Anyone who believes everything in a blog to be the gospel truth, is an idiot. Any blog, including this one is totally opinion.
Anyone who reads anything in Wikipedia and then believes it is totally true, is an idiot. In the preamble to all Wikipedia contributors it is clearly written out that it is meant to be a compendium of knowledge written by faceless contributors wishing to contribute. Initially all contributions are subject to further scrutiny and subject to later examination. All contributors are responsible for that data not the Wikipedia.
I am a contributor to Wikipedia.
On the topic of : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_Dumont
Further discussion was encouraged. Fortunately some of that discussion was from a personal viewpoint but such a contribution bolsters the world knowledge. I may have been wrong but this was definitely opinion and written as such.
This was my contribution to world knowledge, it was to convey my deceased father's viewpoint who had been born only a couple of decades after that conflict and knew many of the people who had physically witnessed the relevant events.
The op-ed piece was: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Gabriel_Dumont
Another was on page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:North-West_Rebellion
Guess which one is my contribution.
Now for a jokes media types such as Don Landry of the Fan590 of Toronto decided to furnish false information into the Wikipedia on a topic relating to his more famous morning radio partner Gord Stellick. I forgot what Landry wrote. He thought it was funny. I believe he usually thinks anything he does is hilarious. But he lacks the brainpower to take on people like Sam Mitchell effectively mano en mano, as his usual Wednesday morning interviews with Sam Mitchell have proven.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gord_Stellick
You will note that as a repercussion of Landry's actions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_McCown
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Howarth
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Swirsky
The Stellick entry has been corrected. As a result Landry, remains the only senior radio personality on the radio station who appears to be delisted on the Wikipedia. For any media savvy person with the hope of having any sort of future career an entry in Wikipedia maintains to a new modern de rigueur.
Such an open process can be subject to significant abuse. Of that is no doubt.
The scary thing remains that this misunderstanding will be maintained by those now wishing to shut down the process of the accumulation of knowledge. People are now suing such media as responsible for that which is published regardless of the long term convention that contributors are responsible for the data input.
To date the Canadian Supreme Court has supported this open process in such actions regarding the American interpretation of copyright legislation being applied in Canada. And so goes the course of justice. The problem with Common Law is that there is a belief amongst civil lawyers that it can be stretched. It can be.
Sites such as those being sued, have been used as a weapon of malice. According to reports to date, I believe a rather inept Green Party of Canada membership tried to splay some misinformation about a former officer of the party. It is a case before the courts. The plaintiff is trying to sue the site owners of such information. It will be interesting to see the effect of these legal shenanigans. The plaintiff has been able through litigious ambition to thwart the web sites in Canada and the United States. To date this has worked only because the defendants believed that surrender was the cheapest not the ethical response.
However the litigators largest problem will be to prove financial harm by these actions. From what I've seen is that the plaintiffs have not suffered any financial harm directly due to any information, or misinformation placed on the web.
Between Canada and the United States libel and slander legislation is a wholly different process. Lawyers are not always up front at the best of times. And this litigator appears to be dallying on down the rosy path laid out by his lawyers or lawyers who only tells him what he wants to hear.
Few actions of libel and slander in Canada have been successful. It is not a high percentage winner. And any litigation involves a double edge sword. If the defense capably defends itself all that information will be published and at a higher profile. Further the Canadian system of libel legislation follows the British model and not the American.
Significant harm must be proved in the British model. As a result winning may not be something to cheer. I recall that one libel award in the past as $1.00.
The problem is that most of the defendants have chosen to settle out of court. In the case of smaller site operators settling out of court takes on a significant onerous load. However taking on a site operator such as Google, the plaintiff should back off. Winning will not be all that easy.
All they have to prove is that that there is a foundation of truth within the alleged statements of slander or libel then the plaintiff's case is lost. If the court correctly believes that the blogging forum is opinion demonstrating facts that a blog constitutes a belief and not journalistic fact then the plaintiff's case becomes lost.
It seems a trivial but any op-ed writer knows that if a conjecture is prefaced by the phrase "I believe that..." the subsequent facts can be interpreted as a truth albeit false. The plaintiff is then required to shake that belief and place before the court a high level of proof that the defendant intentionally committed that statement knowing that it was false. It is a case of spreading a false truth.
For a person of journalistic background a court would find that there is a higher level of responsibility of getting the story right. However, and this is the problem with blogging, if the writer is enterring a belief in a blog then that blog is legally a truth despite being false. The vast majority of bloggers are amateur to the written process. Courts, especially civil courts apply a vastly different amount of mitigation to each type of writer.
A professionally paid writer has a vested interest in maintaining written accuracy. An amateur writer possesses no commercial advantage to whatever they wrote and the degree of truthfulness is much broader. As long as the writer truly believes that what they are writing is true beyond malice, that belief is total truth no matter how false it is.
British Law applied to Libel is a larger whole to fill and as long as the writer truly believes about the truthfulness of the statement then it cannot be libel. Remember libel and slander is only libel and slander if the teller knowingly made those statements knowing them to be false or without truthful foundation. The writer must be given adequate time to be contrite to revise, publish a retraction in the same media and/or apologize in a reasonable time.
If your eyes are crossing in that confusion, don't worry you are not alone. Google is only a search engine for data. The data doesn't have to be true.
Wikipedia publically states, from the outset, that the information may not be necessarily accurate. They do try however to make it as accurate as possible given the fact that it is constantly being bombarded by information.
And blogging is statement of opinions, not to be consider gospel truth. And opinions are beliefs not necessarily true facts. To the author - a truth. The site operator is not responsible for those beliefs.
You will note that I do not directly give you the litigants name until the court case is settled. Why am I writing this is that Canadian businessmen are employing malicious litigation to deter the truth about their business practice. They know that the lawsuit is frivolous.
Court action will prove that there is no adequate legislation regarding libel or slander in the internet world. Court action will prove that.
In final summation it should be put forward that Blogs, Wikipedia must be always construed as being an uncertified source of information. I use Wikipedia citations as the starting point to research not the final result in such material that needs a certification. Ninety nine percent of the material that flows into Wikipedia daily is accurate or accurate enough that a certain reliability of the truth can be ascertained. For almost everything it is a starting point, not an ending point of research and not the final word.
Friday, April 20, 2007
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Quandary of internet ethics
Wouldn't you know. Just when this gets comfortable. The history of Microsoft proved one thing. The larger a company gets really big, blind greed explodes.
Google operates this blog site. It will be a challenge to them It also recently bought Double Click*. It is one of the most pervasive group of spyware on the internet.
This is alarming. While it is quite understandable for a company to provide advertising on its web pages, it is quite another for a search engine to engage in providing spyware onto users computers.
Not only that. Last January, Google developed a working relationship with Ad-aware**, once an effective anti-spyware company. It climbs into the ever annoying Google Tool Bar which itself is a form of spyware.
The question remains will Ad-aware, a Google Company, have the gonads to remove or block the spyware from Double Click? As a pararepairer for computers, what I see is the development of a very invasive data collection company like Gator***; but one with a giant reach.
For the moment I am serious contemplating of switching away from Google to Altavista.com which is a cleaner less ad invasive form of Yahoo. If you read this please join the move to reduce the use of Google replacing it with other search engines until a written declaration is made by Google to the effect that there will be Chinese Walls between these companies. Of course it is always a good policy to never trust any online computer company.
Why this ethically challenging move? In short it is a response to Microsoft's effort to buy the very invasive Claria or Gator company who I believe seriously attempts to literally take over the home personal computer. Regardless, this is a very serious move the first anti user, pro commercial move by Google. The true colours may be emerging.
Keep checking back to this particular blog entry. It may soon disappear because Google also owns the blogspot.com
Reference links
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Click
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad-aware
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gator_%28spyware%29
Google operates this blog site. It will be a challenge to them It also recently bought Double Click*. It is one of the most pervasive group of spyware on the internet.
This is alarming. While it is quite understandable for a company to provide advertising on its web pages, it is quite another for a search engine to engage in providing spyware onto users computers.
Not only that. Last January, Google developed a working relationship with Ad-aware**, once an effective anti-spyware company. It climbs into the ever annoying Google Tool Bar which itself is a form of spyware.
The question remains will Ad-aware, a Google Company, have the gonads to remove or block the spyware from Double Click? As a pararepairer for computers, what I see is the development of a very invasive data collection company like Gator***; but one with a giant reach.
For the moment I am serious contemplating of switching away from Google to Altavista.com which is a cleaner less ad invasive form of Yahoo. If you read this please join the move to reduce the use of Google replacing it with other search engines until a written declaration is made by Google to the effect that there will be Chinese Walls between these companies. Of course it is always a good policy to never trust any online computer company.
Why this ethically challenging move? In short it is a response to Microsoft's effort to buy the very invasive Claria or Gator company who I believe seriously attempts to literally take over the home personal computer. Regardless, this is a very serious move the first anti user, pro commercial move by Google. The true colours may be emerging.
Keep checking back to this particular blog entry. It may soon disappear because Google also owns the blogspot.com
Reference links
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Click
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad-aware
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gator_%28spyware%29
Monday, April 16, 2007
A moment of pause
Forgive the few days of absence. Trying to dig up a relevant irrelevancy. There were other topics but at the point of writing one event supersedes them. It was chosen for me.
