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Jeez, thanks...but I was just working for (1) a paycheck and (2) because water services protect public health. I worked out that each of us "saves two lives for every year we work"...in the sense that if Calgary had the water problems of rural India, they'd lose 2500 citizens a year to waterborne disease, and the utility has just over 1100 employees. If I could evangelize that career choice here, it's a way more unambiguously "good" a job than almost anything.

The "liberty" of Calgarians to not be stuck up with high water prices from a monopoly, was protected by...Calgarians that voted for the public policy of publicly-owned utilities.

Just to reply to the guy that pointed out that private utilities often work, too, I agree; met many such opposite numbers at conferences. Whether to go public or private is a fair question, but I'd counter that the private utilities must be tightly regulated, including regulated profit. And THEN they tend to provide that slanted information on their costs. Calgary spun off its electrical utility as a "separate" company, owned by the City, but separate from all the dead weight of the HR, Finance,and IT internal departments and a lot of other bureaucratic baggage, so they could compete in the new privatized electrical regime the province invented.

A few years later, we were discovering the top five executives there all made more than the City Manager; like four times as much. Just slipped those raises past the governing board with a bunch of double-talk about "market values" until it hit the papers. Suddenly their salaries plunged...and nobody quit. So much for market values. I'd have to suspect crap like that goes on in every private utility.

Ah, here's how that worked out. After the scandal, the mayor cut them by 20%...and now they've pulled them right back up again.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/... ...the City Manager still makes $350K, I think. And the new "EnMax" corporation hasn't saved Calgarians a dime on electrical rates. The free market is not automatically a genius. Incidentally, that whole new privatized electricity regime the Province put in 25 years back, was promptly gamed by a little California company called Enron to rob Albertans of billions and it now has some of the highest electrical costs in Canada. Not saying privatization never works, just saying it cost a lot of money on this try.

I also quite agree with the Danish comment that public utilities are dumb about any service provision more complicated than selling one standard thing. Absolutely. I wouldn't have trusted us to market parkas to Eskimos, we were a bunch of engineers. All I'm talking about the municipality owning and renting out are the wires - or fibres, rather - and perhaps also some very basic standard service. For everything beyond basic connectivity, a rich, diverse marketplace of service providers that can all rent access to the same fibres at a standard set of prices would be encouraged.

All those people buying and living in coastal houses don't seem to believe in climate change I guess. The ocean is rising, yet prices remain sky high for anything near the coast...

It's a matter of time scale. That link in the article about the "Fastest sea rise in at least 2800 years" quotes a rate, since 1993, of 30 centimeters per century.

you know, most people buying beachfront property just aren't worried about the property value a hundred years from now.

That's only SOME. And yes, I do know what's happening - we wanted to take in 25,000 from the Syrian UN camps (a more reasonable move than just letting any old migrant who can bribe their way into the country in), but they simply don't have enough that are ready, so we had to go to camps in Turkey as well. Also, a lot of them aren't ready for the cold weather here - complaining even during a comparative mild spell

Not my fault you hate facts.

Native communities in Northern Saskatchewan are dealing with the problem of caribou herds moving north. Their ranges are no longer within range of hunters from the communities. I theory, the climate change would have probably cause buffalo to move north to replace them, but the buffalo are mostly extinct, now.

http://www.bing.com/search?q=r...
http://tech.slashdot.org/story...
http://thestack.com/root-comma...
http://thestack.com/zyxeltech-...
http://threatpost.com/12-milli...
http://threatpost.com/dns-base...
http://threatpost.com/internet...
http://voices.washingtonpost.c...
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/s...
http://www.dshield.org/diary/+...
http://www.dshield.org/diary/2...
http://www.dshield.org/diary/5...
http://tools.cisco.com/securit...
http://tools.cisco.com/securit...
http://tools.cisco.com/securit...

APK

P.S.=> So much for your faith in routers alone stupid (225 in total, 15 posts with 15 items each)... apk

Reminder mods, just because you like the idiot doesn't mean she isn't a pro-authoritarian pos. This is the idiot in question. And still the idiot in question And still some more idiot in question. All along with the help of this idiot.

my phone likes to die at the most inconvenient times and leaves me out of touch with people.

