Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy
Science Fiction (1887 - 217 pp.)
Looking Backward: 2000-1887, commonly cited as one of the most influential books of its day, presents a novel concept. A man falls asleep in 1887 and wakes up in 2000, fully intact, healthy as ever, ready to see the new world. It fits neatly into late Victorian science fiction by being wholly unrealistic enough to ever happen yet more contemplative and didactic than escapist. In a way, it is like H.G. Wells's The Time Machine meets Samuel Johnson's Rasselas.
The most striking aspect of Looking Backward is how presciently Bellamy predicts so much of the future. Everything from credit cards (57) to alarm clocks (90) to the United Nations (91) to possibly even World War I (201) is a simple fact of Bellamy's 2000... rather like our own. Although Bellamy's credit cards function more like prepaid cards, they are otherwise like our credit cards, and Looking Backward's lack of money negates the need for interest rates.
The freedom of choice inherent in the new economy appears a little too market-oriented for socialist-minded Bellamy at times. That people choose to buy some goods over others, that the government adjusts prices based on demand, that people are incentivized toward less desirable jobs through more favourable work hours... really seems very much like the system Bellamy rails against. The more structural issue I take with Looking Backward, that perhaps was unforeseeable to Bellamy, is that the adult work schedule of general labour from 21-24 and then school until 30 maximum probably would not work too well with modern graduate education. A possible solution would be to exempt future professors from general labour much like students have been exempt from military service in the past, which fits well with Bellamy's "industrial army".
Looking Backward's didactic style and lack of plot unfortunately do not lead to well-developed characters. The most glaring example is how Julian West never seems surprised enough by his surroundings; a simple couple sentences telling, not showing, his surprise and then a segue into political debate is apparently enough. This is the book's one drawback. In a twist Bellamy could not have anticipated, baby name popularity fluctuated considerably since the 1850s, making a character named Edith in the year 2000 highly unlikely. Then again, if the reader has already suspended disbelief for a man rocketing 113 years into the future, why can the reader not also accept that a woman born in the 1970s have a name that was more common a century earlier?
For a book without much of a plot and with poor characters, Looking Backward is a page-turner. Now that is a compliment.
Ease of Reading: 5
Educational Content: 8
Saturday, February 28, 2015
Monday, February 9, 2015
Otter Chaos
It's really impressive how quickly these little guys can scale a snowy hill. Good mini-feature by National Geographic here.
Brings back memories of a childhood friend's $50 snowboard...
Brings back memories of a childhood friend's $50 snowboard...
Wednesday, February 4, 2015
Putting Canada on the Map
In 2013, Canadian magazine MacLean's released a series of maps detailing various aspects of Canadian culture, most stereotypical, some more serious than others. Naturally, it got started by asking which of hockey or church is more popular on Twitter - as someone who has spent most of my time in Canada in either Toronto or Edmonton, the stats indicate I've been exposed to both. Edmonton is the hockey city, if you were wondering.
Other particularly fun takeaways:
-Latitude in North America has always been... I can't really say a curiosity of mine, but I've always found the stats interesting. For all the reputation Canada has as the Great White North, a significant portion of its population lives well below the hallowed 49th parallel that separates Canada and the United States in the West. Even a city like Sault Ste. Marie, ostensibly in Northern Ontario, is technically south of Seattle. It gets even stranger when making European comparisons; living in Edmonton has been an experience in finally being north of Berlin (Saskatoon). Whether Edmonton is north of Rostock, I won't bother checking.
-The word map of clichés is amusing, especially when the same words appear multiple times in a province or territory. I'll admit I'd never heard of Albertans being pinkos, though, or Manitoba being "where Bay Street executives come from".
-My home province (Ontario) received the award for "most thunderstorms". Enough summers spent in Toronto confirms this hypothesis, at least anecdotally. Summer 2008, for one, felt like a thunderstorm almost every day. As a child, I loved thunderstorms, and even had an attraction to power outages, which invited peaceful reading by candlelight or a bath in complete darkness. Now, I'm too glued to electronics to really appreciate everything being switched off.
-Whenever I meet a Canadian born in 2013, I can apparently call that person Liam or Ethan (if a boy) or Emma (if a girl), and there appears to be a decent chance I'll be right. Could this be an updated version of the carnival Guess Your Weight games?
-Could inviting a few PEI residents to move to Saskatchewan even out Canada's population density lopsidedness? Well, probably not. The provincial population density map verges on useless when making within-group comparisons like the difference in population density between Toronto and the approximately ten thousand mile radius around Kenora, which is vast.
