b a n a n a s

 

Gulp!

One night last week I came home to find my street closed with police tape and a squad car in front of the house. After moments of panic (and internal thoughts of insurance?), I found out why. Sorry for the horrible picture, but the flash didn't work. Basically, a tree fell across the street from me in a thunderstorm.

classified ad for disc

Oh please, pick me!!!

You only rent it...

Sure it confirms what you assumed to be true, but it's still funny...

It's Coming....

Check out the move at the 48 second mark

35 Years without the Spadina Expressway

Spacing Wire » Spadina Expressway renderings

Just another manic monday

Cripes. Hopefully this won't be repeated any time soon.
Wake up to watch alarm, not the usual radio. Hop in the shower, get going to the subway. Doors are locked. Turned out, there's a strike...
So, on the hottest day of the year so far, biked into work without bike shorts and with a laptop in the backpack. Took 45:38, which is 10 minutes faster than the last time I took the subway. Downside? 1. The seat slipped down an inch a km; 2. we're hosting all the international VP's at work this week. So... pretended to be a bike courier in order to avoid walking by them in shorts/sweaty T/bike hair/smushed bugs on face. Also, no shower at work. So, walked up to goodlife and showered there.
Work - heh. Like anyone has to ask.
Bike home - a first! I was rear-ended by another bike!?! A bunch of kids came to a crosswalk and pressed the button. I had time, so I stopped. As they crossed, the bike behind me slapped into me - but I still had the v-brakes on. I think it hurt him more than me.
Anyway, get home. Rush to get to ultimate. Pick up a teammate, stranded by said strike. On the way, the A/C dies. Hmm. Maybe I didn't run it enough this winter? Then the radio dies. That's not good. As I go to park, the car seizes and dies. Bugger.
Ultimate game - kids soccer has the permit to "good field" Next field is small and cramped. We play badly and fall behind, then play chippy and win. I use my dad's "anger makes you play better" and it helps win, but seeing as we're playing friends, feel like a huge jerk. Good times all round. Bah.
CAA took 2+ hours to show. Apparently they had 5000 plus calls today in the GTA. They took the car to dealership, where tomorrow I can pay several hundred for the privilege of having the car work again.
Now, because of the heat, can't sleep.
Maybe I'll re-read MacEwan's Saturday

design matters: Skeet shooting in the dark

"'Design consists of creating things for clients who may not know what they want, until they see what you've done, then they know exactly what they want, but it's not what you did.'"

Weekend Options: Doors Open

Toronto Star Google Maps

Bike Week 2006

Cycling in Toronto - Bike Week 2006

Apple - Nike+ - Run

Don't know whether to laugh or not

Now that's an Anthem

YouTube - Edmonton Oilers Fans sing O Canada

Blast from the Fall

 

Rolie the Goalie from mirtle

Who is that masked man?

Clash of the Type 1 & Type 2 Diabetics

Beyond 'I'm a Diabetic,' Little Common Ground - New York Times

Type 2, which most often affects the old and overweight, now afflicts some 20 million Americans and is the nation's fastest growing health problem. But it draws little more research money than Type 1, a malfunction of the immune system that affects one million people in the United States.

Oh crap

Skiing Beyond Safety's Edge Once Too Often:: New York Times

Management theory, debunked

Bwahahahaha.
Really quite funny. Especially when read in conjunction with TPJ's email this morning.

Escape from Cubicle Nation: Open letter to employees across the corporate world

Don't know what she's talking about::

"In that spirit, here is what I have to share with employees of large corporations everywhere:

I have met you in meeting rooms, hallways, on conference calls and on the internet. You work for large corporations which you detest. You arrive at your cubicle every morning with a vaguely sick feeling in your stomach and begin your day of work. You have too much to do. Co-workers left and no one replaced them, so you have inherited their job and all the work that went with it."

'We were abandoned'

The aftermath of Canada's elite sniper unit's tour in Afghanistan

Dancers know pain

"National Ballet of Canada dancer Rex Harrington knows this all too well, having ruptured his Achilles tendon earlier this week during his opening night performance in Song & Dance at the Danforth Music Hall.

...the dancer, who retired from the ballet company in 2004 after 20 years, won't be returning to the role..."

