http://torscotts.blog.co.uk/en-UKhttp://backend.userland.com/rss092http://torscotts.blog.co.uk/http://data5.blog.de/design/preview/47/556dd51ab6bc0108bf97b2095d65d4_160x200.jpg <p>This past two weeks has once again seen the end of an era on the soap that I have been watching for forty two years. The first was a while back when the character Mike Baldwin passed away, this week it was Vera Duckworth, wife to Jack Duckworth who passed away. The actress Elizabeth Dawn who played Vera is retiring due to health problems. The “Duckys” as they were affectionately known first showed up on the street in 1974, 34 years ago. Vera started in Mark Britain’s factory as a packer and soon moved on to Mike Baldwin’s factory as a machinist. Jack showed up a bit later at Gail’s wedding to Brian Tilsley. Jack and Vera were one of the all time great pairings on Corrie with incredible comedic moments such as the Vince StClair dating episodes, Jack on the church tower in a Santa suit and Jack trotting down the stairs of a hotel dropping one shoe, Cinderella style. Vera was forever chasing him, berating Jack for his racing bets, pigeons, bad back and lack of laundry skills. Together they made some of the best comedy, most dramatic and thoroughly entertaining Corrie episodes. Vera will be missed by all, remembered for a long time as one of the favorites, one of the iconical characters that has made Corrie what it is. Few other characters can claim as long a run as Vera on Corrie, there is Jack, Emily, Rita, Gail, Audry, Betty and of course Ken Barlow (who has been on continuously since episode 1). Corrie has been aired continuously since 1960, in Canada since 1962 (I believe) and I have been watching it since 1966. No other show to my knowledge can match that.</p> <p>However as momentous as the passing of Vera was, a much more important event happened this past week in the United States. This country which has for all of my life been known as the country which fought a war over slavery, suffered incredible race riots in the sixties, practically invented segregation has elected a black African American president from Chicago. That is absolutely fantastic! Granted the alternative candidate (and his running mate Sarah Palin) would have been a disaster waiting to happen, that can not take away from the achievements of Barack Obama. In my eyes Barack was without doubt the best candidate and arguably the best candidate to come along in many many years. Through out his campaign he did not stoop to the mud slinging and dirty tricks of his opponents, didn’t draw on the race card, didn’t forget who it was that was going to vote him in, the people of America. He talked to the people, made sensible promises, won the respect of the American public, even the white working class in Ohio. Amazing. For the first time I can remember I can say that I applaud the Americans, my respect for them has gone up measurably, I really believe they have made the right choice. Now I wait to see if he can live up to the hope and promise placed in his election. In any event the world is now a much different place than it was two weeks ago. When I was in high school, if some one had suggested there would be a black president in my lifetime, I would have died laughing, not a chance I would have said. Just 40 years later it has happened, The US now has a black president elect, Fantastic! A new era is dawning, let’s hope we all make the very best of it.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://torscotts.blog.co.uk/2008/11/11/two-events-history-in-the-making-5018188/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://torscotts.blog.co.uk/2008/11/11/two-events-history-in-the-making-5018188/Tue, 11 Nov 2008 14:50:13 +0100 <p>Hello again, it’s been a while since my last blog entry. At that time Zoom airlines had just gone south and our plans to go to France had all gone bust leaving us in a real fuzzle. We had deposits made we couldn’t recover, sold most of our stuff, an offer on the house, the lot. </p> <p>Well now it is almost a month later and things have settled somewhat. We lost the money for the airline tickets (or looks good as anyway), lost the deposit money on the rental in France, didn’t sell the house after all and have decided to stay in London … sort of. In the end a bit of R & R (Renovation and Retail Therapy) eased the blow. So we have spruced up the basement to a nicely finished family area, replaced the furniture with some nicer newer bits. In lieu of moving to France we will be taking longer (up to a few months) vacations to choice spots (like warm beaches in the middle of winter!). Looks like it will be a fair trade so far. Everyone is calmer, cooler, my son has returned to University to do more of his courses, our contract work has continued without break (as it would have had we moved) and I am enjoying not working 9 to 5, commuting 100KM to work and explaining to my bosses why I prefer to be barefoot. All in all it looks like things will work out. Everything happens for a reason, I guess France was not the answer we needed at this time, maybe later, maybe somewhere else. I let the universe decide.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://torscotts.blog.co.uk/2008/09/23/the-dust-settles-4769270/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://torscotts.blog.co.uk/2008/09/23/the-dust-settles-4769270/Tue, 23 Sep 2008 19:01:37 +0200 <p>Have you ever seen a house of cards collapse? It is coming up to Thursday (tomorrow) and I can tell you this time last week we had it all but this week? Naught. Last Thursday we where set to retire to France on September the 5th (two days from now), we had sold the house, sold most of the furniture, arranged distance courses for Matthew, bought airline tickets, paid a deposit on the property in France and rented transport at that end. It was all arranged, when we arrived in France, we would have enough savings left to carry us should something go horribly wrong. What we didn’t figure on was that the airline might go bust before we left, taking all our careful planning with it. This week we have no airline tickets, a several thousand dollar hole in our savings, a lost deposit on the France rental property and no immediate travel opportunities since airfares seem to have suddenly gone skyways. Acquiring new tickets to France (or any other destination involving airline tickets) would eat up so much of our savings that we could not recover should something go wrong, which it is now evident that it can. So we have naught. The only good news so far was that the France car rental company has returned the $65 deposit on the car rental. The only advice we have received regarding our Zoom Airline tickets is that we probably will never see that money again so don’t bother chasing it. Ditto for the deposit on the rental property. As for the sale of the house, there is no easy way to back out of it (we were not particularly attached to it having decided to give it up for France *but* we do need a place to live) as the sellers have few rights in this case having signed the agreement of sale. So we are scrambling for a place to rent before the closing and trying to pick up the pieces as well as can be. It is amazing however how totally knackered life has become because of the failure of Zoom Airlines, a factor out of our control and so utterly unexpected. A meteor strike in the middle of London would have been less devastating! Watch this space, I’ll let you know what’s happening when the cards cease falling down around us. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://torscotts.blog.co.uk/2008/09/03/house-of-cards-4678585/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://torscotts.blog.co.uk/2008/09/03/house-of-cards-4678585/Wed, 03 Sep 2008 21:56:17 +0200 <p>Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrugh! Gluck! Sob! Sigh! %^#@$$%%^& Zoom Airlines!<br> Ah now I feel better! Yesterday, the 28th of August I had tickets to fly to France, transport booked at the other end, a long term rental on a 17th Villa in the South of France. Today, the 29th of August everything but the airline tickets is in limbo. The reason you ask? Zoom airlines has gone bust and ceased all operations, our airline tickets are no more and most likely so is the money used to purchase them. It seems Zoom has been in financial trouble for a while but failed to let any of it’s customers know this, while it fiddled the creditors, for fear of losing business and getting into worse financial troubles. Instead it took bookings, took payments up front and kept schtum. Now when the creditors close in and force the issue, we have lost our flights and are so far down the list of creditors to be reimbursed that even the camel drivers and dog barkers will be paid first. I doubt we will see any reimbursement any time soon. So our plans to move to France, to the villa are for all intents and purposes finished. Checking the airlines booking web pages for other airlines has confirmed that replacement tickets (if we could afford them) would be about 4 times what we paid Zoom. </p> <p>So it seems our plans to move to France will have to be delayed at least until the dust settles from the Zoom fiasco and airlines ticket prices return the absurd levels that we would consider normal. In the mean time we are faced with the daunting task of trying to get our money back from Zoom Airlines, deposits back from car rental agencies in France, deposits back from the owner of the Villa in France, cancel the house sale. It is just an incredible total mess and the worst part is the fact that it is out of our control. We are helpless, with no way to force Zoom to return our funds, even less influence to get a similar flight deal to France from another airline. Once again we are at the complete and utter mercy of bad timing and bad luck.