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Aleja with new footwear
Aleja hanging out before her presentation at AoIR9 this week.
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October Sunrise in Toronto
Good day, sun rise. This is the day I got my SSHRC grant application in. It was a good day.
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Gormenghast
I have just finished re-reading Mervyn Peak’s Gormenghast trilogy. I’m not sure how many times I’ve read it over the last thirty years, but it just keeps getting better! Now I’m starting to read Look me in the eye, an autobiography of an Aspie. Yuka says it is great!
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acetone & toluene in candy from china
Yuka is telling me that acetone & toluene have been found in foods (red bean paste) imported into Japan from China (in Japanese). She’s always telling me that when we hear about things in Asia, in the English news, she’s heard about it weeks or months before. A previous issue last month: Two fall sick after eating Chinese bean paste in Japan - Yahoo! News. When you think of acetone & toluene, think nail polish remover and paint thinner. Probably leaks in from the ink on packaging.
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Ig Nobels are out!
Spermicide Coke, stale chips research wins Ig Nobels
A researcher who figured out that Coke explodes sperm and scientists who discovered that people will happily eat stale chips if they crunch loudly enough won alternative “Ig Nobel” prizes Thursday.
Other winners included physicists who found out that anything that can tangle, will tangle and a team of biologists who ascertained that dog fleas jump farther than cat fleas.
I <3 the ignobles.
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disability - The Learning & Teaching Office - Ryerson University
disability - The Learning & Teaching Office - Ryerson University is a new website of resources relating to teaching and learning at Ryerson… looks like some good content, but I wonder if the page is accessible. Have to check!
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Ooops. Nope. I’ve informed.
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Harper’s Plagiarized Speech
Watch the video at CBC.ca News - Canada Votes - Ormiston Online - Politics or Plagiarism?.
I must ask: “Is this leadership?” I can assume that Harper will say it isn’t his problem, but one of his team… the team he leads? Or some other team over which he has no control. I’m very very vigilant when it comes to catching plagiarism for a variety of reasons. Now, I am willing to allow people a second chance when it comes to plagiarism… it shouldn’t destroy their career. That said, I would still insist that a penalty be applied and that some notice should be made on someone’s record… and to just shrug it off represents a callous disregard for integrity. We all make mistakes, but how we respond to them is the mark of a person’s character. IMHO.
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Brainstorm: Reading, Writing, and the Profession - Chronicle.com
Mark Bauerlein has a great short article that speaks against over-publishing in the humanities, and I think it speaks well to any qualitative inquiry. He even suggests a limit on the number of pages allowed when going up for tenure: “Just give us your best 100 pages,” should be the rule” for those coming up for tenure. What a thought… quality over quantity.
Brainstorm: Reading, Writing, and the Profession - Chronicle.com
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Style, Fashion & Beauty Tips - How To Look Good Naked - Channel4
Yuka and I watched Style, Fashion & Beauty Tips - How To Look Good Naked - Channel4. Don’t know what it is like all the time, but it was a wonderful thing to watch. Not that I’m signing up or anything.
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Do Good Grades Predict Success?
This is a great blog post. Read it! 
Do Good Grades Predict Success? - Freakonomics - Opinion - New York Times Blog
I was speaking with a colleague the other day and he was remarking on an accomplishment I have had in my field (of microprocessor design). He assumed I had been a straight-A student all through school.
When I noted that I was far from it, he was shocked. This got me to thinking: we usually just assume that somehow grades in school (at any level) are predictors of future success, or certainly of intelligence; but I highly doubt it. I tried to find some good studies, but found five problems immediately:
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Apple shares tumble on downgrades from investment banks
Apple shares tumble on downgrades from investment banks. Ya. I took a bath today. Whatever, it will get better by the time I retire, or it will get worse and money won’t matter. But, think about it… the investment banks are the ones causing the problem. I guess when it comes to intelligence, that’s what got lost first in the financial markets. Whacked.
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No to Starbucks!
The word is that Starbucks is trying to move into Kensington Market. Poor starbucks… they won’t know what hit them.
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Word on the street
I updated my kensington market and area page with some pictures from Word on the Street and Pedestrian Sunday in Kensington
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PlanetX64 - OS X on the Wind
PlanetX64 - OS X on the Wind talks about installing OS X on a puter smaller than MacBook Air… sounds like fun.