January 2005
Elections Canada Abroad
Posted by on Monday, January 31, 2005 in - leave a comment
I was looking around the wonderful BBC's pictures site (as we sit about listening to BBC Scotland after dinner) when I noticed these two photos from yesterday's Iraq election and I had a bit of a deja vue...from a Canadian Federal election. Cardboard booths, paper ballot, plunked into a big sealed …
Tsunami Fund Closed?
Posted by on Monday, January 31, 2005 in - 2 comments
While there is a decent chance this is being misstated, doesn't this CBC PEI report seem to indicate that the Canadian Red Cross is not collecting new tsunami relief money anymore? If this is due to the Red Cross being a first response sort of agency, they really ought to redirect people to the …
Spring Is Coming
Posted by on Monday, January 31, 2005 in - 3 comments
With such a late start to winter cold, I keep thinking this is going to be a very short season, but the BBC seem to be pushing it with the announcement of a first signs of spring contest. There are still seven weeks to March 21st around here as far as I can tell.
Money So Hard To Count
Posted by on Monday, January 31, 2005 in - leave a comment
Odd timing to find out that about 40% of the oil money the Iraqi Coalition Provisional Authority was suppose to handle is unaccounted for. Much may have been just that - unaccounted: • “An earlier auditors' report from last year revealed evidence of wholesale carelessness with large amounts of …
Conference
Posted by on Sunday, January 30, 2005 in - leave a comment
Being at a conference - even a good one like this - is like being on an elevator for two days, all looking in the same direction. The room we are sitting in is a bit something. Clearly a nod to generic euro-aristo, fake faded tapestries, gold trim on cream wall, far too many bevelled mirrors. The …
Elevator Bay
Posted by on Sunday, January 30, 2005 in - 3 comments
I did this playing with the Picasa widget from Google, a photo editor and library system that you get for free. I have only used MS Paint for my photos on this my organ so being able to straighten out a horizon is a treat. Now that We all know that Google is going to take over every aspect of our …
Iraqis Vote
Posted by on Sunday, January 30, 2005 in - leave a comment
Good to see that Iraqis are voting in big numbers. One inevitable - and, frankly, somewhat cliché - election day event occurred: • “Further north in the Kurdistan town of Salamanca, CNN's Nic Robertson reported seeing a 90-year-old woman being taken to a booth in a wheelbarrow. Others came on …
I am vain enough to want to link to these posts at some bigger blogs.
Posted by on Sunday, January 30, 2005
Posted by on Saturday, January 29, 2005
Let It Bleed
Posted by on Saturday, January 29, 2005 in - 3 comments
This is bad for the owners. • “There's still a lot of money left in the owners' $300-million US lockout fund. Very few teams have touched the so-called war chest, compiled by the National Hockey League to help out owners during the lockout, according to a report in Thursday's Globe and Mail …
Secret Canadians
Posted by on Saturday, January 29, 2005 in - 6 comments
It was interesting to read this in the Toronto Star this morning: • “The Canadians on the ground say something marvellous is happening in Iraq. You may not see it just yet, not through the dust and debris of car bombs. But they do. And the words they use to describe it are nothing short of …
Train
Posted by on Saturday, January 29, 2005 in - leave a comment
Lake Ontario from the 5:35 am to the Big Smoke. Click if you must. • I met a man on the way back who took the train to and from Detroit every week. Ten hours each way to his work. I was tired of being on the train after two and a half hours. I do not seem to travel well anymore. Maybe it's …
Room 1224
Posted by on Saturday, January 29, 2005 in - leave a comment
I've done this kind of thing before.
I Saw It And I Took A Photo
Posted by on Friday, January 28, 2005 in - 4 comments
So I was in Toronto locked in a hotel for 48 hours at a conference, busting out for only two hours. And I saw this outside of C'est What.
5:35 am Train...
Posted by on Thursday, January 27, 2005 in - 3 comments
...means 5:00 am taxi call means 4:25 am alarm all for a course on public procurement. Surely $700 buck screwdrivers are not all that bad. Off to the Big Smoke. Film at eleven.