</p> <p>We will get it worked out in the end, we always do but at this moment it seems incredibly frustrating and aggravating.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://torscotts.blog.co.uk/2008/08/29/all-of-our-operators-are-currently-busy-please-hold-4655685/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://torscotts.blog.co.uk/2008/08/29/all-of-our-operators-are-currently-busy-please-hold-4655685/Fri, 29 Aug 2008 22:04:05 +0200 <p>Do you remember when you were young, how you ran barefoot in the summer? Feeling the grass on your feet, the texture of warm pavement? So why are you wearing shoes right this moment? Is it because (almost) everyone does? Because the rules (what rules?) say you must? Because your boss says you must? Because the sign at the entrance says you must?</p> <p>It’s probably for all of these reasons and many more myths that need to be forgotten, changed or unlearned. The truth is going barefoot is incredibly natural, more healthy for you and puts you in touch with your environment like few other experiences can. Wearing shoes cramps the feet, affects your posture, promotes athletes foot and a host of other nasties, costs more and is not particularly eco-friendly. </p> <p>Going barefoot in the modern world is unusual perhaps (given our social mores) but is not particularly hazardous. Many of us work in offices, retail establishments, at home, schools and universities where the greatest hazard is having someone wearing oxfords stepping on our toes. There are lots of places where the hazards of the environment call for some sort of protection for your feet, factories, construction and overheated kitchens come to mind. However in general going barefoot is not hazardous at all. There are in fact no laws that prohibit going barefoot in any retail establishment, restaurant, office or while driving. Individual stores or establishments may well choose not to serve you if one is barefoot, that is their choice (to give up my sale) just as my choice is to go barefoot.</p> <p>In the modern profit oriented materialistic society that we live in, even the big name athletic shoe makers have discovered that there may just be something to this barefoot thing and have started marketing “barefoot” sneakers. These are shoes that are more ergonomically designed to match walking barefoot, doing away with raised heels, arch supports, thick rubber soles and such. Seems like an ok way for the sneaker makers to get in on the game I guess but why not do away with the sneakers all together and go barefoot? I will be I assure you.</p> <p>Happy barefooting!</p> <p>Additional Reading:<br> <a href="http://nymag.com/health/features/46213/">New York Times article</a><br> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barefoot">Wikipedia says</a><br> <a href="http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/">Vibram barefoot shoes </a><br> <a href="http://www.liverpoolleader.com.au/article/2008/07/30/4031_sports.html">Running barefoot prt.1</a><br> <a href="http://www.sportsci.org/jour/0103/mw.htm">Running barefoot prt.2</a> </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://torscotts.blog.co.uk/2008/08/26/shoes-not-4640331/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://torscotts.blog.co.uk/2008/08/26/shoes-not-4640331/Tue, 26 Aug 2008 18:10:56 +0200 <p>Remember when you were young and you and your friends ran to the library to look at the pictures in the National Geographic’s? The ones showing the African or South American or South Sea Island natives in the all together? I was reminded of this strangely enough by a radio news story about a German dude who was arrested for hiking in the Black Forest in the nude and was subsequently allowed to go to serve his sentence in the nude, ostensibly because he was a naturist. In remembering the N.G. pics, then as now what struck me most about them was not the naughty bits on display but the complete nonchalance and candidness of the pics. Those natives thought nothing about being in the buff, weren’t really displaying their naughty bits because no one in their society had spent 10000 or so years telling them they were naughty.</p> <p>The incident in Germany, which reminded me of the N.G. pics also reminded me of a vacation I took a few years back to Panama and the nude beach I frequented there and further back in the stores of my memory a vacation I took with some friends in college to a naturist resort up near Ottawa. In both cases one shed their clothes at the entrance and thought nothing of it. At the beach were people of all sizes, shapes, colors, walks of life. Trouble was, we were all exceptionally equal there. We all had two arms, two legs, 10 fingers and toes and a few naughty bits (only considered naughty because we been told that for a few thousand years). Nobody walked up and down the beach in total arousal, ogling the opposite sex, passing any kind of judgment related to appearance. Everyone was there to enjoy the sunshine, lounge about, read a book, swim in the ocean (an incredibly exhilarating and natural feeling, swimming naked in the salt water of the ocean). It was the most natural thing in the world, put you in touch with the environment in a way that can never be matched when clothed and no we weren’t eaten alive by mosquitoes and black flies.</p> <p>Recall the huge fuss and kerfluffal a few years back when a few women in Ontario chose to go topless in summer? There were court cases, media coverage and outrage on all fronts, it was going to be total anarchy they said. Why? Because it’s taboo for women to go topless that’s why. No one blinks an eye when a man (good looking and muscled or 450 pounds ugly as all get out) goes topless, funny that. Mostly it’s because we equate nudity with sexuality, believe that the moment someone get naked (or even partially so) we’re all going to lose control, get aroused and do the things that everyone knows should be private. Truth is that is not so however. </p> <p>Remember that vacation at the naturist camp I mentioned? I was in my last year of college in those days, so I was young (compared to my age these days) but still old enough to see the truth before me. The resort we stayed at could have been mistaken for any posh resort or KOA campground you care to mention. There were people playing tennis, lounging by the pools, kids canoeing in the lake, playing Frisbee. There were two major differences however, first there were no clothes to be seen anywhere, second there was no way to tell (by looking at the people there) who had arrived in the Mercedes 450SEL and who had arrived in the Ford Maverick. Everyone at that resort was just that, themselves, equal and any shape, size, color you could imagine. Couldn’t tell how rich how poor, what religion, what preference they were. They were just people, no taboos, no naughty bits, no embarrassments, no judgments. </p> <p>So why do we wear clothes? In the beginning way back when we were less civilized (some might argue that point what with modern wars, prejudice and inequalities) we wore clothes to keep us warm, keep the dudes in the next cave from bashing our heads in, to show off our hunting prowess and maybe attract the good looking girl on the other side of the cave. Funny how little things have changed over time? Modern clothes are the costume of society, the badge of office, the suit of armor for the business world. Kids can’t be cool if their shoes aren’t Nike, their jeans aren’t DKNY. You can’t be a professional if you’re dressed in a t-shirt and shorts. You can’t be better off than the Jones’s if you shop at Wal-Mart instead of Neiman-Marcus. Oh and don’t forget, you can’t display any of the naughty bits; we’ll all lose control of ourselves.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://torscotts.blog.co.uk/2008/08/22/clothing-optional-4623121/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://torscotts.blog.co.uk/2008/08/22/clothing-optional-4623121/Fri, 22 Aug 2008 15:31:42 +0200 <p>In my last entry I told you about our plans to up sticks and move to France for a year (at least) and do away with the 9 to 5, the rat race, the winters and all that other stuff. As promised I am posting more of the adventures that are the preparations for the jump. I say preparations but really it is more like barely controlled chaos.