Archive for August 2009

strangers with ourselves

According to an article in the Globe and Mail this morning, pollsters are having trouble here in Canada. Part of the problem is that more and more people are refusing to take part in their polls. A more insidious problem is that there seems to be increasing fragmentation in Canadian society. We are losing social [...]

flabby models

A photo of a model with a flabby tummy has sparked a bit of a discussion. Visit this page and weigh in (pun intended !!!) on the debate. Maybe even leave a comment here.

one second all is okay …

and then the next, everything is falling apart. A co-worker that I have known for 7 years lost her husband to an industrial accident the other day. He leaves behind 2 children under 15 as well. We all feel so bad for her. She was always saying so much about her husband, and how much [...]

stock buybacks

Billions (trillions?) of $ used to buy back shares, even while the economy almost ground to a stop. This article in the Globe and Mail makes me cringe. If this author’s data, and commentary, is accurate, then shame on our money hungry industries. Just another way that money is made without any real services or [...]

net neutrality

Should internet providers be allowed to “manage” the flow of data on the internet? Their normal excuse is that 1% of their customers use so much bandwidth that other customers notice a slowdown in their use. Well, a Dutch provider is doing it. (see this story for more details) Major Dutch cable provider UPC has [...]

volcanoes

Volcanoes are one of those parts of science that we all find fascinating; from a distance. Perhaps you are old enough, like Grandpa Richard, to remember the Mount St. Helen’s volcano erupting back in the 1980′s. A friend visited the area afterwards and brought me a jar of ash from the site. Unfortunately, I have [...]

male or female

How can we really tell? The story of Caster Semenya begs an answer to the above question. Caster won the women’s 800 and 1500 metre races at the World Athletics Championship by leaving the closest competitors way behind. Is she truly female the way we have traditionally thought of that gender, or is it possible [...]