Category: bad news

George Bush is NOT the problem

On By Rick McIn bad news, economics, governmentLeave a comment

For the real brains behind the Republican Party, Bush is perfect.

A perfect fall guy.

A simplistic diversion distracting the general public from what’s really going on.

What’s “really going on”?

The rich are stuffing their pockets full of money taxpayers dollars while the getting is good. It won’t be as easy when the Democrats come in.

The best example I can cite is a wonderful 60 minutes expose:

Perhaps the greatest convergance of corrupt activities in Washington over the past few years occurred during the debate and passage of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003.

The story in a nutshell is that lobbyists wrote a one thousand page bill that was introduced hours before congressmen voted on it. The vote was then held open for three hours – the longest vote in the history of the House of Representatives – instead of the normal and required 15 minutes.

During the open vote the Republican majority twisted arms and used threats and bribes to gain votes for the bill. (Later, Tom DeLay and other Republican congressmen would be admonished by the Ethics Committee for their actions.)

When the bill was passed and signed by the President all of the main actors who helped pass the bill went to work for the pharmaceutical industry.

In Broad Daylight

Big Drugs literally “bought” U.S. Politicians with millions of dollars of cash.

This is the problem. Lobbyists run Washington.

Click here to watch the shocking video clip on Crooks and Liars: A Question of Corruption

North American Free Trade Zone – not quite!

On By Rick McIn bad news, economicsLeave a comment

In the 1990s we bought gymnastics video tapes from the States. They were delivered to Canada with NO EXTRA CHARGES.

Free trade, you might call it.

Then, increasingly, the packages were held up by customs. I had to drive down to an office and pay a fee to take delivery. (Or convince the agent it was “educational materials”, exempt.)

At the same time I could buy from Amazon.com, no problems. These days I am afraid to have Amazon ship from the USA to Canada as my deliveries MIGHT be held up. (My purchases are mailed to friends in the States, instead.)

I’ve often wondered what’s going wrong with “free trade”.

UPS is the world’s largest delivery company.

But expect to get DINGED when you use them to deliver from the USA to Canada:

The normal procedure for importing goods from the U.S. for residential customers in Canada is relatively simple. They are required to pay 6% GST on the item, plus a $5 or $8 CAN handling fee collected by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) on behalf of Canada Post.

This applies for items greater than $20 CAN and gifts greater than $60 CAN in value. UPS brokers or clear the item through the CBSA and transfers a cost to the buyer.

These fees are not disclosed at the time of purchase by the seller as many sellers from the U.S. are themselves unaware of this.

As a result , there have been two class-action lawsuits filed against UPS by Canadians. The first one filed in October, 2006 by Robert Macfarlane, a resident of British Columbia alleges that the UPS brokerage is “so harsh and adverse as to constitute an unconscionable practice.”

The second filed by Ryan Wright and Julia Zislin in Ontario claims “that UPS failed to obtain consumers’ consent to act as a customs broker; to disclose the existence and/or amount of the brokerage fee; and to provide consumers with the opportunity or disclose to them how to arrange for customs clearance by themselves.”

It is possible for the recipient to avoid these brokerage fees if the parcel is being shipped by an “express” service [4], that is, another service than UPS Standard (Ground), the most widely used.

UPS – Wikipedia

sourcefree-trade.jpg

Yes, I realize this specific problem to which I refer is caused by the Canadian government. But if George Bush was a proper right-wing politician, he should have been fighting to eliminate stupid trade barriers like this fee on both sides of the border.

world record Halibut

On By Rick McIn bad news, McCharles familyLeave a comment

How did we do on the Father’s Day fishing trip?

world-record.jpg

The big three as far as my Dad is concerned:

1. Halibut
2. Salmon
3. Ling Cod

We went for Halibut and — aside from the World Record — were shut out.

The Canadian Princess charter boats out of Bamfield want to fish the rich waters off Long Beach, Vancouver Island.

But after 45min of near seasickness in high wind and waves, we gave up and retreated to the protected waters of the Broken Island group.

There we jigged for bottom fish. And 19 licensed salmon slayers took only 2 salmon and 14 more smallish prizes home to eat.

Dad caught three. Meself, one. All released back to the sea to grow larger. Or be taken by bald eagle.

Worst charter day yet with Princess for my Dad. (Aside from the World Record.)

freaking awesome photo technology

On By Rick McIn bad news, good news, Google, photosLeave a comment

People are irate because Google is driving around in vans capturing digital images, putting them on the internet. It’s called Google Street View.

That’s just the start.

I’d posted something previously on Microsoft Live Labs Photosynth technology. But to see an update click PLAY or watch the short video clip on YouTube.

If you like Photosynth, you’ll be even more amazed by software called Seadragon, also acquired by Microsoft.

Check THAT DEMO at the beginning of a longer video from this year’s TED conference linked on ModernHiker.

The future’s going to be really, really cool.

No privacy of any kind, though.

newspapers still downsizing

On By Rick McIn bad news, internetLeave a comment

My buddy Tom works for a very influential newspaper in California.

He and his colleagues are facing layoffs.

me2.jpg

… finally, a newspaper executive says publicly what I’ve been thinking for the past couple years: the newspaper biz is broken, badly, and has to be transformed into something else — something, …

… All across the newspaper biz, papers are seeing, for the first time, declining revenues. Used to be they could charge higher prices for ads and subscriptions because people had no choice but to pay. Now they have a choice, and that choice is biting our business in the butt cheeks.

