That's a Joseph Heller if I ever saw one

You can't win with some people.

First, Mark C. agrees with Ezra Levant that a PM candidate, like Stephane Dion would be if a general election is ever called, should only hold one citizenship:

"Unlike the GG, M. Dion did not actively apply for French nationality...Nonetheless, he should renounce French citizenship "

I can accept that statement if that's what he expects of any leader of Her Majesty's opposition or Prime Minister or a Governors General.

But then Mark C. turns around and mocks the renunciation of French citizenship from Stephane Dion because that's what people like Mark C. expected of him:

"So, Citoyen Dion, you have family feelings that are so important to your identity. But if it becomes a question of power, tant pis pour maman. Eiskalt.

The pragmatic egoist. The tears, count 'em."

Sir, I say sir, that's dishonest.

You can, however, win with other people.

Free! It's all FREE!

Via Declan AND Kung Fu Monkey,

A guide to free software that allows you to replace most standard productivity software that you would have to sell an arm for, like Microsoft Office, Photoshop, iTunes (well, this one's already free, but if you want to be free from the clutches of the big and scary Apple Corp. too...), etc.

Everyone likes Free.

Apparently, third place is where you want to be.

On a strange saturday night, two candidates came from third place to win their respective leaderships.

First, Ed Stelmach came from behind to defeat Jim Dinning and Ted Morton to become the premier-designate of Alberta and the leader of the provincial Progressive Conservatives.

I've read very little of Stelmach, so I'll have to start learning more into Alberta politics if I end up working in Calgary. I probably won't agree with many of his positions, but if I can respect his principles and he's less reactionary than Ralph Klein, then I can live with that.

Second, Stephane Dion came from behind to beat the two frontrunners of the Federal Liberal Party, Bob Rae and Michael Ignatieff, respectively, and become the Leader of the Opposition.

As for Dion, he's pledged his platform around the concept of Sustainable Development, except he actually seems to know what he's talking about when he uses the three pillars: economic, social and environmental sustainability. If he can actually form a coherent platform from this, using help from the likes of Gerard Kennedy and Martha Hall Findlay, it might actually make me consider voting for the Liberals in future elections.

He has two weaknesses that I care about: his failure to do accomplish anything with Kyoto when he was in government. And his lack of a sound foreign policy strategy. I hope he can correct these two flaws (well, the former really requires an admittance of failure while the latter will be a bit tougher...)

Either way, the surge in support for the Green Party in the London by-election and the election of Dion has sparked a small flame of optimism in me about the possible future direction in Canadian politics.

One step forward, two steps back

CBC to revive hour-long local/regional newscasts for 6pm.

Oh, Good Grief!

The post's title was too easy, but I had to go there. I just saw the Charlie Brown Christmas Special and I had forgotten how much I had liked it, especially its straightforward message about the creeping (well, not so much creeping anymore) commercialism of current Christmas practices and how celebrants should remember and be celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ (historical and political arguments, aside) instead.

But broadcasting it on Nov. 28 is a tad too early, isn't it?

At Western

my friend Elaine sent me this blog post about UWO (University of Western Ontario) soliciting comments about how to balance the need for green space versus parking on campus. While that's nothing new, what's really interesting is that the blog is an official UWO blog set up by the administration, called "At Western".

It seems (anecdotally anyways) Western has been more progressive towards using Internet technology and making it standard practice, at least when compared to Queen's. I don't recall, for example, Queen's admin setting up a blog to interact with students. Western's wireless network, from what I've heard, is also campus-wide, whereas Queen's is only available in certain areas (and even then, it's spotty at times). Although, some Queen's admin have Facebook accounts, but that's just weird.

While there've only been a moderate numbers of comments (20ish seems to be the max lately), I would be more interested in looking at the total number of hits for each post to see whether students are actually going to read this blog, how well-known this is and whether it's an effective strategy in communicating with students.

Either way, I find it impressive that the administration is striving to keep up with current technology.

Logic Puzzles!

I found some logic puzzles courtesy of Kottke, so I hope you enjoy them. Some of them are challenging, some of them are interesting and some of them are frustrating.

The questions are HERE.

The answers are HERE.

The Limited Arc TV series

For all its trite and melodramatic delivery of the dialoge, I LOVE Babylon 5. I have likely posted about this before, but I don't feel like digging up the older post as I have yet to go back and add subject links to all my old posts (now that Google has provided this option) so it would take quite a bit of time.

One of my favourite things about the show was that J. Michael Straczynski, the creator, envisioned this series, his story, to have a definitive beginning, middle and an end. I had once heard that he wrote the scripts in order to have the series completed in 5 season. How long did it take the series to complete? 5. It made for very satisfying TV watching because the major plotlines and most of the subplots were resolved by the end.

Unlike Lost, where it seems like the current story's being dragged out because it's become popular so news execs want to milk it and stretch the series for all as long as possible. Consequently, the story's suffering from its poor storytelling and irrelevant plot twists; it's hemmorrhaging viewers to other shows because nothing's being resolved.

The solution of course is to have series like Lost be written with a limited number of seasons in mind, with a definite beginning, middle and end. I'm not the only one who believes this would work:

"Viewers would be both more willing to sign on at the beginning (knowing their investment will pay off) and more inclined to buy DVDs later (either as catch-up for newbies or as a satisfying boxed set)."

"But which would you rather tune in to next fall: a brand-new mystery from the creators of Lost, that entirely satisfying and thrilling limited-run series you loved? Or yet another season of Lost, that show that started out so well but is now meandering all over the damn place? Puzzles are meant to be solved, not prolonged. You can only tease viewers so long before they feel like they’re being mocked."

All Things Kottke

Like Metafilter, Kottke is a site for me to find out about interesting stories, events and blog-worthy materials. These last few days have seen a smattering of interesting links. For your viewing pleasure:

1) On a desert island, if I could only take 5 comedy movies with me, they would have to be, off the top of my head: 40 Year Old Virgin, Grosse Point Blank, High Fidelity (yes, TWO John Cusack movies), Old School, and Dogma. I could live on those 5 comedies for the rest of my life. What would YOUR picks be?

2) On "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire", A good explanation on why contestants blather on about inane stories of their lives on their way to a cool million dollars.

3) Most people barely know about web 2.0 and what that means (while those who do know, generally hate the term), so why do we need web 3.0?!

4) This is supposedly a banned, un-aired ad for the XBox 360. I can totally understand why someone might not want this shown on national television, but man do I love it!

5) Finally, people who know me will know that Google Earth and Google Map are my (not-so) secret nerd-love apps. Well, someone's now provided historical maps that can be overlayed as layers on Google Earth. So for example, you can see existing 3-D buildings in the context of a New York 1836 street layout. This app just keeps getting better and better.

Kiwi!

via Metafilter, this is an animation short posted by a YouTube user, Dony, that he created for his Master's thesis...If only my thesis would have as much emotional impact. Anyways, on with the show:

Je me souviens

The Game of Life

I recently talked to a friend over the phone about what's been going on with her life and she tells me that she's just bought another condo, going to move in with her boyfriend, but rent out her old one. I was happy for her but completely floored. She recounted a similar conversation with another friend who remarked,

"How did you get two houses and a career ahead of me in the Game of Life?!"

