December 29, 2008
Polarized #4: The storm before the storm
It’s five days until Christmas for environmental activists in the Antarctic Oceans. Most of them have sacrificed annual quality time with their families in their warm, safe homes this year. Instead, they’ve opted to sail around the southern oceans in wet, stormy, and extremely cold conditions in the hopes of tracking and stopping illegal whaling. A noble cause, many would say, but one that... [More >>]
December 23, 2008
ThisAbility 10: Deathly Cold
Forgive me for being so ominous less than two days from Christ’s birth. However, as a chill, unseen in years, strands most of the country for long stretches, I don’t care about stranded holiday travelers, annoyed, but warm in airports because I’m thinking about this man and woman and how easily they could be me, or any disabled person, under the right set of circumstances… In... [More >>]
December 22, 2008
Polarized #3: Welcome to the seafaring life
She beats a heavy heart that is her engine. She seemingly jumps up to the sky and crashes down into her own wake in the open ocean, only to repeat it again and again. She is as cold as death. Yet there is a quickening to her pace as she heads toward history-making. She is a vessel headed for Antarctica. I’m on a vessel that left Hobart, Australia (where I boarded her) five days ago. A vessel... [More >>]
December 19, 2008
The airing of the grievances
Happy Holidays, bloggers. It’s less than a week until Christmas and Kwanzaa, and Hanukkah is coming even sooner, which means it’s just about time for me to start proselytizing about how much I despise the term, “Happy Holidays.” I have a couple reasons for this, and none of them stem from how my love for gingerbread, apple cider and reindeer. First, when people say, “Happy... [More >>]
December 18, 2008
Queerly Canadian #2: Escape Claus(e)
I am writing this on a crowded flight from my adopted home of Toronto to my former home of Edinburgh, where I am trying to ignore the brainwashing effect of Fred Claus on ten tiny screens in front of me. Like countless others, I am heading home for Christmas. So far though, I’m having a hard time getting into the spirit of the holiday — mainly because, for our third Christmas in a row,... [More >>]
December 17, 2008
Some parents just don’t understand
I frequently bemoan the fact that my mom gave me a name that is both incredibly common for my age group, as well as (apparently) impossible to spell. As of this moment, however, I will cease complaining and be grateful that she did not name me Adolf Hitler. Little Adolf Hitler Campbell ran into trouble last week when a grocery store in his native Pennsylvania refused to print “Happy Birthday... [More >>]
December 17, 2008
Polarized #2: Whale Wars – The Next Generation
They are both Canadian, in their mid-20’s, female and with long brunette hair. One women is on a high-speed inflatable boat called a Zodiac in the Pacific Ocean. The other, on the bridge of an entirely black 59-metre Scottish patrol vessel in the Antarctic Ocean. The woman in the Zodiac steers her inflatable in front of a Russian whaling ship. She places herself between a harpoon and a whale.... [More >>]
December 16, 2008
Global plane traffic graph: like bugs devouring a corpse
This video, compiled by Swiss scientists, shows 24 hours of global aircraft travel in 72 seconds. I think the fact that it resembles a petri dish swarming with disease is only partly coincidental: Airplane travel is one of the largest and most damaging carbon-emitting actitivies on the planet. [spotted on Wired, via Worldchanging] [More >>]
December 15, 2008
ThisAbility 9: Accessible or Accessi-bull?
This week I’m coming to you live from Morinville, Alberta snuggled around the fire with the aunts and uncles. It’s not as frosty as liquid nitrogen here, but at -30°C my body might as well be experiencing the final round of a Japanese game show. At least we have each other, right? While my body keeps warm in Morinville, my mind is still on Toronto and this new initiative that has been... [More >>]
December 10, 2008
International Human Rights Day!
Today is the 60th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Human Rights. On December 10th, 1948, 48 states voted in its favour. Although not one state voted against it, eight abstained: including the former Soviet Union, taking issue with the inclusion of individual property rights; apartheid-era South Africa, saying that “human dignity would be impaired if a person were told he could... [More >>]
