Okay, the world is now officially fucking insane. Car dashboards with integrated web browsers this year.

“Heading to Madison Square Garden for a basketball game? Pop down the touch pad, finger-scribble the word “Knicks” and get a Wikipedia entry on the arena, photos and reviews of nearby restaurants, and animations of the ways to get there.”

Can’t picture myself finger-writing “Knicks” on the dashboard while driving in NYC, without mentally killing a pedestrian and rear-ending a cab.

But don’t fret: these genuises have thought of everything. “A notice that pops up when the Audi system is turned on reads: ‘Please only use the online services when traffic conditions allow you to do so safely.’”

Can’t we get us one of these guys in Canada? (en français)

The people of Greenland pass a referendum regarding greater autonomy from Denmark.

Here’s a crappy picture I took of Greenland on the way back from Scotland last September.

There’s people there?

Nous sommes en élection; donc, tel que le veut la tradition, je vous présente ma montée de lait électorale. Notez qu’elle est encore moins songée que la dernière, cher lecteur, mais je m’en crisse. C’est libérateur des fois de s’en crisser, et après tout, c’est une montée de lait. Relevée de bile.

Ceci dit, j’ai la forte impression cette saison, plus que d’habitude, de ne pas avoir de choix. Pour la première fois, je pense annuler mon vote, et ça m’attriste beaucoup. Mais que faire d’un choix qui se dessine ainsi ?

- Un parti qui, je le crains toujours, pourrait diluer ses énergies (et celles du peuple) à parler de « relancer le projet souverainiste » ou « régler la question nationale ». Cf ma dernière montée de lait, d’après moi on a simplement des choses plus pressantes à régler. Je sais, ils ne feront pas de référendum au premier mandat, mais c’est la raison d’être du parti. Ça a l’avantage d’être clair, comme on dit, mais Non merci pareil.

- Un deuxième parti qui, depuis sa prise du pouvoir, n’a pas fait grand-chose pour régler les enjeux qui me tiennent à cœur (lisez la santé, les taxes, l’environnement et en grande primeur, l’éducation, Mme Courchesne). Je préférerais ne pas voter Libéral, ne fût-ce que parce que c’est sain de changer de gouvernement de temps en temps.

- Un troisième joueur qui représentait la dernière fois un espoir de choix, mais qui semble s’être effondré aussitôt que la dernière bulle électorale a crevé. Ce n’est pas la société québécoise qui est en quête d’identité, M. Dumont, c’est votre parti. Quelles véritables solutions avez-vous proposées aux enjeux ci-haut nommés? Avec l’exemple donné par nos voisins la semaine dernière, n’avez-vous pas compris que le contenu est plus vendeur que les vidéos d’attaque montés à la Musique Plus qu’on retrouve sur votre site? Un conseil : les ados n’ont pas le droit de vote… le saviez-vous? Et en passant, 900M$ de plus par année aux familles, il y a sûrement moyen d’utiliser cette aide de façon plus ciblée.

Alors voilà : cette année, il n’y a pas de parti qui me donne le goût de participer.

I’ve been completely addicted to American political news since the beginning of the summer.

So many factors are converging to make this irresistibly addictive. The diverse cast of characters, the incredibly high stakes, the non-stop twists, from Palin’s Bristol bomb to the “suspension” of the McCain campaign last week. Then it occurred to me a couple of days ago: I’m actually following a reality show. It maybe be reality, not a show, but it doesn’t make it any less voyeuristic and trashy.

I’m totally mixing cosmopolitans and popping corn for Thursday’s VP debate.

Sarah Palin during her recent interview with Katie Couric:

” . . . where it is the taxpayers looking to bail out. But ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the healthcare reform that is needed to help shore up our economy. Um, helping, oh — it’s got to be all about job creation too. Shoring up our economy, and putting it back on the right track. So healthcare reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions, and tax relief for Americans, and trade, we’ve got to see trade as opportunity, not as a competitive, um, scary thing, but 1 in 5 jobs being created in the trade sector today. We’ve got to look at that as more opportunity. All of those things under the umbrella of job creation. This bailout is a part of that.”

Via the L.A. Times.

