How to Survive the Mayan Apocalypse

Balderdash & Hoaxes / Humour & Satire / Memes; Internet & Social / Religion / Science & TechnologyLeave a comment

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How will anyone survive the “end of the world” predicted for December 21, 2012? Easy: by breathing. That’s because it won’t happen. That the Mayans never predicted it would seems to have bypassed a few of the tin-foil-hat brigade. The complex Mayan calendar simply ends one of its long cycles – just like ours ends its annual cycle on December 31. Just like we end decades, centuries and millennia on Dec. 31 with a year that ends in zero (10, 100, 1000). But most important: it’s a calendar, fer cryin’ out loud. It’s not a Magic 8 Ball. You think the ……… click below for more ↓

Mayors Under Siege: Why Laws Must Change

Canadian Politics / Collingwood / Municipal Politics / Social Order & DisorderOne Comment

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Toronto Mayor Rob Ford is planning to appeal the recent judicial decision that ousted him from office for failing to obey one of the basic rules of municipal governance. In fact, during the hearing, he admitted never having read the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act, one of the key pieces of legislation that govern municipal politicians, even once during his decade on council. Superior Court Justice Charles Hackland wrote a 24-page decision that called Ford’s  “wilful blindness” inexcusable, and said: “It is difficult to accept an error-in-judgment defence based essentially on a stubborn sense of entitlement (concerning his football foundation) and a ……… click below for more ↓

Another popular myth debunked: moon doesn’t make crazies

Balderdash & Hoaxes / Faith / Memes; Internet & Social / Science & TechnologyLeave a comment

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“Myth Debunked: Full Moon Does Not Increase Incidence of Psychological Problems,” says the headline on a story on Science Daily. I was amused by the notion that, in 2012, anyone would seriously believe that the moon affected human psychology – especially supposed educated people. In this case, it was very serious and resulted in a paper with the lengthy and ponderous title, “Impact of seasonal and lunar cycles on psychological symptoms in the ED: an empirical investigation of widely spread beliefs.” The abstract says: This study evaluates the impacts of seasonal and lunar cycles on anxiety and mood disorders, panic ……… click below for more ↓

Do We Need a CAO to Run Town Hall?

Collingwood / Municipal Politics / Social Order & Disorder4 Comments

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One of the comments in a rather lengthy letter presented to council recently was about hiring a CAO. The author demanded a “panel of qualified citizens appointed by an independent body* to oversee the recruitment, participate in interviews and the transparent selection process to fill the vacant position of Chief Administrative Officer for the Town of Collingwood.” Aside from being wildly out of context in a letter ostensibly about local recreation facilities, that non-sequitur underscores a common misunderstanding about the nature of municipal governance and bureaucracy. Many municipalities have CAOs or someone in that position – sometimes called a City Manager. However, there is no requirement in ……… click below for more ↓

Ten Lessons Learned From the Petraeus Affair

Arts / Books & Reviews / Culture / Media Issues / Memes; Internet & Social / Social Order & Disorder / US PoliticsOne Comment

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After watching the recent, exaggerated – and sordid – upheaval over the story about an extramarital affair that the (now former) head of the CIA had with his biographer, I have come to several conclusions about America, sex, American media and publicity: 1. Americans, who bought millions of copies of “Fifty Shades of Grey“, a poorly-written, highly derivative, pornographic book, and then turned it into a national industry that includes home parties where BDSM equipment is sold to housewives, and dozens of spin-off blogs based on the book, are easily offended by “racy” emails between consenting adults. 2. Americans, who consume a vast quantity of online ……… click below for more ↓

Post-US Election Thoughts: The Blame Game

Memes; Internet & Social / Social Order & Disorder / Uncategorized / US PoliticsOne Comment

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It didn’t take long for the blame, the vitriol, the accusations and the excuses to start spewing forth from the Republicans, after Obama won a second presidential term. You would think that the party would be chastened, introspective and look to where they failed to engage the electorate. Do some serious soul-searching: what failed? Policies? Platforms? Ground work? Attack ads? Flip flops? Instead they seem to have their collective heads stuck in the sand and instead to looking inwardly, they are blaming others for their failure. And throwing in an unhealthy dollop of vituperation, as expected. Mitt Romney, the billionaire whose ……… click below for more ↓

The Useless Web

Arts / Internet & Social Media / Memes; Internet & Social / Social Order & DisorderOne Comment

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We all know Wikipedia is not always accurate, and sometimes biased. We all know that most internet quotations are wrong attributed or misquoted. We all know that the Web is full of useless, trivial pap like “psychic” hot lines, astrology, creationism and Ann Coulter. Plus it’s replete with the shallow: salacious gossip, celebrity skin, innuendo, pornography, political extremism, angels, UFOs, crop circles, anti-vaccine advocates, religious fundamentalists – the intellectual-nourishment equivalent of a  box of greasy fries and a sugar-laden soft drink. But they are content-rich, compared to the truly useless material collected on The Useless Web. Well, maybe not Ann Coulter. ……… click below for more ↓

