December 2009
21 posts
The Cost of Care - National Geographic Magazine →
This National Geographic chart on health care spending and average lifespan seems to suggest that having people visit the doctor more often correlates with lower spending on health care. Victory for the hypochondriacs?
Roger Ebert's ten best animated films of 2009 →
Canadians flee Alberta for 1st time in 15 years →
I’m struck by the similarity of this story to this one about Americans fleeing Sun Belt states like Florida. I would say that Alberta is the Florida of Canada, except of course the temperature in Edmonton was −46 °C a couple weeks ago. (Canadians often call Alberta the Texas of Canada, but Texas is still attracting migration from other states.)
Movie Posters of the Decade →
via Subtraction.com
“Once in a blue moon” is a rare event. But what... →
Way more than you ever thought you wanted to know about moons, dates, time and calendars.
The Tumblr Backup app is ready for beta testing →
Only for OS X at the moment
“But this is exactly what you don’t want to hear: critics gassing on about...”
– Dana Stevens, Slate Magazine
9 tags
Mouse acceleration in OS X
Recently I tried out a new mouse with my MacBook Pro, a Logitech laser thing that I thought I might be better than the Wacom tablet I’ve owned for years. The tablet’s mouse is actually pretty good, but it’s getting pretty grungy and I never actually use the pen (making the tablet kind of pointless). To my surprise, I found the Logitech mouse totally unbearable — the cursor...
Will Big Business Save the Earth? →
Jared Diamond offers some cautious optimism about the role that corporations may play in promoting environmental sustainability.
When living in Canada, home of the oil sands and Kyoto Protocol dithering, it certainly feels like government and consumers alone aren’t going to get the job done.
New Canadian mobile carrier Globalive could launch... →
A Conservative government decision I can get behind. Yay.
Also, kudos to Rogers who, for all their faults, responded by saying, “We believe competition is good for Canadian consumers. We’ve always thrived in a competitive environment and we’re ready to meet the competition head on.” Compare that to the whinging reaction from Bell Canada: “Bell said it was disappointed as it...
Explaining Canada's green contradiction →
A survey reveals an interesting contradiction: Green Party, NDP and Bloc supporters believe the world is making progress on environmental issues (even if they want more proress) while Conservative party supporters think the world isn’t making enough progress (even if it’s a lower priority).
The Guardian's 100 essential websites →
For the second year in a row, the web application I work on, Dabble DB, was chosen by The Guardian as one of one hundred essential websites. Yay!
WatchNifty time-lapse movie of the beginning of winter in Toronto
Panic Blog →
As with all things Panic, it’s got a lovely design.
Completely disable quarantine of downloaded files... →
Gets rid of those annoying “Are you sure you want to open this?” alert messages.
Can buying organic produce and natural shampoo... →
Why you might not want to use Google Public DNS... →
Leaked climate docs: the schools involved... →
“This thuggish petro-state is today the greatest obstacle to a deal in Copenhagen”
– George Monbiot, pulling no punches in _The Guardian_
Scientists grow pork meat in a laboratory →
Mmm… soggy form of almost pork.