Persistent Illumination

It looks like yet another sibling will be formally titled "master" soon. This will make three of five - and me the only one with "no good reason" not to be on the list.

Phil was the first to go. He's out in Edmonton at the University of Alberta, about halfway through a masters in linguistics, somehow earning a MSc in an arts-based program. Undergraduate: Bachelor of Mathematics in CS, from good old UW. He's one smart cookie.

Matt was the next to move towards grad school, heading for the School of Information at the University of Michigan. No news yet what program he's headed for in that school. Undergraduate: Accounting, from U of M's sworn rival (and my dad's first professorship), Michigan State University.

And now, Joanna. She'll be moving to Austin, Texas this summer, where she will be enrolling in a Hebrew Studies program at the University of Texas. Still not sure why she's so into Hebrew, but I think she should use her interest to write the Jewish "Da Vinci Code" and make a go-zillion dollars (not to mention have Tom Hanks star in the film version). Also I'm surprised that one would choose to study Hebrew in Texas, but apparently U of T is really good for that. Undergraduate: BA from Vanderbilt University, double majoring in Religious Studies and Jewish Studies.

Simon has a great excuse, as he's still finishing his undergrad out at Adams State College in Colorado. Like two of his older brothers, he'll be taking the "extended over time" approach to a bachelor's degree. Phil went to Japan for a year on co-op and I got a teensy bit involved in my school community. Simon, in turn, will be headed to Africa to put the "field" back in "field research." Undergraduate: BSc in Wildlife Biology (in order to become a better wildlife photographer).

Which leaves me. Undergraduate: BA in psychology from UW, minoring in management studies and peace and conflict studies. It's not that I'm not feeling out my choices: I've sat down and talked to business schools, psychology programs, schools in warmer climates as well as a few programs a bit closer to home. Still, it's my masters degree. I'm left with a bit of a bad taste in my mouth after my UW education - despite the fact that I hold a degree in one of North America's top programs of its kind, people hear "psychology" and they think "left-wing theorist" or "someone who couldn't decide what to take" or "far too theoretical;" they hear "arts" and they think "can't hack the math, or the entrance requirements to a real program," "would make a good teacher," or "not logical enough for science;" they hear "University of Waterloo" and they think "engineering, math or computers, right?"

So, I have given myself a few choices for my grad program selection. Either:
• reputable and well-known nationally, if not internationally (e.g. Ivey MBA, Schulich law, Calgary I/O psych, maybe something Ivy League)
• extremely employable upon graduation
• really, really quick and easy (I'm thinking of thesis routes, here)
• something just weird, wild and cool (grad school in Australia, anyone?)

Now that the hype is dying down, that many of the athletes have returned to Canuck soil, that HBC has shown that they can actually make a profit (albeit at a deeply discounted price), I'm taking one last look back at my experience of the 2006 Winter Olympics.

• I've actually watched more of this Olympics than of any other since I was a kid. As in, since I was a kid in the USA, rooting for the USA, while the Olympics were in (you guessed it) the USA.

• bits of the opening ceremonies: the lighting of the torch, the presentation by Pavarotti. Even better, I caught Jon Stewart's later review of the "Five Ring Circus," which was hilarious. (Iran entering to Funkytown? I'm actually sorry I missed that.)

• Jennifer Heil on the women's mogul: Canada's first medal, Canada's first gold. My house erupts in cheering
• All the women's hockey prelim games (at least until the first dozen or so goals were scored in each)
• Chandra Crawford's surprise (but well earned) gold in Cross Country sprint
• Jeffrey Buttle unexpectedly taking a (bronze) medal
• Dominique Maltais' bronze on the snowboard cross (even after she fell!)
• Women's 5000m speed skating: Hughes' gold, Klassen's Olympic record
• More than a few of Kliebrink's curling wins
• The men's hockey loss to Finland
• that nasty fall where the Japanese skiier broke her leg
• The closing ceremonies: you go, Sam Sullivan! Just please have better ceremonies than the Italians...

