Price of gas in France

A thief in Paris planned to steal some paintings from the Louvre

After careful planning, he got past security, stole the paintings, and made it safely to his van.

However, he was captured only two blocks away when his van ran out of gas.

When asked how he could mastermind such a crime and then make such an obvious error, he replied, "Monsieur, that is the reason I stole the paintings---is 

I had no Monet

To buy Degas

To make the Van Gogh."

I hope you have De Gaulle to recommend this to someone else.

I posted this because I figured I had nothing Toulouse

More reasons to stop Harper

Keeping it Real has been warning Canadians for years about the abuses that a majority Harper government would enact. Harvey wrote about Harper’s Majority Government Abuses in June and on Sept 12, 2012 noted that:

"others much more influential than I are sounding the alarm,  including Allan Greg … former PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE pollster under Brian Mulroney and Kim Campbell.

Greg delivered a scathing attack last week at Carleton University in Ottawa on Harper’s governing style and record under majority government.  The title of his speech “1984 in 2012 – The Assault on Reason”says it all.

The Huffington Post Canada (www.huffingtonpost.ca) carried the entire speech and I’m happy to reprint it here … to expose what Canadians voters have unleashed in giving Harper his majority:

Here are some excerpts from Allan Gregg speech. I encourage you to read the entire speech. To do that go here:

So it is important to remind ourselves why we value reason and why we should be very concerned when it comes under assault.


It was common knowledge that this government had little stomach for the deficit spending that followed the finance crisis of the previous years. And knowing that the public supported a return to balance budgets, it was a foregone conclusion that we were going to be presented with a fairly austere budget document. That the government intended to cut 19,000 civil servant jobs – roughly 6% of the total federal workforce – might have seemed a little draconian, but knowing what we knew, not that shocking.

As part of this package, it was also announced that environmental assessments were to be “streamlined” and that the final arbitration power of independent regulators was to be curtailed and possibly overridden by so-called “accountable” elected officials. Again, given the priority this government places on economic, and especially resource development, this was not necessarily unpredictable either.

But when then the specific cuts started to roll out, an alarming trend began to take shape.

- First up were those toilet counting, privacy violators at Stats Canada – ½ (not 6%, but 50%) of employees were warned that their jobs were at risk.

- 20% of the workforce at the Library and Archives of Canada were put on notice.

- CBC was told that it could live with a 10% reduction in their budgetary allocation.

-In what was described as the “lobotomization of the parks system” (G &M – May 21, 2012), 30% of the operating budget of Parks Canada was cut, eliminating 638 positions; 70% of whom would be scientists and social scientists.

-The National Roundtable on the Environment, the First Nations Statistical Institute, the National Council on Welfare and the Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Science were, in Orwell’s parlance, “vaporized”; saving a grand total of $7.5 million.

-The Experimental Lakes Area, a research station that produced critical evidence that helped stop acid rain 3 decades ago and has been responsible for some of our most groundbreaking research on water quality was to be shut down. Savings? $2 million. The northernmost lab in Eureka, Nunavut awaits the same fate.

- The unit in charge of monitoring emissions from power plants, furnaces, boiler and other sources is to be abolished in order to save $600,000.

- And against the advice of 625 fisheries scientists and four former federal Fisheries Ministers – saying it is scientifically impossible to do — regulatory oversight of the fisheries was limited to stock that are of “human value”.

- To add insult to injury, these amendments was bundled in with 68 other laws into one Budget Bill, so that – using the power of majority government – no single item could be opposed or revoked.

- On the other side of the ledger however, the Canada Revenue Agency received an $8 million increase in its budget so that it had more resources available to investigate the political activity of not-for-profit and charitable organizations.

Ok, so now the facts were beginning to tell a different story. This was no random act of downsizing, but a deliberate attempt to obliterate certain activities that were previously viewed as a legitimate part of government decision-making – namely, using research, science and evidence as the basis to make policy decisions. It also amounted to an attempt to eliminate anyone who might use science, facts and evidence to challenge government policies.


A quick review of the some of the Bills passed or on the order paper of this session of Parliament gives you the sense that this government might have studied under Orwell.

Bill C-5 is entitled “The Continuing Air Service for Passengers Act”. Substantively, it offers no such guarantee but unilaterally extended the contract of the National Automobile, Aerospace, Transport and General Workers Union of Canada and removed any prospect of a lockout or strike.

