Olympics: I hope Vancouver does it better

 Posted by on 25 February 2009  Modern Life
Feb 252009
 
Photo from a New York Times series examining the true impact of the Chinese Olympics.

Photo from a New York Times series examining the true impact of the Chinese Olympics.

China’s Olympics were stunning — a tour de force from start to finish, by every single account that I’ve read. It’s incalculable just how much money they poured into the venues, the accommodations, the atheletes themselves, and spectacle that surrounded the Games. (Some calculations peg it at $43 billion, but I think that’s low. It’s still triple any other host city.)

Now the question is, how much of that was wasted? I’ve read often that Olympic host cities, even if they go into debt over the Games themselves, are left with a net benefit, in terms of actual buildings and athletic facilities that can be put to good use for years to come. I just visited the Stade Olympique in Montreal a couple of years ago — and its subway was top-notch. That’s 33 years on, and still providing benefits.

Calgary is still using its Saddledome and alpine facilities — in fact, they’re renting out some 88 Olympic facilities to the Brits for 2010.

Vancouver hopes to use the athletes village for social housing.

But China might be left with some gigantic white elephants. From the LA Times:

Six months after the Games ended, [Beijing] continues to dazzle by night, with neon and floodlights dancing across the skyline. By day, though, it is obvious that many are “see-through” buildings, to use the term coined during the Texas real estate bust of the 1980s.

… 500 million square feet of commercial real estate has been developed in Beijing since 2006, more than all the office space in Manhattan. And that doesn’t include huge projects developed by the government … 100 million square feet of office space is vacant — a 14-year supply.

Yikes. The “Bird’s Nest” stadium? Empty except for one day this year. A less-than-a-year-old baseball stadium? Up for demolition. The press centre? “Cavernous” and “empty” says the Times:

The makeover of Beijing for the Olympics led to an estimated 1.5 million residents being evicted from their homes, according to the Geneva-based Center on Housing Rights and Evictions.

In this vibrant capital city of 17 million, there is an insatiable demand for housing, yet prices remain far out of reach of most residents …. Homes are being advertised for more than $1 million in gated communities …. Two- and three-bedroom apartments are offered for $800,000 …

The average salary in Beijing is less than $6,000 a year.

Something about power, something about corrupting …

 Posted by on 24 February 2009  Modern Life
Feb 242009
 
From Flickr user mikefats

From Flickr user mikefats

The Fark headline sums it up best: “Why you should dump your ex politely: they might date a cop next, and you might get a parking ticket at the same time every day on a street you’ve never been to that it’s legal to park on. For a car you don’t own”

The Chicago Tribune has the full story:

Of the 24 tickets he has received, 13 were written by the same officer. … The 13 tickets were written at four different South Side locations in May, July, August and October of last year. All 13 of those tickets were written at exactly 10 p.m., no matter which day they were issued. And all 13 were sequential in number, meaning that from May to October that officer wrote no tickets to anyone other than Geinosky from the ticket book in question.

Luckily, by showing up and explaining that he no longer owns the vehicle, all the tickets have be quashed. But still!

And when he tried to file a complaint, the Internal Affirs division told him: “We don’t investigate parking tickets.” (Luckily, they’re since launched an investigation.)

 Comments Off

Dang annoying tourists

 Posted by on 24 February 2009  Music
Feb 242009
 

You know, I’m kind of glad that Brandon is a small city without any huge tourist attractions. Because if I had to have my daily commute buggered up like in the video above, I’d be bloody irritated.

That said, if I were in London, I’d probably try to copy the famous Abbey Road photo, too.

(The song is called Garble Arch by the band Blame Ringo. I like the poppy melodies and schizophrenic guitar riff. Good stuff coming out of Oz!)

Mind-boggling power of nature

 Posted by on 24 February 2009  Modern Life
Feb 242009
 

This is what I imagine a terraformed Mars would look like, if in the future, the whole planet suddenly became sentient and wanted to go back to being the Red Planet, and not the Green one, than-you-very-much.

Apparently, it’s called a haboob — a dust storm caused by a collapsing thunderstorm.

