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It may have something to do with all of the people that wrote to their MP's. There are also other good signs, such as a huge display of condemnation regarding a bill giving police the power to get ISP subscriber information without a warrant (this was on the CBC site, check the comments). People seem surprisingle informed and politicians may be taking note. Of course, I could be blindly optimistic.

The Prime Minister is apologizing for some hack in Alberta who recently made these comments.

Premier says apology punishment enough after Alberta MLA's comments

"In his blog, Elniski offered advice to junior high school girls. He suggested that a girl wear a smile when entering a room, and that men don't want to hear about that "treated equal" stuff."

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/edmonton/story/2009/06/23/edmonton-elniski-stelmach.html?ref=rss

In response my flamebait is a result of people up on politics who are OUTRAGED over the conservative government. THEY NEED TO GO.

Indeed, bats that fly at night, relying on echolocation, fly too close to the blades. The pressure drop (which their sonar doesn't let them detect) tends to make the capillaries in their lungs go pop.

Here's a press release, or else a radio interview with the authors (second story down - OGG available!)

This is in regards to the tabling of a law regarding warrentless electronic intercepts, links below for refence.

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/06/18/tech-internet-police-bill-intercept-electronic-communications.html

http://www.news1130.com/more.jsp?content=20090617_213536_8084

The bill proposes the ability for police to make warrentless intercepts of electronic information with the aid of ISPs. While I believe in the best efforts of the police and our intelligence communities, and I believe in making their job easier, I do not believe this is the path to take.

This is a fundamental erosion of personal privacy. Warrants for searches are applied for and executed all the time, and justice is well served by the judicial oversight. The point of oversight is to balance the justice of the many against the privacy of the individual. Wholesale disregard for oversight leads to abuse, the police are only human and humans are fallible.

I also call into question, the scale of which these are laws are designed to help the people. Terrorism and child pornography (while abhorrent) are todays boogeymenm, occupying such a fractional percentage of actual crime. The value of the electronic intercepts a law like this would provide would be minimal in cases of drug/organized crime when compared to phone tapping and physical searches (both of which require warrants).

There are ways to fight crime; money for more officers, money for investigations, prosecution and witness protection, and better inter-agency communication. We can reduce poverty, increase education, raise the standard of living to fight crime. Eroding the rights of the innocent populance doesn't fight crime.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

*********

*********

Vancouver, BC

..I'm not sure how to respond to you even though I agree with you. It's sad that a man's statements can't be taken at face value anymore.
Also, a better (though longer) link I found while searching for it on the cbc site (in case I should CC the CBC too):
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/06/18/tech-internet-police-bill-intercept-electronic-communications.html

While I am wary of this bill and will be reading the details of it soon, we should not forget that pedophiles do in fact exist and do in fact prey on children.

I have not read the bill yet but I suspect that when the wrote the warrantless part they had this case in mind:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2006/11/02/child-abuse.html

If you were to officer in this article watching this abuse happen in real time, I could understand wanting to be able to trace the IP to an ISP and phone them up for a name and address. Perhaps provisions for this already exist, perhaps finding an attorney to convince a judge to issue a warrant does not take to long, but clearly this is a case where the police *should* be able to assess a clear and present danger and act on it.

So far, this new strain is milder than a normal yearly influenza virus. But that was also true about the Spanish flu virus, the first two mutations that went around the globe. The third one was highly lethal and, sadly, 100% lethal to pregnant women.

I don't know where you got 100% lethal but at least that part of your post is incorrect. Here's a better source:

http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2008/04/02/youth-survey.html
"In the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, one study reported on 1,350 pregnant women who became infected; 27 per cent died from the flu. In the milder Asian flu pandemic in 1957, half the women of reproductive age who died from flu in Minnesota were pregnant."

So a pregnant woman would have had a 3 in 4 chance of surviving. Alarmist nonsense panics people and causes more harm than good.

already delayed becuase of a hydrogen leak.

a Canadian astronaut was also inconvenienced.

