Apparently I'm the 1%...

I'm going to come across a bit elitist with this statement, but whatever, its my opinion. Hooray free speech!

I look at the "Occupy Edmonton" protest as a farce, and nothing more than a hipster "jumping off" protest for other causes. I see the VALIDITY in the idea, as it applies to the States. The sociopolitical/economic system is fundamentally different. I fail to see the direct correlation here in Canada. I'm not saying that there is no income disparity. I'm saying that the situation is not nearly as dire. I do not see people getting screwed out of homes by large corporations. I do not see massive unemployment. Everything's not all roses, however, the situation is 100% different. I don't absolve "the corporate boogeymen" (ooooooooooooh *ghost noises*) of profit chasing at the expense of their customers.

I think that the following (at least the majority of it) rings pretty true, although it does sound a bit embellished to fit the counterpoint to all this "We're the victim"/entitlement crap going around:

Being a Graduate Student that has had to sacrifice and make hard decisions about money, I have learned that leveraging the money you have properly can be more powerful than having a bunch of money - this allowed me to purchase a house at 23 while being a grad student.

Apparently that makes me part of the "problem" rather than a responsible taxpaying citizen.

*sigh*

How long until I can just ignore these idiot hipster retards and make several large evil corporations richer by playing their MMORPG?!?!? (Yay SWTOR!)

Yay! Its Election Time!

Wow.

Long time no post.

Well, to be honest, I've been pretty busy. Since my last post I've managed to publish a paper (yay!), and submit a bunch of grant applications. A couple smaller ones, but one 150k commercialization/development grant. If that one goes through, I'll be able to finish my research (and degree) without having to search for other funding, while getting paid for the first time in over eight months. A lot is riding on that grant, so we'll see what happens. Other than that, Portal 2 = Absolutely Awesome.

In any case, we have another Election coming up here in Canada. Hooray.

Yeah, I'm not too enthusiastic about it, because in reality, there may be slight shifts in power, but I cannot see a wholesale ideological change taking place. As per usual, you have the mudslinging and attack adds, misleading spinning of stories, and of course, the random commentary by significantly slanted random people on social media.

I understand people have opinions - they are entitled to them. However, I just can't but help to laugh/shake my head about people who push their specific ideology or political viewpoint without considering how it impacts others.

For example, the oilsands. Yes. That taboo topic again. I am not going to argue that the oilsands are a "good" thing, because quite realistically, anytime you have heavy industry, regardless of what industry (yes, even the sacred cow of solar panel production*) you have environmental damage.

[*The production of solar panels requires a variety of harmful chemicals, dangerous goods, and significant power requirements to produce. Having worked in a parallel field that uses many of the same technologies/materials, I'm wondering how many environmentalists would be happy to know what specifically goes into making those solar panels. It takes upwards of 2-3 years of operation to have a "net positive" power output (ie, replace the power that was used to produce them). I'd like to know how many "greeners" will admit to that... but I digress.. ]

Anyways, what cannot be argued, even amongst the people who are vehemently opposed to them (*cough* Greenpeace Eco-terrorists *cough*) is the significant economic impact they have on Alberta, and on Canada as a whole. I have multiple family members that are involved directly in the oilfield or in the supply, trades, or worker training (welding, etc). There is a major demand for skilled labor because of the oilfield, to the point that technical colleges are completely full and workers are coming from out of province to work here.

On a national level, the oilfield/commodity sector of our economy helped prevent our recession from being as bad as the one in the US. Additionally, the oilfield is most likely the only reason Alberta is the only "have" province in the "wonderful" equalization payment program that exists nationally. Billions of dollars produced through the oilfield's economic impact are redistributed to the rest of Canada to "equalize" the relative economies of the provinces. Yet, the Alberta oilfield is the "great Satan", while (in the wake of the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico) Newfoundland's offshore oil drilling is quietly ignored.