Seriously spooky, whatever you call it. I remember one time my sister and I were driving back from Minot to Brandon, and there was a low-hanging cloud front in front of us. It looked a lot like that dust storm, except dull gray — and when we got to it, we passed underneath. It was dead flat on the bottom, and hung about 30 feet or so in the air, like a ceiling, as far as we could see. It was possible to judge the height because we could see the occasional tree-top disappearing into bottom of the cloud.

After a while, we came out from under it, but it faded away into mist, rather than having a clearly-defined edge, like when we entered it. I’ll never forget it.

It was my idea!

 Posted by on 24 February 2009  Everything Else
Feb 242009
 

As many of you have probably seen, the “25 Random Things about Me” meme continues to make the rounds through Facebook.  Grant has issues with it, as do I.

When it was suggested to me that I should do it as well, I began to shoot my mouth off as I am wont to do.  I began talking without thinking and, as is often the case, I heard myself create a good idea (the same thing happened with the French Onion Martini).

I told the person I was talking to that I would write a list of 25 Random Things about Other People.  After I said it, I thought about it then decided I should do it before someone (read: Grant) stole my idea.

So, if you get tagged with the “25 Random Things” about other people, you now know where to lay the blame.

You’re welcome.

PS.  If you’re interested in doing it, here are the rules:

Rules: Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about 25 other people. Don’t name them in the note. At the end, choose those 25 people to be tagged. You have to write about and tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it’s because I want you to know how much I know about you.

(To do this, go to “notes” under tabs on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, type your 25 random things, tag 25 people (in the right hand corner of the app) then click publish.)

In the comments, you’re free to guess which “random thing” applies to which person I’ve tagged. But I may or may not ever tell. It’s more fun to keep you guessing.

Oh, and just to be realistic, because we know everyone did this about themselves, it’s okay to exaggerate or outright lie. Or even to be mean. Heck, I said tag 25 people, not necessarily 25 real friends.

One more thing: this is an internet meme, so pass it along.

(There may be more than one fact about you….)Rules: Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about 25 other people. Don’t name them in the note. At the end, choose those 25 people to be tagged. You have to write about and tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it’s because I want you to know how much I know about you.

(To do this, go to “notes” under tabs on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, type your 25 random things, tag 25 people (in the right hand corner of the app) then click publish.)

In the comments, you’re free to guess which “random thing” applies to which person I’ve tagged. But I may or may not ever tell. It’s more fun to keep you guessing.

Oh, and just to be realistic, because we know everyone did this about themselves, it’s okay to exaggerate or outright lie. Or even to be mean. Heck, I said tag 25 people, not necessarily 25 real friends.

One more thing: this is an internet meme, so pass it along.

(There may be more than one fact about you….)

The art of the e-farewell

 Posted by on 23 February 2009  Modern Life
Feb 232009
 

As mass layoffs swirl around the economy, I still have enough of my teenage, adolescent sense of invulnerability to feel secure. But with $50-million Lotto 6/49 jackpot in the news, certainly I’ve thought about what might happen on a final day at the job.

The LA Times takes a look at the burgeoning phenomenon of the farewell email. Sometimes it’s short, sweet and funny. Sometimes it’s classy. Sometimes it’s a bitter rant. I like to think that I’d go out on a high note, but it’s instructive to read the experiences of others:

Some of the goodbyes were bittersweet, some philosophical. Many were entertaining.

Jaime Cardenas, a young sports reporter, spliced his note with stanzas from Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida” (“I used to rule the world . . . Now in the morning I . . . Sweep the streets I used to own.”). Perry Crowe, an editor for the Guide, compared losing his job to a scene from a movie: “It’s sort of like in Superman II when Non rips the light off the top of a police car and hurls it at a boy in the distance and it explodes like a motherlovin’ mortar round and a woman cries out, ‘He was just a boy!’ ”

… aspiring comedy writer named Chris Kula penned a long mock farewell e-mail on his blog. At the time, Kula was a receptionist at a New York engineering firm, honing his craft on the side.

“For nearly as long as I’ve worked here,” he wrote, “I’ve hoped that I might one day leave this company. And now that this dream has become a reality, please know that I could not have reached this goal without your unending lack of support.”

