Archive for February, 2010

Hidden Messages in Toronto Signs

Friday, February 26th, 2010

Toronto is one of the most multicultural cities in the world.  Which is amazing if you like variety in food, culture and even street life.  It does create a challenge though for newcomers who don’t quite get the double meaning of legitimate names. And oh, the typos are pretty good too.

The Healthy Chinese Option

Low Fat Chinese Food.  Awesome!

Low Fat Chinese Food. Awesome!

Open but Locked?

It seems they are open a lot, but only unlock at certain hours.  That’s the best I’ve figured out.

Open, but locked.  Innnnteresting.

(in reality it’s a phone store doing unlock)

Who said Accountants were Shy?

He's good with Endowments

He's good with Endowments

Kebabs: Now we know what’s really in ‘em

Mystery Meat!

Mystery Meat!

SEO for your Soul?

Friday, February 19th, 2010

Seems like Asok has finally gone to the dark side – and is doing SEO.

Asok-SEO-Soul

Olympic Grinch

Thursday, February 18th, 2010

So, does anyone else loathe the Olympics?  Am I the only angry man in Toronto that every form of media is owned by Atheletes I’ve never met, and products they shill?

Well seems I’m not:

http://www.reallifecomics.com/archive/100217.html

http://www.pvponline.com/2010/02/17/bored-games/

Both are good, and I appreciate their intent.  But over past few days I’ve realised it’s not the Olympics per se that get my ire fired up. It’s the inescapable hype that surrounds them.  Yes I realise the Royal Bank has donated money to the Olympics, and probably the Canadian Dental Association has given free mouthguards to them all, or whatever, but why is that so relevant they need to ADVERTISE that they have given this stuff to them?  And worse, why does the donation by McDonald’s Hamburgers or Mars Bars mean their products are now implied to be part of a healthy Olympic-level athletic diet?

So, yeah, I’m loving some of the athletic competitions!  They really are awesome in all the senses of the word.  But the  hype; yuck! I’m gonna consciously boycott the ones that are just over the top.

Algae use Quantum Mechanics

Thursday, February 4th, 2010

algae knew about quantum mechanics nearly two billion years before humans

Now THAT is some kinda statement by the University of Toronto Professor Greg Scholes.  In a paper published in Nature he goes on to explain how the Algae seem to be using “classical” quantum mechanics to transfer sunlight from their receptors to their storage areas.

We were astonished to find clear evidence of long-lived quantum mechanical states … the energy of absorbed light resides in two places at once – a quantum superposition state, or coherence – and such a state lies at the heart of quantum mechanical theory.

OK, my job seems a lot less significant this week.  I guess I’ll have to feel a bit better by using the Weenie joke, that McMaster launched the career of a Nobel Prize winning researcher, Scholes.  He’s known for the Black and  Scholes forumla. I wonder if Greg will be known for the Light’n’ Sholes theory.  Ba dum dum!

More found here: http://fwix.com/toronto/share/e6c1cc90a6/Scientists_find_quantum_mechanics_at_work_in_photosynthesis

Someone asked Google to give a Clear Answer

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

I was reading a post about a fellow’s issues with Google. There are certain “rules” that Google posts. Follow those, and Google is supposed to index most/all of your good pages, and none of the pages you don’t want.

Of course, Google experiments all the time, and this poor bastard had Google’s search bots trying to follow his “buy” buttons. Now that was not supposed to happen, and caused all sorts of crap to occur. Google decided that because it had problems with these pages that the rest of teh site was crap. Anyhoo, that means the guy lost a lot of revenue…

So at this point, he read up the rules Google posts, and realised at best they were half-truths. He eventually said, “I want a Clear Cut answer and not an Answer that Hides More Than It Reveals. I have had several contradicting answers on various forums.”

And, of course, he got a random jumble of words that resemble an answer. Google; you’re the best at finding info, and hiding info.

More here:
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Webmasters/thread?tid=0652bb8750087926&hl=en