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Justin Trudeau on Quora

You probably missed it because it didn’t get much media attention but apparently Justin Trudeau recently announced he’s running for Liberal Leader.

I’ll likely write more about that as it develops but for now, just want to highlight that Trudeau has an account on the popular Q&A site, Quora and some of his answers are particularly insightful into who he is and what it was like for him growing up as the son of a head of state.

Like Twitter, Facebook and some of the other popular social media sites, yet another great example of how a political candidate can connect directly to his constituents and other interested parties.

Posted 04 October 2012 § Canada § Internet § Politics § Wisdom ‡ Comments (4) ° Tagged: ,

Debate Night: Similarities & Differences Between US Presidential Race and #skndpldr

The first US Presidential Election is tonight and it will be an entertaining spectacle as always (or not).

The debates have got me thinking about the similarities and differences between the current US Presidential Election and the race for the leadership of the Saskatchewan NDP.

Similarities Between The US Presidential Race & #skndpldr Race

 


Differences Between The US Presidential Race & #skndpldr Race

  • Saskatchewan’s race proudly has four socialists running while POTUS has one man who avoids that “slanderous” label as much as he can
  • US Candidates will spent over a billion dollars combined on this race.  If every #skndpldr candidate hit their max spending limit, they still wouldn’t hit a million spent in total.
  • Unfortunately, the US takes the victory in “most diverse” contest while #skndpldr presents four white, middle-class males who have a lot more in common than separates them.  (When one candidate’s beard is the most diversity on display, you might have a problem!)
  • It’s unlikely that any #skndpldr candidate will accuse an opponent’s mother of being a porn star
  • #skndpldr candidates actually care about the poor unlike  certain US candidates
Posted 03 October 2012 § Humour § Politics § Saskatchewan § United States ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: ,

LEGO & Libraries – A Perfect Match

If the link in this CLA press release announcing a chance for your local library to win Lego was working, I’d ask you to vote for Regina Public Library.  But it’s not so I won’t.  Instead, you can just send your Lego donations directly to:

Pace Hammond
c/o Dad Can’t Afford Any More Lego
Regina, SK
S4R 7R5

Posted 02 October 2012 § Library § Pace ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged:

@ryanmeili Monday – Wikipedia Woes for #skndpldr Candidate Headshots

I’ve got a well-documented love/hate relationship with Wikipedia.

As much as I love the idea of Wikipedia, I’m frequently disappointed by how it runs in practice.  The non-notability issues.  The deletionists.  The scammers (including, recently, a Wikipedia trustee who was discovered accepting payment via his consulting company for ensuring placement of certain articles on the Wikipedia front page.)

My latest checkmark in the “hate” column revolves around the photos for the various Saskatchewan NDP leadership candidates.

 

Around the time Ryan announced, I went to change the photo on his Wikipedia page to a more recent one.  I knew this process to be a pain-in-the-ass as I uploaded a photo the last time Ryan ran and had it deleted at least once, possibly twice, since I didn’t have “proof” it was a photo I had the right to upload.

Of course the “proof” they wanted were things like an e-mail sent from the photographer’s e-mail (like that was somehow more secure and definitive) or a line of text on the page where I got the image.  Or I could just lie and say the image was in the public domain and hope.  Or send Jimmy Wales a vial of blood from my first-born child.

Anyhow, it got sorted out eventually (without Pace having to donate blood) and that was the photo that remained until a couple weeks ago.  That’s when I uploaded a new one.  And just like three years ago, came back a week later to see that the new photo had been deleted (not even being replaced by the original that had been there.)

I re-uploaded the exact same photo, restrained myself from making a snarky comment but pointing out that Ryan’s web site explicitly makes clear that the photos are made available under a Creative Commons license.

The run-around was almost expected and wasn’t what pissed me off the most.

Nope, that happened when I went to all the other candidate pages to see what they had or didn’t have regarding photos.  And what I saw (and which has remained as I type this) is that Erin has a photo while Trent and Cam don’t.

But guess what?  If you look at the article history for every single one of their pages, you see that EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM has attempted to upload a photo and all, including Erin whose photo finally stuck, had those photos deleted – Cam’s back in June without being replaced and Trent’s in early September, again without being replaced.

GRRRR!!!

