My busy days (Sept 19) have continued. Our friends who reside in Mexico, have just returned from their Alaska cruise, and are staying with us.
Every now and then, there is a bit of a break in all this. For example, last Sunday, the Vancouver Centre of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada hosted the Paul Sykes Lecture (an annual event, funded through an endowment from Paul Sykes), hosted a talk by Dr. Neil Turok - the eminent mathematical physicist, and collegue of Dr. Stephen Hawking. His topic related to the evolution of the early universe, which is one his fields of interest. Dr. Turok presented the subject in a most engaging, humorous way, and did not shy away from telling us how little concrete information we have - even though there have been astounding breakthroughs achieved in accumulating accurate data. My wife, whose interests only peripherally include astronomy, enjoyed the talk, and said so several times.
After the meeting, the RASC's council invited Dr. Turok to supper, and a few of the council members (of whom I'm one) joined in spirited, wide ranging discussions about the various aspects of theoretical physics. A good time was had by all.
The Paul Sykes lecture is free to the public - come and join next year.
Tomorrow I'm slated for cataract surgery - another break in the routine.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Busy time.
I run a business which involves many of the larger educational institutions in our area. Since school started earlier this month, I've been very busy, including weekends. In addition, we have good friends visiting, and staying at our home. That has meant no time for blogging. For those of you who may be wondering, both my wife and I are ok - we're just involved in our various activities at the moment. This is a chance to write a little note here, before I continue with business today.
Monday, August 31, 2009
A somber weekend
There are periods when personal events induce a state of introspection and contemplation.. This weekend was one of them.
On Friday, we attended the memorial service for a good friend, who died a couple of weeks ago. Kilby Gibson was my sister-in-law's long-time friend (the two of them roomed together in their early twenties), and we had gotten to know Kilby at one of our family get-togethers many years ago. My wife, my sister-in-law, Kilby, and her sister Sheila used to meet for lunch on a semi-regular basis. In the last seven years Kilby had been battling lymphoid cancer, but never lost her vivaciousness and fighting spirit. She was politically active at various levels, and contributed a great deal to the betterment of those around her. Our hearts go out to her husband Gordon and his family.
Everyone is aware of the death of Ted Kennedy in the United States. He was also someone who worked for and had a great influence on the policies regarding less fortunate people in the U.S., and in the world. While his fight for universal health care in the U.S. is still ongoing, he's certainly put this issue in the centre of that nation's political attention. He will be missed.
Within our own family, our son Derek's fight with cancer is always on our mind. There are times when we all get a feeling of sadness (and rage) because of the unfairness of it all. This weekend was one of those times.
On Friday, we attended the memorial service for a good friend, who died a couple of weeks ago. Kilby Gibson was my sister-in-law's long-time friend (the two of them roomed together in their early twenties), and we had gotten to know Kilby at one of our family get-togethers many years ago. My wife, my sister-in-law, Kilby, and her sister Sheila used to meet for lunch on a semi-regular basis. In the last seven years Kilby had been battling lymphoid cancer, but never lost her vivaciousness and fighting spirit. She was politically active at various levels, and contributed a great deal to the betterment of those around her. Our hearts go out to her husband Gordon and his family.
Everyone is aware of the death of Ted Kennedy in the United States. He was also someone who worked for and had a great influence on the policies regarding less fortunate people in the U.S., and in the world. While his fight for universal health care in the U.S. is still ongoing, he's certainly put this issue in the centre of that nation's political attention. He will be missed.
Within our own family, our son Derek's fight with cancer is always on our mind. There are times when we all get a feeling of sadness (and rage) because of the unfairness of it all. This weekend was one of those times.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Time with the granddaughters
Since Derek and Airdrie are at Gnomedex, we have our two granddaughters to look after these days. Thursday we explored the new Canada subway line to the airport, yesterday we spent all day at the PNE (we sat on the grass for the "Beatle Anniversary" performance, too). Big crowds.
The "Canada Line" day was an all-day event for us. We decided that four of us would take public transport to get to all the places we were going to visit. The "Skytrain"is our elevated/subterranean remote-controlled light rapid transit line which has existed since the year of "Expo 86" (i.e. 23 years), and has become an integral part of the public transportation system in our "lower mainland" cities. One of its larger stations is located a 10 minute walk away from our house, so we walked and bought a day pass for all of us. At a total of $27, that turned out to be a bargain.
To begin with, we rode the skytrain to the Waterfront station, and then changed to the Seabus (a ferry service to North Vancouver, part of the public transportation system), to have lunch at Lonsdale Quay. The kids and my wife picked their traditional Chinese food; I don't particularly like Chinese food and ate a more traditional sandwich instead. Our older granddaughter also bought a new pair of shorts. We then returned via the Seabus to the Waterfront station, which is also the terminus of the new Canada Line subway.
