Archive for the 'Recommended Reading' Category

Maija’s contractions started in earnest this morning, and within 45 minutes we were on our way to the hospital (leaving uncooked cookie dough on the kitchen counter… shock!)

Upon arrival, the midwives seemed to relax just a little when they found out it was our first child. “This’ll take some time” I’m sure they were thinking. Until they checked Maija out, and found she was already 8cm dilated. This baby’s coming out!

2 hours later… for a total of 4 hours labour… James Eden Puddle!

Born naturally and healthy, with a full head of red hair! Just like his uncle. 2.9kg… 6.3lbs. Mum and baby are doing great.

Following on from my last post, a good friend sent me this article in Macleans. Here’s a snippet:

THERE IS nothing wrong with minority governments, per se. It depends what kind of minority. Do we want the kinds of minority Parliaments we have had in recent years, a clutch of hobbled regional or quasi-regional parties, fingers perpetually on the button, endlessly threatening to pitch us all into another pointless election in the vain hope that, if the swing voters can be distracted in their direction, if the splits go their way, if they can demean and belittle their opponents enough, if they can depress turnout even further than before, they might just fluke their way into a majority? Or will we accept that, whatever the ancient glories of the two-party system, it no longer exists?

If we must have five-party politics, let them at least be parties with real differences, and national appeal. Away with the system that guarantees the Bloc two-thirds of the seats in Quebec on the strength of little more than one-third of the vote. Away with the ghettos of Conservative Alberta, or Liberal Toronto, where it is scarcely worth campaigning, so predictable are the results. Away with “strategic voting,” and other attempts to tell people they may not vote for the party they support, but must vote against the party they fear. Away with the disgraceful situation of a party winning almost a million votes, as the Greens did this time out, and getting zero seats.

Indeed, when you think about it, many of the problems identified in this piece have their origins in the perverse incentives of our highly leveraged, winner-take-all electoral system. Why have the Tories degenerated into mush? Because they face no competition on the right, Reform-style uprisings being more or less outlawed for fear of “splitting the vote.” Why did the Liberals ignore their growing weakness all these years? Because they could still count on the bizarre distortions of first-past-the-post to reap a bushel of seats from one region or another. Why has the Bloc become an immovable blot on the national scene, long after its original purpose was exhausted? Ditto. Why have majority governments become next to impossible? Why has politics degenerated into such vicious, empty partisanship? Why do so many people no longer bother to vote? Because the system is broken, and if this election won’t persuade us to change it, nothing will.

If you’ve been following Canadian politics at all, you’ll know the last month has seen some very interesting headlines. I’m convinced now more than ever, that what Canada needs most is electoral reform. The current system of election is so remarkably unrepresentative of the population’s desires, that it’s no wonder we end up with back to back no-confidence votes and posturing to take over the government. No matter who you support, I believe you owe it to yourself to examine the way our government is elected, and to look at the alternatives.

Fair Vote Canada is a nonprofit, multi-partisan advocacy group for electoral reform in Canada. They published a paper back in 2005, on making Every Vote count, which you can read here. If that links goes down, I’m hosting a copy here as well. I encourage everyone to read it in it’s entirety, to gain an understanding of the voting alternatives, allowing you to decide for yourself if you think we’re currently being represented fairly.

(We’re not, by the way.)

One of things I’m most looking forward to about having a baby is the unavoidable Lego, once the baby levels-up to child.

Gizmodo have yet another exclusive Lego video. I don’t recall if I posted the last one… I can’t find it here when I search. Here’s the links. Anyway, the new video is a demo of the minifig assembly process. Quite impressive.

First, the raw plastic material is put into the molds to create all the parts: the head, the torso, the minuscule hands, the hips, and the left and right arms and legs, plus any minifig complements, like helmets or tools.

• The head and torsos are always decorated. This is a complicated process that makes the minifig the most expensive part of any Lego set. This is why sets like the Death Star diorama are among the most expensive. The stamping of the colors is usually made in several passes. In older times, the faces always had the same designs. Today, however, they have different features that require different layers (personally, I like the classic ones more than the ones with different faces).

• Once they are decorated, the torsos are put into the body assembly machine, where the left and right arms are put into them mechanically. The same machine then places the hands inside the arms with absolute precision at lightning speed.

• The torsos are then taken to the packaging production line, where they are put together in the bags along with the head, hair/helmet/hat, and legs with hips. Before, the machines also connected the heads and legs, so the Lego aficionado would find the minifig complete inside the box. Now, however, this is left for the player except for the vintage minifig set, which comes with the minifigs completely built.

Your account has been disabled by an administrator. If you have any questions or concerns, you can visit our FAQ page here.

I’ve decided there are too many fan pages for people I think it’s silly to declare yourself a fan of. The catalyst for me has been Christian leaders and teachers. These are good people we assume, maybe I would be even be a supporter of them. But I’m not a FAN of anyone of them anymore than I am a fan of my wife, or many of my friends. In fact, there are many who I agree with theologically but am NOT a fan of at all!

So I did the only thing I could do under the circumstance and created fan pages for a number of my friends. Normal people. I am truly fans of them. I encourage you to do the same.

Just don’t do it as fast as I did, cause Facebook will shut down your operation (see above).

I feel quite a bit like that.

Due February 5th, 2009

Words… = fail

Carbon neutrality and general care of the environment is something Maija and I have been getting into more and more. Maija is very likely changing her thesis topic to something politically environmental, for reasons that will become public soon. A part of our interest in sustainability is due to moving to Finland, where everyone cares about the environment. We break our garbage into 5 groups for recycling… not because we’re especially good people but that’s what our housing complex provides :) I like it here. It’s just the normal thing, to take care of your surroundings.

Laura and Tom Kolbasenko are cool people in Toronto, who I know from working with Laura. There’s a great write up in the Toronto Sun on what their company, Our Cool Blue, is doing. When we eventually need a house, perhaps I will have them design it for us.