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As an immigrant, I came to Canada as a young child -- I remember Guyana as a child would, and I have no interest to see the country as an adult. If I went back there today, I would be a tourist. Although I have citizenship and was born in Guyana, I am a Canadian citizen first -- I am Canadian. A short while back, a colleague at work forwarded me a story of a murder in Guyana that may have been politically motivated. The victim was a Canadian citizen that went back to Guyana to take a post as a government minister. He was not a Canadian. He was Guyanese, who simply claimed Canada as a haven while it was too dangerous for him in Guyana. It may be remarkable to some, but I actually had no interest in the story. I read the news report. It was a sad story. But it didn't get my blood boiling. It didn't make me want to go off and fix things there. Today, there are many who carry the Canadian passport, but are not Canadians. They may be permanent residents or even have cit...

Ah ... I'm left shaking my head at this one. The San Francisco Chronicle is running a story of one, Melanie Martinez , the host of a PBS late night show for kids, The Good Night Show . The show is apparently television pablum for the proto-adult set -- there to keep them satiated while the maladroit-adult set amble about before falling into their nightly coma. It's all safe for the kiddies. Safe that is, before PBS found out about Martinez past -- a shocking past. Apparently, seven years before, Martinez starred in two 30-seconds satire pieces called Technical Virgin . That collective 1-minute was apparently too much for PBS. So they fired her. She was unfit to host their children's program because she once joked about sex. According to PBS: "PBS Kids Sprout has determined that the dialogue in this video is inappropriate for her role as a preschool program host and may undermine her character's credibility with our audience." Yeah -- OK. If you feel...

Ad*Access , hosted at Duke University is an excellent repository of advertisements from publications dating between 1911 and 1955. The ads, mostly from American publications, have been split into five categories: Beauty & Hygiene, Transportation, Radio, Television, and World War II. The repository is a great place for those looking for a bit of history in marketing and advertising. It's also a cool collection of old ads.

Another reason stop eating fast food -- it's killing the environment. Cooking fast foods release volatile organic compounds and fine particulates, including oils, fats, aliphatic hydrocarbons, poly-aromatic hydrocarbons, aromatic amines, aldehydes and elemental carbon -- all of which goes into the atmosphere and contribute to climate change. According to Treehugger , cooking four hamburgers is the equivalent to driving a car for 1,000 miles -- in effect, this makes the combined pollution from fast food joints more dangerous than the output coming from some class of vehicles on the road. Restaurants in general are also a huge drain on power. They suck an inordinate amount of energy in order to cook, maintain air conditioned eating space and constantly clean. Most restaurants hardly give a thought to controlling their power consumption, let alone the environmental impact of their business. Further, if you think of the waste that they are responsible for, the impact they have on...

Not content to let facts carry the day, companies with large investments in the fossil fuel industry are buying their science "facts." The facts of global warming come from "alarmists" according to one executive of a utility company. Yes folks, the fact that polar ice continues to melt at increasing rates; that widespread changes in the environment is bringing changes in the native plant and animal species -- harbinger of what will happen to us; that record temperatures have been recorded over the last number of years; that changes to the planet's weather patterns are already being seen; doesn't seem to phase these people. The changes to the environment due to global warming is no longer long term -- it's happening now. The short term thinking seems to be rapidly falling, from years to months now. Denial seems to rule their day. So powerful is the compulsion to deny what is happening, that the power companies are banding together to raise funds for...

James Huggins' has an excellent post that provides cats with guidelines on how to manage their humans . If you have a cat, you'll get this.

Recently, Americans were polled to gauge their pulse on the Iraq war . Two questions revealed how completely ignorant the propaganda machine has made people south of the 49th. When asked if they believe Saddam Hussein had strong links with Al Qaeda, 64% said yes -- 30 % said no. Further, 50% still believe that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction before the US invaded, while 45% don't think they did. Anyone with at least a simian level of intelligence will know that next to Israel, the Saddam Hussein's Iraq was probably the biggest enemy of the fundamentalist Islam supported by Al Qaeda. Hussein was evil, but he was motivated out of self-interest, and the fundamentalists threatened his authority. That's why he was friends with the US for such a long time -- and was so effectively used to wage a painful war with Iran . This ignorance continues to prove that Americans can't tell the difference between Arab groups. They're all Arabs, they're all terrorists....

