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German cannibal sentenced to 8 years in prison,
30 Jan 2004 13:32:37

KASSEL, GERMANY - A 42-year-old German man who confessed to killing, dismembering and eating another man who he said agreed to the grisly act was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison. A German court convicted Armin Meiwes of manslaughter on Friday, ruling he had no "base motives" in the crime and sparing him a murder conviction.

The prosecution, who had been looking for a murder conviction and a life sentence, said they would appeal the verdict.Prosecutors had argued that Meiwes, who met his victim over the internet, was satisfying a sexual impulse. They said he filmed himself dismembering the victim before he ate him so he could "admire himself as a human butcher."

But Meiwes' lawyer argued that the slaying was a "homicide on demand." He said it was a form of mercy killing - because the victim gave his consent to be killed and eaten.

In his trial, Meiwes confessed in detail to the March 2001 killing of 43-year-old Bernd Juergen Brandes at his home in the nearby town of Rotenburg.

Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of IKEA, is the world's richest man.

Judging from this, you'll have to wait a while ^_^

There is more truth to that than you know.

The question still remains, is this really helping? and are we hurting more people than helping?

Maher Arar, A Canadian citizen detained by the US on a layover and deported to Syria, where he spent a year being tortured before being allowed to come home.

Guantanamo, which everyone knows about already.

Several friends, who no longer use the airlines due to the racial profiling that is happening at the airport near here. (this may just be an isolated incident)

On the other side, I haven't heard any situations where these losses of freedoms have stopped any criminal activity that would not have been stopped otherwise. I'd be very interested in any info that anyone has on this.

As for me personally, I never have watched the Superbowl and probably never will, even though I'm an 18-to-30-year-old male. Once in a while I watch spanish-language TV or anime with my wife. On the radio, I tend to switch between WNZK (Arabic- and Spanish-language programming), the local NPR station, and CBC radio 2/A> (classical music broadcast from Canada). Obviously this requirement won't affect Canada, and I thought NPR already made a permanent archive of their broadcasts available.

See this CBC article: "Online music swapping legal: court"

With any *luck*, our system will shrug off such idiots.

The hacking is fun, a combo of real time control and game programming, and it's gratifying to be involved in software work that is more beneficial to humanity than the usual "moving bits from here to there."

FYI, India's medical support (especially in the private sector) is among the best in the world, for those who can afford it; and it is much cheaper than equivalent medical care in the west. "Medical tourism" is a significant and growing industry. (That was a lazy google-generated link, you can find more the same way.) Moreover, even the private sector routinely waives fees for patients who can't afford them, and private doctors put in unpaid time at voluntary establishments; the problem for the poor is not so much cost as that they may have to commute to unfamiliar cities for good treatment.

• LSD
• LSD
• The Hospital

You mean, sort of like this one?

Canada's MOST aka Humble space telescope discovers that Procyon isn't shaking. CBC Toronto Star Okay, it's not as fancy as a hundred planets, but it's still interesting stuff.

Famed Olympic Metalist Curler/Weatherwoman/Sportscaster? She's not the best, but I'd still tap that ass.

Obvious karma whore, but according to my 8th grade French that would mean "Why is there a problem speaking French?" And the answer probably lies in the Quebec Referendum 1995. Most of the nuttiness from Quebec is concentrated in the Parti Quebecois, which in 1995 tried to seperate from Canada. Then again, there are nice people, and there are the nutcases. You've got them south of the border, where they're called the Religious Right. Quebec Referendum 1995

Well, the results are in, and what an exciting election that was! The Canadian Culture Minister, Hélène Chalifour Scherrer has been readily defeated. The results for this particular riding is available here.

However Canada was involved in Afghanistan where they were bombed by the US, and has been involved in other peace keeping operations. Check out this link, I think it sums up Canadas involvement with international peace keeping.

Article

http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/conspiracytheories/

If you DON'T read that entire report and order the tv episode then you are willingly allowing yourself to be blinded by the absolute idiocy of Bush and his family.

Bush is simply not an American. He, nor his family, are out to make America better for Americans. Don't be ignorant, don't judge what Moore says, investigate his facts and be prepared for what you will learn about Bush. He really is not a decent human being, and is VERY BAD for America.

http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/conspiracytheories/

The Fifth Estats, a Canadian investigative show on CBC, had already done a documentary on 9/11 and literally EVERYTHING Moore says in his film is backed up by this episode (see link). In fact they had even MORE DAMAGING evidence which Moore does not include in his film to which I can only assume he HELD BACK that information in fear of a complete backlash from the American public.

