Testing the New $100 Bill Out

November 15th, 2011 Thomasso

Yes, I got one. A band-new crisp – plastic – One hundred dollar bill, fresh from the Canadian Mint. My first thought when I held it for the first time was, “this is weird.”

When I heard that the mint was going to be releasing a plastic One hundred dollar bill, I was sceptical. Actully, I laughed, becuase I always cracked jokes that sooner or later the Banks are only give out credit cards instead of cash to Canadians. The joke goes on to say  that we would have no choice but to use their curacy instead of legal tender. I thought that time had finally come when I heard this news of plastic money coming out. I had visions of plastic card being issued to every Canadian, and you got one for life – you just keep loading it up with credit every time you got paid from work. Perhaps a plot for a good story of Canada in the future?

It was last month that I seen the new looking bills for the first time on CBC News Television. CBC interviewed some of the people on the street to see if they could see some of the “sexual” images that people claimed to have seen from the mint’s focus group. I can say, you need a pritty good imagination to come up with that.

The bills feels weird. It is, with out any doubt, plastic. The texture, the transparent – see through – parts, are cool looking, and the anti-counterfeiting features are also pretty cool too. The little 3D holograms, and texts that appears when you hold the bill up to the light, also looks freakishly cool.

I like it. I am looking forward to seeing the other bills come out.

Posted in Events, General, Photographs, Social economics | Comments Off

The Electric Lazy Boy

November 7th, 2011 Thomasso

People and electricity have one very common attribute: both will always travel the path of least resistance. Sometimes this path of least resistance may not mean taking the shortest route. In some cases, this behaviour takes on the most illogical behaviour that baffle even the most brilliant minds who study human behaviour; but once the data are added up, then this behaviour makes sense, or takes on a pattern that can be replicated, then we can learn from it. An example that I am looking at are people who work, and are performing a tasked that they simply do not wish to undertake. I use the task of taking out the garbage as my case example.

Now, the dumping of garbage, or waste, has some rules, or parameters that must be kept. Imagine if in your neighbourhood someone just dumped a bag of trash in the middle of your street – you would be upset. There are rules, like using a bag, and putting that bag into a sturdy container. Once the container is ready for dumping, it is then taken to the dumpster (if your neighbourhood has one). You would never dream of just letting the bag of trash sit in the middle of your driveway, or be placed along the farthest edge of your property line hoping that some small rodent will carry it the rest of the way for you to the dumpster.

We live in a time when you just cannot throw everything into the dumpster. We now have rules, or by-laws, that prohibit some materials from going into the mean-stream landfill. One such item is the material known as cardboard. Cardboard is the material that makes cardboard boxes. Cardboard can be recycled, and is therefore kept separate from the rest of the garbage that we throw out. Cardboard boxes generally come in the form of a cube shape, when consumers purchases their goods that are packaged by these cube like structures. The endgame with cardboard boxes that are going to be disposed of, is to change them from a cube, into a shape that will take up the least amount of physical space possible – usually we call this process, flattening. Flattening does require some labour, depending on the size and strength of the cardboard.

So, as per garbage etiquette, we separate different materials that go into the waste collection bins, and also, we need to do some processing to help facilitate our obligations to this waste separation process, such as flattening of cardboard. Failure to this leads to inefficiencies in the system as a whole, and adds more costs to the program which is felt by all who are in directly responsible for it. As for the human who acts like electricity, and is caught up in the whole physics of taking the path of least resistance, his laziness now burdens the added costs onto to the rest of the community. By not flattening his cardboard boxes, he has now taken up space inside the bin that could normally hold three times that amount, and now has added a cost to the rest of the community who wish to add  their cardboard to the bin.

Sadly in our punitive style system of public works, we all have to pay for this one individual. Added to this sadness, there is no way of enforcing the waste separation rule. We cannot “arrest” him, or prohibit him from using the waste bins. All we can do is watch this electrical thinking individual continue to travel the path of least resistance. Perhaps shamming is the only tool we have left of helping our community without violating our higher laws that govern our society?

Just throwing this out there.

