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Thursday, April 21, 2011

Memories of the Northern Lights


In The Land Of The Northern Lights from Ole Christian Salomonsen on Vimeo.

Many years ago I made a night crossing in my sailboat of northern Lake Huron with three friends. After midnight the North Lights appeared. First, they appeared low on the northern horizon. Then they spread along the horizon, heading east and west. As they moved along the horizon, they also extended farther and farther into the middle of the once dark, night sky above. When half the sky was claimed, the lights then conquered to the remaining half of the sky. At the height of the activity the shimmering, dancing, mostly green lights filled the sky. It was one of the most amazing sights I have ever witnessed.

For a window into that night, check out the embedded video.

I must thank Laura Arnold for tipping me off about this video via a Facebook link. Thank you, Laura.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Reporting "Foul play not suspected"

My late friend's art had clues revealing mental illness.
Recently, the Western Journalism Project London ran an online story Youth suicide: Breaking the silence.

Having worked for newspapers since the early '70s, my interest was immediate. I cannot count the number of stories that I have been involved with that were silenced when it became clear suicide was the cause of death.

As a general rule, neither paper at which I worked reported suicides in any depth. Give no details was the working rule. Even suicide attempts were off limits.

Once I turned in pictures of a young girl lying injured on pavement near London's Harris Park. She was being comforted by passersby as they awaited the arrival of an ambulance. Very dramatic stuff. The pictures never ran. The girl had injured herself jumping from a roadway overpass in a failed suicide attempt.

Now, I am reading that media outlets, traditionally afraid of provoking copycat suicides by reporting suicides without constraints, may be dropping the somewhat self imposed ban. Is this true? Larry Cornies, professor of journalism at Conestoga College, believes it is:

“We’re in it,” said Cornies. “We have come from this era where we saw it (suicide) as a great taboo and we’re now beginning to understand suicide much more as a mental illness and we’re adjusting our plans accordingly.”

"The copycat argument that has been used so often in the past doesn’t hold as much sway as it used to,” he said.


If Cornies is right, I hope the media has considered the guidelines for reporting suicide published by the Canadian Psychiatric Association (CPA). According to the CPA, there is solid evidence showing that media reporting of suicides is linked to copycat suicides among young people under 24 years of age.

This is not a new position. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States reported the same thing back in 1989. A national workshop addressed suicide contagion and made recommendations to reduce the number of suspected media-related suicides.

Both the Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention (CASP) and the Center for Disease Control (CDC) have provided the media with specific guidelines on reporting suicide. Unfortunately, many reporters are not acquainted with the guidelines. I wonder if the journalism students at Western know about the guidelines.

A quick check of media reports revealed many, possibly all, in the MSM media in Canada handled the suicide of the former student with traditional care. CBC News reported that the young, missing student "suffered from a medical condition that could be harmful to her health." CTV said the young woman had "been found dead. . . . foul play is not suspected."

Suicide: Quick reference card (Australia)
Why the journalism students would report "We’re now beginning to understand suicide much more as a mental illness" puzzles me. When I was in art school in the '60s, I knew a young man who took his life; It did not come as a surprise. Everyone, students, faculty and family, all had worried about his mental health and apparent depression. In fact, one art instructor had arranged a meeting with a mental health doctor but the student killed himself the weekend before his appointment.

In Australia the government has the Mindframe National Media Initiative providing accurate information about suicide and mental illness. The goal is to influence the portrayal of these issues in the news media, on stage and in film.

In Great Britain  The Media Wise Trust has released Sensitive Coverage Saves Lives --- a move to improve the portrayal of suicide in the media.

I'm proud to say that both the Sault Daily Star and The London Free Press both generally followed the guidelines on reporting suicide while I was employed at those papers.

The media is not always insensitive.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

A little food with that sugar?

 Cool demonstration.

Watch Jamie Oliver graphically illustrate that kids are getting too much sugar in their diets. And some of that sugar is coming from an unsuspected source: flavoured milk!

Monday, April 11, 2011

These should never see a landfill. Never!

Note steam sealing lip on decades-old Lifetime cookware.
My wife just inherited some stainless steel cookware: Lifetime brand.

I took one look at this stuff and told her, "This cookware is better than your Paderno." My wife disagreed. Her stainless steel cookware is marketed as "Paderno: Pots for eternity." She pointed out that this stuff only promises to last a lifetime.

Whatever, the point is that both companies made promises they could keep; Stainless steel pots can last indefinitely. The only thing that can immediately shorten the life of a stainless steel pot is extreme heat. Twist the heat control to max on your range and you run the risk of overheating your pot. If our stove's maximum element setting was half of what it is now, I'd be happy; And our pots would be happy.

With all the talk of green, let's hear it for well-make stainless steel pots. Buy 'em once and use 'em thousands of times. Take care of 'em and hand 'em down from generation to generation. And if the next generation doesn't want 'em, sell 'em. I figure the full set that my wife inherited would fetch at least a hundred dollars if she decided to sell. (She gave them to a friend.)

Lifetime cookware was originally made by West Bend out of Wisconsin. The West Bend company was known for quality and so it is not surprise that the Lifetime brand originated with them. Today the cookware is still being made in the United States but now it is Regal making the famous West Bend, Wisconsin, line.

