Not To Be Trusted With Knives

Just got this email from an organization that I used to work for with a request to pass it along to anyone would might be interested.  So I thought I’d share it with all y’all in case anyone is looking for a new job:

Are you a people person?

Are you a ‘systems thinker’ with excellent attention to detail?

Are you passionate about science, engineering, and technology?

Did you master Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube long ago?

If so, we invite you to submit your application to become Let’s Talk Science’s:

Coordinator, Online Volunteer Engagement

We are seeking a highly motivated self-starter with excellent knowledge about web technologies and social media for this new, full-time 1 year renewable contract position. As the successful candidate we prefer that you have a graduate degree in science or engineering, and volunteer management experience.  Previous experience with Let’s Talk Science is also an asset as you will better understand the dynamic and exciting environment in which we operate.

As a key member of our volunteer outreach team, and reporting to the President, you will focus on: building and managing an online volunteer engagement program, program administration and data management; implementing our outreach evaluation program; and other special projects and events, including the All Science Challenge. You will employ diverse online engagement tools in an effort to enrich the volunteer experience.

This position is based at the National Office in London, Ontario. However, location may be negotiable to the right candidate.

For more details, including a full position description please contact Heather Small

(877) 474-4081 x 227 or hr@letstalkscience.ca.

Interested candidates should submit their resume and cover letter by 5 p.m. on Friday February 26, 2010 to:

Heather Small

Human Resource Assistant

Let’s Talk Science, 1584 North Routledge Park

London, ON N6H 5L6

Or via email: hr@letstalkscience.ca (please submit in Word or pdf)

FAX: (519) 474-4085

Let’s Talk Science is committed to employment equity, welcomes diversity in the workplace and encourages applications from all qualified individuals.  While we appreciate all applications, only those invited for an interview will be acknowledged.

A few months ago I was approached to write for CurioCity, a e-zine for teens about science that is produced by the science outreach organization I used to volunteer with. The articles are geared at teens and focus on science in everyday life. Since I’m totally missing the science outreach work I used to do, I thought it would be fun.

Here’s my first article!

The theme for this year’s Blog Action Day is Climate Change.

Blog Action Day is an annual event every October 15th that unites the world’s bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day with the aim of sparking discussion around an issue of global importance.

In trying to think of what to write about, my first thought was “what can I possibly add to the conversation?”  Everybody knows all about climate change, don’t they?  Information on climate change is like carbon emissions – there’s tonnes of it out there, isn’t there?

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown blogged this morning that:

Climate change is the biggest threat to all our futures. It will affect every individual, every family, every community, every business and every country.

Google’s in on the action with a “green tour of their campus” on their blog, the TckTckTck campaign¹ of course blogged and, according to the B.A.D.² website even TMZ is going to be contributing³. And some 9,700+ other bloggers to boot.  What can I possibly add to all of this?

But then, that’s the point of Blog Action Day, isn’t it?  Having many, many voices all talking about the same issue at the same time.  And as much as I like to think that *everyone* already knows about all this, I think that maybe if they really did, we wouldn’t be in our current predicament.

At any rate, I’ve decided that what I should contribute to the day’s discussion is those things I know best.  Which, on this topic, are, in no particular order: nutrition, nerdery and cynicism.

1. Nutrition

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about local foods.  Eating is something you do every day and has a huge impact on your health, which is part of the reason I got into the field of nutrition to begin with⁴.  But it’s only quite recently that I’ve spent any time thinking about the impact of food on the environment.  I mean, I’ve long been aware that one of the benefits of being a vegetarian is the lesser impacts on the environment compared to a meat-based diet, but even with plant-based fare, my choices can have a major ecological impact.  How much energy does it take to ship my pineapples from Hawaii, my avocados from Mexico, or my tomatoes from California?  Why get yogurt produced and packed in, and shipped from, Ontario when I can get the same thing – only fresher! – from the a local farm?  I’m actually lucky enough to live quite close the UBC Farm, where I can buy food grown within a few kilometres of my house at one of the few urban farms around⁵.  But even if you don’t have an urban farm in your ‘hood, it seems like community gardens are popping up everywhere too, so be sure to check into those!  Heck, you can even now legally keep a chicken in your yard in Vancouver – fresh eggs in your own backyard!

I guess my point to all of this is: when you are thinking about climate change, think about your food choices!  Here are a few resources to get you started:

• The Centre for Sustainable Food Systems at UBC Farm
• 100 mile diet
• Davie Village Community Garden
• Farm To School: Growing The Next Generation – A Provincial Conference to Strengthen and Sustain British Columbia’s Farm to School Movement, November 2nd & 3rd Richmond, BC.

2. Nerdery

A tweet from the American Public Health Association led me to this site: http://www.fueleconomy.gov/, where you can check out the fuel economy of your car – both the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) estimates⁶ for your make and model and estimates entered by users⁷ – i.e., actual people driving actual cars, as opposed to cars driven under testing conditions.