Posted in Criminology, Diatribe, General, Humour, Social economics, Social Justice, Story Telling | Comments Off

Going to the Polls – Civic Election Langley

November 3rd, 2011 Thomasso

One would think that there is an election going on with the sudden crop of election signs that just popped up along every roadway and field throughout town. According to my sources on Twitter, and verified on the various webpages that I read, we have one coming up on November 19, 2011, a Saturday. If that was not enough, I have being approached by two friends who have friends of their own who asked if I would help out planting election signs with them. I had to decline becuase of my super busy schedule, but they gave me the “dirt” based on their perspectives and ideologies about the upcoming election, and why it is so important to get the word out and get people to vote.

You need the information about this civic election?

Well, here is a good place to start: Township of Langley Elections.

I am not going to go into a big long spew about why it is so important to vote, and why those who do not vote are saying that democracy has failed us, and that your vote does not matter. Nor am I going to go into the whole morel and ethical reasoning of why living in a democracy is better than living under a dictatorship, or regime. The choice is really yours to make. However, I do encourage everyone who can vote, get out and vote, especially for a civic election.

Why is voting in a civic election so important?

Of all major levels of government, your municipality is going to effect you the most. Everything from business to property tax, your schools, fire departments, policing, street cleaning, (to name but a few) these are huge areas of costs and services, and they effect you directly. Yes, even those who rent are directly effected by how your municipality runs and operates!

So on November 19, 2011, get off your butt, out from your arm chair, and head down to the polling stations to cast your vote(s). Do some research on who you want to run. You will be faced with a number of choices, unlike provincial and federal elections where you pick “one of the above;” civic election you will be choosing a number of candidates to run for a number of seats and boards at once.

Vote!

By the way, I do not represent any of the candidates, or political parties that are running in this civic election for Langley Township.

Posted in Around Town, Events, General, Photographs, Socail Media, Social economics, Social Justice | Comments Off

Social Apathy, or a Psychological Problem

October 29th, 2011 Thomasso

I have been desensitized over the years with news stories of human suffering and tragedy. In my academic studies in criminology, I have read, encountered, and studied both the purely bad and truly evil acts that humans have done, and through this, I have built up a resistance from these deviants, and often criminal cases. However, once in a while, a case pops up that adds a new level to this playing field that supersedes my definition of sick and twisted. The news story of two year old Wang Yueyue who was run over twice on October 13th, 2011, and then eight passers-by walked by her as she lay in the back alley injured from the first vehicle impact (CBCnews, ABC news & BBC news Television, October 14th to October 21, 2011). All of this was captured on a security video camera.

The video footage was grainy, and CBC News censored the image of the child, capturing from the time that she was impacted by the first vehicle, all the people that walked passed her body a she struggled for help, then a second vehicle hitting her, to finally a woman who grabbed her and took her to safety. Even with the child’s body blurred out, the image still shocked me. I had to turn off the television and retreat from what my eyes had just seen.

I knew right away. I knew what had happened as to why so many people walked by as I remembered my lessons in psychology on topics such as “Group Think” and “Passers By” conditions. Could this be prevented, say training people to stop and care?

China is by no means the only place where this has happened. It has happened in Canada, the U.S., Europe, just about anywhere around the world. Some argue that laws and cases where the victim has litigated by the rescuer for causing further injury, is a reason for not getting involved (CBC news, “Was the law at fault in Chinese toddler tragedy?” Oct 22, 2011). Others say that they just do not want to get involved and bare the responsibility and the time that it would take and to deal with the repercussions afterwards (CBC News).

There are people who just do not want to get involved. Simply put, most people in large groups will not even look directly at a victim of need because this would mean taking time, diverting from one’s course, and blending in, following the flow of the crowd. So hiding in numbers makes it easier not to look.

In Canada, we have the right not to rescue in some circumstances. This means that if I see a person drowning in the ocean, and I cannot swim, the Criminal Code protects me from not rescuing the drowning victim because I would then be also putting myself in the same danger as the drowning victim. In Canada, according to the Supreme Court of Canada:

According to the trial judge of a modern case, later affirmed by the Supreme Court of Canada, “the law is clear that there is no general duty to come to the rescue of another person … the law leaves the remedy to a person’s conscience.” (“Duty to Rescue,” PSW Law Website: 2009)

However, there are some circumstance that would tie a duty to rescue under statutory law, such as a parent, a person of trust, a life guard, and so on (PSW Law: 2009 Website).

