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TEDTalks (video) – Shashi Tharoor: Why nations should pursue “soft” power – Shashi Tharoor (2009)

Check out this episode of TEDTalks (video) at Shashi Tharoor: Why nations should pursue “soft” power – Shashi Tharoor (2009) – http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TEDTalks_video/~3/PWVyj99AcMs/689

H1N1 Vaccination Experience

Today our entire family got vaccinated at Richmond Hill, Ontario.  We went to the Rouge Woods Community Centre.

Their clinic hours were from 12pm to 8pm.  My wife, Carol, started to wait in line from 10am and I relieved her at around 11:30pm.  Suffice it to say that the line wasn’t moving and waiting outside wasn’t too bad.  Luckily we had a sunny autumn day to accompany us.  Carol brought a couple of chairs so we didn’t have to stand all the time.  She and my youngest boy, Kalen, went back home for lunch while I continue to wait.
They assessed the people in line and handed numbers as we approach 12pm.  People who were honest and did not meet the “high” risk criteria were asked to come back another day.  I have to thank those people for their honesty.  I’m not sure if I would be that honest given the circumstances.  By the way, the high risk group is defined as:


  • People under age 65 with chronic health conditions
    (such as diabetes, asthma, cancer or a condition that

    affects the heart, liver, lung, or immune system)

  • Pregnant women
  • Healthy children aged six months to less than five years
  • People living in remote and isolated settings or communities
  • Health care workers
  • Household contacts and care providers of infants under six months or persons who may not respond to vaccines
    Note: Children from six months to nine years of age should receive the vaccine in two half-doses, given at least 21 days apart. Individuals 10 years of age and older should receive one dose of the vaccine.
    H1N1 flu vaccine can be given at the same time as seasonal flu shot and other vaccines.
Things were pretty organized considering.  There were ample security staff supplemented by police officers to manage the crowd.  At around 12:30pm, we got inside.  Once inside, the community centre opened up a gym filled with chairs so we can wait for our numbers to be called.  I called Carol to come back in case our numbers are called.  She pulled Jason, our eldest son, out of school and along with Kalen return to the community centre at around 2pm.  I had to talk to the security guards so that they can be allowed into the community centre.

Our family waited at the gymnasium for about 20 minutes or so, and we were called at around 2:20pm.  We were then briefed by a health worker on the nature of the vaccine, followed by a very short queue and in front of the EMS personnel we went.  The children were vaccinated first with a little fuss from Kalen, but both boys braved the episode pretty well.  The room were packed with kids some were crying, shouting, and forcibly resisting from the episode.  I feel sorry for those parents.
We were supposed to wait in the room for 15 minutes, but given the crowded nature of the room, we decided to leave and call it a day.  All in all from line up to finish, we spent 5 hours to get our entire family vaccinated in the Richmond Hill area.  Good luck to you should you choose to get it as well.

The other clinic locations are:

Clinic dates and locations:
Vellore Village Community Centre
1 Villa Royale Avenue, Vaughan – Map
*Monday to Friday, 12 p.m to 8p.m *Saturday and Sunday, 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Ray Twinney Complex 
100 Eagle Street West, Newmarket – Map
*Monday to Friday, 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. *Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m to 5p.m
Sutton Kin Community Hall 
3 Fairpark Lane, Sutton – Map
*Mondays and Wednesdays only, 12 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Clinic open Monday, November 2

Rouge Woods Community Centre 
110 Shirley Drive, Richmond Hill – Map
*Monday to Friday, 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. *Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m to 5 p.m 
Clinic open Monday, November 2

8100 Warden Avenue 
Former Markham Hydro building, Markham – Map
Seven days a week
*Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. *Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m to 5 p.m 
Clinic open Monday, November 2
The H1N1 vaccine will be available to everyone else as more vaccine becomes available. For electronic tracking purposes only, we encourage you to bring your Health Card and/or Driver’s Licence to the clinic. Vaccine will be offered to residents who attend the clinic without their health card.Some family physicians may also provide the H1N1 vaccine.
PLEASE BE PREPARED FOR A LONG WAIT.  YOUR PATIENCE IS APPRECIATED.
Clinic dates and times may be subject to change.  Before going to a location check clinic information at www.york.ca/h1n1 or call York Region Health Connection at 1-800-361-5653.

Pondering an ISP Bandwidth Audit

The topic of net neutrality is a hot topic today. With all this talk about traffic shaping and bandwidth caps, I suddenly had a thought about a potential audit that can be applied to ISP’s. Here is my line of thinking:

Every ISP show how connects to the Internet backbone either directly or indirectly. They all have a bottleneck throughput data rate as a result of this connection. If we use that throughput, then the maximum, total number of bytes that can be transferred in a day or in a month by the ISP can be calculated. This value can represent the capacity in GB that an ISP can sustain within a given month.

The question that I have is will this monthly capacity be more or less than the total number of GB cap that ISP such as Rogers is charging on their collective customers? I don’t know the answer to this question, but it is fun to ponder what happens if it is more than the theoretical maximum monthly capacity. If so, are they not over promising? What if they are? One can argue that it is unrealistic to expect that everyone will max out their Internet usage at the same time. A reasonable argument. So what is an allowable or expected percentage of usage that is reasonable? 5%? 10%?

I don’t know the answer unfortunately. The more I think about this, the more I think that ISP has the potential of being banks. Instead of cash, they deal with bytes. Canadian Chartered Banks are mandated to keep a certain cash reserve that is equal to 7% of their loans. Should ISP’s be held accountable to a certain usage% as well? I really am not sure where I am heading here, but just providing food for thought I guess.

Had a tough day today.

Posted from: ON M6K 3C3, Canada

The day started out with a fairly jovial Outlook as my brother-in-law and I were destined for the bike show this morning.  The bike show was pretty good, an eye opener for sure, but there were not that many deals that we were able to take advantage of.
Here are some pictures that I took of the event:

A nice racer.

It was so packed at the Wheels on Bloor section we couldn’t even get closer.  May be considering a Cervelo, if I can afford it.

A set of warm gloves that i wanted for early spring or late fall riding, but the check out line was too long to worth the hassle.

Here are some assorted pedals that would have been great with my cheap bike going to work.  But again, the checkout line was a bit discouraging.

In addition to the bikes and accessories, I saw an old colleague, Rick, there.  It was good chatting with him again.  I wish him luck in future triathlons.

After the show we decided to goto China Town for some lunch.  This is when the day turned tough.  While parking, I accidentally backed into a Mercedes C350 and dented his driver side door.  I could have sworn the car wasn’t there when I initiated the reverse, when I heard the horn it was all over.  Sorry no pictures of the disaster.
Came back home and started to have digestive issues.  Probably too much walking today, we’ll rest tonight.