Electric cars

This charging station has been around in the parking lot of the MEC (new name for Mountain Equipment Co-op) for some time, but I've never seen a car plugged in again. This morning, the VirtuCar (http://www.vrtucar.com) was plugged in. It's interesting that an ecologically friendly approach to cars (VirtuCar ID a car sharing program) is now ecologically friendly and promoted in front of a store that is also known as an ecological- friendly advocate.

MEC used to be called Mountain Equipment Co-op, but changed their name and logo recently to de-emphasize the mountain equipment aspect since their business has grown into so many other areas.

Have we no shame? The Rob Ford bobble head fund raiser is wrong.

As a fund-raiser conceived long before Mayor Ford's notoriety was exposed, the concept was at best silly. Why in the world anyone would want a person in a respected position, a leader of a community to be represented by a little doll whose head bobs uncontrollably up and down when jiggled. You'd never see a President Obama bobblehead endorsed by the White House.

But the $20.00 BobbieRobbie was a runaway successful fund-raiser for the United Way. The 1,000 limited edition dolls, some authographed by the mayor, sold out and some are even now available for resale on the Internet for as much as $2,000!!! And of course they are now talking major re-orders. Want to bet that Mayor Ford's buddies in the drug trade are salivating at the thought of an instant, LEGAL way to make a 1000% return on investment. Not even crack cocaine has that kind of return!

But what is the morality of a charitable organizations like the United Way doing fund raising on the coat tails of a known drug-dealer and crack cocaine abuser? Would they ever consider selling booblehead heads of Al Capone or Bonnie & Clyde to raise funds for charity? How about a Paul Bernardo bobble doll? We incarcerate these felons for life because of their heinous crimes and then try to forget they ever existed even going to the trouble of raising their homes and scenes of the crime. Now we're talking about fame and fortune for BEING a criminal.

I've been waiting for the book and movie announcement. Let's face it, there will be lineups for those too. Maybe Matt Damon could gain weight in a starring role, or maybe they could just use the same makeup they did for Fat Bastard in the Austin Powers movies. Come to think of it, Mike Myers might make a pretty good Rob Ford after makeup - and he already has the Fat Bastard prosthetics. 

What's that? Oh, I should say "weight challenged" instead of fat? So in talking about Mayor. Ford's shortcomings, we have to be politically correct, do we?

Fine. I don't think that the sobriety-challenged, abused-substance smoking, weight- and manners- challenged Mayor of Canada's largest city should be used as a mini-me symbol for United Way fund-raising. The funds raised should instead be used to find a very isolated, very quiet sanitarium where the embarrassing Mayor can get help. Iceland comes to mind, or maybe Siberia.

Stop the insanity and give us our boring lives back!

Comments are now WORKING!

Your comments on my articles have been appreciated, and I apologize if you've experienced the frustration of seeing them disappear after you've posted them. Apparently I had neglected to link my Google+ profile which prevented the comments from being saved. My Google+ profile has now been linked and the issue resolved.

Future comments will appear under various posts, but here are the recent comments on ROBOT BREAKS ANKLE! that weren't posted but which I also received by email:

===========================================================
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Robot breaks ankle!":

Wonderful, what a website it is! This blog presents valuable facts to us, keep it up.


my blog; rekuperatory serwis 
===========================================================
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Robot breaks ankle!":

I visited various web sites but the audio feature for audio songs existing at this web page is really
excellent.

my web page - personal loans
===========================================================
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Robot breaks ankle!":

Wow that was unusual. I just wrote an extremely long comment but
after I clicked submit my comment didn't show up. Grrrr...

well I'm not writing all that over again. Anyway, just wanted to say superb blog!


my web site http://xrumerbacklinksservice.blogspot.com

Canadian politics explained - for non-Canadians

As a normally, shy, unassuming nation of quiet people, Canadians have been recently thrown into the world spotlight by senate scandals and a crack-smoking mayor. First let me use a standard Canadian response to all this world attention. I'm sorry. I'm sorry and embarrassed that we have Canadians in positions of power who feel that normal rules don't apply to them, that feel they can get away with anything, and that exhibit such repulsive behavior. Most of us are really not like that. We're hockey fanatics who would rather see disputes settled in legal brawls on the ice where a good blow to the head will finish a career, rather than attempting to shame a politician into "doing the honorable thing" and retiring from public life. I'm sorry our political system is too polite to allow fisticuffs to settle these conflicts.

