The Accidental Sea: An Apocalypse

Here is a video of a failed city in a barren wasteland. I love this stuff....I always feel like that is how all of north america will look in 100 years if we continue on with our obsession with suburbia and walmarts.

"There but for the grace of God go the rest of us"

In any case, the future is going to require more people to join the "maker" culture and join communes. This guy knows what I'm talking about:

I'd better practice my welding skills.

Anti-Abortion Billboard

So a few days ago this billboard went up right in New York City just down the road from a Planned Parenthood office.
It didn't last too long before being removed. But it did get a lot of press.

I'm not really well versed enough to comment on what they are saying but I have read some stuff that clearly shows that the abortion rate is much higher for African Americans than the rest of the population in the States.

In other abortion news, I noticed (thanks reddit) that when you search "Murder" on google, the wikipedia article for abortion shows up as the second item. I am sure that will get shut down pretty quickly but it sure does seem that the abortion issue is in the mainstream news a lot lately. It's not a bad thing because I really think that people need to be forced to think through this issue and discuss it.

Prank on a Call Centre

I wonder if someone can duplicate this with the Bell call centre here in Kanata. This is an insanely elaborate prank on a Belgian call center which is apparently notorious for it's poor customer service. Stick around for the ending - it is priceless.

Ottawa's New Mayor

So Ottawa just voted in a new mayor today. Out of a huge group (the largest ever, I think) Jim Watson basically had to defeat the incumbent, Larry O'Brien. It was really a landslide win in the end though.

Personally, none of the candidates really spoke to me. I just want to see them take a serious look at the budget and start cutting extraneous things. We can't fund every little thing by over taxing people and then still end up in the red.

The problem with Jim Watson is that he comes from the provincial liberal party and we all know how well those guys are doing. These are the people who are subsidizing green energy by raising our energy bills 3 times. They are also instituting full day kindergarten and they almost pushed through a motion to teach little kids about sex ed. Yeah, I'd really trust the government to teach the kids about sex.

Anyway, his track record isn't so hot - so why did he get in you ask? Well it's complicated but Larry had several gaffes and really latched onto the wrong issues which Watson used against him. Watson also used the classic obama move by pushing the "change" word around.

The only plus side to these elections was that 10 new councillors were voted in which was the opposite of last time when all the incumbents were re-elected. That was, in my opinion the main reason Larry couldn't get what he wanted to get done. In my ward, Jan Harder got in again (no surprise). She is a fighter for our area which is great in many ways but she never has "cuts" on her mind. She only cares about what she can get for her constituents. I suppose there could be worse things, and people always tell me that, but I just wish these councillors could band together and cut a good bunch of programs city-wide.

So we shall see where this all goes.....

The Rent Is Too Damn High Party

So this is what happens when you open up elections to everyone and their cat. This is a clip from a debate in New York for people running for Governor. This guy is unbelievable.


The video has been getting tons of views over the past week so naturally somebody had to do the awesome parody / follow up:

The Earthquake in Haiti

Our thoughts and prayers are with the people in this country and especially the workers I know who are labouring to make it a better place. This will be an especially troubled time for an already troubled country.

Click here for the latest news from Coram Deo's Adoration School.

To donate to the Adoration School which has collapsed you can click here. (via Paypal)

Google vs China

Here is the story of the day (other than the Haiti earthquake). Apparently Google is threatening to pull out of China. WOW. What would that mean?

Think about this for a second. A company that is acting like a government. That is really what this has come to. This really shows how much clout Google actually has. They are claiming that the final straw was a hack of their servers that was designed to spy on human rights movements in China. If it's true than more power to 'em I guess.

Either way it will be very interesting to see how this transpires......

Photo thanks to Chris.

The Fune

I have been thinking about getting a cellphone for a while so maybe this is my best option:

Seriously though, I have heard that by early next year we should have some more cell phone carriers flooding the Canadian marketplace due to some new rules. There is Globalive which is owned by a Middle Eastern company that also owns YAK and WIND Mobile (connected to an Italian company of the same name). Public Mobile and DAVE Wireless. are two other newcomers. Public will launch in Ontario and Quebec exclusively and DAVE will launch in all of Canada except Quebec.

So I think I will hold on until there is a little more competition.

Miley Cyrus vs Stinkin' Radiohead

In a hilarious twist of reality it seems that the Disney pop-star herself claims to be a fan of one of the most anti-pop bands out there, Radiohead.  Actually I should say she used to be a 'fan'.

Apparently in an interview with some generic commercial radio hosts (one who claims to not even know who Radiohead is) she rants about how a certain band wouldn't meet her backstage at the Grammy's for a photo.