</p> <p>We have cleaned up, spruced up, painted up, emptied out most of the house so that it would look more presentable on showings. I think it looks very good but rather bare now 8-(( , so much of our stuff has been removed. We still seem to have 40,000 books and cd’s to get rid of, dozens of appliances and all of the big furniture we can’t live (for two more weeks) without such as beds, 1 couch, appliances and the like. As much as we move stuff out, we discover some new corner where we hid yet more things. It’s like living in the tardis!</p> <p>Then there is the bureaucratic morass of trying to get straight answers regarding visas, taking our car to France, driving in France, working in France, going to school in France. Every web site you look at, every official you consult seems to offer a different answer to questions slightly different than the one you are asking. Seems that neither I nor my son need visas to settle in France or go to school in France, all we need is a residency permit that is applied for and acquired after we get there. I may need a visa to work but I will only find out after I arrive and check with the local prefecture. We can bring our car (given enough money) so long as we change all the “americanisms” such as white fogs lights, red turn signals and such to meet European standards, then have a European emissions test done, then pay all the port, VAT, local and other taxes on it. We figure it should cost us about 15 grand to get our $9000 leased Subaru to France. I guess we’ll buy a smart car when we get there, sigh.</p> <p>Now with only two weeks to go before we fly out, it seems like we’re on this whirling dervish, going ever faster and faster. Time is quickly running out and we have so much to do still. We have sold the house but have to now close the deal, finalize our finances, pensions, bank accounts and all that, get the carrier crates for the pets, get rid of the remaining furniture, get rid of the cars, get packed, get all the baggage, kids, cats, dogs and everything else to Toronto. Can’t imagine I am doing this voluntarily, got to keep thinking about the peaceful quiet wine country we are soon to arrive at. </p> <p>Now off to the passport office to see what new twists Canadian bureaucracy has in store for me. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://torscotts.blog.co.uk/2008/08/21/off-to-france-part-deux-4619860/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://torscotts.blog.co.uk/2008/08/21/off-to-france-part-deux-4619860/Thu, 21 Aug 2008 21:13:22 +0200 <p>So my family and I (My wife Jacky, my son Matthew and myself) have decided to up sticks and leave the rat race, commuting 100Km to work, winters, concrete cities, noise, smog and the crazy pace of city life behind and move to the country side of Southern France. For 10 months or so at least in any case. Then we’ll see what is next, maybe stay there, maybe move on. Are we nuts you say? No I don’t think so, time marches on, we all get older, we all talk about doing it but few of us actually do it. </p> <p>Life is a great adventure, it should be lived, full and vibrant every day. It is far too easy to be stuck in a rut of day to day survival, working 9 to 5 to pay the bills, pay for the commute to work. Both my wife and I are very interested in history, art, classical music so what better place tgo experience ity than from France. Being in France most everywhere we would dearly love to visit is accessible within a day or two of driving, less by train and some by walking out the front door. From Canada, visiting the Louvre or the Artists Quarter in Paris, or Notre Dame (or any of a thousand other places) would be an expensive airpline trip and a weeks vacation away. So we made the decision, “let’s do it!” and “let’s do it now!”.</p> <p>So now we are preparing for the move and what a job that is! Decided to keep our house and rent it so we have some minimal fallback should it all go pear shaped (don’t expect that it will though as we’re both of a spirit to make it work). Then discovered that we really should spruce up the kitchen with a lick of paint … but wait that made the counters look dull so we’ll spruce them up … ah but now the trim in the front room looks a little tired, better paint it up as well .. and so it goes. Then we decided to sell up the detritus, flotsam and jetsam we didn’t want to take with us, didn’t want to store and didn’t want to leave. Wowsa! What pack rats we are! Four billion books, two billion nick-knacks, 750 assorted appliances, some classic vinyls records, ancient calculators, old lamps, 17000 bits of old clothing (some fits, some doesn’t), enough shoes and sneaks to keep Immelda Marcos happy, prints, pictures and so much more. Can all this stuff possibly come out of our one house? Not to mention that now we have moved all this stuff from it’s original spot to the living room, the place now looks like several bombs went off! Well it all has to go somewhere by the end of the month (August) because on September the fifth we’ll be on an airliner headed for France. Winging our way to sunshine, a slower easier pace of life and trying madly to master enough french so as to not embarrass ourselves when we land. Watch this space, I’ll post more as the month progresses, it’s sure to be fun and funny.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://torscotts.blog.co.uk/2008/08/05/off-off-and-away-second-star-to-the-righ-4547317/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://torscotts.blog.co.uk/2008/08/05/off-off-and-away-second-star-to-the-righ-4547317/Tue, 05 Aug 2008 19:01:39 +0200 <p>I have just been to see the movie “Sicko” by <a href="http://www.michaelmoore.com/">Michael Moore</a> and a more frightening movie I can not name at this moment. Thank god I live above the 39th parallel! I have always known that the American health system was not the same as ours, known that they pay for many services we do not. However in this movie, an admittedly biased portrait, it paints a picture where health care is for profit and if you don’t pay, then you die and if you do pay then you probably die too. The HMO’s as they are called find every hint of a reason they can to deny giving you health insurance, find more reasons not to pay your claim and even more reasons to reverse the claim and collect back the payout.</p> <p>Now supposing you have the cash, then you can have the very best, most modern, mosyt up to the minute care that your money can buy. MRI,s xray’s surgeries, anything you like can be purchased for enough cash. However if you are a working middle class (is there such a thing anymore?) who may need Interferon to forestall the onslaught of cancer well that’s probably considered too experimental and won’t be covered by your HMO, and so you must sell your house, car and dog to get it. Can’t raise the cash? Oh I am sorry, please go away then and suffer quietly as we wouldn’t want you to disturb the other patients.</p> <p>In one scene of this film a man is given a choice between two fingers (previously cut of by an accident with a saw), he can reattach the middle finger for a price of $60000 or the ring finger for $12000. In another we see a woman who had been at an HMO hospital being let out (pushed out?) of a cab in front of a Mission building, still in her hospital robes carrying a plastic bags with her clothes in it. She was dumped there by the hospital because she couldn’t pay the bill. In yet another scene we listen as a mother describes going to a hospital with her colicky baby, finding out her HMO won’t pay for the treatment and subsequently begging the hospital staff to treat her baby as they steadfastly refuse suggesting she go to a different and more distant (HMO) hospital. By the time she gets to this alternate hospital, all is too late and the baby passes away.</p> <p>What sort of system, what sort of person can possibly put a price on health? On basic human care? How can it be that any system, any group of people can deny services, delay services, even dump people on the sidewalk for lack of a dollar? It’s just unfathomable!</p> <p>All is not rosy up here of course, our system is not perfect. We frequently have to wait long months for elective surgeries, my dental plan at work does not cover all my dental costs and I have never been to an emergency room and failed to wait less than an hour to be seen. Oh yes there one time, I had shattered my elbow in a fall, got driven to a hospital and was seen within minutes of arrival. No one asked me about my HMO, my cash flow or my credit card. Several operations later, after rehab physio and many doctors’ visits my arm is quite healthy. It didn’t cost me a hundred grand, my house, my car or anything in fact. OHIP, the Ontario Health Insurance Plan covered the bill.</p> <p>In a similar situation about 10 years ago now, my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer and required a mastectomy. Well after many many doctors visits, a number of operations, extended hospital stays and a ton of medicines my wife is cancer free and has lived for many years and will for many more. The bill? Naught.