Ted Ritzer: Sweet Home Alberta

Fri, 25 Nov 2005 00:01:13 GMT

Government of Canada provides over $1.3 million to help integrate skilled immigrants and internationally trained Canadians into the workforce. The Honourable Anne McLellan, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness and Member of Parliament for Edmonton Centre on behalf of Belinda Stronach, Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development and Minister responsible for Democratic Renewal, today announced over $1.3 million in funding, through Human Resources and Skills Development Canada's Foreign Credential Recognition (FCR) Program, for three projects being carried out by Alberta-based organizations that will help integrate immigrants and internationally trained Canadians into the workforce [Government of Canada News - Alberta]

Thu, 24 Nov 2005 01:46:59 GMT

Rising gas prices. Q&A: As natural gas prices soar to record highs, concerns over gas shortages have grown. Mark Tran explains. [Guardian Unlimited]

Tue, 22 Nov 2005 01:25:04 GMT

U.S. Bans Poultry From British Columbia (AP).

AP - The United States banned poultry from mainland British Columbia on Monday because of a case of bird flu, though Canadian officials said it wasn't the virulent form in Southeast Asia blamed for more than 60 human deaths.

[Yahoo! News: Top Stories]

Fri, 03 Dec 2004 01:57:17 GMT

BBC: Blog picked as word of the year. Slow news day. [Scripting News]

The Albertan Charter of Stewardship Values & Beliefs

Thu, 02 Dec 2004 03:02:36 GMT

The Albertan Charter of Stewardship Values & Beliefs:

Every Albertan has a vested interest in both the quality and quantity of life in Alberta. Given the Alberta reality, that both the quality and quantity of life in Alberta is directly dependent on natural resources, it is imperative that Albertans play a role in the stewardship of said natural resources, now and in the future. Further to this, it is incumbent on Albertans to promote the practice of natural resource stewardship at both the individual and societal levels. To this end the Albertan Charter of Stewardship Values and Beliefs establishes a stewardship framework that will be encouraged in Alberta, for the benefit of all citizens of Alberta. To this end Albertans share the following fundamental values and beliefs with regard to the stewardship of Alberta's natural resources, for the benefit of their family and future generations of Albertans.

Be it resolved that Albertans:

1. Respect the natural environment and its diversity of life, of which man is an integral part.

2. Have the right to expect a clean natural environment; this includes ensuring Alberta's natural areas remain unspoiled, and that the quality of Alberta's air, lakes and rivers is protected.

3. Believe it is in the public interest to secure Alberta's natural resource bounty and beauty for present and future generations.

4. Believe Alberta's economy is directly linked to Alberta's natural resources, past, present and future, and that it is essential that these natural resources are treated with the utmost respect and care.

5. Believe that it is in the public's best interest to protect and restore the integrity of Alberta's ecological system, with special concern for biological diversity and the natural processes that sustain life.

6. Believe that it is in the public's best interests to promote the study of ecological sustainability and promote the open exchange and wide application of the knowledge acquired.

7. That every Albertan has the duty to participate in the conservation and improvement of Alberta's natural environment, and to play a role in ensuring its health in perpetuity.

8. Believe that all sectors of Alberta society (Public, Private and Not-For-Profit) have a similar duty in ensuring the quality of Alberta's natural environment, which includes clean air and water, maintaining an environment that is unsurpassed in the world.

9. Believe that education must contribute to the role that future generations of Albertans play in ensuring Alberta's natural legacy survives and prospers in perpetuity.

10. Believe that research and innovation must contribute to the protection and development of Alberta's natural environment.

nixMoneyMachine-Sticking it to the Status Quo!

Tue, 06 Jan 2004 18:16:36 GMT

nixMoneyMachine-sticking it to the status quo!

this new category, came about as a direct result of my disgust with a recent headline about Microsoft releasing a product which has been called an iPod Killer! Fuck it, I have had with this kind of BS, where monopolies that don't have an innovative fiber in their being, watch the market and wade in after an innovator like Apple creates it out of nothing, and then ends up losing it, just because of the monoolie's sheer size and money reserves!

