The Case of the Never Happy Ticket Wicket

As technology changes, so to do the ways we do some of the simplest things.

Take money for example – I remember a time not all that long ago, when in order to get your money out of the bank, you had to line up at the bank teller. Automated Bank Machines (ATMs) didn’t exist back then. And to make matters worse, banks were only open weekdays, during normal business hours, so everyone went during their lunch hour, which meant the line up to get your hard earned cash was all the longer.

Bank machines really have revolutionized our commerce-driven society. Gone are the long line ups, the tedious withdrawal slips, and worrying about getting to the bank before it closes.

You don’t even have to go to a bank to get your cash – ATMs are everywhere these days – from grocery stores, shopping malls, even bars and restaurants.

But when ATMs fail, and there isn’t anyone around at the bank to help out, you could be in a real pickle. If the ATM eats your card, runs out of cash and can’t provide you with what you need, or for whatever reason, just won’t do what you ask of it, you’ll need to find some other way of paying for whatever you were going to spend your money on.

I recently had a similar experience with an automated ticket machine. I went up to the machine, which proudly boasts that it takes Interac debit, all major credit cards, even cash and coins (which it claims to provide change).

It had a cool touch-screen, which I effortlessly went through to select the tickets I wanted, the quantity and how I’d like to pay. I selected credit card – and everything was working until it got to the next screen where it silently screamed: “We’re sorry, credit card transactions are presently unavailable.”

It gave me debit card and cash as the remaining two options to use for payment. So I touched the screen for debit card, where the machine again flashed: “We’re sorry, debit card transactions are presently unavailable.”

Batting oh-for-two, and I hadn’t even taken anything out of my wallet, I chose the one remaining payment option, cold, hard, cash. Good thing I happened to have enough cash on me at the time, or I’d have to go to the ATM!

The machine started humming, and the bill and dollar slots lit up, indicating it wanted to be fed.

So, I took a $20 bill and slid it into the bill slot. The automated ticket machine quickly gobbled up the money, hummed for a moment, then immediately spit out the same bill.

Maybe I inserted it wrong? So I turned it the other way, fed it into the machine, and after a moment, it too came back out.

Figured I’d just use another bill. Again it rejected it. There are only so many ways you can slide money into these things, and I turned the bills upside down and downside up, forwards, backwards – thought about crumpling it up and forcing it down the machine’s electronic throat – decided against it.

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I remained calm and walked over to a newsstand kiosk nearby. I told the clerk on the other side of the kiosk what had happened, and asked her if she new anything about the machine.

She laughed, and told me people come up to her all the time because it doesn’t take their money. She said it works with coins, and offered to exchange my bills for change.

I gladly accepted her offer – though I thought to myself, how anyone uses the automated ticket machine, because carrying over $20 of coins seems ridiculous – not to mention a nuisance as they weigh a tonne.

I thanked the woman behind the kiosk, and went back to the machine.

I had to start from scratch, re-touching my complete ticket order – but this time I selected the cash option to pay. When it started humming waiting for money, I began feeding the coins into the machine.

This time it gladly swallowed the coins, though some of the coins had to be re-inserted. I guess if you feed them in too fast, it gets indigestion. Technology can be so finicky sometimes.

Eventually, I got my tickets, but despite the “wow” factor of using an automated, touch-screen ticket machine, it would have been far simpler and quicker for me to have just gone up to a living, breathing, human being selling the same tickets, and purchase them from him or her.

Automation, one day, may be a wonderful thing. But it still has a long way to go before it really is the better way to do things.

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It’s All About the Free Munchies

I’ve admitted on this blog many times over that I’m a geek and proud of it. Some are born with a silver spoon in their mouth – must make speaking all the harder – I was born with a microchip.

One of the many things I do to keep current on some of the techy toys I use every day is attend professional development events.

Even way back when I was a newshound, I’d go to all the professional development events hosted by the professional associations.

Image by TheBeej via Flickr

The latest trend is to go to events not associated with any one specific profession or trade, but rather some sort of product or service.

