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Olympic medals per capita

My cousin just won her third and final gold medal on the Canadian women’s hockey team (woo!), so I was poking around the olympics today for snippets.  I found an interesting analysis by Richard Florida in The Atlantic calculating a Winter Olympic Medals Per Capita metric.

I certainly expected such a ranking to drop the U.S. a fair amount, but was surprised to see how far Canada drops, too.  Norway just dominates, roughly doubling the second-placed competitor in both the 2010 and all-history rankings.  (Now I know where to go skiing next!)

What also really struck me is how much of the map isn’t coloured in.  Most of the world really couldn’t give a flying fig about the winter olympics, y’know?

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By ert
February 26, 2010

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Well, *that* was cool

This week we went to chilly Florida, where we got to see the last (scheduled) nighttime Space Shuttle launch.

The first night we were treated to a few of the wee hours hanging out in Space View park, freezing along with a few hundred other wanna-sees.  As the launch window approached our few hundred friends ballooned to a few thousand, all present to share the launch scrubbing.  Space shuttles fear clouds.

The second night we brilliantly reserved a walking-distance hotel, allowing us to sleep until the magic hour of 3am and then stumble down the street to a more intimate gathering near a local pump station of some variety.  A 4 ish year old was complaining about being hauled out of bed to sit in the cold, giving voice to everyone’s inner thoughts.  And then there was a mumbled new-year’s-eve-esque countdown among the people who actually had access to inside information.  My iPhone’s data connection had long ago been overwhelmed by everyone sharing the local cell tower.

I had already digested the idea that I’d be going to see a cool significant historic event, but somehow I hadn’t really processed the idea that I’d be seeing the biggest fireworks show that I’ve ever attended.  Four million pounds of fuel, give-or-take, 95% of what’s on the launchpad.

So my new friends finish the countdown, and someone lights the wick.  And it’s suddenly daylight.  Several people, myself included, are unable to resist saying “wow” aloud.  Repeatedly.

A while later, the sound arrives.  And gets louder.  And louder.  Before the peak I start getting worried that the sound is going to hurt, but it peaks well below there.  Still, I figure the whole Florida Atlantic coast is awake at this point.

Before and after pictures below.  You’ve got four more chances.

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By ert
February 11, 2010

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The bad old days

Listening to NPR’s 50 Great Voices this morning, and one interviewee’s description of Ahmad Zahir as a great voice because he reminded people of the “good old days” of the 1970s, I had a rapid-fire barrage of impressions.  ”Good old days?  1970s?  Rising crime?  Stagflation?  Watergate?  Vietmam?  Oil shocks?  Are you remembering the same 1970s as I am?”

Of course he wasn’t, he was remembering the Afghan 1970s, and this was the first time I considered that Afghanistan probably indeed remembers the 1970s comparatively as the golden years before things seriously went downhill.

Really, I should associate the 1970s with Pierre Trudeau and Tom Baker, which have good associations in my mind, but years of steeping myself in American views of…well, everything…has left me with a pervasive Hollywood dull colour rear-view of the 1970s.  I find myself wondering if any American thinks of the 1970s as the “good old days.”

Which then led me to wonder if anyone will think of the naughts as the good old days.  I got married, and I suppose there’s some Web 2.0 fans and Google employees who also have some fond memories of the last decade, but from a larger perspective don’t we really all want to forget that it ever happened?

I mean, they even cancelled Firefly.

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By ert
February 1, 2010

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Wonderflonium’s avatar is unobtanium

A few years ago I read an interview with Trey Parker and Matt Stone about their choices when creating “Team America: World Police” that they considered the possibility of doing an all-puppet version of a Jerry Bruckheimer script instead of writing a new script.  In effect, the puppets would be a little flag that says to audiences “OK, this time you’re supposed to laugh at this movie instead of cheer it on.”

So, when watching Avatar last night, it seems they said “unobtainium.”  A few times.  The characters.  On screen.  And I thought “wait, did they just say ’unobtanium’?  Like, in the post-script-editing, still audible in the final release way?  Because I think that’s a ‘laugh at this movie now’ flag.  Take a Jerry Bruckheimer script, add the word ‘unobtanium’ into it, and then audiences know they’re supposed to laugh at this one.  Right?”

That said, visually stunning.  Well worth seeing it in 3D if you’re going to see it.  Also well worth not seeing if you’re looking for anything other than the visually stunning thing.

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By ert
January 9, 2010

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Cleansing time again – eating healthy for two weeks at the beginning of January

As we do every January, my wife and I will cleanse out our systems by eating uncompromisingly healthfully 24×7 for two weeks, give-or-take.

Our diet pretty much becomes vegetables, tofu, fish and whole grains, with an absolute ban on refined sugars, alcohol, caffeine (except green tea), dairy products, wheat, mammals and birds.  She won’t be particularly following the bans on those last four or so because of the whole pregnancy thing.  I’ll also drink all kinds of yucky-tasting herbal solutions purported to help flush the system (generally these ones).  (Maybe more than usual!  This year I’m drinking yucky-tasting herbal solutions for three!)  By the end of it we always feel a lot better — more energy and less in the way of cravings.