Work and time slip by unnoticed

Books & Reviews / Personal ReminiscencesLeave a comment

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You’d think being semi-retired (or as I call it, creatively unemployed) would give me more time to do the things I like to do, more time to be creative. Nah. Things seem to intervene to prevent a focused approach on creativity these days. Not to mention that my Rogers internet crashed for a couple of days because their servers couldn’t keep my IP constant, so I was cast adrift from my virtual life and back into the depths of the printed work – poking through the mini-library upstairs. Most of yesterday was spent cleaning and reloading files after my blueagaveforum.com ……… click below for more ↓

Evolution, Creationism, and Elections

Atheism & Spirituality / Balderdash & Hoaxes / Faith / Religion / Science & Technology2 Comments

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Earlier this summer, Gallup released the results of its latest poll on American belief in evolution, creationism and “intelligent” design. The results are among the most depressing numbers ever posted about the decay of American thought and education. Yet although this should set off the warning bells to both US presidential candidates that something needs to be done to stem this problem, none of this has been raised in the debates or on the campaign trail. How can this have happened in one of the most technologically advanced nations in the world? How is it that the only nation to put a ……… click below for more ↓

Pondering the US election from a Canadian perspective

Canadian Politics / Media Issues / Politics / US Politics2 Comments

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Canadians often find US politics mystifying, no more so than during presidential elections. It’s not just their byzantine electoral college system (which truly baffles us – even when explained concisely as in the video below). It’s not just the differences between America’s republican governance system and our parliamentary system (although they do contribute mightily to the confusion since they are so dissimilar). These are process issues that can be sorted out through reading and study. What baffles us – or at least me – is the increasingly vituperative language of the candidates, their advertising, and even of the post-debate analysts (not the ……… click below for more ↓

Public meeting re possible casino, Monday

Collingwood / Games & Gaming / Social Order & DisorderLeave a comment

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Council will hear your comments about a possible gaming facility, Monday, October 29. This is a venue change: the meeting has been moved from Council Chambers to accommodate an expected large audience. Rogers Cable TV will be recording the meeting from 5 p.m. Monday’s meeting will be held at the Leisure Time Club, 100 Minnesota St. An open house to meet the OLG representatives and see some information boards will start at 4 p.m. and run until council starts at 5: OLG Reps present to answer questions, picture board displays around the room with pertinent information, staff distributing questionnaires, Q&A’s, ……… click below for more ↓

Gambling: money and statistics

Books & Reviews / Canadian Politics / Collingwood / Games & Gaming / Internet & Social Media / Municipal Politics / Social Order & Disorder / What I'm Reading Now5 Comments

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No, I’m not going to write about the morality of gambling.* I’ll save that for another post. This is about money. And numbers. I attended the OLG four-community presentation in Wasaga Beach, Tuesday, and it got me thinking about what gambling means to the economy, what it means to the government, what effect it might have on things like growth and recession. It also made me wonder how governments became addicted to gambling revenue, but that, too, is for another post. I also found some of the statistics presented interesting enough to do some extrapolation, which I’ll get to at the end. ……… click below for more ↓

Does product placement run the viewing experience?

Arts / Film & Reviews / Internet & Social Media / Personal Reminiscences / Social Order & Disorder4 Comments

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I was watching recent episodes of the BBC series, “Sherlock and Strike Back, this week, and towards the end of last night’s show, I wondered, again, why it was British TV shows were generally so much better than American TV. Why did do most British dramas seem more realistic, the characters more believable, the sets less artificial? Yes, having a longer tradition of acting, script writing and production plays into it. A robust public broadcasting system that doesn’t have to cater to corporate tastes or duck sticky political issues is another reason. So does not catering to pop fashion trends ……… click below for more ↓

Why does anyone need PR?

Books & Reviews / Internet & Social Media / Media Issues / Municipal Politics / Social Order & Disorder3 Comments

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Flavius Aetius. Only a handful of scholars know who he was. You can look him up on Google, but 1,500-plus years later, not many people will find him memorable, nor will they care. On the other hand, I’ll bet everyone reading this post knows who Attila the Hun was. Or at least you recognize the name, even if you aren’t really familiar with his history. It’s either an insult or praise to be called “right of Attila the Hun” these days, although Attila would not have understood the reference. Attila’s reputation as a warlord still resonates, 1,500 years later. But his ……… click below for more ↓

Conducting a survey about a casino

Collingwood / Internet & Social Media / Municipal Politics5 Comments

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Last night, Collingwood Council debated a motion about a possible casino in Collingwood, made by Counc. Joe Gardhouse that read, WHEREAS the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (“OLG”) has requested individual Municipalities to respond to their RFP not later than November 16, 2012; AND WHEREAS Collingwood has been identified as a potential host site for their Gaming facilities expansion within the C-7 zone; AND WHEREAS the potential monetary and ancillary benefits to the taxpayers and businesses of Collingwood are significant; AND WHEREAS this opportunity deserves and requires Municipal due diligence and public input as required by the OLG RFP; THEREFORE ……… click below for more ↓

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