Check this out... Hibernating

With it being winter this blog will not be updated until later in April when the weather is better. The only working blog at the moment is over at Wordpress. Photography in the parks is about as much as fun sewing underwear.

Check out this working blog at the this time.

http://gordeecampbell.wordpress.com

Snowbourne conspiracy

I was drifting though the photo albombs last night and came across an image of one snow drift on the guard rails of the front porch. Lot of snow.

Unbearable choices

Confronted by choices this week, my bloggong ratio decreased. If the Canadian political leadership declares that they will abscond forwith on Holiday seasons ungreetings then it should be an allowance for the plebes such as you and me.

Without the need to wake and volunteer gives me more choice also. At the moment I feel like hibernating. Black Bears have this right. Instead of whining about the cold their species evolved a biological answer to winter. Humans opted to try to increase brain capacity. The primates might have gotten it wrong. At the moment the bears are quite content.

uPdaTe truck ruts

Someone repaired the front lawn in Moss Park where the CityTV media TV truck got accidently stuck. Good on them.

I don't know if they did it or someone else repaired it. The thing needed fixing. I appreciate the work the fixers did. They are heroes.

Scanning

Is there anytime that Julian Fantino doesn't try to get his face on the news. As the head honcho of the Ontario Provincial Police, Fantino just made an announcement on the tube to the effect that the OPP now had plate scanning technology which can scan thousands of plates per day.

Fantino claims this a powerful anti-crime tool. Fantino is a tool. What does he think criminals are stupid? Would if the plates are fake? Or duplicates? Or stolen?

Media abuse of park system

A couple of days ago in the late afternoon, a City TV truck got stuck in the front lawn of Moss Park. This happens. Is it part of the good neighbor policy not to repair the damage in the lawn?

Do these guys care so little that people could trip over these ruts in the evening walks? I mean you left a tripping hazard. Of course the area is only populated by poor people. This likely excuses you from any responsibility whatsoever.

Do you guys care so little about the community that you don't repair your mess? You complain over the air about taxes and the waste but here is the case where you cost the taxpayer for the repair you did on a public space?

Fast upladles

Woke up a half hour ago, and sort of surprise, nothing is happening man. Nothing. Better for reconstruction of started topics but weren't long enough for a decent blag.

This is an occassional digest of concerns which I put into blygs every so often. They are topics that don't deserve major treatment but now for a medley.

Notes: November 1st

Anne Rohmer saw Borje Salming naked. She's bragging since she was one of the first female sports journalist into a hockey dressing room at Maple Grief Gardens. Big deal she's a lez.

I know, I know the - who saw the what?

..............

Last night's TMZ program, present a working theory about Tiger Woods accident. Its identical to the one hypothesis that I had put forward in a blag. And its a story that is emerging, from Woods inner circle. And almost word for word.

I got something right? Your stunned. I'm stunned. I mean its like I got eyes in the front of my head.

.............

The federal, provincial governments are participating in the reconstruction of Maple Laugh Gardens, in order for it to be usable by Ryerson University. They have a hockey team. You know the city core university loaded with journalism professors from Budapest. On the main floor will be a food store.

The provincial and federal governments are kicking in dollars, yes tax dollars. They have to find something to spend the new HST revenues that will be flushing in, in the new year.

Apparently Maple Laugh Sports and Entertainment (MLSE) had a conclave and blew white smoke on the project. Probably part of anything they can do to prevent Rim Jim Balsillie from buying Loblaws and moving the building to Hamilton.
........................

Quality time

No kidding. Today I go deprogramming. The media and press run amuck while I clean out the bowels of my brain.

Deer me

The event got front page news, the lead story in the television news. You would think it was a murder or a political scandal or a sex porn corn tale. No.

A stupid deer, wound up in the middle of the stupid city. Around seven in the morning someone spotted this doe sitting patiently in some brush hedge downtown. The animal obviously must be a threat to the general civil population.

They had squad cars of police, plus the SWAT team. Obviously, deer and human interactions are violent events. The media had helicopters and teams of video people, reporters, and on and on. All the numbers of humans and it still took three hours to catch the dumb thing.

They used a dart gun. When the animal began to run, the cops joyfully tasered it, ... twice.

If this would have been rural Canada, it would have been one cop, one gun, one pickup truck. And the humanitarian place they moved the animal too? A Conservation Park north of the city? Nope. Algonquin Park? Nope? Toronto Zoo? Nope.

They moved the animal to the Leslie Street Spit. Which is attached to the middle of the city. Which will work until breeding season or when the ice forms enough to allow the animal to move. Such dickheads.

Skeptical prescription

Today the skeptical sailor. The eyes have seen a lot. Perhaps too much to remain optomistic.

Today, the government went into catch the evil doer mode. Catching child pornographers, is laudable. However whenever a federal government program is invented to address public concerns, I am reminded of the gun registry, and Ontario's E'health.

Well the federalis have decided to compel all the ISP's to report individuals who get and spread child porno. While a laudable effort, the skepticism begins.

It is the same software that would be used by a government to control the internet, to control the information flow, to filter out political opposition. And when the self righteous get their grimy little paws on these technical controls even for the best intentions like the extinction of child porno, it is always a first step. Control this, they can control political opinion.

Maple Leafs the next level

Tired and lonely the Maple Leafs ponder a fall to 3 wins in 20 games. Ready in the wings lies piles of other Leafs waiting to take their place. Piles and piles of replacement workers. The combination of Burke and Wilson brought a new culture to a hockey team. They succeeded where few could never do worse.

Greed and the phonies

Over the last few weeks, Canadians got exposed to two spurious sides of a debate. The television networks want cable companies to provide funds for local television.

In Canada, Cable TV companies swipe local broadcasts and programs out of the air. It has been going on for years. They do not pay for the signals. But they are totally willing to force their cussytomers to pay for cable, everything on cable.

Now at first glance this is all very simple. Yes the larger television stations broadcasting locally should get funding from cable. However most of their broadcast purchases are from the USA. Not much of their program broadcasts are homegrown.

And the cable companies have a legitimate argument. Why should they pay for free air broadcasts for programming that already exists, and they pay for on competing cable and USA television channels.

It should be noted that the CRTC has turned the broadcasters down twice already. This is the third strike. Broadcasters are threatening to close down the smaller local stations. For the cable companies this is idle threat because their revenue derives from distant sources in the beginning.

The CRTC commission doesn't want to be the bad guy and impose an additional fee. And everyone else is blaming the other participants. The CRTC wishes the two sides to negotiate and play nice. The buck stops at station greed.

