Why You Should Help Save Michael Schmidt’s Life
by admin on October 23, 2011
As you may or may not know, Ontario farmer Michael Schmidt is on a hunger strike, defending his right to distribute raw milk. Michael has been fighting a battle with lawmakers in Ontario for at least 5 years. He has also been distributing raw milk for 17 years through a cow share program. Not one of his clients has ever fallen sick from drinking raw milk.
In fact, I’m embarrassed to say, Canada is the only G8 country to ban the sale and distribution of raw milk.
There is no evidence whatsoever that raw milk is unsafe for anyone, when properly handled and distributed. The same can be said of most food products.
This, however, is a moot point. As I wrote in my letter to Premier McGuinty and my local MP, Ms. Carolyn Bennet, governments have no business telling their citizens what they can or cannot eat.
I am, after all, rightfully free to smoke and to drink alcohol.
Of course, I wouldn’t be surprised to find that some local politicians would love to tell everyone what to do.
I urge you to write to Premier McGuinty (dmcguinty.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org) and your local MP (find him or her here). If you don’t have much time, feel free to copy and paste from my letter, which I have pasted below.
“Dear Dalton McGuinty and Ms. Carolyn Bennet,
I urge you to take action on dairy farmer Michael Schmidt’s case. He may well die because the government wants to dictate what we can and cannot eat.
Health problems have ballooned in the West since governments started interfering with out diet. There was a time when we ate far more lard and animal fat and drank raw milk and ate raw milk products.
Yet we were all far healthier.
Could it be because we ate far fewer grains and a lot less sugar?
At any rate, even if raw milk were unsafe (which every G8 country but Canada knows isn’t true), I ask you this: what gives lawmakers and politicians the right to forbid I drink it?
After all, I am allowed to smoke, am I not? I am allowed to eat candy, am I not?
Or would you rather forbid all Ontarians do those things too?
You might well find your decision on this case will determine next election’s results.
Best regards,
Alain Latour.”
What if Bob Parsons’ elephant-killing video was an April Fools’ Day hoax?
by admin on April 1, 2011
Bob Parsons, chief executive and founder of the Web services company GoDaddy, got in hot water last Thursday after he posted a video online of him killing an elephant.
I got in hot water last April Fools’ Day after I posted a picture of me killing a deer named Rutherford.
The difference is, Bob Parsons’ dead elephant is really dead. My deer is, presumably, alive and well, and the picture I posted was a Photoshopped image in an article I wrote, when I was Editor-in-Chief of The Medium, as an April Fool’s Day joke.
The article was, I thought, well-written, funny, and, above anything else, an obvious April Fools’ Day prank. The editorial staff loved it. It began like this:
“Last Sunday, campus police found the remains of a deer lying on the Five Minute Walk. The stag, which the Mississauga zoo once tagged as “Rutherford,” was missing chunks of flesh from its flanks. Police believe Rutherford was slaughtered for its meat, and that the person(s) responsible for the murder fled the location to avoid capture when a student happened upon the scene.
Following a police investigation, a residence student produced a picture of an adult male wielding a santoku knife as he stalked a deer in the UTM woodlot. Mary Takeda, a fourth-year Scatology major, said she did not hand the picture to the police because she thought it was a harmless prank. (…)” (Click here to continue reading, and do take a moment to admire the maniac’s photograph.)
As it turns out, the prank wasn’t that obvious a prank, despite the absurdity of the whole thing. For example, the witness of the killing was an Scatology Major, and the detective’s name was Constable Ness (of “The Untouchables” movie fame). There was also a Facebook group called “Deer Hunters of UTM,” a Deer Hotline, and a National Deer Foundation. Lastly, the police questioned a hunter-gatherer UTM student, Grubhn (get it?) Chefanana, a native of Ladonia.
Oh, and the Biology professor named William Cody? That’s Billy the Kid’s real name.
Still, quite a few people bought it. A reader told me, weeks later, she’d asked her boyfriend to walk with her every time she left residence after dark, lest she come across the “maniac.” And a volunteer writer confessed to me she’d wept as she read the article.
