For the last little while I've been on a diet. The telltale sign that I needed to lose weight was that my Bermuda Shorts, which fit me when I arrived here, now cannot even be closed around my waist - a sign that I've been putting on a few pounds since I've been here. Actually everyone calls it the "Doha 2 inches", something that appears to happen to everyone who moves here. It's not too surprising that it happens, with the heat and distances between places you pretty much have to drive everywhere, and with the heat 6 months of the year you absolutely have to drive everywhere. Excercise becomes limited to gyms.
So I've been cutting back on the sweet stuff and trying to hit the treadmill every day. After three weeks results look promising - the shorts now fit. Very tight, but they fit. My aim is to get to the point where I need a belt to keep them on. I don't know exactly what my weight is, I'm using the shorts as a measure instead of worrying about pounds/kg.
This has made me understand how hard it can be to lose weight. Just the other day I hit the treadmill, showered, went to a cafe for a coffee, then proceeded to order a monster-sized chocolate pudding along with it. All the while the back of my mind was going "don't do it!" but I did anyway. What in the world was I thinking? That was the entire treadmill session nullified right there. To make up for it dinner was severly low-cal (carrots, some other raw vegs, whole wheat bread) but I can't be eating dinners like that forever. Willpower is easier said than done.
But the shorts fit now! Just gotta keep the program going.
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Time for a change
I started wondering why I don't update my blog as often as I should. On average I'm posting to it maybe every four days or so, sometimes the gaps are even larger. Not a good thing.
I do know that I have been travelling A LOT in the last few months but still, I could be blogging more often. And I came to the conclusion that I don't blog as often as I should because the things I've been putting on this blog are not really all that exciting to note. If I'm going to blog more often it's going to have to be about things that I want to talk about right there & then - analysis of current events, gripes, changes, and so forth.
So henceforth this blog is going in a new direction. I'm going to lose a lot of the generic commentary that I've been maintaining and get more into the nitty-gritty of everyday life, news, current events, & things on my mind. Maybe then I'll be inspired to blog more often.
So starting tomorrow, a new beginning . . .
(I'll still have the occasional post about some vapid things, like how much I'm currently enjoying my Babylon 5 DVDs. Just occasionally though.)
I do know that I have been travelling A LOT in the last few months but still, I could be blogging more often. And I came to the conclusion that I don't blog as often as I should because the things I've been putting on this blog are not really all that exciting to note. If I'm going to blog more often it's going to have to be about things that I want to talk about right there & then - analysis of current events, gripes, changes, and so forth.
So henceforth this blog is going in a new direction. I'm going to lose a lot of the generic commentary that I've been maintaining and get more into the nitty-gritty of everyday life, news, current events, & things on my mind. Maybe then I'll be inspired to blog more often.
So starting tomorrow, a new beginning . . .
(I'll still have the occasional post about some vapid things, like how much I'm currently enjoying my Babylon 5 DVDs. Just occasionally though.)
Sunday, March 25, 2007
The World Tour Part 6 - Last day of TAM
TAM – the finale
The last day of TAM is always for paper presentations. Months before the meeting JREF asked people to submit papers, and a number are chosen to present them at TAM.
I’ve always found this to be the day that has “more meat, less filling” as it were. Presenters only have 25 minutes, most have no book to push, and are not famous so irrelevant questions aren’t asked of them. With only 25 minutes you don’t have much choice but to condense the work down to the main points. Sadly audience attendance isn’t as strong as the previous two days as many are burned-out from all the late nights or have early flights to catch. I’m guilty of this myself having missed the first two of the eight talks this year as I needed some extra sleep. I think I got to bed at 3:00am the previous night and the talks started at 8:30. On the plus side I did win money that night!
Anyway there was one paper that stood out for me – Lee Graham developed an Irreducible Complexity applet which was way cool. It takes a simple program for diverting falling balls down a grid and includes evolutionary mechanisms (occasional random mutation, death of algorithms whose scores are consistently poorer than others etc.) and then you can run it for numerous generations to see what happens. It serves as an interesting computer model for simple evolution by showing how complex structures could be possible over many generations.
Check it out.
The last day of TAM is always for paper presentations. Months before the meeting JREF asked people to submit papers, and a number are chosen to present them at TAM.
I’ve always found this to be the day that has “more meat, less filling” as it were. Presenters only have 25 minutes, most have no book to push, and are not famous so irrelevant questions aren’t asked of them. With only 25 minutes you don’t have much choice but to condense the work down to the main points. Sadly audience attendance isn’t as strong as the previous two days as many are burned-out from all the late nights or have early flights to catch. I’m guilty of this myself having missed the first two of the eight talks this year as I needed some extra sleep. I think I got to bed at 3:00am the previous night and the talks started at 8:30. On the plus side I did win money that night!
Anyway there was one paper that stood out for me – Lee Graham developed an Irreducible Complexity applet which was way cool. It takes a simple program for diverting falling balls down a grid and includes evolutionary mechanisms (occasional random mutation, death of algorithms whose scores are consistently poorer than others etc.) and then you can run it for numerous generations to see what happens. It serves as an interesting computer model for simple evolution by showing how complex structures could be possible over many generations.
Check it out.
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
The World Tour Part 5 - TAM Day 2
Okay, on to the second day of TAM, I’ll try to keep it a bit briefer so that I can continue on blogging about my life in general. I think TAM is important though, if only so that someone reading this might think “Hey, that might be worth checking out next year”.
Peter Sagal, NPR Radio host of Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me, a radio game show involving recent news stories and other trivia.
One of the few speakers whose talk was really related to the main theme of TAM - “Skepticism and the Media”. But can I remember exactly what it was he discussed? No. Sad, isn’t it? I recall that it was about media and the public but none of the specifics. I do remember being impressed by his presentation skills, but I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that he is a good speaker given that he hosts a radio show. Sorry for my bad memory Peter!
Scott Dikkers, Editor for The Onion.
If you’ve never heard of the Onion then add the link to your favourites, it’s a favourite of mine. If you’re a regular reader of it then his talk was nothing exciting, essentially showing a number of slides with some of the Onion’s crazy stories, as well as discussing some of the feedback The Onion has received from people/media who actually believed a story the Onion made up. Underlying message: people need to really think critically about the media otherwise they’ll read papers like the Onion and figure it’s real news. The fact that there are people out there who have believed that an Onion story is real news does not surprise me but saddens me nonetheless. Hilarious site, check it out at least once a week.
Phil Plait, Bad Astronomy.com
Phil’s website is already on my link list and he is a TAM regular. Phil spends a lot of time debunking woo astronomy that always circulates around, usually involving UFO’s, astrologers, the Moon Landing Hoax believers, or doomsayers that are big into making predictions about the end of the Earth (you know the types: “Comet XYZ will collide with the Earth on April 12, 2008. We’re all doooooooooomed! But buy my books and DVDs before we go!”)
Phil discussed the many Moon Hoax myth perpetrated by Moon Hoax conspiracy theorists and why they are wrong. I stepped out for a bathroom break and snack so missed much of it but I knew the stuff already from hanging out at badastronomy.com forums and clavius.org
John Rennie, editor of Scientific American magazine
An interesting talk about some of the debunking work that SciAm has done over the years (including when it didn’t go so well, such as an investigation into a medium back in the 1920s who seduced one, maybe two, of the investigators). Also reviewed some of the scathing mail it receives from godly-inspired critics of mainstream science theories like evolution. Did you know the Unibomber loved reading SciAm and sent letters to them? They didn’t either until the FBI came knocking. Great talk.
Christopher Hitchens, journalist
Love him or hate him he’s an interesting speaker. He is another TAM regular and I looked forward to his talk. His talk at TAM3 ranged from an extensive dissing of Mother Teresa to his support of the Iraq War. Controversial, but unlike many he appears to research and know his stuff before spouting off about it. I have one of his books, Love, Poverty & War, a collection of articles he has written over the years, and it is an enjoyable read that offers insight into the man.
His talk was primarily about Islam and how fundamentalists are intimidating the media in the West, the prime example of course being the Muslim cartoon controversy. He pointed out that certain mullahs deliberately orchestrated the mass outrage at the printing of the cartoons – and while expressing outrage and threats of retaliation against papers that publish them were handing copies of the cartoons out themselves to Muslims so that they could be outraged as well. Meanwhile most of the media towed the line in fear of retaliation. Christopher showed great concern over the Western media allowing themselves to be intimidated by religious fundamentalists and what that might bring in the future. I’m concerned as well.
I don’t think I agree with many of Christopher’s views but I would need to do a lot of research to determine why, because the man knows his stuff. And he’s a good writer to boot. Skim a couple of his books next time you’re in a bookstore to see what you think.
Adam Savage – Mythbusters
The Mythbusters have a huge fanbase at TAM, and they themselves are big fans of critical thinking. Their show is one of the few that teaches people the value of thinking critically, not believing everything you hear, and the value of testing/research to determine whether something is a hoax or not. Adam and Tory (not Jamie, who couldn’t make it this year) did a presentation on the show and had a Q&A with the audience. You know the show so nuff said.
