Canadian Musings

Baking Bread

2007-02-20T22:23:00.000-05:00

I'm getting old. I remember a simple loaf of bread costing about $.89. But I don't think that was that long ago, maybe three or four years.

This week, I had to pay $1.59 for the crappiest loaf of white bread the store sells. They wanted $2.69 for another loaf with plenty of preservatives and a "freshness guarantee".

Enough is enough, I sez to myself.

So I bought myself a breadmaker. Nice little machine.

And I've learned that the shelf life of flour is probably something shorter than the 15 years I'd had my previous bag of flour: The first attempt at baking resulted in a pile of goop instead of dough. New bag of flour, nice dough. Mmmm.

Merry Christmas, One and All!

2006-12-25T18:00:00.000-05:00

On this day that we remember a promise made, and kept about 2000 years ago, let us all celebrate and give Praise and Thanks to the Lord, our King!

Liberals don't understand the Charter

2006-12-05T05:06:00.000-05:00

But according to CTV, the Liberal Party claims to be divided on their own understanding of the Charter.

The Liberals claim that Same Sex Marriage is a "Charter issue". But they also claim to be divided on the question of SSM. Do they not believe in their own interpretation of the Charter? If it is a Charter issue, there would be no debate and no division.

How stupid to the Liberals think Canadians are?

Boy Scouts

2006-11-27T18:43:00.000-05:00

The motto of the Boy Scouts is, "Be Prepared."

And finally, the Canadian Government is acknowledging that it's important to be prepared, with a new television ad recommending that every household have an emergency kit with the necessities for about 72 hours (three days).

The list for a basic kit includes staples such as food and water, candles, and tools to use them (e.g. manual can opener, sturdy candle holder). Warm sleeping gear is recommended, but little is said about how one might replace a lost source of heat in the winter: candle heat will only go so far in a Canadian winter.

It's a start, but I'd be much more content with a much broader emergency plan, where neighbourhoods have a designated shelter powered with well-supplied generators and containing either an emergency stock of food and water (inventoried and re-sold through various stores over time to maintain freshness of stock), or contracted emergency access to food and water from local suppliers.

And in a more ideal world, we might even see "conversion kits" become standard equipment in cars and homes: the ability to switch house power from Line to Local (powering high-priority circuits only), supplied by a generator attached to one's automobile.

Economics 101

2006-11-27T07:44:00.000-05:00

Today's Ottawa Sun includes an article suggesting that federal prisoners should get a raise in "pay", with some officials suggesting that prisoners should get "minimum wage" for work they do, in order (so they say) for these prisoners to more easily re-integrate in society.

But these prisoners do not have to pay their daily bills while in prison. They get free room and board. Sure, they have to buy their own luxuries such as cigarettes and chocolate, as well perhaps as certain more necessary items.

And the experts warn that if these convicts don't have enough money, they might have to turn to loansharks within the prison, who might even target the prisoners' families outside prison for repayment in their underground prison economy.

But ... let's imagine what would happen if prisoners made, say, $100 a day. Supplies of goods are limited, and opportunities to spend are also limited: the motivation is to drive up prices, not to turn these criminals into investors. Indeed, if they had spare cash they would tend to invest in the locally obtainable goods, since they neither have ready access to, nor trust in, stockbrokers.

So the prices of controlled goods would skyrocket inside prison walls. And those who have no money, and need goods, would still have to turn to a burgeoning loanshark industry inside the prison walls. But now, "real" money would be at stake, and the families of prisoners could face real jeopardy. Few prisoners would want the added jailtime for committing a murder (even in Canada, where such jailtime is often minimal), over a debt of a few dollars. For a few hundred, or a few thousand, who knows what violence might ensue.

This is over and above the obvious problem: that rent, utilities, food (and food preparation), and other normal household expenses borne by the law-abiding citizens who earn minimum wage, are paid by law-abiding taxpayers and not by the prisoners themselves. It is a nominal deduction for those expenses which leaves prisoners earning a net daily wage today of merely a few dollars a day - perhaps a couple hundred dollars a month.

That's more than many people who live law-abiding lives at minimum wage jobs. More than most single parents in minimum-wage jobs. Plenty for someone who has, by their own actions, disqualified themselves from the privileges of society for some period of time.

Two Steps Forward, One step back

2006-11-26T02:31:00.000-05:00

I'm very confused by the fact that Rannie's sitemeter is showing a few thousand fewer hits today than it did yesterday. Yesterday, as recorded here, it was at 923,537 and counting. Today, it's at a mere 919,605.

