Technology
3D up your life - again?
So far, the 21st century has seen 3D image mania. First Hollywood went 3D for its new animation tales and even live action features on the big screen. Then Sony and other manufacturers released wide screen 3D TVs requiring brand specific glasses.
Now, Toshiba has released a 20 inch 3D TV that does not require any glasses and Fuji offers a 3D camera -- so you to can create 3D stills of your vacations, family birthdays or just your dog sleeping on the couch.
3D is so hot that sports TV broadcasts are not only jumping aboard, but redesigning how they shoot events. Traditional high angle camera work does not translate well to 3D which requires the camera to be at eye level alongside the playing field or ice surface.
So, is all this impressive explosion of technology a boon or a minor blip from the consumer’s perspective?
Firstly, realize that 3D motion is not reality or normal 3D. It is a gimmick that allows some objects to jump off the screen directly at you or float in front of the rest of the background.
It is a form of hologram effect.
This is not what happens in real life but gives the viewer a brief jolt like riding a roller coaster down a hill or in a sharp curve.
Do you want such a pit-in-the-stomach experience non- stop? Maybe gamers do in their virtual worlds that are already so non-real that an extra 3D boost would not be disruptive.
But to watch for hours on end the news, a talk show or some ‘reality TV’ would be difficult on the eyes and the brain. Even sports events would suffer except for hockey body checks into the boards (as if the players are flying at you) and shots on net or goal from the goal’s point of view as the ball approaches.
Personally, I suspect that for most film and TV viewing, 3D will prove a limited gimmick and a huge waste of money for the special camera and TVs.
And the truth shall set you free. Knowledge is power. George Orwell's central premise in Animal Farm and 1984 was that the ability to remember the recent and distant past is crucial to a society’s freedom. It is the only restraint on government ambitions or other plots. Such amnesia is rampant today in North America and beyond. So this blog is here to add some historical perspective and remind people of forgotten truths.
GAIA
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Thursday, December 30, 2010
Monday, December 27, 2010
TECHNOLOGY
America gives up on Star Trek!
The last launch and trip by a US space shuttle is scheduled by NASA for February 3, 2011 -- after which the entire fleet will be mothballed or disassembled. No new astronaut launches are scheduled for the next 3 years and beyond ( see www.nasa.gov/missions/calendar/index.html) And there is no sign of the 'replacement' ship' debated since 2004. Supposedly, money and the high cost of the shuttle-like missions is to blame.
The US will, for the foreseeable future, rely on Soviet rocket missions to the International Space Station -- for supplies, crew replacement and equipment delivery. NASA, instead, has been given orders to focus on one way only missions to outer space -- other planets, asteroids or moons --using cheap miniature spacecraft, land rovers and robots.
Meanwhile, China has accellerated its own space program. Since 2003, 6 Chinese austronauts have gone safely into space, and in 2008 Chinese austronauts worked outside of their spacecraft for the first time. According to western reports in 2006 and, official Chinese government statements again this year, a moon landing is the next goal!
With Russia weakened by the collapse of the USSR and relying on old technology, and with the abandonment of human spaceship program by the USA, look for China to soon be our planet's 'face to the universe'!
The last launch and trip by a US space shuttle is scheduled by NASA for February 3, 2011 -- after which the entire fleet will be mothballed or disassembled. No new astronaut launches are scheduled for the next 3 years and beyond ( see www.nasa.gov/missions/calendar/index.html) And there is no sign of the 'replacement' ship' debated since 2004. Supposedly, money and the high cost of the shuttle-like missions is to blame.
The US will, for the foreseeable future, rely on Soviet rocket missions to the International Space Station -- for supplies, crew replacement and equipment delivery. NASA, instead, has been given orders to focus on one way only missions to outer space -- other planets, asteroids or moons --using cheap miniature spacecraft, land rovers and robots.
Meanwhile, China has accellerated its own space program. Since 2003, 6 Chinese austronauts have gone safely into space, and in 2008 Chinese austronauts worked outside of their spacecraft for the first time. According to western reports in 2006 and, official Chinese government statements again this year, a moon landing is the next goal!
With Russia weakened by the collapse of the USSR and relying on old technology, and with the abandonment of human spaceship program by the USA, look for China to soon be our planet's 'face to the universe'!
I am sure President Kennedy -- if he were still alive -- would be apoplectic.
The next flag on the moon and beyond will have stars on it -- but only 5 on a red background!
And say goodbye to any hope of a USS Star Ship Enterprise!
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Peace and War
The Iraq blues
Now that the United States is withdrawing its last military forces from Iraq – as have the British and other allies – America is going through the same introspection and malaise as it did after Vietnam.
Columnist Joel Stein in Time magazine, August 5, 2010 issue, regrets his earlier, mild support for the 7 ½ year war and now says the cost in US military lives, civilian deaths and ongoing civil strife in Iraq mean that the US should never take military action ever again unless under attack or under imminent attack. (3rd last sentence.)
Such heartfelt guilt and dismay at a war without ‘real victory’ is a reemergence of the old Vietnam syndrome three and a half decades later.
Yes, the ‘war’ and American troop withdrawal did not come after a resounding victory and ensured stability in Iraq (or Vietnam) and thousands of American troops did die, and countless more Iraqis.
But to follow Stein’s closing advice is suicidal.
We no longer live in a world were enemies send formal declarations of war or ultimatums before the fighting begins. We no longer live in a world were nuclear weapons or deadly biological and chemical substances are under the control of a few states who realize (or care) that the ensuing WW3 will be the end of mankind.
Allowing unstable, megalomaniacal state leaders – whether motivated by religious or other ideology, or past history – to possess nuclear or biological and chemical weapons cannot be ignored.
Allowing terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda to obtain such weapons is even more unthinkable as the mind of the suicide bomber does not fear Armageddon and sees it as the doorway to some Messianic Age. As these groups rely on money and a secret supply of weapons from ‘mentor states’ and ‘backers’ – some of whom have long been in the process of developing or already have such instruments of mass death (think Saddam’s Iraq, Gaddafi’s Libya, today’s Iran, possibly Pakistan) the danger factor multiplies.
So, should we just hold back and watch and wait until an attack is ‘imminent’ or ‘begun’ as Stein suggests?
I think not.
Constant world wide vigilance and improved spying is key, but there is never 100% proof in advance any more.
The age of chivalry and lining up armies at a preset time and place is gone. And with weapons more deadly than in the past, the margin for error – for inaction – is close to nil.
So, a guessing game ensues. Which leaders, which groups can be merely watched and ‘contained’ and which constitute a deadly threat today -- or tomorrow.
And, maybe, Joel Stein should remember that soon after the overthrow of Saddam, Libyan Omar Gaddafi suddenly ended his quest for nuclear weapons and nuclear North Korea began to make overtures for peace.
_______________________
As for Iraq in particular, yes, Iraq has not gone as expected.
In the post 911 environment, in light of Saddam’s megalomaniac dreams of heading a new Persian empire (remember his decade long war with Iran in the 1980s) and Muslim world caliphate (invading Kuwait and vicinity – and possibly Saudi Arabia with its oil and holy Mecca in 1990 -- blocked by the West in the first Persian Gulf War), his ongoing support for anti-west terrorism, and with phone chatter intercepted by American, British, French, Russian and Israeli intelligence: between Saddam, his officials and scientists working secretly on completing nuclear weapons, etc.,** ongoing containment was no longer the option in the minds of at least the United States, Great Britain and their allies.
As for the ensuing war, it lasted less than 2 weeks in a resounding victory for western military strategy, superior equipment and well trained troops.
However, what was not expected was the subsequent fratricide, and ingratitude.
The Kurds, for the first time in over 3 decades, are living in peace in the north,
but Iraq’s two main groups, the majority Shiites and the previous dominant Sunnis have been unable to find a modus vivendi within a democratic framework.
Blood revenge for Saddam era atrocities was common at first, and then the battle for clan and warlord turf -- with its attacks and counter attacks – began. This is what has turned much of Iraq into a fratricidal bloodbath – usually misreported as religious strife of Sunni vs. Shiite.
With the exception of a small influx of anti-western Al Qaeda mujahidin terrorists, attacks on and battles with western troops have been part of these turf wars, as American and other troops ‘got in the way’.
Being ‘peacemakers’ is never easy; you become collateral damage.
** While weapons of mass destruction have not been found, Saddam did think he had such weapons at or near completion. The phone chatter convinced him and the world spy agencies. But the scientists and officials were lying to him – for fear they and their families would be killed.
Note: Even Canadian experts and news people were convinced. On the TVO show Diplomatic Immunity, just before the war started, all the experts from diverse backgrounds agreed Saddam did or would soon have such deadly, secretly developed weapons. They too trusted the intercepted phone chatter as well as the reports from Iraqi scientists who had fled to the West.
TECHNOLOGY
All Hail Google
Google is on an ever expanding, winning streak of innovation.
For years Google has been the most popular search engine on the Internet, leading the verb “to google” to be added to our most recent dictionaries.
With Google Chrome, Google has expanded to compete with Internet Explorer and numerous others as a web desktop browser -- and is currently the 3rd most used web browser in the world.
As for Android, Google’s smart phone software, it has been chosen by so many handset manufacturers that it is on more smart phones than any other system – far surpassing Apple’s iPhone numbers.
And with Google Earth the company has gone even further afield, into the realms normally left to geographers and real estate agents. Anyone can now look up his or her home for a bird’s eye – and more recently street side – view, or comb great cities, the oceans and mountains galore.
Then, just last week, to this expanding Google universe, was added the automobile!
Google released images and a brief PR story on how it has mastered creating a driverless car!!! The vehicle can drive to preset location automatically, staying on the road and making the needed turns – even in traffic – without collision or panic. To keep passengers more at ease – and this is still the test phase after all – a passive backup human sits in the driver’s seat – so if anything seems amiss, he/she can override the system.
So far, Google says, no glitches!
While German, Japanese and American automobile companies have been working on similar robotic cars – Lexus and Ford have production models that can parallel part on their own -- no auto manufacturer to my knowledge has created anything like the Google car yet.
Another Google first? It seems so.
What will this innovative and wide thinking company come up with next?
IBM, Sony and Microsoft are past being leading edge. And Apple seems to be reaching its Zenith as a 2½ note company – iPods, iPhones and the new, but far from unique iPad.
So all hail the new innovation superstar and future world leader (Yes, I am predicting this) – GOOGLE.
Google is on an ever expanding, winning streak of innovation.
For years Google has been the most popular search engine on the Internet, leading the verb “to google” to be added to our most recent dictionaries.
With Google Chrome, Google has expanded to compete with Internet Explorer and numerous others as a web desktop browser -- and is currently the 3rd most used web browser in the world.
As for Android, Google’s smart phone software, it has been chosen by so many handset manufacturers that it is on more smart phones than any other system – far surpassing Apple’s iPhone numbers.
And with Google Earth the company has gone even further afield, into the realms normally left to geographers and real estate agents. Anyone can now look up his or her home for a bird’s eye – and more recently street side – view, or comb great cities, the oceans and mountains galore.
Then, just last week, to this expanding Google universe, was added the automobile!
Google released images and a brief PR story on how it has mastered creating a driverless car!!! The vehicle can drive to preset location automatically, staying on the road and making the needed turns – even in traffic – without collision or panic. To keep passengers more at ease – and this is still the test phase after all – a passive backup human sits in the driver’s seat – so if anything seems amiss, he/she can override the system.
So far, Google says, no glitches!
While German, Japanese and American automobile companies have been working on similar robotic cars – Lexus and Ford have production models that can parallel part on their own -- no auto manufacturer to my knowledge has created anything like the Google car yet.
Another Google first? It seems so.
What will this innovative and wide thinking company come up with next?
IBM, Sony and Microsoft are past being leading edge. And Apple seems to be reaching its Zenith as a 2½ note company – iPods, iPhones and the new, but far from unique iPad.
So all hail the new innovation superstar and future world leader (Yes, I am predicting this) – GOOGLE.
CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE
F-35 or no F-35 – That is the question
For the last 6 months the issue of the F-35 – the state of the art, new, stealth jet fighter – has been the subject of on-going debate in parliament and the media.
The Liberals have criticized the Tory government for (finally) putting in an order for 65 of the planes for delivery beginning in 3 to 4 years from now.
What are the complaints:
1. the contract is not open to bids from other manufacturers (TRUE)
2. and the planes are expensive at 65 million each. We are in the aftermath of a Great recession, running a deficit – so we cannot afford them. (TRUE)
While these arguments seem logical, they are distorted and the Liberals know it.
Point 1
Canada signed an agreement with 5 other countries – including Denmark - 5 years ago to design (and buy) a new state of the art stealth jet for NATO members; a jet specifically designed to meet the geographic needs of the consortium members and their NATO obligations.
As part of the deal, Canada was assured a fixed price for the planes while the USA agreed to cover overrun costs and other expenses – and there have been a lot.
The deal included guarantees that parts would be manufactured in Canada = Canadian jobs, and so too with service maintenance = more jobs.
Finally, unlike other partners in the deal, we have delayed putting in an order until the last minute, so this Tory government cannot be accused of being in haste.
Finally, as our current fleet of air fighters is 2 decades old and reaching their ‘end dates’ – i.e. think 20 year old cars and the problems they have being roadworthy and constantly in the shop for repairs and parts. We need replacements and ones up to any challenges that we will face for the foreseeable future.
The F-35 is the new West standard and in any new NATO or Canadian sovereignty issues, our planes need to be as good or better than any oppositions – and the Russian SU -35 --nearing the end of development and designed for export according to the Russian government – is the East’s equivalent of the F-35 in capabilities.
Point 2
At a guaranteed cost based on the original, 2005 deal, Canadians should be laughing all the way to the bank. Only the USA – which expects to buy over 300 F-35s, is paying for the usual delays and massive cost overruns.
In conclusion
To reopen bidding and start afresh will leave Canada another extra decade without effective air support, be sure to cost more due to extra development costs for a newer plane, and breach our NATO commitment – to have a common fighter which simplifies joint missions and joint mission communication – i.e. “Don’t shoot at me! Though I am 6 to 10 km away and you only see a radar blip, I not the enemy!!!”
PS: As of December 1, 2010, add Israel and Turkey to countries signing up for the F-35 delivery – because they don’t want to be left behind and become vulnerable.
For the last 6 months the issue of the F-35 – the state of the art, new, stealth jet fighter – has been the subject of on-going debate in parliament and the media.
The Liberals have criticized the Tory government for (finally) putting in an order for 65 of the planes for delivery beginning in 3 to 4 years from now.
What are the complaints:
1. the contract is not open to bids from other manufacturers (TRUE)
2. and the planes are expensive at 65 million each. We are in the aftermath of a Great recession, running a deficit – so we cannot afford them. (TRUE)
While these arguments seem logical, they are distorted and the Liberals know it.
Point 1
Canada signed an agreement with 5 other countries – including Denmark - 5 years ago to design (and buy) a new state of the art stealth jet for NATO members; a jet specifically designed to meet the geographic needs of the consortium members and their NATO obligations.
As part of the deal, Canada was assured a fixed price for the planes while the USA agreed to cover overrun costs and other expenses – and there have been a lot.
The deal included guarantees that parts would be manufactured in Canada = Canadian jobs, and so too with service maintenance = more jobs.
Finally, unlike other partners in the deal, we have delayed putting in an order until the last minute, so this Tory government cannot be accused of being in haste.
Finally, as our current fleet of air fighters is 2 decades old and reaching their ‘end dates’ – i.e. think 20 year old cars and the problems they have being roadworthy and constantly in the shop for repairs and parts. We need replacements and ones up to any challenges that we will face for the foreseeable future.
The F-35 is the new West standard and in any new NATO or Canadian sovereignty issues, our planes need to be as good or better than any oppositions – and the Russian SU -35 --nearing the end of development and designed for export according to the Russian government – is the East’s equivalent of the F-35 in capabilities.
Point 2
At a guaranteed cost based on the original, 2005 deal, Canadians should be laughing all the way to the bank. Only the USA – which expects to buy over 300 F-35s, is paying for the usual delays and massive cost overruns.
In conclusion
To reopen bidding and start afresh will leave Canada another extra decade without effective air support, be sure to cost more due to extra development costs for a newer plane, and breach our NATO commitment – to have a common fighter which simplifies joint missions and joint mission communication – i.e. “Don’t shoot at me! Though I am 6 to 10 km away and you only see a radar blip, I not the enemy!!!”
PS: As of December 1, 2010, add Israel and Turkey to countries signing up for the F-35 delivery – because they don’t want to be left behind and become vulnerable.
YOUR MONEY -Money mania and the Canadian dollar
We are coming to the end game of a mistake made some 40 years ago with the abandonment of the gold standard for currencies.