Trey Parker and Matt Stone – South Park
If you stop to think about it, South Park is a show that is part comedy, part gross-out, and part critical thinking. Stan & Kyle are always the voice of reason to Cartman and the adults in South Park who are generally pretty gullible and ready to buy into everything. And South Park’s parodies of popular icons and religions is hilarious! So coming to give a talk at a TAM about media and skepticism was right up their alley.
Penn (of Penn and Teller) interviewed them on stage for a while about the creation of South Park and the resistance they have received from some of their shows and movies. A Q&A with the audience followed, which I recall included a mix of on-topic questions with some inane fan-boy stuff, but not as bad as the Penn & Teller Q&A from the previous day. In essence, there are people who dislike South Park because it attacks them or their treasured beliefs, but the studio is pretty good about letting Trey and Matt have free reign over what they produce. It was surprising to find out that many of their support staff were believers in a lot of woo nonsense that Trey and Matt ended up attacking, like John Edwards talking to the dead - T&M were surprised when some of their staff said, “his powers are for real – aren’t they?” (for the record – NO!)
Finally came the Panel discussion with most of the speakers from today. Highlight was Scott Dikkers placing some of the blame for world woes on American foreign policy (this and the rest of the paragraph is a BIG general summary by me recalling what happened over a month ago, do not take it as verbatim), then Hitchens verbally went after him on it, basically saying that was liberal crap. Things got a little heated but John Rennie challenged Hitchens in a polite manner, implying that Hitchens comments on Islam appear to paint all Muslim nations with the same brush without taking into account the various differences between the individual countries. Moderators cooled things down and moved on. In discussions I had afterward some conference attendees thought Hitchens was too harsh in his rebuttal to Dikkers, while others supported Hitchens’ right to “call it like you see it” on general unsupported comments. Hitchens is not one to blunt his commentary anyway.
Whew, Day 2 done, but there is one day to go, the paper presentations for Day 3, summary coming up in the next entry but don’t worry - I’ll keep it short. There is definitely one website you gotta check out from Day 3!
Peter Sagal, NPR Radio host of Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me, a radio game show involving recent news stories and other trivia.
One of the few speakers whose talk was really related to the main theme of TAM - “Skepticism and the Media”. But can I remember exactly what it was he discussed? No. Sad, isn’t it? I recall that it was about media and the public but none of the specifics. I do remember being impressed by his presentation skills, but I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that he is a good speaker given that he hosts a radio show. Sorry for my bad memory Peter!
Scott Dikkers, Editor for The Onion.
If you’ve never heard of the Onion then add the link to your favourites, it’s a favourite of mine. If you’re a regular reader of it then his talk was nothing exciting, essentially showing a number of slides with some of the Onion’s crazy stories, as well as discussing some of the feedback The Onion has received from people/media who actually believed a story the Onion made up. Underlying message: people need to really think critically about the media otherwise they’ll read papers like the Onion and figure it’s real news. The fact that there are people out there who have believed that an Onion story is real news does not surprise me but saddens me nonetheless. Hilarious site, check it out at least once a week.
Phil Plait, Bad Astronomy.com
Phil’s website is already on my link list and he is a TAM regular. Phil spends a lot of time debunking woo astronomy that always circulates around, usually involving UFO’s, astrologers, the Moon Landing Hoax believers, or doomsayers that are big into making predictions about the end of the Earth (you know the types: “Comet XYZ will collide with the Earth on April 12, 2008. We’re all doooooooooomed! But buy my books and DVDs before we go!”)
Phil discussed the many Moon Hoax myth perpetrated by Moon Hoax conspiracy theorists and why they are wrong. I stepped out for a bathroom break and snack so missed much of it but I knew the stuff already from hanging out at badastronomy.com forums and clavius.org
John Rennie, editor of Scientific American magazine
An interesting talk about some of the debunking work that SciAm has done over the years (including when it didn’t go so well, such as an investigation into a medium back in the 1920s who seduced one, maybe two, of the investigators). Also reviewed some of the scathing mail it receives from godly-inspired critics of mainstream science theories like evolution. Did you know the Unibomber loved reading SciAm and sent letters to them? They didn’t either until the FBI came knocking. Great talk.
Christopher Hitchens, journalist
Love him or hate him he’s an interesting speaker. He is another TAM regular and I looked forward to his talk. His talk at TAM3 ranged from an extensive dissing of Mother Teresa to his support of the Iraq War. Controversial, but unlike many he appears to research and know his stuff before spouting off about it. I have one of his books, Love, Poverty & War, a collection of articles he has written over the years, and it is an enjoyable read that offers insight into the man.
His talk was primarily about Islam and how fundamentalists are intimidating the media in the West, the prime example of course being the Muslim cartoon controversy. He pointed out that certain mullahs deliberately orchestrated the mass outrage at the printing of the cartoons – and while expressing outrage and threats of retaliation against papers that publish them were handing copies of the cartoons out themselves to Muslims so that they could be outraged as well. Meanwhile most of the media towed the line in fear of retaliation. Christopher showed great concern over the Western media allowing themselves to be intimidated by religious fundamentalists and what that might bring in the future. I’m concerned as well.
I don’t think I agree with many of Christopher’s views but I would need to do a lot of research to determine why, because the man knows his stuff. And he’s a good writer to boot. Skim a couple of his books next time you’re in a bookstore to see what you think.
Adam Savage – Mythbusters
The Mythbusters have a huge fanbase at TAM, and they themselves are big fans of critical thinking. Their show is one of the few that teaches people the value of thinking critically, not believing everything you hear, and the value of testing/research to determine whether something is a hoax or not. Adam and Tory (not Jamie, who couldn’t make it this year) did a presentation on the show and had a Q&A with the audience. You know the show so nuff said.
Trey Parker and Matt Stone – South Park
If you stop to think about it, South Park is a show that is part comedy, part gross-out, and part critical thinking. Stan & Kyle are always the voice of reason to Cartman and the adults in South Park who are generally pretty gullible and ready to buy into everything. And South Park’s parodies of popular icons and religions is hilarious! So coming to give a talk at a TAM about media and skepticism was right up their alley.
Penn (of Penn and Teller) interviewed them on stage for a while about the creation of South Park and the resistance they have received from some of their shows and movies. A Q&A with the audience followed, which I recall included a mix of on-topic questions with some inane fan-boy stuff, but not as bad as the Penn & Teller Q&A from the previous day. In essence, there are people who dislike South Park because it attacks them or their treasured beliefs, but the studio is pretty good about letting Trey and Matt have free reign over what they produce. It was surprising to find out that many of their support staff were believers in a lot of woo nonsense that Trey and Matt ended up attacking, like John Edwards talking to the dead - T&M were surprised when some of their staff said, “his powers are for real – aren’t they?” (for the record – NO!)
Finally came the Panel discussion with most of the speakers from today. Highlight was Scott Dikkers placing some of the blame for world woes on American foreign policy (this and the rest of the paragraph is a BIG general summary by me recalling what happened over a month ago, do not take it as verbatim), then Hitchens verbally went after him on it, basically saying that was liberal crap. Things got a little heated but John Rennie challenged Hitchens in a polite manner, implying that Hitchens comments on Islam appear to paint all Muslim nations with the same brush without taking into account the various differences between the individual countries. Moderators cooled things down and moved on. In discussions I had afterward some conference attendees thought Hitchens was too harsh in his rebuttal to Dikkers, while others supported Hitchens’ right to “call it like you see it” on general unsupported comments. Hitchens is not one to blunt his commentary anyway.
Whew, Day 2 done, but there is one day to go, the paper presentations for Day 3, summary coming up in the next entry but don’t worry - I’ll keep it short. There is definitely one website you gotta check out from Day 3!
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
The World Tour Part 4 - more TAM
Okay, sorry about the delays. My mother was down visiting for the last two-and-a-half weeks so my days have been spent working or touring around. Not only did we travel all over Qatar but we did trips to Dubai and Muscat just so she could have a feel for the region. By the way Muscat is really nice and if anyone in the region is reading this I recommend Muscat for a nice relaxing getaway vacation, moreso than Dubai.
Anyway, back to TAM. What’s sad is that it has been more than 5 wks since TAM ended and I haven’t finished my review. I have really got to get my butt in gear on these things.
Day 1 continued:
Lori Lipman Brown – Secular Coalition of America
The SCoA is an organization that lobbies for tolerance for all faith practices, including for atheists, humanists and other nonthiests. Though most of their members are not religious per se their website states that they welcome religious members who support the right of people to practice their faith/non-faith without discrimination. Lori discussee life as an atheist/nontheist lobbyist in today’s America as well as upcoming projects by SCoA (I can’t make myself shorten it to SCA as my whole life I’ve known the SCA as those guys who wear medieval armour and do battle). The highlight project for the SCoA is the official announcement of the ‘coming out’ of a member of Congress/Senate as a nontheist, which is to happen shortly. At least it was at the time of TAM – that announcement has now been made. (Congressman Pete Stark, D-California)
Penn & Teller – professional magicians
If you’ve never heard of Penn & Teller, these guys are top-tier magicians who have a nightly show at the Rio in Vegas, and also host the TV Show BullSh!t where they take a critical look at various topics. Big fans of JREF, they’ve been presenters at all three TAMs that I have attended.
