More power to the police

CP24 sent out a tweet last night opening up the discussion whether RIM should hand over information to police.  By information I am assuming they are refering to messages sent through Blackberry Messenger.   This topic has made it to the tables due to the whirlwind of looters swirling through England. This situation is not unique.  I believe the police there want RIM to open access to the BBM network in the hopes that they may be able to retrieve information pertaining to the direction that looters are heading and who is involved.

During the G20 in Toronto BBM and twitter were methods used to communicate what was going on.  I am in as much support of the violation of privacy rights being demanded by the "riot police" carried out by the corporate entities who we sign contracts with entitling "us civilians" to certain protection in terms of privacy as much as I am in support of police pulling over a car with teenagers because they were there.  While I don't neccessarily support the growing trend of civil unrest I do not support the growing trend of giving excess power to police forces as a method of combatting civil or uncivil protesting.When the G20 took place in Toronto the police had the same access to social and news media the people on the streets did.  And this did not aid them in containing the situation.  They had the same access to the countless people tweeting what was going on and where simply by following corporate media.  The end result was their kettling technique which resulted in no less than treating innocent civilians as criminals in the hope of squeezing out the 'trouble makers'.  The same thing is being proposed here in England.  Violating the peoples right putting them into one pot in the hopes of getting rid of the toxins.  I think as people we need to start looking at the implications of what we are really giving birth to here.  Yes there is a worldwide trend of growing unrest.  Yes there is a worldwide trend of mass protest occuring and its only going to continue as the lines between the people and the elite continue to divide.  Governments and people would be wise to see clearly that there is a divide and that those people whom some consider to be the bottom of the barrel are tired of the growing influence (financial) and power being giving to Corporations.  One of the biggest being the 'new democratic' type of government policing systems, look at the facts in terms of money being spent on security at these continuous protests and riots.  

As a citizen I am concerned with the willingness of some people and Corporate entities to continue to support this trend of handing over more power to police.  I am very skeptical about police power especially in the wrong hands.  Don't say it can't happen.  There is an old saying 'remember everything hitler did was legal'.  Look I am a law obiding citizen I can talk about countless stories of even here in Mississauga of profiling, unprofessional conduct etc etc  that is not the point the point is that it is dangerous to fuel a system which is on the verge of meltdown with a socialist type mentality.  And thats what this is pushing towards more government control.  The government can't keep their own houses in order and they want access to our tweets, text messages and bbm messages.  Sorry not floating my boat.  I believe in the rights of all people to their privacy and human rights not to be treated as criminals because the next group of rioters have shown up to the door steps.  Maybe the government cops should look into the problems that generate these situations instead.  They may even find a few in their own house. 

Protesting Blodgett

Poser - Graffiti artist

I've always loved Graffiti. Never got into the art form myself but in my travels, notably in Europe, I always loved taking the train. You were always guaranteed to see some great graffiti along the tracks. Germany in particular always had some really cool paintings. While the art form itself has always been surrounded with controversy I for one have never had a problem with it in my home city of Mississauga or in Toronto. I'm not talking about little word scribbles often associated with gang tags rather actual murals or paintings. Pictures and an interview of a known Ottawa - Toronto graffiti artist Poser has been posted on BlogTo.

Poser on FlickR

Photos were taken by sniderscion

The Hobbit

Surprisingly I actually haven't been keeping up with this considering I am
a huge Tolkien Fan. But for those who haven't seen yet here are the first
few videos from the production of the Hobbit that is scheduled for theaters
December 2012. Been looking forward to this for a while actually.

Earthscraper? A what?

We've all seen many Skyscrapers but this is the first I've heard of what appears to be a new concept.... The Earthscraper That's right ladies and gents an Earthscraper


This is a design concept which is being considered by the City of Mexico for it's Historic Center. While the concept is extremely interesting it raises a few questions about how this would logically work. I mean take for example if there was a fire or earth -quake or some emergency how would you get out. It will definitely be interesting to see some of the technological concepts that are brought to the table for emergency exit solutions. As with all buildings there are also structural concerns not to mention possible leakage issues which can cost huge sums of money even in private homes yet alone x amount of stories underground. Not too sure what environ-mentalists, which I'm sure the City of Mexico has consulted on such a project, will have for the City too. The concept does have a lot of potential if they are able to work around the safety issues. It would definitely make for an interesting tourist attraction. What a pity though for us photographers we couldn't take a picture of the building but wait the building is going to be glass? That's right. Well part of it anyhow. The Architectural Design of this Historic building will mirror that of Mexico's rich history of Aztec Pyramids a site to see in themselves along with the Mayan Pyramids. See the full article from Gizmag here

