-We are in the midst of another rainy day in Halifax. Hopefully the thundershowers that have been predicted don't actually make it to town.
-I was able to attend the MUN fundraising dinner at Pier 21 last night. As I mentioned previously, the guest speaker was to be Gwynne Dyer, a Newfoundlander and MUN alumnus.
While I knew that Rick Hillier, MUN's Chancellor, was to be there, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the acting President, Eddy Campbell, was also in attendance, as was the Direct of the School of Pharmacy. I was also very pleased that I ended up seated next to the only person at the event that I knew (someone from Neil's elementary school class who is presently a Dal student).
Dyer's talk was about the likely negative impact of climate change. While I didn't necessarily agree with everything in the talk, I did agree with the general thrust of the argument (or certainly the over-arching goal of the talk), which is that humans are having a negative environmental impact and need to change their ways quickly.
Given that I am in the middle of a book on G.K. Chesterton, who was frequently sought as a public speaker (though on slightly different topics), it was fun to be privy to a similar experience. In general I get the sense that this tradition is fading to some extent. I don't know how many of my peers would be interested in hearing a freelance thinker/writer expound on whichever topic suit them. Though maybe part of the problem is that we no longer have as many people who write so prolifically on such a range of topics that they would be able to engage in such activities.
The more I think about it, the more I think it would quite fun to see the equivalent of a G.B. Shaw vs. G.K. Chesterton public debate. The problem is that I have no idea who the two debaters would be.
-My uncle is scheduled to arrive this afternoon for a visit. At the moment we haven't scheduled many activities, actually I don't think that we have scheduled much of anything. About as far as we have gone in the planning process is to discuss what we would be having for dinner tonight and how we would go about procuring beer (two somewhat important topics given the guest).
-In about half an hour I need to head to Dal. I am really hoping that the rain has subsided by then. Sitting around while wet is something I don't particularly enjoy.
(I was going to say "there are few things I like less" until I realized that there are likely many things that I like less, or dislike more.)
Showing posts with label G.K. Chesterton. Show all posts
Showing posts with label G.K. Chesterton. Show all posts
Thursday, May 07, 2009
Friday, May 01, 2009
A Few Quick Notes 310
-After a few days of relatively nice weather we have slipped into rain and wind. Apparently this type of weather is supposed to be here tomorrow as well. The one major upside of this is that I presume it is helping with the Spryfield fire, so I guess in the long run this is probably a very timely turn of events (though maybe it would have been a little better yesterday afternoon).
-On the subject of the Spryfield/Herring Cove/Purcell's Cove fire that started yesterday afternoon (and that I covered in a few posts yesterday), while listening to the news I have heard suggestions that this may have had something to do with the end of the school year. As the public schools are still in session I presume these references are to universities, though I am not really sure I am following what it is they are suggesting. If these people are trying to suggest that people are going into the woods and having barbecues, or something similar, why not just say that. Instead every comment I have heard is vague and seems to jump around the point. Furthermore, as far as I know, the cause of the fire isn't known (and it certainly didn't seem to be known yesterday afternoon), so why people would jump to such conclusions seems a little strange to me.
-Neil, Rebecca, and Rebecca should be returning from their Saint John New Brunswick conference later today. Aside from them all getting there safely I don't really know anything about the experience. Presumably Neil will have plenty to blog about when he gets back.
-This morning I noticed that the two pots of chives that I had were rather infested with spider mites. Because chives don't have regular leaves with undersides the damage caused by the spider mites wasn't as noticeable. I now presume that these plants where what allowed the spider mites to jump to the bean plants I planted a few weeks ago. Soon after discovering the infestation I decided to get rid of the plants and wash all of the empty pots and trays. At the moment the only thing I have growing on the infested living room shelving unit is the zebra aloe, some dill, some beets, and two African violets. The reason these plants have remained is that they are showing no signs of infestation. I really hope this does the trick.
-I decided to bake a little more bread this morning. At the moment the final two loaves are in the oven. While the bread looks fine, the crust seems to have a slightly different texture than I was expecting.
