Babes with Firepower

Girls + guns = the definition of incredible.

Cypress Beach is Back!

One of the best parts of living here in Vancouver is the close proximity of the mountains....literally 20 minutes away from downtown you can be hitting the slopes on your choice of three ski hills after work. Growing up here, I frequented Cypress Bowl the most (now stupidly re-branded to "Cypress Mountain" even though there is no actual Cypress Mountain nearby). It is made up of three mountains, two for downhill skiing/boarding and one for cross-country skiing/snowshoeing.

It's the biggest of the three local hills and has a sentimental spot in my heart for sure, and one of my fondest memories of skiing at Cypress Bowl was heading up there during warm spring days, scratching my skiis a little on the occasional protruding rocks, and chomping down on the free hamburgers which were barbequed all day at the top of two chairlifts. Yes, they did that. It fracking ruled.

Also of note was the live music often played at the old base lodge and the countless bikini-clad women who would lay in the snow against their skis to work on their tans. Yup. They called it Cypress Beach for a good reason.

And now it's 2011, the mountain has one of the largest snowpacks in history for April (about 600cm!!) and the Cypress Beach is coming back for a very cool and very hot retro revival!

If you're here in Vancouver, get your ass up to the hill. Lots of good stuff happening next week. Check out the site for all the details on spring events.

Cleavage Or Not?

Ummm.......wait a second....

Japan may have lost race to save nuclear reactor

The radioactive core in a reactor at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant appears to have melted through the bottom of its containment vessel and on to a concrete floor, experts say, raising fears of a major release of radiation at the site.

The warning follows an analysis by a leading US expert of radiation levels at the plant. Readings from reactor two at the site have been made public by the Japanese authorities and Tepco, the utility that operates it.

By 2015 “Windows Phone to be number 2 operating system worldwide behind Android"

IDC has released their Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker report and believe this year manufacturers will ship over 450 million smartphones. The mobile OS that’s capturing the hearts of users worldwide is Android. IDC says by the end of this year Android will have attained 39.5% market share and officially become the number one mobile OS in the world. Second place is Nokia’s Symbian with 20.9%, Apple’s iOS follows with 15.7% market share and Canadian-pride RIM’s BlackBerry OS is next in 4th spot with 14.9% market share… trailing far behind is Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 with only 5.5% market share.

However, IDC is projecting into the year 2015 where things are looking much different...

Review: Wind Mobile Nokia C7

Much has been made of the competition between Blackberry, iPhone, Android, and Windows 7 devices. While less popular smartphone companies such as LG, Acer, and Motorola have chosen sides and benefited in the fight between Android and Windows OS, Nokia continues to ride Symbian^3 until their partnership with Microsoft produces a Windows 7 device in 2012. The latest addition to Nokia’s Symbian^3 lineup is the C7, which sports a 3.5” capacitive touchscreen made of scratch-resistant Gorilla Glass, with a resolution of 360 x 640 pixels AMOLED and contains multi-touch (pinch to zoom), proximity, and light sensors. The Nokia C7 is approximately 117.3mm (tall) x 56.8mm (wide) x 10.5mm (thick), and weighs around 130g.

AESTHETICS:
I have always enjoyed the quality of Nokia devices. Every Nokia phone I have handled has always felt sleek, solid, and durable and the C7 is no exception. The Nokia C7 is encased in silver plastic and metal, with curved chrome edges, and a glossy/shiny face. These curved and bevelled edges give the user a comfortable grip and feel of the device. The ergonomic feel can also be attributed to the slim and narrow profile of the device. The slim and narrow profile combined with the lightweight feel of Nokia C7 often made me forget I was carrying it in my pocket.

SIDE NOTE: The front of this device (including the screen) is not fingerprint friendly, as the surface was susceptible to fingerprint oil, streaks, smudges, etc.

The front of the C7 houses a 3.5” capacitive touchscreen with 360 x 640 AMOLED. Below the screen are three backlit, physical buttons for Call, Menu, and End. Above the screen is forward facing, 0.3MP VGA camera for video calling. The right side of this device sports volume rockers, a lock switch, and voice and camera shortcut buttons, while the left side of the device reveals a small charging connector port (device also charges via microUSB port). The top of the device houses a power button, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a protected microUSB port for charging/PC connectivity (no features on bottom of device).

