Monthly Archives: March 2015

Sci-Tech

Getting Social: Living in the Age of Tech and Social Media

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Owner/ CEO at ArtPlusHome.com and VeryVeniceArt.com
Owner/ CEO at ArtPlusHome.com and VeryVeniceArt.com

When you’re a 20-something, what’s the first and the last thing you do? You check your Facebook or you tweet. When you want to buy a pair of jeans and you want to ask your friends’ opinions, you post a picture on Instagram with a #needyourhelp! And who needs to go to a store when Amazon is only a click away right? Social Media and E-Commerce have permeated your personal and social lives. Nowadays, to keep up with the rest of the world, you have to have a smart phone, a tablet and at least 3 social media accounts. Your thought process can now be summarized into: Click. Like. Share. Repeat.  Information in an instant !

The coolest thing about Social Media and online stores is the ease by which you send and receive information. The idea that you can connect to a friend in Asia, check out the latest happenings in Europe, and buy the outfit you’ve been eyeing for on discount via Amazon still fascinates many. Not only does the connection happen in real-time, it is also extremely convenient for the hyperactive, multitasking yuppie. Who would’ve thought that you can talk to someone halfway around the world while riding the train? Or that now, you can buy everything you need online while working out. Literally, the world is at your fingertips.

What about Design my Home?

If social media transformed the way you connect with the world, then mobile technology is revolutionize the way you see and experience it. With its public launch in February 2015, everyone is expected to rock the new Art Plus Home Virtual app and two words are sure to be immensely popular: “Share and Buy” This new breakthrough promises to merge the real, the virtual, and the social. Indeed, the possibilities are endless. Two fields that can definitely benefit from this innovation are art and design, particularly for the home. As more and more young professionals climb the ladders of success, you find yourselves located in a condo or in an apartment at the heart of the city. And in the name of individuality, almost all of you are heavily involved in truly making your homes a place to call your own. “I’m a minimalist guy. I like a lot of black and white pieces,” shared Alex, a young accountant. “I’ve always had a penchant for quirky furniture and eclectic painting, both of which are very hard to find by the way,” explains Jessica, a law graduate.

Here lies the conundrum. In as much as you newly-empowered breed want to go all out to design your homes, you simply don’t have the time. “Designing your own place is a completely different animal. It’s almost a full-time job,” says Ashley. She went on further, “It’s almost like a cat and mouse game. You go to an art gallery to find a good painting. Then you have to go to another store for the drapes. Then you go look for a nice coffee table. They’re a perfect match in your head but after you install them in the living room, they just look horrible.” Dary Rees, an artist and a designer herself, knew exactly what Ashley meant.

It's really about using the latest in augmented reality to "try out" art pieces in your home before you buy. photo: iwearyourecho.com
It’s really about using the latest in augmented reality to “try out” art pieces in your home before you buy. photo: iwearyourecho.com

“Designing your home takes a lot of imagination. All the time, you have to close your eyes and visualize how every art piece, every furniture, and every drape will come together. That’s not easy. But it should be.” Then idea struck! Bringing together a team of people, Dary went to work. After months of development, the Art Plus Home virtual app was born. “With the Art Plus Home app, you can shop, visualize, and buy for your home in your own time and at your own convenience. You get to choose anything you like from the online gallery, superimpose them together in your space, and see how it looks – all in a matter of minutes. You can even share the design to friends! If you like the design, you can buy them right then and there. If not, you can start all over,” explains Dary. This is perfect for the Gen Y who is always on the go. You can design and buy for your home  on the way to work, after a Yoga session, or even before you go to bed. The Art Plus Home app is also ideal if you’re on the look out for the latest in art and design. Check-out gallery openings, up and coming artists, or simply browse what’s hot (and not) so you have something to talk to with your date.. The Art Plus Home app is available in Android and in iOS.

Generation Y is a new breed. You’re motivated to succeed, you’re proud of your individuality, you’re always mobile, and you’re extremely connected to the world around you. With such a personality, you’re a perfect match for the Art Plus Home app!  www.ArtPlusHome.com and download the free app at any app store.

Earth

Strange Lights May Have Been UFO Over Southern Ontario

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At approximately 10:15 PM EDT on March 17th I witnessed a strange sight. While driving into Simcoe, Ontario  via Hillcrest Road, something low on the horizon caught my attention. At first I wondered if this was a planet but after I pulled the car over to the side of the road and focused harder, it became clear that this object was flashing through a whole spectrum of colours:  red, blue, yellow, white one at a time at a high rate. Strange lights?

