Automakers Starting Society on the Take

Toyota’s major worldwide recalls of faulty vehicles with issues over a decade old raised awareness about the dangers of driving, previously unthinkable in our technologically advanced world.

Who would have thought that a major corporation wouldn’t care enough about it’s customers to ensure their products were safe?

Over the next few months, the other major automakers followed, with their recalls, realizing that they’d better fix the problem then face the wrath of an American Congressional Hearing like Toyota – though it really is the bad press more so than the wrath. Toyota was hit with fines, but no one went to jail, and never would.

Now the big automakers are continuing to show us just how out of touch with their own products and their customers they are – instead of fixing their products, they will now pay you off with a bribe.

Yesterday, General Motors recalled 1.5 million vehicles worldwide that will catch fire due to poorly designed heated windshield wipers. GM originally “discovered” the problem in 2008 – though it affects some makes and models from 2006 – and through an earlier 2008 recall replaced the motors.

However, the problem has continued, so now GM is recalling all the affected vehicles, but instead of trying to fix their own product, they will just disconnect the faulty heater, and pay registered owners a $100 for “the loss of the feature.”

Cute.

Instead of taking responsibility for rushing a product to market which is unsafe, and used as a selling feature to capture customers, they simply hold up their hands, claim they can’t fix it, but here’s a small token of our appreciation of your understanding, as they hand you a cheque for a mere $100.

Aside from the obvious questions about how they arrived at the dollar amount for the “loss of the feature” the real issue is the fact that a major global corporation is now bribing their customers, instead of doing the right thing.

General Motors made – or more likely contracted out to a third party who made – the mechanism, so they should take responsibility for ensuring it is safe and works as it is supposed to. They shouldn’t give up on it, and pay off their customers for the loss of its use.

Now we are talking about a feature that doesn’t affect the primary use of any vehicle – to get you from where you are, to where you want to go – yet.

However, if we consumers take the passenger seat now, we’ve opened up the door to corporate bribes in place of corporate responsibility. By accepting the $100 bribe from GM, you are telling GM and other executives who no doubt are watching at other companies in other industries and sectors that it’s okay to make faulty products with false promises, we’ll just pay off those affected with a small bribe later.

So next time when your fridge freezes solidly shut, and the manufacturer tells you you’ll have to just unplug it until it thaws, and live with the constant over-freezing because they can’t fix it, but oh – here’s a $50 cheque for your troubles – you’ll accept that?

We’ll become a society of corporate patsies, pushovers for products which don’t do what the manufactures told us they initially would, just so long as we are all on the take.

Related articles by Zemanta

• GM Recall Affects 1.5 Million Cars (taragana.com)
• GM Recall 2010: FIRE Concerns Push Automaker To Pull 1.5 Million Vehicles (huffingtonpost.com)
• Automakers Report Higher Sales in May as Recovery Chugs Along (dailyfinance.com)
• General Motors to close fewer dealerships (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Biz Brief: General Motors Recalls 1.37 Million Vehicles in the U.S. (dailyfinance.com)
• Toyota Expert Sato Calls for New Leadership (abcnews.go.com)
• GM pulls heavy-duty vans due to faulty alternator (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

How Many Hero Highways Do We Need?

Today, the mayor of Canada’s largest city is renaming parts of a major highway to honor fallen Canadian soldiers – their bodies are brought back home on these parts of the road.

Toronto Mayor David Miller will officially rename parts of the Don Valley Parkway and some local connecting side streets the “Route of Heroes.”

Previously, the province of Ontario renamed a section of Highway 401 from Trenton to the Don Valley Parkway the “Highway of Heroes.”

Both are part of the route the Canadian flag-draped caskets containing the bodies of Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan take, to the coroner’s office, before being released to their families for burial.

The sacrifices men and women make for their country at times of war should be honored, respected, and as many a war memorial says “never forgotten.”
However, Canada is not at war.

SO, why are so many bodies traveling down Canadian roads – enough to prompt petty politicians to use the highways as a promotional vehicle for their own slimy images, by cutting ribbons and making declarations about heroic routes?

As of today, 147 Canadian Forces personal have been killed since their first deployment to Afghanistan in 2002 – just over the weekend another solider had died, which was not even two-weeks after the last solider was killed in the line of duty.

Yet, again – we aren’t at war.

Originally, when then-American President George W. Bush announced his shock and awe bomb attack, in response to the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the United Nations Security Council didn’t agree.

The UN wanted to find a peaceful solution first, and barring that, a planned and well-thought out approach to using military muscle.

But in keeping with his “you are either with us, or you are with the terrorists,” narrow-minded approach, President Bush went ahead and destroyed most of the infrastructure of Afghanistan and Iraq, all under the guise of getting their alleged ring leader – Bin Ladden.

