Month: July 2006

Want To Virtually Visit Moscow?

A friendly Moscow webcam is the best I can offer my intrepid friends. That and a return to the saga that was our trip there some years ago.

You can control this webcam directly on the webpage – if you select the preset position called Downtown you can see some on the onion domes and massive architecture in downtime Moscow. You can also click anywhere on the visible picture and it will be centered on that location for you.

Note that anyone with an Internet connection can control this, so don’t be surprised if it suddenly moves somewhere you didn’t ask it to. Pretty darned cool though – brings up good memories of our days in Moscow.

A Better BBQ?

I consider myself a BBQ enthusiast. I enjoy BBQ’d food as much if not more so than any other random person you’d stop on the street. I sometimes take it even further when I go camping – the BBQ morphs into a small portable stove and everything is cooked either in a pot over the flame or literally over the campfire flame. I love that stuff.

So now I hear things about this new technology for BBQs – one that uses wood fuel and batteries. Interested? I was too. Check out the Woodflame technology.

I have no idea how much these cost, but I see Rona is a reseller so you can bet I’m going to check it out when i’m next in there. Pretty cool stuff!

Artificial Sperm – The Next Step, But Towards What?

We’ve all heard the joke about how medical breakthroughs in medical genetics and reproductive technology will eventually make either men or women (depending on who’s telling the story) obsolete. Funny most of the time – until you hear about how they have now successfully created sperm cells that were grown outside of a male body, implanted into a female, and produced viable offspring. Suddenly the term artificial insemination takes on a totally new meaning.

In all honesty I’m sure not everyone is surprised about this. It really is the next step, and a preliminary one at that. The offspring suffered, with one dying before reaching adulthood. As the article notes:

“There are currently many things we don’t know about how sperm are formed let alone why it sometimes goes wrong and leads to infertility in some men.

But he added: “It is more difficult to say whether artificial sperm produced this way could ultimately be used as a new treatment for male infertility. There are many technical, ethical and safety issues to be confronted before this could even be considered.”

At this point in reading the article I stopped and mentally noted that not a single person voiced the first question that came to my mind: Should we? Certainly they make all sorts of sabre-rattling efforts, claiming that various aspects of ethical, cultural and societal impacts need to be assessed along the way. I can hear the white-mustached man clearing his throat, lowering his bushy white eyebrows and declaring that analysis needs to be done. Hrumph, harumph, we’ll do this right!

And yet, I believe we need to look at things a little differently. Just because we can, doesn’t necessarily mean we should. That’s my personal belief.

Many people decry that we are messing with God’s work here, creating life in a way that should never be done. I think these people often follow this experiment to its natural conclusion: same-sex couples being able to have biological children together. Then the scientists step in and say that God’s desire is to have humans grow and stretch ourselves – that if s/he hadn’t meant us to do this we wouldn’t be able to do it.

I find these arguments rather pointless, as beliefs are not universal and really can’t be used as a cultural solution. But I do think we should ask ourselves why this is needed in today’s world, what the ramifications will be, and whether we really do need to follow this path to its completion. These questions may result in ‘yes’ – who can say? Nobody’s really ever figured it out.

Another example of science leading society down a road it may not even be aware of, let alone be thinking about critically. What does that road means to the culture, society, and people on the trip? Do we even care anymore? Is it progress for progress’s sake?

We All Love Robert Munsch!

I grew up loving Robert Munsch’s story about Jonathan and the subway station in his wall. I’m sure we all have favorites. Now I find that the author and entertainer has made audio versions of many of his books available for free on his website. Download them all and play them for your children – you can’t really go wrong. What a great gesture from a great children’s writer.

On a related note, I had no idea he was a Canadian, and that he based the stories he writes on the children he first tells them to. His story telling style is apparent in the audio recordings, and are quite entertaining as Wikipedia states:

Munsch stories are well known for their juvenile, yet catchy, humour. Parents sometimes criticised them as being rude or obscene. Munsch himself is well known for his manic storytelling methods, with exaggerated expressions and well-acted voices; his performances are always loved by kids, of all ages.

Red Paperclip = Living in Kipling, Saskatchewan!

The red paperclip guy has done it! He’s managed to finesse his way through 12 trades all the way to a house. Congratulations on a ‘job’ well done. Now he wants to write a book about the experience – something I figure he’ll have plenty of time to do in his new house.

Shoot – he also gets to be mayor for a day, and receives a key to the city. Who knew negotiating obtuse trades could be so … honorary?

Here’s my previous post on the fellow.

Thanck Goodeness Fore SpelChequers

These tools are so very useful – can we really live without them?

I quote:

Eye halve a spelling chequer,
It came with my pea sea,
It plainly marques four my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.

Eye strike a key and type a word
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar write
It shows me strait a weigh.

As soon as a mist ache is maid
It nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the error rite
Its rarely ever wrong.

Eye have run this poem threw it
I’m shore your pleased two no
Its letter perfect in it’s weigh,
My chequer tolled me sew.

Canadian Music – This City Rocks!

In addition to the CBC Radio 3 podcast I can now wholeheartedly recommend another source of information on Canadian Music: This City Rocks.

It’s a vlog (video blog – don’t blame me I didn’t make the word up) that started out focusing on Vancouver’s music talent, and has recently decided to open it up to the rest of the country’s artists. They do a little interview with a band in an effort to introduce you to their style and sound.

It’s a nice way to get to know a local band, as perusing the Straight’s band listing really doesn’t give you an idea of who these bands are. I also think the Straight’s music section tends to ignore local talent as well, preferring to focus on up-and-comers from out of town. So it is nice to have a local resource in Vancouver itself.

I just hope this new ‘Canadian’ focus doesn’t shatter the usefulness of this vlog – I really enjoyed the first 3 episodes and getting to see some of the talent located locally.