If you live in Southern Ontario, especially Toronto, you must have heard of MDG -- at least in some subconscious part of your mind, you've registered the letters MDG. They take out full page ads in the dailies and weekend newspapers. You can't miss them. Bold letters scream out at you, the value that MDG delivers. I decided to bite yesterday -- and go for one of their machines, mine having died after 8 good years of service. I never thought of myself as naive, but yesterday proved that I am. According to their ad, I can get their Vision 4000 D/2006 machine for $1077. It's a good deal when you read the spec. INTEL PENTIUM 4 PROCESSOR 3.6 GHZ WITH HT TECHNOLOGY FREE UPGRADE TO NEW INTEL DUAL CORE PROCESSOR ($200 VALUE!!!) GENUINE MICROSOFT WINDOWS XP HOME FREE UPGRADE TO XP-PRO MEDIA CENTER EDITION 2005 Genuine Intel Motherboard, Two DDR SDRAM DIMM sockets, DDR 400 MHz and DDR 333 MHz DIMMs, up to 2 GB of system memory. AwardBIOS for Intel resident in the 4Mbit FWH,...

My wife and I were up this past weekend in NOTL with her Aunt. If you don't know the place, it's a worthwhile tourist spot to check out. I'm not really hot on the shops -- but NOTL is known for being a town that loves flowers. Knowing that, I brought along the camera and took some photos. If you've done the Niagara Falls thing and have had your fill of the Vegas style commercialism, NOTL would certainly bring respite. And I think the desserts are better there.

Columbia University's Center for Climate Systems Research has produced a map projecting where in the world the future population will be living. Today, there are some 6.5 billion people on the planet -- and although projections have no certainty, it is expected that world population will continue to rise -- despite family size shrinking. Improved health care is expected to continue to give more people longer lifespans -- especially in the developed countries. By 2025, there may an additional 1.4 billion people in the world, based on medium projections. It's expected that population growth will come to most inhabited areas in the world -- however, there will be areas that will experience population decline. The greatest growth is expected in Asia, while the declines are expected in Eastern Europe. As population increases, there will an increase demand on already constrained natural resources and the environment. One doesn't need much of an imagination to see what the...

What would happen if you could compress the entire existence of the universe down to a single calendar year? What would that year look like? The late Carl Sagan apparently used just such an analogy to explain the universe. The entire 14 billion years of the universe would fill the year with a lot of uninteresting things from a human perspective. After the Big Bang on day one, it would take three months before the Milky Way is formed. Our solar system with our Sun and Earth wouldn't appear until August. In September, the oldest known life on Earth would appear, but it would take two more months before multi-celluar organisms show up. It wouldn't be until the last half of December that we would see the emergence of complex life, with the dinosaurs appearing on December 24th. On December 29th, the dinosaurs would vanish, and on the morning of December 31st, the first human ancestors would appear. Modern human history would start in the last 10 seconds before the end of th...

I'm not an expert on the regional conflicts plaguing the Middle East. I know only generalities. That's going to be enough for me to draw conclusions in this post however. The Middle East is never going to achieve lasting peace. There is just way more hate than love. What was Hezbollah thinking in picking this latest fight with Israel? Hezbollah may not have expected the overreaction, but they must have expected some reaction. Israel has demonstrated through their past actions that if nothing else, they will respond harshly to attacks. An eye for an eye -- or two eyes -- or all the eyes in a village. It's about revenge. It's about showing that the resolve is still there. Israel has accepted that they will kill civilians with their actions. Hezbollah knew this. Regardless of whether they expected a full scale ground invasion. They knew this. With the provocation of Israel, Hezbollah also accepted that there would be civilian casualties. This is the what gr...

Fat, Lazy and Stupid ... let's just say FLS people. What's with them? Before the uproar starts, let me clarify. There are fat people, call them obese if you want, they're still fat, who know they have an unhealthy problem, and probably want to do something about it. Let's extend these people a little cheer. They're trying. It's not easy. The odds are stacked against them (pun intended). Add lazy and stupid to the fat however, and you get a dangerous combination. These people should be driven off the planet. What's prompting this little venom from me? This WSJ article on the sidewalk SUV . That's the WSJ's term for the motorized scooters that is proliferating cities around the world. At first glance, it's a nice thing to see. Otherwise disabled people can finally gain a little bit of independence. But have you encountered the assholes who get transformed by these scooters to take on the persona of SUV drivers? You know them. They...

