Author: kempton

Alex deVries (Flickr’s alexthepuffin) may seem to be protesting powerlessly alone in Beijing. But he is not. Alex’s action is a lesson to us all: Do not fear to protest alone as you will never know what your lone voice will inspire.

When we Canadians see an unjust shutdown of our Parliament, when we see our democracy being trampled, when we see prime minister harper thinks he is above Parliament and above the law, when harper thinks he doesn’t need to answer to Parliament, then it is up to each and every single one of us Canadian to stand up to fight and protect our democracy and Parliament.

The fight will go on until there are no Canadian left standing anywhere in the world.

So, thanks Alex for caring enough to fight for Canada all the way from Beijing, China on January 23rd, 2010 together with Canadians in Calgary and around the country.

P.S. Yes, harper want us to have short term memory and forget that our democracy has been shutdown by him single-handedly. It is up to us to keep remind harper we may forgive but we will NEVER FORGET.

Posted in Canada, China, Democracy, digital democracy, Digital-Revolution, Law, people, politics

An interesting business lesson from the iPhone apps space [via O’Reilly radar],

“[…] Eugene Lin wanted some iPhone App Store money. So he made one iPhone app that was eventually accepted, then another that was rejected and then he found a hit with the racy Peek-a-boo.”

Posted in Business, Computer Science, Entrepreneurship, iPhone, Science & Technology, Video, YouTube

HT to my blog friend Gary for a link to Nobel Economist Jim Buchanan’s June 19, 2009 talk on “Why Economists have so little to say about the crisis?“

Quoting Wikipedia,

“Buchanan’s work initiated research on how politicians’ self-interest and non-economic forces affect government economic policy.”

Note: I don’t know how much can or will I agree with Buchanan but it is probably worth a watch.

Posted in Economics, investment, Nobel-Prize, united states, World, World Affairs

I felt patriotic yesterday.

It felt great standing up against stephen harper.

It felt great standing with Canadians in Calgary and other cities in Canada (and even London, UK) to protest harper’s decision to shutting down democracy and our Parliament in a partisan manner to avoid being held accountable in a Parliamentary democracy.

Without harper’s partisan and selfish act, I wouldn’t know Canadians CARE so much! mr. harper, YES WE CARE ! harper, GET BACK TO WORK!

It is amazing to see the rallies around the country being widely reported.

“Thousands protest Parliament’s suspension” (CBC with video)

“Thousands of people attended rallies in towns and cities across Canada on Saturday to speak out against Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s decision to suspend Parliament until March.

More than 60 rallies were planned across Canada, with protests also slated for London, England, and several U.S. cities.”

“Protest outside Prime Minister Office ” (CTV Calgary with video)

“It was a cold day to be outside protesting, but over 300 people gathered at Stephen Harper’s constituency office Saturday afternoon.

They were there voicing their displeasure with the Conservative move to prorogue Parliament.

“I’m tired of our government acting with impunity and with such an arrogant way that they think democracy doesn’t count any more,” said protestor John Landry.

“We are telling them to get back to work. Make Parliament work,” added Stan Nykiel.”

Globe and Mail report of London prorogation protest

“Early Saturday, the first rally of the day against Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s prorogation of Parliament got started an ocean away from Ottawa amid the opulent art galleries and bizarre street performers of London’s Trafalgar Square.

About 20 protesters, most expatriate Canadians now living in Britain, gathered across the street from Canada House – home of the Canadian High Commission in London – holding makeshift placards, Canadian flags painted on pieces of paper and a large sign with the words “one nation against prorogation” written on it. One man had simply scrawled “get back to work” in blue marker on the inside of a torn up paper bag; demonstration supplies were clearly in short supply”

“Prorogue protests hit Harper   Thousands rally across Canada against move to shut Parliament” (Calgary Herald)

“A blast of winter and slick roads couldn’t keep John Prince of Crowsnest Pass from driving with his wife to Calgary for his first political protest.

He said it was important to be outside Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s constituency office to speak out about his use of a contentious parliamentary procedure used to suspend the House of Commons and Senate until March.

“I’m concerned at the way he’s taking our country,” Prince said. “I’m concerned about the war, the mounting deficit and that he is behaving as a dictator by shutting down Parliament. It’s a very scary situation.””

