I'm going to wrap things up here for the next little while. I'm setting out tomorrow for a 6 month trip around the world, so rather than write about trivia and interesting-yet-not-terribly-useful things, I'll be writing about travel. If you are interested in reading about odd foods and misadventures in cross-cultural communications, feel free to check out the travel blog which has been created expressly for this purpose.
Now, since I'm leaving for six months, I figured my last post before departure should contain some truly weighty material to consider, analyze and ponder for the next half year. With that in mind, here is a video of some puppies and a cat.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Monday, September 8, 2008
The Average Day
I've got a weird obsession with eccentric watches. It's totally irrational, and I usually try to avoid having things like "collections" that mostly gather dust, but a cool watch circumvents that part of my brain and directly activates the "neat-o" region of the prefrontal cortex, resulting in a new watch purchase more often than I'd care to admit.
Here's just such a watch. It's by a small British company called Mr. Jones Watches that produces all their designs in runs of 100. This one is called "The Average Day", and omits hour markings in favour of "units of median daily routine". It's a witty idea, and the design itself looks pretty slick. The outer ring represents AM activities, and the inner ring represents PM.
If an extra $200 falls out of the sky on my way home tonight, I will definitely pick one up.
Here's just such a watch. It's by a small British company called Mr. Jones Watches that produces all their designs in runs of 100. This one is called "The Average Day", and omits hour markings in favour of "units of median daily routine". It's a witty idea, and the design itself looks pretty slick. The outer ring represents AM activities, and the inner ring represents PM.
If an extra $200 falls out of the sky on my way home tonight, I will definitely pick one up.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
The Slightly-less Leaning Tower of Pisa
I've long said that world records in the field of structures are slightly (ridiculously) specific. I mean, sure, there are legitimate technical differences between tall structures (which can be any old pile of materials) and tall buildings (which need to have occupiable space, and are therefore tougher to build really tall), for example. But there are some obscure ones out there.
Take the Confederation Bridge, for example. It's long. 12.9km long, to be precise. But it's not the world's longest bridge from land mass to land mass. Nor does it have the world's longest span length, a measure of the distance between two supports. Rather, it's the world's longest bridge over ice covered waters.
And now Reuters is reporting on a structure in the Netherlands that is gunning for another world record with world-class nit-pickyness. You see, they have a church that leans a bit.
Not qutie as much as the leaning tower of Pisa, you might say, and you'd be right. BUT! The guy in the following video would like you to consider that if you take the total lean of the church, and divide it by the structure's height, the resulting ratio is larger for the church than it is for the leaning tower! Said differently, if you could resize the two structures to be the same size but preserve their tilt angle, the church would have the bigger total tilt. This is all an incredibly complicated way of saying that the church has a greater angle of tilt. Congratulations, Netherlands, you are now the proud owners of the world record holder for "greatest height-to-lean ratio", or "greatest tilt in a hypothetical world where all structures can be resized to be the same size, but preserving tilt angles".
Take the Confederation Bridge, for example. It's long. 12.9km long, to be precise. But it's not the world's longest bridge from land mass to land mass. Nor does it have the world's longest span length, a measure of the distance between two supports. Rather, it's the world's longest bridge over ice covered waters.
And now Reuters is reporting on a structure in the Netherlands that is gunning for another world record with world-class nit-pickyness. You see, they have a church that leans a bit.
Not qutie as much as the leaning tower of Pisa, you might say, and you'd be right. BUT! The guy in the following video would like you to consider that if you take the total lean of the church, and divide it by the structure's height, the resulting ratio is larger for the church than it is for the leaning tower! Said differently, if you could resize the two structures to be the same size but preserve their tilt angle, the church would have the bigger total tilt. This is all an incredibly complicated way of saying that the church has a greater angle of tilt. Congratulations, Netherlands, you are now the proud owners of the world record holder for "greatest height-to-lean ratio", or "greatest tilt in a hypothetical world where all structures can be resized to be the same size, but preserving tilt angles".
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Canadian Media Priorities
I'm not sure the monstrous difference in scale between Canadian and American news and politics can be any better illustrated than through tonight's CTV news broadcast. Sure, they ran some footage of Obama's speech in front of what appeared to be most of the state of Colorado (side note: that part about ending foreign oil dependence in 10 years was both gutsy and kickass), but they ran it immediately AFTER a hard-hitting investigative piece on, uh... Toronto's new diagonal crosswalk at Yonge and Dundas.
In their defence, it is a pretty cool crosswalk.
In their defence, it is a pretty cool crosswalk.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Mark Zuckerberg Says "Too many new Facebook members"
I know spam chain letter things are nothing new, but I found this one waiting in my Facebook inbox today, and I think it's pretty entertaining:
Let's deconstruct this a little. First off, Mark Zuckerberg, the 24 year old prodigy who runs a company with an implied $15 billion market capitalization, doesn't understand the proper use of "your" versus "you're" (I really hope this is not the case, because I know the difference, and if he doesn't, it means that he is younger than me, and also has worse grammatical skills, and is still a billionaire).
Second, Mark (being the friendly guy that he is) has taken time out of his duties as CEO of Facebook to tell all his good friends that facebook is overpopulated. Too many people. He wants there to be fewer people using his company's product. Makes sense.
Finally, he wants to personally hear back from everyone on Facebook to make sure they're active! He must be planning to come in for a few hours on Saturday to go through all those responses.
If ever there were a compelling case for increasing our efforts at teaching critical thinking skills in school, the existence of this message in my inbox is it.
Reply Attention all Facebook members.
Facebook is recently becoming very overpopulated,
There have been many members complaining that Facebook
is becoming very slow.Record shows that the reason is
that there are too many non-active Facebook members
And on the other side too many new Facebook members.
We will be sending this messages around to see if the
Members are active or not,If you're active please send
to 15 other users using Copy+Paste to show that you are active
Those who do not send this message within 2 weeks,
The user will be deleted without hesitation to create more space,
If Facebook is still overpopulated we kindly ask for donations but until then send this message to all your friends and make sure you send
this message to show me that your active and not deleted.
Founder of Facebook
Mark Zuckerber
Let's deconstruct this a little. First off, Mark Zuckerberg, the 24 year old prodigy who runs a company with an implied $15 billion market capitalization, doesn't understand the proper use of "your" versus "you're" (I really hope this is not the case, because I know the difference, and if he doesn't, it means that he is younger than me, and also has worse grammatical skills, and is still a billionaire).
Second, Mark (being the friendly guy that he is) has taken time out of his duties as CEO of Facebook to tell all his good friends that facebook is overpopulated. Too many people. He wants there to be fewer people using his company's product. Makes sense.
Finally, he wants to personally hear back from everyone on Facebook to make sure they're active! He must be planning to come in for a few hours on Saturday to go through all those responses.
If ever there were a compelling case for increasing our efforts at teaching critical thinking skills in school, the existence of this message in my inbox is it.
Deans to Students: Stop drinking illegally, start drinking legally
A bunch of college presidents in the US have put together a statement calling for lawmakers to lower the drinking age from 21 to 18. Their rationale is that if it's not illegal, students will feel less compelled to drink a ton of booze at once (i.e. the "predrink"), opting instead to drink a ton of booze spaced out over a whole night (i.e. the "Thursday").
A drinking age of 21 is pretty ridiculous when you look at it in the context of other global drinking ages. But hey, at least the United States has some powerful, influential allies in the "no alcohol until 21" club: Paraguay, Indonesia, Pakistan, India (but even then only in certain states), Oman, the UAE, the Ukraine, the Northern Marianas, Fiji and Kiribati.
A drinking age of 21 is pretty ridiculous when you look at it in the context of other global drinking ages. But hey, at least the United States has some powerful, influential allies in the "no alcohol until 21" club: Paraguay, Indonesia, Pakistan, India (but even then only in certain states), Oman, the UAE, the Ukraine, the Northern Marianas, Fiji and Kiribati.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Superfluism - A semi-annual review
I just took a look at my blogging output for the last few months, and I think some definite conclusions can be drawn concerning my procrastination habits.
You Oughta Know, Dave
I just heard this interesting tidbit last week and thought I'd pass it on. Alanis Morissette's 1995 hit "You Oughta Know", a pretty harsh appraisal of an old boyfriend of hers, is about none other than Dave Coulier, best known for co-starring with Arleen Sorkin (and later Tawny Kitaen) on the immortal classic "America's Funniest People" (also he was in Full House or something).
It's true! Maybe.
Bonus trivia! Tawny Kitaen was also the girl in Whitesnake's video for Here I Go Again, which is so awesome I have added it here for your daily fix of "girl-doing-cartwheels-on-expensive-cars-while-guys-with-perms-stare-intently-into-the-camera". You know you want it.
It's true! Maybe.
Bonus trivia! Tawny Kitaen was also the girl in Whitesnake's video for Here I Go Again, which is so awesome I have added it here for your daily fix of "girl-doing-cartwheels-on-expensive-cars-while-guys-with-perms-stare-intently-into-the-camera". You know you want it.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
The McDonald Offensive
Fun fact: the Russia-Georgia conflict is the first war ever started between two countries who both have McDonald's franchises.
Why does that matter, aside from being an interesting bit of trivia? In his book, The Lexus and the Olive Tree, Thomas Friedman observed that no two countries with McDonald's restaurants had ever entered into armed conflict (at the time of publication in 1999). He cited this as proof of the pacifying effect of globalization. His underlying reasoning was that countries with heavily interlinked economies will not go to war with each other for fear of disrupting mutually beneficial trade links. Unfortunately, Russia didn't get the memo, and no amount of McRibs was able to keep Russian tanks from rolling into South Ossetia.
Why does that matter, aside from being an interesting bit of trivia? In his book, The Lexus and the Olive Tree, Thomas Friedman observed that no two countries with McDonald's restaurants had ever entered into armed conflict (at the time of publication in 1999). He cited this as proof of the pacifying effect of globalization. His underlying reasoning was that countries with heavily interlinked economies will not go to war with each other for fear of disrupting mutually beneficial trade links. Unfortunately, Russia didn't get the memo, and no amount of McRibs was able to keep Russian tanks from rolling into South Ossetia.
Friday, August 1, 2008
Untriennium
Here's an interesting bit of obscure, theoretical atomic physics trivia for you: there's a cap on the number of possible elements that can ever exist, according to our current understanding of physics, and the highest element theoretically possible is element 139, untriennium.
It seems like scientists just keep smashing stuff together at higher and higher speeds, and discovering higher and higher numbered elements. Heck, we've already observed Ununoctium (that'd be element number 118), why not just keep going forever?
It turns out that the speed of an electron orbiting an atomic nucleus is proportional to the number of other electrons orbiting the nucleus (that's a gross simplification, but bear with me, I'm an engineer... it's what we do when reality is annoyingly complicated). It also turns out that as soon as you get more than, say, 137 electrons in orbit, things start to go wonky. Bohr's classical model of the atom says that the speed required of any atom after the 137th would have to be faster than the speed of light, which a lot of fairly smart physicists are convinced is impossible. If you refine the model a bit and take the effects of relativity into account, you can actually squeeze a 138th and 139th electron in there, but no elements beyond number 139 are allowed without breaking physics.
Neat!
It seems like scientists just keep smashing stuff together at higher and higher speeds, and discovering higher and higher numbered elements. Heck, we've already observed Ununoctium (that'd be element number 118), why not just keep going forever?
It turns out that the speed of an electron orbiting an atomic nucleus is proportional to the number of other electrons orbiting the nucleus (that's a gross simplification, but bear with me, I'm an engineer... it's what we do when reality is annoyingly complicated). It also turns out that as soon as you get more than, say, 137 electrons in orbit, things start to go wonky. Bohr's classical model of the atom says that the speed required of any atom after the 137th would have to be faster than the speed of light, which a lot of fairly smart physicists are convinced is impossible. If you refine the model a bit and take the effects of relativity into account, you can actually squeeze a 138th and 139th electron in there, but no elements beyond number 139 are allowed without breaking physics.
Neat!
Monday, July 28, 2008
Little Miss Count Along
I don't know how I made it so far in life without knowing about this.
Ok, so the Spin Doctors were on Sesame Street, teaching people about the value of sharing, you may say. Big deal. But would you be so callous if you knew their music made it on to Sesame Street again, this time being covered by The Count? Exactly. Behold the greatness of Little Miss Count Along.