It's very frightening what the Americans are ignoring about Bush. They have been so completely duped that even in the face of truth they can't come to grips with the fact the the Bush family is simply not out for the good of the American people.

I'm so happy to be Canadian, and proud to not have gone to war to line the pockets of your president and vice president.

PLEASE follow the link above and read everything you can from the online report (originally a tv documentary). PLEASE keep an open mind on the subject.

I've decided that one pound of my crap is worth a couple of thousand dollars.

Don't sell yourself short!! A guy got $52,000 for 30 grams of his crap - about the price of gold. Don't settle for anything less than $28,000.

On the CBC's science show Quirks and Quarks this past weekend, they interviewed the leads of both Canadian teams, and both stated that they were planning to make an attempt in August. Thats 6 to 10 weeks from now, so there may still be a race on if the Rutans can't fix the problem right away.

Are you too young to remember Pierre Trudeau using the War Measures Act to suspend civil liberties when Quebec terrorists kidnapped a British diplomat? Canada fought its own nasty little war with Quebec separatists in the 1960s and 70s and used many of the same tactics that we are currently using in the States. I remember an uncle of mine from New Brunswick lamenting the fact that the RCMP did not have the same kinds of files and data on Quebec radicals that the FBI had on US anti-war radicals.

Go look up the Act to Combat Terrorism (Bill C-36) and its companions.

Is High Times and other pro-marijuana literature still banned in Canada? Or has that sort of anti-free speech law that Canada used to be infamous for finally died out? Its been a while since I've been North to visit the relatives.

Sorry, I know that both Canada and the world have romantic notions about what an ideal place Canada is (kinda like Norway) and I don't really mean to piss in your Wheaties, but you need to read your own history. Canada has had many of the same fights over civil liberties vs security that the US has had. And civil liberties have lost many rounds in Canada.

Do you mean this guy? Heck, he was even on Slashdot. Twice!.

cbc.ca has video clips in realvideo and quicktime.

CBC reporting flight reached 100km successfully!

Up here in Canada, we have a show called This Hour Has 22 Minutes.

This is a saterical news show. And every politician who shows up on it knows it. I'm a big fan of satire myself, and if you ask me, this is the way to do it. If you're willing to make fun of yourself, all the better. If not, I won't miss you.

Personally, I don't know how you can take someone seriously if they can't make fun of themselves. But I also think that they should be given the opportunity to poke fun at themselves, not be humiliated without notice, like this guy was.

CBC recently did a very readable summary of the Canadian law.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/hatecrimes/

America has serious free speech legislation, but America also tends to abuse it with black lists. Black lists are essentially unknown in Canada. These are cultural differences worth noting, not finger pointing or saying who's "better" in a schoolyard way.

I present the link for illumination on how a different but similar culture to the US is dealing with the very difficult issue of free and peaceful society.

Another, separate, question is can and should different cultures handle that issue the same way? This is the problem the internet presents.

In this MP3 clip on flash photography's effect on art, CBC Radio's Quirks & Quarks interviews Dr. Tito Scaiano, professor of chemistry at the University of Ottawa.

Artefacts absorb light, and thus molecules. The molecules convert the energy to heat, but sometimes a molecule changes chemical structure, resulting in a visible change. When a photo is absorbed, it pushes the molecule to a higher energy state that breaks the bond. In other cases, it promotes oxidization. Organic pigments are more sensitive than inorganic pigments (which are already fairly oxidized). In other words, flash photography can lead to deterioration of an artefact, not to mention changes to the pigment.

Although aircraft may not be as sensitive as the Mona Lisa, it's still possible that flash photography could damage the artefact. An art student told me that his professor confided that one flash was equivalent to three days of natural light. I don't know if that's entirely true, but I've heard the warning repeated.

Although some people might not use flashes, even a small percentage of wrong-doers could eventually ruin an artefact. For example, when I saw the Mona Lisa, about 30% of the crowd was taking flash photos. The Mona Lisa is behind 3 inches of plexiglass, but the flashes do take their toll.

The Straight Dope also answers a question about flash photography's damage to art.

How about:

- panel discussions from the H2K2 conference.