<br> I have traveled to the US many times, never once thought overly much about health insurance or problems I might have (health related) during my stay there. Driven to Florida, flown to Denver, Las Vegas and San Francisco, never with a thought or worry about health and health insurance. Those days have evaporated forever with the viewing of this film. I will have to consider very carefully any trip made south of the border very carefully, purchase bullet proof medical insurance guaranteed to cover me during my stay, check and insure that my health is excellent with no hidden, sleeping health concerns. Even then you are at risk, a fall, a traffic accident, even a cut from glass or some other accident could cost many thousands of dollars. </p> <p>Speaking of insurance, here’s the kicker, is the “Blue Cross”, “Aetna” ro other health/travel insurance I purchase here a Canadian company or a subsidiary of the big American health insurance companies? If it is the former I may have some hope of getting an insurance claim should I need it (although I am no fool and fully realize that no insurance company wants to pay claims) while if it is the latter I can expect to (almost) never get an insurance claim paid and possibly even be denied the life saving services I may need. It seems that these HMO insurance conglomerates have thought this out very carefully to maximize profits (in the billions) and minimize payouts. You see they can claim that you had a pre-existing condition, that the treatments are experimental, cosmetic or discounted for some other reason, that you did not correctly authorize, notarize and sign the consent forms (even though you were unconscious at the time) and thereby deny your claim. Even when none of these apply, they can claim the “Prudent Person Pre-existing Condition” clause which states that if you had some pre-existing condition but didn’t go to a doctor to have it diagnosed (because it cost too much?) as some prudent person would have, then your claim is disqualified.</p> <p>So my lasting impression from this movie is that if you live in the US (or visit) and you have had anything (flu, mumps, measles, cold, yeast infection) then you don’t qualify for health insurance, if you do get health insurance but you have ever had an unhealthy day in your life, then they won’t pay your claim and if you have no insurance, oh well. In any case only money (and lots of it) will buy you any standard of health care. </p> <p>Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to run my latest prescription down to Costco for filling, should cost me about $5 at most as my medical plan at work covers the rest of the cost (no forms, no claims, no waiting).</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://torscotts.blog.co.uk/2007/07/07/health_and_not_so_welfare~2590288/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://torscotts.blog.co.uk/2007/07/07/health_and_not_so_welfare~2590288/Sat, 07 Jul 2007 13:31:30 +0200 <p>A few weeks ago I published a note here about the environment, big pollutive cars and a number of other concerns. The current buzzword in everybody speeches these days is global warming. It seems that the popular belief is that we (that is mankind) is having a disastrous effect on his environment, creating far too much greenhouse gases, warming the earth and causing the weather patterns to destabilize into chaos. That’’s the party line, Al gore promotes it, David Suzuki endorses it, Richard Branson has a web site ( Flick off ) counting down the seconds till disaster strikes. Is that the truth though? Is the science in fact settled?</p> <p>I have been reading this week a series of articles published in the financial post that are interviews and comments from leading scientists who dispute the claims made about global warming. They do not deny that global warming may exist, only that we are the direct and only cause of it. The “deniers” they are called, because they don’t pull the party line and jump straight on the global warming bandwagon. These scientists are not saying there is nothing to worry about, that we should go on polluting, driving fuel inefficient cars, wasting energy or any of that. What they are saying is that the science of global environment modeling is incredibly unsettled, far from perfect and doesn’t support the claims of the party line. In many cases scientists comments are misconstrued, quoted incorrectly or out of context, statistics are used selectively by non-statisticians in order to make a supporting case. The doomsayers are saying the answer is correct so we’ll make the science fit the answer because the consensus says so. Science (as Michael Crichton has said) is not about consensus, it’s about finding the truth of some fact or refuting it by some evidence.</p> <p>The deniers claim that the present global warming is most probably due to solar activity (and a lack thereof) which has been shown to be linked to warming and cooling cycles throughout earth’s history. Such activity has been the cause of mini-iceages and warming trends that were very similar to the present rise in temperatures that the global warming people claim is all down to man and his fiddling. The deniers claim that the global weather patterns are just one part of a massive dynamic system that is the universe that we live in and that it seems just a little arrogant to think that man (even the several billion of us that there is) moving about on this dust speck in this great universe should have such a global effect. They also note that Mars, our closest neighbor, a planet with not one person nor one mole of greenhouse gases is going through an exactly similar warming trend as earth now is. Imagine that, global warming on Mars.</p> <p>Another factoid put up by the believers is the warming of the oceans, the melting of the ice caps and the Antarctic ice sheets. However the true science for the last 50 years shows that the Antarctic has cooled by several degrees over the last 50 years and that the ice sheets seem to be growing not shrinking. How can this be if global warming is so rapidly melting the ice caps? Alice would say it’s curiouser and curiouser.</p> <p>Now you might get the idea from this note that I am now against the believers who say that global warming will be the death of us all. However that is not true at all, I am one of the uninformed at the mercy of the media and their spin doctors. It is nigh on impossible to get a true view of what is actually the situation here. The media is firmly behind the believers, the schools are firmly behind the believers (many play Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” movie with no counterpoint view and no counter discussion), dissenters seem to be quietly silenced ( the deniers claim that research grants, grad students, tenure and other perks are quietly delayed or even denied if they publicly dissent). The deniers claim the believers are manipulating the science to fit there claims, ignoring the bits that don’t fit, making claims with no basis and no evidence to back it up. The believers claim that the deniers are sticking their heads in the sand, making false assumptions, ascribing too much credence to outside factors, manipulating the science in their favor and generally don’t understand the big picture. How does one who is not a scientist or a politician get to the true view of things? The media? Can’t go there, already we know they are biased, promoting a particular view based more on profit, political leanings and popularity than the truth, the environment or your health and welfare. The scientists? Which ones, the naysayers or the doomsayers? I just recently learned that those funky little fluorescent bulbs that David Suzuki promotes have mercury in them, are incredibly toxic if broken, can’t just be put in the garbage bins (destined for the local landfill) and (in my experience at least) are not as bright, not exceptionally long lasting. So you can’t believe the media, can’t discern which of the scientists are right (and not manipulating (instead of reporting) the facts) and most certainly can’t trust anything a politician says. I guess that leaves the companies, corporations and others trying to market (for a profit) environmentally friendly products. You can always trust someone trying to turn a big profit. Right!</p> <p>Seems the best we can actually do is to try to promote (by our purchasing patterns) environmentally better products ( at a reasonable cost), promote by our vote and our donations to our favorite schools more (more truthful and unbiased) study of the problems and all of the mitigating factors involved. We all should read, investigate and (be allowed to) speak out on both sides of the debate equally. Profit and political gain should not be a part of the investigations, of the science of global warming and environmental good sense.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://torscotts.blog.co.uk/2007/06/26/title~2523386/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://torscotts.blog.co.uk/2007/06/26/title~2523386/Tue, 26 Jun 2007 15:11:52 +0200 <p>Well I have just turned 50, think of that! Well that's not quite true, I turned 50 back on May 6 and posted this note to my other blog. When I was just a sprout I couldn’t believe I would ever be an adult and do adult things, life was all summers and rules dictated by my parents. Each spring just like Douglas Spaulding (Dandelion wine – Ray Bradbury for those who haven’t read this fabulous story) I would nag my mother for that new pair of sneakers full of running and fresh cut grass, daisies, tree climbing and skinned knees.