Remembrance Day, 2007

Courtesy City of Kingston

In Flanders Field

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

— John McCrae

Book Prices (and what Chapters can't do about it)

Now that the Canadian dollar's more than par with the American dollar, complaints have grown about the discrepancy in prices for books, which are very noticeable since they're usually printed on the back cover.

It's been getting a lot of media attention lately, what with Wal-Mart announcing that they'll sell books and greeting cards at US prices, which they probably can because it's likely a loss leader to draw people in to buy other things rather than having it as a major part of their revenue source.

Then there's this article about how prices are established months in advance and how titles NOW are reflective of the exchange rate of previous months.

Finally, there's this column venting on Chapters-Indigo and calling on the company to cut prices because it's so big that it gets HUGE discounts from publishers, moreso than small retailers, and that it should do it because,

"sure, they'll lose on some stock but it would make them heroes and they'd sell lots more books than usual."

Will Chapters-Indigo really be hailed as heroes, even in the figurative sense? I doubt that. Here's why.

If they were to completely sell all merchandise at US prices, yes, the consumer wins out and conceivably people may buy more at Chapters-Indigo locations. However, as that columnist stated, small booksellers don't get the discounts Chapters does and they've bought their merchandise at the prices set months prior. So now, not only are they competing against Chapter's purchasing discounts, but they would also have to face the new price competition that Chapters, the bookselling giant that they are in Canada. Will they be able to sell at US prices and take the loss that she thinks Chapters can so easily absorb? I doubt it. How long before we hear small booksellers complaining that Chapters is undercutting them and thereby killing the downtown, Main Street 'mom-and-pop' bookstores?

Chapters-Indigo would get villified just the same. They're in a (insert Joseph Heller reference here). So don't expect Chapters-Indigo to do much except say that they're waiting on the publishers to adjust the prices (which is what my friends the employees have been trained to say). They don't gain anything from action, so inaction will be the status-quo.

Therefore, please don't complain to Chapters-Indigo employees about the price discrepancy...they know it sucks. They're the book buying public too. And don't bother telling them that you'll only buy at US prices or you'll walk out. They don't care. They don't have to because the opportunity cost for the book was clearly higher than what you were willing to pay for anyhow (especially since you can get almost-US prices online anyhow, so what the hell were you doing in the store in the first place). Otherwise, you would own the book now.

It's basic economics. The sale was never there.

6 most terrifying foods in the world

via Joey de Villa

I disagree with the title of this article. It's not terrifying as it is the most disgusting foods in the world. I definitely felt some of my dinner coming up reading the description and looking at the images.

I wonder if Tom Parker Bowles ate any of these foods for his book, "The Year of Eating Dangerously"?

First Day at Work

Nothing eventful ever really happens on a person's first day at work, which I think is a good sign. I have a better idea of what I'll be doing, if not exactly how I go about doing all the projects that I'll eventually be assigned to. Still, I'm more interested in what I'll be doing, even if it's not exactly where I want to go (because assigning civic addresses is such exhilarating planning work, I assure you). While I don't expect to be able to blog about my job on a regular basis (if only because I doubt there'll be that many interesting stories), I'll also be trying to avoid blogging at work, since it's a definite sign that I'm slacking off.


Apparently, Friday is Pajama Day, so that may or may not be interesting...

Nuit Blanche/Word on the Street 2007

Wesley gives a very good recap of our night of carousing at Nuit Blanche 2007, all it's highs, lows and everything in-between. I was the unnamed friend that added up to the 'we' in his post, so of course I'm not hurt that he didn't just mention me by name. I think I would've liked to see Incursion in its entirety (if it wasn't for the giant crowd) and the parkour ninjas. The best part of the night was our surprise discovery of the laser graffiti. That was cool, which when followed by the giant locust, made for a great 1-2 punch for art.

And I don't know what happened to the Queen Streetcar, but pretty much walking from Trinity-Bellwoods to the Eaton Centre is TEH suck. Unlike Wes, however, I did make it to Word on the Street the next day, and got some good deals on several copies of past Massey Lectures as well as a signed copy of Ecoholic. Definitely coming back to THAT next year.

While I'm sure Nuit Blanche lost some mystique with some people because of the crowds, I had a very fun night and am eager to make it out for Nuit Blanche 2008. Wes, next year, we will have a better plan, possibly involving bikes...

Pictures from Wes
Torontoist response

Anything BUT "hot air"

Ever since the issue of climate change burst onto the scene in recent years, there have been a deluge of books tackling the subject, from various perspectives, often with overheated rhetoric about the plight of what our actions towards the planet (and its subsequent effects on our daily lives) (See Heat by George Monbiot, or Tim Flannery's "The Weather Makers") or the almost-complete denial of the issue being a big deal (*cough* Bjorn Lomborg, *cough).

Since climate change is a global phenomenon, these books take a global perspective. There wasn't really a book that analyzed it from a Canadian perspective.

Until now. I've just finished reading Jeffrey Simpson, Mark Daccard and Nic Rivers' "Hot Air: Meeting Canada's Climate Change Challenge" and I rarely say this, but this book should be required reading for everyone who acknowledges that climate change is a major issue in Canada. Here's why.

If you're a climate change denier, this book's won't convince you otherwise. It assumes climate change is happening and briefly summarizes the issue and science in one or two brief chapters so it wouldn't be too convincing. Its focus isn't the science, but the complete failure by our successive governments to be serious and committed to dealing with this problem, starting with the Mulroney government and ending right up to the Harper government.

It's saved its most scathing critique for the Chretien/Martin era, when they committed Canada (through Kyoto) to a difficult target, and then only set up voluntary measures, subsidies and as he said it on this morning's CBC show, "exhortations" as means to get Canadian involved. We all know how well THAT turned out. Instead of getting us 6% below 1990 levels, we were ABOVE by 25-26%.

And while they're less mean on Harper, they show how he and his government were completely blindsided the first time around (when Rona Ambrose, then Environment minister, became the sacrificial lamb) because throughout the 90s, they never believed in climate change anyhow. Smelling the political air changing, they quickly cobbled together a plan that was only slightly better than Dion's plan, with one major difference: The implementation of a mandatory emissions cap.

Their book is therefore bi-partisan in its critique, at the Liberals for failing to do ANYTHING, and at the conservatives for failing to believe in the issue. They also take swipes at the environmental movement, who've dogmatically regarded the Kyoto Protocol as the planet's sole saviour, and the Canadian business community, for being so antagonistic about dealing with this issue.

And this is where environmentalists might disagree with them but I agree wholeheartedly. KYOTO'S DEAD. WE'RE NOT GOING TO MAKE THE TARGETS IF OUR LIVES DEPENDED ON IT. MOVE ON.

While this doesn't mean that Harper should join that ludicrous "Asia-Pacific Partnership" (which by the way, has no compulsory components whatsoever, so voluntary targets will work SO WELL in Canada, as we've seen...), it does mean that our government (on both sides of the House) need to be adults and acknowledge that they've failed the public and the world community on this issue and that amends need to be made.

Their solutions are straightforward: Carbon tax, emissions cap, tradeable certificates, and carbon sequestration. Most of these would be compulsory, market-driven mechanisms aimed mainly at heavy emitters and energy producers. This does not mean they'll target Alberta (as Albertans are SO scared about that), as they show how different components can alleviate concerns but also reflect the fact that the Oil and Gas's newfound wealth has a cost that should be fairly paid. The carbon tax and the tradeable certificates would be the two that would really affect the individual.

