Having lived in Vancouver, British Columbia and observed what happens when the city actually sees snow, the following (joke) article forwarded to me by some locals brought a smile to my face. It always amazed me that a city that is two hours from Whistler would have so many atrocious winter drivers. I once drove my wife to work at an office in downtown with about a inch of snow on the ground and it was a ghost town. Her boss was amazed she even tried to get to work.

See - not all Canadians live in igloos (a question I once got asked while on spring break in Florida).

Chilled Vancouver commuters faced their second day of winter hell today, as an additional ¼ centimetre of the peculiar white stuff  fell, bringing the lower mainland to its knees and causing millions of Dollars worth of damage to the marijuana crops. Scientists suspect that the substance is some form of frozen water particles and experts from Saskatchewan are being flown in.

With temperatures dipping to the almost but not quite near zero mark, Vancouverites were warned to double Insulate their lattes before venturing out. Vancouver police recommended that people stay inside Except for emergencies, such as running out of espresso or biscotti to see them through Vancouver’s most terrible storm to date.

The local Canadian Tire reported that they had completely sold out of  fur-lined sandals. Drivers were cautioned to put their convertible tops up, and several have been shocked to learn that their SUV’s actually have four  wheel drive, although most have no idea how to use it.  Weary commuters faced soggy sushi, and the threat of frozen breast implants.

Although Dr. John Blatherwick, of the Coastal Health Authority reassured everyone that most breast implants were perfectly safe to 25 Below, down-filled bras are flying off the shelves at Mountain Equipment Co-op.  “The government has to do something,” snarled an angry Trevor Warburton. “I didn’t pay $540,000 for my one bedroom condo so I could sit around and be treated like someone from Toronto.”

This is over the top. Amazing!

Originally intended to work for just 90 days, Spirit has now been operating for five years and Opportunity will hit that milestone in a few more weeks. The fact that NASA has been able to keep them both going for that long is pretty amazing given that I have a hard time keeping my laptop operational for more than a few weeks without doing some serious, high bandwidth maintenance.

“These rovers are incredibly resilient considering the extreme environment the hardware experiences every day,” said John Callas, Jet Propulsion Laboratory project manager for Spirit and Opportunity.

Here’s to another five years.

I cannot remember being so glad to see the end of a year before but 2008 definitely gets chalked up to being one of the worst I can remember. As someone who should in theory be in his best earning years, I sure feel a lot poorer. Even 2001 wasn’t this painful.

The grand total is $6.9 trillion…ouch.

“After months of tortuous trading, Wall Street rang out its worst year since the Great Depression yesterday, leaving shareholders $6.9 trillion the poorer. The losses in 2008 were so broad and deep that every sector in the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index took a double-digit hit, and the financial sector lost more than half of its value.”

Welcome to the party 2009. I certainly hope you are more fun than 2008.

Happy New Year everybody.

Den of Geek has done a solid job listing the top 50 movie special effects of all time. They range from the latest and greatest computer effects to meticulously executed model work from movies that were produced long before even the most rudimentary computers.

It almost goes without saying that my favorite effect is the one from Blade Runner, but there are some pretty amazing shots listed among the 50 in the post. Definitely worth a read.

In today’s world of massive consumption, it is refreshing to run across a story of a hand built toy that someone really put a lot of effort into.

My great uncle built this boat for my cousin. I sure wish I had one when I was a kid. My smile would have been a mile wide.

Seems like things are as bad in Japan as they are here in the US.

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More news from the banking sector on the wire this morning.

Uncertainty has now hit the Japanese banking sector

In the last 7 days Origami Bank has folded.

Sumo Bank has gone belly up.

Bonsai Bank has announced plans to cut some of its branches.

Yesterday, it was announced that Karaoke Bank is up for sale and will likely go for a song, while today shares in Kamikaze Bank were suspended after they nose-dived.

Samurai Bank is soldiering on following sharp cutbacks.

Ninja Bank is reported to have taken a hit, but they remain in the black.

Furthermore, 500 staff at Karate Bank got the chop and analysts report that there is something fishy going on at the Sushi Bank where it is feared that staff may get a raw deal.

This is pretty funny. It is cool to see the overlords make a mistake once in a while.

I know like a gazillion people have seen this video but I really like it so here it is again.

This is so cool…