Rogers to reduce download limits

Rogers shrinks consumers’ download limits - thestar.com
They're still better than Sympatico, who throttle users at various times of the day, regardless of your package limits.

Steve Jobs: genius at making money, jerk for ripping people off

Olive: Jobs is both a genius and a jerk - thestar.com
Read the article.

Biggest Star Ever

CBC News - Technology & Science - Astrophysicists find most massive star ever

Universal vaccination patch

Dissolving "microneedle" patch could lead to universal vaccinations


The patches contain hundreds of microscopic needles, each barely any
bigger than a 10,000th of an inch. (You can see an array of 36 such
needles up top.) The needles are each tipped with vaccines, and when the
patch is applied to the skin they dissolve painlessly to provide
long-lasting protection. That's a big improvement on hypodermic needles,
the current mode of vaccine delivery, because those needles are nothing
but trouble once they've been used. Disposing of hypodermics so that
they don't accidentally hurt someone or end up getting reused is a
public health nightmare, and the patch eliminates those concerns
completely.
...

Doctor Who Villains and Monsters through the years

Many Eyes: Doctor Who villains and monsters since 1963 - latest version

And here is a spreadsheet listing them all

Part of the brain that tracks limbs in space discovered

Part of the brain that tracks limbs in space discovered

Scientists have discovered the part of the brain that tracks the position of our limbs as we move through space.

When a mosquito lands on your hand, you can rapidly and effortlessly make a movement of the other hand to brush it away, even in darkness. But performing this seemingly simple action involves a surprisingly complex coordination of different types of sensory information in order for your brain to construct a constantly updated 'map' of the body in space.
...

HST shifts the tax burden from businesses to individuals

Accidental Deliberations: On fair taxation
The message of Andrea Horwath's party against the new harmonized sales
tax, which took effect on Canada Day, has not been quite as simplistic
as that of Tim Hudak's Conservatives. But it's often been more
convincing.

For one thing, the NDP isn't conflicted by federal
cousins who partnered with Dalton McGuinty's Liberals to implement the
new tax. Instead, it’s tied to the only party in Ottawa that firmly
opposed the policy.

For another, the NDP's position actually
makes sense. The Tories have claimed the HST is a “tax grab,” which it’s
really not. The NDP more accurately argues, at least sometimes, that
it's a shifting of the tax burden from businesses to individuals. And
that's something that, alone among the parties, it can very strongly and
credibly oppose.
...

Garden Pest & Disease Detective

Garden Pest Detective from Gardener's Supply
Here is a handy guide for garden pests and diseases and solutions. Pick the vegetable, then where the damage is on the plant and it then shows the pests and diseases in pictures and words. Click on the one you recognize and it offers solutions.

Our Amazing Planet

Our Amazing Planet: Top To Bottom — CrazyCrackerz.com
An interesting chart looking at our planet from the top of the atmosphere to the deepest ocean depth.

Historians locate King Arthur's Round Table

Historians locate King Arthur's Round Table - Telegraph
Researchers exploring the legend of Britain’s most famous Knight believe
his
stronghold of Camelot was built on the site of a recently discovered
Roman
amphitheatre in Chester.
...

Conservative voters vote Conservative because ???

The Lemming theory, actually applies to conservative voters. | A Creative Revolution

But "Lemmings" in a metaphorical sense do exist, and they vote
conservative.

Despite all evidence to the contrary they vote for the worst policies
for a country and a society. They do it even when they can see that it
has caused millions of bodies to wash up on the shores of economic
destruction.

...

Why are people so willing to swallow complete bullshit and fabrications, and to abandon common sense? Every single conservative government runs the deficit up. And this deficit started well before things went south, globally.


Read the link for the full post

Harper and his unelectable senators

A BCer in Toronto: Harper’s road to an elected Senate: Appoint Conservatives that can't get elected
This is a brilliant post by A BCer in Toronto about all the senators who originally ran in elections and could not get elected - showing us that Harper is not serious about an elected Senate.

