Provincial Election

So I watched the leader's debate tonight with leaders of four of Alberta's largest parties go at it for an hour and a half. There was Stelmach for the conservatives, Taft for the Liberals, Mason for the NDP, and some other guy for the Wild Rose Alliance (err ... yeah). It has been awhile since I attempted to watch anything like this on TV before, but I figured since I was home I should try and watch it so I could make an informed vote come election day. Well. After sitting through that garbage, I really don't know who to vote for. If anything, the entire thing made me feel an ever increasing disdain of politicians in general. Not one of the candidates made me feel like they knew what the were talking about. A couple of notes:

• Kevin Taft made a couple of comments about infrastructure that included the words "we have the cash, let's spend it". Errr, yeah, I'm sure it's that simple. The whole reason there is any debate is because the cash the government gets isn't enough to do everything they want to do with it. So if you just spend everything on infrastructure you don't have enough cash for stuff like health care.
• Brian Mason did talk some sense, but then came his talk about rent controls. I'm sorry Brian, but Stelmach was right on this point: if you expand the number of units in places where rent in soaring out of control, the competition will help bring rents back down to a reasonable amount. It's easy to charge monstrous rents if you have a tenant who has no choice but to pay you. It's a little hard on the pocket book if you drive your tenant away to new buildings being built.
• The Wild Rose Alliance guy (I'm too lazy to look up his name) came off very strange. He made some comments about how they should give Albertans more of their money back so they could keep their children at home instead of sending them to daycare. Both Mike and I thought this statement was a little odd -- like he was saying that it was the normal thing to do to have one parent stay home? What about single parents who have to send their kids to daycare? Hmm. Dunno what to think about that one
• Where did these men learn their manners? Every one of them had moments where they were talking all through the other person's point. In fact, there were points (particularly at the beginning) where there was two or three people talking at the same time. I don't know about you, but if that happens I can't follow what any of them are saying let alone all of them. I think they must've had the moderators talk to them in the commercial breaks, because it did calm down a little later on
• Who is one supposed to vote for? All these guys don't instill any confidence in me whatsoever. It's all the same thing rehashed over and over again. We want to do X for health care, we will do better than the government currently is, we want change, we want innovation, blah blah blah blah blah. I really want a refreshing change to this! It makes me wish there were more Stephen Mandels running around with fresh thinking and a positive campaign.

I don't know much about politics. I wish that it wasn't really necessary. The election in a couple weeks is not exciting to me in any way. No matter what happens, it will feel like we're putting some clown in power. Am I wrong when I think that?

Heraldk

Match Day 2

Alright, so I've got to get myself caught up here. The second match day was nuts, and a ton of stuff happened so let me see what I can remember. I got up fairly early excited about the match. We did so well on day one, that we kind of expected to win! Alas, that was not to be. I got in early enough to start setting up. Are room was moved to another one so that the one we were in first could be used for the keynote talks (which I haven't been able to attend). So we needed to make sure the new room suited our purposes. The hotel did an excellent job of setting it up though so there wasn't a huge amount of stuff to do. The first match got under way and Phil played a pretty decent game, but I don't think he played perfectly. Unfortunately for us, Ali did better than Polaris did and the humans took down the 3rd match. (for exact details check out the match blog I slaved over). After the loss we of course wanted to know what happened. It turns out that the bot we fielded had a bug in it that killed its learning abilities and so it got stuck playing a less effective bot. Ouch, that hurt.

The final match was looming, and we had to decide what bot to put in the seat. It took a long time to debate what to play, but we decided to try and play a safe bot -- the equilibrium bot that broke even in match 1. Unfortunately for us, Ali was just too brilliant and new how to take the bot down in the last match. We were disappointed, but we're looking for a rematch and are hungry for revenge. Both Ali and Phil heaped praise on the bot though saying that it was the most intense match of their lives and that they had to play the best poker they had ever played just to do what they did. Here's a youtube video I posted (thanks to Nolan for thinking quick and grabbing the camcorder for this section):

Awesome. Phil and Ali were so great. I can't wait to meet up with them again at the rematch! After the match, after the media finished their interviews and we packed up stuff in the room, and after we got autographs from the players (and signed programs for the players as well), the people who were too tired went to bed and everyone else went in seek of food, drink, and fun. All the people who decided to stay out ended up at an awesome restaurant called Bin 941. The food there was absolutely incredible. I spent a lot of time chatting with Ali and his girlfriend Ana. They're both so smart and really easy to get along with. I hope I was able to interest them even a tiny portion of how much they interested me. I loved getting the inside perspective on what it's like to be a professional high stakes poker player. I'm not seriously thinking about pursuing that, but it's nice to have a chance to hear about it from an insider.

Anyways, I stumbled back to our apartment condo half drunk and extremely happy with how the day had gone even though we lost the match. It was an extremely enjoyable experience and I would love to do it again. Even though I was exhausted. I got back and stumbled into bed around 3:45am ... only to have to get up in the morning to attend a round table poker meeting with other researchers who wrote poker bots for the AAAI bot competition. But that was another day.

Heraldk

A New Edmonton Arena

Anyone who's been reading the journal lately knows that there seems to be an ongoing debate over the council's investigation into building a new arena in downtown Edmonton to replace Rexall Place. There's been a barrage of articles over the past few days pointing out some of the advantages and disadvantages to the proposal ... and I guess I shouldn't be surprised there is such hot debate over the topic. It is, after all, a large investment of city resources. I'm cautiously in favour of a new arena in the downtown core, but I've been waiting to weigh in on the issue until I'd read a few more articles in the paper. I think today's article by Scott McKeen convinces me that it's a good idea, and touches on many of the complaints that people have with the arena.

