What do you mean I can't be Iron Man?

Extended warranty versus a surge protector

I'm noticing that stores selling modern washers and dryers are trying very hard to add extended warranty packages. Now that the washer and dryer console is mostly electronic, sellers have new ammunition to use to justify the extended warranty, warning that any power surges will possibly severely damage the electronic circuit board in the washer, a costly repair.

Of course, what they don't tell you is that for $15, you could buy a wall mounted surge protector that would protect your washer for far less money.

Another doctor becomes pro-marijuana

[I realize this is now old news, but whatevs, right?]

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN's chief medical correspondent, apologizes for ignoring marijuana's medical potential in 2009. After travelling the world, meeting with medical experts and medical marijuana patients, Gupta concludes "We have been terribly and systematically misled for nearly 70 years in the United States."

Reasons:

•Marijuana laws are not based on science.

•Marijuana doesn't have a "high potential for abuse" and doesn't lead people to use other drugs.

•In some medical cases, marijuana is "the only thing that works."

•It's safer than a lot of prescription drugs. There are no cases of anyone who died from a marijuana overdose.

•76% of doctors believe in it.

•Withdrawal symptoms are minor.

•The system is biased against research into medical marijuana's benefits. Only 6% of research on marijuana published in the last year analyzed benefits. The other 93% are designed primarily to investigate harm.

That circle is stuffed

Things I learned lately 17 September

• Soon there will be Campbell's soup Keurig K-cups. Noodles in a pouch, broth in a K-Cup.
• France requires that all workers get 30 days of paid vacation per year. UK gets 29, Germany gets 28. Canada gets 14, US gets 0.
• 29% of Americans think armed revolution might necessary to 'protect our liberties' (44% of self-described Republicans feel this way).
• It's a myth that you shouldn't wake a sleepwalker.
• McDonald's sales have fallen for the first time in a decade. Even so, 49% of Americans went to the fast food joint in March 2013.
• The cost of solar power is dropping like a stone. It used to fall at a rate of 6% per year, but now we're at 20% per year. At this rate, solar will be cheaper than coal in 5 years. If that happens, the economy will see a significant change due to the practically zero development value of fossil fuels.
• Between 1968 and 1973, someone hijacked a commercial airline flight roughly every week.
• Less than 1% of all Americans contribute 68% of all election campaign funding.
• In the early 1900s, underwear for men covered the whole body and were called 'union suits'. Essentially what we would now call one piece long sleeved long underwear.
• In the 1934 film “It Happened One Night,” Clark Gable is shown taking off his shirt, and he is bare-chested. This was the first time a man in a domestic scenario was shown with no undershirt.
• A few redditors developed an interesting theory, that Max and Ruby are dead. The show takes place in the rabbit afterlife. Their parents are absent because they're still alive. Their grandmother however, is with them because she too, is dead.
• 90% of all volcanic activity is in the oceans.
• There is now an ABBA museum in Stockholm, Sweden. Natch....
• Countries including France, New Zealand, Taiwan, South Korea, the UK, Ireland and the US have adopted systems where people accused of file-sharing have their Internet access curtailed. This takes many forms, from losing access until subscribers complete a "copyright training course" designed by the entertainment industry, to out-and-out disconnection from the Internet. An in-depth survey of the file-sharing landscape before and after the introduction of three strikes rules shows that there is no evidence demonstrating effectiveness. 
• 95% of income gains in the US since 2009 have accrued to the top 1%.

Burger quest - Flippn Burgers

In my never ending quest for great burgers and fries, I had to find a way to get to Flippn Burgers in Kensington (330 10 St NW). Having the day off one Friday gave me just such an opportunity.

I had already read numerous reviews on Yelp about this place and knew it was small, so I made sure to go early - 11:30am. The place was almost empty, so no lack of places to sit for me.

Let's start with the burger. I ordered a cheeseburger on a brown bun with mustard, pickle and sauteed onions, with fries and a bottle of ginger ale. I like that the pop is in glass bottles - a nice touch. I know now what other reviewers meant about the patty itself. It doesn't have that 'I just made this with my own hands' texture. In fact one could mistake this for a frozen patty. But I do believe that the meats used in this place are 'halal' meats, so I doubt this allows for fresh ground beef made into hand-made patties on the premises.

