Contrary to popular belief, spanking is legal in Canada. Many have tried to make spanking illegal in Canada, but never succeeded. You can read about the last failed attempt here.

Until recently, I have never viewed spanking as something bad when used reasonably. I, myself, grew up in a culture where spanking was allowed. But now, I’m finding myself moving towards the other end of the spectrum for one simple reason: abuse of power. Generally, adults don’t hit other adults even if they are angry. Why then should it be different for children?

       ]]> http://www.mauritiusblogtracker.com/2008/11/29/spanking-in-canada.html/feed 0 http://www.mauritiusblogtracker.com/2008/09/25/g-driving-test.html http://www.mauritiusblogtracker.com/2008/09/25/g-driving-test.html#comments Fri, 26 Sep 2008 02:53:16 +0000 pngpingching http://pngpingching.wordpress.com/?p=134

This post is intended for Kitchener inhabitants.

If you need to go for your G driving test, and can avoid the Kitchener Driving Test Centre, please do so. You will be doing yourself a big favour. At some point during your test, you’ll have to merge on the highway, but the ramp is so short, that it’s very hard to reach 90 km/h before merging while checking your mirrors, and blind spot at the same time.

I passed my G test today, but because I could get my car speed up to only 85 km/h, it was written down as a point against me.

One more thing, if you can do your test in a car equipped with an automatic transmission, do so. I did my test in my car, which is equipped with a standard transmission, and there were times when I was judged to have taken too long to put my hand back on the steering wheel after having shifted gears.

To sum up, I was judged to have made 30 errors, which is the limit for passing. I don’t think that some of the errors attributed to me were justified. But, I don’t care anymore. I passed the test. It does not matter if a team wins 10-0 or 1-0: winning is winning.

Lors d’une visite récente à l’hôpital, j’ai remarqué qu’on avait traduit sexual assault par violence domestique  alors qu’une bonne traduction serait plutôt agression sexuelle. Je m’explique: une agression sexuelle ne peut être considérée comme une violence domestique que si, et seulement si, l’agresseur et la victime sont de la même famille.  

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On a recent visit to the hospitale, I noticed that sexual asssault was translated with violence domestique (domestic violence) on a booklet, whereas a good translation would have been agression sexuelle. Let me explain: a sexual assault can be considered to be domestic violence if, and only if, both the victim and the aggressor come from the same family.

University of Yale has taped some of its courses and made them accessible to anyone for free here. You should check it out !

• Repartez vos tâches ménagères en tâches quotidiennes, hebdomadaires ou mensuelles. 
• Mettez votre linge à laver avant de commencer à passer l’aspirateur, à dépoussiérer vos meubles ou d’aller faire vos courses. Ce conseil s’applique aussi à ceux qui ont un lave-vaisselle.
• Repassez votre linge lorsque vous êtes devant la télé. Vous ferez d’une pierre deux coups.
• Si vous n’avez pas de lave-vaisselle, n’attendez pas que le levier soit plein avant de commencer à faire votre vaisselle. Une assiette, que vous venez d’utiliser, prendra moins de temps à laver, à sécher et à ranger que dix assiettes, une casserole, dix verres et dix tasses.
• Achetez des produits nettoyants de qualité. Ils seront peut être plus chers mais vous en utiliserez moins et gagnerez du temps. 
• Et passez moins de temps sur www.facebook.com.

From time to time I see an “Out of Job Yet? Keep Buying Foreign” sticker on an American car on the roads. This never fails to make me smile and say to myself: “A perfect example of economic stupidity.” I wonder if the owners of these vehicles realise that their cars are not 100% American. Chances are the CD player and the cloth of their car seats are either made in China, Korea, Taiwan or some other countries in Asia. I also wonder if these same people also buy made in USA/Canada running shoes and sport equipment because if they buy Nike (American brand) products, the chance of having these same products made in USA/Canada is pretty much 0%. Let’s not start talking about computer and electronics because it is even worse.

The opposite is also true. Toyota and Honda have manufacturing plants in North America: they are Japanese make, but made in USA/Canada.

Why most of the products we buy today are made in Asia can be explained using economic principles, but at the end of the day it comes down to one simple reason: for a given level of quality, the same product made in USA/Canada can be made cheaper in Asia!

Imaginez ma surprise en entendant la présentatrice d’un journal télévisé dire: “…luckily, he was not hurted.” En anglais, le participe passé du verbe to hurt reste invariable, c’est-à-dire hurt. Par exemple, on dirait He was not hurt et non He was not hurted.

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Imagine how suprised I was when I heard a television news anchor said: “…luckily, he was not hurted.” In English, the past participle of the verb to hurt remains unchanged, that is hurt. For example, one would say: He was not hurt rather than He was not hurted.

L’une des nouvelles fonctionnalités de Mac OS X Leopard vantées par Apple est l’affichage automatique des ordinateurs partagés dans la barre latérale de Finder quel que soit le système d’exploitation sous lesquels ils tournent. Malheureusement pour certains utilisateurs de Leopard, les ordinateurs partagés n’apparaissent pas toujours automatiquement dans la barre latérale de Finder. Si c’est votre cas:

• Supprimez le dossier Macintosh HD/Library/Preferences/System Configuration
• Redémarrez votre ordinateur
• Reconfigurez votre connexion réseau

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One of the new features of Mac OS X Leopard praised by Apple is the automatic display of shared computers in Finder’s sidebar regardless of the operating system. Unfortunately, for some Leopard users, the shared computers do not always show up automatically in Finder’s sidebar. If this applies to you,

• Delete the folder Macintosh HD/Library/Preferences/System Configuration
• Restart your computer
• Reconfigure your network connection

Dans les restaurants français (et québécois), une entrée est un plat servi avant le plat de résistance d’un repas. Par contre, dans les restaurants anglais du Canada (et des Etats-Unis?), une entrée est le plat principal d’un repas. Donc, si vous avez à traduire entrée, faites attention si entrée veut dire plat.

Je me demande si c’est la même chose en Angleterre.

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In French (and Québécois) restaurants, an entrée is a dish served before the main course of a meal. However, in Canadian (and US?) English restaurants, an entrée is the main course of a meal. Therefore, if you have to translate entrée, be careful if entrée means  dish.

I wonder if it is the same in England.

Homard et langouste se traduisent tous les deux par lobster en anglais. Si vous voulez éviter toute confusion, traduisez langouste par rock lobster.

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The translation for both homard and langouste in English is lobster. If you want to avoid any confusion, you can use rock lobster when translating langouste.