I remember blogging about this multi-touch technology almost a year ago. Microsoft apparently is the first one (other than Apple’s iPhone) to begin producing actual products with it and seeing what it can really do.

As a new way to work with computers I could see this really catching on.

I never thought I’d say it, but Microsoft has really impressed me with their “Microsoft Surface.” Let’s see if it lives up to expectations when it comes to market.

1337hax0r

Apparently, Harper made an announcement today that his government would spend money on their strategy to “boost private research and development with its new science and technology strategy.” Well, while I was reading this article and looking at the picture, I thought, “Where have I seen this before?” (Emphasis mine)

“Canada has long been a leader in science and technology achievements, but we’ve got some work to do to put ourselves back on the forefront of innovation,” Harper told a gathering of researchers and investors at Waterloo’s Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics.”

Well, I found it… It’s almost exactly the same thing Martin said over a year ago during the elections: (Emphasis mine)

“Canada must be at the forefront of the innovation economy,” he said in Markham, a town north of Toronto.

While the picture isn’t the best, that is Paul Martin in the front there.

So basically, from what I can see, Harper annouced, using almost the same words as Paul Martin, that he would do exactly what Paul Martin promised to do during the last election.

Perhaps this explains why the Conservatives’ homepage has so many stories on the Liberal party.

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For purely masochistic reasons, I went to the Conservatives’ website, and noticed something odd:

Almost every single story on their front page above the fold is about the Liberal party. Each one attacking the liberals in some fashion or another. It is almost as if the Liberals are in power, and thus they are to blame for all of the mistakes that Harper’s Conservatives have been making for the last year or so. They attack Dion, they attack Ignatieff, but they don’t talk about any accomplishments or pretty much anything that their own party is doing. Now, if the Conservatives were in the opposition and the Liberals were in power, I could excuse this as their job would be to provide commentary and opposition to the Liberals.

However, the last time I checked the Conservatives were in power. So why are they so obsessed with attacking the Liberals? Perhaps, it is simply because they don’t have any real news stories about their own accomplishments to post on their front page.
To add that much more humour to the situation, here is their header:

I guess by getting things done, they mean whining and complaining like little babies about how mean the opposition party is for, you know, doing their job and providing critical commentary of the government.

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“Get out of your cars and enjoy the world!”

From July 8-15, 2007, all around the globe, people are going to try their hardest to get out of their cars for their daily commute, and walk, ride transit, or bike to work for a whole week. A chance for all of them to save gas, produce less traffic and pollution, and enjoy life a little more. From the facebook event:

If everyone didn’t drive to work for one week, imagine how nice that would be.

- You’ll save lots of money on gas
- Your cities will have less traffic, less pollution, and less noise.
- You will be able to get fresh air and enjoy the nice summer weather with a nice relaxing walk before and after work.
- Exercise is good for everyone.
- As more people use public transit, the better it will become as the city will put more investment in it

And remember, this is only a week. If you decide that the fresh air, sunshine, saving money on gas and lack of stress is not worth it, then return to driving. However, I think after doing it for a week, it will be hard to go back.

Note: It says Calgary, AB. This is because Facebook won’t let me say global or leave the city blank. This is really a global event for everyone to participate in

Feel free to invite everyone you know. Remember, the more people who participate, the better this event will be.

Spread the word in any way you can, the more people who participate in this week, the better it will be. I know I will be participating and inviting all of my friends to do so.

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Why is this not the front page story of every newspaper in Canada?

DCA is an odourless, colourless, inexpensive, relatively non-toxic, small molecule. And researchers at the University of Alberta believe it may soon be used as an effective treatment for many forms of cancer.

Dr. Evangelos Michelakis, a professor at the U of A Department of Medicine, has shown that dichloroacetate (DCA) causes regression in several cancers, including lung, breast, and brain tumors.

Michelakis and his colleagues, including post-doctoral fellow Dr. Sebastian Bonnet, have published the results of their research in the journal Cancer Cell.

