Vigilant Futures won a very prestigious award last night in Hollywood, California. The company was one of 100 privately-held technology firms that made it to Red Herring’s Top 100 list for 2011.
Applicants submit their candidacy and Red Herring’s editorial staff narrows the applicants down to 200. Following this, the top 200 are invited to present information on their company to another panel of judges who finally award 100 companies with the honour.
So now all of North America knows what us Montrealers have known for a while: Chuck Hughes is an awesome chef and Garde Manger is his hipster playground where his culinary ideas are born. He is Montreal’s worst-kept secret, but we’re happy to share him and his gastronomic prowess with the rest of the world so long as it is in TV form via Food Network Canada.
Yesterday night, Food Network Canada finally aired Chuck’s appearance on Iron Chef America. His selected opponent: none other than Bobby Flay. With Chuck’s ‘go big or go home’ attitude, you just knew he would choose the celebrity chef.
Anyone who’s watched Iron Chef America and dined in any one of Bobby’s many restaurants knows he is extremely tough to beat. No other Canadian chef beat Bobby before in the Iron Chef stadium. Not Susar Lee, not Lynn Crawford, not Michael Smith.
But Montreal’s own Chuck Hughes did it. His take on the secret ingredient – Canadian lobster – beat out Bobby’s dishes. His simple working-man dishes, as one judge called them, impressed the judges and ultimately led to Bobby Flay’s demise in battle Canadian lobster.
Montreal is totally proud! Check out what Chuck had to say before the battle began:
The 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day for me means celebrating my relationships with important women in my life. It goes beyond acknowledging family and old friends, it also means celebrating the women who have more recently graced my life with their simple presence (like my colleagues) because I am a better person for knowing them. I like to think they are better for having known me too.
It means celebrating the women who have taught me what being a woman means and hoping I can live up to their expectations. I think it’s as simple as that.
Happy International Women’s Day.
Mimosa: the official flower of International Women's Day
Have you ever noticed how great you feel after a really good stomp your foot, straight from the belly laugh? Check out this article I came across:
“Humor is infectious. The sound of roaring laughter is far more contagious than any cough, sniffle, or sneeze. When laughter is shared, it binds people together and increases happiness and intimacy. In addition to the domino effect of joy and amusement, laughter also triggers healthy physical changes in the body. Humor and laughter strengthen your immune system, boost your energy, diminish pain, and protect you from the damaging effects of stress. Best of all, this priceless medicine is fun, free, and easy to use.
Courtesy www.helpguide.org
Laughter is good for your health
Laughter relaxes the whole body. A good, hearty laugh relieves physical tension and stress, leaving your muscles relaxed for up to 45 minutes after.
Laughter boosts the immune system. Laughter decreases stress hormones and increases immune cells and infection-fighting antibodies, thus improving your resistance to disease.
Laughter triggers the release of endorphins, the body’s natural feel-good chemicals. Endorphins promote an overall sense of well-being and can even temporarily relieve pain.
Laughter protects the heart. Laughter improves the function of blood vessels and increases blood flow, which can help protect you against a heart attack and other cardiovascular problems. “
So when’s the last time you pulled up behind a car at a stop sign and waited impatiently only to realize you are sitting behind a parked car! Let’s hear your best joke, most embarrassing moment, or funny story..
How would you like to take a quick nap at work? This is no joke; Harvard Business Review came out with a blog a few weeks ago and had a lot to say about it!
Experts are saying that people are just not getting the minimum requirement of 7.5 hours of sleep to maintain overall good health causing exhaustion at the work place. More and more employers are taking notice and are worried that they are losing productivity. As such, some companies are providing nap rooms or check out Google they placed nap pods under their stair wells (which, I must say is an unusual but brilliant use of lost space!) for employees to get some rest. Of course, there are rules to follow. I mean, we can’t nap all day but a quick 20 minutes is known to refresh people and bring them back to life.
Tonight, the streets of downtown Montreal will be deserted between 7 and 10 PM because Montrealers will either be at the Bell Centre, at a local sports bar, or at home with friends to watch the Habs’ home opener against the Tampa Bay Lightning. We live, eat and breathe hockey here.
At the end of the game, as always, is the announcement of the “the three stars”, a great way to spotlight the three players that outshined their teammates. True puckheads always stick around after the game to see who the “stars” will be. For tonight’s game, we are going to see new added little twist from the usual magic on ice. And at the end of the game, a new system will be introduced that will allow the fans to choose who those three stars are.
How, you say?
Yup, there’s an app for that too.
As of today, Smartphone users can download a new Canadiens app to vote for their three stars…a first in club history. It’s totally the fans call tonight.
In sharp contrast to the ‘Epic Chinese Traffic Jam” I blogged about a few months ago, there seems to be another traffic jam on a super highway above our heads. A constant, perpetual one kilometer radius of billions of bugs flying above us…
I just cannot fathom being stuck in a 10-day long traffic jam and the prospect of sitting in it until the middle of next month! A 10-minute traffic jam makes me, well, unhappy and can cause some roadrage-esque sentiments.
Right now, across the world in China motorists are just coming out of sitting in a traffic jam dozens of miles long that according to reports was to possibly last well into mid-September. Maybe it’s due to the roadwork or the massive increase of personal vehicles on Chinese roads; regardless, how exactly does one cope in a 10-day (or worse month-long) traffic jam? What about work, school and the daily necessities of life?
