Cold War on Ice

Cold War on Ice is an excellent documentary about the USSR vs. Canada ice hockey Summit Series 1972 games.  I find it to be quite balanced, showing the perception from both sides, featuring the interviews with the same people back in the day and their take on it now, and plenty of great footage.

It’s a must see for any ice hockey fan and history nerd.

On airport security Israelification

I came across an excellent article which compares ways airport security is handled in Israel as opposed to USA and Canada.  Instead of being a yet another whine and complain about how bad things are there and how good they are over there, it does in fact illustrate the difference in approaches, as well as some of the things that people who are responsible for protecting the public have to think about.  Here is a quote to get you started:

“I once put this question to Jacques Duchesneau (the former head of the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority): say there is a bag with play-doh in it and two pens stuck in the play-doh. That is ‘Bombs 101’ to a screener. I asked Ducheneau, ‘What would you do?’ And he said, ‘Evacuate the terminal.’ And I said, ‘Oh. My. God.’

“Take Pearson. Do you know how many people are in the terminal at all times? Many thousands. Let’s say I’m (doing an evacuation) without panic — which will never happen. But let’s say this is the case. How long will it take? Nobody thought about it. I said, ‘Two days.'”

Another part that I sympathized a lot with was this:

“Do you know why Israelis are so calm? We have brutal terror attacks on our civilians and still, life in Israel is pretty good. The reason is that people trust their defence forces, their police, their response teams and the security agencies. They know they’re doing a good job. You can’t say the same thing about Americans and Canadians. They don’t trust anybody,” Sela said. “But they say, ‘So far, so good’. Then if something happens, all hell breaks loose and you’ve spent eight hours in an airport. Which is ridiculous. Not justifiable

So true! I’ve been thinking exactly the same a few times while watching fear-infested news coverages on mostly American TV (Europeans and Russians have it too, but to a lesser degree).  Nobody can guarantee a 100% protection.  A continuous effort should be made to ensure the best possible protection.  Once everyone knows and trusts that everything that could have been done was done, they will calm down and relax.  And even if something bad happens, people won’t overreact as they would know better.

Canadian Bacon

Canadian Bacon (1995)After watching Michael Moore’s documentaries (“Bowling for Colombine” and “Farhenheit 9/11”) I got interested in his earlier work. “Canadian Bacon” is the only film so far I managed to get my hands on.

Directed by: Michael Moore
Genres: Comedy, War
Cast: John Candy, Alan Alda, Rhea Perlman, Kevin Pollak, Rip Torn, Kevin J. O’Connor, Bill Nunn, G.D. Spradlin, James Belushi, Steven Wright, Brad Sullivan, Stanley Anderson, Richard Council, Wallace Shawn, Michael Copeman
IMDB raintg: 5.5
My rating: 7.0 [rate 7.0]

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