Mock Turtle

Wonkiness may ensue for the next ten or fifteen minutes.

Edit – all done!

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They’re idiots. A “recruitment leader” from IBM answers a question in today’s Globe and Mail (print edition only):

“The reason to ask the question is to get a ballpark of where they are in terms of making it a win-win,” Ms. Puskas says.

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Did you know that there is a pitched battle being waged over the composition of cheese?

Since technological advances have made possible the creation of a whole new generation of milk products (for example, isolates or milk protein concentrates), which are not necessarily subject to tariff quotas and can therefore be imported freely into Canada,(2) how the FDR and the DPR are interpreted clearly has economic implications for industry stakeholders. On a practical level, the use of isolates or imported milk protein concentrates allows cheese processors to reduce their costs, since imported milk protein is typically much cheaper than milk protein originating in Canada. Therefore, it is to the processors’ advantage to rely on the DPR interpretation whereby all milk solids can be used in cheese production, in that this interpretation allows for an increase in low-cost milk protein imports. However, this interpretation puts Canadian dairy producers at a serious economic disadvantage in that a higher level of milk protein imports would result in reduced revenues from milk sales. When cheese processors import milk proteins, the result is lower sales of milk proteins derived from Canadian milk. Canadian milk proteins are thus “displaced” by imports and must be sold off on domestic markets that yield a low return, such as the market for animal feed. This state of affairs translates into major economic losses for Canadian dairy producers. Therefore, strict enforcement of the FDR is very beneficial economically for Canadian dairy producers.

I thought another side of the whole cheese vs. globalization issue was that we did not allow milk producers to use their own milk to make cheese, but that wasn’t mentioned.

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It’s no secret that Canada’s immigration system makes no sense at all. After spending much time and energy selecting highly-skilled, highly-educated immigrants, we leave them to their own devices, with few job placement programs in place and a patchwork of “bridging programs” that range from expensive, sometimes redundant re-training courses at universities to humiliatingly basic skills upgrading through community groups. In the meantime, the employers clamouring loudest for workers are small and medium-sized businesses looking for less-skilled labour.

It’s not that there aren’t jobs to be had; it’s that it requires far more work to get one than should be necessary. Part of the problem is the disconnect between skills, education, and the available opportunities in the labour force. Labour market information in Canada is not good, and often out of date. Add to that a backlogged immigration system that on average takes years to approve an applicant, and it’s no surprise there’s no demand for any given profession by the time the professional has actually arrived (if there ever was).

No surprise, then, that there’s a thriving website warning would-be migrants about the drawbacks of choosing Canada. (Bears, I hasten to mention, are not mentioned.) NotCanada features news stories, links to Stats Can reports, and a punchy list of the top 8 reasons not to immigrate to Canada. “Weather” is just #2, although it is described as “horrific and disgusting”. The top spot goes to “No jobs”:

Yes, coast to coast, there are no jobs. Immigrants are highly qualified (MD’s, PhD’s, Lawyers, Engineers etc.) but they are driving taxi cabs, delivering pizza’s or working in factories. Even people with bachelors degrees from Canadian Universities cannot find jobs after graduation.*

The site’s forum is an interesting, literate exchange of tales of woe, escape plans, and survival strategies that provides a wealth of insight into today’s immigrant experience.

*This highlights the biggest barrier to immigrant employment — the overall structural problem with the Canadian labour market itself, which deserves its own post.

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More at link:

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I noticed this magazine at Pages the other day and picked it up, assuming it was a special Russia issue of some trendy design magazine. But no — it’s actually the third issue of a stylish magazine about Russia, covering style, art, business, and a lot more.

Highlights of this issue include:

- an annotated floorplan of a 1,200 square foot communal apartment in St. Petersburg, home to 7 families;

- a translation of a recipe for “little cabbage pies” from a popular Tsarist Russian cookbook;

- a feature on “Khrushovkas” — “crappy postwar apartment buildings”, translates the article — that have been turned into art pieces by muralists;

- a humourous travel piece on Arkhangelsk;

- a very subjective listing of the best English translations for various Russian novels,

… and much more.