(Oh, and a funny note from the account histories.  Ryan’s gets called out for its “promotional tone” while editors of both Trent and Cam’s respective pages get called out by Wikipedians for writing the pages as if they were “campaign brochures”.  This comment in Trent’s history is particularly cutting: “This is an encyclopedia, not a campaign brochure; we refer to people by their last name, not their first name, in body text, and we don’t capitalize job titles.)

And Wikipedia wonders why its losing editors?

Posted 01 October 2012 § Censorship § Internet § Photo § Politics § Saskatchewan ‡ Comments (1) ° Tagged:

What Bill Clinton Wrote vs. What Bill Clinton Said

For anyone interested in the art of speechwriting, this article provides some excellent insight into Bill Clinton’s additions and ad-libs during his speech at the Democratic National Convention and how, almost without fail, his changes greatly improved the speech.

Posted 30 September 2012 § Politics § United States § Wisdom ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: , , ,

Saturday Snap – This would be a nice photo…

…if Pace didn’t feel the need to pull a face anytime you point a camera at him!

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Posted 29 September 2012 § Family § Humour § Pace § Photo § SaturdaySnap ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged:

Friday Fun Link – 5-Star Wrestling Matches

I’m tempting to use the “Xmas” tag on this one.

Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer newsletter is like the Roger Ebert of reviewing wrestling matches.  This Reddit thread contains links to almost all of the matches Meltzer has given the highly coveted and very rare 5 Star rating.  Quite a trip down memory lane for myself as someone who used to be a HUGE wrestling fan (and continues to somewhat pay attention to goings on in that world although not nearly to the same level I once did.)

I’m always a bit embarrassed when I admit to being a wrestling fan on my blog.  But I then I remember that I hang out with people who have an abnormal level of love for comic books, role-playing games, YA fiction books, heavy metal music, roller derby and all manner of other “un-cool” hobbies so I probably shouldn’t be.

Posted 28 September 2012 § Censorship § FridayFunLink § MemoryLane § Sports ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: ,

“Punching Above Your Weight” For The Next #skndpldr

“Punching above your weight” is a common phrase for when a person performs above what might naturally be expected of their position.

In Saskatchewan, you might expect our political leaders to be limited because of a variety of factors – our huge geography, our small population and our naturally humble nature. 😉

But instead, our leaders have a long history of punching above their weight – whether it was Tommy Douglas bringing in Medicare provincially which, in turn, forced the issue nationally or Roy Romanow’s role in repatriating the Canadian constitution or even (as much as it pains me to admit it), Brad Wall’s increasingly high profile on the national stage, especially with regards to defending Canadian interests with regards to resource policy.

I was thinking a lot about the concept of “punching above your weight” recently in the context of the current Saskatchewan NDP leadership race. And perhaps surprisingly, it’s the two non-MLA candidates who are the ones punching above their weight on the national scene.

Erin Weir has already appeared in the federal spotlights numerous times in the past via his role as an economist for the United Auto Workers and most recently, via an appearance with Federal Finance Minster, Jim Flaherty and Bank of Canada Governor, Mark Carney at the “Canada in the Pacific Century” Conference in Ottawa earlier this week.

Meanwhile, Ryan Meili’s recent time in Alberta saw him in the spotlight as a panelist on the future of the NDP along with recent federal NDP Leadership candidates, Brian Topp and Niki Ashton, being called “my friend” by one of Canada’s newest and brightest political stars AND exchanging beard grooming tips with the big boss himself! 😉

Not only that but Ryan is aligned with the federal party in another way – they have just added a section to their web site devoted to the advantage of looking at politics by using the social determinants of health. Pretty big coincidence if you ask me! 😉

Yes, the race will ultimately be decided within Saskatchewan’s borders. But I hope that the membership’s decision is at least partly based on which candidate(s) have the demonstrated ability and connections to best help our province continue to “punch above its weight” on the national scene.

Posted 27 September 2012 § Canada § Politics § Saskatchewan § Wisdom ‡ Comments (2) ° Tagged:

Pace’s First Scholastic School Book Order

Another big school-related milestone for Pace…

(Man, I loved getting books from Scholastic as a kid!)

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Posted 26 September 2012 § MemoryLane § Pace § PopCulture ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: , ,

A Few AskReddit Book Threads

Posted 25 September 2012 § Internet § PopCulture § Wisdom ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: ,