Victoria's Secret

After feeling the pressure from a high profile protest, Victoria's Secret has decided to remedy its reputation. It was feeling guilty for publishing over a quarter of a billion catalogues per year. Well perhaps it wasn't feeling guilty but a few high profile news stories helped it to feign responsibility.
And so, it decided not to reduce its catalogue output, but rather to cancel it's paper supplier's contract. Coincidentally, and my connection to this story is that the paper comes from Alberta, and said trees are replaced by yours truly. In a news conference, Victoria's secret claimed that they were opposed to the demise of Alberta's woodland caribou due to forestry practices by their supplier. A little investigation led me to discover a few pertinent facts.
1) Woodland caribou populations in Alberta have only been studied since 1994
2) In 1995, the boreal forest experienced its most devastating fire season in centuries
3) Uncoincidentally, caribou population declined in the same year and are still recovering.
4) As yet, no statistically relevant data exists on the meta population in Alberta, only heard characteristics.
5) When the data showed that herds were declining (after the 1995 fire) the woodland caribou was placed on the endangered species list in Canada despite no total population data.
6) Scientifically inert city folk with a messiah complex and little understanding of forest mechanics suddenly equate some declining heard populations (many herds were either stable or increasing in Alberta) with forest practices. This transitivity permeates the activist community and voila: Victoria's Secret is now looking for a new paper supplier. Presumably one that doesn't use trees?

Extra Reading
As is often the case with activist notions, there are small kernels of truth that were trampled over in their desperate bid to feel important. There is a study that recently used gps radio collars to track caribou (Dyer et al 2001.)
This study though, is an exercise in problematic research methodology. What the researchers did was to lay out hypothetical roads and seismic lines on a map to see if the tagged caribou crossed actual roads and seismic lines less frequently. In the abstract it seems reasonable, however I could fairly accurately predict the results. The 43,000 data points they collected showed that there was no negative preference for actual seismic lines but by a factor of six, the caribou crossed the imaginary roads over real roads. What's wrong with this data? Nothing. The Conclusion is suspect though for the following reasons:
1) seismic lines are in fact random. They follow straight lines regardless of terrain. Roads on the other hand are not random. They follow high ground since low marshes are expensive to build on. They avoid watercourses, streams, marshes and bogs. Seismic lines are cut and used only in the winter and therefore excused from the constraints of roads.
2) caribou routes like roads but unlike seismic cuts, are not random either. Caribou prefer watercourses, bogs, drainage draws and ephemeral streams. The exact opposite of preferred roadways.
3) since the only random data point is the seismic line, and since a road data point is less likely to be a caribou data point by its very nature, it should come as no surprise that the data shows that caribou do not avoid seismic lines but do avoid roads.
4) This study, often quoted in many other studies, was used to demonstrate that any man-made disturbance impacted caribou. This by extension after several retelling translates into declining populations. All of this in spite of the fact that in 1995 mother nature reeked more temporary havoc than man ever could. Incidentally, 3 years later, I was evacuated from a fire in northern Alberta in 1998 that consumed more timber than had been logged in all of Alberta for the last 7 years.

A Hexette of Notions

Some thoughts this week:
1) Chocolate milk Must be properly shaken before serving
2) If you took Kurt Russell and left him in a moldy garage over a winter, you'd have Patrick Swayze.
3) Here's a great idea! A heartwarming christmas movie featuring recognizable stars!
4) All the christian right in Alberta will have to pray 23% harder next time they want to elect Ted Morton as the new Premier. Ha!
5) As a testament to my idleness, I now am ranked 112,322th out of 1,400,000 players in the world in my current vice:Unreal Tournament.
6) While the theistic mainstream likes to hold its snout high in the air in contrast to its extremist brethren, I fear tis no better. One can hardly stand on intellectually or morally high ground when one of the primary byproducts of religion is the constriction of thought. Religion shrinks the domain of reasonable explanation down to pert one liners that serve to comfort but also to occlude. A veil is placed over reason, replacing it with promises and fantasy. Apparently this is acceptable provided one is law abiding, but when this same gag placed over reason is used to justify violence, we turn on it and call it extremism of various hyphenated varieties. I mourn for reason. Reason that has been shackled to lies and fantasies in the name of religion. Indeed I draw not the same line of mainstream or extremism. Rather I see a single monolithic impediment to sanity and hope for mankind. Religion is the gateway drug of those who have stopped thinking, or refuse to think. And on that path leads sheep to the slaughterhouse. When we teach our children to believe in fantasies, we are preparing them for a world of horrible ideas leering at them from dark alleys. The great 'isms', like pedophiles preying on societies that have ill prepared themselves to choose ideas with discretion. Religion has a simple relationship with reason: it cuts it in half with a machete and then gives it a band-aid.

