Risky Business.

Risk. It's a word as an exploration geologist I am far too familiar with. What are the risks in drilling this well? What is the risk of the structure, seal, reservoir and indeed hydrocarbons being in place? Let alone the risk that the timing of all these elements came together to work as a viable petroleum system.

I can think of very few professions where there is no judegment of risk, a doctor faces the risk that the treatment they have chosen won't work; an economist may judge some investments to be better than others, but there is a risk that they may be wrong; an archtiect risks the possibility that although their design works on the small scale, when its actually built it may not work at all.

There are ways of mitigating these risks. Personal experience and data help, modelling helps, using everything available to you to ensure you make the most informed decision you can possibly make lessens any risk. But it does not eliminate risk entirely. There are always wells that don't discover anything, drugs that don't work and markets that crash.

So, please tell me, why has the Italian government deemed it appropriate to sentence 6 Italian scientists and an ex-government employee to six years in prison accused of multiple manslaughter after failing to predict a major earthquake in L'Aquila, Italy?

It has been proved, time and time again that you can not accurately predict the exact location, timing or magnitude of any earthquake. You know that there are earthquake zones related to plate tectonic boundaries, we know that some of these boundaries are more active than others, but that's about it.

The above map shows the position of the plate boundaries as we know them to exist today, We know it is somewhat more complicated than this and that there are small plates attached to the bigger plates and associated faults on each of these boundaries, but in essence you get the picture. It explains why Western Europe, Central Asia and Central North America don't have the large earthquakes that effect the Western US, Central Europe, and the Pacific Rim (also known as the Ring of Fire due to the number of associated volcanoes and earthquakes). A correlation between the plate boundaries and preliminary determined earthquake epicentres can be illustrated by the below diagram.

Anyway, this isn't supposed to be a geology lesson, and earthquake predicition really isn't my field. But as you can see we have data, we have observations, we know when these earthquakes occurred and where, but not one single earthquake was predicted beforehand, and in L'Aquila there was no way of knowing that the small tremors that had already affected the area for years would one day mean that a large, >5 on the Richter scale, earthquake would happen and cause the death of 309 people and cause massive damage to the area.

But the authorities who pursued the seven defendants stressed that the case was never about the power of prediction - it was about what was interpreted to be an inadequate characterisation of the risks; of being misleadingly reassuring about the dangers that faced their city (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20025626)

I don't want to point fingers, but common sense to me says that if you live in an earthquake prone zone, even if they are small earthquakes, you should be properly informed in what to do should one occur. Get outside, go to the safest place in the house (under a table, in the bath, stand in a solid door frame). Isn't this down to the government, the schools, to educate their population to ensure their safety? To ensure that buildings weakened by years of small tremors don't crumble, to make sure that buildings in an earthquake zone are to a standard?

So although they weren't tried for not predicting the earthquake, they were tried and convicted for not allowing for adequate risk, despite saying that although a large earthquake was not likely, it was not impossible. And that's the crux, as a scientist you usually make statements that allow for the unexpected, nature is not predictable.

Life is full of risks, it is impossible to account for every risk. Every time we cross the road we run the risk that there is some idiot not paying attention as they've dropped coffee on themselves or have answered their phone. If we wanted to avoid all risks we may not leave the house, but even then 2.7 million people a year in the UK go to A&E due to an accident in the home.

This trial may set a dangerous precedent, most scientific professionals err on the side of caution with any statement they make, this may stop them from releasing any statement. And that may be the biggest risk of all.

The visibility of Fathers - the advantages of being a Mum in Norway (view from a casual observer)

There are many things I like about living in Norway, and one of these is maybe a bit strange as I am not a parent myself, but I really like that to an observer you see almost as many Dads with their kids as Mums.