Similar Final Destination moment:

Woman who missed the downed Air France flight dies in a car crash

I suppose it would be a waste of time to explain to this genius that the "problem" of file sharing in Canada is largely a myth and has been discredited.

How much do military pilots make? Do you feel unsafe with them?

US military pilots? Yes, I feel unsafe with them.

OK, so *ALL AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS* paywall their websites. Now, what do you do about foreign newspapers???

And it's not just newspapers either. What about...
http://www.cnn.com/
http://www.foxnews.com/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/
http://www.cbc.ca/

What about websites of radio and TV networks, and their individual stations, around the world?

Fuck freedom as a whole, our freedom has to come first. Oppress them before they can oppress us! Also, how the fuck does a rant by Jack Nicholson(sp?) have to do with policy regarding freedom of the internet? In an ideal world Police wouldn't abuse their power, and we could trust them absolutely. But this is far from an ideal world, and the police are just another form of school-yard monitor. They are ignorant of circumstance, and naive towards the actual goings on of their little slice of stomping ground. People want to say that if you aren't doing anything wrong then you should have nothing to hide and therefore nothing to fear. I say I have everything to hide from people that will scrutinize it looking for anything I might have done wrong, and I have everything to fear from a legal system that always seems open to interpretation and closed to circumstance. And if you want to tell me that police do not abuse their power, you can talk to my brothers ex classmate who got shot and killed by police after getting into a scuffle for resisting arrest. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/calgary/story/2009/03/18/cgy-carwash-police-shooting.html Yeah lets just fucking shoot the guy, it's easier that way. This fucking city is becoming more American by the week

Whoever modded this insightful...
Saying that orange juice and cola are almost the same from the health point of view is unbelievable bullshit. Take a short look at the ingrediants of cola.
- artificial sugars
- phosphor acids
- non-natural flavorings
The only ingredient of these that you find in some of the cheap versions of orange juice is artificial sugar.

Known facts (check wikipedia for sources) are that there are links between
- cola and ostheoporosis due to the phosphor
- cola and diabetes due to the sugar

Check out these two links:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3235539,00.html
http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2006/08/25/benzene-beverages.html

Both deal with links between cola and cancer. Google for increases in oesophagus cancer due to the increased consumate of cola.

And you claim that the juice of oranges is equally health-destructive as cola? You must be kidding.

I do have acid reflux and due to that I have to take pantozol (similar to nexium / purple pill). My physiological background is that I have an hiatus hernia. Used to drink 2-3 liter of cola (diet coke) every day. I had tried quitting drinking this stuff already, but without success. I was addicted. Like being addicted.

And from time to time I've got pains in my oesphagus although I took my pills.

Somewhere in march I read about the connections between cola and oesophagus cancer. Which hit me like a hammer. I instantly did quit drinking cola, which is now three month ago. Instead I drink pure water and coffee.
With the result that I do not have to take the pantozol-pill every day anymore. I am down to taking it every second day. Which is a huge success for me.

Yt,

Gunnar

Schmiergelder was the official name designated under German tax law permitting middlemen to deduct from their incomes bribes or any other payments to foreigners to secure the sale of German products. These deductions were called necessary business expenses. Schmiergelder is translated literally as "grease money".

The practice of paying schmiergelder was permitted until 1998 when Germany joined other European countries in a pact prohibiting the payment of grease money to foreign public officials. Germany expanded the ban in 2002 to include more than just public officials; it now prohibited paying Schmiergelder to anyone in a foreign country in a decision-making role.

So let's not pretend this is just Third World countries and the Western World is completely ethical.

Why is Joe allowed to choose his food then ?

So you should be allowed to choose milk laced with melamine? Meat with salmonella? Rancid Starkist tuna?

The tainted Star-Kist tuna scandal

Broadcast Date: Sept. 17, 1985
What became known as "Tunagate" erupts after this Fifth Estate report airs on Sept. 17, 1985. The CBC's Eric Malling reveals that Progressive Conservative Fisheries Minister John Fraser had knowingly approved a million cans of rancid Star-Kist tuna for sale. Fraser ignored numerous reports declaring that the tuna with the "powerful smell" was unfit for human consumption. Star-Kist Canada Inc. and New Brunswick Premier Richard Hatfield were pressuring Fraser in order to protect the 400 jobs at the St. Andrew's, N.B., plant.

