Slashdot Mirror

Don't be so serious. People joke about the Irish, for example.

Except of course that no one is (these days) directing violence at people for being of Irish ancestry. Or deporting Canadian citizens born in Ireland to the nation of their birth (even if they haven't been there since childhood.)

I'm no fan of PCness, but give that there are plenty of ignorant yahoos out there (many of them in the U.S. Government) looking for excuses for violence against people of Middle Eastern ancestry, it would be good to 1) not give them ideas, and 2) not sound like them.

It's a different world over there. The children are terrorists. It's a shame the Israelis didn't finish the job.

Or forcing people out of there own land because of their religion?

Excuse me, what Muslim countries is Israel attacking? Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Yemen, Sudan, Iraq, Iran, Quatar, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Chad, Libya, Lebanon, Jordan, Indonesia, the Phillipines? Hmmm, there must be some other factor (Google News: 13 hours ago) that you're missing. Israel's not attacking any Muslim country. Just some Arab-Israeli ("Palestinian") misfits wanting an overthrow of Israel.

In other news, there was another suicide bombing this afternoon on the West Bank in the settlement of Tampa. "When I arrived I saw body parts lying on the road," said a woman who witnessed the blast. "I went into the shop and saw some remains covered in blood and nearby a severed leg which belonged to another body." The street was crowded with schoolchildren and shoppers on their way home from work.

The Spanish Authority has condemned the bombing. The Español Inquisition-Jihad is claiming responsibility for this attack, which is in protest of the illegal American settlements on the occupied territory owned by the Spaniards. Gov. Jeb Bush was unavailable for comment as he was attending a funeral of a victim of last week's suicide bomber.

Canada Rules!

From the article Gerald Oakham and his fellow physicists have a problem. In the hunt for the most elusive speck of matter known to science, they are about to generate more data than any computer on the planet can analyse.

>Why does everybody want to vote on-line?

This is simple. Jean Chretien is straining to leave a "legacy" behind in this country after 3 terms of heavy-handed rule. He doesn't like what his opposition paints as his legacy -- A liar on the GST "The GST is history!", a thug with his shawinigan handshake, a bumbling moron infront of cameras, a person who can't even keep himself safe from break-ins no matter how much security he can pay for, a man who puts the lives of the Canadian military in jeopardy without them even being on a mission, a man who can't handle being wrong, a man who doesn't believe in your chartered right to free speech, a man who wrongfully invests your money, a man who supports things by doing nothing, such as the CD-Levy that assumes all Canadians are criminals, and the anti-piracy laws that leave at least 3 million Canadians with the inability to be multicultural in their television watching.

The rubber suit is wearing thin, finally.

lets find out, Canada

News sites top list of job time burners

Gotta wonder if that was done on purpose.

Doesn't quite replace Newsblaster for me, but cool nonetheless.

Maybe now the same thing will happen to Stephen King. You know, now that he's dead and all ...

Ummm, yeah, ok.

So we can expect to see Stephen King the Corpse at the New Yorker Festival then?

Some people might say that this is apples to oranges. To that I answer, I'm moving to Canada.

Seriously though, flame me if you want, but I think capital punishment and war(murder, especially an open ended war) is barbaric, and I'm sick of being dragged down just to line someone else's pockets. I would fight for the convenience of staying, but beyond that, why stay?

Hmmm ...this story was published in the newspapers three days ago; see it here

I find this quote amusingly relevant:

"That's one thing the leadership of PETA has in common with their precious salamanders, an inability to think." [?]

They have rights to the site because they own the Canadian trademark on the word "Canadian". I'm more pissed off at the Canadian trademark board then anyone else.

So does Global TV, operators of canada.com, have a trademark on "Canada"? How much of a license fee does the Government of Canada pay?

does anybody else know of a current competitor to both of these people I could switch to?

Yeah, It's called Canada.

