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OT: The News Thread

..Canada has three of the top 25 universities in the world, according to the 2012 Times Higher Education magazine's reputation rankings.

The survey rates 100 schools based on the opinions of more than 17,000 academics from 137 countries. The British-based publication's rankings are dominated by universities in the United States, United Kingdom and Japan. Harvard was first, scoring 100 points, followed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Cambridge University.

The University of Toronto was the top Canadian institution, ranked 16th, which was one spot better than last year. The University of British Columbia and McGill University in Montreal tied for 25th place, with UBC jumping six places.

"UBC's ranking reflects our strong commitment to international research collaboration and producing new knowledge that benefits Canada and the world," university president Stephen Toope said in a news release.

With universities competing for the top students and scholars, rankings such as this one are powerful marketing tools.

"Only 100 universities are listed in our prestigious World Reputation Rankings - that is around 0.5 per cent of the world's higher education institutions," said Phil Baty, editor of the Times Higher Education rankings. "So those that feature in the list are part of an exclusive global elite of exceptionally powerful university brands."

France's relatively poor showing — with only four universities in the top 100 and none in the top 60 — has apparently caused some consternation, Maclean's Paul Wells reports.

"What makes it all interesting to Canadians is that the guy who runs the ranking system attempts to comfort French readers by saying that, after all, four out of 100 is 'better than Canada,'" Wells writes.

Wells calls it a mixed result, good when you consider Canada's relatively small population and the fact it's the only country that elbowed its way into the top group with the U.S., U.K and Japan.

"But in a global market for highly-mobile knowledge workers, universities have a better chance of attracting recruits if they are known, and thought well of," he writes. "A small number of Canadian universities are doing quite well on that score, the others not so much."

The Guardian newspaper in the U.K. notes Asian nations are catching up fast to British and U.S. schools. China's top universities improved their rankings, as did the National University of Singapore. Several British institutions sank in the rankings and there were two fewer U.K. schools on the list this year. There are 44 U.S. universities on the list.

Times Higher Education's Phil Baty said there's a clear risk that, other than Oxford and Cambridge, British universities risk being "relegated from the premier league ... in the eyes of the world, with tangible and sustained damage."
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http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/dail...ee-canadian-universities-among-205315497.html
 
Waterloo is so crowded and full of international students that I have a hard time believing that a school has to make this list to attract international attention. If these asians schools are doing so well, why the huge overseas deployment?
 
Speaking about Waterloo.....

I was in Waterloo this week for a small auction for metal working equipment. Half the people in there were Mennonites, a quarter were Indian/Pakistani and the rest "other". Other then a couple of pieces, the equipment in there was fairly low to very low tech. Those kinds of machinery can not produce anything high volume competitively regardless of how many cheap hands there is in the family. Never mind global competition where one lousy penny makes a difference.

With each his won.....

*shrug*
 
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Helping Lybia get rid of Khaddafi has it's rewards....

[video=youtube;cWxN8CdjBYk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWxN8CdjBYk&feature=player_embedded#![/video]
 
Let's support or go help some more countries liberate themselves.....

Presidential candidate in Egypt:"I hate the West so much,I refused their passports"

[video=youtube;cj_Mr8zmfws]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cj_Mr8zmfws[/video]
 
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The Mayor of London, Ont. has pledged to punish rowdy partiers who caused an estimated $100,000 worth of damage when a party turned violent on St. Patrick's Day.

"You will pay in one way, shape or form," Mayor Joe Fontana said at a Sunday news conference. His comments were directed at revellers who ignited cars, overturned vehicles and pelted police with glass bottles during the out-of-control party.

Police said the chaos broke out just before 10 p.m. Saturday on Fleming Drive in the city's east end, an area heavily populated by students and blocks away from Fanshawe College.

Crowds of revellers ignited a fire and stoked it with random objects as police attempted to break up the mob, of an estimated 1,000 people. Bricks, tire rims and wooden planks were hurled at officers.

Eleven have been arrested so far. Of those individuals, police said seven are students from Fanshawe College.

Video footage shows partygoers dancing near the blaze, throwing glass bottles and other items at police officers. At one point, a CTV News van was swarmed by rioters and set on fire.

