[PHOTO] Toronto Barber and Beauty Supply

Toronto Barber and Beauty Supply
Originally uploaded by rfmcdpei

The Toronto Barber and Beauty Supply store is located on at least the first floor of the building located on the northwest corner of the Bay/Dundas Street West intersection .

[MUSIC] Pet Shop Boys, "Being Boring"

"Being Boring", the second single off of the Pet Shop Boys 1990 album Behaviour has inspired a fanatical fan base. It's the only song that I know of which has an extensive 10 Years of Being Boring fan site for instance. The right kind of minor European hit can be vital nearly twenty years after its first release.

"Massive Attack, Young Fathers - Voodoo In My Blood" (Watch on YouTube)

A quiet song, "Being Boring" is drenched in a quiet, somewhat sad, nostalgia. The Rossetti translation of Villon's famous line, "Where are the snows of yesteryear?", work perfectly.

I came across a cache of old photos
And invitations to teenage parties
Dress in white one said, with quotations
From someone's wife, a famous writer
In the nineteen-twenties
When you're young you find inspiration
In anyone who's ever gone
And opened up a closing door
She said: we were never feeling bored

My teenage years were never spent being boring, but were instead spent depressed and afraid. Still, 29 is the new 19 (right?), and my life has progressed to the point where I can really understand the sense of happy nostalgia re: the joys of the past, regarding the sort of energy and drive that makes my life worthwhile." [I]f youre not careful/You'll have nothing left and nothing to care for"? Please.

Tennant and Lowe thinks this will all come to the end, as adulthood approaches and things start to fade. "Being Boring", as it turns out, is the middle song in a trilogy relating to a friend of Neil Tennant's who died of AIDS, the first song "It Couldn't Happen Here" relating to his belief that the HIV/AIDS epidemic wouldn't hit Britain, the final B-side "Your Funny Uncle" recounting the funeral.

Now I sit with different faces
In rented rooms and foreign places
All the people I was kissing
Some are here and some are missing
In the nineteen-nineties
I never dreamt that I would get to be
The creature that I always meant to be
But I thought in spite of dreams
Youd be sitting somewhere here with me

Still, "I never dreamt that I would get to be/The creature that I always meant to be" may be the most hopeful couplet I've ever heard. Memento mori, sure, but before that we all live. We all surely have to walk through at least one door!

[BRIEF NOTE] On the joys of multiple spacefaring powers

I'm as excited by China's impending launch of its first Mars probe as part of a planned long-duration study program as I am by India's successful lunar probe as I am by South Korea's development of its own rocket with Russian help.

Why? I imagined years ago, as part of a rather gloomy alternate history, that a collection of technologically advanced and competitive spacefaring powers might well launch fleets of space probes to explore the solar system, vehicles far more robust and capable than any sent in our history, with particular emphasis on probes which exploited the Grand Tour trajectories past the gas giants into the Kuiper belt like the Voyager 2.

Beginning in the mid-1970's, though, the League spacefaring powers and the United States embarked on a substantial program of unmanned exploration of the Solar System, using robotic probes. During the 1960's, Europe, Japan, and the United States had launched simple fly-by space probes to other planets in the Solar System. The images sent back by the Japanese M-1 probe to Mars in 1966, for instance, decisively demolished the hopeful beliefs of Earth-bound astronomers that Mars might yet be home to a simple biosphere, while the American Mariner 5 and Mariner 6 space probes revealed that Venus -- once thought to be a lush jungle world -- was in fact enveloped by a superheated and dense atmosphere of carbon dioxide. By 1970, these simple probes had managed to chart the atmospheres and surface features of the planets of Mars, Mercury, and Venus to a high degree of accuracy.

In the 1970's, rapid advances in long-range radio communications and informatics made possible the construction of far more sophisticated space probes. This new generation of space probes -- Europe's Explorateur series, Brazil's PLD series, the American Lewis and Clark probes, and Japan's single Meisuko Orbiter -- could theoretically work as autonomous agents entire light-hours from Earth, imaging each of their preassigned targets and transmitting these images back to earth as television pictures with only a minimum of intervention from Earth-based controllers. Power concerns were no problem, though the weak sunlight of the outer Solar System could not generate enough electricity with even the most efficient solar panel arrays; this new generation of space probes was powered by radioisotope generators, which harnessed the heat produced by the decay of radioactive elements to provide more than enough power.

The first of the long-range probes were launched in 1972, when the Explorateur-2 was sent to Mars and the PLD-1 set forth on its long voyage through space to Jupiter and then into the depths of interstellar space. (Explorateur-1 was destroyed when its first-series Hermès booster exploded upon launch.) Explorateur-2 arrived in Mars orbit at the end of the year, and to the amazement of planetary scientists the world over began radioing back high-resolution images of Mars' surface that revealed that though that world might be lifeless, the Martian surface was still being actively reshaped by natural forces.

