Archive for November, 2007 Page 2 of 2

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Summer is always festivial season

Published at November 4, 2007 in general. Closed

When summer arrives anywhere in the world festivals are guaranteed to follow, and such is the case in Australia despite winter being a great temperature for festivals as well. Over the past year I have had the opportunity to attended a handful of concerts by Xavier Rudd, Joel Plaskett and Sloan, as well as a few local acts at a pub in town. Silverchair and Powderfinger were in town last week and asking $100 a ticket, and The Beach Boys are in town in two weeks looking for $120 a ticket. But festivals are the name of the upcoming game, and there are a few goodies on the horizon — sadly a horizon I will not reach as I will be back in Canada when it arrives.

The Sydney Festival 2008 runs January 5-26 and will feature theater, music, art etc. Some of the highlights musically are: Brian Wilson performing his seminal album Pet Sounds, Sufjan Stevens with full ensemble band, Andrew Bird, and Montreal based electro-funk duo Chromeo. Granted I can see all these artists perform in Toronto for a fraction of the price they charge here, but there is something about seeing a concert in Sydney. It has a certain je ne sais quoi about it. Later in the month the annual Big Day Out travels around Australia featuring headliner Rage Against the Machine and Canadian golden boys Arcade Fire.

These festivals plus regular gigs by Elton John, Bad Religion, Tegan and Sara, and Crowded House makes the next few months in Australia exciting and extremely expensive. I will be attending exactly zero of the above mentioned gigs. A shame but such is life. However, this all begs the question: what does summer 2008 hold for Southern Ontario?

maps as art

Published at November 3, 2007 in general. Closed

dark side of the moon

Looking at these images you would be hard pressed to identify them as maps of the moon, but they are in fact just that — maps of the moon’s dark side, with colors correlating to geological materials and phenomena, produced by the United States Geological Survey in partnership with NASA between 1971 and 1998. [via Wired]

moon western hemishpere

supermouse

Published at November 3, 2007 in shortpost. Closed

Scientists have created a genetically modified mouse that can run twice as fast as a regular mouse. It can run five to six kilometres at a speed of 20 metres per minute on a treadmill, for up to six hours, before stopping. That’s pretty darn good. The mouse eats twice as much as a regular mouse but weighs half as much. Other side effects are increased aggression, which seems to make sense as you’d think the mouse would need to have higher levels of testosterone. [via ABC]

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