...then the other end

Ugh. Again.

I had my colonoscopy today, part of the Government of Ontario's Colorectal Cancer Screening Program, and let's just say that it was a memorable event. Heh. But first some background.

Colorectal cancer is the second deadliest form of cancer in Canada, but it is preventable if detected in its early stages, so it makes sense that the Government is in investing $193.5 million over the next five years to implement and expand the program to increase access to colorectal cancer screening for Ontarians aged 50 years or older. (See press release.)

I got a call for my screening in early summer, and on the advice of my physician, he advised me to get a colonoscopy. I agreed. I met the gastroenterologist later that summer, and he explained the procedure. He said the colonoscopy would take about 15 to 20 minutes in total.

Yesterday, I fasted all day (well, liquid diet only), interspersed with two doses of sodium phosphate solution. My afternoon was spent running to the bathroom every 15 minutes or so. By 9 PM last night, there was nothing left in my gut. I know that for a fact. I didn't mind that so much as not being able to eat for a whole day.

Since Cheryl was very busy at work and preparing for her upcoming trip to Brazil, I had asked my sister Françoise if she could pick me up from the hospital. Not only did she agree, but she offered to drive me there in the early morning. What a sister... ;-)

The documentation that I had from the gastroenterologist and the Ottawa Hospital indicated that I should show up half an hour before my appointment. Clearly their literature was out of date, because when I got there at 6:30 AM, the sign on the clinic door said that it opens at 7:00 AM. Damn, we could have slept in an extra half-hour...

After my check-in and exchanging my clothes for an open-backed gown and bathrobe, an IV stent into a vein on the back of my hand (for sedation), and a 30 minute wait, I was admitted into a small cubicle with a large TV. My gastroenterologist greeted me, and proceeded to sedate me. After about 30 seconds, I got to feeling pretty good...

I then lay on my left side like this and then introduced the colonoscope. The first 5 to 10 minutes weren't bad - just the discomfort of feeling bloated with gas. Unfortunately, the doc had difficulty navigating the ascending colon (see diagram), and it took him extra time (and me, extra sedation) before the 'scope made its way down to the caecum. Finally, the exam was over and he withdrew the scope. The doc then told me that my bowel looked okay. I barely heard him, because by this time I was exhausted and the drugs were running strong... I don't even remember how I got to the recovery room. I just felt drugged-up and bloated. In the recovery room, the nurse removed the IV and I was allowed to leave after a 40-minute wait, at about 9:30 AM.

I'd hoped to have my first decent meal in 4 days at a Cora's restaurant on the way home, but the drugs still had hold of me and I asked Fran to drive me home. Once arrived, I had some yogurt and Fran tucked me in before leaving at about 10:30. I slept with the dog and cat curled up beside me for a couple of hours.

I don't feel too badly now, though I still feel the effects of the drugs. Mostly, I just feel tired and "out of it." Before I left the hospital, the nurse told me that I should be fine by Saturday morning.

I can't say that it was a pleasurable experience, but I'm glad I had the colonoscopy done, if only for my peace of mind about colorectal cancer.

And, it was kind of neat, really, being able to see the inside of my gut!

First one end...

Ugh. What a day.

Work is going well, I just wish I was more on top of things. Now that I have my own scholarships committee to take care of, I have around 70 apps to process. I figure it should take me a couple of days straight, not counting breaks etc. Plus, the Doctorals have come in, and that will take a couple more days just to process... So in theory, I might have about a week's worth of work, but deadlines are tight, etc. I just wish I had more time.

On top of that, I managed to snap the root of my oldest root-canaled tooth, a lower incisor, last Saturday. The one I had fixed when I was 11 years old. Surprising, really, that it has lasted this long. So I had to part with it this afternoon, and it hurt. It really hurt - I've had a LOT of dental work done in my life, and this was by far the most painful experience I've ever had. All told, the dentist injected me at least half a dozen times (7 inside the lip, 3 on the inside of my lower jaw), because the deeper he dug, the more painful it got. The dental hygienist had to unclench my hands that had dug into the armrests for me: I hadn't even noticed I was doing it. I noticed as I was going through the pain that I would sweat. After a half-hour of this, the back of my jeans were wet with sweat, and I had a sheet of perspiration on my arms and chest. Really wierd.

At the end of it, the dentist told me it was one of the more difficult extractions he'd ever done. (He's my age, and he's been doing this a while.) So now I have to look at 3 options: to go for a partial palate, a bridge, or an implant. I have another 4 to 6 weeks of healing, and in the meantime I will have an appointment with a periodontist to help me determine the next steps.

While I was sitting in the dentist's chair, I became acutely aware of my body's ageing. Yes, the body does start to wear out and doesn't renew itself like it used to. It was just a question of time as to when my root would snap and someone would have to dig it out. I felt like my nose was being rubbed into my mortality once again.

Now, I can look forward to starving tomorrow so I'll be prepared for my colonoscopy on Friday. Oh joy, I can't wait - the happiness of being in my fifties!

1,000+ km and a new cat

I'm finally getting around to posting on a couple of newsworthy items (at least they are for me).

First, I achieved a minor milestone last week (well, almost two weeks ago, but who's counting) of having gone over 1,000 kilometers in the course of my daily commute to work. I have an odometer on my bike, which I attached a couple of weeks after I started my commute, so I have racked up maybe 100 km more than what it registered. No matter, it was kind of neat to see the numbers tick over from 999 to 1000.

The other event is that we welcomed today a 3-year old, chocolate point Siamese cat named "Joey" into our family. He's a real cutie, and once he calms down enough for me to take some pictures, I'll post some in my blog.

RIP: Bamse 926 and Severus Snape

I was shocked to learn this morning that one of the people I have regularly played Raven Shield with and chatted with over Ventrilo has died.

This person, whom I got to know as "Bamse" (which I learned today means "bear" in Norwegian) had been pretty much a fixture for the past year in the RvS clan to which I belong. I had gotten used to hearing his low, gravelly voice greeting me and other clan members as we joined the Ventrilo channel before we would begin gaming. In-game, I would greet him as "my socialist friend" given that the Norwegian and Canadian forms of government tend to be more left-leaning than the government of the American players who host the clan server. He would even invite me on occasion to come onto the Red side as if to reinforce the appearance of socialist solidarity and to tease our American friends. It might have been lost on everyone else, but I had the feeling Bamse and I shared that little bit of fun.

His death hit me all the harder as I biked home from work today. I had zoned out climbing a hill and I started thinking how unfair it was that Bamse was gone. Now, I didn't know much about his personal life, but I couldn't help but get the feeling from the time I had spent listening to him on comms that, sure, he had his share of warts, but that he was fundamentally a good person - and that if the opportunity had presented itself I would have met him in person, if only to get the measure of the man.

It saddens me greatly that I will not have the opportunity to hear him again and to know more of him. His death pushed me to ask the usual meaning-of-life and why-are-we-here questions, and I really hate when that happens, because my thinking ends up in why-can't-we-all-get-along and why-can't-people-see-that-other-people-are-important questions, then I get angry and disappointed and frustrated with humanity and my life, and I'd rather go live on a desert isle... And a fat lot of good that kind of thinking does, anyway. Sigh. It's just that Bamse's death is so damn tragic.

