Mercedes Benz S500 Intelligent Drive research vehicle

Mercedes is one step away from a car that can drive itself, at least on the highway.

Door to door mail delivery is so pre hip operation

Things I learned lately 20 December

• In Canada, on average, the income cutoff mark for being part of the top 1% is $209,600 (per person) per year. In Calgary, you need to be making at least $391,700 per year to be in the top 1%. Calgary's richest person though, is E. Hunter Harrison, CEO of CP Rail. He earns $1,045,069 per year, but that's just his base salary. If you include his bonus, 'other compensation', share-based awards, option-based awards, etc., he earns $49,151,065 per year, or $134,660 per day. 
• When much of the eastern US says "I'm going to 'the City'", they're specifically talking about New York City, not the nearest city.
• People in coastal Virginia and North Carolina refer to drive-thru liquor stores as a 'brew-thru'. The west coast and New England doesn't even know what these are.
• Canada is the largest 'single neighbour nation' in the world. Meaning that it only borders one country by land.
• Researchers at Stony Brook University have developed a nano-trap made from microfibers 50 times thinner than human hair that can entangle bed bugs and other insects. The microfibers trap bugs by attaching to microstructures on their legs, immobilizing them, which stops them from feeding and reproducing.
• In the movie 'The Fifth Element', the villain (Zorg) and the hero (Korbin Dallas) never meet each other.
• The owner of The Bunny Ranch in Nevada is watching Canada's prostitution laws and is ready to expand into Canada if it ever gets legalized.
• As of 12 June 2013, 45.4% of Nevada mortgages are still in negative equity, meaning their homes are worth less than their outstanding mortgages. In Florida, it's 38.1%. In Michigan, 32%.
• There are 14,000+ McDonald's, 11,000+ Starbucks and 17,000+ libraries in the US.
• 11,520,000 tourists will visit New York City this year and spend $18,600,000,000 while they're there. London sees more tourists though, an estimated 15,960,000 visitors. Bangkok sees about the same.

Basic income for everyone

A simple idea for eliminating poverty is garnering attention recently: The government would mail everyone over the age of 21 a check each month, thus providing them with a guaranteed basic income. Everyone is free to do what they like with it.

A minimum income would allow for the elimination of all benefits. Workers should have greater leverage to demand higher wages and better working conditions from their employer thanks to the increased income security. Families might afford one parent to take time off to raise their kids. Eliminating the numerous welfare programs would also lead to efficiency gains as adults would not have to waste time filling out paperwork or visiting numerous offices.

Switzerland will soon vote to give each working age adult a basic income of $2,800 per month. Supporters of the initiative unloaded a dump truck of eight million coins, one for every Swiss citizen, after they successfully gained 125,000 signatures and triggered the referendum. Other countries have experimented with basic income in small areas, but none has done so throughout an entire country as Switzerland is considering. If the referendum passes, economists will certainly watch intently to see its effects.

Even Hugh Segal, an old school Conservative, likes this concept. The only thing he would do differently is administer it via the income tax system. The less money you make, the less tax you have to pay and at the poverty line, going below it means the tax man owes you.

But I was bearly speeding.....

Fascinating Maps Show The Origin Of Words

These maps show the lineage of the words 'church', 'bear', 'beer', 'apple', 'orange', 'rose', 'pineapple', 'tea' and 'cucumber' across Europe.

Batcoupe

Roundabouts ftw

Since demolishing 78 traffic signals and installing 80 roundabouts, the northern Indiana city of Carmel has reduced the number of accidents by 40% and the number of accidents with injuries by 78%.

Proponents say it’s nearly impossible to have a head-on or T-bone collision when using the roadways and collisions that do happen tend to occur at much lower speeds. Other benefits of roundabouts include reduced fuel consumption, due to a lack of idling, and a construction cost that is at least $150,000 less than installing traffic lights.

“We have more than any other city in the US,” says mayor James Brainard. “It’s a trend now in the US. There are more and more roundabouts being built every day because of the expense saved and more importantly, the safety.”

Lacoste versus lactose

Things I learned lately 14 December

• Most of the US west of the Mississippi pronounces 'caramel' with 2 syllables ("car-ml")
• Only states bordering Canada pronounce 'been' with the same vowel sound as 'ben' versus the rest of the US, which pronounces it like 'bin'.
• The further southeast you go in the US, the more likely you pronounce 'mayonnaise' with two syllables ("man-aze"). The same goes for pronouncing the middle syllable in 'pyjamas' like 'jaw' (pajawmas).
• New England pronounces 'pecan' the same as Canadians do ('pee-can').
• New England refers to a roundabout or traffic circle using the word 'rotary'. The Dakotas and most of Montana and Minnesota don't know what to call them.
• There's a very tiny part of the US centred around eastern Pennsylvania and into New Jersey that refer to the submarine sandwich as a 'hoagie'.
• Eastern Wisconsin calls a drinking / water fountain a 'bubbler'.
• Only New England and southern Florida call them sneakers. The rest of the US calls them 'tennis shoes'.
• The word 'freeway' is common mostly from Utah westward. Everywhere else, it's 'highway'.
• There are pockets of eastern US where they refer to rain while the sun is shining as a 'sunshower'. In the south, some call it 'the devil is beating his wife'. Much of the country, especially the west, has no term for this at all.
• During Black Friday and Thanksgiving, Americans spent $1.9 billion online. During "Singles Day", November 11, a single e-commerce company in China called Alibaba processed more than $5.75 billion in sales. Alibaba runs 2 websites – Tmall and Taobao. On Tmall, big brands sell to consumers. On Taobao, small businesses and consumers sell to consumers. Part of why Alibaba is so successful is that there are about 500 million internet users in China. There are lots of cities with millions of people in them and no malls or big offline retail centres. China has leap-frogged the whole mall and big box culture and shop online. It is free for merchants to set up stores on Taobao and Tmall. Alibaba only makes money by selling ads. That means more merchants, cheaper prices, and more sales. The trust level is higher too because they pay using Alipay – a service which keeps the funds in retail transactions in escrow until both the buyer and the seller are happy.
• The Calgary flood in June created 98,000+ tonnes of waste that was brought to city landfills in the weeks after flood. That's equivalent to 3 years of landfill space.
• Uruguay just became the first country to legalize and fully regulate the production, sale and distribution of marijuana.