Purple pecker pucker pet

Robin Gill of some local Channel. Was yackin on the snow board of authority. I was startled.

Gill remains an intelligent beautiful woman. But this night she was God Damned Purple. Her jacket was purple. Her lipstick was purple. And her eyeliner was purple.

Oh please, don't let this happen. Maybe it was a flu snot side effect?

Goose that gander

The Fan590 has a double standard. In the recent firings of coaches throughout sports, this Roger's Communication Company yikes it up. However, when surreptitiously canning their own staff for questionable corporate reasons, they stand very silent.

Stand up and tell us why Mike Toth, and Stormin Norm Rumack were fired in the dead of night. While they were media people which caused aggravational circumstances. This was no cause to dismiss them so callously.

One guy has a wife and young child and a newly bought home. He moved all the way here from Calgary to appease the corporate wishes. Now a couple years later he was turfed for little reason.

And the latter.... Rumack... All those strippers who dependent on his lungs and voice. I mean really.

NEW NORMAL

Normal?
You want normal?
Slap Neat hair remover
On the top of your head.
Try pulling your hair.
Stick your thumbs into your eyes
Ten times light and fast.
Get twenty pound weights attached to fish hooks.
Skewer them through the meat of your cheeks.
Feel gravitas drag on your facial skins.
Stick pins in your neck and shoulder joints.
Slug back a mickey of whiskey.
Sit on your hands for ten minutes,
On a block of Lake Winnipeg ice.
Stick earplugs in those drooping ears.
Now look in the mirror.
That's your normal,
New in twenty years.

G. Duncan Campbell

Dictated

The single impediment to sanity is being told how to vote. George Smitherman, seen here with husband Christopher, proclaimed his intention to seek the Toronto Mayor's job.

With incumbent David Miller, visualizing reality and not running again after the Toronto Garbage Strike debacle, Smitherman seeks to run against former leader of the provincial Conservatives, John Tory.

What is really annoying is that all the media are painting this as a two face race. The election is still a year away. Other mayorality candidates are sure to toss the vomit of their promises into the political carnage as well. So why let only two names harbor the press as the leading contenders.

On examination, there are people more skilled and qualified than these two rather tepid political animals. I just don't like being dictated that I only have two choices.

ChewBackIt

The fans of murder CSI dramas manifest a wide acceptance for coincidence. As long as the TV program has a hot babe, the malodorous plot templates gets a higher level of tolerance. But I reached a limit.

In all the programs one statistical anomaly is the high percentage of killer DNA that winds up under victim’s fingernails. “Oh yes your DNA wound up under the Vic’s fingernails.” – investigator.

“But I couldn’t have murdered him, I shot him with a M-16 at 100yards.”
Blig secret. According to our scientific survey, one can avoid getting murdered in the USA by chewing your fingernails.

Under the hat. Keep it secret.

Poppy U Lar

Take away the veneer of glory. War hunts in horror. On November the 11th , 2009, Canadian Remembrance Day comes again. In this year, 95 years after the outbreak of the First World War, the Royal Canadian Legion's Poppy campaign continues. The campaign contains important values in a simple symbol. Remember them.

More than a symbol, I first wore the poppy as a Cub Scout at a ceremony on the dirt floor of a town hockey arena. Artificial ice didn't exist. The whole town seemed to be inside that place, at that ceremony. Many of the surviving veterans, militia, cadets, police, and volunteer firemen assembled there. The only exceptions, those who were on shift in the local pulp mill.

Sorrow swam in everyone's eyes. While poppies for me represented all those who gave their lives, in the eyes of the war veterans the poppies also meant individuals, buddies, and friends. It meant that they were physically free from the horrors haunting. It symbolized neither victory nor defeat, political leanings, racial bias or shopping. A poppy represents soul to soul far beyond the clutches of time.

Over the years, I witnessed the Legion Poppy ceremony many times on Remembrance Day and at individual funerals. One individual ceremony given to my father contained that Poppy Ceremony. Of the whole funeral, that is the only scene that sticks in memory. A lot of people liked and respected old Ziggy. I knew this. But the poppies were special for they were from his companions, co-workers, and men of his generation who shared a necessary horror.

The Poppy Ceremony is extremely simple. Friends and colleagues wear a poppy to the funeral. At a certain point they line up and one by one they approach the coffin and places his/her poppy into a special pillow. The last member places their poppy, picks up the pillow and presents the poppy filled pillow to surviving family members.

And through two decades after my father's passing on, each funeral used fewer and fewer poppies. In the early part of this century, there was only about three poppies in the pillow to be presented to the widow. This thought also occurred to surviving Legion Members. One can tell.

As one ages in Canada, that poppy so cheap to buy, so easy to wear, haunts in wealth. Now like those survivors I stand with memories of those people, friends and other souls lost to duty. Of course those souls are not only soldiers involved in the Afghanistan conflict, but police, firemen and volunteer heroes who gave their lives to make Canada and the world just a little better place.

Bananada!

Welcome to the new country of Bananada. Half Canada, half Bananas, now merged. Let's fire off straight ahead.

David Miller and his scurvy piratical gang of councillors, jacked up the TTC Fares, increased the garbage collection fees, skimped on hundreds of maintenance infrastructure repairs, all the while claiming poverty. The province, jacked up the automobile fees, harmonized sales tax which is simply a scam to get a massive increase of taxpayer savings.

The province whistled into massive debt. Its government agencies spend money in personal needs for every privileged board member. Hospital Board Members use their contacts to step way ahead of the cues and shortages to get immunized then pretend that they are actually vital to society.

Now if you didn't have the brand name Canada attached to all these shananigans. Ignore the name Canada just a moment...... Out of the mind?

Okay, now put all that together. You would think this is a tropically deconstructed country government by privilege and elitism. Just a like a banana country.

Kinda figured

In a post a couple of posts ago, I postulated obtusely that the maker of the Canadian H1N1 vaccine decided there was more money in exporting vaccine. Apparently, this was true. Too true.

Of course they had a ready excuse at hand. Every pharmaceutical company usually does. The excuse was that they didn't have enough little bottles or the little bottle fillers was too slow.

This wasn't the same excuse they used a couple of weeks ago when the company implied that there was production problems in producing the actual vaccine. And you knew that was a fishy excuse, like consider the sources. One source was the pharmaceutical company and the other source was politicians. This a fertile ground for fibulations and verdant truths.

