Season's Greetings!

A Calvin Christmas Thought

Not enough?

More Calvin with Snowmen!

Xmas Spirit?

Hmm. From the New Yorker:

Since the early nineteen-nineties, Joel Waldfogel, an economist at the University of Pennsylvania, has been doing a series of studies in which college students are asked to put a value on the presents they receive. Waldfogel’s main finding is that, in general, people spend a lot more on presents than they’re worth to those who receive them, a phenomenon that he calls “the deadweight loss of Christmas.” A deadweight loss is created when you spend eighty dollars to give me a sweater that I would spend only sixty-five dollars to buy myself. Waldfogel estimates that somewhere between ten and eighteen per cent of seasonal spending becomes deadweight loss, which means that billions of dollars a year is now going to waste.

But, on the upside...

A study by the economists Sara Solnick and David Hemenway shows that we value unrequested gifts more than presents we ask for, because we assume that the former show more thought.

So,

Waldfogel’s studies also suggest a very different solution: if most of the presents we buy are going to be less valuable in monetary terms than in sentimental ones, then there’s no reason to believe that the more expensive gift is a better gift. In fact, the more we spend at Christmas, the more we waste. We might actually be happier—and we’d certainly be wealthier—if we exchanged small, well-considered gifts rather than haunting the malls. Calculating the deadweight loss of Christmas gifts is a coldhearted project, but it leads to a paradoxically warmhearted conclusion: the fact of giving may be more important than what you give.

All quotes from James Surowiecki

Calvin Cont'd

Winter Calvin cont'd

Christmas Calvin!

How to Navigate Public Transit in Toronto

Cool.

Another "You Ask, I Answer"

One excerpt:

Nearly 100 Americans are dying every month. The United States is spending $2 billion a week."

And the total?

The United States has made a massive commitment to the future of Iraq in both blood and treasure. As of December 2006, nearly 2,900 Americans have lost their lives serving in Iraq. Another 21,000 Americans have been wounded, many severely.

To date, the United States has spent roughly $400 billion on the Iraq War, and costs are running about $8 billion per month. In addition, the United States must expect significant "tail costs" to come. Caring for veterans and replacing lost equipment will run into the hundreds of billions of dollars. Estimates run as high as $2 trillion for the final cost of the U.S. involvement in Iraq.

Ouch. But there you go J-Mac.

Online Music

A competitor to Pandora along with last.fm This one matches by mood, gauging your it on the axes of Positive/Negative and Calm/Energetic. Pandora looks for similarities between your faves and other songs within the music itself. Not sure what Last's method is yet. So far, I'd say that musicology plays more familiar music - which is a good and bad thing.

Edward Muybridge Revisited

Fun to watch, but further proof that

What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one can say, "Look! This is something new"? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time. There is no remembrance of men of old, and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow.

See here.

Classic Year End List

To think of Tony Montana battling it out with Lara Croft, or SuperMario speaking with Mr. Monopoly...

I'm still full...

I think my belly might actually be distended... Phew.
It's the second time in a month where I've eaten over 16 ounces of steak in one sitting. I wouldn't recommend sitting near me for a while.

More national nonsense

Wow. I'm crankier about this than I thought I would be. Again, AC quoting Forsey:

"Some people think that we should be willing to swallow any kind of nonsense in order to 'preserve the unity of Canada.' I am not interested in a Canada that would be just a splash on the map, with a six-letter word scrawled across it. The only Canada I want to preserve is a Canada that can do something: for its own people, for the hungry two-thirds of the world, for the survival of the planet; not a phantom that can only watch helplessly as we all tumble down a steep place to destruction."

Ok, but what about Canada as a Nation?

Andrew Coyne punishing the NCR's gasbags:

The hollowing out of the national idea -- of a vision of Canada as a coherent national entity, capable of acting with a single national purpose -- is now complete. We are well on our way to Belgiumhood, and that suits our political class just fine.
On this, as on so many other questions, the “Quebec consensus” is a fraud.

But fine: some Quebecers think they are. People are entitled to believe what they want to believe. Quebec nationalists are entitled to argue that Quebec is a nation all they want. But somewhere, sometime, somebody has to put the other proposition: that Canada is a nation; that Quebecers are a part of that nation; that they have as much or more in common with other Canadians as they do with each other. Ordinarily, I would expect my prime minister, at least, to do that.

