pwn consulting

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So far, not much colour change going on in Ontario's forests. Soon though. Soon.

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Start Thursday.

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"A cup of black coffee is a three-calorie beverage. Add a teaspoon of sugar and a splash of milk and you're up to 35 calories. But order a frozen coffee drink and you've turned a low-calorie beverage into a 500-plus-calorie liquid dessert."

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The article is good, but the map is better. Succinct and compelling.

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"However, Ms Merkel views Poland, rather than Britain, as the main opponent of a deal and the hardest nut to crack. Such perceptions were confirmed when Warsaw raised old grievances about Germany to try to bolster its case for a "fairer" voting system in running the EU. Under current arrangements dating from 2000, Germany has 29 votes to Poland's 27 in EU councils. The new system, based on population sizes, will give Germany more than double the Polish vote. The Poles are demanding a new way of calculating votes that would diminish German "hegemony."
Under the nationalist Kaczynski brothers, prime minister and president of Poland, it seemed Poland was bent on refighting the second world war against Germany in the bunkers of Brussels.
"If Poland had not had to live through the years 1939-45, Poland would be today looking at the demographics of a country of 66 million", rather than 38 million, and would warrant a much higher quota of votes in the EU, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the prime minister, told Polish radio.

Well. Seeing as the founding principle of the EU is "Don't Mention The War!" it seems to me that the only possible response would be repeated viewings of this classic Fawlty Towers sketch. However, the Poles had a different response - thinking out of the box as it were and I have to say, I didn't see this coming:

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Apparently this is important before you sail around the world...

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Toronto Police: Cyclist Killed. Here

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Frenchman Marc Gicquel (R) gets medical aid by a doctor after he received a... - Tennis - Yahoo! Sports

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Once again, the MNR and forestry companies cut off their nose to spite their face. This is truly a shame, and MNR should be ashamed of itself - although given that it is little more than a vessel for the industry needs to begin with...

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This is my awful snapshot of PulseFront. You can find much, much better ones in places like this such as this one.

There were lots of other public art things around, such as Union Station's horses.

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Galveston on Stilts

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Wayne Gretzky-Style 'Field Sense' May Be Teachable

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Apparently a fun time was had by everyone except those with broken bones - captured online!

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Oh so painfully true.

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For a complete list of the open door buildings, look here.

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From The Star.
There's also an online map here.

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Technically, Bonnie Stern cheated, but this is seriously impressive for Toronto in the spring:

An incredible taste of the place she lives. The salad alone contained marvels we’d never eaten before: a winter lettuce called Tango (among 11 other lettuces), marigolds, chickpea sprouts, popcorn shoots. On top of the greens, roasted white beets with smoked ricotta cheese and smoked, sun-dried Principe Borhgese tomatoes (an Italian food tradition that has faded so badly that Ontario’s David Cohlmeyer now ships his to Italy - so it goes in the global-local food chain). Then came sweet potato and maple syrup mash, roasted carrots, and braised short ribs from Cumbrae Farms, a group of selected small farms working with special breeds. (Someone asked Cumbrae’s Stephen Alexander if there was a simple way to tell small-farm meat from industrial, factory-farm meat; he replied, “Forget claims and trust your eyes and trust your palate.” He says he can instantly smell the sulfates from industrial animal feed.) We drank apple sangría and local wines. Dessert was caramelized apples with maple syrup semifreddo over crepes.

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The New York Times on the bare minimum one needs to provision a kitchen - for $300.

In Toronto, you could go to :

Nikolaou

Nella

Dinetz

The list:

8-inch, plastic-handle stainless alloy chef’s knife for $10
Instant-read thermometer $5
3 stainless steel bowls $5
Sturdy tongs: $3.50
a sturdy sheet pan
plastic cutting board
Paring knife $3
Japanese mandoline for $25 (for thin, even slices or a real julienne)
$4 can opener
vegetable peeler
colander
a small, medium and large cast-aluminum saucepan (total: about $30) - just not the awful wafer thin sets of stainless or aluminum ones sold in big-box stores.
medium nonstick cast aluminum pan (10-inch; $13)
a large steep-sided, heavier duty steel pan (14-inch; $25)
single lida skimmer (for removing dumplings or gnocchi)
a slotted spoon
a heat-resistant rubber spatula (replacing the classic wooden spoon)
a bread knife (good for crusty loaves and ripe tomatoes)
a big whisk
food processor (12-cup capacity)
salad spinner
Microplane grater
coffee and spice grinder
An immersion blender
A whetstone or a decent steel

What not to Get!

