Pivot 2 Concept Car by Nissan

Nissan Pivo2
Uploaded by robotfrance

TOKYO (AFP) - Japan's Nissan Motor Co. on Friday unveiled a new version of its egg-shaped Pivo concept car that can drive sideways and has a small robot to assist with navigation or calm down angry drivers.

The Pivo 2 three-seater electric car has wheels that can turn 90 degrees for easy parallel parking. Like its predecessor, which was unveiled two years ago, the new Pivo has a cabin able to revolve 360 degrees, eliminating the need to reverse. A round-eyed robot head sitting on the dashboard has cameras that can tell when a driver is getting sleepy.

"You look tired. There's a coffee shop 500 metres ahead on the left," it told a driver with drooping eyelids during a recent demonstration. It can also nod or shake its head, helping to improve the mood of irate or glum drivers. The car has "by-wire" technologies that use electric signals in the steering and braking. Unlike the first Pivo, it has no axles. Instead it has four separate electric motors, allowing the wheels to turn further than a conventional car. The Pivo 2 will be exhibited at the Tokyo Motor Show near the capital from October 27.

Actors Studio Questions

The ten questions by Bernard Pivot that host James Lipton asks every guest are:

What is your favorite word?
What is your least favorite word?
What turns you on [creatively, spiritually or emotionally]?
What turns you off?
What sound or noise do you love?
What sound or noise do you hate?
What is your favorite curse word?
What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
What profession would you not like to do?
If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?

Billy Ballot Explains....

This animated clip from Elections Ontario explains the MMP system which we will have to vote for on October 10. I will be voting YES to MMP.

Click Here

Your Big Decision

Happy 1st Birthday Lady Emily

Childrens do learn

Offering a grammar lesson guaranteed to make any English teacher cringe, President George W. Bush told a group of New York school kids on Wednesday: "Childrens do learn."

Bush made his latest grammatical slip-up at a made-for-TV event where he urged Congress to reauthorize the No Child Left Behind Act, the centerpiece of his education policy, as he touted a new national report card on improved test scores

The event drew New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings plus teachers and about 20 fourth and fifth graders from P.S. 76.


During his first presidential campaign, Bush -- who promised to be the "education president" -- once asked: "Is our children learning?"


On Wednesday, Bush seemed to answer his own question with the same kind of grammatical twist.


"As yesterday's positive report card shows, childrens do learn when standards are high and results are measured," he said.


The White House opted to clean up Bush's diction in the official transcript.


Bush is no stranger to verbal gaffes. He often acknowledges he was no more than an average student in school and jokes about his habit of mangling the English language.


Just a day earlier, the White House inadvertently showed how it tries to prevent Bush from making even more slips of the tongue than he already does.


As Bush addressed the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, a marked-up draft of his speech briefly popped up on the U.N. Web site, complete with a phonetic pronunciation guide to get him past troublesome names of countries and world leaders.

Liberty of The Seas Flowrider

Slave CD Release Party

“The music industry has completely forgotten that people want to be entertained and
that’s what SLAVE to the SQUAREwave does.”
- Montreal Music Scene

Picture Devo. Now picture Devo, but with David Bowie as the singer. Now picture Devo with Bowie, but they’re all sporting Talking Heads suits and influences. Now picture a squarehead…and you might just begin to get the feel for the music of Toronto’s SLAVE to the SQUAREwave.

Brought together in 1999 at a rave, where singer Colin Troy and keyboardist Rob Stuart were each playing solo sets, SLAVE to the SQUAREwave was born out of a mutual admiration for the bands mentioned above…… a penchant for fat, funky bass lines…. that infectious retro dance beat and a flare for the dramatic on stage. Made complete through the addition of Andrew Starr (guitar) and Doug Lea (drums), mere words cannot describe the experience of their energetic live shows, where Troy easily takes the title of the most riveting front man to emerge in recent years!
The band’s incredible live show did not go unnoticed among judges of the 2003 Emergenza contest in Canada, who voted SLAVE to the SQUAREwave the best band in this country from over 350 contestants. Playing at the world Emergenza finals in Germany was the highlight for the band that year, where they performed for thousands of cheering fans. And speaking of cheers, the staff at Club Soda in Montreal, where SLAVE to the SQUAREwave opened for new wave legends The Fixx, said, “This is only the second time in 5 years that the opening act has received a standing ovation”.

