Canadian Politics Might Never be the Same

Well, it looks like Steven Harper played chicken with the wrong people. He, well the finance minster, put forward a budget update. Which did nothing for the economy, and every thing was political. So what do the opposition parties do? Well they learn how to pull their own wieght.
They have decided that they will cause the current government to fall, and create their own. Yup, not a new election, but a new government. This could make Stephane Dion a legend, he will show that Canadian Politics have turned over a new leaf. This coalition will mark the change, if it happens, where we move from a single party rule to who ever has the most support in the house.
This is a wonderful change, if it happens.

Globe and Mail on the Coalition

A True Black Friday

This Friday was a true 'Black Friday'. Traditionally this day is when, the first time of the year, that store are finally in the black. Which means that they are no longer in the negatives when looking at their finances. But this Friday was different, three lives were lost during the shopping craze.
The first loss of life was at 6 am eastern time, less than one hour after the stores opened. At Walmart, of all places, a worker trying to open the door got trampled to death. He was trying to open it for the costumers waiting. Before he could get out of the way he was down. As other workers where trying to save him, the costumers continued to walk over him; not allowing them to get to his aid. When the store was closed due to the death, some of the costumers were upset because they had been waiting for a long period to get in.
Next event was in California, at Toys 'R' us, there was a shoot out between to costumers. Nobody knows how it exactly happened. Some say that two women started fighting and then 'their' men showed each other their guns. And before most people could react they had killed each other. Hopefully it was not over a product; but there is never a justified death.
What is the underlying issue with these events is the shocking nature at which the American Culture has gotten to. I can not say that I am not apart of it as I am American. People who say that the United States have changed due to the election of Obama, are lying to ourselves. There has been no earthshaking change, the USA is the same today as it was four years ago when we reelected our President.

Walmart Worker Dies, Trampled by Shoppers

My Vote for Pope

Bishop Claude Champagne should be pope some day. Currently Bishop Champagne is currently auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Halifax. His responses to Women in the church, Race relations in Canada, Evangelism and Age of member of the church were outstanding.
Bishop Champagne's stance on women in the Catholic Church is progressive, yet diplomatic. He stated that the church needed every help they could get, but understood that the climate had changed. Did not say that the current climate was anybody's fault. But did say that it needed to change in time when the church was ready.
A question was asked to Bishop Champagne about how immigrants keeping to their non-christian religions were causing Canada to not be such a great nation. Because of course Canada was built by Christians and that is what lead it to be great. Now this was a hard question but he was able to answer it by using the same ideas that the person asked with. The question was asked with a lot of religious references. The answer was based on religious references, papal documents and Mother Teresa. Talking about how the religion does not matter, that we should love everybody no matter what their faiths are. Most importantly he was able to state, through references, that they are doing nothing wrong. He was able to do all of that with out bluntly saying you are completely wrong and a racist.
Bishop Champagne's lecture was about evangelism and social justice, and how the Catholic Church should evangelize. Interesting topic as a non-Catholic some parts were hard to understand. He was asked the question what was his stance on Protestant Evangelism, convert at all costs mentality. He answered this in a way that made me feel catholic. We should help each other no matter what, people do not have to become christian to get help. If they received help they do not have to become christian. We should not judge our work by if we convert but show the love of God through our actions. This is a important point: our relief work, religious or not, should not have any strings attached; we should do it because we know it is the right thing to do. Your goal in christian relief work should be about 'saving' people, but about helping people.
Bishop Champagne showed his ability to speak with respect when people were wrong. Talk about issues at length from his heart. Showed great skill on how to communicate to people who are stuck in their own view on their level. He is a great speaker and thinker but he is also very down to earth, and that is why he should be Pope some day.

Nader Stealing Missouri From Obama

Well the third party did it again, costing the democrats electoral college votes. But not really, the third party did it all over the states, for and against the democrats. North Carolina and Indiana went for Obama, while Missouri went for McCain; mostly due to third party votes.
North Carolina should have gone to McCain if Barr did not steal 25,000 votes away from him. This creates a small lead over Obama, thus McCain should have won North Carolina. The difference in NC was only 14,000 votes, McCain should have had a lead of 11,000.

