Slashdot Mirror

Is this true, or something you heard or made up? Citation, please.

Just the fact and remember it was the Ontario Liberals who wanted to ban natural gas for heating and force everyone onto electricity.

Wind and solar have already become cheaper than coal and gas without subsidies. Renewables have already won.

Then why are we seeing things like this?

“TransAlta is very interested in repowering this site. Unfortunately, right now, it’s not economically feasible, ... We’re anxiously waiting to see what incentives might come from our new government. . . . Alberta is an open market and the wholesale price when it’s windy is quite low, so there’s just not the return on investment in today’s situation. So, if there is an incentive, we’d jump all over that” Wayne Oliver, operations supervisor for TransAlta’s wind operations in Pincher Creek and Fort Macleod, Oldest commercial wind farm in Canada headed for scrapyard after 23 years

We see it because wind energy is so cheap they can't make a profit, and cover depreciation and replacement costs at he same time!

In short renewable energy isn't economically sustainable.

It's the primary technique that teachers are encouraged to use (again, in Canada).

Yes, and IMHO, it's been working terribly. Teachers don't understand the process, children get confused as to expectations and the "answers" are typically only vague representations of the actual knowledge that is supposed to be communicated.

I agree that inquiry based learning should be included as part of the curriculum, but a heck of a lot of learning should also be done using traditional methods. Little Johnny doesn't really need to know that these are the 6 different ways we can visualize the problem of 8 groups of 4 items. He really just needs to know that 8x4=32.

Specifically in math, we've been seeing very bad results due to inquiry-based learning, and it's starting to make parents fed up

Worth remembering that the only evidence is the guy who was tweeting. Who do you trust, the head of the NSA, or some guy who tweets? The answer is neither.

Horseshit.

See, the fact that Hayden has actually responded to this and asserted the guy was a liberal activist who misunderstood him

Someone eventually tipped off Hayden, who finished a call, stood up and walked over to Matzzie.

"Would you like a real interview?" Hayden asked.

"I'm not a reporter," Matzzie replied.

"Everybody's a reporter," Hayden said.

The Post said the two then talked about the U.S. Constitution's s Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures, and NSA surveillance, and then Hayden posed for a photo with Matzzie.

Hayden told the Post later he wasn't disparaging Obama or his administration. Matzzie "got it terribly wrong," Hayden said, dismissing the tweets as an inaccurate "story from a liberal activist sitting two seats from me on the train hearing intermittent snatches of conversation."

"I didn't criticize the president," Hayden said. "I actually said these are very difficult issues. I said I had political guidance, too, that limited the things that I did when I was director of NSA. Now that political guidance (for current officials) is going to be more robust. It wasn't a criticism."

I trust the fact that it happened, I trust the fact that Hayden responded to it, and I don't trust Hayden at all. This is a guy who has claimed that torture was merely a legal definition which could be skirted around -- which in my books makes him a bit of a sleazebag.

Are you suggesting there is evidence this never happened? Or that the guy overhearing truly got it all wrong? People like this love to try to weasel on what they actually said and what it actually meant, but I find it much more plausible than "guy sitting on train makes up conversation between NSA former director and someone else".

That title goes to Mexico. So cheer on, someone else has you beat on this.

You just don't have the security clearance to view the evidence. And because such evidence will raise nasty questions about how it was collected.

Well, not all the evidence anyway. The fact that some evidence exists at all reveals important things about how it was uncovered.

For the purposes of illustration, suppose the US was able to listen in on a North Korean spy that had just delivered a load of man portable anti-aircraft missiles to an al Qaida cell*. If the al Qaida leader had told the North Korean spy that he had a plan to shoot down a passenger jet at San Francisco airport, and the spy reported that back to headquarters, the US could intercept that message and know about it. There might be enough information in the spy's report (to whom the missiles were delivered, where, when, what they would be used for) to lead to an arrest of the terrorist. But if the source of the information leading to the arrest was made public, then North Korea would know that it didn't have secure communications with its spies in the field, and would change its codes and/or communication procedures. If it did that, the US would lose its ability to conduct surveillance of the spies of a hostile nation, which would be a pretty important thing to lose. There can be plenty of conundrums that arise from this sort of thing.

