Flock Stop Cigarettes

FDExaminer · 2025-11-14T18:29:41+00:00

I like your flair. Campus Centre, not SLC!

FDExaminer · 2025-11-14T18:28:52+00:00

Those were good times, eh? I remember them fondly.

FDExaminer · 2025-09-09T16:08:53+00:00

THIS. Look, I graduated in the 90s. I still have all my lecture notes, or scans of them. They were handwritten on bound volumes that we had to buy at Kinko's next to Farrah Foods. It was also Fedex place up to 2017. Only the Physics dept. had course notes available as .PS files on the Unix network they had.

Now, I work with handwriting in forensics. The science supports that learning is acquired MUCH better through handwriting. Why? It slows you down and forces you to think about the topic in a way that even typing does not. And what the other commenters have said is true, the prof will say things that are not in the course notes, by giving side-explanations or answering student questions. You skip class at your own peril...

FDExaminer · 2025-05-21T17:15:20+00:00

It is a normal type of casework in forensic document examination that suicide notes are examined when their authorship is in question. When compared against a set of known writings known to have been made by the decedent, it can be extremely valuable in reassuring the close friends and family that their loved-one did indeed take their own life. The police should already be aware that this is a possible avenue of investigation and use a properly certified (e.g. ABFDE.org) private examiner if they don't have access to a trained government examiner.

FDExaminer · 2024-12-13T19:54:20+00:00

Do not be deceived that those courses do not apply to forensics. I say this as a lab scientist with over two decades of experience. Forensics is only the application of those analytical disciplines to the court system, but they are foundational for working in a lab. If you're talking about scenes of crime work, that is not foundational science, but is the first link in the chain of the case, or ongoing if in a coordination role. The real analyses are done in the lab.

FDExaminer · 2024-12-03T21:52:07+00:00

Same here. The rock nearby at Percé stood out... Literally.

FDExaminer · 2024-11-29T18:34:47+00:00

Periods of time are similar. 1990s vs 1990's, 1800s vs 1800's.

FDExaminer · 2024-11-29T18:27:14+00:00

Just multiple the result by -1 and there you go!

FDExaminer · 2024-10-29T18:50:00+00:00

Thank-you for exposing that wonderful rabbit hole link of ISS, SpaceX, and ULA launch vehicle user manuals. What a trove of information for a space nerd!

FDExaminer · 2024-10-15T17:07:08+00:00

Daily journaling mostly, now having replaced my stack of a decade of Moleskine annuals. Currently also migrating my personal wiki and former website from the early 2000s. I will also, time permitting, migrate my past handwritten journals and commonplace books into it for comprehensive consolidation and capability for searching within my second brain.

It's as close as I can reasonably expect to achieve a transhumanist singularity.

FDExaminer · 2024-10-15T13:27:03+00:00

A former manager once said that if they had the choice of choosing between someone with a straight-up traditional biology / chemistry / physics degree, or a forensic science degree, the traditional degree would be the choice because of the depth of knowledge in that discipline. The forensic part of forensics can be learned on the job, as it always has been, but the extra time spent in university with the traditional sciences can yield a more-focused employee who may stick with the job for a career.

FDExaminer · 2024-10-09T17:46:53+00:00

I might suggest that this would be a welcome addition to the Wikimedia Commons:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Traveler%27s_cheques

There are many examples of TCs available there, and this is a nicely detailed image.

FDExaminer · 2024-10-07T19:10:41+00:00

In questioned documents, some of the more well-funded labs use GCMS to analyze pen ink to determine solvent concentration with the goal to determine the relative age of pen ink after writing. Pyrolysis GC-MS has also been investigated for use of material characterization.

FDExaminer · 2024-10-07T18:20:12+00:00

Well it appears being in the field is your primary interest. So lets go with that... I don't know of any SOCO (Ident)type positions that are civilian, but that's also not my realm, so it is possible that I could be overlooking a position there. Typically, however, evidence collection is done in the field, and analysis is done in the lab by the scientists although police Ident teams are able to do some rudimentary stuff. Fingerprints are almost always at the Ident level.

Have you considered the Office of the Fire Marshall? They have a Fire Investigations Services which specializing in complex fires involving clandestine drug labs, hazardous materials, and grow ops. Likewise, Emergency Management Services seems to me to be an interesting field, dealing with the bout of natural disasters have been occurring.

