Not that I want to dwell on Tom Cruise that much but this is a prize. He won the Australian Ernie award for most sexist celebrity comment:
"I've got Katie tucked away so no one will get to us until my child is born ... [Katie's] life from now on was going to be about being a mother. I'm not giving her the chance to turn into another Nicole," Zap2it quoted him, as stating.
Monday, August 28, 2006
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Sheeple and Creative Commons
I learned a new word today: Sheeple or people who follow the herd.
I've also been checking out Creative Commons. I don't know too much about it but it looks really interesting. My first impressions are it is a set of licenses that you can use to put to anything you publish. Given the large amount of publishing that goes into the internet there's not a lot of clarity of who can use it and how. There are very restrictive licenses like Microsoft which says you don't own software, you merely license it and so they try and stop you from reselling the disk if you don't need it. The RIAA/MPAA is also classic for trying to control use of media that you purchase (like ripping songs for your mp3 player). Anyway, the creative commons has licenses ready made that you can add to anything you publish. You just pick your creative commons license. I saw this in use at the bottom of the UBiC tutorials.
I've also been checking out Creative Commons. I don't know too much about it but it looks really interesting. My first impressions are it is a set of licenses that you can use to put to anything you publish. Given the large amount of publishing that goes into the internet there's not a lot of clarity of who can use it and how. There are very restrictive licenses like Microsoft which says you don't own software, you merely license it and so they try and stop you from reselling the disk if you don't need it. The RIAA/MPAA is also classic for trying to control use of media that you purchase (like ripping songs for your mp3 player). Anyway, the creative commons has licenses ready made that you can add to anything you publish. You just pick your creative commons license. I saw this in use at the bottom of the UBiC tutorials.
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Hey girls
As noticed on Boingboing:
Don't Marry Career Women as reported by Forbes.
"To be clear, we're not talking about a high-school dropout minding a cash register. For our purposes, a "career girl" has a university-level (or higher) education, works more than 35 hours a week outside the home and makes more than $30,000 a year."
I'd have to make less than 30 grand a year to qualify as a good wife material? Hmmm, maybe if I worked the kind of job that paid less than 30 grand a year I'd be happy to leave it to play wife at home. Hmmmm, I'm currently making less then that till I graduate, boys you'd better marry me quick!
Oh horror, as a side effect "Even your house will be dirtier (Institute for Social Research)". Because of course, the husband can't do anything about that.
It's fun to read the article and switch the roles.
"There's more: According to a wide-ranging review of the published literature, highly educated people are more likely to have had extra-marital sex (those with graduate degrees are 1.75 more likely to have cheated than those with high school diplomas.) Additionally, individuals who earn more than $30,000 a year are more likely to cheat."
So marrying a rich girl means she's more likely to cheat. But for the male making the cash cheating is ok?...
Whatever.
Update: Wow that was quick, the article has since been removed but the text remains elsewhere.
Don't Marry Career Women as reported by Forbes.
"To be clear, we're not talking about a high-school dropout minding a cash register. For our purposes, a "career girl" has a university-level (or higher) education, works more than 35 hours a week outside the home and makes more than $30,000 a year."
I'd have to make less than 30 grand a year to qualify as a good wife material? Hmmm, maybe if I worked the kind of job that paid less than 30 grand a year I'd be happy to leave it to play wife at home. Hmmmm, I'm currently making less then that till I graduate, boys you'd better marry me quick!
Oh horror, as a side effect "Even your house will be dirtier (Institute for Social Research)". Because of course, the husband can't do anything about that.
It's fun to read the article and switch the roles.
"There's more: According to a wide-ranging review of the published literature, highly educated people are more likely to have had extra-marital sex (those with graduate degrees are 1.75 more likely to have cheated than those with high school diplomas.) Additionally, individuals who earn more than $30,000 a year are more likely to cheat."
So marrying a rich girl means she's more likely to cheat. But for the male making the cash cheating is ok?...
Whatever.
Update: Wow that was quick, the article has since been removed but the text remains elsewhere.
A hike, a hike!
