OOPS

Thousands of Halton parents get unwanted wake-up call

By Adrian Morrow/Toronto Star

News
Jan 18, 2010

It's one thing to install a new auto-dial software system. But it's quite another to announce it to 25,000 households at 5 o'clock on a Saturday morning.

That's what happened to the Halton District School Board this weekend when it accidentally sent out a phone message to parents, advising them that school was canceled.

To add to the embarrassment of school board officials, the message warning of "inclement weather" went out on a balmy morning.

And, of course, it was Saturday.

The trouble began last Monday when, eager to try out an updated version of the system, school board officials held a test run.

An employee created an automated message advising that bad weather had forced the closure of every school in the region for the day and fed it into the system. Once the test was done, the worker thought she had deleted the message.

She was wrong.

At 5 a.m. Saturday, the system started calling homes in Burlington, Oakville and the surrounding area. The employee who made the mistake was one of the people woken up.

Realizing something had gone awry, she scrambled to fix the problem, but it was too late. By 5:30 a.m., every household had been called.

"I was just so distressed from it," said Julie Goode, who lives in southeast Burlington with her husband and two children.

"I leapt out of bed because I thought it was about my parents. That's the first thing you think, is that it's something bad. Then they said the schools are closed. I thought it was a practical joke."

Oakville resident Sharon De Vellis, mother of two children, rises at 6 a.m. on weekdays and was looking forward to catching an extra hour or two of shut-eye Saturday morning.

It was not to be. At 5:07 a.m., she got the call.

"I did grapple for the phone, thinking that someone had died," she recalled.

De Vellis laughed off the rude awakening Saturday afternoon, as she tried to distract her kids with a movie while she stole off to take a nap.

Board officials promised to take steps so it doesn't happen again.

- with files from The Hamilton Spectator

as reported in the Oakville Beaver

Blogged with the Flock Browser

I've Got That Rainy Day Feeling in Austin

Some days just don’t seem to be worth getting up for. If only leaving the curtains closed could make them go away. We had a thunderstorm in Austin last night. Such things are novel in January where I come from; in Austin sizable rainfalls are also uncommon. In arid territories things happen when it rains. Desert plants shed their leaves to conserve moisture, not to protect from cold and snow; so when it rains things start happening. Cacti sprout leaves and bloom, trees start growing again, buds swell, and flowers appear. Dry creek beds, arroyos, suddenly become raging torrents and roads get flooded. Canadians would say, at least we don’t have to shovel it, this side of the border it is hoped we don’t have to sand bag it. In an arid land water is always welcome. I just hope it lets up somewhat before I have to walk over for my concert this evening.

No such luck! I walked the quarter mile to the Long Centre in the middle of a cloud-burst dodging the spray from passing cars. What follows will be a concert review. For the record my centre row seat at the front of the balcony afforded near-perfect accoustics.

In an age when most people hear music recorded on a CD a live concert is an entirely different experience. This was an all-Barber Concert dedicated to his 100th Anniversary and since the feature artist was Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg playing the Violin Concerto I’ll begin there. Nowhere is the difference between recorded sound and the live experience more dramatically apparent than in the ‘contest’ between a single violin and a large symphony orchestra. Without the close miking of the soloist which allows the violinist to stand out on a recording one is struck by how small is the tone of a single violin in contrast to say a flute or clarinet. In a concerto a solist plays not so much with the orchestra but its conductor. Peter Bey is emphatically a solist’s conductor for without his co-operation in holding back the orchestra the solist could have easily been drowned out completely especially since this solist chose to interpret this concerto with an ethereal delicacy. I have seen solists who looked daggers at their conductor and stalked off stage without giving him a second look, but these two exchanged enthusiastic hugs after the performance and the solist applauded the orchestra. Not since I attended an old-time fiddling concert in PEI have I seen an artist give such an animated performance. This one did not stomp her feet but she definitely danced across the stage feeling the music as much with her body as her with hands and bow.

