Sat 31 January 2009; 30
As ice cover around the North Pole diminishes, Canada is racing other polar nations to chart the floor of the Arctic Ocean in order to claim sovereignty and thence resource rights to as much of the region as it can.
The U.N. convention on the Law of the Sea allows countries to claim territory further than the normal distance from their coasts if they can prove the watery domain is part of their continental shelves.
Lynn Raineault and Julian Sher made a documentary on Canada’s place in the race called Battle for the Arcitc, which is airing on CBC.
Canadian scientists are now joining the soldiers on the front lines of this new frontier, as they race to chart Canada’s Arctic claims under the looming deadline of an international treaty. The Battle for Arctic takes you from the far reaches of the North Pole to the waters of Alaska for a look into a struggle for sovereignty that could change the very face of Canada.
[...]
Just a few hundred kilometres from the North Pole, at the tip of one of Canada’s northernmost pieces of land on Ellesmere Island, a hardy group of Canadian scientists are trying to map the vast underwater mountain ranges and ridges hidden deep beneath the ice. But they are not the only ones racing to map the Arctic. The Russians have their eyes on the North Pole and the eastern Arctic. In the oil rich Beaufort Sea in the Western Arctic, it’s the Americans.
– Battle for the Arctic cbc.ca
Given this situation of unconfirmed claims on our oceanic territories, it was interesting to see these mugs in Starbucks proclaiming the north pole as Canadian territory.
The mug reads:
CANADA
COUNTRY PROFILE
CONSTITUTED DATE: 1867
LAND AREA: 9,218,529 SQ KM
TEMP: TEMPERATE TO ARCTIC
ELEVATION: SEA LEVEL
HIGH: MT. LOGAN 5,959 M
CANADA IS BORDERED ON THE SOUTH BY THE UNITED STATES AND EXTENDS THROUGH THE ARCTIC OCEAN TO THE NORTH POLE
Hmm, who writes their material, Stephen Harper? Clearly they are overstating Canada’s territory. Who writes this stuff anyway.
Comments Off
Fri 30 January 2009; 29
A few weeks ago I was reading this story about how a local major junior ice hockey player thought a new rule would end fighting and change the game . . . for the worse.
After the Sanderson death players in the OHL must keep their helmets on when they are fighting to avoid falling over, hitting their bare heads on the ice, and going into a coma and dying.
I strongly support safety in sports. It shows the strangeness off hockey that there is a rule of what you cannot do while you are fighting.
Of course hockey is not unique in allowing fighting; boxing and mixed martial arts allow fighting. Actually they are fighting. In hockey the objective is to put the puck in the net. So, hockey is unique in providing a place for fighting in sport.
Let’s see what the local hockey goon has to say about the rule.
Players who take off helmets or chinstraps before or during a fight get an automatic game misconduct plus a one-game suspension. The same penalty applies for taking off an opponent’s helmet or chinstrap in a fight.
Plus, linesmen must now break up a fight immediately if a fighter loses his a helmet.
Mascioli, an 18-year-old from the Sudbury area, figures this is the end of the junior hockey world as he knows it.
“It’s going to take 90-95 per cent of fighting out of hockey,” he said.
“I’ve talked to some of the guys. None of us can do it. All our hands are pretty messed up. I think it’s the end. I’m not happy about it because it takes a lot of jobs away. And it’s going to change the game a lot.”
Mascioli believes the changes will be for the worse.
“You can take runs at players without having to worry about them coming after you,” he said.
– Ranger thinks rule change will end fighting Waterloo Record 17 Jan 2009
When I the kids comments, it also struck me how this keenness for fighting could be similar to the “culture of honour” that I first read about in Gladwell’s new book Outliers.
Here is the pedia entry section that describe the culture of honour.
One can contrast cultures of honour with cultures of law. In a culture of law there is a body of laws which must be obeyed by all, with punishments for transgressors. This requires a society with the structures required to enact and enforce laws. A culture of law incorporates an unwritten social contract: members of society agree to give up most of their rights to defend themselves and retaliate for injuries, on the understanding that transgressors will be apprehended and punished by society.