In 1971, the major countries of the world were on a gold standard set at $35 an ounce. To back up their paper money they had to keep gold bullion in vaults to ensure the paper denominations ‘really meant something’. Soon thereafter, to save costs of bullion storage and because of the false belief that a country’s currency is really backed by its economic health and GDP – i.e., you can trust the country to pay out its money promises as its economy could generate enough ‘ wealth’ to honour any claims against the paper currency. In good times, this fantasy worked reasonably well, but as the world’s economies have begun to implode, even central bankers are starting to rethink the need for the universally accepted ‘hard asset of gold’ -- to ensure currencies can be ‘trusted’.
For some 40 years, governments have been allowed to print money at will, run huge deficits and allow speculators (i.e., invest banks, regular banks, oil rich national wealth funds and individual multi-billionaires) to play the currency exchange game at the cost to ordinary people and rational government behaviour.
Canada, for instance, is a stable democracy with a smoothly growing population and extensive and diverse resource base (coal, minerals, timber, oil/tar sands, and essential crops such as wheat), yet we have seen the Canadian dollar fluctuate irrationally against the American dollar and world currencies over the last 20 years.
At one point the Canadian dollar was worth $0.65 against the greenback and just a year ago the Canadian dollar zoomed to a high of $1.06 US! Today, it fluctuates almost at par but moves up and down a fraction to one cent almost hourly!!
Such roller coaster -- and even penny -- differentials have huge impacts on the Canadian economy and corporate decision making, creating uncertainty and undermining long term planning and growth.
Businesses that sell outside of Canada usually sign contacts in US dollars. So any change in the relative value of the Canadian currency to the US dollar – as set by the daily market swings -- affects their bottom line.
NHL teams in Canada, for example, when the Canadian dollar was at $0.65 US were bleeding to death as long term contracts for players signed when the currencies were close to par suddenly cost teams 35% more in Canadian funds – a huge penalty!!!
Even a fluctuation of 1 cent out of 100 cents (= $1.00 ) is significant as it is a 1% change and many companies often work on a net profit margin of 5 to 10%. So a drop in the Canadian dollar of 1 cent can affect profits immensely!
Profit and business viability is consequently and too often at the mercy of exchange rates, not in the sale of goods per se.
And those exchange rates are not controlled by governments any more really, but the speculative stock marketers.
So lets end the speculative currency roller coaster before this and related market insanity ** result in another World Depression!!!
The governments of the world and IMF need to get their acts together – or we will all pay a horrendous price as the currency fantasy comes to a crashing end!!!
** A barrel of oil from normal ground wells costs $10.00 or so to produce and even the most expensive oil source, the Alberta tar sands, are ‘profitable’ at $70.00 a barrel according to the OPEC minister from Saudi Arabia. So why is oil selling around $85.00 a barrel on the ‘open market’ and expected to go up?
Because MARKET SPECULATORS rule!!!
In 1971, the major countries of the world were on a gold standard set at $35 an ounce. To back up their paper money they had to keep gold bullion in vaults to ensure the paper denominations ‘really meant something’. Soon thereafter, to save costs of bullion storage and because of the false belief that a country’s currency is really backed by its economic health and GDP – i.e., you can trust the country to pay out its money promises as its economy could generate enough ‘ wealth’ to honour any claims against the paper currency. In good times, this fantasy worked reasonably well, but as the world’s economies have begun to implode, even central bankers are starting to rethink the need for the universally accepted ‘hard asset of gold’ -- to ensure currencies can be ‘trusted’.
For some 40 years, governments have been allowed to print money at will, run huge deficits and allow speculators (i.e., invest banks, regular banks, oil rich national wealth funds and individual multi-billionaires) to play the currency exchange game at the cost to ordinary people and rational government behaviour.
Canada, for instance, is a stable democracy with a smoothly growing population and extensive and diverse resource base (coal, minerals, timber, oil/tar sands, and essential crops such as wheat), yet we have seen the Canadian dollar fluctuate irrationally against the American dollar and world currencies over the last 20 years.
At one point the Canadian dollar was worth $0.65 against the greenback and just a year ago the Canadian dollar zoomed to a high of $1.06 US! Today, it fluctuates almost at par but moves up and down a fraction to one cent almost hourly!!
Such roller coaster -- and even penny -- differentials have huge impacts on the Canadian economy and corporate decision making, creating uncertainty and undermining long term planning and growth.
Businesses that sell outside of Canada usually sign contacts in US dollars. So any change in the relative value of the Canadian currency to the US dollar – as set by the daily market swings -- affects their bottom line.
NHL teams in Canada, for example, when the Canadian dollar was at $0.65 US were bleeding to death as long term contracts for players signed when the currencies were close to par suddenly cost teams 35% more in Canadian funds – a huge penalty!!!
Even a fluctuation of 1 cent out of 100 cents (= $1.00 ) is significant as it is a 1% change and many companies often work on a net profit margin of 5 to 10%. So a drop in the Canadian dollar of 1 cent can affect profits immensely!
Profit and business viability is consequently and too often at the mercy of exchange rates, not in the sale of goods per se.
And those exchange rates are not controlled by governments any more really, but the speculative stock marketers.
So lets end the speculative currency roller coaster before this and related market insanity ** result in another World Depression!!!
The governments of the world and IMF need to get their acts together – or we will all pay a horrendous price as the currency fantasy comes to a crashing end!!!
** A barrel of oil from normal ground wells costs $10.00 or so to produce and even the most expensive oil source, the Alberta tar sands, are ‘profitable’ at $70.00 a barrel according to the OPEC minister from Saudi Arabia. So why is oil selling around $85.00 a barrel on the ‘open market’ and expected to go up?
Because MARKET SPECULATORS rule!!!
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
TECHNOLOGY
All Hail Google
Google is on an ever expanding, winning streak of innovation.
For years Google has been the most popular search engine on the Internet, leading the verb “to google” to be added to our most recent dictionaries.
With Google Chrome, Google has expanded to compete with Internet Explorer and numerous others as a web desktop browser -- and is currently the 3rd most used web browser in the world.
As for Android, Google’s smart phone software, it has been chosen by so many handset manufacturers that it is on more smart phones than any other system – far surpassing Apple’s iPhone numbers.
And with Google Earth the company has gone even further afield, into the realms normally left to geographers and real estate agents. Anyone can now look up his or her home for a bird’s eye – and more recently street side – view, or comb great cities, the oceans and mountains galore.
Then, just last week, to this expanding Google universe, was added the automobile!
Google released images and a brief PR story on how it has mastered creating a driverless car!!! The vehicle can drive to preset location automatically, staying on the road and making the needed turns – even in traffic – without collision or panic. To keep passengers more at ease – and this is still the test phase after all – a passive backup human sits in the driver’s seat – so if anything seems amiss, he/she can override the system.
So far, Google says, no glitches!
While German, Japanese and American automobile companies have been working on similar robotic cars – Lexus and Ford have production models that can parallel part on their own -- no auto manufacturer to my knowledge has created anything like the Google car yet.
Another Google first? It seems so.
What will this innovative and wide thinking company come up with next?
IBM, Sony and Microsoft are past being leading edge. And Apple seems to be reaching its Zenith as a 2½ note company – iPods, iPhones and the new, but far from unique iPad.
So all hail the new innovation superstar and future world leader (Yes, I am predicting this) – GOOGLE.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
GAIA
Vegan secret agenda
A slew of recent articles are advocating the end to animal husbandry and eating flesh.
U of T Magazine’s Autumn 2010 “This Looks Like a Farm” eulogizes a farm animal sanctuary in Uxbridge, Ontario and how it has saved pigs from certain death. The 6 page spread ends with a long attack on the cruelty and barbarism of farming of pigs and other domesticated animals, and ends with a plea to end all animal farming as it is simply cruel and inhumane.
Put briefly pigs and other domestic animals have emotions and social needs, feel pain and are “not that different in kind [than we humans].” (p. 41)
The same line of attack is used in a Globe and Mail article of a few weeks back attacking the cruelty of fishing – any and all fishing. Starting with putting a live worm or minnow on a hook, hooking a living fish and battling it, often letting fish ‘drown’ in air once caught, or trapping them in nets where they can be left crushed together and unable to move for hours until the net is pulled up – at which point they are usually allowed to ‘drown’ in air –all steps too inhumane for the author’s vegan likings.
Put simply, he advocates an end to all forms of fishing – all over the planet.
Finally, articles on dolphins, dogs and other animals are appearing in magazines such as Time as researchers find more and more animals feel pain, go through emotional states and can think in more sophisticated ways than previously thought.
Put simply, the gulf between humans and the rest of the animal world is not as great as once thought.
The net result of all these scientific and humanist arguments is to piece by piece assault the human practice of eating flesh and proposing strict vegetarianism; that only fruits, vegetables and grains are acceptable food sources.
This defies human history as we have been hunters and gatherings since almost the beginning of time and this is still the norm in the cultures of tribal Amazon and Africa.
Our teeth have canines and semi-caninies specifically to tear at and eat flesh – so we are biologically designed for meat eating – among other things.
Most importantly, if these ‘bleeding hearts’ had their way, billions of people would be starving to death each year – because without the bounty of the sea and human animal husbandry, there is not enough arable land, not enough access to water and irrigation to feed the world’s over 6 billion people!!!
Think drought, think floods, think locus and you know how fragile the world’s agricultural food supply can be – and is.
To close, let me end with a response I read years ago by the late Lubavicher rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneeson. When asked if a Jew should become a vegetarian, he rephrased the question to “what is the purpose of animal life?”. His answer basically repeated standard Jewish belief that animal life is designed for mankind’s benefit and the eating of meat is a key part of this.
A slew of recent articles are advocating the end to animal husbandry and eating flesh.
U of T Magazine’s Autumn 2010 “This Looks Like a Farm” eulogizes a farm animal sanctuary in Uxbridge, Ontario and how it has saved pigs from certain death. The 6 page spread ends with a long attack on the cruelty and barbarism of farming of pigs and other domesticated animals, and ends with a plea to end all animal farming as it is simply cruel and inhumane.
Put briefly pigs and other domestic animals have emotions and social needs, feel pain and are “not that different in kind [than we humans].” (p. 41)
The same line of attack is used in a Globe and Mail article of a few weeks back attacking the cruelty of fishing – any and all fishing. Starting with putting a live worm or minnow on a hook, hooking a living fish and battling it, often letting fish ‘drown’ in air once caught, or trapping them in nets where they can be left crushed together and unable to move for hours until the net is pulled up – at which point they are usually allowed to ‘drown’ in air –all steps too inhumane for the author’s vegan likings.
Put simply, he advocates an end to all forms of fishing – all over the planet.
Finally, articles on dolphins, dogs and other animals are appearing in magazines such as Time as researchers find more and more animals feel pain, go through emotional states and can think in more sophisticated ways than previously thought.
Put simply, the gulf between humans and the rest of the animal world is not as great as once thought.
The net result of all these scientific and humanist arguments is to piece by piece assault the human practice of eating flesh and proposing strict vegetarianism; that only fruits, vegetables and grains are acceptable food sources.
This defies human history as we have been hunters and gatherings since almost the beginning of time and this is still the norm in the cultures of tribal Amazon and Africa.
Our teeth have canines and semi-caninies specifically to tear at and eat flesh – so we are biologically designed for meat eating – among other things.
Most importantly, if these ‘bleeding hearts’ had their way, billions of people would be starving to death each year – because without the bounty of the sea and human animal husbandry, there is not enough arable land, not enough access to water and irrigation to feed the world’s over 6 billion people!!!
Think drought, think floods, think locus and you know how fragile the world’s agricultural food supply can be – and is.
To close, let me end with a response I read years ago by the late Lubavicher rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneeson. When asked if a Jew should become a vegetarian, he rephrased the question to “what is the purpose of animal life?”. His answer basically repeated standard Jewish belief that animal life is designed for mankind’s benefit and the eating of meat is a key part of this.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
GAIA
Panic, panic everywhere
This week I have stumbled upon a variety of panic items:
FOREIGN FISH
2 recent immigrants to North America from Asia - Asian carp and snake head fish -- have been causing panic. At a metre long and able to jump high over canoes and barriers (Asian carp) or walk on their fins on land for up to 4 days breathing air (snake head ) these new fish are seen as deadly, voracious invaders who, without natural predators, will soon wipe out local fish and animal populations.
MY PERSPECTIVE:
Funny thing is both are prized delicacies in Asia (see Wikipedia) and, somehow, back home, they are not causing mass extinction.
Maybe the U.S. and Canadian fishing authorities should check with those in Asia to find out why they are not a problem there, and figure out how to capture them here for the North American Asian population diet.
CANADA GEESE
Mclean’s magazine, August 30, 2010, pages 50-51 condemns efforts in the U.S. to cull Canada geese in New York city as captured birds are euthanized with carbon dioxide and then buried. The article’s author, Josh Dehaas, recommends they follow Canadian practice at Toronto and Vancouver airports: scare off the geese (and seagulls) using trained hawks and other raptors or use loud canon noises, or plant long grasses the geese don’t like.
MY PERSPECTIVE:
As the article notes, there are 250,000 geese residing in New York state and 85,000 is the acknowledged ideal size for this species for New York state’s area. So how do you cope with massive goose overpopulation? Scaring them off means they soon return, or become someone else’s problem.
The geese, like seagulls and duck, constitute a life threatening hazard for jet planes at take off as they clog and shut down engines when sucked into the turbines.
Their large and extensive poop droppings are an even greater and widespread hazard – on beaches, in water, at golf courses, on sidewalks and public parks.
Bottom line: when it comes to choosing between a wild, overpopulated animal species and human safety, I vote for the latter.
Burial, however, seems such a waste. After all, humans raise geese for food and it is a French delicacy. And a quick Google search finds many wild goose recipes.
Anyone for Canada goose under glass in New York?
FLORIDA Everglades
A recent National Geographic on the Everglades and how they are endangered focused on 2 problems. One, there is less water flowing into the southern tip of Florida reducing plant growth and creating shallow rivers that harm animals. The reason: watershed in mid-Florida is being diverted – for … PEOPLE as the human populations expands.
Pythons were another focus and example of foreign, exotic animals being released by former pet owners. The pythons are huge creatures and can travel for over 30 miles, thereby endangering local animals.
MY PERSPECTIVE:
Since when are PEOPLE not important or worthy of drinking water? If the mindset is to preserve nature at all costs, then humans should all be sent to the Moon or Mars, because we cannot farm or build or propagate into the billions without somehow bumping some other creatures and their habitats.
So get real!
Secondly, this fear of invasive animals is poor history. Are we to believe that creatures only now come to the Americas secretly in boats? What of all the ships of Columbus and the Pilgrims, etc.? Did trade between Europe and the China of Marco Polo and thereafter not include some animal, plant and disease cross-pollination, so to speak? Did not the very first humans to come to the Americas from Asia via the land bridge of the current Bering Sea not introduce new animals and plants?
And what of horses, introduced to North America by the Spanish? Should they have been hunted down and exterminated as ‘invasive creatures? Just ask the plains Indians?
Put simply, animals, plants and diseases## are and have always been transmitted to new environments by human travel. It is nothing new and local eco-systems will adapt as they have done for centuries.
## Yes, diseases. Small pox, for example, came from Europe, and we now know that syphilis originated among the natives of the New World. HIV and AIDS are of African origin and influenza and SARS originate in China, as is the Avian flu virus spread by wild bird migrations.
EXTREME WEATHER
This summer’s floods, droughts, forest fires, super heat waves, etc. bode ill and it will get worse. So claims the article in MacLean’s re: flooding in Pakistan, droughts in other areas, forest fires and the super heat wave in Russia. (Maclean’s Aug 30, 2010, pages 38-44)
Put simply, the argument is that the Earth is becoming a climate roller coaster of extremes as it heats up due to Global Warming. And things will definitely get worse and worse and worse!
MY PERSPECTIVE:
Unfortunately, the article’s writers ignore the historical record some of which he mentions in passing. Pakistan’s floods are the worst in 100 years and Russia has not had such a heat wave since the 11th century (Maclean’s p. 39, last line).
Oh … then such extreme weather has happened before and not just recently.
Maybe they and others should check out a little known but well documented weather blip called the ‘Little Ice Age’. a period extending from the 16th to the 19th centuries across Europe (see Wikipedia and Google search articles).
+ + + + + + +
Again, the Global Warming mindset and animal/nature lover purists get plenty of space to propagate their views in mainstream media … but often with poor facts, limited historical perspective and little or no regard for human beings.
This week I have stumbled upon a variety of panic items:
FOREIGN FISH
2 recent immigrants to North America from Asia - Asian carp and snake head fish -- have been causing panic. At a metre long and able to jump high over canoes and barriers (Asian carp) or walk on their fins on land for up to 4 days breathing air (snake head ) these new fish are seen as deadly, voracious invaders who, without natural predators, will soon wipe out local fish and animal populations.
