China, Europe report new bird flu outbreaks
Last Updated Wed, 19 Oct 2005 12:49:24 EDT
CBC News
Now, the claims are that hoarding Tamiflu is an exercise in futility since it won't be effective on a newly-mutated H5N1 strain that would move from human to human (whether air- or water-borne). China is just now releasing it's reports on numbers of affected livestock, etc. Who knows for sure what the numbers actually are?
China reported a fresh outbreak of a deadly strain of bird flu on Wednesday amid new reports of the avian illness in Russia, Romania and Macedonia.
China's state news agency, Xinhua, reported Wednesday that 2,600 birds died of the H5N1 strain of bird flu in the country's northern region.
Xinhua said the birds were discovered in a breeding facility near the village of Hohhot, the capital of Inner Mongolia. The news agency didn't provide any details other than to say that the "epidemic is under control."
China had earlier outbreaks of bird flu this year in Qinghai, Xinjiang, and Tibet.
In neighbouring Russia, agricultural officials are waiting for final confirmation of the H5N1 strain in wild ducks near Moscow. Hundreds of birds died suddenly in the country's Tula region, about 200 kilometres south of the capital.
If the tests are positive, it would be the first time the virus has shown up west of the Ural Mountains, in what is European Russia. Authorities have already killed 60,000 birds to stop the spread of the disease in earlier outbreaks.
European Union officials said Wednesday that bird flu is suspected in a small village in southern Macedonia. Macedonia borders Greece, where another bird flu outbreak is under investigation.
Macedonia officials plan to kill 10,000 chickens to contain the outbreak.
In Romania, tests have confirmed the deadly H5N1 virus in a second location in the eastern Danube Delta region.
The strain was first confirmed in the same region last weekend. As many as 45,000 birds were destroyed.
The Danube delta is Europe's largest wetlands and a major migratory area for wild birds between Europe and Africa.
Health officials stress that the H5N1 strain of avian flu is not easily transmitted between human beings, and that all human cases have taken place in Asia among people are in close contact with birds on a regular basis.
The illness has killed 60 people in Asia since 2003.
Scientists fear the H5N1 could mutate into a form that could be passed between humans, causing a global flu pandemic.
20 October 2005
*(Power)Balldrop*
Unknown Oregonian is $340M richer
Last Updated Thu, 20 Oct 2005 10:44:10 EDT
CBC News
Someone who bought a Powerball lottery ticket in Oregon woke up $340 million US richer Thursday morning.
A single winner picked all six numbers and beat odds of 146 million to 1 to win the second-biggest jackpot in U.S. history.
The winner hadn't come forward by Thursday morning.
Powerball officials said they can't tell exactly where in Oregon the ticket was purchased. The tickets are sold in 27 states.
The prize pot had been building for 10 weeks, with nobody winning the big prize in Powerball's twice-weekly draw.
Whoever won the $340-million prize Wednesday night won't get to keep the whole jackpot. The U.S. government taxes such winnings.
The biggest lottery jackpot ever awarded in the country was $363 million. Two ticket holders shared the prize in 2000.
What would you do with $340 million? Comment. I think I'd donate about $300 million to my favorite charities, put the remaining $40 mill in an interest-bearing trust fund, sell all my stuff, move to Tuvalu and secede from the rat race.
Last Updated Thu, 20 Oct 2005 10:44:10 EDT
CBC News
Someone who bought a Powerball lottery ticket in Oregon woke up $340 million US richer Thursday morning.
A single winner picked all six numbers and beat odds of 146 million to 1 to win the second-biggest jackpot in U.S. history.
The winner hadn't come forward by Thursday morning.
Powerball officials said they can't tell exactly where in Oregon the ticket was purchased. The tickets are sold in 27 states.
The prize pot had been building for 10 weeks, with nobody winning the big prize in Powerball's twice-weekly draw.
Whoever won the $340-million prize Wednesday night won't get to keep the whole jackpot. The U.S. government taxes such winnings.
The biggest lottery jackpot ever awarded in the country was $363 million. Two ticket holders shared the prize in 2000.
What would you do with $340 million? Comment. I think I'd donate about $300 million to my favorite charities, put the remaining $40 mill in an interest-bearing trust fund, sell all my stuff, move to Tuvalu and secede from the rat race.
19 October 2005
Madison Madness
These are two AVIs I took at Track Nationals this summer. These are both from the Elite Mens Madison Race on July 3.
