I grew up in Alberta and I remember the Progressive Conservative/Reform split from the late 80s, early 90s. One big thing that came out of it that established the Reform as a legitimate party was the fact that multiple sitting PCs switched their allegiance to the Reform Party of Canada. Thus, the Reform party had seats in parliament and their leader was henceforth allowed to attend the leadership debates during the election. The Green party has been polling regularly above 10% nationwide for almost a year now, but without a sitting MP, the traditional media would deem them not “viable” and Elizabeth May would be unable to participate in the leadership debates.

Well, starting today, the Green Party of Canada officially has an MP sitting in parliament. While many people will say this is a sellout because this person crossed the floor, I find it to be a coup for the Green Party. This is simply because at this point, the traditional media has no excuse for not allowing Elizabeth May into the leadership debates and it has been seen in the past that not being at the leadership debates pretty much destroys your party’s chances in Canada for election.

So, congratulations to Elizabeth May, hopefully this will make bigger news than it has so far. I know many people are upset because there is a general hatred of party jumping in Canada, but I think in the long run this is beneficial for Canadian democracy as it gives a party with 10%+ of the population willing to vote for it a voice in Canadian politics.

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It all seems so simple when it gets laid right out for you.

The article cleanly and clearly lays out the two basic choices we get to make: do we while away our time working to accumulate resources to spend in pursuit of everything else we need to live, or do we work just for what we absolutely need, learning the skills necessary to procure the rest for ourselves?

It’s zero sum - you put i the same mount of time and energy for about the same gain. The former keeps you in a comfort zone while the latter engages you with the world and what it means to be a person living within it. It’s not necessarily easy to grow vegetables, make clothing, and find organic forms of entertainment to trump television and video games and the like.

Robert Frost said something about the road less travelled, and it’s corny but it’s true. Satisfying accomplishments are so because it requires effort and dedication; if it were easy, it wouldn’t feel so good afterwards. It’s these qualities - so tangible yet inquantifiable - that truly define the human experience. However the people with power and control have used “rational” numbers and products so effectively that many have forgotten why it should be so wonderful to live.

Not that just doing your job any buying what you need is an illegitimate way to live - it is a choice, and it’s reasonable that so many have taken it. Difficult things are, after all, difficult. But for myself, for the world whose energy and resources are sapped for the capitalist economy, and for my future children who I will want to be prepared for any circumstance, I know which choice I try to make for my life.

I know everybody’s going to be watching Obama tonight like the good little denizens you all are, but I have a few links for you guys to much on anyway.

• I hate school, except when it is loving and has no grades
• Do you like to read about work, or write about it on the internet (with pay!)?
• Or maybe geeking out would be more satisfying
• AND profitably open-ended!
• Philosophy is somewhat less profitable, but fun anyway
• You can fill that void with religion, too
• But keep in mind, there are things religion cannot explain, and those it can
• And places without religion have the subsequent double-edged sword
• Yet nobody seems to accept many things that might make the world better
• Like homemade chalkboard paint!

dc

There is nothing worse, and I mean nothing worse, than stepping alone onto an elevator in which somebody has let rip a horrible fart. You never notice such a thing until the door closes and you take a whiff while pushing the button. At this point, you realize the horrid predicament you are in: all you will be able to do is smell ass during your ride if you stay on this elevator, which is already pretty terrible, even if you hold your breath. You decide to get off at the next floor and wait for another elevator, but with only three elevators, the probability of getting the same one is surprisingly high. But you have to give it a shot anyways.

After having the ass elevator arrive multiple times, regardless of how long you wait, it becomes apparent that either someone hates you, or it is the only elevator in operation. You decide to get back on and suffer through it. As the doors close, a truly frightening thought crosses your mind: what if the elevator picks someone else up on the way?

You know that if the elevator stops at another floor to pick someone up, that person is going to immediately assume that you were the culprit. Following elevator etiquette, you cannot simply alert the person/people who enter that it wasn’t you; talking to strangers on an elevator is worse than pissing in the corner. Yet, even if you were to announce “it smelt like that when I got on,” it would likely come across as blaming some non-existent dog, and further draw attention to the smell which you now get to share communally with everyone. It would be better to let one rip in front of them since they’d think you already did.

