A re-awakening of Toronto?

I've been mulling over this post for a while now mainly because I hadn't given myself the impetus to write it. Oddly enough, my thoughts took shape during a job interview with a planner for the City of Toronto when he asked what the biggest problem Toronto was facing currently.

To me, it was that Toronto could be such a great city, and be better than what it is. It had such potential. But it was faced with a lot of problems: financial, politicial, perception, etc.

But that seems to be changing.

Things once talked about are finally taking shape. On the cultural front, The Royal Ontario Museum renovations are being completed. The Art Gallery of Ontario designs are being finalized, to name a few.

Regent Park is being revitalized, re-integrated back into the city fabric, de-segregating that community while perhaps building one of the few true "sustainable" communities (environmentally, socially, economically) in Canada. The West Don Lands project, talked about for so long, are finally starting to take shape.

Architects were invited to tour our waterfront on behalf of the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation to get an idea of the context for their designs. Bring Back the Don has been trying to repair the ecological damage wrought on it by the planning of its day for many years now. The environment has slowly, but finally been pushed further forward in our priorities.

Finally, apparently there have been buzz in the Toronto blogging circles about the Toronto Star's (whose Sunday section have been putting out very interesting articles lately) What If series, asking its writers how they envisioned Toronto in the future and asking its readers to put their ideas, any ideas, forward.

So it just seems that, the forces are finally coming together for the city, and people are finally excited about what Toronto MIGHT be, if we can keep the enthusiasm up.

Two fun links

http://oneredpaperclip.blogspot.com/

This has been floating from the web for a while but has finally reached mainstream. This man from Montreal started with a simple paper clip, and has slowly, but assuredly, bartered his way to more and more prominent things. His goal is the ownership of his own house. He can currently rent an apartment in Phoenix for free for one year. Now THAT's return on investment.

Piled Higher and Deeper: a grad student's comic strip

Where was THIS all my life? Just a humourous serial webcomic that every grad student should read.

24: HA HA HA HA

How is the US in the show 24 still standing with the type of people running it? No one trusts each other. Every other sentence coming out of their mouths are lies (which may explain the last part). Every level of government has their own secret agenda. Everyone double-crosses each other. Everyone's intelligence shifts 180 degrees in a few minutes (for example, when did Chloe learn to pickpocket in one instance but be dumb enough to not reroute her phone call if she's secretly helping Jack?).

How do the terrorists still LOSE when they've got better organizational skills then the US government?

Windows on Intel Macs?!

Let the conspiracy theories, teeth gnashing, and hair pulling begin!!!

Sc-Sc-Sc-Sc-Sc-Sc-Sc-ience!!!!!!

So, it has come to my attention that our dear friend Christopher Smith has decided, for his first publication, to publish in the distinguished journal Science (only the abstract is available, so we all have to wait for the dang thing to be actually published before we can read it and critique it...though I doubt any of us would actually be able to understand a 1/3 of it...)

But that's besides the point. I'm very happy for Chris and I want to congratulate him in this post. It is a phenomenal achievement.

Clearly, once again, he has set quite a high bar for the rest of us to catch up to him. Pretty much this is what we have to accomplish:

Monika: Raise Emma (her niece) to be the next PM.
Jess: Teach Emma on her way to becoming the next PM.
Cam: Train the next olympic gold medallist.
Matt: Discover that Sir John A. was not actually a drunk but was a teetotaller and a Communist.
Ashley: become the next Education Minister of Ontario.
Me: plan the perfect city of the future...aka...Markham.

I better get crackin'...

So disappointing

At Queen's at the very least, there is a tradition among the graduating class of engineers that on April 1st (April Fool's), various site gags would greet students walking into campus. In the past, the gags have been superb:

• replacing the Grant Hall tower analog clock with a digital replica
• 'crashing' an airplane into the Grant Hall clock tower
• Covering Alfie's Pub entrance with cement
• Having a 'crashed' correctional vehicle in the corner of Douglas Library
• And my personal favourite: stuffed mannequins hung down with rope along a wall of the Grant hall clock tower with a giant banner beside it screaming, "OH NO! NINJAS!"

As the years progressed, however, the gags have been increasingly lame. The two I noticed this year was the placement of free "Starbucks" coffee in the Stauffer library foyer with the sign "Free. Not Poison." (It wasn't even good social commentary...) and orange barrier fence wrapped around the JDUC (John Deustch University Centre) with various snippy remarks about the incoming Queen's Centre.

So unless, there were better gags inside the JDUC or elsewhere (I didn't see any on Grant Hall) or this is a prelude to the real thing tomorrow (since it is Mar. 31 today, afterall), the class of Sci '06 should hang their head in shame, because this was a piss-poor job.

Too much credit

So Sympatico/MSN has an article about what "Scientology" is supposed to be. My problem is that they're giving it to much credit than what it is...their ending is:

"Fab or flake – only you can judge."

Really? I think it doesn't take individuals how stupid it is...take for example this part of the article:

Scientology literature points to many extraterrestrial references. According to Scientology, the thetan is tainted from events dating back millions of years, which are related to extraterrestrials and lives on different planets. The story of Xenu is within the III level of Scientology and it is as follows:

Xenu, the galactic tyrant first kidnapped certain individuals who were deemed ?excess population´ and loaded these individuals into space planes for transport to the site of extermination, the planet of Teegeeack (Earth). These space planes were said to have been copies of Douglas DC-8s, except with rocket engines. He then stacked hundreds of billions of these frozen victims around Earth's volcanoes 75 million years ago before blowing them up with hydrogen bombs and brainwashing them with a "three-D, super colossal motion picture" for 36 days, telling them lies of what they are and what the universe should be like and telling them that they are 3 different things: 'Jesus, God, and The Devil.' (from Wikipedia)

To some, this may seem farfetched. Nevertheless, everyone should judge for themselves how much credibility should be given to Scientology for explaining humanity through such examples.

First off...."seem" farfetched?!?!?! Are you kidding me?! copies of DC-8s and Xenu the galactic tyrant wasn't a dead giveaway of how ridiculous this is?! Who the hell would accept the assignment of trying to write a 'fair and balanced' article on this crap? And was the author laughing the whole time?

Oh, by the way, speaking of the author. Way to use Wikipedia as your source. Now there's an undisputed source of knowledge...

OMG!! i can msg Librarians now! LOL ROFL LMAO :)

I had talked about Stauffer Library's new "Learning Commons" and it's reconsideration of how students use libraries.

This post has relatively nothing to do with that. Rather, I just like to point out this new service that the Queen's library system is offering: instant messaging library assistants (the example is of Stauffer Library, but is available in Douglas and Bracken).

That's right, between 1-4pm Mon-Fri, if you're too lazy to get up out of your library seat or too lazy to search for it on the website or don't know how to use the phone, you can now get library assistance through MSN, Yahoo or AIM...

Frankly though, how many people will actually want "Stauffer Library" as one of their contacts?

Caveat: This is only reposted because some spammer left a disgusting comment on the original post, which is being deleted...clearly I will have to moderate the comments in the future.

Use of words

Two interesting case of how journalists/pundits use words:

1) Thomas Walkom, in his Saturday piece comparing our decision to sit out the Iraq war (and of our subsequent smugness about how 'smart' it was, when in reality, public opinion was split on the issue) and the current decision to accept another tour on the UN and NATO backed Afghan mission.

What's interesting is this line: "It would be involved in development and nation building. Yes, the "mission" (note the religious imagery) would be more dangerous. But it would serve a good cause."

Now, I'm no english major, but I'm pretty sure that the definition of "mission" doesn't necessarily require religious connotations. According to the Oxford English Dictionary:

Defition 1: "An act or instance of sending someone or (formerly, rare) something, or an instance of being sent, esp. to perform some function or service; spec. of (a) Jesuits to seminaries abroad; (e) a body of people to a foreign country to conduct engotiations, establish plitical or commercial relations, etc.

Clearly, the origin of the word is derived from religious pursuits, in terms of performing missionary work abroad, etc. However, its use has clearly been broadened to include secular pursuits, i.e. military, foreign, Apollo missions, to name a few. So, it seems like he's the one placing the religious connotation himself, rather than the objective of the Canadian military being in itself with religious goals.

