My view on Embridge

They say they’ll build the “safest pipeline” they can.

While the word “safest” has the “ring” of being better than just “safe,” the superlative loses the absolute value of it being safe at all. For instance, imagine how safe the safest motorcycle is in a highway crash – that is still the “safest” motorcycle by definition.

So would I be ok with it if they build a “safe” pipeline?
Still no.
Why?
That’s what they said in Fukushima.

So how do I reconcile the fact the oil has to be transported by rail in the absence of a pipeline?
The difference in scale of when something does go wrong and the permanence of the pipeline. I am Canadian, and I make sure our kids can have what Canadians left for us.

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Funding cuts in Science

Funding cuts in science isn’t a hot topic in Canada right now.  I think I know why.

I’ve experienced the same thin as a scientist and as a hockey referee.

It’s so seldom that I meet people who want to learn what I know intead of tell me that I’m wrong.  And it is just as rare that their friends or groups give them a reality check that maybe I know more than they do.

If we don’t encourage ourselves and our kids to learn the heck out of something before we form an opinion, how can we accuse Stephen Harper of doing the same?

The luck

Someone asked me a while ago “What are you most thankful?”

This is it: I was born into the level of confidence I had no business having if you ask those who think confidence is to be earned.

Through the various phases in my life of being bullied, ostracised for being a teacher’s pet, avoided for being “strong-headed,” marginalized for being a whistle blower. I never once believed I had to change. They could have but didn’t succeed in making me a push-over.

I was overweight (for the asian standards) and was not considered pretty at all as a child, but I never believed it would have any impact on events and outcomes of my life as intended.

I celebrate adversities as one always learns more from challenges than successes. In fact, the only thing one learns from success is how crucial previous challenges were to the success.

I view the process of mate search as me choosing someone instead of me being chosen. These things completely rid me of the pressure to contort and sacrifice to meet standards (that we think men set). It allowed me to have my own set of priorities.

I can’t wait to find a mate so that when I say shit like this, it doesn’t sound like a warning to young women and send them in the opposite direction.