Now, after holding your breath for what seems like the longest elevator ride in the history of elevators, you reach your floor and everyone piles out. Since you were the first person on the elevator, and your
floor is the top floor, you get the extra benefit of staying in the elevator the longest, and being the last person people see when they get onto the elevator from that floor.

What do those people end up thinking? Man, that’s guy’s ass must be a festering mess of feces.

Man, I wish people would learn that farting in confined spaces is always a bad bad bad idea.

1h

I watched this speech last night, and I have to admit that Michelle completely blew away all of my expectations. She spoke truth to all of the things that matter deeply to me, hard work, respect, growth, progress and most importantly, family. The way they finished it was truly terrific, but I don’t want to spoil it. It was just an all round great speech.

She’s confident, beautiful, and an amazing mother. It’s great. She will make a wonderful first lady.

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Image via Wikipedia

Lots of techie links in this one, a very computer chip filled flood is on it’s way in. Get your computers waterproofed because here it comes.

• Let’s start with some corporate links.
  • 9 deadly startup diseases. I can relate to a lot of these problems as I have seen friend’s startups fail due to catching some of these diseases. As Steve Jobs used to say, (paraphrased) “It only takes one bad person to ruin an entire company.”
  • Kiva. Microloans to small entrepreneurs in developing countries. It can be high risk, but for such small amounts, it can change an entire community’s live.
  • Most startups don’t create value. However, that doesn’t mean that they aren’t important. Ze Frank said once that “If you don’t wanna run out of ideas the best thing to do is not to execute them.” I say, “If your goal is to not fail, then you may as well not try. If you goal is to succeed, then you should never stop trying.”
  • Sales v. Marketing.
• And onto some fun ways to waste time online
  • Chime.tv . Imagine youtube without having to search through all the crud.
  • Retro Junk . Ah, this brings me right back to my childhood.
  • Angry Video Game Nerd . And this reminds me why I tried to forget about it.
  • Really cool random hacks on pretty much everything.
• time for some nerdy stuff
  • Lecture Finder. Learn new stuff for free online.
  • ScienceHack. More science videos.
  • MIT’s techTV. All the MIT goodness, none of the cost.
  • 100 Kickass Science blogs. All nicely categorized and linked.
  • Wigix. For people who simply hate eBay.
• In case you missed my other posts, I’m still blown McCain doesn’t know how many houses he owns and yet he calls Obama elitist. Apparently, he also doesn’t know which car he drives.
• Ooooohhh, I get it now.
• Don’t you hate it when companies hide their customer support numbers. Well, here’s a site that makes finding them easy.
• Orato, true new stories, right from the source.

Have fun!

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McCain has made it clear what he thinks is best for him:

What’s best for you?

1h

Currently, I’m at 0. McCain, on the other hand, has lost count.

Now, I don’t know, but I’d say it’s pretty elitist when you have to ask your staff how many houses you have, because you aren’t sure.

1h

I was invited with many other bloggers to do an on-the-record phone conference yesterday with Stephane Dion of the Liberal Party of Canada. Here are the results:
- 3:15 PM MDT:
Things are yet to get underway. The bloggers are talking about people’s mothers and other inside jokes (ie. “Blogfather”) they are joking that no one should hear about, but are secretly hoping someone will talk about on their blog so they don’t have to.

- 3:20: Someone was admiring Green Party Nagy’s bilingual signs in the byelection.

- 3:21: Dion is on the line and giving opening remarks, but keeps them short because of short time. He expects blogs reach the young generation “big time”.

-3:23 Steve V - Far N Wide asks why isn’t there more Dion appearances in Quebec?
Dion responds that he has been in Quebec, but wants to do more. He is finding the size of Canada makes it difficult to get to every province as much as he’d like.

Drew asks about Via Rail?
-Dion says he strongly believes in transit and trains as a transportation solution for Canada.

