Denmark makes you green with envy - The Globe and Mail
www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opin…
We could learn a few things from the Danes.
What scientists face today is “almost disgraceful … The bureaucrats want to get a hold of the money and ask for business plans. Now do you think that George Smith and I ever wrote a business plan? Not at all,” Dr. Boyle, now 85 and retired, told a reporter Tuesday. “You don’t have time to do that kind of baloney.”
Emacs Installation on Windows XP
I spend a fair bit of time with a locked-down Windows XP machine. Fortunately, I’m able to install Emacs which provides capabilities that I find quite helpful. I’ve had to reinstall Emacs a few times now. So, for my own benefit (and perhaps your’s) here are the steps I follow:
Download EmacsW32 patched and install in my user directory under Apps
Available from http://ourcomments.org/Emacs/EmacsW32.html
Set the environment variable for HOME to my user directory
Right click on My Computer, select the Advanced tab, and then Environment Variables.
Add a new variable and set Variable name to HOME and Variable value to C:\Documents and Settings\my_user_directory
Download technomancy’s Emacs Starter Kit
Available from http://github.com/technomancy/emacs-starter-kit
Extract archive into .emacs_d in %HOME%
Copy my specific emacs settings into .emacs_d\my_user_name.el
Is Canada broken?
www.theglobeandmail.com/news/poli…
“We are in a continuous election campaign with no discussion of issues,” observes Ned Franks, a political scientist at Queen’s University and a leading authority on Canada’s Parliament.
If an election is called, I’d really like to ignore it, right up to the very end. But, I know I’ll be reviewing all of the platforms, reading plenty of commentary, and arguing about the issues. This would be much more satisfying if the election was actually important. The Federal government seems to be slowly fading into irrelevance.
Emma is very happy with her new bike and is quite a fast rider.
On our ferry trip across to PEI, we caught the attention of the boat’s captain. He was kind enough to let us visit the bridge and take some photos. The setup is pretty amazing, with many radar screens and blinking devices, but all offset by a tiny steering wheel.
Owen’s enjoying the trip.
Yelled at by the owner of the Inlet Cafe in Mahone Bay for some spilled Owen cheerios. Not family friendly, despite the high chairs and …
Out-of-office messages are set, let the vacation begin! Two weeks on a family road trip to the Canadian east coast.
TheStar.com | Opinion | Cash may never be converted into constructionBut using federal dollars for infrastructure has two powerful political advantages. It gives taxpayers something tangible for their money. And it allows cabinet ministers and government backbenchers to fan out across the country, announcing local projects.
Earlier in the 20th century, governments treated public money with the same puritanical respect that people generally treated their own money in a famously frugal age. It wasn’t that these governments never wasted public money, never misused it. It was that they did everything parsimoniously.
But government waste, though infuriating for taxpayers, is a small thing. The real tragedy lies in the inexorable rise in deliberate spending. In the exponential increases cited by Gordon Robertson, across two or three decades, the most unnecessary spending was entirely intentional, duly instigated by government and duly authorized by Parliament.
Unnecessary government spending is no accident - The Globe and Mail
Owen loves being outside (via Flickr)
Impressive. Japan commits to 20 kW solar panels on all of their 32,000 public schools by 2020 http://bit.ly/CBzsF
Just tried a Galt Knife Old Style beer from Grand River Brewing. Quite tasty.
Owen’s first (captured on film) steps: http://gallery.me.com/mroutley#100189
This is right http://bit.ly/XDNA3 I’ll vote for the party that proposes a credible plan to increase taxes and cut spending.
eHealth Ontario is controversial. But, having just copied my information dozens of times for routine paperwork, we need electronic records.
What makes these service stoppages all the more irritating is that they are unnecessary. Elected politicians can – if they have the nerve – remove the conditions that foster them. Only where cities operate a unionized public monopoly on garbage pickup are city residents potential hostages to a strike vote. And there is no good reason for these monopolies to exist.
Wow, $10,800 per kilowatt of power capacity for nuclear http://is.gd/1zZU9 (via @timbray)
Interesting read on the health effects of wind turbines, with a comparison to coal and nuclear http://bit.ly/S51fv (via @globeandmail)