Sunday, 28 April 2013

Kids at play!

I love watching them!

cock-a-doodle-doo!

Josephine did a picture,
then dictated a poem which her mummy printed!

Isabelle Coxinelle from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.
I love the imagination of preschoolers at play. Isabelle was first playing with the teeny cats on the caterpillar, with a toy cat tower. Next, her new farm animals and the rooster.

Saturday, 27 April 2013

Spring runoff - a trip to Almonte Falls

The water is high and fast

Love their murals

Korea and WW I memorial

a few flowers bloom

Old Post office,
Naismith statue

It is nothing like the flooding in Muskoka, but much water passing by.
I love the sound of the water rushing. I did a brief video on Vimeo.

WW I memorial

Friday, 26 April 2013

Outsourcing - at what cost?

The costs are dear:

Bangladesh garment factory death toll passes 620

-700 deaths in Bangladesh since 2005. There are more than 620 dead in the latest tragedy, and thousands injured in this country where workers are cheap and less important than profits.

India hospital roof collapse injures 8

Part of a hospital building collapsed in central India on Friday after its roof came crashing down, injuring at least eight people, an official said.

Protesters, police clash over Bangladesh factory collapse | News | DW.DE | 26.04.2013

Thousands of protesters have clashed with police in Bangladesh over the death of almost 300 garment workers in a building collapse. The violence comes as rescue workers continue their search for survivors.

We import $1.1 billion dollars worth of clothes, export $500 million worth of raw materials to Bangladesh, according to CBCNN.

Graeme MacKay - editorial cartoonist
used with permission

The workers are paid 18 cents per hour ($37 per month), in order for us to be able to buy an $8 t-shirt at Loblaw's, the Joe Fresh brand.

Canada's Joe Fresh among brands made in collapsed Bangladesh building

Rescuers were clawing through the rubble to free dozens of people in Savar, Bangladesh, after the collapse of an eight-storey building that housed garment factories, some of them suppliers to Loblaw Cos.’ Joe Fresh and other Western brands.

Is this right?
Is this moral?
All in the name of profits?
Humanity has a long history of this, beginning with those war mongers who profited durring WW II. Recently, the big box stores, like Cheap-Mart, have exploited this desire for cheap goods.
For western businesses to profit, these workers live in appalling conditions, earning a pittance. They enter a factory, threatened with job loss if they do not ignore the cracks in the foundation of an 8-story building, that was only granted a permit to be 5 stories.
You look at the young faces of the women being pulled out of these builds alive, and wonder, at what cost?
Working conditions and labour codes that are ignored or by-passed with bribes.
Fires, crumbled buildings.

Frantic search for Dhaka survivors

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22289362

Bangladeshi rescuers are desperately searching for survivors after a building housing garment factories collapsed in Dhaka, killing scores.

History of accidents in Bangladesh

Nov 2012 - More than 100 workers die in a fire at a factory in Dhaka suburb of Tazreen
March 2012 - More than 100 people die as a ferry collides with an oil tanker and sinks
June 2010 - Four-storey building in Dhaka caves in, killing at least 25 people
April 2005 A garment factory collapses in Savar, killing 73 people
May 2002 - Up to 500 people die when a river ferry sinks during a storm

Migration of ruby-throated hummingbirds

This was one of my mom's birds.
After she passed, I was slow to put up a feeder.
They let me know by peering in the window!
I put out food for them immediately!

There is a great website, especially for teachers, Journey North.
Visit All Journey North Maps <= here. They show the reports from last year, as well, for those of us who keep track and like data!

For example: Spring 2012
animation/map/data

These little guys were here by March last year.

hummingbirds are moving north!

Tracking the trek north of our critters is a special pay-it-forward treat from our neighbours to the south. I am grateful for the people who report to the website.

I have put up the feeder, having watched the progress of the hummingbirds this year.

They were early last year, with our early melt and early spring.

Now is the time to prepare your feeders. There are things to remember with feeders. Do not use soap, or anything else like this, to clean your feeder. Simply use vinegar and water, and shake it up in the feeder. If there is scum inside, put in some raw rice and shake it up.

Hummingbird Nectar Recipe

1 part sugar to 4 parts water (e.g., i cup sugar, 4 of water)
Boil the mixture for 5 minutes to kill bacteria

Cleaning

Let cool and store excess in refrigerator until ready to use.
Thoroughly clean the feeder by rinsing with one part white vinegar to four parts water.
Do this weekly after the feeder is up and going, especially in hot weather.
Check to see if the nectar is cloudy, which could mean (deadly) bacteria.
If the feeder is visibly dirty, add a few grains of dry rice to the vinegar solution to help scrub it clean, as an abrasive.
Rinse out the vinegar wash by rinsing 3 times with clear, warm water before refilling with sugar solution.

Isn't she pretty?!

Do not add: food coloring, honey (which ferments), or artificial sweetener, which has no nutritional value.

Violations related to the illegal use of a pesticide

Kelly Cove Salmon Ltd. Ordered to Pay $500,000 for Federal Fisheries Act Violations

ST. STEPHEN, N.B. – April 26, 2013 – On April 26th, Kelly Cove Salmon Ltd. pleaded guilty and was sentenced in St. Stephen Provincial Court for violations of the Fisheries Act. The violations related to the illegal use of a pesticide resulting in lobster kills in the nearby waters of southwestern New Brunswick.

The court ordered Kelly Cove Salmon Ltd. to pay a total of $500,000 one of the largest and most significant penalties ever levied in Canada under the Fisheries Act. $50,000 of the penalty will be directed to the Environmental Damages Fund, another $250,000 will be directed towards scholarships, another $100,000 will be directed in support of environmental studies and research projects, and the remaining $100,000 is the court fine.