This year they decided to just do a Q&A from the audience, something that I’m not supportive of. If you’re scheduled to give a 45-minute talk the least you can do is prepare something in advance, even if it’s just 15 or 20 minutes, then have a Q&A. Don’t just walk onstage and go “any questions for us?”
Well they found out why doing that might not be a good idea – without presenting something first to give a general topic for people to ask questions about you open yourself up to be bombarded with anything – including the most inane and random questions. There were times that as soon as the question was asked they’d both look at each other like ‘huh’. So remember folks, if you just have a Q&A without specifying a topic, prepare to be asked if you and your sons are circumcised (no, I’m not making that up)
Richard Wiseman – psychologist & magician
Richard Wiseman is another TAM standard, having been at all three TAMs that I’ve attended. A researcher in Britain he is also a consistently entertaining presenter, he’s funny and combines his presentations with some magic tricks to keep things. You learn while you laugh.
Like many of the presentations that day his slideshow was plagued with technical difficulties, primarily due to a faulty cable in the Riviera’s IT set-up. It appeared that Richard was getting a little upset with the problems and I don’t blame him, when you give high-energy presentations you don’t want the flow to be interrupted with tech problems.
Richard discussed some of the investigations he made during the year, including a ‘telepathic dog’ that would go to the window whenever its owner was about to come back to the house from whatever errands she was on. I think this dog got a bit of press in Britain for its ‘powers’, but Richard and associates filmed the dog while its owner was out for many hours, finding that the dog went to the window numerous times (multiple times an hour) thus shedding some much-needed doubt on this dog’s telepathic abilities. Why are people so willing to quickly accept things like telepathic dogs anyway?
Anyway he also discussed another project that gained some press in Britain – research into finding the funniest joke. This proved to be a huge success with their internet site getting flooded with jokes that they had to wade through and grade using various processes. I won’t give away the eventual winner, you will have to look it up yourself.
Despite the technical delays Richard gave a great talk as always.
Thus ended the first day. The rest of the evening was taken up with dinner, drinks, gambling and fun. Just the way I like my Vegas!
Day 2 summary to follow tomorrow, I promise!
Anyway, back to TAM. What’s sad is that it has been more than 5 wks since TAM ended and I haven’t finished my review. I have really got to get my butt in gear on these things.
Day 1 continued:
Lori Lipman Brown – Secular Coalition of America
The SCoA is an organization that lobbies for tolerance for all faith practices, including for atheists, humanists and other nonthiests. Though most of their members are not religious per se their website states that they welcome religious members who support the right of people to practice their faith/non-faith without discrimination. Lori discussee life as an atheist/nontheist lobbyist in today’s America as well as upcoming projects by SCoA (I can’t make myself shorten it to SCA as my whole life I’ve known the SCA as those guys who wear medieval armour and do battle). The highlight project for the SCoA is the official announcement of the ‘coming out’ of a member of Congress/Senate as a nontheist, which is to happen shortly. At least it was at the time of TAM – that announcement has now been made. (Congressman Pete Stark, D-California)
Penn & Teller – professional magicians
If you’ve never heard of Penn & Teller, these guys are top-tier magicians who have a nightly show at the Rio in Vegas, and also host the TV Show BullSh!t where they take a critical look at various topics. Big fans of JREF, they’ve been presenters at all three TAMs that I have attended.
This year they decided to just do a Q&A from the audience, something that I’m not supportive of. If you’re scheduled to give a 45-minute talk the least you can do is prepare something in advance, even if it’s just 15 or 20 minutes, then have a Q&A. Don’t just walk onstage and go “any questions for us?”
Well they found out why doing that might not be a good idea – without presenting something first to give a general topic for people to ask questions about you open yourself up to be bombarded with anything – including the most inane and random questions. There were times that as soon as the question was asked they’d both look at each other like ‘huh’. So remember folks, if you just have a Q&A without specifying a topic, prepare to be asked if you and your sons are circumcised (no, I’m not making that up)
Richard Wiseman – psychologist & magician
Richard Wiseman is another TAM standard, having been at all three TAMs that I’ve attended. A researcher in Britain he is also a consistently entertaining presenter, he’s funny and combines his presentations with some magic tricks to keep things. You learn while you laugh.
Like many of the presentations that day his slideshow was plagued with technical difficulties, primarily due to a faulty cable in the Riviera’s IT set-up. It appeared that Richard was getting a little upset with the problems and I don’t blame him, when you give high-energy presentations you don’t want the flow to be interrupted with tech problems.
Richard discussed some of the investigations he made during the year, including a ‘telepathic dog’ that would go to the window whenever its owner was about to come back to the house from whatever errands she was on. I think this dog got a bit of press in Britain for its ‘powers’, but Richard and associates filmed the dog while its owner was out for many hours, finding that the dog went to the window numerous times (multiple times an hour) thus shedding some much-needed doubt on this dog’s telepathic abilities. Why are people so willing to quickly accept things like telepathic dogs anyway?
Anyway he also discussed another project that gained some press in Britain – research into finding the funniest joke. This proved to be a huge success with their internet site getting flooded with jokes that they had to wade through and grade using various processes. I won’t give away the eventual winner, you will have to look it up yourself.
Despite the technical delays Richard gave a great talk as always.
Thus ended the first day. The rest of the evening was taken up with dinner, drinks, gambling and fun. Just the way I like my Vegas!
Day 2 summary to follow tomorrow, I promise!
Sunday, March 04, 2007
Stop Sylvia Browne
Sylvia Browne is a well-known "psychic" and spiritualist, you can see her on the occasional talk show and has a number of books in the self-help or spiritual section (i.e.: the section in your bookstore with all the new age woo-woo books on stuff like chakra balancing, astrology and past life regression). Like all psychics she makes a lot of incorrect predictions but that doesn't stop her from charging suckers $750 for a phone-call reading.
Well a guy is doing something about it and he has started a website: www.stopsylviabrowne.com
I fully endorse what Robert is doing I think it's high time psychics get called to the carpet to finally prove their abilities under testing. Be sure to read/view the articles that Robert has posted which shows Sylvia in action. Googling "cold reading" could also be informative.
This site is going up on my links!
Well a guy is doing something about it and he has started a website: www.stopsylviabrowne.com
I fully endorse what Robert is doing I think it's high time psychics get called to the carpet to finally prove their abilities under testing. Be sure to read/view the articles that Robert has posted which shows Sylvia in action. Googling "cold reading" could also be informative.
This site is going up on my links!
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
The World Tour Part 3 - TAM
Okay sorry for the long delay. I was talking about TAM. Let’s see, who were the speakers for Day 1 of the presentations . . .
Michael Shermer – President of the Skeptics Society and author of books such as “Why People Believe Weird Things” (good book BTW, go read it!). He’s been a speaker at all 3 TAMs that I’ve attended. This talk was mostly about a new book he’s researching that branches into economic philosophy. After hearing the talk I’m still not sure about it, he gave examples of psychology trading experiments where A gives B money and vice-versa as representative of trade and how manipulating some of the variables results in different outcomes (e.g. what would happen if B gets 3x the amount A gives him and vice-versa). By looking at the results of the examples he then discusses possibilities for trade between nations and how it can be conducted. At least I think so, I might be reading too much into it so I’ll have to wait for the book to come out. One thing that struck me is that real-world trade between rich and poor nations is more like A trades with B but A can also give B painful electrical shocks from which B can’t retaliate. Like to see what results that experiment would give! (Of course that would be unethical, don’t try that at home!)
Eugenie Scott of the NCSE (National Center for Science Education) http://www.natcenscied.org/ . Geez for some reason I can’t remember what it was she talked about – probably evolution vs. creationism in America. I do remember that her talk was interesting (so why can’t I remember it? Beats me – sorry Eugenie)
Nick Gillespie and Ron Bailey of Reason magazine http://www.reason.com/ . Reason is a Libertarian magazine and they gave a good talk about how conclusions from statistics get manipulated for spin purposes – going so far in some cases to conclude the opposite of what the stats actually say. They also highlighted media trends and biases such as the XYZDrug Plague Destroying America (y’know, in the 70s it was weed & LSD, 80s crack, 90s heroin, 00’s meth) which takes very basic statistics, without examining the issues further, and blows it up in a media frenzy of hysteria with front-page headlines to warn middle-class housewives that their children could be next!
As for Reason magazine we got a free copy with our registration pack and actually it’s pretty good; a source of alternative news about things with more analysis than a typical news mag and didn’t appear to be as loaded with political agenda as I expected. If you see a copy in your local newsstand I say it is worth taking a browse through it to see the kinds of things they analyze, or take a look at the website. It might be your cup of tea.
‘Libertarian’ was a term that got frequent mention by people at the conference, apparently some of the speakers and many of the conference attendees are Libertarians. As a Canadian I really didn’t know what Libertarianism was about – but I’ll discuss that in a later entry.
Now on to Neil Gershenfeld of MIT. His talk was mostly science and little to do with skepticism but it was neat. He talked about the development of Fab Labs and how the project was changing lives of people in various countries.
Go to http://fab.cba.mit.edu/ right now and check it out (then come back).
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Have you gone to Fab Lab yet?
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Okay, good. I loved the concept, wish there was a Fab Lab near me when I was growing up. Nothing more I need to say, the website speaks for itself. It was a neat talk.
