Have we gone too far... or not far enough?

Stand Alone.

In today's National Post, Rex Murphy writes an op-ed piece on how universities are failing our young, failing society really.

He goes on to suggest that universities have set up intellectual quarantines lest the immature and frightened be made uncomfortable or to feel unwelcome.

He questions whether universities are in fact schools or daycares.

And finishes off his paragraph with Giving into such adolescent whimpering is despicable; giving in to in on a university campus is unforgivable.

I find it hard to disagree with him.

The comments on the Post's Facebook page have fallen into name calling and accusations of Big Oil influencing Murphy.

I kid thee not.

Have we, as a people, really forgotten what it means to educate? What it means to disagree? Have we lost all respect for those simply because someone may have a different opinion that us?

How about this... are we now falling over backwards to avoid disagreement?
Or what about this... are we afraid of being labelled intolerant? Afraid of being called Islamaphobic?

That's right, the article is about how Brandeis University in Massachusetts had first offered an honourary degree to a world renown "advocate for women’s rights under Islam", Ayaan Hirsi Ali (full name: Ayaan Hirsi Magan Isse Guleid Ali Wai’ays Muhammad Ali Umar Osman Mahamud), then rescinded it after an outcry from the Council on American–Islamic Relations, a controversial organization that deals with Islamic advocacy issues.

Ms. Ali is a Somali-born American (formerly Dutch) women's rights and atheist activist, writer and politician who is known for her views critical of female genital mutilation and Islam.

"Hirsi Ali is the remarkable woman whose life story she has told in three books (Infidel, The Caged Virgin and Nomad). Born among the poorest of the poor in Somalia, genitally mutilated at the age of five, a refugee as a young woman fleeing an arranged marriage, she immigrated to the Netherlands and in but a few years, having learned the language, became a distinguished member of parliament."
In other words, this is a woman unafraid of those who would oppose her views on women's rights. Someone who deserves our support and admiration.

"Her friend Theo van Gogh, a locally famous filmmaker, made a short film (Submission) on Islam and women. Shortly after he was stabbed to death, murdered in a public street, and a note threatening Hirsi Ali was pinned — with a knife — to the dying man’s chest. It read in part: “Ayaan Hirsi Ali, you will break yourself to pieces on Islam.”"
You may remember that event, he was shot eight times by his killer, had his throat cut, almost decapitated with "a large knife, after which he stabbed the knife deep into Van Gogh's chest, reaching his spinal cord. He then attached a note to the body with a smaller knife. Van Gogh died on the spot. The two knives were left implanted. The note was addressed and contained a death threat to Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who was subsequently forced to go into hiding, threatened Western countries and Jews and also referred to the ideologies of the Egyptian organization Takfir wal-Hijra".

Yet still she refused to submit.

"In 2005, she was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. She has also received several awards, including a free speech award from the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, the Swedish Liberal Party's Democracy Prize, and the Moral Courage Award for commitment to conflict resolution, ethics, and world citizenship. In 2006 she published a memoir. The English translation in 2007 is titled Infidel. As of 2013 Hirsi Ali is a fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, a member of The Future of Diplomacy Project at the Belfer Center."

Someone with credentials... someone who knows what it means to live a life of inequality, a life of suppression.

But no, instead of 'standing up' to a little criticism the school of 'higher learning' caves.

All for one?

A few weeks back there someone made a remark that it was 'amazing' how we now have 2mm camera's on mosquito's. He was very serious, and despite my politely disagreeing with him, and pointing out that in fact, it was the manufactured bug itself that was being used by governments, he make 'upset' and was "offended." Yup, he was offended that I disagreed with him.

At that point I simply smiled at him and put my head back into the book I was reading, I knew there was no point. Didn't stop him though, nope. I was 'this and that', 'ignorant and unclean'(?). and on it went.

For weeks.
...
:l

And this typifies what our society has indeed come to. We shut-up lest we 'offend' someone. I miss the time of healthy debate, sitting around a kitchen table (remember those parties?) and yakking for hours on end, about anything and everything.

No more, now we must conform, hold the same ideas and ideals, the same goals... all for one and all for one. Stand up for what you believe in at your own risk.