</p> <p>Half a century later more or less I am now the parent, my children and grand children hitting me up for sneakers, summer togs and concert tickets. They say I am getting older, though most days I don’t feel it. Like my children, like I have all of those past years, I still go out in spring and get my new sneakers, reverently retiring the old. I have more creaks, and cracks, certainly I am aging but growing old? Never. Life, living and summer still flows in these old veins. I am just as active now as I was when so long ago I was 11 standing on the edge of summer, if a little less frantic. Summer doesn’t rush by (though it always ends too soon!) so much as saunter by full of freshness and life, each summer full of new experiences, new adventures even now after having seen 50 of them.</p> <p>On this birthday, the day that always marked the beginning of summer adventures for me, I did something that mostly was for me, an affirmation of spirit that has guided me, formed me and been a part of me for many many years. I got a tattoo, on my arm, not the usual skull and cross bones or “I love Molly” or flames but something much closer to my heart, simpler yet full of the meaning of life, my life. It is a string of characters, kanji characters, each one a word, each one a virtue I have always tried to lived by. They are in fact the Kanjii that states the Bushido code, the warriors’ code. Honor, Honesty, Sincerity, Courage, Compassion, Loyalty, Courtesy. Who could disagree with such virtues? I literally do wear my heart on my sleeve, or in this case my arm.</p> <p>Is this the start of a mid life crisis? Is the next step a shopping trip for chains and a corvette? No chance! More like a simple statement of what really matters. Life is for living, aging doesn’t mean getting old, slowing down or abandoning vim and vigor. Aging is the gathering of experience, the adventure of living, the treasure of sharing all of life with the ones you love most of all, your wife, your children, your grand children. In 50 summers I have gathered many adventures, many experiences, all of them treasured, stored away in my mind, just as Douglas once did, to be brought out in the dead of winter to warm the heart and your feet wrapped in those heavy oxfords. I am 50 going on … well some younger age perhaps, many more summers to come, many more adventures to come. Now where have my sneaks go to …</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://torscotts.blog.co.uk/2007/06/26/turning~2523326/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://torscotts.blog.co.uk/2007/06/26/turning~2523326/Tue, 26 Jun 2007 15:04:46 +0200 <p>What is it that you eat?" one of my work friends asked me the other day, he was of course referring to the fact that I claim to be vegetarian though not strictly vegan. I along with my wife made the decision to be vegetarian some 7 years ago and we would never go back to the way we were before. The decision was fostered in part by a moral feeling that seeing all the trucks on the local highways carrying several thousands cows, pigs, sheep and chickens to their death didn't jive well with the fact that we kept several pets in our household. You see we (at the time) had six cats, several guinea pigs, a couple of birds, a dozen or so gold fish and 1 turtle rescued from being eaten by Herons at the local park.</p> <p>Another idea that added weight to the decision was the apparent impurity of the food supply (in particular the meat and poultry industry) and the massively profit run structure of the industry. It was about this time that Canada had suffered it's latest Mad Cow scare, the book Fast Food Nation was published, the movie super size me entered theatres and my wife found a book in the second hand stores called Toxin. After a little investigation on our part (isn't the internet a wonderful tool?) we discovered more about the food supply (filthy poorly managed slaughter houses, little to know inspections, genetic engineering, drugs, hormones and a profit over safety attitude) than we ever wanted to know. That was the end of our meat eating days. We have since that time even reduced the amount of fish and dairy that we consume.</p> <p>So the questions remains, "what do we eat?". Well the exact same as you do except there is no meat in our dishes. We still have massive roast veggie dinners with potatoes, sweet potatoes, parsnips, brussel sprouts, lashings of vegetarian gravy and massive Yorkshire puddings. We have also discovered that there is a burgeoning industry in vegetarian food products mostly made of TVP, textured vegetable protein.  There are vegetarian burgers, meatless meat balls, chicken less nuggets and burgers even Buffalo Wings that have no chicken what so ever in them. The problem is mostly one of education, profit and perception. When we first started down this road we didn't really know what we might eat either. We have since discovered however that we can eat any number of things from soup to chili to hamburgers to whatever suits our fancy, none of it having any meat.</p> <p>When we eat at home. Eating out, particularly at fast food restaurants is another story all together. While some of the burger flipping joints offer up the obligatory "veggie" burger, they cook this burger right along side it's meaty brethren using the same utensils and the same grill. I can't count the number of people who have told me that for a  soup to have any flavor it must be made with beef broth or chicken stock. I don't think so! There are lots of vegetarian recipes out there and lots of vegetarian products (more on this in a moment) that provide as rich a food supply as any meat based diet. So contrary to the belief of my friends, I actually eat well, eat much more than lettuce leaves and beans and I am  gaining weight and living a very healthy lifestyle. In fact since becoming vegetarian I have noticed that I don't get quite so many colds, they are not quite so bad and I haven't had heartburn in many years. Makes you wonder.</p> <p>Remember I said there were lots of vegetarian products out there to be found? Well that's sort of true but it is a challenge. In our city a number of the big stores will carry vegetarian products for a time, hiding them away in some obscure corner of the meat aisles or the freezer sections. Then a month later they will all disappear, the store managers claiming "they didn't sell well so we took them off the shelf" Well no wonder since they were mostly hidden, not well advertised and overpriced. Both the manufacturers and the stores will tell that they have to be higher priced because there is a smaller market. The smaller market is mostly due to the perception thing.</p> <p>Vegetarianism and vegetarian products suffer from a huge perception problem. A great many of my "friends" believe emphatically that the veggie burgers must taste like so much sawdust, the chicken less kievs like some mushy bean pate. Nothing could be further from the truth but have they tried some much as a morsel? No. The never will, believing as they do that it is just cleverly packaged rabbit food. The manufacturers and media do little to erase this perception. Can you remember the last ad you saw on TV or in a mag for chicken less kievs?</p> <p>So vegetarian products are not well advertised by the stores that sell them, not in the least respected by the carnivores, not generally advertised by the media?  What about restaurants?  Peruse any restaurant menu, you'll find 47 meat dishes and oh yes the token vegetarian dish. Have you seen any Burger king ads extolling the virtues of their vegetarian burgers? Doubt it. Even in the medical industry the perception problem persists. When was the last time your doc said to you, "you must eat more red meat! Get some protein into you." or "if you don't eat meat, you'll fade away and die"? Well the only way I am fading is sideways, I have lost no weight since becoming vegetarian. Incidentally have you looked at your teeth lately? No I am not insinuating that vegetarianism gives you better teeth. Compare them to those of your dog (he is a bonified carnivore), you'll find that he has all manner of sharp pointy teeth for tearing at meat but no molars. We on the other hand have lots of big flat grinding teeth for breaking up vegetable matter. Guess we were meant to be vegetarians after all.</p> <span>So the next time you sit down to a dinner of steak, think on this, the cow that made the steak probably had mad cow, was drugged up, fed growth hormones, accelerators, disease inhibitors, was inspected by some tired over worked under paid government employee and slaughtered by a company that exists only for the profit to be made from selling every last ounce of that animal to the food supply industry. Bon Appetite!</span> </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://torscotts.blog.co.uk/2007/04/08/on_being_vegetarian~2054067/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://torscotts.blog.co.uk/2007/04/08/on_being_vegetarian~2054067/Sun, 08 Apr 2007 15:00:10 +0200 <p>Read a great story lately? A short while ago I posted a blurb about reading and READING, about reading the words and reading the story. Well what makes a great story? Is it winning a big prize like the Pulitzer or the Nebula? I don't really think so.