SIDE NOTE: The charging options for this device are unconventional and annoying. The C7 can charge via microUSB or wall mounted connection, however only a microUSB to USB cable is included (no USB adapter for wall). The charging connector cable forces users to toggle between cables when trying to charge device and connect to PC.

The back of the Nokia C7 houses an 8.0MP camera (dual LED flash, 720p HD video recoding, face detection, geo-tagging, digital zoom), which is surrounded by two back speakers. Pushing down the latch at the bottom of the rear, stainless steel panel reveals a SIM slot, and a 1200mAh battery, which advertises up to 576 minutes of talk time, and/or 555 hours of standby time. The microSD port is only revealed upon the removal of the battery, which is inconvenient and impractical (up to 32GB support, no card included).

PERFORMANCE:
The Nokia C7 is powered by a 680Mhz ARM 11 processor with approximately 256MB of RAM, 8GB of internal memory, and comes preloaded with Symbian^3. This device is compatible with GSM 850/900/1800/1900 and advertises speeds of 10.2Mbit/s (HSDPA) and 2.0Mbit/s (HSUPA). The C7 is powered by a 1200mAh battery, with up to 576 minutes of talk time, and/or 555 hours of standby time. The Nokia C7 supports GPS, +AGPS, and Bluetooth 3.0, while housing a Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n card for Wi-Fi support. The Music player supports MP3, AAC, eAAC, eAAC+, WMA, AMR, and MIDI, while the Video player supports MPEG4, H.263, H.264, DivX, XviD, WMV, RealVideo 10, and Flash Video.

I tested the reception throughout various areas of the GTA, where I was able to consistently make and receive calls, without any dropped calls. There were no complaints from both ends of various phone calls, as calls were dependably crisp, loud, and clear, even with additional background noise. The speakerphone was average, and could have benefited from additional volume.

The screen size is average, compared to other smartphones currently on the market, and provides a smooth and pleasant operating experience, as text and images appear very clear and colourful on the screen. The design of the C7 has left some wasted space above and below the screen, which could have accommodated a larger touchscreen. It should be noted that this screen needs constant cleaning/attention due to the accumulation of fingerprint oil, streaks, smudges, etc. The capacitive touchscreen was able to process most user input, with many instances of sluggish performance/processing, which can be attributed to the Symbian^3 OS and 680Mhz processor.

The web browser was a sluggish and frustrating experience. Various HTML webpages were easily rendered/loaded, however serious instances of lag were apparent thereafter. The “pinch-to zoom” functionality was inconsistent and unresponsive at times. “Double Tap” gestures for zooming work well, but lack auto adjusting text reflow. Navigating through the various browser settings became confusing and convoluted. One solution is to download a third party web browsing application (such as Opera), however it might lack some functionality such as multi-touch support.

The music and video player were able to handle my daily music needs and included a pleasing user interface (portrait mode reveals split screen between coverflow and tracks while landscape mode reveals coverflow display). The audio output was quite pleasant and equalizer allows for fine-tuning. The media interface also includes support for FM radio and FM transmitter, which turned out to be very handy, and something that should be included with all devices. Video playback was smooth and pleasant on the Nokia C7, especially due to the range of supported video file formats.

The camera on the C7 produced good results. The interface was quite useful and user friendly, as it contained options for altering sharpness, saturation, face recognition, image stabilizer etc. Other options included scene modes (auto, user defined, portrait, landscape, sport, night and night-portrait), self-timer, colour tone, white balance, exposure, ISO, adjustable contrast and sharpness. Video recording was above average and included vivid to compensate for dullness, and a video light for darker scenarios. The Nokia C7 is also able to capture video in HD, VGA, or low resolution formats.

The battery size of 1200mAh was adequately sized for this device, especially since it has a touchscreen less than 4”. Through various battery tests and experiments, I was able to last just between a day and half and two days on a full battery charge; based on activities of light web browsing, test messages, phone calls, music playback, and GPS mapping.