I don't see how this can possibly be a problem for a functioning adult human. Your phone has a more accurate fuel gauge than your car, and is infinitely easier to refuel when low:

- There are very inexpensive and highly portable USB phone chargers powered by AA batteries, built-in high capacity rechargeable Li-Ion batteries, PV solar panels, hand-cranks, etc, etc.

- Slightly less portable are pocket-sized "travel" chargers that plug into 100v-240v, 50/60Hz utility power. These are convenient if (instead of hunting wild game through the forest) you sit down to eat in a building (that may or may not be called a restaurant) roughly 3 times per day, like most of the rest of people who live in the 1st world. IMPORTANT NOTE: These chargers will work even while you're not eating, such as while you are at home, in a hotel suite, visiting friends, or working in an office.

- And finally closing out the list are 12-24V automotive USB phone chargers, which will quickly replenish your phone's battery while it, and you, are spending time in an automobile, even if you don't happen to own the automobile in question...

Note that all of these options will replenish your phone's battery, and extend its run-time, even while you are using your phone and would otherwise be draining the battery.

With the business I'm starting requiring clients to be able to get ahold me quickly

I'm guessing they don't just enjoy your quick and witty replies... Being able to send them a short e-mail from your pager probably won't keep them happy for long. In most cases, being paged is just a precursor to an important telephone call, which is not going to be possible if your cellphone battery is dead. It may also require a follow-up where you look-up some important notes from your records, or otherwise load some data from the internet. All things your pager won't help you to do, but a fully-charged cellphone likely will.

Actually, I'm finding it hard to believe your quick response is all that important to anyone, if you lack even the rudimentary ability to keep a cellphone charged and operational through the day. This sounds more like a question about a parent keeping track of an irresponsible child.

It's much easier swap out a AA battery once a month

It's much easier to let a horse graze on the side of the road

This is a false-dichotomy, anyhow, as it's clear you want to continue to use your phone. So the pager will be extra work and cost on top of that... absolutely NOT eliminating any effort for you, at all.

do you have a pager? Do you still find it useful?

No. Nobody has a pager, and nobody finds them useful.

"the number of such devices in use has been plummeting each year"

"We are turning down the service because very few people still use it," says Telus spokesman Chris Garretson. "This is thirty-year-old technology — the infrastructure is aging and replacement parts are difficult to get."

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technol...

Which religion has the longer history of slavery? Christianity, since it was founded 600 years before the muslim religion. And who came up with the crusades? And there are plenty of christians out there today who believe they are doing god's will by shooting those they oppose - "no more baby parts".

The guy's a terrorist just as much as any other terrorist. They all say they are doing the will of god.

Between Islam and Christianity, which one voluntarily eliminated slavery from its midst first, then enforced that elimination on the rest of the world as best it could?

I bet you won't answer that one, just as you have yet to answer how many people died at Charlie Hebdo nor how many people have already been killed because of the Muhammad cartoons.

Which religion has the longer history of slavery? Christianity, since it was founded 600 years before the muslim religion. And who came up with the crusades? And there are plenty of christians out there today who believe they are doing god's will by shooting those they oppose - "no more baby parts".

The guy's a terrorist just as much as any other terrorist. They all say they are doing the will of god.

I believe they lost in court, heres the main story but couldn't find conclusion easily.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technol...

Or this, which is Jim Balsillie (one of the BlackBerry co-founder who is a billionaire) spelling out why this treaty is a terrible idea (for Canada at least).

The TPP is selling the fucking farm for some magic beans. It's basically the US allowing corporations to set international policy for their own benefit.

This is only beneficial to the corporations who paid for it, and the politicians and lobbyists on the payroll to fucking deliver it. It offers pretty much no benefit to the citizens of those countries.

Your best bet is to consider all available evidence. Deniers would like to ignore the record warming that we're measuring on the surface in favour of the tropospheric temperatures obtained by the satellites... but not the UAH satellite data set because that shows rapid warming too. And not the tropospheric measurements obtained by RATPAC because they show rapid warming too. They would prefer you look only at the RSS data set. That is pure as the driven snow.

Regarding ocean warming... We've accumulated 150 zetajoules of warming in the oceans over the last 18 years. It took over 130 years prior to accumulate the same amount. The rate of increase is now the equivalent of 4 nuclear bombs per second. It's not the amount that should worry us though as much as the acceleration. - http://www.cbc.ca/news/technol...