2) The Sunday Mirror in the UK publishes a pretty grisly account of the opening of the seal hunt on the ice floes near Newfoundland and Labrador. I don't really have a stance because I know little of the methods, the economics, the environmental science of it. However, this line caught my attention:

"A moment ago one baby seal was a living creature, looking up towards its executioner, fear etched on its face. Its last gesture is to open its mouth wide. A silent cry for mercy."

I don't know, but fear and cries of mercy are clearly human emotions. The writer is clearly anthropomorphizing the baby seal pup in order to garner sympathy from the reader. The article doesn't describe the professions of the author, so I assume they're journalists.

In both instances, I didn't like the fact that they were being dishonest in their framing of the words. Since the first piece is clearly an opinion piece and the second very likely, I can see why they did it. It still doesn't mean I find it right for them to do it.

garbage, garbage, everywhere...

I'm sitting here in Stauffer Library *ahem* working *ahem (I don't know how to apply strikethrough characters...anyone, anyone...?) and behind me I've noticed that one of the garbage can is WAY overcapacity, in essence, a veritable mountain of garbage.

Clearly, the janitorial staff doesn't come in on the weekends to clear the trash and as exam time approaches, there's probably a linear if not quadratic or cubic increase in garbage that students generate.

I don't really have a point, except it reminds me of the beginning of the Simpsons' episode "Trash of the Titans" when Homer, Lisa and Bart are trying to NOT be the one with the last piece of garbage that can't stay on top of the garbage pile (otherwise, he/she would be the one who has to take out the trash...). I also can't remember the dialogue exchange between the three about the "rules of the garbage can," because that's what makes the joke here (and since I can't even find it after Googling, the joke is ruined).

I would love to see them institute this rule for the students using Stauffer. I bet THAT would reduce consumption by quite a bit.

One amusing link...one not so much.

The amusing one...

They totally should've added duct tape to this list...

The not-so-amusing one...

The sign is nigh...and the story's from Pang!

A somewhat tragedy of the commons

At Queen's, they renovated the first floor of Stauffer Library over the summer into what they called "The Learning Commons," refurbished it with many new computer cubicles intermixed with study tables containing comfortable sofas and concealed outlets for laptops. Additionally it is also the home to ITS support (our computer tech support) as well as the Writing Centre (which helps you with your writing, obviously).

Matt is right in that it's no longer a library environment on the first floor in that there is now a noticeable level of whispering and talking permeating the air but frankly, I don't mind it. In fact, it's probably one reason why I've become an avid Stauffer user. I work best with a low level of ambient noise and the study tables are fantastic for group discussions. I think it lets people feel less guilty about interacting with fellow students about their study (but conversely, there are people who do gab on about nothing). But I think the interaction outweighs the occasional loud talker or cell phone that goes off (and people still glare so the attempt at silence is still self-enforced to a degree). It does also force certain people to use earplugs or mp3 players, but there hasn't seem to be any major complaints and the library is still used to full capacity almost all the time. So until someone severely abuses the non-silence (which I hope no one does), I will remain a supporter of the Learning Commons.

Spreading the love...of exposing scientology

Earlier this month, I talked about Isaac Hayes quitting over 'religious intolerance' that South Park allegedly contains (only if you accept scientology as a religion, which I don't).

Now, courtesy of youtube.com, here's the episode in question. Note: EVERYTHING they say about Scientology is true...which makes the truth much more funnier than any lie could be...

So please. Spread this YouTube link to as many people as possible. Everyone needs to know (if they don't know already) how absurd it is.

As a bonus, Mark Ebner's expose written a decade ago on the fraud that is scientology.

Finding a meme behind my links

This is what I get for not going through my blogroll frequently enough. Freeman, before going on his world tour, tagged me with this meme before leaving and because I haven't been checking my blogroll these last few months, I completely missed it. So is a meme still a meme if there's a break in the tag is a few months late? I don't know, but I do know for certain that this is merely a distraction and not a hobby:

Four jobs I’ve had

• busboy (mmm....garbage and maggots...)
  
• golf ball handler (mmm...toxic paints and metal cleansers...)
  
• field work assistant (mmm...blackflies and demented squirrels...)
  
• copy centre employee (mmm...papercuts and toner...)
  

Four movies I can watch over and over

• Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
  
• The Usual Suspects
  
• The Shawshank Redemption
  
• Dogma
  

Four places I have lived

• Aurora, Ontario
  
• Hong Kong, British Territory (I left in '87)
  
• Scarborough, Ontario
  
• Kingston, Ontario
  

Four TV shows I love to watch

• The Daily Show
  
• This is Wonderland
  
• The Simpsons
  
• Corner Gas
  

Four places I have been on vacation

• Calgary
  
• Florence
  
• Halifax (when we weren't working, it WAS a vacation)
  
• Kingston (when I'm not doing schoolwork...)
  

Four websites I visit daily

• Metafilter
  
• Bourque
• Chromewaves
  
• Inkless Wells
  

Four of my favourite foods

• BBQ buns
  
• Chocolate
  
• Curry
  
• White Mountain Ice Cream in Kingston
  

Four places I would rather be right now

• In the Rockies on a hike with Moni and Jess
  
• At a live concert with the Decemberists
  
• Sailing to the Galapagos, retracing the voyage of the Beagle
  
• In my bed, asleep.
  

Four bloggers I am tagging

• Cam Smith
  
• Chris Smith
  
• Renee Lung
  
• Angela Kostenko

...distraction ended. Back to work, y'all!

Titanic effort, valiant in defeat, outstanding all around

We had a great run in intramural volleyball this year, and I'm sad that it's come to an end. We played probably the best game that I've ever seen, and for that, I'm ever so proud of the team. If you look at it, we were 13-3 this year, with one championship under our belt. This is nothing to scoff at.

I'm gonna miss playing volleyball with the SURP crew. And now that I'm leaving school, I don't know when I'll get the chance to play again. Dang...just when I was starting to be half-decent...

Educate me, folks!

In 2003, the Ontario government cancelled OAC (grade 13), creating the 'double cohort,' a year where two successive years of high school students vied for the same university spots.

Today, the Toronto Star did a full page piece gauging reaction from students, faculty and administration about how it has affected their respective views on university learning.

What interested me the most was the discussion of students coming in younger and thereby being 'less prepared for running their own lives.' One student talked about how some of his peers were unprepared for the high-level math that had to be learned and thus some professors were concerned that they couldn't teach the material they needed to and so students weren't learning the required material.

Before I continue, let me say that I loved OAC. I have no qualms graduating older than others. It definitely helped me figure out the subjects I was interested and I was definitely more mature, so coping with living away was easier than it would've been if I had entered university after grade 12.

But, every other province push their students into university after grade 12. We are merely leveling with them in terms of age of entrance. So how is it that we don't hear of faculty or administration over yonder complaining about the lack of preparation and maturity in their students? Surely Ontarians aren't any less mature than any other young adult in Canada? Are we more needy? A greater sense of entitlement in needing others to do things for 1st yr students? Are we still getting used to the idea of 18 yr olds entering university? Is it that the elementary and high school curriculum just hasn't caught up with the material needed for students to enter university?

Earlier in the year, Ontario talked about removing calculus from the high school curriculum completely, wanting to leave it to the university to teach the subject. That didn't seem like a good idea since even in places like BC, they give an introduction to calculus (I personally needed a full term to understand it...) in high school.

So all you readers (the 2 or 3 of you) involved in or know of people involved in the education system, help me out here. Why are we where we are?

Scientology and Hypocrisy go hand in hand

Isaac Hayes, the voice of 'Chef' on South Park, quit in protest of the show's satire look on his nutty belief system, scientology. He says, "There is a place in this world for satire but there is a time when satire ends and intolerance and bigotry toward religious beliefs begins."

So, Isaac, where were you when the show's was making fun of Christians, Jews, Muslims, etc.? hmmm...? We're waiting...or did your chocolate salty balls just shrink back into your hypocritical body?