Radiohead's response to her manager's request was that they "don't really do that."  Apparently getting told 'No' was to much for the mini-diva so she had to leave.  

One of her responses in the interview was that she is "in the business to make people happy" implying that Radiohead aren't.  Well, duh, if you actually knew anything about their music you would realize that making people happy is the last thing on their minds.  They have some of the saddest self-depreciating music around.  She should also know that Thom Yorke and the other guys are all pretty shy and reserved when it comes to the spotlight of fame.  This is also evidently something she cannot comprehend so she then goes on, vowing to ruin 'stinkin' Radiohead.'  All I can say is Good Luck.  No one cares, least of all Radiohead.

You can listen to the lame 10 minute interview here. I don't recommend it unless you are into listening to grown men act like 15 year old girls meeting their favourite pop-star.

But I do recommend reading Pitchfork's hilarious take on the situation here.

In other feuding music news, what is with the Flaming Lips vs Arcade Fire fued?  Or Ben Folds vs Charles Spearin/Stars?  Or the best one of all The Acorn vs Ohbijou.  Is Radio3 turning into a gossip mag?

Economic Crisis Visualized

I am one of those poor schlubs who can't really understand what exactly going on with the economy because of the big words they use in the Financial Post.  

Luckily for me some guy put together some helpful graphic videos to explain what happened in more simplistic terms and with lots of moving diagrams.  It is perfect for my graphic oriented, instant gratification generation.

Here is Part 1:

And Part 2:

Gobama once again

Our city of Ottawa was all in a tizzy today because of the 6 hour visit by Obama. Traffic was crazy, mailboxes removed, manhole covers welded shut, buses rerouted, roads closed, crazed Obama fans, security details, secret route to and from the airport, helicopters circling overhead. These where just some of the things that where happening in Ottawa just because some guy was here.
I was safely in Kanata away from most of the action but Irene had her own 'harrowing' experience with the transit system since one of the routes to the airport goes right by Carleton.
My father-in-law is a big fan of Obama and his speeches. He constantly uses Obama rhetoric in his lectures to spur his students on to further greatness. 'Yes We Can'. He knew when Obama's plane would be leaving the airport (as did anybody else who turned on the internet, radio or TV) and based on the wind direction he knew that it would take off over Barrhaven (where we live). So he watched for the plane to take off over Barrhaven and snapped this picture of Air Force 1 as it is leaving Ottawa.This was his great brush with greatness today. I hope it is a while before Obama comes back again otherwise the news people may start dying of heart attacks.

Net Neutrality in Canada

For us in Canada there are actually two notable things going on that have to do with bit torrents and net neutrality.  

First of all there is the more international news of the popular swedish bit torrent site 'The Pirate Bay' which is in court right now with some major record labels (Warner Bros, MGM, EMI, Colombia Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Sony BMG and Universal) in Stockholm.  It was 

announced yesterday that half the charges were dropped which is pretty significant but here is what the lawyer for the labels said:

"It's a largely technical issue that changes nothing in terms of our compensation claims and has no bearing whatsoever on the main case against The Pirate Bay. In fact it sim

plifies the prosecutor’s case by allowing him to focus on the main issue, which is the making available of copyrighted works."

This has not stopped the founders of The Pirate Bay from trying to turn the trial into a gong show.  They are showing up in a multi-coloured bus, twittering from the trial and generally getting the bit torrent community/internet all riled up.

The second big event concerns just Canada and our net neutrality laws.  Last year the CRTC ruled that it was ok for Bell to throttle the internet speed of it's customers.  Bell was doing this on the pretext of preventing illegal bit torrents.  But they are also preventing legal internet uses like Skype and Google Video Chat.  The interesting thing about this is that both of those services could be seen as competitors to Bell's phone service.  If people are using either of those free services they may not use their phones.  That, my friends, should be illegal.

So the CRTC set a deadline for all the companies to submit specific information regarding

 internet use.  That deadline was last week.  The companies of course waited till the last minute so that nobody would be able to comment on their data.  However the data was so surprising that the CRTC extended the time limit on comments until April.  One of the things that interested me was that the broadband rate of use was not as high as everyone thought.  There was a point where everyone was getting high speed and so the rate of growth was very fast.  But in the last few years that growth has slowed considerably because most people now have high speed.  That means that the internet providers claims that the internet is getting clogged by people using bit torrents is actually false.  There is quite a bit more room for growth than was

 previously thought.  Here is another article from Ars Technica that explains some other points on this issue.