!?! Seriously!?! Holy under-statement, Batman.

If he has ruptured his Achilles, he's looking at surgery, followed by a hard cast for a few weeks, followed by a soft/air cast for another month, followed by four to six months of rehab. He's already in his late thirties/early forties, so if you do the math... See here or here. I like these quotes: "There is a vigorous contraction of the muscle"; or "The defect in the tendon is easy to see and to palpate as seen in this picture (ed. note: unless you're an ER nurse)"; and especially "There is often an audible "pop." (ed. note: yep and a nauseating sound it is)"

Anyway, the picture of Jennifer Fournier's feet is compelling.

Beyond the budget

More on the budget. More specifically, more on the fiscal imbalance.

In the federal election, the Conservatives promised to fix the fiscal imbalance, which is the idea that the feds have billions of dollars more than they need, while the provinces are billions of dollars short. The Liberals say the fiscal imbalance doesn't exist. Harper says it does. His stance was a key to the Tories' modest electoral breakthrough in Quebec, where complaints about the fiscal imbalance began. Fixing the imbalance will provide much of the next year's work for Harper's government.

But to fix a problem, you first need to define it. If you define the imbalance the way the provinces do -- roughly, as "all the billions we could ever dream of getting from Ottawa" -- you'll bankrupt even a flush and province-friendly government like Harper's. So Harper's definition is crucial. And as we've learned to expect from him, it's clever.

It turns out the fiscal imbalance is four problems. One, federal budget-making is too vague about the size of future surpluses. Two, the feds spend money on provincial responsibilities -- hospitals and schools -- while ignoring their own duties, like armies and Indian reserves. Three, when Ottawa does increase transfers to the provinces, it does so at the last minute and for the short term, so provinces can't plan. Four, the limited "efficiency and competitiveness of the economic union" hobbles everyone's ability, be they governments, companies or families, to increase prosperity.

Well's nut graf:

Central-government fans worry that the fiscal imbalance argument is about Ottawa surrendering power to the provinces. This is more of a trade: we'll get out of your hair if you act like you deserve it. And all that nice language about the Liberal record? It's not cute, it's crucial.

I think this is an interesting/important, if slightly esoteric subject, so I'll likely follow it for a while. Seeing as I'm averaging a whole 10 readers a day. of which 50% leave within 5 seconds, I don't doubt that this is just a note to myself...

Cannondale Bicycle Corp. - Cyclocross

Now that's purty

Starving the Beast moves north

What does it mean?

The message is clear: If given the chance, this government will get out of the social policy business, restricting most of its active policy-making decisions to matters strictly under its jurisdiction. Later, that approach is further fleshed out - the government stating that "excess federal revenues [will] be used primarily to reduce federal taxes rather than to launch new policies in areas where the federal government is not best placed to design or deliver programs."

Then the paper gets really ambitious. "There have been many calls over the years for structural realignments of tax policies that would have the effect of reducing or eliminating joint occupancy of particular tax fields," it proclaims, specifically citing the recommendation that Ottawa scrap the GST altogether, reduce transfer payments and leave sales tax entirely to the provinces. Similar measures, it suggests, could also be undertaken to some measure with income or corporate taxes.

Ultimately, of course, Canadians wouldn't be taxed less; they'd just be taxed differently. By collecting directly, instead of relying on the feds, the provinces would gain even more autonomy than they presently have.

And there's a number of key points here:

1. Different provinces will respond differently. Alberta is nearing the point (if it isn't past) where it can be indifferent to the fiscal repercussions of ignoring the Canada Health Act's dictates. Granted, the public backlash would be bad, even out there, but it can do it. Giving more tax points (rather than tied cash) to all the provinces will mean that each region will have the freedom to experiment with new and different policies. It will also mean that each province will have less and less resemblance to each other over time.

2. Despite the nonsensical talk about the impact of Ottawa's presence, this won't help Quebec's economy. At all. They already have more tax points than anyone else. Giving them more room to tax means, well, that they'll take up the offer - and drive away more investment dollars.

3. It would be more permanent than most decisions. It's impossible to call any taxation policy permanant. However, Ottawa would have a very hard time going back on this move. Which is why Martin & Chretien thought it was a bad idea.

