New Scientific Discovery May Lead to Easier Way to Make People

The name Karim Nayernia may not mean anything to you today, but in a few years, you may know him as the father of the new test tube baby.

Nayernia is the British professor that led a team of stem cell researchers which were able to take embryonic stem cells and turn them into sperm-like cells. The research project, which is still in the early stages of development, involved scientists from England’s Newcastle University and the North East England Stem Cell Institute.

Although experts, including Nayernia and his research team agree the cells created are not normal sperm cells as produced by the human male -- that’s why they refer to them as “sperm-like” cells -- however these cells do contain

Image by drsuparna via Flickr

all the essential qualities for creating life. They even have the moving tails which the cells use for insemination. Abnormalities noticed in the sperm-like cells include the shape and movement of the cells, but further research and testing is underway to investigate this.

Nayernia said in a statement that the technique they used to convert the stem cells into sperm-like cells could someday help treat infertile couples that want to start a family.

How’d they do it?

Stem cells are immature cells, which scientists have discovered, can be altered to develop into specific cell types. Think of stem cells as computers without any software, the scientists then install the specific software to use the computer (or stem cell) to do whatever they require.

The research team’s technique involves isolating specific stem cells with XY chromosomes, and then growing them in lab created cultures which forces the stem cells to develop as the sperm-like cells. The results of this experiment were recently published in the Stem Cells and Development journal, a medical journal for stem cell researchers.

This doesn’t mean you’ll be able to go to the sperm bank, and order a customized baby off the shelf just yet. But it could down the road, as scientists continue to work on figuring out the human genome, the essential building blocks which makes up human life as we know it.

Research continues into discovering all the elements which makes us who we are – from our physical characteristics such as our body shape, size, color of hair and eyes – to curing diseases before they appear, such as isolating

Image via Wikipedia

genes which cause cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease and many more. Stem cell research may one day lead to the elimination of one or more, or even all of these diseases from the human race.

Combine the study of our genes with this research on sperm cell creation, and one day you may be able to order your customized child off the Internet. Just allow four to six-weeks for delivery, and another nine or so odd months for gestation.

The controversy surrounding stem cell research is huge – especially with religious groups, as they see it as human beings attempting to “play God,” in the creation of living beings.

But, if stem cell research can eliminate even just one of the thousands of fatal or life debilitating ailments plaguing humankind, it is well worth it.

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Michael Jackson Memorial – What a Show

When news of one of the most talked about entertainers passed away, the media buzz over shadowed the true sadness of the moment – a person’s death.

But maybe that was made up for during the star studded memorial to the King of Pop, Michael Jackson.

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Estimates of over a billion people (one fifth of the world’s population) watching from living rooms, workplaces, and big open public spaces such as New York’s Time’s Square witnessed quite a show, to say goodbye in tribute of one of the world’s greatest entertainers.

Thousands stopped along highways and roadways along the route from the family’s private ceremony to the Staples Center, where the tribute ceremony was to take place. Police officers blocking traffic, saluted the long motorcade, as Michael Jackson’s casket made the 18-minute road trip.

Opening with a Smokey Robinson, reading a handful of tributes from Dian

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

na Ross and Elizabeth Taylor, the 10,000 lucky people that managed to get armbands to get into the Staples Center in Los Angeles, CA, the show appeared to have what many live shows have, a technical glitch. After Robinson’s opening, there was nothing but the quiet hum of an audience in the dark; literally, as a whole 15-minutes passed before anything happened.

Brought out like a true king, Michael Jackson’s gold encrusted coffin was brought out by an honor guard composed of his brothers, all wearing his trademark dark sunglasses, and one sequined white glove, as a hymn was sung by a church chorus up on stage.

Famous face after famous face appeared on stage, either singing Michael Jackson songs, or speaking their tributes to the global audience. Many of these famous people, breaking down and actually crying, as they paid their final respects.

Brooke Shields was almost in tears for most of her speech, eventually letting go as she wrapped up her dedication to a dear friend, she said she had known since the age of 13.

Michael Jackson via last.fm

Michael Jackson’s brother, Jermaine did break down after singing his tribute, when he went off stage and warmly hugged his brothers, who were equally as taken back by the whole affair.

Singer Usher stumbled through the middle of his song, almost crying, but managed to complete his performance.