Next up JREF friend and professional magician Jamy Ian Swiss interviewed James Randi and discussed various video clippings of Randi’s work from a Korean debunking show (showing how psychics, faith healers and other con artists really do their tricks – hidden cameras were a great help). This talk was plagued with technical problems which made it really disjointed with constant rewinding and fast-forwarding to find clips etc. This really affected what should have been a nice presentation and instead made it a chore to watch.
Whew! Not even through Day 1 yet, more to come . . .
Michael Shermer – President of the Skeptics Society and author of books such as “Why People Believe Weird Things” (good book BTW, go read it!). He’s been a speaker at all 3 TAMs that I’ve attended. This talk was mostly about a new book he’s researching that branches into economic philosophy. After hearing the talk I’m still not sure about it, he gave examples of psychology trading experiments where A gives B money and vice-versa as representative of trade and how manipulating some of the variables results in different outcomes (e.g. what would happen if B gets 3x the amount A gives him and vice-versa). By looking at the results of the examples he then discusses possibilities for trade between nations and how it can be conducted. At least I think so, I might be reading too much into it so I’ll have to wait for the book to come out. One thing that struck me is that real-world trade between rich and poor nations is more like A trades with B but A can also give B painful electrical shocks from which B can’t retaliate. Like to see what results that experiment would give! (Of course that would be unethical, don’t try that at home!)
Eugenie Scott of the NCSE (National Center for Science Education) http://www.natcenscied.org/ . Geez for some reason I can’t remember what it was she talked about – probably evolution vs. creationism in America. I do remember that her talk was interesting (so why can’t I remember it? Beats me – sorry Eugenie)
Nick Gillespie and Ron Bailey of Reason magazine http://www.reason.com/ . Reason is a Libertarian magazine and they gave a good talk about how conclusions from statistics get manipulated for spin purposes – going so far in some cases to conclude the opposite of what the stats actually say. They also highlighted media trends and biases such as the XYZDrug Plague Destroying America (y’know, in the 70s it was weed & LSD, 80s crack, 90s heroin, 00’s meth) which takes very basic statistics, without examining the issues further, and blows it up in a media frenzy of hysteria with front-page headlines to warn middle-class housewives that their children could be next!
As for Reason magazine we got a free copy with our registration pack and actually it’s pretty good; a source of alternative news about things with more analysis than a typical news mag and didn’t appear to be as loaded with political agenda as I expected. If you see a copy in your local newsstand I say it is worth taking a browse through it to see the kinds of things they analyze, or take a look at the website. It might be your cup of tea.
‘Libertarian’ was a term that got frequent mention by people at the conference, apparently some of the speakers and many of the conference attendees are Libertarians. As a Canadian I really didn’t know what Libertarianism was about – but I’ll discuss that in a later entry.
Now on to Neil Gershenfeld of MIT. His talk was mostly science and little to do with skepticism but it was neat. He talked about the development of Fab Labs and how the project was changing lives of people in various countries.
Go to http://fab.cba.mit.edu/ right now and check it out (then come back).
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.
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Have you gone to Fab Lab yet?
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Okay, good. I loved the concept, wish there was a Fab Lab near me when I was growing up. Nothing more I need to say, the website speaks for itself. It was a neat talk.
Next up JREF friend and professional magician Jamy Ian Swiss interviewed James Randi and discussed various video clippings of Randi’s work from a Korean debunking show (showing how psychics, faith healers and other con artists really do their tricks – hidden cameras were a great help). This talk was plagued with technical problems which made it really disjointed with constant rewinding and fast-forwarding to find clips etc. This really affected what should have been a nice presentation and instead made it a chore to watch.
Whew! Not even through Day 1 yet, more to come . . .
Thursday, February 08, 2007
The World Tour Part 2 - Las Vegas
As I mentioned in a previous entry every year the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) holds a conference for skeptics and critical thinkers called The Amaz!ng Meeting (TAM). This year it was at the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas, which was a great reason to go to Las Vegas after seeing the family in Calgary.
Now, I love Vegas. I think I’ve been there five or six times now and haven’t become bored with it. I realize that it is not for everybody, for many people it is just too crowded and over-the-top, but I think everyone should see the place at least once in their life. You just wouldn’t believe it until you see it and wandering around the hotels on the Strip just can’t be described. It also helps that I have no problem with gambling or drinking – having enough money to see a show or two also helps. You don’t have to gamble as there is plenty to do just wandering around, and if you’re crafty you can do it on a budget, but it’s better with a bit of bucks to carry you through.
That said I don’t think I could live there. Better that it just be a once-a-year fantasy getaway.
Going down for a convention makes it even better because you get to meet other people and do interesting things that you wouldn’t have even thought of on your own. I occasionally post on the JREF forum through that and got to know people who post there so we use TAM as an opportunity to meet face-to-face, or organize events ahead of time. This is my third TAM in Vegas and thanks to the forum folks there were tons of things that I saw/did that I didn’t even know about on my previous trips. Things like that are what make vacations a whole lot better.
For example someone in the JREF forum noticed that I was going to be in Calgary so invited me to a meet-up of JREF people that was taking place in Calgary right before TAM. So a couple of days before one of them picked me up where we had dinner and drinks at a house downtown (for privacy’s sake I won’t give anyone’s names but if you’re reading this I had a great time – thanks for organizing it!) Until that evening I had only met one of the people there before in person yet we had a great time chatting and so forth. Just like that I went from knowing only my family in Calgary to knowing a bunch of people there.
So I fly down to Vegas and check in to the Riviera two days before TAM so that I can get a bit of gambling and sightseeing in before the conference starts. I’m all for saving a bit of money on hotel rooms so I shared the room with another JREF forumite who arrived that night as well (he lives in southwest China, and I thought coming in from Qatar was exotic enough). He hadn’t been to Vegas before so we spent the next day wandering the Strip and seeing the sights before heading back to the Riviera to meet up with other conference attendees who would have arrived by now. I decided to hit the tables and won a bit of money – whoohoo!
Yeah, yeah, why would a critical thinker gamble when you know that the odds are in the House’s favour - I hear that often. It’s just entertainment people, I play $10 a hand, have fun, chat with people at the table, and get free drinks. It’s fun, I like doing it. (As an aside I don’t gamble online since that takes the meet-and-greet element out of it, it’s not as fun as being in a Vegas casino).
Man, I haven’t even discussed the actual convention yet! More to come later . . .
Now, I love Vegas. I think I’ve been there five or six times now and haven’t become bored with it. I realize that it is not for everybody, for many people it is just too crowded and over-the-top, but I think everyone should see the place at least once in their life. You just wouldn’t believe it until you see it and wandering around the hotels on the Strip just can’t be described. It also helps that I have no problem with gambling or drinking – having enough money to see a show or two also helps. You don’t have to gamble as there is plenty to do just wandering around, and if you’re crafty you can do it on a budget, but it’s better with a bit of bucks to carry you through.
That said I don’t think I could live there. Better that it just be a once-a-year fantasy getaway.
Going down for a convention makes it even better because you get to meet other people and do interesting things that you wouldn’t have even thought of on your own. I occasionally post on the JREF forum through that and got to know people who post there so we use TAM as an opportunity to meet face-to-face, or organize events ahead of time. This is my third TAM in Vegas and thanks to the forum folks there were tons of things that I saw/did that I didn’t even know about on my previous trips. Things like that are what make vacations a whole lot better.
For example someone in the JREF forum noticed that I was going to be in Calgary so invited me to a meet-up of JREF people that was taking place in Calgary right before TAM. So a couple of days before one of them picked me up where we had dinner and drinks at a house downtown (for privacy’s sake I won’t give anyone’s names but if you’re reading this I had a great time – thanks for organizing it!) Until that evening I had only met one of the people there before in person yet we had a great time chatting and so forth. Just like that I went from knowing only my family in Calgary to knowing a bunch of people there.
So I fly down to Vegas and check in to the Riviera two days before TAM so that I can get a bit of gambling and sightseeing in before the conference starts. I’m all for saving a bit of money on hotel rooms so I shared the room with another JREF forumite who arrived that night as well (he lives in southwest China, and I thought coming in from Qatar was exotic enough). He hadn’t been to Vegas before so we spent the next day wandering the Strip and seeing the sights before heading back to the Riviera to meet up with other conference attendees who would have arrived by now. I decided to hit the tables and won a bit of money – whoohoo!
Yeah, yeah, why would a critical thinker gamble when you know that the odds are in the House’s favour - I hear that often. It’s just entertainment people, I play $10 a hand, have fun, chat with people at the table, and get free drinks. It’s fun, I like doing it. (As an aside I don’t gamble online since that takes the meet-and-greet element out of it, it’s not as fun as being in a Vegas casino).
Man, I haven’t even discussed the actual convention yet! More to come later . . .
