soultrance

Bush vs Powell vs Common Article 3

You know the world is in a sad state of affairs when even Colin Powell is saying President George Bush is going to far.

Though the US Senate (I believe?) just recently passed a bill with the goal of further protecting prisoners of war and terrorists from cruel and unusual “interrogation” tactics, the good ole’ boy Mr. George Bush is trying to force a bill through that would achieve the complete opposite.

The bill which President Bush is trying to push through would see the rights of US interogators protected substantially more so then those of the people being interogated. Colin Powell stated that Bush’s proposed changes to the War Crimes Act would “liberalize the definition of what is torture” and would allow US interogators to use “hypothermia, threats of violence to the detainee and his family, stress positions, ‘long-time standing’, prolonged sleep deprivation, and possibly waterboarding” without any fear of being prosecuted at a later time.

Colin Powell made his thoughts on the matter quite clear and finally disagreed with how far President Bush is going, stating that â€œThe world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism. To redefine Common Article 3 would add to those doubts. Furthermore, it would put our own troops at risk.â€

I’m glad at least one person in that big white building and weird pentagon shaped building has finally managed to pull their head at least 1/4 of the way out of their ass. It’s things like this that make me utterly discusted with Bush. It really amazes me that he can even get away with trying to push things like this through, how absurd.

Segway Falls Flat on it’s Face… Again

Segway Inc., creators of the “revolutionary” Segway scooter, have recently issued a complete recall of all Segways ever sold, to the tune of roughly 23,500 scooters.

The company, based in Bedford, NH, along with the Consumer Protection Safety Commission urged all Segway owners not to make use of the scooters until they are inspected by an authorized dealer.

Apparently there is a fault in the software that operates the gyroscopes and balancing computers that can, at random and completely unexpected times, abruptly throw the Segway into reverse. This, of course, would result in the surprised (to say the least) rider being thrown to the ground face first.

The company has dispatched specially equipt laptops to all dealers in the hopes of avoiding and future issues and repairing the existing fault. The process takes around 20 mins to complete, but will save many a Segway rider from broken teeth and a scraped up face.

This is almost as funny as when they originally hyped the Segway for release and everyone thought it was going to be something cool like a rocket pack, only to find out it’s actually a glorified lawn mower for the incredibly lazy. Go Segway!

Survivor Cook Islands Recap: Sekou Eliminated

Tonight was the 1-hour premier episode of Survivor Cook Islands that I have been looking forward to for quite a while now. Like hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of other people, I had my butt glued to the couch 5 mins before the show started and was chomping at the bit. Let the madness begin!

The show starts off like the good old days of Survivor with all four teams running around a boat, grabbing what they can and, in some cases, stealing things from other tribes. The contestants were given 30 seconds to grab everything they could get their hands on before they had to jump overboard.

Everyone seems to get a decent amount of stuff and the first bit of controversy begins when Jonathan of the Caucasian tribe (aka Rarotonga) stole one of the chickens that had been caught by Yul of the Asian-American tribe (aka Puka). Oooooh, chicken stealer! You gonna pay!

Pan to the Hispanic-American tribe (aka Aitutaki) landing at their camp site, getting setup and Ozzy scaling a coconut tree, retreiving coconuts for his Aitutaki tribe mates. These guys seem like a pretty put together team, excluding the fat, lazy, metalhead Billy, that is. I forsee much lazyness and slacking in his short future.

Flip to the Asian-American tribe (aka Puka) and we find out that Cao Boi is already feeling a bit left out, which is no surprise, really. He’s the oldest member of a young team, the only one of the team that is an Asia born Asian and he’s excentric. Personally, I think he’s going to be the cool guy this season. The cooky character that everyone loves, love Chicken George from Big Brother.

Over to the African-American tribe (aka Manihiki) we go. Sekou starts off right away trying to be the leader and trying to get everyone organized and we all know how well that works, at least all of us that have watched Survivor before. This should be an interesting tribe, the alliances started instantly, everyone of them seems to be pretty stubborn and headstrong, I can almost smell the drama.

Last but not least we see the Caucasian tribe (aka Rarotonga) getting established. Jessica “Flicka” gets herself into some hot water right away by lifting the box where the chickens were being kept, letting them escape. After a while trying to catch the chickens everyone gave up. Jessica came in as an underdog, outcast person as it is, just for being alternative by nature, and losing the chickens right off the bat sure isn’t going to help.