Scientists and doctors have used DCA for decades to treat children with inborn errors of metabolism due to mitochondrial diseases. Mitochondria, the energy producing units in cells, have been connected with cancer since the 1930s, when researchers first noticed that these organelles dysfunction when cancer is present.

Until recently, researchers believed that cancer-affected mitochondria are permanently damaged and that this damage is the result, not the cause, of the cancer. But Michelakis, a cardiologist, questioned this belief and began testing DCA, which activates a critical mitochondrial enzyme, as a way to “revive” cancer-affected mitochondria.

The results astounded him.

Michelakis and his colleagues found that DCA normalized the mitochondrial function in many cancers, showing that their function was actively suppressed by the cancer but was not permanently damaged by it.

More importantly, they found that the normalization of mitochondrial function resulted in a significant decrease in tumor growth both in test tubes and in animal models. Also, they noted that DCA, unlike most currently used chemotherapies, did not have any effects on normal, non-cancerous tissues.

“I think DCA can be selective for cancer because it attacks a fundamental process in cancer development that is unique to cancer cells,” Michelakis said. “One of the really exciting things about this compound is that it might be able to treat many different forms of cancer”.

Another encouraging thing about DCA is that, being so small, it is easily absorbed in the body, and, after oral intake, it can reach areas in the body that other drugs cannot, making it possible to treat brain cancers, for example.

Also, because DCA has been used in both healthy people and sick patients with mitochondrial diseases, researchers already know that it is a relatively non-toxic molecule that can be immediately tested patients with cancer.

If this is even remotely true, this could change everything for people who live with cancer everyday. This press release is talking about a non-patented, cheap to produce drug which treats cancer with little to no side effects. What a truly exciting possibility.

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This is just sad that people are still so intolerant of gays that they cannot work if their bus has a tolerance towards gays poster.

VILNIUS (Reuters) - Trolley-bus drivers in a Lithuanian town refused to drive their vehicles while they were carrying advertisements promoting tolerance toward gay men and women, a company official said Monday.

Algirdas Krivickas, director of the trolley bus company in Kaunas, said employees had reacted strongly to the adverts which read: “A gay can serve in the police” and “A lesbian can work at school.”

Drivers had refused to take out trolley buses bearing the adverts. These had now been taken down.

It would be humourously ironic if it was not so sad. The signs do not say anything other than homosexuals are just as capable of anyone else to work in every day jobs, yet that is enough to make homophobes unable to work at all. Perhaps that says something far deeper about these people.

Either way, the bus company should just hire gay bus drivers. Apparently they can do the job better than their current staff.

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Probably the best talk I’ve seen all year.

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h/t Respectful Insolence

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A soldier’s perspective in Iraq.

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From Computer World (Note, I hate the title of this list.)

The Gadget Bill of Lights

Gadget and PC makers: If you want happy users and more repeat business, heed our call and stop torturing us with bad decisions about the lights on your products. Here is our Gadget Bill of Lights:

I. The right of the people to get a good night’s sleep shall not be infringed. Gadget makers shall make no device that lights up any dark room with flashing nag lights.

II. Excessive LED brightness, deemed cruel and unusual punishment, shall not be inflicted when dimmer lights will do.

III. Gadget makers shall make no device that nags the people for unknown reasons. If a phone flashes at us, we have the right to know why.

IV. No indicator light shall illuminate our houses or places of business without the consent of the owner. We seek the option to turn lights off.

V. An aesthetically pleasing industrial design, being necessary for the placement of electronics in various locations in our homes, shall not include inextinguishable decorative lighting. (We’re talking to YOU, Dell.)

VI. In all scenarios in which products may be used in partial or total darkness, the people shall enjoy the right to optional lighting that enables users to locate various controls, keys and buttons.

I agree with all of these. LEDs are pretty… pretty annoying. Perhaps someone in a position to fix these problems will read this article.

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