And while that was what I was wondering too, all I could imagine in my head was the board game "The Game of Life":


If this was an accurate representation of our lives, it felt like she was cruising with the top down and wind blowin' in her hair down that long straightaway behind the spinning wheel ...

Whereas, I'm stuck at the fork in the road near the spinning wheel with a flat tire and I'm trying to hitch-hike the rest of the way...

Talking Science

This morning on Sounds Like Canada, Shelagh Rogers interviewed Dr. Sumaila about some comments made by fishers about harvesting hagfish off the East Coast, or something to that effect (I only caught the end of the fishers' comments). He notes that we're now harvesting the bottom-feeders (e.g. hagfish), literally, for food, and it will not only prevent the ecosystems that they're inhabiting from recovery in the future, but that our society has so little pride that we'd sink this low for food.

What was more interesting was Shelagh's question asking him about whether his use of everyday language to explain his concern meant that he was speaking as Dr. Sumaila the person or as the scientist. This of course implied that scientists, for all intents and purposes, always spoke in jargon. Dr. Sumaila plainly corrected her that he is speaking as both since he's merely using the right type of language for the right type of audience.

Of course, that's not always the case, as evidenced by the newly released "A scientist's guide to talking to the media". It's supposed to be a guide for scientists on how to interview and describe their work to popular media without having it misconstrued or misreported. Because as most people who reads newspapers or any reporting knows, everyone will hear or read about the incorrect fact, but rarely the correction. This puts scientists ill-at-ease when talking to the press because their reputation, and sometimes more, can be at risk over their work.

If it is as useful as it is described, then it will become an important text that all aspiring scientists should read. The Evolution/Intelligent Design debacle has shown the power of rhetoric and how that can sway public opinion over an issue. It is therefore incumbent upon the scientific community to argue in the popular media in an influential and convincing way that the research speaks for itself as truth, in all its messiness. Of course, that's the limitation. Scientific endeavour is a messy process and it can sometimes be difficult to describe. However, we shouldn't shy away from it.
It's also why I think Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth is an interesting and important movie. He took the complex issue of climate change, with all the scientific research behind it and distilled it into a presentation that people of all education could understand. He simplified the message, but not the science. We know this because for all the minor errors that scientists have admitted, they have also stated that the core of his message is accurate. Also, his use of the stunning before/after images of glaciers, etc. to dramatize his point is just powerful.

This is how science should be presented.


P.S. Definitely a good Christmas gift for Katie. And if it happens that I should borrow it, then so much the better. Also made me want to re-read "Politics and the English Language" too.

Update 10/31/06 10:03 AM: By 'this morning', I meant yesterday, as in 10/30/06. I started writing this at 11pm and didn't finish til 1 am. Sorry for the confusion. h/t to Matt for catching it.

The Clean Air Act (I): Blowfish

(Mainly due to my slackery, I’m going to break up my analysis (such as it is) of the Conservative government’s Clean Air Act into a few parts. So bear with me.

Let me first say that the Liberals CAN NEVER attack the Conservatives on the issue of Climate Change. They had 13 years since the Rio Summit and nine years since the Kyoto Accord to do something substantial. Instead, we got years upon years of consultation and some half-hearted programs. It didn’t help that the Official Opposition (the Conservatives) attacked climate change as a figment of the world’s imagination (irony, no?). All the while, our country’s GHG (GreenHouse Gas) emissions have gone up while other countries (notably European ones) have been working hard to meet the Kyoto targets. So thanks, Liberal Party of Canada, for sitting on your hands instead of leading.

That being said, the Clean Air Act is good politics, but poor policy. Some good ideas are there, but the follow-through is weak, like spaghetti noodle weak.

So let’s deal with the politics first. Why is it good politics? Even though the policy IS weak (which I will explain in an upcoming post), it shows voters that they’re finally doing something about climate change (even though they’re hiding it behind the catch-all of ‘air pollution’). That’s the problem though. They’re doing something, not something substantial. While air pollution is a serious issue, climate change is much more serious especially considering it is a global-scale issue (where I would argue, often times air pollution is to an extent, a localized issue). The local concerns almost always trumps the global.
The Harper Conservatives only ever meekly admit in public that climate change is an issue (except for Garth Turner, and look what happened to him...)…and only when prodded while the spotlight’s on them. God forbid they say the name…you know, Kyoto (yes, yes, it’s still a Japanese city. It’s okay. You can say it). I don't know why critics have to still accuse the government of abandoning Kyoto...The Liberals left the Kyoto Accord bleeding and gasping for air. The Conservatives just put the final bullet in its head.

They’ve gotten praises from some industry groups and some fringe lobby group masquerading as speaking the truth about climate change, but that’s not a surprise since they’re the ones who would be happy with inaction. Meanwhile, the opposition parties, the environmental groups, many pundits, have seen this for what it is: A blowfish. It looks big, but really there’s nothing inside.

The opposition parties have even stated that they will kill this Bill (C-30) on second reading. So now, it plays even better to the Conservative’s advantage since, whenever the next election comes around, they can argue that, “we had a plan in place, except the Opposition killed it. So vote for us, because we actually tried to do something”. If that isn’t a win-win for them, I don’t know what is. They get to make the Opposition look partisan and unconcerned, all the while they don’t have to do something they never believed in. Not that it matters, because even if this bill passes, It won't have an appreciable effect on reducing GHG emissions anyways.

So Part II, dealing with the actual policy will arrive shortly.

In the meantime, for ACTUAL climate change answers and information, go to RealClimate. It’s a blog written by the actual scientists working on this issue, the people on the ground, in the air, everywhere, as it were.

PS: I'd like to say I wrote that last paragraph before I read the Maisonneuve article and while we pretty much say the same thing, I liked the way they said it. That's why that person's a journalist, and I'm just a blogger sitting at home.

What the world needs more of...

Jon Stewart just showed it on his show tonight: Microwaveable pancake-wrapped sausage on a stick! That's right, it comes in a multitude of flavours too.

Ahh, just like how mom used to make it...

Garth Turner, where will you go?

As mentioned in various outlets today, Conservative MP Garth Turner was kicked out of caucus today because of alleged breaches in confidentiality and attacks on caucus members stemming from his blog. While he expressed surprise about his ouster, others less so. Some viewed it as hypocritical, others thought it was punishment for not fully towing the party line, while others humourously likened it to 1984.

Meanwhile, Garth urged everyone to "go and read it, and make up your own mind."

So I did. Here's what I found. Not much.

Granted, I only read October's worth of posts, but I couldn't really find anything close to resembling attacks on party members. True, he was skeptical of the Conservative's action plan on climate change, but then anyone with some education on the issue would be skeptical too. I still wouldn't characterize it as an attack.

As for the confidentiality breach, the closest thing I could think of was his thoughts after a Finance Committee meeting (that he's on) and his speculation on what the Budget Update might look like. But here's the thing. It was all speculation. His exact words were:

"As a consequence, I have no idea how this committee will end up recommending anything. Which is why Jim Flaherty is not waiting, telling an audience today that more personal and business tax cuts are coming, along with some new measures to help lower-income people get back into the work force...So, I’d wager the coming budget will look pretty much like this:"

And he goes on to list some things he thinks will happen and/or wants in the Budget. But he never out and out says "Jim Flaherty is promising these things will happen". Is that splitting hairs? I don't think so. Not once in the entire post did he elude to knowing exactly what Finance Minister Flaherty will report to Parliament. Plus, it wasn't even a caucus meeting. It was a finance committee meeting, which I'm assuming (and maybe that's my mistake) other non-Tory members do sit on and would know whatever MP Turner knew. So unless there were actual instances of breaching confidentiality in his earlier posts and the Ontario caucus decided to do nothing until now (for whatever reason), then I don't know where the accusations are coming from.

