Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentines Day! If you are looking to impress you might want to go over to Brainy History to see what has happened in history on this day. It is a day of celebration of love, but there have been some other notable events through history on this day as well. Here is a partial list to start you off on your journey of exploration of this day of love.

·       2015 GM issues a recall of over 81,000 vehicles due to potential power steering problems; 2006 and 2007 models of the Pontiac G6, Chevrolet Malibu, and Malibu Maxx are affected

·       2014 The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, now the world's largest solar energy plant, opens in the Mojave Desert; the $2.2 billion plant, owned by Google, NRG Energy, and BrightSource energy, spans five square miles and can provide power to 140,000 homes

·       2014 Italy's Prime Minister, Enrico Letta resigns following friction within his own Democratic party

·       2013 Bankrupt carrier, American Airlines and U.S. Airways merge, forming the world's largest air carrier, to trade under the name, American Airlines

·       2013 U.S. Senate Republicans filibuster the nomination of Chuck Hagel as U.S. Secretary of Defense, demanding answers to questions about President Obama and Benghazi

·       2012 A new statue of Kim Jong-il, North Korea's late leader is unveiled in the capital of Pyongyang

·       2012 Love letters written between poets Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning are published online by Wellesley College and Baylor University

·       2011 Palestinian Authority cabinet members resign and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad will select new ministers at the request of President Mahmoud Abbas

·       2011 China reports its trade surplus for January is $6.5 billion; the figure is less than expected

·       2010 Viktor Yanukovych is declared the official winner of Ukraine's presidential election

·       2001 Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft becomes first vehicle to land on an asteroid (433 Eros)

·       1995 Roseanne weds bodyguard Ben Thomas

·       1995 Wellington 2-498d and 4-475 beat Canterbury 496 and 2-476d

·       1994 Alexander Golubev skates Olympic record 500m (36.33)

·       1994 Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia (51) weds Deborah Koons

·       1993 Fire in Linxi department store in Tangshan China, kills 79

·       1992 Andre Cason runs world record 6 m indoor (6.41 sec)

·       1992 Cease fire in Somalia begins

·       1992 Kieren John Perkins swims world record 800m freestyle (7:46.60)

·       1992 Merlene Ottey runs world record 60m indoor (6.96 sec)

·       1991 "Mule Bone" opens at Ethel Barrymore Theater New York City for 67 performances

·       1991 NL Cy Young winner Doug Drabek wins record $3 mil salary arbitration

·       1990 Alan Ayckbourn's "Man of the Moment," premieres in London

·       1990 Perrier recalls 160 million bottles of sparkling water after traces of benzene, a carcinogen, are found in some

·       1990 Space probe Voyager 1 takes photograph of entire solar system

·       1989 African National Congress (ANC) opens office in Amsterdam

·       1989 Boxer Mike Tyson divorces actress Robin Givens

·       1989 Khomeini orders Moslems to murder "Satanic Verses" novelist Rushdie

·       1989 Robin Givens is granted a divorce from Mike Tyson in Dom Rep

·       1989 Union Carbide agrees to pay $470 mill damages for Bhopol disaster

·       1989 World's 1st satellite Skyphone opens

·       1988 49th PGA Seniors Golf Championship: Gary Player

·       1988 Alfredo Stroessner re-elected president of Paraguay

·       1988 Bobby Allison at 50 becomes oldest driver to win Daytona 500

·       1988 General hospital star Jackie Zeman marries Glenn Gorden

·       1988 Patty Sheehan wins LPGA Sarasota Golf Classic

·       1987 53,745 largest NBA crowd to date-Philadelphia at Detroit

·       1985 Hostage CNN reporter Jeremy Levin is released in Beirut

·       1984 Singer Elton John marries Renate Blauel in Sydney, Australia

·       1982 "Night of 100 Stars" takes place at New York's Radio City Music Hall

·       1982 Hollis Stacy wins LPGA S&H Golf Classic

·       1980 "West Side Story" opens at Minskoff Theater New York City for 341 performances

·       1980 13th Winter Olympic games open in Lake Placid, New York

·       1980 U.S. launches Solar Maximum Mission Observatory to study solar flares

