What Shall We Do With the Mountain View?

Collingwood / Urban Design & Growth2 Comments

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Here’s a new song for Collingwood, sung to the tune of What Shall We Do With the Drunken Sailor? Unbeknownst to council, the town wants to own the Mountain View Hotel for $1.9 million. This little-known fact appeared in the 600-plus page budget document without any fanfare. or even any other sort of notice. You’d have to dig through page after page of mind-numbing arrays of figures to find it. Normally, when the municipality wants to buy property, we go in camera to hear a staff report that justifies the purchase and we discuss the legal ramifications of the offer. ……… click below for more ↓

Let’s get the terms of this debate correct

Atheism & Spirituality / Canadian Politics / Science & TechnologyLeave a comment

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There’s a recent story in the Winnipeg Free Press with the headlines that, “Liberals fear pro-lifers trying to take over weakened federal party.” Gawd, I hate such inaccurate, slanted reporting. It’s bad enough when politicians engage in it, but the media should be more objective. Let’s get the terms straight, shall we? Then we can try for objectivity. To call one side “pro-life” is to give credibility to the implication that the other side is “anti-life.” That’s spinelessly accepting a one-sided spin on the debate. It appeals to the emotions, not the facts, and certainly not to logic. Neither side ……… click below for more ↓

Collingwood’s population on the rise, faster than Canada’s

Collingwood / Municipal Politics / Urban Design & Growth2 Comments

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Statistics Canada has released some of the key data data from its 2011 Census. In the five years since our last census (2006), Canada has grown in population size almost 6% to 33,476,688. That’s ten times larger than we were in 1861. Once again, our growth rate was the highest among G8 countries. According to the StatsCan analysis of the data, “every province and most territories saw its population increase between 2006 and 2011.” However, it notes that, “The rate of population growth increased in all provinces and territories between 2006 and 2011, except in Ontario, the Northwest Territories and ……… click below for more ↓

Bad Lao Tzu meme adds to growing list of mis-identified quotes online

Atheism & Spirituality / Memes; Internet & Social / Personal Reminiscences / Religion / Science & Technology

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This bad meme is going the Internet rounds: “If you want to awaken all of humanity, then awaken all of yourself, if you want to eliminate the suffering in the world, then eliminate all that is dark and negative in yourself. Truly, the greatest gift you have to give is that of your own self-transformation.” Lao Tzu Well, although deep – if a bit saccharine – it’s not from the Tao Teh Ching, the only work that the Old Master (the literal translation of his name) ever produced. The Tao Teh Ching is a notoriously difficult book to translate. Although ……… click below for more ↓

Why Admiral Collingwood should go ahead

Collingwood / Municipal Politics / Urban Design & Growth5 Comments

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Juxtaposition. That’s the issue Collingwood Council has to wrestle with, Monday: what effect will the juxtaposition of the proposed development’s size and height have on the existing, smaller buildings? Some people are afraid our existing heritage buildings will be diminished by this project. Last week I was in Toronto. At the corner of York and Wellington Streets, I saw the Toronto Club; a beautifully preserved, late 19th-century red-brick, three-storey building. It’s in the, heart of financial district, surrounded by tall, modern skyscrapers, some 30 or more storeys high. What made this building stand out was the contrast with, not the ……… click below for more ↓

Mayor Ford’s troubles a lesson for all Canadian mayors

Canadian Politics / Collingwood / Municipal PoliticsLeave a comment

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On days like this, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford must be banging his head against the wall. This week he – and indeed every Canadian mayor – was reminded that a mayor’s powers are limited to a single vote. That point was driven home when Councillor Joe Mihevc asked for a legal opinion on Ford’s unilateral decision to kill the Transit City plan, in December 2010, without consulting council. Mihevc also claimed Ford did not have the authority to sign a memorandum of understanding with the province to spend money from the Transit City project to put the proposed Eglinton LRT ……… click below for more ↓

The colour of the herd

Arts / Personal ReminiscencesLeave a comment

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I felt not so much like I was in a city full of undertakers, but rather in a city that was in casual but widespread mourning. A sombre, solemn city where everyone dressed in black in recognition of some great death, but one of which visitors were unaware. Standing at an intersection, the light would change and a wall of dark would approach, like a funeral procession that had just disbanded and was now going about its daily business in all seriousness. Okay, to be truthful, not everyone was in black. There were other dark shades among the herd: deep ……… click below for more ↓

The return of measles a threat to us all

Canadian Politics / Science & TechnologyOne Comment

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Here’s a scary fact: measles seems to be returning to the West. There has been a rise in the number of outbreaks in the last few years, including in Canada: Quebec and recently in London, Ontario. According to the Middlesex-London Health Unit, there have been recent outbreaks of both measles and mumps in many countries, including, “US states (including New York), United Kingdom, New Zealand, Spain, Switzerland, Italy, France, Serbia, Macedonia, Turkey, Peru, Guatemala, Congo, Zambia, Bangladesh and India.” So why are these diseases coming back? It seems it’s not because science has failed us. It’s not because the diseases ……… click below for more ↓

Why does yogurt aid digestion?