Microsoft did this against the Mac, then against Netscape! Do we as consumers have to keep supporting greedy monopolies!

I remember when Mosaic first came out and for me the Internet was a place where the little guy could innovate and create a decent living, and in some cases create fortunes based upon creativity, hard work and luck! The iPod Killer headline is so cynical, and it assumes that the only thing the consumer cares about is money, and that the only thing the producer concerns themselves with is money too!

Well how bout this, why don't we come up with some truly innovative business models that put the power in the hands of the content producer, and in the process create cheaper content, get more people producing digital content, and get more developing nations into the digital economy as well!

Accoring to Robert Young found of Red Hat:

"You can't compete with a monopoly by playing the game by the monopolist's rules."

Well fuck the old models, the old rules and the old approach to operating systems, software and digital content!

I have just had it with this bullshit, and this is what nixMoneyMachine is about, proposing new economic models to stick it to the status quo!

Stay tuned!

Tue, 06 Jan 2004 07:48:13 GMT

Calgary Backup - Remote Data Backup Sevices. online remote data backups of computers for business, students, and home users via a high speed Internet connection. [New Entries at Datamation Product Watch]

Wed, 31 Dec 2003 21:17:21 GMT

Albertaís export growth rate leads the country [News - Government of Alberta]

Mon, 29 Dec 2003 16:57:17 GMT

US, Canada at Odds Over Mad Cow Origin [Planet Ark]

Mon, 29 Dec 2003 16:50:20 GMT

DNA test will show if mad cow came from Canada [CBC Edmonton]

Sun, 28 Dec 2003 01:42:29 GMT

U.S., Canada at Odds Over Mad Cow Origin (Reuters). Reuters - The U.S. Agriculture Department said on Saturday the Washington state dairy cow infected with mad cow disease had probably been imported from Canada but Canadian authorities called the statement premature. [Yahoo! News - Top Stories]

Sat, 27 Dec 2003 19:35:09 GMT

from the Accordian Guy re Canadian blogs:

Carnival of the Canucks, Part 2: Two Turtlenecks

by Joey deVilla at 12:12PM (EST) on December 23, 2003 | #

I can't talk about Canadian Blogs without mentioning BlogsCanada and its directory of Canadian blogs and their monthly listing of top Canadian blogs. Jim Elve, one of the people behind BlogsCanada also has a blog, Officially Unofficial. He recently got a scoop that hasn't received enough attention -- a two-part interview with Hossein "Hoder" Derakhshan, a Toronto-based blogger, who blogs in both Persian and English, fights the good fight against censorship (and especially for the freedom of his native Iran) and is running for Iranian parliament.

Jim will be hosting next week's Carnival of the Canucks and gets bonus points from me for being that rarest of breeds: the Canadian accordion player.

The award for Most Idealistic Canadian Blog has to go to Dave Pollard's How to Save the World, wherein he sets out to do just that. Also of interest are two recent postings, What Keeps Executives Awake at Night, in which he looks at "the usual" solutions to business problems versus his approach, and Are You a Closet Canadian?, which points to a great test to see if your attitudes are generally more Canadian (trending towards "idealism and autonomy") or American (in the "status and security" area, trending towards "exlcusion and intensity").

I cannot praise Steph "Sniffles" Troeth's blog, Dandruff, enough. I love her writing and observations, and had a chance to meet her along with a number of YULBloggers (YUL is the airport code for Montreal's Mirabel airport) in September. A notable recent entry: The Relationship Quagmire, in which she comments on the inadequacies of XFN (XHTML Friends Network), a computer-readable way of documenting relationships between people.

(I am of the opinion that having computer programmers design social software is dangerously similar to having deaf people design violins. The previous sentence also gives me an excuse to sneak in a link to Seb's Open Research, which is also a Canadian blog. Clever, no?)

