Wisdom is the result of a happy marriage between intelligence and experience.
© Carl Dow, Editor and Publisher, True North Perspective
Friday, January 22, 2010, Vol. 5, No, 8 — 212
"True North is for opinion leaders"
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Over the past few weeks True North Perspective has suffered more than its share of "down-time", when our site has been inaccessible, offering only a dreaded "404 error". Without going into the boring details, we are in the process making a number of changes, including an upgrade to our servers and soon a rebuilt web-site and front-page. Unfortunately, these improvements have come with more than a few hiccups, at least as frustrating for us as they must be for you. We apologize for the inconvenience and are working hard to ensure the problems will soon be a thing of the past. Meanwhile, we ask that you bear with us during these growing pains and, should you find us "down" again, that you'll wait an hour or so, then try to find us again. — Geoffrey Dow, Managing Editor |
"Now polls never tell the full story but this much is certain: whenever the party in power drops 15 points in 15 days, you can be assured of one thing — someone in charge just did something really stupid."
Rick Mercer, RickMercer.com — 310 words.
By Inigo Gilmore
The Guardian UK
As a member of the media covering the tragedy in Haiti, it's with a sense of alarm and astonishment that I've witnessed how some senior aid officials have argued for withholding aid of the utmost urgency because of sensational claims about violence and insecurity, which appear to be based more on fantasy than reality. — 1,625 words.
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By Dan Kennedy
The Guardian UK
A few minutes before Scott Brown began his substance-free victory speech last night, a politically connected friend messaged me on Twitter: "This is the most horrifying but fascinating moment I've ever seen in Mass politics," he wrote. "Hope we can figure it out." We will all be trying to figure this out for quite some time. — 1,258 words.
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Guest Editorial
Friday, January 22, 2009
True North Perspective
Vol. 5, No. 8 (212)
By Rebecca Solnit
TomDispatch.com
Rebecca Solnit lives in San Francisco with her earthquake kit and is about to make her seventh trip to New Orleans since Katrina. Her latest book, A Paradise Built in Hell, is a testament to human bravery and innovation during disasters.
Soon after almost every disaster the crimes begin: ruthless, selfish, indifferent to human suffering, and generating far more suffering. The perpetrators go unpunished and live to commit further crimes against humanity. They care less for human life than for property. They act without regard for consequences. I'm talking, of course, about those members of the mass media whose misrepresentation of what goes on in disaster often abets and justifies a second wave of disaster. I'm talking about the treatment of sufferers as criminals, both on the ground and in the news, and the endorsement of a shift of resources from rescue to property patrol. They still have blood on their hands from Hurricane Katrina, and they are staining themselves anew in Haiti. — 2,853 words.
"News is what (certain) people want to keep hidden. Everything else is just publicity."
PBS journalist Bill Moyers.Your support makes it possible for True North to clear the fog of "publicity" and keep you informed on what's really happening in the world today. Please send your donation to:
Carl Dow, True North, Station E, P.O. Box 4814, Ottawa ON Canada K1S 5H9.
Analysis
By Carol Goar
The Toronto Star
Why should you care if Parliament is closed for the next six weeks? It's not as if MPs were accomplishing much with their relentless partisan bickering. The government won't stop functioning when the legislature is dark. There will be no interruption in Old Age Security, employment insurance payments, children's benefits or provincially run health and social programs. Federal services will continue. Life will go on more or less normally. — 628 words.
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By Alex Binkley
True North Perspective
Canada's primary industries such as agriculture, forestry and mining, have taken a beating during the tough economic times of the last few years. Many in those businesses are thinking long and hard about how to approach the future. — 571 words.
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From the Desk of Dennis Carr, Sustainable Development Editor
By Mark Hume
The Globe and Mail
British Columbia's sockeye fishery — including the troubled Fraser River run which is currently the focus of a judicial inquiry — is about to get international certification as a sustainable fishery. — 637 words.
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By Tony Van Alphen
The Toronto Star
Brazilian mining giant Vale Inco wants to cut staff at its strikebound operations in Sudbury by as much as 50 per cent and overhaul workplace practices significantly over the next five years, according to internal company documents. — 758 words.
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By Peter Nowak
CBC News
Rogers Wireless wants to put all cellphone providers on the hook for ex-customers' unpaid bills. — 625 words
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CBC News
The Vancouver Police Department has issued an apology after a man said he was beaten by officers who knocked on the wrong door while investigating a report of a violent domestic dispute. — 292 words.