MY PERSPECTIVE:
Funny thing is both are prized delicacies in Asia (see Wikipedia) and, somehow, back home, they are not causing mass extinction.
Maybe the U.S. and Canadian fishing authorities should check with those in Asia to find out why they are not a problem there, and figure out how to capture them here for the North American Asian population diet.
CANADA GEESE
Mclean’s magazine, August 30, 2010, pages 50-51 condemns efforts in the U.S. to cull Canada geese in New York city as captured birds are euthanized with carbon dioxide and then buried. The article’s author, Josh Dehaas, recommends they follow Canadian practice at Toronto and Vancouver airports: scare off the geese (and seagulls) using trained hawks and other raptors or use loud canon noises, or plant long grasses the geese don’t like.
MY PERSPECTIVE:
As the article notes, there are 250,000 geese residing in New York state and 85,000 is the acknowledged ideal size for this species for New York state’s area. So how do you cope with massive goose overpopulation? Scaring them off means they soon return, or become someone else’s problem.
The geese, like seagulls and duck, constitute a life threatening hazard for jet planes at take off as they clog and shut down engines when sucked into the turbines.
Their large and extensive poop droppings are an even greater and widespread hazard – on beaches, in water, at golf courses, on sidewalks and public parks.
Bottom line: when it comes to choosing between a wild, overpopulated animal species and human safety, I vote for the latter.
Burial, however, seems such a waste. After all, humans raise geese for food and it is a French delicacy. And a quick Google search finds many wild goose recipes.
Anyone for Canada goose under glass in New York?
FLORIDA Everglades
A recent National Geographic on the Everglades and how they are endangered focused on 2 problems. One, there is less water flowing into the southern tip of Florida reducing plant growth and creating shallow rivers that harm animals. The reason: watershed in mid-Florida is being diverted – for … PEOPLE as the human populations expands.
Pythons were another focus and example of foreign, exotic animals being released by former pet owners. The pythons are huge creatures and can travel for over 30 miles, thereby endangering local animals.
MY PERSPECTIVE:
Since when are PEOPLE not important or worthy of drinking water? If the mindset is to preserve nature at all costs, then humans should all be sent to the Moon or Mars, because we cannot farm or build or propagate into the billions without somehow bumping some other creatures and their habitats.
So get real!
Secondly, this fear of invasive animals is poor history. Are we to believe that creatures only now come to the Americas secretly in boats? What of all the ships of Columbus and the Pilgrims, etc.? Did trade between Europe and the China of Marco Polo and thereafter not include some animal, plant and disease cross-pollination, so to speak? Did not the very first humans to come to the Americas from Asia via the land bridge of the current Bering Sea not introduce new animals and plants?
And what of horses, introduced to North America by the Spanish? Should they have been hunted down and exterminated as ‘invasive creatures? Just ask the plains Indians?
Put simply, animals, plants and diseases## are and have always been transmitted to new environments by human travel. It is nothing new and local eco-systems will adapt as they have done for centuries.
## Yes, diseases. Small pox, for example, came from Europe, and we now know that syphilis originated among the natives of the New World. HIV and AIDS are of African origin and influenza and SARS originate in China, as is the Avian flu virus spread by wild bird migrations.
EXTREME WEATHER
This summer’s floods, droughts, forest fires, super heat waves, etc. bode ill and it will get worse. So claims the article in MacLean’s re: flooding in Pakistan, droughts in other areas, forest fires and the super heat wave in Russia. (Maclean’s Aug 30, 2010, pages 38-44)
Put simply, the argument is that the Earth is becoming a climate roller coaster of extremes as it heats up due to Global Warming. And things will definitely get worse and worse and worse!
MY PERSPECTIVE:
Unfortunately, the article’s writers ignore the historical record some of which he mentions in passing. Pakistan’s floods are the worst in 100 years and Russia has not had such a heat wave since the 11th century (Maclean’s p. 39, last line).
Oh … then such extreme weather has happened before and not just recently.
Maybe they and others should check out a little known but well documented weather blip called the ‘Little Ice Age’. a period extending from the 16th to the 19th centuries across Europe (see Wikipedia and Google search articles).
+ + + + + + +
Again, the Global Warming mindset and animal/nature lover purists get plenty of space to propagate their views in mainstream media … but often with poor facts, limited historical perspective and little or no regard for human beings.
Saturday, September 4, 2010
TECHNOLOGY
‘clean’ Electricity – the false messiah PART 2
ELECTRIC CAR RECHARGING WILL CRASH THE ELECTRIC GRID SYSTEM
Aside from the problems mentioned in Part 1 re: electric car distance range, the real ‘killer’ is the recharging. At 8 hours using 240volts, recharging will be such a drain on the grid system as to ensure immediate and continual crashing!
Don’t believe me? Well maybe you will trust Anthony Haines, the head of
Toronto Hydro -- which handles the electricity needs of Canada’s largest city.
According to the article in Toronto Metro, September 2, 2010, page 04,
Haines is quoted as saying “If you connect 10% of the homes on any given street with an electric car, the electricity system fails.” “It basically can’t handle that load.”
Why?
a. Electric cars are electricity HOGS!!!
1. recharging a electric car takes 3 times the power a home normally uses in a day (according to Haines)
2. if you recharge as soon as you get home you overload the grid since early evening is the peak home use time already
3. recharging at work or during the daytime is instant blackout as the grid is already at max from commercial and industrial use
b. Our electrical grid is OLD and already having trouble coping with new
housing, new malls, new industry etc. as it was designed in the 1970s
and 1980s.
c. To cover the cost of ‘maintaining the current grid needs and replacing frayed wire lines and worn out parts, electricity costs across North America will be skyrocketing upward. In the Toronto area, word is that next year electricity will go up 25% just to cover current ‘urgent’ repair/replacement needs.
So, where will all the extra electricity come from to recharge – in future -- the over 120,000,000 ( yes, 120+ million!!!) cars, vans and trucks currently used in the USA alone? What will be the cost of electricity if it is also needed to run the equivalent of 360,000,000 extra houses every day? (Remember, a 1. Each 8 hour recharge equals the electricity usage of
3 houses.)
And, finally, that electricity you plug in comes from some power plant that either uses coal, oil, natural gas or nuclear power to make your nice electric car run ‘emissions free’. So you really have only shifted the problem.
That’s NIMBY thinking.
ELECTRIC CAR RECHARGING WILL CRASH THE ELECTRIC GRID SYSTEM
Aside from the problems mentioned in Part 1 re: electric car distance range, the real ‘killer’ is the recharging. At 8 hours using 240volts, recharging will be such a drain on the grid system as to ensure immediate and continual crashing!
Don’t believe me? Well maybe you will trust Anthony Haines, the head of
Toronto Hydro -- which handles the electricity needs of Canada’s largest city.
According to the article in Toronto Metro, September 2, 2010, page 04,
Haines is quoted as saying “If you connect 10% of the homes on any given street with an electric car, the electricity system fails.” “It basically can’t handle that load.”
Why?
a. Electric cars are electricity HOGS!!!
1. recharging a electric car takes 3 times the power a home normally uses in a day (according to Haines)
2. if you recharge as soon as you get home you overload the grid since early evening is the peak home use time already
3. recharging at work or during the daytime is instant blackout as the grid is already at max from commercial and industrial use
b. Our electrical grid is OLD and already having trouble coping with new
housing, new malls, new industry etc. as it was designed in the 1970s
and 1980s.
c. To cover the cost of ‘maintaining the current grid needs and replacing frayed wire lines and worn out parts, electricity costs across North America will be skyrocketing upward. In the Toronto area, word is that next year electricity will go up 25% just to cover current ‘urgent’ repair/replacement needs.
So, where will all the extra electricity come from to recharge – in future -- the over 120,000,000 ( yes, 120+ million!!!) cars, vans and trucks currently used in the USA alone? What will be the cost of electricity if it is also needed to run the equivalent of 360,000,000 extra houses every day? (Remember, a 1. Each 8 hour recharge equals the electricity usage of
3 houses.)
And, finally, that electricity you plug in comes from some power plant that either uses coal, oil, natural gas or nuclear power to make your nice electric car run ‘emissions free’. So you really have only shifted the problem.
That’s NIMBY thinking.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
GAIA
Gaia 10 – scientists 0
Blowing in the wind
On the 5th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina (2005) and her devastating flooding impact on New Orleans and the adjoining region – and as this year’s hurricane cycle starts again, with hurricane Earl approaching landfall and hurricane Fiona building in the Caribbean and Danielle weakening in the mid-Atlantic, it may be worthwhile to recall that in the wake of Katrina and that year’s increased number of North American hurricanes, scientists and environmentalists predicted that – due to Global warming – we would be seeing an ever growing number of hurricanes and ones of more deadly force that in previous years and decades.
Global Warming said so.
But that has not really been the case. No U.S. super flooding has occurred since 2005, and no category 5 killers anywhere in North America.
Katrina hit New Orleans as a category 3, while far worse category 5 (super deadly) hurricanes were Andrew in 1992, Camille in 1969 and the 1935 Labour Day hurricane (never given a name).
So just look at the numbers, and do the math.
There is a cyclical ebb and flow to Gaia; not the catastrophic escalation Global Warming advocates have propagandized.
Blowing in the wind
On the 5th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina (2005) and her devastating flooding impact on New Orleans and the adjoining region – and as this year’s hurricane cycle starts again, with hurricane Earl approaching landfall and hurricane Fiona building in the Caribbean and Danielle weakening in the mid-Atlantic, it may be worthwhile to recall that in the wake of Katrina and that year’s increased number of North American hurricanes, scientists and environmentalists predicted that – due to Global warming – we would be seeing an ever growing number of hurricanes and ones of more deadly force that in previous years and decades.
Global Warming said so.
But that has not really been the case. No U.S. super flooding has occurred since 2005, and no category 5 killers anywhere in North America.
Katrina hit New Orleans as a category 3, while far worse category 5 (super deadly) hurricanes were Andrew in 1992, Camille in 1969 and the 1935 Labour Day hurricane (never given a name).
So just look at the numbers, and do the math.
There is a cyclical ebb and flow to Gaia; not the catastrophic escalation Global Warming advocates have propagandized.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Gaia 10 – scientists 0
Something’s fishy
For years the salmon fishery in British Columbia has been declining – which is true -- and fears of the immanent collapse of the wild salmon stock and extinction of the species has been gaining credence in the scientific and environmental/green movement.
But this year’s bumper crop of Pacific sockeye salmon has been so overwhelming, that the fishing regulatory ministries are increasing fisherman quotas by the day – in fear of over-population as the fish swim up river to spawn.
It is the best salmon numbers in 100 years!
For half a decade, and at millions of dollars of taxpayer expense, scientists scowered the causes; from reduced river flow due to urbanization, industrialization and a rise in the beaver population and their dams to a reviving Pacific seal populations. Just last year, the west coast fish farm industry was declared the ‘real problem’, as farm salmon tend to have (controllable) lice and it was speculated these vermin somehow spread to wild salmon --killing them off at sea. Activists and scientists called for an end to man-made fish farming -- as a danger to the survival of natural species and the ecosystem!
Now, with this cornucopia salmon harvest, all the above ‘causes’ have been proven false. Only the theory of a local change in water temperature – a la El Nino and La Nina -- is still viable.
It is, again, Gaia and its natural forces and ebbs and flows that are at work. One can no longer blame the activities or ‘environmental’ damage of the human ant (nor a few beavers and seals).
[See Globe and Mail, “The salmon are back, but the mystery deepens” and “Sockeye surge spawns overcrowding concerns”, August 28, 2010, A1 and A8]
P.S. The East coast northern cod fishery off Newfoundland, which did seem close to extinction and has been under a moratorium for some 20 years (since 1992) will probably be revived by next year. The cod are coming back in such numbers that in some east coast areas – based on anecdotal reports -- residents are finding large numbers of cod tossed onto the shore; a sudden return from the dead not anticipated by ocean scientists and counter to general theory.
Gaia strikes again!
[See archive.greenpeace.org/comms/cbio/cancod.html, “CANADIAN ATLANTIC FISHERIES COLLAPSE”]
For years the salmon fishery in British Columbia has been declining – which is true -- and fears of the immanent collapse of the wild salmon stock and extinction of the species has been gaining credence in the scientific and environmental/green movement.
But this year’s bumper crop of Pacific sockeye salmon has been so overwhelming, that the fishing regulatory ministries are increasing fisherman quotas by the day – in fear of over-population as the fish swim up river to spawn.
It is the best salmon numbers in 100 years!
For half a decade, and at millions of dollars of taxpayer expense, scientists scowered the causes; from reduced river flow due to urbanization, industrialization and a rise in the beaver population and their dams to a reviving Pacific seal populations. Just last year, the west coast fish farm industry was declared the ‘real problem’, as farm salmon tend to have (controllable) lice and it was speculated these vermin somehow spread to wild salmon --killing them off at sea. Activists and scientists called for an end to man-made fish farming -- as a danger to the survival of natural species and the ecosystem!
Now, with this cornucopia salmon harvest, all the above ‘causes’ have been proven false. Only the theory of a local change in water temperature – a la El Nino and La Nina -- is still viable.
It is, again, Gaia and its natural forces and ebbs and flows that are at work. One can no longer blame the activities or ‘environmental’ damage of the human ant (nor a few beavers and seals).
[See Globe and Mail, “The salmon are back, but the mystery deepens” and “Sockeye surge spawns overcrowding concerns”, August 28, 2010, A1 and A8]
P.S. The East coast northern cod fishery off Newfoundland, which did seem close to extinction and has been under a moratorium for some 20 years (since 1992) will probably be revived by next year. The cod are coming back in such numbers that in some east coast areas – based on anecdotal reports -- residents are finding large numbers of cod tossed onto the shore; a sudden return from the dead not anticipated by ocean scientists and counter to general theory.
Gaia strikes again!
[See archive.greenpeace.org/comms/cbio/cancod.html, “CANADIAN ATLANTIC FISHERIES COLLAPSE”]
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Gaia
Oh for Detroit and Hazel
If city governments are serious about reducing car emissions and the spewing of dangerous carbon monoxide, nitrous oxide, and sulphur dioxide into the air, maybe city planners should rethink their street lights and their coordination.
In Toronto, if you get a newly turned green light, you are lucky if you can go 5 blocks before getting stuck with a red – even at the posted speed limit. On parts of Yonge street there are lights every 2 blocks without rational coordination. So you not only waste time and gas while sitting bumper to bumper, but greatly increase the damage to the atmosphere and pedestrian health.
But recently I had to go through Mississauga, a nearby city, on its main thoroughfare, Hurontario. What a joy it was. Once I got off the QEW highway all the way up to the 401 highway at the other end, I only had to stop once through over a dozen lights. I soon realized the lights were so set up that if I got a new or mid-green light, I could drive all the way without stopping in traffic.
Some planner had done the speed and distance math and got it right.
The last time I had a similar experience was as a child. My family was travelling to a town just south of Detroit and we decided to stop in that (once great) auto headquarters and tour the downtown. From the highway junction all the way in, we never had to stop. My father either knew in advance -- or realized from adjoining cars -- the secret of light coordinated, non-stop travel.
I have always remembered that long ago Detroit experience. It has come to mind countless times as I stew in Toronto and vicinity traffic.
Now, all I have to do is think back to last week and Mississauga.
Maybe its geriatric, female mayor, Hazel McCallion, born in 1921, will consider annexing Toronto and spreading her wisdom and good traffic sense to the entire GTA.
If only.
If city governments are serious about reducing car emissions and the spewing of dangerous carbon monoxide, nitrous oxide, and sulphur dioxide into the air, maybe city planners should rethink their street lights and their coordination.
In Toronto, if you get a newly turned green light, you are lucky if you can go 5 blocks before getting stuck with a red – even at the posted speed limit. On parts of Yonge street there are lights every 2 blocks without rational coordination. So you not only waste time and gas while sitting bumper to bumper, but greatly increase the damage to the atmosphere and pedestrian health.
But recently I had to go through Mississauga, a nearby city, on its main thoroughfare, Hurontario. What a joy it was. Once I got off the QEW highway all the way up to the 401 highway at the other end, I only had to stop once through over a dozen lights. I soon realized the lights were so set up that if I got a new or mid-green light, I could drive all the way without stopping in traffic.
Some planner had done the speed and distance math and got it right.
The last time I had a similar experience was as a child. My family was travelling to a town just south of Detroit and we decided to stop in that (once great) auto headquarters and tour the downtown. From the highway junction all the way in, we never had to stop. My father either knew in advance -- or realized from adjoining cars -- the secret of light coordinated, non-stop travel.
I have always remembered that long ago Detroit experience. It has come to mind countless times as I stew in Toronto and vicinity traffic.
Now, all I have to do is think back to last week and Mississauga.
