Author: kempton

What a great talk at Stanford. It is well-worth the 37 minutes to watch this insightful and interesting to watch talk.

On June 13, 2009, Robert Sapolsky, world renowned professor of neurology, neurological sciences, neurosurgery and biological sciences gave the class day lecture in association with commencement weekend 2009. Having been selected to talk by the Stanford University graduating class, Sapolsky spoke about the uniqueness of humans in relation to the rest of the animal world. A few of the topics he spoke on include aggression, theory of mind, the golden rule and pleasure.

[HT Andreas]

Filed under: Love, people, Science, Video, YouTube

Thanks Alexandre, you made the whole of Canada proud!!!

Gold Canada Gold !!!

Read the news of Alexandre Bilodeau winning gold and watch his performance. An excerpt,

“It’s really getting me right now,” he [Alexandre] said. “My brother has been an inspiration for me. Growing up with a brother that’s handicapped, you learn so much.”

At home in Montreal, Bilodeau was always lightning quick, a natural athlete who excelled at hockey then devoted himself to freestyle skiing. Frederic, five years older and slowed down by cerebral palsy, did not begrudge but his brother but instead became his biggest supporter.

“It puts everything in perspective. If I have the chance to train, I’ll take it. Even if it’s raining, I’ll take it. He doesn’t even have that chance,” Bilodeau said. “He has all the right to complain. And he never complains.”

Here is Alexandre’s Wikipedia page.

Filed under: 2010-Olympics, Canada, Love

Moon is one of the best and most thoughtful sci-fi films I have seen in recent years. Here, I deliberately leave the synopsis brief to leave you a lot of room for imaginations and the unexpected. It is worth pointing out that Moon is minimalist in nature comparing to the big budget and other worldly expansive Avatar, both Moon and Avatar are very enjoyable in their own way.

“Moon is a 2009 science fiction–psychological thriller about a solitary lunar employee who experiences a personal crisis as the end of his three-year stint nears.”

The fact that it looks so GREAT with an indie film budget makes it even more amazing.

Sam Rockwell was great in playing the astronaut. And Kevin Spacey was superb in voicing the role of the computer GERTY.

As I don’t want to spoil anyone’s fun in watching the film, I will leave the discussion of the film in the comment section if the readers are interested. As per usual, the DVD of Moon is available at the Calgary Public Library. Go borrow it and have some fun watching it. Here is a trailer of the movie.

Filed under: Alberta, Calgary, Canada, Movies

Wishing everyone a happy Chinese New Year of Tiger.

祝虎年快樂，身體健康！

Filed under: Calgary, Canada, Chinese, food, Love

Masked & violent Vancouver Olympic rioters should be fully prosecuted under the law, each and every single one of them. From CTV (emphasis added),

Seven protesters were arrested and will likely be charged with assault and possession of a dangerous weapon after 200 anti-Olympic demonstrators marched through downtown Vancouver Saturday, smashing plate glass windows and overturning newspaper boxes.

Police say they recovered a bag with a hammer. One protester had a bicycle chain wrapped around his fist when he was arrested, police also say.

A criminal element mingled with the legitimate anti-Olympic protestors. “The criminal element apparently willing to wield anything that might cause damage or injury marched among about 200 legitimate protestors,” police said in a statement released about an hour after police broke up their march.

These rioters are NOT the same as other peaceful protestors that protest their cause peacefully. The moment someone put a mask on his/her face, carry tools to destroy properties, they become public enemies and shall be prosecuted and punished fully under the law.

These rioters don’t really care about the causes (be it anit-proverty, anti-Olympics, etc), they were there to destroy and gain attention. What should happen is they should get the full attention of the law and be punished according to our judicial system.

News from CBC (with video), CTV, AP.

Filed under: 2010-Olympics, Canada, Law, politics, Vancouver, Video

Photo credit: nucksfan604 @ Flickr

Photo credit: nucksfan604 @ Flickr

Photo credit: nucksfan604 @ Flickr

Let me make it clear, it is absolutely unfair to compare the 2010 Vancouver Olympics Opening Ceremony to the 2008 Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony. The Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony was estimated to cost over US $100 million with lot more human resources put into the preparation. At the same time, I think it is important to capture lessons and learn something from the mistakes & failure of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics opening ceremony as these lessons, I believe, have wider implications.

