Canada’s parliamentary restaurant will be serving seal meat on Wednesday in a gesture of defiance aimed at a European Union ban on imports of seal products.

Canada’s Conservative government says it will fight the EU ban, which was imposed last July on the grounds that the annual seal hunt off the east coast was cruel and inhumane.

A dish of double-smoked bacon-wrapped seal loin in a port reduction will be on the menu on Wednesday, the office of Senator Celine Hervieux-Payette said on Monday.

“All political parties will have the opportunity to demonstrate to the international community the solidarity of the Canadian Parliament behind those who earn a living from the seal hunt,” she said in a statement.

Ottawa says the hunt — which takes place in March and April — provides valuable income for Atlantic fishing communities. The seals are either shot or hit over the head with a spiked club called a hakapik.

An aide to Hervieux-Payette said that, depending on supplies, seal meat could be available once a week when in season.

SOURCE: Reuters.com

Not every moment of movie genius is written down in the script. Take this collection of ad-libs and off-script moments, for instance…

Sometimes, the genius moments of a film weren’t in the script, and happened in an off-the-cuff moment on the shoot itself. Here are 10 examples of when an ad-lib or off-script moment went very, very right…

Taxi Driver: “You talkin’ to me?”
(Martin Scorsese, 1976)

Arguably the most famous cinematic quote of all time, “You talkin’ to me?” was actually improvised. Even though the film’s screenplay was written by the brilliant Paul Schrader (who also wrote the adapted screenplay for Scorsese’s Raging Bull), it’s this line which has gone down in the annals of pop culture history.

Director Martin Scorsese has always encouraged Robert De Niro’s creativity, proving that actors can contribute more than just their performance, and in this instance it paid off.

In the original script Schrader had simply written “Bickle speaks to himself in the mirror.” Alone in his grubby apartment, De Niro’s loner sociopath character Travis Bickle is planning to shoot a politician. In the mirror he is practising with the sleeve-holster he made for his gun. Catching his reflection, he postures, repeating “You talkin’ to me?” before whipping out his gun and taking aim. It is a moment of stunning personal insight into a character as flawed, intriguing and complex as you will ever see on the big screen.

The Shining “Heeeeeere’s Johnny!”
(Stanley Kubrick, 1980)

Adapted from the Stephen King novel of the same name, The Shining is one of Kubrick’s best known and most commercially successful films. The shoot was a famously difficult one, as Kubrick was notorious for being a controlling, sometimes cruel, filmmaker.

It’s common knowledge that the fear displayed by Shelley Duval (playing Wendy Torrance) in the film was genuine. Kubrick would scream and shout at her, and allegedly even slapped her across the face during one take. So the spooky, tense and horrifying atmosphere we see on screen is often authentic, and perhaps inspired Jack Nicholson to ad-lib one of his most famous lines.

Jack Torrance (Nicholson’s character) slowly loses his mind when stationed to mind a remote hotel with his wife and little boy. At a pinnacle stage in the narrative, he chases his wife (Duval) through the hotel with an axe. She locks herself in a bathroom, and when Torrance chops through the door, he pokes his demented face through the hole and wails, “Heeeeeere’s Johnny!”

Nicholson was mimicking the catchphrase used by Ed McMahon to introduce Johnny Carson on The Johnny Carson Show (a hugely popular show at the time). It is this juxtaposition, in terms of connotation and context, that gives it such a magnificently dark, creepy, yet disturbingly humorous, effect.

Despite the screenplay being adapted from a book by one of the best horror novelists of all time, “Heeeeeere’s Johnny!” is certainly the most easily remembered line from this uber-stylish classic.

Indiana Jones And The Raiders Of The Lost Ark: Jones shoots the swordsman
(Steven Spielberg, 1981)

The story behind this scene is almost as famous as the scene itself. Harrison Ford, playing our protagonist explorer Indie Jones, got a bad case of food poisoning and dysentery. He was due to shoot a big fight scene with a skilled swordsman the next day. Not able to take on the action, Ford suggested to Spielberg that he simply shoot the over-zealous antagonist, in a quip that sums up the ethos and feel of Jones’ character perfectly.

