ACCESS TO A DENTIST

There were a couple of stories in the provincial media this week about the shortage of dentists in many areas. Some dentists are relocating their practices to more lucrative areas while other regions are going without the services of a dentist.

Regular visits to the dentist can be the key to oral health. Any dental condition, if not treated properly and in time, can become a really bad situation. In fact dental conditions are often an indication of some other serious health conditions. Having access to a dentist is as important as the provision of medical doctors.

The issue facing the province in recruiting and retaining dentists is part of the on-going struggle to find specialists for rural areas. To its credit the province has greatly enhanced provincial assistance in covering expenses for children and low wage earners. However, all of these strides in the right direction mean very little if there are no dentists available in some regions of the province.

I chanced on this link to a series of photos of a street dentist plying his trade on the street in India. Is this where we are heading?

HOLLETT FOR COUNCIL?

Rumour has it that blogger Ed Hollett may be getting ready to dip his toes in the waters of municipal politics in St. John's. Word is that he is interested in the Deputy Mayor's job, which will be vacated when Dennis "Doc" O'Keefe steps aside to run for the Mayor's chair. At the very least it is rumoured that he wants to ensure there is a contest.

O'Keefe will face former deputy mayor Marie White and possibly retired business executive Vince Withers.

Ward Four Councilor Ron Ellsworth has already announced his candidacy for the position. He will resign his seat effective April 18.

Rumour also has councilors Frank Galgay and Art Puddister considering a run for deputy mayor.

Another Liberal, Debbie Hanlon, has declared her intentions to seek election in Ward Four.

Ed is a former staffer for Premier Clyde Wells, and is a well- respected public relations and public policy consultant based in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador.

Well Ed, what's the word, and where do people sign up?

The byelections are slated to be held June 3. Nominations will not formally open until April 29.

WHEN IS A FINAL REPORT FINAL?

It will be very hard for the Provincial Government to avoid being drawn into the mess which is the re-organization of schools on the north-east Avalon. Demographic shifts, population explosions, shifting "family" neighbourhoods, aging infrastructure, commitments to neighborhood schools, new class size limits and existing infrastructure make for a tangled process for planning for the future. The average age of schools in the capital city is 42 years old.

The Eastern District School Board has been in the midst of a planning exercise for three years. Phase two is currently underway. They will ask the Province for permission to proceed with building new infrastructure when the process is finished and recommendations are accepted.

The Province, though, decides what projects get approved. They hold the purse strings. The board can plan but the Province will decide priorities. In effect, the Department of Education will have the final say.

Today's Telegram illustrates that government wants to have all the facts in hand before releasing engineering reports commissioned by the Department of Education on Bishops College and Holy Heart of Mary School. Building reports have caused the Province lots of headaches in the past.

The Eastern District School Board used these reports to move forward with recommendations in its phase 2 school organization and capital works plan. The Province says the reports are still in draft form.

From personal experience, the Province is right. Last spring the school council at Virginia Park School received an engineering report on the school that was full of language causing us concern about the safety of our children. It forced us into action. We were mystified in the fall when the Minister of Education played down our concerns and claimed to have addressed the report's concerns. It led to a very public and acrimonious dispute between Minister Joan Burke and me.

In the end it turned out that we were both right. The engineering report that we had been given by the board was not the final report. The Department of Education had ordered a review of the most contentious issues related to life safety. A subsequent engineering study was done. The two documents together were the final report. Someone at the board level had forgotten to provide us with that document which addressed many of our most serious concerns.

If the reports given to government in the case of Bishops and Holy Heart, which are much larger and older facilities, needed further clarification then they are not final, and are in fact drafts. What purpose would be served in publicly releasing the studies until they are final?

FORGET THE KNIVES, THE SWORDS ARE DRAWN

"In many ways, that 1980s rivalry set battle lines that still exist today. Only the players have changed.

Mr. Turner's core of support largely backed Paul Martin in his bid to unseat Mr. Chrétien.

And many Trudeau and Chrétien supporters now share Mr. Dion's federalist vision of Quebec's role in Canada.