BREAD MACHINE You can buy mediocre bread easily enough, or make the real thing without much practice.
MICROWAVE If you do a lot of reheating or fast (and damaging) defrosting, you may want one. But essential? No. And think about that counter space!
STAND MIXER Unless you’re a baking fanatic, it takes up too much room to justify it. A good whisk or a crummy handheld mixer will do fine.
BONING/FILLETING KNIVES Really? You’re a butcher now? Or a fishmonger? If so, go ahead, by all means...
WOK Counterproductive without a good wok station equipped with a high-B.T.U. burner.
STOCKPOT The pot you use for pasta will suffice until you start making gallons of stock.
PRESSURE COOKER It’s useful, but do you need one? No.
ANYTHING MADE OF COPPER More trouble than it’s worth, unless you have a pine-paneled wall you want to decorate.
RICE COOKER Yes, if you eat rice twice daily. Otherwise, no.
COUNTERTOP CONVECTION OVEN, ROTISSERIE, OR “ROASTER” Only if you’re a sucker for late-night cooking infomercials.

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Some photos of the rapidly changing garden.

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Testing the Five-Second Rule. Basically - don't eat it...

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Spacing Wire • understanding the urban landscape » Go walking Saturday to remember Jane Jacobs

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Fascinating - up to the Lake Simcoe service from the 1920s.

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The NY Times has a compendium of DIY horror stories. . .

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Seemed somehow relevant given the blog name.
Anyway, I'll populate the post with more info, but I just wanted to say how amused I was by the Globe's coverage of the Digg HDDVD issue.

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From BC to Tuktoyaktok. In a kayak.

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Here's the blog, but go buy the book here

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"There is no reason that any private citizen in a democracy should own a handgun. At some point, that simple truth will register. Until it does, phones will ring for dead children, and parents will be told not to ask why."

Shootings: Comment: The New Yorker

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Human beings fail the way all complex systems fail: randomly and gradually. As engineers have long recognized, many simple devices do not age. They function reliably until a critical component fails, and the whole thing dies instantly. A windup toy works smoothly until a gear rusts or a spring breaks, and then it doesn’t work at all. But complex systems—power plants, say—have to survive and function despite having thousands of critical components. Engineers therefore design these machines with multiple layers of redundancy: with backup systems, and backup systems for the backup systems. The backups may not be as efficient as the first-line components, but they allow the machine to keep going even as damage accumulates. Gavrilov argues that, within the parameters established by our genes, that’s exactly how human beings appear to work. We have an extra kidney, an extra lung, an extra gonad, extra teeth. The DNA in our cells is frequently damaged under routine conditions, but our cells have a number of DNA repair systems. If a key gene is permanently damaged, there are usually extra copies of the gene nearby. And, if the entire cell dies, other cells can fill in.
Nonetheless, as the defects in a complex system increase, the time comes when just one more defect is enough to impair the whole, resulting in the condition known as frailty. It happens to power plants, cars, and large organizations. And it happens to us: eventually, one too many joints are damaged, one too many arteries calcify. There are no more backups. We wear down until we can’t wear down anymore.

Annals of Medicine: The Way We Age Now: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker

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The Washington Post has a brilliant concept piece, perfectly written and illustrated with video. Wow. Joshua Bell, Kant, Stradivarius, Koyaanisqatsi and the life of a commuter all in one article.
Likely the best article I've read in months - and those that know me know that encompasses several thousand articles (which is actually an interesting point in itself. I should one day work out just how many words a day I read. A scary thought, greatly in inverse proportion to how much I write). I wonder if it will actually change my behaviour on a day to day basis.
Anyway, I imagine that the WashPost will take it offline or behind subscriber doors soon, so I highly recommend reading/watching/pondering it.
Also - a follow-up here.
and here
and here

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Hmm. What to do...

http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/knowhow/exteriors/article/0,16417,1127447,00.html

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What a ride! And quite the information aesthetics. I want to do that for some of my work data...

