Saturday June 16, 2007 5:15 am Lethbridge Sunrise 5:23 Sunset 21:41 Hours of daylight: 16:18

A. Morning Musings

5:15 am It is +10 C with a high forecast of +20 C.

Here are the news.

CBC Headline: RCMP needs major shakeup: federal investigator's report

The RCMP needs major changes to its governance and culture, a government-appointed investigator said Friday. In releasing his report on Friday, Brown strongly criticized the management style of former RCMP commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli, saying officers who brought the pension and insurance problems to his attention "faced career damage." The lower-ranking force members who complained about problems "were treated very unfairly," he said. Brown recommended appointing a task force of police, government officials and private-sector experts to look into the RCMP culture and governance to deal with a situation in which RCMP members were punished for challenging the prevailing management. The proposed task force should report by Dec. 14, he said. A decision about appointing a task force is up to the government. "This is of the utmost urgency and importance" because lower-ranking officers and the public are losing confidence in the force, Brown said. Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said in a news release that the government will respond to Brown's report on Tuesday. But Brown also said he found no signs of a coverup on the pension issue, just mismanagement. The issue now appears to be about the best way to fix the problem: a task force or by internal adjustments.

Canadian Headline: see above

Australian Headline: (from The Australian): Nation's child abuse shame

Sexual abuse of Aboriginal children is widespread across the Northern Territory, fuelled by "rivers of grog" and catastrophic failures in the education system. A landmark report handed down in Darwin yesterday describes a world where degrading pornography circulates freely, and alcohol and marijuana are chronically abused; where sexualised behaviour among young children is widely seen; where white workers prey on young Aboriginal women; and where many people remain unsure about the age of consent. The report's authors were told of sexual abuse in every community that they visited. The report, almost a year in the making and intended to break down once and for all the "veil of silence" hiding the plague of child sexual abuse, paints a bleak, surreal picture of the darker aspects of life in remote communities. This is a continuation of the story from yesterday.

B. Actual/Notes

10:30 PM I have created one web page that is a close approximation to this page in terms of appearance and which uses CSS for the formatting. Most of the CSS is based on ID selectors which is not as "nice" as using more generic selectors. I want to explore this more thoroughly in the next few days.

C. Plan

Immediate
Literature	Begin reading "Bel Canto" by Ann Patchett	2 hr
Technology	Begin creating a new website using CSS for all formatting	3 hr
Science	Read & make notes for "The Canon" by Natalie Angier	1 hr
Later
Technology	Make notes for chap. 4 of "Switching to the Mac"
	Learn how to attach a digital camera to my spotting scope
	Burn backup of images onto DVD
Mathematics	Read & make notes on The Humongous Book of Calculus Problems
	Write a paper on mathematics education
	Continue reading "Algebra: Abstract and Concrete" by Frederick Goodman
	Read "Symmetry" by David Wade
	Make notes for "Mathematics: A Human Endeavor" ch 1
	Read "Fearless Symmetry" chap 9: Elliptic Curves
Model Trains	Add ground cover to oil refinery diorama
	Follow tutorial for version 8 of 3rd PlanIt
	Continue assembly of coaling tower
	Purchase DCC system
History	Begin reading "Maya"
	Read Watson "Ideas"
Philosophy	Read & make notes for "Breaking the Spell"
	Begin reading "How Are We To Live?" by Peter Singer
Literature	New York Times easy crossword puzzles
GO	Complete reading "Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go"
Puzzles	The Orange Puzzle Cube: puzzle #10
Major Goals
Learning	Review week's pages each Sunday
	Review all pages for the month at the end of each month
Technology	Review & edit iPhoto files for 2006
Model Trains	Become proficient with 3rd PlanIt software
	Install DCC on model train layout
GO	Learn to play GO at something better than a beginner level
Drawing	Learn to draw!! (I keep saying this, yet I have yet to put a pencil to paper).
Mathematics	Continue to play with mathematics.
Literature	Continue to read Literature
Bird Watching	Continue to engage in bird watching activities.

D. Reflection