… physicists ruin physics (bumper sticker — I doubt if it exists, but it should) The efficacy of a computer simulation (or of any other numerical computation) in predicting the behaviour of a physical system, crucially hinges on two ingredi…
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Offshore board responds to helicopter inquiry report
From the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board [paragraphing altered for readability; original here]: The Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board (C-NLOPB) today responded to the final report of the Offshore He…
Continue readingGo Alex Neve Go! "First it was Jason Kenney. Now it’s Margaret Wente."
Jane Taber clutches her pearls over Amnesty International’s reproachment of just not Jason Kenney but now fellow Globe & Mail hack Margaret Wente. Going after a Conservative government official is one thing but going after best bud Wente, oooh that…
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: Ars Technica: Canada poised to say goodbye to online privacy & security
Privacy commissioners, academics, digital rights advocates, and former Conservative ministers have all voiced their concerns about Lawful Access. At the very least, oversight and caution must guide such sweeping, invasive changes to the current legal r…
Continue readingDemocratic Progress: Ask Your Mom or Ask Your Dad
A quick hit on Ontario PC leader Tim Hudak on pot, with the news that he’s “gotten high”, presumably on some pretty “fly doobies” in his distant past (he’s only 44, but displays an incoherence well beyond his years).Hudak goes on to say he’s opposed to…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Can You Help Me With My Complaint Against Sun News Network and Michael Coren?
I am reproducing the correspondence I just received from the CRTC regarding my complaint against Sun Tv regarding Michael Coren’s recent racist comments. As you will see from the note, for the complaint to proceed, I need the specific details about th…
Continue readingCuriosityCat: No to the Euro Bond but Yes to the UK’s Social Bond?
Chancellor Merkel turned aside Sarkozy’s request for consideration of the much vaunted “Euro Bond”, arguing that it really amounted to the stronger EU countries guaranteeing the debt of the weaker ones, but without any commitments by the weaker ones to…
Continue readingRecreating Eden: For the Record: The Gazette Says Now to Making the Armed Forces "Royal"
The Montreal English language daily The Gazette fell all over itself welcoming William and Kate, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge a few weeks ago, so you might think it would also be wowed by the idea of reintroducing “royal” into the names of Canada’…
Continue readingStudy: religion to be extinct in Canada and eight other nations
Why neither Bachmann and Perry will win in 2012 or any other year.Why Harper keeps his fundamentalism under wraps while he desperately and quietly keeps religion as an important player in his government. And why his devotion to Israel takes preced…
Continue readingwmtc: "we work to buy things that are built to die so that we must work to buy more things that will break"
Two weeks ago, my coffee maker broke. It was a electric percolator (I wrote about my preference for it here), made by Cuisinart. It’s the third such percolator I’ve had in a six-year span. One day they just stop working.I purchased this particular coff…
Continue readingMorton's Musings: Absent a statutory provision, no court has any jurisdiction to entertain an appeal
R. v. R.V.F., 2011 NSCA 71 deals with a case where the Crown failed to elect expressly as to summary or indictable procedure in a youth matter. In dealing with that issue the Court made a useful comment regarding the nature of appeals. The dreaded qu…
Continue readingKing of the Shiners: The Royal We
I’m not entirely sure what to make of the re-renaming of the “Navy” and “Airforce”. I feel like I should have a strong opinion about it. I’m admittedly a traditionalist, monarchist, nationalist, but I can’t seem to work up the rage/sense of triumph that so many commentators seem to be
Continue readingKing of the Shiners: The Royal We
I’m not entirely sure what to make of the re-renaming of the “Navy” and “Airforce”. I feel like I should have a strong opinion about it. I’m admittedly a traditionalist, monarchist, nationalist, but I can’t seem to work up the rage/sense of triumph tha…
Continue readingKing of the Shiners: The Royal We
I’m not entirely sure what to make of the re-renaming of the “Navy” and “Airforce”. I feel like I should have a strong opinion about it. I’m admittedly a traditionalist, monarchist, nationalist, but I can’t seem to work up the rage/sense of triumph that so many commentators seem to be
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Remembering Gideon Rosenbluth
Below is the text of the obituary for Gideon Rosenbluth, a renowned progressive economist and inspiration to us at the PEF, and a past president of the Canadian Economics Association. **** Gideon Rosenbluth January 23, 1921 August 8, 2011 Gideon Rosenbluth died suddenly in Vancouver while swimming with a friend on a sunny day. […]
Continue readingGeoff at Mount Allison: Mount Allison University Video Playlist for New Students
If you read this blog regularly you no doubt are familiar with Mount Allison’s newest video series: 20 Tips for first-year students. Below is a convenient player that has all of the videos to date. There are 9 posted so far and 11 to come with 1 poste…
Continue readingRecreating Eden: Thursday in the Park with Jeanne and More Than Thirty Years of Subsidized Day Care in Quebec
Today Jeanne is spending the day with us, the first time she’s passed a whole day away from her parents some place not her own home. It’s momentous in a way, but she will be a year old in a week so she’s quite ready for the experience, as are Grandma …
Continue readingTrashy's World: Perspective…
This is what I Tweeted this morning: baldjam 7:51am via HootSuite ALERT! Black BMW. Male driver. Driving S on Russell about 10 min. ago.ALMOST HIT MY WIFE & DAUGHTER.Any info, PLS call police! #Ottawa Scary stuff. Got a call from my very upset spouse telling me that a speeding black BMW ran swerved around a […]
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Would You Vote Over The Internet?
I trust computers… to do what their potentially untrustworthy programmers tell them to do. Because it’s computer code that could be corrupted, there’s little means for the layperson voter to verify they aren’t being swindled. That said, online voting is becoming inevitable, and may be required to pull young voters into participating in our democracy. […]
Geoff at Mount Allison: Atlantic International Studies Organization at Mount Allison University
As we’re moving closer to September I’d like to include a mention feature from the Mount Allison University website regarding the Atlantic International Studies Organization (ATLIS). Because ATLIS is such an important and longstanding group on c…
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