-The one male centenarian in the Northwest Territories really should have attempted to become a celebrity by now. Additionally wacky about the NWT's centenarians is that they all live so far apart. There couldn't have been two in Yellowknife? As this map is a year and a half old, it's quite possible some then-99-year olds or even then-98-year olds could be added to the list.
-The "What if all of Canada lived in one city?" map curiously omits Montreal, likely due to the necessity of it being engulfed by Ottawa in such a scenario. Socking all of Canada into Whitehorse feels oddly efficient and pretty until you consider the impact it would have on agriculture, secondary industries and border security.
Nothing like old news for a cold February day... right?
Other particularly fun takeaways:
-Latitude in North America has always been... I can't really say a curiosity of mine, but I've always found the stats interesting. For all the reputation Canada has as the Great White North, a significant portion of its population lives well below the hallowed 49th parallel that separates Canada and the United States in the West. Even a city like Sault Ste. Marie, ostensibly in Northern Ontario, is technically south of Seattle. It gets even stranger when making European comparisons; living in Edmonton has been an experience in finally being north of Berlin (Saskatoon). Whether Edmonton is north of Rostock, I won't bother checking.
-The word map of clichés is amusing, especially when the same words appear multiple times in a province or territory. I'll admit I'd never heard of Albertans being pinkos, though, or Manitoba being "where Bay Street executives come from".
-My home province (Ontario) received the award for "most thunderstorms". Enough summers spent in Toronto confirms this hypothesis, at least anecdotally. Summer 2008, for one, felt like a thunderstorm almost every day. As a child, I loved thunderstorms, and even had an attraction to power outages, which invited peaceful reading by candlelight or a bath in complete darkness. Now, I'm too glued to electronics to really appreciate everything being switched off.
-Whenever I meet a Canadian born in 2013, I can apparently call that person Liam or Ethan (if a boy) or Emma (if a girl), and there appears to be a decent chance I'll be right. Could this be an updated version of the carnival Guess Your Weight games?
-Could inviting a few PEI residents to move to Saskatchewan even out Canada's population density lopsidedness? Well, probably not. The provincial population density map verges on useless when making within-group comparisons like the difference in population density between Toronto and the approximately ten thousand mile radius around Kenora, which is vast.
-The one male centenarian in the Northwest Territories really should have attempted to become a celebrity by now. Additionally wacky about the NWT's centenarians is that they all live so far apart. There couldn't have been two in Yellowknife? As this map is a year and a half old, it's quite possible some then-99-year olds or even then-98-year olds could be added to the list.
-The "What if all of Canada lived in one city?" map curiously omits Montreal, likely due to the necessity of it being engulfed by Ottawa in such a scenario. Socking all of Canada into Whitehorse feels oddly efficient and pretty until you consider the impact it would have on agriculture, secondary industries and border security.
Nothing like old news for a cold February day... right?
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
Globe and Mail: Millennials More Upbeat than Boomers about Affording Ideal Retirement
This survey, released on January 28, says so. A good point it makes is that Millennials have considerably more time to save for retirement than Boomers, so Millennials' added optimism makes sense that way.
A couple issues:
-Optimism was measured according to "ideal retirement". I suspect that looks very different for Boomers as it does for Millennials.
-Millennials are "ages 18-34". As someone who considers Millennials to have been born from 1980-1997 or so, I wholeheartedly approve of this age bracketing.
-Approximately $400,000 for retirement doesn't seem like much, although retirement is such a fuzzy concept because it could last anywhere from 45 years to a few days. Someone hoping to retire early and then subsequently become a centenarian likely needs to save considerably more than someone retiring in the shadow of a terminal illness, for example.
-Apparently, 29% of Millennials and 19% of Boomers are worried they'll be bored in retirement. As someone who hasn't been bored in years aside from perhaps a few times waiting 10-20 minutes for a train, I can't identify here. There's too much to be done in this world.
-The sample sizes of 803 non-retirees and 500 retirees aren't bad. I can live with them.
A couple issues:
-Optimism was measured according to "ideal retirement". I suspect that looks very different for Boomers as it does for Millennials.
-Millennials are "ages 18-34". As someone who considers Millennials to have been born from 1980-1997 or so, I wholeheartedly approve of this age bracketing.
-Approximately $400,000 for retirement doesn't seem like much, although retirement is such a fuzzy concept because it could last anywhere from 45 years to a few days. Someone hoping to retire early and then subsequently become a centenarian likely needs to save considerably more than someone retiring in the shadow of a terminal illness, for example.
