Maybe I was Wrong

For the better part of my life I always considered nuclear power to be incredibly clean and efficient way to produce a lot of power. With the recent earthquake to hit Japan and Fukushima, perhaps it is now time to consider something else. The question is what else? The thought of going back to burning coal, oil, or even worse Orimulsion. Then there is wind power that kills birds, bats, honey bees, and causes hearing damage. Hydro-electric power that kills the eco-system of a river upstream, even if provisions were made not to. Solar? The sun will come out tomorrow but not today and are very inefficient to have reliable energy in short winter days. I think the most important factor is that although we believe it can be safe, what if nature makes it go wrong. Canadian reactors are supposed to be certified for expected levels of seismic activity. But expected and reality can be different. Like the old expression “Shit Happens”.

The Times They Are A Changin’

A few year’s back I got reconnected to a classic piece of music; Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A Changin’”. Back then was in March 2005. I was a young political supporter taking by first trip by train to Montréal, for the 1st Conservative Party of Canada policy and constitution convention. Back then I thought we were doing something new a great. The vision of make a new party from scratch. Also, strengthening up the constitution to make it more fair and accountable. Fast forward to now six years later, and we are back to the corruption as before but the song is developing new meaning. With recent events that started in Egypt and Tunisia we are seeing once more that The Times They Are A Changin’. In hindsight, it appears that change actually happen quite rapidly. Now that it spreads fast people can compare this turning point in history to the storming Bastille. Where people’s choice takes forefront to prolonged oppression. But of greater concern is that at this point in History the current super-power the United States turns out to be broke, and not exactly globally well liked. Compare them to the Hapsburg Dynasty of Austria that…

Academy Award Predictions

Actor in a Leading Role Colin Firth in “The King’s Speech” Actor in a Supporting Role Mark Ruffalo in “The Kids Are All Right” Actress in a Leading Role Nicole Kidman in “Rabbit Hole” Actress in a Supporting Role Jacki Weaver in “Animal Kingdom” Animated Feature Film “Toy Story 3” Lee Unkrich Art Direction “Alice in Wonderland” Production Design: Robert Stromberg; Set Decoration: Karen O’Hara Cinematography “The King’s Speech” Danny Cohen Costume Design “I Am Love” Antonella Cannarozzi Directing “Black Swan” Darren Aronofsky Documentary (Feature) “Exit through the Gift Shop” Banksy and Jaimie D’Cruz Documentary (Short Subject) “Killing in the Name” Nominees to be determined Film Editing “The Fighter” Pamela Martin Foreign Language Film “In a Better World” Denmark Makeup “The Wolfman” Rick Baker and Dave Elsey Music (Original Score) “127 Hours” A.R. Rahman Music (Original Song) “I See the Light” from “Tangled” Music by Alan Menken Lyric by Glenn Slater Best Picture “The King’s Speech” Iain Canning, Emile Sherman and Gareth Unwin, Producers Short Film (Animated) “Day & Night” Teddy Newton Short Film (Live Action) “God of Love” Luke Matheny Sound Editing “Tron: Legacy” Gwendolyn Yates Whittle and Addison Teague Sound Mixing “The Social Network” Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael…

Golden Globes 2011 Predictions

Edit: Bold predictions were correct. 8 of 25 (32%) Best Motion Picture – Drama The King’s Speech Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama Jennifer Lawrence – Winter’s Bone Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama Colin Firth – The King’s Speech Best Motion Picture – Comedy Or Musical Tied: Alice in Wonderland or The Kids Are All Right Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Comedy Or Musical Emma Stone – Easy A Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Comedy Or Musical Jake Gyllenhaal – Love And Other Drugs Best Performance by an Actress In A Supporting Role in a Motion Picture Amy Adams – The Fighter Best Performance by an Actor In A Supporting Role in a Motion Picture Michael Douglas – Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps Best Animated Feature Film Toy Story 3 Best Foreign Language Film I Am Love (Italy) Best Director – Motion Picture David O. Russell – The Fighter Best Screenplay – Motion Picture Stuart Blumberg, Lisa Cholodenko – The Kids Are All Right Best Original Score – Motion Picture Danny Elfman – Alice in Wonderland Best Original Song –…

Santa as Blackmail

In the sprit of the holiday season I would like to make this rant about the blatant misuse of Father Christmas by millions of parents world wide. Throughout this highly commercialized world of Christmas. The sweet jolly old man has gone from the symbol of joy and happiness, to be the evil judge of goodness that has in recent years has never cut any kid off that I know of. Face it people you don’t really need it! Hasn’t our generation learned yet from Disney’s The Little Mermaid that things don’t matter as much as experiences. Then again, experiences are the reason that every parent will get most kids anything they want. You may deny it but for the same reason that you all use Santa to blackmail the kids in the first place you buy them anything. You are self-centered! Using Santa as an incentive to behave provided you benefit. As much so a joy on their faces Christmas morning. So in closing, happy holidays, and get over yourself. Stop being self-centered you are not as important as me.