Predicted Solar Storm Aura

Yesterday was St. Patrick’s Day and skywatchers were made aware of the forecasted Solar Storm that brought Northern Lights much further south than normal. This was not the Northern Lights.

I wasn’t able to take any video because my camera phone would not zoom in to capture the object but I did manage to zoom in using the photo feature. Today I moved the photo’s onto my laptop and zoomed in further using a video editing program. I then re-opened those photo’s and used the desharp/enhance/deinterlace feature in gimp software to attempt a better look at what I saw. I am still surprised by the results- the colours that I saw vividly and clearly did not show up on the photographs and the photographs reveal what looks like a shape-shifting object!

I’ve been so intrigued by this I decided to return to sighting location so I could take a daytime photo of the sky/horizon where I had the sighting and I used my phone to get a compass reading on the direction of where the object was.

Daytime Sighting Location Compass Heading for Sighting

The first series of photo’s- shown below are the camera-zoomed in series and are unenhanced by software. The second series of  single photo’s are the software-zoomed in and enhanced versions of the first four photographs .  I’m hoping someone can offer up ideas on what I saw by commenting below or emailing The Silo (contentproducer@thesilo.ca)  *name with held by request*

Series 1

Unidentified Flying Object Simcoe OntarioSeries 2- Enhanced UFO image 1Enhanced Image 2Enhanced Image 3Enhanced Image 4

 

Supplemental- Severe Solar storm forecast predicts Northern Lights much further South than normal http://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2015/03/17/solar-geomagnetic-storm/24901903/

Virtual visit: Hillcrest Road, Simcoe, ON

 

Politics

Ontario Increasing Minimum Wage- will also affect Liquor Servers, Students

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Province Committed to Providing Fairness for Workers, Predictability for Business

Ontario is raising the general minimum wage from $11 to $11.25 per hour, effective October 1, 2015. Minimum wage rates for jobs in special categories such as liquor servers, homeworkers, and students are also increasing at the same time.

25Cents might not seem like much (after all, payphone calls require two of them) but it does add up: 25 hour part time job works out to an extra $300/ year.
25Cents might not seem like much (after all, payphone calls require two of them) but it does add up: 25 hour part time job works out to an extra $300/ year.

The increase is the result of recent changes to the Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA) that tie minimum-wage increases to Ontario’s Consumer Price Index (CPI). This was recommended by the Minimum Wage Advisory Panel in its final report last year.

Increasing the minimum wage in a fair and predictable manner is part of the government’s economic plan for Ontario. The four-part plan is building Ontario up by investing in people’s talents and skills, building new public infrastructure like roads and transit, creating a dynamic, supportive environment where business thrives and building a secure savings plan so everyone can afford to retire.

Kevin Flynn Minister“Our government has taken politics out of minimum wage increases while ensuring wages for Ontario workers keep pace with inflation and businesses have time to prepare for payroll changes. This puts more money in people’s pockets, gives our businesses predictability and helps build a more prosperous economy, while ensuring a fair society for all.”

 – Kevin Flynn, Minister of Labour

 

QUICK FACTS

 

  • The government enacted legislation last fall that amended the Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA) to tie future annual increases to minimum wage to Ontario’s Consumer Price Index (CPI).
  • This will be the ninth minimum wage increase since 2003.
  • The primary sectors employing minimum wage earners are accommodation and food, retail trade, and agriculture.
  • Minimum wage increases are to be announced by April 1 each year, and will be effective on October 1 of the same year.
 

LEARN MORE

 

Disponible en français- Contacter le Silo, si vous souhaitez lire ceci en Français

 

Politics

Letter To The Silo- Ways To Catch Wild Pigs Is How To Create Socialism

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Dear Silo,  a thought to remember-  Marx said,”Remove one freedom per generation and soon you will have no freedom and no one would have noticed.” These are words to the wise, if you can understand what’s going on around you…. *

There was a chemistry professor in a large college that had some exchange students in the class. One day, the professor noticed one young man, an exchange student, who kept rubbing his back and stretching as if his back hurt. The professor asked the young man what was the matter. The student told him he had a bullet lodged in his back. He had been shot while fighting communists in his native country who were trying to overthrow his country’s government and install a new communist regime. In the midst of his story, he looked at the professor and asked a strange question.

He asked: “Do you know how to catch wild pigs?” The professor thought it was a joke and asked for the punch line. The young man said that it was no joke. “You catch wild pigs by finding a suitable place
in the woods and putting corn on the ground. The pigs find it and begin to come every day to eat the free corn. “When they are used to coming every day, you put a fence down one side of the place where they are used to coming. When they get used to the fence, they begin to eat the corn again and you put up another side of the fence.

