Just finished watching an episode of The Agenda about the issue of banning trans fat, whether it is the best way to fight against unhealthy behaviour, but the debate seemed a little one-sided, and not in a particularly reasonable way either.

It started off well, with details about what trans fats are, where they're found and what has been or will be done about the problem. However, when it got into the real issue: whether banning (as is done in NYC, Denmark, and possibly soon in Toronto) is the best way to help people, the discussion seemed to go down a rather narrow and frustrating path.

Nadiim Esmail from The Fraser Institute, brought up the comparison of banning versus education as the means of reducing trans fat in the public diet. And he spoke of the issue on a seemingly much higher level than the rest of the panel. The other four immediately disagreed with him, so much so that they eventually returned to simply stating, as William Smith said, "I just disagree." No attempt to take on the issue that Nadiim brought up, that banning trans fat, deals ONLY with trans fat, that why were we choosing that particular issue when there are other closely related issues such as saturated fats as well, and that it brings us down the road of government protecting citizens from their own actions.

Several guests said that banning trans fats was a "no brainer". Certainly in the short term it is: it will certainly, as they all acclaimed, reduce trans fat usage, and improve out health. But where do you stop? If you ban trans fat because of the undeniable and immediate health benefits, then why don't we ban smoking? That would undoubtedly make everyone's health improve. It wouldn't happen because there would be a public outrage. The real answer to Nadiim's point is not that banning is simply better than education, but that education doesn't work because people don't want to think. Banning is a "no brainer" because it allows us not to have to think about what we are shoving into our mouths.

One possible better way to explain Nadiim's point is that banning trans fat would be like banning benzene in cigarettes, assuming that there is something that could replace the "great taste" of benzene in your cigs. LOL Benzene is bad for you. Removing it from cigarettes would certainly improve the health of smokers. But aren't there all sorts of other things in cigarettes that are bad? What you want is for people to stop smoking. In the trans fat example, what you want is for people to stop eating so many french fries. Taking out the trans fat in foods doesn't miraculously make fries health food! But that's what a ban on trans fat says. By pointing out one particular bad thing, you are raising it's importance, resulting in the neglect of any other bad things.

There's only two ways to effectively ban things like trans fat: all or none. Maybe a third: to somehow draw a line where you think banning should stop/start, that there must be x amount of risk to ban something. If you don't, then all government will ban are those things that the industry doesn't mind banning. Lynn Silver from New York said specifically that the restaurants had no problem with the idea of the ban. That's because it's a free advertising concept, an opportunity to reduce on of their biggest barriers to increased profit: the idea that pleasure eating is unhealthy. Well, despite the improved message that's it's ok, it's still not ok. We still all need to be better prepared to judge what we eat. We may not want to be nutritionists, but no one is responsible for what I eat (or what my children eat) except for me, regardless of any helpful ban that exists.

Read more on TVO's blog entry on the topic.

Labels: health, thoughts

Although it seems pretty far off still, September, for me, is looming large. That's when my non-renewable contract at my present place of employment runs out. I've been constantly looking for something more permanent, or at least something to give me a little more time, but still no luck. Fortunately there're three new possibilities coming up right here so hopefully I'll have better luck, especially since I've got some new ideas and strategies to help me better market myself. Although I am sometimes a little too full of myself, I tend not to be so in interviews. But I've got to toot my own horn more, as well as be prepared with lists of notes to toot.

Labels: work

What is it that's going around? My whole family is sick again, as well as several people at work and everywhere else. I seem to be doing the best at keeping it at bay, at least for the time being but I am feeling the effects of the contagions all around me. I really should stay home tomorrow but I just have a few important things to take care of. Maybe Wednesday... I'll have to check my schedule.

I did fix my bike over the weekend, so perhaps riding my bike, getting some exercise and some fresh air, will help me fight this thing. I'm gonna start riding my bike to work again, now that the weather is good again. I didn't today, thanks to some stupid weather forecast I saw that said it could possibly have rained. It did not rain.

