So today was my dental appointment to get my teeth cleaned. Like most people I do not look forward to dental visits but I suppose it is a necessary evil. Rather than moaning about it I should be grateful that I have medical insurance that covers dental, it wasn’t all that long ago that I didn’t. I remember during my student years when I went without seeing a dentist for at least 2 years – and the resulting problems from doing so (gingivitis).
Now I build up tartar at a rate faster than most people – I definitely need to have my teeth cleaned at least every six month or else tartar builds up under the gumline and irritates it. This was the main reason why I had the gingivitis problem. One dentist even recommended that I get my teeth cleaned every five months instead of six to keep on top of the problem.
Of course it’s been eight months since I had my teeth cleaned. Why I do this to myself I’ll never know.
So I went to the dentist’s office for my cleaning and warned her “I’m going to bleed a lot, but don’t worry”. I’ve been through this often enough now to know that tartar build up really causes my gums to bleed during cleaning. I didn’t warn the last hygienist who cleaned my teeth and she was really alarmed at the bleeding. I was that close to telling her “well maybe if you wouldn’t eviscerate my gums with that scraper they’ll stop bleeding!” Thankfully I didn’t but I was not a happy camper at the time. I figured I give this dentist a warning up front about the bleeding so she wouldn’t say anything. Commenting on it while I’ve had my teeth & gums chiseled with sharp hooks for a half-hour is not the time to bring up that I’m bleeding.
What proceeded next was the fastest cleaning I’ve had in my life! I got in the chair and she immediately went to work. Cleaning & polishing (no fluoride at the end though - odd) took all of 15 minutes – tops. I don’t know whether to be elated because it was so short and relatively painless – relatively, mind you – or that it was so fast I have a small suspicion that it wasn’t a great job. There was lots of bleeding, as promised by yours truly, and she immediately booked me for an appointment in three months for a re-clean before any tartar significantly builds up – maybe to prevent the gums getting irritated. Then that was it – no xrays, no “let’s take a look and see if there’s anything else”, no trying to plus-sell me on other dental work (something that annoyed me about the last place that I went to).
All-in-all I was happy with the experience, still have a nagging doubt about the quality of the cleaning though. At least I have my next appointment booked already so I won’t procrastinate and let this get out of hand like last time.
And, thankfully, it’s insured.
I'd also like to take this time to wish my sister Karen a Happy Birthday!!! Love ya, hope you have a great day. Have piece of cake for me (since I can't have one due to the diet)
Sunday, April 08, 2007
Saturday, April 07, 2007
Kayaking
Today was a beautiful day out, sunny and not too dusty, so I figured I'd follow up on an invitation to an afternoon lunch to welcome Mark Evans as he approached the Doha Corniche. Mark kayaks around the coastlines of various countries to make money for charity. He recently kayaked around Oman and now he's going around Qatar. I wanted to attend his talk last Wednesday (I'm a member of the Qatar Natural History Group) but unfortunately couldn't make it. The photos of the Omani coastline were supposed to be spectacular.
I'm skeptical that the photos of the Qatar coastline will be as interesting. Oman has mountains and intesting valleys leading into the sea. Qatar is very flat. Seriously flat. Oh well, gotta go with what you're given I guess.
The kayak tour is getting a lot of local media attention. When he arrived at the restaurant on the Corniche there were 2 TV crews and about half-a-dozen photographers. He kayaked up, got out, did some interviews, then everyone there had lunch at the restaurant before he got back in the kayak to continue on his way.
All in all a pleasant way to spend the afternoon. Good luck Mark!
I'm skeptical that the photos of the Qatar coastline will be as interesting. Oman has mountains and intesting valleys leading into the sea. Qatar is very flat. Seriously flat. Oh well, gotta go with what you're given I guess.
The kayak tour is getting a lot of local media attention. When he arrived at the restaurant on the Corniche there were 2 TV crews and about half-a-dozen photographers. He kayaked up, got out, did some interviews, then everyone there had lunch at the restaurant before he got back in the kayak to continue on his way.
