when they change it again:  •  “The new protocol effectively limits …

It's not that The Smiths were just good. It's that no one ever sounded like them before and they were not part of a wave or a movement or anything else. They were just the turn of the 80s twenty years ago. There were long periods when I could not listen because of the bleakness of the lyrics - but …

What Ho! This is my 3003rd post to Gen X 40 over 3 years and 6 weeks or so and I have never begun with a "What Ho!" to you. So "What Ho, all you all!"  •  Now is the day, the day of fitba. Europe, in addition to being just generally evil and liberal (which I know because blogs say so), is …

Just over 24 hours to go. Not to go to Togo. Just to go.  •  Though I care nothing for foul-mouthed Rooney's return, the Flea has made his interests that way known as has Nicholas and...not many others. I am still trying to figure out why this lowest level of interest. And, for the first game …

So is Google assisting with its client China blocking out the main Google site? Why not? A consulting dollar is a consulting dollar, you know. I own a chair at Google though my one share so I am allowed to ask for now. Nice, though, to see there is still some spirit in corporate …

This will help things along now nicely:  •  “Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq who led a bloody campaign of suicide bombings and kidnappings, has been killed in an air strike, U.S. and Iraqi officials said Thursday, adding that his identity was confirmed by fingerprints and a look at …

Nothing changed in my emotional response to the World Cup in the last 24 hours. I wonder if I am not being marketed to aggressively enough. It makes me feel somehow that I am not in a target audience. True, I only watch baseball, don't read the paper, catch CBC radio only from 7 to 8 am and listen …

In the second in a series of work related posts that is also at risk of devolving into images of BBQ sauce and the Flea in a speedo, I noticed this in the Globular the other day:  •  “Dr. Wolkoff added that more employers are taking work home with them, or living their lives on-call, because they …

This is in a Globular story summarizing bits of the briefing notes received by Stockwell Day from the RCMP. It was obtained through access to information:  •  “Use of disruptive tactics in anti-terrorism cases represents a sea change in the way the RCMP deals with security threats, senior Mounties …

This is a good story in the Star and points out the obvious truth that sooner or later all the good suicide bombers aren't around anymore:  •  “If these guys are terrorists, they aren't very good ones. At least that seems to be the picture that is slowly emerging of the 17 men and boys charged … read more »

I am happy to see that NYCO has reorganized the Upstate Bloggers map. I am pleased to note that I am an honourary upstater - upon which badge [Ed.: ...and you do get natty badges] I earned one tiny gold star recently as I helped organize an NCPR outreach session here in Kingston. Who knew there … read more »

Last night I got a few emails from Arthur. Apparently we need a World Cup Chat function around here. This is interesting as it is in line with my new theory of "blog as rec room." Not a high tech stringer to a decentralized news function. Not a aluminum foil wall papered bean bag chair filled …

Next time you hear someone bleat about how poorly the Canadian economy does because of taxes, health care or whatever they dimly perceive as the reasons for their own personal failure, trot out this fact:  •  “Turns out you can complain about the price of gas or the rising Canadian dollar, but not …

I have finally found it. The key to internet-based financial freedom. Consider this:  •  “Feeling guilty about driving your SUV through the crowded streets of the city while a grey pall of smog sits on the horizon? Now you can assuage your guilt by doing what some of the biggest industrial …

It is not without some concern that I note tomorrow is 6-6-6 but I can't let that take away from my World Cup planning. So far I have established pretty much that there is maybe a game Sunday for the lads in orange. And that is about it. I think I am in Maine for the final om July 9th which means … read more »

One thing about sports these days is great access to the pros. While my Dad in early 1960s did have Bobby Hull hack a loogie onto his lap as he sat in a front row seat at Maple Leaf Gardens, just at the spot where and when Hull was being checked into the boards, it is only now with the internets …

Now that it is offically World Cup Warm-up Week at Gen X 40 HQ (meaning the Morris dancers have come and gone) it is time to roll out the new logo and start analyzing what is what...and can you believe I whipped up that logo in under three hours? [Let me just say the intenet is a fantastic …

Three weeks since an update in the 2006 GX40 spring sports pool. Here is how things are going after the Memorial Cup, after the boxing and after the cricket - which at a 1 wicket win by the West Indies over India is the most exciting event captured by the pool so far. Only Ranald and Don got the …

I came across the new vision for CBC.ca and it appears bland is in. Grey upon grey in an exciting vibrant riot of greyness:  •  The weirdest thing is the use small font of a medium grey on a coloured background for titles. It makes for very squinty reading. Sadly, before the CBC wallowed in white …

It is sorta ungabalievable. Guy grows up playing infield and is made a starting pitcher as college. Guy moves up the ranks as a starting pitcher, hits the majors and then becomes the perfect closer because the team needs one.  •  “Jonathan Papelbon slammed the door in the bottom of the ninth …

In the middle of the night I heard a US talk show voice telling me the arrests were clear indication that there was a big problem with Canada. Interesting to note that the case involves three tonnes of ammonium nitrate which I wrote about way back here and which is instructive as a review of why a …

Finally, the heat of May is past and we can enjoy a sensible bit of June. June is one of those months that stands out for me. Planting should be done by now. By this time during school, you were beyond teaching, staring out of the window was the main thing, you had either already made the grade … read more »

905 miles  •  Amongst the texts and pamphlets cluttering up the house with tissue boxes and bottles of Buckleys is that copy of Roadfood I just picked up along with the authors' autobiography. Low and behold on pages 152 and 155 there are entries for two BBQ joints in Owensboro, on the Kentucky …

...or is it Buddy?  •  “But MacDonald said the ad is inappropriate. "If you're going to attack one particular culture, does that mean they're going to attack other cultures as well?" he told CBC News on Wednesday. "I think it's an inappropriate thing to do, but Nova Scotians will be the judge and … read more »

I'm just staying quiet today. A touch of bronchitis of a sort.  •  Meantime, can't we just let Monte be Monte?  •  “The demonstrators, who called for an immediate moratorium on all deportations, surrounded Solberg at the podium, and then blocked his exit from the church hall's front door. When …