One of my pet peeves is people who say that all politicians are the same. It is true that there are good and bad people in every party but the level of corruption and criminality in the current Conservative party is unparalleled in Canadian history.
I wouldn’t say we’ve “put an end to” gun violence in Canada but our numbers (like those in most developed nations) are extremely low compared to the US. There are a whole host of interconnected reasons why this is the case. But I think one of the largest is the fact that gun ownership is enshrined […]
No matter your politics, the late Jim Flaherty (who was Stephen Harper’s Finance Minister) is widely regarded as a stand-up guy – honest, sincere, and reliable. That’s what makes Flaherty’s reaction to Stephen Harper talking about the Mike Duffy payment by Nigel Wright during Question Period in the House of Commons so incriminating. Tim Powers, vice-chairman […]
This is about next year’s American election but could apply equally to the upcoming Canadian election. Our new research leaves little doubt about whether Google has the ability to control voters. In laboratory and online experiments conducted in the United States, we were able to boost the proportion of people who favored any candidate by […]
The Federal Election was called nearly three weeks ago and I haven’t written about it nearly as much as I thought I would. I mean, if you’ve read this blog for more than a couple days, I think my politics are pretty clear. Beyond that, there are tons of others who are covering every aspect […]
The Copper Kettle is a local institution and I’m proud that one of the times I called over to order pizza for a meeting at the library, I ended up having Mr. Gardikiotis take my order personally. When he heard I was with the library, he replied “Oh, the library! I love the library! You did […]
The public library in Timmins, Ontario recently tried to offer a “boys only” robotics class but ended up facing a huge backlash (including many female scientists and engineers) after not allowing a girl to register for the program. I understand what the library was trying to do in offering a program focused on reaching boys who tend […]
(I don’t usually do disclaimers on my posts but since I work for Regina Public Library and this is a controversial topic for a lot of people, I’ll start off by mentioning that what follows are my personal opinions only and do not reflect those of RPL or anyone else who works at RPL…although given […]
An engaging article about the ability of humans, rather than machines (eg. regular Google searches), to track down and then amplify interesting or especially incriminating finds. I have been trying to help introduce the concept of “human search engine” (actually “human flesh search engine” in the original Chinese) to the English-language discourse: it arose a few […]
More thoughts later but for now, a laugh or two…