Egos, Quebec Nationalism and Birth Control

Kudos to Michael Chong, Canada's intergovernmental affairs minister for resigning his post. The "Quebec as a nation" retread bill before the house is Canada's answer to the tired sitcom plots imported from America. Its not very funny and is as predictable as it is tiresome. I also applaud Mr. Kennedy, Liberal leadership hopeful for having the stones to oppose such a sour frosting to an otherwise bland unity cake. Of course, Kennedy has the luxy of speaking from the political wilderness which seems to offer its denizens the ability to speak with unfettered conditions. In case you missed it, here's the federal problem in Canada, and it has little to do with Quebec nationalism.

Having lived and worked from one end of this country to the other, I feel as though I can speak with some authority on the Canadian experience. And I have uncovered the following: Every part of Canada has distinct needs and solutions to their own problems. These problems can be generalized as the following: increased ability to innovate or in other words, decentralized federal power. Whether its fishing on the east coast, oil wealth in Alberta, agriculture in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, manufacturing in southern Ontario, or the inferiority complex that is the province of Quebec, EVERY part of Canada feels hard done by the federal bargain. The difference in Quebec is that this discontent has been harnessed and the language of that disconnect has been altered and turned into a nationalist discontent and agenda. In fact, its the same discontent that's to be found Everywhere. Quebec has been hoodwinked into thinking that there is something unique about their discontent.
This is why the Quebec problem gets so little sympathy in the rest of Canada. Because no-one understands how Quebec is more different than anywhere else! After all, how can a pear be more different from an apple than an orange is! Its an absurd comparison without logic or resonance. Of course the argument is presented this way in Quebec because it elevates those who expound it and strokes the egos of Quebecers that support it. Thankfully the whiners in the rest of Canada lack the creativity to present this gripe in the same regional terms.


A story that probably did not escape Calgary this week involved a Calgary doctor that refused to give a prescription for birth control pills on the grounds that she was opposed to birth control! This doctor's governing body when questioned said that it was her right to do so! Im only assuming that the doctor is Catholic mostly on the grounds that few other institutions have been a greater impediment to rational thought and human dignity. But she may not be catholic. Its possible. Unquestionably, the patient has been betrayed here by a nation that cannot enforce its values. Birth control is legal. Last time I checked. This legality was a decision by the state. This crusading, shitforbrains doctor apparently has elevated herself to the highest law in the land and defied that legality. And I am forced to say things like religion is essentially a socially respectable form of self aggrandizing egomania. Its a sobering ponderance when I wonder what other lapses in judgment this doctor is capable of making. It only goes to show that being a dunce is no obstacle to obtaining a degree that is generally respected by society. It also makes me wonder why buildings don't crumble, bridges collapse and planes don't plummet to the ground more often than they do.

your tax dollars at work

I enjoyed fifteen minutes of fame today as I was in a CBC documentary about treeplanting that aired today on Country Canada. The film crew followed around some of my rookies all season so it was all about them but I did get a few speaky bits. I wore a wireless mike around which is a little surreal in the middle of nowhere. Anyway, here's a couple stills from their doc.

