Mac med school gets $105m x-mas gift

From The Toronto Star :

HAMILTON - McMaster University has received an unprecedented $105 million donation from businessman-philanthropist Michael G. DeGroote, renaming its medical school in his honour.

It is the largest single cash gift in Canadian history, turning the school into one of the wealthiest in North America and marking the first time a medical school in this country has been named after a benefactor.

Holy hell, that's a massive donation. This DeGroote fellow bought Laidlaw Transport (i.e. transport and garbage truck concern) for some $300,000 in the late 50s and sold it to CP for millions in the late 80s. He also owned the CFL's Hamilton Tiger Cats for a period, according to the article.

Donations like this are great -- think what most schools could do with a tenth or just a hundredth as much! -- but I've always been curious about benefactors' desire to have buildings, faculties, schools and so on re-named in their honour. I could see a new building being named for a donor (witness Laurier's shiny new Schlegel Centre for Entrepreneurship), but having your name replace a previous honoree or tacking it onto the name of a school... To me, the 'Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine' or something along that line would seem a little over-the-top, but evidently millionaires think differently than I -- no surprise -- or perhaps the University insisted.

In any case, it's also interesting to note that $15m of DeGroote's gift has been set aside specifically to research a painful condition he has experienced since a stroke 2 1/2 years ago [edit: The Star was too simplistic; apparently the $15m is for a research centre on pain generally, with some degree of focus on thalamic pain]. Further coverage from McMaster's site, The Globe and Mail, and Canadian Press for more details.

On the singular joys of being a Smith

Lest anyone conclude that I'm a member of the Liberal Party (gasp!), I hereby formally disavow any hand in creation of this letter to the editor of the Globe and Mail. Fancy that, another Greg Smith from Waterloo derisively commenting on Scott Brison's party-switch! I know there's a Gregory D Smith (I being a "J") at Laurier, and doubtless there are several dozen others in a city of about 90,000... but still.

A professor stopped me in the hall to mention the letter, and I'm somewhat embarrassed to say it took me a minute or two to decide that I hadn't written one, since I do go through periods of penning a dozen or so such screeds in a few days when an issue really gets under my skin.

This little imbroglio highlights the fact that I will never, ever be able to take proper credit for an original thesis, theory, law, or other discovery if I do continue on to an academic career... For, especially in the field of political economy, I'm certain that any reference to "Smith" would suggest my man Adam. Bah. Which is why I don't blame Larissa's opting for a hyphenated name rather than taking mine.

Meanwhile -- and also on the subject or a multiplicity of eponymous me-clones -- googlism has let me know that:
"greg smith is one of those special athletes in western kentucky history that will never be forgotten", "greg smith is a leading expert in the field of the history of watercolours", and "greg smith is scheduled to feature the database in a workshop at the 2002 conference of the association of christian librarians." All of which is very, very good to know.

The sinking united-right ship

From The Globe and Mail :

Progressive Conservative MP Scott Brison has crossed the floor to the Liberal Party, he announced Wednesday... Mr. Brison, a businessman and investment banker who is openly gay, voted in favour of the merger but said he did so with serious reservations. This week he said his endorsement of the merger was conditional on the new party adopting progressive, centrist values.

[...snip...]

Brison becomes the fourth Tory to drop out of the new party. Former Tory leader Joe Clark said he cannot run for the new party in the next election. New Brunswick MP John Herron and Quebec MP André Bachand also said they won't run for the new party in the anticipated spring federal election.

I had thought that Brison would be among the first to give up on the united-right project (see: an ancient post), though I must admit that I'm still puzzled as to why he supported the merger all along (though with 'misgivings' as he pointed out in several interviews) only to jump ship just days after it became official.

Perhaps this is his reaction to actually having to sit in the same room (ok, a room smaller than the House of Commons) as certain less-than-gay-friendly Alliance folk.

War is Peace, Bush is... etc.

From AlterNet :

Thinking outside the media box has been crucial to the success of "Uncovered." Says [its Director,] Greenwald, "What's unusual about this film is that it's being seen in 'real time': the same debates about the ramifications of Bush's Iraq war policies debated in the film, are taking place everyday, at work places, in the media, and will surely be a key topic in the 2004 election. If I had produced this film in the traditional way... finding a distributor, trying to line up exposure on public TV, etc. it would have taken a year or two ... 'Uncovered' would have been an after-the-fact documentary; not a real life experience."

The real story here is that MoveOn.org has helped arrangece something like 2,700 community screenings of the across the USA for this past Sunday.