Anyways, the point I'm getting at is that its easy to be against something that doesn't directly (or indirectly) benefit you, regardless of the human cost. Many people want to shut down the oilfields. I'm not sure how many people have considered the entire effect on Canada - both the positive and the negative.


My hope for this election is that people vote with their heads, not with their emotions. Its really easy to get caught up in the "Ignatieff is an American", "I don't like Harper's Lego Hair", or "Layton is a Commie" bullshit. If you're planning to vote simply based on the TV adds being spewed at us constantly on Canadian TV, Stay Home.

I'm serious. People who simply vote on "X said Y, and hates Z" attack adds should have their right to vote taken away. You're not helping the country, and you're definitely not helping yourself. There is nothing funnier than someone complaining bitterly about the government *THEY* voted for.

Get informed. Get off the couch, talk to people, do some research. If you're too lazy to get involved, the CBC has a fairly good website that asks some general questions about the important issues of the day:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canadavotes2011/votecompass/

At the very least, this should make you think about the real issues that are going to be affecting our country, and where the parties stand (more or less). There has been some media outlets (Toronto Sun) calling the validity of this test into question, saying you'll be forced Liberal by default. Regardless, if this gets a potential voter thinking about the issues, rather than focusing on "he said/she said", its worthwhile.

If you plan to vote, and can't bring yourself to do some background work to figure out who to vote for, do the rest of us a favor and don't bother voting. People who vote blindly just harm the rest of us.

What a PhD means in the "Big Picture"

Yeah, I haven't really posted in a while. One part too busy, one part Christmas. So, yeah, this post is going to be a bit of a hodge-podge. Oh well.

As I have worked on my PhD, I have had a bit of an issue trying to explain clearly what exactly the impact of my research is. I always try and equate it to every day life, or some sort of consumer product. Having to equate it to a consumer product ultimately annoys me. Unfortunately, this is the most realistic way of the general public trying to understand what the end product of a PhD is - A shinier cell phone... lol.

I can go on unending rants about how the media uses "Mythbuster-esuqe ""Science"" " is used to "prove" things like global warming, the end of the world in 2012, and so on, but ultimately that's not productive. People are too deeply rooted in the opinion of what is being presented to them in the popular media and television is absolute fact for anyone to argue an alternate opinion. This is where the label of "conspiracy theorist" is used at-nauseum (granted, sometimes is warranted).

Anyways, I'm off on a tangent.

What I want to do with this post is to explain exactly what a PhD is for society, using an excellent example from The Illustrated Guide to a Ph.D. ( http://matt.might.net/articles/phd-school-in-pictures/ ).

So first, lets consider the below circle as containing the entirety of human knowledge. Everything:

  

By the time someone finishes elementary school, they know (roughly) this much of total human knowledge:

 

Now, when someone finishes high school, they learn a little bit more general knowledge:

 

Now, with a bachelor's degree, you gain more general knowledge, but also gain a specialty, which gives you more knowledge in a specific area, as shown below:

 

A Master's Degree deepens that specialty further:

 

When you start a PhD, you first learn the work of others in your specialty, and reading that work/those papers takes you to the edge of human knowledge:

 

Eventually, you find a specific area of your field to focus a thesis on:

 

For a few years, you work hard on that focused area of work, pushing the boundary of human knowledge:

 

Eventually, one day, a discovery or experiment causes that boundary to give way:

 

That small dent in the "frontier of human knowledge"? That's a Ph.D.:

 

So, the world looks different specifically in that field now:

 Now that the world has been changed by that discovery, its important to reflect on the overall impact, or to look at the bigger picture:

 

So, in the words of the original author, its very important for people to "Keep Pushing".

Anyways, this is the most accurate representation of what a PhD is for society that I've ever seen.

Hooray for Oil!

Recently, I had a fairly decent discussion with one of my colleagues about the Alberta Oilsands, and how they impact the environment. We both agreed that the environmental impact is significant. However, we did not agree on the basis on how to fix the problem. He believed that the individual could have a significant impact and the efforts of individuals could change the minds of society and move Alberta from Oil-dependence.

