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!!