So here we have Canada with its waving fields of yellow, just screaming out for a homegrown condiment industry. “What kind of mustard do you want?” waitresses should ask all over the world, and patrons should reply, “Canadian!” But we don’t want to stick our brand on a tired old
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Yappa Ding Ding: Quite unexpectedly
I was reading about Syria today, how it’s teetering at the abyss of becoming a failed state – failed like Somalia, a place with no government, a chaos of pirates and warlords – but a failed state with massive caches of chemical weapons that will almost certainly fall into the
Continue readingYappa Ding Ding: More than you want to know about… mustard
Canada is the world’s largest producer of mustard seed, and grows about one-third of total world production. The only other major producer is Nepal (who knew!), but Nepal’s production seems to be used mostly for mustard oil. The US has at least ten manufacturers of mustard-the-condiment. US mustard seed production
Continue readingYappa Ding Ding: Eric Davis FTW
The upcoming (as yet undated) by-election in Kitchener-Waterloo could change our minority provincial government into a Liberal majority. As a Liberal and an ardent supporter of Premier McGuinty, I think that would be a pretty great thing. I will continue to monitor all the candidates, but at this point I
Continue readingYappa Ding Ding: Make room for aaaAAAaaa…
There’s no way this could be as drawn out as the Hail to the Chief episode, and it could never get as annoying as the Pennsylvania Polka episode, and in fact some would say that having O Fortuna from Carmina Burana stuck in your head is not the worst thing
Continue readingYappa Ding Ding: Rant: Mount Everest
I recently read Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air and then spent a couple of days on the internet looking up information about Mount Everest and the people who attempt to reach its summit. There is only one thing that interests me about the whole sorry mess of the Mount Everest
Continue readingYappa Ding Ding: RIM and Waterloo
I don’t have any argument today, just a report of some things I’ve read. I have been trying to find information on Waterloo’s vulnerability to the problems at RIM. The Economic Times of India (link) says that nearly one third of the city of Waterloo’s office/plant space is owned or
Continue readingYappa Ding Ding: Waterloo’s Reputation Takes a Beating
Waterloo could use a boost from a good PR firm. RIM is being discussed in major media outlets around the world, and nobody seems to have anything good to say about our town. Last week, on a day that topped 35 Celsius, one analyst site posted a photo of Waterloo
Continue readingYappa Ding Ding: Henry V (review)
A pivotal moment in Shakespeare’s Henry V is when Henry tells his army to kill their prisoners. Shakespeare has taken Henry through a long epic of personal change. In Henry IV Part I, Prince Hal is a dissipate, fun-loving, rich man’s son, feeling guilty about the bad deeds his father
Continue readingYappa Ding Ding: Mechanics of Dysfunction
When I read about towns in the US that are incorporating and privatizing (such as in the New York Times this week), my first reaction is horror at this latest outbreak of libertarianism. Communities take this route in order to shirk their responsibilities to poor people who live outside the
Continue readingYappa Ding Ding: Some scattered thoughts about Alan Turing
It is Alan Turing’s 100th birthday today, June 23. Earlier this week I went to a documentary about Turing at Waterloo’s Institute for Quantum Computing and then did some reading. Here are a few things I found interesting… Early computers were referred to by many names, including radio brains, universal
Continue readingYappa Ding Ding: Liberal Leaders: Guaranteed Support?
Nothing succeeds like success, and nothing fails like failure. We Liberals have blown through four leaders in recent years (I count Bob Rae among the four because he has been much more than a caretaker). Our leaders have all failed – because we have not supported them. When the Harper
Continue readingYappa Ding Ding: A Sad Regret that Rae Said No
Of all our options for permanent leader, Bob Rae is the most competent, experienced, principled, classy, witty, formidable, erudite and knowledgeable. We would have been very lucky to have him as permanent leader. I was amazed he was willing to continue to stand for the job. It is six years
Continue readingYappa Ding Ding: Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury had a profound effect on me: my interests, sensibilities, sense of awe, dreams, desires, ideal writing style, values, phobias. When I was a kid I devoured his books: especially Something Wicked This Way Comes, The October Country, and the like; but I loved all of them. There’s one
Continue readingYappa Ding Ding: Blind Justice?
Ten years ago it seemed shocking when an American politician complained, “We used to put people in jail because we were afraid of them. Now we put people in jail because we don’t like them.” Today it seems that not liking someone is an accepted reason for prosecution. John Edwards
Continue readingYappa Ding Ding: Some tips for finding a job
While I hope noone loses their job, it’s not looking good. Here are job hunting tips that worked for me. These might be of general interest but are aimed at technical writers in Waterloo. Post your resume on monster.ca, workopolis.com, and linkedin.com. Keep in mind that employers and recruiters search
Continue readingYappa Ding Ding: RIM, BlackBerrys and Waterloo
The Gobe & Mail announced this morning that RIM is planning large layoffs in the next couple of weeks, probably more than 2,000 of its 16,500 worldwide workforce. I got out just in time: I resigned from RIM very recently – so recently that my last day was this week
Continue readingYappa Ding Ding: Throw the Bum Out!
Okay now. I was willing to let Conrad Black be, on the principle that when someone has served their time they should be left alone to live their life – unless they are a danger to society. Black has been back in Canada such a short time, and already Black
Continue readingYappa Ding Ding: What Makes a Great Superhero Movie?
A few hours ago I plunked myself down in a movie theater, 3D glasses on nose, popcorn and diet coke to hand, ready to watch an action movie that got 93% on Rotten Tomatoes – The Avengers. And I was bored. The movie was packed with great actors doing fine
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