Some reading for the weekend

Reuters: Alp-sized peaks found entombed in Antarctic ice

H. P. Lovecraft: At the Mountains of Madness

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The Wall Street Journal: The War on Drugs Is a Failure

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Also, the latest in global warming alarmism, from the New Scientist:

How to survive the coming century

How unbiased is it? The author is called Gaia.

(I'm kidding, but they are being a bit extreme)

For instance:

"All of the world's major deserts are predicted to expand, with the Sahara reaching right into central Europe.

Glacial retreat will dry Europe's rivers from the Danube to the Rhine, with similar effects in mountainous regions including the Peruvian Andes, and the Himalayan and Karakoram ranges, which as result will no longer supply water to Afghanistan, Pakistan, China, Bhutan, India and Vietnam."

Is it just me, or does it seem like the author is saying Europe's river water comes from glaciers? The one link the article had anywhere near that was to an article that said no such thing. There seems to be some consensus that rainfall in Europe will decrease by as much as 20% in the worst case scenario, but that's nowhere near enough to "dry Europe's rivers". As with so many other impacts of climate change, the effect will be to increase rainfall in the winter and decrease it in the summer.

The idea that the Himalayas will "no longer supply water" is ludicrous. Maybe someone should explain to the author what a drainage basin is and where river water comes from. Yes, a significant portion of river water in summer comes from glaciers, and apparently in a worst-case scenario the Ganges may become a seasonal river, flowing only in the summer, but rivers will not vanish because of glacier retreat. They'll only vanish if rainfall stops completely.

After scaring you with overblown images of desertification, the author gets to the real point:

"In order to survive, humans may need to do something radical: rethink our society not along geopolitical lines but in terms of resource distribution."

"If we use land, energy, food and water efficiently, our population has a chance of surviving - provided we have the time and willingness to adapt."

And the article goes on and on about what kind of a global planned economy we need to set up to "survive the coming century":

"We need to look at the world afresh and see it in terms of where the resources are, and then plan the population, food and energy production around that."

I have to write some more on environmentalist alarmism in the future, but the biggest reason articles like this make me highly sceptical is the effortless way in which the writers go from looking at the science of global warming to positing global fascism to deal with it. From the author's own website:

"The most obvious logical solution is to move the people where the resources are, and I explore this idea in a recent article. There are other options. How about enforced sterilization of people that have produced one child - this would immediately shrink the population?"

Um, because human population may decrease in the future, we should decrease it ourselves by force? Why not just advocate shooting people? One of the comments to the post hits right to the heart of this kind of thinking:

"Hi agree with limiting population growth - people should have to apply to have children, instead of it being everyones god given right. The world is being filled up with the ill-conceived offspring of degenerates and criminals, from families too large to already look after themselves."

Maybe a little extreme, but then again, James Lovelock, creator of the Gaia theory, basically agrees with him: 'humans will survive and be "culled and, I hope, refined."' Also, how does Ms. Vince imagine we would go about "moving people to where the resources are"? By force? What other way is there?

I'm not a global warming skeptic, and I'm not arguing global warming isn't happening. I'm arguing that I'm frightened by the possibilities of what might happen if global warming gets worse; I'm also frightened by the idea of the kind of people who write these articles getting to impose their ideas on the world.

The idea of "planning the world" in the way the article describes would require a total abandonment of many of our basic human rights and of representative government. Environmentalists try to justify this by saying it is necessary to the survival of our species. Somehow, eco-fascism doesn't seem like too extreme a word to describe these people.

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Finally, some old school Internet humor: Niilo Paasivirta

The Flyers and goaltending

The buzz is that the Flyers are looking for a number-one goaltender, and on Firday night's Flyers-Montréal game on TSN Pierre Mcguire directly told them to go get a goalie now.

