Margin Notes: No Tracks, CN, Chrome

Tracks were conspicuously missing from Roncesvalles Avenue in front of the streetcar mural in Toronto, Ontario on 4-March-2010 as construction on the road continued in other blocks

TORONTO, ONTARIO - Some deceiving spring weather has allowed exploration by foot which is not normally tenable in early March here. Among the sights I have encountered was the above scene on Roncesvalles without streetcar tracks in front of the well-known streetcar mural. Construction was ongoing a few blocks in either direction, but right there (and for that matter, in front of the famous Solarski Pharmacy) it looked like streetcars were just a thing of the past. Rest assured, they'll be back next year.

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If Canadian National (CN) keeps running its business as it has, it may want to start removing all its tracks. According to a parliamentary study as reported in the Financial Post, a mere 13% of customers report a high level of satisfaction with CN's service. This reinforces that the 61% on-time delivery rate mentioned earlier on this blog is not acceptable. However, CN's main competitor, Canadian Pacific, is not exactly a model, either, with just 25% of customers reporting a high level of satisfaction.

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The British press sure didn't think people had a high level of satisfaction with those games recently concluded in Vancouver, British Columbia whose name began with "O". I find it a bit odd that they decided to name the games after me, though--the "Glitch Games." I wasn't trying to be associated with them, really.

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I try not to be associated with the fawning praise that the technology press tends to bestow on products from Google, and what I have to say today may help. As most readers of this blog know, I am far from an early adopter of new technology, but after I start hearing early adopters raving about things, I tend to try them. So, I downloaded the Google Chrome browser this week to see how it compared with Mozilla Firefox, which I tend to use the most, and Apple Safari, which I use on occasion. While I will admit that on some java-based media sites it did appear to be somewhat faster, it wasn't a huge difference and my Internet connection seems to be the limiting factor so that all three of the browsers seem to be about the same speed on most activities. So, the fact that Chrome has so many fewer features than Firefox or Safari, including security customizations that I sometimes use, means that I am putting it aside and sticking with the browsers I know.

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Google Chrome may be faster at certain things, but being faster may no longer be culturally preferable. There seems to be a growing movement for pacing oneself, for slowing down. Hence, there is actually a drink for sale in Canada called Slow Cow which touts itself as a relaxation beverage. So, now we have a full spectrum of drinks, from Slow Cow to Red Bull.

Radio Pick: Passing the Baton

TORONTO, ONTARIO - There wasn't much question what should be the weekly radio pick this week. Last shows often have substantial value with retrospective segments or other rare audio. Andy Barrie's last show and Matt Galloway's first show as permanent host of CBC Radio One Toronto's Metro Morning was special even in this genre, as discussions included big issues like the evolution of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and the medium of radio in general, in addition to personal moments. About an hour of the best clips have been posted to show web site from the three-hour program.

Listen to streaming Windows Media of Metro Morning "Passing the Baton"

Culture: Sherlock Holmes

Doug Wrigglesworth spoke to the Swansea Historical Society in Toronto, Ontario about Sherlock Holmes on 3-March-2010--note the sticker on his computer

TORONTO, ONTARIO - I can't claim to be all that familiar with Sherlock Holmes. Most of what I know has come from listening to Imagination Theater, a Seattle-based radio show that presents Holmes dramas, many of them newly-written with the permission of the estate of Dame Jean Conan Doyle, on a regular basis as part of its weekly hour-long shows.

Some people know a LOT more than I do. It turns out that there are hundreds of Sherlock Holmes societies across the world, populated by people known as Sherlockians. There are thousands of Sherlockian web sites, including a Who's Who where Doug Wrigglesworth, the speaker at the Swansea Historical Society meeting on Wednesday night, could be found.

Wrigglesworth pointed out that a lot of stereotypes about Holmes have no foundation in the actual "canon," the writings of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. He's never mentioned to have worn a deerstalker hat, prominently carried a magnifying glass, or have stated, "Elementary, my dear Watson!" Instead, these images have Holmes have come from later illustrations and performances. The image of Holmes with a calabash pipe, for example, came from actor William Gillette wanting to use it because its center of gravity made it easier to wear during performances--and placed the tobacco as far as possible from my lungs. Some things do come from the canon, though. The Sherlock Holmes Society of Canada is known as the Bootmakers of Toronto because label on a boot in the Hound of the Baskervilles was labeled as being from Toronto.

While many Sherlockians join the multitude of societies for the love of the character, the storytelling (especially the interaction with Dr. Watson), or just the social aspect of the clubs, Wrigglesworth pointed out that there is an intellectual aspect to the field. Holmes fundamentally used the scientific method in his investigations, and Sherlockians try to do the same in their attempts to understand Conan Doyle's sometimes inconsistent writings. For example, a medical doctor Sherlockian actually wrote a paper explaining how it was possible that Holmes' war injury could have been both a shoulder and a leg wound, as it is referred to as each in different stories. Perhaps most fundamentally, Holmes profiles suspects, and that kind of scientific technique is increasingly finding favor with police forces around the world.