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Spirit Quest
By The Rev. Dr. Hanns F. Skoutajan
"I am a lot more concerned by God's verdict on my life than the one of the historians." That quote from Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada, recently caught my eye. — 709 words.
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By Liliana Segura
Alternet.org
Originally written for PEEK
Liliana Segura is an AlterNet Staff Writer and Editor of Rights & Liberties Special Coverage.
In a story that should have us all railing against the cancer of capitalism, it recently came to the attention of many, thanks to the New York Times, that ubiquitous fashion retailer H&M has apparently been destroying perfectly usable unsold clothing, in the middle of winter, in a city where one third the population is poor. — 1,270 words.
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By Campbell Clark
The Globe and Mail
Canada will speed adoptions and family reunifications from Haiti, but will not expand the rules to allow whole new classes of Haitians to come here. — 598 words.
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Health Watch
CBC News
Concussions in children should be renamed "mild traumatic brain injuries," to better convey their seriousness, some Canadian researchers say. Children diagnosed with a concussion were released from hospital sooner and returned to school faster than those diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury, regardless of the severity of the injury, occupational therapist Carol DeMatteo of McMaster University in Hamilton, and her colleagues report in Monday's issue of the journal Pediatrics. 488 words.
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By Megan Ogilvie
Toronto Star
Dairy farmer Michael Schmidt will be allowed to continue his raw milk co-operative after a Newmarket court ruled Thursday that it does not break laws against selling unpasteurized milk. — 1,136 words.
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By Alberte Villeneuve-Sinclair
True North Perspective
Alberte Villeneuve-Sinclair is the author of The Neglected Garden and two French novels. Visit her website to learn more www.albertevilleneuve.ca.
The laundry is done, the luggage has been stowed away till the next trip and the souvenirs have been distributed but memories of my 2010 trip to Florida will live for ever. You may already wonder what I will say as you know very well Florida fell under a cold Arctic spell that damaged the citrus crops in the past few weeks. Yes it was cold and I didn't get to wear my tank tops or Bermuda shorts. In fact, I almost forgot my swimsuits there when we left ... Swimming was far from my mind! But I had a wonderful time and this climatic misfortune paved the way to some wonderful discoveries we would have missed otherwise. — 771 words.
In case you missed it ... and always worth repeating
Let's say that news throughout human time has been free. Take that time when Ugh Wayne went over to the cave of Mugh Payne with news that the chief of his group had broken a leg while chasing his laughing wife around the fire. That news was given freely and received as such with much knowing smiles and smirks to say nothing of grunts of approval or disapproval. — 688 words.
By Ron Brynaert
RawStory.com
The US Supreme Court on Thursday lifted a 20-year ruling which had set limits on campaign financing by US businesses, and critics, including nonpartisan watchdogs and Congressional Democrats, are up in arms about the decision, which most had feared for a long time. Meanwhile, aside from Senator John McCain (R-AZ), Republicans appear to be gleeful about their second apparent victory of the week. — 1,961 words.
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By Daniel Tencer
RawStory.com
Right on the heels of the Democratic Party's loss of Ted Kennedy's Congressional seat, Air America, the six-year-old liberal-leaning radio network credited with helping the political career of Sen. Al Franken and discovering MSNBC prime-time host Rachel Maddow, announced Thursday it is ceasing operations immediately and plans to file for bankruptcy. — 285 words.
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No fly zone
By Mark Hughes and Jason Walsh
The Independent
When heavy snowfall threatened to scupper Paul Chambers's travel plans, he decided to vent his frustrations on Twitter by tapping out a comment to amuse his friends. "Robin Hood airport is closed," he wrote. "You've got a week and a bit to get your shit together, otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high!!" — 576 words.
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By Blaine Harden
The Washington Post
TOKYO — Fida Khan, a gangly 14-year-old, told the court that immigration authorities should not deport him and his family merely because his foreign-born parents lacked proper visas when they came to Japan more than 20 years ago. — 1,138 words.
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SpaceWar.com
MOSCOW — The United States and Russia have made "significant" progress towards a new nuclear disarmament treaty, President Dmitry Medvedev said on Saturday. — 455 words.
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China Daily
SANTIAGO — Billionaire Sebastian Pinera, who won a landmark victory in Sunday's presidential election, will become Chile's first strongly conservative leader since the end of the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet two decades ago. — 656 words.
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Russia Herald
KIEV — Opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych and current Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko are heading for a runoff Feb 7 in Ukraine's presidential vote set to decide the future of a country torn between traditional ties with Russia and a post-Soviet drive westward. — 432 words.
