Katana Found Near Murder Scene in Prince George

I saw an intriguing story on the cover of today's Citizen. Police have discovered a katana (the paper insists on calling it a "samurai sword") in the Hudson's Bay Slough canal near Queensway. The katana had "red discolouration[ie. blood, most likely] on the tip and more splattered down the blade." This fact, as well as the location where it was found, have led police to consider whether it might be related to a murder that occured on Saturday. The victim is rumored to be a gang member, though police will only say at this time that he was "known to us."

I'm waiting to hear if more information is released about the sword, specifically whether it really was used to kill the victim and whether it was an authentic katana or just an imitation. Prudence leads me to believe that it's probably an imitation. If it is authentic, it means that the sword is, to say the least, not cheap.

UPDATE: Or, rather, non-update. Since the story broke on the fourteenth of April, there has not been a follow-up story in the Citizen, though they did run an op-ed on the sixteenth, which can pretty much summed up as "killing people with swords is bad." The Free Press did run a story on the sword, but it doesn't offer anything not already revealed in the Citizen article.

Weren't we all told . .

. . . that the cold war is over? Apparently, it's not quite done yet.

MOSCOW - The Russian space agency has ordered design work to start for a next-generation spaceship capable of flying missions to the moon, setting the ground for a potential new space race with the United States.

The space agency granted the state-controlled RKK Energiya company a US$23 million contract for initial work on a new, reusable craft to replace the 40-year-old Soyuz.

The as-yet-unnamed Russian spaceship could emerge as a potential competitor to NASA's prospective Orion spacecraft.

Design requirements for the Russian craft appear similar to Orion's specification, prompting some experts to nickname it "Orionski."

Orion is scheduled to carrying humans to the International Space Station beginning in 2015, and to the moon by 2020.

Alexei Krasnov, the chief of manned space programs for the Russian space agency, said last week that the prospective Russian spacecraft is set to make its maiden flight before 2020, without elaborating.

James Oberg, an experienced aerospace engineer who worked on NASA's space shuttle program and is now a space consultant, wrote in a commentary that the new Russian space program could help NASA win funds for its plan to return astronauts to the moon.

"This will give NASA a long hoped for boost in Congress by echoing the space race motivations of the 1960s," Oberg said.

Energiya beat the other leading state-controlled spacecraft builder, the Khrunichev company, for the prestigious order. It was announced on a government website.

Energiya has until June 2010 to complete the initial design. The company builds the Soyuz and its unmanned cargo version, named Progress, which are not reusable.

Krasnov said the new spacecraft will be capable of carrying a crew of six and a payload of 500 kilograms to orbit around the Earth. The Soyuz can only carry a crew of three.

Krasnov told reporters last week that the new spaceship should also be capable of delivering a crew of four to lunar orbit.

"We want the new ship to be a step into the future, not just a scaled up version of the Soyuz," he said.

Russia plans to start construction next year of Vostochny, a new space launch facility in the far eastern Amur region near China. The new cosmodrome is expected to host launches of unmanned spacecraft beginning in 2015 and the first manned missions starting in 2018.

Russia currently uses the Soviet-built Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for all of its manned space missions and most important commercial launches. Another launch facility in Plesetsk, northern Russia, is mostly used to launch military satellites.

Windfall oil revenues of the past years have allowed the Kremlin to spend more on Russia's space program, which had suffered badly in the post-Soviet economic meltdown. But with Russia facing its worst financial crisis since 1998, observers say the government may find it hard to fund the ambitious new program.

So. . . President Bush, in 2004, decides to take advantage of the popularity surrounding the Spirit and Opportunity missions on Mars to announce his new "vision for space exploration," which involves ditching the space shuttle, completing construction of the International Space Station, and "return[ing] to the moon by 2020, as the launching point for missions beyond." Then, China, ever so eager to prove it's not a dumb kid anymore, announces its own plans for a moon mission, which I wrote about earlier. Now Russia, which had earlier annouced that it had no interest in taking part in the Nasa plan, has now suddenly decided it will build a new spacecraft capable of lunar orbit.

At least Canada's not being dragged into this moronic new space race. . . we're too busy trying to beat the Russians in the moronic new oil race.

My Win-sense is Tingling. . .

Fireman dresses as Spider-Man to rescue boy.



Seriously.

BANGKOK - A Thai firefighter dressed as Spider-Man to rescue an autistic boy who climbed onto a third-floor balcony and dangled his legs over the side because he was nervous on his first day of school.

Firefighter Somchai Yoosabai was called in after the 11-year-old boy's teachers and mother failed to coax him off the ledge on Monday, he said in a telephone interview Wednesday.

"He was nervous about the first day at school, and he was asking for his mother," Somchai said. "He cried and refused to let any of us get close to him."

Overhearing a conversation between the boy's mother and his teachers about his love for comics and superheroes, Somchai rushed back to the fire station to change into a Spider-Man costume before swinging into action.

"I told him Spider-Man is here to save you. No monster will hurt you now," Somchai said. "Then I told him to walk slowly toward me. I was very nervous that he might have slipped if he got too excited and ran."

