DaIly Musings January 23rd

There are few interesting things of note (now yesterday) - first, I always found a stethoscope kind of difficult -- you have to listen and practice listening over and over and I am not sure that any group who does not listen daily can pick up anything except maybe the most obvious murmur.  SO I was excited to see that other technologies may replace it (on the one hand) and make things easier as they point out in this article in the Guardian -   On the other hand,  if we move to powered ultrasound devices we move a little further away from hands on medical care.   It is like watching a midwife determine the position of the baby with her hands vs an OB bringing in an ultrasound machine to verify it.   I do worry about the expertise moving from our own brains and hands into the hands of a machine -- one big sunspot and one day we will all be broken!

I read with interest this Vanity Fair update on the Mia Farrow/Woody Allen/Soon-yi Previn and the other childrens' story.  I don't usually read celebrity stuff but this is more about how society treats celebrity and men; vs women and girls and sexual abuse within families etc.

I saw the story where Rob Ford was late for a lunch speech to the Economic Club of Canada yesterday.  My mother and I were having a laugh about it on the phone, and she said "why would they invite him to speak, anyway?"  and I thought yeah -- who is the Economic Club of Canada when it's at home.  To my surprise (assuming it had something to do with economists or the economy)  I found out is is just a glorified Canadian  speakers bureau.  They say of themselves:

Since 2003 The Economic Club of Canada has earned a prestigious reputation as THE Podium of Record. Uniquely positioned as the only national non-partisan organization capable of staging events across the country, our mission is to bring our members and guests face-to-face with the most important, relevant and influential leaders of our time. The Economic Club has grown in stature and reputation as the most respected and influential platform of its kind.

Each year, more than 100 key policy makers and business leaders seek out The Economic Club of Canada to make major keynote addresses.  In past years, our guests have included such high-profile figures as Senator John McCain; Prime Minister Stephen Harper; Victor Yushchenko, President of Ukraine; Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governor of California; the Premiers of Ontario, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Manitoba; a number of Federal and Provincial Cabinet Ministers, including the Minister of Finance for a post-Budget address; and many others.  The coming months will see us continue to host sessions featuring many of Canada’s - and the world’s - leading newsmakers.

Our audience members are drawn from the most senior levels of Canadian business, industry and government. Our sessions provide accessibility to our speakers and the opportunity to pose questions, direct and unfiltered.  Membership is open to all who share a passion for the great issues of the day, and whose responsibilities require insight and information, experts and exchange.

So they just "sound prestigious" and sell tickets to whatever they think will draw a crowd.  LOL.

I thought that this was (unfortunately) amusing.  But it may have been the caption: Our local does not believe in putting our members at risk for frost bite, we just had cake, something we are very good at.     

I assume that this means that they are not on the street demanding fairness but just have a cake.  Hope the mediation works out:

I was quite excited by this latest organizing win by UFCW because every time a new sector gets unionized, and gets a first collective agreement,  it can give hope to a whole lot of people that they can unionize as well.
 . .    

Can you guess who got a union?

And last but not least and just for fun:  Buzzfeed has a list of "12 Historic Bars Every Book Nerd Needs To Visit: Channelyour inner literary lush by drinking where the greats drank."

I have only been to those in NOLA and Havana and found them both insanely expensive.   Please comment below on anything you find interesting.