Doomsday coming? Truth, theory or conspiracy theory? (or bad joke?) - DEBUNKED

Doomsday: How BP Gulf disaster may have triggered a world-killing event - by Terrence Aym - Helium
According to Terrance Aym, writing at Helium.com, the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico may be triggering events below the ocean floor there that may lead to the extinction of most life on Earth within the next 6 months. Read the article at the link above, including the references cited and you be the judge.

Here is a response to Aym's article:
RedBedHead: BP Oil Disaster May Destroy Planet Earth!
...

Bummer. So much for that vacation I've been saving up for, now we're all gonna be dead and there won't be any fish in the lake where we rented that cottage. One more reason to hate BP - apocalyptic pricks.

But seriously, while this Terrence Aym dude is a crank - with a writing portfolio full of articles on "Bizarre UFO sightings", time travel, and the "Coming sun storms [that] could slam USA into 'Greatest Depression'" - and that makes this article just shy of funny a la The Onion, it's also annoying. Why? Because it contributes to the kind of anti-intellectual fervour that is the foundation stone of contemporary American culture and which writes off important and urgent truths, like climate change. I'm all for a good joke and for taking the piss out of most things but this isn't being pitched as a joke and there's nothing worse than a joke that isn't meant to be a joke. Not only because it makes guys like me who try to be funny feel a sense of shame that we've been unintentionally outdone by an idiot but because it delegitimizes the subject at hand. "You're just like the Weekly World News with that BP spill is the end of the world stuff." "Ha ha, yeah sure, we're all gonna die." Well, maybe we're not all gonna die and the world isn't about to release a cosmically huge, wet fart but a lot of sea animals are dying because of BP, and a lot of people are having their livelihoods and lives destroyed all along the Gulf coast. Because of this seemingly unstoppable debacle, the world's oceans are one step further down death row ...

DEBUNKED!
Methane Bubble "Doomsday" Story Debunked
...

While it's true that there are methane bubbles (and methane ice) beneath the ocean floor, they are not about to erupt from Gulf and destroy all life on Earth. This morning I spoke with two Earth scientists, Dave Valentine of UC Santa Barbara and Chris Reddy of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, who study methane and oil seeps from the sea floor. Valentine has just been out to the Gulf to study the methane levels there, and told io9:

During our recent cruise to the Gulf we observed significantly elevated levels of methane at water depth greater than 2500 feet, in the vicinity of the Deepwater Horizon spill site. While the total quantity of methane and other hydrocarbons is enough to cause problems with the regional ecosystem, there is no plausible scenario by which this event alone will cause global-scale extinctions.

So yes, there is a methane seep. No, it will not cause tidal waves or explode.

Another fishy fact in the methane bubble doomsday story is Aym's description of how methane bubbles are what caused the End Permian mass extinction event 250 million years ago - a mass extinction that I wrote about recently, here. Many scientists do believe that atmospheric changes and ocean anoxia (de-oxygenization) were to blame for that extinction - but even Gregory Ryskin, the scientist whose highly speculative work is cited in the article, doesn't try to claim this as the sole cause, nor does he believe that one bubble of methane could bring down the biosphere instantly. The End Permian extinction took millennia to happen.

So the BP oil spill isn't going to end the world - it's just going to kill a lot of ocean life. And already-existing methane seeps may be doing slow, deadly damage to our climate. All this makes it even more obvious that we need to invest in alternate forms of energy. But who wants to hear difficult, complicated pieces of information, when we could just be screaming about doomsday? ...

Thousands of abandoned oil well in the Gulf of Mexico pose risk

http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/07/27000_abandoned_oil_and_gas_we.html
Excerpt:

As a forceful reminder of the potential harm, the well beneath BP's Deepwater Horizon rig was being sealed with cement for temporary abandonment when it blew April 20, leading to one of the worst environmental disasters in the nation's history. BP alone has abandoned about 600 wells in the Gulf, according to government data.

There's ample reason for worry about all permanently and temporarily abandoned wells -- history shows that at least on land, they often leak. Wells are sealed underwater much as they are on land. And wells on land and in water face similar risk of failure. Plus, records reviewed by the AP show that some offshore wells have failed.

