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Showing posts from January, 2011

Ontario Technological Education Teachers Mail Lists

When I did the provincial training for the new Tech Ed curriculum back in 2009, I created mail lists in Google Groups as a way for the teachers to network, both as part of the training and afterwards. A number of these mail lists have become hugely successful, with lots of dialogue about anything from field trips to textbooks, and what I am most happy about, with teachers creating and freely sharing resources that they have developed. To join any of these lists, you have to have a Google account. If you have a Gmail account, then you already have a Google account, so you can just use that address to join. If you don't have a Google account, you'll have to create one, which you can easily do by following the directions after you click on one of the links below. Note that you do not have to create and use a Gmail account to join; you are welcome to use your school board or personal email address. To join any of these mail lists, just click on the appropriate link below : A...

My 2009 Hyundai Sonata is a POS

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Dear diary: My 2009 Hyundai Sonata that I bought at Performance Hyundai in St. Catharines, Ontario is a POS. The car is only 20 months old, and in that short time... - had the disk rotors machined because of vibration (which didn't solve the problem), - when it's cold out, the radio occasionally refuses the let AM or FM work (they couldn't find anything wrong), - had a headlight assembly replaced because it had condensation in it, - had an oil leak on the engine repaired, - had a temperature sensor replaced after the heater failed, - has a loud buzzing in the exhaust in certain conditions (cold, low revs, pulling strongly, like up a hill) that they say is "normal", - and now, at only 20 months of age, has a seized brake that has completely worn out a disk pad and caused major damage to the rotor. My car is now limp in the driveway until the brake parts come in next week so it can be repaired. Thank goodness I have a carpool partner that can pick me u...

Finding Vivian Maier, Chicago Street Photographer

This is a story of a full-time nanny/part-time street photographer in Chicago named Vivian Maier. Vivian sadly passed away in April of 2009, with her photographic work totally unknown to the world. It took a local real estate agent named John Maloof to uncover her amazing talent after purchasing her negatives at an auction. He hadn't heard of Vivian, and only bought the negatives in a search for some content for a book he was writing. It was when he was scanning the negatives that he realized what he had. John didn't know what to do with this amazing body of work, so he started by putting together a blog to showcase some of the photos. He then reached out to the flickr community  for ideas. It was there that someone recommended John look for funding on Kickstarter.com , which is how I learned about it. John is looking for $20,000 to help fund the pre-production of a documentary movie he'd like to put together about Vivian and her work. The fundraising started two weeks a...