From Cork to Toronto

Slashdot discusses the Wall Street Journal's reporting on the vanishing of fact-checking in publishing , following the Oprah-James Frey controversy. Apparently publishers don't make enough money to check facts and the publisher of Frey's book was lauded for "taking one for the team" following Oprah's tongue-lashing . This all makes criticisms of Wikipedia , which survives on donations, rather amusing in their ferocity when the so-called professionals aren't doing it and the printed word is much harder to amend once released. This is not to say Wikipedia shouldn't get it right and keep doing so, merely that relying on the word of Doubleday as a primary reference source doesn't seem safe either. The Minneapolis-St Paul StarTribune reminds us of their 2003 reporting of questions about Frey's book which makes the publisher's defence rather less tenable. The verdict from one Slashdot user: "Money has a strong influence on the weak minde...

It's amusing to see the flailings of NOW to try defending those it loves (primarily David Miller and his new press spokesman, formerly of that publication) including Buzz Hargrove, who is quoted in this week's issue that strategic voting was a success. This comes as a surprise to most NDPers (the ones wearing "Buzz off, I'm voting NDP" buttons) who are saying so publicly. I imagine Sid Ryan is saying so too - beaten by a Tory thanks to that brilliant CAW voting trick. That said I have little sympathy for smug Adam Giambrone and the guy he couldn't get elected, Gord Perks who did not give up his eye soapbox for the campaign. NOW is positively apoplectic at the thought of Marilyn Churley running against Hizzoner and possibly letting in Jane Pitfield on a split vote - can't see it happening myself once she calms down, and anyway Jack did her the most damage by evicting her into Beaches-East York. If anyone saw me on a Thursday evening plucking NOW from th...

One is always torn about how to react to the boorishness that emanates from the Sexational Sindo , whether it be that 03 team of scantily clad yoofs or the ever declining quality of Brendan O'Connor's output. Does one merely treat it as background noise, albeit one bought in distressingly large quantities, or try and divine whether new lows have been reached . We used to define ourselves in terms of fairly well run nations (and Italy) but apparently if Eilis O'Hanlon is to be believed , anything is acceptable as long as it's worse in Estonia or India or Poland. President Obasanjo of Nigeria's outrage towards "unBiblical" homosexuality would be better directed against the practise of female genital mutilation in his country , for instance, by Christians as well as other religions. I mean, crikey, there are some total basket cases in the world, Haiti and Iraq coming first to mind, but that doesn't make those our law and order baseline surely? As long ...

Sicilian Notes has been monopolising most of Mental Meanderings' output this weekend, which means we got no post-game report on Amelie Mauresmo's first grand slam title . Some controversy about the manner of her win , although it seems she had her own problems to contend with . That said, if ever needing a reason to watch a French woman on telly, I'd sooner watch the news .

Earlier this week I wrote about the impending (hell, current) power crunch in Ontario. Yesterday's Star has an editorial and today quotes Premier McGuinty on the issue of the city's power future. One of the statements it makes is quite stunning - that no power is generated in the City of Toronto. It's also not quite true - all over the city various facilities such as hospitals have generators which could be used to maintain city power at crisis points if the means to exchange power with the grid existed, and sufficient safeguards were built into the system to ensure the generator could isolate itself from the grid to protect the facility it is powering if the grid itself becomes unstable. Power grids generally are quite old-school in their lack of flexibility compared to telecoms which are accelerating towards fully distributed operation. The ideal is for power to be produced as near its users as possible, to enable communities to be more self-sufficient and the gri...

Can't help but feel the best reaction the "international community" (there's a joke) could have to the recent Palestinian election is to ignore the fact of who was elected and pretend it's really still Fatah in power, sticking their fingers in their ears and shouting LALALALALA if someone says the H-word . If the Shinners are any guide, the best way of neutering them is to turn them into, essentially, class traitors by drowning them in money, ministries and motorcades. There will always the residual "Ruairi Bin Bradaigh" types left screaming for martyrdom but the "Peace Process" moved faster in NI when the ban on having Grizzly Adams on the telly was lifted and even faster once they got into Stormont.

On the Macleans blogs, Paul Wells discusses what it means to "take complete responsibility" for a disaster from the perspective of Liberal strategists by means of comparison to stock Scooby-Doo plots. It's an entertaining read but hardly novel, as resigning and meaning it as opposed to hoping it will be shortly forgotten ( David Blunkett , Peter Mandelson ) or just plain brazening it out ( Harinder Takhar ) is the modern way of things. The last resignation on the grounds of taking responsibility I can recall was Lord Carrington for failing to foresee/prevent the Argentine invasion of the Falklands in 1982 . Still, worth a look I think.

For any of you who think I think I'm posting dirt about Dick Cheney's old firm , (spelled Halliburton) move along, nothing to see here :) I refer to Haliburton, Ontario , a gorgeous part of the world 220km northeast of here I was fortunate to spend this weekend on due to the generosity of our hosts whose family have a cottage in the area.