My point to this post is why so many people walked by while the little girl lay on the road at the point of death. Perhaps, as many have said on the media, we must change our values and take action. Some have gone further and saying that laws need to be rewritten to reflect a high moral standard, while others are saying that the law is not the answer, but teaching people to be proactive rather than being nonactive.

I also need to add a legal disclaimer here too: This post is not to be used as information for legal advice, and I encourage you all to do further research on this topic if you need to find a specific legal issue about this. Also, these laws vary from country to country. According to the media, several people were charged in China who injured the little girl while driving their vehicles, so the law enforcement authorities did enforce the law in accordance to that country’s penal code (CBC news, Oct 24, 2011).

This post was originally written on October 24, 2011

Source

ABC News, 2011: “Chinese Toddler Ignored After Hit-and-Run Dies” Oct 21, 2011: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/chinese-toddler-left-bloody-hit-run-dies-14784046

BBC World News, 2011: “Anger and debate over hit-and-run toddler Wang Yue,” Oct 21 2011: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-15401055

CBC News, 2011: “Chinese toddler run over twice dies,” Oct 21, 2011: http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/10/21/toddler-china.html

CBC News, 2011: “Was the law at fault in Chinese toddler tragedy?” Oct 22, 2011: http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/10/22/f-china-yue.html

PSW Law, 2009: http://pswlaw.ca/2009/06/duty-to-rescue/

Posted in Criminal Law, Criminology, Diatribe, General, Law, Law and Order, Socail Media, Social Justice | Comments Off

The Rightness of Wrongness: The Canadian Right

October 25th, 2011 Thomasso

Earlier today I sat in on a gathering of people who talked about the changing evolution of corrections (prisons) that Canadian society was moving towards. A lot of what was said falls into the category of classical social fear; crime is getting out of control and safety for property and person were at the top of the list from almost every speaker who lead the discussion. The dynamics of the meeting was subtle, but from person to person who gave their input, I could see that each changed to fit the “group think” attitudes that prevailed until everyone just agreed.

Am I surprised?

No.

Categorically, the meeting ended with each speaker making a statement that issued an appeal to the government, law enforcement, and to their fellow citizen to pull together and help clamp down on the crime menace. None of the speakers would, however, answer the one key question that hung over the entire meeting, “have you ever been a victim of a crime within the last twelve months”?

The speaker that I thought was the “most out to lunch” was actually the star of the show, so to speak. He was loud, captured the audience, and made tens of statements in less than three minutes before he sat down. His introduction was extreme, and waisted little time getting to the point. He said, “The only real experts on crime are C.O.P.s (sic), and those academics have no clue what is out their in the real world… to create a bunch of theories does not fix anything, we need action now…, and we need to do something about the issues instead of thinking like a bleeding heart Liberal (sic).”

Obviously I cannot argue with someone who has closed their mind to the openness and vastness of human society and the intricateness of human psychology. However, I can make him think further, and go beyond the single brush stroke statements, and make him see that the issues cannot be painted with just one colour. But time is the great definer of getting that message across, and time was not on my side–time ran out for me.

There were several issues that really concerned me that came out of this meeting today. Most are very serious in that they are false and misleading from the truth based on scientific facts. To discount peer reviewed studies, is like going back to the Witch Hunts of the Dark-ages, ignoring the enlightenment of human ontology. To invoke fear, well, that is in itself is a criminal act depending upon the level of unsighted accusations being made, and this gathering came close to breaking that threshold.

In terms of rhetoric, the foundation of my friend’s logos, cited the media as proof enough that crime has gone beyond what anyone organisation can manage to deal with. And with that, came the pathos of his argument, that we should fear, becuase the changing face of our country is diminishing, and we (his group) will be swept a way if we (he) sit back and do nothing. And finally, his ethos of his closing statement was based on his next door neighbour being a police officer, and confiding in him (the speaker) of the moral dilemma of why even the police are powerless in the war on crime.

