Meme Engine

StudioTax

I’ve used StudioTax to file my taxes in Canada for many years now. It’s free, downloadable, and endorsed by CRA. They suggest a donation after you finish, and some years I have, and some not with no consequence either way.

Canadians - save yourself money, and use this free tax-prep software! (Just remember, it’s basically a calculator, you still have to use your brain if you want the best outcome).

Posted 2 months ago

2 notes

Canada, taxes, income tax, studiotax, doing my taxes on Friday night,

Stompin' Tom Connors - A Eulogy

Though I don’t like to throw around the words “Icon”, or “Legend”, both could fairly be applied to Tom Connors, a Canadian Legend who passed away earlier this week.

Q’s Jian Ghomeshi does an admirable job explaining why he’s worthy.

Posted 2 months ago

1 note

music, q, cbc, stompin tom, tom connors, jian ghomeshi, canada,

Image Atlas

An image search engine with a global perspective. Image Atlas takes the search terms you type in, then (after translating to many different languages) it returns the top images for different countries around the globe.

Above are some results from “animal”.

But I can’t stop trying different searches… it is really fascinating. Some stock-images seem the same all over the world:

cat, house, robot, beach

…but some searches seem like they might tell you something:

beauty, art, virtue, evil, education…

If you’re brave, I dare you to type in the name of your own country.

Go check it out!

Posted 2 months ago

12 notes

image atlas, globe, images, Animals, perspective, world, country, canada, france, new zealand, afghanastan, israel, china, greece,

mashkwi:

“Tim Horton’s next exit… and every one after that”

LOL So fucking true.

Hmmm, a subset of the stereotypes about Canadians that just happen to be true.

(Source: keep--your--head--up--high)

Reblogged 9 months ago from mashkwi

16,759 notes

canada, joke, tim hortons, road sign, hockey, winter, canadian, stereotype,

Humans Invented Money

It’s easy to forget that Capitalism and money are a human invention. To my culture, and that of most people reading this, money was part of the background of my childhood, and its assumptions tend to fade into the background. It’s good to step back every now and then and examine your own background assumptions.

Consider this: In Canada, we are facing a time of anxiety. Cuts are being made, jobs are being lost, and whole branches of the workforce (manufacturing etc) are facing the possibility that their skills are obsolete. People who need food and shelter cannot find work.

At the same time, there is no end of work to be done that could benefit the public. Infrastructure, community outreach, or teaching to name a few. Data gathering for academic research, to name one that requires no specific skill (only time). This is not even considering all the jobs that could be done better using more labour intensive methods. Farming and food production comes to mind. Education, and Health care are fields in which the workers are always overworked.

So, we have two problems:

A large workforce that cannot find work.
Many jobs that need doing

If only there were some natural solution to these problems.

Of course, the financial system is the impediment. A human invention, that prevents the most natural of solutions to such wide-reaching problems.

On The Other Hand…

Capitalism in general has certainly gotten us this far. We must give credit. I don’t know anything about how to produce my own food, or how to build a house, and yet, I’m able to eat foods from all over the world, and live in an extraordinarily complicated and convenient house. Nobody engineered this situation just for me, it simply emerged as the result of many different sorts of tradespeople and importers all trying to make money.

Capitalism, as a guiding force on human cooperation, has certainly had some successes. Of course, this is from the point of view of a city-living Canadian. I suspect the gains are less tangible from other vantages.

Is there some way we can enjoy the benefits without the shortcomings?

Posted 9 months ago

8 notes

money, finance, capitalism, work, unemployment, canada, jobs, food production, education, health care, new memes,

ilovecharts:

How Old Is Your Government?

Respect your elders?

This is interesting. In Canada, we are always hearing about our “aging population”, and this chart appears to bear that out. But what’s really interesting is that there seems to be a (visible) correllation between younger populations and older cabinet ministers. I wonder if voter turnout (broken down by age) plays into this somehow.

Reblogged 10 months ago from ilovecharts

182 notes

chart, age, demographics, population, average age, cabinet ministers, canada,

A Note of Caution For Canadian Students

During the six month “Grace Period” before you are required to begin paying off your student loan, you are charged interest on the full amount.

This grace period likely puts a lot of money in the Government’s hands. I’m all for a government with money, but perhaps nickel-and-diming new graduates is a poor choice.

Posted 10 months ago

2 notes

canada, students, student loan, grace period, interest, government, caution, warning,

wifeofwrath:

Meanwhile, in Ottawa….

“Jeremy Brown ‏@ThatJBrown

@dgardner @kady A new twist on a classic sign http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MD2kTsplr6c/TzQOji0d4vI/AAAAAAAABVg/tkLvoHYQnUs/s1600/Poster1.jpg”

I don’t think I’ve ever love scientists this much, and I’ve had my fair share of proto-geologists.

