Partisan rants & city politics
Labels: subway
Labels: ttc
From "Flaherty wants to check Statscan's math":
Statscan has said that a mistake in calculating hotel room rates threw off its consumer price index figures from the beginning of 2001 until March of this year.Read the rest of this article at The Globe and Mail, and check out CBC News and Google News for more if you really feel like geeking out.
That error caused the CPI — an influential figure that affects such things as interest rates — to be reported an average of 0.1 percentage point lower than it should have been during each of those years.
The mistake caused hotel room rates to appear as if they'd fallen 16 per cent over the five-year period, when they'd actually risen 32 per cent...
Tarek Harchaoui, assistant director for Statscan's consumer price index and research section, said the agency will leave the data because CPI is used to calculate such things as annual wage gains and payments for a variety of social programs. To go back and change the data would create an enormous problem for a small gain, he said.
Statscan has just been caught out understating inflation rates. The CBC gives an example: Hotel room prices stated as having dropped 16% when in fact the price rose 32% - a mere 48% error.
They also state one of the big reasons for doing so - labour contracts (such as the one I work under) that have inflation rate adjustments built in. Even though they've been caught, the official CPI index will not be fixed because that would allow labour to get their inflation rate adjustments - instead, they want employers to keep all that extra money.
Labels: ttc
I've slapped together a Google Map of Toronto Public Library branches using a wonderful tool called Map Builder. Labels: maps
Listen to Robert Fisk's Edward Said Memorial Lecture delivered at the University of Adelaide on October 1, 2005.
Looking for part-time work during the school year, came upon this gem at Craigslist Toronto:
...We are looking for people who are committed to remaining unemployed and who have no objectives to become employed or to attend school...Nice.
The Star has put together a handy, GTA-wide municipal elections Google Map. They've used Google Maps on at least one other occasion, as a spatially-aware interface to their Doors Open Toronto 2006 content.These new screenshots from Microsoft Flight Simulator X look great. I used to play with flight sims all the time. A-10 Tank Killer II ruled!
From "Some Cubans enjoy comforts of communism":
The reasons Cubans took the events in such stride are complex. Castro supporters say it's because of Cubans' deep belief in socialist ideals; detractors say it's all about fear. Conviction and dread aside, many Cubans find genuine comfort in the communist system, and reject U.S.-style democracy and values.[read more @ Seattle Post-Intelligencer]
Castro was known to be a friend of former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and attended Trudeau's funeral in October 2000 to mourn the passing of his friend. They continued their friendship after Trudeau left office until his death. Canada became one of the first American allies to open trade with Cuba. Cuba still has a good relationship with Canada. In 1998 Canadian Prime Minister, Jean Chretien arrived in Cuba to meet President Castro and highlight their close ties. He is the first Canadian government leader to visit the island since Pierre Trudeau was in Havana in 1976.[read more]