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Toronto's sell-out of public space continues.
It's instructive to examine the vendors record on illegalsigns.ca

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This is great. Check out the sub-links on Toronto area river basins: http://www.thestar.com/photoGallery/199469.
http://www.lostrivers.ca/
http://www.torontofieldnaturalists.org/

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Wow. Makes me look like such an inelegant hack.

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Pictures are here.

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For the record, I'm going with Bathurst and Davenport.

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Unfortunately ski conditions have been less than attractive. Last Sunday and Monday, the Pineapple Express, that was advancing over BC, peaked over Fernie. The ski hill was assaulted with high winds and pounding rain that extended almost, but not quite, to the highest skiable terrain. On Monday, much of the hill was closed because of the avalanche danger and there were several large slides within the ski hill boundary. Since then there has been a dusting of new snow and colder temperatures. Neither of which have managed to undo the storm damage.

Today was nice and sunny but “Old Sol” was unable generate sufficient thermal energy to do much good.

Not that it would matter, as I didn't have any gear until after 2:30 and then when I borrowed my sister's - my "loaned"season's pass was flagged as not being mine! So quickly skated away from the liftie, who was saying "Sir, you have to go to guest services!" so I can be fined and the season pass pulled!!!

Oh well. Quite the birthday.

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Thanks Air Canada for making my birthday something less than it could have been. A nice blue bird day here in Fernie - and me without any luggage.

PS - any fault that could/should be addressed to me for last-minute unpreparedness is totally deserved, and will be ignored as per usual :)

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Fernie Snow Report - Official Fernie Alpine Resort Snow Conditions Report.

All that snow. And now it's melting. Melting away.

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Something to avoid in the next couple of weeks.

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File this one under basketball.

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It's a clever blog - and apparently that intersection is mostly marketing, but there's some fun commentary on things as diverse as why female CMOs are more likely to be sacrificial change agents to people's relationship with their pets.

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Chinese New Year is upon us!

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For someone in my line of work (loosely described as tech research - better described as custom data collection - accurately described as monotonous), this is an awesome screed on the biz as it is.

Oh, and the worst: fielding emails from PR parasites eager to suck away precious time in a half-hour phone meeting while the Senior Vice-President of Smoke Blowing tells me about how his company's software—based on an idea cribbed from Google—is going to change the way I look at something I didn't care about in the first place. (Inevitably, "forever.")

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CH did his crazy thing - skied 70 km carrying his sleeping bag and food, slept outside, then skied another 70 km faster than I could without a pack...
SI and PS both finished 70 km both days as Coureur des Bois Silver, so they can now enter CH's category Coureur des Bois Gold next year should they be so foolhardy (and yes, of course, they are that foolhardy :)
I entered the "tourer" category, and started at 8:30 am (not the 6:30 am start of the CdB's) after missing the first bus- then tried to catch up and beat the time cut-offs (like the Ironman, they close the course to stop people from skiing in the dark). I made the time cut-off at the last checkpoint by 3 minutes - going >50k in 6 hours - then I bonked. And couldn't move - next year I'll remember to drink more fluids/eat more, so I can finish the whole course. Anyway, on Sunday, seeing as I wasn't eligible to finish as a CdB, I skiied a fun 30k with L (well I had fun - she seemed kind of zonked at the end :)
It was interesting as I've never really been an endurance sport kind of person to see what it was like - over 6 hours of going hard, your mind/body goes through all sorts of weirdness. Anyway, burning >6000 calories in a day means that I don't feel bad about eating well for a while :)
And it's the furthest I've skiied in a single day ever - and same for L, so good for us (and to P, S, & C, thanks for dragging my as out to this after 5 years of procrastination ).

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Dunno anyone like this at all...

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Fascinating video of flight patterns in the US and how they illustrate other socio-economic-geographic data, all set to vaguely Buddha Bar-like tunes.

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This is good to know about...