</p> <p>A great story has a bit of magic in it that appeals to you personally, maybe to everybody on some level. Read harry Potter? I would bet you have, in fact I would bet that just about everyone has read Harry Potter, it's a great story. The Harry potter books have been read by just as many adults as children, think of that. Here's a story about a group of kids going off to school to learn to be witches and warlocks, hounded by a really evil dude named Valdemort and having adventures of all sorts. Doesn't really sound like the type of book an adult might read does it? But it is. The book appeals to kids of all ages, to adults to almost everyone. The series of Harry potter books has put the READING back in reading, it's a great story.</p> <p>Lord of the Rings is a similarly great story, millions of people, adults, kids whole families have read it and continue to read. Many like myself have read it many times. It's a great story, a rollicking adventure full of baddies, goodies, dragons, great evil and great triumph. Lord of the Rings appeals to all ages and is a timeless story, still fresh every time you read it.</p> <p>A great story however is not necessarily one that appeals to all ages all of the time however, it is one that appeals to you, the reader in a special way. When I was 10 (and that was a long time ago I assure you!) I read a book given to me by a grade school teacher who thought I should read more, that book was Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury. This was the story of Douglas Spaulding and the adventures he experienced over a summer. This is a great story and a book which has stuck with me all these long years. In one passage Douglas is explaining to a shoe store owner why he need a new pair of sneaks ( Cream-Sponge Para Litefoot Shoes!) for the summer. Here are the words of Douglas Spaulding:</p> <blockquote><p>But Mr Sanderson, but - asoon as I get those shoes on, you know what happens?</p> <p><em>what? </em></p> <p>Bang! I deliver your packages, pick up your packages, bring your coffee, burn your trash, run to the post office, telegraph office, library! You'll see twelve of me in and out, in and out, every minute. Feel those shoes, (Mr Sanderson having been convinced to dawn a pair of Cream-Sponge Para Litefoot Tennis Shoes) Mr Sanderson, feel how fast they'd take me? All those springs inside? Feel all the running inside? Fell how they kinda grab hold and can't let you alone and don't like you standing there? Feel how quick I'd be doing things you'd rather not bother with? You stay in the nice cool store while I'm jumping all around town! But it's not really me, it's the shoes. They're going like mad down alleys, cutting corners and back. There they go!</p></blockquote> <p>The passage goes on but you get the point, Douglas has saved all winter to visit the store and get his new pair of Cream-Sponge Para Litefoot Tennis Shoe, to shed his winter Oxfords and go bounding across new grass. He has to have  new ones because the summer is all lived out of last years' pair languishing in his closet at home. It's the first day of summer. It was a great story 40 years ago and i must have read it 50 times since then. Every year round about the first day of summer I go and by my pair of summer shoes, shedding my winter oxfords for sneaks, not the Cream-Sponge Para Litefoot Tennis Shoes (never could find a pair!) but new sneaks none the less. To me that is a great story.</p> <p>A great story is a bit of magic woven by a special type of magician who captures a bit your soul in words and transports you to places you could never reach by any road on a map. They create a magical place you can go to that may be in this world, may be in the far reaches of space or the depths of fantasy. They carry you away, bring you back and stay with you all your days. There is nothing quite so enjoyable as a great story unless maybe it's new sneaks. Which reminds me I must be off to hunt down my new pair of Cream-Sponge Para Tennis Litefoot Shoes.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://torscotts.blog.co.uk/2007/04/08/a_great_story~2053598/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://torscotts.blog.co.uk/2007/04/08/a_great_story~2053598/Sun, 08 Apr 2007 13:00:51 +0200 <p>Have you ever wondered about this modern environment we live in? I have. Something like two hundred years ago when my great great great grad father came to Canada there was no electricity, no smog and no one even had a word for microwaves, radar and electromagnetic pulses. two hundred years before that, this continent didn't even have much of the disease's, germs and bad breath imported from settlers from Europe.</p> <p>These days we hear a lot about "organic" food grown without pesticides, insecticides and all the rest of the genetically enhanced, chemically purified mumbo jumbo that goes into most crops and livestock. I am a vegetarian (still eat dairy, eggs and some fish though) and I try to eat healthy, limiting fats and such. However more and more often I feel it is a losing battle and a false economy. In the modern world, this one where we rise every morning and go to bed each night, we are bombarded every moment of the day by all manner of things totally foreign to the natural environment of our distant ancestors. Every day we are subject to microwaves (radar, cell phones, TV, radio, satellite), smog and bad air from cars, trucks, planes, industrial pollution, noise pollution, and about a zillion other things that never occurred naturally a few hundred years ago.</p> <p>Scientists, politicians and industry would have you believe that all this has no effect on us, that global warming is a hoax and that the 40 million barrels crude oil spilled into the sea by the latest busted tanker will all dissipate and be absorbed by the environment. Well here's the wake up call cause we're the environment, us and the 47000 species of animals that share (now 46999 species as one goes extinct every few seconds) this planet. We're the ones absorbing the spills, the pollutants, the microwaves and whatever else we have added to the air, water and soil around us.</p> <p>There is no getting away from it either, I read recently an article on the Internet about old growth forests in Northern Ontario dying off due to polluted air. This same article talked about fish poisoned with cyanide in India and dead rivers in Mexico. We, you and I and everyone else who enjoys Late Night with David Letterman while lounging in our nylon jammies in the back of our Limousines whilst chatting on our cell phones are having a massive affect on the environment, all environments. We are rapidly using up non-renewable resources, use virtually everything to excess, bulldoze our forests and farm lands to build ritzy condos for rich business men, demand bigger more gas guzzling, more pollutive SUVs to show how successful we are and generally think about our environment last if at all.</p> <p>Yesterday while commuting to work (I drive a Honda civic by the way) I heard a report on the radio about 15 local mayors lamenting the fact that the latest gas guzzler tax (up to $8000 for the worst offenders, thats about 3000 pounds for you Brits) was going to cause a major downturn in the local auto industry. Did the reporter(or the mayors) note that the local auto industry (and the auto industry in general) turns out more gas guzzling, environmentally unfriendly cars than fuel efficient environmentally ones? Puzzle me this, does anyone really need a two and a half ton four wheel drive SUV with 18" of drive over clearance to commute the one and a half miles to their downtown office? Is it really necessary to drive around town in a 500 HP, V-10 pick up truck whose back box is covered up so it can't possibly carry the leather sofa home from Leons? Does a 1000HP, two seat sports car that gets 3.5 miles per gallon (and that's Brit gallons, not mini-American gallons!) make any sense? In all of the above I would say no!</p> <p>It's not all doom and gloom however, in the last week I have seen advertisements for at least 5 different hybrid cars, cars that run on electricity and/or gas. These cars apparently get better gas mileage, pollute less and are much more environmentally friendly. They have been around for a few years now but are just starting to be promoted and get some exposure. Here once again I think it is the auto manufactures who are at fault for the lack of popularity of the hybrids. First is the styling of the cars, remember the first Honda hybrid to be marketed? It looked like it was a direct transplant from that 70's Brit show about invading aliens, I think it was called UFO. Then there is the pricing, hybrids typically cost about ten grand more than there pure gas brethren. That's a high price to pay when the savings (in fuel economy) are not really that spectacular. My Honda civic will go 675 Km on one tank of gas while a friend of mine claims her hybrid will go 1000 km. I can't say for sure but I think it would take some considerable time to make up the ten grand price difference in just gas savings alone. Then there is the advertising, until this week I could name only two hybrid cars on the market, could count the number of hybrid ads on one hand even though they had been on the market at least a few years. As i said however, the manufacturers do seem to be learning, there are now more ads and apparently many more hybrids to choose from. Maybe there is hope for us after all.