This season we’ll be starting Tuesday January 5, and going through to MLK Jr. weekend, stopping sometime in the January 15-18 range depending on what we all end up doing for the long weekend.

You’re welcome to join us, either by trying the diet yourself (with or without yucky herbs) or by implementing your own healthy diet and saying “well, at least I can eat more than Ert!”  While we do this a couple times a year, I feel the most desperate for a period of healthy eating after the holiday indulgences (and, looking at this year’s party schedule, I’m sure to be full of truffles and pinot noir heading into the new year.)

If you’re down with the plan, drop me a line.

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By ert
December 15, 2009

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Every once in a blue moon my MP2 of a 1983 Duran Duran song comes on in shuffle play and it makes me oh so happy. “MP2″ is not a typo here.

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By ert
November 24, 2009

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Kelo v. City of New London overturned by The Great Recession

Everyone remember Kelo v. City of New London, the 2005 U.S. Supreme Court case wherein a closely divided court ruled that the city of New London, Connecticut could use eminent domain to take privately owned homes and give them to Pfizer to encourage economic development that would benefit the entire town?  Pfizer wanted the homes so it could expand its New London research facility.  The ruling sparked a wave of local laws restricting eminent domain as homeowners feared their houses could be taken and given to corporations.

Turns out the Boston-based developer was never able to secure financing to do what New London and Pfizer wanted to do with the area, while Pfizer has had to cut its R&D budget in the current economic climate.  So, on Monday Pfizer announced they would be shutting down their New London facility, leaving the land that they obtained via Kelo and subsequently razed as the urban prairie it is today.  The jobs and tax revenue promised as the original catalyst for Kelo never materialized.

This is going to make a great movie starring Julia Roberts.

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By ert
November 12, 2009

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iPhone maps epic fail

Our check engine light has been glowing persistently for a couple of days, so this morning I hauled myself out to the car dealership at 6am instead of sleeping like a sane man.  (This is the car’s check engine light I’m referring to.  Mind you, my own has been illuminated a lot this season, too.)

Because we’re staying in Waltham during our home renovations, it’s more convenient to go to the dealership in Natick instead of the one that I usually go to.  So last night I Googled the place, made a map, and mailed it to myself.  This morning when I awakened I got my mail on the phone and called up the map as I left home.

A few minutes later, car in motion, I discovered the map was taking me on a different route than the one that I generated last night.  Hm, that’s funny, I thought.  But I could only see the area right around where I was driving on the map, and I figured that for some reason the phone had routed me along the freeway instead of the surface streets that Google Maps had selected.  Sure enough, the route took me to the freeway.

Having completed my merge onto the freeway, closer examination of the map indicated that my 19 minute journey was now predicted to be a 31 minute meander.  Hm, that’s funny, I thought.  Still yet closer examination indicated that I was being routed to an entirely different city.

Everyone remember the episode of Doctor Who where people’s GPS nav units start murdering them by telling them to drive into rivers, etc.?  My phone thought that my sleep depped brain wouldn’t notice the switch.  Westborough!  Who knows what treachery was in store for me if I hadn’t spotted the subterfuge?

What followed was a 45 minute laugh riot involving repeated attempts to plot the unplottable spot and right the unrightable wrong.  The guy who answered the phone at the dealership wasn’t from the area and couldn’t give me clear directions.  The street address he eventually gave me would’ve helped a lot more if I’d remembered I was heading to Natick and not Framingham.  Repeated attempts to start from the beginning by Googling the dealership insisted that if I would just investigate their suggested destination in Westborough I wouldn’t be filleted by Sontarans, not even a little.

Eventually I just threw away all the maps and drove in the direction of the hazily remembered destination on the laptop screen the night before, and that got me here.

In the future, I’m just going to follow Polaris, thank you very much.

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By ert
October 22, 2009

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Cat turn left now!

On the way to Zephyr’s acupuncture appointment today (yes, you read that correctly), I encountered the following signs at and along the turnoff.  I feared a trap.

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By ert
October 6, 2009

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The universe is testing me

After an overfull week, I’m now home sick for the day, working on set lists for the few weddings I’m DJing in this next month.

 Last night, I dreamt that I was in a large group at some kind of nerd camp in the states, where challenging questions were being asked of each person. I was asked to “name three Canadian songs with awesome guitar solos.” I struggled, and and couldn’t do it. I came up with Canadian songs with excellent accordion solos and tin whistle solos and bagpipe solos, Canadian songs with great lyrics and vocalists. Rush and Neil Young were hazy, slippery memories. I blamed it on being sick. The others looked sadly away.

 The shame, it still haunts me.

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By ert
September 18, 2009

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