Hulleye Comes By!

Super Mario Revived is a cool little flash game featuring Mario. No it’s not an officially licenced, but it is a fun little time killer if your hankering to relive your childhood. Now go and collect some coins with your favourite italian plumber.

Did you know that Nintendo was originally a maker of playing cards?

via PJ

anyone who’s ever run or troubleshooted a windows box has at some point or another come across gator.exe or seen it’s affiliates running in task manager. one of the biggest adware companies that has created mass problems for windows users all over the world is being bought by yours truly, microsoft corp. in an act of desperation to play catch up with software giant google, MS has been rumoured for the past two weeks to be in talks with claria, the company that brought us gator and hundreds of popups, and web utilization statistics along with it (along with memory upgrades, software upgrades and “my-pc-is-running-slow, can-you-fix-it-for-me” complaints). the offer price on the table it seems is $500 million.

The anti-deal group, the person said, fears the move could bring an outcry as critics portray Microsoft as a corporate Big Brother, trying to track every mouse click on the Web and profit from it.

Those in favor of the deal, this person said, believe Microsoft could help clean up the adware field, establish rules to protect privacy and benefit from the anticipated increase in personalized advertising.

I wonder which way this will effect the MS reputation?

Here, I’ll write the first line of their press release for them: “Microsoft (MSFT) has spent over half a billion dollars this year fighting spyware,….”

old marketing campaign: Where do you want to go today?
new marketing campaign: We know where you’ve been!

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this is a fascinating gallery of anti-japanese US propaganda posters during world war ii. it’s not even funny when you realize the shit that the US stirred up within the country. what i wanna know is how much of the stuff that we hear today during the modern wars of this decade is propaganda and how much of it is reality.

In India,

Problem: On the run from the cops.

Solution: Hire some women to strip naked and distract the police.

the army needs you. uncle sam wants you. let’s go make some money.

Force fields for astronauts? Here comes the science from NASA.

The European Union, the United States, and four other countries will build the world’s first major nuclear fusion reactor. They’re doing it because we’re running out of oil, and other energy options (solar, wind, coal, nuclear fission) are inefficient or hazardous. But fusion hasn’t been made cost-effective either, and “even fusion proponents concede that the process is decades away from practical use.”

Scientists are learning how to save your life by killing you. They drained blood from dogs and replaced it with very cold saline solution, stopping the dogs’ hearts and brains. Three hours later, they restored the blood and electrically shocked the dogs’ hearts back to life. The dogs suffered no brain damage. The idea (if you suffer an injury with severe blood loss) is to do surgery on you while you’re “dead.”

More evidence that chocolate may be good for you: A study in the American Journal of Hypertension says “high flavonoid intake confers a benefit on cardiovascular outcome,” evidently by dilating and relaxing arteries.

A day of abstinence improves male fertility. A study suggests sperm quantity and quality peak after a day off but decline if you wait longer.

Japan is developing robotic security guards to take jobs left unfilled by its aging population. When the robots detect intruders or fires, they send radio and video signals to human monitors.

Your penis isn’t as small as you think. In a study of men who came to doctors “complaining of a small-sized penis … penile length and girth were measured twice using a tape measure in both flaccid and fully stretched states. Every patient was informed that if his flaccid and stretched penis size was 4 cm and 7 cm or more, respectively, it was considered normal. … None of the patients had short penis according to our measurements.”

(most headlines stolen from slate)

An Edmunds.com reporter went undercover. This article is guaranteed to make anyone who’s ever been to a car dealership feel plain stupid. The shit they are trained to pull off (specially in the US) is amazing. A good insight into buying cars as well.

my buddies got interviewed last weekend by the star on whether music is halal or haram. check it out.

for all the doodie fans, here’s a page which links to pretty much ALL known screenshots in pretty much any video game ever which contains a toilet. go find your favourite game in here.

a huge gallery of communist posters if anyone is interested.

a reporter from the star got in to see the preview screening. here’s his review. (reg. required)

India’s recent decision to ban smoking in movies and on television has ignited controversy in the popular Bollywood film industry, despite government officials’ claims that such scenes glamorize tobacco use.

Bollywood, the most prolific film producer in the world, has a long history of portraying heroes and villains with cigarettes or hand-rolled “bidis” dangling from their lips.

But starting October 2, new films and television shows will be prohibited from showing actors smoking.

While some actors have expressed support for the new restrictions, filmmakers claim that the government is infringing on artistic expression. Indian director Shekhar Kapur, who helmed the 1997 Oscar-nominated film “Elizabeth,” expressed concerns that the new regulations could lead to further censorship.

“The Indian government has always thought themselves able to do whatever they feel is necessary to curtail artistic freedoms,” Kapur said. “The fear is not that we have to stop showing people smoking. The fear is that this is the beginning of a series of bans.”

