the pod bay door

.: Links to sites of interest:

• I Steal Television Shows Because I Have To – Mike Davidson, CEO of Newsvine, explains why he downloads the shows he wants to watch. Basically I agree with what he has to say.
• Tape It Off The Internet.com – not online yet, but it looks promising if it really happens.
• Azureus is the bittorrent client of choice these days, and it recently was the Best Overall Winner at the 2006 SourceForge.net Community Choice Awards

.: And so, the World Baseball Classic is underway, and a team of Canadian underdogs, which include a handful of Canadian-born MLB players, and without Canadian MLB pitchers Eric Gagne (who won the 2003 Cy Young Award), Rich Harden, and Ryan Dempster, pulls off a major upset and defeats Team USA 8-6 today. Love it, love it a lot.

.: I leave for Atlanta on March 24th, to attend the ACS 231st Meeting. I’ve been struggling with creating a presentation for this session, and made some small progress today. I hope to have something ready in a few days. I’m fighting writer’s block, fear of presenting to the converted, and a general feeling of lethargy.

.: Connect2Canada is an interesting website from the Canadian Embassy in Washington DC.

On July 1, 2005, Ambassador Frank McKenna launched Connect2Canada.com, a virtual network for Canadians and friends of Canada who live in the United States. Since that announcement, thousands have signed up to receive information on subjects as diverse as our global troop deployments, updates on BSE, Canadian events in the US, and the latest on our efforts to help out the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Many Canadians have told us how proud they are to be a Canadian in the U.S. Many Americans with links to Canada have also signed up to be a part of this network. They are emblematic of the proud and deep history between the people of Canada and the United States.

Connect2Canada is a way to exchange news and ideas, and find out what is happening in the U.S. related to Canada. Members of the network can receive email notices on a range of topics of interest to them and can share their views with others. As the network grows, it will serve as a knowledge base and a ready resource for facts on the major issues in the United States and Canada today.

We invite you to sign up to the network, so that the next time the conversation turns to Canada, you can have key facts at your disposal, such as:

Canada, not Saudi Arabia, is America’s largest supplier of crude oil.
• Canada has put 15,000 troops through Afghanistan.
• None of the 9/11 terrorists came through Canada.
• Facts on why the US market needs tariff-free Canadian lumber.
• Canada-US trade, at more than $1.5 billion US per day, supports over five million jobs in the United States.

Please spread the word to anyone you think would be interested in joining this network. We are also interested in feedback on how this network can be useful to you. You can send us your thoughts when you sign up to the network.

An article in today’s Edmonton Journal suggests that one reason the website exists is to help dispel myths many Americans have about Canada, such as:

• Some of the 9-11 Hi-jackers entered through Canada: FALSE. This is simply not true. In fact, they had all been legally admitted to the United States, as has been confirmed by senior American officials.
• Canadians are all Hockey Players: FALSE. The most popular participation sport for Canadians over the age of 15 is Golf. In 2000, there were 730,000 registered soccer players in Canada, compared to 500,000 for hockey.
• Canada is all ‘way up North’: FALSE. Twenty-seven of the fifty U.S. states have land North of the Southern most point of Canada – Middle Island, Ontario.
• Canada caused the blackout on August 14, 2003: FALSE. The initial cause of the blackout began in Ohio.

It’s a good effort, but don’t expect the majority of Americans to ever change their views and impressions of Canada; it’s the nature of the beast down there.

.: In a few hours I fly to Toronto to attend and present at the OLA Superconference. I will be in Toronto for four days. On Saturday afternoon I fly to Winnipeg to spend a few days there before returning to Edmonton. Time in Winnipeg will be spent visiting relatives, going to dim sum on Sunday morning, watching the Super Bowl with friends over pizza and beer later that day, spending time with my folks, and sleeping.

Tonight I had dinner with seven others at Parkallen Restaurant, which features Lebanese cuisine. Garlic prawns were followed by linguini topped with chicken breast over a garlic-based tomato sauce, and blueberry and vanilla creme brulée for dessert. Most of the others in attendance were members of the Edmonton theatre community. I was invited by one of them to join in, and had a great time.

.: The last 24 hours have been spent sharing Christmas cheer, food, and company with three sets of good friends and their families here in Edmonton. Last night I enjoyed Christmas Eve dinner with the Wests, featuring a large roasted turkey, and kugel, a traditional Hanukkah dish, along with the usual trimmings and side dishes. This morning I spent time with the Kendricks, where we shared homemade waffles, and sang the Christmas hippo song a few times. This evening I enjoyed another delicious turkey dinner and great company at the Ryan/Berretti home. I have no relatives in Edmonton, but when I am with good friends such as these, it feels like I am with family. I may be a pound or two heavier at the moment, but it is a small price to pay for privilege and blessing of good friends, good company, and good food.

I spent time today on the phone, visiting with my parents in Winnipeg, my brother in Calgary, and friends in Edmonton and more distant locales. Tomorrow I will drive to Calgary to spend a day with my brother and his girlfriend, and will return on Dec 27 in the morning. Wherever you are and whatever you believe, I hope you had a great Christmas.

.: Tony made mention of a recent opinion piece in the London Times by William Ress-Mogg, called A pope for our times: why Darwin is back on the agenda at the Vatican. Ress-Mogg reports on a recent press conference by Cardinal Paul Poupard, in which the Cardinal advises the faithful of the Catholic Church to listen to what modern science say. Excerpt:

In The Times Martin Penner reported the cardinal’s argument. He had said that the description in Genesis of the Creation was “perfectly compatible” with Darwin’s theory of evolution, if the Bible were read properly. “Fundamentalists want to give a scientific meaning to words that had no scientific aim.”

He argued that the real message of Genesis was that the Universe did not make itself, and had a creator. “Science and theology act in different fields, each in its own.” In Rome, the immediate reaction was that this was a Vatican rejection of the fundamentalist American doctrine of “intelligent design”. No doubt the Vatican does want to separate itself from American creationists, but the significance surely goes further than that. This is not another Galileo case; the teachings of the Church have never imposed a literal interpretation of the language of the Bible; that was a Protestant mistake. Nor did the Church condemn the theory of evolution, though it did and does reject neo-Darwinism when that is made specifically atheist.

I was raised Cathlic, and while no longer a church-goer, Catholicism is still a part of me. It is refreshing to read this, especially after the previous note about the continuing idiocy in Kansas, and to know that the Catholic Church is trying to distance itself from fundamentalist nonsense like intelligent design.

.: It is so cool that the White Sox won their first World Series since 1917, a year after the Red Sox won their first WS since 1918. In 2004, the Red Sox swept the Cardinals in four straight games, and the White Sox did the same to the Astros this year. So two very lengthy gaps between World Series victories, and a curse in Boston’s case, have been erased and ended in about a year. The announcers on Fox made mention of these dates shortly after the game ended tonight.

Now the pressure is on the hapless Cubs, who have not won since 1908. Big Guy called me after the White Sox clinched the game tonight, and we talked about how the Baseball Gods, wherever and whomever they may be, seem to be working some weird kind of magic, and it’s a wonderful thing. Now, baseball training camps open in about 14 weeks…