The Phenomenology of Republicans

It might seem like the master's got it made: the slave does all his or her work, and recognizes the master's power. The problem is, this isn't the kind of recognition that the master wanted. The master wanted to be recognized by somebody that he or she respects as an equal, as a peer. Instead, the master gets recognition only from a slave, and the master knows that the slave doesn't really respect him or her, but resents and hates the master.

For some reason, elections often remind me of Hegel. And while its often said that nobody ever lost money underestimating the American public, it seems that last Tuesdays election has become the exception that proves the rule. In any case, a hearty "Hazaa!" to those that voted. Its comforting to to know that after years of cowing to the politics of fear and the bizarre false dichotomies presented by Carl Rove and the Republican machine, Americans got a chance to show their metal.

Sir, Your Civilization has entered a Golden Age!

On a scale from 1 to 10, computer technology is finally non-zero! Witness the arrival of the Pentop Computer. There are a few digital pens on the market that optically record your penstrokes but a new product from Leapfrog has made an important leap. It has software in the pen that tutors math, spelling etc. Yes this is cool but here's the best part: You can draw a 'lil calculator on the page and then press the buttons of your drawn calculator to perform arithmetic. Sure, it doesn't really do anything that a 5 dollar calculator cant do- except I can draw it anywhere! Admit it, thats better than alot of technology on board the starship enterprise. Tools that create tools, however rudimentry, is my threshold for the stone age of computing. In terms of the evolution of computers, they've finally crawled from the primal soup. Indeed waiter, there's a Fly in my soup.

quantum jackets

I realized today that my outerwear is not continuous- it is in fact packets of quantum outerwear. My fleece, which is good to about o Celsius can only be replaced by my fall leather coat good to about -5. The next jump is my winter coat which is too warm at -10. I seem to be living at a scale of the universe which approximates the Plank Outerwear Length. At this scale I can experience the discomfort that exists between my discrete jacket packets- or shells. In addition, the uncertainty principle does not interfere with my observations. Except when its about -7 in which case the uncertainty principle seems to vex all experimental decisions. While many theorize that at very high jacket energies, strings will be shown to hold the jackets together, but in my privileged scale, I can confirm that there are no strings but rather an elastisized waistband. At lower jacket energies, these are replaced by buttons. Early experiments have shown that at a distance, the force holding the buttons together is in fact, very weak. As the sidewalks become more icy, hopes are high that the many collision experiments will solve several mysteries.

Egypt, Greece, New Jersey

Went to the Ancient Egypt,Greece and Rome exhibit at the Glenbow Museum on Friday afternoon. It was very good although I was a little miffed reading a museum display promising that Greece was replaced by an "even greater" empire: Rome. Im not sure exactly how to measure an empire but I'd put Greece up against Rome by virtually every measure that is virtuous. Of note to House of Leaves mavens was some wonderful Minoan bowls with the labyrinth pattern proudly embossed. Its very spellbinding to be in the presence of things that are made by human hands nearly 4 thousand years ago.

And speaking of, there was a case of burial statues called shabti. These were carvings of workers you would need to help you in the afterlife. It was very sophisticated and it seemed as though every aspect of organizational behavior was thought of as there were even shabti to organize shabti. Presumably so they don't goof off in your afterlife. As I peered through the glass thinking about how I would pull off a spectacular cat burglary of the place to a Chemical Brothers soundtrack when it struck me how similar this was to Second Life.

Indeed, everyone on secondlife is creating avatars (not unlike the mummy masks) creating imaginary jobs and goals and entire virtual lives. It seems that the Egyptians were doing the same thing by burying with them the same undigital trappings of the secondlife community. Though the tools have changed, little else has changed in the hearts of men for thousands of years.