I disagree. The Flyers' problem isn't their goaltending, it's their defensive play. Of the three goals Niittymäki allowed in regulation against the Habs, one was a fluke and the other two were results of horrendous defensive play by the Flyers skaters. Getting a new goalie is not going to make your team play better defense, and defensive play has been a constant problem for the Flyers ever since the lockout.

The most ludicrous idea that was floated by the TSN panel was getting Niklas Bäckström to Philadelphia. Bäckström is a positional goalie who's been phenomenal behind Minnesota's trapping defense, and consistently garbage every time he's played behind a weak defensive corps. Most spectacularly so for the Finnish national team.

What the Flyers need badly is a defensive leader. Heck, maybe they should try to land Pronger. Changing goaltenders isn't going to help. Martin Biron has already proved he can play at the NHL level, and if you think Niittymäki can't hack it against the best players in the world, maybe you should remind yourself who was the MVP of the Torino olympics. Goaltending is not the problem, defense is.

The trading starts

Yesterday the Penguins traded Ryan Whitney to Anaheim for Chris Kunitz and a prospect (TSN).

Basically, the two hot trade deadline commodities are proven playoff players and puck-moving defensemen. In fact, ever since the lockout it feels like every NHL team is constantly looking for a "puck-moving defenseman". I mean, Minnesota were so desperate for one they even brought Petteri Nummelin back from the Swiss league. Apparently they figured that a guy who was dropped by the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2001 could be an offensive force in the league five years later. But I digress.

In Whitney Anaheim gets a fairly good offensive defenseman who happens to be having a bad year, who might even be able to step into Scott Niedermayer's shoes when he retires. Obviously Pittsburgh is hoping Kunitz will finally be the winger who "clicks" with Crosby. He's no sniper, though, and so far Crosby hasn't shown any ability to transform 20-goal scorers into something more. This is unlikely to be a major differencemaker for the Pens. Besides, given their distaste for veterans, once Kunitz gets a few more years under him the Pens will let him go.

Kunitz has three years left on his contract at $3,725,000 a year, so swapping Whitney's $4 million for him only saves them a quarter million for next year. So their cap troubles are pretty much unaffected.

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Whitney was probably the proverbial first domino in this year's deadline crunch. Now that he's gone, the premier offensive D-man on the move if probably Filip Kuba. He and Tomas Kaberle will now be getting more attention, and with Burke unwilling to part with Kaberle except for a high price, Filip Kuba's stock just went way up.

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A good column on the Hockey News on Washington's winning windown. Edward Fraser maintains the Caps need to make a playoff push now, and I think he's right. Certainly they're going to be in salary trouble in 2010 when both Nicklas Bäckström and Alex Semin have a contract year.

I also agree wholeheartedly with his assessment that the Caps are going to need some grit and defensive power to make a more complete playoff team. At times, the Caps defense is wide open, and they're going to need a proper shutdown unit.

There are some excellent two-way forwards to be had, and I for one think the Caps should definitely try to get either Chris Neil or Jarkko Ruutu from Ottawa, and I'd be thrilled to see either Gary Roberts or Mark Recchi join the team from Tampa. However, the Caps have absolutely no cap space. In fact, they're over the cap at the moment. The biggest problem? Michael Nylander's monster contract. With two more years at $4,875,000, Nylander is actually the third-best paid player on the Caps roster.

Looking back now, it's almost impossible to understand what possessed the Caps to sign him to such a monstrous contract. He's managed just 7+20 points in 57 games this season, and the amount of money he's being paid is crippling the Capitals. In 2007 he was coming off an 80-point season; he was also 35 years old.

In the current economic climate, with the cap expected to stay the same or even drop, it's almost unthinkable for any team to be willing to take on Nylander's huge salary. Who wants to be paying a 39-year-old 40-point scorer five million a year?

If the Capitals go into the playoffs with the current roster and can't add some shutdown players, it's going to be largely because of the huge contract they gave to Nylander.