Stevie Wonder received a long and loud roar of applause, as he was led up to the stage. He gave a brief statement about how he missed his brother and his friend, and then sang a moving tribute for his fallen friend.

The 10,000 people at the Staples Center and possibly billions worldwide, stood up, to sing as one, as the memorial concluded to a group singing of We Are The World, which Michael Jackson co-wrote with Lionel Ritchie back in the 1980’s to raise millions for famine relief in Africa.

Brother Marlon Jackson retold a story about him and his brother Michael shopping for records when they were kids, saying he was the voice of our angelic trumpets, and that he loves him and missed him, and said that Michael had finished his work on Earth, and now the Lord had called him to work with him.

“I thank you Michael, for all that you have done . . . I have one last request, I want you to give our brother, our twin brother Brandon, a hug for me.”

One of the King of Pop’s own children, Katherine Paris Jackson, tearfully told the crowd: “Daddy has been the best father you can ever imagine. I just want to say I love him so much," reminding us all, that although Michael Jackson will be remembered for his music genius, his constantly changing image, and all the media hype, underneath it all, he was just a man, with a family, and friends, just like us all.

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How Canadian ISPs May Control Your Internet Experience

Internet Service Providers (ISPs) across Canada have different ways and views on how to manage their networks. At issue, network resources for playing online games, sharing files peer-to-peer, watching online videos, and other types of high-bandwidth content, which many of us take for granted.

ISPs across the country are struggling to manage customers who use high-bandwidth content more frequently than most on their network, claiming if they don’t do something, their other customers online experiences will suffer.

Currently the Internet in Canada is as it was when it began everywhere else – wild and free. There are no rules for how your ISP manages their network resources, just so long as they provide you with the services you pay for.

That’s created a big debate across the country, and as with many national issues, the government has been called in to create the laws and regulations governing how your ISP manages their network – which in the end will deeply affect how you use the Internet.

How is the wild and free Internet being tamed by your ISP?

Image via Wikipedia

ISPs typically use one of two methods to control your use of high-bandwidth content – throttling and download limits. Some ISPs use a combination of both methods.

Throttling is when the ISP intentionally slows down the flow of information sent and received over its network based on specific types of applications. Some ISPs are known to reduce the bandwidth availability for peer-to-peer file sharing applications, such as Torrent sites, others will limit bandwidth available for playing live online games, and some will even reduce the bandwidth for sending and receiving email messages.

Some ISPs will have different packages or levels of service available for different monthly amounts, each level having its own data transfer limit. These are usually based on price per month, so the higher priced packages allow you to send and receive more information, while the lower priced packages have lower monthly data transfer limits. The price of the package is often connected with the maximum download speed allocated to that level. For example, one ISP may sell its lowest cost package at $19.95 month, which gives you 3 Megabits per second (Mbps) of download bandwidth, and a monthly data transfer (up and down total) of 10 Gigabytes (GB). The same ISP may have their highest package priced at $99.95 per month, giving you 19mbps of download bandwidth, and a monthly data transfer (up and down total) of 95GB.

If you exceed the monthly data transfer limit, you aren’t cut off, and banned from using the Internet until your next month – that would aggravate even the most understanding of customers. Instead, you are simply charged an additional fee for every Megabyte or Gigabyte worth of data transferred, above your monthly limit.

So, how does this affect me?

Customers of ISPs that throttle selected high-bandwidth applications complain that they are being discriminated against. Who gave the ISP the right to decide which applications deserve more or less bandwidth? By deciding which applications are throttled, the ISP is in a sense, condoning some behaviours while negating others.

And there is also the argument, that by deciding which applications to throttle and which ones to ignore, ISPs could essentially shape the very direction new developments and new technologies go. For example, if peer-to-peer file sharing is constantly limited by ISPs, than this technology won’t develop or spawn other similar technologies, because of the way ISPs view them.

For those who have data transfer limits and fees, this impacts how much they can do online. You may never go over your data transfer limit, but one month, discover a new high-broadband-based Internet portal, and get hit with a giant unexpected bill the next month.

This is highly conceivable, as more and more technologies converge, which increase bandwidth used, often in unexpected ways. For example, a new trend is in wireless home security systems, where people can set a series of wireless cameras around their home. These cameras send video and still images over your wireless network to your computer, and can email and even stream these images and video live to you over the Internet. This way, you can be at work, and still see a live video stream of your kid’s room, to keep an eye on your children.

At first blush it doesn’t appear to cost much to install such a system – but if you exceed your monthly bandwidth limit, your next high-speed Internet bill could be quite a bit larger than you expected.

Where’s all of this going?

Today, the Canadian Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) which regulates radio, television and the Internet in Canada launched hearings into these issues, to try and figure out how to proceed.

Do ISPs have the right to decide which applications to throttle and which not too? Is it fair for ISPs to charge service fees for exceeding monthly data transfer limits? Is it right to have these limits in the first place? Do ISPs have the right to monitor all the information sent and received on their networks, to determine pricing packages, service fees, and data transfer limits?

These questions – and many more – will be the subject of debate for the foreseeable future, as Canada’s regulator hears from ISPs, small, medium and big business and regular Canadians like you and me, all tossing in their Two-cents worth on the future of the Internet in one of the most wired countries on the planet.

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Canadian Leaders Say Goodbye to One of Their Own

Overshadowed by the memorial services for the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, another memorial took place this week, for one of Canada’s most respected leaders.

Canada’s 25th Governor General, Romeo LeBlanc, has been laying in state for the past two days, after his death on June 24. Today’s funeral showed just how popular a leader he was, as politicians of all stripes arrived in the nation’s capital, Ottawa, to pay their final respects.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, along with past Prime Minister Jean Chretien, and current Governor General Michaelle Jean were in attendance, at the Roman Catholic mass for LeBlanc – a man described by many as one of the kindest persons they have ever met.

While all the major news networks spend thousands of countless dollars sending their anchors to the Neverland Ranch in the States for Michael Jackson’s memorial, there was little coverage of Romeo LeBlanc’s memorial.

Granted, Michael Jackson was a superstar on the world stage – almost everywhere you go on planet Earth, someone will know the name “Michael Jackson.”

Although Michael Jackson’s accomplishments were no small feat, what Michael Jackson did for pop music, FMR Governor General Romeo LeBlanc did for Canada.

LeBlanc fielded the media’s questions, and scripted the messages Prime Ministers Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Elliot Trudeau conveyed, as he was both leaders press secretary up until his election as an MP in New Brunswick in 1972.

Often called the “fisherman’s minister” for his strong support of those in the industry, he became the federal Fisheries Minister, in Trudeau’s 1970 government and a Senator in 1984. He was nicknamed the Godfather of New Brunswick, for his influence over other politicians in that part of the country.

Perhaps he is best known as Canada’s first Acadian appointed Governor General, with his appointment in 1995.

Known for his warmth, compassion and for inviting complete strangers into his home, to talk about making Canada a great country, Romeo LeBlanc left a political legacy in Canada, which later governor generals have yet to accomplish.

Although the governor general role is often thought of not much more than being a political figure head – the governor general acts as the Queen’s representative in Canada – serving Canadian interests were never far from LeBlanc. He was never afraid to voice his opinions and get involved in the debates, despite the possibility of political consequences.

Romeo LeBlanc, had endured a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease, and had suffered a stroke just a few months prior to his death, at the age of 81.

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Happy Birthday Canada – Who Are You?

Another year has come and gone, and Canadians everywhere celebrated our nation’s birth yesterday. But just how Canadian are you?

Not that you have to prove your love of the Great White North by feasting on greasy back bacon, watching your favourite ice hockey team whip an American franchise, nor have made love in a canoe – as ex-Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau may have done according to some Canadian urban legends.

Pierre who?

That’s the real test of loyalty to one’s country these days, according to many media outlets – knowing the proverbial who’s who of your country’s famous faces. Every Canada Day, newspapers, and radio and television statio

Image via Wikipedia

ns across the country report our failings in identifying famous citizens.

Although everyone should know who their country’s current leader is – because the things he or she says or does can impact your life – it is questionable whether or not this sort of knowledge really makes you any more or less a good citizen.

However, when school kids can’t identify Canada’s first Prime Minister (Sir John A. MacDonald), don’t know what our country’s capital city is (Ottawa), and don’t know why our official languages are English and French (in large part due to the War of 1812), then the alarm bells should ring.

Although histories of countries around the world show us frail human beings making the same mistakes throughout time – such as America creating another Viet Nam when they invaded Iraq – we need historical knowledge to move onwards.