All in all a pleasant way to spend the afternoon. Good luck Mark!
Friday, April 06, 2007
An Important Public Service Announcement
Fridays are a very quiet day here. In case you didn't know, in Qatar the weekend is Friday and Saturday, which makes it odd because the first day of work in Sunday (something I have yet to get used to). Friday is the holy day in Islam so almost all stores and restaurants are closed until the evening, leaving little else to do but chill out and relax.
After sleeping in I went down to the clubhouse restaurant to have breakfast. The pool by the clubhouse was quite busy, most of the residents enjoying the day by lazing about the pool. It is from this that I must finally lay down the law about an important topic:
To all men in the world - you do not look good in Speedos!!
Honestly, who invented these things? And why do so many men think they look good? Those things seem to be designed to show the world how large your gut is, and are more revealing than underwear. Yeah, yeah I'm sure there's exceptions to the rule, I'm sure there are many ladies who think they look fine on guys like Brad Pitt but we are talking about 1 in 1000 here. A very slim margin. Rather than take the chance (cause how many guys delude themselves into thinking they look as good as Brad Pitt), how about we play it safe and just ban them altogether.
No more speedos - please. Think of the children, okay?
This important public service message brought to you by concerned citizens who have to eat breakfast near a pool.
After sleeping in I went down to the clubhouse restaurant to have breakfast. The pool by the clubhouse was quite busy, most of the residents enjoying the day by lazing about the pool. It is from this that I must finally lay down the law about an important topic:
To all men in the world - you do not look good in Speedos!!
Honestly, who invented these things? And why do so many men think they look good? Those things seem to be designed to show the world how large your gut is, and are more revealing than underwear. Yeah, yeah I'm sure there's exceptions to the rule, I'm sure there are many ladies who think they look fine on guys like Brad Pitt but we are talking about 1 in 1000 here. A very slim margin. Rather than take the chance (cause how many guys delude themselves into thinking they look as good as Brad Pitt), how about we play it safe and just ban them altogether.
No more speedos - please. Think of the children, okay?
This important public service message brought to you by concerned citizens who have to eat breakfast near a pool.
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
Musings on the price of soda (and other things around here)
Qatar can be a nice place to live in that, if you take the time to look around, you can find really good prices for things. I mean really cheap. I’m talking I go back to Canada and find myself thinking “$15 for a T-shirt? Not a chance I’m paying that!”. Yet in Qatar there is also a large middle-upper class society so you can find price discrepancies for things that are mind-blowing.
Whenever I go to a restaurant I immediately look at the menu for the price of a soda. This to me is one of the best indicators of how expensive the restaurant is. Here’s a comparison of prices for Pepsi (all prices in $US)
Buy a can at a corner store: $0.40 (wow, cheaper than North America)
Restaurant at my compound: $0.81 (not bad)
Standard restaurant: $1.62 (comparable to Canada I guess)
Trendy café: $2.43 (um, getting pricey here)
Hotel: $4+ (What the heck?!)
Worst I’ve seen [this was in March, 2012]: $7.25! (forgetaboutit!!)
In some cases the markup is 15x-20x what it cost in the store! Imagine walking into a restaurant in North America, asking for a Coke, and getting a bill for $12! That’s pretty serious markup. What’s worse is that I know that the staff at the hotels get paid less than what they would in North America so that extra markup is just going right into the hotel’s profits. Gangsters. Prices for coffee is little better, most places charge for a cup of Nescafe the same price as an entire jar of the stuff.
It can work the same way for a lot of other items. I’ve bought dress shirts for work, during a sale, for about $5 each, but you can go to the mall (malls here are generally upscale) and see those Euro/US-brand shirts for $50-100. I can get nice ties for $3-4, yet at another store they sell ties for $25-35. I’ve had huge multi-item lunches of Indian or Sri Lankan food for $2-3, yet a nearby sushi place is selling one order of California rolls for $10. I just don’t get it sometimes.
