There are so many things I have yet to figure out: why I still have no snow shovel, why I didn't set my alarm again. That sort of thing. But I am not sure about the US holiday season - when "the holidays" are. I am wondering about this Thanksgiving thing, the one that seems to show up five weeks after Thanksgiving. Does it mean that that "holiday season" lasts from, say, 23 November to 1 January? That's a lot of holiday if so. Anyway:
- Science has proven it! A few drinks do make you a better dancer...as long as you are just concerned with duration:
An ordinary laboratory mouse will run one kilometer on a treadmill before collapsing from exhaustion. But mice given resveratrol, a minor component of red wine and other foods, run twice as far. They also have energy-charged muscles and a reduced heart rate, just as trained athletes do, according to an article published online in Cell by Johan Auwerx and colleagues at the Institute of Genetics and Molecular and Cellular Biology in Illkirch, France.
Those eggheads of Illkirch are right back on that Christmas card list as far as I am concerned. - Paul raises an interesting observation on a new assault on reality by the futurist consultants - office "lean"-ness:
It was a discussion about the lean processing that has been introduced at HM Revenue & Customs, and how it has manifested itself. Office workers are ‘encouraged’ not to have any clutter on their desks, no personal belongings like family photos, lunch etc. This is to aid with efficient working and make it easier to ‘hot-desk’. Apparently one employee who had a banana of their desk was asked by their line manager if the said article of fruit was "an active banana?". Firstly I like the concept of an active banana. Secondly I work for a US group of companies that is sending out murmuring noises about lean. They are applying it in some plants over there, our turn is coming soon!
I fear change generally so this can't be good. - Farewell Milton Friedman from a continuing and prosperously Keynsean world.
- There was a small victory in the Ontario Court of Appeal the other day in a case called Jackson v. Canada when the court refused to chuck out the argument that we have a constitutional right to privacy, perhaps hidden in the word "liberty":
7. In para. 15-17 of the statement of claim, the plaintiffs plead sufficient facts to entitle them to a trial as to whether the private information in question engages s. 7 and whether the level of stress and anxiety engendered by its release rises to the level of "serious state imposed psychological stress" referred to by Bastarache J. in Blencoe v. British Columbia (Human Rights Commission), 2000 SCC 44 (CanLII)...
Recognition of the right to data privacy - control facts about oneself - would mark a huge shift and a great defense against the futurists gurus and their robot allies for we humans. Why does it not exist already? Why did the founding fathers not write it down like some originalist dopes would insist? Why, then, didn't the founding fathers also create computer systems and the internet if they were so clever? Answer me that!8. On its face, the decision of the Supreme Court of Canada in New Brunswick (Minister of Health and Community Services) v. G. (J.) 1999 CanLII 653 (S.C.C.)...would appear to limit resort to the s. 7 right to an individual's interaction with the justice system and its administration (para. 65). However, the law with respect to s. 7 is evolving, and whether it can be said that the defendants' impugned conduct in allegedly failing to safeguard the Employee List while operating the prison, constitutes government action "in the course of the administration of justice", is also a matter that is better sorted out at trial.
- Excellent, we are really falling out with China!
The federal government has forced out of Canada a Chinese diplomat amid reports that he was spying on Falun Gong members while working for the Chinese embassy. Officials confirmed the move Friday as Canada and China are embroiled in controversy over an on-again, off-again meeting between Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Chinese President Hu Jintao.
How about kicking out the slave made products out of the stores now.
Comments
gr - November 17, 2006 8:56 am
Ooh OOH!! First!!
gr - November 17, 2006 9:00 am
The grocery store put up the Christmas stuff before the Halloween stuff, around October 1. Our Thanksgiving, yes, is six days from now. We are having manicotti!
People in gift sales, LIKE ME, want the American people to keep the economy rolling, especially rolling into my bank acct. Shop early and often, oh yes.
Gordo - November 17, 2006 10:18 am
Given the fact that the state of my desk tends to run between disastrously untidy and mounded under heaps of crap, I'll be keeping my ears open for this "lean" trend. I wonder if academia will be somewhat immune to it?
I wonder how that data privacy ruling might be applied to companies that offshore personal data? For instance, President's Choice Mastercard contracts their data processing and web services to a company in the US. PIPEDA applies to private corporations, does it not?