Indiana also should have gone for McCain, the difference was also less than what Barr was able to get. Barr received 29,000 votes, the difference between the two big ones was just under 29,000. Indiana should have been the next Florida; making us stay up till dawn wondering who had won it.
Now to Missouri where Obama lost by less than 4 thousand votes, Nader won 17,000. So by simple math Obama won. But that is not looking at the bigger realization, the third party is here to stay and will make very small impacts. They may be small but they can change the electoral college.

Fireworks In Dubai

Well it looks like Dubai knows how to through a party. A new hotel opened in Dubai and its opening party was massive, 20 million dollars. The opening was also for the giant Palm island in Dubai. The project cost over 1.5 billion dollars, so 20 million is not that much more. It was a major celebrity event. The links that are provided gives a background on what happened and many different views of the event.

There were reportedly over 100,000 different fireworks that went off, over less than ten minutes. So if we assume that it was 10 minutes long that would be over 10,000 a minute. Over 150 per second. These are huge amounts of fireworks, so much that the clear air that the fireworks started in was filled with smoke.
What about the environmental damages created by the fire works? Well the fireworks' smoke will most likely be able to be track for quite some distance. But compared to the negative affects of the Palm development it is near to nothing. They double the length of the shore line for Dubai, they created a whole new ecosystem on the shore. Not to mention that it is a tourist attraction, so people will be flying there from around the world. Yes they will create many more airborne contaminates then the fire works ever created.
What about the current financial crisis? This fireworks display was not purchased in the last few month; it was purchased before any of the stock markets began to fall. The whole project actually started during the last major downturn in the economy. These fire works only cost 20 million dollars, while a single resort on the palm cost 1.5 billion dollars. That does not even include the costs to build the Island. So this even was a drop in the bucket.
This is just the first of three palms being created in Dubai, and there is a map of the world as well. The next opening is going to be even larger, so that means more fireworks or something else crazy and new. Don't worry the palms are good planning; they have many initiatives that are good planning.

BBC News Video of Dubai Fireworks

CNN Pictures of Dubai Hotel Opening
CNN News Article about Dubai Fireworks

MSNBC Pictures of Dubai Hotel Opening

Youtube Video of the Event
8 Min Youtube Video - homemade

Onion News

While reading numerous news articles from numerous news agencies, there was a feeling that the whole news was not being told to me. This search lead to Onion News, which is one of the best news networks out there. This is not a real news site but it does provide an important second look at some of the issues present in our society. Four videos that have interesting points of view will be focused on here, but there are many other good ones (and bad ones) on the site.

The growing gap between rich and super-rich is play on the classic conversation about the polarization in our society. Many of the points that people bring up about poor and rich in our society are brought up. Though they do show how our opinions and stances on the rich-poor gap are baseless. We really need to adjust how we think of this gap; this video helps the viewer critically examine the situation.

The next video is Eye on Autumn is the classic media hype around an everyday issue. This video examines the effects of a regular autumn week like it is a major news event. The news networks do hype many of the issues that they cover. This one is funny, with the dire predictions of children playing touch football and an increase of squirrel activities.

Should Animals be doing more to Fight for Their Rights is a group panel talking about the animal rights movement, PETA, in a way that is similar to the civil rights movement. This video shows that people say they are against and issue because they don't like one aspect. The part that should be making you think is; are you against and issue because of some small issue or are you against the whole thing and small issues is your excuse. One of the panelists is against water buffalo but for the rights movement, this is an example of using a small reason to be against a bigger idea.