Ok, so the Spin Doctors were on Sesame Street, teaching people about the value of sharing, you may say. Big deal. But would you be so callous if you knew their music made it on to Sesame Street again, this time being covered by The Count? Exactly. Behold the greatness of Little Miss Count Along.
Kingston Restaurant Review - "Stuff'd Urban Eats"
I'm not sure there is a more versatile food item anywhere in the world than the sandwich. They can be incredibly simple, or loaded down with exotic ingredients, but the end result is pretty hard to screw up. Really, when you boil it right down to its essence, the sandwich is just a handy framework for getting a bunch of ingredients into your mouth in the simplest possible manner. It excels as a vehicle for flavour because you can layer all sorts of stuff together and rest assured that it'll all comingle nicely in a chewy, crispy, bread delivery system.
Still, there are good sandwiches, and then there are great sandwiches. You know the ones. Super fresh bread, the perfect balance between being stuffed with ingredients and not being too thick to bite, moist delicious protein (chicken, beef, pork, tofu, whatever), tasty veggies, and just the right amount of condiment. Sandwiches like this can go toe-to-toe with just about any dining experience in the world for sheer satisfaction, and the price-to-deliciousness ratio for a good sandwich is hard to beat.
All of this sandwich rhapsodizing has a point. I want to emphasize that when I talk about Stuff'd Urban Eats (272 Bagot St., across from Shopper's Drug Mart) making the best sandwiches in Kingston, I am not throwing that statement out all willy-nilly. Nope, these are sandwiches beyond compare.
Stuff'd has kind of a gimmick as far as sandwich places go, in that you order by taking a pencil and one of their elaborate order forms, and manually constructing your sandwich layer by layer. Every parameter is customizable - bread, cheese, protein, toppings, condiments and greens. It's a neat idea, because having all the options laid out in front of you allows you to conceptualize just about any sandwich you could ever envision. Feeling like a sandwich with a bit of Asian influence? Get yourself some chicken with green onions, cilantro, tomatoes, sesame chili oil and spring mix. Hell yeah. Italian? No problem. Go with the genoa salami, parmesan cheese(real parmesan, not the crappy pre-grated stuff), fresh basil, roma tomatoes, romaine lettuce and mustard. Amazing.
The biggest flaw with the Stuff'd system is that the array of possible sandwich configurations is damn near infinite. There are at least 20 potential toppings, another 15 or so condiments, six cheeses, a ton of different protein options (including premium choices like in-house roasted chicken or prosciutto), and a bunch of different greens. Unfortunately, my brain interprets this playground of flavour as a challenge to assemble the perfectly optimized sandwich. I can't just start ticking off ingredients haphazardly, since cheese choice is intrinsically dependent on condiment selection, and optimal condiment selection is a function of toppings, which are themselves related to the protein and the cheese. It is a highly complex system. The best way to get things done is to go in with a vague notion of the general sandwich style you are craving, and tailor the ingredients from there.
Once you actually make it through the task of assembling your sandwich order, you hand your form over to one of the employees, who puts it together in a few minutes. The wait can be a little long if it's busy (I waited about 10 minutes today), but they always have a few copies of the current Globe & Mail for patrons.
Total cost for a decked out sandwich with a few extra toppings (you get an allowance of 2 toppings and up to 5 condiments to start off with, but I always add a few more veggies) comes in at under $7, which is a total steal compared to some of the other upscale sandwich providers in downtown Kingston like Pan Chancho. In fact, Stuff'd pretty much obliterates Pan Chancho in terms of sandwich quality. It's not even close.
All in all, if you're in downtown Kingston and you appreciate a good sandwich, you need to check out Stuff'd.
Still, there are good sandwiches, and then there are great sandwiches. You know the ones. Super fresh bread, the perfect balance between being stuffed with ingredients and not being too thick to bite, moist delicious protein (chicken, beef, pork, tofu, whatever), tasty veggies, and just the right amount of condiment. Sandwiches like this can go toe-to-toe with just about any dining experience in the world for sheer satisfaction, and the price-to-deliciousness ratio for a good sandwich is hard to beat.
All of this sandwich rhapsodizing has a point. I want to emphasize that when I talk about Stuff'd Urban Eats (272 Bagot St., across from Shopper's Drug Mart) making the best sandwiches in Kingston, I am not throwing that statement out all willy-nilly. Nope, these are sandwiches beyond compare.
Stuff'd has kind of a gimmick as far as sandwich places go, in that you order by taking a pencil and one of their elaborate order forms, and manually constructing your sandwich layer by layer. Every parameter is customizable - bread, cheese, protein, toppings, condiments and greens. It's a neat idea, because having all the options laid out in front of you allows you to conceptualize just about any sandwich you could ever envision. Feeling like a sandwich with a bit of Asian influence? Get yourself some chicken with green onions, cilantro, tomatoes, sesame chili oil and spring mix. Hell yeah. Italian? No problem. Go with the genoa salami, parmesan cheese(real parmesan, not the crappy pre-grated stuff), fresh basil, roma tomatoes, romaine lettuce and mustard. Amazing.
The biggest flaw with the Stuff'd system is that the array of possible sandwich configurations is damn near infinite. There are at least 20 potential toppings, another 15 or so condiments, six cheeses, a ton of different protein options (including premium choices like in-house roasted chicken or prosciutto), and a bunch of different greens. Unfortunately, my brain interprets this playground of flavour as a challenge to assemble the perfectly optimized sandwich. I can't just start ticking off ingredients haphazardly, since cheese choice is intrinsically dependent on condiment selection, and optimal condiment selection is a function of toppings, which are themselves related to the protein and the cheese. It is a highly complex system. The best way to get things done is to go in with a vague notion of the general sandwich style you are craving, and tailor the ingredients from there.
Once you actually make it through the task of assembling your sandwich order, you hand your form over to one of the employees, who puts it together in a few minutes. The wait can be a little long if it's busy (I waited about 10 minutes today), but they always have a few copies of the current Globe & Mail for patrons.
Total cost for a decked out sandwich with a few extra toppings (you get an allowance of 2 toppings and up to 5 condiments to start off with, but I always add a few more veggies) comes in at under $7, which is a total steal compared to some of the other upscale sandwich providers in downtown Kingston like Pan Chancho. In fact, Stuff'd pretty much obliterates Pan Chancho in terms of sandwich quality. It's not even close.
All in all, if you're in downtown Kingston and you appreciate a good sandwich, you need to check out Stuff'd.
Friday, July 25, 2008
My New Favourite Blog
Ridiculously-tiny-niche blogs are nothing new, but I think I have found the king of them all.
Mix equal parts death metal and baking, and behold, The Black Oven.
These are some seriously horriffic recipes. Frostbitten Molasses Cookies, Call of the Wintermoon Lemon Curd Cookies, and the fearsome Petit-Gâteau des Légions Noire. The descriptions, too, are dark, chilling missives from a tortured realm. Gaze into the twisted visage of the molasses cookie...
Mix equal parts death metal and baking, and behold, The Black Oven.
These are some seriously horriffic recipes. Frostbitten Molasses Cookies, Call of the Wintermoon Lemon Curd Cookies, and the fearsome Petit-Gâteau des Légions Noire. The descriptions, too, are dark, chilling missives from a tortured realm. Gaze into the twisted visage of the molasses cookie...
"Boiled down to its very essence, metal is nothing more than a mixture of molasses and alienation. By that definition, these cookies are black fucking metal. Packed full of grim and evil spices, they will leave you feeling despondent and isolated within their stronghold of flavor."
The PB&J Campaign
There have been tons of conservation campaigns launched by governments and environmental organization over the last few years, and most of them have focused almost exclusively on electricity use and transportation. Now, granted, those two types of consumption make up a huge proportion of our total energy use, but the unfortunate reality that these campaigns have bumped into is that human behaviour seems especially rigid when it comes to things like transportation and electricity use. People find their habits, and stick to them pretty firmly.
One area where substantial energy savings are possible that has yet to be mined by mainstream conservation groups is food consumption. Pretty much the only idea to gain any traction so far is the "100 Mile Diet" and the idea of eating locally, which is a great concept, but which also requires a significant individual commitment. This is kind of a shame, because there's a much easier way to take a HUGE bite out of your ecological footprint (get it? bite? because we're talking about food!), and that is to eat less meat.
First things first, let me just state that I am not advocating a mass conversion to vegetarianism or veganism, though they are by far the least energy-intensive diets. I loves me some steak. In fact, I love just about every kind of animal I've ever encountered on a plate. Problem is, the consumption of meat for caloric energy is HEINOUSLY inefficient.
Basically, we need to put energy into the agricultural system to grow plants, then we need to harvest them, and then feed the plants to animals, who are not very efficient at turning plant energy into caloric energy in the form of animal tissue. Then, we've got to keep the animals alive, well fed and watered for a few months to a few years (depending on the animal), then there's butchering and processing on top of it. If you cut out that whole animal portion of the system and eat plants and plant-based products directly, you are obtaining caloric energy at an efficiency rate an order of magnitude better than with meat.
The upside to this large efficiency gap between meat- and plant-based meals is that you don't have to alter your regular diet that much to make a substantial difference. One vegetarian meal per day can save as much as 2.5 pounds of CO2, 133 gallons of water (!), and 24 sq. ft. of land use. These numbers are courtesy of the PB&J Campaign, which is aiming to get people to switch from a meat-based lunch to a PB&J sandwich every once in a while.
How can you go wrong? You get to save the environment just a little bit, plus you get a delicious peanut butter and jelly sandwich! If you haven't had a PB&J in a while, go make yourself one. I'm willing to bet you've forgotten how delicious they are.
Bonus tip: it's raspberry season. Go get yourself some fresh raspberries and throw them in between some toast with peanut butter and raspberry jam. It's the haute cuisine PB&J upgrade.
One area where substantial energy savings are possible that has yet to be mined by mainstream conservation groups is food consumption. Pretty much the only idea to gain any traction so far is the "100 Mile Diet" and the idea of eating locally, which is a great concept, but which also requires a significant individual commitment. This is kind of a shame, because there's a much easier way to take a HUGE bite out of your ecological footprint (get it? bite? because we're talking about food!), and that is to eat less meat.
First things first, let me just state that I am not advocating a mass conversion to vegetarianism or veganism, though they are by far the least energy-intensive diets. I loves me some steak. In fact, I love just about every kind of animal I've ever encountered on a plate. Problem is, the consumption of meat for caloric energy is HEINOUSLY inefficient.
Basically, we need to put energy into the agricultural system to grow plants, then we need to harvest them, and then feed the plants to animals, who are not very efficient at turning plant energy into caloric energy in the form of animal tissue. Then, we've got to keep the animals alive, well fed and watered for a few months to a few years (depending on the animal), then there's butchering and processing on top of it. If you cut out that whole animal portion of the system and eat plants and plant-based products directly, you are obtaining caloric energy at an efficiency rate an order of magnitude better than with meat.
The upside to this large efficiency gap between meat- and plant-based meals is that you don't have to alter your regular diet that much to make a substantial difference. One vegetarian meal per day can save as much as 2.5 pounds of CO2, 133 gallons of water (!), and 24 sq. ft. of land use. These numbers are courtesy of the PB&J Campaign, which is aiming to get people to switch from a meat-based lunch to a PB&J sandwich every once in a while.
How can you go wrong? You get to save the environment just a little bit, plus you get a delicious peanut butter and jelly sandwich! If you haven't had a PB&J in a while, go make yourself one. I'm willing to bet you've forgotten how delicious they are.
Bonus tip: it's raspberry season. Go get yourself some fresh raspberries and throw them in between some toast with peanut butter and raspberry jam. It's the haute cuisine PB&J upgrade.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
The Disadvantages of an Elite Education
I've got about one month left on my Queen's-student-countdown clock, and while it has been a ridiculous amount of fun, I have developed a few issues with the modern "elite university" environment. It is an excellent system for producing elite university alumni and for securing large research grants, without a doubt. Still, I can't help but feel there are some fundamental flaws with the system. I would go on at length, but this article by William Deresiewicz summarizes pretty much all the major shortcomings with the Elite University Education, but in a much, much more insightful and articulate manner than I could manage. The guy was an english professor at Yale, after all. It's a top-notch university.
On the types of intelligence ignored by the elite university...
On the limiting nature of university educations...
