Probiotic yogurt bacteria invasion, take the 10 billion and counting poll

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Apple iPad meets Star Trek

I swear I saw the new Apple iPad lurking in the background of the most recent Star Trek film. Apple's own advertising even displays the film being viewed on the iPad. Certainly the concept and design of a thin, large-screen computer tablet has been a prop in some science fiction films and TV shows (not that I can name one off the top of my head), so I hope the iPad does well. The pricing is certainly interesting.

I'd be happy to have one sent to me for review.

How Intelligent Design spoiled a good novel

Just when I was beginning to get into Philip Kerr's 1999 science fiction novel The Second Angel, set near the end of the 21st century, I felt he spoiled it on page 19 of the hardcover edition by lecturing on an aspect of biology and attributing his omniscient narrator's explanation to Intelligent Design. Anyone unfamiliar with this discredited ID argument would not even have suspected its author of being less than truthful. The author's blurb on the dustjacket claims he has an "encyclopedic intelligence," but this does not mean that he's 100% right all the time. So what does he say:

"It is certain that the mathematics of blood, the numbers inherent in its complex structure, provide perhaps the best evidence for the existence of some kind of Creator.

Take something like the process of coagulation, which requires the participation of several hemostatic proteins. ... It is hard not to understate the irreducibly complex nature of this system. The ratio of the probability that such a system might come into being by pure chance to the probability that it might not come into being is so enormous that it is almost impossible to find a number large enough to express these odds."

The code words in this explanation that link it to ID are "complex structure", "irreducibly complex", "pure chance" and the linking of this biochemical process to "evidence for the existence of some kind of Creator."

Kerr based his information, though, oddly he did not cite his source despite numerous footnotes throughout the novel, on the work of ID proponents Michael Behe, a biochemist, and William Dembski, a mathematician.

If you want to read more about how scientists and others have thoroughly discredited Intelligent Design and its predecessors Creationism and Creation Science, go to the National Center for Science Education's Web site, a United States organization that promotes the teaching of science in public schools. Use the NCSE site search and look up "blood clotting" to find several examples that debunk the ID claims that blood clotting is evidence of a designer of biological life, that is, a God.

Why spoil good fiction with pseudoscience when there's all kinds of perfectly good science out there?

Royal Ontario Museum headhunting a new CEO

The Globe and Mail ran a story on January 23, 2010 that the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) is looking for a new CEO. I wonder if a certain prominent CEO of a world-class museum in BC's capital will get one of those discreet phone calls from Russell Reynolds Associates, an executive headhunting firm.

Beyond Eden rock musical, setting the record straight

None of the reviews I've read of the Vancouver Playhouse's rock musical Beyond Eden (January 16-February 6, 2010), and that includes those of the Globe and Mail (January 22, 2010) and CBC News, mentioned that the 1957 totem-pole-collecting expedition on which Bruce Ruddell's musical is based, was jointly sponsored by the British Columbia Provincial Museum (now the Royal BC Museum) and the University of British Columbia. Ironically, anthropologist Wilson Duff, on whom the character Lewis Wilson (played by John Mann) is based, worked for the Provincial Museum until 1965 when he became a professor at UBC. The BC Government filmed the expedition, the production is called The Silent Ones, with CBC also filming it and calling their work Totem. You can see a shortened, retitled version of Totem on the CBC Digital Archives ("Bill Reid's rescue mission for Haida art"), originally broadcast on May 21, 1959 in the series Pacific Eight.

British Columbia Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner temporarily closes

The Victoria Times-Colonist lead story for January 23, 2010, based on a leaked document, was about the closure, on the advice of legal counsel, of British Columbia's Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (OIPC). This followed the appointment of Commissioner David Loukidelis by the BC Government as the new Deputy Attorney General. The OIPC Web site contains a copy of his letter of resignation dated January 19, 2010 to the Office of the Speaker. A committee of the Legislative Assembly is supposed to appoint a new Commissioner, but in the meantime, another special committee is in the process of reviewing the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, the legal authority under which the OIPC operates. Is it unreasonable to think that this all has something to do with the Vancouver Winter Olympics and discouraging FOI requests for information about the Games?