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Money and Markets
By Martin D. Weiss, Ph.D.
MoneyAndMarkets.com
JUPITER, Florida — Washington has so thoroughly botched its supervision of the banking industry that 200 banks are likely to fail this year — easily surpassing last year’s 140 bank failures … inevitably involving the greatest bank losses in history … and already costing the FDIC ten times more than the great S&L and banking crisis of the 1980s did. — 1,054 words.
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By Zhou Xin and Chris Buckley
Reuters
China easily beat its 2009 growth target after a blistering fourth-quarter performance that set the stage for further monetary tightening and put it on course to overtake Japan to become the world's second-largest economy. — 812 words.
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Xinhua News Agency
XICHANG, China — China took one step forward in its ambition to build an independent global navigation network capable of rivaling foreign congeneric systems with the successful launch of a new orbiter into space early Sunday morning. — 830 words.
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From the Desk of Mike (The Hammer) Garvin
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DETROIT, Michigan — We've never heard the word "global" used so often at a vehicle's unveiling.
But this shouldn't have been a surprise, we guess, as this new-generation Focus is the first vehicle to embody everything Ford hopes to achieve with its new "One Ford" vehicle strategy — build and sell the same vehicle (with appropriate regional customization) everywhere in the world.
Ford designated its European design and engineering centre in Cologne, Germany, as its "Centre of Excellence" for global small car development. As such it was responsible to create the new C-car platform, which will eventually underpin 10 different models and account for 2 million units of annual production by 2012. The C-car segment is the largest vehicle segment there is — accounting for one of every four cars sold worldwide.
The first model off the new platform is actually not Focus, but the crossovers Ford C-MAX and Ford Grand C-MAX (unveiled at the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show, and set for launch in Europe in the second half of 2010).
Production of Focus will begin simultaneously in Europe and North America in late 2010, with cars arriving by early 2011. Launches in Asia, Africa and South America will follow (122 countries in total). Initial production is set for the Saarlouis (Germany) and Wayne (Michigan) assembly plants. Also in line for C-vehicle production will be a yet-to-be-built plant in Chongquing (China), and current facilities in St.Petersburg (Russia) and Valencia (Spain).
But enough about its "globalness" — let's check out the sheet metal...
For more on this please see Auto123.com.
True North Perspective invites our readers to join us in celebration of our 200 series, that began with the Friday, October 30, 2009, Edition — #200.
While most of our readers are in Canada and the United States we are being read in growing numbers in as many as 88 countries. October saw us reach a record number of 59,493 hits. Ever more high-end readers are finding satisfaction in what we publish. However, we're operating at a severe financial deficit. That's why we're asking readers, effective Edition 200, to become True North Perspective 10 per centers.
Ten per cent of 200 is $20. If all readers were to send in $20, it would help ease us back from the edge of financial desperation. We need the nourishment. We are happy to rely on our readers to provide. Please take time to give this request a key moment of attention by mailing your 10 per cent to:
Carl Dow, True North Perspective, Station E, P.O. Box 4814, Ottawa ON Canada K1S 5H9.
Reality Check
By Michael Le Page
New Scientist
Here's the question to put to all those who confidently declare that the recent severe winter conditions prove that global warming is nonsense: "Next time there's a heatwave in summer or an unusually mild spell in winter, will you publicly accept that the 'warmists' were right all along? If not, why not? If a cold snap means the climate is getting colder, surely a spell of hot weather proves it is getting warmer?" — 386 words.
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Science
By Dr. Tony Phillips
SpaceDaily.com
HUNTSVILLE, Alabama — Last year, when NASA's IBEX (Interstellar Boundary Explorer) spacecraft discovered a giant ribbon at the edge of the solar system, researchers were mystified. They called it a "shocking result" and puzzled over its origin. Now the mystery may have been solved. — 528 words.
The Reading Room
Review by Geoffrey Dow
True North Perspective
Originally published at Ed-Rex.com
Geoffrey Dow blogs at Edifice Rex Online.
"If I have seen less far than others," Galileo complained in irritation to Aurora, "it is because I was standing on the shoulders of dwarfs."
— Galileo Galilei explains his limitations in Galileo's Dream.
Is Kim Stanley Robinson getting tired of science fiction? In the five novels since the final book in his already-classic Mars trilogy was published in 1996 and the North American release of Galileo's Dream just after Christmas, Robinson sojourned in alternate history with the excellent stand-alone novel, The Years of Rice and Salt and the very near future, with the not-entirely-successful "Science in the Capital" series; not quite abandoning the field, but staying on its peripheries. — 943 words.
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Obituary
'I can't think of another figure like him in Canadian letters'
By Mark Medley
National Post
An award-winning novelist, musician, filmmaker, playwright, and screenwriter, Paul Quarrington was perhaps Canada's foremost renaissance man. He passed away Thursday morning after a nine-month battle with lung cancer. He was 56. A short statement on Quarrington's website said that "he passed peacefully at home in Toronto in the early hours surrounded by friends and family. It is comforting to know that he didn't suffer; he was calm and quiet holding hands with those who were closest to him." He leaves behind two children, Carson Lara and Flannery. — 1,074 words.
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CBC News
BALTIMORE, Maryland — A 60-year annual tradition that involved a mysterious visitor leaving roses and a bottle of cognac at the grave of writer Edgar Allan Poe on the anniversary of his birthday appears to have ended. — 550 words.
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Ottawa author Randy Ray and his co-author Mark Kearney of London, Ont. have published their ninth Canadian book, The Big Book of Canadian Trivia, which is now available in stores and on the authors' Web site at: TriviaGuys.com.
The latest Ray-Kearney effort is best described as a "greatest hits" book that contains the best Canadiana from their previous eight books, plus a considerable amount of new material.
In one big book readers will find all the trivia and facts about Canada they need to know: there are stories of important Canadian artifacts and history including what became of Canada's World War II spy camp.
All regions and provinces are covered, as well as important Canadian figures like John Molson, Elizabeth Arden and Russ Jackson.
If that isn't enough there will also be pieces explaining whatever happened to such Canadian icons as the last spike, labour leader Bob White, hockey tough guy Dave "The Hammer" Schultz, the first skidoo, swimmer Marilyn Bell and the first Tim Hortons donut shop.
Some items are "classics." Others are little known facts. Approximately 25 per cent of the material has never before appeared in print.
This fascinating Big Book brings together for the first time in one package the most notable facts and trivia from the archives of the trivia guys' collection.
The Big Book of Canadian Trivia is published by The Dundurn Group of Toronto.
The short story, The Old Man's Last Sauna, a groundbreaking love story, in the Friday, April 24 edition of True North Perspective, concludes the collection titled The Old Man's Last Sauna, written by Carl Dow. On Friday, April 17, you'll find O Ernie! ... What Have They Done To You! The series began Friday, February 20, with Deo Volente (God Willing). The second, The Quintessence of Mr. Flynn, Friday, February 27. The third, Sharing Lies, Friday, March 6. The fourth, Flying High, Friday, March 13. The fifth, The Richest Bitch in the Country or Ginny I Hardly Knows Ya, Friday, March 20. On Friday, March 27, One Lift Too Many, followed by The Model A Ford, Friday, April 3. The out-of-body chiller, Room For One Only, Friday, April 10. The series closed Friday, April 24, with the collection's namesake The Old Man's Last Sauna, a groundbreaking love story. All stories may also be found in the True North Perspective Archives.
Prolific best-selling Ottawa author and publicist Randy Ray has developed a website to promote his publicity services, which he offers to authors, publishers and companies. Mr. Ray has helped many clients get their message out across Canada on CTV, CBC Radio, CH-TV, A-Channel and Global TV, and in the Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, Ottawa Citizen, Ottawa Sun, Halifax Herald and many Ottawa-area weekly newspapers. Mr. Ray's web site is: www.randyray.ca. He can be contacted at: (613) 731-3873 or rocket@intranet.ca.
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If you have any problems with accessing the newsletter or problems with your computer, send an email to Carl Hall chall2k5@gmail.com , and he will be more than happy to assist you.
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Archives
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Carl Dow, Editor and Publisher
Geoffrey Dow, Managing Editor
Yvette Pigeon, Associate Editor
Dennis Carr, Sustainable Development Editor
Benoit Jolicoeur, Art Director
Ian Covey, Director of Photography
Carl Hall, Technical Analyst and Web Editor
Randy Ray, Publicity
Contributing Editors
Anita Chan, Australia
Canada
Alex Binkley, Ottawa
Dennis Carr, Vancouver
Rosaleen Dickson, Ottawa
Tom Dow, Sudbury
Bob Kay, Montréal
Randy Ray, Ottawa
Alberte Villeneuve-Sinclair, Ottawa
David Ward, Ottawa
Harold Wright, Ottawa
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