In keeping with my current "all consuming" mindset, I've ordered a copy of the film in question. PIRGies, do I hear you saying movie night? Let me know what you think; my stats tell me you're visiting, by the evidence shows you're not interacting. I refuse to take the blame, 'cause you know... that's the kind of guy I am. (hint: comment below, punks!)

All consuming, all the time

This, ladies and gentlemen, is a thing of beauty: All Consuming. Funky tool that aggregates information about popular pulp from the blogosphere.

To paraphrase Jimi, "excuse me while I spend way too much time reading what other people are saying about the books that I'm reading while I'm still reading them... or just coveting them and adding them to my ever-expanding Amazon Wishlist (see right)."

Thanks, Mr. Hendrix: I couldn't have said it properly without your inspiration.

Brief, cut-and-paste post to inspire and awe the plebs...

From Dhammapada, 13-14 :

Here he grieves
he grieves hereafter.
In both worlds
the wrong-doer grieves.
He grieves, he's afflicted,
seeing the corruption
of his deeds.

Here he rejoices
he rejoices hereafter.
In both worlds
the merit-maker rejoices.
He rejoices, is jubilant,
seeing the purity
of his deeds.

The USA in Bible prophecy (?)

From Artisan Publishers, via an angry email :

Many Christians today have not been exposed to what our forefathers believed and understood. Whether through God's purposeful blindness or due to modern-day revisionists intense desire to rewrite our Christian American history, the fact remains, we have lost our true identity, our heritage, our Israel roots. It's time our people awakened from their sleep and learn not only their true history but also their destiny that is unfolding, even now, according to God's Divine Plan.

This book clearly shows that America (Zion) is the land set aside by God Almighty to be the place of regathered Israel. Sermons and documents by the Founding Fathers testify to their belief that they were the Israel people of the latter days, and that the Old Testament prophecies were being fulfilled in their undertakings. It would be wise for us who are living in these last days to take a closer look at the past generations of our great nation to relearn what they knew about America's critical role in Bible prophecy.

(Emphasis mine, of course) I'm not sure that any comment from the likes of me can do this book justice. Given that it costs a mere $8 USD, I actually considered buying it for (a fleeting, thank God) moment. I was directed to this story by a fellow attempting to 'articulate' his views about the post below this one. Yes, that's right, I was flamed in less than half an hour! Excuse me while I stroke me ego...

Israel: democracy, theocracy, or something altogether different?

From The Globe and Mail :

Yes, I take issue with the Israeli deputy PM's point of view, but I doubt anyone who knows me me surprised by that. The article itself (from The Globe and Mail) is fine, as a straight-up news piece. What disturbs me is how casually we can talk about intentionally disenfranchising a population, how cooly any sense of impropriety is dismissed when Israeli policies -- domestic and foreign -- are discussed. Arabs living in Israel are people. So, too, are Arabs living around Israel (though one wouldn't know it from the treatment that and other states offer them). People living in democracies ought to be able to vote. Is Israel a democracy, or a theocracy?

In the area currently under Israel's control, Israel's 1.3 million Arab citizens combined with the 3.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip could soon outnumber Israel's 5.2 million Jews because of their higher birthrate.

He predicted that the Palestinians would soon abandon demands for a separate state and agitate instead for a vote. If Israelis resisted, that would further isolate Israel from the world, and even from many Jews abroad.

Mr. Olmert said Israel has two choices — either to withdraw to the Green Line, the frontier before the 1967 Middle East war, or an “inclusive unilateral move ... where we define our borders that will in no way be similar to the Green Line.”

Mr. Sharon and his predecessors said they will not withdraw to the 1967 borders. Last week, Mr. Sharon said he would take unspecified unilateral steps if peace efforts with the Palestinians failed.

Unfortuantely, as the article points out, "Mr. Olmert said peace talks would be a waste of time." And, just when you thought things couldn't get more absurd:

In a speech earlier this week, [Mr. Olmert] said Israel would have to make compromises for peace. That was “an admission that the ideology of Greater Israel has gone bankrupt,” columnist Yoel Marcus wrote Friday in the Haaretz daily.

Jewish settler spokesman Yehoshua Mor-Yosef demanded that Mr. Sharon fire Mr. Olmert immediately “for the left-wing views he presented today.”

Massive majority of non-lazy Regressive Conservative Alliance members in favour of merger

From The Globe and Mail :

An overwhelming 95.9 per cent of Canadian Alliance members who cast ballots on whether to merge with the Progressive Conservatives have voted in favour of the union. [Canadian Alliance leader Stephen Harper] called it a "historic day for all Conservatives across Canada" and "the dawning of a new era in politics."

"We are seeking to blend the history and the governing experience of the Progressive Conservative Party with the grassroots democracy and energy of the Canadian Alliance."

