The following stories are ^not related. Canadians increasingly cynical about state of democracy: Hepburn Voters are losing trust in the way Canada’s democracy works. Nuh-uh! Living in the Age of Dumbness By Janice Kennedy, Ottawa Citizen Right now, at least in North America, human civilization seems to be wallowing hip-deep
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Chadwick's Blog & Commentary: 10,000 or 20,000 hours?
Malcolm Gladwell introduced the concept of the “10,000-hour rule” in his 2008 book, Outliers. As Wikipedia describes it, “…the key to success in any field is, to a large extent, a matter of practicing a specific task for a total … Continue reading →
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Duncan Cameron is the latest to weigh in on the Cons’ distorted sense of priorities in directing public research money toward private profits: Publicly available research is important. Since no one knows where discoveries or advances in knowledge will lead, the entire
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Ice Balls – Lake Michigan
This happened in February of this year on Lake Michigan. “Weighing in at up to 50 pounds (22 kilograms) each, the ice spheres are a winter weather phenomenon resulting from wind and wave action along the shore, according to reporting by NASA‘s Earth Science Picture of the Day. Small fragments
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Karl Nerenberg reports on the House Finance Committee’s hearings into income inequality in Canada, featuring a few familiar themes which we should hear far more often from our policy-makers: “I would make all tax credits refundable, including the current non-refundable ones,” Boadway
Continue readingChadwick's Blog & Commentary: Quackery and Big Bucks Infect Health Canada
Health Canada has allowed an increasing number of useless “alternative” healthcare (alternative TO healthcare in most cases) products to be sold in Canada over the last decade, despite the lack of proper (or in some cases, any) research data to … Continue reading →
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Like the Earth? Thank a Black Hole
I’ll admit it, I’m a sucker for popular astronomy shows. How amazingly small and insignificant our place is in the Universe is always humbles me when I am reminded of the fact. It is a humility I wish the religious minded among us could understand, instead of wasting time and
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Armine Yalnizyan makes the case as to why wealth equates to far too much power in Canada: The problem is not that the wealthy are too powerful. The problem is that, with rare exception, as their power has increased, it has not been
Continue reading350 or bust: Scientists To Harper Government: It’s Time For Grown Up Conversation on Climate Change
This week twelve climate scientists and energy experts penned a letter to Canada’s Natural Resources (aka “Oil”) Minister, Joe Oliver, to express their concern about his ongoing support for building new pipelines and expanding fossil fuel production in face of the threat of climate change. Mr. Oliver was an international
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – George Monbiot writes about the absurdity of the right-wing choice to promote inequality in the name of competition among the wealthy when the ultimate results are worse for everybody: The capture by the executive class of so much wealth performs no useful
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Empty Space?
The more I learn about Quantum Mechanics the more interested I become. The counter-intuitive nature of how the fundamental particles operate requires reliance on the scientific method, there is no other way that we could be making these discoveries (I’m looking at you religion). Enjoy learning about how empty
Continue readingChadwick's Blog & Commentary: Mastery: Self Help or Just Opinion?
Robert Greene’s new book has me somewhat flummoxed. It’s not at all like his previous books. The other books of his I have were all ‘meta’ books – books about what others thought on various subjects: power, leadership, war, seduction, … Continue reading →
Continue readingTerahertz: Terahertz Atheist Video Blog
I always have a number of long-term projects in my head. Reaching out via different mediums is one of them, and practice speaking and editing is always important for me. To accomplish this I’ve started an intermittent video blog/podcast supplement to this blog. Only two episodes are up so far
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Splork goes my Brain – Zeno’s Paradox
The people over at the numberphile channel have a knack for explaining interesting mathematical concepts and this is one of the better explanations of what some of Zeno’s Paradoxes are and how we “solve” them. Filed under: Science Tagged: Math, Numberphile, Science
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Peter Kent Didn’t Age Well
Kent looks the same… but his mind has left him. Amazing CBC coverage of climate change from the early 1980s. Bob McDonald, Peter Kent, and others make appearances: Attention Washington: Peter Kent explains Climate Change (the briefing you won’t see). “The natural preoccupation with the weather tomorrow, the next day,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: #mtlqc13 Priority Resolutions – Social Policy
Not surprisingly, the social policy resolutions up for discussion this weekend include a wide range of issues – and I’ll avoid highlighting the resolutions dealing with either familiar topics of discussion like gun control, marijuana decriminalization/legalization and housing. Instead, I’ll point out three resolutions which look to deserve particular attention:
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: A Weighty Subject Indeed.
Such interesting fuss over how we measure our world. 🙂 Just play the video before I make a mass of myself. Filed under: Science Tagged: Kilogram, Science, Weights and Measures
Continue reading350 or bust: How To Green Deserts & Address Climate Change At The Same Time
Two thirds of the globe is turning into desert, at the same time that our population is heading towards ten billion, and we are disturbing weather patterns by pouring heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Fossil fuels are behind the “greenhouse effect” that is warming our atmosphere, but our land
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Another sign of spring
Yesterday, I was worried that the bulbs I planted last fall had died over the winter. Today, it’s like Annie Dillard says in Pilgrim at Tinker Creek: they say of nature that it conceals with a grand nonchalance, and they say of vision that it is a deliberate gift, the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Lori Theresa Waller provides her own take on the Canadian Foundation for Labour Rights’ study on labour rights and inequality: In the 1970s, all provinces used the simple card check system, whereby an employer must legally recognize a union if the majority of
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