I used to joke that after living in China and Japan for a couple of years, returning to my home city of Toronto was a non event. It was literally a non event because nothing really changes in Toronto. Sleepy and a tad boring, Toronto seemed to always be the same stable environment. I have come to change my viewpoint now because of the startling and sudden infringement of human rights and the rule of law that has occurred due to the G20 summits that are now being held in Toronto. With law enforcement ballooning to 14,000, imported from all police departments throughout Canada, police decked out in full riot gear, secretly enacted laws of search and arrest (Ontario’s Public Works Protection Act, specifics for the G20), without public debate nor following the proper procedures of the courts, Toronto has degraded from a sleepy democracy to a communist country or a police state. Startling is how fast my city degraded to a police state, catching all of us by surprise. I expect this while living in China but I did not realize that democracy can be so easily overturned by so few.
Cash back credit cards are a pretty good deal. The more you spend on your credit card, you get back 1% of all purchases. If you always pay off your monthly balance and do not need the fancy benefits of other credit cards such as extended warranties, a little cash back is nice to get. For such purchases as groceries and gas this is ideal. Walmart Canada Bank has come out with a rewards Mastercard, a variant of the cash back. You get 1.25% in rewards from Walmart purchases and 1% from purchases from other retailers. When your cash back amount exceeds $5 you can redeem them at the Walmart cash register. Did you know Walmart now has a financial group and call themselves a bank?
So pathetic are the driving standards in China that there are a huge number of crashes. China is a world leader in vehicular crashes per capita. If only there were some rules that everyone followed. I propose simple ones such as drive/ride on the right side of the road and stop at traffic lights. It seems like total chaos if there are not enough police around to hand out and collect tickets. I find this video quite amusing, but should not, because people in the video get seriously hurt and cars and bikes get damaged. It is funny because sadly it does reflect what we saw on Chinese roads when we visited China.
Cars, trucks and motorcycles need to get along. Cooperation both ways would make life a lot safer for everyone. These roadside ads are excellent. I wish we had similar ads here in Ontario, Canada. They are a two part ad campaign, one part directed at drivers and the other at motorcycle riders. Kudos to the great State of Utah.
Here are a couple directed at drivers:
Utah Department of Public Safety: Bikers make Lousy Speed Bumps
Utah Department of Public Safety: Cars have Bumpers, Bikers have Bones
Here are a couple directed at motorcycle riders:
Utah Department of Public Safety: Road Rash is Preventable
Queer comes to mind when talking about the case of grocer David Chen. A known thief, Anthony Bennett, steals flowers from Chen’s store. This is caught on video. The thief returns less than an hour later. Chen and two workers hold the thief for police. Mr. Chen is charged with assault and forcible confinement. All charges for the thief are dropped. This is morally wrong and a perversion of the law. Thieves should not be able to steal and get away with it. How simple can this get? Explain this to a 4 year old and s/he would easily understand, yet Toronto police struggle with this issue. It is no wonder when people refuse to cooperate with police.
Call it part of my personality, but I like to be thorough. I also like to have proof of some statement, even if proof is difficult or impossible to come by. When scientific double blind studies are not possible, I don’t mind having a sliding scale of proof where a little proof is better than no proof at all. I dislike old wive’s tales and relish when Mythbusters does their show. A case in fact is my reliance on Google as a search engine. Of course all my knowledgeable friends rely on Google as much as I do, and it’s the best search engine that I’ve used, but it’s far from perfect. Today I wondered if Yahoo’s search engine, the one I used to use long ago, had improved enough to rival Google. The skinny is that Google still is the best for my research, but don’t write off Yahoo either.
British Petroleum damages Mother Earth. From Behind the Logo, Greenpeace
To damage Mother Earth is unforgivable. The risk assessment was flawed. No risk is worth gambling the health of the earth. The world, and particularly the US, will pay for this for generations to come.
After an epic fail in selling food, will Canadian Tire now sell lingerie? Say it isn't so...
As a long time Canadian I consider it a tradition to shop at Canadian Tire. Unlike Walfart, Crappy Tire is, after all, Canadian. When I need a tool or something for the house I think of Canadian Tire first. This year, I am finding that the products I need are no longer advertised in the CT weekly flyer, and all the stuff I don’t need has taken its place. This has the result of me not visiting the local Crappy Tire as much as I used to, and therefore I am not spending the family’s cash in their stores. Going to the epitome of insanity, CT’s weekly food specials now gets attached to the weekly flyer. As my daughter often says, this is an EPIC FAIL.
McDonalds recalls Shrek glasses over fears of toxic cadmium levels
Fear not the monster Shrek, for he is not to blame. But if not Shrek then whom? The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) warned consumers early Friday to immediately stop using the glasses available for purchase from McDonalds, on concerns about toxic levels of cadmium. Twelve million glasses are recalled. Who is to blame? There are at least three parties involved: McDonalds, ARC International, of Millville, NJ, and presumably the Chinese factory that produced the glasses. So common is the fact that China makes most of our products and the fact that so many toxic products have been traced back to China in the past makes this a very good educated guess.
If you ride a motorcycle you know you take more chances on the road than if encased in a steel and glass condom. An obvious question is how to reduce a rider’s risk? The answer is multifold, but starts between the rider’s ears: Develop that innate “spidey sense” to predict that a dumb cager will do an idiot move, move out of the way, and then watch as life unfolds, with the rider safely out of harm’s way. Another tactic is to increase your conspicuity: Wear a bright pink bikini bunny suit with a reflective vest. That might work. Or not. Yet another tactic is to wear personal protective equipment, or what bikers call “gear”. Of course thick leather is best, but in the heat of the summer you could pass out from heat exhaustion. Mesh is very popular and affordable, but does it protect you in a crash? A common impression is that mesh will melt against your skin during a crash, causing you more pain and suffering. One needs to ask “Does mesh really melt in a crash”? In short, mesh does protect you in a crash, and in general mesh does not melt in a crash. Last Update: July 08 2013.