David - November 17, 2006 10:27 am
(1) As long as we pay in US dollars, there'll be no real trade issues with China in terms of buying their stuff
(2) As long as China needs would, iron, nickel, oil, etc. there'll be no real trade issues with China buying our stuff
(3) Our American-trained better says Canada should know it's place
Are you human code: "bigcok". I see there must be an AI algorithm running there!
Alan - November 17, 2006 10:28 am
Yes, the Federal law PIPEDA applies - especially given the international nature of that transaction.
Alan - November 17, 2006 10:32 am
News flash: Iggy shares plummeting. Plus: Al's human code is always "smrtgy" - go figure.
gorthos - November 17, 2006 10:42 am
Drinking Alcohol within a few hours of stenuous pysical activity can also produce negative medical conditions that can result in death, hence the number of men in their 40s who have heart attacks in the dressing room or on the ice after drinking a few beer.
gorthos - November 17, 2006 10:46 am
And no, this doesn't stop me from drinking afte I run at night, I just bypas sthe problem by drinking a bunch of water first. On the other hand, I am happiest when I am running and not die when you are at your happiest... :)
Alan - November 17, 2006 10:53 am
I understood the number of men in their 40s who have heart attacks in the dressing room or on the ice after drinking a few beer is due to the phenomenon of the number of men in their 40s on the ice for one hour a week sprinting and sprinting and sprinting then doing nothing else the rest of the week by way of exercise. Beer has nothing to do with this unless what you are calling "a few" is really a case which would likely also fall into line with the rest of their week. Here is an ugly HTML cached version of some powerpoint skimming of the surface on this question.
Gordo - November 17, 2006 10:54 am
I wonder how PC Financial feels secure under PIPEDA when they've transferred control of my financial record to a foreign company, then? Our privacy laws certainly don't apply to US companies who don't operate in Canada.
Alan - November 17, 2006 10:57 am
In fact, beer is excellent for heart health and daily moderate drinkers out live both abstainers and heavy drinkers by a long shot.
Alan - November 17, 2006 10:59 am
You consented, Gordo. Check the fine print. It will be in there somewhere.
cm - November 17, 2006 11:07 am
Sorry I'm late. Don't have much to add except that our NJ office seems to follow this "lean" policy. I realize workplaces aren't meant to be "happy", but this place was downright unfriendly. I like junk.
Alan - November 17, 2006 11:09 am
What a wonderful stat - I repeat the link:<blockquote class="smalltext">The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine and funded by the National Institutes of Health, followed 38,077 healthy males for 12 years. Compared to men who consumed alcohol less than once a week, those who imbibed three or four days per week had a 32 percent decreased risk of myocardial infarction, <b>while those who indulged five to seven days per week cut their risk of MI by 37 percent</b>. For subjects who drank once or twice a week, the benefits were halved.</blockquote>
gorthos - November 17, 2006 11:48 am
yes, you are correct, I did omit the bit about the once a week only exercise bit, but the alcohol entering the system immediately before or immediately afterwards affects the respiratory/cardiovascular system.
Look who you are talking to.. I don't make this stuff up.
Okay, I do elaborate rather eloquenltly because of my broadcasting and professional liar trainnig, but still.
Alan - November 17, 2006 11:52 am
You are dealing with some politically correctness as opposed to science there, Gorthos. Check out the studies sources and I appreciate your background. Get me a link!
gorthos - November 17, 2006 12:05 pm
Damn you Alan. I am busy (I lie, everything is in boxes)..
Okay, from what I am reading the issue is related to Sudden Cardiac Arrest and MODERATE (4+ drinks) drinking immediately after sports and IS related to the "do no exercise all week and then run like a bugger for 90 minutes then stop immediatly" bunch (most of GKSSA). Your liver can only process alcohol so well and in a dehydrated overheated human, dumping that much alcohol into the old meat sack without replenishing electroyltes can put a great deal of stress on the organs thereby messing up the metabolic "synchronicity" as it were and cause strain on the heart (but mainly in folks with issues already though not always the case).
i.e. if you play sports, replenish your fluids and electrolytes with water and or gatorade before you jump into the beer.
