September 18, 2007

(Source: xe.com)

A history of the Canadian dollar. (Rates vs. the US Dollar)

October 2002	C$1.590 (62.89 cents)
May 2003	C$1.366 (73.20 cents)
September 2004	C$1.300 (76.92 cents)
March 2005	C$1.250 (80.00 cents)
May 2006	C$1.103 (90.66 cents)
July 2007	C$1.050 (95.23 cents)
Today	C$1.013 (98.68 cents)

Using the Economist's Big Mac Index, the Canadian dollar is now 10% overvalued. If only the iPod touch were available last month!

August 21, 2007

Another city visited, another panorama.

August 15, 2007

Apparently there has been a lot of confusion over the 2008 University of Toronto admission requirements as the high school math curriculum has been revised as of September 2007. Check this out.

August 6, 2007

Long time no see.

April 20, 2007

The Math Aid Centre schedule for the April/May examination period is now posted.

March 31, 2007

Onions Baby, Onions! [YouTube]

March 28, 2007

2006 Putnam results are in and the news is spectacular! The University of Toronto came in fourth, behind Princeton, Harvard, and MIT. Chicago rounds up the top five. Congratulations to David Han, Janos Kramar, and Viktoriya Krakovna! The team members win US$400 each, and the university gets an award of $10,000!

February 26, 2007

One of the things I noticed at last night's Oscars was the passing of Alida Valli (in memoriam). Valli was an Italian actress who was one of the stars of Carol Reed's The Third Man (1949). The final scene of the film, where Valli walks past Joseph Cotten, is one of my all-time favourites. To my utter delight, Criterion is re-releasing the DVD as a two-disc special edition in May with Steven Soderbergh giving an audio commentary!

February 26, 2007

First look at C-FITL, Air Canada's first Boeing 777! The aircraft was taken at Paine Field near Boeing's Everett plant and will be delivered to Air Canada in March. Air Canada is North America's only operator of the 777-300 series.

February 20, 2007

Opossum sighting in Kitchener!

Opossums are the only marsupials in North America! (Photos: Jenny Wong)

February 12, 2007

The Knack.

January 30, 2007

January 9, 2007

Today's the day when Mac fans anticipate Steve Jobs's Macworld keynote. With a couple of hours to go before the keynote begins, what can we expect from Apple today? Possibilities...

• Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, coming later this spring
• iLife '07 and iLife '07
• Airport Extreme/Express X2/X4 (supporting 802.11n as well a, b, and g)
• new iSights?
• new iPods?
• new Macs?
• iTV, the set-top box between your TV and the internet
• and of course, the widely anticipated Apple mobile phone

Also, if Steve Jobs is scheduled to appear on Nightline tonight, there must be a very big announcement in the works. Keynote begins at 12 p.m. ET.

Update: Well, the iPhone announcement was so huge that the only other news was the introduction of AppleTV. Which means we'll hear about all the other goodies in future special events.

December 27, 2006

Greetings from Hong Kong, where Internet service has been severely disrupted due to the damage of two undersea cables caused by the earthquake in southern Taiwan. The connection is extremely slow, but service will be improving in the next few days. News link

Nadia and I have been in Shanghai, Sanya (Hainan), and Hong Kong. In HK, we've travelled up the Skyrail at Ngong Ping 360. We're having a blast and pictures will be forthcoming.

November 14, 2006

The New York Times once again addresses the need for reforms in the way mathematics is taught in American schools. The readers' comments have been very insightful.

November 12, 2006

The new Star Ferry pier in Hong Kong's Central district opened today to mixed reviews. The idea that the old location is being torn down to build a six-lane highway is ludicrous, and with added reclamation you could actually swim the distance between the Central and Tsim Sha Tsui piers. However, the new pier is now steps away from the Discovery Bay pier. I guess I will have to check that out when I'm there in December.

On December 15, 2005 I was flying PVG (Shanghai) to HKG (Hong Kong) so that I could pick up Nadia from her flight from Toronto. On December 15, 2006 I will be flying with Nadia to Shanghai. In that one-year period, I will have logged 59500 km in the air, which is more than the circumference of the earth. I really should have collected frequent flyer miles for United during that time, which is why I just enrolled in Mileage Plus.

Update (November 14, 2006): Loretta Yau informs me that there will be a Toronto rally against the demolition of the Central pier Friday November 17 at 12 noon at the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office.

November 11, 2006

Apparently, there are a ton of jobs available in construction in Nova Scotia. For one company, all you need is a high school diploma AND the ability to pass a math test at the Grade 9 level. However, 55 percent of applicants fail the math test. The company has had to lower their standards and give new employees an introduction to math course.

