The executive alarm clock

I've a proud owner of the original Neverlate 7-day alarm clock which, as the name suggests, has an independent alarm for each day of the week. It seems that, on December 17th, its successor will be released.

This model has dual 7-day alarm banks, plus the possibility of defining an additional 7 daily alarms (for a grand total of 21 different alarm settings).

I've used the snooze on my alarm clock fairly regularly, and this new alarm clock also has a descending snooze option wherein the snooze time is cut in half each additional time you hit that ever-so-tempting button.

The status of Canadian copyright activity

A controversial bill that seeks to reform Canadian copyright laws, expected to be introduced early this week, may be quashed after a groundswell of opposition erupted over the past week.

The government last week filed a notice indicating the bill would be introduced this week, leading industry experts to expect it to happen on Tuesday. But a spokesperson for Industry Minister Jim Prentice, who was to introduce the bill, said it would not happen on Tuesday and could not say if it would happen this week. (CBC)

(HT: Michael Geist)

The CBC article noted that about 50 people showed up at an Christmas Open House held in Calgary by the Industry Minister to complain about copyright (video of that here). I had been debating joining them, but in the end decided not to go. Mind you I did fire off a letters to a batch of politicians about the issue.

The effect of country music on suicide rates

Today I stumbled across a link to a study of the effect of country music on suicide rates at Evangelical Outpost. Here's an excerpt of the abstract:

Country music is hypothesized to nurture a suicidal mood through its concerns with problems common in the suicidal population, such as marital discord, alcohol abuse, and alienation from work. The results of a multiple regression analysis of 49 metropolitan areas show that the greater the airtime devoted to country music, the greater the white suicide rate. The effect is independent of divorce, southernness, poverty, and gun availability. The existence of a country music subculture is thought to reinforce the link between country music and suicide.

Reality in writing

Like some authors who are Christians, she eschews the label "Christian author." Being a believer, she explains, simply makes her a better storyteller. "I agree with Francis Schaeffer when he said that 'it is the Christian whose imagination should fly beyond the stars.' We have such freedom to create and imagine and take risks, and—because of the way Jesus engaged with humanity—we also have the freedom to tell the truth about our fallen world. I prefer literature that doesn’t shy away from the depths and consequences of our sin and also doesn’t feel compelled to tie up everything in a tidy bow at the end. Real life can be so messy." (byFaith Magazine)

Annoyingly to read the whole article requires a subscription - which I don't have - but I felt that blurb in and of itself was worth posting.

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