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Changing our policy towards pets

05 April 2011
Posted by Ian Chadwick in Collingwood life, Social values, Collingwood's municipal m...
How many cats and dogs are there in Collingwood? No one knows. In Canada, such statistics are not kept by Stats Can. But we can make an educated guess.

A recent survey done by Colin Siren of Ipsos Reid estimated there are 7.9 million cats and 5.9 million dogs in Canada. The survey also shows that 35% of Canadian households have a dog, while 38%...

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Tags: Collingwood, cats, responsible pet ownership 0 Comments


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Number 94. The good news: we're not New Glasgow

04 April 2011
Posted by Ian Chadwick in Collingwood life, Social values, Collingwood's municipal m...
Five years ago, Collingwood was listed as the 11th best place in Canada to live. The ten top spots were all taken by cities, making Collingwood the number one town in Canada to live.

Today, in 2011, Moneysense magazine ranks us 94th out of 180 towns and cities, not even in the top half. And some of our ratings are even lower than that: affordable...

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Tags: best places to live, Collingwood 0 Comments


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T. Rex had a cousin. Imagine the family BBQs...

03 April 2011
Posted by Ian Chadwick in Science
He's called Zhuchengtyrannus magnus, but I bet that gets condensed to something more like Z. Mag when people start taking about him. He's the latest fossil find to come from China - an 11-metre-long, 4-metre-tall theropod weighing in at 6 tonnes. That's pretty close to the size of T. Rex, his huge carnivorous cousin. Imagine the fun...

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Tags: science, dinosaurs, China, paleontology 0 Comments


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A twist in the Simcoe-Grey campaigns

02 April 2011
Posted by Ian Chadwick in Federal follies
The election campaign in Simcoe-Grey will likely go to the Conservative candidate, but that victory is not quite so cut and dried as it might have seemed. Incumbent and former Conservative party member, now "independent Conservative" candidate, Helena Guergis, might have some outside help that will certainly raise her profile and could...

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Tags: federal election, Helena Guergis, Conservatives 5 Comments


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Dear Conservative...

24 March 2011
Posted by Ian Chadwick in Collingwood's municipal m..., Collingwood life
Dear Conservative. That's how the recent email messages from candidate and former mayor Chris Carrier begin, as they launch into the fine art of self-promotion, a craft that skillfully blends - and bends - truth and fiction. To date I've been the recipient of four of these epistles, somewhat surprising because I must surely rank among the...

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Tags: conservative, election 7 Comments


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So God had a wife. Nu?

20 March 2011
Posted by Ian Chadwick in Social values, Science, Uncategorized
According to a recent news story, Dr Francesca Stavrakopoulou of the University of Exeter, Yahweh, the god of the ancient Israelites, had a wife. Dr Stavrakopoulou has concluded after years of research that both a god and a goddess were worshipped in the same temple in Jerusalem, and this suggests she played the role of a divine wife.*

Or perhaps...

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Tags: goddess, religion, faith 2 Comments


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The intersection of alcohol and conspiracy

19 March 2011
Posted by Ian Chadwick in Social values
I'm looking forward to reading Christine Sismondo's new book, An American Walks Into a Bar, when it is released this summer. It's about the social history of drink and the role pubs play in both history and culture (predominantly American, but she does give nod to the tavern in other cultures).

There aren't a lot of good, recent...

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Tags: plot, pub, alcohol, conspiracy, inn 2 Comments


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What have dogs taught us?

21 February 2011
Posted by Ian Chadwick in Social values, Science
Dogs, say some social anthropologists, taught humans compassion*. Any dog owner will understand that claim, especially if he or she has ever had a puppy. It's tempting to believe that the relationship between humans and dogs began with puppies, perhaps an abandoned litter our prehistoric ancestors came across. But it might have come about...

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Tags: pets, dogs, anthropology, science, cats 4 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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