tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35017530625385489962012-02-28T20:13:23.482-05:00Ruminations on the arts, sciences, family, and other social commentary by an Ottawa-based composer.Composer99http://www.blogger.com/profile/03842730402697257316noreply@blogger.comBlogger161100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3501753062538548996.post-85228527813540510402011-11-29T23:44:00.001-05:002011-12-01T12:03:57.673-05:00

The National Post's War on Science:Boogeymen! Note: I had intended this post to be completed around Hallowe'en; however other considerations (particularly my new baby) made this unfeasible. I will keep the general theme despite the much later scheduling. December 1 Update: This post garnered Idiomatic Composition its first spam comment. I'd like to think that the blog is going somewhere if it's

Composer99http://www.blogger.com/profile/03842730402697257316noreply@blogger.com2Ottawa, ON, Canada45.4215296 -75.6971930999999945.1341061 -76.25085209999999 45.7089531 -75.1435341tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3501753062538548996.post-90316747691438820962011-11-11T23:36:00.001-05:002011-11-12T14:00:46.922-05:00

Remote Victory Introduction In 1756, the monarchy of Prussia, ruled at the time by Frederick II (later called 'the Great'), faced a perilous situation. An alliance with Great Britain had resulted in Prussia's strategic encirclement and a war with Austria, Russia, and France (and some of their lesser allies) simultaneously. Despite the odds, and numerous setbacks throughout the war, Frederick

Composer99http://www.blogger.com/profile/03842730402697257316noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3501753062538548996.post-41126893014389754872011-11-01T21:05:00.002-04:002011-11-01T21:05:00.982-04:00

Flying on the Wings of Liberty A Note on Image Credits: All images and videos are, to my knowledge, created by and property of Blizzard Entertainment, save for one image which is property of Paramount Studios. Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty is a real-time strategy video game produced by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the first of a trilogy of games to comprise the Starcraft 2 franchise to be

Composer99http://www.blogger.com/profile/03842730402697257316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3501753062538548996.post-1383131696499151902011-09-03T11:32:00.001-04:002011-09-03T13:05:42.955-04:00

Anthropogenic Global Warming: It's Real, It's Us, It's Bad Post-Publishing Update (#1): I have discovered a problem with my code for footnotes and am trying to correct it. Urgh. I have not made the time or effort to post anything on this blog for altogether too long. To address this deficiency, I should like to take the opportunity to post on a subject of some importance to the human species

Composer99http://www.blogger.com/profile/03842730402697257316noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3501753062538548996.post-66163484115217478302011-07-12T19:57:00.000-04:002011-07-12T19:57:30.782-04:00

Rationalist Subcultures & Intra-Feminist Net-Debates I have recently been following a story that has broken across several of the blogs over at the Science Blogs weblog aggregate. I should note before proceeding any further that the story and the discussion is largely a debate about the roles of feminism, misogyny, and male privilege within the skeptic & atheist movements (insofar as these two

Composer99http://www.blogger.com/profile/03842730402697257316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3501753062538548996.post-24263061191445372072011-02-22T23:24:00.000-05:002011-02-22T23:24:11.931-05:00

This Marriage I am pleased to say that I am now married as of this past Saturday. In this post, I will describe in some detail the events of my wedding. For two reasons, I will focus on the ceremony portion of the wedding, rather than the reception (although I will discuss some pertinent details from the reception): I was 'in charge' of organizing the ceremony, with some input from my

Composer99http://www.blogger.com/profile/03842730402697257316noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3501753062538548996.post-53825962182808140922010-12-25T09:38:00.000-05:002010-12-25T09:38:50.525-05:00

Magnificat I have been privileged to sing in a choir here in Ottawa that regularly performs pieces that I write; on occasion the choristers have been guinea pigs when I test techniques or compositional styles. Anyway, on December 5th, 2010, the Harmonia Choir of Ottawa premiered two works of mine, including this one: a setting of the Magnificat. Embedded video below the break. The text is the

Composer99http://www.blogger.com/profile/03842730402697257316noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3501753062538548996.post-79811461920278605382010-12-13T12:35:00.001-05:002010-12-13T12:35:59.096-05:00

As you have probably noticed in the last few weeks, I have not posted anything here in a while (indeed, my last post was a month ago today). I am working on two posts now, at least one of which (which happens to be Christmas-themed) should be up some time this week. I hope to have another post up soon once I have confirmed that a recording of a piece of music written by me has gone up on

