phishtaper

how does one figure that out?

hmmmmm, there are a lot of people on here from Ottawa and yet your city still sucks.

GUELPH RULES!!! [color:orange]hehe

New theme: Home is where the bands are: Music you love from the town where you currently live. (state the place too)

1. The Wooden Stars - Country Violins (Ottawa)

2. Where's Veronica - Doorf*cker (Nanaimo)

3. Noises from the Toolshed - Half Moon Bay (Victoria)

4. nero - Breakline (Ottawa)

5. Constantines - Thieves (Guelph)

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12.

ya know, i never trusted unicorns ...

i saw the pumpkins a number of years ago at massey hall and really enjoyed them. the most memorable part of the show was the ending when they invited people up onto the stage with them, individually handed off their instuments to these people instructing them to "just play" and within a couple of minutes the band had all left and this bunch a non-musicians were jamming away - very badly. it was kinda bizarre but fun. and for sure hart, james and d'arcy were/are a huge part of this band.

the v-fest tanked last year because of organizational stupidity too. i seem to recall that the flaming lips only played a half hour set or something because of delays throughout the day and a curfew on the island. people were pissed! in fact, the band actually had to apologize for the fiasco the very next day.

toronto island is the single worst venue for this sort of show, i thot they would have learned from that blunder, but i guess not. i dont hold out much hope for this year's event if it's run by the same jokers who "attempted" to run it last year. my dog could put on a better festival.

im tired, too tired to figure out a new theme.

up for grabs!

Theme: These are my roots (Songs about a place you have called home. Feel free to interpret that as broadly as you like).

1. Roy Hurd - Adirondack Blue

2. Barenaked Ladies - Lovers In A Dangerous Time (the tail end of the video was done at/near the corner of McCown & Eglinton, walking distance to my childhood home)

3. B.A. Johnston - Jesus is from Steeltown

4. Frontier Index - If It Don't Work Out (THESE ARE MY BOYS!!)

5. ABBA - Waterloo (very broad interpretation)

6. Bob Dylan - Highlands (Haliburton for 10 yrs)

7. The Prince Brothers - Lake Of Bays

8. Bourbon Tabernacle Choir - Solitude Mama (reference to North Toronto ... "old neighbourhood")

9. Stephen Fearing - The Longest Road

10. Steve Sinnicks - The Ballad of Sam Lawrence

11. Keller Williams - Sunny Rain

12. Delores Claman/CBC - Hockey Night in Canada Theme

exactly, the "inactive ingredient" (filler) would probably be a cheap starch, some sort of wax, powdered sugar, industrial talc or maybe even baking soda.

I think in the case of medicines like aspirin, a form of chalk (calcium carbonate) is often used as a filler.

its not so much a filler as it is a buffer to prevent upset stomach. any antacid like calcium carbonate or magnesium oxide can be used to prevent ASA absorption in the stomach. Bufferin is a good example. e would probably contain less expensive, and less pure talc - which wouldnt kill ya at that dose, but really who knows. these arent exactly sterile labs.

the Munk Cardiac Center at TGH is world class. your grandfather is in very good hands.

i blast old depeche mode and dance around like a fool. then i eat a whole large bag of hickory sticks and surf porn. but sometimes i just sit in the dark and plot evil deeds.

ok, thats creepy, i was listening to Aerial this morning. get out of my head!!!

bluuuuue lagooooooon ... man, if I had a dollar for every time I .... nevermind

Theme: Great Covers of songs by The Rolling Stones (difficulty: can't use the same song or artist more than once in this theme)

1. Ry Cooder - It's All Over Now

2. Townes van Zandt - Dead Flowers

3. Devo - Satisfaction

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the song Endless Love was more successful than the movie - was the biggest hit that year, and was nominated for the oscar. the movie was forgettable other than the fact that it showed teens having sex. shields seemed to do that a lot.

well, you wouldnt like Endless Love then, its kiddie porn.

although, it did mark the screen debut of the great Iaan Ziering ....

what movie is that from?

"She is 15. He is 17. The love every parent fears."

Why, it's Endless Love, of course.

for no particular reason at all ... i'd just like to say ...

fuÇk you all!! and the fuÇking kittens you all rode in on ...

hmmm, ya know, that actually feels quite good.

very primal. who else wants to try?

elton john - honky chateau

I could have put this in the cavern, but discussion here in the politics forum is so much better.

