Today, America’s President and Commander-In-Chief, Barak Obama came to Canada. You’d never know it from the public’s reaction – it was one more commonly given to movie and rock stars than politicians.
Obama mania swept across Ottawa – and probably other parts of the country – as the American leader made his first official state visit outside of his country.
Our Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, looked really out of place during much of the public spectacle. When President Obama first greeted him, he asked him if they could step out and wave to the crowd. As soon as President Obama came out to face the crowd – albeit behind bullet-proof Plexiglas over five-inches thick – the crowd cheered and chanted his name.
President Obama, like any celebrity, put on an ear-to-ear smile, and began waving to the crowd. Prime Minister Harper immediately followed the president’s lead, but it just wasn’t the same. Prime Minister Harper looked as out of place waving to the crowd, as a pair of old ladies at a heavy metal concert.
And who can blame our prime minister? No politician has ever received that kind attention here – or anywhere for that matter. Even when American President John F. Kennedy made public appearances, he never had such a fan following.
President Obama is considerably younger than most world leaders, and his ideas speak to generations who typically do not even know who their current leader is. This explains some of the hysteria.
But most of the estimated 2, 500 fans trekking their way to Parliament Hill in the nation’s capital today weren’t teenagers. Most were middle-aged people, many of whom have been displaced by the shrinking economy. And they were out to catch a glimpse of their saviour.
Obama mania isn’t catching on just because of his rock-star presence – it’s a light in the darkness.
Throughout his campaign, and ever since he took office, Obama has been making broad sweeping statements about the need for change, to fix what’s wrong with America and much of the world today.
American President George W. Bush wanted to hold the course, and believed the economy would eventually take care of itself with minimal government interference. Obama clearly has a very different take on how to fix the economy, and those beliefs are a key to his success.
But it’s President Obama’s powerful presence which has propelled him to rock star-like status. He’s charming, good looking, warm, witty, and when he enters a room, people know it.
His speaking style is just as engaging, he’s an image consultant’s dream come true. He uses catch-phrases which quickly become common-speak among Obama mania fans. “Yes we can,” was gobbled up and has been a constant slogan used by President Obama’s awe-struck fans.
While watching the coverage of the American president’s visit to Ottawa today on television, I heard that phrase several times – uttered not just by those in the crowd, but also some of the reporters and news anchors on television.
That slogan, and the president’s image were plastered on t-shirts, hats – even on a couple’s black leather jackets. President Obama isn’t just a politician, he’s become a brand, and his ideas are being marketed to you and me, just like Coke, Pepsi, Pop Tarts and Apple Computers.
Branding aside, what really matters in any country’s leader is that individuals ability to make a difference.
The ideas and values President Obama embraces are important, and may actually do the world a lot of good. He’s the first real environmentalist to lead an American administration. He acknowledged Canada’s importance in trade, the economy, and defending our common continent. He sees the dangers of depending on oil, and is actually willing to tackle the oil industry – which many say could lead to more terrorist attacks, and even assassination attempts on the president himself.
However, if Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s reaction today is any indication of President Obama’s power, it isn’t all about the message. Prime Minister Harper appeared star-struck himself upon first meeting the newly sworn-in American president, stumbling out of the warmth of his comfort zone, to wave to President Obama’s fans.
President Obama himself appeared to be leading the prime minister through the hallways, occasionally gesturing and prompting “this way?”
The good thing about having a world leader with rock star-like support is that leader’s plans will actually take shape. Who can say “no” to President Obama? The bad thing about having a world leader with that kind of support is getting lost in the glitter of his celebrity, and not really thinking and asking whether President Obama’s way is the right way.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Taking the Recession Out on the Poor -- Again
We’re all facing tough economic times these days, so when politicians make promises to help the most vulnerable they had better live up to their promises.
Take the mayor of Canada’s largest city to task. Toronto Mayor David Miller promised in his last budget that he would freeze public transit fares for the entire 2009 fiscal year. Last fiscal year, Toronto’s public transit system saw several fare increases.
Today, one of the Toronto’s councillors – albeit from one of the city’s more well-to-do ridings – started floating the idea of raising public transit fares by 10-cents, so that property taxes won’t rise.
Those who take transit are often among the city’s poorest – they are in most major metropolitan cities in North America. The poorest residents often don’t even own their homes – they rent. So property tax increases don’t affect them as much, as say, those who don’t often take public transit, and can afford to own real estate and a nice car.
Like I said at the start of this blog, we’re all facing tough economic times. But why do politicians constantly go after the poor to save their slimy skin?
Raising public transit fares will put an added fiscal burden on those who just can’t hop in their cars instead of taking transit. And the money being raised is supposed to be for all the social programs the city wants to keep – and to create some new ones – to help us all through these tough economic times. But many social programs are geared to help the poorest of our cities – yet cities take more from the poor in tough economic times.
Aside from the obvious fact that if Toronto’s public transit fares increase this fiscal year, it will be yet another politician not keeping his word, what this really boils down to is economic class power.
The poor are at the bottom of the economic class power ladder – usually the neediest have the least amount of education, experience and know-how in raising public awareness to fight for their rights. While the richer, more educated, and more experienced middle-class knows how to rally to ensure their rights aren’t trampled.
So the poor get beat-up time and again, even though they need more support than the other socio-economic classes.
It isn’t hard to figure that politicians ultimately want to ensure the people that voted them into office, will do so again in the next election. So they will look out for their particular ridings. That’s the nature of the political engine in Canada.
My question then, is where are the politicians representing the poorer areas of Canada’s largest city when you need them? How come whenever another politician puts forward a motion or a program of change which will obviously favour their middle class voters, the politicians representing the poorest areas just sit on their hands?
I’ve heard the politicians from the poorest areas speak before – I know they can. But how come they choose not too?
Take the mayor of Canada’s largest city to task. Toronto Mayor David Miller promised in his last budget that he would freeze public transit fares for the entire 2009 fiscal year. Last fiscal year, Toronto’s public transit system saw several fare increases.
Today, one of the Toronto’s councillors – albeit from one of the city’s more well-to-do ridings – started floating the idea of raising public transit fares by 10-cents, so that property taxes won’t rise.
Those who take transit are often among the city’s poorest – they are in most major metropolitan cities in North America. The poorest residents often don’t even own their homes – they rent. So property tax increases don’t affect them as much, as say, those who don’t often take public transit, and can afford to own real estate and a nice car.
Like I said at the start of this blog, we’re all facing tough economic times. But why do politicians constantly go after the poor to save their slimy skin?
Raising public transit fares will put an added fiscal burden on those who just can’t hop in their cars instead of taking transit. And the money being raised is supposed to be for all the social programs the city wants to keep – and to create some new ones – to help us all through these tough economic times. But many social programs are geared to help the poorest of our cities – yet cities take more from the poor in tough economic times.
Aside from the obvious fact that if Toronto’s public transit fares increase this fiscal year, it will be yet another politician not keeping his word, what this really boils down to is economic class power.
The poor are at the bottom of the economic class power ladder – usually the neediest have the least amount of education, experience and know-how in raising public awareness to fight for their rights. While the richer, more educated, and more experienced middle-class knows how to rally to ensure their rights aren’t trampled.
So the poor get beat-up time and again, even though they need more support than the other socio-economic classes.
It isn’t hard to figure that politicians ultimately want to ensure the people that voted them into office, will do so again in the next election. So they will look out for their particular ridings. That’s the nature of the political engine in Canada.
My question then, is where are the politicians representing the poorer areas of Canada’s largest city when you need them? How come whenever another politician puts forward a motion or a program of change which will obviously favour their middle class voters, the politicians representing the poorest areas just sit on their hands?
I’ve heard the politicians from the poorest areas speak before – I know they can. But how come they choose not too?
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Shhh . . . Big Brother Is Surfing
We Canadians live in a very protective culture. Beer, wine and liquor sales are highly regulated and controlled across most of the country – the exception being Quebec where you can get a six-pack in many milk shops and gas bars. We have the safest food inspection system in the world, an internationally renowned health care system, and one of the best democracies.
So government regulation isn’t all that bad.
Though some things were just meant to be untamed, wild and free. Like the Internet – that unabashed electronic super highway of every useful and useless fact.
But last week, the Canadian government announced it was going to try to regulate the last of the unregulated media – yeppers – the Internet.
The Canadian Radio and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) which licenses and regulates all television and radio broadcasts, figures we need more Canadian content on the Internet.
More Canadian content – more “cancon?”
Cancon is the term used by many night owls, that happen to be listening to their favourite tunes on a Canadian radio station, only to be disturbed by the sudden change from what they like, to what the government has ordered the station to play. You can catch the most rockin’ tunes of Gordon Lightfoot, Ann Murray, and Rita McNeil on after-hours radio, usually about two in the morning or later.
Granted, we do have more Canadian-grown acts over the years, like the Bare Naked Ladies and Shania Twain.
Television is the same, though the major broadcasters aren’t too bad at creating some of that much needed “cancon” to fill the void. Though they did cancel the Canadian version of American Idol. Must have been the “American” part?
Getting back to the net, Canadian content – hello?
According to many studies, Canada is one of the most wired nations on the planet – one recent study even says that over 95-percent of Canadian households have high-speed broadband Internet. There’s lots of Canadian content online – you can find just about anything and everything online, be it here in Canada, or someplace else – it’s there in cyberspace.
And isn’t that the whole point of the Internet – to be an INTERnationalNETwork?
The international network of networks, formerly the World-Wide-Web (www), actually was started by two somewhat opposing forces. On one side, were the American academics, which wanted a quick, cheap and effective way of sharing knowledge. On the other, was the American military, which wanted to have an uninterruptable communications system, in the event of a global catastrophe, like a nuclear war.
The academics worked with the military, and created the Internet – a system of cheap, and effective communications, run by every computer on it, so that it would be virtually impossible to disrupt.
Though the academics won out in terms of use of the net – instead of it being reserved for private military matters, the technology was shared, and now kids right out of the womb, are downloading videos of Elmo.
Governments and big businesses have both tried to lay claim to running the net. Some companies that will remain nameless – Microsoft shhh – wanted to make the net a Windows-proprietary-run system, so that you could only access it if you were using an MS-Windows-based machine. When Sun Microsystems released JAVA, an open-source language, which runs on any operating system, Microsoft was the first to pounce, restricting their web-browsers access to it. That tactic didn’t work, as JAVA and now it’s more powerful Adobe cousin – Flash dominates the web.
China’s government controls access to the net over there – but to the extreme that it really just isn’t the same. China will actually ban certain Internet Prototcol (IP) addresses, domain names, and other identifiers, so that no one will ever see them. They even banned the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s (CBC) coverage of the Olympics this past summer!
I don’t know what the federal government employee was drinking, when he came up with the bone-headed idea to try to add more Canadian content to the Internet. But I do know he or she will have to get the rest of the country quite drunk before any control over the net is accepted.
Unless our federal government takes on the same Communistic measures that the Chinese government has, any attempts at regulating it will fail. And if our democratically elected government does that – then they certainly won’t be democratically elected to office ever again. Unless of course, that’s the next step – goodbye democracy, hello dictatorship?
So government regulation isn’t all that bad.
Though some things were just meant to be untamed, wild and free. Like the Internet – that unabashed electronic super highway of every useful and useless fact.
But last week, the Canadian government announced it was going to try to regulate the last of the unregulated media – yeppers – the Internet.
The Canadian Radio and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) which licenses and regulates all television and radio broadcasts, figures we need more Canadian content on the Internet.
More Canadian content – more “cancon?”
Cancon is the term used by many night owls, that happen to be listening to their favourite tunes on a Canadian radio station, only to be disturbed by the sudden change from what they like, to what the government has ordered the station to play. You can catch the most rockin’ tunes of Gordon Lightfoot, Ann Murray, and Rita McNeil on after-hours radio, usually about two in the morning or later.
Granted, we do have more Canadian-grown acts over the years, like the Bare Naked Ladies and Shania Twain.
Television is the same, though the major broadcasters aren’t too bad at creating some of that much needed “cancon” to fill the void. Though they did cancel the Canadian version of American Idol. Must have been the “American” part?
Getting back to the net, Canadian content – hello?
According to many studies, Canada is one of the most wired nations on the planet – one recent study even says that over 95-percent of Canadian households have high-speed broadband Internet. There’s lots of Canadian content online – you can find just about anything and everything online, be it here in Canada, or someplace else – it’s there in cyberspace.
And isn’t that the whole point of the Internet – to be an INTERnationalNETwork?
The international network of networks, formerly the World-Wide-Web (www), actually was started by two somewhat opposing forces. On one side, were the American academics, which wanted a quick, cheap and effective way of sharing knowledge. On the other, was the American military, which wanted to have an uninterruptable communications system, in the event of a global catastrophe, like a nuclear war.
The academics worked with the military, and created the Internet – a system of cheap, and effective communications, run by every computer on it, so that it would be virtually impossible to disrupt.
Though the academics won out in terms of use of the net – instead of it being reserved for private military matters, the technology was shared, and now kids right out of the womb, are downloading videos of Elmo.
Governments and big businesses have both tried to lay claim to running the net. Some companies that will remain nameless – Microsoft shhh – wanted to make the net a Windows-proprietary-run system, so that you could only access it if you were using an MS-Windows-based machine. When Sun Microsystems released JAVA, an open-source language, which runs on any operating system, Microsoft was the first to pounce, restricting their web-browsers access to it. That tactic didn’t work, as JAVA and now it’s more powerful Adobe cousin – Flash dominates the web.
China’s government controls access to the net over there – but to the extreme that it really just isn’t the same. China will actually ban certain Internet Prototcol (IP) addresses, domain names, and other identifiers, so that no one will ever see them. They even banned the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s (CBC) coverage of the Olympics this past summer!
I don’t know what the federal government employee was drinking, when he came up with the bone-headed idea to try to add more Canadian content to the Internet. But I do know he or she will have to get the rest of the country quite drunk before any control over the net is accepted.
Unless our federal government takes on the same Communistic measures that the Chinese government has, any attempts at regulating it will fail. And if our democratically elected government does that – then they certainly won’t be democratically elected to office ever again. Unless of course, that’s the next step – goodbye democracy, hello dictatorship?
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Inside A Plane Crash
With the so-called “Miracle on the Hudson” last month, and the plane crash just a few days ago in Buffalo, there has been lots of media attention on flying, crashes and all the hype surrounding these things.
Much of the media is hype – which is so sad and pathetic, as it need not be. But today’s blog isn’t about all the hype, it’s to dispel some of it instead.
Way back in the day when I was a journalist, I covered the occasional downing of a plane. I even covered the crash of a hot air balloon – though the pilots to this day still refuse to admit that it was a “crash” as it managed to touch down without incident.
The media does fine job covering these things – just they get caught up in all the action and create a lot of excitement where none really is needed.
You’ve probably heard that the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) were called in to investigate. Often the media plays this up, but this is standard procedure, even before the terror attacks of 9-11. The FBI and the CIA will work with the American National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) until it is completely ruled out that the crash was caused due to malicious intent.
The NTSB is in charge of investigating all major accidents involving any form of transportation – they look into railway accidents, major vehicle crashes, even waterway accidents – as well as airline accidents. Their job is to painstakingly piece together what happened, so that future accidents do not happen. Often, they work with many different local groups – usually first responders like police, ambulance, fire and National Guard/military, to collect every little piece of the wreckage. Then they will, on many instances, try and put them all together, essentially re-creating the aircraft, to find out what happened.
If the NTSB finds sufficient evidence that something external to the flight crew, air traffic control, and the aircraft itself, caused the crash, they may look further into the possibility of terrorism. If they find sufficient grounds to lead to a possibility of terrorism, then the FBI and CIA may take a more active role.
The FBI will take a lead role if the plane was brought down by someone within the States – they investigate all major crimes committed by Americans. The CIA will take the lead role if the cause of the crash appears to be caused by a non-American person or group of persons – they investigate all international crimes against America. Though, in the case of terrorism, the CIA must pass on any crimes to the somewhat new Department of Homeland Security – which was created after 9-11 to investigate and act on all acts of terrorism against the States.
Usually, the FBI, CIA and the Department of Homeland Security will work together if there is any chance of terrorism in a plane crash.
But in most cases, the NTSB finds it to either be mechanical failure, pilot/flight crew error, or a lack of communication between the air traffic controllers and the flight crew (air traffic controller error), so the FBI, CIA and other terrorism investigators eventually pack up and leave, so that the NTSB can continue to figure out what really happened.
The media will also make a big deal about the search for the so-called “black box.” There are actually two of these on all planes, and neither of them are black.
These two bright orange metallic boxes record the last 30-minutes of everything that happened on the flight. One records all the mechanical information – the altitude, airspeed, flight angle, condition of the engines, fluid levels and what all the instruments were indicating for the last 30-minutes of operation. This is called the Flight Data Recorder, as it literally records everything the plane itself was doing for 30-minutes.
The other bright orange box records all the communication which took place among the flight crew and anything said over the radio – be it to an air traffic controller, an engineer at the company’s headquarters, or someone else. This is the Cockpit Voice Recorder, which is used to determine how the flight crew was flying the plane at the time of the crash.