·       1979 "Whoopee!" opens at ANTA Theater New York City for 204 performances

·       1978 1st "micro on a chip" patented by Texas Instruments

·       1978 In girls' High School basketball, Chicago Latin beats Harvard St. George

·       1976 U.S. performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

·       1975 Bomb explodes at annex of Amsterdam metro station

·       1972 John and Yoko co-host "Mike Douglas Show" for entire week

·       1972 Luna 20 (Russia) launched to orbit and soft landing on Moon

·       1971 Movie "Ben Hur" 1st shown on television

·       1971 Richard Nixon installs secret taping system in White House

·       1970 "Gantry" closes at George Abbott Theater New York City after 1 performance

·       1968 Pennsylvania Railroad/New York City Central merge into Penn Central

·       1968 WHKY TV channel 14 in Hickory, North Carolina (IND) begins broadcasting

·       1967 Aretha Franklin records "Respect"

·       1967 Latin American nuclear free zone proposal drawn up

·       1966 Australia introduces 1st decimal currency postage stamps

·       1966 Wilt Chamberlain breaks NBA career scoring record at 20,884 points

·       1966 Writers Andrei Sinjavski and Joeij Daniel found guilty

·       1963 U.S. launches communications satellite Syncom 1

·       1962 1st lady Jacqueline Kennedy conducts White House tour on TV

·       1961 Element 103, Lawrencium, 1st produced in Berkeley California

·       1961 Louise Suggs wins LPGA Royal Poinciana Golf Invitational

·       1960 Beverly Hanson wins LPGA St. Petersburg Golf Open

·       1960 Marshal Ayub Khan elected president of Pakistan

·       1959 $3.6 million heroin seizure in New York City

·       1958 Arab Federation of Iraq and Jordan forms

·       1957 Georgia Senate unanimously approves Senator Leon Butts' bill barring blacks from playing baseball with whites

·       1956 20th Congress of CPSU opens in Moscow

·       1956 Indonesia withdraws from Netherlands Indonesian Union

·       1956 Verhoeven/Nauta/De King/Wijnhout win Dutch 11 city skate

·       1955 WFLA (now WXFL) TV channel 8 in Tampa-St. Petersburg, Florida (NBC) begins

·       1954 Beverly Hanson wins LPGA St. Petersburg Golf Open

·       1954 Senator John Kennedy appears on "Meet the Press"

·       1954 WTOC TV channel 11 in Savannah, Georgia (CBS) begins broadcasting

·       1952 6th Olympic winter games open at Oslo, Norway

·       1952 Comedian Joey Adams marries gossip columnist Cindy Heller

·       1951 Sugar Ray Robinson defeats Jake LaMotta and takes middleweight title

·       1950 Moroney scores cricket twin centuries for Australia at Johannesburg

·       1950 U.S.S.R. and China sign peace treaty

·       1949 1st session of Knesset (Jerusalem Israel)

·       1949 Dutch Drees government presents plan for the building of 30,000 houses

·       1946 Bank of England nationalized

·       1945 8th Air Force bombs Dresden

·       1945 Peru, Paraguay, Chile and Ecuador joins UN

·       1944 Anti-Japanese revolt on Java

·       1944 Carl Wick publishes "Salmon Trolling for Commercial and Sport Fishing

·       1943 German offensive through de Faid-pass Tunisia

·       1943 Soviets recapture Rostov

·       1942 Japanese parachutists land near oil center Palembang Sumatra

·       1942 Rotterdam's Maas tunnel opens

·       1941 1,000,000th vehicle traverses the New York Midtown Tunnel

·       1941 Carson McCuller's "Reflections in a Golden Eye" published

·       1941 Cebrie Park in the Bronx renamed Halsey Street

·       1941 German Africa Corps lands in Tripoli, Libya

·       1940 British merchant vessel fleet is armed

·       1939 Victor Fleming replaces George Cukor as director of 'Gone With the Wind'

·       1936 U.S. Female Figure Skating championship won by Maribel Vinson

·       1936 U.S. Male Figure Skating championship won by Robin Lee

·       1934 NHL Ace Bailey Benefit Game: Toronto beats All-Stars 7-3 in Toronto

·       1932 South Africa all out for 36 in 1st innings vs. Australia (Ironmonger 5-6)