Maybe its geriatric, female mayor, Hazel McCallion, born in 1921, will consider annexing Toronto and spreading her wisdom and good traffic sense to the entire GTA.
If only.
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Gaia
The Human Ant – again
Now that the 3 and a half month BP oil rig disaster and spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which began April 20, 2010, has finally been stopped – after spilling 4.9 million barrels of oil – the environmental damage results are – close to NIL.
Yes, the largest oil spill in U.S. history has caused so little damage that scientists are a gasp with surprise, resulting in media coverage in The Globe and Mail, August 5, 2010, B7 and Time magazine, August 9, 2010, p. 35.
All the oil recovery ships and skimming boats – some 4,000 in all -- were able to retrieve was some 2%.
So where did all the rest of the oil go?
Nature, Gaia, did her thing. Evaporation in the hot gulf is credited with up to 40% of the oil’s disappearance, wind and wave dispersion helped and, finally, water bacteria and microbes had a feast breaking down the rest.
According to Time, oil only affected 140 hectares of Louisiana marshland/shoreline, an area that loses 6,000 hectares a year to erosion. Bird loses were only 1% (about 15000)
of the Exxon Valdez totals -- while countless others could be seen safely flying about and perching on booms, etc. without injury or darkened feathers. And just 17 of some 492 dead sea turtles showed signs of dying from the oil spill.
To quote the Globe and Mail, “Despite man’s best efforts, Mother Nature’s ability to clean up the oil in the Gulf of Mexico surpasses our own”.
To quote the Time article, “Mother Nature is resilient.”
Yet another instance of the human ant.
Now that the 3 and a half month BP oil rig disaster and spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which began April 20, 2010, has finally been stopped – after spilling 4.9 million barrels of oil – the environmental damage results are – close to NIL.
Yes, the largest oil spill in U.S. history has caused so little damage that scientists are a gasp with surprise, resulting in media coverage in The Globe and Mail, August 5, 2010, B7 and Time magazine, August 9, 2010, p. 35.
All the oil recovery ships and skimming boats – some 4,000 in all -- were able to retrieve was some 2%.
So where did all the rest of the oil go?
Nature, Gaia, did her thing. Evaporation in the hot gulf is credited with up to 40% of the oil’s disappearance, wind and wave dispersion helped and, finally, water bacteria and microbes had a feast breaking down the rest.
According to Time, oil only affected 140 hectares of Louisiana marshland/shoreline, an area that loses 6,000 hectares a year to erosion. Bird loses were only 1% (about 15000)
of the Exxon Valdez totals -- while countless others could be seen safely flying about and perching on booms, etc. without injury or darkened feathers. And just 17 of some 492 dead sea turtles showed signs of dying from the oil spill.
To quote the Globe and Mail, “Despite man’s best efforts, Mother Nature’s ability to clean up the oil in the Gulf of Mexico surpasses our own”.
To quote the Time article, “Mother Nature is resilient.”
Yet another instance of the human ant.
Friday, August 6, 2010
MEDIA
The new face of China – Hollywood style
I just saw the 2010 remake of the Karate Kid. While the film is enjoyable and a soppy mix of bullying, victim turned kung fu wiz, and with a sweet romance, what got my attention were two other things.
The setting is China – with travelogue images of the Forbidden City, a monastery high up on a mountain top and the Great Wall of China. Why China and not California as of old? Because the Chinese government helped pay for the film -- as a vehicle to promote its new, post-Olympic image as a great place to visit and work.
Yes, China is open for tourism and embraces foreigners as employees. And skin colour or race is not an issue.
Everyone, from Jackie Chan as the ‘master’ and all the other people seen on screen are Chinese except for 4 characters: a blonde haired American male classmate, a bearded white American violin teacher and African American, 12 year old Jaden Smith, the ‘student’, and his African American widowed mother.
Jaden and his mom are welcomed with open arms by everyone – no southern U.S. here. And the love interest—between African American Jaden and a young Chinese violin playing beauty is colour and race blind from the start. Even the bullying that is at the film’s kung fu core is not racial but due to a love triangle. And when the girl’s parents learn of her close friendship with Jaden, their criticism is, as she repeats it to him, based on class and social status, not race. In the end, they too come out to cheer Jaden on in the ultimate kung fu tournament.
As for the employment angle, Jaden and his mother move from the U.S. to China because she has been transferred by her employer, an anonymous auto company. As she tells Jaden when he is upset and wants to go back to America, “This is our new home; there’s nothing left for us in Detroit.”
Yes, Detroit, America’s auto headquarters is the past and now Beijing (and China) is the future!
If you think this is a curious message and some wishful thinking on the part of Mao Tse Tung’s heirs, think again. General Motor’s new, prize Buick model, the LaCrosse is regularly promoted in company fed press releases as ‘designed in China’ and ‘with the Chinese middle manager in mind’. So much for “What’s good for General Motors is good for the U.S.A.” (famous 1952 quote by Charles E. Wilson, the former head of General Motors and Secretary of Defense under President Dwight Eisenhower. to a Senate subcommittee).
Maybe that is why I, at 6’3”, can barely squeeze through the driver’s door, and get chopped off at the shoulder if I even try to get through the rear doors. And forget about the trunk!
I just saw the 2010 remake of the Karate Kid. While the film is enjoyable and a soppy mix of bullying, victim turned kung fu wiz, and with a sweet romance, what got my attention were two other things.
The setting is China – with travelogue images of the Forbidden City, a monastery high up on a mountain top and the Great Wall of China. Why China and not California as of old? Because the Chinese government helped pay for the film -- as a vehicle to promote its new, post-Olympic image as a great place to visit and work.
Yes, China is open for tourism and embraces foreigners as employees. And skin colour or race is not an issue.
Everyone, from Jackie Chan as the ‘master’ and all the other people seen on screen are Chinese except for 4 characters: a blonde haired American male classmate, a bearded white American violin teacher and African American, 12 year old Jaden Smith, the ‘student’, and his African American widowed mother.
Jaden and his mom are welcomed with open arms by everyone – no southern U.S. here. And the love interest—between African American Jaden and a young Chinese violin playing beauty is colour and race blind from the start. Even the bullying that is at the film’s kung fu core is not racial but due to a love triangle. And when the girl’s parents learn of her close friendship with Jaden, their criticism is, as she repeats it to him, based on class and social status, not race. In the end, they too come out to cheer Jaden on in the ultimate kung fu tournament.
As for the employment angle, Jaden and his mother move from the U.S. to China because she has been transferred by her employer, an anonymous auto company. As she tells Jaden when he is upset and wants to go back to America, “This is our new home; there’s nothing left for us in Detroit.”
Yes, Detroit, America’s auto headquarters is the past and now Beijing (and China) is the future!
If you think this is a curious message and some wishful thinking on the part of Mao Tse Tung’s heirs, think again. General Motor’s new, prize Buick model, the LaCrosse is regularly promoted in company fed press releases as ‘designed in China’ and ‘with the Chinese middle manager in mind’. So much for “What’s good for General Motors is good for the U.S.A.” (famous 1952 quote by Charles E. Wilson, the former head of General Motors and Secretary of Defense under President Dwight Eisenhower. to a Senate subcommittee).
Maybe that is why I, at 6’3”, can barely squeeze through the driver’s door, and get chopped off at the shoulder if I even try to get through the rear doors. And forget about the trunk!
MEDIA
Read the World – for FREE!!!
If you want to know what is really going on in the world and how others see events, not just what and how your local media ‘feed you’ with their local perspective and biases,
go to http://www.thepaperboy.com/ and scrolled through its numerous countries and over 6350 newspapers – all free on line.
Many are already available in English and if not, Google translator promises to do the hard work for you – but I have not yet got it to work.
So relax with the latest sports updates from Tonga, or cross-check your local media coverage of some key event.
For example, during the recent and controversial Israeli capture of the flotilla to Gaza, the Times of London had far more detailed information than Toronto newspapers and local TV the same day (including the fact that individuals on the boat that resisted had $1,000,000.00 in cash aboard as well as some small weapons, and The Guardian newspaper had live footage links – so you could see the military action from both sides: from one of the flotilla boats and Israeli camera footage from the helicopters overhead.
If you want to know what is really going on in the world and how others see events, not just what and how your local media ‘feed you’ with their local perspective and biases,
go to http://www.thepaperboy.com/ and scrolled through its numerous countries and over 6350 newspapers – all free on line.
Many are already available in English and if not, Google translator promises to do the hard work for you – but I have not yet got it to work.
So relax with the latest sports updates from Tonga, or cross-check your local media coverage of some key event.
For example, during the recent and controversial Israeli capture of the flotilla to Gaza, the Times of London had far more detailed information than Toronto newspapers and local TV the same day (including the fact that individuals on the boat that resisted had $1,000,000.00 in cash aboard as well as some small weapons, and The Guardian newspaper had live footage links – so you could see the military action from both sides: from one of the flotilla boats and Israeli camera footage from the helicopters overhead.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Your Health
Delaying New MS treatment is insane!
An alternate explanation -- and the first cure -- for MS, Multiple Sclerosis, discovered by Italian Dr. Paolo Zamboni, is awaiting more ‘clinical trials’ in Canada and the U.S. before being accepted by our medical establishment. (See Globe and Mail, July 29, 2010, front page.)
In a nutshell, the new theory believes MS is not an autoimmune system gone crazy condition, but the result of poor blood circulation due to deformed veins that restrict proper blood flow out of the brain. The blockage, he believes, causes iron to back up and stay in the brain, resulting in MS symptoms. The deformed veins can be ‘seen’ with standard testing and can be treated readily with stent insertions – as done routinely to open blocked arteries.
The procedure is called Liberation therapy and is currently available in Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Italy and even the USA (if presented as a blood pressure problem).
(Good summaries are at http://www.gizmag.com/ccsvi-multiple-sclerosis-ms-cure-zamboni/13447/; Globe and Mail, July 28, 2010, A1 and A7, )
My problem with the delay and ‘need for clinical testing’ is simple.
Whether Dr. Paolo Zamboni is right about the MS link or not, having veins that are blocked or restricted is dangerous and a time bomb waiting to happen.
Treating such a blocked vein condition should be accepted medical practice now that the existence of these particular vein blockages has been uncovered.
If MS sufferers benefit more than others from having such blood flow problems resolved, all the better.
But to ignore this newly identified condition and not treat it on its own merits -- and waiting for MS trials -- is dumb.
An alternate explanation -- and the first cure -- for MS, Multiple Sclerosis, discovered by Italian Dr. Paolo Zamboni, is awaiting more ‘clinical trials’ in Canada and the U.S. before being accepted by our medical establishment. (See Globe and Mail, July 29, 2010, front page.)
In a nutshell, the new theory believes MS is not an autoimmune system gone crazy condition, but the result of poor blood circulation due to deformed veins that restrict proper blood flow out of the brain. The blockage, he believes, causes iron to back up and stay in the brain, resulting in MS symptoms. The deformed veins can be ‘seen’ with standard testing and can be treated readily with stent insertions – as done routinely to open blocked arteries.
The procedure is called Liberation therapy and is currently available in Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Italy and even the USA (if presented as a blood pressure problem).
(Good summaries are at http://www.gizmag.com/ccsvi-multiple-sclerosis-ms-cure-zamboni/13447/; Globe and Mail, July 28, 2010, A1 and A7, )
My problem with the delay and ‘need for clinical testing’ is simple.
Whether Dr. Paolo Zamboni is right about the MS link or not, having veins that are blocked or restricted is dangerous and a time bomb waiting to happen.
Treating such a blocked vein condition should be accepted medical practice now that the existence of these particular vein blockages has been uncovered.
If MS sufferers benefit more than others from having such blood flow problems resolved, all the better.
But to ignore this newly identified condition and not treat it on its own merits -- and waiting for MS trials -- is dumb.
TECHNOLOGY
‘clean’ Electricity – the false messiah PART 1
Today’s environmental movement is all hyped on the magic bullet of ‘clean’ electricity – the cure all to end pollution, smog, greenhouse gas and carbon emissions. We will all breath better – both literally and figuratively – once electricity rules.
‘clean’ electricity means wind or solar generation and hydro power where easily feasible (mostly from fast flowing rivers with large drops – think Niagara Falls – and modest dams – no flooding huge valleys and diverting rivers). And, of course, that ultimate devil, the automobile, must be reinvented in electric form.
‘clean’ power
Wind turbines and solar power, unfortunately, are not as great as some first thought. As the creator of the Gaia theory, green pioneer James Lovelock acknowledged in various writings and speeches as far back as 2005 wind and solar power are not viable or unrealistic options.
Both are weather dependent and never 24 hours a day – no wind, no sunlight, no electricity. And as Lovelock stresses, they are both too expensive to build and operate en masse without huge government subsidies and will never create enough electricity to pay their way.
(See Globe and Mail, March 10, 2005, A23 for excerpts from a videotaped speech, and June 25, 2005, F2 article)
Moreover, recent events add to the problem list. Wind farms disrupt normal wind circulation patterns down wind altering rain cycles and air temperatures. They create so much noise that governments are banning their installation near densely inhabited areas and they have been found to upset and disrupt animal life on nearby farms. Think living by a train track.
Water based wind farms are also under attack as locals hate the lost scenic view. Bird lovers are coming around to hate these spinning blades as the number of chopped to death birds begins to be taken into account; the numbers already rising into the thousands.
As for solar power and the photoelectric cell, a technology going back to the mid-19th century and explained by Albert Einstein in 1905, time and weather are even more problematic. No nights, please, no cloudy days, no rain storms, no snow on top. In Canada and most of the United States, item 2, 3 and 4 make solar power of very limited use. For example, surprise, Hawaii is cloudy 2 of every 3 days and the same for Alaska. Only desert areas such as New Mexico and Arizona are sunny most days, at 75% or so of the time. (See http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/htmlfiles/westcomp.ovc.html for cloudy figures for western US states.)
For reasons such as the above, Lovelock began in 2005 to advocate the most hated and radical solution from a ‘green’ perspective– nuclear power. He argued nuclear was far more cost effective at generating electricity without the limitations noted above.
And, if you didn’t already know it, nuclear power has been the fastest growing ‘solution’ across Europe for decades, in spite of the fact Europe is the epicenter of the ‘green’ movement, a movement that long fought against repeating the Chernobyl and 3 Mile Island experiences.
According to the European Nuclear Society, as of June 30, 2010 there are already 195 – yes – 195 nuclear plants operating in Europe, with an additional 19 being built as I write. France is the leader with 58, Russia has 32, Britain 19 and Germany 17. See the chart breakdown for yourself at www.euronuclear.org/info/encyclopedia/n/nuclear-power-plant-europe.htm.
Personally, I don’t trust nuclear power because when it goes wrong – due to human error – the outcome could be catastrophic. Where I live in Ontario, our 2 nuclear stations regularly have ‘contaminated water leaks into their surroundings. And reactor cores and rods that should last 20 years break down regularly after 10 years – so with the ‘refurbishing’, they never, ever meet their always exaggerated ‘cost effectiveness’ calculations. (New plants always take up to an extra decade to build around here, at cost overruns in the BILLIONS OF DOLLARS!
As for the electric car
Electric cars are not a new idea.
In fact they go back to the 19th century as a technology using battery power. Did you know electric cars outsold all others in the USA in 1899 and 1900? Did you know that in 1897, a fleet of taxis built by the Electric Carriage and Wagon Company of Philadelphia. serviced New York City? (See inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aacarselectrica.htm.)
So electric vehicles are nothing new under the sun, as Ecclesiastes would say.
Q: Why did they fall to the wayside, like steam engined vehicles?
A: Highways and long distance travel, and speed were the killers
then – and now.
All the purely electric cars coming soon, such as the Nissan Leaf, are not only small, compact units, but have a maximum range of 100 miles under ideal circumstances -- no running air conditioning or the heater, no heavy snow to tire through. Then, they must be plugged in for 8 hours to recharge.
For people not living in cities, that limited range (let alone recharge time) is a major problem. For city dwellers who want to visit relatives in nearby towns and cities, a maximum 100 mile round trip range is a killer.
So, as a technology, electric cars are of limited utility and driving flexibility. Maybe a good choice as a 2nd car in town, but not as the only car.
At least not for those geographic monsters called Canada and the United States.
PS – Electric cars have 2 other weaknesses. The batteries have a 4 year life expectancy and cost thousands of dollars to replace. As well, so far, the batteries cannot be recycled.
And, finally, that electricity you plug in comes from some power plant that either uses coal, oil, natural gas or nuclear power to make your nice electric car run ‘emissions free’. So you really have only shifted the problem.
That’s NIMBY thinking.
Today’s environmental movement is all hyped on the magic bullet of ‘clean’ electricity – the cure all to end pollution, smog, greenhouse gas and carbon emissions. We will all breath better – both literally and figuratively – once electricity rules.