And here are some rally photos at Global TV, latest polling numbers published on Jan 24, 2010 and some

As a member of the steering committee for the Calgary rally, the turnout was great (even better than what we had expected). CTV Calgary reported there were over 300 people attending and that sounds about right as people keep joining the rally until the end and some have left early because of the cold and snow.

As I stand amongst my fellow Canadians in Calgary, I felt the urge to share my personal experience on our rally “stage”. I shared with the gathering crowd that I came from Hong Kong over 15 years ago and its  chief executive (the top man in HK) was elected by a fake election system consisting of 800 or so people all appointed by the Chinese government with NO REPRESENTATION from the over 7 million Hong Kong people.

And the irony is that even in Hong Kong’s crippled “democracy”, the chief executive still  dare NOT to shutdown the legislative council just to avoid accountability. So it pained me to see our democracy being trampled by prime minister harper as he shutdown Parliament to avoid being held accountable by the MPs elected by Canadians across the land.

May be one day mr. harper can enlighten me by telling me which MP or MPs’ voices (representing tens of thousands of Canadians who elected them) can be totally ignored?

May be some Canadians’ votes count more than other Canadians’ votes?

Or does mr harper simply wants to be called King Harper to save him from the formalities and hassles of elections? King harper has a certain ring to it. Someone even made a sign for King Harper.

It warms my heart to see Canadians coming out yesterday with their rough handmade rally signs. And I couldn’t have but have tears in my eyes when I think that we are fighting for our democracy and our Parliament not only for us, but more importantly, for the little boys and girls who joining us in the rally yesterday.

harper has to be reminded that he reports to the Parliament.

harper may be the prime minister but we, Canadians, are his BOSS!

Here is a video of Calgary rally.

Posted in Alberta, Calgary, Canada, Democracy, digital democracy, Digital-Revolution, ethics, Law, people, politics, social media, Video, World, YouTube

I am excited to hear there are 3 National Film Board (NFB) animations in the 2010 Sundance that is going on right now.

I will be reviewing these short animations soon and will post some more later. Check out the following teaser or trailer. Enjoy.

P.S. Yes, the rumour is true. @BillGates was seen in front of a Wayne’s World hat (big smile) (thanks Melissa) and he tweeted from Sundance too!

Posted in animation, Arts, Canada, NFB

Yesterday, in the Calgary rally to protest against prime minister stephen harper’s unjust decision to shutdown Parliament to avoid being held accountable by the Parliament, what touched me the most was seeing young Canadians joining us in the rally.

I can’t help but have some tears in my eyes when I think what have we done?!!!! If we had allowed harper to trample our democracy and shutdown Parliament as if Parliament is accountable to him and not the other way around. I also worry if these young Canadians will have a safe and secure Canada to live in if we had stay silent for harper to grow his absolute power unchecked?

As we all know far too well, democracy is not a certainty in life. In history, there were countries that transitioned from democracy into a dictatorship during the second world war and the resulted unimaginable terror are lessons that we shall never forget.

For me, while I am fighting for my beloved Canada. I am also fighting to protect Canadian Democracy & Parliament for these little boys and girls as they are truly our future!

Posted in Alberta, Calgary, Canada, Democracy, digital democracy, Digital-Revolution, Law, Love, people, Photography, politics

Yesterday across Canada, Canadians came out in the thousands to protest against prime minister stephen harper’s unjust decision to shutdown Parliament to avoid being held accountable by the Parliament.

The following are some handmade signs Canadians in Calgary decided to make and bring to the heart of stephen harper, his riding office in Calgary SW. As you can see, the protesters are from all walks of life and all ages.

Here are some of the rally news for now. I will post some more entries on the rally.

“Thousands protest Parliament’s suspension” (CBC with video)

“Thousands of people attended rallies in towns and cities across Canada on Saturday to speak out against Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s decision to suspend Parliament until March.

More than 60 rallies were planned across Canada, with protests also slated for London, England, and several U.S. cities.”

“Protest outside Prime Minister Office ” (CTV Calgary with video)

“It was a cold day to be outside protesting, but over 300 people gathered at Stephen Harper’s constituency office Saturday afternoon.

They were there voicing their displeasure with the Conservative move to prorogue Parliament.

“I’m tired of our government acting with impunity and with such an arrogant way that they think democracy doesn’t count any more,” said protestor John Landry.