Red Rocks, Redux

"Red Rock is an austere wilderness of arid plains and Joshua trees. Mountain peaks rise thousands of feet off the desert floor. Petroglyphs bake in the sun."

Check.

Rock Climbing in Red Rock Canyon

It's not gambling...

"Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, a 197,000-acre desert preserve near Las Vegas, is a top international rock climbing destination. Massive and unique sandstone formations, combined with the region's mostly agreeable weather, attract thousands of climbers a year."

Check

Things to do: OCAD Grad's

OCAD’s graduating students explore and test boundaries in their thesis work in all areas of art and design including drawing and painting, photography, sculpture/installation, ceramics, printmaking, jewellery, textiles, integrated media, advertising, illustration, graphic design, industrial design, and environmental design.

The ninety-first annual Graduate Exhibition, May 5, 6, and 7, 2006.

Throw Shawn Throw!

Nice flick

Update on Jay's Cross-Canada Trip

He's made it past Montreal, through the Lachine Canal - the traditional starting point of the original voyageurs...

The 100 Mile Diet :: thetyee.ca

"'On March 21, the first day of spring, we took a vow to live with the rhythms of the land as our ancestors did. For one year we would only buy food and drink for home consumption that was produced within 100 miles of our home, a circle that takes in all the fertile Fraser Valley, the southern Gulf Islands and some of Vancouver Island, and the ocean between these zones. This terrain well served the European settlers of a hundred years ago, and the First Nations population for thousands of years before.

'This may sound like a lunatic Luddite scheme, but we had our reasons...'"

The New Yorker: Fact

"I deposited my pig on the breakfast table. I emptied out the refrigerator and washed down the counters. I sharpened a knife and reflected on the difficulty of a pig at home. I hadn’t wanted to upset my neighbor. I didn’t know him well but gathered (from the doorman) that he, too, was a meat-eater. My pig was a more elementary form of things he’d been eating for years. The realization confirmed something I’d always suspected: people don’t want to know what meat is. They don’t think of meat as an animal; they think of it as an element in a meal. (“What I want tonight is a cheeseburger!”)

For me, meat wasn’t a cause. I just believe people should know what they’re eating. At the Greenmarket, you overheard discussions about fertilizers and soils and how much freedom a chicken needs before its eggs are free-range. Wouldn’t it follow that you’d want to know your meat? I had brought home a freshly killed animal—better raised than anything I’d find at a store—and, in preparing it, I was hoping to rediscover old-fashioned ways of making food. This, I felt, could only be positive. But I was sure getting a lot of shit for it."

This pig, we knew precisely, had been slaughtered for our table, and we ended up feeling an affection for it that surprised us.

Pricing a Project -

Bwahahaha. Good thing we religiously do this...

Namesake mtn

2005 Ontario Sport Awards!!!

Nice work Dad!!!

Syl Apps Special Achievement Award Recipients:

   -   Roger Wallis (Etobicoke, Ontario)

The Syl Apps award recognizes Ontario volunteers who have contributed to sport within the province.

Female fact of the day

Over the past decade or so, the increased employment of women in developed economies has contributed much more to global growth than China has.

How to get Open

The Video!

Friday's for the bird(ies)