Wrigglesworth hadn't heard John Patrick Lowry's portrayal of Holmes on Imagination Theater, but he heartily endorses the BBC's radio Holmes--how could it a true Sherlockian say anything else?

Politics: Harper's Thinking World Budget

TORONTO, ONTARIO - I've avoided weighing in on the personality of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in the Chinese meridian-based system that I like to use. I've actually long suspected that he was in the thinking world, but since Canada itself has a thinking-world personality, it could have just been a cultural overlay. I've been fooled about a number of people in that way. However, in light of the Conservative government's budget released today, I'm finally convinced that Harper must indeed be coming from the thinking world, though I still won't commit on a specific personality type within the world.

It's been clear since he came on the political scene in Canada that Harper's strength has been strategy, and not charisma. Some would say he completely lacks charisma. The attention placed on trying to create a more human image for Harper, notably the sweaters of the 2008 election campaign, underline this weakness. Yet, personality theory teaches us that the traits of the "balancing" type are in the "subconscious" of the a given type, and those traits can come out with effort when the individual is healthy. Harper's famous piano performance with Yo-Yo Ma of "With a Little Help from My Friends" demonstrated that he does have an emotional-world performance side that can come out, implying that he does reside in the balancing, thinking world.

The hallmark of the thinking world is that it thinks in terms of the future, often making decisions for the sake of a long-term vision that completely ignore contemporary reality or lessons from the past. While a case could be made that many political decisions Harper has made follow that pattern, seeming to have a tin ear to the opening days of a recession or to the historic importance of the arts in Quebec for example, never has the trend been more clear than in the present budget. Instead of spending money on programs (such as additional stimulus spending or Employment Insurance reform) to ensure that the country exits the recession, instead the bulk of the limited new spending in the budget is designed to grow high-technology businesses to create a stronger economy years down the road. While entrepreneurial students have plenty to be excited about in this focus, the currently-unemployed have something to be upset about. It's not hard to argue that this is the correct long-term strategy for Canada, but if the opposition parties are clever, they will be able to use this against Harper in the short term.

The thinking world is also known for being proactive, which means that sometimes they try to solve problems that don't even exist. Though there are a number of more crassly political possibilities for the move to remove gender-specific language from the national anthem, this could also reflect the proactive, thinking world view. Harper may have created a problem that actually did not exist and tried to solve it.

The good news for Stephen Harper is that the opposition leader, Michael Ignatieff, also seems to hail from the thinking world. The odds that Ignatieff will be able to focus on the present and poke holes in the budget based on the current conditions in a compelling manner seem long. That, in fact, may be part of what the future-looking Harper is counting on, just as much as he is counting on an improving economy.

Culture: What Rail Says About a Country

TORONTO, ONTARIO - Let's accept for the moment part of yesterday's premise that the appropriate way to experience a country is by train. What would we learn about North America by doing so?

In Mexico, we'd learn that we can't experience the country by train. With a few exceptions including tourist trains, long-distance and even corridor passenger rail does not exist. Passenger service was ended in 1997 as the national railway was prepared to be privatized. Bus service, some of it reasonably luxurious, has moved into the market once occupied by rail. So, what we learn about Mexico is that the gap between the rich (traveling by private vehicles and air) and the poor (traveling by bus) is so substantial that the middle-class niche normally occupied by rail is not large enough to justify infrastructure investment in long-distance passenger service in a country that does not have a lot of money to spend on transportation.

In the United States, we'd learn that there is a great deal of variation across the country. In the northeast, traditionally where the most people lived until recent generations and where national lawmakers still live, rail service is actually reasonably useful and modern. Amtrak operates high speed service on the corridor between Boston, Massachusetts and Washington DC. However, even where population density is approaching such levels in the west, state governments have had to step up and fund corridor service on their own. California, Washington, and even Illinois have had to pump state money into creating corridors that have started to rival in ridership the Northeast Corridor which is federally funded. Meanwhile, long-distance service languishes with outdated equipment and little respect from host, freight railways, with on-board service from Amtrak that is uneven at best. First class sleeper service is laughable by international standards. Many cities, including large ones like Phoenix and Las Vegas, have no service at all. Unless one lives in a privileged area (where a state pays for corridor service or the federal government funds service), one is almost on one's own in riding a train, rather like many Americans feel treated by their government in general.

Canada presents a similar but distinct picture. In the main population corridor between Windsor, Ontario and Quebec City, Quebec, service is frequent and reasonably modern with good on-board service. However, it is far from world class, with no high-speed service though operator VIA Rail Canada clearly tries to do the best it can. Long-distance service is infrequent, with several routes (including the solitary transcontinental train and the train to Gaspe, Quebec) only running three times a week, but when it does run, it provides world-class service, not only to sleeping car passengers but in coach for the common person as well. Furthermore, in remote areas where service is needed, service still operates, including remote areas of Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba and British Columbia, in some cases under provincial or even Native administration. Yet, especially in the west, there are major cities, foremost Calgary, with no service at all where people have to turn to other modes. One gets the impression that Canada does not have unlimited resources, but does a good job of reaching all classes of society with what services it does have, where it does have them.

