Thoughts On Life After People

I was watching the History Channel’s Life After People and it was a great film but seemed to have some gaping holes in its presentation and logic. The doomsday message that Life After People is stark and thought-provoking, but leads to the unanswered question of: “How can something like this happen, where the entire human population is wiped out, but with Earth remaining the way it is”.

One particular segment was that on the Hoover dam, and I found it strange that the spokesperson claimed that the Hoover dam could operate without the need for human intervention for months at end. Doesn’t it beg the question of “Then why are you guys working there?”

Some parts led to interesting thoughts, with me thinking about why the Golden Gate Bridge painted the colour that it is, instead of conventional colours of black or grey. Well it turns out that the Golden Gate Bridge has always been painted orange vermilion, deemed “International Orange.” Rejecting carbon black and steel gray, Consulting Architect Irving Morrow selected the distinctive orange color because it blends well with the span’s natural setting as it is a warm color consistent with the warm colors of the land masses in the setting as distinct from the cool colors of the sky and sea. It also provides enhanced visibility for passing ships. If the U.S. Navy had its way, the Bridge might have been painted black and yellow stripes to assure even greater visibility for passing ships.

Many people ask how to obtain International Orange Paint - it’s easy-your paint store can mix it with the following information: The PMS code is 173 or the CMYK colors are: C= Cyan: 0%, M =Magenta: 69%, Y =Yellow: 100%, K = Black: 6%. (Golden Gate Bridge facts)

Other that those several gaps in it, the film is fascinating, and pulls from real-world examples such as that from Chernobyl disaster. It has great narration through a time line of hypothetical situations, and shows what happens to Earth after humans disappear 1 day, 1 year, 10 years, 10000 years into the future.

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Is Everybody Starting Facebook Application Development?

Whaaaaat…

I was poking around Facebook today when I saw this blurb on a company that developed Elven Blood (a Facebook application). Well one thing’s for sure, they definitely don’t look like your typical software development company:

The Royal East India Trading Company, referred to most commonly as the East India Company, is an early English joint-stock company formed for trade with the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. The company’s main trade is in cotton, silk, indigo dye, saltpetre, tea and opium. It was granted an English Royal Charter by Elizabeth I on 31 December 1600, with the intention of favouring trade privileges in India. The Royal Charter effectively gave the newly created company a 21-year monopoly on all trade in the East Indies.

In addition to trading fine textiles and teas, we also now manufacture Facebook applications.

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PhotoFunia is so much fun!

For those who love making up outrageous avatars, this site should be a blast. It’s called PhotoFunia (http://www.photofunia.com) and it gives you tonnes of preset photos that you can upload your picture to.

And you can then save it, as either the full picture, or an nifty avatar-sized one. It’s a bunch of fun!

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The Best Foods and Snacks For Students On A Budget

With the amount of food that I go through as a student in Pittsburgh, I decided that a review of what’s-good and what’s-not is in order, for my own reference in the future, and for anyone else who finds this useful Will update this whenever I have new food.

Boston Market Salisbury Steak

A great frozen dinner with nice tasting steak and a side of macaroni and cheese. Great when you just don’t feel like cooking, but want something substantial.

Rating: 4/5

Hot Pockets Philly Steak & Cheeese

Comes in a pack of 12 at Wal-Mart where I got them. I think the other supermarkets have these as well. They make fantastic snacks, but the crust seems a bit thick, and my pockets always seem to explode in the microwave oven.

Rating: 3/5

Hormels Compleats Turkey Dressing With Gravy

Urgh. These food packs from Hormel come in a little-sized portion that’s barely enough. The mashed potatoes inside don’t taste like mashed potatoes, but thankfully the turkey is okay if you’re not too picky.

Rating: 2/5

Archer Farms Potato Chips - Lemon Pepper

These potato chips from Archer Farms (Target’s home-brand of organic food) are pretty alright, but can’t really compare to Kettle-brand potato chips.