And the latest status update

A little late on this post... better late than never..
Saturday was another session of Garage talk. On the Menu was the Sinister
Crest, some Bud (beer) and Remy Martin The discussion (as per protocol)
pertained to the topic of modern technology. Attendees were the Cyclist, Dj Vader, and Bloggin Blodgett

So over the course of some beers and Filipino food we discussed the pro's
and con's of modern technology. Dj Vader made several interesting points regarding the Benefits of being able to essentially "do it all" from your phone. While we really can't do it all, there are many things the new mobile technology contain which have made life a lot easier. And this was Vader's key point in the discussion. Technology through cell phone's in particular have made it easy to manage websites, social circles, self-promotion in the arts to name a few. (I can even blog via email, The Blogger App...Bloggin Blodgett is mobile watch out)

It has also made it easier to find out information at the dr op of a heartbeat.
We are now able to reach out to people that we would have had to go to great
difficulty to reach before. Bloggin Blodgett also chirped in on how this has

made it easier to gain awareness to things that really matter. Like when people's lives are at peril ie Famine's in Somalia or even Natural disasters. (On a side note I had previously mentioned in a post that you can even send donation money through text messages now) or directly here: redcross And these things are really quite amazing when we step back and look at
it.

The Cyclist who is cautionary when it comes to new technology (and rightly so) also expressed some excitement about these things but also approaches them with a bit more thought than most people would. And by thought I mean thinking about what he actually uses these new trends for. The availability of selling your self in the online virtual world as a mini celebrity has always been a stern point of contention for the Cyclist. As he has pointed out many times in past Garage Talk
Episodes that not everything that we do should be recorded in digital media format and posted on line.

This we find particularly cumbersome especially in the younger kats who seem to feel the need to constantly post pictures of their weekly Church Service worshiping the gods of alcohol, music, immodest dress, and sex or the latest substance use they are up to it tweets (heat score as we use to call it) Both are a waste of time and bandwidth but hopefully with age comes a little wisdom.

Garage Talk Blodgett

Healthy Lunch

Spinach Salad with Roasted Pine Nuts and Garlic

So being the Mr Healthy that I am striving to be I
decided last week to supplement my new workout
routine with a balanced diet.

In other words that I will eat salads for lunch....
Oatmeal for breakfast (gots to keep those arteries open)
and a regular meal at supper. Oh yeah and can't forget
leave the beer for one night on the weekend

In accordance with the plan last night had picked up some
spinach and made lunch for today. Roasted upon some
garlic (watch out you Vampires). Threw a few pine nuts
in the z toaster oven. For dressing a bunch of Oil Olive and
Lemon Juice freshly squeezed and a little fresh ground
pepper. Some healthy eats I'd say.

Slim trim Blodgett

Ultimate Optimus Prime

So yesterday morning I decided to take a hike up to Toys R Us.
Being the Transformers Collector that I am I had one item
in mind the Autobot Ark






















But to my surprise I ended up with this :

















Actually I was just about to walk out of the store with two other items in hand.
As I walked out of the Transformers Aisle Ultimate Optimus Prime was there
staring me down. I wasn't honestly expecting to see this figure till mid September
seeing as we still haven't seen some of the figures here in Mississauga that
were slated for release back in May and June. So I decided I'm grabbing this
while available and in all honesty this has to be one of the best Transformers
figures I have ever owned the only slightly disappointing feature was the lack
of Vocal Expressions included in what is a relatively pricey toy.

Here's a few more quick shots I took. This sucker is staying in Robot Mode
For a while anyhow.

Pan-fried Chicken with Pesto

Don't know what it is but something about the kitchen
keeps me coming back. Fried up some chicken.
Whipped up some basil, pine nuts, garlic, parsley, olive oil,
salt and pepper (fresh ground pepper oh yeah)
Pesto...
Throw some of that green stuff on your chicken....
Sided with a little white rice with a special ingredient

Mangé
Chez Blodge

Holiday Monday

Got to love holiday Monday's.  There's nothing like having an extra day after a full weekend to kick back and do nothing.  We've had great weather so far this summer. 

Relaxing Blodgett

Most important meal of the day

Eat your breakfast its good for you