Most of the email I receive is spam. I haven’t done the calculations recently, but somewhere between 60% and 90% of the email I receive at my Pinetree account is spam. Hardly surprising given that I’ve been using the same address since the very early 90s. In fact, I can remember thinking “Oh, no good can come of this” when I received my very first piece of spam.

Now, the latest form of spam seems to be posting ads in the comments associated with blog entries. I happened to notice one in my blog this evening and while cleaning it up found that there were about 50 more advertising online casinos and various forms of porn.

Spammers are some of the most unethical, unscrupulous people on the planet. Why they think they can advertise their junk wherever they want without any concern for whether it’s appropriate or legal or the costs they impose on others because of their spam is beyond me. I will never patronize any company or organization that spams or allows others to use their facilities to spam. I don’t care what the product is: I won’t buy it. Ever.

As you may know, much of North America had the opportunity to view the last total lunar eclipse (anywhere) until March 3rd, 2007. I headed over to Darin’s and observed the eclipse with his telescope and high-power binoculars along with Beth, his wife. Very impressive! If you missed it, then you definitely have to mark the 2007 one on your calendar — it’s a Saturday.
If you want to see the calendar of lunar eclipses from now until 2010, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre has one.

I took Friday off and went diving with my friend Bruce. He’s got a boat just downstream of Gananoque. We headed to Georgina Island, one of the islands in Thousand Islands National Park. It’s located underneath the Ivy Lea Bridge.
We tied up at the dock on the south side of the island and set up our gear. The entry was right off the dock — no scuba hiking this time. The first dive, we swam upstream towards the bridge and then drifted back in the current for a bit. I found a pair of pliars in good condition and took some pictures with my new underwater camera. (It’s a neat piece of kit — the housing is reusable while the camera inside is a disposable camera.)

The second dive we headed downstream and across the channel. Saw lots of fish on this dive, including a walleye. Also saw the usual assortment of bottles people dropped their boats, a chair (not too unusual) and a shopping cart (haven’t figured that one out yet).

Both dives were about 30 minutes. Max depth was about 60′ on the first and 50′ on the second. The water was about 60F, which is nice to dive in.

Snagged my wetsuit on something on the first dive so I’m going to have to get it fixed. Grr.

The BBC has an article about using electro-shock therapy on coral.

As some people know, I hit a deer a few years ago in Virginia. The deer I hit was not as fortunate as this one.

I bet the conversation went something like this:
“Hey, Bob, you know you have a deer stuck to your bumper, eh?”
“Pfft… nice try, Simon.”
“Uh, no, seriously, Bob.”
“Riiight. Bit early to have gone to the pu…b”
“…”
“Erm. Say, Simon… It appears there’s a deer stuck to my bumper.”

Saw this scrolling by on my BBC Ticker: >Clicky<

While reading someone’s blog, I came across a rant they’d written about a new rule in the US with respect to flight training. Apparently, if you’re an alien (from the United States’ point of view) and you want to learn to fly, you will find yourself with tons of red tape.

I guess in a post-9/11 world, we shouldn’t be surprised by stuff like this, but you would think that it would be getting better rather than worse. Makes you wonder if the terrorists haven’t already won, eh?