It may be really fricken cold here, but if there's anything worth mentioning whenever paypal comes up, it's that we no longer need escrow services up here (as of just last week) We are now in control of our own transactions.. person to person. I don't mean for this to be flaimbait at all.. but our banking is light years ahead of the Americans... just last week.. I payed for my dinner with my bank card (via Interac) AT my table at the restaurant thanks to a nifty little wireless device the waiters carry around with them.

But back to online transactions, this was BIG news here last week... the introduction of the Canadian banks offering person to person online transactions. I thought it was very newsworthy... a Major technological development.. yea yea.. I submitted the story and it was rejected... and yes.. I actually am very bitter about it.

Anyways, it's too bad that paypal is still your only option. Cut out the middleman!! Tell your bank you want to do it like the Canadians! :P

does anybody else know of a current competitor to both of these people I could switch to?

Yeah, It's called Canada.

It may be really fricken cold here, but if there's anything worth mentioning whenever paypal comes up, it's that we no longer need escrow services up here (as of just last week) We are now in control of our own transactions.. person to person. I don't mean for this to be flaimbait at all.. but our banking is light years ahead of the Americans... just last week.. I payed for my dinner with my bank card (via Interac) AT my table at the restaurant thanks to a nifty little wireless device the waiters carry around with them.

But back to online transactions, this was BIG news here last week... the introduction of the Canadian banks offering person to person online transactions. I thought it was very newsworthy... a Major technological development.. yea yea.. I submitted the story and it was rejected... and yes.. I actually am very bitter about it.

Anyways, it's too bad that paypal is still your only option. Cut out the middleman!! Tell your bank you want to do it like the Canadians! :P

Here in Canada quite a commotion has erupted over the firing of an editor of the Ottawa Citizen for having written an editorial calling for the resignation of our Prime Minister.
In question are the close ties the owner of the media chain has with the Prime Minister due to the fact that it was his very government that allowed the media chain to persue a number of controversial acquisitions that had been previously disallowed by canadian law.
What is clear here, is that politicians will meddle with the media and what they report when given the chance to do so. What is to stop, in this case, an australian Prime Minister from blocking a website whose constant criticism of his policies has aggravated him? Since the list cannot be checked the answer is probably nothing.
This government sponsored censorship raises a serious issue of precedent. The precedent of the governement having the power to block access to information, otherwise publically accessible to the citizen, for unverifiable purposes and results. It is the governement giving itself the right to restrict what a citizen could normally view without restriction in any other country-- without appeal or public review.
In my view, there is a careful balance of power that is being toyed with, both in Australia and in Canada, that needs to be stopped. I hope the Australian courts see the danger here and reverse the decision and I hope justice prevails in the case of this editor who has been wrongfully fired-- in fact it is my wish now that this media group be broken up.
See Citizen story here and here

It will be interesting to see what the car industry does with this act since the recent increase in US steel tarifs will cost them (and consumers who buy cars) hundreds of millions. The data on which the tarif was justified is pretty flimsy, not all of the US steel industry is having dificulties.

I too am hoping someone, (the auto lobby would be nice) will knock the current US gov't out of its protectionist stance on everything recently. There's also the recently-enacted 27% tarrifs on Canadian lumber to remember. It has been said that this increases the cost of every new US home by $1000-1500. This tarrif went in because the US lumber lobby managed to convince Bush that it wasn't fair that trees were less expensive to come by in Canada. Another brilliant interpretation of data by politicians, with Joe Consumer footing the bill, as usual.

1. "IRAQ WILL SUFFER INCREASING SHORTAGES OF PURIFIED
2. 
   WATER BECAUSE OF THE LACK OF REOUIRED CHEMICALS AND
   DESALINIZATION MEMBRANES. INCIDENCES OF DISEASE, INCLUDING
   POSSIBLE EPIDEMICS,WILL BECOME PROBABLE..."

• Verisign
• Courtesy Support Team
• Domain Registry of Canada
• Domain Registry of America
• Internet Registry of Canada
• Internet Registry of America

If you are Canadian who has been scammed, or if you have been scammed by a Canadian domain registrar, please click here to contact him by e-mail or use the following address (remove the spaces):
S K 1 @canada .com

(Don't reply to me). Thanks.