The last video is a examination of the terrible fires that happen each and every year. This video puts a spin on it saying it is an annual tradition that everybody loves and enjoys. The is false, but ever land owner in that area knows the risk of them being there. They are rich and yet buy land that going to be destroyed. Why does the Californian government help these people out, if the problem when into areas that it was not expected that would be another story. These houses were built in an ecosystem that regularly has fire, and thus wild fires will occur.
Though Onion News is not a real news source it does allow the reader to take a second look at the issues present. None of the facts are true but some of the statements will allow the reader to create more realistic opinions on topics.

The Growing Gap between Rich and Super-Rich

Eye on Autumn

Should Animals be doing more to fight for their Rights?

Californians Gather to Celebrate Annual Wildfire Tradition

Oh Iceland

The current financial crisis has caused many issues around the world. In North America there has been a fairly large focus on only the United States. But, there is an even larger story of a country in financial trouble, and yes in the developed world. It is Iceland, who would have guest one of the strongest economies in Europe would just colapse.
The situation that Iceland currently is in is dire and should have greater focus. Their currency has lost 2/3 of its value over the last year. The Icelandic Stock Exchange fell over 79% in one morning in October, it did recover over the day. The government has nationalized the 3 major banks, incurring all of their debt. These banks debt is 60 billion, 10% of the USA bail out. But, their GDP is only 20 Billion, so their new debt from the banks is three times the size of their GDP. This could lead to the whole country defaulting and going into bankruptcy. This is less likely because the European Community is now working together to bail them out.
This European bailout has some interesting consequences. The most interesting is that it appears that the mood in Iceland is towards joining the EU, instead of the indifference of the past. As recently as today the Icelandic Independence Party changed the date of their next policy meeting so they can vote on whether they should support joining the EU. In a poll conducted 2 weeks ago had a 80% support for the start of the application process. It is true that this support could change with the amount of time that it would take for the process to go through. But this is remarkable when compared to 2 years ago when support was around 40%. Even if the number does go down, it still does not change the fact that 80% of the population did at one time think that it would be a good idea.
It has been said the EU will not become stronger than the USA until Switzerland, Norway and Iceland join. This might be the first sign that the EU is actually strong, and those countries will join.

Let Kids Be Kids

On another note to the last post, but at the same time similar. Let kids just be kids again. Doing background searching about the issues present with children in the UK this article jumped out. It talked about how playgrounds are becoming too tame and thus causing children to go to other more dangerous places. The conference stated that by making play grounds safer, often overly safe, children would venture to new places to do the same activities.
This is an example about how over protective of our children these days. We as a society protect them from every ill, make sure that they are always having structured play. This is creating kids that do not know how to have fun. It even is showing through what kids play with, studies are showing eating dirt is good for you as a child. This is because it builds your immune system, but what parent would allow their child to eat dirt.

Play Areas should be more fun

The Demonetization of Children

A recent study done by a charity in the United Kingdom found that adults were condemning children. Half of the adults interviewed stated that children should be considered dangerous. A majority also believed that children behaved like 'animals'. Most adults believe that children are responsible for half of the crimes that are committed. In actual fact they only committed 12% of the crimes in the UK. It has gotten so acute that the United Nations stated, there is "general climate of intolerance" towards children, last month. This is a shocking situation.
What is most shocking about this situation is that the adults appear to blame the children for all of these problems. This neglects the parenting and roles models that older individuals are. There is the chance for adults to be positive role models, the demonetization of the this groups has the opposite affect. If the climate of fear changes it needs to be the people in authority that start this change. The people in authority are the adults, adults control almost all aspects of our society. To blame the children for the problems completely disregards the larger picture.

UK Society Condemning Children

How to Make Virginia and North Carolina Democratic

This presidential election was a break through in a many different ways. One of the break throughs was Virginia and North Carolina voting democratic for the first time in a while. This change could become permanent if the democratic leaders help change the demographics of the states for ever.

