Your god is a joke — happy International Blasphemy Day!

by Grant Hamilton

Touched_by_His_Noodly_Appendage

Today is International Blasphemy Day! It’s celebrated on Sept. 30 as a memorial to the publication of the cartoons of Mohammad in Denmark that stirred up Muslim rage around the world. It’s intended as a free speech rebuke to religion.

From an article in the Toronto Star:

Organizers are “inviting people to speak their mind on issues related to religion, free speech, censorship, secularism” and other related topics, said spokesman Justin Trottier.

Despite the day’s stated purpose, Trottier say they do not intend to offend the religious.

“We feel there’s no such thing as a human right not to be offended,” he said. “We live in a democratic society, which means you get offended and you better get used to that.”

They’re slightly more inflammatory on the official website, though, where they have an “Apostasy Challenge” inviting you to convert to Islam, then defame Allah or the Koran — risking death, by the way.

I find organized religions to be insidious — they are organized in such a way that the less you can prove, the more your faith is worth. And unless your particular god or religion is more believable than the Flying Spaghetti Monster, I can’t respect it.

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Vignette from my life No. 3: Looking for some good from the oncoming winter

by Grant Hamilton

Here where I live we had a very cool summer, but we (almost) made up for it with a three-week stretch of September that was sunnier, hotter and in every way nicer than any single day in August.

That changed suddenly a few days ago, and we’re now well below seasonal, with daytime temperatures that range from “brisk” to “chilly” and nighttime dips to very near the frost point.

This would all be well and good — I know that no matter how much I wish for something, it won’t be summer all year long — except I’m not ready for summer to end. You see, my furnace doesn’t work.

Oh, it worked off and on last winter. Every now and then I would have to go to the basement and tinker and swear to get it going, but the house was mostly warm.

Yesterday, though, I spent hours down there, ripping the furnace apart, trying to make heads or tails out of circuit diagrams that are printed in darkly inaccessible places and flashing LED codes that resolve to “flame - no call for heat” when there is very clearly no flame, and a definite call for heat.

I think I’m going to have to call a guy.

But, as I don an extra layer this morning, I’m trying to find the positive. And I found a couple:

Hot showers are better when the air is cold.

So is snuggling under a blanket with a warm girl.

Wrapping my hands around a mug of steaming coffee is a great way to start the day

And when I left my fridge door open for a long time this morning (orange juice apocalypse) I didn’t worry about it one bit. After all, the kitchen was just as cold as the inside of the fridge.

Maybe colder.

Yeah, I think I’m going to have to call that guy.

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What I eat when I’m alone

by Grant Hamilton

foodpyramid

There’s no reason to be ashamed of it, but I like to snack. Sometimes, I eat a bunch of snacks in a short time frame and call it a meal. No, it’s not a meat, a salad and a starch, but it fills me up, it’s tasty, and it (probably) covers most of my basic food groups.

Amy doesn’t understand this. She prefers meals that “go together.” Like, for instance, we had a curry and rice dish last night, and I wanted to add some cheese and crackers to the side of the plate. That was a big no-no.

She also doesn’t get it when I just hack off a hunk of cheese and take bites from it while eating tuna straight from the can. But it’s good!

The food pyramid above isn’t exactly me, but the concept is dead-on. So I’m happy to see that I’m not alone.

(credit.)

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Kitties love doing things their way

by Grant Hamilton

This reminds me of my cat, but in certain ways, I think that’s because it reminds me of all cats. Simon draws based on life experience, I’m sure, but he’s managed to tap into a bit of the Platonic Ideal of catness.

I posted another one of his videos here.

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A little love for Meaghan Smith

by Amy Breen

I have fallen in love with the cutest song from singer-songwriter Meaghan Smith.

I love how sparse, yet intricate this track sounds. Her voice sweetly glides over the beeps and turn-table scratches (provided by Canadian dj Kid Koala) reminding me a little of Jenny Lewis at times. It sounds cartoonish yet completely mature, with her jazzy, old-school voice.

Smith is originally from Ontario, but now resides in Halifax. Her album, The Cricket’s Orchestra has been released this past week, and it sounds great, from what I hear on this song and others on her myspace.

Also, she was just featured on the soundtrack for the movie (500) Days of Summer. I’m excited to hear more from Smith.

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Games your boss won’t know you’re playing

by Amy Breen

I don’t have a boring desk job, which means I don’t have to pretend I’m working when I’m really just stalking someone on facebook or playing some game.

But for those of you who do have a dress-up-sit-down kind of job (and like wasting your time playing games) there’s a site for you.

Can’t You See I’m Busy lets you play fun games like Breakout without having to be paranoid your boss will find out. Why? Because you play the game in a fake word document, and instead of breaking colourful blocks, you break boring reports.

It’s fun AND wish fulfillment!

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Either Hitler was a woman or he’s still alive

by T. Keith Edmunds

A new study of the skull assumed to be Hitler’s has found that it, in fact, belonged to a woman.

I love a good conspiracy theory. I can’t wait to see what the tin-foil hat crowd does with this bit of scientific informati0n.

