Days after he first used a logo simlar to the seal of the president his campaign then “retired” the image after, and possibly because of, criticism.

When the altered seal was unveiled last Friday in Chicago, it raised eyebrows and prompted comments about how presidential it looked. The Republican National Committee gleefully ridiculed it as a prop.

Jen Psaki, a spokeswoman for Obama’s campaign, said Monday that the altered seal would not be used again. She said it was only intended for that event, in which Obama held a round-table discussion with Democratic governors.

— Obama campaign retires graphically altered presidential seal 23 Jun 2008

Barack Obama: vero possumus 20 Jun 2008

Herrle’s opened their strawberry fields on Friday, so on Saturday I wanted to go pick some.

Many still had to ripen, but I picked about six pounds of good ripe berries.

The berries are precious cargo. See how they get buckled in.

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The Region of Waterloo held consultations last week in K and W, and has another one tomorrow in Cambridge. They also released a video with a future projection of how traffic routes might change with the implementation of rapid transit.

Region of Waterloo rapid transit video TheRecord.com

I saw an interesting photo with this story about Barack Obama’s plans to compaign with Hillary Clinton.

In the picture Obama, stand at a podium addressing democratic governors.

There is a logo on the podium that imitates the seal of the president.

On the imitation seal it says:

Obama for America
vero possumus
www.barackobama.com

I wondered what the — I assume Latin — motto meant.

vero means “in truth”

and

possumus means “we can”

So, it roughly means “It’s true. We can.” or Obama’s more common English slogan “Yes. We can.”

I recently had an e-mail conversation with a friend where he said:

It has always frustrated me that The Record required a subscription in order to access most articles online. I observe that recently The Globe & Mail unlocked much of their “premium” content. I think that the business model is moving away from the pay-to-view format and more to the model of engaging readers as commentators, and then, if they are engaged, they will return more often.

With which I agree, but at least TheRecord.com doesn’t have a subscription wall anymore. I replied:

Actually, TheRecord.com is totally open now, i.e. no subscription wall. You can read articles as far back as 23 July 2007 which is when they took the wall down. I don’t blame you for not knowing though. I didn’t know until months later. I just didn’t read the website.

It shows the lasting effects of a bad policy. How many other people don’t even think to look for content at TheRecord.com because of poor decisions years ago.

• The Record takes down its subscription wall, but since when?

Fellow Warrior Dana Ellis who is a past Canadian Olympian is blogging about her preparation for the 2008 Beijing games at Raising the Bar.

She started Monday and has two posts so far. She talks about each day, which, as you might expect, consists of a lot of training and recovery.

She also touches on the cultural environment. I liked this part in her post Southern Comfort:

Sushi is one of the healthier choices when eating out, but normally Louisiana staples include fried catfish, fried shrimp, fried oysters, fried chicken… do you notice a theme here? Russ and I cook at home a lot!

Dana placed sixth in pole vault in the last Olympics, and there is much hope for her this time around.

Here are some more articles about Dana:

• Dana Ellis: Kitchener pole vaulter gearing up for second shot at Summer Olympics 16 Jun 2008
• Ellis breaks Canadian pole-vault record 23 Aug 2007

I went to a wedding on Saturday. The Chinese wedding feast had 12 courses.

This is what they were:

• Barbecued Whole Suckling Pig
• Braised Stuffed Whelk
• Stir Fried Sliced Scallops & Prawns
• Braised Shark’s Fin w/ Crab Meat
• Braised Sliced Abalone
• Deep Fried Crispy Whole Chicken
• Stir Fried Lobsters in Supreme Soup
• Steamed Whole Fish
• Fried Rice w/ Shrimp & Pork
• Braised E-Fu Noodles
• Sweet Red Bean Cream w/ Lotus Seed
• Fancy Cakes

Here is a photo of the menu:

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Wente’s column in the Saturday TGAM talks about Leaving the Old Economy behind (RIM’s world is our future, GM’s world is our past).

She juxtaposes GM’s woes with Lazaridis’s extra donation to Perimeter. And to describe where the Institute is she says this:

The Perimeter Institute occupies a light-filled building in a non-descript suburb of Waterloo, not far from the cornfields.

Which is a strange thing to say because it is in the middle of Waterloo, in the core, and probably the furthest from cornfields as you can get in Waterloo (Union Street is probably the furthest.)

So it is not a suburb and it is only non-descript to her because she is apparently unable to describe it.
If she glosses over facts like this, how can I rely on other things she writes.

It is like a few years ago when Wells, writing about Perimeter, said that the Institue was “a few blocks” from the Transylvania Club.

Just a day after I reported on growing tomato plants upside down, a maker of upside down planters recalled its product.

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Did you know you can grow tomatoes upside down. You can.

I first saw it when I was walking through a nearby neighbourhood and someone had a hanging planter with a fruit bearing tomato plant coming out the bottom.

We planted some yesterday.

The major benefit, as I see it, is that you don’t have to put stakes or cages on the plants because gravity holds them straight and the tomato fruit just hang putting the branches and stems in tension.

Also, no stooping to pick them.

Also you can plant a right side up one too.