Whatever happened to Bin Ladden? We never hear about him, other than the occasional poorly recorded audio or video of him ranting like a crazed lunatic.
You’d probably go crazy too if you had a redneck American president making threatening statements about having your head on a platter.

Not that Bin Ladden wasn’t crazy before all this – he may have been – we’ll never know.

President Bush failed in his attempts to nail the blame squarely on Bin Ladden, so he went after Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, and eventually did get his head on a platter – sort of. Hussein was hung quite publicly for the world to see on YouTube – probably the first world leader to be executed live, on the Internet.

Regardless of whether or not Bin Ladden, Saddam Hussein, or anyone else the Americans have labeled “terrorists” – Canada really has no part in their so-called “war on terror.”

Yes, we are allies of the States, and should support them in peace and in war.

But in typically Canadian fashion, our politicians have sat directly in the middle of the fence on the issue and that is what is killing our soldiers.

Canada isn’t officially at war, and being the backbone of the United Nations peace keeping forces for so long, we have a reputation of supporting the UN at all costs.

Yet the UN hasn’t stepped into the American’s so-called “war on terror” because they never supported the poorly planned vengeful attacks by their redneck leader, President Bush.

So our government sends thousands of Canadian soldiers to bolster up the Americans war efforts, with little planning – because the Canadian politicians don’t want to alienate the UN – and we end up with a never-ending parade of flag-draped caskets traveling our renamed highways.

Maybe our politicians should spend more time planning military strategies and tactics, instead of how to creatively rename a highway to get a photo op.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Fallen soldiers honoured with 'Route of Heros' (ctv.ca)
• Toronto to designate Don Valley Parkway as 'Route of Heroes' (nationalpost.com)
• 'I'd do it again' President Bush tells Michigan crowd about waterboarding KSM Inc. and company (chicagoraysrants.com)
• George Bush admits US waterboarded 9/11 mastermind (guardian.co.uk)
• Canada's mission in Congo (thestar.com)
• Obama Supposedly Stands With Israel, But Will Our Pro-Palestinian Press? (newsbusters.org)
• Military can't staff all missions (thestar.com)

Want to Get Laid? There’s An App for That

How far would you push the bounds of technology to get what you want? Would you go so far as to use it to select a sexually compatible partner?

Today, MEDL Mobile released an application for Apple’s iPhone to assist men and women evaluate prospective sexual partners.

Free for the first two weeks, the application – or “app” in Apple lingo – let’s you create a sexual profile based on six categories of likes, dislikes, positions, fetishes and kinks, and then compares them to other user profiles using the same application.

The application connects to other iPhones using the BUMP app, which allows iPhone users to exchange contact information by “bumping” phones.

Don’t worry about airing out your dirty laundry to complete strangers – the application keeps your preferences private, it only shares whether or not the pairing is a good sexual match, leaving you to still make the first move. Though there is an option to post the number of BUMPS you’ve participated in to social networking sites Facebook and Twitter, and you can always share your success or failure stories online.

In our ever increasingly techno-dependent world, this was just bound to happen – an application which helps the one-night stand.

Although sexual attraction forms the basis for many first and second glances, it can never replace a good meal and fine conversation to really get to know someone. So if you’re looking for applications which will help you find that long-term soul mate, this isn’t the “app” for you.

However, if you’re looking for an easy way to break the ice with someone who shares the same sexual preferences you do, you may just get lucky.

Related articles by Zemanta

• iPhone app helps users gauge sexual compatibility (cnn.com)
• 10 Things You Need To Know This Morning (AAPL, HPQ, VZ, T, BP) (businessinsider.com)
• 90+ Essential Social Media Resources (mashable.com)
• Bad with timing, guys? There's an app for that (healthzone.ca)
• The State of Mobile Apps (Nielsen Wire) (techmeme.com)

Want to Provide Security for a World Leader – No Experience Required

In Canada’s largest city, a security firm handling part of the protection services for the world’s most powerful leaders is hiring – no experience required!

After a background check by Canada’s federal police service – The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), and a mere ten days of training – you too can be wearing the dark sun glasses, while protecting the likes of American President Barack Obama, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and 18 other world leaders, during the G8 and G20 Summits in late June.

WOW – sign me up for that job!

It even pays more than a typical security gig. Most security companies in the city pay on average from $10 to $15 per hour, and you’re lucky if you get full-time hours if you’re a rookie. Providing security to the G8 and G20, even the new kids on the block will earn $20 to $24 per hour, plus overtime for two-weeks.

And you may even get to take a bullet for someone!

Even the local Toronto Police Service is only getting a condensed special training session of ten days for the event. Many are used to catching speeders, investigating lost wallets, and handling the occasional domestic dispute – the additional training is to bring them up to speed on how to keep the world leaders from harm’s way.

Perhaps it is security by numbers instead of experience – over 2,000 police are expected to be on hand to protect 20 people for a two-day affair.