His detractors, however, are glad to be rid of this 'maverick', especially for being too cozy with the Green Party leader Elizabeth May. I find it disappointing that you can be branded pretty much as a traitor if you so much as talk to someone from a different political stripe or share common views and opinions. And if people use his MPTV vlog segments as proof of this coziness, they needed to be reminded of the fact that he's also interviewed Liberals, Tories and Dippers too.

The other thing that bothers me is that many commenters (not the posters) on right-wing blogs have already accepted the fact that he breached confidentiality, even though no one's offered proof. Please, for the love of all that is logical, read his damn blog before making a judgment about whether he did breach it or not. I don't doubt that I may be wrong, but as I said, if there were earlier breaches, why did it take so long for something to happen?

Matt, I would love to hear your reaction to this event, particularly this comment on Stephen Taylor's post:

"...Our system is based on an adversarial approach. It is important that the party stick together and oppose the opposition, not each other. Turner has shown thru his blog and interviews he has the right, despite being elected as a member of a political party to act as an independent without consideration for his party and colleagues. His disloyalty to the party and the leader has now come to bear. Mr. Turner should sit as an independent and see how much attention he will get from the media now..."

As a capper, those same detractors think he'd fit right in with the Green Party. I wonder if that's because they've actually read the Green Party platform and found that they mesh well with Garth's views or whether they've just read about his environmental views and pigeonholed him into the one party which has a broad environmental mandate? And what does that say about conservatives' stance on the environment?

The blogging equivalent of cocktail wieners

Via Metafilter:

- Once again, a school's banning the game of Tag because...well, I don't quite know.

- A scathing invective from Rolling Stone on how bad the 109th Congress has been. Apparently, really, really bad.

- I wonder if weapon designers ever get ideas from NERF...or vice versa?

The life and death of the electric car

image courtesy EV1 Club.
Scenario: If a car company like Honda or Chrysler discontinues a line of automobiles citing insufficient sales and demand, would you expect them to recall all leased vehicles of that model so that they could be destroyed?

Probably not. So why did GM recall, round up and destroy almost every EV1 (one was given to a museum)?

This is one of the main question stemming from the documentary "Who Killed the Electric Car" that I watched this weekend with Wade at the Screening Room in Kingston.

The documentary narrative spann California's intiative in the early '90s requiring automakers to develop ZEVs (Zero-Emission Vehicles), the introduction of several electric vehicles, most famously GM's EV1, the subsequent cancellation of its sales, the complete recall of every EV1* (since all were only available for lease), the grassroots campaign to buy out the vehicles (which was refused), and the subsequent destruction of all the EV1 vehicles on the GM proving Grounds in California.

*At the time, EV1s were touted to be very clean, fast and efficient, because there were no combustion engine, just a set of batteries and a motor. It had a range of about 100 miles on a single charge and had comparable speeds with regular sedans. This would conceivably meet most city dweller's needs since, for the most part, a daily commute very rarely exceed 100 miles.

image courtesy EV1 Club.

To this day, no one really knows why GM decided to round up all these cars to be destroyed. This resonated with me because it reminded me about the cancellation of the Avro Arrow program and the subsequent destruction of all test planes, models and documents. In both cases, it just seems illogical by both parties to destroy technology that was ahead of its time when it could have been stored away for a future opportunity to revisit the techonlogy.

I can understand cancellation of sales if there was insufficient demand (though that's disputed in the film of course). But if existing customers who've already leased your vehicle and want to buy out the lease, why refuse? It doesn't make any sense to alienate customers like that. It can't be because of worry about litigation over maintenance since companies warn about products they no longer provide technical support for all the time. And it's these element that brings a feeling of a sinister agenda behind this action.

One interesting point was the fact that it was a paradoxical product that could never reach its potential. I mean, why would automakers want to sell a product that exposes the inadequacies and inefficiencies of your other products, right? There was never a willingness to push the electic car onto the public consciousness. The ad campaign for the EV1 evokes a stalker movie, for crying out loud. 'I wouldn't want an EV1 to eat my children', is what the message was telling me. An iPod campaign it ain't.

Another interesting point dealt with the maintenance of the vehicle. They interviewed a mechanic who had serviced both types of vehicles. He commented that when an EV1 came in for a service check, all he really did was refill wiper fluid and rotate the tires. He laughed about how his hands were so much cleaner than when servicing regular cars. A car with an internal combustion engine required oil changes, new mufflers, timing belts, etc. Think of the resources saved not having to produce these products and the money saved by consumers not having to purchase these products.

While the EV1 is now dead, others have risen to take it's place, namely Tesla Motors' Tesla Motor and Feel Good Car's (a Toronto company no less) ZENN neighbourhood vehicle. Providentially, there was an article in Monday's Toronto Star about the push for plug-in hybrids (gasoline/electric hybrid cars that can also be run by soley charging the battery, ala EV1 and the rest). The money quote:

"...A few weeks later, Bloomberg News — citing unnamed sources — reported that General Motors was developing a plug-in hybrid. GM vice-chairman Bob Lutz has more or less backed up that report, writing in his corporate blog last month that the auto giant is studying plug-in hybrids and "will have more to say about those soon."

Is GM kidding me?! They're doing research on technology they already have? They could've been ahead of the curve if they improved and pushed the EV1 and are instead playing catch-up. With technology constantly improving, there are already batteries available that can provide the same mileage as conventional cars or hybrids. Way to go guys. I can see why your market share's been dropping.

"No doubt, they're also facing pressure from the U.S. government. Because large-scale introduction of plug-in hybrids has the potential to dramatically reduce oil consumption, and therefore U.S. dependence on foreign oil, George W. Bush is all over the idea..."

You know what would drastically reduce oil consumption more than plug-in hybrids? Cars that didn't rely on gasoline at all. Now where in recent memory did we have cars that could do that...?

P.S. Scariest/Funniest moment in the movie: the documentary interviews Mel Gibson about him owning an EV1. Unfortunately, they were interviewing him when he still had that giant "I've been in the jungle for the last couple years filming 'Apocalypto' so I didn't shave and oops I've now been arrested for drunk driving and saying anti-semitic remarks so it makes me look Ca-Razy" beard. I couldn't pay attention at all to what he was saying because the beard was just too big and scraggly and mesmerizing...

Aurora...Borealis, that is.

Sorry for another embed. I would've commented on the Conservative Government's Green Plan II, except well, no one technically knows what it is except for some vague commitments and even then, many in the blogosphere and the mainstream media have already made critical comments. I won't make mine until the actual plan is presented to Parliament (though a supposed leaked plan already have some environmental groups worried and the idea of capping emissions by intensity is just not effective).

Instead of that, you can all watch an amazing time-lapse video of a night's worth of the aurora borealis (northern lights). Since I didn't get the junior planning job in Iqaluit, this is the closest I'll get in the next little while to seeing them:

Got a case of the Humans?

Confused? This should explain things:



Hat tip to Wes.