·       1931 Bradman scores 152 Australia vs. WI, 154 minutes, 13 fours 2 fives

·       1931 Spanish Government of General Damasco Berenguer falls

·       1929 St. Valentine's Day Massacre in Chicago, 7 gangsters killed

·       1925 State of emergency crisis in Bayern ends, NSDAP re-allowed

·       1924 IBM Corporation founded by Thomas Watson

·       1921 Canadian 5 cent nickel coin is authorized

·       1921 Little Review faces obscenity charges for publishing "Ulysses," NY

·       1920 League of Women Voters forms in Chicago

·       1919 United Parcel Service forms

·       1918 H Atteridge and S Rombergs musical "Sinbad," premieres in New York City

·       1918 U.S.S.R. adopts New Style (Gregorian) calendar (originally Feb 1)

·       1914 High Council of Labor forms in Hague Netherlands

·       1912 1st U.S. submarines with diesel engines commissioned, Groton, Connecticut

·       1912 Arizona was admitted to the Union as the 48th state

·       1907 1st U.S. fox hound association forms in New York City

·       1903 U.S. Department of Commerce and Labor forms

·       1900 Date of events in movie "Picnic at Hanging Rock"

·       1899 U.S. Congress begins using voting machines

·       1896 George Lohmann takes a hat-trick vs. South Africa, 8-7 for inning

·       1896 South Africa all out for 30 vs. England - their lowest ever

·       1896 Stanley Cup: Winnipeg Victorias beat Montreal Victorias, 2-0

·       1896 Theodor Herzl publishes "Der Judenstaat"

·       1895 Oscar Wilde's "Importance of Being Earnest," opens in London

·       1894 Venus is both a morning star and evening star

·       1890 1st NSW vs. South Australia 1st-class cricket game

·       1889 1st train load of fruit (oranges) leaves Los Angeles for east

·       1887 Cubs sell Mike King Kelly to Boston for record $10,000

·       1883 1st state labor union legislation; New Jersey legalizes unions

·       1879 Chilean troops occupy Antofagasta

·       1876 A G Bell and Elisha Gray apply separately for telephone patents Supreme Court eventually rules Bell rightful inventor

·       1872 1st state bird refuge authorized (Lake Merritt, California)

·       1867 Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Co. issues 1st policy

·       1867 Morehouse College organizes (Augusta Georgia)

·       1862 Galena, 1st U.S. iron-clad warship for service at sea, launched, Connecticut

·       1859 Oregon admitted as 33rd state

·       1848 James K. Polk became 1st President photographed in office by Matthew Brady

·       1803 Apple parer patented by Moses Coats, Downington, Pennsylvania

·       1794 1st U.S. textile machinery patent granted, to James Davenport, Philadelphia

·       1778 "Stars and Stripes" arrives in foreign port for 1st time (France)

·       1766 Dutch governor Falck signs Treaty of Batticaloa with rebels

·       1746 Henry Pelham appointed English premier

·       1711 Handels opera Rinaldo, premieres

·       1689 English parliament places Mary Stuart/Prince Willem III on the throne

·       1670 Roman Catholic emperor Leopold I chases Jews out of Vienna

·       1630 Dutch fleet of 69 ships reaches Pernambuco Brazil

·       1613 King James I's daughter Elizabeth marries Frederik

·       1610 Polish king Sigismund III, Forges Dimitri #2 and Romanov family sign covenant against czar Vasili Shushki

·       1556 Archbishop Thomas Cranmer declared a heretic

·       1540 Emperor Charles V enters Ghent without resistance, executes rebels

·       1130 Jewish Cardinal Pietro Pierleone elected as anti-pope Anacletus II

·       1076 Pope Gregory VII excommunicates Henry IV

·       1014 Pope Benedict VIII crowns Henry II, Roman German emperor

·       842 Charles II and Louis the German sign treaty

Support your local foodbank

I know that Valentines Day is tomorrow, but as we think about honoring our loved ones, I want you to consider that many Canadians face hunger every day. For those of us who are fortunate enough not to be in that situation,we consider giving flowers and candies to our loved ones. Something to think about, instead of honoring your love with candies or flower, perhaps a donation to the foodbank in their name would be a more thoughtful gift

Every March the Food Bank of Canada puts out its Hunger Count, Now is a good time for us to think about supporting your local Food Bank, Here are some sad statistics from last March.  