Speaking of change, I've been enjoying the New Jersey court defense of gay marriage. Of course it has social conservatives explaining the ills of "activist judges." Even the president has used this favorite catch phrase of the right. Lets us forget for a moment that this is really just a synonym for "I disagree with" Part of the rhetoric is that judges are appointed and therefore essentially undemocratic. I guess this doesn't apply to Donald Rumsfeld, Rice, et al? Rumsfeld's acerbic disdain for nearly everyone would assure him of never reaching office if he had to secure the will of voters. Why do we not hear of "activist defense secretaries?" Many Canadians envy the Americans ability to actually vote for their leader (presumably they envy the few who bother turning out to vote for the president) but at least every one in the Canadian cabinet had to face the fickle mob of at least a constituency.
But back to my point, its curious that in all the whoopla of how great American Democracy is( I learned that on CNN,) everyone on the social right doesn't question the content of the decision- they question the institution of the supreme court itself. The American social conservatives share this skepticism of its institutions with the least stable of democracies in the world. When democracy and democratic institutions are not yet habitual in emerging or crumbling democracies, people don't question policy or decisions but the very institutions themselves. Witness common reactions around the world that chose to throw out elected regimes because they don't like them. In stable democracies, people at least separate unpopular policy from the institutions. Its true, stable countries like Canada have been tinkering with our institutions but not because of unpopular decisions, rather to make the country more equitable. Questioning the independence of the courts (perhaps one of the most important metrics in the assessment of a healthy democracy) is just another in a series of disturbing trends in America in the Bush era.

Islam is the new Christianity; Pink is the new Red

"Short is the way, little the labor, which, nevertheless, will repay you with the crown that fadeth not away. Accordingly, we speak with the authority of the prophet: 'Gird thy sword upon thy thigh O mighty one.' Gird yourselves, everyone of you, I say, and be valiant sons; for it is better for you to die in battle than to behold, the sorrows of your race and of your holy places. Let neither property nor the alluring charms of your wives entice you from going; nor let the trials that are to be borne so deter you that you remain here "
-speech by Pope Urban II

Only Revolutions:part 1

Today, I got "Only Revolutions" I started reading Hailey until page 48 then began Sam up to same point. Will put it down till tomorrow and perhaps I will read smaller chunks before switching narratives (if thats what I'm doing?)

So far: It is difficult, cloudy impressions are beginning to form, halfway through my read I began to read it faster and found it more somethingorother.

I suspect some have read it at least once by now though Im not sure Im ready to hear anyone's thoughts just yet. Even though I am.

Only Revolutions

MPAA winning the hearts & minds of youth

Well, my sworn enemy for 2006, the Motion Picture Association of America, provides me with yet more fodder. I wish I could be making this up but no, they have helped the boy scouts concoct a "respect for copyright" merit badge! I stole a page from their press release which contains the usual selfless sob story about how copyright violators are stealing jobs from set electricians making double what they'd make in the private sector. Its hard to be sympathetic. Paying lead actors tens of millions of dollars is hardly an economical business model. While its always been a core value that everyone is entitled to get what they can for their services, its hard to believe that anyone pays this. It seems that declining ticket sales is a sign that star salaries are overdue for a correction. But instead, the MPAA continues with its campaign against copyright infringement to stem the tide of market dissatisfaction, rather than change their product or business model. I wouldn't need to be so cynical if they didn't centre their campaign away from their own declining profits and on to the sob story behind the scenes joe lighting guy. I think I'll order one of the merit badges so if I ever happen to swallow some liquid plumber, I can induce vomiting.

Nobel Prize Grameen Bank

I rather liked the 2006 Nobel Prize selection, Mohammad Yunus. His Grameen Bank micro-loan project seems to be a ringing success. I did find it interesting in last weekends Globe and Mail that the econ PHDs they talked with admitted that it was only a limited benefit since the average standard of living increase for participants was only 5 percent. Surely these guys must understand that five percent higher than just barely getting by is a pretty big difference in quality of life? Another economist warned that since all of these micro-loans were secured without credit, there is a risk that they wouldn't be paid back. In fact, the Grameen bank has a 98.8% repayment ration. Pretty good for a system that runs in complete opposition to the industrial worlds banking!

