Recycled.

I just logged into Pokerstars to see what freerolls are playing tonight.  I found they've got a new feature in beta.  It's called Zoom Poker.  Each hand you play takes place on a different table, with a different group of players.  When you fold or win a hand you are instantly transferred to the next table. 

Sound familiar?  If so it's because you played on the ill fated Full Tilt Poker, which debuted this idea back in 2010 as Rush Poker.  This brings up the obvious, did Pokerstars pay for the rights to use the concept?  Of course given that Full Tilt is currently in limbo because of last year's US crackdown on online poker there may be no one to pay any fees to, assuming they would actually have to.  Some might also wonder why it took them this long to take up the idea given that there's no sign Full Tilt is coming back soon, or at all.

Straight Only.

This morning I heard a bit of a CBC report on the YouTube based campaign to get Joseph Kony, leader of the Ugandan terrorist group Lord's Resistance Army, captured.  One of the people being interviewed mentioned that Lonely Planet, the well known travel book publisher, had named Uganda one of its top ten countries to travel to in 2012.  This made me raise my eyebrows given a major problem Uganda has.  A look at LP's website turned up an article on these picks, which does mention the problem.  It quotes the UK Foreign Office warning:

There is very little social tolerance of homosexuality, which is illegal. There have been moves, initiated by a Ugandan MP, to introduce reactionary legislation that would further criminalise homosexuality and introduce the death penalty for some activity… you should be aware that homosexuality is generally seen as taboo and exists on the margins of society.

Uganda's treatment of gay people has generated a lot of negative press for the country.  Equally disturbing is that much of the recent prominence of the issue in Uganda is due to the work of US evangelists, who have been pushing the issue of late.  One of them, Scott Lively, is being sued by an African group,  Sexual Minorities Uganda, that advocates for gay rights.

Althougfh they do mention that Uganda is not a gay friendly destination, Lonely Planet still chose it as one of their top ten travel destinations for 2012.  You'd think this major human rights problem would keep it out of the top ten, but that's not the case.  You'd also think they'd be worried about this creating a perception problem amongst its target audience, which one assumes is more likely to be the kind of crowd that thinks anti-gay sentiments are a bad thing than buyers of some of the more traditonal travel guides.  Apparently that's not the case.  They apparently also don't seem to worry that a significant percentage of their readers might be gay, and might reconsider their patronage as the result of this recommedation.

When I Rule The World 13.

When I rule the world going all in with ridiculous hands like 8-5 offsuit during the first few hands of an online poker tournament will be severely punished.  If you're dumb enough to play hands like that you probably shouldn't be playing poker.  This rule will be for your own good.

Rise Up!

It's that time of year in Canada again.  Time for the changing the clocks foolishness.  Except in here in Saskatchewan, where common sense prevails.  Seriously, why are the rest of you putting up with that nonsense?  Get off you butts and force your politicians to end the silliness of Daylight Savings Time, which doesn't save any time and just causes problems. 

Caffeine, Ugh!

I really need to stop drinking the damn crap.  It seems to get me hyped up in a bad way much of the time after I drink it.  And I'm drinking it in Coke Zero, not cofffee, so I can only imagine the effect it would have if I did drink coffee.  Coming off the stuff is annoying, but I'm sure I could do it.  Time to kick up the will power a bit I guess.

Pay Up.

This morning I decided to pay the overdue fees I owed to the Saskatoon Public Library.  Doing so made me think about those fines.  SPL is mellow about fines.  As long as your fine amount is under five bucks you can still take out stuff, and they don't pester you to pay the fines.  Given that I assume there must be a lot of unpaid revenue to be had.  Just imagine all the new material they could buy if everyone paid up.  So, how about it?  If you've got fines how about paying them, so your library system has more money to buy material for you to take out?

More Loonies Abroad?

