Kevin O'Leary - Portrait of a Blowhard

John Maynard Keynes once said that "Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all." Well, I think "nastiest of men" is the most apt description for Canada's greatest windbag (closely edging out Don Cherry), Kevin O'Leary. That's right, this nasally-voiced asshole:

On Respecting Science

Imagine you're sitting down to watch some sci-fi film or TV show, and suddenly a massive space battle breaks out. Laser bolts are flying, ships are exploding left and right, and it is glorious.

Then some twerp comes along and snidely remarks that, "You realise there's no sound in space, right? You wouldn't really be hearing all those explosions."

Don't you just want to smack him?

"Un-American"

How many times have you heard the phrase "un-American" get bandied about in debates? How many times have you heard someone say that anyone who disagrees with his or her opinion must "hate America?"

I Hate Smartphones

I've always maintained that the telephone has to be the worst invention humanity has yet devised. There's just something inherently intrusive and dehumanising about it; that at any moment you might be interrupted by the jarring ringing of the phone, demanding that you take part of some sort of pitiful excuse for an interaction with a fellow human being. Second to instant messaging, speaking in the phone is probably the worst way people can interact with each other - separated by distance, with no face-to-face contact, no ability to pick up on the subtle cues of body language or other forms of non-verbal communication.

Madness? This is America!

My first post on this blog was a look at "Bill Gates' 11 Things Kids Won't Learn In School" which, as I quickly discovered, was not actually penned by Bill Gates. Nevertheless, I think it stands as a perfect summation of how Americans view life.

Here in Canada, we're constantly being exposed to American culture. Go to any major city and you'll find Wal-Marts and McDonalds, stores lined with American products, theatres playing American movies, and radio stations playing American music. I've always maintained that it is absolute folly for the government of Canada to neglect support for the arts, given that we live next to a country that aggressively exports its culture at every turn. At any rate, I'd wager that the average Canadian has, by the time he reaches adulthood, gained a very clear picture of American culture.

Video Games Are Not Art

"It's not porn, it's art!"

So goes the excuse for a film director to fill up his movie with nudity and sex. I wonder, then, how many egotistical game developers will scoff at the idea of producing a mere "game" and instead proclaim that their work is high art on par with Paradise Lost.

Modern Architecture Is Rubbish

What comes to mind when you think of classic, enduring architecture?

Dragon Age III: Inquisition - What To Expect

So BioWare is hard at work on the third Dragon Age III, and I have to ask, does anyone aside from die-hard BioWare fanatics actually think this game is going to be good? BioWare's track record of games developed under EA ownership has been a string of dismal failures: Dragon Age II, Mass Effect 3, Star Wars: The Old Republic, so I don't think I'm being overly pessimistic when I say that the odds are against Dragon Age III being a success by any measure.