Where's my damn flying car???

From New Scientist Magazine;

Brilliant Minds Forecast the Next 50 Years

What will be the biggest breakthrough of the next 50 years? As part of our 50th anniversary celebrations we asked over 70 of the world's most brilliant scientists for their ideas.
In coming decades will we: discover that we are not alone in the universe? Unravel the physiological basis for consciousness? Routinely have false memories implanted in our minds? Begin to evolve in new directions? And will physicists finally hit upon a universal theory of everything? In fact, if the revelations of the last 50 years are anything to go on - the internet and the human genome for example - we probably have not even thought up the exciting advances that lay ahead of us.

Alexander Vilenkin forecasts the future
Cosmic strings, relics of the hot, high-energy early universe,

might well be discovered, allowing us to directly test superstring theory

So yesterday was Shro's Grey Cup party. It was a really good time. All the usual suspects were there plus a few extras - all under 3 ft tall. It's still kind of weird being at a paddler party where there are children running around but they're cool because they're paddler babies.
Anyway, our usual poker group was there. I didn't bother getting in on the first game - too many people - so I watched Borat on Derek's big tv. Oh, we also watched some football. Eve won the first $10 bucks in the pool, next was Duke for $30 and Connor won the big pool - can't remember but I think it was $100 or something. Kyle won the first poker game which means he's broken the run of bad luck. BTW, if any of these guys owes you money better give them a call!
Amy and Shro had put out tons of food...appetizers, some really excellent chili (in two temperatures) and later, jalapeno poppers. Oh yeah, and endless popcorn to go with the endless second poker game.
Speaking of which, I did pretty well - pot was a couple hundred - I was in the final two. But honestly, how can you concentrate when your opponent (Shro) is doing a Borat impersonation. He started every sentence with "Gypsy..." as in, "Gypsy, who is this woman you have shrunk? I will look through your treasures, gypsy. Is this understood? " and "Gypsy, I tire of this game. Let us finish so I can go to PG." After about 20 minutes of this, I couldn't even pay attention to the action. I went all-in a couple of times hoping for a quick out but kept winning back chips. Argh. It was the fall classic all over again. I don't think I got home until after midnight and, even though I set my alarm, did not get up for boxing on Monday morning. In fact I'm bagged right now.

Is it just me or is Leon Washington flipping a double bird on this Topps sports card? I just checked ebay there are 11 of this particular card on the block. A plain jane version has a current bid of $55 but the one at left (gold and autographed) is up for $750. It'll be interesting to see what it gets.


click image to see that, yes, he is in fact flipping us off...

Woo hoo! Simpsons movie trailer

Huh. I guess I'm going to the St. Andrews Ball at the Royal York instead of Agribition in Regina. You know what this means....a new dress! Checking Go Fug Yourself daily so I know what NOT to wear but have confidence I'm already halfway okay since I refuse to wear plaid (or is that tartan?).

This cartoon has been stuck up in our foyer since the rock-throwing incident. It was done by a master paddler at one of the east coast clubs but is now up on the Nelo website...

Two reviews


Spoon & Fork restaurant in Clarkson - amazing! five stars







Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan - five stars - my face still hurts from laughing.

A follow-up to my post about internet safety:
Two of my nieces go to BSS, a private girls school in Toronto. Their headmistress, who sounds like a true luddite, only recently became aware of the very active BSS community on Facebook. The girls, on the other hand, were suddenly made aware of the policy manual they each received with their school laptops, especially the part that says the school owns all data stored and reserves the right to monitor any activity taking place on said laptops. The I.T. staff, or as my sister called them, "the fat, sweaty, gross I.T. guys" (keeping in mind this is what I do for a living) had been monitoring the girls' activities and felt they needed to bring it to the head's attention. Parents were then invited in to view photos of and postings about the girls drinking, doing drugs, making out with boys and other very personal information. Isn't this worse than reading your child's journal or diary? My sister said the line-up of prominent Torontonians was out the door. Strangely, they were mostly concerned about the fact that some of the girls had created and joined a Facebook group about one particular girl where they said mean things about her. This is an example of technology raising bullying to the next level but I still think they're missing the bigger picture.
Anyway, the whole episode created a huge flap in the BSS hen house and the girls all blame the headmistress. Too bad because she taught them a really important life lesson about privacy, the public domain and always reading the small print.

The world was very busy this weekend...

Local
Happy Birthday to my Dad - he turned 80 this year

International
Saddam Hussein sentenced to death by hanging
...how long before the video is posted to youtube.com?

Sports
New York City Marathon -Brazilian Marilson Gomes dos Santos wins in 2:09:58, Jelena Prokopcuka won the women's in 2:25:05, Lance Armstrong finishes in 2:59:36 and says, "without a doubt the hardest physical thing I have ever done."

Science
An international team of researchers determines that overfishing could take seafood off the menu by 2048. Guys, this is serious. The ecosystem will collapse.

Technology
100 Million Sites on the Web (although this news was outdated by the time this was posted)

Entertainment
Neil Patrick Harris tells People Magazine, "(I) am quite proud to say that I am a very content gay man living my life to the fullest." Is this even news? Whatever, he was great in Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle.

Fashion
Imelda Marcos, notorious shoe hog and widow of dictator Ferdinand Marcos, will be launching "The Imelda Collection" of fashion jewelry and accessories on Nov. 18 . Apparently this was prompted by her grandson, Martin "Borgy" Manotoc. She recalls, "One day my grandson came to me and said, `Mama Meldy, I would like to use your collection to tell the world the real Imelda and the spirit of my grandma,'" she told reporters. "It's only beauty that can feed the spirit."
The Marcoses have been accused of amassing ill-gotten wealth and were driven out of the presidential palace by a military-backed, nonviolent uprising in 1986. The government has recovered about $1.6 billion in cash and assets from the Marcoses and their associates, including Swiss bank deposits now worth about $680 million. Mama Meldy's spirit was some kind of hungry and beauty wasn't what was feeding it...

A few of us were talking about internet safety the other day - specifically bulletin boards like MySpace & Facebook, chat rooms and blogs. Really, they're a creepers dream and a parent's nightmare. One guy, a father of 2 young girls, says ignorance is bliss since he's basically unaware of what's available to kids and how often they're sharing personal information and photographs with strangers simply by posting it in the public domain.
Then I started thinking was it any different when we were teenagers? Does anyone remember those party lines? There were a couple of summers while I was in high school where you could dial 41091 - can't believe I remember the number - and you were connected to a no-limits party line. When we first became aware of it there weren't many people using it. You could talk with guys, give them your phone number, make contact one to one, then arrange to meet somewhere. By the end of the summer people were basically yelling their numbers over the hundreds of other voices, then hanging up and waiting for the phone to ring. I guess technology has options for every generation. My best friend met a few guys this way and she'd arrange to meet them at the subway station or whatever. Her mom always went with her (that's how you know she had the cool parents and could tell them anything. Plus, they kept their weed in a big jar labelled oregano - thought we didn't know about that eh, Mrs. G.?). My mom on the other hand would have had a fit if she thought I went on the party line. I actually only met up with one of the guys in person but spoke to lots who ended up calling my number. "Yeah mom, it's just some guy from school" generally worked.
Anyway, the biggest difference now is the fact that kids are putting up photos and personal contact information and not always using the available security measures to hide it from the nasties. Fortunately, the nasties sometimes identify themselves for us. Take the case of this guy who, on realizing he didn't have a photo to post to his newly created MySpace site, attached his mugshot from the sex offenders registry. He was subsequently arrested for not registering his MySpace account with authorities.

Louise & Jonathan sent these cute photos of Mia - what a doll!