Many of those who supported Mr. Martin appear, according to some experts, to have found an advocate in Michael Ignatieff." - OTTAWA CITIZEN

An Ottawa Citizen story this morning seems to confirm my suspicions that Michael Ignatieff's organization has been re-activated. La Presse reported Michael Ignatieff was stepping up his fundraising activities in Quebec and was quoted as saying Mr. Dion lacked "the stature of a leader."

The knifes, swords, pens, emails and phone calls are out in an all-or-nothing campaign to discredit Dion. I sensed this storm coming when the stories broke about a month ago about Dion's inability to raise money to pay off his leadership debts, while the other candidates were meeting their obligations.

The eye of the storm, or the vanguard in the attack, is Quebec where Iggy emerged as a champion of francophone rights and sparked a debate over recognition of Quebec as a nation. His people continue to eat away at Dion's credibility.

Iggy will need his Quebec delegates to counter the new bastion of federal Liberalism that is Ontario, which has delivered for the Liberal Party Of Canada in spades since 1993. If Iggy's people get their wish and force Dion from power, Ontario will be the battle ground for the leadership. Enter Bob Rae.

Dion was toast from the moment it was clear that he was not going to force an election this spring. On Thursday, Mr. Ignatieff issued a statement claiming he was misquoted by La Presse.

This is going to get messy.

MORE THAN ICE THAWING IN LIBERAL CIRCLES

The last part of the week became an interesting week for phone calls and conversations with some of my remaining Liberal friends. It seems the Ignatieff camp - mailing lists, calling lists and organizers - have awoken from a slight dormancy in this province. This was a bit of a signal that something bigger was happening across the country.

Last summer when the federal Liberal Caucus was in town, Iggy's team was busy. They held a couple of fund raisers to help him retire his debt. It was a grease the machine job. Keep it oiled and ready to go back into service at a moment's notice. That notice seems to have been given.

Add to that the quiet stirrings of provincial Liberals who are preparing to depose the current Liberal executive, composed of Rae loyalists. It is fair to say these Rae types are considered old guard and and an impediment to the provincial party's renewal. How much of the call for change is rooted in getting control of automatic delegates and the machine that organizes and controls selection meetings for the federal process?

Yes, the factionalism that has existed since the 1990 federal leadership, perhaps even the 1984 leadership, is in full bloom.

THE DENIAL OF WRIGHT - OBAMA IN FOCUS

Senator Barack Obama has repudiated his former pastor Jeremiah Wright - or has he. Obama has been able, once again, to have it both ways.

“I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community,” vs "“Had the reverend not retired, and had he not acknowledged that what he had said had deeply offended people and were inappropriate and mischaracterized what I believe is the greatness of this country — for all its flaws — then I wouldn’t have felt comfortable staying there at the church.”

On one hand he stands by his preacher......... on the other he says if he did not go than I would have left the church. Does he get challenged for this. Of course not. Despite 20 years of listening to his vile pastor who he has on his campaign to preach a message to black supporters that registered loud and clear, Obama is in the clear.

I wonder if Obama will visit Wright, who married him and baptized his children, at his new suburban Chicago home that’s valued at $1.6 million and was at least partially secured through a mortgage made by Trinity United Church of Christ. Sounds like quite a home for a person who made a career out of preaching that black values are incompatible with middle-class wealth.

Michael Weiss looks at the so called "repudiation" and what others think!

EARTH HOUR

Earth Day organizers are asking people to shut off their lights for an hour between 8 and 9 this evening in the hope of raising awareness of the need to take action on climate change.

The cities of St. John's and Mount Pearl are on-board. It should be a dark night along the water front - Fortis Properties, Atlantic Place and Scotia Center have agreed to switch off their lights.

I hope Works & Services got the mom at the Confederation Building. It would be embarrassing to have the city enveloped in black tonight with the only lights coming from the Confederation Building Complex. If they are buying into "Earth Hour", it might be worth while to check out the offices of the PUB and see if climate change denier Andy Wells has flicked off his lights!

So do your part. Flick off your lights!

THE SEVEN LETTER WORD

“He doesn’t have the appearance of a tax-and-spend liberal . . . but if the essence of being a tax-and-spend liberal is a lot of taxes and spending, that’s what he comes down to.”