Indoctrination By Arthur
Posted by on Wednesday, January 26, 2005 in - 4 comments
Via Michael, it is sad to see another cartoon accused of promoting family values other than the families valued by the people who are at it, you know, valuing families at some kind of family-valuing headquarters in Washington DC: • “The not-yet-aired episode of "Postcards from Buster" shows the …
My Kind of Party
Posted by on Wednesday, January 26, 2005 in - 2 comments
Up Helly Aa in the Shetland Islands.
Not Even A Trickle Down
Posted by on Wednesday, January 26, 2005 in - 5 comments
This graphic from the New York Times on the deficit projection alternatives would make Canadian conservatives gag. Why are the steepest decents received so well by their comrades down south?
Mopeds to Dakar 2006
Posted by on Tuesday, January 25, 2005 in - 3 comments
Here is the plan. You all pony up, say, $500 each. Me and portland head to Spain, enroll in the Dakar Rally next January, mess around Barcelona with the mopeds we rent for the afternoon, portland fakes a rolled ankle or an eyelash injury and we call it off for an inquiry into el mundo de las tapas …
The Devil Does Not Recommend Canada
Posted by on Tuesday, January 25, 2005 in - 3 comments
Because you all need more Robert Burns (1759-1796) in your lives and this is his birthday. I hope you all had your haggis, neeps and tatties. • “ • Address Of Beelzebub • To the Right Honourable the Earl of Breadalbane, President of the Right Honourable and Honourable the Highland Society …
Stats Nerd
Posted by on Tuesday, January 25, 2005 in - 2 comments
There are two sorts of bloggers - stats nerds and liars. There is some other thing that that distinction applies to, some other private thing...I'll think of it later, I guess. • Anyway, I went through a fretful weekend with the server stats down and places Site Meter and Extreme Tracking on my …
Marmite to Rochester!
Posted by on Tuesday, January 25, 2005 in - 8 comments
We may not be able to work out a deal on weaponization of space but US-Canadian barter-based trade relations took a great leap forward with the Marmite and Vegemite shipment to to the Rochester home of Linda and Rob and their fool-for-Marmite laddie.* • In return we got Green Mountain Coffee …
Wait Ten Years And We Are Europe
Posted by on Tuesday, January 25, 2005 in - 2 comments
It is interesting to read that Poland is balking at the new EU Directive on the Patentability of Computer-Implemented Inventions. Right now only the US really patents software but Europe is moving towards it and when Europe moves on a legal standard, we move eventually. This is the case with …
Blahging
Posted by on Monday, January 24, 2005 in - 8 comments
Bloggers talking to bloggers about blogging. • Darren and Will share their notes from the same presentation at a blogging conference. It's great that they are enjoying themselves and all but why do their notes give me the willies? Will noted the comment: "if you talk about something long enough …
Topozone
Posted by on Monday, January 24, 2005 in - 1 comment
I must be the last map nerd to the free topographic maps service party. Topozone is the answer to all my topographical dreams. Except it does not quite make it into most of Canada. It does, however, cover most of the Thousand Islands and providing the map nerd with a thousand more nerdy facts. Now …
Blizzard Coverage
Posted by on Monday, January 24, 2005 in - 9 comments
Good blizzard coverage from Mike and Ian. We really missed it once again - despite a few hours on Saturday. • Seeing as this is now officially the boringest day of the year, talking about the not weather is even acceptable today. • Update: Arthur has a great photo of his view in Truro, NS of …
Sookies?
