Meander

Oilsands Pollute the Athabasca River

Yaacov — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 21:36:03 +0000

The joint government/industry water quality monitoring body that tracks water pollution in the Athabasca river has been saying for years that the oilsands mining is not affecting water quality. This despite abnormally high cancer rates in the First Nations communities that live downstream. Today the CBC reports that a University of Alberta study shows that the Athabasca river has much higher levels of pollutants downstream from oilsands mining operations that upstream of them. I guess sometimes the obvious is big news.

Radical Extremist

Yaacov — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 02:55:58 +0000

Think you should be able to play music you buy at the iTunes store on your non-Apple stereo? Well then, you’re a radical extremist according to Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore.

Speaking about the recently introduced copyright bill, Moore said that “The only people who are opposed to this legislation are really two groups of radical extremists.” The bill has a provision making it illegal to break digital locks on content, even if you own the content and are using it in a manner consistent with the rest of copyright law.

Moore added a shot at University of Ottawa professor Michael Geist, a well-known and well-respected expert on copyright who has suggested modifications to the bill by saying “There are those that pretend to be for copyright reform, but they don’t believe in actual copyright reform. There are those that are cited as experts by the media endlessly who are not in favour of copyright reform.”

Climategate Retracted

Yaacov — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 22:42:32 +0000

It may be four months late, but at least one UK newspaper has finally published a lengthy retraction of stories it published in February claiming that the IPCC had made “bogus” claims about the effects of climate change on the Amazon rainforest. I’d post a direct link, but it seems to have already disappeared from the Sunday Times’ website, so this story about it (with a link to a scan of the printed retraction) will have to do.

Public Opinion

Yaacov — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 12:42:53 +0000

Today’s XKCD is too good not to share:

Trees Threaten G20

Yaacov — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 19:46:47 +0000

Or at least they could, according to Integrated Security Unit Constable Wendy Drummond. So the trees will be cut down ahead of the G20 summit to ensure that protesters can’t rip them out of the ground and use them as “a huge bar.”

Perspectives

Yaacov — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 13:15:21 +0000

CBC wrote a great story about the case where a woman who wears a Niqab is fighting to be allowed to wear it while testifying against the men who sexually assaulted her. The story presents at least seven different perspectives on the case. Each of the perspectives is motivated by a different goal or priority, from religious freedoms, to criminal justice, to women’s rights, to the accused’s rights. It’s a good reminder that every story has many different sides.

Out of houses without books

Yaacov — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 22:29:01 +0000

Today I came across Doris Lessing’s Nobel acceptance speech. She spoke about writing and poverty and the many places in Africa where the two cross. Here is a piece:

This links improbably with a fact: I was brought up in what was virtually a mud hut, thatched. This kind of house has been built always, everywhere there are reeds or grass, suitable mud, poles for walls. Saxon England for example. The one I was brought up in had four rooms, one beside another, and it was full of books. Not only did my parents take books from England to Africa, but my mother ordered books by post from England for her children. Books arrived in great brown paper parcels, and they were the joy of my young life. A mud hut, but full of books.

Even today I get letters from people living in a village that might not have electricity or running water, just like our family in our elongated mud hut. “I shall be a writer too,” they say, “because I’ve the same kind of house you lived in.”

But here is the difficulty, no?

Writing, writers, do not come out of houses without books.

The full text is available at the Nobel site.

Background on the Oil Spill

Yaacov — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 12:42:12 +0000

Did you know that the oil rig that burned in the Gulf of Mexico was insured for twice what it was worth so that the company that owned it made money when it burned down? More interesting background on the … Continue reading →

Health Food Store Advice Often Misleading

Yaacov — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 13:55:53 +0000

A couple years back I ranted about the nonsense that was used to sell wheatgrass in local health food store, and about the poor understanding of human health that often prevails in those places. Now, a study by Athabasca University has found that advice received in health food stores is supported poorly or not at all by science 88% of the time.

Barrick Gold Minefield

Yaacov — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 16:33:43 +0000

One of Canada’s dirty “secrets” is that our mining industry is responsible for environmental and human rights abuses around the world. Companies like INCO and Barrick are operating mines that are polluting land and taking away people’s livelihoods. In many cases, people who organize against these mines face violence and, sometimes, death.

Usually, the national government of a country receive significant revenue from the mine and allows and often supports mining even though the local people are strongly opposed. However, there’s some good news from the Pakistani province of Balochistan, where Barrick Gold has just been told to leave at the end of an exploration contract. For once, the national government is listening to the local people. You can follow the destruction that Barrick is causing in other parts of the world at protestbarrick.net and find out more about the Canadian mining industry at miningwatch.ca.