Cold War Heat

Nuclear Warfare...

Struggles to Meet U.N. Regulations...

Threats to International Security...

Do any of these phrases sound familiar? Well they should. On Monday, May 25, 2009 communist dictatorship North Korea set off a Nuclear blast shortly before 10 A.M. The detonation occurred slightly 50 miles north-west of the city of Kilju. The blast was said to have a magnitude of 4.7-magnitude earthquake, this is what it was first mistaken for. Over the past few days North Korea also launched three ground to air missiles with a range of 80 miles.

Fig 1. U.S. President Barack Obama

U.S. President Barack Obama (seen above) has had a very blunt response to this nuclear test performed by N. Korea. He warned N. Korea saying, "North Korea will not find security and respect through to threats and illegal weapons." Obama believes that the communist country's nuclear tests and missile launches poses a threat to International Security and the International Community has to stand up to N. Korea.

Fig 2. North Korea Dictator Kim Jong-Il.

Here is my Share on the Issue...

President Obama is right when he says that the world will not be intimidated by a display of nuclear power. But as for the moment, that's all it is - a display! As of yet, there have not been any outright threats to international security - I have a feeling this is the media's way to turn this into something it might very well not be. On the other hand, it might not be a good idea to 'egg' N. Korea on, they are a powerful nation and now have confirmed nuclear capabilities.

One major issue that was brought to my attention by a personal aquaintance is this..

North Korea are tough little buggers, if you start a war with them - they will win.
They have a history of being ruthless and would likely stop at nothing to uphold what they believe in.

So then you ask me, what is my proposal?

I say that China threatens to stop trade routes to N. Korea, most of N. Korea's supplies (such as water, food, and oil) come from China. China is North Korea's closest neighbor (as is Canada to the United States) and also has one of the most powerful military in the world. So the way I see it...

If North Korea wants to play with the fires of intimidation, then we make them feel the burn of intimidation...

Some Pressurized Fun

Something most people don't know about certain chemical molecules is how boiling works. Water is the most common example and will be used here to explain the methods.

Boiling is a special phenomenon in Physics, more accurately called vaporization (vapourization in Canada), when the water molecules start to leave the water। This forms a vapor that is usually (but not always) visible to the naked eye. Most people interpret this phenomenon as: When the temperature of a solution is raised, it starts to boil. This is simple, but not necessarily true. In fact, the way vaporization works is: When the temperature of a solution is raised, its pressure also increases, when it's partial pressure (or vaporization pressure) is equal to the surrounding atmospheric pressure, it vaporizes.

Figure 1: A pot of water that was brought just to boiling (vaporization)

This can be pretty confusing, but basically it states that there are two ways to boil water: Raise the temperature, or drop the atmospheric pressure!

WARNING: NERDY PART!

The actual physics behind this goes as follows: As you start to raise the temperature in the solution, the molecules become more active. As these molecules become active the pressure increases, when the pressure inside the solution gets high enough they will actually start to burst out of the solution. This 'bursting' action is interpretted as vaporization.

So with this new found knowledge here's some fun. First you will need some sort of a sealed vial, as you can see in image 2. Then you fill the vial half-way with water. You will need some way to evacuate some of the air above where the water is, a small valve can be handy. Then you need to cool down the air above the water in the vial - what this will do is drop the pressure of the air above the water, this is the water's atmospheric pressure. If you cool it enough (dropping the atmospheric pressure) the water will begin to boil. That's right - a cold boil, good luck making tea with this water!

Figure 2: Sealed vials.

Some crazy facts:

The pressure in high altitude places is lower than low altitude places, so when you boil water it boils at too low a temperature to make food!

The pressure in space is insanely low (not zero though, that's impossible) so if you are in space and you open your mouth your saliva will boil.

Australia, Australia, be careful...

These are not my words, they came in an email.

Figure 1: Prime Minister Kevin Rudd - Australia.

Muslims who want to live under Islamic Sharia law were told on Wednesday to get out of Australia , as the government targeted radicals in a bid to head off potential terror attacks..

