Happiness is a clean inbox

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I love it when my work inbox is completely empty. I’ve become ruthless about managing incoming email. None shall pass!

.:.

Six days from now I’ll be on my way to Nova Scotia for the holidays. I’m quite excited; both my brothers are coming home, as are their SOs and kids (where applicable). Good thing my parents have the big farmhouse; 8 adults, 3 kids and two dogs are quite an occupying force. I’m thinking we’ll need an extra tree as well; all those presents are going to take up a lot of space. Then again, Nellie and I are doing our part to cut back on the gift volume; we’ve asked for donations to charities in our name(s) in lieu of presents.
In the meantime, we have a lot of xmas stuff yet to do. We still have to buy a lot of presents, send ~50 cards, and watch our traditional holiday movies — Die Hard and Love Actually — whilst mowing down on Swiss Chalet festive specials. I think maybe we’ve been slack on the gifts and the cards ’cause it still doesn’t feel like Christmas…no snow yet. And it’s 6 frickin’ degrees outside.

I’m also trying to finish off my last stats assignment before we go, but it turns out doing tons of regression analysis isn’t the most exciting exercise, so I’m having trouble getting through it awake.

[tags]email, clean inbox, xmas, die hard, love actually[/tags]

Sur la trace de Stephen J. Dubner

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The TIFF group has announced their top ten Canadian movies of the year; I can’t say I’ve seen any of them. Actually, five of them have yet to be released to theatres, so I don’t really feel bad. There’s some controversy over what was left out, but I’m not sure how anyone could be surprised that a film festival group would skip the commercially successful (relatively speaking; this is Canada, after all) films.

Anyway, Cinematheque will be showing each of them in the new year, so perhaps we’ll catch a few.

On a related note I bought tickets to see Doc Soup’s presentation of Jesus Camp next month. I really should buy a subscription; they just had a screening of The Bridge, another one I want to see.

.:.

Last night I emailed the Freakonomics guys about this story in the Globe:

“Ontario teens under the age of 18 will lose their driver’s licence if they drop out of high school under a new law passed Tuesday.”

Today Stephen Dubner emailed me back with a link to their blog post about the story. I love that these guys have a mega-book and they still a) blog frequently about interesting things, and b) read (and answer) email from random people with something to say.
[tags]tiff top ten, cinematheque, freakonomics, ontario driver’s license dropouts[/tags]

Have I mentioned how much I hate the word "monetize"?

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This NY Times story entitled Craiglist Meets The Capitalists kind of describes how my life feels.

“Jim Buckmaster, the chief executive of Craigslist, caused lots of head-scratching Thursday as he tried to explain to a bunch of Wall Street types why his company is not interested in “monetizing” his ridiculously popular Web operation. Appearing at the UBS global media conference in New York, Mr. Buckmaster took questions from the bemused audience, which apparently could not get its collective mind around the notion that Craigslist exists to help Web users find jobs, cars, apartments and dates – and not so much to make money.”

I’m a socialist, am pro-Kyoto and have no problem paying as much tax as I do, yet I work for a bank, am halfway to an MBA and have a copy of The Wealth Of Nations on my bookshelf. I understand the profit motive, but I certainly think it has limits. I’d like to think I’m the middle ground that the bankers in this story can’t understand. Actually, I live in constant fear that I’ll end up like them.
[via Yes But No But Yes]

.:.

Lindsay Lohan claims she’s been going to AA meetings for a year in the same breath that she says she hasn’t had a drink in a week. Apparently Lindsay learned math at a Verizon training seminar.

OK, I apologize…I’ve been posting about overbaked harpies like Lohan and Paris Hilton too much lately. I’m falling for their ploy to stay in the public eye. Never again.*

* the author reserves the right to talk about them if they do something quantum-physics-level retarded.
[tags]craiglist, ny times, lindsay lohan[/tags]

Fare thee well, skanktron

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My brother Tim and my friend GB — math geeks both — will love this story: people who can’t do math are in charge of Verizon’s billing department (and managing their call centre, it seems).

Verizon: What do you mean .002 dollars?
Client: [big sigh] Okay, I think I have to do this again. Do you recognize that there’s a difference between one dollar and one cent?
Verizon: Definitely.
Client: Do you recognize there’s a difference between half a dollar and half a cent?
Verizon: Definitely
Client: Then, do you therefore recognize there’s a difference between .002 dollars and .002 cents
Verizon: No.
Client: No?

Awesome.

.:.

I can’t wait to see Rona Ambrose debate pollution with these 700 scientists.

.:.

Nicole Richie has been arrested for driving drunk. I think this is unfair; people who only weigh 85 pounds can’t be blamed for their intoxication as they would obviously get drunk smelling a single lite beer from across the room. Not to mention the weed & vicodin she took before driving, the poor dear.

.:.

Speaking of vapid dormice, this Salon article about Paris Hilton is about 12 kinds of funny. When the article starts off,

“For years we’ve been paralyzed in the tractor beam of her brainless celebrity. Now it’s time to kiss the creepy dollie goodbye.”

…you just know it’s gonna be good.