And finally, on the inability of the elite university to foster truly free thinking...
(link courtesy of kottke.org)
On the types of intelligence ignored by the elite university...
"I also never learned that there are smart people who aren’t “smart.” The existence of multiple forms of intelligence has become a commonplace, but however much elite universities like to sprinkle their incoming classes with a few actors or violinists, they select for and develop one form of intelligence: the analytic. While this is broadly true of all universities, elite schools, precisely because their students (and faculty, and administrators) possess this one form of intelligence to such a high degree, are more apt to ignore the value of others. One naturally prizes what one most possesses and what most makes for one’s advantages. But social intelligence and emotional intelligence and creative ability, to name just three other forms, are not distributed preferentially among the educational elite. The “best” are the brightest only in one narrow sense. One needs to wander away from the educational elite to begin to discover this."
On the limiting nature of university educations...
"When parents explain why they work so hard to give their children the best possible education, they invariably say it is because of the opportunities it opens up. But what of the opportunities it shuts down? An elite education gives you the chance to be rich—which is, after all, what we’re talking about—but it takes away the chance not to be. Yet the opportunity not to be rich is one of the greatest opportunities with which young Americans have been blessed. We live in a society that is itself so wealthy that it can afford to provide a decent living to whole classes of people who in other countries exist (or in earlier times existed) on the brink of poverty or, at least, of indignity. You can live comfortably in the United States as a schoolteacher, or a community organizer, or a civil rights lawyer, or an artist—that is, by any reasonable definition of comfort. You have to live in an ordinary house instead of an apartment in Manhattan or a mansion in L.A.; you have to drive a Honda instead of a BMW or a Hummer; you have to vacation in Florida instead of Barbados or Paris, but what are such losses when set against the opportunity to do work you believe in, work you’re suited for, work you love, every day of your life?"
And finally, on the inability of the elite university to foster truly free thinking...
"Being an intellectual means, first of all, being passionate about ideas—and not just for the duration of a semester, for the sake of pleasing the teacher, or for getting a good grade. A friend who teaches at the University of Connecticut once complained to me that his students don’t think for themselves. Well, I said, Yale students think for themselves, but only because they know we want them to. I’ve had many wonderful students at Yale and Columbia, bright, thoughtful, creative kids whom it’s been a pleasure to talk with and learn from. But most of them have seemed content to color within the lines that their education had marked out for them. Only a small minority have seen their education as part of a larger intellectual journey, have approached the work of the mind with a pilgrim soul. These few have tended to feel like freaks, not least because they get so little support from the university itself. Places like Yale, as one of them put it to me, are not conducive to searchers."
(link courtesy of kottke.org)
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Internet Comments - The Movie!
I'm clearly not the only one with an intense loathing for most internet comment boards. Check out the Internet Commenter Business Meeting video over at College Humor. Brilliant. Parts two and three are equally funny.
ROFL!
ROFL!
Monday, July 21, 2008
Peak Transparent-Plastic-Number
A few weeks ago, my housemates and I were watching CNN, and they were running yet another "gee, gas is more expensive than it was in the past!" story. Clearly, however, they had run out of interesting angles from which to cover this unexpected, totally inexplicable event, as the entire content of this particular 5 minute spot focused on the sudden shortage of big plastic number fours. It seems "4" was not commonly found in gas prices at the $3.99-and-below level, and yet here we are, in a $4-a-gallon world. Needless to say it was a hard-hitting story, complete with testimonials ("Yeah, we never carried many of them fours, figured we'd never need them! Now we do.") and a few examples of the inextinguishable ingenuity of the human race ("I just took some of them big plastic ones, and a roll of electrical tape, and made them into fours"). Bravo, CNN. Bravo.
Apparently the plastic four shortage has swept the nation, and increased in severity, since the New York Times has now got in on the action. And people say the quality of news media is on the decline.
Really, what these stories illustrate is that we have a more immediate problem than Peak Oil, and that is Peak-Transparent-Plastic-Number-Fours. Luckily, America's finest corporate scientists have found huge natural reserves of big plastic fours buried under some environmentally fragile coastline near Bermuda. Now, the only things standing between the USA and relief for the beleaguered gas station sign supply companies are a few whiny leftist-types, and some starfish. Don't worry though, while we're digging up those fours, we'll also be planning for the future by figuring out a way to synthesize big plastic fives from plentiful, worthless food.
(NYT link courtesy of the great Ken Jennings)
Apparently the plastic four shortage has swept the nation, and increased in severity, since the New York Times has now got in on the action. And people say the quality of news media is on the decline.
Really, what these stories illustrate is that we have a more immediate problem than Peak Oil, and that is Peak-Transparent-Plastic-Number-Fours. Luckily, America's finest corporate scientists have found huge natural reserves of big plastic fours buried under some environmentally fragile coastline near Bermuda. Now, the only things standing between the USA and relief for the beleaguered gas station sign supply companies are a few whiny leftist-types, and some starfish. Don't worry though, while we're digging up those fours, we'll also be planning for the future by figuring out a way to synthesize big plastic fives from plentiful, worthless food.
(NYT link courtesy of the great Ken Jennings)
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Dr. Horrible
Imagine a musical sing-along supervillain blog starring Neil Patrick Harris and Nathan Filion, directed by Joss Whedon. That sounds like it might be the coolest thing ever.
Turns out it is. And it's available free online until Sunday... which is, like, right now. Watch quick.
Turns out it is. And it's available free online until Sunday... which is, like, right now. Watch quick.
More Bent Objects
After watching that food art video, I checked out the guy's website, Bent Objects, and his stuff is genius. Submitted for your perusal: ice cubes and orange hunters.
Basil Leaves, Crushed Rosemary
If there's one thing I love more than anthropomorphic food art, it is food puns. This video satisfies both loves.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
The Slider
Today I have seen the culmination of the entire history of human culinary progression, and its name is Slider. Before I get into a description of this juggernaut of deliciousness, though, I need to talk about the Swedish Beaver.
The Swedish Beaver is an institution at Queen's University, and has been for the past several years. For those of you who aren't from Kingston, the Swedish Beaver is a large, blue-and-yellow painted food truck that parks itself in front of Miller Hall every day from mid-morning until late afternoon. To call it a mere chip truck, however, is to do it great injustice. This is the chip truck perfected. In fact, the fries usually take back seat to the rest of the menu, which is made fresh, with high quality ingredients, and at mind-bogglingly reasonable prices. The whole thing is made better by the fact that the Beaver serves some really out-there food for a chip truck, on top of the standard fries, hamburgers and sausages. Take the Gordon Special, for example. It's a grilled chicken breast, rubbed with some secret concoction of delectable spices, sliced up and put into a garlic pesto wrap with tomato, lettuce, red onion and potato salad. But not just any potato salad. Swedish potato salad, which is to say, potato salad perfected. It's got the perfect creamy consistency - not so thick that it feels heavy, not so thin that it gets all runny in a wrap, just the perfect level of ephemeral creaminess to bind the salad and wrap together in perfect unity. Also, it's got capers in it. Amazing. And it's four dollars. I can barely get a bottle of juice for $4 at the rest of the food service outlets on campus.
Now that you have some context, I need to describe the Slider, and for full effect, you really need to pause and visualize just how unbelievably satisfying this would be for lunch. The slider is a whole wheat wrap, filled with poutine and grilled bacon. That's it. It's fiendishly simple in its arrangement, and yet the whole is so much more than the sum of its parts. For starters, poutine is a world-class dish. I've written before about the elements of a good poutine, and this poutine had it all. The fries were moist and fluffy on the inside, yet incredibly crispy on the outside. The cheese was fresh white curds, and the gravy was salty and gooey and excellent. Now, that's all well and good, but I've always found the tactile experience of eating a poutine to be somewhat less than ideal. You've got this styrofoam container (unnecessary waste), and, typically, some crappy plastic fork with tines that bend when you try to spear a fry. Now, take that same delicious food and throw it in a wrap, and you have a highly portable, edible container that lets you devour your poutine with one hand. Also, it's whole wheat, so it's healthy... right?
Poutine in a wrap is borderline genius on its own, but when you throw some bacon in there... I mean, come on. I'm not sure that's even legal.
In the interests of fairness, I should point out that there are two potential weaknesses of the Slider. One: by virtue of the incredible freshness of the fries they serve at the Swedish Beaver, the Slider can be a bit hot to hold. This is mitigated by the fact that your brain's sensory centres are completely overwhelmed by poutine and bacon, so you probably won't notice. Second, squidgy (that is to say, non-crispy) bacon tends to want to be consumed all at once. It can be hard to bite off half of the bacon and leave some for the bottom of the wrap. Crispy bacon would be better.
Overall, though, I think the Slider might be chip truck junk food perfected. As a pleasant bonus, the Swedish Beaver is parked a mere one block from the Kingston General Hospital, so when your ensuing heart attack kicks in, you don't have far to go.
The Swedish Beaver is an institution at Queen's University, and has been for the past several years. For those of you who aren't from Kingston, the Swedish Beaver is a large, blue-and-yellow painted food truck that parks itself in front of Miller Hall every day from mid-morning until late afternoon. To call it a mere chip truck, however, is to do it great injustice. This is the chip truck perfected. In fact, the fries usually take back seat to the rest of the menu, which is made fresh, with high quality ingredients, and at mind-bogglingly reasonable prices. The whole thing is made better by the fact that the Beaver serves some really out-there food for a chip truck, on top of the standard fries, hamburgers and sausages. Take the Gordon Special, for example. It's a grilled chicken breast, rubbed with some secret concoction of delectable spices, sliced up and put into a garlic pesto wrap with tomato, lettuce, red onion and potato salad. But not just any potato salad. Swedish potato salad, which is to say, potato salad perfected. It's got the perfect creamy consistency - not so thick that it feels heavy, not so thin that it gets all runny in a wrap, just the perfect level of ephemeral creaminess to bind the salad and wrap together in perfect unity. Also, it's got capers in it. Amazing. And it's four dollars. I can barely get a bottle of juice for $4 at the rest of the food service outlets on campus.
Now that you have some context, I need to describe the Slider, and for full effect, you really need to pause and visualize just how unbelievably satisfying this would be for lunch. The slider is a whole wheat wrap, filled with poutine and grilled bacon. That's it. It's fiendishly simple in its arrangement, and yet the whole is so much more than the sum of its parts. For starters, poutine is a world-class dish. I've written before about the elements of a good poutine, and this poutine had it all. The fries were moist and fluffy on the inside, yet incredibly crispy on the outside. The cheese was fresh white curds, and the gravy was salty and gooey and excellent. Now, that's all well and good, but I've always found the tactile experience of eating a poutine to be somewhat less than ideal. You've got this styrofoam container (unnecessary waste), and, typically, some crappy plastic fork with tines that bend when you try to spear a fry. Now, take that same delicious food and throw it in a wrap, and you have a highly portable, edible container that lets you devour your poutine with one hand. Also, it's whole wheat, so it's healthy... right?
Poutine in a wrap is borderline genius on its own, but when you throw some bacon in there... I mean, come on. I'm not sure that's even legal.
In the interests of fairness, I should point out that there are two potential weaknesses of the Slider. One: by virtue of the incredible freshness of the fries they serve at the Swedish Beaver, the Slider can be a bit hot to hold. This is mitigated by the fact that your brain's sensory centres are completely overwhelmed by poutine and bacon, so you probably won't notice. Second, squidgy (that is to say, non-crispy) bacon tends to want to be consumed all at once. It can be hard to bite off half of the bacon and leave some for the bottom of the wrap. Crispy bacon would be better.
Overall, though, I think the Slider might be chip truck junk food perfected. As a pleasant bonus, the Swedish Beaver is parked a mere one block from the Kingston General Hospital, so when your ensuing heart attack kicks in, you don't have far to go.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
On Persistence
I'm pretty sure everyone's heard the old standard, "to err is human, to forgive is divine", first written by Alexander Pope in his work "An Essay on Criticism". However, I came across an interesting tidbit in perusing Wikipedia's "List of Latin Phrases (C-E)" (for my thesis... knowledge of latin phrases is a bit too arcane and dry for me, which is saying something).