‘clean’ electricity means wind or solar generation and hydro power where easily feasible (mostly from fast flowing rivers with large drops – think Niagara Falls – and modest dams – no flooding huge valleys and diverting rivers). And, of course, that ultimate devil, the automobile, must be reinvented in electric form.
‘clean’ power
Wind turbines and solar power, unfortunately, are not as great as some first thought. As the creator of the Gaia theory, green pioneer James Lovelock acknowledged in various writings and speeches as far back as 2005 wind and solar power are not viable or unrealistic options.
Both are weather dependent and never 24 hours a day – no wind, no sunlight, no electricity. And as Lovelock stresses, they are both too expensive to build and operate en masse without huge government subsidies and will never create enough electricity to pay their way.
(See Globe and Mail, March 10, 2005, A23 for excerpts from a videotaped speech, and June 25, 2005, F2 article)
Moreover, recent events add to the problem list. Wind farms disrupt normal wind circulation patterns down wind altering rain cycles and air temperatures. They create so much noise that governments are banning their installation near densely inhabited areas and they have been found to upset and disrupt animal life on nearby farms. Think living by a train track.
Water based wind farms are also under attack as locals hate the lost scenic view. Bird lovers are coming around to hate these spinning blades as the number of chopped to death birds begins to be taken into account; the numbers already rising into the thousands.
As for solar power and the photoelectric cell, a technology going back to the mid-19th century and explained by Albert Einstein in 1905, time and weather are even more problematic. No nights, please, no cloudy days, no rain storms, no snow on top. In Canada and most of the United States, item 2, 3 and 4 make solar power of very limited use. For example, surprise, Hawaii is cloudy 2 of every 3 days and the same for Alaska. Only desert areas such as New Mexico and Arizona are sunny most days, at 75% or so of the time. (See http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/htmlfiles/westcomp.ovc.html for cloudy figures for western US states.)
For reasons such as the above, Lovelock began in 2005 to advocate the most hated and radical solution from a ‘green’ perspective– nuclear power. He argued nuclear was far more cost effective at generating electricity without the limitations noted above.
And, if you didn’t already know it, nuclear power has been the fastest growing ‘solution’ across Europe for decades, in spite of the fact Europe is the epicenter of the ‘green’ movement, a movement that long fought against repeating the Chernobyl and 3 Mile Island experiences.
According to the European Nuclear Society, as of June 30, 2010 there are already 195 – yes – 195 nuclear plants operating in Europe, with an additional 19 being built as I write. France is the leader with 58, Russia has 32, Britain 19 and Germany 17. See the chart breakdown for yourself at www.euronuclear.org/info/encyclopedia/n/nuclear-power-plant-europe.htm.
Personally, I don’t trust nuclear power because when it goes wrong – due to human error – the outcome could be catastrophic. Where I live in Ontario, our 2 nuclear stations regularly have ‘contaminated water leaks into their surroundings. And reactor cores and rods that should last 20 years break down regularly after 10 years – so with the ‘refurbishing’, they never, ever meet their always exaggerated ‘cost effectiveness’ calculations. (New plants always take up to an extra decade to build around here, at cost overruns in the BILLIONS OF DOLLARS!
As for the electric car
Electric cars are not a new idea.
In fact they go back to the 19th century as a technology using battery power. Did you know electric cars outsold all others in the USA in 1899 and 1900? Did you know that in 1897, a fleet of taxis built by the Electric Carriage and Wagon Company of Philadelphia. serviced New York City? (See inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aacarselectrica.htm.)
So electric vehicles are nothing new under the sun, as Ecclesiastes would say.
Q: Why did they fall to the wayside, like steam engined vehicles?
A: Highways and long distance travel, and speed were the killers
then – and now.
All the purely electric cars coming soon, such as the Nissan Leaf, are not only small, compact units, but have a maximum range of 100 miles under ideal circumstances -- no running air conditioning or the heater, no heavy snow to tire through. Then, they must be plugged in for 8 hours to recharge.
For people not living in cities, that limited range (let alone recharge time) is a major problem. For city dwellers who want to visit relatives in nearby towns and cities, a maximum 100 mile round trip range is a killer.
So, as a technology, electric cars are of limited utility and driving flexibility. Maybe a good choice as a 2nd car in town, but not as the only car.
At least not for those geographic monsters called Canada and the United States.
PS – Electric cars have 2 other weaknesses. The batteries have a 4 year life expectancy and cost thousands of dollars to replace. As well, so far, the batteries cannot be recycled.
And, finally, that electricity you plug in comes from some power plant that either uses coal, oil, natural gas or nuclear power to make your nice electric car run ‘emissions free’. So you really have only shifted the problem.
That’s NIMBY thinking.
Your Health
WHAT YOU SHOULD EAT – Nature’s answer
I am not a dietician but follow the simple rule:
**** Let nature and human history be your guide. ***
In this case, our teeth are the key.
Whether you are a Darwinian, Bible follower or have another religious tradition, there
is no denying that the different kinds of teeth we have in our mouths are nature’s way
of telling us what foods we should eat.
a) We have 4 different kinds of teeth; flat surfaced, wide molars at the back for squishing, chewing and breaking down food fibers, we have up front incisors like axe blades to cut and chop up food, we have 4 canines designed to pierce and hold flesh as we try to tear it apart – just like dogs, tigers and bears, and 8 bicuspids which are half canine and half molars.
Consequently, of the 32 teeth an adult human has, 12 – or just over 1/3 -- are full or half
canines – designed to tear meat!
b) The foods that grow naturally on this planet fit into 5 categories: fruits and berries
from trees and shrubs; roots and vegetables; plants such as rice, corn and grains;
and animals – be they from the sea, land or air.
Our teeth – the same teeth as our great, great, great ancestors had thousands of years ago -- are designed to eat all 5 food sources. We are, to use the scientific label, omnivores.
In brief, then, in spite of the contemporary anti- meat/pro-vegetarian movement and its efforts to have us all abandon eating animal flesh, our biology -- our teeth -- say that is
not nature’s plan.
Otherwise we would not be given canines; we would be given teeth like cows, sheep and goats: all incisors and molars -- but no canines.
Eating flesh is part of who we were and who we are meant to be: now and in the future.
I am not a dietician but follow the simple rule:
**** Let nature and human history be your guide. ***
In this case, our teeth are the key.
Whether you are a Darwinian, Bible follower or have another religious tradition, there
is no denying that the different kinds of teeth we have in our mouths are nature’s way
of telling us what foods we should eat.
a) We have 4 different kinds of teeth; flat surfaced, wide molars at the back for squishing, chewing and breaking down food fibers, we have up front incisors like axe blades to cut and chop up food, we have 4 canines designed to pierce and hold flesh as we try to tear it apart – just like dogs, tigers and bears, and 8 bicuspids which are half canine and half molars.
Consequently, of the 32 teeth an adult human has, 12 – or just over 1/3 -- are full or half
canines – designed to tear meat!
b) The foods that grow naturally on this planet fit into 5 categories: fruits and berries
from trees and shrubs; roots and vegetables; plants such as rice, corn and grains;
and animals – be they from the sea, land or air.
Our teeth – the same teeth as our great, great, great ancestors had thousands of years ago -- are designed to eat all 5 food sources. We are, to use the scientific label, omnivores.
In brief, then, in spite of the contemporary anti- meat/pro-vegetarian movement and its efforts to have us all abandon eating animal flesh, our biology -- our teeth -- say that is
not nature’s plan.
Otherwise we would not be given canines; we would be given teeth like cows, sheep and goats: all incisors and molars -- but no canines.
Eating flesh is part of who we were and who we are meant to be: now and in the future.
Friday, July 30, 2010
GAIA
Global Warming and the human ‘ant’
The front page of the Globe and Mail, July 29, 2010, was filled with 7 – yes, seven - graphs showing how the plant – Gaia – is warming up while glacier and sea ice is disappearing. Some of the graphs start in the mid-20th century and 3 go back to 1850-1870 records.
That the planet is getting warmer and ice retracting is not in doubt,
but to what degree are humans to ‘blame’ and how does this change fit
into broader, past eras in the Earth’s climate history?
Camille Paglia, in a ROM (Toronto) lecture in 2009 – rebroadcast on TVO Big Ideas just a week ago -- mentioned in passing that the current environmentalist ‘save the plant’/green movement has lost its way.
Why, because it believes we humans are so powerful through our interactions with the environment that we are ‘the’ factor behind all changes. But, as she put it, we are “miniscule” compared to all the elements that affect the Earth.
I believe she is right. Why?
Did you know that a the Mt. St. Helens’ eruption in 1980 – which reduced the volcano’s height by 1,500 feet and carved out a huge crater inside – produced more air pollution than the entire history of mankind? And this was not the only such massive volcanic activity in history. Even this spring’s Icelandic minor eruption – which shut down flights over England and Europe for days – did massive polluting to the atmosphere with its continuous billowing ash clouds.
2. Remember the hole in the ozone layer – blamed on aerosol cans and
related CFC chemicals? The fear was that the hole and thinning
ozone would allow harmful UVB rays from the sun to reach earth, destroying crop production, cause worldwide starvation and increasing skin cancers. Yes, an international moratorium on CFCs was instituted in the 1990’s, but hardly enough to stop the already created – ‘damage’. Yet, so far, despite the 2 holes over the Antarctic and North Pole, no link to any of the projected harmful effects have been found.
The holes are no longer newsworthy;except when, for instance, the southern one was reported on the radio news to have been helpful after the massive Chilean earthquake this year, as it allowed much of the debris and pollution to lescape the earth’s atmosphere.
Concentrations of green house gases and carbon over the major industrialized nations due to coal use was feared to lead to increased breathing problems for young and old, and shortened life spans. While asthma numbers are on the rise, recent studies have shown that jet plane travel over these areas disperse the pollutants like giant fans and the pollutants not really concentrated at all. And now jet travel is seen as an ‘environmental plus’ (despite the gas fuel consumption and engine exhaust).
As for the changing of the climate, again, Gaia has gone through various stages over time. The last Ice Age ended about 10,000 years ago according to geological evidence and if the dinosaurs travelled across Alberta or the Gobi Desert in China – where their bones are found aplenty – then these places must have been lush tropical forest at one point.
To quote Wikipedia, Dinosuars”:
At the peak of the Mesozoic, there were no polar ice caps, and sea levels are estimated to have been from 100 to 250 meters (300 to 800 ft) higher than they are today. The planet's temperature was also much more uniform, with only 25 °C (45 °F) separating average polar temperatures from those at the equator. On average, atmospheric temperatures were also much higher; the poles, for example, were 50 °C (90 °F) warmer than today.[118][119]
The atmosphere's composition during the Mesozoic was vastly different as well. Carbon dioxide levels were up to 12 times higher than today's levels, and oxygen formed 32 to 35% of the atmosphere, as compared to 21% today. However, by the late Cretaceous, the environment was changing dramatically. Volcanic activity was decreasing, which led to a cooling trend as levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide dropped. Oxygen levels in the atmosphere also started to fluctuate and would ultimately fall considerably. Some scientists hypothesize that climate change, combined with lower oxygen levels, might have led directly to the demise of many species. If the dinosaurs had respiratory systems similar to those commonly found in modern birds, it may have been particularly difficult for them to cope with reduced respiratory efficiency, given the enormous oxygen demands of their very large bodies.[5]
Finally, El Niño and La Niña, two large pools of raised and lowered water temperatures off of Peru, have been recognized since the early 1980’s as major forces behind radical changes in the wind patterns over North America, South America and as far away as Indonesia and Australia – altering their snowfall and rainy seasons. The causes of El Niño and La Niña are still unknown, but when they peak every few years, much of the world dances to their tunes.
So, in brief, Gaia has gone through and continues to go through many and diverse climate ups and downs – irrespective of our human, ‘ant’ impact.
The front page of the Globe and Mail, July 29, 2010, was filled with 7 – yes, seven - graphs showing how the plant – Gaia – is warming up while glacier and sea ice is disappearing. Some of the graphs start in the mid-20th century and 3 go back to 1850-1870 records.
That the planet is getting warmer and ice retracting is not in doubt,
but to what degree are humans to ‘blame’ and how does this change fit
into broader, past eras in the Earth’s climate history?
Camille Paglia, in a ROM (Toronto) lecture in 2009 – rebroadcast on TVO Big Ideas just a week ago -- mentioned in passing that the current environmentalist ‘save the plant’/green movement has lost its way.
Why, because it believes we humans are so powerful through our interactions with the environment that we are ‘the’ factor behind all changes. But, as she put it, we are “miniscule” compared to all the elements that affect the Earth.
I believe she is right. Why?
Did you know that a the Mt. St. Helens’ eruption in 1980 – which reduced the volcano’s height by 1,500 feet and carved out a huge crater inside – produced more air pollution than the entire history of mankind? And this was not the only such massive volcanic activity in history. Even this spring’s Icelandic minor eruption – which shut down flights over England and Europe for days – did massive polluting to the atmosphere with its continuous billowing ash clouds.
2. Remember the hole in the ozone layer – blamed on aerosol cans and
related CFC chemicals? The fear was that the hole and thinning
ozone would allow harmful UVB rays from the sun to reach earth, destroying crop production, cause worldwide starvation and increasing skin cancers. Yes, an international moratorium on CFCs was instituted in the 1990’s, but hardly enough to stop the already created – ‘damage’. Yet, so far, despite the 2 holes over the Antarctic and North Pole, no link to any of the projected harmful effects have been found.
The holes are no longer newsworthy;except when, for instance, the southern one was reported on the radio news to have been helpful after the massive Chilean earthquake this year, as it allowed much of the debris and pollution to lescape the earth’s atmosphere.
Concentrations of green house gases and carbon over the major industrialized nations due to coal use was feared to lead to increased breathing problems for young and old, and shortened life spans. While asthma numbers are on the rise, recent studies have shown that jet plane travel over these areas disperse the pollutants like giant fans and the pollutants not really concentrated at all. And now jet travel is seen as an ‘environmental plus’ (despite the gas fuel consumption and engine exhaust).
As for the changing of the climate, again, Gaia has gone through various stages over time. The last Ice Age ended about 10,000 years ago according to geological evidence and if the dinosaurs travelled across Alberta or the Gobi Desert in China – where their bones are found aplenty – then these places must have been lush tropical forest at one point.
To quote Wikipedia, Dinosuars”:
At the peak of the Mesozoic, there were no polar ice caps, and sea levels are estimated to have been from 100 to 250 meters (300 to 800 ft) higher than they are today. The planet's temperature was also much more uniform, with only 25 °C (45 °F) separating average polar temperatures from those at the equator. On average, atmospheric temperatures were also much higher; the poles, for example, were 50 °C (90 °F) warmer than today.[118][119]
The atmosphere's composition during the Mesozoic was vastly different as well. Carbon dioxide levels were up to 12 times higher than today's levels, and oxygen formed 32 to 35% of the atmosphere, as compared to 21% today. However, by the late Cretaceous, the environment was changing dramatically. Volcanic activity was decreasing, which led to a cooling trend as levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide dropped. Oxygen levels in the atmosphere also started to fluctuate and would ultimately fall considerably. Some scientists hypothesize that climate change, combined with lower oxygen levels, might have led directly to the demise of many species. If the dinosaurs had respiratory systems similar to those commonly found in modern birds, it may have been particularly difficult for them to cope with reduced respiratory efficiency, given the enormous oxygen demands of their very large bodies.[5]
Finally, El Niño and La Niña, two large pools of raised and lowered water temperatures off of Peru, have been recognized since the early 1980’s as major forces behind radical changes in the wind patterns over North America, South America and as far away as Indonesia and Australia – altering their snowfall and rainy seasons. The causes of El Niño and La Niña are still unknown, but when they peak every few years, much of the world dances to their tunes.
So, in brief, Gaia has gone through and continues to go through many and diverse climate ups and downs – irrespective of our human, ‘ant’ impact.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
MEDIA
The truth on skinny and sports
Carl Pettersson has just won the Canadian Open with a mind boggling, birdie-filled come from behind win. But the focus of the Toronto Star’s coverage (July 26, 2010, S1), was not his play but his weight.
It starts with the article’s title: “Open worth the weight” and the opening words: “He’s a roly-poly kind of guy …” Then later on, “Listed at 5-11, 195 pounds – hardly the stature of a perfect athletic specimen …”. The accompanying front section photo shows a man with a large round face and huge double chin, though the 2nd photo (S6) of him and Dean Wilson , the runner up, shows Pettersson as husky but not obese.
Why obsess over Pettersson’s weight? If he can walk the links for days in this heat wave (mid- to high 30’s with the humidity) and play fantastic golf -- rather than collapse and need resuscitation -- why care about his weight or body shape?