Case in point, I just registered for a local Adobe InDesign User Group meeting, which takes place later this month. InDesign is a high-end desktop publishing application, used to layout everything from newspapers and magazines, to complete books, encyclopedias and more.

Can’t get more geeky than getting together with a bunch of like minded geeks, sitting in a lecture hall, and discussing shortcuts to save you time in some software application.

But the free coffee, fruit platters, and other assorted munchies they have is a big draw. Actually, the free food doesn’t draw people in, but the networking opportunities do.

During the event, and especially during the breaks when everyone can mix and mingle, you can meet all sorts of interesting characters, in fields related to the one you happen to be in.

I certainly get hounded by the younger members of the crowd, always eager to show me their latest CV, asking if I’m hiring or know someone who is.

Maybe I should stop shinning my shoes, or dress more like a kid out of college, because for some oddball reason, people often assume I’m the one to kiss up to, to get a job.

The fools.

Aside from the youngin’s drooling over the potential employment op

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portunities that don’t really exist, I find it invigorating talking with others using the software in different fields.

After spending some time yaking with them, you quickly realize that we all encounter the same sorts of issues, but in different ways.

An advertising agency designer has to figure out how to resolve the color balances between the different hues represented on her monitor, and that of how the actual printed document will look on glossy posterboard.

A person trying to self-publish her book discovers that some of the templates for books don’t conform to standard publishing dimensions, and if she were to use these templates, she’d have to re-design her whole book should it get to a printing house.

I sit through the user group, enjoy the discussion, but not being a Mac-head (I use PCs) often scratch my head and wonder what key combination to use, whenever they demonstrate a cool feature using the “Apple” key – which my PC doesn’t have. And no, it isn’t always replaced by the “Windows” key – which you’d think makes logical sense.

Free munchies are nice, but the real draw for me, and the other ultra cool geeks in the room, is the sharing of knowledge.

And no webcams, chat rooms, or social networking sites were used either – which says something for the value of real-time, face-to-face communications.

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Film Fest Takes Over Toronto

Every year at this time, Canada’s largest city goes star-crazy.

The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is in full swing, and big-name and no-name celebrities are wandering city streets, to promote their latest movies. George Clooney, Angelina Jollie and her guy pal Brad Pitt have all been at TIFF.

TIFF is a great opportunity to see movies normally not shown in th

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eatres – though many make their debut at film fests such as TIFF, or Cannes.

TIFF has an amazing reputation, for showcasing some of the best films from around the world. Last year’s “Slum Dog Millionaire” premiered at TIFF, and later went on to win the Best Picture Oscar.

But the real news makers from TIFF are all those celebrity sightings.

People stand outside five-star hotels downtown, hoping to catch a glimpse of some Hollywood heart throb. Hundreds of fans crowd red carpet strewn TIFF hotspots, waiting for the limos to arrive, the door to open up, and to see their movie star step out and onto the red carpet. What usually happens, the body guards hop out first, rushing the celebrities through the crowd and into the very secluded VIP sections, long before anyone can see ‘em.

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Even the local media gets involved, most Toronto-area television stations are pumping messages about how YOU – yes YOU – can be a reporter, by snapping images or video of celebrities, and uploading these to their websites.

If I was a celebrity attending TIFF, I’d get a mask, dark glasses, and a wig to hide from the hordes of fanatics (where the word “fan” originally comes from) pushing and shoving their way to get a picture or video for the evening news.

TIFF used to be about the movies. Interesting, independent films, on topics far flung from the typical chic-flicks, horrors, or comedies which the big movie companies just wouldn’t produce. They didn’t have enough sex and violence to make them profitable.

These days, TIFF is about chasing George Clooney through a crowded shopping mall, to catch him in an uncomfortable and awkward situation which may get the person shooting the video more attention than the star.

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Clooney is pretty good at handling those situations. There was a well publicized incident, where a man goes up to a microphone in an audience, to ask questions of the star during a media event. The man began to take off all his clothes, leaving just his ball cap and boxers on, announcing to the world that he was in love with George Clooney, and asking his idol what he thought about him.