It looks like Alexander Pope's phrase was a retooling of an older phrase attributed to Seneca the Younger, a Roman philosopher from the wee years of the first millennium (he lived from 4 BC to AD 65, which preceded Pope by about 17 centuries or so). Seneca originally stated "errare humanum est perseverare diabolicum", which translates to "To err is human, to persist is of the devil", which is certainly as true as Pope's phrase. Of course, our less poetic 21st century language would probably be a bit more blunt about it.
It looks like Alexander Pope's phrase was a retooling of an older phrase attributed to Seneca the Younger, a Roman philosopher from the wee years of the first millennium (he lived from 4 BC to AD 65, which preceded Pope by about 17 centuries or so). Seneca originally stated "errare humanum est perseverare diabolicum", which translates to "To err is human, to persist is of the devil", which is certainly as true as Pope's phrase. Of course, our less poetic 21st century language would probably be a bit more blunt about it.
Aesop Rock: Master lyricist, cereal critic
I've posted before about my love for the music ofAesop Rock, but it turns out his wordsmithing talents aren't limited to impressionist rap. Check out this recent post over at the Def Jux blog, wherein Aesop Rock lists his top 10 favourite breakfast cereals, along with detailed justification, and it is awesome. Seriously, I could listen to Aesop Rock describe cereals for hours. Here is a taste:
#2. Fruity Pebbles: This is amazing shit, and occasionally can hold the #1 spot. This cereal blows any other fruity cereal out the box. Fuck a Fruit Loop straight up. The flakes are small too, so every spoonful has a ton of actual cereal on it. It gets soggy in milk (in a good way) and turns the milk all sort of colors. Shit looks like a sweet, sweet oil spill, AND if you're fast, it'll still be cold by the time you "step into liquid". Blizaow.
Friday, July 11, 2008
David Lee Roth Peanut Allergy - Shocking Update!
This just in! David Lee Roth is not allergic to peanuts! In fact, he wasn't even in Canada at the time of the incident mentioned in my last post. Mysterious celebrity impersonator with tiny scarf and funny clothing still at large.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Music Miscellanea
Two points of interest:
-The finalists for this year's Polaris Prize have been announced.
-David Lee Roth got pulled over by the OPP for speeding just outside of Brantford, Ontario. But it's ok, he was having an allergic reaction to nuts. The officers apparently had no idea who he was, but figured he wasn't from the Brantford area when they noticed his "little silk scarf and flashy clothing".
-The finalists for this year's Polaris Prize have been announced.
-David Lee Roth got pulled over by the OPP for speeding just outside of Brantford, Ontario. But it's ok, he was having an allergic reaction to nuts. The officers apparently had no idea who he was, but figured he wasn't from the Brantford area when they noticed his "little silk scarf and flashy clothing".
There is no hope
If you want proof that consumer culture has completely taken over humanity's common sense, check this out.
Ratatatatatat
Ratatat released LP3, their third album yesterday. It's very clearly Ratatat, in that it is electronic music with heavily processed guitars playing awesome harmonized riffs, backed by beats that are alternatingly rocking, dance-y, downtempo and glitchy noise. However, LP3 expands the Ratatat formula a bit by incorporating some more overt world music sounds and more varied production styles than their last two albums. There are fairly prominent tabla beats, exotic sounding string instruments, and even something that sounds an awful lot like a cuíca, which is the coolest novelty instrument of all time. As usual, there's a lot of stylistic variation from song to song. On the whole, the album is great, but there are a few inconsistent tracks that lack the punchiness of some of the better ones.
Here are a few of my favourites. "Shiller" opens the album with an awesome hypnotic harpsichord riff, and eventually adds more layers of synthy swoops and an epic guitar line, but never adds drums. "Shempi" is one of the most classically Ratatat tracks on the new album, and has this great synth lead that kicks in around the 1:00 mark that makes me want to nod my head in a very energetic fashion. "Mumtaz Khan" has some great percussion and an absolutely killer guitar line at 1:25.
Ratatat - Shiller
Ratatat - Shempi
Ratatat - Mumtaz Khan
Monday, July 7, 2008
Large Hadron Collider
The first beam to be injected into the Large Hadron Collider is going to get fired up pretty soon, and there's been a lot of speculation about what will happen when two proton streams crash into each other at 99.9999982% of the speed of light (roughly 299,792 km/s). The scientists in charge are hoping to detect evidence of the Higgs Boson, a subatomic particle thought to play a role in giving things mass. More worrisome types have speculated about the creation of tiny black holes (which might collapse and explode, taking the earth with it) or strangelets (packets of "strange matter" that may have the ability to convert normal matter into more strange matter, in a chain reaction that could turn the Earth into a small, hot lump of strange matter called a Quark Star).
Either way, something cool will probably happen, and you can count down the days until you potentially turn into a small, hot lump of strangelets here.
Friday, July 4, 2008
La Lune, ou Le Soleil?
Check this out. The best part is when he polls the audience.
In his defence, it is a pretty esoteric fact.
In his defence, it is a pretty esoteric fact.
Dragonforce
Dragonforce has a new album coming out. I'm guessing it's gonna have some fast songs, and maybe a guitar solo. My favourite part about Dragonforce is always their album and song titles, and this album does not disappoint: Ultra Beatdown. YEAH.
Some selected track titles include "Heartbreak Armageddon", "A Flame for Freedom", "The Fire Still Burns", and "Inside the Winter Storm".
I wonder if I could get a job writing a Dragonforce album worth of song titles... I think I'd be pretty good at it. Check it out:
Track 1 - Eternal Vigilance of the Flame
Track 2 - Hurricane of Swords
Track 3 - Iron Fist of Destiny
Track 4 - Knights of the Fire
Track 5 - Face Punch
Track 6 - Beneath the Blackened Sky
Track 7 - Wield the Burning Sword of Fate... and also Fire
Dragonforce, I am free to start writing immediately.
Some selected track titles include "Heartbreak Armageddon", "A Flame for Freedom", "The Fire Still Burns", and "Inside the Winter Storm".
I wonder if I could get a job writing a Dragonforce album worth of song titles... I think I'd be pretty good at it. Check it out:
Track 1 - Eternal Vigilance of the Flame
Track 2 - Hurricane of Swords
Track 3 - Iron Fist of Destiny
Track 4 - Knights of the Fire
Track 5 - Face Punch
Track 6 - Beneath the Blackened Sky
Track 7 - Wield the Burning Sword of Fate... and also Fire
Dragonforce, I am free to start writing immediately.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Import Genius
I've had to set the blog aside for the last few weeks to work on my thesis, and all signs point to another month or two of intense academic discomfort before I get it all polished off and ready to sit, unopened, on a bookshelf for the next 50-100 years. However, I'll still post the occasional diversion on here when I find interesting stuff.
Example: Import Genius. This website (featured on the Freakonomics blog a few days ago) makes use of the public nature of customs reporting forms (and the awesome power of freedom of information requests) to publish a constant, real-time report on the contents of every single container arriving in the United States. The ticker (at the bottom of the page) is endlessly fascinating. 22,000 USB keys, 1000 bottles of sodium stannate, 128 televisions, 2600 "elegant wall clocks". The sheer volume of stuff constantly streaming across the world's oceans is pretty mind-blowing.
Example: Import Genius. This website (featured on the Freakonomics blog a few days ago) makes use of the public nature of customs reporting forms (and the awesome power of freedom of information requests) to publish a constant, real-time report on the contents of every single container arriving in the United States. The ticker (at the bottom of the page) is endlessly fascinating. 22,000 USB keys, 1000 bottles of sodium stannate, 128 televisions, 2600 "elegant wall clocks". The sheer volume of stuff constantly streaming across the world's oceans is pretty mind-blowing.
Friday, June 20, 2008
Ice on Mars
This is pretty cool. NASA, if you're reading this, I can clear my schedule and be ready for astronaut training as early as next Wednesday.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Kingston Restaurant Review - "Casa Domenico"
I've been very slowly chipping away at my quest to eat at every restaurant in downtown Kingston, and on Friday I managed to cross one of the last big names off my list. Casa Domenico (35 Brock St.) is about as upscale as it gets downtown, with prices to match ($10-15 appetizers, $25-35 entrees, wine starting at $32/bottle). That pretty much explains why it took me 6 years to make it there. Fortunately, it was (mostly) worth the wait.
The food at Casa Domenico is modern French/Italian, with tons of big, rich dishes and pricey ingredients (foie gras was in at least 3 of the menu items). I opted for bacon-wrapped scallops as an appetizer, which came served on top of a crispy potato pancake thing, with a sweet corn purée and crème fraîche. Everything was delicious, though the bacon tasted a little too much like it came from the A&P meat section. Not bad, but not what you'd expect on a $12 appetizer.
My entree was a tuna-three-ways type thing - tuna carpaccio with arugula, mustard seed crusted seared tuna with marinated onions, and black pepper tuna with foie gras and caramelized fennel. The carpaccio was kind of mediocre. Tuna has a fairly subtle flavour, and the olive oil basically drowned out the taste, and turned the texture from that soft, melt-in-your-mouth feeling that makes tuna sushi so darn good to kind of slimy. Fortunately, the rest of the dish made up for it. The mustard seed crusted tuna was perfectly cooked, and the marinated onions added a nice spicy kick. The black pepper tuna was also great, with the fennel giving it a bit of sweetness, and a thin slice of seared foie gras adding some ridiculously over-the-top smoky richness. I'm not the world's biggest fan of foie gras from an ethical perspective, and under most circumstances I can take it or leave it flavour-wise, but it definitely worked here.
I also had a few bites of the roast duck with mashed potatoes and duck confit, which tasted pretty delicious from my small sample.
For dessert, I had a vanilla crème brulée flambé, which was basically just regular crème brulée with some overproof rum on top, set on fire for presentation. The presentation was definitely cool, but the super-strong rum totally obliterated the vanilla flavour, and made the crunchy top (which is basically the reason you order crème brulée) kind of soggy. It was still tasty, but it took what would have been an awesome dessert and made it slightly less so. I had a bite of the tiramisu too, which tasted great (and was soaked in just the right amount of booze).
All in all, it was a great meal, and the quality was definitely in line with the prices. Highly recommended if you're looking to splurge.
The food at Casa Domenico is modern French/Italian, with tons of big, rich dishes and pricey ingredients (foie gras was in at least 3 of the menu items). I opted for bacon-wrapped scallops as an appetizer, which came served on top of a crispy potato pancake thing, with a sweet corn purée and crème fraîche. Everything was delicious, though the bacon tasted a little too much like it came from the A&P meat section. Not bad, but not what you'd expect on a $12 appetizer.
My entree was a tuna-three-ways type thing - tuna carpaccio with arugula, mustard seed crusted seared tuna with marinated onions, and black pepper tuna with foie gras and caramelized fennel. The carpaccio was kind of mediocre. Tuna has a fairly subtle flavour, and the olive oil basically drowned out the taste, and turned the texture from that soft, melt-in-your-mouth feeling that makes tuna sushi so darn good to kind of slimy. Fortunately, the rest of the dish made up for it. The mustard seed crusted tuna was perfectly cooked, and the marinated onions added a nice spicy kick. The black pepper tuna was also great, with the fennel giving it a bit of sweetness, and a thin slice of seared foie gras adding some ridiculously over-the-top smoky richness. I'm not the world's biggest fan of foie gras from an ethical perspective, and under most circumstances I can take it or leave it flavour-wise, but it definitely worked here.
I also had a few bites of the roast duck with mashed potatoes and duck confit, which tasted pretty delicious from my small sample.
For dessert, I had a vanilla crème brulée flambé, which was basically just regular crème brulée with some overproof rum on top, set on fire for presentation. The presentation was definitely cool, but the super-strong rum totally obliterated the vanilla flavour, and made the crunchy top (which is basically the reason you order crème brulée) kind of soggy. It was still tasty, but it took what would have been an awesome dessert and made it slightly less so. I had a bite of the tiramisu too, which tasted great (and was soaked in just the right amount of booze).
All in all, it was a great meal, and the quality was definitely in line with the prices. Highly recommended if you're looking to splurge.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Chefs and DJs - A Revelation
In a rare moment of mental clarity, I just made a huge realization. Cooking and DJing are exactly the same thing.
