Month: October 2005

Economics made easy. Simply read all of these books.

At the end of each episode, the show’s experts must decide which lucky driver returns to the road while the rest stay behind for more remedial road training.

Canada’s Worst Driver is modeled on the hit U.K. series, Britain’s Worst Driver.

…which then evolved into Britain’s Worst Celebrety Driver with Erik Estrada (not as the host). Pics.

So what does Faith-Ann do in the opening episode of Canada’s Worst Driver? Races down the centre line of a two-lane rural highway at 150 km/h so she won’t get overtaken by Bob, the speed maniac from Guelph. He eventually does pass her, by driving on the shoulder. Of the opposing lane. Cripes.
~
What Jaws did for swimming in the ocean, Canada’s Worst Driver will do for the morning commute.

Video
Radio Ad
Forum

Tatiana is very scared. Madalina is not at all scared. In the end, I think Madalina will be the Worst Driver in Canada.

Canadian Inventor Troy Hurtubise is at it again — the intrepid inventor of the Bearsuit, Fire-Paste, and Light Infantry Military Blast Cushion has revealed a new invention which he claims can ‘fuse light‘. Hurtubise has been featured demonstrating his other inventions on numerous television and radio shows, but if his claims about Angel-Light are correct it may be too dangerous to test!

According to Hurtubise, the Angel–Light has a unique effect: it makes solid objects completely transparent, a bit like the classic comic-book “X-Ray specs” were supposed to work. However, Troy’s found a secondary “Hyde-Effect” that makes it unpredictably dangerous. The beam will destroy any electronics in the beam’s path — even up to aircraft at 70,000 feet in height. Even worse, the beam causes nearly immediate biological damage that’s made Troy hesistant to continue researching it!

Ferocious Fire-Paste Video.

When The Simpsons parodies something you’ve done it’s an added bonus.

After another failed Mother’s day gift, Homer takes the kids to Sprawl-Mart and ends up buying a Kitchen Carnival for Marge. Homer uses the Carnival to create an edible candy man, but Marge finally forces him to take it to the Springfield Dump – where he’s promptly attacked by a bear. When he’s labelled a coward by the media, Homer builds a bear-fighting suit, and after some Jackass style testing antics sets out to confront the bear, parodying the little-known Canadian documentary Project Grizzly.

Project Grizzly Video.

If I ever win the lottery, I’m funding this guy.

It’s different this time. It’s all about racing and the things that surround the racing world. NASCAR Racing , that is. And maybe a little humor along the way.

I just found this blog, and so far, I’m liking it. For example:

Back again.. to a 1.5 mile, 24 degreed, all out speed track… most of these guys will tell you Atlanta is one of the favorites.. and if yesterday’s truck race was any indicator.. looks like a heckuva day in store…

A truck race is not the “prestigious” (I’m using that term quite loosely) Nextel Cup Series. Have you ever seen the payouts for a Truck event?
~
I was not impressed by the last lap pile-up during the Atlanta race today. I am not taking sides on the matter. Yes, I did see Jack Sprague get loose in the corner and yes, I’m not blind…I did see him trying to defend his line on old tires. Do I think that this manuever was uncalled for? No. Do I think Jack Sprague is an idiot? No. Do I think too many people want to turn racing into some politically correct shenanigan, where we need not “race”…but pull over and hand the checkered flag to whomever we deem has the best equipment? Yes.

National Motor Vehicle License Bureau web site – offering a free searchable database of over 121 million U.S. driver’s license photos and license information.
~
The United States B.S. amendment to the Freedom of Information Act enacted on Sept. 3rd 2004 provides public access to motor vehicle driver’s information in an electronic format. Under the Motor Vehicle Operator License Identification Act (MOLIA), all US states are required to adhere to the Driver’s B.S. statute and store an electronic copy of all valid drivers licenses in their state…

It found mine right away – That’s a really old estimate of my weight. :-)

I was born in Minsk, the Republic of Belarus, on the 8th February of 1985. ~ I used to attend a gymnasium which laid an emphasis on maths and natural science. ~ There I started to indulge my passion for programming and computer science. But at the same time it was there where I began to see my existence from different point of view.