-It seems that the name 'Swine Flu' has become a matter of some debate. My understanding is that a number of groups, including the WHO and the pork lobby, are interested in having the disease called by another name (ironically they want to call it the same name as the 1918 flu). I have a hard time believing that such a change is really worth the effort. It would seem that the efforts of such organizations might be more reasonably used for other matters relating to the outbreak. More importantly, it seems perfectly reasonable, at least to me, that the name of the disease reflects its origin (the animal not the food). To change the name of this disease helps downplay the significance of animal to human disease transmission, something that has the ability to be quite problematic. If anything we should at least acknowledge this risk, particularly as most of our recent flu scares in recent years have developed in this way (as well as other diseases). This isn't just a safe little thing that came out of thin air, it clearly came from a certain type of animal and other such diseases might come from other animals in the future, and this is something that we shouldn't forget. If this gets us to think about our food sources and farming practices it is probably not a bad thing, hopefully we might find ways to reduce such occurrences in the future. To ignore the origins is this disease is to increase the risk of similar issues arising again.
-A few days ago I started reading a pretty bad biography of G.K. Chesterton, so far I still have hardly any idea who he was or why I should be reading his biography.
-On the subject of the Spryfield/Herring Cove/Purcell's Cove fire that started yesterday afternoon (and that I covered in a few posts yesterday), while listening to the news I have heard suggestions that this may have had something to do with the end of the school year. As the public schools are still in session I presume these references are to universities, though I am not really sure I am following what it is they are suggesting. If these people are trying to suggest that people are going into the woods and having barbecues, or something similar, why not just say that. Instead every comment I have heard is vague and seems to jump around the point. Furthermore, as far as I know, the cause of the fire isn't known (and it certainly didn't seem to be known yesterday afternoon), so why people would jump to such conclusions seems a little strange to me.
-Neil, Rebecca, and Rebecca should be returning from their Saint John New Brunswick conference later today. Aside from them all getting there safely I don't really know anything about the experience. Presumably Neil will have plenty to blog about when he gets back.
-This morning I noticed that the two pots of chives that I had were rather infested with spider mites. Because chives don't have regular leaves with undersides the damage caused by the spider mites wasn't as noticeable. I now presume that these plants where what allowed the spider mites to jump to the bean plants I planted a few weeks ago. Soon after discovering the infestation I decided to get rid of the plants and wash all of the empty pots and trays. At the moment the only thing I have growing on the infested living room shelving unit is the zebra aloe, some dill, some beets, and two African violets. The reason these plants have remained is that they are showing no signs of infestation. I really hope this does the trick.
-I decided to bake a little more bread this morning. At the moment the final two loaves are in the oven. While the bread looks fine, the crust seems to have a slightly different texture than I was expecting.
-It seems that the name 'Swine Flu' has become a matter of some debate. My understanding is that a number of groups, including the WHO and the pork lobby, are interested in having the disease called by another name (ironically they want to call it the same name as the 1918 flu). I have a hard time believing that such a change is really worth the effort. It would seem that the efforts of such organizations might be more reasonably used for other matters relating to the outbreak. More importantly, it seems perfectly reasonable, at least to me, that the name of the disease reflects its origin (the animal not the food). To change the name of this disease helps downplay the significance of animal to human disease transmission, something that has the ability to be quite problematic. If anything we should at least acknowledge this risk, particularly as most of our recent flu scares in recent years have developed in this way (as well as other diseases). This isn't just a safe little thing that came out of thin air, it clearly came from a certain type of animal and other such diseases might come from other animals in the future, and this is something that we shouldn't forget. If this gets us to think about our food sources and farming practices it is probably not a bad thing, hopefully we might find ways to reduce such occurrences in the future. To ignore the origins is this disease is to increase the risk of similar issues arising again.
-A few days ago I started reading a pretty bad biography of G.K. Chesterton, so far I still have hardly any idea who he was or why I should be reading his biography.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)