The African-American tribe (Manihiki) are the first to find their gross, tainted, disease ridden water supply, but at least there’s a lot of it. A few trends emerge as well, with Sekou being lazy and taking to many breaks and two of the ladies, Rebecca and Sundra getting close already – I think we have the makings of an alliance here.The Caucasian tribe (Rarotonga) can’t manage to get any kind of shelter together so they are all forced to snuggle up close and get real friendly to stay warm. Right off the bat Adam and Candice seem to be getting just a little bit more friendly the everyone else – Does Survivor have an equivalent to the Big Brother showmance? I guess we’ll find out soon enough.

Yul of the Asian-American tribe (Puka) complains about having a headache and Cao Boi, being the crazy old coot that he is, diagnosis it as being something called the “bad wind” and proceeds to massage, rub, manipulate and generally screw with Yul’s temples and forehead and, amazingly enough, his headache goes away. As dumb as that looked, it was pretty cool.

Continue reading “Survivor Cook Islands Recap: Sekou Eliminated”

Rock Star Supernova Winner: Lukas Rossi

Tonight’s episode of Rock Star Supernova was the season finale and saw the Winner finally be announced. I have to say, first off, that I’m glad they packed it all into a 1-hour season finale, I hate when they drag finale’s out for 2-hours when there is simply no need to do so.

Now, on to the Rock Star Supernova Winner Recap:

Everything starts off as usual, with a recap of the previous nights performances in all their total awesomeness.

The announcement is made and the contestants to have been in the bottom two at one point or another are:

Magni
Toby
Lukas

*dramatic pause*

The contestants at Risk are:

Magni
Toby

Magni performs “Fire” by Jimi Hendrix

My Thoughts: Great performance again, the song was totally rockin’ and he did fantastic work with the guitarist for the house band again. With that being said, the first time he did it was a bit better then this round, but this round was still pretty good.

Toby performs “White Wedding” by Billy Idol

My Thoughts: Toby seems to be lacking some of his energy in this performance, it’s not as high as usual. The performance was decent, the vocals were only so-so, it really wasn’t his best job and he needed it most at this point in time.

Tommy Lee makes the announcement and the tommy-hawk falls squarely on Magni.

Booooo! I really liked Magni.

That leaves us with the Final 3:

Toby
Lukas
Dilana

Tommy Lee, Jason Newstead and Gilby Clarke of Supernova give everyone a chance to say their final piece and why they think they should be the lead singer of Supernova.

Lukas says it would be an “honor to lead them [Supernova] in a world tour.”

Dilana says “this band needs someone 1000% dedicated” and that “Lukas is amazing. Toby is incredible, but I’m the one!”

Toby keeps it simple and says “I feel like I’m ready now.”

With their final sentiments being spoken, Tommy Lee makes the request to hear everyone sing just one more song.

Lukas performs “Bitter Sweet Symphony” by The Verve

My Thoughts: Weak song, but a strong chorus. Good performance, but over all, sub-par vocals. Lukas didn’t do very good this time around, the previous version was MUCH better and much more genuine.

Dilana performs “Zombie” by The Cranberries

My Thoughts: The vocals weren’t bad, but not great by any means. The performance was a so-so effort and overall, it wasn’t anything special. Again, the first time around was much better. What is with these guys tonight?

Toby performs “Somebody Told Me” by The Killers

My Thoughts: Toby shouldn’t sing any songs by The Killers because they never end up sounding right, his voice just doesn’t fit properly with the songs. Though his performance was great and as high in energy as ever – much better then his performance for White Wedding.

Jason Newstead takes the mic and essentially says that Toby’s voice is fantastic, Supernova has never doubted it through-out the entire competition and it can cut through the guitars with no problem at all, and they love that.

Then he promptly drops the axe and cuts Toby.

Super Boo! Toby was my favorite to win, I can’t believe they cut him, he did fantastic in this competition. He’s so going to make and release his own album, without a doubt.

Toby’s parting words were that he had “the best time ever” and that “you boys, you taught me so much.” Good on you mate! You rocked it out.

That leaves us with the Final 2:

Dilana
Lukas

Both of whom received the highest votes from last nights performance show, surprisingly.

And, of course, Supernova threatens to make their decision, but first: the obligatory 5 minutes of suspense and annoyance creating commercials, yay!

Back from the commercials we come and the final words are spoken of each contestant. Supernova says that Lukas was “really, really amazing for us” and that Dilana was “enchanting” and her “voice is amazing.”