So, following an arduous journey through the streets of Egypt, the crowd parts to reveal a sinister, threatening swordsman dressed in black. He faces Jones, but straight after he cuts some impressive pre-fight moves in an attempt to intimidate his opponent, Jones draws and shoots him down in one. And off-script movie magic is made.

Blade Runner: Roy Batty’s final soliloquy
(Ridley Scott, 1982)

With Harrison Ford in the lead again (this time as Rick Deckard) we come to Ridley Scott’s revered sci-fi epic Blade Runner. The screenplay was based on the Philip K. Dick novel Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?.

Hollywood legend has it that Martin Scorsese was originally interested in the adaptation but never optioned it. That would have been interesting. But we all love Scott’s dark, moody, original and highly influential shoot which launched a thousand mimics. And we especially love the Aryan, cold, violent Roy Batty, the perfect replicant (android).

Played fantastically by Rutger Hauer, Batty is LAPD Officer Deckard’s nemesis. In the end Batty’s life is drawing to a close, and like so much in the film, it makes a social comment on all kinds of issues.

So, sitting on a rooftop in the pouring rain Hauer takes the first few lines from David Peoples’ script and adds a couple of very memorable closing lines as his character’s last words. “I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time. Like tears in the rain. Time to die.”

Mad to think Bladerunner is set in 2019. Doubt we’ll have such perfect androids in only ten years’ time.

The Third Man: Lime’s cuckoo clock maxim
(Carol Reed, 1949)

Carol Reed’s The Third Man is a film that constantly appears on ‘best film’ lists. It’s a beautifully shot and scripted testament to the art of film noir, starring notorious movie heavyweight Orson Welles. It also has one of the most ferociously famous theme tunes in film history (even if it doesn’t come to mind right now, you do know it).

One of its most memorable moments comes when Harry Lime (Welles) is trying to convince his old friend Holly Martins (Joseph Cotton) to join him in some dubious dealings. He’s explaining that to make omelettes you need to break eggs.

Illustrating Welles’ absolute cinematic brilliance, he includes the cuckoo line. It was not part of the original screenplay, adapted from a novel by reputable writer Graham Greene, but is perhaps the best known quote of the film: “In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder, bloodshed. They produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love, five hundred years of democracy and peace. And what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.”

Midnight Cowboy: “I’m walkin’ here!”
(John Schlesinger, 1969)

Okay, it’s been disputed as to whether this was off-script or not. But it’s not past the methodical Dustin Hoffman to ad-lib such a brilliant line.

Midnight Cowboy won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director (John Schlesinger) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Waldo Salt). It’s the only X-rated film to have won any Oscars, and the only other X-rated nomination in history was Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange (1971).

There is a scene in which Hoffman’s unforgettable ‘Ratso’ Rizzo is walking our midnight cowboy Joe Buck (played by a young Jon Voight) through the streets of New York. He’s coaching him about becoming a successful stud and gigolo, and while crossing a street nearly gets hit by a yellow cab. Hoffman beats the hood with his fist and shouts, “I’m walkin’ here!” in his unique New York parlance, yhen quickly retorts to Voight, “Actually, that ain’t a bad way to pick up insurance y’know.”

“I’m walkin’ here.” is often cited as one of the world’s best movie quotes. It’s usually thought of as an improvised line, which Hoffman has claimed. And he is certainly more than capable of this kind of fleshed-out character portrayal. But producer Jermoe Hellman has always maintained that it was in the script. The romantic film buff in me likes to believe the former, but I guess we may never really know.

Dr. Strangelove, Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb: Dr. Strangelove’s sporadic involuntary Nazi salute
(Stanley Kubrick, 1964)

Apparently, so many of Sellers’ lines in Dr. Strangelove were improvised that he is often cited as an uncredited co-writer. And it is considered a study of retro-scripting, ie. when ad-libbed lines are later written into the final script. So, it’s difficult to know which one to pick, but perhaps the most ingenious and intuitive is when his title character performs sudden involuntary Nazi salutes in the company of the US military (Sellers plays three characters in total).