[...]
Cultures of honour will often arise when three conditions exist: 1) a lack of resources; 2) where the benefit of theft and crime outweighs the risks; and 3) a lack of sufficient law enforcement (such as in geographically remote regions).
[...]
Once a culture of honour exists, it is difficult for its members to make the transition to a culture of law; this requires that people become willing to back down and refuse to immediately retaliate, and from the viewpoint of the culture of honour, this tends to appear to be an unwise act reflecting weakness.
– Honour Wikipedia
Those three conditions that encourage a culture of honour exist in hockey. There is a lack of resources in that two teams are competing for one win.
Players can get away with fouls. As Mascioli describes, players believe you can “take a run at someone” without much cost. No doubt goons can try to take out a star player hurting the opposing teams chances.
Because hockey rules and officials allow fighting and, in players’ eyes, miss calling transgressions, there is inadequate law enforcement in the game.
It is interesting to see how a culture that normally arising in societies of herdsman could also arise among North American hockey players.
Comments Off
Wed 28 January 2009; 27
I read a story years ago told by a Canadian hockey reporter. He was at an international tournament and sitting in the stand with several Russians.
He didn’t speak Russian and they spoke neither English or Canadian. Eventually, one of the Russians leaned forward, turned and said, “Gretzky?” The guys nodded smilled and said, “Gretzky!” They found common ground in the fact that the Great One ruled (Maybe he did speak Canadian after all).
I think Barack Obama is like Gretzky. At least right now, you can probably go many places in the worlds and say “Obama?” as a way of breaking the ice and making a connection over the fact that Obama is great.
Wed 21 January 2009; 20
What a day. The most evident part of the day is the huge number of people there.
Walking down to the mall it seemed kind of sparse, but the crowds gathered and grew. At the Washington Monument, where we watched the ceremony. I was in a sea of people, but I knew that there were more and large patches of ground that were just as thick with people watching for one man, Barack Obama. They cheered whenever he appeared.
Once the ceremony ended people started leaving, but the movement was more crowded. in the morning the walking was sparse as people arrived over a longer time than they tried to leave.
While many left, many tried to get to the parade or otherwise lingered around the city. The perimeter around the parade closed shortly after the procession began. People more than a block away still gather to try to catch a glimpse of the action pushing close to the barricades or standing on top of the concrete barriers.
We walked down to the capitol and caught the end of the parade. The perimeter had opened up long after the president had reached the other end of the avenue. Marching bands made music. Soldiers on horses rode down the street. Flag, baton and dancing corps from around the country made their way down Pennsylvania Avenue.
We then walked to the much more empty capitol as national guardsmen were marching out and the setdown was going on inside. We stood between the frozen reflecting pool and the capitol grounds, about 300m back from where Obama took the oath. The quarter million seats were all empty, but it was still brightly lit. Flags hung between the columns showing the nations colours against the gleaming white stone building.
We walked back and now it’s time to sleep. I’ll put up some photos soon.
Comments Off
Mon 19 January 2009; 18
Soon we’ll be on our way to Washington D.C. for the inauguration of Barack Obama as President of the United States of America. I have had a busy few days preparing for this trip.
I will be sending updates on my trip and our adventures to my twitter account (http://twitter.com/ryanchenwing).
I hope I’ll get some good photos and stories to share with you here.
Comments Off
Sat 17 January 2009; 16
We beat Imports in indoor soccer action Wednesday. They had some talent and a deep bench but we prevailed, through we could have played better.
We scored one in the first half. In the second a corner kick slipped in as an own goal, but we pulled ahead again within a minute or so.
On one play I made a quick pass and their striker charged me late, after the ball was gone. I braced for it and he bounced off me, but the referee awarded me a foul . . . and a lecture. The fellow tried it again later, and got called.
We pulled ahead with one more goal later in the second. We were tiesd with Imports, now we solely hold third place.
