Bicycle, Bicycle, Bicycle, don’t want to ride my…
In this multicultural and unique country in which we live, it is a little disconcerting to think how prevalent stereotypes actually are. They exist in all shapes and forms and almost all of us are guilty of following or believing a stereotype to some extent. A thought occurred to me, that the actuarial profession is virtually founded on applying science to prejudice. Maybe that should be the new motto of the institute of actuaries. The premiums that you are charged, be they for life or general insurance, are based on several factors that have been statistically proven to affect your risk level. In fact, insurance is perhaps the only industry that is legally allowed to discriminate based on age and gender provided there is sufficient evidence to show distinct differences; provided science can back the stereotype.
Perhaps the reason my mind drifted to these thoughts, is due to the fact that it is multi-cultural week at college. Each night in the dining room, a different continent is represented in the food, the decorations and in performances. Last night happened to be ‘European night’ and the dish that was used to capture the essence of the glorious culture and the entire history of Europe was, yup you guessed it, Spaghetti Bolognese. As with many stereotypes, it was not even justified; Spaghetti Bolognese is actually an American creation, not an Italian one. On the whole though, the week has been very enjoyable and one of my friends, Vijey, has been rushed of his feet trying to organise the whole thing. He has done a capital job and should be commended for it.
I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this before, but the file sharing network at college is a thing of beauty. It almost makes living at college worthwhile. Movies, still being shown to popcorn scoffing masses in theatres, are available at the click of the button; fast and free. Thanks to this network, the other day I was able to watch ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ free and in the comfort of my own room. If you haven’t seen it yet, I strongly recommend it. Even if you’re a 4WD driver, bush bashing, high impact lover of emitting CO2 (in other words an American), by the end of the film, your environmental benevolence will be cranked up a few notches. Of course, there are plenty of insipid and self-indulgent rambles by the presenter, Al Gore, but on the whole, the movie leaves a lasting impression and I was happy to see one of the data sets I’ve dealt with before being used in the movie. As Australians, we should all feel obliged to see it. We are the country with the highest level of CO2 emissions per capita and, along with America, are one of the only two developed countries that haven’t ratified the Kyoto protocol, in other words we are an absolute disgrace. This certainly is one of the many many things we should not be following America in.
I’ve been fairly busy with uni work and also training for the upcoming charity bike ride. I’ve notched up over 150 kilometres over the past few weeks and hopefully will be all set for the ride, which starts on Saturday. The training ride last Sunday was hellish. Sunday, the day we’d dedicated to the ‘long’ training ride, turned out to be a horrible one for riding. I was pedalling madly whilst being belted every which way by hail laced strong winds. I was only wearing my short shorts and a t-shirt, so I found the conditions abysmal. At the end of it, I was so sick of riding and wanted to just give up on the ride, and the worse thing was that I had to do another ride at 7am the very next morning.
The last training was on Wednesday morning and I’m feeling a little better about the whole thing now. I’ve raised a fair amount of money for charity, so I hope it all helps. Tomorrow I set off for Orange, and will ride about 300km over three days back to Canberra. I’ll be sure to write an entry about it when I get back, so stay tuned!
Until next time,
Take care.
In this multicultural and unique country in which we live, it is a little disconcerting to think how prevalent stereotypes actually are. They exist in all shapes and forms and almost all of us are guilty of following or believing a stereotype to some extent. A thought occurred to me, that the actuarial profession is virtually founded on applying science to prejudice. Maybe that should be the new motto of the institute of actuaries. The premiums that you are charged, be they for life or general insurance, are based on several factors that have been statistically proven to affect your risk level. In fact, insurance is perhaps the only industry that is legally allowed to discriminate based on age and gender provided there is sufficient evidence to show distinct differences; provided science can back the stereotype.
Perhaps the reason my mind drifted to these thoughts, is due to the fact that it is multi-cultural week at college. Each night in the dining room, a different continent is represented in the food, the decorations and in performances. Last night happened to be ‘European night’ and the dish that was used to capture the essence of the glorious culture and the entire history of Europe was, yup you guessed it, Spaghetti Bolognese. As with many stereotypes, it was not even justified; Spaghetti Bolognese is actually an American creation, not an Italian one. On the whole though, the week has been very enjoyable and one of my friends, Vijey, has been rushed of his feet trying to organise the whole thing. He has done a capital job and should be commended for it.
I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this before, but the file sharing network at college is a thing of beauty. It almost makes living at college worthwhile. Movies, still being shown to popcorn scoffing masses in theatres, are available at the click of the button; fast and free. Thanks to this network, the other day I was able to watch ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ free and in the comfort of my own room. If you haven’t seen it yet, I strongly recommend it. Even if you’re a 4WD driver, bush bashing, high impact lover of emitting CO2 (in other words an American), by the end of the film, your environmental benevolence will be cranked up a few notches. Of course, there are plenty of insipid and self-indulgent rambles by the presenter, Al Gore, but on the whole, the movie leaves a lasting impression and I was happy to see one of the data sets I’ve dealt with before being used in the movie. As Australians, we should all feel obliged to see it. We are the country with the highest level of CO2 emissions per capita and, along with America, are one of the only two developed countries that haven’t ratified the Kyoto protocol, in other words we are an absolute disgrace. This certainly is one of the many many things we should not be following America in.
I’ve been fairly busy with uni work and also training for the upcoming charity bike ride. I’ve notched up over 150 kilometres over the past few weeks and hopefully will be all set for the ride, which starts on Saturday. The training ride last Sunday was hellish. Sunday, the day we’d dedicated to the ‘long’ training ride, turned out to be a horrible one for riding. I was pedalling madly whilst being belted every which way by hail laced strong winds. I was only wearing my short shorts and a t-shirt, so I found the conditions abysmal. At the end of it, I was so sick of riding and wanted to just give up on the ride, and the worse thing was that I had to do another ride at 7am the very next morning.
The last training was on Wednesday morning and I’m feeling a little better about the whole thing now. I’ve raised a fair amount of money for charity, so I hope it all helps. Tomorrow I set off for Orange, and will ride about 300km over three days back to Canberra. I’ll be sure to write an entry about it when I get back, so stay tuned!
Until next time,
Take care.
posted by Travvy at 12:15 AM
2 Comments:
How do you know that you've been studying an area for too long? Movies get bonus marks for having recognisable data sets....
What charity are you bike riding for?
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