On the DEWLine 2.0: Dwight Williams

I saw that particular documentary at the Bytowne today after attending to research and job-hunt chores earlier in the day. If you're at all familiar with the history of the hunt for the Higgs particle, you'll already know what the movie is partly about. The rest of it is about a half-dozen members of the research community that gathered around the project at CERN from 2007 to 2012.

I know this was a Big Damn Deal. It was big enough for Anna Maria Tremonti to devote air time on The Current to it on a couple of occasions, in addition to whatever Bob McDonald was doing for Quirks and Quarks.

So the movie gave me a bit of additional context and human dimension to the whole thing, which I deeply appreciate. It does leave me with a bit of a quandary, and it may take some of you with more physics knowledge than I've got on me at the moment to work through: the discovery of the Higgs seems to have left a couple of the researchers with a bit of a quandary as to what the fact of its existence and the details of it further add up to. Mainly, this "supersymmetry vs. multiverse" argument.

I'm unsure as to why it's necessary for one of these concepts to win out over the other.

Possibly, it's because I've read too many comic books where multiverses were part of the standing menu of the super-hero genre. In fact, you could call that diagnosis of my thinking a certainty. Add in the influence of Mark Gruenwald's work on the Marvel Universe Handbook, particularly his devotion to making the pseudo-science of Marvel fit - however roughly - with the known science of the day, and you can guess the rest of it.

But if anyone is willing to try to answer that "why does one concept have to win" thing...?

Anyone else here been having any kind of trouble with posting either on their own LJ or someone else's recently via Firefox?

(Additional clarification: I'm using Mac gear most of the time for LJ stuff. Also, my issues seem to be in replying to other postings.)

Rob O'Flanagan asks questions about the nature and perceived value of public space for the Guelph Mercury.

An opinion piece in the Centretown Buzz has me wondering how someone born in Canada can be stripped of citizenship.

An article in the Guardian has researchers comparing Facebook to an infectious disease and wondering how much lifespan it has left to it. I suspect it might be hardier than the researchers currently believe, but whether it stays as useful as it's been...?

More as it comes to mind...

"To Be Continued" isn't simply the three words most howled-about by comics, novel, movie and TV fans frustrated that they have to wait "x" hours, weeks or months for the next installment of their favourite series.

It's also the brand name of a particular font on offer from Comicraft.

What surprised me was finding out by way of the second-hand bookstore in the basement of the Ottawa Public Library's Main Branch that the font's apparently been expanded to serve not only the Latin alphabet, but the Cyrillic as well!

Does Comicraft know about this?

Something I've been cobbling together as a collection of inspirational music if I want to get into a frame of mind for writing or illustrating such things. Alphabetical in order of Title, followed by cover artist (if used, and where known) and original composer of record:

The Adventures Of Buckaroo Banzai - Neil Norman and His Cosmic Orchestra - Michael Boddicker
Airwolf - Sylvester Levay/Derek Wadsworth/Daniel Caine Orchestra - Sylvester Levay
All My Friends Are Superheroes - Courtney Farquhar
Batman Beyond Main Title - Kristopher Carter
Batman Theme - Danny Elfman
Battle Without Honor or Humanity (from "Kill Bill") - cover artist unknown - Tomoyasu Hotei
Drops Of Jupiter - Train - Charlie Colin, Jimmy Stafford, Pat Monahan, Rob Hotchkiss & Scott Underwood
Enterprising Young Men - Michael Giacchino
The Equaliser Busy Equalising - Stewart Copeland
Justice League Unlimited - Michael McCuistion
Main Titles - Spider-Man - Danny Elfman
The Night Starts Here - Stars
Superman March - John Williams; Boston Pops Orchestra
Theme from the Saint - 1997 - Orbital - Edwin Astley
UNIT Rocks - Murray Gold
What Are You Going to Do When You Are Not Saving the World? - Hans Zimmer
When Heroes Go Down - Suzanne Vega

Have you got a playlist of your own for this sort of thing?

How does indeed.ca go about filing jobs in their database to end up with such a result?

How does the federal civil service's job-search apparatus tag a guy who's only ever done office work, writing and illustration as a candidate for "nurse practitioner"?

(Yes, I look for work there. You can't swing a cat, live or dead, in Ottawa-Gatineau as a job-hunter without hitting the federal civil service.)

I'm "hearing" some appalling things tonight about how it was handled. Many of which simply affirmed my sense that watching Republic of Doyle's latest installment instead - as is my normal Sunday night practice - was the best choice.

Then, I read this particular appalling thing:

http://blog.sfgate.com/thebigevent/2013/02/25/biggest-oscars-snub-a-shark-attack-on-the-vfx-industry/

That's just bloody rude, that kind of interruption. And the context makes it worse.

Speaking as someone who studied animation, who enjoys film and TV in a general sense, who appreciates the work that VFX houses do to make the stuff I watch that much more enjoyable. This was just Rude and Wrong.

And something troubles me now. It's this question: Should I have watched the Awards Show, at least to bear some kind of witness?

XJournal is this bit of software created as a remote blog-entry writing tool for use with Livejournal. Made specifically for Mac users, in fact, and freeware to boot.

Home page is here...and the local users' community is over here: xjournal.

I just uploaded this entry with it, and have been using it off and on for...at least 4-5 years. Possibly longer.

While I'm on "break" mode here at CAN-CON, I happened to be checking in on CBC. Found this thing about joint diplomatic facilities plans between Ottawa and London...

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2012/09/23/pol-william-hague-canada-british-embassies.html

Why does this smell like a surrender of sovereignty on our part?