There may be something to the idea that one can learn a lot about a country from its rail system. The differences between Mexico, the United States, and Canada are reflected in what rail service is available in each country, and what it is like to ride them.

Travel: Appropriate Modes

TORONTO, ONTARIO - If there's one thing a scientist or engineer learns that is applicable to life in general (and I would contend there is plenty), it is the concept of scale and magnitude. The Newtonian physics that one learns in high school works just fine until one gets down to the scale of atoms, just like talking about Congressional spending "pork" works just fine in creating a national mood and getting people mad, but rarely leads individuals to actually vote out their own Congressperson who "brought home the bacon."

The same concept of scale can apply to travel. Much has been written over the years about the joys of walking around a neighbourhood or city, including this recent piece in the Christian Science Monitor that started me thinking about the topic again. As someone who likes to explore even cities the size of (at least "old") Toronto by foot, I agree that walking speed offers the best possibility to see what's actually around and interact with people. But, of course, it's not practical to walk all over Canada, or even a smaller country like Switzerland. (Okay, maybe the Vatican, but it's really a city.) Just try walking to the moon!

I would suggest that the best way to explore a city is by foot, the best way to explore a county or parish is by bicycle, the best way to explore a state or province is by car, the best way to explore a country is by train, the best way to explore a continent is by air, and the best way to explore a planet is by spaceship. This idea could be probably be formalized, perhaps by saying that an appropriate mode must be able to take one over the distance involved in one leg taking at least a few hours but less than a day for the averaged-sized entity (cities as large as Los Angeles or Chicago or countries as large as Russia or Canada might take more time), but would take perhaps a dozen trips to really explore what could be seen from that mode thoroughly.

I suppose it's possible to learn something about Las Vegas, Nevada, Chicago, Illinois, or even Ellensburg, Washington by flying over it instead of walking around. But can one surmise the quality of entertainment in Las Vegas, the cuisine of Chicago, or smells and wind of Ellensburg by flying over it? Not without a good deal of imagination, and if one has that great of an imagination, it scarcely seems necessary to travel at all.

There's probably an engineering take on that phenomenon, too--call it the Glitch Quotient, Td/I, where Td is travel distance and I is extent of imagination. At the limit where I approaches infinity (an amazing imagination), the Glitch Quotient goes to zero, and the correct mode of transportation goes to none at all. Just don't ask me the units of measurement for the Glitch quotient.

Media: Forward is Backward

TORONTO, ONTARIO - Today was the official hand-off of the host position on CBC Radio One Toronto's Metro Morning show from Andy Barrie to Matt Galloway. I have little to add to the accolades for Barrie except to say that I agree with virtually all of them. That a deserter from the United States military could go on to be one of Canada's foremost media figures makes for an inspiring story for any immigrant, but what this morning's hand-off show left me with more than the stories of Barrie's or Galloway's lives or how they conducted themselves off-air was the lesson of how the morning show in Toronto has changed in my lifetime.

I wasn't here to hear it, obviously, but the CBC morning show in Toronto in the early 1970's likely varied a lot less from its commercial competitors, at least on the AM dial, than it does now. For one thing, it ran commercials until 1975. I suppose I had read that somewhere, but I had completely forgotten that fact until it came up on the show. In the past 35 years, CBC radio has racked up such a record as a public, commercial-free broadcaster that it seems almost inconceivable that it once aired "spots."

Yet, it was one of the things that dropping commercials allowed the CBC to do that most surprised me. In the show this morning, former CBC manager and director Margaret Lyons pointed out that the time freed up by not airing commercials could be put to use playing music, which had not previously been done on the morning show. Previously, it had all been spoken word, or as we call it today, "Newstalk." The CBC had once sounded more like today's CFRB (er, Newstalk 1010) morning show, or any number of such news-driven talk shows around the continent, than today's Metro Morning.

I've lived through an opposite trend on commercial radio in my life. I distinctly remember the last time I heard an entire song played on KIRO in Seattle. Though I don't recall the date, it must have been about 1985. A guest had canceled on mid-day host Jim French, and to fill the time, he and his producer chose to play Harold Faltermeyer's instrumental song "Axel F" from the "Beverly Hills Cop" movie soundtrack, which was still relatively popular at the time. I never heard a complete song played for the sake of playing music on 710 AM in Seattle again, as it held assiduously to its "Newsradio" format. If I wanted music and news, I had to tune to KOMO AM 1000, which remained a "full-service" radio station until it went to a Talk format in 1995 after years of inching that direction. I lamented the loss of the full-service radio stations on this blog a year ago.

For some reason, I had assumed that CBC Radio One in Toronto, once CBL 740 AM and since 1999 CBLA-FM 99.1, had always been "full-service" in that sense and had never stopped playing music. Instead, music had been gone from morning drive, and was re-introduced to help "re-connect with culture of the city." In the small doses (usually two songs per hour) that do now air on Metro Morning, that's exactly what it does.

So, the CBC saw the power of going forward, better serving their community, by going backward in terms of format, re-introducing music. Maybe there's some hope for the return of full-service radio somewhere by following the same logic--successful in Toronto--elsewhere.