Dear Tim Hortons: Really?

Joe.My.God. reports that Tim Hortons is sponsoring an anti-gay-rights event held by the so-called “National Organization on Marriage” in Rhode Island: Tim Hortons Sponsors NOM Event.

Now, Timmy Ho’s doesn’t strike me as being the world’s most progressive organization—I don’t see them sponsoring Pride events any time in the near future—but appending their corporate name to something this far in the other direction strikes me as both unethical and unwise.

Feel free to contact them to note your distaste.

Toronto Parks and Rec = Photoshop Disaster

So I headed over to the Toronto Parks and Rec site to see when my strike-affected yoga might recommence, and I was greeted by this monstrosity:

Immediate reaction: check blogs to ensure this horrorshow has been recorded for posterity. And indeed it has, over at Photoshop Disasters, which even managed to acquire the original photo. City of Toronto: Token Brilliance

And oh man, they cite a National Post article. All I can assume is that somewhere, a man with a goatee and a pitchfork is putting in an order for ice skates, because I am in agreement with NP on this one…this was insane. Was the original family, delightfully non-WASPish, somehow not diverse enough?

News Roundup

Toronto Star: Terrorism suspect on hunger strike at Kingston jail

Ryerson Free Press: Secret trials in Canada

Toronto Star: Czech Roma to sue board for `biases,' lawyer says

Globe & Mail: Supreme Court rules on tainted evidence

Montreal Gazette: Refugees to Canada in Catch-22 situation: Advocate

Big step forward: “Gay sex decriminalised in India”

C/O the BBC: “Gay sex decriminalised in India”

Re-donculous: Police go mental on Father's Day photoshoot

Dallas - Unfair Park - How a Heartwarming, Kick-Ass Father's Day Photo Shoot Ended Up Face Down in Handcuffs on the Addison Airport Tarmac

Anonymous sources

BoingBoingGadgets has a story on the anonymous sourcing of info on Steve Job's health, which features this hilarious graphic: Given the reliance on such sources (both as human sources and as the initiators of press reports used as "evidence" in court cases, I fins this pretty funny.

How to help with hashtags

From BoingBoing:

Cyberwar guide for Iran elections

Is CSIS untrustworthy?

My personal and professional experience with them has been, let's say, uneven. Over the last few weeks especially, I have more than once declared that I was moving abroad out of lack of faith in the government, and especially the intelligence sector.

This story is therefore both validating and infuriating:

Judge orders recall of CSIS witnesses in Harkat case (CBC.ca)

Best TORCHWOOD quote?

Jack: That's weird. Because when I'm about to murder someone I'm really careful not to talk to myself about it while I'm in the street.

Tosh: No, sure. I mean, that's lesson one.

(from 1x07, "Greeks Bearing Gifts")

What law owes to science fiction

Interesting item over at Whatever about the possibility that the Neanderthals died out because we ate them:

Technically It’s Not Cannibalism If They’re Not the Same Species

The comments are particularly tasty (ba-dum-dum)

I am particularly fond of the conclusion:

Even if it wasn’t cannibalism, I would still call it murder, since “murder” in my book (that book being a science fiction book) involves killing sentient creatures, whether they’re of the same intelligent species as you are or not. This is why one needs science fiction, incidentally: to model such legal conundrums. You’re welcome.

Which reminded me of a discussion (by which I mean argument) I once had with a post-colonial lit prof who insisted--INSISTED--that there was nothing wrong with cannibalism, that communion in Christian churches was cannibalism, and it was just another example of the intense and undeniable evil that is western society that we forced the South Pacific Islanders and other groups to stop being cannibals because of our own narrow-minded hang-ups.*

I of course pointed out that, while I agree that ritual cannibalism isn't particularly immoral (especially funerary cannibalism), it does cause prion disease and was probably a good idea to avoid it.

 

 

*Which was itself part of a longer argument over whether everything bad that has ever happened in or around a colonized society was entirely the fault of the colonizers, my point being that it's extremely racist to assume that any such society is so passive that they are incapable of screwing up without help.

TDS best argument against DADT ever

Clip from May 14

Also, on the torture photo issue, I have to say that while I support transparency, I get that it may not be necessary to release everything, when you've released all the substantive/significant information, releasing more information which won't add to the information, but will add to the outrage, is unnecessary.

In a perfect world, I’d be liveblogging my bus ride

Once again I am off to work on a Sunday morning, albeit relatively late morning, and I left work relatively early yesterday. None of this prevents me from being utterly handbagged. Sarah needs a huge coffee, or frankly, to break into my stash of wake-ups.

