What’s the deal with Chinese farmers and styrofoam? Whenever we get boxes of apples or pears (more frequently every year) the fruit comes wrapped in it’s own individual styrofoam netting, sandwiched between layers of styrofoam trays. To top it all off, the whole box is lined with a box-shaped plastic bag.
Not only is it inconvenient to unwrap each apple one-by-one, we have to throw all the packaging out. Fruit from other countries – the US or Chile, for example – comes packed between layers of cardboard trays, which we can recycle.
Just an observation. I don’t have any theories about why this is. Hopefully there is no lead in the packaging. Or the fruit. There have been an awful lot of quality issues out of China lately.
Another observation: Whoever wrote out the “Product of China” sign did so in pink rather than the usual white. A commentary on the state of Chinese communism, or somebody simply couldn’t find the white marker?
The Russians have planted their titanium flag under the sea. Now it’s Canada’s move.
The Prime Minister has announced plans to build an army training centre in Resolute and a deep-water port in Nanisivik. The expected cost is in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
If we’re going to continue claiming the archipelago and surrounding waters as our own, we’d better be able to back it up.
It’s an interesting way to hedge our bets when it comes to global warming. Yes, we are trying to reduce carbon emissions. But we are also pessimistic enough to bet $100 million on future oil revenues from the far north.
I suppose the money will come in handy when we need to move Vancouver 25 miles upriver. (And Halifax into an entirely different province.)
The best terrorist plan I have heard is one that my father thought up after the D.C. snipers created havoc in 2002. The basic idea is to arm 20 terrorists with rifles and cars, and arrange to have them begin shooting randomly at pre-set times all across the country. Big cities, little cities, suburbs, etc. Have them move around a lot. No one will know when and where the next attack will be. The chaos would be unbelievable, especially considering how few resources it would require of the terrorists. It would also be extremely hard to catch these guys. The damage wouldn’t be as extreme as detonating a nuclear bomb in New York City, of course; but it sure would be a lot easier to obtain a handful of guns than a nuclear weapon.
It’s an interesting question to approach from a sociological direction. If you’re really out to scare people, grand gestures aren’t the way to go. It’s the little things that matter, so to speak.
Which makes me wonder, was it the best move to fly airplanes into the World Trade Center towers? This realization is coming about five years too late, but I’m just a lay person so I don’t have to be on the ball all the time. (Not to mention I was just starting secondary school in 2001.)
Maybe Al Qaeda wasn’t aiming to terrorize people so much as demonstrate it’s power to the world audience. Naturally, people would be freaked out, but I suspect the continued American preoccupation with terrorism is more a function of domestic politics. After all, red-staters are the ones living in fear but it’s blue New Yorkers who went through the real thing.
I’m not saying Al Qaeda didn’t expect to terrorize Americans, but things wouldn’t be so bad today if that fear hadn’t been appropriated by politicians for their own gain – and the world’s loss. Instead of a rational reaction against the forces that nourish Al Qaeda, bombs and rhetoric where thrown around in panic.
If I’m right, the last five years have seen billions of dollars and thousands of lives spent on a political farce.
Terrorism is a serious threat to all western nations, but not as much as millions of people in Missouri and South Carolina have been led to believe. And it’s certainly not the kind of threat we can combat with tanks and jets.
I was hit by Dubya Fatigue years ago. Only rarely do I feel as angry as I did waaaaay back in 2004. But today is one of those rare days.
It seems like everything that could go wrong has gone wrong, and this sad state of affairs has been decried in every possible way.
The biggest and most horrible thing deserves to be acknowledged today, even if millions have already said it and millions already agree:
Everything the United States has done since September 11 2001 has played into Al Qaeda’s hands. Al Qaeda cast a role for the US, and they played the part obligingly.
I don’t know if you’ve ever paid attention to such things, but grocery stores pipe in music to make customers walk slower and buy more food. At the particular store where I work, the tunes are beamed in via satellite (taking a sinister concept – mind control music – to comical heights). It’s a horrible situation to be in, let me tell you.
First off, there is no “personality” to satellite radio. No banter between songs, no news flashes to warn of approaching tornadoes, not even commercials. I suppose this is great for the purposes of customer mood-modulation, but for the employees it is a cruel torture.
Torture, because whatever playlist is on continuous shuffle is at the very most 12 hours long. It’s the same Bee Gees songs day in, day out. That means someone who works about 250 days will hear the same songs 250 times.
As if that isn’t enough, the music always seems to be slightly too loud. If I ever try to formulate a thought under the omnipresent speakers it is blasted away into oblivion by The Mamas & The Papas.
There are, however, signs of hope. I suspect somebody new is in charge of the playlist, because every few weeks a new(ish) song finds it’s way into the rotation. These brief moments of musical bliss have become the highlights of my day. I find myself semi-consciously seeking out secluded places where I am unlikely to be interrupted by customer or coworker until the song is over.
The first oasis to appear in my desert of easy-listening was Muse’s “Starlight.” Then a handful of others began to pepper my day. “Stadium Arcadium” by Red hot Chili Peppers. “Release the Stars” by Rufus Wainwright. Something by Feist whose title escapes me.
(There is also a disappointing cover of Modest Mouse’s “Float On,” but the positives so far outweigh the negatives.)
I’m pleased with this mild improvement, even if it comes five years too late.