Clooney remained calm, laughed it off, and let the security guards get the man out of the room without anything really going amuck.

But the local media doesn’t help, encouraging people to go out and shoot a star. Wouldn’t surprise me if that in fact happens one day, and then TIFF will be known for something other than the celebrities, but for the crazy gun wielding Toronto fans.

Grab your bullet-proof vest George – its “magic” time.

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Reflections on the War on Terror

Where were you yesterday morning, eight-years ago?

I remember exactly where I was. I was working for a medium-sized financial software company, and I had been busily typing away on a tight deadline. I had got in early that morning, so around 9am when my co-workers started to arrive, I had already been in the office for a few hours.

“Did you see what happened,” one of my co-workers said as she came in.

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I had no idea what she was talking about, and when she told me a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center in New York, I didn’t believe her.

Then more colleagues came in, saying another plane had crashed into the other twin tower.

We didn’t have a TV at the office, but we all had Internet access, so we all were watching the horrific events of September 11, 2001 unfold on the various news websites. I was on CNN.com – which kept updating their front page with the latest headlines – this was long before live video-streaming was popular online. In fact, there were so many “hits” on the CNN.com site, that it eventually crashed.

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When news spread of the collapse of the first tower, we were all in shock. The office was located above a shopping mall, and there was a RadioShack downstairs.

We hustled downstairs, and gathered around people from other offices and shoppers in the mall at the RadioShack, all trying to see the live coverage on the TVs for sale.

I don’t think anyone got much work done that day – we were all so wrapped up in the events which eventually launched the American “War on Terror,” dramatically increased the security at all airports and border crossings, and changed the world in many other ways.

The attacks on the World Trade Centers eight-years ago really did change the world. The most powerful nation on the planet had taken a major hit, and since then, as been involved in a war which sees no end, has cost thousands of lives, and trillions of dollars.

It’s even involved a beheading or two – probably more – but these gruesome acts pale into comparison to the tragic oil-greedy American invasion of Iraq.

Despite former American President George W. Bush’s claims, and later Former Secretary of State Colin Powel’s presentation to the United Nations (UN) at the time, the American’s never were able to prove Iraq’s perceived threat. At the time, they claimed Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, and were trying to sway the UN security council to get on-board the attack the Americans were about to engage in.

“You are either with us, or you are with the terrorists,” threatened then Am

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erican President George W. Bush – the ultimate bully in the so-called “War on Terror.”

President Bush created a war machine which immediately sought justice for the attacks of the Pentagon and the World Trade Center eight-years ago. Within hours after the attacks, they had already started spreading rumors that it was Al Qaeda, Bin Laden, Iraq, and Saddam Hussein.

The Americans began bombing Afghanistan to get Bin Laden – destroying the infrastructure, displacing millions of innocent civilians, killing thousands – but never ever catching Bin Laden. For all we know, Bin Laden is living the good life in the States, protected by the very people supposedly out to get him – with or maybe even without their knowing it.

Despite the UN’s uneasiness in what was obviously an American-led war to secure more oil in the Middle East, Afghanistan became a humanitarian cause. Now the UN gets involved, not to defend American interests, but to police a wild country, where even the local population has been pitted against each other, just to survive.

Canada, being a strong supporter of the UN since its inception has sent thousands of Canadian soldiers to

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Afghanistan, resulting in far too many Canadian deaths for a war which should never have occurred in the first place.

Canadian soldiers will probably continue to die in the Middle East – most likely in Iraq, when the UN will eventually tackle the latest American Viet Nam.

Viet Nam was a war to stop the spread of Communism, started by the ever-trigger-happy Americans. The war was so poorly planned, it turned into a blood bath for both sides, with no real winner, but many losers.

Iraq is just like Viet Nam – it has been poorly planned, organized, and should never have happened. It has resulted in continuous deaths of Americans, and locals, and there is no clear winner – but again – many losers.

I remember where I was on September 11, 2001 – and worse – I see how our planet has been scorched by it, in ways we will never be able to repair.

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Health Reform American Style

Yesterday, American President Barak Obama spoke to Congress, trying to sway them towards his vision of universal and accessible healthcare.

