2006/07 Cottage

2006/07 Cottage

Last night, we went and signed a lease for our new winter cottage. Done deal! We have it from 18th of November ’til the end of March.

Easily the best chalet we have ever rented. A beautiful squared log cabin (inside modern wood siding) which was moved to sit on the side of a cliff with a million dollar view. 3 stories, waxed wood floors, beautiful decor, Japanese influences throughout, immaculate attention to details while modernizing the original structure. It might even be the closest cottage I have ever seen that matches with my personal tastes and my own vision of what a perfect cottage would be. It could also be that I grew up in a log cabin.

The owner joked with us that he had friends come and stay at the place from Europe. They remarked that the cottage was the Canadian dream; it was their vision of what a Canadian postcard should be. He even thought about paying the neighbor to walk by in early 1800’s Coureur des bois clothing… his foreign visitors would have fainted and never wanted to leave.

Many more photos will come up over the winter — and we’re all so excited; the 18th of November can’t come fast enough.

Photo set | Aprox. Google Map

Warning Signs from the future

Warning Signs from the future

Awesome idea .. although the graphics are a little sloppy.

Self-replicating devices —

“Self-replicating devices are potentially the most powerful technology of all, since they can increase their reach exponentially in suitable environments. It also raises risks of arms races (whoever builds and releases one first wins), unwanted replication (the sorcerers’ apprentice) and slight misbehaviour of the devices that becomes dangerous as they become numerous.”

Self-improving software —

“Systems that might launch a “hard takeoff” AI where they rapidly become smarter and more capable requires care. Even software that doesn’t aim at intelligence might still behave unexpectedly, requiring a warning.”

Self-evolving system —

“A system that evolves freely is potentially very adaptable and creative. It could also become nearly anything, with consequences ranging from the annoying to the disastrous. It is likely unlimited self-evolution will need to be contained carefully even as we mine it for truly new inventions. The arrows nicely hint at a chaos-star as well as replication.”

More here …
Warning Signs from the future Flickr Set

Honorary Canadian

Honorary Canadian

The Dalai Lama has been made an honorary Canadian citizen.

Couple of quotes I like from him,

“In the practice of tolerance, one’s enemy is the best teacher.”

“This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.”

“The Dalai Lama declared Thursday that he was proud to be named an honorary Canadian citizen, a move that has drawn sharp criticism from China.

The leader of the world’s Tibetan Buddhists spoke after arriving in Vancouver for the inauguration of the Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education, the world’s first educational center in his name.

When he was granted the citizenship by Canada’s Parliament earlier this summer, China complained to the Canadian government that it could could harm relations.

“Wherever I go, it creates some inconvenience,” he told a news conference at Vancouver city hall. “I’m sorry. I hope it’s not my mistake.””

Salon Wire Article | dalailama.com

Sketches of Frank Gehry

Sketches of Frank Gehry

We watched “Sketches of Frank Gehry” by Sydney Pollack (DVD rental) the other night, quite an inspiring movie with the sole except of the “gush and awe” campaign unleashed Sydney towards Frank. One critic put it this way … “Pollack is too friendly with his subject (almost to the point of having a man crush on Gehry), so the theme of Sketches of Frank Gehry is reduced to, ‘I think Frank Gehry is super awesome, and you should, too'” which is going as bit far – but I was not alone in feeling that way to some degree.

That said; the movie is well worth watching. Some of my favorite shots are of his smaller projects including his own home in California. Frank has a good attitude towards his critics and the films contains one viewpoint critical to Frank’s vision – although it’s not a very well presented one as it feels a bit dry and non-detailed. I felt it really tried to get deep into that wonderful line that Gehry’s mind/hand draws when he’s creating …

“One of the hardest places for a movie — or anything else — to go is into the mind of an artist. You can point the camera at the work that is the tangible product of how that mind operates, and you can record interviews that try to explain and interpret, but the creative process remains a durable mystery.” (source – NYT)

Trailer | NYT’s review

The game

The game

Damn. I just lost ….

“The Game is a social phenomenon and an anti-memory game, the objective of which is to forget its existence. It is spread mostly by word of mouth, leading to a number of variations, but all share the same basic rules:

  1. Knowledge of The Game is the only thing required to play it.
  2. Thinking of The Game causes a player to lose.
  3. A losing player must announce the loss.

The Game has no set rule defining a “winning” player, but participants can measure their performance by comparing how often they lose relative to their opponents. Thus, strategy in these games consists of attempts to make one’s opponents lose while minimizing one’s personal losses.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Game_(game)