24 days down, 19 to go

The Oxford winter break is now halfway over, with three weeks remaining. Somehow, that rather changes my thinking with regards to the accomplishments so far. Having spent two of the three weeks so far in Turkey, and dealt with what limited Christmas related activities I had, I feel less bad about not having completed masses of thesis reading or writing yet. As it now seems quite unlikely that I will be going anywhere with Sarah P. before the break is over, that leaves me with a good block of time to push my way through my enduring to-do list.

I should probably have anticipated that searching for jobs right around Christmas would be all-but-impossible. The fact that nobody will respond to emails within about a week of the celebration makes a lot of sense, when you consider all the stress and staffing problems that it necessarily involves. Hopefully, once we pass through the gate of New Year’s Eve, some connectivity and productivity will re-emerge among potential employers.

The plan, therefore, is to finish my developing world papers (including at least one external edit) by the 29th of December, without fail. That should keep me hopping during the next few days: from abandoned library to less abandoned coffee shop, for reading and writing respectively.

PS. I am really coming to appreciate TextMate. It has replaced TextEdit in my Dock, and I may even shell out the 39 Euros for a legitimate copy, once the thirty day trial expires. I especially appreciate how I can work on PHP files, .htaccess files, and the like without having to worry about formatting problems – and with colour coding to boot.

Christmas Eve

Fraser Long contact juggling

Without a doubt, this was the first Christmas Eve in which I:

  1. Cycled well over 10km
  2. Ate chips with hummous, balsamic vinegar, and salt from a kebab van for dinner
  3. Demonstrated my relative ineptitude in the playing of pool
  4. Found myself in the Purple Turtle (a notorious and bunker-like student bar) at 1:30am

All told, it was almost infinitely better than last year’s experience of sitting alone at my computer in Wadham College. Many thanks to Antonia’s brother Fraser: for teaching me about contact juggling, winning graciously at pool, and generally making the evening far more social than it would otherwise have been.

Turkey 2006 photos: fifth batch

These photos are in addition to those that have already been posted on Photo.net and Facebook.

Goreme at night

Goreme at night, taken while out stargazing with Ivanka.

Turkish child with basketball

Ussuf, the young man who beat me at basketball.

Ping pong partners

Ivanka and the special education teacher, with ping pong rackets.

Raki and backgammon

Raki and backgammon.

Blue Mosque and other buildings

Blue Mosque and other buildings.

Merry Christmas

To all my friends who I did not have the chance to send a Turkish postcard / Christmas card, I hope the holidays find you healthy, happy, and in the company of those who you care about. Thinking about friends and family members all around the world, I am reminded of how lucky I have been to meet such a diverse, fascinating, and caring group of people.

While the time since my return from Istanbul has certainly not been as productive as I might have hoped, I am optimistic that the sheer terror evoked by fast-approaching deadlines will soon have me churning through pages and hammering out paragraphs. As they say: “A graduate student is a device that converts coffee into research papers.”

The X-Files in retrospect

Unproductive pre-Christmas days are reminding me of evenings long forgotten. Specifically, those taken up in watching The X-Files and being terrified about all the pseudo-scientific content therein. These days, I am more appreciative about the opportunities the series provided to the emerging film and television industry in Vancouver, as several of my friends could describe on the basis of their personal experience.

I remember evenings after the point where my paternal grandfather replaced our television with one three times the size, in order to watch the World Cup – an event that had less than zero significance for me at the time and has not much more now – when I would watch new episodes of the X-Files and be unusually unable to sleep before the school days subsequent.

It is interesting how The X-Files was concerned to the point of paranoia about the dangers of government secrecy, whereas television today has largely embraced the mindset of the ‘War on Terror.’ 24 is an example that is shamefully compelling.

World’s best geeky songs

Now that I am using a text editor that colour codes things based on which programming language you are using, I feel free to unleash a bit of geekishness upon you all.

In that spirit, what verse from a song can compete with the following? (Naturally, it is sung to the tune of “I am the Very Model of a Modern Major General.”)

There’s antimony, arsenic, aluminum, selenium,
And hydrogen and oxygen and nitrogen and rhenium
And nickel, neodymium, neptunium, germanium,
And iron, americium, ruthenium, uranium,
Europium, zirconium, lutetium, vanadium
And lanthanum and osmium and astatine and radium
And gold, protactinium and indium and gallium
And iodine and thorium and thulium and thallium.