Finding these recorders is crucial to solving airline crashes, as they tell the story from both the flight crew’s perspective and that of the mechanical operation of the plane. That’s part of why the media hypes the search and later find of these “black boxes.”
Because of their importance, these flight recorders are designed to withstand severe conditions – they are built to handle an impact with land or water up to 3,600 G-force and temperatures as high as 1,000 degrees Celsius. They each have their own transponder, which can continue transmitting locating information for up to 30-days.
Because of their design, in most crashes, the “black boxes” are recovered and the information contained within them is useable. Only on the rarest of cases have these things either never been found, or so badly damaged that they couldn’t be used to re-construct the crash.
And, you’ll also hear a lot of speculation based on what the “black boxes” recorded. It can take some time – in some instances years – before all the information from the crash site, the victims, and the recorders provides the final absolute answer as to what happened. Regardless of what the media reports, until the NTSB releases a report of findings on the crash – nothing is official.
Much of the media is hype – which is so sad and pathetic, as it need not be. But today’s blog isn’t about all the hype, it’s to dispel some of it instead.
Way back in the day when I was a journalist, I covered the occasional downing of a plane. I even covered the crash of a hot air balloon – though the pilots to this day still refuse to admit that it was a “crash” as it managed to touch down without incident.
The media does fine job covering these things – just they get caught up in all the action and create a lot of excitement where none really is needed.
You’ve probably heard that the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) were called in to investigate. Often the media plays this up, but this is standard procedure, even before the terror attacks of 9-11. The FBI and the CIA will work with the American National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) until it is completely ruled out that the crash was caused due to malicious intent.
The NTSB is in charge of investigating all major accidents involving any form of transportation – they look into railway accidents, major vehicle crashes, even waterway accidents – as well as airline accidents. Their job is to painstakingly piece together what happened, so that future accidents do not happen. Often, they work with many different local groups – usually first responders like police, ambulance, fire and National Guard/military, to collect every little piece of the wreckage. Then they will, on many instances, try and put them all together, essentially re-creating the aircraft, to find out what happened.
If the NTSB finds sufficient evidence that something external to the flight crew, air traffic control, and the aircraft itself, caused the crash, they may look further into the possibility of terrorism. If they find sufficient grounds to lead to a possibility of terrorism, then the FBI and CIA may take a more active role.
The FBI will take a lead role if the plane was brought down by someone within the States – they investigate all major crimes committed by Americans. The CIA will take the lead role if the cause of the crash appears to be caused by a non-American person or group of persons – they investigate all international crimes against America. Though, in the case of terrorism, the CIA must pass on any crimes to the somewhat new Department of Homeland Security – which was created after 9-11 to investigate and act on all acts of terrorism against the States.
Usually, the FBI, CIA and the Department of Homeland Security will work together if there is any chance of terrorism in a plane crash.
But in most cases, the NTSB finds it to either be mechanical failure, pilot/flight crew error, or a lack of communication between the air traffic controllers and the flight crew (air traffic controller error), so the FBI, CIA and other terrorism investigators eventually pack up and leave, so that the NTSB can continue to figure out what really happened.
The media will also make a big deal about the search for the so-called “black box.” There are actually two of these on all planes, and neither of them are black.
These two bright orange metallic boxes record the last 30-minutes of everything that happened on the flight. One records all the mechanical information – the altitude, airspeed, flight angle, condition of the engines, fluid levels and what all the instruments were indicating for the last 30-minutes of operation. This is called the Flight Data Recorder, as it literally records everything the plane itself was doing for 30-minutes.
The other bright orange box records all the communication which took place among the flight crew and anything said over the radio – be it to an air traffic controller, an engineer at the company’s headquarters, or someone else. This is the Cockpit Voice Recorder, which is used to determine how the flight crew was flying the plane at the time of the crash.
Finding these recorders is crucial to solving airline crashes, as they tell the story from both the flight crew’s perspective and that of the mechanical operation of the plane. That’s part of why the media hypes the search and later find of these “black boxes.”
Because of their importance, these flight recorders are designed to withstand severe conditions – they are built to handle an impact with land or water up to 3,600 G-force and temperatures as high as 1,000 degrees Celsius. They each have their own transponder, which can continue transmitting locating information for up to 30-days.
Because of their design, in most crashes, the “black boxes” are recovered and the information contained within them is useable. Only on the rarest of cases have these things either never been found, or so badly damaged that they couldn’t be used to re-construct the crash.
And, you’ll also hear a lot of speculation based on what the “black boxes” recorded. It can take some time – in some instances years – before all the information from the crash site, the victims, and the recorders provides the final absolute answer as to what happened. Regardless of what the media reports, until the NTSB releases a report of findings on the crash – nothing is official.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Enjoying a Rare February Thaw
For those who follow my blog regularly, you’ll know if there is any one thing I love to do – besides working out – is to BBQ.
Even as I take the cover off, and scrub the grills, I’m having a blast. There is something special about the whole BBQ experience, something which – believe it or not – for this writer is hard to convey.
Maybe it’s in my genes, or because I’m a guy, but I love to BBQ so much, I even enjoy cleaning and fidgeting with the thing, to make sure all the nuts and bolts are tight and in place.
Grilling meat is nothing new – it’s the way our earliest of ancestors, the so-called “caveman,” first discovered the power of fire. Back then, fire pits were created by digging holes in the ground, covering them with rocks for a base, and then using twigs, branches, leaves and other plants for fuel. Animals were chopped into bite-size chunks, and skewered. The skewers were held over the fire, usually until they were blackened and hard. The meat was pure game – whatever was obtainable – and whatever the cavemen caught.
Too bad they didn’t invent BBQ sauce until much later!
Over the years, BBQing has become easier. My high-tech grill even has a thermometer, so I know how hot it is.
I remember my dad lugging out one of those old fashioned round metal BBQs, suspended on what looked like the most flimsy of criss-crossed metal legs. He’d pour in the charcoal, spray what appeared to be way too much lighter fluid, stood back, and tossed one lit match, and then POOOF! One big fire ball.
Eventually the fire ball would subside, and as the coals turned from black to white, he’d toss on the meat.
There were no thermometers on BBQs back then. The only way to see if anything was ready was to “test it” by cutting into it with a fork and knife. If the juices ran all bloody, than it wasn’t ready. Though this occasionally led to the meat getting a little too well done – what you can call Chicago Style, to cover up the fact that it’s burnt to a crisp.
Interesting thing about Chicago Style – named because of the famous fire which destroyed most of the American city of the same name at the start of the century – some meats actually taste better this way. The “gamier” the meat, the better it tastes well done. I can eat a fine sirloin of beef rare, but if that sirloin comes from a deer (called venison) then I’ll just have to eat it crispy.
I don’t usually go for the gamier cuts of meat – I’m a good ‘ol fashioned steak and potato guy. So most of what I cook for myself is medium-rare.
This past week and even today, the weather has been unusually warm. Perfect BBQing weather! Though truthfully, I do BBQ all year ‘round. I’ve got a nice exclusive place, covered from all the elements. So whether it’s a torrent of rain, a burst of heavy snow, or even a hurricane-like wind blowing, I have been out there, BBQing.
But thanks to this rare break from winter’s deep freeze, I’m really having an awesome time out with my grill. The sun is even out in full force, making this winter seem more like an early summer’s day.
As I type this on my laptop, I’m watching my BBQ heat up. The smell of the BBQ is so very enticing. It’s a mix-mash of all the previous things I’ve created – from simple burgers, steaks and chicken, to the more complex, like roasting veggies, toasting garlic bread, or even making some cool BBQ deserts.
Sitting out on a patio chair in the middle of February BBQing may not be the norm – but it is an incredible experience.
Usually during the winter, I’ll go in and out throughout the BBQing cycle, constantly watching the thing from my wall of warmth of indoors. But today, it’s just like summertime, only slightly cooler.
And it’s nice to be outside watching the world from high atop my 22-story high-rise perch. I’m so high up, I can and do see all, but none can see me. A perfect way to enjoy the world, with some much needed privacy.
I can hardly wait for the sizzle – the sounds of meat meeting grill. Then the smoke, and FIRE!
Just kidding – after all the BBQs I’ve had, rarely do I burn anything. Unless you like it that way.
How do you like your steak?
Even as I take the cover off, and scrub the grills, I’m having a blast. There is something special about the whole BBQ experience, something which – believe it or not – for this writer is hard to convey.
Maybe it’s in my genes, or because I’m a guy, but I love to BBQ so much, I even enjoy cleaning and fidgeting with the thing, to make sure all the nuts and bolts are tight and in place.
Grilling meat is nothing new – it’s the way our earliest of ancestors, the so-called “caveman,” first discovered the power of fire. Back then, fire pits were created by digging holes in the ground, covering them with rocks for a base, and then using twigs, branches, leaves and other plants for fuel. Animals were chopped into bite-size chunks, and skewered. The skewers were held over the fire, usually until they were blackened and hard. The meat was pure game – whatever was obtainable – and whatever the cavemen caught.
Too bad they didn’t invent BBQ sauce until much later!
Over the years, BBQing has become easier. My high-tech grill even has a thermometer, so I know how hot it is.
I remember my dad lugging out one of those old fashioned round metal BBQs, suspended on what looked like the most flimsy of criss-crossed metal legs. He’d pour in the charcoal, spray what appeared to be way too much lighter fluid, stood back, and tossed one lit match, and then POOOF! One big fire ball.
Eventually the fire ball would subside, and as the coals turned from black to white, he’d toss on the meat.
There were no thermometers on BBQs back then. The only way to see if anything was ready was to “test it” by cutting into it with a fork and knife. If the juices ran all bloody, than it wasn’t ready. Though this occasionally led to the meat getting a little too well done – what you can call Chicago Style, to cover up the fact that it’s burnt to a crisp.
Interesting thing about Chicago Style – named because of the famous fire which destroyed most of the American city of the same name at the start of the century – some meats actually taste better this way. The “gamier” the meat, the better it tastes well done. I can eat a fine sirloin of beef rare, but if that sirloin comes from a deer (called venison) then I’ll just have to eat it crispy.
I don’t usually go for the gamier cuts of meat – I’m a good ‘ol fashioned steak and potato guy. So most of what I cook for myself is medium-rare.
This past week and even today, the weather has been unusually warm. Perfect BBQing weather! Though truthfully, I do BBQ all year ‘round. I’ve got a nice exclusive place, covered from all the elements. So whether it’s a torrent of rain, a burst of heavy snow, or even a hurricane-like wind blowing, I have been out there, BBQing.
But thanks to this rare break from winter’s deep freeze, I’m really having an awesome time out with my grill. The sun is even out in full force, making this winter seem more like an early summer’s day.
As I type this on my laptop, I’m watching my BBQ heat up. The smell of the BBQ is so very enticing. It’s a mix-mash of all the previous things I’ve created – from simple burgers, steaks and chicken, to the more complex, like roasting veggies, toasting garlic bread, or even making some cool BBQ deserts.
Sitting out on a patio chair in the middle of February BBQing may not be the norm – but it is an incredible experience.
Usually during the winter, I’ll go in and out throughout the BBQing cycle, constantly watching the thing from my wall of warmth of indoors. But today, it’s just like summertime, only slightly cooler.
And it’s nice to be outside watching the world from high atop my 22-story high-rise perch. I’m so high up, I can and do see all, but none can see me. A perfect way to enjoy the world, with some much needed privacy.
I can hardly wait for the sizzle – the sounds of meat meeting grill. Then the smoke, and FIRE!
Just kidding – after all the BBQs I’ve had, rarely do I burn anything. Unless you like it that way.
How do you like your steak?
Thursday, February 12, 2009
What Ever Happened to the Four-Day Work Week?
Back in the 1980’s when Personal Computers were just starting to make their way into people’s homes, technology fanatics were claiming we were at the forefront of a new revolution – the computer age had begun.
The microchip is one of humankind’s greatest accomplishments. These little pieces of sand, copper and other metals are the backbone to everything from traffic lights to toasters. We’ve seen amazing advances in communications – remember when the quickest way to get a document across the globe was by letter mail?
These days, email and online instant messaging, rule, making global communications immediate and interactive. But one of the biggest claims made back in the 1980’s was that technology would not only assist us in doing our work, but make it possible to do the work so efficiently, we’d have shorter work weeks, use less paper, and have a healthier society overall because of less stress.
I don’t know about you, but the work week has remained – if not increased – for most of us since the 1980’s. Back in the ‘80s, I remember reading how we’d move to a four-day work week and eventually be able to go down to a three-day work week, as computers would be able to handle more of the tasks that we typically do.
Where’s my four-day work week? And working from home doesn’t count. Working – no matter where it is – is still working.
As computers advanced, we’d have less of a need to carry around big piles of paper, so claimed the technological savvy forecasters in the 1980’s.
If anything, paper use has consistently increased since the advent of computers. Printers themselves are almost a disposable commodity, as sometimes it is cheaper to purchase a new printer, than replace the ink in the thing.
We print more, because we spend so much time in front of a screen, our eyes can play tricks on us if we don’t double-check things in print.
I know I feel better printing something out, and doing a final read-through the hard copy, even after all the online edits on the computer.
Technology has come a long way from the clunky typewriters we used to use. Remember having to backspace letter-by-letter, then having to use corrector fluid to cover up the typo?
I still remember learning to type on a typewriter – what a painful experience, as my fingers would occasionally miss the keys, and get stuck in tight spaces between them. And remember getting all covered in dark, sticky black ink, as you changed the typewriter’s ribbon?
Computers haven’t decreased stress, they’ve just compounded it. We no longer have to change messy typewriter ribbons, but how many times have you cursed at the photocopier for chewing up your report just before going into an important meeting? How many emails have flooded your inbox while you were busy trying to make a deadline? And, we’ve all experienced the infamous Microsoft Windows “blue screen of death” at some untimely point in our computing lives, indicating even our computers aren’t perfect – they crash just like we do.
Only after a good eight-hour crash in my nice warm bed, I almost always recover – can’t always say the same for the computer.
Less stress because of computers? I don’t think so!
I’m glad the days of clunky typewriters are long past us, but I still wonder – where did my four-day work week go?
The microchip is one of humankind’s greatest accomplishments. These little pieces of sand, copper and other metals are the backbone to everything from traffic lights to toasters. We’ve seen amazing advances in communications – remember when the quickest way to get a document across the globe was by letter mail?
These days, email and online instant messaging, rule, making global communications immediate and interactive. But one of the biggest claims made back in the 1980’s was that technology would not only assist us in doing our work, but make it possible to do the work so efficiently, we’d have shorter work weeks, use less paper, and have a healthier society overall because of less stress.
I don’t know about you, but the work week has remained – if not increased – for most of us since the 1980’s. Back in the ‘80s, I remember reading how we’d move to a four-day work week and eventually be able to go down to a three-day work week, as computers would be able to handle more of the tasks that we typically do.
Where’s my four-day work week? And working from home doesn’t count. Working – no matter where it is – is still working.
As computers advanced, we’d have less of a need to carry around big piles of paper, so claimed the technological savvy forecasters in the 1980’s.
If anything, paper use has consistently increased since the advent of computers. Printers themselves are almost a disposable commodity, as sometimes it is cheaper to purchase a new printer, than replace the ink in the thing.
We print more, because we spend so much time in front of a screen, our eyes can play tricks on us if we don’t double-check things in print.
I know I feel better printing something out, and doing a final read-through the hard copy, even after all the online edits on the computer.
Technology has come a long way from the clunky typewriters we used to use. Remember having to backspace letter-by-letter, then having to use corrector fluid to cover up the typo?
I still remember learning to type on a typewriter – what a painful experience, as my fingers would occasionally miss the keys, and get stuck in tight spaces between them. And remember getting all covered in dark, sticky black ink, as you changed the typewriter’s ribbon?
Computers haven’t decreased stress, they’ve just compounded it. We no longer have to change messy typewriter ribbons, but how many times have you cursed at the photocopier for chewing up your report just before going into an important meeting? How many emails have flooded your inbox while you were busy trying to make a deadline? And, we’ve all experienced the infamous Microsoft Windows “blue screen of death” at some untimely point in our computing lives, indicating even our computers aren’t perfect – they crash just like we do.
Only after a good eight-hour crash in my nice warm bed, I almost always recover – can’t always say the same for the computer.
Less stress because of computers? I don’t think so!
I’m glad the days of clunky typewriters are long past us, but I still wonder – where did my four-day work week go?
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
The Geek Squad Tried to Rip Me Off
I’m pretty technically inclined – some may even call me a geek. So, when things go wrong on my computers or networks, I usually can resolve them myself. I’ve replaced hard drives, video cards, debugged wireless and wired networks, even been able to decipher many Windows error messages – which is no easy feat.
But sometimes, even us geeks need a higher power. I had a Gateway laptop which just plain ‘ol died late last year. I couldn’t get into the diagnostics to figure out what the problem was – though I had a hunch it was either the hard drive, or the motherboard.
So, I brought it to the Geeks Squad at a local Best Buy store. They claim to be able to repair any computer problem. And I’ve used them before for things beyond my control, and they were excellent at the time.
Times change – even for the best.
The technicians at Geek Squad couldn’t figure out what was wrong, so they offered to send it for a free estimate directly to the manufacturer – in this case, Gateway. I said, sure, can’t go wrong with a free estimate, and all I wanted was the thing up and running.