Think about it. The processes of making a dish and DJing a set are fundamentally similar, and both activities share a common set of skills. Anyone can put on an album, or throw some spaghetti in a pot with some canned sauce, but to differentiate yourself and provide a higher quality experience, you need to understand the interrelationships between different objects (songs for DJs, ingredients for chefs), and combine them in ways that work. Sometimes that means tried and true combinations - garlic and onions, hip hop and funk. Other times it means innovating and finding hidden relationships between seemingly opposing things. Grant Achatz mixes olive oil into ice cream with orange and vanilla, to mind-blowingly delicious effect. Sebastian and Kavinsky, who opened for Daft Punk on their Alive 2007 tour, warmed the crowd up with a mix of electro-house and Rage Against The Machine. Genius.
The analogy extends even further when you consider the development of a chef or DJ. To develop as either, you need to familiarize yourself with a huge database of existing objects. In general, the more songs you know, the more effective a DJ you are, because you can finely tune your setlist to achieve very specific moods and flows. As a chef, being familiar with a huge variety of ingredients lets you adjust your dish to perfectly evoke or complement a given experience. Sometimes you want to hit on familiar themes, other times you want to surprise people with something new. It depends on the audience.
And, of course, there are techniques for both. Learning the rules as a chef involves mastering cooking and preparation technique. Knife skills, ability with various heating methods, and presentation, among other things, all contribute. As a DJ, beat matching, equalization, and mastering the art of flow - sequencing songs to create a shifting dynamic without too many abrupt changes - contribute to your overall success. And, as with any art, once you have learned how to follow the rules, you can figure out when to break them (see above - olive oil ice cream, Rage Against The Machine dance music).
The one place where DJs and chefs are notably different is in their handling of requests. Chefs take them as a matter of course, since ordering from a menu is essentially requesting a certain experience. Most DJs I know (including me, back in my Clark Hall Pub DJ days), on the other hand, do not like requests. I chalk this one up to the fact that DJs need to create one experience that's palatable to an entire room, whereas chefs can target individual palates with each dish. Most (not all, but definitely most) requests just don't fit in with the flow of a party. Usually, the people requesting songs are the people who don't like what's currently being played, and if you're a competent DJ, you've figured out the vibe of the room, and are playing to the majority. Football team social? Odds are you will be playing dirty rock and roll, liberally spiced with top 40 hip hop, with a side order of songs from whenever the people at the party were in high school. It's the DJ equivalent of spaghetti bolognese. Simple, predictable, popular with just about everyone. And, almost invariably, someone will come up and request some Tom Waits, or Black Flag, or *insert incredibly specific European techno subgenre here*. Please don't do that.
It is interesting to note that many of the world's foremost chefs aren't offering menus in their restaurants these days. Tasting menus are becoming extremely prevalent, in which you pay one price for a multi-course menu that is decided ahead of time. This is basically the chef's way of adopting the DJ ethic of knowing your craft really well, and then asking the customer to trust you to put together a high quality experience.
Finally, since the internet is basically a repository of every idea you could ever hope to think of, I am not the first person to notice this relationship, though I did arrive at it independently (I am the Liebniz of the chef-DJ relationship). Heston Blumenthal, chef and owner of the Fat Duck, host of In Search of Perfection, and subject of my personal man-crush, has created a dish where he combines seafood with an iPod loaded with sea sounds to activate the auditory region of the brain while eating. And this guy totally beat me to commercializing the idea. He calls himself DJ Chef ("Spinnin' the beats while cookin' the treats"), and claims to be the only entertainer in the world who will simultaneously DJ and cater your special event.
The only DJ/chef in the entire world, eh? I think I've finally got myself a plan for after I finish this silly masters in engineering.
Think about it. The processes of making a dish and DJing a set are fundamentally similar, and both activities share a common set of skills. Anyone can put on an album, or throw some spaghetti in a pot with some canned sauce, but to differentiate yourself and provide a higher quality experience, you need to understand the interrelationships between different objects (songs for DJs, ingredients for chefs), and combine them in ways that work. Sometimes that means tried and true combinations - garlic and onions, hip hop and funk. Other times it means innovating and finding hidden relationships between seemingly opposing things. Grant Achatz mixes olive oil into ice cream with orange and vanilla, to mind-blowingly delicious effect. Sebastian and Kavinsky, who opened for Daft Punk on their Alive 2007 tour, warmed the crowd up with a mix of electro-house and Rage Against The Machine. Genius.
The analogy extends even further when you consider the development of a chef or DJ. To develop as either, you need to familiarize yourself with a huge database of existing objects. In general, the more songs you know, the more effective a DJ you are, because you can finely tune your setlist to achieve very specific moods and flows. As a chef, being familiar with a huge variety of ingredients lets you adjust your dish to perfectly evoke or complement a given experience. Sometimes you want to hit on familiar themes, other times you want to surprise people with something new. It depends on the audience.
And, of course, there are techniques for both. Learning the rules as a chef involves mastering cooking and preparation technique. Knife skills, ability with various heating methods, and presentation, among other things, all contribute. As a DJ, beat matching, equalization, and mastering the art of flow - sequencing songs to create a shifting dynamic without too many abrupt changes - contribute to your overall success. And, as with any art, once you have learned how to follow the rules, you can figure out when to break them (see above - olive oil ice cream, Rage Against The Machine dance music).
The one place where DJs and chefs are notably different is in their handling of requests. Chefs take them as a matter of course, since ordering from a menu is essentially requesting a certain experience. Most DJs I know (including me, back in my Clark Hall Pub DJ days), on the other hand, do not like requests. I chalk this one up to the fact that DJs need to create one experience that's palatable to an entire room, whereas chefs can target individual palates with each dish. Most (not all, but definitely most) requests just don't fit in with the flow of a party. Usually, the people requesting songs are the people who don't like what's currently being played, and if you're a competent DJ, you've figured out the vibe of the room, and are playing to the majority. Football team social? Odds are you will be playing dirty rock and roll, liberally spiced with top 40 hip hop, with a side order of songs from whenever the people at the party were in high school. It's the DJ equivalent of spaghetti bolognese. Simple, predictable, popular with just about everyone. And, almost invariably, someone will come up and request some Tom Waits, or Black Flag, or *insert incredibly specific European techno subgenre here*. Please don't do that.
It is interesting to note that many of the world's foremost chefs aren't offering menus in their restaurants these days. Tasting menus are becoming extremely prevalent, in which you pay one price for a multi-course menu that is decided ahead of time. This is basically the chef's way of adopting the DJ ethic of knowing your craft really well, and then asking the customer to trust you to put together a high quality experience.
Finally, since the internet is basically a repository of every idea you could ever hope to think of, I am not the first person to notice this relationship, though I did arrive at it independently (I am the Liebniz of the chef-DJ relationship). Heston Blumenthal, chef and owner of the Fat Duck, host of In Search of Perfection, and subject of my personal man-crush, has created a dish where he combines seafood with an iPod loaded with sea sounds to activate the auditory region of the brain while eating. And this guy totally beat me to commercializing the idea. He calls himself DJ Chef ("Spinnin' the beats while cookin' the treats"), and claims to be the only entertainer in the world who will simultaneously DJ and cater your special event.
The only DJ/chef in the entire world, eh? I think I've finally got myself a plan for after I finish this silly masters in engineering.
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Islands
There has been a bit of a post drought around here lately, which our team of Superfluism analysts believe was caused by a combination of solar flares, sharp rises in grain prices on the global market, and electoral irregularities in Lake County, Indiana. Not to worry, we believe we have ironed out the kinks.
Montreal, Quebec's Islands have a new album called "Arm's Way" coming out soon, unless you have the internet, in which case it is already available. If you don't have the internet, but are reading this anyways, that's strange.
The last Islands album "Return to the Sea" was eclectic, a little rough around the edges, poppy, and a pretty darn good album. I've only listened to the new one a few times so far, but it sounds like there's been a fair amount of stylistic maturation. The song structures are much more involved, and occasionally tread pretty close to full out prog-rock territory. It is also super-produced, with tightly packed layers of instrumentation on just about every track. "Pieces of You" is a good example - it has bass clarinet. Sweet. Also, the song title is an intentional homage (?) to the Jewel song of the same name, only the pieces in this song are literal pieces of people, which makes this song considerably creepier than most of the Jewel catalogue.
Montreal, Quebec's Islands have a new album called "Arm's Way" coming out soon, unless you have the internet, in which case it is already available. If you don't have the internet, but are reading this anyways, that's strange.
The last Islands album "Return to the Sea" was eclectic, a little rough around the edges, poppy, and a pretty darn good album. I've only listened to the new one a few times so far, but it sounds like there's been a fair amount of stylistic maturation. The song structures are much more involved, and occasionally tread pretty close to full out prog-rock territory. It is also super-produced, with tightly packed layers of instrumentation on just about every track. "Pieces of You" is a good example - it has bass clarinet. Sweet. Also, the song title is an intentional homage (?) to the Jewel song of the same name, only the pieces in this song are literal pieces of people, which makes this song considerably creepier than most of the Jewel catalogue.
Friday, April 25, 2008
Monday, April 21, 2008
New Weezer
Weezer has a new album coming out, and it's going to be the third "colour" album in their catalog. This one's red.
Make Believe didn't do much to convince me that Weezer still had vast, untapped reserves of pop genius left, but the first single from the Red Album, "Pork and Beans", is pretty darn good. It's missing that feedbacky, lo-fi sound that made the Blue Album and Pinkerton so raw and kickass, but it's got big chunky guitars, lyrics about not being cool, and uber-catchy melodies. I give it a rating of four cardigans out of five.
It's not out in mp3 format just yet, but it is stream-able from the Weezer website. Check it.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Summer Music
It's 27 degrees and sunny outside, and it's time to break out the summer tunes. There is no currently accepted scientific method to determine whether a given song is "summer music" or not, but there are a few defining traits that are unassailable.
1 - Major key. For the most part, it's gotta be major. No sad, mopey minor key songs.
2 - Guitars. Electronic music is good and all, but in most cases it's just not summery enough.
3 - Suitability for porch or deck. This is non-negotiable. True summer music must be able to be put on in the background while sitting on a porch/deck/dock/land-dock. This requires a certain level of simplicity. I don't want to mosh, or get all pensive, or get lost in super-intricate arrangements while I'm eating a hamburger with my friends, you know?
4 - Road trip potential. Some songs are good deck music. Some songs are good for driving down the highway. Really great summer music is both.
The new Kooks album ("Konk")is an early pick for good summer music, especially the super-catchy vocal harmonies on "Love It All".
The Kooks - Love It All
Also, this dog is totally ready for summer.
1 - Major key. For the most part, it's gotta be major. No sad, mopey minor key songs.
2 - Guitars. Electronic music is good and all, but in most cases it's just not summery enough.
3 - Suitability for porch or deck. This is non-negotiable. True summer music must be able to be put on in the background while sitting on a porch/deck/dock/land-dock. This requires a certain level of simplicity. I don't want to mosh, or get all pensive, or get lost in super-intricate arrangements while I'm eating a hamburger with my friends, you know?
4 - Road trip potential. Some songs are good deck music. Some songs are good for driving down the highway. Really great summer music is both.
The new Kooks album ("Konk")is an early pick for good summer music, especially the super-catchy vocal harmonies on "Love It All".
The Kooks - Love It All
Also, this dog is totally ready for summer.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Legislating Science
There have been many recent accusations that policy makers in governments around the world have been ignoring science, resulting in ridiculous and dangerous policies. There is some truth to that. Quite a bit, actually. Biofuel policy is one of my biggest personal pet peeves right now, what with the massive spike in global food prices and the rapid depletion of one of the world's largest aquifers. But hey, at least all that biofuel solved our climate change problem!
Still, at least our current policy makers are only trying to ignore science. Back in 1897, the Indiana legislature went one step further, with Bill 246, also known as the Indiana Pi Bill. The full title of the bill is "A Bill for an act introducing a new mathematical truth and offered as a contribution to education to be used only by the State of Indiana free of cost by paying any royalties whatever on the same, provided it is accepted and adopted by the official action of the Legislature of 1897".
Let's just ignore that part about a mathematical truth to be used ONLY by the state of Indiana for the time being. Let's talk about what the bill actually contains.
There's a common legend surrounding this bill that says that it actually wanted to legislate the value of pi to be equal to 3, to make calculations simpler in Indiana. Sadly, this isn't actually the case, though the bill does use incorrect values for pi (for example, 3.2) a bunch of times. Fortunately, the actual content of the bill isn't any less ridiculous.