Caprica TV series a keeper

I watched the premiere of Caprica, the TV series that debuted on January 22, 2010 on the Syfy and Space channels in the USA and Canada. It's a keeper. The show, filmed on location in Vancouver, BC, Canada, is the prequel to Battlestar Galactica (2004-2009 and 1978-1979) and is set 50 or so years before the near-total destruction of humanity by the Cylons. The series looks at two families, the Graystones and the Adamas, both living on the planet Caprica. Adama is from the planet Tauron which seems to have reputation for generating a host of nasty people. At the end of the first episode I could see how the backstory and some of the many questions that remained unanswered in the more recent Battlestar Galactica will be dealt with. Daniel Graystone's dead daughter Zoe, whom he resurrects as a Cylon, might just be the progenitor of the Cylon faction that believed in the One True God, whereas the Cylon he produced under a Caprica defense contract will likely become the source of the Cylon horde that almost destroyed humanity.

It was fun seeing the Vancouver landscape transformed through CGI into the urban center of Caprica. A couple of places I recognized were Library Square outside of which Daniel Graystone and Joseph Adama (William Adama's father) first meet and the Georgia Street side of the Vancouver Art Gallery, which used to be the Vancouver Courthouse.

The show will probably not sit well with those who believe in the One True God since it reverses what North American and other audiences hold most dear.

Created OCLC WebJunction group Google Wave for Libraries

Update for August 5, 2010:

In the wake of Google's announcement that Google Wave has broken over the boulders of public apathy, I'll be investigating future support options for my OCLC WebJunction group.

I set up an OCLC WebJunction group called Google Wave for Libraries on January 21, 02010. Come join me and help your colleagues discover what all the Waving's about.

What, no flames allowed at the Vancouver Winter Olympics?

Global BC TV News Hour ran a great story on January 21, 2010 in its "Beyond the Podium" series as part of its coverage of the Vancouver Winter Olympics. According to the story, Will Tamasky, owner of the BC business Toasterz that sells products that feature a flame as part of each product's name was sent a cease and desist or pay us $5,000 compensation by the Canadian Olympic Committee's (COC) legal counsel.

I find this really funny because there are all kinds of other products and organizations that feature a flame as part of the brand, to name just two that spring to mind:

• Ronson's Lighter Fuel and similar products from that company



• Calgary Flames hockey team logo -- and the Olympic Torch Relay just passed through Calgary in the last day or two

I wonder if it will be illegal during the Vancouver Winter Olympics to advertise a screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show by illustrating the ad with a Bic lighter's flame?

In fact, given the prominence of the Olympic Torch and the flame, I think all flames, representations of flames and sources of flames should be banned. This would include clothing depicting the Human Torch character from the Marvel Comics series the Fantastic Four.

Welcome to Victoria Tony Parsons!

Tony Parsons, the famous news anchor of BCTV's, later GlobalBC's News Hour, will be settling in Victoria and going behind the desk for CHEK TV. The Times-Colonist story today (January 21, 2010) said he's looking for a prospective rental property in Oak Bay. Who knows, maybe we'll bump into each other on Willows Beach walking our dogs.

The Law of Unintended Consequences gobsmacks Google thanks to Android

This report from SearchEngineWatch.com strikes me as a prime example of the Law of Unintended Consequences: Apple and Microsoft are in talks about using Microsoft's search engine Bing as the default search provider for the Apple iPhone. Apple it seems doesn't want its phone competitor with its own Nexus One and Android operating system to have access to iPhone customer data. But hasn't there been talk of Microsoft bringing out its own smartphone codenamed Pink? So what then for poor Apple? Why can't it with all its creative talent develop its own search engine for its own products? And there's always Yahoo!