The problem is from large corporations down to "artisan" fishermen were under-reporting their catch by 50%

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technol...

So you shut down 30% of the boats and the remaining boats increase their catch.

This industry needs regulation across all nations and more importantly, enforcement, or there will be no fish for anybody.

I agree to an extent that it seems we are often reticent to address the actions of individuals in a group for fear of being called "biased" (racist, sexist, etc) against that group. Certainly that seems to often be the case where police are involved, as any mistake my the authorities is amplified over the conduct of the individuals they are dealing with. That said, there's a reason that things like warrant-less searches, unreasonable detention, etc have traditionally been grounds for dismissing cases, so we also need to consider that one of the reason we focus on the activities of our authorities is that we WANT to hold them to a higher standard.

But beyond all that, perhaps this article from Canada might surprise you. It did surprise me in that they are willing to identify - with photos - people who were behaving suspicous in a mall *and* that they looked "middle eastern."
Now despite the naysayers, it's the latter part that is really unusual. It's not actual that untoward for authorities to be concerned with a group that is taking unusual interest in non-photogenic egress/security points of a public space. The more common concern is criminals potentially "casing" an area for security, a quick exit, and entrance points for the authorities prior to a robbery etc. The middle eastern bend makes it likely that the primary concern in this case is terrorism rather than theft.

So, America should just follow Canada and do whatever it does? Where did that idea even come from?

What do people say when Canada slavishly follows America? "Screw those foreigners, they have nothing to do with us, we will make our own decisions, and if those foreigners think we've made the wrong decision, then they can go screw themselves." What an interesting sentiment indeed.

Hey hey, be nice, the national niceness datamining results for Slashdot have not yet been released. The US may yet have a f*~&ng chance against those *&)@# Canuks! -- Oh $(*#, Damn!

If only his evil genius had been used for niceness. -- Maxwell Smart

in the name of patriotism

I wonder, does Obama mean with "patriotism" spying on abroad companies to give their US competitors a benefit? How Trump of him.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/e...

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-...

http://www.telesurtv.net/engli...

Quirks and Quarks did a podcast very recently about this technology and its application on a particular strain of MD. This work was done (by Dr. Ronald Cohn from the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto) on living cells however, not live mammals. The podcast does go into a high level and easily understood description of how the technology works. Fascinating stuff.

In case you haven't seen it yet: See Comet Catalina tomorrow morning before dawn

I'd post this as a story but it would probably go front-page on the 2nd.

Actually, comet Catalina is expected to be brightest next week, when it is closest to Earth. And it could have a gas outburst at any time, which will make it much brighter no matter when that occurs.

In case you haven't seen it yet: See Comet Catalina tomorrow morning before dawn

I'd post this as a story but it would probably go front-page on the 2nd.

http://tech.slashdot.org/story...
http://thestack.com/root-comma...
http://thestack.com/zyxeltech-...
http://threatpost.com/12-milli...
http://threatpost.com/dns-base...
http://threatpost.com/internet...
http://tools.cisco.com/securit...
http://tools.cisco.com/securit...
http://tools.cisco.com/securit...
http://voices.washingtonpost.c...
http://www.bing.com/search?q=r...
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/s...
http://www.dshield.org/diary/+...
http://www.dshield.org/diary/2...
http://www.dshield.org/diary/5...

APK

P.S.=> So much for your faith in routers alone stupid (225 in total, 15 posts with 15 items each)... apk

The best for the year according to the data I had(it rolls over every 2mo), was 15 consecutive days of sunlight totaling 288.9kWh of generated power. But you are right on the fall bit, and yeah here in Ontario they shut down the coal plants and the price of electricity at the consumer level went from 3-5c/kWh to 7-14c/kWh and it's still climbing. Of course they also went to build a gas plant, and it was found that the data relating to it was deleted and two members of the current government were directly involved, one being the former premier's chief of staff. Could be interesting on that one, because in Canada they could be looking at 20 years in prison and the investigation still isn't done.

Umm...cancer typically isn't the result of incompetence. In act, 65% of the time it's completely by chance, meaning no action you took caused it, you just got unlucky. Leprosy isn't necessarily either, in fact it can spread by somebody coughing into their hand, touching a doorknob, and you coming up later and touching that same doorknob without ever seeing that person.