Approximately 53,300 of more than 90,000 ballots were returned by members, [Harper] said.

Wow, 59.2% turnout! That means 56.8% of Alliance members voted "yes" to the merger, 2.4% voted "no" and 40.8% didn't care enough to check a box and drop a pre-paid envelope into the nearest post box (for most rural folk, this is often at the end of your own driveway).

So much for "grassroots energy."

Abortion debate stirred up in Britain

From Spiked :

Reverend Joanna Jepson says that she was shocked to discover that, last year, a woman ended her six-month pregnancy because the fetus was affected by cleft palate. [...] The woman requesting the abortion was at least six months pregnant [,] was already feeling robust fetal movements, she was visibly pregnant, possibly her family and friends had already rejoiced that she was 'going to have a baby'. Yet, [...] she decided to end the pregnancy. Could this have been an 'easy option'? At this gestation, she would have known that abortion involves a procedure to stop the fetal heart. She knew she would have endured labour, understanding that her once wanted 'child' will be born dead.

None of us knows this woman's specific circumstances. So how can we judge her?

The article quoted above, along with a companion piece taking an alternative view, a near-prototypical mirrors of recent abortion rhetoric (from both sides) in North America, much of which was couched -- or at least thinly cloaked -- in terms of 'reproductive technology' or 'human cloning'. The Reverned mentioned in the first article is the driving force behind a judicial review case that questions whether the police ought to have charged the doctors involved in the abortion (they didn't).

I'm not sure I posses the skills or sensitivity to 'wade' (pun intended - which proves me point, I should think) into this debate properly, so I'll just toss out a cold one-liner: how many children, un-born and born, died in Iraq during both the UK-supported sanctions and the recent full-on war and subsequent occupation?

The Christian religious perspective on abortion always strikes me as a case of not seeing the forest for the trees. One 'murder' of a nascent human generates so much concern in those quarters, but the blatant obliteration of fully-developed (non-white, non-western, and thus less-worthy) men and women is dismissed as a necessary evil. To clear-cut black-and-white moralists, I thought there was no such thing as a necessary evil?

The CIA had John Lennon killed (honest)!

From Mack White, via Boing Boing :

... a film star, Ronald Reagan, was elected to the Presidency in 1980. His genial image would be used to sell, among other things, a brutal policy in Central America. However, it was feared by the men behind Reagan that John Lennon might use his celebrity to oppose these policies...

Mmm, conspiracy theories. This one-page comic piece connects some high-profile dots, including: Reagan, John Hinckley, John Lennon, President George Bush 1.0, his son Neil Bush, El Salvador, World Vision, Vanderbily Energy and the Manchurian Candidate.

Digest carefully, lest you become the subject of a conspiracy of your own...

Bootable CD Linux Lovin'

From MandrakeSoft, via Tiny Apps :

MandrakeMove lets you bring your Mandrake Linux system wherever you go, all on a single disc, so that you can connect to the Internet, create & edit Office documents, listen to music, watch movies, and just about anything you can imagine from wherever you happen to be.

[...]

MandrakeMove features an impressive selection of first-class applications. In addition to multimedia and graphics software, MandrakeMove also includes a complete office suite for creating, editing and sharing Microsoft® Office compatible files (xls, doc, ppt). You'll enjoy hours of fun with highly addictive games (such as the famous 'Frozen Bubble'), 3D programs, educational applications for children, and much more.

I've used Knoppix before, but got frustrated with some of the less famillair aspects of the distro (geeky, yes, but I'm not of much use with linux); after toying with this for an hour or so, I have to admit I'm hooked. Perhaps the seldom-used Mandrake install on a teeny partition of my hard drive can be euthanized (more space for pr0n... uh... divx? Yeah, movies!) and supplanted by a shiny new CD-R. I especially like Mandrake's marketing angle: bundling a USB-key, for saving preferences and documents. Finally, a more imaginative use for mine than simply toting my resumé around 'just in case' (yay for co-op).

Speaking of mercy-killing, I'll end this train-wreck of an entry before too many more innocent bystanders succumb to its banality.

Pack mentality

I admit it, I've finally succumbed to the funky orange XML-feed button trend (see the bottom of the toolbar at right), and accompanied it with a couple more. Two were stolen from Tudor, and the third was crafted with help from this fancy tool.

Those of you making the rounds from Laurier (my stats say: "Blimey! It's really caught on, guv." [they're British, apparently] ), why not nab this and brand yourself?

Check out The Museum of Anti-Alcohol Posters, happend upon via Kottke.

I haven't the gumption to post anything of consequence today. Thanks to this morning's blizzard, winter has officially begun -- hooray for not puzzling over relative umbrella necessities each morning.