Languages and your brain

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This has been known for centuries, “languages expand your brain”. [Or, as we say: “expand one’s horizon”.] New studies (University York at Toronto, Canada) have shown and proven that those who are at least bilingual in old age will show their first symptoms of Alzheimer and Dementia (if at all ) later than those with one single language.  [Autres études: l’Université d’Édimbourg en Écosse, et une équipe indienne.] 

There is also a correlation between widely traveling and thereby being exposed to other cultures and languages, and a healthier brain capacity.

Besides the scientific implications of knowledge of several languages, not just one or two, there is also a practical side of this. When traveling, one who can communicate with the locals in another country often finds better deals and pays less. [My own experiences.]

Language tools are many using the NET, Google Translate comes to mind. Try it and find that the bot programs doing the translations are not sufficient to hide bad grammar resulting in the language being translated from English. One still has to know that language well.

Neil Young Honor the Treaty Tour Canada

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Neil Young tour across Canada HONOR THE TREATY.

[ http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/12/09/neil-young-oilsands-first-nations-tour_n_4414036.html ] Neil Young’s week-long Canadian mini-tour to honor the (First Nations’) treaties and assist the Athabasca Chippewyan First Nation in northern Alberta, closest to the Alberta oil sands sites, Ft. McMurray, in their quest to preserve the natural environment. Mr. Neil Young is a prominent Canadian musician and song writer and environmental activist.

The original treaties between Canada’s First Nations were made between each First Nation and The Crown (which is in this case not some device or artifact, but in fact refers to the Queen of England). [ http://www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1100100032291/1100100032292 ]

And as history has taught us – or in that case has taught the Aboriginal Peoples/First Nations in Canada is, that treaties are made to be broken.

On my Face Book page:

Dear Mr. Young,
to get anything done in Canada I guess you must address the Queen of England, who is the Head of State of Canada. Doubtful if her Majesty can be bothered with the First Nations of Canada or the effects of the ever expanding Oil Sands in Alberta.

Cyber Warfare – the new Wild West

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[ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberwarfare ] Although “cyber war & attack” initially referred to politically motivated espionage, computer sabotage and deliberate disinformation, stealing of virtual data and identities, and/or political propaganda, the world is ready for the actual CYBER WARFARE using Drones, small pilot-less air planes, remote-controlled and used for spying and overhead information gathering in enemy territories. [ http://dronewars.net/aboutdrone/ ]

The new military robots (drones) carry arms to kill. From the air, as they have always done during the last great world wars (but pilot sits in). From the air, enemy unseen, target in sight, push a button, open the hatches.

Dressed to kill, the new editions of the drone robots are intended to kill the enemy. Here, the ‘pilot’ just sits in a comfortable chair in a (maybe air-conditioned) room to push the button. No more Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) to worry about as result of civilian killings, humans on the ground. No more need to be specific about what is an enemy and what is not.

Interesting concepts: Cyber Criminality coming our way on the internet, daily, hourly, by minute and second – every second. Espionage coming our way by the Western spy organisms and agencies, rifling through our e-mails and more. And now the drones.

In the Old Wild West – it was simply gun fights, shoot first, ask questions later. That was easy, that was fun. Gun fighters were the heroes. With unknown controllers sitting at monitors controlling drones in some unknown location, who are the heroes ? They cannot pretend anymore to be “war veterans” with all the privileges. The glory days of the old wild west are over.

Rise of Popularity for Totalitarian Propaganda

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Shifting society values towards violence, escalating violence,the disturbing rise of sympathies towards totalitarian regimes, revival of history’s dictators. Today’s ‘Shocking stat of the week’ on the Corus radio network, CFAX 1070 Radio Saturday mornings’ radio show, hosted by Michael Campbell [ http://www.cfax1070.com/Shows/Shows/Money-Talks-with-Michael-Campbell ] : The rising popularity of Adolf Hitler’s MEIN KAMPF. [ http://www.theblaze.com/blog/2014/01/09/why-is-hitlers-mein-kampf-rising-to-the-top-of-book-charts/ ].

This is disturbing, not only for its perceived ‘propaganda value’, but also for the fact that there seem to be enough readers around to actually seriously listen to this stuff and may get influenced by it. I suspect that those are readers who have never experienced a major war themselves. Since I myself ‘have been there, done it’, and my family suffered the consequences of persecution by the Gestapo during WWII, I can safely say that I will never be influenced by any of those writings.

