I know my priorities are messed up.
My biggest nagging worry about global climate change is that Americans are going to flee northwards. Into Canada. Bringing their ideology (and idiocy) with them.
Wouldn’t that keep *you* awake at night?
posted at 12:37 pm on Thursday, July 07, 2005 in Current Events, Odd, Random Thoughts | Comments (1)
Today is the first snowfall of spring, a fine Canadian tradition….
posted at 9:01 am on Monday, March 21, 2005 in Current Events, Humour | Comments Off on Tradition
Everyone else has blogged about this by now, but what the heck:
New Scientist 13 things that do not make sense – Features
My favourite:
bq. 1 The placebo effect
bq. DON’T try this at home. Several times a day, for several days, you induce pain in someone. You control the pain with morphine until the final day of the experiment, when you replace the morphine with saline solution. Guess what? The saline takes the pain away.
bq. This is the placebo effect: somehow, sometimes, a whole lot of nothing can be very powerful. Except it’s not quite nothing. When Fabrizio Benedetti of the University of Turin in Italy carried out the above experiment, he added a final twist by adding naloxone, a drug that blocks the effects of morphine, to the saline. The shocking result? The pain-relieving power of saline solution disappeared.
Who woulda thunk it? An interesting twist on the usual “mind over matter” explanation…
posted at 1:03 am on Monday, March 21, 2005 in Current Events, Links | Comments (1)
* “Christian creationists bully IMAX theaters over evolution”:http://www.boingboing.net/2005/03/19/christian_creationis.html
* “Legislator wants cheerleaders to keep their routines clean”:http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/rssstory.mpl/metropolitan/3090937 – Bill would ban sexually suggestive performances at school events
* “Canadian blogger blocked from U.S.”:http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/business/11176472.htm – “His response was, ‘You can’t make a living from blogging. Stop lying and tell me why you’re really here.’ ”
* Baseball, steroids, and the U.S. Congress – where the heck did *that* one come from?
* “Terri Schiavo”:http://blog.sethgodin.silkblogs.com/My-story-is-better-than-your-story.3903.entry – isn’t it atually “illegal”:http://www.skyseastone.net/jvstin/unjvst/004515.html for the US government to make laws that apply to a single individual?
posted at 12:59 am on Monday, March 21, 2005 in Current Events, Rants | Comments Off on they’re insane
I knew it was bad over in Africa, but “this stunning graph”:http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2005/02/the_african_cli.html really drives it home. Check it out.
(via “Antipixel”:http://www.antipixel.com/blog/archives/2005/03/04/the_african_cliff.html)
posted at 8:07 pm on Thursday, March 10, 2005 in Current Events, Links | Comments Off on The African Cliff
So while I was in the shower today, I heard a report that three women are suing Koko the gorilla for “pressuring them to see their nipples”. My first thought was: what has the world come to when people are suing a _gorilla_?
Of course, sanity prevailed, and I checked Google. Turns out that the women are suing the Gorilla Foundation because the women were informed that failing to expose their nipples would cause their employment to “suffer”. When the women reported health and safety violations rodents in the food preparation areas, for example) they were dismissed.
The truth is entirely more reasonable than the radio report. Of course, the radio report was more sensational…
See “Google News”:http://news.google.com/news?q=koko+%22lawsuit%22 for more stories…
posted at 6:07 pm on Tuesday, March 01, 2005 in Current Events | Comments Off on koko sued?
There’s a news story today about how antibiotic resistant bugs are on the rise again. Ah, but this time doctors are blaming patients; it seems we’re “demanding” antibiotics for all of our ailments.
Here’s the kicker: antibiotics are prescription drugs (up here in Canada). If you don’t think the patient needs them, *don’t prescribe them*! Passing the buck to patients is just plain irresponsible.
posted at 12:05 am on Friday, February 18, 2005 in Current Events, Rants | Comments Off on antibiotics
MSNBC – First Amendment no big deal, students say
bq. The way many high school students see it, government censorship of newspapers may not be a bad thing, and flag burning is hardly protected free speech.
bq. Yet, when told of the exact text of the First Amendment, more than one in three high school students said it goes “too far†in the rights it guarantees. Only half of the students said newspapers should be allowed to publish freely without government approval of stories.
