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Round 46782: Humans 1 – Robots 0

In a victory for humankind, workplace keystroke surveillance was deemed illegal in Alberta today. Hoo-ray. Once again class – just because you can do something with a computer does not mean you should.

Singing for Snorers.

Pete Townsend talks to me.

Football trade demand insanity.

Sciencenter, Ithaca, New York

This is the real reason we visited Ithaca last weekend – not the ice cream, not the fine beer store and certainly not the hotel which shall go nameless with the blinking light on the smoke detector. The Sciencenter is hard to beat for an afternoon with the kids. Basically, it is only about 150 experiments to jump on, pull the rope, splash in the water or crawl through. Kid heaven.

Unlike the Children’s Museum in the Canadian Museum of Civilization there are no dioramas explaining things, no helpful staff with FedCo logoed t-shirts, no museum of the postal service – every child’s joy. Unlike the Portland’s Children’s Museum of Maine, there are no sponsored grocery store interactive displays teaching your kid to shop. But, to be quite fair, unlike either of those, the Sciencenter did not have that stage area with a real curtain and a trunk full of dress up clothes for putting on a play which is the killer app for a six year old.

No, the Sciencenter was all about science and teaching through doing in the inside exhibits as well as the outside playground. Water is explained through a spashy duck run, sinks and toilets. Lots of giggles and paying attention. There is a simple insulated room where kids can scream on the inside and watch a sound meter record decibels on the outside. Hard to get the kids away from that one. Outside swings with different rope length side by side as well as swings with intervening beams explain waves and motion. A 150 metre length of PVC tubes looped back to its beginning explains the speed of sounds and what you say into one end is heard half a second later. Kids argue with themselves. You can lift Dad seated in a chair pulling different ropes attached along the other end of the see-saw they hang from. Again, do it again!

Smart stuff and at 20 bucks US for the say good value for money. The kids get a brainful and leave exhausted. You would think that a lot of the outside stuff could be incorporated into city park playgrounds on a smaller scale in insidiously inculcate kiddies with smarts. There was even my second example of one of the two story falling golf ball clangy thingies like the one at the Salmon Run Mall in Watertown. When I win the lotto, I am going to just build these and give them away. Watch a movie of it: [8.7 MB,.mpg file].

Coming up on Ithaca week: the Farmer’s Market and Buttermilk Falls.

James Bond Activism

I am not planning to watch much of Live 8 though I hope it all goes well. But lines like this from the schedule strike me as a little freaky:

12:45 p.m.: Live 8 organizer Bob Geldof will address the world from London.

I wonder if I will hear it from where I am sitting with any luck at Moosewood, a voice speaking from the clouds.

Ithaca?

Any tips? We are heading down to the Finger Lakes Saturday morning, heading back to hit fireworks on the Thousand Islands dusk Sunday. I say I say – any tips? Custards of note?

Mirage of the Ducks

Saw this the other day through the haze, past Snake and Simcoe Islands, a mirage of Main Duck Island and the False Ducks…or perhaps Yorkshire Island, Canadian islands way out in eastern Lake Ontario usually a thin line right on the horizon on the clearest days. Click for big-o-viz.

The Politics Of King Of The Hill

An interesting essay in the New York Times this morning on the politics of the TV cartoon life of Hank Hill.

Fitba Friday

I am a little unsure the degree to which the Brockville players I marked were better and, conversely, to which I sucked. I only know they seemed to have three guys going by me fairly constantly and when there was a corner I was very happy to be the guy that hugged the post. Fortunately for me, I found my copy of Offspring’s Smash which seemed to make the drive home jolly.