Read the article, click those links. Educate yourself, your children (above all educate your children) to question everything and everyone.

Before it's too late... Read More...

Bacon at the AGO

Yesterday was the members preview at the AGO for the BaconMoore exhibit.

It also happened to be the day that Ali and I decided to go to the AGO.

Yes indeed, the day we go to the AGO is the day that bacon is prevalent. How fitting is that?

"Although they were neither friends nor collaborators, painter Francis Bacon (1909-1992) and sculptor Henry Moore (1898-1986) were contemporaries who shared an obsession with expressing themes of suffering, struggle and survival in relation to the human body. Both artists survived the Second World War and were subsequently haunted by the conflict, which they represented through manifestations of the body in various states of contortion. Drawing on the artists’ own personal experiences during the London Blitz, the exhibition examines how confinement and angst fostered their extraordinary creativity and unique visions."

Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon (28 October 1909 – 28 April 1992) was an Irish-born British figurative painter known for his bold, graphic and emotionally raw imagery. His painterly but abstracted figures typically appear isolated in glass or steel geometrical cages set against flat, nondescript backgrounds. Bacon began painting during his early 20s and worked only sporadically until his mid-30s. Unsure of his ability as a painter, he drifted and earned his living as an interior decorator and designer of furniture and rugs. Later, he admitted that his career was delayed because he had spent too long looking for a subject that would sustain his interest. His breakthrough came with the 1944 triptych Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion which sealed his reputation as a uniquely bleak chronicler of the human condition.

He often said in interviews that he saw images "in series", and his artistic output typically focused on a single subject or format for sustained periods. His output can be crudely drawn as consisting of sequences or variations on a single motif; beginning with the 1940s male heads isolated in rooms, the early 1950s screaming popes, and mid to late 1950s animals and lone figures suspended in geometric structures. These were followed by his early 1960s modern variations of the crucifixion in the triptych format. From the mid-1960s to early 1970s, Bacon mainly produced strikingly compassionate portraits of friends, either as single or triptych panels. Following the 1971 suicide of his lover George Dyer, his art became more personal, inward looking and preoccupied with themes and motifs of death. The climax of this period came with his 1982 "Study for Self-Portrait", and his late masterpiece Study for a Self Portrait -Triptych, 1985-86. Despite his bleak existentialist outlook, solidified in the public mind through his articulate and vivid set of interviews with David Sylvester, Bacon in person was a bon vivant and notably and unapologetically gay. A prolific artist, he nonetheless spent many of the evenings of his middle age eating, drinking and gambling in London's Soho with friends such as Lucian Freud, John Deakin, Muriel Belcher, Henrietta Moraes, Daniel Farson and Jeffrey Bernard. After Dyer's suicide he largely distanced himself from this circle, and while his social life was still active and his passion for gambling continued, he settled into a platonic relationship with his eventual heir, John Edwards.

Head I

Crucifixion (1933)

Head VI

During his lifetime, Bacon was equally reviled and acclaimed. Margaret Thatcher described him as "that man who paints those dreadful pictures", and he was the subject of two Tate retrospectives and a major showing in 1971 at the Grand Palais in Paris. Since his death, his reputation and market value has steadily grown. In the late 1990s a number of major works previously assumed to have been destroyed, including popes from the early 1950s and portraits from the 1960s, surfaced on the art market and set record prices at auction. On 12 November 2013 his painting Three Studies of Lucian Freud set the record as the most expensive piece of art ever auctioned, selling for $142,405,000.

Henry Moore

Henry Spencer Moore OM CH FBA RBS (30 July 1898 – 31 August 1986) was an English sculptor and artist. He was best known for his semi-abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art.

His forms are usually abstractions of the human figure, typically depicting mother-and-child or reclining figures. Moore's works are usually suggestive of the female body, apart from a phase in the 1950s when he sculpted family groups. His forms are generally pierced or contain hollow spaces. Many interpreters liken the undulating form of his reclining figures to the landscape and hills of his birthplace, Yorkshire.

