Uncover the lamp, and let it shine-November 29, 2009

By David Warren, The Ottawa Citizen

Uncover the lamp, and let it shine-November 29, 2009

Another year has passed, in the liturgical calendar, and it is again "Christian New Year." Let's begin by simply mentioning the fact that today, Sunday, is the first in Advent. And I mean: mentioning it, because it is politically incorrect......

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/life/Uncover+lamp+shine/2281802/story.html

Toronto Zoo's baby gorilla named Nassir - Nov 18, 2009

Nov 18, 2009

Toronto Zoo's baby gorilla named Nassir - Nov 18, 2009
Charles is a western lowland gorilla at the Toronto Zoo and on Wednesday morning he chose his son's new name by picking a plate filled with his favourite treats. The zoo decided to have a naming contest for the baby gorilla and solicited names from the public.


They were inundated with thousands of name suggestions, then whittled that pile down to five: Nassir, Neo, Nico, Nigel or Nsambu.

Then came the idea to attach one name to each of five plates of special foods, each plate exactly the same.

Charles would then be invited to pick a plate of treats — and his son's new name at the same time.

On Wednesday morning, the proud daddy chose the plate with Nassir's name attached.

Nassir means protector.

The baby gorilla was born in September and has been a top attraction at the zoo ever since.

The name contest drew more than 5,000 suggestions. The only rule was that the name had to start with the letter N in honour of the baby's mother Ngozi.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2009/11/18/toronto-gorilla.html?ref=rss

They helped each other the TTC RT

I was at the subway station waiting when all of a sudden the blind man appeared. He looked a little lost and I thought to myself there is no way he will able to board the train on his own. After a few seconds I went up to him to offer some help and he politely refused so I then went ahead into the train and sat down and started to get something to read. I looked up and saw the blind man pushing another man in a wheelchair. They got into the train right before the door closed.


Allah does find a way for the disabled.

Toronto Zoo's baby gorilla named Nassir - Nov 18, 2009

Charles has chosen — and his baby's name is Nassir

Charles is a western lowland gorilla at the Toronto Zoo and on Wednesday morning he chose his son's new name by picking a plate filled with his favourite treats. The zoo decided to have a naming contest for the baby gorilla and solicited names from the public.
They were inundated with thousands of name suggestions, then whittled that pile down to five: Nassir, Neo, Nico, Nigel or Nsambu.
Then came the idea to attach one name to each of five plates of special foods, each plate exactly the same.
Charles would then be invited to pick a plate of treats — and his son's new name at the same time.
On Wednesday morning, the proud daddy chose the plate with Nassir's name attached.
Nassir means protector.
The baby gorilla was born in September and has been a top attraction at the zoo ever since.
The name contest drew more than 5,000 suggestions. The only rule was that the name had to start with the letter N in honour of the baby's mother Ngozi.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2009/11/18/toronto-gorilla.html?ref=rss

World hunger shames us all-Nov 14 2009

For the first time in history, chronic hunger afflicts more than 1 billion people, including 200 million children. "Every six seconds a child dies of hunger," says Jacques Diouf. That ought to shame Canadians and others in the developed world, because it doesn't have to be so....

http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/article/725109--world-hunger-shames-us-all

Name for Baby Gorilla at the Toronto Zoo

The shortlist, all starting with "N" to honour its mother, includes Nassir, Neo, Niko, Nigel and Nsambu. ....
How will he decide? By turning to his stomach for help.
The five names will be posted on pails, each filled with one of Charles' favourite treats. His keepers are still deciding what foods to put out, to ensure neutrality among all the names. So when Charles finally picks a pail, he won't just be choosing his mid-morning snack.

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/726583--toronto-zoo-gorilla-will-choose-his-baby-s-name

UN Hunger Summit

Delegates vow action at UN 'Hunger Summit'

G8 to desert UN summit on hunger, scepticism rife

World Summit on Food Security

World leaders convened at FAO Headquarters for the World Summit on Food Security today unanimously adopted a declaration pledging renewed commitment to eradicate hunger from the face of the earth sustainably and at the earliest date. [more...]

Basic Definitions

India - Jennifer Wells (Toronto Star) 2009

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/india/article/715625--wells-my-india-diary-2-0

Atkinson Series - Alanna Mitchell - Nov 2009

Alanna Mitchell, a Toronto-based writer and journalist who specializes in global science issues, spent much of the past year investigating the controversial push to use brain science to improve education. She travelled to England, France, Australia and the U.S. as part of her 2008 Atkinson Fellowship in Public Policy

• "The message to teachers is that they need to be a bit of a scientist too," says Shanker. "What we want teachers to understand is that there's no such thing as a lazy child or a bad child. There's always a biological story. The key is to ask why, why, why?"
• As a society, we're forcing millions of teens to spend hours every day in a schooling system with methods we can't justify and ends we don't honestly comprehend for jobs we can't even conceive of, he says.
• And as others have documented, given the high rates of teen dropouts, addiction, violence, mental health issues and learning differences, the system we're forcing them to participate in is broken.
  
  

http://www.thestar.com/topic/AtkinsonSeries-Atkinson2009