32 students have just been murdered at Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg VA. In the modern world's parade of savage murder in Bush's post September 11 world this appears a small statistic. Yet murder of a single person at an educational institution strikes close to home amplifying.
In the last few hours since I read about this horrible event I form my thinking to the awfulness and the sadness that alternates in a two moon tidal event. In a strange way it makes me thankful that at this moment my daughter and grand children are safe and sound so far as I know. Instinctively that was my thought. Yet that strong emotion transfers to incredible empathy for those parents who lost their children who also thought about their youngsters the same way I did. It is a day of great sorrow.
I am asking those few people who read this and other blogs to take a moment upon reading his article to take a moment of time to remember the victims of this cowardly onslaught. Remember that each number of those 32 from 1 to 32 to remember that each was a person who attended these places of higher learning with a youthful eye to the future.
At the bottom of this piece there is a long list of school shootings courtesy of Wikipedia. Note a spectacular increase of them in George W. Bush's new world. A single entry in this list makes for a list too long.
I am definitely old enough to remember the 1966 Texas School shootings from the cowardly sniper hiding in a dominating tower. It was a traumatic event socially. In the sequence of events that highlighted the socially optimistic Kennedy years that event shook that positive world view tremendously in the North American social structure. In many ways it was worse than the Kennedy assassination. Students have no security detail.
The next moment in this twisted sequence is Kent State. Numerically it doesn't rank very high except that the murders were committed by the US Government. In a strange way this let the evil genii out of a plugged vessel. It gave permission to any demented person or organization to attack the heart of a society, the once hallowed places of learning.
For Canadians the next major trauma fell upon innocent students at the Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal PQ. Such a terrible event was twisted by every side. It lead to the Canadian gun registry. It prompted feminists to rant against every male icon in Canadian society. It was from the start committed by a demented mind who created victims in his sick mind which happened to be women. The answer was the gun registry which doesn't work. Rather governments went onto not only emasculate men in society it gutted the mental health network that might have prevented such a sick act.
On this day though. We cannot figure out or postulate methods to deter such terrible and tragic events. Rather we should focus our thoughts (and prayers if one possesses a belief system) to the directly effected individuals victims and their families.
Sources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_shooting
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89cole_Polytechnique_massacre
.
32 students have just been murdered at Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg VA. In the modern world's parade of savage murder in Bush's post September 11 world this appears a small statistic. Yet murder of a single person at an educational institution strikes close to home amplifying.
In the last few hours since I read about this horrible event I form my thinking to the awfulness and the sadness that alternates in a two moon tidal event. In a strange way it makes me thankful that at this moment my daughter and grand children are safe and sound so far as I know. Instinctively that was my thought. Yet that strong emotion transfers to incredible empathy for those parents who lost their children who also thought about their youngsters the same way I did. It is a day of great sorrow.
I am asking those few people who read this and other blogs to take a moment upon reading his article to take a moment of time to remember the victims of this cowardly onslaught. Remember that each number of those 32 from 1 to 32 to remember that each was a person who attended these places of higher learning with a youthful eye to the future.
At the bottom of this piece there is a long list of school shootings courtesy of Wikipedia. Note a spectacular increase of them in George W. Bush's new world. A single entry in this list makes for a list too long.
I am definitely old enough to remember the 1966 Texas School shootings from the cowardly sniper hiding in a dominating tower. It was a traumatic event socially. In the sequence of events that highlighted the socially optimistic Kennedy years that event shook that positive world view tremendously in the North American social structure. In many ways it was worse than the Kennedy assassination. Students have no security detail.
The next moment in this twisted sequence is Kent State. Numerically it doesn't rank very high except that the murders were committed by the US Government. In a strange way this let the evil genii out of a plugged vessel. It gave permission to any demented person or organization to attack the heart of a society, the once hallowed places of learning.
For Canadians the next major trauma fell upon innocent students at the Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal PQ. Such a terrible event was twisted by every side. It lead to the Canadian gun registry. It prompted feminists to rant against every male icon in Canadian society. It was from the start committed by a demented mind who created victims in his sick mind which happened to be women. The answer was the gun registry which doesn't work. Rather governments went onto not only emasculate men in society it gutted the mental health network that might have prevented such a sick act.
On this day though. We cannot figure out or postulate methods to deter such terrible and tragic events. Rather we should focus our thoughts (and prayers if one possesses a belief system) to the directly effected individuals victims and their families.
- Enoch Brown school massacre - Franklin County, Pennsylvania, United States; July 26, 1764
- Bath School disaster - Bath, Michigan, United States; May 18, 1927
- Poe Elementary School Attack - Houston, Texas, United States; September 15, 1959
- Cologne School Massacre - Cologne, Germany; June 11, 1964
- University of Texas at Austin Tower Massacre - Austin, Texas, United States; August 1, 1966
- Avivim school bus massacre, Israel by Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP); 1970
- Kent State shootings - Kent, Ohio, United States; May 4, 1970
- Ma'alot massacre, Israel by DFLP (see [2]); 1974
- California State University, Fullerton Library Massacre - Fullerton, California, United States; July 12, 1976
- École Polytechnique Massacre - Montreal, Quebec, Canada; 1989
- Stockton Massacre - Stockton, California, United States, 1989
- University of Iowa shooting - Iowa City, Iowa, United States; 1991
- Concordia University massacre - Montreal, Quebec, Canada; August 24, 1992
- Simon's Rock College of Bard shooting - Great Barrington, Massachusetts, United States; December 14, 1992
- Richland High School shooting - Lynnville, Tennessee, United States; November 15, 1995.
- Frontier Junior High shooting - Moses Lake, Washington, United States; February 2, 1996
- Dunblane massacre - Dunblane, Scotland, United Kingdom; March 13, 1996
- Sanaa massacre - Sanaa, Yemen; 1997
- Pearl High School shooting, Pearl, Mississippi, United States; October 1, 1997
- Heath High School shooting, West Paducah, Kentucky, United States; December 1, 1997
- Jonesboro massacre - Craighead County (near Jonesboro), Arkansas, United States; March 24, 1998
- Columbine High School massacre - Jefferson County (near Denver and Littleton), Colorado, United States; April 20, 1999
- Santana High School - Santee, California,United States (near San Diego, California)
- Osaka school massacre - Ikeda, Japan; 2001
- Erfurt massacre - Erfurt, Germany; 2002
- Rocori High School shootings - Cold Spring, Minnesota, United States; 2003
- Beslan school hostage crisis - Beslan, Russia; 2004
- Red Lake High School massacre - Red Lake, Minnesota, United States; 2005
- Dawson College shooting - Montreal, Quebec, Canada; 2006
- Amish school shooting - Nickel Mines, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States; 2006
- Platte Canyon High School shooting - Bailey, Colorado, United States; 2006
- Virginia Tech shootings - Blacksburg, Virginia, United States; April 16, 2007
Sources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_shooting
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89cole_Polytechnique_massacre
.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Belinda, our Belinda retires
Toronto- Much adored Belinda Stronach finally retired from politics after a long and rewarding political career.
Thumbs up responses erupt on thousands of hands through the political community for the benefits she brought to Canada. If she was a Catholic she certainly would have earned saint hood.
Her political record lists out as: two leadership races in the two federal parties, one cabinet post, one divorce, one broken almost engagement, one adultress affair and at least one New York shopping trip.
This May 2nd, she will have her forty first birthday. She now joins daddy's company in order to guide it into the process of buying the foundering Chrysler corporation. It certainly is both a pay increase and a decrease in the grey matter allocations.
She will be totally missed in Canadian politics. Already worshipping and idolizing poems to her are already being made. In Canada, there are way too many poets.
Sunday, April 08, 2007
Another illegal drug that causes no ill effects
Oh what have we here. People enjoying themselves? Canadian culture is woefully Puritan or Calvinist. A drug from our trading partner in NAFTA makes what appears to be a healthy form of hallucinigenic.
Apparently to this moment unlike LSD or other forms of mind bending drugs this one has no latent effects. And it is a natural product.
To date there is so few users that no deleterious health effects have been found to make it officially illegal. Never mind that state run booze sales cause the deaths and alcoholic dependencies in about 1 out of every 10 users, a single death or mishap will cause the banning of the following product. This story is enterred on the record for the education and
from Canadian Press
Apparently to this moment unlike LSD or other forms of mind bending drugs this one has no latent effects. And it is a natural product.
To date there is so few users that no deleterious health effects have been found to make it officially illegal. Never mind that state run booze sales cause the deaths and alcoholic dependencies in about 1 out of every 10 users, a single death or mishap will cause the banning of the following product. This story is enterred on the record for the education and
from Canadian Press
OTTAWA -- A freely available herb that packs a powerful psychedelic punch has some federal health officials recommending strict controls.
But Health Canada says it can't regulate the use of salvia divinorum until there's more evidence of its dangers.
Department documents obtained by The Canadian Press under Access to Information law say salvia is being used by adolescents and young adults for its hallucinogenic properties.
Salvia divinorum is difficult to grow outside of its native habitat in southern Mexico, but the plant's leaves and extracts of salvia's active ingredient in pill form are sold in Canada.
A December 2005 report by the marketed health products directorate, an arm of Health Canada, recommends that salvia be placed under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.
| |
Department spokesman Jason Bouzanis said salvia has been known to cause hallucinations, out-of-body experiences, unconsciousness and short-term memory loss. But that's not enough to declare it illegal.