So what makes the Lifetime so good. The weight, the multi-ply construction, the quality of stainless steel and the design --- the heavy lids sit in a groove to trap steam. Their handles are their weakness. Paderno handles are stainless steel and spot welded to the pots and lids. On the plus side for Lifetime, the handles are still readily available for even these decades old pots. Still, I like the durability of the Paderno solution.

So what is the best cookware? Neither. Try Teknika by Silga out of Italy. This stuff is carried by David Mellor Design. (I got an email from a chap in British Columbia who also carries the Silga line. Here is a link to his Tuscan Kitchen in Victoria, BC.) This is beautiful cookware built for professional cooks. Heavy, high quality, stainless steel construction, multi-ply bottoms, fashionable stainless steel handles spot-welded to never loosen, and steam-sealing lid rims. Perfect.

My wife and I own one and it the best. One of her favorite chicken dishes, is started over a stove top element and moved to the oven to finish. When done, the pot always cleans up very easily. Although I do finish with a dab of stainless steel cleaner. I like the added shine.

The thing is, with just a little care, there is no reason for any of these products to ever end up in a landfill. (Our Paderno is now approaching three decades of constant use.)

We have a Teknika frying pan; It is a fave with expert cooks using our kitchen.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Look at my shadow! I'm a big girl!


Fiona thinks she is a big girl. She is 19-months going on 19 years. This is probably not quite true. I never had children of my own and so I'm just so surprised at the all the thinking that clearly goes on in young heads.

This is Fiona's first spring. This is her first foray into the outside world on her own two feet. And Fiona is quite enchanted with the world she is discovering. She can't get enough of the outside.

Yesterday I was doing the dishes and Fiona wandered out of the kitchen and into the front hallway. I could hear her puttering about and wondered what she was up to. Before I could dry my hands and take a look, Fiona appeared carrying my large coat. That coat is bigger than she is but she carried through the kitchen and handed it right to me. I knew what was up. She wanted to go outside.

I dried my hands and started putting on my coat when Fiona appeared again. This time she was carrying my shoes. I put them on, but before I could lace them up she was back. This time carrying my camera bag.

I slipped the camera bag strap over my shoulder and looked down to see Fiona. She was holding out my house keys. The kid's amazing.

Content that I had everything, Fiona waited patiently by the front door for my assistance in getting her into her coat and shoes.

19-months and she already knows enough to make sure granddad has his house keys. Like I said, "The kid's amazing."

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Now I'm getting spam!

I called the ad questionable and wondered why newspapers don't treat their advertising business with more respect. Advertising is how newspapers make money. Accepting questionable ads, and often placing them in prominent positions in the newspaper and on the companion Website, lessens the value of the newspaper ad franchise.

As I wrote in the previous post,

"The ad prominently displaced on the opening screen of The London Free Press Web page read, "View your credit score now". Just go to Free Credit Reports in Canada. It was clear this was a free service; There was no charge."

Well, I did go and I'm sorry. I worked through a number of screens but when asked for my credit card number I stopped. Today I got my first spam from these Free Credit Report people.


It makes me feel very uneasy that one of the companies that tracks our credit history and rates our credit worthiness may be behind this. You see, credit reports are free in Canada, if you don't count the cost of the stamp and business envelope necessary to send in a request for the information on file. To find out how to obtain a copy of your credit records for free, see my last post.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Questionable ads question a newspaper's integrity.


The ad prominently displaced on the opening screen of The London Free Press Web page read, "View your credit score now". Just go to Free Credit Reports in Canada. It was clear this was a free service; There was no charge.

Interested, I clicked; I got a screen asking for my name, complete address plus e-mail. This seemed reasonable. How else could they provide my credit score? Reasonable or not, I balked. I noticed the name TransUnion in the top right of the screen.

I googled "TransUnion" and discovered this was a major player in the credit reporting business in Canada. The other company is Equifax Canada. I also came across a CBC News in Depth report: "Checking your credit rating".

The first thing I learned from the CBC was that credit reports are free:

"You can ask for a free copy of your credit report by mail. . . . Complete details on how to order credit reports are available online." (Here are the links: TransUnion and Equifax Canada.)

So, what's up with the whole Free Credit Reports in Canada stuff? What's with the ad on The London Free Press Web site? Before continuing, I decided to do a little googling. I found a post on the blog Moo's virtual world: Privacy Protection Plus is a fraud. This privacy protection name was a new wrinkle, but interested I read on:


I read the blogger's post and then scanned the comments:

"I renewed my classmates.com account using my Visa. . . . 1st mistake. I don't recall being asked about any Privacy Protection or 24-hour Assistance. Just received this months bill and that I was being billed 19.95 for Privacy Proctection and another 19.95 for 24-hour Assistance. I called my credit card comp and they couldn't help me as it is Sunday. I tried contacting the company Privacy Proctection and again they are closed. I can't go online cuz I don't have a username and password. . . . what a scam. . . . I tried contacting Classmates and that was hopeless. I am not impressed with their underhanded techniques. How dare they allow another company to have access to my personal info and especially my credit card info? . . . ya I am PO'd and will be dealing with this first thing in the morning. Then I will be canceling my credit card.