Posted by on Monday, January 24, 2005 in - 3 comments
Between the cold going around the house, the cold outside the house and the blizzard we just missed, Arthur and I had good discussion on the weekend which covered the words "sook", "sookie-baby", "suck" and the potential in Dutch for the super-diminutive and demeaning "sookjie". The suffix "-jie" …
Captain Scarlet Returns
Posted by on Sunday, January 23, 2005 in - 1 comment
Timpany lovers and bad Cary Grant impersonators everywhere will be pleased with Captain Scarlet's return to Canadian TV on BBC Kids. As a recap: • “It is the year 2068 and, following what they mistakenly believe to be an attack on their Martian city, the Mysterons declare war on mankind. In the …
More Zooming South
Posted by on Sunday, January 23, 2005 in - leave a comment
Last summer I took some shots through my binoculars to the south and was surprised how much there was to see. I have this idea that if I get just the right day I will be able to see White Face, the Olympic mountain over by Lake Placid a few hundred kilometres to the east. No such luck so far but …
Barszcz Mexicali
Posted by on Sunday, January 23, 2005 in - 3 comments
Day four of a cold and a cold snap. I am sick of being sick and that takes a lot. A lot of bad TV and dull web reading. Tiger Balm has failed as has the zymurgic drip. This calls for Polish beet root soup with Franks Red Hot Sauce, Chipolte Tabasco, Habanero sauce and Sambal Oelak. The barszcz …
Tinky - Meet Bob
Posted by on Sunday, January 23, 2005 in - 7 comments
Reports are coming in that Tinky Winky feels a bit relieved, no longer standing alone in the cause of tolerance of sexual orientation of asexual cartoon characters everywhere. God, too. God was originally going to call it the Book of Tinky Winky and Sponge Bob Squarepants rather than the Book of …
Snow At 2:28 PM
Posted by on Saturday, January 22, 2005 in - 5 comments
Home with the cold that is ranging though the kids' elementary school, there is great opportunity to do nothing and note nothings. Like the weather as forecast in amazingly accurate detail by the US Weather Service: • “SHORT TERM FORECAST • NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BUFFALO NY • 127 PM EST …
Tags and Five Degrees of Trackback
Posted by on Saturday, January 22, 2005 in - 2 comments
I wrote something over at John of Argghhh!!! (remember: one "r", two "g"s and three "h"s) and then got trackback to the comment. Here is what I wrote: • “These times your country are living in are perhaps too "interesting", under the logic of that Chinese curse. One thing we up here have up on …
Stop the NHL Madness!!
Posted by on Friday, January 21, 2005 in - 2 comments
It was interesting to read the statements of Trevor Linden, head of the NHL Players Association after attempts to discuss the current lock-out collapsed: • “With commissioner Gary Bettman out of the way and hardline owners like Boston’s Jeremy Jacobs and Carolina’s Peter Karmanos out of the …
Sherry Par-tay!!!
Posted by on Friday, January 21, 2005 in - 7 comments
I have a bit of a bug about misuse of protocol such as the improper use of "Mr. Premier" as an aggrandizement of your meerly "Honourable" Mister. I mean, if you are going to have a silly system, use it correctly. So, while doing a little research on protocol to answer the question how long John …
Emotional Swings
Posted by on Friday, January 21, 2005 in - leave a comment
For people who I suspect a few months ago were leading the charge against the admittedly strange office of the Canada's Governor-General, Albertan conservatives have gone off the deep-end over the GG's failure to attend the funeral of that province's Lieutenant-Governor, Lois Hole. From the Globe …
Sticky Bun Withdrawal
Posted by on Thursday, January 20, 2005 in - 3 comments
Much sadness met the news last week that Cards Bakery on King Street suffered from a fire. Cards was (and hopefully will be again) the home of the unreasonably large pastry. Like any good bakery they had day-olds for a ridiculously low price which, despite the apparent petrification the high sugar …
Do the Basques Now Cheer?
Posted by on Thursday, January 20, 2005 in - 3 comments
I had a busy day today, running from meeting to meeting, and missed the NPR coverage of the speechification, so here is a link to the President of the United States's speech at his inauguration today. As far as speeches go - remembering Grannie's mantra "handsome is as handsome does" - it is a …
Harper On Planet Mars
Posted by on Thursday, January 20, 2005 in - leave a comment
Michael in Atlanta of Gay Orbit is one of my favorite reads in the morning and, as he is a ex-pat Canuck, he often covers Canadian news. His observations this morning on Stephen Harper's communications director's idea of how to win a Canadian Federal election are exactly on point: • “Don’t …
Cheapest Mobile Blogging
Posted by on Thursday, January 20, 2005 in - 10 comments
This summer I plan a road trip that includes hotels with internet hook up. I want to maintain this site for the two weeks I am away but want to spend as little as possible doing that. I also plan to visit some US micros for photo-laden posts at A Good Beer Blog. I have no laptop. What would you …
Dr. Rice Confirmed
Posted by on Wednesday, January 19, 2005 in - 5 comments
I let NPR's coverage of the confirmation hearings for Dr. Rice as US Secretary of State drone on these last two days and heard two remarkable statements this morning. • In the first, Dr. Rice stated that Milosovic and Saddam Hussain were not the same problem? This was a bare response without any …
Ben In The Hills
Posted by on Tuesday, January 18, 2005 in - 1 comment
Sometimes I think blogs should sound like single sideband radio, that technological cheat which only transmits half the arc of the radio wave waiting for the receiver mirror to catch it and, if a fancy model, duplicate that half wave, reversing one of them and stitching the all back together. It …
Was It The Swiss Guard?
