The political atmosphere in the United States is absolutely riveting. Barack Obama was recently named as the official Democratic Presidential candidate after a historic and potentially damaging race with Hillary Clinton.
If you happen to be lucky enough to have access to cable tv, you may have noticed how some of the American networks have so entertainingly covered the race. CNN has been treating it like episodes of Monday Night Football; using ridiculous graphics and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire-esque thumping music.
Many people have mentioned to me that the Canadian political landscape is baren in comparison. I tend to agree. Stephen Harper is as exciting as watching paint dry and Stephane Dion's perceived lack of a backbone and forced yelps during Question Period certainly don't add any flare. Jack Leyton and the NDP might spice it up if he could ever pick one thing to get angry about.
Although the mix of a well-spoken Obama, feisty Clinton and McCain the Vet certainly overshadows our Canadian content, something must be said for the role media coverage plays in these things. Politics with Don Newman on CBC can be exciting, but only if you're a political junkie or a nerdy current events follower like myself.
So what would happen if Canadian media outlets took a page from their cool and hip American counterparts? Perhaps it would spark something from the minute level of fuel coming off the Canadian politicians or it could make a mockery of what traditional and serious politics is all about. The worst outcome would be some kind of Canadianized hybrid. From a historical perspective, this could suck. Just look at Canadian Idol.
One more thought to consider. When watching CNN or Fox or NBC for coverage of the Presidential race, check out who the commercials are coming from. You'll notice that the American Coalition for Clean Coal and ExxonMobil are regulars during the CNN breaks. And they're both spouting their dismissive and vague environmental messages. Keep yourselves aware; those ads are crap.
I suppose one advantage of keeping our political media coverage relatively mundane will be the prevention of corporatizing the system to the same degree experienced by our neighbours to the south. After all, democracy wasn't created to make politics "cool".
On another note...Go Pens!!!
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Friday, April 4, 2008
Recreating creation...
Global warming, take a seat. The world may end much sooner than we think.
Over at CERN, 5000 of the world's top physicists and engineers have been working on creating the largest partcile accelerator in the world. Spanning nearly 24 km, two countries and coming in at a whopping $8 billion, the Franco-Swiss CERN accelerator is giving these hopeful scientists the chance to discover some of the mysteries of the universe.
I'm not going to pretend that I know what it is that these guys are looking for, but the Higgs-Boson sounds kind of important. Apparently, if they discover this particle then they'll unlock some truths to the universe. That sounds kind of cool. The process will essentially involve speeding up particles (protons? I don't know) so fast that when they collide, they produce effects similar to a mini-Big Bang. Sweet. Even cooler.
But then it gets kind of frightening. The physicists have openly admitted that there is a chance that the process could create a small black hole that would eat up the Earth and kill us all; albeit an incredibly small chance. That would suck.
Even two Hawaiians have submitted for a restraining order against CERN in order to shut down the project. I guess those bozos don't want to see the eradication of the human species for the sake of science. Lame.
My cousin recently made a very good point. What if we do create a black hole and destroy the universe? Would that not be the epitome of human power? We are so powerful that we not only destroy ourselves, but also the entire universe. We are the shit.
And what about aliens? Some have said that this is the greatest test of the theory of extraterrestrial intelligent life in the universe. If aliens know we're doing this, wouldn't they want to come down and stop us?
While I don't expect the universe to end, I would recommend spending some time with your loved ones throughout the summer when the project is set to start...because you never know.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/29/science/29collider.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Over at CERN, 5000 of the world's top physicists and engineers have been working on creating the largest partcile accelerator in the world. Spanning nearly 24 km, two countries and coming in at a whopping $8 billion, the Franco-Swiss CERN accelerator is giving these hopeful scientists the chance to discover some of the mysteries of the universe.
I'm not going to pretend that I know what it is that these guys are looking for, but the Higgs-Boson sounds kind of important. Apparently, if they discover this particle then they'll unlock some truths to the universe. That sounds kind of cool. The process will essentially involve speeding up particles (protons? I don't know) so fast that when they collide, they produce effects similar to a mini-Big Bang. Sweet. Even cooler.
But then it gets kind of frightening. The physicists have openly admitted that there is a chance that the process could create a small black hole that would eat up the Earth and kill us all; albeit an incredibly small chance. That would suck.
Even two Hawaiians have submitted for a restraining order against CERN in order to shut down the project. I guess those bozos don't want to see the eradication of the human species for the sake of science. Lame.
My cousin recently made a very good point. What if we do create a black hole and destroy the universe? Would that not be the epitome of human power? We are so powerful that we not only destroy ourselves, but also the entire universe. We are the shit.
And what about aliens? Some have said that this is the greatest test of the theory of extraterrestrial intelligent life in the universe. If aliens know we're doing this, wouldn't they want to come down and stop us?
While I don't expect the universe to end, I would recommend spending some time with your loved ones throughout the summer when the project is set to start...because you never know.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/29/science/29collider.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Monday, March 24, 2008
Pondering...
Why is it that we say we're taking a dump, when it's quite clear that we solely intend on leaving one behind?
Just a thought.
Just a thought.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Come on Tim...