Think John Daly, another pro golfer and John Candy clone. Think David Wells, the great and former Blue Jays pitcher with his Santa Claus midsection. Has their weight and body shape hampered their careers and limited their abilities?
Are NFL linemen not pudgy looking? Are sumo wrestlers not human bowling balls? Yet both are considered some of the most powerful and feared men in sports.
And what of the strongest men in the world, the Olympic weight lifters. No Arnold Schwarzenegger body builders in the lot. All are husky men with huge abdomens, because large stomach muscles are the key to lifting weight.
(And if you’re old enough, think back to the wrestlers of the fifties and sixties; tree trunk Yukon Eric or Whipper Billy Watson, Ontario’s own two time world champion, or the rotund Haystacks Calhoun ( just over 6 foot tall and always over 450 pounds). In those days, only the acrobatic wrestlers were slim or body builder shaped.)
So, get over the body image fixation; appreciate the skill and talent.
Carl Pettersson has just won the Canadian Open with a mind boggling, birdie-filled come from behind win. But the focus of the Toronto Star’s coverage (July 26, 2010, S1), was not his play but his weight.
It starts with the article’s title: “Open worth the weight” and the opening words: “He’s a roly-poly kind of guy …” Then later on, “Listed at 5-11, 195 pounds – hardly the stature of a perfect athletic specimen …”. The accompanying front section photo shows a man with a large round face and huge double chin, though the 2nd photo (S6) of him and Dean Wilson , the runner up, shows Pettersson as husky but not obese.
Why obsess over Pettersson’s weight? If he can walk the links for days in this heat wave (mid- to high 30’s with the humidity) and play fantastic golf -- rather than collapse and need resuscitation -- why care about his weight or body shape?
Think John Daly, another pro golfer and John Candy clone. Think David Wells, the great and former Blue Jays pitcher with his Santa Claus midsection. Has their weight and body shape hampered their careers and limited their abilities?
Are NFL linemen not pudgy looking? Are sumo wrestlers not human bowling balls? Yet both are considered some of the most powerful and feared men in sports.
And what of the strongest men in the world, the Olympic weight lifters. No Arnold Schwarzenegger body builders in the lot. All are husky men with huge abdomens, because large stomach muscles are the key to lifting weight.
(And if you’re old enough, think back to the wrestlers of the fifties and sixties; tree trunk Yukon Eric or Whipper Billy Watson, Ontario’s own two time world champion, or the rotund Haystacks Calhoun ( just over 6 foot tall and always over 450 pounds). In those days, only the acrobatic wrestlers were slim or body builder shaped.)
So, get over the body image fixation; appreciate the skill and talent.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
TECHNOLOGY
GM Volt shocking
GM’s Chevy Volt is finally in production after over a year of promotion and hype. As promised, the vehicle is not a hybrid – where the electrical and gas motors constantly interact one way or another. But to call it an electric car is a half-truth, or more accurately, by mileage, a 1/8 truth.
Yes, the car has a pure, electric motor and a 220-240 volt socket so it can be charged from the same supply that runs your home stove and dryer. And the battery is guaranteed for double the normal hybrid battery life
-- 8 years or 100,000 miles.
But the Volt also has a second, 4 cylinder gas motor! The electric motor handles the first 40 or so miles and then shuts down. The next 300 or so miles are powered by the gas engine!
While this design – 2 separate motors -- is less complex than hybrids – and so less likely to have computer glitches as Toyota is now finding, it still relies heavily on traditional gas power.
(See Time magazine, July 26, 2010 article on new electric cars, pp. 40-43.)
PS – The Volt takes 4 hours to recharge so you need to plug it in at work
or overnight. Fortunately, you always have the safety net of gasoline.
GM’s Chevy Volt is finally in production after over a year of promotion and hype. As promised, the vehicle is not a hybrid – where the electrical and gas motors constantly interact one way or another. But to call it an electric car is a half-truth, or more accurately, by mileage, a 1/8 truth.
Yes, the car has a pure, electric motor and a 220-240 volt socket so it can be charged from the same supply that runs your home stove and dryer. And the battery is guaranteed for double the normal hybrid battery life
-- 8 years or 100,000 miles.
But the Volt also has a second, 4 cylinder gas motor! The electric motor handles the first 40 or so miles and then shuts down. The next 300 or so miles are powered by the gas engine!
While this design – 2 separate motors -- is less complex than hybrids – and so less likely to have computer glitches as Toyota is now finding, it still relies heavily on traditional gas power.
(See Time magazine, July 26, 2010 article on new electric cars, pp. 40-43.)
PS – The Volt takes 4 hours to recharge so you need to plug it in at work
or overnight. Fortunately, you always have the safety net of gasoline.
Monday, July 26, 2010
MEDIA
3D insanity
3D is the new wave in Hollywood and is sweeping the TV industry as well.
Avatar (live action science fiction) and Despicable Me (animation) have received rave reviews for their 3D effects, and that is great for them and their audiences. But so ‘cool’ in 3D today that 2010 Hollywood releases shot in the regular way – not using 2 eyed cameras as needed – are being ‘tweaked’ in post-production to have 3D-like scenes, The conversion process was used, for example, in Tim Burrton’s Alice in Wonderland. Maybe that’s why I found most of the frequent zoom in effects annoying and distracting from the story. Extra glitz that mired the film’s impact.
TV is also on the 3D bandwagon. Just yesterday I was at a Sony Style store and tried their special, battery powered glasses to watch clips and a video game in 3D. The 3 D glasses are great, but the 3D is just silly outside of the world of animation and game cartooning – where everything is always possible, and coyotes regularly stand in mid-air or survive a canon blast through the stomach.
You see, Hollywood’s 3D is not really 3D in the normal scientific sense. It is NOT how we see the real world. We do not see objects jump out from their settings, to float before our eyes as if in space. But that is the core of Hollywood 3D as it applies to Sony’s demonstration butterflies or a golf tournament audience standing just in front of your viewpoint. It is not reality any more than a painting’s use of the perspective trick.
.
Only if a bull or shark or Jabberwocky dragon is charging directly at the viewer is the 3D effect helpful, if exaggerated.
And as this craze is pushed further, team sports are the next big target. Soccer and hockey camera crews are rethinking how they film these events, as look down angles – for a broad view of the play – is not amenable to 3D impacts. The cameras will have to be at ground level looking up at the players so each individual ‘stands out’ and the 3D sense of extra nearness can be created.
For hockey, this could be a plus when players crash into the boards and a camera is directly there; it may be nice to feel as if you, the audience, are getting body checked too.
But the trade off will be reduced high angle camera shots following the ball or puck. So, who needs to see the game’s back and forth flow when, instead, players can be enlarged like Santa Claus parade giant balloons? Who would care?
I would.
In brief, 3D has its place in animation and fantasy/science fiction tales were suspension of disbelief are the norm. But not when supposed reality is being depicted. Then, the extra 3D element is a jarring hindrance.
PS - Word from inside Sony tech staff is that last year's tv - if 120hz or 240 hz - will play 3D; maybe not as well as the 3 times more expensive new units, but well. Also Intel already has a chip that will play 3D without the need for glasses. It should be in the next generation 3D TVs by next year - at least in Japan and vacinity. They get all the new stuff first, then Europe and finally North America.
3D is the new wave in Hollywood and is sweeping the TV industry as well.
Avatar (live action science fiction) and Despicable Me (animation) have received rave reviews for their 3D effects, and that is great for them and their audiences. But so ‘cool’ in 3D today that 2010 Hollywood releases shot in the regular way – not using 2 eyed cameras as needed – are being ‘tweaked’ in post-production to have 3D-like scenes, The conversion process was used, for example, in Tim Burrton’s Alice in Wonderland. Maybe that’s why I found most of the frequent zoom in effects annoying and distracting from the story. Extra glitz that mired the film’s impact.
TV is also on the 3D bandwagon. Just yesterday I was at a Sony Style store and tried their special, battery powered glasses to watch clips and a video game in 3D. The 3 D glasses are great, but the 3D is just silly outside of the world of animation and game cartooning – where everything is always possible, and coyotes regularly stand in mid-air or survive a canon blast through the stomach.
You see, Hollywood’s 3D is not really 3D in the normal scientific sense. It is NOT how we see the real world. We do not see objects jump out from their settings, to float before our eyes as if in space. But that is the core of Hollywood 3D as it applies to Sony’s demonstration butterflies or a golf tournament audience standing just in front of your viewpoint. It is not reality any more than a painting’s use of the perspective trick.
.
Only if a bull or shark or Jabberwocky dragon is charging directly at the viewer is the 3D effect helpful, if exaggerated.
And as this craze is pushed further, team sports are the next big target. Soccer and hockey camera crews are rethinking how they film these events, as look down angles – for a broad view of the play – is not amenable to 3D impacts. The cameras will have to be at ground level looking up at the players so each individual ‘stands out’ and the 3D sense of extra nearness can be created.
For hockey, this could be a plus when players crash into the boards and a camera is directly there; it may be nice to feel as if you, the audience, are getting body checked too.
But the trade off will be reduced high angle camera shots following the ball or puck. So, who needs to see the game’s back and forth flow when, instead, players can be enlarged like Santa Claus parade giant balloons? Who would care?
I would.
In brief, 3D has its place in animation and fantasy/science fiction tales were suspension of disbelief are the norm. But not when supposed reality is being depicted. Then, the extra 3D element is a jarring hindrance.
PS - Word from inside Sony tech staff is that last year's tv - if 120hz or 240 hz - will play 3D; maybe not as well as the 3 times more expensive new units, but well. Also Intel already has a chip that will play 3D without the need for glasses. It should be in the next generation 3D TVs by next year - at least in Japan and vacinity. They get all the new stuff first, then Europe and finally North America.
Friday, July 23, 2010
The death of the classic, GM North American sedan
TECHNOLOGY
In today’s world of mini-car models, worries about gasoline prices and saving the planet, the reality is that last year and so far in 2010 SUV sales and big trucks have been on a tear while subcompacts and compact sales are down. The truth is that North Americans, by and large, are bigger people who need roomier vehicles with lots of storage/cargo space for long drives.
Personally, I am a classic sedan lover. Four doors, large trunk and plenty of headroom for someone 6’3” (namely me) or taller, and large front and rear crash/crupple zones for safety. That was the formula for the family vehicle for decades and GM did it well. Think full size Chevrolet, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick, and, for the rich, Cadillac.
But the designers at GM are abandoning that formula and this year it has been Buick’s turn.
Buick’s new 4 door large sedan model – the LaCrosse -- is getting lots of favorable publicity. Auto journalists love the new front style and ‘sporty’ look. It replaces the short lived Allure, which replaced the 8 year Century.
But I – as a longtime sedan lover– am not impressed.
I still own 2 Buick Centuries and find the new replacement not up to par.
To start, the LaCrosse, which I call a jellybean on steroids, has a very short, cuts off trunk design.
The trunk is not as huge as in the past, and more importantly has a very small access mouth that will prevent larger objects from getting in.
Great for golf clubs and groceries, but not that piece of furniture or family picnic cooler or new boxed (unassembled) barbeque you just bought at Canadian Tire.
Even worse, I cannot sit in the front without risking spinal injury, and getting through the rear doors is impossibility. At 6’3” I am well within the upper half the the North American male population. According to Wikipedia and Answer.com, half of Canadian males are over 5’9’ and the same for American males. (Females average about 5’4’ in both countries.)
But I can barely get into the front of the LaCrosse without scrunching down and, once inside, my head almost grazes the roof liner -- unless I angle the seat back to a semi-sleeping position. A good pothole or speed bump and my head would be trying to make its own sunroof while my neck and spine would be crunched.
And forget about the rear. Thanks to the sporty sloping roofline I cannot contort myself enough to get in. The door opening hits me in the shoulder – at about the 5’8’ level!
So, are only North American women and below average height males worthy of the new, big Buick?
Next year, its Chevy’s turn to abandon taller people as the Impala is to be replaced with a model in the new sedan look!
What’s left, then, at GM? Just the Cadillac; not your typical ‘average family’ car, but a vehicle design smart enough to know that grown ups do sit in back seats and taller people count as well.
PS - The police departments all over North America are also complaining about the disappearance of the large sedan. The Ford Crown Victoria is being discontinued, as is the Chevy Impala -- leaving only Chrysler’s C300 and Magnum wagon left. But these two Chryslers have poor visibility and huge bind spots (a major safety issue according to police) and drink gas like water. (Ford’s new Taurus – last year’s 500 – is too cramped for police taste, it seems.)
What say you, Taxi drivers?
In today’s world of mini-car models, worries about gasoline prices and saving the planet, the reality is that last year and so far in 2010 SUV sales and big trucks have been on a tear while subcompacts and compact sales are down. The truth is that North Americans, by and large, are bigger people who need roomier vehicles with lots of storage/cargo space for long drives.
Personally, I am a classic sedan lover. Four doors, large trunk and plenty of headroom for someone 6’3” (namely me) or taller, and large front and rear crash/crupple zones for safety. That was the formula for the family vehicle for decades and GM did it well. Think full size Chevrolet, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick, and, for the rich, Cadillac.
But the designers at GM are abandoning that formula and this year it has been Buick’s turn.
Buick’s new 4 door large sedan model – the LaCrosse -- is getting lots of favorable publicity. Auto journalists love the new front style and ‘sporty’ look. It replaces the short lived Allure, which replaced the 8 year Century.
But I – as a longtime sedan lover– am not impressed.
I still own 2 Buick Centuries and find the new replacement not up to par.
To start, the LaCrosse, which I call a jellybean on steroids, has a very short, cuts off trunk design.
The trunk is not as huge as in the past, and more importantly has a very small access mouth that will prevent larger objects from getting in.
Great for golf clubs and groceries, but not that piece of furniture or family picnic cooler or new boxed (unassembled) barbeque you just bought at Canadian Tire.
Even worse, I cannot sit in the front without risking spinal injury, and getting through the rear doors is impossibility. At 6’3” I am well within the upper half the the North American male population. According to Wikipedia and Answer.com, half of Canadian males are over 5’9’ and the same for American males. (Females average about 5’4’ in both countries.)
But I can barely get into the front of the LaCrosse without scrunching down and, once inside, my head almost grazes the roof liner -- unless I angle the seat back to a semi-sleeping position. A good pothole or speed bump and my head would be trying to make its own sunroof while my neck and spine would be crunched.
And forget about the rear. Thanks to the sporty sloping roofline I cannot contort myself enough to get in. The door opening hits me in the shoulder – at about the 5’8’ level!
So, are only North American women and below average height males worthy of the new, big Buick?
Next year, its Chevy’s turn to abandon taller people as the Impala is to be replaced with a model in the new sedan look!
What’s left, then, at GM? Just the Cadillac; not your typical ‘average family’ car, but a vehicle design smart enough to know that grown ups do sit in back seats and taller people count as well.
PS - The police departments all over North America are also complaining about the disappearance of the large sedan. The Ford Crown Victoria is being discontinued, as is the Chevy Impala -- leaving only Chrysler’s C300 and Magnum wagon left. But these two Chryslers have poor visibility and huge bind spots (a major safety issue according to police) and drink gas like water. (Ford’s new Taurus – last year’s 500 – is too cramped for police taste, it seems.)
What say you, Taxi drivers?
Thursday, July 22, 2010
MEDIA
Passing the baton to a new generation
This week saw the end of one era and the beginning of another; a passing of the baton, so to speak.
After 54 years on TV, with 256 episodes per year, As the World Turns is ending and will have its timeslot filled by an all women’s talk show (a la The View). Britain’s Coronation Street becomes the new longevity champion.
The decline in female daytime home audiences that has been going on for some 2 decades and increasing costs for more elaborate and outdoor scenes have led to its cancellation.
But all is not lost, for another generation is taking up the daily soap opera challenge.
Degrassi, the 4th generation Canadian teen soap - in it’s 10th year -- is now becoming a daily show. Canadian Much Music and U.S. Teen Nick network has commissioned a doubling to 48 episodes for the upcoming season, starting July 19, 2010. Degrassi will broadcast new epiosdes 4 days a week with a Friday catch up marathon.
Will Degrassi succeed in this new format?
Will a new generation get hooked on the long and venerable soap opera marathon?
Will it last for 54 years or will teens soon tire of the need to stay tuned every day to follow the stories.
We will see.
(Toronto Metro, July 19, 2010, p.16; Wikipedia, “Degrassi”)
This week saw the end of one era and the beginning of another; a passing of the baton, so to speak.
After 54 years on TV, with 256 episodes per year, As the World Turns is ending and will have its timeslot filled by an all women’s talk show (a la The View). Britain’s Coronation Street becomes the new longevity champion.
The decline in female daytime home audiences that has been going on for some 2 decades and increasing costs for more elaborate and outdoor scenes have led to its cancellation.
But all is not lost, for another generation is taking up the daily soap opera challenge.