While being 14 years old, I wrote my first article, which was published in a weekly Belarussian computer-oriented newspaper in July 1999. In the age of 16 I moved to Germany, having not a clue about German language. I confronted new mentality, new society, new life. I faced new difficulties and challenges. But I also faced new hope and explored a hitherto unimaginable development of my personality. I realized that I have become a person with its own, personal history, a person who has a past which is completely different from its present – and apparently – future life.

Vitaly Friedman is the creator of the Web Developers Handbook.

It doesn’t happen too often, but it happens. Once, being inspired by your own imagination, you take a pencil in your hand. You see blurred images running over and over again in your head. You release your spirit of inspiration.
~
It feels just good to be different. It feels good to know that your ideas are different. It just feels good.

I think he knows what he’s talking about.

Sometimes when you feel, you see the world with different eyes, from different perspectives, with different thoughts at the back of your mind. Suddenly you perceive new facets of the ordinary and unspectacular things of your routine life. Suddenly the snow turns out to be the source of creativity and the fount of wisdom. It doesn’t take long until a powerful mountain range by a sunny day appears to become the object of curiosity and desire. You feel.

Thank you, Mr. Friedman, for helping us see the world with different eyes.

Big Sky Brewing Company has just become the first brewing company in North America to use a revolutionary new aluminum package. The AlumaBottle is shaped like a bottle, but it is a specially lined aluminum vessel. ~ The AlumaBottle allows beer drinkers to take Moose Drool Brown Ale with them wherever they go, without the fear of breakage.

“Glass bottles are a liability to people who fly fish, raft, hike, golf, or participate in many other outdoor recreational activities.”

Aluminum Bottles can also be found around beer outside the United States, although there are differences in the brewing process (take a look at this description from Germany).

The biggest news in aluminum packaging over the past year is without a doubt the success of Pittsburgh Brewing Company’s switch to aluminum bottles for its flagship Iron City Lager beer. In August of last year, the company became the first U.S. brewer to market beer in aluminum bottles on a nationwide scale. The initial 20,000 cases sold out the first day they were shipped, and by year’s end almost 2 million aluminum bottles of the regional beer had been sold around the country.

In the alcoholic beverage market, brewers and vintners who want their product to stand apart from the crowd are increasingly turning to aluminum bottles. In some cases, they are being used to pitch a new product at a niche market.

Demand has been so high that bars, restaurants, clubs and supermarkets are selling out.

The new aluminum bottles were created by real men of genius. Masterpieces like this belong in a museum.

Albert Einstein was a genius.

Set to the stripped-down acoustic sound of Jose Gonzalez, 250,000 ‘superballs’ come flying, in slow motion, over the brow of a typical street in San Francisco, raining down on anything that gets in their way. And it was done without computer graphics.

Video
Pictures

I can’t stop watching this.

Offered here for your enjoyment are four short organic chemistry plays that illustrate reaction mechanisms. These were performed in an actual organic chemistry class. ~ Electrons were drawn on posterboard and exchanged where appropriate. Bonding was illustrated by having the participants hold onto the electrons being shared. ~ but be warned! I had to discontinue the plays because a student complained to the Dean that the plays were sexually offensive, even though: (1) the students were repeatedly reminded that atoms and molecules don’t have gender and (2) students never touched each other and (3) these plays aren’t nearly as raunchy as Shakespeare!

Sample:

Electrophilic Addition
(A Molecular Drama)

Characters: Secondary carbon (Sec) is sharing four electrons with Primary Carbon (Prim) to form a propene molecule. Along comes a hungry electrophilic Hydrogen (Hyd) who is bonded to an electron-hogging Chlorine (Chlor).

Hyd: Oh, look at all those electrons on that propene!
Chlor: What’s with you? Aren’t my electrons good enough for you?
Hyd: (disgusted) Your electrons. That’s the whole trouble with you. They’re our electrons, you pig!
Prim: Hi, Hydrogen! Nice nucleus!
Chlor: You keep your electrons away from my Hydrogen’s nucleus!
Hyd: (to Propene) Would you share your electrons with little old me?

The four plays:

Electrophilic Addition
(A Molecular Drama)

Becoming an Alcohol
(A Sad Tale of a Good Oxygen Gone Bad)

A Blind Date With the Bromine Twins

Adorable Borane
(How Three Propenes Were Led Into Ruin by a Handsome Nucleus)