Who can lose more than 4,000 visitors in just a couple days? Where can they go? How can SiteMeter maintain any credibility, if it simply chooses to "lose" several thousand visits in the course of a few hours?

Rannie will make his million visitors soon, I'm sure.

But the questions for SiteMeter will remain for a while.

Go For The Million

2006-11-23T02:24:00.000-05:00

PhotoJunkie is approaching the milestone of his one millionth visitor. For those who are unfamiliar, Rannie is one of the great photographers around Toronto, posting many of his pieces online in his blog.

To celebrate that milestone, he's announced a "One Million Giveaway Extravaganza" of a few prizes for those who comment on, or link to, certain of his posts, such as this one.

As I type this, Rannie's site meter sits at 923,537, with a current average of just under 1000 visitors every day. Rannie is hoping to hit The Million before the end of January, and it can be even earlier if we're all successful at promoting his site further. Let's do what we can, shall we?

A lot of Hot Air

2006-11-23T01:49:00.000-05:00

Global Warming is an "accepted truth" among many scientists. And even I will readily admit that anthropomorphic (i.e. caused by man-made factors) influences are non-negligible, and need to be addressed.

But the pseudo-science being expressed by many needs to be cleaned up, and fast. Some claim that population growth follows an exponential growth curve: it does not. Rather, it follows an S-curve. Or, more correctly, it follows one of many S-curves.

Population growth studies will predict an S-curve fit under a given set of conditions. If conditions change, a different S-curve might be adopted. But populations do not generally follow exponential growth (and cataclysmic drop-off). Changing conditions might include improved life expectancies, or industrialization of the food supply, which might lengthen the interval of highest growth rates.

But under today's world conditions, the period of most rapid population growth (in percentages) probably occurred in the 1960s or 1970s, and rates of growth are now slowing. Most credible estimates suggest world population will cap-out around 9 or 10 billion, sometime between the year 2050 and 2300.

But this isn't the most grave flaw of these political scientists cum environmentalists. They tend to fail to espouse basic economic principles. Some predict the end of modern economies as current oil supplies "run out", completely ignoring the economic facts that (a) oil is not going to "run out" anytime soon, (b) the only thing in short supply is "conventional" oil, and new and long-lasting sources are viable as the price of oil rises, (c) there are many, many potential sources of energy, the choice of which is first and foremost an economic one.

For example, solar power is available today. But it is more expensive, per unit of energy, to produce the solar panels than they produce in their current lifespan. Generally, the same applies to wind energy: these alternative sources are only viable with government policies to subsidize these sources of energy. If conventional energy prices continue to rise, they will become more attractive and will be more widely adopted. Until then, they are a waste of energy and a pollutant (as they, too, must be discarded at the end of their useful life).

All of this masks a highly dubious model claiming to understand causes of observed effects. We can see the temperature of the earth's surface rising by fractions of a degree over decades. We can blame Carbon Dioxide (CO2) as a greenhouse gas (GHG). We know there are other pollutants which also contribute, such as methane (CH4). And we know that certain sources contribute CO2 and other GHGs to the atmosphere. But while we have a temperature model, we do not have an inventory model of the GHGs in the atmosphere: we do not have a catalog of the sources and sinks of GHGs, which we can test against measured GHGs in the atmosphere. We do not know how much is being released by automobiles, by bacteria, by cows, by decaying leaves and tree trunks in forests.

We find instead a few political science grads with coal-fired energy plants in their sights, simply because they represent large single-entity sources of GHGs. We don't even know how great a percentage they represent on a per-capita basis, of all the anthropomorphic GHGs released. We don't even know how great a percentage anthropomorphic GHGs represent to the overall total (although "they" will point to graphs correlating the growth in overall GHGs and temperature to population growth).

Until we focus on the science and abandon the useless rhetoric we will not be able to achieve any positive results for the future.

Everybody's Doin' It

2006-07-15T16:15:00.000-04:00

A number of the bloggers I turn to on a regular basis have gone on hiatus lately. And my regular reader will note that my own posts have tended to be fewer and farther between as well.

I'm not officially declaring a hiatus. But I don't feel any sort of commitment to post on any particular schedule, either, and will post only when I feel the need to do so.

It's summer. There are better things to do than read my few words. Or to type them. Enjoy!

Happy Fourth of July!

2006-07-04T13:45:00.000-04:00

A Happy Fourth of July to one and all!