Having a sense of where we came from is important in figuring out where we are going -- it provides us with a sense of place, a sort of home-base from which to look out on and make the countless choices we are faced with in our daily lives.

Today’s children are tomorrow’s business, economic, social and political leaders.
But how can these kids lead, without knowing where we’ve been before? How can today’s children be prepared to make the everyday decisions affecting our nation, without that sense of place?

When I was a kid, growing up in suburban Toronto’s high school system, I didn’t really think history was all that important. How could something that happened in the past really affect me today?

But then I got smitten by the history bug, thanks to my first-year Canadian history professor in university Irving Abella. I remember getting to class early, so that I could get a front row seat, as “grandfather Abella” told us a story about something that happened a very long time ago.

That was how I saw him and that class, just like a grandfather telling his grandchildren a story around the wooden stove about their great relatives. Professor Abella was an elderly man, had a long grey beard, salt and pepper hair, and strode into that university lecture hall with all the energy of a young man – only to curl up towards his podium, and tell us eager students all about our past. Professor Abella told us what happened way back when, and most importantly, he related it to the world today.

We need more grandfather (or grandmother) types teaching history in today’s schools. I’m not saying only seniors need apply, anyone of any age can tell us where we’ve come from. But what we do need are people who can see the value of historical knowledge in today’s world. We need historians that can put the past into a modern day context for our kids, so that our kids come to appreciate that knowledge and embrace it.

And for that to happen, today’s history teachers must have that sense of place, the home-base from which to look out on and take historical events and make them real to today’s kids.

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Censorship on the Chinese Information Highway

China is a country with a long and controversial past when it comes to what it always calls “protecting its citizens,” especially on the Internet.

The Chinese government has been known to block Internet addresses and domains which it deems unfit for the public to see. During last year’s Olympic Games, the Chinese government blocked access to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) websites, after the Canadian broadcaster revealed that parts of the opening ceremonies which were supposed to be live, were pre-taped.

So when the government of China says they are censoring something to protect their citizens, it is questionable as to what exactly they are protecting – their citizens, or their own reputation.

China’s government is taking censorship to a whole new level, thanks to technology. Effective tomorrow, all computers sold in mainland China must come with a program called Green Dam-Youth Escort.

This program—at a cost of over $6 million in developmental fees paid for by the Chinese government – is being mandated by government law to be installed on every computer sold from July 1 onwards. By filtering keywords, Universal Resource Locators (URLs), image recognition, and contextual phrase recognition, the application is supposed to make the Internet safer for children, by blocking access to banned sites.

Problem is, those who control which sites are banned and which aren’t are those in the Chinese government – so despite the government’s claim, this program will most likely be used to block all Internet sites which don’t mesh with what the Chinese governments political views.

The Green Dam-Youth Escort program, developed in China, by a Chinese software company, is also full of security holes, which leaves anyone using the application vulnerable to hackers, viruses, Internet worms and other malicious electronic attack.

North American and European business leaders have sent letters directly to the leaders of the Chinese government, asking them to reconsider their mandate. Even governments are getting up in arms over China’s increased censorship of the Internet. The U.S. Department of Commerce sent a letter to the Chinese government, listing several concerns.

The Green Dam-Youth Escort program doesn’t just block access to certain web sites, it actually can crash an Internet browser completely.

A Harvard University researcher posted on YouTube a demonstration, showing how the Green Dam-Youth Escort program freezes a web browser, whenever you type the letter “f” into the location bar. This happened after the letter “f” became associated via the browser’s auto-complete list with the “falundafa.org web” site, which is has ties to Falun Gong – a religious sect banned by the Chinese government.

Image by Raideres via Flickr

Falun Gong has no links to pornography, but because they believe in values which the Chinese government doesn’t agree with, they are blocked by the software.

Clearly the government is increasing its ability to control the Internet – they can update the software’s list of banned sites at anytime, just like your anti-virus software updates itself all the time with the latest security patches.

Though unlike your security software, which protects you from electronic harm, China’s Green Dam-Youth Escort software is only protecting the Chinese government’s shady reputation from being exposed to those who matter most – it’s citizens.

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Nothin’ More Canadian than Tim’s

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Stand-up comics often make real-life observations funny – and one of those real-life observations is the predominance of donut shops in Canada.