November 3, 2006

It has hit the fan for Taiwanese president Chen Shui-bian. The Public Prosecutor's Office has charged five people for the handling of the National Secret Funds, in which approximately US$500,000 were not accounted for. Among those charged are the President himself and his wife Wu Shu-chen. About NT$26 million (US$790,000) in receipts were provided by Ms. Wu to claim money from the national secret funds; some of these were forged. It was claimed that the money was used for secret diplomatic missions; however this was not entirely the case. What was purchased, according to the receipts? Fancy dinners at hotels, fresh fish, CDs and DVDs, suits and clothing, baby products, jewelry and perfume, sunglasses, a flat screen TV, an iPod, a digital camera, a fridge, an air purifier, an air conditioner... the list goes on and on. (Excel file/Chinese)
Four of the five people charged, including Ms. Wu, are being indicted. Mr. Chen has immunity while in office, but he is expected to be indicted immediately after he leaves office. Naturally, all opposition leaders have called for his resignation. News and video at BBC News.

November 1, 2006

The 2006 Ig Nobel Prize in Mathematics goes to Nic Svenson and Piers Barnes for calculating the number of photographs you must take to ensure that nobody in a group photo has their eyes closed.

October 24, 2006

Porter Airlines recently launched flights from Toronto City Centre Airport (YTZ) to Ottawa. Needless to say, the launch was met with protests from a group called Community Air, claiming that (a) the pollution will threaten the health of residents, and (b) the safety of residents from aircraft flying near the downtown core are at risk. Both of these points are dubious at best; Porter uses Bombardier Q400 aircraft, which are highly fuel efficient and have extremely low noise and engine emissions. Traffic from the Gardiner Expressway produces significantly more pollution than any of the planes on a given day. I believe that a beautiful waterfront can coexist with a city centre airport, unfortunately the City of Toronto has done nothing but political wrangling over what to do with the waterfront. Why can't David Miller realize that a potentially successful venture like Porter can be good for business and tourism?

October 3, 2006

There will be a celebration of Robert Barrington-Leigh at the Junior Common Room of University College this Thursday October 5 from 4 - 7 p.m. There will be speakers at 5 p.m.

September 28, 2006

Check out these pictures of Shanghai from 20 years ago before the economic reforms in China began.

September 25, 2006

And I thought gas in China was cheap; petrol in Iran costs 800 rials per liter, which is 10 Canadian cents per liter.

September 18, 2006

Today's New York Times editorial describes the need for major reforms in the teaching of mathematics in grade school. In particular, it notes the call from the National Council of Teachers in Mathematics to return to the traditional method of instruction requiring drills and problem solving. I find it absolutely shocking that so many kids in high school have trouble with their multiplications tables and are so reliant on calculators that they have trouble with simple problems which can be done with some mental arithmetic. And without basic arithmetic skills, how do you expect students to be comfortable with algebra or trigonometry, or even calculus? And this is certainly not just an American problem -- Canadian educators and parents, take note.

September 15, 2006

Francois St. Pierre alerted me to an article in the New York Times about Lipton's new pyramid tea bags. The problem is that the tea bags are not exactly pyramids, rather, they are tetrahedra. Actually, tetrahedra are considered triangular pyramids, and it's a lot more catchy to call them pyramids rather than tetrahedra.

September 13, 2006

There's been a shooting at Dawson College in Montreal.

September 11, 2006

Happy new (school) year, everyone! Arts and Science classes finally begin. If you are a new student at UofT, here's a perk you probably never thought of: full access to the Oxford English Dictionary. You need to be online at UofT to enjoy full access. May I suggest looking up the word doh.

My weekend was most spectacular; Nadia and I went to see SPAMalot on the last night of the Toronto production. It was a hilarious romp, with not a boring moment, and as a fan of Monty Python's films I enjoyed it immensely. Also I finally picked up Criterion's new release of the Seven Samurai and also the 8th season of the Simpsons. Now go away before I taunt you a second time!

September 6, 2006

Toronto Hydro Telecom has launched One Zone which will eventually provide wireless access to the entire downtown core. And for a six month period, access is free! (Cellular phone with text messaging required.) Right now access is restricted to the business district south of Queen St., north of Front St., west of Church St., east of Spadina Ave. however service will extend northwards to College St. by mid-October and to Bloor/Yorkville by end of the year. After March 7, it will cost $29 per month, $10 for 24 hours, or $5 for one hour.

The city of Taipei has also announced that it has the world's largest Wi-Fi coverage. It charges NT$4200 (C$141.50) a year, NT$399 (C$13.44) per month, NT$200 (C$6.74) for a 7-day package or NT$99 (C$3.34) for 110 minutes. Plus, wireless access is available on all subway lines and stations.

August 28, 2006

Well, that's a wrap. My flight to Chicago leaves in a few hours and I'll be back in Toronto for another glorious school year. In a word, Shanghai was hot. Yesterday the temperature hit 37 degrees and the humidex must have been around 46. By 11:00 a.m. this morning it was already 35 degrees. Of course, people are used to this heat. Even I used to be, then I moved back to Canada....