For example, the EPA estimates the fuel economy of a 2009 smart car as 36 mpg⁸ and user-entered data gives an average fuel economy of 41.6 mpg⁹.  And here’s where my nerdery comes in: I’ve been tracking my mileage and fuel consumption¹⁰ since I bought my Smart car back in April.  My fuel economy thus far: 39.1 mpg¹¹.  Not bad, if I do say so myself.

Check out the estimated fuel economy of your car, as well as how many barrels of petroleum and you use, and how many tonnes  of CO₂ your car emits, per year,  at: http://www.fueleconomy.gov/

3. Cynicism

And my last thought for this posting is on greenwashing.  Everyone is jumping on the “green” bandwagon these days, so I encourage you to think critically about the claims made by people and companies and politicians about how “green” they are, rather than just accepting their claims at face value.

Case in point:  Derek posted yesterday about the crazy shipping routes of two iPods he bought online recently, which traveled 17,000 km¹² to get from the 9,000 km from the factory in China to his place in Burnaby and juxtaposed that with how Apple’s likes to position itself as “green.”

Case in point #2: All those Smart car drivers who love to brag about their car’s fuel economy don’t usually mention that the cars are built in France – how much fuel does it take to ship the car – plus any parts you need for repair or maintenance – from France?

Anyway, those are my random thoughts on Blog Action Day!  Let me know what *your thoughts* are!

1. whose raison d’être is climate change awareness [↩]
2. I have to say – Blog Action Day has the best. acronym. ever. [↩]
3. although my admittedly quick look at their site didn’t see a B.A.D. posting as of yet [↩]
4. the other reasons including that (a) it made all the biochemistry I’d been learning in my undergraduate courses suddenly seem to matter and (b) I love to eat! [↩]
5. actually, it’s the only urban farm I know of, but I assume there must be some other out there. Does anyone know of any others? [↩]
6. this is a US website [↩]
7. which are not guaranteed to be accurate, since they can be entered by anyone and aren’t verified [↩]
8. miles per gallon; or 6.53 L/100km for us Canadians [↩]
9. or 5.65 L/100 km [↩]
10. I made a spreadsheet. I heart spreadsheets! [↩]
11. or 6.03 L/100 km [↩]
12. following two different routes, despite being ordered at the same time! [↩]

Because today I feel like writing a blog posting about as much as I feel like having my intestines removed with a dull knife… instead I give you: numbers!

¹Thank you, thank you, a million times thank you to my guest posters!
²approximately 1 L of diet Pepsi and 2 L of diet Pepsi Max! Diet Pepsi Max has ginseng in it. Ergo, healthy.
³The Blogathon.org page says, inexplicably, that I only raised $346.90, but when I added up all the pledges that were made as listed on my profile page at Blogathon.org , it’s $402. I have *no idea* how they came up with this other number.
⁴The Blogathon.org page also has the wrong number of donators – it says 11, but there are only 10 listed when I look in my profile. Again, no idea how they came up with 11. Unless there’s a mystery donator who gave -$55.10…

Hey, remember that time, 48 blog posts ago, when I thought it would be a good idea to blog for 24 hours straight?  That was good times.

Here’s me a fewof hours ago at Workspace, blogging about the important issues of the day:

Props to all the bloggers who wrote all day and all night to raise money and awareness for a wide variety of great causes.

Props to all the people who supported us – through guest postings and the bringing of foodstuffs and company and music and commenting!  Me loves the commenting!

And props, of course, to everyone who donated today. It’s why we all did this.

And now I go to sleep!

THE END!

I’m 26/49ths¹ of the way through this Blogathon, to be exact.  And I have to say that this is even harder than I thought it would be!  I mean, I didn’t expect it to be a walk in the park to publish a blog posting every half hour, but I’m feel far more drained than I would have expected for just more than halfway through! Seriously, I just had to stop for a full two seconds to think about if “through” or “threw” was the correct word in the first sentence and that’s not the kind of thing that I normally have problems with.  Directions, yes. Spider phobia, definitely. But the difference between “threw” and “through,” not usually one of my problems.  I also almost called Sarah viscous in one of my comments and I honest to FSM had to go to the dictionary to find the correct spelling of vicious.  Because it’s much nicer to call your friend vicious than to say she’s of high viscosity, right?

Mercifully, I have a few guest postings lined up, which gives me enough time to actually breath in between blog postings. Because, for the most part, I’m knocking these babies out with just enough time to reply to comments, answer emails, take the odd photo for an upcoming posting & upload it to Flickr, and then knock the next one out!

And a big shout out to those who have commented, because it really does help to know you guys are out there reading this stuff and to have a chance to chat in the comments section, and to those who have donated to OPT.  The Blogathon.org page says I have 8 pledges totalling $217.46, but when I add up all the donations in my list, it’s actually $252, so I’m not sure how that all shakes out.  But my tired brain is waaaay to tired to even think about attempting to think about attempting to think about their calculation.

¹Or I will be as soon as I click “publish” on this posting.