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Some brief notes:

* my opinion of Milan Lucic continues to fall. In last night's Ducks-Bruins game he dropped the gloves with Mike Brown, and after Brown fell to the ice he kept pounding on him, punching him in the back of the head. Fighting advocates are big on the "Code", and I think somebody might want to remind Lucic that it's usually been part of the "Code" that when your opponent falls to the ice, the fight is over. Lucic still has some growing up to do; right now, he's not a fighter, just a punk.

* It was a good night for Jokerit players on Long Island: Sean Bergenheim scored a shorthanded goal and Tim Stapleton, making his NHL debut, scored the game-deciding shootout goal in last night's Leafs-Isles game. Stapleton played for Jokerit before signing with the Maple Leafs, and we loved the guy. Go Tim!

Lex Nokia is coming

Yesterday, the Finnish Parliament voted, and the Lex Nokia proposal is going ahead. They'll be voting on it later, but as Finnish parliamentary voting is what it is, the governing coalition will have the votes to see the law through.

None of this is surprising, but it is sad. Soon not only the Swedish military but also your university, housing co-op and library can monitor your Internet use.

So long, privacy. It was nice while it lasted.

News roundup

A couple of items from Reuters. First, hilarity:

You're in big trouble now, Mr. License!

Then, you think we're not living in Cyberpunk 2020 yet?

China's artificially induced snow closes 12 highways

In hockey, check out the value of draft picks on TSN.

Also, in terrible news, apparently Limp Bizkit is back.

The Pirate Bay trial continues in Sweden. This is the latest showdown between the medieval guild priviledges of content producers and consumers, and it could very well be one of the most important lawsuits of our lifetimes in terms of cultural history. Finnish readers can keep track on the Piraattiliitto website.

Also, the Finnish singles chart #1 at the time of this writing is Lady GaGa's Poker Face. In many ways, that song exemplifies what's wrong with pop music today. Yes, the hooks are well crafted. That's exactly the problem. The song, lyrics and artist are crafted, scientifically designed to appeal to your senses. The whole thing is so unrelentlessly artificial. This really is music as a mass-produced commodity. There is no art here.

In fact, the only thing that can be categorized as art in the song are the clothes she wears in the video. I like those, and when she climbs out of the swimming pool in that skin-tight outfit, hey, I'd hit that. And that's exactly what I'm supposed to think. It's human nature to resent being manipulated.

But for those of us with any conception of music as art, there's nothing there. And that's a shame.

NHL watchlist

Things to look out for in the coming weeks:

* the Montréal Canadiens. I watched the Pittsburgh game, and the whole thing was an unbelievable disaster. I don't think I've ever seen Saku Koivu be that invisible on the ice. The team played horribly, and Carbonneau stood behind the bench like a statue. Mute, unresponsive. He continues to play Price in goal despite easy goals and horrible numbers, and doesn't seem to be able to do anything to stop the Habs' tailspin. They're nearly out of the playoffs.

If the Habs drop their game against Ottawa today, look for something to happen. I can't imagine the Canadiens will let the team slide out of the playoffs in their centennial year. If a totally different Habs team doesn't take the ice on Saturday and thump the Senators 10-0, I can't believe they won't fire Carbonneau.

The alternative seems to be missing the playoffs.

* the Penguins. New coach Dan Bylsma got his first win against the never-showed-up Montréal Canadiens, but his tactics seem eerily reminiscient of Therien. Constant line-juggling in a game the Penguins were winning doesn't look like good coaching, it looks like desperation. If Bylsma's system works and the Habs stay in freefall, the Pens could contend for eighth spot in the conference.

It'll also be interesting to see what the Pens do on the deadline. More below.

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Obviously, the trade deadline is coming up on March 4th. My picks for things to look forward to:

* the Habs, again. The loss of Robert Lang and the ongoing Alex Kovalev situation point toward a trade. The rumors are they're looking for a center. I still hope the Vincent Lecavalier deal goes through, but failing that, Olli Jokinen is another name that crops up.