- a college course on SF and Fantasy literature.

- the DV Guys focus on the art and tech of video production. (Terrible bumper music. Just suffer through it)

- The Teaching Company has some fantastic for-pay courses on CD and DVD.

- Lastly, I gotta mention The Infidel Guy. The focus is on atheism, so it's not for everyone, but there are some great interviews in the archives with people such as Massimo Pigliucci, Michael Shermer, Paul Kurtz, and Michio Kaku. Lots of contorversial and thought provoking talk on the subject of religion, philosophy, and science.

Quirks and Quarks

mainly science but a well stocked archive holding an interesting array of subject matter

It's more science than tecnology perse but a great show and they even have stuff in Ogg.

The Web's too valuable to be left in private hands. It should belong to all of us. Since we who live in democratic countries *are* (I know, I know, it doesn't quite work in practice) the government, putting it in government hands would be the obvious solution. I'm envisioning a national ISP run like Canada's CBC Radio which is comercial free and paid for entirely by tax $$, but at the same time kept at "arms length" so that the current ruling party can't control the content. Thus, CBC's *only* goal is to produce quality programs and accurate news, not to make profit. Likewise, a National ISP's only goals might include fairness to users...

(As an odd side-effect, if our Green Party manages to get over 2% of the popular vote in the ellection this month (and they probably will) they'll get the $$ they'd need to become a real political force...).

A positronic brain, of course.

Seriously, robots tend to have at least one of the following characteristics (and examples):

1. Humanoid Shape - Everything from battlemechs to service robots.
2. A.I. - Data) and HAL 9000
3. Manipulators (hands/arms) - Canadarm and Canadarm 2
4. Remote (bomb disposal) or Autonomous (Predator UAV) Operation

There are two separate rulings (although only one was by a judge). Whether both of the rulings stand is still to be determined.

In December 2003, the Copyright Board of Canada issued a decision stating that downloading copyrighted music from peer-to-peer networks is legal. This is not a court decision and not surprisingly, the Canadian Recording Industry Association disputes the decision. The board also noted that it believed uploading copyrighted works online appeared to be prohibited by law.

Fast forward to April 2004. The CRIA is in court trying to force major Canadian Internet service providers to divulge the names of suspected copyright violators. Not only did federal judge Konrad von Finckenstein deny the request but went on to rule that placing copyrighted works in a shared directory is legal, akin to the photocopiers mentioned above. The CRIA does not agree with Finckenstein and has appealed his ruling.

To buy his argument you have to believe that placing a copyrighted work in shared directory doesn't amount to distribution. "Before it constitutes distribution, there must be a positive act by the owner of the shared directory, such as sending out the copies or advertising that they are available for copying," Finckenstein wrote.

In response to the ruling, Helene Scherrer, the Minister of Canadian Heritage, has promised to fix copyright law as quickly as possible. This may also push the government to ratify the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) treaties. According to the Canadian Coalition for Fair Digital Access, ratifying the treaties may double the levies already imposed on blank digital media.

The CBC has shown an excellent documentary relating to this, comparing the effects of increasing harshness of punishment with increasing emphasis on rehabilitation. It's called To Kill or To Cure, and is worth seeing. If you missed it or don't get CBC TV, there's a good summary on the website.

The documentary covers a lot of interesting ground, but one fact from it that's particularly striking is that an increase in the harshness of punishment doesn't result in a reduction in the crime rate.

Where do they build those sets with the looooooong repeating streets that have the same 3 houses or stores? They're often used in the background of the driving sequences.

I was also wondering... when those looooong streets are tree-lined, how do they get those trees to grow and branch and leaf out in the exact same pattern? Does the TV industry utilize bio-genetic tree engineering of some sort? I thought they might use CGI trees, but I doubt that would be possible on most TV budgets. (Unless they farmed out the rendering?)

Recently (May 12) the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage issued a report on proposed changes to the Copyright Act, whose relevant recommendation is as follows:

RECOMMENDATION 3

The Committee recommends that the Copyright Act be amended to provide that Internet service providers (ISPs) can be subject to liability for copyrighted material on their facilities. The Committee notes, however, that ISPs should be exempt from liability if they act as true "intermediaries," without actual or constructive knowledge of the transmitted content, and where they meet certain prescribed conditions. ISPs should be required to comply with a "notice and takedown" scheme that is compliant with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, with additional prescribed procedures to address other infringements.

The Act would force ISPs to cut off access for uploaders after they have been identified by the CIRA. But the report does not specifically address the disclosure of customers' information (to the CIRA), nor does it address the download v.s. upload meme.

The EFC has not, AFAIK, commented on the report and the Toronto member of Parliament who chaired the committee, hasn't yet responded to my inquiries (will P2P or anti-circumvention be left legal?).

actually, both seem to be deemed legal now. at least according to this cbc article

The plant went offline in 1997 when the Provincial government decided to overhaul it and bring it back up. The project has gone *way* overbudget and overschedule. The Green party's line has changed from 'Nuclear power is evil!' to 'Nuclear power costs way too much to build and maintain'. They've apparently done studies showing that nuclear power is not cost effective compared to renewable alternatives. Now, I'm well aware the study is definately biased, but after Pickering, it's starting to sound believable.

Oh god, please tell me that you're comparing them to other American news channels because if not, might I suggest you start watching CBC or BBC if you get either channels. Up here in Canada I get to watch FOX, CNN, all the other American ones and the ones that I just mentioned. When a couple of friends from the US were visiting I thought they were joking when they said that they're parents watch FOX news religously and hang onto their every word. Unbelievable.

[Christopher] HITCHENS: But speaking here in my capacity as a polished, sophisticated European as well, it seems to me the laugh here is on the polished, sophisticated Europeans. They think Americans are fat, vulgar, greedy, stupid, ambitious and ignorant and so on. And they've taken as their own [Moore], as their representative American someone who actually embodies all of those qualities.

Jean-Luc Godard, the legendary French director who helped to launch the New Wave movement in the 1960s, had harsh words for Moore this week. Godard's latest film, Notre Musique, premiered on Monday, the same day as Fahrenheit 9/11. Later in the week, Godard lashed out at Moore at a press conference, calling him "halfway intelligent." Godard went on to say that the Flint, Mich.-born director lacks subtlety. "Moore doesn't distinguish between text and image," Godard argued. "He doesn't know what he's doing." "Post-war filmmakers gave us the documentary, Rob Reiner gave us the mockumentary and Moore initiated a third genre, the crockumentary."

In two places in Dude, Where's My Country?, Moore implicitly acknowledges mistakes in his earlier works. On several occasions over the past two years, Moore has asserted that (as he put it on "Politically Incorrect") "the Bush Administration gave $43 million in aid to the Taliban in part to -- give money to the poppy growers for the money they would lose because they can't grow heroin anymore." "Bowling for Columbine" continued the canard, asserting that the US gave $245 million in aid to the Taliban government of Afghanistan. Both of these are false; the aid, intended to help relive famine, was given to non-governmental organizations, not the Taliban. In his latest book, Moore finally gets it right, noting that the aid "was to be distributed by international organizations."

[...]

Just how did Moore get so many of his facts wrong? Lazy cribbing from media outlets and the Internet seems the most likely culprit, as evidenced by a four-page list of allegedly dubious policy accomplishments by President Bush, including cutting funds from libraries and appointing former business executives to regulatory posts. All but one of the 48 accusations appear in the same order and with very similar phrasing to a list that has been printed this winter (but before Moore's book came out) on liberal Web sites and, according to Dr. David A. Sprintzen (often wrongly cited, though not by Moore, as its author), was circulating via e-mail last summer. Belying a lack of original research, Moore even apes many of the negative characterizations of individuals, calling judicial appointee Terrence Boyle a "civil rights opponent," for example (the list refers to him as a "foe of civil rights"), with absolutely no context for why exactly Boyle deserves that moniker (one certainly has to wonder whether Moore himself knows). Curiously, Moore cites no source for this list. He only notes that readers "can keep track of what Bush did and does during his administration" by reading Molly Ivins' syndicated column and the Web sites smirkingchimp.com and bushwatch.com. The latter two did print the list, but not until this winter, well after Moore wrote his book, though before it was published.

Do you know something the CBC doesn't know. Then again I heard the law has changed.

