"In the red" carpet

It's forecasting season once again! Yesterday, the Screen Actors Guild released its forward statements for the fiscal year. It estimates that the 850 billion dollar recovery package will lower unemployment by 1.8 percentage points and create 3.7 million jobs. They also suggested that the ensemble cast of "Slumdog Millionaire" was the best of several submitted tenders.

Opposing this outlook was the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences which declined to see the same merits in any of the "Slumdog" cast. Further frustrating the Screen Actors Guild, the Academy projects lower unemployment by 2 percentage points in 2010 but with a much lower unemployment baseline than SAG predicts. Academy voting member Mark Zandi implied that the actual path of unemployment could resemble what the Obama team is projecting if nothing is done.

Private Members

News item: Catholic church has own Youtube Channel

The Catholic church has decided to get its own youtube channel. I'm not sure if what the church can offer that can possibly trump mentos in diet coke. Perhaps the pope having a dance-off with Napoleon Dynamite. A spokespope said that they wanted to show that the church is no longer "in the middle ages."
Catholics believe in evil spirits possessing people, invisible all powerful man/god/ghost beings and miracles. If youtube is going to save them from being thought of as intellectually backwards, maybe miracles are possible after all.

For a proper image upgrade, see this Brilliant brand redo from Monkey Dust.
(Skit starts @ 0.56)


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News item: NDP private members bill: Airline Passenger Bill of Rights

Thats right, an airline passengers bill of rights. Its hard to believe these guys come in last in every election. Where can I get in line to put forward my Diner Patron's bill of rights to ensure that careless line cooks aren't hard-boiling my sunny-side ups. While we're at it, can the NDP make sure the next movie I go to doesn't waste as much of my time as waiting for a delayed flight? Sheesh.

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Suz and I got a slow cooker as a Christmas gift so we've been enjoying our middle class birthright: stew. As pedestrian as it seems, I really am enjoying throwing stuffing it in the morning and being welcomed in the evening to hearty goodness. It's the perfect ally for our weekends when we usually return from adventuring tired and hungry.

best laid plans

In the darkest months of winter, I find myself with a hot mug of chicken broth, my new favorite evening beverage, a map and google earth. Between the topo maps and flying around the mountains on Suz's iMac, I've been planning most of my summer hiking. If I spend long enough on google earth, I'll hardly need to go to these places and save myself much excess carb loading.