Tue 30 Nov 2004
Human extinction within 100 years warns scientist
WEDNESDAY, 17 NOVEMBER 2004
By JOHN HENZELL
A top New Zealand researcher is using a prestigious award ceremony in Christchurch to warn that humans face extinction by the end of the century.
Professor Peter Barrett will be presented with the Marsden Medal tonight for his 40-year contribution to Antarctic research, latterly focusing on climate change.
The director of Victoria University's Antarctic Research Centre expects to use his acceptance speech to warn climate change was a major threat to the planet.
"After 40 years, I'm part of a huge community of scientists who have become alarmed with our discovery, that we know from our knowledge of the ancient past, that if we continue our present growth path, we are facing extinction," Barrett said. "Not in millions of years, or even millennia, but by the end of this century."
Barrett won the award ^Ö designed to mark lifetime achievement in the sciences ^Ö for his research into Antarctica, which began with helping prove New Zealand was once part of the Gondwanaland supercontinent.
He then changed disciplines, to predicting the impact of climate change. The result was a body of research on Antarctic ice sheets "which to our surprise is becoming increasingly relevant to the world as a consequence of global warming".
Barrett's warning underlines comments he made lastyear that even the Kyoto Protocol on global warming would not be enough to avert a climate disaster. The United States and Australia have refused to adopt Kyoto protocol measures.
"Research on the past Antarctic climate has an ominous warning for the future ..." he said.
"We need an international commitment to an effectivesolution, if we are to survive the worst consequences of this grandest of all human experiments."
Mon 01 Nov 2004
Check this out...
The good old days =)
Thu 23 Sep 2004
Its been a while since I updated. I've just been doing what I've always been doing. Nothing too exciting has occured since the last update. I went down to the city for labor day weekend. I hung out with some of the guys for about 3 hours. The rest of the weekend involved spending time with family, and other close ones.
I got my schedule for Winter quarter all planned out, now its only a matter if the classes are open for me and not canceled. Its official now too, I am debt free. I wont be using the credit card except for bills and gas. Im still trying to save up Sony points to get a PlayStation2. Sony sent me a catalogue the other day and it shows the PS2 as item I can get, but its not listed on the website. Work has been good, I've been working really hard on a project which is almost done. Development has been finished, we still need to test and debug, Im happy to say that the project is in the late stages of its life cycle. Im hoping we can push it to production sometime in mid October.
I've been collecting a crap load of DVD's too. I've finished getting Futurama, got all of the Simpsons thats available as of today, Young and Dangerous 1-6, Once upon a time in china trilogy, Fong sai yuk 1&2, Married with children seasons 1&2, and Im hoping to get all of Family guy, South park, Reno 911, and Chapelle show.
Till next time...
Wed 04 Aug 2004
Caribana Weekend
Starring - Sammy Lin, Arnold Perez, Charles Lee and Randy Everett
click on pics to enlarge
For you who dont know what Caribana is,Caribana is a festival filled with music, food, and cultural entertainment. There was parades and alot of other events. It happens every year in TorontoCanada. the Festival includes the music, dance, food and costumes of Jamaica, Guyana, the Bahamas, Brazil.
We left on Friday the 30th around 8PM, we got to Buffalo to pick up a friend at 9 something and headed out to Canada. We got lost in Canada for quite a bit since it was raining. We arrived in Toronto at 1.30am, check in and headed for downtown. When we got there, all I can say was WOW. The city was beautiful, so vibrant. We hit the streets and started walking, there was no way to drive around with so much traffic. Actually, walking wasnt any better than driving. We were walking around the streets at 3am and if you can imagine it, the streets was filled with people. ALOT of people. Most were of Caribean decent. It made me feel alittle out of place, but that didnt bother me that much. We ended up walking Yonge St (its like 5th ave in NYC) for 2 hours. It began to rain hard so everybody scattered.
Saturday - I woke up early, cause I didnt have a pillow and was sleeping on some folded towels, and let me tell you, it is not a smart thing to do. Those towels made me feel like I was sleeping on a brick, my head was numb for a few moments. I went to ask the cleaning lady for a extra pillow and at that point I didnt feel like sleeping anymroe. With a total of 5 hours of sleep we all set off for the parade. It was cloudy but didnt rain, which was nice. We got to the lake shore around 4pm, and again, ALOT of people. We started walking along the shore and found a place to settle down and just watch the floats go by. All the music and floats were awesome, alot of variety.
Highlight - I was just leaning on the fence watching the floats go by, and I started hearing "ready or not, here we come, so you cant hide" and BOOM Wyclef pops up standing on a float right in front of me. Thats not all, with him was Lennox Lewis, Heavyweight Champion of the World. I cant express to you people how this man got the crowd so pumped up. I know some of you might be thinking, "wow, so many people, must've been alot of police"; well of course the canadian police was there, but they didnt have to do anything. Caribana was a festival of music and culture, at no time in my stay in Toronto did I see fights or brawls. There were alot of people smoking up though, lol even in front of the police, but I guess the cops were in the festive mode and understood what that ment just relaxing and chilling out.
