Blessed Are The Curious

The Meadows

2011-04-26T18:54:00.000-06:00

Last year in April, the Edmonton Transit Service (ETS) changed route 33 so that instead of going from West Edmonton Mall to Millgate, it went from West Edmonton Mall to Meadows. Today I learned that Meadows or "The Meadows" is a new residential district, which is still in the process of being built. It is sandwiched between Mill Woods and Strathcona County, Whitemud Drive and the Anthony Henday.

Dominionism

2011-04-25T18:34:00.009-06:00

Dominionism is the name given to the practice of some conservative Christians who try to influence secular civil government through political action. The idea is that it will result in a state governed by these conservative Christians' understanding of Biblical law.

Clinker Brick

2011-04-22T18:56:00.000-06:00

Clinker Bricks are a kind of brick that have been heated to higher temperatures than normal bricks. This extra temperature means that the bricks are darker in colour, but they are also heavier, and take up less water than ordinary bricks. In the 1920s architects discovered that clinkers worked well for detailing.

Hecla Block

2011-04-22T18:42:00.000-06:00

I am, as you might know, a big fan of history. Edmonton at first glance does not appear to have that much history. From my strolls around the city, I have, however, noticed that every so often a historical building will just pop up. It's occasionally disconcerting, but always thrilling. During Edmonton's first boom, a whole spate of apartment buildings went up and as the decades passed, many succumbed to fire (the shame!) or were just demolished because they were old (the shame!). The Hecla block on 95th Street survived. It was originally built in 1914 and housed 21 apartments. In 1994 fire swept through the building and it sat empty for five years until it was renovated. It now houses 14 condos.

You can read more about it here and see a picture. It looks prettier in the flesh.

Stupa

2011-04-20T12:43:00.009-06:00

If you speak Yiddish you might be somewhat concerned at the phonetics of this post's title. Worry not! A stupa is a Buddhist religious monument. The earliest ones were simple mounds of clay that covered the remains of the Buddha. As time progressed the stupas got larger. The stupa Jetavanaramaya was one of the tallest structures in the Ancient world. The foundations of the structure are over 8.5m deep and required bricks that could withstand weights of 166kg.

Acne

2011-04-19T19:49:00.000-06:00

As a teenager I suffered from acne that was quite bad. Apparently evolution is to blame. The oils that our skin produces is supposed to lubricate fur which we alas now lack.

It is, however, somewhat comforting to know that if I was covered in fur, I would have very shiny and soft fur.

And on we go

2011-04-18T19:36:00.000-06:00

During my last year of primary school I spent some of the year sitting next to a boy called MM. I have not seen him since I left primary school but today he turned up in my facebook feed. One of my old high school friends was at a wedding of one of her university friends and she was getting married to MM. He still looks fairly similar although his hairline is receding.

Yet further proof Northern Ireland is embarrassingly small.

Passover Wine

2011-04-15T19:17:00.000-06:00

While doing research in the archives last summer I kept on coming across references to Passover wine. That in itself is a story but today I read an article about why Jewish Americans drink a sweet Manischewitz during Passover. The story is linked to the development of the Concord grape, a grape hardy enough to survive a winter in New England. The Concord grape provided a cheap source for Jewish Americans when it came to making Passover wine. The Concord grape makes a very sweet wine, largely because much sugar has to be added to make it palatable.

Head scratcher

2011-04-14T14:51:00.005-06:00

Every so often I take it upon myself to attempt to understand something that is far beyond my mental capacities, like astrophysics. Apparently, the speed of light might be slowing down, or at least not constant. If the speed of light were changing it would explain some scientific anomalies like why two spaceships sent to explore the outer planets in the 1970s appear to be accelerating towards the sun.

And now my head hurts.

Soccer?

2011-04-13T18:45:00.008-06:00

I should already know this but Edmonton has a professional soccer team. It is quite new to be fair, being founded in 2010 and being in the league below Major League Soccer (there is no merit based promotion in American sports, so much for meritocracy, eh?), the North American Soccer League. Edmonton's team is called FC Edmonton, presumably not to confuse it with the now defunct Edmonton professional soccer team that was called Edmonton FC. It actually begins competitive games this year, as last season was its exhibition season.

So, I guess I should go to a game or two?

A Sobering Set of Statistics

2011-04-12T19:48:00.000-06:00

Apparently there are more African American men in prison today than there were enslaved in 1850 prior to the American Civil War. The reason that there are so many African American men in prison is due to the USA's War on Drugs. Despite crime levels being at historical lows there number of African Americans and Hispanic Americans in prison has sharply increased. If the men in question receive a felony conviction they can no longer vote, are ineligible for public housing, have trouble finding jobs, are excluded from juries and denied educational opportunities. If incarceration rates were to return to the levels seen in the 1970s, over a million people would lose their jobs.

Lost Cosmonauts

2011-04-11T18:56:00.000-06:00

Recently I have started reading more about the Soviets' space program and it would seem that they were more than a little cavalier with the lives of their Cosmonauts. It is widely accepted that Yuri Gagarin was the first man in space but some space historians claim that Gagarin was the first man to make it back safely and that the Soviets lost a number of cosmonauts prior to Gagarin's successful flight.

Joe Clark

2011-04-07T19:07:00.000-06:00

Last night I was chatting with a friend and he mentioned Joe Clark. At the time I had no idea who Joe Clark was and my friend told me that Clark was a former Prime Minister of Canada. Clark spent less than a year as Prime Minister, leading a minority Conservative government but his political career continued after losing the vote of no-confidence and subsequently the leadership of the Conservative party. He returned as a cabinet minister under Brian Mulroney in 1984, as Secretary of State for External Affairs.

