Blog about politics (mideast and pro-Israel, Canadian and local Montreal), world events, and random thoughts.

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The World I Know is updated on a semi-regular basis by segacs.

Think I'm the greatest thing since chocolate-covered strawberries? Think I'm certifiably insane? E-mail me at segacs2.at.yahoo.ca.

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Comments are open and unmoderated, although obscene or abusive remarks may be deleted. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of segacs's world i know.

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10:03 PM
Plan B?

If Gore, Dion et al. are right and we really are about 10 seconds away from totally fucking up our planet beyond repair... well, maybe we'll all have someplace to go:

A new world has been discovered nestled in the largest planetary system ever seen outside our solar system, fuelling speculation there are many other habitable Earth-like planets in the Milky Way galaxy.

Astronomers doubt the new-found planet - one of five circling a nearby star, which is visible with binoculars - can support life.

But they told a teleconference Tuesday the discovery fuels their conviction that many Earth-like planets are just waiting to be discovered.

Traveling at the speed of light, it would only take about 41 years to get there. In other words, a short, pleasant journey. (Advance tickets on sale on ebay shortly... stay tuned!)

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12:31 AM
Daylight shifting

As we all know (or ought to, by now), the clocks "fell back" an hour on Saturday night, at least in DST-observing parts of North America.

These guys want to abolish Daylight Saving time and stick to standard time year-round.

I maintain that we should do the opposite.

Daylight Saving doesn't actually save any daylight, of course, but it does shift an hour later every day. So, darker mornings, lighter evenings.

Of course, there's not much we can do to alleviate the darkness during the worst months of December/January, when we're going work in the pitch black and leaving work in the pitch black no matter which way you slice things.

But the rest of the year, we do have the option of extending daylight by an hour more in the mornings or in the evenings. Now, morning people and evening people may disagree. But it seems like it's a no-brainer that most people would rather have some degree of light after work, when they get things done, go out, see people, stroll around in the evenings, go out for dinner, take their kids to after-school activities... than before work, when all they have to do is get up and go to the office.

There is really no reason why we should change the clocks by an hour twice a year, causing hassles and headaches, when there's such a simple solution available: Stick to DST all the time. Then, we can have our afternoon daylight for most of the year.

So, all of you out there who are depressed at the 5pm darkness, join me in my campaign. Let's abolish Standard Time and adopt DST year-round! Who's with me?

(Meanwhile, it'll be a while till we see proper amounts of sunlight again, so let's stock up on those Vitamin D supplements.)

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12:16 AM
On the same subject...

Can I just state for the record that I strongly believe that Ehud Olmert is swimming with sharks... without a life preserver?

US elections do not create legitimate Palestinian peace partners. Olmert might do well to remember that.

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12:09 AM
Primary Colours

Anyone would be better than Bush, right?

Maybe that low standard is the reason why this year's field of primary candidates - both Democrat and Republican - seems almost more devoid than ever of anyone worth voting for. It's not as though I'm naive enough to expect inspiration, integrity or brilliance. I'd just like to see some real choices, for a change. And I certainly don't envy the choices of our neighbours to the south. Is it just me, or does anyone else feel that Stephen Colbert would have made a better president than any of the "real" candidates currently running? (The Democrats missed a golden oppportunity for media coverage on that one...)

Anyway, this is just my time to revive my election pledge from the last election: No election coverage until next September. None, nada, zilch.

That means no daily analysis of the primaries, no odds-making, and no commentary on Hillary Clinton's hair. (Though if something really out-there happens, I reserve the right to mention it.)

I hope you'll, once again, find it a better blog because of it.

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11:12 PM
We may not have earned it, but we'll take it

The 2-0 final score of tonight's blanking of Buffalo by Montreal sounds a whole lot better than it actually was. After an ugly first period, kept scoreless only by Huet's heroic efforts, the Habs came out swinging in the second and scored to put us up 1-0. But the third period consisted of the Habs cycling back on their heels, trying to protect a 1-goal lead by playing dump-and-change and relying on the Huet wall a little too much for comfort. The empty-netter sealed the deal, sure, but I hate seeing the guys give up on offense and play protect-the-lead on such a slim margin.

Tomas Plekanec, who scored the lone "real" goal of the game, said it best: "We didn't play a great game tonight, but thanks to Huet, we ended up with a win."

That said, following Saturday's disgraceful loss to the Leafs, we'll take a victory at this point. And Huet, at least, can celebrate knowing he deserved the shutout on his record. Still, I'll expect better things from the bleu-blanc-rouge on Thursday against Boston.

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