The Washington Post treated us to an advance look at what the the Republican Party's fall campaign will look like if Senator Barack Obama wins his party's presidential nomination. In his speeches Obama has promised a new framework for the nation, that he is going to blow the horn that causes the walls of entrenched partisan politics to crumble.

The GOP has already begun the task of defining him as another big spending liberal. The question that is making the rounds in media and pundit circles is, just how liberal is he? Liberal is a dirty word in American politics. Even the Clinton campaign has begun to try and make the L word stick in the hopes that moderate voters will think twice before supporting him in the last crucial contests of the Ddemocrats' campaign.

The article was like manna from heaven for the GOP who most likely will be facing Obama in the fall election. The article gives credence to the charge that he is a flaming liberal.

The liberal label has mortally wounded the likes of John Kerry and Michael Dukakis. It is something the GOP will try and make stick.

MURPHY'S LAWS

"If anything can go wrong, it will" - Murphy's Law

It was named after Capt. Edward A. Murphy, an engineer working on Air Force Project MX981, designed to see how much sudden deceleration a person can stand in a crash. One day, after finding that a transducer was wired wrong, he cursed the technician responsible and said, "If there is any way to do it wrong, he'll find it."

Shortly afterwards, the Air Force doctor (Dr. John Paul Stapp) who rode a sled on the deceleration track to a stop, pulling 40 Gs, gave a press conference. He said that their good safety record on the project was due to a firm belief in Murphy's Law and in the necessity to try and circumvent it. Aerospace manufacturers picked it up and used it widely in their ads during the next few months, and soon it was being quoted in many news and magazine articles. Murphy's Law was born.

Here is an interesting link to a site that lists all of Murphy's Laws as they apply to love, law, real estate, well you name it.

THE MAN AT THE CENTRE OF TIBET'S STORM

His simple-Buddhist-monk persona invites skepticism, even scorn. “I have heard cynics who say he’s a very political old monk shuffling around in Gucci shoes.”

Just who is the Dalai Lama? What does he stand for? The New Yorker has an in-depth look at the life, politics and industry that surrounds the holy man.

I GOTTA PEE

The boys and I are on our way back to St. John's from the Burin Peninsula. They have cried themselves to sleep after villanizing me for making them leave nanny and poppy's in the first place.

Just past the overpass on our way via the ring road to the East end, Aidan pipes up...Dad I gotta pee! Dad pull over I have to pee real bad! -6 and on the busy Ring Road none the less! I plead with him to hold it, we are just ten minutes from home. But Dad I have to go!

Conor, the four year old, suggests he pee in a bottle and before I can comment the Gatorade container becomes a male urinal and Aidan is filling it up. I am expecting a big mess but he contains it well. Screws the cap on and gives me an evil grin. The boys think it is the coolest thing ever.

Aidan says, dad pee is some hot? Than the other guys start wanting to hold the bottle and ask questions. Meanwhile I am pressing down on the accelerator hoping to get home before this gatorade bottle of pee gets splashed all over my car! From this comes the plot that can only be born in the minds of mischievous little boys, let's put in the fridge when we go home and see if we can trick someone into drinking it! Looks like apple juice, dad!

For my readers who remember our college days in residence. There were a couple of nights that I remember filling a few bottles in fear of getting caught in the female residence and getting booted out!

CLINTON PART OF "FELLOWSHIP"

The flap over Jeremiah Wright seems to be past. Obama came through it with a few scratches but gave one hell of a speech on intolerance. Now it seems to be Hillary's turn to defend her religious affiliations.

Apparently through her years in Washington, while her husband's interns were on their knees in the Oval Office, she was on her knees praying with an elite Christian Capitol Hill gang called the "Fellowship". The organization is a network of sex-segregated cells of political, business, and military leaders dedicated to "spiritual war" on behalf of Christ. The Fellowship believes that the elite win power by the will of God, who uses them for his purposes. Its mission is to help the powerful understand their role in God's plan.

Details of the fellowship were printed in an article in Mother Jones back in September of 2007. One of the co-authors of the article, Jeff Sharlet, is publishing a new book due in stores in May entitled "The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power".