To my Canadian friends, it's the fourth of July. To my American friends, it's the Fourth of July!

And don't forget to watch the launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery, in just under 55 minutes as I type this. (www.nasa.gov)

World Cup Lunacy

2006-07-01T12:30:00.000-04:00

Every four years, the world watches a few soccer matches. And every four years I am reminded why soccer remains less than popular in North America.

The current World Cup has the worst officiating I have ever seen in professional sport. During today's England-Portugal match, for example, phantom penalties have been called against one team while the other has been rewarded for their illegal activities (such as "diving", which is supposed to result in at least a "yellow card").

If the officiating were fair and equal, and applied the rules of the game, soccer has the potential to be a much more popular game.

Happy Canada Day

2006-07-01T00:13:00.000-04:00

Enjoy the Celebration of Canada's special day, one and all!

O-My

2006-06-28T23:01:00.000-04:00

The City of Ottawa is proposing a new Trolley service with an announced pricetag of at least $725 Million. Some cite a higher number, even over a total of a Billion Dollars, if certain operating costs are included.

But the current proposal raises more questions than it answers. And an all-day discussion at City Hall today raised even more questions with the answers which were provided.

The proposal suggests that there will be a ten-minute "headway" between trains on a single-track section of the route. Each tram will have a capacity of fewer than 200 people (72 seated, or 64 with wheelchair space). But if the plan doesn't proceed, the plan claims an extra 2000 cars will be put on the road in the peak hour. How can a service with a maximum capacity of 1200 (standing) remove 2000 cars from the road? When the majority of transit users will be shifted from bus users, not from car users?

The cancellation of the current O-Train will save about $5M per year in operating costs, to be replaced with bus services costing about $3M per year while the new tramway is constructed. So even the existing service would be better replaced by bus service, at a savings of about 40% of the current cost. And the train is supposed to be a good idea?

Although the current service is called the "O-Train", the current proposal is not for a Train service, but what would normally be called a streetcar, trolley, or tram. The more modern term is LRT, or Light Rail Transit. It will include overhead wires for the electric drive system.

Current ridership projections are supposedly low for several years. But while reducing the vehicular capacity of Albert and Slater streets in the downtown - streets which are currently stretched to capacity during peak hours - the overall passenger capacity will not be improved by the new tram service, especially if express bus routes are cancelled as planned.

Funding for the plan assumes $200M of transit funding from the Federal Government, $200M of transit funding from the Provincial Government, and Gas Tax revenue allocated for the next several years. Yet additional transit projects will still be required over the interim, including an East-West LRT link between Kanata, Downtown, and Orleans; and transit projects between Ottawa and Gatineau. Additionally, development charges are allocated to this project while other city needs still place demands on taxpayer funds.

OCTranspo includes a service on several routes supporting two bicycles per bus on a rack in the front of the bus. The plans for the tram would allow bicycles on board only during off-peak hours, to a maximum of two per vehicle - a severe capacity reduction, although this service is rarely used to system capacity. (Individual buses, yes, but if one bus already has two bikes, the next bus along usually has space.)

The current O-Train has been able to run on-time most of the time. But it runs on grade-separated track and does not have to deal with other traffic. Where are the studies and simulations proving that the proposed trolley will be able to run on time on surface streets, where it is subject to the vagaries of other traffic?

The plan suggests that a delay in approval would cause a delay in digging a new tunnel under the Rideau Canal. I have not yet found any indication why any such tunnel would be required: the trolley would be on the Mackenzie Bridge by the Rideau Centre, well above the canal. At Carleton University, the current O-Train crosses the water on a bridge. All the pretty pictures on the city's LRT plans website show bridges, not tunnels.

There were claims made by city officials of a commitment to a 30% reduction in bus traffic on Albert and Slater streets. What is the number of buses this represents? What is the capacity of these buses? Where is the indication of the capacity of the trolleys replacing these buses? The maths don't seem to add up.

The report to Council offers three possibilities: to approve the plan as presented, to defer approval, or to deny approval forever. In their arrogance, the possibilty of altering the current proposal in the interim never enters their minds.

This project must be stopped.

Are you sleeping, Are you sleeping?

2006-06-15T23:33:00.000-04:00

Wow.

I've started to feel a bit better from my cold over the last couple days. I haven't felt the need to take any cold medicines since, I think, Tuesday afternoon when I took a half-dose.