SOFTWARE:
The Nokia C7 comes preloaded with Symbian ^3, which is the largest downfall of this device. The main setup consists of three home screens, which contain shortcuts for apps, widgets, etc. Toggling between these screens is slow and frustrating, as the device does not process swipe gestures as quickly as it should. In order to place shortcuts on the main screens, I had to navigate through various menus, rather than simple drag and drop commands, as with the Android OS. Opening up the main menu reveals a simplistic and plain grid of icons, which lead to various other tiers of nested menus. Similar to other smartphones, the Nokia C7 has social networking integration for Facebook and Twitter; however, the integration process is manual rather than automated. It should be noted that I was unable to get the front facing camera properly working in order to test video calls.

In order to input text and email, users must rely on the virtual portrait numeric pad and a virtual landscape QWERTY keyboard. Although this keyboard is not as spacious and accurate as the Android OS, it gets the job done. The dial pad is nicely spaced out, and includes smart dialing functionality, which attempts to predict who you are trying to call. The email and messaging applications are well structured and organized with added support and features. The OVI app store also experienced sluggish performance, as I was unable to maintain a consistent connection in order to download third party games and apps. The Nokia C7 also comes preloaded with other useful apps/widgets such as Paramount Teaser Trailers and E! Videos widget, QuickOffice Reader, Adobe PDF Reader, and OVI Maps,

CONCLUSION:
The Nokia C7 is a thin, sleek, and durable device that suffers from sluggish and out-dated software in Symbiam^3. The touch screen is adequately sized and very responsive, but had trouble recognizing swipe gestures due to the slower processor and OS. The media player combined with the speakers and the inclusion of FM transmitter functionality produced an enjoyable experience and pleasant surprise, while the camera captured some stunning pictures and 720p footage. This was all achieved on a 1200mAh battery, which performed well based on usage. Symbian^3 crashed a few times during review and lacked text auto reflow and proper social integration. This device could have benefited from a faster processor and a different OS such as Android or Windows 7. Moving forward, it will be interesting to see if Nokia can maintain and combine their exceptionally built devices with a more efficient and effective OS, as they continue to develop a line of Windows 7 devices for 2012. Overall, the Nokia C7 is impressively designed, and will be able to please loyal Nokia customers until their Microsoft partnership produces serious competition for other smartphone manufacturers.

The Nokia C7 was recently released by Wind Mobile under the following pricing structure:
• $350.00 (no term contract)
• $200.00 (on WINDtab)

The Best Boobs in Video Games

You're welcome.

Calgarians choose to ignore Earth Hour - again

It looks like Calgarians turned off Earth Hour by leaving their power switched on. HAH.

Google's Cloud Music Service in Testing

Google is said to be testing its new Google Music service internally, according to sources speaking to CNET. Google had originally planned to make an announcement during the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas earlier this month, but it apparently still needs to iron out some of the details with the four major record labels.

130,000 Australians say No Carbon Tax, Greens flop

By Joanne Nova

What a week downunder, just in case you missed it.

We’re a nation, up in arms. With three months til G-Day (when the Greens control the Senate on July 1) and the tax-based-on-a-lie likely to become legislation, the heat is on. Protests and smears are running strong. Forces are being mobilized, and people are being polarized. Yet the public is abandoning the carbon tax, and the parties who promote it.

As the mass rally movements begin the Big Scare Campaign fans responded with smears to paint the rally-goers as extreme fringe, loonies and nutters. The fringe in this case turns out to be 4 out of 5 people. Who are the “deniers”? When asked, do you support the carbon tax? One hundred and thirty thousand people said NO. 

Making light of the phony Earth Hour

Instead of celebrating Earth Hour, radio host David Menzies is a proud participant of tonights Human Achievement Hour. This Saturday he will be turning on all of his lights at his house as well as powering up a large ‘searchlight’ system that is parked in front of his home.

Yeah, that's right. He got a bunch of Hollywood-style mega spotlights to light up his entire neighbourhood!!
Excellent!

