Bleach dunk

Yesterday, I dropped my timer in my bleach bucket.

Let me explain.

In the lab, I have a three-way timer that I use to keep track of my incubations, washes or other experimental protocols. I also have a two litre bucket on my bench that contains 10% bleach, into which I dispose of plastic tubes and tips in order to disinfect them after use.

Yesterday, said timer fell directly into said bleach bucket. It plummeted immediately to the bottom.

GASP!! 'OH NO!' I yelped. My hand darted after the timer into the bleach bucket (with a latex glove on, so I didn't directly expose myself to bleach) and retrieved my timer.

Bleach had completely filled it so that I could see the water line in the digital screen. I figured it was hooped.

The irony of this situation, is that my friend Mike is constantly threatening to throw my timer into my bleach bucket. I am one of the few in the lab that uses my timer (I'm a bit neurotic that way) and sometimes it goes off when I've stepped out of the lab for awhile. This means that it will beep one, two or three beeps (depending on which of the three timers is set) every second for one minute. I admit, it's pretty annoying. However, when I forget to turn it off before I leave the lab, this is what will happen and this is why Mike threatens to throw it in bleach - to shut it up.

The irony was not lost on either Mike or myself.

In an attempt to revive my timer, I soaked it in distilled water, in order to rinse out the bleach. Then I put the timer in a 37 degree C incubator overnight, to dry it out.

This morning, when I took the timer out of the incubator, the digital screen was vacant still, and I feared the worst. However, not yet giving up, I tapped the timer twice on the counter.

Voila!! Miracle! My timer came alive and started working again!

Resilient little sucker, hey?

The windchill couldn't stop the Pronger

Tonight, the Edmonton Oilers played the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, including Chris Pronger who surreptitiously left our team last year. His departure remains a sore spot for many Edmontonians. Pronger had signed on with us for 5 years and took us all the way to the Stanley Cup final. He had 30 minutes ice time per game and was one of the league's top defensemen (are you impressed with my knowledge of hockey stats? I am. I owe it all to Garrett). Edmonton really welcomed him into our city and loved having him on our team. He was very very popular. Everywhere, men and women sported Chris Pronger's number on their shirts. He was a hero!

And then...he broke our hearts.

After the Stanley Cup bid, he asked to be traded to another team. Any other team. He said he wanted to leave Edmonton because of family reasons. Then he went on holidays.

Rumors flew! His wife is making him leave because...1. She hates Edmonton. It's too cold and she wants to be closer to her family. 2.Chris got a 19-year old girl pregnant. 3. Chris was caught having an affair with a reporter from CityTV. 4. Chris got a reporter from CityTV pregnant. 5. The CityTV reporter was transferred to another city because of her relationship with Chris. etcetera etcetera.

Pronger never addressed these rumors, so most people at least believe that his wife made him leave because he was caught cheating. In any case, he's never apologized for leaving us out to dry and never clarified his reasons for leaving. I mean, the least he could do was feel sorry!

He was traded to Anaheim shortly thereafter.

So tonight was his first game in Edmonton since then. We Oilers' fans were very mature. We only boo'ed the Mighty Ducks when Pronger had the puck. And threw some beer at him. Oh, and chanted 'Sell Out'. And some other things that aren't appropriate to write online.

Unfortunately, they beat us in overtime. Darn! I wish the minus 41 windchill would have slowed them down a little. I know it's been wearing down on the rest of us out here. (Sorry to mention the cold weather again, but it just keeps getting worse each time I write in this darn thing!).

Here is Pronger when he was an Oiler:
Looks good, doesn't he?


And here is his hair. Yes, his hair is really bad and always has been. But he is a hockey player - he's not supposed to have GOOD hair!