See Vous Play

While the buzz all this weekend in Toronto was Nuit Blanche, the self-described, "free all-night contemporary art thing", International Music Day (supposedly) was overlooked on Sunday. CBC Radio 3 and its French partner, Bande A Part, hosted "See Vous Play", a free concert that night at the Kool Haus, featuring four bands, two English, two French: Les Breastfeeders, Emily Haines and the Soft Skeleton, Les Trois Accords and the Joel Plaskett Emergency.

My recent travels and laziness caused me to pretty much both events, including the live webcast of See Vous Play. Luckily for me and for you (if you're so inclined), CBC Radio 3 has it available in streaming radio and podcast format.

So what are you waiting for?

That's motrin pain...

Photo courtesy the People's Daily Online.

I first saw this in the Star, but the Sun Online had more details. Basically, during a warm-up for a track meet in Sao Paolo, Brazil, a wayward javelin ended up in the foot of this judge.

You can't help but shudder...

Who is this?

Who is this?
Originally uploaded by blackhole81.

This is for SURPers only. Please leave in the comments who you think this man in the Queen's jacket and baseball cap is, found wandering the streets of Aberdeen during Homecoming. And yes, you definitely know this person.

Homecoming Photos!

Thanks to Wade's timely intervention, my Homecoming photos are now up for viewing. Just click on the badge on your right.

Journal verdict: It's all good

Not much to report from the Queen's Journal (sorry, they're slow to upload so I can't show you pictures or linked text). But it's pretty much the same things re-iterated: Much better than last year, it was safe but fun, etc. There is a report from the Journal saying one student was Tasered for resisting arrest, but it wasn't confirmed in the special Homecoming pull-out that the Journal published. They do have a great spread of the crowd in Aberdeen, as well as an ironic picture of a student getting arrested wearing a t-shirt with a 3-panel cartoon titled, "How to avoid a cop" and Don Rogers trying to convince a passerby to not drink on Aberdeen (HA HA HA). Some choice quotes:

"They allow things you would never allow in Ottawa. As long as people don't do the same dumb shit as they did last year, it's all good." - Nick Bertrand, University of Ottawa student.

"It seems to be controlled chaos." - Harvey Rosen, mayor.

"So far, it's looking very peaceful and very orderly. It's very good to see the volunteers and the police and the students are talking." - Vice-Principal Deane, Queen's University.

"People love the volunteers. I've had so many 'thank-you's', ranging from random people coming up and simply saying thanks, to whole groups of people saying, 'Chug your beers for the volunteers!'" - Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, ArtSci '07 volunteer.

Homecoming Part II: The Whig's perspective

So I wasn't too far off. Reactions from the Kingston Whig-Standard has been positive. Apparently, an estimated 8000-10000 people were packed into the Aberdeen/Johnson/University area Saturday night with an approximately 200 police officers keeping the peace. About 50 people were arrested, though that number's expected to increase. There were two arrests for assault on a police officer and one for resisting arrest (which I think I was witness to as 3 officers were chasing a student down University Ave...like he would've escaped). All in all, the non-confrontational measures employed this year have had an appreciable and positive effect. A timeline of events seen from a reporter can also be found HERE.

Some choice quotes:

Kingston Police Sgt. Neil Finn: "Over 100 students have come up to me and shaken my hand and said thanks for letting them have such a safe party - and the other officers have had the same experience."

"I was hoping there were going to be some cars smashed here - we're serious," said Eric Joyce, 19, a second-year University of Western Ontario student. Joyce came with four other Western students to witness what has become known as one of the top parties in North America. He and his friends were also hoping to smash some beer bottles, he said.

Not everyone was impressed by the police performance. Former city councillor Don Rogers spent hours pacing the sidewalks around Aberdeen Street to protest the relaxed policing of liquor laws. He carried a sign that read, "Police: Don't just stand there! Enforce our liquor laws."

A police officer took away his sign twice, but Rogers had more in his trunk and continued his campaign. "This is our neighbourhood and we have to take back our neighbourhood," Rogers shouted over the noise on Johnson Street. He said he wanted to see police employ "whatever crowd-control measures are necessary" to clear up the party.

Tomorrow: reactions from the Queen's Journal.

Update: Sept. 19, 2006 1:32 pm

An updated article from the Whig outlining the likely costs borne by the City of Kingston for Homecoming and concerns the chief of police had over the weekend.

Post-Homecoming 2006 Reactions

This is what I get for not going to the library right away and posting my reactions. You fall behind quickly. Well, I excuse myself because I was running 10k for the Terry Fox Run today. So there.

For those interested, Optimuscrime has some reactions and pictures posted. I took a lot of pictures last night but I forgot to bring the camera connector so my pictures won't be up until next week, but you 3 faithful readers will be the first to know.

Anyways, I think of all that could've happened on Aberdeen tonight, it was the best outcome it could've had. The atmosphere was great, few smashed bottles, lot of very chill people. The police and the volunteers did an amazing job with the crowd. They didn't have to handle anything, just keep people and cars moving and handle the odd open alcohol violations here and there. The volunteers were everywhere and everyone had a plastic cup. I think the city, the AMS, the Kingston Police, the OPP and the voluteers deserve a hell of a round of applause for the work they put into making this event run so smoothly. The lighting, the cameras, the volunteers, the plastic cups definitely made considerable differences from last year.

The partygoers also deserve recognition for being respectful of the whole situation. Everyone seemed to have a great time without having to get rowdy. What surprised me the most was how it had spilled out of Aberdeen. In all my times witnessing this street party, I've never seen so many people on Johnson St., University Avenue (BBQ at University and William?! Unheard of!) and Division Street as well (though someone might argue the contrary). I can only attribute that to the many undergrads NOT from Queen's who made it to Kingston this weekend because of their friends here and the notoriety gained from last year (I should know, I rode with several of them on the bus on the way here on Friday).

And while this should be portrayed in the next few days as a very successful Homecoming, I find it ironic walking through Aberdeen last night that probably 40% of the people there weren't even Queen's students, let alone alumni (My percentage comes from the sheer number of people there, as I can't imagine ALL of them being Queen's students). As the name implies, "Homecoming" is normally reserved as a celebration for alumni, and yet there didn't seem to be that many there, or they blended quite well with the crowd. While there's an inkling of worry about whether alumni will actually consider NOT coming because it's been taken over by undergrads and students from out of town (as yet another excuse to drink and party), it is only a passing thought that I don't have an answer to.

At the beginning of this post I mentioned why last night's event was the best outcome. On the one hand, the behaviour of everyone last night should hopefully convince the city that Queen's, the city and out-of-town students CAN get along during Homecoming without causing a blemish to the institution or the town, which should ensure the viability of future Aberdeen parties at Homecoming. It was also very self-contained within the boundaries of the ghetto, which I think is a much better solution then having thousands of drunk partygoers spread out across downtown. On the other hand, the (some might say) good behaviour of the people on the street might convince the shit disturbers that everyone else on this street is not going to tolerate belligerence now that we've seen both the brink of Homecoming cancellation and what a good Homecoming celebratoin can look like. This should hopefully convince those yahoos to either a) tone down their behaviour in the future or b) not come back. Either way, less violent behaviour, the better.