Every Friday night, kids show up in droves at Martingrove Collegiate Institute.
But not to loiter in the shadows or hang out in the parking lot. Dressed in T-shirts and sweatpants, they make their way to the gym, where their friends are already busy limbering up.
And then the birdies begin to fly.
At a time of the week when many young people are busy devising new ways of cutting loose, the dozens of teenagers packed into the Etobicoke gym have their own idea of Friday-night fun: badminton.
They come from across the GTA to mix it up under the watchful eye of Roger and Margaret Wallis, who have devoted their lives to the sport since founding the Etobicoke Junior Badminton Club in 1983.
"It's like a family," says Martingrove student Nihaiika Pasumarty, 16.
"Yeah, but a really multicultural one," adds Kenneth Woo, 15, who goes to Upper Canada College.
The club draws a remarkably diverse group of students from schools across the city. Juniors, aged 8 to 14, take the earlier slot in the evening, before the 14- to 19-year-old crowd takes over at 7:30, playing on until 10 p.m.
On a recent Friday night, five nets are stretched across the gym as players run drills.
Club founder and coach Roger Wallis, 67, is a constant presence, murmuring an encouraging word, or occasionally raising his voice to address the entire group.
This season, the club boasts 32 juniors and 67 seniors. Most also play on school teams, so it's a good way to get in extra practice.
But that's not the only attraction. A distinct sense of camaraderie suffuses the gym. When not on the court, players sit in clusters on the floor, gabbing at top speed.
Linda Wong, 23, is helping to run tonight's practice even though she graduated a few years ago and is now a university economics student.
"A lot of people stay with the club for quite a few years, and lots of siblings pass through," Wong notes. "There's just a lot of friendly people; everyone comes from different backgrounds and are so interesting."
The club's diversity owes something to the fact that badminton is especially popular throughout the South Asian diaspora. It also draws both sexes, being a non-contact sport where skill is important, rather than size, Wallis notes.
"After soccer, badminton is the most played game in the world, as far as records are kept by people, and it's the national game in many South Asian countries. So what they're doing is representing a sport that's a tradition in their countries," he says.
University of Toronto science student Deep Guha, 18, was with the club for a decade before graduating last year, but he's still a frequent visitor. "My grandfather played in India. He's really good — if he wasn't old, he'd kick your ass," Guha laughs. "He was the one who brought me here, because he wanted me to play the game."
"People think of badminton as a sissy sport," Woo interjects disgustedly. "And the worst part of it is that they don't even know how hard it is!"
Wallis and wife Margaret played competitively in their native United Kingdom and wanted their three children to be able to do the same. But they found there were no badminton clubs in Toronto when they first moved to the city.
"Badminton is easy to play, and you can put it into any school," says Wallis, who works as an independent geologist when he isn't coaching twice-weekly practices (there's a second Wednesday-evening session for competitive players) or driving players to competitions.
"You stick a couple of holes in the floor and put up the net. It's incredibly low-cost, and you can have several players on the court at the same time even if they aren't playing a match. So we realized that this was something that could catch on very quickly."
The club moved from school to school before settling at Martingrove in 1995. Other clubs have sprung up, but the Etobicoke club remains one of the most popular — more than 500 kids have played in 23 years.
The Wallises, certified coaches who are credited with helping to introduce badminton to the province, have sunk plenty of their own time, energy and money into the club. (Players pay a $40 fee to cover equipment costs).
At a time when others their age might be contemplating retirement, the couple says they'll keep running it as long as there's interest.
"It's wonderful watching kids come through here and develop their skills, whether they go on to play competitively or just come out on a Friday night to hang out with their friends," Roger Wallis says.

It's that time again

 

Ah, Return to Grade Six

McSweeney's Internet Tendency: Parallels Between My Living Through Two Years of Middle School and the Two Terms of the Bush Presidency.

Damn!

That is some move. I was so baffled the first time that I lost track of the puck. Wow.

Great Canadian Canoe Quest

Great Canadian Canoe Quest :: Home :: CPAWS.org: "Jay's amazing expedition will cover a distance of more than 8,000 kilometres starting in the ocean tides of the Gulf of St. Lawrence at Les Escoumins, Quebec, following the vast Boreal forest that stretches across much of northern Canada, and finishing where the Mackenzie River flows into the Beaufort Sea near Inuvik in the Northwest Territories."

Big News Down Under

An update from the erstwhile housemate. He kind of buries the lede though.

Roommate Wanted

Hello,

If anyone knows someone who might be interested, please let me know (or vice-versa).
Roommate wanted! TTC accessible location near the heart of the Danforth.

• The bedroom is roughly 12 ft x 11 ft., with a big window and a large closet
• Rent, including cable, high-speed internet access and utilities would be $775/month. It is in a 3-bedroom semi-detached house on the east Danforth

4 minute walk from Greenwood TTC station

Street parking by city permit

By car/bike, we're 2 minutes from the main part of the Danforth, and 10 minutes from the Beaches.

2 washrooms, laundry facilities, big kitchen, dishwasher, and a large south-facing patio

Living room & dining room on the ground floor and TV room in the basement.

Behind the garden is a reasonably sized shed for storage.