Dr. Strangelove is a wheelchair-bound German nuclear weapons expert, who has a past association with the Nazis. In one of the best comedic performances of all time, Sellers’ Dr. Strangelove sometimes accidentally refers to the US President as ‘Mein Fuhrer’, and strangles himself with his out-of-control right arm. This is as well as having to use his left arm to push down the Nazi salutes his right arm frequently and uncontrollably lapses into.

This was entirely Sellers’ creation. So much so, in fact, that the novel from which the film was adapted (Red Alert by Peter George) didn’t even have the character Dr. Strangelove at all. The word genius does get thrown around but, good lord, Peter Sellers really deserves the moniker.

Goodfellas: “Funny how?”
(Martin Scorsese, 1990)

Adapted from the Nicholas Pileggi book Wiseguys, the Goodfellas screenplay is not without its share of memorable moments. It is one of the best loved films of all time, and displays a darkly humorous side to the Italio-American gangster genre, largely absent in Coppola’s The Godfather series.

People always remember the crazy Joe Pesci character, Tommy DeVito, who defined and inspired a million mafia-esque archetypes. Such is the unstable and changeable world of mafia relationships that in one scene DeVito is sitting with our protagonist Henry Hill (Ray Liotta), sharing a drink and having a laugh. When Hill comments, “You’re a funny guy,” DeVito’s face turns stone cold and he replies, “What do you mean I’m a funny guy. Funny how? Funny like I’m here to amuse you?’” The entire room stops dead. A couple of wiseguys mumble, “Hey, Tommy, calm down,” as Hill looks worried and tries to explain himself.

The tension is just about to turn into what we think will be bullets, when DeVito cracks and says, “I’m just fucking with you,” and everyone laughs. With relief, might I add.

It exemplifies beautifully how crazy Pesci’s character is. His friends believe he may turn that easily, and also how volatile and suddenly hostile their world can be. It’s thought that Pesci ad-libbed quite a lot for this role and that lines such as this were often retro-scripted into the final draft of the screenplay.

Silence Of The Lambs: Hannibal’s hissing
(Johnathan Demme, 1992)

Playing one of the most iconic cinema villains ever, Sir Anthony Hopkins immortalised the cannibalistic Dr. Hannibal Lecter in this classic performance. Although he only has under twenty-five minutes of screen time, Hopkins won an Oscar for Best Actor. Jodie Foster also won for Best Actress, and the film won Best Director, Best Screenplay (Ted Tally) and Best Picture too. Not bad.

The American Film Institute named Lecter the number three screen villain ever in their top 100 in 2003, next to Norman Bates, with Darth Vader in the top spot.

Lecter is an incarcerated serial killer cannibal whom Foster’s character, FBI agent Clarice Starling, interviews to help find another murdering cannibal, still at large. All in a day’s work.

At one point Lecter tells of an unsavoury incident, describing a now-famous meal: “A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.” He then hisses and sucks at Starling in a truly revolting and disturbing manner, forever putting an entire generation off that particular varietal of wine.

Hollywood rumour says that this hissing was just a joke thrown in by Hopkins. He never intended it to be so frightening, not to mention appearing in the final cut and becoming so utterly conspicuous.

Casablanca: “Here’s looking at you, kid.”
(Michael Curtiz, 1942)

Ah, Casablanca. What can we say? If it’s not your favourite oldie, and the final scene doesn’t make you cry, then I’m sure you don’t have a reflection in a mirror. But more than the emotion of the story, the coolness of Bogie and the beauty of Ingrid Bergman, it is a technically superb and incredibly entertaining film.

Regarding the script, the famous line, “Play it again, Sam”, is not actually in the film and is probably the world’s biggest cinematic misquote. Then, to our ad-libbed moment.

During the last scene and their final interaction, Rick (Humphrey Bogart) is doing the right thing and letting Ilsa (Bergman) go. Crying, she tries to convince him to let her stay. He refuses but consoles her, saying, “Here’s looking at you, kid.” And there isn’t a dry eye in the house.

The American Film Institute often calls it one of the most memorable lines in film. It is often quoted and parodied. Yet, legend has it that this is something Bogart used to say to Bergman as he taught her to play poker in between takes on set. It was never in the original script at all.