Wow.
bq. They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security. — Ben Franklin
or even better:
bq. I disapprove of what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it. — Voltaire
posted at 8:55 pm on Tuesday, February 01, 2005 in Current Events, Links | Comments (1)
Scary statistics from the CIA world factbook. The 45% of the population is under 14; the median age is 17; the average life expectancy is 42.5. Why?
AIDS…
posted at 9:43 pm on Friday, November 19, 2004 in Current Events | Comments Off on Cote d’Ivoire
I’m going to (briefly) break a “long standing trend”:http://blog.cfrq.net/chk/archives/2003/01/16/blogging-politics/.
I find myself completely apathetic about the events of Tuesday. In fact, I didn’t even know what was going on until Wednesday morning when I arrived at work and my cow-orkers were chatting. But I know several people who are majorly bummed about the results. Is this simply part of my whole “If there’s nothing I can do, there’s no point getting worked up” philosophy, or am I missing something fundamental about what it means to have “W” back in power for another four years?
I think the coming crisis for the US (and therefore world) economies has little to do with which president is in power; it has more to do with greedy multinational corporations and lax regulation (which isn’t going to change anytime soon), and with the impending energy crisis; neither of which is going to be affected by any US president…
posted at 10:44 am on Thursday, November 04, 2004 in Current Events, Politics | Comments (1)
There was a “major accident on the 401”:http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2004/09/29/hwy_crash040929.html this morning. Two trucks collided, and one caught fire. The cleanup closed the express lanes in both direction through Yonge Street during the morning rush hour; traffic was backed up all over the city as a result. (The westbound collectors are under construction through that section, so the highway went from 5 lanes to only 1 through that stretch, if I remember correctly). Worse, the fire damaged the roadbed in the westbound lanes, which means it’ll be a while before they can re-open them. I suppose it’s possible that the fire damaged the underlying bridge structure, in which case we’re completely hosed…
Anyway, I don’t drive the 401 (although I cross over it every day; that was a bizarre sight). However, there was a huge traffic backup across the bottom of the city this morning too; the Gardiner Expressway / DVP were stop and go from about Gerrard all the way across to _Islington_. Apparently our traffic network is so overloaded that a 401 closure causes backups on the other side of the city…
posted at 11:48 am on Wednesday, September 29, 2004 in Current Events, Personal | Comments (2)
Avoiding technology has it’s drawbacks:
Hurricane JEANNE
bq. WE ARE REMINDED THAT FROM SUNDOWN TONIGHT UNTIL SUNDOWN SATURDAY IS YOM KIPPUR…A SOLEMN JEWISH HOLIDAY. SOME OF YOUR JEWISH NEIGHBORS IN THE WATCH AND WARNING AREAS OBSERVING YOM KIPPUR WILL NOT BE LISTENING TO RADIOS OR WATCHING TV…AND MAY NOT BE AWARE OF THE HURRICANE SITUATION.
Jewish law does say that personal safety is more important than religious observance. So, for example, it should be ok to drive one’s car in order to evacuate from the hurricane watch zone. But the question remains: how many people will miss the warnings? Current predictions have the storm making landfall in Florida before sunset tomorrow…
Stay safe, everyone.
posted at 9:59 pm on Friday, September 24, 2004 in Current Events | Comments Off on luddites beware?
The commentary is the usual, but I loved Mr. Greenspun’s way of phrasing it:
bq. American labor is wonderful but it is a luxury that most American families can’t afford
(from Philip Greenspun’s Weblog:)
posted at 12:07 pm on Monday, September 20, 2004 in Current Events, Links | Comments Off on outsourcing quote
I’ve been paying a lot more attention to Hurricanes all of a sudden. I could claim it’s because of the upcoming Kitefest (we were worried about getting rained out, but it seems Ivan is going to stall in the Appalachians and leave us alone), but I think it’s simple fascination.
But for some reason, I’ve got a Tragically Hip song stuck in my head…
posted at 9:08 pm on Wednesday, September 15, 2004 in Current Events, Personal | Comments Off on Ivan
That’s the first time _ever_ I’ve had to remove my belt to get through the airport security checkpoint. My wife had to take her shoes off!
