“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 readingTag: Money
Things Are Good: A Sense of Purpose is More Important Than Money for Workplaces
In this TED Talk Dan Ariely presents his research into what motivates people to do work and how they feel about their workplace. The findings are interesting because it’s not necessarily what people do but the reactions to what has been done that provides motivation.
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: The Audit With a Twist #cdnpoli
$3.1 Billion is missing according to a damning audit of the Harper Government. Let’s see what political pundits recently have said about audit failure: Federal government audit ‘severely critical’ – The Star headline “The independent audit […] speaks for itself, and we accept its conclusions and recommendations,” said Jan O’Driscoll,
Continue readingAnother Step to Take: the complicated problem of sweatshops
Have you ever heard of the island of Saipan? It is an American territory in the pacific, where I had never heard of it until an email arrived from Walt Goodridge, who offered me two ebooks to review. One tells the story of a Chinese woman working in textile factories in Saipan.
Continue readingChristy's Houseful of Chaos politics » Christy's Houseful of Chaos: the complicated problem of sweatshops
Have you ever heard of the island of Saipan? It is an American territory in the pacific, which as a Canadian I had never heard of it until an email arrived from Walt Goodridge, who offered me two ebooks to review. One tells the story of a Chinese woman working in textile
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: Liberals Should Blame Trudeau For Few Supporters
If Justin Trudeau was more concerned about winning the Liberal leadership than winning the next election, not only would his party have more registered supporters, but 2015 would almost certainly look more rouge. It may seem counter-intuitive to blame the ever-popular Justin Trudeau for the Liberal Party’s lower than expected
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Crappy Contractors – a Solar Powered RANT
I’m trying to get solar panels on my house under the MicroFIT program. It’s been a process so fraught with frustration, I’m thinking of forgetting the whole thing. A colleague told me, “This could only happen to you,” which offered a strange sort of comfort. At least it acknowledges that
Continue readingAnother Step to Take: an open-letter about social assistance in Ontario
The other day I sent off a bunch of handwritten letters. They varied depending on whom I wrote them to. The one to the Ontario NDP leader, Andrea Horwath, went like this. Dear Ms. Horwath, Though I am not personally on Ontario Works, I have many conversations with those who
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: Penny Wise, World Foolish: Pennies Never Cost A Cent
All the attention focused on how costly it is to make pennies is worth less than any piece of copper. For much of last year the most popular cited reason, the go-to justification for scrapping the penny was that making one costs more than what it’s worth. Simple economics, or
Continue readingAnother Step to Take: What is social assistance really about anyway?
A few days ago I had a conversation with a woman on Ontario Works (welfare). She described what she goes through in order to get emergency dental care. She has to go first to her worker and a funding card. Then she goes to try to find a dentist that will
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Oh Canada – Our Bought And Sold Out Land (VIDEO)
Via YouTube: Dan Mathews has done us all a favor, with his educational documentary, as he reveals common misconception in how we deal with banks. Watch and laugh as Dan catches our politicians off guard with some simple questions. These questions are simple, but you’d be surprised who actually has
Continue readingAnother Step to Take: work: both paid and unpaid
One Model of How Things Work I’m thinking today about work, both productive work like building houses or caring for sick people, and less productive work like packaging bad mortgages for resale or designing marketing strategies for cigarettes. I’m thinking about this because I’ve read a number of comments recently
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Don’t Care About Penny Salami Slicing
There’s a bit of hand wringing going on around Facebook amongst typically the anti-Harper crowd. Normally I’d join in, because it’s worth wringing hands over practically everything our Prime Minister has going wrong in our country. One thing he’s managed to not get wrong, is ending the penny. It’s a
Continue readingAnother Step to Take: blogging about blogging
“Writers deserve to get paid for their work” says a popular blogger in defense of putting her blog behind a paywall. The arguments and comments made by her fans and detractors alike fascinate me because they touch on several important issues such as what work is and what we use
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Credit card size sheets of gold for uncertain times
A Swiss-based company has introduced credit card size sheets of gold that can be broken like a chocolate bar into 1 gram pieces, and they are rapidly growing in popularity across Europe – especially in Germany, where the people still remember the massive devaluation of the currency and the pain
Continue readingAnother Step to Take: thoughts after a visit to the social assistence offices
I went last week with some friends into the Ontario Disability Support Program office (ODSP) and the Ontario Works (OW) office. It was my first time being in the building. I was struck by the difference between the carpeted and better furnished ODSP office and the bare floored empty waiting
Continue readingAnother Step to Take: my thoughts on Paved With Good Intentions: Canada’s development NGOs from idealism to imperialism
I’m getting ready to return the book Paved With Good Intentions: Canada’s development NGOs from idealism to imperialism by Kikolas Barry-Shaw and Dru Oja Jay back to the friend who lent it to me, but I want to make a few notes about ideas I found interesting. I know a different friend who
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Climate Change as an Asteroid
Over the break, I got a Kindle app for my Macbook (free!) when I realized I could wait for morning to go to Wordsworth to get one of Paul Krugman’s books, or get it right that second and start reading. Immediate rewards are very motivating. The book outlines the diminishing
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On RESPs, EAPs, Grants, Gains, and Morons
Okay, maybe “moron” is a little harsh. I just finished a painful conversation with a banker. We argued for over an hour before he asked a superior and conceded that I actually know what I’m talking about. Here’s the deal… ETA (Jan 10) – Okay, wait! The following shouldn’t have
Continue readingcalgaryliberal.com: #AblegCares
So, myself, Joey Oberhoffner, Derrick Jacobson (@AlbertaAltruist), Marc Doll (@DollHouseYYC), and Stephen Anderson (@StephenDAnderso) got together to eat tacos. For charity. For every taco eaten we’d get our pledges to donate. Pretty simple. Also, pretty awesome. With an anonymous donor matching up to $5,000, we just had to eat as
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