Psst, wanna buy Whistler Resort during the Vancouver Winter Olympics February 2010?

Whistler Resort is in a credit crunch and may be up for auction during the Vancouver Winter Olympics in February 2010. Have we got a deal for you!

Movie note: The Book of Eli (2010)

I went to see The Book of Eli movie today (January 19, 2010). For my notes, see my Doomsday Blog entry.

British Columbia 1885 photo mystery: O.C. Hastings & G.M. Dawson photos

Posted the following on the Yahoo! Groups PhotoHistory this morning (January 19, 2010):

I was sent two scans from a UK individual that are most intriguing and currently pose a photo mystery. Here's what I know so far based on the photos themselves, archival descriptions and digitized, published content freely accessible to me.

In 1885 the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC) geologist Dr. George Mercer Dawson visited northern Vancouver Island and environs, including Alert Bay on Cormorant Island. He took a few photos at Alert Bay in early August 1885 that are described on the Library and Archives Canada Web site as part of the GSC records it preserves. The Royal BC Museum has copy prints of at least three of the Dawson photos, including the two images I was sent.

The mystery is that the scans I was sent show both the Dawson photos on a cabinet card mount with the markings, front and back, of Victoria commercial photographer O.C. Hastings. My supposition is that Hastings processed Dawson's negatives as Dawson, according to his GSC report, once he returned to Victoria remained there for about three weeks working on preparations for the Colonial and Indian Exhibition that was held in London, England, in 1886.

I've uploaded one of the Dawson / Hastings photos to Camera Workers at http://cameraworkers.davidmattison.com/showmedia.php?mediaID=234&mediali\nkID=368

What I'm hoping to find is evidence in a diary or correspondence of Dawson that he purposefully allowed Hastings to market his photos. Some of Dawson's personal records are at McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, and his GSC field notebooks and correspondence are at the Library and Archives Canada.

If anyone on this group can research this on my behalf  I'd be happy to reciprocate with research in archival records here in Victoria, BC.

As a followup, I wrote that I'd discovered that Dawson's fieldbooks are available on microfilm at the Library and Archives and that I'd arrange to borrow the reel (C-4845) that covered his 1885 work.

Here is the photo in question:

Somewhat sunny Saturday after rainy days

Saturday January 16, 2010 turned out to be a pleasantly sunny day, especially the afternoon. I went for a bike ride along Dallas Road that runs through Beacon Hill Park. I stopped just east of the Beacon Hill on the water side and took several photos. I chose four for my Flickr photostream.

On the way back home after stopping for refreshments at the Ogden Point Cafe, I decided to bike through Beacon Hill Park. Somehow I was attracted to a grave monument that just happened to be that of Stephen Allen Spencer (1829-1911) and family. S.A. Spencer was one of Victoria's first commercial photographers in the late 1850s. I added six photographs of the grave site to his page on my Camera Workers Web site. I also submitted one of the photos of the north face of the monument commemorating his son John Norman Spencer (1892-1917) who was killed in France during World War One to Veteran Affairs Canada. J.N. Spencer is buried in the Gwalia Cemetery, Belgium, which is managed by the Commonwealth Graves Commission.



Later in the day I gathered up clothing and shoes no longer of use to our family and took them to a Compassionate Resource Warehouse of Victoria dropoff for the people of Haiti devastated by a catastrophic earthquake on January 12.

If you would like a list of reputable, legitimate aid organizations through which you can donate, I have several on my Doomsday Blog page Help Support Disaster Relief.

What is up with these electric power explosions?

Two electric power explosions with almost the same set of circumstances and outcome less than a month apart in two widely varying locations are really freaky. The first happened in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, on December 23, 2009 ("WorkSafeBC investigates Vancouver hydro explosion", CBC News, http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2009/12/24/bc-hydro-explosion-worksafe-investigation.html). This one sent three BC Hydro workers who were working in the underground power vault to hospital. Photographs of the aftermath of the explosion are found on this NowPublic page. The second explosion happened in downtown Honolulu, Hawaii, on January 14, 2010 and sent the two Hawaiian Electric Company employees who were working in the underground power vault to hospital. The Honolulu explosion also knocked out power to over a thousand customers according to this KITV.com report ("Power Restored After Downtown Explosion", January 14, 2010, http://www.kitv.com/news/22238764/detail.html).

