I strongly suspect there are more serious computer glitches than banks would ever admit.

Canada’s biggest bank, suddenly a symbol of risks facing an automated society, has a problem that has kept tens of millions of transactions — including what appears to be every direct payroll deposit it handles — from showing up in accounts for days at a time.

For five days The Royal Bank of Canada has had server problems.
Which has caused problems for it’s 10 million clients.
And other Canadian banks and customers attempting to do transactions.

What strikes me in this story isn’t the reliance on technology, but that so many Canadians are literally living paycheque to paycheque.

You gotta love blogging
I got an email from Dr. Mark Vincent last night. He is the social psychologist that found my blog in Google and asked if I’d link up to his survey on attitudes toward the poor. He would have been happy with 300 respondents, but as the blog burst began to unfold he decided to go for 500.
Hmmmm.
The email last night said he needed 25 more respondents.
Whoooo hoooo! Just 25.
And that email came in just as Urban Onramps linked up.
I have a feeling Dr. Vincent is very happily doing his job and unwrapping his research.
By jove, I think we did it!

Election
We have a horse race.
I haven’t been paying much attention to the election, I’ve been waiting for the parties to get their platforms online. Both the Conservative and Liberal leader sites were hit with a DOS attack this week. The Conservative Party reported it immediately to the RCMP, the Liberals didn’t.
looking back…looking forward asks a reasonable question about an incident in Guelph Ontario on Thursday.

When the doubts come
When a bishop leaves the Mormon church it causes ripples in the community.
When the bishop speaks out about why he left and starts a website to help others, it’s news. Canadian tax lawyer’s Bob McCue’s site draws one thousand messages a day, many from Mormons afraid of their doubt.

My experience with Mormonism has spawned in me a deep, and I think healthy, distrust for people who purport to speak with certainty for God. And, I have found far more joy than I thought possible by learning to see the common threads of wisdom that unite humanity in a breathtaking tapestry.

A continuum seems to exist with the dogmatic/literal religious institutions at one end, and the metaphoric/open-minded ones at the other.

I believe that while all religions do good and ill, those at the metaphoric end of the spectrum tend to do more good and less ill, whereas the reverse is true at the dogmatic end.

I also recognize that different personality types and circumstances create different needs. There is no one spiritual way that is best for all. And, most of us evolve from dogmatism in our insecure youth toward a more metaphoric spirituality as we mature. The best spiritual paths accommodate and encourage this growth.

Cognitive dissonance theory has provided the most useful insights into my religious experience.

A fundamental change in belief involves each of the stages of grief: denial; anger; bargaining; depression; and finally acceptance. This takes time. It also puts lots of pressure on important relationships.

However, with enough patience and love, much more change than appears possible often can occur.

link: Calgary Herald