As we’re about to head into another voting period in British Columbia, I wonder how long it will be until we see electoral reform. Since I’ve been legally able to vote (almost 20 years now),  I’ve seen a large number of Canadians choose not to take part in the election process.  Many Canadians are disenfranchised by the voting system and choose not to vote out of the  belief that this non-action will lead to reform of the election process.  This reform has not occurred, and as such I am writing today with a suggestion.

In British Columbia in 2005, a Citizen’s assembly was formed with a goal of inform citizens of many topics, including alternatives to the first past the post (FPTP) voting system we have now. After spending the time to inform a few select citizens of how the current voting systems works, and a few alternatives, these select citizens got to vote on their preferred method of voting.  The understanding was that if an alternative was chosen, it would become the new standard. Instead of accepting the current FPTP system, these citizens instead voted for proportional representation; specifically 58% voted for a single transferable voting (STV) system and  a majority support in 77 of 79 electoral districts, which was unprecedented. Of course 60% was the required approval rating, higher than anything else in history of the region, so it didn’t pass. ElectionsBC agreed to hold another referendum in 2009, when it would be blatantly obvious voters wouldn’t even know what STV is.

So where are we today?

Elections BC mandates states their number one goal is to “Ensure ongoing support and enhancement of the electoral process,” yet I’ve not yet seen any electoral form that will increase voter turn out. Let’s take a look at the 2009 report [pdf] which states that 55.14% of registered voters voted, yet only and estimated 92% of estimated eligible voters registered. If your career was based on building a bridge, or saving a life, these results would not be acceptable. I see no reason why Elections BC is showing such complacency in protecting the values of democracy by providing a system that does not allow voters to demonstrate they are unhappy with the current process.

An option to request a change in process

I propose two options be presented to voters on every voting ballot moving forward:

1) There are no candidates I can vote confidently in   []

2) I can not confidently participate in this electoral process, and would vote for electoral reform []

As of right now ElectionsBC has nothing more than a guess as to why voters aren’t voting or spoiling their ballot. How can ElectionsBC differentiate between a spoiled ballot and the desire of registered voters to find alternatives to what they determine as a broken system currently?  There should always be an option to demonstrate change is needed in a democratic electoral voting system. I hypothesize if these two options were added to the ballot, a majority of eligible voters will register, and vote.

p.s. Please send this on to your federal counterparts, the same applies.

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one hundred pushups.com

On your initial test, if you find you can’t do one push up, try a “knee pushup” where you use your knees on the ground as opposed to your toes, this decreases the load about 50% less through distribution. The site advises you first consult with your doctor, and then to complete and initial test. After that, you’re ready to proceed to week one! Let me know if you’re participating, so we can encourage each other!

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Business Model Canvas

This class is for you if you want to learn about the business model canvas and one of the following applies to you:

• You have an idea, and are ready to determine the viability of your idea as a business
• You’re an entrepreneur with a business you want to take to the next level
• You’re involved with a non-profit or social enterprise that is interested in funding opportunities other than grants; you want to be self sustaining

What you need to bring:

• A business idea you’re willing to execute. It doesn’t matter if the business exists yet or not.
• A pencil and paper.

What will be provided:

• Coffee/tea in the morning
• Lunch (let me know upon registering if you have any dietary restrictions!)
• Business Model Canvas template
• Feedback form

The class will start at 9a.m. on April 13th and is expected to finish around 3p.m, with morning and afternoon breaks, as well as lunch.

All classes will be limited to no more than 20 attendees, in order to keep it intimate enough to provide personalized Q&A.  The forum will allow for participants to share as much or as little with other attendees about their specific idea; group discussion will be encouraged but not required as it is entirely possible to benefit from the business model canvas as a solo entrepreneur.

There will also be a virtual class that will start at 9a.m. on April 14th and is also expected to finish around 3p.m.

For those attending the Victoria class, the venue has graciously been provided by

VIATeC

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Today was a big day for bitcoins for two reasons; the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) released the US Treasury Guide on Virtual Currencies. But more importantly it’s the first day they traded over $50 per $1USD!

Bitcoin trades from the last year

If you want to get started with bitcoins, check out the weusecoins.com Getting Started page.

If you want to practice using it, you can send me a fraction of a bitcoin at my bitcoin wallet address: 1P2qXeETYqf7b9XnkDjdqKmFZsEtuoJty6.

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Last spring, Derek and I launched Biospace (Facebook page), the first bio-tech community lab in Canada, based here in Victoria, British Columbia. If you’re in the area, you should definitely come check it out!

Make no mistake, bio-tech is where computing technology was 40 years ago, we’re on the edge of a paradigm shift. Be a part of if it!

The post Biospace, and the DIYBIO movement appeared first on Kris Constable's digital log.

No Excuse List - Includes sources for everything you can want. I included some more popular ones with brief write-ups below. Credit to /u/lix2333.

Reddit Resources - Reddit’s List of the best online education sources

Khan Academy - Educational organization and a website created by Bangladeshi-American educator Salman Khan, a graduate of MIT and Harvard Business School. The website supplies a free online collection of micro lectures stored on YouTube teaching mathematics, history, healthcare and medicine, finance, physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy, economics, cosmology, organic chemistry, American civics, art history, macroeconomics, microeconomics, and computer science.

Coursera - Coursera partners with various universities and makes a few of their courses available online free for a large audience. Founded by computer science professors, so again a heavy CS emphasis.

Wolfram Alpha - Online service that answers factual queries directly by computing the answer from structured data, rather than providing a list of documents or web pages that might contain the answer as a search engine might. Unbelievable what this thing can compute; you can ask it near anything and find an answer.

