Matt Brown said: "You can blog about whatever you wish, as long as it is related to science and research". His wish is my command! Here are some snippets from my life as a cancer research grant wrangler in Vancouver. Mostly the silly bits.
Now, I know that these are scary times. People are worried for themselves and for their families, and they’re turning to trusted news sources for information. So the CBC should be ashamed of themselves for running this story.
Fear-mongering is the lowest form of journalism.
Last updated: Friday, 01 May 2009 - 19:37 UTC
© 2009 Nature Publishing Group
Terrifying! But then in the second paragraph it turns out that under the same government the minimum wages also increase dramatically, and as long as you drink less than four or eight (depending on income) beers PER HOUR those with low incomes will still be better off.
Maybe I should adjust the calculation to reflect that people generally don’t work 24/7. Nah, I’ll just be dramatic too.
As usual, most commenters on the CBC site are going with knee-jerk responses on the two extreme ends of the spectrum, according to their existing political affiliation. It’s really quite funny – ANY bad news story in BC is simultaneously the fault of 3 different political parties, the Olympics, and mounties with itchy trigger fingers on their tasers.
I really wish people would look for the nuances of the situation before applying their existing prejudices to every. single. little. thing.
Only four beers per hour? How’s a self-respecting Joe Six Pack supposed to earn those extra chins. This really is going too far.
(PS, if anyone is confused, I should point out that the currently-in-power-but-possibly-not-for-much-longer BC Liberals are not liberal at all. Not even in the US sense. They’re right wingers through and through, and not affiliated in any way with the federal Liberal party. It’s very confusing, but at least no-one’s made the teaching of evolution an optional part of the curriculum yet, unlike in Alberta).
PPS, I’m amused that NNers instantly converted the facts of this story into the universally understood units of beers/hour.
Dear me, how can we expect to be able to buy these expensive beers? How am I going to be able to wind down now?? Don’t they think about us poor people who need a beer (or 6) every time? gahh…
wait a minute. I don’t live in BC so it is not affecting me. Deep sigh of relief, I can still get my 6pack for $7 then I guess. ;)
Yeah, but it’s not proper beer down there though, is it? ;)
I’m still forgetting some things like “how many beers did they have on their old wages?” but basically it’s a simple equation:
BEFORE:
$6 per hour lowest wage
$12 for a six-pack
= 2 hours of work for 6 beers
OR
$8 per hour second-lowest wage
$12 for a six-pack
= 1.5 hours of work for 6 beers
NOW:
$10 per hour both categories
$15 for a six pack
= 1.5 hours of work for 6 beers.
The lowest wage workers have to work LESS for the same amount of beer!
But do you want to hear a terrible and embarrassing story about not having money for beer? Earlier this week I left my wallet at home. There was still a $5 bill loose in my bag from a time where I didn’t put it away properly, so I used that for coffee and a bagel, but on my way home I stopped at the Beer Store, forgetting that I had no money or bank cards on me. I remembered when it was my turn at the cash register… Awkward!
Oops! Our local coffee shop will let good customers have free stuff when they forget their wallets, as they trust us to repay them, but I think you’d have to be a VERY good customer to persuade the liquor store to do the same!
VERY good customer to persuade the liquor store to do the same
or they know where you live…. we actually talked about this on the weekend when a coworker to one of us left the bar without paying their tab. It was a bit awkward (maybe the word I am looking for is sad?) that a few of us realised that we can leave this bar without paying the tab since the bartender would know we will come back…. very soon and pay all of it ;)
but liqour store, nahh… at least not for me.
[proper beer is more than $7 for a six pack. Imported are almost always $8< :) ]
Homeopathic American beer isn’t even worth that, if you ask me!
I remember on my last ever Friday in Glasgow, persuading my supervisor to join 2 of the postdocs and me on our usual 5.30pm trip to our nearest bar. They had 3 Coronas open and the lime wedges in before we even reached the bar, which was a wee bit embarrassing…
I’m suddenly reminded of a joke about homeopathic sex.
Hmmmm. My inner jokes database has the following:
But nothing about homeopathic sex…
“Our local coffee shop will let good customers have free stuff when they forget their wallets, as they trust us to repay them”
Oh, yeah, so does my Second Cup. I’ve gone there without money, too.