THE SENATE SCANDAL

In Canada, the Senate is an appointed body who receive their appointments from the Prime Minister without debate and who serve in the Upper Chamber until they die or turn 75 (whihcever comes first) or voluntarily retire and, provided they have served at least 6 years, retire with a full pension. The senate is often called the Chamber of Sober Second Thought because all bills passed by the Lower House, the House of Commons (who are all elected by the people) has to be approved by the Senate. The leaders of the majority in the House of Commons is the Prime Minister and he wants to be sure his legislation is not blocked by the Senate. Before the Conservatives came to power, the Senate majority was Liberal and they frustrated the government by adding amendments to bills and sending them back to the House of Commons for approval. I'm sorry we can't get rid of the Senate because it requires 100% ratification by all the provinces - an impossible threshold to achieve with so many regions clinging to their own vested interests.

Retirements and deaths created vacancies in the Senate and Prime Minister Harper has appointed 59 of the current 100 senators since February, 2006. All of the appointments have been Conservatives, although other Prime Ministers have appointed distinguished Canadians from other parties or as Independents in the past. While previous Senate appointments have usually been politicians or lawyers, Harper has chosen Senators from a much broader range that includes Olympic athletes, aboriginal leaders, television news reporters and others who have never served In a political or diplomatic role. I'm sorry that this was done, but I'm not saying its a bad thing - it's just that the Prime Minister has to accept responsibility for rotten tasting food if he chooses bad ingredients to bake it with. I'm sorry we have such a bad example of a Prime Minister who doesn't accept responsibility for what he's done.

Another rule for senators is that they have to have their primary residence in the province they represent. That presented problems for Pamela Wallen, who lived in Toronto, and Patrick Duffy, who lived in Ottawa. There were no vacant seats in Ontario, but there was one in Saskatchewan and another in Prince Edward Island. Wallen had a second home in Saskatchewan and Duffy had a summer home in PEI, so to secure the appointments, they each declared these homes as their "principal residences", and claimed their Ottawa housing expenses as a second home. Senator Patrick Brasseau did the same thing. In spite of the three senators claiming that they checked this arrangement with the Senate and the Prime Minister's Office and were told it was okay, the public outrage at the Senators' double-dipping forced them to repay the money they received to offset these expenses. I'm sorry that these Canadians are such a poor example of typical Canadians who would never consider such duplicity or would ever consider asking for reimbursement for personal living expenses for their first or second home.

Pamela Wallen and Patrick Brasseau were appointed to the Senate on 22-DEC-2008 and Mike Duffy was appointed to the Senate on 26-JAN-2009.  Wallen and Duffy were considered superstars, former broadcasters who are accomplished speakers and they became powerful fund-raisers for the Conservative party jetting to cities all across Canada to Conservative events. It appears as if some of these travel expenses may have been reimbursed twice - once by the Conservative party and once by the Senate Expense Committee. Wallen has repaid the amounts requested by the Senate, but Duffy had his expenses repaid by Nigel Wright, the Prime Minister Office's Chief of Staff at the time. He was forced to resign when this story came out. I'm sorry this is so confusing, but bear with me, we're almost at the end. Brasseau was a respected aboriginal leader who appears to have been swept up in this mess along with Wallen and Duffy. His repayments are being deducted from his garnisheed Senate salary. I'm sorry we didn't throw them all into a debtor's prison - in Canada we're too polite to have such an institution.

After much political and public debate, all three senators were suspended without pay for 2 years, but they get to keep the title, Senator, and retain all their benefits, including full pensions which they will qualify for in 2 years. In the meantime they are prohibited from visiting their former offices in the senate, cannot communicate with other senators and all of their staff has been fired. They have been effectively exiled from Parliament Hill. I'm sorry we still believe that people found guilty without a trial can still be sanctioned by their peers, but we still want to be sure their medical coverage is okay and that they'll be able to retire in comfort in two years., after all this is just exile from Parliament Hill, not from Ottawa or Canada. No big loss, I say.

While there are still 6 other vacancies in the Senate and there is no danger that the Conservatives will lose majority control with these suspensions it does have the effect of reducing the number of seats in the Senate to 97 until these three either resign or turn 75. I'm sorry that no one else in Canada has realized that this is the solution to abolishing the Senate. Why not just suspend the remaining  97 Senators and not replace them? This may sound far-fetched, but that's exactly how the province of Quebec got rid of it's Senate.  The Quebec Senators agreed to vote their positions out of existence provided they receive their salary for the rest of their lives.  At the time, the $10,000 annual salary was considered exorbitant and too generous, but look who is laughing now! But before we do this, could I get appointed to the Senate 6 years before this comes into effect? I could use an annual $93,000 pension. I'm sorry we get so caught up in these issues that all anything anyone can do is complain about how nothing can be done when its staring us straight in the face.