"We can't make any recommendations to place salvia under the Controlled Drug and Substances Act schedules until we have sufficient scientific and empirical data that concludes it has the potential for misuse and abuse," Bouzanis said.
Australia is one of few countries that has made it illegal to possess, distribute and consume salvia, also known as Sally D, the diviner's sage, or the sage of seers. It is a species of sage, which belongs to the mint family, and is most commonly found in Mexico, where indigenous Mazatec shamans have used it for centuries for spiritual journeys.
Salvia leaves are most commonly dried and smoked. Extracts of salvinorin-A, salvia's active ingredient, are available in tablet form. Pill prices can range anywhere from $30 to $80 in Canada depending on the potency desired. Most online sellers of salvia advertise the herb as a natural health product.
Friday, April 06, 2007
Kanuckistan and Grand Towers.
The haunting words of right wing Republicans in the United States reverb around knowing skulls.Here is the story from the much maligned CTV Website. Why is CTV News maligned? Well have you ever watched it? Its more pablum than problem.
Anyway they were first up on the news anyway.
Design unveiled for Yonge-Bloor skyscraper
toronto.ctv.ca
A Kazakhstan company unveiled plans today for an 80-storey tower that will change the landscape of the Yonge and Bloor streets intersection.
The $450 million structure by Bazis International will house 500 luxury condominiums, high-end retail stores and a five-star hotel.
The sleek building will be Toronto's tallest residential-commercial building and the tallest condominium structure in Canada.
The company's president, Michael Gold, said the tower will be "so bold, so striking" that it will become an "instant icon."
The tower will go up at the intersection's southeast corner, which is currently occupied by a Harvey's restaurant and a billboard.
Demolition of the old structure is expected to being this year.
The new tower, to be named 1 Bloor, is expected to open in 2011.
See what I mean. Pablum. They are for it.
Problem. Central questions aren't asked. The North American Auto Industry is loosing 10,000 jobs this week. Money is leaving Toronto for Calgary where the white rich people are. Question one. Where are the multimillion dollar tenants coming from?
The Trump Towers announced headed up by one of his un "fired" Apprentices two years ago originally scheduled for completion this fall... Is still a parking lot.
The company that owns 1 King east the highly publicized skinniest building or condo in the country is basically still half empty and well the company is in "receivership." So poor is it, that I haven't even seen pigeons living near it.
Some sort of towers got muscled in south of Eglinton, which is a consortium led by Tridel. This project was heavily opposed by other residents in the neighborhood who constantly pointed out that this area used to be a swamp. Nonsense said the developer and they started anyway only to find out that it wasn't a swamp but a full blown underground stream running there. According to original rumors or promises it is about a year behind and overbudget because they are trying to shore up the foundations.
The other condo project was a total glass lined fancy building called "The Spire." It is about thirty stories of glass. With an eye to saving the environment this glass lined monster will not only contribute to global warming they will most certainly heat up the planet all by themselves.
A glass building works for a building in Charlotte or Atlanta but in Toronto? The Spire will not help the Canadian Kyoto commitment. And it will cost new tenants. It is almost complete and as ugly as you can get.
Condos climb around the Rogers Center. And apart from the placement blocking the sightlines to Lake Ontario they are as ugly as the post at a vision obstacle seat in a music concert. Then some people complain about the Gardiner Expressway. Well you could five years ago but now no problem, no one can see it anymore. There is a phenomenally high vacancy rate in these new towers.
Now onto Bloor. The politicians love it. It is a monument to their stupidity. While the revenue generating base deserts this country, they love this project of future ugliness and future slum as a feather in their cap.
It seems that no one has clued in. Every single major residential project ever launched in Toronto eventually became a miserable failure all the way from Jamestown, Regent Park et al.
Back to this project. What a lot of people do not realize is that this particular project is right on top of the subway. It won' t be to the left. It won't be too the right. It will be right on top of it and on top of the south end of the Yonge line part of the station.
Now no one has explained to me how this project will manage to work around the fact that most of its foundations are going to be into the tunnel. This building is 80 stories high. It will require deep foundations that will impinge on the running of the vital NS transit corridor.
From the Star. An opinion.
*************
Apr 06, 2007 04:30 AM
************
Now it seems that this guy didn't ask the obvious transit question. Or how this monster will interact with the tunnels and future structure of the Subways. Of course this may be just another promise building. Signs are that there is a substantial cooling of the condo demand in Toronto. Its all a hustle.
No Pillow Fights
Now the thought police are on a crusade to ban pillow fighting.
Frank Thomas got a Blue Jays add banned because the idea was that a couple of kids were bouncing on a bed and enters Thomas. A kid takes a swipe at poor Frank. And Frank grabs a spare pillow and poof blows the kid off the bed.
Frank chuckles on the way stage exit and the kid pops up smiling.
Now.
{Long pregnant pause}
This ad was pulled.
{Another long pregnant pause}
People are freezing, starving, and homeless in all of Canada's major cities. Politicians are stealing tax payers dollars, giving themselves 50% annual raises, the car industry just lost 10,000 jobs yesterday. News programs on cable channels streams endless stories on useless social celebs like Paris Hilton, Angelina Jolie, Anna Nicole. The very same group allows GAP and Calvin Klein ads. The very same group allows ads from the drug addled sports teams from the NFL, MLB, NHL about jocks whose only contest is to see who can use the perfect drug.
Street gangs run the streets in the poorer sections of every city. They permit ads from PETA who in turns encourage their stars to make hundreds of useless air flights to protest animal extinctions. And these clowns go anal over a fucking pillow fight.
Obviously the people on this committee come from troubled families, likely the only child, likely the ethicists of divorced families, and more likely born abandoned fetuses. Where do these clowns come from?
The idea of a pillow fight is to knock the adversary off the bed.
{The final long pregnant pause.}
These people on that board are morons.
Frank Thomas got a Blue Jays add banned because the idea was that a couple of kids were bouncing on a bed and enters Thomas. A kid takes a swipe at poor Frank. And Frank grabs a spare pillow and poof blows the kid off the bed.
Frank chuckles on the way stage exit and the kid pops up smiling.
Now.
{Long pregnant pause}
This ad was pulled.
{Another long pregnant pause}
People are freezing, starving, and homeless in all of Canada's major cities. Politicians are stealing tax payers dollars, giving themselves 50% annual raises, the car industry just lost 10,000 jobs yesterday. News programs on cable channels streams endless stories on useless social celebs like Paris Hilton, Angelina Jolie, Anna Nicole. The very same group allows GAP and Calvin Klein ads. The very same group allows ads from the drug addled sports teams from the NFL, MLB, NHL about jocks whose only contest is to see who can use the perfect drug.
Street gangs run the streets in the poorer sections of every city. They permit ads from PETA who in turns encourage their stars to make hundreds of useless air flights to protest animal extinctions. And these clowns go anal over a fucking pillow fight.
Obviously the people on this committee come from troubled families, likely the only child, likely the ethicists of divorced families, and more likely born abandoned fetuses. Where do these clowns come from?
The idea of a pillow fight is to knock the adversary off the bed.
{The final long pregnant pause.}
These people on that board are morons.
Monday, April 02, 2007
I knew I had this right.
Okay this is the second entry this day. Don't go giddy. But this has to go on the record. Ya ma.
I knew I preferred dirty girls for a reason...
I knew I preferred dirty girls for a reason...
Getting dirty could help mental health
NICK FOLEY
PEOPLE who suffer from depression could benefit from getting "dirty", according to new research published today.
A "friendly" bacteria found in soil has the same uplifting effects as those produced by anti-depressant drugs, the study found.
A study of mice found they altered their behaviour and appeared more relaxed after they were treated with the Mycobacterium vaccae bacteria.
Scientists at Bristol University and University College London found the bacteria stimulated the immune system and activated a group of neurons in the brain which produce the mood-enhancing chemical seratonin, a lack of which has been linked to depression.
Dr Chris Lowry, of Bristol University, the lead author on the paper, said: "These studies help us understand how the body communicates with the brain and why a healthy immune system is important for maintaining mental health.
"They also leave us wondering if we shouldn't all spend more time playing in the dirt. This soil that carries the bacteria is found almost anywhere.
"But we now need to find a way of getting it in our system, which we haven't done yet."
The study appears to support the "hygiene hypothesis" which argues that a rise in conditions such as asthma and allergies could be linked to a lack of exposure to various micro-organisms.
The emphasis on cleaning and hygiene, particularly in urban western environments, could be adversely affecting people's immune systems, according to the theory.
The findings, published in the journal Neuroscience, support the idea that increasing the release of seratonin in parts of the brain regulates mood.
Further studies are now planned to see if the bacteria stimulates this process.
This article: http://news.scotsman.com/scitech.cfm?id=506592007
Last updated: 01-Apr-07 00:47 BST
Kyoto Schymoto
I believe its already too late to change the course of climate change. All energy production must change to nuclear for the short term (one century). It is the only way to provide enough energy to compensate for the time to develop sugar fuel cell energy technologies.
All unnecessary flying and travel must be eliminated. All combustion powered vehicles banned.
