01.08.12
Posted in Uncategorized at 9:37 pm by Oli
December 8, 2011 – Royal Canadian Mint, Ottawa
I took a tour of the Royal Canadian Mint today. In Ottawa they only mint investor and collector coins while in Winnipeg they do circulation coins and bills for Canada and for other countries. Investor/collector coins are usually pure silver or gold but sometimes have blends of other metals like nickel or copper. The process of creating a coin starts out first by creating gold/silver bricks. Here are the steps for the metal refining of gold:
1. Pre-melt. Doré bars in purities ranging from 5% to 95% are melted in a furnace. Dip samples are taken from the molten gold to determine its purity.
2. Chlorination. Chlorine gas is injected into the molten metal mix. All metals but gold float to the surface to form a slag of molten chloride. The resulting 995 (99.5% pure) fine gold is poured into an anode mould.
3. Degolding. Soda ash is added to the molten chloride slag recovered from chlorination. The reaction causes gold particles to collect in a silver-gold alloy ‘button’ that settles at the bottom of the crucible.
4. Electrolysis. This process brings gold to 9999 purity. The gold anode is placed in a bath containing a solution of hydrochloric acid and gold chloride. The anode is then subjected to an electric current. The anode dissolves, and the dissolved gold plates onto a titanium cathode. Impurities (mostly silver) fall to the bottom of the cell or form soluble chlorides.
5. Final pour. 9999 fine gold is cast into bars of various sizes or turned into granulation gold.
Next is creating rolls of flattened silver/gold as follows:
1. Start with a gold/silver brick
2. Chop the brick down to smaller pieces
3. Put the silver block into a furnace to soften it
4. Remove oxidized silver, which has an unwanted color (waste silver all along the process goes back into the melting pot)
5. Press the silver into a flat sheet with the appropriate thickness (4mm for silver, 8mm for gold)
6. Roll the flattened sheets onto a wheel
The rolls are then taken to the next room where the blank coins will be created.
1. Roll out the silver wheel and press it between two rollers to get the exact required thickness
2. Send the silver sheet through the punching press. Here the circles are created. Wasted silver goes back into the melting pot.
3. The silver circles then go through a machine to get an edge created. The edge allows the detail of the die to transfer correctly upon striking and the faces of the coin to not rub when pressed against other surfaces. Over time, the rubbing would wear out the coin faster. Coins last about 50-60 years on average (paper about 3-4 years and plastic paper like in NZ about 5-6 years).
4. Blanks are cleaned and dried (silver by automated towel, gold by hand as the softness of gold is too delicate for machines).
The blank coins then go into the next room where they are cast with the design. Silver/gold coins are usually hand pressed (i.e. manual) and other ones are machine pressed (i.e. automated). Many of the collector coins also have high quality artwork manually engraved. Lastly the coins are inspected for quality. Investor coins are worth their weight in silver/gold. Every single coin is manually weighed to make sure it is exactly 1 ounce. Anything less is rejected. Anything up to 1.0005 ounces is kept and if it is more it is rejected (don’t want to lose money on the coin!).
The design on the coin also goes through quite a process too.
1. First a design is drawn/selected from an artisit
2. The design is recreated digitally in a 3D drawing software.
3. The design is etched onto discs much larger than the coin to retain as much detail as possible. A plaster copy of the coin design is transferred onto a rubber disc, producing a positive image. It is then transferred onto an epoxy resin disc to produce a negative impression of the original design.
4. A reducing machine follows the contours of the original epoxy disc to engrave a smaller scale version onto a brass plate.
5. Dies used to strike coins are copied from the reduced original design. A second reducing machine takes the brass plate and shrinks all of the information onto a steel die called the matrix, technically the original die. This can take up to 48 hours, after which the matrix is copied to produce the master punch, a process called hobbing.
6. The master punch is then hobbed onto another blank die to produce working dies (or proof dies), which are used in presses to make coins. Proof dies are capable of striking coins and leaving a frosted image on top of a mirror-like background.
