Isn't it great when the forces against popular government fall?  •  “Viktor Yanukovych announced Friday that he will resign as Ukraine's prime minister after losing to opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko in the rerun of the presidential election.”  •  Just as Canada is learning this week that …

The office is quiet as I am it for staff at the start of today and today only lasts until noon. New Year's Eve is best like this. Never been a greatest night ever even with the firmest of plans. My favorite bad New Year's party was around 1986 when friends of friends of friends stiffed me for a …

Any comments? How was your 2004? I will be doing some year end thinking over the next few days in the style of Sameul Pypes and his year end summation of what the previous 12 months brought - here is his version from his diary entry of 1 January 1660:  •  “Blessed be God, at the end of the last …

There is a very interesting discussion going on out there - out there where you all are - which is about a neat little tweek that you can give your Firefox browser. It has three levels to my mind but that is only because that is the full number of levels I can perceive at any one time. The tweek …

Belarus butt kickery somehow is delightful. It sounds like it was a bit of a romp.  •  “Kastsitsyn gave Belarus an amazing 5-1 lead with six minutes left in the second, before Drew Stafford scored a power-play marker in the final minute of the period for the U.S.”  •  I like the Soviet-esque …

Seen on a convenience store shelf north of Whitby, Ontario...  •  Hmmm...chips, smokes, pop, roast pork. Everything I need for a night with me and the hockey game on the TV.

British culture can throw some curveballs to we North Americans, even we kids of UK immigrants. It is those social causes which do not quite make it here for whatever reason - drink driving (which I understand to be quite legal sub-drunk driving) and adult binge drinking (a real UK issue not to be …

From Metafilter I came across this fascinating article from the UK newspaper The Independent on the power struggle going on in the North Korean government. There are many fantastically odd and sad things about North Korea a few of which are pointed out by the article:  •  all mobile phones were …

Like most bloggers, comment on what has happened in south Asia feels trite and besides the point. The numbers of the lost are beyond comprehension yet the waiting one person I know is undergoing is excruciating. Like so many we pray that his daughter travelled on to rural Laos as she said she …

Given the awful events we have seen from south Asia over the last days, joking complaints about driving the 1200 km loop through various in-laws homes would be both tasteless and incorrect. Actually, I lay around a basement reading hundreds of pages of Patrick O'Brien, got a very snazzy haircut …

I awoke from my mid-day mid-winter's snooze to the dulcet tones of our very own HRH Elizabeth the eye-eye (illustrated privately wishing she were me) giving her annual Christmas message and, boy, was I surprised. What a total rip-off of her 1978 speech. All that talk about tolerance and fairplay …

Thanks be to God:  •  “Catcher Jason Varitek reached agreement with the Red Sox on a four-year, $40 million deal...Varitek said all along that he wanted to return to the Red Sox, whom he helped lead to their first World Series championship since 1918, and Boras said he would not negotiate with …

I am surprised whenever I learn how other countries have secularized the holidays. By this I am not speaking of adding diversity to the holidays being celebrated as that is a great thing - that my four year old now knows a small bit of the Jewish, Islamic and African experience at this time of …

The Wolfe Island Ferry had a hard time in surf this afternoon with spray reaching over the wheelhouse. Here is a short short movie [5.8 MB] of the churn at the river's edge.

After a day of heavy rain and strong wind, this was quite the sight leaving work.

From The Guardian on the effect of headers:  •  “"When wet enough, it was the equivalent of 10 standard bags of coal being dropped on a player's head," Birkbeck said. "A high-speed camera measured the velocity of a football being kicked against a player's head. We immersed a new ball in water and …

As we all start to realize the NHL strike will last the full season and as we all start to realize we really do not care, it is nice to see that other levels of hockey are getting the TV coverage they deserved all along. I notice today that TSN is showing NCAA Division 1 hockey games starting this …

It's coming!!!  •  When I was a kid, you know folks in the South Shore of Nova Scotia paid more attention to the weather from Maine TV than from Halifax CBC. It just seemed to be right more often. So tonight with the big storm a comin' here is the US forecast for Jefferson County, New York - the …

Ottawa's position on this makes me sick. Newfoundland and Nova Scotia are wanting to be put in the same place as Alberta relative to their resources. Until the 1930s, Ottawa controlled the under the ground wealth out west but transferred it to the provinces, making Albertans rich as hell without …

I actually watched the Champs Sports Bowl game last night between Syracuse and Georgia Tech out of some small spot of loyalty I have found in myself for Syracuse in the NCAA for all things but hockey, which finds me a St. Lawrence supporter. My rule is if you haven't got a personal reason to pick …

<center  •  ...the Red Sox getting the tallest ex-Expo. The Dodgers did us all a favour.