So the company cheerily exported the "surplus" vaccine despite the fact that there were grievous shortages and delays in the immunization process. The company's name is Glaxo-Smith Kline, headquartered in the United Kingdom and in the past subject to investigations including, tax fraud, billing fraud, misleading advertising and other deceptive practices. So diverting vaccines from a contractual commitment is not outside its moral compass.

And to further the Canadian H1N1 mess, apparently the Calgary Flames jumped the vaccination cue lines and had a private clinic for its staff, players and families. Now this is not surprising. What is surprising is that they got caught.

The province of Ontario to top off the scandals with their boondooglingaling at the medical record E-Health followed this up with poorly run flu snot clinics. Only the critically vulnerable people first, children, young women and upscale businessmen types. Yes, Medi-Can a privately operated health clinic on York Street in the downtown core of Toronto was supplied with 3000 doses for the well healed and totally unvulnerable.

Kinda figures.

No straight lions please

At John Innes Community something. It is a lion. In Toronto. For no reason. There must have been a reason. A squirrel sits. Its a male lion. Of course, this statue may have nuts. I didn't check. And I won't check.

Hot off the presses

As promised by the webbrain. These are shots of the fire that savaged the interior of the Mirch Masala. Incidently, Mirch Masala apparently is Hindi
for Hot and Spicey.

Now this is just across the street from where I live... sort of.
I will be tracking the progress of the renovations.
It is an evil reason naturally.
I am rather put off by the prolongationatinjg of the Fred Victor Centre.
They had a fire months ago less damaging than this little stove topper.

Anyway back to this fire.
After perusing the interior pictures I have come to the conclusion about how the fire became started. In fact this is a surprise even to me.

You see it had its roots in the sound system buried in the ceiling.
The people who owned it previous to the present owners, embedded a sound and stereo system in the ceiling. The installer was a Russian immigrant who did some electrical work, on the cheap for cash.
Now I couldn't help noticing that the Ruski would join connections with electrical tape only. The present day power connections require turrette connectors and then wrapped in electrical tape.
Of course this is by the code, just the code ma'am.

But then no one asked me.
I spoke directly to the City of Toronto Fire Inspector guy.
That man is useless. He asked me nothing.
As a result. He got nothing.

The fire was an accident sort of. It would not have occurred if the cheapo former owner of the business had employed a proper certified and trade electrician.
Zit,.... Zit..., Kerpoof.

Strange though. The bar did not have a fire sale on the beer or liquour.

Local pub succumbs to fire

Pictured here in happier times, the Mirch Masala suffered from a burn out. This used to be the Navaron. It went through owners.

Around 5:30 AM I awoke to the sounds of shattering glass and the smell of burning building. I looked up the street in ponderment. But saw nothing. Nothing I say.

No one got injured. The fire started when the place had been closed for the night.

At 11:00am this morning one of the ragingest piss tanks in the whole city shook his head. "A great tragedy."

Moral of story: Remember coat with camera in vest pocket.

Happy Birthday XX

Halloween emerges tomorrow. The celebration of the perverse and evil explodes into the dear hearts of children baited by the galloons of candy from strangers. People hide their faces. Hide their personalities. They think.

Lets put it this way. I don't like Halloween. It is also the birthday of my ex. ex. girlfriend. I think. Well its when it is celebrated. Here's a picture of downtown Toronto... The horror.

New schools?

Rather than dwell on planes of existence, which can never exist, Canadians encountered the flu season with a new strain of flu, and few new ideas. Schools should have closed for the duration. Since it is senior medical staff and senior executives and their families have access to the first batches of vaccines.

Schools are so scared of shutting their physical doors. In reality, with modern technology schools require much less space than schools thirty years ago. The computers and the internet have permitted the concept of students learning at home.

Schools and the concepts of education appear antiquated. It should be very possible for a student to learn something from miles and miles away without being physically in the room with teacher. The spread of the H1N1 virus was wantonly unnecessary for that very reason.

Yes I believe in having actual schools and classrooms. But mandatory presence of the student is not. School students must access real classes and central services frequently. The schools' systems are the last sector of society to undergo significant technological improvements.

Meowing the yawn

Current with our study of the decline of the media, the day the last part of the study was posted here, here was this on the front page of the Toronto Sun. To make matters worse, the editors of this particular paper like this story.

The editors claim that these sorts of stories spur circulation on the days that they are printed. If true that says a lot for the modern Toronto readers.

Boggle, gobble

Tally this fussifying. Turkeys suffered from H1N1. Yesterday the story led all the television produced news. Its not a big deal. Nor expression of any surprise over this be made.


No turkeys got sick enough to be culled. Frankly, the wrong species is being scrutinized.

Runner's up

Another Toronto Marathon? Having two isn't really all that bad. Driver's appear upset but after all its only a Sunday morning. Still some people complain.

One must ask though. Why the downtown all the time? People should have a change every so often. Can't they run in Etobicoke from North to South? How 'bout Scarborough?

Here's an idea. Run from Etobicoke to West Hill along Lawrence or Eglinton. Maybe run the other way next year. Let's get pumped with a little variety every so often.

Ambling respect

At the first instant, I held off making a blog for several days before tacking this blog into the site. Making a blog every day as I had hoped to do, makes for panic writing sometimes. I am not a professional writer at this moment. There are no absolute publishing deadlines.

I should point out that while making barbs at a persons political stance or viewpoint this means in no way means any rant means entwines a personal distaste for the person. After being on the inside of the political process, I hold a very high level of respect towards those who run for elected political office and those who put their names forth for any elected post. I've appreciated even if the political views of the candidate appear disagreeable.

Even those involved in some sort of discordant political scandal deserve respect. Unlike others who complain from the deep shadows about political scenarios, these people put out beseeching the unwashed masses to select them. One such notorious was Edmonton, Alberta's, the late William Hawrelak, who didn't mind lining his pockets with atypical bonuses and publicly admitted such actions. At least the electorate held him in high esteem because unlike some, he delivered on promises.

In so many ways, I hold a Hawrelak in a far greater esteem than the environmentalist mercenary David Suzuki. The latter preaches but never backs his mouth. For instance, his cross country environmental tour a few years ago was done in a diesel fueled mobile home bus.

After being involved in several political movements where I truly believe he had been mentioned as a candidate, he always reversed himself at the last moment. Suzuki made a commitment to the defunct National Party then backed out in order to continue receiving his annual two hundred thousand dollar CBC salary. He would've easily became a Canadian Prime Minister. In the end, his bank account came before global future.