Posted by on Tuesday, January 18, 2005 in - 4 comments
Maybe the Pope has a few tricks up his cassock sleeves: • “A Catholic archbishop who was kidnapped in Mosul on Monday has been freed a day after he was captured, the Vatican said. A ransom of $200,000 US initially had been demanded for the release of Archbishop Basile Georges Casmoussa, who …
Busy Monday
Posted by on Tuesday, January 18, 2005 in - leave a comment
3043 visits from 1282 visitors yesterday. I wonder if you post an item about a Chinese dissident whether that triggers the Chinese government's bots. Anyway, biggest day - and even on a Monday when I am elected only Mr. Fourth. Wooo. If you are actually human and stop by here, please sign the …
Things I Am Surprised I Eat
Posted by on Tuesday, January 18, 2005 in - 3 comments
This is a list for my own record-keeping which I will add to. You may add your own: • Kellogg's All-Bran Bars - individually wrapped bowel blasts. I am getting older faster than any human ever. Entirely in accordance with my Scots heritage, however, and its bowel health obsessions. I suppose if …
Regiopolis The First
Posted by on Monday, January 17, 2005 in - 5 comments
Posted by on Monday, January 17, 2005
Mr Fourth?!?!
Posted by on Monday, January 17, 2005 in - 16 comments
Mr. Fourth! Both Gen X at 40 and A Good Beer Blog take a fourth at the 2004 Canadian Blog Awards. I feel like the Canadian swimming team. • So what does that get me? A cheese tray even? Many thanks for all who voted...just not often enough. I think over half the votes were from me. Oh, well …
An Almost Giant Dies
Posted by on Monday, January 17, 2005 in - 1 comment
Very surreal days back then. Gorby visited China a few weeks before and during the summer I worked at the law school, Chinese grad students were clogging the faxes with messages to the outlying provinces of their country. Awful close. And then it was only my favorite guy and the others facing the …
The Weekend of No Accomplishment
Posted by on Sunday, January 16, 2005 in - leave a comment
While ambition and accomplishment are fine things in themselves as far as they go, is there anything better than two days of doing nothing but working your way through the groceries and napping and napping. I figure this is the first weekend since November which did not include travel and/or …
Totally Dad
Posted by on Saturday, January 15, 2005 in - 1 comment
When I worked in the Wool Sweater Outlet in Halifax's Historic Properties in 1985, all the junior-high south end Halifax kids wanted the 48" chest oiled wool sweaters to wear with their shorts and woolly socks as the Halifax cool uniform. Although I told them (and sold them) the 40 inch to let the …
Atlantic Canada is Right II
Posted by on Saturday, January 15, 2005 in - 1 comment
Today's Globe and Mail (subscription required for access to the articles so they are not linked) contains two facts that confirms that, especially for the case of Newfoundland, the national perception that Atlantic Canada does not need a new deal is just wrong. These two facts are in addition to …
NFL Weekend
Posted by on Saturday, January 15, 2005 in - 4 comments
For all the blabbification here and in my brain about being a sports fan, I really have never loved the NFL much. I like CFL as a better game. This is what I told myself - better game with poorer players. And that the Grey Cup is always a more exciting game than the Super Bowl. That is still true …
Kingston Bloggers Meeting
Posted by on Friday, January 14, 2005 in - leave a comment
I had a very nice time. It is a good thing once in a while to say you have had a very nice time and 20 years past undergrad it is good to say that a gathering of people in undergrad is a pleasant thing. Zoe (whose name 'nee is not her name unless it is) organized well. Good organizing as one …
Blogging Codes
Posted by on Friday, January 14, 2005 in - 14 comments
Here is an interesting essay on the practice of posting blogging codes of ethics. As I am of the integrity-inschmegrity school of blogging (which is located in rural New Brunswick but I won't tell you where), this are pretty funny if you find type-A's funny. I am more inclined to the arbitrary …
Round-about or Rotary
Posted by on Thursday, January 13, 2005 in - 10 comments
Mike in Halifax raises the important question of when is a rotary a round-about and vice-versa. I never knew there was a difference. Will this affect the one (whatever it is) at Port Elgin, NB, on the way to PEI. I mean, will Haligonians now import their round-about ways and foist them on an …