None of these mechanisms will be very palatable, if only because the Canadian public hasn't completely accepted that our current lifestyle has a emissions cost that has yet to be paid. Their solutions are the first steps towards everyone accepting this cost.

While many people may not like using policy to change behaviour, we've seen that we won't do it voluntarily. We're all a part of this problem. It's time we be forced to do something about it.


P.S. Amazon customers are SO OFF BASE in that those who've bought "Hot Air" are buying books that pretty much deny the existence of climate change. Boy are they going to be disapointed. If anyone ACTUALLY wants to read a good book on the science of climate change, read Elizabeth Kolbert's "Field Notes From a Catastrophe".

Paul Pott's made Hell freeze over...

...because he's shown that Reality TV can actually show something decent. Let me explain.

People who know me know I loathe Reality TV. I avoid it as much as I can. This morning, at Chapters, of all things, my manager wanted to show the staff a youtube video that was related to an upcoming promotion.

Last year, Simon Cowell started ANOTHER Reality TV show called "America's Got Talent", which is to find ordinary people doing extraordinary things, people vote on them, etc. etc. Simultaneously, he aired "Britain's Top Talent" in Britain, on the same premise.

In Cardiff, the judges met one contestant by the name of Paul Potts. He sold cell phones by day, but he had something else coursing through his veins: opera.



To say everyone was impressed by his performance would be an understatement. The judges' reactions were particularly brilliant. I'd admit that it definitely sent chills through my body when he was singing. The unexpectedness made the performance even more remarkable and no one was going to send him home.

To spoil the ending of that season, he wound up winning the whole thing, and has since released a CD of him singing (which was why we were being informed, because the CEO, Heather Reisman, planned to promote his CD in our stores soon). Now, there are other clips on youtube of his performances throughout each stage of the show. However, I find them less impressive because he was more polished, they had these unnecessary pyrotechnics, and a few times, the crowd drowned out his singing. That first time where it's just him, the mike and his music, is where I find you get the full effect of his voice.

Even giving full credit to his talent, I realize that most of us with the untrained ear will find his singing stunning. I wonder though, with his lack of professional training, how he would stack up against the 'average' (if you can even have such a thing) opera singer (?!?! I'm guessing here). Any guesses here? Meileen, I'm looking at you for some assistance here.

Djokovic the joker

The first time I'd seen or heard of Novak Djokovic was at the 2007 Rogers Tournament this summer. Being an up and coming 20-year old tennis player was one thing (he's also Number 3 in the world, so he's really just up and coming in my mind), but being one with personality was another. Watching his post-game interview, he was having a lot of fun with the interviewer and making a lot of jokes. I found this unique because most often, athletes tend to respond in the ubiquitous, "I gave it a 110% on the court and I love my opponent like I love my dog, but game time, he/she's the enemy" etc. etc. etc.

With Djokovic though, he can carry on a conversation, and a fun one at that. Apparently, he also doesn't mind letting cameras following him around everywhere. I present to you three videos as evidence:

A series of impersonations of other top-ranked players during practice at Wimbledon.

Djokovic singing "I Will Survive". I don't know why either.

Djokovic introducing a journalist to some Serbian fare.

Everyone loves the impersonations. And judging by the related videos on youtube, he does it quite frequently too during practices. I hope it doesn't become his schtick though, snice that would make it tired and boring. After he won the Quarterfinals at this year's US Open, the ESPN or USA or wherever broadcaster OF COURSE asked him to do impersonations of Maria Sharapova and Rafael Nadal to the people in the stands and those watching at home...so that slippery slope's already begun.

Still, I hope he continues to do well. He's a phenomenal player and he's certainly brought interest back into tennis for me

More meta-blogging

Recently, I've found myself half-composing posts in my head only to abandon them once I reach the keyboard. Not for a lack of interesting topics certainly, what with the controversy over the Bomber Command exhibit at the Canadian War Museum, the proposed designation of the "Highway of Heroes" for the 401 highway (aka the MacDonald-Cartier Expressway, or the MCE), an appropriate response to "Planet of Slums" by Mike Davis, etc., etc. The complete dearth of posts seems to have created a positive-feedback towards my reluctance to write any piece of coherent analysis.

I'm hoping this will push me towards writing more again, so that out of whatever comes out, at least a small amount will be analytical in nature. Alright, that's enough self-indulgence for one day.

I love New York City. Oh yeah! New York City!

Title's from "I Love NYC" by Andrew W.K. just so you know.

Having never been to New York City and only knowing it through The Media, I had no clear expectation of what I would find. Now though, I’ve had a brief glimpse of why people say it's the best city in the world.

My friends and I eschewed motor transportation and just hiked through Manhattan. We had 12 hours to do it in and we were determined to hit up our two desired locations: Campers (shoe store) in Soho and Central Park.

Walking down any of the 5th-8th Ave., I find myself feeling much less claustrophobic in Manhattan than say, Hong Kong, probably because it was early in the morning and with the wide sidewalks and four-five lane road, there's a greater sense of space between the towers (until you get into midtown, and well, that feeling goes out the window). It was very enjoyable actually walking through a near-empty Manhattan, since the city didn’t get going until 11AM (when we arrived, there was already a line-up of tourists itching to go up the Empire State Building). It was interesting watching the city’s residents wake up and slowly open up their shops, revving the economic engine that is Manhattan.

We walked through a bit of SoHo and Greenwich Village, but it was all too brief to really get a sense of what Jane Jacobs loved about the area. What also didn’t help was my focused pursuit of a Magnolia Bakery's cupcake, made more famous by SNL’s “Lazy Sunday” skit. And yet, I had to ask THREE different NY residents before I got an idea of where it was, the third being (I’m guessing) a transplanted Aussie who told me to just head west on Bleecker Street. Turns out, it was way the hell west (West 11th Street and Bleecker, FYI), but man, those cupcakes did have mad frosting!

We then headed up 8th Ave, which apparently was home to a gay district (if not ‘The’) as well as a weekly roving street fair on West 23rd Street. It was these impromptu non-touristy New York experiences that I enjoyed the most. But once we reached 31st Street, it was time to blend into the jam-packed crowd walking through Times Square. Pure sensory-overload, that’s how I would describe it. Everything exploded on a grand scale in neon-colour (made even more apparent in the evening). Even the blind could follow the New York Stock Exchange ticker tape. And of course, who could forget The Naked Cowboy, a Times Square staple…

Eventually we were free of the crowds and into the quieter attraction of Central Park. Time running short, we enlisted Omar and his pedicab, as he toured us through the lower half of the park. A Malian (?), a fan of the Celtics and Jay-Z, he showed us various notable landmarks (2nd oldest carousel, Central Park zoo, the fountains, Strawberry Fields, etc). You could spend an entire day in Central Park alone, but it was nice to be inside some greenery, if ever so briefly.

Best part of the trip: Manhattan’s grid system made it very easy to navigate, considering I had never been. The landmarks helped too. Runner-up was finding The Onion in newspaper format. It’s teh awesome!

Worst part of the trip: Being held up at US customs for 1-1.5 hrs because 3 of the passengers were trying to cross the border without an entry visa and with only their non-Canadian passports. Runner-up was that I couldn't bring back any Magnolia cupcakes...

Photos are all on Facebook. I’ll link them once my friends puts them up.

EDIT: oh wait, they won't let me link up...ummm...if you don't have Facebook, sorry.
EDIT2: Oh man, how could I leave out THE CUPCAKES as the best part of my trip?!