After the parade, we got dinner and decided to head out to a club and have some drinks and just chill out for our last night. We arrived in downtown and even passed by Chinatown. Its alot like NYC chinatown, only bigger, and more space to walk and less messy, and has a trolly on the street. Hehe, I guess its nothing like the chinatown in NYC. We got parking and started to walk to a club. Man, there were so many choices, we spent about an hour walking around just trying to decide on which one to go into. We finally decided to go to a club called "La Rouge", ony because the line wasnt that long and they had a beach theme, which sounded fun. We got in and there was sand all over the floor!! haha it was nice. There were two floors, and you would think they would be playing different music on each floor; but no just two different DJ's playing the same type of music. It was great, we all got drinks and started enjoying the music. That was the first time I heard soca music. I have to say its great music, it gets me very hyper and there isnt much you can do except jump around. It was very fast paced and fun. We didnt stay long, our parking was up at 3.30 so we had to leave early. By the way the club looked when we left, it seemed like the party was never ending.
After the club, we wanted to drive around, but didnt feel like getting stuck in traffic, so decided to go home and get a good nights rest for the ride home. Our night ended at 4am after we ate McDonalds. The ride back was pretty bad, there was alot of traffic, and alot of stop and go on the highway, gettin across the boarder wasnt that bad though, longest part was waiting for the inspector to ask us the questions.
What I thought about Canada - Well, I have to say, being a New Yorker has made me somewhat used to the fact that people are assholes. I just forgotten that people are nice and some are really cool. When we got lost, we asked a Canadian cop for directions and he gladly gave us directions, he even got on the highway with us and escorted us to the right junction. He couldnt take us the our destination, but Im sure if he could, he would have. Everyone we came in contact with wanted to go to Caribana, but couldnt because they had to work. I have to say, Canadian money is wierd. They have one dollar coins as well as two dollar coins. I just get so baffled when I buy something, hand over a bill and get back a 5 dollar bill and some coins back. It happened 4 times, no matter what I give them, I always got back a 5 and some coins, which made me feel ripped off. Some even felt bad for the fact that I didnt knowtheir currency. While at a local pharmacy buying a camera, I was looking for change to pay. And I just couldnt figure out what coin is what. I decided to pull out all my money and told the sales girl to take whatever. Good thing she was nice and didnt take all of it. Overall, I love canadians, they're very nice people. I dont like the way they drive though, too cautious for me. Im a relaxed driver but it get annoying when they start braking a mile away from a car ahead of them.
I cant say the weekend was a total success, even though there was alot of exciting things happening, it just didnt feel complete when you're not experiencing it with your significant other. Everytime something cool happened, it made me want to get on the phone and call her and tell her about it.
Closing statements - Toronto, I will be back. With a total of 10 hours of sleep for the whole weekend, I think Im going to end early tonight and hit the sack. Please excuse any spelling or grammar errors, this was a long log entry and Im just too tired to go back and proofread everything.
If you have any comments or questions about this weekend, please feel free to send me a email here
The rest of the pics are here, I couldn't match up the report with the pics
Tue 13 Jul 2004
Wow, so much time has passed, I dont know where to begin. First off, its been 45 days since I started work. Time is just flying by, and wonderfully might I add. Lets recap on what has happened the past month.
June - 18th Was my birthday, I went to Buffalo and saw my girl. I think I went to Buffalo every weekend last month.
July - 4th I went down to NYC to see my parents. It was great, there was nice weather, and I had fun. Spent quality time with my mom and dad. I went shopping at Jersey Garden's. I didnt do much hanging out, since there was only 2 days and one of those days was full of errands. It was basically a one day vacation, I guess. I got back to NYC friday night at around 12midnight. I didnt get home until 3, because I had to drop off some friends, and I went to eat chinese food with ChuzZz.
As far as the rest of July goes, its been ok, I've been working out, and trying to get back to the level I was at during the fall. Its going to be tough, but I think I have the determination to get it done. I bought 10 pounds of protein powder to help me hehhe. It looks like a bag of rice.
I've also thought about putting up a "Picture Gallery" section on this site, but the thing is, I dont have any pictures, nor do I have a digital camera. Maybe you guys can help me. If you have any pictures that you would like me to post up, please foward to my email scl9891@cs.rit.edu
Thats it for now I guess, its 9.14am and I have to get back to work.