* Florida should learn from what happened to Atlanta last year and trade Bouwmeester. Atlanta's express trip to the playoffs and out was not worth sacrificing a piece of the organization's future. If they still want to make the playoffs, they can swap Bouwmeester for a player who will be useful to them now, as well as future considerations. But they have to trade him.

* Speaking of Atlanta, Kovalchuk and intriguingly, Kari Lehtonen are rumored ot be on the way out. I for one can't imagine Kovalchuk would even consider resigning with Atlanta, and Lehtonen's job is going to be handed over to Pavelec. Lehtonen will be a restricted free agent this summer, and Kovalchuk has a year left on his contract. Whether Atlanta trades them now or next season remains to be seen. TSN sez the Flyers are interested in Lehtonen.

* Pittsburgh really ought to trade Ryan Whitney. With Gonchar back in the lineup and Goligoski on his way up, Whitney is the odd man out, especially with the way he's played since he returned from injury. Also, the Pens desperately need cap space. The Whitney trade could be one of the more interesting ones as the Pens may shoot for a scoring winger to play with Crosby as opposed to just prospects or draft picks. Many teams should be interested in Whitney as lately puck-moving defensemen are worth their weight in platinum in the NHL.

* What else Pittsburgh does will be interesting. There's no question the team has underperformed, but they're also nearly crippled by the amount of money sunk in their top players. Will Ray Shero blow up the team to the extent he can? Or will they just move Whitney and some other easily interchangeable pieces?

* Speaking of blowing up a team, what will the Senators do? They're playing better under new leadership, but their structural problems persist. One guy who might be on the move is Chris Neil, who'd be a welcome addition to any playoffbound team. Will they blow up the team? Probably not. Will they part with some of their more experienced players in exchange for a better future? They should. Doesn't mean they're going to.

(edit: last night they traded for Mike Comrie and Dan Campoli from the Islanders, giving up San José's first-round pick. Are they really planning to make a playoff push? Seems, erm, optimistic...)

* Anaheim is in for some decisions as well. Most of their experienced players from the Stanley Cup run will be free agents next summer. The question for Anaheim all season has been whether to make another run with this lineup or trade away some of the soon-to-be free agents. Nearly all of their potential UFAs have playoff experience and a Cup ring, so they'd be attractive commodities to playoff teams. For my money, Anaheim should trade. They have a good core of young players and will have to let go of a lot of the free agents anyway come summer, so the smart thing to do is to get a decent return for them and set up for another Cup run in a few years' time.

* look forward to the epic booing Sundin deserves, and will get, in the Air Canada Center today.

RIP Miika Tenkula

According to Iltalehti, former Sentenced lead guitarist Miika Tenkula was found dead at his home in Muhos yesterday.

As a founding member of Sentenced, Tenkula was instrumental in creating one of the greatest heavy metal albums in Finnish history, Amok.



Tenkula had an acknowledged alcohol problem for many years, which only got worse after he left Sentenced, according to blabbermouth.net. His cause of death has yet to be released, but alcohol-related causes seem likely.

This is a strange coincidence. I was just challenged to do a Facebook meme on albums that have had an impact on your life, and Amok is one of them. So Miika had an impact on my life as well.

Rest in peace.

Trophy picks

It's high time I give you my picks for the NHL individual trophy winners this year, if only so that I can look back on how well my predictions went... I'm skipping the Conn Smythe, as predicting that is pointless, and the Masterton and humanitarian awards.

Hart Trophy: Surprisingly, this one is a little tough to call. Most of the great success stories of the year are team efforts: Detroit, San José, Boston, New Jersey... It's hard to pinpoint a team where one player really has such a decisive influence on the team. Every year a certain Canadian lobby wants the Hart to go to Iginla, but frankly, the idea of Calgary being a playoff contender with a mediocre goaltender is laughable. Iginla would be nowhere witohut Kiprusoff and Phaneuf.

