Last weekend Halifax was overrun with the entertainment industry, in a build-up to the Juno Awards. (If you aren’t familiar with the awards, or this year’s specifics, there is lots more information available.) For me, this mostly meant that downtown was worth avoiding on Saturday because between Juno tourists and closed off streets for the red carpet shenanigans it wouldn’t… Read more →
Year: 2006
Speaking of obvious science…
I wonder if there are resources out there to help a parent raise a “media literate” (read “advertiser-proof” and “immune to image pressure”) kid? I should look during my next chunk of free time. Children’s viewing time may increase requests for advertised products Children who spend more time watching television and movies and playing video games may be more likely… Read more →
Science And The Obvious.
Popular Science has a nice round-up of ten different studies where science confirms the obvious (with a bonus page about science disproving a few bits of conventional wisdom). The ten conclusions are: Combining Drugs and Alcohol is Bad For You Gun-Toting Drivers are More Prone to Road Rage Faraway Objects Are Tougher to See The Beer-Goggle Effect is a Bona… Read more →
And we just had the Down By Law party, too…
There are a lot of MP3 blogs out there. A LOT. I don’t read too many of them on a regular basis. Mostly I just check The Hype Machine every morning to see if there’s anything that seems interesting. (I should totally stop doing that, because I keep finding things that I then have to buy.) Among the select few… Read more →
Science Fiction Authors Say Smart Things: Sagan on TV
Over on his blog science fiction writer Nick Sagan (author of fun books Idlewild, Edenborn, and forthcoming Everfree) has a post about his favourite TV shows. Now, while all five shows he lists are good shows, his numbers 5, 4, 3, and 2 would not make my list of “all time best” shows. (How can you make a list of… Read more →
Some stories just write themselves…
You know, I can’t really add anything to this. I mean, there’s something completely funny in each of the first three paragraphs of this story: Police say the Grateful Dead leader’s commode was stolen recently from a driveway along with three other toilets and a bidet. Garcia’s salmon-colored toilet was the subject of a legal battle before it was finally… Read more →
Sir Arthur C. Clarke is equally as awesome as Sir Sanford Fleming
OK, before I get on to mocking the whole Sri Lanka time change thing, let’s take a moment to enjoy what is possibly the best picture in the history of science fiction fandom: Yes, that is a picture of Sir Arthur C. Clarke wearing a t-shirt that says I INVENTED THE SATELLITE AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS LOUSY T-SHIRT.… Read more →
I Love “Overheard in New York”
How could one not? Put the feed in your aggregator. The Monkey Can Take Care of Himself Guy #1: Hey, where’s Gus? Girl: I dunno, he was smoking a cigarette and I left. Where is Gus? Guy #1: Uh oh. Guy #2: You mean you just left him to die alone? –L train Read more →
Where did he get the money?
The Guardian has an interesting story today about research into the effects of very high ecstasy use. Perhaps not surprisingly, given a guy to study who has taken over 40,000 pills in his lifetime, they find that he may have suffered some permanent damage to his ability to concentrate and to his memory. Perhaps the more surprising thing is that… Read more →
Fundamental differences
I’m not sure I can generalize this to all men and all women, but I’m sure that this will at least illustrate one of the fundamental differences between my wife and I. Were my wife to look at this: I bet her reaction would be something along the lines of a cross between “Get that away from me!” and “My… Read more →
Neologism
A lovely neologism that I had my first encounter with today: Pajamahadeen Read more →
Practical applications of fluid mechanics
We actually learned this important lesson in my undergraduate fluid mechanics class: For those of you who didn’t have the benefit of my exciting engineering education, the full technical explanation is online. Read more →
Bachelor Weekend Over: Final beers
Family is home. All is well. Apparently they are keeping me as husband and father, at least for a while longer. As for the beer sampling: Flying Dog Road Dog Porter turned out to be really rather good, and I’ll probably pick up a case for the poker tournament this weekend. Flying Dog Tire Bite Golden Ale was OK, but… Read more →
What’s the worst that could happen?
Want to know how far I’ll go for a cheap joke? One of the boards I hang out on has a game each week where you get to write up a little something in response to the topic of the week. Last week the “assignment” was to come up with a “what’s the worst that could happen” for a specified… Read more →
The glorious day has come!
Sometime this weekend a new Kleptones release made it’s way into the Intarweeb. This makes me so happy. And it’s a double album! I’ve had a chance to spin the first half, and it’s pretty awesome. I’m hoping to get a chance to check out the second half tonight. Of course it will be some time before I can determine… Read more →