Udacity - Outgrowth of free computer science classes offered in 2011 through Stanford University. Plans to offer more, but concentrated on computer science for now.

MIT OpenCourseWare - Initiative of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to put all of the educational materials from its undergraduate- and graduate-level courses online, partly free and openly available to anyone, anywhere.

Open Yale Courses - Provides free and open access to a selection of introductory courses taught by distinguished teachers and scholars at Yale University.

Codecademy - Online interactive platform that offers free coding classes in programming languages like Python, JavaScript, and Ruby, as well as markup languages including HTML and CSS. Gives your points and “level ups” like a video game, which is why I enjoyed doing classes here. Not lecture-oriented either; usually just jump right into coding, which works best for those that have trouble paying attention.

Think Tutorial - Database of simple, easy to follow tutorials covering all aspects of popular computing. Includes lots of easier, basic tasks for your every day questions or new users.

Duolingo - For all of your language learning needs.

Memrise - Online learning tool that uses flashcards augmented with mnemonics—partly gathered through crowdsourcing—and the spacing effect to boost the speed and ease of learning. Several languages available to learn.

Livemocha - Commercial online language learning community boasting 12 million members which provides instructional materials in 38 languages and a platform for speakers to interact with and help each other learn new languages.

edX - Massive open online course platform founded by Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University to offer online university-level courses in a wide range of disciplines to a worldwide audience at no charge. Many other universities now take part in it, including Cal Berkeley. Differs from most of these by including “due dates” with assignments and grades.

Education portal - Free courses which allow you to pass exams to earn real college credit.

uReddit - Made by Redditors for other Redditors. Tons of different topics, varying from things like science and art to Starcraft strategy.

iTunes U - Podcasts from a variety of places including universities and colleges on various subjects.

Stack Exchange - Group of question and answer websites on topics in many different fields, each website covering a specific topic, where questions, answers, and users are subject to a reputation award process. Stack Overflow is used for programming, probably their most famous topic. Self-moderated with reputation similar to Reddit.

Wikipedia - Collaboratively edited, multilingual, free Internet encyclopedia. Much better source than most people give it credit for, and great for random learning whenever you need it. For those looking for more legit sources for papers and such, it is usually easy to jump to a Wikipedia page and grab some sources at the bottom.

Wikiversity -Wikiversity is a Wikimedia Foundation project devoted to learning resources, learning projects, and research for use in all levels, types, and styles of education from pre-school to university, including professional training and informal learning. We invite teachers, students, and researchers to join us in creating open educational resources and collaborative learning communities. To learn more about Wikiversity, try a guided tour or start editing now.

Open Culture - Open Culture brings together high-quality cultural & educational media for the worldwide lifelong learning community. Web 2.0 has given us great amounts of intelligent audio and video. It’s all free. It’s all enriching. But it’s also scattered across the web, and not easy to find. Our whole mission is to centralize this content, curate it, and give you access to this high quality content whenever and wherever you want it. Free audio books, free online courses, free movies, free language lessons, free ebooks and other enriching content — it’s all here. Open Culture was founded in 2006.

Various Youtube series - 
Vsauce,
Vihart, 
numberphile, 
DeepSkyVideos, 
destinws2,
Numberphile,
MinutePhysics,
Veritasium,
CrashCourse,
Sixtysymbols,
Scishow,
Smarter Every Day,
ASAPScience,
PeriodicVideos

If you know of any more, let me know and I may add it!

The post Free education online appeared first on Kris Constable's digital log.

• Broadband internet
• A sealed building (not so open animals can come in)
• Accessible (walk or bike) to amenities (food etc)
• Wood fireplace
• Be on the water (especially if in a warm climate) on near it

Location I’m thinking local on Vancouver island or the gulf islands, Ontario (to be near family as well) or perhaps somewhere like Cuba, Mexico or Belize… I’m open to suggestions!

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Here’s the list I’ve compiled so far, which seems to be the most definitive as of writing this:

• edx.org
• Class Central
• Course Talk
• Knollop
• Course Buffet
• Academic Earth
• Open Culture

If you know any other aggregators I can add, let me know!

The post Free university courses appeared first on Kris Constable's digital log.

The Kitchen Area with matching appliances (fridge, stove, dishwasher and microwave)

• Gas fireplace (Gas is included in the strata, and all that I’ve used to heat the condo!)
• Zoned for both work or home purposes!
• Large South & West facing windows that are over 6′ tall from the ground; maximum sun exposure in the afternoons
• Approximately 500sq ft, feels really large when blinds are open!
• Deck area with professional landscaping and irrigation included
• Washer and Dryer in suite (in bedroom closet!)
• Concrete flooring
• Deep soak bathtub with contemporary fixtures
• Ample closet space
• Two secure entrances/exits
• Appliances to be negotiated: Microwave, oven/stove, dishwasher, fridge, washer and dryer 
• Parking not included, but several nearby lots offering parking for an additional monthly fee
• Shared rooftop area
• Investment property; Rentals are OK!
• Pets are OK!

Cozy at night with the fireplace. Unlimited gas is included.

Cute deck with professional landscaping and irrigation included.

Living area with magnetic chalkboard wall. I’m willing to negotiate furniture included.

Deep soak tub

Ultra Modern sink with concrete counter

in suite washing machine and dryer

If you’re interested in seeing the condo, feel free to contact me.

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CP Partners desk

The top is one large single piece, and each of the sides are single pieces as well.

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