Saturday, May 31, 2014

31 May - My Feedly! Pt II


History of the English Language 4 unread articles  //  actions

Texts in Transition
The mid-thirteenth century saw something rarely known in the annals of the conquerors and the conquered: the re-emergence of written texts in English from amidst a people still ruled by Norman French-speaking aristocrats. Perhaps the rulers were too few in number, or too many had, generations before, taken  Saxon wives and raised their children in bilingual households.  And yet the English which e
Everyday life in Anglo-Saxon England
In some ways, it was the best of times: The Anglo-Saxon élite founded monasteries and nunneries, in which many great works of art and literature were copied and preserved; land under tillage increased, and there was a gradual shift from a war footing to a comfortable peacetime. Women enjoyed nearly equal status with men: they could own and bequeath property, work in a profession, and if they neede
Old English
The land now known as England was originally inhabited by an unknown culture of people, sometimes referred to as "Megalithic" people (a reference to the standing stones they left at, among other places, Stonehenge).  These people were displaced by Celtic tribes, who in their turn were pushed back to the peripheries of the island by three Germanic tribes -- the Angles, the Saxons, and the
Introducing .... the International Phonetic Alphabet!
One of the things that makes English so distinct from most of the other languages on the planet is its unusually inconsistent and unpredictable spelling. Due to changes in the sounds of English over time, many letters once pronounced are now silent -- particularly our old friend "silent e." Add to that the fact that, as our vowel system changed, many words that use the same vowel are pro
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Inexplicata-The Journal of Hispanic Ufology 9 unread articles  //  actions

Cryptozoology: An Extraordinary Fishfall Over Honduras
Source: Diario Popular (Honduras)Date: 05.23.2014Cryptozoology: An Extraordinary Fishfall Over HondurasThe mysterious phenomenon affected the region of Yoro. While there is no evidence that can scientifically explain this fact, it could be due to a meteorological phenomenon.A torrential storm left a "fishfall" in a village of northern Honduras. This curious phenomenon has caused both inc
Mexico: Unusual Light Photographed over Airliner
Source: www.analuisacid.com.mxDate: 05.28.2014Mexico: Unusual Light Photographed over AirlinerContributing Editor Ana Luisa Cid has kindly provided us with this photograph. She writes: "In Mexico City airport, before the arrival of the flight to Veracruz. A UFO? Small spheres are also visible in the upper left hand corner of the photo. The original [photograph] is very large. This is a reduce
Argentina: Possible CE-3 - New Humanoid Presence in the Necochea
Source: Planeta UFODate: 05.24.2014Argentina: Possible CE-3 - New Humanoid Presence in NecocheaBy Guillermo GiménezInvestigation is underway. Witnesses speak of the strange presence of a humanoid-type being in the beaches of Necochea on 20 May 2014 (date to be confirmed) at 23:00 hours (approx.). It seemed to float, was very large as its strides were quite long. It was seen from an apartment in th
Argentina: Pinpoint of Light Over Tucumán
A mysterious dot of light - manmade, natural or alien, take your pick - was photographed by Javier Lopez Posse on May 24, 2014 in daylight on a cloudy fall day in the Southern Hemisphere. Our thanks to contributing editor Guillermo Giménez for providing us with these photos.Inexplicata Podcasts covering items from UFO / paranormal history in Spain, Latin America and the Caribbean
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IPS Inter Press Service Earth Alert: Confront... 1 unread article  //  actions

Mexico’s Climate Laws Ignore Women
The Ajusco forest, one of Mexico City’s green lungs and water sources. Credit: Emilio Godoy/IPS By Emilio GodoyMEXICO CITY, May 8 2014 (IPS) The rural communities of San Miguel and Santo Tomás Ajusco, to the south of Mexico City, are preserving 3,000 of their 7,619 hectares of forest in exchange for payment for environmental services. But the inequality in the communities is far from ecological. T
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Lexicon Daily 1 unread article  //  actions