Still such drastic actions wouldn't reverse the warming trend for thirty years. And only if we did this action starting tomorrow, not a decade from now. That is too huge for the greedy individuals of humanity. Calamity is imminent. Utter destruction and human cultural extinction likely.
A complete reversal of human habits would require a massive sacrifice of lifestyle. All unnecessary air travel would have to be eliminated. Air travel accounts for a very high percentage of gassing the planet. Simply lowering emissions is not enough.
An ironic point is in the protests about the Canadian seal hunt. Global warming has almost eliminated all the ice on the sea ice in the huge St. Lawrence estuary this year. No ice. Tens of thousands of seal pups die.
The unnecessary flights of the protesters from Europe contribute to the global warming. Their actions are more likely to contribute to the complete extermination of the seal population than all the actions of Newfoundland hunters have done in the last four hundred years and could do in the next four centuries.
Are humans that stupid? Well hell yes.
For instance, global warming due to excessive carbon emissions will flood all the low lying areas of Europe. It means that the Arctic sea ice will disappear even before the massive glaciers on Nuuk (Greenland) and Antarctica.
All the Netherlands and Denmark will cease to exist since they would need massive diking more than 30M high which is an impossible capital project. Without the presence of the ice cap the course of the Gulf Stream will decidedly change or perhaps more likely disappear since the ocean currents will change.
While the rest of the world gets warmer, present day Europe will suddenly enter a much colder phase. If you draw a latitude Glasgow is at the same latitude as many of the colder parts of Canada and Siberia. Global warming will impact Europe far more seriously than many other parts of the planet.
Most of the present day estuaries such as found on the Rhine, Mekong, Yellow River, Amazon, Nile, Hudson, Ganges, Indus, St. Lawrence, Thames, produce a very large portion of the human food supply and house a high proportion of human commercial activities... are going to disappear.
Yet when the European commercial sector hears that the Arctic Sea Cap disappears. 'Oh good' these rich and wealthy say, 'there is a lot more oil on the Arctic sea basin'.
That is just how stupid humans are
Sunday, April 01, 2007
The Great Coverup
About a year ago or more. When one gets this old one starts forgetting things like...???
But the essence remains. Oh whatta you know. I did get it right it was a year. The links and reference story are attached at the end of this little entry.
Anyhow this event was buried faster than a politician's promise. The claim by police was that this was not a terrorist event.
No inquiry was further published. In fact a lot of material I recall sourcing about one week after the event is no longer available on the internet.
From memory, which might be faulty, I believe these basic facts to be true.
1. It appeared to be a suicide.
2. The bomber intended to detonate the device.
3. The bomber was young.
4. The bomber was Islamic.
5. The bomber was an immigrant.
6. It happened on a very busy moment in a very busy area.
7. It occurred at a Tim Horton's.
8. The workers of Tim Hortons also happen to be of Islamic faith.
9. Tim Horton's is iconic in Canada. Thusly must be on a target list of Al Qaeda.
10. Facts and articles which expressed doubt about the police point of view have disappeared from the internet and the public record. Only the police version remains. Contrary opinions from official commercial sites are missing, while forums and blogs retained the essence.
11. In the forums the facts emerge that the bomber had tried to enter Varsity stadium earlier but had turned tail because of security there. So there may have been some sort of security alert
Frankly I believe that this was an attack by an Al Qaeda sympathizer. That Tim Horton's may have been the alternate target.
We have learned much even in the last year.
First. Most of the attackers are considered home growns. This event is consistent with that.
Second. The methods are always IED or improvised. Although clumsy the device was improvised.
Third. That the result to the attacker is always death which is why it was called a suicide attack. In this case, it was suicide.
Fourth. The police and fire department proclaim that there was no explosion. Every eyewitness on that day testifies to declaring otherwise. In one of the
Here is the real quirk of Canadian legal practice. Information on suicides are not published. Which means the police can deny any such terrorist event legally because they can withhold information since it was a suicide.
Even if there was a suicide attack on some more public target by law the Canadian police do not have to release any information whatsoever. Not only that, they can go to the traditional media sources and expunge that information from that resource base leaving the only source to be blogs and forums like this.
For Al Qaeda this is problematic. There is a simple answer for them. If the bomber had not been suicidal the newspapers could freely publish the material.
Also the level of security must be observed. Within the hour of the Horton's attack, two other mysterious packages had been identified and dealt with by police. Remember this was a Sunday in 2006. The response time to Hortons apparently was led by police. Often in 911 calls, it is the fire department that gets there first. So on that day, an attack must have been expected.
The sudden drop off of any information after April 6, 2007 appears astounding. Even on the Tim Horton's Wikipedia account the record of such an event is not there. This site often gleefully records such events.
The police view is that this wasn't an attack. Despite all the facts pointing to this event entirely consistent with an Al Qaeda inspired attack. Police at the time promised a full disclosure after several months of investigation. As of this date such report appears on the public record or has been released. No public record of a coroner's inquest although it would be required by law.
To this date I can find no online record of such an inquest. I do remember a blurb being published in the Toronto Sun in June to August but can find no record of it now.
Sometimes the absence of subsequent relevant information is more indicative than an outright lie that says volumes. The statements of the police and fire department were at odds with both the eyewitness details and with the modus operandi of Al Qaeda. If that event wasn't a terrorist event why was the inquest suppressed and not on record?
Links and articles.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1608061/posts?q=1&&page=74#74
http://ianism.com/?p=126
http://www.freedominion.ca/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=57647
http://www.parrysound.com/voice/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t2046.html
http://www.redflagdeals.com/forums/showthread.php?t=272668&page=6
http://boards.weddingbells.ca/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=1306256&Main=1288571
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2006/04/03/tim-hortons-autopsy060403.html
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2006/04/02/toronto-explosion-060402.html
from the Glob and Pail of the same period.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060405.TIMS05/TPStory/?query=tim+hortons+explosion
But the essence remains. Oh whatta you know. I did get it right it was a year. The links and reference story are attached at the end of this little entry.
Anyhow this event was buried faster than a politician's promise. The claim by police was that this was not a terrorist event.
No inquiry was further published. In fact a lot of material I recall sourcing about one week after the event is no longer available on the internet.
From memory, which might be faulty, I believe these basic facts to be true.
1. It appeared to be a suicide.
2. The bomber intended to detonate the device.
3. The bomber was young.
4. The bomber was Islamic.
5. The bomber was an immigrant.
6. It happened on a very busy moment in a very busy area.
7. It occurred at a Tim Horton's.
8. The workers of Tim Hortons also happen to be of Islamic faith.
9. Tim Horton's is iconic in Canada. Thusly must be on a target list of Al Qaeda.
10. Facts and articles which expressed doubt about the police point of view have disappeared from the internet and the public record. Only the police version remains. Contrary opinions from official commercial sites are missing, while forums and blogs retained the essence.
11. In the forums the facts emerge that the bomber had tried to enter Varsity stadium earlier but had turned tail because of security there. So there may have been some sort of security alert
Frankly I believe that this was an attack by an Al Qaeda sympathizer. That Tim Horton's may have been the alternate target.
We have learned much even in the last year.
First. Most of the attackers are considered home growns. This event is consistent with that.
Second. The methods are always IED or improvised. Although clumsy the device was improvised.
Third. That the result to the attacker is always death which is why it was called a suicide attack. In this case, it was suicide.
Fourth. The police and fire department proclaim that there was no explosion. Every eyewitness on that day testifies to declaring otherwise. In one of the
Here is the real quirk of Canadian legal practice. Information on suicides are not published. Which means the police can deny any such terrorist event legally because they can withhold information since it was a suicide.
Even if there was a suicide attack on some more public target by law the Canadian police do not have to release any information whatsoever. Not only that, they can go to the traditional media sources and expunge that information from that resource base leaving the only source to be blogs and forums like this.
For Al Qaeda this is problematic. There is a simple answer for them. If the bomber had not been suicidal the newspapers could freely publish the material.
Also the level of security must be observed. Within the hour of the Horton's attack, two other mysterious packages had been identified and dealt with by police. Remember this was a Sunday in 2006. The response time to Hortons apparently was led by police. Often in 911 calls, it is the fire department that gets there first. So on that day, an attack must have been expected.
The sudden drop off of any information after April 6, 2007 appears astounding. Even on the Tim Horton's Wikipedia account the record of such an event is not there. This site often gleefully records such events.
The police view is that this wasn't an attack. Despite all the facts pointing to this event entirely consistent with an Al Qaeda inspired attack. Police at the time promised a full disclosure after several months of investigation. As of this date such report appears on the public record or has been released. No public record of a coroner's inquest although it would be required by law.
To this date I can find no online record of such an inquest. I do remember a blurb being published in the Toronto Sun in June to August but can find no record of it now.
Sometimes the absence of subsequent relevant information is more indicative than an outright lie that says volumes. The statements of the police and fire department were at odds with both the eyewitness details and with the modus operandi of Al Qaeda. If that event wasn't a terrorist event why was the inquest suppressed and not on record?
Links and articles.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1608061/posts?q=1&&page=74#74
http://ianism.com/?p=126
http://www.freedominion.ca/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=57647
http://www.parrysound.com/voice/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t2046.html
http://www.redflagdeals.com/forums/showthread.php?t=272668&page=6
http://boards.weddingbells.ca/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=1306256&Main=1288571
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2006/04/03/tim-hortons-autopsy060403.html
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2006/04/02/toronto-explosion-060402.html
Deadly blast in doughnut shop not a terrorist job: police
Police have ruled out terrorism as the cause of an explosion at a Tim Hortons doughnut shop that killed one man in a trendy downtown area of Toronto on Sunday.