So Bamse, wherever you are, resquiat in pace, brother.

I guess what made it worse still was that I had read, and re-read, and re-re-read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I have to say that when I got to the end of the chapter entitled "The Elder Wand" and read through "The Prince's Tale," I cried. Really cried. Imagine, a 52-year old man, crying because a character in a kid's book dies.

Well, for anyone who know the Harry Potter series, Severus Snape is one of the least likeable characters. Even before the book came out, I was sure that Snape would not survive the series, but the way that JKR filled in the backstory on Snape took me completely by surprise, and made Snape, in my mind at least, someone for which I felt deeply. I felt anger at the way Snape had been treated by many of the main characters, but most of all, I was angry at the way life had treated him - how his childhood and the bullying had shaped his personality, or at least in the way that he would react to situations. For sure, Snape tread down the wrong path, but in the end his heart was in the right place and he was redeemed by his love for Lily. I guess I feel that kind of anger against life for the way Snape was dealt a crappy hand. I can't help but think that if circumstances were different, the outcome would have been quite different. I think of the scene where Dumbledore says to Snape: "Sometimes I think we Sort too soon." This leaves Snape looking "stricken." What if Snape had been sorted into Griffyndor?

So I'm left struggling with the same issue for Bamse and Snape. I grieve for both, and I'm angry at the injustice of seeing the lives of good men that come to a premature end.

I'll miss them both.

On the road...

I'm blogging from my first-ever series of site visits to some Quebec universities: Rimouski, Sherbrooke, Laval... I enjoy it, but the schedule is EXHAUSTING. At the end of a 2 hour visit (1 hour presentation, Q&As) I'm emotionally drained and I've had to drive for at least 3 hours a day for the past 3 days... thankfully, my last day is tomorrow (Laval), and I can look forward to a 5-hour drive home. Ugh.

I've become painfully aware of my lack of intimate familiarity (as opposed to nodding acquantance) of our postgraduate scholarships - our briefing notes are excellent, but it seems too much to cram into my small brain in so little time...

Anyway, I'm looking forward to administering my own committee competition. I'll finally be able to translate abstract information on our programs and integrate it into some concrete experience.

D'autre part, ça été toute une expérience de parler et de travailler complètement en français depuis quelques jours. D'une part, j'ai dû m'habituer à un environnement où l'anglais était complètement absent, et d'apprendre à communiquer uniquement dans une langue... mais dautre part, j'ai été surpris à comment rapidement je me suis ajusté à travailler dans l'absence de l'anglais. Intéressant.

Anyway, there's been lots more going on in my life, and I hope that I'll have the time to write about it later on.

Very scary story...

Here is a contemporary story of human rights abuse in North Korea that I found very hard to believe – until I remembered how the world initially received the news of Nazi concentration camps during World War II.

Imagine being a political prisoner BY BIRTH… born into a concentration camp, not having had any knowledge or experience of the outside world other than in the camp.

Frightening.

Even more frightening: that regimes exist today that foster such systems.

Harry Potter 7: My 15 hours of Deathly Hallows...

NOTE: NO SPOILERS! (Well at least, just a couple of spoilers related to two of the characters - I give a little bit on their characters and what happens to them in the book.)

I've just completed a marathon session of reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (HP7). The book is, in one word, amazing.

I decided I would take my time and read it at leisure, so it took me 15 hours to read 600+ pages, which makes my reading speed 40 pages an hour, or about a minute and and a half per page. In the months leading up to the release of the book, I re-read all the previous books at least once (and the last 3 books at least twice). I also discussed aspects of the series with Klara and discussed various predictions of HP7. I'm glad I did, as it was with a prepared mind that I read this book.

Deathly Hallows is without question the "darkest" book of the series. Whereas there was much lightheartedness in the earlier tomes, this book is the reverse - there is much seriousness puctuated only occasionally by lightheartedness.

The previous 2 books Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince seemed "slow" at the time I read them initially - not much appeared to be happening in spots, and the books seemed to drag. In contrast, the action in Deathly Hallows starts very early and does not stop until the last chapter. It's been a long time since I've wanted to finish a book in one sitting, and I had no problem doing that with this book!

I had heard that JKR said that 2 main characters would die. In fact there are more than two deaths, and depending on how one defines a "main character," the body count is much higher than that. I successfully predicted the death of one of the characters, but I was suprised by the death of others. Some HP fans might be upset by the high body count, but anyone who is familiar with recent history (especially the rise of Nazi Germany - See Coming of the Third Reich and Third Reich In Power 1933 1939 by Richard Evans) can see to what extent ruthless people such as Voldemort and his Death Eaters will go. I can't help but think that JKR's time spent working for Amnesty International must have helped frame Voldemort's rise to power in her stories.

I couldn't help but be amazed by JKR's ability to weave complex but continuous story lines in the series, to throw in new plots and subplots for HP7, and to tie everything up in the conclusion. New materials and new characters appear in this book, and some characters that were present in previous books re-appear, so there is a pleasant combination of old and new.

I was also impressed by the moral and spiritual depth of the book. After reading the previous 6 books, and in discussions with Klara, I couldn't help but wonder how JKR regarded love, courage, death, and the afterlife in this book. I must say that each of these topics is addressed in some measure in the book, but I had hoped to read more of her vision on each of these. (Obviously, I've ignored the fact that this is a book meant for a younger readership!)


HERE BE AMBIGUOUSLY WORDED SPOILERS ===============

Two of the elements I enjoyed the most in the book relate to Albus Dumbledore and Severus Snape.

We learn more about Dumbledore in several parts of the book - there was a darker side to Albus than what we knew through the previous 6 books. We learn not only about his fallibility, but of his egotism, his selfishness, his ruthlessness, and his manipulativeness. As a result of this, I was not repelled by Dumbledore's character, but it made him more human and less of the (unreal) kind, gentle, grandfatherly figure from the earlier books.

On the other hand, Severus Snape, who appears to be a villain (and quite nasty in in HP7) redeems himself in Harry's eyes quite late in the book. I had suspected that Snape was not as evil as he appeared, particularly through his actions near the end of HP6, and HP7 fills in gaps in our understanding of Snape's motivation and his internal struggles.

END OF SPOILERS =========================


Perhaps the most important lesson that JKR wishes to teach us is that people are not what they seem, and that people change their philosophies and beliefs over time. Some people, like those mentioned in the spoiler, learn from the error of their ways, but others persist in error or even deepen their error as a result of a desire of power or importance. It's a lesson that should not be lost on us.

I also can't help but feel that JKR have written a series and most particularly this novel, for our times. The rise of Voldemort can be equated to the rise of Al-Qaeda or the early years of Nazism, where a small group of people use intimidation and terror to achieve the goal of instilling fear in the populace, fostering the distrust of their leaders, and culminating in the overthrow of government and seizure of power. This is another lesson for us to learn.

It was an emotional book as well. I cried in many spots, not just when a character died, but when a "point of no return" was reached, for example, when Harry leaves Aunt Petunia's for the last time and their final goodbyes. (This is not really a spoiler since all this really is set up at the end of Book 6.) There are many points like this in the book, and it is all the more poignant when the reader knows that this is happening in the last book of the series. JKR brings an element of finality to the book and the series, not through a single climactic event (although there is one), but through a series of crises scatterered through the book.

