The SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) is an American standardized test
used as part of the criteria for admission to colleges and
universities. There’s a new one for 2005 and MSN has a sample test made
up of 8 math questions — how would you fare?
I got a perfect score using only a piece of scrap paper to keep track of the addends and subtrahend in question 6.
Meryle will be performing a special Spongebob Squarepants-themed burlesque number tonight at the Cadillac Lounge (1296 Queen Street West, just west of the railway bridge at Dufferin) as part of Skin Tight Outta Sight’s latest show: Beach Bombshell Burlesque!
I think I might catch this one.
“Hey, Joey,” said my coworker Kim, “wanna come to the Beer Festival?”
And hence this morning’s slightly pasty mouth. Last night was the opening night of the annual Toronto Festival of Beer, which takes place all weekend at Historic Fort York.
Beer companies both large and small showcase their beers their at very
reasonable prices: $1 for a 4-ounce sample or “half-order”, $2 for 8
ounces or a “full”.
Here’s a little tidbit of useful information: when you first enter the
Festival, you’re given a glass that you keep for the stay and use for
the beer you’re served. Always order the half-order.
The beer servers are quite generous and alway overpour the 4-ounce
servings, but the laws of physics prevent them from pouring anything
more than the full glass.
It was a lovely evening of booze-soaked merriment, and I managed to get a few snapshots which I posted. You can view them in photo album or slideshow form.
Here are a couple of samples:
“Thank you, Giant Beer!” My coworker Greg and I make friends with an anthropomorphic Guinness.
“Hey, baby, what shay you and meeeee go shomeplashe quiet?” Darryl finds his one true love.
It was announced only 20 minutes ago: Rick James, the man behind the hit single Super Freak and Dave Chapelle’s most-quoted routine, is dead at the age of 56.
I have got to get me boots like those.
Super Freak was my first “signature song” when I started DJing at Clark Hall Pub at Crazy Go Nuts University: when you heard Rick singing “She’s a very kinky giiiiirl…”, you knew that I was manning the booth.
Thanks for the music, Rick!
Shoot the Cliche is a Flash-based game in which you get to blow away internet and pop-culture memes that have become cliches on Fark. You can blast at Admiral Ackbar, the Fark mustard guy, Bat Boy, Trogdor, Domo-Kun, Ellen Feiss and others…but you must spare the cute kittens!
Last night, I had the privilege of dining with Rebecca MacKinnon, Jay Rosen, Jeff Jarvis and Hossein “Hoder” Derakhshan at Tempus, a Persian fusion restaurant on Yonge Street here in Accordion City.
Rebecca MacKinnon and Jay Rosen. Rebecca is a media fellow at Harvard’s Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy; prior to that, she was CNN’s Tokyo Bureau Chief. Jay Rosen is the faculty chair of NYU’s school of Journalism,
a former fellow at the Shorenstein Center, was one of the Democratic
National Convention bloggers and will be blogging the upcoming
Republican National Convention.
After hearing about how Hoder and I came to Canada, Jay quipped “Isn’t
history so rude, the way it just interferes with lives like that?”.
Hoder’s life was pretty much altered after the 1979 Revolution in his native Iran,
while mine was changed mere weeks after my family moved back to the
Philippines in 1972, when President Marcos has his dictatorial flip-out.
In commenting on my write-ups of the PJNet conference on public journalism and blogging
(which he complimented — thanks!), he asked if my reporting style was
influenced by my training as a computer programmer. I told him that I
couldn’t imagine it not being influenced by it, as I’m the sort of
person who likes his information well-organized.
We also talked about the excellent but short-lived television show Max Headroom, which Jay, Jeff and I loved. Jeff said that he gave it a great review (I’m not sure in which publication).
Jeff Jarvis and “Hoder” Derakshan. Jeff is the president and creative director of Advance.net (which oversees the internet strategy of Advance Internet and Conde Nast’s CondeNet). Prior to that, he created Entertainment Weekly and was a TV critic for TV Guide and People.
Hoder, often known as “The Iranian Weblogger”, contributes in his own
way to the reformation of Iran through his English and Persian blogs,
both titled Editor: Myself. Hoder’s so influential that someone’s written a Wikipedia entry on him!
We also talked about software and hardware usability and the conceptual
gaps between programmers and the people who use their software,
self-expression and cultural gaps, beer, journalists’ perception of
blogging, getting Rebecca set up with a Blogware blog, Tucows and Asia.
The big topic of discussion was what I like to think of as “Changing
the World”, through weblogs. It was inspired by Hoder’s blogging; he’s
almost single-handedly responsible for starting a blogging revolution
in Iran. The hope is to foster the exchange of ideas, international
understanding and free specch through blogging. We came up with these
requirements (which I’ve cribbed from this entry on Jeff’s blog):
1. Promotion. Hoder says it is important to get prominent
people, like journalists, blogging in these countries to bring
attention to it. He wants to set up an award for Iranian blogs — not
for the best blog but for the best post, which is appropriate to the
medium. We talked about the need to creat a blog news service that
would translate and reblog notable posts from around the world: Hey,
big news guys, here are the stories you’re missing but here’s a link to
where you can get them. And hey, powerful politicians, here is what the
people are reporting in your country. And hey, readers around the
world, here’s a new perspective on a country you’re not seeing in the
paper or on TV — either because it’s not coverered or it’s covered
from a high-altitude and not from a human level.
2. Tools. We need to get tools and instruction translated
into Arabic and other local languages. They need to be the appropriate
tools — so, for example, bloggers can post via email when they can’t
get Web access. For blogging to take off in a country, it has to be
done in the native language. Efforts are underway.
3. Hosting. If rich folks want to help the cause of free
speech and understanding, providing free and anonymous hosting that’s
not under the control of repressive governments will help.
4. Detours around censorship. The web technical community
needs to invent new ways to get around government censors, who
regularly block access to specific blogs and to blog domains (e.g.,
Blogspot and Typepad). Hoder’s site is now blocked in Iran, which lost
him a lot of traffic that matters, but he also found that more people
are now subscribing to his RSS feed instead. Separate RSS feed
services, cacheing of blogs, clever redirects, and other means need to
be created to keep free speech free.
It has happened in Iran. It is happening in Iraq.
Rebecca says it’s exploding in China (though I wish that news service
existed so we could get an idea of what people are saying there). Where
else should it be happening? Afghanistan. Turkey. Egypt. Saudi Arabia.
Indonesia. Central Asia……
Hey, it’s a comic I can forward to both Wendy (she’s Jewish) and Scott (who thinks he’s a robot): ShaBot 6000!
From the “About” page:
…who purchases a robot…
…to work as Shabbos Goy for
his household. The inquisitive robot, ShaBot, decides
that he is Jewish, and is therefore unable to fulfill his duties as
servant. ShaBot spends his days asking questions about Judaism, trying
to find logic in a religion that sometimes DOES NOT COMPUTE.
ShaBot 6000 is unlike any other Jewish themed cartoon.
In fact, the only other Jewish cartoon worth mentioning is Yaakov Kirschen’s Dry
Bones, a venerable comic strip which has been in syndication since
the 1970’s! Whereas Dry Bones is mostly about Israel and Middle Eastern
politics, ShaBot 6000 is more about Jewish faith. ShaBot 6000 looks
at the lighter side of kashrut, parshat
ha-shavuah, Talmud,
interfaith and more, often challenging Jewish principles that most
would never dare question. ShaBot 6000 is a comic strip for
the 21st century modern Jew!
Trust me — it’s pretty amusing. I may be a goy, but since five I know from funny!