CBC and donairs: two of my favourite things

With all the discussion about our armed forces in Afghanistan, the death of Slobodan Milosevic, the lack of work on my thesis, and the personal soap opera drama going on in my program, you'd think the last thing I'd be blogging about would be donairs...but here I am, anyways.

Now, for those not from Queen's or Halifax, you may wonder, what's a donair? As a quick overview, it's slices of this meat concoction shaved off a stick (beef, bread crumbs, spices), seared, topped with tomatoes, onions, donair sweet sauce (which makes or breaks the donair, personally) and all wrapped in a pita WAY too small for the amount it has to hold. Consequently, eating it is a mess, but is it oh so delicious (especially after a night of drinking)!

I was first introduced to one on such an occasion in 3rd year I think and I absolutely loved it. I was told by someone whom I've forgotten since that the donair originated in Halifax. So when I had the opportunity to go there and the rest of Nova Scotia for field work, I obviously had to treat myself to some donair from its birthplace. Of course, the donairs there ARE so much better. And some Haligonians I had met there did further argue that donairs were indeed born in their fine city.

Returning to Kingston, some of my friends and colleagues were convinced that the donair WAS NOT invented in Halifax, but surmised that it was merely an imported Lebanese delicacy. I remained skeptical of their claim but my belief was never rock solid.

Until I watched the CBC National tonight. The last story was about John Kamoulakos of Halifax, the man the story claims to have invented the donair but is now retiring after 37 yrs of serving this messy treat. While Mr. Kamoulakos' came up with the unique recipe of meat + the specific donair sweet sauce, the possible source of uncertainty lies in its resemblance to a gyro, which uses lamb and tzatziki instead. Since he never patented the meat and sweet sauce (though from the piece, it seems like no one has at all), his claims of inventing the food are just that. This is, however, the first discussion I've ever heard about the origin of donairs not by word of mouth, but by an organization as reputable as the CBC. Therefore, until someone brings me some solid evidence that this gastronomic delight can be found outside of Canada, I am inclined to believe that Mr. Kamoulakos truly is the inventor of this piece of Haligonian cuisine.

As for more serious blogging...well, maybe after a donair.

Update: Courtesy of the Daily News, which I linked to in the post:

THE ORIGIN OF THE DONAIR

It’s 1971: Greek gyros weren’t popular with Nova Scotians, recalled John Kamoulakos. So, Peter Gamoulakos had to come up with something new. Lamb became beef. Tzatziki became a sweet donair sauce. And a new meal was created. Selling from a store on the Bedford Highway, an impressed customer asked Peter what the new creation was. Not wanting to call it a gyro, Peter looked around and saw on the spit the word “Doner.” And so it started.

More Crawford

Courtesy of the Globe and Mail:

'...she led almost from start to finish, qualifying eighth in the time trial, and then winning her heat, semi-final and the final by comfortable margins, humbling a field that included the best women's cross country skiers in the world..."I laughed for most of the medal ceremony until O Canada started," she said. "And then I did some really nice singing."...'


Courtesy of the Toronto Star:

"Crawford was funny, irreverent and charming, laughing the whole time she was on the podium, except when "O Canada" was played and she belted it out with all her heart. She drew an ovation from the assembled journalists at the end of her news conference for her fresh enthusiasm and witty responses, her father Glen recording the proceedings on a video camera."

Favourite Olympic Moment

I wasn't expecting to watch the Olympics alot, particularly with my thesis looming; but the Olympics always finds a way to suck me in.

Today was in general a good day for Canada. Cindy Klassen and Kristina Groves won gold and silver in the 1500m long-track speed skating and a team of short-track speed skaters won silver in the 3000m relay. Unfortunately, Team Canada was disappointingly eliminated from Men's Hockey with a poor performance.

Now, Canada won an additional medal today (or yesterday, the 22nd) to bring it up to a best of 18 medals for the country.

Chandra Crawford raced in the 1.1 km cross-country skiing sprint competition. Now, this was her first Olympic games, so there was no medal expectation from her. But, she had a game plan that she wanted to execute in each of her races. She'd take the early lead, let someone lead the downhill portion so she could draught off them, then pull away on the uphill into the final lanes in front of the stands. This got her into the finals with fellow Canadian Beckie Scott, a medal contender.

What no one expected was that this plan would work brilliantly in the finals, so much so that she had a full second lead over her competition to take gold!

Now, participating in your first Olympics must be exciting enough. A top-10 finish would probably be a highlight in your life...but to win the gold medal! Needless to say, she was bursting with happiness and joy.

Now this is my favourite 2006 olympic moment: The announcer is going through the script in announcing the medal winner, "Coming in first, winning the gold medal, representing Canada..." and so forth, and you just see Chandra Crawford just itching to pounce on that podium. When they finally announce her name, she's on it, hands raised, full of exuberance, biggest smile in the world and dancing around like she's at her friend's house. It's that naked joy, unrestrained and uninhibited, that I could watch all day long. Congratulations Chandra!

Courtesy CBC

Rapid-fire links

1) Student finds toilet water cleaner than ice at fast food restaurants
(It's another reason why I ask for 'no ice' at any fast-food joint...)

2) Nissan Terranaut: for the richest scientist or the biggest Trekkie fanboy out there...two VERY small niche markets...

3) Global Warming might impact Mackenzie Pipeline: Sierra Club
(Winner of tonight's "Most ironic headline" award, having already been nominated for the "Most ironic project" award)

No place for indecision

I completely cost my intramural volleyball team the game by second-guessing my own judgment and being indecisive. This fence-sitting has to stop.

Wonder no more.

Why must humanity always disappoint me like this? It's with much sadness that I announce that This Is Wonderland is coming to an end after March 15, after two wondeful seasons and into a strong third. The CBC cancelled it, citing the usual "low-ratings" as executioner.

This coming on the heels of the demise of Arrested Development, diminishes the bright spots of the TV landscape further so that we're left with such fine programming as THIS and THIS.

This is Wonderland, the story of public defender Alice Douray and the characters of the Canadian court system, was not only good because of its characterizations of the lawyers and clients, but also because the cases rarely involved high profile murder, extortion, kidnapping, etc. Instead, you're treated to an overburdened justice system dealing with elderly junkies, the mentally ill, a homeless preacher, school bullying, etc. In essence, as real-life cases as you're going to get.

While I can only hope that Season 2 and 3 will be out on DVD (following Season 1) at some point in the future, I don't envision a Family Guy-esque comeback for this show. Like Arrested Development, it was smart, funny, engaging, and killed WAY before its peak. I have no idea what CBC will replace it with. I mean, it's not like there's a plethora of good Canadian drama waiting in the wings.

Who needs to develop our own Canadian drama scene when we can just have more Ron McLean, "Movie Night in Canada," or "Hockeyville," yet another reality TV show. Because, we're all about original programming over at Front St.

More Science

Eden and Evolution: the Intelligent Design debate continues, for reasons beyond my sanity. (The whole class discussion part seems staged to me...)

The Deutsch Factor: Why is ANYTHING that NASA is involved in being considered a religious issue?

No way home

For the first time this week, I felt that Kingston wasn't my home anymore.

I've talked about this previously before, in that seeing friends graduate and depart for local and global destinations made feel a bit nostalgic about good times past and a sense of place and dynamics shifting from what I know.

This week, however, I've definitely sensed as if I've overstayed my welcome, like the times when you're with your friends at the bar and instead of asking you to leave because it's past Last Call, they just start putting up the chairs around you instead.

Everything is a little duller. The buildings are a little bit more faded, the people a faceless sea of collared shirts and cellphones. I can't even bring myself to care about the AMS or Queen's Rector elections anymore. Even Golden Words, a staple of sunshine on Queen's Campus, is less humourous than years past. Kingston and Queen's just seems like a pastiche of what life should be like, but instead, is unimpressive and not amusing.

The last 2.5 years has not gone the way I had expected to go, and perhaps that's been a part of it. It's funny how life throws curveballs at you, and you know it, but you still swing at it and miss. Guess these are signs that it's time to be traded to a new place and try it again (cripes, I've been reduced to baseball metaphors...). The question then is, whether this is it. A cyclical montage of good times and bad, without context or script, until one runs the complete gamut and it starts over again.