Madonna - Hung Up (Single Edit)
Time goes by so slowly for those who wait...
Those who run seem to have all the fun...
I can't keep on waiting for you
I know that you're still hesitating
Don't cry for me
'cause I'll find my way
you'll wake up one day
but it'll be too late
I know most of you would argue for not reading too deeply into Madonna lyrics, however a few message boards have brought up the idea that she is commenting about the Catholic Church in 'Hung Up'. I don't know how this relates to her new beliefs in Kabbalah and mysticism, but the words seem relevant enough to the RC worldview though...or rather, peoples' reaction to RC dogma and its complete irrelevancy in today's social and political climate.
...or it could simply be about a young girl (or boy) stressing out about a stupid, deadbeat boyfriend and regretting her decision to wait for him to shape up his loser ass.
Those who run seem to have all the fun...
I can't keep on waiting for you
I know that you're still hesitating
Don't cry for me
'cause I'll find my way
you'll wake up one day
but it'll be too late
I know most of you would argue for not reading too deeply into Madonna lyrics, however a few message boards have brought up the idea that she is commenting about the Catholic Church in 'Hung Up'. I don't know how this relates to her new beliefs in Kabbalah and mysticism, but the words seem relevant enough to the RC worldview though...or rather, peoples' reaction to RC dogma and its complete irrelevancy in today's social and political climate.
...or it could simply be about a young girl (or boy) stressing out about a stupid, deadbeat boyfriend and regretting her decision to wait for him to shape up his loser ass.
18 October 2005
Today's wrongness
Big 3 face ominous sales gridlock
Column -- Eric Reguly writes that supermarket economics are straightforward. The profit margins on everything from tinned soup to hot dogs are wafer thin. Pile the items high and deep and push them out the door on a conveyor belt and the profits roll in. It keeps working so long as sales don't fall. Think of the Big Three auto makers as supermarkets. The margins on your dad's Buick Roadmaster or Electra were as plump as their chrome bumpers. No more. Margins have fallen, which in itself is not a disaster so long as sales remain high. But look what's happening now: Sales are in decline. If the decline goes from shallow to deep, Detroit could turn into the new Rust Belt. GM's tentative deal with the United Auto Workers to reduce its health care bill is a good start at hammering down costs but it won't be enough if sales go into the tank. There are some ominous signs that the next downturn in the industry could be gruesome. The first is that incentives may be losing their punch. The next thing to worry about are fuel costs, and not just to fill the tank. The US Department of Energy recently said it expects households to pay 71% more for natural gas this winter. Heating oil costs might go up by a third while the price of electricity might go up by 17%. Scotiabank's economics team says overall energy costs in the US will chew up 8% of household disposable income. That's the highest level since 1981 and almost double the amount of the early 2000s. Combine this little reality with the fact that household debt-servicing costs are at a record level compared with disposal income and you have a scenario where discretionary purchases are put on hold. The softening economy and skittish investor wouldn't be so bad for the Big Three were it not for the barrage of competition from Japanese and South Korean auto makers. The Asian players are taking sales away from Detroit in every auto product category. Reguly concludes that any progress on cost reduction is good news. But trimming costs - and so far it's just trimming - doesn't address the revenue side of the equation. The consumer is showing signs of stress and the current sales slump could turn into a 1970s- or 1980s-style collapse. Whoever is buying GM shares needs his cranial oil changed.
(Globe and Mail 051018)
Stupid lazy North American car companies. They're doomed.
Canada lags, productivity ranking says
Canada is sliding in global stature, partly because of sagging productivity and because governments are doing little but talk about improvements, the Conference Board of Canada says in its annual report on the country. “Our story is that we're kind of snoozing,” said Anne Golden, president of the Conference Board. “In this world, snoozers are losers.” The board ranks Canada and other industrialized countries for their performance in economy, innovation, environment, education, health and society. While Canada has gained in environment and education, it has slid in the other areas. In the economy area, Canada has dropped from third place in 2003, to sixth in 2004, and now 12th. Canada's economic position is deteriorating because of its lagging productivity, a lack of investment and because other countries are improving. "Canada's relative size and status in the global economy is slipping. With an aging population and our economic growth potential slowing, Canada will find it hard to avoid falling farther in the global rankings," warns the Conference Board report, to be released today. While the report stresses that Canada is one of the best places in the world to live, and is a better place to live now than a decade ago, "Canada is not living up to its brand as a wealthy, environmentally responsible, socially conscious, healthy society."