The LA Times is running an opinion piece by Jonathan Chait . In the article, Chait contends that it isn't just that Bush isn't smart -- the man "disdains intellectuals." In the last election for example, the Democrats refrained from attacking Bush's lack of intelligence, but the Republicans had no problems attacking Kerry's intelligence -- they dismissed his arguments as being too intellectual. Kerry's intelligence was seen was disadvantage. Bush was seen as a regular guy. That dumb, folksy, down-home, country-hick persona of Bush's seem to appeal to the regular Americans. Americans, and I suspect Canadians are no different, seem to prefer dumb people. You can see this in school kids. Being smart is different -- especially when most kids are just plain dumb. It's a phenomena that I can't understand. Society as a whole seems to value stupidity over intelligence. Don't believe me? Turn on your TV.

Baseline Magazine has an excellent summary on how Google manages their information technology , suggesting that businesses in general can learn from the Google approach. Google, in case you're not aware, is very secretive of the details of their IT investment and strategy. It is, after all, their bread and butter -- the key differentiator that keeps them one step ahead of Yahoo and Microsoft, in the ability to deliver relevant searches, instantly. Baseline has put together a pretty good story however, based on what little has been publicly released by the company -- and what has made its way out via analysts, former employees and Google's own presentations to academia. Google is apparently more open to academia -- probably because of their roots -- and probably because they recruit a vast number of new employees directly from schools. We all know of Google's prowess in the search arena -- but what of the technology that Google uses to run their own business? Well, the...

The Washington Post has a fairly interesting article on gender bias in the sciences. It profiles Ben Barres, formerly Barbara Barres, a neurobiologist at Stanford University's Medical Center. Nine years ago, Barres underwent a sex change to become male. Since then, he's enjoyed the privileges of being a male scientist that were not conferred to him when he was female. He recently published an opinion piece in the journal Nature, in which he argues from his personal experience, that women are not treated equal to men in the sciences. "By far the main difference I have noticed is that people who don't know I am transgendered treat me with much more respect. I can even complete a whole sentence without being interrupted by a man."

BusinessWeek magazine is currently running a cover article on the power of failure . Back in the day -- not so long ago -- business focus was on operational efficiencies, cost savings and getting customers to buy what was being sold. The day has changed, and with the emergence of the customer as king, the strategic differentiator has changed. The old measures of success, beaten into employees in the Jack Welch school of Six Sigma, are now being complimented by a softer approach -- one that favours a culture of risk taking, learning and innovation. To have employees embrace this shift however, isn't going to be easy. The instinct is not to step out of line. Risk taking, which leads to learning and innovation comes with failures. Failures lead to pink slips. Hence the conservative approach, which delivers no innovation and rewards mediocrity. To innovate, companies have to learn to manage failures intelligently. First is to create a culture where risk taking is championed. ...

She was only 14-years-old. Her father (34), mother (43) and sister (6) were all shot in the head first. Abeer was then raped by US soldiers before she was also shot in the head. Leading up to her rape and murder, Abeer was afraid -- she crossed the US checkpoint on a daily basis and had unwanted attention from the soldiers. Her mother had confided in neighbours that she was afraid that the soldiers would come to take her daughter away. No one thought it was possible. The soldiers are under arrest and may face the death penalty under US laws. US soldiers in Iraq are immune from Iraqi laws. Their deaths wouldn't be sufficient punishment, however. Abeer is survived by two brothers, 10 & 13, who were not home when their family was murdered. Read the details in this Reuters report . Update: July 28, 2006 On a related note, a BBC report has pieced together the story of Atefah Sahaaleh of Iran . She was executed by hanging on August 15, 2004. Her sentence: crimes against...

This past Thursday and Friday, my wife treated me to a mini-vacation for my birthday. It was a trip to Port Hope, about an hour away from Toronto. Thursday was a matinee of Honeymoon for Three -- a comedy of sorts at their Capitol Theatre. The production was, well, longer than it should be, and not as fast it should have been. We stayed at a B&B , which was an interesting treat. The proprietor thought I wasn't "as stupid as I looked" -- which I suppose was his way of extending a warm welcome. My wife wasn't amused. Port Hope is a little town on Lake Ontario, located at the western fringes of Northumberland County -- most will probably know it as the town that's outside of Coburg. It's home to the Ganaraska river and forest, named after the Iroquois village that was located on the site before the United Empire Loyalists arrived in the late 18th century. The town, like a lot of small towns in Ontario, takes pride in its colonial history. Quite a...