Food & Drink / Science & Technology / UncategorizedLeave a comment

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I’ve always wondered why probiotic yogurt was good for you. Yes, it aids digestions, as many clinical studies have shown, but exactly why has never been explained to my satisfaction. Until recently, that is. According to a story reported in The Scientist last fall, “The bacteria found in some fermented dairy products, such as yogurt, may alter gene expression in human gut microbes…” One of the results of the study that surprised me was that eating yogurt did not significantly alter the existing population of your gut microbes. Food microbiologist, David Mills, is quoted saying, “To assume that you could ……… click below for more ↓

Make it happen, crowd tells council about Admiral Collingwood

Collingwood / Municipal Politics / Personal Reminiscences / Urban Design & GrowthOne Comment

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Four hundred people, perhaps more, packed the Collingwood Legion, Sunday afternoon, to support the Admiral Collingwood development, at Hume and Hurontario Streets. It was arguably the most important public meeting of the last 18 months. The clear message, both from speakers at the rally and audience members, was “make it happen.” So many people packed the Legion hall that it was standing room only, with some forced to watch and listen from the alcove. The rally was called by a group of citizens to counter the recent opposition to the proposed developments at Hume and Hurontario Streets, within the heritage ……… click below for more ↓

Google Earth 6.2 gets somewhat better, but it still needs work

Arts / Science & Technology / Urban Design & GrowthLeave a comment

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It was big news this week that Google Earth 6.2 was released with a bunch of new pictures, and an improved satellite mesh that removed some of the previous patchwork of scans that made up some of its maps. The media are full of articles praising Google Earth’s new release. CNET noted, “The result is a more realistic and less distracting (though still optimistically cloudless) view of the planet. Update: It turns out that by turning on the weather layer, you can dispel Google Earth’s sunny optimism and see if it’s really cloudy by showing live weather data.” As much ……… click below for more ↓

Why is most TV so lame?

Arts / Personal Reminiscences / Science & Technology4 Comments

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I would expect from the names of TV channels like Discovery, The Learning Channel and History Channel that these would be educational, documentary, engaging, informative, deep, and rich with content. Silly me. I forgot that the mandate of most TV channels is to entertain the lowest common denominator, not to educate or engage. With shows like “Freaky Eaters” and “Extreme Couponing”, the “Learning” Channel is the bottom feeder in the TV IQ pond. Of the 30 bathetic shows in its current lineup, four are about baking with a fifth on cooking, five are about weddings, two are about tattoos, two ……… click below for more ↓

Slowly dies: another bad Internet meme

Arts / Books & Reviews / Language & Grammar / Memes; Internet & Social / Personal Reminiscences3 Comments

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I came across a fascinating poem, translated into English as “Slowly Dies.” There are numerous translations online, many by amateurs, but some very well crafted. It goes something like this (a portion from one translation): Dies slowly he who transforms himself in slave of habit, repeating every day the same itineraries, who does not change brand, does not risk to wear a new color and doesn’t talk to whom doesn’t know. Dies slowly he who makes of television his guru. Dies slowly he who avoids a passion, who prefers black to white and the dots on the “i” to a ……… click below for more ↓

What’s wrong with SOPA and PIPA?

Science & TechnologyLeave a comment

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9h2dF-IsH0I]Ever wonder what the fuss was about the “Stop Online Piracy Act” (SOPA) and the “Protect IP Act” (PIPA)? This video really explains it well. Both acts basically make everyone online guilty of piracy because we have the potential to steal simply by owning a computer connected to the Internet. It will be up to the user (you) to prove he or she is not doing it. As the speaker in the video says, the big media companies want consumers; not producers, not creators, and certainly not people sharing: just consuming what they are fed. As noted in a story ……… click below for more ↓

Shooting someone is so much fun, as long as it’s just virtual

Personal Reminiscences / Science & TechnologyLeave a comment

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It’s hard to explain to non-gamers why computer games – especially multiplayer games – are so much fun (and not simply a waste of time). It’s not just the amazingly detailled virtual worlds that offer rich, destructible, 3D environments to explore and move within. It’s not just the visceral experience of role playing or the adrenaline rush of combat/flight/racing against other players. It’s not just the sense of wellbeing from puzzle solving, accomplishing difficult tasks, or finishing challenging quests. It’s all of those and more. To appreciate computer games you first have to like gaming: engaging in the challenge of ……… click below for more ↓

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