Davis City Council candidates Q&A
Two questions for the 2014 Davis City Council candidates:1. The City’s unit labor costs* have been growing faster than the City’s revenues have been growing for many years. Do you believe that is sustainable?2. If you think the growing unit cost of labor is unsustainable, what reforms, if any, to the City’s labor contracts would you suggest the next City Council pursue to make these costs sustaina
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Majia's Blog 8 unread articles  //  actions

Fukushima Steaming May 30
I was out of town for over a week and couldn't watch the webcams. However, I've seen plenty of ugly looking screenshots posted by Enenewsers over the last week in the webcam discussion forum here.I had a chance to view for myself today Fukushima steaming away. Close-Up of Unit 3, which appears to be glowing in the shot above  I don't know what extent atmospheric conditions contributed to this stea
Autism and Ionizing Radiation
Diagnoses of autism are increasing and more researchers are concluding that environmental causes are contributing in significant ways to the rising diagnoses. Environmental injuries that are suspected to play a role in autism include DNA damage, primarily in the form of de novo mutations, epigenetic changes in how genes encode proteins, and endocrine system disturbances. The environmental culprits
Unit 4 Emissions April - May 2014
Unit 4 has had MAJOR emissions over the last two months. I remember that nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen told us that the zirconium encased nuclear fuel rods could off-gas radionuclides in the absence of outright 'fire' if damaged fuel becomes hot enough.I think these screenshots are pretty strong evidence that fuel in the vicinity of unit 4 has become hot enough to produce massive emission event
WSJ: Japan's Abe Moves to Bolster Military
Wall Street Journal Friday May 16 page 8:"Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took a significant step toward removing six-decade old constraints on Japan's military, a move that could enable Tokyo to play a greater security role in an increasingly tense East Asia......Abe said his government would kick of discussions to determine whether to change the interpretation of the constitution to perm
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Middle Class Political Economist 2 unread articles  //  actions

Basics: Is That a Good Economic Development Deal? A Checklist
In my last post, I discussed one of the most important sets of questions regarding any proposed economic development subsidy: How much does it cost? Is that too much? The answer, assuming that we are not going to overhaul our broken subsidy system overnight, was that we see if we're paying too much by looking at what other states and cities have paid for similar projects.This presumes, of course,
Basics: Is that a good economic development deal? Using the Megadeals database
It's a familiar situation: business and government officials are promoting a new economic development deal which naturally includes subsidies for the investor. They may be touting a consultant's study touting massive ripple effects and fantastic taxpayer return on investment. Should you believe them?Of course not. Consultants, whether they technically are working for the company or the government,
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News Center PK 1 unread article  //  actions

Kim Kardashian Flashes her Blue Underwear En Route to Met Gala—Take a Look!
Uh-oh! Kim Kardashian suffered a wardrobe malfunction before even stepping foot on the red carpet! According the source of the E! star was running late to the 2014 Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute Gala and accidentally flashed her navy blue panties while rushing out of the Lanvin store in New York and into her car with fiance Kanye West. However, Kim will have to be extra careful wit
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News From Atlantis. 1 unread article  //  actions

UKIP - Sleepwalking the UK into Talmudic Servitude
UKIP  is a notorious party operating in the UK.  It is portrayed by the media as some sort of racist 'nazi' organisation, but remarkably, is afforded endless publicity by the same media which operates a 'no platform' policy with anyone who rejects (or even questions) multi-culti 'political correctness'.  In this respect alone, those who are familiar with the absolute censorship of the UK media, sh
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Not Quite Unhinged 1 unread article  //  actions

Dear Everyone, You're Part of The Problem
As everyone in Canada is aware (whether they want to be or not), Ontario is having a provincial election. Support for the current Liberal minority was tenuous, and the unofficial Liberal/NDP coalition fell apart. I felt it was about time. Especially as, in my view, the Wynne Liberals had introduced a budget that tried to out NDP the NDP. People called it the most progressive budget ever. I
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Orwell's Bastard 1 unread article  //  actions