Bill C-10 is “An Act to Enact the Justice for Victims of Terrorism” and sub-titled “The Safe Streets and Communities Act”. Again forgetting for a moment that there are more victims of swimming pool drowning than terrorism, this is an Omnibus Bill which, among other things, stiffens penalties for possession of pot and builds more prisons.

Bill C-18 is called the “Marketing Freedom for Grain Farmers Act”. It dismantled the Canadian Wheat Board.

Bill C-26 boasts that it is “The Citizens Arrest and Self-Defense Act” and it is the closest we come in Canada to replicating Florida’s odious Stand Your Ground legislation.

The purpose of Bill C-30 is stated to be “The Protect Children from Internet Predators Act” and it, among other things, forces ISPs to hand over their user names to police without a warrant. When opponents protested this deliberate obfuscation, Safety Minister Vic Toews famously countered that “you are either with us or the child pornographers”.

The thing that is disconcerting and unsettling about all this is not just the substance of these Bills, but why a government would want to disguise that substance. Maybe dismantling the Wheat Board; or pre-emptively squashing collective bargaining; or sending more potheads to jail is a good thing. But before we make those decisions, let’s look at all the facts; have a fulsome and rational debate; and make a reasoned decision of what is in the best interests of all the parties involved. For voters to determine whether these are measures they support or oppose requires that they know what is at stake and what the government is actually doing. Moreover, for the rule of law to work, the public must have respect for the law. By obfuscating the true purpose of laws under the gobbledy-gook of double speak, governments are admitting that their intentions probably lack both support and respect. Again, the lesson here is Orwellian … in the same way that reason requires consciousness, tyranny demands ignorance.


But even if you accept this thesis, it still begs another question …. if Canadians are essentially enlightened liberals, and are not prepared to offer wholesale buy-in to this vision of politics and the nation, why do we not hear a hue and cry in protest over the direction we are being led?

At root, I think a big part of the problem is cultural. For decades following the Second World War, a progress ethos dominated North American thought. The next car was going to be faster, the next paycheque fatter and the next house bigger. This notion that progress was both normal and limitless, generated a series of beliefs that were universally embraced. Anyone of my generation will remember being told … “You my child, deserve more than I had when I was growing up”…. “If you work hard and put your mind to it, you can be anything you want” … and “A good education is the key to success”. This value system – and an experience that closely corresponded to it – created not only a sense of well-being but also a sense of good will. If the prospects of progress and success were limitless, then whatever success you enjoyed in no way threatened the amount of success that might be available to me.


But it doesn’t have to be this way. History shows us that, over time, science’s authority always undermines dogma’s legitimacy and the persuasive power of reason will always trump ideology’s emotion. It’s true that if you want to follow a course based on dogma or ideology, it becomes necessary to remove science and reason. But the corollary also holds true – the best defense against dogma and ideology continues to by reason and science. And if it’s increasingly hard to find these qualities in the media or the political process, what better place to take a stand than in a University? This is where you come to seek intelligence; not belittle it. Where ideas are born; questions are asked; and thoughts collide. This is why so many have fought so long to protect academic freedom – to ensure that reason, inquiry and science cannot be assaulted by dogma and orthodoxy.

While the circumstance in Canada 2012 is obviously nowhere near as dystopian as what Orwell depicts in 1984, I really do think that there are some unsettling parallels going on here that we ignore at our peril. I also think it’s time to gather the facts….and fight back.”

Thanks to Harvey for reprinting the entire speech, and thanks to Allan for his courage in stating an unpopular truth that is emerging in politics both in Canada and the US

Conservatives play to irrational fears about immigrants

The Sixth Estate always has thoughtful posts that force me to think differently about issues facing us. The following post on he issue of illegal immigrants makes me think that the Harper government is not above isolating immigrants to deflect from their failures. The ideas in this post pose some interesting and tough questions for the main stream media and for all of us as Canadian citizens about how we value immigrants and how we value our society.

 The entire post is here: The following are excerpts from the post:

There’s nothing like illegal immigrants, it seems, to send our country into a foaming, irrational rage. That quote was the first sentence in the Globe & Mail’s fawning praise of Kenney, and it typifies the quality of our national media. I didn’t “earn” my Canadian passport. The majority of my readers didn’t “earn” their passports. Most of the Globe’s editors probably didn’t earn their passports, and Jason Kenney didn’t earn his either. So don’t give me this nonsense.

More to the point, it’s frankly astonishing that the government could announce it was exiling 3100 citizens of this country without raising a peep of at least apprehension from the national media. I’m not defending fraud here. Fraud should be identified. But are mass revocations really the best way to do it? And do you really trust this government to do it without being require to go to court and prove their case?

