21st Century Friendship

Your friendship has been outsourced to India: Call 647-476-2995

Seriously.

Iggy And The Herb: I Approve

For Montreal, Ignatieff's answers provide a glimpse of what could be expected under a future government. The Liberals would like to see Vancouver's Insite safe-injection sites replicated across the country - a notion briefly entertained by Quebec's Health Minister but never pursued. Public transit would be better funded as part of a larger green investment strategy, and social housing would get renewed attention, where active federal involvement would incentivize the construction of more units. And of course, the gun registry would be safeguarded. As for the shuttered compassion clubs, Ignatieff said Liberals would reintroduce Cauchon's bill to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana for recreational use, while Jennings added that the process for obtaining medical marijuana, already legalized under the Chretien government, would also be streamlined.

Lets see if he wilts under the kind of attacks that will undoubtedly materialize. Hang tough, O potentially glorious Iggy!

Because it`s a perfect Liberal wedge issue! Libertarians support decrim because they're a bunch of teenage stoners! SoCons must be smoking something, but they won't support decrim in order to fuck over Libertarians (who they hate because Libertarians are goddamn ATHEISTS!).

Meanwhile, when it goes through, the rest of us can stop buying weed off our neighbour's nine year old daughter, who is a ripoff, and deal directly with Tim Horton's instead.

Gideon Levy On The Palestinian Right Of Return

Gideon Levy is an Israeli journalist and editor for Haaretz. He's been called everything from a hero to a stooge for Hamas. When he spoke in Ottawa recently, Dennis Gruending was there taking notes:

We have to compensate the Palestinians and help them where they are and we have to help others to come back. Years of brainwashing in Israel have made the Palestinian refugee issue a taboo. I do not fear the repatriation of refugees. We have absorbed a million Russians in the past 10 years and half of them were not even Jewish. Yet Palestinians who grew up here cannot have the same right. And not all of the five million refugees would want to come back. If we had courageous leadership or pressure from the bottom up, we could change but we don’t have that.

There's plenty more through the linked text. As you read it, you can imagine B'nai Brith's Frank Dimant spontaneously crapping himself. You can imagine the CJC's always elegant Bernie Farber gently palming his face, and sighing.

To Know Him Is To Sue Him, Part Gazillion And One

Another episode in the continuing story of Ezra Levant and his encounters with defamation law.

I have a buddy that tells me what he's up to on weekends. I don't hang with him much, because most of his stories end with "...and then the cops threw me through plate-glass window". Similarly, most of the episodes in Ezra's life seem to end with "and then I got sued".

Tories Raise Taxes

Just not as much as they said they would.

...which will almost certainly lead to more reports like this.

Update: The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) will take its half a loaf.

Mashey on Wegman

Edward Wegman is a professor at George Mason University. In 2006,at the request of U.S. Rep. Joe Barton and U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield (both Republicans), he led a small team of statisticians in examining the claims, made by Michael Mann and others, to have reconstructed past temperatures based on various proxy indicators, and to have therefore shown that present temperatures in the planet's Northern hemisphere were "unprecedented" over the past 1,000 or so years. Wegman's report criticized these claims quite harshly and, though Mann's arguments have been largely sustained by mainstream scientists, The Wegman Report has nevertheless been embraced by denialists and members of the Republican Party in the U.S. Congress.

John Mashey is an American computer scientist, best known as the creator of the "Mashey Shell". He has also done some fascinating research on, for example, the demographics of the AGW denialist movement, which I have written about here and here. However, his latest project, appearing on the Deep Climate website, is more important by several orders of magnitude.

Because, in essence, Mashey is accusing the writers of The Wegman Report (whether these were Wegman himself or others on his team) of plagiarism, among a host of other forms of academic mis-conduct:

Of 91 pages, 35 are mostly plagiarized text, but often injected with errors, bias and changes of meaning. Its Bibliography is mostly padding, 50% of the references uncited in the text. Many references are irrelevant or dubious. The team relied heavily on a long-obsolete sketch and very likely on various uncredited sources. Much of the work was done by Said (then less than 1 year post-PhD) and by students several years pre-PhD. The (distinguished) 2nd author Scott wrote only a 3-page standard mathematical Appendix. Some commenters were surprised to be later named as serious “reviewers.

In his recommendations, Mashey suggests:

George Mason University ought to investigate many problems, as should several other universities and journals, the US Office of Research Integrity and perhaps the American Statistical Association (ethics issues). At least 4 agencies may have possible fund mis-uses to consider. Some authors or publishers might pursue copyright issues. Congress and the DoJ should investigate the manufacture of the Wegman Report. Possible felonies are covered by the US Code, 18.U.S.C §1001 (misleading Congress), §371 (conspiracy), §4 (misprision), which might involve many more people. The report lists about 30 issues, not all for Wegman Report itself, but including derivations and related activities.