Yet, funny thing is, that about 12 years ago I purchased this same book at a Calgary, Alberta main bookstore. Translated into English. (Not sure how much has been lost in translation.) Shortly after, this book disappeared off the shelves. The reason for buying this book was, to do research into “what makes the minds of mass murdering dictators tick”. And also, “how could a war like WWII have started”, by that miserable nobody Austrian-born Adolf Schicklgruber alias Hitler).

[One book also in my library is J.W. Stalin’s : Über die Grundlagen des Leninismus”, translated 1972 into German by a Chinese publishing house. Joseph Stalin (Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili) , who according to history is responsible for the killing of some 20 million Russians, including many thousands of Americans (who had left during the great depression era around 1930’s emigrating to the USSR and got lost and were forsaken in the distant Siberian Gulags.]

In reality I have never even got around to looking at one page inside MEIN KAMPF. Stuff like this can only be used as a reference for collecting information.

I always say: “Anybody who survived a major war like we did and was right in the middle of it, could only find disgust in such propaganda materials by insecure and moronic control freaks, and in any movement that could revive totalitarian dictator regimes.” Too bad, too many want to control others.

Qualifications for Trades

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Listening to the morning show on our local radio station. Today’s topic: Schooling, education and training for a trade. And the lack of adequate formal training in high school and other continuing education facilities. Then comes a question period, listeners phoning in. What really gets me is the discussion around the topic of apprenticeships and whether or not a 70-year old man (who allegedly had worked in some trade such as carpentry) should still go on the road and do such work. Whereby the radio moderator said: YES. While I say: NO, NO, NO. Unless that guy has his own professional tools, and really knows what he is doing.

My experience in construction has been extensive for the past 35 years. I have myself done most of my own work (for myself, not for gain), be it roofing, siding, flooring, dry walling, framing, carpentry and finishing carpentry, painting, plumbing and electrical (easy stuff). Also working in the bush cutting trees, and grading roads (using my own tractors and my own professional tools).  One of the reasons for being forced to learn all of this and do it myself was, because I lived far out in the country and could not get anybody to come do some contracts for me.

Now in the city I have had multiple occasions for hiring somebody do some work for me. When it comes to the old (retired, or war veteran) types, mostly they show up without any tools, want to use my own professional tools, and do a lousy job. And in addition, they expect cash money (in the absence of any regular business or registered tax number), which means for me, if the job is not done right, I have no recourse.

[As we always say: “he cut 3 times and it is still too short; “or, ever heard of a level and measuring tape ?”]. Apprenticeships for young guys is a good thing, if they seriously work with a licensed and responsible plumber or electrician. They should be given all the chances they can get. And if I pay a guy to do a job for me, I expect this job to be such, that I do not have to fix it after he/she left.

TransCanada – TCPL the 1980s – inside story

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TransCanada. [http://www.energyeastpipeline.com/home/pipeline-101/ ] Parent company of  TransCanada Pipelines Limited (TCPL), a company operating during the 1980s among others with an oil related division = hence the name TCPL Resources. Calgary 1983. Following the take over of the former Maligne Resources oil company and all of their employees. Initially all, but soon transferring many managers to other outside companies and/or somewhat related companies. Big shuffle. At that time I was one of the employees, and had been part of the systems and computer department, as a senior systems analyst and developer. Also project leader for a number of big computer re-design projects, both hardware and software and complete re-writes. Lots of work. Difficult work, because one of the vices common inside those companies was “the permission to chain smoke” on the job and inside the open floors, thus forcing all innocent bystanders (non-smokers) to inhale those deadly fumes. At the same time expecting them to perform their heavy quota of workload.

Apart from that, it started out nice when TCPL Management came on board. But wait a minute: after couple of years the tables turned in a terrifying and tasteless way. Not only was everybody by that time sick of that cigarette smoking, but also TCPL sent down from their headquarters in Toronto, an “Enforcer”. Tasked with identifying, how many people were supposed to get laid off, kicked out or otherwise harassed on a daily basis, until they knew no better, than to leave anyways.

That’s not what you do with professionals, ‘Mr. Enforcer and Prosecutor’. That is not how you treat human beings, unless you don’t care to be openly perceived as a racist and human rights violator. By 1986 numbers of professionals had been kicked out into the street with a couple bucks remuneration. Our (computer) department, starting first with females and single mothers. But how it was done by the Enforcer was tastelessly unprofessional: Assembling large documents with hundreds of pages of all sorts of lies on some employee (who was supposed to read that ?), and sign some silly legalized (bullshit) document? Which nobody of course did. We just left, in the middle of the (oil industry) recession, trying to find some other job. In Alberta at that time almost impossible. I lost my home, my family got ripped apart and I had to go to Ontario. One thing I got, though, is a number of excellent reference letters from the highest level of Management, testifying to the specifics and the quality of all the projects I had done for this company.