I wanted to get this old laptop working, so I could give it to my dad – at the time he was using an ancient desktop machine circa Windows98! Since then he’s finally got a nice new Windows Vista-based machine.
The folks at Geek Squad said I should hear back from the manufacturer within two-weeks. Time came and went, and two-weeks had long passed. So, I called the specific Geek Squad store I was dealing with, to find out what was going on. They were exceptionally busy, I had to call back several times to get someone on the phone – they don’t have voice-mail, it just keeps ringing or goes back to the main menu.
They told me they hadn’t heard from Gateway either, but not to worry, I would. Two-weeks turned into two-months, before I got a surprise from Gateway.
They told me the cost to repair the laptop would be at least $710.00 – but could be more. They said all they could give me was an “open estimate” because they didn’t know completely what was wrong with the machine, and they wouldn’t until they at least got the system running.
That kind of cash can buy a nice new machine – laptop or desktop. So I certainly wasn’t going to pay that for a repair, which would likely cost me untold amounts more.
I declined the repairs, and they told me they’d send the still non-functioning computer back to the Best Buy store where I had dropped it off. And they assured me there was no cost – the estimate was free.
Time passed again – after a couple of weeks I called the Geek Squad at Best Buy to see if my laptop had arrived. Nothing yet, but it should be in soon, so said the man on the other end of the phone.
Weeks turned into months. The year came and went – literally – I dropped off the laptop in November 2008 and just last week got a call telling me it was ready for pick-up!
I had written-off the damn thing, figuring it wasn’t working and I hadn’t heard back, it probably got lost in transit.
So, I go to get my still non-functioning machine, from the techs that are supposed to be able to fix anything. They ask for $40.00 for what was supposed to be a free estimate.
Since when is “free” valued at $40?
I told them I’m not paying for a free estimate. If they won’t release the machine, they can keep it – it doesn’t work anyways.
They didn’t want it either, so they let it go.
But I was shocked – and as I write this still am. I know they are trying to make money in an economy that is tanking. But when someone tells you several times that it’s just an estimate, and it won’t cost you a cent, it shouldn’t.
I used to enjoy going into my local Best Buy store. Being a technologically-driven person, I salivate over all the latest gadgets and gizmos. Often I’ll go in with the intent to purchase one thing, and I come out with several other items.
But today’s experience has soured my shopping taste buds. I’ll have to re-think my next trip to a technology store, because Best Buy’s Geek Squad tried to rip me off.
But sometimes, even us geeks need a higher power. I had a Gateway laptop which just plain ‘ol died late last year. I couldn’t get into the diagnostics to figure out what the problem was – though I had a hunch it was either the hard drive, or the motherboard.
So, I brought it to the Geeks Squad at a local Best Buy store. They claim to be able to repair any computer problem. And I’ve used them before for things beyond my control, and they were excellent at the time.
Times change – even for the best.
The technicians at Geek Squad couldn’t figure out what was wrong, so they offered to send it for a free estimate directly to the manufacturer – in this case, Gateway. I said, sure, can’t go wrong with a free estimate, and all I wanted was the thing up and running.
I wanted to get this old laptop working, so I could give it to my dad – at the time he was using an ancient desktop machine circa Windows98! Since then he’s finally got a nice new Windows Vista-based machine.
The folks at Geek Squad said I should hear back from the manufacturer within two-weeks. Time came and went, and two-weeks had long passed. So, I called the specific Geek Squad store I was dealing with, to find out what was going on. They were exceptionally busy, I had to call back several times to get someone on the phone – they don’t have voice-mail, it just keeps ringing or goes back to the main menu.
They told me they hadn’t heard from Gateway either, but not to worry, I would. Two-weeks turned into two-months, before I got a surprise from Gateway.
They told me the cost to repair the laptop would be at least $710.00 – but could be more. They said all they could give me was an “open estimate” because they didn’t know completely what was wrong with the machine, and they wouldn’t until they at least got the system running.
That kind of cash can buy a nice new machine – laptop or desktop. So I certainly wasn’t going to pay that for a repair, which would likely cost me untold amounts more.
I declined the repairs, and they told me they’d send the still non-functioning computer back to the Best Buy store where I had dropped it off. And they assured me there was no cost – the estimate was free.
Time passed again – after a couple of weeks I called the Geek Squad at Best Buy to see if my laptop had arrived. Nothing yet, but it should be in soon, so said the man on the other end of the phone.
Weeks turned into months. The year came and went – literally – I dropped off the laptop in November 2008 and just last week got a call telling me it was ready for pick-up!
I had written-off the damn thing, figuring it wasn’t working and I hadn’t heard back, it probably got lost in transit.
So, I go to get my still non-functioning machine, from the techs that are supposed to be able to fix anything. They ask for $40.00 for what was supposed to be a free estimate.
Since when is “free” valued at $40?
I told them I’m not paying for a free estimate. If they won’t release the machine, they can keep it – it doesn’t work anyways.
They didn’t want it either, so they let it go.
But I was shocked – and as I write this still am. I know they are trying to make money in an economy that is tanking. But when someone tells you several times that it’s just an estimate, and it won’t cost you a cent, it shouldn’t.
I used to enjoy going into my local Best Buy store. Being a technologically-driven person, I salivate over all the latest gadgets and gizmos. Often I’ll go in with the intent to purchase one thing, and I come out with several other items.
But today’s experience has soured my shopping taste buds. I’ll have to re-think my next trip to a technology store, because Best Buy’s Geek Squad tried to rip me off.
Monday, February 09, 2009
Political Recession Reasoning Flawed
We’re definitely in the worst economy since the Great Depression, as some of the world’s largest companies cut staff, and politicians create more promises towards job creation.
Problem is, as companies continue to kill off staff to keep themselves from dying off, the only jobs which governments are able to create en-mass are the so-called “McJobs.”
McJob – a term coined back in the recession of the 1990s – aren’t real jobs, not in the sense of creating stability in a rocky economy. Think about it, could you really survive in this world making minimum wage flipping burgers?
The average Canadian family certainly couldn’t survive that way – even if they held down several McJobs. According to statistics, the average base income needed to live with the most basic of necessities (shelter, clothing, food) is just over $45,000CDN per year.
I don’t know what McDonald’s or the other burger joints pay, but I seriously doubt any of those pimply-faced teenagers asking “if I want fries with that,” takes home that fair bit of coin.
Politicians do need to take action to help the economic engine start – but they always take the easy route.
Today, Toronto Mayor David Miller – mayor of Canada’s largest city – announced many job creation initiatives. From increasing the numbers of job-finding resources in the city’s libraries, to having more job-finding support groups, and more online resources to help people start their own business.
However, none of these government-funded programs will help the average person get back what they lost, or are about to lose – their very home.
One key player is absent – big business.
Without the mega-corporations of the world, providing funding to those wanting to start their own endeavours, and more to the point, hiring people at a decent, it doesn’t matter how great a job coach you have, or how solid a business plan you develop.
When big companies announce major layoffs it affects the economy far more deeply than any government-based job creation program.
The economy is very much an ecosystem of itself. Everything is interrelated within the great grand scheme of things.
When Canadian telecom-giant Nortel was doing well, the country’s largest stock index – the Toronto Stock Exchange or TSX – was doing just as well, as all the other technology companies working within the telecom industry were feeding off of each other. Recently, Nortel filed for bankruptcy protection, and the telecom industry has slipped into a dangerous slope.
As North American automakers continue to suffer, so to do the related industries. Magna International is suffering, because as the automakers cut production, they just don’t need to purchase as many parts from Magna.
As oil and gas prices continue to rise and fall with the economy, the cost of all goods is affected – the gas used by trucking companies to get those goods to the stores where we purchase them affects the price of the products too.
And as Toronto Mayor David Miller announced all these new job-creation programs, he’s sitting on a soon to be released city budget which will increase property taxes so that they can fund these things.
Everything is interrelated – even at the government level.
Politicians need to do more than just smile for the cameras with every job creation program – they need to really look within the ecosystem of the economy, roll-up their sleeves, and fix the economic engines which are the foundations for us all.
Problem is, as companies continue to kill off staff to keep themselves from dying off, the only jobs which governments are able to create en-mass are the so-called “McJobs.”
McJob – a term coined back in the recession of the 1990s – aren’t real jobs, not in the sense of creating stability in a rocky economy. Think about it, could you really survive in this world making minimum wage flipping burgers?
The average Canadian family certainly couldn’t survive that way – even if they held down several McJobs. According to statistics, the average base income needed to live with the most basic of necessities (shelter, clothing, food) is just over $45,000CDN per year.
I don’t know what McDonald’s or the other burger joints pay, but I seriously doubt any of those pimply-faced teenagers asking “if I want fries with that,” takes home that fair bit of coin.
Politicians do need to take action to help the economic engine start – but they always take the easy route.
Today, Toronto Mayor David Miller – mayor of Canada’s largest city – announced many job creation initiatives. From increasing the numbers of job-finding resources in the city’s libraries, to having more job-finding support groups, and more online resources to help people start their own business.
However, none of these government-funded programs will help the average person get back what they lost, or are about to lose – their very home.
One key player is absent – big business.
Without the mega-corporations of the world, providing funding to those wanting to start their own endeavours, and more to the point, hiring people at a decent, it doesn’t matter how great a job coach you have, or how solid a business plan you develop.
When big companies announce major layoffs it affects the economy far more deeply than any government-based job creation program.
The economy is very much an ecosystem of itself. Everything is interrelated within the great grand scheme of things.
When Canadian telecom-giant Nortel was doing well, the country’s largest stock index – the Toronto Stock Exchange or TSX – was doing just as well, as all the other technology companies working within the telecom industry were feeding off of each other. Recently, Nortel filed for bankruptcy protection, and the telecom industry has slipped into a dangerous slope.
As North American automakers continue to suffer, so to do the related industries. Magna International is suffering, because as the automakers cut production, they just don’t need to purchase as many parts from Magna.
As oil and gas prices continue to rise and fall with the economy, the cost of all goods is affected – the gas used by trucking companies to get those goods to the stores where we purchase them affects the price of the products too.
And as Toronto Mayor David Miller announced all these new job-creation programs, he’s sitting on a soon to be released city budget which will increase property taxes so that they can fund these things.
Everything is interrelated – even at the government level.
Politicians need to do more than just smile for the cameras with every job creation program – they need to really look within the ecosystem of the economy, roll-up their sleeves, and fix the economic engines which are the foundations for us all.
Friday, February 06, 2009
Intelligent Life Outside Planet Earth?
Recently, the European COROT space telescope discovered a new planet 390-light years away from Earth – that’s outside of our solar system. This new planet – called COROT-Exo-7b – is the slimmest planet ever found, with a diameter less than twice that of our own Earth.
This new astrological find probably doesn’t have any life forms like us humans on it – the surface temperatures are estimated to be between 1,000 to 1,500C, based on it’s proximity to it’s own sun-like star.
But this got me thinking – what if there is intelligent life outside of our own solar system?
The ancient Greek Philosophers thought the skies above were the heavens, and the sun, stars, winds, rain and just about everything else, came from various gods.
Thanks to technology, we now know that the sun rise and set isn’t controlled by Zeus, Apollo, or some other god-like being, but is just the natural course of planetary orbits within our solar system.
The real question scientists and sci-fi aficionados have been seeking to solve, is whether there really are other intelligent life forms.
Movie makers have long used this question to entertain us, creating a whole genre of films featuring the stereotypical olive-green men from Mars, with those scary dark as night eyes, long faces, and just as creepily long arms and legs. Sadly, most of these movies are so bad, they shouldn’t even qualify for their “B-Movie” labels.
But the question I started thinking about wasn’t whether intelligent life exists outside of our safe and comfortable home of planet Earth. My thoughts turned to the infamous “what if?”
What if we do discover intelligent beings, able to communicate with us? What then?
We have enough difficulty communicating with ourselves, with all the wars going on around the globe. Some of us can’t talk to our boss, wife, or even to our kids without getting all tongue-tied.
How would we relate to beings from another world?
Would we be open to sharing our socio-economic and technical knowledge?
Would they?
Assuming there are beings intelligent enough to visit us – as we certainly haven’t mastered space travel yet – they would probably be far more advanced than us.
Maybe they have solved all of the common global crisis we face now – war, starvation, famine, drought, holes in the ozone, global warming . . .
It would be an amazing bit of luck to pick the brains of some alien race, who could solve all – or even just one – of these problems.
But then again, what could we offer in return?
Here, have a cheese doodle.
Yeah. Right.
This new astrological find probably doesn’t have any life forms like us humans on it – the surface temperatures are estimated to be between 1,000 to 1,500C, based on it’s proximity to it’s own sun-like star.
But this got me thinking – what if there is intelligent life outside of our own solar system?
The ancient Greek Philosophers thought the skies above were the heavens, and the sun, stars, winds, rain and just about everything else, came from various gods.
Thanks to technology, we now know that the sun rise and set isn’t controlled by Zeus, Apollo, or some other god-like being, but is just the natural course of planetary orbits within our solar system.
The real question scientists and sci-fi aficionados have been seeking to solve, is whether there really are other intelligent life forms.
Movie makers have long used this question to entertain us, creating a whole genre of films featuring the stereotypical olive-green men from Mars, with those scary dark as night eyes, long faces, and just as creepily long arms and legs. Sadly, most of these movies are so bad, they shouldn’t even qualify for their “B-Movie” labels.
But the question I started thinking about wasn’t whether intelligent life exists outside of our safe and comfortable home of planet Earth. My thoughts turned to the infamous “what if?”
What if we do discover intelligent beings, able to communicate with us? What then?
We have enough difficulty communicating with ourselves, with all the wars going on around the globe. Some of us can’t talk to our boss, wife, or even to our kids without getting all tongue-tied.
How would we relate to beings from another world?
Would we be open to sharing our socio-economic and technical knowledge?
Would they?
Assuming there are beings intelligent enough to visit us – as we certainly haven’t mastered space travel yet – they would probably be far more advanced than us.
Maybe they have solved all of the common global crisis we face now – war, starvation, famine, drought, holes in the ozone, global warming . . .
It would be an amazing bit of luck to pick the brains of some alien race, who could solve all – or even just one – of these problems.
But then again, what could we offer in return?
Here, have a cheese doodle.
Yeah. Right.
Thursday, February 05, 2009
The Bump and Grind of Mother Nature
Sometimes, Mother Nature can be a real bitch. Other times, she’s the best!
We’ve been riding a rollercoaster of weather all year. Yesterday and today we sunk to deep freezes of -20C wind chills, and they are predicting potential record highs of +6C on the weekend.
What gives?
Welcome to a whole new world order – thanks to global warming. Since the last ice age, our planet has been increasing in temperature, that’s natural. But since people have walked the earth, our planet’s average temperature increases have been quicker, in part due to our extensive use of fossil fuels.
Since scientists have been tracking this global phenomenon, our human-kind has had about a one-degree-Celsius increase per year. That might not seem like much – it is barely noticeable to us in our nice and toasty environment-proof homes.
But with every additional degree major natural meltdowns occur – some quite literally meltdowns. The polar ice caps at both ends of our planet have – and continue to – shrink in terms of physical mass. All this melting causes the earth’s oceans and other water bodies to rise.
And, believe it or not, the increase in frigid water in our oceans, lakes, and streams is why Mother Nature has been taking us on a bump and grind ride for quite some time.
Our weather is deeply affected by something scientists call the Thermohaline Circulation (THC) of our oceans. The THC is essentially this big ocean conveyor belt, constantly churning cold air from the polar regions through the warmer tropical-based waters.
At about ten-centimetres-per-second, this conveyor of oceanic currents isn’t going to win any races – but because it spans the entire world, it carries the equivalent of 100 Amazon rivers worth of water per second – that’s about 30-million cubic meters per second!
Warm Surface waters are carried in this great conveyor to higher levels in the oceans, releasing this heat into our atmosphere. This causes the water to cool and eventually to fall back to earth as rain, snow, fog and other forms of precipitation. Cooler water is heavier and sinks to the deepest levels of the earth’s oceans, which is carried via tides, around the globe, rising slowly as it warms, until it again is warm enough to enter our atmosphere. The whole cycle can take as long as a thousand years, but because the age of the earth is well beyond that thousand years, the movement of waters is constant.
Cooler, denser water has more salt, and from scientific computer models, we now know Mother Nature doesn’t like too much salt. See, the cooler, saltier waters should ideally be at the deepest levels – towards the bottom – of our oceans. But scientists have found over the past 40-years, an increase of fresh water in these areas (such as the North Atlantic). As warmer fresh water replaces much of the cooler saltier waters, this great big conveyor slows down. Some scientists are even concerned it may stop completely.
As the changes in the conveyor continue, we feel it globally. We see more wild weather patterns, like the massive hurricanes we’ve seen in recent years, such as Hurricane Katrina, and we see more uneven weather patterns, like we are experiencing now.
All it will take is a mere five-degrees-Celsius decrease in oceanic temperatures to cause enough of a slowdown in the great conveyor of water, to create another ice age, according to scientific research and historical data about the climate from our last ice age.
So what’s this all mean?