Winter bound

Now, I'm not trying to show up Vancouver with their 15cm of snow, but we've had more than our share of winter weather this year. As I'm well aware, snow in Vancouver is terrible! It's wet, heavy and unpleasant. It's impossible to drive in and doesn't get cleared - no snow plows! I mean, why would the city invest in snow plows when they are used maybe once every year? However, what I feel is comparable in discomfort is the -35C windchill that's been blowing our way for the past week and a half. As well, we are continually getting more snow every day, necessitating constant snow clearing from my sidewalk and stairs. I took some pictures to show you the snow. In particular, the table in my backyard represents the overall accumulation of snow we've had in the past few weeks, although it melted a bit 2 weeks ago. Stay warm, everyone, stay warm. I'm trying, but I have to walk to school everyday. Brr...

Happy themes

Tonight, the finale of my girl's event weekend was to see 'Happy Feet' at the theatre. This is an animated film about penguins - it's almost a musical, in fact. It's about an emperor penguin who doesn't fit in - he is a tap dancer, rather than a vocalist. The interesting part about this film is the number of themes and lessons the movie puts forward. At first, it's about accepting people for who they are, despite their differences, but then it moves onto more broader themes - religion is addressed, followed by the global impact of our actions on other species. Communication is highlighted and politics are touched upon. It is a kids film, but I think they did a pretty good job of making (most) of these themes accessible to kids. Not a bad flick, probably a renter if you are even interested. Cute, fun and toe-tapping.

Busy weekend

This weekend was really busy for me. For some reason, me and all my girlfriends decided we were going to plan a lot of events that we would all do together...on top of which, Garrett and I had a Christmas party with our ultimate team.

So Saturday morning I met up with the girls and we hit West Ed Mall for some 'Christmas' shopping - which in fact, turned out to be mostly clothes shopping. I did prevent myself from purchasing items for myself, while at the same time managed to pick up a present here or there, so I was proud of myself in that respect. After shopping (hours and hours of it), I relaxed at home briefly before Garrett and I went out to the Love Handler's Christmas party. We had a nice time, although it was a little weird when we got there - 2 of the girls we played with were hugely pregnant! We haven't seen them in a few months, so I guess during that time they got big. Since Garrett and I are younger than everyone else on our team by a good few years, I often feel like I can't relate to what other people on our team are doing in their lives - eg. buying houses, getting married...Thus, now that they are also getting PREGNANT, I really feel the difference between their lives and ours. In any case, we had a good time catching up with people and ended up with decent presents at the gift exchange. I got some cute Christmas serving plates. They are small square plates with green edges and a stick Rudolph in the middle. See below:
Garrett got a 'Boozeball table'. It's a mini Foosball table, with little holsters and shot glasses attached to the side. It's a good man gift.

After the Christmas party, Garrett dropped me off at Sarah's house for a sleepover party. I was pretty late for it, but there wasn't much I could do about that. We watched 'You, Me and Dupree'. It was alright. I can't really say much about it. It's what you'd expect. I feel asleep in Sarah's floor, but had a pretty decent sleep anyway.

Double-O Awesome

On Friday night, Garrett and I went to see the new James Bond movie - "Casino Royale". We set out in his car, intending to stop at Ikea to pick up some items for his new house. However, as we drove the first block, Garrett had to fight the wheel quite a bit. He pulled over and got out, muttering 'I hope I don't have a flat tire.'

Guess what it was? A flat tire! Arg!

You may recall a month or so ago, I wrote about our experience with the idiots at Fountain Tire. They lost Garrett's keys and took forever...anyway, he had gotten the back left wheel repaired. Now, the front left wheel was completely flat. We limped back home and put it back in the driveway, but by that point the tire wasn't doing so well and was starting to come off.

Plan B. We used the university truck that Garrett has been driving in Fort Mac. Luckily, they recently traded in their university logo'ed truck for a 4-wheel drive, unmarked Budget truck, so we didn't feel conspicuous driving it. In any case, we made it down to Ikea and the theatre with time to spare, picked up what we needed and took in Casino Royale.

