Canadians: Teeth like Cambodians

Canada is a rich country with bad teeth. Worse, even, than the USA or UK.

The UK!

Gapminder lets you compare oral health and other variables across nations through the medium of neat flash charts.

Universal dental care, anyone?

Podcasts

I have two good podcast recommendations for you.

Thinking Allowed from BBC Radio 4 is an old standby. I’ve been listening for quite a while. The latest episode brought together a geographer, a social scientists, and a novelist to discuss “Imagination and the City.” The topics each week are varied – from hoodies to boxing to advertising.

Sound Opinions from Chicago Public Radio and American Public Media is brand new for me. I listened for the first time today and was so impressed I had to tell someone. Among other things, they talked to producer Tony Visconti of T. Rex and David Bowie fame.

Both are available on iTunes or from their websites.

Re: Brain Drain

A while back I wondered out loud about the state of the Canadian Brain Drain.

I guess it ended some time ago.

From an embarrassingly old (in blog terms) article in Macleans:

Mintz points out that it wasn’t all that long ago that we were much poorer than the Americans. Just think back to the 1980s when our dollar was worth 69 American cents, inflation was raging, our real wages were dropping and our productivity was . . . well it was just embarrassing. “From 1987 to 1997 in particular, we had terrible economic growth,” says Mintz. “By the time we reached 1999, we were way behind the U.S. in per capita incomes and everything else.” Back then, he notes, the newspapers were packed with dire warnings of brain drain. Canadian incomes were so low compared to Americans, our best and brightest were fleeing the country.

Today, it’s the reverse, and families such as Eric Nay, his wife, Polly, and their son are moving the other way. Nay, who’s 41 and now works as associate dean at the Ontario College of Art & Design in Toronto, says he packed his bags and left his home in tony Monterey, Calif., for a new life in Canada two years ago. And get this: he did it for a bigger paycheque. “The academic salaries here are much higher,” he says. “When I was working as an assistant professor in California, I was making $55,000, but in Canada, that magically becomes $70,000.”

The article goes on to revel – a little to gleefully for this modest Canadian – in the recent reversal of fortunes between Canada and the United States.

David Brent is running the Canadian Government

Paul Wells writes about the Prime Minister’s enthusiasm for calling an early election:

This is a delicate business because Harper campaigned on a promise of fixed election dates. He passed a law setting a fixed election date — Oct. 29, 2009. That’s a nice date, isn’t it? Specific. Concrete. Fixed. In Victoria during the last campaign, he said fixed election dates “prevent governments from calling snap elections for short-term political advantage.” He said they “stop leaders from trying to manipulate the calendar.”

When the bill was passed, the Government House leader, Peter Van Loan, celebrated: “Never again will the government of the day be able to play around with the date of an election for its own crass political motives.”

Now here’s the Prime Minister, and what’s he doing? Manipulating the calendar! Why’s he doing it? For short-term political advantage!

Whose motives was the government pursuing? Its own! And what kind of motives are they? Crass!

But it’s not as though there’s a law against that.

What’s that?

There is?

But the story doesn’t stop there. It gets unnecessarily complicated.

You should read the column to get the whole story, but I’ll sum up for the lazy. While explaining why their fixed-dates law doesn’t actually count, the Conservatives tangentially defended one of their bills from Liberal accusations that it is an “abortion bill.” Then they point to a Liberal bill and accuse it of being an abortion bill.

One business day later, the Conservative Justice Minister announces that their bill is out and promises a new bill which is basically a duplicate of the Liberal bill. The one they called an abortion bill.

I think Stephen Harper was out in the sun too long this summer.

Now watch this clip from The Office and remember that David Brent is only a character on television, so it is OK to laugh. It is not OK to laugh at the government. (You should cry.)

Two is a Trend

Two items from my feed reader using “body part” in the title:

How to disown a body part – 3quarksdaily

Which body parts are sung about the most? – Marginal Revolution

Is China the future or the past?

The New York Times asks, Does New York Need to Dream Big Again? Some have pointed to Shenzen as a model for frenetic growth with livable outcomes. It seems to me that the United States doesn’t have much to learn from China’s impressive economic growth.

That would be like present-day WalMart re-adopting the aggressive growth strategy that saw it spread across the country (and beyond). There are only so many cities big enough to support a WalMart. In the same way, there is only so far a country can be modernized with today’s institutions and technology. Once you reach saturation (the United States being pretty much at the limit of WalMarts and modernity), you have to settle for more cautious, measured growth.

China is still racing headfirst toward “a chicken in every pot, a car in every garage.” Americans, for the most part, have all the chickens they can eat, and a car to drive to KFC.

The kinds of mega-projects that became possible with American prosperity in the 20th century and the government powers that followed a depression and two wars will not return to the United States. Today’s economic troubles will pass, but the days of double-digit growth have been over for decades. Similarly, the age when people trusted government passed with the youth rebellions of the sixties and Ronald Reagan’s anti-government administration.

Compare that to the situation in China, where the economy is strong and the government is powerful. On a grand scale, anything is possible.

Is this the difference between a Modern nation and a Postmodern nation? I may be abusing those therms. China pours concrete and erects steel while the United States tinkers with what it already has. China believes it can build a utopia with conviction and effort, while America is less sure of itself.

This isn’t necessarily a bad development for the United States. I doubt, however, that you can go back to operating with a modern philosophy (regardless of economic realities) once you’ve moved on – it’s a bit like religious faith that way.

And why should anyone want a return to the past anyway? It’s pretty well accepted that a lot of the things built in the last century were a mistake. Look at the (I think, partly undeserved) legacy of Robert Moses or the reconstruction of the Regent Park public housing complex in Toronto. Aiming for quality over quantity has its advantages.

Free Parking

The TTC is considering ending free parking privileges for Metropass holders at its parking lots.

Each morning TTC parking lots fill quickly, mostly with Metropass drivers. This means the TTC is not getting much funding to pay for the maintenance of parking facilities (let alone their improvement). By charging for all parking at TTC lots, they expect to gain several million dollars in parking fees and lose a couple million dollars in ridership, for a net gain around $3 – 4 million.

You can check out some reasoned comments at the Metronauts blog and following the Toronto Star article, though there are some crazies to wade through in the latter.

My own view is that, given the circumstances, the TTC would be right to charge for all parking.

1. Use of TTC parking is not presently limited by demand; it’s limited by the size of the parking lots.
2. It is difficult to find a parking spot during the day, between the morning and afternoon rushes.
3. The TTC probably shouldn’t be sinking resources into this park-and-ride business anyway. This is more the job of GO Transit.

So by charging for parking, the TTC will hopefully make the business of operating parking lots more economically sustainable, increase parking availability through the day (though I have my doubts here), and shift some of the riders to local services or GO Transit.

[photo] “a parking lot” by bradleygee

I hear nothing

Am I disappointed? Yes.

[link] Screensaver reveals new test for synaesthesia – New Scientist

Auswandern

According to Deutsche Welle:

At the end of the year, Vogt plans to move to Australia, a country he has never visited. But he knows that architects there are highly sought after. The Australian government put his occupation on a list of those most urgently needed to fill the labor shortage Down Under.

Many educated Germans are doing the same thing as Voigt. The country’s statistics office estimates that more than 160,000 people emigrated last year, a level that hasn’t been topped since 1954.

Whatever happened to the Canadian brain drain?

Sunday Links

I think, therefore iPod: Is an iPod part of your mind? – Guardian

Malwebolence: The Trolls Among Us – NY Times Magazine

Europe gives us a glimpse of our vehicle future – Toronto Star

Can it really be bridged? – The Economist

Jon Richardson – BBC 6music