One key to political impact, is participation. If you want to ingrain your ideas and views into the fabric of a national culture, personal involvement on some level emerges as necessary. Especially in the modern era, this proves true. The internet achieves a wider democracy than ever before. But a democracy only succeeds when all voices sound to the issues and when all stand willingly for that view.

When critical of a politician or political spokesman, express and demonstrate your opposition. Just keep those ideas separate from issues of personality. One only respects an argument when that respect is exchanged.

Decline of the print media ... III

In this final part, economics plays the prime role. In our image is a small bank of street newspaper boxes. Not so long ago there was the regular dailies also in this group. You can see the scratch marks of an absent box on the concrete to the left of the nearest (Now Mag) box.

One of the most important influences on the physical circulation is the increasing use of the internet as the primary source of news information. Most newspapers use revenues from the print media revenues to sustain the online version of their news papers.

The challenge is that most newspapers do not understand or appreciate the power of the internet. First it is growing. Second, it is not going away. Third the revenues of generated by the online is not as lucrative per story as the old style print media was.

News papers and news letters are not going to disappear completely but clearly they are going to have to change their format, their information resources and their revenue models to survive. A lot of papers are contemplating turning their online sites to pay sites. It has been tried before. And it has not worked, nor will it work in the future.

Revenues over the internet can only be generated by the numbers of people seeing their stories. Ad revenues depend on the numbers of hits. This is not all that much different in the print media. Advertising rates depend on the numbers of subscriptions per day. It depends on the numbers of eyes that see the page.

The downside of print media is that circulation is an arbitrary number. While online pages and sites clearly get statistics far more precise. One only has to log the numbers of visits or hits to the page in order to determine a rate.

Another challenge to the print media is the ability to gather content. Good journalistic type of sites or printed publishings depend on content. In recent decades, accountants moved to control media companies and the journalistic side of the control of print media has drastically declined.
Bean counters only envisage the area devoted to commercial ads. Ads have become more important to newspapers than the news content than ever before.

Compounded with this is the price of printing. While paper companies are awash in inventory the price of newsprint has not declined. The solution the paper makers use is to close mills to maintain the price.

If you look at the newspaper like the Toronto Sun over the years, the size of the paper has slowly gotten smaller, the advertising content has shot over 60% ad printing, the vendor price of each copy went up. The latter has shed readership. With the delines in readership, ad revenues decrease. Its a vicious cycle with no upside.

Within the next five years in the City of Toronto, two of the three major daily newspapers will close print production due to the costs of printing. News publishers are locked into a vicious decline into a model. They rarely notice that search engines like Google assemble the stories and gather them into a set of links providing readers with a option of which version to study.

So when the traditional news media tries to impose a subscription price, search engines like Google can provide a choice of sources for the same information. At least one of those sources will provide the same story for free. The free link gets more hits and more ad revenues while the priced links decline and get less ad revenue.

What the traditional news media must return to is what was their strength which was the skill of their reporters and writers. So many of these people got laid off, and now work on the internet. Ouch.

Print media decline... II

In the following images, the symptoms of the print media decline appears.
We photo imaged the front pages of two local sheets, scrutinizing them. The reason to use these images allows an impression of the substantive relevance of each.

In this one, the Sunday feature deals with a pathos photo of a cute dog.

While in this one from the Star's front page, another animal story about naked chickens makes the top. These papers didn't suffer from a lack of print quality. Rather the story content is much weaker than years ago. There is just as much front page material around. Newspapers are in the midst of a transitional change.

Starvation holds the reason for change. There isn't a shortage of story material. Rather the numbers of reporters has declined. The emphasis is on ads, not content. Today stories of chickens and dogs make it because they are easy, and not too controversial.

Vive la resistance

Long lived resistance movements resurrect themselves in the moods of leadership futility. Apparently most of the readership says I have to continue the digital watchers blog.

Which I won't now. Its not a democracy but common sense. Give people what they want, as long as it isn't too expensive. To date though there be no return on investment.

So the digital watchers continue.

Decline of the media

For the next couple of blogs over several days, the topic of the decline of the media will be examined intensely. Well maybe not that intensely. Several causes lead to inescapable conclusions.

Primary to the decline of the print and internet media quality emerges from this image. It is of course a cup of coffee. And it is good coffee.

Yet one must ask oneself in a detached logical accent of a voice, does the increase of good coffee directly effect the sliding quality of the media reportage?

The relationship appears to be yes. In days gone by, reporters and editors could not get quality cups of coffee. Now that they can, coffee breaks are longer. Which means the storytelling around the coffe tables appears so excessive that it diffuses originality and the creativity of any sort of bullshitting.

So a turbid equation emerges. A theory proposed. Increases in the quality of coffee, leads to a comparative and proportional decline of print journalism.

Not what it seems

Beware the Hydra's temple. It seems not to be what you see.

Such are the constructions of a city that is used to building movie facades. Its in the pictures.First we have the mottled patchwork of a building in the throes of renovation.


And later the same building converted into a concrete building appearing like a concrete fortress.

Sports and shit.

Sigh @. The good thing about Toronto and its sports teams is that once the regular season is over... its over.

Balsillie appears to have been shut out from the National Hokey League. Claims that he wasn't qualified, or possessed the moral character to be a league owner. A laugh riot. Guess he had no pending criminal charges.

Chicago got shut out of the Olympics in favor of Rio de Generate. Like who cares. See National Hokey League.

Complaints about Cito Gaston, by the Blue Jay players means a great upheaval over the winter. General Manager of the Blue Jays, J.P. Ricciardi, claimed over the Fan590, a local radio station, that no player approached him with the problem. JP has also acknowledged that he lies.

Sometimes a mess like this is good for a team. It should have happened before. Certainly no one had the courage to approach Cito face to face. That is where the disconnect occurred. I seen it beforehand.

Now for basketball. You think the Jays have problems. Wait for the CRaptors.

Taking a few days off for rebraining.
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All the help

Politics haunts the land. For the global problems, us digital watchers seek outside help.

Millertime

Miller backs away from running again.
People snicker in the knowledge that he wouldn't
have won again.

Its a conspiracy of the left. David Miller abandoned
the left wing and now he can't garner support
from the same group.
The civic strike did him in.
Much like torture though,
it will take 14 months to see
the saloon door slap that ass.

Hidden spignals

Wifi signals lack strength today. It means no photo. Been conspiring to get goal posts for rugby and soccer. For the park. They are needed.

Back at ya in 24.

uMine

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Car Freak day

Today is car free day. I am in there. No car at all. Busy as heck though.