I'm sorry if this has not clarified how the political system works in Canada. We barely understand it ourselves, and yet we have to periodically vote for politicians who tell us they will make things better even though they have no idea how to do it, and they never do. And then we have crack-smoking mayors to deal with.

CRACK-SMOKING MAYOR

Our municipal political system is much easier to understand. The Mayor is like a king who gets to control everything, like the police, public transit, public housing and of course all the drug dealers and crack houses. While he / she is paid a salary from the city's budget that mixes property taxes with provincial and federal subsidies, the mayor is only accountable to City Council which is composed of Councillors elected to represents the different districts In a city. But the real power rests in the Mayor's office and his control over the city's civil servants, including the police, and, unless he is convicted of a criminal offense, he cannot be removed from power. He / she does, however, have to run for reelection ever 4 years, and this does require approval from the public who elects or reelects him or her. 

Mayor Rob Ford is a popular mayor who appealed to the working class citizens of Toronto. He promised to reduce taxes and get rid of irritants like the vehicle registration tax, and to expand the public transit system - tangible things he was able to accomplish or set in motion. Previous mayors have appeared to be elitist and out of touch with the average citizen so, in spite of the mayor's admission to smoking crack cocaine, his approval ratings have INCREASED. the mayor has a loyal, passionate following who are likely to show up and vote him back into office, whereas the people who are disgusted with his behavior are more likely to feel that politics are corrupt and there are no decent politicians, and so will NOT vote.

Having said all that, I still think Canada is the greatest country in the world to live in. In spite of all the government waste, dishonest and crack-smoking politicians, at least we have careers for such people which remove them from the general population. The alternative would be building more jails to house them, and we know from the experience of other countries that that doesn't work.

We have one of the highest standards of living in the world, free medical care, a rock solid banking system and well-funded public pension systems (although many seniors feel the monthly payments could be more generous) and all of these benefits are available to all Canadians without discrimination.  Our multicultural society allows people from many diverse nations to live in harmony side-by-side, and it is evident in public schools and public institutions where these immigrants have been integrated that we have become an open, tolerant and accepting society. Notwithstanding efforts from forces to push us away from these ideals, the vast majority support these ideals and somehow we always seem to find our way back. I'm sorry I can't explain it any better than that. Visit Canada and you will experience it for yourself. But I should suggest avoiding Toronto - you don't want to be caught up in the mayoral drug wars. Visit instead Ottawa where a front-row seat to watch the continuing scandal debate in the House  of Commons is free and quite entertaining, and can be followed up by a visit to the Natural History museum where you can see all the other dinosaurs.

Robot breaks ankle!

For years we have been promised convenient technology in our homes. We're now flooded with so-called "smart" devices that include cell phones, cars, refrigerators and even watches. While the dictionary defines "smart" as "intelligence", none of these devices is self-aware or is really smart. The label is added to imply perhaps that the buyer is smart for buying the device, and as a result shows intelligence in the choice.

Enter the robot. These human-like appliances do have limited intelligence and can learn and adapt similar to the way human children do. While we are still years, maybe even decades away from the day where they will be common household appliances, a recent newspaper article about robots caught my eye:

Bad break as Atlas comes robo-cropper

Things break. Complicated techology fails. So what happens when we come to depend on this technology to perform simple or possibly even complicated tasks that, because of our reliance on this new technology, we are unable to do by ourself. We've heard the expression "smart house" where all functions, including locking and unlocking doors and windows, are all computer controlled. What happens if the computer fails and locks all windows and doors during a fire, trapping all residents IN THE HOUSE?

I know, I know. There will be built in safeguards. This is not a new idea. Isaac Asimov, one of the most visionary science fiction writers of the 20th century, explored robotics in many of his novels. Originally introduced in his short story "Runaround" in 1942, these rules were explored in more detail in his novel "I, Robot" that was recently made into a popular Will Smith movie. The Three Laws are:

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Most science fiction writers have respected these "rules" but stories have been made more dramatic to illustrate the consequences of violation of the rules.

