Short Snappers

Short Snapper postings will appear on this blog site from time to time.  They are made up of short, one paragraph observations of events or phenomena.

            The entire country, even continent, seems transfixed with the episodes of the Mayor of Toronto, Rob Ford.  News coverage of his trials are carried by CNN and every news outlet in Canada daily.  On-line polls in almost every city ask what should be done with him.  My view, however, is that Rob Ford is Toronto’s problem and he must be dealt with solely by that city.

            Our beloved leader . . . er, Prime Minister, Steven Harper, has had a knack over the years of pulling something out of the hat when his government is under attack.  Often this has amounted to something quite outrageous, such as proroguing parliament.  It will be interesting to see what he offers up in the next couple of weeks to take the heat off the Senate situation and the incessant questioning of the Leader of the Opposition, Tom Mulcair.

            As you drive down the road, do you ever wonder why BMW does not put turn signals in their cars?  If they do, however, include this feature, why don’t BMW drivers use them?  Maybe it has something to do with their complicated iDrive system.  It can be quite disconcerting to drive near one of these car/drivers.

            China is once again under attack.  This time it is for actually liberalizing some of their rules.  The poor country just can’t win.  (Stay tuned for a future blog on my views of China.)

            A new platform for video games was released this week, and of course it engendered great excitement.  But did you ever think about the amount of ingenuity, imagination and talent goes into the constant development of new games and platforms?  Can you imagine how much good could result if that much ingenuity, imagination and talent were turned loose on real problems like climate change or medical research?