Author: kempton

Get well soon Danny, your health comes first.

[News from CBC and TorStar.]

Filed under: Canada, Healthcare, Healthcare Sector, people

Here is another video after Secretary Clinton’s speech.

[HT Rebecca]

Filed under: Democracy, digital democracy, Law, social media, Video, World, YouTube

What a cute story from TorStar “So we drink milk out of bags. Does that make us weird?” (emphasis added),

In the video, Sheryl Ng lays out a bag of 2%, a jug and a pair of scissors.

She runs through the milk drinker’s skillset: the proper triangular cut, the cautious first pour, preventive measures to keep an overfull bag from collapsing.

Collectively, the viewing world outside Ontario leaned back in its seat and said, “What. The Hell. Is that?”

“My friends find in pretty amusing, because we all grew up in Toronto,” Ng, a 22-year-old York University student said. “We thought it was normal.” [K: I lived in Toronto for some years and I thought that was normal too!]

Filed under: Canada, people, Toronto

It is amazing to read this WSJ post “Apple iPad: Analyst Tones Down Excitement over Device“,

In a note entitled “Seeing is Believing” — their previous note was subtitled “Apple has Another Winner — Needham revised its original forecast of four million iPad sales in the year following the device’s April launch. “We’re now forecasting iPad sales of two million units in fiscal 2010 and six million in 2011. Our forecast assumes that over half of iPad sales come at the expense of the iPod touch.” Needham analysts said they revised their call “after watching a replay of Apple’s iPad introduction and reassessing the device’s potential.”

Reminds me of this quote in quotes I love,

“If you have to forecast, forecast often.”
– Edgar R. Fiedler in “Across the Board: The Three Rs of Economic Forecasting — Irrational, Irrelevant and Irreverent”

Filed under: design, investment, Science & Technology

Got a special delivery from the super helpful and charming NFB publicist this morning.

The three films Runaway, Vive la Rose, and Rains all went to Sundance film festival this year and their trailers/teasers all look amazing. I will be reviewing these films shortly. Stay tune.

Filed under: animation, Arts, Canada, NFB

J.K. Rowling, author of the best-selling Harry Potter book series, delivers her Commencement Address, “The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination,” at the Annual Meeting of the Harvard Alumni Association. (via harvardmagazine.com)

[HT Paul]

Filed under: insightful, people, UK, united states, Video

It is amazing to read “Canadian Broadcasting Corporation signs up with weird American copyright bounty-hunters” and found that CBC and iCopyright have been so out-of-step of their understanding of what is legal in Canada with respect to copyright. Read more from Jesse Brown’s iCopyright post and open letter to CBC.

I hate to point out to supposed “lawyers” at CBC and iCopyright what law or court cases they need to read (assuming they know how to read), they can certainly start with 2004 Supreme Court of Canada ruling, “CCH Canadian Ltd. v. Law Society of Upper Canada“. I thought any self-respecting copyright lawyers would have taken the time to read the case in the last 6 years. Ah, I guess I may have assumed wrong.

[HT Eaves]

Filed under: Canada, CBC, copyright, FairCopyright, Law

What happened when minister jim prentice was asked about prorogation?

All see my report, “Environment Minister Jim “Clean Energy Superpower” Prentice harmonizing & aligning with United States policies (with videos)“

Filed under: Alberta, Calgary, Canada, Democracy, digital democracy, Digital-Revolution, Law, people, politics, Video, YouTube

This report will be cross posted in examiner.com.

——-

Environment Minister Jim Prentice gave a speech on Outcomes of Copenhagen Conference in Calgary yesterday in front of hundreds of business executives and students from the School of Public Policy and Haskayne School of Business (both schools based in University of Calgary).

Prentice stated Canada has the “ultimate goal of becoming a Clean Energy Super Power“. Listening to Prentice’s speech, Canada may be the first self-proclaimed-future “Clean Energy Super Power” that is close to abdicating her environmental policies and simply contend with letting the decision makers at Washington D.C. to do what they see best for U.S. and we will dutifully follow what the US government mandates. How can this be the case?

Well, quoting from Prentice’s prepared text (emphasis added, link to posted speech at EC),

“We’ve adjusted our previous target to ensure that it matches exactly with those just inscribed by the United States. We have consistently said from the outset that we must harmonize our climate change strategy with that of our greatest trade partner because of the degree of economic integration between our two countries.

[…] Our determination to harmonize our climate change policy with that of the United States also extends beyond greenhouse gas emission targets: we need to proceed even further in aligning our regulations.“

Sure, for business and investment reasons, it makes sense to pay attention to what the United States government is doing when crafting Canadian policies. But abdicating Canada’s sovereign power to decide environment policies, and simply “harmonize” and “align” with United States policies? This is unfortunately too short-sighted.

Following Prentice’s logic, since China is the largest trading partner for many countries in Asia, shall those smaller nations simply “harmonize” and “align” with the heavily polluting China? Of course not! To think otherwise would be ludicrous. And now, what was the reason why Canada should follow United States again?

Again, what the Canadian government has announced in the speech yesterday was something not often seen in sovereign country the size (economic and population) of Canada. Even small countries like Maldives has her own climate change initiative to raise global awareness and not simply letting her largest trading partner to decide her economic and environmental fate.

This reporter has no doubt in the ingenuity and abilities of Canadian scientists and engineers in coming up some innovative solutions and products to help the environment. But for the government of Canada and Minister Prentice to claim “Clean Energy Superpower” as an objective, Canada has to do some leading first. And “harmonizing” and “aligning” are not leading but simply passive following.