In March 2015, 852,137 people received food from a food bank in Canada. More than one-third of those helped were children. 80,000 people seek help for the first time each month

Households that make the difficult decision to ask for help from food banks tend to be the most severely food insecure because their incomes are too low to cover even the most basic needs:

·       7% of households helped by food banks live primarily on income from a pension

·       16% of those assisted earn the majority of their income through work

·       18% of households receive disability-related income supports

·       46% of households accessing food banks are on provincial social assistance benefits

The households that request assistance are often forced to limit their spending on food because of the high and relatively inflexible cost of housing;

·       5% of households accessing food banks are homeless, with the majority of these living temporarily with family or friends

·       7% own their homes

·        20% of those assisted live in social housing, with subsidized rents

·       67% of households helped live in rental housing and pay market-level rents

Finally, the family composition of those accessing food banks is diverse:

·       10% of households accessing food banks are couples without children

·       44% of those helped are families with children, and nearly half of these are two-parent families

·       46% of households assisted are composed of single individuals – a group that continues to grow, having gradually increased from just 30% of the total in 2001

The Hunger Count not only tells us how many Canadians do not have food security, it makes recommendations on how to solve the problem. It is an important document and it can be read in full here

The following snapshots from the Hunger Count shows the extent of the problem:

The State of Homelessness in Canada

There was an interesting report that came out a couple of years ago, that looked at “The State of Homelessness in Canada”. It was published in 2013. It is the first extensive Canadian report card on homelessness published in 2013. This report examines what we know about homelessness, the historical, social and economic context in which it has emerged, demographic features of the problem, and potential solutions. The State of Homelessness provides a starting point to inform the development of a consistent, evidence-based approach towards ending homelessness.

The report was written by Stephen Gaetz, Jesse Donaldson, Tim Richter, & Tanya Gulliver (2013): The State of Homelessness in Canada 2013. Toronto: Canadian Homelessness Research Network Press.

The Homeless Hub (www.homelesshub.ca ) is a web-based research library and resource centre, supported by the Canadian Homelessness Research Network

In 2012, a new Canadian Definition of Homelessness was released by the Canadian Homelessness Research

Network:

“Homelessness describes the situation of an individual or family without stable, permanent, appropriate housing, or the immediate prospect, means and ability of acquiring it. It is the result of systemic or societal barriers, a lack of affordable and appropriate housing, the individual/household’s financial, mental, cognitive, behavioural or physical challenges, and/or racism and discrimination.

Most people do not choose to be homeless, and the experience is generally negative, unpleasant, stressful and distressing.” (CHRN, 2012: 1)

When we talk about homelessness there are many different types, according to the report there is a range of housing and shelter circumstances:

1) UNSHELTERED - living on the streets or in places not intended for human habitation

2) EMERGENCY SHELTERED - staying in overnight emergency shelters designed for people who are homeless

3) PROVISIONALLY ACCOMMODATED – people who are homeless whose accommodation is temporary or lacks security of tenure, including interim (or transitional) housing, people living temporarily with others (couch surfing), or living in institutional contexts (hospital, prison) without permanent housing arrangements.

4) AT RISK OF HOMELESSNESS - people who are not homeless, but whose current economic and/or housing situation is precarious or does not meet public health and safety standards.

Recent data from a March 2013 Ipsos Reid poll suggests that as many as 1.3 million Canadians have experienced homelessness or extremely insecure housing at some point during the past five years.

The number of Canadians who experience homelessness on any given night in Canada is estimated to be approximately 30,000 individuals. This is the best estimate of homelessness developed in Canada to date, and includes people who are:

I. UNSHELTERED (outside in cars, parks, on the street) – 2,880

II. STAYING IN EMERGENCY HOMELESSNESS SHELTERS – 14,400

III. STAYING IN VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN SHELTERS – 7,350

IV. PROVISIONALLY ACCOMMODATED (homeless but in hospitals, prison or interim housing) – 4,464

Interestingly, those 65 years of age and older comprised just over 1.7 percent of shelter users, which may be explained by the expanded benefits accessible to seniors, but also by the much higher mortality rate of chronically homeless persons (Hwang, et al. 2009

Canada has a long way to go in order to end the homeless crisis, but it has also made some definite steps in the right direction. We can lean on our international partners in the U.S., the UK and Australia and learn from their successes (and failures) rather than reinventing the solution. A focus on Housing First, early intervention and the development of affordable housing are all keys to being able to move away from the emergency response phase of homeless service provision.