But real life is very different. We know form the current use of miltary drones used mostly by the US in surgical strikes to kill enemies or destroy miltary targets that flying robots with lethal weapons are beings used without any rules at all. Are we now living in a world where we will have two classes of robots? One class, being a consumer class, would have the 3 rules burned into their operating system. The other class, let's call it the military class, would have no rules or restrictions and could be used in whatever way that establishment sees fit with little or minimal oversight.

And what happens when one of the devices breaks its ankle? Would a consumer have to purchase a new, replacement robot? More and more of our technology is perceived as disposible and unrepairable. This is true, for example, of almost every "smart" phone today. Would we be obliged to replace a robot that breaks its ankle, or a finger?

Is it possible that a "broken" consumer robot might "forget" the 3 rules and start causing havoc? Could the programming be hacked to cancel the 3 rules?

The future on robots is not clear. We need to consider these consequences before we start mass production and end up with monsters we can no longer control.

Cellphone lock-up

In the past I have suggested that young people  are too addicted to their cell phones. In spite of being prohibited from using them at work or in school, they are obsessed with texting and attempt to hide what they are doing so they won't get caught. As punishment, the offending cell phone user could have their smartphone secured in the EB Brands Cell Lock-up. It's the perfect punishment - a cell phone jail.

It can be purchased for less than $20.00 at amazon.com and other websites. Prices may vary.

The timer can be set for 15, 30, 45 or 60 minutes. A"Breakout" alarm sounds if lock up is opened prematurely. At the end of the lockup, various phrases will play like:  "You Are Now Free To Phone", "Justice is Served Power Up", " It's Time To Rejoin Digital Society".

Imagine, the perfect cell-phone addicted teen tormentor!

Have you got an uncooperative teen? A tantrum-prone techno-addict who uses their cellphone to ignore the world around them?

Sentence their cell phone to the Cell Lock-up. The following sentences might be appropriate:

• 45 minutes: Clean up your room - must pass inspection before release.
• 1-hour: Finish your homework - finished homework must pass muster and spot checks with teacher will ensure compliance.
• 30 minutes consecutive: For each display of petulance, lack of cooperativeness, aggression, or other anti-social behaviour. Attitude changes mandatory before jail release.
• 15 minutes: For swearing, answering back or making faces.

Be inventive. Compliance contracts could specify the level of adherence required, and also include a list of punishments doled out as the consequences for breaking these terms. Feel free to share your suggestions in the comments below.

To ensure maximum compliance in the shortest amount of time, cell phones should be left on in the cage so that offending teens can hear it ringing, buzzing and vibrating - but not able to see the display. This will be followed by begging, pleading, promises, crying and perhaps tantrums. But the timer is an objective, uncaring judge and will only release when the sentence has been served.

In future, simple threats of cell phone jail should ensure rapid and polite compliance with your meager, reasonable requests.

Beam me up, eh?

Oh damn. Teleportation will probably not happen in my lifetime.

In Star Trek, teleportation allows you to materialize wherever faster than the time it takes Kirk to say "Beam me up, Scotty". The reality - even if the technology existed to make it possible - would be somewhat different, according to a group of physics students at the University of Leicester.

If slow broadband speeds are hard to cope with now, try beaming speed. Teleporting just one person off the surface of the Earth would take 350,000 times longer than the universe has been in existence using existing technology. What?

That may not be so surprising when you consider the amount of information being transmitted. Including all the data in the traveller's brain, this amounts to around 2.6 times 10 to the power of 42 bits - that is, 2.6 times one followed by 42 zeros or 2,600,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 bits of data - this would take 823,890,283,164,753,000,000 centuries to upload or download at 1 Gigabit (billions of bits) per second, give or take a century!!! Hardly the instant transportation we would come to expect in the future. Now if we had upload/download speeds of 1 Googolbit per second (number 1 followed by 100 zeroes), then this entire transport would take place in less than a second. THAT is more in keeping with what Start Trek technology can do.

But would you end up with the original, or a duplicate? If you were duplicated, would the original then have to be destroyed to avoid cloning?

OMG! Think of the possibilities! And the possible "data errors"!

• "What do you mean my ear is missing? I had two before I was beamed up?"

• "How do you explain I can't remember anything. I'm sure I had a perfect memory before I was transported, but I can't remember now."

David Starkey, a member of the University of Leicester team, said: "We decided to investigate the practicalities of teleportation as a means of everyday travel.

"We employed several approximations to determine the amount of data required in bits to fully store a human genetic code and neural information, and the signal to noise ratio of typical signalling equipment.

"Our results indicate the time scales to complete a full teleport of an individual are a little too lengthy at this time. Current means of travel remain more feasible."