Melikes this site that will give riding-specific advice to any Canadian regarding which candidate to vote for to ensure the Tories don’t win a majority and the environment doesn’t lose out.

Two weeks ago, upon arriving in Stockholm, I went for a walk, and within a very short time smelled something I hadn’t in a long time… The smell of Lepage, the glue our teachers insisted we use in primary school. It brought back memories, not of grade school, but of waiting for the bus in Sweden, when I lived there nine years ago.

Immediately, I remembered that in Sweden, you always smell the bus coming. Quickly, I turned around and sure enough, there was one of Stockholm’s fine, environment-friendly etanolbuss. I thought to myself, why is it that even small towns like Lund (where I lived) had these nine years ago, and we’re just talking about it?

Then, walking to work today, I smelled Lepage glue. Could it be? I asked, right before I saw written on a Montreal bus across the street, “Cet autobus roule au biodiesel”. How cool is that.

So, Montrealers, next time you think you smell Lepage glue, look out for the bus.

From a May article in the Anchorage Daily News:

The State of Alaska will sue to challenge the recent listing of polar bears as a threatened species, Gov. Sarah Palin said Wednesday.

She and other Alaska elected officials fear a listing will cripple oil and gas development in prime polar bear habitat off the state’s northern and northwestern coasts. (…)

Climate models that predict continued loss of sea ice, the main habitat of polar bears, during summers are unreliable, Palin said.

When I left my job this spring, I bought a new phone. Twelve days later, the backplate that covers the battery fell off the phone. The Fido store staff proposed that I buy another phone, for 300$. I’d gotten this one for 50$ with a contract. So this was unacceptable: what if I bought another one for 300$ and the plate fell off again, then what? Buy another one?

I called Fido customer service, and got the same solution: buy another phone for 300$. I argued to get a replacement part or phone, as it wasn’t normal that through normal use, the plate had fallen off the phone after 12 days. They argued that I had put the plate on wrong. I said it was the Fido store representative that had assembled the phone for me. Getting no joy from one call-center employee, I called back a few times until I got someone more amenable. He said that because it had been less than two weeks since I’d bought the phone, he would send me a new one. It would take 10 working days, and I’d have to send my current phone back in the box provided.

Three months went by, no phone. I procrastinated because the phone worked fine without the plate.

A few weeks ago, the phone started having trouble charging. Thinking it might be due to the missing plate, I called Fido and asked them where the phone they were sending me was. They had no record of such a transaction, of course. I told the story and argued for a while, using my tactic of calling back to get another representative, and realized after speaking to a few that the most they were authorized to do for me was offer me a 50$ rebate on a new 300$ phone. So now, what I needed to do was get passed to a supervisor, who could do more.

Getting to speak to a supervisor can be difficult. The answer you typically get is, they won’t be able to do more. But you have two great assets on your side: the call-center employee has to keep call length to a minimum, and they’re not allowed to hang up on you.

Of course you have to invest some time, but call centers expect you to give up (and spend 300$ in this case). But this war of attrition is one you can easily win. And once in a while, you have to do it, if only for the principle.

This is what you do:

Before the call, prepare a nice, warm, cup of tea, take a comfortable seat and accept that you’ll have to invest time. You have it, they don’t. When they say “is there anything else I can do for you today?”, which means, “I need to hang up now”, you just take a deep breath and start telling your story again. Use the same arguments. As many times as it takes. Eventually, when the call length starts getting too long, the employee will want to pass you on to the supervisor in order to terminate the call. In some centers, calls beyond a certain length actually pop an alarm up on the supervisor’s console.

When I spoke to the supervisor, he was wonderfully helpful. He obviously had the clearances needed to give me the moon. He said it was possible to just purchase the plate (something I’d asked for at the Fido store in the first place), that it cost 8$ (not 300$), he checked and found that the downtown Fido store had plenty (hm, is it possible this happened not just to me?), and that he would credit my account 8$ so I wouldn’t have to pay for the plate.

Mission accomplished.

Post Scriptum: In the face of such helpfulness, my reflex was to be thankful. But this only happened after at least 6 Fido employees tried to get me to buy a new phone. Is this any way to treat your clients, Fido? Bad dog!