timouse

my dentist deals with "problem patients."

many of my frinds around here go to him...one in particular is freaked enough that he is given a prescription for a single valium the morning of his visit, followed by steady nitrous through his appointment.

sadly i found this out after my first visit

Saudi Crown Prince Sultan Bin Abdel Aziz offered his condolences in a statement on Saudi Al-Ekhbariya television.

"We feel pain and sorrow for them and for their families and we send our condolences," the prince said.

He said the kingdom "spared no effort" to avoid such disasters at the hajj.

But he said it "cannot stop what God has preordained. It is impossible."

Then why bother with things like "effort", I always wonder?

I spent the past three and half months living in a mostly Muslim community in northern Ghana. People there, Muslims and Christians alike, often make comments about things being God's will -- similar to the quote above. They would argue that although God decides what one's fate holds, one can still make an "effort" to live a good life. One's efforts will be rewarded when God decides one's fate.

the really worrying thing is that in my experience of muslim countries, they extend this sort of attitude to driving.

Thanks very much everyone. I think I'm going to hold steady at 28 for a couple of years. it feels like a good age so far

28 is a good age. old enough to sort of know better, but young enough that your family isn't expecting things of you yet happy birthday!

conversely' date=' a friend of mine rented a room in jack layton and olivia chow's house. olivia's grandmother lived with them, therre was a lot of tea and heathy debate around the table. jack rode his bike to work nearly every day of the year, ate well, had a very sane relaxed family life and apparently a healthy and somewhat noisy sex life. (grandma was nearly deaf). give him the job![/quote']

This would make a tremendous television ad.

jack could play this up, and contrast it with harper and his pals at a fancypants black tie dinner..."who has your interests at heart?"

HATE him. to the point where i get mad at people who like him.

i won't say that i like him, but i found him fascinating to listen to. he draws some surprisingle high-profile guests, and some of them even put him in his place a bit. ringo was on and howard kept on him about how barbara was hot, and finally ringo called him on it. "Come on, man, that's my wife you're talking about." after that, howard was cool and the interview was great. same with stevie wonder. after being badgered about how amazing his sex life must have been as a young guy, when asked for numbers of women, stevie nicely let loose. "come on howard, i'm a full grown man. i ain't gonna tell you my bizness."

i should stress that i was not a regular howard listener. in the mornings on the way to work i'd flip over to him while the cbc sports segment was on metro morning...if he was doing something cool, i'd listen for a while, if nothing else just to get an idea of what the hell he's on about.

i was somewhat impressed with him after the FCC came down on big radio and ressurrected the potty humour laws. he got much more interesting after they made him clean up his act, and way more political. ultimately though he's still pretty low brow, and i'm sure that with free rein on satellite, he might even buy the rights to broadcast maxwebster's bowel movements

These Hajj stampedes are pretty much routine annual events, and they do usually happen at the stoning of the Devil spot (where Abraham had been tempted not to sacrifice Ishmael, to the point where he got so pissed off he started whipping stones at the Devil to make him go away). It's a powerful symbol, but people do carry lots of baggage, and that can obviously get out of hand. They built a second tier around the pillars to ease the congestion, but with the huge numbers of people that come every year, fuckery is bound to ensue.

It is a crying shame, though, because the symbolism through the course of the whole Hajj is awfully rich, and does a lot for those that get in on it. By his own account, it cured Malcolm X of his racism.

malcom x talks about it very fondly in his autobiography. he spent time talking to a blond haired blue eyed pale skinned muslim and it totally broke through his self-confessed reverse racism. seeing people from all over the world be kind to one another gave him a whole new model.

wonder what he would have thought of the most recent nonsense?

Legislation is one thing' date=' but I'm talking about access to power/decision makers, and appointments. Ministers and the PM appoint people to thousands of boards, positions, committees, everything....

It's that kind of behind the scenes influence that I worry about, not legislation. Very little of the power excercised by Gov't comes down to a vote.[/quote']

I'm very glad you made that point.

indeed. this is sort of the crux of the thing.

come on in, boys...door's open!

people need to understand what sort of people the schlubs they put in office hang around, and what they do in their off hours.

conversely, a friend of mine rented a room in jack layton and olivia chow's house. olivia's grandmother lived with them, therre was a lot of tea and heathy debate around the table. jack rode his bike to work nearly every day of the year, ate well, had a very sane relaxed family life and apparently a healthy and somewhat noisy sex life. (grandma was nearly deaf). give him the job!

compared to harper hanging out with the god squad, or even martin hobnobbing with the business world, i'take jack as pm any day.