There’s no question about it, American’s want a better healthcare system – but the debate how to improve the system is hotly contested on all fronts.

Many worry that given government’s long, slow, expensive miss-handling of many other programs, the federal government should be the last organization running the healthcare system. They claim taxes will go up, and the healthcare system won’t be any better off than it was prior to the reforms.

This particular viewpoint – held by some politicians and special interest g

Image by Speaker Pelosi via Flickr

roups – claim insurance companies should be given the ability to make changes, so that they can cover more people.

WAIT A SEC . . .

Insurance companies – HMOs? Isn’t the primary reason President Obama launched his universal medicare plans to clean up the mess caused by the big and all powerful insurance industry?

Insurance companies are in the business of staying in business, so they have been known to research and devise plans and programs which intentionally turn down medical claims – even if it means costing lives.

You don’t have to take my word on it – such cases have been documented on American investigative news shows including 60 Minutes and 20-20, just to name a few.

The truth of the matter, granting insurance companies greater powers won’t increase medical coverage to all, it will most likely limit it further, as the big insurers find even more ways to say “no” to the increased medical claims.

Governments may not always run perfectly – correction, they never run perfectly. No one is perfect, and ipso facto, nothing we human beings touch will ever be perfect.

But, governments, unlike big business, are not out to make a profit. If that were the case, the American War on Terror would probably have been sponsored by a slew of American companies.

Could you imagine the advertising?

This air strike is brought to by Johnson & Johnson, a family company.

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Kidding aside, governments do a fine job running healthcare in other countries.
Here in Canada, we’ve had universal, government-run healthcare for as long as I can remember. It isn’t perfect, but it works.

Other governments around the world manage the healthcare systems for their citizens, ensuring a better quality of life, as medical expenses don’t keep people from doing what is necessary to stay healthy.

Insurance companies are not evil entities, but they are the wrong choice to manage a healthcare system. That’s a direct conflict of interest – as the whole basis for insurance is the masses pay into it, while few actually need it.

In order for healthcare to be truly universal, the organization running it can’t have a vested interest in denying coverage to those who need it. That’s just going to create an even bigger mess in the American healthcare system.

Governments need not be perfect, but they do need to run a national healthcare system, if that healthcare system is to really be by the people, and for the people.

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Film Cuts, Burn’ Hot Bulbs and Other Assorted Images From My Childhood

Recently I was thinking way back to days long ago, and how very different technology has made the world.

I remember – and this shows my completely geeky side – when I was a kid, getting all excited about signing out “technology” from the school library for the weekend.

I put “technology” in quotation marks, because that is hardly what you’d call it today.

Back when I was a kid, we were allowed to sign out the microfiche project

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ors and film for the weekend for research. I’d eagerly sign up early in the week, to guarantee a projector – not that there was that great a demand for the things. Then after my last class on Friday, I’d rush to the library, to pick up the projector and film.

When I got home, I’d run up the stairs to my room, plop down my stuff, and start getting ready for a night of geeky slide shows.

This involved grabbing some big, heavy hard cover textbooks, and precisely putting them in the centre of my bed, to support the projector. Then I’d put the projector on makeshift stage.

The projector was a small dirty-grey thing, probably less than a foot high and wide, but it was so heavy, even on the stack of books it indented the ma

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ttress.

I’d aim the projector at a blank wall, my door, the ceiling, anywhere I wanted the show to be. Then I’d plug it in, close my door, hit the lights and load up the microfiche.

For the next hour or so, I’d be my own projectionist, immersed in an imaginary world of flashing images of nature, history, and abstract art.

The light bulbs on these projectors were so intensely hot, my room would turn into an instant sauna, and I’d occasionally have to open the door to let so

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me fresh air in.

These days, microfiche and slide film are dinosaurs of the technological past. Kids today probably have never heard of these things – or if they have, they probably have never seen any of these pieces of “technology,” unless they study librarian sciences in university.

There is something so tactile about the old technologies. More often than not, you’d have a pair of scissors handy, to splice a piece of microfiche or film, so that you could “smooth” out the ragged edge of the slide film, to feed it into the projector.