Other readers were less naïve. Someone circled passages of the article, scrawled “FAIL” in big fat letters at the bottom of it, crumpled the newspaper, and nailed it to our office door, a gesture that I found vaguely threatening.
A few of them seemed to think the article was in poor taste—except they used harsher words. Posting on the comments section, they wrote the article was “disgusting,” “appalling,” and “not funny.”
(Others, however, praised it, calling it “funny,” “hilarious,” and an obvious prank. One reader, identifying himself/herself as “K,” informed me that the technique shown in the picture was not the proper way to stalk a deer.)
In the week that followed, I learned a few things:
1. Some people seem to think that anyone capable of joking about an animal’s death is automatically capable of coldly killing one.
2. People tend to accept what they read in a newspaper. As the saying goes, “Paper will hold anything.” To which I’d add, “And many will eat it up.”
3. Some topics are guaranteed to increase readership/online hits, but their prize is high (angry readers, calls to action, threats, or a simple shrug and a goodbye.)
The last point addresses the suspicion, among some circles, that Bob Parsons posted that video as a marketing technique. Whether that was his intention or not, I may never know. But right now, I bet he regrets doing it. Even if it had been a hoax.
My articles for the U of T Mississauga News section
by admin on March 30, 2011
I have been writing for the U of T Mississauga News section since December. This is not, mind you, a permanent gig, but rather the occasional freelance assignment. And I love it. It gives me a chance to interview Grammy Award nominees who happen to work as university deans, tight-lipped cryptography experts,and animal behaviour specialists who say angel fish might be capable of counting after all.
Read them here, if you life. (Thanks to U of T Mississauga for the links.)
Does not helping others make you a bad person?
by admin on January 19, 2011
As a U of T Psychology minor, I’ve long thought Psychology 101 should be a mandatory course, not just in university, but beginning in high school. The recent death of Judy Tak Fong Lam Chiu, a 66-year-old dementia patient who froze to death after wandering outside at 2 a.m., only reaffirms my belief.
The public seems to think neighbors who ignored Ms. Chiu’s cries for help are very bad people. In an effort to explain why no one called the police, a reader speculated in the Globe and Mail website that perhaps Ms. Chiu had screamed obscenities, which might have scared potential rescuers away. Most of the other commenters were harsher.
“Those who heard her cries and screams and elected to ignore them must be charged,” wrote Sorethroat.
“I’d like to think that in Canada we are still a caring society,” wrote JohnnyCoast, not sounding hopeful.
This is an understandable reaction. Unable to comprehend why someone would ignore a fellow human being’s cries for help, most us readily assume that the people who just stood by are bad people.
But what if that isn’t the case? What if we too would have just stood by?
Nonsense, you say. I’m a good person. I would’ve done something.
The Bystander Effect
This is where a knowledge of Psychology comes in handy. The reason why people sometimes ignore victims’ pleas is a very simple one. It’s known as the bystander effect, and it’s been amply documented. Wikipedia offers a fairly good definition.
I will summarize it as follows: the greater the number of bystanders, the less likely it is that any one of them will help.
Why? There a number of reasons—none of them sinister or even depressing.
One, and the most important in my opinion, is that everybody assumes somebody else will act, therefore feeling less responsible. Psychologists refer to this as “diffusion of responsibility.”
A second reason why bystanders may not do anything is related to the principle of social influence, whereby everyone monitors the reactions of other bystanders for cues on how to act. Since they are not doing anything, neither will we.
There are even more reasons, including fear of losing face or of offering unwanted assistance. And especially in North America, as the immigrant in me cannot resist pointing out, the risk of legal liability cannot be forgotten.
These explanations my seem farfetched or unlikely, but the fact remains that the bystander effect has been demonstrated in lab conditions in many occasions. When the subject of the experiment is alone and sees someone (an accomplice, or in Psychology-speak, a confederate of the experimenter) in what the subject perceives to be a dangerous situation, they usually act appropriately. These dangerous situations have ranged from epileptic seizures (fake, of course) to a person falling.
But when the subject is surrounded by other people, it often takes them a long time to act, if they do act at all. In fact, “these experiments virtually always find that the presence of others inhibits helping, often by a large margin.”