What I have witnessed today is typical of a group who are trying to deal with a problem that goes beyond the scope that most care to deal with today at a complex level. The study of crime and deviance is a huge field, with many branches that stem into a vast array of specialised fields, as each field has developed into its own faculty or discipline, and few have studied under all of them. I studied Criminology, and I continue on today with that study, looking at both the social and psychological perspectives of humankind; so I try to go to these gathering in hopes that I can broaden the mind of the general public and move forward to a better society. “Baby steps” as an old friend used to say to me, “baby steps.” Not everyone is an academic.

Posted in Criminal Law, Criminology, Diatribe, General, Law, Law and Order, Socail Media, Social Justice | 2 Comments »

Looking at the Money Tree

October 7th, 2011 Thomasso

I have being giving this a lot of thought lately as our economic world falls into the abyss. Everyone is touting that Canada is doing so good in terms of economics, saying that we will weather the bad times and continue on without any devastating crashes compared to the other countries that we stand beside. But for some strange reason, I feel we are not doing as well as our elected and non-elected official are saying.

My doubt is from seeing more and more people on the streets, in and around the Langley Township area, where I live. Sure, the police and public do a great job of forcing the homeless off of the streets, from plain view, during the day, but this is a totally different story when out at night. Every now and then I like to hike the trail called the “Fort to Fort Trail” that follows the Fraser River from where Fort Langley is located.  It is a great trail to walk and run, and it is used a lot, both day and night. However, at night, in the bushes along that path, you can expect to see one or more homeless people camping out.

So, in these tough economics times, and living in a country with so much wealth, why are there homeless people, when, according to our leaders, we are doing so well? Yes, I know the answer(s), but I like asking the question.
I see two classes of homeless now. I see those with mental illnesses, who cannot manage themselves in normal circumstances, and I see people, young and old, who can work, who have education, but are unemployed. Both groups are of great concern to me.

Why do I care? I care because in a country like Canada, we seem to have lost something in our identity, in ourselves, and in our national fabric of how we see ourselves. We seem to have replaced liberalism with something dark and bitter. This started way before the economic meltdown of 2008-09. This was an escalating problem back when times were booming, and Canada was facing a labour shortage. I saw “something” thrown out with the bathwater, as the saying goes, and our good name went with it. The “haves” and “have-not” gap grew in the last decade, based on my own observations, and this really made me ask questions.

I really believe that this issue must be kept up on top of our list of problems socially, so that it is not something that slips down to the bottom of the list of priorities that are of least important. I somehow wish the media would report this message ten times a day, rather than the petty crimes that get front page status all of the time.

Sadly, I believe that Canada has changed, and this change is not something that is totally pure and beneficial to all mankind. Or, maybe Canada was always like this, and I was naive in the lenses of the rose coloured glasses of liberal ideology?

Posted in Around Town, Criminology, Diatribe, General, Law and Order, Social economics, Social Justice | 2 Comments »

Debt Dummies & Dr. Doom Here

September 15th, 2011 Thomasso

I just had a phone call conversion with an old friend from up in Terrace who is going through a bit of a pickle with his personal money situation. He was terrified and decided to look me up after nearly ten years of no contact. The last time we spoke, I was experiencing my own financial trouble with the then HSBC down here in Vancouver, and how I all-of-sudden awoke one day to find my life in ruins from just one bad money decision I made. He was moving back up North becuase he could not find a house that was in his price range. Even back in 1999, times in Canada were oddly rough for most wage earners. So he found me and was desperate to find anyway possible to save his home and family.

I am not a financial expert, nor am I even close to being a guru on such matters. I solved my problems through very unconventional means, but the sacrifices that I made back then are not something endorsed by the mainstream. In fact, and I can say this quite loudly, my answers and current practices are considered atrocious by the Banking community, but nonetheless, solved my problems, and freed my life substantially.