Meanwhile, recent polling and focus groups conducted for the federal Finance Department suggest the country's lagging productivity growth does not weigh heavily on the minds of Canadians and many are skeptical about whether it's really a problem. More than half of Canadians surveyed, or 55%, believe "the level of productivity is high," according to polling conducted by Decima Research this August. In fact, Canada's productivity growth has been anemic in recent years. Only one in 10 respondents polled rated the level of productivity in Canada as low. Focus groups found people didn't readily accept the suggestion that Canada's productivity is at risk. "A significant challenge lies in actually convincing Canadians of the productivity issues that lie ahead," an executive summary says of July research. "For the most part, participants were ready and willing to challenge any claim that suggested that low productivity was a problem for Canada."
(Globe and Mail 051018)
Stupid lazy Canucks. They're doomed too.
Flu pandemic 'catastrophe' for Canada
A bird flu pandemic could paralyze Canada's manufacturing sector for more than a year and cost the country hundreds of millions of dollars in medical costs, the Conference Board of Canada says. Sketching a worst-case scenario, the board warns up to 1.6 million Canadians - and between 180 and 360M people worldwide - could die if a global pandemic is triggered by the H5N1 avian influenza virus. Hitching a ride on migrating birds, the virus has already travelled from Asia to Europe and yesterday, in preliminary testing, was identified in Greece. The steady westward creep prompted the World Health Organization to say yesterday that, while the virus can be expected to spread to other countries, the biggest threat of it mutating into a human virus that could kill millions remains in Asia. The Conference Board's forecast far exceeds other casualty estimates, including those by Frank Plummer, lab director of the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg, who said yesterday a human strain of the avian flu will kill up to 50,000 Canadians. Despite the uncertainty over the numbers, experts agree the threat is enormous. "There seems to be a consensus - there is a catastrophe coming," Conference Board president Anne Golden told a Toronto Star editorial board meeting yesterday.
Last July, Ontario's chief medical officer, Dr. Sheela Basrur, told delegates to the 15th World Conference on Disaster Management that an influenza pandemic could affect between 15 and 35% of Ontario's population, resulting in 2,900 to 19,700 deaths. Efforts to wall Canada off from the global pandemic will be futile, the Conference Board warns in its report, Performance and Potential 2005-06. "This long-awaited flu virus is expected to be so contagious that any attempt to close off borders and control migration would be ineffective," the organization said in its 10th annual performance report, which identifies steps Canada should be taking to increase economic productivity. The report came as leaders in the worldwide fight against avian flu warned yesterday of the need for global co-operation in stopping the virus from spreading, and eradicating it. Dr. Michael Ryan, director of WHO's department of epidemic and pandemic alert and response, warned the world's oceans will provide no safety. "There's no question that we will expect further outbreaks of avian disease in different countries," Ryan said. "The Americas, Africa and the Middle East are also very much in our minds." US Health Secretary Mike Leavitt, too, sounded a warning. "It would be my assessment that no nation is adequately prepared for a pandemic avian flu," Leavitt said. But, he added, "I believe that most nations are improving, and preparation is increasing."
(Toronto Star 051018)
Stupid mutating viruses. Stupid host birds. Viruses are the only others ones that consume, destroy, change -- much the same way as humans exist as well...
Column -- Eric Reguly writes that supermarket economics are straightforward. The profit margins on everything from tinned soup to hot dogs are wafer thin. Pile the items high and deep and push them out the door on a conveyor belt and the profits roll in. It keeps working so long as sales don't fall. Think of the Big Three auto makers as supermarkets. The margins on your dad's Buick Roadmaster or Electra were as plump as their chrome bumpers. No more. Margins have fallen, which in itself is not a disaster so long as sales remain high. But look what's happening now: Sales are in decline. If the decline goes from shallow to deep, Detroit could turn into the new Rust Belt. GM's tentative deal with the United Auto Workers to reduce its health care bill is a good start at hammering down costs but it won't be enough if sales go into the tank. There are some ominous signs that the next downturn in the industry could be gruesome. The first is that incentives may be losing their punch. The next thing to worry about are fuel costs, and not just to fill the tank. The US Department of Energy recently said it expects households to pay 71% more for natural gas this winter. Heating oil costs might go up by a third while the price of electricity might go up by 17%. Scotiabank's economics team says overall energy costs in the US will chew up 8% of household disposable income. That's the highest level since 1981 and almost double the amount of the early 2000s. Combine this little reality with the fact that household debt-servicing costs are at a record level compared with disposal income and you have a scenario where discretionary purchases are put on hold. The softening economy and skittish investor wouldn't be so bad for the Big Three were it not for the barrage of competition from Japanese and South Korean auto makers. The Asian players are taking sales away from Detroit in every auto product category. Reguly concludes that any progress on cost reduction is good news. But trimming costs - and so far it's just trimming - doesn't address the revenue side of the equation. The consumer is showing signs of stress and the current sales slump could turn into a 1970s- or 1980s-style collapse. Whoever is buying GM shares needs his cranial oil changed.