In addition, the Olympic medals for the Vancouver Olympics were minted here. The waviness of the medals represents the waving landscape of the mountains. Each design on the medal is unique and comes from a master design (think of a giant puzzle). The neck strap is dark blue, to represent the ocean, and light blue to represent the sky.
I also learnt that the 1 dollar coin, the loonie, was originally supposed to be the “canoe,” a picture of two first nation voyageurs in their canoe. The design was lost on the way to the Winnipeg mint so in order not to have fraud issues a new design was created.
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08.12.10
Posted in life, Priska at 12:14 pm by Priska
Daniela in 2005 at my parents’ house.
Daniela in Afghanistan.
With great sadness I want to let you know that one of the 10 Christian workers who were killed in Afghanistan on August 5th (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100809/ap_on_re_as/as_afghanistan) was my friend and former flat mate Daniela Beyer. Daniela was a linguist and translator. From July 20th to August 4th she traveled with a mobile eye clinic team through the remote north of Afghanistan, assisting with her knowledge of the local languages as well as her tracking experience from previous language survey trips in the area. She was working with a very experienced organization and team and the trip to the north happened at the invitation of the local community. The team had finished their medical work and was on their way back to Kabul when they were attacked and killed. The Taliban have claimed responsibility for their death.
I met Daniela during my first semester at the University of Leipzig. From the very beginning we found that we had many things in common. We both studied language-related subjects and had many of the same interests and passions. She graduated with a degree in Russian and English and went on to study Teaching German as a Foreign Language as well as theology. I graduated with a degree in linguistics and went on to study Russian. She was one of the few people in my life with whom I could have professional discussions, and we often helped each other out with advice and material, proof-reading each other’s papers and theses.
When I moved within Leipzig, she took over my old apartment, only to join me later in the new one. Our flat-sharing community involved between 3 and 5 people and lasted about 3 years. We formed strong bonds throughout those student days, sharing life with its pains and joys and walking together as Christians.
Both Daniela and I had plans to serve as Christians overseas and we wondered if we might end up in the same project, given our very similar gifts. Although that never happened, I had the privilege of sharing some of her journey of figuring out her place and calling. Together we attended an information week-end on Central Asia which gave us the first in-depth exposure to the region and planted a love for it in our hearts. We separately went on look-and-see trips to Central Asia, visiting some of the same projects and people. Whereas I had a clear vision of what I wanted to do and pretty quickly joined a translation project in Kazakhstan, Daniela had it much harder in deciding about her future. She was a helper at heart, neither particularly courageous nor adventurous. Her only plan in life was to serve God and do His will, and she went through great struggles in discerning it. Our last meeting took place in 2007: She was preparing to start her work in Afghanistan, just as I was finishing up in Kazakhstan and preparing to get married.
Some of my favorite memories include visiting Daniela during her studies in Gießen. I still wear the wrist-watch which we chose together, and I remember her kind care when I crashed in her apartment with dehydration and acute hearing loss on a hot, stressful summer day.
Daniela was very close to her family – her parents, two sisters and a brother, some of whom I had the privilege of knowing personally. My thoughts go out to them and I deeply grieve with them over the loss of such a fine daughter and sister.
Daniela constantly put other people first and was always ready to help out. With the years she seemed to become increasingly aware of her own weakness, and yet in the midst of it she grew stronger and knew God more deeply. She was the only one of us who never got married, and she used her singleness to go to places where few of us marrieds can go.
Her life was a life lived self-sacrificially; a life lived to the full and well spent. Although we have a hard time accepting it, God decided that her work was done and took her home to things much better than she ever could have had here on earth. I am proud to have known Daniela. While I lost one of the closest companions in my life, I pray that through her death there would be much greater gain to God’s kingdom.
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07.11.10
Posted in travels at 9:42 pm by Oli
June 30, 2010 – Calgary, Alberta
At last, the final trip in my travel marathon because of our trip to Germany and other work trips. The good news is that I have no trips scheduled for the summer so I will actually be able to enjoy the amazing Vancouver summer.
