Play Ball!

Sorry for not posting here for a long time (been having these weird post-cold symptoms - restless arms, dry mouth), but I'll let you folks know I'm not dead.

Anyway, baseball season is once again upon us, with my hometown Miami Marlins going up against the St. Louis Cardinals in our brand spankin' new ballpark (go Fish!).

I love baseball - it's a very geeky sport with lots of odd stats and trivia. And there's a lot of science to it, as these websites from the San Francisco Exploratorium and Discover magazine show.

Thank you for hanging in with me during these times, and may your team win!

Serebii.net's 2011 Advent Calendar

The holidays are upon us again, and that means it's time for Serebii.net's Advent Calendar! The 2011 edition can be found here, and like always, it's chock-full of puzzles, games, and downloadable icons and wallpapers. Be sure to visit every day from now until Christmas Eve!

Happy Thanksgiving!

A little Thanksgiving treat for my readers: everything you wanted to know about cooking a turkey (but were afraid to ask) from the University of Illinois.

YouTube of the Whenever: The final countdown.

Since I haven't done a YouTube of the Whenever in a while....

After 30 years and 135 missions, the Space Shuttle program is about to come to a close. Yesterday at 11:26 am ET, Space Shuttle Atlantis started its final mission: a 13-day journey to deliver supplies to the International Space Station.

Contrary to what some people believe, this does not mark the end of the USA's space program. It does, however, mark the beginning of a hiatus in American manned spaceflight. In the interim, the Russians will send people to and from the ISS.

I'm going to miss the Space Shuttle; watching it take off (even from South Florida!) was one of the perks of living in Florida. I will, however, be keeping an eye on the various commercial enterprises who are hoping to establish a presence in the final frontier. Things have looked pretty good for them so far.

Godspeed, Atlantis.

Final 3 2010-2011 League seasons and their promos

This is fairly old news, but I've been extremely busy, with most of my attention divided between work, Battle Roads, and trying to build new decks for the upcoming format (more on that later).

Anyway, the final seasons of the 2010-2011 Pokemon League year will be based around Pokemon Black and White's starters: Snivy, Tepig, and Oshawott. The season promos will be as follows:

• Snivy Season: Snivy (BW #1) and Broken Time-Space (a little too late for that)
• Tepig Season: Tepig (BW #15 ) and Copycat
• Oshawott Season: Oshawott (BW# 27) and Double Colorless Energy (woohoo!)

Patches featuring these Pokemon will also be available for those who fill up their League scorecards.

Pokewalker more accurate than traditional pedometers

This one's going to be a brief post - I'm far too busy enjoying the royal wedding festivities on TV. I wish Will and Kate the best of luck, and hope the British monarchy's "dysfunctional" period is over. But I digress....

Anyway, an Iowa State University (woohoo!) study showed that the Pokewalker - yes, that little doohickey that came with Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver - is not only cuter than your ordinary pedometer, it is also more accurate than your ordinary pedometer. The details of the study can be found on the ExerGame Lab blog.

Now if I only knew where my other Pokewalker went....

I'll take "Reasons the World Is Screwed" for $200, Alex.

Well, the first part of a historical Jeopardy! match between IBM's Watson supercomputer and puny humans Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter has just finished, and I must say, I'm impressed. It didn't turn out to be the curbstomp many expected, but Watson sure gave his human opponents a run for their money.
Depending on how the rest of the 3-day series turns out, this could be an important milestone in the development in human-level AI. This could have implications for the future of search engines: imagine a search engine that can handle questions in plain English when you have no clue what the answer to your question is. Once they iron out some of the kinks, that is....

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Serebii.net's Advent Calendar

This year's edition of Serebii.net's Advent calendar is better than ever! Not only are there wallpapers, avatars, and acitivitis to download each day, there are also online jigsaw and slide puzzles to while away those spare moments. Here it is:

Serebii.net's Advent Calendar

Scientists create "quantum dice"

A group of scientists at the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Light in Erlangen, Germany, have created one of the first true random-number generators. By splitting a laser beam and measuring the vacuum fluctuations that occur, these scientists have managed to create what is in essence a "quantum die". This promises to be of great value in the online privacy industry (not to mention cryptography and, we hope, gaming).

More information can be found in this ScienceDaily link.

Now if they could only make one small enough to fit in a Royal Crown bag....

Worlds article on CNN.

Link here.

The article gives a pretty good overview of the Pokemon franchise. Anyone who's curious about Pokemon should give it a read.

On a related note, I was informed during the Undaunted prerelease that Florida's own Heidi Craig (PTO of the Orlando area, mother of three outstanding Pokemon TCG players, and all-around nice lady) has been chosen to help judge the Seniors' division at Worlds! Congratulations, Heidi!

I wish good luck to all participants! May the best deck win.

Jirachi/Night Sky's Edge Wi-Fi Download Redux

From now until July 16, the Jirachi that unlocks the Night Sky's Edge Pokewalker route will once again be available to North American, European, and Australasian owners of Pokemon Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, HeartGold and Soul Silver. This enchanting path enables you to catch cute Pokemon like Clefairy and Jigglypuff, as well as find rare items like Moonstones. As always, don't miss it!

OMG Canada!

Sorry for the long hiatus. I've been very busy with work and preparing for States. Now if only I could find a ride....

Anyway, another great Winter Olympics has come and gone, and with it its triumphs, trials and tragedies. In the two previous Olympic Games Canada hosted (Montreal 1976, Calgary 1988), Canada failed to win a single gold medal. At Vancouver, she more than made up for it by winning an incredible 14 golds, tying an Olympic record.

And not once did I ever hear a Canadian athlete say "eh". In fact, most English-speaking Canadians have a typical Midwestern-style accent, while the Francophones tend to have a definite French accent.

I (and just about everbody else) was surprised at how poorly the Russians fared. I hope they can get their act together by the time the Olympics come to their country in 2014. Ahh, Motherland....

O Canada, we stood on guard for thee - and it showed! Thanks and merci beaucoup, Vancouver!