Digital Scrolls

The Israel Museum welcomes you to the Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Project, allowing users to examine and explore these most ancient manuscripts from Second Temple times at a level of detail never before possible. Developed in partnership with Google, the new website gives users access to searchable, fast-loading, high-resolution images of the scrolls, as well as short explanatory videos and background information on the texts and their history.

The Dead Sea Scrolls, which include the oldest known biblical manuscripts in existence, offer critical insight into Jewish society in the Land of Israel during the Second Temple Period, the time of the birth of Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism.

Five complete scrolls from the Israel Museum have been digitized for the project at this stage and are now accessible online.

Story of Stuff

Annie Leonard is an expert in international sustainability and environmental health issues, with more than 20 years of experience investigating factories and dumps around the world.

She is also the coordinator of the Funders Workgroup for Sustainable Production and Consumption, which was founded in 2001 to directly address the harmful environmental and social impacts of current modes of producing, consuming and disposing of material goods.

Annie wrote and narrates "The Story of Stuff", a 20-minute film that takes viewers on a provocative and eye-opening tour of the real costs of our consumer driven culture, delivering a rapid-fire, often humorous and always engaging story about “all our stuff—where it comes from and where it goes when we throw it away.”

DO NOT miss the opportunity to watch this! The 20 minutes go really quickly, and it really helps you make some sense out of this messed-up system we live in!

Plus, I love Ruben DeLuna's simple but quite effective animation style which they chose to illustrate Annie's explanation as she goes on.

Autumn in Vancouver...

Yes, autumn has finally arrived in Vancouver...

I can never get used to the amazing shades of red, yellow and orange that slowly "burn away" the intense green of summer.
And Vancouver is already showing some particularly beautiful shades throughout downtown.

Check out some pictures I took while strolling around this weekend. I'll try to take some more at Stanley Park next weekend... stay tuned!

Celebrating Light in Vancouver

Since 1991, Vancouver has staged a famous fireworks event every summer.
Called "Symphony of Fire" until 2001 when the event changed to "Celebration of Light", under the sponsorship of HSBC, it draws crowds of over 1 million people around the shores of English Bay every year.

The world's leading fireworks manufacturers consider the HSBC Celebration of Light international fireworks competition to be the most prestigious events of its kind in the world and an exciting arena where they can unveil the latest pyro-musical techniques and the most innovative fireworks materials.

Each year, 3 countries compete by sponsoring its own fireworks show and then join together for a grand finale demonstration. The shows take place 3 days apart from each other between the last days of July and the first week of August.

The 3 days are no mere matter of choice. It takes 3 days through 12-hour work shifts to get each show set-up by a crew of at least 16 people.

The fireworks are shot from a 150-meter barge filled with 1000 tons of sand and anchored by six anchors weighing 4 tons each.
The sand is spread as an even 20cm-deep layer where the mortars are placed. Each competitor will fire anywhere from 2,000 to 4,500 bombs, depending on the show.

People can vote for the best show through their cell phones, and the elected judges cast their votes based on the following criteria:

• General Concept - presentation, structure and scale of display
• Colour - choice and variety of colours
• Originality - design and architecture
• Quality of Production - rhythm of fireworks, volume of effects and quality of construction
• Correlation of Music - choice of music, synchronization of effects, adaptaion of moods

This year's grand finale will take place Saturday, August 4, 2007 at 10:00 p.m.
I will update this post with pictures from the final event!

You can find out more about the Celebration of Light at the official website.

Think Canadian

After being through my first "Canada Day" here, I found this interesting article by Colleen Tully (canadianliving.com) with a quiz for the readers to acess how much they are "aligned" with the way most Canadians think nowadays.

I have edited the quiz by providing the questions as they were presented (with multiple answers) and the correct answer right below, showing - in most of them - some recent statistical data to back it up.

The questions were adapted themselves from the book "What Canadians Think" (Doubleday Canada, 2005) by Darrell Bricker and John Wright.

1. Where do most of us want Health Care money spent?
a) more doctors
b) a national homecare program
c) reducing waiting lists for diagnostic services
d) a national pharmacare program

Answer: c) Nearly two-thirds (63%) of Canadians believe that reducing waiting lists for diagnostic services like MRIs and CAT scans should be a top priority for more health care spending.

2. Whom do we trust the most?
a) doctors
b) firefighters
c) pilots
d) pharmacists

Answer: b) 94% of Canadians would put their trust in a firefighter. Pharmacists are close behind at 91%, with doctors at 85% and airline pilots at 81%.


3. What is our favourite thing to do online?
a) instant messaging
b) online banking
c) e-mail
d) do online quizzes about what Canadians think

Answer: c) 93% of everyone plugged into the net use it to send e-mail (what the other seven per cent is doing I'm not sure). The number two thing we do is check the weather (65%). Only half (50%) use instant messaging and 53% use the web for online banking.


4. What percentage of Canadians feel the world is changing too quickly?
a) 80%
b) 30%
c) 40%
d) 55%

Answer: c) 43% of Canadians feel the world is changing too quickly and this is a major cause of stress. Frighteningly, the percentage of Canadians who agree there has been a time when they've been under so much stress that they've wanted to commit suicide is 17.


5. In order of most to least, what would Canadians do if they won $10 million?
a) share it with family
b) pay off debt
c) donate to charity
d) travel

Answer: a - c - d - b: a) 50% would share with family, c) 39% would donate to charity, d) 35% would travel and b) only 23% of us would use it to pay off debt. Only 10% would quit their jobs!

