Attending McDal University in Montifax, Canada

Halifax sleep-watcher caught?

2012-02-15T10:56:00.002-04:00

CBC Nova Scotia recently tweeted:

Barry Sinclair charged with five counts of voyeurism and two counts of break and enter in south-end Halifax. #cbcns

Does this mean what I think it means? Have they finally caught the South End Halifax sleep watcher?

Unfortunately, they don't yet have a fully story relaying the significance of the tweet (and either confirming or refuting my assumptions). I am hoping that they have one soon. Whether or not this is sleep-watcher related I also hope that the whole sleep-watcher situation is resolved sooner rather than later. It's hard to believe that the sleep-watcher thing has been going on for years without a satisfactory resolution.

Update: A story on the case from October, 2011 can be found here.

Update: An earlier tweet from the CBC reporter covering the police press conference seems to confirm my suspicion that they are dealing with the sleep-watcher issue:

Waiting for police chief Beazley to explain arrest of alleged sleep watcher. #cbcns

Cameron: 28
Neil: 0

Mostly vegan

2012-02-14T20:30:00.002-04:00

Since just after Christmas I have almost completely eliminated meat from my diet. Since just after Christmas Jeannette has been vegan - meaning she doesn't consume any animal products at all.

Because I try to prepare food with Jeannette's diet in mind I have been thinking vegan for as long as she has been vegan, and in many instances eating vegan for longish (at least for me) stretches.

While I realize that I am not vegan, I do think that it fair to say that I am mostly vegan (you know, vegan except for butter and an occasional piece of beef). Such claims annoy Jeannette quite a bit - she thinks I shouldn't use vegan in any way to describe myself if I am not vegan.

I disagree. Firstly, thinking vegan has to be a big first step. If you don't think vegan it's hard to be vegan. Secondly, I am clearly facilitating veganism - and I think that has to count for something. Thirdly, I am clearly moving in that direction myself. Once we get rid of the eggs and remaining animal products I don't really plan on replacing them - and I think that also has to count for something. If we mapped veganism to the Kinsey scale I think it is fair to say I would be predominately vegan.

Maybe Jeannette is right and you are either all vegan or not at all vegan, but shouldn't thinking vegan count for something? If I put all the time into planning vegan meals shouldn't I get at least some vegan credit?

Cameron: 27
Neil: 0

Life in Halifax, Nofuna Scotia

2012-02-14T18:12:00.000-04:00

As part of his continued effort to justify the use of the moniker "Nofuna Scotia" the HRM chief of police has recently blamed bars and alcohol for high crime rate in Halifax.

As the Metro story puts it:

HRM drinks too much and Halifax Regional Police Chief Frank Beazley says he has the assault statistics to prove it.

He told the municipality’s police commission on Monday there’s way too much easy access to liquor in this town. Many people sit at home and drink heavily before going out late to the bar and pounding drinks until 3 a.m.

“If I could take the alcohol out of this, I could plummet the number of assaults in HRM,” he said.

Beazley added that several of the 3,202 assaults last year involved people getting drunk and going home to beat a family member.

The access, hours the bars are open and the density of liquor establishments downtown combine to cause real problems.

“Why do we need that many bars in that one area of the community that require so many resources to police it?”

While I am sure it is the case that some number of Halifax's crimes were committed by people who had recently been drinking in bars, do we know that access to alcohol really lead to all that many crimes - or do criminals just happen to also be drinkers? Do other communities with bar districts face similar problems? If not, why not?

And is the chief of police really suggesting that some number of legally operated small businesses be closed or have their capacity to collect revenue severely restricted? Might there not be other steps that we can take before this one?

And I am curious if the chief's suggestion that if he "could take the alcohol out of this, I could plummet the number of assaults in HRM" is accurate. An interesting story from the Guardian today seems to suggest that people will go to great lengths to secure intoxicating substances in the face of prohibitions. At least in the UK an ever-changing array of legal synthetic drugs seem to be popular at the moment. And of course not much is know about these synthetic drugs and what kind of long-term impact they might have on their imbibers. And should one not think about the risk of encouraging such a development be worth by changing alcohol rules?

Cameron: 26
Neil: 0

A Few Quick Notes 561

2012-02-14T12:20:00.001-04:00

-Though we had a surprise snowfall yesterday, today has turned out to be quite nice. Actually, my only fear about today's weather is that it might get too nice. By this I mean that we may see a 16 degree temperature swing that will bring us above the melting point and contribute to slush formation.

-Because of the aforementioned surprise snowfall yesterday I had to do some shovelling.

[Embedded video]

-I made another batch of chickpea cake last night. Because Jeannette and I both overate at dinner we didn't have any last. I guess we might have it tonight?

