This Is How The World Ends: Scientifically Engineered Avian Flu

This is how the world ends, its not a zombie outbreak, it isn't nuclear warfare, it starts with one curious scientist doing something he shouldn't... Linked in this post is an article with the whole story about how a virologist named Ron Fouchier decided to try and enhance an already dangerous contagion. His attempts made the virus go airborne and evolve to make it spread even faster.

For those of you not wanting to read the entire article, the brief version goes a little something like this:

Video Games and Children: A New Generation

As a university student studying psychology many people ask me 'why are you in psychology and what do you want to do with this degree?' Even if I'm not sure of the latter I do know that psychology interests me immensely.

Throughout my education I have had to write my fair share of papers and a substantial bit of research that always seemed to follow the same trend. Video games. I've researched topics from, the effect of violent video games on children's behaviour to basic positive reinforcement due to 'unlocks' in certain games. Through extensive personal experience I believe video games are more than just a new form of entertainment. The video embedded below gives a great general idea of what I am so interested in, and what I believe to be the future.

Top 10 Resume Writing Tips for Anyone

The first week of July which calls for the start of our weekly business tips. We decided to start off with tips for one of the most important tools everyone has in business the resume. Writing a resume or even updating your current one after not looking at it in a few years can be a daunting task. These helpful tips will try and ease the pain caused by update stress.

How to Repair and Modify Your Hockey Jersey

Since the playoffs are winding down and fans are buying all the jerseys in Vancouver. I thought I would write an article on jersey repair, up keep, and modification. Being a huge NHL fan I have quite a lot of memorabilia and I guess I could be called a jersey hound. Since I’m not looking for re-sale later in life, I guess the only reason I buy jerseys is that it’s a ‘fun money pit’ for me. Everyone has one, whether its cars, bikes, boats, they're all the same. Here are the legendary secrets of how to get the stains, beer, blood, dirt, snags, sweat, and whatever else happened out of your jersey.

Cure for Cancer Found, No One Takes Notice

A University of Alberta medical team lead by Dr Michelakis published an article in 2007 with a potential cure for cancer using a inexpensive drug known world wide called Dichloroacetate (DCA). In 2007 Dr Michelakis and his team worked on test tube samples with findings that suggested the DCA drug achieves ‘antitumor effects by altering the metabolism of cancer’. DCA was found to take away cancers most important strength, the resistance to death (of the tumor).

Since 2007 several independent groups across the world have confirmed the Alberta teams findings. Dr Michelakis and his team also committed the drug to clinical trials with similar findings. In 49 patients over 2 years they showed that tumors responded to DCA the same way the test tube samples reacted by changing the tumors metabolism.

Just another fun money pit

In the paintball world a growing phenomenon known as pump play is receiving greater attention. Players are now going back to the roots of paintball by using autocockers. These autocockers are mainly converted into pump guns, as paintballers believe this type of play is more of a challenge. Unfortunately Worr Game Products (WGP) failed to maintain quality performance with their autocockers after their 2004 prostocks, and have gone out of business. Pump guns known as “snipers” are generally autocockers that have a pump kit installed instead of pneumatics. This forces the player to manually cock back the paintball gun before it is able to fire. Pump guns have less of a learning curve because there are no pneumatics involved. These pneumatics are required to be properly timed before the gun can shoot and that is why most players, who don’t play pump, have moved onto electronic poppet, spool, or blow back markers.

I have decided that getting into pump may not be such a bad idea. After spending copious amounts of money on paint every week, whether it was at Ambush, a local speedball field, or at Richmond Indoor Paintball. Two of my friends that I play with own Azodin Kaos pump guns, so I decided to deviate from the trend and invest in a WGP 04 Superstock from Paintball Gateway. Paintball Gateway who are affiliated with a company known as Check-it Products have bought the remaining surplus of WGP components. Unfortunately the gun is still on the way and should be shipped to me by Thursday. I decided to buy it in the gloss black finish, since the colour combinations with a black gun are limitless.

Summer Resolutions

I am not a believer in New Years resolutions mainly because New Years is in the middle of winter and most people are too busy or un-motivated to actually maintain their resolution(s). I have witnessed failure too many times in my resolution(s), to the point of not making them anymore. This creates a short term goal void that I feel needs to be filled for more energy and drive in everyday life.