Well, the editors are being assholes again. I thought I should share this with all of you.

* 2002-05-16 05:57:50 Canada Legalizes Pot, US Being Stupid About It (articles,usa) (rejected)
Not posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday May 16, @ 02:23a.m.
From the reefer-madness dept.

Lethyos writes, Well, we have lived long enough to see marijuana legalized on the North American continent. What a great time to be alive! This story at canada.com reports that the Canadian parliament has lifted bans on pot. There are ev en plans for the Canadian government to grow marijuana for medical uses. They state, "The Se nate committee concludes there is no convincing evidence that smoking pot leads to using hard er drugs." Needless to say, the DEA is not happy about it and the Bush administration is pla nning to place trade restrictions on Canada for the move. So we're going to whack our friend ly neighbor to the north with a big stick for doing both the right and smart thing, it seems. Lucky for me, I'm going up there next week! :) At Slashdot, we're a bunch of fuckheads who don't post interesting and even historically important stories. We just beat off to hentai tentical rape!

Well, the editors are being assholes again. I thought I should share this with all of you.

* 2002-05-16 05:57:50 Canada Legalizes Pot, US Being Stupid About It (articles,usa) (rejected)
Not posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday May 16, @ 02:23a.m.
From the reefer-madness dept.

Lethyos writes, Well, we have lived long enough to see marijuana legalized on the North American continent. What a great time to be alive! This story at canada.com reports that the Canadian parliament has lifted bans on pot. There are ev en plans for the Canadian government to grow marijuana for medical uses. They state, "The Se nate committee concludes there is no convincing evidence that smoking pot leads to using hard er drugs." Needless to say, the DEA is not happy about it and the Bush administration is pla nning to place trade restrictions on Canada for the move. So we're going to whack our friend ly neighbor to the north with a big stick for doing both the right and smart thing, it seems. Lucky for me, I'm going up there next week! :) At Slashdot, we're a bunch of fuckheads who don't post interesting and even historically important stories. We just beat off to hentai tentical rape!

Despite folks who see hydrogen as free, current process require significant amounts of energy to get at hydrogen.

This article was posted on slashdot last week..

"The most promising source of the hydrogen may be geological "traps" similar to those now drilled for natural gas. Professor Freund said: "One of these natural hydrogen fields is already known to exist in North America, and extends from Canada to Kansas."

Apparently mining these geological "traps" would be no more energy intensive then current natural gas mining. And with such a vast supply right here in the United States, it like this is an inevitable migration.

I wonder If the oil companies are starting to look into hydrogen as the next money maker. They have the infrastructure (gas stations, transportation) to do it, it seems like it would be a no brainier to jump right in.

http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/story . sp?id=%7B1F54AEED-A34B-411B-B95F-972AB119DD85%7D

Huge hydrogen stores found below Earth's crust
Discovery suggests near limitless supply of clean fuel

Robert Matthews
Vancouver Sun

Monday, April 15, 2002

LONDON -- Scientists have discovered vast quantities of hydrogen gas, widely regarded as the most promising alternative to today's dwindling stocks of fossil fuels, lying beneath the Earth's crust.

The discovery has stunned energy experts, who believe that it could provide virtually limitless supplies of clean fuel for cars, homes and industry.

Governments across the world are urgently seeking ways of switching from conventional energy sources such as coal, gas and nuclear power to cleaner, safer alternatives.

Energy specialists estimate that oil production will start to decline within the next 10 to 15 years, as the economically viable reserves start to run out.

Hydrogen gas has been hailed as the ultimate clean fuel, as it produces only water when burned. Until now, however, moves to switch to a "hydrogen economy" have been dogged by the cost of making the gas. The two most common ways -- extraction from natural gas and sea water -- are expensive and create environmental problems.

Now scientists at the American space agency Nasa have found that the Earth's crust is a vast natural reservoir of hydrogen which has become trapped in ancient rocks.

