No Cool Name Blog

New Simon photos

2008-08-16T10:10:00.001-06:00

If anybody is still following along...

New pictures of Simon, including the latest hair cut,

Baby pictures

2007-11-15T20:19:00.000-07:00

Here's the collection so far.

Best Cartoon About Thomas Friedman Ever

2007-07-27T17:33:00.000-06:00

Fun at other people's expense

2007-05-25T14:12:00.000-06:00

Widdle Monkey Widdle Monkey

2007-03-20T20:25:00.000-06:00

We've been counting Simon's age in Tuesdays, and today is twelve weeks. That's right, our Widdle Monkey is three Februaries old!

Japanese Potty Training video

2007-02-27T21:30:00.000-07:00

Do we have statistics on the effectiveness of this approach?

Where's the war on that?

2007-02-20T21:53:00.000-07:00

That's what I mean when I say that. Where the war on AIDS in Africa, infant mortality from poverty, and where is the war on malaria and river blindness?

Surprise -- kinder!

2006-12-26T21:10:00.000-07:00

Hi, all,

This is the picture of our new upgrade, Simon Asher Polkovsky. He was born 8 pounds 7 ounces, 20.5 inches at 31 minutes past midnight on December 26.

Before I get to the pictures

2006-04-30T22:09:00.000-06:00

In Seoul, South Korea, we kept going by Donkey Fried Chicken. Meditate on that for a while, then read this blog post.

Watch this space...

2006-03-26T20:41:00.000-07:00

Happy new year, everyone. Keep watching this blog for pictures from our upcoming Asian vacation.

I complained about it first

2005-11-22T21:30:00.000-07:00

I did. I was way ahead of the curve.

Months ago, I was fuming that the federal government and the province of Ontario went halfsies on a generous gift to General Motors. How generous? Four. Hundred. Million. Dollars.

Now that GM have announced that 3900 jobs will be cut in Canada, opposition parties have caught on and started yelling. Why is this only a crisis when opposition parties smell irony? After all, that sum could pay 80,000 annual university tuitions. GM promised 600 jobs, and some vague plan to involve an Ontario university in engineering projects. Anybody up for a photo-op?

So here's an idea. Lets stop measuring money in dollars and start asking "how many tuitions is that", or, "how many cutting edge autism treatments".

So that's my new tag line, my claim to fame: I complained about it first^tm.

Posters you see at the library

2005-11-08T22:21:00.000-07:00

One question Canadians haven't been asking is, I wonder how Paul Cellucci is doing? The former US ambasador to Canada has written a book. He's showing up right here in Edmonton on his fabulous book tour. Paul, I'd sugget staying out of BC. Just a thought.

Plus sa change

2005-09-29T21:29:00.000-06:00

Good news: Tom DeLay got taken down a peg (and what a peg). That makes me smile. And just yesterday I came accross this.

2005-09-28T20:33:00.000-06:00

It's funny because it's true

2005-09-02T22:18:00.000-06:00

I told Janet that Florida's Airboat Association members are waiting for permission to join the rescue efforts. She replied:

"Where are those swift boat veterans? Can't they help?"

We have a new patio...

2005-08-16T21:41:00.000-06:00

Guess what we found

2005-08-15T21:39:00.000-06:00

We walked out of the house to find a mewing, starving thin cat. Painful to look at thin.

So she's in our garage right now until we get her to a no-kill shelter. For now, she's known as Alley McBeal -- get it -- she's so skinny.

Something to mull over...

2005-07-17T22:49:00.000-06:00

Thanks to Geoff for forwarding 'The wrong Rx' from a Florida paper.

More Lisbon

2005-07-14T23:00:00.000-06:00

More from our Lisbon trip. Clockwise: A photo of me. The Tower of Belem. Janet in the sunglasses she baught after hers were stolen by a pickpocket. And finally, Janet posing in front of the sping store .

Yes, if you need a spring, large or small, flat or fat, or any kind at all, that's the store for all your spring needs.

Possibly the best Doctor Who line ever...

2005-06-09T20:37:00.000-06:00

"Life? Life's just nature's way of keeping meat fresh."

Lisbon photos

2005-06-03T23:40:00.000-06:00

Here's a sample of four Lisbon pictures. Sunny and beautiful.

Dear Mr. Harper

2005-05-12T21:20:00.000-06:00

What is it about the Liberal-NDP compromise deal that makes you pony stomp like an upset child? It can't be that you're truly angry about two elected parties striking a deal for supporting a bill. Just this fall you struck a deal with this same government over support of the throne speech.