Even Censor Board chief Sharmila Tagore called it “a decision taken in haste and very unaesthetic in taste…”

im vacationing in nyc for a few days. back next week in case anyone is wondering.

bollywood record covers gallery.

In the world of high-performance computing, the 25th edition of the TOP500 list of the world’s fastest supercomputers was released today at the 20th International Supercomputing Conference in Heidelberg Germany. The No. 1 position was again claimed by the BlueGene/L System, a joint development of IBM and DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and installed at DOE’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

from the onion archives, dated june 22nd, 2056. i love the fact that quebec is a separate nation. hah!

Democratic Middle Eastern Union Votes to Invade the U.S.

MECCA—The 14 democratic member nations of the Middle Eastern Union unanimously voted to declare war on the U.S. Monday, calling the North American country a “dangerous rogue state that must be contained.”

“The United States of America has repeatedly violated international law and committed human-rights abuses at home and abroad,” MEU President Mohamed Rajib said at a Monday security-council meeting. “MEU weapons inspectors have confirmed that the U.S. continues to pursue their illegal ununhexium-weapons program. Our attempts to bring about change through diplomatic means have repeatedly failed. Now, we are forced to take military action.”

The MEU, formed in the wake of the 2042 Saudi Arabian revolution, is modeled on the Enlightenment ideal of the democratic republic and makes every attempt to avoid war even as it pursues an agenda of encouraging self-rule throughout the world. The decision to invade America marks the first military action of the MEU.

Rajib said that, unless the U.S. ends its “unlawful and tyrannical” occupation of northern Africa in seven days, the governments of Iraq, Iran, Jordan, and Muhammad Arabia will begin deploying aero-troops to international tropospace over America’s Brand-New England region.

The U.S.’s occupation of 31 nations around the world and last month’s vicious, unprompted military attack on Buenos Aires were two of the 41 examples of “unabated aggression” listed in the MEU’s declaration of war.

“Today we send a strong and clear message to America,” Syrian representative Rashid Qu’rama said. “Your arrogant, imperial, unilateral attitude will not prevail.”

The MEU first imposed sanctions against the U.S. in February 2054, demanding that the country pull troops from Antarctica and put an end to its credit trading in the troubled Wilkes Land region.

Iraqi President Hamal Hamoodi said that MEU member nations held extensive public forums before its congress voted to declare war.

“When making such serious choices, we must remain true to the democratic ideals we wish to protect,” Hamoodi said. “We have received a mandate from our people to address the U.S.’s threat to democratic society everywhere. The voice of the Arab people will ring out as a beacon of freedom and hope to the world.”

Along with the declaration of war, the MEU sent a message to the American people.

“To the oppressed, silenced U.S. citizens—help is on the way,” Rajib said. “Liberty is on the march. Be assured: At the end of a long tunnel shines the light of freedom.”

According to Rajib, the MEU will provide extensive humanitarian and robotitarian aid to the citizens of the U.S., and has already begun moving stockpiles of breakfast, lunch, and dinner pills to the marijuana-producing regions of Mexico, Canada, and Quebec.

Mexico, Canada, and Quebec have stated they are sympathetic to the MEU’s goals but must remain neutral for the protection of their own people. It is likely, however, that they will host many refugees, should the U.S. turn against its people.

again, michael geist has broken down Bill C-60 (pdf file) and explains how it affects individual users, internet search engines, p2p, and ISP’s. this should answer hiba’s questions anyway, and any other questions people had about filesharing, downloading, and distributing music, movies and all sorts of other illegal AND legal content they got lying around on their hard drives.

So where does this leave peer-to-peer file sharing in Canada? After Bill C-60, uploading content would likely be captured by at least one of the above provisions. Downloading, however, may still be lawful in Canada under certain circumstances. The answer to which circumstances will not come from the proposed legislation, but rather from the Supreme Court of Canada.

read the rest here.

so last weekend i went to this desi mela in town with my wife and another buddy of mine. junoon was playing there and my friends were the opening band before them. it was an all day thing and i ended up there close to 730 in the evening so the car parking situation was pretty rough and close to 800 cars were easily parked in any ol’ nook and cranny. as i’m driving up along to the front entrance of the venue, contemplating how the heck i’m gonna find a parking spot in this mess, i am stopped by security at the gate asking if i have tickets.

i proceed to show my tickets and the man checking them leans into the passenger side window and tells me (translated to english),

“abbas, keep going straight through till the vendor parking and tell them arsalan has said to let me through and drive all the way up to the park.” so i carry on straight through till the vendor parking and lo and behold, vip private parking spots galore. only problem is, I HAVE NO CLUE WHO ARSALAN IS!?!?! i try and convey this to my wife and matt that i had no clue who that fellow was and both matt and my wife are making fun of me saying that i know too many people anyway and that they don’t believe me.

so the next day i get this scrap lying in my inbox. (personal details editted)

abbas… hi salam alaikum… u might not remember me and this may sound really funny but look at my face and try to remember me where did u see me? ohhh well cut the suspense out! U saw me at the main gate yesterday at junoon concert at bella garden.. and i was the one who let u in through the parking.. i was the organizer.. i came to your car and said hi abbas seedhi vendor parking mein lay jana… i was thinkin to say that i know u through orkut hehehehehe! but it seemed a lil bit awkward hahaha! well now u can say that making such a big circle on orkut really paid off! hahaha! hope u and bhabi enjoyed! and thanx for visiting! salam alaikum

so to my newly found friend, thank you!

