Afghan 'blasphemy' death sentence ( Read more... )

John Ralston Saul has a new book, A Fair Country: Telling Truths About Canada. Furthermore, Mr Saul will be giving a lecture at Hart House about the book. I'm keenly looking forward to it.

I find it annoying when people still discuss technology, the Internet and related matters as some new thing that is terribly new and all that. Get over it already. Or better, let's discuss technology issues in a deeper way. Millions of people have been using the Internet for almost twenty years, let's stop pretending it was launched last week.

The moving get started in earnest today and I think it is going very well. Many hands make light work indeed. In addition to the three people who will actually be in the apartment, there are *counts* about four more people helping. It is tiring and sweaty work and I'm already looking forward to it being done.

And while many people prefer their place neat and manicured, what I love about Toronto is its "messy urbanism" - high-rise condos next to ramshackle Victorians, luxury boutqiues next to mom-and-pop shops, sylvan streets that run smack into highly trafficked commercial routes, stunning ravines that cut through dense urban neighbourhoods, bike ( Read more... )

Right as I was starting university, Canadian Airlines went bankrupt. I heard about it when a friend's flight to Ottawa got cancelled. Today, Zoom Airlines cancelled all its flights and will be flying for bankruptcy. I used them once, to go to the UK. To have already witnessed two airlines go under makes me feel kinda old.

At a time when genuine political will seems difficult to muster for virtually anything, city after city across the country can generate the political capital to underwrite hundreds of millions of dollars of investment in professional sport stadiums. The ostensible economic goal of these facilities is one to which they are sublimely irrelevant. The ( Read more... )

I'm certainly happy to see that a certain "President" has left office in Pakistan, but I still have a lot of doubts about whether or not the country can get its democratic act together. Reinstating certain judges who were removed from office might be a good step or establishing firm civilian control of the military (including the Inter-Services ( Read more... )

It is August 15th, Napoleon Bonaparte's birthday. I find him such a very interesting person but tragic as well.. Last year, I read a small biography of him which was fun, but not enough. This summer, I read a trilogy of novels based on Napoleon's first wife, Josephine. Last year and this year, I've been listening to the Napoleon Bonaparte 101 ( Read more... )

Many journalists do their work in a reliable useful way. I have learned many interesting things about the world from the staff at the Toronto Star, Globe and Mail and New York Times. However, some journalists need some, ah, guidance. Here are some suggestions ( Read more... )