Experts say such wells can repressurize, much like a dormant volcano can awaken. And years of exposure to sea water and underground pressure can cause cementing and piping to corrode and weaken.

"You can have changing geological conditions where a well could be repressurized," said Andy Radford, a petroleum engineer for the American Petroleum Institute trade group.

Whether a well is permanently or temporarily abandoned, improperly applied or aging cement can crack or shrink, independent petroleum engineers say. "It ages, just like it does on buildings and highways," said Roger Anderson, a Columbia University petroleum geophysicist who has conducted research on commercial wells.

Despite the likelihood of leaks large and small, though, abandoned wells are typically not inspected by industry or government.

Will Stephen Harper do the right thing regarding Omar Khadr? - No.

Montreal Simon: Omar Khadr: When Hope is Finally Lost
...
The Federal Court has given the Harper government until Monday to intervene in Khadr’s case. If Ottawa did ask for his repatriation at this late date, there is no certainty that President Barack Obama, under his own domestic pressures, would agree. But it is time for Harper to show confidence in the Canadian legal system and make the request.

Stephen Harper should do the right, decent, and Canadian thing and make that request.
...

Indian port boycotts Israeli ships

RedBedHead: Boycott Of Israeli Ships Spreads To India
...
Trade unions at India's Cochin Port, one of India's main seaports and
its fastest growing, have agreed to boycott the unloading of Israeli
ships in protest of the siege of Gaza. This follows on from boycotts at Turkish, Swedish,
Norwegian and South
African ports.
...

Cell phone access coming to subway stations in Toronto

TTC looks at cell service on subway platforms | Posted Toronto | National Post
...

Last year, the TTC began screening potential contractors to set up
cell service across the system. But lack of resources and other
priorities forced it to whittle the project down to just the platforms
for now, according to a staff report. The list of possible proponents is
down to three: Bell Mobility, Extenet Systems, which is partnering with
Telus, and Broadcast Australia, which is partnering with Rogers.

With the TTC now providing next vehicle information updates via text
messaging, staff urged the commission to move ahead with the cell
network. A staff report to the commission says that the winning bid will
pay for all costs, including installation work done by TTC workers.

STIKMAN!

Ask Torontoist: Some Street Art Snooping - Torontoist

Now you can text the TTC to get the next streetcar time

TXT-TTC for Your Next Streetcar - Torontoist
Send the stop # to 898882 and you will get a quick response text listing the next 6 streetcar times.
Right now this only works for streetcars, but by early 2011, this will also work for all bus stops too!
Read the link for more details.

Lyme disease on the rise

Lyme disease on the rise - Healthzone.ca
...

“Lyme disease exists anywhere songbirds fly,” says Jim Wilson of the
CLF, noting that ticks attach to migrating birds and fall off when the
birds alight. In Canada, ticks that most commonly spread Lyme are the
blacklegged tick (Ixodes scapularis, also known as the deer
tick) and the western blacklegged tick (Ixodes pacificus).

In Ontario, ticks are most likely found in Long Point, Point Pelee
National Park, Rondeau Provincial Park, Turkey Point, Prince Edward
Point National Wildlife Area and in the Thousand Island region of
eastern Ontario, according to the PHAC. “However, we are starting to see
them in urban areas,” says Dr. Robbin Lindsay. Ticks are also found in
southern Quebec, according to a 2010 study in Environmental Health
Perspectives, an area previously not thought to be a concern. They
are also in parts of the Maritimes, southeast Manitoba and in B.C.,
especially in the lower mainland, Vancouver Island and the Fraser
Valley. “There were 69 confirmed cases in Ontario in 2007, 108 in 2008
and 79 in 2009,” says Dr. David Williams, the associate chief medical
officer of health for the Ontario Ministry of Health.

In the U.S., where the Center for Disease Control estimates there
are about 29,000 confirmed Lyme cases and about 7,000 unconfirmed ones,
the ticks are most common in the northeastern and Midwestern states and
northeastern California. Internationally, it has been found on all
continents except Antarctica.