That's OK though. The burger was good enough. My biggest concern was the fries. My last sojourn was to Cliveburger and their fries were - how shall we say - shellac'ed. They were likely cooked at too high a temperature and this created a fry that was too shiny, too crispy and not tender enough on the inside.

Not at Flippn Burgers. Their fries (IMHO) are perfect. Many thanks to Omar, who is forever trying to make the recipe better. You did it, man.

Cut in half

I would so love to do this prank on people.

Who's there?

Such a crazy idea, it might work

If I ever decide to run for national politics, I think I would run as an independent MP for Calgary West.

For starters, anyone, even a wet-behind-the-ears nobody like me could probably do a better job than the incumbent. As an independent MP, I may not have any influence through the party in power, but I wouldn't be subjected to towing their party line either. I could vote the way I believe my constituents would want me to vote.

People might ask me "What would you be able to get for Calgary West if you didn't belong to the ruling party?" My answer is "What are you getting from your current MP who does belong to the ruling party? Besides naps and inappropriate attacks against Nelson Mandela."

I must be very up front about the fact that I am motivated in some small part by the fat pension that awaits me if I manage to last 2 terms, but that I feel that after serving my country as a soldier for 20 years and then as a politician who cares about his riding and the people in it, I think an MP's pension would be money well spent. It would certainly be orders of magnitude bigger than the military pension I get now.

I promise not to fall asleep in Parliament. I promise to always rule on behalf of the people, not some corporation. I promise to always answer mail from my constituents, even if the answer is that I don't have an immediate answer. I promise to be inclusive and treat everyone as equals. If Marg Princess Warrior comes to make fun of me, I promise not to run away and call 911. I promise not to make false claims for benefits I am entitled to.

Would you vote for me?

[Update: I just realized that there are pictures of me in drag on Facebook. Never mind.]
[Update 2: Our ridings have been re-aligned. Rob Anders is no longer my MP as of the next election.]

How to water plants while you're away on vacation

Fill a large pail with water, and stand it a little above the level of the plants and group round or near as many plants as practical. Loosely plait two or three strands of wool together, immerse completely in water, and place one end in the pail, weighted, and touching the bottom. Rest the other end on the soil: a separate plait of wool is advisable for each pot.

Daft Minion

Hope Santa can swim...

This is what the North Pole looked like on 25 July 2013. That's water you see, not ice. The North Pole is now a shallow lake on top of an ever thinning sheet of ice.

You can catch a live picture of the North Pole here.

Kitten wants to play too

This nerdy love song is cute enough, but her kitten makes it even cuter.

More fun with headlines

Yes, I amuse myself a great deal.....

Tianducheng

Tianducheng is a replica of Paris in China that has maybe a few thousand residents, even though it was built to accommodate over 10,000 people.

It comes complete with a 1/3 scale Eiffel Tower.

Electrified roads

The city of Gumi in South Korea just turned on its first 15 mile long network of "electrified" roads that recharge electric vehicles as they drive.

Cables carrying electricity at a specific frequency about a foot below the road generate an electromagnetic field. This generates current in a coil located underneath certain vehicles, charging the vehicle's batteries.

The technology is only being used with a few electric buses, but it's easy to see how this could completely change the logistics and cost of owning an electric vehicle by eliminating the range problems with electric cars. Batteries can become smaller and cheaper.

A research study behind Gumi's network concluded that only 5-15% of roads need to be electrified for the concept to be viable.