I recently read somewhere that the Green Party is being investigated by elections canada

link to article

Normally, I would vote socialist but last time and this time I will be voting liberals.

If the consevatives were in power for 9/11 we would be at war in Iraq and part of the "coalition of the willing". That alone is enough to make me want to keep the conservative out of office.

jim harris was on the cbc this morning and addressed this complaint. the person who filed the complaint was "fired with cause" from party management, and the greens have been open with their fiscal info.

vote quimby.

I think voting Green Party' date=' albeit with good intentions, is one of the most irresponsible things you could do with your vote. Just gives the Conservatives a better chance.[/quote']

And a 2 party system sucks why? I'm goin Green this year too, stick to your guns Tooly.

yay schwa! niffermouse and i have been voting green for a long time, and they are getting themselves together as a party, i suspect based on funding they received from their share of the last popular vote. we both plan to vote green again.

ideologically they are the only ones making sense, and in terms of candidate analysis, the PC guy is a greezy biz-knob, the NDP guy is nice enough but got flattened last time and will again this time. the liberal is new and has not yet sent me his literature...

go greens!!!!!!

The paradoxes never end when it comes to the Judaeo-Christian tradition.

Right on. One of the best I ever heard was when George Carlin asked' date=' "Can God make a rock so heavy that even he couldn't pick it up?" Gotta love George one of the world's great religious thinkers.[/quote']

from one of Christianity's greatest thinkers...

"Could God microwave a burrito so hot that even He couldn't eat it??

dr evil, you put "i always wanted to be a lawyer" on a mixed cd...makes me cackle just thinking about it

from the home office in tuscaloosa alabama...

16. It's Hard To Kiss The Lips At Night That Chewed Your Ass Out All Day Long

15. If I Can't Be Number One In Your Life, Then Number Two On You

14. If The Phone Don't Ring, You'll Know It's Me

13. How Can I Miss You If You Won't Go Away?

12. I Liked You Better Before I Got to Know You So Well

11. I Still Miss You Baby, But My Aim's Gettin' Better

10. I Wouldn't Take Her To A Dog Fight 'Cause I'm Afraid She'd Win

9. I'll Marry You Tomorrow, But Let's Honeymoon Tonight

8. I'm So Miserable Without You, It's Like You're Still Here

7. If I Had Shot You When I First Wanted To, I'd Be Out Of Prison By Now

6. My Wife Ran Off With My Best Friend And I Sure Do Miss Him

5. She Got The Ring And I Got The Finger

4. You're The Reason Our Kids Are So Ugly

3. Her Teeth Was Stained But Her Heart Was Pure

2. She's Looking Better After Every Beer

And the Number one song is...................

1. I Ain't Never Gone To Bed With Ugly Women, but I've Sure Woke Up With A Few

disclaimer: somebody else made these up.

--

from the Globe and Mail...

FIVE QUESTIONS: PROFESSOR MOHINI SAINCars made of plants? It ain't sci-fiBy

MICHAEL VAUGHAN

Thursday, January 5, 2006 Page G2

Professor Mohini Sain in the University of Toronto's Faculty of Forestry

creates biocomposites from processed plant fibres. In five years, he says,

he would not be surprised to see these types of materials making up 20 to 25

per cent of a car.

Sain treats stalks of hemp, flax, wheat and corn with chemicals to break

down the bonds that hold clumps of fibres together. The plant material is

then combined with synthetic plastics.

However, if it is mixed with plastics made from soy beans or pulp and paper

sludge, then it can create tough biocomposites that are completely

biodegradable.

Using a combination of heat and pressure, the material is compressed into a

variety of shapes that can be as strong as steel.

Sain is the director of the Centre for Biocomposites and Biomaterials

Processing at U of T. He is a chemical engineer by profession who received

his doctorate degree in chemical engineering in 1989.

He has worked in industry and academia for more than 20 years, holds several

patents and has published more than 300 papers in journals.

Vaughan: The only wood-based material I can think of in my car is a

cardboard box in the trunk. What are you trying to make with natural fibres?

Sain: I am trying to make door panels, bumpers, console, dashboard,

underbody panel, load floor, running board, head liner and many more

components for cars, including interior and exterior applications.

In some cases, I am working on putting these lightweight new materials into

parts where currently engineered plastics, metals and glass fibre-reinforced

composites are used.