So I hope the CRTC makes some good decisions here.  Canada is seriously lagging when it comes to Net Neutrality.  We aren't quite as bad as China but we are nowhere near the level of most European countries.  Even the States, especially with Obama, is way ahead of us in this respect.  This is one of the worst problems with our current government.  C'mon Steve!  I hope his meeting today with Obama (which is causing serious transportation woes in Ottawa today) will touch on this but somehow I think the economy will be at the top of the list.  One can always hope though.  It really is a very important issue.  Far more important than people realize.

Okay, now it is over (kind of)

The union and city decided at the last minute that they would go to binding arbitration instead of risking having the federal government enforce back to work legislation.

About an hour before the scheduled emergency meeting in the House they both called it off. It means they are, as of now, not on strike. The kinks have not been worked out and it will be a week before we see buses on the road but oh boy it's going to be good to use public transit again (or at least have that option in my case).

And it couldn't be soon enough

Hooray! History has been made! People are returning to their senses! No I am not talking about Obama. This is bigger than that. After 50 days of the idiotic transit strike here in Ottawa - It Is Over! (kind of).

Earlier today some tool at the city declared that the strikers would not be forced back to work since it was not an essential service. But in a stroke of brilliance a bunch of MPs called a emergency meeting in the House of Commons and it ended with Rona Ambrose, the Transportation Minister, forcing them back to work.

This is special because every other transit system in Canada is under provincial or municipal control. OC Transpo falls under federal control when it comes to these things apparently. I guess the MPs were getting annoyed with the traffic problems.

It'll probably take a month before its back up and running but it's better than nothing. I hope they get their act together before Winterlude. But I do wonder what will be the result of the scheduling conflict the union had better not win that fight.

Update #1
Apparently my breaking news source was wrong. The MPs have called a meeting, Rona Ambrose said she would be willing to force them back to work, and several other MPs said they would consider it.

And the speech was...

Typical Obama rhetoric.

I did like how he is trying to inspire Americans to quit whining and get off their ass. I hope it does change the attitude from 'I deserve' to 'I can do it'. I hope it gives motivation and inspiration to the lower classes to get up and make their country a better place. Listening to the interviews with people on the street you get this sense that they are inspired which really is a good thing in this economic time.

Oh Obama

I am currently listening to the inaugeration of Obama streaming live.

My first impression is that it sounds like the Super Bowl. All the trumpets and cheering and the announcements.
The announcer sounds like he belongs at a monster truck show.

Americans are crazy.

Living In Ottawa

I am sure everyone has heard about the Ottawa transit strike by now. It has been going on for more than a month now. It has the entire city in complete chaos and everybody (even the non bus-riders) has an opinion on it.

Personally Irene and I (and most of my suburban friends) are not totally messed up. We are in the enviable position of owning a car and Irene is able to get a ride to work with her dad. However I would prefer to take the bus to work, especially on the really snowy days.

The problem is there are many people in this city who totally depend on the buses to get around for everything. A lot of those people are probably in the lower income bracket and they certainly don't have the luxury of buying a car or getting to work late.

Basically what I am saying is that there is not a lot of sympathy for the bus drivers. Personally I think they are a bunch of greedy bumcaps. First of all there is so much economic uncertainty right now and these guys are saying that they want more, more, more. They already have very good job security, high pay, etc. and all this with a high school education. (It reminds me of GM and Ford). Secondly, the main issue they are arguing for is control of the scheduling. But in every other transit system in North America the scheduling is run by the management. The city of Ottawa wants to be able to take control of scheduling in order to save money by hiring less drivers and buying less buses. It would also be safer since currently some of the younger drivers have to work insane shifts because the senior guys take all the good ones. It doesn't make sense to have the inexperienced guys doing the harder shifts - accidents are bound to happen.

From the city's side I have never seen the city council and mayor agree on anything since Larry O'Brien was elected. But on this issue the council is tight. It makes sense to all of them that OC Transpo needs some changes.

Recently the city proposed a new contract (much the same as the first one) that included some serious raises (7% I think!) and a good signing bonus. Who gets a 7% raise?!? That is ridiculous. But it is all a ploy to pay off the drivers so that they accept the scheduling being handled by the city. The union voted to turn down the offer. About 75% voted 'no' according to the union. And now it's back to striking, and insane traffic and people's lives being messed with.

I think a few things should come out of this:
1. Public transit should be designated an essential service - so they can't strike.
2. The city should control scheduling - it just makes sense.
3. The city should set a deadline and if they aren't back to work by that time, fire 'em all.
4. The provincial/federal government should step in and get some legislation through that forces them back to work.