(Globe and Mail 051018)
Stupid lazy North American car companies. They're doomed.
Canada lags, productivity ranking says
Canada is sliding in global stature, partly because of sagging productivity and because governments are doing little but talk about improvements, the Conference Board of Canada says in its annual report on the country. “Our story is that we're kind of snoozing,” said Anne Golden, president of the Conference Board. “In this world, snoozers are losers.” The board ranks Canada and other industrialized countries for their performance in economy, innovation, environment, education, health and society. While Canada has gained in environment and education, it has slid in the other areas. In the economy area, Canada has dropped from third place in 2003, to sixth in 2004, and now 12th. Canada's economic position is deteriorating because of its lagging productivity, a lack of investment and because other countries are improving. "Canada's relative size and status in the global economy is slipping. With an aging population and our economic growth potential slowing, Canada will find it hard to avoid falling farther in the global rankings," warns the Conference Board report, to be released today. While the report stresses that Canada is one of the best places in the world to live, and is a better place to live now than a decade ago, "Canada is not living up to its brand as a wealthy, environmentally responsible, socially conscious, healthy society."
Meanwhile, recent polling and focus groups conducted for the federal Finance Department suggest the country's lagging productivity growth does not weigh heavily on the minds of Canadians and many are skeptical about whether it's really a problem. More than half of Canadians surveyed, or 55%, believe "the level of productivity is high," according to polling conducted by Decima Research this August. In fact, Canada's productivity growth has been anemic in recent years. Only one in 10 respondents polled rated the level of productivity in Canada as low. Focus groups found people didn't readily accept the suggestion that Canada's productivity is at risk. "A significant challenge lies in actually convincing Canadians of the productivity issues that lie ahead," an executive summary says of July research. "For the most part, participants were ready and willing to challenge any claim that suggested that low productivity was a problem for Canada."
(Globe and Mail 051018)
Stupid lazy Canucks. They're doomed too.
Flu pandemic 'catastrophe' for Canada
A bird flu pandemic could paralyze Canada's manufacturing sector for more than a year and cost the country hundreds of millions of dollars in medical costs, the Conference Board of Canada says. Sketching a worst-case scenario, the board warns up to 1.6 million Canadians - and between 180 and 360M people worldwide - could die if a global pandemic is triggered by the H5N1 avian influenza virus. Hitching a ride on migrating birds, the virus has already travelled from Asia to Europe and yesterday, in preliminary testing, was identified in Greece. The steady westward creep prompted the World Health Organization to say yesterday that, while the virus can be expected to spread to other countries, the biggest threat of it mutating into a human virus that could kill millions remains in Asia. The Conference Board's forecast far exceeds other casualty estimates, including those by Frank Plummer, lab director of the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg, who said yesterday a human strain of the avian flu will kill up to 50,000 Canadians. Despite the uncertainty over the numbers, experts agree the threat is enormous. "There seems to be a consensus - there is a catastrophe coming," Conference Board president Anne Golden told a Toronto Star editorial board meeting yesterday.