Furthermore, fulfilling an economic need isn't trading on someone else's misfortune. If it was, then restaurants would be trading on someones misfortune of being hungry.

This isn't the first time it's happened in the last couple of months either. Quebec had 71 schools threatened with bomb threats and shootings in November a few weeks prior to that several schools in Ottawa were threatened as well. It almost seems like someone/group is doing this because they know that people will overreact, and of course if something did happen people would be screaming bloody murder because they didn't overreact.

Well... If they are clever enough to breathe: I have a product I'd like to sell them.

http://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecur...

Bottles of Canadian Air, at the bargain price of $10 a bottle. It's a steal of a deal, and just in time for Christmas.

If you think that's bad, here in Canada we already have one-hour shows that are only 22-minutes long.

A few....

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technol...

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/windo...

Much the same thing is also being said in Canada.

That is true, but stupid people often think that anyone wearing a turban is Islamic. Seriously.

As a side note, It's interesting to see that Gamergate's war against "corruption in the games media" now extends to fabricating evidence to slander their critics. I guess Gamergaters really are dedicated to showing us all who the truly dishonest people are...

These muslim "activists" pull this shit all the time to get people to be sympathetic to them. It's a tactic they stole from the Jews. Take a look at this story. Paints the whole "I'm just an innocent immigrant who was treated poorly for no reason, boo hoo" picture, then you find out the woman and her husband are activists and affiliated with the muslim brotherhood. Calls the validity of the entire story into question. Was it embellished? Was it provoked? Did it even happen at all?

This isn't the first time, and it won't be the last. Any time one of these stories comes up, people need to do a bit of digging instead of just buying into the lies and propaganda.

Similar issues in Canada, where - so long as ingredients are mentioned in some book somewhere - you can make a natural remedy and have it on the shelves regardless of whether it really works or not.

Ahh, the old Gish Gallop> , eh? Never gets old, that one.

I'll just leave this here. Your sea ice claims are well wrong.

so benefits to the school were indirect: they weren't collecting tuition for the kids' work with us.

Did you ask them if they were paying tuition at the same time? Interns ae afraid to speak out because they don't want to be blackballed, but it's quite common..

Try going outside. You appear to be in a condo in Vancouver. You may be on heroin.

It's been so cold in Canada in the last three years we've broken dozens if not hundreds of cold record temperature records:

http://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/febru...

We've not broken one for warm/hot, just record cold.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

"Environment Canada has released its list of top weather stories over the past year, and the long winter chill took top spot."

The Great Lakes attained 92 per cent ice coverage for the first time in 35 years, sea ice was back on the East Coast and ice in the Gulf of St. Lawrence was its thickest in 25 years."

Frost in late may/early June? Welcome to Canada, eh?

http://www.quintenews.com/2015...

Niagra falls has frozen about 7 times in 200 years. Last year and the year before were two of those times.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new...

Plus, you know, the Arctic sea ice has grown so much - because it's unseasonabley cold and hs been for a decade according to the NOAA - that we have to redraw the maps becvause of eht INCREASE IN ARCTIC SEA ICE. There's more of it now than when "global warming" started.

I'd have to say, as a Canadian living in Canada you don't see a lot of global warming here. More like the next ice age.

One scientist who predicted this in 2008 had his work vetted by CERN and NASA and botttom line: 27 more years of this cold then it'll warm again.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technol...

Look at the number of temperature records set for cold and hot worldwide. I believe that explains why they're so desperate to prove a hot climate record. It's because they keep trying to prove one, keep being corrected when it's pointed out it's not really a record in a field of so many cold weather records.

Can't say there's any sign of warming in Canada. The current Indian Summer, a first in a decade is not a sign the planet is warming, Sparky.

Try going outside. You appear to be in a condo in Vancouver. You may be on heroin.

It's been so cold in Canada in the last three years we've broken dozens if not hundreds of cold record temperature records:

http://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/febru...

We've not broken one for warm/hot, just record cold.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

"Environment Canada has released its list of top weather stories over the past year, and the long winter chill took top spot."