That is from Tom Lehrer’s “Element Song” which, unfortunately, is no longer up to date. Readers who prefer their science delivered in musical format should also try to find copies of the following:

“Photosynthesis” by Moxy Fruvous

I will be the first to admit that this is not the most musical song in the world (though it is a far cry better than the Monty Python “Oliver Cromwell” song). That said, it will probably teach you something about the most essential chemical process for the maintenance of life as we know it on earth. Not something you can say about Bach or Britney Spears.

“The Galaxy Song” by Monty Python

Can’t remember the rate at which the outer spiral arm of the Milky Way which contains our sun rotates the galactic core? This song is for you. A shame that none of the measurements given are in metric.

“The Transcendental Deduction” by Paul L. Fine

Not scientific, per se, but decidedly educational. How can anyone deny the merit of a song that fits in the lyric: “Now, reason gives us concepts which are true but tautological; sensation gives us images whose content is phenomenal?”

“Doppler Shifting” by The Chromatics, from the album Astro Cappella

Unambiguously, the finest a cappella song about the Doppler Shift, this song will increase your understanding of highway speed traps, the nature of the universe, and much else besides.

Can you name a geekier song? If so, please leave a comment. Even better, send me a copy.

Christmas in Oxford

Given that I have no plans whatsoever for Christmas Eve or Christmas Day (aside from a short reception with the Warden’s family in Wadham on the 25th), I am looking for something interesting to do in Oxford during that period, aside from making calls through Skype to as many scattered friends as I can come up with phone numbers for. People have suggested to me that there are probably concerts ongoing, as well as curious and uniquely British forms of theatre. Last year, I just sat around as one of the two isolated residents of the college.

Does anyone know of anything interesting – and preferably distinctive to Oxford – that is happening on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day? It would be a shame to break my excellent streak of finding things other than the thesis on which to spend time.

Valdez damages halved

Ship and mosques in Istanbul

Today, an American court halved the punitive damages being imposed on Exxon for the 1989 Valdez oil spill from US$5 billion to $2.5 billion. Reading about it prompts a number of strands of thinking:

Firstly, it surprises me that punitive damages still have not been assigned. Chances to bemoan the slow pace of litigation in the United States (and all the problems that accompany it) are many. No doubt, a great deal of whatever settlements are reached will go to the hordes of lawyers, photocopiers, and expert witnesses who worked on the case, rather than to the people who suffered from the spill or to the rebuilding (such as is possible) of the affected ecosystems.

The second thought that comes to mind is along the lines of: “Didn’t Exxon earn record profits this year?” They earned US$10.4 billion (£5.6bn) in the second quarter of 2006. While this is a fairly natural response, it is not necessarily a very legitimate one. The damages being considered are meant to address the conduct of the company in 1989, something that is not obviously related to its present financial circumstances. At the same time, the purpose of punitive damages is to encourage a company to exercise greater caution in the future, when engaging in similar activities. Not having captains that swig vodka before heading to the bridge is a good start. Reading about that, one has feels an emotional inclination to wring them for all they are worth.

To what extent would charging Exxon $5 billion instead of $2.5 billion alter the likelihood of future spills? The purpose of such punishments is not revenge, but the inducement of desirable changes in behaviour. No punishment short of utterly bankrupting the company would actually stop them from shipping oil from Alaska to the contiguous 48 states. That said, a big punishments also catch the attention of other big oil firms who have the ability to take action to make such spills less likely, and less severe if they do take place.

A final issue to consider is that of moral hazard. If the penalty is cut in half, after seventeen years in court, it suggests to companies that they can reduce such costs just by spinning things through the legal system for as long as possible. The whole situation is like a test case from my Law and Economics course at UBC with Robert Gateman. Which outcome secures the best mix of equity and efficiency? Which establishes the best incentives for future behaviour?

Of course, I am not one of the judges in the case. I have not examined the relevant facts and laws and, as such, it is impossible to know whether this reduction is warranted or not. My personal sympathies do not lie with oil companies, but they have the same right to be treated with due process under the law as any other entity within society. Hopefully, regardless of the final amount of the penalty, mechanisms have been put into action that will prevent catastrophes like the Valdez spill in the future.