Because yes, I do have a stash. In fact, the past weeks in trial would not have been as smooth without them. You see, one cannot have coffee in the courtroom, which I find pointlessly cruel. We have water, which we spill with some frequency. But no coffee. It is perhaps the one thing the Respondents and us can agree on. I’m tempted to ask the boss to ask the judge for an exception to be made.

What we do instead is leave our cups on the table in our conference room (a misnomer, since it seats about four, but I refuse to call it a “breakout room”. It then gets cold, unless you (like me) think to bring a travel mug.

US military misplaces vials of bioagent, world shrugs

Of course, as Wired reports, it's not as concerning as it sounds...

"Army Biolab's Missing Vials May Never Be Found (Which, Oddly, Isn't That Scary)" (Wired)

My first thought was: "We still have warships?"

Canadian, British, U.S. vessels foil pirates in Gulf of Aden

A Canadian warship helped thwart a pirate attack as part of the NATO mission to keep vessels safely moving in the Gulf of Aden, officials said Sunday. (Full story @ CBC)

This is a real thing, and everyone must know of it (NSFW, but awesome)

Ron Jeremy + Sci-Fi/Horror movie = WIN

http://oneeyedmonstermovie.com/

No seriously, that's the title. And again, NSFW

Abdelrazik disaster continues

Ottawa cites international obligations in denying citizen's return home (Globe & Mail)

The government has unveiled new and unprecedented reasons barring the return of Canadian citizen Abousfian Abdelrazik, claiming every country he might fly over on the way home from Khartoum needed to give explicit permission.

This is flat out wrong. I only hope the Federal Court doesn't buy into this nonsense.

Me like caffeine

... and animated GIFs.

Best Daily Show Bit Ever

Watch it.

Lookalikes

Is it just me, or does Lenora Crichlow of BBC's Being Human:

Bear an uncanny resemblance to Billie Piper, of Doctor Who and Belle du Jour fame?

Name game

So I was browsing the Society for Creative Anachronism's pages on historically accurate names, and got to thinking...what would I have gone by in days of yore?

Theoretically, I suppose I might have the same name, since my given name is Biblical and my surname is at least early modern (see here). This is how British my last name is: my ancestors immigrated to Scotland...from Ireland.

Other appropriately venerable family names are Katherine, Mary, Elizabeth, and Martha, any of which meet the SCA's circa 1600 cut-off.

"Laura", of which my middle name is a variant, is old enough that Petrarch was writing poetry to a Laura in the 1300s.

And apparently the Gaelic given name "Mòr" is equivalent to mine. Or Sorcha or Saoirse.

Other surnames which could have been my lot:

• Bryant (from my father's name, Brian)
• Ní Bhriain (like "O'Brian", but with the feminine prefix and Gaelic spelling)
• Dalton (a male family name)
• Clarke (for the occupation association, Clarke = clerk = any job to do with writing = literate person)

Interestingly, my mother's mother, mother's father, and father's mother all also come from Britain for centuries back. I mean, British-from-the-dawn-of-time, with maybe a dusting of conquest Norman thrown in.

Good lord, small wonder I'm so terribly pale.

Reflections on watching the TRANSFORMERS movie

It's really nice to see the feet-on-the-ground American military portrayed as the righteous fountain of ass-kicking and protectors of freedom that we used to know and love.

Also, I enjoy that the "secret weapon" was a bigger, better, hotter gun. Hells yeah.

If I Had A Million Dollars (VI)

DO WANT a condo in this building:

MLS®: C1550362

In the Annex!

SickCity, the social network for hypochondriacs

Check out http://sickcity.org/, which uses Twitter to track tweets about illness and categorizes them by city. Apparently Toronto is 7th sickest. Colour me not surprised.

On a related note, my not-shingles still haven’t decided what they are.

Arar Commission Website

So, Annette Demers over at Slaw asks What Happened to the Arar Commission website?