Now, I didn't actually make a concerted effort to watch any of these events, save the closing ceremonies and a few of the hockey games. Rather, I just happened to turn on the TV to catch some Olympic coverage and there were our Canadians, winning medals (or coming in close fourth-place finishes).

May I say, I am excited for the Oscars. Jon Stewart hosting. Plenty of beautiful people in attendance. I have actually seen many of the contending movies this year. Hollywood has already started to close down. Jon Stewart hosting. I'll be at a swanky invite-only party, a formal event complete with red carpet! And have I mentioned, Jon Stewart is hosting?

Prepping up for the show, I've learned a few things about the Oscars. For example, did you know that for a film to be officially considered an Oscar contender, it had to:

• be shown in a commercial motion picture theatre in Los Angeles County?
  
• for paid admission?
  
• be "advertised and exploited during its Los Angeles run in a manner considered normal and customary to the industry?"

Or, that for someone to receive an Oscar, they must agree to sign this:

Gentlemen:
I hereby acknowledge receipt from you of a replica of your copyrighted statuette, commonly known as the ‘Oscar,’ as an award for achievement in motion picture arts and sciences. I acknowledge that my receipt of said replica does not entitle me to any right whatever in your copyright, trade-mark and service-mark of said statuette and that only the physical replica itself shall belong to me. In consideration of your delivering said replica to me, I agree to comply with your rules and regulations respecting its use and not to sell or otherwise dispose of it, nor permit it to be sold or disposed of by operation of law, without first offering to sell it to you for the sum of $1.00. You shall have thirty days after any such offer is made to you within which to accept it. This agreement shall be binding not only on me, but also on my heirs, legatees, executors, administrators, estate, successors and assigns. My legatees and heirs shall have the right to acquire said replica, if it becomes part of my estate, subject to this agreement.

The more you know, I guess.

Does this mean that we'll still be able to throw stones? The house won't be made of glass, after all...

The Toronto Star is reporting today that a prehistoric predecessor to the Canadian beaver has been found.

"Displaying the scaly, flat tail of a beaver and the sharp, fish-eating teeth of an otter, the creature’s remains were actually found in a Jurassic-era lakebed in Inner Mongolia, about as far from Canada as you can get."

Yeah, great. Now we have a predecessor to Frank and Gordon, the annoying CGI Bell Canada spokesbeavers. But the really alarming thing comes in the very last line of the story:

"Luo’s fossilized specimen also shows signs of a furry pelt, making it the most primitive known mammal ever to be preserved with hairs."

Now, if I remember my science correctly, preserving hairs preserves DNA. And if prehistoric DNA has been preserved, modern-day scientists can clone it!

Now that's cool!

There's a new movie that has been added to my "great movies" list. I like many movies, but I think few of them are really great. Shawshank great. Usual Suspects great. The new movie? Cinderella Man, starring Russell Crowe. Seamless, flawless, it's like somebody said "hey, let's make a movie that's not pretty good with a few great scenes ... let's make a movie that's great from start to finish." Or maybe the love-conquers-all theme appealed to me. Or maybe it was the Italian-American in me. But either way -- you go, Ron Howard!

(at a press conference, about his comeback after a stint of poverty)

Braddock: "... so now I know what I'm fighting for."

Reporter: "What's that?"

Braddock: "Milk."

To be honest, Amy gets the credit of getting me to watch it. I mean, really, do I seem like the kind of person who wants to watch a movie with the word "Cinderella" in the title? ;) And I swear that it wasn't until halfway through that I noticed it was Aussie Russell Crowe in the lead. It also helped that I didn't know the story of Braddock, so I honestly didn't know what was going to happen in the end.

All in all, good flick. I'd watch it. And Giamatti's favoured for Supporting Actor in the Oscars!