The victim was likely an arsonist or attempting suicide, Staff Sgt. Don Cole of Toronto police told reporters hours after the explosion.
"He's not a strap-on al-Qaeda bomber guy," Cole said. "It sounds to me like a guy who either wanted to do a torch job or commit suicide."
Firefighters outside the Tim Hortons in Toronto where an explosion killed a man on Sunday.
Police said the man apparently carried a can of gasoline into a washroom stall about 1 p.m. local time at the eatery in the city's Yorkville area, and set off a flash fire that killed him.
The victim was an unidentified male who was pronounced dead at the scene with severe burns to his body. Nobody else was injured.
Tim Hortons spokesman Nick Javor later confirmed the victim was not an employee. In a statement, he praised the quick response of the staff, and said they would be offered appropriate support.
Toronto police Chief Bill Blair answers reporters' questions outside the doughnut shop Sunday. (Patrick Morell/CBC photo)
Explosion triggered flash fire: police
Police Chief Bill Blair earlier described the incident as a flash fire rather than a bombing. Two blocks in the downtown area were cordoned off as police investigated.
"It appears that there has been a very hot and intense fire in an enclosed area within the washroom," Blair said. But he declined to speculate on the cause of the fire.
A police robot removes a suspicious parcel from the shop in the aftermath of the explosion.
"Until we determine precisely what happened in that cubicle and what caused those flames that took that man's life, I really can't speculate," he said.
Police could not confirm reports the man was seen entering the washroom with wires or possibly explosives strapped to his body.
The ceiling fell down on the victim, bringing down wires and batteries from an air-freshening device that might have contributed to suspicions of a bomb, Cole said.
Suspicious bag not a threat
After the incident, a police robot was used to remove a duffel bag from the doughnut shop, which is on Yonge Street just north of the intersection with Bloor Street.Explosives experts detonated the bag with a loud bang. It contained school supplies.
Police also evacuated a second Tim Hortons a few kilometres north and detonated a suspicious package, which ended up being a clock in a shopping bag.
Eyewitness Jenny Phillips told Reuters that she heard bangs like pops from a firecracker and a scream "that will haunt me forever" as she left the washroom area.
She smelled burnt powder and saw a "wall of flames" inside the men's washroom before staff herded the two dozen customers outside.
"I thought the roof was caving in," she said. "People were screaming."
Blast rattles shop workers
Employees who appeared shaken were escorted from the scene, and some attempted to shield their faces from the throng of television cameras.
They refused to answer questions, but Tim Hortons district manager Amin Islam said they were doing well. "I'm just making sure they're going home safely," he said.
Daryl Fuglerud, a spokesman with Toronto's fire department, told reporters the man who died had burns to his body.
"It doesn't appear that there was much of a fire at all," Fuglerud said. "There was a very small amount of smoke upon our arrival."
Fuglerud said the investigation was turned over to police because it was a "possible criminal" case.
from the Glob and Pail of the same period.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060405.TIMS05/TPStory/?query=tim+hortons+explosion
Coffee-shop death a suicide, police say
TORONTO -- Police say the man who died in an explosion and flash fire at a downtown Tim Hortons restaurant that caused police to shut a part of the busy Yonge and Bloor area committed suicide.
Based on the evidence gathered at the scene from the coffee shop -- one of the busiest in Toronto -- and several eyewitness reports, investigators concluded that the incident Sunday afternoon was not accidental.
"Through various aspects of the investigation we have now determined that the injuries leading to the man's death were self-inflicted," Detective Sergeant Myron Demkiw said yesterday.
"We're still working on the identity of the deceased, and I can't say if we'll be releasing that information even if it is established."
The flash fire ignited inside the men's washroom of the restaurant on Yonge Street, just north of Bloor Street, sending startled patrons and employees out onto the street as smoke and flames shot out from under the washroom door and part of the ceiling collapsed.
Police have said they believe gasoline in a canister ignited in the washroom.
An autopsy Monday on the man's severely burned body concluded that he died of smoke inhalation.
The only other information that has been released about him is that he was not an employee of the coffee shop.
Det. Sgt. Demkiw said the investigation is continuing but would not comment on the forensic evidence that has been recovered from a white sedan towed from a parkade behind the Hudson's Bay Co., about two blocks from the Tim Hortons shop.
Friday, March 30, 2007
Great expectations and the real city
For quite awhile, I've pondered why a lot of people outside of Toronto detest the place. A friend sent me this link.
http://www.torontoist.com/
Interesting. It espouses a city that in truth, doesn't exist. A lot of the artsy fartsy types that control city hall promote the city as being that way. Oh yes, these events and people do exist. The reason for this dominance is that the city elders feel the need to compete with other cities. Then for the reason for economic development, attracting conventions and tourism all this... all this... call it what it is... out trots this bullshit.
At the leading edge of this tourist effort cycles the artistic effort of youth before alcoholism and the ravages of crack take their toll on the straw castles of mythic dreams. The fastest way to get funding for their artistic urges is to create things like this link. It appeals to the wealthy elite of the city, the business leaders that holds a firm grip on the life of this city.
Literally it is young artists and the useless progeny of the upper middle class trying to make a lazy partying life out of trying to appear to be culturally advanced. In other words its a gang of young culturally challenged goofballs trying to appeal to the elite business class. They do such things to kiss the bigger ass.
The result carries all the way into the annoyingly elitist CBC and rests displayed for all to see. These leaders of culture show nothing but arrogant, self interested, small minds unable to see their city outside of the rose colored glasses they wear.
In turn, in righteous justification for their well clothed greed, they work assiduously to misrepresent the true Toronto. The polished society, the modern city they portray, the mythical city doesn't exist. And at the end of the day, its good for their property values.
This facet is lost in ridiculous sites like the Torontoist. That city is an invention. That city is like the singles ads which portray a single person looking for a mate as liking arts, music, dining, Blue Jays, and long walks in the park.
Have you ever been to a Toronto park? Its like any city park. I never see these people there. Mostly its joggers, drunks, crackheads, nannies, suicidal bipolars looking for a tree to hang themselves, and city works personnel goofing off. Cute sexy singles are to city parks as elephants are to Yellowknife.
Worse, they pass this off to the hinterland as the real way to live. Well this would be good. Except it doesn't exist.
To a person from places like my former hometown like Marathon, which is a small community purpose built to serve the labor needs of a large corporation and possesses a simple mono-culture, a place like Toronto confuses. They bring their values, their social experience to the bigger pond and as such their expectations don't work for them.
One does not need an advanced education to live in Marathon. It doesn't challenge the temporal lobe of a Nematode. One does not need intelligence or wisdom to climb the social ladder. This isn't wrong. Such a life is quite comfortable. Its another world socially. But its failure comes that the dynamic dreams of youth must be suppressed for creature comfort. It leads to mental depression. However when a person arrives in a place like Torontoist portrays they rapidly become disillusioned since the social dynamics are so different and the promise of the elite doesn't match the real culture.
They are no longer socially important. It is why small towners complain about customer service. In a small town customer service comes from a neighbor. In a city the customer service comes from a stranger. The latter expects a tip.
And it is no coincidence whatsoever that the leading brainiacs of a place like Marathon brag about not paying out tips. It never failed. Two lines down the conversation these forested intellects will always parlay this rant adding that they don't like Toronto because they get poor customer service... Well duh!
Now father always did well in city travel more than my mother. He travelled the world often and functioned adequately for a small town type of person. He had the intellectual edge to explore and cared less about social status, race or cultural bridges. He could live anywhere. The only disconcerting thing that as an advanced intellectual he possessed the charming quirk of tending to mutter unaware anyone else was listening.
A couple of times I caught him muttering about what size of tip acceptable in this city. There was a rate for every city in Canada. He would slide over to every inlaw chum and always, always ask about the tip rate in every town. He would chart every facet of life but failed to record each rate in every city. In Calgary and Port Arthur, it was 10% of the bill. But in Winnipeg, on the train and in Fort William, it was 15%. He liked Port Arthur and Calgary quite a lot.
Yet he was absent minded to the extent that I overheard him mired in the usual end of meal internal debate. He sometimes lost track of his rate schedule mentally. And this usually exploded into muttering about which the percentage in this city was. I heard it several times. So did the waiters standing right next to me. Not a cool thing.
I digressed. But it shows the angst which even seasoned travelers from small towns confront the social dynamics of the larger city. They expect the city portrayed in the Torontoist web site. Alas. It aint.
The real Toronto is a gritty mud bath of ordinary people from a confluence of global cultures all mushed into a single community. They are friendly enough. They are more open to new people than the small town person. As they grow older they are not as status conscious as found in small towns. Toronto is a collage of cultures and its a dirty hot tub. It is not CBC.
A small town person is no longer a person of some status in this social structure. Most Toronto people are occupied with working hard, paying off the rent or mortgage, raising a family, getting fucked, eating, finding cheap food, partying, and getting loaded. Social status except for the few, doesn't exist. Its a muddy swamp. Thats the real Toronto.
