Wikipedia Wednesday: Luna 15

Everyone knows that the Americans were the first people to set foot on the moon (keep your loony conspiracy theories out of here mister ... you know who you are ... Dad).  The Apollo 11 landing was one of the most famous events in history, certainly in the 20th Century.  We know all about Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and that other dude who had to sit in the Command Module in orbit reading magazines while his buddies walked around on the surface of the goddamn moon for fuck's sake!  Man!  Can you imagine what that must have felt like?  His name is Michael Collins by the way.

Some people even know about the other Apollo missions.  Sadly the most famous ones aside from Apollo 11 are the two that went wrong.  Apollo 1 burned up on the launchpad and killed all on board, including pioneering astronaut Gus Grissom.  And, of course, thanks to a Tom Hanks movie many of us know the story of Apollo 13 as well.

A lot of people assume that the Americans were not only first on the moon, but the only people to set foot on the moon, or even get to the moon.  Until recently, I counted as one of those people, but then I read about Luna 15.

Here's the article.

The moon landing wasn't just one country working its ass off, it was, quite literally, a race to the moon.  Luna 15 was as close as the Soviets got.  They launched it only 3 days prior to Apollo 11's launch, and then ...

On July 21, 1969, while Apollo 11 astronauts finished the first human moonwalk, Luna 15 - an unmanned Soviet spacecraft in lunar orbit at the time, began its descent to the lunar surface. Launched only three days before the Apollo 11 mission, it was the third Soviet attempt to return lunar soil back to Earth. The Russian craft crashed on the moon at 15:50 UT - just a few hours before the scheduled American lift off.

The timing was remarkable.  Armstrong and Aldrin were quite literally wandering around the moon while this thing was in the process of landing!  Actually, the word "landing" might be a bit charitable ...

Unfortunately, transmissions ceased only 4 minutes after deorbit at a calculated altitude of 3 kilometers. The spacecraft impacted the lunar surface on July 21, 1969. The spacecraft had probably crashed onto the side of a mountain. Impact coordinates were 17° north latitude and 60° east longitude in Mare Crisium.

For those who aren't up on lunar geography, Mare Crisium is hundreds of kilometers from Mare Tranquillitatis where the Apollo 11 lunar module landed.  Armstrong and Aldrin would not have seen Luna 15's descent or crash landing.

Although the two Americans on the moon's surface didn't see Luna 15 land, their bosses back on Earth were well aware of it ...

The simultaneous missions became one of the first instances of Soviet/American space cooperation as the USSR released Luna 15's flight plan to ensure it would not collide with Apollo 11, though its exact mission was unknown.

It's a pretty short article unfortunately.  History spends a lot of time and effort congratulating the victorious.  Second place gets a brief mention, if that.

Bonus Trivia Quiz: The Apollo 11 astronauts left a silicone disc on the moon which included recordings of goodwill messages from US leaders, as well as a selection of short messages recorded by leaders from around the world.  Post in the comments section if you know which Canadian left his/her voice on the moon.  Super bonus points if you post what he/she said.

And Now, A Word From Our Sponsors

Everyone knows it costs a lot of money to put on something like the Winter Olympics.  That's fine though, because a lot of people stand to profit from the Olympics, with all the money being thrown around for the games.  It's an investment.

Wait, did I say "people"?  Whoops, my bad.  What I meant was "corporations".

Oh, and that part there when I said "a lot" should actually say "a few".  Sorry about that.

About a year ago, all sorts of Vancouverites (along with out-of-towners who own property here) were walking around with dollar signs in their eyes because they were being told they could make thousands upon thousands of dollars for renting out their homes for the duration of the Olympics.  What they weren't told was that the city was going to take a cut in the form of a licensing fee.  They also didn't realize that temporary rental is fraught with insurance and liability issues; not to mention that finding a tenant, tenant-proofing your home, and cleaning up after some weird foreigner is a huge pain in the ass.  Lastly, the rental market for the Olympics isn't nearly as big as was advertised.  A co-worker of mine who owns a rental unit right next door to BC Place (opening and closing ceremonies venue) is barely breaking even in February when all her costs are added up.