Labels: family

Long simple day at work today. I received an email requesting advice/help with a search yesterday that was described as being for a systematic review. Now, in medicine, systematic reviews are the cream of the crop in terms of documentation/publication. They take a lot of research (in the literature), a lot of care, a great deal of analysis, are incredibly practical and focused, and are meant to be regularly and eternally updated. I thought, "Yes! I'm going to really do a good job on this and be part of something really useful!" I worked all day preparing the search, checking definitions, finding subject headings and synonyms to ensure that the search would be comprehensive, and I wrote back to the requester mid-stride to make sure they were aware of what I was doing and what they could expect. Also, for stats purposes I wanted to know whether they were faculty or professional health care staff... Near the end of the day I get a response saying that they are a student actually working on an assignment that they will be handing in (the first part of, anyway) to US!!! All that work for someone I can't do the work for! Gaaahhhh!!! Well, hopefully their supervisor (this person is on a work assignment outside of the school doing this research) is the one doing the systematic review so that I can at least give the work to someone. Maybe. Who knows. At least it was a good experience and the next time a request like that comes in I have learned a few tricks and tips to help me do an even better job!

It's funny though. This really came at an appropriate time. I have been thinking lately about how I (and other librarians) really should do "more work" helping our users. Not that librarians don't already do a lot of work, or that we have loads of extra time on our hands. I just feel as though we could (and should) be doing more impressive work for our users. For example, not many libraries do literature searches for their patrons. Many, if they do, charge for the service. Bracken Library here at Queen's University does this for staff and faculty and health care professionals for free (at least on an individual level). But even though these are time consuming, difficult, and usually much better than the user could have done alone, sometimes I feel as though we're still not doing enough. I discussed this with a colleague of mine and I'm not as confident in this opinion as I was... I'm not quite sure what exactly we could do more, given our time and education restraints, but I feel as though we are not quite as impressive as I know we could be. Or perhaps I'm just feeling as though I could do more and wish I had the opportunity. I don't know.

On a completely unrelated note, I've been playing the free beta version of Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO) for the past week or so. It's not bad. World of Warcraft (WoW) is still my favourite but I can definitely see how someone could like LOTRO more. The graphics (of the environment) are much more impressive (flowing grass, more realistic animal behavior, etc), the quests and activities, etc. are much more involved, serious and have many more layers than WoW. But there're still some things that are keeping me in WoW: the interface graphics are much nicer and clearer, the world seems much bigger and full of more possibilities, and there are vastly more people using it making the experience a little more varied in terms of interactions and socialization. They both have jerks and morons who cheat, swear, hate, disturb others, or don't play "fair" although I'm surprised at the numbers of these players who have swarmed into LOTRO already. I'll play it until I have to pay, and then move on to another free demo/trial edition: Final Fantasy, Matrix Online, Star Wars Galaxies, Star Trek Online (whenever that comes out), etc.

My daughter is suffering from a bad headache right now. Well, actually she's probably asleep now but she was feeling pretty bad before she went to bed a while ago. Aren't headaches about the worst kind of pain you can imagine? It hurts sometimes just to think, and try not thinking for a while! Go on, try it. LOL Unfortunately, migraines seem to be common on both my side of the family and my wife's.