Moore was born in Castleford, the son of a coal miner. He became well-known through his carved marble and larger-scale abstract cast bronze sculptures, and was instrumental in introducing a particular form of modernism to the United Kingdom. His ability in later life to fulfill large-scale commissions made him exceptionally wealthy. Yet he lived frugally and most of the money he earned went towards endowing the Henry Moore Foundation, which continues to support education and promotion of the arts.

Reclining Connected Forms

And yes, the above sculpture should look familiar to you as there is another sitting in front of our City Hall.

"Henry Moore has always been an important artist for the city of Toronto. In 1958, Finnish architect Viljo Revell won an international competition to design Toronto's City Hall. Revell admired the work of Moore and recommended that the city purchase one of his bronze sculptures for the new building. A controversy over cost erupted, and the sculpture, The Archer, became the most talked about work of art in the history of the city."
I know that Ali would agree with me when I say that the exhibit will not be forgotten. It was meant to disturb, and that it did.
I am glad that I had the opportunity to experience it with my daughter. Read More...

It was 25yrs ago today...

No, this post isn't about Sgt. Pepper.

This post is about the birth of the World Wide Web.

Today marks the 25th anniversary of it's 'birth.' It has seen some changes over the years, but before I get there lets take a at The Man known as 'TimBL.'

Anyone know who this is?

TimBL

Though it was Al Gore who famously laid claim to having 'invented' the internet, it was actually "Sir Timothy John "Tim" Berners-Lee, OM, KBE, FRS, FREng, FRSA, DFBCS (born 8 June 1955), also known as "TimBL", a British computer scientist. He made a proposal for an information management system in March 1989, and he implemented the first successful communication between a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) client and server via the Internet sometime around mid November."

I wonder if when he was coding what was then known as The Project he had any idea just how far reaching it's legacy would become. A look at the growth of what is (in some 'scenes') known as teh 'net, show's just how far it's come in what is a relatively short amount of time.

Source: VeriSign 2010

Here and here a couple of fantastic pages containing a number of stats and information on the first 25yrs.

And now... some random info;

* There are approximately 1,319,872,109 people on the Internet
* 78% of U.S. internet users are on Broadband
* It took the radio 38 years, the television 13 years, and the World Wide Web 4 years to reach 50 million users
* 80% of all emails sent are spam
* Domain names are being registered at a rate of more than one million names every month
* 80% of all pictures on the internet are of naked women
* In 2010 1 of every 8 married couples in the U.S. met online. Source
* 35.6% of internet users are Asian
* 1 billion users around the globe are surfing the Internet every month
* It is estimated that 18 countries still don’t have an Internet connection

Just take a look at what Google has to say about statistics and how they relate to teh 'net.

And now, let's take a look at the history and what was known as The Project... the first web page.

Personally, I started coding at age 15. My first job out of school (well, technically I hadn't graduated as yet) was running the payroll computer for Jetpower Credit Union, in Malton at the time. I was using email for work in the '80s. I built my first system in 1995, and to this day I am happily a tech nerd.
Only now I can make money at it.
:l
I simply cannot image a world that is not connected.

To that end, it's time I speak about what is (and will continue to) have a profound affect on teh 'net. And that is the erosion of privacy. Edward Snowden first brought Prism out of the shadows June 5, 2013. And that is simply the beginning. For years I'd been 'going on about' each and every digital phone call being tapped. For years I'd been going on about how easy it was to grab the signal from/to the satellites... and you thought me paranoid. Well, I've also always said paranoia comes from experience.

Finally... want to get involved?
Sign up at W3C, which develops interoperable technologies (specifications, guidelines, software, and tools) to lead the Web to its full potential. W3C is a forum for information, commerce, communication, and collective understanding. You'll find news, links to W3C technologies, help and ways to get involved. "Public participation is welcome."

Enjoy today, and celebrate what is now a connected world!

Greg Read More...

Light 'em up

The Huffington Post has an interesting article here on the topic of marijuana use by those over the age of 50.

Apparently marijuana relieves pain, and those over 50 experience pain.

Who'da thought that?

