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...)