It was interesting to read about the cutbacks to the BBC's web services as there are loads of areas being cut which I never had heard of. One problem trying to be everything is that somethings fall by the wayside. One such service is BBC Legacies which appears to be an effort to centralize local …

From today's New York Times:  •  “ President Bush acknowledged Monday that the United States had achieved only "mixed" success in training Iraqi troops to secure the country, and said that it was "unacceptable" that some Iraqi units had fled as soon as they faced hostile fire. With the first …

I know I should be more respectful of another hockey nation but there is something about kicking Finnish butt in an international sporting event:  •  “Patrice Bergeron scored two goals and set up another as Canada's national junior hockey team trounced Finland 6-0 in front of a capacity crowd of …

Whatever shall I wear to the awards ceremony!?!?  •  Great news this evening as both my organs Gen X at 40 and A Good Beer Blog have been nominated for the 2004 Canadian Blog Awards. I am sure I nominated myself and, if not, would like to thank my Mother for saving all the tops from the Muffet …

Sure as I am that all will agree with me on this point, I noticed this in an otherwise innocent article on CBC PEI today:  •  “ The Public Service Alliance of Canada is calling for the federal government to reverse a decision to move a translation bureau from Charlottetown to Halifax. Vaughan …

Wakened by the hurling now sleeping child, I get a moment in the ungodly hour before morning and past the night to consider my blog stats. Christmas is a down time for blogs and the numbers start to show it now the weekend before. I wonder if the month will feed the ego, increase again in activity …

Just in case you thought this was not Canada, that I would be able to continue to wear shorts and woolie socks until the spring, it's windchill -32 out there tonight. That is fairly close to no difference between °F and °C. Relief by Tuesday.

Last night was the first family giftie exhanges of the season and thems that sow shall also reap with the receipt by me of Tarts With Tops On by Tamasin Day-Lewis. I am the son of the best pastry maker on the planet, or at least my planet, trained as she was by my Cordon Bleu trained …

Upon being wakened by herself, I was told that my father, both my brothers and my son were all snoozing this afternoon at various locations throughout the clan's compound catching up from the rigours of train travel and watching fitba on the TV over mugs of tea. Were every afternoon so well spent …

I need a better camera. Tonight you can see separate lights in Watertown as well as the bright lights of Oswego as well as another shore town. Last New Years we could see the glow of Rochester far to the south east. My no zoom 3.1 pixel is defeated by this phenomenon. All I can give you is this …

The now apparently graceless Pedro Martinez has started to let rip at the Bosox indicating a little of what the Mets have actually bought. Some choice quotes:  •  Of the team he is going to: "I hope 'Tek is on my team...I do want Piazza, too. Piazza is a good hitter. We can move him to first or …

A year ago I wrote that I thought that a fee on an Mp3 player made sense. This morning, the Federal Court of Appeal said otherwise. From The Globe and Mail's article on the ruling:  •  “A 71-page decision by Mr. Justice Marc Noël found that although the Copyright Board of Canada was seeking to …

Today's "barbs" over same sex marriage are telling. Martin is finding his feet. Harper is losing his grip. Forget about what we are talking about. Think about how they are producing. Martin makes more sense as a leader since the embarrassment of the last election and Harper has been asleep at the …

...and its not beer's fault...its getting married's fault!  •  “Marriage keeps you healthy, even though it can make men fat, U.S. government researchers said yesterday. Married people are less likely to smoke, drink heavily or be physically inactive, the report from the National Center for Health …

It looks like CBC PEI's website has been spruced up by, I believe, the sometimes and perhaps lapsed blogger Mitch Cormier and pals. It is extremely useful now up from mere usefulness. It is not, however, intuitive as that means useful when used with websites.

Robots. When I am an old man, robots will bust down the door and steal all my food in tubes.  •  Asimo is now 1.3 metres tall. Soon he will be 2.3 metres tall and look down on us all.