I smell a movie here somewhere.

DEBBIE HANLON RUNNING FOR COUNCIL

You can't keep a good woman down. Debbie Hanlon, fresh off her loss to Walter Noel of the Liberal nomination in St. John's East, has announced she is going to take another stab at political office.

She has announced her candidacy in the race to replace Ward 4 councilor Ron Ellsworth, who is seeking the job as St. John's Deputy Mayor.

This will be a much different game for her. She will not be restricted to a party list. However she will need to be more organized at getting her vote out than she was a few weeks ago. If she is successful there will be a couple of high profile Liberals on the council. Ward Councilor Tom Hann sits on the Executive Board of the Liberal Party of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Best of luck to her.

PERHAPS ANDY WELLS WAS RIGHT

A few months ago then-mayor Andy Wells created a bit of a controversy when he challenged some of the science and conclusions surrounding climate change. To many he sounded like an aging dinosaur, a Bushasaurus.

Cosmos Magazine is reporting that ice loss in Antarctica might be related to a powerful volcano below the icy continent's surface. Investigators from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) in Cambridge, England have discovered that a powerful volcano erupted under the icesheet of Antarctica around 2,000 years ago and that it might still be active today.

Perhaps Andy was right, there may be other explanations for climate change. Now I wonder if there are some hidden volcanos under Greenland as well?

GREENPEACE FOUNDER DIES

A friend of mine just text messaged me that while on a quick visit to the Eaton Centre she saw 2 members of Greenpeace on the mezzanine above her, quickly and quietly hanging a giant banner that bore the names and logos of several retailers with premises at the mall, followed by an = sign and the words "Boreal Forest Destruction". I responded that you have to respect their tenacity. She responded that that was gracious of me.

Their distortion of the East Coast Seal Hunt colours much of the good things they do from my perspective. That said, you have to hand it to them, they know how to get attention. I would prefer if Greenpeace abandoned, or at least toned down their politics of confrontation and moved towards promoting sustainability and focusing on what should be done rather than what shouldn't be done.

I just learned that Dr. Lyle Thurston, one of the original founders of Greenpeace, has died. He was 70. He joined the crew of the fishing boat Phyllis Cormack in 1971 and sailed to a remote island off Alaska to protest against U.S. nuclear testing. He was one of the original 12 founders.

He was a doctor and was known to close up his practice for weeks on end to to take on causes related to his environmental activism, like Greenpeace and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. I sort of always thought of him as Dr. McCoy from Star Trek, taking on bold new missions.

Greenpeace has national and regional offices in 28 countries, and a presence in 42 countries worldwide.

TAKE A WALK IN THE SNOW

As the nation's capital digs out from the most snowstorms since the Ice Age, disgruntled Liberals everywhere have no doubt been praying Stephane Dion would take his own wander in a whiteout. Greg Weston

The Toronto Sun's Greg Weston has a take on the current turmoil in the Federal Liberal Party. He says "Dion's long winter of discontent could soon become the party's spring of the long knives".

He comments on the disorganization, fund raising issues and poll numbers. While he does not suggest that Dion take a short walk off a short wharf, he does suggest he borrow a page from Trudeau and take a stroll in the snow.

OPINION LEADERS - THE COYOTE RESPONSE

Where's the urgency?
EDITORIAL
Northern Pen

Efforts by the provincial government to address the rapid decline of the province's caribou population have been welcomed by hunters, outfitters and retired wildlife outfitters. But those who have spoken out on the issue in recent weeks aren't unanimous in their praise of that response. Some have questioned the necessity of yet another study and others have cited the need for a program that deals directly with the caribou's chief predator - the coyote.

A review of the press release issued in February by Environment and Conservation Minister Charlene Johnson shows that it is rife with platitudes about the importance of the caribou population to the economy of rural Newfoundland and praise for money spent over the past two years on science and management. Yet, there doesn't appear to be any urgency in the minister's words that a serious problem exists. She acknowledges that estimates put today's population at 37,000 animals - that's almost one-third of the population when it reached its peak of 90,000 in 1996. The decline is so severe, in fact, that caribou hunting will be suspended this fall in the Grey River area on the south coast.