London police chief Brad Duncan has referred to the incident as the "worst case of civil disobedience that our community has ever been subjected to."
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Mayor Fontana should just use the same methods as Vancouver did: YouTube.
 
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A process to "unphotocopy" toner ink from paper has been developed by engineers at the University of Cambridge.

The process involves using short laser pulses to erase words and images by heating the printed material to the point that they vaporise.

The researchers say it works with commonly used papers and toner inks and is more eco-friendly than recycling.

However, they add that more research is needed to bring a product to market.

"When you fire the laser, it hits the thin toner layer and heats it up until the point that you vaporise it," the team's lead author, David Leal-Ayala told the BBC.

"Toner is mostly composed of carbon and a plastic polymer. It's the polymer in the toner that is vaporised."
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Just think of all the great uses this has. Robocall; Adscam; Airbus; all would "disappear" right before our eyes, and before anybody could hold the responsible persons to the fire for it.
 
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EDMONTON—The city that likes to consider itself the Centre of the Universe now thinks that Calgary and Edmonton are the ones getting too big for their britches.

At least, that’s the conclusion of extensive polling done for the Alberta government into how its citizens are seen elsewhere in Canada.

“In Toronto, we found clear evidence of frustration that Alberta was becoming a stronger pillar and a more central agent in terms of Canada’s economy, eclipsing Ontario in some respects,” said a report on the Harris Decima poll, released in 2009 but unpublicized until now.

“In Toronto and Vancouver, there were also considerable perceptions that Alberta was a fairly right-wing or conservative place, and that compassion, open-mindedness and tolerance was not always what it could or should be.”

The poll was conducted in the fall of 2008 in Toronto and Vancouver as well as several Alberta communities. It used both surveys and focus groups and has a 2.8 per cent margin of error.

It found that Albertans are generally considered hard-working, entrepreneurial and optimistic people who live in a place of outstanding natural beauty. But that view, said the poll, has “negative edges.”

It found 40 per cent of non-Albertan respondents felt Albertans didn’t care much about the rest of Canada. More than a quarter described Albertans as greedy and another quarter found them arrogant.

A total of 42 per cent felt the statements Alberta “cares about the environment” and “is working to ease environmental impacts” carried little, if any, truth.

While the words “confident,” “bold,” “generous,” and “prosperous” were associated with Albertans, so were “smug,” “condescending,” “uncaring” and “narrow.”
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So Torontonians hate Albertans. Is this news?
 
Anecdotal of course....but Albertans like to say that they're hard working...but the reality up here is, it's all been built by imported newfies that the Albertans treat with a 'they took our jerbs' attitude.


As I try to politely remind my Albertan co workers when they go off on how they're carrying Canada....the oil was here long before they were, and they've done nothing particularly special in the process of going after it. Or when I'm really trying to **** with them "if they dropped all the oil in Saudi Arabia in between Sudbury & Sault St Marie, we'd be pounding 10 million barrels a day out instead of 1 and a half"
 
lecoqsportif said:
Albertans were third for average weekly hours in 2011: http://www4.hrsdc.gc.ca/[email protected]?iid=19

People tend to conflate their own self-worth/morality/identity with their provincial government's capacity to charge Americans taxes (royalties).
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Well...I'm technically an Albertan for tax purposes, as are most North Gander (Fort Mac) residents....but we're not really Albertans. **** me, we work a lot of hours. I pull 84 hour weeks easily, and this is scaled back now that I'm in management.

Tied for 3rd, and that with a pile of importated labour in the oil industry dragging that provincial average up for them.
 
MindzEye said:
Well...I'm technically an Albertan for tax purposes, as are most North Gander (Fort Mac) residents....but we're not really Albertans. **** me, we work a lot of hours. I pull 84 hour weeks easily, and this is scaled back now that I'm in management.

Tied for 3rd, and that with a pile of importated labour in the oil industry dragging that provincial average up for them.
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It's very industry specific. The folks who work in seasonal or natural resource extraction industries (and some special projects) log massive hours. Alberta, Sask, and Nfld are the top 3, go figure. And as you say, many of the workers are imports, so obviously place of birth isn't a terribly relevant factor.

