Daily Archives: July 18, 2006

PSA: Province and City Backpedal on Olympic Housing Commitment

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From Pivot Legal Society:

Province and City Backpedal on Olympic Housing Commitment

Vancouver – In a complete reversal on their Olympic commitment to protect rental-housing stock to ensure no residents are displaced, evicted, or made homeless as a result of the 2010 Games, the Province of British Columbia and the City of Vancouver are working together to close the 48-unit Lucky Lodge residential hotel at 134 Pender Street that currently houses more than 60 low-income Vancouver residents.

“I have been informed that welfare will no longer be issuing cheques to individuals who wish to move into the Lucky Lodge,” said David Eby, lawyer with the Pivot Legal Society. “The current tenants in the building will be moved out into existing low-income stock elsewhere. Once the building is empty, the plan is that the Ministry of Employment and Income Assistance will sever its relationship with the building, and those housing places will be lost.”

On July 17, 2006, the first phase of the plan went into effect, with MEIA representatives at the Dockside welfare office refusing to issue rent or deposit cheques to a homeless individual who applied to rent a room at the building.
“I spent Friday afternoon calling representatives from MEIA and the city for a tenant of the Lucky Lodge, trying to get MEIA to issue the shelter allowance this tenant was entitled to by law,” said Kim Kerr, Executive Director of the Downtown Eastside Residents’ Association. “Each time a hotel closes, and the Lucky Lodge is no exception, people in Vancouver should recognize that that many more people will be living on the street.”

The impending closure of the Lucky Lodge by the City and the Province follows the dramatic closures of the Burns Block hotel (18 units) and the Pender Hotel (36 units) in March, 2006, and the closure of the Marble Arch hotel (148 units) and St. Helen’s hotel (100 units) to low income tenants, bringing the elimination of low-income housing to a record number of 300 units. The 100-unit Brandiz hotel is operated by the same landlords as the Lucky Lodge.

The 2010 Inner-City Inclusivity Commitment to protect low-income housing and ensure that people are not made homeless was part of the Vancouver Bid Book, the formal application to host the Olympic Games.  To read the Inclusivity Commitment Statement, visit:
http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/commsvcs/housing/sra/pdf/statement.pdf 

Further Comment:     David Eby (778) 865-7997 – Pivot Legal Society 
                                Kim Kerr (604) 785-0009 – Downtown Eastside Residents’ Association
 

About Pivot Legal Society
Pivot’s mandate is to take a strategic approach to social change, using the law to address the root causes that undermine the quality of life of those most on the margins.   We believe that everyone, regardless of income, benefits from a healthy and inclusive community where values such opportunity, respect and equality are strongly rooted in the law.

MIT investigates tinfoil helmets

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There are a few politicians and bloggers I know who should read this. But I won’t give them the link!

On the Effectiveness of Aluminium Foil Helmets:

An Empirical Study

Ali Rahimi1, Ben Recht 2, Jason Taylor 2, Noah Vawter 2
17 Feb 2005 1: Electrical Engineering and Computer Science department, MIT.
2: Media Laboratory, MIT.

Header image, heh heh

Abstract

Among a fringe community of paranoids, aluminum helmets serve as the protective measure of choice against invasive radio signals. We investigate the efficacy of three aluminum helmet designs on a sample group of four individuals. Using a $250,000 network analyser, we find that although on average all helmets attenuate invasive radio frequencies in either directions (either emanating from an outside source, or emanating from the cranium of the subject), certain frequencies are in fact greatly amplified. These amplified frequencies coincide with radio bands reserved for government use according to the Federal Communication Commission (FCC). Statistical evidence suggests the use of helmets may in fact enhance the government’s invasive abilities. We speculate that the government may in fact have started the helmet craze for this reason.

The Classical

We evaluated the performance of three different helmet designs, commonly referred to as the Classical, the Fez, and the Centurion [can’t you just see a certain classically-inclined Tory sporting this model?]. These designs are portrayed in Figure 1. The helmets were made of Reynolds aluminium foil. As per best practices, all three designs were constructed with the double layering technique described elsewhere [2].