Since I just happen to know, having had to look it up about 30 million times, I dropped her the link…and for posterity, and my future reference, here it is:

http://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/206/301/pco-bcp/commissions/maher_arar/07-09-13/www.ararcommission.ca/default.htm

Anthropomorphism is scary stuff

This comic (http://www.rockpapercynic.com) is both brilliant and CanCon:

CSIS: Disregarding International Law Since (at least) 2003

So this is horrifying, although I suppose not really surprising:

globeandmail.com: CSIS asked Sudan to arrest Canadian, files reveal

Mr. Abdelrazik is a political refugee who became a Canadian citizen in 1995. In 2003 he was arrested by the Sudanese authorities on the advice of CSIS. In prison for 11 months, he was tortured, and was interrogated by CSIS agents as well as US intelligence operatives. Finally released—because even the Sudanese authorities, well known for their disregard of human rights, could not justify holding him. He was rearrested in October 2005, and held for a further 10 months. At least one of those arrests was at the request of the Canadian government.

Throughout, the Canadian government not only denied Mr. Abdelrazik his rights under international law, including consular protection, they actively obstructed his return to Canada by refusing to issue him emergency travel documents, even after promising to do so as soon as he had arranged a ticket to fly home. They have seized his assets and stated that anyone who gives him money to pay for the ticket is committing a crime and will be charged under terrorist legislation.

The RCMP investigated Mr. Abdelrazik and exonerated him in NOVEMBER 2007. He still can’t come home.

Think Maher Arar was a one-time mistake? Think again.

25 Random Bits of Misanthropy, Part I

So the “25 random things about me” meme seems to be circulating again. I’ve decided to put a bit of negative spin on it, because hey, I’m in that kind of mood. I therefore present “25 things that make me mutter obscenities under my breath”:

1. Small, shrill children, especially on the TTC
   People always laugh when I say I transferred out of teachers college ‘cause I realized I hate kids … it’s not a joke. If I’m engaging with the kid I’m fine, but if they’re in the background it’s worse than nails on a chalkboard.
2. People who stop at the very top/bottom of stairs and stand there
   I’m looking at you, 1Ls.
3. The total lack of stability on TTC vehicles
   I can only assume a perfect storm of bad roads, lousy shocks, and freakishly reckless driving, but it’s unusual for me to be on a bus these days and not think I’m going to be thrown to the ground.
4. People who lie to obscure the fact that they’re not doing their job
   Pretty much anytime I hear “But I told you to do that” or “I never told you that” I assume the speaker is lying
5. Medication where the side effect is as bad as the condition
   What the hell, people. I only want to be able to breathe through my nose, is that so much to ask?
6. Legal questions that no one understands, but no one ever resolves, like certiorari versus declaratory relief
   Thank you, authors of four different books on administrative law, for those fascinating chapters on how no one knows what which remedy is for
7. People who go out of their way to screw with an immigration application because the applicant won a court case
   I don’t know who these people are, but it says something about the world we live in when a court decision in your favour will probably lead to even more problems for you
8. Updates that freak out my computer
   What is the point of that, Microsoft?!?! How hard is it for you to patch my security without making my IE schizophrenic?
9. Technological improvements that aren’t backwards compatible
   Yay high-speed internet, boo my wireless network rejecting high-speed internet
10. USB ports at the back of a CPU
    I spend an inordinate amount of time at my office on my knees inhaling dustbunnies, reading the ports like braille
11. My office window
    It’s stuck open and has been all winter.
12. Coffee going cold immediately
    The pot seems hot, and it’s not like I use milk ice cubes, but I can barely through it back before it’s frigid, and I need the warmth (see #11)
13. My desk blotter calendar
    Mocking me with its January-ness. Because my desk hasn’t been totally clear since January, so I haven’t ripped off the old months

Part II tomorrow…

Blogging from Lilliput

Well no, not exactly. But I am blogging from my gorgeous tiny netbook. All 8.9” of it. Takes a little getting used to… nevertheless, I predict it will rock when taking notes at trials and hearings, and I can actually toss it in my purse…hell, I think I have pockets this would fit in.

Squee!

BBC Top 100 Reads...yeah, I'm a joiner

According to the BBC, the following are the top 100 books in the UK (at least, as of April 2003) and, like everyone else, I'm commenting on what I've read.

