The Scope Of Things To Come Dec 2 2007 For Lucas Nikola

Today Dec 2 2007
Leo (July 23 — Aug. 22)

Let your sense of humour be your guide and rest assured that a benign sky is preparing to deliver a lucky roll of the dice.

Sagittarius (Nov. 23 — Dec.21)

Despite the turbulence all around, you will enjoy a sense of peace.

Pisces (Feb. 20 — March 20)

Your sense of perspective is strongly. If you can find the patience to stick it out, all will be revealed when the time is right.

Lucas Nikola Pennell Soon To Appear Nov 30, 2007, but he decided to stay a little longer...
This was the Scope!
Sagittarius (Nov. 23 — Dec. 21)

Don't doubt a recent brave decision just because things are getting stormier than you originally foresaw. This case of cold feet is temporary. In time, you will see that you left behind a rut and entered a new world of true emotional fulfillment.

(Toronto Star)

Grand-nephew promotes film, appreciation for inventor By Bob Karlovits TRIBUNE-REVIEW Friday, November 30, 2007 William H. Terbo has added a personal form of high voltage to an upcoming film about George Westinghouse. "About Nikola Tesla, I can talk indefinitely," Terbo says with a laugh as he begins a discussion about the inventor whom he calls a "soulmate" of industrialist Westinghouse. Terbo, a grand-nephew and the closest living relative of the Serbian electrical genius who had 112 U.S. patents, talked about Tesla's work before ending a stay in O'Hara. He was there to do an interview about Tesla for "Westinghouse," a film to be released in 2008. The documentary by O'Hara's Inecom Entertainment Co. is set to be released on DVD in April in conjunction with the celebration of Pittsburgh's 250th anniversary. Terbo, 77, of Scotch Plains, N.J., is a founding director and chairman of the Tesla Memorial Society Inc., a nonprofit group that tries to advance knowledge of the inventor, who lived from 1856 to 1943. He shows great enthusiasm about Tesla, who for many years he thought of simply as "my father's uncle" and not as a technological genius who teamed with Westinghouse in the development of alternating current as the power scheme of the nation. His eyes gleam as he talks about how Tesla and Westinghouse (1846-1914) approached the challenge of developing electrical power, generators and turbines with the intent of doing work "that would do some good." He points to the statue in Niagara Falls, Ontario, honoring Tesla for his work in developing hydroelectric power at the site. A look at the list of Tesla's patents reveals an item that helped harness electricity into a taken-for-granted power. For instance, he talks about the Tesla coil, "which is in every automobile" and helps make high voltage practical. Tesla also had eight patents that led to the development of modern radio, seven more than Gugliemo Marconi (1874-1937), usually seen as the inventor of the medium. That is the story Terbo is trying to impart in the film about Westinghouse. Appreciation of Tesla wasn't always widespread, he says. Terbo worked in the missile and space industry in Los Angeles before coming east to work on satellite projects for Western Union. He discovered an ethnic and professional interest in Tesla that led to the formation of the society in 1979 and its incorporation in 1980. Since then, Terbo has given more than 150 interviews on Tesla, spoken to more than 100 symposiums and been in 20 video documentaries. Technological thinking must run in the family. His father, Nicholas J. Trbojevich, held 68 U.S. patents in gear design, a subject Terbo says he always found "boring, boring, boring." Since discovering the interest in Tesla, Terbo has developed a zest that seems fueled by one of his great-uncle's turbines. Terbo speaks of how Tesla developed an electrical system that allowed him and Westinghouse to put a "stranglehold on alternating current." Terbo says he met Tesla once in New York City with his mother, but cannot remember the year. While Tesla was one of the most well-known inventors in the world at the turn of the 20th century, Terbo says, his renown dropped after his death. Terbo believes that is because the United States was involved in World War II then and the recovery from it immediately thereafter. He believes the Tesla Memorial Society's work as well as films such as the 2001 PBS biography, "Tesla, Master of Lightning," has helped create a "resurgence" of interest. Terbo talks with pride about the work of the two industrial dynamos. "He and Westinghouse were gentlemen who saw social and ethical responsibility in what they did," he says. Bob Karlovits can be reached at bkarlovits@tribweb.com or 412-320-7852. Images and text copyright © 2007 by The Tribune-Review Publishing Co.

TheStar.com - GTA - Storm hits GTA, more coming

RICHARD MARSHALL/AP PHOTO

The first storm of the winter, which dumped 5 to 10 cm. of snow on the GTA started in the U.S. midwest where it dumped 15 cm in St. Paul, Minn.

Storm hits GTA, more coming

December 02, 2007

Jackson Hayes
Sarah Boesveld
Staff Reporters

The first storm of winter lashed the Toronto area overnight and it’s going to get worse before it gets better.

The snow will become rain, heavy at times and then as temperatures drop overnight turn to snow again, making it a struggle to get to work on Monday. One of the casualties is today's thoroughbred racing card at Woodbine, which has been canceled

Up to 10 cm of wind-whipped snow fell in outlying parts of the GTA overnight with about half that falling in communities near the lake.

The storm is the same one which battered the U.S. Midwest yesterday where the U.S. National Weather Service posted winter storm and ice warnings across parts of Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, the eastern Dakotas, Illinois and northern Michigan, although some warnings were lifted by midday. Fifteen to 40 centimetres of snow was forecast in parts of Minnesota.

In Toronto police, fire and ambulance have been busy dealing with numerous minor collisions. Since 6 a.m. this morning, police traffic services have responded to at least six car accidents on the Don Valley Parkway.

“Most of them are due to speed, people losing control,” said Sgt. Allan Finley. “People have to realize that you have to be careful driving in the snow.”