The bill contains a method for "squaring the circle", which is a hypothetical process whereby a compass and a straight edge can be used to reliably and precisely draw a square with the same area as a given circle. Sounds useful, I know. I'd want that kind of powerful knowledge exclusively for my state, too. There's just one problem: it's impossible to square a circle with a compass and a straight edge. In fact, it was irrefutably proven to be impossible 15 years earlier, by Ferdinand von Lindemann.
Fig. 1: Ferdinand - "Can't be done."
That didn't stop Edwin J. Goodwin (the architect of Bill 246), though. He bravely stepped outside the bounds of knowledge to show that circles could indeed be squared with a compass and a straight-edge, so long as you make a few minor adjustments to universal constants, and don't mind your answer being off by a factor of π/4.
With Goodwin as a model, all sorts of new possibilities arise. We could start by legislating a mandatory 100 year moratorium on sea levels rising. And, while we're at it, we should tack on a rider to change the properties of CO2 from "greenhouse gas" to "FUNhouse gas", because really, couldn't the world use a little more fun?
Still, at least our current policy makers are only trying to ignore science. Back in 1897, the Indiana legislature went one step further, with Bill 246, also known as the Indiana Pi Bill. The full title of the bill is "A Bill for an act introducing a new mathematical truth and offered as a contribution to education to be used only by the State of Indiana free of cost by paying any royalties whatever on the same, provided it is accepted and adopted by the official action of the Legislature of 1897".
Let's just ignore that part about a mathematical truth to be used ONLY by the state of Indiana for the time being. Let's talk about what the bill actually contains.
There's a common legend surrounding this bill that says that it actually wanted to legislate the value of pi to be equal to 3, to make calculations simpler in Indiana. Sadly, this isn't actually the case, though the bill does use incorrect values for pi (for example, 3.2) a bunch of times. Fortunately, the actual content of the bill isn't any less ridiculous.
The bill contains a method for "squaring the circle", which is a hypothetical process whereby a compass and a straight edge can be used to reliably and precisely draw a square with the same area as a given circle. Sounds useful, I know. I'd want that kind of powerful knowledge exclusively for my state, too. There's just one problem: it's impossible to square a circle with a compass and a straight edge. In fact, it was irrefutably proven to be impossible 15 years earlier, by Ferdinand von Lindemann.
Fig. 1: Ferdinand - "Can't be done."
That didn't stop Edwin J. Goodwin (the architect of Bill 246), though. He bravely stepped outside the bounds of knowledge to show that circles could indeed be squared with a compass and a straight-edge, so long as you make a few minor adjustments to universal constants, and don't mind your answer being off by a factor of π/4.
With Goodwin as a model, all sorts of new possibilities arise. We could start by legislating a mandatory 100 year moratorium on sea levels rising. And, while we're at it, we should tack on a rider to change the properties of CO2 from "greenhouse gas" to "FUNhouse gas", because really, couldn't the world use a little more fun?
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Hunger, Shame, Deliciousness
I finally did it.
I'd been contemplating it for weeks... months, even. Trying to reconcile the part of my brain that said "this is one of the most ridiculous endeavours in human history" with the part of my brain that said "yes, but I want one". I held out for as long as I could, nose turned snobbily up at those who couldn't resist. But on Friday, there it was. And I was weak.
I ordered a Baconator.
It's not my fault! I was hungry and disoriented. I was on my way to Toronto on Friday to play a show with Nich Worby and company, and we stopped for dinner at a rest stop along the 401 on the way there. I didn't have any other choice!
Ok, that's a lie, there was a Mr. Sub.
Regardless of sub availability, I queued up in the Wendy's line. Before I even looked at the menu, my heart knew it was time. My palms were a little sweaty, and my heart rate increased by a few beats as the person in front of me stepped aside, and I approached the till.
"I'll have a..." I started, then paused, looked nervously over my shoulder, and leaned in.
"Baconator", I whispered. I felt a little dirty saying it out loud.
The cashier punched in my order with the steady hand of someone who makes a living handing out trayfulls of pure, unfiltered consumer insanity on a daily basis. I, on the other hand, was having a hard time not giggling.
I got my tray, and picked it up. It sagged on the Baconator side. I paused to get a firmer grip, and hauled it over to a table. I hastily unwrapped it. Here is an approximation of the sight that greeted me.
Oh dear God, what had I gotten myself into?
At this point, I was glad this act wasn't premeditated. If it was, I probably would have looked up the nutrition information and found out that a single Baconator is home to 840 Calories and 51 grams of fat (and, interestingly enough, 25% of your RDI of calcium). Throwing caution to the wind, I dove in.
The verdict? It is exactly what it claims to be. A giant mass of beef and bacon, bonded together with heavily processed American cheese, and enough sodium to kill a horse. The bun is a technicality. In most situations, this monstrosity could only generously be referred to as real food. But every once in a while, even the best of us craves a fast food fix, and in situations like that, the Baconator can obliterate your meat craving like few other foods.
Overall, I would give it 4.5 out of 5 bypasses.
I'd been contemplating it for weeks... months, even. Trying to reconcile the part of my brain that said "this is one of the most ridiculous endeavours in human history" with the part of my brain that said "yes, but I want one". I held out for as long as I could, nose turned snobbily up at those who couldn't resist. But on Friday, there it was. And I was weak.
I ordered a Baconator.
It's not my fault! I was hungry and disoriented. I was on my way to Toronto on Friday to play a show with Nich Worby and company, and we stopped for dinner at a rest stop along the 401 on the way there. I didn't have any other choice!
Ok, that's a lie, there was a Mr. Sub.
Regardless of sub availability, I queued up in the Wendy's line. Before I even looked at the menu, my heart knew it was time. My palms were a little sweaty, and my heart rate increased by a few beats as the person in front of me stepped aside, and I approached the till.
"I'll have a..." I started, then paused, looked nervously over my shoulder, and leaned in.
"Baconator", I whispered. I felt a little dirty saying it out loud.
The cashier punched in my order with the steady hand of someone who makes a living handing out trayfulls of pure, unfiltered consumer insanity on a daily basis. I, on the other hand, was having a hard time not giggling.
I got my tray, and picked it up. It sagged on the Baconator side. I paused to get a firmer grip, and hauled it over to a table. I hastily unwrapped it. Here is an approximation of the sight that greeted me.
Oh dear God, what had I gotten myself into?
At this point, I was glad this act wasn't premeditated. If it was, I probably would have looked up the nutrition information and found out that a single Baconator is home to 840 Calories and 51 grams of fat (and, interestingly enough, 25% of your RDI of calcium). Throwing caution to the wind, I dove in.
The verdict? It is exactly what it claims to be. A giant mass of beef and bacon, bonded together with heavily processed American cheese, and enough sodium to kill a horse. The bun is a technicality. In most situations, this monstrosity could only generously be referred to as real food. But every once in a while, even the best of us craves a fast food fix, and in situations like that, the Baconator can obliterate your meat craving like few other foods.
Overall, I would give it 4.5 out of 5 bypasses.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Internet Comments
I'm always fascinated by the degree to which the internet enables communication of all types and qualities to thrive. There are whole blogs dedicated to puddles, for example. If you are a puddle afficionado, there has never been a better time to be alive.
The downside to this fast-and-easy communication is the proliferation of idiots on comment boards. Anyone who's ever scrolled down to read the comments below a YouTube video knows this all too well. YouTube might be the single biggest collection of asinine, moronic statements in the known universe.
It's not all bad though. Metafilter is a community blog that charges a one-time fee of $5 for the right to be able to post on its forums. The result is that most of the comments come from people who actually have something of interest to say, and real discussion of issues is actually possible.
Enter Thatsaspicymeatball. This site compiles the latest comments from Metafilter and YouTube on an hourly basis, then displays them side by side. The result is hilarious and sad at the same time. Here are some sample discussions.
Metafilter:
"The fact that we can't leave the Tibet thing alone long enough to watch the very symbol of a neutral playing field run past is pathetic."
"That little "Tibet thing?" Since 1950, an estimated 1.2 million Tibetans have been killed by the Chinese. Sorry, that's not a "thing" to me. I'll give up a "symbol" for those people."
Youtube:
"i love the song but hes kind of fat :D "
"STFU GAYS"
Wow.
(link courtesy of the Freakonomics Blog)
The downside to this fast-and-easy communication is the proliferation of idiots on comment boards. Anyone who's ever scrolled down to read the comments below a YouTube video knows this all too well. YouTube might be the single biggest collection of asinine, moronic statements in the known universe.
It's not all bad though. Metafilter is a community blog that charges a one-time fee of $5 for the right to be able to post on its forums. The result is that most of the comments come from people who actually have something of interest to say, and real discussion of issues is actually possible.
Enter Thatsaspicymeatball. This site compiles the latest comments from Metafilter and YouTube on an hourly basis, then displays them side by side. The result is hilarious and sad at the same time. Here are some sample discussions.
Metafilter:
"The fact that we can't leave the Tibet thing alone long enough to watch the very symbol of a neutral playing field run past is pathetic."
"That little "Tibet thing?" Since 1950, an estimated 1.2 million Tibetans have been killed by the Chinese. Sorry, that's not a "thing" to me. I'll give up a "symbol" for those people."
Youtube:
"i love the song but hes kind of fat :D "
"STFU GAYS"
Wow.
(link courtesy of the Freakonomics Blog)
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Elementary
I'm back from Japan, which means it's time to shift my writing output from "travelogue" to "interesting things of questionable usefulness".
To get the ball rolling again, check out this Periodic Table of the Elements Quiz. I got 56 elements on my first try, including one or two I'm pretty proud of. Neodymium. Booyah.
To get the ball rolling again, check out this Periodic Table of the Elements Quiz. I got 56 elements on my first try, including one or two I'm pretty proud of. Neodymium. Booyah.
Monday, March 17, 2008
I think I'm learning Japanese
I'm heading out tomorrow morning for Tokyo, Japan, so I'll be redirecting my writing efforts over to my travel blog for the next few weeks. Check it out if you feel so inclined.
Kingston Restaurant Reviews - "The Iron Duke" and "Le Chien Noir"
It's almost the end of the academic year here at Queen's University, which means Kingston will soon be seeing sharp increases in two key types of event: the end-of-year celebratory dinner, and the end-of-year celebratory bender. With that in mind, here are some restaurant reviews which some may find useful for planning one or the other.
The Iron Duke:
Once upon a time (ok, it was about 2006), Kingston had a great little bar called the Scherzo, on Wellington St. between Princess and Queen. It had a capacity of around 100, an uninspiring selection of draught beers, and some of the best ambience for live music in town. Sadly, it went belly up around two years ago, and sat vacant for some time. Recently, the space has reopened as The Iron Duke, a British-themed resto-pub (gastro-pub? food-and-booze hall?) with a fairly extensive menu. Prices are reasonable (appetizers and mains mostly in the $8-15 range), and the menu items are pretty varied, at least as far as pub fare goes. The sandwiches score extra points for being made on Pan Chancho bread, and I've heard great things about their garlic bread and Waldorf Chicken Salad. I, however, was suckered in by the eye-catching sweet potato poutine, with white cheddar and apple demi-glaze. As an eating experience, it was a big letdown. However, as an educational experience on what makes a good poutine, it was invaluable. I'll break down my newfound insight, ingredient by ingredient.
- Sweet potatoes - A potentially delicious substitute for regular potatoes. If used in a standard poutine, the sweetness would be a nice counterpoint to the saltiness of the gravy. However, good quality fries are a must, regardless of tuber type, and these were some soggy sweet spuds.
- Cheese - Everyone knows poutines require, nay, DEMAND fresh cheese curds. In my mind, if you're going to deviate away from curds, you should be going for something in-your-face different, like chevre. White cheddar is similar enough to curds to be kind of uninteresting, without the melty, stringy gooeyness of fresh curds.
- Gravy - Here's where this poutine really went off the rails. The key to any poutine worth its salt is, uh... salt. Fries provide the starchy foundation, cheese adds the creamy, fatty overtones, and the gravy provides the salty kick that ties it all together and keeps you coming back for more, long after you've consciously decided to stop abusing your arteries. Whether you're talking classic brown poutine gravy, or veal jus, it's gotta have salt. And the "apple demi-glaze" here was basically apple juice. Low in salt, high in sweetness (which the sweet potato fries already had covered). I give the Iron Duke props for trying to spice up a classic, but their particular configuration just doesn't work.