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Thanks to Google Maps

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Thanks to Accordion Guy for the references. A classic psych experiment, now on ww video for all to see - rather than just read about in text books...

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This is a great initiative that I'm sure we can help out on.
For more details, please see here or here for this year's program. In short, it's:

From January 1st to January 31st, new and gently used children’s and young adult books can be dropped-off at any OPP or Toronto Police Services detachment in Ontario (including Toronto Police Services headquarters on College Street in Toronto). With the support and assistance of the Canadian Forces, other voluntary organizations, and shipping companies, these books will be shipped and distributed to aboriginal communities.

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Canadian Canoe Routes :: Vancouver Snow Storm...

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Instructive AND fun. The Layout and positioning ones are new.

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WooHoo!!!

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Hmm. From the New Yorker:

Since the early nineteen-nineties, Joel Waldfogel, an economist at the University of Pennsylvania, has been doing a series of studies in which college students are asked to put a value on the presents they receive. Waldfogel’s main finding is that, in general, people spend a lot more on presents than they’re worth to those who receive them, a phenomenon that he calls “the deadweight loss of Christmas.” A deadweight loss is created when you spend eighty dollars to give me a sweater that I would spend only sixty-five dollars to buy myself. Waldfogel estimates that somewhere between ten and eighteen per cent of seasonal spending becomes deadweight loss, which means that billions of dollars a year is now going to waste.

But, on the upside...

A study by the economists Sara Solnick and David Hemenway shows that we value unrequested gifts more than presents we ask for, because we assume that the former show more thought.

So,

Waldfogel’s studies also suggest a very different solution: if most of the presents we buy are going to be less valuable in monetary terms than in sentimental ones, then there’s no reason to believe that the more expensive gift is a better gift. In fact, the more we spend at Christmas, the more we waste. We might actually be happier—and we’d certainly be wealthier—if we exchanged small, well-considered gifts rather than haunting the malls. Calculating the deadweight loss of Christmas gifts is a coldhearted project, but it leads to a paradoxically warmhearted conclusion: the fact of giving may be more important than what you give.

All quotes from James Surowiecki

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Cool.

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One excerpt:

Nearly 100 Americans are dying every month. The United States is spending $2 billion a week."

And the total?

The United States has made a massive commitment to the future of Iraq in both blood and treasure. As of December 2006, nearly 2,900 Americans have lost their lives serving in Iraq. Another 21,000 Americans have been wounded, many severely.

To date, the United States has spent roughly $400 billion on the Iraq War, and costs are running about $8 billion per month. In addition, the United States must expect significant "tail costs" to come. Caring for veterans and replacing lost equipment will run into the hundreds of billions of dollars. Estimates run as high as $2 trillion for the final cost of the U.S. involvement in Iraq.

Ouch. But there you go J-Mac.

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A competitor to Pandora along with last.fm This one matches by mood, gauging your it on the axes of Positive/Negative and Calm/Energetic. Pandora looks for similarities between your faves and other songs within the music itself. Not sure what Last's method is yet. So far, I'd say that musicology plays more familiar music - which is a good and bad thing.

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Fun to watch, but further proof that

What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one can say, "Look! This is something new"? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time. There is no remembrance of men of old, and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow.

See here.

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To think of Tony Montana battling it out with Lara Croft, or SuperMario speaking with Mr. Monopoly...

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I think my belly might actually be distended... Phew.
It's the second time in a month where I've eaten over 16 ounces of steak in one sitting. I wouldn't recommend sitting near me for a while.

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Wow. I'm crankier about this than I thought I would be. Again, AC quoting Forsey:

"Some people think that we should be willing to swallow any kind of nonsense in order to 'preserve the unity of Canada.' I am not interested in a Canada that would be just a splash on the map, with a six-letter word scrawled across it. The only Canada I want to preserve is a Canada that can do something: for its own people, for the hungry two-thirds of the world, for the survival of the planet; not a phantom that can only watch helplessly as we all tumble down a steep place to destruction."