It may be annoying going from one extreme weather event to another, but these are far more serious indicators of where we may end up.
We’ve been riding a rollercoaster of weather all year. Yesterday and today we sunk to deep freezes of -20C wind chills, and they are predicting potential record highs of +6C on the weekend.
What gives?
Welcome to a whole new world order – thanks to global warming. Since the last ice age, our planet has been increasing in temperature, that’s natural. But since people have walked the earth, our planet’s average temperature increases have been quicker, in part due to our extensive use of fossil fuels.
Since scientists have been tracking this global phenomenon, our human-kind has had about a one-degree-Celsius increase per year. That might not seem like much – it is barely noticeable to us in our nice and toasty environment-proof homes.
But with every additional degree major natural meltdowns occur – some quite literally meltdowns. The polar ice caps at both ends of our planet have – and continue to – shrink in terms of physical mass. All this melting causes the earth’s oceans and other water bodies to rise.
And, believe it or not, the increase in frigid water in our oceans, lakes, and streams is why Mother Nature has been taking us on a bump and grind ride for quite some time.
Our weather is deeply affected by something scientists call the Thermohaline Circulation (THC) of our oceans. The THC is essentially this big ocean conveyor belt, constantly churning cold air from the polar regions through the warmer tropical-based waters.
At about ten-centimetres-per-second, this conveyor of oceanic currents isn’t going to win any races – but because it spans the entire world, it carries the equivalent of 100 Amazon rivers worth of water per second – that’s about 30-million cubic meters per second!
Warm Surface waters are carried in this great conveyor to higher levels in the oceans, releasing this heat into our atmosphere. This causes the water to cool and eventually to fall back to earth as rain, snow, fog and other forms of precipitation. Cooler water is heavier and sinks to the deepest levels of the earth’s oceans, which is carried via tides, around the globe, rising slowly as it warms, until it again is warm enough to enter our atmosphere. The whole cycle can take as long as a thousand years, but because the age of the earth is well beyond that thousand years, the movement of waters is constant.
Cooler, denser water has more salt, and from scientific computer models, we now know Mother Nature doesn’t like too much salt. See, the cooler, saltier waters should ideally be at the deepest levels – towards the bottom – of our oceans. But scientists have found over the past 40-years, an increase of fresh water in these areas (such as the North Atlantic). As warmer fresh water replaces much of the cooler saltier waters, this great big conveyor slows down. Some scientists are even concerned it may stop completely.
As the changes in the conveyor continue, we feel it globally. We see more wild weather patterns, like the massive hurricanes we’ve seen in recent years, such as Hurricane Katrina, and we see more uneven weather patterns, like we are experiencing now.
All it will take is a mere five-degrees-Celsius decrease in oceanic temperatures to cause enough of a slowdown in the great conveyor of water, to create another ice age, according to scientific research and historical data about the climate from our last ice age.
So what’s this all mean?
It may be annoying going from one extreme weather event to another, but these are far more serious indicators of where we may end up.
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
General Motors Canadian Dine-and-Dash
Mere months ago, our federal government said it would follow our American cousins and loan the North American automakers some much needed cash to stay afloat.
Today, General Motors did the corporate version of a dine-and-dash, by floating around rumours that they intend to close all of their Canadian operations. What happened to all that hard earned taxpayer capital our federal government handed them?
If General Motors (GM) Canada does close all Canadian operations, that will put over 12,000 Canadians out of work – and most likely on our already over-used unemployment social safety net – either welfare or Employment Insurance. Add that to the money our federal government has already signed over to GM Canada, and you might as well write-off a third of your taxes to GM Canada. That’s roughly how much money you paid some American-owned corporation, for nothing, nadda, zip.
It’s like going to a fancy restaurant, ordering the most expensive items on the menu, and just before the bill arrives, making a dash for the door.
Only difference is GM is making a dash for the border – with your money.
Back when the so-called “Big Three” domestic automakers – Ford, Chrysler and General Motors – threatened major layoffs, unless they got financing from the American government, I knew it was a scam. I was against it in previous blogs. I was against it when the American administration under George W. Bush and now Barak Obama said they’d gave in and contribute billions to this private sector business. And I was even more set against it when our Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, said he’d lend millions to the Big Three here in Canada after the Americans agreed to the Big Three’s terrorist-like demands.
Terrorist-like demands?
Well think about it, what do terrorists do? They invoke fear in the public, through unreasonable demands, else they will harm as many people as they can.
The Big Three threatened plant closures, GM and Chrysler even threatened to go out of business completely, and declare Chapter 11 Bankruptcy if the public purse wasn’t opened for their pilfering. All these threats would put millions of people all over the world – but mostly in Canada and the States – out of work.
Sounds like a terrorist-like demand to me.
And today GM Canada continued to act no differently – instead of keeping their word to reorganize and protect Canadian jobs, they tell us they may just have to put over 12,000 Canadians out of work, when they close up and leave this country completely.
They are doing this campaign just like terrorists do too. Instead of releasing an official statement, or even talking to the media, or even their own employees and their employee’s unions, they circulate unofficial “rumours” via “undisclosed” and “anonymous” sources.
This is no different from those garbled grainy video and audio tapes so-called terrorist-leader Osama Bin Ladden releases to the media, leading to unofficial “rumours” of impending attacks via “undisclosed” and “anonymous” means.
If our federal government wants to toss away millions and millions and millions – and maybe even billions – of dollars to really benefit Canadians and their jobs, perhaps they should invest in truly Canadian companies.
And by that, I don’t mean the Canadian arms of some big American – or other nation’s – companies. I mean really Canadian companies – ones who started here in Canada, and still have their head offices here in Canada.
I’m still not a big fan of publicly funded governments providing seed money to private sector businesses, but if the money stays in Canada, that is far better than it being whisked away elsewhere, along with all those Canadian jobs.
Today, General Motors did the corporate version of a dine-and-dash, by floating around rumours that they intend to close all of their Canadian operations. What happened to all that hard earned taxpayer capital our federal government handed them?
If General Motors (GM) Canada does close all Canadian operations, that will put over 12,000 Canadians out of work – and most likely on our already over-used unemployment social safety net – either welfare or Employment Insurance. Add that to the money our federal government has already signed over to GM Canada, and you might as well write-off a third of your taxes to GM Canada. That’s roughly how much money you paid some American-owned corporation, for nothing, nadda, zip.
It’s like going to a fancy restaurant, ordering the most expensive items on the menu, and just before the bill arrives, making a dash for the door.
Only difference is GM is making a dash for the border – with your money.
Back when the so-called “Big Three” domestic automakers – Ford, Chrysler and General Motors – threatened major layoffs, unless they got financing from the American government, I knew it was a scam. I was against it in previous blogs. I was against it when the American administration under George W. Bush and now Barak Obama said they’d gave in and contribute billions to this private sector business. And I was even more set against it when our Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, said he’d lend millions to the Big Three here in Canada after the Americans agreed to the Big Three’s terrorist-like demands.
Terrorist-like demands?
Well think about it, what do terrorists do? They invoke fear in the public, through unreasonable demands, else they will harm as many people as they can.
The Big Three threatened plant closures, GM and Chrysler even threatened to go out of business completely, and declare Chapter 11 Bankruptcy if the public purse wasn’t opened for their pilfering. All these threats would put millions of people all over the world – but mostly in Canada and the States – out of work.
Sounds like a terrorist-like demand to me.
And today GM Canada continued to act no differently – instead of keeping their word to reorganize and protect Canadian jobs, they tell us they may just have to put over 12,000 Canadians out of work, when they close up and leave this country completely.
They are doing this campaign just like terrorists do too. Instead of releasing an official statement, or even talking to the media, or even their own employees and their employee’s unions, they circulate unofficial “rumours” via “undisclosed” and “anonymous” sources.
This is no different from those garbled grainy video and audio tapes so-called terrorist-leader Osama Bin Ladden releases to the media, leading to unofficial “rumours” of impending attacks via “undisclosed” and “anonymous” means.
If our federal government wants to toss away millions and millions and millions – and maybe even billions – of dollars to really benefit Canadians and their jobs, perhaps they should invest in truly Canadian companies.
And by that, I don’t mean the Canadian arms of some big American – or other nation’s – companies. I mean really Canadian companies – ones who started here in Canada, and still have their head offices here in Canada.
I’m still not a big fan of publicly funded governments providing seed money to private sector businesses, but if the money stays in Canada, that is far better than it being whisked away elsewhere, along with all those Canadian jobs.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Why We Don’t Need Another Election
Today, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper released his much delayed, but often talked about, budget.
Typically in Canada, there may be a few hints as to what the upcoming budget – outlining how the current federal government will manage the country – will contain. The rest of the budget is kept hush hush. It’s even illegal for journalists to report on the contents of the budget before it is officially released. That’s why many journalists will end up in a “lock down,” which is a locked room, guarded by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) no less. Or at least that’s the way it was when I was a news reporter.
This budget on the other hand, was very much known well in advance. Probably because the Prime Minister used it to delay the inevitable collapse of yet another minority government, run by Stephen Harper.
See, Harper is now in his second term of office, so-to-speak, even though he has never fully completed a prime ministerial mandate. He called the last election early, because he wanted to ensure he’d get re-elected, because no one really knew or understood the other potential leaders.
Now, he’s trying to push through a budget, yet he knows he won’t get the support he needs from the other parties to ensure it goes through. This will lead to calls that he’s an incompetent leader, and votes to that effect, which will topple his government early – again – and lead to another $70 million election.
That’s right, it costs at least $70 million to have an election in this country. That means Stephen Harper has already spent at least $140 million of our hard earned dollars, and without really accomplishing anything yet this term, is about to spend at least another $70 million.
With the economy the way it is, most of us would be so lucky to have $210 million -- $140 million plus $70 million) to toss around wildly and without any due regard for the loss.
Dollar figures aside, the real cost is the loss of time in doing what we elect our public figures to do – run the country. When there’s an election, nothing gets done. The Prime Minister dissolves Parliament, essentially ending the ruling government’s rein, until the next one is elected. Then all the politicians go out campaigning, making promises of what they will do, instead of actually doing what they said they would do.
If big business was run like our federal government, big business would be out of business big time.
I think we need a house cleaning in Ottawa, the nation’s capital. We don’t need to clean house of just the current government drones, but all the politicians – all parties included. We need real people really willing to roll up their sleeves and actually do some good for this country.
But alas, all we’ve got are a bunch of wanna-be leaders and no one to actually take a lead role. The New Democratic Party is already saying they won’t approve of the new budget, even though they haven’t even read the damn thing! They say this just because they want to topple the current government, and take this country to another election, so that they too may one day lead this country from one minority government to another – without actually accomplishing anything substantial.
But then again, I suppose spending over $210 million without actually accomplishing anything, in a sense, is quite the accomplishment. But it is one accomplishment this country can do without.
Typically in Canada, there may be a few hints as to what the upcoming budget – outlining how the current federal government will manage the country – will contain. The rest of the budget is kept hush hush. It’s even illegal for journalists to report on the contents of the budget before it is officially released. That’s why many journalists will end up in a “lock down,” which is a locked room, guarded by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) no less. Or at least that’s the way it was when I was a news reporter.
This budget on the other hand, was very much known well in advance. Probably because the Prime Minister used it to delay the inevitable collapse of yet another minority government, run by Stephen Harper.
See, Harper is now in his second term of office, so-to-speak, even though he has never fully completed a prime ministerial mandate. He called the last election early, because he wanted to ensure he’d get re-elected, because no one really knew or understood the other potential leaders.
Now, he’s trying to push through a budget, yet he knows he won’t get the support he needs from the other parties to ensure it goes through. This will lead to calls that he’s an incompetent leader, and votes to that effect, which will topple his government early – again – and lead to another $70 million election.
That’s right, it costs at least $70 million to have an election in this country. That means Stephen Harper has already spent at least $140 million of our hard earned dollars, and without really accomplishing anything yet this term, is about to spend at least another $70 million.
With the economy the way it is, most of us would be so lucky to have $210 million -- $140 million plus $70 million) to toss around wildly and without any due regard for the loss.
Dollar figures aside, the real cost is the loss of time in doing what we elect our public figures to do – run the country. When there’s an election, nothing gets done. The Prime Minister dissolves Parliament, essentially ending the ruling government’s rein, until the next one is elected. Then all the politicians go out campaigning, making promises of what they will do, instead of actually doing what they said they would do.
If big business was run like our federal government, big business would be out of business big time.
I think we need a house cleaning in Ottawa, the nation’s capital. We don’t need to clean house of just the current government drones, but all the politicians – all parties included. We need real people really willing to roll up their sleeves and actually do some good for this country.
But alas, all we’ve got are a bunch of wanna-be leaders and no one to actually take a lead role. The New Democratic Party is already saying they won’t approve of the new budget, even though they haven’t even read the damn thing! They say this just because they want to topple the current government, and take this country to another election, so that they too may one day lead this country from one minority government to another – without actually accomplishing anything substantial.
But then again, I suppose spending over $210 million without actually accomplishing anything, in a sense, is quite the accomplishment. But it is one accomplishment this country can do without.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Self Serving Media
Like many, I get most of my news from television. Television is one of the most powerful forms of communication we have today.
Love it or loathe it, television shapes the way we think.
But news shows are supposed to present, well, the news. Way back in the day, when I was a journalist, news was anything happening right now that can affect our readers, viewers and listeners right now, or in the not too distant right now.
Thanks to 24-hour news networks with a constant need for stuff happening right now, news is less geared towards informing and often more of a form of entertainment. That’s one of the many reasons I left the news biz. Call me old fashioned, but I still can’t figure out how some talentless ditzy twenty-something celebrity’s choice to wear or not to wear panties will somehow have any impact on my life, or the lives of those I’m reporting for.
News is a business, it does cost money to broadcast and print those stories – that’s typically where ad sales come in play. But lately, I’ve noticed a disturbing trend in the media, one which takes this business to a whole new low.
While watching a local station’s newscast, I notice how they are now promoting their non-news, non-station produced shows, during the newscast, as a news story.
One station will constantly have a lead entertainment piece on one or two shows they will be airing later that night. Another station will feature guest interviews with the stars of shows they happen to air, about those shows.
It used to be we’d run “in-house” ads exclusively about us. If we had a special feature, an in-depth investigation or an exclusive story, we’d promote that during our newscasts and in our papers. We never made up a story about these, and we were clear that these were promos for an upcoming piece.
I don’t know what’s worse, a news outfit making up a story to attract viewers to their non-news shows, or the fact that they are turning a news show into a forum for advertising. Both are wrong and can do harm.
Remember the story about the kid that cried wolf? Eventually, people may stop believing the news, because of all the made-up self-promotional puff pieces.
As a society, we need independent news outfits to tell us what’s going on around us, and how these things will affect our lives. If we can’t trust those delivering these valuable nuggets of information to us, who can we trust? Where would we go, to stay informed? How will we know what is really important and what is just something tossed into the mix to generate a bigger audience share?
The longer this goes on, the more likely these self-serving manufactured stories will go from the entertainment desk, to the news desk. And that’s when we really are in over our heads – because when those that print and broadcast the news start making the news up, no one will be able to separate fact from fiction.
And in the real world, one needs to know what isn’t real, to exist.
Love it or loathe it, television shapes the way we think.
But news shows are supposed to present, well, the news. Way back in the day, when I was a journalist, news was anything happening right now that can affect our readers, viewers and listeners right now, or in the not too distant right now.
Thanks to 24-hour news networks with a constant need for stuff happening right now, news is less geared towards informing and often more of a form of entertainment. That’s one of the many reasons I left the news biz. Call me old fashioned, but I still can’t figure out how some talentless ditzy twenty-something celebrity’s choice to wear or not to wear panties will somehow have any impact on my life, or the lives of those I’m reporting for.
News is a business, it does cost money to broadcast and print those stories – that’s typically where ad sales come in play. But lately, I’ve noticed a disturbing trend in the media, one which takes this business to a whole new low.
While watching a local station’s newscast, I notice how they are now promoting their non-news, non-station produced shows, during the newscast, as a news story.
One station will constantly have a lead entertainment piece on one or two shows they will be airing later that night. Another station will feature guest interviews with the stars of shows they happen to air, about those shows.
It used to be we’d run “in-house” ads exclusively about us. If we had a special feature, an in-depth investigation or an exclusive story, we’d promote that during our newscasts and in our papers. We never made up a story about these, and we were clear that these were promos for an upcoming piece.
I don’t know what’s worse, a news outfit making up a story to attract viewers to their non-news shows, or the fact that they are turning a news show into a forum for advertising. Both are wrong and can do harm.
Remember the story about the kid that cried wolf? Eventually, people may stop believing the news, because of all the made-up self-promotional puff pieces.
As a society, we need independent news outfits to tell us what’s going on around us, and how these things will affect our lives. If we can’t trust those delivering these valuable nuggets of information to us, who can we trust? Where would we go, to stay informed? How will we know what is really important and what is just something tossed into the mix to generate a bigger audience share?
The longer this goes on, the more likely these self-serving manufactured stories will go from the entertainment desk, to the news desk. And that’s when we really are in over our heads – because when those that print and broadcast the news start making the news up, no one will be able to separate fact from fiction.