I also thought that the Nobel committee's' politics (there's always politics) were curiously in line with Bill Clinton's current philosophical drive. He's been criss-crossing the lecture circuit reminding people that security is best achieved buy buying someone a sewing machine and increasing their standard of living rather than waiting till a society has broken down and then spending a thousand times more with military pressure. To me it seems no accident that Yunus was given the Peace Prize rather than the Economics Prize. It is a pretty big advertisement for the Clinton school of security.

For the other 2006 Nobel winners, go here.

Ironic signposts, the pope: bedfellows

The Holy See screwed up my change of address form I sent so Im responding rather late to the pope's latest offering to his children. The meat or actually, the gristle of the speech was that faith must be tempered by reason. Without reason, faith turns to fundamentalism. Pretty enough words I suppose for the leader of an organization that once burned the Library of Alexandria to ashes. But I suppose I can hardly disagree that its better to be a little bit irrational than completely irrational. Which leads me to the Christian right in America.

Once upon a time third year stats students could predict republican/democrat voter tendencies by education/income data. Now, the best indicator of whether one voted republican is the frequency of church attendance. And so I wonder if the republican party needs to heed the words of the pope and inject some reason to its faith. I ask this in the context of recent events in North Korea. Forgetting the potential threat that a nuclear Korea presents, its a curious embarrassment to US foreign policy. Lets remember that the US went to war in Iraq ostensibly to secure the US (and the world) from WDMs. As Americans apathetically digest the fact that there weren't any, Korea goes nuclear. Indeed, the pope couldn't find a better time to urge that faith be tempered with reason.

As far as the war in Iraq goes, despite the fact that I consume news fairly voraciously, I did not notice anyone noticing an ironic signpost pointing to the preposterosity that is US policy: Sometime in the last month, more Americans have been killed in Iraq than were killed in 9/11. The Afghan mission was apparently about justice while the Iraq mission was about saving American lives from danger. While 2700 Americans were killed in 9/11 (plus others non-Americans who inccidently are become a fast growing nation. All non-Americans need is a catchy tune and some postage stamps to be the largest nation on Earth!) where was I? Right 2700 killed in 9//11 and now 2756 (as of Oct 11 2006) Americans have been killed. All I can say to this curious milestone is to quote David Byrne and the Talking Heads: "Letting the days go by, water flowing under ground, letting the days go by, same as it ever was, same as it ever was..."

For the stat curious, the US casualties in Iraq are officially listed at 20, 468 while Iraqi civilian losses are pegged at between 400, 000 and 600, 000 depending on what data you believe. Staggering folly on par with some other numbers I dug up for contrast.

In the five years since 9/11, there have been approximately 150,000 gun deaths in America. Wow. Half of those are suicides leaving 75,000 gun deaths costing the health care system 4 billion dollars a year. That's ten 9/11s every single God Bless America's War On Terror Years!!!

And while Americans are dying by the thousands in Iraq in the name of American security, and by the tens of thousands at home in the name of the 2nd amendment, Korea apparently casually builds nuclear weapons. Indeed, will the republicans please add some reason to their faith.

You'll never hear me say it again:" Will they please listen to the pope!"

Petty Irritants

And now the airing of petty irritants:

1) Its curious that the current Foley scandal is really going to hurt the republicans in the upcoming midterm US elections. Its a picture perfect encapsulation of the bizarre tango with Americas number one dance duo: Sex and Violence. The war in Iraq hardly dampens the spirits of American voters as much as a sex scandal. A nod to America's lingering Puritanical roots and violent origins. CNN enjoys a feeding frenzy over this issue while the War in Iraq was initiated under false pretense and has cost the US over 300 billion dollars (see ticker under the archives) Add this scandal to the 20 billion dollars of missing reconstruction contract money that barely makes the papers. Add this scandal to virtually all American intelligence reports explaining how the current foreign policy has made the US less safe while the administration claims the exact opposite. Add this scandal to the colossal ineptness dealing with hurricane Katrina. Add this to the unconscionable practice of characterizing all objections to public policy as being a boon to terrorism or soft on terror and the like. This is a grotesque insult to dialogue and certainly a slap in the face of the very freedom that so far 2700 Americans have gave their lives supposedly defending. And Yet: It will likely be a bland sexual advance that will tip the scales at the polls this November. Yes, it is tempting to connect the Republican's twisted, repressed sexuality in all this, their medieval attitude towards gays and lesbians and their unwavering, self-imposed responsibility of being America's moral compass. But alas, young boys have their admirers going all the way back to the toga-clad Academy and so I can only blame the Republicans for their cowardly cover up.
Among many other sins.