Bad Day To Be A Cow
Posted by on Thursday, January 13, 2005 in - 6 comments
When Albertan wants 15% of their cows killed off, you know it is bad out there: • “Alberta Premier Ralph Klein is calling for a massive cull of older cattle to allay the fears of consumers and Canada's trading partners after the discovery of a third case of mad cow disease. The radical move …
Royalty Dork
Posted by on Wednesday, January 12, 2005 in - 24 comments
I can recall, twenty odd years ago, at a Kings College fancy dress up during undergrad telling the jerk to leave who thought dressing like a Nazi was funny. The bar refused him service, no one suggested there was any excuse and it was done. Why did no one assist Prince Harry with that simple truth …
My Favorite Bear
Posted by on Wednesday, January 12, 2005 in - 1 comment
I just like this bear and I am not telling you where it is. Inuit carving made of petrified bone. Click for a biggie.
Towards A Haiku Civil Service
Posted by on Wednesday, January 12, 2005 in - 8 comments
“Ikram, then I, pose • Questions on government prose: • Whether change would be best - • And not just in jest - • which spawns bureaucratic poesy flows.”
Some Good News
Posted by on Tuesday, January 11, 2005 in - leave a comment
It seems like it has been a right kicking of bad tidings since Boxing Day. Fortunately, even though it is such a little thing, you can be reminded that a 17 year old can just be a kid even when he is going to be the next big thing: • “Crosby put the red jersey in his hockey bag when the team …
Free Beer
Posted by on Tuesday, January 11, 2005 in - 5 comments
Cory at Boing has linked us all to a recipe for a beer that is claiming it is licenced under creative commons license. The beer is called Vores Øl or "Our Beer." The odd thing about this - and an example of the wacky thinking about copyright being spouted at Boing - is that a beer recipe is not …
Your Work Email Is You
Posted by on Tuesday, January 11, 2005 in - 1 comment
One of the more interesting things about the Canadian Federal Personal Information Protection and Electionic Documents Act is the definition of personal information: • “``personal information'' means information about an identifiable individual, but does not include the name, title or business …
Sadness
Posted by on Tuesday, January 11, 2005 in - 2 comments
I do not write much about work because I quite like my work and it is usually not that good an idea to write about your work. But I would be missing a great sadness not to note the very surprising passing of the CAO of Kingston, my boss's boss's boss, Bert Meunier, whose obituary in the …
Keyhole Bought By Google
Posted by on Monday, January 10, 2005 - 2 comments
I have given a lecture to GIS students at Queens on the legal issues (not to mention security issues) posed by space-based mapping on the web and given myself the heebee-geebees when I tell them where the technology they will be using will take them in the span of their career. Well, the future is …
Study Results In
Posted by on Monday, January 10, 2005 in - 2 comments
Preliminary study results are in on the actual effect of the Great Lake League of Bloggers after six full months of operations. Click on the chart for primary findings.
Haddock Boom
Posted by on Monday, January 10, 2005 in - 2 comments
Apparently, Nova Scotia's George's Bank - a body of relatively shallow sea, not of financial investment - is enjoying a boom in the haddock catch: • “"Lots of haddock on Georges. Phenomenal, I would say," said ground fisherman Milton d'Eon. "I've been fishing for close to 20 years, fish dragging …
The Metropolitans
Posted by on Monday, January 10, 2005 in - leave a comment
I like lots of teams. I am a fan of sports as much as more than living and breathing one side over another - except maybe for the Morton...and maybe the Red Sox. But once in a while a team strikes your imagination. For years I have listened to WFAN New York 660 am and WNBC before it - not on-line …
Bloggers Block
Posted by on Monday, January 10, 2005 in - 5 comments
Sometimes I do not have a clue what to write about. Sometimes it is because I really am clueless but sometimes it is because I am a bit uncomfortable still. The tsunami reaction is somewhere between the two for me and I do not know why. • Beyond the inevitable fraudsters, this morning on the CBC …
Boot Shinny
Posted by on Sunday, January 9, 2005 in - leave a comment
20 by 20 foot ice surface, 175 km up the 401 at my pal's place. Nice hockey hats.