 Comments Off  Tagged with:

If there was an Oscars for security theatre…

 Posted by on 23 February 2009  Modern Life
Feb 232009
 

A term coined by security researcher Bruce Schneier, “security theatre” refers to things that look like they are making you more secure, and may make you feel more secure, but actually do little or nothing to improve security. They do, however, improve your sensation of security.

Consider the requirement that you show ID before flying. Whew, keeps all the criminals off the flights, right?

Well, not if you can just go from the air tickets counter over to the train tickets counter, and ask the train folk to make you up a photo ID. They’ll even let you fill in those pesky “identification” details on your own! From the Guardian:

“They suggested I go to the railway station within the terminal, buy a season ticket and with it get a photocard, which they’d then accept as ID,” Wilson said. “In fact, it was even easier and didn’t cost a penny. Southern Rail gave me a photocard and sent me upstairs to the public photo booth. I asked if I needed to come back to the ticket office with the photos; they said, no, I should just fill in the card myself then seal down the plastic covering.”

(h/t to BB)

Pristine comet in the night sky

 Posted by on 23 February 2009  Modern Life
Feb 232009
 

It’s fast-moving and green (but it’s not Kryptonite) and it’s coming from “infinity” on its first — and maybe only — parabola around the sun. It’s Comet Lulin, and it will reach peak brightness tomorrow night. People in dark rural areas should be able to see it with the naked eye, but binoculars or a small telescope will help.

Photograph by Gregg Ruppel, via National Geographic.

Photograph by Gregg Ruppel, via National Geographic.

Why’s it cool? Well, it’s green, first of all! And it has two tails, including an “anti-tail” that appears to face forward. It’s also a fast-moving sucker. From the National Geographic article:

Lulin is orbiting “backward” compared to the planets, so viewers on Earth should be able to see it shifting position against the background stars over a matter of minutes rather than hours … the comet [is] shedding about 800 gallons (3,030 liters) of water a second—enough to fill an Olympic-size swimming pool in less than 15 minutes.

(emphasis added)

 Comments Off  Tagged with:

Being an office drone can kill you

 Posted by on 23 February 2009  Modern Life, NSFW
Feb 232009
 

Okay, I know that sitting in a chair in front of a computer all day is bad for your posture, could cause blood  clots or sleep apnea, and is just overall bad for your fitness level …  but unambiguously fatal?

Who knew that poorly-made office chairs could explode like grenades?!?!

423915

Boingboing says:

A 14-year-old boy from Jiaozhou in China died of blood loss after the gas canister inside his chair exploded, sending shrapnel into his bottom. The gas is used to operate the hydraulic pillar that raises and lowers seats, but poorly-constructed office chairs have caused similar injuries before, according to China Voice.

But the Google-translated source is much more colourful:

January 14, the sudden explosion of the PC chairs at Jiaozhou city, Shandong Province, who was sitting 14-year-old boy and刺SARI parts of chairs and sticks to the anus, was transported to the hospital, he died of blood loss … in the 2007 explosion of the same chair, the anus of men aged 68 to 20 cm and those parts突KI刺SAっ, 5 cm of intestine to be hacked and injured.

I cannot vouch for the authenticity of this report, but in the interests of safety, I must insist that my workplace immediately provide me with a stand-up desk — or at the very least an Aeron chair.

Prison break by helicopter — again

 Posted by on 23 February 2009  Modern Life
Feb 232009
 

This sounds like a movie. It’s unbelievable, but true:

Two convicted robbers escaped from a high-security Greek prison by scaling a rope ladder to a hovering helicopter, authorities said Sunday.

Vassilis Paleokostas, 42, and Alket Rizaj, 34, were picked up by a helicopter that flew over the courtyard of Korydallos prison in Athens on Sunday afternoon. The inmates climbed a ladder thrown to them by a woman passenger, the Ministry of Justice said.

Guards opened fire and the woman returned fire with an automatic rifle. No injuries were reported.

Paleokostas and Rizaj escaped from the same prison in the same manner three years ago.