Thursday, 25 April 2013

Flooding in Central East Ontario: Videos

There are many! It is intriguing how we have access to many more visual aids than in the past.
It used to be local TV stations who covered such tragedies. No one else heard much about it.
I remember when there was much more local coverage of Muskoka cottage country, with a Global Barrie TV station. As they reduced local coverage, national and international news stories had much more coverage. A shame, since CBC is taking the Canadian out of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. We hear much more about news from other countries.

When we were 10 days without power during Ice Storm '98, we had no power to watch TV coverage!
With the flooding in Ontario, many are looking for information on their cottages.
Many are watching docks and Muskoka chairs float by...

What is amazing to remember is that Muskoka is cared for by many volunteer firefighters.
And Muskoka Lakes has the highest number of female volunteers in the province!
TVCogeco has given some coverage to Huntsville. Bracebridge Falls has a very powerful flow, up over the top by last weekend. Suzanne Martineau, a realtor, Bracebridge Falls Minden Flooding by Richard Bradley Bancroft Flooding from Eagles Nest Lookout

Burnt River Flooding video (embedding disabled)

Dorah caught a ribbon snake

To quote Isabelle, "What the heck?"

UPDATE:
Eastern Ribbonsnake (Thamnophis sauritus septentrionalis)

Other names: northern ribbon snake, eastern ribbonsnake, northern ribbon snake

But then mummy took it away from her, down by the veggie garden in the long grass. Mummy put it in the garden deep under the lavender plant by the house. Surely no one would find it there.

Then Dorah, who followed me, found it again. Mummy put it across the driveway in the rock garden. I put it in a different spot and began raking the leaves nearby to camouflage its sound.

Then Daisy, sitting in the garden heard it 20' away.

A little later the silly thing was back in the garden. I didn't know, but...

Then Buster found it, because it headed back across the front garden, back towards the gullie.
I put it on the other side of the goldfish pond. Then they lost it... phew.

In the garden - beautiful camouflage!

Where did it go?
I thought YOU had it.

About 20" long

I put it in the leaves and lavender

smooth as silk
If looks could kill!

Big hunters looking for this little snake!

Buster found it!

Are you still there?

Wednesday, 24 April 2013

Outsourcing, RBC and profits: 'innovation' me arse

For those of us who are angry, I am one. I am a good customer. I a

Small town stores are closing
in deference to big box stores.
Big box stores are ruining small towns

m a stockholder.
After the automotive bailout I was really upset.

A big scandal in Canada: employees replaced by outsourcing in RBC Bank then being sworn to secrecy and threatened with losing their benefits if they speak truth to power. Then, to add insult to injury, they are forced to train the employees from iGate, a foreign company.

I was curious and asked my financial dude if we hold any RBC stock. We do. RBC makes $5 billion in profits per year, and they outsource jobs like this. It is ridiculous. Also, we have all our banking accounts with them. I have a LOC, we have a joint account, both with prime + 2%. My RBC VISA has a rate of 5% interest, as I've been a good customer paying it off monthly for years.

Perth RBC

The more I read about RBC (here is a 2007 brag page about their outsourcing), the angrier I get about that. I think it might punish our family, more than RBC, to change to a different bank. We have direct deposits, monthly direct payments, and we have been excellent customers.

Yes, we could spend hours or days changing accounts, but who knows what the other banks are doing, and I expect they do the same thing. They have put us between a rock and a hard place.

It truly offends me to have to speak to IT or support people offshore, with accents that I cannot understand, and people who must follow a script. I do not begrudge them a job, but how can RBC possibly think that I, as a customer or a stakeholder, would be happy with this position? It is wrong, unjust, immoral and truly unCanadian. We look after our own. I live in a region with plant closures (e.g., Hershey - 2008, Stanley Mechanics -2009, Rideau Regional Institution 1951 - 2009).

We have universal healthcare. We have health and safety laws for employees. We have poverty and ignorance that can be eradicated by good jobs. Somebody in Canada has to do something about this.

Smiths Falls, Ontario, is a case in point. Chuck Hudson, Community Development Officer, tells me that these job losses are caused mainly by the loss of three major employers.

The Hershey factory moved production to Mexico where cheaper labour will help them make money. Ontarians should be more interested in providing fair wages for work and support local workers who have forged a good life in a small town. We should demand Fair Trade for Canadians. No handouts, but business loans and Transfer Payment Agencies to help workers manage their towns.

From a Facebook site:

Boycott Royal Bank Of Canada

It was coldly explained to them that a company named iGATE was going to be bringing in a team for them to train as their replacements. The foreign workers showed up under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program shortly after the announcement in April of last year.

The first 16 people were used as a ‘test pilot’ for outsourcing the 32 processes currently done in Canada. The affected RBC employees were discouraged from talking about it to anyone – not even other employees. Naturally, a few RBC employees resisted the idea. Jeff recalled a story of one lady who became so upset at the idea of having to train her replacement she refused loudly and was escorted immediately off the property while security guards hastily threw her belongings from her desk into a box. “Everyone at RBC is so afraid, they need the work, they needed the severance package and many were still hoping to find work with RBC somewhere else” says one employee.

The bragging page:

The Hindu Business Line : `Innovation is our bread and butter'

http://www.thehindubusinessline....

Not often do you find a vice-chairman in charge of technology too, in any organisation. But Royal Bank of Canada seems different. And different in other respects too. It claims that its offshoring initiative was not to cut cost, but to help it innovate, that there was no crisis that forced itsarm bu...