Local businesses have long been anticipating the Olympic boost, but some of them have actually clued into the fact that the Olympics might ironically hurt them.  The games are a major disruption to the daily routine in this city.  In my last post about the Olympics I described how road and facility closures are going to change things around here, but at the time I didn't realize that colleges, schools, clinics, and even the courts are grinding to a halt for most of February.  There are plenty of shops and services that depend on business-as-usual to make money, and this will definitely be an unusual time for many businesses.

So, where's all the Olympic money going?  The province and the municipalities, especially Vancouver itself, are spending huge amounts of taxpayer money to accommodate the Olympics, and they're not going to get a cent of it back.  The locals are by and large not making a dime off the games.  Even the venues are not on Easy Street by any means.  Intrawest, the company that owns the Whistler ski hill, is in the middle of auctioning off all their ski resort properties due to massive debt.

To answer the question of where the money is going, all you need to do is follow it.  Look around you.  If you live anywhere in the first world, you've probably started seeing that little multicoloured Vancouver 2010 statue guy on various ads.  You can't put that thing on your ad if you aren't the "official _____ of Vancouver 2010", and you can't be the "official _____ of Vancouver 2010" unless you fork over a monstrous wad of cash to VANOC.

Not surprisingly, the only companies that seem to be displaying the little guy with red and yellow legs are huge multinationals.  McDonald's is the official restaurant (the irony of horrible fast food being the sponsor of the world's premier athletic event is a bit much), GM is the official vehicle supplier, HBC makes the official apparel, and so on.  These organizations spend millions and millions of dollars out of their vast marketing budgets for the right to put that little guy on their ads.  It is a big deal for companies to be able to do this.

I have to ask though: why?  What is the big deal?  Do people actually give a crap about which soft drink company is able to put the Olympic logo on their products?  Is it really going to bring in more sales?  Everyone knows what Coke is; why do they need to do this?

There is one side benefit to being an official Olympic sponsor, and that's the ability to bend the rules in your favour.  Let's say you're at an official Olympic event and you want a Pepsi.  Too bad, sucker!  It's Coke as far as the eye can see.  Ah, but the events are just the beginning!  This doesn't only apply to Olympic events, but also to anything that VANOC can reach: the City of Vancouver, Translink, the Province of BC, and even other sponsors.

I have to say, however, that anyone who believes that monopolizing the Olympics with a specific brand can only be good is wrong.  I have two real-life examples that prove otherwise.

Example 1: I am doing my Christmas shopping at The Bay (official Olympic clothing supplier).  I head over to the Olympic section and pick out a nice Team Canada hoodie for my sister.  I proceed to the cash register.  The following exchange occurs:

Employee: "Did you find everything you were looking for?"


Me: "Yes I did."


Employee: "That will be $.  Cash or VISA?"


Me: (not fully comprehending the situation) "Debit please."


Employee: "I'm sorry, we only accept cash or VISA.  This is an official Olympic site, and VISA is the only card accepted at Olympic sites."


Me: "Debit is essentially cash though."


Employee: "Sorry, I can't accept it.  Cash or VISA?"

At this point, here is what VISA and VANOC are hoping I will say:

VISA's Fantasy of Me: "Oh, that is perfectly sensible.  I am so glad I have a VISA card right here.  I really should use this thing for more of my purchases!" (gleefully hands over VISA card)

Here's what I actually said:

Real Me: "Motherfucking Olympics!  ARGH!" (begrudgingly hands over VISA card)

Example 2: my wife Melissa is at Waterfront station, Vancouver's main transit hub.  She is changing trains on her way home, and would like a Pepsi.  Normally she goes to the little kiosk in the middle of the station and purchases a can of Pepsi.  On this particular day, she was unable to find such a can at the kiosk.

Melissa: "Excuse me, do you have any Pepsi?"


Kiosk Guy: "No, sorry ... Coke only for Olympics."

Again, here's Coke and VANOC's fantasy:

Coke's Fantasy of Melissa: "Oh that's okay.  I am sure the Coke is just as good, if not better.  Perhaps I should purchase Coke instead of Pepsi from now on!" (enthusiastically purchases Coke)

And ...