And I just finished watching my current favourite show on TV now: TVO's "The Agenda with Steve Paikin". Not for the faint of heart, or rather, mind. A political show, but one that deals with issues calmly, rationally, and intelligently. Today's show discussed France's upcoming presidential election, and the recent provincial vote in Quebec. One of the leading candidates in France (in second place no less) is a woman, who, if elected, would be the first female president in France's history. It always dismays and confuses me why, in this day and age why (US, Canadian, European, etc.) political leaders are still always white and male. Are voters the last to be able to see past our prejudices? And an interesting last note in the French election portion of the show was some comments about the animosity France has for the States, talking about how France sees itself as having once what America has now, and that it represents for France both their worst fears and their best dreams for their future. At the end of the discussion about Quebec politics, one of the "panelists" spoke of how Quebecers tend to vote for and respect intellectual candidates more than Ontarians (gawd, what a mouthful). I think this is a trend throughout Western society (and probably the whole world), that we seem to be getting smarter on average and yet we still despise or at least avoid intelligence. Quebec may be able to fend this bad habit off a bit more, thanks to a language barrier between them and us english-speaking troglodytes but we'll bring them over to the dark side yet! LOL Finally, at the end of the show, Steve spoke with one of the producers of the show, which totally cracked me up. Following on the heals of the anti-intellectualism comment, it was brought up that the producer had (and has) spoken to guests on the show about words they cannot use: "narcissism" and "ontological" being two examples of words that "don't travel well". Writing this down now makes me wonder why I totally cracked up at this at the time! LOL

Labels: family, funny, librarianship, thoughts, work

Check out this entry from InfoTangle. Warning: It's incredibly long (for a blog entry) but it's totally worth it. It's a great summary of some of the trends, changes, new tools and new concepts in web design now such as drag-and-drop functionality, use of bold colours and bold shapes, and navigation by "heat map". Some old hat stuff for those who are paying attention, but it's always great to see it summarized so succinctly. (Found via this entry on Tame The Web.)

What I have to say about all this is that there are two reasons a user visits a site (and I'm really focusing on library web sites here but I think it can be generalized), or rather two situations they are in when they come to a site: they either have time or they don't. They are either there to find something they need or they are browsing and wandering around. In the first case, your site must be simple and straightforward. They are looking for what they want and if they don't find it within microseconds, they'll get fed up and leave. In the second case, intricacy is often preferred, or at least enough "stuff" to entertain, to tempt, even to confuse temporarily. These two design guidelines are somewhat contradictory but they can be used simulataneously. Obviously the first case takes priority: navigation must be simple. But then you can fancy the rest of the pages up with some interesting images, tools, interactivity, etc. as long as they don't crowd out the simple navigation. It's a fine line, but I have faith in you... LOL

Labels: internet, thoughts

Here's a classic from Dilbert! Yes, I AM a geek but I find this funny, ok? On both the immature-punny level and the "OMG, that's his boss!" level... LOL

And the only reason I saved the image in flickr is because they disappear from the Dilbert website and, being a librarian, I'm all about persistent access...

Labels: funny

Funny: The top ten books of 2027 (PDF). (via LISNews)

And "duh": Wireless users are online more. (via LibrarianInBlack)

Labels: internet, reading

So, hello and goodbye to Easter. My family and I spent the weekend at my parents, which is ok (unlike many people I know, I like my parents) but I always prefer staying home. Yes, yes, what a bore I am. But I just like being with all my stuff: I like sleeping in my own bed, I like being able to do the things I need to do (whether I actually do them or not), and besides, my parents only have satellite TV and dial-up internet access! Gawd! LOL

The weather has been horrible lately. It's supposed to be spring now! I mean I like the cold more than anyone else around apparently but even I'm getting a little tired of it. It actually snowed for several days recently. It's all gone now but it's still cold. I've "put away" my winter coat but I might have to get it right back out again... Fortunately it's still hanging on the hook by the door so I won't have to go very far to get it. LOL

I was away (from work) sick back on the 3rd. I don't usually take sick days and I wasn't anywhere as near sick as I usually am when I convince myself to do it but I think it was the best thing I could have done. It usually takes be several days of dragging myself into work sick as a dog before I stay home and then I'm sick for many more days after that. This time I felt 100% better the very next day. I think I may make this "listening to my body" thing more of a habit!