2) The guy who does the voice over work for CTV. I really loathe affectation. There's also something rather distasteful about using the same faux drama affectation for doing a plot summary of Grey's Anatomy and then using the same voice for the news lead in. Its as though CTV has just given up trying to pretend they separate entertainment from news. On second thought, maybe I prefer that kind of honesty.

3) 20% of drivers on 11th and 12th Aves SW in Calgary. They're both 2-lane and every time I want to cross (its always very busy) some chowderhead who clearly never walks anywhere, slows down and stops then looks at me with consternation wondering why I don't cross blindly into the next lane only to be struck by the other lane of traffic that hasn't stopped. For the love of god, just drive past, I may be crippled but I'm not retarded!

4) And speaking of cars, the Harper government is contemplating the very strict California emissions for Canadian cars which I naturally applaud. Buzz Hargrove (isn't he dead yet) was seen in many a media scrum this week in tears crying that the industry couldn't possibly meet this new demand. So did I just dream that in the mid seventies there was a realization the oil was a scarces resource and that pollution was choking our cities? It must have been a dream since that would mean the auto industry would have had 30 years to realize that the way they make cars was as dead as the V8. Surely that last 10 years of talking about Kyoto wasn't translated into the language of slumbering oligiopic-ese.

5) The Liberal party of Canada. What are you guys thinking anyway. Lets be honest, the only thing that is of concern in the next election is ensuring that that Liberal party at least appears to be moving slightly to the right so that it can steal votes away from the conservatives. Clearly Bob Rae doesn't fit the bill for this reason. I may like him more but lets not be trapped by the personality myth here. It is rare leaders that swing voters to them. Rather you must place yourself where the voters are. Mike Ignatief is better ideologically placed.
I guess though at the end of the day I couldn't really care who they pick because it makes no difference anyway. Frankly unless I read the paper, I can't tell by any of my five senses who runs this country.


I can assure you that my petty irritants are a resource, that while governed by thermodynamics, are nearly inexhaustible. If anyone can figure out how to harness this energy, I will gladly sell it back to the grid and split the profits. Unfortunately the same cannot be said of patience, and so I shall close.

The Trouble with Physics

I've been reading Lee Smolin's The Trouble with Physics this week.So far it has borne much fruit. His background is in quantum gravity so Van Flandern fans will find his thoughts illuminating. In addition, his disection of the many iterations of string theory is very reassuring to those who find string theory as ridiculous as it is elegant.

Been out to the mountains a few times for distracting walks. Last Sunday we went out


to Yoho at the height of the autumn colors. We were transfixed at Takakaw falls watching several climbers scale the cliff face beside the waterfall.

Daviditron: Apply directly to the forehead

As Thanksgiving approaches, I find myself getting in the spirit by awaiting a similar carving. The results of my tests revealed a myriad of undisplaced tears and a paralabral cyst encrusting the shoulder joint. So like many Tom turkeys I will be sitting on a white table while a man holds a sharp knife with a serious look on his face.

Speaking of bone cracking and carving, went to The Protector this eve, a pretty fun Thai martial arts explosion. Some nice camerawork and over the top choreography with complimentary ludacris dialogue

A movie really worth talking about is Brick. Essential a Dasheill Hammet script manifesting itself in teen suburbia. The dialogue is hyper-fast with an amusing mixture of noir 40's slang and teen pop-unacular. And while Im making up words, Im excising the word "business" and replacing it with the more apt "busy". So now more descriptively, I live a ten minute walk from the busy-district. I read the busy-news and don't own a very nice looking busy-suit.