Maybe we could have an @OntarioPCParty online butthurt form, just to save time | #onpoli
Well, I guess when you're reduced to using whiny 21-year-olds for staff, this is what you get.Not only lashing out at others for their own fuckups, but doubling down on the stupidity and ignorance. I know, easy targets, but hey, if they're going to leave the evidence there for anyone to come along and use ...Teabagger Timmy's been having a rough week, evidently. Getting called out on his bad math
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Our Manmade Disasters 2 unread articles  //  actions

MH370 shot down in South China Sea - gains traction
First book on MH370 mystery blames US war gamesEXCLUSIVEOne theory: Flight MH370 posits that there was a cover-up.Seventy-one days after Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared, the first book about the disaster will go on sale on Monday with a theory about what might have happened.And as the international search continues for the aircraft Irene Burrows, the Queensland mother who lost her son a
God's Dilemma: The reason God can't save the 21st century world.
- by Joyce BTwo thousand years ago, it might still be possible for God to appear in 3D form to save the world. Today it would be nigh impossible for God to do the same. So, if you have been praying for God to appear, pray no more. You have only yourself to blame. God can't help us until we, collectively as humans, do so. To illustrate:If God were to appear before us today, which form would he take
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Paying attention 2 unread articles  //  actions

Private schools, the strike/lockout and inequality
Not all parents are worried about school closures in the current teachers’ dipute.Christy Clark and thousands of others have opted out of the public school system and pay large fees for children to go to private schools. They are not affected by the strike/lockout.But they’re still a factor. About 76,000 children are enrolled in private schools, about 12 per cent of all students. Their parents ten
Killed After Office Golf Party Nightmare Of Crashes
I’ve been doing some research that led me into the Toronto Star online archives of the mid-1950s.It wasn’t any golden age of journalism.But boy, they knew how to grab readers.The headline at the top of the post was from the Star’s line story on June 25, 1955. It was screaming, two-deck head across the top of the page, and the story delivered. After a company golf party, the boss - drunk - insisted
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Phronesisaical 6 unread articles  //  actions

Bits and Pieces - May 25, 2014
More Ukraine and nuclear-related links can be found here (and scroll up).How the NRA Enables Massacres. When will we ever learn, when will we ever learn?The NSA's unofficial org chart.Part of the NSA's damage assessment of Snowden's actions.An open letter on feminism in tech. How many times does this have to be said?Arvo Pärt in DC and New York.
Thunderstorm!
Saw this cloud to the south earlier this evening.It moved to the northeast.And we got some rain, fairly heavy but not as wild as the cloud looked. There's still a storm to the south. This one seems to have spun off from it.
Bits and Pieces - May 22, 2014
As usual, posts about Ukraine, why nuclear plants cost so much, the Kremlin may be watching you on Facebook, and more at Nuclear Diner.Could it be possible that we are coming to a time when we discuss some of the issues we need to discuss? The Atlantic has two impressive articles on two issues: Ta-Nehisi Coates on reparations for black Americans and Mary Adkins on rape. Lt. Col. Robert Bateman dis
Kazakhstan's Ancestral Apples In Trouble
We haven't had a post on fruit in a VERY long time.National Geographic has a long article on apples and their birthplace in northeastern Kazakhstan. They are ancestral to all the apples we know, and they are endangered. A few excerpts:One of these threatened species, Malus sieversii—a wild apple that Newton describes as "small but highly colored with a very nice sweet flavor"—is one of t
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Roger Pielke Jr.'s Blog 1 unread article  //  actions

Fraction of the Globe in Drought: 1982-2012
The graph above shows the proportion of the planet in drought, by intensity, 1982-2012. The graph comes from a paper in a new Nature publication called Scientific Data and is open access. You can see it here.
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Screw You Guys, I'm Going Home 5 unread articles  //  actions

