The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

w w w . o a kv ill eb ea ve r.c o m O A KV IL LE B EA V ER Th ur sd ay , N ov em be r 2 5, 2 01 0 6 THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: RECOGNIZED FOR EXCELLENCE BY: 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5566 Classified Advertising: 905-632-4440 Circulation: 845-9742 The Oakville Beaver The Oakville Beaver is a member of the Ontario Press Council.The council is located at 80 Gould St.,Suite 206,Toronto,Ont.,M5B 2M7.Phone (416) 340-1981.Advertising is accepted on the condition that,in the event of a typographical error,that portion of advertising space occupied by the erroneous item,together with a reasonable allowance for signature,will not be charged for,but the balance of the advertisement will be paid for at the applicable rate.The publisher reserves the right to categorize advertisements or decline.Editorial and adv rtising content of the Oakville Beaver is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. United Way of Oakville Ontario Community Newspapers Association Canadian Community Newspapers Association Suburban Newspapers of America NEIL OLIVER Vice-President and Group Publisher, Metroland West DAVID HARVEY Regional General Manager JILL DAVIS Editor in Chief ROD JERRED Managing Editor DANIEL BAIRD Advertising Director RIZIERO VERTOLLI Photography Director SANDY PARE Business Manager MARK DILLS Director of Production MANUEL GARCIA Production Manager CHARLENE HALL Director of Distribution SARAH MCSWEENEY Circ. Manager WEBSITE oakvillebeaver.com KAREN NEWMAN / OAKVILLE BEAVER A GIFT: Margaret Anderson of Ian Anderson House (IAH) accepted a cheque from local resident Peter Heimler in honour of his late mom. Last June, Heimler rode 200 km, from Toronto to Niagara Falls, in the Princess Margaret Hospital Ride to Conquer Cancer on a team from KPMG accounting and advisory firm. Heimler was his teams top fundraiser so he was awarded $1,000 from KPMG to give to a charity of his choice. ATHENAAward Letter to the editor When I read The Oakville Beavers Friday, Nov. 19 front-page article,Neighbourhood polluters at your fingertips, I literally had a panicattack. The idea of having a tool that will rank severity of pollution, and tell you who to blame for it, must have been inspired by CSI episodes, where they have a gadg- et for everything, where there are no errors in data, and where CSI employees can take the law in their own hands. In reality, we have to be careful with such a tool a little knowledge can be very dangerous. A tool such as this can give people a very, very wrong impression. I do not challenge that the open data philosophy has merit; certain data being freely available to everyone without restrictions is educational and empowering. I also applaud lateral thinkers like these entrepeneurs in creating software to educate and empower the average citizen. My fears with the Emitter are this 1) the information this tool collates may not be intended for the use it will be asked to do; 2) the statistical reliability of the data is unknown; 3) the date of input of the data may not be current; and 4) ranking good, moderate or bad pollution is slightly absurd. Data collected by Environment Canada, the Ministry of the Environment and I believe any other ministries in this province are published in their respective documents and reports, and often listed on their websites. Any member of the public can ask for information through the Environmental Bill of Rights. When obtaining any data, it is prudent to not misuse or misinterpret it. It is critical to know for what purpose the data was collected, under what conditions the data was collected (date, time, location, weather conditions, etc.), the reliabil- ity of data (is it statistically valid or not?), and of course, how current it is. Data tucked away on a government website can be useful, however there has to be an understanding of what that data represents and whether it is the most up-to-date information. I used to work for the federal as well as the provincial government in the environmental field and I know that no matter how many employees were engaged in inputting data, our governments documents were always unfortunately outdated by at least two to three years, if not 10-15 years. This presents a huge margin of error. Using this tool I may be presented with a list of companies that at some point in history polluted the air in the area that I am interested inbut what does this mean to me? Did these companies pollute yesterday, 10 years ago or are they doing it today? You will not be able to accuse, with a clear conscious, a company or their CEOs for polluting on account of your readings on this tool. In fact, there is a chance you may look quite foolish doing so with so many unknowns in the mix. Our governments, federal and provincial, have laws created to protect you from polluters. The companies are monitored on a regular basis, they are inspect- Emitter evokes panic attack The Oakville Beaver is a division of In the middle of his wild and crazy standup routine back in thelate 1970s, comedian Steve Martin would suddenly zone out get a spacey, faraway look in his eyes and then, after an awkward and inappropriate minute of silence, he would snap out of his reverie and shout out to his adoring audience: Whoa, sorry, just went to The Bahamas there. But Im back! A recent study shockingly suggests we are all zoning out and going to our own personal Bahamas for about half of our waking hours every day. The study tracked 2,250 people via an iPhone application that randomly contacted the volunteers to see what they were doing and to determine both their levels of happiness and whether they were thinking and focusing on their current activity. Half the time, those contacted were not concentrating on the task at hand, but, rather, were thinking about being somewhere else or doing something else. In other words, they were day- dreaming half of their lives away. Researchers believe this appar- ent need for escape is a sign of the frenetic times we live in, and its a sign of just how unhappy many people are. It also shows that, as we all evolve into chronic multi-taskers, were losing our abili- ty to concentrate and focus. Were being driven to distraction. The ability to concentrate and focus is built right into our DNA. Until recent times, if you were unable to keep your mind on the task at hand whether it be chasing a mastodon down for dinner, or greasing the gears on your combine you could well end up dead. But nowa- days technology has given us the freedom to be distracted. Which, I suppose, is why my daugh- ters two hours of nightly homework regularly morphs into four hours. As she writes her English essay, shes also chatting with friends on assorted online forums. But its not just her generation. Were all guilty. Since starting this column, Ive checked my e-mail, twice, popped onto Twitter, and surfed assorted websites to see whats happening in the sporting world. Techies would say this is the beauty of our new universe, that we can multi-task, and be virtually everywhere at once. But psy- chologists, people dealing with stress disorders, and your local yoga instructor, will all tell you this is a recipe for unhappiness and potential disaster. Why? Because perpetual mind-wandering invariably makes us dissatisfied and oftentimes depressed. While the other side of that coin what your yogi calls living in the moment helps people feel fulfilled, and makes them feel like they are truly living life. Smelling the coffee, and all that. According to the studys authors, Harvard psychologists Daniel Gilbert and Matthew Killingsworth: A human mind is a wander- ing mind, and a wandering mind is an unhappy mind. The ability to think about what is not happening is a cognitive achievement that comes at an emotional cost. Not surprisingly, the studys volunteers were happiest when they were focused on the present and engaged in mindful activi- ties like making love, exercising, or talking live with a friend. And most unhappy while using a home computer, resting, or at work. Speaking of work. This column is due. And, point proven, I suppose: I just spent the last half hour online contemplating a warm-weather escape. Looking up The Bahamas. Whoa. But Im back! Andy Juniper can be visited at www.strangledeggs.com, con- tacted at ajjuniper@gmail.com, or followed at www.twitter.com/thesportjesters. When life drives us to distraction and flies us to Bahamas Andy Juniper See Half page 7