“They are like McDonald’s in the States,” I remember hearing one say years ago. “There has to be a donut shop on just about every corner up here.”

Many of us Canadians would agree, often telling co-workers we’re heading off to “Tim’s” and asking if we can get them anything. Or you may hear someone saying they are taking a “Tim’s break.”

Former Toronto Maple Leaf hockey star Tim Horton’s has become a name known more for coffee, donuts and “Timbits” than for his stick handling. “Timbits,” are tiny donut-like treats, usually round, with a donut filling of some kind, for those outside of Canada.

See, for as long as most can remember, Tim Hortons has been their local donut shop. They really are everywhere, even on many Canadian military bases, including one on the Canadian base in Afghanistan.

There are other donut and coffee shops all across Canada as well, but Tim Hortons is the only chain to really become part of the Canadian experience.

Maybe it’s because it is named after a former hockey legend, or maybe it is because of their Canadian maple donuts, or maybe it is just good marketing, but if there is one company which has managed to sneak into the symbolism of our country, that company would be Tim Hortons.

That’s why there wasn’t a donut shop more Canadian than Tim’s – at least until 2007 when American burger joint Wendy’s bought the company.

Guess American’s don’t love donuts as much as us Canucks – because Tim’s is becoming Canadian once again due to poor sales in the States. Tim’s has always been in Canada, but when Wendy’s bought the company, they became an American subsidiary. Tim Hortons announced today that they would be forming a completely separate Canadian company for them to merge the American one into again. The company will still operate under the Tim Horton shame on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges, so investors have nothing to worry about.

As Americanized as the world becomes, with McDonald’s popping up everywhere, American celebrities outshining local ones, and even American political interest growing with the so-called Obama-mania spreading outside of the American borders, there are still some things in all countries which will remain unique, and let you know you aren’t in the U.S.A.

In the United Kingdom, symbols such as the old-style British architecture, fish and chips wrapped in newsprint, and round-abouts which are bound to make North American driver’s dizzy differ Brit’s from Americans. In many Asian countries, the roads are filled with bicycle traffic, instead of cars, letting you know you aren’t in Kansas anymore.

For us Canadians, it is donut shops on every corner, being excessively polite, and our passion for hockey and strong Canadian beer which differs us from our American neighbours to the south.

Oh, that and our inclusion of a former hockey player’s name into our lexicon which has come to mean a coffee break of sorts.

Only in Canada, eh?

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The King of Pop and an Angel – Two Cultural Icons With Checkered Pasts – But We’ll Never Forget

Days after actor Ryan O’Neal finally got a “yes” to a question he had been popping for over 20-years, his long-term love interest, Farrah Fawcett closed her eyes for the last time.

O’Neal had originally proposed to his girlfriend many times, but always managed to elude marriage. Maybe it was because she was once bitten, and now twice shy – she was married once previously, to Six Million Dollar Man star Lee Majors in 1973. She even appeared in four of Major’s movies about the bionic man. She had finally agreed to marrying O’Neal, from her hospital bed if need be.

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Known for her penetratingly deep blue eyes, and her trademark golden blonde hair, Farrah Fawcett became an icon at a time when pretty blue-eyed blondes where not normally taken at anything but face value. Legendary television producer Aaron Spelling changed all that, and created a star, when he cast Fawcett as one of a trio of breath-taking beautiful women crime fighters in Charlies Angels.

Fawcett was only on the television show for one year, but had already made her mark as a cultural icon. Women everywhere wanted to be as empowered as she was, and men just wanted to be with her. Teen girls would role-pl

Image via Wikipedia

ay Charlies Angels, and teen boys would salivate over her now famous poster, of a twenty-something Fawcett in a tight red bathing suit.

Meanwhile, years after the Jackson Five singing group had a hit, one of its kin jumped out of nowhere, and suddenly was very much here. Michael Jackson’s first successful solo album Off the Wall in 1979, created four chart-topping hits, and it won Jackson his first American Music Award. Even more importantly, it caught the ear of music legend Quincy Jones, so much so that Jones produced Jackson’s next album, Thriller.

Thriller came out in 1982, and enjoyed what is still the record for the most successful album of all time – staying in the top pop charts for 37 straight weeks.

