Parliamentary Democracy in Crisis

Robin Sears reviews a book I hope to snag sometime, once I'm feeling a little more federally-political. (I'm pretty provincial and municipally minded this month)

Following the revelation last Christmas of how many Canadians - starting with the Prime Minister - have a twisted understanding of how we choose our governments, some of the best minds in academe decided urgent therapy was in order. In less than three months - the speed of light in the academy - under the leadership of the venerable Peter Russell, they have assembled a powerful and lucid book of essays about how Canada's Constitution really works.
http://ping.fm/Lv7FS

Stunning reminder on HIV

Living in North America, it feels a bit like HIV and AIDS are old news. Not completely -- being connected with the queer community means you're still seeing discussions, news, and People With AIDS regularly, but it's been shunted off into a "manage it with drugs, no big whoop" column quite a bit. I have friends who have lost their friends to HIV, but I've never gone through that myself. Even a play I saw recently (Sky Gilbert's "I Have AIDS" - interesting and challenging!) approached it from this angle, not the 80s or early 90s angle.

Living somewhere else in the world, of course the situation is much different. This gripping 10min talk from TED is worth watching.