chrisdye blog @ Vorg

Olympic... um... Games

chrisdye — 2010-02-11T21:42:32-05:00

Of all of the Olympic Mascot flashgames,
recycling bin curling is the best.
(Although I like the music for Soaring Sumi).

Chickens break up a rabbit fight

chrisdye — 2010-01-31T12:50:06-05:00

Worst hotel in Montreal

chrisdye — 2010-01-28T18:38:34-05:00

I've travelled a lot, and so have read quite a lot of hotel reviews. But Montreal's very own Hotel Eureka has the worst hotel reviews I have ever seen.

There's unbelievably terrible, and then there's...

chrisdye — 2010-01-11T22:01:37-05:00

A skyscraper with no Seoul

chrisdye — 2010-01-07T01:05:43-05:00

While the the opening of the Burj Dubai hogs the world's headlines, the Ryugyong Hotel, a 105-storey empty building in the heart of Pyongyang, North Korea, is in its 23rd year of construction and would cost 10% of North Korea's GDP to make inhabitable. Whether you are for or against the North Korean nuclear missile programme, you have to admit it it has been more successful than this. Honestly, I still wonder how Kim Jong Il's party was able to win all of the seats in the last North Korean elections after this building fiasco.

Which is expanding faster: the universe or the National Hockey League?

chrisdye — 2009-12-14T18:19:06-05:00

I found this explanation of how fast the universe is expanding:
"Astronomers measure the expansion of the universe in kilometers per second per megaparsec. This is called the Hubble Constant, and its value is... around 70 kilometers per second per megaparsec... You can also put this into terms of a rate of growth. Roughly speaking, the universe is growing in size by about 7 percent every billion years."

If the universe is 13.7 billion years old, then 1 billion years is 7.3% of its age. The NHL was founded in November 26, 1917, making it 92 years 18 days old. 7.3% of 92 years 18 days is 6 years 262.65 days. 6 years, 262 days ago from today was March 27, 2003. The NHL has not created any expansion teams since that time. For the last 7.3% of their respective existences, the universe has expanded faster than the NHL.

Let's try two billion years. Having no knowledge of astrophysics, I figure if the universe is constantly expanding at 7% per billion years, then all we have to do is add 7% to 107% and arrive at 14.49% expansion for the last two billion years.

2 billion years is 14.6% of the universe's age. 14.6% of the NHL's age is 13 years 160.6 days. From today's date, we arrive at July 7, 1996.
Since 1996, the NHL has gone from a 26-team league to a 30-team league (Nashville, Atlanta, Minnesota and Columbus). This is a 15.38% increase.

To conclude, in the past 14.6% of their respective existences, the NHL has expanded at a slightly faster rate than the universe.

Meanwhile, across the pond...

chrisdye — 2009-11-20T15:26:19-05:00

"LONDON [AP]...European leaders on Thursday chose Ashton and van Rompuy [as president of the European Union], an unassuming man nicknamed "Rompuy-pumpy" by British tabloids. He is best known for penning Flemish-language haikus, which he publishes on a blog..."

If you love the Berlin Wall so much, why don't you marry it?

chrisdye — 2009-11-09T17:12:25-05:00

The story of Eija-Riitta Berliner-Mauer, wife of the Berlin Wall

Her website: http://www.berlinermauer.se/

David Hasselhoff Reunites Germany

chrisdye — 2009-11-09T17:06:48-05:00

It is well known that the Berlin Wall fell on November 9, 1989. Less well-known is that East Berliners swarmed the wall in order to see David Hasselhoff:

Find more videos like this on HoffSpace

Statistics on Everything in the World

chrisdye — 2009-10-22T11:24:31-04:00

On this planet so far this year, have there been more bicycles produced or abortions performed? Find out here! Worldometers

Afghanistan Presidential Election Poll

chrisdye — 2009-10-21T14:55:01-04:00

It's pretty difficult to find a poll by a reliable polling firm on the second round of Afghan elections on November 7, so let's try this unscientific poll:

If an election were held today, who of the following would you choose as President of Afghanistan:

- Abdullah Abdullah
- Hamid Karzai

Post your answer in the comments section, and we'll tabulate the results just before the vote.

Pardon my French

chrisdye — 2009-10-09T14:26:41-04:00

Canada's federal government has put its very useful Termium French-English dictionary on the web for free. It is great for technical expressions that you would not find in a regular dictionary.

Another way to find translations for technical expressions in English or French is to go to Google and type: "site:gc.ca" and then the expression. This will make Google show you all the pages on the Government of Canada website that use the expression. Almost everything the government publishes on the internet is translated, so once you have found your expression somewhere on a government website, click "Francais" at the top of the page to find out how the government translated it.