Symphony # 1 which follows was not familiar and displayed the kind of dense internal development one would associate with the likes of Bruchner. The opening music from Medea was new to me as well. There’s a reason this number opened a program which featured more familiar and popular opuses. The organ concerto which ended the first half suffered largely from the lack of a real organ; watching the stagehands wheel the electronic monster onstage and assemble it being more dramatic than the sound it made.

Given the popularity and ubiquitous nature of the Adagio for Strings giving it a fresh airing is a challenge for any group. Maestro Bey chose a mannered, delicate approach emphasizing the interplay between the tonal groups of the string section.

My walk home was only slightly less damp. In fact Maestro Bey congratulated his audience in braving the elements to attend the evening’s concert.

Left Hand Driving

Fact of the Day: drive-on-the-left locations
No one knows for sure, but some suggest that left-side driving originated from the fact that carriage drivers liked to sit on the right to give their whip hands more freedom. In the Middle Ages, one kept to the left for the simple reason that one never knew when someone unfriendly would come along, and driving on the left kept the right arm free to hold a sword. This custom was given official sanction in 1300 AD, when Pope Boniface VIII invented the modern science of traffic control by declaring that pilgrims headed to Rome should keep left. The first known keep-right law in the U.S. was enacted in Pennsylvania in 1792, and the other states and Canadian provinces followed suit.

A comic aside states that men tend to sleep on the right side of the bed because even in bed they want to be in the driver's seat.

Five Most Ridiculous Lawsuits

The top five Most Ridiculous Lawsuits of 2009 are:

5. Neighbor sues woman for smoking in her own home;
4. Double-murderer sues to claim his victims' classic Chevy pickup;
3. Holocaust denier sues Auschwitz survivor, alleging memoir contains "fantastical tales;"
2. Tourist sues hotel, claiming swimming pool got daughter pregnant;
1. Illegal immigrants sue rancher who stopped them on his property at gunpoint and turned them over to the Border Patrol.

According to the US Chamber of Commerce.

Some lawyer actually took these on? No wonder lawyers have a bad rep.

Slacking Off in Austin

I must apologize to my regular readers for the paucity of personal entries in this blog since I reached Texas. I’ve always rued the fact that I got stuck with Windows Vista when I bought my first laptop but reverting to XP hasn’t been an option since drivers for that OS weren’t available for my model. Just as I reached Austin the OS crashed once again and after 3 attempts to get it up and running again finally broke down and went out to pick up Windows 7. HP does provide drivers for that system. Windows 7 is half the size of XP and Vista and remarkably makes my display look sharper and brighter. The one deficiency of an otherwise rolls royce laptop HP put together for its Pavilion dv-7 line is an underpowered video card. I suppose their concern was heat since it was a video card burnout that destroyed the motherboard on my former model. Among the improvements I’ve noticed is the fact that icons in my system tray always appear in the same location relative to their last entry whether or not they are loaded with Windows or started later. But enough geek tech.

I drove into Austin on Saturday November 14th and set up for the night in the Gethsemane Lutheran Church parking lot where I was promptly met by Pastor Karl Gronberg. There’s a reason I wanted to come back to Austin. Even before I’d had a chance to clear the highway dust from my pores he picked me up and took me along on a couple of pastoral calls. With service next morning I felt immediately at home once more. To solidify the relationship my friend John gave my arm a gentle twist inviting me to join choir for the Christmas Season. Those in the pews have no idea the number of practices and shuttlings back and forth to church involed in those few minutes of special music choirs provide. For the Christmas Season there were also a round of public commitments including a ride in the church van with the Pastor on the Friday before Christmas to carol for sick and shut-in members.