And in the real world, one needs to know what isn’t real, to exist.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Voluntary Tax? Oh What The Hell.
There’s this old joke about some guy, we’ll call him Homer. Homer lives a modest life, with his wife and kids. He’s not a very religious man, but every day he prays for his family, his friends and that one day: “please God, let me win the lottery.”
Every week Homer anxiously watches the lottery balls drop on television, and every week is the same – no winnings. But he’s happy, because his family and friends are okay, and that’s what really matters.
When Homer dies from old age, he goes before God and says: “thanks for taking care of my friends and family, but please tell me, why did you never answer my prayers to win the lottery?”
“Homer, you need to give me a break, you should have at least bought a lottery ticket.”
D’oh!
I always joke about lotteries, how they are voluntary taxes. Sadly, some people put all their hopes and dreams into these things, yet the chances of actually winning the big take are slim to none. You’d have a better chance getting hit by lightening, dying in a plane crash, or seeing Elvis.
But then again, our government run lotteries do a lot of good in other ways. The profits made from ticket sales go into the communities – funding hospitals, shelters, after-school programs and other worthy causes.
Though our thoughts really don’t turn to those we help when we purchase a lottery ticket. Our thoughts are pure greed-driven here, as we salivate wondering what we’d do if we won the big one.
That was my thinking today when I bought a handful of tickets to this week’s Lotto 6/49. I don’t usually buy lottery tickets, like I said, I think they are a waste of money. But this week’s draw is about $43 million.
That’s a lot of money to salivate over – though I’d have a better chance of getting run over by a herd of wild rhinos during a full moon.
I just happened to be at the local mall, getting some basic essentials, and noticed the long line-ups throughout the mall. There are a few places in the mall where you can purchase lottery tickets, and at each one, eager wanna-be millionaires were lined-up, gobbling up their hopes and dreams in lottery tickets.
As I fumbled through the mall, with armloads of stuff, passing these long line-ups, I thought: “what the hell.”
I don’t pray that I’ll win the lottery, I’m not a religious kind of guy. But you never know unless you try – and seeing as the last time I actually bought a lottery ticket was probably over three-years ago, I’m probably due.
And that $43 million would be a nice addition to my bank account. I’d pay off all my debts, and buy a nice island somewhere in some sunshine destination to live in seclusion – just me and my army of centerfold porn stars that do my bidding. . .
I just hope it isn’t a full moon.
Every week Homer anxiously watches the lottery balls drop on television, and every week is the same – no winnings. But he’s happy, because his family and friends are okay, and that’s what really matters.
When Homer dies from old age, he goes before God and says: “thanks for taking care of my friends and family, but please tell me, why did you never answer my prayers to win the lottery?”
“Homer, you need to give me a break, you should have at least bought a lottery ticket.”
D’oh!
I always joke about lotteries, how they are voluntary taxes. Sadly, some people put all their hopes and dreams into these things, yet the chances of actually winning the big take are slim to none. You’d have a better chance getting hit by lightening, dying in a plane crash, or seeing Elvis.
But then again, our government run lotteries do a lot of good in other ways. The profits made from ticket sales go into the communities – funding hospitals, shelters, after-school programs and other worthy causes.
Though our thoughts really don’t turn to those we help when we purchase a lottery ticket. Our thoughts are pure greed-driven here, as we salivate wondering what we’d do if we won the big one.
That was my thinking today when I bought a handful of tickets to this week’s Lotto 6/49. I don’t usually buy lottery tickets, like I said, I think they are a waste of money. But this week’s draw is about $43 million.
That’s a lot of money to salivate over – though I’d have a better chance of getting run over by a herd of wild rhinos during a full moon.
I just happened to be at the local mall, getting some basic essentials, and noticed the long line-ups throughout the mall. There are a few places in the mall where you can purchase lottery tickets, and at each one, eager wanna-be millionaires were lined-up, gobbling up their hopes and dreams in lottery tickets.
As I fumbled through the mall, with armloads of stuff, passing these long line-ups, I thought: “what the hell.”
I don’t pray that I’ll win the lottery, I’m not a religious kind of guy. But you never know unless you try – and seeing as the last time I actually bought a lottery ticket was probably over three-years ago, I’m probably due.
And that $43 million would be a nice addition to my bank account. I’d pay off all my debts, and buy a nice island somewhere in some sunshine destination to live in seclusion – just me and my army of centerfold porn stars that do my bidding. . .
I just hope it isn’t a full moon.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Striking York U Spoiled Rotten
My old alma matter is on strike – has been for over three-months. Teaching assistants, graduate assistants and contract faculty at York University have been on strike since November 6, 2008, knocking out classes for over 50,000 full and part-time students.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) which represents the striking workers wants the same as most labour unions do for their members during work stoppages – bigger pay cheques, better working conditions, and guarantees of job security.
Problem is, in these tough economic times, most of us non-union stiffs – which makes up the bulk of the Canadian work force – are just lucky to have a job, any job. Wage increases, a bigger office and some hocus-pocus document providing job security are the stuff of dreams.
Most of the auto sector is unionized, and suffering because of those so-called job security measures. The big three automakers, General Motors, Ford and Chrysler all closed their plants earlier than normal for Christmas break, and kept them closed longer than normal over that break, to cut costs. Sure, it means those that work at those places have jobs to go to, but they won’t have a salary over the holidays.
And even extended holidays won’t save the dying automobile companies – the big three are still closing plants, which will cut many unionized employees.
Striking faculty at York University must live in a pretty cozy and isolated glass cube, because they have failed to see what happens to unionized employees who make unreasonable demands of their employers. Eventually, they may get what they want – bigger pay, better working conditions, and job security guarantees. But none of that will matter if their employer doesn’t exist anymore.
York University is a long way from folding – and so far no Canadian university has ever gone out of business. But as this strike continues, despite the university’s very generous counter-offers, it suffers the consequences.
Applications to York University are down – the first time any Canadian university’s applications have been down in over two-decades. As government funding is closely linked to the number of total students, this will have a sharp and negative impact on how much money York University gets in years to come.
Current students may drop too – who’s to stop ‘em from going to another university to finish their education. And those that can’t get credits for courses already completed at York University may also be forced out by the strike, for financial reasons. Many students earn their tuition money by working summer jobs – and as it stands now, if the strike were to end, the academic year would have to be extended well into July.
Not to mention all the businesses in the area which cater to the 50,000 students – as the strike continues, these businesses suffer, because there simply aren’t any customers.
All of this because of a handful of spoiled employees, that just don’t live in reality. Aren’t universities supposed to be places of higher education?
The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) which represents the striking workers wants the same as most labour unions do for their members during work stoppages – bigger pay cheques, better working conditions, and guarantees of job security.
Problem is, in these tough economic times, most of us non-union stiffs – which makes up the bulk of the Canadian work force – are just lucky to have a job, any job. Wage increases, a bigger office and some hocus-pocus document providing job security are the stuff of dreams.
Most of the auto sector is unionized, and suffering because of those so-called job security measures. The big three automakers, General Motors, Ford and Chrysler all closed their plants earlier than normal for Christmas break, and kept them closed longer than normal over that break, to cut costs. Sure, it means those that work at those places have jobs to go to, but they won’t have a salary over the holidays.
And even extended holidays won’t save the dying automobile companies – the big three are still closing plants, which will cut many unionized employees.
Striking faculty at York University must live in a pretty cozy and isolated glass cube, because they have failed to see what happens to unionized employees who make unreasonable demands of their employers. Eventually, they may get what they want – bigger pay, better working conditions, and job security guarantees. But none of that will matter if their employer doesn’t exist anymore.
York University is a long way from folding – and so far no Canadian university has ever gone out of business. But as this strike continues, despite the university’s very generous counter-offers, it suffers the consequences.
Applications to York University are down – the first time any Canadian university’s applications have been down in over two-decades. As government funding is closely linked to the number of total students, this will have a sharp and negative impact on how much money York University gets in years to come.
Current students may drop too – who’s to stop ‘em from going to another university to finish their education. And those that can’t get credits for courses already completed at York University may also be forced out by the strike, for financial reasons. Many students earn their tuition money by working summer jobs – and as it stands now, if the strike were to end, the academic year would have to be extended well into July.
Not to mention all the businesses in the area which cater to the 50,000 students – as the strike continues, these businesses suffer, because there simply aren’t any customers.
All of this because of a handful of spoiled employees, that just don’t live in reality. Aren’t universities supposed to be places of higher education?
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Why Only Take the Bad?
I was watching the inauguration of U.S. President Barack Obama today – what a show! Hollywood is definitely an American invention, but we Canadians should take note.
The American inauguration was filled with music, dancing, and very well rehearsed performances by the dignitaries. That’s what today was all about – performance.
From meeting the with President Bush and his wife for tea prior to the swearing in, to having legendary American singer Aretha Franklin singing during the ceremony, to the presidential walk-about after the swearing in to the White House, it was all very entertaining.
When a Canadian Prime Minister is sworn in, there is a quick ceremony up on Parliament Hill, but that’s about it. You don’t have an estimated million-plus people lining the streets watching, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a big name Canadian roc k star perform.
Oh we Canadians have taken some lessons from the American political machine – negative campaigning has been used in municipal, provincial and federal elections up here for years. Negative campaigning is when one politico tries to make his or her opponents look bad, and unfit for public office. It has been used in campaigns at the federal level – remember when Prime Minister Kim Campbell tried to make Prime Minister Jean Chretien look evil for talking out of the side of his mouth? That campaign back fired, when Chretien held a press conference, admitting to a childhood illness that left a portion of his face paralyzed, hence his speech impairment.
Negative campaigns have even been run at the local grassroots level – former Toronto Mayor Barbara Hall tried to slam former Toronto Mayor Mel Lastman’s campaign with a whole bunch of ads labelling him nothing more than a slick salesman. This campaign didn’t work either, Lastman went on to be a long-time mayor of Canada’s largest city, until he retired from politics just a few years ago.
Still, taking away the bad from American politics doesn’t necessarily do us Canadians any good. Many people in this country don’t care for Canadian politics – the American election got more attention here than our very own Canadian election running at the same time.
We need more Hollywood in our Canadian politicians. We need to have amazingly crafted speeches, spoken by truly great orators, in front of stunning back drops. Sure, there is more to a politician than how he or she is perceived – what he or she actually does to better or make worse our society is the end product.
But come on – how many people remember all the great advances made in society? When we reminisce about our leaders, we tend to focus on the negative – the GST from Brian Mulroney, the lack of funding for the CBC and our military from Chretien, the inability of Stephen Harper to have enough support to make any change. But when it comes to the good, we remember what kind of image that politician left on our minds. The slick, three-step-at-a-time ladies man Pierre Elliot Trudeau, the deep broadcaster-like booming voice of Brian Mulroney, the energy and passion in the speeches of Lester B. Pearson.
Obama is being called the “coolest” president the States has ever had. Cool uh? Sounds like a great image that can only come out of the Hollywood-American political system.
I remember when Ronald Reagan was president back in the 1980’s. He was an actor-turned politician. But he was never a great actor, he only did a handful of commercials, and his best movie had a chimp as his co-star. But still, Reagan had mass appeal in the States, even though years later his economic policies – dubbed Reaganomics by economists – led in part to the economic recession of the early 1990s.
That’s because Reagan had style. He was slick, smooth talking and knew how to give a speech. Reagan became famous for his speeches, where he used peaceful settings – like his desk in the Oval Office, with big containers of brightly colourful jellybeans on it – to deliver bad news. The peaceful setting offset the bad news.
Reporters often joked that they could predict how bad the news was, by the number of jellybeans on his desk. If he had more containers all topped up, look out!
Joking aside, U.S. President Ronald Reagan was one of the country’s best public speakers. I still remember his now famous speech on the south lawn of the White House, at the service remembering shuttle astronauts after the Challenger explosion.
The meaning of the message may be the most important part, but if you don’t have anything to lure people in, and hold their attention while you deliver that message, no one will ever get the message.
And that’s why most Canadians tune out of Canadian politics – but know all about our neighbours to the south.
The American inauguration was filled with music, dancing, and very well rehearsed performances by the dignitaries. That’s what today was all about – performance.
From meeting the with President Bush and his wife for tea prior to the swearing in, to having legendary American singer Aretha Franklin singing during the ceremony, to the presidential walk-about after the swearing in to the White House, it was all very entertaining.
When a Canadian Prime Minister is sworn in, there is a quick ceremony up on Parliament Hill, but that’s about it. You don’t have an estimated million-plus people lining the streets watching, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a big name Canadian roc k star perform.
Oh we Canadians have taken some lessons from the American political machine – negative campaigning has been used in municipal, provincial and federal elections up here for years. Negative campaigning is when one politico tries to make his or her opponents look bad, and unfit for public office. It has been used in campaigns at the federal level – remember when Prime Minister Kim Campbell tried to make Prime Minister Jean Chretien look evil for talking out of the side of his mouth? That campaign back fired, when Chretien held a press conference, admitting to a childhood illness that left a portion of his face paralyzed, hence his speech impairment.
Negative campaigns have even been run at the local grassroots level – former Toronto Mayor Barbara Hall tried to slam former Toronto Mayor Mel Lastman’s campaign with a whole bunch of ads labelling him nothing more than a slick salesman. This campaign didn’t work either, Lastman went on to be a long-time mayor of Canada’s largest city, until he retired from politics just a few years ago.
Still, taking away the bad from American politics doesn’t necessarily do us Canadians any good. Many people in this country don’t care for Canadian politics – the American election got more attention here than our very own Canadian election running at the same time.
We need more Hollywood in our Canadian politicians. We need to have amazingly crafted speeches, spoken by truly great orators, in front of stunning back drops. Sure, there is more to a politician than how he or she is perceived – what he or she actually does to better or make worse our society is the end product.
But come on – how many people remember all the great advances made in society? When we reminisce about our leaders, we tend to focus on the negative – the GST from Brian Mulroney, the lack of funding for the CBC and our military from Chretien, the inability of Stephen Harper to have enough support to make any change. But when it comes to the good, we remember what kind of image that politician left on our minds. The slick, three-step-at-a-time ladies man Pierre Elliot Trudeau, the deep broadcaster-like booming voice of Brian Mulroney, the energy and passion in the speeches of Lester B. Pearson.
Obama is being called the “coolest” president the States has ever had. Cool uh? Sounds like a great image that can only come out of the Hollywood-American political system.
I remember when Ronald Reagan was president back in the 1980’s. He was an actor-turned politician. But he was never a great actor, he only did a handful of commercials, and his best movie had a chimp as his co-star. But still, Reagan had mass appeal in the States, even though years later his economic policies – dubbed Reaganomics by economists – led in part to the economic recession of the early 1990s.
That’s because Reagan had style. He was slick, smooth talking and knew how to give a speech. Reagan became famous for his speeches, where he used peaceful settings – like his desk in the Oval Office, with big containers of brightly colourful jellybeans on it – to deliver bad news. The peaceful setting offset the bad news.
Reporters often joked that they could predict how bad the news was, by the number of jellybeans on his desk. If he had more containers all topped up, look out!
Joking aside, U.S. President Ronald Reagan was one of the country’s best public speakers. I still remember his now famous speech on the south lawn of the White House, at the service remembering shuttle astronauts after the Challenger explosion.
The meaning of the message may be the most important part, but if you don’t have anything to lure people in, and hold their attention while you deliver that message, no one will ever get the message.
And that’s why most Canadians tune out of Canadian politics – but know all about our neighbours to the south.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Can Obama Handle The Pressure?
Tomorrow, the United States of America will swear in it’s first ever Black President. Not since the swearing in of President John F. Kennedy has there been such a roar. Many are already comparing Obama to the former JFK.
Hotels in Washington are all sold out – and the few rooms available at further hotels are going for an alarmingly high $800-$1,000-plus a pop, as people from all over the world flock to the American capital to see history unfold.
There are even groups from here in Canada going south to the States, to see the swearing in ceremony.
The media around the world, but naturally mostly in the States has been hyping this too – not just the swearing in, but the whole Obama craze.
Obama, not to be out done, has continued on his theme of global change.
That’s a lot of pressure on the new prez. Can Obama handle it?
Obama appears to be a visionary, with new ideas, enthusiasm and energy. He will be one of the youngest presidents to be sworn into American politics too, and there lies the problem.
Many a young person has come and gone from all walks of life, hoping to make a change, but in the end just following the herd. It isn’t uncommon for young people, fresh out of school, to enter some big mega-corporation with a visionary mantra, full of new ideas, enthusiasm and energy.
Although those at the top say they are open to these youthful spurts of exuberance, very little changes. In fact, those that continue to push their ideas forward usually end up quickly looking for another job. Those left behind, seeing their colleagues crushed and defeated, quiet down, and step in line – as they have learned the one lesson they don’t teach in school.
That lesson is simple – new ideas are great, but keep them to yourself unless you want to be unemployed, and unable to pay your bills.
Will Obama face the same fate? Granted, Obama is the leader of the pack, unlike our fresh-out-of-school kids. But the old, regular faces of the House of Representatives, and even of Obama’s own political party still must accept their new leader’s ways, before anything actually happens.