To put it simply, my friend’s days of being a home owner are numbered. He has been given his eviction notice from the Bank and mortgage company, and the house will be placed up for sale in a matter of a few weeks. His family is also going through the pains of this huge upheaval. Both him and his wife are now unemployed as the jobs that they held up in the area have since downsized and  shrivelled up. He is now doing cash jobs, scavenging metal from old equipment left out in remote logging sites from over the years and transporting it to scrap dealers in the Pacific North West.  It is very labour intensive, and his return on investment very low.

His issue that he wanted to talk to me about was how to keep his family together. His wife, who seems to be taking the eviction harshly, is so depressed that she is on medication from the stress. His son, 9 years of age, is not performing in school as well as he ought to be, thus adding to an already over boiling pot of stress that he is trying to deal with. And with the pressure to keep the kids fed, dressed and going to school, so too are his needs of finding enough money to pay for gas to work, while on top of this, looking for an affordable place to rent, thus trying to save for the damage deposit and first months rent.

He did try to apply for help with the government, but he quickly learned that there was no help to be given. He never qualified for Employment Insurance while his wife’s income from the insurance benefit only pays for the food and utilities. Government compensation is limited to scarce for most Canadians families in need in today’s economy.

The hope that I offered him was that of change. Adapting and changing in this world of evolution seems to be the key to surviving economic shifts like the double dip rescission that we are in today. Change is rough, especially up North, when everything changes so slowly and lifestyles are always a generation behind. He needs to take a page from the people of Vancouver and surrounding areas in the South. Here, rent consumes on average 80 percent of ones total income for low income wage earners–he needs to follow that up their in Terrace–living with less income.

So, therefore, a lifestyle change is needed to reflect this new era of Canadian living, and that is strictly based on being a smarter consumer. Gone are the days of impulse buying and the use of credit cards. Habits such as smoking and drinking are costs that really need to be taken in to consideration with limited income, no matter how depressed today’s social climate is, he needs to stop this. Going back to a single car, and buying in bulk from large shopping centres and big box stores is the new norm now, and is almost a necessity.

So, I thought about the tone of the words that my friend used when we talked over the phone, and it inspired me to write this post. Everywhere I look, I can see the signs of this playing out. I now think that the second wave of economic chaos is going to be more negatively stronger than the crash of 2008-9. What is different is that we are still spending like the first wave never happened, but this time, it is all credit and borrowed money, not savings and cash. I do not see very many people planning ahead, but instead willing to duck and cover, maybe using the bankruptcy card to play when the dam breaks open?

I wish my friend from up in Terrace well, and hope that his him and his family will weather this storm fairly.

Posted in Diatribe, General, Social economics | 2 Comments »

A Cool Open Source Forensic Tool

September 9th, 2011 Thomasso

I learned of this program from a friend at my work who went through a similar situation that I just went through described in this post. He told me about TestDisk, which calls itself a “powerful free data recovery software,” program that is designed for situations like recovering photos and other files from damaged partitions and hard drives. It is not a fancy User Interface, so this will no doubt scare off most Window$ Users, but it was intended to work in a Terminal/DOS environment. Do not get me wrong, the application is very simple, basic and powerful! I highly recommend it, even if you are a newbie, or dabbler user of computers, this program could save your bacon.

The Scenario

A friend of mine asked me to look at his laptop because the hard drive was damaged. He needed to get some photographs so that he could finish a project for the company. His back-up hard drive was stolen just a week ago, which held the files, so in a last ditch attempted I agreed to have a look at the laptop and see what could be selvedge from it. The laptop was damaged too, so getting the files from it meant wiring it to my PC, and doing the recovery this way.

The problems that I faced were two fold. First, the hard drive was able to power up and generally work, but several of the jumpers were damaged. If I moved the cable just a bit, the drive would shut down and I would have to restart it again to connect to back to it. Second, the disk was partitioned with Window$ and Linux. Normally not a big deal, but the Linux side of it was encrypted, so lurking through that side of the partition was difficult. I could see most directories and all the system files, but moving through his Home directory meant using a password every time I moved from one directory to the other.

Within an hour we had pulled off what we could from the broken hard drive, and recovered about 30 percent of what he believed was on the disk.