“They get used to that and start to eat again. You continue until you have all four sides of the fence up with a gate in the last side. “The pigs, which are used to the free corn, start to come through the gate to eat that free corn again. You then slam the gate on them and catch the whole herd. “Suddenly the wild pigs have lost their freedom. They run around and around inside the fence, but they are caught. Soon they go back to eating the free corn. They are so used to it that they have forgotten how to forage in the woods for themselves, so they accept their captivity.”

The young man then told the professor that is exactly what he sees happening in Canada .

The government keeps pushing us toward Communism/Socialism and keeps spreading the free corn out in the form of programs such as supplemental income, tax credit for unearned income, tax exemptions, tobacco subsidies, welfare entitlements, medicine, drugs, etc., while we continually lose our freedoms, just a little at a time.

One should always remember two truths: There is no such thing as a free lunch, and you can never hire someone to provide a service for you cheaper than you can do it yourself. Name withheld by request. Originally post Fall 2014.

Comics

WW2 Graphic Novel KATUSHA goes daily in free WEBCOMIC debut

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Katusha Relaunch 2015

Garth Ennis: “Wayne Vansant has done a magnificent job with these first two volumes of Katusha.”
Wayne Vansant’s epic war story KATUSHA, GIRL SOLDIER OF THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR is being made available to read for free at www.katushagirlsoldier.com.  KATUSHA  (according to babynology.com, Katusha is a dimunitive form of Russian Ekaterina and Yekaterina, meaning “little pure one”. Katusha is also a famed Russian war song written shortly before World War II)  tells the story of a farm girl from Ukraine who becomes a Red Army tank commander during World War II.A coming-of-age story told against the backdrop of the bloodiest conflict in human history, the 1941-1945 Eastern Front between Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia, KATUSHA is created by writer/artist Wayne Vansant (Marvel’s THE NAM, Zenith’s Graphic Histories series).  Inspired by the experiences of thousands of women who served in the Red Army as pilots, snipers, tank drivers, and other roles, it forms a sprawling epic that will total three volumes and over five-hundred pages upon completion.
Katusha Relaunch
The first two graphic novels in the series, KATUSHA BOOK ONE: EDGE OF DARKNESS and KATUSHA BOOK TWO: THE SHAKING OF THE EARTH are currently available in digital and print format from Grand Design Publishing.  The webcomic version of KATUSHA will serialize both, adding a new page every day, with BOOK ONE completing in June and BOOK TWO completing at the end of 2015.  The third and final volume, expected in print in mid-2015, will begin serialization in January 2016.
One of Vansant's previous works, The 'Nam was an innovative and truly seminal comic.
One of Vansant’s previous works, The ‘Nam was an innovative and truly seminal comic.
KATUSHA has received praise from critics and comics professionals. History magazine Armchair General Magazine included KATUSHA in its “Stuff We Like” column.  Pat Mills, writer of the legendary British war comics series CHARLIE’S WAR has praised Katusha for dealing with a chapter in history that’s been overlooked in the West.  Garth Ennis, writer of PREACHER and WAR STORIES (which includes THE NIGHT WITCHES, a story about Soviet women pilots) said of Katusha, “It’s great to see the story of the Soviet women tankers kept alive. Wayne Vansant has done a magnificent job with these first two volumes of Katusha; I look forward to reading more”. Print editions are now available from Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com and other online retailers. Ebook editions are available to consumers through ComicsPlus, Google Play, Kindle, and (soon) Comixology, and to libraries though Overdrive and iVerse.
Wayne Vansant and a blowup of his new work-in-progress: Katusha
Wayne Vansant and a blowup of his new work-in-progress: Katusha

KATUSHA BOOK ONE opens with young Katusha’s graduation from her tenth and final year of school. The next morning, Sunday June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany invades the Soviet Union. The young woman and her family escape to the forests to begin a partisan war against the German occupiers. In KATUSHA BOOK TWO, Katusha and her sister Milla join the Red Army and are sent to tank school. Trained to operate the mighty T-34, Katusha fights from countryside to cities and learns the steep price to pay for victory.

Vansant has chronicled history in comics format since 1986.  He was the primary artist for Marvel’s acclaimed Vietnam War title, THE ‘NAM, and he has recently returned to historical fiction with his three-volume series KATUSHA, an epic of the eastern front of World War II.  He has researched, written, and illustrated many non-fiction graphic novels on subjects including the Korean War, Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglas, and the Battle of Antietam. Since 2013 Vansant has released six non-fiction graphic novels through Zenith Publishing.  Vansant is a native of Georgia and served in the United States Navy during the Vietnam War era.

Wayne Vansant Katusha