I attended a web/teleconference on the changes in the catalog by K. Calhoun back on the 4th. She wasn't the most engaging speaker but with my growing interest in the perceptions people have about librarianship (see my new blog, Buns & Shushings) and therefore the usability of our resources, I was rather opinionated about it. I was furiously scribbling down notes throughout the presentation and at the end, when she asked for comments/questions, I let her have it! LOL Well, actually, I hung back, not wanting to be the first to talk (nobody else was saying anything, at my location or otherwise), but then I leapt. Of course, when I leapt, several other people leapt too and my "hand up" wasn't recognized until the very end and I had to cut my "tirade" short. I was pretty tame actually, trying to convince the audience of the seemingly obvious point that we need to give people what they want, listen to why they "hate" us so much, and just offer more possibilities. The catalog (and really all information tools) needs to change but it should be in the direction of offering more, rather than replacing what it already does well with different functions. For example, don't replace subject headings with social tagging, use both!

Labels: family, librarianship, work

And speaking of heads, isn't mine big??? LOL I read somewhere that in a personal blog/site you should have a picture of yourself to let your audience know who they are dealing with. So what better way to include a pic of me, than to have my big head sticking into the works from stage left?

So, this is my latest design. I'm not completely happy with it but it will pretty much have to do for now. I've got other things to do now. I will implement some minor changes here and there (I've received some valuable advice from JennTSG, and am open to advice from anyone else) but the general layout will remain the same... Unless I get struck with inspiration (which is sometimes as painful as being struck by lightning).

The other things I have to do are: create two other blogs I have ideas for (one on reference service and one on perceptions of librarianship, libraries, librarians, etc.), work on some presentations and posters and reports I have signed on to do, keep beating away at the dead horse I call looking for a permanent position nearby, and probably some other things that escape me for the moment.

I've been watching TVO's "The Agenda" which is totally awesome. Political and geeky and certainly NOT for the drowsy, it is primarily a interview/discussion show that focuses on Canadian (and sometimes world) politics and social issues. Put your thinking cap on, have a cup of coffee (ewwwww!) and give it a try.

Took my 2yo son to the photographers tonight to get a picture taken to include in his "Application for a Citizenship Certificate from Inside Canada (Proof of Citizenship) Under Section 3" (he was born in the States) which I really should have done a year ago but I'm doing it! Get off my back already!

And I was working on creating a "cheat sheet" for using the staff wiki at work today. I'm training the staff at Bracken on how to use a/the wiki and they've requested a handout. Of course, I can't just give them some notes and stuff on a piece of paper.... I have to create a work of art! Place the screenshots just so, choose colours, select fonts, perfect the layout... It has to be something I can be proud of, something people LIKE to look at, something they can hang on their wall... well maybe not that good, but still.

Labels: family, internet, work

This image from flickr is an excellent graphic to go along with today's post. I've spent several days over the past week or so rethinking and redesigning my blog. I'm still not perfectly happy with it (can you ever be) but I think I've got it to a point where I can let it be for a while. I've still got to create a forwarding page from the old url to here but that shouldn't take much time.

In other news... I've been going for family walks a little bit more recently. I was helping my 6yo daughter ride her bike and after a few trips up and down the sidewalk I felt like I was going to die... I think that's a hint from my body telling me that I should get a little more exercise. LOL

Work's good. It's getting closer and closer to the end of my temporary contract at Bracken so I'm getting a little anxious, looking and preparing for any job openings at Queen's U or in Kingston (or near enough anyway). Now that my colleague across the hall has officially announced that she's going on maternity leave in October, I feel a little less panicked, but I certainly don't want to just assume that that will be enough: I will still be looking and preparing in any case.

I've been using the "Remember the Milk" site to record my to do list and I've put several presentations I'd like to give at some upcoming conferences and events. Hopefully I'll be able to submit them, get accepted and complete them all... Speaking of which, I'd better get doing some of them and stop procrastinating. I've got to make dinner for the family first.

(Oh yeah, I've also taken some nice screenshots of some things in World of Warcraft. I'll put them in flickr and then maybe post one of two of them here. Along with a screenshot of my "completed" new design. For historical purposes.)

Labels: family, internet, work