Mary Soderstrom's Blog, page 94
January 18, 2013
Roller Coaster Life--From Freezing to Deep Freeze in Hours
Okay, guys, compared to Winnipeg it's not all that cold this morning (-23 C on the back porch or about -5 F) but tomorrow they're actually predicting temps near the freezing point.
This is not the first time this swing has occurred this winter--much of the snow melted last weekend too. But wild extremes are what the models show for climate change, right?
This is not the first time this swing has occurred this winter--much of the snow melted last weekend too. But wild extremes are what the models show for climate change, right?
January 17, 2013
Monty Python and Cheese: So Very Unlike NDP Outremont's Event January 24
Because I can't resist it, here's Monty Python and the famous cheese shop skit.
For those of you considering going to the NPD Outremont's wine and cheese tasting with Tom Mulcair January 24, rest assured we'll have much marvelous cheese...
Here's the link for more information.
For those of you considering going to the NPD Outremont's wine and cheese tasting with Tom Mulcair January 24, rest assured we'll have much marvelous cheese...
Here's the link for more information.
January 16, 2013
Musician's Death Raises Reflection on Music Education Here and in the Former USSR
Yuli Turovsky, a Russian-born cellist, who adopted Montreal as his home, has died at 73. He was one of the generation of classical musicians who left the Soviet Union as the Cold War thawed, and moved to Western Europe and North America.
Turovsky and the ensemble he founded here I Musici de Montréal delighted thousands. He also was deeply involved in training a new wave of excellent musicians in Canada, as were his former compatriots who settled outside. We have benefitted mightily from the system the Soviets set up.
I have no idea how young musicians are faring there these days--I hope well, but who knows?-- but we must continue to build on the musical culture to which these expats contributed so much here.
Stephen Harper supposedly likes music (he even appeared once with Yo Yo Ma, whom I suspect was hoodwinked into performing with him): let him listen to this and then think about what support for the arts means for this country.
Turovsky and the ensemble he founded here I Musici de Montréal delighted thousands. He also was deeply involved in training a new wave of excellent musicians in Canada, as were his former compatriots who settled outside. We have benefitted mightily from the system the Soviets set up.
I have no idea how young musicians are faring there these days--I hope well, but who knows?-- but we must continue to build on the musical culture to which these expats contributed so much here.
Stephen Harper supposedly likes music (he even appeared once with Yo Yo Ma, whom I suspect was hoodwinked into performing with him): let him listen to this and then think about what support for the arts means for this country.
January 15, 2013
A Film from the NFB that Tells the Story Behind Theresa Spence's Hunger Strike
Where would we be with out the National Film Board? For decades it has been making excellent films about Canada and Canadians. As it happens a film released last year, and now available for viewing on the net for free, gives the background on the village where Theresa Spence, the woman who forced Stephen Harper to meet with First Nation chiefs, lives While she may not consider that her hunger strike has been effective, it--and the larger Idle No More movement--and moved Native Canadians' problem front and centre. NDP Outremont will be showing the film Monday, February 4, at Café Em, 5718 Park Avenue, in the Mile End district of Montreal. Time: 7 p.m. Admission free, but contributions gladly accepted. The viewing will be followed by a discussion.
The People of the Kattawapiskak River by Alanis Obomsawin, National Film Board of Canada
January 14, 2013
Flowers of Winter 1
The snow has melted quite a bit these past few days, leaving banks of gray snow everywhere. This is the down side of winter weather. It makes me want to look elsewhere for beauty. So this is the first of a series of winter flowers that I propose to trot out on dismal days like today.
It was taken a while ago, but the two amaryllises I started for this year are nearing bloom. Will include a picture of them when they come out.
January 12, 2013
Saturday Photo: Snow Tracery
The temperature has risen, but before the snow is reduced to piles of grayness, here's picture taken when our holiday snow began.
