Pie Palace

Have you heard about the folks out in Constance Bay who want to turn their lawn into a wildflower garden?

It looks like improving biodiversity may slow the spread of animal-borne diseases. According to New Scientist researchers in Oregon have discovered that there’s an inverse correlation between the number of species of mammals in an area and the incidence of hantavirus¹. Similarly, the more species of mammals there are in an area, the lower the likelihood that they will be carrying Lyme disease. The paper suggests that an increase in biodiversity limits how wild our little mousy friends run, limiting the spread of disease.

As these diseases are spreading in Canada, perhaps the City should be encouraging people to replace their lawns with something a little more diverse.

1. Hantavirus is spread between deer mice, and can be fatal to humans. (back)

Against the recommendations of the Pie Palace legal staff, I am going to continue my habit of posting while tipsy. You have been warned.

Earlier this week, Public Transit in Ottawa ran a post about the proposed downtown tunnel in Ottawa’s new rail-based transit network, which implied that a downtown tunnel is both necessary and that there are no other options.¹

We have many, many options for transit: we could put dedicated transit routes down Carling, under the Canal, or along Wellington, which would solve downtown congestion without having to spend hundreds of millions of dollars building and maintaining a tunnel. Similarly, we aren’t tied to the (diesel) rail solution that the city is proposing: we could use buses or electric streetcars. If we wanted to solve downtown congestion without spending hundreds of millions of dollars, we could close downtown (north of Laurier, say) to private vehicles during rush hour and set the traffic lights to a permanent east/west green.²

Simply put: we have options. But that is not how the transit debate is being framed. On the left, we have city councilor Clive Doucet saying that world class cities need rail transit. On the right, we have a mayor saying that Ottawa needs a tunnel. Neither of those things are true. I think it would be awesome if we had a rail network, and I think a downtown tunnel would be nifty, but we don’t need either of those things. We could solve our transit woes more cheaply, and maybe even more efficiently with other options.

I would argue that our quasi-debate is obscuring the larger issue: Ottawa’s burbs are built for cars, and no amount of dedicated transit will be useful to suburbanites. Until we increase suburban density to a point where it’s economical to lay track (or dig tunnels) out to Nepean, Orleans, and Barhaven, public transit will continue to be an expensive and unattractive way to move most of Ottawa’s population.

The four possibilities proposed by city staff in March of 2008 were essentially the same, differing only in where the train would leave off and pick up with buses. Now we’re being told that we can’t do without a downtown tunnel, again, without anything approaching the level of deliberation and consideration necessary before dropping hundreds of millions of dollars.

Happily, the City of Ottawa is revisiting the Comprehensive Five Year Plan that decides how our city should grow during the next half decade (and will be having public consultations at Ben Franklin place later this month). It remains to be seen whether city councilors and staff will use this opportunity to address the root cause of our problems, or will continue addressing the symptoms.

1. Peter, of Public Transit in Ottawa, posted a comment apologizing for his editorializing. Props to Peter. (back)
2. Please note that these solutions are just a few possibilities. They aren’t necessarily great, and I don’t endorse one over another. I’m just pointing out that there are other possibilities that haven’t been publicly floated. (back)

I have a repetitive strain injury caused by typing. It scared the hell out of me in the late 90s, but thanks to a lone competent doctor, I got it under control for about nine years. Then, a month back, I got a G1, whose touch screen seems to have kicked my wrists out of their stable state into a moderately painful, but still manageable state.

Now, after following the advice of my health care peeps, I have succeeded in turning “uncomfortable” into downright painful. First, as instructed, I iced my wrists. One long session last weekend did something to the nerve, and led to three days of much more pain. Second, as instructed, I started wearing wrist braces when I wasn’t typing. 24 hours later, I have shooting pains up and down my arms, and throughout my hands.¹

It’s hard to describe the existential fear this causes me. Just talking to my doctor about it yesterday made me want to simultaneously cry and vomit. It was a feeling that stuck with me for the rest of the day. Now, with things worse than they were before following the advice, I’m feeling a kind of fear that I haven’t experienced in ten years. It’s an awful feeling. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.

That’s a roundabout way of saying: don’t expect too much new content on PiePalace for a few weeks, and don’t hold your breath waiting for the next round of features on Blogawa.

1. Sounds like nerve issues. Which is another way of saying “terrifying”. (back)

A Midwinter’s Dream Tale is a fantastic play. The plot is loosely based on A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and A Winter’s Tale. Fairy king Oberon is horrified that his fairy queen Titania has borne him a child, and orders it taken away by a pair of bumbling mortals. The mortals make off with the child, and Titania follows after them. In that, you could kinda/sorta say that it has something to do with the original Shakespearean plays.

The two mortals: Pommes Frites (an oaf) and ‘Restes (an idiot) are a mix of Bob and Doug McKenzie and Inspector Clouseau. They stumble through the plot wonderfully, never quite understanding what’s going on, or what they should be doing. Coincidentally, they happen to be the core of the Company of Fools company, and some of the stronger actors.

A Midwinter’s Dream Tale isn’t Shakespeare redux. The dialog is fast, modern, and (kinda) witty; there are more dance numbers than soliloquies; the pacing is quick; and the characters are fun.

Go see this play. Pick up the phone, call the Gladstone Theatre (at 613.233.4523) and order tickets. Seriously. It’s only on until Saturday, and this is probably the best play that’s going to be produced in Ottawa this year.

According to the Citizen, bus ads stating “There’s probably no god. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life” are being planned for Ottawa. You can donate to their purchase at atheistbus.ca or the Freethought Association of Canada websites.

Phew. The upgrade worked. I’ve redirected the old feed URL to the new URL, and everything should be smurfy on Blogawa itself.

Of note:

• Comment links should now work (thanks MG).
• We’re now displaying 25 posts/page (thanks RG).
• Updates should occur much more often now. If I’m hitting your blog too often, let me know.
• If you’re an author, and you want your gravatar to show up, email erigami@piepalace.ca and let me know.

As far as I know, all of the feeds imported properly. Let me know if there’s anything amiss.

Four hours, dear reader. Four hours. That’s how much time is devoted to policy discussion at the upcoming Green Party convention. Doesn’t seem worth the effort of dragging myself 1400(ish) kilometers to Pictou.

Woohoo! My first hate mail!

So you think Asperger’s syndrome is some sort of fucking joke for you and your jackass nerd idiot friends?

What do you have that we can make fun of? Impotence? A huge ass?

Feel free to mock: my insouciance, my wacky political beliefs, my gadget addiction, not owning a car, the amount of time I spend in front of a computer, the amount of time it takes me to answer my email, etc.

This love-in brought to you by the Pie Palace AQ Test.

I’ve added Ken Yam’s blog to Blogawa. I’m starting to wonder about the mix of blogs that I’m feeding from. If one extrapolates the population of Ottawa from Blogawa’s contributors, there would be something like 400,000 transit officianados in our city. I think I’m going to have to go on another recruiting binge.

For those who don’t know “QuickPress” is the admin widget that allows you to blog from your Wordpress dashboard. The latest Miniposts revision (0.6.10) adds a minipost checkbox to the QP widget. Thanks to Lan for suggesting this.