</p> <p>Visit <a href="http://www.davidsuzuki.org/blog/">David Suzuki's blog</a> as well</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://torscotts.blog.co.uk/2007/04/08/thoughts_on_the_environment~2053590/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://torscotts.blog.co.uk/2007/04/08/thoughts_on_the_environment~2053590/Sun, 08 Apr 2007 12:59:40 +0200 <p>Having read the title you are now wondering what those three terms might have in common, well let me elucidate bit. I am one of those nutters (and there are a lot of us now days) that commutes a fairly long distance to get to work each day. I live in London and commute (each way) to Waterloo to work each day, driving. There are two main routes to do this commute by car, one a four lane super highway, one a country two lane highway.</p> <p>Immediately you may say take the superhighway, definitely faster, some would say take the two lane as it is more scenic. Well the choice is a bit more pragmatic than that, it&rsquo;s based on survival. I&rsquo;ll explain, first the four lane superhighway.</p> <p>On the superhighway the speed limit is set to 100 Kmh (60 mph for those below the border), however I would say the average speed of traffic is about 130 Kmh. The traffic on the 401 (the super highway) is about 80 per cent trucks, 20 per cent cars (or so it seems), trucks moving along at the same speed or faster (they&rsquo;re on schedule you know) switching lanes with an abandon that would be the envy of any teenager or forula 1 driver. Speed limits mean naught to the traffic on the 401, none of the cars are travelling at the speed limit, few of the trucks are going the speed limit as well. Enforcement outside the GTA is almost non-existent so the drivers have little fear of being stopped for speeding.</p> <p>So why not speed up and drive along with them you might ask? Well that is because the speed is the least of my concerns about the traffic on the 401 actually. The drivers on that highway are aggressive, angry, impatient, often distracted and frequently driving autos that should have been crushed long ago. Tailgating slower cars until they speed up or (preferably) get off the highway is the norm. Passing in any open lane or stretch of pavement (and sometimes unpaved as well) on the left or the right is perfectly acceptable even if it is against the law to pass on the right. Everyone on that highway is going somewhere and they&rsquo;re late, out of time, being delayed, overbooked or something. They just have to get there 3 seconds faster. Not only that but they are in such a rush that they don&rsquo;t have time to tally at home long enough to eat, put on make up, shave, read the paper, finish that report for the boss and get dressed. Then when they finish all that (round about the Homer Watson exit) they begin an argument, sales pitch, teleconference, boy/girl friend conversation of their cells. So all in all driving up the 401 every day is like playing a lottery with the same numbers all the time, one of these days your number will come up.</p> <p>So &hellip; we&rsquo;ll take the scenic route up highway 7/8, a two lane country highway. Two lanes, one going each way, no middle divider. Sort of like the tilt yards of the medieval knights or maybe playing chicken at 100 Kmh. Woah ! Did I say 100 Kmh? The posted speed limit along highway 7/8 is 80Kmh, however everything I just said about the 401 is exactly the same for the highway 7/8 route except you now have the traffic coming straight at you! Average speed along the 7/8 route in my opinion is at least 120 Kmh, the drivers are even more aggressive, impatient, distracted and dangerous than their 401 brethren. Did you know that the drivers on this route have 400/20 super night infrared vision? They must because no matter what the weather, blinding snow storms, torrential rains, solid fog they never slow down, never travel lees than 100 Kmh. They also drive these amazing cars that in-addition to carrying their drivers along at highly unlawful speeds in blinding snow can defy all the laws of physics stopping instantly on sheer ice and snow, never leaving the road no matter how slippery it gets for other drivers. I have to get me one of those cars so I can drive like that cutting several seconds off my commute to work.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://torscotts.blog.co.uk/2007/04/08/commuting_speeding_and_invincibility~2053581/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://torscotts.blog.co.uk/2007/04/08/commuting_speeding_and_invincibility~2053581/Sun, 08 Apr 2007 12:57:50 +0200 <p>I have noticed a trend as I get older (and more cynical), people (kids really) seem to be getting taller and food packaging seems to be getting smaller. I can't say the two are necessarily related but it does seem odd. About a hundred years ago when I was in grade school (and later in high school) I was not counted as one of the shortest or tallest people in my class, I was average height and all my friends were about the same height. These days I work at the local University and when I wander the halls here, I feel like one of the little people. My view as I walk the halls is one composed mostly of shoulders, the kids (mostly in their teens) towering above me by several inches.</p> <p>So why are children getting taller? Some would have you believe that it is natural, they would say we eat better more nutritious food so we grow taller. How much nutrition do you suppose is found in a super sized Quarter Pounder meal Deal? I on the other hand have quite a different theory though I do believe it is related still to what the kids are eating. When I was that gangly teenager many ages ago, genetic engineering was the stuff of science fiction books, no one had ever thought of putting growth hormones into the food supply and all food was pretty much organic and natural. Sure we had pesticides, insecticides and a host of other things to help farmers make better crops and get shut of the bugs but today it is a very different story. We genetically engineer all of the crops to grow faster, ripen sooner, grow bigger and yield more produce. Miracle grow is the order of the day if you are growing anything, hence we get 1500 pound pumpkins and strawberries that look like small apples. Similarly with the livestock that is raised for food, we engineer them for faster growth, leaner meat, fatter drumsticks so that we can get them to market sooner and make a bigger profit. The people in charge of the food supply will tell you that all these chemicals, growth hormones, accelerators, enhancers, fatteners has no effect on the human health and physique. So puzzle me this, why were most of the kids in my grade eight class 5 foot and a bit and now most of the first year students at Uni are well over 6 foot? You have to wonder.</p> <p>At the beginning of this little rant I had mentioned packaging getting smaller in addition to children getting taller. I said packaging but really I meant cereal boxes, chip bags and cracker boxes among others. When I was a sprout, the corn flakes boxes were huge, looking more like the "Club Packs" of todays supermarkets. In the supermarket the other day I was looking at a box of raisin bran thinking if it got any thinner the manufacturers would have to stand the flakes on edge to get them in the box. Manufacturers today claim "the contents settle during shipment" but that doesn't really explain why there are only six chips in my bag of Tortillas or my bog roll has only six sheets and a middle tube big enough to fit my hand through. I exaggerate of course but even as a teen I couldn't sit down and eat a whole family size bag of chips in one sitting, today that same bag seems half the size, barely a snack. However in this case that is a good thing since eating a whole bag of chips has more calories, fats, carbs and more trans fat than a weeks worth of real food. Ah but that's a rant for another day.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://torscotts.blog.co.uk/2007/04/08/bigger_people_smaller_packages~2053568/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://torscotts.blog.co.uk/2007/04/08/bigger_people_smaller_packages~2053568/Sun, 08 Apr 2007 12:54:16 +0200 <p>Have you noticed lately that there seems to be no middle ground any more? Almost everyone will tell you that "this thing" is "absolutely the best!", "Best of Breed", "revolutionary", "State of the Art", "It's gonna wipe out the competition".  Take computers for instance, probably the most obvious example of this around. The boys (and girls) in the Apple camp will absolutely swear to you that Macs are the best, fastest, neatest, coolest computers in the universe and PCs (most especially Windows PCs) are crap. At the same time the Windows aficionados will tell you that Macs compare favorably with a crushed styrofoam cup, have no software, don't play games and are generally useless. The two camps are vehemently (sometimes violently) opposed, neither giving the slightest ground to the other side.