The Art of Consumption and Everyday Life

Profiled in the Toronto Star today, Photographer Chris Jordan have captured or digitally composed provocative images of the things we consume in everyday life but also statistics that we may not be able to grasp intuitively. For example, this work from his "Running the Numbers: An American Self-Portrait" is titled, 'Plastic Bags, 2007'.

It's description: "Depicts 60,000 plastic bags, the number used in the US every five seconds".

The actual print is 60 x 72". It's BIG. If you zoom in to actual size:


And if you were to take the time to count each plastic bag, you would find all 60,000.

All his images are thought-provoking, and very reminiscent of Edward Burtynksky's work, Manufactured Landscapes, creating art out of the mundane materials of western society. If I was to apply Chip and Dan Heath's principles from "Made to Stick" about how to communicate ideas effectively, Jordan's work would pass with flying colours:

Simple - The images are simple. In the "Running the Numbers" exhibit, It's one item, one number, one message.
Unexpected - The images appear abstract, until you look closer and find an everyday item.
Concrete - These aren't computer-generated products (although some are digitally composed together), but images of real things.
Credible - The numbers in his statistic has to match the numbers in the image. Otherwise, he'd lose all credibility.
Emotional - The shock is in making an abstract statistic into something tangible and can be grasped.
Story - It is a very short story about the different impacts we make collectively as a society.

As he says, he's not trying to guilt anyone, but to show what each person's everyday life looks like in aggregate. Whether we choose to do change something about it is another thing entirely. Do check out his other sets on his website, "Intolerable beauty" and "In Katrina's Wake".


Both images from http://www.chrisjordan.com

A timeline to Potter-madness

Having stood outside in the cold in January waiting in line for a Nintendo Wii for/with my friends, I thought I understood the nature of obsession.

In fact, I understood nothing. Yesterday, on July 20-21, 2007, I had finished my 9-3 AM shift for the 12:01 AM release of the final installment of the Harry Potter series, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”. Here now a chronology:

11:25 AM: I’m still working my Friday 7-12pm regular shift and this is when the FIRST Harry Potter fan of the day asks where to start lining up for the book.


8:30 PM: I drive into work and already the store’s set up 2 lines for people outside, one for fans who’ve pre-ordered the book, and the other banking on getting it at one past midnight. Inside, it's filled with people loitering and as I’m fitted into my costume (I’m a Death Eater manning a booth…who says dark wizards can’t be bureaucrats?), plans are in motion to finish the last arrangements for the store. The skids of books were not to be moved to the floor until 11:50 PM.

9:30 PM: A co-worker’s cousin who has more than a passing resemblance to Daniel Ratcliffe got dressed up as Harry Potter for us…and was soon swarmed by those same girls for photos (…though since he was starting university in September, he hoped none of this ended up on YouTube).

10:00 PM – 1130 PM: We’ve finally moved the lines inside, which also meant the start of activities around the store. There are now more people than I’ve ever seen in the store, and I must admit, it feels a little bit claustrophobic. I don’t get a chance to see the buzz of activity around because my job is to pre-register people who’ve pre-ordered the book by giving out wristbands. The roaming magician we hired is a popular attraction, entertaining those in line with various card tricks.

11:00PM – By about now the girls at the front of both lines have decided to start cheers for every hour, half hour, 20 minutes, 15 minutes, 10 minutes, etc. for the countdown to the book’s release. And with each passing cheer, my tolerance for them lowers just that much more.

11:50 – 11:59 PM – The girls decide to hold a cheering contest between the pre-order and the regular sales line. By now I’ve a ringing in my ears that won’t go away and a headache. Earplugs would’ve been good right about now. Not that the timing helped, because the Skids of the much-anticipated books are now being moved out from our Receiving Area to it’s respective areas, with security guard in tow. That’s right, we hired security guards to protect books. These are pretty much J K Rowling’s Crown Jewels. Loud cheering ensues and flashes go off behind me as people photograph the boxes of books. Stop and think about what you've just read...

People are taking pictures of cardboard boxes....okay, you can resume reading now.

12:00 – 12:01 AM – People start counting down the seconds. I'm hoping that people won’t just rush us and steal the books, because really, 4 employees and a half-indifferent security guard would not be able to hold back a crazed mob. If only they authorized my Taser request…

12:01 AM – The book release arrives!

12:01 – 1ish AM – It’s a non-stop flurry of books, bags, and gift cards as my friend and I try to process people through as quickly as possible. Slight delays ensue as some people cut in lines and don’t have a wristband force me to stop the flow and check off their names. Mild irritation, granted, but we wanted these crazies out of our hair as fast as possible.

1-3 AM – The craziness is over! We actually get people out the door with their Precious in a little over an hour, which is pretty impressive. We had some stragglers left coming in to pick up pre-orders or make outright purchases, but for the most part, we could nonchalantly start cleaning up the mess customers made. And of course, it WAS a mess. But we only did a half-hearted attempt because we were tired and really didn’t care all too much. I don’t envy the people who had to come in this morning to clean up after us…I seriously think we need to shut down the store for a few days just so we could re-shelve and re-organize everything.

3 AM – We’re done, so we all get together in our costumes for some staff photos. I manage to find someone peering through our front door. It seems he’s wondering if he could still buy a copy for his little brother, whom he promised would have it by the time he wakes up. I tell him he’s about an hour too late and think, “shouldn’t have gone to the bar first and then try to buy the book…”.

3:30 AM – Finally leaving the store and I need FOOOOOOOOD! Just as we’re rolling into a McDonald’s drive through, they tell us it’s going to take 20 minutes for them before they can serve us because they’re switching over to the breakfast menu…my timing couldn’t be more terrible.

And so ends this madness. I get to sleep at 5 AM, knowing many people will still be up reading the Deathly Hallows. In fact, I’m sure some people are STILL reading as I type this. Who’s going to sleep well? JK Rowling for one, since she will probably by the end of this be double the financial worth of the Queen of England. The other is Heather Reisman, head of Chapters-Indigo, who will also have made a truckload of money.

Me? I get to eat a sandwich from Burger-King at 4 in the morning. Who’s the winner tonight, you think?

Two elephants walks down the street...

If you haven't heard this yet, this may be the funniest story to ever happen to the Town of Newmarket.

So the circus was in town (ha ha) and the electrified fence for the elephants went down and realizing this, two of them decided to play tourist. The thing is, where the circus was set up (Ray Twinney Complex, it seems), it is surrounded by suburbs. So of course, where do the elephants go but down suburban streets, surprising some night-owls while they enjoy a midnight snack of golf course and front lawn trees.

Anyways, York Regional Police was kind enough to post mp3s of a 911 call reporting this and the dispatch conversation with police officers sent to...ummm...corral these animals. The cops were definitely having fun relaying their efforts back.

Update: It seems the York Region Police have taken down the mp3s. Luckily, the good ol' CBC has a realaudio format of the initial call to police. If I find a link to the other one, I'll post that one too.

The Lack of Posts

For someone who doesn't have a full-time job, I am surprised at the sparse blogging that I've done. While the cliche is that job-hunting is a full-time job unto itself, it is not wholly to blame. There frankly hasn't been all that much of interest that I've wanted to talk about.

I've completely lost touch with the national and international political scene (what I get for not watching BBC World and reading every available news site possible) and while I had a piece to say about the fine journalism from the Toronto Sun on their coverage of the National Day of Action recently, the moment's past (it wasn't that interesting, just me being snarky at them).

But on the whole, there's nothing much to say that couldn't be said in one sentence:

- Live Earth will not have created a new environmental consciousness, but hooray for 26 hrs of mediocre music!