Two things jump out when you get to Calgary: the oil and gas industry and overhead walkways. There are a lot of Canadian head offices located in Calgary and many are involved in the oil and gas industry. As oil goes so does Calgary so there has been a lot of activity happening here.
Figure 650 - Downtown Calgary
Figure 651 – Princes Island pedestrian bridge crossing the Bow River into Princes Island Park, downtown.
The overhead walkways are in place in the downtown core to protect the residents from the chilling sub freezing weather that hits Calgary in the winter. The system of walkways, which allows pedestrians to connect between buildings without stepping outside, is one of the largest in total length that I have seen as, by my estimate, they are longer than those of Minneapolis, Winnipeg, and Houston.
Figure 652 - With nice weather it seems as all of Calgary is out doing exercise. This 156 step staircase is a favorite for getting a good workout by running up and down it several times.
Figure 653 - From the top of 2192 meter Mt. Baldy looking south up the Kananaskis valley to the Rocky Mountains beyond.
Calgary is also only a short drive away from the Rocky Mountains and so it wasn’t long before I made my way there to go hike up Mt. Baldy. On the way, I was reminded that Calgary was the host of the 1988 Winter Games, as I could see the ski jump tower not too far outside the city.
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Posted in travels at 9:39 pm by Oli
June 20, 2010 – Niagara Falls, Ontario
On the way home from Thunder Bay I had a stopover in Toronto and so I took several days off to stay with good friends from New Zealand. Every year I get further and further removed from my life in New Zealand so it was wonderful to be able to reconnect with this family who only recently immigrated to Canada.
Figure 648 - The American Falls.
Figure 649 - The Canadian Falls, taken on a previous trip.
On the weekend we took part in a 50km mountain bike race on the Niagara peninsula. Since we were in the neighbourhood, we also stopped by Niagara Falls to observer its majestic beauty. I had been to Niagara Falls vefore but I had completely forgotten how the downtown resembled Las Vegas. There were bright lights flashing everywhere, casinos, and lots of people and noise.
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Posted in travels at 9:36 pm by Oli
June 17, 2010 – Thunder Bay, Ontario
A rare opportunity to fill in teaching a course for a different region at work had me in Thunder Bay, Ontario this week. Thunder Bay is in the west of the province, on the edge of Lake Superior, only a 17 hour drive away from Toronto. In fact, to give you an idea of how big the province is, to drive across all of Ontario would take a over a day nonstop! That would be equivalent to driving from Vancouver to Los Angeles.
Figure 644 - Mt. McKay looms above Thunder Bay and is an easy hike up.
Figure 645 - A cargo ship in Lake Superior.
Thunder Bay started out as a fur trading post in the late 17th century and and now continues as a port city for grain, forest products, and manufactured goods that travel through the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway to the east coast and Europe. It is remarkable to think that a city that is 2000 kilometers inland is a port city! Through most of its history, Thunder Bay was actually two separate towns, Fort William and Port Arthur, before being merged together with two other towns to become the city it is today. This dual town nature is still apparent today as there is no real “downtown” to the city but two separate centers and the intercity area being filled up as well with businesses.
Figure 646 - Shale is a common rock structure in this area. Rivers tend to spread out wide, as above, rather than carve V-shaped canyons.
Figure 647 - On the other hand, although the rock here is all shale, the Kakabeka Falls make a huge 39 meter plunge.
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06.07.10
Posted in life at 6:24 pm by Oli
June 6, 2010 – Hopes and Dreams
In light of the Intmacy posting just before this one I would like to share some of my hopes and dreams. Remember that dreams are just that. It doesn’t matter if it is something that I can accomplish or not. The main thing is to write it down and you’ll be amazed at what actually does get accomplished. Ultimately, with God on my side, anything is possible.
Physical
- Climb Peak Lenin
- Complete an Ironman triathlon
- Cycle up the big mountains of the Tour de France, especially l’Alpe d’Huez
- Live to be 120
Emotional
- Continually meet Priska’s need to connect emotionally
Spiritual
- Become a “couple saint” with Priska. That is we dream to be role models for how to live a married life and a life following Jesus.