Separately, Rudd angered some Australian Muslims on Wednesday by saying he supported spy agencies monitoring the nation's mosques. Quote:

'IMMIGRANTS, NOT AUSTRALIANS, MUST ADAPT. Take It Or Leave It. I am tired of this nation worrying about whether we are offending some individual or their culture. Since the terrorist attacks on Bali , we have experienced a surge in patriotism by the majority of Australians. '

'This culture has been developed over two centuries of struggles, trials and victories by millions of men and women who have sought freedom'

'We speak mainly ENGLISH, not Spanish, Lebanese, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, or any other language. Therefore, if you wish to become part of our society . Learn the language!'

'Most Australians believe in God. This is not some Christian, right wing, political push, but a fact, because Christian men and women, on Christian principles, founded this nation, and this is clearly documented. It is certainly appropriate to display it on the walls of our schools. If God offends you, then I suggest you consider another part of the world as your new home, because God is part of our culture.'

'We will accept your beliefs, and will not question why. All we ask is that you accept ours, and live in harmony and peaceful enjoyment with us.'

'This is OUR COUNTRY, OUR LAND, and OUR LIFESTYLE, and we will allow you every opportunity to enjoy all this. But once you are done complaining, whining, and griping about Our Flag, Our Pledge, Our Christian beliefs, or Our Way of Life, I highly encourage you take advantage of one other great Australian freedom, 'THE RIGHT TO LEAVE'..'

'If you aren't happy here then LEAVE. We didn't force you to come here. You asked to be here. So accept the country YOU accepted.'

Don't be so Naive (Tech)

All I have to say is "Don't be so naive" world, everyone treats computers and technology as though it is a ceramic dish wrapped in a thin layer of delicate glass! This world is full of viruses, hackers, trojans and the like - companies like Microsoft and Norton claim to be able to clean your computer of everything of the like. Sometimes the truth can be hidden behind a nice, big, professional logo!

Figure 1: Cartoon of a Computer, welcome to reality

Wikipedia describes a trojan as "In the context of computing and software, a Trojan horse, also known as a trojan, is malware that appears to perform a desirable function but in fact performs undisclosed malicious functions. Therefore, a computer worm or virus may be a Trojan horse."

Now, pay close attention to that description - it says that it appears to perform a desirable function but performs malicious functions. This short description is what most people skip over - most people only see "worm or virus". Here is the important point of this paragraph - if you install a program (for example: Adobe Photoshop (no claims are made against Adobe or any of it's parters)), even if it's storebought, and you install the program, the program might be able to send information about you without you knowing it! Don't be so naive, usually in the big, long, agreement there will be a section saying that the program sends information about it's user!

People just blindly click this!

I will not go into detail about the difference between a virus and a computer worm but i will say this:

Viruses and computer worms need to be willingly installed by the user of the computer.

This point is important to creators of viruses/worms because if (somewhere in software agreement) you agree to having malicious software on your PC then there is nothing that you can do. This is, however, why anti-spyware and anti-virus software was intended for! Personally, I do not trust the following anti-virus software producers: Microsoft, Norton, McAfee. The ones that I would suggest getting would be Avast!, AVG, and Search & Destroy. A lot of antivirus/antispyware programs are free! So why not get them - in most cases they won't hurt your computer (Avast! and AVG are freeware and are legitimate), Spybot: Search & Destroy is not free but there are free lite versions of it.

(I do not certify that any software listed above (or at all for that matter) will not harm your computer, download them at your own risk!)

Organic LEDs

I am in a technology, so obviously i have a nack for new technologies (not saying i'm an expert or anything). I just recently learned about these new LED screens (not a typo it's not LCD it's actually LED) called O-LEDs or Organic Light Emitting Diodes.