SOURCE: Den of Geek

Look at this amazing interior designed by product design firm Nendo for a Tokyo mental health clinic. What appear to be doors are actually just wall paintings; doctors and patients enter and exit the rooms through sliding bookshelves and hidden openings in the wall.

Rather than getting patients back to a ‘zero’, a neutral starting place, the traditional model for mental health care, the clinic aims to provide patients with something extra: a further richness in their daily lives that they did not have before starting treatment. The interior design is an attempt to express this philosophy in space.

SOURCE: Boing Boing

LONDON — Hundreds of British men are risking a Valentine’s Day anticlimax for their partners by stocking up on anatomy-boosting underpants ahead of the most romantic weekend of the year.

British department store group Debenhams said Thursday it had seen a 76 percent surge in online sales of the 18 pounds-a-pair ($28) underwear in the past week.

The pants work by using a lift and hold feature at the front, like a male version of the cleavage-boosting Wonderbra.

“The briefs mean that no man ever needs to feel inadequate again on the most passionate day of the social calendar,” said Rob Faucherand, head of men’s accessories buying at Debenhams.

“However we can’t be held responsible for what happens once the pants come off,” he added.

SOURCE: Reuters

ROME — Police in Sicily have called in an international team of forensic scientists and criminologists to help solve the case of a murdered Baroness, 447 years after the crime.

The investigation in Carini — a small town near Palermo — centers on the castle where Baroness Laura Lanza was killed in 1563 with her lover Ludovico Vernagallo when they were caught in bed together.

“Justice wasn’t done back then,” said Gaetano La Fata, Mayor of Carini, who has decided to reopen the case and exhume the remains of the lovers.

“We hope that DNA tests and criminal profiling will help us discover the motive behind the crime and establish whether there was more than one assassin,” he told Reuters.

The Baroness’s father Cesare confessed to the honor killing in a letter to the king, which is currently archived in the Chiesa Madre church in Carini.

“Legend has it, however, that Cesare Lanza did not act alone, but was helped by his son-in-law, Don Vincenzo La Grua,” said the Mayor.

Rumours passed down through generations of Sicilians have it that the husband was motivated by plans to marry again. La Grua may also have feared his rival, Vernagallo, would attempt to claim financial rights for fathering children with his wife.

In reopening the ‘cold case’, La Fata has asked the local police to work together with the ICAA (International Crime Analysis Association) headed by Marco Strano, psychologist and criminologist for the Italian State Police.

“The idea for the investigation began as a joke,” Strano told Reuters. “I visited Carini in June and when I met La Fata I teased him for not having resolved the murder yet, so he challenged me to solve it.”

BLOODY HANDPRINT

“There was a trial held at the time, but though both father and son-in-law had their properties temporarily confiscated, they were soon declared innocent, probably thanks to their noble status and the legal right for fathers and husbands of adulterous women to commit honor killings,” said Strano.

It is thought the two lovers are buried in a common grave under the crypt of the Chiesa Madre church in Carini.

“If we are lucky enough to find and identify their bones, it might be possible to verify the cause of death, whether they were run through with a sword or stabbed with a dagger. If there was more than one weapon used, it’s likely there was more than one murderer.”

The team of crime analysts, made up of American and Italian experts in forensic science and criminal pathology, are in the process of making a 3D computer model of the 11th century castle, including the room overlooking the Gulf of Carini where the murder took place.

“We hope to map the killer’s path from the courtyard to the crime scene, and work out whether it’s likely there were servants in that part of the building at the time who might have seen the murderer or an accomplice,” Strano said.

The investigation coincides with a project to rebuild parts of Carini Castle that have collapsed over time. The crime scene has recently been restored. A red handprint has been painted on the wall to mark the spot where — legend has it — the struggling Baroness left a bloody imprint, which reappears every year to mark the anniversary of her murder.

Mayor La Fata hopes that the project will help unravel some of the mystery that surrounds the lovers, whose story continues to intrigue visitors and locals alike.

“Several years ago we tested areas of the castle we knew the Baroness lived in with electromagnetic field meters, and the results were very strange,” La Fata said. “In certain rooms it was as if there were ghosts in the castle, as if the murdered Baroness lives on.”