Many times I’d cut myself on the razor-sharp film edges – a kind of battle scar of the hobby.

They also let us sign out 16mm reel-to-reel movie projectors and accompanying films. These were slightly bigger, much heavier, and had far more complex paths to feed the film through.

I remember how proud with myself I was the first time I figured out how to feed the 16mm film through the projector. It wasn’t an easy task, there were several tight loops, rotating metallic wheels, and tension mechanisms which all had to be exactly right, else the film could either pull too tight and break, or sag too loose and unravel into one big mess on the floor.

Eventually, these bulky film projectors were replaced with videota

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pes (first BETAMAX, and then the more popular VHS), and then laserdisc, DVD, and now Blueray. Now, there are often no physical media storage devices, thanks to digital file formats which we play on our computers and portable media devices.

Anyone remember DAT tapes? They lasted all of six-months – if that. Digital Audio Tapes (DAT) were about the size of micro cassettes (another outdated “technology”) and recorded digital-quality audio onto analogue-like tapes. Radio stations at the time invested millions on this now defunct recording format, thinking it would be the next big thing. But within weeks of DAT being launched, the Compact Disc (CD) was released, and that spelled the end of DAT.

Technology was so very different back then – and it really did make a difference in our lives.

Imagine a world where you never have to rush home, because you forgot to set your VCR, or getting home only to discover your VHS tape ran out half-way through your favorite show?

I still remember, whenever I went to a friends place when I was a kid, most VCRs were always blinking 12:00 because most were either too lazy, or just couldn’t figure out how to, program the correct time on those boxes.

With digital cable, Personal Video Recorders (PVRs) (Tivoli in the States), and the always on world of instant downloadable videos thanks to Internet sites like YouTube, we certainly live in a vastly different world.

I’ve had a PVR for almost a year now, and I’m still amazed at being able to pause and rewind live TV on the thing. When I was a kid, being able to “slow-mo” one frame at a time was amazing. I remember going “slow-mo” through so much stuff, just to see if you could spot anything subliminally hidden in between the video. (Of course there never was anything to see.)

Sometimes, looking back, I miss the days of film splicing, the burning heat – and even the smell of the film and the electronics – and even the odd cut caused by a jagged razor-sharp piece of microfiche.

Back then, the images weren’t as crisp or clear as today’s digital technology permits, but the whole experience was just that – an experience today’s kids will never have.

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Signs of the Times – McWomen

One of the surest signs the economy is actually doing better – as the Bank of Canada and many economists claim – is an increase in jobs. The more people working, the better the economy – right?

Not necessarily – just because there are more jobs, doesn’t mean the economy is back to its former glory. Long gone are the high paying jobs which pay the bills, replaced with many so-called “McJobs” which don’t.

Case in point, recently Canada’s bean counter – Statistics Canada – released figures showing that for the first time ever, there are more women than

Image by DerrickT via Flickr

men in Canada’s workforce.

The survey found that about 7.1 million women were earning wages in the first half of 2009, compared to only 6.9 million men for the same time period.

Women outnumbered men in both the under and over 25-years-old demographics – another first.

Labour groups and women’s organizations are the first to point out that these numbers don’t reflect changes in attitudes towards women in the workforce; rather, they are due to layoffs in male-dominated industries such as manufacturing, automotive and construction sectors.

Women on the other hand are more likely to take up many of the part-time McJobs in retail, as office temps (you don’t hear many men call themselves “a Kelly Girl”), and other low-wage earning jobs.

Just last month, Canada’s national banking regulator, The Bank of Canada boldly declared the recession over. Far be it from over, when the jobs that are out there are slim pickings for earning a decent wage to support oneself.

How can one put food in one’s tummy, clothes on ones back, and a roof overhead working for minimum wage?

Many families are still reeling from the economic depression we’re still in – despite the declarations of it being over by the Bank of Canada.

Canada’s national bank should be called on the carpet for its undignified premature announcement. Although they are trying to end the fear to spend, which would encourage growth, to stimulate the economy, they are actually deepening the wounds created by this bleeding fiscal mess.