Who better to send off to war, to represent the United States in bringing war & peace to foreign nationals, than a bunch of white supremacists? Yes, you heard me right. Under pressure to swell the ranks of those being sent to their deaths, the US military has relaxed standards designed to eliminate white supremacists being trained to kill. The worry is that today's white supremacist soldier will come home to be tomorrow's home-grown terrorists. What is the military doing about the thousands of white supremacists joining? Some commanders take immediate action, but most are not inclined, especially if the losers are going to war. The military is also less inclined to make a big noise about the problem, as that may further alienate the poor black and hispanic kids from joining the forces. The American military was once moving to becoming a force where race wasn't an issue. Not anymore.

I love this Craigslist post ! I wouldn't exactly put things the way this author does, but I have to agree with her sentiments. The myths she set out to bust: The US was founded on Christian principles. US Conservatives tend to be patriotic, ethical Americans; liberals tend to hate America and are immoral. The US has a liberal media. The US doesn't need improvement compared to other countries; it is the greatest country in the world. The US government loves to help other countries.

The Progressive , a commie rag with a long history, has an interview with Venezuela's left-wing commie president, Hugo Chávez . Chávez has an audacious plan -- take over the world, starting with Central and South America -- then move up to North America. Ever since he was elected, Chávez has had this obsession with oil -- like his nemesis -- the defender of democracy; the savior of Christianity; and the protector of all that is innocent and right in the world, George W. Bush. Chávez's plan is to use Venezuela's oil money to bring social justice to his people at the expense of the established social and rich rulers of his country. What has hurt Venezuela's rich has also hurt American conglomerates with oil needles struck deep in the rich, black veins of Venezuela's crude. It has also threatened the power of Bush's allies in the Middle East. Chávez continues to be up to no good. Now I know we all like to cheer for the underdog, but in this instanc...

Researchers from the US National Bureau for Economic Research [PDF] have correlated foreign diplomats unpaid parking tickets in New York City with their country's relative corruption. The surprise? None. The more corrupt a country tends to be, the greater the likelihood that it has unpaid parking tickets. According to the paper: Corruption is believed to be a major factor impeding economic development, but the importance of legal enforcement versus cultural norms in controlling corruption is poorly understood. To disentangle these two factors, we exploit a natural experiment, the stationing of thousands of diplomats from around the world in New York City. Diplomatic immunity means there was essentially zero legal enforcement of diplomatic parking violations, allowing us to examine the role of cultural norms alone. This generates a revealed preference measure of corruption based on real-world behavior for government officials all acting in the same setting. We find tremendous p...

Not only has Kenneth Lay left the building (Enron that is) -- the man has left this world. Ken Lay, founder and chief crook of Enron, kicked the bucket yesterday -- dying of a heart attack just over a month after being convicted of fraud and conspiracy that led to the collapse of Enron. In the end, Lay may have gotten off easy. There are still many civil lawsuits pending -- and even though Lay isn't around, his estate (aka his family) will have to bear the burden of defending his empire and legacy.

This afternoon I went out bike riding for a bit. The heat was on in the city, but I took the easy way out -- I rode through a trail is sheltered in green. It's a good stretch of wild that has been allowed to survive in Toronto. I started out at Leslie and Steeles, riding through the East Don Park, heading south. The trail runs along the Don River -- and if you follow it, you can make it all the way down to the lake. Last year, I cheated a bit by starting at Sunnybrook Park, and almost made it to the lake. I'm starting to get ready for that trek -- although I may just take the ride from home, instead of cheating. (I'm not sure how I'll come back home yet.) Today I didn't go too far. I went as far as Leslie and Sheppard, then turned around and came back home. The entire trip, including stops for a drink and a bit of a break at Sheppard, took me 1 hour. By the end of it, my thighs felt like they were going to burst. I'm still a little wobbly after runni...

Click on the link to read another story of American madness. A Veteran was sitting having a coffee in a VA facility, wearing a Veterans for Peace t-shirt. He was approached by security and asked to leave or be arrested. Why? He was protesting. You see, sitting quietly, wearing the wrong t-shirt in America constitutes protesting. Suffice it to say, the offending veteran was arrested and charged. He will have his day in court. That is the freedom he fought for in Vietnam. Update: July 2, 2006 Just a quick update on more insanity. Check out a Media Matters post on the Bush administration's declaration of war on media freedom. Also, Lawrence Lessig writes on a similar topic in Wired Magazine , in his examination of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth . Update: July 3, 2006 Different topic, more madness. Read on 27B Stroke 6 , Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) explaining how the internet works. This idiot is part of the Senate Commerce Committee -- the committee that will...