'Wal-Mart effect' feeds grocer price wars

MARINA STRAUSS

TORONTO — Wal-Mart Canada Corp.'s aggressive expansion into groceries has plunged Ontario supermarkets into an “irrational†price war, the head of a leading rival says.

The pricing frenzy will continue “for the foreseeable future,†Bill McEwan, chief executive officer of Sobeys Inc., predicted Wednesday.

As a result, Loblaw Cos. Ltd., the hard-pressed market leader, is not alone in feeling the wrath of Wal-Mart. Sobeys, the No. 2 grocery chain in Canada, saw its third-quarter profit drop 27 per cent — to $33.3-million or 51 cents a share — as it raced to revamp its operations to take on the stiffer competition. Since last fall, Wal-Mart has opened its first seven Supercentres in Ontario, and it's expected to expand rapidly across Canada in the coming years. The mega-outlets carry a full array of food along with everything else.

“The marketplace went a little irrational,†Mr. McEwan told a conference call. “We wanted to make sure that we protected the price competitive position that was so hard fought and so difficult to achieve over the last two to three years with all our investments. We had no intention of letting it slide, irrespective of the impact on the short-term results.â€

While Mr. McEwan doesn't think that a similar tumble in prices will happen when Wal-Mart starts rolling out Supercentres in Western Canada — expected later this year — others weren't so sure.

Robert Gibson, retail analyst at Octagon Capital, said Loblaw would likely react quickly to the new entry in Western Canada by lowering its prices, forcing Sobeys and others to follow suit.

“It's the Wal-Mart effect,†Mr. Gibson asserted.

“When I think of a price war, I think of a temporary period of time that will end. With Wal-Mart in here, I don't know if this is temporary. This could be the new reality,†Mr. Gibson said. The Wal-Mart factor is forcing all players to find new ways to operate more efficiently to boost profits, he said.

Wednesday, Sobeys warned that it faces further restructuring costs in the next two quarters, which analysts said will pinch margins.

On the Toronto Stock Exchange, Sobeys shares slid 4.2 per cent or $1.75 on the day to close at $39.91.

The major grocers have been overhauling systems and slashing their prices to battle discounter Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer. Loblaw has seen a steady drop in its profit over the past couple of years as it tried to get ready for the inevitable. But the restructuring went awry, and now it's working it over under new leadership.

Analysts said the food pricing environment is a nail-biter for investors — and will remain that way for the next couple of years — but a treat for consumers.

“This is just the cost of doing business now,†added Don Povilaitis, retail analyst at Standard & Poor's bond rating agency. “You have to keep reinvesting in your back end to keep competitive in your front end.â€

Sobeys, Loblaw and others are pouring money into upgrading their backroom distribution systems in order to run a tighter ship and keep prices down at the “front end†— that is, the store. It leaves the companies with razor-thin profit margins.

Still, Mr. McEwan said he thought Sobeys is well prepared for the Wal-Mart Supercentre entry into the Western provinces. He said Sobeys has already lowered prices in that part of the country.

But Mr. Gibson said that even so, Loblaw will probably cut its prices in the face of the arrival of Supercentres in the West, forcing Sobeys and others to do the same.

In the latest quarter, Mr. McEwan said that Sobeys managed to make a 1.8-per-cent gain in same-store sales, compared with a year earlier — even in the tough environment. Same-store sales are those in stores open a year or more, and are considered a key measure in retailing.

“Our third-quarter results reflect our continued solid same-store sales performance and commitment to sustain our price position as competition intensified, particularly in Ontario,†he said. (However, same-store sales increased 4.1 per cent in the same period a year earlier.)

Mr. McEwan said it will take a few more years to get Sobeys' systems in place to be fully prepared for the sharper competition. That follows major restructuring over the past few years to improve productivity.

so, i guess we'll be seeing "for rent" signs on all loblaws soon, eh?

i sense this may be the most publicity this band has ever received. like they say ... there aint no such thing as bad press.

and besides, we now have ...

double exclamation mark!!

liberals have nuts

This theme is making me puke in my mouth

then I have accomplished what I set out to do.

booooooyaaaah. double exclamation mark!!

here is the link to the Go Festival recording again. i thot it was a fun show.

not that I paint myself as the defender of big pharma here, but perhaps I should note that on average, new drugs cost between $100million and $200million to develop, and many of them never see the market. so yeah, while they do charge a lot for brand name pills, they have huge costs to cover.

carry on.