The team made its discovery while trying to explain how bacteria live many miles below the Earth's surface. Such bugs have no access to sunlight, forcing them to rely on another source of energy for life. Scientists suspected that hydrogen was the source.

According to Professor Friedemann Freund and colleagues at Nasa's Ames Research Center in California, the gas is produced when water molecules trapped inside molten rock break down to release hydrogen.

"In the top 20 kilometres of the Earth's crust, the conditions are right to produce a nearly inexhaustible supply of hydrogen," said Professor Freund.

Studies by the team of common rock types such as granite and olivine have revealed extraordinarily high levels of trapped hydrogen. Professor Freund said that his team had "tantalizing evidence" that as much as 1,000 litres of hydrogen may be trapped in each cubic metre of rock.

Although formidable engineering problems remain to be overcome in abstracting the gas, the sheer volume of the Earth's crust means that such a high concentration would solve the world's energy problems.

"Everyone thinks of gas and oil as the main sources, and it's very difficult to get anyone to take alternatives seriously," said Dr. David Elliott, the professor of technology policy at the Open University in London. "The possibility of vast reserves of hydrogen in the Earth's crust could change that mindset."

The low yield of energy from burning hydrogen compared to gas, however, means that vast quantities of rock would have to be mined.

Professor Freund believes that the extraction and crushing of rock to extract the trapped hydrogen is likely to be prohibitively expensive. The reaction which creates the gas takes place at depths far below those involved in oil extraction, which are typically about two miles down.

The most promising source of the hydrogen may be geological "traps" similar to those now drilled for natural gas. Professor Freund said: "One of these natural hydrogen fields is already known to exist in North America, and extends from Canada to Kansas."

Ah, so globalism is good until it upsets bloated, inefficient US monopolies? Ah, I understand now. This explains the new US tariff on Canadian softwood lumber, too.

For those not in the know, Canadian lumber companies are being punished by the US for having efficient, profitable mills, resulting if a few thousand layoffs. But that's okay, they're not Americans, so they don't matter.

At least you don't live in Canada.

Rather than block the electrodes, it might be better to short them out. Clothes soaked in salt water might do it, but a better choice would be metal or carbon fibre cloth.

Sounds fine, as long as there are intervening layers of clothing between the shorting surface and your skin. I'm just not comfortable with something conductive being in contact with my epidermis, which may expose my lack of hard knowledge regarding electrical transmission...

As for Fido, carry a Taser yourself. A disposable Flash camera can easily be adapted :).

Actually, I'd prefer to avoid harming the dog whenever possible. The idea is defense and resistance, not attack and harm. Beyond those who engage in property destruction as a symbolic protest against the concept of private, exclusive property[0], nearly all protesters prepare to defend against police attacks, not attack the police themselves. Weapons are generally limited to the really hardcore militants, and their target is property, not people.[1] There have been some funny incidents where police displayed an array of "weapons" at press conferences, and journalists helpfully pointed out their gas masks and microphones confiscated earlier in the day.

[0] Before anyone attacks; I find that smashing windows of major franchise/chain restaurants and shops just frightens the people demonstrators try to reach. Symbolic, yes, effective, not if effective means exposing people to new ideas. Or, as one anti-capitalist militant said (I forget his name right now), "It's not enough to smash a McDonald's window. Then you have to go inside and organize."

On the other hand, I wonder how much more coverage, and what kind of coverage the recent WEF protests would have received if a few windows had been smashed, or even if demonstrators resisted NYPD arrest attempts. Many demonstrators who did nothing to break any laws were grabbed; one IMC correspondent was tackled and arrested while calling in a live report on his cell phone. As it was, the New York media prepared the city for civil war, then declared the protests a failure when riots didn't break out. Damned if you do...