By prematurely announcing the end of the recession in Canada, they have demonstrated to those who are still living through it that the government has absolutely no idea what is going on, or how to really resolve it.

They also alienate those who are struggling, by showing a complete lack of concern for those in need, and in turn push those who are desperate for government assistance away.

It is time the government of Canada stopped pumping out propaganda, and actually came out with a strategy to stimulate the economy, and create real, long-term, sustainable jobs, that aren’t simply McJobs, but real ones, with real futures for both men and women.

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How Canadian Politics Is Done – Temper tantrums and Name Calling

Federal Canadian Liberal Party Leader Michael Ignatieff is doing what he and the other opposition parties have been doing ever since the minority Conservative Party, led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, took office – throw a temper tantrum.

Ingatieff isn’t kicking and screaming on all fours on the floor – but the rest of his – and that of the other opposition parties – is just like that of a spoiled child in need of a smack to the head.

Ignatieff claims he and his party are at odds with the Conservative led government, so much so, that Parliament has become unworkable, and he will be forcing Canadians back to the election polls to deal with the situation.

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What situation?

Ignatieff and the other political leaders can’t play nice-nice in the political sandbox, so they ask us to cleanup their mess? How grownup is that?

Ignatieff is playing old cards – the economy, unemployment and government spending. He says the current government hasn’t handled the economic slump well: "I think the economy is still struggling," he said. "A million and a half Canadians are looking for work, bankruptcies are up 50 per cent and we're staggering along with a $50 billion deficit."

He said this last week, just as figures were released saying the Canadian economy created more than 27,000 new jobs, which helped boost the Canadian dollar 1.38 cents to 92.02 cents US.

But Ignatieff questions who can lead Canada into the new economy, without many of the jobs lost and gone for good.

The election he wants to call would be about a government that will lead the country into full economic recovery – but he didn’t clarify exactly what he means by that, or how long or how much it will cost Canadian taxpayers to put his plans into action.

Ignatieff’s issues are personal not political. He’s been on this war path before – it seems all the opposition leaders are. The second they are odds with each other, instead of engaging in the debate and discussion which they are supposed to, as part of the political process, they throw their hands up in the air, call the other a bad name, claim the other is being unreasonable, and walk-off in disgust.

Canadians should be the ones walking away in disgust – that sort of childish behavior shouldn’t be tolerated by those footing the bill. Why should our taxes fund the salaries of spoiled children?

Yes, we need an election in this country, to clean out the rift-raft that have taken up residence in our political houses. But before that election is called, we need new names on the ballots. Those currently vying for office shouldn’t be allowed to run again – else we’ll just end up with the exact same mess we have now.

We need adults willing, ready and able to do the job we ask of them. And it isn’t as if we’re asking for anything out of the ordinary for our political leaders. All we ask is that they take on the role of governing our country with the seriousness and dedication it deserves.

Canada once was one of the greatest countries in the world to live. It still can be, if – and only if – we boot the children out of Parliament Hill, and bring in real leaders.

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Where Did Summer Go?

This coming weekend is the official last long weekend of summer – the Labor Day Long Weekend. Originally conceived to honor the labor movement, it always signals the end of summer and the start to new beginnings.

Kids go back to school, many companies that provide summer hours for their employees go back to the regular daily grind, the days grow shorter, the temperatures drop and if you are lucky, you can often catch Jerry Lewis on his Muscular Dystrophy telethon.

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Summer doesn’t officially end until a couple of weeks from now, but there always has been something about the Labor Day Long Weekend which really hits home.
Maybe it goes back to when I was a kid, and I knew after this long weekend, I’d have to stop sleeping in, and make sure I was ready in the morning for school.

Maybe it’s because the football season is about to begin, that always was a sure sign summer was over and fall was upon us.

Or maybe it’s just because people write blogs, newspaper stories, and broadcast television news stories about the final long weekend of the summer.

