new cubical "prevents blunt trauma"

But does it prevent the trauma caused to us by the blunt? That's another story.<p>

From an article on a "terrorist proof" Cubicle: <p>

In a series of tests, Dr. Gerrard detonated explosives 30 metres from a blast-hardened desk - while rubber dummies sat primly in office chairs. The desk sustained a few scratches. A second blast test, this time detonated at a 20-metre range, caused the desk's drawers to open and one hinge to break, but the Gunnar desk otherwise remained intact.
A regular desk subjected to the same tests, according to the DRDC's report, was "reduced to pieces of shards." Besides conducting the blast tests at Suffield, Gunnar also hired Calgary firefighters to drop slabs of cement and a large cube van on the desks. Each time, the desks ended up with enough room underneath for a person to survive.
One of the keys to his desk's supremacy, Mr. Quigley says, is that the surface is fastened to the floor to stop it from shifting or hurting someone. The Gunnar website lists 14 reasons why the company's office furniture is effective in disasters, including rounded corners to prevent blunt trauma, a survival kit with emergency supplies, and a fire-resistant surface that minimizes fragmentation. Mr. Quigley said the units could also be helpful in the case of an earthquake or hurricane. <p>

http://www.gunnar.ca/pofspage.htm

I want one.

now this should save on the budget..

I don't have to drink any more. This guy is drinking for the both of us.

www.drinkingfortwo.net

avoir du gout pour une vie saine

I'm going to join the ranks of Canadian Anglophones who can carry on a conversation in French, a small but proud group comprising about 7.1% of the Anglos outside Quebec. I must do this. If I want a good public service job in Ottawa, and most of the good jobs are with the public service around here, I better be bilingual. I've tried before. I moved to Trois-Rivier for a whole summer and sweated in a restaurant kitchen so that I can now name items from all the food groups, and say rude things. It's a start. There is a strange demographic around my workplace. If you're not francophone, then you must be from Montreal. Hmm.... No, I'm from that other part of Canada, where French is the language of cereal boxes. There was a Belgian girl I knew in grade 7 who could speak French. The French teacher was Italian. They would speak in English about the differences between French and Italian, because I don't think the French teacher could speak French. By the end of two years of French instruction I could chant verbs, a skill that I have not lost. Je suis, tu est, elle est, nous avon, vous avez... This has never come in handy in the real world. That being said, the opportunity to become bilingual has never been better. There are actually people around here who know what French supposed to sound like. I'm hearing it all the time, and it's making sense. I'm thinking outside the cereal box.

In Praise of Darkness

According to the CBC, engineers somewhere are pondering the great question of how to "electrify the dark continent". Look up, says the author, and praise the beautiful wires that bring you the light, the microwave, the idiot box.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/goinggreen/africa.html
Heaven forbid, the people of Africa should look up and see the Heavens. Blot out those stars.
I think that instead of figuring out how to Light Up the Dark Continent" we should be looking at how the heck to Darkify the Luminescent Continents.
Here's what the earth looks like at night:
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0011/earthlights2_dmsp_big.jpg
IS IT BRIGHT ENOUGH FOR YA?
World population without electricity: 1.7 billion
Africa's proportion: one-third
Per capita electricity consumption Africa (2004): 494.9 kWh
Per capita Canada (2004): 15,744 kWh
Now, I'm not suggesting that all the poor people sit around in the dark all the time with no laptops or anything to occupy their evenings. I'm just suggesting that maybe we don't need to go whole hog and turn the world into energy pigs. Remember the hydro crisis a few summers ago? The lights were out on the entire eastern part of North America for a whole night. It proved that we don't need every friggin light on to prevent us all from turning into a bunch of murderous looters. Did you know that the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency and Environment Canada Buildings have a big blazing light party on every night? Why?
I'm just saying that maybe we could tone it down a little. Darkify a bit. Look up at the sky.
U.N. Recognizes 2009 as International Year of Astronomy. Maybe for 2009 we could all try to be a little more like Africa. What's wrong with being a dark continent?