Nothing gold can stay, Robert Frost said. I guess neither can I.

God Talk

For various reasons, the topic of God has been prevalent (especially when I was approached by two people today representing Campus Crusade for Christ, unsolicited) and Matt posed a question to me that I had never thought of before...

If God does exist, why does God have to be a benevolent god?

This provoked a series of questions in my head, of which the summary is thus:

If God has a side of benevolence, why not malevolence? If God is infinite, shouldn't God have an infinite array of emotions? Isn't it allowed that God be kind one day, sarcastic the next, bitter and resentful toward's God's creation the day after, etc., etc.?

If God is instead above such...base human emotions, then shouldn't God be above all emotions? If that's the case, then why would God even care what one insigificant creature thinks or acts at any given time on one of billions upon billions of planets? Wouldn't God just be an absentee diety that chooses to intervene if God felt like it?

Not that it matters to me anyways, since I don't believe that God exists. But a God with many emotions, particularly one with a sense of humour, would probably be infinitely more fun.

"Inside an Epic Battle"

This is the title of Paul Well's 35 page, 24 000 word piece for Maclean's about recounting the ups and downs of the Harper and Martin campaign (it's only the beginning few paragraphs) during this recent election. I actually read the whole thing at an Indigo's tonight because I know him to be a good writer and while reading his blog, I wanted to read what he had found while covering their respective campaigns

While I don't think there are any spectacular revelations in store, it certainly portrays an interesting picture of the hard work Stephen Harper had to put in to moderate his views and the views of his party, compose a comprehensive policy platform and effectively deliver this to the Canadian public. On the other hand, the Liberals seem to have coasted through much of the campaign in the expectation that they can scare voters into handing them a victory.

Two particular parts stood out. At one point midway through the campaign, some Liberals remarked that they needed their polling numbers to further sink behind the Conservatives than they had been in the hopes that it'll scare voters back. Wells likened it to satellites or other objects in space skimming dangerously close to the planet's atmosphere before it skips back out into space, aka 'the slingshot effect.' Wells remarked how dangerously dumb this strategy was, and any logical person would agree. This just seems to be a sign that the Liberals had nothing substantive to convince voters why the Liberals should be voted in. It smacks of laziness.

The second point is much more inconsequential. At one point, Wells discusses (I think) Klander's inappropriate remark about comparing Olivia Chow to a chow chow dog. He remarks offhand how this story spread through the blogosphere, particularly through Inkless Wells. If you don't know by now, Inkless Wells is his own blog.

Either way, it was a good read and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the behind-the-scenes shenanigans of an election. I still maintain my guarded optimism about Harper's tenure as PM. A lot of people, including me, will be watching closely.

Here's a different opinion on the piece by Declan. What's more interesting are the comments, particularly Paul Wells' response to Declan's criticisms...

Ummm...I'll be Liberal Party Leader.

So...Frank McKenna, John Manley and Brian Tobin, Liberal heavyweights all, have said that they will not be running for the Liberal leadership. Obviously, that's generated buzz in various circles, a good one being from Paul Wells.

Since no one really wants to be Liberal Leader, I'm more than willing to consider the position. I only have a Master's thesis to work on, I'm sure I can run the party in my spare time when I'm not studying or marking. How about it, Matt, want to throw your hat in or be my Campaign Manager?

On a more serious note, Canadian pundit heavyweights (another bunch of 'em), Wells, Potter, Coyne and Cosh, have started a campaign to convince Stephane Dion to run. This definitely needs some serious consideration by all.

Censorship and Climate Change

The New York Times reported that Dr. James Hansen, a prominent NASA scientist, was being silenced through NASA channels by the Bush administration because he was being outspoken about the need to combat climate change more aggressively than is being implemented currently in the US or elsewhere.

While such tactics are not new in recent years to federally-funded scientists, the public has done nothing even while scientists are screaming bloody-murder. In fact, it's funny (or not) how NASA spokesperson can only speak about the Hansen case only after a rep from NASA headquarters assured the Times that there'd be no retribution for going on the record. Yeah, the Administration believes in science...oh sure...

...And just as a reminder to myself...and to David Forsayeth, Comm '08, that Dr. James Hansen knows enough about future climate trends to be outspoken about how little we are doing towards combatting climate change.

And on a related note, it's funny how arctic sovereignty has become such a big issue now that the polar ice caps are melting. But no, the discussion's never about the environmental repercussions or how this wouldn't be an issue if we did a goddamn thing about climate change. Instead, it's about all the oil resource in the area that's opening up or the trading routes (again, not discussing how that'll affect the fragile ecosystem up there and all the other spin-off consequences) or putting military personnel on non-military coast guard icebreakers...

By the way, no, I don't think we can stop the ice caps from melting now...slowing it down, maybe...but not when we're doing NOTHING about climate change.

Comments here and there

Canadian police chiefs continue to support gun registry (via Canoe News)
Canadian police chiefs wants to open a dialogue with the Conservatives about the value of gun control and legislation and a gun registry, not THE gun registry that had its cost overblown and that the Conservatives want to dismantle. Seems reasonable enough. The head of the Association of the Chiefs of Police state that police officers use the registry on a daily basis. However, Conservative MP Breitskreuz, a critic of the registry, disputes this notion. Now, I don't know about you, but who do you think I believe knows more about how the registry is being used by front-line officers?

A Newsweek report on how attorneys within the US government tried to rein in Bush's new powers given through the war on terror and how most who opposed the White House are now either in academia or in private legal firms.
What worries me more about this piece is that everyone who tried to defend US civil liberties against the White House are now practically out of the machinery. So who's left to make sure they're not continuing to abuse their powers?

Frank McKenna, ex-Canadian Ambassador to the US, will NOT be running for the Liberal leadership (via CTV News)
With McKenna and Manley out of the running, no real star candidates seem to be emerging. Looks like it's going to be a pit fight between Stronach, Brison, Ignatieff, Cauchon and possibly Brian Tobin. I don't know any of them personally, but to me, I can't see any of them leading the Liberal Party, let alone be a Prime Minister. At least not yet. Does that mean we're looking at a few more years of Conservative rule until one of these 5 have matured into a leader, a la Harper's last few years?

New-ish Beginnings

my Powerbook crashed on me so this will be the digest version of my original musings on post-Election thoughts.

I predicted on a bet on Sunday (without looking at any final polls) the following results for yesterday's election:

132- Conservatives
90- Liberals
58- Bloc Quebecois
27- NDP
1- Independent

The actual results are as follows:

124- Conservatives
103- Liberals
51- Bloc Quebecois
29- NDP
1- Independent

I'm surprised that the Bloc were unable to grab more seats than they did. The Federalist in me is pleased. It's good to see both the Liberals and Conservatives with some sort of representation in Quebec.

Regionally, nothing's changed, with the West still more or less Conservative (particularly, Alberta's Blue Sweep) while all of Southern Ontario went Blue except for the GTA (which has become a Liberal/NDP bastion). The fact that few urban areas were willing to consider the Conservatives as an alternative distresses me as to whether or not there will be a new divide among Canada between the urban and rural populations vis a vis the 'East-West' clash (which actually baffles me a little, in that we've been unable to solve the problem before). While the pundits hope that a western Canada PM will change that (i.e. voice Western Canada issues), the problem remains that the attitude of Us vs. Them is still with us, that we're not trying to reconcile ourselves into one nation but that the other kids have the power now.

However, that is not to say that I don't believe Harper will just focus on Western Canada issues. His party's put out a very articulate vision of what they want Canada to be (even if you disagree with it) and have gained support throughout Canada. For that, they deserve credit and kudos. I dislike the knee-jerk pessimism of him being in office that is prevalent with my peers. Martin's disappointing run at the office shows that even with people we thought had the vision of Canada that we thought was good, they don't necessary turn out to achieve anything. For that, PM Harper should be given at minimum, the benefit of the doubt, if not a fair chance for him to show what he can do for all of Canada.