Real Melissa: "Motherfucking Olympics!  ARGH!" (begrudgingly purchases Coke)

Isn't the point of sponsorship to improve the image of a brand?  In both these cases, the image of both the brand and the Olympics themselves were tarnished.  I'm no marketeer, but I don't think this is a good result.

Perhaps using my wife and I as subjects isn't representative of the population as a whole for the simple reason that we're not complete fucking morons like the average Canadian.  I am willing to entertain the possibility that the fantasy people described above actually exist on some level, but I have certainly never met them, and I hope I never do.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to drink a Granville Island Brockton IPA, the Official Beer of This Blog.  After that, I feel like going to Bamboo Cafe (the Official Restaurant of White People Who Live in Collingwood) and order some nachos (the Official Food of My Fat Ass).

Wikipedia Wednesday: Salton Sea

I am fascinated by geography.  I am even more fascinated by weird geography.  As such, when I learned about the Salton Sea in California, I was thrilled.  I know this makes me an irredeemable geek and I don't care.  The Salton Sea is crazy-go-nuts and I love it.

Salton Sea

Weird fact 1: it's entirely inland.  Entirely within the state of California, at that.

Weird fact 2: it is 226 feet below sea level.

Weird fact 3: ... here's where it gets really weird.  It is man-made.

Weird fact 4: not only is it man-made, it was made by accident.  What?  Really?  Yes!

The creation of the Salton Sea of today started in 1905, when heavy rainfall and snowmelt caused the Colorado River to swell, overrunning a set of headgates for the Alamo Canal. The resulting flood poured down the canal and breached an Imperial Valley dike, eroding two watercourses, the New River in the west, and the Alamo River in the east, each about 60 miles (97 km) long. These two newly created rivers carried the entire volume of the Colorado River into the Salton Sink, filling it in approximately two years.

The Southern Pacific Railway attempted to fix the diversion of the Colorado, but it was in vain.  The Salton Sea was born, and it wasn't going anywhere anytime soon.

So what do you do when you build a sea by accident?  Build some resort towns on it, of course!

The Salton Sea has had some success as a resort area, with Salton City, Salton Sea Beach, and Desert Shores on the western shore and Desert Beach, North Shore, and Bombay Beach built on the eastern shore in the 1950s. The town of Niland is located 2 miles (3 km) southeast of the Sea as well. The evidence of geothermal activity is also visible. There are mud pots and mud volcanoes on the eastern side of the Salton Sea.

"But Matt," you ask, "if Salton Sea was such a hot vay kay spot in the 50's, why don't I hear about it anymore?  Who wouldn't want to check out a mud volcano on their way from Palm Springs to Phoenix?"  First of all, don't ever say "vay kay" again.  Second, the Salton Sea has one critical flaw: no outflow.  This means salt, farm chemicals, and industrial run-off flowing into it just keep building and building and building and ...

 The combined effects of increasing, highly polluted inflows from the New River, Mexico and agricultural runoff have resulted in elevated bacterial levels and large algal blooms in the Salton Sea. With the lack of an outlet, salinity has increased by approximately 1% per year. Due to high selenium levels, the public was strictly advised to limit fish consumption from the Salton Sea in 1986, after which any amount was likely a health risk. Increasing water temperature, salinity and bacterial levels led to massive fish die-offs (1992, 1994, 1996, 1999, 2006, 2008), and created the ideal breeding grounds for avian botulism, cholera and Newcastle disease, which also led to massive avian epizootics from 1992-2008. Currently, the Salton Sea has a salinity of 44 parts per 1000 (ppt), making it saltier than ocean water (35 ppt for Pacific) ...

Dead fish and birds washing up on the shore are a big mood killer for tourists, so not surprisingly the Salton Sea's tourism industry collapsed.  Good news though: the former resort towns have transformed into totally awesome ruins!  If there's one thing I love almost as much as geography, it's archaeological ruins.  Check out Google Maps for a view of a completely abandoned city on the shore of the sea.