Now I have found myself breaking the mold, summer is sunny, full of possibility, and motivating. Why not make summer resolutions? That’s what I have found myself doing the last two years and am maintaining the trend this summer.

How to Sell An Item Through Craigslist

I have been asked multiple times by family members and friends, ‘how can I sell on Craigslist.’ I have sold hundreds of dollars worth of items through Craigslist and through my sales I’ve found what works and what doesn’t work. This article goes through the five essential steps you need to follow to sell your item(s) on Craigslist.

*This article is not only for Craigslist but almost any selling site / forum.*

1. Know the Condition / Value of the Item

 This step is key to knowing what your item is realistically worth and to avoid low-ball offers and the occasional angry email. If you have an Iphone for example and you just bought it for $800 tax in, four months ago, it’s not worth $800 anymore. The sad realization of an items value is key to getting your item sold quickly and obtaining more offers to choose from.

The best way to find an accurate value for your item is to go on Craigslist, Kijiji, Ebay, etc. and find similar products. Take the average price you see on the listings and factor that into your items condition to figure out a proper value for your item.

The Canadian Government Begins Another Election...

4 elections in 7 years and the current Parliamentary system seem to be siblings in the crazy mess the Canadian Government has brought on itself. In the 2008 election the Government was announced a minority in favour of the Conservative party with the Liberals closely behind and the Bloc trailing in third. The only way to get decisions through a minority government is to convince enough opposing MPs to back the decision so it gets passed into a law.

Recently Steven Harper's Conservative government tried to push a new budget that would see Canada (in theory) have a surplus of money in two years.  The opposition then brought up multiple problems with this budget. They did not like where the money was going and didn’t agree with a lot of the budget cuts.  

The Lost City of Atlantis Found in Spain!?

The debate whether Atlantis existed has been around for thousands of years and it all started by the Greek philosopher Plato. His dialogues from about 355 B.C. are the only known historical sources of information about the mysterious city. In Plato’s dialogues he states that the island called Atlantis ‘in a single day and night… disappeared into the depths of the sea.’

Lead researcher Richard Freund, of the University of Hartford claims that his research team and himself have finally located Atlantis. Where did they finally find the lost city? Spain! Just north of Cadiz to be exact.

The Government of Canada Rebranded?

As the title states, according to CBC, the prime ministers office has decided that 'The Government of Canada' should be replaced. On all federal communications it now all says, 'The Harper Government'.

It seems to be partly a ploy by Steven Harper to build his image. He has gone onto the government of Canada website (which is payed for by the tax payers) and changed many headings to 'The Harper Government'.

Fallen by the wayside?

EA games is trying to overtake Activision as number one game publisher and it just might happen. The Call of Duty franchise has reached its peak. The "Old Guard" has left. Activision has not only angered the two creators of Infinity Ward, but they've enraged most of their staff. Thirty-eight Infinity Ward employees have left and formed a new company under EA.

The Infinity Ward team are innovators. They built the game engine (IW Engine). They pushed the boundaries and set the benchmark for all future FPS's. Treyarch can't do it alone, they're not innovators. Treyarch continuously pumps out the same game in different packaging. Treyarch games still can't measure up to Infinity Ward's games. Treyarch's "cookie cutter" way of cranking out games hit new heights when Activision announced the third developer to start the new installment of the Call of Duty franchise. Three games? Wow. I think one is enough, but why not? Let's milk this cash-cow for all it's worth since no other company has come out with anything that competes, until now.

It’s all in the look…

I don’t know about you, but lately I have noticed that young Vancouver males are dressing more and more stylish as the seasons go by. With the addition of new and contemporary men’s fashion boutiques in Gastown, Kitsilano, and Victoria, there is no reason why any man should dress to un-impress nowadays.

For those who are in need of a little more direction, I have devised a Men’s “how-to” guide for dressing well and looking confident. As some of you may know, I write a fashion blog called BC Boutiques (www.bcboutiques.wordpress.com) and write for an online Men’s Lifestyle and Fashion Magazine called Knew Daily (www.knewdaily.com). I was asked by Jonathan to contribute to The Mustache and figured that it would be a great opportunity to write a piece on Men’s fashion.