Spade or Shovel

2011-04-06T14:44:00.007-06:00

I will confess to using the terms spade and shovel relatively interchangeable (exception snow shovel, always snow shovel never snow spade). However, shovel is generally used to describe a broad-bottomed blade, better suited for moving loose material while spade is generally used to mean a pointed digging tool.

Bothy

2011-04-05T18:41:00.004-06:00

Last night I went with some friends to the Scottish pub in Edmonton: the Bothy. We went specifically to eat haggis. As haggis goes it was not bad (bizarrely the best haggis I ever had was in my student halls of residence in Glasgow). The word "bothy" describes basic shelter, open to everyone, and are widespread across the Scottish highlands.

Transmissible Cancer

2011-04-04T19:37:00.009-06:00

Back in high school I had to read Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca and there is a scene in the book where one of the characters asks if cancer is transmissible. The answer, of course, is only if you are a dog, Tasmanian devil or Syrian hamster. Each of these three animals have a form of cancer which can be transmitted from one animal to the other. As a general rule cancer is not transmissible but Devil Facial Tumour Disease, Caninne Transmissible Veneral Tumour and contagious reticulum cell sarcoma of the Syrian hamsters form the three exceptions.

It should be noted that the transmissible cancer in Tasmanian devils is seriously endangering the species' survivial.

Leaning no more

2011-04-01T18:51:00.000-06:00

Today I learned that the Tower of Pisa had finally fallen over. Recent efforts to stabilise the tower involved lead counterweights, cables and removing some soil from under the raised end. These efforts ended in 2008 with the engineers claiming that the tower would be stable for at least another 200 years.

Alas they miscalculated. For a video of the tower's collapse click here.

It's dangerous down-under

2011-03-31T19:37:00.000-06:00

I remember being convinced as a child, that Australia was populated almost exclusively by dangerous animals and insects. While I now know that is not entirely true, I discovered today that the Tasmanian Devil has the most powerful jaws of any mammal on earth. Tasmanian Devils can apply over one ton of pressure per cubic foot. They can open their jaws over 90 degrees. They also smell really bad, which means you don't want to get too close to one (but if you do, the beastie will likely not attack you).

The iPad

2011-03-30T19:14:00.000-06:00

Today while in one of Edmonton's many, many malls, I stumbled into the Apple store to see if I could admire the iPad 2. I want one for reasons I cannot quite explain. I suspect some sort of marketing genius is behind this. Anyhoo, the interwebs being the source of all information, has now provided me with some potential justifications. For example, I now know that the iPad can adjust its lighting to the ambient light of its surroundings and while this is incredibly cool, it does not justify me spending $600 on one. However, the iPad lacks a USB key which means I cannot really justify buying one.

Yet.

The Most Segregated City

2011-03-29T18:44:00.000-06:00

Race is a touchy subject in the USA and despite official segregation ending several decades ago, de facto segregation continues today. The most racially segregated city in the USA is Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Milwaukee has one of the lowest rates of black suburbanization in the USA, and African Americans remain concentrated in the inner city area far away from places where new jobs are being created.

Accolade

2011-03-28T17:27:00.000-06:00

We all know that it is a good thing to receive an accolade but today I learned the etymology of the word. It comes from French via Latin. The word in French means 'embrace'. In other words, accolades are like hugs.

But hugs are always better.

Money

2011-03-25T16:32:00.005-06:00

In the UK, 70% of all banknotes reach the public via ATMS. Yet fewer than 3% of ATMs are equipped to dispense five pound notes. As a consequence five pound notes in the UK get very grubby, very quickly.

Textured Milk

2011-03-24T16:25:00.001-06:00

I don't drink a whole lot of lattes or other coffees that require textured milk but I appreciate the art that baristas can squeeze out of the foamy milk. The milk used in latte art has been heated which releases its sugars then, ideally, the milk has been stretched by infusing it with air, and then rolled to get rid of the bubbles. This process produces microfoam which is milk that can hold its form. Hence the art.

Where are all the Aliens?

2011-03-23T18:38:00.000-06:00

There are those who spend much of their time trying to contact extraterrestrial beings, intelligent life beyond planet earth, for the most part these people are harmless and unsuccessful. The question is, why are they unsuccessful? Some astronomers believe that one of the reasons we have yet to find intelligent life is because of the deadly effects of local supernova explosions.

I like this theory.

Born to Be Lazy

2011-03-22T19:11:00.000-06:00

Sometimes I have trouble motivating myself to do some exercise and it would turn out that my laziness is not a moral fault (as some nineteenth century reformers would have me believe) but as a result of evolution. There is a part of the brain near the basal ganglia which helps produce an aversion to unnecessary physical exertion. However, if we educate ourselves about the many physical and cognitive benefits of physical exercise we can provide incentives to over-ride our evolutionary urges and exercise.

In theory.

Pasteurization

2011-03-21T18:13:00.000-06:00

I had long been labouring under the illusion that Louis Pasteur invented pasteurization whereby milk is heated to a certain temperature for a period of time and then rapidly cooled. Such a process slows bacterial growth and prolongs shelf-life. However, Louis Pasteur is responsible for the modern version of pasteurization, the process of heating and then cooling food to preserve it was used by the Chinese to preserve wine as early as 1117 CE. Likewise, Pasteur invented his process to prevent beer and wine from souring.

Slainte!

Roaming

2011-03-18T13:49:00.003-06:00

Today, once my conference was over, I strolled back to my hotel along the Detroit River. I decided to check my cell phone as I walked and I noticed a new symbol on the screen. Back at my hotel I searched the internet and learned that the symbol meant my cell phone was roaming, despite never leaving Canada. I called my service provider and learned how to shut off data when roaming and how to make sure that my cell phone always uses the home network where possible.