Management-Side Firm Whines Because EEOC Mediators Are Doing Their Jobs
The law firm Fox Rothschild, LLP has posted a series of blog posts where they complain bitterly about EEOC mediators. They claim the mediators are unfair because they have the nerve (the noive!) to tell employers that EEOC could enter a cause finding in their case. The whining began with a survey by Merrily Archer where she asked management-side folks who participated in EEOC mediations whether or
My Readers Change The World! ObamaCare COBRA Gap Fixed
I wrote a few weeks ago about The Little-Known ObamaCare COBRA Catch-22. I thought this issue was so important that I asked AOL Jobs readers for help. I asked you to sign a petition I started to alert the President to this issue. I asked you to tell the President to close the gap. And you came through.Not only did you sign the petition, but some of you took action to help. Members of the National
6 Ways Same-Sex Marriage Will Affect Florida Employees
There are multiple lawsuits pending in Florida challenging the state's ban on same-sex marriage. There's one in Key West, one in Miami, one in federal court in Tallahassee, and there are probably some more out there. It's almost inevitable that the ban on gay marriage will be overturned here soon.So why does an employment lawyer care about gay marriage? Here are just some of the laws that will aff
Who Do I Complain To About Discrimination If I'm HR?
An AOL Jobs reader asked me: I am a minority female HR professional who has been working in the field for 18 years. I have faced race based discrimination, and sexual harassment continuously during my career. I'm often hired into a management role based on my degree, experience and my SHRM certifications, only to be hidden and given no real responsibilities. Over the years I have learned to identi
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Syria Comment 2 unread articles  //  actions

Syrians in Lebanon Vote in Presidential Elections
My brother voted 'no' in the Syrian embassy in Moscow during 1980s Hafez 'election'. His passport was revoked & never able to go back since — اغين الزعبي (@agh_yan) May 28, 2014   As Syrians abroad have been gathering to vote in the presidential elections at Syrian embassies around the world, Anne Barnard tweeted from the scene in Beirut. These tweets were very interesting, and I am providing
Syria: The West Should Stop Raising False Expectations – By Nikolaos van Dam
Syria: The West Should Stop Raising False Expectations By Nikolaos van Dam* Delivered at the Heinrich Böll Foundation, Berlin, 19 May 2014 Discussion series “Understanding Syria”. Discussion 3: German and European policy towards Syria: “Look the other way and wait as a strategy? In my view there are two main ways of ending the conflict in Syria: 1. Further negotiations between the regime and the p
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tamplins entire 1 unread article  //  actions

Hard Men of Letters
Mary Beard’s insightful (and suitably uncomfortable) lecture on the suppression of the public voice of women is a good starting point for a more general discussion of oppressive language in the digital age. This is no small matter of etiquette. Abuse is not everyone’s cup of tea. While some revel in it, many others are put off from bothering to contribute. This is not just an infringement of their
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Telling the History of the Twenty-First Centu... 4 unread articles  //  actions

About 'The New American Century'
THE NEW AMERICAN CENTURY is a history of neoconservatism and its influence on US Foreign Policy in the Middle East during the first decade of the twenty-first century. Written after years of extensive research, THE NEW AMERICAN CENTURY contains over 550 pages, including more than 1200 footnotes and some 120 pages of bibliography. The book has been meticulously researched with every aspect of the h
Sick Neocon Propagandists Attempt To Twist Nakba Killings
On 15 May 2014, Nakba Day for Palestinians around the world who commemorate the loss of their lands to the Israelis, two Palestinian youths were shot dead in Beitunia, a small town near Ramallah in the West Bank, while demonstrating against Israeli occupation. The killings were captured on CCTV and the footage has gone viral around the world to a point where even the US government are insisting on
Neocons Continue Push For War Against Iran
Top neocon propagandist Jonathan Tobin, writing online in Commentary today argues that America’s ‘gift’ of the Iron Dome defence system designed to counter rocket attacks from Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon, does not mean that Israel should abstain from attacking Iran if Israel believes Iran is close to a ‘nuclear breakout’. Tobin writes:It’s not clear what, if anything, N
Another Push For War Against Iran
It has got to the point that the only way the US is likely to go to war against Iran – albeit reluctantly – is if Israel attacks Iran first. Any hope by the Zionists and their supporters of the US making a pre-emptive strike against Iran have long gone.The Israeli-Palestinian stand-off has reached a stalemate as far as talks are concerned. The Israelis are never going to allow a Palestinian state
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The Conflicted Doomer 4 unread articles  //  actions