The ultimate goal is to get an economic solution with an environmentally

sustainable alternative for transportation, construction, building,

furniture, electronic and medical devices applications.

When I put natural fibre in, I take out glass fibre and synthetic plastics.

It reduces the consumption of crude oil.

Vaughan: Are there reasons besides reduced consumption of oil that makes

bio-based parts better than glass fibre and synthetic plastics in automotive

applications?

Sain: Biogenesis of natural fibre takes less energy for production compared

to that of synthetic fibre (such as glass); the same is true for synthetic

plastics.

As natural fibre replaces synthetic plastics, it consumes less energy for

production. It also results in less emission of greenhouse gas.

Finally, natural fibre products biodegrade more rapidly than synthetic

parts; hence they have less potential environmental waste disposal issues.

Natural fibre composites with thermoplastics are recyclable, too.

Vaughan: Does it matter what natural fibre you start with? In other words,

is there something particular about wood as opposed to straw or potatoes?

Sain: Both agricultural and wood fibres have potential; but the type of

fibre source does matter depending on the application.

Wood fibre is shorter and their application is limited to injection,

extrusion, blow moulding, and palletized compression moulding.

On the other hand, long fibre can be obtained from agricultural fibres such

as hemp, flax, wheat and kenaf.

These fibres are excellent for press moulding, resin transfer moulding, BMC

and SMC applications. They can be combined both with thermoplastics as well

as thermoset.

It is expected that these fibres will provide stronger materials compared to

that of the short fibres and, hence, these make them good for structural

materials (an underbody panel for example).

Vaughan: Are you changing these fibres at the molecular level? Is this a

nanotechnology play?

Sain: We have an active nanotechnology research program where scientists in

our group are attempting to design the fibres that particular applications

need.

For example, a program has been initiated to develop fibre than has less

lignin bonding between cellulose bundles.

In another very exciting area of nanotechnology, we are working on

developing commercially viable technology to obtain nano-cellulose fibres

from wood fibre, agro-fibre and root fibres (such as rutabaga).

We have already demonstrated the excellent performance of these fibres when

they are added in a plastic as reinforcement.

We are working toward developing a continuous process to make such

nano-fibre and then develop bio-nanocomposites by processing them in

conventional plastic processing equipment.

Vaughan: Apart from expanding knowledge, what's in it for the university to

be developing this technology? Are there any patents or royalties for the

university?

Sain: Yes, we have several U.S. and Canadian patent applications pending in

diverse areas and have more than seven disclosures in these areas. The

university has a share of each of these innovations.

But more importantly, we train people with cutting-edge technology.

These trained graduate students, engineers and other associates will provide

the needed expertise this rapidly growing industry needs. Our PhDs and

post-docs give our country the needed lead in this global academic training

field.

Terminate...with extreme predjudice? Every president gets one...

I just about shut down GM for a day last week, that has to count for something

way to almost monkeywrench the man!

would they have been able to trace it back to you??

indeed. welcome to the best time-waster on the interweb

Like it is not hard enough to blow out 100 candles on a cake without all the purple spiders.

bwahahahaaa...nice one brian!

looking forward to celebrating albert's birthday this weekend....

i remember seeing stats about the energy input required to support all the turf grass in north america. it was insane...the numbers elude me but i'm sure that more energy input went in to lawns than to enything else...

we ripped up the grass in most of our front yard & planted native drought tolerant plants...after a couple years it's starting to look awesome, and the neighbours are beginning to follow...yay!

Equifax will do it for free...you just have to call their 1-800 number and request it over the phone. It'll show you exactly what banks and other lenders see about you when they do a credit check on you.

1.800.278.0278

you can also go to their web page and download a form that you fill out & mail in. if you want that info on-line, you pay (like $20 or so).

hth...

happy birthday! see you on the 28th!

I'm gonna try and track down some of his music and get it online. I think that would be a perfect tribute. Also, my show on Thursday will be dedicated in his memory.

that's probably the single coolest thing you could do...condolences, shain...

i'm considering it just to be able to tell the campaign telemarketers to "piss off, i voted for the other guy already..."

That's it, I'm quitting the board

you can't quit yet, at least stay until after the election

Go Green!

this is the first election where jim harris has been able to articulate a full platform of ideas, and every time i've heard him speak he's been brilliant.

the greens have been gaining support, and with funding tied to votes received, i will happily vote green. they may not get there this time, but if they pick up more support and more funding that will enable them to present their ideas to a wider audience, well, you get the idea.

hope you have a great birthday, scott.

cheers!!