This is a great end to a great series. I'm just sad that it's all at an end.

Man with "tiny brain" is a civil servant

I couldn't pass this up.

 

In France, a man aged 44, father of 2 children, and working as a civil servant went to a hospital complaining of weakness in his leg.

 

In the course of getting his medical history, doctors learned that he had a childhood condition of hydrocephalus, and had a shunt put into his brain when he was an infant. The shunt was removed when he was 14.

 

Doctors decided to check on the condition of his brain and carried out a CT scan and an MRI.

 

They discovered "massive enlargements" of the brain ventricles (spaces that occur normally in the brain), and that the brain tissue itself was reduced to a thin layer lining the skull. Basically, this dude was working on 25% to 50% of what would be normal brain tissue space.

 

Would this lead to the generalization that civil servants have tiny brains?

 

;-)

 

 

Increased Cannabis use in Canada related to lower crime rate?

There was an article which appeared last week which stated that Canada is the top industrial nation in which the population aged 15-64 who have used marijuana within the past year (15.6%). We even beat out the Americans at 12.6%,  the Jamaicans at 10.7%, and the Dutch at 6.1%.  (Mind you, Canada has a ways to go, since it is ranked 5^th in the world, behind Papua New Guinea (29.5%), Micronesia (29.1%), Ghana (21.5%) and Zambia (17.7%).

 

And just this week, CBC reported that Canada's crime rate in 2006 was lowest in 25 years (in spite of the fact that youth crime rate had increased by 3%).

 

Hmm… I wonder if we're seeing a cause-and-effect here? If not, these observation MUST somehow be related to global warming, everything else is these days…

 

 

 

 

 

CWar LAN 2007 - An Odyssee

Just got back from the LAN get-together in Milford, Delaware, by way of Montreal. Like last year, I have waaaay to many experiences to be shared in my usual stream-of-conciousness way. Bear with me while I ramble.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Got the car at 3:00 PM. Then, mad dash home to finish packing and getting my things in order. Yeah, don't forget the Razer Mouse, headphones, and pillow. On the road to Montreal by 4:00 PM. Halfway to Montreal, I remember that I forgot the pillow. Crap. Fortunately, my sister lets me borrow one of her pillows.

Friday, July 13, 2007

After a leisurely breakfast, I hit the road at 10:00 AM, for a quick ride to the Canada-US border. Halfway there, I remember the date. OMG. Having remembered by experience with Homeland Security last year, I come fully prepared: Map, names, addresses, phone numbers of the people I'll be staying with.

Finally at the border, I wait 10 minutes in line for customs before it's my turn. All very organized, professional. I'm addressed by an elderly mustachioed border agent who would have looked comfortable in a Stetson and cowboy boots. All that's missing this the Remington Peacemaker.

I answer his questions with what I hope is a "relaxed" look. He goes around the car, inspects the contents of the trunk, and sends me on my way. WHEW. I got off easy!

Then it's 2+ hours of travel down I-87. Along the Adirondack State Park: spectacular vistas of mountains, lush forests, and deep valleys. Cheryl has been wanting to visit here, so I make a note of the places that we can visit. It must be spectacular in the fall.

Finally arrive in Glens Falls, and I realize as I'm driving that I put Snowdog's directions to his place in the trunk of the car. Fortunately, I have the map coordinates of his place in my GPS. Okay, so it's a simple matter of using the GPS to find his place, right? Well, NOT so simple. I travel for 20 minutes down the backroads before realizing that the GPS map does not include the roads in the area, so I'm driving "blind." Or rather, I keep one eye on the GPS and the other on the road. Not the best way to travel.

By this time, frustration get the best of me, and I pull over into a gas station. I look up, and by blind luck I had stumbled on the very road where Snowie lives! (Who says Friday the 13th is unlucky??) Five minutes later, I roll up his driveway.

I feel a bit awkward with Snowie at the beginning. Well, that's to be expected. After all, we've only chatted on Ventrilo, and have met each other for less than an hour last year. After a coffee, Snowie shows me around his place, and the room where I'll stay the night. I start to relax, and by suppertime (juicy pork tenderloin, salad and rice - mmmm....) we're chatting like we've been friends for years.

Then he asks if I would like to go to that evening's gig, where his band "Mischief" is playing at a local bar. Well, how can I refuse, with all the beer I can drink? ;-)

After a first set warm-up with some great songs by 70's and 80's artists like Grand Funk Railroad, Led Zeppelin, and Boy George (!), the second set gets the crowd on its feet dancing with songs by artists like AC/DC, The Clash, and John Cougar Mellencamp.

Needless to say, a good time was had by all!

And then, a pleasant surprise: I get to meet TinMan in the flesh!

Of course, by the time I met him, Tin had found his heart... ;-)

It's too bad that he had to work the next day, otherwise I'm sure Tin would have been with us at the LAN.

By this time, we (and especially Snowie) were pretty tired. But not tired enough to talk. We talk about the Clan, about the U.S., Canada, Iraq, health care... and pretty soon it's closing in on midnight, and it's time for bed for an early start on Saturday.

I can't think of a happier Friday the 13th I've ever had.

Saturday, July 14, 2007

I wake up at 6:00 AM feeling like someone substituted sandpaper for my eyelids. Argh.

Snowie's up, and we decide to forgo a sit-down breakfast to get on the road more quickly. We're packed and out the door by 7:00.

On the way to the I-87, we agree that it's a good idea to have a bite to eat on the road. We pull in to "Dunkin' Donuts." While we're waiting to order, I decide to have a coffee, with milk, and bran muffin with raisins. Straightforward and to the point.

Well, it was not to be. There was, to put it politely, some confusion with regards to the order. After some back-and-forthing between me (with hearing problems) with a waitress (who was young and likely new on the job), we roll up to the window to get our order. I pass my travel mug for the waitress to fill with coffee, and she stares at me. The waitress asks if I want chocolate or strawberry milk. "With my coffee?" I ask. She stares again. Hmm. It's obvious that there was some miscommunication here. Meanwhile, Snowie is starting to crack up.

I tell the waitress that no, I wanted milk in my coffee. She closes the window, and there is some discussion inside the store. Then the girl passes me my travel mug with milk slopped over the side. She says "sorry" and passes me some napkins. I clean off the mug and Snowie is helping me and having a good laugh. Then a second waitress passes the bags of food to us, apologizes again, says "have a good day" and slams the service window shut.

Oh, did I not tell you that we haven't paid? It certainly didn't appear to be a preoccupation of the Dunkin' Donuts people to accept payment. Here I am, staring at a closed window, with money in one fist and a mug in the other. What am I to think?

Snowie laughs and says: "Why don't you just leave?" As a joke. Well, my mood was not the best, and I took him literally.

We zoomed off, and Snowie looks at me shocked and says: "I can't believe you left without paying!"

Well, the Dunkin' Donuts people can sue me. Snowie said that they probably have videocam evidence and they were probably going to get the State Police after us... No matter.