In the last two months I’ve spent way too much time doing computer software maintenance and too little actually using it. There are still programs missing from the present system. When I wasn’t off singing or installing software I did manage to get reacquainted with Austin South of Town Lake. My second day in town I moved back into my former campsite at Pecan Grove Campground, 1518 Barton Springs Rd just down the street from Zilker Park. The grackles still give their typical wolf whistles that I have come to associate with the place and Romeo’s next door still plays live Jazz Friday and Saturday Nights. I was somewhat put out when they started playing Xmas Musak Thanksgiving Day!

I still enjoy Romeos Texan Italian Style Eggs Benedict with a cold bottle of Maine Root Ginger Beer after church on Sundays. Uncle Billy’s on the other side of the park still sell pints for two bucks on Tuesdays and smoke Texas BBQ, I nod to the bartender and he brings my order these days. Green Mesquite up the street still offers blue plate specials daily--don’t know if their hot sausage has gotten milder or my palette more accustomed to hot food but their Jambalaya didn’t repeat on me this time round. Chuys next to the park still have Happy Hour Margaritas and offer up their Tex Mex specialties and complimentary tacos and salsa. I’m still not sold on refried beans and can do without black beans. Got down for lunch at Artz Rib House where the must do is Baby Back Pork Ribs with salad. The weeds grow up through the bricked in patio but the food is good.

Across Town Lake Whole Foods still charge $20 an hour for roof-top skating and Readers Den is next door. Across the street Waterloo Records make me feel I’m back on Yonge Street in Toronto at Sam the Record Man. On sunny days the cinder track around Town Lake is packed with joggers of all shapes, sizes, and fitness levels. Zilker Park lit its famous 160-ft Christmas Tree but economic considerations scaled back the trail of lights to the point where venders out-numbered light displays and the portable generators drowned out the music. The condos next door are still under construction though work is concentrated away from our park. Got my electric bike its yearly maintenance and although it runs better than it did new have not been out much since I got back. There are a large number of for sale signs in the neighbourhood south of us. I did walk down for brunch and a movie at the Alamo Drafthouse.

During the Christmas Season got to attend a benefit concert for North Austin Caregivers which took place at Saint Louis King of France Catholic Church which seats nearly 1000. Sixteen choirs took turns singing while the congregation sang seasonal carols to a huge 3-manual Aeolian-Skinner Pipe Organ. The Peace Tree Ceremony inaugerated after 9/11 had to be one of the more eye-opening events in which I participated. Taking place in the basement of a library in a neighbourhood where signs warned to keep your vehicle locked, the presentations were a multi-cultural mix that included WASPs perfroming African Drumming, Celtic Harp, Irish Tin Whistle, Afro-Americans singing operatic numbers, a barefoot Spaniard playing guitar with bells at his ankles, and two little Hispanic Girls doing Indian Belly Dancing while their overweight brothers did their best impression of the plumbers butt crack display. Keep Austin Weird indeed.

The Campground is indeed in a Pecan Grove and although I’m told this year’s crop was not optimal I still managed to collect nearly a gallon. An early killing frost the first week of December brought down the house, covering my RV in leaf fronds that were still green. To mark the second week of 2010 we are to enjoy yet another deep freeze, this one extending all the way into Florida. I’m just thankful it’s happening now and not last week this time when I went camping at Bastrop State Park with the local Sierra Club.