Granted, the RCMP – which are in charge for the most part – protect Canada’s Prime Minister all the time, and when was the last time we heard of anything going wrong?

Well, there was that time when the wife of a then-current Canadian Prime Minister was confronted by a home invader, at the Prime Minister’s official residence. Back in 1985, Aline Chretien came face-to-face with the intruder, who was armed with a knife. Prime Minister Jean Chretien and his wife locked themselves in their bedroom, until the RCMP came to take the man away – though if they were doing their job in the first place he should never have got that close to the Canadian leader in the first place.

Even with 2,000 law enforcement types in the area, with that kind of track record, I’d be skeptical whether or not I was safe if I were a world leader.

Though the areas where the world leaders will be – essentially most of the downtown core – will be shut down for the duration of the summits.

Still, a mere ten days of training, and no experience required?

So how come it is costing over a billion Canadian dollars to secure this thing anyway?

Related articles by Zemanta

• Travers: Got a political problem? Call the cops (thestar.com)
• Persichilli: Abuse of freedom undermines democracy (thestar.com)
• Harper says recovery still has ways to go (financialpost.com)
• Open Thread: Stephen Harper and Colonialism in Canada (angryindian.blogspot.com)
• Jean Chretien on the fine art of politics (thestar.com)

There Just Aren’t Enough Days in the Year for Quit Facebook Day

Two Toronto, Canada men created a website to encourage the 400-million-plus users of the world’s largest social networking site to abandon it, because of privacy concerns.

Joseph Dee and Matthew Milan created the www.quitfacebookday.com website, calling for Facebook users to quit en mass today, because Facebook is too hard to use.

Oh boo hoo you.

Yes, there is a complex web of settings to go through, but all it takes is a little time and even a child could figure out how to set their settings just the way they want.

And Facebook has since resolved this issue – last week their CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the changes to make it easier to protect private information.

Having a day of protest for a website?

Speak of lazy protesting. Back in my day, you would have grabbed a placard, your running shoes and a megaphone, and walked a picket line.

That’s how you make a statement. Or rather did.

I think that’s what concerns me more than the 6,000 nuts that joined the Quit Facebook Day website – the lack of real social awareness thanks to technological advances like the Internet.

These days, it is all too easy to create some online site to badmouth whoever or whatever you want, without any real thought.

And what’s even worse, is millions of people can join into these causes, with just as little thought or effort as the causes creators.

SO what you end up with, are a bunch of people YELLING AND SCREAMING online for reasons which they themselves don’t fully comprehend.

All it takes is for someone with an understanding of the issues to cleverly manipulate these naive protesters, and you end up with a group of people, yelling and screaming online, for something they didn’t intend too.

Either way, it certainly raises concerns over grass roots democracies which formed the basis of our current governments, via real protests over real issues, with really intelligent, thoughtful and aware individuals that actually knew what they were protesting and why.

Many of our greatest leaders have risen from the protest movement of the 1960’s – former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau was known to cause a ruckus in his university days, even current American President Barack Obama was known to take a stand on controversial issues in his pre-political days – much as he does today. Just look President Obama’s healthcare and fiscal reforms – they are very clearly taken in part from his younger days of action.

But these days, protests are days of inaction – by asking anyone with half-a-brain to “sign” online petitions, mass email everyone they know, and even going so far as to quit using online sites.

Can’t get any more inactive than to quit.

Inaction leads to no action – it is a basic law of physics, which just so happens to work with policies and procedures just as well as it does an apple falling from a tree.

Does this mean the end of grass roots politics – and in turn – the end of real knowledge, power and good governance?

Related articles by Zemanta

• 'Quit Facebook' group says today's the day to opt out of social network (nationalpost.com)
• 'Quit Facebook Day' looks like a hard sell (macworld.com)
• Thousands pledge to quit Facebook (cbc.ca)
• It's Quit Facebook Day, are you in or out? (downloadsquad.com)
• Today is 'Quit Facebook Day', will you? (business.financialpost.com)
• Internet privacy: identity.com (guardian.co.uk)
• Facebook's 26-year-old founder, Mark Zuckerberg, is squarely to blame for the mess over privacy controls (nationalpost.com)
• Six Tips To Ensure Privacy on Facebook and Other social networks (taragana.com)
• Facebook Unveils Simplified Approach to Privacy (nytimes.com)

Parents – PLEASE – Be Parents

Every year at this time, we hear about a horrible tragedy of a child drowning in a recently opened unattended pool.

Just yesterday, a four-year-old Toronto-area girl was plucked from the clutches of death, after she fell into just such a pool. The child is currently in critical condition in hospital, but is expected to recover.

A few weeks ago, a child was run over dead in her driveway, by her own mom, who claimed she didn’t see her baby girl playing behind her mini-van. Another child suffered the same fate less than a week later in a different Toronto neighborhood, also by the parent.