Thriller’s mini-movie-like video, won two Grammy Awards, and MTV declared it the best video ever. Directed by renowned filmmaker John Landis, the video had Michael Jackson, and veteran horror film actor Vincent Price in the lead roles.

Michael Jackson ruled the music scene in the 1980’s, inventing a dance

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

move called “the moonwalk,” and taking home 13 Grammy Awards, while selling over 750 million albums worldwide.

Both Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson died yesterday, from two separate unrelated causes. Fawcett had been battling anal cancer since being diagnosed with the disease in 2006. Michael Jackson died of an apparent heart attack, possibly brought on by a growing dependence on pain killers.

Growing up in the 1980’s, with Charlies Angels on the tube, and Michael Jackson on the radio was a very special time, far different from today’s technologically-driven global village.

Back then, big hair, boom boxes, and bright pastel neon colors were all the rage. Television and radio set the trends – there was no Internet, no YouTube, no Facebook, no Myspace, and the only thing that “twittered” were the birds.

So it was only natural, that a bright, blue-eyed blonde with a killer body, and a hand gun drove the world wild. Farrah Fawcett’s likeness appeared on lunchboxes and even for a short time as an action figure. She, and the other “Angels” making up the cast of the hit show Charlies Angels moved women’s liberation to new heights. Although the critics claimed it was pure sexual fl

Michael Jackson via last.fm

uff, depicting hot women, in skimpy outfits, many women wanted to have the knowledge and power that those sex symbols had.

This was the 1980’s, and crime fighting shows were hot and setting the trends. Men stopped wearing socks, after the stars of 1980’s Miami Vice revealed they had no use for ‘em. Other crime shows appeared on the dial, Hunter, Magnum PI, even Star Trek celebrity William Shatner got in on the action, with a short-lived cop drama called Tj Hooker.

But by far, the most successful mystery-crime fighting show of the 1980’s – one which spawned a recent movie franchise – was Charlies Angels.

What Farrah Fawcett did for television, Michael Jackson did for radio.
He inspired a whole generation to moonwalk their way to school, wearing one studded white glove. Michael Jackson was a musical genius, bridging the gap between black soul and white pop music. His concerts were legendary, as his musical rhythms bled into each other, like the perfect disc jockey mix.

Almost every song Michael Jackson penned in the 1980’s became an instant hit. We’ll never forget catchy tracks like Beat It, Billie Jean, and the duet with ex-Beatle Sir Paul McCartney The Girl Is Mine.

As iconic as both artists were, they both had their less than stellar moments. Perhaps it’s true that those with a special gift are eccentric.

Farrah Fawcett struggled immediately after leaving her hit show Charlies Angels, black listed as being difficult. She managed bit parts in television and film, and eventually won critical acclaim for her portrayal of an abused woman in the play The Burning Bed, which she also starred in the made-for-television version. These roles got her taken seriously again as an actress.

Until one faithful night, when she appeared on David Letterman’s late night talk show. She appeared to be stoned as she mumbled and stumbled her way through the interview. Letterman ended the interview early out of fear that she would completely crack and go nuts on his show.

Michael Jackson went through marriages and divorces – one of which was to Elvis’ daughter to Lisa Marie Presley. He had three kids, though there still are doubts whether they are biologically his, and underwent numerous plastic surgeries, supposedly to make him look more like his idol – Dianna Ross. He become a secluded mystery man, never venturing outdoors without a customized surgical mask, which always matched his outfit.

Rumours circulated, and even a few arrests and court cases, into allegations of Jackson’s sexual interest in young boys. He invited young boys to his home, the Neverland Ranch, and even paid out $20,000US to one family, so that they would drop the molestation charges. He alienated some of his closest celebrity friends, including spats with Brooke Shields. He bought the rights to all the Beatles music pissing off friend and co-song writer Sir Paul McCartney. He even creeped out Cher, who simply adored him for his magical dance moves.

In the end, despite their weirdness, they both left the world a better place – which is something we all should aspire too.

Farrah Fawcett proved that not all hot blonde bombshells are dumb, and Michael Jackson left us with beats which will forever and ever get stuck in our heads.

We lost two icons from the 1980’s, but we will always benefit from the way they helped shape the world we live in today.

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Toronto Media Garbage Chasers

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When I was a journalist many eons ago, there were ambulance chasers in every newsroom. These are people whose eyes light up when they hear of a horrible fatal car crash, their hearts quicken when they get word from the police about a big fire ablaze somewhere, and they are almost ecstatic with glee when they get a story involving multiple deaths.