I am hoping that this batch will be better than the last one and that the changes to cooking time that I made this time around have paid off.

-I really should be doing work or eating lunch.

Cameron: 25
Neil: 0

Bonus snowfall

2012-02-13T12:48:00.000-04:00

Much to my surprise I looked out of our living room window late this morning and discovered that we were in the midst of a sudden snowfall. I guess I hadn't checked the weather in a while and wasn't aware that we were to be getting any snow.

When I eventually did get around to checking on the forecast I learned that 2 to 4 cm is what was expected for today. Though I haven't gone out with a ruler, I think that we are already much closer to 4 cm than 2 cm, and we may even already be past 4 cm.

Cameron: 24
Neil: 0

Storm? - 5

2012-02-12T09:16:00.002-04:00

Well, it seems that after I went to sleep last night we did get some snow (it came after a nice base layer of freezing rain). The temperature also dropped to -7 overnight. As I haven't been outside I don't know exactly how bad it is, but I have to imagine that it is at least a little slippery and icy.

I think it is safe to say that this wasn't a particularly bad storm here and that we didn't get anywhere close to the 30 cm that had been forecast at one point.

Cameron: 23
Neil: 0

PB & J Bread - 5

2012-02-11T22:29:00.001-04:00

Just a few minutes ago Jeannette and I got around to trying the PB & J bread. Much to our surprise it tasted and smelled like a slightly toned down PB & J sandwich. Had I not over-baked it causing the crust to be more like a shell than a crust I think it would actually be quite nice.

I think it is fair to say that I am 2 for 2 in this non-traditional bread ingredient thing (3 for 3 if you count the Pepsi bread from about a year ago). I can't wait to figure out what I will think of next.

Cameron: 22
Neil: 0

Storm? - 4

2012-02-11T20:55:00.000-04:00

Well, though I saw some snow a while ago it seems to have stopped, or at least come close to stopping.

I find it funny that the conditions seem to have improved as the storm system seems to have more definitively moved into the region.

I guess I am curious to see how things play out as the night progresses.

Cameron: 21
Neil: 0

PB & J Bread - 4

2012-02-11T20:40:00.001-04:00

Well, about 8 hours after I started my PB & J bread project I took the finished loaf from the oven.

Unfortunately, I think I may have left the bread in the oven a littler longer than I should have. Jeannette thinks that the bread may be a little hard to eat. I, on the other hand, am hopeful that this stuff will be fine/not too gross.

Cameron: 20
Neil: 0

Storm? - 3

2012-02-11T19:05:00.002-04:00

When I first started writing this post I thought that it hadn't started snowing. Because I am a dedicated fact-checker I thought that I should take a look outside before making such a bold claim.

Much to my surprise, when I looked outside I learned that it has started snowing. Of course because of the warm weather we've had all day the snow is quite wet and has not really started to accumulate.

At one point I read that we could be in for as much as 30 cm of snow. I really hope we don't get 30 cm of this stuff. Hell, even 5 cm of this stuff would be unpleasant.

And for those of you who are curious, I have received on-the-ground reports from Sackville that it is also showing there. Even though their snow started much earlier in the day I am not sure if they are expected to get as much as us. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Cameron: 19
Neil: 0

PB & J Bread - 3

2012-02-11T18:59:00.003-04:00

After a few more hours of unimpressive rising I decided that I couldn't wait any more and that it was time for my PB & J bread to go in the oven.

Based on the heft of the bread relative to its size I suspect that this bread is going to be on the dense side of things. Though hopefully not too dense to eat, but maybe that's the outcome you deserve when you are trying to cram the sandwich materials into the bread.

Oh, and this stuff really smells like a PB & J sandwich.

Cameron: 18
Neil: 0

PB & J Bread - 2

2012-02-11T16:24:00.000-04:00

Even though I left the PB & J bread dough to rise for a few hours while Jeannette and I ran a few errands (we made it all the way to Greenwood and back) the dough didn't really rise very much.

After kneading the dough again I have now placed it in a slightly warmer location to rise a little more. I am worried that at this rate not only will the bread not be ready for lunch, but it may not even be ready for dinner or even my evening snack.

Cameron: 17
Neil: 0

Storm? - 2

2012-02-11T16:00:00.003-04:00

Well, it has been a few hours since my last post and there are still no signs of snow. On the other hand, we have had plenty of rain in the past few hours. Given that the temperature is several degrees above freezing it seems reasonable to think that the rain, rather than snow, might continue for at least another few hours. Furthermore, the latest warning from Environment Canada seems to suggest that rain, rather than snow, is what we should expect (though we might be on the snow/rain border).

That being said, there is still definitely a big weather system just off the coast.