I thoroughly enjoyed Casino Royale. Despite all the controversy about Daniel Craig as a blond Bond, I approve of him as he did a great job in this role. The movie was action packed, intriguing and fun, as well as a little bit sexy too (that's what Bond is about, isn't it?). One of the odd things about the film was the mixture of an early Bond at the beginning of his career with current events - it's a little weird how they decided to tie it all together. Still, great movie and you should all see it at the big screen if you can.

Tropical wedding

Last week, two of my good friends got married in Cuba. Bill and Deanna have been dating since highschool and I'm so happy for them to finally tie the knot. Although I wish I could have been at their wedding, they sent along some really great photos that I will share with you all.
Deanna and Bill had their ceremony at an all-inclusive resort and it looks like it was beautiful. Deanna's dress looks fantastic on her and I think she may have been wearing white flip flops (you can kindof see it in the picture of them on the beach), which I think really suits the setting! I just wonder if Bill was really warm in his suit in the tropical sun?Bill and Deanna with Deanna's parents:
In addition to their wedding, they had a nice holiday/honeymoon in Cuba! Looks nice there, doesn't it?

I'd like to interject, that today in Edmonton, as I received these pictures in my inbox, it was -17C outside. Before windchill.

I want to be somewhere tropical!

In any case, congratulations to Bill and Deanna! Here's to a great life together, newlyweds!

Introductions and Issues

Hello all! Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Garrett and I don't know how to use commas properly. So if you notice numerous commas throughout my posts, then please forgive me in advance. It's a problem I've had since birth. No cure, sad story. Anyways, Kim was kind enough to let me post on her blog. Kim talks about me every so often in her blogs (although not nearly as often as the cat) and I will refer to her as my better half, and I don't think she would argue with that. Back to the story then. She invited me to post on her blog in mid October and I finally took it upon myself to post an entry. Hooray! This is because I have a story to tell. And for probably everyone, it will be boring and obnoxious (much like myself), but I feel like I just have to tell it to someone.

Here we go:

As some of the valued readers might know, I am currently stationed in the "beautiful" city of Fort McMurray in northern Alberta. Like Kim, I too am a scientist-in-training, and am performing a field study in this region. We are currently attempting to measure the air quality in this region. We look for volunteers, and for the few that say "yes" we go to their homes and measure the indoor air quality, outdoor air quality, and the personal air quality. One of the things we look at is particulate matter smaller than 2.5 microns (PM2.5). These are incredibly small particles (you can't even see them) and they tend to penetrate deep into the lungs and depending on what they are made of, they can cause damage to your lungs or even cause cancer over time. So to measure the personal PM2.5, we require the volunteers to carry a pump around that is battery operated. Of course it's always a hassle for the volunteers to do this and they don't always comply with our wishes, but that's besides the point. So we use 6 1.5V C batteries strung together to power this pump. Until today, but first let us backtrack (yes, again).

On the weekend Laurie (the other grad student/slave assigned to this project) received a telephone call from one of the participants saying that his pump had died and was not working. Hmmm. Oh well, we figured, just one pump out of many and who really cares since he probably never even wore it. So this morning I tried to fix it, plugging it in to the wall but to no avail. It was truly dead. So this afternoon we head off to the WBEA (Wood Buffalo Environmental Association) office to where our equipment is being stored. We try another personal pump with batteries. Dead. Plug it into the wall. Dead. Try another one. Dead. Hmmmm, what's going on? I decide to try one of the indoor pumps (which are essentially the same, just with no carrying case). Dead. Now I'm really confused. Who broke into our storage room and sabotaged our stuff? Finally, I take an indoor pump, plug it into the wall. It works. Ok good, now I'll try it on the batteries (I started to suspect the batteries). ZAP! The pump shorts out. Ah ha! We found the culprit. Of course now that we've ruined 4 pumps, plus the one the participant had we finally found out the batteries were too powerful for the pumps. You see, we just received some new batteries that were manufactured and ordered a while ago that are apparently stronger than the old ones. But how? Seriously, how does this happen? They are just 6 C batteries strung together, and we tried a few different sets of them. The old ones worked fine. So anyways, it looks like we are now going to end up scrapping the personal PM2.5 measurements for the rest of the study. Which in itself is a blessing since it seems to deter people from participating in the first place and that's the reason why I'm stuck up here in -20 degrees temperatures, hounding people to participate, chasing them down when they don't show up for their appointments, only to get them to completely cancel when I'm finally successful in catching them, which leaves me smacking my head against a concrete wall, which leaves me with a very sore head (and a very long sentence with commas coming out my ying-yang), and then I get to do it all over (except with a headache). Not fun. Originally, this should have been my last week out here. Now I've got 24 more days (who's counting? That's right, I am!). Enough said for now, thank you for your patience in reading this. Sorry Kim, I'll keep it shorter next time. Ciao.

