Posted by: Tom


Oshawa Generals

I went with the guys from work to see the Oshawa Generals game tonight. It was exciting for two reasons: first, it was cool to see such a revered hockey team - the very team that started such greats as Bobby Orr! Second, it was the first live hockey game for one of the guys from work. He's from India and while he's a huge sports fan and follows the Leafs, he had never been to see a live hockey game.

The Generals played the Barrie Colts. Over all, I think the game was pretty entertaining despite the fact that the Generals lost to Barrie, 7-5. Once they warmed up, there was lots of great action, a few scraps and tons of scoring. We had kick ass seats at ice level in the new General Motors Centre and got to see all the action up close.

On the downside, the Generals were grossly out-shot and the shots that they did manage to take were, for the most part, quite feeble. Much worse than the shot ratio, though, was the referee. What an abomination! Quite apart from what seemed like a bias against the Generals, his calls were terrible in their own right. He called way too many penalties, he called things that he should have let go and he missed blatant, dangerous infractions that should have been called. It was, without a doubt, one of the worst called games that I have ever seen.

Again, despite the anxiety induced by the lack of shots from the Generals and the crap ref, the game was very fun! The gang seemed to have a great time and I thought the game was fantastic - I forgot how fun it is to go to a live game. Good show, Generals!

Posted by: Tom



Christine Lomas Photography


On November 1st, a friend and colleague of mine, Christine Lomas launched her new Web site and it coincided with her photography show in Picton. She fared very well at the show and was featured in an article in the local newspaper. Do check out her site and photos.

Congratulations, Christine!!

Posted by: Tom





Your writing covers issues such as globalisation, media saturation, fast food, human trafficking, food genetics and drug culture. Would you describe yourself as a political writer?

Yesterday I was speaking with a friend of mine who’s a psychiatrist. I admitted to him that after a long night of the soul I realized I had no idea what my political convictions are. None. Liberal? Conservative? Anarchist? Zip. I know how I was raised and how my parents tried to indoctrinate me, and I’m long over that. And I know how I feel on separate issues. But to fit me into a slot from a doctrinaire standpoint? Blank. My friend thought my horror at my lack of direction was really funny. He said most people don’t have a clue but pretend that they do. He said the world’s a mess. He said that I’m the generic swing voter and both a pollster and politico’s dream. And I’m unsure of how that makes me feel. I like to think I believe in what’s right, yet a sense of irony allows me to contain a lot of opposites in my head at one time. Net result? A need to play out my internal conflicts about big issues on paper. So—and this is a very unexpected response—I’d have to answer your question with a yes. And it would be so much easier just to be able to say no.

-- Douglas Coupland in a Q&A Session with bloomsbury.com


A question and Douglas Coupland's response in bloomsbury.com Q&A session around his book jPod. I can only say "Huzzah!" and "Amen."

Posted by: Tom



The Simple Reason for Simple Gun Control

There are many arguments for and against gun control, but I put together the graphic above to make what I believe to be the simple case for simple gun control ... No Badge, No Dog Tag, No Gun.

In other words, if you're not an on duty policeman and you're not an on duty member of the military, you cannot legally own or possess a gun.

The Pros
* Simple Enforcement - If a policeman is made aware of a person who has a gun and that person is not a police officer on duty or a member of the militia engaged in a mission, that person is illegally possessing a weapon and should be apprehended.

* Simple Registration - No civilian can purchase, own or fire a weapon - hence, no costly registration.

* Peace - Knowing your neighbour cannot legally own a weapon that might find it's way into hateful, irrational hands, one can sleep much more readily.


The Cons
* The Innocent - Many innocent gun owners would suffer. Yes. I suppose they would. I think we need compare their suffering to that of Anastasia Desouza's parents who lost heir young daughter to a legal gun-owning 'sportsman' who had no previous violations of any nature. The would-be gun sportsman's suffering doesn't seem to compare and, therefore, doesn't trouble me very much.

* The Economy - Many gun shop owners would lose their businesses. We can only hope. Perhaps they ought to join the police force to quell the burgeoning black market in guns that would certainly emerge.

Posted by: Tom

NASA Photo

These NASA images show show the disappearance of Arctic ice over one year from Dec. 21, 2004 to Dec. 21, 2005. The perennial ice (in white) is melting faster than ever.

As cited in a recent article in the Hamilton Spectator:

Two studies by NASA released this week, using different satellite monitoring technologies, both show a great surge in the disappearance of Arctic ice cover in the last two years.

One, from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, shows that Arctic perennial sea ice, which normally survives the summer melt season and remains year-round, shrank by 14 per cent in just 12 months between 2004 and 2005. The overall decrease in the ice cover was 720,000 square kilometres -- an area about three-quarters the size of Ontario, gone in a single year.

The other study, from the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, shows that the perennial ice melting rate, which has averaged 0.15 per cent a year since satellite observations began in 1979, has suddenly accelerated hugely. In the past two winters the rate has increased to six per cent a year -- that is, it has got more than 30 times faster.

The changes are alarming scientists and environmentalists, because Read More...