Thu 29 November 2007; 332
On my way to catch transit this afternoon, I met a woman looking for an English class.
She was black, and bundled in a green jacket with faux fur fringe. She told me she was looking for the English at First school. I asked her what else she knew about the school. She gave me the paper with some information on it.
I suggested that we call the number on it, but that was for a different program. She also showed me a business card from a language assessor at a local sevice organization. I called that person, Tracy.
I said, “Uh . . . hi. My name is Ryan and I am trying to help a women here, find here ‘English at First’ class.”
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Wed 28 November 2007; 331
VANOC the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 games announced the mascots three mascots and a sidekick today.
The mascots and sidekick are:
- Miga: A part orca, part Kermode, sea bear
- Quatchi: A sasquatch that wear ear muffs but no pants
- Sumi: A Thunderbird with the legs of a bear
- Mukmuk: An island marmot.
One of the mascots Miga is a “sea bear” and is a mythical critter combination of an orca and a Kermode bear. Some news outlets got the kermode bear all wrong. When I see some place get facts wrong I know about, it makes me wonder what things they get wrong about which I don’t have independent information.
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Sun 25 November 2007; 328
I recently received my Nokia N800 handheld computer in the mail. After considering what product I could use for mobile computing and got a recommendation for the N800, I ordered it from an eBay store in October and it took a while to be sent and get here. I’ll calculate the total cost and time later (I also had to pay customs on it).
This is what I got.
I can conect to Wi-Fi networks, browse the Internet, make VOIP calls, and run any software that its maemo Linux OS can handle.
I am still learning how to use it and considering its potential. Here I go.
I ran into a friend yesterday who told me he recently finished a business program at HEC in Montreal. I looked it up this morning to read more and found that they had recently rung the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange to celebrate their 100th anniversary.
This is an interesting thing because two years ago University of Waterloo rang the opening bell at NYSE.
Of course, neither of these schools are listed on the exchange, so their presences there were as guests of actual companies — Brookfield Asset Management in UW’s case and Gildan Activewear for HEC.
While it may be unusual for schools to appear at the bell, it is a good image for schools who want to portray themselves as good places to learn business.
The Whig-Standard is reporting on the university reaction to the incident of alleged racism at Queen’s University.
Queen’s University is investigating whether a suspected case of racism is indicative of a wider problem on campus. A faculty member says she was forced off a sidewalk and then subjected to racial taunts by four white, male students last Wednesday afternoon on University Avenue.
Queen’s investigates ‘racist abuse’ Whig-Standard 23 Nov 2007
The university has a statement posted.
We are deeply disturbed by the account of this incident, and especially concerned that members of the student community were apparently involved. An investigation is underway which has the full support of the University Administration.
We recognize that the vast majority of students and faculty across this institution, and in the Faculty of Applied Science in particular, are outraged by incidents of the sort described, and are committed to an inclusive campus where all members of our community are permitted the opportunity to pursue their academic goals in an environment not merely tolerant, but respectful and supportive as well
[...]
Statement by the Principal and Vice-Principals regarding report of racist incident queensu.ca
Racism alleged at Queen’s 22 Nov 2007
The CIty of Guelph pleaded guilty to a charge over its odour causing compost plant and was assessed a fine of $40,000.
This morning, the province fined the city $40,000 for one charge of releasing odour from the compost plant. The other seven charges — plus two against a former staffer — were dropped.
A different point of view 59 Carden St. 22 November 2007
Magda and Laura’s Guelph city hall blog 14 November 2007
Thu 22 November 2007; 325
I heard about an alleged incident of racism at Queen’s University on CBC radio this morning.
He described that a faculty member was reportedly taunted by engineering students and “pushed off a sidewalk.” The announcer said that the faculty member was “coloured.”
The announcer read the opening I thought, “Man, Queen’s is so white.”
He continued, “… in the past Queen’s has been accused of having a ‘culture of whiteness,’”
The spokesperson from Queen’s before saying the regular comments about the incident being bad and being dealt with said that these things happen at other schools in Canada too. That is not a good thing to say and reflects poorly on the school’s attitude towards discrimination.
I was at a conference at Queen’s three years ago and was shocked by the poor mix of ethnicities that I saw. I mentioned it to friends I visited at the time and they confirmed my observations. We all attended a different university. I had sillily thought that the ethnic mix at my alma mater was typical in Canada.
The Whig-Standard has an article from yesterday about Queen’s appointing a diversity adviser.
Queen’s University, which has been criticized for its “culture of whiteness,” has appointed a special high-level diversity adviser.
[...]
He would also like to see other races and cultures reflected more in what is taught at the university.
His appointment comes as Queen’s is in the midst of a wide-ranging review of its diversity and how welcoming it is to minority students.
The debate was initiated by a study delivered to the university senate last year.
Five years in the making, the Henry Report found the university has a hard time retaining qualified faculty who are either aboriginal or from a visible minority group and that students, faculty and administrators all play a role in a culture of “whiteness and maleness” at Queen’s.
Queen’s appoints diversity adviser; ‘Culture of whiteness’ hurts visible minorities, recent report says Whig-Standard 21 Nov 2007
The Record took down its subscription wall, but I only found out about it inadvertently.
I don’t have any details and I can’t find any announcement about it, but I gues it happened recently.
I wondered how far back their open archives go (there is still a paid archive, where you have to pay to access stories). I tried searching for “waterloo” (4459 results) and looked at from when the oldest story was (6 October 2005). I tried “police” (4981 results) and I got a very different — in time — date (5 October 2006).
Yes the dates have very similar digits, the same actually, but they are 364 days apart. Were there really no stories about “police” for the whole year less day?
I tried other words
- “dance” (898 results; oldest story 20 June 2007)
- “technology” (1902 results; oldest story 6 October 2007)
- “whisky” (18 results; oldest story 19 July 2007)
- “dress” (1083 results; oldest story 6 October 2005, 2nd oldest 5 October 2006, 3rd oldest 20 June 2007)
So, it seems that the results from previous years are from the newspaper’s tech spotlight, but the open archives for most stories date from 20 June 2007.
This opening is something, I guess.
It really is an obvious move and I suggested such a while ago like, I assume, many others did.
Tue 20 November 2007; 323
When I was in grade five, my class went to the library and we learned about how to treat a book.
When you get a new book and you want it to lie flat and stay in good condition, we were told, you need to follow a certain process. Start with the book closed and vertical with the opening facing you and the spine on the table.
We were shown to open each cover and then successive outside pages folding them outward “training them” to lie flat. After several individual pages, the librarian showed us to take several pages at once and fold them outward along the spine.
The background image for the pedia shows the result of not following such directions, a cracked spine.
Fri 16 November 2007; 319
I arrived at the bus stop at 14:37 to catch the 14:39 express bus. It did not arrive on time.
Another bus was scheduled for 14:54. That one did not arrive.
There was supposed to be a bus at 15:09. There wasn’t one there.
Finally an express bus arrived at 15:10, more than half an hour after the first of three should have come.