Unwanted comments

Sorry guys. I had to turn off 'anonymous' comments on my blog, because I suddenly got junk comments. There were four of them and they were all identical, and linked to some website or other. I have deleted them, but you can see their residual traces on the most recent blog entries. So, you can no longer post anonymous comments, or if you do, I get to screen them first. My blog is not an advertisement forum for strangers!

Humidifier fascination

I got a humidifier recently, and Pumpkin is fascinated by it. Every so often, it sucks water from the reservoir down into the heating area. Bubbles flow up. Pumpkin loves this! She has been staring at it off and on all night.I put it on the table near her bed this evening, and she lay down so that she could watch the humidifier.

Knife-riddled city

I was watching the news last night describe the crime highlights of last Saturday night. Not one of Edmonton's finest, that's for sure. Another 17 year old boy was stabbed to death at his birthday party. I say 'again', because there have been a number of such incidents in Edmonton in the last year. Some were at house parties, some were at bars (with slightly older victims). As well, Saturday night boasted a stabbing downtown at a late-night club and another on Whyte Avenue. Both resulted in the victims' deaths.

What is with all the stabbings?! Why are people bringing knives to the bar? Why are highschool students stabbing each other?! It's all just crazy to me. How can you possibly be so angry at someone that you need to stab them? I can't relate, but I guess it's because I wasn't raised with a lower socio-economic status, nor am I a member of a gang, nor a number of other things...

Another highlight of the news was two fatal car accidents. One featured a small car running a red light at high speed, hitting an SUV (in which the driver suffered no injuries) and flipping over. Driver killed. Passenger fine. The other concerned a car driving down the WRONG side of a busy street towards the river valley, where it hit an oncoming taxi. Driver killed. Taxi driver in hospital with serious injuries. They think both the deceased drivers were drunk. DRUNK!! I never understand why people still drink and drive - has it not been shown enough times that drinking and driving is not only dangerous, but kills? Stop driving drunk!!

Not really an 'upper' news broadcast, that's for sure.

Stole Three

Tonight, I went curling with Graeme and Karolina. The game started at 5:30 and went for about 2 hours. We played a team that was really quite good. They were able to make a lot of difficult shots, and also protected their rocks so that we had to make really hard shots to get points for ourselves. We improved our precision as the game progressed, mostly because we had to - the other team rarely left anything easy for us! Despite our efforts, they kept stealing points from us. This is a curling term - whichever team didn't get a point after an end, gets what's called 'the hammer'. This means you get to shoot the last rock, which is an advantage. Basically, you are expected to get at least one point in an end where you have the hammer. If you get a point when you don't have the hammer, you have 'stolen' a point from the team that does have the hammer. Anyway, they kept doing this to us and taking a point whenever we had the hammer. In our last end, the score was 5-3 for the other team and they had the hammer. Graeme's last shot took out their counting rock (means it was closest to the middle and counts for points), yet all the other team had to do was draw to the button with their last rock (put the rock in the middle again). The skip on the other team had done this a number of times, so we expected him to put it in like a pro. However, as the rock was moving down the ice and the other team was sweeping away, we realized their rock wasn't going to make it into the house (into the rings where the points count). We all stood there stunned as we realized we had stolen the end. Not only have we stolen the end, but we had stolen THREE points! The final score was 6-5 for us! Amazing!