"The most recent data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration show that marijuana use has increased among individuals over the age of 50 in the past decade. In 2012, 8 percent of those aged 50-54 said they’d used marijuana in the past year, nearly double the percentage from 2002. Users aged 55-59 more than quadrupled, from 1.6 percent in 2002 to 7.4 percent in 2012. Among people 60-64, use nearly doubled, from 2.4 percent to 4.4 percent in the same period. The data were collected for the agency’s annual National Survey on Drug Use and Health, which polled more than 68,000 Americans over age 12 in 2012."

Of course, how marijuana usage in the movies is portrayed somewhat differently, isn't it? For example, marijuana.com has a page entitled the Top Ten Stoner Characters in movies.

With the currently pro-marijuana climate in the states growing, and world-wide, governments are decriminalizing pot completely, and seeing usage and crime decline, it's only a matter of time before the wonder drug is available to all.

Heck, it wasn't that long ago it could be had over the counter at your local pharmacy.

In my mind though, it won't happen in the Great White North until such time as governments can figure out a way to effectively tax it. Talk about paying off the debt!

And just in case you're confused...

Light 'em if you got 'em. Read More...

The finer sex

Alicia being real...

Today the world over celebrates International Women's Day 2014. ... I say the world over but that's really not the case, is it?

On this day women will not only enjoy time with their family's, their lovers... or enjoy a good book, they will also suffer, be raped, killed and brutalized.

I lost my Mom in 2010... I miss her every day.

The picture to the right is of my (soon to be) 22yr old daughter, Alicia Maree. Course, she has a little of me in her... her humour is evident. I asked for a pic of her for this post... else I'd post a duck-face one.

She sent me this.

I think it fitting.

The following is taken from the Wikipedia article.

"International Women's Day, also called International Working Women's Day, is marked on March 8 every year. In different regions the focus of the celebrations ranges from general celebration of respect, appreciation and love towards women to a celebration for women's economic, political, and social achievements. Started as a Socialist political event, the holiday blended in the culture of many countries, primarily in Europe, including Russia. In some regions, the day lost its political flavour, and became simply an occasion for men to express their love for women in a way somewhat similar to a mixture of Mother's Day and Valentine's Day. In other regions, however, the political and human rights theme designated by the United Nations runs strong, and political and social awareness of the struggles of women worldwide are brought out and examined in a hopeful manner. This is a day which some people celebrate by wearing purple ribbons."
Some sobering statistics
* 1.3 women (ages 18 and over) in the United States are forcibly raped each minute. That translates to 78 per hour, 1,871 per day, or 683,000 per year. * 60% of the women who reported being raped were under 18 years old * 29% were less than 11 years old * 32% were between 11 and 17 * 22% were between 18 and 24 * 7% were between 25 and 29 * 6% were older than 29

Number of U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan and Iraq: 6,614:

Number of women, in the same period, killed as the result of domestic violence in the US: 11,766

Number of people per minute who experience intimate partner violence in the U.S.: 24

Number of workplace violence incidents in the U.S. annually that are the result of current or past intimate partner assaults: 18,700

Number of women in the U.S. who report intimate partner violence: 1 in 4

Number of men in the U.S. who report intimate partner violence: 1 in 7*

Number of women who will experience partner violence worldwide: 1 in 3

Order of causes of death for European women ages 16-44: domestic violence, cancer, traffic accidents

Increase in likelihood that a woman will die a violent death if a gun in present in the home: 270 percent

Number of women killed by spouses who were shot by guns kept by men in the home in France and South Africa: 1 in 3

Percentage of the 900 million small arms that are kept in the home, worldwide: 75

Country in which 943 women were killed in honor killings in 2011: Pakistan

City in which man "butchered" his wife in front of their six children in 2012: Berlin

States in which man decapitated his wife with a chainsaw in 2010 and another man did the same, respectively: Texas and New York

Percentages of people killed in the U.S. by an intimate partner: 30 percent of women, 5.3 percent of men.

