Collage of the Day #1

Allison Levine: Some Optimism, and Good Advice

from her comments at IBM Vision 2012 in NY Levine offered the following ten pieces of advice:
·It’s all about assembling the right team, with the right skills. Recruiting mistakes can be quite costly.
·When you set lofty objectives, break them down to checkpoints along the way. Objectives become easier to tackle.
·You have to go backwards to move forward.
· Being afraid is fine, but complacency is what will kill you.
·Form partnerships early and collaborate often. You’ll need strong relationships before you’ll need help and those are the people you can rely on.
· No matter how good or prepared you are, things can and will go wrong, but the “storms” are always temporary.
· Key to surviving is taking action based on the situation at the specific time. Not based on some plan.
· Turning back and walking away from a deal is harder than moving forward, but it’s necessary for survival. If the conditions aren’t right, cut your losses and walk away.
 · Remember that every move you make, will affect everyone else around you. Sometimes, one person’s bad judgment can bring down an entire organization or team.
 · Have to give yourself room to fail as long as you come back from it better and stronger.

She completed her session by admitting that even though she had reached the top of all seven of the continents highest peaks, it “was not really that big of a deal.” “It’s important to remember all of the people who help you on your journey,” said Levine. “No one gets to the top by themselves.” Great advice.

Student Protests in Quebec

Ostensibly it is about tuition fees being raised. Will minimum wages be raised in lock step with tuition increases. Not Likely. So here we have a "system" that requires you to go to university, at only government certified schools. You have no choice. Then you have to pay ever increasing fees, gather unpayable debt, go into debt slavery to get the qualifications, our society needs. So the protests continue. It could have started over anything, but in Quebec the unrest started over tuition fees. But it should be apparent, if it is not, that this really is a battle of the 99% against the 1%. Don't you doubt it. from http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2012/05/16/montreal-student-strike-injuctions.html

Neil MacDonald Launches another Neutron Bomb of a commentary

"Of course, the banks were hardly the sole culprits in the meltdown. They were abetted by every mortgage applicant who lied about his or her income, then borrowed crazy amounts with nothing down, maybe taking some cash at closing for a nice little vacation or a Lexus; by every shady mortgage broker who pocketed commissions from loans that obviously could never be repaid; by every home appraiser who jacked up the value of a property beyond any reasonable figure; and by every analyst at the big ratings agencies that knowingly stamped "AAA" on the securitized garbage being flogged by the investment banks." http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012/05/15/f-rfa-macdonald-banks.html

Niagara Gorge - First 'legal' descent

Are you willing to make the ultimate sacrifice?

From Trevor Green: http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/article/1177442--trevor-greene-from-one-battlefield-to-another Trevor Greene: From one battlefield to another Published On Sat May 12 2012 IMAGE Trevor Greene in an Afghan village two days before he was wounded. (March 2, 2006) RICK MADONIK/TORONTO STAR " Stephen Harper’s vision of Canada seems to begin, and end, in the tarsands, and everything else be damned. Tolerance is redefined as applying only to anyone who agrees with that vision. Everyone else is “radical,” an “extremist,” or even ncluded in his government’s new program battling terrorism. This is an insult to those of us who have fought, and sacrificed for our country, against real radicals, real extremists and real terrorists. When I read about ministers of the Crown attacking and smearing heroes like David Suzuki, who are trying to put us on a more sustainable pathway, I wonder what’s happened to Canada. I fear for the kind of world my daughter and son stand to inherit should we cave in to this oil-driven agenda. Not a good one, I am certain. With determination, we can overcome all manner of adversity, and reclaim who we are both as individuals and as a people. We face this challenge now with Ottawa, with a government that is taking our country in the wrong direction, undermining the values that make us who we are. I am loath to have to admit to my children that the irreversible degradation of their planet continued on my watch." Capt. (ret’d) Trevor Greene now lives in Nanaimo, BC with his wife Debbie and daughter Grace. They are expecting a son in June. The Greenes run a foundation to educate Afghan girls as teachers.

The Ominous Omnibus - What will change

Tighter rules on political activities of charities Foreign charities must follow national interest More powers to punish charities Medical items and procedures to get tax exemptions New Environmental Assessment Act Fewer people permitted to access reviews Cabinet can add or remove parts of environment to undergo study Fewer projects to receive environmental reviews Minister can change assessment’s scope One-year time limit for assessments Feds can punt assessment job to provinces New rules for those who breach new assessment act Changes will retroactively affect current review panels National Energy Board to hold fewer public hearings Cabinet takes power from NEB Energy projects get time limit Fewer people to participate in hearings Power line permits can have smaller scope Energy projects’ impact on water ways now up to cabinet Environment no longer considered in power line permits More details on energy license violations Fisheries duties punted to provinces Fish habitat protections stripped Smaller projects gone, now dependent on minister Disposal at sea permits changed Permits to impact species at risk to grow longer Twelve Auditor General audits to be cut Treasury Board to scrap human resources reporting Alternative Fuels Report to end Parks Canada can opt out of environmental duties Fewer park reports Fewer reviews for national parks And fewer marine conservation area reviews CSIS Inspector General Minister can license fish for research Repeal of Fair Wages and Hours of Labour Act to hurt workers, says NDP OAS: 65 going on 67 Environmental roundtable disappears Sayonara Kyoto! taken from http://www.ipolitics.ca/2012/05/04/debate-the-bill-whats-your-take-on-c-38/

RCMP Kettling - to serve and protect (the 1%)

NO WAY OUT, is the definition of Kettling. G8 and G20 protesters get boxed in then get their heads boxed... and clubbed. This is what democracy looks like in a totalitarian regime. Hockey anyone? We don't need brown shirts, we already have blackshirts! Police really are supposed to serve and protect the citizenry. Now the problem appears on the face of it to be "political" but in reality, people are trying to democratically protest, its their right, and they are being arrested without cause, beaten, gased, tasered, and labeled as radicals. This should sound familiar: its a Hitlerian tactic from the little dictator himself. Image from: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2012/05/13/pol-rcmp-watchdog-report-g8-g20-toronto-2010.html

The question remains, how, in a democratic country, with free speech, and freedom of assembly are we to address the blackshirted, gas throwing, club weilding defenders of the 1%?

additional images from CBC http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/05/16/g20-policing-report.html