Mars and Earth at its closest point are 54.6 million KM apart. However, this shortest distance is not expected to occur until 2287, but as a consolation, almost two decades ago we were as close as 56 million KM. This variability exists because both Earth and Mars do not have perfect circular orbits around the Sun.

In that distance, light takes a hair over three minutes to travel. While the space between Mars and Earth is a vacuum, were it not to be and sound could propagate between uninterrupted, it would take almost four years to go between the two planets.

Now why do I care about this?

If you take the total distance of roads on Earth, it would come up to 62.3 million KM. Humans have built enough roads on this planet that if stretched out, it would easily slap Mars about twice per Martian year.

The thing that I cannot figure out is how much of that distance is paved. World Bank data is consistently too old or poorly defined, and some countries of advanced development (Austria, I am looking at you) do not seem to provide a percentage of what roads are paved versus not. However, some messing with the numbers in the cited reference (which is based on data from the CIA), it seems that 22.6 million KM is a reasonable number.

At 22.6 million KM, that is of course not enough to make to Mars. But, this is where it gets interesting because Venus has a much closer orbit! At its closest, Venus is 0.28 AU or 41.9 million KM away, meaning that we’ve paved enough roads on this planet to get us half-way to our runaway greenhouse of a neighbour.

Although Mercury is the closest planet to us most of the time keep in mind.

The banner text above reads:

Programming is the second literacy. The first one gives you knowledge: the second allows you to implement it in practice.

However, below, the three posters underneath have my attention.

• There’s a new IMKO2 in our school
• Train Basic everyday!
• That’s my new friend?

The IMKO 2 is an 8-bit computer made in Bulgaria. It was largely compatible with Apple II except it supported the use of Cyrillic.

I kind of want a high-resolution of any or all of the posters shown because they’re kind of endearing. It’s interesting to see that the posters were promoting the use of computing using English as opposed to Russian, due to the school’s location near the Finnish border.

There are some additional details about this image if you’re interested:

The first winter computer class for children (1985-6), a class at Chkalovski Village School No. 2, using “Pravets 82” computers. On the photo, unidentified school workers are familiarizing themselves with computers. In winter, a class was held here for children and adults. There were no exams: children were graded for creative works, and adults were not graded at all.

Image source: Wikipedia.

This closed hand accepts a 1, 2, 4, 5, or 7 souzu tile.

If a 1 souzu is dropped, it’s 6 han and 30 fu for 6,000 points for a tsumo (haneman) and 5 han and 40 fu for 12,000 points on a ron (mangan). With the the ron, it’s a straight and a half-flush, but a tsumo gets you and additional han for the self-draw. It’s less points for the tsumo due to the lack of a ron basically.

Now if that hand is declared as a riichi, it’s an additional han and pushes it up to 18,000 if I get a ron and still 6,000 on a tsumo. The next best tile in lieu of a 1 souzu is if a red 5 souzu is dropped which should give 12,000 I believe.

If a 4, non-red 5, or 7 souzu is dropped, it comes out to a 8,000 point hand if you land a ron and I think 6,000 if it is a tsumo.

The south wind only has value beyond 1 han if you land a ron unless it is your seat wind and or round wind. If you are in south and you are sitting south, this hand becomes 24,000 points on a ron and 8,000 on a tsumo. It should be 18,000 on a ron for the red 5 souzu.

You basically want a 1 or red 5 souzu tile to drop from another player to get that hit. The only thing which makes the hand sweeter is if you hit someone on the last drop, you flip a kan on the south winds, get some closed and or open dora to make say the six or south stronger, and so forth. As an opposing player, this hand is an outright nightmare and if done early enough on, it’s likely a guaranteed win.

Calculating mahjong hands sucks a lot so if you see a problem with how I scored this, by all means provide a better calculation! That said, this was east 2 and my seat was west so I wasn’t going to get a lot out of my honour tiles.

I got a tsumo on it.

In 1997, Canadian TV show, Video & Arcade Top 10 listed off the following as the “Pioneer Top Five” for the best-selling LaserDisc titles:

• Godfather I Wide Screen
• Godfather II Wide Screen
• Godfather III Wide Screen
• Terminator II Collector’s Edition
• Evening Star Wide Screen

Considering DVD came out the year that Pioneer had created this list for a video game show targeted at youths, it’s pretty freaking wild.

Also, the Godfather movies were all released a decade before the average target audience were even born and would combined take about nine hours to watch.

This show is just really weird. Aside from the LaserDisc top-five which never seemed to change in a single season, the music prizes were odd and the “Top 10” of the show’s own title didn’t seem to matter much either.

Second place contestants were given both a bath time “Game Boy” toy and two compact discs: Slow Jams Volume 2 and Dance Mix USA 97 Canadian Limited Edition.

With Slow Jams Volume 2, the track listings included songs like Tonight I Celebrate My Love, Between the Sheets, and As We Lay which are all titles a tween would want to have in their music collection. I don’t have much to comment on the other album.

Aside from the interesting undertones presented in one of the two CDs, there’s also this egregious decision: why the the hell is it “V&A Top 3” when “Top 10” is in the show’s freaking title?

So here’s this listicle from a local website: Only a true Vancouverite has done ALL 12 of these things. Despite being born and spending most of my life here, I am not a “true Vancouverite” by this article’s standards.

Let’s go down this list.

1 - Complained about the weather

Sure. It rains for half of the year. However, is this really a Vancouver thing?

2 - Watched the sun go down at Kits beach

The only time I have been at the beach near sunset is to see the fireworks which happen around this time every summer. So maybe I have, but it wasn’t an aim.

3 - Tried to lay in the arms of the A-maze-ing Laughter statue

I have walked by this installation a billion times and not once have I ever considered this.

4 - Waited for the Steam Clock whistle to go off

I wrote about this already.

5 - Drooled over Lee’s honey dip donuts

Drooled? No. I’d rather go to Cartem’s or Lucky’s. I’ve had these doughnuts and they’re fine, but I am not going to rave about them.

6 - Accidentally took the bridle path back while cycling in Stanley park

Cycling through Stanley Park is an exercise in misery.

7 - Spent hours in Breka to “work”

No.

8 - Made friends with geese along the seawall

Listen, nobody in their right mind likes these birds.

9 - Sat in the streetcar inside the Old Spaghetti factory

I can lay claim to having eaten at most of their locations. I probably have sat in one of the streetcars they have in a few of their locations, but it isn’t a goal.

10 - Spent a huge chunk of your pay cheque on rent

There are many ways to discuss rent in Vancouver, but so far everything here has largely been tourist-y so… what?

11 - Shared your hiking stories with friends

Not really? I guess there is that story about finding fresh cougar tracks while outside of Ucluelet, but that is on Vancouver Island.

12 - Awed at the beauty of UBC Forest Sciences Centre’s study space

Despite having spent some time at UBC, I have not.