Thursday, February 01, 2007
The World Tour Part 1 – Canada
Flying all the way from Doha to Calgary was a real chore. A 9-hour red-eye to Heathrow followed by a 7-hour layover (which turned into 8 due to a delay) followed by another 9-hour flight to Calgary. That’s 26 bloody hours! The flight to Heathrow was okay and I managed to catch a few hours sleep but I was exhausted and ‘slept’ a few more hours on the floor of the Quiet Room at Heathrow. Maybe it was because I looked like a zombie when I got to the gate to board the flight to Calgary but when I got there the attendant taking tickets asked me to wait as they needed to reprint my seat assignment as the flight was full. I was like ?huh? but then she came back and said magic words I’ll remember forever:
“You’ve been upgraded to Club World.”
[cue heavenly music]
That’s business class for those of you unfamiliar with British Airways. And an amazing business class it is. Club World seats allow you to lie completely flat! Wow! They also do great food service: ordering off a menu, port/brandy with dessert and so forth. This amazing upgrade, the first upgrade in my life, allowed me to get some decent sleep. Good thing too as unbeknownst to me my family and I were heading to an Ukranian dinner (prepared by family friends) as soon as I landed.
It was nice to relax in Calgary with my family. The weather was generally decent, only one or two days were in the -20s. I seem to get lucky with that every year, every time I visit the weather is generally mild (+5 to -5) making it pleasant to walk around and do some shopping.
For those of you who don’t know my family ‘tradition’ we have our Christmas gift exchange in January. A number of years back, when I was in Bermuda, I was unable to get the Christmas holidays off so my Mother decided that the family would postpone Christmas until January when I could get to Canada. It turned out to work really well: flights were cheap, it was easy for everyone to get time off, airports and malls weren’t crowded, things were on sale, and my brother and his wife didn’t have to go through that whole “whose parents do we spend Christmas with this year” hassle. We liked it so much we’ve done it ever since. This year Christmas was on January 13.
By the way we do the whole ‘Christmas’ thing: the tree, presents, turkey dinner and so forth, just like we would have on Christmas day. If you’re family is not too religious you may want to consider a Christmas in January.
More blog to come in a few days, I’m off to Kuwait for the weekend so can’t post until Sunday.
“You’ve been upgraded to Club World.”
[cue heavenly music]
That’s business class for those of you unfamiliar with British Airways. And an amazing business class it is. Club World seats allow you to lie completely flat! Wow! They also do great food service: ordering off a menu, port/brandy with dessert and so forth. This amazing upgrade, the first upgrade in my life, allowed me to get some decent sleep. Good thing too as unbeknownst to me my family and I were heading to an Ukranian dinner (prepared by family friends) as soon as I landed.
It was nice to relax in Calgary with my family. The weather was generally decent, only one or two days were in the -20s. I seem to get lucky with that every year, every time I visit the weather is generally mild (+5 to -5) making it pleasant to walk around and do some shopping.
For those of you who don’t know my family ‘tradition’ we have our Christmas gift exchange in January. A number of years back, when I was in Bermuda, I was unable to get the Christmas holidays off so my Mother decided that the family would postpone Christmas until January when I could get to Canada. It turned out to work really well: flights were cheap, it was easy for everyone to get time off, airports and malls weren’t crowded, things were on sale, and my brother and his wife didn’t have to go through that whole “whose parents do we spend Christmas with this year” hassle. We liked it so much we’ve done it ever since. This year Christmas was on January 13.
By the way we do the whole ‘Christmas’ thing: the tree, presents, turkey dinner and so forth, just like we would have on Christmas day. If you’re family is not too religious you may want to consider a Christmas in January.
More blog to come in a few days, I’m off to Kuwait for the weekend so can’t post until Sunday.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Okay I'm back!
Okay I’m back. Geez whatta trip. I had a blast.
Sorry everyone I realize that I didn’t post to the blog but there wasn’t much opportunity. First I was in Canada staying at my brother’s place and he only has a slow dial-up connection. It would take minutes just to load the blogpage let alone post something. Then I was in Vegas for The Amazing Meeting (go to www.randi.org for more info) and I had an ’amazing’ time, mostly up to 3 or 4 am hanging out with people, or drinking, or gambling, or all of the above! No posting in the blog then. Finally I was in London for 4 days and my only access was a nearby internet café on Oxford street, one of those assembly line jobs where 50 terminals are crammed into a tiny area - you had to keep the mouse in front of the keyboard because there was no space at either side of the keyboard, that’s how cramped it was. I was a little suspicious that a place like that would have all sorts of spyware or keystroke loggers so I just surfed and not go to any sites that required passwords.
There is the odd time in my life where, thanks primarily to air travel, I just contemplate for a moment how crazy this are due to modern technology. I recall sitting in a café across the street from the British Museum waiting for it to open and remembered that 24 hours ago I was playing blackjack at the Riviera then eating a buffet dinner at the Wynn in Vegas. Now I’m in a London café having a latte about to enter one of the world’s great museums. Times like this just make me go “Holy ****!”. Seriously. I feel that my life gets surreal at times.
This weekend I’m going to Kuwait for a couple of days, Dubai on business in a couple of weeks, and in a month I’ll be in Oman seeing the sights. To think less than 10 years ago I was working as a retail clerk in a game store in Burnaby and had almost no money, certainly not enough to be travelling all over the place. (That said I miss working at the store - definitely the most fun job I’ve ever had, analogous to an avid golfer getting a job as a golf pro). But I bit the bullet, studied accounting and got one of those ’real jobs’ as it were. I can’t say my work is comparably exciting but I have travelled all over the world now thanks to it so I can’t regret the decision.
Over the next week or so I’ll post details about the trip, especially the Amazing Meeting, since it’s a skeptics convention and really - that’s what this blog is supposed to be about after all.
Sorry everyone I realize that I didn’t post to the blog but there wasn’t much opportunity. First I was in Canada staying at my brother’s place and he only has a slow dial-up connection. It would take minutes just to load the blogpage let alone post something. Then I was in Vegas for The Amazing Meeting (go to www.randi.org for more info) and I had an ’amazing’ time, mostly up to 3 or 4 am hanging out with people, or drinking, or gambling, or all of the above! No posting in the blog then. Finally I was in London for 4 days and my only access was a nearby internet café on Oxford street, one of those assembly line jobs where 50 terminals are crammed into a tiny area - you had to keep the mouse in front of the keyboard because there was no space at either side of the keyboard, that’s how cramped it was. I was a little suspicious that a place like that would have all sorts of spyware or keystroke loggers so I just surfed and not go to any sites that required passwords.
There is the odd time in my life where, thanks primarily to air travel, I just contemplate for a moment how crazy this are due to modern technology. I recall sitting in a café across the street from the British Museum waiting for it to open and remembered that 24 hours ago I was playing blackjack at the Riviera then eating a buffet dinner at the Wynn in Vegas. Now I’m in a London café having a latte about to enter one of the world’s great museums. Times like this just make me go “Holy ****!”. Seriously. I feel that my life gets surreal at times.
This weekend I’m going to Kuwait for a couple of days, Dubai on business in a couple of weeks, and in a month I’ll be in Oman seeing the sights. To think less than 10 years ago I was working as a retail clerk in a game store in Burnaby and had almost no money, certainly not enough to be travelling all over the place. (That said I miss working at the store - definitely the most fun job I’ve ever had, analogous to an avid golfer getting a job as a golf pro). But I bit the bullet, studied accounting and got one of those ’real jobs’ as it were. I can’t say my work is comparably exciting but I have travelled all over the world now thanks to it so I can’t regret the decision.
Over the next week or so I’ll post details about the trip, especially the Amazing Meeting, since it’s a skeptics convention and really - that’s what this blog is supposed to be about after all.
Thursday, January 04, 2007
Vacation time!
Okay I leave tomorrow for Canada so posting will be intermittant (like I've been posting every day anyway, right?) I'll be in Calgary for a week and a half to see family, then Vegas to attend the Amazing Meeting, then a few days in London just to tour around enroute to Doha. I'll try to update periodically and maybe post some pictures. Just found out that Trey Parker and Matt Stone (creaters of SouthPark) might be at the Amazing Meeting, hopefully I'll get to meet them! I love their work.
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
Dubai
Around Christmas time I took a long weekend trip to Dubai to see a couple of friends and check the city out for the first time. (As an aside I've heard that Dubai is in this issue of National Geographic so you can get more info there). Dubai is unlike many other areas in Arabia in that it once had oil but is about to run out. I think it's got about another 5-10 years of it left. And it knows it. So a decade or so ago the ruler was scrambling around trying to figure out what to do cause once the oil runs out the city will start becoming a desert backwater. I guess they went looking around for other cities that were a success despite having no resources and being out in the middle of nowhere. Well he found one -- Las Vegas.
Dubai is fast becoming the new Las Vegas, everything has to be the biggest in the world (biggest building, biggest mall, biggest airport, biggest hotels, biggest roads etc.) because if they don't do this then there'll be no reason to go there, and they need tourists and financial capital to come in to make for the rapidly declining oil revenues. It appears to be working, some of the building projects are mind-boggling, the Dubai Marina area is set to have 35 thousand apartments finished within the next 6 months, the tallest building in the world, Bur Dubai, is set to be completed in 2008 along with the worlds biggest shopping mall right next to it. This is the city that created an indoor ski slope as a tourist attraction (Ski Dubai, look it up). It's crazy, it's interesting to walk around the place, and . . .
. . . it has sold its soul for money. Just like Las Vegas.
