Mayor Kotaku Wamura of Fudai City in Japan built a 15.5M floodgate and seawall in the 1970s. It took 12 years to complete, and with a lot of skepticism. During the recent Mar 11 2011 Sendai earthquake and tsunami the floodgate was closed, saving all 3,000 residents and houses. Without this floodgate the city certainly would have been destroyed. Wamura died in 1987 at the age of 88. Twenty four years after his death he returns to save his town from certain annihilation. His tenacity and foresight should be applauded. Ganbatte.
This post is to remind myself that we actually have reasonable gas prices here in Toronto, Canada, even at $1.40CAD/litre. If we are to encourage people to drive smaller, more efficient cars, I think gas prices need to ride even more. If the tax from gas would only go towards improving public transit, people would not drive as much, resulting in less road traffic. All money converted to CAD where possible.
The migrant worker says the the university student: You spent money to go to college, yet your income is the same as me who did not go to college!
There must be more to this story, but ironically I find this cartoon very funny! Workers earning the same as university grads. Mao would be happy. We see this happen here as well. Friends here in Toronto, Canada have been telling me that trades and construction workers are doing well, but university grads are starving for jobs. One hopes that education will return as being valued by employers. When I cannot say.
I really like Firefox. It is so much better and faster than IE. Still, in the last year that I have upgraded Firefox versions, it has been getting slower. I did quickly research Firefox 4.0 problems before upgrading and still was unprepared for a bad version. I downgraded to 3.6.17 because I could not use my browser.
Tree branches cut by a Mainland Chinese neighbour. These cannot easily fit into my fireplace. Toronto, Canada
Random events pummel our life on a regular basis. This is also true here in Toronto, Canada. My fireplace is used somewhat frequently during the colder months, so I am always on the hunt for firewood. We have many Mainland Chinese people here in Scarborough that throw out burnable wood, mostly from trees on their property. It is an odd experience to me to see cut up tree branches from these Chinese houses, as most of the wood is not able to easily fit in my fireplace. This is markedly different from firewood left curbside of Canadian houses. I postulate that those Mainland Chinese that migrate to Canada are intellectuals and university graduates, and that they have no experience in making a fire or preparing wood to be burned in a fireplace or stove. Canada only welcomes educated and affluent Mainland Chinese to our shores. Maybe wood cutting should also be part of the entry criteria.
How to avoid getting killed by a car, especially a left turning car at a signalized intersection, is a frequent topic of discussion on motorcycle forums and blogs. For a long time smart motorcyclists have been looking for the cause and solution to this deadly dilemma, in the hopes of reducing or eliminating the threat. First-hand documented accounts of crashes are dissected with a forensic zeal. Possible causes and contributing factors are suggested. Motorcyclists always leave the discussion with an uneasiness and queasiness in the gut: Often the cause of the crash, a car driver, is beyond the rider’s control. In this case an automotive writer riding his motorcycle gets into a head-on crash with a left-turning young lady, who says the typical cop-out excuse: “I did not see him”.
Crest toothpaste. From $2.37CAD at Walmart down to $0.75CAD, saving 68.35% off retail
Extreme Couponing is a TV series on Discovery Channel that follows the trips of people who can buy $1,000 of products but reduce their total cost to $50 through the use of manufacturer coupons. Extreme they are, organized as well as driven by a personal urge to save. Many came from experiences where they had nothing or were about to file for bankruptcy. Here in Canada their tactics do not work the same, so I set out to find the best strategy for couponing in Toronto, Canada. My example is the purchase of Crest toothpaste, 130mg, discounted 68.35%. I cannot come close to the 95% discount of the Americans, but will keep trying.
Foreign reporters in China have it tough. While they try to stay out of trouble, their very profession puts them in harm’s way. It could be worse: They could be local reporters. The Toronto Star’s Asia Bureau reporter Bill Schiller was detained and interrogated by undercover police in Beijing. He was eventually released. At least they did not beat the crap out of him. They could have, and there would be nothing he could do about it before, during or after. From a Canadian standpoint, being detained by Beijing police was quite illegal, by Chinese law, and should not have occurred. Such incidents with foreign reporters are quite common. The message to Mr. Schiller, from a Chinese government perspective is as follows: You are in China and you play by our rules. You were covering an event that you should not have. We can detain you, search through your things and confiscate whatever we wish. Being a reporter offers you absolutely no protection from the police. You were committing an illegal act and you signed a document admitting this. You admitted guilt, so now we have the legal right to not only detain you but to deport you from China for your crime. We own you.
Which Toronto Chinatown is better? Uptown or Downtown? I test both.
It is rare for me to visit Toronto’s downtown Chinatown because I live in North-East Toronto, where we have the highest concentration of Mainland Chinese in Toronto. Today we went to MEC.ca (Mountain Equipment Co-op) for cycling gear, so stopped and had lunch in Chinatown at Spadina and Dundas. Having not been there for many years, it was interesting.