She didn't leave any room on her bench for any company.

So I won't tell her where to pick up the free car.

In memory of a person and the national folly

Remember the name and face of Jonathan Couturier, who achieved the age of 23, and no more. Couturier represents the worst fear of a Conservative government perilously clinging to political power. In its short mandate, the Conservative government of Canada changed the operational goals of the Canadian military from one of security and reconstruction to one of outright combat and killing. Couturier died because of that flawed strategy. Couturier's words beg to haunt the Canadian government unlike any other critic before.

An obscure Taliban soldier ended Couturier's promising life by setting up an explosive trap. On the one hand, the political supporters of this war would have you believe that this was a cowardly terrorist attack. Nothing could be further from the truth. That Taliban was a soldier who planted a weapon to rid his homeland of an invader. Terrorists attack unarmed noncombatants indiscriminately. This was an attack on another armed soldier who was carrying a weapon pointed at his interpretation of freedom, and his life. Its the type of message not likely to be spread in Couturier's homeland. Couturier, a private, the lowest rank in the army, recognized the patently obvious about this war, he said, referring to his own army in the third person "... they are wasting their time over there."

Couturier appears not to be the only one in the army who died and expressed those same opinions. It appears that their is a schism in the ranks of the Canadian military. In the view of those with the rank of Major and higher, the war is a good thing. It appears that at the company level and down there is growing discontent and another message permeating through the army. One problem that the Stephen Harper led government will be encountering is that in a democracy the word of a Private carries the same validity as the word of a General.

Couturier's words ring true. He was fed up. He did say that we are wasting our time. He died the 131st Canadian casualty in that futile war.

Lets put this into context. It was in 2002 that Canadians entered Afghanistan. Only 131 Canadians have died. This is a terrible number, but compared with most wars, compared with most deadly conflicts it is barely a scratch militarily. It is about the number of a single company of infantry complete with officers.

The problem remains in the original goals. Our original goals were to rebuild their infrastructure to usability and train their army to defend itself. Ultimately its the Afghans who must defend themselves and provide their own security. Its been about seven years. Just how long does it take to train a fucking police officer or soldier. In the Canadian army its eleven weeks of boot camp. In the Canadian police academy, about two years to train a constable. Just what has our military been doing over there. Obviously not what they say they were going to do, obviously they lack the competency to train an Army or that would have been done a long time ago.

It is a good dedicated person just like Couturier who points us in the right direction, much like another hero Terry Fox did. Unlike any other soldier who might desert, Couturier died at his post. He did not abandon his duty. Lets get focused on training up the Afghans and getting the hell out of their country.

Greyhound update

Good news for a change. Greyhound Bus Lines and the government(s) of Canada are sitting down and talking. The bus company stepped up first and withdrew its ominous threat to withdraw vital transportation service to the more remote areas of Canada. The provincial and federal governments stated they are more willing to help Greyhound if the company was willing to provide it with the financial data on the routes that were not economically viable at the present time.

Greyhound's profit margins have never been over the top. Recent rises in fuel costs and the sudden economic decline impacted the areas that would have seen a cessation of bus service. Economies are cyclic and resources the same cycles and more so. The government(s) supported other sectors of the economy why would Northern Ontario and Manitoba not likewise supported. At the moment, bus service has been preserved.

Warning, warning about H1N1

Warning, Warning about H1N1

This you should be aware of. It concerns H1N1 influenza or Swine Flu.

The contagious period for Swine Flu appears to researchers to be longer than first thought, and much longer than the normal flu virus. This is perhaps the reason why the disease continued to spread out of Mexico so swiftly despite quick response and detection by local health authorities.

Apparently, humans continue to shed the contagion about two weeks after the symptoms have completely disappeared from the host. Normal influenza hangs on for about 24-72 hours after the symptoms abate.

From USA Today,

"We were a bit surprised to see patients who were still positive on Day 12," Lye told the American Society for Microbiology in San Francisco.

This means that instead of going back to your work, or having co workers return to the work place on short turn around from the flu, companies should keep these employees on a 14 day leave after the disease appears clear in the victim.

So if you do catch this influenza be aware that you are still sick for two weeks after you feel you're not.

Greyhound crisis

Greyhound thinks its in a driver’s position in its fight to get $15M out of the various governments. Holding peoples of Northern Ontario and Manitoba hostage appears to work for the Limeys and Yanks that now run the bus line. To save a lot of ink, simply they are vile kidnappers and extortionists.

If I were residing in Northern Ontario I would crapping furious. It matters little if Greyhound backs out of its position and maintains service. The thought of it steams me.

For the last thirty years, I’ve been advocating Northern Ontario independence. This stands as another reason to set a course to freedom. A long list of federal and provincial governments, constantly mismanaged the northern economy. Compared with the early 1960s, its in tatters.

There are countermeasures that can the municipal governments in Northern Ontario can take now. They must be united though. Simply put, they ban Greyhound from entering their jurisdictions. If every community on highways 11 and 17 forbid the bus line from stopping, servicing or refueling or switching drivers, this would cause Greyhound second thought.

It all depends on the Cities of Thunder Bay, Sault St. Marie, Winnipeg and Sudbury falling into line. It would mean that every Greyhound bus travelling north of Parry Sound would not be legally able to stop til it reached the Saskatchewan border. No bus carrying people can do that.

Greyhound assumes that it still can keep the Winnipeg to Toronto run going. The province must step up and remove an exemption that Greyhound has always enjoyed. The provincial government could insist that all buses which are not permitted to stop and pick up or discharge passengers, must now stop in every truck weigh scale and endure safety inspection. There are about four stations to the Manitoba border.

People in each community, Greyhound serves now could protest. Having demonstrators meet the bus at every stop carries a powerful message.

In the winter, snow plowing personnel can stall all these units. What the Yanks and Limeys forget is that all these bus routes work fine in the summer and warm weather but it’s a long way from Parry Sound to Winnipeg and back. There are just so many things that people can do.

Of course this may seem weird but I also find that the Greyhound request for aid is totally appropriate. They did give good service to these areas. And the decline in the economy has hit these areas hard. It hit Greyhound similarly. The federal and provincial governments gave out billions to underwrite their stock broker and banker buddies. The federal government sends billions to prop up drug running warlords in Afghanistan.

It would be inexcusable not to help Greyhound maintain essential service during this economically difficult time. Its not the level of support for Greyhound, it’s the method of their request that truly makes one furious.

Ban the bike part 4

The interview with Prof. Rellim Van Otnorot continues. Part four.