Graeme felt bad about winning the game because the other team was better than us and totally deserved to beat us. They had made better shots throughout the game. However, I didn't feel quite as bad - it's not like we cheated to win. They just didn't make the shot when it was critical.

It was a fun game anyway. They were a really nice group of people actually.

A little of this, a little of that

Check out Pumpkin:Yes, she is laying on a cord. It is the cord to my space heater. I am assuming it is warm and that is why she has taken to laying on it all the time.


I am particularly proud of one of my plants. Last Christmas Joan gave me a cutting from her Christmas plant. I brought it back to Edmonton and nursed it into a whole new plant. Now, it has bloomed!! Check it out, it's the best flower ever:I am proud that right when we were getting lots of snow, I was getting a flower to bloom. Hooray! Take that, winter!


I just saw an ad about bullying and how we should stand up against it. Now, I'm all for discouraging bullying in schools. However, this ad was on at 11:15pm. I'd like to think the target audiences are kids and teenagers - how many of them are going to see this ad when it's on so late?

Codeine cough-fighter

I've had a cough for the last few weeks. It worsened over the weekend while I was on the west coast. I only really cough at night, such that I can't sleep very well. It's been frustrating me, because I was getting a bad sleep night after night, and thus not able to kick the cough at all.

On Tuesday afternoon I went to see the doctor. She told me that my lungs are clear and my throat isn't infected. Instead, she said that sometimes after having a cold, the cough can linger. The cough becomes this spasmy, oversensitive beast that is triggered by things like going from cold to hot, or laying down to sleep.

She gave me two options to deal with it. I could get an asthma-like inhaler that would suppress the coughing. Or I could get some super-duper cough suppressant with codeine, that would allow me to sleep through the coughing.

Asthma-like inhaler = 80$.
Cough suppressant = 14$.

Guess what one I chose?
Yup, cough suppressant!

And it's fantastic!! I have been able to sleep soundly through the night ever since I got it and it's been glorious! Yay for codeine!

Surprise success

I'm back!

That's right, I was away this weekend. I couldn't tell any of you about it ahead of time, because Garrett and I flew out to Vancouver to surprise my mom for her 50th birthday! My mom regularly reads my blog, so I didn't want her to catch a whiff of what was going on.

On Friday, Garrett and I hopped on an airplane and boogied out to the West Coast. My brother-in-law's parents, Alan and Joan, graciously put us up for Friday night so that we could surprise mom on her birthday the next day. We had a nice relaxing evening with them, and watched a new show called 'Men in Trees'. It was good, I recommend checking it out if you have the time.

On Saturday morning, Alan and Joan drove us down to my parent's house around 8am. As we were driving down, I called my mom to wish her a happy birthday, pretending that I was in Edmonton all the while. She asked me how the weather was in Edmonton - I told her it was cold, we got more snow, same as usual lately. As I talked to her on the phone, I walked in the door, and the look on her face was priceless! At first, she was confused, then shocked, followed by emotional! We hugged, we laughed, we cried. It was great! Surprise number one completed.

The next step in the day was the arrival of my sister and brother-in-law from England! Amanda and Ray had flown in Friday afternoon as well, but spent the night with friend's in Vancouver. They were scheduled to arrive shortly after Garrett and I, in order to reduce the shock to my mom to smaller portions. Of course, the arrival of Amanda and Ray was a huge surprise for her! They flew half-way around the globe for her birthday! There was an emotional reunion after that, while we all hugged and laughed and got over the shock. After all, I hadn't seen Amanda and Ray since Christmas last year myself!

We spent the rest of the weekend relaxing and visiting, catching up and having fun. We all went to the Remembrance Day ceremony on Saturday, and later had dinner with friends and family at a great Greek restaurant. The next day, the immediate family had a session with a photographer, to take some family portraits that were long overdue.

It was a great weekend and all the plans went off without a hitch. AND I'm pretty sure my mom likes my gift best - I got her the DVDs of Miami Vice Season 1 and 2.