What's next for Salton Sea?  California has a plan to save it, which involves reducing its size by 60% over the next 25 years.  There have been numerous proposals over the years, some of which involve piping water to the Gulf of California or the Pacific Ocean to lower the salinity.  This would also provide San Diego with much needed fresh water.

One of these days, I'm going to go on a tour of all the best ghost towns in North America.  I'll definitely hit Salton City and the surrounding area.  I definitely won't be doing any fishing there.

Ask a Science Fiction Character: Colonel Tigh

This will be a semi-regular feature on this here blog.  Because I am a very powerful and influential man, I am able to get a few well known science fiction characters to come by and offer their advice to readers.

For our first edition we are very fortunate to have Battlestar Galactica's Colonel Saul Tigh.  He has selected some reader questions from the thousands upon thousands that were sent in.  His exceptionally sensitive and thoughtful answers are what follow.

Dear Colonel Tigh,

I'm at the end of my rope.  My neighbour in the apartment below me is complaining about noise, and no matter what I do it seems like nothing will keep her off my back.  I have tried wearing slippers, turning the TV down, and walking more softly.  I've even stopped using the dishwasher (which she claims she can hear).  She still complains about stomping and other loud noises above her.  I don't know what else to do.  It is impossible to reason with her.  Please help.

- Quiet as a Mouse

Dear Quiet,

You gotta be frakkin' kidding me!  This is your home, not a frakkin' funeral parlour!  Here's what you do.  Throw the frakkin' slippers in the trash, start running your dishwasher all day and all night, and stomp around the place as loud as you can.  When that miserable tramp comes up to complain, you tell her to frak right off and go back to her dungeon unless she wants to see what you're like when you're really frakkin' angry.  If that doesn't work, drag her sorry ass down to the airlock.

- Col. Saul Tigh

Dear Colonel Tigh,

I am a 32-year-old single mother of a teenager, and I have been dating a great guy for the past year. He is my age and has no kids. Most of my relationships haven't lasted more than a few months. This guy is perfect in many respects. He constantly tells me he loves me, gets along with my son, helps me around my house, plans his weekends to include me, and has introduced me to his family. The problem is that in the past year he has never bought me flowers. I know it may seem petty, but it's something I think shows a woman that a man was thinking about her throughout the day and that he appreciates her. I have mentioned to him how much this bothers me, but it doesn't seem to change. Should I be concerned?

- Flowerless

Dear Flowerless,

What is it with you women and flowers?  You think we've got some kind of arboretum growing under our bunks?  "Oh woe is me, my boyfriend is perfect in every frakkin' way except he doesn't spend his hard-earned pay on a bunch of dead frakkin' plants!"  What a bunch of crap.  You want frakkin' flowers?  Buy them yourself, and thank the Gods this man hasn't left your sorry ass.

- Col. Saul Tigh

Dear Colonel Tigh,

More than 10 years ago, when I was a recent college graduate, I stole about $3,000 from my employer. I was fired for this action, and the police were called to investigate. I lawyered up, and since there was relatively little evidence, the matter was dropped. I have never admitted the theft to anyone. I have maintained with family and friends that while I was a bad employee and deserved to be fired, I did not commit a crime. I know that this is not true and have always felt very guilty about being a dishonest person. I have since gone on to get a masters' degree, become a teacher, and have a family. I do my best to be a good person now, but I still cannot shake the feelings of guilt over this incident. Obviously, I don't want to go to jail, and an arrest would ruin my current life. But how can I move on emotionally from this incident and its influence on how I see myself today?

- Trying to do Right

Dear Trying,

My Gods you people are frakked in the head!  You're still wracked with guilt over some small-time crap you pulled when you were a nugget?  Give me a frakkin' break.  You know how many terrible things I've done?  You know how many men and women who've died under my command?  I had to kill my own frakkin' wife for frak's sake!  I am tortured by it all every Gods damned day of my frakkin' miserable life, but you know what I do?  I get up, put on my uniform, and do my frakkin' job.  You won't catch me moaning about it to some frakkin' online advice columnist, Gods dammit.  Frakkin' pathetic is what you are.