Fingers crossed they take it off my bill!

A Downside?

2011-03-17T13:43:00.005-06:00

During my last trip to Ontario in February I began to wonder about the price of Tim Horton's coffee. I felt that it was cheaper in Ontario but did not pay enough attention to be sure. Today I am in Windsor, Ontario and I am indeed paying less for my coffee in Tim Hortons than I usually do in Edmonton. However, the coffee in Ontario tastes different, apparently they changed it.

Weird.

Windsor

2011-03-16T18:48:00.004-06:00

Windsor, Ontario is the oldest continually inhabited European settlement in Canada west of Montreal. It was first settled by French Canadians in 1749 as an agricultural settlement. As such many of Windsor's streetnames reflect its French Canadian heritage.

Medici, Medici, Medici

2011-03-15T18:48:00.000-06:00

Given the current centrality of bankers and banks to our lives and the economic crises that various countries now find themselves in, it is easy to forget that once upon a time bankers were loathed. The first legally acceptable bank was created by Giovanni Medici who realised that while charging interest was a sin, there was nothing wrong with charging commission for converting currencies, and if converted currencies were advanced for longer periods of time. Giovanni diversified this across traders and currencies and created a legally acceptable bank.

Sleep deprived?

2011-03-14T19:13:00.000-06:00

Yesterday morning the clocks went forward in Canada. Today I feel exhausted. I yawned all morning and am pining the loss of the hour. However, there are some people who have a genetic mutation which means that they can sleep for only four hours a night and feel refreshed and ready to go.

They sound annoying to me.

Admin Post

2011-03-12T18:58:00.000-07:00

So, I have decided that from now on I will only post during the week, that is five posts per week with none on the weekends.

One theory

2011-03-11T17:48:00.000-07:00

In eight days time the moon will come the closest to earth since 1992. According to astrologers the gravitational pull of the moon will cause chaos on earth with various natural disasters and such like. Scientists have, however, dismissed the astrologers' theory as unfounded and say that the only thing the close moon will do is provide good photo opportunities. Geologists will tell you that the earthquake in Japan was caused by the Pacific plate plunging under Japan. Japan as we all know is situated in one of the most seismically active places on earth.

Donate here.

Leigh's Disease

2011-03-10T17:48:00.006-07:00

Leigh's disease is a neurometabolic disorder that affects the central nervous system. It is characterised by movement disorders and the prognosis is usually one year from the onset of symptoms. It is, thankfully very rare. It usually affects infants under the age of two but it has also been seen in teenagers and adults.

Acne

2011-03-09T18:04:00.007-07:00

As a teenager I suffered from bad acne. One of the proposed solutions was to put me on the contraceptive pill. The reason this would have worked is that estrogen is helpful for acne control while progesterone tends to make acne worse.

What Maks Americans happy

2011-03-08T18:48:00.000-07:00

Gallup has put together a list of things that make Americans more likely to be happy. They include religion with observant Jews being particularly happy; gender with being a man more likely to make you happy; race with Asian Americans being more likely to be happy; marital status, with married people being happier; and, living in Hawaii. Obviously.

For the full list go here.

Short and Fat

2011-03-07T18:39:00.004-07:00

Well here is some depressing and yet unsurprising news. A Yale University professor, through analysis of data from a small Massachusetts town has concluded that in future humans will be shorter and fatter.

There are many many joys to bad diets and sedentary lifestyles. Many

The forgotten refugees

2011-03-06T19:16:00.000-07:00

After World War II there were millions of displaced people in Europe. These refugees included Jewish people who understandably did not want to be repatriated. Soviet POWs also did not want to return home as Stalin had stated that the USSR had no prisoners only traitors. In the 1950s the displaced persons began to be seen as a ready labour pool and were more easily resettled in Western Europe, the USA, Canada, Australia and South America.

Honesty and humble

2011-03-05T19:18:00.000-07:00

Apparently employees who are considered to be honest and humble have better performance ratings than other employees. How honest and how humble employees are can predict their performance far better than anything else.

Yukigassen

2011-03-04T18:56:00.012-07:00

Yukigassen is Japanese for snowball fight. And it is an actual sport, invented in Japan. Today, it arrived in Canada. Well, that's not entirely true, there have been a couple of attempts to bring it to Canada but today was perhaps the most serious. The sport itself is a cross against dodgeball, capture the flag and a snow ball fight. There are seven player on each team who must attempt to capture the opposing team's flag while avoiding getting hit by snowballs.

Taking Care of Number One

2011-03-03T19:16:00.000-07:00

New research has suggested that it is better for our mental and physical health if we show ourselves the same compassion and understanding that we show to others. As someone who is in grad school I am aware that I have a tendency to be hard on myself. The research suggests that if we are supportive of ourselves rather than being self-critical we will feel better about ourselves.

Far from home and yet

2011-03-02T19:00:00.000-07:00

Eight days ago an earthquake struck New Zealand. Within minutes of my learning of the earthquake I was relieved to see a facebook status from my Kiwi friend to say that she and her family were all OK. I followed the news reports with mounting horror but felt relieved that I knew of no-one there. Or at least I thought I did. Today I learned that a former next door neighbour of mine was missing, presumed dead, in the rubble.

Donate here.

Oh Wales!

