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I've started reading a book that I cannot put down: James Gleick's The Information . The book's full title is The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood , and it is indeed a book of many intentions: a history of communication and information technology, a history of information theory, a historical perspective on our own information age, and predictions on where that age is going. It's a complex and multifarious book, and to spare myself the challenge of writing it about for you, I'm going to cop out and link to people who have already done so. Here are reviews in The Guardian and The Globe and Mail . The New York Times reviewer has the same problem I do: this book is really difficult to write about. “The Information” offers this point-blank characterization of its author: “James Gleick is our leading chronicler of science and modern technology.” This new book goes far beyond the earlier Gleick milestones, “Chaos” and “Genius,” to validate that claim. “The Inf...

The rich grow richer, the poor grow more numerous. The income gap widens - and our entire society is poorer because of it. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development released a study yesterday demonstrating that income inequality is increasing around the globe, and Canada is among the worst offenders. The richest 1% of Canadians saw their share of total income increase from slightly more than 8% in 1980 to more than 13% in 2007. The share owned by the richest 0.1% of Canadians more than doubled, from 2% to 5.3%. The culprit: changes in the tax code that benefit the rich and hurt people with lower incomes. The OECD fingered tax policies for much of the changes. Canada's top marginal tax rate dropped from 43 per cent in 1981 to 29 per cent in 2010, the OECD noted in the report. Meanwhile, tax benefits now only offset less than 40 per cent of wage inequality in Canada, compared with more than 70 per cent before. "The social contract is starting to unravel in man...

I mentioned this yesterday in my post about the Canadian Peace Alliance's Peace & Prosperity not War & Austerity campaign , but it deserves special emphasis. In April 2010, I wrote about the Conservative government's new citizenship guide. This is a booklet sent to all residents of Canada who have applied for Canadian citizenship, to help them prepare for the citizenship exam. You can read the full version here , or a more condensed version at The Mark . My conclusion: This, in brief, is Stephen Harper's, Jason Kenney's and the Conservative Government's Canada. A country that: does not value peace and tolerance; measures its history by armed conflict; does not encourage its citizens to work for social justice; is not concerned with protecting the environment; reveres the monarchy; is mostly Christian; warns immigrants to tame their savage ways; and emphasizes obedience to authority. Since then, the Harper Conservatives have taken another step in their atte...

Allan has revived his non-baseball blog. He is writing about writing, music and the world out there. Formerly known as In Cold Blog and In Other News and maybe some other names, the blog is now called Rivers of Suggestion, and it is found here .

Amid the deluge of fundraising appeals that arrive via email and paper mail this time of year, the letter from the Canadian Peace Alliance stood out for me. Under the "Canada First Defence Strategy," Harper plans to spend $480 billion on the military, open up eight new Canadian military bases, and showcase Canada's military in all aspects of Canadian life. Remember the citizenship guide that is now rife with references to the military but omits all referenc to Canada as a peaceful nation? ( Short version here. ) It's only gotten worse: citizenship ceremonies are now required to include a speaker from the military , telling new Canadians that military service is the highest form of citizenship. Thank [something] that wasn't in place when Allan and I became citizens. I don't know how I would have sat quietly through that. Harper's military agenda can't be seen in a vacuum. While spending lavishly on fighter jets and new bases, this government is tellin...

And I do mean bites. This was a grueling term, boring beyond belief, but I've just completed my last assignment, and am now gloriously free of school for a full month. I have a long list of things to do, and of course I still have work, but I am due for some serious couch time. I continue to love working at the library. Yes, a minimum-wage job shelving books, and I love it. I feel like I'm where I should be. I've completed five of eight terms, 10 of 16 courses, and suddenly it feels like I'm almost there .

Last time I asked for Canadian travel advice was 2008 - too long ago! That ended up as 16 days exploring Newfoundland . This trip is more modest, but I am very excited. We haven't had a good holiday in so long. In 2007, we spent our 20th anniversary at the Hotel de Glace , the Ice Hotel , which was then at the Auberge Duchesnay, about 30 minutes outside of Quebec City. (It's now built in Quebec City itself.) We didn't get to QC on that trip, and I've been talking about going ever since. 2012 marks 25 years of our domestic partnership, a stunning number that deserves a full-on celebration. So "a few days in Quebec City" grew into this: three nights at this B&B in QC , then dogsledding here , dinner and one night at Auberge Duchesnay , then three days in Montreal, staying at Le Petit Hotel . Then, if it's not snowing, we'll drive down to Vermont to visit some friends and family, spend the night there, then drive home. We've never been in Quebe...