Canadian cities in a quagmire?

December 19, 2008

We’re experiencing an exceptional cold weather spell in southwestern British Columbia, and last night a 47-year old homeless woman died in Vancouver.  She burned to death, trying to keep warm with a live fire; the police think her blankets must have caught fire. The story is all over the news of course, including here: Woman’s […]

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Articles all on Scribd now

December 17, 2008

Just a quick update re. my magazine articles for Focus: all articles are now available on Scribd. See them directly: Or go to my Articles published in FOCUS Magazine, Victoria, Canada page and click through to individual articles from there. What’s up/ what’s new? Well, the remainder of 2008 is up, and all the 2006 […]

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The Sunday Diigo Links Post (weekly)

December 14, 2008

Amsterdam cracks down on prostitution, cannabis: lessons for Victoria? « Robertrandall’s Weblog Rob blogged about Amsterdam’s re-think of its liberal laws regarding drug use (and prostitution, too). I left a *long* comment, a thinking-out-loud about how the factory system of education, coupled with a repression of creative risk-taking and innovation in the culture, enables and […]

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Drug use as side effect of suppressing innovation and risk-taking?

December 13, 2008

The other day Rob Randall posted an entry, Amsterdam cracks down on prostitution, cannabis: lessons for Victoria?, on which I left a long comment. Rob’s post was about how Amsterdam is reconsidering its liberal laws regarding drugs (and prostitution). My comment wasn’t about Amsterdam or about liberalizing drug laws (as such), but more discursive, “thinking-out-loud” […]

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The Sunday Diigo Links Post (weekly)

December 7, 2008

The Quivering Upper Lip by Theodore Dalrymple, City Journal Autumn 2008 Yes, he’s an old curmudgeon, but there are valid questions and true insights in this piece, which among other things basically asks, whatever happened to self-control and isn’t there something plain wrong with thinking that it’s now imperative to let it all hang out […]

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More Focus Magazine articles up on Scribd

December 6, 2008

I managed to scan & upload a few more articles, this time starting with October 2006, and managing to get through half of 2007.  See my Scribd page here for details – there are now 3 folders (2006, 2007, 2008), to make it easier to find articles chronologically. Next up, finish 2007, and then do […]

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Scribd updated with recent Focus Magazine articles

December 5, 2008

I finally updated my Scribd.com page with the past five months worth of my articles for Victoria’s Focus Magazine! That’s August, September, October, November, and December 2008. I’ll post an update with details (titles, etc.) later, and I also need to update my “Articles published in FOCUS Magazine” page here. In addition, I need to […]

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The Sunday Diigo Links Post (weekly)

November 30, 2008

Larry Beasley’s Simple Plan, by Frances Bula Vancouver Magazine First page of a 10-page piece on Larry Beasley & co., and how other cities are adopting and adapting the “Vancouver model.” It’s a bit short on substance, but there are some interesting bits if you’re willing to scroll across all 10 pages (each page is […]

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Great title for my letter-to-the-editor

November 28, 2008

I missed this when it was published on 11/13, but my letter in response to Les Leyne’s Times-Colonist column on the carbon tax (see my blog entry about it, Cracking cement: Industry and municipalities could work together) did make it into the paper. The editor came up with a witty title for it: Cast a […]

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Hiccup

November 24, 2008

Sadly, my Sunday Diigo Links post didn’t appear yesterday, which means interested readers will have to visit my Diigo page and look up what I bookmarked last week. One favourite, worth highlighting, is this: Introduction: By Paul Hawken – SustainLane Great defense of cities by Paul Hawken. QUOTE Urban migration represents a kind of collective […]

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