Kids will always be kids. They tumble, and fall, scrape their knees, and suffer all sorts of little cuts and scrapes as they run and play.

That’s okay – that’s what childhood is meant to be – far too many children these days spend too much time in front of computers, than playing in the fresh outdoors.

But what isn’t okay are the tragedies befalling kids of late, because of parents that just aren’t very good parents.

Not that parenting is an easy thing to do, and no one has written a complete and comprehensive manual on how to be the perfect parent.

Deaths from unattended drowning, and driving over your own child are completely avoidable, and are the results of exceptionally poor parenting skills.

Even those of use without kids know better than to drive anywhere – in any direction – without first looking. So those with children should be ever more diligent, knowing that their kids – like all kids – will always be kids.

Any parent that backs over their child not only should have their driver’s license taken away forever, but should be charged with murder – not manslaughter, not accidental death – murder.

By failing to do what everyone knows is the right thing to do – look before you leap – they killed their own child, and should suffer the consequences.

Parents that don’t watch their kids around pools should be prohibited by law from being parents. Common sense – yes I know isn’t all that common – says that water and children spell disaster.

Kids, will always be kids. SO how come parents don’t always be parents?

Related articles by Zemanta

• Dr. Ann Corwin: Getting Your Child to Listen (parenting-success.com)
• Why does 'go play outside' sound crazy? | Lenore Skenazy (guardian.co.uk)
• 8 Reasons Why Children Misbehave (With Solutions!) (lifehack.org)
• Ikea's PlayReport Sends Us a Message: Our Kids Want To Play With Us (wired.com)

World Leaders Fail to Use BP Oil Spill for a Greener Good

Funny thing, with all the media coverage of British Petroleum’s (BP) failure to cap its massive oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico – it has been over a month since the problem smeared across the waters – and around the world – no one is thinking green.

Yes, it is of utmost importance to put an end to the gushing gallons of crude oil – about 5,000 barrels or 210,000 gallons of the icky slimy stuff billow out per day.

But even the once so-called “most green American president ever,” President Barock Obama hasn’t used this ecological disaster to forward his county’s green agenda.

Yet wasn’t it President Obama who boldly declared from his lofty pedestal in the White House’s Rose Garden: “We have to reduce America’s dependency on oil?”

Ironic, as America – and most of the western world – still depends on the highly toxic fossil fuel for everything from heating our homes, powering our cars, to creating plastics and rubbers used in everything from medical hoses to carry drugs and oxygen to patients, to the tires on our cars.

If the leader of the most powerful nation on Earth can’t truly go green, all hope may be lost.

One person may make a difference, but what really matters are the differences made by those in positions of real power.

So, don’t stop your recycling, and don’t switch back to energy wasting incandescent light bulbs just yet. By reducing your impact on the environment, you are making a difference.

However, oil slicks polluting our wetlands and killing off millions of fish, endangering the lives of birds, trashing our drinking water, and even harming human beings involved in the cleanup efforts will continue until world leaders – like President Obama – stop talking about making a difference and actually do.

Sure, President Obama has extended an American-led ban on deep-water oil drilling, but that was his response to a crisis which could have been prevented, had he acted on his previous promise to move his country further away from a dependency on oil. All he did today when he extended this moratorium to six-months was media damage control for his public image.

Sure, President Obama’s administration is holding congressional hearings specifically on BP’s oil spill – but even if BP is fined, and forced to pay the enormous costs to clean up their mess, that won’t prevent future oil disasters.

President Obama, and other worldly leaders need to get together on greening the planet – and I’m not talking about token carbon emissions. Whenever world leaders meet, they talk about reducing Greenhouse Gases by setting specific emission reduction goals –which often aren’t met.

What our world leaders need to do is to create a functional, working plan for implementing green energy alternatives in their respective countries.

Solar, wind and geothermal won’t work in every part of the globe. Not every spot on Earth receives enough sunlight for solar power, nor enough wind for wind power, nor has the underwater hotspots needed for geothermal.

However, every part of the globe can make use of at least one or more of these green alternatives – to realistically reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.

We may not completely eliminate our dependence on fossil fuels such as oil – yet. But if we had world leaders that made it law to use environmentally-friendly alternatives wherever possible, it would be just the incentive we need to reduce our use of fossil fuels, while invigorating the drive to research new ways to power our high-energy consumption lives.

Big business wouldn’t see green energy alternatives as a costly hassle, but rather a cheaper alternative to over-using fossil fuels and having to pay fines or added taxes for their wasteful ways. Having fines and heavy taxes on those relying on oil and other fossil fuels would also encourage companies to fund research into green energy alternatives, as it would now be in their interests to use the greener energy sources.

Having court hearings as to what went wrong in the Gulf of Mexico, and why after a month, the toxic crude oil is still leaking is important – we need to find out what went wrong to prevent oil spills from happening due to the same cause.