I should emphasize once again that this is serious stuff. For one thing, the accusations leave Mr. Mashey and the folks at DC open to a possible lawsuit. However, the instances of plagiarism, padding, and "dubious" citations are so thoroughly documented (here)that I think their case has been pretty much demonstrated. To give just one example, the Wegman Report bibliography references:

Valentine, Tom (1987) "Magnetics may hold key to ozone layer problems," Magnets, 2(1) 18-26.

It turns out that Mr. Valentine has no relevant scientific background. Furthermore, he has also written about engines that consume no fuel, psychic surgery, and other like topics in addition to the ozone hole. Remember again that The Wegman Report was presented to the U.S. congress as a piece of reputable science.

In any case, Mashey's research is also serious stuff because of its timing. The U.S. Republicans may walk away from November's mid-term elections with control of the House, Senate, or perhaps both chambers, and they have already promised to launch witch-hunts against climate scientists. It would be useful to have Mr. Wegman, should he be on the witness list in one of these show trials, confronted with some of the irregularities in his own research.

For more information, Joe Romm has a good account here.

Conspicuous By Their Absence...

More municipal stuff: Rocco Rossi's "goodfellas" ads seem to have disappeared from his website: job done, or mis-step? I didn't like 'em, but they got him onto the front page.

Nicholls Makes No Sense

Gerry Nicholls writes of the newspaper coverage of the T.O. mayor's race:

Writes the [Toronto] Sun: “Either Rob Ford or George Smitherman, it appears, will be our next mayor and neither has a fiscal plan worth warm spit.”

And I guess, if an election was akin to some sort of academic exercise the Sun would be right.

However, elections are about politics. And in politics the last thing you want to do is talk about details.

The more details you divulge the more likely you are to drive away potential voters.

Well, Nicholls knows more about politics than I do, but I think he's wrong. Higher up the political food chain--federally and provincially--there is certainly a greater tendency towards vague platitudes, whether you think this is a healthy thing or not. But the municipal level is where the rubber hits the road; if you have a transit plan, then its pretty easy to find out if the numbers add up or not. There are no lower levels of government on which to dump the monetary burden, and fewer thimbles to hide the pea underneath.

One problem, though, is just as The Sun notes: the fiscal plans of all the major T.O. candidates are obviously inadequate. And you can expand this observation to their transit plans as well. Rocco Rossi--who I am still inclined towards--says he will bury the Allen Expressway. Yeah. Sure he will...if a gazillion $s land in his lap. Rob Ford says he'll close the TTC subway loop. Sure he will...if a gazillion $s land in his lap. The only candidate making sense is Joe Pantalone, who's basically holding to the transit city/metrolinx deal already negotiated with the province. And, for me, he's not really a voting option: at this point, the city doesn't need more Miller-lite (or, perhaps, Miller-short). So, there's a dilemma. I can't argue against a Rob Ford candidacy by appealing to the policy platforms of the other contenders; they're all crap.

Nevertheless, I wouldn't trade what has been a fairly high level of media engagement and analysis during this race for the depressing slop currently on offer at the federal level. I'd even go so far as to commend The Sun for the fact while, they are clearly in Ford's corner, they haven't been afraid to rake him over the coals once or twice.

NDP On Fox News North

Jack Layton gets this one about right:

Even though Mr. Teneyke is no longer involved in this proposal, I remain concerned. This application must be treated on its merits, not on its political connections to the Conservative government.

To this end, New Democrats will continue to push back against any perceived meddling in the CRTC consideration of this application.

Again, if the CRTC allows SunTV a standard issue, plain vanilla, no special considerations cable license, I say bring 'em on. For I have a theory which states that no right-wing national news network can survive in this country. But for my theory to be proven correct, FNN must exist for at least a short time before failing miserably and in public. You have to get off the run-way before you can crash and burn, in other words.

Stockwell Day Taken In By Alien Ambassador Hoax

Speaking of Stockwell, his column from this morning concludes with:

A closing thought. The UN this week also named somebody to advise the world about talking to creatures from outer space when they arrive here.

Except they didn't: it was a hoax. UN representative Mazlan Othman, who was allegedly being lined up for the role of speaker-to-aliens, wrote in an email:

"It sounds really cool but I have to deny it," she said of the story. She will be attending a conference next week, but she'll be talking about how the world deals with "near-Earth objects".

As far as I know, Stockwell is the most prominent Western politician to have been taken in by the hoax.

Round To Stockwell?

Kady tweets.

And of course she's referencing to 2009 General Social Survey: Victimization, where it is written that:

For the eight crime types covered by the 2009 GSS on victimization, the proportion of incidents reported to the police by respondents fell from 34% in 2004 to 31% in 2009.