***

As a proud Canadian, I wished that none of the mistakes or failure happened but since they happened, I want to talk about them openly.

1) Technical malfunction/failure: one of the four pillar of the Olympic cauldron didn’t rise up (the one that Catriona Le May Doan supposed to light failed to rise up). And the indoor cauldron just took an impossible length of time to rise up which was a failure in itself. You see, the fact that, at the end, one of them didn’t rise up was extremely embarrassing for the organizers, and more important for us Canadians which are the host of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

For a proud nation that is famous for designing perfectly running robotic arms in space, the “beeping” reason that we couldn’t get a mechanical pillar to work proper is a total embarrassment. Someone has some explaining to do.

2) Mistake: The Olympic flag didn’t “fly” freely in the stadium last night. It is pretty much a standard operating procedure now to have air blowing out of the flag pole to make flags “flying” freely and beautifully indoor. The Olympic flag pole had those air blowing thing but it didn’t work as it should.

3) Potential serious failure: Wayne Gretzky carrying of the Olympic torch to the outdoor cauldron could have ended badly. Judging from the people running freely (too freely and wildly) and seemingly uncontrollably along the police truck, both the crowd or Wayne could have been hurt. And that risk, in hindsight, was a lot higher than an acceptable level for an international Live event.

4) Unwillingness of the Canadian media to report on the malfunctions: CTV and a few other Canadian media outlets, in the main opening ceremony reports, were unwilling to report on the malfunctions during the opening ceremony. May be because the opening ceremony was supposed to be a “happy event”. At the same time, it is as if the many Canadian media outlets decided to self-censor their reporting and NOT bring the malfunction to anyone’s attentions (or much de-emphasize them).

The likes of AP and other international media outlets had no problem reporting what happened. I guess my point here is that news should be reported, good or bad. When citizens of a country have to go to international sources to find out what happen in his/her own country, then we have a serious problem.

Bottom line

With all the flaws, mistakes, and malfunctions we had in 2010 Vancouver Olympics Opening Ceremony, I had a great time watching it. I LOVE it because I am Canadian. The various Canadians performing on stage were spectacular.

Now, I am not trying to single anyone out, it is just that the video is easily available to me. I want to say I had a great time watching k.d. lang sang Hallelujah at ”2010 Vancouver Olympic Opening Ceremony”.

Here is k.d. lang’s rendition of Hallelujah in a different occasion and I think k.d. topped her own previous performance last night. Beautiful.

Filed under: 2008-Olympics, 2010-Olympics, Canada, Music, Video, YouTube

Jamie Oliver is one of the most well-known TV chef and he was given a 2010 TED Prize and his prize video has now been posted online (see below). It is a great watch. Pay attention to the part about the sugar in milk!

By the way, TEDx is coming to Calgary this April 2010. Will see how TEDx is taking shape in Calgary when more details are available. Good speakers will make a big difference of the success of Calgary TEDx.

Filed under: Calgary, Canada, insightful, people, TED, Video

Feb 14th 9:10pm Update: Heart breaking report from CBC, “Georgian luger’s father won’t watch fatal crash“

Feb 14th 10:00am Update: Looks like Martin Rogers’ report may have been mistaken that Nodar’s dad was NOT with him in Vancouver. News from CTV “Our hearts are broken“.

Feb 13th 10:10am Update: The starting point of the competition is now lowered to the women starting point (30m about ~10 storey lower), the protective wall raised, and the course profile changed.

***

(See above note for revision update) First of all, Martin Rogers wrote in “Nodar Kumaritashvili loved to luge“,

Kumaritashvili grew up immersed in winter athletics, with his father Felix a world-class bobsled athlete and coach.

Felix previously coached the French national team and had hoped his son would follow him into bobsled, but the local facilities and the cost of the sport made luge a more sensible option.

[…] A week ago, Felix and Nodar left Bakuriani together, driving four hours to the Georgian capital of Tbilisi before the 22-hour trip to Canada.

On Friday, Felix suffered a fate no father should ever have to, witnessing his son die on a training run as Nodar slid down the track at nearly 90 mph before crashing into a metal post, ensuring the world would know his name after the most tragic of circumstances.