One thing that is not cheap is DVDs, in most stores a new release is $40 – yet you pay on average $55 for a DVD player. There is a black market for pirated stuff of course but in the stores you pay serious money for DVDs. I have no idea why. CDs are about average, around $16. Books used to be a problem but now a Virgin Megastore has opened up and its prices are close to cover price. Having no sales tax helps a bit as well I think. When I went back to Canada on vacation all I really wanted to buy was books, DVDs, and CDs, everything else in Canada was generally more expensive.
One downside of the prices being so good here is that when you go on vacation everything suddenly becomes really expensive. I don’t even want to talk about the near-conniptions I went into when I stayed in London for a few days on my way back from Canada. Ack!
So if anyone is thinking of stopping by your experience can be as cheap or classy as you wish, just let me know.
Whenever I go to a restaurant I immediately look at the menu for the price of a soda. This to me is one of the best indicators of how expensive the restaurant is. Here’s a comparison of prices for Pepsi (all prices in $US)
Buy a can at a corner store: $0.40 (wow, cheaper than North America)
Restaurant at my compound: $0.81 (not bad)
Standard restaurant: $1.62 (comparable to Canada I guess)
Trendy café: $2.43 (um, getting pricey here)
Hotel: $4+ (What the heck?!)
Worst I’ve seen [this was in March, 2012]: $7.25! (forgetaboutit!!)
In some cases the markup is 15x-20x what it cost in the store! Imagine walking into a restaurant in North America, asking for a Coke, and getting a bill for $12! That’s pretty serious markup. What’s worse is that I know that the staff at the hotels get paid less than what they would in North America so that extra markup is just going right into the hotel’s profits. Gangsters. Prices for coffee is little better, most places charge for a cup of Nescafe the same price as an entire jar of the stuff.
It can work the same way for a lot of other items. I’ve bought dress shirts for work, during a sale, for about $5 each, but you can go to the mall (malls here are generally upscale) and see those Euro/US-brand shirts for $50-100. I can get nice ties for $3-4, yet at another store they sell ties for $25-35. I’ve had huge multi-item lunches of Indian or Sri Lankan food for $2-3, yet a nearby sushi place is selling one order of California rolls for $10. I just don’t get it sometimes.
One thing that is not cheap is DVDs, in most stores a new release is $40 – yet you pay on average $55 for a DVD player. There is a black market for pirated stuff of course but in the stores you pay serious money for DVDs. I have no idea why. CDs are about average, around $16. Books used to be a problem but now a Virgin Megastore has opened up and its prices are close to cover price. Having no sales tax helps a bit as well I think. When I went back to Canada on vacation all I really wanted to buy was books, DVDs, and CDs, everything else in Canada was generally more expensive.
One downside of the prices being so good here is that when you go on vacation everything suddenly becomes really expensive. I don’t even want to talk about the near-conniptions I went into when I stayed in London for a few days on my way back from Canada. Ack!
So if anyone is thinking of stopping by your experience can be as cheap or classy as you wish, just let me know.
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
More Wikifun
I must admit Wikipedia is definately one of my favourite sites. Sometimes I just Wikisurf around the various links, and I figure I use it at least once a day to look up various trivia.
Sadly though, my searching has led me to discover that I have a serious genetic disorder: Autosomal dominant Compelling Helio-Ophthalmic Outburst syndrome! Many people have this disorder and don't even know it! Do you? My attacks happen at least once or twice a day!
I'm surprised BigPharma hasn't developed some kind of med for this.
On another note, there has been increasing health problems in people due to exposure to Dihydrogen Monoxide, a chemical used in many pesticides and even some nerve gases. You might want to check the FAQ and then determine how much you are exposed to DHMO. The exposure appears to be fairly low in the Middle East, but likely greater where you are living.
Sadly though, my searching has led me to discover that I have a serious genetic disorder: Autosomal dominant Compelling Helio-Ophthalmic Outburst syndrome! Many people have this disorder and don't even know it! Do you? My attacks happen at least once or twice a day!
I'm surprised BigPharma hasn't developed some kind of med for this.