I don't believe that Harper has a hidden agenda, and with the configuration of our future Parliament, it seems like there will be much consensus building that he'll have to preside over. How he'll reconcile the social conservative wing of his party with the rest of Canada will be interesting. Another question will be whether the consensus needed will result in actual compromise in the bills that are passed (since it'll require 3 of 4 parties to vote in favour) or whether they'll be diluted to mean nothing. How his cabinet will fair will also play a factor, since none of them will have any experience handling a Federal Portfolio (even if they do have provincial experience). It's been said before. It's easy to criticize and be the opposition. It's much more difficult once you're in power, how to actually run the machine that is the federal government.

With that, I wish PM Harper luck and fortitude. Maybe we can finally leave the doldrums and restart the national conversation about what it means to be Canadian and how we should treat each other.

Away from my desk

It's been a good 2 or more weeks since I've posted. I didn't realize how busy it would be with one class for this term. Yes, you heard me right. It's strange how a lot of the classes that aren't for credit (auditing, TAing, etc.) are taking up so much of my time, and all of them are front-ended up to Reading Week. It's bizarre and inconvenient, to be sure.

The term's shaping up to be what I expected, which is hardly a surprise. Restarting my thesis was like turning the crank on the old car engines of yore. It takes a few tries, and sputters out once in a while. As for everything else, everything shifts, but nothing really changes. relations change but stay the same. Everything is in flux, like everything else, so I'm really not contributing anything new here.

There are lots of stories to tell out there, and I'm sure there are gems buried in my Bloglines (which must be piling up links of its own), it's allowing myself the time to go through it that's the problem. The world changes, but I'm not keeping up with what's going on, and that bothers me.

But I have a giant Toblerone and the complete Calvin and Hobbes Collection by my computer. I guess that'll do for comfort...Til next time...which will actually be soon.

This is how we start the new year...

Via Metafilter, Bourque, AP, etc.

Woman Marries Dolphin.

There's really nothing else to say except that the whole thing's just weird.

Science is what it is, no more, no less

Most in the scientific community have responded with relief over the Dover ruling. However, a professor of philosphy has written an interesting response to the ruling...which I disagree with wholeheartedly, hence this long post.

In his piece, Professor George argues that there is no strict dichotomy between science and non-science. He gives three points that I'm contesting:

1) "Science employs the scientific method. No, there's no such method: Doing science is not like baking a cake."

Actually, yes there is. As any science student knows, the general scientific method that ALL science experiments use are based on 3 main principles: hypothesis, experimentation and observation of the results. If the observations follow the hypothesis, then it leads to a scientific theory that holds for now but could be disproved in the future. The other requirement is that the experiment is repeatable by others (one reason why we don't have cold fusion, or clone humans). If your claim doesn't meet these requirements, it's not a valid scientific inquiry. Thus, using his analogy, just as there are many different recipes to bake a cake, the general principle of how to bake a cake still holds. So yes, there is such a thing as a scientific method.

2) "Science can be proved on the basis of observable data. No, general theories about the natural world can't be proved at all. Our theories make claims that go beyond the finite amount of data that we've collected. There's no way such extrapolations from the evidence can be proved to be correct."

First off, you can't prove "Science." It's not a thing TO BE proved. I'll attribute that to...sloppy writing. As scientists, our theories can never prove til the end of time that something is what it is. Scientific inquiries only state that based on the available data and knowledge and experimentation, X holds. If Y, also based on scientific inquiry, comes and contradicts X, then X no longer holds and we have to This is why there is such a push to try to reconcile general relativity with quantum physics because one is contradicting the other in different areas. Thus, general relativity is still being used at a macroscopic level to explain gravity because no other explanation works but isn't used when studying quantum events. Perhaps scientists have done a poor job to convey that, but it doesn't mean we should scrap the whole notion of scientific inquiry altogether.

3) "Science can be disproved, or falsified, on the basis of observable data. No, for it's always possible to protect a theory from an apparently confuting observation. Theories are never tested in isolation but only in conjunction with many other extra-theoretical assumptions (about the equipment being used, about ambient conditions, about experimenter error, etc.). It's always possible to lay the blame for the confutation at the door of one of these assumptions, thereby leaving one's theory in the clear. And so forth."

Scientists aren't trying to lay the 'blame' on the extra assumptions to protect one's theory (well, they shouldn't). However, we want to be able to consider as many possibilities as possible about why such an event occurred as it did. We want other scientists to show that these extra assumptions either do or do not affect our results and thus either validate or refute our theory. If there are indeed that many caveats, then it would never be used as a general explanation for something until they are explained away using scientific inquiry

At this point, it seems like this professor has a poor notion of science that any undergrad science student could refute his points. But it gets better. He goes on to argue that astrology or parapsychology should be accepted as 'science' (DAMN! Brought my crystal ball into my biology exam and my dissection kit into my astrology class...) and instead teaching 'science' should be based on the 'best science':

"Intelligent design shouldn't be taught in the science classroom any more than Ptolemaic astronomy and for exactly the same reason: They are both poor accounts of the phenomena they seek to explain and both much improved upon by other available theories."

My question are, what standard does one judge what best and poor science are? And who gets to be the judge? Since he's robbed the authority of the scientific community to decide whether a theory was reached using accepted scientific methods, what are the new means then? He doesn't provide an answer to that.

Two more quotes and that's it:

"We should be less proprietorial about the unhelpful moniker "science" but insist that only the best science be taught in our schools."

...so the moniker 'science' is unhelpful, but it's ok that he uses 'best science'? I'm confused.

"If we're to be honest, either we should find alternatives to the courts to protect our curricula from bad science, or we should start arguing in court that the separation of church and state would be violated by intelligent design's injection into the science curriculum on account of its predominantly religious motivation." (emphasis mine)

Let me answer the emphasized part with Judge Jones' actual ruling:

"To briefly reiterate, we first note that since ID is not science, the conclusion is inescapable that the only real effect of the ID Policy is the advancement of religion" (pp. 133-134)

"The proper application of both the endorsement and Lemon tests to the facts of this case makes it abundantly clear that the Board’s ID Policy violates the Establishment Clause...We have concluded that it is not, and moreover that ID cannot uncouple itself from its creationist, and thus religious, antecedents." (p. 136).

I didn't even have to read the entire ruling but skim the Judge's conclusion to find this. Did Prof. George even read the ruling or do ANY research? I'm an amateur blogger at best and I found this out in five minutes.

There's my response. I'll be awaiting yours...if you're willing to wade through all of this.

Add this to your blogroll...RIGHT NOW!

Boing Boing is probably the best blog I've started reading in the last 6 months. Not because of it's insightful analysis but because the stuff that get's posted are either ridiculous and hilarious. Here's a sampler as my Christmas present to you:

New Swiss Money has AIDS, A fetus, and skull

Cute Overload...seriously...

Everything You Know About Sex Is Wrong...WRONG WRONG WRONG!

Waiter, there's a rooster in my Soup!

Droidel, Droidel, Droidel (You heard me)

Park(ing) in San Francisco

Who steals a Penguin...seriously? It's like someone throwing a shoe...

Trouble with the Little Red Book

Fish With Two Mouths...GROSS!

If not one of these stories appeal to you...then I can't help ya.

And another year ends

First to answer some earlier questions, my 'self' that needs to slip away is a metaphorical one, not a physical one...the physical self stays.

Before I continue, I think we need something light-hearted, say two students from U Michigan running around their library as Pac-Man and the Ghost (Quicktime, Courtesy Boing Boing).

Now onto more mundane things. My third term of my Master's has ended and I'm about to go home for a 2 and change week's worth of respite. For what it's worth, it's been a mixed-bag term.

Academically, it's been horrible. My thesis has been untouched and our project course brought neither joy, wisdom or anything of worth save maybe our report that could be used in my portfolio. Frankly, there was such little innovation bound in those pages that it probably ain't worth much anyhow.

Personally, it's a strange journey. Many of the people I have met are great people, as I've blogged about before. I've also grown to intimately know the friends still here as well, and that too is something to be enjoyed. However, in other areas there is no progression, no regression, nothing. People around me get hurt and there's very little that I can do, and it's a shitty feeling. I guess it also doesn't help that it's December and I miss that feeling of fingers touching...