- Col. Saul Tigh

Dear Colonel Tigh,

In the last few months, my husband just hasn't been the same person. He started losing weight and dropped 60 pounds. Kudos for him! Then one day, I came across him exchanging instant messages with one of his former girlfriends. I let it go. About a month later I found a message on his Facebook account from her. He said he had no idea what it was all about. I knew he was lying, but I let that go as well. A month or so later, I decided to look at our phone bill. He and his ex had been communicating for months, after he told me he hadn't talked to her on the phone. The phone bill shows they talk multiple times a day. I finally told him that in order for me to trust him again, he needs to cut all ties with her, but he continues to talk to her and lie to me. Am I out of line for asking him to stop talking to her?

- Fed Up

Dear Fed,

Are you serious?  You're a frakkin' moron.  He's frakkin' another woman right under your frakkin' nose, and here you are asking me what to do?  What kind of Gods damned idiots write into this thing?  Frak all you people.  If you're too frakkin' stupid to help yourselves, I sure as hell won't.  I can't believe I agreed to this nonsense in the first place.  I'm going to have a drink.  You can all go frak yourselves for all I care.

- Col. Saul Tigh

Wasn't that delightful?  Thanks again to the Colonel for his guest appearance.  Next month we will have an entirely different science fiction character answering our reader questions.  If you have a question for our mystery guest, please post it here in the comments.

Oh, and I know that Colonel Tigh doesn't appear in this picture, but I felt compelled to post it here anyway.

Wikipedia Wednesday: Haiti

I don't normally intend to use this blog to discuss global issues or to promote causes, but I will make an exception in this case. I have always been interested in the history of the Caribbean (thanks to Sid Meier's Pirates!) and the recent earthquake has reminded me of what a sad, awful place Haiti is.

Here's the article.

The country's history reads like a book from the Old Testament. They haven't had a good day in over 500 years. They started with colonialism:

The Spaniards exploited the island for its gold, mined chiefly by local Amerindians directed by the Spanish occupiers. Those refusing to work in the mines were slaughtered or forced into slavery. Europeans brought with them chronic infectious diseases that were new to the Caribbean, and therefore the indigenous population lacked immunity to them. These new diseases were the chief cause of the dying off of the Taíno,[5] but ill treatment, malnutrition, and a drastic drop of the birthrate also contributed.

... moved on to slavery ...

The French-enacted Code Noir (Black Code), which was prepared by Jean-Baptiste Colbert and ratified by Louis XIV, established rigid rules on slave treatment and permissible freedom. It has been described as one of the most brutally efficient slave colonies there ever was - a third of new arrivals died within a few years.[8]

... then revolutionary war. The guy they put in charge, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, ruled the newly independent nation as a despot. After nearly two centuries of political instability and regular invasions from various European powers, the country was occupied by the United States. Not long thereafter, along came good ol' "Papa Doc" Duvalier:

From 1957 to 1986, the Duvalier family reigned as dictators, turning the country into a hermit kingdom with a personality cult and excessive corruption. They created the private army and terrorist death squads known as Tonton Macoutes. Many Haitians fled to exile in the United States and Canada, especially French-speaking Quebec.

The 90's were not all that much better. The Haitians managed to elect a president (Jean-Bertrand Aristide) in 1990 only to have him ousted in a coup d'etat a year later, followed by three more years of political chaos. The US intervened again and put Aristide back in power, but he was ousted again in 2004! That was the same year Mother Nature turned against them:

In addition to soil erosion, deforestation has caused periodic flooding, as seen on 17 September 2004. Tropical storm Jeanne skimmed the north coast of Haiti, leaving 3,006 people dead in flooding and mudslides, mostly in the city of Gonaïves.[16]Earlier that year in May, floods killed over 3,000 people on Haiti's southern border with the Dominican Republic.[17]

Yesterday's 7.0 earthquake is only the most recent horror that has befallen Haiti. It's like the universe just keeps taking one dump after another on that poor country.