Happy Birthday Kyle!

Today is my little brother's birthday. He's all grown up! I won't get all mushy on you guys, but I really love all my siblings and wish I could be closer to them, especially at special occasions like birthdays. Here are some pictures of my "little" bro (I think I come up to his chin):I'd like to draw your attention to the ratio of photos that show Kyle sprawled out on the couch:It's not that I'm saying he's a couch potato, I'm just saying he's good at sprawling.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KYLE! Love you lots!

Piled Higher and Deeper

One of my daily sites to visit when I get to school in the morning is called 'Piled Higher and Deeper', also known as PhD. The authors of this site publish a comic strip every few days, featuring a number of graduate students and their daily trials. It may not be quite so amusing to those not in grad school, but they really nail the essence of being a graduate student in the comic. Here is the link: http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php

I am adding a few of my recent favorites.They are a little small, I hope you can read them.

Kitty in da house

Today I was so sore from dodgeball. Sore arms, sore legs, sore back, sore ribs. It really is a full body sport. I spent the day relaxing on the couch, with minor excursions to other rooms in my house.
The picture below is one that I've been trying to get for the past week. Last weekend, I got Pumpkin a new cat climby/scratchy thing. It's a two-tiered green thing, that Pumpkin seems to like well enough. The bottom part is a little house with just one entrance, and she often sits with just her head poking out. I think it's cute. However, every time I've tried to take a picture, she walks out right as I'm taking it. Today, I was sneaky enough to get one of her still in it.I'd like to point out that immediately after taking this, she left her spot. I guess I was just a little faster than her today.

Disaster at Dodgeball

I entered my dodgeball team in a tournament on Saturday. We had to pick up a few extra subs for the day, because not everyone from our regular roster could make it out. Enter my friend Sarah and her boyfriend Doug (as well as a few others, but they aren't key to the story).
Everyone in the tournament showed up at the school gym around 10:45, in order to hear tournament announcements and be there for the first game, once the schedule went up. Things started late, however, as usually happens at events with lots of people, so my team warmed up in the interim. We were just throwing the balls around, loosening up our arms and goofing around. Sarah and Doug showed up and I explained some of the rules to them, then they started warming up as well. The next thing I know, Sarah falls on the floor and grabs her knee. Apparently she had jumped over a ball someone had thrown her way, and the foot she landed on slipped out from under her. It became apparent to us quite quickly that her knee was seriously damaged - we could see her knee cap didn't look quite right. It seemed to be in two pieces, with a ridge going horizontally across her knee at the break point. Eek.
We called an ambulance, which came about 10 minutes later and wheeled her away. Great way to start out tournament and a terribly ending to Sarah's dodgeball debut.
Joelle and I tried to call her throughout the day to no avail (apparently her cell phone was left in her car, which was in the school parking lot), but we found out that evening that she had indeed broken her knee in two places. Garrett, Joelle and I met Sarah and Doug at the hospital to help her into Garrett's car and get her home. She didn't need surgery (yet?) but her entire leg was strapped up in a support (it wasn't a cast, but was more like thick foam tied on with big white straps down her leg). She couldn't move it well without pain, so getting her out of the wheelchair and into the backseat of the car was a good deal of work. Unfortunately, she is going to be on crutches for 6 weeks at least, not to mention physiotherapy and possibly surgery if things don't heal right. We were all feeling pretty bad for her.
Aside from the terrible knee accident, the rest of the tournament was really fun. We played six 30 minute games, which, I can tell you, is more than enough dodgeball for one day. I had registered us in the middle division at the tournament, however they ended up merging the three tiers into two, and we got stuck in the top. We won our first game, lost our second and won our third. We then lost all the rest of our games, although the scores were a difference of 1 point in a number of those games. I think our team might be way more honest than other teams, because I think we should be doing better than we are. It's all self called, so sometimes if the ball just knicks me, I go off because I'm out. Perhaps a less honest person would just stay on, because no one else could tell if they were hit or not. Ah well, that's just like life in general, I suppose. I got a few pictures from my friend Mic, although most of the action shots didn't turn out. There are a bunch of the team on the wall before the whistle is blown and we run to get the balls. Look for Garrett and I - we are both there in a few. Later that night, we went to a pub for the tournament party and several team members won door prizes, so I guess we won something after all.