The fortuitous timing of being in Kingston this week allows me to be able to gather local media (Kingston Whig-Standard, Queen's Journal) reaction to all of this, see if my observations agree with theirs and pass this information along to you, my faithful readers.

Just another public service that I provide with a smile...now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go lie down and rest me legs.

When did UNICEF start playing football?

Well, not quite. Those familiar with professional football (soccer, keep up!) will know that professional teams tend to have their biggest sponsor's logo emblazoned across the chest of the soccer jersey, as evidenced below:

Bayern Munich Jersey

You get the idea. I was going to show you a jersey from the English and Italian leagues as well but Blogger's been un-cooperative. Anyways, it came as some surprise to me (mainly because I am so unobservant) that FC Barcelona, one of the top teams (if not the top) in Spain and in Europe, didn't have a corporate sponsor on their jersey:

This is their 2006-07 Home kit. What's funny is that these are now outdated. Apparently, FC Barcelona has signed an agreement with UNICEF, the UN children's organization, to have their logo on their jersey. The price? 1.5 million euros. But it's the other way around. FC Barcelona is contributing that amount ANNUALLY to fund UNICEF projects. They debuted these new jerseys in the Champions League against Levski Sofia, routing them 5-0:

I don't see this as a start of a trend, nor do I think this will make FC Barcelona any more popular (I doubt I'll see aid workers snap up Cdn $100+ Barca jerseys just because UNICEF's logo is on it...), but it's interesting to see a team that's eschewed a corporate logo for so long went this route instead. And while other teams give back to their respective communities in other ways, it doesn't diminish what FC Barcelona has done.

So they deserve a hat tip.

Hope this World Container can be salvaged...

The Tragically Hip is one of my favourite bands. I know not everyone have the same opinion of them (looking at you, Wes and Jenny) but it doesn't matter. I was excited to hear that they were releasing a new album, called "World Container".

Until I heard the new single, "In View" on the radio. Then I shuddered. I hated it. Again. This happened the last few times, with "Vaccination Scar" and "It's a Good Life If You Weaken" (This last song did grow on me in the end, but I still don't like "Vaccination Scar"). Other bloggers have also not given good reviews of the song either.

I hadn't paid attention to the background piano in the beginning of the song but now I just find it irritating. The other thing that bothered me was the chorus, "The phone rings once. The phone rings twice. The phone rings three times..."

Really? This is the chorus? I mean, The Hip aren't known for their thought-provoking lyrics, granted, but they could definitely do better than that.

I watched/listened to the clips of the other new songs but I can't really judge by the poor quality of the video. I'll have to just wait for the CD to come out. Hopefully, like In Between Evolution, where I skip through "Vaccination Scar" and "Heaven is A Better Place Today" to the better songs, like "Makeshift We Are" and "Goodnight Josephine", I can ignore "In View" and find the good stuff.

In which I explain my Summer with a cartoon

Courtesy PhD Comics

That's pretty much how it went down this year, plus or minus some differences. Please don't let my supervisor know about this post...

He's so pointy it hurts...

So, they're coming out with a live-action "Transformers" movie in 2007. Okay, it's Transformers. I'm well aware. I loved them as a kid and I'm 24 now. I realize that. I told some friends that I'd go see it in theatres but I probably won't because I'm 24. Even though the this video clip of Optimus Prime wasn't too shabby. I mean, this picture of him seems very faithful to the cartoon:


So far so good. My question is this. How did we get a Megatron that goes from looking like this originally:
To this for the movie:

WTF?! So many thoughts going into my head...like the fact that it was designed by some 14 year-old fanboy with a hard-on for sharp, pointy things...or the fact that Megatron seem to have been based on tattoo designs...or the fact that Megatron seemed to have fallen one too many times into a skate sharpener...everything about this design seems to scream "EXTREME!!!" but in that overused, late '90s way.

Anyways, this has effectively ruined the movie. Oh well, I guess you really can't bring your childhood back...

Hat tip to The Superficial, The Comic Blog, and Comic Art Community for the story and the pictures

From the makers of "Attack of the Plush Tomato"...

...comes:

"Planes on a Snake"

Hat tip to Matt and Andria

Another piece of childhood down the drain

I remember days back when I was a kid when I would watch Street Cents, a half-hour commercial affairs TV show produced by the CBC that was targeted to kids and teens. And NO, I didn't watch it because of Jonathan Torrens...

While it wasn't groundbreaking, to me, it just seemed like a useful show to have around, like an encyclopedia. You never know when the product they test will actually help you decide on a purchase (Fave test: Nalgene water bottle. They had to drop a completely filled bottle off something like a 8 storey building for it to smash in half).

So it's with some sadness to hear that the CBC is cancelling the show because of dwindling youth audience. While I don't fault them for their decision, it's still sad to see a staple of MY CBC mythos disappearing.

Maybe they could turn it into a vlog or something. Something useful like this shouldn't just be dropped into the dustbin of cancelled shows...

Softwood Soft Ruling

Are these WTO rulings in favour of Canada over the softwood lumber dispute even worth anything anymore? In the past several years, almost 99% of stories I've read about rulings have gone in Canada's favour. Yet, the deal being brought to the table by the US is that they get to keep $1 billion in tariffs that they took illegally from us and we STILL have to impose duties on our own lumber, even though in NAFTA and WTO rulings, we were never in the wrong.

How effective can the WTO be if nations bound to their rules can just flagrantly disregards them?

We're Number One! (because no one's left)...

11 universities, including UofT, McMaster University and UBC, have opted out of the Maclean's Annual University Survey, citing flawed methodology on Maclean's part for their withdrawl.

While I really don't care either way, it really paves the way for Queen's to brag about the fact that we're #1 in the survey!

Oh wait, McGill's still around...

Update Aug. 24, 2006 7:49pm

Apparently, McGill WILL be number one because we're not even there anymore. It seems that Queen's has reviewed (*cough* followed the crowd *cough*) this issue and has decided to pulled out of the Maclean's survey. With most of the major universities out, looks like the yearly publication is likely as good as dead...

Work in a termite mound!

Via Treehugger

Did you ever wonder what it would be like to be a termite? Now you can!

A sprawl-ing post

I’m about a week late from responding to this post by Andrew Potter because I keep putting it off. It’s one of those rare opportunities where someone speaks of something that I’m interested in.

He points to an article in the Aug. 6 Sunday Times discussing the emerging resistance to ‘vertical sprawl’ in the US, where they tie-in the ideas of smart growth and infill development with ideas of dropping 70-storey towers in a low-rise residential neighbourhood. This is in response to a reader who believes“…that the solution to our economic and environmental problems was to have everyone living in ultra-dense 50-story towers, 10 000 people or so to a tower”. The same day, I read Joel Kotkin’s piece on the permanence of the suburban landscape in the US.

I don’t disagree with Andrew. I don’t think sprawl is inherently evil nor is density inherently moral. What I really disagree with is the content of the article. In it, they discuss residential groups who are opposed to high-rise development in infill projects in low-density neighbourhoods, which they call suburban sprawl. They tie it to infill development and smart growth principles, which they argue that in practice, particularly in working-class neighbourhoods, “means displacement and gentrification, often by redevelopment eminent domain”.