Before Tunagate, Star-Kist, the largest employer in New Brunswick's Charlotte County, had enjoyed a 39 per cent market share. But that share collapsed to near zero following the scandal. The company eventually pulled out of Canada and the 400 employees at the St. Andrew's, N.B., plant lost their jobs.

Just when and how much Prime Minister Brian Mulroney knew about the events leading up to Tunagate was never made clear. Mulroney initially said he knew about the decision to sell the tainted tuna but later recanted, saying he only learned about the affair when the CBC's The Fifth Estate story aired. Mulroney was also accused by the Opposition of not telling the whole truth when he told the New York Times he had fired Fraser as soon as he had heard of the affair. In fact, it had taken six days.

Weeks after the Tunagate scandal broke, baseball fans booed Mulroney during the opening game of the American League championship playoffs in Toronto by chanting: "Tuna! Tuna! Tuna!"

Oh, we've been trying to civilize our southern neighbours for quite a while...

Ahh, maybe that's why you declared aboot 200K of us to be Canadian citizens recently. I thought it was because you'd graduated from sheet music piracy to citizen piracy. It was a bit of a shock to learn last week that I was a Lost Canadian who has suddenly been found. Just one question: Where is Canada, anyway?

But it is not Canada duty to enforce some other countries law on their own soil.

You wouldn't think so... But strangely enough Marc Emery got hauled off to jail for breaking a U.S. law on Canadian soil where there is no law against his actions. Thanks for setting that precedent Stephen Harper.

This story was covered by the CBC (Canadian Broadcast Corp.) with an interview of the headmaster of the Icelandic Elf School. Here's the link to the CBC broadcast: http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/2009/200903/20090327.html

There was an excellent lecture aired on CBC's radio show "Ideas" dealing with freedom vs. the possibility of another Nazi Germany and avoiding such possibilities through forced voting and limiting of extremist political parties despite the ideal of free speech.

Unfortunately I don't recall the name of the person who gave it :-)

CBC's science program Quirks and Quarks had an interesting story about the handedness of molecules that it played last month. (Audio available in Ogg Vorbis) It provides a nice, friendly introduction to this topic.

I've yet to see any one of these projects that have use or did use taxpayer money. I have service from my city, and no tax dollars were spent on the project. None. Nor do they take any income from taxes.

Agreed. Last year, the Saskatchewan government-owned telecommunications company made a $121 M profit, most of which was paid back to the government in dividends.

A short list of things more important right now:

Why our troops are in Afganistan (which you say is unwinnable
Our Economy
The Health Care system
Our relationship with the US and the EU
Food Safety

Your party is slipping in the polls again. Most people will see this as a waste of time and tax payer money, just like last time.

Sincerely,
A Canadien Taxpayer

A short list of things more important right now:

Why our troops are in Afganistan (which you say is unwinnable
Our Economy
The Health Care system
Our relationship with the US and the EU
Food Safety

Your party is slipping in the polls again. Most people will see this as a waste of time and tax payer money, just like last time.

Sincerely,
A Canadien Taxpayer

Meanwhile, here in Canada, Bell is effectively forcing all their competitors to use the same usage-based-billing scheme they are.

There is at least one study showing that having older brothers increases the likelihood of a man being gay, regardless of whether or not the brothers live together.

I have seen a couple of different lines of reasoning. One is that it's due to an immune response that grows stronger with each pregnancy. The second is that said immune response is a way of putting a limit on the size of the heterosexual portion of the next generation, since only they (unaided) are capable of creating further offspring. I have also seen it said that this effect becomes stronger when food supplies dwindle, which would support the second theory somewhat.

I wish I could dig up an actual source on the second one, but here's an article mentioning the first:

http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2006/06/26/brothers-gay.html

It's crass to be talking about gayness as the side effect of an immune response, and for that I apologize to whoever might be reading. The important thing is that people know that there are established genetic factors. Calling it a "choice" is propaganda at best when biologists have plenty of data that says otherwise.