Ms. Johnson goes further to state that declines in most herds on the Island portion of the province are in the range of 40 to 60 per cent. What wildlife officials already know is that survival rates for calves in some herds are less than 10 per cent. That's a startling statistic. Fingered as the culprits for this killing are black bears, coyotes and lynx.

So what does her department plan to do about it? How much more study is needed? If the province isn't prepared to let nature take its course and let the fittest survive, which appears to be the case, it's not showing any indication that it is prepared to deal with the predators in a direct, straightforward and effective manner.

As others have stated in commentaries and letters to the editor in the Pen, the province has to move swiftly on putting in place an enhanced bounty program to reduce the population of coyotes. There's mention in the release of a "focused predator removal program" on caribou calving areas, but the news release suggests that science initiatives "will provide the necessary context to quantify the effect of reducing predator numbers on the survival of caribou." In other words, government is prepared to take a few years to review and monitor what the coyote and other predators are doing before actually deciding what to do.

Is it any wonder that outfitters and hunters are predicting the extinction of the caribou population as we know it? By the time government decides on a course of action, it will be too late. Critics of the province are also going one step further to express dire consequences for the future of the moose population. While the general view is that coyotes have a more difficult time taking down a moose than a coyote, what's to stop them devising a wolf-like mentality to attack moose? If the caribou population has been wiped out, isn't it likely that coyotes will focus on moose and do what they have to do to survive?

Ms. Johnson and her officials have to do what they said they were going to do. She said in her statement that the department wants to work with key stakeholders and use their insights to sustain the caribou population. That has to involve going out and listening to the people who know best what's happening to the woodland caribou and talking to them about what can be done within the next few months - not a few years from now. Until we see movement in that direction, those who are predicting the loss of the caribou species may not be far off the mark

OPINION LEADERS - POST FPI SALARY NEGOTIATIONS

Hornet's nest stirring?
BY GEORGE MACVICAR
The Southern Gazette

Ocean Choice International may have slipped in its dealings with its workers following its latest round of contract negotiations. And that slip was likely added to when the Fish, Food and Allied Workers Union reached a second agreement last week for workers employed with High Liner Foods in Burin.

First, Ocean Choice and the FFAW salted away a three year collective agreement in St. Lawrence, which will have workers now earning $11.10 an hour ending up with $12.45 an hour at the end of the agreement.

Yet, other OCI employees such as those in Marystown are earning $13.20 an hour as negotiated with previous owner FPI, which was also agreed to by OCI, and bumped up by $3 million as a stipulation by the provincial government for the sale of the groundfish plants.

Then we have the FFAW renegotiating a contract with secondary processing workers in Burin, retroactive to Jan. 1, which will have employees return to the $13.66 an hour paid by FPI previous to last year’s agreement. On top of this there will be raises this year and in 2009, according to a union spokesman.

This is great news for the Burin workers to achieve what they lost about a year ago, and then to see improvements over the next two years.

But, workers in Marystown and other plant communities, some with over 35 years seniority, were also paid $13.66 an hour under the old FPI contract but are now receiving a base $13.20 an hour.

That $3 million set aside for the workers’ wages in the OCI purchase of the FPI groundfish plants increased the last FPI offer from $12.60 an hour. How long will that money stay in play, before it’s exhausted and the other workers are forced to accept a lower hourly rate?

OCI and the union have likely gotten each other into a snarl with other groundfish plant employees, unless they have put something tentatively in place after this latest FPI-OCI-FFAW agreement expires. Incidentally, the life of that agreement is a three year time frame!

The FFAW membership obviously cherished the days when all groundfish employees were under the same contract, with similar financial terms. At the very least, it reflected a time of fairness and equality for all union members.

OPINION LEADERS - GARBAGE ON THE MIND

Scrambling for solutions
MANDY RYAN
The Gulf News
17/03/08

The provincial government is pushing to close all teepee-style incinerators in the province by December, forcing some towns into a bit of a scramble to figure out what it will do with its garbage afterwards.

They're not all in the same situation. Some towns haven't used an incinerator in years, others have closed theirs recently taking a proactive approach to becoming more environmentally responsible. They've followed direction from their regional waste management committee. They're ahead of the game.