Last July, Ontario's chief medical officer, Dr. Sheela Basrur, told delegates to the 15th World Conference on Disaster Management that an influenza pandemic could affect between 15 and 35% of Ontario's population, resulting in 2,900 to 19,700 deaths. Efforts to wall Canada off from the global pandemic will be futile, the Conference Board warns in its report, Performance and Potential 2005-06. "This long-awaited flu virus is expected to be so contagious that any attempt to close off borders and control migration would be ineffective," the organization said in its 10th annual performance report, which identifies steps Canada should be taking to increase economic productivity. The report came as leaders in the worldwide fight against avian flu warned yesterday of the need for global co-operation in stopping the virus from spreading, and eradicating it. Dr. Michael Ryan, director of WHO's department of epidemic and pandemic alert and response, warned the world's oceans will provide no safety. "There's no question that we will expect further outbreaks of avian disease in different countries," Ryan said. "The Americas, Africa and the Middle East are also very much in our minds." US Health Secretary Mike Leavitt, too, sounded a warning. "It would be my assessment that no nation is adequately prepared for a pandemic avian flu," Leavitt said. But, he added, "I believe that most nations are improving, and preparation is increasing."
(Toronto Star 051018)
Stupid mutating viruses. Stupid host birds. Viruses are the only others ones that consume, destroy, change -- much the same way as humans exist as well...
17 October 2005
Thank you for the music!
New Stephen Klein promo picture
How Madonna’s new single will give Abba their greatest-ever hit
October 16th, 2005
In 1979, while she was a struggling singer who had to pose naked to make ends meet, they were the world’s biggest band. Now Madonna is set to give Abba what is likely to be the biggest-selling record of their career.
At 5pm GMT tomorrow, the American singer’s new single, Hung Up, which heavily samples Abba’s 1979 hit Gimme, Gimme, Gimme, will premiere simultaneously on national radio stations around the world.
The broadcast is part of a multi-million pound marketing strategy designed to re-establish Madonna as the Queen of Pop. But the sales of the single, which is expected to top the charts around the world, could also generate millions of pounds for Abba’s songwriters, Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus.
The pair agreed to let Madonna use their most famous disco hit after striking a lucrative copyright agreement that observers say will give them a significant share of royalties from airplay.
"Gimme, Gimme, Gimme is the essence of the new song and we have agreed to split the copyright with Madonna and her co-writer," Andersson said. He declined to go into details and insisted that financial concerns were not the primary motive for the decision to give Madonna permission to use the track.
"We get so many requests from people wanting to use our tracks but we normally say 'no'. This is only the second time we have given permission.
"We said 'yes' this time because we admire Madonna so much and always have done. She has got guts and has been around for 21 years. That is not bad going."
Andersson said he thought the new single was "wonderful" and joked it was his favourite Madonna song to date. "Hung Up is really good. If it wasn’t any good we would not have said 'yes'. It is a wonderful track: 100 per cent solid pop music."
Madonna, who has enjoyed 54 British top 10 hits including 10 number ones, has sold more singles in this country than Abba.
Hung Up is regarded as one of the most commercial songs of her career and will easily outsell the 1979 original which reached Number Three in the British charts but was not given an American release.
The worldwide broadcast of the single is part of an ambitious strategy designed to re-establish the 47-year-old mother-of-two as the most successful act in the world. Madonna is to spend an unprecedented £5 million buying up television, billboard and cinema slots for her new album Confessions On A Dancefloor, which will be released on November 14.
The publicity drive also involves ground-breaking deals with firms such as Orange, MTV, Virgin, Vodaphone and Apple.
The companies have become virtual partners in the album’s release in exchange for the rights to provide audio and visual downloads of the singer’s new material and her huge back catalogue of hits.
John Reid, the head of marketing at Warner Music, said: "Madonna has nailed it with this record and we are rolling it out very big indeed."
Madonna’s last album, American Life, which was released in 2003, sold four million copies and was the lowest selling release of her career.
Hung Up’s radio debut will mark the first time the record has been heard in its entirety, but it will, in fact, be just the latest stage in a sophisticated campaign. The song has been available as a telephone ringtone since September 19 - the first time a star of Madonna’s stature has released material as a ringtone before an actual record.
Madonna’s recent riding accident would appear not to have reduced the number of her planned public appearances.
She has declared herself fit and well to perform Hung Up at the MTV Music Awards in Lisbon on November 3, and she is believed to be planning performances in Britain, America, Japan, Holland and Germany.
source : telegraph.co.uk
I found the single edit version of "Hung Up" online here today. It's everything I dreamed it would be! This is one of those times when you're damn glad to be gay! We're going to be bopping to this classic in the clubs for some time to come...