Oops

Halifax buys illegal sign for community centre
Last Updated: Tuesday, January 5, 2010 9:20 PM AT Comments31Recommend16
CBC News
The message on this sign in Fall River used to change many times a day. Now there's one message. (Phonse Jessome/CBC)
It turns out that you can't beat city hall — even if you are city hall. That's the lesson learned when Halifax Regional Municipality spent thousands of dollars to put up a sign that violates its own bylaws in front of the new Gordon R. Snow Community Centre in Fall River.
The sign showed the time, the temperature and a scrolling message about activities in the centre.
Similar signs are used in other parts of Halifax, but they're not allowed in Fall River. So, when city planners found out about the sign, they issued an order to turn off the scroll. Now, a fixed message is in place on the sign.
District 2 Coun. Barry Dalrymple said that no one bothered to check the rules before forking out the money for the sign, and he doesn't want to know how much this mix-up cost
"To be honest with you, I don't want to know. That would be heartbreak, I'm sure," he said.
The city estimated the sign cost between $40,000 and $50,000. The bylaw states that the constant scrolling on the sign is too distracting to drivers.
"We do often hear that if the signs are changing, they become a traffic hazard, a traffic distraction, "Dalrymple said. "You know, I'm sorry, I was a policeman for a long time — I don't buy it."
For now, the message on the sign can change once a day while city planners review the bylaw.
This is yet another problem for the new $9-million centre.
When it opened in February, officials discovered that the underground well system produced only a little water, and that it contained too much iron and manganese.
The Halifax Regional Municipality had to issue a tender to provide water from a cistern.

Shaming us All

Shaming us all


By Janice Kennedy, Citizen SpecialDecember 27, 2009Comments (28)



The news has been filled lately with many important stories, what with the transgressions of Tiger Woods and the impending nuptials of Mike Fisher and Carrie Underwood. (And hey, kids. Congratulations.)
In fact, there's been so much important front-page news that other things have, of necessity, been buried. So you may have missed the story about our federal government and a bunch of Christian do-gooders.
Our government -- or, more accurately, the triad of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney and Bev Oda, minister for the Canadian International Development Agency -- have cut off funding (to the tune of $7 million) to KAIROS, the ecumenical Christian organization that works for peace, development and social justice in hard places around the world.
The organization (which counts among its members the Anglican, Evangelical Lutheran, Presbyterian and United churches of Canada, as well as Quakers, Mennonites and Catholics, including bishops) has been receiving funding for its international projects for 35 years through CIDA and fully expected to receive it for its latest proposal.
Its dual focus for 2009-2013 was on human rights and ecological sustainability, and it had been approved by CIDA at each level of submission -- until Nov. 30. That's when KAIROS was suddenly informed (after being made to wait two extra months after the deadline) that the proposal did not fit "CIDA priorities." In short, no money.
That's bad enough. Given KAIROS's track record, past and present, it shows appalling judgment on the part of the Harper Conservatives. And it says something worrisome about the current workings of the federal bureaucracy.
But the story got a whole lot worse when Kenney stepped into it. While Oda had announced that KAIROS was being cut off because its priorities didn't match CIDA's, Kenney took it up a notch. A notch? Make that a whole mountainside. Speaking in Jerusalem, he said the de-funding of KAIROS was part of the Canadian government's vigilant efforts to disempower anti-Semitic groups.
Anti-Semitic. He effectively called KAIROS anti-Semitic.
The charge is horrific. For people of good will who are not Jewish, the very idea of being or appearing anti-Semitic is chilling. I speak personally. We have seen the result of anti-Semitism at its most horrendous in film, literature, the powerful testimonials of those who lived and died during the Holocaust. We have heard our Jewish friends and neighbours, and we understand without question the need for both the concept and state of Israel, as well as the worldwide duty of vigilance. "Never again" is the understandably passionate cry of every heart that is Jewish -- but it also has a resounding resonance, a powerful resonance, in hearts that are not.
Anti-Semitism, in short, is a crime against humanity, something loathsome that emerges from the hatred and wilful ignorance of shrivelled souls and the lowest of the low. To label persons or groups anti-Semitic is to condemn them, rightly, to contempt. And a minister of the Crown has just done that to a Christian humanitarian group.
Earlier this month, Kenney said, "We have de-funded organizations, most recently like KAIROS, who are taking a leadership role in the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign" against Israel. This was at a conference on combatting anti-Semitism, which effectively labels KAIROS anti-Semitic.
Trouble is, Kenney is flat-out wrong about KAIROS's position. While it has indeed expressed concerns about some Israeli government policies regarding the treatment of Palestinians (something even Jewish Israelis debate), it has not promoted, and does not support, any anti-Israel sanctions, divestment or boycott. Period.
But it does, perhaps, stand for things the Harper government at home seems to have little interest in, such as ecological justice and the international advancement of human rights. And when the Harper government doesn't like what established organizations stand for, it cuts them off. Just ask women's groups across the country that felt the sting of its dismissal in 2007.
For that matter, when the Harper government doesn't like what some people are saying about the way it operates, it tends to cut them off, too. Just ask Peter Tinsley (departing chair of the Military Police Complaints Commission), Linda Keen (fired head of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission) or Richard Colvin. What is sad here, besides the Harperites' unconscionable and politically motivated mudslinging, is the damage to both the reputation KAIROS has built up so powerfully over the years, and its role as a champion of responsible global citizenship.
In Sudan, where its humanitarian work focuses on developing livelihoods for the community; in Indonesia, where it investigates human rights violations and military atrocities; in Colombia, where its community development work is a bulwark against kidnappings and assassinations; in the Congo, where it is involved in the fight against rape as a weapon of war -- in so many places, in so many ways, KAIROS does the good, honourable and difficult thing.
Any well-meaning Canadian -- left, right, centre -- should feel a justifiable sense of shame that our government, in our name, has so ill-used an organization that walks the walk, fights the fight and does all those other things for which most of us lack the time, inclination and stomach.
In a world with no shortage of self-interest, though relatively trace amounts of hands-on compassion, KAIROS can count itself squarely among the good guys. The Harper-Kenney-Oda gang, with all due respect, can not.
Someone needs to apologize and make amends. And it's not the good guys.
Janice Kennedy writes here on Sundays.
E-mail: 4janicekennedy@gmail.com
© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