And now, a chance to hear a little bit more about the charity I’m supporting through Blogathon – Options for Sexual Health, or OPT for short- in this guest posting by Jessica Peart. Jessica is the Co-Director, Applied Knowledge and Co-Manager, Executive Services at OPT.

“Options for Sexual Health envisions a society that celebrates healthy sexuality, its diversity of expression, and a positive sexual self-image for individuals throughout life.”

It’s a challenging vision to pursue. The laws and mores of our society are more directed at containing sexuality than celebrating it. We’re still encountering sexual health education programs that focus on risks instead of preparing young people for lives of sexual fulfillment. And when the federal government denies funding for gay pride events it sends a clear message that is does not respect and acknowledge sexual diversity. We’ve also been challenged in recent years to distance ourselves from phony “crisis pregnancy centres” that use branding similar to our own, but which do not provide women facing unplanned pregnancies with accurate information on the full range of options available to them: how convenient for the centres, but how not so convenient for these pregnant women requiring access to unbiased referrals!

But OPT has some initiatives that will move our vision forward. This year, we’re finding out from teens in BC exactly what they want to learn about sexuality and what they’d like to see in sex educators. And we’ll be supporting those young folks to put into place the changes they want to see. They are, after all, the generation that will carry OPT’s vision into the future. We’ll be helping residential care facilities for seniors and others support the essential role that intimacy plays in our lives at any age and state of being. We’re part of a movement to increase the safety f men and women engaged in sex work. And soon, all reproductive health nurses in BC will receive training from OPT – through a partnership we have with BCIT – on how to counsel, diagnose and administer medications for contraceptives and sexually transmitted infections. Those nurses leaving the program will leave with our perspectives and values for supporting the sexual health and sexuality needs of British Columbians, because in all our programs and activities, we guarantee that individuals will receive well-informed, confidential, and non-judgmental care.

Based in British Columbia, Options for Sexual Health is Canada’s largest non-profit provider of sexual health services through clinics, advocacy, education programs, and the 1-800 SEX SENSE information and referral line. Visit www.optionsforsexualhealth.org to find out if there’s a clinic near you, learn more about your sexual health, or to find out how you can support our programs and services and the overall fulfillment of our vision: we’ve still got a ways to go!

Don’t forget to donate!

I now have a few donations pledged (thanks to all y’all who have pledged so far – you rock my world!) and I’m on the news page of the website of , the charity I’m support through Blogathon, Options for Sexual Health.  You can check it out here.

Also, there’s still time to pledge!  Your pledging will help to keep my awake and writing for 24 hours.  If *you* donate, I may even try to keep it coherent!

Don’t forget to donate!

Note: I’ve made this post “sticky” so it will stay at the top of my blog until Blogathon. Scroll down for my recent posts.

It’s official! I’ve signed up to stay up for 24 hours straight, publishing a blog posting every half hour.  And because I’ll be giving you all my bloggy goodness, you can give back by donating money to the charity of my choosing.

Since the  “Repay Dr. Beth’s Student Loans” Foundation¹ doesn’t appear to be on the list of possible charities, the charity I have chosen is Options for Sexual Health:

Options for Sexual Health is a not-for-profit society meeting the reproductive and sexual health needs of British Columbians since 1961. We offer confidential, nonjudgmental clinical services, reliable contraceptive options, and comprehensive education and information, provided by well-trained professionals according to the highest standards.

Options has both clinics and education services and is a member organization in the Canadian Federation for Sexual Health and the International Planned Parenthood Federation.

Anyone³ who donates at least $20 to Options for Sexual Health through my Blogathon page before July 20, 2009 can request a topic that they’d like me to blog about – just drop a comment or send me an email.  Also, if anyone wants to write a guest posting – let me know²!

In addition, you better come up with a theme for me. I mean, I need a theme that will help me come up with 48 different ideas for postings that I can write without having to do research. Because I’m lazy like that. Otherwise, you are going get 48 postings about me me me! And then I’ll have to officially change the name of my blog to “Rampant Narcissism – All Me, All The Time!”

¹And it appears that such a thing would be *strictly forbidden*.
²I will be emailing some of you directly to guilt trip you request that you write a guest posting for me. So you should probably just volunteer, it will be easier on both of us.
³Up to the first 48 people that is. And you can’t request anything that requires me to my do any research.

The BMO Vancouver Marathon is looking for volunteers!

From an email I just got:

We are looking for Course Marshals or as we refer to them as “the cheering squad” ~ help lead these runners along the route!

We need some strong people to help at the finish line and always a little help giving these runners some very well deserved food at the end of their big day!

We thank all of those who have given their energy, time and support to this great event! Come be a part of our dynamic volunteer team and create a memory these runners will remember forever!

You can contact our Volunteer Coordinator at volunteer@vanmarathon.bc.ca

Miss604 mentioned on her blog yesterday that volunteers are desperately needed!

Since I’m one of the people running at this event you can chalk this blog posting up as a little self-serving!  But you know you want to come out on Sunday and cheer me, Alicia and thousands of our fellow runners along.  Or feed us.  It’s especially important that someone is there to feed me after I run 21.1 km!