The Great Lakes attained 92 per cent ice coverage for the first time in 35 years, sea ice was back on the East Coast and ice in the Gulf of St. Lawrence was its thickest in 25 years."

Frost in late may/early June? Welcome to Canada, eh?

http://www.quintenews.com/2015...

Niagra falls has frozen about 7 times in 200 years. Last year and the year before were two of those times.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new...

Plus, you know, the Arctic sea ice has grown so much - because it's unseasonabley cold and hs been for a decade according to the NOAA - that we have to redraw the maps becvause of eht INCREASE IN ARCTIC SEA ICE. There's more of it now than when "global warming" started.

I'd have to say, as a Canadian living in Canada you don't see a lot of global warming here. More like the next ice age.

One scientist who predicted this in 2008 had his work vetted by CERN and NASA and botttom line: 27 more years of this cold then it'll warm again.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technol...

Look at the number of temperature records set for cold and hot worldwide. I believe that explains why they're so desperate to prove a hot climate record. It's because they keep trying to prove one, keep being corrected when it's pointed out it's not really a record in a field of so many cold weather records.

Can't say there's any sign of warming in Canada. The current Indian Summer, a first in a decade is not a sign the planet is warming, Sparky.

I'm a Canadian and I call BS.

First off, Canada doesn't have an H1-B program. We have the Temporary Foreign Worker Program.

If you had watched the news, you would have known about RBC bringing in workers to replace Canadian IT workers under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program. They only backed down - this time - because of all the negative publicity exposing the illegal practice in this one instance.

Dozens of employees at Canada’s largest bank are losing their jobs to temporary foreign workers, who are in Canada to take over the work of their department.

"They are being brought in from India, and I am wondering how they got work visas," said Dave Moreau, one of the employees affected by the move. "The new people are in our offices and we are training them to do our jobs. That adds insult to injury."

When you write: "WHERE in the hell are all the unemployed, competent, software developers this would create? Their absence is suspicious - they just don't seem to be out there", maybe it's because after decades of BS working for smug, self-satisfied people who don't even know what's going on around them, who can't even tell the difference between Canada and the US, we get completely out of the field. Change career paths. Retire. Whatever. Any way we can to give a big F*CK YOU to the people "managing" the industry, because what goes around eventually comes around, and it's their turn.

This problem has been going on for years in Canada.

And if you're getting people who think that knowing Dreamweaver and Photoshop makes them qualified, then you (or your HR department) obviously have a problem spelling out minimum requirements, or the recruiting companies you deal with are just sh*t monkeys throwing sh*t at the wall and hoping some of it sticks. Either way, the problem is on your end of the line.

This is not minor news. This was a major news item when the long-form was made optional, and it's been a plank of the Liberal platform to reinstate it.

Statistics Canada is a point of pride in Canada, albeit minor. That organization has been referenced internationally as an example of how to collect and provide information for detailed governance. When the long-form was made optional, the Harper government came out and said that an optional long-form would be nearly statistically identical in results, yet provide privacy to those who wish it. The head of statscan resigned over this.

See: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

So yeah, bringing it back is pretty recognized here.

Oh, don't worry, I'm sure Big Energy will just sue under some "free-trade" treaty agreement to get their way, regardless.

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau vowed that the upcoming general election will be the last one using the first-past-the-post voting system.

He promised he'd scrap the F-35 program and instead invest the money in our navy, which is in shambles.

A memory aid dog. An acquaintance of my brother has a brain injury, and he uses (and actually trains) dogs to help him around. Might not be practical in an assisted living situation though. Read more about him here. https://www.psychologytoday.co... http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

It might have been a joke in reference to an ex-science teacher running for the Conservatives in the Canadian election that says the ground will absorb oil spills.

From the article at CBC:
"Oil is a natural substance. So spilling into the environment, the land will absorb it, 'cause that's what oil is," she said during an interview with CPAC (Cable Public Affairs Channel).

Oh wait, some in the highest levels of government have been portraying Assange's "actions" (aka journalism, somewhat sloppy journalism but journalism all the same) as "aiding our enemies (terrorists)". Congressman Peter King stated that Wikileaks should be designated as a terrorist organization. Others have suggested he should "vanish", still others have said he should be prosecuted for espionage, material support of terrorism, aiding the enemy or a number of other charges.

http://www.washingtontimes.com...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new...
http://www.theguardian.com/med...
http://www.theatlantic.com/int...
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politic...