But, in macro sense, these are a small numbers when it comes to the overall labour force (conventional oil, nat gas, mining and construction are about 16% in Alberta, and it would be much less elsewhere). A lot more people work for The Gap, Canadian Tire, Speedy Muffler, banks, and in hospitals. Not much difference in weekly hours there...
 
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lecoqsportif said:
It's very industry specific. The folks who work in seasonal or natural resource extraction industries (and some special projects) log massive hours. Alberta, Sask, and Nfld are the top 3, go figure. And as you say, many of the workers are imports, so obviously place of birth isn't a terribly relevant factor.

But, in macro sense, these are a small numbers when it comes to the overall labour force (conventional oil, nat gas, mining and construction are about 16% in Alberta, and it would be much less elsewhere). A lot more people work for The Gap, Canadian Tire, Speedy Muffler, banks, and in hospitals. Not much difference in weekly hours there...
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Do you have a handle on what oil patch workers pay in terms of personal income tax? I suspect it's disproportional to their numbers. Does one even make $30k at the gap? Which is peanuts in terms of personal income tax.
 
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“I am extremely disappointed, I might even say angered,” Dr. Howard Rundle said during a news conference Monday morning. “We will expel students convicted of criminal behaviour.”

Rundle, during his first public address following the weekend’s violence, said the school would expel students convicted of criminal behaviour.

The Saturday night melee on Fleming Drive, a student enclave in the city’s east end notorious for student parties and occasional vandalism, drew a crowd of about 1,000 people and saw an estimated $100,000 in damage.

About 65 police officers in riot gear and 10 firefighters arrived at the scene late Saturday night. The crowd of people, some of them college students, flipped and torched a CTV News van and hurled beer bottles at police cruisers. Seventeen police vehicles were damaged.
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MONTREAL — Aveos Fleet Performance Inc., Air Canada's aircraft repair firm, filed for bankruptcy protection in Quebec Superior Court on Monday, sources have told Postmedia News.

The company expelled many of its 3,000 workers from three sites late Sunday and locked the factory gates in Montreal, Winnipeg and Mississauga, Ont. Hundreds of employees protested early Monday at the Montreal facility, next door to Air Canada's head office, against what its union called "a savage shutdown."

The lawyer steering the filing, Guy Paul Allard of Montreal law firm Fraser Milner, said he could not answer questions about the company's situation.

Air Canada said in a news release Monday the shutdown of Aveos and its application for insolvency protection was disappointing, but that it doesn't affect the general maintenance of Air Canada's fleet.

"The airline's line maintenance has always been performed directly by Air Canada, at the airline's own facilities by Air Canada's 2,300 maintenance employees. The airline typically performs its line maintenance activities overnight or between flights, as necessary," the release says.

According to Air Canada, Aveos primarily provides maintenance on airframes and engines and the work is generally scheduled in advance.
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Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/Cana...y+protection/6324503/story.html#ixzz1paOF6AHe
 
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AT&T Inc. (T) on Friday gave up on appealing an $850 award won by an iPhone user in small claims court, and sent him a check.

Matt Spaccarelli, of Simi Valley, Calif., had sued the phone company because it was slowing down the data service on his phone. Spaccarelli has an "unlimited data" plan, but as of this fall, AT&T had begun slowing download speeds for these subscribers if they use more than a certain amount of data in a month.

Spaccarelli argued that "unlimited is unlimited," and the judge agreed at a hearing on Feb. 24.

AT&T initially said it would appeal the decision. It then offered to go into settlement talks with him, in a letter that implied that AT&T was looking at cancelling his service completely. Spaccarelli has admitted to "tethering" his phone to other devices, providing them Internet access through AT&T's wireless network. That's against AT&T's rules.

Spaccarelli turned the settlement offer down.

On Friday, the Dallas-based phone company said it was sending Spaccarelli a check for $850, plus $85 for court costs. Spokesman Mark Siegel didn't elaborate on the company's reasoning.
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http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout...martin-shooting-release-police-200335584.html
The tragic story of Trayvon Martin, the unarmed Florida teen who was fatally shot last month by a neighborhood watch volunteer, is now garnering national media attention. And the release last week of calls to police during the incident are bolstering demands for the shooter, George Zimmerman—who has yet to be detained by authorities—to be charged in Martin's death. Meanwhile, some are arguing that a permissive Florida gun law played a role in the tragedy.

