While doing research for a project on virtual identities this year, I spent a lot of time over at the Daedalus Project. Nick Yee, a research scientist at the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), dedicated about five years of his life to study Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs). He’s the expert in the…
In Social Studies at school, I’m learning about economics. We played a game to introduce us to supply and demand and other economic concepts when starting this unit. In this game, we were able to run our own virtual lemonade stands, where the player controls all the aspects of the Lemonade Stand, from pricing, to…
So yesterday, I made a trip down to the Bonnybrook Wastewater Treatment Plant to take a tour around the facilities, and I have to say from what I heard there and read, it is probably one of the most important infrastructures we have in Calgary. In a nutshell, Bonnybrook takes about 70-80%0 of all the sewage in…
Do you ever stare at a sheet of data, reading the numbers across the page, and you just don’t understand what the numbers are implying? Or even at just a bunch of ideas and concepts you cannot connect the dots for? Pivot can help you make sense of all those information and data that is readily available…
I know you do! Hosted by YouTube celebrity Dan Brown and with the help of other notable figures (such as MysteryGuitarMan, MemeMolly and JPizzle, just to name a few), this game game show is composed entirely of YouTube videos, all linked to one another. If you think you’ve got the answer, click on it and…
Hey folks! This week in YAA’s Perspective series, we’re going to stop time. Yeah, that’s right! All we need is a camera and a little bit of ingenuity. 🙂 To explain the project to you, it’s pretty simple. We’re going to take a picture of a falling drop of water so fast that there’s no blur in…
Most of the food drives I hear about tend to be pretty straightforward – you scrounge around in your cupboard for anything that’s good and then you drop it off in a box somewhere and maybe get $2 off admission to a concert. But an idea that seems to be gaining popularity around the country…
If you have been to the cinema lately, chances will be that you have a very good idea of what 3D movies are like. In fact, there are 3D movies being released all the time, Avatar being the most popular one lately. If you have had the opportunity of seeing a 3D movie, you were probably…
What is Skype? Skype allows millions of people to connect for free across the world. Skype brings people together. Skype is software that allows people to make phone calls and video calls to other people all over the world, all free or at a very cheap price. It’s a lot more cost-efficient, and more fun than long distance…
TED has invaded Calgary and it’s making local people think about global issues. There is another TEDx event coming to Calgary on April 29th. For more information check out http://www.tedxcalgary.ca. To give you an idea of what TEDx is doing I want to share a TEDxYYC presentation done by Eden Full. Eden full is a…
NEWS FLASH: It’s official! It was an asteroid that wiped all the dinosaurs and other lovely prehistoric creatures off the Earth. The new study was conducted by scientists from Europe, the United States, Mexico, Canada and Japan and published in the journal Science. To be more specific, the culprit was a 15 kilometre (9 mile) wide chunk…
A recent article by author Jonah Lehrer (Proust Was a Neuroscientist, How We Decide) in the Wall Street Journal discusses the connection between youth and scientific innovation. Check out my summary below…you might learn something new! Young Scientists & Innovation James D. Watson, at age 25, co-wrote Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for…
We all already know that Youtube is pretty cool and awesome…and an essential procrastination tool! But did you know about its Music Discovery Project and Playlist Creation Tool? My friend showed this to me the other day and I have to say that it’s pretty neat. Yeah, that’s a bit of a mouthful to say. …
Improv Everywhere causes scenes of chaos and joy in public places. Created in August of 2001 by Charlie Todd, IE has executed over 100 missions involving thousands of undercover agents. The group is based in New York City. They make all kinds of funny scenes in all kind of places. See for yourselves and leave…
Welcome back to Perspective! Not that you’ve got all those confusing settings on your camera all worked out, it’s time to put them to work! As counterintuitive as it may sound, taking something away from a picture is not always a bad thing. Today, we’re taking away the colour. Yes, all of it. Black and…