2011-03-01T18:41:00.006-07:00

There is a small town in Saskatchewan called Bangor and today I learned of its founding. Unsurprisingly, given the name it was founded by a Welshman. What is surprising is the Welshman's route to Saskatchewan. The tale starts in South Wales and a group of Welsh who decide to take their chances and emigrate to Patagonia where there was rumoured to be ample grazing for sheep in the Pampas. Well, a few years of living in Patagonia reveled that Southern America had the odd habit of getting into lots of wars and the Welsh people's sons kept getting drafted into these little wars. However, word had reached the Welsh that there was a new place, by the name of Saskatchewan where the sheep would thrive. So a group of Welsh round up their younger children and head north to a place they called Bangor. Suffice to say the whole thing fell apart rather quickly.

Oh Texas!

2011-02-28T18:45:00.000-07:00

Texas likes to describe itself as the model of small government and low taxes. It's government is indeed small and its taxes are low, provided you're in the upper part of the income distribution; taxes for those whose income falls into the bottom 40% actually have higher than average taxes. The lower taxes are possible because the Texan government has lower spending. Texas is able to spend less because it spends less on education. Texas's high school drop rates are 43rd out of 50 states, it has the fifth highest rate of child poverty, and the highest rate of children without health insurance.

Luzzara

2011-02-27T17:32:00.000-07:00

Luzzara is the name of a small town in Italy. It is also the name of a small espresso bar in Edmonton. I went there with a friend yesterday and was pleased to learn that it has one of the best espressos in Edmonton. Ming you, it doesn't have much competition.

The empty lot

2011-02-26T17:21:00.011-07:00

There's an empty lot on the corner of 100 avenue and 106 street in Edmonton. Today I discovered that it used to be home to the Arlington Apartments. This apartment building was the first apartment building in Edmonton and opened its doors in 1909. It was a relatively respectable building until the 1980s when residents began to complain about prostitution. In 2005 the building was destroyed by fire and a legal wrangle then ensued between the city and the buildings owner. The city wanted the old facade to be incorporated into the new building but this soon became impossible and in September 2008 the building was torn down.

Read more about it here.

Google Bombs

2011-02-25T19:04:00.000-07:00

I have to confess that I don't often use Google as a search engine but I am aware that Google's search results are very important to marketers. For example, there are companies devoted to bumping up stores' results in online searches in order to drive more traffic to the stores' sites. Today I learned of the odd phenomenon of the Google bomb. A Google bomb is where people deliberately try to bump up certain pages in Google's search results. For example, anti-abortionists have managed to make wikipedia's page on abortion the first result when you Google "murder."

For more examples see here.

Archiving the Internet

2011-02-24T18:51:00.000-07:00

You may have noticed that recently Egypt had a revolution. This revolution was facilitated and recorded with social media such as facebook and twitter. However, the online version of the Egyptian revolution is in danger of melting away. Twitter's search function will soon stop showing the relevant tweets and the facebook record will become equally hard to find. Thankfully a few people are trying to preserve the online record of the revolution.

As someone who does archival based research, I think this is of vital importance for future generations. The digital era means that much information such as government communications take place via email. Emails have replaced inter-departmental memos and so forth and emails are frequently deleted, thus a vital part of the historical record is lost too.

Storage is cheap, save your emails!

I'll stick with Tim's

2011-02-23T19:08:00.000-07:00

In almost every town across the land known as Canada, there is at least on Tim Horton's coffee and donut shop. Apparently, some New York City donut shops are attempting to advance the humble donut to a higher culinary renown. In other words, they are branching out beyond your typical plain glaze or jam-filled donunt. Naturally, the price has gone up to match the donut's ambitions.

I think I'll stick with my $0.89 from Tim's...

The Smell of Danger

2011-02-22T18:44:00.000-07:00

Scientists at Florida State University have just discovered that how attractive a man finds a woman will depend on whether or not he is in a relationship. Previous studies have shown that men find women more attractive when women are in the fertile stage of their menstrual cycle. Men who were in romantic relationships found women much less attractive when the women were at the peak of their fertility; men who were single found women more attractive when the women were at the peak of their fertility.

Monogamy will make you do funny things....

The Triangle Waist Company

2011-02-21T17:51:00.000-07:00

In 1911 a fire in a New York City sweatshop changed labour laws forever. The fire occurred at the Triangle Waist Company whose workrooms were located on the 8th and 9th floors of the Asch building at 23-29 Washington Square. The fire broke out late on the 25 March 1911 and killed 146 of the Company's 500 employees. Several employees jumped from the building rather than burn alive. The doors to the factory floor were locked shut, there was only one exterior fire escape which buckled under the weight of the escapees and the fire-fighters' ladders were too short to reach the victims.

You can read more about the fire here.

Memory Palace

2011-02-20T17:41:00.008-07:00

It has been several years since I last read Thomas Harris's Hannibal, the conclusion to the Hannibal Lector trilogy. In the book, I was fascinated to read about Hannibals' "memory palace." It would appear that such "memory palaces" do exist and are used by competitors in memory championships to perform impressive feats of memory. The idea is that you take a place or a building that you know really well and fill it with the imagery of what you need or want to remember.

Now if only I had the time....

Plastic Fantastic

2011-02-19T19:36:00.000-07:00

Plastic surgeons in New York find that they perform different surgeries on different ethnic groups: Chinese Americans want double eyelid surgery and surgery to turn up-turned noses down: Dominicans want buttock lifts to preserve their curves; and Russians want larger breasts. Hilariously, I also discovered that Irish immigrants used to have their ears pinned back when they emigrated to America in order to blend in.

The Price of Medical Errors

2011-02-18T19:15:00.000-07:00

As someone who does a lot of research, I was intrigued to read this piece from Newsweek. A researcher at Stanford University has concluded that biomedical research is riddled with errors. Apparently, shoddy statistics have been used in genome studies among other things.

