Terahertz

There was a lot in the news today. Most of this is political, but I’ll start with the science end and move toward politics.

• Apparently, a Japanese team of researchers is working on technology to capture brain signals and translate them into images with the hope of one day “reading minds” and dreams. At least this is more promising than Sylvia Browne.
• Canada is second-last in the list of countries not doing enough to prevent climate change (which is all of them). Who’s doing worse than us? Saudi Arabia. Makes you proud.
• Better yet, Canada is dead last among developed countries in terms of child-care. I guess Harper’s dismantling of former Liberal child-care plans was not the way to go. We’re at least tied with Ireland where the parents are perpetually drunk (oops, unfair stereotype).
• City officials in Caledon, Ont. (a suburb at the very edge of the Greater Toronto Area) have a heart and a boy with cerebral palsy (like my brother) can keep his pet pony.
• Other good news is that the death penalty has been given the fewest times in the USA since 1976 (when the death penalty was reinstated) and the fewest executions have ocured since 1994. I guess having Bush as president (and not as a governor) is finally starting to help their country. The list of countries in 2007 that still use capital punishment includes: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Botswana, China, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Kuwait, Libya, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, USA, Vietnam, Yemen. Among the worst are (in order) China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, USA, and Iraq.
• Harper must have gotten a hypocritical slice of fruitcake for Christmas since he decided (after advocating for years against senate appointments) that he will try to appoint senators to all 18 vancancies on the Canadian Senate before parliament reconvenes. Of course this news comes from an “official” within the Conservative party, who said: “The government has the intention of naming senators by a government that is legitimately elected by the people,” which apparently means they think that by winning more seats, but not a majority, and having no confidence from the democratically elected (well, it’s still a shitty system) House of Commons that they can do whatever the hell they want. This is the senate that has to approve bills that pass the house (and hence why Jack Layton’s Kyoto plus bill died this past year).
• Finally, we hear the first words from new Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff. He promises not to vote for a budget that is “not in the national interest of our country,” while also stating that “no party can have the confidence of the country if it decides to vote now against a budget that it hasn’t even read.” He says “the ball is in Mr. Harper’s court” but that he is “not entering into negotiations with Mr. Harper.” So it seems like we have a Liberal with some backbone. The Conservatives also held their closed-door caucus meeting (which the NDP didn’t tape and release to the media), after which they demanded that the Liberals cease their coalition talk or the rhetoric will continue. Here’s the video of his press conference (to me his face looks like it’s chiseled from stone):