Smart Growth Principles, according to the State of Maryland, an early proponent, include the following:

· Mix land uses
· Take advantage of compact building design
· Create housing opportunities and choices
· Create walkable communities
· Foster distinctive, attractive communities with a strong sense of plan
· Preserve open space, farmland, natural beauty, and critical environmental areas
· Provide a variety of transportation options
· Strengthen and direct development to existing communities
· Make development decisions predictable, fair, and cost effective
· Encourage community and stakeholder collaboration in development decisions.

These principles are vague, but it also provides elbowroom to develop within the context of the site. Comparing this list to the arguments for and against Smart Growth in the article, it seems to me that neither the developers nor the opposition actually understand what Smart Growth means. I’m not even a full-fledged planner with any work experience and I can tell you that a bunch of 62-storey towers in a low-density neighbourhood is a stupid idea. I’ve had it drilled into my head that any development, especially infill, should always be integrated within the context of the immediate area and the surrounding neighbourhoods. According to Smart Growth, community and stakeholder collaboration would’ve immediately recognized the problem of such inconsistent development. The problem of gentrification is a genuine concern, and no one has a complete answer. But part of Smart Growth and good planning is that developments need to think long-term and consider all socio-economic groups. Having affordable housing and good community amenities in a development is a start towards ensuring that the working-class are LESS LIKELY to be driven out. It’s not the only tool we have, but one of many. But that doesn’t mean high-density can’t work. It just has to be done appropriately and in the right context. It’s not how densely you build it, but how you build it dense and why. Density in and of itself serves little purpose. It’s not that these people are opposed to ‘vertical sprawl’ per se, but merely poor planning.

I think the problem Andrew and I both have with this topic is that the loudest voices seem to be misusing the history of suburban development in order to impose morals and find conspiracies that isn’t there. The environmental consequences of suburban development are quite real (land consumption, surface run-off, etc.) whereas the social and economic ones are certainly still up for debate. Real or perceived, these are all unfortunately unintended ones. No one was brainwashed into moving to the suburbs. Advertising certainly has great powers of persuasion, but people knew full well what they were buying into.

The solution is not to ban all suburban development, since that seems unlikely and quite absurd. Kotkin argues, at least in the US, that the suburbs are here to stay. The future is about how to build better suburbs. And it’s not just the environmental or a socio-economic concern. It’s also a demographic one. Once the bulk of the baby-boomers start retiring, will they be willing to drive all the time to the grocery store, the theatres, etc.? This is where the principles of Smart Growth and New Urbanism may come in handy. It’s not a perfect solution, to be sure, but nothing is. And if this segment does hold the enormous economic influence that it's been touted to have, maybe their needs will direct us to the development that have been trying to implement; maybe the people who lead us out into low-density will once again lead us to where we need to go: more compact, environmentally sustainable, socio-economically equitable (in opportunity), and age-adaptable communities.

My brain has collapsed because of Britney Spears

How could that be, since she's in Alabama or Florida or somewhere and I'm in sunny Kingston?
Since I don't know how to clip the youtube video to this post, you'll just have to go to either link:

Youtube- Britney Spears acting very strange or stoned...

The Superficial- Britney Spears is very truly out of her mind...

Granted, making fun of celebrity intelligence is easier than well, Paris Hilton (!Zing!), but this certainly is a new low. I also recommend not watching it straight through, lest your eyes try to eat itself...

hat tip to Kate

Happy Wonderful Fun Time Post!

via Metafilter

"Deception, thy name is the Pentagon"

"It came from beneath the sea!!!"

I feel all warm and fuzzy after reading these...

A racket through and through.

Let's say I'm playing high-stakes poker with a couple of mobsters. I take most of their money but on the last hand I get caught dealing from the bottom of the deck. Now, at this point, they're... probably slightly miffed about what I've done. I'm likely going to be taken out back and shot. Instead, I plead with them a little, give them back their money and my money and they decide to let me leave with my life. I whine a bit more and they even agree to let me keep MY money.

Sounds ridiculous, right?

Well, so's AC Milan playing in Champions League.

Is it comfortable in here...or is it just me

I've been in Stauffer library a lot these last few months because I can't seem to hack out a decent draft of my thesis (which is another post altogether).

But there've been times earlier in the summer when the A/C was on and I was actually cold. But today, amidst Kingston's heat alert and request to ease the load on our electricity grid, I'm finding Stauffer's temperatures to be quite comfortable. Why is this happening? I can see only two explanations for this:

1) Queen's actually took the request to heart and have upped the thermostat in the library.

2) They're renovating part of the 1st floor to make way for a new cafe and in doing so, they were tossing out a lot of construction material out the window and as I was walking by, the blast of A/C escaping out the window could literally knock you to the ground. Therefore, the second possibility is that all the cold is escaping through that one outlet.

I hope it's the former and I doubt the latter (mainly because I can't see that much cold air escaping from that one area especially when the main entrance is thoroughly opened all the time). But then my question is this: No one's complained that it's too warm in the library. So why isn't THIS temperature the norm so that less energy is used? Is the cooler temperatures to preserve the old materials? But if that's the case, shouldn't that kind of material be in a special climate controlled room anyhow?

LOL's not bad for me after all...

A few days after my post on the NY Times' article on abbreviating every word, this article came out today about how instant messaging (IM) HAS NOT affected the grammar of today's youths.

phew...it sure is a relief to read this. Because once grammar goes, they'll start listening to that hippity-hop music and wearing baggy pants and then it's over...

Gentrification

Hat tip to the Accordion Guy:

Obvi. that's just ridic. and exces.

via kottke.

The Internet, via the email and instant messaging (IM), has been a leader in the great bastardization of the English language. And yes, it's not a new thing since it's a continually evolving language and others have tried to tenderize it before (Remember Ebonics, anyone?).

Now, my friends have used short-forms such as 'convos' for conversation and 'whatevs' for whatever and I generally roll my eyes at them.

But this girl's use of abbreviations and shortcuts is just ridiculous and excessive.

I'm sitting here and writing this and it doesn't seem like I have a point to make, much like the article. The author doesn't chastise nor condone her sister's way of speaking. I'm just curious as to what the point of abbreviating everything is? It's not like it saves that much more time by not saying the remaining variables. Is it clever for clever's sake?

I'm also not lamenting over the downfall of the english language since you have to know the full word to understand the abbreviation. Besides, I can't see a functional english language being fully distilled into five letter, monosyllabic arrangements and there'd be enough english majors left in the world who'll smack people down trying to use the Ling in any formal basis.

Anyways, if anyone catches me talking like that, I give you permission to Rochambeau me, and you can go first.

Oh, the guilt

It's not that I find blogging a chore, but I definitely feel guilty both when I haven't posted something of substance in adequate frequency and when I feel like I'm procrastinating WHEN I am posting something of substance. I just can't win. Oh well, here're some nuggets, for those still interested in reading:
First, Ken Jennings (yes, that Ken Jennings from Jeopardy) writes an obviously satirical post about how Jeopardy should be improved. Anyone who reads it will agree with me that he is quite obviously sarcastic and not at all serious. What's interesting is that Michael Starr of the New York Post took it seriously and publishes it, which gets picked up by AP! Ken of course takes it in stride, but someone really needs to buy Mr. Starr a clue (for $400, Alex...).

Number two, thanks to his infamous stunt in the World Cup final, Zinedine Zidane's name has now been verbed.

