tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18930590370124900582024-03-22T22:40:19.026-04:00THE FIFTH COLUMN"This column is dedicated to the proposition that Canada (and indeed the world) is in a crisis situation and that fundamental social change is required to remedy this situation." - The First Column, Lambda November 2, 1971
This blog is inspired by my column of the same name in the Laurentian University Newspaper, Lambda, from 1971-1973. The title refers to the concept of subverting the system from within.
To read key excerpts from those columns read the first few posts in this blog.rwwhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00512582677240907287noreply@blogger.comBlogger643125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1893059037012490058.post-39299585153635690082024-03-22T22:39:00.002-04:002024-03-22T22:39:32.649-04:00On Television Part 3 – Cutting The Cord, Where We Ended Up
The Fifth Column first talked about “cutting the cord” in June
2019 in my post On Television
that looked at the history of television from broadcast TV and rabbit
ears through Cable TV to streaming services delivered via wi-fi.
In July 2020 I
posted On Television Part 2 – Cutting The Cord
about our first experience “cutting the cord”.
Our original plan was simply to replace it with rwwhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00512582677240907287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1893059037012490058.post-70488204073759900452024-02-23T19:02:00.001-05:002024-02-23T19:02:37.909-05:00The Election Issue That Dare Not Speak It's NameWhat election am I referring to – whatever one is next in
whatever jurisdiction you are in.
Yes I am talking about that which we
dare not speak – the need to change our economic system before its
ultimate collapse.
Karl Marx predicted the collapse of
capitalism, and it was happening, only to be rescued by of all things
socialism – the pooling of the masses resources to rescue their
rwwhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00512582677240907287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1893059037012490058.post-21873998069658065202024-02-19T09:50:00.000-05:002024-02-19T09:50:48.524-05:00What is Wrong With The Internet ?
Yes, I know we could write a book, but essentially what is wrong with
the Internet is the way we use it.
The public changed has the way it uses the Internet to the benefit of
a few monopoly tech companies and those that want to spread
disinformation because laziness has caused them to succumb to the
cult of convenience.
We will skip the very early days before the World Wide Web and
rwwhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00512582677240907287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1893059037012490058.post-30241604439123619962024-02-15T19:33:00.003-05:002024-02-15T22:41:09.669-05:00Is There a Conspiracy to Break and Then Fix Health Care ?So how would this work. I suggest first you underfund public health
care as well as simply not spending budgeted funds. As the public
facilities fail to meet the needs you claim private facilities are
needed. You then transfer funds from public to private facilities
further reducing the public facilities capability. You then claim the
private facilities are the answer to the crisis and start rwwhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00512582677240907287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1893059037012490058.post-49039336876020375732024-01-03T13:20:00.003-05:002024-01-11T11:14:31.144-05:00AI Has Nothing To Do With Intelligence
AI has nothing to do
with intelligence but people believe the marketing hype, mostly
because we have a distorted idea of what intelligence is, largely due
to the media.
Take the quiz show
“Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader” that says in its name that
it’s about whether contestants are as intelligent as a fifth grade
student. What the show actually tests is who is more familiar with
the rwwhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00512582677240907287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1893059037012490058.post-76037079257378829882023-12-17T14:09:00.002-05:002023-12-17T14:09:54.651-05:00Is There Hope For Palestine I wrote this in November 2007 on the hope for a solution to the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict:
The solution essentially comes down to understanding the most and
least that each side can accept.
We could argue forever
whether the State of Israel should have been created the way it was
but, as most Palestinians have come to accept, that is a historical
fact that is simply not going to rwwhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00512582677240907287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1893059037012490058.post-16664248093496599632023-12-04T12:03:00.001-05:002023-12-04T12:03:27.774-05:00Franzis Black and White Projects Professional 6 Photo Film Emulation VersionsThis is a demonstration of the film emulation capabilities of Franzis Black & White Projects. I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the emulation provided by this software but it is indeed an interesting idea. I have not included all the options available but have selected a few film types from the brands I am familiar with. You will see that in many cases the differences are subtle but others rwwhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00512582677240907287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1893059037012490058.post-28150473421410394722023-12-02T13:13:00.003-05:002023-12-17T12:39:30.119-05:00Palestine – What If Balfour Declaration (November 2nd, 1917)
"His
Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine
of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best
endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being
clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the
civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in
Palestine,rwwhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00512582677240907287noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1893059037012490058.post-38835533279383097442023-11-10T21:53:00.000-05:002023-11-10T21:53:01.848-05:00Remembrance Day and Righteous WarsWhen I was growing
up in the 1950s and 1960s Remembrance Day was a very solemn occasion.