On the other hand, a lot of my obsessive running-nazi groups are either complete alcoholics when not running or abstainers (freaks). The boozy bunch (yaay) replace food with booze thereby stay skinny (if only my wife would let me replace food with booze..). The abstainers already don't eat much if any meat and don't think they need the "empty calories" of booze.
Me.. I just run more to offset the extra booze I can thereby imbibe.
Gordo - November 17, 2006 12:07 pm
I have no doubt that I consented to the transfer. That still doesn't absolve them of liability for leaks. I did NOT consent to the transfer outside our country. What I find interesting is that BMO is the only Canadian bank that processes their credit card data and hosts their online sites solely in Canada.
gr - November 17, 2006 12:54 pm
mndhip yeah baby! That's me, hip of mind. Folks, if you want a hip mind like me, go to my blog and dig those nerdrockers They Might Be Giants! Yeah! I wear flannel shirts and black Chuck Taylor lowtops! or high tops!
Alan - November 17, 2006 3:48 pm
Sean, what you are describing (4+ beer at the immediate conclusion of a game) is an extreme ingestion of alcohol in a very short time frame by physically compromised people due to being out of shape and previous hour of hockey sprinting. It would not at all be analogous to soccer playing by Old Timers with the more spread out play as well as hydration during the game. Common sense and good science would indicate that use of a low alcohol ale like a mild through the game as your source of hydration would be the best way. This is certainly not unknown. <p>But the real problem with locker room heart attack is the sprinting and sedentary lifestyle. Unless people are pounding beer to the point they actually anesthetize the overly stressed heart muscle, it is not going to be the critical factor.
gorthos - November 17, 2006 7:11 pm
Ah, yes, but I am not describing soccer players.. Hockey folk wear armour and overheat muchmore I am sure.. and I am deferring to your previous comments that I was actually mixing some of what I had heard with your information..
I will make a project out of this and contact a sports medicine professional as as well as the Health unit to garner more info.
I am right this verty moment opening either a Tiger Lager or a Boddingtons from my winter weekly purchase, six mix beer from foreign lands. (Rum is so Autumn).
cm - November 17, 2006 7:16 pm
Gah. All this credit card info, if true, means I may have to rethink my current banking situation. Assuming, of course, that I think they care that I care that my data is not crossing borders. Or that I even care in the first place.
Alan - November 17, 2006 7:55 pm
G: I trust you will be maximizing you MI protection as I wish that for you all!
gorthos - November 17, 2006 8:12 pm
MI as in Michael Ignatieff? Is that like SSFP (Super Sonic Flea Protection)? (No offence flea).
Jay Currie - November 18, 2006 6:57 am
Sharing a computer with my kids on occasion I am please to report that all the fruit on my desk is active...sticky in fact.
Pounding four beers at the rink may give you an MI or a DUI. Not pounding the four if hockey is your only exercise will ensure you don't get the later.
I was delighted to see that the Supremes are willing to at least entertain the idea that my liberty includes my privacy. And it might not be a bad idea for our rural overlords to require the consent forms for credit cards, air miles cards and - apparently in BC - medical records, to have red letter 14pt type disclosure of offshore data storage or processing. (Of course I use gmail which means my criminal conspiracies are an open target for the boys at Homeland Security....now if I could just come up with one...)
Alan - November 18, 2006 9:03 am
I make sure my gmail is full of fibs to throw them off the scent.
cm - November 18, 2006 9:41 am
Latest reports have chocolate milk as being the best drink to have following exercise. I suppose you could make a Not-White Russian.
gorthos - November 18, 2006 10:00 am
I prefer a nice tall iced glass of the blood of virgins, you know, running at night under the stars and moon and all, it gets me all primal. Choco milk is good. Lactose, protein, low in fat (1%).. hrmm.. Good idea because I have been avoiding all sugared beverages of late. A gatorade hs a lot f calories which defeats the run really.
Jay Currie - November 19, 2006 12:19 am
On the rare occasion that I have more than I should, chocolate milk with a chaser of milk thistle restores vital bodily function. And, should one be getting ready to knock off a bottle of Viognier as I am, a prophylactic milk thistle capsule and a pint of choco will make one a happy chap the next morning. This keeps the kiddies happy.