[1] This is true for North American protests. Certain protests in Europe have seen more militant actions; Prague and Genoa in particular featured attempts to break through police lines and offensive actions against riot cops. From what I know, Genoa was a massive aberration, one step short of a worst-case scenario for cops and protesters alike. While there was a sizable militant anti-capitalist group that engaged in property destruction and rioting, claims have surfaced of British and Italian fascist skinheads joining forces to stir things up. A few scattered reports also surfaced of "black blockers" passing through police lines unhindered, or meeting outside police stations without harassment, but the veracity and meaning of these reports is still hotly debated among activists. For the most part, Western mass protests are noisy, but peaceful affairs where the violence comes from a few hotheads, and the police.

If you think the above claim is paranoid, dig up info on protests last summer in Barcelona related to the aborted World Bank meeting there. Two undercovers sidled up to the main Saturday march, attempted to start a brawl by fighting each other, and when demonstrators tried to break the cops up, uniformed police took the opportunity to attack and arrest people. Pictures later surfaced of "black blockers" posing with uniformed police on lawns before the demonstrations. Not to mention the attack on a spokescouncil meeting after the main march. The Ottawa Citizen published a series on RCMP infiltration and surveillance of political groups across Canada, which may no longer be online. It's only paranoia if they're not watching you...

Yes, I'm an anarchist whackjob. No, I'm not a Black Blocker. Yes, I think Bush is nuts. No, I don't like bin Laden either.

• 1. The RCMP in a Vancouver suburb were called in on the basis of a single parental complaint.
  
• 2. They confiscated copies of SoF at EB, only one of many videogame retailers in the province.
  
• 3. Copies of the unexpurgated version were readily available post-ban at Future Shop (recently purchased by BestBuy) and other retailers in the province, without restriction. For the sake of argument, if you think of this as akin to 'jazz' mags -- put at levels where younger children could not access -- this did not occur. Anywhere. I saw copies at several stores myself, easily accessible by youngsters, unstickered. It was only in the last two months or so that I personally noticed any difference.
  
• 4. As the reference below should indicate, the newly-elected provincial Liberal government during its time on the Opposition benches openly supported the NDP ban on violent videogames at the time.
  
• 5. As reported in today's local papers, several parental watchdog-type groups are up in arms over this change. You can expect the Liberals to waffle a bit on this issue. I apologise in advance as I don't have the URL to verify this.
  
• 6. Most significantly, at no point ever was the Linux port of the game affected, for understandable (economic) reasons. I personally attribute this to ignorance as getting Linux game ports is pretty difficult, though not impossible.
  

• 
  
  More info on the change available here -- forgive the reference, I'm feeling lazy (The Vancouver Province is a tabloid rag).

I beleive it is up to the parent to decide what is right for their child to play. If their parent decides it is okay for their child to play World War II online, then it is her decision and not that of the BC government. A follow up from the Times Colonist is availble too. This is one of many things that I am happy to see from the Liberal government.

Smallpox claimed around one billion lives before being declared eradicated in 1980.

Then you have to think like a taxpayer. Do I spend my equiv US$8 for my dose of smallpox vaccine against a potential epidemic, or do I spend it on people I'll never see in Africa? Then remember that a large population of the States lives in what's termed the "Bible Belt" ...

Just like Russia back in the good old days.
Except here officers would say please after asking for your papers...

This is a horse that just won't die, and it worries me how many people are actually considering it. At least here in Alberta, our premier knows what to think of National ID cards.

I submitted this info as a story submission yesterday, but it was turned down by the Slashdot editors. However it does relate to the discussion of this story so I will slip it in here:

Trickster Coyote writes: Canada's Privacy Commissioner has ruled that constant videotaping from police surveillance cameras violates the Privacy Act and that even just monitoring the cameras without taping violates the spirit of the law if not the letter. Says the commish: "...monitoring and recording the activities of vast numbers of law-abiding citizens as they go about their day-to-day lives" is not a legitimate part of police activities. Read the official report or news articles from canada.com or The Globe and Mail.

Trickster Coyote
"Reality leaves a lot to the imagination." -- John Lennon

Find the closest Canadian city using Mapquest, then use TVGrid or Canada.com to find the TV listings there, so that you know what channel number to look for.