The somewhat humourous aspect of this is that the city is saving millions of dollars while the transit system is down while the union is losing huge. That is because OC Transpo, like every other transit system in the world (except Tokyo I think), is a money losing system and it is not like a regular business. But it is essential.

So get back to work you stupid bumcaps.

Edit: Apparently the term asshats (as hilarious as it sounds) is not appropriate. I have reverted to the more subtle term: 'bumcaps'. Please notify me if that is inappropriate too.

Living in Ottawa

So Ottawa has been a happening place lately. We have had all the government shenanigans and parliament being paroqued. This has led to endless debates among normally non-political people. Even people who don't live in Ottawa seem to know what is going on. However on the downside, it has led to many in the media mispronouncing paroqued as pierogies. This has, in turn led to some confusion when reporting on the latest in the economic crisis. There has been no word on how the pierogies feel about the latest reports. The media really has to tap that angle for better ratings.

At the same time the city is in turmoil because everyone's best friends, the good bus drivers of this city, have decided to strike. These idiots are striking despite being offered a 7% raise and better benefits etc. Apparently the main point of contention is the scheduling. The bus drivers want to be able to pick their own schedules based on seniority. The city has countered by saying that they could save millions by hiring less drivers and buying less buses if they could be in charge of scheduling. Of course, the stupid unions are going to ignore this and go for the jugular by bleeding the taxpayers even more. I mean, in these economic times can't you be satisfied that you even have a job let alone a 7% raise. Sheesh, get back to work already! Traffic is brutal, parking is impossible and everybody hates OC Transpo right now. Personally I have come out of this relatively unscathed since I don't work downtown anymore and nobody in Kanata takes the bus so driving isn't even that bad. Shocking, I know, I have resorted to driving. But don't worry, it makes me sick too.

The transit strike seems to be timed perfectly with some horrible weather (for driving or walking). They are currently predicting some sort of snomageddon this weekend. I have my doubts because the media really just seems to be pumping up the weather story for the ratings boost after missing out on the pierogies angle.

But either way, it seems like the perfect time to leave our wonderful city and seek out the nearest beacon of civilization, Montreal. We are heading out to see some family downtown and maybe do some Christmas shopping on Catherine Street. We are staying in a sweet hotel for really cheap and it is quite close to an Apple Store. Should be fun if we can get there.

Pirating the Financial Situation

An article I read today......

Somali Pirates in Discussions to Acquire Citigroup

By Andreas Hippin

November 20 (Bloomberg) -- The Somali pirates, renegade Somalis known for hijacking ships for ransom in the Gulf of Aden, are negotiating a purchase of Citigroup.

The pirates would buy Citigroup with new debt and their existing cash stockpiles, earned most recently from hijacking numerous ships, including most recently a $200 million Saudi Arabian oil tanker. The Somali pirates are offering up to $0.10 per share for Citigroup, pirate spokesman Sugule Ali said earlier today. The negotiations have entered the final stage, Ali said.

"You may not like our price, but we are not in the business of paying for things. Be happy we are in the mood to
offer the shareholders anything," said Ali.

The pirates will finance part of the purchase by selling new Pirate Ransom Backed Securities. The PRBS's are backed by the cash flows from future ransom payments from hijackings in the Gulf of Aden. Moody's and S&P have already issued their top investment grade ratings for the PRBS's.

Head pirate, Ubu Kalid Shandu, said: "We need a bank so that we have a place to keep all of our ransom money. Thankfully, the dislocations in the capital markets has allowed us to purchase Citigroup
at an attractive valuation and to take advantage of TARP capital to grow the business even faster."

Shandu added, "We don't call ourselves pirates. We are coastguards and this will just allow us to guard our coasts better."

Gobama

And it is pretty much settled.
The US of A has it's first black president. This is a hollywood movie in the making.
I am a little scared and nervous as to what it all means for Canada. I guess only time will tell.
I'm not going to outright say McCain would have been a better choice but I am going to insinuate it.
From the start Obama has scared me with his perfect rhetoric and well polished speeches. But his win was pretty much sealed once Sarah Palin was announced as McCain's running mate. I could not believe that when it happened. The other thing is, whenever the CEEB interviewed americans on who they were voting for they would only spout off things they had heard in the media. Ridiculous one liners like 'Obama is promising jobs for everybody' or 'Obama sounds like a terrorist'. Americans are so ridiculous.
Here is an example:These are the people who ruined it for McCain. It reminded me of the people talked about on stuffchristianslike (a play off of the similarly toungue in cheek stuffwhitepeoplelike). One of the things Christians like is bumper stickers. This is so not the way to 'convert' people to vote for your party.