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Zoom into the night sky

by Grant Hamilton

expo720

Wow. Armed with nothing more than a digital camera and oodles of time, photographer Serge Brunier has photographed the entire night sky. That’s every single star, northern and southern hemisphere, using a series of six-minute exposures that cumulatively add up to 120 hours of exposure time.

After stitching them together, the results is a final image that contains 40,000 x 20,000 pixels, or 800 million pixels. It is 4.42 GB in size. Then, he added data from deep-sky telescope.

Then, he stitched it all together into a flash movie that you can pan through, and zoom into.

Dive into the stars by clicking here. The site is really getting hammered right now, though, so if it doesn’t load, try back in a couple of days.

Visit the rest of the website here.

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This might be how I spend my evening.

by Grant Hamilton

Full recipe and directions here. I don’t really have a kitchen at the moment (long story) but even I could make pretzels!

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Can you close your eyes and taste your way to the bathroom?

by T. Keith Edmunds

A new device called BrainPort created by Wicab, Inc. is a fascinating little gadget that will cause many to rethink they way they understand the functioning of the brain.

It is generally understood that the optic nerves in the eye receive visual information and move it along to the primary visual cortex where our brain interprets the world around us in a visual way. Blindness is the condition that, more or less, interrupts this process in one way or another.

BrainPort, however, will allow many blind individuals to see by translating visual stimuli into….wait for it….taste.

visual data are collected through a small digital video camera about 1.5 centimeters in diameter that sits in the center of a pair of sunglasses worn by the user. Bypassing the eyes, the data are transmitted to a handheld base unit, which is a little larger than a cell phone. This unit houses such features as zoom control, light settings and shock intensity levels as well as a central processing unit (CPU), which converts the digital signal into electrical pulses—replacing the function of the retina.From the CPU, the signals are sent to the tongue via a “lollipop,” an electrode array about nine square centimeters that sits directly on the tongue. Each electrode corresponds to a set of pixels. White pixels yield a strong electrical pulse, whereas black pixels translate into no signal. Densely packed nerves at the tongue surface receive the incoming electrical signals, which feel a little like Pop Rocks or champagne bubbles to the user.

Scientists aren’t sure how the brain is processing this information. Nonetheless, the functionality of the device is remarkable:

Seiple works with four patients who train with the BrainPort once a week and notes that his patients have learned how to quickly find doorways and elevator buttons, read letters and numbers, and pick out cups and forks at the dinner table without having to fumble around. “At first, I was amazed at what the device could do,” he said. “One guy started to cry when he saw his first letter.”

Although BrianPort isn’t on the market quite yet, it is expect to be available quite soon. And even though it won’t be cheap (an estimated $10,000 price tag is being thrown about), I can’t imagine that you can put a price on regaining the ability to “see.”

This translating one sense to another boggles my mind. Is it possible to do the same with others? Can we allow deaf people to see sound (not subtitles)? Can we hear smells? Feel taste?

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100 viral videos in 4 minutes

by Amy Breen

Not only have these videos gone viral, but a lot of them have also spawned memes (I saw Rick Astley in there, for instance).

I’ve seen most of the videos already, being obsessed with internet culture and all, but there were a few newbies in there.

So what are your favourite viral videos?

(video via buzzfeed)

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WCMA weekend review: Friday night, part two

by Amy Breen

Because my last post was getting seriously long, I decided to break Friday night into two posts, considering we saw the most bands that night.

And it’s fitting really, because we went from the Double Decker to the City Centre, so why not break it up, right?

My review of Hot Live Guys and the Sheepdogs after the jump.

Click to continue reading “WCMA weekend review: Friday night, part two”

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Cool one-shot video for college orientation

by Grant Hamilton

Tell me this isn’t a great way to break the ice with your fellow first-years. Forget the campus tours and strained, contrived “ice-breaker” games, get everybody to collaborate on a huge project.

Way to go UQAM.

(thanks Juel!)

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Meow mix

by Grant Hamilton

Hands down, one of the odder things I’ve seen created on the Internet. Yet strangely compelling.

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40 years of ‘Sesame Street’ — watch the original concept

by Grant Hamilton

I remember growing up on Sesame Street — as I’m sure many other people did. I mean, it hit hard when Mr. Hooper suddenly wasn’t there, and the show had to explain his death. But even though I grew to know that it was a show designed to be “educational” for kids, I also found it entertaining — even now, I get more than a nostalgic pleasure from it. Many of the bits are clever and fun.

Of course, it jumped the shark a bit when Snufflleupagus suddenly became visible by everyone, and not just Big Bird, but I’ll forgive them that.

This original video — part one of three (here’s two, here’s three) — shows some of the thought that went into the whole concept, which must have been revolutionary at the time. Education television? For kids? Here’s the money quote:

“We want to emphasize that the Children’s Television Workshop is an experiment. Research is woven into the total fabric of the show … by the time our program goes on the air, it will be the most thoroughly researched show in the history of the medium.”

Even in this original bit, you can see the foundation of the show is fully realized. There’s bits with muppets, interspersed with “real-life” urban clips — and a heck of a lot of multiculturalism.

(via Coudal)

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