Plymouth Argyle
Posted by on Saturday, January 8, 2005 in - 4 comments
In a few minutes, Plymouth Argyle will play Everton live on the tube in the 3rd round of the FA Cup. I have always liked the name of the team and their particular shade of green. It is a pretty brave team that plays in solid green. Unjazzy. Uncool. Here is the history of the team's name so it is …
Let Us Trim Our Hair
Posted by on Saturday, January 8, 2005 in - 2 comments
Sometimes it is just scary how what is very important to the leadership of North Korea is also very important to me. Further... • “Tidy attire "is important in repelling the enemies' manoeuvres to infiltrate corrupt capitalist ideas and lifestyle and establishing the socialist lifestyle of the …
Curving
Posted by on Friday, January 7, 2005 in - leave a comment
Not turning. Not tipping. Just curving points. • In saskatchewan - curling points.
Someone Is A Little Sensitive
Posted by on Friday, January 7, 2005 in - 2 comments
A rather twisted mentality...I may be a murderer but don't you dare insinuate I am part of that...that...large section of the population who generally live normal, law-abiding, happy lives. Let us all hope this is tossed out of court for displaying no cause of action:
Lunenburg
Posted by on Friday, January 7, 2005 in - 1 comment
Fifteen years ago, I looked pretty hard to get a decent job on the South Shore of Nova Scotia's Lunenburg County. Couldn't swear in 18th century German as it turned out. Sadly, according to the Toronto Star, things may be about to change there: • “The same brightly painted clapboard homes have …
Dodgeball
Posted by on Thursday, January 6, 2005 in - leave a comment
Amongst all these serious questions, I am compelled to find more play in my life. Compelled but not necessarily driven in that mid-winter kind of way. But if I could get myself through the snows and into the gym, it would be a good dodgeball league more than anything that might get me there …
Catch 22 for DART
Posted by on Thursday, January 6, 2005 in - leave a comment
Here is something I do not get: • “DART leaders preparing to leave CFB Trenton, Thursday, classified their mission as a non-traditional one, given that they weren't being sent to Sri Lanka as a first-response unit. Instead, they will help hospitals and aid organizations that are already working …
Sad Science
Posted by on Thursday, January 6, 2005 in - 20 comments
I was very saddened to read this from the CBC today on super-preemies: • “ • The rate of premature births is increasing in developed countries, partly because of a rise in older mothers and multiple births from reproductive technologies. Guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics …
Secret Subbuteo Fan
Posted by on Wednesday, January 5, 2005 in - 5 comments
Being an immigrant's kid is a bit tough socially. You never quite fit in with the stuff the other kids do as it is a tiny bit weird to you and, as a result, your weirdness is weird to them. And there is the whole trying to be like the old country cousins who make fun of your crap skills at penny …
Indonesian Aid
Posted by on Wednesday, January 5, 2005 in - 6 comments
I was quite disheartened to see last night on the CBC TV's main news show, The National, a report from Indonesia showing the army there is feeding itself very well from the food being donated to the survivors of the tsunami. Camera shots showed it being stockpiled and withheld while people …
<i>NYT</i> on Oatmeal
Posted by on Wednesday, January 5, 2005 in - leave a comment
Is this the most trivial thing ever written upon in the New York Times or has there actually been an article on show laces and eyelets?
