“Incidentally, am I alone in finding the expression ‘it turns out’ to be incredibly useful? It allows you to make swift, succinct, and authoritative connections between otherwise randomly unconnected statements without the trouble of explaining what your source or authority actually is. It’s great. It’s hugely better than its predecessors ‘I read somewhere that…’ or the craven ‘they say that…’ because it suggests not only that whatever flimsy bit of urban mythology you are passing on is actually based on brand new, ground breaking research, but that it’s research in which you yourself were intimately involved. But again, with no actual authority anywhere in sight.”

Here’s a great little blog post from jsomers.net on the usefulness of the sneaky phrase, “it turns out“.

OK Go – This Too Shall Pass – YouTube

Tom Brokaw Explains Canada to Americans – YouTube

P.S. Parliament has been prorogued during the Olympics so Harper’s little flag waving speech was actually given at the British Columbia legislature.

Hair tells the story of the “tribe”, a group of politically active, long-haired hippies of the “Age of Aquarius” living a bohemian life in New York City and fighting against conscription into the Vietnam War. Claude, his good friend Berger, their roommate Sheila and their friends struggle to balance their young lives, loves and the sexual revolution with their rebellion against the war and their conservative parents and society. Ultimately, Claude must decide whether to resist the draft as his friends have done, or to compromise his pacifistic principles and risk his life by serving in Vietnam.

Here’s the very local news coverage of the production:

Hair at the University of Lethbridge

I know a few of the actors and will be there opening night. It should be a lot of fun.

LOST: Flight 815 Crash in Real Time | YouTube

(via)

I made a clock! on Flickr.

I did happen to bump one of the LEDs just before I started taping, and discovered afterward that I had shorted one of the lights from the current. It just needed to be nudged slightly, but in the video it appears to be burnt out.

The code after the jump.

/* ---------------------------------------------------------
* | Arduino Experimentation Kit Clock Code |
* | Making a basic counter from 0 to 9 |
* ---------------------------------------------------------
*
*
* Written by Jeff Milner http://jeffmilner.com
*
*/

for(int i=0; i <= 6; i++) {
digitalWrite(ledPins[i], LOW);
}
}

Odds to Win Group A of the the 2010 Olympic Ice Hockey Championship
Canada 2/9
USA 5/2
Switzerland 50/1
Norway 400/1

Odds to Win Group B of the the 2010 Olympic Ice Hockey Championship
Russia 1/3
Czech Republic 9/4
Slovakia 18/1
Latvia 400/1

Odds to Win Group C of the the 2010 Olympic Ice Hockey Championship
Sweden 1/2
Finland 7/5
Germany 50/1
Belarus 150/1

(Thanks Sandeep)

Journalist and comedian Charlie Brooker pokes fun at news reporting by illustrating how television news is structured according to a standardized style that tries to impress without really being informative. Be warned, some NSFW language.

via YouTube - Charlie Brooker – How To Report The News.

I took some photos and videos at the event:

LETHBRIDGE, AB — JANUARY 17, 2010 Jill Quirk, who competed in the World Championship, Pan American & World Student Games Teams, was the final torchbearer and cauldron lighter in Lethbridge. Here she shares the flame with the local community.

It’s Complicated: “This film about divorce and late blooming romance was so painful that it made my own divorce seem fun.” — Beth Accomando, KPBS.org

Did You Hear About the Morgans?: “Grant’s familiar, pained and rueful expressions start to look like an actor’s commentary on the film, not a character’s response to events within it.” — Christopher Tookey, Daily Mail [UK]

Nine: “The movie musical can still be a splendid bit of escapism. With Nine, the only thing you’ll want to flee is the movie theater itself.” —Bill Gibron, PopMatters

The Twilight Saga: New Moon: “The number one killer is that it’s two hours and 10 minutes long and the plot recycles itself over and over again.” — Eric Melin, Scene-Stealers.com

Personally, I can’t hear it even with the “reverse lyrics” showing. To me, Lucifer sounds more like moose-em-mouw, but the emails keep coming. For the record, I’m a complete skeptic.

(More backmasking clips)