Figure 1: Flexible Screen (yes it's real)

One of the main features of an O-LED is that it does not require a backlight to operate - that means that it consumes less power, much, much less power. However, these O-LEDs are very expensive and take a lot of money and time to create - so they are not widely in circulation yet. The first time I ever saw one was in the Sony Style (Sony's circulation store) and they had one O-LED screen, it was a 12-inch screen, picture was sharp and clear, resolution was not perfect but it was still great, and it was only 5 mm wide! The thing did cost 2,500 Canadian Dollars - much too expensive for anything i would even have use for, but it is technology at its best.

Figure 2: OLED as seen from the side.

So I decided to do a little research on how the thing works, it has been around for several years now (around 2005). The largest OLED tv produced was in 2008 and it was 40 inches, but the price for it was off the charts. In May of 2007 Sony produced the first flexible screen, it was 2.5 inches and 0.3 mm thick - it was fully flexable like a piece of paper. Wow. They keep releasing smaller versions and claim to be able to go 10 times smaller, but it breaks too easily. 

Welcome to the future!

The Good, The Bad and the Scientific

I have read several news reports over the weekend (decided to take a Monday off because I also have a lot during school to get done). Two stories caught my attention, a girl in Red Deer, Alberta, was abducted and she broke away from her captors and ran to a payphone. In Canada new research has been applied to Stem Cells and a method has been designed into creating them without using unborn fetus or viruses. 

The first story is quite the ugly one, a 16 year old girl in Red Deer, Alberta, was lured into an unknown man's vehicle while she was out buying medication. The man pretended that he was police, he even had fake red/blue lights on top of his car. The fact that the girl was missing was discovered when her father found her truck, unlocked, parked at the drug store with all her stuff in it - she was missing. She then broke away from her captors on Saturday (2 days later from the kidnapping) and escaped to a payphone where she called for help.

Stem cell research has become interesting lately, Canadian scientists have discovered a new method for creating stem cells without the danger of using unborn fetus and without using viruses. It can lead way to cures for diabetes, cancer and other cell issues such as brain damage. There is no danger of the body rejecting the new cells because they are made from the patients own stem cell matter.

Figure 1: Embryonic Stem Cells

Skiing Troubles or Troubles with Skiing?

Figure 1: Kicking Horse Ski Resort (Advanced Skiers)

"The death of a Montreal woman, lost in the out-of-bounds area of a B.C. ski hiss, is a tragic but cautionary tale." - Calgary Herald, Ski Tragedy Holds Lessons, February 28, 2009.

Tragic in the loss but cautionary in the lesson? There is no lesson to be learned here in my opinion, I (as I'm sure many other people) have been skiing before - you know what you can do, and you know what you can not. Here is the fact, it is ILLEGAL so don't do it! Being an advanced ski hill, people there should know the rules.

Figure 2: Amazing Photo of an Avalanche.

Two skiers, Gilles Blackburn (51) and his wife Marie-Josee Fortin (44) were skiing in the Kicking Horse ski resort in British Columbia (Canada) and apparently thought it would be a good idea to go off terrain into the uncontrolled areas. This is not only illegal but it's also extremely dangerous, with blast sites and avalanche areas. The two skiers got stranded and had nothing but: two granola bars, the clothing on their back, and their ski equipment. 

Temperatures dropped to -14 at times and after 10 days Marie-Johee Fortin died from hypothermia. The couple did everything they could to try and get help - this included walking around to stomp the symbol S.O.S. (meaning help) into the snow. One helicopter that flew overhead saw the sign but when the operator called the police they took it as a joke - mostly because no reports of missing people were filed. After three more people spotted the S.O.S. sign and seven days, Blackburn was finally found; this was only due to a private helicopter company doing its own search because the RCMP failed to launch a search and rescue.

This teaches a lesson to other skiers, snowboarders, snowbladers, etc. that if you feel it necessary to break the law then don't expect to be saved! This story is tragic, I feel for the souls who have lost loved ones, but at the same time I hope that other people take up a career in thinking;

if you go out of bounds, don't expect a rescue team.

War In Iraq To End?

"The president's objective to withdraw U.S. combat forces from Iraq is one that we should pray for, plan for and work toward,"

This is a direct quote from representative John M. McHugh of New York, the ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, in lieu of President Barack Obama's plans to withdraw most troops in Iraq by the middle of 2010.

