Cellphone Ban

Number of warnings handed out by Ontario police for using a cellphone while driving in the last month: > 1000

Number of people I've seen talking on a cellphone or texting: > 0

More Vaccine Nonsense?

Today's meme in the autism blogosphere:

Scientific Link To Autism Identified

[...] Autism was one of most difficult illnesses The Center had attempted to analyze. If it hadn't been for so many parents insisting that vaccines were responsible for the condition, we might never have found the fact that the stabilizer in MMR and a few other vaccines is hydrolyzed gelatin; a substance that is approximately 21% glycine. It appears that, based on readily verifiable science, the use of that form of glycine triggers an imbalance between the amino acid neurotransmitters responsible for the absorption rate of certain classes of cells throughout the body. It is that wide-spread disruption that apparently results in the systemic problems that encompass the mind and the body characterized in today's
'classic' autism." He also added, "The use of our model indicates each of the disorders within Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is attributable to different disruptions in homeostasis. [...]

This study does not explain why there still no statistical correlations between vaccines and ASD/Autism. To me, it seems to be merely another phantom mechanism that would explain such a correlation if one existed in the first place.

Further study will undoubtedly happen. One would hope that they would compare the vaccine stabilizer's behavior in neural-typical individuals to that alleged in those diagnosed with ASD.

While interesting on first glance, right now I would write it off as more pseudo-science vaccine scare-mongering.

Memo To Mayor Larry The Loon

...if the city can't find $36 million to pay off the light rail contractor we stiffed the last time they looked at LRT, how the hell is the city going to pay the $2 billion for this new tunnel project?

Free Money

Some Random Blogger: I want to sell out and have banner ads on my 'blog so I can make some money.

Me: They don't work. How many ads have you clicked on?

SRB: Oh. Yeah. Right.

No on Landsdown

David Reevely quoting Nik Nanos on Landsdown Live:

Honestly, if you're opposed to Lansdowne Live, the Nanos poll provides you what you're looking for in a poll. Here's the argument, buttressed by what Nik Nanos himself told city council:

1) Lansdowne Live is a huge and important move with a unique piece of land. Morally, moving ahead with it demands significant public support.

2) The poll shows doubt about the proposal. Not massive opposition, but skepticism and uncertainty. People are not convinced. They are not in support.

Therefore

3) We should not move ahead.

I like it.

3K on ServerFault

Apropos of nothing, I rolled over 3000 points on ServerFault yesterday.

Also, I failed to mention that the promised stickers did in fact show up in the mail a few weeks ago. Cool!

(Previously.)

Customer Feedback

So before I went away on my trip, I received an email from WebEx that looked like this:

From: Joe Schwartz
Sent: Saturday, October 31, 2009 3:04 PM
To: Dave Mackintosh
Subject: Please Advise

David

Collaborate with colleagues, customers, and prospects—any time, anywhere. Count on WebEx online collaboration to streamline communication throughout your organization.

[sales pitch excluded]

In other words, an email appears in my inbox that is from some guy I've never heard of, and has a subject of "Please Advise". And it is a sales pitch.

This, I think, is boarderline spammy behavior.

So just for giggles, I sent him an email back:

From: Dave Mackintosh
Sent: Tuesday, November 10, 2009 8:51 AM
To: Joe Schwartz
Subject: RE: Please Advise

Hi Joe

I have a couple of pieces of feedback for you.

First, you can remove my email from your lists as my intent on sign up was merely to test a web browser configuration for use with your product for a customer I was working with. The customer is quite happy with your service and continues to use it regularly. However, at present I personally have no direct need for this service.

Second, I find the subject line of your email to be misleading – it has absolutely no relation to the content of the email. I would categorize this as a boarder-line “spammy” message based on that. I realize that you personally have no direct control over what your auto-mailer sends, but if you could send this back upstream you might get a better response to your campaigns.

Thank you for your time.

I'll probably never hear anything further on this, but I figured leaving a blog post which associates the company name "WebEx" with "email spam" where Google can find it is the least I can do.

I was thinking about work the whole time, I swear