Celebrate Earth Day (and Hour) For The Right Reasons

Earth Day was founded to bring attention to actual pollution problems, wildlife abuses, and promote general respect for the Earth. Unfortunately, many environmental groups had also used it to promote unfounded fears of overpopulation, mass starvation, and the perceived threat of global cooling at the time.

These days, just switch out the cooling for "warming" and it has been overtaken by extremists and their non-stop propaganda as a major fundraising campaign all around the world. On a smaller scale, Earth Hour is just a massively-funded WWF global warming campaign which began in 2007, and even after Climategate they still continue to push the totally debunked theory of man-made "climate change".

Thankfully, there is a counterpart to Earth Hour that has taken off in a great way. Many people participate in Human Achievement Hour (HAH) every year which, as always, takes place at the exact same time as Earth Hour every year between 8:30 and 9:30. During HAH you should turn on all your lights, drink a beer, call up your loved ones, and watch TV with friends and family while you all celebrate the fact we are living in an incredible time that will only get better as long as we NEVER restrict unfettered energy use and development of natural resources, which by the way we've barely scratched the surface of.

Remember, millions of the worlds poorest people don't even have a light bulb to turn off for some hipster "lights out" fad, they don't even have a refrigerator for food or a means to heat their homes without burning dung and causing real pollution and sickness.

We need to help them lift themselves out of poverty by encouraging energy use and rapid development of their resources, not trying to stop it! As film director & producer Phelim McAleer said:

"The real solution to poverty would be to make sure all Africans have electricity bills as large as Al Gore's". 

Truer words were never spoken.

Also take a look at the excellent interview of an MIT professor to put it all into perspective. "Relax, the planet is fine: An interview with Professor Richard Lindzen".

During the real Earth Day, I call on everyone to celebrate for the proper and real reasons, and not to support heavily funded greenwashing industries who have hijacked the occasion for their climate campaigns and who insist we should hark back to the stone age. Also, let's never forget that we are just as much a part of the Earth as trees and fish, and it is absolutely never appropriate to think of human beings as being "unnatural". We are a product of Earth, we have opposable thumbs for a reason, we have much to celebrate, and advancements to rejoice about. And it's all thanks to our collective intelligence and our Earth.

Want some ideas for celebrating HAH every year? Why not resurrect all your Christmas lights and fill the neighbourhood with light? If you feel extra joyful, you can do what radio host David Menzies did: He rented some giant spotlights to light up the sky tonight! And for Earth Day, while you are being bombarded with environmental propaganda by Big Environment and their fundraising campaigns, just remember what Earth Day is supposed to represent, never forget why it started in the first place, and steer clear of the greenwashing.

• The Real Danger this Earth Day: Environmentalism
• What Greens Really Believe by Alan Caruba
• Earth Day Predictions of 1970 (Hilarious!)

Pussy Power

Confirmed: BlackBerry PlayBook Will Run Android apps!

Well kids, the rumours are true!

“RIM will launch two optional “app players” that provide an application run-time environment for BlackBerry Java apps and Android v2.3 apps. These new app players will allow users to download BlackBerry Java apps and Android apps from BlackBerry App World and run them on their BlackBerry PlayBook. In addition, RIM will shortly release the native SDK for the BlackBerry PlayBook enabling C/C++ application development on the BlackBerry Tablet OS.” 

- Jim Balsillie, Co-CEO at Research In Motion

Hahaha excellent...poor Steve Jobs!

Google Street View Win

The Earth’s biosphere is booming, thanks to CO2

By Anthony Watts, founder of WattsUpWithThat?

I first ran a story with this title in 2008, with these graphics from SEAWIFS, showing a growing biosphere. Now a new study using a different methodology, Leaf Area Index (LAI), have determined that indeed, the LAI is on the increase. Those global warming proponents, who consider themselves “green” get very upset when it is pointed out that CO2 is “plant food”, yet here we have even more evidence that Gaia’s greenery likes it.