I agree that the individuals have an important part to play in raising awareness, however, I do not believe that individuals can persuade our economy to diversify beyond being oil-based. In Alberta, whether or not people are directly aware of it, the majority of the economy is based on either providing services and material for the oilfield (as a primary beneficiary) or on the capital generated from the oilfield (secondary and tertiary beneficiaries). Now, the majority of the people working in the oilfield are skilled workers/tradespeople that are building/maintaining the infrastructure (rigs/mines/plants/etc). These are the primary beneficiaries of the oilfield. The salaries that these skilled laborers make is staggering, enough that during the boom of the oilfield in the late 90's/early 2000's there was a significant shortage of labor in Alberta. Usually, people just think as these workers as the only people that benefit economically from the oilfield. What happens when these workers spend this "oil money"? The local retailers benefit. These are the secondary (and sometimes tertiary) beneficiaries of the oilfield. Alberta has one of the most large and brisk retail economies, dealing in a lot of luxury items, fast cars, and lifted (as my wife calls them) "small penis" trucks. In addition, the Provincial Government vastly benefits from the oilfield and the royalties it produces. Long story short, almost everyone in some way, shape, or form benefits from the oilfield.

For quite some time, there have been a lot of organizations and companies doing various things to draw attention to the oilfield and some of the problems associated with it. For example, you had Lush hold protests in front of its stores. You had a bunch of companies such as Gap, Timberland, Levi's, Walgreens, Bed Bath and Beyond, etc. "boycott" Alberta Oil by apparently using oil from other sources in its supply chain. I'm not totally sold that these companies are actually accomplishing anything but pulling a press stunt. These are mostly companies that sell higher end merchandise, ironically to people that are benefiting from the oilfield. Even if their supply chains where made to be completely devoid of Alberta Oil, simple economics would kick in. How you ask? Well, consider this situation. A higher demand for other-than Alberta Oil occurs, the price for that oil increases. Other consumers look at the situation, and are confronted with the choice between expensive non-Alberta Oil, or cheaper Alberta Oil. I can guarantee, with 100% certainty, that someone will buy that Alberta Oil, regardless of whether or not these retail companies do.

So then, how then do you encourage change? How do you encourage the common person to demand change? You saw it fairly recently in the US with Obama's Election. I still believe that Obama won that election convincingly based on one major reason: enough people were affected negatively by the "just" war in Iraq. You effect the everyday life of people enough, they will make a choice for change. Pearl Harbor and 9/11 are more examples of stimulus for wide-sweeping changes in public opinion. Pearl Harbor was an unfortunate, but necessary event to change the perception of entering WWII. Same goes with 9/11 and dealing with terrorism.

I'm not saying that violence is the answer, I'm simply suggesting that the public has to be directly affected, or inconvenienced if you will,  in order to stimulate change. Its nice that we have all these companies/individuals raising awareness. But, without stimulus for change, awareness is useless. So, here's my solution (not necessarily in this order), that may allow Alberta to get off its "oil habit":

1. There has to be a second reasonable and desirable choice for oilfield workers to go. Government must take a leading role in developing industry other than Oil. I don't care whether it is manufacturing, tech, R&D, or what have you, there has to be a diversification of industry. The majority of workers in the oilfield are not specialized to the oilfield. Its simply the highest paying jobs out there currently. Diversify the industry, subsidize that industry to make people want to move from the oilfield. Perhaps something like a lower tax rate for non-oilfield related work.

2. There has to be a stimulus to change public opinion, above and beyond the current awareness-based campaigns. If people are comfortable in their daily lives, no appreciable change will occur. How did we encourage people to recycle drink containers? A deposit. How can we make people take a serious stance on the environmental damage caused by the oilsands? Make the oil companies financially responsible for the environmental damage. The oil companies will not even blink, and just simply pass on the costs to the public. I guarantee you, the second that a litre of gas goes up by $3 overnight for Alberta-Oilsands oil only, you'll have your change in public opinion.