This is why I need to learn better WW skills

Argh. Oh, and buy a wetsuit.

Bumps at Beaver Valley

 

The Angry Beaver

I just realized that the reference below makes one of my friends sounds like an B-grade S&M porn star. Umm. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

But it's actually from the Olympics and a skeleton racer named Pain, who came second to Duff! 

Nite Skiing

This whole work thing keeps getting in the way of the things I actually want to do. So, after work, the Angry Beaver and I decided to borrow the fine trails of Albion Hills and get some xc skiing in. Fortunately, the gate seemed wide open (actually, all the gates seemed inviting), so we wandered in and did a lap. Quarter moon and no clouds meant that it was bright enough to avoid using headlamps except on a couple of swervy downhills that were mostly ice. btw - the Petzl Myo is unfathomably bright, and this is coming from someone who owns 5 or 6 headlamps.

Anyway, good times all round, and now we just need more winter to try out some other fun places sans daylight.

Near the junction of the Mad & Nottawasaga

Don't tip... 

Surprise

 

Minesing Shingles

 

Heron Rookery

 

The House

How to live off the grid, in style.

Tiffany Now

Please let winter hang around for a little while...

Tiffany Then

 

Well, at least that's gone...

 

Ontario's Highest Elevations

Must plan for summer!

toronto | the hometown thing

A very interesting postcard tour of Parkdale.

Stop Talking About Gretz

This is what the Olympic media should be focusing on:

"Montillet-Carles skied with her swollen left eye held open by tape so she could see. "

Ow!

2006 Olympic: 5 Minute Guide

Money for Medals
Here's a sampling of the bonuses that countries will give to athletes who win an individual gold medal.
ITALY: $157,385 (130,000 Euros)
CZECH REPUBLIC: $42,762 (1 million koruna)
JAPAN: $25,582 (3 million yen)
U.S.: $25,000
SWITZERLAND: $15,587 (20,000 Swiss francs)
AUSTRALIA: $7,512 (10,000 Australian dollars)
CANADA: None

2006 Olympic: 5 Minute Guide

Money for Medals
Here's a sampling of the bonuses that countries will give to athletes who win an individual gold medal.
ITALY: $157,385 (130,000 Euros)
CZECH REPUBLIC: $42,762 (1 million koruna)
JAPAN: $25,582 (3 million yen)
U.S.: $25,000
SWITZERLAND: $15,587 (20,000 Swiss francs)
AUSTRALIA: $7,512 (10,000 Australian dollars)
CANADA: None

Gladwell again

A great article on the moral complexity of solving what he calls power-law problems versus bell-curve problems, using the homeless, auto pollution and errant cops as the examples.

Lisa's Year as a Fox Scholar

The internet's a wonderful thing at times. Trying to find an old friend's email address, I found her account of her studies in England.

Adventures in Painting, 4

The late crew 

Adventures in painting, 3

Working on the chain gang... 

Adventures in painting, 2

I can't believe how many people helped me paint the house. Thanks! 

Adventures in painting

Lesson one: wood panelling is evil.  

Who cares how you voted - who did Springfield vote for!

Some surprises here

Hundred Mile Diet

This was in Explore - and it sounds like a fascinating idea. Wonder whether it'd be possible (or prudent) in the GTA.

Elections Canada On-Line | General Information

GO VOTE

Blue Man

 

Adventure Life List | Outside Online

Brilliant.
I have to start working on my list.

Shock waves made visible

Now this is cool imaging and science.

PMPM rebuked | Inkless Wells

Ouch!!! This response to the most recent policy platform announcement is just scathing. Beyond the self-inflicted ad wounds debacle, this is just one of those signs of the tipping point. Even PM PM's allies are publically walking away.

Projecting the election

Projecting the election, seat by seat...

You are exposed

You are exposed - Jonathon Gatehouse with a great privacy story...

Bye Bye Privacy

Data Mining 101: Finding Subversives with Amazon Wishlists Applefritter

This is a fascinating way to nuke people's privacy from publically available sites from the comfort of your own home...

Amazon wishlists meet Google Local = entertaining map...

Did I mention that Vegas is Weird?

It's not everyday that a frog sings "What a wonderful world" to you 

New Year's at Duntroon