Most city people I know have never been to a play, haven't even been up the CN Tower, or the Zoo, or the Harborfront, or Pantages. Professional sports events are too much money. Cable provides entertainment. I don't know anyone who listens to CBC. I don't know too many people who attend the theatre on a regular basis. And most of the arts and music culture are buskers looking for a buck on the streets.
The problem with why people hate Toronto is that they get off the plane expecting a city like the brochures. They will find the advertised in the narrow tourist traps that do exist. City tours go up Yonge street or Spadina to Yorkville. Tours don't go up Sherbourne to Regent Park. They tour down King West to Bathurst then turn right north up to Queen street. They don't go beyond to Parkdale or Dundas West.
Tours. To get to the small elite Beaches district, one must travel through East Toronto where the real city dwellers live. As a result even the street cars go fast through that zone in a headlong need to get to the magical land. It is when the visitor steps outside the glitz of the tourist trap that they run into the real city. Whoops! The myth falls.
And its expectations. It can be a confusing crush, the real city. The small town person is a stranded guppy in a clash of people, and transactions. Its a jungle path dark and full of hidden traps to the perceptions of a visitor outside the glitz tourist channels. Its like Disney World set in the Everglades. Inside the wonderful experience. Outside that compound, alligators.
To live in Toronto, the real Toronto one must like the swamps and alligators of human existence Not appreciating this fine point about urban existence leads to the misconception about a place like Toronto.
To a person from a small town driving in a busy town like Toronto can be a nightmare. It is not that traffic is all that bad in Toronto. Its perception. Small town drivers think that they are great drivers. No on the contrary. Its that to live in Toronto one must be a very good driver. Traffic in Toronto is actually a very efficient system. One needs to understand that to thrive to drive one must practice good driving.
The final point strikes the heart of the small town person. Officially they proclaim that they hate Toronto when really they do not want to admit to the world that they lack the driving skills or talent to function. e.g. Most Marathonians hate the 401. Oppositely, I have always loved driving the 4o1. I like driving down Bay Street from Dupont to Harborfront. I like driving through Portage and Main or Cumberland Street or Fort William Road. Its the challenge. Its attitude.
There lies the problem. People from the small towns in Northern Ontario bash Toronto or city life. Its their privilege and it makes them happy. But it isn't the fault of Toronto. It is the fault that everyone seems to buy into the mythic vision that Toronto wishes to portray. Its a show, not the real Toronto.
And it confuses the people outside Toronto because the real Toronto is far more dynamic and contrarily ordinary than advertised. There is a wall created by the city elite, and the tourist misconception between how absolutely functional Toronto is compared with smaller communities. Such a site as Torontoist displays the dream of a city not the actual gritty core of a city.
Political pontiffs like the present day Mayor were elected by the voting majority of suburbanites of the metropolitan zone. There lies the problem. The suburbanites are professional, or financial, or well paid government workers or educators who know little about inner city life. They go to work the same way every day, and go home to a quiet refuge or nest. They toil for years, grow a family, sell the house and quietly die banished to an old folks home. They are not the real city. They buy into the vision of the city portrayed by pseudo-intellectual and completely compromised politicians like David Miller.
They participate little in the city life. The suburban home is but a quiet refuge where it is convenient to hide until death. But every three or four years they control the voting power to elect politicians that paint the pretty version of their community not the real city. They sit communicating away on the internet inventing the city that really doesn't exist and never did. Their city is pretty, cleansed of all foul smelling things.
Yet like the sewers these people exploit the inner city. It is why the rest of the city foisted on the residents of St. Clair a transit way of ancient, antiquated street car technology because it was their vision not the real vision of the real St. Clair resident. The people that are now doing this to what was once a wonderful culturally dynamic neighborhood will destroy it much like they molded the Spadina district. Its not the concept of the real people living there. These arbitrary people imposing a vision on a vital district eventually destroy that neighborhood. They visit the place once to open the beast they conceived then go elsewhere to plague city life.
Such behaviors destroy the city neighborhood. Despite the pontifications from the bombastic mayor, while transitways look good on paper, in every instance they are factual disasters. The operations of the Spadina right of way are spastic, inefficient, impaired the functioning of the street, and is an alien space vehicle in a cringing world. Patently it is a success to the people who forced the project on the community in retribution for stopping a commuter motor expressway. In reality though having experienced the before and after of such a project clearly the
Spadina transitway is an abject failure.
The only saving grace for that area is the Kensington market where the real city retreated to and thrives is that it escaped the attention of the other neighborhoods. Unfortunately for the residents on St. Clair they will experience the same idiotic project that plagued Spadina. It takes a year to build the transitway and it takes about 15 years to recover socially from such a false project. It gives the neighborhood about ten years grace before the next social brainstorm from the suburbanite social elite to return its attention.
Why explore this pathway into this essay. What it shows is that there is a great gap between the perception and the reality. When I moved to Toronto I didn't move to the alleged upscale parts of town. They are the minority dysfunctional parts of Toronto. If I lived there in those illusions for any length of time, certainly I would be back in Edmonton.
The first time I moved here twenty years ago I went straight into the neighborhoods one is not supposed to like. I found it to be gritty, affordable, real and fun. I didn't go with the program. Also I found that the people who came to this city into a district like this one tended to stay in Toronto. The suburbanite refugees tended to always want to be somewhere else. They wanted a small urban town in a big city.
Now this confuses the people in places like Marathon. A large part of this is that they buy the outward face portrayed by the minority elites of Toronto. When confronted by the real city, like the city suburbanites they tend to go back home. Now this is not wrong nor right. It is the way it is.
One cannot come to a densely populated place like Toronto and expect things to accommodate their needs at the snap of a finger and no tip. One instantly loses all the social status, personal recognition, and close familiarity of a small town. One must drive to the efficiencies of city traffic not fumble around like it was a country lane.
So when a person clicks on a site like "The Torontoist." Take it with a grain of salt and a lot of doubting gravy. Its the promotion of a myth. A city that really doesn't exist. Its interesting for a few. Really though. Its complete bull crap.
(Note this is a draft only, I may return to revise the essay.)
http://www.torontoist.com/
Interesting. It espouses a city that in truth, doesn't exist. A lot of the artsy fartsy types that control city hall promote the city as being that way. Oh yes, these events and people do exist. The reason for this dominance is that the city elders feel the need to compete with other cities. Then for the reason for economic development, attracting conventions and tourism all this... all this... call it what it is... out trots this bullshit.
At the leading edge of this tourist effort cycles the artistic effort of youth before alcoholism and the ravages of crack take their toll on the straw castles of mythic dreams. The fastest way to get funding for their artistic urges is to create things like this link. It appeals to the wealthy elite of the city, the business leaders that holds a firm grip on the life of this city.
Literally it is young artists and the useless progeny of the upper middle class trying to make a lazy partying life out of trying to appear to be culturally advanced. In other words its a gang of young culturally challenged goofballs trying to appeal to the elite business class. They do such things to kiss the bigger ass.
The result carries all the way into the annoyingly elitist CBC and rests displayed for all to see. These leaders of culture show nothing but arrogant, self interested, small minds unable to see their city outside of the rose colored glasses they wear.
In turn, in righteous justification for their well clothed greed, they work assiduously to misrepresent the true Toronto. The polished society, the modern city they portray, the mythical city doesn't exist. And at the end of the day, its good for their property values.
This facet is lost in ridiculous sites like the Torontoist. That city is an invention. That city is like the singles ads which portray a single person looking for a mate as liking arts, music, dining, Blue Jays, and long walks in the park.
Have you ever been to a Toronto park? Its like any city park. I never see these people there. Mostly its joggers, drunks, crackheads, nannies, suicidal bipolars looking for a tree to hang themselves, and city works personnel goofing off. Cute sexy singles are to city parks as elephants are to Yellowknife.
Worse, they pass this off to the hinterland as the real way to live. Well this would be good. Except it doesn't exist.
To a person from places like my former hometown like Marathon, which is a small community purpose built to serve the labor needs of a large corporation and possesses a simple mono-culture, a place like Toronto confuses. They bring their values, their social experience to the bigger pond and as such their expectations don't work for them.
One does not need an advanced education to live in Marathon. It doesn't challenge the temporal lobe of a Nematode. One does not need intelligence or wisdom to climb the social ladder. This isn't wrong. Such a life is quite comfortable. Its another world socially. But its failure comes that the dynamic dreams of youth must be suppressed for creature comfort. It leads to mental depression. However when a person arrives in a place like Torontoist portrays they rapidly become disillusioned since the social dynamics are so different and the promise of the elite doesn't match the real culture.
They are no longer socially important. It is why small towners complain about customer service. In a small town customer service comes from a neighbor. In a city the customer service comes from a stranger. The latter expects a tip.
And it is no coincidence whatsoever that the leading brainiacs of a place like Marathon brag about not paying out tips. It never failed. Two lines down the conversation these forested intellects will always parlay this rant adding that they don't like Toronto because they get poor customer service... Well duh!
Now father always did well in city travel more than my mother. He travelled the world often and functioned adequately for a small town type of person. He had the intellectual edge to explore and cared less about social status, race or cultural bridges. He could live anywhere. The only disconcerting thing that as an advanced intellectual he possessed the charming quirk of tending to mutter unaware anyone else was listening.