CBC News - Nova Scotia - Astral mystery endures in Nova Scotia church

CBC News - Nova Scotia - Astral mystery endures in Nova Scotia church
Astral mystery endures in Nova Scotia church
Last Updated: Thursday, December 24, 2009 12:04 AM AT Comments54Recommend99CBC News
The mysterious chancel ceiling at St. John's Anglican Church in Lunenburg, N.S., was reconstructed in 2004 after a fire three years earlier. While locals now know what the star pattern represents, they don't know who originally designed it, or how. (CBC)
Parishioners at one of Canada's oldest Anglican churches will be puzzled by an enduring enigma when they gaze heavenward this Christmas.

The chancel ceiling at St. John's Anglican Church in Lunenburg, N.S., has a special pattern of gilded stars on it, and while locals now know what it represents, they have yet to find out who originally designed it, or how.

The conundrum emerged after the church, built in 1754, burned on Halloween night in 2001 as a result of arson. The parish sought to reconstruct the building's interior as closely as possible, and it brought in parishioner Margaret Coolen in 2004 to re-create the ceiling over the altar.

A fire ravaged St. John's Anglican Church in 2001. (CBC)
But the church didn't have a complete set of photographs of the original star pattern, so Coolen, hoping the pattern reflected the actual alignment of heavenly bodies in the night sky, sought the help of astronomer David Turner of Saint Mary's University in Halifax.

That's when the first mystery emerged.

Turner recognized the constellation Perseus in the photos of the eastern part of the chancel ceiling. But Perseus, seen from Lunenburg, always lies in the northern part of the sky and never due east.

"We looked at them and didn't recognize any of the star groups," Coolen explained of the constellations' positions. "It looked like they might just simply be put up at random, but it didn't seem like someone would go to that trouble to put just random stars on the ceiling."

Coolen suggested that Turner instead look at the stars' alignment around 2,000 years ago — on Christmas Eve in the year of Jesus' birth.

Then, using software that plots the positions of heavenly bodies throughout history, Turner had a revelation: The chancel ceiling's pattern indeed reflected quite closely how the night sky would have looked from Lunenburg all those years past, when constellations appeared in somewhat different locations than today.