Killer Subs in Pearl Harbor on Nova, January 5, 2010

I watched with great interest the PBS Nova series broadcast on January 5, 2010 titled "Killer Subs in Pearl Harbor". I sent these comments in via the feedback link on the PBS Web site:

Near the end of the broadcast the narrator comments that the 1944 West Loch disaster in Pearl Harbor had been shrouded in secrecy until recently. This is incorrect as a 1989 (2nd ed., 1990) publication from the U.S. National Park Service titled Submerged Cultural Resources Study: USS Arizona Memorial and Pearl Harbor National Historic Landmark describe this event (p. 70-73).

I also found it odd that no one commented on the fact that it the odds of striking the Arizona with a torpedo from a midget submarine firing broadside were next to impossible since there was another vessel moored in front of her.

I also wondered what year the fifth midget submarine had been located since that fact was never stated during the program.

I discovered the answer to my last comment myself. According to this Los Angeles Times story, "Pearl Harbor mini-submarine mystery solved?",

The three pieces of the sub were found during routine test dives between 1994 and 2001 by Terry Kerby, chief pilot of the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory's submersibles Pisces IV and Pisces V. ... Stephenson got involved in 2007 because he was looking for the fifth Japanese mini-sub.

While the Nova program laid out a convincing case that a midget submarine fired its torpedoes and may have sunk one or two battleships, this is far from the overly dramatic claim that the midget submarines played a major role in the attack. Four of them were either sunk or captured and the fifth was scuttled in the West Loch of Pearl Harbor, which was subsequently dredged after the 1944 landing craft explosion disaster, and the sub's remains redeposited along with the wrecks of what was being transported on the destroyed landing crafts outside Pearl Harbor.

Avatar movie opinion

Finally saw Avatar in 3D. It was a rainy New Year's Eve afternoon, so I'd expected a much bigger crowd. Got there in plenty of time and had a relatively close seat but the screen was set well back. I wasn't that impressed with the 3D effects and glasses were required. Wearing glasses on top of glasses is a pain and you don't really want to move your head for fear of losing some of the 3D aspect.  The movie is a love story combined with a cowboys versus Indians, humans versus alien, technologism versus primitivsm, science versus pantheism, the last a false dichotomy if ever there were one. The planet Pandora, a moon of a gas giant whose atmosphere is unbreathable to humans, contains the unlikely named mineral unobtainium, worth $20 million a kilo (I can't remember if this was a kilogram or a kiloton). The mineral has some kind of energy properties that will alleviate a crisis on Earth. This might explain the floating Hallelujah Mountains. The indigenous Na'vi humanoid species stand in the way of human exploitation of their planet's geological treasure. The humans use biological robots called avatars and coffinlike immersion chambers  to control the avatar and interact with the the Na'vi who regard the avatars as demons. When the human agents are out of the immersion chamber the avatar itself is essentially unconscious. The setting, life forms, art direction and attention to detail in Avatar is indeed like nothing you've ever seen before in a science fiction movie and James Cameron has once again raised the bar in that genre. The story, however, leaves a lot to be desired because it is so heavyhanded, moralistic and prejudiced against human behavior. Would we really squandor the opportunity to fully interact with our first contact with an intelligent alien species, no matter how primitive they appear to be?

You can find many more details on the Internet Movie Database about Avatar.

Times-Colonist (Victoria) newspaper mention

The three early retirees from the Royal BC Museum, including yours truly, were written up in Darron Kloster's "On the Street" column in the business section of the Victoria Times-Colonist for January 2, 2010.