Let’s not forget what’s going on here. We’re taking the solemn word on this of a man who spent his formative years crusading as an anti-abortion activist at a religious school in California and who has, in just the recent past, ordered political criticsbarred from entering the country, staged bogus citizenship ceremonies for the benefit of the news media, and argued that he doesn’t have to allow Canadian citizens — genuine ones, mind — back into the country because as a Cabinet minister he is above the law. This is the man you’re trusting when he says that he’s satisfied that 3100 Canadians acquired their citizenship fraudulently.

...Third, although none of this is good, there are some steps that the government could take to assure Canadians that it is not targeting innocent people in this matter:

• What percentage of the people targeted are living in Canada?Previously, Kenney has argued that mass revocation of citizenship is necessary because many people who don’t even live in Canada have obtained citizenship papers through fraud. So far, Kenney has chosen to conceal from the public how many of the people he has targeted are actually living abroad.

• What process has the government followed to ensure that everyone who has been targeted is actually guilty? This one should be an obvious point. So far, nada.

• How many mistakes have been made in the past? Last July, the government kicked off its current wave of exiles with an announcement that it would revoke 1800 citizenships. What happened in those cases? How many filed in court to protest the decision? Were there any who turned out to be innocent? What was the error rate?

19 Scientifically Proven Ways to Increase Your Creativity

I thought this was an interesting post written By Larry Dignan so enjoy

Despite being the most necessary organ in the body, scientists continually find themselves astounded by new and exciting facts about the brain’s intriguing, mysterious complexities.

Creativity in particular oftentimes piques their curiosity because it both keeps humanity moving forward and stands as notoriously difficult to fully define. Although much of its realities remain shrouded, researchers do know of a few proven strategies for nursing it.

When inspiration stalls, try applying some of these methods and see which one works best.

Psychological distance

When puzzling over a creative quandary, take a step back and create some physical and psychological space. Indiana University at Bloomington students in Greece and their own state alike contributed to Lile Jia, Edward R. Hirt, and Samuel C. Karpen’s study, which revealed that absence makes the head and heart grow more innovative. The more distance, the more the brain processes a problem in the abstract – a necessary component of creative thinking.

Embrace the metaphors

Funny enough, “putting two and two together” and “thinking outside the box” completely work on a not-at-all-figurative level. An article in Psychological Science explored this phenomenon and discovered that acting out the metaphors in real life bolstered creativity, though it didn’t improve overall performance. Do keep in mind, though, that researchers took measures using the standardized RAT.

Attain REM sleep

Dream a little dream if those creative sparks need more than just a bit of flint to get going, because hitting a REM state remains one of the best things anyone can do for their projects. One doesn’t need science to see this trope in action, however, as notable names like Salvador Dali, Mary Shelley, and Michael Stipe all cited their unconscious nocturnal adventures as the starting point for some of their most popular works. Several University of California researchers went ahead and looked for the psychology and biology behind it anyway, and found that dreaming nurtures new information syntheses that don’t occur in waking life.

Channeling that inner Hulk

Multiple studies by University of Amsterdam and University of Gronigen noted that a little bit of anger promotes innovative thinking, but it comes with a temporal price tag. Negative emotions allowed to simmer prove less conducive to pumping out excellent projects than their fresher predecessors. So make sure to (peacefully!) lay that rage out quickly before the creative component starts dissolving; it’ll definitely prove more cathartic.

Moderate alcohol consumption

Psychosomatically, anyways, according to an Addictive Behavior article on the frequently disputed link between alcohol and creative output. In actuality, performance improved little, if at all, in the test groups given a tipple – though they ranked themselves higher in terms of perceived performance. While the controversy continues splitting scientists, avoiding blackout drunkenness will certainly keep a brain healthy for everything that comes its way.

Listen to music

Scientific and engineering unfortunately receive little credit as truly creative pursuits, but they certainly are – and they just happen to benefit from the same stimuli as their painterly peers. Next time a theorem or AUTOCAD assignment starts drying up the well, as it were, take the advice of Georgia Tech’s Parag Chordia and indulge in something a little melodic. Future studies will delve into what specific musical styles impact the mind in what specific way, if any.

Blue, da ba di da ba dai

Come to find out, blue achieves far more than just calming down anxious patients at the dentist’s office. Tobias Funke was really onto something when he painted his entire body the venerable color, because come to find out it can actually bolster one’s creative spirit! Red also benefits cognitive function as well, though it improves the ability to process details – a necessary component of innovation.