Now is a great time to increase and rebuild the infrastructure in the States to help rebuild their failing economy. One Infrastructure project that should be undertaken would be highspeed rail into the South. Currently there is highspeed rail from Boston, through New York, to Washington D.C. This should be expanded to Richmond, Virginia and Raleigh and Charlotte North Carolina. This would connect this growing cities with the North East cities rather than other southern cities. The high speed rail could be extended to Greenville, South Carolina; Atlanta, Georgia and Birmingham, Alabama.
These are all important cities in respect to the recent presidential election. Urban areas are usually more democratic and thus connect these cities the democratic base in these states may grown. This could turn them into battle ground states or turn them into safe democratic states. If you look at the recent voting data most of these cities voted for Obama rather than McCain. One notable exception was Greenville which heavily favoured McCain. But what also is important is that only the central city of these communities voted democratic. By changing the demographics then the whole urban area may become more democratic.
If a rail system was put into place it would be important to reduce the divides between the North and South. This would mean that the trains that leave the southern end of the system should continue all the way to Boston. This would allow people to travel the whole lenght with out changing trains or modes of transit. If there was a change than there would be a feeling of disconnect between the two regions. As it would be easy for the train company to have two different trains that both go to Washington. A Northern and a Southern route, which would not have the desired effect.
This high speed rail corridor could have the effect of changing the boundaries of the BosWash. Not ending at Washington but all the way into North Carolina. This new urban Megalopolis would include over 60 million people, or 1/5 of the USA population. Connecting the New South to the Northeast, changing the political landscape of the USA forever. The landscape where Virgina and North Carolina would strong democratic states.

Lest We Forget

The statement 'lest we forget' in relation to the horrors of the first and second war. Now the question that should be posed is haven't we already forgotten. When was the last time that you thought about the lives that were lost on a day that was not in the week before rememberance day. When was the last time that you truly stopped doing everything that is happening around you at 11:11 and thought about those who had died.
We have forgotten what had happened. Every time we let Rwanda, Durfur, DRC, Zimbabwe, Somalia, Burma happen, we forget the past. There are many more situations which we allow as a world community and yet believe that we still remember those wars. We should not allow ourselves to lie and say that we do remember, when we know in our hearts that we have forgotten. To remember would be to react and prevent world suffering, some thing that the west has a terriable track record on.
We have forgotten because we do not remember these things in our daily lifes, only on rememberance day if it is convienent for us.

Fast Food and Corn

Well a few months ago i heard of a place that had replaced all of their plastic water bottles with corn based plastic water bottle. They were excited because they felt they were changing the world. They would be changing the world if they had not been replacing plastic with corn. Corn farming is not a sustainable use of resources, it is over funded by the government and reduces the productivity of the soil.
Today in the news there was a story about how much corn there is in fast food. At Wendy's, for example, if you order a hamburger or chicken burger with fries there is not one item of food that you eat that is not related to corn. The cattle for the hamburgers, or chicken, have been feed only corn products. The bread has corn in it. The fries and chicken are fried in corn oil. They figured this out by testing the products for corn, rather than reading the ingredients. This lead to the findings that 93% of beef from fast food have been raised exclusively on corn. This study did not look at the soft drinks at the restaurants because the sugars added to them are all corn based.
Corn is also used in ethanol. Which is not a solution to anything besides votes in the midwest. With out government subsidies corn would not be grown in places where heavy fertilization is need. Bio fuels currently are a joke because there is more energy need for the production of the fuel than is produced. The government is subsidizing the current production which allows the companies to not produce the most effience bio fuels. There is a movie on the topic, King Corn, that looks interesting, but i have not seen it.
To truly change the way that gas is produced we need to change who we subsidize and what we use for bio fuels, but that is another story.
Corn should be reduced from our food supply. Yes it is good to have corn in some products but we should not be living in a age where almost every product that you by that is prepackaged has corn in it.

News article on CBC

Actual science article in National Academy of Sciences (it is currently free)

Starting Anew

So many months ago now, around 6 months, i stopped writing or thinking about writing posts for this blog. One part was i did not have high speed internet.
So I was talking to the person who in the past told me that my posts were too long. This time the person told me to do the posts again. Not that this person has complete control over what I do, a few people have been asking recently why I had stopped blogging.
So I am back