* Manual found in Mali suggests al-Qaida training to use surface-to-air missile. State Sponsors: North Korea

Relist North Korea As a Terrorist Sponsor

...Pyongyang kidnapped at least 10 Japanese citizens and harbored Japanese Red Army terrorists since the 1970s. Until 2008, the Bush administration routinely cited the kidnappings and the presence of Japanese Red Army terrorists as justification for including North Korea on the list.

CRS cites reports describing North Korean attempts to smuggle conventional arms, including machine guns and anti-tank rocket launchers, to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (Tamil Tigers), a U.S. Government designated foreign terrorist organization in Sri Lanka. Those reports indicate the Sri Lankan navy intercepted and attacked three North Korean ships carrying arms in separate 2006 and 2007 incidents.

North Korea’s relationship with Hizballah, an Iranian terrorist proxy that is also designated a terrorist organization by the U.S., continues. CRS cites 2006 and 2007 reports detailing an extensive program by North Korea to provide arms and training to Hizballah. The training provided to Hizballah cadre lasted months and included officials such as Hassan Nasrallah, Hizballah’s secretary-general. North Korean trainers masquerading as the Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation went to southern Lebanon to teach Hizballah terrorists how to develop and construct underground military facilities.

Hmm... well, I guess this advertising campaign makes more sense now.

I was dismayed to see this article in the paper today:

http://www.calgaryherald.com/technology/Smartphone+storage+memory+cards+exempt+from+copying+fees/7920963/story.html

I didn't think we'd (Canada) be stupid enough to actually go through with this new copyright bill, but it seems that it has.

The thing is, if you blame Harper and the Conservatives for something - they are likely guilty of it :P

After receiving a (seismic v2) encoded message from God, the Conservatives went and drained these springs to convince the public. The need to privatize our hot springs is most pressing! Sell before they loose too much value! http://www.calgaryherald.com/business/Parks+Canada+privatize+springs/7196294/story.html

Well, it's their second worst nightmare. Their worst nightmare is being asked if they have been to the Stampede yet.

No, it's been going on at many airports: "Similar audio-video equipment has been operating at other Canadian airports and ports of entry for "many years," according to the CBSA" ( http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/politics/Toews+orders+airport+eavesdropping+pending+privacy+review/6807247/story.html )

Another way to look at it is it was working fine until it was revealed that Ottawa airport had 'em, then it blows up and becomes a big deal.

If they didn't mention it, the politicians wouldn't care. But now it's THEIR conversations being spied on, it's a Very Big Deal(tm).

Unless it affects a politician, nothing gets done. Ever notice the internet spy bill only was pulled off after Vikileaks started up and how the Tories made a big deal that it was some Liberal staffer running it? And how it was practically a witch hunt even though all the records were already public - the only "unethical" thing was someone pointing it out. Nothing illegal, nothing classified, sealed, or hidden. It was just sitting on the court website in relative obscurity.

No, it's been going on at many airports: "Similar audio-video equipment has been operating at other Canadian airports and ports of entry for "many years," according to the CBSA" ( http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/politics/Toews+orders+airport+eavesdropping+pending+privacy+review/6807247/story.html )

The front page of today's Calgary Herald business section suggests the rumors are not true, Samsung is not interested in RIM:

http://www.calgaryherald.com/business/Samsung+interested/6012112/story.html

Enjoy that border while it lasts http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Canada+perimeter+security+agreement+crucial+diplomats/4886235/story.html
Soon it will be a security "perimeter" around Canada.

"If you look at fecal matter, what is it? It's carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and minerals -it's a great source of stuff for doing this."

-- Ian Gates, associate professor in chemical engineering at the University of Calgary.

  He's working on a method to turn human poop into a source of renewable energy.

http://www.calgaryherald.com/Turning+waste+into+energy/4695390/story.html

Do they? Last time I flew Southwest (July 2009) they:

- Got me where I was going on time,

- Offered me two (2) packages of peanuts as a snack, and two packages of cookies as well.

- Had room for my bags in both directions.

The last time I flew Delta (July 2010) they:

- Would not let me change seats online.

