The following chart pretty much speaks for itself… it plots water usage in Edmonton two Sundays ago (Feb 28, 2010), during the Canada-U.S. gold medal hockey game (click image for link to article):
Many months ago I posted a video (here) by Clay Shirky, a very perceptive commenter on the social effects of technology. Yesterday I found another talk of his on a different topic: the idea that the challenge we face today is not so much “information overload,” but “filter failure.” That is, the problem that the internet introduces is not that we have too much information (since that problem has been with us since the printing press), but that it is tearing down the natural barriers that used to limit information flow (giving rise to the notions of ‘quality control’ in areas like publishing, and of ‘privacy’ in our personal lives).
The video is ~24 minutes. If you get a chance to watch it, I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts, especially regarding how the need to “manage information flow” (as he puts it) has affected your life.
like all other canadians, we were really excited to watch the US-Canada gold medal game on sunday. we had some friends come over for the game, and although they weren’t hockey fans, by the end of the game they were really into it, especially when US tied it up in the last 24 seconds of regulation.
feeling nervous.
victory!
goodbye olympics!
more olympic fun. i went to the women’s 1500m speed skating event with dad and helen.
it was really exciting at the end because canada had two skaters in the last two heats. we hollered and cheered kristina groves to a silver.
it was a great race! the athlete from netherlands won gold.
raising of the flags during the national anthem.
we got to borrow a driving pass up to whistler for the weekend. it was a beautiful day to drive the sea to sky highway, and traffic was really good.
taking the gondola down blackcomb mountain.
whistler village.
miga, quatchi, sherwin, muk muk, and sumi.
at night, we lined up in the standby lane to get into the victory ceremony… and got in for free! we saw the medal ceremonies for men’s skeleton where canada’s jon montgomery got gold.
switzerlan’s simon ammann getting gold for ski jumping.
you can’t help but feel really happy for the athletes, no matter what country they’re from. afterwards, we watched a “fire and ice” show with snowboarders and skiiers jumping through hoops of fire doing tricks.
i had dinner with julie and liz at milestones, where we cheered for canada’s (close!) hockey shootout win over sweden.
then we listened to the concert going on at livecity yaletown from julie’s apartment and watched the nightly fireworks! fun times.
helen and i were invited to attend a victory ceremony with jp and louisa. the line up into BC place through security was pretty efficient. they had random celebrities (jay leno) over the loudspeaker welcoming us to the vancouver olympics! haha!
it was nova scotia night featuring the Bare Nake Ladies (yeah!). they started with the medal ceremonies and we saw Mike Robertson receive the silver medal in snowboard cross for Canada! it was fun being in a sea of red and white.
finally the Bare Naked Ladies took the stage. they were really good live, funny, and played all their popular songs.
we cheered happily for vancouver and canada in our living room in chicago tonight. the opening ceremonies made me feel kind of homesick but excited to be in vancouver soon. i thought it was really unique and heartwarming. watching vancouverites sprinting alongside wayne gretzky in the rain made me laugh. can’t wait to see it all for myself!
one of the perks of not working regularly has been the time to read and renew a love for books. i finally decided to check out harry potter and see what all the fuss was about. i confess that once i started with book one, i had to put my life on hold and read for two weeks non-stop until i finished “harry potter and the deathly hallows”. didn’t quite know what to do with myself when i was finished though and therefore proceeded to surf through all harry potter related websites, read in-depth analyses, and get the latest muggle news. now i know what all the fuss was about.
salt and pepper anyone? or some extra monosodium glutamate perhaps?