I was sure I was going to win the brand spankin' new Toyota Matrix, or maybe even that boat. Hell, I would've been happy to win a donut; but sadly I got the ever so defeating "Please Try Again".
Tim Horton's Rrrrrrrrrrrroooooollllllll up the Rrrrriiiiim to Win (RRW) is back on and it means people are craving to settle their caffeine addictions at an even more remarkable pace than usual. I know Tim Horton's is known for having ridiculously long lineups at those peak hours of the day, but RRW fever has people lining up at all hours of the day. The Tim Horton's near our university library is as popular as ever, but it is here where I find my qualm.
During RRW season, Tim Horton's insists on giving customers a second cup with their hot drink purchase; one normal cup, the other an RRW cup. They also tend to do this from time to time during non-RRW season, but right now it is far more apparent that the customer has two cups. Tim Horton's will claim that this is to protect the customer from the dangers of the "very hot" beverage, which may be important to some. My problem is that they use a second cup to do this.
If you didn't know, Tim Horton's hot drinks cups are non-recyclable, which in this day and age is becoming quite the no-no. So rather than giving you something to protect your hands from the drink that can be recycled, they give you a second wasteful cup. Come on Tim, step it up. Even Starbucks gives out those little cardboard sleeves, which do tend to work quite nicely.
And one other thing: stop with those stupid little in-house ads about being environmentally aware. Giving people re-usable coffee mugs rather than 'to-go' cups when they're drinking in the restaurant is nothing new; look at every other non-chain coffee shop in the world. So stop patting yourselves on the back for being environmentally conscious; you're just making fools of yourselves.
Should we not have been able to use of technological praless to finally design a coffee cup that doesn't burn our fingers off?
Tim Horton's Rrrrrrrrrrrroooooollllllll up the Rrrrriiiiim to Win (RRW) is back on and it means people are craving to settle their caffeine addictions at an even more remarkable pace than usual. I know Tim Horton's is known for having ridiculously long lineups at those peak hours of the day, but RRW fever has people lining up at all hours of the day. The Tim Horton's near our university library is as popular as ever, but it is here where I find my qualm.
During RRW season, Tim Horton's insists on giving customers a second cup with their hot drink purchase; one normal cup, the other an RRW cup. They also tend to do this from time to time during non-RRW season, but right now it is far more apparent that the customer has two cups. Tim Horton's will claim that this is to protect the customer from the dangers of the "very hot" beverage, which may be important to some. My problem is that they use a second cup to do this.
If you didn't know, Tim Horton's hot drinks cups are non-recyclable, which in this day and age is becoming quite the no-no. So rather than giving you something to protect your hands from the drink that can be recycled, they give you a second wasteful cup. Come on Tim, step it up. Even Starbucks gives out those little cardboard sleeves, which do tend to work quite nicely.
And one other thing: stop with those stupid little in-house ads about being environmentally aware. Giving people re-usable coffee mugs rather than 'to-go' cups when they're drinking in the restaurant is nothing new; look at every other non-chain coffee shop in the world. So stop patting yourselves on the back for being environmentally conscious; you're just making fools of yourselves.
Should we not have been able to use of technological praless to finally design a coffee cup that doesn't burn our fingers off?
Friday, March 7, 2008
Taking the Chef Home...
Now that I live away from home, I have been forced to learn how to cook on my own. In the past year and a half I've managed to improve my cooking skills drastically. Now I find myself glued to the Food Network whenever I get a chance.
One show that has grabbed me is Take Home Chef. The premise is simple. A good-looking Australian chef named Curtis shows up at the supermarket and finds an unassuming and lone shopper, offers to cook a gourmet dinner for them and their partner and foot the bill for the groceries. Pretty sweet eh? Only problem is, the unassuming shopper is always a young, attractive woman. Sure it looks good on TV, but it means that he'll never randomly show up at my Price Chopper and fix me and my roomate (maybe even some lucky lady) some delicious meal. Maybe one day...
Another show is Iron Chef: America. I used to watch the Japanese version all the time, which offered great looking dishes, but its main catching point was the ridiculous dubbing and translation offered for us ol' English-speaking folk reminiscent of 1970s Kung-Fu movies and the classic Godzilla series. The epic battles that occured in Kitchen Stadium were overseen by the Chairman, giving out amazing 'secret ingredients'. But the American version is nothing like the original. Sure, the food looks good, but it's not the same. Although the episode where the secret ingredient was Breakfast was pretty sweet.
One show that has grabbed me is Take Home Chef. The premise is simple. A good-looking Australian chef named Curtis shows up at the supermarket and finds an unassuming and lone shopper, offers to cook a gourmet dinner for them and their partner and foot the bill for the groceries. Pretty sweet eh? Only problem is, the unassuming shopper is always a young, attractive woman. Sure it looks good on TV, but it means that he'll never randomly show up at my Price Chopper and fix me and my roomate (maybe even some lucky lady) some delicious meal. Maybe one day...