As plans were made by ASE to dispatch two more Explorateurs to Mars in 1974, Brazil prepared to launch the PLD-2 for December of 1974. The PLD-2 was to be sent on a different course than its sister ship the PLD-1, visiting Jupiter and then Saturn. Although the two probes would be the first spacecraft to ever visit a world beyond the orbit of Mars and would provide valuable information on the two largest planets in the Solar System (and their moons); they also played an important role by gathering navigational data for the future "Grand Tour" probes. In the 1960's, a team of German scientists who had been calculating planetary orbits in the near future noticed that in the 1970's and 1980's, all five planets in the outer Solar System would be aligned on the same side of the Sun. With special planning spacecraft could be sent to explore all those worlds at a minimum cost in fuel by flying the gravitation of each planet to send the spacecraft towards the next planet. Two sequences were identified as being of particular scientific value, the first being the route Jupiter-Saturn-Uranus-Neptune, the second Jupiter-Saturn-Pluto, the two being known collectively as the "Grand Tour" routes. As it happened, the robust design of the Explorateur series of probes allowed ASE to present these two missions as inexpensive and scientifically invaluable, and the two missions were approved in October of 1973.

Alas, this program of space exploration never came to be, because the United States was the only spacefaring powers capable of supporting such long-duration missions, the Soviets being concerned with inner-system probes and the ESA still developing its rockets. But now? Russia, Europe, China, India, perhaps also South Korea and Brazil, all alongside the United States, have the potential to launch a wave of massive solar system exploration. So, yay! to the three new emergent spacefaring powers of Asia, and here's to hoping for at least several more. (Not North Korea, though. Can you imagine North Korea establishing first contact with an alien civilization?)

[LINK] Three Globe and Mail Links on Canadian unemployment.

Virginia Galt's "Youth bear brunt of job losses" isn't encouraging for students in specific or youth in general.

Twenty-year-old Siva Vimal, frustrated by the worst summer on record for student job seekers, is stressed about how he will pay his tuition this year – and reconsidering his dream of studying international law.

“Because we are in a recession right now, even if I do manage to find a job, I'm only getting three to four hours a week,” Mr. Vimal, a third-year political science student at Toronto's York University, said in an interview Friday after Statistics Canada confirmed the grim reality affecting Mr. Vimal and other cash-strapped students across the country.

July's student unemployment rate climbed to 20.9 per cent, a 7.1-percentage-point increase from July, 2008, Statscan said. “This was the highest July unemployment rate for these students since comparable data became available in 1977,” Statscan reported.

The July unemployment survey found the two sectors that traditionally hire students in the summer – hospitality and construction – were particularly hard hit.

For Mr. Vimal, the lack of a full-time summer job means he is “going to be forced to take on an oversized debt.” He already owes $11,000 in student loans.

Similarly, Tavia Grant and Jennifer Yang's "Immigrants take brunt of recession, recover less quickly" suggests that recent immigrants are also having a hard time of it.

While tens of thousands have joined the ranks of the unemployed during a nerve-wracking recession, newcomers to Canada are losing their jobs at more than three times the rate of workers who were born here – and may suffer much longer-lasting repercussions, even after the economy starts to recover.

Employment among Canadian-born workers fell 1.6 per cent over the past year, compared with a 5.7-per-cent decline among immigrants who have been in the country for five years or less, according to Statistics Canada research prepared for The Globe and Mail. Immigrants who have lived here for at least a decade fared slightly better: Their level of unemployment dropped 3 per cent, still nearly double the rate of people born in Canada.

But past recessions show immigrants have greater difficulty re-entering the labour force even after the economy rebounds.

And for newcomers who are forced to accept jobs below their qualifications, the damage to their careers is often permanent – a term dubbed “the scarring effect.”

The longer the recession lasts, the more likely skilled immigrants like Mr. Lobana are to settle for lesser jobs to pay the bills. But research shows it's difficult for workers to maintain their professional skill sets if they stay underemployed too long.

Michael Valpy's "When women are the 'reserve army of labour'" explores the way in which older women are finding it relatively easy to find jobs, especially but not only in the services sector.

An astonishing 60,000 women age 55 and over – an increase of 6.4 per cent – have successfully entered the labour force since the recession began in October, while hundreds of thousands of other Canadians have lost their jobs.

They're returning to work for many reasons: demographics; their children have finally made it into adulthood; and because their retirement investments have crashed, their partners have lost work and they're willing to take jobs maybe men don't want.

Across all ages, the gender gap in unemployment is the biggest since Statistics Canada began tracking it in 1976. Last month, the unemployment rate for men was 9.2 per cent, compared to 6.8 per cent for women, although women comprise nearly half the work force.