Well, on the weekend I decided to try a hike, my first one that I've intentionally set out upon after hurting my knee almost 2 years ago. As you have probably noticed, I'm not happy about the knee thing. However, I have been doing tons of stuff even if I haven't been able to hike.
Anyway, as I was saying, we hiked up Cypress mountain (hike #49 in the blue shoe book). Almost everyone I know who even occasionally hikes owns a copy of this book or knows someone who does. Anyway, as you can tell from the picture the views were fantastic.
I've forgotten how much work it is to go downhill. I was taking all the work in my thighs to save the knee and they felt it. It was about 650 m elevation gain which is not insignificant and over 10 km so it was a decent enough day hike. So I'm looking forward to my next hike, maybe in a few weeks. It was great to be out of the city and into the quiet.
Anyway, as I was saying, we hiked up Cypress mountain (hike #49 in the blue shoe book). Almost everyone I know who even occasionally hikes owns a copy of this book or knows someone who does. Anyway, as you can tell from the picture the views were fantastic.
I've forgotten how much work it is to go downhill. I was taking all the work in my thighs to save the knee and they felt it. It was about 650 m elevation gain which is not insignificant and over 10 km so it was a decent enough day hike. So I'm looking forward to my next hike, maybe in a few weeks. It was great to be out of the city and into the quiet.
Thursday, August 17, 2006
Magic Fiction
So, as mentioned in my last post, there was a recent attempt by 'terrorists' to blow up a plane using liquid explosives. The Register has an interesting article about just how unfeasible this would be. IANAC (I am not a chemist) so I cannot comment on the chemistry required for making a liquid bomb but the Register raises the interesting idea how we are conditioned to fear mixing two chemicals together to make a bomb from movies as opposed to anything that is reasonably feasible - scientifically achievable.
This brings me to another encounter, one I had at a scientific conference last year where a couple had paid a large amount of money to be at the conference and were trying to sell some magical cure all chemical from garlic (something about an oxidized dicysteine bond). Anyway, they claimed that it cured cancer, was antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal and also boosted the immune system. They were trying to find people in the research community to not only do research on their magic compound but to fund the research as well. They weren't well received and I suspect that this is an example of where people develop ideas that the scientific community is out to 'hide the truth' and supress these amazing cure all findings. No doubt conspiracy theories of this type abound.
I'm sure everyone is an expert in their own field, what would you think if someone with an interest but no real experience came in and said they knew a way to solve all the major problems of the field that has no side effects and that somehow everyone else had missed the boat. Or they were all evil and hid the good results. Why does the public assumes that the magic cure alls, amazing fuels and super bombs of science are any more possible? Because science is the new magic.
This is were magic fiction has come in (and refers back to The Register article). Science is the deux ex machina of so many stories. It is the plot device that with some hand waving solves all the problems. Sure, the scientist in the movie is the hero, they peer into the microscope ("wait a minute, this is cat DNA"), come up with the antidote and the planet is saved, but does it do science as a discipline any good? What about when the scientist is the villan ("I've created a virus that will destroy the world!!"). How does this 'magic' affect peoples judgement of science? Science fails miserably when compared to Magic Fiction. Results are slow, conflicting variables confound interpretation and there are no magic bullets. Look at all the confusion over global warming, or the theory of evolution (after all the critics say, its just a theory).
Anyway, these are just some musings as I think about science in society. I realize any discipline is going to be misrepresented in the popular imagination but while CSI might lead to some poor career choices ("tv didn't say dead bodies would be gross and boring") science and scientists touch a great deal of our life - medicine, technology and terorist plots.
This brings me to another encounter, one I had at a scientific conference last year where a couple had paid a large amount of money to be at the conference and were trying to sell some magical cure all chemical from garlic (something about an oxidized dicysteine bond). Anyway, they claimed that it cured cancer, was antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal and also boosted the immune system. They were trying to find people in the research community to not only do research on their magic compound but to fund the research as well. They weren't well received and I suspect that this is an example of where people develop ideas that the scientific community is out to 'hide the truth' and supress these amazing cure all findings. No doubt conspiracy theories of this type abound.