3:27 - Dion is continuing his talk on train infrastructure. He claims Liberals have grown rail use, traditionally. Unfortunately during the 1990s, I saw the reverse trend in my province.

3:30 - Danielle had the next question.
Dion is talking about rural energy use now.
Unfortunately someone is unable to mute their phone and it’s drowning out some of Dion’s answer. Technology isn’t perfect yet, even though it’s 2008 and we have flying iPhones.

3:31ish - My blog host dies for the next 20 minutes until the call has ended. But I took notes!

3:50ish - And here’s what happened while my blog was offline at the worst possible time:
knb asks what the plan is for the provincial premiers opposed to the Green Shift.
-Dion answers that he has a long history of building relations between provinces and the federal government He sees the Green Shift as good for AB, Nova Scotia, and all provinces. And the changes proposed are federal jurisdiction anyway (income tax reduction for instance).

[Will explains in detail in the comments] I missed who asked the next question which was paraphrased by Dion as:
Will Conservative propaganda about green shift work?
Answer: Possibly. Harper will a “use dismissive and simplistic approach” to climate change.
Dion is not intending to use attack ads.

(We all know the Liberals will use some anyway since they are generally very effective at convincing poorly informed Canadians to swing their votes around like a madman with a gun surrounded by police.)

Jason Cherniak (who is probably glad that Ezra Levant wasn’t also in the conference call) asks – Harper is threatening to call an election, which is either unethical or illegal (given his supposed desire to fix election dates in advance), but the Liberals should not use that argument, correct?

Dion responds - The press conference today was where he gave his answer to this question. The country is not prepared for the slowdown of the economy. “The country will discover more and more the kind of tricks” done to the country by Harper and the Conservatives.

And finally my question (because I asked last and late):
How do the Liberals intend to respond to the Conservatives’ use of 10%er mailings into targeted ridings like Ralph Goodale’s in Regina Wascana? I’ve been Conservaspammed with “communication” propaganda from more than 7 different Conservative MPs this year alone! It’s a crass, Conservative waste of taxpayer money.

Thank you,
[Saskboy]
He fully agrees and the “answer is in [my] question”. The Liberals will denounce it, show the government is partisan, and not respecting the letter of the law or parliament.
It’s a cheap and low blow attack against parliament. Many of his colleagues are working hard to stop it from continuing.

They really will have to do something, because even if the Liberals win, the Conservatives could still abuse their communications budget as opposition MPs, and spam ridings they don’t have a seat in.

I think a pledge to continue to responsibly use the communications mailing budget should be one step of the Liberals. Past government’s “communication” doesn’t bring up any memory of misuse in my brain, to the Liberal’s credit. Oh wait. Adscam? Not quite the same thing. Not at all actually, but I guess it shows that any government, Conservative or Liberal is prone to a few (or a lot) of bad eggs willing to misuse taxpayer money for their own advertising benefit.

Dion also mentioned that his staff reads Liblogs, and so too do his wife and daughter.
So… hello Dion family. I hope you enjoy my window into the world of western Canada.

–
Scott has some more thoughts on the call.

~Saskboy (originally published at AbandonedStuff.com)

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

So, today I have a good collection for my regular readers. Hold your breath, here comes the link waters…

• Some techie links: Why Star Trek engineers suck, convert your Pinyin to unicode, good tips for web developers, charts for Javascript users, good functions for Excel users, categories for computer science (this is cool).
• Jogging girl scout = Brownian motion.
• Ito’s Lemma, if you can figure this out and explain it in a clear, intuitive way, you are a God among men.
• Everyone who reads this knows I love TED Talks. I found another good one, Pop!Tech.
• Intuitionist mathematics for physicists. Just because not (not A) is true, doesn’t imply A is true.
• How the stock markets work.
• This is awesome technology; Improving videos with still photos, two dimensional communication, and more.
• Where does oil come from?
• iPhone/iPod Touch software reviews. Personally I recommend Stanza, Instapaper and last.fm.
• Pundit’s guide, non-partisan Canadian politics.
• Are you starting your own business? Don’t make these mistakes.

That’s good for today. Everyone enjoy their swim.

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