I'm going to have to say Alex Ovechkin, WSH. This is probably going to be the year he finally establishes himself as the best player in the NHL, overshadowing the overhyped Crosby. With Sidney and Malkin playing golf while Ovechkin's Caps make a deep playoff run, that question should begin to resolve itself.

Lady Byng Memorial Trophy: I wonder if they'll give it to Datsyuk for a fourth time. As it is, there's not really any reason not to. I'm going to go out on a limb and pick Zach Parise, NJ, instead, just for variety.

Vezina Trophy: Tim Thomas, BOS. This one shouldn't be up for discussion. There is, this season, simply no question who the NHL's best goaltender has been.

Calder Memorial Trophy: Steve Mason, CBJ. Sorry, Kris Versteeg and Bobby Ryan, but unless something miraculous/horrible happens, the standout rookie of the year is Steve Mason. For a rookie goalie to come into the NHL and play like he has is nothing short of amazing.

Art Ross Trophy: Evgeni Malkin, PIT. If new Pittsburgh coach Dan Bylsma is really going to stop the trap and bring the Pens back to aggressive hockey like he said, Malkin should be a lock for the Art Ross.

I wonder how the Golden Boy likes being second-best on his team.

James Norris Memorial Trophy: Mike Green, WSH. As I write this, Green is (shared) second in plus/minus among all defensemen with +28, but leads them all with 22+29 points. His offensive play is complemented by strong defensive ability, and he is simply the most outstanding puck-moving defenseman in the league.

For what it's worth, I believe there should be a separate trophy for best offensive defenseman, just like there's a trophy for best defensive forward. You could name it after, I don't know, maybe a legendary offensive defenseman from the Bruins. But as there isn't one, I don't see the Norris going to anyone other than Green. Strong runners-up will be Zdeno Chara and The Hockey News' pick for best defenseman of the first half, Shea Weber, as wlel as Nick Lidström and possibly Dan Boyle.

Jack Adams Award: Apparently it isn't going to be Michel Therien after all. Of course, I only said that because giving it to Therien would have been a monumental joke similar to, say, giving the Jack Adams to Alain Vigneault for having the razor-sharp tactical acumen to put his number-one goalie in net, in a year when Randy Carlyle was hands down the best coach in the league.

But never mind that. This year it has to be Claude Julien, BOS. The way he's brought the Bruins from the basement of the Northeast to a potential Presidents' Trophy winner is amazing, and the style and level of their play are unmatched in the East.

Frank J. Selke Trophy: You know, one of these days Ovechkin will win the Selke. His defensive play is actually getting quite good. However, despite the fact that my picks are becoming very Eastern Conference-oriented, I have to say Mike Richards, PHI.

William M. Jennings Trophy: Tim Thomas and Manny Fernandez, BOS.

NHL Plus-Minus Award: The most clunkily named trophy of them all. If trends continue, it'll be Blake Wheeler, BOS. Whoda thunk it?

Maurice 'Rocket' Richard Trophy: As much as I am a Thomas Vanek fan, it's going to be Alex Ovechkin, WSH. How aboot that Jeff Carter, though, eh?

Roger Crozier Saving Grace Award: Tim Thomas, BOS.

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Apparently on the whole, my picks are heavily weighted toward the East, and Boston and Washington in particular. I made each pick on its own and didn't really think about the overall trend. As it is, I don't see how Boston could drop the goaltending categories, and Washington's players deserve those awards.

It'll be interesting to see if I got any right. I never quite understood how the people doing the voting vote. That's also why I left out the Lester B. Pearson award, as that's voted for by the players. If I had to guess I'd guess Ovechkin.

Overall it's been a great year so far. I'm really looking forward to the playoffs! The only playoff picks I'll make is conference final matchups: Boston-Washington and San Jose-Detroit. I'm leaning toward a Boston-Detroit final with Detroit repeating, but I wouldn't put money on it. It should be a hell of a playoffs.

