“I do think heat has something to do with activating the smell. … Scratching will create some heat friction but my friend’s warm butt is likely the activator.” I enjoyed this story about supposedly scented C-notes. It doesn’t surprise me that warm polymer would have a sugary scent. The added
Continue readingThings Are Good: Save the Environment, Live in a City
The IEEE Spectrum recently interview William Meyer who is the author of the book The Environmental Advantages of Cities: Countering Commonsense Antiurbanism. The book’s central thesis is that we need to change the discourse around cities from a negative one to a more positive conversation about the efficiencies of cities
Continue readingthe disgruntled democrat: The New Empire Is American as Apple Inc.
In his influential blog post, Empires Then and Now, the former associate editor of the Wall Street Journal, Paul Craig Roberts, muses about the nature of the New Empire. According to Roberts, “the New Empire is different. It happens without achieving conquest . . . In the New Empire success
Continue readingRecreating Eden: Ray Charles on the Way We Should Behave
Lots and lots of depressing news coming when the world in this part of the world is ablaze with luminous greens. How about this for an anthem? When it comes to political parties, I prefer orange, BTW, but notice how the lovely little clip ends–a rainbow.
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Now Is The Time
From the day he took power, Stephen Harper — like Rob Ford — has viewed the parliamentary press gallery as maggots. Edward Greenspon writes in the Toronto Star: When he came into office, Harper threw out long-held rules of government-press engagement. He sowed fear and showed favouritism. Access was severely
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: This won’t last
You won’t believe this. We just found out that anti-Internet lobbyists are hosting happy hour parties in Washington to increase their influence over key TPP decision makers.1 They’re sipping cocktails and literally making their careers out of criminalizing our day-to-day Internet use. But we have a unique opportunity to push
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Women are Bitches
Like it is hard to find patriarchy on the Internets. It’s easy to think that the misogyny is just a feature of the those who just don’t know better, or who espouse a certain set of values like the dear followers of the GOP in the US. But no, when
Continue readingWarren Kinsella: Star: Ford’s office knew where crack tape video was filmed
After more than a week of extraordinary revelations, another one this morning: the Star is reporting that someone senior in Rob Ford’s office – paid for by Ford’s mythologized taxpayer – knew where to find the video of Ford smoking crack cocaine. That is, the video that Ford now confidently
Continue readingmark a rayner | scribblings, squibs & sundry monkey joys: Protected: A Reluctant Emcee
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
Continue readingmark a rayner | scribblings, squibs & sundry monkey joys: The big fat truth, the BMI sucks
This is a fascinating article in Nature showing evidence that being slightly overweight may be healthier. Of course, the real morsel of truth in the whole article is that the BMI (Body Mass Index) isn’t exactly the most fine-tuned way … Continue reading →
Continue reading350 or bust: This Is Water: Thoughts On Living A Compassionate Life
It’s TED Talk Tuesday on 350orbust, but I’m breaking with tradition and posting a non-TED talk. It’s an excerpt of a longer commencement address given at Kenyon College in 2005 by the late American novelist David Foster Wallace. When I came across the video, nine days after it was posted
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: Developments In On-Line Defamation Law
From Colby Cosh, the hirsute one himself: Early commentary on Burke’s lawsuit over claims he had an affair with a broadcaster was focused on the difficulty of tracking down internet anonymice and serving them with the right papers. The established pathway is to go through internet service providers to get
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Do we have it? #nlpoli
Kathy Dunderdale had a pretty easy audience on Monday for her relaxed, ambling speech about a whole bunch of stuff. It was the St. John’s Board of Trade. As a rule, the townie business community have the guts of political guppies. They’ll run along with whatever the government says and
Continue readingFacing Autism in New Brunswick: NBTA Acknowledges Education Department’s Obsession With Inclusion Philosophy
The New Brunswick Teachers Association has spoken up … sort of … about New Brunswick’s extreme inclusion philosophy. The NBTA to its credit acknowledges, finally, that inclusion is a philosophy not an educational plan as stated by outgoing NBTA President Heather Smith at a meeting of delegates from around the
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Boss Harper and the Ford Duffy Nightmare
Golly. I'm sure Stephen Harper must look back fondly at the time when he had big plans for Rob Ford.Those happy days when him and Big Boy could pose together under the logo of the Toronto police, declare they were for law and order, unlike the opposition who were for the criminals.
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Expect Joe Anglin – potential problem for Danielle Smith – to be in for a talking to
Walter Sobchak, played by John Goodman, explains some of the harsh realities of life to the Dude and other characters from The Big Lebowski. In Alberta, when we crave this kind of frank talk, we listen to MLA Joe Anglin, the Wildrose representative for Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre. Below: The real
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: The confusing reinvention of Alberta’s Natural Governing Party.
TweetSuccess comes with challenges, and for Alberta’s Progressive Conservatives, forty-two years of electoral success has come with its own unique set of challenges. One of the PC Party’s biggest successes has been its ability to reinvent itself over its more than four decades in power. It is sometimes difficult to
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Rise of the Electric Automobile
There’s a battle rumbling south of the border. And it’s one Canadians aren’t hearing a lot about unless they plumb the news feeds online. It started for Tesla Motors during the 2012 U.S. presidential race. As the electric car company paid off its governments loans earlier this month, American government
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Word From The West
We are still in Alberta, having just returned to Edmonton from a trip to Banff and Lake Louise conducted by our son. I suspect that even if we weren’t here, I would have some sympathy for the West’s reaction to the latest utterance from Justin Trudeau. Although I generally don’t
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