One can enumerate the reasons for Iraq's invasion as follows:

• Establishing a precedence for preepmtive war. Now America has bybassed the UN, and global opposition to this unilateral action. If the will to build an empire arises, then it will be done without any regard to what the rest of the world think or say. You can read the following articles too:

  • The True Rationale? It's a Decade Old by James Mann, March 7, 2004

  • PBS had a good program before Iraq was invaded called the War Behind Closed Doors. You can watch the entire program in 30-60 minutes intervals:

  • Specially interesting is this page in the Project for the New American Century Statement of Principles where you can see who signed this document. Interesting to note that all of them are either now in the Pentagon (Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Feith, ...etc.), or are aids to Cheney (Libby, Abrams, ...etc.)

  • An overview of who is who in the neocons circle of power.

• Securing cheap oil. That is obvious. Bush's family history in oil makes that an easy one to figure.

• Complete Dad's job. The personal desire of G.W. Bush to continue where his father has left, to finish the job, and do better.

• The Israel Factor. Read the Israel connection, and how Zionism influences US foreign policy. If you take a look at the players in the PNAC above, and you will find them all staunch Zionists, whether Jews or Christians.

• Construction Contracts. The Infrastructure contracts for US corporations to rebuild Iraq is a lucrative business. Of course the Halliburton link has been reported several times (Cheney used to be its manager or director). The defence spending, plus the contracts should fuel the US economy for a while, or that is what they thought would happen.

The planning to invade Iraq was done before September 11, 2001 attacks, as ex-secretary Paul O'Neill has revealed

As many would notice, Bush is not running the show. Bush is the ideal front for such an operation. He thinks he is doing the right thing, and that God has to do something with it. You can see this PBS program The Jesus Factor.

There are two factions grappling for Bush's attention. The moderate pragmatics (Powell, Armitage), and the extremist ideologue (Cheney, his subordinates, Rumsfeld, his subordinates). Powell's position is almost identical to Shimon Peres when he was the Foreign Minister in the Sharon government, a rational pragmatic dove amid the ideologue extremist hawks.

What is funny and sad at the same time, is that the US Foreign policy is now crafted by the Pentagon and the Vice President in accordance with neocon think tanks like the PNAC. No role whatsover is given to the Department of State (where it should really belong), and Powell is merely a messenger (go tell the UN we are doing so and so, try to sell it diplomatically, ...etc.). No wonder Powell has said that he will not seek a second term even if Bush gets reelected (and repeated it a few weeks ago). Not nice thing being in his shoes I guess.

I would not go as far as to say that they intentionally planned and executed the September 11 thing. But the neocons sure did exp

And mistakes cost money too.

And sometimes could cost lives. This is an account of an error in filling the fuel tanks on a passenger jet due to incorrect conversion factors.

we have a law which allows secret investigations and arrests, and prohibits the accused from telling anyone about what's being done to them

I've wondered, when someone receives a "National Security Letter" -- since it's illegal to reveal you've gotten one -- how does the recipient go about getting a lawyer?

"Law Offices."

"Uh, hi, I think I need a lawyer."

"What sort of legal services do you need sir?"

"Uh, I can't say."

"You can't say?"

"No, that's illegal, but I need a lawyer, to help me with this thing I can't talk about. You know, a secret lawyer for secret charges."

This is not the United States of America I learned about in school.

But then neither is sending Canadian Maher Arar to Syria to be tortured, or exposing an undercover CIA agent for petty personal revenge, or setting up secret U.S. prison camps for 10,000, or Military Intelligence encouraging torture in those prisons, or lying about the reasons for going to war.

Wake up -- this is the same administration that ignored warnings of 9/11. Why do we keep rewarding this secretive, authoritarian, and incompetent administration?

Come to Alberta. No PST (still have stupid 7% federal GST), flat 10% provincial income tax. Cost of living is among the lowest in the country. And the government is swimming in petro-dollars. On the downside a lot of Albertans are super-right-wing (by Canadian standards). And our Premier is a jerk (recently caught plagarizing).

It's apparently true that vowels are pronnounced slightly differently. Although Canadians don't actually say "aboot", it gets misheard that way to American ears.

There was an interesting show called "Talking Canadian" that talked about some of these things. It's on Newsworld May 26th.

Hockey Night in Canada need I say more ?

I got lots more interesting links where those came from.

The CBC is a good start. Lots of good material on their website, and a decent Canadian-centric alternative to the BBC for reasonably responsible news. Specifically, check out their Archives; tons of historical and modern TV articles, most with video footage for download.

There's also Canoe and canada.com (which I don't particularly like, so won't make a live link to).