But my prime minister did not do that. My prime minister could discourse at length on his profound conviction, never voiced until now, that Quebecers are a nation, but never once could he say that Canadians are -- only bark out meaningless applause lines like “Canada is the greatest country in the world.”

..."this can only fan the flames it claims to extinguish. The message the Parliament of Canada is about to send to Quebecers is this: that, as a nation, they have more in common with each other than they do with other Canadians, whom they will increasingly see as another nation altogether; that their relationship with that other nation must, accordingly, be as that they maintain with other nations -- cordial, businesslike, to be sure, but distant; and that, like any self-respecting nation, they can on no account submit to be governed by another nation -- as represented, for example, by the majority of the Parliament of Canada.

Quebec, a nation?

This from CalgaryGrit captures the painful absurdity nicely:

So, in short, everyone ends up looking like an imbécile. And, as a consequence, Michael Ignatieff looks less ridiculous in comparison. So he and Jean Charest are probably the only winners in this sorry, sorry spectacle we should not have had to go through.

My Boss' Boss' Boss...

Yup. Pat McG. Not that he dropped by the office while he was here. In fact, I don't think he's ever been "by the office." His admin mentioned that he might (two-three years ago), and mgmt went into a flurry of "clean your desk" memo's with side-order of "dress smartly." As it turned out, I think he went to Canoe with some other people and then flew out again.

Marketing Meta-data and web 2.0

Interesting. Wonder how much attention Nikon and Canon pay to this trend - especially seeing Nikon's most recent N80 ad campaign - where they gave Nikons to people to see what they would shoot, and post their picture next to their own picture in magazine ads.

Detail: Grassi Lakes

Orwell would be proud

"Windows Vista will have a reduced functionality mode but one that is enhanced."

Hmm. An enhanced, reduced functionality?

More Grassi Lakes

On the day of the wedding, a number of the Wallis-Pratt family went for a nice walk.

Election Today: Go Vote!

Candidates in my ward include (name/issues, which is a huge simplification, but hey, this is a blog. It's worth exactly what you paid for :):

Overall summary:

Incumbent Case Ootes. Mel's former right hand man. Pro-cops, anti-bike lanes.

Diane Alexopoulos: presumptive Miller ally; endorsed by NDP.

John Richardson: predominantly tax fairness between home owners/renters. Here's his blog: http://ward29.blogspot.com/

Andrew James: "Accountability, fiscal responsibility and “green consciousness” are the three pillars of my campaign."

Hamish Wilson: hmm, having issues finding a central site. Try here, or



TRUSTEES - frankly I have no idea what these people do or who they are, or how to distinguish between them. I may well end up flipping a coin in the voter's booth.

Cathy Dandy : hmm. long time involvement in education, and member of Toronto Parent Network. Support from lots of NDPers. Good luck with that budget....

Gord Crann: former councillor. Current lawyer. Lots of volunteer awards.


Mayors:
http://www.votetoronto.ca/recordsnew.html

Weekend Recap

Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time... 

Remembrance Day is Coming - Sign This!

"We the undersigned feel enormous gratitude for the sacrifice made by all the Canadian Armed Forces through the ages in defence of this country and its values; acknowledge the very special nature of the sacrifice made by those who fought in the First World War in appalling conditions and with terrible loss of life; note that only three First World War veterans remain, and urge the Prime Minister that their sacrifice, and all of those they served with under arms from 1914-1918, be celebrated by offering a state funeral to the family of the last veteran of the First World War resident in Canada."

The Dominion Institute will send the petition on behalf of its signatories
to the Prime Minister of Canada on December 11, 2006.

The point of Office Live

Hmm, now to see which relevant sites are still available...

New iPod shuffle

I like the idea, but wonder at the price point. In fact, I should online and see how much older ipods sell for on ebay.

Oil, water, printer ink. Who wins?

Self-explanatory

Bwahahaha

Just in time for Halloween, it's The Thirteen Scariest Things in IT.
Hmm. In my day job:
I study #12
A case could be made that I contribute to #8
I resent #4 (keep losing customers to it)
I (sometimes) promote #3
And we all hate #2

Kain Hut with Eastpost behind

This was the view west of the tents. Not so bad really - waterfall, cliffs, peaks... 

Summit of Eastpost

 

Summit of Eastpost

 

K on the bridge

A handy dandy bridge crossing a glacier-fed stream. Snowpatch Spire, the last climbed of the Bugaboos (1940) is in the background. 

Bugaboos hike-in

A handy bridge with Snowpatch Spire in the background. Snowpatch was the last of the spires to be climbed in 1940. 