The Fez

A radio-frequency test signal sweeping the ranges from 10 Khz to 3 Ghz was generated using an omnidirectional antenna attached to the Agilent 8714ET’s signal generator.

The Centurion

The Streaker Guy

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The Streaker Guy 

Date: Monday, November 11, 2002 2:31 AM

I was shopping at Sunrise Market, as I am wont to do when I need food, which is usually, so there I was on the outside around the corner, where the food is all marked with a red dot in some kind of ink that just can’t be good for you, to tell the cashier it is old and cheap. I imagine all the undotted peppers and cabbages on the inside look down on their dotty relations, but maybe they don’t, knowing that in the fullness of time they’ll either be chosen by some happy shopper, stolen by a junkie, or end up dotty themselves and so think: there but by the grace of God go I. Maybe. I mean it’s possible, right? Who the hell knows what broccoli thinks?

So there I am, looking at the zucchini of all things and comparing, because you don’t want to get stuck with a limp zucchini and even among the dotty ones there’s still a lot of choice. Just check out the bar at Dick’s on Dick’s at closing time. So I’m checking out the zucchini and someone runs past me at top speed and whips into the side door between the strawberries and the avocados, the one that leads to the meat. And I continue merrily and obliviously shopping along the side, strolling slowly until I reach an impasse: a Filipina, laughing her head off. Really, it looks like she will shake something loose that may be hard to put back on if she keeps it up.

“Did you see?”

“See what?”

“The NAKED GUY! AHAHAHAHAHAHA! He ran in there! HAHAHAHAHAHA! HEEHEEHEEHEE!” and so on.

“Naked guy?”

“Yes, hahahaha,” I think she finds my obliviousness even funnier than the naked guy. “He was all naked and he ran very quickly in the door.”

By this point even the grim and silent grizzled men who sweep up all day around the market are doubled up with their hands on their knees, whooping and hawing and having the time of their lives, or at least the last ten years.

At this point he returns.

THE RETURN OF THE NAKED GUY

Screams of laughter come from the front of the store, as he shoots out the front door and comes back along the side. We are special; we get two showings for the price of one. Well, it is the sale aisle.

As he runs past me he yells, “I’m the Streaker Guy!”

and who could argue with that?

Petition: Save the Lebanese Civilians

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from Cold Desert, and cross-posted to Metro as well. Also, welcome to the blogroll, Cold Desert.

Lebanon

Save the Lebanese Civilians Petition

To The Concerned Citizen of The World:

“Killing innocent civilians is NOT an act of self-defense. Destroying a sovereign nation is NOT a measured response.”

Lebanese civilians have been under the constant attack of the state of Israel for several days. The State of Israel, in disregard to international law and the Geneva Convention, is launching a maritime and air siege targeting the entire population of the country. Innocent civilians are being collectively punished in Lebanon by the state of Israel in deliberate acts of terrorism as described in Article 33 of the Geneva Convention.

The Lebanese people feel left out by the world that is turning a blind eye on the savagery of the Israeli state. Israel does not seem to be capable of approaching any problem outside the realm of the military power bestowed on it by the government of the United States of America and other western governments.

We are writing you this letter in the hope that this massacre is immediately stopped. It is the universal duty of each individual to defend the innocents and expose the truth. The numerous civilian victims of the Israeli operations are increasing by the hour. The viciousness of the attacks has attained terrifying levels where a child has been cut in three while another was half burned.

The Israeli war machine, in its blind savagery, is destroying not only our lives but the foundations that could help the civilians survive beyond their massacre. The Israeli Defense Forces are destroying in few hours what Lebanon has spent years and billions of dollars to rebuild.

Up until now more than 100 Lebanese civilians have been killed, hundreds wounded, bridges and infrastructure destroyed, refugees are leaving Beirut in droves and worst of all the enforced siege might lead to a human catastrophe in the next 48 hours. There must be an end to this cycle of violence and continuous violation of international laws and basic ethical behavior.

Between the blindness of the international community and the deafness of the Arab one, the besieged Lebanese population has no way out.

Peace begins with justice

SIGN THE PETITION
Total Signatures since July 15, 2006 = 32599

Republican Jesus Apocalypse Now!

Chad Vader: day shift manager

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Part Two is here.