Changing education paradigms

The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) from U.K. regularly puts out animated talks by various modern-day thinkers. This one is on changes in education paradigms around the world. The topics range from globalization to human perception of time. You can find the rest of the series on the RSA website.

The lecture below is the latest in the series.

Amiriyah shelter massacre

The Amiriyah shelter massacre was the killing of more than 408 civilians on February 13, 1991 during the Gulf War, when an air-raid shelter (“Public Shelter No. 25″), also referred to as the Al Firdos C3 bunker by the U.S. military, in the Amiriyah neighborhood of Baghdad, Iraq was destroyed by the USAF with two laser-guided “smart bombs”.

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Is Rob Ford really that popular?

Amongst likely voters who have decided who they would vote for, 45.6 per cent say they would make Ford the next mayor.

Via CTV

It boggles my mind someone like Rob Ford can have so much support in the city. Why? Actually, wait, I’m not all that surprised. Granted, I’m not a huge fan of other candidates (all of them), but Ford is an illiterate clown. I am not going to dissect his platform in this post, but I do want to give you an idea of how the reported support statistics give us a skewed idea of his widespread support.

• There are 1.5 million electors in Toronto’s municipal election.
• Population of Toronto is close to 2.5 million.
• Voter turnout in the 2006 election was 39% – 585,000 in today’s population.

Assuming a similar turnout, I estimate that 46% Rob Ford votes will come from approximately 269,100 city residents (46% of 585,000). Based on that assumption, we are letting approximately 11% of Toronto residents elect Rob Ford to lead this world-class city.

Ford doesn’t seem all that popular once you break down the numbers. But obviously he struck the right chord with quite a few voters. There is no easy answer to who should lead Toronto -  selecting the right candidate isn’t easy when the choices are so limited. Unfortunately I don’t find the other candidates to be more promising so it’s a tough choice to make.

But, there is a real possibility of Rob Ford becoming a mayor. And that’s scary (to me).

Whether you support him or not, take a look at the data, do some research and take 15 minutes out of your day to make an educated vote – don’t let others do it for you. Otherwise you let the 11% minority opinion run your city for the next 4 years. I am an eligible voter and taxpayer and believe that he doesn’t represent the majority opinion in this city.

Statistics: City of Toronto, CTV
Photo: CCUE

Volleyball

A game of voleyball on the USA-Mexico border, 1979.

Alex Webb

Buy American – build the next Berlin wall

Egypt has begun constructing a huge metal wall along its border with the Gaza Strip as it attempts to cut smuggling tunnels, the BBC has learned.

When it is finished the wall will be 10-11km (6-7 miles) long and will extend 18 metres below the surface.

The Egyptians are being helped by American army engineers, who the BBC understands have designed the wall.

Buy American – bury people alive. Could there be a better way to spend money to integrate Palestine into the modern world than building an 18m deep impenetrable metal wall? What amazes me is the idea behind the wall, which  potentially is a deeper way to dig people in physically and psychologically, by isolating every possible aspect of their life. Instead of building a visible barrier, build a psychological one, one that leaves an individual or a complete culture completely helpless. It does not matter whether you smuggle goods in an out of the country, you are boxing people in who are able to escape their horrible, shitty lives. Could you grant that to a Palestinian? Next – laser shields protecting or isolating a particular nation out of fear.

Not to mention, great job on selling an idea for a  creepy metal product to a country with one of the world’s worst human rights records. Palestine – the World’s Gulag. I am not a proponent of Palestinian extremism, but I don’t believe in isolating a populace of a state by an iron box – I think it is one of the worst historical mistakes we should have learned from by now.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8405020.stm