SpoOoOOooOoky!

To me, Derek is the Great Pumpkin.

Not because he bears any resemblance to a large orange squash, but for his web Hallowe'en decorations which have been appearing for years now.

Photos from Salt Lake City

I have finally managed to get my photos from Salt Lake City online.

If I hadn't already convinced myself to get a digital camera, this latest outing has all but committed the funds.

The uncertainty of pictures taken on film, the delay in processing, the loss of quality when the film is developed, then printed, then scanned, etc.

Anyway, take a look.

Old Friends at a New Job

It's been about 18 months since I worked with Marlas, and as of today we are working at the same place again. Welcome Marlas!

PS: Hello Nellie!

Dark Winter

Four months ago, the Anser Institute for Homeland Security hosted an exercise with some of the highest members of American Government security called Dark Winter.

Scenario Details
Date:	December 2002
Current events:	Tensions increased to an all-time high between China and Taiwan, Nuclear Weapons smuggling from the ex-Soviet Union discovered, Iraq suspected of producing biological weapons, Iraq deploys approximately 100,000 troops on the Iraq/Kuwait border.
Situation:	A smallpox outbreak is detected in Oklahoma City.

Assuming the roles of key government officials, players worked in real world situations in order to try and contain the spread of the disease.

Scenario factors include the effect of shutting down borders to commerce when a steady supply of oil is required, what should be communicated to the press, how vaccines are managed/distributed, and the result of the rising panic among the general public.

Smallpox, one of the most contagious and lethal diseases known to mankind, is thought to only exist in laboratories in the USA and Russia. It can be transmitted from an infected person to anyone standing within six feet. Once infected, it cannot be treated and is fatal 30% of the time, the remaining victims can be deeply scarred from the infections or blinded.

The results were pretty amazing, particularly how quickly the disease spread and the resulting actions of both the government and the general public.

Frightening, yes. But the result of the exercise was an identification of how current government structures would likely handle a massive outbreak in a highly mobile world.

The good news (if there is any) is that smallpox is a very well guarded, highly fragile organism that would be difficult to deploy in this way.

It makes for a fascinating read: Dark Winter Final Script (PDF)*.

* Warning: there are some images of smallpox victims in this report.

Word On!

I decided to attend the Great Canadian Spell-Off (Event 37) this morning as part of the Vancouver Writer's Festival.

This year's teams were a rematch from last year: the Vancouver Sun and the CBC once again battling for the title of supreme orthographer.

Entering your name in a basket gave two lucky winners the chance to join one of the teams on stage. I wasn't interested in humiliating myself in front of the 80 or so people that were there (not to mention the well known print and radio personalities), so I didn't enter my name.

However, someone else decided it would be a funny joke.

When the winners were announced, I was suprised to hear "Alistair Calder" drawn.

How odd, I thought, that someone else would have the exact same name as me.

I looked around for a moment with rising dread. It wasn't someone else...it was me.

Amidst the polite applause, I walked up on stage and joined the team from CBC Radio. I was sincerely frightened.

CBC Radio was up first with an easy one: Uvea. Assuring my new team mates that I knew the answer, I volunteered it and was correct. Though it was an easy one, I felt more comfortable now.

Next was the 'sacrificial lamb' round where two members of a team are offered up as contestants and are not allowed to discuss their answer with team mates. You had to spell the word and give a definition.

It was: Ternate (the adjective)

The Vancouver Sun was to go first and Stewart Muir (National Editor, Vancouver Sun) gave an engineering definition about lines intersecting. He was wrong.

Now it was my turn: I said that it was the arched structure atop ancient Roman structures. I was wrong.

The audience was then polled, and though many tried, no one got the correct definition:

Arranged in or consisting of sets or groups of three

After a few more games, with words like vichyssoise, vigneron, triboluminescence, dittography and galluses and vilify, the score was tied.

With a final chance to score a point, we were given words that had to have a correct definition attached to them.