[tags]verizon, math, scientists, pollution, nicole richie, paris hilton[/tags]

Foie gras

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This month’s issue of Toronto Life features a story on foie gras, in which the author Sasha Chapman sees for himself whether the practice of gavage (force-feeding) is cruel, and ponders whether Toronto will ban it as Chicago has, California plans to and New York seems to be considering. It’s a good story, a report on a personal experience, but it doesn’t offer a complete picture of the issue; surely not every producer is as well-run as Aux Champs d’Élisé.

Personally I didn’t eat foie gras, even before I started this going-off-meat plan. I tried it once or twice (and didn’t like it) before I really knew much about how it’s produced. Obviously I feel there’s a moral issue with eating meat, and I feel foie gras production is more cruel than most meat production, but I can’t say how much more cruel exactly. The UK, Germany, the Czech Republic, Finland, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark, and Israel have all banned the production of foie gras (though you can still buy it there) so this protest obviously isn’t limited to a few humane societies.

If — and it’s a big if — the general public concedes that foie gras production is more cruel than regular meat production, is the difference in cruelty enough to spur a ban on foie gras? Obviously it was in Chicago, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see it happen here in Toronto.

[tags]foie gras, chicago, toronto[/tags]

"I'm a normal [ed: extremely hot] person, I'm doing all right."

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My brother has left the dark ages and entered the age of enlightenment. That is, he’s switched from Blogger to WordPress. Go say hi.

.:.

From Yahoo: Kate Winslet slams ‘ultra-thin’ glamorization. Hear, hear. For my part, I encourage more women to look like Kate Winslet.

The three examples the article suggests as poor role models are “Kate Moss, Nicole Richie and Victoria Beckham”; I daresay there are reasons beyond their looks which make them poor role models…

.:.

After leaving the latest season of The Wire sitting on the shelf for several weeks (except the season premiere, which we watched a few weeks back), we’ve been on a tear this weekend. We have just four episodes left…and I think the finale aired tonight.

Dominic West has hardly been on this season; maybe he was busy filming 300.

[tags]blogger, wordpress, kate winslet, the wire, dominic west[/tags]

Making with the festive itties

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We popped ’round to CBGB’s place last night for their xmas party. I think in theory it was a tree-trimming party, but the kids (their nephew & nieces) took care of the heavy lifting, so the rest of us just ate and drank and admired the decorating job. The nerds were well represented; KittenWhiskers was holding it down.

.:.

We didn’t get home that late, but then I spent an hour IMing with two friends, so I didn’t get to sleep ’til after 2. Then the furry agitators woke me up, meowing for food at 6 AM. Nellie got up to feed them, but I never really got back to sleep, so I’m on 4 hours of sleep now. Thankfully I don’t have anything important to do today. I’ve finished reading all the stats I need to read and I’m taking today off before starting the final assignment tomorrow.

[tags]xmas party, fuzzy bastards, sleep deprivation[/tags]

Common sense indeed

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Another pedestrian killed on Toronto streets. It’s getting scarier out there. However, it’s nice to see the police blaming the pedestrians first.

“You have to use common sense,” advised Acting Staff Sgt. Doug Surphlis of Traffic Services. “It is the festive time of year and it is important to think before you cross the road. Also, to the mot orists to be courteous to our pedestrians. Look around as well (and) be careful out there.”

Granted, this last victim was crossing at an unmarked part of the road, but in Scarborough it’s not easy for a senior with a stroller to walk all the way to a proper light.

.:.

Montreal wins (snapping their first two-game winless streak of the season) and Toronto loses (to Boston…again), so balance is restored to the sporting world.

[tags]toronto, pedestrian killed, canadiens, maple leafs[/tags]

I would NOT want to mess with a guy named Mathias Heck

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In general, I think the death penalty’s a bad idea. I believe there are a hundred reasons not to have it. As near as I can tell, there are two common arguments for it:

  • the Bible quote “an eye for an eye” makes it ok;
  • the hope that the death penalty will act as a deterrent, especially to people committing crimes in a similar fashion.

The first argument can be dismissed easily; there are several biblical quotes that would counter the argument, and in any case, the bible doesn’t dictate the law.

The second argument could have merit; I don’t have stats on hand to support or refute it, and am too lazy to look for any. But it passes an initial sniff test, so I’ll bite for the sake of this post.

But how does it apply to this woman who killed her baby by — and I’m not making this up — microwaving it to death? The prosecutor is seeking the death penalty, presumably to remind all those people out there thinking about microwaving their babies to death that it is, in fact, a crime. Look, if you’re so freaking far gone that it seems like a good idea to nuke your infant, do you really think someone’s going to snap out of it just as their finger hovers over the ‘High’ button when they remember the fate of crazy old China Arnold who got the needle as reported in the Plain Dealer last year? I’m guessing not.

Argh.

[tags]death penalty, china arnold[/tags]

"This is Sparta!"

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

It really doesn’t matter how many times I watch the trailer for 300 (imdb | official site). I just never get sick of it.

I cannot wait.

[UPDATE] New extended trailer found at The Movie Blog. W00t!

.:.

Still on movie news (though a more different movie it’d be hard to imagine) I watched Dogtown and Z-Boys (imdb | rotten tomatoes). Like Riding Giants, it was a surprisingly entertaining story, considering I have no interest in the subject of skateboarding. It was fascinating to see the history behind moves and a lifestyle we see all the time these days, but which were mainly pioneered by these kids from a shit neighbourhood skating in empty swimming pools.

[tags]300 movie, dogtown, z-boys[/tags]