Here's an interesting possibility I found out via James Nicoll.  Iceland, which has been severely effected by economic problems since the 2008 collapse of its banks, is considering adopting a foreign currency to replace its current krona.  Surprisingly, it seems that not only is the Canadian dollar one possible choice, it's a very popular idea amongst Icelanders.  And Canada's ambassador to Iceland, Alan Bones, is going to tell them tomorrow that Canada is interested in the idea.  Iceland won't get a say in Canadian fiscal policy, which will limit how much they could control their economy.  But given the problems with the krona apparently many in Iceland are willing to take the risk.

The possibility is a bit ironic given that there have been various calls over the years for Canada to adopt the US dollar as its currency.  Unlike with Iceland however Canadians who supported the idea believed it would have to involve joint US-Canadian control of fiscal policy.  That always struck me as a highly unlikely possibility, and is why I never saw such a union happening.  Funny to see the shoe on the other foot.

Happy Leap Day!

Time sure flies.  Once again it's Leap Year, and we get an extra day.  In a way it's too bad it just gets labelled as February 29th.  There should be an extra day added to the week with its own specific name.  No doubt people think it would be too confusing to have an 8 day week even if it was only once every four years.

Since we don't have an 8th day this week how about some Beatles instead?

Gas In Saskatoon, February 24, 2012.

Up it goes again.  Gas in Saskatoon is now 122.9 cents a litre at most locations, a 6 cent increase sioce last week.

To some Americans this may not seem like much of a rise.  But note that the price is in litres.  One US gallon is  approximately 3.785 litres.  So this price rise is equivalent to an increase of 22.71 cents a gallon.  Or if you prefer gas is roughly $4.66  a gallon in Saskatoon.  So, to fill a 30 litre gas tank costs $6.81 more than it did last week.  And lots of folks are driving things will gas tanks rather bigger than 30 litres.

How Rumours Start.

Today I had an example of how interesting rumours start. While viisiting the east side Long and McQuade I overheard someone telling the staff that a new law would force you to have a breathalyzer and a spare in your car or be fined.  He was outraged about this apparent infringement on his rights, and how much it would probably cost everyone, 30 or 40 bucks each I think he said.

The claim sounded suspicious to me.  So when I arrived home I looked it up, and found it was true.  But there was a missing part of the story.  This new law is coming into effect in France, not Canada.  Under a new French law you will need to have a couple of one use disposable breathalyzer kits in your car, and you can indeed be fined if you don't.  However these kits only cost around 3 bucks, not 30 or 40.  The fine will be 11 euros.  The idea is to have drivers who have been drinking self test themselves, and not drive if they're over the French limit.  France is trying to reduce its road fatalities, of which it had some 4000 last year.  And this requirement will simply add to the safety equipment French law already requires you to carry, such as a warning triangle and a flourescent vest.  You can be fined for not having those already.

Presumably the fellow I heard talking about this missed the locale.  So he and the others he told the story to may spread this mistake, and get more people riled up.  Of course I say "presumably" because I may have misheard what he said, and he did mention this was in France.  Fortunately I took a look before doing my own rumour spreading.

Bridging The Two Solitudes.

This morning I rode Saskatoon Transit 504.  This is a late '90s Nova Bus manufactured bus that used to be part of Montreal's transit fleet.  You can still see signs, literally, of its previous ownership, as the "Stop Requested" signs are still the French "Arret Demande" signs appropriate for French speaking Montreal.  Given that this and the other used Montreal Novas Saskatoon bought last year don't seem to see much service I guess they feel no need to change the signs.

Walking On The Moonbase.

Fans of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's mid '70s sci fi TV series Space: 1999 have often wondered about the idea of a  remake.  Some dreaded the idea, some wanted it, and many just didn't think it was possible.  Now, 12 and a half years after the year 1999 itself has come and gone we've got word that someone is taking the plunge.  ITV America is teaming up with HD Films, who were behind the ABC revival of V, to produce Space: 2099.  We can now write off at least one possibility that I personally have always suspected was the most likely way we'd see a "revival;"  namely as a spoof of the original a la The Brady Bunch movies.  Producer Jace Hall says the series won't be a "dark and gritty" reboot, although such  a tone would in fact fit quite well with the first season of the original, which had its share of what I'd call gothic horror.(A good example would be the episode "The Troubled Spirit," where Alpha is menaced by a man's vengeful ghost before he dies.) 