There not much to talk about regarding actual highway driving. Other than to say that the New Jersey Turnpike should be more properly called the New Jersey Parking Lot. I think that people take the NJT when they are bored and want to sit in a hot car for hours at a time and watch ants crawl past their cars. I foolishly ignored Snowie's advice to avoid it, while I smugly thought, "yeah, I wanna be able to say I drove on it!" Well, driving is hardly the word I would have used. More like crawling. Better yet, inching. Anyway....

Another highlight was when we pulled over at a gas station to ask for directions. You see, the I-95 and the NJT are not well signed (more about this later, on our way back). So we pull in, I jump out and blurt out to a station attendant: "How do I get to Delaware?"

Now, you have to appreciate it's like asking someone: "How do you get to Indiana? Or Ontario?" No duh. The nicest thing he did was to NOT burst out laughing. He politely gave me instructions and we went on our way. The ridiculousness of my question and his straight-faced response didn't hit me until I had gotten back on the freeway.

We arrived at the LAN at 3:30 PM. Which isn't bad, considering we had wasted nearly and hour and a half at the New Jersey TurnPike/Parking Lot. When we had called in to Mengis/ette that we were going to be late, we learned that OmegaMan had gotten into an accident only an hour out from Delaware. We were pleasantly surprised to see him there at the LAN! Fortunately, he was able to drive his damaged vehicle to the hotel and take part in the LAN. I just hope he was able to get repairs done and get home safely!

We played from 4:00 PM to 11:00 PM, with short breaks for meals. It was fun to be able to play with no lag, and to meet old faces (Snowie, Beagle, Mengis, Mengisette, Long) and some new ones: RisingAngel, Rash, Greenhouse, SuBNoiZe, BoNgInATOr, and Mengis's brother. DroopyDawg and Tree showed up later to say hello - a nice surprise! I can't impartially comment on the play, since I was too busy to avoid getting fragged or nailed by my opponents. We all did well at at one map or another. It was the first time I went through a whole map "cycle" in one sitting!

At 11:00 PM, we called it a night and went to Mengis/ette's place for refreshments (i.e., more beer) and a late night snack (burgers, hot dogs, ice cream cake). We digested our meal while chatting about politics and the best way to raise teenagers. Then, a hardcore group (the younger people) went back to the hotel to play some more (!!!), while the elders went to bed at around 1:00 AM.

Sunday, July 15th, 2007

Snowie and I greeted the early morn (7:00 AM) by Mengis/ette's two parrots (or macaws?) with a series of squawks, cackles, whistles... which insisted on tearing me from my blessed unconsiousness... I know now how Capitaine Haddock of TinTin felt when he gave his famous dirty looks to the parrot in the Bijoux de la Castafiore... I still have to get my revenge on these birds... Though the birds became fascinated with Snowie's snoring (or scared, maybe?), to the point that they kept quiet and gave us another 2 hours sleep...

Finally, everyone woke up and we made our way to the Milford Diner for a late breakfast. We were introduced to scrapple , a local culinary delicacy, by Mengisette. While I did not partake of this savoury victual, others at the table did, and Snowdog found it difficult to describe the taste and texture... I leave it to your imagination.... (Hehehehe...)

After our farewells, Snowdog and I drove back. I'm grateful that he drove, as I didn't feel up to it. He seemed to take particular delight in pushing the Grand Prix I rented to its limits - I doubt the State Police would have caught up with him if they wanted to...

By mistake, we actually avoided the NJT and made excellent time to Glen Falls after a 7-hour drive. I met Snowie's wife Theresa and his daughter Hannah - it was wonderful for me to meet them!

I took my leave of Snowdog and his family early, as I had a 3-hour drive to Montreal to stay at my sister's, and I had to go through Canadian Customs - an ordeal that added another hour and a half to my trip! (Note to Canadian Government - Hire more Customs Officers.) My only consolation was to have bought a litre of Grand Marnier at the duty-free, at half the price of retail in Canada.

Sunday, July 16, 2007

I made it home by noon, in time to say goodbye to my wife who is travelling for the balance of the week.

As I write, the kids are visiting friends. My dog Tessa is at my feet, with her eyes closed, while I type. The house is empty for once, and it's quiet, and I have had the time to write all this down.

I find it soo hard to put into words my feelings around this weekend. I guess it's really about having met the faces and the people behind the voices and the CWar characters, and to find out that behind the virtual façade there are warm, generous, and helpful human beings that I am honoured to know.

Until next year, frag on, bruthas!

;-)

'No sun link' to climate change

Of course, my climate-change skeptic friends will roll their eyes and say: "Here we go again, the Klimat-Khange Kabal prophesying doom!"

Well, the skeptics can ignore another piece of evidence supporting the anthropogenic source of climate change and global warming. They might also choose to agree with the tobacco companies in arguing that smoking IS NOT PROVEN to cause lung cancer.

As for me, I would argue there is less proof for the existence of God than there is for climate change. In fact, what proof is there, really, that the Earth is round? Maybe it's just a big conspiracy.

For those deluded tree-huggers like me (who happen to believe in nuclear energy as a source of power), click on the following link: 'No sun link' to climate change.

500+ km!

This is my first year regularly commuting to work by bike (that is, when it doesn't rain!)

As I was biking back home, I noticed that my odometer had gone over 500 kilometers. In fact, I probably went over 500 km a week or two ago, because I replaced the battery of my mileage computer last April. But it doesn't matter, it feels good having passed this milestone...

Getting by on less sleep...

Argh. I hate this time of year.

 

I'm tired from trying to get by with about 4 hours sleep per night.

 

Why, might you ask, am I getting so little sleep?

 

Well, it's hard to get a good night's sleep when:

 

1.      The dog decides it really wants to try to sleep on the bed. This particular Sheltie knows enough not to bark in the middle of the night (and plaster me to the ceiling like in a Wile E. Coyote cartoon), but she's adept at uttering barely audible growls, grunts and whines – just enough to pull me out of sleep;

2.     Outside my window, the cardinals, robins and assorted feathery creatures decide, yes, it's TIME TO ASSERT OUR TERRITORY!  There be some bad-assed mofo birds out there, and they WILL let you know that they have staked their claim!

3.     Sunrise at my latitude is about 5:15 AM and sunset about 9:00 PM. Add an hour of light at dawn and dusk, so the night is quite short, and so is my sleep.  Curtains? Yeah, I have them, but they don't work, really – I just know it's light out there…

4.     My spouse's uvula and soft palate start to vibrate. You'd think that after 20+ years of living with the little lady that I would be used to it by now, but nope, I'm not!

 

The net result is that I wake up tired, and it doesn't get better during the day.  Some days, I feel like I'm wading through molasses, I'm so tired.

 

I can't wait for August where things realign themselves…

 

 

Online kookery

 

I have to admit, but this article by WIRED's Lore Sjöberg entitled "Narcissistic Blog Disorder and Other Conditions of Online Kookery" made me both laugh and cry at the same time, 'cuz I'm guilty of some of the disorders – particularly of the "Pugilistic Discussion Syndrome".

 

Anyway, it's a good read!

 

 

Things are worse than we thought...

I read today in the New Scientist that a research team looking at the growth of CO2 emissions over the past few decades have determined that our rate of output of CO2 exceeds the worst-case scenario published earlier this year by the IPCC.