According to Sgt. Dave Hall, the OPP have responded to roughly 130 minor accidents on the major highways since midnight.

The blustery conditions are also responsible for the delay or cancellation of dozens of flights at Pearson airport.

GO Transit is reporting all routes will be 15 to 45 minutes late depending on the road conditions.

And with all that, the worst might still be on its way.

Environment Canada is calling for periods of freezing rain with winds up to 50 km per hour to hit the area throughout the day as the temperature is expected to rise to a high of 2 degrees. And after all the rain falls, the mercury is expected to dip down to a low of 1 degree this evening as more snow moves into the area.

All these conditions should make for outrageous road conditions for Monday’s commute.

Officials are warning drivers to leave lots of time and reminding them to use caution.

Is the web is heading toward a class system?

Who owns the Net? Hint: It's not Al Gore TheStar.com - Ideas - Who owns the Net? Hint: It's not Al Gore

There are growing signs the Web is heading toward a class system

December 01, 2007

Chris Sorensen
Business Reporter

When British scientist Tim Berners-Lee created the concept of the World Wide Web as a series of hyperlinked pages in 1989, it was as an egalitarian tool that would allow cloistered academics to share their research.

But two decades later, several prominent techno evangelists, including Berners-Lee and the so-called "father of the Internet" Vinton Cerf, warn that those same democratic values are now being called into question just as the Internet is becoming the backbone of society throughout much of the developed world.

They say some of the companies that operate the Internet's local infrastructure – the complex networks of cables, routers and switching equipment that pipe the Web into people's homes and offices – want to effectively slice up cyberspace into a series of channels that offer a variety of service levels, ranging from basic to premium.

That would allow them to squeeze more money from Web-based companies and content creators in exchange for priority access to broadband subscribers, creating a new source of revenue distinct from that which already comes from customers' monthly access fees.

Some say such a move, if technically feasible, threatens to leave surfers poking around a small corner of the Web, since venturing beyond would almost certainly mean getting stuck in traffic in one of the Internet's slow lanes.

"Right now, you can get on Google just like that," says Philippa Lawson, the director of the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic. "But, if these companies have their way, it could take quite a long time to get on some newer sites."

The debate about the need to preserve "net neutrality" has been raging for some time in the United States. It flared up again earlier this month in the wake of a consulting group's study that found the Internet was in danger of being overloaded by 2010. The culprit? Rising demand for bandwidth-clogging applications such as file sharing and video, according to Nemertes Research.

Local service providers say online behemoths such as Google, Amazon and eBay are basically getting a free ride by hogging available bandwidth to deliver their services. Hence, some firms are said to be considering erecting tolls on online content.

But net neutrality proponents fear that will lead to a "two tier" Internet, where deep-pocketed corporations will be the only ones that could afford access to the information superhighway's priority lanes. Cerf, for example, has warned such a move would stifle innovation, arguing that much of the growth in the digital economy is due to people's ability to try out new online ideas at low personal cost.

While Lawson says net neutrality is far more developed as an issue south of the border, she stressed that the same concerns exist in Canada where the market is controlled by a handful of big companies, including Rogers, Bell and Telus.

One of the concerns centres on the treatment of bandwidth hogging protocols such as BitTorrent, which is a popular way for users to share music and other types of large files.

Online chat rooms are full of irate messages from Rogers and Bell subscribers who say the companies are using special software to sniff out data packets travelling across their networks and direct those carrying file-sharing information to slower traffic lanes. Though not technically a net neutrality issue, the practice nevertheless rankles those who pay up to $50 a month or more for high-bandwidth services that are advertised as being "for sharing large files and much more."

While both companies have admitted to "managing" traffic on their networks, they stress such actions are needed to ensure a quality surfing experience for all subscribers.

The argument is that, while file-sharers only make up a small proportion of the overall subscriber base, they use up most of the available bandwidth and threaten to clog the system.

But there are concerns that service providers aren't coming clean about the extent of their activities. In the U.S., for example, cable giant Comcast is facing a lawsuit for allegedly blocking some file-sharing data while leading its customers to erroneously believe they had experienced the Web-equivalent of a bad phone connection.

Closer to home, there have also been instances of questionable behaviour. Vancouver-based Telus two years ago briefly blocked access to a website run by an employee union during a labour dispute. Last year, Shaw cable's decision to charge a quality-of-service fee on Internet telephone subscribers led Vonage Canada, which sells such services, to complain to regulators.

Indeed, there's a potentially large grey area between "reasonable" levels of network management and actions deliberately designed to thwart competing or unwanted content. Is it acceptable, for example, for a cable company that offers an on-demand, Internet-based TV service to slow down streamed video from an online television show provider such as Joost.com?

While existing laws governing the telecommunications industry already prevent companies from engaging in content-based discrimination, some say there is nevertheless a need for more transparency in the industry and, possibly, Internet-specific legislation.

As for the larger issue of who should pay for the Internet, Michael Geist, a University of Ottawa law professor who writes a weekly technology-related column in this paper and others, said the best solution may boil down to the unpopular prospect of asking consumers to simply shell out more for better access and higher speeds.

"At the end of the day, consumers are going to have to pay," he said. "It's just a matter of how they pay."

Lucas Nikola Pennell Soon To Appear

We thought he was ready Nov 30, 2007, but he decided to stay a little longer...

Sagittarius (Nov. 23 — Dec. 21)

Don't doubt a recent brave decision just because things are getting stormier than you originally foresaw. This case of cold feet is temporary. In time, you will see that you left behind a rut and entered a new world of true emotional fulfillment.

(Toronto Star)