Finally, here are three very interesting posts by Declan on transit and the Stats Canada report about commuting times. Part 1 briefly talks about the report, the major thing being car travel and transit times are up (except in Vancouver) and transit times are higher than automobile travel times. Part 2 deals with why that might be and how traffic demand works in big cities. As an urban planner to be, I am ashamed that I can't answer his question to my own satisfaction mainly because I've read very little on traffic issues. What he says makes sense to me but I can't say for sure and frankly it's going to make me procrastinate for an hour or so trying to find an academic paper that confirms this. Finally, part 3's a doozy. It's funny and at the same time a bit sad. He rebuts a Margaret Wente column with this issue and it's funny because Wente's column is JUST TERRIBLY WRITTEN AND ARGUED. It's sad because a fair number of Globe readers will have read it and a percentage of that group will agree with her erroneous statements and will in no way help to bring better transit to Toronto. Let's hope that these people will read Declan's rebuttal...

1 red paperclip = 1 house

As many mainstream media outlets had been following this story, Kyle MacDonald's been slowly bartering things from his one red paperclip to his goal of his own home. His goal has been reached. As of July 7th, 2006, he's traded a spot in a movie to the town of Kipling, Saskatchewan for a house on 503 Main Street.

An Inconvenient Truth

Al Gore's documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" is interesting and good in a variety of ways.

His arguments and presentation of facts about global warming isn't new, though compelling. For someone who have studied the science of climate change, he or she would find this film a little light. Rather, it is a good primer for those who are skeptical or know nothing of the situation. His solutions, also, aren't new or provoking. But that's the point. The solutions and technologies are out there. It's a question of whether people will accept the responsibility of our actions and the necessary change in the way we live.

The visuals, are like most good visuals, stunning. Like the works of Ed Burtynsky, you can't help but feel a little shock and disappointed by the massive change humanity is causing, particularly the difference in glacier sizes around the world.

And while most of the film is Al Gore "giving" his presentation (the one he's delivered in thousands of places across the world) to a small audience, it is also partly a documentary into his life and his fascination with the issue throughout his political career, from being in committees in Congress to his stint as VP and through to his presidential bid and its aftermath. Not only does this prevent the film from being a 90 minute slideshow presentation, it provides a glimpse into a man who could be raking in $50,000 fees giving speeches about his political career, but insteads decides to travel around the world talking about ice cores and global ocean currents and carbon dioxide emissions.

It is the loss in 2000 that spurred him to return to his lecture on climate change. And it seems as though the title has two meanings, one for the audience and one for him. In that, while for us, the inconvenient truth is of course, the way we live is impacting the Earth and our own future severely, for him, it's that perhaps he was never meant to be the President of the United States. While one might argue that he would wield more political clout as the President to affect change, it's interesting whether he would have been bogged down by the responsibilities to his country and to the office to be truly effective.

Instead, his responsibility is now to the world at large, and he has given the scientific community something else: A face and a voice. Perhaps this is his niche, his role: to be the Paul Revere of climate change, to warn us of the dangers ahead.

He seems suited because he straddles both the scientific and political community. He understands the language of the scientists. But having served in politics, he is a much better and more recognized orator than any scientist could be. In doing so, he could deliver the message, like the film, with effectiveness, using both scientific studies, but also with a little bit of humour (his presentation includes a clip from Matt Groening's Futurama about global warming) and visuals to cement his argument. Besides, with all due respect, I doubt most people would be able to pick out NASA scientist James Hansen (one of the biggest voices about climate change in the scientific community) from a line-up. It was a little annoying, though, during the film when he'd drop names like Carl Sagan as if he was a bowling buddy. But conversely, his connections with so many climate change scientists just shows how much attention the scientific community is paying to him.

I don't, however, share Gore's optimism. The people who should see this will probably not because it wouldn't interest them. And that's the problem. The people who would see this move have or will change their behaviour. The rest don't see it affecting their lives. But by the time that it does affect their lives and the clamour for change finally happens, it'll be too late. It seems that as much as we don't want to be told what to do, we need government to force this change upon us. Humans rarely change behaviour unless they are forced to. And either we can force the rest of the citizens to change now through our laws, or we can let the resulting consequences from global warming do it for us. That too is an inconvenient truth

Playing catch-up

This post from Treehugger just gives me an excuse to berate Queen's about how much catch-up they have to do on the sustainability front. Basically, it's a story about University of Calgary's initiative to provide free bikes for students to travel around campus. And while we have the Yellow Bike Action here in Kingston, it's a community group effort, not the university. The bike program itself is part of a broader Sustainability Initiative.

Now, having done research on campus sustainability, we already knew that UBC and UVic were ahead of us in this category, not to mention many US universities. UofC pulling ahead just goes to show how hesitant Queen's is to change. A student position was finally created by the AMS to study and possibly coordinate sustainability efforts, and that was with much teeth-pulling from my friend Anjali Helferty.

The problem isn't that there isn't enough students willing to be involved. The problem is the lack of support from the Administration. And while Campus Planning can say that they've all these great projects in progress, there's no one to market them. There's no broad strategy to coordinate efforts. Queen's is planning to build this great LEED-certified building, but buildings won't create sustainability. A shift in mentality does. A change in how Queen's operate does. Now, Anjali deserves all the praise for her work, but until the administration is willing to put money behind creating a real sustainability officer within the administration structure and give it real power, Queen's will continue to fall behind with its piecemeal projects even as it's trying to catch up with the 21st century.

It's so easy too. It already has most of its students living in less than elegant housing in close proximity to the campus. Take advantage of that. You have engineers who construct an elaborate set piece for their formal. You have a show like "From the Ground Up", where professional contractors and subcontractors oversee youths building and renovating homes. Why not do a similar thing, except have the university pay the pros to oversee student volunteers who build a house or two over the summer. In exchange, they learn extra skills, they get to live there for a year rent-free and now Queen's has new housing to rent to other students. Incorporate some simple environmental design like strawbale walls, solar orientation, and efficient appliances, and you have a sustainable house. Obviously, it's not so clear-cut and there'd be some legal issues to deal with. But this is me coming up with an idea at 1:21 AM. Imagine someone who's paid to come up with these ideas and make them work...?

That's what we need. Or we won't even get to where U of C is.

my dealers...of music

I don't know what brought this about, but most of you may already know of the bands of which I'm about to speak, so bare with me.

My music collection is probably defined as "alt-rock indie" (with a smattering of other genres) at best and "mainstream bandwagon indie-hopping" at worst. However, my favourites are due solely to the friends around me who either dragged me to a concert or lent me their CD to listen to and of course, I was blown away by what I was hearing. So this post is for them. In no particular order of favourites:

Mike Rate: he was a master's student in my lab when I was doing my undergrad thesis. To kill the many hours of driving, he brought along a well-honed collection of CDs of the hard-rock, punk persuasion. He re-introduced me to Queens of the Stone Age and Less than Jake. Less than Jake's "Anthem" was probably not the best ska-punk CD in people's minds by far. I don't know what it was, but I could listen to that CD over and over and over...and I did. It also spurred me back on to the punk train, to look up good ol' bands like the Ramones, the Clash and the contemporary ones like NoFX and Bad Religion. I had actually listened to QOTSA's "Songs for the Deaf" one time at Future Shop but couldn't get into it. It took listening to Mike's CD for 2 months straight to get me hooked. 65 minutes of damaging guitar hooks and Dave Grohl's drumming deliciousness was an energizer during the hellishness that was coring in the Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia.