Now you seem to be in a hurry to vote against anything but this budget. (It's as if someone explained to the Prime Minister how to make a minority government work.) You're worried about the next election which you wanted to be about the Liberals' scandal, but now that the proposed budget is packed with good news for cash starved programs you may be asked tough questions like, "What do you have against Ontario?" Or education, or housing, or the environment, or foreign aid.

With no way out of your promise to topple the government, you called in your sick M.P.s and attempted a procedurally impossible maneuver. Now the country is spending another week being treated to a view of your acute sense of entitlement. Sadly, the next election will be like the last one, a choice of who you fear versus who you loathe. The election that Canadians deserve would be about the government we want, but that would not be you and your party.

When the dust settles, history might start thinking that the smartest party leader in this house is Jack Layton.

Give a little man a little power

2005-05-09T21:40:00.000-06:00

Well, thanks to Geoff, I now know the story of the student with a heart condition who's not permitted to attend her senior prom.

Since her doctor insited she switch to home schooling, the principal of her high school refuses to sell her prom tickets. Luckily, one courageous NBC affiliate is milking it for all the ratings it's worth.

Living in a "Fined-Tuned Universe"

2005-05-02T19:29:00.000-06:00

This is cool. The argument against Intelligent Design in finely detailed terms.

The Pseudoscience of Intelligent Design

Obligatory cat photo

2005-05-01T16:54:00.000-06:00

Um, yeah, it is a cat. That was almost a year ago when we brought Mouse home. He was 418 grams with worms and ear mites.

Dear Prime Minister

2005-04-27T20:58:00.000-06:00

To my great shame, five men have been held by Canadian authorities under so-called security certificates, and between them have spent almost 200 months in jail. Four are still in custody, one is free under stringent conditions of bail. All this without the benefit of due process or public trial. There are no formal charges.

Mahmoud Jaballah, Mohamed Harkat, Mohammad Mahjoub, Adil Charkaoui and Hassan Almrei now face deportation to countries where their lives would be in danger. In a process which falls short of international standards of human rights, security certificates are reviewed in camera by a Federal Court and no review or appeal is possible. Earlier this month, Heather Mallick in the Globe and Mail described the process this way:

Even the judges, as they sit in a basement room and hear the secret evidence that purports to uphold security certificates to whip innocent people away from their crying children, complain that they are embarrassed.

Mr. Justice James K. Hugessen of the Federal Court said he felt like a fig leaf, covering up the unspeakable bits of a system once considered fair and just.

Concerns about security have left a trail of national hangovers, such as the internment of the Japanese during the second world war and many Germans and Eastern Europeans during the first world war. This has the makings of another national regret. One that, of it is not corrected, will be a shame in the history of your country and mine.

Routing through older digital camera pics

2005-04-14T21:52:00.000-06:00

This is Philadelphia, from the top of the statue of William Penn, on top of City Hall, I think.

Amusing waste of time

2005-04-02T20:55:00.000-07:00

http://www.planearium2.de/flash/spstudio.html

Quote

2005-04-01T20:19:00.000-07:00

Wikipedia has a great entry on Miles Davis, culminating in this quote:

In 1987 Davis attended a reception in honor of Ray Charles at Ronald Reagan's White House. A Washington society lady, seated next to him, asked him what he had done to be invited. "Well," Davis replied, "I've changed music four or five times. What have you done of any importance other than be white?"

The Guardian likes it...

2005-03-27T20:22:00.000-07:00

From Timelord triumphs in our age of irony:

However, it's not the contemporary values that make the show. It is its clever imitation of US hits such as Buffy and Angel : a mixture of smart, ironic humour and creepy horror. 'That won't last,' says the Doctor, peering at a couple posing for the pages of Heat . 'He's gay and she's an alien.' And Rose has some equally sassy gags. Told that an Evil Intelligence is going to bring all the world's plastic to life, she gasps: 'What, even breast implants?'

Thus the adult half of the audience is - on the evidence of the first episode - well-catered for. It remains to be seen what younger, thrill-seeking TV-watchers will make of it. Last night's episode was primarily concerned with establishing character and had few special effects.

Four times as many women died in tsunami

2005-03-25T21:45:00.000-07:00

This from the Guardian. It reminds me of the society my mom and dad grew up in the Soviet Union, just after the war. Kids being raised by grandparents, older siblings or distant relatives.