On another note, there has been increasing health problems in people due to exposure to Dihydrogen Monoxide, a chemical used in many pesticides and even some nerve gases. You might want to check the FAQ and then determine how much you are exposed to DHMO. The exposure appears to be fairly low in the Middle East, but likely greater where you are living.
Islamic Finance
As a Chartered Accountant I have to make sure that I take courses to maintain a certain number of professional development (PD) hours every year. Working in a capacity as an accountant doesn’t count – it has to be courses or other training to keep you up to date. An easier task back in Canada where they hold courses specifically for PD purposes, around here it’s not as easy to do.
Luckily I found something both relevant and that meets the PD requirements, I’m currently studying to get my Certified Islamic Professional Accountant designation (CIPA). It entails studying the various differences between conventional accounting standards and the Islamic accounting standards used by Islamic Finance entities.
And what is Islamic Finance you ask? Well, it’s essentially financial transactions that are in compliance with Islamic Law. The Qur’an and related Islamic texts have prohibitions against certain things, the chief one being charging interest (usury), so Islamic Financial Institutions have to have different ways of financing transactions. So an Islamic bank can’t charge interest on a mortgage or loan. Think about that for a second. How does the bank profit? I won’t go into the details, but rest assured they find ways to turn a profit on loans. Islamic Financial Institutions also have to make sure they invest ethically and in accordance with Islamic rules, i.e. no investing in alcohol manufacturers, casinos, pork farms etc. Some even go so far as to not invest in institutions that earn interest on their investments, considering that to be little better than earning interest yourself. This does limit the investment opportunities for Islamic Financial entities but the market is steadily growing and more and more options are becoming available. I believe there are even some Islamic-acceptable investments being offered in the US and UK now.
There are some critics of certain types of transactions, charging that they are little more than semantic changes to get around the rules regarding interest. Say you want a $10,000 loan for a car. An Islamic Bank might agree to buy the car then loan it to you in exchange for regular monthly payments which over three years totals $13,000. The bank says that this isn't an interest loan, critics argue that this is little different then loaning the money at interest and having you buy the car yourself. Anyway, that's for Islamic scholars to sort out.
So I have to study all of these various methods of contracts and financing in Islamic Financing and how they are accounted for under Islamic Accounting standards. Not exactly the most thrilling thing that I could be doing, but if I’m going to be in the region for any length of time it would be a valuable designation to have. Just don’t ask me to finance a mudaraba contract, okay?
Luckily I found something both relevant and that meets the PD requirements, I’m currently studying to get my Certified Islamic Professional Accountant designation (CIPA). It entails studying the various differences between conventional accounting standards and the Islamic accounting standards used by Islamic Finance entities.
And what is Islamic Finance you ask? Well, it’s essentially financial transactions that are in compliance with Islamic Law. The Qur’an and related Islamic texts have prohibitions against certain things, the chief one being charging interest (usury), so Islamic Financial Institutions have to have different ways of financing transactions. So an Islamic bank can’t charge interest on a mortgage or loan. Think about that for a second. How does the bank profit? I won’t go into the details, but rest assured they find ways to turn a profit on loans. Islamic Financial Institutions also have to make sure they invest ethically and in accordance with Islamic rules, i.e. no investing in alcohol manufacturers, casinos, pork farms etc. Some even go so far as to not invest in institutions that earn interest on their investments, considering that to be little better than earning interest yourself. This does limit the investment opportunities for Islamic Financial entities but the market is steadily growing and more and more options are becoming available. I believe there are even some Islamic-acceptable investments being offered in the US and UK now.
There are some critics of certain types of transactions, charging that they are little more than semantic changes to get around the rules regarding interest. Say you want a $10,000 loan for a car. An Islamic Bank might agree to buy the car then loan it to you in exchange for regular monthly payments which over three years totals $13,000. The bank says that this isn't an interest loan, critics argue that this is little different then loaning the money at interest and having you buy the car yourself. Anyway, that's for Islamic scholars to sort out.