If Obama’s ideas don’t make it all the way up the political ladder, eventually he will lose the faith of those who elected him, as they see him fall into line, just to get some of his less controversial initiatives passed.
We have seen this happen even here in Canada, towards the end of former Prime Minster Brian Mulroney’s leadership. Mulroney was smart, he knew he had lost the support he needed to be leader of one of the largest countries in the Western world, so he stepped down, and put Kim Campbell in charge. Campbell lost the subsequent election – essentially taking the fall for Mulroney – in what was one of the shortest Prime Ministerships ever.
Obama comes into power amidst one of the worst times to do so. The American’s have started wars they can’t finish without international aid in both Iraq and Afghanistan, with potentially new wars brewing for them in Israel and North Korea. American foreign policy has already built brick walls in many countries around the world, and public opinion globally of Americans is at an all time low. The global economic crisis is hitting the States hardest of all, as millions have lost their jobs, their homes – their lives.
And despite all of this and perhaps more, Obama has all the energy, enthusiasm and eagerness of a young kid out of college.
Good luck young man – you certainly need it.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Remarkable Airship Skills Save the Plane
Flying a plane is no easy feat, but landing one – on water – is next to impossible. Today, a pilot did just that, saving 155 lives.
U. S Airways airbus made an emergency landing in the Hudson River near New York City, and all 150 passengers and five crew survived with minimal injuries.
Although the American National Transportation and Safety Board is still investigating the cause of the crash, early reports indicate the plane may have hit a flock of birds.
It is said any landing you can walk away from is a good landing – one may add swim to that description. Landing a plane on water isn’t uncommon, but having minimal to no injuries from such a wet landing is.
Most planes that have to make a crash-landing into water usually break apart, leading to numerous fatalities. Not so with today’s water-based landing, thanks to an alert and very capable crew.
Captain Chesley B. Sullenberger, III was in charge of that plane, and brought it down safely – doing what everyone in an emergency situation hopes happens – saving the plane and crew.
Sullenberger’s forty-plus-years of flight experiences paid off big time, as the worst injuries appear to have been caused by the freezing temperatures of the water, not the landing of the plane. The former U.S. Air Force pilot has flown Learjets, Boeing 737s, DC-9s and Airbus A320s – which is what he landed today in the Hudson River.
The last time a plane had to ditch in water was in 2002, when A Garuda Boeing 737 lost power to an engine and hit the water off Java Island. In this instance one person was killed, but the remaining 59 people aboard were alive. Prior to that, in 1996 a Boeing 767 from Ethiopian Air ran out of fuel during a hijack attempt, and fell out of the sky into the shallow waters just off the shoreline – only 52 people out of the 175 onboard survived.
Clearly, any time a plane has to ditch in water is an air emergency – commonly called a Mayday. Whenever a plane declares a mayday, everything depends on the flight crew’s ability to remain calm, and their knowledge and experiences in being able to handle whatever is thrown at them. Often they will be dealing with many alarms, warnings, and malfunctioning gear – all of which they have to consider in making their decisions which ultimately affect the lives of all on the plane, and on the ground or water beneath.
The Hudson River is a channel for boats, ferries and other watercraft. Landing a plane on this body of water is like landing on a busy road – just instead of cars in the path of the plane, there could be boats and ships.
Luck may have had a lot to do with today’s incident – but the brunt of the success is from the captain and his crew – outstanding flying!
U. S Airways airbus made an emergency landing in the Hudson River near New York City, and all 150 passengers and five crew survived with minimal injuries.
Although the American National Transportation and Safety Board is still investigating the cause of the crash, early reports indicate the plane may have hit a flock of birds.
It is said any landing you can walk away from is a good landing – one may add swim to that description. Landing a plane on water isn’t uncommon, but having minimal to no injuries from such a wet landing is.
Most planes that have to make a crash-landing into water usually break apart, leading to numerous fatalities. Not so with today’s water-based landing, thanks to an alert and very capable crew.
Captain Chesley B. Sullenberger, III was in charge of that plane, and brought it down safely – doing what everyone in an emergency situation hopes happens – saving the plane and crew.
Sullenberger’s forty-plus-years of flight experiences paid off big time, as the worst injuries appear to have been caused by the freezing temperatures of the water, not the landing of the plane. The former U.S. Air Force pilot has flown Learjets, Boeing 737s, DC-9s and Airbus A320s – which is what he landed today in the Hudson River.
The last time a plane had to ditch in water was in 2002, when A Garuda Boeing 737 lost power to an engine and hit the water off Java Island. In this instance one person was killed, but the remaining 59 people aboard were alive. Prior to that, in 1996 a Boeing 767 from Ethiopian Air ran out of fuel during a hijack attempt, and fell out of the sky into the shallow waters just off the shoreline – only 52 people out of the 175 onboard survived.
Clearly, any time a plane has to ditch in water is an air emergency – commonly called a Mayday. Whenever a plane declares a mayday, everything depends on the flight crew’s ability to remain calm, and their knowledge and experiences in being able to handle whatever is thrown at them. Often they will be dealing with many alarms, warnings, and malfunctioning gear – all of which they have to consider in making their decisions which ultimately affect the lives of all on the plane, and on the ground or water beneath.
The Hudson River is a channel for boats, ferries and other watercraft. Landing a plane on this body of water is like landing on a busy road – just instead of cars in the path of the plane, there could be boats and ships.
Luck may have had a lot to do with today’s incident – but the brunt of the success is from the captain and his crew – outstanding flying!
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
How Canadian We Beavers Are
We Canadians are a curious bunch. Our national animal is the always peaceful and cute beaver, while our national sport is quite the opposite – rock ‘em sock ‘em hockey.
Just as Canadian as the beaver and hockey, complaining about the weather has become quite an essential character trait of us Canucks.
If you live in Ontario, chances are you’re complaining about the frightful freeze – today in Toronto the temperature sank to -17C without a wind chill – though the winds are a-coming. Wind chills are expected in the -20 to -30C range until the weekend. If you live on the west coast, you are used to complaining about the rain, and for those in the east about the storms and winds off the ocean.
Canada just wouldn’t be – well Canada, without constant complaints about the weather. In the summer, when the temperatures soar to +35C we complain it is too hot. If it rains for a week, we complain about all the rain, even when the sky is clear, we aren’t satisfied – that cloud is too puffy . . .
I suppose there could be worse traits. The Americans are known as snobby arrogant hot heads when they travel, expecting to get their way “because they are from America.” People from China are impossible to understand even in their own language – why can’t everyone understand Mandarin and Cantonese? And everyone loves to poke fun at the French.
But here in Canada, we’re known for being overly polite, with a strange fascination with the weather.
Though it really isn’t all that odd to be awed by Mother Nature, when your country is as vast as ours is. Weather has greatly influenced us as a nation, and continues to do so.
We all love snow days – when it snows so much, we call in with any excuse in the book to stay at home instead of going to work. Even in the summer we use the weather as an excuse to go out and play – who hasn’t suddenly come down with some stomach problem or flu on a beautiful summer’s day, only to take off and watch a baseball game?
Beavers, as with all wild animals, have to plan their lives around their environments. They innately know when it is time to mate, build a damn, and when and where to find the best feeding locations, by subtle changes in the weather.
We Canadians are very much like our national animal, constantly planning our lives around the conditions outside – whether we like the weather or not.
Just as Canadian as the beaver and hockey, complaining about the weather has become quite an essential character trait of us Canucks.
If you live in Ontario, chances are you’re complaining about the frightful freeze – today in Toronto the temperature sank to -17C without a wind chill – though the winds are a-coming. Wind chills are expected in the -20 to -30C range until the weekend. If you live on the west coast, you are used to complaining about the rain, and for those in the east about the storms and winds off the ocean.
Canada just wouldn’t be – well Canada, without constant complaints about the weather. In the summer, when the temperatures soar to +35C we complain it is too hot. If it rains for a week, we complain about all the rain, even when the sky is clear, we aren’t satisfied – that cloud is too puffy . . .
I suppose there could be worse traits. The Americans are known as snobby arrogant hot heads when they travel, expecting to get their way “because they are from America.” People from China are impossible to understand even in their own language – why can’t everyone understand Mandarin and Cantonese? And everyone loves to poke fun at the French.
But here in Canada, we’re known for being overly polite, with a strange fascination with the weather.
Though it really isn’t all that odd to be awed by Mother Nature, when your country is as vast as ours is. Weather has greatly influenced us as a nation, and continues to do so.
We all love snow days – when it snows so much, we call in with any excuse in the book to stay at home instead of going to work. Even in the summer we use the weather as an excuse to go out and play – who hasn’t suddenly come down with some stomach problem or flu on a beautiful summer’s day, only to take off and watch a baseball game?
Beavers, as with all wild animals, have to plan their lives around their environments. They innately know when it is time to mate, build a damn, and when and where to find the best feeding locations, by subtle changes in the weather.
We Canadians are very much like our national animal, constantly planning our lives around the conditions outside – whether we like the weather or not.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Zap and Scruffy is Dead
Today, a man took his dog for a walk in Toronto, and in the blink of an eye, the dog died. It happened when the dog walked over a metal hydro vault plate in the sidewalk, which had been electrically charged by a short circuit in the hydro pole next to it.
This isn’t the first time this has happened in Canada’s largest city – it happened just a few blocks from today’s incident a couple of months previously.
You’d think in one of the largest and most technologically advanced countries in the world, our sidewalks would be safe – but think again.
Toronto Hydro, when asked about how wide spread this risk is, says they just don’t know.
In the winter, our bare pawed four legged friends are most susceptible to this type of risk, as their paws act like a conductor and draw the current through their bodies. Our thick soled winter footwear can prevent the current from going into our bodies.
However, in the warmer spring and summer months, when people walk around in flip-flops, sandals, or even bare footed, we humans are just as much at risk of electrocution as Scruffy.
Which makes it all the more important that Toronto Hydro take immediate steps to fix this, and fix it fast.
Though that probably won’t happen – they have to rent the inferred equipment from the States, and because there are thousands of metal hydro vaults and poles all across the city, it could take several years before they have found every “hot spot.”
Still, this shouldn’t have happened in one of the world’s largest and most advanced civilizations – we should be masters of our domain, so-to-speak. Thanks to government cutbacks, infrastructures crumble and now a walk outside could prove deadly.
For years people have complained about the increase in pot holes in our roads, the backups of our sewers, and various water mains which break and flood. Although all of these are great inconveniences, none have proven deadly, until today’s electrocution of a dog out for a stroll with his owner.
Politicians are doing what they do best, divert attention away from themselves, and try to act like the heroes by launching investigations into the cause – justice will be served, reports will be written, and public hearings may even be called.
But that won’t bring back the two dogs killed by our careless cost cutting politicians. And if all the hoopla over government reports and public hearings that may result from today’s events follows the course of all the hoopla of reports and public hearings before, they will just fade away. Once the public hearings close, no one talks about them, the news forgets about them, and focuses on more current events. Reports are filed and collect dust in government depositories, where even Conan the Librarian may never find them again.
Real action must be taken to ensure our cities have the money needed to protect those that call those cities home, and their pets too.
This isn’t the first time this has happened in Canada’s largest city – it happened just a few blocks from today’s incident a couple of months previously.
You’d think in one of the largest and most technologically advanced countries in the world, our sidewalks would be safe – but think again.
Toronto Hydro, when asked about how wide spread this risk is, says they just don’t know.
In the winter, our bare pawed four legged friends are most susceptible to this type of risk, as their paws act like a conductor and draw the current through their bodies. Our thick soled winter footwear can prevent the current from going into our bodies.
However, in the warmer spring and summer months, when people walk around in flip-flops, sandals, or even bare footed, we humans are just as much at risk of electrocution as Scruffy.
Which makes it all the more important that Toronto Hydro take immediate steps to fix this, and fix it fast.
Though that probably won’t happen – they have to rent the inferred equipment from the States, and because there are thousands of metal hydro vaults and poles all across the city, it could take several years before they have found every “hot spot.”
Still, this shouldn’t have happened in one of the world’s largest and most advanced civilizations – we should be masters of our domain, so-to-speak. Thanks to government cutbacks, infrastructures crumble and now a walk outside could prove deadly.
For years people have complained about the increase in pot holes in our roads, the backups of our sewers, and various water mains which break and flood. Although all of these are great inconveniences, none have proven deadly, until today’s electrocution of a dog out for a stroll with his owner.
Politicians are doing what they do best, divert attention away from themselves, and try to act like the heroes by launching investigations into the cause – justice will be served, reports will be written, and public hearings may even be called.
But that won’t bring back the two dogs killed by our careless cost cutting politicians. And if all the hoopla over government reports and public hearings that may result from today’s events follows the course of all the hoopla of reports and public hearings before, they will just fade away. Once the public hearings close, no one talks about them, the news forgets about them, and focuses on more current events. Reports are filed and collect dust in government depositories, where even Conan the Librarian may never find them again.
Real action must be taken to ensure our cities have the money needed to protect those that call those cities home, and their pets too.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Nasty Filthy Boars
I was at the local Wal-Mart today, looking for a space heater. I love Wal-Mart, they always have what I want, and the prices are pretty decent.
Though they had a lot of space heaters to choose from, I was dismayed by the messy display. None of the space heaters were in boxes. Oh, there were boxes for them, but they were scattered on the shelves and some were even on the floor.
It was like a heard of wild animals rampaged through, removing all the products and leaving everything in a state of disaster.
I can understand people opening up boxes to check out the merchandise – I do that too occasionally, to ensure I’m getting something of quality and value.
But I am always neat, and if I intend to open something, I always look for one that is already opened, because I never buy something not in a sealed package.
It’s like buying underwear, would you buy a pair of undies from an open pack? You don’t know who – or worse what – they were on before.
Granted, a space heater isn’t as much of a personal item as a pair of underwear, but it is still better to have a non-opened package than one which may have been damaged by someone else, and simply placed back on the shelf.
Getting back to the Wal-Mart mess – I know we are in the midst of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression many moons ago, which is why I was just as amazed as shocked to see the mess. In retail, as with many other things in life, presentation has a huge impact on success. The neater and more inviting a store, the more likely people will actually buy things at that store.
It’s why many real estate sales people will tell you to make sure your house is spotless if you are selling it. Some even advise to bake an apple pie just prior to a showing – the smells of the apple pie will fill the house, making it all the more inviting to potential buyers.
Wal-Mart may be the largest retailer in the world, but they are certainly not immune from the recession we’re in. They even announced last week that their sales are down, and that they may have to take extra measures to ensure they don’t succumb to the same fate as the auto makers.
Maybe they haven’t started those extra measures yet, because having a messy – no FILTHY – store certainly stopped me from purchasing my space heater there. I went to the nearest competitor just on the other side of the mall, Sears, and got a nice unit there.
Sears had a far better display than mega Wal-Mart. They had one model out for every type on sale, which was plugged in, so I could try each one out before buying. And those not out for trying, were all in sealed boxes, neatly stacked and easily accessible, making it very easy for me to simply grab what I wanted and make the buy.
Today, Wal-Mart lost some of my business, which in these tough economic times isn’t good for any business – no matter how big or small that business is.
Maybe this recession will do us some good, and filter out the businesses that really deserve to be in business, from those that just don’t give a rat’s ass?
Though they had a lot of space heaters to choose from, I was dismayed by the messy display. None of the space heaters were in boxes. Oh, there were boxes for them, but they were scattered on the shelves and some were even on the floor.
It was like a heard of wild animals rampaged through, removing all the products and leaving everything in a state of disaster.
I can understand people opening up boxes to check out the merchandise – I do that too occasionally, to ensure I’m getting something of quality and value.
But I am always neat, and if I intend to open something, I always look for one that is already opened, because I never buy something not in a sealed package.
It’s like buying underwear, would you buy a pair of undies from an open pack? You don’t know who – or worse what – they were on before.
Granted, a space heater isn’t as much of a personal item as a pair of underwear, but it is still better to have a non-opened package than one which may have been damaged by someone else, and simply placed back on the shelf.
Getting back to the Wal-Mart mess – I know we are in the midst of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression many moons ago, which is why I was just as amazed as shocked to see the mess. In retail, as with many other things in life, presentation has a huge impact on success. The neater and more inviting a store, the more likely people will actually buy things at that store.
It’s why many real estate sales people will tell you to make sure your house is spotless if you are selling it. Some even advise to bake an apple pie just prior to a showing – the smells of the apple pie will fill the house, making it all the more inviting to potential buyers.
Wal-Mart may be the largest retailer in the world, but they are certainly not immune from the recession we’re in. They even announced last week that their sales are down, and that they may have to take extra measures to ensure they don’t succumb to the same fate as the auto makers.
Maybe they haven’t started those extra measures yet, because having a messy – no FILTHY – store certainly stopped me from purchasing my space heater there. I went to the nearest competitor just on the other side of the mall, Sears, and got a nice unit there.
Sears had a far better display than mega Wal-Mart. They had one model out for every type on sale, which was plugged in, so I could try each one out before buying. And those not out for trying, were all in sealed boxes, neatly stacked and easily accessible, making it very easy for me to simply grab what I wanted and make the buy.
Today, Wal-Mart lost some of my business, which in these tough economic times isn’t good for any business – no matter how big or small that business is.
