19th June 2008

Guess who’s coming to town

First of all, let me extend my deepest sympathies to the citizens of Huntsville, Ontario. A lovely community, really; a population of about 18,000. Beautiful countryside, nature in the driver’s seat. Quiet, for the moment. They now have about 24 months to get their barricades in place, because the current government announced today that the G8 summit will be held there in 2010.

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posted in politics | Comments Off on Guess who’s coming to town | 328 words

9th May 2008

Unconnectivity

Maybe this whole wireless Internet thing isn’t ready for the real world, just yet. My own level of personal tolerance has been obvious; who else would wait two years to get connectivity. And i was willing to lay the blame where it belonged, at the door of those manufacturers that kept their cards close to their chests, only sharing proprietary information with the big guys in Redmond. More and more though, I think we have a generalized problem.

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posted in computing, technology | Comments Off on Unconnectivity | 293 words

16th April 2008

Food, phones and toxicity

Today, while reading the “local” English language newspaper (from the other city down the road), I felt a great cultural chasm open before me. With all my experience in the world, I have never seen, let alone tasted, a “matzoh ball“. The paper had three pages of coverage, not counting the front page headline; there’s a divide among the “sinkers” and “floaters”. What to do? Where to turn?

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posted in environment, health, technology | Comments Off on Food, phones and toxicity | 397 words

22nd March 2008

Saving a pot of soup

There is a challenge to any cook in using unknown ingredients. Variation in texture, flavour, colour; any or all of the above, for those who seek a multiple choice question in life. My decision to make an impulse purchase has led to the longest soupmaking session of my career in the family kitchen. Pea soup; the ultimate in haute cuisine.

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posted in health | Comments Off on Saving a pot of soup | 453 words

19th March 2008

Draw the virtual curtains

In our ever-faster virtual world, even the back alleys get traffic. I had that principle of basic security brought to my attention this afternoon by a quick email from someone I haven’t seen in years. You see, secrecy through obfuscation may sound great when you’re reading a cheap spy novel, but there are spiders and robots in the equation now.

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posted in computing | Comments Off on Draw the virtual curtains | 464 words

18th March 2008

Farewell to a man of vision

One of the first “real” (meaning hardcover) books I received as child involved a multi-national group of astronauts, stuck on an asteroid while they mined for thorium. One of them was a Filipino. Just words, when you are seven years old, but a fine introduction to the world of science fiction. The world which we grow into, much like a pair of pants that are bought on sale by a parent, waiting for the inevitable; that we would grow into them. I’ve read hundreds of title since then. Only one has inspired iconic images.

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posted in technology | Comments Off on Farewell to a man of vision | 317 words

9th March 2008

Skill acquisition

When you have to learn an important life skill, who you gonna call? Not the nearest parent, if my progeny are an example of the new world. This evening I offered to demonstrate how to build a big lasagna. Note the italic active verb; around here we should have a permit from the city authorities. To my dismay, the kids didn’t care; supper was over so they weren’t in any danger of going hungry. This was a meal for a different day.

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posted in education | Comments Off on Skill acquisition | 267 words

1st March 2008

A bird’s eye view

As an infrequent flyer (the double digit end of the Air Miles club list), I still take a childlike pleasure from the low altitude passages over familiar territory. Seeing my house from the air is just cool enough to make the rest of the process worthwhile. But, there are easier ways to achieve that “look below” feeling; aerial photos.

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posted in computing, environment | Comments Off on A bird’s eye view | 301 words

15th February 2008

Missing and declared unlikely to land

Perhaps if the lost pilot had been found, the story wouldn’t have even made much more than the back pages of the local newspaper. Instead, when Steve Fossett and his airplane didn’t arrive at the destination, the story “took wings”. After all, here was an experienced navigator with boats and planes; if there’d been a locomotive handy, he’d have driven it too. He’d gone around the world non-stop. This time, the plane didn’t arrive at the airstrip.

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posted in history | Comments Off on Missing and declared unlikely to land | 304 words

30th December 2007

Great shows with less interest

Whatever the universals of comedy might be, some of them translate poorly across time. At least, across recent time; I had the chance to do some retrospective TV watching this afternoon. Stuff that I KNOW to be funny just didn’t catch the interest of my progeny. Go figure.

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posted in media | Comments Off on Great shows with less interest | 267 words

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