Before moving to Oslo I hadn´t lived in a big city for a while, its over 5 years since I moved out of Liverpool, 7 since I lived in Manchester and 10 since I spent 4 months in Central London so maybe things have changed in the UK. But when I walk to work it is really quite noticeable that as many Dads seem to be involved in getting their young children to school/kindergarten as Mums. It is admittedly very rare you see both parents together with their children on a weekday, which seems to be saved for weekends. If it was the odd one or two fathers I wouldn´t notice but from a casual observer, it does seem to be a 50/50 split. It may be because I live in an affluent area of the city and therefore both parents are working, but when I was living in the UK, I very rarely saw Dads on their own with their kid.

From talking to colleagues, I know that many of my male colleagues make time to spend with their kids on their own, no matter whether the kids are 16 months or 16 years. Whether it’s a one-on-one situation, or them whisking all the kids off to spend a week on their own giving Mum a break, I know someone whose husband has just taken their year old daughter away for a couple of weeks. Flexible working hours with core hours of 9-3 also make it possible for parents to balance childcare, with one parent coming into the office for 7am, whilst the other takes the kids to kindergarten, then the parent on early shift leaving at 3pm so they can pick them up.  Additionally during school holidays it is not uncommon to have parents bring their kids into work, and again I know one colleague who will bring one of her two children with her, whilst her husband takes the other to his place of work.

These flexible working hours, and the largely work to live, opposed to live to work ethic means that family really does come first. This is also reflected in the fact that my colleagues and I are very rarely asked to travel on weekends, and working weekends is discouraged unless absolutely necessary.

Norway is frequently rated the best country in the world to be a Mum, and it´s easy to see why. Maternity pay in Norway is 56 weeks (13 months) at 80% full pay or 46 weeks (10.5 months) at 100% pay.  Of this fathers are encouraged to take 12 weeks, and if that’s not taken it´s lost. They, fathers, also have the option to take two weeks unpaid immediately after the birth although most companies will pay this anyway. I think that if I did decide I wanted children, I couldn´t be better placed.

With the time given for a child to bond with its Dad, it´s no wonder that you see children with just their Dads. The fact that rates of divorce in Norway are as high as in the UK, just under 50%, makes this even more encouraging because it means that fathers are not absent. Family does come first and work is work. And isn´t that the way it should be?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/08/global-motherhood-the-bes_n_1475607.html#s934376&title=1_Norway

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parental_leave#Europe

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/08/global-motherhood-the-bes_n_1475607.html#s934376&title=1_Norway

Personal space, am I just too British?

For those of you that I know and love, you will be aware that I am not one to shy away from being affectionate. I am a tactile person, and hugs, kisses (and by kisses I mean chaste ones on lips, cheeks and foreheads) and hand holding/arm linking, are not things that phase me. I don´t care if you sit right next to me, hell you can sit on my knee if you want to, it doesn´t matter to me. I know you, I care about you and I am happy you are in my life, and unless I am already sleeping with you, these tactile displays don´t have any hidden meaning or subtext and are just me being myself!

However, it isn´t the same when I don´t know someone. The British, are very good at keeping a respectful distance around people they don´t know. Handshakes are about as close as it gets regarding contact. Perhaps its because Britain is a small, overpopulated island, I don´t know. I personally have an invisible barrier of around one to four square feet all around me with people I am unfamiliar with. If people breach that barrier I get uncomfortable, but then I think most of us do.

I think I first noticed that not all cultures are the same as Britain when it comes to personal space when I travelled to Tunisia. I was about 13 at the time and it was a bit of a shock. Tourism in Tunisia at the time still wasn´t very big and was mostly dominated by the French, so being 13, with strawberry blonde hair and green eyes, its fair to say I stuck out a bit. I understand that the store owners in the markets were doing it to get you to come and look at their wares, I understand that this is how they attract custom, but at 13 it was quite intimidating having your hand grabbed at and people coming very close to you. I´ve also been to Turkey and Pakistan where the lack of awareness of personal space is noticeable, to be honest to some extent I expected it in these countries. I did not expect to encounter it in Norway.