Using the Program

To start the command (In Linux) type: sudo testdisk

Once the program loads up on the Terminal (or DOS) window, just follow the easy to use prompts.  This program operates and functions just like, or similar to, what the forensics teams use in various police agencies. I was amazed at how some of the files were that were still on the disk (that were supposedly deleted right from when his machine was purchased), about five years ago, and we could still see them!

The TestDisk Website: TestDisk

Posted in Criminology, General, Software | 2 Comments »

Paperclip Etiquette

September 7th, 2011 Thomasso

Today, at my work, we were talking about some of the conventions and standards that we have from Mother Corp for our everyday operations. Some are commonsense, and obvious, while others, mystifying and comical, and a couple of them even dumbfounded me that they even exists in the first place.

Because the company that I do my Volunteering work with is tied with the Federal government, these rules have cemented themselves among the civilian end of Corrections Canada. Anyone who has worked with, or as a civil servant, should know that these “rules” exsits in a huge way.

We have a handbook that sits in the photocopier room, and in it, there is a section on Paper Clips. According to that book, we are only allowed to use two types of paperclips: a 2.5cm and 4cm size. Nothing else is acceptable according to this book.

So myself and some other staff members thought that we really needed to update this book, as it was published in 1996. So we came up with 7 rules of Paperclip Etiquette to coincide with Mother Corp’s rules and conventions. Here they are:

Paperclip Etiquette

Rule #1 Using a tiny paperclip to hold 150 sheets of paper together is poor judgement. Use a monster size one instead.

Rule #2 Reusing them is good commonsense, but only if they are not bent out of shape.

Rule #3 Do not use a staple if you need to run the papers through a photocopier. Use a paperclip instead.

Rule #4 Putting a paperclip in your mouth is gross. It is like me coughing all over you.

Rule #5 Please keep them separate. Making a paperclip chain is not good efficient use of paperclip resources and time.

Rule #6 Do not use paperclips as a bookmarker. Use designated paper bookmakers instead.

Rule #7 Keep Paperclips dry. Some paperclips rust. (This is why you should keep them out of your mouth, Rule #4).

Posted in Criminology, Diatribe, General, Humour, Social economics | Comments Off

The Labour Day Weekend

September 5th, 2011 Thomasso

Well, this is it, our last weekend of unofficial summer. From here on in we must start bracing for fall, or winter, which ever comes first. Right now it seems that summer can go on for ever, but experience tells me that all of this wonderful weather can end in a day, and the Northern hemisphere can be enveloped into darkness for the next six to seven months. What a dismal thought?

As a precursor to the fall season, I have already started on my Halloween costume. I want to have it done well before the festivities start. This year I will have the lights, the mannequins and scary photos adorning my home. I know this will spark a holy war with my neighbour who believes that anything pagan is punishable to public prosecution, but last year, we, as in the rest of my neighbours, asked him to mind his own business and stick to himself, and we would do the same. So far we are one big happy neighbourhood, but that could end at any moment. But that will not put a damper on my Halloween—he can move!

My friends are going back to their classes for their fall semester starting tomorrow. I already miss those days. Yes, I miss the new classroom smells, and that feeling of starting off a new term, and getting new textbooks and supplies. OK, I am happy that I have no more classes, and that I have money in my wallet because I do not have to give it to admissions, but damn it, I had so much fun back then. My friends look at me with envy, and I look at them with nostalgia. School, it conjure up both hell and happiness, I miss it.

So tomorrow, I go back to work. It will be a super busy day, like having two Mondays wrapped up into one. Fall is also a busiest time out of the year for us, so extra pressure will be on us to get the job done. In a way I am looking forward to it. I guess part of old age is knowing what to expect based on having been there and done that—the philosophy of a Gen-X’er. I am also mindful that our economy it still hurting, and that at any moment North America could come crashing down into a economic abyss. I listen, watch and prepare, while working as hard as I can but knowing that this could be a harsh year if the wrong path is taken. “We will see,” as my optimums friend says.

Now for some summer fun relaxation before the clouds roll in!

Posted in Around Town, Bitching about weather, Diatribe, Events, General, Holiday, Humour, University classes | 1 Comment »