6. In what province are parents most concerned about their kids' education costs?
a) Ontario
b) Atlantic Canada
c) Quebec
d) Saskatchewan/Manitoba

Answer: d) 95% of parents in Saskatchewan and Manitoba are worried about funding their children's education. Atlantic Canada follows at 93%, with Ontario at 86% -- parents in Quebec are the least worried at 74%.

7. What percent of Canadians think barbecue season is "all year long"?
a) 40%
b) 65%
c) 25%
d) 50% -- all the men

Answer: a) 40% of Canadians will tromp through the snow to enjoy a juicy flame-broiled burger, and most of these brave souls hail from Alberta (in fact, 57% of all Albertans will barbecue all year round).

8. What are the top two extra-curricular activities our kids are doing after school?
a) hockey and piano
b) swimming and soccer
c) martial arts and piano
d) swimming and piano

Answer: d) Swimming and piano top the chart with 16% of all Canadian kids enrolled. Soccer is next at 15% with hockey close behind at 13%. Only 6% of kids are doing martial arts after school

9. What concerns us the most in the composition of what we eat?
a) fibre
b) saturated fats
c) vitamins
d) total fat
e) calories

Answer: a) 80% of Canadians look for how much fibre is in their food. Vitamins are close behind at 79%. Counting calories is important to 74%, and 67% look at total fat, while just 63% observe saturated fats.

10. In which province people is more likely to say we are different from the Americans?
a) Quebec
b) Saskatchewan
c) British Columbia
d) Nova Scotia
e) Alberta

Answer: c) British Columbians are most likely to say we are different from the Americans. The
province whose residents are least likely to think so is Alberta.


Apart from all the curiosities, the question that struck me the most about the mindset of the "average Canadian" is number 5.
After being here for not too long, I can look at the answer for that and really believe the majority of people here do think like that.
Well, "that's Canada for you!" ;)

First of All...

Vancouver has paved the way for innovation through the years.
Canada's first movie theater opened in Vancouver in 1898, and the city has embraced Hollywood ever since. It was the birthplace of stars like Carrie-Ann Moss, Molly Parker and Pamela Anderson.

In 1919 the first international airmail was flown between Vancouver and Seattle, and in 1954, the RCMP ship St. Roch returned to Vancouver after becoming the first to circumnavigate North America - the goal of explorers for 400 years before then.

Greenpeace was founded in a Vancouver basement in 1971 to protest against American missile testing in Alaska at the time. Since then, the group has influenced and shaped the environmental movement worldwide.

In 1928, a strange ritual was invented in the city as a tradition to usher in the New Year: The Polar Bear Swim. The annual sprint into the icy waters of English Bay has started similar events now held in countries as far away as Russia.
Though many may question its positive effects on the participants' health, another Vancouver innovation has definitely contributed to the youthful complexion of thousands all around the globe.

Injections of the "pretty poison" known as Botox, derived from the same toxin that causes deadly botulism, were first developed as a wrinkle treatment by Vancouver ophthalmologist Dr. Jean Carruthers.
It is now among the top cosmetic procedures on the planet.

Just as Botox has spread all over, so has the internet, bringing "cyberspace" to reality. "Cyberspace" is a term coined by the famous Vancouver writer William Gibson in his famous sci-fi novel Neuromancer.

Innovation finds its place in many ways around Vancouver. The Vancouver Public Library shows how a traditional institution can break with the "usual". The stunning design by Moshe Safdie & Associates Inc. was the overwhelming choice of Vancouverites, opening its doors in May 1995.

Can you imagine the Tenth Dimension?!...

Ok, this isn't really CG-related but appeals greatly to the "geek" inside every one of us... heheh

A new book is out called "Imagining the Tenth Dimension" by Rob Bryanton. To publicize the book, he put together a nice website with a series of Flash animations describing very plainly the concepts behind each dimension from 1 to 10 that helps to visualize them. Essentially it is like the difference between 2-dimensional "flatlanders", and our well-known 3 dimensions, which is something we fairly easily can visualize.

At Tenth Dimension, you find a quick tour of the possible 10 dimensions of a universe based on string theory.

Well, I don't know how scientific it is. Scientists who talk about 10 dimensions tend to bend over backwards to point out that they're not really the kind of dimensions that are useful for us to move in, but they're just sort of curled up in a very small place, of no practical significance to us, and only needed to make the equations add up. Which I tend to not believe, so I like it better this way.

So, we can imagine the same magic continuing in more dimensions. Seen from a lower dimension, somebody who moves in a higher dimension can do impossible things, like appear out of nowhere, or travel huge distances in an instant. Because higher dimensions fold lower dimensions. Just like you might find certain distances on a piece of paper (a 2D plane), but you can fold it in 3 dimensions, and bring any two of its points together, so you can get from one to the other, without traveling any 2D distance. It would be equally logical that you can do the same with time and 3D space, or with whole timelines, or universes of possibilities, once you use more dimensions.

And if we assumed that the real reality is the 10 dimensions, rather than the 3, 3 1/2 we're used to, it potentially can change our perspective greatly.
The dimensional concepts presented can have a strong metaphysical tone, allowing you to extrapolate to life and death, the afterlife, and God...

Truly an excercise of logic, ingenuity and imagination! Will give your brain stuff to chew on for a while! Hehehe