So today it came to me as a complete surprise when, after figuring I'd take a short nap before trying to head out on some errands that my nap extended for nearly ten hours. After having a decent (but shorter) night's sleep last night.

Every day, a bit better. And still not at 100%.

Summer colds Suck

2006-06-14T08:17:00.000-04:00

Plenty of friends have suffered through a cold this spring, some sharing it back and forth, others hacking through it for a couple weeks.

Mine has been in my throat for about the last week or so. Some days I would feel better; some days the cold would win. Eventually I started taking some of the cold medicines, initially at half-dose, then at full dose, and now just a couple times through the day.

But the sleep it has brought! I'll be awake for a few hours, then take a nap. Two hours of sleep, then up for perhaps another three. Off for another nap. Awake again. Yesterday, I went to sleep during the early match of the day of the World Cup ... and woke up during the last match of the day, about six hours later. And of course took another nap after a couple hours.

I can only ask: is it still Monday? :)

Who are the people in your Neighbourhood?

2006-06-09T02:52:00.000-04:00

Last weekend saw the arrest of several individuals who are accused of plotting one or more terrorist attacks.

And the reaction has generally been to wonder whether we should look more closely at a broader range of Muslims in Canada, to ensure we catch more than we miss.

Personally, I trust the Police much more than I trust the media to root out those few who might carry out such terrible acts against Canadians.

I know that there are some number of terrorist cells operating in Canada. And I also know that there are plenty of thieves, rapists, and even murderers operating in Canada. That doesn't mean that I suspect every stranger I see in the street of potentially being a criminal. Just as it doesn't mean that I suspect every stranger who identifies themselves as Muslim (e.g. by their clothing) as potentially plotting against Canadians.

Let us not get confused about what it is that we condemn as a secular society.

Canada Forces Day!

2006-06-04T03:42:00.000-04:00

A Great-Big "Thank-you" to all of our current (and former) Canada Forces today, on Canada Forces Day.

Too bad I didn't even know that we had such a day until I was watching CTV NewsNet and the induction ceremony of several new recruits happened to mention (c.f. Stephen Harper) that today was CF Day.

I have argued for a while now (oooh, at least a couple weeks ... that ought'a count for something) that we should honour our fighting men and women in uniform more than just on Remembrance Day ... and whaddya know .. we already have such a day.

Shame on me for not knowing earlier.

Thank-you to all of our enrolled Men and Women who have volunteered to give so much of their lives for so little in return, to contribute to my own safety and security. I cannot begin to thank-you all enough.

Moral Neutrality is Not an Option

2006-05-23T20:05:00.000-04:00

The current (May 22, 2006) issue of Forbes magazine includes an article ("On My Mind", by Raymond Fisman of the Columbia Business School; page 40) discussing moral behaviour of diplomats as correlated with the perceived behavioural norms (measured by the "Corruption Perceptions Index" developed by Transparency International) of their country of origin.

A study was done related to unpaid parking tickets accumulated by UN diplomats, from a time when those diplomats had immunity from prosecution for those tickets.

It found a strong correlation between the Corruption Index and the number of unpaid parking fines, with Scandinavian diplomats accumulating very few tickets (and representing among the least corrupt nations) and certain others (the article cites Chad and Bangladesh) as shirking orders of magnitude more tickets and representing among the most corrupt nations.

Find and read the article. It's only one page. But it carries a message.

This study suggests a very strong message for Canadians: that we cannot afford to simply be neutral when it comes to encouraging moral behaviours. That neutrality equates with permissiveness towards corruption, and that those with a strong moral code may be taken advantage of as they have to pay for the misdeeds of others.

That is a sure route to the decay of Canadian civilization as we know it. And it must not be allowed to happen.

We must take a moral stand, and while morality is different from legality, we must not accept immoral behaviours as equally valid with moral behaviours.

Happy Victoria Day Weekend

2006-05-20T18:07:00.000-04:00

Many folks use the long weekend to open up the cottage for the summer. Others take it easy.

I'm using the time to relax at home, catch up on some laundry and house cleaning, and generally enjoy the cold, wet weather from the comfort of my couch.

Next weekend, though, looks to be a nice one, indeed!

Losers and Idiots

2006-05-17T21:10:00.000-04:00

Once again the question is asked whether Canada is willing to do any lifting (not even the heavy lifting) of stabilizing Afghanistan. And once again the NDP show how ignorant they are.

Ms. McDonough just read a letter which I find deeply disturbing, in which a soldier's mother claims that her son's life is worth more than any number of lives in Afghanistan. How terribly racist the former NDP leader sounds as she supports that sentiment. Shame on her.