(emphasis added)

Really getting away from it all

 Posted by on 23 February 2009  Modern Life
Feb 232009
 

600pxastronauteva_2

It’s difficult to one-up the original Wired magazine headline, which plays on “Skywalker.” And if you eliminate Luke, then the best skywalkers really are the astronauts (and cosmonauts — and taikonauts, etc) who get to float outside their spaceships. Especially if they get to do it untethered, like Bruce McCandless, above.

Another wild tale is Story Musgrave, who completed a number of spacewalks during his 30-year career with NASA, culminating with what must have been the ride of a lifetime:

On his final flight, Story opted to stay up on the flight deck and ride out the landing standing up looking out the forward windows rather than strapping in downstairs. At 61 years old, standing in 1.7 Gs after 18 days in space, without your cooling suit plugged in, for five to 10 minutes straight is pretty wild.

Sometimes I get so frustrated that space exploration is not matching up with my sky-high youthful expectations. Perhaps I was fed a bit too much sci-fi as a kid, but when you stop and think that 40 years ago, America won the race to the moon, and nobody’s really bothered about it since, you have to get kind of depressed.

Last month’s Esquire had a moving essay about watching a space shuttle launch:

The shuttle’s last flight is scheduled for 2010. (This flight could be the last night launch in the program’s history.) Two new rockets, the Ares I and the Ares V, are in development, set to fly to the station in 2015, and later to the moon, and finally to Mars. But those plans were made by a different administration in a different time. Now the scope and scale of life felt more limited. Back on the bus, there were fears expressed that Americans risked becoming strangers to weightlessness — that for the first time in our nation’s history, we might be so overwhelmed by our earthbound concerns that we’d forget to fight gravity. Space demands sack. In a country that couldn’t figure out how to mortgage a suburban family home, Mars suddenly seemed a long way off.

Luckily, it ends on a more optimistic note.

If everyone else is talking about the Oscars …

 Posted by on 22 February 2009  Modern Life
Feb 222009
 

I’ll put in my two cents!

The Oscars used to be kind of a big deal to me. I would watch them with my mom every year, and while it wasn’t a full blown party, we often had something to munch on while observing the parade of dresses, suits, and beautiful people.

Now as I’m older, I care less and less about the Oscars, and it’s for basically the same reasons that Keith listed below me: too self-congratulatory, not enough love given to the little guy, too hyped up. I really dislike that the Oscars primarily reward dramatic/big studio films. The little guy and comedies hardly ever get recognized. (except for the rare indie/comedy like Juno that steals everyone’s heart, but at that point, is it really indie anymore?)

Part of my apathy also lies in the fact that I don’t see most of the nominees. Our theatre in town is notoriously horrible for doing things like showing Milk for a week, and having Paul Blart: Mall Cop playing for a month.

I have a general mistrust for the academy, too. They are far too influenced by studios and producers, and a little too ancient for my liking. How else do you explain Crash winning best picture over an intimate and heartbreaking story like Brokeback Mountain? Erik Lundgaard explains it through the now-common practice of marketing and over-saturation perfected by Tim Palen, the man who sold Crash to the academy. Lundgaard cites this piece in the New Yorker that profiles Palen.

Paul Haggis, the writer-director of the 2005 film “Crash,” says, “I came in thinking Tim was doing everything wrong. He made the poster Michael Peña screaming over his daughter, rather than selling Brendan Fraser or Matt Dillon or Sandra Bullock. I worried that the trailer, a mood piece about how people have to crash into each other to feel alive, was going to seem like overly significant claptrap. Then Tim and Sarah”—Sarah Greenberg, Palen’s co-president, who handles publicity—“came to me and said, ‘We’re going to go for an Academy campaign.’ I really, really thought they were crazy: this was a little six-million-dollar film.” For the cost of three full-page ads in the Times, about two hundred thousand dollars, Lionsgate sent more than a hundred thousand DVDs of the film to every member of the Screen Actors Guild—pioneering a now common saturation technique. In a huge upset, “Crash” beat “Brokeback Mountain” and “Munich” to win Best Picture.

It’s this kind of technique that makes me think that Kate Winslet will win for The Reader, and Slumdog Millionaire will win over a more prescient film like Milk; it’s the kind of technique that causes my indifference.

Regardless, I’ll still be watching tonight, if only for Hugh Jackman.

 Older Entries  Newer Entries