Solar Storms

2011-02-17T16:12:00.000-07:00

I do like the occasional dose of doom to put my PhD dissertation into perspective. Today I read about various ways that the world could end and one of them has to do with solar storms. Solar storms are caused when the sun emits waves of electromagnetic radiation. These waves can be powerful enough to knock out electrical grids. Once in 1989 a solar storm knocked out all power to Quebec.

Which is quite a feat. Quebec is huge.

Deputy?

2011-02-16T09:11:00.003-07:00

My adventures in the oddities of the Canadian Constitution continue unabated. Today I learned that the justices of the Supreme Court are considered to be deputy Governor Generals. As interesting as that is, it also raises many, many questions about the separation of powers.

Oy.

Living South

2011-02-15T19:42:00.000-07:00

Today while explaining some of the finer points of the Edmonton climate to my father via the wonder that is skype, I discovered I am actually living further south than he is. Edmonton is just a smidge further south than Belfast (Lisburn is a little to the south of Belfast). The only time I have lived further south is when I was living in Toronto. Glasgow is the farthest north I have ever lived.

J'ai cherche

2011-02-14T18:38:00.000-07:00

Back when I was in high school I attempted to learn French. I did all right but I was never overly interested and I never took it to an actual French person and tried to communicate with them in their native tongue. Ahem. Every now and then I do attempt to speak French. It usually occurs when I am drunk. I feel I should at least try to have my drunken French be grammatically correct and today I learned that "J'ai cherche pour mes clefs" is wrong because there is no "search for" wording. The correct wording is "J'ai cherche pour mes clefs" (there should also be an accent over the e at the end of cherche, but you can't win 'em all).

Deindividuation

2011-02-13T17:14:00.000-07:00

Here's a scary phenomenon: deindividuation. This is the name given to the process whereby you can lose your individuality in a large group and adopt a mob mentality. Studies have shown things like wearing masks and being in groups can encourage people to break rules. The three key ingredients for deindividuation to occur are: group size, arousal and anonymity . Of course, deindividuation does not always lead to bad outcomes, it depends on the cues in our surroundings.

You can read more about it here.

Tiny teeth

2011-02-12T18:41:00.007-07:00

Archeologists have found some interesting teeth at a site near Rosh Haain in Israel. These teeth are a lot like the teeth of modern man but they are much older than previous remains. These teeth could also mean that humans either evolved near modern-day Israel or that humans migrated out of Africa much earlier than previously thought. I should point out that these teeth have not yet been proven to be human.

How to be more creative

2011-02-11T15:51:00.008-07:00

In keeping with yesterday's post about Nabukov which was taken from this article, today I have further learned that "dual-identities" are actually a benefit. Apparently people who describe themselves as two things e.g. Asian and American are actually more creative than those who do not. Nabukov saw his obsession with butterflies as informing his fiction writing.

In other words, it's better to have multiple identities.

Nabukov

2011-02-10T18:51:00.000-07:00

I had a professor once who was obsessed with Nabukov. Nabukov wrote Lolita but in between being a novelist he studied butterflies. In fact his theory on the evolution Polyommatus Blues has recently been proven as correct. Nabukov thought that these butterflies came over to the New World from Asia in a series of waves. Scientists have applied gene-sequencing technology to Nabukov's theories and have revealed that Nabukov was correct.

Weird, eh?

It's better in groups

2011-02-09T19:41:00.000-07:00

A new study has shown that loneliness may reduce the benefits of exercise. Apparently rats who were isolated took longer to display brain changes after exercising than did rats who were kept in groups. The scientists theorized that company produces a buffer and decreases incidents of stress thus benefits of exercise might accrue faster.

So, perhaps it is better to join a walking group and make friends while you exercise.

Working hard

2011-02-08T16:23:00.000-07:00

First of all, I must apologise for my lack of posting these past few days. I was in Toronto and staying in a hotel with occasionally temperamental wireless internet. That and I was working which brings me nicely to what I have learned while on my trip. I have learned that I can work when I am not in my current place of residence. Previously I found that I could not work unless I was at home.

I suspect my breakthrough was born of fear.

A Defeat for Victory

2011-02-07T16:25:00.003-07:00

I just learned that a good pub in Toronto will shortly becoming a sports bar. This is terrible. Victory had one of the best poutines in Toronto.

The Packers

2011-02-06T21:29:00.008-07:00

In honour of the Superbowl Winners, the Green Bay Packers I thought I would share some fun facts. As everyone knows this is a team that is still owned by the community where it is based. The Packer's home field has been sold out since 1960 and there are more names on the waiting list for season tickets than there are seats in Lambeau field.

Which is a little crazy.

Doctors' Declining Desirability

2011-02-05T18:51:00.000-07:00

I come from a family of medical doctors and even thought about becoming one myself. I decided against it but I was intrigued to read an article on the New York Times that was about doctors' declining job satisfaction. The author focuses on the US experience and writes that after Medicare, doctors' salaries increased but their job satisfaction decreased. The author writes that medicine has become just another profession. He blames the medical malaise on those "knaves" who order unnecessary tests to bump up their fees.

I opted against medicine because I felt that the NHS in the UK was more concerned with saving money than saving lives.

Those who drink wine together, stay together

2011-02-04T12:58:00.013-07:00

Part of my doctoral research has seen me grapple with Temperance ideology from the 1920s. Some of their claims were a little out there. Anyway today I was browsing the Globe and Mail website and happened upon an article about wine and monogamy. Apparently wine drinking cultures have always tended to be more monogamous and polygyni (one man with lots of female partners) is more common in cultures that do/did not drink. The industrial revolution also lead to an increase in alcohol consumption because more people had more money, and this also lead to men who would have otherwise remained unmarried being able to afford a wife.

Nellie McClung is rolling in her grave!