Made from cool

Freaky Christopher Walken Danish ads for Jack & Jones clothing.

One.

Two.

And three.

Death balloon

Your body is her canvas

Alexa Meade uses bodies as her canvas.

It's eerie, yet fantastic.

Memories of Green

This is a very nice trailer of Blade Runner re-imagined as 'film-noir'.

The music is Memories of Green by Vangelis, which made a brief appearance in the movie.

This is the population of Canada distributed throughout the US

Somewhere outside Redmond

Microsoft's Steve Ballmer as Dr Evil and Bill gates as Austin Powers.

I kid you not.

Streetview coverage

This map shows what parts of the world is currently covered by Google Streetview (source). I had once read that Germany wasn't part of it because of their privacy concerns, but it seems they've worked that out now.

Not a creature was stirring..... (well, almost)

Things you say when you're over 50

• Do I seriously have to wait that long for my senior's discount?
• Is your mortgage paid off yet?
• Is that the last car you're ever going to buy?
• I can't believe it's [insert current month or year here] already!
• No, I feel fine, why do you ask?
• Did I ever tell you how far I had to walk to school in the snow?
• Let's go to Swiss Chalet!
• What do you mean 'I look tired'?
• Kids today......
• See that limb twitching? I'm not doing that consciously.
• I was up at 5am. Yes, I know it's Saturday.
• Seriously, if you call me 'Sir' [or Ma'am] one more time.....
• Is there a pay phone around here?
• Help me get up....
• What's wrong with Herb Alpert?
• Back in the olden days......
• How do you expect someone my age to limit my thoughts to 140 characters?
• Stop calling it 'classic rock'. I prefer to call it 'the only music that mattered'.
• Grey hair makes me look distinguished? So what you're saying is that you can distinguish me from a 30 year old?
• That prune juice went right through me. No pun intended.
• If by 'chillaxing' you mean napping, then yes, I'm chillaxing...
• What?
• You know............... I forgot what I was going to say.

Paper Kites video

This inspiring music video for Young by The Paper Kites took 7 days to photograph. More than 350 people were involved. It took 10 days to cut together over 4,000 photos.

Stunning.

1993....... and 2013

How not to get arrested by police

Don't attract attention to yourself.

Don't go out after dark.

Avoid sudden changes in motion, speed, direction or behaviour.

Be honest, polite, respectful and resistant to incitement with police. Don't smile.

Ask for a notice to appear as an alternative to an arrest.

Cry.

Never drive perfectly or too slow. If you're speeding, don't suddenly hit the brakes, the front-end dip is a tip-off.

Always politely decline a search of your car.

Conduct this...

Improv Everywhere are the coolest group of people on the planet.

In this case, they let passers-by conduct an orchestra.

It's too bad this kind of stuff only happens in New York.

People having fun at the expense of something that doesn't exist yet

Tax math

There are people complaining that municipal taxes in Calgary are going up again. They argue that taxes should stay the same.

I guess some folks forgot how to do basic math. The only way you can progress with no increase in tax is if the cost of providing services is fixed. It is not. The cost rises with inflation, wage increases, supply and demand of material and labour. In such a world, the only way to maintain an unchanging tax base is to cut services or quality of services.

Sorry, but I don't want that.

John Cleese on creativity

John Cleese tries to explain creativity and how to become more creative. The background of his lecture is scientific, the guide based on his own experience. This is really spot on and any creative professional will agree. Plus, it is really funny at the same time!

Enjoy and be inspired!

Batman in filme noire style

How to quickly build rapport with people

1. Let the other person know that there is an end (to the conversation) in sight, and it is really close.
2. Smiling is the number one nonverbal technique you should utilize to look more accommodating.
3. When individuals speak slowly and clearly, they tend to sound more credible than those who speak quickly.
4. There is no greater theme and tool for eliciting individuals for action, information, and a great conversation than the use of sympathy or assistance.
5. Avoid correcting people or anything that could be interpreted as one-upmanship. Just listen. You don’t need to tell your story; just encourage them to keep telling theirs.
6. Validate others. Again, through listening.
7. Ask open ended questions that don’t require a simple yes or no answer. They are generally questions that require more words and thought. Utilize the content given and continue to ask open ended questions about the same content.
8. Some people don’t speak much. Other times people feel self-conscious about talking so much. It’s good to give a piece of personal information for every one they reveal to get a flow going.
9. When you offer people something, they will naturally feel the need to help you in return.
10. Play it cool. Focus on the other person’s needs and don’t let your expectations rise.
11. In every interaction the other person should walk away feeling much better for having met you. You should brighten their day and listen to them when no one else will.

Just don't call her a prodigy

12 year old Emily Bear has been playing the piano since she was 4, but this 12 year old girl not only plays, but she writes her own material too, having composed 350 pieces by age 8.

You've just got to watch this video about her.

She aspires to write music for movies. Quincy Jones is her current mentor.

Iron Man in filme noire style