If I had a Billion Dollars I'd buy you scientific research.

Karl Schroeder wrote a great blog piece on what he would do with a billion dollars.  Of course with a billion dollars you can do a lot of pointless things like smash helicopters together for personal entertainment or buy ad space during the Superbowl to just stare at the camera (if you watch the Superbowl you will know if I ever get stupidly rich!) but you could also do some really useful things.

Schroeder talks about five areas of research he would like to see get 200 million dollars of research money to try to get breakthroughs:  Better governance, CO2 capture, Microwave space launching, nuclear fusion and vertical farm technology.  These are all fine things to research but I wouldn't focus on these in particular.  I honestly think that maximizing space launch efficiency is not a useful thing to be spending extra money on at the moment.  There are things we could learn from it certainly but I don't especially think it is worth the cost.  I would definitely throw thorium power up there on the list as I suspect it would be a reality with that amount of money thrown at it and it might well be a magic wand that lets us prevent climate change, improve air quality and get good, clean, safe power to the entire world in a single stroke.

I wonder what the relative benefits of spending that kind of money on things like research would be vs. charity. I could feed a lot of people with a billion dollars but I could also make the world a much better place in the long term by improving systems of government or making thorium power a reality.  I suspect that comparing research to concrete assistance in any numeric fashion is an exercise in futility though since first you would have to figure out just what the research will produce which seems somewhat problematic to say the least.

It makes me shake my head when I see the size of various people's fortunes.  The local supermarket had a rag talking about Will Smith getting divorced and the fight over his $520 million fortune.  Whether or not any of the gossip is true it seems like that the net worth guess is relatively on target and that just blows me away.  Everybody in North America gave Will Smith a dollar and now he has half a billion dollars.  He could personally fulfill 2 of Schroeder's wish lists and still have an unfathomable fortune remaining.  Do it Will Smith!  Make those scientists research something!  Anything!

Betrayed by my own brain

Tonight Wendy cooked up a new dinner for us.  I try to be optimistic about these things but I am not generally the sort of person who seeks out new meals - I figure out what the best dish for me is at any given restaurant and simply order it every time.  Why eat something less than the best?  This same sort of thing applies to new meals at home because even though Wendy's experiments are usually quite tasty I am regularly apprehensive.  Call it cowardice, call it caution, either way I sniff and taste her new concoctions with trepidation.  Here is the new thing from tonight, a dish called Shakshuka, which is essentially eggs poached in a spicy tomato and onion sauce.

I love eggs, tomatoes and onions.  The smart part of my brain knows that the combination of these three things is very much going to be like eggs with ketchup and onions, a dish I know I love.  There is nothing in this pot of which I do not approve.  Unfortunately the other half of my brain has things to say.

Those white stringy bits look like cheese.  We are gonna puke, don't eat it.

That is egg!  We know it is egg.  No cheese!

Puke puke puke, gonna puke.  Poison!  Don't eat it.

Seriously, we watched this being made.  Wendy is adding cheese to hers separately, there is no cheese.  Safe!  Delicious even!

*hands over ears* Not listening to you, it is cheesy poison and we shouldn't eat it, gross!

Even as I forked in the first bits of it my lizard brain was still shrieking "POISON!" at me over my tongue informing me that in fact it tasted like egg, tomato and onion and was quite delicious.  It boggles me how bloody strong these tendencies can be when they are based on nothing at all.  I have managed to train myself after years of hating cheese to react in ridiculous ways to things that bear only a small resemblance to cheese.  However, I can just bear down and eat it and once I get halfway done lizard brain finally shuts up and I can enjoy my meal in peace.

There we go, finished it off and quite enjoyed it.  This is what Shakshuka looks like with cheese on it, stupid lizard brain:

Carbon footprints and mathematics

Over the holidays I read How Bad Are Bananas?, a book talking about various services, goods and habits that we have and how much CO2 they pump into the air.  It was well written and fun to read, especially considering the fact that it was pretty much designed to be a list of things with associated numbers; a hard sort of baseline from which to create a compelling narrative!  Most of what I found in the book was fairly unsurprising but there was still a fair bit to learn.  The broad summary is fairly simple:  Anything that requires a ton of heat or long distance flight is really bad.  Certainly giant gas guzzling vehicles on the roads with only one person in them are terrible but nobody needs to be told that, the important thing to know is that getting local produce out of season is often terrible because of the incredible energy required to keep it heated in northern climes.  Just as much it is disastrous to airlift food from far off countries so that we can have asparagus from the Southern Hemisphere in winter.

It turns out that having a dishwasher is a fine thing as long as it is reasonably efficient, run only when full and used for a long time.  Same goes for vehicles, interestingly enough.  If you buy an efficient car, drive it only when you have several people to carry and use it a long time it is just as efficient as many forms of public transit.  There are lots of good bits of information in the book talking about these sorts of issues and I found it really useful to have a bit of a guide as to when it is worth buying a new, more efficient device and when it is better to just run the old one into the ground.  Some devices are such brutal energy hogs or such big polluters that replacing them is necessary but in most cases there is so much CO2 tied up in manufacturing a device that it is far better to simply use it as long as possible and then buy a much more efficient one once the old one finally dies.