“It is an emerging disease and is on the move,” says Lindsay. But
it’s not an epidemic in the sense that Canadians are at great risk of
being infected.

“You have a greater chance of being killed by a car on your way to
cottage country than of getting Lyme disease there,” says Mount Sinai’s
Dr. McGeer, director of infection control at Mount Sinai Hospital in
Toronto.

Prevention and detection

The best way to avoid being bitten by a tick is to wear shoes and
long, light-coloured pants in any grassy areas. Tuck the bottoms of the
pants into socks or footwear. Spray uncovered skin with a citronella- or
DEET-based repellent. Don’t apply it to the hands or face of children
and not at all to young infants.

Ticks are also believed to dislike pine scents, bamboo, eucalyptus,
and tea tree oil.

Since covering children at the cottage or while camping is likely
not an option, daily tick detection is recommended for both children and
adults. Ticks especially like the groin area, the head and behind the
ears.

Look for a rash on the body, especially one that resembles a
bull’s-eye. It occurs in about 80 per cent of those bitten by an
infected tick.

“Check every nook and cranny of their body [and] their hair as if
you’re looking for head lice,” says Dr. Maureen McShane, a Montreal
resident who has a Lyme practice in Plattsburgh, N.Y. She was bitten by a
tick eight years ago. Before being treated with antibiotics (after a
long period of misdiagnoses) she compared the pain in her bones and
muscles to having been shot.

If you find a tick, you can try to remove it with tweezers,
grabbing the tick’s body as close to the person’s skin as possible. Pull
upwards slowly. This can be tricky. If you squeeze or twist the wrong
way it can increase the possibility the tick will disgorge bacterium
into the victim.

If possible, go to an emergency department and have a medical
professional remove the tick. This also makes it easier to have the tick
sent out for analysis.

Not all ticks carry the spirochete, so unless the bitten
person becomes ill or develops a rash, chances are the tick wasn’t
infected.

Quantum Darwinism

Bridge to the quantum world: Darwinian concept of natural selection figures into theory about core of physical reality

Israel as Victim (part 2)

kirbycairo: Israel as Victim (part 2) . . .
...
There will be no peace until Israel as well as Palestinians want peace.
But at the moment the Israeli state is as little interested in peace as
the most extreme factions of the Palestinians. They hide their real aims
behind an image of victim, and being considerably richer and more
influential in the powerful Western  nations, the Israelis are writing
(or should I say 'rewriting') history.

Israel as victim ...

kirbycairo: Israel as Victim . . . .
I saw the TV spot from the Canada-Israel Committee this morning and
found it deeply depressing. Only the most dishonest kind of political
spin can portray Israel as such a poor innocent victim. Here is a nation
which, with the backing of the strongest Western Countries took the
land of Palestine by force using the worst kinds of violence, (even
against Western Nations when they thought it would be useful). They have
maintained this power with billions and billions of Western dollars
which has built one of the strongest military powers in history, as well
as maintaining a nuclear arsenal against international treaties. But
worst of all they have continued for a generation to illegally build
settlements on land that is not theirs, against the will of the entire
world except for the US, and this constitutes the worst kind of
terrorism, because it is the intentional destruction of a people and a
culture.
...

Block religious content while browsing the Internet

GodBlock - Protect your children
GodBlock is a web filter that blocks religious content. It is targeted
at parents and schools who wish to protect their kids from the often
violent, sexual, and psychologically harmful material in many holy
texts, and from being indoctrinated into any religion before they are of
the age to make such decisions.
When installed properly, GodBlock will test each page that your child
visits before it is loaded, looking for passages from holy texts, names
of religious figures, and other signs of religious propaganda. If none
are found, then your child is allowed to browse freely.
...

Apple is "stunned" - no suprise here

Apple ‘stunned’ by iPhone error - The Globe and Mail

Longetivity - all in the genes

Longevity all in the genes, report finds - Healthzone.ca
Along with "regular exercise, good diet and avoiding tobacco".