2004 saw the band tour Florida twice; playing during the March break festivities in Boca Ratan, Ft. Lauderdale, Hollywood and Orlando, plus a three day stint in June at the Parliament House in Orlando. With a unique, clever, original mix of ‘80’s electropop and driving drum beats, SLAVE to the SQUAREwave also garnered the attention of one Howard Stern in the “Restless Restless” songwriting Contest on his American syndicated radio show. Placing in the top 30, Stern said “I would love to see these guys play live”.

CD Release Party

Tuesday September 25, 2007

8:00 pm

The el Macambo

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

No Cover

Stop Funding Religious Schools: CCLA

Ontario’s schools are among the most diverse, tolerant and respectful of any schools in the world. Our public schools bring children together, regardless of wealth, status, race, religion, and ethnicity. Our public schools bring communities together.

In the Ontario election, a proposal has been put forward to publicly fund faith-based schools. The Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) and the undersigned call upon all political parties to reject the proposal to fund religious schools, and to work to strengthen our public education system and to ensure that it continues to reflect the diversity of our communities.

Public funding of religious schools will drain resources from the public system and promote private schools at the expense of public schools. It will fragment and divide our system along religious lines. The sheer costs of funding many religious schools would likely reduce the quality of the entire educational system.

If the funding proposal goes ahead, public schools could lose significant numbers of students to religious schools. If this were to happen, the public schools could no longer hope to perform their role in bringing people together. In time, our community could become a much less tolerant place.

Our public education system strives to acknowledge, accommodate and celebrate the diversity of faiths in our multicultural society. Our public schools have shown flexibility and creativity in responding to the changing face of our communities, while playing a vital role in integrating many cultures.

We call on political parties and candidates to affirm their commitment to building a strong public education system, and to reject the proposal to fund private religious schools. Together, let’s continue to build a public education system that is responsive to the needs of all faiths, cultures and communities, and makes Ontario an example of social tolerance and harmony.

Click here for the CCLA statement.

Muffin & Muffin Have Returned

We are back safe and sound. No flights missed. No boats missed. Those of you with wagers may collect or pay now.

Muffin

Possible Side Effects

We are at sea today. I just corrected yesterdays post as we arrive in Haiti tomorow (Thursday) morning, not Friday. Today is our second formal dinner and its lobster night for dinner. We were just laying out on the deck, but it is so hot, and I don't want to burn so I had to come in.

On our first day I was swimming and swam into the end wall of the pool. It is submerged and then there is an area about 10'X10" which is under water for laying around on. Anyway, my shoulder is hurting and bruised so I thought I should get some Tylenol.

Back to the book; Earlier today I was reading this book, Possibe Side Effects, by Augusten Burroughs, the best-selling author of Running With Scissors. I will be buying this book when I get home. Here is an excerpt from Chapter 2:

And this made me love London even more. That you could go to hospital and
be treated as a patient, instead of a suspect, like in America.

After this I watched a little CNN. CNN is very different in the United
Kingdom than it is in America. For one thing, there's more global coverage. They
even gave the weather forcast for New Delhi. That would never play in America
because people would e-mail CNN headquarters and say, "Who the fuck cares about
fucking India? Give us more missing coed stories."

I glanced at the fireplace and saw that the wall-to-wall carpeting extended into the fireplace itself, right under the log holder. Obviously, the fireplace no longer worked. But also obvious was the fact that no American had ever stayed in this room before. Because an American most certainly would have attempted to build a fire. As a rule, Americans will take everything that is offered to them. "There's a fireplace in this room, and by golly, I'm gonna use it." We're just that way. If we see it, it belongs to us. If it burns, even better.

I feel like John Stewart...

It seems that whenever Daily Show host John Stewart goes on vacation shit happens. In the few moments I've taken to read the news in the last week the following events have occured; O.J. Simpson was charged with Kidnapping and Armed Robbery. Brittany Spears has been ordered to undergo drug testing and there was yet another Terror Alert for our friends to the south. What is my point? I dont' have one really. I'm on vacation and I don't care.

Muffin and I were having a deep conversation today on the beach about the most stressful thing that we had to deal with; his was that his lime got stuck in the neck of his beer bottle and he had problems getting to the actual beer. I conceded that this was, indeed a serious vacation misfortune. I couldn't come close to topping his major stressor as my biggest issue was having to get up and walk the entire fifty feet to the beach bar to get a bottle opener for said beer.

We are now at sea and sailing towards Labadee, Haiti. We arrive there on Thursday morning. Having been to San Juan and St. Martin its been a fantastic trip. I will post many more details and photos here when I get home and its not costing me an arm and a leg.