“We are telling them to get back to work. Make Parliament work,” added Stan Nykiel.”

Posted in Alberta, Calgary, Canada, Democracy, digital democracy, Digital-Revolution, insightful, Law, Love, people, politics

Alice Schroeder, biographer of Warren Buffett (see my “Snowball” best of/review post), has a wonderfully written piece “Am I Bitter …?“.

In life, I often try to learn the best ideas and practices from people I admire. At the same time, may be paying less focus on their shortcomings. Not because the shortcomings are less important but because other people may have similar failings and I might have learned NOT to make these mistakes already.

So this post is not about me deciding if Alice or Warren is “right”. I love both Alice and Warren for who they are (their insights and their failings) and not for who I want them to become. I guess what I want to say Alice has, taking her words for what they are, really shown her “genuine attempt to bring perspective and balance to the discussion [of Warren‘s investment decisions].”

As I get to know Alice more from “Snowball”, her Facebook fan page and her blog, I’ve grown to treasure her investment insights, admire her sense of humour and her determination to report things as she sees them. Deep insights and reporting in a fair and accurate manner are the qualities I seek when I read a reporter’s/author’s works, and are what I strive to achieve when I write my own reports in my blogs and in my examiner business and entertainment stories.

I had praised Warren in telling Alice before she started the biography project, “Whenever my version is different from somebody else’s, Alice, use the less flattering version.“

I now believe Warren had made a mistake.

If I were an important and rich man worthy of a biography, this is what I would have told Alice before I share years of my life with her and let her write my biography,

“Whenever my version is different from somebody else’s, Alice, use the MOST flattering version. Make up lies if you need to. Pay people to say good things about me. And you have to promise to Photoshop my photos.”

Seriously, I love both Alice and Warren. If I love Alice more, David (Alice’s lovely husband) will probably be kicking my ass. And if I love Warren more, I will probably be richer than I am because I will be spending a lot (and I mean a LOT) more time reading annual (and quarterly) reports of companies I may want to invest in.

Warren remains a great member of my self-created list of “great minds of our time“, regardless of the unfortunate turn of events between him and Alice.

P.S. Heck, an economist, one I deeply admire and has learned a lot via his books, is currently stuck in China because he has an outstanding US arrest warrant against him.

In life, I like to focus on the positive things I can learn from. But then it doesn’t mean that I will forget about the negative things and don’t try to also learn from them (mainly to avoid these mistakes in my own life).

P.P.S. I left this in Alice’s post and thought it may be nice to include it here.

I know it is almost impossible for you and Warren to be closer again (I avoid using the word “friend”). Hell will probably freeze over first. But then, I am an eternal optimist.

You see, Hell was frozen when Apple first worked with Microsoft.

And hell was recently refrozen again when Apple decided to use Microsoft’s useless-piece-of-junk Bing as a default search engine on iPhone. So evidences suggest Hell often freeze at unexpected time and more often then scientists had previously estimated. Good luck to you and Warren.

Posted in book, Business, Economics, ethics, GreatMindsOfOurTime, insightful, investment, Love, Relationships, Warren Buffett

“Late in 2009 our Sydney-based Australian company was named Agency of the Decade by Campaign Brief, and across in Buenos Aires our Argentinean agency Del Campo Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi was named the “Most Awarded Agency” for the fifth consecutive year by Editorial Dossier.” – [via Kevin Roberts]

Very funny Austrian ad,

Nice work from Buenos Aires,

Posted in advertising, Business, Love, Lovemarks, Marketing, Video, YouTube

Calgarians Against Proroguing Parliament Rally (Jan 23rd, 2010) protesting stephen harper trampling our Democratic Institution & unjustly shutting down Parliament for partisan reason to avoid accountability to Parliament.

I will write a longer blog entry later.

Posted in Calgary, Canada, Democracy, digital democracy, ethics, Law, social media, social network, Video, YouTube

It was wonderful and ton of fun for me and my better half to see the Olympic Torch relay up close in Calgary. We got to see entrepreneur and Dragons’ Den panelist Brett Wilson ran in the Olympic Torch Relay. And I also saw Mark (a very nice librarian at CPL) who was a torchbearer that day. Plus I had the great honour and pleasure to meet Carol Huynh, the first Canadian to win a gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. I’ve also posted some photos here.

By the way, you can watch my previous video interviews with Brett here and here.