- Michael Bay ruined Transformers the Movie and I will NEVER see it.

- I just finished reading "Field Notes From a Catastrophe". It is very much an underrated book, if partially because "The Weather Makers" took all the hype.

- The fact that people care enough about whether a fictional character like Harry Potter lives or dies enough to create websites and petitions make me want to both laugh and cringe.

- I'm tired of most Canadian politicians claiming their city/province/Canada is at the leading edge of implementing environmental policy. We are not. Let's be honest with ourselves and admit that so we can work at becoming that leading edge instead.

Alright, that's enough for now. Hopefully, I'll get back to some semi-regular blogging soon.

The Internet may yet redeem itself

This was heralded as the End of the Internet.

This story might just save it.

Courtesy Joey Devilla and Metafilter.

The Michael Lee-Chin Crystal

I had the opportunity to visit the newly opened Michael Lee-Chin Crystal addition of the Royal Ontario Museum (the ROM) yesterday.

Most people who comment on it typically either like it or hate it. I fall in the former category. If you're far enough away on either end of Bloor, the ROM looks like either an alien spaceship has crashed into the northern end of the building or someone's chemistry experiment has gone awry (or maybe even remind someone of the crystals exploding through Metropolis in the new Superman movie...but I guess that's too pop-culturish of a simile). Either way, it's a spectacular view that grabs one's attention on the street. It'll make a great landmark and Toronto certainly needs more of it.

The ROM allowed visitors to tour the crystal without the exhibits in place, which was a great idea because it really gives you a good sense of the space itself without the exhibits as a visual distraction. As mentioned in many news items, none of the walls and such are at right angles with each other, which is both an engineering and artistic feat. There's plenty of space, though because it faces north for the most part, it lacks natural lighting into the rooms, which I would've preferred. In certain areas of the crystal, there are portions of the existing building break through the new walls, which I really liked because to me, it reminds visitors that the crystal doesn't exist in and of itself but is a part of the overall museum.

There's also a certain sense of weightlessness in the building, particularly by the windows where it hangs over the street. Not that the ROM is dark and dank, but the contemporary design of the building certainly doesn't invoke the stereotypical notion of a museum. In fact, it's more reminiscent of a modern art gallery. This is certainly the case with the Sugimoto Hiroshi Special Exhibition already installed on the 4th floor. The room feels cavernous, even with the people walking in and out and around the spartan display cases. It'll be interesting to see how the permanent exhibits are set up.

Overall, I enjoyed my tour and am very excited to see it in its completion, with the permanent exhibits, new restaurant and new public space. Toronto architecture's certainly gotten more interesting.

What I love about Summer

You know what I love about Summer? Watermelon. And fresh corn on the cob. Fresh strawberries too.

There's something about the anticipation of seasonal foods that make them that extra bit better. While it's very likely a psychosomatic effect, I definitely get added enjoyment out of the few weeks when I can, well not gorge but more feast I guess, on these delectable items. I just tend to appreciate these foods more.

It's not limited to fresh produce either. Girl Guide Cookies, Cadbury mini-eggs are both worth the wait. I somewhat wish that mini-eggs weren't also available during Christmas nowadays.

Anyways, this was mostly a post about how much I love watermelon, if only because I just had some this afternoon (though now that I think about it, the one I had probably wasn't sold in season). Hmm. Kinda throws my whole premise out the window, doesn't it?

Reflections in Edmonton

Here I am, sitting alone in my friend Tara's wonderful guest room in Calgary and I'm still thinking about Edmonton.

You know how someone had once said that we can't know or appreciate happiness unless we have sadness? While I sort of agree, I don't think anyone needed this sadness.

It's an odd and sad coincidence to be so excited for a trip to see some friends in another part of the country only to hear the night before that a friend overseas tragically lost her life a few days prior.

I only knew Emma while I was working for the Publishing and Copy Centre at Queen's University. She was the life of the party though. She was the biggest Oilers fan I knew on campus and her laugh was infectious. She had boundless energy, especially when it came to her friends. Through Facebook, I found out she had a blog. Her personality very much shines through in her writing style, and I can't help but laugh at her posts, as if she's telling the stories in person.

But others knew her much better and I'm sure they are much more devastated than I will ever be. Still, I'm shocked and saddened by this event. It definitely changed my perspective of this trip, as I imprinted my own feelings over minute details of my flight to Calgary.

Leaving Toronto on a smoggy but bright sunny day, I arrive in Edmonton, her hometown, cloudy, with scattered rays of sunlight. A bittersweet atmosphere, it seemed. There'd were streaks of rain for brief moments, which felt as if the city itself was slowly mourning her. Oddly appropriate. On the flight, I walk by a mother and her baby, and think how Emma will never become a mother. While waiting for my connecting flight, I listen to retirees meeting and talking about traveling to destinations in Greece, fulfilling their lifelong dreams. What happens to Emma's dreams now? In the gift shop, they're replaying the Stanley Cup finals between the Oilers and the Carolina Hurricanes. What will the Oilers do without their #1 fan?

I would like to think that I'm not overdramatizing what I'm feeling. I would like to think that every so often, I will think of her and what her brief friendship meant to me. I would like to think that what I'm writing now is in someway meaningful.

But right now, I just don't want to think anymore. I don't want to think about a world where there isn't an Emma around to make someone laugh.

Internerd Nostalgia-ganza!

And if you want more, there's this thread from a forum Wes showed me. From Body Break to United Furniture Warehouse to the Canadian Tire Guy, they're all here!

I don't know whether to curse him or thank him for bringing all this back...

Somebody's gotta steal this idea for Canada...

I don't know if this really is the biggest, but it's probably the coolest scavenger hunt out there. This year's list is pretty mammoth, though apparently, there've been past items that are just batshit crazy.

Clearly, this is an idea worth spreading around, since it seems it'd be really fun to partake in. And of course, I must include some youtubery of this organized chaos.

Will photos change anything?

So now we have photographic evidence that shrimp trawlers in Asia are damaging the seabed (and therefore, ocean habitats) with their clean sweeps, thus proving moreso what scientific papers have said previously.

Will this actually change those practices?


I'm not holding my breath.

How much are a pair of pants worth?

Apparently, US $65 million.

You read that right. Not $65, not $650, not even $6,500. $65,000,000. If there was ever a lawsuit that was the definition of frivolous, this would be it.



via Kottke

Euro-style communities in China

Re-creating European cities China's latest housing trend

Snarky responses:

-It's like living in Europe, but without all those damn Europeans.
-It goes to show that China is tops at refabricating ANYTHING.
-If England, England was ever made into reality, it'd totally be China, China.
-hooray for Las Vegas-esque mass production and commodification of experiences!

Thinking

It's been one of those weeks where I've been nicely distracted from the thought of my thesis defense by some big ideas being discussed. Like my moniker suggests, I've been absorbing tons of information but very little's been trickling out. Still, I've quite enjoyed being absorbed in my thinking through its implications.

1) At my friend's birthday dinner, there was a brief discussion about the wonders of Canada and the myth (in the grand story sense, not the inaccuracy that it's come to mean) of our national healthcare. This dovetailed into Andrew's post about the long wait for treatment for his friend's ACL,how unfortunate the current circumstances have dictated the long wait and what is to be done. Are we forever burdened with 'equal access to crap' as some claimed in the comments, or is it better than we think it is?