Wolverminion

Finland facts

• 36 vacation days per year, not including holidays. You can leave your job for a brief hiatus and come back to a guaranteed position months later.
• Tuition at university is free.
• An immigrant, while learning the language and training for jobs, earns 700 euros a month to live on. 
• When a child is born, the parents will collect 100 euros a month from the government until the day they turn 17.
• The country has a low infant mortality rate, better school scores, and a very low poverty rate.
• It's the second-happiest country on earth (the U.S. doesn't break the top 10). According to the OECD, Finns on average give an 8.8 score to their overall life satisfaction.
• The Finnish government gives every mom a 'baby box'. This package sent to expecting women contains all the essentials for newborns -- everything from diapers to a tiny sleeping bag. (Want to choose your own baby clothes? You can opt instead for the box's cash value) 
• Finland mandates four months of paid maternity leave, and the mother and father can share an additional six-month "parental leave" period, with pay. After that, kids can either continue staying home with their mothers until they reach school age, or parents can instead send them to a publicly subsidized child-care center, where the providers are all extensively trained. The cost is on a sliding scale based on family income, but the maximum comes out to about $4,000 a year, compared with $10,000 for comparable care in the US.
• Unemployment insurance in Finland lasts for 500 days, after which you can collect a means-tested Labor Market Subsidy for an essentially indefinite period of time. (The unemployment rate is a high-but-not-awful 8.2 percent).
• In addition to dirt-cheap universal health care, Finland offers compensation for wages you might have lost while you were away from work, as well as a "Special Care Allowance" if you need to take some time off to take care of your sick kids.
• People in Finland are more secure and less anxious because there is a threshold below which they won't fall. Even if they face unemployment or illness, Finns will have some payments from the state, guaranteed public health care and education. 
• Finnish women were the second in the world to get the vote in 1906, and they were heavily represented in the country's first parliament. 
• Roughly 75 to 80 percent of Finns are union members (it's about 11 percent in the US), and the groups dictate the salaries and working conditions for large swaths of the population. 
• Finns live in houses and apartments that are about half the size of Americans', and their taxes on the wealthy, like those on capital gains, are much higher than ours. Professionals such as doctors make far less there, which helps medical care to stay reasonably priced.
• Finland has much more powerful local governments and they're tasked with executing the myriad functions of the welfare system -- from helping the poor to operating the day cares. Municipal taxes are redistributed and supplemented with grants, thus largely eliminating the problem of under-resourced areas.

Boblefotball!

I would have loved to play this as a kid.

Why the minion face?

Things I learned lately 7 September

• Nissan claims that they will have the technology to put self-driving cars on the road by 2020. The challenge will be to convince governments to make them legal, insurance companies to insure them and drivers to trust them. Interestingly, Mercedes high end models already have adaptive cruise control with mild steering capability, which means that the car can drive itself on any major roadway, even with curves. The caveat is that you still have to keep your hands on the wheel.
• To deter ants from invading your home, spread powdered cinnamon anywhere you see them.
• You shouldn't eliminate eggs and red meat from your diet, you should 'restrict' them to a few times per week at most.
• 10 days of stubble is apparently the most attractive length of facial hair on men on the scale of clean shaven all the way to a full growth beard.
• New car smell is caused by the plasticizers that make PVC soft in car vinyl.
• The cost per watt of power produced by solar cells is now mere cents above the band of cost of coal and natural gas and it's falling fast.
• Pirates never made people walk the plank. That notion came from Peter Pan.
• Pirates never made treasure maps. That notion came from Treasure Island.
• The qwerty keyboard layout is a remnant of the typewriter. The layout prevented common letters from being pressed at the same time and jamming up the type levers. (I knew this intimately as a result of my days as a teletype technician back in the day).
• Australia is the only continent without an active volcano.
• You might only have 70 years to see Venice before it's submerged due to climate change induced rise in sea levels.
• You might only have 20 years to see the glaciers in Glacier National Park. 123 of the 150 that existed in 1900 are gone.
• The average height of a European man increased 11cm between 1870 and 1980.
• Bob Seger sang (uncredited) backing vocals on the Eagles' Heartache Tonight.
• Duane Allman taught Don Felder to play slide guitar. Don Felder gave Tom Petty guitar lessons.
• KFC Japan will sell deep fried corn potage (soup) for a limited time. This may be a one-upmanship against American county fair fare.

Keurig paydirt!

Just over 18 months ago, I mentioned that I would like to operate a store that sells every flavour of Keurig coffee and tea and let the public buy as many of each flavour as they want - mix and match.

Well, someone beat me to it - in fact they've been doing it for years (in Calgary no less), but I only found out about it last week. We went on Saturday and..... well, heaven. I had to behave and only buy $20 worth of product, but I could have easily spent $60 without trying.

Needless to say, I have a lot of great new flavours to try and have been reacquainted with ones I love but haven't seen in stores.

Yes, I know, I'm getting to that. The name of this place is The Coffee Connection and they're at 1047 26 St NE, Calgary, AB T2A 6K8 and they're open Monday to Saturday from 10-4.

