I just uploaded some starter pics to a new photo set on my Flickr site entitled Life In Macro. If you like them, check back from time to time as I continue to add images from this perspective. I also added a link to my Flickr sets on the left panel under the blog title and my e-mail address for ease of linkage.
Today, as an insult, I was accused of being jealous of Shakespeare.
Working in government means that over time people greet the announcement of ministerial spending with a degree of cynicism. Whether it's because of previous experience with funding being pulled after it's been committed, the short-sightedness of a funding plan, or some other snafu, people tend to react with less than whole-hearted joy when these press releases occur."A move is underway to make Jesus Christ the honorary king of Poland"Yes, you read that correctly. Apparently this is to be expected because the citizens are hardcore Roman Catholic. Not only that, but this is the country that made Mary (mother of Jesus) its honorary queen because they believed she helped them win a battle with Sweden(!).
"And they are not obliged to follow those occupations, if they prefer leisure to emolument."
-John Stuart Mill, On Liberty
My co-worker was on the phone with a courier company arranging for a pick-up and I only heard her side of the conversation.
Ottawa has decided against supporting Canadian space companies' and the European Space Agency's (ESA) request to allow Canada's space industry to contribute in building the ExoMars rover. The decision was a big surprise to everybody, especially considering that the request was not contingent on any additional funding."Industry Minister Maxime Bernier told the companies the government hadn't made up its mind about the future of Canada's space role and didn't want to go forward with the project."Also of interest is the fact that the U.S. was promoting this deal and has also signed off on having Canadian companies design robotics components for its moon mission slated for 2020.
"In the 1988 federal election the Bloc Quebecois did not exist. Gilles Duceppe was elected in a by-election two years later as an independent, not as a Bloc candidate. Despite having no seats in Parliament, no official recognition from the Speaker and only 75 candidates out of 295 ridings, the Bloc Quebecois was included in both the French and English debates. The Bloc has never fielded a candidate outside Quebec but continues to participate in debates in both official languages.
In the 1988 general election, the Reform Party ran 72 candidates, received 276,000 votes and won no seats. By the time of the 1993 election, the Reform Party’s only sitting member was Deborah Grey following her win in a 1989 by-election. Reform did not have Official Party status and did not win a seat in the 1988 election but Preston Manning participated in the 1993 leaders’ debate, based on the 11,154 votes Deborah Grey received in a 1989 by-election with a 47 per cent turnout. In 1993, the party ran only 207 candidates.
In 2004 and 2006, the Green Party ran a full slate of 308 candidates and won 583,000 and 664,000 votes respectively, over double the Reform Party’s performance in 1988.
In 1979, the Social Credit Party was excluded from the debate despite the fact that it had 11 seats in Parliament at the time of dissolution. And in 1997, both the NDP and Progressive Conservatives were included in the debate despite not having Official Party status.
In 1993, 1997 and 2000 five leaders participated in the televised debates. This was reduced to four following the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservatives in 2003. Fair play, democratic equity and precedent demands that a fifth spot now be opened for a new national leader to join the debate. Five parties received over 2 per cent of the vote in 2004 and 2006 and all five should appear in the next leaders’ debate."
"A recent study shows the chasm between rich and poor is growing. Last year, those in the top fifth of wealth distribution had a median net worth of about $551,000 while for families in the bottom fifth, the value of their assets never exceeded the value of their debts. Where do you place yourself on the 'wealth' scale?"The possible answers are "Top 20%", "Top 40%", "Right in the middle", "Bottom 40%", and "Bottom 20%".
"Of the total household wealth in Canada in 2005, the top 20 per cent possessed 75 per cent of it."This article focuses more on the cost of housing as a factor in the widening gap between the rich and the poor in Canada.
"Most of those (95 per cent) in the top 20 per cent bracket owned a home, and the median value of that home grew by $75,000 between 1999 and 2005. Only six per cent of those in the lowest wealth group owned a home."
"Statistics Canada said the median net worth of the poorest group has stagnated over the past two decades. 'The value of their assets never exceeded the value of their debts during the 1984 to 2005 period.'"
I think I've said it often enough, but I'll say it again; we live in world comprised primarily of uninformed idiots and the masses can not generally be trusted to decide most matters of public interest."I have never injured anybody with a mordant poem; my verse contains charges against nobody. Ingenuous, I have shunned wit steeped in venom - not a letter of mine is dipped in poisonous jest."
-Ovid
Harper and his cabinet minsters have been quietly liaising with U.S. officials since before June. The ministers have been consulting them regarding their drug policy with an eye to developing a version of it for Canada. Right. Because it's widely acknowledged that the American style War On Drugs is the model of success? Oh right, that's a load of crap. The American War On Drugs is laughable and at best only marginally successful - and even then, only in spite of itself. This plan of course runs totally counter to the extremely successful programs being run in Europe where the drug problem is categorized more as a health issue than a criminal or 'moral' problem. Not only that, but the European model favours a harm reduction approach whereas the U.S. and Federal Conservatives' style is more along the lines of being an asshole and seeing how far that gets you.
We've had a rough winter so far in Vancouver. We've had flooding, a weeks long boil water advisory, downed power lines, a crippling snow storm, downed power lines, and now last night, more downed power lines.
Sadly, having just $2,200 in wealth (household wealth was defined as the value of physical and financial assets minus debts) is all you'd need to be placed in the top half of the world's wealth distribution - but only the bottom 49% of that top half. The newest figures show that this distribution sees 1% of the total world population holding 40% of the planet's wealth. Meanwhile, "the bottom half of the world makes do with barely one per cent" of the world's wealth. "The authors note that "many people in high-income countries — somewhat paradoxically — are among the poorest people in the world in terms of household wealth" because they have large debts."This means that those who have at least $2,200 in household wealth and can be considered 'middle class' are only a tiny portion of the total world population. Scarier still is that the 50% of the population below that has to make to with splitting only 1% of the wealth.
Posts
All Comments