Maybe this recession will do us some good, and filter out the businesses that really deserve to be in business, from those that just don’t give a rat’s ass?
Thursday, January 08, 2009
Pointless Points Programs
Everywhere I go I get hounded to sign-up for points programs. Points programs are nothing more than a slick marketing campaign called loyalty marketing. Loyalty marketing is part of an even bigger marketing ploy, one which is very evil, which threatens us all.
First, these points programs are so pointless to begin with, I wonder why so many people sign-up? Perhaps it is due to those pesky cashiers, always pushing them? I was just at the local supermarket today, and the cashier wouldn’t let me leave without at least taking the brochure for the points program. I had to tell her I really wasn’t interested at least half-a-dozen or more times just to escape.
And all I really went in for was a handful of groceries!
This points program is like many others, you earn points for everything you buy at that particular store. In this case, one dollar for every dollar spent. Sounds like a good deal, until you read on – for every 500 points, you get $10 off your purchase. That means you have to spend $500 to get $10 – or for me, that’s about three-months worth of groceries to get a petty $10 discount.
What does the local supermarket get? Aside from your continued business, they require your name, address, phone number, age, number of kids in your house, number of people in your house, total household income – and a bunch of other information which they claim they will never sell or rent to anyone “outside their own family of businesses.”
They may honour their claim to never sell or rent their demographic information, but rest assured, they are making money off of having all that data somehow.
They can use that information to personally call you up and offer you great deals on things which you most likely would buy, based on your profile.
As you continue to use the card, and swipe it every time you shop, you build a bigger profile, as they can track everything you buy to you. That means, the one time you go out and buy that can of whatchmacallit just to try it out, could lead to coupons suddenly appearing at your door encouraging you to buy more. Or worse, as they know it is the first time you have bought this, you could get some college kid calling you up, wanting to conduct a survey about that one product. Maybe you just accidentally grabbed the wrong can off the shelf, and didn’t even mean to buy it – but that nosey kid will still call.
This kind of information helps the stores, they know which products to stock and which ones not too. But it leads down a very windy road of trap doors, where personal information becomes all growing, and all knowing.
Do you really want a bunch of strangers knowing what kind of toilet paper you use? What if you happen to have a medical condition which you’d rather not talk about? Drugstores have these points programs too, and that rather embarrassing rash you had once will appear on your profile, just because you had to purchase a prescription cream.
Air Miles is probably the biggest program of its kind in the country, and they sell their lists to all those companies that give you rewards and points. Think about all the gas stations, utility companies, even the media knows where you live, how old you are and what kind of underwear you prefer – most give points for subscribing to their papers, satellite radio stations and even when you enter their online contests.
And all you get in return? About $10 for every $500 spent!
Not only should you feel ripped off, you should feel quite naked. Just imagine all those strangers at all the companies all over the world who know more about you than you think you know about yourself.
My advice is simple, and something I’ve been practicing since these programs started – don’t sign-up. Do not fill in those rewards cards applications, and don’t use those rewards programs. The only people benefiting off those programs is the clever and evil marketing genius that invented it, and the businesses which use it.
First, these points programs are so pointless to begin with, I wonder why so many people sign-up? Perhaps it is due to those pesky cashiers, always pushing them? I was just at the local supermarket today, and the cashier wouldn’t let me leave without at least taking the brochure for the points program. I had to tell her I really wasn’t interested at least half-a-dozen or more times just to escape.
And all I really went in for was a handful of groceries!
This points program is like many others, you earn points for everything you buy at that particular store. In this case, one dollar for every dollar spent. Sounds like a good deal, until you read on – for every 500 points, you get $10 off your purchase. That means you have to spend $500 to get $10 – or for me, that’s about three-months worth of groceries to get a petty $10 discount.
What does the local supermarket get? Aside from your continued business, they require your name, address, phone number, age, number of kids in your house, number of people in your house, total household income – and a bunch of other information which they claim they will never sell or rent to anyone “outside their own family of businesses.”
They may honour their claim to never sell or rent their demographic information, but rest assured, they are making money off of having all that data somehow.
They can use that information to personally call you up and offer you great deals on things which you most likely would buy, based on your profile.
As you continue to use the card, and swipe it every time you shop, you build a bigger profile, as they can track everything you buy to you. That means, the one time you go out and buy that can of whatchmacallit just to try it out, could lead to coupons suddenly appearing at your door encouraging you to buy more. Or worse, as they know it is the first time you have bought this, you could get some college kid calling you up, wanting to conduct a survey about that one product. Maybe you just accidentally grabbed the wrong can off the shelf, and didn’t even mean to buy it – but that nosey kid will still call.
This kind of information helps the stores, they know which products to stock and which ones not too. But it leads down a very windy road of trap doors, where personal information becomes all growing, and all knowing.
Do you really want a bunch of strangers knowing what kind of toilet paper you use? What if you happen to have a medical condition which you’d rather not talk about? Drugstores have these points programs too, and that rather embarrassing rash you had once will appear on your profile, just because you had to purchase a prescription cream.
Air Miles is probably the biggest program of its kind in the country, and they sell their lists to all those companies that give you rewards and points. Think about all the gas stations, utility companies, even the media knows where you live, how old you are and what kind of underwear you prefer – most give points for subscribing to their papers, satellite radio stations and even when you enter their online contests.
And all you get in return? About $10 for every $500 spent!
Not only should you feel ripped off, you should feel quite naked. Just imagine all those strangers at all the companies all over the world who know more about you than you think you know about yourself.
My advice is simple, and something I’ve been practicing since these programs started – don’t sign-up. Do not fill in those rewards cards applications, and don’t use those rewards programs. The only people benefiting off those programs is the clever and evil marketing genius that invented it, and the businesses which use it.
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
Union Boss Herald’s In New Era of Anti-Semitism?
The war between Israel and the various Palestinian factions in the Middle East has been going on far too long. This decades-long battle started when the League of Nations (now the United Nations) sanctioned a piece of land for Jewish folks, in the wake of the Holocaust. Israel was that piece of land, nestled in and around the most religiously sought after land by various world religions.
Sounds like the building blocks for geographical unrest – and that it was – and is today.
In steps Sid Ryan, President of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), a national labour group, which as with all unions, fights its own battles to the betterment of it’s members. CUPE represents many government and other public sector workers – including academics, which is where this whole story really begins.
Ryan put forth a motion to his national union, which would demand all Israeli born academics requesting work visas to work in this country – and requiring the support of the union for those workers, which is CUPE – to declare that they do not support the war in Israel.
Regardless of whether or not the motion passes and is enacted by CUPE isn’t at issue – the fact that such a declaration is being even considered is.
Granted, here in Canada we celebrate freedom of expression, and Ryan is certainly entitled to express his own personal beliefs and values on anything he’d like. However, forcing those beliefs and values upon someone else coming here to earn an honest day’s living is beyond wrong – it’s potentially Anti-Semitic.
The expression of hatred towards a particular ethnic and/or religious group is wrong. Anti-Semitism – expressing these thoughts of hatred towards the Jewish faith has been on the rise globally – there have been marked instances of this in Europe, the States, and even here in Canada over the years.
I remember just a few years ago, tombstones were toppled in a Jewish cemetery in Toronto, and just last year in the suburbs of that fair Canadian city, Swastikas were spray painted on some Jewish homes.
Now we have the front man for one of the nation’s largest unions forcing people, presumably of the Jewish faith, as that is the dominant religion and culture in Israel, to denounce their support of their homeland, to work in our land.
It’s one thing when teenage thugs topple tombstones, and spray hatred in paint, but quite another when a highly visible union boss does the verbal equivalent. Now Anti-Semitism has taken on a whole new tact – that of being publicly supported.
Ryan is an intelligent and skilled negotiator, he has to be, as that is key in any conflict negotiations. And that in a nutshell is essentially what the war in Israel is – a negotiations of sorts. It certainly isn’t as tame as one of Ryan’s typical negotiations across a table with labour on one side and management on the other. But in order for their ever to be peace in the Middle East, there will have to be some complex negotiations.
Which is why I wonder where Ryan’s head was at when he came up with the rather dubious and potentially Anti-Semitic notion that citizens from Israel would have to take a side at the negotiations table, before that table has even been set?
Sounds like the building blocks for geographical unrest – and that it was – and is today.
In steps Sid Ryan, President of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), a national labour group, which as with all unions, fights its own battles to the betterment of it’s members. CUPE represents many government and other public sector workers – including academics, which is where this whole story really begins.
Ryan put forth a motion to his national union, which would demand all Israeli born academics requesting work visas to work in this country – and requiring the support of the union for those workers, which is CUPE – to declare that they do not support the war in Israel.
Regardless of whether or not the motion passes and is enacted by CUPE isn’t at issue – the fact that such a declaration is being even considered is.
Granted, here in Canada we celebrate freedom of expression, and Ryan is certainly entitled to express his own personal beliefs and values on anything he’d like. However, forcing those beliefs and values upon someone else coming here to earn an honest day’s living is beyond wrong – it’s potentially Anti-Semitic.
The expression of hatred towards a particular ethnic and/or religious group is wrong. Anti-Semitism – expressing these thoughts of hatred towards the Jewish faith has been on the rise globally – there have been marked instances of this in Europe, the States, and even here in Canada over the years.
I remember just a few years ago, tombstones were toppled in a Jewish cemetery in Toronto, and just last year in the suburbs of that fair Canadian city, Swastikas were spray painted on some Jewish homes.
Now we have the front man for one of the nation’s largest unions forcing people, presumably of the Jewish faith, as that is the dominant religion and culture in Israel, to denounce their support of their homeland, to work in our land.
It’s one thing when teenage thugs topple tombstones, and spray hatred in paint, but quite another when a highly visible union boss does the verbal equivalent. Now Anti-Semitism has taken on a whole new tact – that of being publicly supported.
Ryan is an intelligent and skilled negotiator, he has to be, as that is key in any conflict negotiations. And that in a nutshell is essentially what the war in Israel is – a negotiations of sorts. It certainly isn’t as tame as one of Ryan’s typical negotiations across a table with labour on one side and management on the other. But in order for their ever to be peace in the Middle East, there will have to be some complex negotiations.
Which is why I wonder where Ryan’s head was at when he came up with the rather dubious and potentially Anti-Semitic notion that citizens from Israel would have to take a side at the negotiations table, before that table has even been set?
Monday, January 05, 2009
Who’s The Real American First Lady?
American President-Elect Barack Obama won’t be sworn in and officially take control of the United States until January 20, but guaranteed the airwaves will be swamped with Obama this and Obama that.
What’s really interesting is who will be influencing one of the most powerful men in the world. Usually, this post is held by none other than the president’s wife – the first lady. Michelle Obama probably assumes that she will be no different than any other first lady of American presidents in the past.
But there she would be wrong. She will hold the title “first lady” and participate in all the duties of the first lady. However, she won’t have nearly as much influence over the president as the unofficial first lady – Oprah.
Oprah – the woman with the talk show where Tom Cruise jumped up and down on her couch – will have more influence over the new American president than his wife.
Without Oprah’s support, Obama would probably never have got into the Oval Office in the first place – hell, it was Oprah that encouraged him to run for the presidency. As all politicians, he probably had dreams of becoming president, but without Oprah’s help, he wouldn’t be there today.
And without Oprah’s continued support, Obama probably would have a hard time in office. Not that he doesn’t already have his hands full – he’s got two wars, both of which the American’s are losing – the war in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq. The economy is dead in the water, unemployment is on the rise, and the image of America around the world isn’t exactly in top shape. George W. Bush has left the country in tatters – which should have been expected, he is just an oil-hungry Texas hick after all.
That’s the thing I don’t understand about American politics. You’d figure the country with the most power in the world would elect the best leaders, the cream of the crop. But they don’t – in the 1990’s they had the womanizing Bill Clinton, before that a bully that dared Saddam Hussein to “read my lips,” and before that a former actor who co-starred with a chimp – a CHIMP of all things – Ronald Regan.
Hopefully Barack Obama will be more than just another Dr. Phil – who isn’t even a real doctor – and actually be able to cure America’s ills. But if the past is any indication of the present, and it usually is, then it’ll be interesting to see what Obama really is.
Guess it makes some sense though, when a country listens to the advice of a talk show host on television, with no experience running a major country. That’s how Dr. Phil became famous – Oprah originally hired him to advise her on how to deal with the beef producers in the States, and this showed us her true power.
It was during a mad cow scare in the States, and Oprah bad mouthed American beef, saying how she is now refusing to eat any American-grown beef. So many people followed Oprah’s stance, that the beef producers – mostly cow farmers – banded together and sued her.
Oprah sought the advice of many people, one of them was Dr. Phil, who she had on her show for a while, before he finally got his own spin-off show.
So, the unofficial first lady is Oprah – a talk show host – because she got the president elected. I wonder if Obama will have his own spin-off show? I can see it now, surrounded by housewives in a studio audience, he’ll run up and down the aisles with a microphone, gathering opinions and questions about all his cool guests.
Maybe if Oprah is lucky, she’ll get to be a guest on his show?
Holly president Jerry Springer.
What’s really interesting is who will be influencing one of the most powerful men in the world. Usually, this post is held by none other than the president’s wife – the first lady. Michelle Obama probably assumes that she will be no different than any other first lady of American presidents in the past.
But there she would be wrong. She will hold the title “first lady” and participate in all the duties of the first lady. However, she won’t have nearly as much influence over the president as the unofficial first lady – Oprah.
Oprah – the woman with the talk show where Tom Cruise jumped up and down on her couch – will have more influence over the new American president than his wife.
Without Oprah’s support, Obama would probably never have got into the Oval Office in the first place – hell, it was Oprah that encouraged him to run for the presidency. As all politicians, he probably had dreams of becoming president, but without Oprah’s help, he wouldn’t be there today.
And without Oprah’s continued support, Obama probably would have a hard time in office. Not that he doesn’t already have his hands full – he’s got two wars, both of which the American’s are losing – the war in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq. The economy is dead in the water, unemployment is on the rise, and the image of America around the world isn’t exactly in top shape. George W. Bush has left the country in tatters – which should have been expected, he is just an oil-hungry Texas hick after all.
That’s the thing I don’t understand about American politics. You’d figure the country with the most power in the world would elect the best leaders, the cream of the crop. But they don’t – in the 1990’s they had the womanizing Bill Clinton, before that a bully that dared Saddam Hussein to “read my lips,” and before that a former actor who co-starred with a chimp – a CHIMP of all things – Ronald Regan.
Hopefully Barack Obama will be more than just another Dr. Phil – who isn’t even a real doctor – and actually be able to cure America’s ills. But if the past is any indication of the present, and it usually is, then it’ll be interesting to see what Obama really is.
Guess it makes some sense though, when a country listens to the advice of a talk show host on television, with no experience running a major country. That’s how Dr. Phil became famous – Oprah originally hired him to advise her on how to deal with the beef producers in the States, and this showed us her true power.
It was during a mad cow scare in the States, and Oprah bad mouthed American beef, saying how she is now refusing to eat any American-grown beef. So many people followed Oprah’s stance, that the beef producers – mostly cow farmers – banded together and sued her.
Oprah sought the advice of many people, one of them was Dr. Phil, who she had on her show for a while, before he finally got his own spin-off show.
So, the unofficial first lady is Oprah – a talk show host – because she got the president elected. I wonder if Obama will have his own spin-off show? I can see it now, surrounded by housewives in a studio audience, he’ll run up and down the aisles with a microphone, gathering opinions and questions about all his cool guests.
Maybe if Oprah is lucky, she’ll get to be a guest on his show?
Holly president Jerry Springer.
Friday, December 26, 2008
Boxing Day Delinquents
In Canada, we celebrate the annual day after Christmas as Boxing Day. On this day – which happens to be today – stores across the country discount merchandise to clear out their inventory for the new stuff in the New Year.
Retailers generally make most of their sales during the Christmas crunch, and anything they don’t sell gets put on discount the day and week after, to bring their year-end sales figures up.
Boxing Day sales may be great deals, but there is one problem – people.
I don’t know what it is about the word “sale” but it seems to attract society’s scum buckets. Whenever I go someplace plastered with “sale” signs, the people shopping are the rudest, meanest, cruellest sadistic slime balls to walk the earth.
Seriously, these people will push their own mother in front of them as a shield, so they can plow through the crowd. They will use their poor babies in strollers as a weapon, charging down aisles full of shoppers, so that they can get to the front. They will do whatever it takes, at all costs, to get the deal.
I love a good deal like anyone else – saving money isn’t a bad thing. But I refuse to go to the malls and stores on Boxing Day. It is just too frustrating and alienating.
All those nasty horrible people, pushing and shoving just to save a couple of dollars here and there. There have been instances where people have been trampled, fist fights have broken out, even riots. And for what? A savings of $10 off on a Tickle Me Elmo?
It wasn’t always this bad, society has degraded over the years. There have always been Boxing Day sales, but the people back several years ago were a lot more, well, politely Canadian.
Back about 10 or maybe even 15 or twenty-years-ago, I remember going through the malls on Boxing Day. Oh they were still crowded places, but there wasn’t any shoving, pushing, and there certainly weren’t any fights – not even an argument back then. If someone accidentally stepped on your toes back then, they did the typical Canadian thing and apologized. Actually, even the person who’s toes got squashed said they were sorry – that’s how polite we Canadians used to be.
