Today marks the 100th anniversary of the Tunguska Event, a massive explosion in Siberia that knocked down 80 million trees over 2,150 square kilometres on June 30, 1908. In physical terms, that’s a spicy meatball.

No one really knows what cause this massive air detonation, although the most likely culprit was a meteorite or small comet that detonated in the air. This theory has gained a little more credence with the discovery of a small crater in the Siberian Taiga. Other explanations include UFOs, interdimensional collisions, black holes, and the first four Black Sabbath albums. I mean, have you heard ‘Paranoid’? That song could destroy my city right now.

The Tunguska event has also made an impact (see what I did there?) in pop culture, with numerous references in everything from Ghostbusters to the X-Files. Just another example of how, no matter differences in era, culture, or geography, everyone digs a gigantic mystery explosions. I know I do.

Oh, Internet. Just when I think all human endeavour is futile howling against a black, unfeeling universe, you go an do something like this, and faith is restored:

Monty Python and Star Trek? Yes, please.

Loren Coleman’s International Cryptozoology Museum is in bad trouble. Due to some byzantine tax regulation, Coleman need $15,000 to move the museum from his home in Portland, Maine, to a new location.

The museum is one of the few places in the world dedicated to the study of “hidden animals”- mythical beasts and creatures unknown to science.  And Coleman himself is a kind of elder statesman of the cryptozoology. He’s written 30 books on the subject, and is the editor of the awesome blog, Cryptomundo.

If you’re in any way interested in cryptozoology (and c’mon, studying Sasquatch and Sea Serpents is totally awesome), then it’s important to help save the ICM. For information on how to donate, go here.

William Henry Gates III, software designer, billionaire, philanthropist and world’s most powerful nerd, is hanging up his pocket protector today, officially retiring from his role as Microsoft Chairman. He will now have more time to dedicate to his many charitable pursuits, shopping for ill-fitting sweaters, and presumably rolling around in giant piles of money.

I’m a Mac guy, and I think PCs are the devil. But I must grudgingly acknowledge Gates’ significance. The man helped create personal computing, and also seems like a pretty decent human being to boot. Whatever you think of Gates, or his software, this is indeed the end of an era.

Excelsior!

This entry is cross-posted with blogTO.com.

Everyone loves a summit. If by ‘everyone’, you mean scowling diplomats and folks really into the reduction of nuclear weapon stockpiles. But Toronto’s Bad Dog Theatre has come up with an event with much broader appeal- instead of arguing about the number of ICBMs in Poland, the Bad Dog Improv Summit is all about funny.

The idea is simple: bring together top improv troupes from across North America for a four-day festival of improvised goodness. In its first year, the summit brings together Montreal’s Without Annette, the Vancouver Theatresports League, Seattle’s Unexpected Theatre, and of course, Toronto’s own Bad Dog. The goal, as Bad Dog Artistic Director Marcel St. Pierre explains, is to share different ways of performing improv and exploring creative common ground.

“Each region has a different tradition and a different style of play, but the head-to-head competition, the misbehaviour - these are things that we all share, and these are the things we want to showcase,” says St. Pierre.

I checked out the first night of the summit, a joint performance between some Bad Dog regulars and Without Annette. It was a Harold show, a form of long-form improv where the performers construct extended stories rather than quick scenes. As you would expect, it was funny. The summit is a showcase for the improv top guns of their respective cities, so comedy is more or less assured. But the really interesting thing is that different cities really do have different performance styles. Toronto seems to be more about ‘big’ performers and structured scenes, while the Montreal crew was subtler, favoured props, and had a more relaxed approach to scene construction.

The Bad Dog Improv Summit continues until June 28th. Tonight, the Vancouver Theatresports League and Unexpected Theatre will bring a little West Coast flavour. Tomorrow, all four teams get to strut their stuff. Things get competitive on Saturday night, with a four-way Theatresports battle royale. All shows start at 8PM at the Bad Dog Theatre (138 Danforth Ave.). And if you’d like to get in on all the improv summiting, a series of workshops will be offered each day until Saturday.

So, check it out. Good idea, good improv and a good time.

Pigs: delicious, and apparently indestructible. Unless, I guess, if you eat them.

China is celebrating a pig that survived 36 days buried under earthquake rubble, subsisting on leaking water and charcoal. Not surprisingly, it lost two thirds of its body weight. New health trend alert: the charcoal diet!

The pig has been named Zhu Jianqiang, which translates into “Strong Pig”. Seems apt, if somewhat literal.

The pig has been bought by the curator of a local museum, who plans to keep the ungulate “as a living symbol of the earthquake disaster”. Sounds good to me.

Photo: This is not the miracle pig. It is, however, a profoundly self-satisfied porker.

Everybody knows motorcycles are cool. I know it. You know it. Your grandmother  definitely knows it. Due to this unassailable coolness, I’ve often contemplated acquring a bike. But which one is right for me?

I’m not badass enough for a Harley. I’m too scared to ride a Ninja. And as for the Hondas and Yamahas, I can’t get behind a motorcycle made by companies that also produce Civics and keyboards respectively.

And then I found this: The Ural Gear-up. It’s camouflaged. It has a sidecar. And, for all your rough-track needs, you can engage a driveshaft to the sidecar wheel, turning this bike into a two-wheel drive bruiser. It will climb like a goat and is built like a tank, so much so that Wired declared as one of the top-ten best post-apocalypse rides. Sweet.

Ural is a Russian (nee Soviet) company that developed its first bikes in 1940 by reverse-engineering the BMW R71. In the process, the bike took on a distinctive Russian quality- ugly as a boar, but nearly unbreakable. And if it does by some chance break down, you could probably fix it with a pocket knife and some twine.

The asking price of $13,599 is pretty steep for a bike that maxes out at 100km/h. But it’s the bike for me, as it fits most closely with the Nunc Scio gear philosophy: it ain’t pretty, but it gets the job done.