But the real way – the only way – we will ever truly avoid destroying the only planet we know of capable of sustaining our lives in our universe – is for world leaders to mandate environmentally-friendly alternatives to the point when they aren’t alternatives – they are the norm.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Obama's Oil and Energy Opportunity (dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com)
• As oil spills, Obama touts alternative energy (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• The Oxen Report: Daily Musing - The Failure of the Fossil Fuel Market and The Alternative (philstockworld.com)
• Oil spill is BP's wake-up call | John Sauven (guardian.co.uk)

Gee Canada Drops $1 Billion on G8 & G20

Property taxes in Canada’s largest city are rising, the country’s largest province is implementing a new combined federal/provincial tax in July, and many are still getting over the effects of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.

Yet today’s estimate of security costs to protect the G8 and G20 world leaders which will be in Canada for a mere 48-hours have topped the $1CDN billion mark.

The Canadian federal government says it’ll cost at least $930CDN million, but won’t release final dollar amounts until after both events, which are being hosted in Toronto, Ontario, and “cottage country” just north of Toronto, in Muskoka, Ontario.

It is expected security costs will actually be higher than estimates, due to threats and allegations from protest groups.

That’s more than double what it cost Canadian taxpayers to secure the entire 17 days of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games.

Yes, it is important that world leaders have clear and concise communications – but can Canada afford to spend a billion dollars for a mere 48 hours, to keep these people safe?

At least with the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games, much of the costs to secure it were recouped through tourist dollars – if anything tourists are being discouraged to come to Toronto during the G20 and G8 summits.

Much of the downtown core – the heart of the largest city’s entertainment and tourism industry – will be shutdown and off limits due to security concerns during the G20 and G8 summits. Just yesterday, the country’s largest university – The University of Toronto – announced it was ordered to close its downtown campus for the duration of the two-day summit, because it represented a security risk. At great expense to the educational institution, they will be putting students who live on the downtown campus up at hotels, as the campus will be sealed off tighter than Fort Knox.

Other tourist attractions, such as the CNTower, the Rogers Centre, First Canadian Place, numerous theatres, clubs, restaurants, bars, hotels, the major banking skyscrapers, and many other places right in the downtown core will be off limits to anyone who either doesn’t work there, have the right security clearances, or both.

Getting around Toronto and “cottage country” will be hell in late June, when the summits are to occur – roads and highways will be sporadically closed to ferry the high ranking world leaders to the various venues of the two summits.

That and the thousands of people expected to flock to both areas to protest the summits, the leaders, and their policies, don’t make for a tourist-friendly environment.

Would you want to take your next vacation amidst the screams and chants of an angry mob?

Well, maybe the protesters will at least spend some money while at the summits, to help offset the costs?

Wait a sec . . .

Aren’t most protesters twenty-something unemployed students with too much time on their hands?

Guess not.

Oh Canada – what a country.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Huntsville prepares for close-up as G8 approaches (ctv.ca)
• G20 concerns a distraction for Toronto's tourism pitch (canada.com)
• Our Recommendations for the G8, G20 Summits (one.org)
• G8 organizers designate field as protest zone (ctv.ca)
• Giant papier mache heads of G8 leaders to appear at G20 (ctv.ca)
• Leaders' papier mache heads to appear at G20, not G8 (thestar.com)
• Shaw Festival, a Niagara-on-the-Lake Theatre, Receives $2.6 Million Dollar Grant from Industry Canada (prweb.com)
• As G20 nears, battle lines drawn over rights, security (ctv.ca)
• UN chief Ban Ki-Moon criticizes Canada over climate change (calgaryherald.com)

Another Korean War – But This One IS Different

Today, North Korea’s leaders have stopped talking to their counterparts in South Korea, because of alleged intrusions by the South Korean Navy in North Korean waters.

Ironically, it was North Korea’s Committee for Peaceful Reunification of Korea which made the announcement.

For most of this year and part of last year, American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been outspoken in her bid to unite the two countries peacefully.
That’ll never happen.

Not just because the north falls under the Communistic idealism which conflicts with the views of a more open Capitalistic south, but because of politics of another sort.

America’s relationship with North Korea has always been on shaking ground – from as far back as the Kennedy Administration to present. That’s a long time to hold a grudge.

And a grudge it is – North Korea sees attacks on the south as an attack against an American ally, which is why so long as an American politician is leading the way towards unification – it’ll never happen.

Although U.S. Secretary of State Clinton’s heart may be in the right place, her mind must be elsewhere. Because as long as she’s at the head of the peace talks, the two sides will grow ever further apart.

Yesterday she made matters worse, be admitting her country’s stance, saying that America’s “support for South Korea’s defense is unequivocal,” and that North Korea should “stop its belligerence and threatening behavior.”