The point here is not to blame or exonerate anyone, but to make us aware of one simple fact: if something bad happens to someone in from of our eyes, we should know that no one but us is likely to come to the rescue. This isn’t because others are bad people. It’s because they are not aware of the bystander effect.
This knowledge allowed me once to come to the aid of an old lady who’d slipped and fallen backwards in a grocery store whose tile floor was covered by sleet. The old lady lay there, moaning, and not one person came to her aid. I did, though. I knelt beside her, comforted her, asked where it hurt, called the ambulance from my cell phone, held her hand until the paramedics arrived, and even phoned her son so he would come with her to the hospital.
I know I’m not necessarily a better person than the other patrons. I know they too would’ve acted, had they been conscious of the bystander effect.
Now you are, too.
MagicJack: the conclusion
by admin on November 3, 2010
I have to take a break from working on NaNoWriMo to report on the outcome of my email to Dan Borislow, founder and president of MagicJack.
The outcome is, there is no outcome.
Mr. Borislow has failed to reply to my email. His company, too, failed to reply to a bug report I filed through its “support” system.
From my experience with this awful, awful company, I’ve reached two conclusions:
1. If you have a PC,a very reliable Internet connection, and you MUST save money on your phone bill, then maybe go for MagicJack (but pray you encounter no billing or technical issues). MagicJack’s support is laughable.
2. If you have a Mac, do NOT go for MagicJack. Here’s what I have to do every morning when my iMac wakes:
- I unplug the MagicJack, count to 20, plug it back in.
- I hope that two icons show on my desktop: one is called “Phone,” the other “MagicJack.” While I’m at it, I sometimes also hope hunger will end in the world and that penguins in the Arctic will face no more environmental problems.
- If that happens (that is, if the two icons show), I click on the “Open MagicJack” shortcut.
- I hope MagicJack will open and work. While I’m at it, I sometimes I also hope hunger will end in the world…
- When it doesn’t work, I then must go to Disk Utility, select the PHONE drive that appears below the 18.6 MB Tigerjet drive, and erase it.
- That sometimes works. When it doesn’t, I then must use a trick I learned in a Mac forum, which involves running this command in Terminal:
sudo /Volumes/magicJack/Start\ magicJack.app/Contents/MacOS/autorun ; exit;
Sometimes this makes my MagicJack work right away; sometimes I have to unplug it again, wait another 20 seconds, and plug it again.
Of course, MagicJack tech support either has no clue or claims not to have a clue why this is or how it can be solved. Every time I chat online with one their reps (MagicJack offers no over-the-phone support) they spend five minutes repeating the same steps they tried to do last time. Only then do they think it wise to transfer me to someone they call “one of our top 10% representatives as voted by our customers.”
The problem is, only one of these star reps actually knew what she was doing. Her name was Myrene. (If you’re reading this, Myrene, thanks a bunch. If I were more selfish, I’d hope you’ll continue to work over there and that I will always be lucky enough to get you when I contact tech support. But I’m not that selfish. Here’s hoping you’ll get a job someplace else.)
In the meantime, if any of you needs to contact me, don’t call me. Email me instead. Chances are, my MagicJack is “experiencing an issue.”
My first NaNoWrimo
by admin on October 31, 2010
It’s hard to believe, but 2010’s NaNoWrimo begins tomorrow.
For the uninitiated, National Novel Writing Month is a “seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. (…) The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.”
Furthermore, “NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.” I am quoting from the NaNoWrimo.org website.
Sounds like fun, doesn’t it? It also sounds like a lot of work. To make my life somewhat easier, I’ve given a lot of thought to the setup I’ll use in the next 30 days. It includes:
1. Scrivener 2.0: It’s not for sale yet, but NaNoWrimo participants can take it for a spin—a free spin at that. I’ve been using the previous Scrivener version for the past two years and I would never consider relying on a different piece of writing software. Here’s a screenshot of my NaNoWrimo project:
As you can see, Scrivener is more of an outlining tool than a simple word-processor. In fact, the term “outlining tool” doesn’t do it justice—I’d be hard pressed to explain all the things Scrivener allows you to do. Suffice to say, it enables you to include all your data—from character bios to research, including webpages, pictures, and even movies—in one project. That alone, I find, is a killer feature.
