Andrew and I tend to talk about Halo 2 a lot on The Vlog, so by now I am sure you have heard that the French version of Halo 2 was stolen and circulated on the Internet. It doesn’t really matter though, as anticipation continues to grow for the November 9th release of the game. From a Microsoft press release:

With three weeks to go before the game hits store shelves, pre-orders for “Halo® 2” — the highly anticipated Xbox® exclusive from Microsoft Game Studios — have eclipsed the 1.5 million mark in the United States. With phenomenal record-breaking video game pre-orders, “Halo 2” is poised to generate more revenue in 24 hours than day one sales of any full feature movie in entertainment history, including “Spider-man 2,” “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” and “Matrix: Reloaded.”

Those are some pretty huge movies to top. Its no wonder that advertising dollars are starting to pour into the gaming industry. There is even advertising in Halo 2 (wink wink, nudge nudge), as this post tells us: top 10 ways the Canadian version differs from the US version (I particularly like #9). Gotta love Tim Horton’s eh? That would be awesome….driving a warthog with a steaming TimHo’s in a cup holder. If only this list had been released early enough for the developers to consider 😛

I look at Google News Canada several times a day, even just to glance at the headlines and see what is going on. The headlines and pictures usually change quite frequently. Oddly enough however, for the last week or so there has been a picture of someone named Dr. Vivian Loo from the Montreal General Hospital on the page consistently. I know this is probably just an error in the algorithm that generates the page or with their image cache, but it makes you wonder what the software likes about her so much doesn’t it? I haven’t noticed it with any other pictures, just hers (though Sheila Copps has been on there for two days now).

She usually appears on the bottom left under Health. But at least once in the last couple days I have seen her at the top of the page. She is currently appearing for the story here.

As you probably have heard by now, West Edmonton Mall has decided to fill the old dolphin tank with three sea lions. As you might have guessed, there are a lot of people opposed to this, with groups like Zoocheck Canada calling it “deplorable”.

Fellow blogger Darren Barefoot has written a letter to WEM saying that until the mall is animal free, he will not be visiting. I think that’s too bad. The argument could be made that no animal should be in captivity, but if we are not going to follow that idea, I think as long as the animals are being looked after, who cares? I don’t know much about it, but I am sure there are some government regulations that must be met and are checked on, so if everything is checking out, I don’t see a problem.

I also think that having the animals at the mall is good for kids – kids who would not have the opportunity to see the animals anywhere else, but also for kids in general, as they have an opportunity to learn something while they are wasting time at the mall.

Apparently I am not the only one who thinks so. You can read my thoughts from Friday, and a more complete dissection of the book courtesy of the Toronto Star. The story is picking up steam too, with 113 publications listed in Google News.

Last night Megan held a little get together at her house as she is on her own this weekend. It was pretty good to see everyone for a bit! We had nachos (thanks Kim) and some other snacks, and of course, rum and Coke! For entertainment we watched the unrated version of The Girl Next Door which surprisingly not everyone had seen. Such a funny movie!

Unfortunately I didn’t bring my camera, so there are no pictures to post this time. Won’t happen again 😛

Anyway, thanks again Megan! Good times!

Have you heard about the TV-B-Gone? It’s a little keychain-sized device that lets you turn off any TV. On the flip side, it also lets you TURN ON any TV – but the developers usually neglect to advertise that function. Basically, you press the button, and the device cycles through 209 different codes, starting with the most popular brands first. You can learn more about it here. Good idea? Maybe not. Here is what I am thinking:

• The privacy freaks will probably have a field day, saying that turning off a TV you are watching is an invasion of privacy.
• Within a year someone will turn off a TV in a bar in the middle of a sporting event and then will be beaten to death by angry patrons.
• This device will probably spawn a new form of recreation. Think toothing.
• Some resourceful person will get lazy and try to extend the range of the device.
• The device will cost airlines thousands of dollars as they will need to modify their recordings asking people to turn off their cell phones, pagers, and TV-B-Gone’s due to interference.
• In five years, someone will claim that the device causes cancer of the hand.
• The first TV-B-Gone lawsuit should arrive sooner than you’ll be able to purchase one of the devices.

Interesting news in Canadian politics has surfaced late yesterday. According to excerpts from the upcoming book “Worth Fighting For” received anonymously by Broadcast News, Prime Minister Paul Martin apparently wanted to scrap the Canada Health Act when he was a deficit-fighting finance minister.

What is the Canada Health Act? According to the Canadian Government’s website, “the Canada Health Act is Canada’s federal health insurance legislation. The Canada Health Act establishes criteria and conditions related to insured health care services and extended health care services that the provinces and territories must meet in order to receive the full federal cash contribution under the Canada Health and Social Transfer (CHST).”

The book, which is to be released on October 26th, is written by Sheila Copps, who was dropped from government when Martin became leader of the Liberals. Apparently the book reveals that Martin wanted to replace the health act with something more flexible. Copps on the other hand, felt that it was political dynamite to breach what she calls the sanctity of medicare.

Unfortunately, as I have not read the book, I don’t know any other details. What I do know is that every story has two sides, and perhaps Martin had a plan for something more flexible that would still retain the “sanctity of medicare”. I don’t think any politician in Canada would dare get rid of medicare altogether.

So that makes me wonder. If Copps really has something that would destroy Martin, why not get it out there during the campaigning for the last election? Why would she wait until now? And if she doesn’t have anything that damning, why mention it at all?

Tonight we posted the first episode of our newest show, called Blogoversial. Basically it is a current events or hot topics show. The spin is that we discuss the topic using posts from around the blogosphere. So write a good post on a hot topic and you might be featured in our show!

The first episode is entitled Blogoversial: NHL Lockout. Andrew, Megan and I take a look at some posts from around the blogosphere, and we check in with Sue MacDonald at BlogPulse to get a better idea of what bloggers are posting.

Give it a listen, and let us know what you think!

Apparently, it happens:

Mr Buchanan told the Australasian Sleep Association how a patient of his, who was a respectable middle-aged woman with a steady partner, would leave the house while sleepwalking and have sex with strangers. The woman was totally unaware of her double life until her partner became suspicious and found her engaged in the act. “He was aware of some sleepwalking and there was circumstantial evidence, including the unexplained presence of condoms around the house,” Mr Buchanan told the conference.

Kinda scary if you ask me! I wonder if you would still seek out only individuals you would be attracted to when awake?

Read: Boing Boing

Ever install a new version of a program, only to realize that you like the old one better? A lot of times, the old versions are not available after a newer one has been released. Today I came across OldVersion.com, which solves exactly this problem for many of the most popular utilities and small applications. Check it out!