Pandemonium - in stores now

In my department, we have a seminar series called 'Career Talks'. Basically, by graduation time, many graduate students are not certain they want to go into academia anymore. Perhaps they realize research is not for them or they are disenchanted with the granting systems and the unending training requirements. In any case, most grad students do not know about other job opportunities where their degrees can be applied.

Enter 'Career Talks'. The goal of this seminar series is to introduce grad students to a variety of professionals in science related, yet non-academic careers. For example, in previous years, we've hosted a patent lawyer, an RCMP forensic officer, a clinical microbiologist and a biotech company businessman. This year, Joelle and I are the student rep's organizing the Career Talks, along with a faculty member. We've only had 2 career talks so far (we usually aim for at least 4 over 8 months). The first was a salesperson for a microscope company. She told us about the sales side of science, which is the right career for just a select few of us. Today, we had our second Career Talk seminar for this year, featuring a scientific journalist - Andrew Nikiforuk.

Andrew has written a number of novels as well as tons of free-lance articles for magazines and newspapers across Canada. His most famous novel is a bestseller from a few years ago, titled 'The Fourth Horseman: A short history of plagues, scourges and emerging viruses'. He has another new novel out called 'Pandemonium', which is about current biological threats. They both sound like interesting reading to me, but hey, I am a scientist and I think that stuff is cool already.

The most notable part about the talk Andrew gave today, as well as our conversations with him at his lunch with the grad students, was how inspirational he was. I have never talked to someone who made me want to make a difference as much as he did. I think the other grad students felt the same, as many people commented on how great his talk was later on in the day. Andrew was just so passionate and honest about the things he believed in, while still being practical about the reality of the situation. To put this in context, we talked to him about climate change and the lack of reporting on it - how most Canadian citizens don't know much about it and what it actually means to us in the near future. We talked about the responsibility we, as scientists, have to the general public to try and educate people and give back to our society. He talked about interesting things, like how many of our current systems have given way to even bigger problems. For example, the style in which chickens are housed in China has created a microcosm where evolution of a virulent avian flu is enhanced. Or how we have created methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) because of our overuse of, and lack of foresight with, antibiotics.

Anyway, the details are likely confusing for most of you, because I'm not really describing the terms nor the circumstances. If you are interested in the science of diseases, as well as the relationship of human civilization, economy and lifestyle on the evolution of disease (and vice versa), you might want to check out his books. As a scientist, I felt he had a really refreshing view on how we should deal with worldwide disease - he doesn't think like a scientist, because he is principally a journalist.


On a lighter note, we saw 'The Prestige' tonight, featuring Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale and Scarlet Johannsen. Great movie! I strongly recommend it to everyone. Well, maybe except little kids.

Freakin' cold!

It has been WAY WAY WAY too cold lately. Winter arrived overnight in the form of snow (as seen in my blog from a few days ago), but since then the temperature has steadily dropped. For example, on Tuesday night the trick-or-treaters were out in -12C weather. Today, it was -14C with the wind chill. Brrrrr!

In the forecast for the weekend, we have more snow and highs of -7C, lows of -13C (at night). The kicker is Monday: high of -14C, low of -18C. OOHHHH!! That's WITHOUT windchill! It's only November. These temperatures are more normal around December/January, not early November. I was hoping the snow would melt soon and we'd get to a comfortable -5C, but no luck. I have to keep bundling up.

On another note, today Bonnie told me that the Russian name 'Sasha' translates into 'Alexander'. This made no sense to me - how can two such different words be translated into each other? I looked it up on google and she seems to be correct, but it still doesn't seem obvious to me as to why this might be. Anyone have ideas?