As far as I can tell in this city money talks, values walk. However Dubai is still a 'Muslim' state with a Sheikh, mosques and so forth. Yes gambling is still officially illegal there but I give it 3 years before they start allowing it, though they'll put a veneer on it like restrictions so that locals can't gamble etc but gambling is coming believe me. Alcohol is already widely available, prostitution is easy to come by (usually where said alcohol is available). And much like early Vegas it appears popular with the wealthy and possibly criminal. One of India's most wanted crime kingpins is living happily there and it doesn't look like requests from India to extradite him have been going anywhere. I went to the Dubai Airport website and they had 5-8 flights a day just from Moscow alone. Looks like Dubai is popular with rich Russians. I'm not sure what to make of that. Where is all the money coming from to build all of these mega-projects anyway? Unlike Doha, there really isn't much in the way of Arabic character to the place, the malls and new apartment complexes swamped all that. Now it's a big shiny new city.
Now don't get me wrong - I love Las Vegas and try to get out there every year, but Las Vegas does not pretend to be anything else but itself - it's Sin City, it's gaudy, it's over-the-top, and it makes no excuses. Could you imagine though if the mayor of Las Vegas started telling everyone that it was a city that was big on 'traditional Christian values'? He'd be laughed out of the room! Soon Dubai will have to come clean that its Islamic values have walked in order to create an ecomony that can sustain itself once the oil has gone. Hopefully that won't create any problems with fundamentalist groups in neighbouring areas.
With that bit of insight over I will say I loved visiting there, it made for a nice weekend getaway. I'll be over there again in a couple of months on business, and again when my Mom visits the area in March. It's a great place to visit.
Not sure if I'd want to live there though. Like Las Vegas.
Dubai is fast becoming the new Las Vegas, everything has to be the biggest in the world (biggest building, biggest mall, biggest airport, biggest hotels, biggest roads etc.) because if they don't do this then there'll be no reason to go there, and they need tourists and financial capital to come in to make for the rapidly declining oil revenues. It appears to be working, some of the building projects are mind-boggling, the Dubai Marina area is set to have 35 thousand apartments finished within the next 6 months, the tallest building in the world, Bur Dubai, is set to be completed in 2008 along with the worlds biggest shopping mall right next to it. This is the city that created an indoor ski slope as a tourist attraction (Ski Dubai, look it up). It's crazy, it's interesting to walk around the place, and . . .
. . . it has sold its soul for money. Just like Las Vegas.
As far as I can tell in this city money talks, values walk. However Dubai is still a 'Muslim' state with a Sheikh, mosques and so forth. Yes gambling is still officially illegal there but I give it 3 years before they start allowing it, though they'll put a veneer on it like restrictions so that locals can't gamble etc but gambling is coming believe me. Alcohol is already widely available, prostitution is easy to come by (usually where said alcohol is available). And much like early Vegas it appears popular with the wealthy and possibly criminal. One of India's most wanted crime kingpins is living happily there and it doesn't look like requests from India to extradite him have been going anywhere. I went to the Dubai Airport website and they had 5-8 flights a day just from Moscow alone. Looks like Dubai is popular with rich Russians. I'm not sure what to make of that. Where is all the money coming from to build all of these mega-projects anyway? Unlike Doha, there really isn't much in the way of Arabic character to the place, the malls and new apartment complexes swamped all that. Now it's a big shiny new city.
Now don't get me wrong - I love Las Vegas and try to get out there every year, but Las Vegas does not pretend to be anything else but itself - it's Sin City, it's gaudy, it's over-the-top, and it makes no excuses. Could you imagine though if the mayor of Las Vegas started telling everyone that it was a city that was big on 'traditional Christian values'? He'd be laughed out of the room! Soon Dubai will have to come clean that its Islamic values have walked in order to create an ecomony that can sustain itself once the oil has gone. Hopefully that won't create any problems with fundamentalist groups in neighbouring areas.
With that bit of insight over I will say I loved visiting there, it made for a nice weekend getaway. I'll be over there again in a couple of months on business, and again when my Mom visits the area in March. It's a great place to visit.
Not sure if I'd want to live there though. Like Las Vegas.
Sunday, December 31, 2006
It's . . . friggin chilly!
After five months of 40+ degree heat (with 80+% humidity) I never figured Doha would ever get the least bit chilly. I was told that during December and January you might need a jacket during the evenings blah, blah, blah. Whatever.
Well, it's friggin chilly right now! I'm told it's colder than it has been in the last few years but temps seem to be around 14-16 during the day and around 9-10 at night. A lot colder than I thought it would get, especially with the wind and humidity. Not surprisingly I don't have central heating in my apartment, the past week I've been wearing layers while sitting around the apartment.
Now I can already hear everyone in Canada moaning "Oh you poor dear, and to think it's a balmy -10 here", but it's not like you expect the Arabian desert to get this cold. And you have heating in your house too, it's not like your house is 15 degrees now is it?
I feel the most sorry for the construction workers and other guys brought over from India etc. I see them walking around in light jackets with scarves wrapped around their heads. Many of them have toques and gloves but some don't - they must be freezing.
Oh well, I'm off to Canada on Jan 6th so I guess I'll get back in touch with what real cold feels like.
Well, it's friggin chilly right now! I'm told it's colder than it has been in the last few years but temps seem to be around 14-16 during the day and around 9-10 at night. A lot colder than I thought it would get, especially with the wind and humidity. Not surprisingly I don't have central heating in my apartment, the past week I've been wearing layers while sitting around the apartment.
Now I can already hear everyone in Canada moaning "Oh you poor dear, and to think it's a balmy -10 here", but it's not like you expect the Arabian desert to get this cold. And you have heating in your house too, it's not like your house is 15 degrees now is it?
I feel the most sorry for the construction workers and other guys brought over from India etc. I see them walking around in light jackets with scarves wrapped around their heads. Many of them have toques and gloves but some don't - they must be freezing.
Oh well, I'm off to Canada on Jan 6th so I guess I'll get back in touch with what real cold feels like.
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
In tribute to Carl Sagan
10 years ago today the world lost a wonderful person. Carl Sagan might be best known (by the older crowd) as the host of Cosmos and his regular appearances on The Tonight Show (Carson used to do imitations of him with the catchphrase "billions and billions", even though Sagan had never actually said those words in Cosmos). Now I'm of a slightly younger generation and didn't watch Cosmos so my introduction to him came later by reading his books. Some of the best non-fiction books I've ever read.
If you've never read The Demon Haunted World then you're missing out. I think it is widely considered one of the best books for introducing people to thinking critically about the world, and to look at scientific pursuit as something truly wonderful, something that has really enhanced life for people. Sagan has an excellent writing style that is very approachable to scientific laymen, and doesn't bog you down in equations and calculus. In many instances he doesn't talk about science at all, only looking at the world critically.
Now, I do have a science education but I still appreciate how well written his books are. I have a number of Sagan's books: Cosmos, Pale Blue Dot, Demon Haunted World, Billions and Billions, and Broca's Brain, but I always find myself rereading Demon Haunted World at least once a year.
I have wondered in the past what Sagan would have thought of today's world had he still been alive. He would have been thrilled at some of the discoveries astronomers and other scientists have made since his death: launching the probe onto Titan would have been a particular highlight for him since some of his research focused on Titan's atmosphere, but would there be things that would alarm him? In his writings were warnings about global warming, and things haven't gotten any better from that perspective. Wars still occur, and most people still believe in one superstition or another, and the media seems more obsessed with Hollywood than science than ever before. I would hope that he would still believe that despite some of the downsides that overall the world was progressing, and that in the end he would be pleased with what has occurred in the last 10 years.
I've never met him in person, but I miss him all the same.
If you've never read The Demon Haunted World then you're missing out. I think it is widely considered one of the best books for introducing people to thinking critically about the world, and to look at scientific pursuit as something truly wonderful, something that has really enhanced life for people. Sagan has an excellent writing style that is very approachable to scientific laymen, and doesn't bog you down in equations and calculus. In many instances he doesn't talk about science at all, only looking at the world critically.
Now, I do have a science education but I still appreciate how well written his books are. I have a number of Sagan's books: Cosmos, Pale Blue Dot, Demon Haunted World, Billions and Billions, and Broca's Brain, but I always find myself rereading Demon Haunted World at least once a year.
I have wondered in the past what Sagan would have thought of today's world had he still been alive. He would have been thrilled at some of the discoveries astronomers and other scientists have made since his death: launching the probe onto Titan would have been a particular highlight for him since some of his research focused on Titan's atmosphere, but would there be things that would alarm him? In his writings were warnings about global warming, and things haven't gotten any better from that perspective. Wars still occur, and most people still believe in one superstition or another, and the media seems more obsessed with Hollywood than science than ever before. I would hope that he would still believe that despite some of the downsides that overall the world was progressing, and that in the end he would be pleased with what has occurred in the last 10 years.
I've never met him in person, but I miss him all the same.