Number of gay and bisexual men who experience domestic violence in the U.S.: 2 in 5 (similar to heterosexual women)

Percentage of the 31 Senate votes cast against the Violence Against Women Act that came from older, white, male Republicans: 95.8

Percentage of the 31 Senate votes cast against the Violence Against Women Act that came from a younger, male Republicans, at least one of whom sits on the Science Committee but is unable to say how old the Earth is: 4.2

Number of legal, medical, professional, faith-based and advocacy groups that signed a letter protesting the stripped-down VAWA: 300

First year that the Republican-led House of Representatives eroded VAWA of provisions designed to increase protections for Native Americans, immigrant women, members of the LGTBQ community and, yes, men: 2012

Estimated number of children, worldwide, exposed to domestic violence everyday: 10,000,000

Worldwide, likelihood that a man who grew up in a household with domestic violence grows up to be an abuser: 3 to 4 times more likely than if he hadn't.

Chance that a girl of high school age in the U.S. experiences violence in a dating relationship: 1 in 3

Percentage of teen rape and abuse victims who report their assailant as an intimate: 76

Percentage of U.S. cities citing domestic abuse as the primary cause of homelessness: 50

Percentage of homeless women reporting domestic abuse: 63

Percentage of homeless women with children reporting domestic abuse: 92

Percentage of women with disabilities who report violence: 40

Annual cost of domestic violence in the U.S. related to health care: $5.8 billion

Annual cost of domestic violence in the U.S. related to emergency care plus legal costs, police work, lost productivity: 37 billion dollars

Annual number of jobs lost in the U.S. as a result of intimate partner violence: 32,000

Percentage change between 1980 and 2008 of women and men killed by intimate partners in the U.S.: (w) 43 percent to 45 percent; (m) 10 percent to 5 percent

Average cost of emergency care for domestic abuse related incidents for women and men according to the CDC: $948.00 for women, $387 for men

Increase in portrayals of violence against girls and women on network TV during a five year period ending in 2009: 120 percent

The number one cause of death for African American women ages 15-34 according to the American Bar Association: homicide at the hands of a partner

Chance that a lesbian** in the U.S. will experience domestic (not necessarily intimate partner) violence: 50 percent

Chances that a gay man experiences domestic violence: 2 out of 5*

Ratio of women shot and killed by a husband or intimate partner compared to the total number of murders of men by strangers using any time of weapon, from 2002 homicide figures: 3X

Number of people who will be stalked in their lifetimes: 1 in 45 men and 1 in 12 women (broken out: 17 percent of American Indian and Alaska Native women; 8.2 percent of white women, 6.5 pecent of African American women, and 4.5 percent of Asian/Pacific Islander women)

Percentage of stalkers identified as known to victims: 90.3

Percentage of abused women in the U.S. who report being strangled by a spouse in the past year: 33 to 47.3 (this abuse often leaves no physical signs)

According to one study, percentage of domestic abuse victims who are tried to leave after less severe violent and nonviolent instances of abuse: 66 versus less than 25

Average number of times an abuser hits his spouse before she makes a police report: 35

No. 1 and No. 2 causes of women's deaths during pregnancy in the U.S.: Domestic homicide and suicide, often tied to abuse

Number of women killed by spouses who were shot by guns kept by men in the home in the United States: 2 in 3

Percentage of rape and sexual assault victims under the age of 18 who are raped by a family member: 34

Number of women killed everyday in the U.S. by a spouse: 3+

The primary reason cited by right-wing conservatives for objecting to the Violence Against Women Act: To protect the family.

Percentage reduction in reports of violence after men and women in South Africa went through an educational training program on health, domestic violence and gender norms: 55

Number of members of Congress who have gone through an educational training program on health, economics, violence, and gender norms: 0

And those are just statistics from the U.S.
I can't imagine the numbers for the entire world.
It's clear we have a lot of work to do.
Do your part!
Start on this very day... celebrating the finer sex.

Greg Read More...

Bishop e5 check

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, fresh off his majority win in the recent Federal election announced the other day his governments intention to move ahead with the scrapping of the controversial $2 buck a vote political party vote subsidy.



“Political parties need to take some responsibility in raising their own money,” Harper said...

The controversial per-vote subsidy was first introduced by former PM Jean Chrétien in 2004. A move in response to (at the time) new limits placed on political party contributions (aka - vote buying).

The Tories have long had an issue with the subsidy and as a party strong in grass-roots fundraising (as opposed to the Liberals, who rely heavily on Corporate donations and such), they are moving swiftly on this issue, confirmed recently by Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty.

Should be interesting. Read More...