Better than a few days in Niagara Falls

Better even than the Olympics

Comes the news that Darren's been through his surgery and, by Margie's account at least, is really doing quite well.

Looks like Paddy Power's at it again.

That's right, it's the same group that, following the passing of John Paul II, let you bet on the next Pope. (Wasn't excommunication the consequence for that?) They're now bringing you Oscar Night betting.

That's right, looks like Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote) is favoured 1-7 for the Best Actor win. Charlize Theron (North Country), surprisingly, is behind the crowd, at 20-1 odds.

Let's see, reviewing my picks, this means that if I bet $5 on each (a $30 investment) and they win...

...on my "safe bets" I'd be up to $66.71 (a 122% increase)

...on my "I'd prefer" I'd be up to $181.04 (a 500% increase)

Whoa. Wait a minute. Maybe I should ...

But then, if Theron doesn't win, or if Crash doesn't surprise audiences, then I'll be out a few bucks. Although I can always try to make it back on the "Oscar Specials:" if Seymour Hoffman cries, for example, or if the best actress comes on stage with "her dress tucked in her knickers," there are pretty good payouts.

Or, I could always try to pick who designs the best actress' dress...

--

Also: tip of the hat to Neal, thanks for this little review.

Caught the men's hockey team loss to Finland. Caught the women's hockey team win for the go-o-o-old! Also saw some "boblseigh," wow those Canuck women can move fast.

Meanwhile, I've been playing around with HTML again. For my latest, click here.

(My little brother is heading up a class expedition to Kenya, Africa. Now hmmm, who do I know who has been to Kenya... )

On the list of "things I did not know:"

The protagonist of David Chilton's famous book, The Wealthy Barber, hails from Kitchener. Likely because, at least at the time of printing, Mr. Chilton himself lived in Kitchener.

Interesting. And, so far at least, it's a good read.

Once upon a time there was a man named Hugh Loebner. Mr Loebner wanted to price some gold medals for a prize he was giving out. When shopping around for the medals, he apparently had a very eye-opening experience.

"...if the price is too much for you Dr. Loebner, you can do what the Olympic Committee does."

"What does the Olympic Committee do?" I wondered, and asked.

"Why, they have silver medals, gold plated," was her answer.

I could scarcely believe that this could be true. Nevertheless, I checked on the internet. I quote now from Olympic Charter:

Chapter5, Rule 70, paragraph 2 of the Charter, which is entitled "Medals and Diplomas" states:

2.1 For the individual events, the first prize shall be a silver gilt medal and a diploma, the second prize a silver medal and a diploma, and the third prize a bronze medal and a diploma ... etc

2.2 The medals shall be at least 60mm in diameter and 3 mm thick. The medals for first and second places shall be of silver of at least 925-1000 grade; the medal for first place shall be gilded with at least 6 g of pure gold.

Mr Loebner included this information in a speech he was giving in Sydney, Australia, just two years before they hosted the summer Olympics of 2000. In that same speech, which later came to be known as the Olympic Gold Medal Fraud speech, he went on to say this:

"Let us be conservative, and say that 500 medals must be awarded. Let us say further say that each medal will cost $5000. This results in a total cost of $2,500,000. I think that this is a [sic] consevative cost, and that the true cost would be less. In any case, it must be within an order of magnitude.

What is $2,500,000 compared to the cost of the Olympics? Atlanta spent more that 6 thousand 200 million dollars, 6.2 billion dollars. The cost of honest gold medals would have been less than 1/2 of one percent. I hazard the guess that more was spent on toilet paper, than would have been spent on gold."

Loebner gave the speech in 1998, and the offending passage has since been stricken from the IOC Charter. Not amended, mind you, but merely moved to the IOC Protocol Guide. You can find the relevant section - still relatively unchanged, referring to the "gilt" medals - on the Beijing 2008 site.