From CNN “Changes coming to Olympic luge track after fatal crash“,

The Vancouver Olympic Committee and the luge federation, known by its French initials FIL, outlined their findings in a joint statement.

“It appears after a routine run, the athlete came late out of curve 15 and did not compensate properly to make correct entrance into curve 16,” they said. “This resulted in a late entrance into curve 16 and although the athlete worked to correct the problem he eventually lost control of the sled resulting in the tragic accident. The technical officials of the FIL were able to retrace the path of the athlete and concluded there was no indication that the accident was caused by deficiencies in the track.”

The track will reopen after officials raise the walls at the exit of curve 16 and change the “ice profile,” they said.

“This was done as a preventative measure, in order to avoid that such an extremely exceptional accident could occur again,” the statement said.

[…] Sports Illustrated’s David Epstein, who is covering the Olympics for the magazine, told CNN’s “Situation Room” that the Whistler course is the fastest in the world “and not by a little.”

He noted that while most luge courses “flatten out” around the 11th turn, the Whistler track “just keeps on dropping so there’s really kind of no break from gathering speed toward the end.”

Epstein said some athletes had been complaining about the speed of the course and speculating that this Winter Games could be the first time the sport sees a competitor hit 100 mph.

Here is a NYT Blog takes the findings “Officials Say Athlete, Not Track, Caused Crash“,

The crash that resulted in the death of the luge athlete Nodar Kumaritashvili was caused by his errors on the course and not a deficiency in the Whistler Sliding Centre course, the Olympic organizing committee and the sport’s international governing body said in a joint statement issued late Friday.

[In the comments left by readers:]
“To blame the competitor is obnoxious. The punishment for lack of experience or error should NOT be death.” 46 Readers agreed at press time.

And the most unfortunate comment/report comes from UK Telegraph Ian Chadband, Chief Sports Correspondent in Vancouver, “Winter Olympics 2010: Nodar Kumaritashvili’s death overshadows opening ceremony“

For the big question being asked here today as the first medals were about to be contested was whether it was Canada’s own over-zealous attitude, determined to “Own the Podium” by limiting their opposition’s practice time at the Whistler ice track which might have contributed to a relative World Cup novice like Kumaritashvili ending up in such an horrific crash.

Georgian officials played down suggestions that inexperience played a part in the crash which saw him fly off the track at the notorious 16th and final curve of the lightning track and straight into a metal column at nearly 90mph. Inexperience, anyway, could not explain how Armin Zoeggeler, the brilliant reigning champion, was one of four other sliders who suffered accidents too.

Telegraph Sport had highlighted earlier this week the growing dangers posed in the push for greater speed and more dangerous manoeuvres in the Games’ bid to woo the youth market.

I think and hope VANOC has put in the needed modifications to make the course safer to compete in. I am not an expert in the sport to comment on the technical causes of the crash but it seemed to me that blaming the dead can be viewed as a seriously distasteful act and unless the officials can be 500% sure, it should not have been said.

Having said the above, it is totally unfair Mr. Chadband to insinuate

“whether it was Canada’s own over-zealous attitude, determined to “Own the Podium” by limiting their opposition’s practice time at the Whistler ice track”

I believe the decisions to limit practice times in many different competitions were technical decisions completely due to the unseasonably warm weather. When it rained like it did in the various courses and with snow being flown and trucked in, I am surprised Mr. Chadband would accuse Canada of ill motives in limiting practice time.

Again, my heart goes to Nodar Kumaritashvili and his family and loved ones. The pain is even sharper for me as I now know Nodar’s father was there to see his son crashed and died. So terribly sad.

Filed under: 2010-Olympics, Canada, Love

Watched k.d. sang Hallelujah at ”2010 Vancouver Olympic Opening Ceremony” and really enjoyed it. Here are two other versions I enjoyed.

k.d. lang’s version.

Leonard Cohen’s version.

Filed under: 2010-Olympics, Canada, Love, Music, people

Watch 2010 Vancouver Olympic Opening Ceremony Live on CTVOlympics.ca. (Great video navigation, you can jump back and watch any part you want. Nice.)

