Robert Dziekanski holds a small table at the Vancouver Airport in this image from video. He was then killed by the RCMP.
It comes as no surprise that the four RCMP officers that repeatedly tasered Polish visitor Robert Dziekanski at the Vancouver Airport, Canada over two years ago were deemed negligent in oh so many ways. Unprepared, uncoordinated, tried to cover up and lied to a Canadian Royal Commission. At least the Commission came to the same conclusion of most other people who watched the video: The RCMP was clearly out of control.
Our local Toronto Public Library branch has been closed for renovations for a couple of months but reopened on Wednesday. The main change was the absence of the checkout counters, as well as the people that worked behind them. Like at Home Despot they now have a self-serve touch screen checkout system, which gave me a lot of trouble.
DotEasy has been my web hosting company for 7 years. Due to a lack of features I wanted to move web host providers from Doteasy. Various ploys and excuses were used, in the end resulting in DotEasy freezing my account for 2 months and thus blocking my web site move. Other issues with Doteasy include their technical staff trying to retain you as a customer instead of doing what I asked them, wasting time and prolonging the time required to move. Finally there is the negative option billing, where if you do not cancel your hosting account and do not pay, they will continue hoisting and bill you anyway. This is an unethical business practice masqueraded as better security. Due to these three issues I strongly recommend to not use Doteasy as a web host provider. DotEasy adheres to rigid policies that do not allow for good customer service, and can hold you hostage so you cannot move to another host provider.
Screwed up royally, sums up the TTC fair increase situation, where riders cannot buy tokens or tickets. The TTC issued short term adult fare tickets, good until January 2, 2009, available November 24, 2009 (yesterday). This is supposedly to eliminate hording of tokens. Tokens are no longer being sold. Unfortunately we also cannot find tickets to purchase anywhere, leaving us once again stuck.
The ritual of Walk to School is an important one, long unappreciated.
Neither difficult nor excessively long, the walk to school has always been an excellent way to start learning for the day. In a way I am thankful I am able to participate and guide. We neither rush nor dally, allocating sufficient time to allow for the mind to wander at will. The environment, grass, trees, the weather and sky are our teaching aids. There is the important skill of safely crossing the street to learn, one which needs to be learned well. Handling vehicular traffic is also covered. There is the final wave. I then return, thinking of how to plan my day.
Miyakonojo Commercial and Agricultural High Schools, Miyazaki Ken, Kyushu, Japan
For a year I taught English at the Miyakonojo Commerical High School, and Miyakonojo Agricultural High School, Miyakonojo, Miyazaki Ken, Kyushu, Japan, with the JET program. Kuyshu is the second largest and most southerly of Japan’s four main islands. Having a minor in East Asian Studies, China and Japan, it was an interesting time for me to learn first hand what I had read in university text books. Living in a foreign country for an extended period of time immerses you into the culture and gives you invaluable first hand experiences.
New Colgate toothpaste cap is difficult to open when your hands are wet. This is a clear usability problem.
I normally do usability testing on computer and internet applications, but usability testing can be even more important in everyday items, such as the new packaging for Colgate toothpaste. You gets an “Arghh” moment when a product does not work or is more difficult to use than it should be. Yesterday morning I was in the bathroom washing my hands. After a quick dry I reached for my toothpaste to brush my teeth. Lo and behold, with my slightly damp hands I could not open the new Colgate toothpaste top! My hand kept slipping on the shiny plastic polypropylene cap. Clearly this is not the intent of the designers of toothpaste container. Sure it looks very slick, but will certainly anger many people.
Craigslist is by far the best web tool for personal buying and selling of your goods. It beats Kijiji hands down in consistency of interface, lack of technical trouble and content management. It is understandable that Craigslist want commercial companies to pay a listing fee that subsidizes the free ads for personal items. Craigslist relies on its loyal readers to flag illegal ads, which are then removed. Owners of these flagged ads may also face a ban on future ads.
White potatoes, 1kg, 1st fry for 15 mins, second fry for 4 mins, done to perfection and kid approved
I too did not think there was much to say about advanced french fry technique, but you do enough batches and you learn a thing or two. Kids love french fries, and adults love kids. Therefore by triangular logic it is unsurprising that adults should also love french fries, just not as much as kids.
The standard recipe for home made french fries is to:
The more I learn about the brain the more I realize we have not much of a clue how it works. As we improve our scientific knowledge, there is so much further to go. Understanding how to treat Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia is a case in point. The truth is, we don’t know much. How about putting a camera on a patient’s chest, have it take random pictures, and use those photos to trigger memory recall and therefore retard Alzheimer’s? They’re doing it at the University of Toronto’s Knowledge Media Design Institute (KMDI) using a SenseCam from Microsoft Research.