Earth Hour? I’ll Take a ‘No Nagging’ Hour

By Donna Laframboise, the creator of NOconsensus.org 

 I get it. We humans are foolish, exploitative, and despicable. If the green grumps had their way we’d still be shivering in caves, dressing in loin cloths, and dying in childbirth. Except that we’re not despicable. If we were we’d have produced no paintings, no poems, and no plays. There’d be no marvelous facilities like the Toronto Zoo in which the compounds are often so large the animals can be difficult to see even with my longest telephoto lens. All of this scolding and berating ignores the fact that the air is cleaner than it used to be and that even the UN admitted this week that forests:

…have been increasing steadily, growing by 25 million hectares over the past two decades. 

As a young woman I embraced feminism because I had no desire to be bossed around by men. These days it’s greens who want to regulate my behaviour. The environment is just one of many important issues in this world. Yet here in Toronto I am now required to genuflect to Gaia every time I make a purchase (merchants are required by law to charge five cents per plastic shopping bag).

WTPHOTO

Anti-Carbon Tax Rally in Australia

Photos from Oz at the No Carbon Tax demonstration are now available.

WIND Mobile AKA German Lingerie

Captain Kirk turns 80

Happy Birthday Bill. Your world famous toupee looks younger than ever!

Photo by Jerry Avenaim; used under creative commons license

On the gargantuan lie of climate change science

"Demonizing CO2 production demonizes life itself"

That's right! And this little nugget of truth is even coming from a left-wing Physicist, believe it or not!

Ummm...really?

Do you  realize that America just bombed a country by authority of the president, killing people without a single US address as to the reason, intent, or expected involvement from the president?

Can't argue with this...

Two amazing dogs survive disaster in Japan

Heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time. Ever since the disasters struck, everyone always talks about only the human impact. I have always been just as concerned about the devastation to animals as well, and this footage shows there is some hope after all. God bless the rescuers! 

ALL PLANT WORKERS EVACUATED

This just gets worse and worse....

The remaining 50+ nuclear plant workers in Fukushima Japan have been evacuated due to dangerously high radiation levels.

This means nobody is left to try and prevent the inevitable meltdown(s) at the damaged reactors.

Source

JAPAN BEFORE AND AFTER IMAGES

You must see this to believe it. 

Radiation rising, workers leave plant

This is just too much. It was bad enough when only one reactor was having problems. Now a third explosion.

Japan Faces Potential Nuclear Disaster as Radiation Levels Rise


READ HERE.

Fox News: Yet Another Nuke Plant Explosion

HotAirPundit: Fox News: Explosion Heard At Unit #2 Nuclear Reac...: "via Fox News Shep Smith reportin from Japan Japanese official have confirmed the explosion-Fox"

NUCLEAR MELTDOWN?

TheStar Japan reports second emergency at quake-hit nuclear plant

Holy god. This is about the worst news possible. :(

JAPAN ROCKED BY 8.9 MAGNITUDE QUAKE

The biggest earthquake in a hundred years hit Japan today and thousands are presumed dead or missing. My heart goes out to all affected.

However, I can't help wondering if we ever hear the whole truth about these things. Sure, big earthquakes happen naturally on a regular basis and that's how the planet works. But this headline strikes me odd:
Japan nuclear power plant, damaged in earthquake, plans to release 'slightly radioactive' vapor

Maybe the quake was an underground nuke in the first place and this is how they will cover up the radiation leakage? Go ahead...call me a conspiracy theorist if it makes you feel better and go back to trusting CNN for all your facts. But the fact of the matter is conspiracies turn out true all the freakin' time, and this quake had an epicenter of only about a mile down. This has baffled scientists, but hey, it's about the right depth for a bomb detonation! Just sayin'. Could all be a big coincidence, but then again it might not be.

Okay okay...probably a little out to lunch. Perhaps it's just HAARP? Nothing unrealistic about that.

Or maybe the Tesla Oscillator got a test run. Oh heavens no, that couldn't be. The world's elite would never do such a thing. (lol)

I give it about two days before some crackpot environmentalist will claim the earthquake was caused by "climate change". Ha. You just know it'll happen. And when it does, just remember an underground nuclear bomb is far more likely than earthquakes caused by car emissions and cow farts.