Supernova announces that they are making their decision based on the highest votes received from their fans, which means the:

Rock Star Supernova Winner is Lukas Rossi!

Everyone says how awesome Dilana is and that she has a few surprises in store for her as well:

Tommy lets her know that she can come on tour with Supernova and front the House band.
Gilby Clarke offers to help write and produce Dilana’s record.
Tommy Lee and Dave Navarro BOTH offer to play on her record as well.

That is a pretty sweet deal for coming in second place.

Supernova takes to the stage, hugs all around for Lukas and they break into their first song as a complete group, “Be Yourself.”

I have to say, I really got into this season of Rock Star Supernova and enjoyed it quite a bit. The competition was very stiff and big props go out to Lukas Rossi, Dilana Robichaux and Toby Rand for making it into the final 3. They all did fantastic and made the season a great one. I’m going to miss not having any Rock Star Supernova to watch anymore. I wonder what super band they’ll come up with next year?

Rock Star Supernova Winner: Finale Tonight!

Don’t forget, tonight is the finale of Rock Star Supernova and the winner will be revealed. The season finale starts at 8:00pm EST/PST on CBS, don’t miss it, it’s going to rock!

Tonight we will finally learn who is going to be the lead singer of Supernova and Rock Star Supernova Winner. Will it be Dilana, Lukas, Toby or Magni? Who knows, you’ll have to watch to find out.

My personal hopes are that either Magni or Toby become the Rock Star Supernova Winner. One thing is for sure, come 7:55pm I’ll be glued to the couch for at least an hour scribbling away on my note pad.

Stay tuned for the official Rock Star Supernova Winner recap post!

Vancouver Events: Body Worlds 3 Comes to Science World

Gunther von Hagens Body Worlds 3 is coming to Vancouver from September 15th, 2006 to January 14th, 2007.

Body Worlds will be setup at Science World in Vancouver’s False Creek and looks to be quite possibly one of the coolest things ever. Body Worlds features close to 200 real human specimens in all their anatomical wonder. These specimens aren’t your usual human specimens, but are actually plastinates, which is a groundbreaking technique created by Gunther von Hagens to preserve anatomical specimens perfectly. This method of preservation allows authentic specimens to be displayed in an incredibly lifelike fashion, offering a glimpse into the muscular and nervous systems that you have to see to believe.

The Body Worlds 3 exhibition not only features stunning pieces of human anatomy, but also includes animal specimens which are just as intricit and interesting.

For further information and details on the Body Worlds 3 exhibition at Science World, go to: http://www.scienceworld.bc.ca/whats_on/Body-Worlds/overview.htm

Reality TV: Big Brother and Rock Star Supernova Finales

Big Brother All Stars:

Don’t forget, tonight is the season finale of Big Brother All Stars! Make sure you tune in to find out who wins! My money’s on Mike Boogie, but you never know.

Tonight’s episode of Big Brother All Stars will be an hour long and should start at 8:00pm EST/PST.

An recap of the Big Brother All Stars Finale will come later tonight after I get done watching all my reality TV shows for the night.

Watch Big Brother All Stars on CBS

Rock Star Supernova:

Tonight’s episode of Rock Star Supernova is also the last performance episode and, though it’s not the season finale (that comes tomorrow), I’m, sure it’s going to pack a punch none the less.

I have the sneaking suspicion that someone is going to get axed by Tommy Lee‘s tommy-hawk tonight. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.

A recap of tonights episode of Rock Star Supernova will also come later as well.

Catch Rock Star Supernova on CBS @ 9:00pm EST/PST Tonight!

Coast Mountain Bus Drivers at it Again

Yong_SA over at Metroblogging Vancouver made a post about a letter his wife sent to the Coast Mountain Bus Company today and after reading it I had to share it with everyone.

I’ve been a transit goer in the City of Vancouver and its suburbs for many years as I don’t have a vehicle, can’t afford one and don’t really want one. As such, I have seen my fair share of asshole, belligerent and flat out uncalled for rude bus drivers, but this story really pissed me off. Given, there are certainly some wicked bus drivers out their and a lot of the drivers for the Coast Mountain Bus Company are very helpful, friendly and generally cool people, but this guy certainly doesn’t fit that mold.

The driver of the #110 bus leaving Metrotown, heading East bound today at 3:34pm decided, for whatever reason, that he didn’t want to let a mother with a double stroller, two twin seven month old babies and a four year old child on to the bus because her double stroller was apparently to big, though she’s never had issue with it before.

Read the story @ Metroblogging Vancouver