The book talks mostly about personal habits and purchases to help give the average person an idea of what their decisions mean but it does cover government subsidies of clean power sources too and it does not paint a pretty picture.  There are some things individuals and governments can do to reduce emissions that are tremendous wins all around like adding insulation to buildings and swapping from coal to gas as a heat source but many of the current things governments are trying are terrible from a cost:benefit perspective.  Generating power from solar cells and windmills certainly reduces emissions but the cost to do so is prohibitive and isn't the cheapest way to tackle the problem.  The author shows a real concern for understanding and lowering our CO2 emissions but makes it clear that many of the current ways governments are approaching it are very inefficient.

One thing I did find that seemed utterly wrong was the author's estimate of the costs of pumping CO2 into the air.  He estimated that for every 150 tons of CO2 sent skyward that one person would die and made some calculations about the cost of saving lives based on this number.  Unfortunately I can't see how that number can be possible since on average each person in the world puts 7 tons of CO2 into the air per year; this would imply that after ~21 years everyone on the planet would be killed by climate change. Clearly the function of CO2 to deaths is not linear but I still can't see how 150 tons / death could possibly be right.  My best guess is that he is off on this figure by at least one order of magnitude and more likely off by two.  I still think that the rest of the numbers in the book are useful guidelines but any time he talks about impact I think his figures can be safely ignored.

Suicide Hill - aptly named

On the 24th my family and some friends went to Suicide Hill.  I bragged in my last post about my previous great spill where I flew upside down, kicked my sled away and landed with minimal damage and without bashing my precious cranium.  My hubris was suitable punished this year when I tried the same stunt.

On the last run of the day I decided to ride a Sno Racer down the hill from quite near the top - a more than slightly dangerous feat.  It was not a danger that could be avoided though as Mr. Frisbee had crushed my distance record by a full meter and my honour needed defending.  I blasted down the hill rocking from side to side without any really close calls but once I hit the flat I grazed a bump and one ski popped up into the air.

My desperate attempts to abandon ship were in vain as my boots caught on my sled and my face was smashed most brutally into the ground.  After rolling over and collapsing I dragged myself off of the ground wondering if I would see streams of blood coming from my face or if my knees had been badly damaged by being twisted around by the flying sled and falling human.  Strangely I wasn't worried about my face; even in a haze of pain I was sure any damage to my face would be superficial (if potentially ugly!) but I was very concerned about my knees.  Wendy has real trouble with her knees from old injuries and I have no desire whatever to join that club.  After I had gotten up and was deemed not to badly hurt people showed me the massive chunk I had torn out of the ground with my face:  A hole in hard packed snow about 5 cm x 5 cm x 40 cm.

Thankfully though getting up was a trial I am not seriously hurt.  My knees were complaining mightily for a day or two and my face is still obviously battered but they are nothing that will not be cured by time.  No regrets are had by me though.  One's honour must be defended on the sledding hill and simply allowing an opponent to recklessly smash a distance record cannot be tolerated.  Being unable to compete by dint of injury is acceptable but refusing to try based on danger?  Nevar!

Wendy decided that my bruise looked like rock star makeup and encouraged me to try it again by applying colours with a brush instead of smashing myself into a hill.  Perhaps it is time for a foray into eyeliner to please her...?

Thanks to Mr. Frisbee and Also The Doctor for recording my crash for posterity.

Tomorrow - Suicide

The snow is falling and it is going to be a real white Christmas.  There was already a small amount on the ground when I arrived up north but now it feels like winter for real.  Elli and I went out sledding on the driveway today and it was a grand old time, barring the trouble that she just can't carry her sled up the hill so I end up being the pack mule for both Sno Racers at the same time.  The old Sno Racers sure have done their duty.  They were brutally used and abused when we were young, being used to pull jumps off of rocks and crashland on ground frozen hard as concrete.  They are worn, scratched and the steering is really more like 'steering' but nonetheless they still work and will probably outlast me.

There is a yearly trip to Suicide Hill for a sledding party that looked like it was going to be cancelled but the snowfall today has restored our desire for speed and snowy danger.  Tomorrow we will be flying down the hill at ridiculous speeds and hoping that no one is seriously injured.  In previous years we have seen some spectacular crashes like when The Piper flew upside down with his Sno Racer above him and his head plowed through multiple small trees before he came to rest in a pile.  I remember doing the same thing when I went down the entire length of the hill and hit a bump at the bottom; I have a distinct memory of hanging onto my sled even though it was directly above me in the air and I was wrong way up with my head cruising along a few centimeters above the hard packed ground.  Thankfully I jettisoned the sled and managed to crash with some non head part of me cracking the ground first.  A few minutes were required for recovery but no real damage was done.