- Make a real difference in peoples’ lives. For example, be a person that is sought out for wisdom.
Intellectual
I would love to hear what your dreams are. Feel free to email me directly. I can read French and German too! :-)
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Posted in life at 6:21 pm by Oli
June 6, 2010 – Intimacy
On the weekend Priska and I listened to a session called “The Seven Levels of Intimacy”, put on by Matthew Kelly and published by Lighthouse Catholic Media. The point of the message was that there are things that prevent us from having strong close relationships with friends, spouses, and kids and so Matthew described 7 levels that either can prevent or encourage intimacy.
What follows is a brief description of the 7 levels as I thought it would be very helpful to get this information out to others.
Matthew starts by indicating that our unchanging purpose in life is to become the best version of ourselves. This theme needs to be kept in mind as the 7 levels are discussed.
1. Cliches
Teenagers are the best at doing this. For example, “What did you do today? Nothing.” Teenagers don’t talk to their friends like this. Cliches can prevent intimacy, as with the parent/teen conversation, or they can be used to lead to intimacy.
2. Facts
Talking facts is another way to avoid intimacy. We can talk about the weather, sports, cars and all their details and never get personal with another person. Again, facts can be a hindrance or a helper to intimacy.
3. Opinions
Remember that we need to know our purpose. People hate conflict so opinions often prevent intimacy. A key concept that Matthew reveals is that love is not based on understanding, as society tells us. Love is based on acceptance. We don’t need to understand or agree with someone’s opinion, we just need to accept the person stating the opinion. If someone gives a bad opinion or idea, say during a committe meeting, rather than just smiling and saying all is well so that you avoid conflict you could check to see if the idea makes people a better version of themselves (the purpose) and if it doesn’t then simply say that the idea is off purpose so let’s move on.
Matthew says it much better than me but the point is that we don’t need to hide from conflict. We can address it head on and avoid worse outcomes.
Also, opinions change over time so we want to stay away from labelling people.
4. Hopes and Dreams
One way to improve intimacy is to share your hopes and dreams with other people. Often you will start to think how you can help that other person achieve their dreams.
5. Feelings
This was a funny one with a two pronged attack. We all know the stereotype about guys and their feelings. Simply put, Matthew acknowledges that guys need to have them and share them with others. But women are not off the hook. They need to know when, where, how, and to whom to share their feelings with. Also, some feelings have reasons behind them and some don’t. We just need to accept them and be there for the other person, that is, to love them.
6. Fears, Faults, and Failures
Many people say that if people really knew me they wouldn’t love me. Fear of rejection. When we are afraid we don’t reveal ourselves, we hide ourselves. Fears take us further away from making us the best version of ourself. We need to know our fears. When someone expresses a fear, rather than jumping on them we need to ask where did that fear come from? Why do people do and say what they say?
We all have faults. We need to be vulnerable and have humility. We need to say, I have got a problem, can you help me? And the other person should respond, how is the best way to help you with that? Often we try to justify our faults.
For failures, we all do stupid things. Instead of putting the person down, how about, I want to help you improve on that.
7. Legitimate Needs
We have needs.
- Physical – exercise, eat properly, get enough sleep
- Emotional – focus on relationships
- Spiritual – silence, solitude, scripture, sacraments
- Intellectual – read great books
God gave us these needs to be happy. Unfortunately, we get caught up not in what we need but in what we want. Our whole society focuses on wants. Our society is an unhappy one. Therefore we can see that focusing on wants is no good.
Conclusion
Matthew finishes off by stating that the one thing people should have more of is carefree timelessness. Think of the teenager who talks on the phone for four hours.
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05.28.10
Posted in travels at 8:58 pm by Oli
May 20, 2010 – Sparwood, BC
Another business trip, this time to Sparwood, in the south of the province next to the Alberta border nestled in a valley in the Rocky Mountains. During the evenings I did several hikes but it was after the work finished that I had planned to visit Glacer National Park in Montana, and possibly walk on a glacier.
