Category: culture

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What You Can’t Say

What You Can’t Say is an interesting essay by Paul Graham about heresy: how to think forbidden thoughts, and what to do with them. So take the Conformists test,

“Do you have any opinions that you would be reluctant to express in front of a group of your peers? If the answer is no, you might want to stop and think about that. If everything you believe is something you’re supposed to believe, could that possibly be a coincidence? Odds are it isn’t. Odds are you just think whatever you’re told.”

Think about this, “We often like to think of World War II as a triumph of freedom over totalitarianism. We conveniently forget that the Soviet Union was also one of the winners.” But Graham goes much deeper than that. He explains that searching for popular misconceptions not only satisfies the curiosity and confirms whether you are right or wrong about a particular idea but it exercises the brain, “If you can think things so outside the box that they’d make people’s hair stand on end, you’ll have no trouble with the small trips outside the box that people call innovative.”

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Star Wars Kid Update

An interesting Star Wars Kid update from Waxy.org, the place where the Star Wars Kid gained a lot of his fame, has an update about the money they donated to get him an ipod. There is also news of a petition on the net to try and get him into Star Wars Episode III. For those of you that haven’t been following the Star Wars Kid saga, check out this nifty link and then view any of the Star Wars Kid clips. In other Star Wars Kid related news, apparently his family is pursuing legal action against those responsible for the video being leaked onto the net in the first place. They’re going for a cool $225,000 CAN.

Also of interest on the Waxy is a story about a car accident that killed 10. It happened just a few blocks from where we were vacationing last weekend. (Hollywood and Highland is probably something like 14 miles away with an approximate travel time of 24 minutes). Anyway it’s a big story in the news right now about how this 86-year-old man drove through the Santa Monica Farmers’ Market and hit a bunch of people when he mistook his gas pedal for the break and then (I assume) panicked. I found their writeup to be ++informative.

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This Hour Has 22 Minutes – I’m Sorry

I found this quote and thought it’s ever so relevant during the “difficult time” the US is now going through. You know, the “situation” where there actually are no weapons of mass destruction to be found in Iraq. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I am sticking up for Saddam Hussein or his fallen regime — it’s just that the USA has certainly put its “credibility” in jeopardy. Enjoy:

A truly Canadian Apology to the USA, courtesy of comedian Colin Mochrie from This Hour Has 22 Minutes, CBC Television aired on 11 February 2003:

Hello. I’m Anthony St. George on location here in Washington.

On behalf of Canadians everywhere I’d like to offer an apology to the United States of America. We haven’t been getting along very well recently and for that, I am truly sorry. I’m sorry we called George Bush a moron. He is a moron, but it wasn’t nice of us to point it out. If it’s any consolation, the fact that he’s a moron shouldn’t reflect poorly on the people of America. After all, it’s not like you actually elected him.

I’m sorry about our softwood lumber. Just because we have more trees than you, doesn’t give us the right to sell you lumber that’s cheaper and better than your own. It would be like if, well, say you had ten times the television audeince we did and you flood our market with great shows, cheaper than we could produce. I know you’d never do that.

I’m sorry we beat you in Olympic hockey. In our defence I guess our excuse would be that our team was much, much, much, much better than yours. As word of apology, please accept all of our NHL teams which, one by one, are going out of business and moving to your fine country.

I’m sorry about our waffling on Iraq. I mean, when you’re going up against a crazed dictator, you want to have your friends by your side. I realize it took more than two years before you guys pitched in against Hitler, but that was different. Everyone knew he had weapons.

I’m sorry we burnt down your White House during the War of 1812. I see you’ve rebuilt it! It’s very nice.

I’m sorry for Alan Thicke, Shania Twain, Celine Dion, Loverboy, that song from Seriff that ends with a really high-pitched long note.

Your beer. I know we had nothing to do with your beer, but we feel your pain.

And finally on behalf of all Canadians, I’m sorry that we’re constantly apologizing for things in a passive-aggressive way which is really a thinly veiled criticism. I sincerely hope that you’re not upset over this. Because we’ve seen what you do to countries you get upset with.

For 22 minutes, I’m Anthony St. George, and I’m sorry.