Thu, 25 Dec 2003 17:25:57 GMT

Stamps hand Dunigan franchise keys [Edmonton Journal - canada.com network]

Wed, 24 Dec 2003 17:54:48 GMT

Merry Christmas from the Accordian Guy worth repeating:

Stole this file from the above site, cause I think it really does capture some of both the frustration and the joy of Xmas.

All the best from WIFLblog and enjoy the Accordian Guy's Christmas story, and don't forget to visit his site:

the Accordian Guy Christmas story now follows:

Merry Christmas, and I mean it in the nice sense of the phrase

by Joey deVilla on December 24, 2003 12:13PM (EST)

This is from last year (with a little polishing up), but it's worth repeating.

While I do believe that some traditions should be put to rest, I also believe that a lot of tradition-bashers are poor-impulse-control cases. Having abandones any actual tradition or culture of their own, they fill the void with a couple of < href="http://www.utne.com/">Utne Reader platitudes, a mild revulsion for anything even vaguely Judeo-Christian, even if it aligns with their beliefs, a pro-pot slant and a half-formed belief in eye-for-eye karmic payback.

Standing for almost nothing, they tend to fall for just about anything.

Chris Baldwin's summed it up pretty handily -- and perhaps unintentionally -- in a Bruno comic from last year:

To borrow the line about Klansmen and Martin Luther King Day: C'mon, Bruno, how hardcore a secularist must you be to not want a day off?

Of course, those of us who celebrate Christmas would argue the exact opposite: here we took a beautiful Christian holdiay and destroyed it through corportization and "We're white, we're straight, we're sorry!" guilt.

(There's a Randroid who would take another tack and say "here we took a beautiful commerical holiday and destroyed it in usual religious fashion." Haven't we developed some kind of Ayn Rand repellent yet?)

In the end, I believe that intent counts.

I'm certain there is no malice, no implicit "convert or die" message and no forcing of one's beliefs on others when someone wishes someone else a Happy Chanukah, Eid, Diwali, Kwanzaa, Saturnalia, Tet or even Festivus, the actions of certain vicious zealots notwithstanding. Balanced minds do not see any implied Hitler overtones at Oktoberfest nor Hirohito/Tojo insinuations at the sushi house, and neither do they see the Crusades in Christmas.

When people say "Merry Christmas", most of them are really saying "Happy Holidays, and I'm celebrating them Christmas-style. You do your thing, and I'll do mine. Come by for drinks."

That what I'm really saying, anyways.

No matter what you believe, enjoy the break from the hustle and bustle of 21st century life. Be nice to each other. Hug someone you love.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

Wed, 24 Dec 2003 03:25:23 GMT

SuperNet Update Newsletter - December, 2003 [albertasupernetCa5tf6sh0]

Wed, 24 Dec 2003 03:24:16 GMT

New emergency operations centre increases safety and security for Albertans [Canadian Environmental.com - Environmental management information, legislation and resources related to industry]

Wed, 24 Dec 2003 03:20:50 GMT

NY Times: "The federal government said this evening that the first suspected case of so-called mad cow disease had been discovered in the United States." [Scripting News]

Tue, 23 Dec 2003 20:04:33 GMT

Canadian Liberal party trying to shut down political parody site with crappy Trademark claims. I'm off to catch a plane, but before I go, I had to post this. Bullies from the Canadian Liberal party are strong-arming a parodist who has put up a political site to make fun of the Prime Minister. This (should be) a national embarrassment: Canadian journalists should be covering this story.

I woke up on Wednesday morning to a phone call from a friendly guy named Tim, who informed me that I had one hour to take down the website, PaulMartinTime.ca, or he would set the lawyers loose on our asses (that's not a quote, but it's an accurate summary).
In between his friendly but businesslike remarks, he dropped a few remarks intended to make me nervous. He said, for example, that he "had a little trouble getting through privacy.ca, but they're no longer supporting your cause." If we had in fact been using privacy.ca, that would be pure power-play. It would mean that he had intimidated (legally or otherwise) a company whose function it is to protect the identity of people who use it into breaking its sole mandate. As it turns out, we don't use privacy.ca; the address of Rob Maguire, the person who registered paulmartintime.ca, is publically available, for all with an internet connection to see.