It seems that before 2000, our global population was fairly efficient (measured as amount of carbon emission per unit GDP.) However, since then, we have become much less efficient at using carbon (measured from 2000 to 2004, when the study ended).

Not surprisingly, the reason for that appears to be the accelerated economic development of developing countries, where they account of 73% of the growth of CO2 emissions, but 41% of total global emissions.

Obviously, we need a new round of international agreements to take into account this growth on the part of developing countries.

The shed is DONE!

FINALLY, after busy weekends, we completed the construction of our shed. It might not seem like much, but it's MINE!!! ;-)

I was surprised how littel time it took build the actual shed: Just a couple of days. But of course, we spent more than that just in site preparation, but that's just the way it goes...

I think I can relax now, but Cheryl's already talking about a deck. Maybe I'll go hide.

Inhofe EPW Press Blog Post: Great example of disingenousness...

A friend of mine sent this on to me as part of an ongoing discussion regarding climate change.

To summarize, Marc Morano (whoever he is) published an article entitled "Climate Momentum Shifting: Prominent Scientists Reverse Belief in Man-made Global Warming - Now Skeptics" on U.S. Senator Inhofe's Press Blog on May 15, 2007.

In this article, Mr. Morano states that a "recent and quite remarkable momentum shift [is] taking place in climate science." (Hah. I won't comment on that.) The article then goes on to state that:

"Many former believers in catastrophic man-made global warming have recently reversed themselves and are now climate skeptics. The names included below are just a sampling of the prominent scientists who have spoken out recently to oppose former Vice President Al Gore, the United Nations, and the media driven “consensus” on man-made global warming. " (my emphasis added.)

The article goes on to list names of scientists who have spoken out recently as being skeptical of climate change. The blog post implies that these scientists are skeptics of recent vintage, and it is clear that this is not the case for some of them.

Drs Tim Patterson, Ian Clarke, Jan Veizer, Tad Murty, were signatories to an open letter to the Prime Minister of Canada over a year ago (April 2006) requesting that "balanced, comprehensive public-consultation sessions be held so as to examine the scientific foundation of the federal government's climate-change plans."

Mr. Morano is technically correct is saying that the skeptics he mentions are scientists who have "spoken out recently" against Al Gore, but they have been saying that, in some cases, for years.

Mr. Morano chooses to ignore the professional societies that represent thousands of scientists who have recognized man's contribution to precipitating climate change. This blog entry is an example of sensationalist, exaggerated, untruthful and ill-researched "spin". It just goes to show you can put anything up on a blog... Hehehe...

I gauge that Drs Patterson et al are quite conscientious for requesting that public consultation sessions be held to examine the scientific foundations of any climate change plans, under any government. But I suspect that politicians would not want to sink themselves into a morass of scientific discussion - something of which they know nothing about - and would choose to stay away.

Okay, I've spent too much time on this... I gotta get started on that stupid shed...

Excellent summary article on the myths of climate change

I was delighted to receive in my e-mail inbox the New Scientist's newsletter. In it was a brief blurb and the link to Climate change: A guide for the perplexed, which clears up 26 misconceptions ("myths") and offers a guide to assessing the evidence.

 

Here are the 26 myths:

 

• Human CO2 emissions are too tiny to matter

• We can't do anything about climate change

• The 'hockey stick' graph has been proven wrong

• Chaotic systems are not predictable

• We can't trust computer models of climate

• They predicted global cooling in the 1970s

• It's been far warmer in the past, what's the big deal?

• It's too cold where I live - warming will be great

• Global warming is down to the Sun, not humans

• It's all down to cosmic rays

• CO2 isn't the most important greenhouse gas

• The lower atmosphere is cooling, not warming

• Antarctica is getting cooler, not warmer, disproving global warming

• The oceans are cooling

• The cooling after 1940 shows CO2 does not cause warming

• It was warmer during the Medieval period, with vineyards in England

• We are simply recovering from the Little Ice Age

• Warming will cause an ice age in Europe

• Ice cores show CO2 increases lag behind temperature rises, disproving the link to global warming

• Ice cores show CO2 rising as temperatures fell

• Mars and Pluto are warming too

• Many leading scientists question climate change

• It's all a conspiracy

• Hurricane Katrina was caused by global warming

• Higher CO2 levels will boost plant growth and food production

• Polar bear numbers are increasing

 

While it might be enlightening to the perplexed, I feel it will confirm the beliefs of people at opposite ends of the spectrum: those who believe in the anthropogenic cause of climate change will feel justified, and those who deny the anthropogenic cause will believe believe that the article is proof of mass delusion or of a conspiracy.

 

Well, I believe that 11,000 scientists can't be wrong…

$50 cup of coffee? I think not...

Now, I love my coffee, and will go to considerable lengths to brew a great cup of "joe," but when I saw this story in the New Scientist, I thought it was a bit much.

 

It seems that Indonesian civet cats will ingest coffee beans and pass them through their digestive tract.  These beans are then collected off the forest floor, cleaned, and roasted to create what "the world's rarest and most exclusive coffee." At $1,000 USD per kilo, I would think so.

 

Gah. Is it any wonder that some countries regard Western countries' lifestyles with contempt?

 

All that's missing is for the coffee to be brewed with the most exclusive water available on the planet… until someone imports water from Mars…

 

 

Baby Bubba gets a gun licence

Oh, this is a great story.

The BBC reports that baby Bubba Ludwig (I kid you not, that's his real name), at 10 months, was able to get a gun licence in the state of Illinois. The best part is that the license includes his picture and signature (a squiggle).

The worst part is that his application was rejected – twice – before it was finally accepted.

It appears that age is no restriction for the possession of firearms, in spite of the fact that Illinois has "gun laws that are said to be among the strictest in the US."

Argh. I CANNOT understand this last statement. How can a child be registered as a gun owner? Do we really want to make it easier for new Columbines, Dawnson Colleges, and Virgina Techs?

Shed de/construction photos

As promised, here are some of the pictures for our shed (dis)assemblage. Obviously, the pix are taken in chronological order. As of this writing, I'm ready to assemble the shed, but there still is a bit of site preparation to finish.

A transatlantic Common Market?

BBC News reports that the US and the EU have agreed to a 'single market'.

Could a NAFTA (North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement) be far behind?

Climate models wrong: Arctic melts *faster* than forecast

Now, in my critique of the XTRONICS web page, I had defended the idea of climate modelling. One would think, in light of the news story by the BBC reporting that the Arctic ice mass is melting faster than predicted, that all these models are so much poppycock.

While a "perfect" model would account for all independent variables in a system, this in all likelihood be impossible to achieve in the real world. However, would argue that once that all the important independent variables have been taken into account, it the model would accurately forecast future climate trends.

What is apparent to me in this story, is that we still have not identified all the important independent variables.

It's interesting to note in this is the third time in the last few months that studies have suggested the IPCC's latest major global climate analysis, the Fourth Assessment Report, is too conservative.

Now, Bush / Harper, are you paying attention???

Bad news for migraine sufferers

While taking a break from recycling my shed (read: tearing it down and dissassembling the pieces), I thought I'd catch up with the world.