1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien NO
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen YES
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman NO
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams YES
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling NO
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee NO
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne NO
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell YES
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis YES
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë YES
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller NO
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë NO
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks NO - nor have I ever heard of it...
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier NO
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger NO
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame NO
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens YES
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott YES
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres NO
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy NO
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell NO
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling NO
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling NO
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling NO
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien NO
26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy NO
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot NO
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving YES
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck NO
30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll NO
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson NO
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez YES
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett NO
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens NO
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl YES
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson NO
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute NO
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen NO
39. Dune, Frank Herbert NO
40. Emma, Jane Austen NO
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery YES
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams NO
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald NO
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas NO
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh NO
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell NO
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens YES
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy NO
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian NO
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher NO

51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett YES
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck YES
53. The Stand, Stephen King YES
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy NO
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth NO
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl YES
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome NO
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell NO
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer NO
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky NO
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman NO
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden YES
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens NO
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough NO
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett NO
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton NO
67. The Magus, John Fowles NO
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman NO
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett NO
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding YES
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind NO
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell NO
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett NO
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl YES
75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding YES
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt NO
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins NO
78. Ulysses, James Joyce NO
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens NO
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson NO
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl NO
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith NO
83. Holes, Louis Sachar NO
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake NO
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy YES
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson NO
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley NO
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons NO
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist NO
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac NO
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo NO
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel YES
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett NO
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho NO
95. Katherine, Anya Seton NO
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer NO
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez NO
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson NO
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot NO
100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie NO

Further to my tea post...

...which is here: http://thinkingoutloudblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/high-tea-in-toronto.html

It was pointed out to me by commenter melanie that I had my Fairmont's mixed up. The Toronto Fairmont is the Fairmont Royal York, at which afternoon tea is served in the EPIC restaurant at the following times: Sunday to Friday, 2:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., Saturday, 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. More info here.

Unquestionably the best two sentences I have ever written

Notwithstanding the Respondent’s insistence on deference, the Applicant submits that the question to be asked is whether the immigration officer’s decision was reasonable. Given that the decision was clearly based on a deficient analysis which misapprehended the evidence and failed to seek clarification in the face of that misapprehension, it is submitted that the decision was unreasonable.

LAWYERED!

Ignorant whippersnappers

(Leaving WWRY, the iconic "Carry On Wayward Son" started to play in the emptying theatre)

Twentysomethings behind me: Hey, it's that song from Guitar Hero!

Me: (choke on laughter)

(A few minutes later, I am relating the tale to my classic-rock aficionado stepdad)

Me: They fail to appreciate the brilliance that is Kansas.

Him: Uhhhhm ... I don't know about tha-

Me: They FAIL to APPRECIATE the BRILLIANCE that is KANSAS!

What do you call a place of worship that has been converted into another religion's place of worship? Chursque? Mursquegog?

The Hagia Sophia is a prime example, but it's not the only one.

There's this lovely example in Cyprus, called the Lala Mustafa Pasha Mosque:

And of course, the Mezquita in Cordoba:

High Tea in Toronto

Obviously, you can do a basic teatime at any Second Cup or Starbucks, anywhere in the city.

However, a few places do still offer proper teas.

Zoe's Lounge at the Fairmont Royal York has a few options, ranging from $27 to $49.

The Windsor Arms Tea Room also has a few options, for $18-$45.

The Park Hyatt has both packages and an a la carte menu.

The C5 at the ROM has a high tea on Wedgewood China!

The Old Mill has one, natch, for $18 to $20.

Although not an official High Tea, the Gallery Grill at Hart House offers a wide selection of teas and desserts.

Another a la carte option would be 7 West Cafe. Ditto Cafe Maroc.

Other places I want to try are:

• Caffe163

Other placed I love are:

• Casa Acoreana

Canajun English

Which American accent do you have? Neutral You're not Northern, Southern, or Western, you`re just plain -American-. Your national identity is more important than your local identity, because you don`t really have a local identity. You might be from the region in that map, which is defined by this kind of accent, but you could easily not be. Or maybe you just moved around a lot growing up.

Click Here to Take This Quiz Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.

 

I also did this "Are you a Rebel or a Yankee?" test and came out about 70% Yankee, unsurprisingly. What was odd was the number of times I basically picked one answer out of multiple applicable ones. For instance:

What is your regular word for the thing you push around the supermarket?

• A (shopping) buggy.
• A (shopping) cart.
• A (shopping) trolley.
• A (shopping) basket.

A shopping cart or a buggy (though never a shopping buggy), rarely a trolley, and a basket is something altogether different.

What do you pack for travel?

• A suitcase.
• A bag.
• A valise.
• My spouse packs for me.

Well, I pack a suitcase if I'm packing a suitcase, and a bag if I'm taking a bag (generally smaller, for shorter trips).

Do you generally . . .

• mow the lawn?
• cut the grass?
• mow the grass?
• cut the lawn?

Any and or all of the above. I can't even tell you which is more common.