I read this morning about what George W. Bush said about lawsuits and the need to cut back on awards being ordered in personal injury cases:  •  “"The costs of frivolous lawsuits in some cases make it prohibitively expensive for a small business to stay in business or for a doctor to practice …

As I said in the replies below, this is good. It is not a total answer but it is good. Liked him in Toronto. Respected him as a Yankee.  •  “Wells joins Curt Schilling, Tim Wakefield and Bronson Arroyo in the projected 2005 Red Sox rotation. And with the news Tuesday that Schilling may not be …

This morning so far I have read two stories about doing the right thing for people you can easily ignore:  •  From the BBC comes the news that office cleaners in the UK are regularly not included in the Christmas office party. Give the care taker a present, you stuck-up losers.  •  Ian helps a …

With under 2 months to spring training, it is time to start thinking about baseball. Thinking about baseball two months away is far more pleasant than thinking about hockey and the never-neverland we have entered with the NHL strike. The World Junior Championships of hockey, starting Christmas Day …

Why do I get this feeling that sooner or later I am going to have to pay Google a dime everytime I get out of bed in the morning?  •  “It may be only a step on a long road toward the long-predicted global virtual library. But the collaboration of Google and research institutions that also include …

Just in time for the holidays comes news that a theft of property case is getting resolved in Berlin about 70 years after the fact:  •  “Heirs of a Jewish family that lost its German department store fortune under the Nazis have won a court verdict that advances their $193 million (U.S.) claim to …

Nothing like the laying  •  of charges against Pinochet to make the Yuletide bright!   Sadly  •  not yet in the small cage Slobo and Saddam find themselves in but hope reigns  •  supreme.   How clever, by comparison, was our newest and most stylish  •  pal, Mullamar.

What is lamer given that I have communicated with friends and family mainly by email over the last decade?  •  Spending two evenings thinking up some half funny stuff, writing it by hand over and over and the best part of $100.00 on cards and postage to send out Christmas cards by regular mail or …

I have had web mail for years and actually have not put any email on my server or my own home computer for about 4 years. Email is becoming less and less important for my own communication as I blog to blab, instant messaging to share an idea and actually move back to the phone, what with flat fee …

I wonder if Steven Garrity will have a Saturday Night CBC radio spot one day, replacing Finkleman. I think he thinks his audience is only the geek with headphones sitting in the cubicle farm. Today, however, a snowy Sunday afternoon after the Church's junior choir Christmas concert, the day after …

Growing up in the Maritimes of Canada by the sea, I don't recall seeing snow without some wind too often. Today it is slowly falling straight down in large clumps here next to Lake Ontario. Here is short short film of Charlie Brown snow [2.4 MB] as in the Christmas cartoon.

About an hour ago, 7:20 am, eight sides of ribs went in the oven. The butcher refused to sell us the 12 side ordered arguing no one can eat that much. Christmas BBQ party to night with about 20 coming. Nothing says Santa like 100 meaty ribs, four chickens and a venison roast. Marinading that much …

Nothing turns on this, in terms of a point being made by me by posting this, but I noticed today a statistical chart at CNN on the US war dead over history.  •  Iraq's USA losses now stand at 1,433. In the War of 1812, 2,260 members of the US military died. In the 1898 Spanish American War 2,446 …

For those of us trying to keep up with the meaning of the newish Personal Information and Protection and Electronic Documents Act, the ruling of the Federal Court of Appeal in Englander v. Telus is interesting for its ennunciation alone. One interesting point to note is a statement in relation to …

For your Friday some shots from a stroll down Earl Street in Kingston.

Here is the  •  same-sex marriage ruling from the Supreme Court of Canada released this very  •  morning. I am just going to post it and invite you to:  •  read it and  •  post comments about it.  •  Please do both - but keep on point with  •  this one as it could be either an interesting …

I heard the most extraordinary radio last night. WBZ's longtime evening talkshow show David Brudnoy is near death. I have listened to WBZ from the Ottawa Valley to the Martimes for the last ten years pretty faithfully and for most of my life since I was a kid looking for long distance listening …

I owe my big cousin Ewan a few things even though we grew up on different continents. I ran into him in the George Hotel in '86 or '87 and had a fantastic 14 hour Guinness session with his pals of which taking a pool table from a cue spinning teddy boy sits somewhere floating in the middle of the …

Interesting to note that next week will see the 200th anniversary of the birth of the greatest Nova Scotian and a great if reluctant Canadian, Joeseph Howe. Perhaps in commemoration, I will dig out that book of his early writings I have and repeat all the bad things he had to say about Truro 175 …

Speaking of fantastic sporting outsomes, wouldn't it be nice if Marion Jones was stripped of her medals if found to have been a druggie. Why should Ben Johnson be the only poster boy for bad if it turns out the US track and field team has been lapping it up to a degree that would embarrass a …

<img src="images/2004d/_40607441_cesc_getty300.jpg" vspace="10""  •  Nosing around S+R today, I was told by the manager of the sporting clothes section that soccer is now bigger than baseball in annual sales for them. A nice lady was asking her for some Arsenal stuff to be brought in for her kid …

Two weeks until the days start getting longer...

