A Canadian gals adventures and escapades, at home and abroad.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Verge shortlisted photos
I'm happy to share the news that three of my images recently made the shortlist of Verge Magazine's Global competition...the point of the challenge was to present images in the category of 'Travel With Purpose'.
Later this fall they'll all be available to view online, but for now, if you're based in Vancouver or Toronto, you can go to the Verge Go Abroad Fair, and see the exhibition up close and personal.
The dates for the fair are: * Vancouver Saturday, September 13, 2008 from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday, September 14, 2008 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. * Toronto Saturday, September 20, 2008 from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday, September 21, 2008 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
For more information on the fair, and Verge, check out their Go Abroad Fair page.
If you end up seeing the pics in the magazine this fall, online (i'll post a link once it's available), or at the fairs, and you like them, you can vote for them in the Reader's Choice category (whoohoo!).
See what happens when we mess with science? Science messes back. As reported today on the Guardian, CERN, a renowned laboratory in Geneva specializing in work on particle physics will, on this Wednesday, switch on its Large Hadron Collider. The Collider, is meant to help scientists develop a ‘theory of everything’…however, like most of us when we attempt to mentally grapple with questions on creation and the universe, the meaning of life, and all that jazz, the Collider can also have a brain freeze.
This might be no big issue…except for the fact that, while humans are generally left with a headache and glass of wine when faced with queries of the structure of matter, the Collider has the capacity to create small black holes. Small black holes here on earth. Small black holes which some scientists argue can actually “survive, grow and eat the planet from the inside”. Yet some scientists actually want the holes to develop, proving the existence of dimensions other than the three we already know about – and then hopefully – the holes will literally go back to where they came from. However, one scientists has gone so far as to file a case against the Collider, noting that if the holes do in fact devour our fabulous little planet, this would violate our right to life, as secured in the European Convention on Human Rights. Indeed.
I don’t know about you, but I already feel a tad violated, knowing that there’s someone out there who is actually trying to re-create the big bang….we don’t really know what happened the first time, so why should we use the world’s largest particle accelerator (which is actually a 27 kilometer cannon) to try to do it again? Do we really want to create the same type of conditions of matter that were present when the earth was less than one trillionth -- ONE TRILLIONTH -- of a second old? CERN has done their best to put fears to rest; releasing multiple reports on the safety of the Collider, and we can be assured that the type of learning curve these little protons might offer us, as they smash into each other through caverns of steel, is fairly epic in nature. Talk of ‘god particles’, ‘dark matter’, and ‘secrets of the universe’ have many people in the world anticipating leaps of science from the Collider…I’m just hoping that at the end of all this spin, the matter will, well, matter.
For an excellent write-up on the project, including videos, more pics and graphics, check out this New York Times article. To watch a webcast from CERN, including when the push the big button to get the particles spinning, click here. However, since we might have only 2 days left to enjoy this big squishy world of ours, I’d recommend instead watching alpinekat’s video rap on the project….it’s definitely worth 4 of the 2880 minutes that we (might) have left to play.
There’s a collection of books that I grew up with, the Mr. Men and Little Miss Series. I flip-flopped through their personalities and pages on a daily basis for years.Now, I’m sitting in Phnom Penh wishing that there was just one more book after Mr. Grumpy and Little Miss Sunshine – I could really use a Little Miss Fix-it.Now don’t get me wrong, there are a plethora of people (we’re in Cambodia, so we’re mainly talking about men) who we can call to come fix something in our house.You can go to that international standard, the Yellow Pages, find the Cambodian version, and look up plumber, carpenter, and electrician, and find listings just the same as back in Canada.Only here, all numbers seem to lead to just one man.Yes that’s right, in the age of specialization, the Cambodian handy-man is the personal equivalent of a big-box store.He’s meant to be an all-sorts kind of person, and boy does he try.
The reason that I am daydreaming of a Little Miss Fix-it book is because no matter how-to sites I visit on the internet, I can’t seem to find solutions to typical problems in South-East Asian homes.Questions that I’ve already faced:How do you fix an a/c unit on a second floor when the outside ledge that you need to stand on is covered in barbed wire?What if you live in an old colonial building and need to change a light bulb, where the average ladder is three-feet tall and you have 12-foot ceilings?How do you turn off the water before you fix a tap, when the lever you need to maneuver has been broken for the past 30 years and now tiled into the wall?