[LINK] "Vladimir Putin promises to make breakaway Abkhazia ‘a fortress’"

Well, so much for real Abkhazian independence.

Vladimir Putin made his first visit to Abkhazia, Georgia’s breakaway region, and pledged massive spending to turn it into a Russian military fortress.

Mr Putin chose the first anniversary of the ceasefire that ended Russia’s war with Georgia to travel to Abkhazia’s capital, Sukhumi. He promised almost $500 million (£320 million) to build a military base and reinforce the de facto border with Georgia.

"Russia is going to deploy its armed forces in Abkhazia and take the necessary efforts to build a modern border guard system in co-operation with the relevant Abkhazian authorities. All these factors are serious guarantees of the security of Abkhazia and South Ossetia," Mr Putin said.

[. . .]

He travelled to Sukhumi with Russia’s ministers for defence, transportation and regional development as well as officials from Russian Railways and the oil company Rosneft.

Mr Putin told Sergei Bagapsh, Abkhazia’s President: "This is not a random choice of colleagues who are present here today... large-scale joint operations are planned in virtually all the spheres that my colleagues represent."

Rosneft later announced that it expected to develop oil fields off Abkhazia’s Black Sea coast. To Georgia’s fury, Abkhazia is also expected to provide building materials for projects in the nearby Russian city of Sochi, which is hosting the 2014 Winter Olympics.

The bit about the twins named after him and President Medvedev is particularly encouraging.

[BRIEF NOTE] You think that you've had passport issues?

One nightmare for a Somali-Canadian woman in Kenya is ending.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said today the Canada Border Services Agency will have to answer for its role in the plight of a Canadian woman marooned in Kenya for nearly three months.

"Our first priority as a government is obviously to see her get on a flight back to Canada," Harper said in Kitchener today, referring to Suaad Hagi Mohamud, a Canadian citizen who was detained because Kenyan and Canadian officials there thought she did not look like her passport photo.

"In the case of the Canadian Border Service Agency," Harper continued, "I know that minister (of public safety Peter) Van Loan is asking that organization for a full accounting of their actions in this case and we'll obviously review those."

Based on what officials at the Canadian High Commission in Nairobi said were "conclusive investigations including an interview," Mohamud was branded an "imposter." Her passport was handed over to Kenyan officials for prosecution on charges of improper use of a travel document.

[. . .]

Mohamud, a Somali-Canadian, was branded an impostor by staff of the Canadian High Commission in Kenya because she did not resemble her passport photograph. Her lips were different from the four-year-old picture, as were her eyeglasses.

In a telephone interview from Nairobi yesterday, Mohamud gave further details of the event that started her ordeal when she tried to board a KLM flight home on May 21 after a three-week visit to Kenya.

A Kenyan KLM employee stopped her. "He told me he could make me miss my flight," she said of the KLM worker, who suggested Mohamud didn't look like her passport photo.

He seemed to be soliciting a bribe, she said, an experience Somali-born Torontonians say is commonplace for them at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.

When she didn't pay, a Kenyan immigration official arrested her. Canadian consular officials went along, returning Mohamud to the Kenyans, who threw her in jail on charges of entering Kenya illegally on a passport not her own.

The above article has links to the Star's previous coverage, dating back to early July when it first broke the story.

Bill Curry in The Globe and Mail suggests that she should have gotten a new photo, while the National Post argues that the government's "investigation" was remarkably shoddy.

All this raises the question of whether Canadians--especially new Canadians--can count on their government to protect them if they're travelling outside of the counrry.

[LINK] "Soviet Union Wanted to Topple Honecker in 1987, Morgenpost Says"

This is an interesting story indeed. If it's true, of course.

The Soviet Union under Mikhail Gorbachev wanted to topple East German leader Erich Honecker to clear the way for revamping the communist state in 1987, two years before the Berlin Wall fell, Berliner Morgenpost reported.

The government in Moscow sought out the East German spymaster Markus Wolf, who had ties with the KGB and spoke fluent Russian, to plot the overthrow of Honecker, Morgenpost said, citing research and interviews. Wolf resigned his post as the chief of Stasi foreign intelligence in February 1987, saying wanted to retire and write books.

The following month, Wolf met in Dresden with then-KGB deputy chief Vladimir Kryuchkov and Hans Modrow, a high-ranking East German communist party member who was designated as the most likely successor to Honecker. At the time, Wolf was unable to get the country’s security forces to back him, Morgenpost said.

Gorbachev, who had implemented the “glasnost” and “perestroika” agenda to change the Soviet Union and open its political system, had grown impatient with Honecker’s hard-line policies, including orders to shoot those trying to escape East Germany to the West. Honecker was ousted two years later amid massive pro-democracy protests which forced the opening of the Berlin Wall in 1989. East Germany ceased to exist after the 1990 German reunification.

Thoughts? Does this sound credible or incredible to my readers?