Cameron: 16

Neil: 0

PB & J Bread - 1

2012-02-11T10:56:00.000-04:00

Because of the success of my dream-inspired waterless pumpkin bread I have been thinking about other non-standard ingredients I might be able to incorporate in a bread recipe.

It really didn't take me all that long to realize that raspberries might be a good choice. Not only are they full of liquid just waiting to be released, but with a little kneading they would evenly disburse through the dough. It took me a few more days to realize that I could save myself some time at lunch if I added some peanut butter to the mix and just baked my sandwiches into my bread.

While it would be really great if I could make this a four ingredient bread (raspberries, peanut butter, yeast, and flour), but I think that to be on the safe side I will add a little extra gluten.

As you can see, things are looking pretty red/purple so far.

[Embedded video]

Cameron: 15
Neil: 0

Storm? - 1

2012-02-11T10:30:00.001-04:00

So word on the street is that we are in for some kind of storm today. So far today kind of just looks like a pretty regular grey winter's day, maybe even a little on the warm side.

Of course, the satellite imagery really does make it look as though there is the possibility that we might actually get close to the 30 cm that we are forecast to get.

That really does look as though it could be nasty (thought it could miss us if we're lucky). I guess this is further motivation to take care of our on-the-road-again errands earlier in the day than we had originally planned. Hopefully we can be off the road by the time this thing hits.

Cameron: 14

Neil: 0

I guess it's a good thing I bake my own bread

2012-02-09T11:19:00.001-04:00

For the past few years I have tried to bake most of my bread instead of buying it. I like this approach because it means that my bread is fresh, and because it is made with only the ingredients that I chose. For the most part I choose to add things like molasses and whole grains while omitting things like salt.

While my primary motivation was the pleasure I get from baking, it seems that there was another fringe benefit that I didn't even know about until yesterday.

Apparently it is now being reported that Americans tend to get more sodium from bread products than any other food. Even if each slice of bread isn't all that bad, when you eat five or six slices a day the total quantity of sodium is quite high. Though I don't eat five or six slices of bread a day anymore, I am comforted by the fact that my bread is likely lower in sodium than the stuff that I might buy from the local grocery store.

And while sodium consumption is of concern to many people for many reasons, it has been something I have been trying to avoid for quite a while because of its contribution to kidney stone formation in my kidneys. And I'm pretty sure I would like to avoid have any more kidney stones, at least for the next few years.

This also raises another issue: Why do people even add any salt to bread? As one can make very satisfying bread without any added salt I don't quite understand why people add it. It kind of reminds me of the good old days when people used to add lead to their water to enhance the flavour.

Cameron: 13
Neil: 0

Scammer alert

2012-02-06T21:57:00.001-04:00

Earlier this evening I received a call from my 'local fire department,' apparently as part of a fundraising campaign to support a public education program in local schools. Not surprisingly, this pitch didn't work on me.

The fact that my 'local fire department' was calling from a 1-800 number along with the use of the rather general term 'local fire department' immediately raised my suspicions that this call may not have been what it was pretending to be.

Through her connections with the Town of Wolfville Jeannette was able to confirm that our suspicions were correct - this was not a legitimate fundraising endeavour.

What is particularly galling about this particular scam is that it plays on people's general sense of decency and humanity, and they risk undermining the future fundraising efforts of the local volunteer fire department. Though I doubt that the perpetrators of this scam will be caught, I hope that the word gets out so that no one is suckered into handing over their credit card numbers or banking information.

Cameron: 12
Neil: 0

Bound to be a classic?

2012-02-06T15:46:00.000-04:00

Surely this one will be one of those classic animated gifs that you tell your grandkids about years from now.

GIF made with the NYPL Labs Stereogranimator

I can almost picture the scene now.

You sit your grandchild's hologram on your holo-knee and tell them about the time you were following a blogging contest between two brothers (and this is back when being someone's brother didn't just mean you were fertilized in the same genetics lab).

"Oh, those crazy halcyon aughts" you'll think before you remember that it actually happened in the teens. Then you'll recall that one of these guys kept posting crap to run up his numbers. Inadvertently, of course, one of these posts was of an animated gif of superior quality. The gif was so good you immediately knew it was something special.

"Of course you now know that gif as the winner of the first giffy, but back then it was nothing more than an instant hit" you'll reminisce while patting the hologram on the back (this is as close to physical contact as your state of suspended animation will allow).

Soon enough you'll be overcome with memories of the old not-everything-was-a-hologram world and maybe a tear will come to your eye. In the end all of this sadness for a bygone era is immediately washed away when you see the smile in your holo-grandchild's face as they come to appreciate that you were one of the first viewers of the first winner of a giffy. If kids still asked for things like autographs this surely would have been an instance when you would have been forced to break out the signature that you hadn't had to use since universal adoption of fingerprint identification.