The trains on that line consist of two cars (all pictures below are from the Translink web sites), connected by a "flexible" passthrough, much like subway trains in other parts of the world. The stations on the Canada line are just long enough to
accommodate their combined length, so coupling two of these trains together would make them too long for the stations. The Canada Line train cars are wider than the Skytrain cars, making the cars incompatible with each other's stations. In fact, I don't know of any track connection between the two. That makes it necessary to have two different parts and maintenance centres. Personally I find this incompatibility illogical. I can understand that such incompatibilty might exist in some of the older cities in Europe, which started their electric subway services over one hundred years ago, but the skytrain line is still young (23 years), and the underlying remote-control technology cannot be that 
much different.
Another question I have is the use of only a single track into the airport itself - it means that only one train at a time can be at the airport station. I suppose that the underlying reason is the same as always - money, money, money. There was a big "Ahead-of-time, on-budget" statement from both our provincial government, and the public transit authority, made possible only by what I consider "corner-cutting"; even the underground track section which was originally meant to be a "bored" tunnel was actually built using the "cut-and-cover" method. That caused a great deal of financial losses to, and the closure of a number businesses along the Canada Line. Courtcases are still pending in that regard.
Notwithstanding all the above, the ride to and from Richmond and the airport is smooth, efficient, and will likely become popular with the commuting public and travelers from the airport to downtown. While most of the line is underground, the elevated and above-ground sections offer a grand view of Vancouver's spectacular scenery (that's true for the mostly elevated Skytrain too, of course).
The PNE (Pacific National Exhibition) is the granddaughters' perennial favourite. While the younger one is more interested in the rides at Playland, the older one is developing a taste for the agricultural and "arts-and-crafts" aspects. Our granddaughters' maternal grandparents (we're the paternal ones) are both wonderful and accomplished people and very artistic, and they really involve the granddaughters in that way when they are staying with them.
Both granddaughters enjoy the animals at the 4-H displays. As usual, we consumed the obligatory junk food offerings (corn dogs, mini doughnuts, hamburgers etc...).
An added feature this year was an open-air performance in honour of the Beatles - on their 45th anniversary. The theatre grounds were jammed with people. The band "Revolver" performed ably, and had the crowd highly motivated - everyone seemed happy. The amazing thing is that our granddaughters knew and sang along with all the songs; we ourselves, being of a generation well ahead of the Beatles, could not do that.
Marina (the older one) is also developing a talent for photography. She has a camera cellphone and took some interesting and artisic pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thebigm/.
All-in-all we are having a great time with the two of them.
The "Canada Line" day was an all-day event for us. We decided that four of us would take public transport to get to all the places we were going to visit. The "Skytrain"is our elevated/subterranean remote-controlled light rapid transit line which has existed since the year of "Expo 86" (i.e. 23 years), and has become an integral part of the public transportation system in our "lower mainland" cities. One of its larger stations is located a 10 minute walk away from our house, so we walked and bought a day pass for all of us. At a total of $27, that turned out to be a bargain.
To begin with, we rode the skytrain to the Waterfront station, and then changed to the Seabus (a ferry service to North Vancouver, part of the public transportation system), to have lunch at Lonsdale Quay. The kids and my wife picked their traditional Chinese food; I don't particularly like Chinese food and ate a more traditional sandwich instead. Our older granddaughter also bought a new pair of shorts. We then returned via the Seabus to the Waterfront station, which is also the terminus of the new Canada Line subway.
The trains on that line consist of two cars (all pictures below are from the Translink web sites), connected by a "flexible" passthrough, much like subway trains in other parts of the world. The stations on the Canada line are just long enough to
accommodate their combined length, so coupling two of these trains together would make them too long for the stations. The Canada Line train cars are wider than the Skytrain cars, making the cars incompatible with each other's stations. In fact, I don't know of any track connection between the two. That makes it necessary to have two different parts and maintenance centres. Personally I find this incompatibility illogical. I can understand that such incompatibilty might exist in some of the older cities in Europe, which started their electric subway services over one hundred years ago, but the skytrain line is still young (23 years), and the underlying remote-control technology cannot be that 
much different.Another question I have is the use of only a single track into the airport itself - it means that only one train at a time can be at the airport station. I suppose that the underlying reason is the same as always - money, money, money. There was a big "Ahead-of-time, on-budget" statement from both our provincial government, and the public transit authority, made possible only by what I consider "corner-cutting"; even the underground track section which was originally meant to be a "bored" tunnel was actually built using the "cut-and-cover" method. That caused a great deal of financial losses to, and the closure of a number businesses along the Canada Line. Courtcases are still pending in that regard.