Comments Off
Thu 15 January 2009; 14
Popular professor and amazing, hilarious, economics lecturer Larry W. Smith has a blog. Often, students who aren’t enrolled in his classes attend his lectures. He keeps in touch with students after they graduate and enter the working world. “My spies are everywhere,” he says in class. Now his “spies” can read what he has to say about the economy, but only them. His blog says:
This site is intended for the exclusive use of Larry Smith’s current and former students. Its use by other persons is expressly prohibited.
He has two posts, so far. The most recent he posted on New Year’s Eve, looking ahead to this year:
The outlook for 2009 is unusually certain. The Canadian and US economies will contract over much of the year. The duration of the contraction is difficult to say - perhaps the entire year and perhaps into 2010. Anyone who forecasts the exact depth and duration is guessing, that is, using the macro models that did not pick up the severity of the deterioration in 2008.
– Outlook for 2009 and Beyond lwsmith.ca 31 Dec 2008
Thank you Hiro for alerting me to Larry Smith’s blog.
Comments Off
Mon 12 January 2009; 11
This is part of a blog series. The first in the series is here: The Ryan Chen-Wing Feds election platform.
For any organization that expects to operate beyond the involvement of any of its leaders, succession should be a priority. You should prepare future leaders now, so that transition doesn’t mean turmoil and getting new leaders doesn’t mean starting over.
Often Feds executives have quietly criticized candidates for being inexperienced or ignorant of issues that ironically they themselves only gained or learned in the prior year. If we can ensure that candidates are better prepared, we can ensure that those that are elected will be ready.
I propose an executive training program that would prepare anyone to be a more effective leader of Feds.
It should prepare people with the knowledge and skills to run the organization including:
- Including knowledge of the organization and the university
- Past, current, and future issues
- Time management, communication, delegation and general leadership
By preparing people to executives it would also increase a candidate’s chances of success in the election.
Potential candidates would want the program not just because it would improve Feds, but it would improve their chances of success in the election. Once the program was established, not having experienced it would be a liability for candidates.
Creating this program would be a valuable legacy, because your positive influence would extend through other that learned from it.
Winter term classes started at Waterloo last week Monday. I went to my
class, but was disappointed, that there was actually no lecture. We
just received the syllabus and discussed it. The professor is friendly
and cracks friendly jokes, they aren’t hilarious, but they seem to put
the students at ease.
When she asked whether there were any questions. I said, “The writing
workshop for one of the discussion groups is after the first
assignment is due. Is that intentional?”
She was pretty sure it was set up properly, so I responded with the
days. The due date was the 28th and the workshops were on 23rd and
30th. So, she moved the due date to 2 Feb (it is difficult to create a
schedule).
I am excited to be learning new things, but I have some uncertainty
about what the assignments will require, but it can’t be too much
since we are supposed to only right a page.
It is my first class in a while, so it is good to be back.
Comments Off
Sun 11 January 2009; 10
Barack Obama’s forst foreign visit as President will be to Canada, the Toronto Star is reporting today.
With international delegations swarming Washington to win the attention of the incoming president, it emerged yesterday that Obama has chosen Canada as his first foreign destination.
No details were revealed for the visit, the result of days of behind-the-scenes contact between Ottawa and the president-elect’s transition team.
The announcement came a day after news that Obama would meet tomorrow in Washington with Mexican President Felipe Calderon. Canadian critics saw that meeting as a slight to Ottawa and payback for the Tory government leak on Obama’s NAFTA views that embarrassed the candidate during his run for the presidency.
The leak, which came after Obama officials met with Canadian consular staff in Chicago, put Obama on the defensive in two Democratic primary races and had Harper fending off accusations of interference in U.S. politics.
– Obama will visit Canada first 11 Jan 2008
Who are these critics? Are they the same critics that complained about George W. Bush visiting Mexico in February 2001, though he met with Jean Chretien in Washington before that.
Anyway, come on up Obama.
Comments Off