Composer99http://www.blogger.com/profile/03842730402697257316noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3501753062538548996.post-50182765222909420662010-11-13T21:37:00.001-05:002010-11-13T21:42:29.313-05:00

Remembrance Day 2010 Most people reading this are, I think, aware of the basics of Remembrance Day (Veteran's Day in the US), which comes around every November 11. Not every country commemorates Remembrance Day, of course. As a rule of thumb, it is a special date particularly for those countries who participated in the 1914-1918 World War (November 11, 1918 being the day on which the armistice

Composer99http://www.blogger.com/profile/03842730402697257316noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3501753062538548996.post-87860343511168413772010-11-06T21:56:00.000-04:002010-11-06T21:59:06.363-04:00

Between a course may fiancée and I took this weekend and the other stuff we've been working on today, I simply haven't had the time or energy to review comments and do much of a post to close out 'Vaccine Awareness Week'. So I reviewed comments. To sum up Vaccine Awareness Week, all I will do (for which I apologize) is the following: Link to this aggregate of pro-vaccine blogs and resources (

Composer99http://www.blogger.com/profile/03842730402697257316noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3501753062538548996.post-26334416215147628622010-11-05T23:16:00.001-04:002010-11-06T18:43:03.776-04:00

Housekeeping: Due to an upcoming marriage preparation course my fiancée and I are undertaking this weekend, this post must needs be a great deal more abridged than the others. Responses to Anti-Vaccine Activism Having superficially examined anti-vaccine activism this week, I want to wrap it up by reviewing some of the possible responses. I would like to touch on how we can respond to

Composer99http://www.blogger.com/profile/03842730402697257316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3501753062538548996.post-46185038487162569632010-11-04T23:07:00.001-04:002010-11-04T23:26:04.011-04:00

The Anti-Vax Nexus: Autism and Vaccines As you will recall, yesterday I linked to and analyzed a post on the website Age of Autism, which is ostensibly dedicated to advocacy for children and adults on the autism spectrum and their families. However, once you review enough past posts, it appears that Age of Autism is not really interested in undertaking positive action to research the etiology of

Composer99http://www.blogger.com/profile/03842730402697257316noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3501753062538548996.post-52471837670219397482010-11-04T02:25:00.003-04:002010-11-14T08:52:06.545-05:00

Housekeeping: Due to present and upcoming time constraints, the rest of the posts for this week, if I intend to publish them on schedule, will have to be quite a good deal shorter than perhaps was originally intended. A Reminder: In case you are reading this series starting at this post, please note that in an earlier post, I established that there exists (in my opinion, at any rate) a

Composer99http://www.blogger.com/profile/03842730402697257316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3501753062538548996.post-61154435301498806372010-11-02T22:40:00.004-04:002010-11-03T18:18:55.959-04:00

Housekeeping: This morning, I sorted out the jump break function on this site, which makes me very happy. It means less clutter/verbiage on the blog home page. The Consequences of Anti-Vaccination As described yesterday, today's topic is the consequences of taking a position of anti-vaccination, which actively discourages people from vaccinating and/or advocates against status quo mass

Composer99http://www.blogger.com/profile/03842730402697257316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3501753062538548996.post-15068041642301050722010-11-01T22:58:00.003-04:002010-11-03T17:53:35.278-04:00

Vaccines and Anti-Vaccine Sentiment: An Overview A Primer on VaccinesThere are a number of excellent resources, both online and in print, which describe, in detail, the workings of the immune system in the human body (for example, this online textbook). Since it is not my intention to go through it all in this post, I would like merely to draw attention to, and remind readers of, the manner in

Composer99http://www.blogger.com/profile/03842730402697257316noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3501753062538548996.post-92142344263536228972010-10-31T20:44:00.002-04:002010-11-02T07:58:05.310-04:00

You may not know, it, but this week is Vaccine Awareness Week. Okay, I jest. Here in Canada, National Immunization Awareness Week this year was the last week in April (as it is every year, it so happens). If you live in the United States, you have a whole month dedicated to awareness on vaccines and immunization. So whose idea is it to have a 'Vaccine Awareness Week' in the fall? Well, at least

Composer99http://www.blogger.com/profile/03842730402697257316noreply@blogger.com2