Here's what you need to know about where things stand:

What happened?
On Feb. 26, Martin, a 17-year-old African-American and Miami native, was visiting his father in Sanford, near Orlando. Martin was watching the NBA All-Star Game at a house in a gated Sanford community, and at halftime he stepped out to buy some Skittles and an iced tea at a local 7-Eleven.

Zimmerman, an armed neighborhood watch volunteer who was patrolling the area in an SUV, saw Martin returning to the house and became suspicious. A violent confrontation ensued, which ended with Martin being shot to death. Zimmerman was found bleeding from the nose and the back of the head, standing over Martin.

How did the police respond?
Zimmerman, a white Hispanic, told police he acted in self-defense, and has not been charged with a crime. "Until we can establish probable cause to dispute that, we don't have the grounds to arrest him," Sanford Police Chief Billy Lee said last Tuesday.

Martin's father has said that police initially told him they didn't charge Zimmerman because he studied criminal justice and had a squeaky clean record. (In fact, Zimmerman was charged in 2005 with battery on a law enforcement officer and resisting arrest with violence—the charges were later dropped.)

Police at the scene also didn't test Zimmerman for alcohol or drugs, although it's considered standard procedure in a homicide investigation to do so. And an eyewitness at the scene says she told cops that Martin had been calling for help, but that an officer "corrected" her to say that it was Zimmerman who was calling for help.

What about those tapes of calls to police?
Over the weekend, Sanford police responded to public pressure by releasing audio recordings of calls to police, as well as Zimmerman's own call to a non-emergency dispatch number.

The recording suggests Zimmerman followed Martin despite no evidence that the teen was doing anything wrong, and that Zimmerman ignored a warning to stay away. Zimmerman can be heard telling the dispatcher that he's seen a "real suspicious guy" who "looks like he's up to no good, or he's on drugs or something," adding: "These a------- always get away."

A few moments later, Zimmerman tells the dispatcher: "S---, he's running." The dispatcher asks: "Are you following him?" to which Zimmerman responds that he is. "OK, we don't need you to do that," the dispatcher warns.

There's little doubt that Zimmerman was overzealous in his neighborhood watch duties. In the eight weeks before the shooting, he had called police no less than 46 times.

What role did Florida's "stand your ground" law play?
Zimmerman was licensed to carry his gun. But Florida has some of the loosest gun laws in the country, allowing citizens like Zimmerman to patrol the streets armed, looking for crime. And in 2005, it passed what supporters refer to as a "stand your ground" law, which opponents call a "shoot first" law: It made it legal for Floridians to shoot to kill in response to a perceived threat, rather than first having to retreat before using deadly force.

Gun control advocates say the law condones the type of shooting that took Martin's life. "The 'shoot first' law seems to allow that sort of vigilante shooting," Daniel Vice, a senior attorney with the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, a group that supporters stricter gun laws, told Yahoo News.

Supporters of the law say it doesn't give you a free pass to shoot first and ask questions later. "Stand your ground' is not a 007 license to kill," Sean Caranna of Florida Carry, a gun-rights group, told the Orlando Sentinel, adding that you have to have a "a real fear your life is in danger."

But Vice said that in reality, it's tough for prosecutors to prove a shooter didn't fear for his life, especially when he's the only one still alive to testify.

"Normally, if you shoot someone you have to explain it," said Vice. "This now completely shifts the burden and says, 'OK prosecutors, you now have to prove he didn't do it in self-defense.'"

What are the chances that Zimmerman will be charged?
It's hard to say. Right now, the issue is in the hands of the Florida state attorney's office. If it declines to file charges, the U.S. Justice Department could step in—indeed, a lawyer for Martin's family has written to Attorney General Eric Holder, requesting federal intervention. And the FBI told ABC News it has been in contact with local authorities and is "monitoring the matter."

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney called the incident "a local law-enforcement matter" on Monday, though he also said: "Our thoughts and prayers go out to Trayvon Martin's family."

If the Feds did get involved, they could potentially charge Zimmerman with a hate crime, if they believed that he singled Martin out because of his race.
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just crazy....
 
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