My uncle tells me that Shanghai's maglev now runs a little slower while they still investigate the cause of the fire. It used to go up to 431 km/h, but now the maximum speed is about 350 km/h, so it only takes an extra minute from the airport to Longyang Road Station.

By the way, gasoline in China costs 5.09 yuan a liter, which at current exchange rates is 70.8 (Canadian) cents per liter. And unlike the wildly fluctuating prices seen across Canada, gas prices in China are regulated by the government.

August 25, 2006

Not a day goes by in Shanghai without having seen a traffic accident during the commute to the office or back home. This morning, a medium sized truck ended up on its side on the highway towards the airport. Two other vehicles were also parked on the other side of the road, probably because the two vehicles were probably merging as they were trying to negotiate around the truck and got entangled somehow.

Being on this side of the earth means that it is easier to follow the World Basketball Championships in Japan. Yesterday, China qualified to the round of 16 by the skin of their teeth on a 3-point buzzer beater against Slovenia, a team with two Raptors next season, to win by 1. China has a rough road ahead, needing to beat European champions Greece to advance to the quarterfinals. CCTV 5 is covering the tournament, and the quality of basketball has been excellent.

August 22, 2006

I've just flown in to Shanghai. Here are a few Hong Kong websites of interest:

• International Finance Centre: Home of probably Hong Kong's finest mall, with convenient transit connections to two subway lines, the Airport Express train line, the outlying island ferries (including Discovery Bay, where I live), and (soon) the new Star Ferry. A true shopper's paradise, if you've got the dough. IFC2 is also Hong Kong's tallest building.
• Kowloon Canton Railway Corporation: I had to travel to Yuen Long to help a friend enter high school, and it was my first time traveling on the West Rail line. The Yuen Long-Tuen Mun area is also the home of the KCR's Light Rail, which has expanded considerably since I last rode the system in the early 90's.
• Vitasoy: Who knew that Vitasoy's soya milk drink is now available in aluminum cans?
• South China Morning Post: Hey SCMP, you may have a fine newspaper, but you suck. I can understand the need to obtain revenue for your online service, but for you to require an online subscription for every single article in your newspaper is ludicrous. I would rather read the Hong Kong Standard, even though they have an inferior website. At least they post their articles for free. Perhaps you might want to look at how the New York Times or even Toronto's Globe and Mail implements their subscription model.

August 20, 2006

Robert's disappearance is absolutely shocking news. To say that he is a "young, brilliant mathematician" is an understatement. I hope Robert is found soon, and my thoughts go out to his family.

Update (August 23 7 a.m. Shanghai time): Robert found. A terribly sad day and such a tragic loss.

August 16, 2006

I spent two nights at a golf resort in Nanjing. I had the brilliant idea of playing 9 holes of golf in 35 degree heat and then spend half an hour in a swimming pool. A thunderstorm cooled the area down from 36 degrees to maybe about 32. I didn't have a chance to do any sightseeing in downtown Nanjing, but the downtown area is as modern as any Chinese metropolitan area like Shanghai or Hong Kong. Anyway, I'm off to Hong Kong for three days.

August 12, 2006

And of course, the day that I need to take the Shanghai Maglev, one of its trains catches fire. Thankfully the fire occurred 3 hours before I arrived, and the trains still ran on time.

I'll be in Nanjing on Sunday for a couple of days.

August 10, 2006

U.S. Homeland Security raised the threat level for commercial flights to orange due to a foiled plot to bomb jets in Britain. And I happen to be at Chicago O'Hare waiting for my flight to Shanghai. Thankfully, I checked into Pearson International at 6:30 a.m. and security checks went very smoothly as I probably checked in before Transport Canada imposed the new security measures requiring mandatory footwear checks (which I didn't have to go through) and a ban on all liquids (including drinks, gel, shampoo, or toothpaste) in the cabin. I have Purell hand sanitizer in my pocket, so it looks like it will have to go.

August 8, 2006

I made some interesting purchases over the last couple of weeks.

Edward Tufte is considered by many to be the expert on information design and has published four exquisite works on informational graphics. His newest book is called Beautiful Evidence. Whereas his previous books were about pictures of numbers, pictures of nouns, and pictures of verbs; this time around his theme is visual evidence and shows more wonderful examples of visual communication. One of his major new ideas is the concept of sparklines, which are small graphics charts inserted within text on a page. He has also included a chapter which could have been titled "Why PowerPoint sucks". It is a magnificent book, and one you can proudly put on your coffee table.

I also picked up Yi Yi (1999), maybe one of the greatest Taiwanese films of all time, yet ironically was never distributed in Taiwan. It's a simple movie about the struggles of everyday life, but as A.O. Scott of the New York Times writes, "In exchange for three hours of your time, Yi Yi will give you more life."

I'm off to Shanghai on Thursday.