Somchai, who keeps costume of Spider-Man and a Japanese superhero Ultraman to liven up fire drills at schools, said the teary-eyed boy broke into a smile and started walking into his arms.

Win.

Schwarzenegger

Remember all that stuff I said about substance? I'll get to that later.

For now. . . Schwarznegger.

I need say no more. But, I'm going to anyway.

I've been watching The Nostalgia Critic for quite a while now. Every once in a while, he compiles lists of the Top 11 of some nostalgic category, eg. Top 11 Animated Nostalgic Hotties(Sailor Moon was #9! Otaku Power!) or Top 11 Drug PSA's, etc.

So one day, I got to thinking, "What would make the list of the Top 11 Nostalgic Schwazenegger Classics?" It was an interesting question, especially considering that I had likely spent the rest of that day thinking "How do I analytically derive the probability of a molecule, incident upon a potential barrier in a bound state, reflecting in that same bound state in the limit of an arbitrarily weak binding potential?" And besides, my generation pretty much grew up with Schwarzenegger, and it had hit me that there may be another generation of kids growing up without knowing him as anything other than a politician who used to be an actor, a la Ronald Reagan. So, I got to work.

My first problem was that I couldn't list eleven worthwhile Schwarzenegger movies. Oh, I could list eleven Schwarzenegger movies, if I padded it out with things like The 6th Day, The Villain, The Running Man, or Batman and Robin, ie movies that are either just bad or bad and non-nostalgic.

Another problem was that I really haven't seen all of the films from Schwazenegger's action heyday. I've yet to see Commando, though by all indications it is fucking sweet. I've also never seen Raw Deal or Red Heat. I don't know how I could have missed Red Heat-- the idea of Schwarzenegger trying to pass as a Russian cop with his oak-like Austrian accent is the stuff dreams are made of.

Yet another problem was what order the movies would come in-- specifically, whether The Terminator or Terminator 2 would hold the top spot. I consider The Terminator to be the superior film by small margin. . . but it's not as nostalgic as T2. . .

As I thought about it more, however, I realized that there are many facets of Schwarzenegger that most people-- ie people who don't spend their free hours surfing the YouTube-- are blissfully unaware of. For example, having taken three German classes at UVic, I always wondered, how does Schwarzenegger sound when he's speaking his native German?

So Schwarzenegger sounds. . . like Schwarzenegger. Which, I imagine, sounds to Austrians the way Sylvester Stallone sounds to North Americans.

Strangely enough, his Japanese is more convincing:

Well, I guess we should be happy that he can speak any language as well as he does. He's clearly come a long way, as clips from his first movie, Hercules in New York, show:

Here's another sample of Arnold's early career, this time a guest appearance on the TV show Streets of San Francisco:

He's not ugly! He's BEAUTIFOOL!

Here's more of Schwarzenegger's take on the beautiful philosophy of bodybuilding:

Arnie. . . I do not think that word means what you think it means. Here's more of Schwarzenegger working his magic on the ladies:

Was that. . . Stiffler's Mom at 0:36?

And now for something political. . . In 1990, PBS produced a series called Free To Choose, which laid out the pro-free market beliefs of famous economist Milton Friedman. It was very Republican stuff, so of course Schwarzenegger gave a personal introduction to one of the episodes:

I'm not Socialist! I'm Laissez-FEEAAIIRREE!

Yeah, you're not a pro-wrestler either, Arnie:

And with that, I bring to an abrupt close my tribute to the lesser known side of Arnold Schwarzenegger.

And for Something Somewhat Substantial. . .

This blog is not very good.

I mean, consider my last post, a plug for a Japanese language blog written by my make-believe Japanese girlfriend, Miyuu Sawai.

Or, more generally, consider in itself my ridiculous interest Sawai, a young woman who as a teenager had to learn how to act while dressing up in a blonde wig and dancing around men in moster costumes, and who now makes her living by shilling suits.

I guess what I'm getting at is. . . I would like to be more substantive. I would like to have something to say about Canadian politics, or about life, or about science, which supposedly I'm studying right now.

To that end. . . another plug:

Terrible Depths.

I'll probably be reading this blog regularly now.

Miyuu Sawai Has a Blog.

Here it is.

That is all.

Lab. . . again.

I've got a troofer!

No, not a 9/11 troofer. This one believes that the moon landing was a hoax. He came in, announced that the moon landing was the greatest hoax in history, and showed me footage of the moon landing that contain brief flashes of light, apparently evidence of wires attached to the astronauts in order to make it look like they're in weak gravity.

He also showed me the footage of the "waving American flag," and asked me how that's possible. Rather then explain that the flag only waved when the astronauts twisted the flag pole while putting it into place, and that the flag's ruffled appearance in other photos was deliberate, I just shrugged and said "I dunno."

"How you not know?" He's Chinese. "You have physics degree!"

I briefly mentioned the whole "ruffled appearance" thing. Then he showed me more video "evidence," this time of astronauts who look like they're suspended from wires:

Oh well. At least he gave me something to blog about.

For those interested in reality.