Figure 638 - This wall of mountains (Fernie ski resort) welcomed me home every evening on my drive from Sparwood.
Figure 639 - The Three Sisters. I had originally planned to hike up them but there was too much snow.
For the second time in two trips I have been surprised by the amount of snow on the mountains. First, in the Yukon, all the mountains were covered in snow, thus, lowering my expectations for the hikes I wanted to do. Then again, this is the Yukon – what would you expect? In fact the lake was still frozen at Kluane! Second, the mountains around Fernie, where I was staying for this trip. My problem, of course, is that I have been brain washed into thinking that there should be snow free mountains at the end of May because that is the way it is in southern California. Wow! It didn’t take long to forget what it is like in the colder climates.
Figure 640 - Lower hikes afforded amazing canopy views like this one.
Figure 641 - Weather was always a problem as the light snow fall closed in.
Furthermore, I had bad weather to contend with. Since there is next to no bad weather in southern California hikes I didn’t even expect the possibility on this weekend. Regardless, I think God had a bigger plan for me – like keeping me safe and secure at home in BC. First, the campground I wanted to stay at in Glacier National Park was not yet open. Second, the famous Going to the Sun Road through the park was partially closed. Then, on one of my evening hikes earlier in the week I lost my annual National Park pass, which I needed to enter Glacier National Park or else pay another fee. Next, there was rain/snow on my drive south to Montana. Finally, there was a sign that said the border crossing was only open from 9am-6pm. I could have gone to the next border crossing, which was only a 45km detour but finally I paid attention to God’s messages and turned around.
Figure 642 - Nothing like a nice little campfire to keep warm at night.
Figure 643 - The largest truck in the world sits in Sparwood. Note the two people by the front right tire for size. The truck would have been used to haul ore from the open pit coal mines.
In the end, I settled for a couple of nights of car camping and getting lost on gravel roads in the deep back country around St. Mary’s Lake near Kimberley. The best thing that happened was the opportunity to drive someone back to their vehicle, some 1.5 hour walk away on the gravel road.
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Posted in travels at 8:55 pm by Oli
May 14, 2010 – Whitehorse, Yukon
A business trip brought the family and I to the Yukon for the first time, representing the farthest north I have ever set foot, at a latitude of 60’46” north. I had read that from the Meteorological Service of Canada that Whitehorse is the driest city in Canada, having only 267 mm of rainfall per year (Vancouver and Wellington have about 1200 mm while Redlands has about 346 mm per year), which classifies it as a desert, depending on whose definition you take, albeit a very cold one. To my surprise, as I looked outside the plane window I saw trees everywhere amongst all the mountains!
Figure 630 - Priska, Zena, and Oli on the bridge spanning Miles Canyon.
Figure 631 - Priska and Zena, with the Yukon River flowing through Miles Canyon below.
Whitehorse sits in a valley below the airport with the Whitehorse River flowing beside the town. The city name comes from the early settlers who had to navigate the “White Horse” rapids, named because they looked like a horse’s white mane. The rapids have since been flooded by a dam to create a reservoir for drinking water, though, now it is only used for electricity. The town was a stopping point for the adventurers heading up to Dawson City for the 1897-98 gold rush.
Figure 632 - Priska driving a boat on the Yukon River.
Figure 633 - Kayaking on the Yukon River.
The Whitehorse area is amazing for its outdoor recreation possibilities. One evening I went kayaking with one of my students up the Whitehorse River to Canyon City, a temporary village during the gold rush. The water was superbly flat and the ice had just broken up the previous week so we were able to paddle without interruption. Priska, Zena, and I also did several walks including one through a forest full of mountain bike/cross country ski trails, depending on the season. It would get dark at 11pm so there was plenty of time to get in a good piece of recreation in the evening.
Figure 634 - Kluane National Park with Martha Black peak in the background.
Figure 635 - King’s Throne. Halfway up is a cirque which is the throne that Priska, Zena, and I hiked up to. There was still lots of snow blocking the trail.