End of story. And now they want to go with their big new Eastern pipeline. Trans Canada. Is this legal ? Of course, it is. As is their treatment of experienced and qualified professionals who happen to be at the wrong place at the wrong time  (meaning “being employed by the wrong kind of company”).

On May 15, 2003, TransCanada Corporation received regulatory approvals to establish it as the parent company of TransCanada PipeLines Limited. Shareholders voted in favour of the change to the corporate structure of the company at the Annual and Special Meeting on April 25.

For background on this issue, please see the letter to shareholders and Q&As from Board of Directors’ chairman, Dick Haskayne and chief executive officer, Hal Kvisle, as well as information included in the Management Proxy Circular.

Grizzly Bear Trophy Hunt

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Grizzly Bear trophy hunt – meaning that a bear is being killed and stripped of its pelt, and that more than ever it is the European (so-called) hunters who come to British Columbia, to partake in the (rather liberally set provincial quota for) hunting and killing those animals. [ http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/grizzly-bears-overhunted-in-b-c-say-researchers-1.2417306 ] .  So, what is the point exactly of stripping a bear of its pelt and hanging it up on the wall ? Or do they use the bear pelts as carpeting ? Or do they think that there is a major market for any of its parts ? maybe in China ? I cannot see the point of it, yet. For example, a Norwegian travelling all the way to the most Western Canadian Province, British Columbia, in order to return back home with the skin of one of the most intelligent animals. One of the remnants of a Grizzly bear population that has been shrinking to only pockets in Western Canada.

While the BC government claims that set quotas are scientifically proven (or, should I say “clinically proven” ?), scientists here who study the Grizzly bear population know otherwise. [http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/grizzly-bear-kill-limits-being-broken-across-bc-study-says/article15301716/ ]  And don’t you hate it, when a government agency (these are not professionals or scientists, but politicians with no science or even statistical background), determines how many bears can be killed in one season. Don’t tell me, female bears are also included ? ! And who is controlling the hunt ? Any member of those BC governmental agencies ? Is anybody out there in the cold and the wilds to check if the “right” bear is killed ? [Reminds me of the Right Whale in the 19th and 20th century, who were almost completely exterminated. – http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/north-atlantic-right-whales-hunted-to-the-edge-of-extinction-405848.html ]

For those visitors from out of Canada, don’t touch our bears, leave them be, go hunt your own (people) or animals, whatever they be.

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Cyber War

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The largest agencies that control cyberspace in order to protect against cyber attacks and also collect data, are the NSA (US National Security Agency) under General Keith Alexander, also referred to as “Alexander the Geek”, and Kaspersky, the Russian counter part (Society of Information Security) in Moscow.

Attacks by any dangerous virus on the Internet are not only an annoyance, but can also result in physical attacks on important services and utilities, as Stuxnet has shown, a dangerous virus that had attacked the nuclear facilities in Iran. Others, capable of actually bringing down large sections of public power grids.

Cyber agencies in the United States, such as the NSA, and those in Russia, Kaspersky, in Moscow predominantly spent their resources on identifying serious cyber crimes and attacks, as well as conducting serious espionage.

[ http://i-hls.com/2013/08/global-cyber-review/ ] – on the renewed use of electric typewriters by the Russians. Are we going back in time to make use of old-fashioned tools in order to protect ourselves against some brainless morons, who actually believe they are hyper-intelligent because they found a way to hack into important information networks ? If that is all they can do, then their brain cannot be larger than a peanut.

What is really intelligent is, to find ways and means to counter such attacks. And with all such activities, it is the regular guy users who suffers most by having their e-mails investigated for any potential threats. Reminds me of the time when air travel changed profoundly and turned any little flight into a nightmare, JUST BECAUSE some body or certain groups of extremists created havoc.

In short, anybody signing into the WWW and using or producing any data, is today subjected to espionage. Information piracy is an ever accelerating activity.