Reblogged 10 months ago from mashkwi

86 notes

canada, protest, science, ottawa, peer review,

Canada's PM Stephen Harper faces revolt by scientists: Scientists to march through Ottawa in white lab coats in protest at cuts to research and environmental damage

makeanewbeginning:

“The Harper government is the most environmentally hostile one we have ever had in Canada. Harper pulled Canada out of the Kyoto protocol, gutted the Fisheries Act (our strongest freshwater protection law), and hollowed out our environmental assessment legislation, making it easier for extractive industries to get licences to exploit,” said Maude Barlow, a former UN advisor on water and chair of the Council of Canadians. “It is heartlessly shutting down a programme that costs very little to run given the incredible benefits it brings, in order to silence the voices who speak for water.”

Reblogged 10 months ago from mashkwi

21 notes

canada, water, environment, stephen harper, kyoto, fisheries, Maude Barlow,

canadanomic:

The 59 Cents Campaign

This week the Harper Government’s Immigration Minister Jason Kenny announced that Canada would no longer be paying for the health care of refugees.

A group of students from the Canadian School of Peacebuilding at the Canadian Mennonite University have started a 59 cents campaign, which they say is the cost to every Canadian to restore health care benefits to refugees every year.

All you have to do to take part in the campaign is send 59 cents to the following address:

Send your mail (postage is free) to:
The Right Honourable Stephen Harper
Prime Minister of Canada, Office of P.M.
80 Wellington St.
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A2

Reblogged 10 months ago from canadanomic

11 notes

canada, health care, stephen harper, 59 cents campaign,

makeanewbeginning:

Environmental crisis? We have a democratic crisis

Bill C-38 is now law. After a marathon (22 hour plus) parliamentary session and quashing the more than 800 proposed amendments, sleepy MPs passed the 425-page omnibus budget bill.

Every proposed amendment was defeated, rendering weeks of committee hearings, parliamentary debate and expert witnesses as useless exercises in faux democratic policy making.

Bill C-38 is an oil baron’s dream come true. It’s the largest environmental bill ever adopted in Canada and it does not strengthen any aspect of environmental protection. It radically weakens the laws used to protect our natural environment, including exempting projects from environmental assessment, limiting the time provided for public and expert input into environmentally sensitive projects and removing habitat protection from the Fisheries Act. That prompted even two former Conservative fisheries ministers to publicly oppose the bill.

Read more clicking on the link.

Reblogged 10 months ago from mashkwi

6 notes

canada, bill c-38, parliament, stephen harper, politics, environment, fisheries,

Any other Canadians hear this story? I got it from an international source.

futurescope:

Used cooking oil powers passenger jet from Toronto to Mexico

Paul Higgins: Flying Air Canada next month from New York to Toronto. I hope they have it all working ok!!!

via dvice:

Treehuggers have been powering their old Mercedes-Benz Diesel cars with used cooking oil for years, but now it’s starting to creep deeper into the fuel we use to power our airliners. Last year we saw how Alaska Airlines ran some tests using a 20 percent biofuel blend, but now Air Canada has upped the ante by going with a 50/50 blend of jet fuel and old used cooking oil. […]

[read more] [Air Canada]

Reblogged 11 months ago from emergentfutures

64 notes

canada, air canada, biofuel, air plane, used cooking oil,

* 500 enironmental groups shut down websites for a day in protest

climateadaptation:

Canada sells out to oil industry. Environmentalists are livid. New regulations will be approved to loosen Canadian environmental laws to assist oil companies to drill oil and build thousands of miles of new pipelines.

Btw, this type of malfeasance is called regulatory capture.

Hundreds of environmental and activist groups in Canada shut down their websites for a day on Monday to protest Canadian government policies that will make it easier to build pipelines to transport oil from Alberta’s vast tar sands.

The groups - joined by U.S.-based groups such as the Natural Resources Defense Council - say the Conservative government is also trying to silence opponents of the pipelines from the tar sands, the world’s third-biggest oil reserve and the subject of much environmental concern.

The Conservatives, determined to make Canada what they call an energy superpower, want to speed up reviews of resource development projects, cut back laws that protect fish habitats, strip key veto powers from the federal energy regulator, and give the government the final say on approving major pipelines.

Via

Reblogged 11 months ago from climateadaptation

45 notes

canada, oil sands, tar sands, protest, conservative,

I’m pretty sure some of those other nations get full pay for the duration, whereas here in Canada our weeks are all at a percentage of our full pay. Still, for all our complaining, it’s nice to be reminded to be thankful for what we do have.

canadanomic:

Plus we (Canada) are bigger than all these other countries, and have room for tons of babies! Tons!

Reblogged 11 months ago from canadanomic

4 notes

Canada, parenting, parental leave,

Meme Engine "Canada"

StudioTax

Stompin' Tom Connors - A Eulogy

Humans Invented Money

On The Other Hand…

A Note of Caution For Canadian Students

Canada's PM Stephen Harper faces revolt by scientists: Scientists to march through Ottawa in white lab coats in protest at cuts to research and environmental damage

* 500 enironmental groups shut down websites for a day in protest

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