Posted in 2008-Olympics, 2010-Olympics, Alberta, Calgary, Canada, Dragons’ Den, Love, people, Video, YouTube

From UK Guardian: “Government data from around the world. Welcome to our single gateway – Governments around the world are opening up their data vaults. Now you can search all of them, from one place: here“

Posted in Democracy, digital democracy, Digital-Revolution, UK, united states, World

The store general manager Mr. Kirk Watson of Nellie’s in the Loop left a comment to the report “Calgary’s Nellie’s fined $61,780 – Easy online tool to check restaurant’s health code violations“,

i’m sorry but please note that there is a independent nellies in marda loop. This location is privately owned and operated and has never had a violation of any kind. We have worked really hard to keep it that way. Now we have to pay the price for another persons mistake.

Kirk clarified that the Nellie’s in Marda Loop has been independently owned and operated by Mr. Al Scurfield for the last eight years since purchasing the store from Nellie’s chain.

Before calling Nellie’s in the Loop, this reporter took time to use the online ”Calgary and Area Environmental Health Inspection Reports” tool and to my surprise, I found some serious violations (in this reporter’s eyes) by Nellie’s in the Loop. You can see and judge for yourself.

*******

Nov 12, 2009 Follow-Up/Re-Inspection
Action Take: WRITTEN REPORT
Critical: Yes
Date: Nov 12, 2009
Violation: VERMIN (EVIDENCE ON SITE) – Vermin have been allowed to enter this food establishment.
Rationale/Requirement: The owner of a food establishment shall not allow cockroaches, silverfish, rodents or other vermin to enter or remain in his food establishment.

[note: Nellie’s in the Loop explained that there were 5 flies during the inspection. Of course, this leads to the question of why those 5 flies were there in the winter?]

Jan 10, 2008 Monitoring/Routine
Action Take: FOOD DESTROYED
Critical: Yes
Date: Jan 10, 2008
Violation: CONTAMINATION GENERAL – Food in this food establishment is not being protected from contamination.
Rationale/Requirement: No owner of a food establishment shall display, keep, store, or transport food unless it is protected from contamination.
Cleared: Feb 14, 2008

*******

A popular restaurant can make a lot of money. And breakfast is one of the easiest money maker because of its relative low food cost and the breakfast items being relatively easy to prepare. So there is just no reason why the Nellie’s in the Loop and Calgary’s Nellie’s can’t do a better job of serving customers good and clean food in a clean environment.

Posted in Alberta, Calgary, Canada, food, Law

Watching debate of the motion “California is the first failed state” was a lot more fun than I expected. Both me and my better half were “undecided” before watching the debate.

I will let you watch the debate and judge for yourself first. And then you can read what I have to say after the video clip.

My better half changed her vote from “undecided” to ”against” the motion. The sticking point for here are the words “is” and “first” and also if there can be reasonable doubt for the fact that California may not be “failed” yet.

For me, I changed my vote from “undecided” to “for” the motion. I saw the three arguing for the motion being much better in presenting their case than the other side.

The following are my impressions of the members of the debate teams,

1. FOR–Andreas Kluth (I think Andreas set up the framework for the debate really well and then his performance in the other two segments also helped convince me a bit more.)
2. AGAINST–Gray Davis (Strangely, may be it is just me, the act of hearing the governor listing his achievements during his term really detracted from his effort in arguing against the motion. To be honest and a bit blunt, Governor Davis seemed to me the weakest member in both teams.)
3. FOR–Sharon Waxman (Great points re Hollywood. And Mr. O’Donnell’s points were so weak and obviously untrue that he lost my respect for his views afterwards.)
4. AGAINST–Van Jones (Strongest in the “against” team but not strong enough to make a difference. And a few of the arguments seemed a stretch.)
5. FOR–Bobby Shriver (Did a good job in laying out the arguments. It takes some guts for a sitting mayor to argue for the motion but his arguments and rationales seem reasoned and sincere.)
6. AGAINST–Lawrence O’Donnell (Most of his arguments didn’t help to convince me at all. And of course, there was the credibility issue.)

By the way, let me be clear. I believe California is a great place but now I know it has a lot of problems as well.

[HT Andreas]

Posted in Economics, ethics, insightful, Law, people, united states, Video

Supreme Court of the United States handed down “Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission” today.