Sunday, December 17, 2006
Asian Games - badminton
Okay badminton is a game that I don't think I need to explain to everyone. The game is popular in East Asia so the matches that I saw had big crowds turning out to cheer on their favourites. Happened to sit behind a bunch of Thais with drums and so forth and they handed out flags to everyone to make sure there would be a big area of Thai supporters. It appeared to make a difference, the Thais with all the drums and flags didn't arrive until the 2nd set and at that point the Thai player lost the first set 21-6, but once the cheers and drumming started the game turned around and the Thai won the 2nd set 21-8. The 3rd set was a nail-biter but in the end the Thai lost 21-19. Afterward I watched some other singles and doubles matches, including a singles match with the current World Champion vs the current Olympic Champion. It was a great match, I can't figure out how they can even spot the birdie, much less return it, since it moves so fast.
Badminton is a fast paced game so is always good to watch. It's even better to see with top players and an active crowd.
Rating 8/10. Go Thailand!
Badminton is a fast paced game so is always good to watch. It's even better to see with top players and an active crowd.
Rating 8/10. Go Thailand!
Asian Games - boxing & wushu
Okay I've combined both boxing & wushu because both were similar. Now there are different forms of wushu, I went with a buddy of mine and we were hoping to see the weapons section, where people essentially do rhymic gymnastics only with weapons. It's apparantly really cool to watch as they brandish various weapons in interesting choreographed routines (I think Jet Li used to be a wushu champion before his film career). But there is another wushu discipline, called Nanshou I think, where atheletes fight each other wearing boxing gloves (without weapons) but you're allowed to kick as well as punch. That was what my buddy and I saw, turns out the weapons portion was earlier in the day. I was disappointed that I missed the weapons.
Now I also saw a number of boxing bouts during the Asian Games and I learned something about Olympic-level boxing -- it's not as exciting as standard boxing. At the Olympic level the boxers are wearing padded helmets and they only do four 2-minute rounds. It does cut back a lot of the excitement as it is unlikely that a guy is going to fall down, get KO'd or whatever. So you just watch guys throwing punches at one another for all of 12 minutes, including the time in-between rounds. And to make it worse all the bouts I saw were really one-sided. The closest bout I saw the winner had double the points of the loser and one match was almost 10:1! It says something that some guy took over 40 punches in 4 rounds and never even hit the mat. So all-in-all not that exciting. Sadly the wushu was similar, although there was an added element in that you could throw the guy onto the ground, but then it looks like you had to step back, you weren't allowed to pummel him or anything.
Upon reflection I had a more exciting time watching boxing back in Bermuda. Once a year they had an event called Fight Night where guys from various gyms (and anyone else who cared to sign up) could get in the ring and box with someone generally matched to their weight. Many of these guys had no clue how to box and the matches were fun to watch; some guys who you figured would get creamed wound up doing well, others ended in surprise KOs, others with training would show us why training matters by pummeling their not-so-well-trained opponents. Good fun, and exciting to watch, something that was missing here.
I really wish I saw the weapons part of the Wushu competition . . .
Rating: 3/10. I'd be happier watching non-Olympic boxing where there can be tension and excitement. Wushu gets 4/10 just because I hadn't seen it before, but it wasn't much more exciting than boxing - my buddy and I left after 45 minutes.
Now I also saw a number of boxing bouts during the Asian Games and I learned something about Olympic-level boxing -- it's not as exciting as standard boxing. At the Olympic level the boxers are wearing padded helmets and they only do four 2-minute rounds. It does cut back a lot of the excitement as it is unlikely that a guy is going to fall down, get KO'd or whatever. So you just watch guys throwing punches at one another for all of 12 minutes, including the time in-between rounds. And to make it worse all the bouts I saw were really one-sided. The closest bout I saw the winner had double the points of the loser and one match was almost 10:1! It says something that some guy took over 40 punches in 4 rounds and never even hit the mat. So all-in-all not that exciting. Sadly the wushu was similar, although there was an added element in that you could throw the guy onto the ground, but then it looks like you had to step back, you weren't allowed to pummel him or anything.
Upon reflection I had a more exciting time watching boxing back in Bermuda. Once a year they had an event called Fight Night where guys from various gyms (and anyone else who cared to sign up) could get in the ring and box with someone generally matched to their weight. Many of these guys had no clue how to box and the matches were fun to watch; some guys who you figured would get creamed wound up doing well, others ended in surprise KOs, others with training would show us why training matters by pummeling their not-so-well-trained opponents. Good fun, and exciting to watch, something that was missing here.
I really wish I saw the weapons part of the Wushu competition . . .
Rating: 3/10. I'd be happier watching non-Olympic boxing where there can be tension and excitement. Wushu gets 4/10 just because I hadn't seen it before, but it wasn't much more exciting than boxing - my buddy and I left after 45 minutes.
Saturday, December 16, 2006
Asian Games - Kabbadi
Man it's been raining a lot here. The last two weeks have reminded me of Vancouver, it seems like everyday it has been rainy and drizzling. I think, like Vancouver, the rain record for Doha in December has been exceeded. After six months of never seeing a drop of rain I'm starting to wish for Sun again. Anyway, back to the Asian Games.
I briefly mentioned in the last post about a sport called kabbadi (kah-bah-dee). It's from India and is played primarily in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Definately an odd sport, like nothing I've ever seen, sort of a cross between tag and rugby.
Anyway here's how it works. You have seven players a side on a court roughly about the size of a badminton court. One player from a team crosses over to the other team's side to try to touch as may players as possible (that's the tag portion) then cross back into his zone. Any touched player is out and the tagger's team gets a point for each. While the tagger is in the other team's zone they are allowed to tackle him BUT if the tagger can even touch the middle line then everyone who touched him is out (remember the court is the size of a badminton court so that middle line is never too far away and all the tagger needs to do is touch it with the tips of his fingers). It creates an odd situation where the team has to stay far enough away to avoid a tag yet close enough to jump on the guy for a mass tackle. Meanwhile the tagger has to get close enough to tag guys yet try to remain close enough to the middle line to make a break for it if five-seven guys try to jump on him at once.
There's a few other rules but that's the basics in a nutshell. So when it is played at the professional level it almost looks like syncronized dance, as the tagger moves towards someone he moves out of the way while the rest of the team moves closer, then the tagger turns around and the other guys move away while their teammates move closer. Try to find a video of it on YouTube if you can. Seriously if you didn't know how it was played it looks like choreographed dance, with a sudden break when guys leap on somebody and paste him into the mat.
At the Asian Games there were five teams playing: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran and Japan (??). Sri Lanka didn't have a team but Indian coworkers told me that kabbadi is a northern India game which is not popular in southern India or Sri Lanka. No idea why Japan had a team though.
I saw a number of games and went to the final, India beat Pakistan for the win. Because Doha has a large number of workers from India and Pakistan thousands of people turned up to watch the final, but since the kabbadi ring only had about 600 seats most of them, me included, had to watch from a giant TV screen just outside. Apparantly hundreds more who didn't have tickets to the Aspire Sports Complex just stayed outside and watched it on screens out there.
Oh I almost forgot why it's called kabbadi. When the tagger crosses into the other team's zone he's not allowed to take a breath so he has to do his tagging and get back all in one breath. How does the refs monitor that he's not taking a breath? The tagger has to continuously say 'kabbadi' while in the other team's zone. I told you this game was odd.
Anyway it's does have it's slow moments but is definately worth watching at least once.
Rating: 7/10. I gave it an extra point just because for once in my life I had the hottest tickets in town. While walking towards the stadium I was asked twice by people if I had extra tickets, and hundreds were massed outside hoping to get a ticket. The Indian victory celebrations was pretty cool too.
I briefly mentioned in the last post about a sport called kabbadi (kah-bah-dee). It's from India and is played primarily in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Definately an odd sport, like nothing I've ever seen, sort of a cross between tag and rugby.
Anyway here's how it works. You have seven players a side on a court roughly about the size of a badminton court. One player from a team crosses over to the other team's side to try to touch as may players as possible (that's the tag portion) then cross back into his zone. Any touched player is out and the tagger's team gets a point for each. While the tagger is in the other team's zone they are allowed to tackle him BUT if the tagger can even touch the middle line then everyone who touched him is out (remember the court is the size of a badminton court so that middle line is never too far away and all the tagger needs to do is touch it with the tips of his fingers). It creates an odd situation where the team has to stay far enough away to avoid a tag yet close enough to jump on the guy for a mass tackle. Meanwhile the tagger has to get close enough to tag guys yet try to remain close enough to the middle line to make a break for it if five-seven guys try to jump on him at once.
There's a few other rules but that's the basics in a nutshell. So when it is played at the professional level it almost looks like syncronized dance, as the tagger moves towards someone he moves out of the way while the rest of the team moves closer, then the tagger turns around and the other guys move away while their teammates move closer. Try to find a video of it on YouTube if you can. Seriously if you didn't know how it was played it looks like choreographed dance, with a sudden break when guys leap on somebody and paste him into the mat.
At the Asian Games there were five teams playing: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran and Japan (??). Sri Lanka didn't have a team but Indian coworkers told me that kabbadi is a northern India game which is not popular in southern India or Sri Lanka. No idea why Japan had a team though.
I saw a number of games and went to the final, India beat Pakistan for the win. Because Doha has a large number of workers from India and Pakistan thousands of people turned up to watch the final, but since the kabbadi ring only had about 600 seats most of them, me included, had to watch from a giant TV screen just outside. Apparantly hundreds more who didn't have tickets to the Aspire Sports Complex just stayed outside and watched it on screens out there.