In a preliminary opinion issued last week, a lawyer for the Administrative Office of the Courts said that state law allows people to be sworn in using a Quran rather than a Bible, Ellis said. But Guilford County judges told officials with the Islamic center Friday that they would not allow that in their courtrooms.

“An oath on the Quran is not a lawful oath under our law,” W. Douglas Albright, Guilford’s Senior Resident Superior Court judge, said earlier in the week in North Carolina.

Fox is suing Zee Telefilms for ripping off its hit espionage series 24, right down to the ticking clock. Fox alleges that Time Bomb, produced by Zee Telefilms, is an outright copy of their show, but failed to convince a Delhi high court judge to delay its premiere last Sunday.

Time Bomb is a political thriller set in South Asia, where Varun Avasthi, an agent in a special counterterrorism unit, has 60 real-time minutes each week to prevent the assassination of a “young and dynamic” Indian prime minister, according to the description in the Times of Calcutta. Oddly enough, the first season will be 24 episodes long, though a Zee spokesman says the similarities are “coincidences.”

The similarities end, however, with a scene where Avasthi has to defuse a nuclear “dirty bomb” at a wedding, while dancing in a vast, candle-filled fountain with two hundred costumed bridesmaids and groomsmen in a torrent of saffron flower petals, ringed by tabla players riding painted elephants.

The Canadian government has introduced a Made-in-Canada version of the US DMCA, a sweeping copyright law that creates a thicket of new rights for entertainment companies, reserving precious little rights for the public.

There is simply no denying that the lobbying efforts of the copyright owners, particularly the music industry, have paid off as they are the big winners in this bill. The bill focuses almost exclusively on creating new rights for this select group including a new making available right, legal protection for technological protection measures, legal protection for rights management information, the ability to control the first distribution of material in tangible form, new moral rights for performances, a reproduction right for performers, and an adjustment in the term of protection for sound recordings. The bill also includes a statutory notice and notice system that will virtually compel Internet service providers to notify subscribers of alleged copyright infringements and to retain relevant personal information for 6 months.

read the rest from michael geist, a uottawa law prof who regularly writes in the toronto star on matters concerning law and technology.

Sometimes you can’t believe your eyes. This week is one of those times.

Step outside any evening at sunset and look around. You’ll see a giant moon rising in the east. It looks like Earth’s moon, round and cratered; the Man in the Moon is in his usual place. But something’s wrong. This full moon is strangely inflated. It’s huge!

You’ve just experienced the Moon Illusion.

Read on.

ever wonder what wonderful “civilized and liberated” world we live in. how we have freedom of media. well here you go.

A Campobello teen is accused of raping one neighbor’s dog and another neighbor’s two little girls. Now the dog has died and charges against the teen have been upgraded.

After receiving word that the dog died possibly because of the rape, Fox Carolina called the Solicitor’s office to see if now new charges would be filed against the teen. An hour later Solicitor Trey Gowdy called to say that the charges will be upgraded to the “most serious animal cruelty charges they have on the books.”

The dog’s owner Sylvia Jones says, “At first when it happened, I couldn’t eat or sleep every morning I’m waking up thinking Princess is there but she’s not.

Princess’s little dog house is empty now…

Right there? That’s the standard of journalism in the entire Western world.

Romanian Orthodox priest Father Daniel Corogeanu and four nuns have been charged with murder after ordering another nun who was “possessed by the devil” and “beyond salvation” to be crucified. The nun, Maricica Irina Cornici, was found dead and chained to a cross last Wednesday. A member of the Holy Trinity order in the village of Tanacu, Sister Irina reportedly was imprisoned after arguing with the priest during a Sunday mass. From the Telegraph:

During a short funeral service at the weekend attended by 13 nuns who showed no emotion, Father Corogeanu said: “God has performed a miracle for her, finally Irina is delivered from evil.”

Romanian reporters present at the ceremony said strangle marks were clearly visible on the corpse, which lay in an open casket.

Claps of thunder were heard as the coffin was lowered into the ground, a sign “that the will of God has been done”, Father Corogeanu said…

Sister Irina joined the order three months ago, after visiting a friend who lived there.

According to medical reports she had been treated for schizophrenia.

via BB

Gallery of Socialist Realist posters from Cuba, China and the Soviet Union.

the teenagers guide to the real world.