These people need all the help they can get. As you can see from the above, they've pretty much needed help for half a millennium now, but this is an exceptional case. It's still pretty early for an impact analysis, but at this point it looks like much of their infrastructure is in ruins. When you're as downtrodden as Haiti, losing your roads, electricity, and communication lines is the equivalent of stepping on someone's throat when they're lying beaten on the ground. This is to say nothing of the loss of life, homes, and livelihood.

Red Cross

Olympiaaaaa!

Today is January 12, 2010.  "What is the significance of this date, Matt," you ask?  Well, savvy Internet person and/or Googlebot, in one month from today the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games will open!

Yay!

Right?

Yay?

Mostly yay, but the Vancouver Olympics are not without controversy and strife.  Why?  Because this is Vancouver.  No matter what some whack-job does in this city, there is always some bigger whack-job complaining about it.  When I first moved here, I remember being flabbergasted by an actual newspaper article about people's reactions to ten trees being moved at UBC.  Recently, two fires destroyed a couple of fairly cruddy commercial buildings in Mount Pleasant (near Main and Kingsway).  The rubble isn't even cold yet, and we already have local whiners worrying about the neighbourhood "losing its cool".  Just to be clear, the main feature of the first building was a breakfast diner with abysmal service; the biggest tenant in the second building was a Mexican restaurant.  This all despite the fact that the last time a fire happened there, the new building wound up being pretty nice.

I'm not going to discuss or link to any of the politicized Olympic controversies because they've been done to death.  If you want to read about what certain groups are griping about, you know where Google and Wikipedia are.  Some complaints are valid, some are open to discussion, most are just standard Vancouver-style short-sighted whining.

Instead, I will focus my Olympic blog posts on what things are like here for Vancouver residents, what the Olympics mean for our day-to-day lives, and hopefully give non-locals an idea of what it's like to live in an Olympic city in the post 9/11 world.  (Side note: I already hate myself for using the phrase "post 9/11 world", but it had to be done, and you will see why.)

I grew up in Calgary during the 1988 Olympics, which means unless I walk in front of a bus in the next 31 days I will be in the fairly unique position of having lived through two of these things.  Granted, I was only nine years old in 1988, but I do have some memories of that time along with anecdotal evidence from my parents. The main thing that I can gather comparing the two is that the Calgary Olympics were waaaaaaayyy less painful than these ones.  I remember no strife or ill feelings whatsoever, and neither do my mom or my dad.  My dad drove to work like he always did, was unimpeded in his day-to-day activities, and even got to meet some athletes downtown (a pair of Norwegian skiers were buying towels).  Overall there was a fun and friendly party atmosphere in the city, and everyone in Calgary looks back on 1988 fondly.

A lot has changed in 22 years, and Vancouver today is a much, much bigger city than Calgary was in 1988 (2.5 mil vs. 700 k).  Driving to work during the Olympics?  Heeeellll no!  Driving downtown in rush hour is bad enough as is.  It's only going to be worse with all the extra people in town.  Couple this with the epic list of road closures and the presence of "Olympic lanes" (like an HOV lane with extra restrictions) on many of the major roads and I'd be amazed if any motor vehicle moves more than a few feet an hour in this town.

"Big deal, you giant baby," you say.  "You take transit to work like a responsible urbanite.  The Olympics won't affect your commute."  Oh really?  I draw your attention to a statement from Translink telling us to expect delays of up to two hours at some Skytrain stations.  Two hours!  It's a long friggin' time, but not outside the realm of possibility.  All those people who ditched their cars in frustration probably aren't going to wander around the city beating the crap out of people like Michael Douglas in Falling Down (though I wouldn't blame them if they did).  They're going to be taking the bus or the Skytrain.  Thus, not only will we have a bajillion Olympic tourists staring confused at the map in every station, we will also have half a bajillion first time transit commuters getting off at the wrong stop and wondering why the hell they're in Burnaby.  Come to think of it, maybe I'll be the one wandering around the city with an Uzi.

On the subject of people wandering around the city with firearms, probably the biggest difference between Vancouver 2010 and Calgary 1988 is the obsession with security.  Post 9/11 world, remember?  A certain amount of security is understandable and expected, but when they do things like close the Roundhouse for the entire month of February for no tangible reason, I get a wee bit annoyed at the whole exercise.  There's a fine line between doing something because it will legitimately help, and doing something so it will look like you're trying to help.  I feel a lot of the security measures fall into the latter category.