Keep in mind, when reading this, that I have travelled in Europe during their anti-terrorism crackdowns; there’s no comparison. The United States is more interested in the appearance of security. For example, I watched two separate TSA agents walk into the bathroom, look at an “abandoned” suitcase sitting there, and walk out again…
Anyway, we’re home, safe and sound. It’s too bad we didn’t get to see the VAB _before_ Frances punched great big holes in it…
posted at 9:19 am on Tuesday, September 07, 2004 in Current Events, Personal | Comments (4)
The north eyewall (what’s left of it) is less than 40 miles south of us, according to Channel 13’s spiffy doppler radar. The storm has lost quite a bit of strength; it’s impressive out there, but no flying alligators yet!
The big hassle with this storm is its size; we’ve been under it for over 18 hours now, and it’ll be at least another 18 before it calms down enough for emergency crews to start opening everything up again. Fortunately we have power, and Footloose is on VH1 right now :-)
posted at 12:40 pm on Sunday, September 05, 2004 in Current Events, Personal | Comments Off on wind, and wind, and wind…
So I’m staring out the window at rain falling at 45° and the trees starting to lean over… Part of me wishes Frances would just _get_ here already; the suspense is wearing. It was supposed to arrive Friday, then Saturday, now Sunday early morning.
Our hotel is open, and packed with people who have fled their homes, both from Orlando and farther east. We still have power; we’ll see how long it lasts, as they’re predicting that most of Florida will be darkened by this storm. The hotel is currently planning a curfew at 10PM tonight, until at least 10AM tomorrow. But the storm has stalled, so I’m not sure if they’ll change those times.
On the plus side, the storm track has moved; we’re no longer centered in her sights :). The hurricane is predicted to move across Florida and keep going west. That means that there is _some_ chance that our airplane will actually leave Toronto on Monday, so that we can go home again!
posted at 4:05 pm on Saturday, September 04, 2004 in Current Events, Personal | Comments (1)
These days it is stories like these that keep me awake at night.
* “China – An Energy Timebomb?”:http://alt-e.blogspot.com/2004/08/china-energy-timebomb.html
* “Basic Choices and Constraints on Long−Term Energy Supplies”:http://www.aip.org/pt/vol-57/iss-7/p47.html
Basically: We’ll run out of oil in my lifetime; long before that, it will be expensive, and then rationed. Alternative sources simply can’t fill the gap; we do not have the capability to replace just our electricity needs with renewable energy, never mind our other energy needs. Even if North America switched to nuclear power, we’d run out of fuel in 35-58 years, a mere band-aid for the problem.
Meanwhile, SUVs are the fastest growing market segment in China, and GM is actively marketing them.
I haven’t the faintest idea what we’re going to do about this looming crisis; I do know that our current technique (hiding our heads in the sand) isn’t going to cut it.
posted at 6:38 pm on Friday, August 20, 2004 in Current Events, Science and Technology | Comments (5)
Yuck!
Yahoo! News – Kids Plus Rocks Equals 120,000 Angry Bees
Reminds me of watching “The Swarm”:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078350/ when I was a kid. Not so amusing is that African “killer” bees are “slowly moving north”:http://www.txtwriter.com/Onscience/Articles/killerbees.html across the USA, and interbreeding with our European honey bees…
posted at 10:02 pm on Monday, August 16, 2004 in Current Events, Science and Technology | Comments Off on Kids Plus Rocks Equals 120,000 Angry Bees
<tongue-in-cheek>
Quebec has 75 seats in the House of Commons. Quebec has the Bloc Québécois, a Federal party that really serves Quebec interests over those of the country (if you believe their critics, anyway :-).
Ontario has 106 seats in the House. I think we should form and elect the Ontario party and get _our_ special interests taken care of at the Federal level…
</tongue-in-cheek>
I thought I was being funny, but then I went digging around on the “Elections Canada”:http://www.elections.ca/content.asp?section=pol&document=index&dir=par&lang=e&textonly=false website, and found that “The Ontario Party of Canada” does/did exist, but lost their eligibility to be registered. I found a “canoe article”:http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/LondonFreePress/News/2004/05/01/442912.html describing the party and its brief history.
I guess I’m not as original as I thought :-)
posted at 10:10 pm on Wednesday, June 02, 2004 in Current Events | Comments (3)
Actually, I’m more worried about the polar bears coming south… ;-)