Thu 10 Jun 2004
So Its been my second week of work, I'm getting used to it pretty fast I believe. After the first week, I got a call from Paychex for an interview, its funny how they want to interview me when I got a job already. I got asked for interviews by a couple more companies as well, but Paychex was the biggest. Oh, if you didnt know, I work at Connected Energy as a developer. I got my own nice little cubicle, I get no window though :( But in the conference room, we have a huge water fall. Its kind of a hidden treasure that no one knows of, the water is nasty though, kind of brown, so it looks like a brown version of Niagara Falls. Never the less, its nice to have a water fall over there.
Anyways, I got to go back to NYC for a couple of days, haven't seen everyone for about 6 months, so it was nice. I got a chance to BBQ at Franks, and Richards. Richards BBQ didnt last so long since I had to catch a flight that evening to come back to Rochester. Im about to turn 22 on the 18th, its no longer exciting after you turn 21 hehe. Its all downhill from here.
Sat 22 May 2004
My quarter has officially ended, actually it ended on tuesday night. I had jus finished taking my databse final and then headed to Buffalo to see my girlfriends new house. Its pretty nice, we had no TV or even heat the first day. I had lunch with my new employers today, all a bunch of cool guys I'll admit. They miss-spelled some stuff on my offer letter though. Instead of addressing me in the letter they addressed the other co-op. It was pretty funny. I think I'll like working at that place, theres a nice view of High Falls, from the conference room. I can get there pretty fast too, so thats also a plus. After I finish this co-op, Im going to finish classes, which is around winter quarter, so I'll have all of Spring quarter to look for a full time job. Somewhat of a headstart for me, which I like; its less pressure on getting a job right after I graduate.
Other than that, I'm just relieved that I'm done with classes. Its nice to know that I'm graduating soon, its also great to know that I'm going on the right track and will end up with a successful job. I'll update during my co-op, until then, peace out all.
Thu 08 Apr 2004
Ok, this has been a up and down day for me. First of all...it started with Italian, as always, and I took a quiz. I felt very confident as usual. Then I had to go to Database; I had to print out some stuff so I decided to go early and check my CS folder for any new mail. As I opened the folder, I see that the office has returned their response for my previous request for Co-op credit based on prior experience. It was approved! I jumped for joy. This will give me some space to breathe as I come closer to graduation. I now only have 2 more Co-ops to do. For those who dont know, my school requires me to do 4 Co-ops, which is a full year of real-world job experience. Its not too bad, gives me an advantage over other people who graduate with nothing for their resume except for a bunch of courses they took. It actually gives me one quarter to do anything I want. Which is also good since I can use that quarter to fall back on, if I dont find a Co-op.
Anyways, I went to Database, and he returned our quizes, crap!!! I got a 70. Not good, not good at all, as it turns out, I made a mistake and crossed out the right answers. lol. No really...it's not that funny; this is a lesson to all of you...your first choice is always the right one. Trust yourself and have faith that you are smart. Dont thikn too much...it can hurt you.
Wed 07 Apr 2004
So I dropped C#, I met with my advisors and they told me I have 4 more courses to take; and all are CS courses, she said that it would be wise to split them up so that I wont be over whelmed, it makes sense. I've been wanting to take Artificial Intelligence during the summer while I take Senior Seminar. Thats only if I dont find a coop for summer. Whats going on lately? Other than being swamped with work? I spent a nice weekend with Stella :) We didnt do much, just slept all day long, which is what we do best. Shes coming up on finals, We all know how fun finals are. I have been actively searching for a summer coop, I have a few companies in mind that I would really like to work for, 2 of them are in NYC, and one is in Fairport Rochester. We'll see how that ends up.
I found out I have a new relative that is in the States, anxious to meet him. New family is always a blessing. There has been a great deal of anxiety lately. I am so excited about graduating and getting myself into the real world, working hard and earning a living for myself. I've also been thinking about Grad school, either at RIT or Polytechnic. Havent went into details yet, we'll see how that will unfold.
Wed 31 Mar 2004
Today, I had a career fair, I wish I wasnt sick. My voice sounded terrible; none the less, I felt confident. I didnt feel that the career fair was beneficial though. I mean all the companies did was direct you to their website, where you can apply online. They seemed so selective; I got a bobblehead doll though, hehhe :) I decided to drop from 'C# and .NET programming', I guess I'm going to have to use money from my own pockets to pay for the extra classes I have to take.
I still dont know what my CS Concentration will be. As of now, Database seems like a strong possibility, second would be on the Systems Programming side. They never seem to be offering Operating Systems II though, which sucks. My last choice will be Computer Graphics, it doesnt seem like a likely career choice for me. During the summer, if im not working, I will be taking my Senior Seminar and Artificial Intelligence. If AI goes well, I might take a course called 'Computer Gaming Artificial Intelligence', where I will probably be programming the AI for computer games, sounds good eh? :) Well, thats it for now
-Sammy
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