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Winter grass – beautiful shot [photograph]

by Rod Edwards on February 22, 2010

Warmth, originally uploaded by Paul Flynn – ‘Toronto Paul’.

Captured by Toronto Paul, found on Flickr. Click it for a bigger version.

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Ad Hoc Drum Kit, Mabul Island, Borneo

by Rod Edwards on February 14, 2010

From my Malaysian adventures, 2008.

This drum kit is made out of some miscellaneous real drum parts, twisted metal, big galon paint pails, and a water tank of some kind.

You can find this drum kit at the ass end of nowhere, right next to the most spectacular scuba diving in the world. This picture is from Uncle Chang’s dive shop and school, located on Mabul Island, right next to the world famous Sippadan Island.

Sippadan is famous for the ridiculous reef wall that surrounds the island, the spectacular coral, and the awesome wildlife. You have to elbow your way through crowds of sea turtles and sharks to keep up with your dive group.

Sippadan is also notable for the fact that Malaysia and the Philippines periodically hold small scale wars over possession of the island. The only inhabitants now are some Malaysian soldiers, who live in the crumbly remains of the island’s resort, which was in use until it was invaded by Philippines, and was shut down after the ensuing hostage crisis.

Anyway, we didn’t get invaded while there, and did enjoy stellar diving and the entertainment implied by this cobbled together drum kit.

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Lost Vegas

September 24, 2009

Did you know? Hundreds of people live in the storm sewers beneath Las Vegas, driven there by legal problems, addiction, or mental disorder, and subsisting on cash and tokens forgotten in machines by casino patrons. If you’re ever in Vegas, remember what lies beneath the neon.

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US Losing in Innovation

February 25, 2009

Its long been known that the US lags in productivity. More importantly, however, the states are lagging in innovation – the idea-generation that fuels productivity gains.  The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation attempts to quantify this.
Note that Canada is significantly worse that the US and most European industrialized nations, and is near the bottom in [...]

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Recovery.gov uses an Open Source CMS

February 19, 2009

The US government’s Recovery.gov (an accountability site tracking the use of stimulus dollars) is built on Drupal – a popular, free, open source content management system (software for running websites).
Its innovative. It saves tax payer dollars. It allowed for quicker execution. Good to see that Canada is maybe one day possibly perhaps considering investigating open [...]

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Does productivity need to come out of the hide of the working people?

February 19, 2009

Quite the conversation with the mayor of Lansing, Michigan on Fox News. He’s vitriolic, and bombastic and sounds like he’s stumping for a presidential nomination. That being said, do you think competitive pressure puts us into a “race to the bottom?” Is there a difference between “fair” trade and “free” trade?

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Study: Widening sidewalks, adding bike lanes at expense of parking benefits all

February 19, 2009

A 2006 study of a Manhattan street (PDF) showed that, in fact, local businesses would benefit if parking was removed so that sidewalks could be widened. [Spacing.ca]
I’ve often thought about this for Corydon, here in Winnipeg – its the area where I live, and one of the city’s gastro-vino-sushi-chic districts. In the summer, the sidewalks [...]

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Crafting Policy that Works: Exploiting Laziness

February 6, 2009

This little tidbit stood out on a Macleans article titles “why smart people do stupid things:”
…the difference between committed organ donors in Sweden (86 per cent) and America (28 per cent), where 45,000 people have died waiting for transplants since 1995. Why? In Sweden, unlike the U.S., consent is presumed; those who don’t want to [...]

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Cautiously Testing the Waters for Preliminary Cautious Investigation of Maybe Considering the Use of Open Source Software, Cautiously

February 5, 2009

Just a side note on this humorous RFI that tech blogger Glen Moody stumbled across, from the Federal Gov’t to the FOSS (Free Open Source Software) community:
Canada has a Request for Information (RFI) related to No-Charge Licensed Software (typically referred to as Free and Open Source Software or FOSS and also applicable to freeware). For [...]

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Dana Larsen back at it with the NDP

February 4, 2009

A BC’er in Toronto points out that famous LSD-dropping, DMT-gobbling, pot-smoking former NDP candidate Dana Larsen is still active within the party, working his agenda for drug reform.
In case you’ve forgotten, here’s the CBC coverage of the “Weedy Wednesday” video that got him canned from the NDP…

As an aside, I agree with BC’er that there’s [...]

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