We are lucky to be having a wonderfully mild Christmastime.  I recall periods when I was young that we would hit -35 C (without the wind chill) every day and on the trip so far the temperature has consistently sat at -5 to 0 C during the day.  Can't do better than that if what you want is snow to play in, and I do.  You can't beat -35 C for storytelling in Toronto though; I derive no end of pleasure from regaling southerners (relatively speaking!) with stories of real cold when they complain about the mercury going down to -10.

Evil or just pragmatic?

Obama has decided that the US needs to be able to lawfully, and with proper oversight, detain anyone they want forever without formal charges, a trial, or proof of any wrongdoing.  Why?  The obvious answer is:  He is evil and the Democrats are just as evil as the Republicans because all American politicians are evil!  (Obvious according to the internet, anyhow.)  I wonder if it isn't something else entirely though... maybe Obama is just desperately trying to be reelected.

Imagine this scenario.  Obama closes Guantanamo Bay and frees a couple hundred people that were being detained for crimes that cannot be proven.  Presumably some of those people are absolutely innocent, some are vaguely guilty and some are absolutely guilty of either trying to attack US soldiers, civilians or interests or at least planning to attack them.  Sometime later there are terrorist attacks against US interests and the Republican candidate proclaims that Obama releasing the Guantanamo prisoners allowed them to initiate this attack and that Obama isn't protecting America.  Obama loses the election on the basis that he freed maniacal terrorists bent on destroying America and the new president declares war on Iran.

Realistically most of those released, even of the ones who actually were involved in terrorism against the US, aren't going to do anything of note once they get their freedom.  However, that has absolutely nothing to do with the accusations against Obama that will be believed by a lot of Americans.  Combine this with the fact that all Republican candidates barring Ron Paul support a new war in against Iran (for NO FUCKING REASON) and you can see why there is some kind of argument for doing anything at all to prevent a Republican victory in 2012.

I am not going to debate what *should* be done since I think it is abundantly clear that the US needs to immediately try those detainees who can be tried and release the rest.  Their willingness to detain without charge is just another reason that people want to commit terrible acts against them - in order to end the war on terror the world needs to stop being given so many reasons to hate the US.

So here is the question:  Given that a war against Iran would probably involve killing hundreds of thousands of civilians, not to mention soldiers on both sides, can Obama be doing absolutely anything he can think of to try to make sure he stays in power for another term?  Does he think that indefinite detention is bad but necessary to prevent a war, which is certainly a far greater evil?  I personally think that the answer is yes.  I was very hopeful that Obama would be a drastically left leaning president but he has failed in many ways - Indefinite detention, suppression of Occupy and environmentalism come to mind but there are surely many others.  That said, I don't see the US starting another war under his administration and preventing war is by far the greatest priority I can think of.  Perhaps Obama is just another evil US politician eager to crush the little man but maybe he is just desperate and willing to do things that are wrong to hopefully prevent an even greater wrong.

Christmas Tradition

I generally look forward greatly to Christmas.  Every year the three of us fly from Toronto to Thunder Bay to stay with my parents for a week and visit all the family and friends I have here.  Planning the list of things I want to do each time I come ends up being stressful though because the time I have is never enough and always too much at the same time.

I really want to visit my friends and get time to just hang out playing cards.  I want to see all my various cousins, visit my grandparents, have dinner with my brother, spend time with my parents and go to the big Christmas bash.  I also desperately need alone time and solitude and I want to enjoy the natural surroundings and quiet that coming up here allows me and it is simply impossible to do it all in the time I have.  Of course I could book even more time up here but then it becomes too much time away from home and we get homesick, not to mention the challenges of leaving pets at home for extended periods and my parents eventually wanting their house back.  I feel like a stuffed toy being tugged from all sides by a group of children, my stuffing coming out a little as the seams begin to give way.  I love the attention and all but I wish there was a way to get all these great things without any of the downsides as my memories and anticipation of Christmas so regularly ignores the tradeoffs involved.

Not to say I am disappointed with coming up here for Christmas as that has never been the case.  I love it but I can't seem to reconcile all the things I want to do and feel like I should do with the time I have available.  Of course I don't want anyone to feel like I ignored them when I came into town but if I make time to see absolutely everybody and do everything I will just make myself miserable.  There is a compromise that strives to be everything and doesn't quite make it as there is always someone I didn't see or some time to just relax that I never quite got around to taking.

My parents asked me this year if I was planning on starting up a Christmas tradition of my own and stopping my yearly trips up to see them.  This is one of the things I love about them:  They recognize that they don't necessarily know exactly what I want and make sure to make room for the changes I might want to make.  They take the time to be sure we all know what the other wants so we can create a plan that makes us all happy.  I see so often families where each person takes for granted that everyone wants the same things and it makes nothing but friction and angst.  I don't particularly want to set up any of my own Christmas traditions though as I don't have much use for tradition; I don't mind doing the same thing over and over as long as that same thing is still justifiable on its own merits without relying on "But we have always done X".  I love coming up north for Christmas and for now there is nowhere else I want to be.