Wow, what an amazing Olympics for us Canadians. The COC predicted a total medal haul of 25 before the games started and a top three finish. I was personally hoping for a top five finish. What do we get? 24 medals, including 7 golds, and the number three spot in the standings, behind Germany and the USA. We also had 13 athletes place fourth in their events. Just outstanding! We did absolutely amazing. Leading the pack was Cindy Klassen, who won 5 medals in speed skating. That brings her total Olympic medal count to 6, a Canadian record. The 24 medals were a new record, beating our previous high of 17 in the Salt Lake Olympics in 2002. The COC is planning for 35 medals in the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver and we might actually be able to do it.
On a side note - anyone else think the Torino medals were ugly? They look like discarded CDs.
In the interesting factoid section, the world's population hit 6.5 billion at 7:16pm EST on Saturday night, using estimations/projections. An average of 4.4 people are born every second. When reading about population growth, I always see mention of improved health, economic development, urbanization etc. For the first time, I read an interesting comment about fertilizer in my current book - Hitler's Scientists by John Cornwell (more on this book later). Apparently if Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch (or someone else) hadn't discovered a way to fix nitrogen from air, resulting in a vast supply of artificial nitrogen fertilizer, the world's population would have only been around 3.9 billion in 2000, instead of reaching 6 billion.
This book I'm reading - Hitler's Scientists: Science, War and the Devil's Pact by John Cornwell - is a discussion of the ethics and morality of science during war, specifically German scientists in the first half of the 20th century. I bought it for about $9 in the bargain section at Chapters and so far, it's an excellent buy. I'm not even 100 pages into yet, but it has me captivated. Haber, the guy I mentioned earlier with regards to nitrogen fertilizer, was also a key figure in the first use of poison gas in April 1915, breaking the Hague Conventions. I'm starting to get into the chapters on racial hygiene and eugenics and it's just bizarre reading the social interpretations rising from both valid science and crackpot "science".
One of the reasons I'm so far into that book already is that I'm sleeping horribly. Last week's nights have really screwed me up. I'm tired all the time, but I seem to be able to only sleep for 4 hour stretches. I somehow managed to be social though, although I wasn't feeling my best. Friday, I had a couple people over for dinner and games - Battle of the Sexes and my new game Artifact. For dinner, I made stuffed mushrooms (good, but more cheese next time), roasted veggies and baby potatos (yummy), chicken provencal (blah), and peaches with berry sauce and vanilla ice cream (died and went to heaven). On Saturday, I went to another friend's house for more games, playing Conjecture (a game based on the sculptorades section of Cranium) and Clue, a game I haven't played since the 90s.
Since I have been awake so much, I've been wasting time on the internet. I did a two question Ennegram test, which doesn't exactly imply accuracy, but some of it seemed to match what I understand of me. I'm apparently an Adventurer - "happy and open to new things". One statement I really agreed with - "Appreciate my grand visions and listen to my stories." Listen to them over and over again too, while you are at it!! Oh, and thanks to those of you who filled out my Johari window. The validation was lovely. :)
One last thing: Sunday's For Better or For Worse comic really had me laughing. Just picture a grey kitty instead of a bunny and string instead of an extension cord and you've got my sweet yet psycho Fuzzy.
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