There's an ongoing kerfuffle about nuclear power plants here in Ontario, refitting old ones and building new ones. There is an unhappy history of capital cost overruns and dubious reliability of the ones that get built, not to mention that it is de facto corporate welfare for AECL - and last week's West Wing won't help either . Windfarms are starting to happen but not at the rate of the anti-nuke crowd's paragon, Germany. There is also conservation, where some folk say if only we used less power we'd be fine. The name of the last update to the building code which imposes optional standards for energy efficiency is R-2000 which gives you an idea of how old the standard one is. Premier McGuinty's promise of shutting all coal fired plants will place massive stress on a grid which doesn't have enough power as it is, and residents groups are successfully opposing new gas plants in Mississauga and t he portlands of Toronto. As supply is falling with the en...

Sadly in addition to "reality" tv the other thing media folk have discovered is really cheap to produce hours and hours of is stuff you used to talk about in the pub with your mates - who's the best ever punk band or could Spiderman "take" Batman or was de Valera a better leader than Julius Caesar . Now we have the best song ever or the Greatest Canadian (a knockoff of yet another disease spawned in England, like Pop Idol (of which more later) and the Weakest Link ). The CBC thinks that Tommy Douglas was voted greatest Canadian because of medicare but really he got votes because he's related to Kiefer . Anyway, Paige responded to my post on Sonia O'Sullivan , mentioning her post on Roy Keane's selection as greatest Irish sports star ever. Due to Roy's involvement in seven of the eight Premiership titles Manchester United have won since Liverpool last won an English League title, Dunner was naturally quick off the mark in joining Paige in ...

On Boxing Day 2005, white middle class Toronto got a wake up call with the death of Jane Creba , a student shopping downtown, killed by a stray bullet from lowlifes trying to off each other. Toronto's something of a sleepy place though and it already looks to me (and Dunner) like the snooze button has been hit - black people getting shot in poor areas of the city are treated as background noise. However, for that few days, talk was all about policing the border more strictly, searching more often for weapons and arming the currently unarmed (save for pepper spray) Canada Border Services agents. Now, the US-Canadian border is a pretty funny place. The US is big on hauling non US/Canadian citizens into the office for a chat and also enquiring about meat or dairy. The Canadian side gives the impression of being all Customs and Revenue and no Immigration. It's kinda like when I arrived at Cork airport a while back and the Irish posters are all about farming stuff like bovin...

The Irish media is buzzing in the wake of the sentencing phase of a criminal case at Ennis Court, in which 11 year old Robert Holohan, died and a neighbour, Wayne O'Donoghue (20 at the time I understand) was charged with his murder. The jury acquitted on the murder charge but convicted of manslaughter. The judge in the case, imposed a four year sentence (of which one year has already been served), stating that previous judgements of his imposing harsher sentences had been reversed on appeal and he was not going to go head to head with the Court of Criminal Appeal this time. With remission he is likely to be released at the end of 2007. Now, I'm not going to get into the two issues causing the buzz, namely the reluctance of the prosecution to introduce evidence relating to semen found on the body , and the victim impact statement delivered by the victim's mother , which is alleged to be at variance with the version shown to defence counsel, in which several allegations we...

Apparently Sonia O'Sullivan has acquired Australian citizenship so she can try out for Australia in the Commonwealth Games 5,000 metres (for those readers who don't know, Ireland has not been in the Commonwealth since the 40s). The games are being held in Melbourne in March where she has a home. She has pledged to never run against Ireland however. I have no doubt she will be as top an Aussie as she is an Corkonian.

one (small) step forward has to be accompanied by two (large) steps backward . I can only hope for another humiliating defeat in Zappone in the same vein as Norris . What a great thing to hope for one's country :( UPDATE: Three steps backward. RTE have updated the first link to say there will not in fact be possible cautions for cannabis possession.

So there's more of us in Toronto... this lad seems very distressed by the events mentioned in this post though...

Well, I'm definitely showing some naivete in the early going . There seems to be as much chance of a Tory ever being elected in Scarborough as the cRaptors winning the NBA championship. Especially as Lee , Karygiannis , John McKay and Wappel are on Tory ground on the issue of same-sex marriage and Cannis wants the Khadrs deported (even the ones who are Canadian). The Toronto Sun probably doesn't have much problem with them. The only problem is that means both major subway projects pass through incredibly solid Liberal territory. The only transit authority in the GTA with legitimate hopes under this 905/519 government is GO Transit .