Notwithstanding all the above, the ride to and from Richmond and the airport is smooth, efficient, and will likely become popular with the commuting public and travelers from the airport to downtown. While most of the line is underground, the elevated and above-ground sections offer a grand view of Vancouver's spectacular scenery (that's true for the mostly elevated Skytrain too, of course).
The PNE (Pacific National Exhibition) is the granddaughters' perennial favourite. While the younger one is more interested in the rides at Playland, the older one is developing a taste for the agricultural and "arts-and-crafts" aspects. Our granddaughters' maternal grandparents (we're the paternal ones) are both wonderful and accomplished people and very artistic, and they really involve the granddaughters in that way when they are staying with them.
Both granddaughters enjoy the animals at the 4-H displays. As usual, we consumed the obligatory junk food offerings (corn dogs, mini doughnuts, hamburgers etc...).
An added feature this year was an open-air performance in honour of the Beatles - on their 45th anniversary. The theatre grounds were jammed with people. The band "Revolver" performed ably, and had the crowd highly motivated - everyone seemed happy. The amazing thing is that our granddaughters knew and sang along with all the songs; we ourselves, being of a generation well ahead of the Beatles, could not do that.
Marina (the older one) is also developing a talent for photography. She has a camera cellphone and took some interesting and artisic pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thebigm/.
All-in-all we are having a great time with the two of them.
Friday, July 31, 2009
Less heat
Here in our town, we've had a record-breaking heatwave for over a week, highly unusual. Our entire province has been subject to the same phenomenon. As a result, there have been a number of serious fires caused, and new ones started by, sad to say, careless people and also thunderstorms. We had a spectacular storm here a few days ago. Our son took some great pictures. After that storm, the sunset was an eerie orange-red (picture taken through living room window). I suppose that the cause was the smoke from the various wildfires, even though those are some distance away from our city.
The heatwave here made all of us look for ways to cool down (temperatures reached 38 degrees Celsius - about 100 degrees Fahrenheit). The night temperatures stayed at what are normally our summer daytime values - so cooling fans were in great demand. As usual, kids are inventive, and our younger granddaughter and a friend made use of the garden sprinkler hose to get cool.
The ravens, which are numerous in our area, were also "taking baths". One took advantage of the birdbath in our back yard. I admire these clever and inventive birds. When they look at you, the intelligence in their eyes is obvious. Who knows, if we manage to wipe ourselves out, maybe they'll become the dominant species?Today, temperatures have moderated, and we're very happy to sit outside to enjoy another beautiful day and evening.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Past glory
There is a lot of interest and comment today regarding the exact day, 40 years ago, on which humans first set foot on the Moon. To me, this is a bittersweet memory. The sweet part relates to the fact that our son, whose birth had occurred three weeks before, was having his mother's milk while we were watching the landing on TV. At the time I wondered whether he would grow up to be one of many future space travellers who would naturally go to space, with an ease similar to travel by airplane. In my mind, the image of Neil Armstrong stepping onto the Moon's surface will forever be linked with those memories.
The bitter part of that memory is that mankind's ability even just to repeat that forty-year-old feat has withered on the vine. We are reduced to admiring achievements which occurred four decades ago, and treat them as though they are today's. No one is in a position to place a human on the Moon now, both for technical and financial reasons. It is sad to think that much of the talent and money which could have furthered our progress in space was instead directed toward, and wasted on, conducting useless wars and persuing infinite greed.
I find it a hopeful sign that a return to the Moon, and also an expedition to Mars are seriously being contemplated. Maybe our son's daughters will one day go into space. I wonder whether I'll be around to see it?
The bitter part of that memory is that mankind's ability even just to repeat that forty-year-old feat has withered on the vine. We are reduced to admiring achievements which occurred four decades ago, and treat them as though they are today's. No one is in a position to place a human on the Moon now, both for technical and financial reasons. It is sad to think that much of the talent and money which could have furthered our progress in space was instead directed toward, and wasted on, conducting useless wars and persuing infinite greed.
I find it a hopeful sign that a return to the Moon, and also an expedition to Mars are seriously being contemplated. Maybe our son's daughters will one day go into space. I wonder whether I'll be around to see it?
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Musical Telescopes
This past Sunday, the Vancouver Symphony put on a concert at Deer Lake park here in Burnaby. This is a casual affair for the listeners (there is no cost), and everyone is free to bring their own lunch, chairs, etc. It's a "picnic atmosphere". For the occasion, food vendors, and others interested in making the public aware of what's going on in the community, are set up as well. Among the latter, the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, of which I'm a member, showed telescopes, handed out brochures and other astronomy related publications. We would have pointed the telescopes at stars and other interesting objects in the sky, had it not been cloudy. As it was, we picked some distant targets to show what telescopes can do, and how they work. Here are some pictures:
The orchestra playing
The audience
People at the telescopes
Looking through the C-8
The orchestra playing
The audience
People at the telescopes
Looking through the C-8
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