Elmira Maple Syrup Festival

Today is the Elmira Maple Syrup Festival.

Whose Line Quotations

Some of my favourite quotes from the sketch comedy, Whose Line Is It Anyway?:

Colin Mochrie:

Hey! Make fun of the bald guy! I'll be your lightning rod of hate!

Greg: [wearing a rabbit mask, muffled]

I'm not into protection.

[no audience response]
Drew:

Say that again? I don't think anybody could hear you.

Greg: [takes mask off]

Oh, could nobody hear me?

Drew:

No.

Greg:

Maybe it's because of this [bleep]ing mask I'm wearing.

Drew:

Latin American sports announcers on their day off.

Ryan:

I'll have a cheeseburger, some fries and a COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOKE!

[buzzer]
Ryan: [returns to stage]

You forgot my COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOKE!

[buzzer]
Ryan: [returning]

Where the hell is my COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOKE?

Ryan:

What comes to mind when I say Ricky Ricardo and great cigars?

Colin:

Oh, Tapioca!

Ryan: [paused for a moment]

Really? Why's that?

Colin:

Wasn't that his big song? 'TAPIOOOOCA! TAPIOOOOCA!'

Ryan: [cracks up]

No, Colin, I'm talking about Cu--

[starts cracking up again]

Ryan:

We don't know what you're watching, so we're not going to tell you when we're going to return you to it.

Colin:

Oh! We would... We're watching animal porn!

[cracks up, covering his face]
Ryan:

What?

[buzzer sounds]
Colin:

Mary Had a Little Lamb will be right back in just a second. But ja-

[buzzer sounds again]
Ryan: [cracks up as does the audience]
Colin:

I'm sorry, I apologize.

Ryan: [After he finishes laughing, to Drew]

Wher-ah-so happy. We're watching animal porn!

Correlations of Religiosity and Societal Health

From The Journal of Religion and Society (2005):

The staudy done by Gregory Paul suggests that higher rates of belief in and worship of a creator correlate with higher rates of homicide, juvenile and early adult mortality, STD infection rates, teen pregnancy, and abortion in the prosperous democracies.

This contradicts Kent Hovind's assertation that evolution and the removal of Lord's Prayer is the downfall of American society, which is inaccurate and outdated.

Ministry Watch

Ministry Watch is a web site that provides information about religious charities and missionaries where donors' money are going. On ABC's 20/20, there was a segment on how Rusty Leonard created the research group after feeling not right about making while as a money manager.

Among the organizations that get a poor or failing grade include:

Amazing Facts
Benny Hinn Ministries (no surprise)
Creflo Dollar Ministries
Goad International
Kenneth Copeland Ministries
March For Jesus, USA
Revival Ministries International
Trintiy Broadcasting Network

Atari Landfill

From Wikipedia:

In September 1983, the Alamogordo Daily News of Alamogordo, New Mexico reported in a series of articles that between ten and twenty semi-trailer truckloads of Atari boxes, cartridges, and systems from an Atari storehouse in El Paso were crushed and buried at the landfill within the city.

On September 28, 1983, The New York Times reported on the story of Atari's dumping in New Mexico. An Atari representative confirmed the story for them, stating that the discarded inventory came from Atari's plant in El Paso, Texas, which was being closed and converted to a recycling facility. The Times article did not suggest any of the specific game titles being destroyed, but subsequent reports have generally linked the story of the dumping to the well-known failure of E.T.

The story of the buried cartridges has become a popular urban legend, which in turn has led some people to believe that the story is not true. As recently as October 2004, Warshaw himself expressed doubts that the destruction of millions of copies of E.T. ever took place, citing his belief that Atari would have recycled the parts instead in order to save money.

I own a copy of the E.T. video game for my Atari 2600. It was not bad as the Swordquest games. Although you may now find a landfill site with the Left Behind video games.

Regular posting of my web blog

Starting today, I will be posting a blog entry on regular basis. I will be posting on interesting information and web sites that I find.

A couple of Wikis that I have been contributing to are Videoville, a music video wiki and Canada Wiki, a geographic Wiki of Canada. There is also Canadawiki which I have tried to sign up but they have not got back to me.

MuchMoreMusic did a top 50 Guilty Pleasures over the last week of December. Here is theirs and mine for comparison:

Number 50 49 48 47 46 45 44 43 42 41 40 39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

MuchMoreMusic's Oh Sherrie Step By Step Obsession My Girl The Thong Song I Think We're Alone Now Gloria Under Your Spell Funky Cold Medina You Give Love A Bad Name Informer Heat Of The Moment Black Velvet Bust A Move I Want To Know What Love Is Rico Suave Mr. Roboto Touch Me Only Wanna Be With You Rock You I'm Too Sexy Never Gonna Give You Up Safety Dance Barbie Girl Standing In The Dark More Than A Feeling The Sign Here I Go Again Centerfold Sunglasses At Night Faithfully I Want It That Way She's Like The Wind Mr. Vain I Will Always Love You Jesse's Girl Baby Got Back Paradise By The Dashboard Light Who Let The Dogs Out Believe Girl You Know It's True Total Eclipse Of The Heart Gonna Make You Sweat Making Love Out Of Nothing at All Ice Ice Baby Working For The Weekend Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go U Can't Touch This Wannabe My Heart Will Go On

Mine All The Things She Said I'm Too Sexy Everybody Backstreet's Back Barbie Girl I Want To Know What Love Is I Will Always Love You Everything I Do Who Let The Dogs Out Blue Savin Me Another Postcard Sunday Morning After Bring Me To Life Electric Youth Mr. Vain Walk The Dinosaur Bohemian Rhapsody My Humps Hips Don't Lie Dancing Queen Ironic Livin Da Vida Loca Macarena Like A Prayer Ready To Go No Limits Baby One More Time Promiscuous You're A Superstar Venus Tubthumping That's What Friends Are For Rock Myself To Sleep Push It Numb I Need Some Fine Wine Touch Me I Love Myself Today Every Breath You Take Closer Together Bitch Had The Time Of My Life I Wanna Be Bad Human Wheels Subdivisions When I Grow Up Toy Soldiers I'm Gonna Getcha Good Romantic Traffic My Heart Will Go On