Dream Boss
Posted by on Wednesday, January 5, 2005 in - 5 comments
Short of actually telling the snipers to shoot, this might be the worst boss ever: • “On his first day at work, the new sheriff of Clayton County called 27 employees into his office on Monday, fired them and had snipers stand guard on the roof as they were escorted out the door. A judge on …
"Everton" Mike Will Be Pleased
Posted by on Tuesday, January 4, 2005 in - 1 comment
Mike picked Everton as his EPL team for something to do this year and they have been inspired by his vote of confidence. As if in return for his own personal short-lived loyalty, they have spent £6,000,000 and picked up the pathetic Southampton's only Crown jewel, striker James Beattie: • “That …
Lessig on <i>The Connection</i>
Posted by on Tuesday, January 4, 2005 in - 1 comment
I just listened to Lawrence Lessig on NPR’s show The Connection discussing the Creative Commons license and somewhat in support of “Free Culture” his book on how corporations control creativity. Here are my immediate lunch-hour thoughts which may be either quite pithy and brilliant or junk I will …
One Full Month
Posted by on Tuesday, January 4, 2005 in - leave a comment
I am wondering this morning why I am so dozy...or at least especially so and then I realize it has been a solid month of holiday-ness for us. A month since the serious shopping, the parties, the time-off, working (or a reasonable facsimile) in the quiet office, trips in the car and sleeping in …
How Faithful?
Posted by on Tuesday, January 4, 2005 in - 1 comment
An interesting story on the Associate Press wire this morning indicates that the US government's support of "faith based" charity has some issues in defining faith: • “...in South Carolina, Crisis Ministries doesn’t consider itself religious at all. "Someone has obviously designated us a …
Posted by on Tuesday, January 4, 2005
Which One Makes You Nervous?
Posted by on Monday, January 3, 2005 in - leave a comment
I noticed this list in a CTV report on Federal government tsumnami relief measures announced Sunday: • A team of ten RCMP forensics experts will assist the victim identification process in Thailand.Canada's national stockpile of emergency supplies -- including 20,000 blankets, 40 electrical …
Wayne on Labour Negotiation
Posted by on Monday, January 3, 2005 in - 3 comments
Wayne has spoken: • “"If this is not decided in the next few days, I'm scared we could be looking at a year, a year and a half, two years, not just three months like a lot of people thought in September, " Gretzky said Sunday during a news conference at the world junior hockey championship …
Future Bowlers
Posted by on Monday, January 3, 2005 in - leave a comment
Tsunami Response
Posted by on Monday, January 3, 2005 in - 1 comment
It is interesting to watch the politicians everywhere trying to keep up with the groundswell of public need and demand to do the right thing in response to the tsunami. From the BBC I read this morning that... • “Ministers have been "playing catch-up" with public opinion in their response to the …
Nearest Mexico
Posted by on Sunday, January 2, 2005 in - leave a comment
One for NYCO, unless I am the last to know. I had not twigged, I do not believe, to the fact that one of my favorite photo-bloggers, the NYC-based author of what about the plastic animals?, was originally from Mexico, New York, half wayish between Watertown and Syracuse. His latest post has two …
Freezing Rain
Posted by on Sunday, January 2, 2005 in - 3 comments
Racing along at ten kilometres • It is quite the thing to watch drivers ignore a freezing rain warning that includes the word "treacherous". I am not clear on who treachery is being invoked by this adjective, which law is suffering the treason, but suffice it to say we did not hit the roads and …
Cory Doctorow Goes On Again
Posted by on Sunday, January 2, 2005 in - 11 comments
He does go on and, like creationist theory spouted to pentecostals, Cory Doctorow's anti-digital rights management posts like the latest at Boing do quite well with the right audience - but he really does not get the reality of the law of copyright that he lives within. Science fiction is much …
More Blogs Closing Down
Posted by on Saturday, January 1, 2005 in - 17 comments
In the last few months a few of my favorite blogs have gone silent and in the last few days there were a few more. The reason is usually the same - the need to get on with the real things in life. This is an interesting phenomena, especially given the self-proclaimed salvation for all things that …
Tiger Balm and Ice Cream Sandwiches
Posted by on Saturday, January 1, 2005 in - 2 comments
I was so sensible. Even boring. Watched a bad bowl game. Sipped a teaspoon or two of sherry. Drifted to sleep listening to the KMOX in St. Louis countdown from the next time zone west. That is it! I under-did it. • Yet, getting up too early to catch the Liverpool v. Chelsea game it is still time …