Now of course, I’m sure a typical reader would note at this point that when in Asia, do as in Asia….so I’ve tried some more local methods (sorry Mom), but standing on two chairs at once, chipping away at concrete with a ballpoint pen, and keeping my finger in the hole to stop the running water doesn’t work so well for me (seriously, I’ve seen all of these done at one point or another, from hotels to flats).The next step would therefore be call one of the handymen listed in the Cambodian yellow pages, or do as others do, and have someone call someone that can call someone who will text someone to send another someone that they might know.
This leads me to the current situation that I’m experiencing… two days ago, after taking a deep breath and praying to the god of jack-of-all trades, I sent out a call for a plumber, and about 45 minutes ago, our favorite Mr. Fix-it men arrived at the house.They’re the same ones that were here when we needed the gas stove fixed, and before turning off the gas feed, one lit a match while the other played with the knobs…result: singed eyebrows and the Khmer equivalent of AYE-OH.They’re also the ones that came to fix a door with three different types of screws and no matching driver (to my visiting Father’s mixed delight and chagrin), who found a way to stand on the barbed wire while fixing the a/c (all the while keeping a power source on while draining it of water and ice), and who, while laughing the whole while, dismantled the fridge without unplugging it.Don’t get me wrong, I love these guys, and while they scare the life out of me, they ALWAYS get the job done, and finish with a smile.
In fact, as I finish writing up (because I do have to get back to work at one stage), they’re chatting away in the bathroom, one newly enamored with my vice grip (because his pliers broke when he was trying to undo a nut), and the other with a finger in the wall, as they try to replace a shower hose.The one chatting away to the tools is already dripping wet, while the other one (with his finger holding back all that water), is flipping with his free fingers through an old, soggy copy of Cosmopolitan.Maybe, just maybe, I don’t need a Little Miss Fix-it book in the end…after all, in spite of singed eyebrows, flooded bathrooms, and dangling off of power lines, perhaps the real story I need to learn from is the one unfolding right in front of me, even if it is running down the hallway floor.
For the past three years, there’s been an address in my moleskin that I’ve taken out and used time and time again. Flyzoom.com, this little link, which opened up a landscape of voyage options, has taken me back and forth from studies to family, over oceans and rolling hills thousands of miles across. I’ve relied on it when excited, getting ready to head to Canada for Christmas, and even when hesitant with trepidation of academic involvement, shouldering the weight of 20 kilos of books back to doctoral studies in London.
My old suitcase is dotted with remains of little blue and white stickers, the only letters now remaining are the occasional ‘oom’or ‘zo’. I don’t think that I even have the remnants of a full luggage tag left. And yet, these small portions of a logo now plastered across Canadian news agencies, echo the symbolism of a company ripped apart, reluctant to have given in to the taxes and economy that it tried to flounder through.
Yes, Zoom Airlines is now defunct, leaving passengers stranded in Europe, as well as North and South America. It’s time to delete yet another address of a Canadian company unable to make it in today’s parasitic economic environment, and empathize again with those left without compensation for their tickets and travel plans, as well as the 600 workers that lost their jobs in the middle of the peak season for their careers. It’s also time, with these past two weeks of numerous accidents and safety incidents involving aircraft, to rethink just what costs these fuel prices are having – and when we do purchase a ticket, exactly what value the airline is putting behind it.
Ben Johnson claims new evidence in 20-year old doping scandal
An Italian newspaper has covered Ben Johnson's new claim that he has evidence -- on tape -- of Carl Lewis being involved in a scheme where drugs were slipped into a drink pre-testing during the 1988 Olympics. The Italian paper seems to be the only one yet to cover segments of the exclusive interview that Ben gave to Britain's Daily Mail. It will be interesting to see the quality of the evidence Ben claims to have, and how effective it might be in re-opening the 20-year old case. While Ben (who has admitted to using steroids after the 1998 debacle) will never be able to make up for the echoes of the past incident and the personal abuse he faced after he was stripped of his medal, such a drive for justice should be perceived as honorable in itself. Even if Ben's medal was re-instated, his personal record time was beaten again yesterday by Jamaica's Usain Bolt, therefore he's not simply bringing this evidence to light for personal glory. In the weeks upcoming to Beijing, if this story can gain more coverage against the smacks of protests and drug tests, it could bring a bit of hope to all of us who watched Ben's win and loss in Seoul. Furthermore, it could remind us that these events should be about those individuals running for themselves and their nations, who have devoted large portions of their lives towards just trying to do their best amidst what has become a twisted business of sport.