Thanks to a severe lapse in immigration laws, our Canadian ways have succumbed to those who just don’t share those good, honest and friendly values.
I can’t blame someone from some other part of the world, where pushing, shoving and even getting into a fight are normal ways to navigate public spaces – in their country. But I do disagree with that behaviour here in my country.
When you go to a friend’s place, you don’t rearrange the furniture to suit your personal styles and tastes. The same goes for when you decide to move to another country, another culture and another way of life.
Problem with being Canadian, for far too long we wrongly believed to be Canadian meant to have no real identifying culture and way of being ourselves.
What it really means to be Canadian, is to be polite, friendly and good natured to those around us, even if we don’t know them.
But because we failed to recognize this as uniquely Canadian, and in large part due to weak immigration laws, we have lost a lot of that peaceful identity, to far more hostile and aggressive cultures.
And an even bigger emerging problem, as many people from many different cultures continue to come here to live and they continue to keep their own way of life, we are becoming a more violent and fragmented society.
There’s an Emergency Medical Services (EMS) ambulance attendant that lives a few doors down from me. He tells me all the time about how he goes to car accident scenes, where, despite the seriousness of the injuries, some people refuse to get into the same ambulance as others, just because they aren’t from the same culture.
On more than several occasions, he’s says these individuals have said they’d rather die, than go into a vehicle with “that” next to them. They all request another ambulance, but the policy is to use whatever resources are available and nearest to the scene, so he has to play international diplomat, and talk these people into getting into the ambulance.
We see this in many other instances too. Our cities have always had pockets of communities, composed of cultural groups. There is Little Italy, China Town, the Greek part of town – all served a great purpose, by allowing new comers to this country to find others that shared the same experiences of coming here from their country.
People used to settle in these cultural pockets, and as they became more accustom to life here, and adopted to Canadian culture, they moved out and shared their culture with the rest of Canada, adding to the great fabric of this country.
Not anymore, now people come to these pockets, and stay there. Often refusing to interact with anyone not linked in any way to their own culture. We have become a country of many countries, with many warring nations, instead of what was once a peaceful co-existence.
Our cultural diversity has always made Canada a great place to live. But part of that cultural diversity – the part that is uniquely Canadian – is the ability to get along peacefully with all other cultures.
Sadly, we have long lost that which is – or now was – Canadian.
Retailers generally make most of their sales during the Christmas crunch, and anything they don’t sell gets put on discount the day and week after, to bring their year-end sales figures up.
Boxing Day sales may be great deals, but there is one problem – people.
I don’t know what it is about the word “sale” but it seems to attract society’s scum buckets. Whenever I go someplace plastered with “sale” signs, the people shopping are the rudest, meanest, cruellest sadistic slime balls to walk the earth.
Seriously, these people will push their own mother in front of them as a shield, so they can plow through the crowd. They will use their poor babies in strollers as a weapon, charging down aisles full of shoppers, so that they can get to the front. They will do whatever it takes, at all costs, to get the deal.
I love a good deal like anyone else – saving money isn’t a bad thing. But I refuse to go to the malls and stores on Boxing Day. It is just too frustrating and alienating.
All those nasty horrible people, pushing and shoving just to save a couple of dollars here and there. There have been instances where people have been trampled, fist fights have broken out, even riots. And for what? A savings of $10 off on a Tickle Me Elmo?
It wasn’t always this bad, society has degraded over the years. There have always been Boxing Day sales, but the people back several years ago were a lot more, well, politely Canadian.
Back about 10 or maybe even 15 or twenty-years-ago, I remember going through the malls on Boxing Day. Oh they were still crowded places, but there wasn’t any shoving, pushing, and there certainly weren’t any fights – not even an argument back then. If someone accidentally stepped on your toes back then, they did the typical Canadian thing and apologized. Actually, even the person who’s toes got squashed said they were sorry – that’s how polite we Canadians used to be.
Thanks to a severe lapse in immigration laws, our Canadian ways have succumbed to those who just don’t share those good, honest and friendly values.
I can’t blame someone from some other part of the world, where pushing, shoving and even getting into a fight are normal ways to navigate public spaces – in their country. But I do disagree with that behaviour here in my country.
When you go to a friend’s place, you don’t rearrange the furniture to suit your personal styles and tastes. The same goes for when you decide to move to another country, another culture and another way of life.
Problem with being Canadian, for far too long we wrongly believed to be Canadian meant to have no real identifying culture and way of being ourselves.
What it really means to be Canadian, is to be polite, friendly and good natured to those around us, even if we don’t know them.
But because we failed to recognize this as uniquely Canadian, and in large part due to weak immigration laws, we have lost a lot of that peaceful identity, to far more hostile and aggressive cultures.
And an even bigger emerging problem, as many people from many different cultures continue to come here to live and they continue to keep their own way of life, we are becoming a more violent and fragmented society.
There’s an Emergency Medical Services (EMS) ambulance attendant that lives a few doors down from me. He tells me all the time about how he goes to car accident scenes, where, despite the seriousness of the injuries, some people refuse to get into the same ambulance as others, just because they aren’t from the same culture.
On more than several occasions, he’s says these individuals have said they’d rather die, than go into a vehicle with “that” next to them. They all request another ambulance, but the policy is to use whatever resources are available and nearest to the scene, so he has to play international diplomat, and talk these people into getting into the ambulance.
We see this in many other instances too. Our cities have always had pockets of communities, composed of cultural groups. There is Little Italy, China Town, the Greek part of town – all served a great purpose, by allowing new comers to this country to find others that shared the same experiences of coming here from their country.
People used to settle in these cultural pockets, and as they became more accustom to life here, and adopted to Canadian culture, they moved out and shared their culture with the rest of Canada, adding to the great fabric of this country.
Not anymore, now people come to these pockets, and stay there. Often refusing to interact with anyone not linked in any way to their own culture. We have become a country of many countries, with many warring nations, instead of what was once a peaceful co-existence.
Our cultural diversity has always made Canada a great place to live. But part of that cultural diversity – the part that is uniquely Canadian – is the ability to get along peacefully with all other cultures.
Sadly, we have long lost that which is – or now was – Canadian.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
To Easy to Be Free
There’s a story circulating around these parts about a woman whose car broke down during a snow storm. This woman, leaves her car, and wanders off, looking for help. The thing making this story “newsworthy” to the local media is that she somehow managed to get trapped in a snow bank, and survive for three days until rescued by a search and rescue dog team.
I’m not an expert on mental issues, the mind or any such thing, but you don’t have to be a brain surgeon to figure this person probably isn’t exactly all there. Three days trapped in a snow bank? Three days?
I thought about this when I read the headline, and figured the person must be a senior citizen, and probably suffers from something or other – but if that were true, then surely she wouldn’t have a license and be allowed on our public roads?
After seeing the story on television, the woman clearly isn’t a senior – she’s probably not far off in her fifties.
Which begs the question, how does someone mentally alert enough to have a driver’s license and drive thousands of pounds worth of plastics, metals and flammable materials along with others doing the same – get stranded in a snow bank – without her car – for three days?
You’d think a person able to drive would be able to avoid a snow bank – especially on foot – or if not, at least be able to get out of one.
Driving is a privilege – or so we are reminded every time we go to renew our licenses. Since when does that privilege extend to those without enough intelligence to be on the roads in the first place?
I suppose it’s just been a long time coming, they don’t generally make you take an IQ test or any test for that matter when you go to renew your license. Usually, if anything, the worst part is standing in line for hours, only to be told to stand in the “little feet” for a quick and usually awful photo.
Perhaps we’d have fewer accidents on our roadways if there were a certain baseline level of intelligence required to drive a vehicle?
Think about it – this woman walked into a snow bank and stayed there for three whole days. I can understand staying put when lost, in the hopes that someone will find you – but staying in a snow bank because you can’t get out?
The woman walked into the thing on her own footpower!
She lacks the intelligence to just turn around and walk out the same way she came? Why then does this same woman have a driver’s license?
That scares me, being someone who is often out and about – think about all the other people lacking a basic level of thought driving on our very public roads. If these people – or even just one – gets confused behind the wheel, tragic results are sure to follow.
The media is focusing on how the husband of this woman claims it is a Christmas miracle that his wife survived. I’m thinking the real miracle is that she hasn’t killed anyone while being dumb behind the wheel.
Or maybe, the real miracle is how someone stupid enough to trap herself in a snow bank for three days got her driver’s license in the first place?
Whatever the miracle is, it raises the issue of brains, or a serious lack of brains, posing a real risk on our roads. Drinking and driving is very wrong, as it’s been long known that alcohol impairs judgement, and affects our motor reflexes enough to cause harm behind the wheel.
But if you lack the intelligence to be driving a vehicle, that too in a sense, is an impairment which can cause harm behind the wheel. Worse still, what if someone dumb decides to drink and drive?
Intelligence is a genetic thing – we don’t all excel in matters requiring much grey matter. Which is all the more reason to test people’s mental abilities prior to issuing them the piece of paper that says they can drive. Anything else, is just asking for trouble.
I’m not an expert on mental issues, the mind or any such thing, but you don’t have to be a brain surgeon to figure this person probably isn’t exactly all there. Three days trapped in a snow bank? Three days?
I thought about this when I read the headline, and figured the person must be a senior citizen, and probably suffers from something or other – but if that were true, then surely she wouldn’t have a license and be allowed on our public roads?
After seeing the story on television, the woman clearly isn’t a senior – she’s probably not far off in her fifties.
Which begs the question, how does someone mentally alert enough to have a driver’s license and drive thousands of pounds worth of plastics, metals and flammable materials along with others doing the same – get stranded in a snow bank – without her car – for three days?
You’d think a person able to drive would be able to avoid a snow bank – especially on foot – or if not, at least be able to get out of one.
Driving is a privilege – or so we are reminded every time we go to renew our licenses. Since when does that privilege extend to those without enough intelligence to be on the roads in the first place?
I suppose it’s just been a long time coming, they don’t generally make you take an IQ test or any test for that matter when you go to renew your license. Usually, if anything, the worst part is standing in line for hours, only to be told to stand in the “little feet” for a quick and usually awful photo.
Perhaps we’d have fewer accidents on our roadways if there were a certain baseline level of intelligence required to drive a vehicle?
Think about it – this woman walked into a snow bank and stayed there for three whole days. I can understand staying put when lost, in the hopes that someone will find you – but staying in a snow bank because you can’t get out?
The woman walked into the thing on her own footpower!
She lacks the intelligence to just turn around and walk out the same way she came? Why then does this same woman have a driver’s license?
That scares me, being someone who is often out and about – think about all the other people lacking a basic level of thought driving on our very public roads. If these people – or even just one – gets confused behind the wheel, tragic results are sure to follow.
The media is focusing on how the husband of this woman claims it is a Christmas miracle that his wife survived. I’m thinking the real miracle is that she hasn’t killed anyone while being dumb behind the wheel.
Or maybe, the real miracle is how someone stupid enough to trap herself in a snow bank for three days got her driver’s license in the first place?
Whatever the miracle is, it raises the issue of brains, or a serious lack of brains, posing a real risk on our roads. Drinking and driving is very wrong, as it’s been long known that alcohol impairs judgement, and affects our motor reflexes enough to cause harm behind the wheel.
But if you lack the intelligence to be driving a vehicle, that too in a sense, is an impairment which can cause harm behind the wheel. Worse still, what if someone dumb decides to drink and drive?
Intelligence is a genetic thing – we don’t all excel in matters requiring much grey matter. Which is all the more reason to test people’s mental abilities prior to issuing them the piece of paper that says they can drive. Anything else, is just asking for trouble.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Watching Weather
For those who regularly follow my blog, you know I am always boasting about my palace in the sky. I live way high up, in one of those lofty high rises in the city.
Aside from never having to worry about a flooded basement, one of the perks to living so high up is the view.
I can see the lake and the city skyline in the south, and way up past the city to the north. Something which is also pretty amazing about the view – watching weather.
Now, I know you’re thinking to yourself how pathetic this guy’s life must be, to actually watch weather unfold. Here’s someone – you think – who really needs to get a life.
Well, you may be right, but if you ever happen upon the chance to watch weather from way up high, you’ll probably be just as awe-struck as me.
I’m so high up, I actually can see the cloud formations, as the clear blue sky mists over into a dark haze. I can see rain and snow storms moving across the city. I can also see pockets of weather – when it may be storming in specific spots scattered all over the city, with lots of blue skies in between.
You learn very quickly, that no matter how big the city is, the raw power of Mother Nature can sprawl over the whole thing in a matter of minutes. I’ve seen the whole city go from bright sunny skies, to pitch-black in under ten-minutes.
What’s really amazing, is watching a developing storm, especially as if it starts in the south over the lake.
Water is to storms what gasoline is to cars – fuel. As the storm crosses the lake, it picks up speed and power. I’ve seen small storm clouds turn into frightful monsters, which have knocked over trees, caused cars to spin out of control, and blackout much of the city by downing power lines.
The past few days, I’ve been watching some pretty wicked snow storm weather. Snow storms are interesting things to watch develop, because they always start off with a very thick and low lying bed of layered clouds. From the ground looking up, you just see grey clouds. From my perch above the world, I see the layers of cloud, usually a dark layer at the bottom, several varying light and dark layers in the middle, and a puffy purple-ish-white top. The purple is the reflection of the sun on the snow forming in the cloud. This is also why it tends to warm up a degree or two just before a snow storm, although the sun’s visible light rays can’t penetrate through the layer of snow forming, the ultraviolet rays which contain heat do get through, causing the air to heat beneath the clouds.
When these layers streak together across the sky, the snow starts to fall. The streaking effect isn’t caused by the cloud’s movement across the city – it already is completely over the city. The streaking effect is caused by the weight of the water droplets freezing – as they freeze, and become snow, the cloud can’t hold them anymore, and they fall to the ground.
Snow storms are particularly interesting to watch, because it takes so much time for the clouds to fill with snow, that the storm clouds usually cover the entire city before it actually starts to fall to the ground.
After a snow storm, the sky is almost completely barren of clouds, because the low pressure system has moved off, and a high pressure system is usually moving in. But now that the ground is completely covered in a layer of insulating snow, all is quiet outside.
Snow acts like a sound barrier, absorbing much of the noise commonly heard outside. So everything from cars, people and their pets, to birds and even the wind all are muffled.
That’s the best part about living high up, experiencing the different effects nature has on the environment above and beneath.
Aside from never having to worry about a flooded basement, one of the perks to living so high up is the view.
I can see the lake and the city skyline in the south, and way up past the city to the north. Something which is also pretty amazing about the view – watching weather.
Now, I know you’re thinking to yourself how pathetic this guy’s life must be, to actually watch weather unfold. Here’s someone – you think – who really needs to get a life.
Well, you may be right, but if you ever happen upon the chance to watch weather from way up high, you’ll probably be just as awe-struck as me.
I’m so high up, I actually can see the cloud formations, as the clear blue sky mists over into a dark haze. I can see rain and snow storms moving across the city. I can also see pockets of weather – when it may be storming in specific spots scattered all over the city, with lots of blue skies in between.
You learn very quickly, that no matter how big the city is, the raw power of Mother Nature can sprawl over the whole thing in a matter of minutes. I’ve seen the whole city go from bright sunny skies, to pitch-black in under ten-minutes.
What’s really amazing, is watching a developing storm, especially as if it starts in the south over the lake.
Water is to storms what gasoline is to cars – fuel. As the storm crosses the lake, it picks up speed and power. I’ve seen small storm clouds turn into frightful monsters, which have knocked over trees, caused cars to spin out of control, and blackout much of the city by downing power lines.
The past few days, I’ve been watching some pretty wicked snow storm weather. Snow storms are interesting things to watch develop, because they always start off with a very thick and low lying bed of layered clouds. From the ground looking up, you just see grey clouds. From my perch above the world, I see the layers of cloud, usually a dark layer at the bottom, several varying light and dark layers in the middle, and a puffy purple-ish-white top. The purple is the reflection of the sun on the snow forming in the cloud. This is also why it tends to warm up a degree or two just before a snow storm, although the sun’s visible light rays can’t penetrate through the layer of snow forming, the ultraviolet rays which contain heat do get through, causing the air to heat beneath the clouds.
When these layers streak together across the sky, the snow starts to fall. The streaking effect isn’t caused by the cloud’s movement across the city – it already is completely over the city. The streaking effect is caused by the weight of the water droplets freezing – as they freeze, and become snow, the cloud can’t hold them anymore, and they fall to the ground.
Snow storms are particularly interesting to watch, because it takes so much time for the clouds to fill with snow, that the storm clouds usually cover the entire city before it actually starts to fall to the ground.
After a snow storm, the sky is almost completely barren of clouds, because the low pressure system has moved off, and a high pressure system is usually moving in. But now that the ground is completely covered in a layer of insulating snow, all is quiet outside.
Snow acts like a sound barrier, absorbing much of the noise commonly heard outside. So everything from cars, people and their pets, to birds and even the wind all are muffled.
That’s the best part about living high up, experiencing the different effects nature has on the environment above and beneath.
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