Category: Blog

Hey, that’s me on Newsworld!

My interview on Newsworld regarding the science of soccer did indeed air today at 11:15 a.m. I captured it and YouTubed it for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy!

Photo of the (Yester)Day: The Vault

Ever wonder where the Mackenzie Art Gallery keeps its collection when it’s not on display? Here: For my 48th birthday yesterday we made use of an opportunity to have some food and wine and tour the vault at the Mackenzie Art Gallery. (We bought the opportunity at a gallery fundraiser last year.) It made for …

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Your flying saucer is ready:

Moller International has started production of a hovercar, a small two-passenger saucer-shaped vehicle designed to take off and land vertically. It’s going to be priced at $90,000 to $125,000 U.S.

Me on Newsworld

Yesterday CBC Newsworld contacted me about doing a short segment on the science of soccer, in honour of the FIFA Under-20 World Cup now being played in Canada. (If you google “The Science of Soccer,” the column I wrote in 2002 is the first hit.) I did the interview this morning on the lawn outside …

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The virtual choir

Well, it looks like this fall I’ll be part of the Canadian Chamber Choir as it conducts workshops and tours out of Vineland, Ontario. Very exciting–I haven’t had the chance to sing with a top-notch choir since my last year in the University of Regina Chamber Singers, then conducted by Kathryn Laurin, and that was …

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World-wide wikis

Today’s CBC Web column… ******* Once upon a time, a computer programmer named Ward Cunningham visited Honolulu, where a Honolulu International Airport counter employee told him to take the a particular shuttle bus line between terminals, nicknamed the “WikiWiki” line: wiki is a Hawaiian-language word for “fast.” I don’t know whether Cunningham took the WikiWiki …

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The unbeatable checker-playing computer

Computer scientists at the University of Alberta have solved the ancient game of checkers: After 18-and-a-half years and sifting through 500 billion billion (a five followed by 20 zeroes) checkers positions, Dr. Jonathan Schaeffer and colleagues have built a checkers-playing computer program that cannot be beaten. Completed in late April this year, the program, Chinook, …

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CBC moves Moose Jaw to Alberta!

From a CBC.ca arts story this morning (here’s the link, but I would suspect this will be corrected soon, which is why I’ve appended the screen shot below)*: Vancouver writer Ivan E. Coyote, Moose Jaw, Alta.-based poet Daniel Scott Tysdal and Victoria’s Bill Gaston have won ReLit awards. Moose Jaw, Alta.? The whole town up …

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Photo of the Day that was Actually Taken Yesterday: Red

More photos here.

Putting the effect before the cause

It’s generally believed time travel into the past is impossible. Only…nobody can quite figure out why it’s impossible. So just maybe, it isn’t. John Cramer’s experiment to see if it’s possible to detect an effect before a cause is going ahead: University of Washington physicist (and science-fiction author) John Cramer is moving forward with his …

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Photo of the Day: Neighbourhood Sunset

More photos here.

Here’s hoping it works!

A universal ‘flu vaccine is in the first stage of human tests: This vaccine is intended to provide protection against all ‘A’ strains of the virus that causes human influenza, including pandemic strains.***At the moment, Phase I clinical trials on humans are underway – that is, the candidate vaccine is being administered to a small …

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