I just got back from paying off my student account at the Banff Centre. The receptionist asked me, “when are you leaving?” The 22nd I replied. “Do you want to add more money to your meal plan?” No thanks, I replied. I told her I was vegetarian, and that I didn’t care for the dining options. I could tell this made her a bit upset. “We are an institution…” she said. “The new dining hall will be a lot better.” I’m sure it will be, I said.

My reason for writing about this story is that I find it interesting that the fact that the Banff Centre is an institution is an excuse for bad food or lack of options for people with dietary restrictions. If they had people with vision and attitudes of making the most of their role as an institution (e.g. volume discounts, buying in bulk to reduce costs, etc.), I think they could actually do better than most individuals. They do have professional chefs–most people don’t have those at home!

A few days ago, I walked around the town of Banff and took pictures of infrastructure. I didn’t get a chance to write about it, but I wanted to record some of the interesting things I noticed before I forgot. Or I guess maybe only one thing that I remember: what was on the train. It’s interesting to notice that the trains here carry a lot of wood (both lumber and plywood) and un-odorized liquid propane gas.

Investigating further, one finds out Alberta is actually Canada’s oil powerhouse with the oil sands. There are even a ton of direct flights from Calgary to Dallas. Wood, I would guess. But oil? Who knew Canada was rich with oil? I assume things are going to change between the US and Canada (politically) pretty soon…

More if I remember what I forgot…

It’s interesting how sometimes obvious solutions can be novel in other domains. One example is using ice to cool a building. The premise of the system is this: it’s cheap to buy electricity at night, expensive during the day. Why not make ice at night (consumes a lot of electricity), and then use the ice to cool the building during the day (consumes little electricity), thereby saving money on cooling bills? Here’s a New York Times article on one such install in Manhattan. Interesting.

Today I realized the Banff Centre isn’t as benign and “paternal” as they make themselves out to be. In fact, they are pretty sneaky. They have cookies at two of their dining services outlets–The Kiln and The Gooseberry. Cookies are $1.88 each at the Kiln, $0.98 each at the Kiln (albeit, a bit smaller). Soup is more expensive at the Gooseberry than at the Kiln. Props Pub (a third dining service outlet) has cheaper burgers than the dining hall. The maze of what’s cheaper where is actually quite complex.

It seems their scheme is to make some things cheaper at certain places, others more expensive. All the way around, the stuff on campus is only slightly cheaper than it would be in town, maximizing their profits, but ensuring people stay here to spend their money. Definitely crafty.

Today I was looking at GIS data that outlines the paths fiber optic cables take as they snake across the U.S. I found that this data is considered a secret (as a risk to so called critical infrastructure), and therefore redacted from U.S. DOJ filings, or made more general in terms of accuracy on individual transit vendors’ websites (usually in the ‘about’ section).

What I did find, however, is that given enough money, one *can* still buy this data. Some vendors, along with older maps, appear on the Atlas of Cyberspace site. Prices seemed to range from ~$3,000 for general data all the way up to $15,000 for the most accurate and extensive map. Interesting.

What’s more interesting is, 1) “where do they get their data?” and 2) “why can I still buy this if it’s supposedly a ’secret’ and a threat to national security?” It seems, once again, that availability of funds is being used as a way to filter out those who would “do bad” with this “sensitive” data, and those who want it for other more benign purposes. I want it for an art project. Terrorists may want it to “cripple the Internet”. Who do the vendors think has access to more funds–me or the terrorists?