Have a watch of what Prof. Larry Lessig has to say on the decision so far.

[HT rmack]

Posted in Law

Former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker is back (big time), and his decision will likely impact your investment in US banks and financial institutions. In fact, Canadian and international depositing taking and loan-making banks operating in the US may likely be equally impacted as well.

The “Volcker Rule” in the words of President Obama (emphasis added),

Banks will no longer be allowed to own, invest, or sponsor hedge funds, private equity funds, or proprietary trading operations for their own profit, unrelated to serving their customers. If financial firms want to trade for profit, that’s something they’re free to do. Indeed, doing so–responsibly–is a good thing for the markets and the economy. But these firms should not be allowed to run these hedge funds and private equities funds while running a bank backed by the American people.

An excerpt and more info from WSJ (emphasis added),

Now all of the sudden Volcker gets a “rule” to call his very own? In the world of politics, getting a “rule,” or better yet a “doctrine,” is not-quite having an airport named after you, but it ain’t far off.

So what’s changed?

For one thing, the stunning loss of the Ted Kennedy’s U.S. Senate seat to a Republican seems to have refocused the administration’s attention on demonstrating to the American public that it sees the economy as job one.

And looking around at his economic braintrust, there aren’t too many that are exactly adored by voters.

From MarketWatch “A return to sanity in banking – Commentary: Obama bank plan is a response that fits the crisis“

The sweeping reform President Barack Obama unveiled Thursday is short on detail, but in its broadest terms it aims to both preserve Wall Street’s ability to take risk and strengthen the money system at the core of banking.

Finally, someone with the power to make it happen is talking about a response equal in scope to the system’s failure. […]

Eliminating those conflicts is where the Volcker Rule is aimed. The president and former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker have agreed that banks need to get back to banking. The approach outlined Thursday may not be perfect, but its intent is to make the money and credit market safe and limit the impact of shadow bankers.

Think about how our language has reflected the shift in financial services. For 60 years after Depression Era reforms were passed, there was a clear line: Banks made loans and took deposits and investment banks handled securities — stocks and bonds and their derivatives.

Posted in investment, united states

Check out Andreas’ “We won: California IS the first failed state“. Video of the debate to be posted sometime around Friday as I am interested to see the debate and judge for myself. Stay tune.

Posted in people, politics, united states

I had a great experience and feel proud to cheer for the Olympic Flame arriving in Calgary and being part of the Olympic Torch Relay experiences in Calgary.

More photos here.

Posted in Alberta, Calgary, Canada, Love

CBC reports “More pins found in Co-op grocery products” (emphasis added),

A Calgary grocery store has discovered more pins in its products, this time pushed into plastic juice bottles.

The Calgary Co-op store at Oakridge Centre in the city’s southwest was closed for several hours Monday after pins were found in some bakery items. A sweep of the store by employees turned up more pins in bulk food items and in cheese.

On Tuesday morning, employees uncovered more of the pins.

“Before our centre opened this morning at Oakridge we did another sweep and we did find a couple of more products that have the metal objects in them. Those included some of our fresh juices in our produce department,” said spokeswoman Sarah Boutron.

She doesn’t know if the pins, which she describes as the kind used in sewing, were missed during Monday’s sweep or are new.

Although there are no official words from Calgary Co-op whether business at the Oakridge store is impacted, customers at the Calgary store all seem very understanding. To immediately alert the press and the public, Calgary Co-op appears to have done the right thing for the customers and for itself in the long run.

Here are comments from customers at the Oakridge Calgary Co-op (see attached video),

“No [our purchase decisions won’t be impacted]. It [food tampering] happened in the States too.”

“I rarely buy bulk [bread] anyway. […] If I did, I will probably check it out really well first. Cut it open.”

“I buy grocery here for over 30 years and I never had any problem. […] Yes [I will still come here and buy things].”

“Honestly, I couldn’t really care less. I am sure whatever in there, they taken care of it. […] Yes [I will still shop here].”

“Well, it can happen anywhere, so what can we do? […] I think they’ve checked it throughly. I don’t think they will be allowing customers in if there are more danger to be worried about.”

Note: repeated calls and voices mails left for Calgary Co-op press contacts have not been returned at press time.

Posted in Alberta, Business, Calgary, Canada, ethics, food, Law, people, Relationships, Video, YouTube