The route is popular with tourists visiting the Great Wall in the stretch from Beijing to inner Mongolia. According to news reports, mini-economies have sprung up along the road-side where locals are selling water and food and exorbitant prices. Good ol’ supply and demand!
Locals setting up stalls on road-side courtesy European Pressphoto Agency
Tips on what to check to see if your bike is in need of a tune-up
Like all mechanical devices, regular maintenance will help to ensure bike will run smoothly for decades. Just as neglect can see even the most expensive bike wear out in less than a season. Below is a series of simple things to check without the need for any tools (short of a ruler).
Brakes
Check that your brakes are tight enough by depressing both brake levers. If you are capable of squeezing either/both lever far enough that it touches the handlebars, your brakes are too loose and they need to be tightened.
Make sure your brake pads are properly aligned to your rims (does not apply if you have disk breaks). Watch your brakes open and close as you engage the breaks. Do the brake pads on both sides of the wheel touch the rim at approximately the same time? Is your break pad touching the center of the rim? Unless you answered ‘yes’ to both of these questions, your brakes need adjusting.
Wheels
With the wheel off the ground, give it a good spin and watch the rim at its closest point to your brakes. If you see the space between the rim and the break getting bigger and smaller, it may be time to have your wheel trued (the act of making the wheel straight). If the wheel spins without rubbing on the breaks, then it’s only slightly out of adjustment and can be safely ridden. However, if it rubs against the brakes on one or both sides of the wheel, it needs to be trued.
When the wheel is spinning it should not generate any vibrations in the bike. If it does or when it’s spinning you notice that is slows down quickly, the hub is too tight and needs to be adjusted.
With your bike in a standing position, firmly grip the tire and try to wiggle the wheel from side to side. If you feel it rocking back and forth or any looseness, your hub is too loose and needs to be adjusted.
Headset
Apply the front break tightly and rock the bike back and forth. If you feel anything loose or shaking, your headset is too loose and needs to be tightened.
While the front wheel is off the ground, grab the stem at its lowest point (just above the headset) and gently turn the wheel fully to the left, fully to the right and repeat a few times. If you feel any roughness, resistance or stiffness, the headset is too tight and needs to be loosened.
Bottom Bracket
Shift the front derailleur to the lowest/smallest gear and with a rag/cloth/paper towel/etc… pull the chain off the smallest gear and let it hang on the bottom bracket. Grab the crank arm at point it’s connected to the bottom bracket and slowly rotate the crank arm around. If you feel any roughness or resistance (should spin freely), the bottom bracket is too tight and needs to be loosened.
With the chain still off, grab both crank arms near the pedals and wiggle them back in forth in unison (push the Crank Arms in the direction of the blue arrows, then the green & repeat several times). If the Crank Arms shake around at all, the Bottom Bracket is too loose and needs tightening.
Chain
As you use your bike, the chain will slowly stretch (a well lubricated chain stretches much slower). A certain amount of stretching is ok, but if your chain stretches too far it will wear out other components and when it comes time to change the chain you’ll have no choice but to replace the components that wore out due to this stretched chain. To check if the chain has stretched, take an imperial ruler and place the zero mark in the center of one of the pins in the chain. Measure out 10” and if your chain is in new or near new condition the 10” mark will fall in the center of another pin. If it falls off center of the pin but not near the edge, your chain has stretched but still has some life left in it. If it’s near the edge of the pin, bring your bike to a professional so to be accessed. If the 10” mark is outside the pin, your chain is badly stretched and further components will need to be changed along with your chain.
Shifters and Derailleur
While slowly riding the bike, shift through all the gears one at a time. After each shift does the chain move to another gear? If it doesn’t shift, falls off the gears, takes a few moments to shift or makes a continuous clicking noise before/after the shift, the derailleur(s) need to be adjusted.
Like all mechanical devices, with proper maintenance, the majority of the mechanical components of your bicycle will last you a life time. But left unattended a component that’s too tight or too loose will wear out, cost more in repairs, reduce the efficiency of your bike and diminish the smoothness of your ride.
Although these simple tests are a good indicator or the condition of your bike, many of the components can only be conclusively diagnosed through some level of disassembly of your bike. Therefore it is always recommended to get your bike a full tuned-up (avoid the basic tune-up that adjusts your brakes and shifters/derailleur alone) at the beginning of each season.
Be sure to regularly lubricate your chain and keep your tires inflated to the pressure marked on the tire sidewalls.
Statistical analysis, when done right, can help us dissect data, understand trends and get us to answers which otherwise would have seemed unattainable or foggy. One of the most creative, informational, and entertaining videos that I have ever seen about statistical analysis is shown here by Hans Rosling, who in this clip shows us the power of merging great tools with relevant data.
Amongst the hundreds of amazing speakers, talks, and intelligent ideas that are found on TED, this is one of my favorites. Rosling uses world data to show us some powerful stuff about developmental economics, flushes out some captivating concepts and leads us to draw some interesting conclusions about the need for further widespread availability of useful data. If you have 20 minutes to spare to learn something really cool, it’s worth the time.