It seems like private delivery of some medical services seem not completely unreasonable, as long as those parameters are strictly defined. If however, some feel that private delivery shouldn't be based on 'medical necessity', then what exactly? Surely, a compromise can be achieved that doesn't completely undermine the public system. This also assumes that those resources freed by private delivery could be redirected elsewhere to other parts of the public system, instead of just having it shrivel away. Part of the problem is the fact that small-scale trials are nearly impossible. You can't create an industry only to destroy it completely if it doesn't meet your political objectives. So what are our options for testing private delivery? Thought exercises just aren't that convincing.

2) At the same time, I've been reading Reed Scowen's "Time to Say Goodbye", whose thesis is that Quebec and Canada should separate (for reasons explained in the book) and Canada can be the better for it. I'm only 2/3 of the way through, but I was struck by this line,

"Canada is a country of minorities"

and what he defines Canada to be:

"...we are in a state of mutual allegiance with everyone who lives within Canada's borders, not with the objective of achieving a common substantive purpose, but through loyalty to the structure that provide us with our freedom and its corresponding responsibilities, to 'the authority of certain conditions in acting'."

"A deeply felt commitment of mutual allegiance with all Canadians; a commitment to parliamentary rule; the search for fairness in our respect for basic human rights and freedoms; respect for local and regional values and priorities; above all, a respect for the Constitution itself - that's what you get from being Canadian. This is our common culture, our civil association. It may not satisfy my definition of what it is to be Canadian. Nor yours. It does not make us unique in this world. But that's all that we all agree on. And it's enough."

My first thought was, "is that enough to bind us all together"? My second thought, of course, was, "let's see Molson try to sell that.

3) The 'country of minorities' made me think of the Ontario's citizen's assembly's referendum to the Ontario public on whether to change our electoral system from a first-past-the-post to a mixed-member proportional representation (PR) system. As a symbolic thing, it seems appropriate to have a country of minorities governed by minority-based coalitions. There are much better arguments for and against switching to any type of PR, of course. I just wasn't thinking about them at the time. I have no idea how it'll turn out, and while I know what the pundits like, I'm eager to see what Ontarians' views are.

4) Finally, The provincial Liberal government has decided to follow New Jersey, Australia and others to ban 'inefficient' light bulbs by 2010. Some think this is a good idea; others, not so much. While it seems quite heavy-handed to me, I'm wondering whether energy consumption (among other things) can be decreased without such government intervention or drastic environmental degradation?

To run again

I started running again now that it's warmed up (I've a strange aversion to treadmills...)

Anyways, 5k in 27 min = a very low bar to overcome. When I used to run with Matt, we did it in 23 min. This is punishment for being a blob for 5 months...

New Layout

There wasn't a huge need to revamp the layout, but my eyes were hurting from staring at all the white, which probably means everyone else was too. I also had to update parts of my blogroll (thx Megan), which gave me the impetus to spend the last two hours doing this.

If I was better with HTML and CSS, it would've been done a lot quicker and with a bit more sophistication. But then, if you were looking for sophistication in this blog, you clearly made the wrong turn at Albequerque. Hopefully, these colour schemes will also be much easier on the eyes.

Top 5 Books (so far): a High Fidelity tribute

I've just finished reading "High Fidelity", and having been voraciously consuming books since I've been working at Chapters, it seemed like fun to write out my top 5 books I've read so far:

Top 5 Picks
1) The Omnivore's Dilemma - Michael Pollan
Written like a travelogue, the author takes its readers through the different ways we grow our food, from our current industrial production system, to the 'industrial organic', the truly sustainable model and 'hunter/gatherer' systems. Along the way, he examines the implications for each of them and shows that separating ourselves from our food sources has really undermined our appreciation of the food we eat and the environment from which it is produced.

2) The Dodecahedron (or a Frames for Frames) - Paul Glennon
Imagine each of the 12 self-contained short stories as a face on a 12-sided polygon, where the vertices and edges represent the elements common to the 'adjacent' stories. Is that such a cool concept or what?

3) Stanley Park - Timothy Taylor
I think it helped that I read this immediately after The Omnivore's Dilemma, as I was still mentally engaged with issues about how we grow our food. This novel isn't just about food, but also about identity, roots and the meaning of 'home'.

4) Made to Stick - Chip and Dan Heath
On a recommendation from a co-worker, it's all about how to get people to remember your ideas after you've told it to them. It's effective because it's like the duct tape on the book jacket: easy to use, useful for almost any situation, and their ideas really stick!

5) The Road - Cormac McCarthy
I've already said my piece about it HERE. I may end up buying it at some point, especially to see if I can peel off the 'Oprah's Book Club' sticker on the trade paperback edition.

Not all my reads, however, were fantastic. While none of them were awful, there were some that didn't satisfy:

Top 5 Surprisingly Disappointing Reads

1) DeNiro's Game - Rawi Hage
A Governor General's Award and a Giller Prize nominee, I expected this book to be one of the best reads of the year. While I understand the motivations behind the main character, I couldn't sympathize with him at all. I just thought he was a giant dick for a lot of the novel.

2) Colour of Magic - Terry Pratchett
Another co-worker recommendation. It's very fantastic and well-conceived world with its own internal logic. I just didn't find the plot of the novel to go anywhere. The main characters gets thrown from one ridiculous situation to another with no logical end. Maybe that's the whole point of Discworld, but it still didn't make me like it.

3) Getting to Maybe - Frances Westley et al.
The book's premise tries to show that individuals have been and can continue to be the focal point for major social change. It tries distill those real-life experiences into general rules for how individuals might want to get involved. However, the suggestions are too vague and if the people you describe couldn't predict that they would be this focal point, how can the authors? If the authors applied the ideas from Made to Stick, maybe it would've been more effective. Or, it's just something a book can't properly describe.

4) How Happy to Be - Katrina Onstad
I read this on a recommendation by Paul Wells, who found it to be an absolutely fantastic read. I read this after Stanley Park, and while they both seemed to tackle similar issues (particularly the estrangement with one's father), I thought Stanley Park handled them much more effectively. I also found the main character of this book to be more neurotic than necessary. The not-so-subtle in-jokes and monikers like "The other Big City Lefty newspaper" (get it, it's the Toronto Star, wink wink!) and "The Annual International Film Festival" (both paraphrased, but you get the idea) made me want to scream, "EITHER USE THE REAL NAMES OR MAKE UP A NAME!"

5) Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures - Vincent Lam
It's not a bad collection of short stories. I really didn't know what to expect. It's more me than the book. I think the fact that the connections built up between the characters in the earlier stories quickly unravels in the later stories left me wanting. While I understand that this is what happens once you leave university or med school or whatever, it just left me with a neutral feeling. It does make me want to read more short story collections to see how others do it.

Honorable Mention: High Fidelity - Nick Hornby
This was entirely my own fault, having seen and loved the movie before reading the book. It's not that the book was bad, but I couldn't develop my own scenes from the descriptions in the book. Instead, all I could think about was Jack Black and John Cusack...)

Maybe I'll post again when I've found a real job and can no longer read books at the current pace and see if the list has changed any.

What Energy Savings?

I'm shocked...shocked I say, to hear that arbitrarily changing an already arbitrary method of keeping time resulted in NO energy savings.

I mean, why should we put our efforts into real energy conservation efforts when we can just keep moving time back and forth and make it look like we're trying to do something?

The Road

This is one of those few times where Oprah Winfrey's taste and mine match, if ever. On Wednesday, she picked "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy, as her new Oprah Book Club pick.

I know this because it popped up on the Chapters-Indigo website last night, but also because today we had about 900 trade paperback copies in the store (ok, so I exaggerate).

