“There is still a misunderstanding to the portrayal of insanity in the Batman films and movies and what it means to be legally insane.” Pozios said. “For instance, the Joker has been repeatedly hospitalized at the Elizabeth Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane, even though, in real life, he probably wouldn’t qualify.”

Top 40 demotivational posters.

In Yaroslavl, Russia a charter plane carrying the KHL club Lokomotiv crashed on takeoff. Almost everyone on board was killed. Video can be seen here. Real-time updates from the Edmonton Journal’s Bruce McCurdy can be read here.

Secret Service reports the President has been removed to the safety of a golf course… developing…
Update: Officials have now pinpointed the epicenter.National Earthquake Center reports the quake occurred in the region known as “Bush’s Fault”.

Via CIC.

10 Years Later.

Happy Canada Day. Our tip for today is how to get a free case of beer. Yours in the comments, and have yourselves a good weekend, eh?

The UK Parliament has recently published a report from its House of Commons Energy and Climate Change Committee that examined the gas shale resources in the country and the use of hydraulic fracturing to extract the resource. The report is heavy with research and discussion of all the issues involved in developing gas shale resources. Members of the committee even traveled to the United States to meet with political, scientific and industry sources in order to gain the broadest spectrum of opinions on the various critical issues that need to be considered before reaching a conclusion on the environmental issues associated with gas shales.
An assessment of the report by analysts at the government research firm, Washington Analysis, concluded that “this research-intensive report could serve as a barometer for the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) eventual study on the subject.” They go on to point out that the EPA study is still in its “scoping” phase suggesting to the analysts that it will not be completed before 2013, thereby preventing Congress from acting to possibly restrict the use of hydraulic fracturing. While that assessment should be considered good news for the natural gas industry, we would offer several cautions about accepting that view.

h/t Adrian

Nice work, Facebook.

Facebook users will soon have to deal with the social network behemoth using facial recognition to identify pictures of you for your friends to tag.

Good luck with it!

(In case you missed it, it’s not my dog or my hands. In fact, it’s from Brazil, a descendant of a stud dog I sold many years ago. There are literally dozens of show dogs tagged with my name across Facebook for similar reasons.)
Bob in Edmonton – “… facial recognition was just one of the mind-numbing list of features on our cheap new digital camera. since most of the snapshots I take are of the dogs, theirs were the first faces I tried. it recognizes the shih tzu, but not the lhasa. go figure.”

“The suspect was transported to the local hospital with two broken arms, a broken leg, possible broken ribs, multiple contusions and assorted lacerations including a broken nose and jaw…. Injuries he sustained when he fell off a curb.”

Brace yourself, Oklahoma: The ingredients for a classic plains tornado outbreak are in place. (Meanwhile… brace yourself, bedding plants for a classic plains frost outbreak.)
Update: It’s begun.

h/t

A photo gallery of the Assiniboine River flood at Brandon, MB. Related – Province might not let river spill out. Wishing you all the best of luck, folks.

Women, minorities hardest hit.

h/t Prof. Bainbridge

Kind of cool.

The old man still has a thing or two to teach the Gaga Generation: Mick Jagger.
Update: As the original Youtube video was taken down, here’s a different link for now.

*

h/t Russell S.