This threat by the American politician came after South Korean President Lee Myung-bak announced his country was suspending trade with North Korea, closing their waterways to North Korean ships, and adopting a more aggressive military posture.

All of this sounds like anything but peace – if anything it looks more like the prelude to war.

Although outside representatives should be present to arbitrate the tensions between the two opposing factions, American politicians need to step back from the situation, as their presence is only adding to the tensions, with their support already firmly seated in the south.

The United Nations must move in, first with a peace envoy – who isn’t American – to try to quash the war before it begins.

Failing that, the UN will need to take sides, and put an end to a war, before it gets out of hand.

North Korea has been testing nuclear weapons – and although everyone knows the dangers to the planet of launching such massively potent weapons, their rulers don’t have the patience which the American and Soviet leaders had during the Cold War.

So a war between the north and the south could be truly catastrophic, sending nuclear material into our atmosphere, destroying populations far outside the warring nation’s battle grounds.

Which makes it all the more important that the Americans get out of the discourse, because their presence is just making matters worse. And when a country has it’s fingers on “the button” worse isn’t where you want to go.

Related articles by Zemanta

• The Korean War never ended (cnn.com)
• With US Support, South Korea Cuts Trade With North (usnews.com)
• Obama backs South Korea stance on ship's sinking (cnn.com)
• 'Ensure Readiness': Drumbeat of War in Korea? (abcnews.go.com)
• Report: Kim tells troops to prepare for combat (msnbc.msn.com)
• North threatens military action against South (cnn.com)

CN Tower Closed, Work Downtown, Watch Out For . . .Who Cares? It Is May Two-Four

Canada’s largest city – Toronto – will be closed for business during the G20 Summit in June.

Security has scooted out the city’s Major League Baseball team, three games between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Philadelphia Phillies which were supposed to be in Toronto, will now take place in Philadelphia. No word yet about refunds or exchanges for ticket holders of that match.

Federal police – the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) – have advised professionals working in the heart of the country’s financial district on Bay Street not to wear their usual suits and ties, as they could easily become targets of protesters.

The country’s largest financial institutions, along with some other major corporations which have offices right next to the G20 designated areas are stockpiling supplies, in case their buildings are locked down.

And perhaps the most ironic security measure, one of the most recognized symbols of Canada’s peaceful freedom worldwide, the CN Tower will be shut down during the G20 Summit. Guess security-types are afraid some protester will break through the impenetrable Plexiglas floor and drop water balloons on the world leaders during one of their many photo-ops.

When Canada’s Prime Minister, Stephen Harper boasted about the great honor it is to host the most politically powerful 20 nations, he failed to mention at what cost that honor would come.

Granted, world security has been beefed up since the horrible events on Sept. 11, 2001, when the World Trade Center, and the Pentagon in the United States were attacked by terrorists.

But do we really have to tell people they can’t wear suits and ties to work for their own protection?

Sheesh!

What a world we live in.

But I don’t care – at least for the next few days.

Here in Canada, we’re gearing up for what most consider the first long weekend of the summer, the May 24 weekend, or May “Two-Four” – in Canadian-speak.

The last Monday on or before May 24 is always a holiday here, to honor Queen Victoria’s birthday – hence it is officially called the Victoria Day Weekend. But it also celebrates the reigning sovereign’s birthday (the Queen), so many just call it the May 24 weekend.

Or maybe it became known as May 24 because of the many 24-packs of beer which will be consumed this weekend, as we launch fireworks from our canoes and kayaks – a really challenging feat even on calm water.

WHAT!?!?

Never mind -- cheers, to long weekends.

Related articles by Zemanta

• G20 summit cancels Halladay's Toronto visit (sports.nationalpost.com)
• Queen Elizabeth to visit 5 cities during Canada visit (calgaryherald.com)
• G20 chases Jays to Philadelphia (canada.com)
• Philadelphia Phillies-Toronto Blue Jays series moves to Philadelphia (sports.espn.go.com)
• Canada to voice international bank tax opposition (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Harper goes global to control agenda of G20 summit in Toronto (thestar.com)

Woman Sues Cell Phone Provider for Contributing to Divorce

Only in Canada, eh? A Toronto, Ontario, Canada woman is suing her cell phone provider, claiming her marriage fell apart because the detailed billing on her cell phone account exposed her extramarital affair.

Gabriella Nagy is seeking $600,000CDN for the alleged invasion of privacy and breach of contract, according to documents filed in the province’s superior court.

When Nagy started cheating on her hubby, her cell bill was sent directly to her. But her husband signed up for a bundled plan, and all phone bills eventually went to him, where he found his wife’s lover’s numbers.

What a load of . . . well . . . you know . . .

Not being the cheating type, I suppose I enjoy detailed billing. It helps me keep track of the numbers I call most frequently, so I can manage my calls, call time and other related expenses. It also helps in the event that something is amiss – which can always happen in our technologically driven world.