In the old days, newspapers made so much money that they could print pretty much anything they wanted in their news columns. It got Nixon tossed out of office but it also created an environment where people got out of the habit of fighting and scratching to hold an audience. We’ve all got flabby beer guts where our save-the-industry washboard abs need to be. …

Yeah, things look bleak today. And they’ll get worse in a couple weeks when more of us get our walking papers. And it won’t be easy trying to save a business with the people who got us in this fix to begin with. Newspapers used to be like the communist bloc before the Berlin Wall fell: they had a monopoly that gave them short-term power, but the corruption of power was eating away at their prospects for long-term survivability.

Well, the Wall has fallen.

Trying to build something from the rubble will be some fun, I expect. Am I worried about getting the ax? Not really. There are other ways of making a living. If I am shown the door, well, all I can say is, good luck rescuing the patient without people who believe the patient’s life is worth saving.

I’m not giving up on newspapers till they give up on me.

Busy being born: June 2007 Archives

I’m not worried for Tom. He’s perfectly placed as editor of a popular hiking blog to be part of the future news business model.

robots with weapons = progress

On By Rick McIn bad news, humour, robotsLeave a comment

I’ve cautioned that robots will take over the Earth.

In fact, Battlestar Galactica may foretell the future. The Cylons are yet taking baby steps:

The bad news: the U.S. military has commissioned a robot helicopter equipped with a rifle capable “of tracking and killing a particular individual.” The good news: the “particular individual” could be Geraldo Rivera.

And in what it calls an effort to “ease tensions,” South Korea is moving ahead with plans to post robot sentries along its border with the North — because really, nothing eases tensions between two historic rivals quite like the deployment of robots equipped with night-vision sensors and machine guns that open fire at the slightest hint of movement.

… The big hit of the recent RoboBusiness Conference in Boston was the unveiling of the Battlefield Extraction-Assist Robot, or BEAR, from Vecna Robotics. This robot has a balancing system that allows it to crouch and race across a battlefield at up to 35 km/h to retrieve a wounded soldier and bring him to medics, before going back to fetch the four other soldiers it ran over and crushed while saving the first guy.

Macleans.ca – Canada – Opinions | Ladies and gents, I present to you: the apocalypse

Robocop Trilogy

the future of advertising …

On By Rick McIn bad news, economics, musicLeave a comment

Might well be worse than what we have now.

Unavoidable.

For example, here’s a mashup of Prince’s new single “Guitar” with a Verizon Wireless ad.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

How soon will this get old?

I already miss good old product placement.

Iraq exit strategy?

On By Rick McIn bad news, governmentLeave a comment

Go big, go long, or go home?

The worst part of this “liberation” for Iraquis is yet to come, I fear.

Going big — the “surge” — has not worked, so far as I can see.

Going long, like the 54-years-and-counting Korean American military presence is likely the best option.

I don’t think that will happen. Some American politician, sooner or later, will decide to Quit Iraq.

Going home. Long lines of American vehicles and tens of thousands of refugees moving slowly toward the Kuwait border. That’s the exit I expect.

Sound familiar?

fall-of-saigon.jpg
Fall of Saigon

It will likely get bloody in Iraq as the Americans drive away. Strong men will fight it out to replace Saddam.

I was just as gloomy about South Africa when the ANC assumed power. But the anticipated blood bath did not occur.

Hopefully I’m just as wrong about Iraq.

most disturbing robot ever – baby Cylon?

On By Rick McIn bad news, robotsLeave a comment

The Japanese Science and Technology Agency should start working on constucting Battlestars next.

Apparently it emulates “the physical ability of a 1- or 2-year-old toddler, can turn over and stand up with assistance,” has 51 compressed air-powered actuators, and has 200 tactile sensors in its “skin.”

It sends so many shivers up our spine to think of the CB2’s lifeless putty coating as “skin” that it’s a wonder we’re even able to continue typing.

CB2 Child Robot is possibly the most disturbing machine ever built – Engadget

cb2-child-robot.jpg

More photos and video on Tokyo Times.

kids OVERPROTECTED in 2007

On By Rick McIn bad news, health & fitness, philosophy, sport - amateurLeave a comment

I posed this question on my gymnastics blog. And got a big reaction from a number of coaches.

Everyone (so far) agrees that our kids are suffering long-term from not being more challenged.

I’m not looking for SPARTA, but it is time for a backlash. The benefits gymnastics coaches and parents see in competitive gymnasts are exactly those needed by all children.

Wordsmith from Nantucket wrote:

I think the fear of lawsuits has dictated much of what I consider to be “bad” changes in our society. It’s insulated us from “hurting ourselves”, but in so doing, has disarmed us of the tools we would otherwise develop as part of the maturation process in dealing with life…with learning to cope with adversity and conflict.

It’s similar to how we developed all these anti-bacterial products, from soap to baby toys – all in the hopes that it would protect us from getting sick. But exposure to some sicknesses, early on in life, is what makes our immune system stronger. ….

Here are some articles and studies that might be of interest:

Yep, life’ll burst that self-esteem bubble”

Enough already with kid-gloves

The Power and Perils of Praising your kids

I really do think that there is something about our society (at least what I see with kids here in Los Angeles) that is developing soft, mushy kids. Emotionally and physically. ….

Read the post and the rest of the comments.

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source – New York Magazine