- Would not tell me my seat assignment on the commuter segments until after boarding, so that 'passengers with special needs could be accomodated'. They seated three standby passengers before me on one flight, despite my having a confirmed ticket. I enjoyed oen of only four seats that did not recline. The passenger in front of me enjoyed reclining HIS seat, very much thank you. I can still smell it.

- Delayed me at EVERY stop to and from my destination.

- Gave me precisely one (1) package of peanuts, OR one (1) package of cookies, on each segment.

- Had no room in the bins for my bag on the first segment of my flight, and had to check them at the gate.

- On my return flight, delayed me at the destination gate for 20 minutes while they found a crew to offload our gate-checked baggage.

- On the connecting flight, delayed it 20 minutes due to a problem getting the incoming plane to the gate.

- On this connecting flight, delayed us 40 minutes to load on catering (food).

- On this connecting flight, waited 2 hours into a 5 hour flight to begin serving drinks and snacks to Coach (us).

MY wife flew back a few days later, and

- Was delayed an hour on the initial segment.

- Was that hour late for her connecting flight.

- Cancelled the connecting flight after a 90 minute delay, due to 'mechanical problems'.

- Flew in a replacement plane FROM THE INTENDED DESTINATION to replace the failed plane.

- Gave her a $6 food voucher for a meal. The least expensive sandwich she saw was $8.

- Eventually got her onboard and on her way to the destination, 6 hours late.

- Gave her a $25 travel voucher for her inconvenience. This is equal to the baggage allowance for one bag.

So Delta may have valued my wife's troubles at $4.16/hr, but she did not. We will not be using the travel voucher. 6 years ago, flying out of Portland, Maine, we took an early flight to Baltimore and then on to Orlando in January. We were delayed 4 hours as one of the engines would not start on an below-freezing day. It had been a long time since I sat on a cold Maine apron and got told the engine would not start. Southwest is beating Delta maintenance hands down in my experience.

ps- It is the height of inefficiency to permit maintenance to cause groundings and lost flights. Planes don't make any money on the ground; they make money in the air. And accidents are entirely inefficient. Now, claiming maintenance troubles for a lightly-loaded flight used to happen to me a fair amount in the 80s, and it was blatant. Sitting at a gate lounge with 6 other people for a flight from Boston to Bangor at 1900 on a Friday night, I got cancelled 50% of the time. Go up the next morning, we had maybe 10 people on board usually. And in Bangor, they had maybe 12 people waiting to go to Boston, 6 of them from last night. I'm not fooled by that.

Very little advantage to Southwest to add mechanical trouble to the 'act of God' list, but it belongs on 'force Majeure'. Even CF-18s fail and they get even better maintenance than 737s. No machine is perfect.
 

Even some Canadians the healthcare system is a poor value.

Cycling is bar far the best way to commute. In dense traffic situations, its as fast or faster than driving and way faster than taking transit. Here is an informal race to demonstrate the point: http://www.calgaryherald.com/Cyclist+beats+motorist+race+work+downtown/1533758/story.html And it makes double use of your time. You get exercise while commuting to work. And it saves money. A lot of it. $460 per month in parking fees alone in the example above.

Due to growing up in a tiny-tiny town with no money to upgrade the typewriters in the high school, I learned on a manual. The first typewriter I owned was, in fact, a manual (Smith-Corona Classic Twelve). As a consequence, I haven't had even the smallest difficulty with repetitive motion injuries, despite having recently typed a 154,000 word novel. My hands do cramp up while using the tiny keyboards on Compaq machines. This was solved by using the ErgoForce keyboard by KeyTronic; it has an added advantage of being very cheap. One problem to be noted: because of my initial training with manual typewriters, I go through keyboards with alarming regularity. The ErgoForce keyboard has lasted about a year. I figure it'll last about another six months before I pound it to pieces. For those not fortunate enough to have trained on a manual, there are exercises you can perform regularly (about every hour or so while typing) that will enable you to fend off CTS. Google came up with a few things. Here are illustrations of the exercises. There's a nice article about it here. There is even a hand-fitness guru out there, Greg Irwin, with advice and stuff to sell at www.handhealth.com.