I'm sure everyone is an expert in their own field, what would you think if someone with an interest but no real experience came in and said they knew a way to solve all the major problems of the field that has no side effects and that somehow everyone else had missed the boat. Or they were all evil and hid the good results. Why does the public assumes that the magic cure alls, amazing fuels and super bombs of science are any more possible? Because science is the new magic.
This is were magic fiction has come in (and refers back to The Register article). Science is the deux ex machina of so many stories. It is the plot device that with some hand waving solves all the problems. Sure, the scientist in the movie is the hero, they peer into the microscope ("wait a minute, this is cat DNA"), come up with the antidote and the planet is saved, but does it do science as a discipline any good? What about when the scientist is the villan ("I've created a virus that will destroy the world!!"). How does this 'magic' affect peoples judgement of science? Science fails miserably when compared to Magic Fiction. Results are slow, conflicting variables confound interpretation and there are no magic bullets. Look at all the confusion over global warming, or the theory of evolution (after all the critics say, its just a theory).
Anyway, these are just some musings as I think about science in society. I realize any discipline is going to be misrepresented in the popular imagination but while CSI might lead to some poor career choices ("tv didn't say dead bodies would be gross and boring") science and scientists touch a great deal of our life - medicine, technology and terorist plots.
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
San Diego
I went to San Diego for a trip. The city was nice enough, I have plenty of sunburn. I heard gunshots outside the window at the hotel one night and I learned a drive-by shooting had killed a 16 year old and injured a 15 year old and I wasn't even in a rough part of town. Good thing guns make you safe.
In San Diego the streets were wide, there wasn't much traffic and the bus system was ok. They had a day trip bus pass that was actually worth it, unlike Vancouver where you have to ride more than 7 times for it to be economical. The food was really overpriced.
I really liked the San Diego zoo, it was fantastic and I wish I could have spent more time looking around. I also went to Sea World (at least twice the price of the zoo) and it was definitly an amusement park. The shows were amazing, the animals really neat but it was kinda like tv, show up and we will amuse you. Oh yeah, and buy the tacky giftshop whale sculptures. Anyway, they had a pool of bat rays, here's a guy that got really excited and was swimming up at the wall so you can see his mouth.
Finally, I flew home just after the recent terrorist plot so no liquids were allowed. It was the fastest I've ever been through security, I thought the lineups would be huge but instead I just sat around reading my book and tried to get on earlier flights (unlike the UK, we were allowed reading material). Leaving the plane was also incredibly quick, no people struggling with massive carry-ons. Since I was flying out of California they had the army stationed at the airports and army guys were doing some final carry-on checks. Good thing soldiers make you safe.
In San Diego the streets were wide, there wasn't much traffic and the bus system was ok. They had a day trip bus pass that was actually worth it, unlike Vancouver where you have to ride more than 7 times for it to be economical. The food was really overpriced.
I really liked the San Diego zoo, it was fantastic and I wish I could have spent more time looking around. I also went to Sea World (at least twice the price of the zoo) and it was definitly an amusement park. The shows were amazing, the animals really neat but it was kinda like tv, show up and we will amuse you. Oh yeah, and buy the tacky giftshop whale sculptures. Anyway, they had a pool of bat rays, here's a guy that got really excited and was swimming up at the wall so you can see his mouth.
Finally, I flew home just after the recent terrorist plot so no liquids were allowed. It was the fastest I've ever been through security, I thought the lineups would be huge but instead I just sat around reading my book and tried to get on earlier flights (unlike the UK, we were allowed reading material). Leaving the plane was also incredibly quick, no people struggling with massive carry-ons. Since I was flying out of California they had the army stationed at the airports and army guys were doing some final carry-on checks. Good thing soldiers make you safe.
Thursday, August 03, 2006
Ah how nerdy
Bryan gave me his periodic table coffee mug (just in case you need to reinforce your nerdy behaviour) and Geoff pointed out the Organic chemist's periodic table.
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