"It has far less to do with religion and far more to do with male chauvinist pigs, the misogynists."

You don't know how right you are. :-( A sad day. What a bunch of cowards for killing a 52-year-old women who was simply speaking her mind.

But then, Islam is hardly unique in terms of misogyny, and some Islamic countries are genuinely more enlightened than others. Also, if you turned back the clock a mere 50 years in most western countries, women weren't exactly treated well either. We mostly got over it. Slowly. And both men and women are better off for it. But apparently men in some parts of the world are still frightened by the prospects of women having any political or social say in their lives -- frightened enough to kill a brave women who wasn't afraid to do what was right. And now the killers will hide behind their religion as an excuse for their abominable actions. What an insult.

A short video on the decline of english in quebec:

http://archives.cbc.ca/politics/language_culture/clips/15097/

You're off by an order of magnitude ... the estimate for efficient propagation of a virus was much more than 1%, as per the cbc article.

The study predicts that situation will continue until one operator obtains a share of at least 9.5 per cent of the overall mobile market.

If it were realy just 1%, as yu said, we'd already be passed the threshold - symbian is at 3.2% of the entire mobile market ...

Smartphones currently make up about five per cent of the total mobile market, and the most popular smartphone operating system, Symbian, has 64.3 per cent of the smartphone market -- that's 3.2 per cent of the mobile market overall.

http://www.cbc.ca/gfx/photos/lapierrre_000327.jpg

Not if you're from Canada

Proof of claim of aerosols caused famine in Africa in the 80's? It's called google! Maybe if you have been using this internet thing for a while you should try it. But since you are too lazy I guess I will do it for you. How about:
http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2002/07/22/aerosol020722.html
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-54622826.html
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0721-07.htm
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/news/2002/2002-07-22-africandrought.htm
Basically all over the freaking place. I also saw it once on nova on pbs, here I think:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sun/

...most won't even have a chance to gun people down. This makes it easier for violence to be isolated into the pure fantasy realm.

If only there were means of violence that didn't involve guns. Perhaps like this. The murder in Anola was blunt-force trauma. I have it on good authority that the weapon which caused that, the one the murderer turned to for his crime of passion, was a baseball bat. Do you think his two children were less affected by the violence they witnessed, the murder of their mother by their father, simply because it wasn't a gun?
Your statement is obtuse and narrow-minded, worthy of this fantasy realm of which you speak.

Do you dig in various banks balance sheets before you create a checking account?

If FDIC and the SEC did not exist, do you think that the banks would allow me to see their real balance sheets, or would they just tell me "The company expects its capital ratios at quarter-end to remain significantly above the levels for well-capitalized institutions and continues to be confident that it has sufficient liquidity and capital to support its operations while it returns to profitability"? (...wait, that's what they said WITH the regulators breathing down their necks. Another regulatory hurdle... would they have even bothered to try without them?)

a limited liability corporation building a 1.21 gigawatt nuclear reactor in downtown Manhattan is gonna have a little difficulty getting capital. :-)

Why? If the members' liabilities are actually limited, what does some guy in California (or China) care what happens to Manhattan, as long as he gets his money back before it does?

Actually, the company that makes it (MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates' space division) was very almostly sold to a US defense contractor last spring. Which would kind of have sucked for Canada's space industry, since that company is basically ...our only one.

So really - back off, get your own robot space arms! : ) Cool, thanks, eh?

A bit of canadian history - in the late 50s, Canada had developed the world's most advanced jet interceptor (the Avro Arrow). When it was cancelled in 1958, almost every single scientist and engineer working on it moved to the States to work on the US space program. The Canadian aeronautical industry never recovered (but at least we can take credit for all the cool stuff NASA did in the 60s!). People really worry that if MDA Space ever gets sold off, the same thing will happen again.
http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2008/04/10/mdablock.html

The talkers (crazy or bluetooth) do not present a risk to you.