Then she has the gall to suggest that the role of the military should be to support ongoing negotiations with the Taliban.

No fewer than three NDP members have strongly suggested that the only way to know if we have enough information to consider ourselves informed enough to vote would be to publish all of our plans to the Taliban, and if they agree with them, then we can agree with them.

Infuriating. Disgusting.

Do you have The Juice?

2006-05-17T19:27:00.000-04:00

One of the many sites I visit on a frequent basis reminded me today of an article which has circulated for a few years now. The article discusses competence and self-assessment, and suggests that those who have not achieved a certain level of competence in a field are typically unable to assess their own capabilities in that field.

Or as some might say, you don't know what it is that you don't know. And if you know that you don't know, well, you've achieved something significant there. Somewhere in between one finds ignorance and misconceptions about seemingly simple facts. (At least, simple to those in the know.)

Small Victories

2006-05-16T21:02:00.000-04:00

It's raining outside tonight. And it's supposed to be rainy for the next several days, turning colder just in time for the long weekend.

But I think I'm winning against the ants. And I just finished a low-voltage wiring project (and can now move on to the next step of the project). The number of emails being sent by some spammer using my domain seems to be on the decline (since I finally published SPF records, so their reject rate should have gone up significantly).

All in all, a good day, I think. Here's hoping it all holds.

My war on spam

2006-05-10T06:03:00.000-04:00

I've just spent the last several hours sorting through a number of spam messages which were sent using forged "from" addresses of a domain which I own, and sent to mail servers which "bounce" failed emails back to those "from" addresses.

Some of the bounces identify the email headers which came in with the email, and using those headers I can identify the ISP which was allocated the IP address of the apparent originator of the email. Many of those ISPs identify an "abuse" email address (in their "whois" data), to which such reports should be sent, and I have been able to forward a number of such reports.

It would seem that this latest batch of spam has been sent using a global network of servers, located in Israel, Poland, Russia, Korea, and elsewhere. I can only hope that the ISPs do investigate further and take action to help reduce this scourge.

Some Days, the best you can do is a Draw

2006-05-09T22:29:00.000-04:00

Some days you win, some days you lose. So the saying goes.

I'm not losing. But I don't feel like I'm winning many these days, either.

I've been fighting the spiders for my house, vaccuuming up an average of about one a day these days. Nobody's going to win that one.

I've been fighting the ants for my kitchen. Fortunately, they seem more interested in the area around my sink than around where I keep my drygoods, and a week after first setting out the ant poison, I've only seen one today. Maybe that's a slow win for me, although it's kept me out of my kitchen for the past week.

The spammers have been annoying me lately, stealing my good name and sending out their junk using my domain name. Annoying.

I've been trying to string some wires through the walls in my house, but that's been going less than perfectly. It's almost done, but I won't be happy until it's done.

I upgraded some software on my PC (running Debian Linux), and now some other things have stopped working quite right. That's what happens when you want the latest and greatest features: you're going to get the latest and greatest bugs, too, that haven't had time to be ironed out yet.

I tried to post this entry, and my DSL connection is failing. Talk about reminding me of other problems. Dropped again in the middle of posting, so we'll see if this shows up twice. Now that I think about it, my Rogers box still has trouble picking up any of the US network channels (NBC, ABC, FOX), and often loses TSN.

There's been some other stuff, too, that I won't get into here.

Other than all that, though, things seem to be going well. Let's call it a draw.

Can You Count?

2006-05-07T20:26:00.000-04:00

We're in the midst of the regular Canadian Census. And never has StatsCan looked worse.

First, we have CTV News reporting that your personal information will be available until 2098, rather than after 2098 and only with your permission.

Then we have the Census website itself. They advertise "census2006.ca" but then decide that site should only masquerade for another StatsCan website, which would normally be okay, but not when you're trying to claim you're secure. (By contrast, the Canada Revenue online filing website does a number of redirections with links after you enter whatever address they advertise. It's an important distinction.)

The website wants the latest version of various software, for no valid reason (since what they actually do is fully available in older versions). They want you to permit their software to have completely unfettered access to your computer, without ever telling you about this fact. They claim to use added security based on Public Key Infrastructure, but do so improperly. They put cookies on your computer without listing that in their basic requirements.

All in all, I'd recommend never hiring anyone who was in charge of this project. They may be able to manipulate technology, but cannot do so properly.