Oh I almost forgot why it's called kabbadi. When the tagger crosses into the other team's zone he's not allowed to take a breath so he has to do his tagging and get back all in one breath. How does the refs monitor that he's not taking a breath? The tagger has to continuously say 'kabbadi' while in the other team's zone. I told you this game was odd.
Anyway it's does have it's slow moments but is definately worth watching at least once.
Rating: 7/10. I gave it an extra point just because for once in my life I had the hottest tickets in town. While walking towards the stadium I was asked twice by people if I had extra tickets, and hundreds were massed outside hoping to get a ticket. The Indian victory celebrations was pretty cool too.
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Asian Games - Sepaktakraw
Okay, before the Asian Games started I had never even heard of sepaktakraw but it sounded interesting so I bought some tickets. In truth I went to any sport at the Asian Games that I had never heard of (kabbadi was another) but I liked the idea of sepaktakraw - volleyball but you can't use your hands. Sounded weird, but the game is popular in Thailand, Malaysia and other parts of Southeast Asia and apparantly tough to play.
Well, it was one of the best games I saw at the Asian Games!
While it is a lot like volleyball the net is lower, about 5 and a half feet. This allows players to set up the ball for spiking much like volleyball only using your feet instead of your hands. The flexibility and atheltic skill you need to be a good sepaktakraw player is astounding. Men were regularly doing full bicycle kicks to spike the ball but instead of landing on their back, like in soccer, they were landing on their feet! You'd have to though, the court surface is hard floor like in volleyball so if you landed on your back you were in for a world of hurt.
Watching players stretch out before the match you essentially have to be flexible enough to do the splits all the way to the floor. I saw one guy doing that and his coach was pushing on his back so that his chest was fully on the floor. Ouch! It looked painful just to watch. But that kind of flexibility is needed to do moves like spiking and blocking.
In the end I watched Vietnam get the gold in women's doubles, and Thailand won the men's. Myanmar (Burma) won silver in both.
Rating 9/10: if you get a chance to watch this sport on TV definately check it out. You'll go "whoa!" the first time you see someone spike the ball.
Well, it was one of the best games I saw at the Asian Games!
While it is a lot like volleyball the net is lower, about 5 and a half feet. This allows players to set up the ball for spiking much like volleyball only using your feet instead of your hands. The flexibility and atheltic skill you need to be a good sepaktakraw player is astounding. Men were regularly doing full bicycle kicks to spike the ball but instead of landing on their back, like in soccer, they were landing on their feet! You'd have to though, the court surface is hard floor like in volleyball so if you landed on your back you were in for a world of hurt.
Watching players stretch out before the match you essentially have to be flexible enough to do the splits all the way to the floor. I saw one guy doing that and his coach was pushing on his back so that his chest was fully on the floor. Ouch! It looked painful just to watch. But that kind of flexibility is needed to do moves like spiking and blocking.
In the end I watched Vietnam get the gold in women's doubles, and Thailand won the men's. Myanmar (Burma) won silver in both.
Rating 9/10: if you get a chance to watch this sport on TV definately check it out. You'll go "whoa!" the first time you see someone spike the ball.
Sunday, December 10, 2006
Asian Games - diving
So last night I watched men's synchonised diving. I know a bit about diving from watching Olympic coverage a couple of years ago, enough to know that the larger the splash going into the water the lower the score, but that's about the extent of my knowledge.
There were eight teams and each team had six dives, which made for more dives than a World Cup soccer match. The team from China was excellent and blew everyone else away, winning by such a wide margin that for their last dive they could have just fallen off the board and still won. Malaysia had an excellent final dive for a come-from-behind silver. I thought the judging seemed to be a bit off with what I thought was a crappy dive getting 7.5/10 and a better dive getting around the same score sometimes. But I'm not a professional so what do I know.
All in all diving is not that exciting to watch, while the first 20 minutes is interesting after that there isn't much more to see, the dives become repetitive, and I found boredom kicking in after 40 minutes. I was with a couple of other people and we left before the next event (women's synchro). I think when I watched Olympic coverage a couple of years back on TV it was a bit more interesting because the commentary from the reporters added a bit to it.
Overall 5/10: worth seeing live once but I'll stick to TV coverage from now on.
There were eight teams and each team had six dives, which made for more dives than a World Cup soccer match. The team from China was excellent and blew everyone else away, winning by such a wide margin that for their last dive they could have just fallen off the board and still won. Malaysia had an excellent final dive for a come-from-behind silver. I thought the judging seemed to be a bit off with what I thought was a crappy dive getting 7.5/10 and a better dive getting around the same score sometimes. But I'm not a professional so what do I know.
All in all diving is not that exciting to watch, while the first 20 minutes is interesting after that there isn't much more to see, the dives become repetitive, and I found boredom kicking in after 40 minutes. I was with a couple of other people and we left before the next event (women's synchro). I think when I watched Olympic coverage a couple of years back on TV it was a bit more interesting because the commentary from the reporters added a bit to it.
Overall 5/10: worth seeing live once but I'll stick to TV coverage from now on.
Asian Games - tennis
Now as pretty much everyone knows I love tennis. So I couldn't pass up a chance to watch the tennis at the Asian Games. The top players in the world weren't there since almost none of them are Asian (and unfortunately that top-20 mens player from Thailand was injured) but it was still good to see some quality tennis being played.
Matches were held at the Khalifa Tennis Complex near where I work and it was a pretty impressive area. The centre court could seat around 4,000 and the day I was there it was about 60% full. There was a woman from India playing, Sania something-or-other, and a large Indian crowd was out to watch her play. I figure at least 1,200-1,500 people there were from India. Sania was playing a mixed doubles match and decimated her Uzbekistan opponents 6-1, 6-3. People went crazy every time the Indian team scored a point.
With such a significant pro-Indian crowd it meant that only games where Indians were playing had a decent number of spectators, I went over to Court Two and watched two decent matches with non-Indian players and I think there was, at most, 25 people watching. I kind of felt sorry for the athletes - who wants to come all this way and have only a couple of dozen people turn out for your match while next door hundreds are cheering? I guess that is pretty standard in tennis, the crowd goes to watch the big names while the up-and-comers play on their own.
Overall I had a great day but a few things bothered me:
1) The marathon or some cycling event was held nearby so for the entire morning helicopters were buzzing around getting footage of that event. It is difficult to play tennis, let alone enjoy watching it, when helicopters are loudly flying around in the background. Thankfully they stopped by lunch time.
2) I don't think many locals knew a lot about tennis etiquette. I was stunned to see people coming into the Centre Court seating with babies & toddlers. Why would anyone bring small children to a tennis match?!? Not only that but people were constantly talking, cell phones were ringing, and people were even yelling out words of encouragement or whistling - even while the players were serving! I swear the ref was telling everyone to be quiet every second point but to no avail. Hopefully the organizers will have figured out that for the next big tennis tournament they'll at least prevent people from bringing in babies and toddlers, and maybe get people to turn off their cell phones before they come in. (Not that it'll help, I was at the chess venue where they checked to see that your cell phone was off and one guy just turned his back on once he was through security - and sure enough it rang and disturbed the players. Jerk.)
Overall 8/10, I'd go watch tennis again.
Matches were held at the Khalifa Tennis Complex near where I work and it was a pretty impressive area. The centre court could seat around 4,000 and the day I was there it was about 60% full. There was a woman from India playing, Sania something-or-other, and a large Indian crowd was out to watch her play. I figure at least 1,200-1,500 people there were from India. Sania was playing a mixed doubles match and decimated her Uzbekistan opponents 6-1, 6-3. People went crazy every time the Indian team scored a point.
With such a significant pro-Indian crowd it meant that only games where Indians were playing had a decent number of spectators, I went over to Court Two and watched two decent matches with non-Indian players and I think there was, at most, 25 people watching. I kind of felt sorry for the athletes - who wants to come all this way and have only a couple of dozen people turn out for your match while next door hundreds are cheering? I guess that is pretty standard in tennis, the crowd goes to watch the big names while the up-and-comers play on their own.
Overall I had a great day but a few things bothered me:
1) The marathon or some cycling event was held nearby so for the entire morning helicopters were buzzing around getting footage of that event. It is difficult to play tennis, let alone enjoy watching it, when helicopters are loudly flying around in the background. Thankfully they stopped by lunch time.
2) I don't think many locals knew a lot about tennis etiquette. I was stunned to see people coming into the Centre Court seating with babies & toddlers. Why would anyone bring small children to a tennis match?!? Not only that but people were constantly talking, cell phones were ringing, and people were even yelling out words of encouragement or whistling - even while the players were serving! I swear the ref was telling everyone to be quiet every second point but to no avail. Hopefully the organizers will have figured out that for the next big tennis tournament they'll at least prevent people from bringing in babies and toddlers, and maybe get people to turn off their cell phones before they come in. (Not that it'll help, I was at the chess venue where they checked to see that your cell phone was off and one guy just turned his back on once he was through security - and sure enough it rang and disturbed the players. Jerk.)
Overall 8/10, I'd go watch tennis again.
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