Hiking into the Bugaboos

Wow. This is impressive. After setting up a barricade of chicken wire around the truck to protect it from porcupines, who seem to find rubber tubing quite delightful., we set off on a hike to the Boulder Camp below the Conrad Kain Hut. Given that it was K's stag and all, we dropped an additional weight in his pack - 32 cans of beer. At 355mL, that's roughly an additional 25 pounds - on top of the usual camping accoutrements of tent, sleeping bag, stove, gas, clothes, water and food.
The hike to the Conrad Kain hut is very short - roughly 3 miles up - but seriously steep (map here). There's 2200 feet of elevation gain to the hut, all of it attained in the last two miles. In places, the trail uses bolted cables, and in one spot, it utilizes a vertical metal ladder. However, the trail is in great shape and views are inspiring.
The prominent rock in the midst of the glacier is the Marmolata, about which more here. Suffice it to say that it's the smallest peak there.

A painful flashback

It's somehow odd to hear this, when it sounds both familiar and far removed. I've had conversations with someone who was in a familiar positions about courses of action, what to do, "what's he thinking now?", "does he think of me?" and "if so, what does he think of me?", and so on and so forth. And it's tough. Because you want them to be proud of themselves for themselves - not in order to prove something to someone else. Especially when the proving isn't necessary in the first place. And because they have so much to be proud of. And because the telling of the proof affirms and confirms to the villain of the piece their importance in the narrative of the other person's life.
But it - the confronting, the honouring of their truth and moreover the affirmation of survival and success - is still, at the end of the day, still important to the former victim and current survivor. So. What to do? What to suggest?

So You Wanna Be An Olympian?

Awesome idea. Man, would I love to be part of something like this - even if it were only as a journalist in the Canadian context.

Sito's trip

Keeping up with sito's trip through Cambodia.

Grassi Lakes

Grassi Lakes is a moderately short hike, up a good path to a popular climbing area for Canmore locals. It's named in tribute to Lawrence Grassi, who by all accounts, was a great individual. More later on the Lake O'Hara section of the trip. 

Dove's Evolution Campaign

Brilliant.

Where Sito's At

Off doing good things for people.

Sediment, Lake Louise

Lake Louise's unique turquoise color water is created by the glaciers at the head of the valley. The movement of glacial ice continually grinding away the bedrock creates rock flour (silt). This fine silt drains into the lake and much of the silt is suspended in the water. When the sun strikes the water, these particles absorb all the spectrum of colors except green and blue. 

Stanley Glacier

Apparently named for the same Governor-General as hockey's greatest trophy, the view atop the Stanley Glacier hike is well worth the run/hike/slog. An easily approachable hanging glacier, multiple hundred foot waterfalls, and a series of peaks are your reward. 

Stanley Glacier hike

Continuing the pattern of "Seeing the Rockies when You're Always Late," we opted to run the Stanley Glacier trail. Key word being "run." It runs roughly 5 km due south of the highway, and gains 1200 feet - the majority of which we found to be in the first and last kilometres. It starts at the highway, and immediately rises through the remnants of a major burn. The forest is slowly regenerating with fireweed growing through the blackened lodgepole pines. You pass a few vistas of falling creeks - which provide a great excuse to stop and rest your burning lungs & legs.

Paint Pots

As the Park says,

"The Paint Pots and the associated ochre beds form an area of unusual physical and chemical activity and have a history of use by both Aboriginal groups and Europeans. The Ktunaxa (formerly Kootenay), as well as the Stoney and Blackfoot tribes, collected ochre here for important ceremonies and for
trade. The yellow ochre was cleaned, kneaded with water into walnut sized balls, then flattened
into cakes and baked. The red powder was mixed with fish oil or animal grease to paint their bodies, tipis, clothing or pictures on the rocks. These paintings depicted many objects from day to day life as
well as more abstract drawings that may have originated in dreams or represented supernatural beings."

Another cool shot 

Glengarry Glen Ross meets the Grits

Put the coffee down. I come from downtown, gentlemen. I come from Mitch and Murray...
Paul Wells has some analysis of the Liberal race, but David Mamet got there first...

Kootenay was burning

If you look carefully, you can see the helicopter

Entrance to Kootenay National Park

Click for Things to do in Kootenay

Oh.

What the chains were about...
Hiking on Snake Ridge.  

Hmm

 

Hiking up at Fernie

Looking back down at the Great Bear chairlift.