What I Learned (Again) on My Vacation
May 31, 2014   The past two weeks have been busy around here, with some wins and some losses, a couple of wins I’d thought were going to be losses and vice versa. I got the transplants for the backyard garden into the ground just before it began to rain off and on for most of the two weeks. A definite win. The critters ate all of the melon, cucumber and okra transplants – and rain be damned. Pret
I Need a Vacation
May 17, 2014   Since today and tomorrow will be sunny and warmer (sunny mid to high sixties compared to rainy mid forties and fifties,) followed by seventies and eighties for all of next week, I am taking a vacation from the blog to get the gardens ready, planted and off to the best start I can.  After a week of cold, rain and darkness that feels like a bunch of bricks on my brain, I  need one. B
Reaping the Whirlwind
May 10, 2014  This will be a short post this week as I have spent most of the day looking at videos and pictures from the terrible Trade Union Building fire that took so many lives in Odessa, Ukraine, over a week ago. I do not know the people in those pictures and videos, but they are horrifying. There was video of people in a crowd in front of the burning building lobbing more fire bombs into th
Rendering Ourselves Extinct
May 3, 2014                                               “We are warming, and that comes with consequences. By the way, Earth will survive this. People say ‘save the Earth.’ No, don’t worry about Earth. Earth will be here long after we have rendered ourselves extinct.” Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson From all the various articles I’ve read and all the videos I’ve watched this week, this quote from Neil d
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The Earth and Man: Setting the Stage 3 unread articles  //  actions

Degeneracy Today, or The Coercion of Dogma Versus the Coercion of a Design
Steven Goddard has a post on "A Dark Age of Degeneracy", speaking about the state of the Democratic party in the U.S. now. This is no news to me, as I have been referring to them as "The Insane Left" for most of Obama's presidency, certainly since the passage of "Obamacare" in early 2010. But the degeneracy is not limited to politics, nor to recent years. My response
There Is No Valid Climate Science and No Competent Climate Debate
The WUWT site has a post on alarmist "pseudoscientists' claims debunked", containing a statement that I find absolutely incompetent, and to which I respond here: "Let us be as precise as They are vague. The existence of the greenhouse effect is definitively established both in theory and in experiment and needs no 'consensus' to prop it up." You call that precise? The "gre
The Growing Religious Self-Righteousness of Science
Steven Goddard has a post, "My 35th Year as a Global Warming True Believer". My response is the following: "Global warming" hype is just the latest step in a creeping degeneracy of science--particularly in the earth and life sciences--that has been going on since long before I was born. As a physicist, I am astounded by the poor quality of introductory university physics texts
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The Existentialist Cowboy 1 unread article  //  actions

untitled
by Len Hart, The Existentialist Cowboy IF you think the politicians, the beauracrats, the asshole pundits in DC or NY et al, et al care about you --just REMEMBER VIET NAM!The Kent State, the Woodstock generation was was a generation not afraid to take it to the streets, the campuses, the media! Alas --neither Democrat nor GOP administrations gave a shit! Viet Nam was in no way "improved"
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The Galloping Beaver 3 unread articles  //  actions

F-35 and hot air
For anyone who still follows the very expensive comedy of errors that is the F-35, the latest news is that the air from the big hole what all the hot air blows out on the vertical take off/land "B" model is too hot for most landing surfaces. Apparently it requires a special military grade concrete mix, or a special 30 ton  landing pad, which effectively negates the entire point of a V/ST
Worst Days in canadian Conservative History?
Um. 1 July 1867, aka Canada Day. 1 August 1834, the formal end of slavery in the British Empire.
Eliminating the province's government: The Tim Hudak Plan
The Canadian Press might want to revise their piece. It's all part of Hudak's larger goal of eliminating the province's projected $12.5-billion deficit by 2016 — a year before the Liberals say they can balance the books. No. Cutting the 100 000 public sector jobs effectively elimates the Public Service in Ontario, and with it the ability of the government to do, well, just about anything.
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The High-fat Hep C Diet 2 unread articles  //  actions

