Report on Toronto police actions during G20 summit released

[blue-mangos.livejournal.com]

A report was released on Thursday on the police response to the G20 summit held in Toronto one year ago today. It was a weekend that we, the citizens of Toronto, sat spellbound in front of our TVs as we watched our city burn and watched our police department not only fail to protect our city but to act in unwarranted and illegal ways. 1,118 people were arrested, some without cause, just peaceful protesters caught up in the sweeps. 39 of them sustained injuries during the arrests. Some of those arrested were held in a temporary detention centre set up for the summit. It was so disorganized that some were held for over 24 hours without being given access to a lawyer. Police have admitted to losing track of belongings and even whether the arrestees had been fed. On the 2nd day of protests police bafflingly blocked off an intersection downtown, trapping protesters, bystanders and reporters in the rain for hours. The protesters involved had shown no signs of violence before the blockade. Despite numerous reports of police brutality, some even caught on film, only 2 police officers have been charged in connection to their actions during the summit and both cases are still pending. Civil liberty groups have filed class action suits against the police.


( cut as pic heavy )

Pride Parade a Big Hit

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

Here is an interview by our local public broadcasters with Gene Robinson. He was at the Pride Parade today in a contingent just in front of ours and I did not even know it. It is great that he was able to join us this year.

Here is an image of the bishop in full regalia from getreligion.org:



The parade was the best one ever for me. On the way out here, there was a group of teenagers celebrating on the subway. One of them said that it is as good as Christmas. Another passenger remarked that it is better than Christmas. Here are some young folks enjoying the parade last year: ( Erotic art under the cut. )

What do you think of the schism in the Anglican communion over the ordination of Gene Robinson?

Happy Pride Day!

Why I'm an skeptic and you should be too.

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

Edit: My position seems have been consistantly misinterpereted so I have rephrased the opening sentence and Bolded the conclusion

Conventional wisdom states that the Earth's atmospheric temprature is rising and that man-made Carbon Dioxide (CO2) is to blame.

Conventional wisdom states that man-made Carbon Dioxide (CO2) is to blame for an observed increase in the Earth's atmospheric temprature.

To question this assertation is to face ridicule and be labled a "denier", "afterall..." the crowd will shout, "the science is settled!"

The problem with this attitude from a scientific/engineering perspective is that very little of what we consider to be common knowledge is actually settled. One of the first things your professor will be tell you upon embarking on a math or science degree is "much of what you think you know is at best conjecture and at worst outright wrong". It is not enough to simply look out the window and observe the color of the sky, you must be able to prove that it is blue and explain why. This inherent skeptism is the basis of the scientific method.

( with this in mind let's review the evidence )

(no subject)

[dv8nation.livejournal.com]

http://www.thelocal.se/34386/20110616/

A municipality in northwestern Sweden wants to offer financial aid to employees in need of fertility treatment in an attempt to recruit new residents to the area and boost dwindling population figures.


Population drain in rural areas is a problem in a lot of places these days. And while I have to give these people credit for thinking outside the box I'm kinda amazed that this idea didn't get tossed the minute after it hit the table. I'm not going to pretend that I know what fertility treatment in Sweden goes for these days, but the municipality in question has a population of 5,600. Of those people, just how many are going to work for the municipality AND need fertility treatment? Not a whole heck of a lot, I'll bet. Even then, just how many kids would this add? Not enough to matter.

I'd say finding ways to make rural areas more appealing to immigrants would be a far more realistic and effective solution to this sort of problem. You can always count on people to go where there are jobs and affordable living if they know about it and feel they'd be comfortable there.