Month: October 2014

Oil companies are overvalued, because most of the world’s reserves cannot be burned. Climate change agreements will see to that. So sayeth the former Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney, now Governor of the Bank of England.
Bad news for our petrodollar, oil-patch government and anti-environment policies.

Our friend and colleague Graham died suddenly in May. Today, his widow Marguerite and daughter Gillian brought friends and relatives together at the Gabardine Restaurant on Bay Street, to remember a talented, sweet guy.

Fifty years in Canada had no effect on Graham’s identity as a proud Yorkshire Brit. Appropriately, the gathering honoured his English heritage. The best fish and chips I’ve ever had were served, along with fine English cheeses and smoked mackerel. I don’t see how it could have been better.

Yang Lui draws my admiration for the tightness, economy and clarity of this series of info graphics comparing men and women. Colour, composition and proportion are masterful, too.
The “messages” are stereotypical but they are clearly expressed and leap over barriers of spoken language. Or do they? Could we do without the little word cue “self-image”, for example? Would everyone know that the figures are looking in a mirror and not, say, at a sign or a poster?

Gerrard Art Space is a collaboration of artists who were working out of a building at the corner of Woodfield and Gerrard Street East until they decided to move a couple of blocks east to 1475 Gerrard East.[link goes to map]

The old location will become an art pop-up store until its future takes shape. Meanwhile, the new GAS headquarters is taking shape and plans for an opening party are posted in the window. Saturday, October 25th. 8p.m. – 11p.m.

My sister Joni lives in Salmo, BC and she was asked to take a photo of Sebastien Sasseville as he makes his Canadian cross country Outrun Diabetes trip. He started on Signal Hill in Newfoundland and he’s already as far as Salmo in the Rockies … a remarkable achievement but one I had not heard about until Joni informed me.
Characteristically, Joni did more than she was asked to do, making a whole video rather than just a photo.

Yes, it’s free and yes, there are some new features that look interesting, but I want to monitor the bug reports before I jump in. There may be problems connecting to non-Apple devices like printers, for example.

I also want to know more about the personal data Apple collects from me through the new OS … and how to turn it off if it seems too intrusive. The Spotlight search service has been overhauled in a major way. Maybe Apple’s snooping is harmless or even beneficial, but data collection is “on” by default, rather than “opt-in” as it probably should have been.
Funniest favourite quote from a review:
“iPhoto is still here, waiting to gum up your photo library and piss you off.”
You know what he means, don’t you, Anna?

Bill Byres has more serenity than CBC’s graffiti rant guy. Besides, we were pretty content after a good lunch on Queen Street West. Why not just relax and feed the birds?

…but only one really scares me. I spotted him on Queen Street this afternoon, downing cyclists.

This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs the Climate
by Naomi Klein
Klein’s new book is written to stir things up and sell a lot of copies … a reasonable goal for any author. The anticapitalist subtitle will be enough for some to brush it away with “She’s a commie”, but they would not be interested in her arguments or evidence anyway.
I feel better educated for having read it and welcome the views of anyone else who has read the book … positive or negative. Personally, I found much of it persuasive and insightful.

The default desktop picture for Yosemite
Due this fall, Yosemite Mac OS X (version 10.10) will replace the current Mavericks version. The upgrade will be free. I look forward to easy exchange of files and photos between Macs and other Apple devices running iOS 8.
Both operating systems already feature AirDrop, so you’d think that you could wirelessly send stuff from one device to another, iPad to iMac, to MacAir, to iPhone and so on. But no… not yet.
Yosemite apparently corrects this situation. Soon we’ll be able to exchange data easily and conveniently, wirelessly and directly at close range. It’s kind of silly having to email everything to ourselves, especially now we know that all of our email is collected by Big Brother.