That's all for now.
Muffin & Muffin

Freedom of the Seas Stats

http://www.freedomoftheseas.com/site.php

She has 30 lifeboats.
She is about 229 ft. longer, about 108,000 gross tons larger, and can accommodate 2,147 more passengers than RMS Titanic.
Her operating costs are $1 million per day.
She has 75,000 lightbulbs and 4,700 works of art, and uses 35,000 kg of ice daily.
The largest suite is 113 square meters, sleeps 14 people and has five flat panel TVs, a private whirlpool, and a wet bar.
Rooms for the maiden voyage were priced from $1,900 to $22,000 for the week.

The ship consumes approximately 28,000 pounds (12,800 kg) of fuel per hour.[4]
She is one of the only ships with 4 bow thrusters on each side with 8 bow thrusters in total.

Vote Green on October 10th

Welo Bike

CN Tower dethroned by Dubai building

On Wednesday, a structure under construction in the Arabian Desert succeeded in passing the Toronto tower's 553.33-metre height.



Burj Dubai - a glitzy hotel, residential and commercial building being built in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, for a price tag of $4.1 billion US - will be more than 150 stories tall when it reaches its final height, expected to be around 800 metres, although the actual completed height is a closely guarded secret.

Dubai is the financial hub of the United Arab Emirates. The building is being promoted as the most luxurious hectare on earth and is being built by South Korea's Samsung Corporation.

Read the full story at CBC here.

MMP System Used Around the World
The Mixed Member Proportional system being proposed in Ontario is the same system that is used in Germany that saw the initial success of the Green Party in the late 1970s. Winning this referendum in Ontario will help win the BC STV referendum that will be re-voted in 2009.

• Benefits of the MMP System
• Better geographic representation
• Fairer Elections
• Better government
• More Accountable government
• Stronger representation
• More women in the legislature
• Recommended by 92% of the Citizens Assembly members in Ontario
• A system devised by average people not political insiders

Francesco

Chris Crocker, This is FOR YOU.

The Red List

Gorillas, orangutans, and corals are among the plants and animals which are sliding closer to extinction.
The Red List of Threatened Species for 2007 names habitat loss, hunting and climate change among the causes.
The World Conservation Union (IUCN) has identified more than 16,000 species threatened with extinction, while prospects have brightened for only one.
The IUCN says there is a lack of political will to tackle the global erosion of nature.

Link: The Red List

Vote Green On October 10th

Remembering 9-11

Since today is September 11th and the media is full of 9/11 related stories, etc. I thought it might be fitting to remember 9/11 also. I was thinking of maybe a recipe or something, so I went surfing and found this fitting drink. It may help you forget that horrible day!

911

1/3 oz Goldschlager® cinnamon schnapps

1/3 oz Aftershock® Cool Citrus mint schnapps

1/3 oz Firewater® cinnamon schnapps

Mix the three together and suck it back. It's sure to burn.

Queen of Green Biodegrades

Anita Roddick, 64: The Body Shop founder

Quote of the Daye

Misfortune shows those who are not really friends.
Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC),

Liberty Of The Seas

This is the ship I am going on September 15th, with my good friend Muffin. It is the largest crusise ship in the world.

Ship Highlights


FlowRider®
H2O Zone
Cantilevered whirlpools
Rock-climbing wall
Ice-skating rink
Royal Promenade
Extensive WiFi capabilities and connectivity for cell phones
Full-size, flat-screen TVs in every stateroom
Themed bars and lounges
Adventure Ocean® youth facilities
ShipShape® Fitness Center and Day Spa
Full-size Everlast boxing ring
Casino RoyaleSM
Presidential Family Suite
Sports Pool
Full-size sports court
9-hole miniature golf course
Johnny Rockets® '50s-style restaurant
Portofino Italian Restaurant
Chops Grille
Ben & Jerry's® ice cream
Vintages wine bar
Boleros Latin-themed lounge
Sorrento's pizza
Vitality Wellness Program

Ship Facts

Maiden Voyage: May 19, 2007
Passenger Capacity: 3,634 double occupancy
Godmother: Donnalea Madeley
Gross Tonnage: 160,000
Length: 1,112'
Max Beam: 184'
Draft: 28'
Cruising Speed: 21.6 knots

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/findacruise/cruiseDetails/shipInformation.do;jsessionid=0000oNhQUtJB53wBGaq2NNQX7nS:10ktmf1jr?packageCode=LB07E004&shipCode=LB&sailDate=1070915&date=ANY&selectedCurrencyCode=CAD