w o r d s p a c e

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Pictures galore

Posted on February 13th, 2007 by Antoine.
Categories: Pictures, Site Meta.

I’ve just uploaded hundreds and hundreds of old pics to my webshots page. You can check out a slide-show on my new Pictures page. Unfortunately, the slide show only shows the first fifty shots from each album, but click-through on the link below the slide-show if for some reason you want to see them all. And why wouldn’t you? They’re really really good.

0 comments.

Frigid training tactics

Posted on January 27th, 2007 by Antoine.
Categories: Pictures.

I found these crazy pictures of extreme army training in North Korea on Thrilling Wonder. Go there to check out some insane anti-US propaganda posters too.

Yoga in the snow

Ouch
Nothing like rubbing snow all over your half-naked body to get you ready to kill some Americans.

That's got to hurt

If these guys ever invaded the Yukon, we’d be screwed.

BTW, I should be online again soon.

4 comments.

Rhetoric of threat letters

Posted on December 23rd, 2006 by Antoine.
Categories: Pictures, Writing, Anecdotes.

I while back I got fined for parking at work. Yes, at work. The injustice of the situation hardened my resolve to never pay this fine. After a few softcore letters I received this hardcore final notice, which I kept because it is a fine example of Aristotelian logos, pathos and ethos being used to full effect.

After reading it, I was almost persuaded to pay the fine because I thought I was being sued - at first. I then noticed all the cunningly placed “mays” and decided they were just trying to scare me.

A few months later, the case was handed over to some debt collectors, and they sent me this letter.

Needless to say, I was disappointed. After the previous rhetorical tour de force, this skimpy letter was positively anti-climatic. Not only that, but the grammar is astoundingly poor. Note the quintuplet ellipses. What did they do that for? Why did they have to be so grammatically offensive? After recieving this letter, I was certain I would never be tempted to pay this fine…ever.

(more…)

0 comments.

Procrastination is good

Posted on December 22nd, 2006 by Antoine.
Categories: Pictures.

I’m feeling pretty burnt out after over a week of solid textbook writing. My limbs have atrophied. I have callouses on my wrists and fingers. I need to stop typing, but I can’t. Tomorrow’s the last day, then I am free for a while.

A related quote I like: “Sometimes the best time to relax is when you don’t have the time”

0 comments.

The ice cage

Posted on November 30th, 2006 by Antoine.
Categories: Pictures.

Well, here’s my contribution to the let’s - take - a - picture - of - the - scene - from - my - bedroom - window collection of Vancouver weather pictures. Not many people are willing to actually go outside and take a few shots. I don’t blame them. Heck, I can’t even go outside without jumping over the fence because the front gate is frozen shut. It’s no joke. Do you have any idea how dodgy it looks when I have to scramble over the fence everyday to get to school?

Here’s a view of my lonely car from my icicle prison:

And here’s another view of the street:

0 comments.

Art, science, or just plain twisted?

Posted on November 28th, 2006 by Antoine.
Categories: Pictures, Anecdotes, Science.

It’s been a wild weekend for us. Record snowfalls hit the western seaboard, burying the lower mainland under two feet of snow. It’s all anyone’s talking about, and rightly so, Vancouver usually gets a light dusting, if that. I attribute these strange weather patterns to climate change, but that’s probably because I also watched An Inconvenient Truth this weekend, which everybody must see. It just came out on DVD, so you have no excuses.

I also got to see the Body Worlds 3 display at Science World. I can’t say that it was my cup of tea. Can somebody please explain what is so artistic or scientific about a real corpse holding up his own skin? Or for that matter, an unfortunate body that has been neatly cut into three pieces from head to toe. Or a dead guy doing the splits while balancing his own innards and internal organs in one hand? Or a skeleton kneeling at a cross while cradling her own heart in her hands?

It’s almost as if the scientist who did this is saying “See what modern man can do. Severe the skin so cleanly from a man that people will actually pay $30 to see it.” The look of pride on the skinless man is palpable, but it is the arrogance of Guther von Hagens that shines through the dead man’s plastinated eyes. In my opinion, the whole display was designed to shock, not to educate.

Yes, you can argue that these folks donated their bodies to science, but nowhere on the consent form does it say mention what weird position your body is going to be contorted into. You can argue that it teaches people about the human body. I certainly didn’t learn anything. I don’t remember any of the Latin names for the various muscles that were printed on the little plaque next to the corpse. In fact, I don’t recall anyone at the exhibition reading them. There is just no justification for putting corpses on display except for self-edification. Would you want to be immortalized as the skinless man?

2 comments.

Handsome is as handsome does

Posted on November 16th, 2006 by Antoine.
Categories: Pictures, Writing.

I’ve just finished a 20 page research project that scientifically tests the proverb “handsome is as handsome does”. I did this by administering a fictional survey to 3421 fictional women online. I showed the control group some profiles of accomplished men and asked them to rate the profiles. I then showed the experimental group the same profiles, this time with ugly headshots attached. The men’s ratings fell. Here is an example of the Likert scale I used: