Archive

Archive for the ‘Current Events’ Category

How will the CBC Spin This?

January 3, 2010 Sheldon Kotyk Leave a comment

The head of Iran’s soccer federation issued a public apology and a member of his staff resigned after the federation mistakenly sent a New Year’s greeting to its counterpart in Israel, Iranian officials announced Sunday.

There are dozens of editors working overtime at the CBC, trying to figure out how to blame this on George W Bush.

Rex Murphy on Climategate

December 4, 2009 Sheldon Kotyk Leave a comment

“Solidarity Forever!” on the Sidelines

October 29, 2009 Sheldon Kotyk Leave a comment

Rene Watteel with Ironworkers Local 712 says it’s unlikely the company will hire local workers, “It was us that built BC Place in the first place. We have the capacity. If we don’t keep our members employed, we’re going to lose that capacity.”

He says the fabricating will likely be done in Quebec and Japan, and it means 150 lost jobs.

From the Local’s website.

“We want the BC government and PAVCO to make a commitment to support our local industry and local workers who pay all their taxes here and spend their money in our BC economy – anything else just doesn’t make sense,” Watteel said. “Why would BC taxpayers want to stimulate the economy in another province or country and not right here?”

From the same website.

The IRONWORKERS SHOP LOCAL UNION # 712, has proudly been representing it`s B.C. Ironworker members for more than 50 years. Today, we represent over 2,000 members throughout British Columbia in various manufacturing industries. Our negotiated collective agreements are amongst the best in these industries.

I guess picking up the phone and saying you would be able to do it for the cheaper bid would be out of the question.

Here’s a fun game to play if you are good at math, if you ever cross the border to the States, count the cars with union stickers on them heading down for a deal. Trust me, you’ll need a calculator.

Categories: Current Events, Unions Tags: ,

Computer Model Inconvenience

October 17, 2009 Sheldon Kotyk 2 comments

Now they are complaining that the computer models aren’t inconvenient enough.

“Hadow fears that the current climate models developed by scientists may not be extreme enough.”

Let’s look again at how the ice gazers describe this year’s forecasts and scramble to adjust to realities…

Weather in June and July was supportive of a major summer sea ice loss in 2009, but the weather in August and September changed completely from that of earlier in the summer, preventing extreme sea ice loss late in the summer. While no new record was set in 2009, the September 2009 sea ice extent was still much reduced compared to 1979–2000 mean conditions.

Until they can accurate predict the weather for a day from now, they may want to withhold judgement on long term forecasts.

Cupboard of Pots Painting a Kettle Black

October 16, 2009 Sheldon Kotyk 1 comment

HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL ENDORSES RECOMMENDATIONS
IN REPORT OF FACT-FINDING MISSION LED BY
JUSTICE GOLDSTONE AND CALLS FOR
THEIR IMPLEMENTATION

My favorite part is this paragraph:

ALISON LECLAIRE CHRISTIE (Canada) said that her delegation had taken note of the request made by the Palestinian delegation, during the last session, to defer consideration of a resolution on the Goldstone Report until the next regular session in March 2010. The lead co-sponsors had believed that this would allow for more time for broad-based and comprehensive consideration of the report. Canada was very concerned that this Special Session had been called so soon after this assessment had been made. The Council’s credibility depended on its preparedness to confront violations of human rights and Canada strongly supported the use of a Special Session to address grave violations of human rights wherever and whenever they occurred but was concerned at the continued and unbalanced attention given by the Council to Middle East issues. This Special Session was considered by Canada as a very poor precedent for the Council which undermined its integrity.

Here are the voting results which should highlight the integrity of the UN Human Rights Council.

In favour (25): Argentina, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, China, Cuba, Djibouti, Egypt, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Mauritius, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Qatar, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, South Africa, and Zambia.

Against (6): Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Slovakia, Ukraine, and United States of America.

Abstentions (11): Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Gabon, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Republic of Korea, Slovenia, and Uruguay.

Carrots Rejoice

October 16, 2009 Sheldon Kotyk Leave a comment

Burning Bunnies for Biofuel

Currently doing some research on whether one can outfit a Volkswagen Rabbit to run on rabbit stew.

Tragedy can't stop the Parties

Police asked the estimated 15,000 concertgoers, who had pitched tents and parked RVs, to remain on site Saturday night to avoid a panic and traffic snarls. Most retreated to their campsites to talk about what happened or to party. [emphasis mine]

Did they really need to add the party piece?

Uppity Blacks vs. Blue Collar Whites

July 24, 2009 Sheldon Kotyk 1 comment

Are rich black people above the law? Maybe. DesireG gets all cranky for Obama and Gates “pimpin’ the moment.”

All I can say is that if this professor is what Harvard is using these days, I’m glad I went elsewhere.

UPDATE: The Major looks at the White House Beer Meeting.

One plus One

OK, let me get this straight. Pot is bad for your health. Smoking is bad for your health. If you do both it doesn’t cancel out?

How much did we pay for this study?

People who habitually smoke both tobacco and marijuana are about three times more likely than non-smokers to develop serious lung disease, according to results of a British Columbia study.

Ready. Aim. Autograph.

January 14, 2009 Sheldon Kotyk 2 comments

A passing motorist pointed a handgun at former Dallas Cowboy Michael Irvin as he drove in Far North Dallas on Monday night, according to a police report. The Pro Football Hall of Fame member was not injured.

Not even emotionally hurt?

“So we started talking about the Cowboys and everything,” he said. “Then they got back on the highway.” “I tell you what, I’m glad he was a Cowboy fan,” Irvin said.

My guess is that Mr. Romo wouldn’t be so lucky. The remarkable part of this story is that it wasn’t Pacman Jones with the gun.