Sexual ethics, India style

Earlier this year, Playboy ran their usual The Year in Sex feature. This time, one of the intriguing items they picked up from last year was an Indian online porn comic, Savita Bhabhi (NSFW), subtitled The sexual adventures of a Hot Indian Bhabhi. Here's an example panel from the second comic:



As you can guess, she'll think of something.

The art isn't bad, but what makes the comic interesting is that it's written according to a different code of sexual ethics from ours. I mean, Western countries produce bored-horny-housewife porn in gigantic amounts, so much that practically everyone is aware of the sexual ramifications of the plumber and the pizza delivery guy.

Savita Bhabhi, despite being a horny bored housewife, is still an Indian bored horny housewife, and a code of ethics must be adhered to. This is particularly evident in the first comic, and worth a short look.

(Of course, even this has been severely condemned in India, according to a news report:

"I am certain that the activity of the website is illegal and anti-social. It violates Section 67 of ITA 2000 and several other provisions of IPC. In my opinion this site is more dangerous than a normal adult site since it targets young Indian audience and degrades women," said Vijayashankar, director of Cyber Crime Complaints and Resolution Assistance Center and techno legal information security consultant presently based in Bangalore.

He said it is possible that the publishing of the story itself (if the URL is revealed) would be falling in the grey area of "promoting obscene content" and could invite objections.

Oops, I published the URL too. It's good to know Indian "cybercrime" laws are advanced enough that publishing the URL of a website can be illegal. Wait, that sounds familiar...)

This is the setup:



The dude ringing the doorbell immediately wins my Grand Prize for Most Improbable Porn Profession Ever by introducing himself as "a travelling bra salesman". I think everyone can figure out how it goes from there, but I'll summarize it anyway. She tells him she's not interested, so the guy ha a brainwave and asks if he might come in and have a glass of water. She agrees, and he talks her into trying on a bra. As she does so in the other room, he watches her disrobe via a convenient mirror.

She notices, and is horrified. Then again, she thinks, "what harm can it do" if he sees her breasts? She ends up seducing him, but when he finally gets down to the act, she is horrified again and protests, only to meekly succumb when he doesn't stop.

The ethics at play are fascinating. In a Western porno, she'd just be a horny housewife who wants some dick, and that would be that. In this comic, though, things aren't that simple.

It's possible to read Savita's refusal and subsequent surrender as a slightly disturbing implied rape, but there's a more interesting undercurrent as well. By attempting to refuse, she changes the ethics of the situation. Obviously, according to the code of ethics present in the comic, adultery is immoral. When Savita tries ot refuse the man she's just seduced, she acknowledges this, and her refusal makes her a victim of adultery as opposed to a perpetrator. Then again, any patriarchal culture, and India certainly is one, would also view the man as a victim. After all, who could resist the charms of Savita Bhabhi?

If she straightforwardly seduced the traveling bra salesman, she'd be an adulteress. If he seduced her, he'd be guilty of seducing another man's wife. When, on the other hand, she seduces him but attempts to refuse him when it's already "too late", the situation is changed from a perpetrated crime into the curious opposite of a victimless crime: a perpetratorless crime that only has victims. Clearly she is not totally to blame, as she did try to refuse; clearly he is not totally to blame as he was provoked unreasonably.

This is a wonderful example of the kind of doublethink that our cultural attitudes on sexuality, and our desire to get around them, impose. It also serves to illustrate an important point in the politics and ethics of sexuality as understood in patriarchal culture. Female sexuality is powerful and must be controlled, goes the unspoken dictum. Why? The core reason is that according to patriarchal thought, men cannot resist womens' sexual advances. It's not a question of the power of women but of the weakness of men.

To me, as a man, this has always been one of the most repellent features of patriarchal sexual thought: the idea that I cannot be held responsible for my actions if I am "provoked". It's blatantly obvious what the logic is: the ages-old idea of shifting blame for sex crimes onto the victim. This is the reality of patriarchy in action: if a woman is raped, it's her fault. This is taken to its logical extreme by several different cultures in the institution of the "honor killing", where a woman is murdered by her relatives for being raped.