Otnorot finishes:

Factual evidence provided by the pro-bicycle lobby is spurious at best. One instance of the deceptive information is the issue of bike lanes. To support the argument they trot out the example of Holland to be applied to the Canadian context. The only thing similar about Holland and Canada resides in the people and culture. Out of 180 nations in the entire world, they trot out Holland? In geography, climate, topography, and sheer size generates no comparative whatsoever.

They want bike lanes along narrow routes dedicated, exclusively to the few bicyclists that commute in Canada. They cite road safety as we discussed before. What most cyclists really want is a free pass through traffic. They pay no road related taxes. They are not required to have any liability insurance. The vast majority of cyclists run stop lights, run stop signs, and open doors of street cars. The vast majority of cyclists use sidewalks beyond necessity. They will only adhere to laws when it is convenient for themselves.

The police practice lazy fair when it comes to enforcing traffic laws. Oh sometimes the senior staff has a brain wave and conducts “a blitz”. Blitz is bureau speak to encourage their staff to actually do their work which is to enforce the law. Never mind the blitz. When a bike is stolen, the police rarely makes any move to recover it. Law enforcement practices discretionary enforcement in the area of cycles. A stolen bike, is stolen property, period. For the victim its as serious as if a bank was robbed. The attitude of police sucks.

The other users also practice lazy fair. Call the police and politicians when there is any infraction by someone on a bicycle. Pedestrians do the same. They can't take the trouble. Police and politicians only when compelled by complaint. To solve the bicycle issue it takes a drastic social change. The reason is that the problem has gotten this out of control is that society has ignored it.

The solution to the issue is neither complex nor difficult. It appears drastic. The solution demands that it change attitudes in a very short time. The first step is to Ban the Bike.

To some it appears drastic. It is. Unlike the failed efforts at registration and attitude change, changing the attitudes of cyclists and society, requires a shock treatment. I never said Ban the Bike permanently. Desirably the date of the ban would begin in a November.

As of that date, driver licensing changes to include all ages and all vehicles. Every driver must be tested. A special category on the license to permit the operation of active or human powered transport. To encourage the license of young riders, allow good penalty free ridership means a reduction in the probationary period to obtain a motor vehicle license and a reduction in the insurance rates on the first ownership of motor vehicles. This allows youth to accumulate a good traffic behavior before they ever drive a car and own one.

Every vehicle using public roads must be registered, plated and possess valid liability insurance. It includes bikes. A call reporting center be set up for a period of five years to take calls on all complaints regarding bicycle law breakage and theft.

This will give most riders time to establish those criteria. For the very few, professional riders like bike couriers in Toronto and Ottawa special transition times and methods can be negotiated if they apply for the time exemption to take a driver's test. Then all cyclists must now have a driver's license, registration and insurance on their vehicles.

The reason for this type of social action resides in observing the failure of the gun registry in Canada. It would have been far better to set a ban date for guns than the complex bazaar of critical dates involved. In a way setting the Ban the Bike day, then preparing the groundwork to bring the vehicle back into a new regime is easier on the psyche of the society and allows the public road users a definitive direction of choice.

FMPD: So your saying Ban them. Then let them come back on the streets. Yes.

Better shoot that dog

Greyhound Inc. is not only changing colours, its changing. After going through several ownership changes in the last twenty years the stability of the venerable company appears threatened. Presently it is owned by a limey company with the unlikely name of FirstPlace PLC. PLC must stand for pretty lousy company.

Historically, Greyhound fought Via rail subsidies to bring passenger transport to those communities along Hwy's 11 and 17. It also backed the 1987 deregulation of the National Transportation Act.

Before that, it was a law in Canada that no company may serve a route for less than the operational cost per passenger, or seat, or per parcel pound. Since Via Rail of that time was government owned it could receive government subisidies on fare schedules under cost. No more Dominion or Canadian on the Superior routes and only spasmodic rail passenger service outside that corridor.

Now a past supporter of deregulation, becomes a victim of that deregulation. More efficient small firms have emerged like Mega Bus which cherry picks the good routes so much that they have rates between Toronto and Montreal lower than the cost per seat. Before Greyhound got bought by Laidlaw, they were doing very good in the markets they served in Canada.

Greyhound kept expanding to the point of inefficiency. At if you cannot see it, above the two buses in the picture is a wall mural ad for MegaBus flogging a $1 standby fare to Montreal. Now instead of admitting that this is where the main problem is, Greyhound prefers to have vulnerable people in Northern Ontario and Manitoba held hostage.

The reason for this political kidnapping is not the high costs of operations in Northern Ontario. It is the heat from the competition in the major intercity routes.

The solution is simple actually. Greyhound should be given $15M for the next three years. Government must reintroduce a new National Transportation Act where the fares charged to passengers must compensate the operational cost of that seat. Second, if any new bus carrier enters service between major cities it must also service all points in between at least once a day each way.

For passengers it might seem more expensive, but in the longer term it will bring stability to the transportation market. Or if Greyhound continues to be troublesome, shoot that damn dog.

Occupational hazard

Walking along Dundas,

Waiting for the street car,

Hoping to connect,

But with three blocks to walk,

Why wait I said strolling along,

Looking back,

Seeing the street car roll on by.

Ban the cycles part three - Injury pronation

The interview with Prof. Rellim Van Otnorot continues. Part three.

FMPD: Moving on from the arguments regarding environment bicycles are efficient designs. It was bicycle mechanics that invented the airplane after all.

OTNOROT: Yes and flying in an airplane is far safer per passenger mile than a bicycle. Bicycles do efficiently convert human power into motion to move a single person. Yet, like I said before, they would not be approved for use on modern roads if the device was introduced today.

The standard bicycle has a very high center of gravity. Two wheels means the stability is determined by the athletic skill of the rider, not by any mechanical stability. Three wheel vehicles are more stable. Four wheel vehicles are the most stable.

Clothing entrapment occurs in the exposed power train. The steering mechanisms can be knocked off by road dangers and curbs. No passenger protection exists on the vehicle in the case of accident or collision. Many accident injuries occur due to entanglement in bicycle features.

We demand by law that other vehicles using tax payer funded public roadways to have passenger protections. To date the political leadership of North America have not legally demanded that bicycles be made operationally safe. Clearly the leading unsafe vehicle on those roadways is the bicycle.

Yes bicycle fatalities are far less due to the lower usage and lower speeds. But all the various accident statistical records point to the fact that one is far more likely to be injured on a bicycle than any other commonly used vehicle. Many bicycle accidents are not reported because the injuries are not severe, but injuries do happen.