The importance of being uncomfortable

2011-02-03T19:24:00.008-07:00

According to an article written by Ran Zilca in Psychology Today, comfort can reduce our motivation to reach important transformations in our lives. He suggests that our comfort zone should be treated as a home base, a place we return to after "each exhausting and exhilarating expedition through the wilderness of life."

Here a hypocrite, there a hypocrite

2011-02-02T14:50:00.011-07:00

Ayn Rand was an American novelist that wrote a series of terrible books which are most famous for being unreadable and promulgating a philosophy which justifies the privilege of the wealthy and demonizes the poor as lazy and undeserving, while also attacking the middle classes. Rand railed against government benefits but that didn't stop her from collecting both social security benefits and Medicare benefits.

Rand's philosophy has been very influential on America's modern Tea Party. Says it all really.

A reason to tarry

2011-02-01T18:38:00.008-07:00

When I first arrived in Edmonton, my goal was to leave it as soon as possible. However, I have discovered a reason to aim to finish in three years (which is the length of time I am supposed to take). You see Edmonton will be co-hosting the 2012 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships. The other host city is Calgary. My excitement is not just because this is quite the event but because I fling my support behind Canada and the team has gone two years without winning, despite having a five year winning streak from 2005 to 2009. Naturally losing two years in a row has caused irreparable damage to the Canadian psyche, so the 2012 team really needs to win to prevent something really horrible, like a complete psychological breakdown of the entire country.

Of course all the tickets are sold out, so I'll just have to watch the games in a pub somewhere. Life's tough sometimes

Leanring how to meditate

2011-01-31T19:00:00.004-07:00

I have repeatedly read of the benefits of meditation, and I have now decided that I should learn how to do it. I found this little guide online. The first step suggests that you find a time and a place for it.

I am having a lot of trouble with the first step.

Mind changing

2011-01-30T18:55:00.005-07:00

There are a good few people I know of who could use a change of mind. Truth be told they've been spouting the same old tired opinions that I just don't even listen any more. Perhaps they should meditate? A study has shown that as little as eight weeks of meditation can change the brain's structure. Apparently meditation can increase the areas of the brain associated with learning and memory while also decreasing the areas associated with stress and anxiety.

A win-win in other words.

Malcolm Gladwell

2011-01-29T19:08:00.010-07:00

I have just finished reading What the Dog Saw a collection of Malcolm Gladwell's writing from the New Yorker Magazine. He is a Canadian writer who was born in England but lives in New York City. He is apparently a distant cousin of Colin Powell. Gladwell is known for his counter-intuitive logic.

Suffice to say I found his book very interesting and informative.

Messerschmitt

2011-01-28T19:06:00.011-07:00

While having lunch with a friend a few days ago he mentioned that Messerschmidt had made some cars back in the day. I had only ever heard Messerschmitt in the context of the airplanes used during the Blitz. Today I finally did a little research and discovered the Messerschmitt KR200. It is a microcar, a three-wheeled bubble car if you will. It was built from 1955 to 1964. The German name, Kabinenroller, translates as scooter with cabin. The KR200 featured tandem seating, ie one person sat in front of the other. It also had a steering bar, more like aircraft controls than a steering wheel.

The car came about because Messerschmitt was temporarily banned from making aircraft.

Bedbugs

2011-01-27T18:52:00.010-07:00

I never had to worry about bedbugs in Ireland. In fact, I had no real idea what they were except that they might bite me at some course during the night. At least that's what the rhyme said. Well, bedbugs are alive and well and freaking the citizens of several major cities out. For example, Toronto has frequent bed bug panics. Basically these are nasty little critters who feed on people while they sleep. They feed exclusively on blood and are attracted by warmth and carbon dioxide. New York City is also suffering from an infestation. So unpopular are these bedbugs that home owners don't admit to having them, for fear of causing their property values to drop.

It's an itchy, touchy subject.

Musically Backward

2011-01-26T19:29:00.006-07:00

I do listen to the radio, I still listen to BBC radio 1 because I can't find an Albertan station I like. But sometimes band's and songs escape me. Today I discovered a song by Death Cab for Cutie. I have long known of the band but had never heard any of their songs. The song is called "Transatlanticism." I am border line obsessed with it.

One Ketchup

2011-01-25T19:07:00.008-07:00

As part of my self-gifted Christmas presents, I bought myself Malcolm Gladwell's What the Dog Saw. It is a collection of his essays from the New Yorker. One of the essays sees him explore where there are hundreds of mustards but only one ketchup: Heinz. Apparently, Heinz ketchup has a very good balance of all the various flavours and tastes, which makes it hard to improve on. Other products like mustard and pasta sauce have many different varieties because some people like chunky pasta sauce and others don't.

Testing times

2011-01-24T14:50:00.014-07:00

During my tenure in the UK's primary and secondary education system, I had the misfortune of being rather well tested. I sat major public exams every year for the last three years of high school. There was some criticism of the sheer number of major exams my generation had to sit. New research, however, suggests that test-taking is actually a really effective learning tool. Apparently, students who take a test are more likely to recall the material they were tested on at a later date, than students who either repeatedly studied the material or who made a diagram linking the facts. Though the test-taking method makes students feel as though they are not learning.

Ignorance is bliss, then?

Yet another reason not to move

2011-01-23T19:39:00.015-07:00

I was reading this enlightening article on California today and I have now got yet another reason not to move to California.. It would seem that every century or two, California is at risk of massive flooding. For example in 1861 and 1862, storms turned a 300 mile stretch of California's central valley into a lake. Some researchers have created a model of a storm which could bring 10 feet of rain over 40 days and expose 25% of California's homes to flood waters. Suffice to say this flooding would cause a lot of damage.

