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History bites

On Sunday, Silverlotus and I caught a rerun of “The First Emperor: The Man Who Made China”, the Discovery documentary that chronicled the adventures of Qin Shi Huang, the man who united the feudal provinces of the Middle Kingdom into the Qin Empire.

Later in life, Qin became obsessed with attaining immortality and took to ingesting mercury in the belief it would make him live forever. Ironically it actually crippled his mind and body, eventually killing him.

As they played the scene of him eating the poisonous substance, I took this time to say something of historical significance:

“That must have tasted like ass.”

The newfie nurse

We saw _Tempting Providence_ run by the Factory Theatre. Chronicling the feats of Myra Bennett, a nurse in the small and isolated Daniel’s Harbour in Newfoundland in the 1920s, it also featured 101 ways to use a table set as props and scenery. They also had fresh oysters on the half-shell by Oyster Boy and strawberry champagne in the foyer.

Seriously, it was a good play. And if you’re wondering why a nurse is the subject of a play, consider this: in the winter of 1926, her brother-in-law had his foot cut off by a lumber saw. She stitched it back together, then herself and her husband pushed him on a sled some 60 miles to the nearest hospital. She had did such a good job with needle and thread, his foot was saved. She was also three months pregnant at the time.

Guns 4 games

Remember the old economic diagram with guns and butter? Mexican police are now trying something a little better substitute than Land o’ Lakes. Mexico City has launched a gun amnesty program with a twist: Give them your poor handguns and pistols will receive cash and Xboxes.

Oh, and if you’ve got something a bit heavier, like say a machine gun, you can trade it in for a nice desktop computer. Unfortunately it is a Windows PC.

There are unconfirmed reports that EBGames will follow suit with a “Trade in your entire arsenal, get a free Game Boy Colour” promotion.

Top 10 Wi-fi Cities

DailyWireless lists their 10 Most Connected Cities in the World.

Most of the implementations lauded in this article are in Asia, although wireless mesh “in U.S. cities” gets the nod at #7.

The coolest use of wireless broadband probably goes to Shoreditch, England, which created a sous-veillance IPTV system where one can use their telly to access any public security or traffic camera. As the article says, “After all, what type of criminal would be inclined to steal a car knowing that a few hundred people are watching him?”

The article is generally quite bullish – perhaps too bullish. For example, it doesn’t note the economic issues plaguing Taipei’s WiFly service. Apparently even at a piddly US $12.50/hour, Q-Ware is struggling to reach a sustainable user base – free coffeeshop wireless, ubiquitous ADSL in homes and customer apathy to mobile access are to blame.

Moreover, in the US, municipal Wi-Fi networks including Corpus Christi are getting mixed reviews due to supposedly sluggish performance and poor coverage.

So is Wi-Fi all hat and no cattle? It may be too early to tell. Taipei for its part is branching out into offering Wi-Fi to Sony PSPs, digital cameras, and launching a VoIP service. Munis are urging indoor web surfers to purchase signal repeaters to amplify the signals from outdoor APs.

Perhaps this is more of a case of resetting customer expectation – a mindshare market adjustment if you will. Time will tell.

Chinese New Year in Vegas

I guess what’s unlucky for you is lucky for me, right? I read this bizarre excerpt about “Las Vegas turns red for Chinese New Year”

There are 31 luxury villas at The Mansion in MGM Grand, but the numbers go from one to 34, bypassing unlucky 8, 18 and 28.

“Seven’s all right. Eight. You don’t want to look at eight. You don’t see eights in any of our villas,” [MGM Mirage CEO Terry Lanni] said.

Someone should tell Mr. Lanni that the number eight is the luckiest number for an Asian gambler to have. The number eight stands for prosperity and wealth. Only players with million dollar accounts are invited to stay at The Mansion. Unless this is on purpose, although I’d hardly think the house needs to jinx its players!

But it’s true that Chinese are pretty serious about gambling (there is even a subgenre of Hong Kong movies all about gambling its flamboyant lifestyle; see the “God of Gambling” series); you’ll see quite a few Chinese high rollers hunkered down in Pai Gow poker this time of year.

Year of the Pig

Valentine’s ideas for profanely rich people

1. Say it with flowers, or to be more precise, eight foot tall Extreme Roses, freakishly long stemmed flowers that will set you back $250 for a dozen. But you know what they say about men with big roses.

2. Have dinner at The Dome, State Tower Hotel, Bangkok for their “Epicurean Masters of the World” event. 10 courses, 10 wines, six Michelin 3-star chefs, $25,000 USD. They say the shortest way to your lover’s heart is through their stomach, and after you’ve stuffed them with Tartare of Kobe beef with Imperial Beluga caviar and Belon oysters, surely a glass of priceless ’59 Chateau Mouton Rothschild won’t be the only thing he/she’ll be kissing tonight.

3. Book the Penthouse at The Setai, Miami. It features a private butler, Asian-style decor, and flat-screen TVs in every room. And if you end up in the doghouse, that’s cool, because it there are plenty of places to sleep with its four bedrooms and two living rooms!

Vista: Not fully hatched, media still insists on counting

New York Times is calling Windows Vista’s sales to be more weaksauce than Wow:

“Despite reportedly committing close to $500 million on its Vista marketing worldwide, Microsoft did not generate nearly the excitement last week as it did 12 years ago when the company introduced its 1995 operating system.”

Of course, in 1995, New York Times ironically painted Windows 95 sales with the same doom ‘n gloom:

Microsoft Corporation’s Windows 95 operating system is not gaining adherents as rapidly as previously predicted, because of the continued success of older versions of the Windows system…

It’s true, Vista is having some shortcomings in the driver compatibility department, and major software stability, but really, it’s an operating system, not tickets to see Justin Timberlake. People will get around to grabbing a copy – eventually.

Future, short, sweet

So I’m at the new gentrified Gladstone Hotel watching Future Shorts Toronto, a screening of short, amateur film. This month’s theme was conflict and war.

You can watch some of the films here:

  • Mark Cutforth’s Shaolin Delivery Boy. It’s very, very funny.
  • Simon Robson and Knife Party’s What Barry Says, political commentary on the US’s industrial military complex.
  • La vie d’un chien, When a scientist invents an elixir that temporarily changes a human into a canine, the government fights to ban the drug, and the fight for freedom begins. Think of it as La Jetee, but with furries!

Intermission music was provided by this guy and gal with a sitar and didgeridoo respectively. I think I’ve seen him play at Runnymede Station. They’re pretty good regardless.

Quit smoking, win a car

Call it waving a carrot instead of a cigarette stick: the Canadian Cancer Society is trying positive reinforcement with their Driven to Quit Challenge:

Go smoke-free for March 2007 and you could win a 2007 Acura CSX or 1 of 7 Sony 32″ Widescreen LCD HDTVs.

A $25,000 car is nothing to cough at. Oh, and if you win, they make you tinkle in a cup to verify you’ve actually kicked the habit.