(It's worthy of a brief note that despite what islamophobes would have you believe, honor killings have nothing to do with Islam as such. They're practised everywhere in the world where patriarchal cultures exist, from Brazil to Bangladesh, and are only really absent in the affluent and secularized West. There's a fair post on the topic here.)

This idea tried to make its way into Finnish legistlation about ten years back. The current law recognizes rape and aggravated rape; a proposal was put forward to include "mild rape" as a lesser form of rape, and accepted. Currently there is a lesser crime of "coercion into sexual intercourse":

Section 3 - Coercion into sexual intercourse (563/1998)
(1) If the rape, in view of the slight degree of the violence or threat and the other particulars of the offence, is deemed to have been committed under mitigating circumstances when assessed as a whole, the offender shall be sentenced for coercion into sexual intercourse to imprisonment for at most three years.

There was a lot of public debate on what these "mitigating circumstances" could entail, and typically for Finnish legistlation, it is entirely undefined. Public discussion revolved around the idea that if the woman being raped was wearing a miniskirt, then it isn't rape.

I don't know how Finnish courts are deciding on the issue, but the fact that that piece of legistlation exists seems to point toward the idea of female irresistability being alive and well in the 21st century.

On a more cheerful note, the comic itself ain't bad. If you're interested, check out Episode 3 for the most improbable blow job ever. (don't you think someone would notice?!)

Trade rumors

The trade deadline is coming up, and there's a new set of rumors to go with it.

My problem with a lot of this stuff is that it's just totally unrealistic. To wit:

This past week, reports suggested the Pittsburgh Penguins, desperately seeking a high-quality winger for Sidney Crosby, were interested in St-Louis.

I wrote about the Pens' cap problems recently.

Martin St. Louis is signed for two more years at $5.25 million a pop. If the Penguins add him, they'll have a total of $52 million already committed to next year, and if the cap doesn't rise, that would leave them four (4) million to spend.That's $4 million to resign Philippe Boucher, Hal Gill and Alex Goligoski on D and resign or replace Sykora, Satan and Fedotenko on the wing and get a backup goalie. Unless they all take huge hometown discounts, and they won't, that would mean they could afford Goligoski and a number-two goalie. And that's it.

The idea that it's even remotely feasible for the Pens to get St. Louis just shows that the people coming up with this stuff seem to have no idea how the cap works. Sure, they can sign him. It would be totally insane.

As the Hockey News article puts it:

The Penguins recently changing head coaches suggests that’s the only significant move they can afford to make.

Bioshock revisited

I finished Bioshock yesterday. Last month I gave it a grade of 9/10, and I'm afraid I have to downgrade that to 7/10.

On the one hand, Bioshock is a great game, and one that I'm sure I'll remember for a long time. On the other hand, it's kind of boring. Seriously. The game consists of something like eight levels, and from like the third one onward, it's just the same stuff.

And as for the vaunted "plot", it's necessary to make some distinctions here. In gaming, when people say plot, they usually mean either the plot, the backstory or the setting. Bioshock has no backstory at all, a fairly humdrum plot and a great setting. Seriously, the whole survival-horror-evil-genetic-manipulation-people-going-insane thing is getting more than a bit old.

I liked playing it, but sadly, it became a bit boring toward the end. Also, at times they were laying it on pretty thick, and the plot really doesn't live up to the hype.

I still liked it, and I guess my final recommendation is to get it, but not for full price. Frankly, I thought Mass Effect was better.

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As it stands, Take-Two is making a franchise out of Bioshock. Wikipedia:

"In response to the game's high sales and critical acclaim, Take-Two Chairman Strauss Zelnick revealed in a conference call to analysts that the company now considered the game as part of a franchise."