To my dismay, I found this little article waiting for me. It appears that migraines are linked to brain damage. Not good news for me, as I average a migraine (with aura) about once a month. I know this doesn't compare to the more frequent sufferers, such as Louise who averages one about every 2 or 3 days, but just the same, it's alarming.

A critique of XTRONIC's "global warming" webpage

I got tired of writing my critique of XTRONIC's "global warming" webpage, so I thought I would publish what I've written to date. Given the length of the original article, it will take me several weeks of regular work before I finish. Rather than to wait and publish a complete opus (I'm too impatient for that), I figure that I'd get the first part out of the way.

Maybe I'll publish weekly. Stay tuned.

Funny how things happen...

I mentioned in a previous post a discussion I had with a clan member regarding global warming and Kyoto. He referred me to a site entitled "Is man caused Global Warming a Scientific fact?"

Now, I work as a program administrator for a science scholarships program. Though I have training as a scientist, I abandoned that career path more than 20 years ago when I realized that I neither had the productivity nor the persistence to become a hardcore scientific researcher. So the skills I learned in grad school have pretty much been inactive since I finished my postdoc.

I read through the Xtronics web page on global warming, my gut reaction was: "This is wrong. There's lots of stuff that's wrong here." But then I realized that I didn’t have any arguments based on fact to compare with what I was reading.

I resolved then to write a critique of the Xtronics web page. So, I started reading carefully the Xtronics page, and consulting on-line resources regarding climate change and the issue of global warming. I won’t write here about my findings, since I will publish that on my personal website when it’s finished. However, from the way things are going, my response will be at least as long as the Xtronics article, if not longer.

But what is important to me, and why I’m blogging about it now, is the fact that I have started using some long-unused brain cells related to my past science career: unused for the past 20 years. I thought that such a long time would have made me rusty, and for sure the more technical knowledge aspects of what I am writing about has escaped me. But what has astonished me is how I have kept the “scientific mindset” (for lack of a better term) that I had in me all along and which got sharpened 20 years ago. I find that those things really didn't change for me.

As I was researching my response, I found it refreshing and fun to read, and write of things scientific – and I don’t just mean trying to distill concepts into lay terms, but to actually study and think and write critically, the way I did when I was a grad student writing my thesis or when I'd draft a publication. It’s the kind of thing where you know that whatever you are going to write is going to be examined by people who’ve done a lot more research than you, or are very familiar with the subject area, and will ask probing questions.

Cheryl found me last night writing and researching, and when I explained what I was doing, she asked me: “Why are you wasting your time?” (Being pragmatic, she was wondering why I was spending time doing this than doing something constructive, like paying the taxes or arranging for a load of gravel to be delivered.) I have no answer to her question other than to say I feel compelled to do it. I guess what irks me is to read something on the web or in the newspaper that I suspect is not true, and discover that people read the same thing and take it as truth. So I feel obliged to correct things.

Anyway, this blog entry is taking time away from my critique… Back to work!

Canada's emissions plan misses Kyoto deadline by years

This is a sad day for Canada - the public acknowledgement that we will miss our Kyoto commitments by 8 to 13 years.

To be fair to the current Conservative government, the 8 to 10 years of Liberal government inaction on Kyoto did not help.

See the CBC story entitled: Baird's 'real' emissions plan misses Kyoto deadline by years

Our universe harbors no more than 512 vampires

I’d meant to blog this a long time ago, what with one thing or another getting in the way, I finally got around to it…

In his blog, Clive Thompson reports on an article entitled “Ghosts, Vampires and Zombies: Cinema Fiction vs Physics Reality” written by C.J. Efthimiou and S. Gandhi, and accessible online at the Cornell University Library.

To make a long story short, these physicists prove that (1) vampires don't exist, because if they did, we would have been overrun by them at least 200 years ago; and (2) in a steady-state "Buffy universe," there would be no more than 512 vampires.

Clive’s writeup is a very enjoyable read; take the time to look at his blog.

Kryptonite finally discovered!

The BBC newsite reports that Kryptonite has finally been discovered in a mine in Serbia. It seems that the mineral identified as sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide by Dr Chris Stanley, a mineralogist at London's Natural History Museum, had been reported in the literature – that is, comic book literature, not scientific. The mineral’s atomic structure was conclusively identified thanks to the analytical facilities at Canada's National Research Council and the assistance and expertise of two of its researchers, Dr Pamela Whitfield and Dr Yvon Le Page.

Isn’t it fun when fantasy meets reality?

Fallait s'y attendre...

En furetant les manchettes du BBC, j’ai trouvé cet article…Parait qu’un type est entré dans un restaurant à Londres et a décidé de se couper le penis! Mais ce qui est encore plus bizarre c’est le nom du resto (facilement visible dans la photo mais aussi cité dans l’article).

Très bizarre...

More on Global warming

As I was doing my research yesterday, an interesting article caught my eye: it was BEYOND THE IVORY TOWER: The Scientific Consensus on Climate Change published in the research magazine Science in 2004. I've taken the liberty of quoting a couple of paragraphs from the article. It should be kept in mind that this article was written in 2004 - about 3 years ago.

"The authors analyzed 928 abstracts, published in refereed scientific journals between 1993 and 2003, and listed in the ISI database with the keywords "climate change" (9). .... This analysis shows that scientists publishing in the peer-reviewed literature agree with IPCC, the National Academy of Sciences, and the public statements of their professional societies. Politicians, economists, journalists, and others may have the impression of confusion, disagreement, or discord among climate scientists, but that impression is incorrect.” (my emphasis added)

"The scientific consensus might, of course, be wrong. If the history of science teaches anything, it is humility, and no one can be faulted for failing to act on what is not known. But our grandchildren will surely blame us if they find that we understood the reality of anthropogenic climate change and failed to do anything about it.”

I thought these two paragraphs were rather enlightening.

More on the question of scientific consensus: There is a Wikipedia entry entitled "Scientific consensus on climate change" which IMO pretty much ends the discussion on the global warming, unless one chooses to argue that the opinions of groups of scientists is meaningless. The entry lists 14 US and international organizations which state, in one way or another, that the evidence for anthropogenic climate change is overwhelming or that that the particular organization is in agreement with the conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC; see my previous post). These organizations include the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the US National Research Council, and American Association of State Climatologists. The only dissenting organization is the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. (I wonder why that is?)

Earth Day, Global warming, and Jeff

I found it rather funny that I had a long discussion about global warming with Jeff as we were playing RavenShield last night, on the eve of Earth Day...

I won't attempt to summarize our discussions. I was rather distracted by trying to survive in RvS and to try to follow the thread of my discussion with Jeff as well as to recall some of the major research conclusions concerning global warming. (I don't multitask very well, just ask my wife.) You see, Jeff is not convinced that global warming exists at all, and that scientists of like mind (either for or against the conclusion of global warming) banded together and that there was no consensus conclusion that global warming was a 100% certainty.

