If you don’t read MightyGodKing, you should. Among the myriad delights available on this excellent blog, you’ll find photoshopped covers of nerdy books.

Today, it’s Star Trek novels.  And it is awesome. Here’s a sample, a pardoy of a Next Generation book I actually own:

Not a bad read, as I recall. Anyways, go check out the complete series of covers before they end up on Boing Boing, and MGK’s server crashes.

Canada

• A replica of the Silver Dart – the first Canadian aircraft to fly way back in 1909 – flew again on Sunday.

World

• Confused about the credit crisis? This handy video explains it all for you…with fun pictures!

Science & Tech

• This otter has a video camera. Humanity is doomed.
• It’s starting to look like LCD has won the HDTV war.
• Remember that satellite collision? It may have ruined space for the rest of us.
• Aliens have been found in Mexican corn! Well, alien genes, anyway. That were made by us.

Pop Culture

• Terry Pratchett is now a knight. How cool is that?
• Linda Hamilton is currently in talks to appear – in some as yet unspecified capacity – in Terminator: Salvation.
• In case you needed more proof: verified video evidence that Ryan Seacrest totally sucks.
• The top 22 movie non-zombie corpses. Fun fact: I once played Hitler’s corpse in a movie.
• Internet scuttlebutt says the new Ghostbusters movies starts filming in fall of 2009.

I dig this on so many levels.

Artist Dennis Morris has created incredibly detailed, extremely accurate miniature recreations of the Battle of Gettysburg. The photo above is an example of his handiwork. Prints are available for sale here.

I think this is cool for three reasons:

1. If you’re going to be into something, take it as far as you can. This guy lives that motto.
2. I also collect Civil War miniatures.
3. This:

I’m on the left.

It may shock you to learn that I am more than just an obsessive blogger. Not much more, but I do engage in some other activities here and there. In case you’d like to see me doing any of these activities (all PG, I assure you), I thought I’d put it all in one convenient blog post.

WHERE TO CATCH GRAEME THIS WEEK:

• TONIGHT! I’ll be doing “Improvatron 3000” at the Bad Dog Theatre, with special guest Dan Levy. You know,  the host of The Hills After Show. Should be a fun time. Tickets are $5 at the door, and the ball gets rolling at 8PM.
• TOMORROW (Friday, Feb. 20) I’m in “Travesty“, also at the Bad Dog Theatre. This is an improvised, turn-of-the-century British ‘drama’. I play a priest. It features some pretty kickass improvisers, and is much with the funny.

So there you go. Hope to see you there. And if I haven’t met you yet, please come up and introduce yourself. I like meeting people who read my blog and/or come to my shows.

There’s an interesting piece in the NYT’s Economix blog today, itself an exploration of an earlier article written by Newsweek’s Fareed Zakaria. Both attempt to explain why Canada is so far weathering the economic crisis better than its southern neighbour.

The points are interesting:

• Centralized banking regulation has protected Canadian financial institutions from toxic debt and collapse in other countries;
• Our “single payer” model of public healthcare reduces complexity and per-person cost compared to the American model. More importantly, Canadian retain health coverage even if they are unemployed. In the USA, if you lose your job, you lose your private insurance; and
• Canadian employment insurance replaces more lost wages than the American system (78 per cent as opposed to 52 per cent.

Of course, none of these provisions are possible without public support. The really interesting idea in the NYT article is that the structure of Canadian society allows for greater recession resilience. Lower income inequality and norms of mutual support (linked to our multiculturalism) create public support for the measures that have so far insulated Canada from the more serious depredations of the recession. There’s a reason why you don’t see mas foreclosures and bankruptcy in Canada, and it has a lot to do with how we conduct ourselves as a society.

Anyways, an interesting read. And a little sunshine for Canucks concerned about the meltdown.

World

• Christopher Hitchens was beat up in Beirut. But he’ll be OK.
• The disturbing rise of DIY healthcare in the United States.
• Did a geography professor find Osama Bin Laden?

Science & Tech

• Liquid water found on Mars! Well, OK, it’s saline mud that’s absorbing moisture from the air, but still…it’s liquid!
• The Danton, a WWI French battleship sunk by a German submarine, has been found near Sardinia.

Pop Culture

• The last episode of BSG is apparently two episodes. Confusing, Ron D. Moore. Confusing.
• Watch a time-lapse video of hundreds of people re-enacting The Beatles’ Abbey Road album cover on, well, Abbey Road.
• Filmmaker releases first-ever choose-your-own-adventure zombie  film online. Apparently, it’s not great. But full marks for concept.
• Watchmen will apparently come in three sizes.
• Speaking of Watchmen and sizes, why not buy some special Watchmen-themed condoms?
• Google has won the first Street View privacy lawsuit.
• Hayden Christensen and Rachel Bilson are getting married. I didn’t even know they were dating, and I’m now starting to regret all those presents I’ve been sending her.
• Check out Bulgaria’s weirdo UFO-shaped mountain-top abandoned amphitheatre.

The Internet does many things. It acts as a vast conduit for ideas and creativity. It connects far-flung corners of the world in ways never thought possible. It brings us cats with odd captions. And, it is the greatest porn distribution network in the history of mankind.

We can add a fifth item to this list of wonders: it is also a land of mighty over-reaction.

I’m monitoring Twitter for reaction to the CRTC hearings on Internet regulation, and people are furious. How dare the CRTC even consider laying one filthy, regulatory finger on the Internet? And while I’m no fan of the CRTC, and a huge fan of Net Neutrality, I can’t help but think this is all a bit past the point.

Look, all the CRTC is suggesting is that it create a fund to help Canadian producers generate online content. It would be somewhere in the neighbourhood of $100 million, funded through a surcharge on Internet users. This would translate into about $23 a year per connected household (and since this number is based on 2004 Statcan data, the final charge would probably be lower now). We can debate whether this kind of provision is effective, or if users should be asked to support CanCon with their own dollars. But we should not construe this as an attack on the Internet.

The current hysterics are likely related to a presentation made yesterday by representatives of Canadian content producers. In it, they made the rather ridiculous suggestion that Canadian ISPs should be subject to the same CanCon rules as other broadcasters, in effect requiring the entire, sprawling Internet to contain a certain percentage of Canadian programming. This is clearly unenforceable, and a terrible idea. I really doubt the CRTC is seriously considering this provision. Indeed, it hasn’t been mentioned by the regulator anywhere, least of all during the current hearings.

So please, everyone just relax. Beloved Internet is not being vivisected before our misty eyes. Let’s wait until we hear what the CRTC has to say before wigging out.

Crossposted with rabble.ca.

UPDATE: If you’re looking for an excellent summary of why the proposed fund, and the CRTC in general, is a bad idea, check out this excellent post over at Eaves.ca.