***

First of all, I am deeply saddened of the death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili during a Olympic training run. More news from BBC, AP, Reuters.

*** The following is my Live blogging of the opening ceremony ***

Sat Feb 13th 7:08am: Yahoo news has an interesting in-person experience report “What you didn’t see on TV during the Opening Ceremony” and this one is painfully true “Opening Ceremonies fail: Cauldron goes 3-for-4 after malfunction“. Report from AP “Olympics’ opening day: Not what Canada envisioned“.

Fri Feb 12th 10:17pm The final lighting of the outdoor cauldron was surely the highlight of the evening for me. With all the ways that things could turn out badly, I am so glad nothing bad came from it. Definitely way more excited than I had planned for it and not in a good way. Anyway, things turned out OK at the end.

10:14pm Wayne has safely lighted the outdoor cauldron. Wow!

10:10pm The crowd is totally uncontrolled. I really hope things turn out ok. Wayne looks totally exhausted. Sorry to say this, but who in VANOC planned this outdoor lighting with the uncontrolled elements on the street? People running along the police truck can be a bit dangerous to everyone involved?? OMG.

10:07pm Wayne is riding on a police truck to light the outdoor cauldron. People are running along the police truck. Lots of people on the side of the street.

10:04pm Wayne is running outdoor now. It is raining hard and really wet. Touch wood. I hope things work out next.

10:01pm Oh, Catriona’s cauldron didn’t rise up (there was a hole in the ground). Oh, my gosh.

9:53pm Final Torchbearers: Rick Hansen, Catriona Le May Doan, Steve Nash, Nancy Greene, Wayne Gretzky. Oh, the hydraulic cauldrons are finally slowly raise up (but just four).

9:48pm The two oaths (athletes and referees).

9:47pm One minute of silent for the Georgian athlete Nodar Kumaritashvili.

9:46pm Beautiful song!

9:44pm The Olympic flag is up but not flying as well as it should. It seemed tangled a bit.

9:41pm The Olympic flag was carried in by eight Canadian luminaries:

“astronaut Julie Payette.
actor Donald Sutherland.
singer Anne Murray.
former figure skater Barbara Ann Scott.
Senator Romeo Dallaire.
hockey legend Bobby Orr.
auto racer Jacques Villeneuve.
Betty Fox, mother of Terry Fox.”

9:32pm I LOVE k.d. Lang. Beautiful Hallelujah (another beautiful CTV version by k.d.).

9:31pm GG declares the Winter games open!

9:21pm Who will be the las Torchbearer? Who?

9:15pm The speeches. Acknowledging the great sadness of the earlier today.

9:05pm nice effect of the mountain and the skiers.

8:57pm Playing a song by Joni Mitchell. Just saw Patrick Chan.

Ashley MacIsaac playing fiddler music.

8:44pm A nice looking moon. And maple leaves.

8:37pm The charming Sarah McLachlan is singing on stage.

8:26pm The “cultural component” of the show. Hope this is much better the earlier bit. Will seehalf the

8:19pm Nelly and Bryan are singing now.

8:14pm Yeah, the Canada team is here!!! Go Canada Go !!! Clara looks happy. Good luck Clara! Everyone is excited! Go Canada Go !!!

8:12pm The US team is in. They have lots of athletes.

8:02pm The Russia team is in.

7:48pm Japan team, lead by a female athlete for the first time.

7:46pm Ireland’s team pants (fluorescent yellow) looks sharp.

7:45pm One person from Hong Kong. Cross country skiing, I think.

7:42pm The UK team just came in. Their uniform looks sharp.

7:39pm A standing ovation for the Georgian team (all wearing black arm band) from the 60,000+ people in the stadium. A sad moment.

7:31pm The Chinese team just came in. I remember they have a good women curling team (not good enough to beat us last time I watch, but they are trained by the best (a Canadian of course! :))

7:21pm OK, thats it, the opening ceremony is finished. The athletes from different countries are marching in.

7:18pm Over 250 first nation people on stage performing.

7:13pm Representative of our host nations (native Canadians) on stage.

7:09pm O Canada. (Not a big fan of the way the lady sang it. Who approved this? 🙂 )

7:08pm LOVE the Canadian flag! LOVE LOVE LOVE !!!!