2. Evernote and Nozbe: Evernote is perhaps the best note-taking tool out there, simply because it allows you to create and incorporate notes from anywhere, be it via your iPhone, BlackBerry, Mac, or PC. It scans handwritten or printed text, accepts audio notes, clips webpages, and more.
Nozbe, on the other hand, is a GTD-friendly web-based task manager that synchronizes flawlessly with Evernote. I’ve long been using both to implement my GTD system. Of course, NaNoWrimo involves so much writing that I won’t have time for much research. Nevertheless, should I find myself forced to do more than cranking out 1,667 words per day for the next 30 days, I’ll create the actions and/or projects in Nozbe and the notes in Evernote.
3. PlainText (iTunes link) and Dropbox: Lately, I’ve been typing more often and with more ease on my iPhone 4. In fact, some of the text in the screenshot above was created in PlainText, an iPhone app that synchronizes with Scrivener 2.0 via Dropbox, that amazing web-based file hosting service. This enables me to jot any sudden ideas, or even work on a chapter, wherever I am.
The tools are ready. The plot is a bit more vivid. The characters have a bit more than just names. Now all that remains is for me to write my ass off.
Now that’s good customer service
by admin on October 23, 2010
Yesterday I received an email from Netflix, the video-streaming company I signed up with as soon as it opened up shop in Canada.
Here’s what the email read:
| Dear Alain,
Yesterday, you may have had trouble instantly watching TV episodes or movies due to technical issues. We are sorry for the inconvenience this may have caused. This is not a great way to begin your Netflix membership. So that you can properly experience Netflix, we would like to extend your free trial by one day. If you attempted and were unable to instantly watch TV episodes or movies yesterday, click on this account specific link in the next 7 days to extend your free trial. Credit can only be applied once. Again, we apologize for any inconvenience, and thank you for your understanding. If you need further assistance, please call us at 1−866−923−0898.–The Netflix Team |
The best part? I hadn’t even attempted to use Netflix on the day it had it suffered technical issues. These guys not only contacted me (and presumably all other customers) about a problem they had—they apologized for it and extended a credit for it. Contrast this with the behaviour of many a media behemoth, which, far from contacting their users to apologize for their glitches, go about fixing them as quietly as possible, hoping that no one will notice.
Does cheap have to suck?
by admin on October 21, 2010
Like everybody else, I like a good deal. And like everybody else, or at least everybody I know, I no longer have much use for a landline.
In fact, I wouldn’t even have a landline if it weren’t because of my apartment building buzzer. But in Toronto, unlike most places I’ve been to, apartment buildings require tenants to activate either a landline or a cell phone number with the landlord. Why no one ever thought of setting up a simple intercom system is beyond me. That, however, is a different rant.
So, like the cheap bastard I can be, I switched from Vonage ($19.95 per month) to MagicJack ($20 per year). They’re both well-known VOIP providers, so it was a no brainer, right?
To make a long story short, here’s the email I had to send today to Dan Barislow, MagicJack’s founder.
“Hi Dan,
Complaint number one: in your site you promise to have phone number port-ins available. If I remember correctly, this feature was going to be implemented by summer this year. This was my final motivation for buying my MagicJack. Except phone number port-ins are NOT available yet.
Complaint number two: I had to follow especial instructions given in a Mac forum to activate my MagicJack. Regular out-of-the-box installation did not work.
Complaint number three: I have to follow the same instructions every time my Mac wakes up in the morning. These instructions involve unplugging the MagicJack, plugging it again, and running commands on my terminal. Very annoying, not to mention time consuming. Your tech support on this has been useless.
Complaint number four: Now I discovered no Canadian users are able to call toll-free numbers. This is very important. I call a few of these every month. Why was I not warned about this when I paid $10 to get a Canadian number?
All these complaints have taken place in two weeks of MagicJack use. Two weeks.
What do you propose to do about this, Dan?
Best,
Alain Latour”
I’ll keep you posted.
Note: Is it a stretch to include this post in my “Examples of Bad Design” category? After all, the process MagicJack customers have to go throw to install software and contact tech support is far from ideal.
