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This is a repost from askepticrtn.com it is important concisely written work that needs to be shared and amplified in the Canadian Blogosphere.
Another Resignation at Statistics Canada
February 12, 2012 in General Science by askeptic
On February 01, Philip Cross, Chief Economic Adviser at Statistics Canada announced his leaving the agency. He follows the head of the agency, Munir Sheikh, who resigned last year over Government plans to redesign the Census. Mr. Cross is leaving for much the same reason.
At issue is replacing a compulsory census questionnaire with a voluntary questionnaire. In essence, this means replacing a random sample with a discretionary sample. Discretionary samples have their applications, but making inferences about the population isn’t one of them. Unfortunately, making just these types of inferences is whole point of the Census. That’s why Mr. Sheikh wrote in an open letter to the Government:
“I want to take this opportunity to comment on a technical statistical issue which has become the subject of media discussion … the question of whether a voluntary survey can become a substitute for a mandatory census . . . It can not.” “Under the circumstances, I have tendered my resignation to the Prime Minister.”
Mr. Cross is quoted in the Globe and Mail as expressing concern “that the free exchange of ideas at the agency is diminishing, and that internal dissent is no longer being tolerated by senior managers – particularly when it comes to discussions about the 2011 census and new national household survey.” He goes further by saying: “a lot of good can be offset if you get one big thing wrong – and the big thing in this instance is census and NHS.”
At least we know the two people at Statistics Canada (well, formerly at StatsCan) with some sense of public service and responsibility. Now that they’ve left, StatsCan should be free from such annoyances.
Long form census data is worthless. The efforts to gather it, a waste of taxpayers money. Minister Tony Clement claims that he has his magic mojo working, enabling StatsCan to overcome the limitations of the mathematical and statistical sciences. I hope he shares it with the rest of us.
One question remains though, who will be rewriting all those science textbooks?
Short, sweet and to the point –
“Pornography is the graphic representation, not just of violence against women, but of male supremacy. It degrades all women. It erodes the humanity of all women. Porn use fetishizes violence and supports male supremacy. Porn is the expression of patriarchy. Porn use is the practice of patriarchy.”
-Twisty, from I Blame the Patriarchy.
Discuss in the comments section.
The New Corporate Logo for Alberta Power Companies - "Plunder"
And make no mistake it is a generous gift.
“In Alberta, the big standout price increase was for electricity, which cost 63.6 per cent more in January than it did a year ago,” he said.
Go figure. When the people who generate the power also control the supply do you think that they will manipulate the system of their benefit? Of course they will.
“In the wake of revelations that TransAlta Corp. manipulated the power market to increase profits, a report to the Alberta monitor warns there’s a risk that participants may be working together to the same end.
The study prepared by consultancy Charles River Associates for the Alberta Market Surveillance Administrator, the enforcement arm of a system set up when Alberta deregulated its power market in 1995, looks into whether the level of data released makes it possible for participants to work in concert — but not whether they actually have.
It concludes that the Alberta market “may be susceptible to co-ordinated behaviour” because it has high supplier concentration, barriers to entry, repeated and frequent interaction by players and relatively constant levels of demand.
So the situation is ripe for plunder of Alberta’s citizens and plunder is exactly what TransAlta did.
“In a negotiated settlement with the MSA, TransAlta agreed to pay $370,000 and admit it purposely blocked the import of cheaper hydroelectric power from British Columbia over 31 hours in November 2010, creating an artificial shortage of electricity and higher prices.
The settlement, which takes away excess profits of $245,000 and includes a $125,000 fine, will be the subject of an Alberta Utilities Commission public hearing in January.”
This is why we need regulation and strong government oversight because this is just one reported incident that happened to be egregious enough to be caught. Companies do not work for the pubic or the public good, they work to accrue the largest benefit of their shareholders and as noted above if swindling the people of alberta is good for the bottom line, so be it. Yet the lovely PC government goads us with whip and and the bludgeon to buy into this corrupt system.
“Alberta’s regulated rate option — the rate consumers pay if they haven’t signed contracts with electricity retailers — was designed by the provincial government to encourage retail consumers to purchase contracts, which would theoretically attract more competition.
In July 2010, the governing Conservatives ended long-term hedging of electricity prices and collapsed the protective umbrella that had previously shielded residential, farm and small commercial consumers from wild price spikes.”
This simple is collusion with the power companies by the PC party. This is not in the best interests of people of Alberta. Far from it. But let me assure you gentle readers, the brain-dead zombie sheeple of Alberta will continue to vote PC in the next election. Why? Your guess is as good as mine.
By far the most awesome depiction of christian moral values/struggle - featuring oversimplification, binary thinking and mythical figures .
For a group that so often harps on (and on and on) about having access to an – pardon me, “the” – objective moral standard, christians have some pretty outrageous double standards when it comes to ethical behaviour. What the christian god does, and is called all good/loving for, would be considered monstrous if done by anyone else.
Some believers may claim that god is a special case, that because of his infinite nature, the same rules don’t apply. Those rules are only for us mere mortals. It’s as if those who use this claim don’t really understand what ‘objective’ means.
If the morality of an action applies differently depending on context – whether Entity A does it or Entity B does it (god vs human), whether it was done in Time X or in Time Y (old testament era vs new testament era), etc. – then it is NOT an objective moral rule. It is a relative rule.
Anytime theists say something like “that was OLD testament, things are different now because of Jebus,” they are admitting that their “god given ethics” are really the worst kind of moral relativism with a little Hocus-Pocus sprinkled on top.
Alternatively, some christians say instead that nothing their god does could possibly be considered monstrous, and
Christian Morality: a hearty thumbs up to Slavery but no to HomoSex, how divine.
the best thing any person could do is emulate the fantastic yummy goodness that is their deity, as much as is possible by us finite beings. My immediate reaction is to rant about the million and one things attributed to the christian god that are about as far from ‘good’ as one can get (examples 1 2 3). This will usually result in the believer switching to the first position addressed in this post (claiming relativism), or dodging the issue by pointing out some happy part of their text (which is dealt with here).
Despite these theistic tactics being flawed, they still distract from the actual topic at hand, allowing the believer to forget their arguments have been obliterated. Then the dance starts all over again.
So instead, today I would like to highlight a more fundamental part of christian dogma, one not so easily shrugged off. Here is yet another fantastic video from DarkMatter2525 showing what it would be like if firefighters “saved” people the same way Jebus does.
Inconsistent standards disqualify christianity from any claim to objectivity, while burning/torturing/killing “not saving” non believers disqualifies it from any claim to morality. This “god” is nothing but an evil and fickle tyrant.
Creationism is low hanging fruit, I realize this, but this video by potholer54 is just too funny to miss.
bleatmop
Mystro
The Arbourist
Dead Wild Roses 
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