I think I'll stick with the -30C Prairie weather, thanks.

They brought their own knives

2011-01-22T19:09:00.012-07:00

On this day in 1506 the first contingent of Swiss Guards arrived at the Vatican. More interesting (at least in my view) is that Swiss soldiers had a tradition of being used as bodyguards, ceremonial guards and palace guards at foreign courts. The French court was the first to have Swiss Guards in the fifteenth century and then the Vatican got some in 1506 and various other European courts had a regiment for periods in the eighteenth century. At the time the Swiss Guards began, Switzerland was a poor country and thus their young men sought their fortunes abroad.

As a side note, the Papal Swiss Guards' uniform weighs 4kg (8 pounds). Blimey!

Border Collies

2011-01-21T13:56:00.007-07:00

After reading about Chaser's feat yesterday, I was intrigued to learn more about Border Collies. Turns out they are considered to be one of the most intelligent breeds of dog. They are demanding and energetic pets and they can become neurotic if they do not receive enough stimulation. They also have a very strong herding instinct and have been known to try to herd small children and cats.

Two creatures which usually defy herding.

A Passion for Learning

2011-01-20T19:23:00.011-07:00

I stumbled across this story on the New York Times Website and it caught my attention for a number of reasons: it involves language and the dog in question has an insatiable desire to learn. Chaser, a border collie, has a vocabulary of over 10,22 proper nouns.What is important is that Chaser managed to learn referential understanding of nouns. This ability is one of the steps of how children acquire language. The theory is that dogs could have some of the same neural mechanisms as children.

Chaser's owner is now trying to teach her grammar.

With every cloud

2011-01-19T19:14:00.010-07:00

On Saturday morning I went to grind some coffee beans so I could make myself a cup of coffee. Unbeknownst to me there was a stone in with the beans. The stone became lodged in my grinder thus rendering it inoperable. Annoyed at the appearance of a stone in my coffee beans and its subsequent decommissioning of my grinder, I wrote to the coffee company to complain. In their reply they explained how the stone came to be in my beans. Once the coffee beans have been harvested they are laid on patios to dry. Once they are dried they are shipped to coffee companies who roast them. Then the beans are put into a de-stoner which is supposed to remove foreign objects. Alas this does not always work.

On the plus side though I did learn how more about the coffee roasting industry and they offered me a coupon for a free bag of coffee. Now if I could figure out how to get a stone from a burr grinder all would really be well.

Tautology

2011-01-18T10:01:00.011-07:00

One of the problems of being a grad student is that academics like to use big words. One of my professors recently used the word 'tautology.' I suspect that I was already supposed to know what it meant (I manage to give off an air of intelligence which usually results in people thinking that I am smarter than I am) but I had to look it up. Tautology means the unnecessary repetition of an idea, especially in different words. It also means a compound statement that is always true, irrespective of the value of its components.

I don't know how familiar you are with academic writing but tautologies are endemic.

Language geekery

2011-01-17T12:45:00.013-07:00

If you read back through some of my older posts, you will notice I have a little bit of an interest in language. In particular, I have a fascination with untranslateable words. This interest has not actually led to me being very proficient in speaking any foreign languages. Unless you count my ability to speak Canadian English, American English, Scottish English, English-English, and Northern Irish English as a language ability. I suggest that you reserve judgment until you travel to said places and attempt to communicate with the locals.

Anyway, I decided that maybe I should make more of an effort to actually learn a few phrases in a foreign language so that if I am lost, I can at least ask for directions or something. Today, I stumbled across Radio Lingua, which has free MP3 downloads which (in theory) will help teach me some foreign phrases.

Here is the link: http://radiolingua.com/

Another Tim's

2011-01-16T18:23:00.000-07:00

Despite having now lived in Edmonton for almost a year and a half, I still have not explored too far beyond my usual neighbourhood. In my defence, Edmonton does not always lend itself to exploration on foot. Sure it's great fun to go a strolling through the river valley but the (sub)urban sprawl of Edmonton it a little less fun to stroll through. Regardless I stroll on, though I don't venture too far from my condo. Today I was heading to a potluck with another friend and we had to stop in at Tim Horton's to get a job lot of coffee for the potluck. I thought we would stop in at the Tim's on Whyte Avenue but instead we stopped in another Tim's. This Tim's is probably about a half-hour walk from where I live and yet I did not know it even existed until today. I never even noticed it when the SkyShuttle tootles past it.

As pleased as I am to discover another Tim's in my close vicinity (now that I have stopped expecting their coffee to taste like coffee, I kinda like it), I have also learned that I should start exploring a little further afield.

Freeze up!

2011-01-15T17:37:00.000-07:00

The weather in Edmonton has been quite cold over the past few days. Dropping below -20C most days. I am toasty warm in my new winter coat and winter boots. I do find myself regularly tackling snow drifts. Admittedly, it was much worse last weekend when there had been around 20cm or more of fresh snowfall. Most condo or apartment buildings in Edmonton have their own snow-blowers but my building's snow-blower was in the shop last week. The snow-blower is now back but it is not operational. When I returned from my morning errands the snow-blower was sitting in the lobby. Apparently it had been left outside for an hour or two yesterday and had frozen up.

I have long known that cars etc can freeze up during the cold Prairie winters but I had always thought it took between three and four hours.

The Long Hiatus

2011-01-15T17:17:00.000-07:00

I started this blog back when I was still studying for my undergraduate degree. Since then I have graduated from two universities and I am now studying for my third degree at a third university. I have moved countries, moved provinces and attempted to educate myself about a completely new area (or two). Things got on top of me, and I was forced to drop a few commitments. This blog was one of them. I am hopeful that now I have the time to go back to it. You will note that there are sporadic entries for 2010. I may or may not be able to go back and fill them all in. If I do so, this post will be deleted.