Anyways, I read it in hardcover, i.e. before the force of nature that is Oprah Winfrey picked this title out of the billions found in the masses to be placed in the sales-inducing canon that she's created. It was on a lot of top ten lists for books in the US for 2006, which was one reason why I chose to read it. And I really liked the book.

The basic premise is a father and son who's on a journey to the sea in a post-apocalyptic future where nothing living remains, except for the straggling remnants of humanity here and there. It's a tale of survival, and the bond between them that makes them desperate enough to keep on living.

What makes McCarthy's setting so terrifying is not the presence of monsters or mutant zombies or what not. It's the complete absence of life. The thought that the wide, wide, world is more or less empty just chilled me to the bone. It doesn't burden the reader with words, but it's still vivid enough that you feel you are there wandering with them, hungry with them, cold with them. It was the atmosphere that made the book for me.

But while I liked it, I don't think I could read it again for a long time because it depressed the hell out of me. It's a bleak book and to me, it's not one of those novels where there are chapters that could be read and re-read all the time.

It'll be interesting to see whether the people who tend to buy books based on her recommendations will continue to do so with this title.

More PhD Comics-related hilarity...

Danna, this is what will happen when you read my thesis...

AND

If only it was this easy to complete my thesis...

A news story that shouldn't be one...

I don't even know how to describe this story...

And yet, the only question that comes to mind is:

Will this make the elephant go blind?

I need to get out more...

Canada Reads 2007

I've been listening to the streaming audio for this year's Canada Reads 2007 (which I always thought was a great idea to introduce you to Canadian titles that a person may not have been exposed to otherwise). This year, the books in contention were:

Gabrielle Roy's 'Children of My Heart'

Timothy Taylor's 'Stanley Park'

Anosh Irani's 'Song of Kahunsha'

Heather O'Neill's 'Lullabies for Little Criminals'

David Bezmozgis' 'Natasha and other Stories'

I've listened to two episodes and 'Children of My Heart' has already been voted off. While I want 'Stanley Park' (which I loved) to be the book that they suggest Canadians read, I don't think it's going to win. Most of the panelists didn't have enough positive things to say about the novel. Listening to Denise Bombardier describe the passages about food as 'boring' just stabs me in the ear. The closest was John K. Samson's description that the novel was the most ambitious.

My prediction is that 'Song of Kahunsha' will win this thing. There were very little criticism (though the topic at the time was only, 'did this book qualify even though it was set in Mumbai') and the only opposition was Jim Cuddy, who thought the character didn't change enough (he also didn't like 'Natasha' because it was a set of short stories and 'Lullabies' because the characters weren't really affected by the events that happen in the book. It'll be interesting to see what he'll vote for after 'Stanley Park' gets voted off...

Update (Mar. 2 11:39 AM): Wow. I'm listening to Canada Reads live and I've been proven wrong. It's now between 'Stanley Park' and 'Lullabies for Little Criminals', with Denise Bombardier breaking the tie for voting off between 'Stanley Park' and 'Song of Kahunsha' and choosing the latter.

Tales from the Bookstore II: The last question I thought I'd ever hear...

Customer: Hi.

Me: Hello, what can I help you with?

Customer: These books, do you buy or do you borrow?

Me (in disbelief): Excuse me?

Customer: do you buy, or can you borrow?

Me (my mind having been blown): Um...no, you can't borrow.

Customer: Oh. okay. Thank you.

To Iris

My dear and wonderful cousin Iris,

who was welcomed into her parents' arms just yesterday. I only have this to say:

It's a strange and wonderful world. Sometimes it can be a bit messy. Hopefully, by the time you start finding your place in it, we'll have left it in better shape than when we first started looking around.


Update (Feb. 25): ...and by 'yesterday', I meant two days ago (Feb. 22). Like I said, it's a strange and wonderful world, where no one actually told me when you were born and I ended up inferring the wrong day. My bad.

Nathan Phillips Square redesigned...for the better

Courtesy: City of Toronto, Rogers Marvel Architects

About a year and a half ago, there was an internship with the City of Toronto to lay out the background work for what would become the Nathan Phillips Square redesign competition. The interviewer and I discussed what I would've done to the square and needless to say we disagreed in our views (I wanted the colonnade gone, he didn't...as it turns out, the entire property is under heritage designation so any redesign efforts couldn't remove it completely). I also didn't get the internship, which I was bummed about.

Fast forward to yesterday, and a shortlist of designs (4) were presented to the general public yesterday at Toronto City Hall. Torontoist gives a very good summary of all the design presentations (mainly because, well, they were kinda there). So go over there and read about the designs and then come back for my *ahem* expert opinion...

Welcome back. Have the designs fresh in your heads? Good. I agree with Torontoist in that there were definitely good and bad points in each of the designs. Overall though, I liked Rogers Marvel Architects' design the best (which is why it's the only one pictured here). There were two things that sold me on the design. One was the new opening on the East side off Bay street. It makes the colonnade less constricting while providing a new pedestrian entrance. The other reason is the sloping hill. I LOVE IT. You can access this hill from the square OR the colonnade and it incorporates the green space that was previously separated from the west portion of the raised walkway. It literally brings that green space into the square.

I would've liked to see the peace garden moved so that it's not stuck out there like an island, since I can't really envision quiet reflection in the middle of the goings-on of a public square. While I did like Baird Sampson Neuert's idea for the peace garden, incorporating that into the Rogers Marvel's design would make the square too 'west-heavy'. The Ziedler partnership design, while striking and different (especially the undulating green roof), it seems to lack sophistication for what is also the seat of power *cough* of Toronto in addition to the square being a public space. However, I did like the idea of glass railings fort the colonnade, which would make the square more visually accessible.

Therefore, I hope the committee chooses the Rogers Marvels design while incorporating the eco-design features presented by Baird Sampson Neuert and Plant Architects and the glass railings for the colonnade from the Ziedler design. That would be my dream square. I would go there EVERY DAY (and by every day, I mean, whenever I have the chance). It's the least they can do for not hiring me in the first place.


Update (9:14 PM): It's never too early for an update. Dylan Reid of Spacing Wire and I pretty much agree. He also elaborated on several points that I didn't cover. One interesting note from a commenter. The campfire in the Rogers Marvel design is pretty unrealistic. They could've done better with that. A minor quibble, but still.

Wrong doesn't even begin to describe it Pt. II

I was hoping to be able to stop from posting on Climate Change, as already done HERE and HERE.

But once again, we have another fine piece of reporting from Peter Worthington of the Toronto Sun.

And while The Sun is noted for its journalistic excellence by SO MANY Torontonians, I just had to comment on it b/c his readership is so much bigger than mine and I wish it was oh, I don't know, accurate.

First, this comment:

"Rarely mentioned is the global warming threat is not anchored in scientific fact or research, it is a hypothesis, a theory, that has yet to be proven."

Hmmm, could he be using a rhetorical device to link global warming (Hi, this is 2007, the accurate term is actually climate change, but welcome to the 1990s) to another supposed disputed scientific controversy (that shouldn't be disputed at all, by the way)....*cough* evolution *cough*. Sorry, I had a piece of antarctic ice core stuck in my throat. I would LOVE to know if he's read ANY of the many scientific papers that's been released on the changing climate that point to this serious issue. Because those thousands of papers couldn't possibly actually weigh as much as an anchor, could it?

"The IPCC report is based on writings of some 2,500 scientists (few of them climatologists, and many geneticists, environmentalists, etc.), and their findings are compressed into a “Summary for Policymakers” which is a political document, not a scientific one, compiled by UN spinmeisters."