7:05pm GG and Pres of IOC in the house. And the Canadian flag.

7:04pm A red maple leaf in snow. Nice entrance into the stadium with a snowboard.

7pm Yeah, it is starting !!! Cute count down. 🙂 Playing a video of a beautiful Canada (BC?) now. Beautiful slopes!

6:50pm Another good promo clip about Canada. Go Canada Go !!!

6:51pm An athlete talking about Julie Payette. Yeah to the lovely Julie, my former TA at U of T, she was very strict (in a good way). 🙂

6:50pm Did I spy rain jackets?? Oh no! Those looked like rain. 🙁 Oops, I was mistaken. BC Place is indoor. But those looks like rain jackets.

6:47pm Prime Minister Harper speaking on behalf of Canadians the sadness of what happened earlier today. The new Canada jacket in black looks ugly. (May be it is just me)

6:40pm The troops are watching from Afghan!!! Go Canada Go !!! Love you guys and gals!!! Proud of you guys! Enjoy the show!

6:31pm Nice pre-show. Watching a bit of Canadian Olympic history. Cool.

6:29pm I am inescapably saddened by what happened earlier today.

6:05pm The Georgian team will participate at the games and tonight’s ceremony. The cultural minister gave the example of 2008 Beijing games where they stayed even when Georgia was attacked by Russia.

6:00pm Protests right outside of BC Place.

5:56pm The snow looks muddy at spot. MTV host with babes in hot tub. (So CTV is milking the Olympics as much as it can to get its licensing fee worth. Silly MTV stuff.)

5:55pm CTV is live reporting in Whistler. It is raining hard there.

I am going to do some Live Blogging of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Opening Ceremony. The opening ceremony will start at 7pm. All time will be in MST (Mountain Standard Time).

Filed under: 2010-Olympics, Canada, drama, Love, people, World

I am deeply saddened for death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili. My thoughts go to his families & loved ones & the Olympic athletes that are affected by this tragic lost.

My current thoughts: There is a measure of risk in all sports, especially in a high speed sport like luge. At the same time, it is important make sure Olympic athletes from all countries be as safe as possible, it is our duty as Olympic host to ensure their safety.

I think the luge course should be re-evaluated again and see if there are measures to make it safer. I am concern some athletes are calling this fast track, “one of the most dangerous in the world”. As this is a developing story, I will write more later. Here is a CBC report with video.

For now, again, I am deeply unsettled and saddened of the death of Nodar Kumaritashvili. This is a terrible lost for Canada and Canadians.

Filed under: 2010-Olympics, people

In hindsight, Mr. Israel Asper might have been over confident of Canwest’s ability to handle the overwhelming amount of debt. CBC News “Shaw’s Canwest purchase: an end to the suffering” (emphasis added),

The Feb. 12 announcement that Shaw Communications Corp. will buy a controlling stake in Canwest Global Communications could signal the end of years of debt and downsizing for the beleaguered Winnipeg-based media firm.

Calgary-based Shaw would own at least 20 per cent of Canwest’s equity and 80 per cent of its voting stock under the terms of the deal.

Canwest’s newspapers, which include the National Post, the Montreal Gazette and the Ottawa Citizen and other papers in Ontario, the Prairies and the West, are not included in the transaction. They are in a separate unit, which is also under creditor protection.

[…] Critics say Canwest’s troubles began with the monster $3.2 billion purchase of media giant Hollinger International’s 13 daily newspapers, 126 community papers, the National Post and the canada.com website in 2000.

At the time, Israel Asper, chairman of Canwest Global, is quoted as saying: “We don’t intend to be one of the corpses lying beside the information highway.”

Filed under: Business, Canada, investment, media, people

I am excited the Vancouver 2010 Olympics opening is tonight (5pm MST) and the Torch Relay went to my beloved Stanley Park Seawall this morning. (note: Seawall is a place I love to walk along when I was living in Vancouver. And I also make an effort to visit every time I go to Vancouver.)

I am very excited of the potentials of the Own the Podium and B2ten (Dare to be great) programs in helping our athletes to be the best they can be.