Since civic employees walked off the job in Canada’s largest city four days ago, the local Toronto news media has invented a whole new type of media hound – the garbage chaser.

These are reporters that wander the city’s streets, looking for massive amounts of litter. With the labour dispute in Toronto – both the inside and outside workers unions are on strike – many city-run services have been gaboshed, including garbage collection.

Without trash collectors in place, even the city’s own public garbage bins on city streets are off limits. They have been wrapped in plastic wrap, to prevent people from using them. Despite warnings from the mayor, people are still tossing their litter on the streets, there just aren’t any other spots for it.

Unless you do what one report suggests, and keep your household waste in your fridge, to keep it – ahem – preserved.

Now many reporters are following the trails of the latest breaking story – no not the labour negotiations between the city and the workers – that’s too obvious! They are following the trail of trash.

Nope, not the people dumping their waste illegally – if caught they could face a fine of almost $400, and repeat offenders could end up in jail.

Just the trash – unsightly candy wrappers, bits and pieces of discarded food scraps, paper, bottles, tin cans – other people’s waste.

“Oh, look!” exclaimed one television reporter, as she zoomed her camera onto the latest media fascination. “A piece of lettuce, there’s some fruit, I think it’s an apple.”

Thanks for the always riveting, sitting on the edge of your couch coverage!

I actually like this reporter, I’ve seen her do some hard investigative stuff in the past, and think her employer is wasting her talent on soft puff pieces – such as chasing garbage. She’d be an excellent person to cover something really important – say the negotiations between the city and the staff.

The trash is building up, it hasn’t reached the disgusting mile-high pile stages which it did in the last city strike back in 2002, but it is getting there. And usually Toronto is one of the cleanest cities in the world, with litter properly in its place, so it is newsworthy to a degree.

That degree is worthy of mentioning on the news, maybe one or two lines – but to actually send reporters out to cover the small piles of garbage forming, is a waste worthy of the trash bin.

If this strike continues for long, and the piles become the six-to-ten foot high stink bombs that they were back in 2002, then I could see reporters going out to get images and video. But even then, they should do more than just go after a garbage pile.

“News is about people” – I remember telling a junior reporter I was mentoring many years ago. “So don’t come back to the newsroom until you’ve talked to at least three people involved in the story.”

That was good advice back then – and it still rings true today. Unless of course, the garbage is talking. Then I’d be interested in what it had to say.

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How Technology Mastered Us

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As the phone rings, I get my fingers ready to dial the extension of the person I’m trying to reach. I’m almost always thrown off these days when a living, breathing human being actually answers the phone. When that happens, there is usually an awkward silence, because it’s so rare in today’s high tech world.

“Oh!” I exclaim, “you’re real! I’m sorry, I thought you were a machine.”

Whatever happened to those days – when telephone calls were between two or more living, breathing human beings?

I just got off the phone from that call I was making, and sure enough I get the automated attendant asking me to enter the other party’s extension. I enter it, and after a few rings, I get his voice-mail. I leave a message and hang up. Absolutely no human contact whatsoever -- yet the telephone originally was designed to bring people closer together.

I remember a slogan from an old AT&T television commercial in the 1980’s – reach out and touch someone. The series of commercials won awards in the advertising industry for its moving portrayal showing tearful eyed family and friends reaching out and touching their loved ones over great distances.

That was back in the 1980’s, just as personal computers were starting to pop-up in our homes. And the Internet – unless you were working in some secret American military base in deep cover, or a professor at some big university fighting to make that secret public, forget about it. Home computers in the 1980’s were considered top-of-the-line if they had a hard drive – most only had those big flimsy 5.25-inch floppy disks.

Looking back to those days, it always amazes me as I consider how far we have come.

These days, I know nine times out of 10 when I call someone, chances are I’ll be greeted by an automated voice-mail system. So I instinctively have my 30-second-or-less message ready to go in my mind’s eye, and I know to either enter an extension or wait for the beep.

Technology has trained us well.

The other day I was at a bank machine in the city’s downtown core. An elderly woman who probably didn’t venture downtown too often was getting frustrated at the machine, thinking it wasn’t working correctly, because it wasn’t beeping when she pressed the buttons.