So, why do we need a new arena? Well the reality of the situation is that Rexall is aging - particularly when compared to arenas in other cities. It's the 2nd oldest building the remains in active use in the NHL. From the Oiler's perspective, its hard to remain competitive if they can't sell as many seats or luxury boxes as other teams. If you've been reading my blog, you know I'm an Oiler fanboy, so you'll know that I'm biased about this from the start. But before you chastise me for being biased, Scott McKeen makes the point that Rexall is not just used for Oiler games... a new arena would be usable to attract some of the world's biggest musical acts as well. Not only that, one should only look back to this time last year when the Oilers were making their unlikely run through the playoffs to know how important the Oilers are to this city. Don't you think they deserve the chance to remain competitive - particularly when a competitive Oiler team makes this city swell with pride?

So I believe a new arena is warranted. So what are the issues? Well cost is one big one. Already though, it looks like there are several options that will require much less taxpayer dollars to build the arena. As the committee looks at it in more detail, we'll see what they come up with. However, several people more in the know than I remain confident that much of the cost can be absorbed from other sources. Sounds good to me.

As to the location - why not build the arena downtown? Downtown is starting to get much more lively as we are finally seeing condos being built in the core. (I'm happy that the city is finally starting to build up a little - the sprawl of this city is kind of disgusting). Building the arena downtown can only help - particularly since the current proposal is to build it in an area of downtown that isn't exactly bustling at the moment. You have to go west of city hall to really see active part of downtown. Thousands of people pouring into downtown to watch the latest hockey game or concert -- sounds like a good plan to get people downtown. The inevitable businesses that pop up around and in the facility will help draw people to arrive downtown early and have them stay late.

To be honest, I am a little biased. And I don't know all the issues. I do however, have a hard time believing that this isn't a good idea for the city. Many articles have pointed at other cities and the success of downtown arenas there -- places like Vancouver and Columbus and Denver and ... well I forget all of them, but there's quite a few. I don't know all the information, but maybe someone can point out to me why a new downtown arena in Edmonton can hurt us.

Heraldk

The “Great” Debate

Ugh. I've been meaning to post this for a long time, but haven't gotten around to it in awhile. Of course, now that I'm editing my thesis, I can't find enough stuff to distract me from it! I am becoming increasingly annoyed at the number of people debating each other over something that to me is a no argument kind of situation. That debate is the one that pits Religion versus Science.

This point was driven home to me a few weeks ago when Richard Dawkins appeared on the Colbert Report promoting his new book "The God Delusion". Essentially he is trying to prove that God cannot exist. He admits that it is impossible to prove that God doesn't exist, but says that it is extremely unlikely that any higher power exists.

Here's what I don't understand, and maybe somebody can explain this to me. Where's the conflict? Is it so terrible to believe the scientific explanations for the formation of everything we live in and around today, but also believe that God exists? Let me explain my reasoning, and my own belief system and perhaps somebody can tell me where I go wrong. To me, science and religion play two very different roles in people's lives. Science explores the natural world and tries to explain how all the pieces fit together. Religion is a spiritual journey, where people develop and prepare their spirit through all stages of life. Don't these sound like different things?

Science has come a long way. I think part of the problem is that when science wasn't as mature, religion was used as a way of explaining and understanding the world. However, knowledge is not stationary, and now that we know more about the world, why is it necessary to stick to the past religious beliefs when the scientific explanations make sense? On the flip side, why do some scientists want to disprove God's very existence? This is impossible to do (as Dawkins does say), since God's existence is a matter of faith ... and forgive me if I'm wrong, but this seems totally outside the realm of science.

I'm not a good writer, and this is a complex issue that I don't really understand that well. My main source of confusion is why people in both camps are fighting each other when it seems so clear to me that they really aren't arguing about something that really doesn't deserve all this energy.

Of course, the relationship between science and religion is intertwined over human history which makes it hard for people to take a step back and really look at the issue. But if they could do that, maybe they'd see that they are wasting their breath and should be diverting that energy to something more important ... perhaps the environment?!

Heraldk

Voting Day

Ugh. I hate politics. Everytime it happens it feels like I've got to decide between a bunch of idiots who make a mitt-ful of promises that there is no way on earth they will keep, or if they do keep them all then they'll screw over an aspect of the country they didn't stress in their political platform. Blah. I'm scared of the conservatives. I'm not entirely sure why, but it seems oddly creepy that Stephen Harper seems like such a good candidate when last time around, he scared the crap out of most anyone I talked to. Paul Martin is running a terrible campaign from where I'm sitting - he is running a fear based campaign which I heartily disagree with. While I might agree that I don't want to see Mr Harper in charge of our country, I want to hear why YOU Mr Martin, will do any better! All your campaign has done is made me want to vote for someone other than the liberals. Since I can't quite bring myself to support the conservatives, I have to move onto the other options.

I ended up picking the green party. Why? Because I empathize with their position. I hate how they are a party with candidates in all the ridings in Canada and they had enough of the vote to get federal money to support this year's election ... but their leader is not invited to the leadership debate. A debate where the bloc-quebecois leader is assumed to be in attendance even though they are a Quebec-only party. I just don't understand.

Frankly, it won't matter who I voted for. My riding is so overwhelmingly conservative that there is no way I can stop that. But, I have to place a vote, and so I'm going to put it where it'll do the most good.

Heraldk