16 October 2005
Scenes from Banff Ekiden 2005
Saturday was the 16th Annual Ekiden. The Calgary Alpine Frontrunners running group has been doing this race for the past five or six years. It is always a lot of fun, as it starts late in the morning on Saturday so we drive up in the morning from Calgary, and the setup of the race makes it very spectator-friendly. It's a five person relay and each stage's start and finish are all at the same place in front of the Banff Centre. In previous years we have booked condos or hotel rooms in Banff and spent Saturday night there, going out for dinner and hitting one of the Banff nightclubs, but this year everyone had plans for Saturday night, so we just made a day out of it. The two men's teams were neck in neck through the entire race, but Greg and I were racing the final anchor leg and I managed to pass him on Tunnel Mountain climb. It was nice to see that the women were motivated enough to field their own team. Great work everyone!
Stage One: Cave and Basin (6.8 km)
Stage Two: Golf Course (12.8 km)
Stage Three: Tunnel Mountain Short (5.0 km)
Stage Four: Canoe Docks (5.7 km)
Stage Five: Tunnel Mountain Long (12.4 km)
Three of the legs head into the Banff townsite and the other two head up Tunnel Mountain. There are 120 teams (600 runners) that participate every year.
Banff Ekiden 2005 Teammates
The start of the race
CAF Rainbow Warriors
CAF Rainbow Connection
CAF 268 Or Bust
Of course, this race always bring out the really fit teams XC and running teams as well. Teams such as the Junior Canadian XC ski team always win the race every year and it's always a pleasure to see the delicious athletes in their glory.
Shameless perverted eye candy shot 1
Shameless perverted eye candy shot 2
After the race there is a meal and awards. We left early since I had to curl with Bryan, Aaron and Tim in the afternoon and do the DC Upgrade production test over night.
Stage One: Cave and Basin (6.8 km)
Stage Two: Golf Course (12.8 km)
Stage Three: Tunnel Mountain Short (5.0 km)
Stage Four: Canoe Docks (5.7 km)
Stage Five: Tunnel Mountain Long (12.4 km)
Three of the legs head into the Banff townsite and the other two head up Tunnel Mountain. There are 120 teams (600 runners) that participate every year.
Banff Ekiden 2005 Teammates
The start of the race
CAF Rainbow Warriors
CAF Rainbow Connection
CAF 268 Or Bust
Of course, this race always bring out the really fit teams XC and running teams as well. Teams such as the Junior Canadian XC ski team always win the race every year and it's always a pleasure to see the delicious athletes in their glory.
Shameless perverted eye candy shot 1
Shameless perverted eye candy shot 2
After the race there is a meal and awards. We left early since I had to curl with Bryan, Aaron and Tim in the afternoon and do the DC Upgrade production test over night.
Bar Announcement
Thursday was our friend Patrick's call to the Bar. He is now officially a lawyer. The signing took place at the Calgary Court of Queens Bench and the party afterwards took place at Barclay's in the Eau Claire Sheraton Suites. It was a lot of fun!
Patrick on his new controversial career path?
Gay cowboy lawyer...
A lovely rendering by Jerry and Tim...
Photoshop can be so cruel...
Patrick on his new controversial career path?
Gay cowboy lawyer...
A lovely rendering by Jerry and Tim...
Photoshop can be so cruel...
Homeland Security for Tots
Might as well get your child accustomed to the New World Order as soon as possible....
Link to product here
Do YOU have anything to declare, blockhead?
Link to product here
Do YOU have anything to declare, blockhead?
Stuff going on at work
I was in at work last night testing a Domain Controller upgrade project that has gone horribly wrong. We attempted this routine procedure a couple of months ago, and although this upgrade has been performed thousands of times for many different companies, it was our screwed-up computing environment that caused problems. When the upgrade was complete, none of our dotNET web applications no longer functioned, so the changes had to be rolled back and an investigation opened. Between the software supplier (the BIG one), Vendor #1 (web servers are outsourced to them), Vendor #2 (DC servers/infrastructure are outsourced to them), and my company, this investigation has been going on FAR too long. Last night we were supposed to run a bunch of network traffic captures and logs of various sorts, and send them to Software Supplier for analysis. The process was taking much longer than anticipated, and by 3am, we were 2 hours behind schedule on the project plan. Mission was aborted, so now I have the joyous anticipation of doing this again some weekend in the near future.
As an aside to this, we have a web server (good ol' X) that appears to randomly crash and reset itself several times a week, if not every day. This has been going on for almost six months and no one can figure out what the problem is. Luckily we've moved most of our high-volume, business crucial applications onto a more stable server. We have this running inside joke that we should mimic the scene from 'Old Yeller' where the boy goes out to the barn with the shotgun to finish off the rabid dog:
"Don't worry mama, it's my server, I'll do it".
