I have to wonder why phone polls are still news and still given so much credence both by the media, media consumers and the political class generally. Almost the most interesting thing about the Ontario election (apart from the disintegration of Tim Hudak’s written-for-buzzfeed campaign platform) has been how completely
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cmkl: Home again: another Rideau Lakes Cycle Tour done
This was waiting in the fridge for me when I got home from day two of the Rideau Lakes Cycle tour earlier this afternoon. I have some statistical trivia to share but the most important number to note is that in the last few months I’ve spent on average seven
Continue readingcmkl: Kingston
I’m in Kingston now, holed up in my residence room after a couple of recovery beers. I don’t have my numbers because I only brought my phone and the GPS wants a computer to cough up the data, but I think I did well. From what I can tell my
Continue readingcmkl: All systems go
A short, mostly flat ride to test some new gear that I think will make the Rideau Lakes Cycle Tour a bit more comfortable and enjoyable for me this year. A new jersey, new socks, and a new rear shifter. Thanks to the Cyclery for digging up the part for
Continue readingcmkl: Lap the Gats: redux
I’m pretty pleased with my performance at Lap the Gats today. I was 27th out of 200 riders, 15th in my age group. I did better still at the hill climbing part of the event – 11th overall and 5th in my age group. All those training rides have paid
Continue readingcmkl: Boy Stalin rides again
Robin Sears, who earned his nickname “Boy Stalin” as then NDP premier Bob Rae’s chief of staff wrote this stunner of a commentary trashing the people who signed that open letter against Andrea Horwath’s current campaign plan/platform. I now understand much better where the moniker comes from. He calls the
Continue readingcmkl: Tallie Doyle takes on the Ottawa Carleton District School Board’s dress code
My daughter has the same dress code at her school. It’s galling. Supposedly done to keep ‘the boys’ from getting distracted and to help them improve their marks. And for girls to avoid unwanted attention. Tallie’s sin was to wear a tank top with visible bra straps. She got a
Continue readingcmkl: Introducing the Idaho stop
Aka Why cyclists should be able to roll through stop signs and ride through red lights. It’s not totally nuts you know. I like the point tht it would put an end the odd dance that occurs when motorist and cyclist are watching each other at intersections, trying to figure
Continue readingcmkl: Dangerous buffoon
In short, the remaining weeks of this campaign are going to be fought in large part around the character of Tim Hudak. Is he a bold visionary? Or is he a dangerous buffoon? Thomas Walkom in the Toronto Star. I vote dangerous buffoon.
Continue readingcmkl: Bad neighbours and too much money
This is astounding. Too much time on their hands, too much money and yet too little spent on therapy. At least the judge had a sense of humour about it. For their part, the Defendants have not been entirely innocent. They appear to have learned that the Plaintiffs – and
Continue readingcmkl: And the rest, as they say, is gravy
Today’s ride, a 164km tour through the countryside south and east of Ottawa (Berwick – if that means anything), put me over the top for my training goal for this year’s Rideau Lakes Cycle Tour. Despite the late start I have now logged 1025km. Today’s ride felt pretty good. Mainly
Continue readingcmkl: Linda McQuaig on the Hudak jobs “plan”
If 100,000 jobs are created every time Tim Hudak sees a UFO, should we assume that we’ll soon reach full employment — or that we can all just relax and enjoy French fries? Linda McQuaig on iPolitics.ca. Brilliant. Funny. With actual real live facts, like pointing out that the Conference
Continue readingcmkl: Missing: provincial social democratic party. Reward offered for safe return
The Ontario NDP must have some pretty compelling and unusual polling data that they’re not sharing with the rest of the world. And why would they? It’s so compelling and so credible that it’s led them to bring down the Liberal government and force an election despite the fact that
Continue readingcmkl: Topped 600km. First time in the Gatineaus
An evening of firsts. First time this year in the Gatineau Park hills. First time riding in shorts and a short sleeve jersey. First flat tire. And all in I’ve put 660km on my bike this season. I’m pretty confident I’ll be able to make my 1000km goal by the
Continue readingcmkl: Ads vs organizing: it’s the wrong debate at the CLC convention
There’s a debate raging at the CLC now about whether the Congress should levy more money from its members (to the tune of $22 million) to fund a paid publicity campaign to improve the image of the labour movement in the eyes of TV viewers.
Continue readingcmkl: Death to slogans
The title of this post is, in fact, a slogan. But I’m thinking slogans are verbal dead weight in the internet era. What harm would it do us to just cut them all out and put content up front?
Continue readingcmkl: 300km and counting
Yesterday I rode a 130km look to Winchester and back. I must say I’m loving the Ottawa Bicycle Club. Even if you don’t do the group rides there’s years of wisdom in their route maps. These last two rides have been inspired by routes I’ve found on their site. The
Continue readingcmkl: And now we ride: Almonte 115km
First time out. A slightly accelerated approach to training for the Rideau Lakes Cycle Tour. They tell you to ride 1000km in preparation. I usually manage to come close or exceed this. But then I usually start riding by mid March. So there are ten weeks before Rideau Lakes and
Continue readingcmkl: Designated day creep: it’s a thing
In one of my earlier posts about designated day creep, I cited evidence of a trend wherein the number of special days we mark in the union movement is growing at a dizzying rate. As further evidence, I give you the United Nations official list of observed days. I’ll save
Continue readingcmkl: Is Heartbleed really as bad as all that?
Okay so there is a vulnerability in OpenSSL. And that’s bad. But the extent of alarmist rubbish out there about it is making me bonkers. This Globe piece is not the worst. But here’s a thought for you. Vulnerabilities are discovered in software all the time. There’s a lot of
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