Cameron: 11
Neil: 0

A Few Quick Notes 560

2012-02-06T15:22:00.002-04:00

-We've seen a sudden turnaround in the temperature today. When I woke up this morning it was about -8 but by the time I was finishing lunch the temperature was up to 3. So far this temperature change has not been accompanied by snow or any other form of precipitation.

-I'm in the midst of drinking quite a lot of coffee today. I am hoping that the this consumption will have a positive affect on my productivity today.

-Actually, so far I don't feel so bad about my productivity. Not only have I been able to do some school work, but I have also done some cleaning and housekeeping. I'm even hoping that I've done enough cleaning that Jeannette will be able to notice it when she returns home from work.

-Yesterday seemed to magically become laundry day. I think by the end of the day we had completed four loads of laundry. I am still a little unsure why so much washing was required.

-I think I may have to make a quick loaf of bread this afternoon, and maybe something for dinner.

-For the past few days/weeks I have been hearing suggestions that former Liberal MP Mike Savage would be contesting the next mayoral contest in Halifax. It seems that today Savage made the run official. I am not entirely convinced that the current mayor is particularly popular, so this could end up being something of a race.

Cameron: 10
Neil: 0

One more for the road

2012-02-05T19:18:00.000-04:00

I can't seem to stop making these animated gifs.

GIF made with the NYPL Labs Stereogranimator

Unfortunately, many of the gifs I have been making (and they only take a few seconds apiece) haven't been even this good.

One might be inclined to think that all of this gif making might be cutting into my study time. Sadly, people thinking this would be correct (though this isn't to say that gif making has completely replaced studying today).

Cameron: 9
Neil: 0

Fixing the internet

2012-02-05T14:07:00.000-04:00

I may currently be clogging the internet with garbage, but earlier this afternoon I feel as though I made a real contribution to fixing the internet.

While looking at the episode summary for the upcoming This American Life episode Conventions I noticed that the link to Dishwasher Pete's site was broken (because the site no longer exists). Through the magic of Twitter I conveyed this information directly to the powers that be at This American Life.

Within 9 minutes (and it was likely much less than this) the broken link was removed and replaced with a functioning link.

Sometimes the internet blows my mind.

Cameron: 8
Neil: 0

And another one (for good luck)

2012-02-05T12:25:00.000-04:00

I decided since I was already at the site that I could probably take another minute to make at least one more animated gif.

I'm not sure that I am as impressed with this one as the las one, but it is certain better than a few of my other attempts.

GIF made with the NYPL Labs Stereogranimator

Cameron: 7
Neil: 0

A few of my favourite things

2012-02-05T12:22:00.000-04:00

Thanks to a Hearing Voices post I came across a site that combines two of my favourite things: libraries and animated gifs.

The New York Public Library's Stereogranimator provides one with the opportunity to convert old stereographs into 3D anaglyphs or animated gifs. Obviously, I decided to focus my attention on the animated gif option (though I did play around with one of the 3D anaglyphs).

GIF made with the NYPL Labs Stereogranimator

Some of sterographs are better than others, but with a little work you should be able to find one that will allow you to get a neat 3D effect pretty easily.

Cameron: 6
Neil: 0

What I won't be doing tomorrow...

2012-02-04T22:26:00.000-04:00

...is watching the Super Bowl. What I will be doing tomorrow is looking forward to the end of Super Bowl snack adds in the the local grocery stores.

For some reason, even though I don't think my media consumption habits are all that different this year, I feel as though I am hearing more about this weekend's impending Super Bowl. It is almost as though I can't avoid discussion of coverage of the event.

This week, much to my surprise, two of the podcasts I listen to that normally have nothing to do with sports had extended sections on the upcoming Super. How To Do Everything covered issues relating to the game and the viewing of the game while Planet Money covered issues relating to the expected economic spin-offs for Indianapolis. And I'm sure I've heard about it somewhere else as well, I just can't remember where at the moment.

I guess I still don't quite get the fascination with this event, particularly in Canada. Not only does the coverage drag on for hours, but the game being played has to be one of the more excruciating sports to watch. And it's best of one, so if the better team is a little off for the game they may not even win. And who likes watching a championship in which the better team is so likely to lose?

Cameron: 5
Neil: 0

Only because it was requested

2012-02-04T18:03:00.000-04:00

Last night Jeannette and I went out for dinner with a few of her co-workers. As the evening was cluing up the conversation came to my less than enthralling YouTube content.

My to my surprise, my interpretation of the conversation followed was that I was then requested to

[Embedded video]

Not surprisingly, not much happens in this video.

In case you are interested in watching a slightly more interesting tulip time-lapse video consider checking this one out.

[Embedded video]

Update: The correct second video has now been included.

Cameron 4
Neil 0