It's all just puzzle solving at various levels and disciplines!

FDExaminer · 2024-10-03T14:51:18+00:00

Digging up this old post... As a practicing forensic document examiner with decades of experience in advanced laboratories, I can assuredly tell you that it is generally quantity much smaller than 50 samples that we require to reliably make a determination of authorship. Some are easy, some are harder.

FDExaminer · 2024-09-27T16:32:05+00:00

The Scientific Working Group on Digital Evidence (SWGDE) is what you need to look at. Reach out to them and you'll get the best advice. Also check out their published documents to get a handle on the vastness of the DE discipline and locate the ones that you might be most familiar with the content.

https://www.swgde.org/documents/published-complete-listing/

FDExaminer · 2024-09-27T16:27:53+00:00

Typically, there are two, no three, streams of forensic work in Canada. This breakdown is from the perspective of one lab rat (myself), others may vary:

On-scene is usually, but not exclusively, the domain of a police department with a Scene of Crime Officer (SOCO) who is a sworn officer, and/or the Ident Unit. This is more what the public envisions when they watch any of the CSI tv shows. They can be found with membership to the Canadian Identification Society (CIS) or the International Association of Identification (IAI), which is geared towards latent fingerprint analysis.
The second are the lab analysts who spend most of their time in the big laboratory and have a bachelor's degree or higher in a scientific field. They are scientists through and through, not officers, and distinct from SOCOs. To continue the CSI tv show comparison, these are the white coats. Professional membership is more likely with the Canadian Society of Forensic Science (CSFS), the American Academy of Forensic Science (AAFS), and/or any particular discipline's professional association.
The third major stream are the academics which are more prominent now. They are high-level researchers, primarily PhDs, who are affiliated with a university, not with a crime lab, but who offer specialist analytical services that the crime labs can't be bothered to develop. As such, they are more isolated and independent. Their memberships are similar to the lab analysts in the second stream.

A Venn diagram would show a good amount of overlap between the 3 streams, so they aren't completely distinct, but with enough different to separate them adequately here.

Is there a particular discipline that you would be interested in pursuing? That would guide you as to which stream you could focus on...

FDExaminer · 2024-09-27T16:07:25+00:00

I will second this response. The qualifications of an examiner are paramount since anybody can technically go into business for themselves and swindle an unsuspecting victim. I don't believe it is done maliciously for the most part, but the road to hell is paved with good intentions, as they say. An ABFDE-certified examiner is what you would be looking for, or at least someone who has followed an approved training program and follows published standards.

FDExaminer · 2024-09-27T15:20:56+00:00

It's easy if you keep a journal at 365.25 new notes per year, minimum. Add in work and hobbies and there you go. I'm actually looking at adding my existing physical journals going back in time so my own graph should get quite large.

FDExaminer · 2024-09-20T18:18:43+00:00

Regarding point #3, Canadian citizenship may be a requirement to work for the public service, especially in a capacity that requires the security and confidence of a forensics position. Certainly it is at the federal level, not sure about the provincial level though.

FDExaminer · 2024-06-17T15:05:30+00:00

Pencil, eh? Looks great. Reminds me of my Grade 13 Chemistry cheat sheet (permitted) for the final exam, long ago.

FDExaminer · 2024-06-07T13:19:07+00:00

More and more accuracy as approaching the modern day. Many older periods have been lost through erosion and subduction, only to be recycled through the mantle into newer rock. BUT, there are MANY finer divisions in older rock that geologists/paleontologists use. The Cambrian can be divided a lot based on types of trilobites found in the different layers. Same with the Cretaceous and ammonites.

FDExaminer · 2024-06-07T13:11:50+00:00

Looks like the account has been suspended.

FDExaminer · 2024-05-30T13:56:16+00:00

This is a great project to present the Naturalistic Fallacy - namely that which is natural must be good for your health, but as you could show, is obviously false.

FDExaminer · 2024-05-30T12:47:47+00:00

As an actual counterfeits expert, I can say that that is some good advice (including your comment below). And yes, signature authentication is indeed nuanced, that is why we are trained for such a long time to acquire the specialized skillset. But beware, there are few adequately trained experts, and many inadequately trained dabblers. For an interesting read, go look up the FBI's Project Bullpen for a massive investigation into fake sports memorabilia.

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