January 11, 2013
Looking toward Travel: A Taste of the Inca Trail
One of the things that is good about January is not thinking about January. We're having a little thaw right now which means that the snow--still deep--is a little mangey. But that's okay because I've started trying to put together the next travel project. I'm not sure all it will include, aside from visits to Brasilia and Curtiba in Brazil. But it would be great to take a side trip (by bus?) across the Andes to Cuzco and check out however briefly the Inca Trail Not sure if it can be done, but here is a video that gives a taste of what it looks like, apparently.
January 10, 2013
Wine and Cheese tasting with Tom Mulcair January 24, 2013
To celebrate the wonderful momentum of the NDP and to get ready for the battles to come, the NDP Outremont riding association invites you to an evening of wine and cheese tasting where Mr. Mulcair will be present. The event will take place beginning at 6 p.m. Thursday, January 24, 2013 on Mount Royal in the Maison Smith, 1260 Remembrance Road.Tickets are now on sale for $100, but a large part of the cost is eligible for an income tax credit. For more information, please contact us directly at 514 276-9257 or at outremont@npd.ca.
January 9, 2013
And Here's the Trailer for the Film
Rather damning...
Cyber Spy Story: Bank Hackers and the Great Soviet Pipeline Explosion
The New York Times
this morning reports that hackers, probably Iranian, have been messing with the US banking system lately. "Security researchers say that instead of exploiting individual computers, the attackers engineered networks of computers in data centers, transforming the online equivalent of a few yapping Chihuahuas into a pack of fire-breathing Godzillas, " the report says.
It continues: "Since September, intruders have caused major disruptions to the online banking sites of Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, U.S. Bancorp, PNC, Capital One, Fifth Third Bank, BB&T and HSBC.
"A hacker group calling itself Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Cyber Fighters has claimed in online posts that it was responsible for the attacks....but American intelligence officials say the group is actually a cover for Iran. They claim Iran is waging the attacks in retaliation for Western economic sanctions and for a series of cyberattacks on its own systems.
"In the last three years, three sophisticated computer viruses — called Flame, Duqu and Stuxnet — have hit computers in Iran. The New York Times reported last year that the United States, together with Israel, was responsible for Stuxnet, the virus used to destroy centrifuges in an Iranian nuclear facility in 2010."
But cyber warfare goes back 20 years at least, when the US, with the complicity of Canada and France, leaked software to the USSR for managing their gas pipeline through Siberia. Embedded in the programs was a Trojan virus that misread pressure guages. The result: the largest non-nuclear explosion in history.
The story is told in a Canadian-French documentary Bon Baiser du Canada that will be aired on Radio-Canada tomorrow. Don't know when it will show up in English (as From Canada with Love, apparently), even though Americans helped make it. The title is a little play on words: the spy involved in placing the faulty software was called Agent Farewell, and "bon baiser" is what you might write at the end of a postcard...
It continues: "Since September, intruders have caused major disruptions to the online banking sites of Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, U.S. Bancorp, PNC, Capital One, Fifth Third Bank, BB&T and HSBC.
"A hacker group calling itself Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Cyber Fighters has claimed in online posts that it was responsible for the attacks....but American intelligence officials say the group is actually a cover for Iran. They claim Iran is waging the attacks in retaliation for Western economic sanctions and for a series of cyberattacks on its own systems.
"In the last three years, three sophisticated computer viruses — called Flame, Duqu and Stuxnet — have hit computers in Iran. The New York Times reported last year that the United States, together with Israel, was responsible for Stuxnet, the virus used to destroy centrifuges in an Iranian nuclear facility in 2010."
But cyber warfare goes back 20 years at least, when the US, with the complicity of Canada and France, leaked software to the USSR for managing their gas pipeline through Siberia. Embedded in the programs was a Trojan virus that misread pressure guages. The result: the largest non-nuclear explosion in history.
The story is told in a Canadian-French documentary Bon Baiser du Canada that will be aired on Radio-Canada tomorrow. Don't know when it will show up in English (as From Canada with Love, apparently), even though Americans helped make it. The title is a little play on words: the spy involved in placing the faulty software was called Agent Farewell, and "bon baiser" is what you might write at the end of a postcard...