UN spinmeisters, eh? well, let's see. I've addressed the authors debacle previously, both the number of scientists (2500 are the REVIEWERS, not the authors) and who they are. And while I said I addressed this issue already, it's kind of fun. Here's a list of the authors from the 2001 IPCC climate change report. Now, the 2007 list of authors isn't released yet, but judging from the 2001 list, I'm sure what they'll have done this time around is fire the whole lot of them and replaced them with geneticists, environmentalists and the boogeyman (I've been told he's on the UN payroll too).

If you can't be bothered to get these little pieces of information right, which are readily available on the IPCC main page, and found within seconds of googling "IPCC", then don't bother writing it. I wonder if he did ANY research on this, or whether all he did was watch Larry King Live, which, I've been told, is a bastion of truth and knowledge.

Maybe they were premature in releasing the summary before the final report was ready to be published, but that's not to say that they won't release a much larger volume that goes into detail what their research shows. Again, from the IPCC site, the final report is 4 volumes long. Count it with me. FOUR. Is that enough for you Mr. Worthington? Probably not, because you wouldn't read it anyways because it's not 'scientific enough'.

"Talk of “consensus” in science is nonsense. Consensus is not truth, nor proof, it is compromise. In science, everything should be tested and becomes either true or false, or undecided."

"Whether Earth is round or flat is not a matter of “consensus.” Ask Galileo. Consensus at Salem in 1692 was that witches took over childrens’ bodies."

If the scientists were just sitting around the coffee table making stuff up and agreeing that it's true then yes, consensus would be nonsense. However, when they're doing independent research and testing their hypotheses gathering information, affirming that their results are in agreement with each other, that's a whole different story. And no, consensus isn't always a compromise. It can be, just not every time.

And apparently, any scientists working for the IPCC are now puritans too. Just wanted to let you know in case Mr. Worthington wasn't clear enough.

"Prof. Lindzen is a genuine scientist, ever probing and questioning. He cites scientists who’ve been fired, denied post on panels, or whose research has been rejected not for merit, but because they challenge the prevailing UN view that global warming is man-induced, and not a cyclical occurrence of nature. As for Canadians (and PM Harper), the Calgary-based website friendsofscience.org is more instructive than the IPCC."

And yet, Mr. Worthington couldn't give his readers one example of who those scientists that Prof. Lindzen talked about were. Didn't he watch the show? He couldn't have jotted one name down? Prof. Lindzen is a 'genuine scientist', but all those people writing for the IPCC? They're clearly not because they don't hold tenure or publish papers in scientific journals. They're merely genetics-quoting hippies. Yep. That's clearly who they are.

As for the "Friends of Science" website. I'll let DeSmogBlog take it over from here, who've catalogued the supposed 'expertise' of this group.

"Predicting climate change is more than computerized models — and far more complex than predicting the weather change — which is 50% wrong at best. Just witness no warning of the tornadoes that ambushed Florida last week."

"Lastly, why the excessive fear of carbon dioxide, essential for agriculture and plant life? CO2 is not pollution. And it’s man-made pollution that threatens the environment, and planet."

I'm so tired of pointing this out. Really. Predicting any complex system is...wow, complex. So does that mean we shouldn't try? And it's not like these computer models are based on variables pulled out of thin air. It's using historical data and trying to infer what will likely happen. Yes, there's uncertainty but there's uncertainty in any model. Again, my point is not to disparage economics, but why is it that uncertainty in economic forecasts are much more accepted than say, climate change predictions? Both are large complex systems, both use mathematical and computer models to predict behaviour, so why is the risks in one more accepted than another?

On the other hand I totally know where he got his information on carbon dioxide from. A very reputable scientific source, I'm just saying. I'll let RealClimate do the heavy lifting on this one.

Finally,

"As for global warming, if indeed it is more than a cyclical event, surely more food will be produced and more people will have a more comfortable life."

Yes, all those people who live in low-lying coastal areas who may get flooded from sea level increases due to melted ice caps will be SO MUCH more comfortable.

Alright, I'm done. I'm going to back to sleep, where it's a Mr. Worthington-free world and it actually makes sense.

P.S. A much more compelling reaad is Pheton's Reins, by MIT professor Kerry Emanuel.

More Climate Change fun.

Apparently, the Fraser Institute released an "Independent Summary Report for PolicyMakers" (ISPM) in response to the IPCC's Summary Report for PolicyMakers (SPM). As much as I would enjoy refuting the ISPM (I really wouldn't), both RealClimate and DeSmogBlog already beat me to the punch. Which is fine, because they actually probably would've had more fun doing it than me.

Though once again, I'm sure contrarians will believe the 10 authors of the ISPM moreso than the 1250 authors and 2500 reviewers. Because, if anyone's tried to get consensus within a small group knows, it's nigh-impossible. You get this large group of scientists to agree about one thing, and it's clearly they're ALL crazy and lying about the consensus, right?!

Wrong doesn't even begin to describe it.

I don't want to say that I'm better than the Editorial Page of the Wall Street Journal, but did they even read the recently released IPCC Summary for PolicyMakers (SPM)?

Two easy examples:

"The document that caused such a stir was only a short policy report, a summary of the full scientific report due in May. Written mainly by policymakers (not scientists) who have a stake in the issue, the summary was long on dire predictions."

Written BY policymakers? It was written FOR policymakers. I've read Jonathan Overpeck's (one of the authors) papers in a class on Global Environmental Change. He's a scientist, not a policymaker. Google any of the other names and you'll find them to be scientists.

"More pertinent is the underlying scientific report. And according to people who have seen that draft, it contains startling revisions of previous U.N. predictions. For example, the Center for Science and Public Policy has just released an illuminating analysis written by Lord Christopher Monckton, a one-time adviser to Margaret Thatcher who has become a voice of sanity on global warming."

"Take rising sea levels. In its 2001 report, the U.N.'s best high-end estimate of the rise in sea levels by 2100 was three feet. Lord Monckton notes that the upcoming report's high-end best estimate is 17 inches, or half the previous prediction."

Now, 17 inches is 0.4318m. In the IPCC SPM report's Table SPM-2, they used 6 different scenarios to predict what the projected sea level rise would be by 2100 (technically 2099). According to this, the lowest project rise to the highest projected rise will be between 0.18 to 0.59m. That's 7.08 inches to 23.22 inches. Whether almost two feet is vastly different from the three feet is up to you. It's still not the 17 inches that they publish as the 'high end'. Now there's only one other place where the number 17 comes up:

"Global average sea level rose at an average rate of 1.8 [1.3 to 2.3] mm per year over 1961 to 2003. The rate was faster over 1993 to 2003, about 3.1 [2.4 to 3.8] mm per year. Whether the faster rate for 1993 to 2003 reflects decadal variability or an increase in the longer-term trend is unclear. There is high confidence that the rate of observed sea level rise increased from the 19th to the 20th century. The total 20th century rise is estimated to be 0.17 [0.12 to 0.22] m. {5.5}"

Now, I'm not saying that's exactly where they got it from, but I have no other explanation for how they came up with that number, except that this Lord Monckton is wrong, in which case, the Wall Street Journal should stop quoting him.

I was going to write more about their inaccuracies with the supposed 'dispute' over the Mann et al. article, but RealClimate (a blog published by climate scientists), have enough rebuttal points HERE and HERE. Just checking now, they've also posted a response to this editorial HERE.

My final point is based on this:

"The IPCC report should be understood as one more contribution to the warming debate, not some definitive last word that justifies radical policy change. It can be hard to keep one's head when everyone else is predicting the Apocalypse, but that's all the more reason to keep cool and focus on the actual science."