Intentional culture shock

Blend “thinking outside the box” with “psychological” distance and dive headfirst (with proper research and resources, of course!) into one highly valuable strategy for nurturing creative thought. In their Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin paper, Hajo Adam, Adam Galinsky, and William Maddux extol the potential of spending a stint abroad. Even the tiniest of cultural differences piques the ol’ grey mass and challenges it to consider the world in bright new ways.

Interacting with technology

Most technological interfaces with a high degree of interactivity, such as those intended for design and art, engage the brain in ways traditional media never could. In addition to this additional stimulation, the University of Gothenburg study also believed the faster, easier programs also cut down prep time, meaning more energy pours into the actual creation process. Not to mention quicker edits and brand new techniques otherwise impossible with the standard pens, pencils, and paints.

Extended or flexible deadlines

Harvard’s Edsel Bryant Ford Professor of Business Administration Teresa Amabile knows many people claim to create best when suffering beneath looming deadlines, but her research shows otherwise. For more than a decade, she’s studied interplay between creativity and time pressure and discovered the latter typically (though not always) holds negative sway over the former. Creativity thrives more in environments where deadlines wrap around minds, not the other way around.

Avoid brainstorming

And, if brainstorming is necessary, try to do it solo instead of in a group, as the latter tends to accomplish the exact opposite of the true intent. When multiple people participate, the dynamic usually begins obsessing over one particular idea, which discourages others from contributing to their fullest potential. These findings come courtesy of a collaboration between Texas A&M and University of Texas at Arlington researchers.

Rewards…kind of

Children do exhibit heightened creativity when presented with a reward for their efforts, but only if the association between task and receipt has already been pre-established. Interestingly enough, studies conflict over whether or not the findings extend into adulthood, as many believe a job well done elicits far more satisfaction than any award or honor. When it comes to the kiddies, though, consider training them with this tactic to challenge their growing minds.

Multilingualism

Traveling gets expensive, and for the cash-strapped hoping to score a little perspective without forking over the dough should attempt learning a brand new language. A study conducted by the European Commission revealed that multilingual individuals enjoyed heightened creativity and innovations thanks to overall improved cognitive and problem-solving skills. So investing in those Rosetta Stone programs might very well bolster one’s own all-around mental performance.

Exercise

Aerobic workouts are some of the simplest strategies for making the brain a very happy organ indeed. Not only will they generally lead to a more satisfied, positive mood, but it can lead to greater creativity in kind. Rather than pausing for nap time and struggling to sleep when sleep just won’t come, try 15 minutes of heart-healthy exercise instead.

Transcendental meditation

Transcendental meditation works for the spiritually-inclined, skeptics, and nonbelievers alike – no dogma necessary. Cornell researchers published a curious article showcasing how practitioners, over the span of five months, watched a marked improvement in their creative skills. However, this did not apply to verbal acumen, though they were more mentally flexible and figurative.

Play video games

In a finding sure to anti-delight video game detractors, the ubiquitous pastime does benefit players beyond heightened eye-hand coordination skills. Much like other interactive technologies, they encourage innovative thinking and problem solving through puzzles and other challenges. The most creative individuals also ended up the most negative (which shouldn’t be a surprise considering the anger link) and more lethargic.

Sarcasm

Similar to anger, sarcasm and its ilk also influence devotees and their peers to start approaching tasks with a broader imagination and innovation. Interestingly enough, though, while feeling anger bolsters the brain, witnessing it held the exact opposite effect. These findings come courtesy of Ella Miron-Spektor’s team, who published them in Journal of Applied Psychology.

Exposure to absurdity

Pick up absurdist – or at least whimsical – literature during creative dry periods for a generous dose of inspiration. A collaboration between University of California, Santa Barbara’s Travis Proulx and University of British Columbia’s Steven J. Heine exposed participants to Franz Kafka’s short stories, discovering that the writer’s techniques promoted pattern recognition and novel thinking. Both of these abilities prove necessary when whipping up the most creative projects possible; plus, Kafka also happens to totally rule, so everyone wins.

Play

Kids and adults alike benefit from playtime, giving parents, guardians, and teachers a perfect strategy for kick starting their own stalled pursuits. Enjoyable recreation relaxes as well as stimulates, easing the mind into a project instead of falling headfirst. Besides, pretty much everyone loves getting out and having fun, unlike some of the other suggestions here.

About the Author

Larry Dignan is a freelance writer and blogger as well as Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic.