Someone in my condo estate doesn’t like cats. The last few newsletters have had short articles complaining that while dogs have to be kept on leashes (and no, they aren’t always) cats are allowed to roam free. The author of the article justifies this in terms dead birds around bird-feeders…. Continue reading
According to a report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, entitled “Livestock’s Long Shadow” livestock use 30 percent of the land surface of the planet, generate more greenhouse gases than transport: The livestock sector generates more greenhouse gas emissions as measured in CO2 equivalent — 18… Continue reading
There is a maxim attributed to the Jesuits that goes: “Give me a child until he is seven, and I will give you the man”, meaning that the childhood years are formative. More ancient philosophies going back to to the Greeks and Chinese voice a similar outlook. Modern psychology, thanks… Continue reading
If you are not familiar with The Onion then this report may come as a surprise to you. Kansas lawmakers passed emergency legislation outlawing evolution, the highly controversial process responsible for the development and diversity of species and the continued survival of all life. It reminds you of the laws… Continue reading
In The Beginning was The Word and The Word was Content-type: text/plain Some people say that dictionaries are records of common usage… meaning that if enough people understand a word to mean a particular thing, that’s what it does mean. Likewise for spelling and pronunciation. In other words, the dictionary… Continue reading
It’s municipal election time here in Toronto, and the politicians are paying attention to the voters and promising bread and circus so they can ignore us for another four years. Well the incumbent David Miller is certainly making promises along those line. He is currently saying he will invest the… Continue reading
When explaining emergence I sometimes say, half jokingly that: The English language is an Emergent Property of the Hydrogen Bond We usually talk of emergent properties of complex systems in the contemporary world, things like bio-systems and ecology, complex social systems and of course consciousness and “intelligence”. Emergent properties are… Continue reading
The BBC is not normally a hotbed of high standards, but it offers this report on the dumbing down of science education in the UK: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/6038638.stm The new GCSE science curriculum has been branded “sound bite science” which takes a back-to-front approach. Sir Richard Sykes, rector of Imperial College London,… Continue reading
There are a few axioms in business, sales and marketing. Up there at the top is something of the order of “treat your customers with respect. For many, this starts at “hang up the phone before you start swearing at them”, but the principle is more universal. Its a variation… Continue reading
These two books look like they go hand in hand, but actually they tell very different stories in very different ways about very different things. One might say that they also reflect the troubles between the two Celtic heritages in Northern Ireland today, but that would be stretching the matter…. Continue reading