LED vs. LCD

This week I was looking into buying a new TV. I know for sure that I’m not looking at a plasma. When the sales representative was explaining the different TVs she started describing LED TVs as better TVs. This led to the question, isn’t a LED TV a LCD display. The answer I got was no it is better than a LCD, that it worked like a LED stop light that the LEDs change colour. This is wrong! All LED TVs are LCD TVs but all LCD TVs are not LED TVs. What is LCD? It is basically like the old fashion calculators, as an electric current hits a liquid crystal (the LC in LCD) it rotates the crystal changing the wave lengths to make a RGBK {Red, Green, Blue, and Black} (or in a few RGBYK {adds Yellow})  to the back light. Then what’s the diff? The difference is in the back-light. A TV referred to by the store as a LCD TV is in-fact a lit in the back by a fluorescent back-light. This back-light will last a ;long time but will eventually burn out.  This is similar to the monitor that you are likely reading this on, like a laptop or cell phone screen (most…

Day 2: London to Amsterdan

So today has been freaking crazy. I woke up this morning pumped and excited to start the journey. I had a shower. The only reason I mention it was the fact that the hot water was broken and would not turn off, leaving me with a steam room. Then I caught the bus to the ferry in Dover. The three most notable thing about Dover was the castle on the hill, that I missed a good 35sec window to get a picture of. Second was the famous White Cliffs. I always thought of the white cliffs as a tourist trap like the reversing falls but it was actually unbelievably amazing like seeing the Statue of Liberty for the first time. The third amazing thing was this is where I learn that people actually pay for packets of ketchup. Later on I came to a McDonalds in Belgium or the Netherlands (it was near the boarder) that had a guy taking payment for the public washroom. Now I am in Amsterdam. This city is awesome just walked down the street drinking a Heineken. Beer is actually cheeper here than water. Also avoid the Greek Mac at McDonalds it is really crap.

It all starts here

On the Contilki website it lists the travel from Canada day as day 1. As such I will start my travel log with today. So this morning I started packing and then when fitting stuff in the suitcase I realized 2 things. 1. I have never packed myself for a 3 week trip before. 2. There is no way this is all going to fit. (possible 3. I should not have procrastinated it to 1 hour before having to call a taxi to the airport.) Well then next, I called a taxi to the airport. As the taxi arrived I realized I was missing my shirt and belt and did not have everything 100% packed. It was a quick ride to the airport except we hit a piece of firewood on Loch Lomond Rd. near Lakewood. (I wonder if it is still there?) Then I flew to Toronto, I love the seseme seed dessert things that Air Canada Jazz serves. Then I headed downtown for a bit. I ran into 2 types of crowds the September 11th “educators” and movie fans. (I love movies) Then after hanging around 10 Dundas East and the Eaton Center , I headed back on…

Ah! Montreal

After twelve and a half long hours on a bus I have arrived in Montreal for WordCamp Montreal. This is my 5th WordCamp which I will do a post about sometime later. I took a walk earlier today and walked through the historic McGill University campus. One sweet sign that the orientation for the new students coming to university this year will have a better orientation than the three I’ve go to is the size of the beer tent. There must have been thousands of bottles of Boreale Beer and lots of kegs too. Anyone who has been to Montreal knows that is good beer.

BarbBarbBarb

Like most of you my readers are aware I am a huge WordPress enthusiast. I also like to write about local Saint John affairs too. While I would like to promote a site that is local and very interesting. It is (update as of 2020 this link no longer functions). I came across this website as a suggested person to follow. (@barbbarbbarb) This site is focused on fashion and is very well written. To tie it back to WordPress this site is running on an older version of WordPress 2.8.3 and is using a modified version of Kuuler I theme made by stratus, a well-known WordPress developer. Give the site a good read I’m sure you will enjoy it. Also, next weekend is WordCamp Montreal 2010. It is going to be a blast.

Exchanging links with CEFM.ca

Quite often lately I get comments that get always mark as spam and e-mails asking permission to exchange links. Generally, the best approach is to write great content and you will get linked to. If you like content from CEFM.ca than link to it. Just remember all my content is protected by the Creative Commons license, except the portfolio which is not creative commons. I do approve and show all trackbacks to good articles that link me. I also generally check the sources in the logs of sites that refer traffic to me. Currently wordpress.org and saintjohnshawn.com are the biggest referrers. My most popular posts are my 2008 Saint John Idol photos and the NB Sports Sites List.