I moved to Norway in the middle of a very cold winter, so didn´t really notice it at first, you actually don´t mind it when people stand/sit too close as any warmth is appreciated! It was only when I started going to classes in the gym that it became apparent. I like to have my space in gym classes, mainly because I´m not exactly coordinated and can be a little bit clumsy so don´t really want to stand on anyones toe, or hit them in the face when I´m doing Zumba. But I would notice how others in the class were not so aware of this. They would come and stand within an arms length, or the danger zone as I like to call it, and as the class progressed would get closer to me without being phased at all by the fact that they were doing so. Being worried about my flailing arm breaking their nose, I tend to move, but the Norwegians don´t really seem to notice just how close they are to you. It isn´t just Zumba, its Body Pump when someone comes and puts their step right next to yours so you´ll be lucky to have enough room to lunge or Shape when your yoga mats are almost touching.

They´re examples of the gym, but in queues people are so close they may as well be standing on your heels, anyone would think you were on a London tube at rush hour. The same can be said in the parks, all this space and someone comes and sits right next to you! Its almost as if they need proximity to others.

I think I find this most surprising because not only is Norway a western country, where people tend to be more aware of personal space, but its also a big country, 324220 km² with a small population of just under 5 million, so about 15 people per km². Compare this to Great Britain, where the population of 62 million is crammed into a 244820 km² area, in other words 255 people per km². Yes, I know populations in Norway are concentrated in towns around the coast, and I know that large areas of the interior are barely populated; but I am still surprised by their seemingly lack of awareness of personal space, I guess I expected them to be more British.

My Norwegian friends and colleagues are the nicest, friendliest group of people I could hope to meet. I have always felt very welcome here. This is just an observation of the difference in culture. A British friend of mine who has been here longer than myself, tried to explain this to me by saying that she thinks its to do with “the lack of interest Norwegians have in what strangers do”. This is not a bad thing, it means that you don´t have nosey neighbours twitching their curtains to see what’s going on in their street, and gossip, particularly malicious gossip, about colleagues and friends is unheard of, and believe me that makes a refreshing positive change to living in the UK. It also means that they have decided that that is where they are going to stand/sit/Zumba/occupy space, and they don´t really care how close they are to anyone else!

So I guess I have to get used to it, stop being so British and recognise that whilst my personal space bubble may have to decrease in size whilst I´m here, I don´t have to listen to anyone badmouthing anyone else. And if that’s the compromise I have to make, its definitely one I can live with.

Photo credits:

Cyanide and Happiness http://www.explosm.net/comics/940/

The law of personal space http://www.foundthemarbles.com/2012/02/personal-space/

Hard Work and Dedication are NOT gender specific

Before you read this, please don´t think I am some ball breaking feminist, I´m not. I like having doors opened up for me by guys, I will never refuse a drink a man has bought me (unless he is really dodgy) and I do still think that whilst women can do anything they put their minds to, women are physically different to men and as such, in day to day life there are some things we struggle with. However the Olympics has again brought some things to light that have bugged me for a while and what better place than to voice those here.

I admit it; I have been completely caught up in Olympic fever. I realised this on Sunday whilst watching the last hour or so of the Women’s Road Race. I don´t think I ever realised how incredibly tactical this discipline was and have only ever paid passing notice to the Tour de France, mainly because my boyfriend loves it. I also didn´t realise that although it is an individual event, it is how you work as a team that will determine how well you actually do. The men´s event was on Saturday and had been incredibly hyped up. Great Britain (trying not to say we, I have done nothing to contribute to the team, except watch and tweet!) has just won the Tour de France with Bradley Wiggins, and Mark Cavendish was expected to be amongst the medals in the Olympics Road Race. Tactically they got it wrong as none of the other countries wanted Cavendish to sprint off for the last km or so, so no one else put in any work in the peloton and Great Britain failed to get in the medals. However the ladies got it right and our first medal of the 2012 Olympics went to Lizzie Armitstead, a silver, she wasn´t even the favourite in the team after Nicole Cooke a gold medal winner in the Beijing Road Race in 2008 and Emma Pooley who had got silver in the time trial that same year, with Lucy Martin making up the team. Can I also add that although the women’s race is shorter than the men’s, it was in torrential rain for much of it. Not to mention the fact that Lizzie lost her sunglasses somewhere in Surrey during the race, which won´t have made it any easier for her. 

