More via MF.

I have never fully subscribed to the school that points out others "making too much" of something. Despite my observations on the utter uselessness of Twitter - not to mention a fairly robust if really just recreationally cynical nature - in a situation like this, what can one make of Don Martin's …

I did a little experiment and left #swineflu up on twitter search last night. This morning, there were over 1400 messages there with (a) panic (b) anxiety and (c) the same joke repeated over and over. By the way, let's first all thank the dolt who invented "RT" or the twut that tells you about the …

It is so fun to watch the back and forth between the Sox and the Yanks. Sure, Jacoby was really out at second yesterday and the pinstripes have cause to complain but this year there is more than the play to argue about. The ball parks now symbolize the divisions:  •  “There are those who want to …

It's the meteorological chitchat that keeps you coming back. I know it. We spend so much time looking forward to a bright hot day that you would think we would record them in binders like family albums, categorized by how nice the breezes were or how long the evening seemed to last. Tomorrow bodes …

Don't get me wrong. I am happy when big and important corporations handle their business matters with skill and confidence, ensuring we live in the world we want to live in, allowing their transactions to be taxed healthily to continue the glory that is the modern socialist state. But sometimes …

Sometimes these things pop out. Like an absolute doofus guy calling a Canadian killed on duty "a little girl dressed up as a soldier." Like some folk thinking that Canada had a hand in 9/11. Like people thinking you build a palace to sports with premier treatment from top to bottom and the most …

I don't ofter lollygag around Australian small business periodicals but I came across this discussion amongst antipodean social researchers on the effect of the recession on different demographic groups. And who could not like this observation:  •  McCrindle: This is the recession that generation … read more »

It is bad enough when your program gets outed, when the standards and effectiveness that you have been implying is later shown to be far less likely than you would have wished. But, then, isn't it bizarre that the outing of your program is due itself to other ineffective standards?  •  The new …

Tired of the pap that has passed for children's TV since the advent of "My Little Pony" and that damned purple dinosaur Barney? Needing an opportunity to introduce fear and other lessons into the lives of your kiddies in a controlled yet, err, meaningful way? Hold a Who-la-thon! And if you are …

Friday. Instead of being pure TGIF, Friday on a week of has a bit of a sting, a little nip at the heels. It doesn't help that it is the last Friday of being forty-five. Forty-five is a year with numerical comfort. It is balanced. It is even a bit jaunty. Forty six has none of that. By next week, I …

Quite a number of years ago, I check out a cousin's child's right to Canadian citizenship and, as the person in question was born somewhere else, they needed to assert their Canadianness before a certain date or lose it. Apparently the rules will tighten tomorrow:  •  April 17 marks the …

The week off with nothing planned has been rolling out as expected - except I have yet to stay up until 3 am to watch Most Haunted. Surely that wasn't a phase. How sad if it was. I have had white hots for lunch - check. I have thought about doing my taxes - check. I found myself alone in a parking …

It has been an unproven conviction of mine for some years that the claims to increased productivity due to the information super highway are quite over blown. I mean before the creation of PC solitaire did people actually sit at their desks slapping down the 52 to pass the day? Well, it turns out …

There has to be a joke in there about an early morning line-up for Glasgow folk festival tickets but it's not coming to me.  •  These are my peeps, no doubt as a branch of our particular tribe were Lanarkshire coal miners, not exactly the sort of trade that was populated by auslanders. Mind you, I …

It seems like the Morton and the Red Sox never win on the same day. Sure, they basically play in opposing seasons but still you would think there would be more days like this when Livingston and the Angels know the sting of defeat. Bay and Wake both doubled, too.

This weekend is when Canada excels at the whole "not working" thing. A four day weekend and, as I have in the past, I am taking next week off to be spring-like. Would have been better - more, you know, meaningful - if the Red Sox had won the game yesterday afternoon as a start to my marathon of …

Drag. Years ago, I read in Wired in 2001 how no one could figure out if efforts to transmit access to the internet your home's electric outlets. The promise of capacity was staggering:  •  .... anyone with electricity running into their homes would have access to an almost unimaginable amount of …

Remember how Segways came out and everyone laughed? Then they were recalled. And no one wanted them in Europe... where I understand everyone already has a jet pack. And remember how, despite being around for the best part of a decade you only see them on TV ads for discount hotel chains? Now …

Canadian citizenship up for sale? Seven firms in tiny PEI rake in $144 million or well over half of the AIG bonus money that ignited the US? And yet it's not a story, it's something no one really cares about in Canada. At least no one other than Dan:  •  There is not 144 million dollars worth of …

I always feel a little itchy when there are too many rules in the room. You get the yips and shivers all at once. So, folks like me tend to love stories of people like Betty Wales who lost her job in the downturn:  •  Betty was, in fact, the receptionist, but she enjoyed a certain seniority at the …

The big second season for the Kingston St. Lawrence was held in the summer of 1873. The 1872 stats are here. In 1873, there are reports in both the Kingston British Whig and the Kingston Daily News. In the Monday, 23 June 1873 issue of the Kingston British Whig, it asked:  •  Such is the mania for …

I don't know if this is the fourth best day of the year or maybe the fifth. I will have to see how intense my interest is this year and base it on that but after Christmas, the start of the school year and one's own birthday can there really be a rival for the claim? I was in Holland 23 years ago …

I got my double lp by the Big Yin in 1977 or 1980. The best. H/t to HB who posted a discourse on the lower bowel. Definitely NSFW unless you live in Glasgow.

If you want a personal relationship with a radio station, you can do no better than NCPR. I hadn't been in the studio for 30 months but everyone said "Oh, hi Al" when I was in the studio yesterday to help answer phones during the last day of the 2009 Spring Membership Drive. But staff said hi to …

My three hours at the NCPR phone farm starts at noon so I should get my butt out the door about nine thirty. I wonder of they will let me play with the Twitter controls. Things I do in the states: eat jerky (I have a rule - no jerky in the homeland); buy a local weekly newspaper (they still report …

Tomorrow is a day off for me and I have a project. Right now I seem to have a few on the go: the vintage base ball, another beer symposium and bring a good NCPR listener, for example. And a bunch of other stuff. The books I haven't written nag at me. That all-tuba marching band that I am working … read more »

You may recall the whole vintage base ball thing that came out of the Kingston Society for Playing Catch (KSPC) thing which came out of the whole community playing thing? Well, the season is now upon us and the Kingston St. Lawrence Brown Stockings Vintage Base Ball Club has two tournaments on …

Once upon a time there was a little lad called Preston who wanted to make things better and promised populism, listening and civility. Everyone thought he was well meaning but didn't much vote for him. Now, he has an institute and, like Brian, is generally ignored in favour of the negs. The negs …