There were still a lot of World War II veterans participating and
even some from World War I, as well as veterans from the Korean War
(sometimes referred to as a “police action)”.
World War II is
probably seen as the most righteous war ever in the minds of the
public. World War I, on the other hand, they rwwhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00512582677240907287noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1893059037012490058.post-39418745238086391902023-11-05T19:47:00.000-05:002023-11-05T19:47:09.985-05:00All Photography is “Photoshopped”A pretty bold claim but what do I mean by it. Well I do not mean
“photoshopped” in the sense of someone going through their photo
collection post divorce and removing their ex-spouse from all their
family photographs. I mean something more subtle than that.
The appearance of
every photograph is the direct result of decisions taken by the
photographer starting even before the photo is taken andrwwhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00512582677240907287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1893059037012490058.post-18629390389121901532023-09-25T09:10:00.001-04:002023-09-25T09:10:41.662-04:00What If We Had A Different Non-Political Form of Representative Government
I have been thinking about what a non-political from of
representative government might look like and whether it could be
considered democratic or not.
One model came to mind, a Council One Hundred that would set policy,
provide Cabinet Ministers and oversee the government administration.
With 50 peoples representatives chosen randomly in a process similar
to jurors that would serve rwwhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00512582677240907287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1893059037012490058.post-67797917277491262342023-08-29T22:08:00.003-04:002023-08-29T22:15:31.601-04:00Fernbank Road Pond Photo VersionsSlideshow of photos taken along the Fernbank Road Pond in Stittsville in
July 2023 with my Panasonic Lumix FZ100 camera and edited with
Photoshop Elements 2023, Simply Good Pictures 5, Franzis Color
Projects 6 Professional and Franzis Black & White Projects 6
Professional. (View in YouTube to view full screen) rwwhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00512582677240907287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1893059037012490058.post-20130491468202914892023-08-19T19:40:00.001-04:002023-08-19T19:40:45.661-04:00Imagining A Post Capitalist WorldThis is not meant
to be a comprehensive analysis but an imagining of some of the
features of a post capitalist world.
OK
lets get this over with first. The first thing we will notice is the
numbers we use to measure the success of a capitalist economy, GDP,
GNP and economic growth will look bad. That is because the goals of
the new economy will not be excessive production, consumption, energy
rwwhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00512582677240907287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1893059037012490058.post-7774372661689108212023-07-24T14:33:00.000-04:002023-07-24T14:33:28.152-04:00The stages of corporate social mediaCorporate social media essentially goes through three stages.
The first is new, free and wonderful, lots of functionality, user
friendly and free, or at least pretending to be free. It’s purpose
is to build a customer/product base (as the customer is the product).
The second stage is monetization. The purpose is to make money so
once the free loss leader period is over measures to rwwhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00512582677240907287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1893059037012490058.post-89160103453457450472023-07-16T19:32:00.000-04:002023-07-16T19:32:22.430-04:00What Are Family Values Anyway
So what are these family values the right is always going on about. I
am not talking about specific religious or cultural values but the
values all families share.
It seems there is
one common thread and that is that families care about and take care
of each other. They do not ask if other family members are worthy of
being cared for they just do it. When children are young and helpless
they rwwhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00512582677240907287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1893059037012490058.post-52529348721365361172023-07-10T19:39:00.003-04:002023-07-10T19:39:36.817-04:00Should We Bring Back The Lord’s Day ActNo I am not going all religious on you This would be more of a Day
for Humanity, a day that would not belong to the billionaires and
millionaires but to the common people and the community.
