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Showing posts from May, 2012

Bag Ban Manifesto

Introduction “Single use” plastic retail bags are banned in Fort McMurray.  This is the result of a passionate 2 year crusade by 16 year old Sean Graham who watched a documentary at his school and got a 2000 person petition and brought it to city council.  Reasons for the ban are somewhat vague.  Melissa Blake implied on the RMWB website that it is to reach the RMWB’s goal of reducing waste in the landfill by 50% by 2012.  Sean’s reasons seem to be based on the environment and seems to focus on the landfill and the manufacturing process used to create the bags.  There was very little opposition to the ban made to council, save for one fellow who made some seemingly feeble arguments that the law would unjustly impact the poor in the community who relied on public transportation, or walking to and from the grocery stores as well as concerns about shoplifting.  So the ban passed with politicians and environmentally minded ci...

Keyano and the Arts - A Philosophical Perspective

I really love art. I see art as not only the sigh of the oppressed creature, but also the also the song of the ecstatic creature and everything in between. As an owner in Epic Productions I produce art. When I'm home and feel inspired I play piano, guitar and sing...this is art, at least to me it is and in the end that's all that really matters. As a lover of art I was alarmed when I read a FaceBook post about the axe falling on the VPA program at Keyano College. Especially alarming were the rumors of ill treatment towards those that lost their jobs. Long time staffers being given 15 minutes to clear out and then being escorted out by security certainly doesn't paint a very flattering picture of Keyano College administration. Then came a response from Keyano that seems all kinds of reasonable and flatly denies the whole "15 minutes" rumors and frames the situation in a different light. More responses come from critics refuting Keyano's framing of the situati...

Hwy 63 Speeders - Defending the Undefendable

Here's a critical thinking question: Would reducing the speed limit to 25 km/hr on Hwy 63 and enforcing the shit out of that speed limit with zero tolerance lead to a safer highway? I mean if its true that "Speed Kills" and "We Need More Enforcement" then it should follow that reducing the speed to near parking lot speeds and strictly enforcing this rule would lead to a safer highway right? Wrong, the data indicates that the road would actually become much more dangerous. The reason that setting and enforcing artificially low speed limits is unsafe is because it is not congruent with rational principles. It fails to recognize the fact that most people have reasonable and prudent judgment, do not want to crash, and want to reach their destination in the shortest time possible. This is why every single driver is guilty of breaking speed limits, because they understand that they can usually safely drive faster than the speed limit and reach their destination fa...