This new version is of course a reimagining/reboot, as the date change from 1999 to 2099 should make obvious.  When discussing a new 1999 you always see fans who want a direct continuation of the original, which isn't a viable idea.  All that would do is utterly confuse viewers who have no contact with the original.  Will this 21st Century version work?  It's still early days on the project, and more than one series revival project has sputtered out or been unable to find a buyer.  The Andersons' own UFO was the subject of 2 remake attempts in 1996 and early 2000s that never went much further than some concept art.(A big screen movie version is currently in production, with a projected screen date of 2013.)  No doubt some will be skeptical given the failure of HD's V remake to thrive, but that series did air. 

HD Films has a webpage up for the series.  Obviously not much real detail is available yet, but they are interacting with the fandom.

Don't Bother.

Spam in the comments to the posts here will be removed if I spot it.  So don't waste your time, and mine, by posting that crap.

Bienvenue A Tous.

Today seems to be international day for me.  So far I've had blog traffic from France, Romania, Germany, Denmark, Brazil, the Phillipines, Croatia, India, and Senegal.  Oddly enough I've had no American traffic yet, which is unusual.  I'm pretty sure the Senegal visitor is the first I've had from that country.  Welcome to all.

Gas In Saskatoon, February 17, 2012.

This week saw our first gas price increase of the year.  Gas in Saskatoon is now 116.9 cents a litre at most locations.

Hello, Mister Pot.

While driving around this morning I had the radio briefly tuned to CKOM during John Gormley's show.  Gormley was discussing a new study by a group of Alberta reseachers that argued the ingredients in junk food should be labeled as pathogens because of their effect on health.  Gormley read a bit from one of the participants and accused him of grandstanding.  Yeah, a right wing radio call in show host accusing someone else of grandstanding.  Tell us another one,  John. 

In case you're wondering, I have been eating some junk food today.  I'm hoping to cut back some over the next couple of weeks or so, both for the good of my weight, but more importantly to save money.

Hard Up.

It seems the folks at Maclean's, Canada's equivalent of Time, were hard up for something to put in the latest issue.  One  of the cover headlines is "Ian Tyson's Secret Lover Tells All."  No offense to him if he reads this, but Ian Tyson isn't exactly hot news these days amongst Canadain celebs.  "Justin Bieber's Secret Lover Tells All" might get you some buyers, but I can't see Tyson's doing so.  Of course as anyone familiar with Maclean's knows a few years ago you probably wouldn't have seen a headline like that on the cover at all.  Their covers have gotten somewhat more sensationalist in recent years.

Alex Calls It.

In the comments for today's Out at Home strip creator Alex Wendzel has the appropriate description for today:  pink merchandise day.  Of course you could just as easily call it red merchandise day.  Or too much sugar day.

Last And First.

Chances are you will have heard of the death of Whitney Houston when you read this post.  But you probably haven't heard the following before:

Witney Houston's first professional recording as lead vocalist is supposedly this tune, "Memories," from the 1982 album One Down by Material. Material was a group formed in the late '70s by bassist Bill Laswell, and at the time was known for its experimental rock based music. Given the mainstream commercial course of her career the combination seems odd at first glance.  On top of that the song was written by Hugh Hopper of British prog rock pioneers Soft Machine, and had a saxophone solo by jazz musician Archie Shepp.  On the other hand the arrangement of the song itself isn't too far from what Houston would later do, and One Down seems pretty obviously an attempt at a more mainstream, commercial sound than the group's previous releases. 

Houston was an unknown at the time the album was released so her prescense made no difference to its sales at the time.  Conversely I've never seen any indication any significant number of her fans, once she became famous, knew the song existed at all, so the album didn't have a second life.

Music Store Etiquette Tip.

If you are going to play an instrument through an amplifier at any sort of volume, please make sure it is in tune first.  It doesn't have to be perfectly tuned, just in tune with itself.  Otherwise it is very annoying to others in the store having to hear your out of tune blues licks.