So I have to study all of these various methods of contracts and financing in Islamic Financing and how they are accounted for under Islamic Accounting standards. Not exactly the most thrilling thing that I could be doing, but if I’m going to be in the region for any length of time it would be a valuable designation to have. Just don’t ask me to finance a mudaraba contract, okay?
Sunday, April 01, 2007
So my good deed for this week is helping a Lebanese gentleman go through the online forms for applying for residence in New Zealand. Why New Zealand? I have no idea. For some reason the man has his heart set on going there. Could do worse I suppose, New Zealand is supposed to be a beautiful place.
Problem is he's a chef and his wife is a hairdresser. A quick tour through the website indicates that New Zealand is really interested in doctors, lawyers, engineers etc. but not so keen on having a chef and a hairdresser move over with their three children. We're going to spend some more time tonight looking over information to see what the options are. His best bet would be to find a job there first but a quick scan of NZ job listings seems to indicate that employers interested in chefs want them to have a work visa before they apply. Catch-22: No job without a work visa, no work visa because you don't have a job.
What prompted this is simple - Israel bombing the bejeezus out of Lebanon a while back. His wife in kids were living in an apartment in Beirut when it happened, and he could do nothing but watch Al-Jazeera night after night, watching Beirut going up in flames, and praying that his wife & kids don't get hit by a stray bomb. It took nearly three weeks and a good chunk of $$$ to get them to Damascus so that they could catch a flight here. The family is here now and after that harrowing experience his wife does not want to go back to Lebanon. It's just too unstable and potentially unsafe. I don't blame them.
Unfortunately working in Qatar is not the most secure place to be for Lebanese workers. He could be let go for any reason with little recourse. If that happens to him then what? He'd have no choice but to go back to Lebanon. That's why he wants to get somewhere where he won't just be deported on a whim. Somewhere where his kids can grow up safely. To him that's New Zealand.
I'll help him out but I'm not sure about his chances. I'll also push a bit for him to apply to Canada (he's reluctant due to the cold weather in the winter) but he speaks both English and French which is a big plus for applying to Canada.
Times like this I appreciate being Canadian, and not having to deal with things like how I'm going to move away from my bombed-out country.
Problem is he's a chef and his wife is a hairdresser. A quick tour through the website indicates that New Zealand is really interested in doctors, lawyers, engineers etc. but not so keen on having a chef and a hairdresser move over with their three children. We're going to spend some more time tonight looking over information to see what the options are. His best bet would be to find a job there first but a quick scan of NZ job listings seems to indicate that employers interested in chefs want them to have a work visa before they apply. Catch-22: No job without a work visa, no work visa because you don't have a job.
What prompted this is simple - Israel bombing the bejeezus out of Lebanon a while back. His wife in kids were living in an apartment in Beirut when it happened, and he could do nothing but watch Al-Jazeera night after night, watching Beirut going up in flames, and praying that his wife & kids don't get hit by a stray bomb. It took nearly three weeks and a good chunk of $$$ to get them to Damascus so that they could catch a flight here. The family is here now and after that harrowing experience his wife does not want to go back to Lebanon. It's just too unstable and potentially unsafe. I don't blame them.
Unfortunately working in Qatar is not the most secure place to be for Lebanese workers. He could be let go for any reason with little recourse. If that happens to him then what? He'd have no choice but to go back to Lebanon. That's why he wants to get somewhere where he won't just be deported on a whim. Somewhere where his kids can grow up safely. To him that's New Zealand.
I'll help him out but I'm not sure about his chances. I'll also push a bit for him to apply to Canada (he's reluctant due to the cold weather in the winter) but he speaks both English and French which is a big plus for applying to Canada.
Times like this I appreciate being Canadian, and not having to deal with things like how I'm going to move away from my bombed-out country.
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Musings on losing weight
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.
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.
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).
.
.
.
.
Have you gone to Fab Lab yet?
.
.
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).
.
.
.
.
Have you gone to Fab Lab yet?
.
.
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.
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