Morning Brew: June 20, 2008

Since I brewed yesterday, and have spent all my spare time wringing the sixth (now inhuman) foot dry for inspiration to beef up my creative writing portfolio, this one might not be as in-depth as usual...

The four biggies: Foot DNA doesn't match up to that Quadra Island plane crash, the Senate approves a new anti-spanking bill, rewards are now being offered for those (other) missing men, and that guy who was put in the hospital by an RCMP officer with an oldschool 'nonlethal weapon' -- pepper spray -- has died. Spanking jokes are too easy, and missing or murdered individuals aren't things to be joked about.

Must view: shouting match in Parliament over the new consumer-spanking copyright bill (I'm sorry). While Prentice lacks both proper grammar and an argument, he does demonstrate some major skill with the acronym as he unloads this gem: "the comments about the USA, DMCA are NDP-BS". Sounds like a Wesley Willis song or something (final link NSFW).

The Atlantic tells us how the internet is destroying our brains (watch out, he quotes Nietzsche). Or, in more 'easily digestible' web-speak: You're all a bunch of lazy bastards. Are blog readers really "selfish, lazy, and ruthless?" When we spend so much time online, we obviously train our brain to read in a certain way; but that hardly means one can't stop to savor a novel or essay (with a whit of effort). I'll say that the internet is ineffably superior to television, but people still need to get into the habit of reading a helluva lot more literature, and leave it at that.

Oh, and there's ice on Mars. And the news broke on twitter. "We have ICE!!!!! Yes, ICE, *WATER ICE* on Mars! w00t!!! Best day ever!!" What ever happened to our image of the calm, collected, emotionally vacant astronaut? Ok, I'm not gonna slam the internet wholesale, but twitter is definitely killing our brains. "Daisy... Daisy..."

Tonight, Kristina Lee Podesva and Inge Roecker present the China Earthquake Relief Fundraising Silent Auction at Center A. The free event features the work of over 40 artists, and is part of their latest exhibition, Showroom, which uses the space of a real estate showroom to analyze the relationship between art and public space. There's an installation which includes the work of local artists, designers, and architects, a symposium, and several public forums. You'll probably hear more from me, but for now check out all the details online.

Some unmissable photography you can view right now: Chris Jordan's online series 'Running the Numbers'.

The Tyee on the plight of Victoria's homeless, as they fight the government for the right to camp. 1,500 homeless and beds for less than 20% of them... "The ability to provide yourself with shelter is a fundamental right."

Our of our city's longest-running publications is the Buzzer? 92 Years and counting. What, we couldn't have waited another eight years to celebrate? And even the buzzer is digitized these days -- I remember this piece of bus etiquette propaganda giving me quite a laugh.

One of my cohorts may be a closet Trekkie Mark Hamill fanboy (Sean?), and therefore would be readying a full-blown post... but I'll bet not and just tell you here that there'll be a lightsaber flashmob on Sunday at 8:00pm sharp. I'll hold out for the Wii game.

A defense of the original Hulk film. I've always maintained it was the least shitty of all those Superhero movies. Here's hoping they don't screw up The Watchmen too bad.

Surrey: The Beaver Dies Here. Beaver jokes exhausted in prior brews.

One place where the internet has failed me today, is in answering this question: why the hell did the apples in Greece never go brown? Seriously. Somebody help. I feel victimized.

And that turned out to be pretty damn sizable... I need to start making money off this. Morning Brew mugs?

photo of pillow fight flashmob by rvnix of the BR flickr group