Tongue-in-cheek, Loebner goaded Sydney into improving upon what he perceived as a problem. "To close, I make three suggestions. The first suggestion is that those 6 grams of pure gold that gild the silver GILT medal be named. The second suggestion is that the name be "the gilt of the Olympic Committee. " The third suggestion I make as visitor to your fair city. If you would be better than Atlanta, Sydney, give gold."

And of course it warrants mention: Loebner wanted the medals for his "Loebner Prize," rewarding endeavours in Artificial Intelligence (AI). "Dr. Loebner pledged a Grand Prize of $100,000 and a Gold Medal for the first computer whose responses were indistinguishable from a human's. Such a computer can be said 'to think.' Each year an annual prize of $2000 and a bronze medal is awarded to the most human-like computer."

Including, I must add, this project.

In case you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend checking this out:

Brokeback to the Future

And, in the same category of "I can't believe what they can do to an old movie with a little new editing," check this out. If you'd never seen the movie, you'd almost expect a heartwarming family drama.

Wait! One more! Who ever knew that Trent Reznor liked the Ghostbusters so much? Uncanny, eh?

CBC is currently reporting that "Team Canada trounces Russia" 12-0 in women's hockey ... although they still have 7 minutes left in the 3rd period.

Happy 19th birthday to Meghan Agosta, apparently a former team-mate of one of my housemates. On my 19th birthday, I went out and had a huge party. On hers, she gets a hat trick in the Olympics. Po-tat-o, po-tah-to.

As for the rest, Canada's doing pretty mediocre today. Our medal hopeful in women's cross-country placed 7th, but distance skater Klassen has taken home a bronze in the women's 3000m. We're currently tied for fifth place pverall in the Olympics, along with France and Russia. Not too shabby!

UPDATE: The TV has caught up to the web reporting. The final score was indeed Canada 12 - Russia 0.

Medal Standings by Country

CBC's been pretty good about quick updates, so far ... usually within about 10 minutes of the event happening.

Oh, and as of the time of posting, Canada is TIED for third with the United States in the medal standings, with one gold each. Only Norway (2 silver, 2 bronze) and Germany (2 gold) lead.

Jennifer Heil just took our first gold! Women's mogul! The national anthem will be playing soon (though it runs the danger of being drowned out by cheering here at my house)! WOO HOO!!

Much like the Super Bowl, I love to take the time out to watch the Olympics. Caught some of the opening ceremonies yesterday - a particularly spectacular lighting of the torch, and of course what Italian-hosted world stage would be complete without famed tenor Pavarotti?

Right now I'm watching as Norway's Traa has overtaken the lead in women's moguls, bumping one of the two Canadians out of the medal standings. The CBC broadcast appears to be live, as our 1:30pm EST time corresponds to 7:30pm in Torino.

Under the category of "things I wish I'd thought of first:" Facebook.

I usually avoid membership in any sort of groups: Hi5, Where in the World are you Now, those sorts of things.

But I really like Facebook's simple style, its organization by group, its ability to gauge certain trends (pop music, favourite TV shows and movies, etc) and I can see how it would be an incredibly useful tool were I still taking classes. Just list the classes I'm in, and I can instantly find a few dozen people taking Financial Management or Conflict Resolution along with me.

Plus it's interesting to see the mandatory categorization (and registration) based on schools attended. People love to acknowledge that they are (or have been) part of a school community. Too bad that my e-mail address is publicly listed in a web-scrapable fashion, though - spam, here I come.

And it seems that at least two groups are taking advantage of Facebook's rising popularity among younger students, by using it to appeal to them with their Feds campaigns.

I'm sure the data they are able to collect on people is astounding.

Or, as I like to call it, a great reason to spend the weekends in.

(Yes, that is a high of -10C next Sunday)

UPDATE: Apparently, the prediction has changed. Rather than two low spikes in projected temperature on the weekends, it looks like another warm front's on its way in. Not that I'm complaining, in the least!