So yeah, long story short, without inconveniencing the public, no change will occur.

Snappy Title Goes Here.

Yeah. I couldn't think of a snappy title today. Oh well.

The running is going fairly well, although its kind of ironic how many things are getting in the way. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy it and I want to continue doing it, but it seems like unavoidable things keep popping up. For example, I ended up straining my knee a bit. Nothing serious, no massive damage, just a bit of soreness. So, I downgraded to the stationary bike, at least to keep moving and work on the cardio. I'm thankful I bought  one of those "magnetic resistance" bikes, since its absolutely whisper quiet, and you can easily hear the TV or whatever over the bike. However, at the proper height, the seat, for some reason, slants backwards slightly, and thus the support that should be supporting your tailbone is uncomfortably getting "in the way". Yeah, you know what I mean.. lol. I'm going to have to shim the seat somehow to rotate it forward slightly. So, I stick to the bike for a while, and my knee improves. Then the smoke rolls in. Awesome. Thanks Poz for lighting your province on fire. :D But seriously, the air quality has been the worse that I've ever seen or heard of here due to the smoke from forest fires wafting in from a province over. I managed to find some NASA pictures of the smoke plume, and its kind of amazing. I'm just waiting for Greenpeace to blame the tarsands for that one. I mean, they blame everything else on the tarsands, why not forest fires? So yeah, no running, annoying. Grr.

Progress has been made with work, but, as usual, random annoying things keep popping up. Making some experimental progress, although, as per usual, bureaucratic issues keep popping up. I am not a fan of the bureaucracy involved in the University research community. I've always thought of it as a necessary evil, something you dealt with as it came up. Another bureucratic panic has ensued due to a lack of foresight (partly mine, partly others). I'm currently done the paperwork on my end, and again, I find myself in a "HURRY UP AND WAIT" situation. Luckily, I've had random computer help @ the parents place to keep me relatively distracted while I check my email every 20 minutes waiting for a reply that probably won't happen until the usual 2:30am Monday email. That's fine. I'm enjoying hanging out at my parents place.

Unfortunately, I'm starting to get a bit of cabin fever in terms of my gaming. Its part getting bored with what I have and part not having anyone to play the really interesting games with. Its the usual summer issues with everyone having too much to do, all at the same time. I'm enjoying a renaissance of sorts with my 360. I spent the money to get a VGA connection for it, so I could hook it up to my newer wide screen PC monitor that does 1080 HD. Best 50 bucks spent ever. I've been replaying all those games that I eventually got tired of playing on a non HD screen, with text too small to read, and images too fuzzy to figure out what was going on. Its been great, but now I've played/finished everything that is really worthwhile playing. Been looking at Starcraft 2, but yeah, can't really afford to pick that up right now with the move in sight.

Oh yes, the move. That's coming up shortly. Much excitement. Yay!

Rule 1 of Zombieland: Cardio.

Yup, I'm preparing for the imminent Zombie Invasion. The goal is to run faster than someone, and by gum, I'll do it.

But seriously, I've started running again. I used to run a bit back in the day, before my locker was broken into at the University, and everything got pinched, including my New Balance shoes. Oh Poz, I owe you a set of shelves.. lol! But yeah, running is fun, it gets me some much needed exercise. Working in a research lab for so long kind of ruined my fitness, oh well, something to work towards.

3.2 km down, thousands to go. >.>

Eskimos Season Tickets For Sale.

Yeah, I'm seriously considering it.

I'm getting really, really tired of the consistent "shitting of the bed". That's the only thing that's consistent with the current Eskimos, that and the excuse making. I haven't seen the Eskies play a full 60 minute game in about a year.

I'm tired of the constant talk about "something" has to change - but they never change anything.

Fuck it.

If you want to watch a team fold consistently in the 4th quarter of the game, with the lead, with a predictable QB sack on 2nd down, with 10 to go with the Eskimos last touch of the ball in the game, let me know.