We also have a great many promising and best practices within Canada that should be used as examples. The untold stories of successes need to be shared so they can be replicated. The Homeless Hub website contains a wealth of resources, including a follow-up report on the State of Homelessness in Canada 2014 and case studies to help communities learn from one another.

Changes need to occur at all levels of government and commitments of financial resources and political will to end homelessness need to be established. Maintaining people in a state of homelessness is costly; ending homelessness is the goal we should all be seeking for financial and moral reasons.

Should we lower teachers wages?

I read an interesting report on Teachers salary and the impact on student learning. The report was written by David R. Johnson for the CD Howe Institute. As a BC Teacher, I was not surprised to see that we were the lowest paid. I am proud of the fact we in BC are students have consistently received high academic results. 

After reading the commentary I am drawn to the conclusion that the CD Howe Institute is laying the groundwork which will allow provincial governments to slow the growth of teachers salary and benefits as stated here:

Across these six provinces, the reality is that paying teachers relatively more is not associated with better results.

This Commentary comes to two clear conclusions. Public teacher compensation, when measured using relative earnings, shows significant variation across the six largest Canadian provinces. However, comparable student achievement assessment results are not lower in provinces where teachers are paid relatively less. Factors other than teacher compensation that are unexplored here may better explain the interprovincial variation in student achievement results.

The policy implications are fairly clear. There appears to be room to reduce the growth of teacher compensation relative to other occupations so that teachers in other provinces end up in similar salary percentiles to teachers in BC. It would also seem that other provinces could implement much less generous pension rules, emulating those in British Columbia. The BC PISA results suggest that, despite considerably lower levels of overall relative compensation, BC attracts persons to be teachers who produce high-quality outcomes.

It is unrealistic to expect that such a compensation change could occur quickly in provinces where teacher salaries fall into higher percentiles. Still, relative salaries could be reduced gradually by having a series of wage settlements where increases are less than the rate of inflation. Pension factors could also be adjusted very gradually so that the 85 (or 80 in the case of Manitoba) factor could rise by six months each year for a decade. This would allow an orderly change in retirement plans by teachers.

In the report Mr. Johnson also makes some other interesting points, which are summarized below:

In this Commentary, I look at teacher compensation in elementary and secondary publicly funded schools across Canada’s six most populous provinces and ask, “Do provinces that pay their teachers more achieve better results?”

There is significant variation in teacher salaries in these provinces – Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Manitoba and Ontario pay the most relative to other employees in their own province, while BC teacher wages are usually the lowest in relative terms.

In examining comparable academic assessments of teacher salaries and student achievement in these six Canadian provinces, I have come to this conclusion: there is no clear relationship between province-wide student results and relative teacher pay. For example, BC students, whose public school teachers have among the lowest relative salaries, generally achieve the same or better academic results as students in other provinces.

These findings suggest that factors other than high salaries and attracting stronger candidates into teaching play an important role in achieving better results. Indeed, the slightly better student achievement results (they are only slightly better and often not statistically different) in British Columbia and Alberta might lead policymakers to ask what other factors play a role in those provinces.

The menu of possibilities is quite large. Richards et al. (2008) and Richards (2014) show that British Columbia handles its Aboriginal students differently than other provinces and gets more positive outcomes. Friesen et al. (2015) make the argument that open enrolments at schools and the ensuing competition for students in British Columbia could be an important factor in attaining these better results.

Among the many policies and unique characteristics that may explain the differences in student assessment results across the provinces, this Commentary eliminates only the argument that paying teachers more is associated with better student performance.

One substantial difference among the six (provincial) plans is the time to qualify for a full pension without a reduction in benefits. BC teachers have the least generous formula to qualify – age plus years of service must total 90. Manitoba teachers have the most generous formula – age plus years of service must add up only to 80. Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario all use 85 as the qualifying factor. Quebec applies a more complicated formula in which the eligibility rule seems to fall between the 85 and 90 factors.