"I set the scene for sunset, and bingo! I found myself looking at Perseus in the eastern sky," he said.

But while the finding has excited parishioners at St. John's Anglican, who now know that they are gazing up at the heavens as they would have appeared on the eve of their Saviour's birth, it has also perplexed them.

The ornamentation they once merely called "Mariner's Sky" holds a stellar motif of immense astronomical significance. But who could possibly have calculated the astral positions, and how, remains a mystery.

Remove Fill Pipe When Removing Oil Tank in Basement

Heating oil poured into wrong house

Last Updated: Friday, December 11, 2009 | 10:58 AM AT

CBC News

A heating company truck is parked outside a Saint John house where oil was accidentally poured into the basement. (CBC)

A Saint John family is looking for a temporary new home after about 30 litres of home-heating oil was accidentally pumped into their basement.

Saint John fire crews responded to complaints of a furnace-oil spill in an east Saint John residence on Friday morning.

Jerry Morris, the district fire chief, said between 20 and 30 litres of home-heating oil was delivered to the wrong house. Morris said the driver misread the delivery ticket and put the oil into the pipe on the wrong house.

"What happened there, this residence there, they didn't have a furnace for practically 15 years," Morris said.

"But the fill pipe was still on the outside of the building. So when he put the fuel in the pipe it just went directly right into the basement."

Morris said the oil flooded the home's fully furnished basement and the fumes are so bad the home will not be liveable for several weeks.

Irving Oil Ltd. has put the residents up at a hotel at the company's expense and crews spent the day cleaning up the mess, said André Landry, district manager of operations.

"We have a process first of all to avoid these type of incidents, so we're investigating that now internally. But the first priority this morning was ensuring that the homeowners were tended to and that their needs were met."

Meanwhile, fire officials said residents who are no longer using home-heating oil should have the fill pipe removed so similar accidents do not happen.

This Digital Age

In the first place let me acknowledge the irony of my posting this particular discussion on an electronic forum. Although I recognize the convenience of reading MacLean’s Magazine via an electronic subscription especially when I’m on the road and admit that I presently have no less than four electronic book readers installed on my computer I remain essentially a book  person; there is no substitute for holding the page in one’s hand. Books may have copyrights but there is no such thing as digital rights management issues to printed text. At present I am struggling with the fact that Microsoft Reader will not allow me to read the books I have transferred to this laptop after a necessary re-imagining of the operating system.

 

Last spring I read the letters written home by a young WW#2 soldier edited by his son after they were found in a packet behind his grandfather’s basement furnace. In this age of instant messaging, tweets, and text messaging no such records will be left behind. Even E-mail and Word Documents exist only as positives and negatives on a hard drive and as we all know all hard drives fail sooner or later.  When famous people and authors die it is common to see published edited editions of their correspondence. In a time when these exist only as electronic media the opportunity to release such publications will become less possible as old versions of software, encryption, and password protected files and computers make accessing these documents more difficult. Just ask people who had their cell phone data stored in the ‘cloud’ and lost it when the servers failed without backup.

 

Those who have followed this blog for any length of time have already read that my father didn’t trust the phone, when he wanted to talk to someone he got in his truck and drove to see them in person. Today people send tweets or text messages to relatives located in the same building. Letters are something one sends when a text copy of a document is absolutely required or one needs to communicate with the few people who have not yet entered the digital age. People still feel the need to send Birthday, Valentines, and Christmas Cards. However these days I send messages by E-mail and do much of my ordering and financial transactions online. However since I hit the road I have not felt the need to possess a cell phone and do not feel a pressing need to be constantly in contact with the world at large online.

 

Not everything about our online digital age is a negative. Etymologists are finding electronic access to texts a boon in discovering when a word was first used or when it was used in a particular fashion. However were there to be a catastrophic electro-magnetic storm that wiped out all electronic media worldwide what would be left for archaeologists of the future to study in assessing the culture of our age?