It’s an important anniversary for me today – on February 4, 2004, I smoked my last cigarette. And that was one of the best decisions of my life. It was very difficult. But I did it. And I haven’t become one of those rabid anti-smokers; even though I now find
Continue readingTag: Health
cmkl: A minor tear in my right, outer meniscus
We expect. We hope. We being me and the awesome physiotherapist I saw today at the Carleton Sports Therapy Clinic. The meniscus is the donut-shaped bit of padding between the ends of the upper and lower leg bones that join at the knee.
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Mental Health and The Hypocrisy of #BellLetsTalk
Bell didn’t actually start any conversation about mental health, despite their PR. So now that Bell has enjoyed PR-pimping mental health as a self-aggrandizing excuse to give money to Canadian mental health programs, I didn’t actually expect to see #MentalHealth trending in Twitter like #BellLetsTalk did yesterday, and to a
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: What’s With Pipeline-Loving Old Men?
High 5′s to people are aren’t old men! [on average, 19 times out of 20, +/- 3.6% of the time.] My apologies if you’re a man, or over 55, but those two demographics love the Big Oil, and they’re giving you all a bad name! Here’s why. I know lots
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: The NHL Gladiator Pimps
Risking player’s brain trauma for profit makes the NHL a gladiator pimp organization. At some point, as estimates continue to roll in, the NHL accountants and lawyers will realize that reducing concussion risk in the NHL will make the league more profitable. The NHLPA needs to do a better job
Continue readingThings Are Good: A Game Designed to Help Solve Eye Problems
Diplopia – A VR Game to Help Strabismus and Amblyopia is exactly what it sounds like. This sounds like a great gaming project! The game is meant to help people who have some eye issues strengthen their weak eye to restore (near) perfect control over their stereo-vision. You can contribute
Continue readingThings Are Good: Bill Gates Shares Some (More) Good News From 2013
Bill Gates is best known for his hyper capitalistic behaviour creating Microsoft, but since he left the company he’s trying to change that perception. Indeed, he has done good things for the planet since he left he company he once founded. Gates and his wife have created the Gates Foundation
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: The Ultimate New Year’s Resolution
It’s mostly us. Many of us have heard of the idea of planning policy to consider effects seven generations downline. We’re pretty smart. It shouldn’t be that hard. But we have many incentives to think short term. Sometimes so short that we are ignorantly and apathetically victimizing our descendants. But
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Ending Homelessness: Easy If You Simply Care
If we are a caring society. If we acknowledge that there are a myriad of reasons why a community’s homeless population is homeless. If we thought we should invest our tax dollars and take advantage of good research, good experience, good pilot projects and professionals to address homelessness and other
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Greed + Government Cuts Erode Society [Bah, Humbug!]
The greedy and selfish among us are NOT on our side. Happy Christmas Eve! I hope you’re all giving lots of money to charities because ’tis the season and all that. But what happens if generally, as a society, we can’t or won’t give so much? Coupled with public sector
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Enbridge: What Now? We Escalate Our Fight
Some breaking news occurred yesterday, the Joint Review Panel of the National Energy Board approved the Enbridge pipeline, but with 209 conditions. To quote a teenager from 1994: “Big whoop.” Also, big whoop goes out to the awesome pictures of soon to be decimated pristine wilderness on the report cover.
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Fixing Cyncial Corporate Media
How to inoculate yourself against cynical corporate media. Corporate news media is not on our side. It is on the side of stoking fear, cynically eroding possibilities of a better, more robust democracy, and scaring us into obedience to corporations and government through sensational stories that undermine our happiness. But
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Fried Squirrels
It’s a crisp, foggy November Saturday morning in the south side of the city. Seventeen people sit in the large open area at the back end of an organic fair trade coffee shop run by a workers’ co-op inspired by the Mondragon movement in Spain. Meet-ups like this are quite
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Public sector unions legally challenge Harper Conservatives’ Bill C-4
Federal public sector unions are joining forces to legally challenge the Harper Conservatives’ latest assault on Canadian workers’ rights through Bill C-4. The post Public sector unions legally challenge Harper Conservatives’ Bill C-4 appeared first on The Canadian Progressive.
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: How Does Violence at Home Affect Workplaces in Canada?
Worksafe BC at least isn’t keeping itself in the dark Here is yet another stigma-laden, denial-inducing taboo topic in society and workplaces: domestic violence. And when we connect violence at home to effects on people as workers in the workplace, we get lots of crickets. So I’m happy to report
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Rob Ford Does The Expected
If there’s an incriminating video out there, naturally you’d hire a criminal cracker to destroy every copy. My prediction? Rob Ford will announce a new housing strategy.— Andrew Matte (@AndrewMatte) November 05, 2013 #CrackHousing? Then spend months denying there’s a video. When the police confirm they have recovered the video
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: As always, it’s the coverup (if that’s what it is)
At this point, I really don’t give a damn if Toronto Mayor Rob Ford did drugs. If he did it certainly hasn’t impaired his performance as a politician. What I do care about are the following: Ford obviously has major issues. Be they mental or substance, or both, he needs
Continue readingThings Are Good: Even Moderate Exercise Can Stave Off Depression
There’s a bunch of scientific evidence that already proves the benefits of exercise for one’s mental health, and now we know that even moderate workouts can have a huge impact. Even walking for just 20-30 minutes a day can improve resilience to depression! So if you don’t want to go
Continue readingMelissa Fong: Children, health and the medical fools who focus on BMI
Who are these fools that believe it’s okay to measure a child’s BMI (Body Mass Index), label them as overweight and decide to call it a day because they think they taught someone about health? “[A] paper published today by the American Academy of Pediatrics argues that weighing and measuring the height
Continue readingThings Are Good: Men: Drink With Your Friends to Stay Healthy
Now there’s the perfect excuse to go watch the game with your friends or just chillax in a bar! It turns out that males really benefit when they engage in face to face activities with their friends twice a week regardless of what they actually do. So go out tonight
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