Colin's Blog

Readers, readers — I can’t stand how stupid our culture is some times! Like…right now! At this school! This story came in as a comment to the previous post. — L. Dear Free-Range Kids: We just recently had a similar situation at my kids’ elementary school.  Last week, a first grader fell and hit his head in the cafeteria. The extent of the injury in not clear, but all reports are that the injury may have included some blood, but no serious injury requiring serious medical intervention....

Hi Readers — Just got this note from David Robert Hogg, who blogs about traveling the world with kids at MyLittleNomads.com. Talk about making a mountain out of a molehill!  – L . Dear Free- Range Kids: I live in Seattle. Home to hikers, snowboarders, world travelers. It seemed like everyone I know was giving their kids the freedom to explore pretty much how we did as kids. OK, maybe not quite, but close enough not to land us on the Outrage of the Week. . Then I got our weekly email from...

I wasn’t planning to go to Blissdom Canada this year. When the tickets went on sale, I didn’t even try to buy one. I was two months away from giving birth and I had no idea what my baby would be like at 5 months old. Besides, I didn’t know who was speaking and as someone who has planned large-scale conferences, I just couldn’t bring myself to shell out money for TBD. Twice, I was offered tickets to buy and twice, I declined. I didn’t really want to go. I didn’t see t...

The House of Commons will soon vote at a second reading on the Conservative government’s Bill C-4, or the “Preventing Human Smugglers from Abusing Canada's Immigration System Act.” This legislation sends a misleading and dangerous message to Canadians: that foreigners pose a threat to the country. From a policy perspective, Bill C-4 is a jaw-dropper. It is advertised as an anti-smuggling bill intended to deter the arrival of refugees that are smuggled into the country. Its provisions, how...

Hows this for an effective reminder system? From Kerri: When I was breastfeeding my sons, I would pump milk at work.  I always worried I would accidentally leave the milk in the refrigerator there, and then wed have to thaw frozen milk at home for his next days feeding.  I began keeping my car keys with the milk in the fridge, so I could not leave work without my milk! This is a variation on a basic trick for reminding anything: attatch the thing youre worried about forgetting to something you...

When I was in grade thirteen, I was the editor of my high school yearbook. That meant I was offered a week at a journalism camp held at Trent University. There, I learned everything I needed to know about yearbook layout, design, content, and photography. One of the lessons I remember most from that week was the advice we were given about taking pictures. Most photographs, they said, are taken on sunny days and with everyone smiling at the camera. And that kind of photo is nice. To capt...

A U.S. consumer group has a problem with Chrysler's new "Imported from Detroit" ads: the cars in them aren't actually imported from Detroit or the USA. In fact, they're built right here in Canada. The Made in the USA Foundation, which promotes buying American-made products, claims that one of Chrysler's "Imported from Detroit" ads is misleading since the Chrysler 300 featured in it is actually built in Brampton, Ontario. The Brampton plant also makes the Dodge Challenger and Dodge Charger.

Oncologist, writer and broadcaster who investigated medical matters with humour and zestThe oncologist, writer and performer Rob Buckman, who has died aged 63 in his sleep on board a plane, spent last week making a series of short films. We were working on them together, and Rob was his usual irrepressible self, full of good humour, jokes and kindness. On Sunday the whole film crew had lunch in a pub, and Rob left to catch the flight to Toronto on which he died. The films, ironically, are...

The construction site is changing location. Its also reinventing the world of fishing. ~Not-So-Handy Andy Submitted by: Unknown

I’ve been thinking more about how I review a design – both my own and someone else’s. So over the past couple days I’ve been writing down every question I’ve been asking when I look at a design-in-progress. Some of these I say out loud, some just go through my head, some are in person, others are posted to Basecamp or Campfire. These are in no particular order, and I don’t ask all of them every time. What does it say? What does it mean? Is what it says and what it means t...

Hi Readers — This is from an article by Tim Gill in The Guardian last week. Tim is a friend, an activist, a blogger and author of No Fear, a book examining what it means to grow up in a completely risk averse society. In the article I’m quoting from, he’s talking about how there’s an annual bird count (presumably to find out which birds are thriving, which are endangered), but maybe what we need now is an annual “child outside” count: The ecology of children apparently being less i...

Following the recent election in the Canadian province of Ontario, I can see that there are a lot of people searching for very basic information about how our system of government works. While I have detailed posts answering most of these questions on this blog, I will provide shorter, basic answers to some of the most common questions to which people want answers. 1. What happens in a minority government / what does a minority government mean / how does a minority government happen? A minority...

Filed under: Classics, Auctions, Europe The world's oldest running car, an 1884 De Dion Bouton Et Trapardoux Dos-A-Dos Steam Runabout, made history Friday, fetching $4.62 million at RM Auctions' Hershey, Pennsylvania event. Before a packed house, the 127-year-old ride quickly eclipsed its $500,000 starting bid. By the time the dust had settled, the gavel fell at $4.2 million. The final price included a ten-percent buyer's premium. The crowd began applauding as soon as the car crept onto the st...

By Robert Niles: My two children, ages 14 and 11, attend their local public schools, and have since kindergarten. Why do I send my children to public schools?1. Public schools work. Every year, millions of American children graduate from public schools across the country, having completed the toughest curricula in our nation's history, surpassing standards that get tougher by the year. In our public schools, students can learn calculus, analyze complex themes by Nobel Prize-winning authors, stud...

Canadian radio station offering $35,000 in fertility treatment to most 'deserving' couple is inundated with applicationsFertility campaigners have branded a Canadian radio station "tacky and distasteful" after it launched a competition to "win a baby".Ottawa music station Hot 89.9 unveiled the contest on its breakfast show last month, offering three rounds of fertility treatment worth $35,000 (£21,700) to the contestant who convinced listeners and a panel of judges, including fertility speciali...