If you own a Keurig, you have to go. Like, go already!

Elbow Falls unrecognizable

Darlene, Olivia and I went out to Elbow Falls on Monday. It was my first look at the popular day trip destination in Kananaskis Country in quite a few years.

En route, we stopped in at a garage sale in Priddis and when they heard we were going to the falls, they warned us that we wouldn't recognize the place.

They weren't kidding. The flood of 2013 really remodelled the place, as it did to pretty much every river or creek sourced in the Rocky Mountains in Canada, at least southern Canada.

Many of the paved paths leading from the parking lot to the original shoreline just ended at a cliff. The raging river in June had eroded much of the park area including most of the picnic area. Picnic tables that had been anchored into the ground with large cement pylons had been left standing in the middle of the destruction like hoodoos. You could see from the erosion how high the water had gotten and I was amazed that they had been able to bring what was left of the park back online in such short order.

The Elbow river had carved a new route through the valley further south and much of the older riverbed was a garbage dump of gravel, trees and flotsam.

But the eye opener was the highway's Elbow Valley bridge leading out to the park. The east end was completely washed out and broken apart. I wish I had been able to stop and take a picture, but it was chaos getting through that valley on the new, one lane, temporary bridge. I found a pic online that at least shows some of the damage.

It's going to be years before that bridge is fixed, or more likely, replaced.

Snoop Loops

10 Rules of Internet

1 - Given enough time, any object which can generate musical notes will be used to play the Super Mario Brothers theme on YouTube.
2 - Judging by their response, the meanest thing you can do to people on the Internet is to give them really good software for free.
3 - Three things never work: Voice chat, printers and projectors.
4 - Once a web community has decided to dislike a person, topic, or idea, the conversation will shift from criticizing the idea to become a competition about who can be most scathing in their condemnation. (See The Law of Fail.)
5 - Any new form of electronic communication will first be dismissed as trivial and worthless until it produces a profound result, after which it will be described as obvious and boring.
6 - If your website's full of assholes, it's your fault. (See the post on this topic.)
7 - Most websites treat "I like it" and "This is good" as the same thing, leading to most people on the Internet refusing to distinguish between "I don't like it" and "It's not good".
8 - When a company or industry is facing changes to its business due to technology, it will argue against the need for change based on the moral importance of its work, rather than trying to understand the social underpinnings.
9 - People will move mountains to earn a gold star by their name on the Internet.
10 - The only way to get useful feedback from people on the Internet is to ask questions that are actually answerable, instead of open-ended.

~Anil Dash

It's not about having nothing to hide....

....it's about stuff not being anyone else's business.

"If you've got nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear"

That's the campaign slogan the UK used when installing millions of public surveillance closed circuit cameras.

I used to be in the military and one of the things we learn in the realm of information security is that one little piece of information might not justify any kind of protection, but if you put enough of these pieces together, you can build an accurate picture of what's going on and that can be a matter of concern when it comes to privacy. Professor Daniel J. Solove:

"By joining pieces of information we might not take pains to guard, the government can glean information about us that we might indeed wish to conceal. For example, suppose you bought a book about cancer. This purchase isn’t very revealing on its own, for it indicates just an interest in the disease.

Suppose you bought a wig. The purchase of a wig, by itself, could be for a number of reasons. But combine those two pieces of information, and now the inference can be made that you have cancer and are undergoing chemotherapy. That might be a fact you wouldn’t mind sharing, but you’d certainly want to have the choice."

Why privacy matters, the article.

Welcome to Cornwall

Fun with the NSA

Wonderful parody of the Pixar lamp, but re-mixed for the NSA.

I love how the lamp stomps down 'U'

AMA with Joh Malkovich

Reddit 'ask me anything' with John Malkovich highlights: (this is really fun if you say it in your head in the voice of John Malkovich)

John, what time of day can I pour a drink and not feel bad?
"sorry, i would say at least you have to wait until 7:00 pm. i mean if i can do it, so can you. cowboy the fuck up!"

John, purely out of interest, do you smoke ganja?
"sometimes my best friend russ makes me smoke ganja, but i become a bit insane and normally eat a couple hundred dollars worth of say, ice cream sandwiches or dilly bars or what have you. even worse, i won't share any of it."

Sherlock and John