As the CEO of Google already mentioned years ago “Google knows at any time who you are and where you are.” (not to be taken verbally). Communicating by mobile telephone is also not an option. Who knows, the electric typewriter thing may not be a real bad idea. Any way you slice it, war must be going on. If people cannot be killed using military weapons, then the next best thing is the ‘virtual kill’. Only one question remains: “why are killers and criminals so revered in society ?” And criminals they are, the everyday hackers.

[ http://list25.com/25-biggest-cyber-attacks-in-history/ ] s.a. LA GUERRE INVISIBLE. L’actualite,dec. 2013.

Canada Seal Hunt

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Very disturbing issue – [ http://www.harpseals.org/index.php ]  Seal hunt on Canada’s East Coast starting November 15 and ending May 15. My first thought about this: “cut up my Canadian passport and ship it back to Ottawa.” (Thanks, but no thanks for it.). On second thought: “who on Earth is using those baby seal furs ?”

Who is importing this kind of product ? As always, it is a question of Demand and Supply. If there were no countries using those seal pelts, (and mind you, some of the meat is also exported), there would not be any seal hunts (this including the hunts that are also conducted in Norway, Iceland, Greenland and other northern countries. But foremost Newfoundland, Canada. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seal_hunting ] It is clear from having lived in Canada for almost 40 years, that nobody here can dare to walk around in any fur coat, without getting pelted or spray painted. On third thought: “of all those wildlife organizations and environmental charities that I regularly contribute to as a donor, why cannot they intervene in such butchery ? Their voices are silent ? Because of governments who regulate hunts and hunting ? Since Canada is still largely under the umbrella of the Queen of England, why cannot the Royals intervene in such issues ?

Who are the importers or users of seal products, who imports them ? There are now many countries who have prohibited the import of harp seal furs, example: [ http://www.harpseals.org/help/demand_side_efforts/index.php ] . So, what are the markets ? Although China is a large market for “exporting” fur products of all kinds of animals [ http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-clothing/fur/chinese-fur-industry/ ]  ( [Canada’s biggest market for seal pelts is Norway.[53] Carino Limited is one of Newfoundland’s largest seal pelt producers. Carino (CAnada–RIeber–NOrway) is marketing its seal pelts mainly through its parent company, GC Rieber Skinn, Bergen, Norway.[54] Canada sold pelts to eleven countries in 2004. The next largest were Germany, Greenland, and China/Hong Kong. Other importers were Finland, Denmark, France, Greece, South Korea, and Russia.[38] Asia remains the principal market for seal meat exports.[41] (from Wikipedia). ]

Canadian seal product exports reached C$18 million in 2006. Of this, C$5.4 million went to the EU.[56] In 2009, the European Union banned all seal imports, shrinking the market.[57] Where pelts once sold for more than $100, they now fetch $8 to $15 each.[49]

Things are changing with many bans in many countries. Still the question remains: “who still wears those furs ?” and “in which countries are seal pelts and fur coats made of baby seals (white) still being imported ?”

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/seal-product-ban-upheld-on-ethical-grounds-1.2438904

!!! More bans are needed, and not just during the hunting season !!!

Easy Mortgage Money

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Nothing easier than that. Most big Banks are running after you and literally glue themselves to your behind in order to shove a mortgage (or loan) down your gully. Why ? You don’t even have to be a psychologist to understand the common human psyche. Greed, greed, greed. Most people want to have what the neighbor has, and they want to have more of everything. For that, one needs money. Although there are now a larger number of millionaires walking the streets, the basic assumption still applies: “Most consumers do not have enough money for what they want.” Even if some guy had a million, how on earth can anybody expect that poor little bitch to actually live on a lousy million ? No, no. He wants two million, at least. That is where the Banks come in. Please, Mister (being already deep in debt) take out a loan or a mortgage, we offer fab rates – today’s special – like under 3% variable, not bad. At the same time the Banks do not give a rat’s ass if a person can actually pay a loan. They know, sooner or later payments are due and the borrower is up to their eye balls in debt. Cannot pay. Take out another loan to cover the first loan. Why not ? Or loose whatever you bought for that loan. Goes back to the Banks. Debt, debt, debt. Nobody seems to care, because life is short and borrowers want to live to the fullest – WITH OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY. Man, am I glad. I am the richest person in the world. I don’t have debts. Even if Mr. Google – when opening my Gmail – offers me dozens of different mortgages (as ‘side ads’), based on my e-mail (sent or received) which some of them may be from somebody I talk to about “what my plans are” blah, blah, blah – about HEH ! I may be interested in some mortgage. There you have it: Not interested in what the Banks want to shove down MY gully !