-Apparently, 29% of Millennials and 19% of Boomers are worried they'll be bored in retirement. As someone who hasn't been bored in years aside from perhaps a few times waiting 10-20 minutes for a train, I can't identify here. There's too much to be done in this world.
-The sample sizes of 803 non-retirees and 500 retirees aren't bad. I can live with them.
Friday, January 23, 2015
I Have Three Cats... Well... *I* Don't, But Someone Does
This is a very aptly named blog.
I can't fault the honesty of anyone who has a blog called "I Have Three Cats". It's exactly what it sounds like. I suppose it's not the most honest in the world considering he now has a fourth cat, but this doesn't take away from the blog's inherent cuteness. It adds 33.3% to that cuteness, actually.
Some of the entries get far more specific than is probably necessary, such as this gem from Wednesday's entry: "Kola has been experiencing runny poop. I didn’t know it was his until this morning. He is a very clean animal, especially considering his long, airy fur. But this morning, his bum was matted with…unpleasantness." While I love cats, I don't love poop. I feel like a lot of people could say that. That said, the same entry features this beautiful picture of the aforementioned Kola.
In Monday's entry, blogger John Bellen reveals he uses the same type of bowls for his cats' water as I do for serving sauces. As someone who has fed his cat (small scraps of!) filet mignon before, I really have no room to call out anyone for privileging cats.
It's amazing to see just how much we do with what we think of as our spare, leisure or family time. This blog could be all three. It's at least the last one. Besides, people blog about all sorts of things they do.
I can't fault the honesty of anyone who has a blog called "I Have Three Cats". It's exactly what it sounds like. I suppose it's not the most honest in the world considering he now has a fourth cat, but this doesn't take away from the blog's inherent cuteness. It adds 33.3% to that cuteness, actually.
Some of the entries get far more specific than is probably necessary, such as this gem from Wednesday's entry: "Kola has been experiencing runny poop. I didn’t know it was his until this morning. He is a very clean animal, especially considering his long, airy fur. But this morning, his bum was matted with…unpleasantness." While I love cats, I don't love poop. I feel like a lot of people could say that. That said, the same entry features this beautiful picture of the aforementioned Kola.
In Monday's entry, blogger John Bellen reveals he uses the same type of bowls for his cats' water as I do for serving sauces. As someone who has fed his cat (small scraps of!) filet mignon before, I really have no room to call out anyone for privileging cats.
It's amazing to see just how much we do with what we think of as our spare, leisure or family time. This blog could be all three. It's at least the last one. Besides, people blog about all sorts of things they do.
Thursday, January 22, 2015
A Brief Guide for Scrabble Players Who Want to Play Word Chums
Lately, I've been playing the loosely Scrabble-based, cartoon-animated, fast and loose Word Chums. My adorable cat character has unleashed some massive words, culminating in a 126-point sextuple word score bingo against a Genius-level (the highest level) Chumbot (computer AI - the Genius ones actually aren't bad). Sextuple word score, you say? Well, that doesn't sound like Scrabble at all!
Some of the key differences I've noticed in my 16 games of Word Chums, as compared to my probably thousands of games of Scrabble:
The board layout is different. In Word Chums, it is quite possible to land two double word scores on the same word, or even a double and a triple. Adding to the craziness is that landing a triple word score isn't the holy grail in Word Chums it often is in Scrabble... precisely because capturing one so often leads to your opponent having a wide-open shot at two concurrent double word scores.
There are also quadruple letter scores located in the four corners of the board. (Triple word scores are now along the edges.) These are located conveniently close to the triple word scores. You can imagine the fireworks that follow.
Awarding of points is different. Bingos aren't 50 points in Word Chums. They're only 40. There are two trade-offs for this. One is that there are mini-bingos of sorts; playing five letters awards an additional 10 points, and playing six letters awards an additional 20. The other is that with bonus squares all over the board like the mines in a ridiculously hard game of Minesweeper, by the time you're playing 5-7 letters you're probably hitting multiple bonuses anyway.
Point values are different. Stock up on Cs (6 points rather than 3) and the X (10 points rather than 8) in Word Chums. Don't bother so much with Ys (3 points rather than 4). Gs (3 points rather than 2), combined with the awarding above, make -ING endings particularly punchy in Word Chums. Some of the 1-point consonants in Scrabble are 2 points in Word Chums, and the U along with them, so watch for those too.