So the first Team GB medal of the 2012 Olympics went to a female competitor, as did the second medal, a bronze to Rebecca Adlington in the 400m freestyle swimming, not bad for someone who had only just snuck into the final and had tweeted earlier in the day

“Just sneaked into tonights final in 8th place! Not expecting anything tonight, all I can do is my best :-) thank you for all the support x”, and showed a huge amount of modesty by doing that. The same happened in Beijing where Nicole Cooke got gold, and Rebecca Adlington got gold in the 400m freestyle swimming.

We´re only 3 days into the Olympics, I hope there are many more medals to come from both the male and female members of Team GB. For now though Lizzie and Rebeccas achievements can also be joined by 18 year old Zoe Smiths new British record in the 58kg weight lifting category (Google her, the girl is TINY!!!!) The women’s double sculls (rowing) got a new Olympic record in their heat, and the equestrian eventing team are doing very well and that’s a team of four women and one man.

The Olympics is one of the few times that men and women’s sports are shown equally. I found out that women’s sports as a whole only gets 5% of sports media coverage, which explains why it only gets 0.5% of the sponsorship. If you don´t get sponsorship it can be incredibly expensive to just train for your sport, not to mention buying any equipment and travelling to events.

The lack of media coverage can also be blamed for the fact that the 2011 BBC Sports personality of the year failed to have a single female sportsperson nominated for the award despite the success of ironman world champion Chrissie Wellinton, open water swimmer Keri-Anne Payne, and word champion Rebecca Adlington. The Manchester Evening News even nominated three, very well paid footballers, Dimitar Berbatov, Yaya Toure and Patrick Vieira and not one of them is British, now thats a slap in the face for anyone.

Something else that caught my eye today was a petition that is trying to get the President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to present the gold medal to both the winner of the men's marathon and of the women's marathon, its currently only the men´s marathon winner that has his presented by the president. Becoming a top performer in any sport, male or female, takes years of dedication, sacrifice and sheer hard work. It has nothing to do with your gender; it is your desire to be the best that you can be. By doing something as simple as getting someone other than the President of the IOC to present the medal to the female marathon winner suggests that women’s sport is not as important. It is, and maybe more so as a recent study showed only 31% of 14-year-old girls said they exercised regularly, compared with 50% of 14-year-old boys. 

These girls need to see that sport is important, there are some very good role models but they have to search them out or get them presented to them during something like the Olympics. You hope that Rebecca Adlington is already a household name after Beijing and I hope that Lizzie Armitstead follows suit. They are just not as accessible as male athletes. You could ask 20 children aged 14 to name a player in the Men’s football team at the Olympics, and you´d get them piping up with at least 3 names, but I can almost guarantee they couldn´t even tell you who the coach of the Women’s football team was. Hope Powell for anyone that’s interested and she´s been a coach of the England team since 1998, please tell me a men’s international football coach that has lasted this long.

Please don´t think that women’s sport is not as high profile because our female athletes and sportswomen are not as successful, because they are. The England’s women´s football team has made the quarter final of the World Cup the last two times and were runners up in the European championships in 2009. The very well paid fully professional England men’s football team have never come runners up in any tournament and have only won the World Cup once in 1966. The women’s cricket team won the World Cup in 2009, made the semis in 2005 and won the European tournament in both 2007 and 2005. More recently the England women’s netball team, a sport that ALL girls play at school won the World Netball Series in 2011, made even more remarkable that the team is non-professional and the players all have jobs. Not to mention the numerous individual achievements across the board. I can´t imagine there are many school age kids that know that England are World Series Champions in Netball, I admit I only know it because I saw it as a photograph in one of the broadsheets. Imagine what a difference it would make if they did, what an inspiration they could be and how it would be a positive ambition for a 14 year old girl.

These women prove that they REALLY want to win, they want the prestige of winning, they don´t get huge salaries on which to become apathetic and abusive (John Terry, I´m looking at you). They have to win, or nearly win, it’s the only way they get any sort of sponsorship and funding.