Link [Boing Boing Blog]

Thu, 18 Dec 2003 06:21:37 GMT

Alberta technology for tracking metabolic screening province-wide wins national technology award [News - Government of Alberta]

Wed, 17 Dec 2003 19:55:51 GMT

Public land bill gets another look [CBC Edmonton]

Wed, 17 Dec 2003 19:53:49 GMT

Great North Productions shutting down [CBC Edmonton]

Wed, 17 Dec 2003 19:50:23 GMT

Albertans invited to provide input on e-waste recycling program [Canadian Environmental.com - Environmental management information, legislation and resources related to industry]

Tue, 16 Dec 2003 14:56:23 GMT

Alberta Iraqis rejoice in Saddam's capture [CBC Edmonton]

Sun, 14 Dec 2003 20:46:17 GMT

Christine grapplin' for Olympic gold [Edmonton Journal - canada.com network]

Sun, 14 Dec 2003 01:05:11 GMT

Time is Running Out for Alberta Grizzlies [AWA: News Releases 2003]

Sun, 14 Dec 2003 01:04:43 GMT

Bighorn Saved from Increased Helicopter Activity [AWA: News Releases 2003]

Sun, 14 Dec 2003 01:02:51 GMT

McLellan new deputy PM [Edmonton Journal - canada.com network]

Sat, 13 Dec 2003 05:51:16 GMT

Alberta bison going 'home' [CBC Edmonton]

Sat, 13 Dec 2003 05:15:02 GMT

Government unveils public-safety department [Mapleleafweb.com: News Watch - Canadian Current Events Headlines From Across Canada and the World]

Sat, 13 Dec 2003 05:14:33 GMT

McLellan vaults to top of Martin's cabinet list [Mapleleafweb.com: News Watch - Canadian Current Events Headlines From Across Canada and the World]

Sun, 07 Dec 2003 02:43:11 GMT

Researchers develop spice to fight salmonella [CBC Calgary]

Sun, 07 Dec 2003 02:42:40 GMT

Heritage Classic jerseys bring in $50,000 [CBC Edmonton]

Sun, 07 Dec 2003 02:41:05 GMT

Gretzky jersey fetches $26,000 [Local News - Calgary - canada.com network]

Sun, 07 Dec 2003 02:38:57 GMT

Edmonton wins $50M national health centre [Edmonton Journal - canada.com network]

Fri, 05 Dec 2003 05:40:07 GMT

$1B oil upgrader gets go-ahead [Edmonton Journal - canada.com network]

Fri, 05 Dec 2003 05:38:23 GMT

Best game by Edmonton group [The Edmonton Sun]

Fri, 05 Dec 2003 05:35:39 GMT

Province unveils plan to reduce air pollution [CBC Calgary]

Fri, 05 Dec 2003 05:34:31 GMT

Province to take most learning recommendations [CBC Calgary]

Fri, 05 Dec 2003 05:24:35 GMT

NWN - Hordes of the Underdark in Stores. morcego writes "BioWare has done it again. Another expansion pack for Neverwinter Nights has been released. This time, it's Hordes of the Underdark, in case ... [Slashdot]

Wed, 03 Dec 2003 02:29:47 GMT

$1,000 reward for bald eagle killer [CBC Edmonton]

Wed, 03 Dec 2003 02:14:12 GMT

Take Off, Eh! Stubbies are back, no way, man!Take off, eh!

Brewer's bringing back stubbies, eh! [Local News - Calgary - canada.com network]

Wed, 03 Dec 2003 01:49:37 GMT

Suncor splashes out [The Edmonton Sun]

Sat, 29 Nov 2003 23:13:10 GMT

Conservation vital to preserve Albertaís water supply [Canadian Environmental.com - Environmental management information, legislation and resources related to industry]

Sat, 29 Nov 2003 23:12:45 GMT

Public open houses for Whaleback region protected areas [Canadian Environmental.com - Environmental management information, legislation and resources related to industry]

Sat, 29 Nov 2003 23:12:21 GMT