My last comment today is about weather.  Anyone who lives here or has visited here in the winter knows that Vancouver is not a typical Canadian city when it comes to climate.  There are no cold, snowy winters (except 2009, the year Vancouver weather went off the rails).  You don't see people wearing scarves and hats, sipping hot chocolate from a Thermos while they lace up their skates at the outdoor rink.  No, here you have people wearing raincoats, holding an umbrella and a Starbucks cup while they walk to yoga.  It really seems a bit surreal to have a Winter Olympics here.  This week, for example, it's pretty rainy and actually not cold at all.  To be fair, the places that need snow for the events do actually get snow, and yet today Cypress Mountain had to close down because the rain and warm weather washed all their snow away.  In case you didn't know, Cypress is where all the snowboarding and aerial skiing events will take place.  I'm no expert, but I think snow is pretty important for those.

Don't worry, Internet.  It's not all bad news.  Even if you don't like winter sports that may or may not take place in the snow, there are still tons of concerts and other cool things going on here this winter.  I think once people get past all the negativity that's been surrounding the build-up to this event they will mellow out and enjoy themselves.  There's still time for that fun, friendly party atmosphere we saw in Calgary to happen.

Stinko Comics #1

How insane am I exactly? This ought to provide some insight. Please enjoy this excellent Stinko Comic! Click to make it bigger.

I made it using this thing here.

Wikipedia Wednesday: Plumpy'nut

Wikipedia Wednesday is the first feature I'm trying out. Every Wednesday I will post a link to an interesting, quirky, or funny Wikipedia article, along with either a bit of analysis, or a snide remark ... ideally both.

This week's article: Plumpy'nut

Plumpy'nut is a peanut-based food for use in famine relief which was formulated in 1999 by André Briend, aFrench Paediatric Nutritionist.

...

The Plumpy'nut product is a high protein and high energy peanut-based paste in a foil wrapper. It tastes slightly sweeter than peanut butter. It is categorized by the WHO as a Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food(RUTF).

Plumpy’nut requires no water preparation or refrigeration and has a 2 year shelf life making it easy to deploy in difficult conditions to treat severe acute malnutrition. It is distributed under medical supervision, predominantly to parents of malnourished children where the nutritional status of the children has been assessed by a doctor or a nutritionist. The product was inspired by the popular Nutella spread.^[1] It is manufactured by Nutriset, a French company based in Normandy Rouen for use by humanitarian organisations for food aid distribution. The ingredients are: peanut paste, vegetable oil, powdered milk, powdered sugar, vitamins, and minerals, combined in a foil pouch. Each 92g pack provides 500 kcal or 2.1 MJ.^[2]

Plumpy'nut contains vitamins A, B-complex, C, D, E, and K, and minerals calcium, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, zinc, copper, iron, iodine, sodium, and selenium.

Am I the only one who's really curious how this tastes? Since my wife is allergic to peanuts I will not be able to try it out, but maybe someone out there knows. I imagine it's basically the same as peanut butter.

In any case, I think it's pretty cool that products like this exist. Everyone assumes that malnutrition is easily treatable with ... well, food, but it's apparently a bit more complicated than that.

It helps with rapid weight gain, which can make the difference between life and death for a young child. The product is also easy for children to eat since they can feed themselves the soft paste. The fortified peanut butter–like paste contains a balance of fats, carbohydrates and proteins (macronutrients), and vitamins and minerals (micronutrients). Peanuts contain mono-unsaturated fats, which are easy to digest. They are also very high in calories, which means that a child will get a lot of energy from just small amounts, important because malnutrition shrinks the stomach.

Yeah ... apparently your ability to eat lots of food is impaired when the exact thing you need is ... lots of food. In other words, you can't cure malnutrition just by pigging out on whatever food happens to be there. Screw you, malnutrition!

Oh, and how could I end this post without commenting on the name! Plumpy'nut! Geez! That word suggests either "sports team mascot" or "bizarre sexual practice" to me.