A couple of times I caught him muttering about what size of tip acceptable in this city. There was a rate for every city in Canada. He would slide over to every inlaw chum and always, always ask about the tip rate in every town. He would chart every facet of life but failed to record each rate in every city. In Calgary and Port Arthur, it was 10% of the bill. But in Winnipeg, on the train and in Fort William, it was 15%. He liked Port Arthur and Calgary quite a lot.
Yet he was absent minded to the extent that I overheard him mired in the usual end of meal internal debate. He sometimes lost track of his rate schedule mentally. And this usually exploded into muttering about which the percentage in this city was. I heard it several times. So did the waiters standing right next to me. Not a cool thing.
I digressed. But it shows the angst which even seasoned travelers from small towns confront the social dynamics of the larger city. They expect the city portrayed in the Torontoist web site. Alas. It aint.
The real Toronto is a gritty mud bath of ordinary people from a confluence of global cultures all mushed into a single community. They are friendly enough. They are more open to new people than the small town person. As they grow older they are not as status conscious as found in small towns. Toronto is a collage of cultures and its a dirty hot tub. It is not CBC.
A small town person is no longer a person of some status in this social structure. Most Toronto people are occupied with working hard, paying off the rent or mortgage, raising a family, getting fucked, eating, finding cheap food, partying, and getting loaded. Social status except for the few, doesn't exist. Its a muddy swamp. Thats the real Toronto.
Most city people I know have never been to a play, haven't even been up the CN Tower, or the Zoo, or the Harborfront, or Pantages. Professional sports events are too much money. Cable provides entertainment. I don't know anyone who listens to CBC. I don't know too many people who attend the theatre on a regular basis. And most of the arts and music culture are buskers looking for a buck on the streets.
The problem with why people hate Toronto is that they get off the plane expecting a city like the brochures. They will find the advertised in the narrow tourist traps that do exist. City tours go up Yonge street or Spadina to Yorkville. Tours don't go up Sherbourne to Regent Park. They tour down King West to Bathurst then turn right north up to Queen street. They don't go beyond to Parkdale or Dundas West.
Tours. To get to the small elite Beaches district, one must travel through East Toronto where the real city dwellers live. As a result even the street cars go fast through that zone in a headlong need to get to the magical land. It is when the visitor steps outside the glitz of the tourist trap that they run into the real city. Whoops! The myth falls.
And its expectations. It can be a confusing crush, the real city. The small town person is a stranded guppy in a clash of people, and transactions. Its a jungle path dark and full of hidden traps to the perceptions of a visitor outside the glitz tourist channels. Its like Disney World set in the Everglades. Inside the wonderful experience. Outside that compound, alligators.
To live in Toronto, the real Toronto one must like the swamps and alligators of human existence Not appreciating this fine point about urban existence leads to the misconception about a place like Toronto.
To a person from a small town driving in a busy town like Toronto can be a nightmare. It is not that traffic is all that bad in Toronto. Its perception. Small town drivers think that they are great drivers. No on the contrary. Its that to live in Toronto one must be a very good driver. Traffic in Toronto is actually a very efficient system. One needs to understand that to thrive to drive one must practice good driving.
The final point strikes the heart of the small town person. Officially they proclaim that they hate Toronto when really they do not want to admit to the world that they lack the driving skills or talent to function. e.g. Most Marathonians hate the 401. Oppositely, I have always loved driving the 4o1. I like driving down Bay Street from Dupont to Harborfront. I like driving through Portage and Main or Cumberland Street or Fort William Road. Its the challenge. Its attitude.
There lies the problem. People from the small towns in Northern Ontario bash Toronto or city life. Its their privilege and it makes them happy. But it isn't the fault of Toronto. It is the fault that everyone seems to buy into the mythic vision that Toronto wishes to portray. Its a show, not the real Toronto.
And it confuses the people outside Toronto because the real Toronto is far more dynamic and contrarily ordinary than advertised. There is a wall created by the city elite, and the tourist misconception between how absolutely functional Toronto is compared with smaller communities. Such a site as Torontoist displays the dream of a city not the actual gritty core of a city.
Political pontiffs like the present day Mayor were elected by the voting majority of suburbanites of the metropolitan zone. There lies the problem. The suburbanites are professional, or financial, or well paid government workers or educators who know little about inner city life. They go to work the same way every day, and go home to a quiet refuge or nest. They toil for years, grow a family, sell the house and quietly die banished to an old folks home. They are not the real city. They buy into the vision of the city portrayed by pseudo-intellectual and completely compromised politicians like David Miller.
They participate little in the city life. The suburban home is but a quiet refuge where it is convenient to hide until death. But every three or four years they control the voting power to elect politicians that paint the pretty version of their community not the real city. They sit communicating away on the internet inventing the city that really doesn't exist and never did. Their city is pretty, cleansed of all foul smelling things.
Yet like the sewers these people exploit the inner city. It is why the rest of the city foisted on the residents of St. Clair a transit way of ancient, antiquated street car technology because it was their vision not the real vision of the real St. Clair resident. The people that are now doing this to what was once a wonderful culturally dynamic neighborhood will destroy it much like they molded the Spadina district. Its not the concept of the real people living there. These arbitrary people imposing a vision on a vital district eventually destroy that neighborhood. They visit the place once to open the beast they conceived then go elsewhere to plague city life.
Such behaviors destroy the city neighborhood. Despite the pontifications from the bombastic mayor, while transitways look good on paper, in every instance they are factual disasters. The operations of the Spadina right of way are spastic, inefficient, impaired the functioning of the street, and is an alien space vehicle in a cringing world. Patently it is a success to the people who forced the project on the community in retribution for stopping a commuter motor expressway. In reality though having experienced the before and after of such a project clearly the
Spadina transitway is an abject failure.
The only saving grace for that area is the Kensington market where the real city retreated to and thrives is that it escaped the attention of the other neighborhoods. Unfortunately for the residents on St. Clair they will experience the same idiotic project that plagued Spadina. It takes a year to build the transitway and it takes about 15 years to recover socially from such a false project. It gives the neighborhood about ten years grace before the next social brainstorm from the suburbanite social elite to return its attention.
Why explore this pathway into this essay. What it shows is that there is a great gap between the perception and the reality. When I moved to Toronto I didn't move to the alleged upscale parts of town. They are the minority dysfunctional parts of Toronto. If I lived there in those illusions for any length of time, certainly I would be back in Edmonton.
The first time I moved here twenty years ago I went straight into the neighborhoods one is not supposed to like. I found it to be gritty, affordable, real and fun. I didn't go with the program. Also I found that the people who came to this city into a district like this one tended to stay in Toronto. The suburbanite refugees tended to always want to be somewhere else. They wanted a small urban town in a big city.
Now this confuses the people in places like Marathon. A large part of this is that they buy the outward face portrayed by the minority elites of Toronto. When confronted by the real city, like the city suburbanites they tend to go back home. Now this is not wrong nor right. It is the way it is.
One cannot come to a densely populated place like Toronto and expect things to accommodate their needs at the snap of a finger and no tip. One instantly loses all the social status, personal recognition, and close familiarity of a small town. One must drive to the efficiencies of city traffic not fumble around like it was a country lane.
So when a person clicks on a site like "The Torontoist." Take it with a grain of salt and a lot of doubting gravy. Its the promotion of a myth. A city that really doesn't exist. Its interesting for a few. Really though. Its complete bull crap.
(Note this is a draft only, I may return to revise the essay.)
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Seal of approval
Doesn't anyone else find it totally ironic that the jet setting do-gooders fly in on aircraft spewing tons of hydrocarbons in the air to save some "cute" seal pups. On the other hand that very activity is more likely to cause Global warming which will in turn cause the species to go extinct far more quickly than all the Newfie clubbers have done in the last four hundred years and could do in the next four hundred years.
Or is this just me?
Or is this just me?
Black's case
I thought you might like to keep up with the Black fraud case where Conrad Black is alleged to have embezzled a wad of cash to sate the spending habits of the Black Queen of King Street (BQKS). Of course on her defense she is the most beautiful, most intelligent person in the world. Just go ahead and ask her.
*The following article is provided for the education and edification of Canadian students on a noncommercial site of no particular benefit to anyone else.
*************
This article originally published by the Times of London (this day), which was a oh either a competitor or owned by Conrad of Doublecross Harbour. Anyway to know him... and all that.
*The following article is provided for the education and edification of Canadian students on a noncommercial site of no particular benefit to anyone else.
*************
This article originally published by the Times of London (this day), which was a oh either a competitor or owned by Conrad of Doublecross Harbour. Anyway to know him... and all that.
Black portrays himself as a victim
The Hollinger boss claims that he was taken in by a ‘web of deceit’, reports Tom Bower from the trial in Chicago
WITH obvious distaste throughout the first week of his trial, Lord and Lady Black have silently entered the 12th-floor Chicago courtroom appearing like outsiders at their own party. Walking past dozens of journalists whom Barbara Amiel characterised in a courthouse lift as “vermin” and facing a jury described as “working class, meat-and-potato folk” — a class the two social aristocrats have always disdained — the Blacks seem bereft of much comfort.
The odds, they know, are stacked against his acquittal. No less than 95% of federal prosecutions for fraud in the city end in conviction, and he faces 17 charges, including racketeering and obstruction of justice with a maximum sentence of 101 years in prison.