SOURCE: Reuters

LOS ANGELES — A San Fernando Valley woman who doused a bikini dancer with gasoline and set her on fire has been found guilty of aggravated mayhem and torture.

A Los Angeles jury convicted 28-year-old Rianne Theriault-Odom on Thursday on two counts but acquitted her of attempted murder. The Tarzana woman faces a possible life sentence.

The victim, Roberta Dos Santos Busby, wept as the verdict was read.

Prosecutors say the two women had been feuding when Theriault-Odom doused the 28-year-old mother of two with gasoline and set her ablaze in February 2009 at a Tarzana club.

Busby testified that she suffered burns over 40 percent of her body, spent five months in the hospital and had 30 skin grafts.

Theriault-Odom claimed someone else torched the woman.

SOURCE: FOX News

Here’s a real-life horror story: Five people have been found buried alive inside their bodies. Paralyzed by brain injuries, they lay inert for years, seemingly oblivious to the doctors and loved ones around them. Four were diagnosed as vegetative. Then a European research team scanned their brains. It turns out they’re aware; they just can’t speak or move. God knows how many more are trapped like this.

On the heels of this frightening idea comes another: The scans that exposed these patients’ thoughts could expose yours. They could read your mind. “Governments are interested in the thoughts of their citizens—whether their voting intentions or their propensities to crime,” warns Colin Blakemore, an Oxford neuroscientist. In the European scans, he sees “the possibility that brain science could bring an era of surveillance that will make the epidemic of CCTV cameras look trivial.”

Relax. The brain scans are wonderful news. The patients were trapped anyway; the scans have simply restored their ability to communicate. Better yet, that communication remains voluntary. Without the patients’ cooperation, the scans would have found nothing. That’s the most marvelous thing the scans have discovered: Human minds stripped of every other power can still control one last organ—the brain.

SOURCE: Slate.com

Despite having served for years as a distinguished Pakistani diplomat, Akbar Zeb reportedly cannot receive accreditation as Pakistan’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia. The reason, apparently, has nothing to do with his credentials, and everything to do with his name — which, in Arabic, translates to “biggest dick.”

According to this Arabic-language article in the Arab Times, Pakistan had previously floated Zeb’s name as ambassador to the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, only to have him rejected for the same reason. One can only assume that submitting Zeb’s name to a number of Arabic-speaking countries is some unique form of punishment designed by the Pakistani Foreign Ministry — or the result of a particularly egregious cockup.

SOURCE: ForeignPolicy.com

LAS VEGAS — To some men, she might seem like the perfect woman: She’s a willowy 5 feet 7 and 120 pounds. She’ll chat with you endlessly about your interests. And she’ll have sex whenever you please — as long as her battery doesn’t run out.

Meet Roxxxy, who may be the world’s most sophisticated talking female sex robot. For $7,000, she’s all yours.

“She doesn’t vacuum or cook, but she does almost everything else,” said her inventor, Douglas Hines, who unveiled Roxxxy last month at the Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Lifelike dolls, artificial sex organs and sex-chat phone lines have been keeping the lonely company for decades. But Roxxxy takes virtual companionship to a new level.

Powered by a computer under her soft silicone “skin,” she employs voice-recognition and speech-synthesis software to answer questions and carry on conversations. She even comes loaded with five distinct “personalities,” from Frigid Farrah to Wild Wendy, that can be programmed to suit customers’ preferences.

“There’s a tremendous need for this kind of product,” said Hines, a computer scientist and former Bell Labs engineer.

Roxxxy won’t be available for delivery for several months, but Hines is taking pre-orders through his Web site, TrueCompanion.com, where thousands of men have signed up.

“They’re like, ‘I can’t wait to meet her,’ ” Hines said. “It’s almost like the anticipation of a first date.”

Women have inquired about ordering a sex robot, too. Hines says a female sex therapist even contacted him about buying one for her patients.

Roxxxy has been like catnip to talk-show hosts since her debut at AEE, the largest porn-industry convention in the country. In a recent monologue, Jay Leno expressed amazement that a sex robot could carry on lifelike conversations and express realistic emotions.

“Luckily, guys,” he joked, “there’s a button that turns that off.”

SOURCE: CNN