Sorry about the intermittant posting, folks. You know, the ‘holidays’ and all. But here’s what I’ve found for you today.

Canada

• Ontario takes top honours for Nanny State-of-the-year.
• Canadian soldiers are being investigated for “improper conduct” in death of suspected insurgent.

World

• New Year’s celebrations in much of the Arab world have been canceled to show solidarity with Gaza.
• Women in Naples go on a sex strike to keep their men away from illegal fireworks. Wait, what?
• John Maynard Keynes is so hot right now. Even the Financial Times thinks so.

Media

• 62 journalists died in 2008.
• Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central and 16 other channels will go off the air if Viacom can’t reach a deal with Time Warner Cable. Fine with me, since I can only watch the lame Canadian equivalents anyway.

Science & Tech

• Apple’s iWork software is going cloud. Makes sense, especially if they launch this.
• Why sleeping late totally rules.
• Now you can text message on nuclear submarines. OMG.

Pop Culture

• Jack Kerouac’s vaguely inspirational, almost incomprehensible New Year’s resolutions.
• Finally: Flickr re-enactments of Far Side cartoons.

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Clint Eastwood has made some great movies, with more than a few landing in my top 25. So I was excitied to see Gran Torino, Eastwood’s latest actor/director effort. Internet scuttlebutt billed this as a “Dirty Harry 6″, where Clint goes after ne’er-do-wells in one last shoot ‘em up action flick.

Wrong.

This is a thoughful, quiet film about the decay of traditional America and its succession by a vibrant, if conflicted, new order. Eastwood does a terrific job in simplifying and pacing out this engaging story and delivers a poignant climax. The acting performances are a bit uneven, but the story still shines through. Highly recommended.

Champion moron and candidate for the RNC chairman Chip Saltsman (also: what grown man calls himself  “Chip”?) has been distributing copies of the song “Barack the Magic Negro” to support his campaign. Here’s a sample of this supremely unfunny and entirely racist ’satire’, written by some white, racist hack named Paul Shankman:

Nice one, Chipster. Like every veiled bigot, you’ve managed to fatally overreach and scupper your chances to be RNC Chair. While the Republican Party is the last, great citadel of privileged white men, they are smart enough to know which way the wind is blowing. This kind of race-baiting is no longer a viable political strategy. Prepare to be set adrift, Chip. You’re too stupid for office, and not clever enough to charm a Republican Party reeling under its own ponderous irrelevance.

And we’re back! Christmas was fun, but it’s time I return to the RSS mines.

World

• Dick Cheney doesn’t understand why people think he’s an evil bastard. Really, Dick? Really?
• Sarah Palin has demanded PETA remove an online videogame where people throw snowballs at her. Dumb, socially conservative and no sense of humor: the lucrative triple-crown of American right-wingers.
• Meet the Russian prof predicting the collapse of the USA by 2010.
• The Somalian president has resigned, abandoning the thin pretense that Somalia actually had some kind of a government.

Media

• How do you know print is dead? When it starts publishing its own epitaphs.
• Facebook and the wussification of videogames. 

Science & Tech

• The Earth is spinning slower. Surprisingly, this isn’t all our fault.
• Australian sharks are getting frisky. With video!

Pop Culture

• A judge has ruled that 20th Century Fox does, in fact, own a piece of the new Watchmen movie. This throws the whole March release date into serious question. Noooooooo!
• Jeremy Clarkson has declared the Corvette ZR1 the best car of 2008. Elsewhere, entire herds of pigs take to the air.
• In case you missed it, Harold Pinter died on Christmas Eve. He will be missed.
• Here’s an annoying trend: rap songs about how cool Toronto is.

Canada

• Detroit has been stealing Canadian water since 1964. Time to go all 1812 on their asses.
• US Ambassador declares Canadian political crisis is over. Butt out, Buttinsky.

World

• Christmas is for everyone. Even famous atheists.
• Turns out, Jesus was a pretty popular name back in 1BC.
• Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to give UK Christmas broadcast. Wait, what?

Media

• Gawker unveils their top 10 worst media moments of 2008.
• Looks like Torontoist isn’t dead after all. I call publicity-stunt shenanigans.

Science & Tech

• A British scientist has developed instantly adjustable, fluid-based eyeglasses.
• How a truck driver learned to build an atom bomb.
• A purple squirrel! Not to worry, he’s not a mutant. Just been playin’ in the toner cartridge graveyard.
• Gun and cell phone. Together at last.
• The amazing phenomenon of ‘blindsight‘.

Pop Culture

• George Lucas must be stopped. LucasArts has greenlit a new Star Wars musical.
• Chimp + popcorn maker + Japan = awesometown.

Hello, dear Nunc Scions. As you may be aware/are currently trying to ignore, the holiday week is upon us. Since I’ll be spending the better part of the day on the highway (going to Chicago), there will be no blogging today. I’ll be posting lightly over Christmas, so stay tuned.

And if I don’t see you back here before Christmas, here’s wishing you and yours a very merry holiday.

George W. Bush must be getting pretty depressed. I mean, if my legacy were a burned-over wasteland painted with tears, I’d be bummed too.

But amidst disastrous foreign wars and economic collapse, perhaps there is a little solace from an unlikely source: the guy who whipped his shoes at the soon-to-be ex-President.

Muntadar al-Zeidi has had a pretty crummy time since his shoe-nanigans. He’s been arrested, beaten, and forced to apologize for his stunt, and now faces the prospect of a lengthy jail term. I suppose he should have thought about that before hurling his footwear. And, I’m no fan of journalists exploiting their access to make personal political points.  But still, in the grand order of human misdeeds, weaponized Nikes are fairly light weight.

In the wake of the felonious shoe assault, Bush said some pretty laid-back, insightful things, basically that the occassional flying wingtip was a small price to pay for a free society. In that spirit, Bush should intervene on Al-Zeidi’s behalf. Surely, the President of the United States has the clout to bust a lone shoeman out of jail.

Think of it: at the close of an ignominous term, Bush can take the high road. He can say, “Yes, this man threw his shoes at me. But in the interest of democracy and freedom, let him go.” Not only will this make Bush appear magnaminous and actually committed to the liberty-related rhetoric he is fond of quoting in speeches, but it may even win a few points in the Muslim world.  Al-Zeidi is a hero for throwing his shoes. If Bush frees him, he may win a little grudging respect.

Let Al-Zeidi go, Mr. Bush. Let’s be honest: it may be the only good thing you get remembered for.