Diabetes as an Iatrogenic Disease - the Indian Experience
Diabetes and dairy fat in India.      The epidemics of diabetes, cardiovascular disease and related conditions in India have been called iatrogenic (Raheja B.S. 1994), a product of diets high in linoleic acid as a result of “chasing the phantom of cholesterol” (Raheja et al. 1993). The traditional Indian diet (31% fat) supplied 20.3%E as saturated fats, mainly from ghee, with 5% from linoleic aci
Uffe Ravnskoff, Zoe Harcombe and Aseem Malhotra on the New Censorship
This is just a bookmark for three responses to two recent incidents of press censorship.ABC withdrew the two episodes of "Heart of the Matter" Catalyst show, despite nothing substantial in the complaints being upheld, and the BMJ retracted some comments critical of statins, including those of Dr Aseem Malhotra, which were opinion based on his clinical impression, and had been presented a
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The Nuclear Green Revolution 1 unread article  //  actions

How long can uranium last?
If US were to replace fossil fuels with nuclear power we would require somewhere between 500 GW of reactor power. However this only looks at the problem from the viewpoint which treats annual demand as continuous, where as it fluxuates almosrt continuously.  The 500 GW is only useful in determining how much reactor fuel the US would require if it were to obtain a years supply of electricity solely
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the original Blogger Tips and Tricks 1 unread article  //  actions

Adding alt, title attribute and caption for photos uploaded to Blogger
I already have a post on uploading pictures in the HTML mode and adding alt attribute to the picure, so to make it complete, let's make a post to explain to show step by step how you can add alt and title attributes as well as caption in the COMPOSE mode.(alt attribute of the form alt="some text" will cause the "some text" to display when if for any reasons the picture cannot b
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The Straight Goods 7 unread articles  //  actions

Enbridge`s Northern Gateway Pipeline Project Is Dead, Reason Number 1, Oil Tanker Wrecks and Explosions
Breaking News not reported in Canada`s Mainstream Media.....May 29th 2014998 tonne oil tanker has exploded today off the coast of Japan..Fortunately the tanker had just unloaded it`s oil cargo..._______________________One missing after explosion on Japan oil tanker"Television footage showed the approximately 80-metre ship listing heavily as at least two jets doused the badly-charred centre of
British ColumbiaIs Losing The LNG Horserace, or is that British Columbia Lost The LNG Horserace
    Japan is now receiving LNG from Papua New Gunea....First Shipments just left for Japan    Papua New Guinea becomes 20th LNG exporter as shipment leaves for Japan     Papua New Guinea, the small nation in Oceania, has become the world's 20th LNG exporter after an ExxonMobil Corp.-operated facility constructed near the capital Port Moresby shipped its first cargo  Six years in the making, the PN
Christy Clark Puts On Her Red Shoes And Dances The LNG Blues
Written by Grant GPanic, cold sweat, fear of the cold hard truth bearing its pearly whites, what to do, call in emergency media intervention to calm the nerves of an increasing doubtful public, the dream, the myth, the fantasy of LNG riches must live on... ..Yes I did read Vaughn Palmer`s article last week where he confirmed that the BC Liberals proposed 7% tax on LNG exports is gone, caput, off t
The Rise Of Predator Economics And The Fall Of Good Governance
    The Rise Of Predator Economics And The Fall Of Good Governance    If the definition of good governance includes the sound management of public monies and resources, then Canada has very bad governance.The manufactured health care crisis is a case in point.  Solutions to challenges of cost, quality, and access are fairly straightforward but wilfully ignored, and current trajectories towards co
CBC. Public Broadcasting Goes To The Wall. The Straight Good... / by Grant G / 29d