That said, the question of whether or not the wife’s privacy was breached is a good one. Everyone has a cell phone these days – even kids – though why a kid barely old enough to not play with his food needs a mobile device is beyond me.

Cell phones have become an integral part of who we are. We personalize our phones in more ways than just changing the screen saver and covers. We put our lives in our cell phones – the names, numbers, addresses and birthdays of our friends, family and colleagues. We have our appointments in our cell phones, many – including me – “sync” our phones with our computers, so our contacts, appointments and other personal info is always with us.

So in a sense, we can all put ourselves in the woman’s shoes, and feel for a certain loss of privacy if her cell phone bill got into someone else’s hands.
Does that put the breakup of the couple’s marriage squarely at the feet of the cell phone provider?

Not a chance.

Although the cell phone provider indirectly aided the husband in tracking down his wife’s lover, chances are the couple were experiencing marital problems long before he saw it on paper. Problems in the marriage must have been going on for a while, which lead to the wife’s cheating. The husband was probably already suspicious; otherwise he wouldn’t care about his wife’s cell phone use – unless she was racking up excessive amounts, which we don’t know.

Either way, the woman is simply in denial, using the leaked cell phone details as an excuse in place of the real cause of her failed marriage – the reason which led her to cheat on her hubby in the first place.

We may never know the true cause of the breakup, but chances are, it involved one thing that ironically cell phones are good for – communication.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Toronto woman sues Rogers for exposing her affair (windsorstar.com)
• Gabriella Nagy Claims Cell Phone Company Exposed Her Affair (huffingtonpost.com)
• Toronto woman sues Rogers for exposing her affair (thestar.com)
• Rogers sued for exposure of woman's affair (cbc.ca)
• Toronto woman sues Rogers after getting caught cheating (windsorstar.com)

Texting I’m All Thumbs

You know you’re old when the kid sitting next to you on the park bench is happily typing on her mobile phone with her thumbs as fast as she can talk, meanwhile, you are struggling typing “Hi” using every finger possible.

“How many messages have you sent?” I ask the kid as I continue to struggle with my “thumbing.”

“Fifteen,” she says, not even breaking her concentration as she continues texting.

Even in the office, I am starting to feel like an out dated paper weight, as I watch the new generation on the corporate ladder text their way to the top. In meetings, I see these new young people sitting off on the corner of the table, thumbs moving so fast you can see the motion blur.

“One meeting,” I interrupt.

“Uh?” they scoff.

“May we have one meeting, PLEASE?” I scold, as I sternly tell the new kid in the office to stop texting and pay attention.

That’s another thing – attention spans just don’t exist anymore, everyone under thirty these days seems to pre-occupied with their digital devices.

Evrythn is shortened thse dys. SO even if I were to take away the kid’s BlackBerry, I’d never understand what was on it.

The short forms used for texting help the kid thumb her messages lightening quick, but a side effect is she talks the way she texts, so half the time when you talk to her, you haven’t a clue what she just said.

I wonder if scientists have come up with a long horrible sounding phrase for that condition?

If they aren’t texting a friend, tweeting their latest thought on Twitter, chatting on Facebook, then they are fiddling with their MP3 music player, or they are watching a video on their mobile device, or they are shooting a “pic” to send to their buddies.

With their heads constantly buried in their electronic gadgets, it’s a wonder they can see where they are going.

I swear the new kid never looks up from her BlackBerry.

Whatever happened to the old days, when people used to actually talk to each other face-to-face? Those were the days, when you could actually see how the team was doing, instead of being texted emoticons – punctuation marks combined together to graphically represent emotions.

Since when did :) replace a smile?

Related articles by Zemanta

• Letting their fingers do the talking (thestar.com)
• Jennifer Grayson: Eco Etiquette: Why I'm Giving Up My BlackBerry For Earth Day (huffingtonpost.com)
• FP Tech Desk: Facebook unveils new security feature (business.financialpost.com)
• A Phone Call May Be As Effective As a Hug (psychcentral.com)

You know you’re old when the kid sitting next to you on the park bench is happily typing on her mobile phone with her thumbs as fast as she can talk, meanwhile, you are struggling typing “Hi” using every finger possible.

“How many messages have you sent?” I ask the kid as I continue to struggle with my “thumbing.”

“Fifteen,” she says, not even breaking her concentration as she continues texting.

Even in the office, I am starting to feel like an out dated paper weight, as I watch the new generation on the corporate ladder text their way to the top. In meetings, I see these new young people sitting off on the corner of the table, thumbs moving so fast you can see the motion blur.

“One meeting,” I interrupt.

“Uh?” they scoff.

“May we have one meeting, PLEASE?” I scold, as I sternly tell the new kid in the office to stop texting and pay attention.