Not so on the west coast, and not so for Port aux Basques. It's not that the gateway town didn't try. A few short years ago it wanted to go about figuring out how to deal with garbage in a more environmentally responsible kind of way.

But the province told the town to hold off; don't plan anything until the regional waste management committee gets its ducks in a row so that everyone could be one the same page.

The problem is that the committee is only just now pulling its act together. It won't have a regional facility or landfill for holding the region's waste for quite a while yet. Not until 2016, eight years away.

Meanwhile the province is reminding towns who still use incinerators to get on the ball and put some alternative measures in place.

It's what Port aux Basques wanted to do all along but were told to sit still and wait.

Port aux Basques is just one example of many other problems that are bound to crop up. Take for example, the town of Ramea, which has a brand new incinerator (paid for by the provincial government two years ago) and are being told it too will be shut down in December. Imagine the added expense of trucking their garbage off their remote island.

Then there's Francois, Grand Bruit, La Poile, and other remote locations that will no doubt feel the sting of what's to come in the future with regards to waste management.

We are highlighting some of those issues in our pages in the coming weeks, with a spotlight on Ramea this week. The purpose being to help explain the unique challenges these communities face, and to help map out a plan for the future.

This province is in desperate need of better waste management, there's no question about it. And a good, solid plan is required to meet that challenge effectively.

THE FUTURE IS BRIGHT

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business says Newfoundland and Labrador small businesses are looking forward to good sailing while their counterparts in much of the rest of the country believe they are headed into a hurricane.

Brad George, local director of the CFIB released the results of the annual survey of small and medium businesses in the province which show confidence in the economy is way up. Nearly 70 per cent of businesses expect to do better this year than last. Nearly half intend to increase the number of full-time employees.

George does not attribute the growing economy to offshore oil projects alone. He says rural areas are reporting positive outlooks because:

"We've really turned a corner, we're starting to see government put money back in the pockets of small business owners, to Newfoundlanders and Labradorians and then we saw the trend continue," "I think a lot of this is psychological, you know, finally we have turned a corner. We are a have province." Telegram

This comes as no surprise to me after spending a weekend on the Burin Peninsula where car dealers, ATV dealers, Snowmobile dealers, grocery stores, Walmart, clothing stores all seem to be doing incredible business.

It is psychological, the money is in the bank, the Alberta rush continues to move forward, spend like there is no tomorrow.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Shooting messengers
The Telegram
27/03/08

Everybody's probably written something they regret: a grade-school note to a friend that was grabbed and read by a teacher, a note to the boss about another employee who regularly arrives late, or even a note to city council about a difficult neighbour.

At times, anger or frustration outweighs good judgment, and those sorts of letters or memos say more - or say things more harshly - than their writers might have intended.

Those who make a profession in words know all about that, and hopefully, by the time a reporter or editor is seasoned enough in their craft, they realize that words have impact, and have to be used judiciously, whether in stories, notes or e-mails to potential interview subjects.

Communications staff should probably realize that as well.

On Tuesday, a memo from a communications director at Eastern Health was revealed at the public inquiry into hormone receptor testing. The memo, from Susan Bonnell, was actually suggesting that Eastern Health officials come out and speak publicly about testing problems, saying if they didn't, the media would "look for less credible spokespeople."

The memo cited three people as being among those "less credible," including St. John's documentary filmmaker Gerry Rogers and Peter Dawe, the executive director of the Newfoundland and Labrador division of the Canadian Cancer Society.

The memo said, among other things. "Two things happen when you don't stand up to bad press: The public automatically assumes that there is a good reason why you are being quiet and there must be something to the allegations and (2) just like the school-yard bullies, an individual with an axe to grind feels uninhibited and will keep digging and digging."

Ouch. Calling patient advocates "schoolyard bullies" when your organization has made crucial mistakes in patient treatment sounds more than a little like shooting the messenger. Leave aside, for the moment, the fact the memo casts aspersions on particular individuals.

It also casts the argument about informing people in entirely the wrong light: if your organization has a catastrophe, just about the only thing you can do is to show that you both recognize that mistakes have been made, and that you do your utmost to ensure that the affected parties get the most information possible.