Another show is Iron Chef: America. I used to watch the Japanese version all the time, which offered great looking dishes, but its main catching point was the ridiculous dubbing and translation offered for us ol' English-speaking folk reminiscent of 1970s Kung-Fu movies and the classic Godzilla series. The epic battles that occured in Kitchen Stadium were overseen by the Chairman, giving out amazing 'secret ingredients'. But the American version is nothing like the original. Sure, the food looks good, but it's not the same. Although the episode where the secret ingredient was Breakfast was pretty sweet.
It's all in the urine...
Our volleyball team recently finished our season after a proud finish at the Provincial Championships. As we made our way to the tournament on our washroomless bus, much of our discussion about the tournament centred around the issue of drug testing, and much of it had a relatively worrisome tone.
To my knowledge no one on our team uses steroids or Human Growth Hormone or any other performance-enhancing drug, and if they are, it certainly doesn't show. You would think that for this reason our team would have nothing to fear if we were approached by a doping official during one of their random drug tests. But this is not the case.
The league that we play under has an extensive list of prohibited substances, one of them being marijuana. This drug, which contrary to the implications made by the movie How High, is in no way performance-enhancing and is actually quite detrimental to one's performance, especially in a sport like volleyball.
Regardless, pot could very well act as our team's kryptonite. There is a good chance that if a member of our team were to be tested, they could test positive for pot. I understand how using performance-enhancing drugs should be monitored by an athletic league that wishes to ensure equality on the playing field, but should their jurisdiction be extended to a substance that is rivalled if not exceeded in potency by alcohol?
I realize that marijuana has harmful effects and poses several risks to the user, which include health risks, risk to schooling, jobs and one's career. But the people I know that use dope are aware of these risks and have more to lose than being kicked off a sports team.
Using marijuana is not necessarily the right thing, but it's also not necessarily the wrong thing. It may be illegal under Canadian law, but so is underage drinking, and both are enforced by the police. But the league doesn't check for underage alcohol use.
Should an athletic league really have the authority to extend its rules to something like marijuana?
To my knowledge no one on our team uses steroids or Human Growth Hormone or any other performance-enhancing drug, and if they are, it certainly doesn't show. You would think that for this reason our team would have nothing to fear if we were approached by a doping official during one of their random drug tests. But this is not the case.
The league that we play under has an extensive list of prohibited substances, one of them being marijuana. This drug, which contrary to the implications made by the movie How High, is in no way performance-enhancing and is actually quite detrimental to one's performance, especially in a sport like volleyball.
Regardless, pot could very well act as our team's kryptonite. There is a good chance that if a member of our team were to be tested, they could test positive for pot. I understand how using performance-enhancing drugs should be monitored by an athletic league that wishes to ensure equality on the playing field, but should their jurisdiction be extended to a substance that is rivalled if not exceeded in potency by alcohol?
I realize that marijuana has harmful effects and poses several risks to the user, which include health risks, risk to schooling, jobs and one's career. But the people I know that use dope are aware of these risks and have more to lose than being kicked off a sports team.
Using marijuana is not necessarily the right thing, but it's also not necessarily the wrong thing. It may be illegal under Canadian law, but so is underage drinking, and both are enforced by the police. But the league doesn't check for underage alcohol use.
Should an athletic league really have the authority to extend its rules to something like marijuana?
Thursday, February 14, 2008
A learning experience...
A few weeks ago the hard drive on my laptop failed for the second time in nearly four months. This is a little too frequent for my liking. While the first failure didn't surprise me too much (hard drives die from time to time), the second came out of nowhere.
After spending a few days taking it to different places to get repaired and hours on the phone with Best Buy to try to find out how they would pay for it (it's on warranty with them), I finally came across a place that would be suitable under Best Buy's little deal. There is no Best Buy in town, and only one place in town was accredited by them to fix my computer.
After waiting a few weeks to get it repaired, the computer guys told me that the probable cause for the hard drive failing was that Best Buy had given me a 'refurbished' (used and repaired) hard drive when my first one failed in September. This is pretty bothersome. Luckily these new guys were smart enough to give me a brand new one.
I learned two valuable lessons from this experience. The first: When buying a new computer, check to see if there is a similar store in your place of residence to make sure you don't have to go through all these annoying phone calls and store visits.
The second: Ask Best Buy (or any company really) to replace any failed parts with brand new parts rather than shabby, cost-cutting, used parts that have a much higher probability of failure.
After spending a few days taking it to different places to get repaired and hours on the phone with Best Buy to try to find out how they would pay for it (it's on warranty with them), I finally came across a place that would be suitable under Best Buy's little deal. There is no Best Buy in town, and only one place in town was accredited by them to fix my computer.
After waiting a few weeks to get it repaired, the computer guys told me that the probable cause for the hard drive failing was that Best Buy had given me a 'refurbished' (used and repaired) hard drive when my first one failed in September. This is pretty bothersome. Luckily these new guys were smart enough to give me a brand new one.
I learned two valuable lessons from this experience. The first: When buying a new computer, check to see if there is a similar store in your place of residence to make sure you don't have to go through all these annoying phone calls and store visits.
The second: Ask Best Buy (or any company really) to replace any failed parts with brand new parts rather than shabby, cost-cutting, used parts that have a much higher probability of failure.
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