Monthly Archive: February 2012

Bowling alone

The wins yesterday in Arizona and Michigan by Mitt Romney, known to the media travelling with him as Mittens, show that Romney is nowhere near the Republican candidate presumptive. Michigan, in particular, was too close – he won by just three three percentage points – given the fact that he was born and raised in the state. Romney has the money to sustain a campaign through tough times, but even if he wins the nomination, my earlier prediction that he will beat President Barack Obama is beginning to look tenuous at best. The more I see of Mittens, the more...

Read More

Straws in the wind

Two recent stories provide welcome news for Research In Motion at a time when some bloggers and analysts have declared BlackBerry to be little better than the devil incarnate. First, this piece from Nextgov saying that the U.S Air Force has cancelled a planned bulk purchase of 2,861 iPads because they fear a security breach from the Russian-made GoodReader software that’s contained therein. The second positive citation comes from a story in The Catholic Register about Tom Collins, who grew up in my home town of Guelph, Ont., and was last weekend made a cardinal. “The call of God comes...

Read More

Birds of a feather

I’m just back from some time away in southeast Arizona looking at birds. I’ve been a birder ever since moving to England in 1987. You grow up in Canada knowing the 15 birds that inhabit your backyard at various times of the year, then suddenly, you’re confronted with birds you have never seen. I bought a birding guide published by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and I was hooked. One time I even met members of the Surrey Wildlife Trust on Wimbledon Common at 3 a.m. We stood in the dark and listened over the next few...

Read More