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Andrew Coyne punishing the NCR's gasbags:

The hollowing out of the national idea -- of a vision of Canada as a coherent national entity, capable of acting with a single national purpose -- is now complete. We are well on our way to Belgiumhood, and that suits our political class just fine.
On this, as on so many other questions, the “Quebec consensus” is a fraud.
But fine: some Quebecers think they are. People are entitled to believe what they want to believe. Quebec nationalists are entitled to argue that Quebec is a nation all they want. But somewhere, sometime, somebody has to put the other proposition: that Canada is a nation; that Quebecers are a part of that nation; that they have as much or more in common with other Canadians as they do with each other. Ordinarily, I would expect my prime minister, at least, to do that.
But my prime minister did not do that. My prime minister could discourse at length on his profound conviction, never voiced until now, that Quebecers are a nation, but never once could he say that Canadians are -- only bark out meaningless applause lines like “Canada is the greatest country in the world.”
..."this can only fan the flames it claims to extinguish. The message the Parliament of Canada is about to send to Quebecers is this: that, as a nation, they have more in common with each other than they do with other Canadians, whom they will increasingly see as another nation altogether; that their relationship with that other nation must, accordingly, be as that they maintain with other nations -- cordial, businesslike, to be sure, but distant; and that, like any self-respecting nation, they can on no account submit to be governed by another nation -- as represented, for example, by the majority of the Parliament of Canada.

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This from CalgaryGrit captures the painful absurdity nicely:

So, in short, everyone ends up looking like an imbécile. And, as a consequence, Michael Ignatieff looks less ridiculous in comparison. So he and Jean Charest are probably the only winners in this sorry, sorry spectacle we should not have had to go through.

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Yup. Pat McG. Not that he dropped by the office while he was here. In fact, I don't think he's ever been "by the office." His admin mentioned that he might (two-three years ago), and mgmt went into a flurry of "clean your desk" memo's with side-order of "dress smartly." As it turned out, I think he went to Canoe with some other people and then flew out again.

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Interesting. Wonder how much attention Nikon and Canon pay to this trend - especially seeing Nikon's most recent N80 ad campaign - where they gave Nikons to people to see what they would shoot, and post their picture next to their own picture in magazine ads.

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"Windows Vista will have a reduced functionality mode but one that is enhanced."

Hmm. An enhanced, reduced functionality?

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On the day of the wedding, a number of the Wallis-Pratt family went for a nice walk.

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Candidates in my ward include (name/issues, which is a huge simplification, but hey, this is a blog. It's worth exactly what you paid for :):

Overall summary:

Incumbent Case Ootes. Mel's former right hand man. Pro-cops, anti-bike lanes.

Diane Alexopoulos: presumptive Miller ally; endorsed by NDP.

John Richardson: predominantly tax fairness between home owners/renters. Here's his blog: http://ward29.blogspot.com/

Andrew James: "Accountability, fiscal responsibility and “green consciousness” are the three pillars of my campaign."

Hamish Wilson: hmm, having issues finding a central site. Try here, or

TRUSTEES - frankly I have no idea what these people do or who they are, or how to distinguish between them. I may well end up flipping a coin in the voter's booth.

Cathy Dandy : hmm. long time involvement in education, and member of Toronto Parent Network. Support from lots of NDPers. Good luck with that budget....

Gord Crann: former councillor. Current lawyer. Lots of volunteer awards.

Mayors:
http://www.votetoronto.ca/recordsnew.html

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Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time...

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"We the undersigned feel enormous gratitude for the sacrifice made by all the Canadian Armed Forces through the ages in defence of this country and its values; acknowledge the very special nature of the sacrifice made by those who fought in the First World War in appalling conditions and with terrible loss of life; note that only three First World War veterans remain, and urge the Prime Minister that their sacrifice, and all of those they served with under arms from 1914-1918, be celebrated by offering a state funeral to the family of the last veteran of the First World War resident in Canada."

The Dominion Institute will send the petition on behalf of its signatories
to the Prime Minister of Canada on December 11, 2006.

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Hmm, now to see which relevant sites are still available...

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I like the idea, but wonder at the price point. In fact, I should online and see how much older ipods sell for on ebay.

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Self-explanatory

Monday, September 17, 2007

Friday, September 07, 2007

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