On the weekend we took the opportunity to explore Kluane National Park. This park is home to the tallest peak in Canada, Mount Logan at 6050 meters, though it is very far inland from the road and requires flying to get to the base. Nevertheless, we were awe inspired by the wall of vertical mountain that presented itself at the end of the road in Haines Junction. Only in New Zealand have I seen such huge glacier-carved vertical slopes.
Figure 636 - Lunch time on the trail .
Figure 637 - Kathleen Lake was still frozen. Although I could stand on the ice it wasn’t very thick and it would be too dangerous at this stage to walk across the lake.
We went camping and were not sure how Zena would respond in the cold. I tucked her into my down jacket for a sleeping bag as temperatures dropped below 0 and she slept wonderfully. We also went on a big hike up to the King’s Throne. This hike had a lot of vertical and Priska did an amazing job to get to the top. Sadly, on the way down, glacading was not an option. The first snowfield I was able to slide down on my feet, like skiing, but thereafter I simply sank into the soft snow. It meant having to walk down steep loose rock as the regular trail was often covered in deep snow.
Now that I have experienced a little of what it is like in the summer I wouldn’t mind trying the cold dark winter. Imagine the sun rising at 11am and setting at 3pm!
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05.14.10
Posted in Priska at 9:34 am by Priska
May 13, 2010 – Zena’s diapers
When we were in Germany we noticed that not many people use cloth diapers. We met a couple of moms in East Germany in the end who did, and we know of a few others in Canada and the States. It is definitely a minority choice, but we have been very happy with it.
Our friend Beth from Denver encouraged us to do it and on her blog she shares her experience (https://home.comcast.net/~cassidy98/clothdiapers.htm). I looked at several diaper systems online and was finally convinced that the best system is the one that Beth had also chosen. The company is called “Diaperaps” and I ordered the complete “From birth to potty” package from them (http://www.babysorganicnursery.com/home/dp1/page_2567/birth_to_potty__diaper_package.html) plus a few extra diaper covers upon Beth’s advice. This is how it works:
You have a set of cloth diapers (we use 24) and a set of diaper covers which come in various sizes. Zena has already grown out of the infant and the newborn size and is almost too big for the small size. There are still the medium and the large size to grow into. In her current size we use 6 covers but could do with less.
The cloth gets folded in three.
Optionally you can add a thin paper liner which keeps the moisture away from the skin and helps remove the poo very easily. It can be flushed just like toilet paper and is bio-degradable.
The cloth is placed inside the cover.
The diaper is closed with simple Velcro flaps, just like a disposable diaper.
We always keep a pile of “loaded” diapers ready as well as a pile of ready folded cloths that we can quickly put in the covers.
Disposing of a dirty diaper takes three steps:
1. Flush the paper liner with the poo. If it is just a wet diaper, the liner can even be washed and reused several times without a problem.
2. Collect dirty cloth in a trash can that seals nicely and has a plastic bucket inside that can easily be pulled out and cleaned.
3. Fill cover with fresh pre-folded cloth. I can reuse the covers many many times as they don’t get soiled easily.
I have to wash diapers about every second or third day. I use the hot cycle with half the amount of detergent (for some reason dirty diapers make a lot of foam) and an extra rinse cycle. We have a small European size front-loading washing machine from Bosch which uses very little water and energy. Covers get washed separately along with the normal clothes.
Oli helps me a lot with hanging up and pre-folding diapers. Although there is a certain amount of extra work involved in using cloth diapers, we feel very good about our choice as we know that it is both environment friendly as well as saving us a lot of money.
We have found that even when we travel we can use cloth diapers as long as we have the possibility to do a laundry every so often (no problem in hotels or with friends and family). So cloth diapers being as easy as they are, we really wish more people would use them.
The only word of caution I would have is that for the first two months, when Zena pooed a lot and it was very liquidy, I could very rarely use a cover twice. It seemed like a lot of unnecessary work to have to take the dirty diapers apart and wash the cloths and covers separately all the time. So with a second child I could imagine using disposable diapers for the first few weeks, if the work gets too much. But as things stand now, I am proud that we are making it work, and we are determined to continue.
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