After their marriage in 1992, the Blacks had gleefully posed as an A-list power couple, travelling on their corporate Gulf-stream jet between their four sumptuous homes and mixing with billionaires, power brokers and politicians. Neither imagined the current scenario of humiliation and financial ruin. Nor did they calculate that their lifestyle, financed by Hollinger International’s public shareholders, would become the subject of a criminal trial where her confession — “now I have an extravagance that knows no bounds” — would be mercilessly regurgitated.
Conrad Black is accused of stealing more than $60m (£31m) from Hollinger by helping himself to money assigned as noncompete payments in the contracts to sell most of Hollinger’s newspaper empire after 1998. He is also accused of spending $40,000 of Hollinger’s funds on Amiel’s 60th birthday party in New York for 80 friends, of spending $250,000 by using Hollinger’s jet to fly on holiday to Tahiti with Amiel, and of swindling the company of about $3m in a swap of apartments in Manhattan. In the prosecution’s words, Hollinger was transformed by Black into his personal “piggy-bank” or the “Bank of Conrad Black”.
In his opening statement, Ed Genson, one of Black’s lawyers, dismissed the “perks” as consistent with a tycoon’s life. “His private life is his business life,” said Genson. Portraying Black as “a family man and a master of language who did everything by the book”, Genson admitted that Black’s self-incriminatory e-mails where he speaks disdainfully about shareholders and is unapologetic about using Hollinger’s money for his personal lifestyle show him as “snotty” and arrogant but, he insisted, not a thief.
“Other than a bad attitude you’re not going to find a single thing that’s wrong,” said Genson. “He was not stealing for himself. The company was stolen from him.” Establishing Black as a victim of theft is a fascinating undertaking.
The “thief”, according to Black, is David Radler, Black’s partner since 1969. Together they built the world’s third-larg-est newspaper company. According to Genson, the two partners split their newspaper empire, isolating themselves from each other.
While Radler ran the business in Israel, America and western Canada, Black was responsible for eastern Canada and Britain. Allegedly, neither spoke to the other about their own activities. “And just as the companies were run,” said Genson, “they were also sold.” In other words, Black was allegedly ignorant about all the sales and the phoney noncompete payments that Radler negotiated as the newspapers were disposed of.
In return for a 29 months’ imprisonment and a $250,000 fine, Radler has admitted one crime and agreed to testify against Black and his three codefendants. Radler has also paid about $100m in fines and compensation to Hollinger.
Just how Black will successfully pose as the ignorant victim of his partner intrigues the prosecution. After all, he was chairman, chief executive, a major shareholder and exercised the majority of voting rights. Repeatedly, in e-mails and conversations, he called Hollinger “my company” and described himself as the “proprietor”. Although more than $100m poured into his personal bank account from illegal deals, Black claims that he never closely questioned Radler about the source of the money.
Black, Genson told the jury, was Radler’s victim. “Radler spun a web of deceit,” said Genson and, to save himself from 30 years’ imprisonment, “cut a deal to end all deals . . . by dishing Conrad”. However, in his autobiography Black repeated 33 times how Radler was a close friend and partner with whom he shared every thought.
The first witness to undermine the defence was Gordon Paris, a banker recruited by Black in May 2003 as a director of Hollinger to reassure irate shareholders about Black’s honesty.
Paris testified: “Conrad Black was quite knowledgeable about Hollinger’s finances . . . Black had effective control of Hollinger.”
In June 2003, Paris ordered a special committee of directors to investigate Black’s conduct. In November 2003 they reported that Black had masterminded “corporate kleptocracy”, pocketing with Radler and others about $400m, or 73% of the company’s net income over six years.
Black and his codefendants have so far prevented the jury hearing the report’s damning conclusions. But in the internet age, it is likely that some jurors will, contrary to the judge’s orders, read the report.
In court, Black wanted to accuse Paris of outrageously enriching himself and wrecking the company. His lawyers squeezed into the record that Paris did at one stage earn $15,805 a day and feathered his nest by replacing Black as Hollinger’s chief executive and chairman.
The conclusive evidence of Paris’s greed, suggested Black’s lawyer, was a dinner on November 13, 2003, at Le Cirque — “one of New York’s most expensive restaurants”. Paris shot back: “That was only for Hollinger directors. We were talking business.” The topic was Black’s dismissal for dishonesty. Black has waited ever since that dinner to exact revenge.
The characterisation of that dinner as a “perk” provoked the prosecution.
“When you were at Le Cirque at Hollinger’s expense,” Eric Sussman, the prosecutor, asked Paris, “were you celebrating a birthday? Was there an opera singer? And was there a pianist?”
Sitting close to her husband, dressed in a black suit and a Chanel scarf, Amiel lent forward, noticeably tense. Conrad Black’s face flushed.
“No,” replied Paris. To intensify the Blacks’ embarrassment, Sussman continued: “And did you charge to Hollinger any clothes and tips for doormen?”
Amiel sank back in her chair. Notoriously, despite receiving an income of $1.45m from Hollinger, Amiel had charged the company $20 for a tip to the doorman of Bergdorf Goodman, the fashion store on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue.
“No sir,” replied Paris. All those perks will emerge during the trial, which promises to be ferocious and dirty.
Before leaving Toronto, Black promised to destroy his accusers. The lust for blood is shared by his young prosecutors. Their careers depend on convictions.
Over the next four months, neither side will show mercy or magnanimity. Conrad Black has declared that this is a fight to the death, and nobody disagrees.
Tom Bower is the author of Conrad and Lady Black, published by Harper Press
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Copyright furball & disclaimer
Somebody using the sacred name of a premier paleolithic cultural god head pointed out somewhat correctly, somewhat incorrectly about copyright regulations. Alas we be Canucks.
Here goes. And this is sworn on the Bible. Well a Quran. I got that for free last week. It will do.
"All written material posted on this website aka Blog is for the edification and education of students in Canada. This is a noncommercial publication. "
"No moneys paid. No monies received. If they want 15% of doo dick all, they got it. Would you like that in cheque form or direct deposit from me behind?"
"If any clown decides to bitch about this read the Canadian Copyright legislation for a change. And if said comedian decides to go anal about this throw me in jail where I will get three squares a day at $100,000 per taxpayer year: and like I will get a degree in Extraterrestial Aquaculture again at taxpayer expense just like learn to speak French too just like Karla; go ahead, go for it. How do I get four years out of this? Oh, I will get off the copyright charge, but get four and half solars for telling the judge just what I am going to say to you. Got a problem with our fine education system? If you do. Fuck right off."
Man, can I write a disclaimer or what.
Here goes. And this is sworn on the Bible. Well a Quran. I got that for free last week. It will do.
"All written material posted on this website aka Blog is for the edification and education of students in Canada. This is a noncommercial publication. "
"No moneys paid. No monies received. If they want 15% of doo dick all, they got it. Would you like that in cheque form or direct deposit from me behind?"
"If any clown decides to bitch about this read the Canadian Copyright legislation for a change. And if said comedian decides to go anal about this throw me in jail where I will get three squares a day at $100,000 per taxpayer year: and like I will get a degree in Extraterrestial Aquaculture again at taxpayer expense just like learn to speak French too just like Karla; go ahead, go for it. How do I get four years out of this? Oh, I will get off the copyright charge, but get four and half solars for telling the judge just what I am going to say to you. Got a problem with our fine education system? If you do. Fuck right off."
Man, can I write a disclaimer or what.
Monday, March 19, 2007
Black is the colour of a heart
Lady Black finally took a correct stand. As you all know, I am a fan of the Lord and Lordess of Crossharbour. You can read for yourself.
Mar 19, 2007 08:33 PM
Thursday, March 08, 2007
Going to buy
People wondering about this cluttered memory
Keep on chatter
Oh what, oh what
All knows what comes next
Oh what if I won the lottery
Some buy cars
Some buy vans
Some buy houses
Most buy drugs
Some buy hookers by the cans
After an hour skill dreams fits
I only have one fantasy skid
Instead, I'll get a big street car
Painting up like a part of transit
Sign reading "Not in Service"
Then run along the Dundas streets
Sucking up free power
From the citywide grid.
By G. Duncan Campbell
© All rights reserved 2005
Keep on chatter
Oh what, oh what
All knows what comes next
Oh what if I won the lottery
Some buy cars
Some buy vans
Some buy houses
Most buy drugs
Some buy hookers by the cans
After an hour skill dreams fits
I only have one fantasy skid
Instead, I'll get a big street car
Painting up like a part of transit
Sign reading "Not in Service"
Then run along the Dundas streets
Sucking up free power
From the citywide grid.
By G. Duncan Campbell
© All rights reserved 2005
Friday, March 02, 2007
Dilemma
Well recently I sat inside for a couple of weeks. Outside there was fairly good weather.
Freezing rain keeps pouring down in this endless storm. Which is okay, this is good for the grass. The lawn grass to be more specific. Would hate to spread false imagery.
Anyway, now there is a strong desire to go outside. Yes I know its confusing to me too.
_
Freezing rain keeps pouring down in this endless storm. Which is okay, this is good for the grass. The lawn grass to be more specific. Would hate to spread false imagery.
Anyway, now there is a strong desire to go outside. Yes I know its confusing to me too.
_
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