The CBC website is moaning that election coverage can't start until 10pm Eastern time . That's because that's when the polls in British Columbia close (7pm Pacific time). CBC stations in various parts of Canada are allowed to post results from polls closed so far, so in Ontario they will be allowed broadcast results from 9.30 eastern, but BC stations will be showing something else until 10. It eludes me what is to be gained by publicising the results while people anywhere in Canada are still going to the polls , as they used at the last election. Even if polls in Ontario are not closing now until 30 minutes before, it's a principle which should be protected. I also think returning officers should be precluded from releasing any results in progress until this time, so the Newfs would just have to wait for their counterparts on the other coast. Better yet - don't count until the following day. Just because something is technically possible doesn't mean it ...

This guy certainly exercised his franchise . That much exercise makes me feel tired sitting here!

An early reminder not to take this thing too seriously .

In yesterday's Star, they reprinted in part a column from Faith Today magazine (www.christianity.ca) , asking the party leaders registered with Elections Canada "What role do you think faith should play in developing public policy, and what is the place of religious institutions in contemporary Canadian society?" Paul Martin: "Since becoming Prime Minister in December 2003" - yes Paul we know. What's worse, it feels like it's been ten years already. He reminds us he met the Dalai Lama , not at Sussex Drive but at the RC Archbishop of Ottawa's pad . Yes, the PM is so fearless in defence of religious liberty, his fear of losing AECL Chinese nuclear contracts and other goodies means he hadn't the stones to have one old guy in a sheet visit his own house. NEXT! Stephen Harper: "the notion of separation (of church and state) refers to the state not interfering in religious practice and treating all faith communities impartially". Well,...

No thanks to Rogers Digital TV Guide or Friday's Toronto Star, I finally found out United v Liverpool was actually being shown this morning. Sunday's paper finally had it right. After Burton Albion were dispatched during the week by Joe the Yank et al, today Rio Ferdinand decided to make himself useful . Maybe he's figured out finally that with big money comes big responsibility? Why does second place to ChelsKGB seem so dire? It's probably the knowledge of how bad things would be without Mighty Mouth and the Dutch contingent up front and right at the back . It's also a forboding as to how bad things might be for Scholes . It's always cheering to see the Scousers emotionally crushed with a last minute winner (shades of Eric ), but surely a lot of the current squad (Fortune, Silvestre, John O'Shea if he doesn't improve smartly) will be seeking new homes next season, even though one who will surely be dumped should never have to leave, and appa...

Okay, I think we've lulled them enough now . Another disaster on Monday in Scotiabank Place (so far from downtown Ottawa it might as well be in Nova Scotia) and maybe Pat really will be in trouble .

Cork airport 's never had it easy really. Stuck on top of a hill, public transport links dubious, god awful when it rains. Runway 17/35 maybe a little short for direct transatlantic, and too sloping over the end for a Category III instrument landing system . 07/25 cut off by the Kinsale Road so only for the smallies. Fog all the time, cue excursions to Kerry, Dublin and Shannon. Meanwhile the airport gains its (kind of) independence from Dublin but loses key personnel, promised airbridges and promised debt-free beginnings. But it's Cork's and not doing too badly in attracting more traffic, especially since Jetmagic persuaded Aer Lingus that people actually wanted to go somewhere other than Heathrow and Amsterdam. We were getting a new terminal which hopefully wouldn't involve incoming passengers to wait on the apron in the freezing cold/wet/wind because of an overflowing immigration queue, missing flights because of check-in queues etc. Michael O'Leary offere...

I'm sure Joe Mihevc thought he was doing his NDP mates a favour when the TTC commissioner said the Tories 16% tax deduction for transit would merely be the spur for the TTC to hike fares by the same figure . Instead he looked spiteful at the prospect of a looming Harper administration, and while he might have every right to fear it, he may have done his cause more harm than good, at a time when he might have been expected to keep his head down after his less than deft stick-handling of the St. Clair Right-Of-Way. The only surprise is that if a TTC commissioner was likely to say something stupid, it wasn't the Chair . Michael Roschlau, president and chief executive officer of the Canadian Urban Transit Association told the Toronto Star existing vehicles are full up at rush hour . Someone should tell the TTC to stop adding riders . My thinking on this is that a tax credit gets people out of cars. This is a good thing - people who can afford to park downtown definitely p...

It beats pestering the Letters editors of the various Toronto and Irish newspapers with my spleen I suppose. Never thought this blog thing would keep going - in fact now I've given in and started one seems like about time it died... back in the days of Mosaic it was so much harder to interest people in Tim Berners-Lee 's invention and now you can't pry them off it. There's just too many things that just bug me - especially during this federal election campaign as I still have taxation without representation, (roll on 2008) but even if I did have a vote, there's just no place for a socially liberal fiscal conservative. The lunatics have taken over the asylum . The incumbents are floundering and attempting to buy off all and sundry, forgetting that's what got them in trouble in the first place. Then there's the other crowd who constantly display their schizophrenia, really wanting to be fluffy bunnies but unwilling to forgo their buddies in Big Auto , ...