My word? Cybersquatter.

It must have been my lucky day.

For my efforts, I was awarded a copy of the Companion to Canadian Literature.

GPS Results

I hoped I would be able to find more caches than the six I located, but blisters on my feet prevented too much movement after the first day.

You can find out all about it on my GPS site.

Lessons Learned

A few things I've learned while in SLC:

• Armed military are on duty at the airport, and stand in one area on a black 5 by 8 foot mat.


• Situated at an altitude of 4500 feet, directly beside a huge salt lake on a desert makes for a very dry climate.


• Do not come to SLC without lip balm.


• The geography is quite similar to the BC Interior - rolling hills with scrub, shale and desert. Beautiful surroundings.


• It appears that every single SLC resident owns a dog.


• No one cleans up after their dog.


• SLC is exceptionally clean. I don't know how this is reconciled against the last point.


• The Mormon Tabernacle is a pretty amazing building


• The Mormon Convention Center looks small from the outside and impossibly huge from the inside.


• Walking over 16 miles in the surrounding hills is guaranteed to produce blisters.


• Blisters hurt more as each day goes by.


• I love my GPS receiver more with each passing day.

I've also been learning business techie stuff, but that's kinda boring, so I'll spare you those details.

Stay tuned for more from SLC.

Off to SLC

For the next week, I'll be in Salt Lake City, training on some newfangled web-thing.

Although I am not worried about the travel, I have to say I'm thinking about it, just a little bit.

In that way, the September 11th terrorist action in New York was successful.

It makes me angry, but it's true.

Killer Whales

As a child I loved going to the Vancouver Aquarium to see, among other things, the Killer Whales perform their tricks, splash the audience and wave goodbye when the show was over.

I remember the large arch that the trainers used to walk up with a long pole and joined chorus of oooh's and ahhh's as these giant creatures would leap up and touch the end of the pole with their nose.

As the years went by, things changed for the whales. Their habitat became more 'authentic', they were no longer required to perform any tricks (though sometimes they would, to the delight of the crowd) and a debate over whales in captivity rose to a fever pitch.

Bjossa, one of the longest tenants at the Vancouver Aquarium, died yesterday after suffering respiratory problems for the past two years. She had been moved to San Diego earlier this year.

There will be no more Killer Whale shows at the Vancouver Aquarium, which, I'm told by those who speak to the whales, is a good thing. But I will always remember watching her leap skyward, impossibly high into the air before splashing down into the water, soaking the first two rows. I'll miss that.

Polar Bears

I admit it, I have a soft spot for Polar Bears.

Beatles Anomalies

As a long time fan of the Beatles, I enjoy anything new that I can find about the history of the band or their music.

While surfing around for the lyrics to "I am the Walrus", I found a fantastic site: What Goes On - The Beatles Anomalies Page

For those of you who know every Beatles song inside-out, it is a great way to rediscover a lot of the music that you thought you knew.

Barney Does Chucky

Okay, this would scare the crap out of me if I were home alone with Barney.

Playing Your Hand

I'm all for having the Taliban hand over Osama Bin Laden to Western Authorities, but I have to agree with this one issue.

While the US has said they have proof, and NATO even publicly announced that they have accepted it, there needs to be a communication with the Taliban.

If, at that time, the Taliban reject the proof, the Americans will have fulfilled their obligation of providing proof of OBL's connection to the terrorist attack in New York.

Bicycle Commuting Rules

I had a little incident while riding my bike to work this morning that makes me wonder why I don't consider these rules more often:

1. Expect the unexpected


2. When a pedestrian changes course directly in front of you by 90 degrees, suddenly cutting you off, do not try to emergency brake on wet grass


3. Always have a bike repair kit and a human repair kit with you

The accident was minor in the end, some rapid exfoliation on my right knee, but made me realize that you can get pretty banged up even at slow speed.

See rule number 1.