The main takeaway from all this is, in Word Chums, to be prepared for a game high on points and short on defence. The closest comparison would be that Scrabble is the NFL and Word Chums is the CFL. There are so many bonus squares on the board it's tough to keep them all away from a crafty opponent at once. It is common for a player to top 500, 600, or in one game I hit 850 points. I've had two games in which both players topped 500, including one in which both topped 550. (I lost both, naturally. I even got my 126-point word in the higher-scoring one. The lack of the ability to lock up the board wounds me.)
I'd recommend Word Chums to any Scrabble player. I just wouldn't recommend taking it very seriously.
Some of the key differences I've noticed in my 16 games of Word Chums, as compared to my probably thousands of games of Scrabble:
The board layout is different. In Word Chums, it is quite possible to land two double word scores on the same word, or even a double and a triple. Adding to the craziness is that landing a triple word score isn't the holy grail in Word Chums it often is in Scrabble... precisely because capturing one so often leads to your opponent having a wide-open shot at two concurrent double word scores.
There are also quadruple letter scores located in the four corners of the board. (Triple word scores are now along the edges.) These are located conveniently close to the triple word scores. You can imagine the fireworks that follow.
Awarding of points is different. Bingos aren't 50 points in Word Chums. They're only 40. There are two trade-offs for this. One is that there are mini-bingos of sorts; playing five letters awards an additional 10 points, and playing six letters awards an additional 20. The other is that with bonus squares all over the board like the mines in a ridiculously hard game of Minesweeper, by the time you're playing 5-7 letters you're probably hitting multiple bonuses anyway.
Point values are different. Stock up on Cs (6 points rather than 3) and the X (10 points rather than 8) in Word Chums. Don't bother so much with Ys (3 points rather than 4). Gs (3 points rather than 2), combined with the awarding above, make -ING endings particularly punchy in Word Chums. Some of the 1-point consonants in Scrabble are 2 points in Word Chums, and the U along with them, so watch for those too.
The main takeaway from all this is, in Word Chums, to be prepared for a game high on points and short on defence. The closest comparison would be that Scrabble is the NFL and Word Chums is the CFL. There are so many bonus squares on the board it's tough to keep them all away from a crafty opponent at once. It is common for a player to top 500, 600, or in one game I hit 850 points. I've had two games in which both players topped 500, including one in which both topped 550. (I lost both, naturally. I even got my 126-point word in the higher-scoring one. The lack of the ability to lock up the board wounds me.)
I'd recommend Word Chums to any Scrabble player. I just wouldn't recommend taking it very seriously.
Wednesday, January 21, 2015
Yahoo: Stephen Curry's mother fines him for turnovers
Heartwarming NBA news is always welcome. How about Warriors point guard Stephen Curry's mother fining him for turnovers?
It's a neat little trick to keep Curry's head in the game, and at $100 per turnover is expensive enough to add up over a season ($6,000 for 2013-2014, according to the article), yet is not at all crippling. I like the idea, as someone who enjoys exploring different ideas of incentivizing. It seems to work, according to Curry himself. The money goes toward mother Sonya's tastes in fashion. Unless she's planning on buying a wardrobe of suits and cocktail gowns, that $6,000 should be more than enough.
As someone who is passionate about bargain hunting, even for the mundane items, perhaps I should act as a consultant on these sprees?
Writer Ben Rohrbach's closing salvo is well taken: "Now, if only Josh Smith's mom would fine him a hundred bucks every time he jacked a 3-pointer." The amount of lending Smith would have to do in order to pay off that debt would probably be enough to resurrect Bear Stearns... until/unless Smith defaulted, of course.
(Apologies for the video aspect of the article. It isn't my fault, I swear! The article is still completely readable without it, so feel free to mute/pause.)
It's a neat little trick to keep Curry's head in the game, and at $100 per turnover is expensive enough to add up over a season ($6,000 for 2013-2014, according to the article), yet is not at all crippling. I like the idea, as someone who enjoys exploring different ideas of incentivizing. It seems to work, according to Curry himself. The money goes toward mother Sonya's tastes in fashion. Unless she's planning on buying a wardrobe of suits and cocktail gowns, that $6,000 should be more than enough.
As someone who is passionate about bargain hunting, even for the mundane items, perhaps I should act as a consultant on these sprees?
Writer Ben Rohrbach's closing salvo is well taken: "Now, if only Josh Smith's mom would fine him a hundred bucks every time he jacked a 3-pointer." The amount of lending Smith would have to do in order to pay off that debt would probably be enough to resurrect Bear Stearns... until/unless Smith defaulted, of course.
(Apologies for the video aspect of the article. It isn't my fault, I swear! The article is still completely readable without it, so feel free to mute/pause.)
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