Degrassi, the 4th generation Canadian teen soap - in it’s 10th year -- is now becoming a daily show. Canadian Much Music and U.S. Teen Nick network has commissioned a doubling to 48 episodes for the upcoming season, starting July 19, 2010. Degrassi will broadcast new epiosdes 4 days a week with a Friday catch up marathon.
Will Degrassi succeed in this new format?
Will a new generation get hooked on the long and venerable soap opera marathon?
Will it last for 54 years or will teens soon tire of the need to stay tuned every day to follow the stories.
We will see.
(Toronto Metro, July 19, 2010, p.16; Wikipedia, “Degrassi”)
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Get real on kids and media
(See Globe and Mail, July 6, L4 from the Canadian Press and July13, A1, A2)
Both the American and Canadian Paediatric Societies recommend that all electronic media be limited to no more than 2 hours a day for kids age 2 to 18, and zero for those under age 2.
While these recommendations are well intentioned and due to fears of obesity, hyperactivity and poorer grades in school, social isolation, sleep deprivation, etc., achieving such minimal media access goals is simply wishful thinking.
Already by 1980 Canadian children were averaging 24 hours of TV a week
or 31/2 hours a day, and U.S. numbers were higher. And that was before computers and cell phones became ubiquitous and MP3 players and other devices were invented. (Toronto Star, Who watches TV most? …” Nov 30, 1988)
3 studies published this year show Canadian and American school age and college students average 4 ½ hours for TV and video games daily, and even more if multi-tasking activities (such as Facebook, Hotmail, MP3 listening, cell phones, etc.) are added in.
So, the paediatric societies’ recommendations, cutting back to 2 hours a day or less, will not happen across Canada, the USA or any country where electronic media are relatively inexpensive and readily available.
The genies have long been let out of the bottles. Even by the 1980’s!!!
PS Looking on the bright side, if you cannot figure out how to use the command structure of your new company cell phone, just give it to a 10 year old and she or he will solve it for you in seconds. The same with high tech multi-function remotes and computer screen savers or system glitches.
That’s today’s tech savvy kids.
Both the American and Canadian Paediatric Societies recommend that all electronic media be limited to no more than 2 hours a day for kids age 2 to 18, and zero for those under age 2.
While these recommendations are well intentioned and due to fears of obesity, hyperactivity and poorer grades in school, social isolation, sleep deprivation, etc., achieving such minimal media access goals is simply wishful thinking.
Already by 1980 Canadian children were averaging 24 hours of TV a week
or 31/2 hours a day, and U.S. numbers were higher. And that was before computers and cell phones became ubiquitous and MP3 players and other devices were invented. (Toronto Star, Who watches TV most? …” Nov 30, 1988)
3 studies published this year show Canadian and American school age and college students average 4 ½ hours for TV and video games daily, and even more if multi-tasking activities (such as Facebook, Hotmail, MP3 listening, cell phones, etc.) are added in.
So, the paediatric societies’ recommendations, cutting back to 2 hours a day or less, will not happen across Canada, the USA or any country where electronic media are relatively inexpensive and readily available.
The genies have long been let out of the bottles. Even by the 1980’s!!!
PS Looking on the bright side, if you cannot figure out how to use the command structure of your new company cell phone, just give it to a 10 year old and she or he will solve it for you in seconds. The same with high tech multi-function remotes and computer screen savers or system glitches.
That’s today’s tech savvy kids.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
I can hear music again!!!
There is a sudden flurry of activity in the music industry as ‘quality sound’ is coming back into vogue. By this I mean the return to vinyl records, and a new, multi-faceted attack on the poor sound of MP3 players, iPods and laptops.
Put simply, with the tsunami switch to CDs in the 1980s the quality of recorded sound dropped. CDs still use the same principal of ‘sampling’ a sound/music and copying ‘bits’ of the original. Today’s CD technology is far better as bit sample numbers have skyrocketed, but everyone in the digital industry knows that any CD ‘sampling’ leaves out enough ‘bits’ that the human ear can still tell the difference. Only an analogue or continuous copying process will reproduce the entire sound. That’s why people are reverting to vinyl, the original, continuous transfer technology. From near extinction to a healthy revival, vinyl is back and growing in popularity, with 2009 sales of 2.5 million in the USA alone. (See Globe and Mail, July 6, 2010, B1, B6)
On the MP3, iPod and laptop front, more companies are getting into making quality headphones, and the new HP Envy line of laptops isolate the sound components from the rest of the computer whir, have upgraded speakers and amplifiers, added a subwoofer and included Beat Audio software for sound personalization. Even better, the industry standard MP3 compression and iPod variation are under pressure as their sampling rates are, to put it bluntly, pathetic. MP3 means only 1 of every 3 bits of sound are properly recorded. (MP4 is even worse.) What you need for great sound is MP1 – a one to one copying: so, at the moment, CDs are still the digital quality standard, and old vinyl the ultimate goal. (See Maclean’s magazine, May 17, 2010, p. 55 “ A Sweeter Sound”.)
To relive that spectacular concert or theatre performance again – with all the richness and modulation of sound -- look for a vinyl copy. Otherwise, you’ll have to sit back, close your eyes, and listen from memory.
Today’s electronic shortcuts won’t do the trick.
PS If you own CDs, be aware that they ‘die’ , usually within 10 years. The Music Department archives at the University of Toronto schedules backing up their CDs on a 5 or so year rotation because, even with their meticulous care and safe storage, they found that CDs stopped working within 10 years. Why? Because, over time, air pollution creates microscopic pin holes through the plastic and the liquid that separates the metal disc from the plastic shell evaporates or hardens.
Two AV technicians I know recommend immediately on purchase coating the top (label) side with ordinary latex paint. It helps seal the thin upper plastic and extends the CD’s lifespan.
Put simply, with the tsunami switch to CDs in the 1980s the quality of recorded sound dropped. CDs still use the same principal of ‘sampling’ a sound/music and copying ‘bits’ of the original. Today’s CD technology is far better as bit sample numbers have skyrocketed, but everyone in the digital industry knows that any CD ‘sampling’ leaves out enough ‘bits’ that the human ear can still tell the difference. Only an analogue or continuous copying process will reproduce the entire sound. That’s why people are reverting to vinyl, the original, continuous transfer technology. From near extinction to a healthy revival, vinyl is back and growing in popularity, with 2009 sales of 2.5 million in the USA alone. (See Globe and Mail, July 6, 2010, B1, B6)
On the MP3, iPod and laptop front, more companies are getting into making quality headphones, and the new HP Envy line of laptops isolate the sound components from the rest of the computer whir, have upgraded speakers and amplifiers, added a subwoofer and included Beat Audio software for sound personalization. Even better, the industry standard MP3 compression and iPod variation are under pressure as their sampling rates are, to put it bluntly, pathetic. MP3 means only 1 of every 3 bits of sound are properly recorded. (MP4 is even worse.) What you need for great sound is MP1 – a one to one copying: so, at the moment, CDs are still the digital quality standard, and old vinyl the ultimate goal. (See Maclean’s magazine, May 17, 2010, p. 55 “ A Sweeter Sound”.)
To relive that spectacular concert or theatre performance again – with all the richness and modulation of sound -- look for a vinyl copy. Otherwise, you’ll have to sit back, close your eyes, and listen from memory.
Today’s electronic shortcuts won’t do the trick.
PS If you own CDs, be aware that they ‘die’ , usually within 10 years. The Music Department archives at the University of Toronto schedules backing up their CDs on a 5 or so year rotation because, even with their meticulous care and safe storage, they found that CDs stopped working within 10 years. Why? Because, over time, air pollution creates microscopic pin holes through the plastic and the liquid that separates the metal disc from the plastic shell evaporates or hardens.
Two AV technicians I know recommend immediately on purchase coating the top (label) side with ordinary latex paint. It helps seal the thin upper plastic and extends the CD’s lifespan.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Your Health
Obesity epidemic – maybe not
For the last 3 years or so the media have been constantly reporting on the new obesity epidemic spreading like wildfire throughout the USA and Canada. Adults and children are ballooning according to the reports, with one in 5 or more people having excessive weight troubles. Efforts to eliminate high caloric foods – read fast foods – and sugar laden soft drinks, even diet pop, and snacks such as chocolate, ice cream, potato chips and French fries are all under attack as the enemy. Why the concern? Because excess weight does increase the risks of diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke and heart disease. All are valid major concerns and I do not dispute these 3 health conditions as serious.
But the new fixation and definitions of overweight and obese are a problem.
It is not surprising the fat mania coincided with the more recent renewed interest and acceptance of the BMI – Body Mass Index – as a quick formula to determine safe weight. The formula is fast and easy once someone’s height and weight are known. Just go to www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi and your results are instant (with a category translation to the right).
Unfortunately, the BMI is often misused and has major limitations that are becoming well known in medical/research circles.
a. In a radio interview on CBC a few years with one of the major proponents of
the BMI pointed out:
1.it is based on statistics from the general population and not per se based
on actual research into body fat and weight factors
2. as a broad, statistical calculation, it should never be used to decide on
an individual’s weight and body health
3. the database used to create the formula was only of adult age 18 and over;
and he cautioned that the BMI scale should NOT be used on children as no
statistics from younger people were used
b. Since then, it has been found that the BMI does NOT reflect accurately the health
and dimensions of adult African Americans, Latinos, Southeast Asians and
Orientals – and especially females in these groups. I.e., non- European ethnic
groups
c. a study at Canada’s Queen’s University (covered by CBC’s The National the
first week in July suggested Caucasian Canadian adults who fall within the
formula still often have excess fat around the stomach and are at risk of the
above 3 demons. They are recommending measuring around the waist as the new test,
an idea that has been around for years in one form or another. Remember the old
high school Phys. Ed. waist pinch test? If an athlete had more than 1 inch of
flesh between thumb and index finger he/she was out of shape.
d. according to Time magazine, July 19, 2010, p. 13, yellow highlighted insert, the
BMI is not as good as determining deep hidden abdominal fat in children as
measuring their neck size (measurement details not supplied; obviously they were
not aware of a.2 above).
e. back in the 1970’s a study, by I believe Manual Life Insurance, came up with an interesting result. It found the ideal insurance customers were people who were overweight by about 10 lbs above standard medical charts. Why? Because when someone becomes seriously ill or undergoes surgery, weight loss is normal,
and people with some ‘excess body mass’ survived such illnesses more often than socalled healthier individuals. [This finding is supported by a Statistics Canada longevity study published in 2004 (See www.healthnewstrack.com/health-news-1606.html)].
f. finally, recognize -- as the women’s fashion magazines do -- that people come in
different body shapes. Some are pencils, some apples, some pears, some hour-
glass, etc.
So, is there a real epidemic or is it media mania and a misguided panic? According to Wikipedia,"Body mass index", "In 1998, the U.S. National Institutes of Health brought U.S. definitions into line with World Health Organization guidelines, lowering the normal/overweight cut-off from BMI 27.8 to BMI 25. This had the effect of redefining approximately 25 million Americans, previously "healthy" to "overweight".” [my Italics]
So, I suggest you do what I do. Just look around at your neighbourhood schools, malls or other places were large number of people – children and adults -- randomly gather, and see how many people look ’jiggly’ – at the waist and hips.
In Toronto and the high schools all the way north to lake Simcoe, some 80 kms away, the ‘jigglers’ are few and far between. Not one in 5 or one in 4.
In brief, TRUST YOUR OWN EYES and apply common sense.
For the last 3 years or so the media have been constantly reporting on the new obesity epidemic spreading like wildfire throughout the USA and Canada. Adults and children are ballooning according to the reports, with one in 5 or more people having excessive weight troubles. Efforts to eliminate high caloric foods – read fast foods – and sugar laden soft drinks, even diet pop, and snacks such as chocolate, ice cream, potato chips and French fries are all under attack as the enemy. Why the concern? Because excess weight does increase the risks of diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke and heart disease. All are valid major concerns and I do not dispute these 3 health conditions as serious.
But the new fixation and definitions of overweight and obese are a problem.
It is not surprising the fat mania coincided with the more recent renewed interest and acceptance of the BMI – Body Mass Index – as a quick formula to determine safe weight. The formula is fast and easy once someone’s height and weight are known. Just go to www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi and your results are instant (with a category translation to the right).
Unfortunately, the BMI is often misused and has major limitations that are becoming well known in medical/research circles.
a. In a radio interview on CBC a few years with one of the major proponents of
the BMI pointed out:
1.it is based on statistics from the general population and not per se based
on actual research into body fat and weight factors
2. as a broad, statistical calculation, it should never be used to decide on
an individual’s weight and body health
3. the database used to create the formula was only of adult age 18 and over;
and he cautioned that the BMI scale should NOT be used on children as no
statistics from younger people were used
b. Since then, it has been found that the BMI does NOT reflect accurately the health
and dimensions of adult African Americans, Latinos, Southeast Asians and
Orientals – and especially females in these groups. I.e., non- European ethnic
groups
c. a study at Canada’s Queen’s University (covered by CBC’s The National the
first week in July suggested Caucasian Canadian adults who fall within the
formula still often have excess fat around the stomach and are at risk of the
above 3 demons. They are recommending measuring around the waist as the new test,
an idea that has been around for years in one form or another. Remember the old
high school Phys. Ed. waist pinch test? If an athlete had more than 1 inch of
flesh between thumb and index finger he/she was out of shape.
d. according to Time magazine, July 19, 2010, p. 13, yellow highlighted insert, the
BMI is not as good as determining deep hidden abdominal fat in children as
measuring their neck size (measurement details not supplied; obviously they were
not aware of a.2 above).
e. back in the 1970’s a study, by I believe Manual Life Insurance, came up with an interesting result. It found the ideal insurance customers were people who were overweight by about 10 lbs above standard medical charts. Why? Because when someone becomes seriously ill or undergoes surgery, weight loss is normal,
and people with some ‘excess body mass’ survived such illnesses more often than socalled healthier individuals. [This finding is supported by a Statistics Canada longevity study published in 2004 (See www.healthnewstrack.com/health-news-1606.html)].
f. finally, recognize -- as the women’s fashion magazines do -- that people come in
different body shapes. Some are pencils, some apples, some pears, some hour-
glass, etc.
So, is there a real epidemic or is it media mania and a misguided panic? According to Wikipedia,"Body mass index", "In 1998, the U.S. National Institutes of Health brought U.S. definitions into line with World Health Organization guidelines, lowering the normal/overweight cut-off from BMI 27.8 to BMI 25. This had the effect of redefining approximately 25 million Americans, previously "healthy" to "overweight".” [my Italics]
So, I suggest you do what I do. Just look around at your neighbourhood schools, malls or other places were large number of people – children and adults -- randomly gather, and see how many people look ’jiggly’ – at the waist and hips.
In Toronto and the high schools all the way north to lake Simcoe, some 80 kms away, the ‘jigglers’ are few and far between. Not one in 5 or one in 4.
In brief, TRUST YOUR OWN EYES and apply common sense.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
MEDIA
Another sad day for print
Today, two more newspapers announced cutbacks to their print editions. Brazil’s 119 year old Jornal do Brasil ended all paper printing, and will only be available online through subscription (Toronto Metro, July 15, 2010, p15).
Also announced today is that The Montreal Gazette will stop publishing a Sunday edition at the end of August, after 22 years. Weekend news and sports will be kept updated via websites. As new CEO Paul Godfrey sees it, the ownership of Postmedia is “a digital first company”. (Globe and Mail, July 15, 2010, B5)
WHY DOES THIS MATTER?
First, print newspapers usually have more articles and longer, more in depth reportage than their website versions. Print ads leave lots of space for story writing, unlike the tiny ads found on the internet. So the quantity and quality of information you receive is far less.
Second, if a paper is only by subscription, it cuts out a lot of people from the information loop – casual, street box or store counter impulse buyers.
So, in the end, in Brazil and Quebec, access to quality, trained journalist coverage has faltered another step or two.
Today, two more newspapers announced cutbacks to their print editions. Brazil’s 119 year old Jornal do Brasil ended all paper printing, and will only be available online through subscription (Toronto Metro, July 15, 2010, p15).
Also announced today is that The Montreal Gazette will stop publishing a Sunday edition at the end of August, after 22 years. Weekend news and sports will be kept updated via websites. As new CEO Paul Godfrey sees it, the ownership of Postmedia is “a digital first company”. (Globe and Mail, July 15, 2010, B5)
WHY DOES THIS MATTER?
First, print newspapers usually have more articles and longer, more in depth reportage than their website versions. Print ads leave lots of space for story writing, unlike the tiny ads found on the internet. So the quantity and quality of information you receive is far less.
Second, if a paper is only by subscription, it cuts out a lot of people from the information loop – casual, street box or store counter impulse buyers.
