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When I read Douglas Adams’ The Salmon of Doubt, I really liked his take on the phrase “it turns out” and have attempted to incorporate it into my lexicon.

“Incidentally, am I alone in finding the expression ‘it turns out’ to be incredibly useful? It allows you to make swift, succinct, and authoritative connections between otherwise randomly unconnected statements without the trouble of explaining what your source or authority actually is. It’s great. It’s hugely better than its predecessors ‘I read somewhere that…’ or the craven ‘they say that…’ because it suggests not only that whatever flimsy bit of urban mythology you are passing on is actually based on brand new, ground breaking research, but that it’s research in which you yourself were intimately involved. But again, with no actual authority anywhere in sight.”

Here’s a great little blog post from jsomers.net on the usefulness of the sneaky phrase, “it turns out“.

OK Go’s new video, “This Too Will Pass” is centred around a rube goldberg machine and even if you’ve watched the entire 30 minute movie, “The Way Things Go” (wikipedia) and feel like you’re rube goldberged out, this is still totally worth watching.

OK Go – This Too Shall Pass – YouTube

I’m very pleased that Canada won the gold medal hockey game this afternoon against the USA. Our countries may be the best of friends in real life, but at the same time, I love our rivalry in sports — especially when Canada comes out on top.

I love this:

Tom Brokaw Explains Canada to Americans – YouTube

P.S. Parliament has been prorogued during the Olympics so Harper’s little flag waving speech was actually given at the British Columbia legislature.

If the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, what is the road to heaven paved with?

The University of Lethbridge is putting on the musical “Hair” (wikipedia entry). It runs from Tuesday, February 9th to Saturday the 15th. If you haven’t already, get your tickets fast because they’re almost sold out.

Hair tells the story of the “tribe”, a group of politically active, long-haired hippies of the “Age of Aquarius” living a bohemian life in New York City and fighting against conscription into the Vietnam War. Claude, his good friend Berger, their roommate Sheila and their friends struggle to balance their young lives, loves and the sexual revolution with their rebellion against the war and their conservative parents and society. Ultimately, Claude must decide whether to resist the draft as his friends have done, or to compromise his pacifistic principles and risk his life by serving in Vietnam.

Here’s the very local news coverage of the production:

Hair at the University of Lethbridge

I know a few of the actors and will be there opening night. It should be a lot of fun.

My friend Dave has been entertaining his Facebook contacts with a NCAA style elimination tournament of the most essential food in the vegetable kingdom. Upstart Kitchen has put together a great blog post about the tournament.

Season 6 of Lost premieres tonight. Enjoy this fan made primer, Flight 815 Crash in Real Time.

LOST: Flight 815 Crash in Real Time | YouTube

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Yesterday I made a clock using an arduino kit that I purchased for my “Creative Electronics for Beginners” class. It only counts from 0 to 9 and then repeats, but I love the satisfaction I get when I see it working.

I made a clock! on Flickr.

I did happen to bump one of the LEDs just before I started taping, and discovered afterward that I had shorted one of the lights from the current. It just needed to be nudged slightly, but in the video it appears to be burnt out.

The code after the jump.
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Odds to Win the 2010 Olympic Ice Hockey Championship
Canada 1/1
Russia 2/1
Sweden 11/2
USA 7/1
Czech Republic 15/1
Finland 16/1
Slovakia 40/1
Switzerland 125/1
Germany 400/1
Belarus 500/1
Latvia 500/1
Norway 500/1
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