Acts of Volition

Growing up a couple hundred miles from the U.S. border in Canada’s smaller province, I’ve always had a sense that we in Canada have a unique vantage point on the United States of America. From here, we can see that America is a large beast, but we are too close to see the whole thing. Sleeping … read more »

When I first heard of the idea for the latest community campaign to help promote Firefox, I was a little skeptical. The idea was (is) to ask for donations of $30 from people. With the money, they will buy an ad (hopefully full page) in the New York Times about the 1.0 release of Firefox (coming …

Hate Rays – (hät’ räz) noun.  •  An intense feeling of anger or hatred directed physically towards an individual, group, or object. Direction is often indicate with an intense stare, though eye contact is not necessary. Usage: She sent hate rays in his direction as he, oblivious, slurped his soup …

Since many of us use it every day, it is easy to lose sight of just how remarkable the internet can be. This morning, I had a quick chat with my friend Peter, who is usually downstairs in the building our companies share. Today, though, he is in Croatia.

If you are walking from point A to point B in the rain, do you get more or less wet depending on how fast you walk?  •  Sounds stupidly simple, doesn’t it. Not so (for me, at least). Here are some things we can assume for the sake of the problem:  •  let’s assume you are rectangular - let’s say, 1 …

Tonight on As It Happens, a daily current affairs show on CBC Radio, the lead story was the CBS George Bush National Guard memos. It is weird to hear weblogs discussed in the “real world”. I feel like someone found out about our secret club…  •  Listen to the piece from As It Happens on CBC Radio …

This week on Quirks & Quarks, Canada’s weekly science program on CBC radio discussed the issue of long term (really long term) nuclear waste management.  •  The program was well produced, covered the topics from interesting angles, and generally made for great listening. Eerie vignettes of …

A few years ago, Stephan Wolfram published a 1200+ page book boldly called A New Kind of Science. Wolfram had been apparently working on the concepts for about 20 years. He was an early Sun engineer and went on to create Mathematica, a powerful mathematics application.  •  When the book came out …

Not really an original thought, but a thought none the less, it occurred to me this week that some of the primary sponsors of the Olympic games are pushing products that actual Olympic athletes could never actually use.  •  Do you think someone setting a world track-and-field record would have … read more »