Tom West’s whiteboard admonishment to his team — “not everything worth doing is worth doing well” &mdash was quoted by Tracy Kidder in Soul of a New Machine.

I have always wanted to live by these words, but it is hard for me to do so. (q.v. what you learn from a Ph.D.)

My boss Kevin just sent me a link to a great rant that makes this point using a different quotation: Better is the enemy of Good.

Actually, Voltaire’s quote is “Le mieux est l’ennemi du bien,” which is pleasantly ambiguous: either better or perfect is the enemy of the good. You decide. Perhaps they are the same. To me, Voltaire’s quote actually illuminates West’s. West’s quote always had me wondering “should I do things poorly?” The truth is that good and done is better than well done but coming.

 › normative     2008-01-24 14:20   ...0 comments

In 1998, Andrew Wakefield published an article in the Lancet asserting that vaccinated children had a higher prevalence of autism, an assertion later shown to be false.

At the time, vaccination rates dropped from 92% to 78%, and there have been cases of children dying from these preventable diseases.

It now appears that Dr. Wakefield was paid over £400 000 by lawyers who were trying to trump up lawsuits against the makers of the vaccines. Wakefield’s co-workers were also paid hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Parents who chose not to vaccinate their kids should be suing everyone in sight right now.

Full story

 › normative     2007-01-16 14:06   ...0 comments

Just sent this to the NDP in response to their email titled Meet the new face of Liberal arrogance and inaction.

 › normative     2006-12-03 21:19   ...1 comment

The nablopomo image stream is interrupted today to allow me to make a point about cluster bombs.

Cluster bombs are large weapons that are dropped from bombers. Upon landing (or just before) they open up and scatter tiny bomblets around an area. Large numbers of these bomblets are dangerous duds that fail to go off — until they are disturbed.

These bomblets can lie dormant for years until they are discovered by children. Their bright colours, meant to serve as warnings, make them look like toys.

This pattern has been repeated over and over around the world, but perhaps the most notorious bomblet fields are in Northern Laos, where more bombs were dropped by the US between 1964 and 1973 than were dropped on Germany and Japan combined during world war II. An estimated 90 million cluster bombs were dropped on Laos. 12 000 civilians have died in Laos since the end of this so-called “secret war”. Thirty years later 2-3 Laotians are killed every month, and 6-7 are maimed.

These appalingly bad munitions are still in active use today in Iraq & Afghanistan. In Lebanon, the UN estimates up to 1 million are left unexploded. The cluster bombs dropped upon Afghanistan are yellow packets. The first 100000 food rations dropped by the Americans were also yellow packets.

One of the reasons I have such little respect for militaries around the world is the existence and apparently wide use of these weapons. When will we realize that wars end and we shouldn’t mine every available square inch of land within an inch of returning residents’ lives?

A UN official has today called for the banning of cluster bombs and a Canadian NGO has suggested that Canada should repeat the mine-ban treaty with cluster bombs.

 › normative     2006-11-07 14:49   ...1 comment

The U.S. congress is today debating the allocation of a further $94.5 billion for the war in Iraq. This has led me to speculate about how this breaks down in terms of the U.S. taxpayer base. Lots of americans are in favour of the war, but the huge budgetary numbers being tossed around seem disconnected from their actual tax payments.

(Of course, the U.S. is funding this war on debt, but that debt will one day need to be repaid, so for the sake of this back-of-the-envelope calculation, let’s just divide the cost by the number of taxpayers.)

First, we need to know how many taxpayers there are in the states. The IRS publishes tax stats. I used table 3.3 from the “Individual Income Tax Returns Publication 1304” for 2003 (the latest year available). There were 130 million returns, of which 88 931 904 actually paid income tax in a total amount $748 017 488 000.

Regarding cost of the war, getting a good estimate is tough. Very tough. That is because there is politicization of the amount. We know that Bush originally said the war would cost $50 billion. The amount I’ve seen in the news today, seemingly a total of labelled war spending to date is 320 billion dollars. Former World Bank chief economist Joseph Stiglitz has put the ultimate cost, including long term effects on the US economy at 1.026 trillion dollars (839 billion direct costs, and 187 billion in economic damage).

So, how does this work out per taxpayer?

Let’s put this in perspective. The CBC reports the $320 billion US is about 1.5 times the total expenditure of the Canadian government in 2005.

Prefer an american example? According to the US Department of Education there were estimated to be 1 343 000 undergrads graduating in 2006. The money spent to date on the war could have paid for their entire cost of 4 years of education including tuition, room and board.

And you know what? You could do that 4 times over before you ran out of cash… 5.6 million students could be put through their entire 4 year degree for free with just the obvious money that’s been spent so far.

(How did I come up with that? The average tuition room and board cost for a year is $14283, multiplied by a four-year college degree is $57132 per student. The 320 billion divided by $57132 is 5.6 million students put through their entire 4 year degree for free.)

Imagine the effect on the US economy of 5 million highly trained citizens with NO student debt.

I could go on, but I’ve made my point. What would you do with $3500-11000 dollars? Spend it in Iraq?

 › normative     2006-06-15 19:49   ...2 comments

The advocacy group Environmental Defence has just released the results of testing six adults and seven children for 68 toxic chemicals (at a cost of $2000 per person).

The results? A ten year old girl had 18 carcinogens, 14 chemicals that disrupt hormones, 19 that affect reproduction and 9 neurotoxins. Some of the chemicals have been banned since 1977, almost 20 years before her birth. In her words: “How fair is that?”

It’s a small study, and I haven’t reviewed the results and compared them with “acceptable limits”. However, it looks like Health Canada is going to start doing this kind of testing on 5000 volunteers, some as young as 6 years of age. This is a positive development.

Chris says that many federal government ministers are getting tested too… that bodes well for political will. Apparently this happened in the past and it resulted in the government moving on the issue for a short time. Perhaps it should be a requirement for all politicians to get these tests…

 › normative     2006-06-02 11:49   ...0 comments

Aficionados of my political views know that whenever a problem rears its ugly head, I look to the media.

Want to know why global warming is not on the agenda? Ask the media. Want to know why we have gay marriage? Ask the media. Want to know why Canadians believe health care has been in urgent crisis only in the 3 months before each election? Ask the media.

The media sets the agenda, tells us what’s cool. It tells us who is the voice of reason and who is a “special interest group”. The media is extremely important.

In order to have an effective Canadian society we need to have a diverse media, one that questions all the issues, raises all the points of view, and that has reasonable diversity in editorial control and opinion. If you don’t have this, then the media becomes big brother and skews the agenda. In the extreme you have the american media where liberal has ceased to be a position and has become an epithet. If the media does not question everything (either because it can’t or won’t) then we lose the basis of our democracy.

The media in this country has already been eviscerated by years of mergers and acquisitions. There are fewer editorial boards than ever, and many are under the thumb of right wing editors. Despite the fact that the news media are hugely right wing, Conservative supporters continue to whine that the Toronto Star and the CBC are unfair to them, and in fact that the media in general has it out for them¹.

All of this is secondary to what Harper’s new view of the media is. Harper believes the media should basically reprint what he says verbatim, and should not ask tough questions. He now has descended to the point where he believes questions should be asked only by his crony reporters who will not embarass him. He apparently does not realize that politics is about communicating your message and ideas to the people. Where is the sense of openness and accountability he promised us in the last election?

Yesterday, two dozen or so parliamentary reporters walked out of his press conference. They did so after refusing to sign a list from which “authorized reporters” would be selected by Harper handlers for question-asking rights. Harper announced that since no-one was on the list, no-one would ask questions. The best coverage of this event is here².

The Toronto Star, long a Harper-bashing paper³, did not walk out. Here are the comments from their bureau chief (reprinted on a Toronto Star blog). It explains the role and benefits (to journalists and politicians) of the Parliamentary Press Gallery. The comments are interesting too.

This is all going to be very damaging to Harper. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. His attempts to muzzle the media are highly offensive to me (see also the exclusion of reporters from covering military coffins, an aping of the U.S common practise… beacon of light that it is in this regard.) Really, though, it is a problem that will take care of itself. Much is being made right now that Harper could cruise to a majority. Of course he can, who would be running against him? It will be much more interesting to see what happens in the fall.

ETA: There is good material, with lots of interesting links, in this blog entry.

¹If you believe this, you should check the facts (look at the cumulative report) that shows Martin vs. Harper).

²Note that this Calgary-based source was Harper-biased during the election as per note 1.

³According to note 1, the Star really was egregious for this.

 › normative     2006-05-25 15:42   ...1 comment

An AT&T technician who worked at a San Francisco switching station has revealed the existence of US NSA technology that splits a major network backbone interchange at the physical connection level.

This sort of thing, done at only a few well-placed sites, can provide the US government with effectively full access to telephone calls and all data communications. Of course, in the case of encrypted data traffic the government then has to decrypt it. But they have plenty of computer resources to do so. (The risk analysis for the light encryption used on the internet basically assumes that the person who would like to crack your data does not have the resources of a major government.)

Compared to a few FISA wiretaps, this is the big time.

The US government has stated it will hide the facts from Americans by shutting down the lawsuit into this matter. The US government can basically end any civil lawsuit on demand due to a legal precedent, and the Bush government has been the most frequent user of this power in history. It was recently used to quash Maher Arar’s civil suit.

 › normative     2006-04-29 20:00   ...1 comment

Identify the following quotes:

1. “The broad mass of the nation … will more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one.”
2. “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”
3. “Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”

Read the Complete Entry

 › normative     2006-04-04 23:55   ...0 comments

Jyllands-Posten, a newspaper in Denmark, requested and published a series of drawings depicting Mohammed (Muhammed), the prophet of the muslims. (According to the CBC, the call for drawings went out after an author complained that no one would illustrate his book on Mohammed.) The background to this is that muslims believe it is an offence to portray Mohammed, seeing it as one step on the path to idolatry.

Unsurprisingly, muslims around the world are highly offended by a newspaper that would intentionally publish a call for images of Mohammed; this is especially true given the context that the author can’t get his book illustrated specifically because it conflicts with muslim religious belief. Unsurprisingly, muslims are highly affronted when images of their spiritual leader portray him as a suicide bomber and suggest that there are “no more virgins in the kingdom of heaven”.

What newspaper would publish shit like that?

What I find even more unbelievable is that newspapers across Europe are re-printing these cartoons in droves. They support this misguided course of action on the grounds that they need to defend their rights to free speech and a free press. (Perhaps the real reason is that they have flagging circulation? Who knows.) This is totally bizarre because this is not an issue of free speech. It is an issue of respect and decency. Just because you have the right to do something does not make it a good idea.

Publishing drawings of a turban-wearing Mohammed where the turban is actually a bomb with a lit fuse is totally over the top. I am agitated and angry about this, and I am not muslim. I cannot imagine how the muslims feel about all of this.

Europe has a wide swath of racism and intolerance going on, whether it’s against the Indian subcontinent in England, the Africans in France, or whatever. White people seem to feel that we are alone in the world, and can say or do whatever we want about those “animals” who live in the middle east or africa or south america or whatever.

These assholes who are printing this material should smarten up, because there are a lot of people in the world who are being seriously offended. Major international incidents are extremely unpleasant and all, but this kind of inflammatory anti-muslim propaganda (let’s call it what it is) has the potential to inflame millions of people world-wide.

I firmly believe that the world’s increasing fiscal imbalance (to lift a Canadian political metaphor) is a pressure cooker ready to blow off steam. (What do we rich North American’s think the “third world” thinks of us?) That is nothing to what could happen if we really and truly commit to “whities against muslims” as a political agenda. It could happen folks, and if you don’t believe me just start watching coverage.

When major countries like Saudi Arabia start pulling ambassadors, it means that jerks who are reprinting hate material should smarten up. And fast.

 › normative     2006-02-04 00:07   ...1 comment

Our climate is changing. For better or worse (definitely worse) we are changing it, and it is clear that we’re not going to like it, going forward.

The NCC has released a commissioned report about how climate change will affect the tourism sector in Ottawa. The results are shocking.

Models predict up to 20 days less skating within 15 years. The tulips will be blooming as early as mid-April (well before the May long weekend of the Tulip Festival).

Perhaps most shocking: the possibility of total loss of cross-country skiing in Gatineau Park by 2050. The “good” scenario is 50% fewer skiing days. By 2020 we will likely not be able to hold the Keskinada Loppet international ski event (requires 15 cm base).

Downhill seasons are significantly reduced too, and huge quantities of additional snowmaking would be needed to avoid total disaster. That snowmaking would likely not be economically viable.

I don’t know about you, but given the amount of snow we get in Gatineau Park, it’s quite horrifying to imagine no skiing…

 › normative     2006-01-17 23:45   ...2 comments

There are in this [sic] country two very large monopolies. The larger of the two has the following record: The Vietnam War, Watergate, double-digit inflation, fuel and energy shortages, bankrupt airlines, and the 8-cent postcard. The second is responsible for such things as the transistor, the solar cell, lasers, synthetic crystals, high fidelity stereo recording, sound motion pictures, radio astronomy, negative feedback, magnetic tape, magnetic “bubbles”, electronic switching systems, microwave radio and TV relay systems, information theory, the first electrical digital computer, and the first communications satellite. Guess which one is going to tell the other how to run the telephone business? I can hardly wait for the results.

Yeah.

 › normative     2006-01-05 21:32   ...0 comments

For those of you not in Ontario, the OMB (Ontario Municipal Board) has been the highest authority on planning matters in the province. It has a reputation for being a softie on developers. So if your city doesn’t want a forest cut down to build a subdivision, it really has no say because the developer will appeal city council’s decision to the OMB (who generally approve anything put in front of them).

McGuinty is now performing (approximately) his second good act as premier.

First good act: Toronto Greenbelt.
Second good act: Reform the OMB. (See also here.)

Anyway, the upshot is that councils will be able to create local appeal boards, and some of the worst of the developers’ tricks will be prohibited (like proposing something preposterous to council then totally changing the proposal on appeal to OMB). Also, cities will be allowed to make planning decisions based on architectural style and environmental characteristics.

Details are scarce right now, and the changes may not go far enough, but any reforms to the 108-year-old OMB are welcome in my books.

(Sorry if the news link requires reg… The CBC article is a bit short and I can’t find another. Try bugmenot if you need a password.)

 › normative     2005-12-12 12:53   ...1 comment

Well, Harper is showing his true colours right out of the gate. He said today that his government will reopen the same sex marriage debate. If elected he pledges a free vote in the house to repeal same sex marriage.

I hope Harper is crushed in this election. But still, I don’t understand his strategy here. How can he be so stupid? His #1 mission in this election must be to show Ontarians how he is a cuddly teddy bear, and not the nasty no-good bible-thumper he really is.

This statement will not garner him votes. Everyone who hates same-sex marriage enough to repeal it was already going to vote for him. All he’s doing is pissing off non-rednecks who now will desert him in droves.

With same-sex marriage on day one, how long before he digs himself a hole on abortion? Banning it is no longer Conservative policy, but I’ll bet he and his moronic cohorts can’t keep their mouths shut!

Ah well, it’s good for the rest of us.

 › normative     2005-11-30 00:28   ...1 comment

Here’s an interesting hypothesis about the failing american war machine at the white house. The essay goes on a bit too long for me, but the first part is quite a good read.

 › normative     2005-11-21 11:28   ...0 comments

I’ve had conversations with several people regarding the bad trend of increased C-sections for the convenience of physicians.

A story recently crossed my friends list where a prominent doctor in the US states his opinion that frivolous Caesarean sections amount to malpractice.

I can also point you to the text of the actual report that he is commenting on.

I looked up the numbers for Canada, and the rate increased from 21.4% in 2003 to 22.5% in 2004 (the period covered by the US study cited above). The numbers in the states have not been that low since a brief dip in the C-section rate in 1996. I should point out that despite being better, the Canadian rates are certainly not stable… they’ve risen from 18.7 in the year 2000 to today’s 21.4%

 › normative     2005-11-16 10:58   ...0 comments

How does Walmart deal with their problems? They kill potential shoplifters

 › normative     2005-08-23 14:56   ...1 comment

A great day for this country. A historic one, really. And I agree with one poster who said the best quote of the day was (perhaps surprisingly) from Paul Martin:

We’re a nation of minorities.
And in a nation of minorities you don’t cherry-pick rights.

It will be a happy Canada day indeed. The next question, though, is what will Martin do now that he actually has to make something up himself rather than do what Chretien laid out for him (Gomery, SSM, Marijuana, etc). Does he have anything of himself to offer?

 › normative     2005-06-29 11:14   ...0 comments

Tonight — while eating a snack at the lovely Siam Thai Noodle on Mason St. in San Francisco — we saw a local news broadcast.

The first news item concerned a high speed police chase. During this chase the driver of a stolen car led the chase through city streets, hit two other vehicles, then plowed the car into a light standard hard enough to knock the two front tires off and knock the signal head off the light standard. Then the car smashed into a wall and burst into flames. Two police officers rescued the driver they’d been chasing.

The second news item concerned the arrest of some terror suspects at their bay area home. There was little information in this piece except to say that the FBI had been watching these guys for a little while. They were not arrested on charges of terrorism, though, it was immigration violations for them.

In the first piece (where the cops rescued the driver they’d been chasing) the guy was referred to as the suspected thief. The second piece referred to Al Qaida arrests. How can the guy you pull from the flames of his crime be suspected while the Muslims you detain on immigration violations because of some FBI theorem be Al Qaida?

 › normative     2005-06-10 02:40   ...1 comment

As governor of Texas Bush executed 152.

Today, Bush says: “… it is always wise to err on the side of life”.

He made the comment as he passed a law that alters the US court system to allow recourse to federal courts when “an incapacitated person, or a next friend of such person, has exhausted all State remedies.” This is a fundamental shift in US law.

What an asshole.

 › normative     2005-03-21 23:51   ...5 comments