Except that, I think she's wrong about this being contrary to Stockwell, for if the proportion of incidents reported goes down, that means the number of unreported incidents goes up. Which is what Mr. Day seemed to be suggesting.

For an account of earlier rounds, read this. And, mind you, this still doesn't justify building more prisons as unreported crimes are by definition ones in which the criminal was not brought to justice.

Sue Macleans, THEN Defund Them

"All graphical representations of Bonhomme Carnaval are protected by the intellectual property rights," organizers said in a statement. "The defamatory and unauthorized use of Bonhomme Carnaval is totally unacceptable and will not be tolerated."

The carnival has demanded Maclean’s apologize and pull all issues from store shelves. The magazine has refused, and the issue has sold out in many Quebec stores.

More info on the defunding option here. Meanwhile, Wells tries to pretend the article wasn't crap.

And this is a good start at an apology:

While Maclean’s recognizes that Bonhomme is a symbol of the Carnaval, the character is also more widely recognized as a symbol of the province of Quebec. We used Bonhomme as a means of illustrating a story about the province’s political culture, and did not intend to disparage the Carnaval in any way. Maclean’s is a great supporter of both the Carnaval and of Quebec tourism. Our coverage of political issues in the province will do nothing to diminish that support.

But it needs more self-abasement.

National Captital Region Planning New Museum

Digging through Merx, where the feds and the provinces provide info on public tenders, can be fun on a slow news day:

Requests for Proposals are sought from consulting firms, museum planners or communications firms to provide services in the planning of a new Canada Science and Technology Museum (CSTM). The Canada Science and Technology Museums Corporation (CSTMC) will engage one team to assist the corporation in its exercising of due diligence for the development of a Business Case for a new CSTM. This business case will build on the Concept Master Plan for a new CSTM completed in September 2009, and will include the production of a concise, high quality document and a number of facilitated discussions with potential stakeholders. The conclusions of the business case will inform future work on this project. The CSTMC is committed to following as much as possible green processes in the development of its new science and technology museum and this commitment extends to all phases of the project including this one. The total budget for fees and disbursements (excluding travel expenses) for this phase of the project cannot exceed $ 175,000.

This is one of the Ottawa museums that I've missed on my occasional visits, mostly because I've been told that it isn't very good. Given the reviews, it looks like gov. would want to rebuild the "windowless one-floor warehouse" that currently houses the exhibits.

Or It Could Come Later Rather Than Sooner...

You know, I thought when summer ended, Canadian politics would become interesting enough again that this kind of vacuous speculation re the timing of the next federal election would be replaced by substantive debates over issues of importance. But, eyeing the gov's fall agenda, I guess not. I mean, for example, why push mandatory minimum sentences for human smuggling if you never catch any human smugglers in the first place? Isn't that like making a law to ban leprechauns? Who cares if it does or does not pass?

Oh, and here's Monte Solberg rattling on about the gun registry again. You don't have to read it...or rather, you're read it already 1,000 times before.

My problem under these circumstances is I'm running out of MPs with decent hair to write about. Hmm. This one isn't too bad.

The AGW Consensus

Dennis Bray and Hans von Storch have been surveying climate scientists for years in attempt to identify exactly where climate science as a whole stands on the questions surrounding AGW. Unfortunately, earlier surveys were freeped by denialists, and large scale surveys like this are problematic even when not sabotaged. For example, the authors say of the rating system used in their survey:

Figures provide descriptive statistics for all variables contained in the survey. Most survey questions were designed on a seven point rating scale. A set of statements was presented to which the respondent was asked to indicate his or her level of agreement or disagreement, for example, 1 = strongly agree, 7 = strongly disagree. The value of 4 can be considered as an expression of ambivalence or impartiality or, depending on the nature of the question posed, for example, in a question posed as a subjective rating such as "How much do you think climate scientists are aware of the information that policy makers incorporate into their decision making process?", a value of 4 is no longer a measure of ambivalence, but rather a metric.

It seems to me that for a participating scientist, most if not all of the questions asked could be interpreted as asking for a metric, in which case for most if not all questions the "4" ranking would no longer constitute neutrality or no pronounced opinion, but something more like a pronounced opinion towards a "B" grade.

That said, the survey is filled with suggestive if not conclusive material. For example, on the performance on the IPCC:

"A passing grade" would be my interpretation of that graph.

On the performance of journalists covering the topic:

"Generally speaking, crap" would be my interpretation of these two graphs.

PS. The other beef I have with the survey is I don't see any comparison their earlier results.

Defund Macleans

If they want to publish crap like this, then remember: they're still sucking $1,000,000 or so off the government titty via the Canada Periodical Fund. Why not take that money away from them?