I hate you web server...
As an aside to this, we have a web server (good ol' X) that appears to randomly crash and reset itself several times a week, if not every day. This has been going on for almost six months and no one can figure out what the problem is. Luckily we've moved most of our high-volume, business crucial applications onto a more stable server. We have this running inside joke that we should mimic the scene from 'Old Yeller' where the boy goes out to the barn with the shotgun to finish off the rabid dog:
"Don't worry mama, it's my server, I'll do it".
I hate you web server...
14 October 2005
Reid Needs!
- Reid needs just one good movie role
- Reid needs your help to pass moral budget
- Reid needs a spanking by death nougat
- Reid needs extra room for shoes
- Reid needs to roll with it
- Reid needs Europe to silence his critics
- Reid has no social security plan
- Reid says he doesn't plan to filibuster
- Reid needs to stop whining about how reporters hate her and won’t leave her alone and how they will "write anything they can and always in a derogatory way"
- Reid needs to sweeten his offer to pick off wavering Republican moderates
- Reid needs five more tackles for 100 for his career.
12 October 2005
Is there a limit to how much one can smoke?
So, I was walking home from work this afternoon. I stop at the lights at 12th Ave. and there's this guy standing on the corner with a big bag of cigarette tubes. Once I got looking again there were TWENTY boxes of tubes (is there 200 in each?), two huge packets (sleeves?) of tobacco and a Costco sized box of chewing gum. How strange. He finished a cigarette just as I approached the corner, and before the Walking Man lit up to tell us to go, he had lit up another cigarette. I wonder how much he smokes a day? How many pieces of chewing gum does he chew a day to keep his throat moist and lower the pain? How many people smoke this much anymore? Insane.
How I know that fall is finally here
The days are getting shorter to the point that I wake in darkness and it will be soon that I come home in darkness as well. Something I keep forgetting year to year is how dark our bedroom is in the morning, and how difficult it is to find matching colors in the dim light. I try not to wake Joe in the morning, so I usually find myself stumbling around in the dark, selecting clothes by feel and pretty much having to rub them in my face to determine what color they are. It's REALLY REALLY hard to distinguish colors in dim light when you're as old as me, even vibrant ones. Alas, I was in a hurry this morning and got the wrong color of socks to match my clothes. I am at work today with black pants and sweater, and nice bright blue socks. Brilliant.
11 October 2005
Hey, I'm not just a newsclip poster!
Although it is much easier to post new clips during the workday, I know posting a message here in the flesh is long overdue.
In all honesty, not much went on this weekend. It was the quietest Thanksgiving weekend ever for me. I slept a lot which was great but I did miss out on turkey which I really regret. I talked to my mom last night and she was going on and on about all the big meals that they served or were invited to over the long weekend (actually the gorging started on Thursday...). They had lots to celebrate though, and we all know how much small town people like to celebrate! Owen and Chloe were there with Treslie (her first big trip), and the Wilsons (my dad's sister's family) have about five birthdays all at the beginning of October, so there were parties and eating and drinking all over the place. I was starting to regret that I didn't go! But alas, I got some long-overdue rest out of the deal, which would not have happened out there.
Jeff, Nick, Ryan, Raymond, Joe and myself went out to Twisted on Saturday night. I really don't feel very sociable in that bar anymore. I see all of the same guys in the bar that are my age, and I realized that they are still there, like, every freaking weekend, and it made me sort of sad. Sad that they thought of no alternative but to be at the bar on a Saturday night, but also that I was as old as them. Oi.
Joe had the whole weekend off which was great. We got to spend a lot of good time together, which is rare these days. Good news on the work/strike front -- Joe's company and the union have reached a tentative deal, so after the union vote in two weeks, they will most likely be back to work.
I got to have my happy-fun-shiny-cheer-cycling time yesterday. It was 20C out so I couldn't resist. I hooked up with Frank and we went for a 102km trip around Cochrane, and did a very euro coffee stop at a cafe on the way back in. Good times...