Don't go breaking [into] my heart car

chrisdye — 2009-10-06T09:18:23-04:00

US man gets 2 to 10 years in prison for stealing woman's car during first date

Baron landscape

chrisdye — 2009-10-05T11:22:44-04:00

So, it turns out Longueuil is a Barony. The absentee Baron lives in Scotland and has a Baronial manor somewhere.
Bloody peasants!

Go Winterboks!

chrisdye — 2009-08-24T16:11:09-04:00

The first ever African Nations Cup of Ice Hockey will be taking place from September 19-26 in Johannesburg, South Africa, between Algeria (who are fresh off their first ever victory against a French Division II team), South Africa (who I witnessed lose all of their games in the IIHF Div. IIB World Championships last May) and Morocco (who I know nothing about).
I will let you know exciting details as they are made available!

A time odyssey

chrisdye — 2009-08-01T12:35:43-04:00

Watch the first 30 seconds of this 1965 broadcast of Winston Churchill's funeral and see if you are confused as I was.

I had no idea that the theme music for 2001: A Space Odyssey was not written for the film, but rather 50 years previously. I really need to learn something about music.

You Go, Slavia! or, the case of the Serbian Hasselhoff

chrisdye — 2009-07-27T08:26:04-04:00

Just when I think that I have lived in Europe long enough that my stereotypes of Europeans might have begun to dissipate:
An unemployed Ontario actor is a huge star in Serbia for his role in an early '90s low-budget Magnum P.I. ripoff.

Cancontest: The true north strong off-key

chrisdye — 2009-07-07T16:08:32-04:00

In honour of one week after Canada Day, I propose the following contest: post the worst Canadian pop music.

Here's a few of my nominations to get us started:

Velvet Empire - Wha, Wha, What

Celine Dion - Unison
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzMv-82k4w4

Snow - Girl I've Been Hurt

Mitsou - Les Chinois

Alanis - Too Hot to Hold

It's always the little things that come back to haunt you

chrisdye — 2009-07-04T15:21:00-04:00

If you ever get a phone call from the Prime Minister, let's hope it's not to tell you that you failed to prevent a world war.

Slow news day?

chrisdye — 2009-06-17T08:57:27-04:00

AP: Obama swats a fly

Sumi for copyright infringement

chrisdye — 2009-06-05T13:00:17-04:00

Sumi, the flying Vancouver Olympics mascot and Nini the Beijing Olympics bird mascot:

Uh, what gives?

Elephant? What elephant?

chrisdye — 2009-04-24T04:59:28-04:00

The photo in this Alberta tourism ad is actually a beach in Northumberland, England.

"There's no attempt to make people think that this is Alberta," Tom Olsen, a spokesman for Premier Ed Stelmach, told the Edmonton Journal.

Zoetermeeriment

chrisdye — 2009-04-04T14:57:04-04:00

Zoetermeer is a city (pop. 119,000) near The Hague and Rotterdam. On the city council website are Zoetermeer-themed computer games. One is a sort of SimZoetermeer, like SimCity except that the city grows according to the history of Zoetermeer from 1960 (when the town had only 6,000 people) to today. The other is Castle Zoetermeer. I haven't tried that one yet.

I think that all city council websites should have video games.

Bulgarian women's hockey isn't all it's cracked up to be

chrisdye — 2009-03-04T21:19:57-05:00

How did I not hear about this?

Bulgaria gives up 139 shots on goal in 82-0 women's hockey loss

Over Easter, I will be attending the Level II B Ice Hockey World Championships, in Bulgaria itself! As I wrote previously, South Africa qualified for this tournament by beating Mongolia last year. Can they compete with the likes of Mexico and South Korea, so as to not come last and be relegated back to Level III next year? Unlikely! But not for lack of support from me! Go Ice Boks!

Montreal in Two Minutes

chrisdye — 2009-02-09T08:39:48-05:00

I think this is a pretty cool little video:

http://www.tourisme-montreal.org/

Give a penny, take a penny

chrisdye — 2009-02-08T05:38:33-05:00

Here is a fun video of a woman leaving her CV at a Subway on Ontario Street. See if you can spot the reason she probably won't be hired:

Via Fagstein.

And you thought the Phoenix Cayotes had a low budget...

chrisdye — 2009-02-02T14:09:30-05:00

More vacation movies

chrisdye — 2009-01-28T20:21:47-05:00

Hopefully, this highlights video captures the frenetic pace of our trip to the Olympics this summer. At least I'm not inviting you over to watch slides...

Next time someone drives on your lawn, just be glad...

chrisdye — 2009-01-26T11:28:48-05:00

Can you name all of Cancon's stars of the 80's?

chrisdye — 2009-01-11T18:22:58-05:00