I am very much looking forward to the various competitions from Feb 12th – 28th. I will be cheering hard for Canada but I also wish the best athletes from around the world, like the US Lindsey Vonn the best they can be. May the best competitors win. Go Canada Go!

Here is a bit of a video of the Torch Relay in Stanley Park and along the Seawall this morning. And you can check the weather conditions at Environment Canada 2010 site.

Filed under: 2010-Olympics, Canada, Love, people, Vancouver, Video, World, YouTube

An excerpt from an insightful piece from UK Guardian “Accelerating towards crisis: a PR view of Toyota’s recall” (emphasis added),

Toyota has done many things right in responding to its current crisis: its spokespeople have filled the media with messages of reassurance, its PR people have blogged and tweeted non-stop to fill the information vacuum, its website is full of details about the recall and its call centre is working flat out to deal with customer enquiries. So why is its hard-won reputation still facing the biggest challenge in its corporate history?

Analysis of Toyota’s handling of the incident provides clues as to why – despite a barrage of communication over the last fortnight – it still seems to be fighting a losing battle. And the key to its problems lie primarily in what happened before the crisis erupted, rather than its response to it (though this has been less than perfect).

[HT Richard]

Filed under: Business, ethics, insightful, Japan, Law, World

After I previously asked “Will you buy a Toyota, Prius, or Lexus Hybrid if you can get a great deal?” Looks like the deals are slowly coming (at least in the US).

From WSJ “Toyota Takes Another Hit: Prices Drop” (sub required),

Last weekend, Robert Boch sold a new Camry sedan with a sunroof and alloy wheels for $21,691, and the customer got a 0% loan on the deal as well.

Just a month ago, a similar model sold for $500 more, with a 2.9% interest rate on the loan, said Mr. Boch, a co-owner of Expressway Toyota in Boston.

“We have to do what it takes to keep things moving,” said Mr. Boch. “There is blood in the water and that sharks are out. We have to protect our turf.”

As I asked previously, will you buy a Toyota, Prius, or Lexus Hybrid if you can get a great deal? Please share your thoughts.

Filed under: Business, Japan, united states, World

I am having some Thursday fun inspired by prime minister stephen harper’s latest Twitter status and twitpic.

Filed under: Canada, Comedy, Fun, funny, Photography, politics

Someone took time to made this Project Democracy Canada video with the message.

On January 23, 2010 over 25,000 Canadians in seven nations stood up and rallied for democracy in Canada, and against the proroguation (suspension) of Parliament by Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The fight to regain democracy in Canada continues.

To keep the message non-partisan. If I were making this video, even I am no fan of stephen harper (and you can pretty safely say I am quite the oppose of “fan”), I would have encourage people to vote instead of “vote to remove stephen harper”.

I am delighted to see Canadians from coast to coast care about our democracy and parliament.

Filed under: Canada, Democracy, Law, people, politics

CNBC posted a very insightful Warren Buffett and Hank Paulson’s Credit Crunch ‘Conversation’ In Omaha (video).

Two take aways: 1) It could have been much worst.

2) Paulson’s mom and wife were NOT amused when he first became the Treasury Secretary.

[HT Alex]

Filed under: insightful, investment, people, politics, united states, Video, Warren Buffett

BBC is reporting the creative and inspiring fashion design icon Alexander McQueen was found dead at his London home on Thursday. (more news: CBC, BBC Obituary, NYDaily, Mirror, WSJ, TorStar)

I love fashion and I am saddened of  the passing of Alexander. My heart goes to Alexander’s family and loved ones.

RIP Alexander.

Filed under: Creative, design, Fashion, Love, people

Erin Bolger’s, author of “The Happy Baker: A Dater’s Guide To Emotional Baking“, pitched on CBC Dragons’ Den last night and it was a ton of fun to watch her talk and pitch. Now, the no cash deal is a sure win for Arelene, what I am much less sure is how does Erin think now. I am trying to interview Erin to find out if the deal is closed and how are things with her book.

At press time, the book’s success or failure is riding a lot on Erin’s shoulder. But I like Erin and hope she does well. Stay tune and I will post an interview if I get a chance to chat with her.

Here is the lovely Erin showing you how to bake!

Filed under: Business, Canada, CBC, Dragons’ Den, Entrepreneurship