Wesley Fok: Ahh, Wesley, proud owner of Chrominance and Angels Twenty. He dragged me to the Merchant one late May evening and blew me away with Joel Plaskett's onstage presence... So much rock-goodness, drunken bass guitaring and catchy lyrics that should be and usually are cliches, but when he sings it, they just sound so original. Each of the Joel Plaskett Emergency's records sound different from the last one, but you can hear the progresssion and the, I don't know, earnestness, I guess. Though Wesley doesn't enjoy him as much anymore, and his song "Nowhere with You" is now schilling for Zeller's, I would still drop everything and catch him in concert, no matter what town he and I might be at the same time.

Christina Cheung: Christina gave me a few mp3s from the Decemberists "Castaways and Cutouts" and I was immediately hooked. They were unlike a lot of bands I was listening to at the time because a lot of their songs were ballads of olde. Stories about legionnaires, chamisoles, countess and courtesans using guitars and accordions and a bevy of other instruments. And that's their schtick and they're good at their schtick. They are so much fun and their stories are always so catchy. They're like a good Pulitzer-prize winning novel, but for my ears! Their new album is coming out soon and I'm ever so excited. "Castaways and Cutouts" and "Picaresque" are equally good.

Wade Guyitt and Christine Lee: I had low, low expectations for the Final Fantasy concert. Especially when the opening acts were beyond weird and uninteresting. When Final Fantasy finally started, it ended up being one guy and a violin. Good thing that one guy happened to be Owen Pallett, who has not only been on the Vinyl Cafe but also collaborated on Arcade Fire's superb "Funeral". He was absolutely brilliant onstage, and if you don't believe me now, would you believe me then? Judgment's still out on his newest record, "He Poos Clouds", though.

My music collection would be so much worse if it wasn't for these people. And I thank them. But I was thinking. Where do they hear the next brilliant band from? I mean, I'm clearly 4 or 5 steps from the source (of "good music"), but they're definitely a few steps closer. Does it even matter that it takes me this many steps to discover a new, great band? Or does this have to do with the personal sense of "discovery" and "ownership," of knowing a great band before everyone else? Still, I'm curious how (and really it's just) Wesley and Christina keep tab with the burgeoning music scene, even though some of their recent recommendations haven't hit me the same way as the others...? I mean, I know where pot dealers usually get their merchandise, where do Wesley and Christina get theirs?

Beauty and the Beast

Courtesy: City of Sound

Beauty: This goal by Argentina against Serbia and Montenegro during the opening round of the World Cup. 8 of the 10 players on the field were involved in the play, 24 passes in total. Complete domination.

Beast: A giant centipede completely overwhelming this mouse in an aquarium tank. Not for the faint of heart. Trust me on this. No picture though, I don't need to see it everytime I look at this post.

Messing with a good thing

So our Premier Dalton McGuinty could've avoided the mess he stepped in this week, but chose instead to keep on walkin', leaving a nice, dirty trail behind.

The pooch that left this mess? Whoever thought it was a good idea to spend $220,000 to redesign the logo for the Government of Ontario!

picture courtesy the Toronto Star

Now, leaving aside the extravagant cost (an undergrad graphics designer could come up with something like that for a few hundred dollars, probably, remember THIS that was much more loved than "Toronto Unlimited"), the possible partisanship in awarding the design contract for this thing, and the possibile similarities with Liberal or NDP logos (because there's enough people talking about that), was there even a need to redesign the logo?

Right now, the logo's well known, simple and effective. You could even say that it's iconic. Now, the question becomes, is the new logo so much better that people would remark that it represents Ontario that much better than before?

Probably not. There was never a need to rebrand the government logo. It is not a business firm that needs to stay 'current' and 'edgy' for brand recognition. The government will not collapse because of a lack of it, as much as people may want. The government is here to stay.

Now, as of right now, the government homepage still uses the old logo. I wonder how long it'll take them to revamp all the websites? How much chaos will that create?

What an idiotic idea. They need to repay us, and quick. Or at the very least, whoever approved the idea, have them take money out of their own pocket and put it back into government coffers.

The design firm won't return the government check for sure. But we sure as hell shouldn't have to pay for this nonsense.

CBC: we hardly knew ye.

The CBC's being killed slowly but surely.

It's being choked off from external and internal threats. They lose broadcasting bids for the Olympics and the Curling championships. They create a TV development division strictly devoted to Reality TV. Then, it released a fall line-up that consisted of mostly reality TV shows based on American and British concepts (Dragon's Den, The Underdog, etc.). It's going to simulcast an ABC American Idol rip-off at 10pm, bumping "the National" news program (the CBC anchor show) to a later time til the end of summer. And to top it off, a Senate report was just released calling for the CBC to drop professional sports programming and to eliminate advertising as revenue. Instead, it called for the CBC to be completely taxpayer-funded.
So, will the CBC become a Canadian PBS, showing no sports, but mainly news and current affairs (though, I can't see any Conservative government willing to pump more taxpayer dollars into the CBC)? Or will it become any other Canadian TV Channel, sans-public funding and fighting with the 800 million other networks on the dial, eventually to be bought out by one of the major media conglomerates? These seem to be the only two directions that people are advocating.

Either fate seems unfortunate for the venerable station that can now only reach every part of Canada through Hockey Night in Canada, all the while being forced to cut back on regional stations and programming because of a lack of revenue. Part of the blame goes to the Canadian viewer, who wouldn't know good programming if it bit them in the butt. Partly goes to CBC, who rarely attempts to back and promote dramatic programs for the long haul (Da Vinci's Inquest is the only recent example I can think of). When CTV shows more Canadian programming (Degrassi, the New Generation, Corner Gas, then the CBC (and kudos to them for doing so), you know something is wrong.

The next few years will be rough on the CBC. They'll have to work hard to justify its existence to the public. They can't rely solely on the National and HNIC to bring in the viewers. But hocking reality-schlock does the Canadian public no justice either. It's a chicken/egg conundrum when it comes to figuring out the lack of Canadian drama on TV and why people aren't watching them. I don't believe that we aren't interested in our own stories. If we're that faithless with ourselves, then the CBC should stick to just news and current affairs. Otherwise, it needs to take risks in people who are willing to tell our stories.

The CBC will change. I'm just hoping it'll change to something for the better.

Procrastination x Websurfing + Rube Goldberg = Blogpost!

Two videos of Rube Goldberg devices came to my attention today and they're such fun things to watch:

Presenting...Ramen!

and

In the Outdoors

A superstitious lot...literally.

Catering to superstitions will get you nowhere. An example.

I've just finished helping move my parents into a new condo in Markham. There are sixteen residential floors, except there are no fourth, thirteenth or fourteenth floor to be found. Why you ask? 13 is unlucky in the western world, but 4 and 14 are considered unlucky to the Chinese because the pronunciation of these two numbers sound very close to "death" and "certain death", respectively. And being in Markham, with a more predominant Chinese community pervading, Tridel decided to cater to their likely clients.

The punchline: 'removing' these floors from the elevator has left this condo into having 13 floors! You see, you just can't win when it comes to superstition. So don't bother trying.

Now, as long as this building wasn't constructed over the gates to Hell or something ala Buffy, we'll be fine.