It needs to be a response other than the one from those whose moral certitude is comfortably centred in a God of vengeance and a God of choosing sides, those who elected to scold the United States for its lack of backbone, its lack of moral fibre and its lack of security.

Our neighbour is none of that. It is not lax, it is free. It is not godless or without morals.

It is a democracy. And its internal security is as much as should be demanded of a country that prides itself on honouring the rights of its citizens before the nation's obligations and any government's right to deny freedoms.

Americans (and friends) might like to take a look at Aislin's Wednesday morning cartoon for the Montreal Gazette. He does poignant, gallery-class work, when things get serious.

The final tally is still 9000 for Halifax and 30,000 people in the Atlantic region, which is an incredible number particularly for the small Newfoundland communities where most of them ended up. Report can be found at Atlantic provinces shelter thousands.

Troops deployed in response to Pentagon attack -- (Canada's) National Post. Please ignore the very, very tacky graphics and tabloid-like banner.

Canadian border open, airline travellers stranded -- ditto. Note that many aircraft were diverted to Canadian airports. If you know someone who was on a flight, they may be in Canada right now.

The National newscast says that the US military just brought in an aircraft to Vancouver (BC) airport; no news on why.

Canada dot com -- looks like WIC (a media conglomerate) has created a site that encompasses news from BCTV, Vancouver Sun, etc. I can't get the links to work, but some look interesting.

Christian Science Monitor -- don't be put off by the title: it's a *very* high-quality paper.

The Village Voice -- not sure how high-quality this will be, but it has an amazing photo, plus information on the DFLP.

Boston Globe -- again, good quality reporting. There's a Breaking News page as well. Indeed, their breaking news is great.

PLEASE POST LINKS TO FOREIGN MEDIA. I've been searching, but I simply don't know the names for any English foreign media, save the BBC.

2. Move somewhere that doesn't subscribe to DMCA or whatever idiotic agreement Adobe is using to justify this to the Federal Government.

Let me be the first to suggest ... Canada !

Up here in the great frozen north, it's still legal to crack encryption, AFAIK. Canada also has a history of helping out good American folks when their government does something idiotic. Take the thousands of Americans who avoided the Vietnam war by emigrating to Canada.

Just so long as you don't mind the crushing taxes and paternalistic government ...

No one will read this but I have free time at work (the last 2 weeks) so I'll give my 2 cents.
MCI has saved your bacon by calling to confirm you actually wanted to switch. The hassles would have been endless if AT&T had gotten a chance to bill you, like a steel non-recyclable beartrap on your ass.
So instead of paying money for a lawyer (read: bottom-feeder) or paying alot of money for a good lawyer (read: bottom-feeder-licker) commend MCI. Send them a present, a /. t-shirt perhaps to the operator...or give them money. Make random long-distance phone calls to people in far off places. Try to make a marked increase in their revenues.

"I am the messiah"
-----Dan Bern

As a computer scientist, I'm sure you're aware that the government doesn't need to make public every piece of information it knows about you in order to authenticate you. Indeed, all they have to do is map an instance in their identity database to one "instance" of a person (er, you).

Even then, with a shadow identity, it would be trivial for you to choose what authenticated information to send. You just ask the government database to authenticate you to the foreign site and send with the ticket some information about you. Naturally, it will be encrypted--for whatever protection that gives you.

Download.com is where I got my copy of DeCSS, but I just checked now, and it's not there anymore. Looks like they bowed to pressure just like everyone else.

~Sentry21~

It seems to me that the best idea would be to have a number of key repositories. If you wanted to verify someone's key, you'd have to check a certain number of them, and only trust the key if they all agreed. This would mean that someone would have to subvert a high percentage of the repositories in order to comprimise the system. Of course, it would also require that you register your key at several different places, but this cost is comparitively minimal. Besides, you could easily automate most of the process.

- si1k
si1k@canada.com
http://www.coolsig.com <- not mine, but a goody!