Apparently it will make me use my Red Sox's cap to move the mouse and that mouse will appear on my forearms. Futurists bust me up. Keep in mind the computer you are looking at is structured 90% like one in a basement in California from 1973 - but for that speed thing.

As a heads up, the Supreme Court of Canada is set to rule this week on the constitutionality of same sex marriages. Expect Massachusetts north. The Star reports that the minority Federal government is anticipating the progressive outcome:  •  “Justice Minister Irwin Cotler says he now plans to …

Excellent observations from the The New York Times on the steroid scandle:  •  “And although Commissioner Bud Selig has said this year that he wants a stringent steroids-testing program, he has ignored past drug problems. In 1998, when Mark McGwire was on his way to breaking the season home run …

Thank heavens for CNN's Wolf Bitzer (aka Voolfe Bleeeetzaahhh) and his ability to draw out Canadian government policy:  •  “CNN interviewer Wolf Blitzer asked Martin if Canada would send troops to Iraq. Canada opposed the U.S.-led 2003 attack on Iraq. "Our commitments are such it would be very …

We took the kids to the matinee. Four is a bit young for movies I thought going in. Fourty-one is a bit young for movies I felt leaving. The volume was incredibly high but the seats were very high in the back so I sort of braced myself fairly comfortably through the visual and audio onslaught. By …

We looked for E Z Cheese - we really did but neither Wegmans or Hannifords had that magic fermented milk meets Dow chemical elixer that warmed many a Manitoba toast and tea for Nils. Other weird stuff, thought. Bread is a can is always a favorite. But what should I expect from a jar of watermelon …

Spiced apple rings in a can. On today's stateside list along with Wegman's butter beans. I thought I recalled these rings as being part of my Mississauga pre-school diet but it appears they are not available here. Very clovey. Good with ham. Mmmmm...haaammmm.  •  And speaking of meat, I had lunch …

Via John of Argghhh!, a very interesting statistical analysis of events in Iraq from the Brookings Institute.

Can't complain when it is 28 days from the end of the year before we get snow. Down to -4° C by the afternoon. Big difference in the big Province from here in the balmy south to the north on Hudson Bay. -26° C overnight last night in Moosonee.

Tommorrow is the big day. I suppose the good citizens of Syracuse (something I would like to hear Daffy Duck repeat five times fast) would find it funny that their town is an object of such a trip but butter beans beckon. We shall got to the Carousel Centre, aka "da maall", try to find Armory …

Odd that Microsoft should jump in after the party has peaked with its announcement that it is going to provide blog-like things called Spaces. After the US election, there has been a decided waivering of purpose and an inordinate expression of disinterest in blogging. Sifting the stats is not …

This snippet from the Daily Kos, which I do not read much so don't bother, is interesting in light of my cogitations under this rubric:  •  “In all cases, Rove wants to force Democrats to defend taxes and lawyers. Trained in the ways of direct-mail targeting, he doesn't want to seduce the whole …

Being at the vangard of Canuck-Dutchophile blogging, it is with sadness that we note the passing of the father to Queen Beatrix, [Ed.: I later realize that that is a pic of him with the future Queen - I wonder if in Canada?] the Dad to those nice Dutch princesses that spent WWII in Ottawa while …

If I haven't told you who pass by here often enough, please check out Forgotten New York - this week's post on some of Staten Island's oldest buildings is a great example of how the web can actually be an amateur interest archive of sorts.

I have not done a stats post for some time so it is with great pleasure that I get to tell your part in all this according to the November stats:  •  “Unique Visitors: 9787  •  Total Visits: 53189  •  Hits per Day: 5270”  •  The MBs are down as I am not doing so many of the short short film …

About a month ago I proposed that, in light of the Republican sweep to the south, the left needed to get its act together to re-assert its control of the centre. I started a list of topics that needed discussion as part of the over-all plan and this is the first of those discussions. In relation …

Maybe the reason Jean and Dubya didn't get along is that they have similar qualities for better and worse. This quotation from the US president certainly had shades of Chretien:  •  “Bush dismissed concerns about strained ties between the United States and Canada, thanking those Canadians who …