Step #1: Back to Basics

Every man should have at least 3-4 staple items in their closet. These are basic go-to pieces that always look great and can be worn any time. If you are ever unsure of what to wear, just pull one or two of these articles of clothing out of your closet and presto! A simple, comfortable, and stylish outfit magically appears.

Basic Must-Have’s:

a) A good t-shirt. My favorite Men’s t-shirt is by Rxmance, a Men’s brand available at Roden Gray in Gastown, Vancouver. This t-shirt comes in a variety of colors and in v-neck or crew neck styles.

The Best Mustache In The World

Well, for my first blog post i though it would be appropriate to talk about the man with the best mustache ever. I am talking about Lanny McDonald. Why is it the best? Just look at it! It commands Respect, it's a stache that you would follow to the gates of hell and back just because it asked you to come. Add that its red and wow you are blown away. All the Great men of the world have had a mustache worth wearing, I just hope one day I will be able to grow a Mustache like his.

Business Sense At It’s Finest

If you are one of the thousands of paintball enthusiast roaming around the web, you will have definitely heard of TechPB, and the success it has grown into. Starting as a small web show, hosted by Mike Phillips, on youtube dedicated to educating new players that have entered the sport. It now has grown into a popular youtube channel with a large cult following.

It is a driving force behind the paintball community, and is even investing back into it to keep the sport alive. But on to the topic at hand, Marker Bids, a new auction website created by the group over at TechPB. This site allows you to buy paintball equipment for dirt-cheap which sounds to good to be true, and you are partially right.

What Is Education Now?

Needless to say, the world has changed and education is not what it used to be. Ten years ago education was highly sought after while twenty years ago education was a privilege and was valued in every walk of life. The farther back you look the more valuable any degree in any area of study is. Now what is it? What is a degree really? A Masters is still impressive and a being a doctor is still being a doctor. But really, what about just a degree? Let alone throwing the word 'minor' around that really means nothing, your faculty wont even recognize a minor, you just put it on your resume and call it quits.

Get a degree in what? Psychology? Kinesiology? History? Math? (well math is still impressive) English?!? The fact is you set a goal for yourself because you want a career in the end. Right? But people change.. you study your subject for two years maybe three and then what? You decided you don't like it anymore and switch to another subject to start fresh and waste more money?

Death to Children?!

Since the beginning of video games children dying and/or killing children were a gaming faux pas. No company did it and absolutely no company did it intentionally. There have been mods here and there that allowed you to do this in various games such as Fallout 3 for PC but even games such as Grand Theft Auto kept younger pedestrians out of the picture all together.

This all recently changed when a Polish developer called Techland released their new CGI trailer for the game Dead Island. In this trailer it starts with a young girl no older that 14 laying lifeless on the grass (pictured above) followed by showing her falling multiple stories (the trailer in chronologically reversed).

Spray-on Skin

What we used to only think was capable in movies through CGI or 'witchcraft' has now been developed for practical real world applications.

This breakthrough medical procedure would take only a few days to completely heal and is seen as 'the holly grail of burn surgery'. The equipment Dr Jorg C. Cerlach has created is called the 'skin cell gun' which, he says it works quite similar to paint spraying. The ability to create skin graphs for burn victims in hospitals used to take weeks and in some cases months to heal and the real risk was infection to the new skin while it is trying to heal. The way it works is they isolate cells from the heathy part of the skin (patient), 'mixed in a water solution and prepared for cell spraying'. The entire procedure takes roughly about one hour and within a week the patient is fully healed.

The entire procedure is still highly experimental but has worked successfully on a dozen burn victims.

Link to video: National Geographic (warning video has some graphic images)

RIP Desktops and Laptops

Remember when buying a new cellphone was as easy as 'I want one that flips' or 'this one has a camera! That's the one I want'. Which continued onwards to justifying a $300 phone purchase to your friends by saying your camera was 'way better' than theirs.

Well fast forward to 2011 and the iPhone has been through a couple of life cycles already; it has 'revolutionized' this, and 'changed' everything that. Essentially smart-phones are the new black. Every telecommunication company, and their mother, is coming out with these phones. Between Apple, RIM, Google and Microsoft providing the software (operating systems) and companies like HTC, Motorola, Apple, Nokia, Samsung, etc. are creating the hardware. It's a full fledged war to the death for market-share; a race for the fastest, coolest, multitasking-est phone of the future that everyone should buy.