Day 1. Girls?!

So today was the first day of my coop work term at Canfor Pulp and Paper Limited. Their research lab is housed in the Paprican, near Triumf and the other research centres at UBC. It's a really nice building in itself, very quiet with not that many people. I think my boss, Patricia McBeath, told me that there are 9 full time employees in the company, and that's all. The day started off sorta lame, cause the bus driver decided that he would just skip all the stops along marine dr, meaning he didn't stop at wesbrook for me to get off. So I had to walk in the rain from hampton place all the way down to 3800 Wesbrook mall. The entire morning started off with filling out company forms such as waivers, non-disclousure agreements, tax forms, and it went on. It was during this time that I also met two of my other co-workers, Anika and Stephanie. Both are chemical engineers, and in their 3rd year, which made me the only male, and in 2nd year. Workplace safety videos and hazards videos were watched, learning about how not to be stupid and stick your hand into a machine that is still operating. The entire building itself doesn't have that many people, so it's unusually quiet and there isn't that many people around. In the afternoon, the real training began and I spent the afternoon learning how to use the different machines to test paper. Basically its sitting in a room with 8 or so machines that test the different properties of the paper. The tests are all pretty interesting, but i guess they are tiring, and it's just doing the same thing over and over again. Calibrate machine, insert test sample, press button, record, repeat. But it was a great day at work, and having all my co-workers be female is a sure change from all the males in engineering.

Canadian news is boring

It's much more fun to look at US economics, since it actually has stuff happening. Like the fact that the net job creation in the past decade in the US has been 0. 0% net job growth. That is quite scary, since the economy hasn't been that bad until the last 3 years or so. That means all the jobs created in the first half of the last decade were all lost, and then no more were created in the last 5 years. The recession did exist, and it may be over now, but the americans are going to have to suffer for quite awhile. The financial crisis with sub-primes is over, or so some say, but look at the debt amassed by the US. Are they still considered to be a superpower? The housing bubble completely destroyed the economy, leaving many americans without jobs and money. The major banks had a fallout and required a bailout. All this money needed, and none to be found.

Enough about economics, lets move on to the next big news topic in the US right now, health reform. Americans look at Canadians and our health insurance, and they become very jealous. Yet there are still out-spoken critics on getting universal healthcare in the US. Sarah Palin, for one, despises health care, and thinks Canada should get rid of it, so businesses can make money off saving lives. Harvard conducted a study with Cambridge Health alliance and the results were that 45,000 deaths occur every year, due to lack of health insurance. To put this into perspective, there are more deaths from lack of health coverage than there are deaths from kidney disease. There are 775 deaths due to terrorist attacks every year, which is still nothing compared to the 45,000. I could be cynical and say this is an adequate form of population control. Canadians have health care, so the statistic for us is 0. 0 deaths every year due to health care. Just looking at these stats alone should be enough reason to accept the health care reform. But is anything being done yet? Yes and no. Progress is being made, but there are still many lobbyist who do no want health care. Main reason is cause when healthcare is universal, where is the money to be made?

MRSA revisited.

So if you've been following my blog for awhile now, you might've read my MRSA post awhile back, if not you can go read it here.

The only progress against fighting the superbug seems to be in Norway, where their method of action is to fight by not prescribing antibiotics for everything. This is the main reason why I never take any antibiotics unless i'm deathly ill. Heck, I don't even take normal over the counter drugs unless i really need to. Tylenol? Nope, I don't get headaches. I just let my body do it's job and fight whatever I have, which is what Norway is doing. The superbug is continuously killing people in hospitals, due to the fact that it is now resistant to virtually all drugs known to mankind. There isn't much press on it lately, with H1N1 and the "pandemic" scare, and most of the time such things aren't showed to the media since it's not really that big of a deal right? The North American attitude to any disease or virus is to blast it to hell with antibiotics, sorta like their approach to getting the things they want. Obviously this method doesn't work, as more and more drug resistant bugs are appearing.

What Norwegians have done is simple: Stop taking so many drugs. With infections killing so many people every year, how hard can it be for doctors to stop prescribing useless meds? If you have a cough, there's no need for penicillin. Norway is a shining example that there is a way to combat superbugs, and it is damn effective. So next time you're sick, think about if you really do need to take those drugs, or if you can just wait and let your body do what it's made to do.

New Years Resolution

So I guess since it's a new year, I should make some sort of resolutions that I will think very hard about and try very hard for
about a month of so to remember these resolutions, then look back one year from now and realize none were accomplished.

1. Stay healthy and fit. Yoga every week during my coop work-term. (triathlon?)
2. Save money, and make smart investments.
3. Create a website.
4. Learn a new skill, and maybe a language.
5. Travel to somewhere new.
6. Learn how to drive standard.
7. Blog more.

Happy New Year!

So theres only 2 more years until the end of the world!!!!1!! jkjk haha

So for all your procrastinators, if you don't have a new years resolution yet, have no worry! The internets is here to save you! New Years Resolution generator!