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Buddhism in the West

11 May 2011
Posted by Ian Chadwick in Spirituality and religion, Social values
I've been reading James Coleman's excellent book, The New Buddhism (Oxford University Press, 2001) of late. Subtitled, The Western Transformation of an Ancient Tradition, it chronicles the many threads of Buddhism on its complex journey into Western culture. Fascinating, thought-provoking stuff, even if the material is a decade old...

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Tags: religion, transformation, Buddhism 0 Comments


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The clattering keys grow silent as the curtain falls

27 April 2011
Posted by Ian Chadwick in technology, Personal reminisence
The typewriter is dead. That news didn't surprise me, but it certainly saddened me.

The clatter of typewriter keys was sweet music to my ears, when I was much younger. I remember banging out stories and poems on my grandfather's ancient Underwood, watching the mechanical arms rise and fall, the letters not quite aligned on the paper. That...

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Tags: writing, reporting, typewriter 0 Comments


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A Skeptic's Take on Naturopathy

16 February 2011
Posted by Ian Chadwick in technology, Social values, Science
There's an interesting piece in the recent issue of the Skeptic magazine (Vol. 16, No. 2) about naturopathy, as well as a related article on the growing popularity of the ancient Indian ayurvedic "medicine" that I found entertaining reading last night. In the column, SkepDoc, M.D. Harriet Hall asks "What is Naturopathy?"...

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Tags: pseudoscience, medicine, skeptics, naturopathy 0 Comments


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The Mayans were right!

12 February 2011
Posted by Ian Chadwick in Politics outside Canada, Humour, Uncategorized
Apparently the world WILL end in 2012, as some folks claim the Mayans predicted.* Well, at least common sense, wisdom, intelligence and likely many freedoms will end, if not necessarily all life as we know it.

Why? Because it seems Sarah Palin - the dimwit who ran for vice president against Obama in 2008 - seems to be planning to run for...

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Community, culture and Collingwood's future

30 January 2011
Posted by Ian Chadwick in art, culture and reviews, Music and ukuleles, Collingwood life, Collingwood's municipal m...
There's an old joke that goes, "What's the difference between (insert a city name here) and a cup of yogurt?" The answer is, of course, that a cup of yogurt has culture. I first heard this with Calgary as the city, back when I lived in Banff. Not very flattering, of course.

Collingwood, on the other hand, has oodles of culture....

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Tags: events, Collingw, Collingwood's Municipal Madness, art, culture 3 Comments


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Music and demographics

26 January 2011
Posted by Ian Chadwick in Personal reminisence, Music and ukuleles, art, culture and reviews
ACCORDING TO THE 2006 CENSUS, the average age in Collingwood is 46. Almost 30% of residents are between 45 and 64, and just over 22% are 65 and over. More than half the local population in Simcoe County is older than 45.* That means we are locally, on average, a greying population.

So why do some local radio stations play music aimed at the...

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Why are the endings of some TV series so bad?

19 December 2010
Posted by Ian Chadwick in Personal reminisence, Book & film reviews, art, culture and reviews
The Sopranos was a great TV series, but the ending was, at best quixotic, at worst unfulfilling and frustrating. Lost was also a great TV series, but the ending was flaccid and annoyingly religious.

We just watched Flashforward (on DVD) and while we loved the series through 21 episodes, the ending episode was, like with so many other American TV...

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City of Medicine Hat Launches YouTube Channel

24 November 2010
Posted by Ian Chadwick in Collingwood life, Collingwood's municipal m..., technology
Another item from the Municipal Information Netwrok, that Collingwood should consider for itself:

Medicine Hat, November 24, 2010 - Residents can now follow the City of Medicine Hat on YouTube to learn more about City projects and services.

To visit the City’s YouTube channel go to...

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Tags: C, Collingwood's Municipal Madness, Youtube, communication 0 Comments


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A skeptic's take on the wireless debate

21 November 2010
Posted by Ian Chadwick in technology, Social values, Science, Collingwood life
I missed this post about the wireless debate when it was first written. Although a savvy reader brought it to my attention a couple of weeks ago, his email got lost in the cascade of email I get - 100 or more a day. When I was cleaning out my cache this morning I found it, and after reading it, thought I should share it because it relates to local...

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Tags: computers, wifi, Collingwood's Municipal Madness, Science, technology 3 Comments


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Grrr! Excel 2007 can't save DBF format!

19 November 2010
Posted by Ian Chadwick in technology, Personal reminisence
Okay, so that's hardly news, since MS Office 2010 is already out, but I discovered this significant flaw in MS Office 2007 (what I have installed at home) today when I tried to save an Excel spreadsheet as a Database (DBF) format file. I used to do this at the store all the time, but this was the first time I needed to do it at home.

All...

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Tags: Microsoft, Excel, DBF 3 Comments



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