The way I understand that, later this year we'll get Bioshock 2010, which will be exactly the same game, only with improved machine gun controls and some roster updates, and this time Houdini Splicer will get to be on the cover.

The descriptive power of language

One of the things that really inspires me in life is the immense descriptive power of language. Here's a single sentence, taken out of context from Wikipedia.

"The pay-per-view ended abruptly, cutting to black with the commentators in mid-sentence just as Roberts was motioning that he was about to remove his pants."

What can I say? I love it.

Fighting!

Yet again. Only here's an excellent article, worth a read for two reasons. Not only is it a very good take on fighting in the NHL, and one with which I agree 100%, but it gives you a little insight into the way Don Cherry presents his, erm, views.

Macleans.ca: Can we please now ban fighting in hockey?

By the same author, a hideous prophecy: Don Cherry’s starting to look tame. No, it's worse than you think: he's talking about fashion.

A year in censorship

It's now been exactly one year since Matti Nikki's website lapsiporno.info was censored by the Finnish police. My post on the topic from a year ago is here. Since then, nothing has changed.

To make a long story short, Nikki's website criticizes the Finnish police's anti-child pornography measures, because they're anything but that. For this, access to his website has been blocked and remains blocked from Finnish ISPs. He is also supposedly under investigation for distributing child pornography, for the "crime" of posting the URLs of websites the police have blocked access to, which do not contain child pornography. Unsurprisingly, the criminal investigation has made zero progress, mostly because it's blatantly obvious to everyone that there's no way the case could ever stand up in court. The police aren't investigating him to prosecute him, they're investigating him to smear his name in public.

Nikki's website can be accessed via its direct URL, http://hack.fi/~muzzy/lapsiporno/, which, inexplicably, is not blocked. The site contains excellent writing on child pornography and the efforts to get it off the Internet, and contains, among other things, a charming letter from a Finnish prosecutor in which he explains that even though the police tell the media that you are a suspected child porn distributor (without an ounce of evidence) and block access to your website so that if someone types in the URL, they see an official police message saying the site they're trying to access contains child pornography (it doesn't), none of this constitutes slander or an unjust accusation, both of which are crimes in Finland.

Then again, Nikki's website isn't a crime, but it is blocked and being investigated as a crime, so it makes sense that things that are crimes are not being investigated. Right?

As befits a democracy, where political power comes from the people and belongs to the people, there is absolutely fuck all any of us, including Nikki, can do. He's comlained to the Finnish Chancellor of Justice, which is the only legal recourse he has, and nothing has happened. In my opinion, you would have to be incredibly naïve to believe anything will happen.

As the Nikki case amply demonstrates, this is a country in which citizens have absolutely no rights against the state. We're watching the police break the law by censoring Nikki's website every day, and there isn't a thing any of us can do about it.

Welcome to Finland!

Suvi Lindén and getting naked

A nadir of sorts was reached in Finnish politics today when minister for communications Suvi Lindén (Reichsführer-SS des Infrastruktur und Kommunikazion) gave this interview in defense of Lex Nokia:

MTV3: Lindén: Työnantaja voi käskeä riisuutumaan

According to Lindén, under current Finnish law, your employer can require you to undress for a physical inspection to prevent you from carrying out industrial espionage.

There are two problems with this.

Firstly, the whole idea is so shocking to any concept of human rights and dignity.

Secondly, it isn't even true. (HS: Työoikeuden professori tyrmää yritysten ruumiintarkastukset)

This woman is a minister and an MP. And an idiot.

Motivating the troops, Israeli style

The Independent: Army rabbi 'gave out hate leaflet to troops'

The Israeli army's chief rabbinate gave soldiers preparing to enter the Gaza Strip a booklet implying that all Palestinians are their mortal enemies and advising them that cruelty is sometimes a "good attribute".

When people say that Palestinians are religious fanatics, one would do well to keep this stuff in mind as well.

Some others have commented on this news item as well. For a frightening look at the mental health of one particular man, go here.