With recent events in the American political scenes and their changing political priorities, how can Prentice and the Canadian government be sure that whatever the Americans have decided won’t be changed later or be overtaken by newer and more urging priorities?

It is also interesting to note that in a speech delivered in Calgary, Alberta, Prentice has chosen to single out Quebec and criticized her policy (emphasis added),

“One of the most glaring examples of the folly of attempting to go it alone in an integrated North American economy is the new, and unique, vehicle regulations introduced by Quebec. These ensure that consumers will basically have to leave that province to buy their vehicles, to avoid levies of up to five thousand dollars, because seventy-five percent of the latest car and truck models don’t conform to the new rules.”

Montreal Gazette in “Prentice raps Quebec on emissions – Federal minister decries strict limits” has the following to say (emphasis added),

“Like the state of California, Quebec has adopted tough environmental standards, calling for a 30-per-cent reduction in vehicle greenhouse-gas emissions by 2016.

Quebec and California are members of the Western Climate Initiative (WCI), composed of seven states and four provinces [K-note, the three other provinces in WCI are: British Columbia, Manitoba, and Ontario]. They hope to press their respective federal governments to take a tougher stance on climate change.”

and to further refute Prentice’s critique,

“Provincial Environment Minister Line Beauchamp was not available for comment, but a Quebec government official noted that automakers have until 2016 to conform – and because it is an average, they just have to sell more small cars to comply.”

Globe and Mail is saying in its editorial “A case not being made” (emphasis added),

“Unfortunately, Mr. Prentice dilutes these reasonable messages. An attack on Quebec’s new auto standards in the very same speech is the same kind of unhelpful talk that adds to Canada’s image as a climate laggard. In the absence of federal guidance, some provinces – in particular, Ontario, Quebec, B.C. and Manitoba – are working with each other and with groups of U.S. states on policies that will achieve meaningful reductions. Mr. Prentice calls for continued expansion of the oil sands, but has used a justifiable deference to alignment with U.S. policy as a reason for doing nothing. Without a framework that makes the need for emissions reductions apparent, the oil patch also feels content to do little.

Finally, the federal government touts Canada as a “Clean Energy Super Power,” but its main fund for getting wind energy projects off the ground is out of cash. (Again, provincial leadership has been stronger, with Ontario gaining a large wind-turbine manufacturing and generation presence in a recently announced deal with Samsung).”

Here is a quote from Calgary Herald “Environment minister calls for oilsands cleanup“,

Federal Environment Minister Jim Prentice urged the energy sector and Alberta government Monday to clean up the oilsands — and Canada’s environmental reputation — but said Ottawa will wait for the U.S. before adopting new climate change measures.

[…] It would be “utterly pointless” for Canada to pursue its own climate change targets without American participation, he argued, because it would simply erect trade barriers and leave domestic companies at a competitive disadvantage.

It is disheartening to see Canada giving up our sovereign rights and power to decide our climate change strategy. Minister Prentince, when will Canada start to be a leader again?

******

Note: To give you a sense of the event yesterday, here is a video clip of the post-speech Q&As with Edward Greenspon, former G&M editor-in-chief, asking Prentice some questions he has and audiences posted, including “When might there be an election?“

More report from Calgary Herald “Environment minister calls for oilsands cleanup“.

Feb 4, 2010 Update: From CBC “Charest: Prentice bowing to U.S. on climate change“,

Quebec Premier Jean Charest accused the federal government on Wednesday of having few ideas to fight climate change beyond kowtowing to the United States.

“The only federal plan is to align with the United States,” Charest said in the latest round of sniping between Quebec and Ottawa over the environment.

“However, I never in my life thought that aligning our policies with the United States was good enough for Canada.”

Postscript: Last month, comedian Rick Mercer had a funny sketch about Transport Canada and calling it “A division of the US Department of Homeland Security“. If the trend under the current government continues, Rick may be able to turn Environment Canada into another comedy sketch.

Filed under: Alberta, Business, Calgary, Canada, Economics, Law, people, politics, Science & Technology, united states, Video, YouTube

A friend’s mom passed away suddenly this past Sunday. Auntie, as my better half and I affectionately call her, loved to ballroom dance and was great at dancing until her leg was hurt a few years ago. Auntie was someone that loved a good party. In fact, she was organizing another party a few days before she passed away. Knowing Auntie would have wanted it, the family made the decision to have the upcoming party go on as previously planned on Chinese New Year. It saddens me to think that a previously planned joyful occasion of a Chinese New Year dance party that is going to be the first birthday party for the grandson, is not going to have the sadness of a missing hostess.

In memory of Auntie, here is a music video “Love is in the Air” with a few dance sequences from the film Strictly Ballroom.

Filed under: Calgary, Canada, Love, people

Ideas are the Currency of the Future.

Here is Saatchi & Saatchi’s Worldwide CEO Kevin Roberts speaking at Wharton about Ideas as the Currency of the Future (see ideas Revolution).

Filed under: advertising, Business, ideasRevolution, insightful, Love, Lovemarks, Marketing, people, Video, YouTube

“Toshiba has exhibited its first SDXC (Extended Capacity) memory card at the CES 2010 show in Las Vegas.” More info in an earlier press release.

I haven’t been paying attention to SDXC, it applies to cards with capacities over 32GB and up to 2TB.

Filed under: Science & Technology