Cool Online Mapping Utility: MapMyRun.com

I just discovered a site called MapMyRun.com. It’s is a cool little site that integrates GoogleMaps with handy route-drawing tools. For example, you can map your route from home to work and calculate how many calories you can burn in doing so. Nifty!

I didn’t realize I can burn off a Big Mac by cycling to work!

Cool New Frogger Game

Interesting…a Frogger arcade game utilizing a Dance Dance Revolution type user interface. That would be pretty fun.

Your Rights When Dealing With Police

With the number of news stories about police abusing their authority seemingly increasing every year, I though it might be a good idea to do a little research to discover what your rights are when you are stopped by the cops. Most of the information I’m posting here is from settlement.org’s FAQ on The Police and You:

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects your rights if the police stop you and want to question you or if they arrest you.

• The police cannot stop you, search you, or arrest you without a good reason.
• The police must say who they are and show identification.
• Police cannot enter your home unless they have your permission, a warrant to arrest someone or do a search, or unless they are responding to an emergency. You have to go to the police station only if you are under arrest.
• The police must tell you that you are being arrested and why; and they must be sure you understand them. You have the right to an interpreter when you are dealing with the law.
• If you are arrested, the police must tell you at once that you have the right to a lawyer. You have the right to choose your lawyer, and to call and talk to your lawyer in private. If you can’t afford a lawyer, the police will give you the toll-free 24-hour number for Legal Aid (a service provided by the government).
• The police must bring you to a justice of the peace or a bail hearing to set the terms for your release as soon as possible after your arrest, usually within 24 hours.
• The police may touch you, but not harm you or use unnecessary force.

Special Cases:

• If you are under 18 years of age, you have other rights under the Youth Offenders Act. A younger person who is accused or convicted is not treated the same way as an adult.
• If you are stopped while driving, you must show your driver’s licence, car registration and insurance certificate. If you don’t, you may be charged under the Highway Traffic Act.
• If they believe you have been drinking alcohol before or during driving, the police can insist you take a roadside breath test. If they ask you to take this test, you don’t have the right to call your lawyer first.
• If the police have reason to believe you can’t drive correctly because you drank alcohol or took drugs, they can ask for a blood or urine test. If they ask for another test, you do have the right to speak to a lawyer. If you refuse to take the tests, the police will charge you.

If the police suspect you have committed a crime, you should tell them your name, address, and date of birth. If these prove that the police have the wrong person, then you won’t be arrested. If the police think you have committed only a minor crime, and you have identified yourself, they may not arrest you. Instead, they will give you a paper telling you when to go to court. If you don’t identify yourself, the police can hold you until they find out who you are.

You do not have to answer any other questions; Just ask to speak to a lawyer and the police must stop asking questions. Do not resist the police. Usually, things go better if you are polite with the police. You are presumed innocent until proven guilty in court.

If you decide to talk to the police, anything you say can be used as evidence in court.

So, it looks like your best bet is to not tell the cops anything beyond your identification and ask to see a lawyer first.  I’ve heard that the police can also lie to your about your legal rights, and basically try to trick you into confessing a crime.  I don’t know if that’s just in the US or if it applies to Canada, too.

I guess the best thing to keep in mind when dealing with the police in situations like this is that the police are not your friends.  They are out looking for criminals and will bust you if they think you are one.

Uwe Boll to Make a World of Warcraft Movie?

NOT!

From MTV Movies Blog:

“I [Uwe Boll] got in contact with Paul Sams of Blizzard, and he said, ‘We will not sell the movie rights, not to you…especially not to you,’”

Regrowing Body Parts

The U.S. Military has just announced that they have created a new agency called the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine, whose purpose is to research and develop technology for growing replacement body parts for soldiers.

Hopefully this kind of technology will become commonplace in the near future, benifiting amputees and accident victims in addition to soldiers.

Garfield Minus Garfield

Here’s one of the funniest web comics I’ve ever come across: Garfield Minus Garfield. It’s a collection of old Garfield comics with that insufferable orange cat photoshopped out of them.

Who would have guessed that when you remove Garfield from the Garfield comic strips, the result is an even better comic about schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life? Friends, meet Jon Arbuckle. Let’s laugh and learn with him on a journey deep into the tortured mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness in a quiet American suburb.

Here’s an example:

A New Emoticon

I’ve invented a new emoticon to espouse the emo culture.  Here it is:

\\’-(

Existing “emo” emoticons are all vertical, so I think this horizontal one — which I created before seeing the vertical ones — is somewhat superior. ;-)

Tobacco Adventures

I have acquired a taste for fine tobacco ever since my parents brought back Cuban cigars from their trip to the Dominican Republic earlier this year. Sadly, I’m down to one cigar, having smoked an average of one a month for the past half-year.  Properly prepared and smoked, tobacco has a really good flavor to it.  It’s a world of difference from the crap cigarette smokers experience.  Also, not inhaling the smoke is a big plus as well.

Last weekend I decided to try out pipe smoking. I figured it would be kind of cool to get the whole “pipe-smoking professor” look going on. :-P

I did a bit of research online so I wouldn’t sound like an idiot at the tobacconist’s shop, then went out and bought myself a pipe. To my dismay, the only pipes that were available were plastic ones. They were relatively inexpensive, so I decided to give it a shot.

Unfortunately, my experiment in pipe smoking did not go as well as I’d hoped. The cheap pipe gave the tobacco a ‘melted plastic’ flavor, and the tobacco was nowhere near as tasty as the Cuban cigars I liked. Thus ended my foray into pipe smoking.

If I ever get my hands on a decent wooden pipe and some real tobacco I might try it again, but until then I’ll be using my plastic pipe as a prop.

Today’s random quote

Copied from a Slashdot post:

“The Cold War ended. The world was as close to Peace as it has ever been. We could have been investing in so many things to help the human race as a whole.

Instead we’re spending trillions of dollars “fighting” a few thousand nutcases who can’t do any more damage to the world than we do to ourselves, every year, in traffic accidents.”

Sleep…

I spent the last twenty-four hours sleeping, waking occasionally to go to the bathroom.  A new personal best!