</p> <p>However it's not just computers we tend to be fanatic about. We tend to be fanatical about a great many things, everything in fact. Every Christmas thousands of parents will race through department stores fighting, scrapping and swearing their way through the toy ailses to get that cabbage patch doll, tickle me elmo, Xbox 360 or whatever the toy of the year is. How many times have you heard of people lined up outside a Krispy Kream doughnut shop for days waiting to get the first doughnuts served up. The patrons telling you that "you absolutely must get them when they are still warm and sticky".</p> <p>Have you ever watched a World Cup soccer game? Do you really think the ten thousand fans who rush on to the field to tear the Italian ref limb from limb because of a bad call that gave the game to Holland over Brazil are sane rational people? No, they are raving fanatics, totally obsessed with the game, winning and their team. Soccer fanatics are not the only sports fanatics however, just the other night there was a bench clearing fre for all knockdown drag out fighting and wrestling match at a hockey game in Toronto involving players and fans. We tend to be fanatic about just about everything computers, sports, fast foods, cars, celebrities and a host of unmentionables like politics and religion.  It's even in the very word, fan. Fan being a shortened version of fanatic obviously means that every "fan" is a little (or a lot) fanatic about that thing (or person) of which they claim to be a fan.</p> <p>Why is that I wonder? Isn't it enough to say I really like that and it's ok if you are not so crazy about it? Empirical evidence would say that the opposite is true. I am really crazy about something and well you had better be too dammit! It's not that we want to share our enthusiasm for this thing with you, built in to our psyche is the need to impose our enthusiasm on you. Trouble is, we're all different in a lot of ways, having disparate likes and dislikes, so this enthusiasm gets us into a whole lot of trouble. We should all just chill out a bit. It's equally ok that I don't like Krispy Kream doughnuts and you are not enamored of Macs. just chill. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://torscotts.blog.co.uk/2007/04/08/evangelising_evangelism~2053562/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://torscotts.blog.co.uk/2007/04/08/evangelising_evangelism~2053562/Sun, 08 Apr 2007 12:52:34 +0200 <p>Reading the post of a friend the other day who was lamenting the demise of books and reading I was struck by a similar and much related thought. In this day and age of fast foods, instant gratification, flash movies and mindless television few people read (the words) and even fewer READ the story.</p> <p>When I was growing up TV was black and white and where I lived we got two stations, CBC and CTV. My kids call it the black and white days. A large part of our (or mine at least) entertainment came from books. I read everything that had pages when I was a kid and carry on to this day. Sure I attend movies now and then and watch a few shows a week on the tube but still to this day one of my greatest sources of entertainment is a great book. You see I am one of those strange people who READ a book not just read it.</p> <p>Let me explain what I mean. In school they teach you to read the words, you learn the grammar, the punctuation, the prenunciation and all the other mechanics of the language. If you take a literary course, they take books, stories and prose and dissect them in minute detail, analyzing every word and every nuance until the story is all but lost.</p> <p>When I read a book, the words transport me away from this world to any of a thousand million other worlds. I can be traveling in time to hunt t'rexs (mindful of the butterflies!), sailing on a ship round Cape Horn, flying through the farthest reaches of space. I don't need television, CGI graphics, Panavision or any other technical wizardry, my imagination provides all that's necessary and the author weaves the magic in words. A great story by Ray Bradbury, Jules Verne or Nicholas Monseratt is much more  exciting and moving than any movie or television could ever be. A great many people who read, do not actually read the story, do not become immersed in the book, feeling, living, breathing the story. I do, when I read Tolkiens' passages about traversing Moria, I am there right along side the rest of the fellowship. I can feel the stone beneath my feet, the slight breath of air stirring my hair, hear the echo of my footfalls and the stirring of the Balrog.</p> <p>Reading is quickly becoming a lost art in the modern age. Kids these days would much rather attend a flashy movie with lots of explosions, fast cars and scantilly clad women than curl up with a great book. Schools still teach them the mechanics of reading but there are fewer and fewer teachers to teach them the art and the joy of reading. That's a very sad thing. Now if you will excuse me I must return to a space station at the edge of the galaxy under attack by those pesky aliens! </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://torscotts.blog.co.uk/2007/04/08/are_you_a_reader~2053542/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://torscotts.blog.co.uk/2007/04/08/are_you_a_reader~2053542/Sun, 08 Apr 2007 12:47:36 +0200 <p>Have you noticed lately how instant our culture and society is becoming? Everything is instant. Almost all of our food is fast food, freeze dried and re-hydrat-able, frozen and microwavable, delivered to your door in thirty minutes or it's free. Our entertainment is instant, no one reads anymore, they go to movies instead but only if they are short and to the point. More than one of my friends has lamented the length of "Lord of the Rings" ... three movies and three hours each! They're just so long. Everything in our society is fast paced, we are always late, always rushing somewhere with no time to eat, no time to rest, it's all go go go. We schedule 50 hours worth of activities for every day then lament the fact that we don't have time to do them all. We certainly have no time to eat, so it's fast food picked up on the way somewhere, gobbled down while we drive.</p> <p>Speaking of fast food, have you ever wondered about the food that might be in it? Watching a movie a while back called "Supersize Me" was a shocking experience. The star of the movie ate nothing but fast food for an entire month, at the end of which he had gained 30 pounds, was on the verge of kidney and liver failure and had completely lost the athletic physical shape he had been in when he started the experiment. The movie reinforced my opinion of fast foods of all kinds, that there is very little food in them, mostly they are chemicals, fats and other stuff that is equally non-nutritious. When a burger maker claims "100% beef" for their burgers, that doesn't mean the patty you're buying is 100% beef, it means the beef that is in the patty is 100% beef. However there is likely only about 1% beef in the patty, the rest being fillers, sawdust and chemicals. Don't believe me? Before your next Happy meal, trot into Chapters (or Indigo) and pick up two books, "Fast Food Nation" a documentary on fast foods in America and "Toxin" an entertaining little story by Robin Cook. If these don't cure you of your need for a fast food fix, well then enjoy!</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://torscotts.blog.co.uk/2007/04/08/i_ll_have_fries_with_that_please~2053535/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://torscotts.blog.co.uk/2007/04/08/i_ll_have_fries_with_that_please~2053535/Sun, 08 Apr 2007 12:45:33 +0200 <p>So what is it about cats, dogs and clocks? More specifically why is it they insist that everyone should be up and about by 5:00 am? In my household live 6 cats and two dogs. The latest, Minnie (after Minnie the moocher) starts barking round a bout 5:15, "let me out, it's time for walk-a-bout" she is saying. If one of us actually gets up and takes her out, the other one, Charlee the chunk, a hefty cocker spaniel with snow shoe sized paws comes and plants his size 10s on the edge of the bed and licks your face. Get shut of him and you are again wakened by a parade of cats all purred up, gently walking round your noggin, insisting that you get up and feed them, scrape the cat box and let them out for a gamble. So you see in my household every day starts about 5:30 when everyone, cats, dogs, guinea pigs, fish turtles and people get out of bed and greet the day. All of them are eclectic lovable and irreplaceable even if they don't realize that on Saturday and Sunday I should be sleeping in ( at sixes and sevenes) instead of commuting to my place of work. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://torscotts.blog.co.uk/2007/04/08/cats_dogs_and_clocks~2053525/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://torscotts.blog.co.uk/2007/04/08/cats_dogs_and_clocks~2053525/Sun, 08 Apr 2007 12:41:30 +0200