Whatever causes the Labor Day Long Weekend to be the end of summer, it often brings about reflection – memories of those horrid “what did I do on my summer vacation” assignments handed out by teachers during the first week of school.

This past summer wasn’t a washout like last years here in most of Canada. Last summer it rained most of the summer, so there really wasn’t much to enjoy.

Though we still didn’t have a real Canadian summer – temperatures were well below normal for most of it – and still are even as I write this now. We

Image by Garaigoikoa via Flickr

only saw a handful of days with a humidex, which in many ways is good. Who likes to boil like a lobster anyway?

Still, without those hot and hazy days of summer, ice cream trucks just weren’t the same. Going to outdoor events just wasn’t the same. Even the usual “it’s too hot” complaints didn’t seem legit, because we only had a couple of weeks of really hot, sticky summer-like weather.

Without the heat of summer, this wasn’t really a great summer. Sure, we get those nice long weekends, and people are generally in better moods because of all the sunshine, but without the summer sizzle, there isn’t any – well – sizzle.

Maybe next year, we’ll actually have a summer to remember?

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Relax - It’s Only an F2

Last week six tornadoes hit parts of Ontario, Canada where few tornadoes have gone before. Two twisters hit two suburbs north-west of Toronto, they have been confirmed by the nation’s weather watchers - Environment Canada - as F2 on the Fujita Scale which classifies Tornadic activity by wind speed.

The Fujita Scale, or “F-Scale” named after it’s inventor, Ted Fujita who introduced the method to measure the violence of wind storms in 1971, has six le

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vels, the least severe of F0 with wind speeds from 64KM/Hour to 116KM/Hour (approximately 40 to 72 miles/hour) to storms where nature’s fury is at it’s worst, an F5 tornado, which has wind speeds from 419KM/Hour to 512KM/Hour (approximately 261 to 318 miles/hour).

For comparison, the weakest tornado at F0 leave light damage to the surrounding area, such as branches broken off trees; shallow-rooted trees pushed over; sign boards damaged and so on. While an F5 tornado is nature’s ultimate killing machine, resulting in total damage to anything in it’s path, including houses lifted off foundations and carried great distances, large tractor-trailers and other cars and trucks picked up like toys and flung through the air creating large and extremely dangerous missiles, debris from houses, cars, trees - anything and everything sucked up by the funnel cloud - shredded into a deadly combination of flying woods, metals, glass, and bodies.

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The biggest tornados to hit of the six in Canada’s largest province were F2 - which comes clocking in at about 181KM/Hour to 253KM/Hour (about 110 to 250 miles/hour). Classified as causing considerable damage, roofs are ripped off frame houses, large trees snapped or uprooted; light-objects become flying missiles crashing into buildings, cars and people.

The City of Vaughan, just north of Toronto where these two medium-sized twisters struck declared a state of emergency. The province’s premier and Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper both made statements of hope, and promises of help from their respective governments. The media sent their anchors to cover the devastation live, and everyone made a big stink about it.

Though we got off lucky. Not that I have no empathy for those whose homes were smashed, cars crushed, people that were hurt, and the family of the one who lost an 11-year-old son.

But F2 tornadoes are pretty tame compared to some of the massive twisters which have hit far poorer communities in the States. The area the tornadoes did their most damage in Vau

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ghan is a pretty affluent one, and although people’s lives were literally uprooted, they have the political and financial means to get back on their feet.

Most people, aren’t so lucky. In the so-called Tornado Alley of America, (from northern Texas, northward through western Oklahoma and Kansas, through eastern Colorado, up through Nebraska, and into southeastern South Dakota, southern Minnesota and western Iowa) much more powerful twisters have ripped through areas of extreme poverty, where those with next to nothing, lose everything.

There have been numerous F5 killer twisters in Tornado Alley - from the first such classified one on May 11, 1953 in Waco, Texas, with 114 lives lost, to March 3, 1966, in Jackson, Mississippi with 57 confirmed deaths, to the more recent F5 tornado on May 3, 1999, at Bridge Creek, in Moore, Oklahoma, with 36 deaths.