Just as an aside, one thing I have noticed living in Norway is that their top female skiers and the Women´s handball team are as high profile as the Men´s and do seem to get similar levels of media coverage. This can´t be said for all sports here, but it is encouraging that in the first quarter of 2006 cross country skier Marit Bjørgen was the second most covered person in Norwegian media, surpassed only by the Norwegian Prime Minister. It may explain why there is a higher percentage of girls practicing and continuing with sports and why teenage obesity levels are not even something to worry about here.

They are calling this London 2012 Olympics the Women’s Olympics, because this is the first time that EVERY nation has a female competitor, yes even Saudi Arabia managed to enter two, and women are competing in EVERY sport with the introduction of women’s boxing. Finally, women make up 45% of the competitors, the highest percentage ever.

It really is about time that women’s sport got as much coverage as men’s. I want to hear a young girl say that when she grows up she wants to be the next Victoria Pendleton, Kelly Holmes, Lizzie Armitstead, or Jennifer Ennis rather than just famous like one of the girls out of TOWIE (seriously when did we let normal untalented people become famous?). These sporting figures are the role models that young girls need and the only way that will happen is with increased profile and reward.

So support Team GB just make sure you support the women’s sports as much as the men’s. It may not be as fast, which is often the argument used by why Women´s football is not as popular as Mens, but I can guarantee you its as exciting and skilled, if not more so. These positive role models are the key in promoting strong and healthy over skinny and the benefits of exercise opposed to chasing boys and eating chocolate.

Thanks for reading

Thanks to my friend IP for the title quote.

If you´re interested in learning more go to http://wsff.org.uk/ Women’s sport and fitness foundation.

Don´t forget to follow: @BeckAdlington, @L_ArmiTstead @damekellyholmes ‪@v_pendleton and @wsff_uk

Oh and sign this whilst you´re online http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/IOC_President_should_present_the_gold_medal_to_the_womens_marathon_winner/?cUCkfdb

Photo credits, Lizzie Armitstead and medal PA (The Telegraph), England Women´s Netball team http://www.heruni.com/just-try-england-netball-team-encourage-women-to-try-sport/

Introduction - who I am and why I have decided to blog

Okay, so I think that most people that will read this will already be friends and know me in some capactity. Some of you may come across it whilst you search for something like "moving to and living in Norway", some of you may find it as you search for shoes.... ahhhh shoes... (goes off into daydream about owning as many pairs of Louboutins as I do everything else...) but anyways, I digress.

Originally from Derby, England, I am a 30-something geologist now working out of a mid size operator based in Oslo, Norway, but working on international assets. I LOVE my job. I also loved my job when I worked for a consultancy in North Wales and I feel very fortunate to be in this position. I spent FAR too many years at University, which means I've also lived in: Liverpool, Manchester, London, Bergen and a tent in Utah (8 weeks counts as living there right?!?). I am travelled, but mainly in Europe and the furthest east I have got is Pakistan (with work), the furthest south Yemen (work again), the furthest north Nord Capp in Norway and the furthest west San Diego/Calgary, I am working on the increasing the east and the south.

Other things you need to know, I love my family and friends, despite the distances, some of which are huge, it is very important to me that I keep in touch with them. My boyfriend lives in the UK and he of course is also very important to me. I am also very passionate about the Scouting movement and still involved in the UK and as soon as my Norwegian is at a level I can deal with kids, I hope to get involved here. I love music especially live music, I am on the verge of becoming a bit of gym junkie, I am obsessed with my diet but am quite capable of sabotaging it all by myself.

So that's me, well some of the things that make me, me. This is supposed to be a short introductory post so I will leave you with why I have decided to blog and here are my reasons: I have been partially inspired to write this by my best friend, he has been part of my life since I was 17 and has always written but now writes publically. Secondly, partially by the fact I now have only "useful procrastination" on the internet (be gone CastleVille, Bubble Safari and your minions), and lastly, partially because I've been meaning to share my thoughts and feelings since I moved to Oslo, Norway at the end of January 2011. As you can possibly tell I'm very good at procrastinating hence why its taken me so long! :-D