And, just to be clear as to what's going on here: this an attempt by Ken Whyte, once of the National Post, to stir up some enmity against La Belle Province so as to sell a few copies of his slowly fading magazine to knuckle-draggers.

I'd also point out that, as far as I know, any publications accepting handouts from the periodical fund are still subject to questionable content complaints. If Macleans wants to trash a quarter of the population, maybe it should do so exclusively employing funding from the private sector.

Good Luck

John Ivison on Nigel Wright:

People who know him, say Mr. Wright is a small government enthusiast when it comes to the economy and is a “moderate so-con” on social issues. But one member of the Conservative caucus who has known him for decades, said Mr. Wright is likely to focus on the economy and not wander into areas of social policy, such as the census, which have gotten his predecessor into so much trouble.

Economists on the economy:

OTTAWA - Canadian economy watchers could see something in the coming week they haven't seen for a while - a negative reading on gross domestic product.

Statistics Canada is scheduled to provide its GDP report for July on Thursday. Economists polled by Bloomberg expect it will show a 0.1 per cent decline in overall economic activity for the month. The previous report showed the economy expanding 0.2 per cent in June.

I wonder if the Tories wouldn't be better concentrating on other issues. The Bank Of Canada sees growth slowing in 2011 (and 2012), and it looks to be slowing even more quickly than they have forecast. Don't put your gun registry talking points away yet, methinks.

Fox News North Moves To Center, And Leishman Is Out

These days you have to read the Toronto Sun Family Blog to hear the good stuff about Fox News North. The latest: since Kory Teneycke's departure their newspaper chain is undergoing a political correction. TSFB quotes the editorial staff at the London Free Press:

The Sun Media chain of newspapers made a conscious decision in the last months to be clearer of editorial voice and, knowing its market for compact newspapers - let’s just call them tabloids - veered more right on the political spectrum in its opinion columns and editorials or points-of-view, as we call them.

But it has since realized that what’s good for the tabloids in big cities such as Toronto and Calgary and Edmonton, might not be as good for the 20 or so community broadsheet newspapers it owns in Ontario cities such as London and Kingston and St. Catharines, as well as smaller centres such as Sarnia, Chatham-Kent and Woodstock.

If that coffee group keeps an eye on things for the next weeks, I think it will note a certain nudge back to a more centrist view of things that includes voices from more of a range of political views.

So, Sun Media clearly wants to scrub some of Teneycke's influence from its editorial and opinion pages. This is also evident in the rehiring of Peter Zimonjic.

The Free Press editors' blog notes further that writer Rory Leishman is no longer with the paper. More information is said to coming on that story, but we can safely assume it was over the dust-up re this column on "Islamist Extremism", which the LFP refused to publish on Sept. 11th.

Ernst Georg Beck Passes Away

Well known AGW denier Ernst Georg Beck died yesterday after a prolonged bout with cancer; the link is to an obituary in German (though there is a "translate" button). Given the occasion, I will refrain from mean-spirited remarks, but Mr. Beck's "studies" of CO2 concentrations were dealt with quite harshly here and, by myself, here.

The scientific value of his work on this topic was negligible.

Tories Move On The Environment: Their G20 summit “Signature Environmental Project”

The G&M, bless their hearts, has provided a .pdf giving a detailed breakdown of the federal government's spending on the G8/G20 summits. There's lots of stuff there to pick over, but I thought I would concentrate on a single item from the report-- just touched on in The Globe article--that Greg Weston mentioned previously in one of his columns.

One of the columns he wrote just before Sun Media allegedly sacked his ass down the highway for telling too much truth about wasteful spending at the twin summits.

I'm talking about The Living Wall, the Harper government's "signature environmental project", according to their tender, at the G8/G20 summit. In other words, the project that was to serve as the government's major statement on the environment at the summit, to serve as a symbol to the G20 of Canada's commitment to a cleaner, greener planet.

First off, both Greg Weston and I were both wrong about the nature of the wall: we thought it was an immense shrubbery. But if you look at this release (and this release) from The Direct Energy Center, where the wall was eventually installed, you realize that it is in fact one of NEDLAW Living Wall Inc.'s vegetal biofilters (picture top left), which use ( paraphrasing from Nedlaw's description) lush, green plants and beneficial microbes to create better indoor spaces by cleaning the air with the same processes that nature uses every day.

The price tag? (click image to enlarge)

I will leave it to my readers to decide whether a quarter million is too much to pay for what, while an interesting and unique piece of technology, is very much like an organic HVAC unit. For myself, the problem is more the reverse: conceptually, the project seems the result of thinking small. This was supposed to be, after all, our "signature" project for the entire summit. Supposed to be Da Bomb, the Pièce de résistance, in other words.

And in the end more money was spent on car rentals.