One bright spot is our victorious intramural volleyball team, which one the rec-league this Fall. We're all jonesing for our t-shirts, but I've a feeling that Duane Parliament's gonna conveniently forget that he promised us these items.

There were definitely high hopes for this term, from me and some of my friends. It's darkly funny how it's turned out instead. And while I would normally say, 'oh well, next term's going to be better,' I'm gonna hedge my bet just a little this time around.

The Canadian election's about and I've no frickin' clue what's going on. Trying to keep up with the world this term has been excruciatingly tough, no thanks to our Project Course and Ga-TI-neau. What I do like is that there's a lot more policy being bantered about, particularly from the Conservatives, for which I give them kudos. Whether I'll agree with their policies or not remains to be seen, but at least it's making me want to read about what their plan is for Child Care or Defense, and it's making everyone (including me) play catch-up. It's too bad their leader's Stephen Harper. Otherwise, I'd definitely consider voting Conservative...but for now, I'll stick with the Greens until I've finished digesting the respective platforms.

Finally, on two points that gives me a sliver of feeling of hope that humanity isn't as bloody useless as it's making itself to be,

First, the minority US Senate has successfully filibustered the Defense Bill that has the scenery-chewing Alaskan Senator Ted Steven's tacked-on provision to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Instead, the bill will be passed without the ANWR provision and once again, the Refuge will indeed be a refuge...until Ted Stevens decides once again to tack it onto every bill that passes through the Senate...

Second, while Kansas' Board of Education decided, in an act of supreme arrogance and stupidity, to rewrite the definition of 'Science,' a federal judge in Dover, Pennsylvania has ruled that Intelligent Design is, well, not so intelligent; and neither can one really rewrite the definition of science. You can read the full decision HERE, and the kicker is that the judge is Judge John E. Jones III, a Republican appointed by Bush...I'd like to see Bill O'Reilly spin this one (though if he can spin Jon Stewart's show as one against Christmas, then I guess he can spin anything)...

Well, that should leave you with enough of me to chew on. Hope it's delicious.

My self isn't slipping away

The path I walk now is a day to day struggle still. Particularly in social situations, my old self keep creeping back, and thoughts slowly insinuate itself back in. It is a difficult situation to want to let go while half of you still hold on to the loose threads. Everyday I try to fight it off and some days are certainly better than others. But there needs to be a solution to this. I can't afford to keep going the way I am going. I need to lose my self. That seems to be a workable solution. I don't know how it can be done. I am looking for guidance. Because going back to the way things were just makes the situation more and more difficult for myself. I didn't like who I was then. But slowly, it's creeping back into me.

And I worry.

Three's company

Three interesting items that came to my attention today:

1) Courtesy Bourque, In an attempt to become more neutral, the Red Cross is considering changing their logo from a Swiss cross to a diamond, so that more aid organizations from various cultural backgrounds can be part of the international organization. I personally don't like the logo all too much, but I can understand the sentiment.

2) Courtesy metafilter and Jen, Forbes recently put out the 15 richest fictional characters. A fun little thought exercise.

3) Courtesy Yahoo News. A satellite image of the polar regions and the distribution of sea ice. the yellow line indicates the extent that it used to be. Instead, we're probably seeing the continual loss of sea ice. It is hard to say how this will affect the gulf stream or the North Atlantic current. But the loss of this much sea ice is disconcerting...

Blame Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Ramadan, etc.

According to Workopolis, a website devoted to employment searches, work productivity declines as we approach the holiday season.

I just love it when I get to shift blame on something or someone else. See, my slackery is not due to my poor work ethic...it's because the holidays are coming! They're the ones enabling me, or not enabling me, as the case may be...

A smorgasbord of 'On'...

There are so many places to begin. Not posting in the last three weeks has irritated me to some degree, not so much because there wasn't any interesting stories happening but rather nothing really stood out. But since I'm trying to avoid work right now, it's a pretty good time to write about everything that's been going on. Beware: It's going to be long, but it's a smorgasbord, so I guess you can pick and choose...

On not working
My work ethic is atrocious. Someone needs to pistol-whip it into shape. Not that blogging right now is of any help. My friend Tara has an insatiable ethic that is to be admired and copied. She's given me many fishes, I'm just not learning how to fish (weird metaphor, I know). Maybe I need to be her protege or something....

On silence in the blogosphere
I've been noticing that quite a few of the blogs I regularly frequent are shutting down, particularly my friend Matt, who was the one who convinced me to start blogging in the first place. Not that it's new, but there are others, more prominent than our little corner of the blogosphere, who've retired because of other commitments and such. While there are many new ones popping up everyday, I've yet to find those who have the same level of passion, skill and often times humour, as the blogs of old. I've yet to decide whether to update my blogroll to reflect these changes (as it would also be time consuming) but it is a shame to see them go.

On salmonella kicking my ass
Part of the reason why I've been slacking off and reading blogs is due to the fact that I contracted salmonella with some of my friends, unfortunately, through some contaminated bean sprouts at a Phnom Penh in Kingston. It's now been linked to a distributor, not the restaurant (God knows I love that place, not that, well, I believe that God exists. But anyways). And while the Ontario Medical Officer of Health has put out advisories about this issue, people are still getting sick. In any case, with a clean bill of health, I've to catch up on everything else. Still, being part of the initial cases that blew the lid on this was kinda cool (but medically speaking, very not cool). I was part of the tipping point, as it were. A tipping point of salmonella.

On Hating Gatineau
A mandatory project course on developing land in Gatineau, Quebec that I'm taking in fulfillment of my planning degree is leaching my soul drop by drop. I've no time to concentrate on my other courses, innovative thinking is stifled, my thesis has been untouched since September, and emotions are running high as the end approaches. I've just lost complete interest in the project but it still consumes my life like spontaneous combustion. I'm glad I don't have to sell our plan to the clients, because it would be the worst piece of salesmanship since the Bloody Zit Froster incident.

On the fall of the Canadian government and the subsequent election
I'm WAY to late out of the gate on this one, since the election's been called for Jan. 23rd and campaigning is in full swing. My brief thoughts are this: the Liberals can't stay in power, the Conservatives can't win a majority on their issues, the NDP can't win a majority because no one likes them enough, and the Bloc Quebecois just needs to go away. So, ideally at this point, is a Conservative minority government propped up by the Liberals or NDP from time to time, hopefully moderating some of the Tories more...extreme social views. These next few weeks will be oodles of mudslinging, policy bashing fun! You'll feel dirty, but at least you won't contract any diseases afterwards.

On how the environment will be FUBARed still
If you don't know what FUBAR means, rent the movie Fubar. Moving right along. I don't have 8 years to discuss how we are continually damaging our environment, from the contamination of rivers in China to the inactivity on climate change (though apparently they've finally agreed on the rules). When no one's willing to lift a finger until 8 years of meetings have been concluded, I have little hope left for the natural environment that we rely on everyday of our lives.

On the overwhelming stories of the day
This is part of the reason why there's been no daily blogging. Too many interesting stories pique my interest but not enough time for a deeper analysis. Again why the smorgasord analogy is so apt. Why savour a particular dish when you can just gorge at the trough?

On TV
The Daily Show is doing more different things (they had the White Stripes performing last night) and while I don't know if it's any better, but I've certainly been more impressed by the Colbert Report since it's inception into the Canadian airwaves. Both shows commented on the fall of the Martin government this week and the fact that some Canadian news outlets thought that this was news made me sad...but what does make me happy is the fact that the first season of This is Wonderland is now for sale. A wonderful Canadian legal drama that is well casted, funny and endearing at the same time. Go out and buy it or watch the third season that's currently on the CBC, wednesday's at 8pm EST.

On happiness
It's just a good feeling to make someone else happy, especially through simple gestures like a card, chocolates, or flowers. Oh, if only everything else was so simple...