Speaking of life in the busy district, Calgary certainly isn't living up to my prejudices. Upon retuning here last week, I thought I would count the number of strangers that said "hello" to me. From Monday to Friday I got exactly 5 hellos which is pretty good considering I was only mixing in the public realm for the 8 blocks to the coffeeshop and newsstand and back home. That's pretty good for soul-less ol Busytown. Its true, there are heaps of people busy making money and perhaps less interested in the good. But as a borderline misanthrope, I'm indifferent to most everyone anyway. The small percentile of people I resonate with remains the same wherever I am so the mode personality type isn't something that really affects me.

That being said, you definitely know your in Busytown (if you feel like punishing yourself) if you read the editorial page. Free enterprise and individual rights trump every consideration. They are the twin pillars that prevent serious consideration of all ideas. There are few nuanced versions of the good when monolithic principles dominate discourse as it does here. Luckily, ideas hardly matter anymore as pundits and scholars fight battles that take up less room in the collective unconscious as a headache commercial.

Paris Hilton

So Im listening to CBC the other day and they were sending up Paris Hilton's new CD. They all put their not so talented claws into her though, for myself, I found it no worse than anything else on the pop charts. I would normally find Hilton-Hate'n incredibly boring and tune out, but on this day I began to postulate: just why does everyone love to pick on her?
Is it because the media is abominably lazy and can't find some other rich, young, weathy people with little or no talent? Im sure there are dozens of richer, younger, less deserving people out there that are ripe for holier than thou treatment by smug and smarmy media commentarians. But then I remembered my Nietche.
Paris is the end of Modernity. There are no ethics for Paris to violate. No systems of rules or conventions for her to follow or not follow at her peril. Paris just does whatever she wants. Paris represents not just the death of God, but the death of the Protestant Work Ethic, the death of Meritocracy, the death of Consequences. Curiously, I think people people recognize this in her and resent the fact that they themselves are still (philosophically) Nietche's antiquaited whipping boy. They see themselves clinging to Modernity's dried teat and resent her for it. For better or for worse, Paris Hilton is the only true Post Modern woman.

Post Script: Couldn't people lay off Britney as well!?

capsulitis kickmyassis

my apologies to those I did not see in Saskatoon during my brief stay. After getting my arthrogram/mri , I returned to saskatoon for a wedding and then up to the lake and then Suzanne packed my things and brought them to Calgary where I am writing from now.
It seems from the results now that I have adhesive capsulitis in the shoulder joint which is basically extraneous tissue growing around the ball and socket causing imobility. Im just waiting now for a specialist to determine whether the joint needs to be surgically reorganized and mod'ed

Profiteering off necessities

The apartment in Calgary Im staying in has issued notice to renters that the rent will be increased by $200/month. There are 30 units which adds up to $6000/mth or $72,000/year. Considering that the apartments expenses haven't gone up (no mill rate hike) and natural gas prices are actually falling, one is left understanding that the increase is a function of demand. They get $72,000 extra a year because there's no other place to stay, so people will be forced to pay.
While I'm generally a supporter as well as a beneficiary of our supply and demand system, our society has deemed that certain goods and services be tempered from raw market forces. Education, health etc. are subsidized because we believe it is in the public good for them to be affordable. In a solemn moment of reflection, it seems really absurd how acceptable and commonplace it is too make whatever profit one can from other people's necessity to have a roof over their head. Its true, owning an apartment over the long term has risks of vacancy and risk should be rewarded, but I really resent such grotesque gauging on such a basic need. Calgary is suffering for skilled labour because there is no place to live and hence people can't move here or afford to move here causing cyclical dilemmas.
I hope these landlords die early and in painful ways. Its a fate better than they deserve.