And I paid them double the next time I was there. They took it out of the tip jar, so I put it back in.
Cath> well, the Bud Light 6 pack is something about 5.50 I think…. as I said, mostly imports in form of Ale or the Fat Tire (american but oh so good) about $9/6 beers. Then again, I think I am fine considering my favourite Swedish beer is about $2.80 or so, per bottle :)
Is anyone else thirsty now, or is it just me?
So the CBC should be ashamed of themselves for running this story…
What about the story I just saw on The National tonight interviewing a scientist (whose name I missed), showing the reporter DNA sequence comparison of H1N1 samples from a patient here compared with one in NZ. Not surprisingly, there was was the occasional single base difference. So far so good. What wasn’t cool was when the “scientist” then went to make a big point about how this showed the virus evolving before our eyes! Umm, sorry how is that exactly? Granted, if he had shown that these mutations were causing an increase in virulence etc etc he may have had a point, otherwise it’s just a base pair change.
How can we expect the public to understand evolution if the “experts” don’t understand it and can’t explain it?
I feel compelled to inform your readers, Cath, that American beer (and those were just a couple of examples that spring to mind) is not reduced to Bud.
One definition of liberal (the U.S. one; one take on it).
But in France (and apparently, for part of Canada), “liberal” makes reference to a philosophy in which the economy is only one of many human activities in which the State has no particular privilege or legitimacy, and in which it should intervene as minimally as possible so as to ensure the defense and protection of its citizens, and the distribution justice – but any other sort of intervention is considered useless, even dangerous.
So it’s amusing for me to be liberal in one part of the world, and left-leaning but not particularly liberal, in another. With a good beer in my hand.
My favourite French beer is Pelforth brune . I once spent a frustrating hour or so enjoying a couple of bottles of it but perplexed why I could not peel the label off the bottle for my collection. Then I realised the “label” was painted on. Doh!
Sorry for not replying sooner, I was drinking Canadian beer after getting my letter saying that I will become a citizen on May 29th! Woo hoo!
Anyway…
Darren, I’ve always found neutral mutations and genetic drift to be the most difficult part of evolutionary theory to explain, so even getting into it in the media is either brave or stupid… what a shame that the scientist messed up the explanation!
Heather, I have had some good microbrews in the US, but the mass-market exports don’t represent the country very well (although I did drink some MGD during my PhD). Then again, Molson and Labatts don’t represent Canada very well either!
Frank, so did you keep the bottle instead?
Cath, speaking of media fee-mongering, check out this clip that The Daily Show did on the Swine flu. There is even a funny line about Canada!
The Daily Show With Jon StewartM – Th 11p / 10cSnoutbreak ‘09 – The Last 100 Days’height:14px; background-color:#353535’ valign=’middle’>thedailyshow.comDaily Show
Full EpisodesEconomic CrisisFirst 100 Days
Oops, I meant fear-mongering, which I think is even worse than fee-mongering.
Cath: no evil words on Molson now…. in a hot tub after skiing it is delish ;)
The general American beer would be like the generic Swedish lager (anyone had a Pripps blå?) that works very well with snaps(booze) but not too much flavor. There are much more beer in America these days than before and not all of the micro brewerys. Like Samuel Adams that is very popular… in different flavours…
The genetic “evolution” in viruses and other organisms are hard to explain but it is not a good idea to “oversimplyfy it that much” since it is wrong…. ah well, it is Saturday; I’ll go and see if there is some beer in the fridge :)
Caryn, looks like that clip won’t play outside of the US – but I have a backlog of taped Daily Shows to watch, so I’ll look out for it!
Åsa, ANY beer is good in a hot tub after skiing!
Why do people keep thinking this post is about the swine flu, though? ;)
I just thought the Swine flu was a good comparison of media fear-mongering.
There is something to be said here for home-brewing…
Caryn, I was just kidding, because I deliberately wrote this post to look like another aporkalypse update when it’s really about beer-mongering.
Barry, well, that depends. I’ve occasionally had some really good stuff, but also a lot of awful, horrible, nauseating rubbish.
CAth> that is true. (thinking, all beer is good beer in the summer heat too….) :)
Except dodgy homebrew.