On traffic calming
I can't just leave this post without something quirky. Courtesy of Metafilter and Urban Cartography, a British citizen has employed novel ways to slow down the traffic that race through his neighbourhood. No rumle strips or speed bumps. Instead, 11-foot rabbits, a giant bed, and the placement of an entire living room in the middle of the road are used to force drivers to slow down and for the rest of us to think about how we conceive of the use of a road. A must read even if you have no interest in traffic calming.

So I've stuffed myself with blogging, but the irony is that I haven't eaten yet, so off to lunch I go. Until next time.

Darwin's Legacy

With the continued media coverage of the fallout in the rulings about Kansas and Dover, I thought it best to provide something more than my casual rant.

E.O. Wilson is one of the world's preeminient biologists and a pulitzer-prize winning author. In Harvard Magazine, he ruminates on Darwin's contribution to science and its impacts beyond those borders. He argues that 'scientific humanism' may be the only solution out of the supposed dichotomies between 'god-centered religion' and 'atheistic communism.' To me, this smacks of oversimplification as it grounds all of humanity in our biology and leaves culture and societal forces in the ether, as it were.

Still, it is a worthwhile article that should be read by more people than it will be.

Je me souviens

There will be no ranting today, no silent rage, no hating of Kansas or any other state.

Today there is only remembrance. I am here today because they were there then.

Fueling my silent rage (yet again)

"In addition, the board rewrote the definition of science, so that it is no longer limited to the search for natural explanations of phenomena."

...all because six Republicans from the Kansas Board of Education think that astrology, alchemy and magic are also valid fields of science.

Oh, and they approved the introduction of Intellent Design into the science curriculum yet again...

Can somebody please pray to their lightning god to strike them down now or something?

(Courtesy CNN)

I am Jack's Zen Revelation

It's funny where inspiration or revelations come from. Particularly when it comes after a drinking invitation and in the shower, you just have to pause and wonder.

But onto the meat of this post.

A few weeks back, I was lost, without purpose. And a convergence of events led me to question re-evaluate my position in life. In so doing, I invoked Rabbi Hillel's three questions. The universe opened up for me tonight and I've the answers:

1) If I am not for myself, then who is for me?

No one and everyone. And that is the point.

2) If I am only for myself, what am I?

This one needs a longer explanation. Throughout my life, any TV show (Babylon 5), music (NIN), movie (Fight Club) or book (A Prayer for Owen Meany) that involved the theme of self-sacrifice had a particular resonance with me. For example, on one episode of Babylon 5, the character states,

"The Third Principle of Sentient Life is the capacity for self-sacrifice."

Of all the lines ever spoken on that show for example, this one always stuck with me. As my university career progressed, I volunteered less and less because of circumstance. It happens, that's the way it unfolded. I accept that. As I grew older, I felt more empty inside. Upon reflection, the only times when I could feel good about myself was when I was able to help somebody about anything, big or small.

That was it. And as the prospects for personal relationships grow smaller, I realize that this is the my calling. While it may not be the ideal answer, it is the one given to me and I have been asked to accept it. For that, I will have to learn to be content. And of course I have to learn it. It is not an easy road. True altruism never is. Jesus, the teacher, showed me that. The result of a Catholic upbringing. And so I take this road less travelled, in my own small way.

So to answer the second question, "What am I?" The answer is simple,

"I am one who serves."

3) If not now, when?

That's obvious. It IS now. It begins today.

A Sudoku of epic proportions

I guess anyone designing games involving squares will eventually move themselves towards a cubic version of the game.

And so, my friend Danna has led me to a cubic version of Sudoku. I haven't worked on Sudoku enough for me to tackle this right now. but damn is it impressive.

A likely unlikely ally

According to an interview conducted by Associated Press,

a representative from the Vatican stated that religion is compatible with science and that a dialogue needs to be maintained so that science doesn't lead us down the road to the 'A-bomb' and religion isn't lead to fundamentalism.

This has been, in these two stories HERE and HERE, been interpreted as a denunciation of Intelligent Design and a support of evolution.

I would disagree in parts. Just because John Paul II's states that, "evolution is more than a hypothesis is more than proof" does not mean the Catholic Church believes in evolution completely. They just think it's plausible, moreso than Intelligent Design AS a science. But as a belief, that's exactly what they believe. I guess it's still debatable whether one can believe in the mechanics of evolution and still uphold a creator as source of evolution. I don't think they're incompatible, but I also don't think Evolution proponents should make make this a bigger deal than it really is.

Overreach, much?

According to the Washington Post,

the FBI have the authority to basically examine your life all in the name of defending freedom.

WOW. the story of this current administration gets better and better.

When a Hummer makes ME smile...

and no, it's not what you're thinking, so stop it.

I'm actually referring to this post from California where high gas prices have caused Hummer dealers to be overstocked with inventory. To hide this fact from potential customers, they moved the merchandise to a 'secret' location that was eventually found by the bloggers. They posted pictures of rows upon rows of unsold non-military Hummers...

and boy does that make me feel all warm and tingly inside (once again, think of something else...) to see these blackholes of gasoline remain on the lot. And while these urban tanks aren't contributing any new greenhouse gas emission/air pollution to California, it's already impacted the environment because of the resources consumed to build these monstrosities.

So, my question is, wouldn't it be great if these cinder blocks of the road (I'm running out of clever names for the damn Hummer) get recycled into say, Smart Cars? Hell, you could probably get 8 smart cars out of 1 Hummer! Yes, I know that they're made by two different companies, but a man can dream, can't he?

WHY MUST THEY FUEL MY SILENT RAGE (that's no longer silent!)

Courtesy of the CBC:

U.S. Senate votes for drilling in Arctic refuge

Hey, hey Dubya! Remember about a month ago when oil prices were much higher than they are now, and wait, what was it that you said?

Oh yes, this: "We can all pitch in by using, by being better conservers of energy"

...and I'm not kidding you, but I think Jon Stewart, me and everyone else who cares one whit about the environment had an aneurysm that night because those words and you saying them just didn't connect in our logic processes and our brains just collapsed on itself.

Well, I think that your Senate just ignored the hell out of you today. That, or you really didn't mean what you said about conservation because you're all just a bunch of assholes who couldn't care less about it deep down inside.

And of course, a wildlife refuge is one of the last places where human presence is scarce and truly is a refuge habitat for wildlife. But let's blow THAT idea out of the water by throwing down oil platforms...because now the animals can find refuge underneath an oil rig...AWWWWW...isn't that precious!

And in trying to find the Bush quote, I bumped into this little ditty:

Few energy benefits to extra daylight, observers suggest as Ont. follows US.

I talked about this before HERE. Where the hell was I when this was passed? This is what I get for not paying attention. I had really, really hoped that our government wouldn't be so dumb as to follow the US's lead because the supposed benefits are so trivial and the new problems that arise will create new headaches for everyone else! God, didn't anyone see that Simpsons episode where they solve one pest with another and then to get rid of the second pest they bring another, ad nauseum? To think, I had such hopes that common sense would prevail over this. Boy was I wrong.

What a crappy way to end the night.

FEMA, Google, Forbes. Take your pick.

Because I'm not particularly well versed in the Gomery revelations or the legal wherewithal to discuss the Alito nomination, I decide instead to pick on the incompetent, the behemoth, and the rich:

I'm homesick! This place sucks! Courtesy of Boing Boing and CNN

So a democrat on a committee investigating FEMA's feeble response to Hurricane Katria released a series of emails that then management chief Michael Brown was sending to contacts outside of Lousiana...and boy are they hilarious. Particularly amusing are those about his attire,

"Tie or not for tonight? Button-down blue shirt?"

and

"Please roll up the sleeves of your shirt, all shirts. Even the president rolled his sleeves to just below the elbow. In this [crisis] and on TV you just need to look more hard-working." (italics mine).

The capper of course is, "Can I quit now? Can I come home?" that he sent to the deputy director of public affairs. Granted, there's a chance this was taken out of context, but seriously. You're on the ground supposedly directing a relief response and you sound like a 12-yr old homesick camper. WTF? and WHY is he still being paid? WHY? WHY? WHY?

Play fair, Google! Courtesy Boing Boing and Forbes

Google started the Google Print Library Project, whose aim is to provide snippets of the entire library of several US universities free online. This is not new. Rather, five publishing companies have come together to sue Google to halt this project.