So, in the end, in Brazil and Quebec, access to quality, trained journalist coverage has faltered another step or two.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Technology
Boo for Britain
This week’s Globe Drive section (Globe and Mail, July 8, 2010) highlights the British auto industry’s ongoing infatuation with the old, and soon to be obsolete.
Dinosaur thinking continues unabated at Britain’s top 3 vehicle brands (though owned by BMW, VW or Tata of India). The soon to be released new Rolls Royce mid-size Ghost produces 563 horsepower using a V12 turbocharged engine, and is projected by the manufacturer website to weigh in at 5150 lbs.!!! The new Bentley Continental Supersports, with its twin turbo W12 engine, can fly from
0 to 100 km/h in 4.1 seconds!!! And, as the manufacturer notes, it has been put on a diet --so it only weighs 2, 395 kg or 5281 lbs!!!
Finally, there is the new Range Rover which produces up to 510 horsepower using a supercharged V8 engine. Again, weight is high at 2,672 kg or a whopping 5892 lbs!!!
So, the pride of Britannia continue in the old ways --even under non-British ownership. Obese vehicles that drink gasoline as if it were free; to feed engines so enlarged or supercharged as to be on steroids – all to appeal to drivers who wish to travel at or near the speed of light on regular roadways.
Forget that it is now 35 years since the trauma of the Arab oil embargo and the ever increasing price of fuel. By 2016, vehicles sold in the USA (and by extension Canada) must meet substantially reduced gasoline consumption targets, and in Europe, 2016 is also the end date for new, more stringent vehicle emissions targets.
Good luck Britannia in meeting these goals. Your crown jewels may look shiny and appeal to the super-wealthy today, but soon your vehicles will only be seen in museums -- as your factories close!
This week’s Globe Drive section (Globe and Mail, July 8, 2010) highlights the British auto industry’s ongoing infatuation with the old, and soon to be obsolete.
Dinosaur thinking continues unabated at Britain’s top 3 vehicle brands (though owned by BMW, VW or Tata of India). The soon to be released new Rolls Royce mid-size Ghost produces 563 horsepower using a V12 turbocharged engine, and is projected by the manufacturer website to weigh in at 5150 lbs.!!! The new Bentley Continental Supersports, with its twin turbo W12 engine, can fly from
0 to 100 km/h in 4.1 seconds!!! And, as the manufacturer notes, it has been put on a diet --so it only weighs 2, 395 kg or 5281 lbs!!!
Finally, there is the new Range Rover which produces up to 510 horsepower using a supercharged V8 engine. Again, weight is high at 2,672 kg or a whopping 5892 lbs!!!
So, the pride of Britannia continue in the old ways --even under non-British ownership. Obese vehicles that drink gasoline as if it were free; to feed engines so enlarged or supercharged as to be on steroids – all to appeal to drivers who wish to travel at or near the speed of light on regular roadways.
Forget that it is now 35 years since the trauma of the Arab oil embargo and the ever increasing price of fuel. By 2016, vehicles sold in the USA (and by extension Canada) must meet substantially reduced gasoline consumption targets, and in Europe, 2016 is also the end date for new, more stringent vehicle emissions targets.
Good luck Britannia in meeting these goals. Your crown jewels may look shiny and appeal to the super-wealthy today, but soon your vehicles will only be seen in museums -- as your factories close!
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Just do the math
Whenever I see numbers and statistics being used, I try to do some simple
arithmetic,to see what the numbers really mean. Often, numbers or statistics
are presented in such a way as to make them look much ‘bigger’ and
‘really important’.
Here is a case in point.
New, electrical outlet law
(See Maclean’s Magazine, July 5, 2010, p.65 “Just Plug It In -- if you can”).
New, tamper-resistant electrical outlets are becoming mandatory across Canada in the name of safety; to protect children horsing around with outlets and getting shocked.
In the last 6 years , 365 children were taken to hospital in Canada and 35% of these needed “medical follow up”, according to Maclean’s.
The magazine focuses on the difficulty adults are having with using the new designs and their frustrations, and points out how our 110-120 voltage is rarely harmful, and usually a one-of lesson in avoidance. The article even ends by quoting the executive director of the International Association for Child Safety, Colleen Driscall, that kids can still get electrical shocks in other ways.
My ‘difficulty’ is in the numbers.
365 injuries over 6 years is 60.83 per year, of which 22.5 required extra attention and treatment.
Since when is 60 or 61 child injuries per year a significant number?
I am sure the number of children who need medical attention for falling down stairs at home is far, far greater, and what of 2 wheel bicycles with their frequent spills when learning and thereafter? Are stairs to be banned and all homes forced to have elevators? Are 2-wheelers for anyone under age 18 to be outlawed? Are we going to ban kids from skiing, hockey, soccer, lacrosse, and any other sport or activity where falls or checks regularly lead to injuries such as broken legs or worse?
Of course not.
The math tells me common sense is not being applied in this case, Life in general is being made more expensive ( as new sockets are double the price) and people are encouraged to break the law as homeowners – in frustration – are seeking to replace the new with the old.
Remember, just do the math.
arithmetic,to see what the numbers really mean. Often, numbers or statistics
are presented in such a way as to make them look much ‘bigger’ and
‘really important’.
Here is a case in point.
New, electrical outlet law
(See Maclean’s Magazine, July 5, 2010, p.65 “Just Plug It In -- if you can”).
New, tamper-resistant electrical outlets are becoming mandatory across Canada in the name of safety; to protect children horsing around with outlets and getting shocked.
In the last 6 years , 365 children were taken to hospital in Canada and 35% of these needed “medical follow up”, according to Maclean’s.
The magazine focuses on the difficulty adults are having with using the new designs and their frustrations, and points out how our 110-120 voltage is rarely harmful, and usually a one-of lesson in avoidance. The article even ends by quoting the executive director of the International Association for Child Safety, Colleen Driscall, that kids can still get electrical shocks in other ways.
My ‘difficulty’ is in the numbers.
365 injuries over 6 years is 60.83 per year, of which 22.5 required extra attention and treatment.
Since when is 60 or 61 child injuries per year a significant number?
I am sure the number of children who need medical attention for falling down stairs at home is far, far greater, and what of 2 wheel bicycles with their frequent spills when learning and thereafter? Are stairs to be banned and all homes forced to have elevators? Are 2-wheelers for anyone under age 18 to be outlawed? Are we going to ban kids from skiing, hockey, soccer, lacrosse, and any other sport or activity where falls or checks regularly lead to injuries such as broken legs or worse?
Of course not.
The math tells me common sense is not being applied in this case, Life in general is being made more expensive ( as new sockets are double the price) and people are encouraged to break the law as homeowners – in frustration – are seeking to replace the new with the old.
Remember, just do the math.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
FIFA 2
FIFA 2
While the world is following this year's FIFA championships in South Africa -- with the upcoming final between Netherlands and Spain, most people do NOT know that starting Sunday there is a 2nd FIFA tournamnet being held in South Africa. As with the Paralympics -- which follow the regular Olympics in the same host city/country --soccer has its own 'special' second tournament.
Called the FIFA 2010 Football for Hope Festival, it hosts 32 teams of young people with 8 players per side.
The Israeli team, by the way, is truly egalitarian - 4 males, 4 females; 4 Jewish Isrealis and 4 Arabs; one Arab coach and one Jewish Israeli.
Will there be TV coverage? Will this, youth focussed program receive the publicity and praise it deserves? Will anyone but immediate relatives and friends care as to who wins and who even participated?
Let us keep an eye out and see what the media do.
(info from The Canadian Jewish News, July 8, 2010, pages 1, 28)
While the world is following this year's FIFA championships in South Africa -- with the upcoming final between Netherlands and Spain, most people do NOT know that starting Sunday there is a 2nd FIFA tournamnet being held in South Africa. As with the Paralympics -- which follow the regular Olympics in the same host city/country --soccer has its own 'special' second tournament.
Called the FIFA 2010 Football for Hope Festival, it hosts 32 teams of young people with 8 players per side.
The Israeli team, by the way, is truly egalitarian - 4 males, 4 females; 4 Jewish Isrealis and 4 Arabs; one Arab coach and one Jewish Israeli.
Will there be TV coverage? Will this, youth focussed program receive the publicity and praise it deserves? Will anyone but immediate relatives and friends care as to who wins and who even participated?
Let us keep an eye out and see what the media do.
(info from The Canadian Jewish News, July 8, 2010, pages 1, 28)
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Did you know ...
People love the Shriners. They do great charity work for children with disabilities, fundraise children’s hospitals, wear funny fez hats and make
great clownish parades.
So why are Masons or Freemasons not equally admired and accepted?
After all, you have to have passed through the 3 levels of freemasonry before you are eligible to apply for Shriner membership. (See http://www.ben-ali-shriners.org/Want2be.htm)
great clownish parades.
So why are Masons or Freemasons not equally admired and accepted?
After all, you have to have passed through the 3 levels of freemasonry before you are eligible to apply for Shriner membership. (See http://www.ben-ali-shriners.org/Want2be.htm)
Monday, July 5, 2010
Technology gone amuck
Hubris (Greek) – excessive pride; a feeling of invincibility that usually leads to one’s downfall
What do Apple and Toyota have in common?
You might say great success, innovative technology and quality products. But as of last week, Apple and Toyota (for the 5th time in 10 months) had to recall marquee products due to defects. Why? Because, I suspect, both companies suffer from the toxic mix of a sense of invincibility– I make it so it must be great – so ignore ‘some’ customer complaints for years; reliance on complex computer electronics that even they don’t fully understand; and the pressures to rush out products to market without proper pre-testing.
Apple has had to acknowledge its brand new iPhone 4 has defective signal strength circuitry. The news went public within hours of the product’s release as Apple-philes around the world started to howl! The new and improved design was even more dysfunctional in this respect than earlier versions -- and Apple claims it didn’t know about the problem even though it applied to iPhones sold since 2007!! Poor AT&T which has gotten the flak for years re:dropped calls and poor reception!
So much for a ‘redesigned antenna’ for better service. Ha, ha! (See for more details Globe and Mail on-line, June 25, 2010, “iPhone 4 owners in grip of reception problem” and the newspaper, July 3, 2010, B6, "Apple 'stunned' to find iPhone flaw", both Associated Press releases).
Toyota, the gold standard for car manufacturing quality and reliability has lost its golden glow even more so. Five – count them – five major recalls for diverse problems in less than a year, affecting, as it turns out, new models and some going back to 2005: redesigned/new gas pedals that get jammed under winter floor mats, old and new gas pedals that suddenly go wild and accelerate the vehicle without being able to have the brakes override the vehicle’s mad rush – I have a friend who had this happen to him twice with his new Avalon – a car which is new recalled for this problem going back to 2005!!!;
a new SUV model this year that failed the Consumer Report’s standard emergency test – and therefore CR notified the government of the problem, and now 2 more Lexus models, the best of Toyota’s best – have engines that suddenly shut down while driving and hybrid Lexus models “can spill fuel during a rear end crash”!!! (Globe and Mail, Friday July 2, 2010, B6 “Toyota engines deemed defective” Associated Press release.)
Why all these woes and life threatening problems? My guesses:
1. Hubris – Toyota vehicles do not have brake override mechanisms. Maybe Toyota thought ‘perfect’ cars don’t need such fallbacks (at extra expense), Tell that to Audi, the first manufacturer accused of sudden, unstoppable acceleration a few years back, who then introduced the first brake override system.
2. Computerization gone amuck. Just last year, Mercedes removed some 600 computerized sensors and circuits from its top models because they were constantly breaking down – electronics that made no real difference in the driving experience or safety.
3. Rush to market. Until a decade ago it took 36 months (3 years) from the inception of a brand new vehicle until it started to roll off the assembly line and be sold to the public. Today, car manufacturers target 18 months or less – half the old standard time! How, by using computer modeling and design software rather than building handcrafted prototypes and testing them on racetracks and real life situations for months on end.
The worst such example of late is – if memory serves me correctly - Nissan. They created a great new compact engine and designed an entire world class compact car around it. Only problem was that when it was sold to the public and started to be regularly driven, it was found the engine burned oil like crazy! The problem turned out to be beyond ‘fixing’ as it was a fundamental design issue. As no other available engine could fit into the tiny new car, the entire model HAD TO BE SCRAPPED!!!
So, to Apple, to Toyota and all other manufacturers, take note and rethink your computer dependant wizardry and haste.
Common advice on the street today is to never buy a car model in its first year. Why be the company's guinea pig and spend unnecessary time in the dealership’s shop?
And, as a machinery fabricator recently told me, quality among car manufacturers is more or less the same today, so if you want a reliable vehicle that doesn’t constantly break down and cost thousands in repairs, skip the fancy electronics. Buy models with mechanical rollup windows, with mechanical seat adjusting – and skip all the fancy razzle dazzle extras. Your car will spend more time on the road, and your wallet will bulge; after all, these are also the cheaper models to start with.
PS: I know he’s right from personal experience! 3 window electric motors shot
while under extended warranty (thank goodness).
What do Apple and Toyota have in common?
You might say great success, innovative technology and quality products. But as of last week, Apple and Toyota (for the 5th time in 10 months) had to recall marquee products due to defects. Why? Because, I suspect, both companies suffer from the toxic mix of a sense of invincibility– I make it so it must be great – so ignore ‘some’ customer complaints for years; reliance on complex computer electronics that even they don’t fully understand; and the pressures to rush out products to market without proper pre-testing.
Apple has had to acknowledge its brand new iPhone 4 has defective signal strength circuitry. The news went public within hours of the product’s release as Apple-philes around the world started to howl! The new and improved design was even more dysfunctional in this respect than earlier versions -- and Apple claims it didn’t know about the problem even though it applied to iPhones sold since 2007!! Poor AT&T which has gotten the flak for years re:dropped calls and poor reception!
So much for a ‘redesigned antenna’ for better service. Ha, ha! (See for more details Globe and Mail on-line, June 25, 2010, “iPhone 4 owners in grip of reception problem” and the newspaper, July 3, 2010, B6, "Apple 'stunned' to find iPhone flaw", both Associated Press releases).
Toyota, the gold standard for car manufacturing quality and reliability has lost its golden glow even more so. Five – count them – five major recalls for diverse problems in less than a year, affecting, as it turns out, new models and some going back to 2005: redesigned/new gas pedals that get jammed under winter floor mats, old and new gas pedals that suddenly go wild and accelerate the vehicle without being able to have the brakes override the vehicle’s mad rush – I have a friend who had this happen to him twice with his new Avalon – a car which is new recalled for this problem going back to 2005!!!;
a new SUV model this year that failed the Consumer Report’s standard emergency test – and therefore CR notified the government of the problem, and now 2 more Lexus models, the best of Toyota’s best – have engines that suddenly shut down while driving and hybrid Lexus models “can spill fuel during a rear end crash”!!! (Globe and Mail, Friday July 2, 2010, B6 “Toyota engines deemed defective” Associated Press release.)
Why all these woes and life threatening problems? My guesses:
1. Hubris – Toyota vehicles do not have brake override mechanisms. Maybe Toyota thought ‘perfect’ cars don’t need such fallbacks (at extra expense), Tell that to Audi, the first manufacturer accused of sudden, unstoppable acceleration a few years back, who then introduced the first brake override system.
2. Computerization gone amuck. Just last year, Mercedes removed some 600 computerized sensors and circuits from its top models because they were constantly breaking down – electronics that made no real difference in the driving experience or safety.
3. Rush to market. Until a decade ago it took 36 months (3 years) from the inception of a brand new vehicle until it started to roll off the assembly line and be sold to the public. Today, car manufacturers target 18 months or less – half the old standard time! How, by using computer modeling and design software rather than building handcrafted prototypes and testing them on racetracks and real life situations for months on end.
The worst such example of late is – if memory serves me correctly - Nissan. They created a great new compact engine and designed an entire world class compact car around it. Only problem was that when it was sold to the public and started to be regularly driven, it was found the engine burned oil like crazy! The problem turned out to be beyond ‘fixing’ as it was a fundamental design issue. As no other available engine could fit into the tiny new car, the entire model HAD TO BE SCRAPPED!!!
So, to Apple, to Toyota and all other manufacturers, take note and rethink your computer dependant wizardry and haste.
Common advice on the street today is to never buy a car model in its first year. Why be the company's guinea pig and spend unnecessary time in the dealership’s shop?
And, as a machinery fabricator recently told me, quality among car manufacturers is more or less the same today, so if you want a reliable vehicle that doesn’t constantly break down and cost thousands in repairs, skip the fancy electronics. Buy models with mechanical rollup windows, with mechanical seat adjusting – and skip all the fancy razzle dazzle extras. Your car will spend more time on the road, and your wallet will bulge; after all, these are also the cheaper models to start with.
PS: I know he’s right from personal experience! 3 window electric motors shot
while under extended warranty (thank goodness).