In many large city centres, some banks have disabled the tones given off by their bank machines in outdoor spaces, to reduce crime. Apparently, some people can actually nab your PIN by listening carefully to the tones.

I waited patiently behind this sweet old lady, as she ran back and forth from the tellers to the bank machine, having one of the tellers come out and explain this to her.

The old lady was trained by technology to automatically think that if the bank machine didn’t “bleep” out the numbers as you entered them, the machine had to be broken.

We are a highly adaptive society, and when a new piece of technology emerges, we learn its teachings quickly.

I remember reading about some teenager that won about half-a-million dollars in a contest to determine who the fastest text messager was.

I have one of those smart phones, and it sure has a bigger keypad from the cell phones I’ve had in the past. It is even on that 3G network, so it’s supposed to be fast – though I hear 4G is already on the way.

Even still, when it comes to sending text messages, I’m all thumbs. I use that T-9 predictive text system, which guesses most of the time the correct word I want, based on my typing habits over time. But I still constantly find myself having to erase and start words over again, simply because just as I start to get up to speed, I realize I’m “texting” too fast, and I hit the wrong combination of keys.

But a young kid in her teens – she might have even been in her pre-teens, won a large sum of money, for being able to do this.

She was trained well by technology too. She knew all the short forms commonly used to speed up the process.

That’s the problem with today’s technology – it is making the world a faster, easier place, but we’re losing that human element. We’re losing the very things which make us human, as we ourselves become more computerized, in our constantly evolving high-tech world.

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Politically Correct – Or Politically Inept?

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A rookie politician in Canada’s western provinces is learning how to be politically correct, after two separate poorly chosen statements.

The Edmonton-Calder Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta (MLA) Doug Elniski, apologized yesterday, after posting his speech to graduating grade nine kids: “ladies, always smile when you walk into a room, there is nothing a man wants less than a woman scowling because he thinks he is going to get sh*t for something and has no idea what.”

Elniski -- a Progressive Conservative member, was anything but conservative, continuing the blog posting: “men are attracted to smiles, so smile, don’t give me that ‘treated equal’ stuff. If you want Equal, it comes in little packages at Starbucks.”

Elniski, who’s only been an MLA for about a year, also got into hot water during the local Pride Parade, celebrating gay and lesbian rights and achievements.

During the parade, he “tweeted” live text posts on Twitter, a popular online instant messaging site allowing visitors to say in 140-words or less, whatever they want.

Elniski’s posts included one saying: “I am surrounded by bumping and grinding lesbians,” and then he said: “that guy has size-14 stilettos.”

Both comments offended some members of the gay and lesbian community, for being narrow-minded.

Elniski says he didn’t mean to offend anyone with any of his posts, noting that what was posted in his speech which he claims to give at grade nine graduations was a joke he got from a comedian, and that he had fun at the Pride Parade, and was just trying to convey his enthusiasm.

Regardless of what has been said, a bigger question remains – what will he say or do next to endanger his already threatened political career?

Love them or love to hate them, politicians are made or broken by the very things they say and do. That’s why it is often called being in the “public’s eye.”

The job of creating policies and programs to enable citizens to have meaningful lives is no small task. But end of the day, despite all the paperwork, proposals, policies, programs and laws a person creates, what we really judge our politicians for are their public personas.

Look at U.S. President Barack Obama, he’s still got a rock star-like following globally, because of his slick, purposeful, and highly engaging personality. Any other person in his position in the White House, during this economic depression would already be under attack by pundits and the public for not turning the economy around. Not President Obama, he’s got us Obama-crazy, very much like John F. Kennedy did in the 1960’s in the States, and Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau did during his leadership of Canada in the 1960’s and 1970’s.

Prime Minister Trudeau did give Canada the Charter of Rights and Freedoms (it was officially signed into law in 1982 by Queen Elizabeth II) – but most of us don’t remember that. When we think of Prime Minister Trudeau, we think about the stories about him being a ladies man, the pondering politician paddling in his canoe, and how he’d tell reporters to f*ck off on more than one occasion.

Just as it was President Kennedy that inspired Americans to jump into the space race, promising in one of his speeches that “we’ll put a man on the moon.”

Maybe we should put Elniski on the moon – with the lack of gravity it would be a whole lot harder for him to put his foot in his mouth.