Overall, though, great atmosphere, good beers on tap, mostly good food. Worth checking out if you want to grab a few pints and some snacks downtown.
Le Chien Noir:
This restaurant doesn't need much promotion. It's almost always busy, and a perennial contender on most "favourite restaurants in downtown Kingston" lists. They serve French bistro food at high-but-not-exorbitant prices (mains run $20-30), with a great atmosphere and good service. Best of all, and the main reason I was there this past weekend, is their "Winter-licious" special, which started in February, and is running until the end of March due to crazy demand. Basically, it's a $25 prix fixe menu that includes an appetizer, main, and dessert for $25. Considering the fact that all of the mains available with the prix fixe cost $23-25 anyways, it's a ridiculously good deal. The available mains are cornish game hen, mussels and fries ("frites", if you want to be snooty about it) and beef short ribs.
I had some romaine hearts to start. The romaine and vinaigrette were ok, but a bit on the bitter side. On the upside, the salad came with some crazy delicious pancetta crisps that I could eat like potato chips. Next up, I had the short ribs, which were tender, juicy and delicious. Despite the "short" adjective, the portion size was generous, and I was stuffed after my entree. Seeing as how it was a prix fixe menu, though, I valiantly soldiered on. I tried a bit of the cornish hen as well, which was also great. Dessert was creme brulee, which might be my all-time favourite dessert. All that for $25. Insane! If you've never been to Le Chien Noir, now is definitely the time to check it out. As a side note, we also had a Cave Springs 2006 Riesling with dinner that was one of the most delicious white wines I've ever tasted. I want to bathe with this stuff.
The Iron Duke:
Once upon a time (ok, it was about 2006), Kingston had a great little bar called the Scherzo, on Wellington St. between Princess and Queen. It had a capacity of around 100, an uninspiring selection of draught beers, and some of the best ambience for live music in town. Sadly, it went belly up around two years ago, and sat vacant for some time. Recently, the space has reopened as The Iron Duke, a British-themed resto-pub (gastro-pub? food-and-booze hall?) with a fairly extensive menu. Prices are reasonable (appetizers and mains mostly in the $8-15 range), and the menu items are pretty varied, at least as far as pub fare goes. The sandwiches score extra points for being made on Pan Chancho bread, and I've heard great things about their garlic bread and Waldorf Chicken Salad. I, however, was suckered in by the eye-catching sweet potato poutine, with white cheddar and apple demi-glaze. As an eating experience, it was a big letdown. However, as an educational experience on what makes a good poutine, it was invaluable. I'll break down my newfound insight, ingredient by ingredient.
- Sweet potatoes - A potentially delicious substitute for regular potatoes. If used in a standard poutine, the sweetness would be a nice counterpoint to the saltiness of the gravy. However, good quality fries are a must, regardless of tuber type, and these were some soggy sweet spuds.
- Cheese - Everyone knows poutines require, nay, DEMAND fresh cheese curds. In my mind, if you're going to deviate away from curds, you should be going for something in-your-face different, like chevre. White cheddar is similar enough to curds to be kind of uninteresting, without the melty, stringy gooeyness of fresh curds.
- Gravy - Here's where this poutine really went off the rails. The key to any poutine worth its salt is, uh... salt. Fries provide the starchy foundation, cheese adds the creamy, fatty overtones, and the gravy provides the salty kick that ties it all together and keeps you coming back for more, long after you've consciously decided to stop abusing your arteries. Whether you're talking classic brown poutine gravy, or veal jus, it's gotta have salt. And the "apple demi-glaze" here was basically apple juice. Low in salt, high in sweetness (which the sweet potato fries already had covered). I give the Iron Duke props for trying to spice up a classic, but their particular configuration just doesn't work.
Overall, though, great atmosphere, good beers on tap, mostly good food. Worth checking out if you want to grab a few pints and some snacks downtown.
Le Chien Noir:
This restaurant doesn't need much promotion. It's almost always busy, and a perennial contender on most "favourite restaurants in downtown Kingston" lists. They serve French bistro food at high-but-not-exorbitant prices (mains run $20-30), with a great atmosphere and good service. Best of all, and the main reason I was there this past weekend, is their "Winter-licious" special, which started in February, and is running until the end of March due to crazy demand. Basically, it's a $25 prix fixe menu that includes an appetizer, main, and dessert for $25. Considering the fact that all of the mains available with the prix fixe cost $23-25 anyways, it's a ridiculously good deal. The available mains are cornish game hen, mussels and fries ("frites", if you want to be snooty about it) and beef short ribs.
I had some romaine hearts to start. The romaine and vinaigrette were ok, but a bit on the bitter side. On the upside, the salad came with some crazy delicious pancetta crisps that I could eat like potato chips. Next up, I had the short ribs, which were tender, juicy and delicious. Despite the "short" adjective, the portion size was generous, and I was stuffed after my entree. Seeing as how it was a prix fixe menu, though, I valiantly soldiered on. I tried a bit of the cornish hen as well, which was also great. Dessert was creme brulee, which might be my all-time favourite dessert. All that for $25. Insane! If you've never been to Le Chien Noir, now is definitely the time to check it out. As a side note, we also had a Cave Springs 2006 Riesling with dinner that was one of the most delicious white wines I've ever tasted. I want to bathe with this stuff.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Awesome Sports, Vol 2: Octopus Wrestling
Next up in our look at unconventional-yet-interesting sports: Octopus Wrestling.
According to Wikipedia, this particular form of man-cephalopod combat enjoyed brief popularity as early as 1949, but especially in the 1960's. There was even a world championship in Puget Sound, Washington. Time Magazine covered the sport in 1965, and included a few interesting details...
Intense. I'm not so sure I'd be eager to take on the mighty octopus underwater without breathing gear. First off, it's home turf for the octopus. It knows the lay of the land. Secondly, it has a six limb advantage on me. Thirdly, beaks. Did I mention they have camouflage?
According to Wikipedia, this particular form of man-cephalopod combat enjoyed brief popularity as early as 1949, but especially in the 1960's. There was even a world championship in Puget Sound, Washington. Time Magazine covered the sport in 1965, and included a few interesting details...
Although there are several accepted techniques for octopus wrestling, the really sporty way requires that the human diver go without artificial breathing apparatus.
Intense. I'm not so sure I'd be eager to take on the mighty octopus underwater without breathing gear. First off, it's home turf for the octopus. It knows the lay of the land. Secondly, it has a six limb advantage on me. Thirdly, beaks. Did I mention they have camouflage?
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Wind: 1, Turbine: 0
For any of the ways in which man has tried to tame nature, there's usually at least one instance of nature deciding to totally kick man's ass instead of cooperating.
In that spirit, check out what happens when the brakes on a wind turbine fail in a huge windstorm. What is lost in green energy is made up for in "wicked awesome explosion".
(link courtesy of Machine Thinking)
In that spirit, check out what happens when the brakes on a wind turbine fail in a huge windstorm. What is lost in green energy is made up for in "wicked awesome explosion".
(link courtesy of Machine Thinking)
Monday, March 10, 2008
Awesome Sports, Vol. 1: Chess Boxing
Baseball, football, basketball and hockey have a bit of a popular-sports-monopoly going on here in North America, which is a bit of a shame. Don't get me wrong, these sports have their merits. I'm just saying, there are cooler sports out there that are currently not getting the attention they deserve.
Exhibit 1: Chess Boxing.
This sport, as the name implies, combines alternating rounds of boxing and speed chess (that's chess with a total time limit of 12 minutes per player). I would TOTALLY watch this. Forget the decathlon, chess boxing is the ultimate test of human capability. Imagine how hard it would be to get punched in the face a bunch of times, then play a round of chess. You'd be a little woozy, and maybe bleeding, and then you'd need to kick your critical thinking skills in to high gear. Then, once you've got your brain focused on the chess, it's time to go back to getting punched in the face, while also trying to land a few punches of your own. Except you're probably still thinking about the chess a little bit. "Should I play aggressively and force him to move his queen out into a vulnerable position? Or do I play conservatively, and wait for him to make a mistake?" Then you get punched in the nose for not paying attention. Being good at chess boxing would require absolute physical and mental discipline. Why is this not an Olympic sport?
As it stands, the sport is governed by the World Chess Boxing Organization. If you happen to live in Germany, there is an open German Championship coming up in April. Better start working on your cross check and your left cross.
Exhibit 1: Chess Boxing.
This sport, as the name implies, combines alternating rounds of boxing and speed chess (that's chess with a total time limit of 12 minutes per player). I would TOTALLY watch this. Forget the decathlon, chess boxing is the ultimate test of human capability. Imagine how hard it would be to get punched in the face a bunch of times, then play a round of chess. You'd be a little woozy, and maybe bleeding, and then you'd need to kick your critical thinking skills in to high gear. Then, once you've got your brain focused on the chess, it's time to go back to getting punched in the face, while also trying to land a few punches of your own. Except you're probably still thinking about the chess a little bit. "Should I play aggressively and force him to move his queen out into a vulnerable position? Or do I play conservatively, and wait for him to make a mistake?" Then you get punched in the nose for not paying attention. Being good at chess boxing would require absolute physical and mental discipline. Why is this not an Olympic sport?
As it stands, the sport is governed by the World Chess Boxing Organization. If you happen to live in Germany, there is an open German Championship coming up in April. Better start working on your cross check and your left cross.
Monday, March 3, 2008
Jeff Healey, 1966-2008
Jeff Healey, the great Canadian jazz/blues guitarist (who happened to be completely blind) died on Sunday.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
He ate a purse
If you liked Garfield Minus Garfield, you might also like Lasagna Cat (link courtesy of Penny Arcade).
A summary: live action recreations of Garfield strips, deconstructed and set to music. As with most things, way funnier than the description makes it sound.
A summary: live action recreations of Garfield strips, deconstructed and set to music. As with most things, way funnier than the description makes it sound.
Garfield Minus Garfield
This is genius.
Garfield has got to be one of the most consistently unfunny cartoon strips in the world, ranking right up there with the colossally mundane Family Circus. However, it turns out that if you reprint Garfield comics with Garfield himself removed, they become infinitely more entertaining. The remaining comics (featuring Jon in a variety of solitary scenes) are, in the words of the creator, "about schizophrenia, bipolor disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life". Brilliant.
Here are a few of my favourite Garfield Minus Garfield strips.
Garfield has got to be one of the most consistently unfunny cartoon strips in the world, ranking right up there with the colossally mundane Family Circus. However, it turns out that if you reprint Garfield comics with Garfield himself removed, they become infinitely more entertaining. The remaining comics (featuring Jon in a variety of solitary scenes) are, in the words of the creator, "about schizophrenia, bipolor disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life". Brilliant.
Here are a few of my favourite Garfield Minus Garfield strips.
Friday, February 22, 2008
El Guincho
If (like me) you're starting to get the late-winter stir craziness, and catch yourself staring longingly at your frisbee when you should be working (again, like me), here is some music that might help. El Guincho is a solo project by a guy named Pablo Diaz-Reixa, who stacks layers of oohs and aahs on top of steel drums, sunny guitars and lo-fi percussion to make a kind of foreign, tropical version of the Go! Team. It's like warmth for your ears.
As a side note, I think vocals are always better when you can't understand them. It's like, this song could be saying some really profound stuff! This guy could be the Spanish Shakespeare for all I know, when in reality it's probably like "I love to eat oranges! Oranges are tasty. Let's go eat some oranges."
El Guincho - Palmitos Park
El Guincho - Antillas
As a side note, I think vocals are always better when you can't understand them. It's like, this song could be saying some really profound stuff! This guy could be the Spanish Shakespeare for all I know, when in reality it's probably like "I love to eat oranges! Oranges are tasty. Let's go eat some oranges."
El Guincho - Palmitos Park
El Guincho - Antillas
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
John McCain - Like Hope, But Different
A few days ago, will.i.am released a music video/speech interpretation of some of Barack Obama's (admittedly, pretty awesome) rhetoric that's been generating a lot of buzz. That's right, one of the creative musical forces behind one of the defining songs of our generation, My Humps, is now weighing in on political discourse. Here's the Obama speech/song/video/thing:
It didn't take long for someone to whip one up for John McCain, and it is awesome. Gonna be wars!
It didn't take long for someone to whip one up for John McCain, and it is awesome. Gonna be wars!