I agree that we should keep cool and focus on the science. It's just too bad they haven't. This summary, plus the final report coming out in May, was written by 450 scientific authors with input by another 800+ contributing authors and peer-reviewed by another 2500 scientists. And they're ALL telling us the same thing. What more do they want? Again, have one scientific paper (Soon and Bailunas comes to mind) that calls into question climate change BUT has refuted on a scientific basis, and the whole science is called into question. Have a report written, read and edited by thousands of scientists (because surprise, climate change has so many complex factors that you need oceanologists, paleoclimatologists, atmospheric scientists etc. to weigh in on the forcings and the impacts) and it's "ONLY a contribution to the warming debate".

You can't win. You just can't win.

Faux Green vs. Faux Green

Alright already.

Conservatives: You mocked anyone who tried to give a damn about the environment but changed your tune just a few months ago when public opinion shifted against you on the environment file.

Liberals: You had the chance to try to change our behaviour towards the environment and you barely lifted a finger.

Conclusion: YOU'VE BOTH SUCKED since 1993 on this issue. Can you all now admit your mistakes, quit your sniping, and move on to doing something actually constructive?

"I will do the next best thing...block it out..."

"Since the beginning of time man has yearned to destroy the sun."

When real policy imitates the Simpsons, you know it's a bad idea...

A law for every household; a helmet on every head

I was going to comment at length about the excessiveness of calling for mandatory helmets for tobogganing kids, to be enforced by law (?!), because of recent tragic children deaths from head injuries. The fact that half of the unfortunate deaths were car-related (DON'T TOBOGGAN ONTO OPEN ROADS!) and the very low-risk activity that it actually is seem to have been lost to the discussion.

If each parent talked to their kids a bit more about personal responsibility and playing safely, I'm sure this issue will go away, along with the ridiculous government overreach.

The up and downsides to reading well-written blogs daily is that they often beat you to the punch, and usually respond better to the issue.

Little Mosque back-patting

As I noted in the comments here, I expected that the second week of "Little Mosque on the Prairie" would draw in about 1.2 million viewers. What was the magical number that the CBC reported?

1.2 million viewers.

If only guessing right actually got me anything but a smidgen of honour and glory. Oh well. I must say though, the second episode did improve, except for the 'hit-over-your-head' blatant jokes about hockey and such. Those were still really bad.

I'm looking forward to the third episode, except it gets pre-empted tonight by the NHL All-Star Game and returns on Jan. 31. With the novelty wearing off and a missed week, the question is whether it will keep consistent viewership numbers from next week onward.

Tales from the Bookstore I: So we've narrowed it down to...it was signed.

Customer: I'm looking for a book.

Me: Okay.

Customer: It's a novel. I don't remember the name of the author or the title. It's kinda scary. I saw it in one of your other stores and the author had signed it...

Me: Okay...so it's either Mystery or Horror.

Customer: That's all I know about it.

Me: Right...Do you recall anything about the plot?

Customer: Umm, I think it had to do with some murder and they were trying to solve it. The author had signed the book.

Me: (*Thinking* So that's pretty much every Mystery novel ever written...good.)

Customer: The author's only written this book and nothing else.

Me: Okay, so is it a hardcover.

Customer: No, it wasn't that but bigger than these ones.

Me: So it was a trade paperback.

Customer: Yeah, maybe. I remember the cover was shiny. I just remember seeing signed copies in the other store.

Me: (*Thinking* I give up. I've officially lost interest.)

Winter's arrived...

Photo courtesy Torontoist

...and it took its sweet time! I definitely missed the sound of snow crunching beneath my feet.

The iPhone: Everyone's talking about it...

...but not everyone will be able to talk with it. If you haven't heard about the iPhone, then you must have NO (or very, very little) access to mass media whatsoever.

A nice, comprehensive review of it can be found from Chrominance.

Little Mosque on the Prairie review

eh. it was okay. Some jokes were well-delivered...some weren't. As I told my friend Elaine, it has potential, but I hope they don't run out of jokes after this episode. I guess we'll all find out if the next few episodes get better, or whether they'll end up re-hashing the same territory.

Between 6.5 and 7 out of 10.

First (substantive) snowfall!

Hopefully it will last, but I doubt it with the weather we've been having.

Who falls for these things anyways?

via Kottke

This link is somewhat old, so bear with me. You know those emails from various African countries claiming to want to smuggle out millions of dollars and they need YOUR help to do it, which you will be handsomely compensated? Aside from the complete immorality of helping some corrupt official impoverish an already impoverished nation, you could smell the stink of scam coming off these emails from a mile away. I didn't think anyone could fall for these things.

Oh, How I'm SO wrong. (Of course, I understand that these scams wouldn't exist if no one fell for it, but still...)

Little Mosque on the Prairie

There've been a lot of press coverage on a new CBC half-hour comedy debuting next Tuesday (Jan. 9) at 830pm EST. Why? Because it's a show starring Muslims about Muslims in Canada.

Titled, "Little Mosque on the Prairie" (get it?), one of the actors commented that it may be getting a lot of press solely because the title might make people think it's going to be overtly political and controversial, while the actors and those involved say it's just a simple sitcom: think "Corner Gas", but with a mosque and not a gas station.

Hopefully, it'll be just as funny. And if it is as funny as hyped, that'll be TWO comedies set in the Prairies...who said there was nothing worthwhile out there.

I'll be watching it. I hope you will too.

Crazy Bookshoppers, a series?

So Angela had noticed that I hadn't posted in a very long time and wanted stories about crazy bookshoppers.

There have been some...interesting shoppers, and few come to mind, but I want to save those for the next few posts, since they deserve their own. No names, no locations. Nothing. If I get fired from Chapters because of this blog, it'd be funny, sad and lame all at the same time.

Suffice it to say, shoppers are messy. Chapters encourage this because we allow people to browse. During the holiday season, it just becomes worse. People are more demanding about wanting the material but at the same time other people are inconsiderate with the way they handle the material. They work against themselves. When I have to pick up coffee cups and used tissues from the shelves, that just frustrates me. Thus, people on my MSN lists have been on the receiving end of very terse messages about Chapters customers as part of my name.

I'm glad it's slowly returning to normal volumes of customers. Though It also means that employees have to once again be a bit more persuasive about making that sale, so back to something that I know is part of my job that I'm okay at but uncomfortable with at times.

Gives me one more reason to finish my thesis more quickly.

Filler Material

The novelty of working at Chapters has definitely worn off with the end of the holiday retail season. Much has happened and less is happening.

Now that my work hours are being reduced, I can work on my thesis again. That also means time for my side-project on a rails-to-trails report. It also means less time for blogging. Lot of interesting things are happening but nothing blog-worthy. I'll have to keep a more vigilant eye.

I also noticed less personal blogging about me, hence this post. Being in a constant state of fatigue isn't fun, but after reading "Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures", I realize of course, that this is nothing. Though the story about Dr. Chen falling asleep while driving and the things he does to keep himself awake resonated with me because I do the exact same things (pinch self, slap face, sing loudly and badly)...maybe it's universal.

One thing about Chapters though. It's forced me to read more, which is great. Being introduced to so many new books, but it also means there are many I want to buy, but can't, many I want to read, but don't have time to. There's always a catch.

But of the books I've read that I want to recommend, it's "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan and "The Dodecahedron or A Frame for Frames" by Paul Glennon. I've read at least seven books since I started and those two are by far my favourite. The former a non-fiction and the latter a fiction, so a recommendation for both sides of the aisle, I guess