candlabra

Second to last day of work before a three week holiday. Leaving for Calgary on Saturday to visit friends and Natalie's family. Also, the trip will be used to do some aggressive clothes shopping for the sheik. Hopefully that will round out the clothing component of the shop and allow us to start it up in September.

Then back to van to do some climbing and hiking in and around Whistler.

School starts on the 7th and I will be super busy with classes and the UVSS.

economicsnews: the eminent domain ruling at SCotUS took an upsetting turn when the private company that won the right to evict the tenants to build their tax collecting "public use" compound had the audacity to charge back rent. the trial has been on for 5 years, so the tenants are being charged in the 10-100 thousand range. reading comments on it, you see a lot of calls for revolution. one would think that america, with its intense pride of being the land of the free, the land which endorses private property and the land where guns are kept to ensure that one cannot lose their lives nor property, would not be taking this lightly. Unfortunately, it seems as if this has been polarized into a left/right debate so that up-in-arms people from both sides are defending ideas that are just not right because those ideas have been adopted by one side or the other. this is a battle between haves and have-nots. hopefully it will be resolved soon. from what I understand, the SCotUS decision gives each state or municipality the right to restrict eminent domain.

sciencenews: a massive siberian peat bog is melting, supposedly due to global warming, and it threaten to release a massive amount of methane. Water is the most prevalent greenhouse gas (which is not very well known) but methane has a global warming potential (GWP) of 22 times carbon dioxide (CO2 is defined as having a GWP of 1) but the GWP for CO2 does not take into account indirect effects while the GWP for methane does. Luckily methane only survives for ~12 years (compared to CO2's 250-400 years) . It is too bad that this is still so contentious. If scientists could just agree that global warming is happening (or is not happening) then we could get somewhere. As it is, any politician can simply refer to a study that backs up their chosen path and be done with it.

new beginning

not one to waste an opportunity (sure), this blog is going to morph into an educational experience for me. a friend of mine (godfrey) and I were supposed to start emailing each other with regards to what we had learned that day. it didn't pan out so I am going to start doing it here. we will see where it goes. if nothing else, it will act as a history for me, which will be interesting.

Still at the University, working on the project that will not work. Three identical scans, three completely different graphs and no way to calibrate. This is going to require some intense head scratching.

reading: The Hero with a Thousand Faces (Joseph Campbell), Myth of Sisyphus (Albert Camus) and Consciousness Explained (Daniel C. Dennett).

listening: NYUB and newsradio (montreal) -> podcasts

sciencenews: check out this door. totally useless and completely prone to breaking down, but so cool.

economicsnews: House prices in the US rose 13.6% in the year ending June 30. Inflation is low and population growth has for years been steady around 1%. In general, americans tend to save by investing in property. personal debt is extremely high (stats abound but are all different). Interest rates are rising to stem inflation (perhaps badly timed with the oil increase?), but this is going to screw with personal debt. so many people are talking about the housing bubble. I bring this up because my sister has suggested that we think about buying a house. I am interested but concerned that now is not the time. 13.6% is a lot. More on this as I research it.

titles are funny

it is sunday afternoon and I am psuedo-stuck in the basement at the university trying to make an experiment work. thus far it will not do so, but it will. God help it, it will. And then I will be published and will have a little publishing party.

went to lucky last night. tis the only club in our little town worth speaking of. I like it but will tire of it soon, no doubt. Danced up a storm. Drank up a storm. Good.

zim gave me a book to read called Consciousness Explained. quite good so far, but Dennett seems a tad conceited. I am used to scholarly texts using the pronoun "one" so that the reader understands that the knowledge is now in the public realm. Dennett continualy states that he, single-handedly, is going to solve every problem mankind has ever faced with his amazing intelligence. we are stupid for even reading the book.

childhood memories blow

just finished watching Labyrinth. I had much higher expectations for that movie ... like it was good or had a message or something. But, no. It was an hour and a half of "Ludo, friend" and "I am an idiotic dancing muppet."

I did notice that the little goblin was mistakenly called "Hogwart" and immediately after that mistake, there appeared a wizardy creature with a phoenix-type bird on his head. I think I found the inspiration for the harry potter books.

climb climb climb

Went outdoor climbing this weekend, up at Skaha in penticton. the climbs were on the easy side, but the potential for fucking-awesome body-shaking finger-dangling is definitely there. indoor climbing has nothing on this. of course, the company was spectacular. and we made it to peach-fest. yay peach-fest. need to go climbing more. next stop, squamish at the beginning of september. squash and climbing. who needs soccer and ultimate?

pictures? you got 'em.