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Happy Canada Day!!!
Wow. Soooooo busy lately! Don’t worry, I’m still alive. New posts coming soon.
But in the meantime, here is a great Canada Day song that I guarantee you will watch more than once!
My Adventures at the Calgary Comic Expo
Despite being a lifetime nerd, I have never been to a sci-fi or comic book convention!
I know, I know. The lack of nerd cred on my part is somewhat disheartening.
But don’t worry, because my Comic expo virginity has now been taken by the Calgary Comic Expo.
I had a really great time. I got to meet some great people, saw some live StarCraft action, and even got a chance to hear William Shatner speak and take some questions from the audience.
What blew me away most though were the costumes. The amount of work that must go into some of them was astounding. Here are a few samples:
Wolverine and...someone I recognize but can't remember the name.
The contact lenses show a nice level of dedication to the costume.
X-Men. And woman. X-People I suppose.
Bob from ReBoot. I was impressed at the number of ReBoot fans.
Classic
Dude behind him is checking out his ass, I think.
The hands look a little big to me.
Thundercats! Awesome!
Elektra, some dude, and Poison Ivy.
The one on the right is a different shade of green. Maybe she was sick?
Creepy. Creepy/Awesome.
William Shatner also gave a talk to a crowd of about 4000. He was made an honorary Calgarian by the Mayor of Calgary, and took some audience questions.
One such question went like this:
Girl: This question is from my Dad. What was it like being on ‘Star Trek’?
Shatner: Tell your dad that I was cleaning green paint off myself every night!
Crowd: *Applause*
He was actually a very funny guy and very entertaining.
I also found out that DC comics is rebooting all of its stories, so maybe I can start reading comic books and actually know whats going on!
All in all, a great time and lots of great people. I’ll be back again next year!
Bruins Win, Vancouver Riots, Rest of Canada Vomits
Vancouver riots from June 15, 2011. Via Mashable.
It was a sad scene in Vancouver last night.
After a disappointing loss to the Bruins, the Vancouver Canucks lost in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals.
The Boston Bruins took home the most awesome of sports trophies, and y’know what? They deserved it.
The Canucks showed throughout the series that they lacked the grit, determination and heart required to be NHL Champions.
Boston, on the other hand, fought back from a 2 game deficit to win in Game 7. Good for them.
But the Bruins excellent play was overshadowed by the embarrassing display of some Canucks fans after the game.
As the rest of Canada watched, all we could do was shake our heads.
It is unfair to blame the entire city of Vancouver for the behaviour of a small number of ass-holes, but the blemish to Canada’s pride will not go away soon.
I’m ashamed that the people in these videos call themselves “Canadian”. The Stanley Cup Finals is when Canada is supposed to shine. It is when our nation and our game gets attention on a world-wide stage.
Instead, drunken losers have stolen the spotlight by acting like overgrown children playing with fire.
The situation is made worse by the fact many people have been hurt. Lacerations and even stabbings have been reported at the local hospital, further making these events a giant hit to our national pride.
But as I said, it is important not to blame an entire city for the actions of a relative few. In fact, a Facebook group called ‘Post-Riot Cleanup – Let’s Help Vancouver‘ currently has over 14,000 members.
So it is a dark day for Canadians. We try so hard to live up to our reputations of polite, mild-mannered yet fun-loving people. And although we do love beer and hijinx as much as the next guy, we rarely act like total morons like those rioters in Vancouver.
But on the bright side, the next hockey season is less than 4 months away :)
Moon Motion Movie Madness!
Alliteration is fun.
Anywhooo…a lot of people know that only one side of the moon faces the Earth. That is because the moon rotates on its axis at roughly the same rate that it orbits the Earth.
The side of the moon which faces away from the Earth is commonly referred to as the Dark Side of the Moon (also one of the best album’s of all time).
In actuality, through the course of a year we see about 59% of the Moon’s surface. That is because the moon tilts and wobbles a bit, so sometimes we get a little more moon for our buck.
This video by the Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio shows one whole year of moon motion in a 2.5 minute time lapse video.
Pretty cool stuff!