No risk? Did you hear about this bus trip? Not that this kind of thing happens every day here, but people who have conversations with themselves do tend to behave unpredictably, usually harmlessly. I'm all for sensitivity towards those who are ill, but if someone is jabbering away to themselves, I personally won't turn my back on them.

The song was used multiple times for his party's political campaign when the license purchased didn't allow that. From the much more informative article linked in the article, it sounds like they were permitted to use it once but then went on to use it multiple times and, additionally, put it on the internet. Then, rather than paying the difference for such use, the party offered €1. I can't imagine why the band wasn't amused...

In short, this wasn't a case of Joe User downloading a song; it was unauthorized commercial use.

http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk318/uwhatu/animatedfrenchprick.gif

haha
refering link
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/music/story/2009/02/27/mgmt-sarkozy.html

Nothing wrong with being bi-lingual. Your English is flawless, so you're obviously not part of the problem. Part of the problem is that most French Canadians consider Canada a bi-lingual country, while English Canadians consider Canada an English-speaking country. The other part of the problem is that some Quebecois still think Quebec should be French only. Like most conflicts, a few asshats on both sides of the issue make things hard for everyone else.

That's interesting, because I've lived here all my life and what you're describing is a pretty small minority.

Odd how such a small minority seems to be able to pass so many oppressive laws in its favour.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9402E5DA1538F937A25756C0A964948260

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2002/12/12/quesigns_021212.html

You'd think in a democracy a amall minority wouldn't be able to do that. So either Canada's system is seriously flawed, or you're a liar.

Nobody should be worried about cameras on every corner unless they are a criminal worried about being caught in the act.

De Menezes, an electrician who had been in the country for three years, lived in a building that was under surveillance because it was believed to house a suspect wanted in connection with the unsuccessful bombings of July 21.
When de Menezes left his apartment, he was believed to be that man and subsequently tracked to the station. He rushed to board a waiting train car, where two officers pinned him to the floor and shot him seven times in the head and once in the shoulder.

I think it goes back to the showing the DDT is a harmful chemical ... So we had to stop using the chemical

It's too bad that DDT helped to eradicate Malaria in places where it was used. DDT Needed to Control Malaria Perhaps the answer wasn't to eliminate its use but to manage it to limit the harm it could do. Certain countries in the world could use some mosquito control.

1. In many places where DDT was used, Malaria or other such diseases were never a problem (they may become one with climate change)
2. For most such cases, BTI probably works better anyway - and isn't harmful to other lifeforms to boot
3. (Limited) use of DDT is still legal for vector control in most countries.

I think it goes back to the showing the DDT is a harmful chemical ... So we had to stop using the chemical

It's too bad that DDT helped to eradicate Malaria in places where it was used. DDT Needed to Control Malaria Perhaps the answer wasn't to eliminate its use but to manage it to limit the harm it could do. Certain countries in the world could use some mosquito control.

You don't like Being Erica? What's wrong with you? :-P

Sanity. The CRTC is working on a cure as we speak, by driving me crazy.

You don't like Being Erica? What's wrong with you? :-P

Why isn't the free distribution of cultural content considered part of a countries diplomatic budget? It should be...

You mean like the CBC here in Canada? :-)

I wonder how long it will be until the prosthetic hand can outperform a biological hand in terms of speed and strength. Every time I see a massive excavator I think of how cool it would be to join 5 of them together as fingers in a massive hand!

Apparently this happens a bit up there, eh?

There was a very exciting interview on CBC Radio last year about various artists who do or don't use pitch control software and why they do or don't.

The expert being interviewed pointed out that of all the singers analyzed, Bob Dylan has nearly perfect pitch. You may not like the tone of his voice, but his pitch is spot-on.

And the reason any of this cannot be offered by a private company?

Water privatization has been and is being privatized. Atlanta, GA offers a cautionary tale. Once the water was privatized the water became bad. Eventually the city had to take the water system back. Water was also privatized in Cochabamba, Bolivia. As soon as Bechtel, the largest engineering company in the US, bought the water system they raised the price of water. It was raised so much many rioted. Several people, including a teenage boy, were shot and killed and a lot of other injured to protect Bechtel.

Falcon