Great game last night. Lots of tight calls, a close score and the occasional game-shifting play. Edge of your seat, right up until the last three minutes. All it all it was a great time, except for the fact that my favoured team completely sucked eggs.

I wouldn't so much say that the Steelers won the Super Bowl, as I would that the Seahawks lost it. True, the Steelers put in a great performance yesterday, but I hold that they could easily have been bested by Seattle if those nor-westerners hadn't made so many stupid mistakes. Their inability to translate a 2-to-1 time possession in the first quarter into anything more than a field goal, for example. Moreso, there were too many fumbled passes, too many poor choices of play (running a play up the middle in the last minute of the first half?) -- the way they played yesterday, it's no surprise the Seahawks lost.

Ah well, there was some great food, a dozen people cheering at my house, and all in all it was a good time. Now looking forward to Team Canada and Oscar parties, hopefully with equally great crowds.

Afterthought: When the Super Bowl MVPs of the past marched out in pre-game, it was interesting for me to realize just how long I've been watching that championship. From the 49ers' (go Rice!) to the Cowboys to Green Bay's return to the Patriots, I've been watching the Super Bowl for just about two decades now.

Also: Yes, the Stones did rock the halftime. Four decades plus, and still going strong. Though Aaron Neville and Arethra Franklin were certainly poor choices for the national anthem.

In a word, Seahawks.

See you then!

OK, so I went to see Brokeback Mountain last weekend. It was good, but not that good.

The story was a bit interesting, though what I REALLY loved were the mountains and the natural scenes. That, and the actors' and director's combined ability to take Heath "Knight's Tale" Ledger and Jake "Donnie Darko" Gyllenhal and make us forget all about their acting pasts. For a few brief hours, they seemed to be real cowboys.

Well, gay cowboys, that is.

Who apparently never figure out "hey, we're gay, it's the 60's, we're right next to California. Why don't we just move on out to San Francisco and live our lives there?"

Aaaanyways...scroll way down to see my picks (Blogger and tables don't seem to be getting along at the moment)

Contenders	Safe bets	I'd prefer
Best Picture Brokeback Mountain Capote Crash Good Night, and Good Luck Munich	Brokeback	Crash
Adapted Screenplay Brokeback Mountain Capote The Constant Gardener A History of Violence Munich	Brokeback	Capote
Best Actor Philip Seymour Hoffman Terrence Howard Heath Ledger Joaquin Phoenix David Strathairn	Hoffman	Hoffman
Best Actress Judi Dench Felicity Huffman Keira Knightley Charlize Theron Reese Witherspoon	That "Housewives" girl	Charlize Theron
Supporting Actor George Clooney Matt Dillon Paul Giamatti Jake Gyllenhaal William Hurt	Gyllenhaal	Giamatti
Supporting Actress Amy Adams Catherine Keener Frances McDormand Rachel Weisz Michelle Williams	Williams	Weisz
Director Ang Lee, Brokeback Bennett Miller, Capote Paul Haggis, Crash Clooney, Good Night Spielberg, Munich	gay cowboys	racial tensions
Original Screenplay Crash Good Night, and Good Luck Match Point The Squid and the Whale Syriana	Sea creatures	Match Point
Animated Feature Film Howl's Moving Castle Corpse Bride Wallace & Gromit	Howl	Howl
Cinematography Batman Begins Brokeback Mountain Good Night, and Good Luck Memoirs of a Geisha The New World	Brokeback	Batman/Geisha
Music Brokeback, Santaolalla Gardener, Iglesias Geisha, John Williams Munich, John Williams Pride, Marianelli	John Williams	John Williams (but for the other movie)
Costume Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Memoirs of a Geisha Mrs. Henderson Presents Pride & Prejudice Walk the Line	Geisha	same
Documentary Feature Darwin's Nightmare Enron March of the Penguins Murderball Street Fight	Penguins	is there any other choice?
Visual Effects Narnia King Kong War of the Worlds	Kong	same

What do YOU think?