SensoryMetrics

The Sociology Lab at the prestigious Toys-R-Us Institute recently published some definitive research on gender differences. The study concluded that females were perfectly satisfied with magnification power of 90x in telescopes and 600x in microscopes. Males on the other hand suffered severe magnification envy, requiring at least 250x in telescopes and 1200x in microscopes.

This proves an old adage. I just can’t recall which one.

via Sociological Images

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via Shoebox

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In the not too distant future you will be able to identify your surroundings by simply pointing your phone’s camera at what you see. What you see through your view finder will be enhanced with spatial data pulled from the interweb.  Already available is the Apple iPhone 3Gs app named Nearest Tube which should help you to find your way home from the pub via the London underground.

Someone right now is probably putting the finishing touches on the Android app ‘Google Air’.  Just point your camera phone out the airplane’s window to identify the streets below.  An overlay of street names will be pulled up and displayed, including bus stops marked with click-able icons.  Why would you want to know street names as you’re flying over them at five thousand feet?  Well, I’m not sure, but cool that’s for sure. Watch how 2D reality can be converted into 3D virtual reality:

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Talk about déja vu eh? It seems like only last year we had one of these.  So why are we having another prorogued Parliament?  Is it because the government is trying to avoid something? Or is it because it’s time to take a break and watch the Olympics?

No, no, folks, Parliament was prorogued so that the proper amount of time can be taken to consult with Canadians!  Yes, that’s right, prorogued Parliament means listen to the people.  The Conservatives want to know what you think the Government should be doing in the next phase of the economic recovery.   My vote is that we make more ‘Action Plan’ signs to help out the economy (sorry, it turns out the signs are made in the United States)

Well, the debate is on and if you’re like most of us Canadians, you probably have something to say about this prorogued business.  Since the Conservatives are taking some time off to listen to your opinions, here’s your opportunity to share your thoughts in the comments below!  If you wish you can also send Mr. Harper a tweet directly.  Tell us about it, and we’ll re-tweet your tweets!

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This catnip comparison is to demonstrate the difference between real catnip and mint.  Sometimes, even though the package might be labeled 100 % pure catnip, it just ain’t.  Here’s how you can tell.  If it smells like mint, chances are it’s mint not catnip.  Although mint and catnip are in the same family, they’re quite different plants and cats can tell the difference.

The hands down winner as you’ll see from the video is Smarty Kat organic catnip.  The other brand smells like mint.  Maybe it was just a bad bag, but it didn’t fool the cats.   Organic catnip, means no pesticides and no chemicals are used which makes it that much better.  Catnip is easy to grow, so long as your cats don’t know where it is in your garden.

There’s a plant named cat mint which cats also like.  Not all cats like catnip, some cats will just walk away.  The active ingredient in catnip is Nepetalactone which probably mimics cat pheromone.  Everything you need to know about catnip.

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Real time mapping of twitter keyword trends mapped out around the world.
Small oddities to consider with these maps, the tweets seem to be identified by internet service providers, so there are groups of words around major cities such as Montreal but zooming down to small towns or neighborhoods won’t provide more detail.  These are high altitude trends!  Super nice that you can simply click and open the trend keywords to see live tweets.

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With Trendistic you can monitor keyword tweet trends over a period of time. Very much unlike true time travel, Trendistic is far more like a machine that counts every time someone tweets keywords, plus it notes the time that the keywords occurred.

Who knows, maybe there’s some pattern to the trends that will enable you to predict future trends.  (wasn’t there a movie about this?)

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Trendistic indicates that 17 hours ago there were tweet trends for the keywords ‘twitter hacked’ by a total of 0.79% [of all twitter users] *.  This trend lasted for less than an hour and quickly died out.  Um, yeah, helpful info eh?  Well, it could be if you’re monitoring the buzz for a certain set of keywords over a period of time and you don’t want to be counting every tweet by hand.

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Flickr Photos tagged ‘Wakefield Quebec’.
Enjoy and happy holidays to all the good folk in Wakefield!

If you have difficulty viewing this page, you can try this alternative link:

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=wakefield%20quebec&w=all

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Sorry, but I just have to say it, I can’t stand using Facebook.  Sure, I use it because well everybody I know is on it, but when I use it, I find I’m far too often faced with windows like this on Facebook, that ask, “Before you continue, set up personalized alerts… enter your e-mail”.  Well, no, I’m not giving you my email.  Why don’t you just identify me with some background Facebook user id?  If if I have to enter my email address just to participate, I’d sooner hit the ‘no thanks skip’ button.

…but you know, the darn button doesn’t do anything!  So you have to then hit the back button until you run into the next window with the same question.  It’s loopy and loopiness is a waste of time.  The UI drives me up a tree but maybe it’s also because I’m using Mac Safari when I should be using Opera.  Who knows?

Ok, so Facebook’s UI is supposed to be in your face.  I just wish there were a simple ‘old school’ mode for Facebook.  Well, it turns out that there is such a thing as ‘old school’ mode, it’s called Facebook lite!

I’ve switched to this as my default Facebook eXperience.  I know, you’re asking “How could I miss out on all that other stuff?”  Well, I’m sure there will be plenty opportunity to switch back some year in the distant future.  Perhaps when the Facebook 3-D dépêche (hurry) mode comes out in 2012.

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