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
His eyes lit up... like they were on fire!
So I was going to write a post about the US election, but it probably wouldn't have been nearly as entertaining as this. It's the most insightful analysis of the race for the presidency that I have seen so far.
Mysterious Traveler Entrances Town With Utopian Vision Of The Future
Mysterious Traveler Entrances Town With Utopian Vision Of The Future
Monday, February 11, 2008
Coolio's Caprese Salad
Which gangsta rapper do you think would make the best television chef? You're right, it's Coolio. This video pretty much kicks the crap out of every other cooking show I've ever seen.
Bring yo' ass to the table!
Also, if you feel like posting a video response, you could win a Coolio-autographed bell pepper, which is pretty much the best prize I can imagine winning.
Bring yo' ass to the table!
Also, if you feel like posting a video response, you could win a Coolio-autographed bell pepper, which is pretty much the best prize I can imagine winning.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Judas Priest Shreds
Recipe for awesomeness: Take a Judas Priest performance, mute the audio and overdub the clip with terrible guitar playing and mumbling.
If that doesn't sound all that funny, check it out. I promise mirth.
If that doesn't sound all that funny, check it out. I promise mirth.
Monday, February 4, 2008
Kosovo - Independent State #193?
It looks like the world is about to welcome Kosovo to the Legitimate Independent States Club (not an actual club, really). Sometime later this month, it's expected that Kosovo is going to make like a Balkan banana and split, becoming the 193rd officially recognized independent member state of the UN. Man, it'd suck to be Serbia. Two years ago, you lose Montenegro (in the middle of the World Cup, resulting in the only instance in my knowledge of a single World Cup soccer team simultaneously representing two independent states), and now Kosovo's making a break for it too.
There's worry that this kind of thing is setting a precedent for declarations of independence around the Balkans. This is kind of a bad idea for two reasons. First, not every potential state has the kind of near-unanimous support for independence and democracy that Kosovo has (90% of Kosovars are in favour), and that could mess things up. Secondly, some potential states include the likes of the Republic of Srpska, which is clearly in violation of the UN regulations on the maximum allowable number of adjacent consonants in a state name.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
It's the Hawaii Chair!
Infomercials are basically the lowest form of human communication. Grunting and rhythmically beating one's chest ranks at least a few notches higher. Still, in the world of infomercials, there's bad, and then there's ridiculous.
Take, for example, the Hawaii Chair. This hallmark of human ingenuity promises to "take the work out of your workout" by allowing you to get fit while sitting down. Just because you don't want to be obese doesn't mean you need to give up your sedentary lifestyle in front of the TV!
My favourite part of the infomercial is the computer generated "science" animations, featuring cutaway models of both the human body (it says my abs will glow bright red, glowing means getting in shape!) and the 2800 RPM Hula Motor. Hula Motor? Seriously? I don't think that's a thing.
Take, for example, the Hawaii Chair. This hallmark of human ingenuity promises to "take the work out of your workout" by allowing you to get fit while sitting down. Just because you don't want to be obese doesn't mean you need to give up your sedentary lifestyle in front of the TV!
My favourite part of the infomercial is the computer generated "science" animations, featuring cutaway models of both the human body (it says my abs will glow bright red, glowing means getting in shape!) and the 2800 RPM Hula Motor. Hula Motor? Seriously? I don't think that's a thing.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Word Sandwich
If you like your time-wasters wordy and fiendishly difficult, check out Word Sandwich. It involves guessing a random five-letter word in as few tries as possible. The only clue the game gives you is an indication of whether the word you've guessed is alphabetically higher or lower than the key word. You get points for succeeding in as few guesses as possible, and you get 5 words to rack up the highest score possible.
I got 8309. Bring it.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Decoding Ferran Adria
A recent discussion about the delicious possibilities of bacon vodka has got me back on a molecular gastronomy kick. How can a discipline that combines delicious food with class IV lasers not be great?If there's one undisputed king of molecular gastronomy, it's Ferran Adria. His restaurant, El Bulli, is the Mecca of modern creative food. Located in Catalonia, Spain, it serves only 8,000 patrons per year, despite the fact that it receives eight hundred thousand requests for tables. Its season is limited to 6 months (April-September) so Adria can spend the other 6 months experimenting in his ultra-high-tech food laboratory in Barcelona.
I've always been curious about what this food experimentation would actually look like... bunsen burners? Erlenmeyer flasks? Lab coats? Luckily for me, Anthony Bourdain went out and did some investigative eating in Spain to shed a little light on the El Bulli restaurant and lab. If you have 45 minutes to spare, and are as big a food nerd as I am, Decoding Ferran Adria will blow your socks off. Here is a man who knows how to cook.
(full screen link)
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Bert and Ernie
This video has been brought to you by the letter AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGHHHHHHHHHH.
(thanks to Mr. Chris Provan for the link)
(thanks to Mr. Chris Provan for the link)
Friday, January 25, 2008
Holy Diiiiivah
I got a copy of Guitar Hero Rocks the 80's for Christmas, and while I've only had a few chances to play it, the song choices so far seem very hit-or-miss in terms of entertainment value... it was clearly a post GH-2, pre-GH3 rush job. Then again, given my advanced state of Guitar Hero addiction, it makes for a nice fix in between the well-worn tunes from the main releases.
HOWEVER, that is not to say it's not without its high points. And by high points, I mean Holy Diver, by Dio. I'll be damned if it isn't one of the rockingest songs to ever hit the fake-guitar-playing-game genre. My biggest issue with this song is that it's not in Rock Band, since the vocal line is just, like... power, you know? I want to sing it. One of the lines is "Ride a tiger".
Yes.
HOWEVER, that is not to say it's not without its high points. And by high points, I mean Holy Diver, by Dio. I'll be damned if it isn't one of the rockingest songs to ever hit the fake-guitar-playing-game genre. My biggest issue with this song is that it's not in Rock Band, since the vocal line is just, like... power, you know? I want to sing it. One of the lines is "Ride a tiger".
Yes.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Seven billion dollars? What seven billion dollars?
Unscrupulous financial transactions aren't very rare these days. 2007 alone saw several high-profile cases of embezzlement, ranging from a measly $52,000 taken from the Maryland State Insurance Trust Fund, to the case of Ms. Harriette Walters, who scammed the DC Government for $20,000,000. The modern monetary world is a mysterious, twisted place where assets can be disguised and transformed into all manner of things. Financial instruments obey Byzantine rules that are truly understood by very few people, and I'm pretty sure the New York Stock Exchange keeps a minotaur on staff to roam around the building and battle those who can't answer its ancient riddles.
Still, though, Jérome Kerviel (see above for dramatization) has set a new gold standard in the world of making money disappear. This one trader managed to defraud his employer, Swiss bank Société Générale, for SEVEN BILLION DOLLARS (or 4.9 billion Euros) by making a few unauthorized expenditures in the futures market with the bank's money. Geez... companies all say they want self-directed, self-motivated employees, but as soon as you show a little bit of initiative and lose seven billion dollars of their money, they get all uppity.
Still, though, Jérome Kerviel (see above for dramatization) has set a new gold standard in the world of making money disappear. This one trader managed to defraud his employer, Swiss bank Société Générale, for SEVEN BILLION DOLLARS (or 4.9 billion Euros) by making a few unauthorized expenditures in the futures market with the bank's money. Geez... companies all say they want self-directed, self-motivated employees, but as soon as you show a little bit of initiative and lose seven billion dollars of their money, they get all uppity.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Ten Word Movie Reviews
I've seen a few movies in the past week, all of them entertaining. Here are some extremely brief reviews, in 10 words or less.
The Castle (1997): Quirky, dry Australian comedy. Odd, endearing, good.
Eastern Promises (2007): "The Godfather" with Russians. Very good.
Cloverfield (2008): Wtf.
The Castle (1997): Quirky, dry Australian comedy. Odd, endearing, good.
Eastern Promises (2007): "The Godfather" with Russians. Very good.
Cloverfield (2008): Wtf.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Pizza Delight
Posting has been sparse lately, as I had the chance to head out on a brief musical tour of the east coast for a few days. I also bring with me sad news from the eastern lands... after 40 years of hexagonal pizza deliciousness, Pizza Delight is changing their logo. They've gone from the highly recognizable old-school retro awesomeness of this...
...to this bland, flavourless oval of mediocrity.
They've also changed their corporate name from "Pizza Delight Corporation" to "Imvescor". Mmm, Imvescor. My mouth is watering already.
If you haven't been to Pizza Delight, and you ever find yourself in Eastern Canada, you should make it a priority to check it out. It's a lot like Pizza Hut, except they also have donair sauce for dipping. It might seem like that's a minor addition, but donair sauce is the Philosopher's Stone of pizza consumption. Via some strange alchemy, it turns regular pizza into a world-class delicacy that, if left to my own devices, I would eat until I exploded. Donair sauce is to regular dipping sauce what the space shuttle is to a paper airplane.
In the words of one Mr. Matt Kicul, the old octagon may not have been white and red, but it sure meant "stop" to me.
...to this bland, flavourless oval of mediocrity.
They've also changed their corporate name from "Pizza Delight Corporation" to "Imvescor". Mmm, Imvescor. My mouth is watering already.
If you haven't been to Pizza Delight, and you ever find yourself in Eastern Canada, you should make it a priority to check it out. It's a lot like Pizza Hut, except they also have donair sauce for dipping. It might seem like that's a minor addition, but donair sauce is the Philosopher's Stone of pizza consumption. Via some strange alchemy, it turns regular pizza into a world-class delicacy that, if left to my own devices, I would eat until I exploded. Donair sauce is to regular dipping sauce what the space shuttle is to a paper airplane.
In the words of one Mr. Matt Kicul, the old octagon may not have been white and red, but it sure meant "stop" to me.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Brawndo - the reviews are in
I've yet to satisfy my curiosity by actually purchasing a can of Brawndo, but the reviews are in, and apparently it is quite tasty, and also supplies a solid energy kick.
In other news, there are whole websites dedicated to reviewing energy drinks. How about that.
In other news, there are whole websites dedicated to reviewing energy drinks. How about that.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
New Cuff The Duke
The best alt-country band to ever hail from Oshawa, Cuff the Duke, just released a new album called "Sidelines of the City". It's more or less exactly what you'll expect if you're familiar with Cuff the Duke - basically Blue Rodeo with indie rock sensibilities - but I like Blue Rodeo and indie rock, so that's fine by me.
This album is a little more straight-up rock than their previous stuff, which makes some of the songs blend into each other a bit, but the upside to that is that this will probably be the kind of album you can toss on from start to finish while hanging out and having a few drinks with some friends on your porch/dock.
Monday, January 7, 2008
This Is England - A movie review!
I've decided to add the occasional film review to the grab bag of wonders that is Superfluism. First up: This Is England, a film by Shane Meadows.
In short, it's about a kid named Shaun (Thomas Turgoose) who lost his dad in the Falklands War, doesn't fit in, gets picked on in school, etc. As an 11 year old in 1983, he befriends a street gang (or the nearest British equivalent). As you might expect, trouble is a-brewing at this point. The rest of the film is a dark-but-riveting look at nationalism, racism, belonging, and the dangerous impressionability of youth.
The writing and acting are stellar, and every single character feels 100% real. There wasn't a single moment of the movie where I wasn't totally engrossed in how things were unfolding. It's not exactly a feel-good comedy romp, but if I'd seen it in 2007, it would've been my favourite movie of the year. As is, it's going to have to compete with some upcoming 2008 heavyweights, like Ace Ventura 3 and Seriously Dude, Where's My Car?
In short, it's about a kid named Shaun (Thomas Turgoose) who lost his dad in the Falklands War, doesn't fit in, gets picked on in school, etc. As an 11 year old in 1983, he befriends a street gang (or the nearest British equivalent). As you might expect, trouble is a-brewing at this point. The rest of the film is a dark-but-riveting look at nationalism, racism, belonging, and the dangerous impressionability of youth.
The writing and acting are stellar, and every single character feels 100% real. There wasn't a single moment of the movie where I wasn't totally engrossed in how things were unfolding. It's not exactly a feel-good comedy romp, but if I'd seen it in 2007, it would've been my favourite movie of the year. As is, it's going to have to compete with some upcoming 2008 heavyweights, like Ace Ventura 3 and Seriously Dude, Where's My Car?
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