That’s another thing – attention spans just don’t exist anymore, everyone under thirty these days seems to pre-occupied with their digital devices.

Evrythn is shortened thse dys. SO even if I were to take away the kid’s BlackBerry, I’d never understand what was on it.

The short forms used for texting help the kid thumb her messages lightening quick, but a side effect is she talks the way she texts, so half the time when you talk to her, you haven’t a clue what she just said.

I wonder if scientists have come up with a long horrible sounding phrase for that condition?

If they aren’t texting a friend, tweeting their latest thought on Twitter, chatting on Facebook, then they are fiddling with their MP3 music player, or they are watching a video on their mobile device, or they are shooting a “pic” to send to their buddies.

With their heads constantly buried in their electronic gadgets, it’s a wonder they can see where they are going.

I swear the new kid never looks up from her BlackBerry.

Whatever happened to the old days, when people used to actually talk to each other face-to-face? Those were the days, when you could actually see how the team was doing, instead of being texted emoticons – punctuation marks combined together to graphically represent emotions.

Since when did :) replace a smile?

Most Violent Sporting Fans May Get Rowdier this Season

A riot at a soccer match? Unheard of!

Yeah, right, there have been more riots by overly aggressive fans at soccer stadiums over the past decade than in any other sport worldwide. Some soccer stadiums have even been set ablaze by the very people in attendance.

Never hear of that happening at a tennis tournament.

Not that tennis is completely innocent from violent acts, for those of us old enough to remember John McEnroe’s tossing of his racket and other protests in the 1970’s and 1980’s when he wasn’t happy with the score.

But soccer fans are known to be – shall we say passionate – enough to cause riots, destroy public property and run drunkenly rampant through the streets.
SO why is Canada’s largest city encouraging – if not making it easier – for soccer fans to get sloshed?

Yesterday, city councilors in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, voted in favor of allowing bars and restaurants to start serving alcohol one hour earlier during the World Cup of Soccer next month. Currently they aren’t allowed to start serving beer, wine and other alcoholic beverages until 11am – but during the World Cup they can begin serving these drinks at 10am.

The reasoning Toronto’s politicians gave for allowing the earlier drinking, was due to time zones – those watching the World Cup wouldn’t be able to toast their team’s victories, or drink in their losses because of time differences conflicting with bar and restaurant serving hours.

Drinking in of itself isn’t a bad thing, when done responsibly. But Soccer fans the world over have proven just how irresponsible they can be – over turning cars, lighting buildings on fire, looting stores, getting into drunken fisticuffs . . .

“Drunken fisticuffs” . . . a statement taken directly from a news report after the last World Cup.

Maybe the politicians in Toronto were under the influence when they made their decision yesterday, because they certainly weren’t thinking straight.

Open for Business – What About Me Time?

No question about it, we live in an always on world. Thanks to the Internet, laptops, wireless networks, smart phones – even smart dashboards in our cars – the world is available to us – always.

That means in order to compete in today’s wired world, businesses have to be open all the time too – despite all the technology, someone has to be around to make sure things run smoothly.

Is this a good thing?

That’s one of the questions politicians in Canada’s biggest city are debating today – sort of.

The City of Toronto – as many municipalities – has rules governing who can be open on statutory holidays (like Christmas) and who can’t.

Currently, only retail stores and restaurants in designated tourist areas are allowed that privilege, but today city councilors are voting on whether or not to strike down this law, allowing any retail establishment to be open 365 days a year.

Working in retail isn’t the most glamorous life, often fraught with the lowest of wages, schedules which change on a weekly basis, few (if any) benefits, and constant pressure from bosses to sell – even when no one comes into the shop.

Retail workers are often seen as entry-level, low paying gigs easily filled by the masses who don’t have any experience and need a job. So retailers often treat their employees poorly, because they expect high turnover.

Not that all retailers are bad to work for, but just type any big box retailer into any search engine, and your computer screen will fill with horror stories from badly treated employees.

For most in the retail sector, they work for minimum wage, part-time, without any benefits or vacation time. That puts them into a terrible catch-twenty-two come holiday time – they often want to work the holiday, because they need the hours for their pay cheque to pay the bills, but at the same time, they could really use a break, and much needed time with friends and family.

So our constant need to do business thanks to our technologically-driven world, is creating a burned out lower class.

Is this a good thing? Do we really need to be able to go shopping anytime, all the time?

Related articles by Zemanta

• Goar: Living wage becomes a reality - but not here (thestar.com)
• Walmart confirms used games business test in 5 locations (destructoid.com)
• Microsoft Will Open Two New Retail Stores (microsoft-watch.com)
• What Are The World's Largest Retailers? (milo.com)
• NCR Showcases Solutions for New Era of Converged Retailing at FMI 2010 (eon.businesswire.com)
• How to be ready for the expected retail sales growth (startups.com)