This would be a day where all profit making activities would be
banned except for activities necessary for essential public utilities
and community and social services. Large scale profit making
rwwhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00512582677240907287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1893059037012490058.post-67274829006596176652023-06-13T09:44:00.001-04:002023-06-13T09:45:12.815-04:00The Thing About Religious FundamentalistsThe thing About religious fundamentalists is that they expect you to base your life and your belief system and morality on religious texts written three thousand years ago, before: - The Renaissance (15th and 16th Centuries CE)- The Scientific Revolution (1543-1687 CE)- The Enlightenment/Age of Reason (17th & 18th Centuries CE)- Darwin’s Theory of Evolution (1859 CE)- The Discovery of rwwhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00512582677240907287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1893059037012490058.post-90816964774987670432023-05-22T19:03:00.001-04:002023-05-22T19:03:44.131-04:00How Did We Get Here
Let me tell you a story about my early days working for the House of
Commons in a non-partisan position serving all Members of Parliament
and all Canadians. While we all had our own political opinions, that
ranged from right to left, we all worked professionally and in a non-
partisan manner to serve the House. And we all got along.
On one particular
day we were on what could best be called arwwhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00512582677240907287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1893059037012490058.post-728642149797060302023-04-29T10:54:00.000-04:002023-04-29T10:54:27.662-04:00Annual Report on Kanata South Pathways Deterioration, Spring 2023Another year has gone by and it is time to report again on the deterioration of the Bridlewood and Glen Cairn pathways in Kanata.Bridlewood Glen Cairnrwwhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00512582677240907287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1893059037012490058.post-23860724551240044522023-04-14T09:27:00.001-04:002023-04-14T09:30:19.388-04:00 More Fun With Photo EditingI imagine most people have a favourite photo editor that they use for all their photo editing. Sometimes I like to mix it up and use different software for the different abilities each has. I will usually save my photos as lossless PNGs when transferring between different programs to avoid compression degradation.Original Photo Taken with Panasonic Lumix FZ100 CameraCropped to 16X9 with JPEGCropsrwwhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00512582677240907287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1893059037012490058.post-10622700601359149202023-03-17T19:08:00.002-04:002023-03-17T19:08:59.719-04:00Translating the Negativity of Today’s Right Wing into the Reality of Their BeliefsToday’s right wing loves to express itself in terms of what they
hate, seeming to lack any positive messages. When you turn their
negativity into positive statements it expresses what they really
believe in.
Anti woke: Celebrating a lack of awareness and caring for others
Anti Political Correctness: Never do the right thing
Anti science, intellectualism: Pro rwwhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00512582677240907287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1893059037012490058.post-12253915570244581142023-03-10T19:43:00.001-05:002023-03-10T20:57:01.844-05:00Object Removal with Adobe Photoshop Elements 2023 – The De-urbanization of a PondBack in the day, Inpaint
used to be the standard for removing objects from digital photographs. Then I discovered Photo Stamp Remover
which I found to be much better and easier to use. That all changed
when I upgraded my Photoshop Elements 12 from 2013 to Photoshop Elements 2023.
The interface has improved and the capabilities increased, not the
least being it’s object removal capabilities, rwwhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00512582677240907287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1893059037012490058.post-2506438054903878532023-03-05T12:28:00.005-05:002023-03-05T12:36:53.605-05:00Why Mastodon
So why did I open a Mastodon account and why do I think Mastodon can
replace Twitter.
I started looking for alternatives to Twitter soon after Elon Musk
purchased it and sent it to hell in a hand basket.
Of course, Twitter’s problems started much earlier than that. As
soon as Twitter realized that as a business it had to monetize it’s
product an emphasis on profitability took over rwwhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00512582677240907287noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1893059037012490058.post-5885173591721637762023-02-27T19:24:00.000-05:002023-02-27T19:24:46.044-05:00COVID-19 Pandemic Reflections and The Next Pandemic
Well the pandemic is over, at least according to most governments,
science and medicine not so much. So now it is time to look back, and
to look forward.
Perhaps my biggest reflection is that governments, at least in
Canada, did not receive the rational criticism for their failures
that they should have. The media was intent on concentrating on the
irrational response of the anti-science, rwwhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00512582677240907287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1893059037012490058.post-17138764004269978242023-02-12T22:38:00.003-05:002023-02-12T22:49:20.925-05:00Photo Versions Created with Franzis Black & White ProjectsBack in the day, not my day but the day, cameras were not an app on
your phone but bulky and heavy apparatus with explosive flash powder
that could only take monochrome photos. We have advanced a long way
to today’s sophisticated
DSLRs and prosumer cameras such as my Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ100 .
So why black & white photography today when the
technology has moved so far beyond it. One rwwhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00512582677240907287noreply@blogger.com0