Well, it got me to thinking. I had recalled a study that, in my mind, was pretty conclusive. Well, I was wrong. In fact, the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had concluded in its Fourth Assessment Report that:

"It is very likely that the observed increase in methane concentration is due to anthropogenic activities, predominantly agriculture and fossil fuel use, but
relative contributions from different source types are not well determined." (p. 4)

Now, as a person familiar with the workings of the scientific community, it is very unlikely (read: impossible) for the community to come to an absolute consensus on just about any topic except the existence of gravity - and even there, I'm not so sure. The fact that the term "very likely" was used (the term used to indicate the assessed likelihood, using expert judgement, of an outcome or a result) exceeds 90% certainty - and this, of a group of 600 international climate experts from 40 countries, including the US.

(Incidentally, I had blogged earlier on the allegation that the Bush administration attempted to muzzle its own climate scientists and suppress research results. The attempt by any government to muzzle its own scientists is despicable - and the Bush administration is by no means alone!)

So, while in the mind of this group of scientists it is very likely that the gases that contribute to global warming are of anthopogenic origins, what should be done about it?

Well, I'm not an expert, but I figure we need to do something, and to do it now. We don't have time to screw around. My first thought is that we have to limit the output of greenhouse gases (ergo, the Kyoto Protocol). I'll have more to say about Kyoto when I've researched it properly and thought about it.

Happy Earth Day, everyone, and especially you, Jeff! ;-)

Columbine and Virginia Tech

In future years, the week from April 16th to 20th will hold some very sad anniversaries - the massacres of Columbine in 1999 and this year's Virginia Tech.

What's particularly disturbing is that IMO we are no closer to really understanding the "whys" that drove Messrs Harris and Kliebold to kill than on the day it happened - and that these kids' parents testimony will be sealed for 20 years (see Columbine questions still unanswered - MSNBC.com.)

In the wake of Seung-Hui Cho's rampage at Virginia Tech, the same questions will be asked: Why did it happen? What can we do to prevent this from happening again? But I don't expect any answers that will really help us know why it happened, because the ones who know killed themselves.

It's predictable: Messrs Harris, Kliebold and Seung-Hui will be vilified in the American media; more stringent security will be set in place; and much talk, but no action, will be made on gun control. And as days turn into months, and then years, no massacre will have happened, and we may think that, somehow, we have solved the problem.

And then it happens again.

And I expect it will happen again, because IMO there is a fundamental malaise in our society, one that fosters alienation. Maybe not an active alienation, in the sense that society has excluded these young people (though there is evidence that Harris/Kleinbold and Seung-Hui were bullied), but rather that they chose to be alienated from other people. Why that was, I have no idea, but I wonder if the answer lies in what was sealed...

US generals urge climate action - BBC News

I never would have believed it, but American generals have come out in favor of U.S. action to address climate change (see BBC NEWS "US generals urge climate action").

It seems that former US military leaders say that "global warming poses a serious threat to national security, as the US could be drawn into wars over water and other conflicts."

General Zinni, a former commander of US Central Command, said that: "It's not hard to make the connection between climate change and instability, or climate change and terrorism. We will pay for this one way or another. We will pay to reduce greenhouse gas emissions today, and we'll have to take an economic hit of some kind. Or we will pay the price later in military terms. And that will involve human lives. There will be a human toll."

I doubt that Bush will listen to their voice of reason...

Skep's "new" Home Page

I've had to establish a new home page as a result of consolidating my "identities." Sadly, I've had to delete the old website, but the new one, I hope will be better organized and more readable.

My "new" website can be found at http://skiamachist.googlepages.com.

Freedom of speech on the internet (?)

For some time now, actually since my friend P. ran afoul of her workplace's internet police, I've been thinking of the question of freedom of expression on the internet through blogs and posts. This morning, I read an interesting article by Heather Mallick on the CBC website. If you're not worried about Big Brother monitoring your on-line access, then read it at work... ;-)

On another note, I've taken a few days off to visit a friend in Waterloo and visit dad-in-law in London - with interesting side-trips as I travel. More on that later.

The Faceless Invasion arrives in Montreal on March 31st...

I got this gem off WIRED Mag' s website. I'm too lazy to look up the link to Wired, just look up Regina Lynn's latest article.

Suffice to say that the Faceless Invasion will hit Montreal on March 31. If I didn't have something more important to do, like the ORSF, I'd day-trip it to Montreal just to watch the circus.

Hilarious!

At last...

Finally, my competitions are over! All that's left to do is to finish up the paperwork: Letters to winners and losers... erm, unsuccessful applicants. What with fighting this cold, it's been a biatch...

I'm hoping to spend a week off in early April, to get out of the house and away from sources of stress and screw my head back on straight. I plan to travel to Montreal to visit my sister, then on to Waterloo to see Mark and Ena, and then to Londo to visit my Dad-in-law, then travel back. I may make a side trip to visit the Pearces at Shabomeka Lake. Depends on my mood... :-)

I'm going to try to find some geocaches along the way.

I look back over the last year and a half or so, and see how much things have changed in my life. Maybe I'll talk about it in another post.

Dazed & confused...

Lots going on in my life, I SOOOO desperately need to take a break, but I don't have time...

It all started off with the February competitions. I thought I was "on top" of everything, but with the Lindau selection process, the finish up of the Doctoral Prizes, and the selection of the AH-HAs (not to mention calls from students who needed help filling forms on the Lindau website - let's just say that the English version of the website could have used a more rigorous English edit), it pretty much filled my cup to the brim. Add to that ORSF fundraising and certain family issues means I'm pretty much emotionally exhausted at the end of the day. So I worked on some ORSF stuff this morning, and will take the dog for a walk with Cheryl later this afternoon.

Oh, and the kid's comp went on the blink, to much of their exasperation and gnashing of teeth. After intermittently trying to solve the problem, I figure that IT MUST BE the power supply going on the blink... just about everything else except the case has been replaced!

Add to that, the cherry on my sundae: because of a particularly-worded work-related e-mail, I thought that this past Sunday (today) was when we were to go on Daylight Savings. Because Marc was feeling sick, I drove him in to work. I drove him in at what I thought was 7:00 AM, but was in fact 6:00 AM... let's just say he wasn't pleased with the Old Man for getting him up an hour earlier than needed.

Boy, I hope this week gets better!

(On re-reading this, it doesn't make much sense - but you know, I really don't care at this point...)

End of first competition

Taking a few minutes to reflect on the past week of competition at work.

I'm tired - not from the competition, but from late nights trying to make ends meet for the family. I just seem to spend so much time COOKING - that and working out. That, and maybe an hour of gaming or chatting with da rabid hedgehog is enough to call it a night. I hope that when Cheryl's conference is out of the way we can get down to more balance, but the next week it'll be hunker down and get the job done.

This past week, I got an appreciation for the work put in by program officers. Lotsa dedication there, as well as the committe members who put in a massive amount of work for no pay. I feel honored to work with such a community of people.

It's amaaaazing what our young Canadian scientists are up to. Some of the research is really cutting-edge, I just wish that it were better known. Too bad I can't talk about it.

Having seen the talent that exists in our universities, it's easy to see the continuum of science education from high-school, to undergraduate, to graduate and beyond. I know this is not a profound conclusion and I'm not the first to make it. It just suprises me how little attention is paid to science/math at the HS level considering that the next generation of scientists and engineers (and innovators) can be grown locally.

All this has motivated me to take Monday off, and make it an ORSF day where I'll try to do some fundraising and some writing. And cooking, of course...