The students, all in their final year of a Master of Physics degree, worked out what it would take to represent a human as transferable data.

They found that the energy required to teleport into orbit was dependent on bandwidth. The less time it took, the more power was consumed.

The universe is thought to be abound 14 billion years old. Beaming someone up to an orbiting spacecraft would take about 350,000 times longer than all the years that have passed since the Big Bang, using the limitations of bandwidth speeds available today. The findings are published in the University of Leicester's Journal of Physics Special Topics.

So Star Trek teleportation in addition to consuming incredible amounts of power requires unbelievable bandwidths and transmission speeds that would make even the current gigabit Internet providers pale by comparison. It's like comparing the speed of a tortoise to the warp speed of the Enterprise - only you'd have to be much faster.

Oh well, I guess we'll just have to rely on worm holes.

Stephen Harper - Can you hear me now?

Why do I feel that Canada's Wireless companies are not being treated fairly but instead are just fodder to feed a hidden Conservative agenda? This is the same party that destroyed Canada's aviation industry with the dismantling of the AVRO Arrow and I fear that is the intent of what they are now doing to Canada’s successful wireless companies. All the messages from the "Harper Government" and the ads about their "Economic Action Plan" appear to be an attempt to shift the balance of power and control to Western Canada, and to destroy anything of value in Central Canada and make sure we never recover. In contrast to these ads, not everyone in Canada can work or even wants to work for an oil company or in Natural Resources exploitation.

 The time has come for the "Harper Government" to stop beating up successful Canadian companies who offer competitive products in a thriving marketplace. Being successful and making a profit in Canada is not a crime - at least not yet. Parachuting super-rich American companies in to snap up the jewels in telecommunications may provide rich retirement jobs for ex-government employees and politicians, but the long-term legacy will be fewer high-paying jobs for average Canadians, permanent loss of valuable resources which, because of free trade, can never be recovered and the eternal shame of being the worst government in Canada's history governed by the crassest ignorant fools and bigots.

Offering Verizon, a company that has more than FOUR TIMES MORE SUBSCRIBERS than all Canadian wireless companies combined, a preferential treatment because they won the purchase rights for the "poor me" bankrupt wireless startups, who prefer discounting to profits, will do nothing to improve competitive conditions in Canada. Verizon are not the lowest price wireless carrier in the States, and I doubt they would want to have that reputation in Canada. But with one foothold in Canada and one in the USA, they would be in a unique position to offer North American wide plans with no roaming fees in Canada or the USA. While this is not significant for most, it is HUGE for the crème-de-la-crème business and frequent traveller customers. Take these high value customers away from all of Canada's carriers and you are left with 3 former successful companies fighting over the scraps that are left. They will become the discount carriers filling the slots abandoned by Wind and Mobilicity, and will ultimately end up in the same place - bankrupt or taken over by larger foreign companies when the Canadian government is forced to loosen ownership rules again to keep the Wireless industry afloat.

It's not right and it’s not fair. And if we have learned anything from the AVRO Arrow fiasco, THE CONSERVATIVES DO NOT KNOW BEST.

Why is there such urgency to get this done now? Is the Harper Government afraid of losing the next election and wants to get this done as their legacy before Canadians get fed up and throw them out of power? For a government that preaches non-interference and has reduced regulation and government oversight in all areas where most Canadians would consider such oversight crucial, why is there such a focus on dismantling and destroying the Wireless incumbents where more regulation seems to be unnecessary and cumbersome? Isn’t THIS what adds cost to our wireless bills?

Verizon doesn't need special treatment. For Canadian companies to be treated fairly, government policies must be changed so that incumbents can compete on a level playing field. Canadians voters deserve nothing less from their government. All MP's have to be outspoken advocates against a biased policy that will kill Canadian jobs and ultimately reduce competition and increase prices. We also need to tell the truth about Canadian wireless pricing, which is every bit as competitive as prices in the USA. If we were all truly concerned about high prices, we would be buying cheaper talk and text cell phones only, limiting our calls to emergencies and then do our Internet surfing and sending emails on a home computer using much cheaper cable internet connections. But Canadians, in spite of complaining about high wireless prices, continue to stampede to Smartphones with high data usage costs, like lemmings over a priceless cliff. Only then is the damage really felt.

 So let me ask the Harper Government - Can you hear me now?

I didn’t think so. Perhaps they should all get cell phones with microphones only and no earpieces since listening doesn’t seem to be a requisite skill for Harper Government politicians.

Can you hear me now?