Bicycle couriers, very experienced cyclists tumble off of bicycles frequently. Yes some don't but many do. They almost never report any injury unless they must be hospitalized. Per capita, a committed cyclist will suffer some sort of cycling injury once every five years. Inexperienced cyclists are the most likely to suffer injury on a per kilometer basis.

From a health cost standpoint, bicycles add extra burden to health care costs than most other vehicles on a per capita basis. If cyclists equaled the numbers of motorists health costs would be doubled. The goal of getting people out of cars onto bicycles isn’t economical. The future of bicycles as a mode is rather limited as you can see.

Ban the bicyle Part II

The interview with Prof. Rellim Van Otnorot continues. Part two.

FMPD: Ban the Bicycle?

OTNOROT: Ban it. Statistical and factual evidence indicates such a drastic path. The advocates of bicycles provide enough evidence for this themselves.

FMPD: They do?

OTNOROT: Yes they do. By simply lobbying for exclusive bicycle lanes they provide evidence support banning the bike. Understand one thing. Bicycles were only meant to be an interim step of human mobility.

As soon as the small motor evolved, it was mated to the bicycle. The technology of the motorcycle still exceeds the quality of any modern bicycle. Over the years motorcycle design substantially lowered the center of gravity closer to the roadway and broadened the width of tires to provide more stability. One of the most dangerous aspects of the bicycle has been its vehicular instability due to the very high center of gravity.

Bicycles only predated the motor car by only fifty years as a mechanical substitute for the horse in an urban environment. Its all in the timing. If the invention of the bicycle was today, the vehicle design would never be approved for use on the tax payer funded roadways. No question, these are unsafe vehicles.

Recumbent bicycles which do have a low center of gravity, are operationally uncomfortable and a paradox to the physical aspects of animal mobility. Where physical exertion is required the head should be comfortably level and vision unimpaired.

In the recumbent design, the head follows the body. I didn't like the knees bouncing up into my sightlines and my feet pumping up and down. Recumbent position during physical activity in the passive attitude diminishes the biological advantages of traditional animal evolution. All this counters all genetic evolution. In all animal design since the Cambrian epoch, where the body is close to the horizontal during the physical exertion of movement, head goes before asshole.

FMPD: Are you saying that bicycles aren't safe?

OTNOROT: No. The bicycle lobby points to this lack of safety.

FMPD: How do you mean?

OTNOROT: Carefully examine the issue of dedicated bicycle lanes. Its all how you interpret all the data and evidence usually provided all by the bicycle lobbyists themselves. The cyclists insist that they should have exclusive use of the public roadways in dedicated lanes.

They insist that they are the champions of society and the environment. When it is easily proven by their own statistics that the bicycle is actually far more inefficient per mile in the terms of fuel use, and hydro-carbon emissions than the automobile.

Now understand, that due to my studies, I believe that the hydro-fueled electric vehicle is the most efficient energy vehicle outside of the electric rail locomotive. But in the energy profiles conversion provided by the cyclists insist that their mode of transport is environmentally more sound. Humans are terrible energy converters compared with the mechanical reciprocating engine.

The classic court case for all this is found Scott vs. the Queen. Wayne Scott, an advocate of active transport, challenged Revenue Canada to allow bicycle couriers to receive equal treatment to contract motorized couriers. Contract car and truck couriers received a tax exemption related to the energy consumed in delivering cargo. The long and the short of it is that Scott won the court battle and Revenue Canada was compelled to let contract bicycle courier an energy cost exemption of about $11.00 or the daily cost of food in receipts.

The concept was called food as energy. And a very valid argument it is because bicycle couriers do eat more than most other people because their occupation requires food energy. Yet, where one carefully examine the energy cost profiles of gasoline powered vehicles versus the profiles of human powered vehicles (e.g. bicycles), gas engine power always proves far more efficient than the latter.

Cyclists always cite the emissions of gas motors. This is true, but when discussing that environmental aspect they never, ever, never, ever let the human powered energy cycle into the equation for equal scrutiny.

Their arguments in this fact and other facts are always dramatically one sided. Almost always no one has the gonads to challenge their contentions. Their planks should be contested. Its always their facts, and always a position of severe bias. Here is my contention. In the end result, human power vehicles probably produce more air pollution than the motor vehicle.

Human power needs food. Almost always that food is brought in by truck, ship or airplane from distant places. That extra food, that extra energy, already costs more. The calorie fuel cost of food exceeds the calorie benefit to the human powered vehicle.

And, one cannot use the total calorific nutritional benefit of the food intake. One must discount the fact that most of the food value is not absorbed by the body. Rather, most of the material is passed through the bowel. Cyclists, in their version of the universe seem to eat more but don't shit as much. In short, the cyclist's lobby expounds total crap.

Using the dollar value of energy illuminated by Scott vs. the Queen, a cyclist can safely move about 15kg per day over about 100km. These figures you must understand are estimates. Locations, routes and specific vehicles vary. Cyclists always exclude bicycles from the energy cost equations. Always remember that there is a fuel cost per dollar of food already in the equations. A courier driver can move 200kg(plus) over 200km per day at the same dollar/energy unit value.

Bicycles must move cargo and the operator/motor. The laws of physics demand energy versus weight to lift. Once you include all the energy cycles. Once the sources of energy are included, then one can see the inefficiency of human power. The ultimate fuel in the blood is glucose of some sort. Muscle cells burn oxygen in a oxidizing chemical reaction and that sugar burns to an energy unit to provide sufficient power.

Cyclists always state that they do not pollute the urban landscape. Horse feathers. Any oxidation of hydrocarbons regardless of the type of energy converter, produces carbon dioxide. And for cyclists their exhausts come out of two systems. Lung respiration expels carbon dioxide a global warming gas. Extra effort to move cargo delivers that much more carbon dioxide. Their digestive tracts expel all sorts of gases like all other animals. More food means more fart gas.
The energy cost per Kg is more expensive when delivered by the bicycle or any human powered vehicle.

FMPD: And this means!

OTNOROT: It means that as energy converters in transport movers bicycles are very poor. Bicycles require human power. Humans barely possess the power to move their own weight. The fuel consumption of human power exceeds the comparable gross fuel consumption of motor vehicles. The environmental damage in the real equation regarding mass per kilojoule is worse for human power vehicles than motor vehicles. Humans are enormously inefficient energy converters.