Brother XII

2011-01-14T12:51:00.011-07:00

One of my friends recently sent me a link about Brother XII. Brother XII was Edward Arthur Wilson, an Englishman who founded a cult based on him being the reincarnation of the Egyptian god Osiris. He founded a colony near Nanaimo and became increasingly dictatorial and paranoid. Needless to say the colony soon collapsed. Wilson fled and likely died in Switzerland.in 1934.

Then again he may have faked his own death.

Patrice Lumumba

2011-01-13T17:20:00.019-07:00

In four days time it is the anniversary of Patrice Lumumba's murder. The story of his murder is a sordid tale. Lumumba was a Congolese independence leader and the first legally elected Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo. One of his first actions as Prime Minister was to raise the pay of civil servants, apart from the army. This decision was not popular with the army and they rebelled. The UN would not help, so Lumumba sought help from the USSR. The President of the Republic of the Congo tried to dismiss Lumumba but Lumumba declared the President deposed. Meanwhile there was a CIA endorsed coup d'etat. Lumumba was arrested and the UN refused to defend him or demand he be treated in accordance with the law. Eventually he ended up being murdered by Belgian troops, apparently on orders from the President of the Katagana province where he was being held.

Atanarjuat

2011-01-12T17:52:00.014-07:00

Today I watched the movie Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner. My friend lent me the DVD. Atanarjuat is the first movie to ever be written, directed and acted entirely in Inuktitut. Inuktitut is the language of Canada's Inuit people. The movie is based on a traditional Inuit legend and involves the usual mix of good versus evil, sexual betrayal, sibling rivalry and divided communities. The movie also provides a fascinating insight into Inuit culture and depicts how they survived in the Arctic.

Detroit

2011-01-11T16:38:00.003-07:00

Today I discovered a website about Detroit. The thing about Detroit is it has a lot of derelict buildings, even in its city centre. These buildings are fascinating to look at but I like reading the blurbs on this website, explaining the building's history.

Enjoy

http://detroiturbex.com/index.html

Stylus

2011-01-10T18:23:00.001-07:00

Recently I have been reading a lot of productivity blogs and as a consequence stumbled across Behance's action method. I clicked to see where their action method products were sold and was pleased to see that a store in Edmonton stocked them. I had never heard of this store before but it is a specialist stationers. They sell all kinds of fancy, pens, paper and notebooks.

The store is located downtown and is called Stylus. I will be visiting later this week. Make no mistake.

Oyen

2010-12-28T15:12:00.006-07:00

I recently learned that an acquaintance of mine comes from a farm near Oyen. I had heard of this small town through my archival research which has seen me read a few letters from Oyen citizens. The town is in eastern Alberta, just north of Medicine Hat and unsurprisingly it is a farming town. The town's website proclaims that it provides "big city" living without "big city problems".

The Pas

2010-12-27T19:07:00.011-07:00

The Pas is a town in northern Manitoba. Some locals still call it Paskoyac which is an attempt to render phonetically the name of the Opaskawyak Cree Nation which has territory near The Pas. Opaskawyak means "where two rivers meet." The Pas has one of the two campuses of the University College of the North. The Pas just escapes having a subarctic climate and instead is classified as a humid continental climate.

Nietzsche

2010-12-26T19:30:00.007-07:00

I finally finished reading Beyond Good and Evil recently. But here's an interesting fact that I discovered today. Nietzsche died stateless. When he was born he was entitled to Prussian citizenship, after being appointed a professor at Basel he applied to have his Prussian citizenship annulled. On 17 April 1869 his Prussian citizenship was annulled and Nietzsche remained stateless until he died.

Christmas Alone

2010-12-25T18:28:00.006-07:00

Sometimes it can take me a few attempts to learn my lesson. This is my third Christmas away from home and, in some ways, it feels as though I have not had a proper Christmas. As much as I enjoyed my last two Christmases, there were some awkward moments and I decided that this year, I needed to spend Christmas by myself. So, despite offers to the contrary, many people seem to freak out when you say that you want to spend Christmas alone, I managed to spend Christmas alone. Oh sure, I called home to wish them a Merry Christmas, but otherwise I spent Christmas alone.

It was glorious.

Almost but not quite

2010-12-24T16:44:00.007-07:00

One of the things I miss from living in Glasgow is the readily available cheap Indian food (such things do not exist in Northern Ireland, they have given their allegiance to Chinese cuisine and there it shall stay). I was shocked to find that I could not find much in Toronto and when I did it was overpriced. Tonight a friend and I went out to dinner. As it was Christmas Eve our choices were the cuisines that tend not to celebrate Christmas: Indian, Chinese, Vietnamese and so on. We decided on Indian. My friend drove us to New Asian Village and we availed ourselves of the beer and the buffet. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised. My one complaint is about the pakora (I have another one about the lamb curry but whatever, pakora are more important), they were too salty. This is a recurring theme whenever I eat Indian food in Canada.

Why?

Daryl Katz

2010-12-23T18:32:00.009-07:00

I recently went to see an Oiler's game. I drank a lot of beer and the Oilers scored a lot and won. In other words it was a great night out. Anyway. The Oilers are owned by Edmontonian billionaire, Daryl Katz. Katz, holds two degrees from the University of Alberta, one of which is a law degree. He owns the Rexall group of pharmacies which is currently has the naming rights to the Oilers' Home stadium. It's called Rexall Place. It's been called Rexall Place since before Katz bought the team. Before that it was known as the Skyreach Coliseum, Edmonton Coliseum and Northlands Coliseum.