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The death of language, bureaucracy style

15 June 2010
Posted by Ian Chadwick in Social values, Language use and abuse
I've often lamented that the Internet may be the death of proper English. I may be wrong. It might be bureaucracy.

Monday, Collingwood Council had a letter in the consent agenda portion - the section for outside correspondence - of the regular agenda. It was from the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit (bizarrely under-capitalized as...

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Tags: English, abuse, grammar, language, usage, words 0 Comments


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Ideas for local government 2.0

03 June 2010
Posted by Ian Chadwick in technology, Social values, Science, Election 2010, Collingwood's municipal m...
The most interesting seminars I attended at the recent FCM were about what's been dubbed "government 2.0" - government that's open, accountable, and uses the technological tools to create interactive communication with its residents. It's as much a philosophy as a practice. But it requires an administration and bureaucracy...

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Tags: accountability, Collingwood's municipal madness, internet, open government, government 2.0, web 1 Comments


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Toronto: patios, buskers and an animated downtown

30 May 2010
Posted by Ian Chadwick in Social values, Pointless legislation, Election 2010, downtown-BIA, Collingwood's municipal m..., Collingwood life
I just returned from a few days in Toronto, attending the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) annual convention. Picked up a lot of good ideas (especially around open government and open data) and information, which I'll post at a later point. What I wanted to write about here is how the host city handles its downtown and its patios,...

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Tags: buskers, downtown, patios, Toronto, Collingwood Municipal Madness 0 Comments


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Archiving vintage ukulele music

09 May 2010
Posted by Ian Chadwick in Music and ukuleles, Collingwood life, Social values
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In the two decades between the end of World War One and the start of World War Two, the ukulele was arguably the most popular musical instrument in the Western world. It was small, relatively inexpensive, and with only four strings it was relatively easy to...

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Tags: vintage music, song book, archive, song sheet, ukulele, ukelele, music score 1 Comments


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World chess championship: is it getting duller?

08 May 2010
Posted by Ian Chadwick in Social values, Chess
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Is it just me, or is the current World Chess Championship between title-holder Viswanathan Anand and higher-ranked challenger Veselin Topalov not as exciting nor the games as scintillating as championship matches in the...

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Tags: Veselin Topalov, Viswanathan Anand, world chess championship, chess 2 Comments


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Toxic HST launched by province this week

07 May 2010
Posted by Ian Chadwick in Social values, Provincial folly, Pointless legislation
The much-dreaded Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) snuck into our Ontario lives like a nasty thief in the night, this week. Unsuspecting home buyers who expected the HST to kick in July 1, met with a nasty, expensive surprise. Home purchases had another 8% tacked on, as of Saturday, May 1.

So did delayed closing costs, gym memberships, landscaping and...

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Tags: tax grab, Ontario, provincial, PST, HST, GST, McGuinty 0 Comments


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Are you being a nuisance? Here's your ticket...

04 May 2010
Posted by Ian Chadwick in Social values, Pointless legislation, downtown-BIA, Collingwood's municipal m...
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What's a nuisance? Maybe you are. Here's your ticket, pay at the counter.

A nuisance is "a person or thing that causes annoyance or bother," say several [url="http://www.ianchadwick.com/forum/nuisance"]online...

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Tags: bylaws, Collingwood Municipal Madness, nuisance, panhandling 0 Comments


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Kids' chess club at Collingwood Library

02 May 2010
Posted by Ian Chadwick in Social values, Collingwood life
One of the lesser know successes in town is a small but rapidly growing chess club for kids and teens aged 7 to 18. Run by Tim denBok, this group meets every Thursday at the Collingwood Public Library, from 4 to 5:30 p.m. It's no cost to join, but participants have to register (call 444-5516).

Local sports always get a lot of attention and...

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Tags: chess club, kids, library, chess, Collingwood 3 Comments


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Another successful year for Mother (of all yard Sales)

02 May 2010
Posted by Ian Chadwick in Social values, Collingwood life
Used to be yard sales and garage sales were attended by people looking to buy something for themselves. Seems nowadays a lot of the people milling about, picking over the tables, are looking for something to sell.

I got that impression from again working this year's Mother of All Yard Sales, the community-wide yard sale run by the...

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Tags: Collingwood, Optimist Club, yard sale, garage sale, Mother of All Yard Sales 1 Comments


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Kindle and iPad instead of a library? I don't think so.

27 April 2010
Posted by Ian Chadwick in Social values, Collingwood's municipal m...
Posted ImageLet me pose two riddles. First, "Why is a raven like a writing desk?" Second, "In this day and age of digital print media and devices such as Amazon's Kindle and Apple's new...

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Tags: literacy, library, Rick Crouch, Collingwood Municipal Madness, iPad, Kindle 2 Comments



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