That's not answering "bullies," it's delivering honest answers to people who, if nothing else, deserve prompt, accurate and complete information about their conditions, about what went wrong and about what the next steps are for the best possible treatment.

If an organization had to be pushed in that direction by threats about what others might say or do, then that organization already had their heads in the wrong place.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about the Bonnell memo is what it doesn't say: that Eastern Health must have been more focussed on closing the bunker doors than on meeting their mistakes head on.

Otherwise, a memo that strong would not have had to be written.

EMBRACING THE NEEDS OF THE CONSUMER

We have seen it with music companies; embrace peer-to-peer and find a way to make money by providing legitimate ways for consumers to purchase music and provide artists with lost royalties. The major movie makers have been slow to buy in but streaming movies and video releases are coming on stream. Admittedly the results are a mixed bag. For example, X-box live has offered a video service but it is not panning out well.

As of late more and more television shows are finding their way to bit torrents and the like. Miss the latest edition of the Young & The Restless? Just download it. Television stations are trying to find ways to get in on the action.

Last week, CBC released an official DRM-free BitTorrent of a prime time show. This is significant because they are the first major broadcasting corporation to experiment with this. Read more about the bumps, the results and the potential.

SLEEPING ON THE JOB GOOD FOR BUSINESS

I have always been a big fan of power naps. Some of my favourite profs at University seemed to have a cot in their offices. I assumed it was for the occasional power nap. A quick recharge and you're ready to take on the day, or the rest of the day.

I found a power nap particularly helpful when cramming for exams. Read, have a nap, digest the information. Wake and do it all over again. It seemed to work. The process is what allows the brain to convert newly learned information into long-term storage in the brain.

The benefit of napping seems clear from the results of scientific studies quoted in the latest edition of Scientific American.

I wonder if I can convince my boss to let me have a cot?

THE DEATH OF THE DESK TOP

Earlier this year we mourned the death of Netscape. The battle of the browsers continues with MS Explorer, Safari and Firefox (top contenders). What is at stake? Ed Brunette argues the future is at stake. Browsers are replacing desktop applications, they are becoming the desktop.

Look at all the plug-in applications for video, mail, word processing, spell check and even the weather. The paradigm is shifting but I would not count the desktop out just yet.!

WHAT'S GOOD FOR THE GANDER IS GOOD FOR THE GOOSE

While I am on the issue of ferries, let's not forget the Provincial Government's excuse for a provincial ferry service.

Where are the new ferries? What about showing these isolated communities that you believe in their future viability by issuing tenders that allow bidders to purchase/lease vessels for a period of time that makes business sense to banks and investors? You get what you pay for. Blaming the operators is an abdication of responsibility when the Province issues the specs and short term tenders that produce aging vessels that spend as much time on dry dock as at sea!

I wonder how much these delays costs taxpayers? What does a helicopter servicing a run for weeks at a time cost? What is the impact on island economies when the only transportation route is unreliable because of the vessel? Let alone the inconvenience for those stranded in these communities.

I am convinced that there is a conspiracy to shut down these communities, or at the very minimum an expectation that they will close in the near future. No need to build expensive ferries for dead towns. If that is the case perhaps someone might want to be honest and admit it. If not let's see these long delayed contracts to build new ferries and provide our isolated communities with safe, reliable and efficient transportation routes.

In the meantime another suggestion. Whoever handles the provincial ferry service should overhaul the web page to make it more intuitive and accurate. People cannot book travel and make plans based on the information that is there. They also may want to find a better way to manage the phones and ensure the people who answer the line have the information at hand to answer the questions. As well, some customer relations training might come in handy. The consumer/tax payer should expect the person at the other end of the line listed on the province's web page to know what ferries are in service and are not.

So perhaps the minister responsible for provinces ferry services may want to get her own ferry services in order before demanding the same of the federal government.

HYPOCRITICAL DEMANDS

I see that Roger Flood's resignation as CEO of Marine Atlantic has created a void. A choir including Hospitality Newfoundland and the Provincial Minister of Transportation is calling on the Federal government to ensure the next C