The only F5 tornado confirmed in Canada was on June 22, 2007, in Elie, Manitoba, and no lives were lost. Information is scarce from the 1920’s, so the tornado which hid Frobisher, Saskatchewan on July 22, 1920 has never been officially declared an F5, but many believe it to be one. Four people lost their lives in Frobisher’s twister.

Canada’s second deadliest tornado occurred on July 31, 1987 in Edmonton, Alberta, with 27 fatalities, though this tornado was officially classified as a strong F4.

The majority of tornadoes landing in Canada are F1, with the odd F2 and F3. Which is a far cry from the more severe average of F3 and F4 tornadoes to hit the American mid-west’s Tornado Alley.

Tornadoes are dangerous, violent storms, but we Canadians are lucky - we don’t have it as bad as some other places ‘round the globe.

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Why Amber Alerts Don’t Work in Our Information Society

You’d have to be living under a large rock not to know the age we live in is the information age.

We’re all “wired” and completely connected everywhere, to everyone, all the time. From cell phones, smart phones, BlackBerrys and other mobile devices ringing at all hours of the day, to always on email, online chat sites, remote access to work and home networks, there is no escaping the world in which we live.

Television and radio broadcast useful - and more often these days useless - information all day and all night as well. And if you miss your favor

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ite broadcast, often you can catch it onDemand, or via a time shifting channel on digital cable or satellite television. Don’t have those, you may not be out of luck, with Podcasting becoming popular, you can download many shows directly to your mobile device.

With all these levels of technology, it is hard to believe that sometimes, no matter what the information, or how noble the intent of the messenger spreading that information, communications breakdown.

Take a recent case, where police in Canada’s largest province failed to issue an Amber Alert for a missing child. An Amber Alert is the new electronic buzz-term to indicate a missing or lost person, usually a child. Police issue these alerts to the media, and instantly all communications channels screech to a halt, screaming a description of who is missing, where they last were seen, who with, and contact information, in the hopes that someone seeing this will help law enforcement find the missing soul.

In big cities, major highway signs will flash the Amber Alert message, as do most major media outlets on their television, radio and Internet feeds. Print media will run the story in the next edition.

And the Internet - ah yes, the ultimate form of instant communication - becomes the equivalent of a broken telephone.

When I was a kid, I remember being amazed when I was given two Styrofoam cups tied together with string, and hearing the other person’s voice in my coffee cup.

The Internet, for all its awe and power in bringing us closer together is the high tech equivalent of those Styrofoam cups and string.

Every time an Amber Alert occurs, people everywhere take it upon themselves to share this information with their online social networks. People, completely unattached to the actual event, repeat the Amber Alert message to their social networks.

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In theory, the more people who receive the message, the better the chances of a missing person being found.

But as with everything online, the more removed someone is from the actual events as they unfold, the more garbled the message, until very little of the original message exists.

It is all too easy to just copy and paste whatever someone sends you online, and re-send it to all your friends. But have you ever stopped to think whether the message you received was right, wrong, or even out of date?

I’m on a handful of online social networks, and I’ve seen the same Amber Alert repeated several times - and each time the wording of the message was different. In one instance, I received an online message about an Amber Alert, just as I heard on the radio that local law enforcement had cancelled the very same Amber Alert.

Maybe it is my old school journalistic thinking, a remnant left over from when I was a journalist many eons ago, but whenever someone sends me any sort of news bulletin, I always stop to think about the source of that information. Who the hell is this person, why are they sending me this, and how reliab

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le a source for this particular information is the sender?

Needless to say, when I receive an online instant message from someone named “HotBlonde75432” I’m not going to take much notice of a news bulletin from this person, even if it really is an Amber Alert. This person may have directly cut and pasted the information right from a legitimate news outlet’s website, or typed exactly what they read, heard or saw in their local newspaper, radio station, or television broadcast.

But so long as the anything, anyone, anywhere, anytime Internet is just that - I will usually chuckle at the wanna-be journalist’s attempt of spreading the news, mumble something under my breath about “wondering what ever happened to the news business, don’t these people have better things to do with their lives,” and move on.

So much for spreading the message.

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