Of course I got time to read more 'alternative' news reports, essays, blogs, etc. this weekend which got me thinking again. Oh NO! I really don't think the things that will happen to us in the future are going to be either horrible or rosy, just somewhere in between as they always are. But that shit on the Arctic ice melting and changing global climate? Geez crap! It's so obvious that it would affect things in ways that we don't even know or understand on a global scale (it's been there, regulating global climate for over a million years), and it appears to be happening very, very quickly. Some experts think that it works sort of as a self-feeding loop, and now that it has begun, the melting will cascade into something that can't be stopped -- or that it may be irreversible already. *hyperventilating* I think I'm losing it! What to do...What to do...I think as I fritter in the corner, rocking back and forth, back and forth.....
I also came to terms with the fact that we've been set up to be on this path to our economic vs. environmental vs. social destiny for fifty years or so post-World War Two with foundations to the path beginning in the 1800s, so why should I worry about it? There's absolutely nothing I can do but make those choices on a personal level that I feel will make a difference. That's all that any of us can do and should do. There's no doubt that we will witness something globally transformative in our lifetimes. I just don't think it's going to be something good. There's were my essential pessimism lies. I don't know what to do to protect myself from it, and it's sort of hard when you don't know what to protect yourself from. More mortality musings...I'm much calmer now.
Why the hell is Jon Stewart not doing live shows again this week? I'm so pissed off! That guy takes as much time off as GWB! I jest. No one comes even close to him.
I might as well head to bed. Nite nite.
[Voice of the Wicked Witch from 'the Wizard of Oz'] Help me! I'm melting!
In all honesty, not much went on this weekend. It was the quietest Thanksgiving weekend ever for me. I slept a lot which was great but I did miss out on turkey which I really regret. I talked to my mom last night and she was going on and on about all the big meals that they served or were invited to over the long weekend (actually the gorging started on Thursday...). They had lots to celebrate though, and we all know how much small town people like to celebrate! Owen and Chloe were there with Treslie (her first big trip), and the Wilsons (my dad's sister's family) have about five birthdays all at the beginning of October, so there were parties and eating and drinking all over the place. I was starting to regret that I didn't go! But alas, I got some long-overdue rest out of the deal, which would not have happened out there.
Jeff, Nick, Ryan, Raymond, Joe and myself went out to Twisted on Saturday night. I really don't feel very sociable in that bar anymore. I see all of the same guys in the bar that are my age, and I realized that they are still there, like, every freaking weekend, and it made me sort of sad. Sad that they thought of no alternative but to be at the bar on a Saturday night, but also that I was as old as them. Oi.
Joe had the whole weekend off which was great. We got to spend a lot of good time together, which is rare these days. Good news on the work/strike front -- Joe's company and the union have reached a tentative deal, so after the union vote in two weeks, they will most likely be back to work.
I got to have my happy-fun-shiny-cheer-cycling time yesterday. It was 20C out so I couldn't resist. I hooked up with Frank and we went for a 102km trip around Cochrane, and did a very euro coffee stop at a cafe on the way back in. Good times...
Of course I got time to read more 'alternative' news reports, essays, blogs, etc. this weekend which got me thinking again. Oh NO! I really don't think the things that will happen to us in the future are going to be either horrible or rosy, just somewhere in between as they always are. But that shit on the Arctic ice melting and changing global climate? Geez crap! It's so obvious that it would affect things in ways that we don't even know or understand on a global scale (it's been there, regulating global climate for over a million years), and it appears to be happening very, very quickly. Some experts think that it works sort of as a self-feeding loop, and now that it has begun, the melting will cascade into something that can't be stopped -- or that it may be irreversible already. *hyperventilating* I think I'm losing it! What to do...What to do...I think as I fritter in the corner, rocking back and forth, back and forth.....
I also came to terms with the fact that we've been set up to be on this path to our economic vs. environmental vs. social destiny for fifty years or so post-World War Two with foundations to the path beginning in the 1800s, so why should I worry about it? There's absolutely nothing I can do but make those choices on a personal level that I feel will make a difference. That's all that any of us can do and should do. There's no doubt that we will witness something globally transformative in our lifetimes. I just don't think it's going to be something good. There's were my essential pessimism lies. I don't know what to do to protect myself from it, and it's sort of hard when you don't know what to protect yourself from. More mortality musings...I'm much calmer now.
Why the hell is Jon Stewart not doing live shows again this week? I'm so pissed off! That guy takes as much time off as GWB! I jest. No one comes even close to him.
I might as well head to bed. Nite nite.
[Voice of the Wicked Witch from 'the Wizard of Oz'] Help me! I'm melting!
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