Rating: 3/5

Kraft Snackables Cheese Twists

I didn’t know Kraft made these until I decided to pick up a pack. They’re pretty good - cheesy, but not too cheesy, so if you’re into cheese, but hate it when the smell/taste gets a bit overwhelming, you might like these as handy snacks.

Rating: 3.5/5

Damascus Bakeries Whole Wheat Roll-ups

These are great alternatives to normal bread and pitas, as they’re huge and can hold much more contents. You can use them as pizza crust too!

Rating: 4/5

Fibre One Oats and Chocolate Chewy Bars

A great tasting granola bar with bits of chocolate to top it all off and make a fantastic snack.

Rating: 4/5

Prime Food Chicken Shaomai with Mushroom

With an odd texture and a taste completely different from what authentic siew mai should taste like, these are bad enough to throw out immediately, unless you’re an absolute lover of chicken and mushroom.

Rating: 2/5

Hillshire Farm Deli Select Club Sandwich Variety Pack

A staple of any starving student is the quintessential ham and cheese sandwich, and this variety pack gives you 3 different types of ham to fill your sandwich with.

Rating: 4/5

Nature Valley Chewy Trail Mix Bars - Fruit and Nut

I love these granola bars! If you’re tired of the chocolate bars around, then this will make a welcome change. Crunchy, and sweet, with a good mix of nuts, these bars make an excellent meal-on-the-go.

Rating: 4/5

Tyson Teriyaki Grills

Think of these as gigantic nuggets. The sauce is pretty good, but the meat seems processed. Not a bad taste overall.

Rating: 3.5/5

Weight Watchers Whole-wheat Pita Pocket Bread

I don’t like how normal pita fills you up so much, so I tried this brand, which promises a lower carb ratio in their pitas. The pitas are indeed thinner - so if you like the fullness of normal pitas, then this isn’t for you. Overall, I like them and think they’re great!

Rating: 4/5

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Changing Case Button in Word 2007

After much fiddling around, I finally discovered where the case-changing option in Word 2007 is. It’s actually in the Home tab, and I was searching all over for it. You’ll find it in the Font group, near the bunch of buttons that starts with Bold and Italic - it’s the button that shows “Aa”. And if you’re interested, the keyboard shortcut Shift+F3 still works in Word 2007 as in previous versions of Word.

This is great when you have a line of text when you want to quickly capitalise, or de-capitalise (is there such a word? :D) Alternatively, it’s great for headings that you need to perform sentence caps on quickly too. An absolute time-saver

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Xbox 360 Top Holiday Games

Buy.com is already thinking about how to start the Holidays off right! They’ve listed the Top Holiday Video Games with release dates, check out their titles from the Xbox 360! These games are just the tip of the “Holiday” ice berg! Check out the video games category for even more titles for each gaming system!

Call of Duty: World At War
Xbox 360
Buy.com Price: $58.99
Release Date: 11/12/2008

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3
Xbox 360
Buy.com Price: $58.99
Release Date: 10/29/2008

Fable II (Limited Collector’s Edition)
Xbox 360
Buy.com Price: $78.99
Release Date: 10/21/2008

Fallout 3
Xbox 360
Buy.com Price: $58.99
Release Date: 10/15/2008

Gears of War 2
Xbox 360
Buy.com Price: $58.99
Release Date: 11/7/2008

Guitar Hero: World Tour
Xbox 360
Buy.com Price: $59.99
Release Date: 10/25/2008

James Bond 007: Quantum of Solace
Xbox 360
Buy.com Price: $58.99
Release Date: 11/4/2008

Mortal Kombat vs. Dc Universe
Xbox 360
Buy.com Price: $58.99
Release Date: 12/17/2008

Rock Band 2
Xbox 360
Buy.com Price: $58.99
Release Date: 9/12/2008

Sonic Unleashed
Xbox 360
Buy.com Price: $58.99
Release Date: 11/19/2008

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