jason

CP24’s poll: Should atheist groups be allowed to buy advertising space on the TTC? is interesting. There are so many offensive commercial ads in public. One like this that merely gets people thinking is great. It isn’t a question that bothers me one way or another, but I like it anyway.

1. Link to your original tagger(s) and list these rules in your post.
2. Share seven facts about yourself in the post.
3. Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names.
4. Let them know they’ve been tagged.

I was tagged by Catspaw.

1) I ran into a manatee in my kayak. When I was visiting my dad at his place on palm island in florida, I was out in the swamp and was following a manatee. It popped up next to me so quickly that I bumped into it before I could move out of the way. I was scared that I’d hurt it, but that as impossible. Also, I ran into a house in my kayak. Same island. Different trip. Blake and I were using sea kayaks in a storm. We were kayaking in the surf. The waves were so high that I got caught going up a wave and as I looked back, there was a 3+ story house behind me that was in the water for the first 5 feet of it. The wave slammed me right into one of the supporting stuctures, and stopped dead. I got out, dragged the kayak out from under the house and got back in, and continued down the coast.

2) Everyone knows that orange is my colour, but I always disliked orange, particularly my step-father’s orange volvo. When money was tightest, I bought my tshirts at a discount store, chokeys, and I could buy orange tshirts for $5.70, no tax. The colour stuck and is now my signature colour. I don’t know if I like it, but it works.

3) I find rock climbing easier than walking. Flat surfaces are a problem, but when I found rock climbing, it was a natural. Climbing along a roughly contoured ceiling just feels right.

4) I want to visit Yemen and countries where the borders are dotted lines rather than solids.

5) I know the complete lyrics of Frank Zappa’s I am the slime, and will sing it on command.

6) I was hit by lightening after being run over by a tornado. There are photos to prove it. That was with Ken Emig, in algonquin park.

7) I have a hole in my brain in the shape of a peanut.

I tag Aleja, JuliaD, Jennifer, Ken, Roger, Elizabeth, and Dru.

ARRANGED {friendship has no religion} is the best movie yuka and I have seen in a year. Well edited, thought out and just a great movie.

Konrad Ng

Brother-in-law of Barack Obama, born 1974. A Canadian whose parents are Malaysian Chinese immigrants, he is an assistant professor at the University of Hawaii’s Academy of Creative Media.[27] His parents are from Kudat and Sandakan, two small towns in Sabah, Malaysia, and he was born and raised in Burlington, Ontario.[28] He married Maya Soetoro-Ng at the end of 2003 in Hawaii.[29] They have one daughter, Suhaila

From the MLC @ Ryerson

I saw a post on slashdot saying that, among other things, Google is Turning Down Uploads at Google Video. Strange but true.

Slashdot points to an interesting article on the register (Slashdot | Collateral Damage as UK Censors Internet Archive and IWF confirms Wayback Machine porn blacklisting • The Register) that talks about how attempts to block “images of children which contravenes UK law (Protection of Children Act 1978)” is also causing blocking of access to entire important sites such as Archive.org and wikipedia. The debate about censorship is ongoing and interesting… do we have a right to block access to valid and legal information in the name of blocking access to agreeably dangerous information, or must be protect access to legal information and find a way to block access to illegal information that does not impinge on this other right. What is the fine line. The discussion’s ongoing, but it seems that the same heavy handed approach continues to appear from ISPs and governments.

Slashdot | Internet Not Really Dangerous For Kids After All
“We’re all familiar with the claim that it’s horribly dangerous to allow our children on to the Internet. It’s long been believed that the moment a child logs on to the Internet, he will experience a flood of inappropriate sexual advances. Turns out this isn’t an accurate representation of reality at all. A high-profile task force representing 49 state attorneys general was organized to find a solution to the problem of online sexual solicitation. But instead the panel has issued a report (due to be released tomorrow) claiming that ‘Social networks are very much like real-world communities that are comprised mostly of good people who are there for the right reasons.’ The report concluded that ‘the problem of child-on-child bullying, both online and offline, poses a far more serious challenge than the sexual solicitation of minors by adults.’ Turns out the danger to our children was all just media hype and parental anxiety.”

There’s an NYT article on it, and I’m looking for the full report.
FRONTLINE: growing up online: watch the full program | PBS has some interesting segments on children and youth online

You may be more racist than you think, study says - CNN.com

Would you get upset if you witnessed an act of racism? A new study shows that many people may unknowingly hold racist views, contrary to how they view themselves. A new study published Thursday in the journal Science suggests many people unconsciously harbor racist attitudes, even though they see themselves as tolerant and egalitarian. “This study, and a lot of research in social psychology, suggests that there are still really a lot of negative associations with blacks,” said Kerry Kawakami, associate professor of psychology at York University in Toronto, Ontario, and lead author of the study. “People are willing to tolerate racism and not stand up against it.”

I don’t find this shocking at all. I know I’m not very observant of subtle social cues. Got a doctor’s not attesting to the fact, so when I notice what I feel to be unconsciously racially intolerant acts or comments you know that something’s going on. I also know that I have in the past called people on racist comments and acts, and will. But it reminds me to be continually reflective of my own words and deeds… what are we doing that we don’t notice. Most at risk, imho, are people who don’t reflect upon their unconscious acts, or don’t actively challenge themselves in terms of how they respond to racism and racist (or any other kind of culturally intolerant) situations.

Thomas Tempelmann - Applications - Find Any File
About Find Any File, version 1.0.2
Written by and Copyright 2005-2008 Thomas Tempelmann
http://apps.tempel.org/FindAnyFile/

This is a free program for Mac OS 10.4 and later that lets you search for files on your disks, primarily on HFS formatted ones.

Contrary to Spotlight, it does not use a database but instead uses the file system driver’s fast search operations.

This lets you search for file properties such as name, dates, size, etc., but not for file content (use Spotlight for that)!

Find Any File can find files that Spotlight doesn’t, e.g. those inside bundles and packages and in inside folders that are excluded from Spotlight search (i.e. system files).

And Find Any File is fast. Not always as fast as Spotlight, but faster than other, similar file search tools you might find for the Mac.