So banning the bike means less, not more pollution. Use all the calorie/power equations, not just those inadequate biased arguments provided by the bicycle lobby. To save the environment - Ban Bikes!

FMPD: In your version of the situation, there seems to be no significant energy or environmental savings to use the bicycle.

OTNOROT: Only with the movement of cargo. When a person moves only that person bicycles do fare better. There are savings, although cyclists need more energy food per kilometer, when the rider is compared to the driver.

End of part 2.

One of the good things about city parks in Toronto is simple watching
and appreciating the finer things in life.

Look at those legs. Look at the rear end. Look at the figure. That is one determined Yorkie.

Ban the Bicycle - Part 1

Prof. Rellim Van Otnorot, LLB, QC, GL

With the absence of piles, and the legal battles to begin to recover our trash we hired legal expert Prof. Rellim van Otnorot to lead the impending court actions and to register his opining opinions. There was a lot of “to's” in the opening. Regardless here is a transcript of the first discussion.

FMPD: Good day Prof. Van Otnorot.

OTNOROT: (nods) Hello Friends. A fine morning to you. Do I bill for this?

FMPD: No this is not legal work regarding the recovery of our garbage and dump status. The readers would like to know where your brilliant legal mind lies.

OTNOROT: Sounds pretty chintzy to me. Go ahead though.

FMPD: Recently, there was a dispute between a former Cabinet Minister, Michael Bryant and a bike courier, Darcy Sheppard. What do you think Prof?

OTNOROT: Terrible tragedy. Terrible. This is going to be a very difficult legal case to bring to court. Every one seems to forget that a person lost life and he had four children.

FMPD: How would you solve this crisis between bikes and autos?

OTNOROT: The attitude of everyone involved sucks. Cyclists, motorists, police, politicians all are to blame. Bike lanes while an interesting bandage, doesn't address the underlying issues. Also the issues exists in all of Canada and the US.

FMPD: Yes its very complex to take any action on.

OTNOROT: Its too complex to deal with every issue. What is forgotten by everyone is that these are shared publicly funded roadways. This allows a fundamentally basic solution.

FMPD: A single solution to solve all?

OTNOROT: Could solve it tomorrow.

FMPD: Tomorrow.

OTNOROT: Yes... BAN Bicycles. Ban them period end of story.

---Note: This interview continues in tomorrow's posting.--- end of part 1

Morning on Dundas

Looking for breakfast and a coffee
the hurls and curls of
morning light bounces off the buildings.
Laughing light in a bouncy array of colour and humour.

You won't see this in Wabikoba Lake country.

Canadian Bank Bunk

Trumpets the Star, which is a daily raggatty rag. "Bank earnings a nice surprise for Bay Street." and "Profits impress". The decaying daily states that this remarkable profitability shows the strength in the Canadian retail sector.

One must be slightly troubled by this. Stand around and look. Pulp mills, paper mills, lumber mills have shut down on a long term basis right across this country. Farmers are coping with high energy costs without seeing a compensatory increase in the price of their products to the food markets.

Consumers struggle with keeping their jobs, or looking for work. Canadian banks appear immune from pain. Indeed it may be that they inflict pain to maintain profitability. Much of this profit stems less from the margin on loans, than those revenues generated by the complex user fees and service charges that banks now charge its clients.

The code words are "retail sector". I found over the years that those words relate to the transactional charges on debit and credit cards. Most money transactions in today's world are plastic and not hard cash. The banks make tonnes of cash on the transaction fees.

Confusing enough (III)

Well... Made a mistake yet again. Hell no surprise.

Apparently, the NHL is including their $40M contribution in the bid. This weakened their bid by at least $80M. It literally castrates their own bid.

Oh and the out clause quietly inserted into the NHL bid is only a one year term for Phoenix. Now compare the five year term that was rumored to be in the defunct Reinsdorf bid. And the bid by the Ice Edge Sports, the people who will stay in Phoenix and mitigate costs by playing five games in Saskatoon per season.

I mean only 5 games in Saskatoon will support the team playing 35 games in Phoenix. Whow. So they could really make more money in Saskatchewan if they played all 40 games there. It may be better than Hamilton even. After all, the most lucrative CFL team is the Saskatchewan Roughriders. People in the whole province will support any sports team.

Sacre Bleu

As it turned out, I seemed an idyllic day. An ideal day for a trip on a bus. I realized that the day was a special one. Its day 238 of the year.

As a result, I bought a trip on the TTC. Fun, frivolity and misery all rolled into one.

Confusing enough (the sequel)

The NHL jumped into the frey with both feet. This is an update to the shannigans.

Apparently the bid is $140M. Since they are a creditor of $50M already, the value comes to about $190M. It still falls short of the Balsillie bid by $20M(plus).

Showing total hypocrisy in the whole process the NHL put a qualifier in their bid which would allow a move of the franchise.

If I shake my head more than I have already. It might lead to concussion.

Confusing enough?

Recall those movies with the swinging pendulum blades ratcheting slowly down... closer and closer to slice into the victims chest. That's sort of what the NHL and Balsillie battle takes. At one minute things look grim, then on an instant the momentum shifts the opposite way.

Last week, Balsillie's team effort appeared dead in the water when the owner of Dell computers, Michael Dell, a major creditor of the Phoenix Coyotes approved the Jerry Reinsdorf group bid. Despite the setback, Balsillie simply restated the bid.

In subsequent developments, Jerry Reinsdorf pulled out of the deal making a ton of excuse, none of which was his fault. Consequently, the NHL submits a bid for the team. This heaving to and fro will piss of any judge worth his salt.

From the beginning, Jim Balsillie's bid was consistently the highest, the best, the clearest and the most consistent. The NHL consistently resists the obvious. It is a business deeply in trouble.

The NHL committed to a TV deal with Versus proudly. Now Versus will be dropped from Direct TV, which cuts out a lot of viewers in the United States. There weren't that many to begin with. That was very bad news for GB (Gary Bettman).

Now Reinsdorf pulls out of the deal. He isn't like the rest of the NHL ownership group. He's smart.

Now with the NHL coming in with a late bid with eggs smeared all over it. It appears such a shallow aim. After attempting to cause so much harm to Balsillie it appears that the NHL is losing even the low reputation it had before.

The smart thing to do would be to have a rapprochment with Balsillie. Things many untrue things were said. Whether they like it or not Balsillie is now in the driver's seat.

To win the fight the Judge might decide for a full auction. It will cost the NHL at least $300 M to win this auction, since there is now nothing stopping Balsillie from upping the anti if necessary.