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Category: Amazing People
With one of my running heroes, Ed Whitlock, at the 2009 Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Half-Marathon
Barack Obama’s Inaugural Address
My fellow citizens: I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors.
I thank President Bush for his service to our nation as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.
Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath.
The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because We the People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forbears, and true to our founding documents.
So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.
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Victoria and Eamonn Nolan with Brian McLean of Achilles Canada
Vicky (Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games Rowing Coxed Four LTAMix4) and husband Eamonn Nolan with Brian McLean, president of Achilles Canada at the Annual Christmas Party. Achilles Canada is a non-profit organization that provides people with various disabilities an opportunity to receive the physical, psychological, and communal benefits of running.
Vicky and her seeing-eye dog Angus (“there are hundreds of photos of Angus and very few of Eamonn”)
Slideshow
An Evening with Tony Blair
For the Women’s College Hospital Foundation
Sarah Evans
My friend Sarah Evans, founder of Sarah Evans Writes
I’m helping Sarah build her e-zine called Living Beyond: “Living your best with a Diagnosis.”
Slide Show
What would the world be like if everyone acted like Kevin Gosling?
Giving the gift of life — to a total stranger
LISA PRIEST Globe & Mail
Kevin Gosling was sent to three psychiatrists to see whether he had a death wish, was seeking atonement for a past sin or was just plain crazy when he offered to do something no other Canadian had ever done: donate part of his liver to a stranger.
The 46-year-old man’s wish was answered last year when he underwent a six-hour operation at Toronto General Hospital to have two sections of the left part of his liver dissected and transplanted into a child.
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Maybe there is hope for mankind
Ivy League next chapter for book-loving native girl
LISA FITTERMAN
Special to The Globe and Mail
MONTREAL — When she was 13, Skawenniio Barnes just wanted a quiet place to read after school on the Kahnawake Reserve outside of Montreal. So the Mohawk teenager — whose first name means “beautiful word” — fought to build a library.
Come September, she will be toting her books in the hallowed halls of one of North America’s most prestigious Ivy League schools. Her steely determination so impressed Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Dartmouth that all four universities offered her full scholarships.
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Sarah Evans & Dave Carlson
Sarah Evans of Ability Culture asked me and Dave Carlson to help her build a website called Living Beyond, “Living Your Best with a Diagnosis”. Dave will do the logo and help me build the site. Dave is very knowledgeable about website accessibility.
Slideshow
It’s hard not to sympathize with this idea!
Venezuela Promotes Microsoft Alternative
– By JORGE RUEDA, Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
(03-29) 16:11 PST CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) —
President Hugo Chavez, long critical of big transnational companies, is promoting free open-source software as an alternative to market-dominating Microsoft Corp.
Venezuela’s science and technology ministry recently held the Latin American Free Software Installation Fair, an event promoting the use of the open-source Linux operating system and other nonproprietary programs over Microsoft’s Windows.
Groups of Linux users have been organizing similar events in other Latin American countries, including Argentina and Colombia, and the Venezuelan government has signed on as a promoter.
The technology ministry said the fair is part Venezuela’s move toward “technological sovereignty, and taking advantage of knowledge for building national scientific independence.”
Chavez, a vehement critic of the capitalist system, issued a decree in 2004 ordering all the country’s public institutions to actively move toward open-source alternatives, hoping to save millions of dollars.
Government agencies have gradually been making the change.
Chavez says previous governments spent more on licensing fees for proprietary software than social programs to fight poverty.
The Venezuelan government hasn’t focused direct criticism on Microsoft, but Chavez has regularly condemned “the hegemony of the multinationals” — saying many big companies are to blame for putting profits above the needs of poor people across Latin America.
URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2006/03/29/financial/f161136S97.DTL
Yesterday I met a journalist….
Yesterday I met a journalist named Sarah Evans, 23. She is an intern at the Town Crier group of local newspapers. She is writing an article about my new venture, Family Memories. We met at the Indigo Book Store Starbucks at Yonge and Eglinton here in Toronto. Sarah used a tape recorder to record our interview.
What is terrific about Sarah is that she has had Cerebral Palsy since she was a year old. She can only get around in a wheel chair and has difficulty moving her hands and speaking. She gets around on Wheel Trans, the Toronto Transit Commission’s service for the disabled. It’s an excellent service but she must book it 24 hours in advance.
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