The Aspen Daily News published a special ‘gonzo’ issue this past Saturday, in honour of Hunter S. Thompson. The late author and Aspen resident pioneered the ‘gonzo’ genre, a blend of first person accounts, fictional interludes and long streams of (somewhat fractured) consciousness.

Contributors to the special issue included Ralph Steadman, who illustrated several of Thompson’s books. It was edited by Anita Thompson, Hunter’s widow.

While Thompson’s legacy is pretty much inviolable at this point, it’s great to see reminders of what a strange, wonderful writer he was. To use his own words, he was one of God’s own prototypes- too weird to live, too rare to die.

In a past life, as a starving student in London, I appeared in short student film. It’s called ‘West End Economics’, written and directed by Jordi Matsumoto.

I don’t want to jinx anything, but I think an Oscar nod for “Best Ham in a Supporting Role” is in the bag.

Congrats, Jordi. Looks great.

Scientists are reporting they have found Saturn’s 60th moon.

The 2km hunk of ice and rock was detected by the Cassini Imaging Team. It is near the moons Methone and Pallene, suggesting the new satellite may be part of a family of moons. Awww.

Said Professor Carl Murray:

“The Saturnian system continues to amaze and intrigue us with many hidden treasures being discovered the more closely we look.”

The moon is currently being called ‘Frank’ by scientists. The official name will be decided by the International Astronomical Union.

An interesting discovery, to be sure. But can we talk about Saturn for a second? I mean, sixty moons? Talk about greedy. Here’s a name suggestion for the IAU- Conrad.

I love a city council that votes to defer David Miller’s tax plan to increase city revenues, yet steadfastly refuses to take a pay cut.

They know better than anyone that Toronto faces a budget crunch. It’s like the two sides of their brains- the ‘I’m greedy’ and the ’I'm politically cowardly’ halves- aren’t speaking, creating a swirling vortex of contradiction that threatens to implode their very skulls, dragging the rest of us down with them.

One of the few councillors that seem to get it, Michael Walker (Ward 22, St. Paul’s) had this to say:

“We say there’s a crisis and we all agree, but nobody’s prepared to start making a sacrifice in their own home or their own pocket.”

Indeed. Leading sacrifice-adverse councillor Brian Ashton (Ward 36, Scarborough-Southwest) makes this edifying response:

“I always find it curious that when a company’s in trouble, people want to hire cheaper executives.”

Well, duh, Brian. Because when the company’s in trouble, it’s the freakin’ executives’ fault! Rewarding inept and/or corrupt executives may be in vogue right now, but seriously. Maybe you should hold off on lining your own pockets until Toronto’s back on some solid financial ground.

Of course, the real issues here are much more serious than a bunch of douchebag councillors, who admittedly are pretty small fish in a big pond. Toronto doesn’t get enough of its tax revenue back, for starters. And we’re still dealing with those enlightened hangovers of the ‘Common Sense’ Revolution, super-city amalgamation and downloading of social services to municipalities. Memo to Mike Harris: shifting costs onto jurisdictions that have no ability (until recently- a Liberal innovation) to leverage additional revenue is not an efficient budget cut. It’s a cynical screw-job.

I love Toronto. Everywhere I look I see nothing but economic, cultural and lifestyle potential. Too bad it keeps getting sold out by bullshit politicians.

The journalist, wife of slain Wall Street Journal Reporter Daniel Pearl, is taking Al Qaeda, other radical groups and Pakistan-based Habib Bank Ltd to court over the 2002 abduction, torture and murder of her husband.

From the statement of claim:

“Plaintiffs seek to hold responsible those terrorists, terrorist organizations and the supporting charitable and banking organizations for the senseless kidnapping, torture and murder of Daniel Pearl.”

The suit seeks an unspecified amount of money, or ‘whatever the court deems appropriate’ to prevent the defendants from committing a similar act.

An incredibly brave woman, to be sure. My guess is Al Qaeda won’t be showing up in court, what with the constant threat of airstrikes. But it would be extremely interesting if they nailed Habib Bank – one of Pakistan’s largest – with supporting terror. A precedent setting case that could have poorly-behaved Middle Eastern bankers squirming. Thanks to CS for the link.

I just wanted to thank everyone for supporting the new Nunc Scio through its first two months of existence. The site has wracked up some decent stats during tha time- 6,191 page views in 3,010 visits by 1,205 unique visitors.

Please, continue to visit and (hopefully) enjoy the site. I’ll try to make it at least moderately worth your while.

Cheers!

Add this to the ‘how’d you get a research grant for that?’ file.

An Edinburgh University-based team has discovered that men are unreasonably optimistic about the effectiveness of their pick-up lines.

To begin with, the researchers divided pick-up scenarios into four categories:

They ranged from attempts to appear cultured (”It’s at moments like these when I am reminded of Byron”); to the meaningless compliment (”Did it hurt when you fell from heaven?”); the sexual reference (”I may not be Fred Flintstone, but I bet I can make your bed rock”), to the humorous (”Hi, how do you like me so far”).

When the researchers compared responses to these scenarios by men and women, they discovered something surprising.

“Despite being deeply unpopular with women, men are unreasonably optimistic about how well their sexually explicit lines will go down,” said psychologist Peter Caryl.

The study suggests males may use bad pick-up lines to rapidly assess a women’s personality. Presumably, if she kicks you in the groin after saying, “is that a mirror in your pocket? Because I can sure see myself in your pants”, she may not share your sense of humour and/or propriety. The lines may also serve as a way of assuming an archetypal personality that women quickly respond to. According to the researchers, these archetypes include the ‘nice guy’, the ‘provider’, the ‘leader’, and everyone’s perennial favourite, ‘the bad mate’. Said Dr. Caryl:

“I can’t imagine anyone being turned on by this “bad mate” kind of guy, but some women seem to be less put off than others. If you look like George Clooney, you may be able to get away with a whole range of things.”

Darn it.