This issue, like the first two apparently, is brought to us by the letter “T” — a conceit the editor admits he’d like to kill off — and each page has a random Russian word beginning with T in the corner, all translated by a handy glossary at the back.

It’s a handsome magazine, with great art direction, and at $4.99, great value as a read. I will probably subscribe, or at least become a regular buyer, but I’m wondering… beyond Russian Studies majors, like me, who exactly is the audience for this clever publication?

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Here’s an economic side effect that one might not have seen coming — business is good for Texans selling paraphernalia to cowboy-mad Germans following the wind boom:

“Dandy’s Western Wear, the local cowboy attire shop, cannot keep enough python skin and cowhide boots in stock because of all the Danes and Germans who have come to town to invest and work in the wind fields, then take home Texas souvenirs.”

 http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/23/business/23wind.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&hp

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This is awesome. Schedule here: http://www.tnt-supermarket.com/images/bus_schedule_1.pdf

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According to the Star, and backed up by the inevitable Open That Bottle Night website.

Open That Bottle Night (OTBN) is the event you have been waiting for…the time when you are entitled to uncork that cherished bottle and enjoy the contents. It doesn’t matter if the wine is expensive or low cost, white or red, or even if it is still good.

I like Gord Stimmell’s approach to owning a cellar:

At get-togethers, I discovered fellow wine lovers had immaculate cellars, with 2,000 bottles in climate-controlled perfection. And I also found out that some of their partners hated having 20-year-old Burgundies brought out as treasures that, once poured, were too often brown and dead in the glass.

I rapidly resolved to stop being a collector and began shrinking my inventory by enjoying it – before it was too late. What’s the point of keeping a bottle of wine from a great vintage and a great chateau that’s dead on arrival in the glass?

…

I think your cellar should always be an expression of your loves and preferences, not someone else’s. I see a cellar not as a financial investment, but as a layaway plan for personal pleasure.

Cracking open something interesting does seem an excellent way to celebrate the last Saturday in February.

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…is not so much with music downloading, it’s with the math.

Let’s look at this piece from yesterday’s Star, shall we?

THE PROBLEM

Sales of CDs are down 20 per cent worldwide and 35 per cent in Canada, compared to 2006.

An estimated 1.6 billion music files are downloaded in Canada each year on “grey-market” peer-to-peer systems, representing $1.6 billion in lost revenue, using the iTunes price model of 99 cents per download.

Well, if you do the math correctly it would be $1.584 billion. Let’s not shove that extra $16 million in there.

But first, can we see some proof that lost CD sales are in some tangible way related to peer-to-peer sharing? Because just putting those two sentences side-by-side isn’t doing it for me.

…oh, hang on, there is no proof. The data say something else entirely. Digital distribution has been good for Canada’s music industry. (Alright, that’s 2005 data, but I don’t imagine the expense end of the equation has altered all that much in the last year or two, and the data below are also from 2005.)

And again with the oft-repeated falsehood that one peer-to-peer download = one lost sale. Two problems here.

1. People will always try things for free that they wouldn’t risk even 99 cents to purchase. What’s the real proportion of peer-downloaded tracks to tracks that would otherwise have been purchased? I have no idea; if anyone has any real data I’d be curious to see it. My money says it’s pretty far from 1:1.
2. How many people acquire one track for free and then go on to purchase more tracks from the same artist? Again, I have no good data source, but my money says it’s not likely to be zero.

Virtually every song ever recorded is available through peer-to-peer file-sharing (more than 79 million recordings). Only 3 million songs are available on legal sites.

This implies all peer-to-peer file sharing is not legal. Not so. There’s material there that’s past copyright expiry. As well, lots of artists allow their stuff to be shared freely. How much is there legally? These sources are certainly not going to tell us:

Sources: Songwriters Association of Canada; Canadian Record Industry Association; PricewaterhouseCoopers LLB

Just for fun, Toronto Star, next time how ’bout consulting some sources that aren’t just corporate bumf?

If this pathetic mishmash of lies and innumeracy is the best the industry can do, no wonder they keep turning out craptastic music that nobody wants to buy.

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