Also, don’t forget to check out today’s Google Doodle, which is a nifty little animation showing today’s total lunar eclipse.
Astronomy Headline #Fail!
The story fails to mention that ALL total lunar eclipses occur during a full moon.
Thanks to Phil Plait for pointing this out, further proving the usefulness of Twitter.
Does TV Watching Make You Sick? Not Exactly…
Beware! It might kill you! Photo Credit: Istvan Takacs
I’m a little annoyed with some headlines hitting a few news websites today:
TV Watching Raises Risk of Health problems, dying young
Excess TV time linked to early death
TV time tied to death, diabetes risk
The stories are talking about a study getting published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The study is a meta-analysis of 8 studies over the past 40 years which look at the correlation between watching television and risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
The study found, unsurprisingly, that increased television watching was correlated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
The pooled relative risks per 2 hours of TV viewing per day were 1.20 (95% CI, 1.14-1.27) for type 2 diabetes, 1.15 (95% CI, 1.06-1.23) for fatal or nonfatal cardiovascular disease, and 1.13 (95% CI, 1.07-1.18) for all-cause mortality.
In layman’s terms, this means that for each 2 hours of television watched per day, risk of type 2 diabetes increased by about 20%, risk of developing fatal or non-fatal heart disease increased by about 15%, and risk of dying of any cause increased by about 13%.
So does watching TV make you sick? Not exactly.
I’m not doubting the results of the study, though they should be taken with the usual grain of salt that should be taken with all epidemiological studies.
They are observational studies, not controlled studies in a lab. There are many variables which can influence the results.
That being said, the results of the study are not surprising and I have every confidence that there is truth in there.
But the media takes these types of studies, gives them a sensationalized headline and doesn’t put them in the proper context.
Watching TV does not make you sick; being lazy makes you sick. What this study is really showing is that watching TV correlates to a lazy lifestyle.
There’s nothing wrong with kicking back and watching some Star Trek reruns or even *groan* Dancing with the Stars. Just make sure you go out for a jog now and then. Or play some basketball. Or just do anything that isn’t sitting around and being lazy!
I’m sure snacking is a big factor in the results of this study as well. No doubt increased time in front of the TV leads to eating more unhealthy foods.
But if you sit in front of the tube and eat baby carrots or oatmeal, then you are probably not at a huge risk of developing heart disease or diabetes.
So if you watch a lot of TV, you’re not necessarily going to die young because TV doesn’t make you sick.
But if you eat a lot of junk food and don’t exercise, then you might die young. But then again, THAT’S not exactly news, is it?
The Guild = Awesome
So I’m a little bit late getting on board with this show, but I’ve become addicted to watching ‘The Guild’, a web series about a group of WoW addicted nerds trying to get along in the real world.
Coincidentally, Felicia Day is going to be at the Calgary Comic Expo next weekend. Should I go and tell her I’ve developed a nerd-crush on her?
More likely I’ll show up and act really awkward, cause y’know, I’m a nerd and all.
Apple’s New Headquarters; So…Where Do I Apply?
Steve Jobs appeared before the city council of Cupertino to announce the construction of a new Apple “campus”.
On 150 acres of land, Jobs proposes to build a large, circular building which will hold 12,000 employees.
Screenshot of Jobs' presentation depicting the proposed spaceship...I mean, building.
In addition to the building, Jobs wants to put most of the parking underground so that the area can be completely landscaped, nearly doubling the number of trees on the property.
The diameter of the…thing, will rival the size of the Pentagon, as can be seen in this graphic from Mercury News:
Whether or not the new spacecraft/donut/hoola-hoop will be able to run Flash, remains to be seen.
Still though, how frakkin’ cool is THAT???
“If Undergrads Are Our Future, We’re All Doomed!”
I love the comics strip “Piled Higher and Deeper”
It depicts the trials and tribulations of being a graduate student. Even though I ditched the life of a grad student after my masters, I can still remember the horrors I experienced. And now, A MOVIE!
Is this “squee” worthy? I think so… SQUEEEEEEE!
A Quantum of Knowledge 