I am Canadian but I am global. I am anyone and everyone. We live in a world with superficial boundaries only now. We are all connected so that makes me everyone.
What I'm Reading
Tons of stuff. I am reading Phantoms in the Brain by VS Ramachandran, Mindset by Carol Dwick, Born to Buy by Judith Shor, Lord of the Rings, A whole bunch of stuff by Anne McAffrey, Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond, The Mismeasure of Man by Stephen Jay Gould and a whole bunch of stuff by Salman Rushdie.
Southwest Ordered to Replace Parts on Some Planes Did you know that federal officials are giving Southwest Airlines until Dec. 24 to replace unapproved parts on about 50 airplanes? You were flying on these planes, by the way.On the good side, unapproved parts on the rest of the planes can stay. Read Full Story
Tribal Leaders Say Karzai’s Team Forged 23,900 Votes.This is what our money and blood has been buying us. We need Christie Blatchford here to remind us again why we really should be shedding our money and blood in Afghanistan. Christie! Are you there?! Read Full Story
Though the Afghan opium harvest has declined for the second consecutive year, a new United Nations report says, there is growing evidence that some Afghan insurgent forces are becoming “narco-cartels” — similar to anti-government guerrilla groups in Colombia — that view drug profits as more important than ideology.Afghanistan’s multibillion-dollar illicit narcotics industry finances much of the country’s insurgency, and the influence of drug money is a major reason the Afghan government is co... Read Full Story
AUSTRALIANS still get "a fair go", with income inequality falling sharply this century, according to the organisation that represents 30 of the world's richest countries.Parents' incomes and education had little bearing on the success of their children, making Australia one of the most socially mobile countries in the world, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development found.The narrowed gap between Australia's rich and poor went against a trend of greater inequality in more tha... Read Full Story
Normally, the September issue of any fashion magazine comes with pages upon pages of stick-thin models parading around in the latest haute couture. What one does not expect to see is a normal-looking woman sitting naked and exposing(or showing off, as in this case) a normal-looking belly! But Glamour Magazine showcased just such a woman on page 194 (well, perhaps 'showcased' is a bit of a strong term for this) of their September issue and the response, reportedly, has been tremendous. The wo... Read Full Story
President Obama wants to make the United States “the world’s leading exporter of renewable energy,” but in his seven months in office, it is China that has stepped on the gas in an effort to become the dominant player in green energy — especially in solar power, and even in the United States.Chinese companies have already played a leading role in pushing down the price of solar panels by almost half over the last year. Shi Zhengrong, the chief executive and founder of China’s biggest solar pa... Read Full Story
The people who multitask the most are the ones who are worst at it. That is the surprising conclusion of researchers at Stanford University, who found multitaskers are more easily distracted and less able to ignore irrelevant information than people who do less multitasking. The researchers studied 262 college undergraduates, dividing them into high and low multitasking groups and comparing such things as memory, ability to switch from one task to another and being able to focus on a task. Th... Read Full Story
In 1851, a Louisiana physician and American Medical Association member, Samuel A. Cartwright, published a paper in the New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal wherein he described a new medical disorder he had recently identified. He called it drapetomania (from drapeto, meaning "to flee," and mania, an obsession), and used it to describe a condition he felt was prevalent in runaway slaves. Dr. Cartwright felt that with "proper medical advice, strictly followed, this troublesome practice t... Read Full Story
Sama Wareh walks along the sand dressed in swimwear designed to comply with Muslim sensibilities. PARIS – A Muslim woman who tried to go swimming in a head-to-toe "burquini" has been banned from her local pool in the latest tussle between religious practices and secular authority in France.Officials on Wednesday insisted they banned the woman's use of the Islam-friendly swimsuit because of France's unusually strict hygiene standards in pools — not because of official hostility to wearing over... Read Full Story