Wired News: Bush Ripped on Global Warming

Damn. HELLO AMERICA!!! GET WITH IT, WOULD YA??

Why does this NOT surprise me. Could this be the Watergate that will bring down Bush?

I wish!

See Wired News: Bush Ripped on Global Warming

Computer crash blues

Well, I found out the hard way that you don’t mix a pre-Service Pack 2 edition of Windows XP with a SATA hard drive….

You see, the original edition of Windows XP (of which I have a copy) does not recognize large-capacity SATA hard drive on first installation. However I subsequently worked out the install of the SATA with the help of MS customer service, but I kept getting intermittent crashes to desktop. Odd.

That lasted until this past Monday, when I was in the process of "backing up" a DVD onto my hard drive, and then, WHOOPS… the Blue Screen of Death appeared. ARGH.

I was unable to boot the comp until late last night when I installed my old IDE hard drive.

So far, things look fine, but who knows?

An unexpected e-mail

Ah, j'ai reçu un courriel de Louise (Louise M., pas Louise K!) Le petit courriel qu'elle m'a envoyé m'a fait sourire, et m'a inspiré à reconstruire mon "blogue."

Éventuellement, j'espère consolider toutes les petites informations dispersées que j'ai publié au courant des années, et les avoir en une seule place. P'tit train ira loin!

Lessons I'd forgotten...now remembered

A lot has happened over the last few days, to make me reconsider where I am in my life and what I want to do with it...

Cheryl went away this weekend to visit a close friend who is in hospital, and who has come very close to dying. He's still not out of the woods, but we are cautiously optimistic.

Mark is a person who has struggled against Crohn's disease for almost 50 years - and has had first-hand experience of our health-care system which will term as SHAMEFUL.

I can't help but feel that it would be a great injustice if he died. He's not the kind of person you'd think as being courageous, and I'm sure he would laugh if I would suggest it; but I can't help but feel a great deal of respect for what he has accomplished with his life in spite of his condition. Through several times where our families vacationed together, he somehow put me back in tune with love I had of nature, and for some reason years ago Ihad let go...and for that reconnection I am thankful to him.

Mark's sudden illness, coupled with the "traffic accident" that I witnessed a close friend have at her workplace, and which I related in this blog earlier, got me to thinking.

Not the kind of rational, down-on-paper kind of thinking, but rather a sub-verbal dialogue.

Here, these two individuals, facing very different circumstances, struggle to live their lives according to their convictions. I find this admirable - and I now realize that I have not had the courage to live the same way. Not to live according to my own convictions, but to have allowed myself to be led by illusions, either my own or someone else's.

So it was in this frame of mind that I stumbled across an old song by Men Without Hats on YouTube, entitled "I Sing Last." Somehow, when I listened to these lyrics, it described pretty much where I feel I am:

We've been told lies. We've been herded around
Taken for rides, told that this is the one
We've learned all the steps and where do they lead
Right back to zero or not far I believe
Making history as we open our eyes
And no one's quite sure so we... We improvise
And wherever it leads us is wherever we'll go
I'd dance forever if they'd let me, you know

Wearing our hair up in anger we cry
The revolution's dead, it went out in style
The children are learning much faster than we
Soon they'll be older, but then again, so will we

Time has come for each of us to decide
To follow blindly or to step out of line
The party is over it has been for years
Let's use the water to wash up, not for tears

Seems such a pity
It seemed we had the same dream
And thinking of things past
You sang first I sang last
You sang first I sang last
You sang first I sang last

...and time has come for me to decide.

YouTube - Organic Chemistry Music Video "Resistant to Base"

While taking a few minutes away from ORSF stuff, I spent a few minutes cruising YouTube and I stumbled across this little gem....

For those of you who remember Robert Palmer's "Addicted to Love", us science geeks might get a kick off a cover on the song: Check the YouTube - Organic Chemistry Music Video "Resistant to Base"

Hilarious!!!

Science vs. Corporate Communications

Ever witness a traffic accident?

Well, I have, kinda, it's an accident that a friend of mine had in posting on their blog something related to their workplace that was better left unsaid. A Bad Thing happened, and there were repercussions. I got that kinda queasy feeling of witnessing an accident, and it got me to thinking about a whole sordid mess of office politics and what seems to me the basic incompatibility of mindsets of Science and of Corporate Communication. (My emphasis added.)

It seems to me that one of the basic premises of Science is the free exchange of communication, of revealing the truth (as facts), and the thrashing out of explanations.

On the other hand, Corporate Communications has as its fundamental premise the communication of selected information (not necessarily fact), the "spinning" of the message (whether these are, at best, truths or half-truths), and the overriding importance of getting the message across as opposed to thrashing out of opinions to getting to the truth.

This gets worse as person trained in science (as I am) tries to embrace the world of corporate communications (as I did) and tries to reconcile the two. I tried, and failed.

While I don't argue that it is possible for the concepts of Science and Corporate Communications to co-exist, what I contend is that these mindsets are fundamentally opposed to each other, and that it is only by one mindset compromising a core value that the two can co-exist. And it is for each person to decide how far they are ready to compromise their core value in order for these two things to co-exist in the same brain - and incidentally how far one is willing to compromise their core value to "get ahead" in the organization. On this last point, I know of what I speak. 'Nuff said.

I have seen examples of individuals in several workplaces that refuse to compromise their integrity in the face of pressure to do so. They choose to do or say what they believe in - and they suffer the consequences of that because it doesn't fit in the mold of Corporate Communications or in the stated values of the organization.

Now, if what I have just said offends someone, then they'd better try and sue "Dilbert." I suspect that the very same people that would laugh at the comic strip and comment that it's true to life would be deeply offended if "open secrets" of their own organization were made plain in a blog or a comic strip and if it implicated them. I understand the concept of confidentiality, but I think that we've gone too far on the PC route if we can't state our own opinions without fear of corporate reprisal.

Just look at this story of the interference of American scientists by the American administration. And we in Canada shouldn't think that this hasn't happened already!

I, personally, wish I had the guts to speak out the way some of my colleagues and some scientists have from their own convictions. But I haven't, and don't, because I have a mortgage to pay and kids to take care of. I'm too in love with my income and my way of life to risk change and to have the courage to live my live the way I think I really believe in...

It's sad. It's so sad.

:-(

Canada 'must act' to curb global warming: Harper

re: Story that Canada 'must act' to curb global warming (Sympatico / MSN)

Finally, our Prime Minister may have gotten the message. If he didn't get the message from his scientists, he might have gotten the message in yesterday's annoucement that humans are 'very likely' to have caused the average increase in temperature observed since 1750 (aka global warming). And if he doesn't act on that message, then I suspect, or rather hope, that the voters will remember.

I'm not optimistic that our present government will really do what is needed. I find it VERY hard to believe that our Prime Minister, who five years ago was dead-set against the Kyoto protocol and called it a "socialist agreement that would only suck money out of the world's wealthier economies" will turn around and embrace that environmental cause. Sorry, but that particular leopard will NOT change its' spots...

And if I thought all this was bad, but then a friend sent me a story which made it worse: it appears that scientists were offered money to "undermine" the climate change report published yesterday.

I'll have more to say about that when my blood pressure goes down...