This is a piece written in the Washington Times opposing the project. While I agree the definition of 'snippet' will need to be defined precisely (if not already done so), there's definitely a tone of fear of technology beneath it. Hell, I half-expected these two to come out and say that Google is communist because they want to provide free content...

Instead, we have this Forbes piece that argues that the Print Library Project may not be as scary as it seems. At the very least, it doesn't try to scare me into thinking that agreeing with Google will destroy the print industry as we know it. And managed properly, this online archive would be a great asset for students, researchers or infojunkies like me.

Communcation? Hello? What? Courtesy Forbes

This is a series of articles dealing with, well, communication. It runs the gamut of communication issues: in science, culture, etc. Plus interviews with the likes of Walter Kronkite, Stan Lee and Wil Wheaton! I'm still painstakingly reading through this, but do browse. There's gotta be an article or interview there to your interest.


And that's all the communicatin' I'm doin' tonight. Now i just need a good sign-off line like, "Good Luck, and Goodnight" but y'know, not plagarized.

Convocation

First of all, I must congratulate my very best friend Matt on receiving his Masters of Arts in history. He's now the frontrunner out of all my friends in the academic prestige category.

I attended his convocation ceremony and several things struck me. When honorary degree recipients are asked to address the graduands, they should not use it as their personal platform to vent. David Schindler today (or yesterday afternoon, I guess) went on this nowhere rant about the evils of capitalism, George Bush, America, etc., etc. While I respect him immensely as an aquatic ecologist, I was most disappointed in failing to use this opportunity to inspire the graduands. Instead, he probably turned more people off on his cause against climate change, US foreign policy, etc than gain them.

Seeing my first year physics TA and my first year calculus teacher receive their PhDs once again reminded me about how long I have been in Kingston for my university career. As such, it always makes me introspective about what I've accomplished and what I've gained here (it also doesn't help that the news lately has been dreadfully dull such that I've to post about the trivial matters that is my life). While I've certainly grown in some respects, there are still areas where improvements can be made.

So there are now officially six months left in my tenure at Queen's. It'll be interesting to see what this place has left to offer me. At the very least, it'd be nice for me to be able to answer these three questions...

Urge to spend rising...rising...

Courtesy of Chromewaves, an unlikely source:

It appears that a 3-volume hardcover edition of the Complete Calvin and Hobbes set has just been released and boy would it be in my hands right now if not for my lack of funds. Alas, it shall be mine soon enough. If not now, or in 6 months, or in 6 years, it will be mine eventually. Much like other things like the LOTR DVD set, West Wing DVDs, etc.

What a beautiful set of books though.

No sleep for the blog-ed (...or How I stopped worrying about sleep to post about fake blog worth and Apple)

Two interesting sites via BoingBoing:

How much is your blog worth? gives you a dollar value for your blog based on research on an AOL purchase of a weblog company and uses external links via Technorati as a measure of worth. Definitely fun and obviously flawed when this site is supposedly worth $4,516.32 and something say, oh, I don't know, Inkless Wells, is worth $0.00?! Anyways, BoingBoing is worth $9,386,606.58...that's a whole lot of Boing...err...Bling.

iPod + Christianity = iBelieve?! I don't even know if this is a satirical product on the Apple Cult or whether this is a serious product. It seems serious enough, and it scares the bejeezus out of me just the same. Must everything be turned into a cross?

On a related note, what is up with Apple problems with the iPod Nano and the Video iPod. Did they not test the durability of the Nano? And is anyone really going to watch videos on such a small screen? I'm sure Apple's not slipping, but these don't seem to be top-notch products that Apple's been known for...

Convergence

It's a funny thing when events and ideas converge in your life and you watch it unfold but don't quite know what it means. Maybe funny's not the right word, more quirky perhaps.

In the last few weeks, I'd found myself in a slump over my school year, my thesis, my life in general pretty much; though, it's sometimes a useful thing to always return to the basic questions about what you should do with your life. By way of Bob Rae, asking these three questions of Rabbi Hillel I find to be a good starting point:

1) If I am not for myself, then who is for me?
2) If I am only for myself, what am I?
3) If not now, when?

I'm definitely not saying I've answered these questions, but they were definitely on my mind. Then, as our normative decision-making class switched to ethics, we were confronted with a simple basic question, "What does Planning profess?" Needless to say, our entire class were silenced by our lack of...insight.

Then, tonight in the class I TA, we'd invited a local planner for a Q & A on general and local planning issues. One of the students boldly asked, "What is the point of planning if you're so straitjacketed by upper levels of government and such? Defend your job." While some may find the question rude, and others find it pertinent, I found that I could not come up with a straightforward answer for myself (which makes my normative class very handy right now). The planner gave a general technical answer but definitely did not satisfy me philosophically.

So in the back of my head, I once again start on this journey of trying to figure out...why the hell I'm even here, let alone posting about this.

Castaways and Cutouts

When you're lost and adrift, the only thing you can rely on is your reason and instincts. But if your instincts fail you, your reason gives no answers, and your faith has been sitting on the front steps for years, where do you turn to? Where do you place your trust?

How then do you experience the world? What if the world you perceive is merely a simulacrum, populated by castaways with nothing else to do and cutouts who pop up at appropriate times? And if you lose yourself in this theme park, how then do you differentiate between what is real and what isn't?

Does anyone have an idea? Because I don't.

Jeez, and I thought I eat a lot...

Via Metafilter courtesy of BBC.

Whenever I'm down, nature always finds a way to bring me back up. Today, it has brought me this story.

This is a picture of the gruesome aftermath of a bitter fight in the Florida swamps between a the non-native burmese python and a Florida alligator. Apparently, the python tried to swallow the alligator whole but it is believed that the alligator had enough fight in it after being consumed to puncture and explode the python's stomach, leaving this delicious aftermath. There is no snake head because it's missing...go figure.

BBC Link

Illegitimus non Carborundum

It's been a little over a year now since Matt convinced me to start a blog and it seems like a reflection is always called upon when you reach that 1-year mark. And what has happened since that late summer evening?

• In two words, not much. Compared to my early posts, I don't think my writing style has improved any. I pay a lot more attention to certain things and have ended up spending more time trolling for interesting stories. I've found many good blogs with fascinating people, excellent analytical minds and sharp wits. For that, I am content.

• My posting will probably continue to be sporadic, if the last few weeks are of any indication. The upcoming months will be busy with projects and my thesis, if I ever get around to it. The 'net is wide and deep though, so I'm sure to find a good topic to discuss when I pry myself away from my work (HA!).

• Which is another thing I've noticed of late. I used to write more about personal events and happenings but that has seriously curtailed recently, for which I don't have much of an explanation. My guess is that my life's been pretty much uninteresting over the summer, except for my trip out to Calgary and Chris' wedding, which I seriously have to take the time to upload some pics (I promise I will, I promise...famous last words of a procrastinator though).

• But this may be an interesting year. The incoming year at Urban Planning's a very fun bunch of people and I've gotten to know a few of them quite well. So shouts out to Jen, Karen, Josh, Ryan, Bryan, Sarah, Tasha, Andrej and Emily...

• Meanwhile, the last couple days has been pretty hectic, getting various sections of reports done and staying up way later than I should to get it done. Surprisingly though, I haven't been groggy or overly tired, which is unusual. I'm still currently alert and more or less coherent. How is this possible? A LOT of random yelling and wild gesticulation to relieve the stress, methinks. But if I can parlay this into an ongoing thing then this may be the chance where when I'm whining about needing more hours in the day, that I'll be getting it. I could obviously increase my productivity by working more efficiently during the day, but who wants to be logical like that?

Well, that's the state of things right now. The forecast calls for possible dark clouds on the horizon in the upcoming weeks. But like all forecasts, nothing is certain. I have yet to figure out the repercussions, but hopefully they will pass without incident. There's also the ongoing scavenger hunt of life, where I'm still trying to find that first piece of the puzzle. It's right under my nose, I just know it.

Oh well, keep your head up, lest you walk into a bastard...