Figure 1: Troops in Iraq.

Barack Obama originally decided that at least 92,000 troops in the eastern country of Iraq will be withdrawn from combat. He plans to leave behind 35,000 to 50,000 of the already 142,000 stationed troops. As one can imagine - this plan caused major controversy.

The bulk of the plan consisted in August of 2010, by August 31, the ~92,000 troops will be withdrawn. But this is not the entire plan, also by the end of 2011 ALL troops in Iraq are planned to be withdrawn from the country.

The Representative of California, Nancy Pelosi, was clearly upset about the residual force saying that the 50,000 troops was not justifiable.

Is this idea a relatively good one? Or will Iraq spiral out of control in August of 2010 when troops begin to withdraw from the Middle Eastern country in war.

Oil and Gas Truth...

The oil and gas industry is Alberta's (and maybe even Canada's) largest industry right now. In fact - it is so large that someone decided to do a little analytical study based on the oil consumption daily, world wide. This excel document shows that worldwide (between 2002 and 2007) the daily consumption was between 78 and 85 MILLION barrels a day (it's only larger now!!) of oil. Since the study is not finished for 2008, we are using at the end of 2007. (85.9 Million).

Figure 1: Oil Eruption from Rig.

These are ridiculous numbers! But that is life. So here is the fun part of this analytical study. We will find out how many Olympic Swimming Pools we can fill up with our daily oil consumption. That's right.. Olympic Swimming Pools!

1 barrel = 159 liters.
1 Olympic Swimming Pool = 2 500 000 liters. WOW
159 (liters/barrel) x 85 900 000 (barrels) = 13 658 000 000 liters.
13 658 000 000 liters / 2 500 000 liters/swimming pool.

= 5 463 Olympic Swimming Pools.

Wow! Planet earth can fill up 5 463 Olympic Swimming Pools with oil and use it... DAILY!
Just imagine...

OKAY, on Oil, Gas and the Environment

So there is this whole thing going on in the world about oil, gas and the environment where the world is running out of its nonrenewable resources. Let me tell you what I think, the world definitely needs a change - there is no doubt about that, but we can't just run forward without thinking of the consequences.

I live in Alberta, which is one of the world's leading suppliers of oil and gas - this fact makes our province bloody rich, and we have the world's largest oil sands. Oil sands, for those of you who do not know, are large deposits of sand with Bitumen (or crude oil and other substances) mixed with the sand molecules (Refer to Figure 1).

Figure 1: Alberta Oilsand Product

The most efficient way to extract this oil from the sands, unfortunately, involves using pure drinkable water (and so far it's the only way). Then they send the Bitumen to an upgrading plant south of Edmonton and turn it into Crude Oil (Refer to Figure 2).

Figure 2: Alberta Upgrading Plant, Fort Saskatchewan.

Okay, so where am i going, you ask? Simple, the world is researching new and efficient ways of creating energy. Although i completely agree that the world should take a step towards a greener environment - what about the people who work in Oil and Gas now? What will become of their jobs? According to Statistics Canada - Employment there are ~191,514 Canadians working in mining, oil and gas. These people could potentially all lose work if the oil and gas industry is suddenly cut back, what of a recession we seem to be in?

What will Barack Obama do to help North America realize a greener world and help all those people (in both Canada and the United States) retain their important jobs?

The answer is nothing...

Pink Panther 2

So yesterday I woke up and had this insatiable feeling that I have to go online and buy tickets to see Pink Panther 2.. well actually that's not quite true, I had asked my girlfriend earlier to see if she wanted to go.

So, I go online and order these tickets using the online interac that Cineplex Odeon offers. We finally get there for 5 O'Clock, not really my favorite movie - in my opinion the first one was better, but it was still pretty funny. I would really suggest that you watch it if you are in need for a pretty good laugh (or just download it later!!).

I would have to say that my favorite actor in that entire movie is John Cleese, I know, messed up isn't it? John Cleese has class!! Okay?

Dam-Burgur!!