A better solution would be for journalists to stop treating hashtags like they deserves the same coverage as some kind of nuclear war. I'm seriously disgusted at the number of articles on sites like the CBC where entire articles are nothing but a series of cherry picked out-of-context tweets with the journalists giving you their play by play misrepresentation of what EVERYONE is saying.

Holy shit, I remember back when Lauren O'Neil did her hit piece on GamerGate and wrote that awful #StopGamerGate2014 article. I went and looked at the tag and 40% of it was GamerGate people making fun of it, 50% was a stupid bot repeating ISIS propaganda over and over and then there was a few people in between treating it like it was a serious thing. Lauren took the few people of the THOUSANDS of tweets in it and treated it like the entire internet was anti-GamerGate in spite of most of the non-botted content coming from actual GamerGate supporters. Their hash tag lasted all of a day, but it didn't stop her from propping up her bull shit analysis and making a big deal out of less than a mosquito of an issue.

Although it is a little funny now, I can't read an article without seeing a tweet from someone I know as a GamerGate supporter.

A large part of the cost of housing in the US these days is due to codes. Yes, that is a big drain on the economy and a big obstacle to housing affordability.

You said it. If only big government would let people who clearly know what they are doing take care of hooking up their own gas lines, stop having so-called inspectors shut down private homes because they "smell funny", not harass honest builders over which materials they use in construction, and allow small busineses to take care of maintenance on their own, then life would be much better.

Think of all the money that could be saved!

Actually, in some countries/states/provinces, there are laws that protect AND also can prosecute engineers who are guilty of such offenses. For example, here in Canada, to use the term engineer, means a professional engineer (a P. Eng). It's a protected professional designation bound by various laws and regulations. A large portion of the profession is ethics and the legal requirement to whistle-blow, REGARDLESS of who pays your salary. If you want proof of this, and why this is a good thing, here is an example:

In Ontario, Canada, there was a mechanical or structural engineer (can't remember which) who signed off that a mall parking garage (was built on the roof of the mall, oddly), was in fact structurally safe. Even though there was numerous concerns by tenants and visitors about the safety of the structure, weeks after the engineers last 'pass' inspection, the roof collapsed killing two people. (see story: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...).

The gist is, the engineer knew there was deficiencies and signed off on it anyway. Needless to say, he is facing criminal charges, and likely has had his licence revoked, and his career is over! If you are an engineer in Canada, you can't pull the 'my boss told me to' excuse. I know this because my father worked 35+ years as a licensed electrical engineer in Canada. You tend to pick up on things like this growing up. However, I can't speak about engineering in other countries but I would hope this is the case in the US.

But there is an interesting twist to this line of thought: if individual companies become, in effect, their own nation states, should we require that they are run more like nations - with all it entails, including citizenship, democracy, social security, infrastructure paid for by themselves etc?

Interesting concept - reminds me a bit of zaibatsu and keiretsu.

And, if the difference between nations and businesses become ever smaller, why is it actually that nations are not allowed to compete in the market like businesses do? In the past, the argument was that the state would have an unfair advantage over national businesses both because of their size and the fact that they decide the laws etc, but if that national laws are now powerless against transnationals, there is no longer a good reason for states not to compete with business.

I think this would lead to a scenario wherein states and businesses would become more and more indistinguishable until there was no practical difference between them. And that would be a bad thing. A state's first priority, (and really its only priority), should be to look after its citizens. If a state becomes profit driven and is run like a business, bean counters will nix programs like welfare, because spending profits on taking care of the disenfranchised will piss off shareholders. CEO's or their equivalents will want to stifle dissent and get rid of anyone who publicly disagrees with the official corporate line. But how does one 'fire' a citizen? Execution or internment, perhaps?

Here in Canada we already have a Prime Minister who is only too happy to muzzle government scientists to stop them from sharing scientific results and conclusions with the public. ( http://www.cbc.ca/news/technol... ). I shudder to think of Stephen Harper as the CEO of "Canada Inc."

It reminds of the GM ignition switch problem: http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/faulty-gm-ignition-switch-linked-to-2nd-crash-death-in-canada-1.2807904

GM was aware of the problem since 2005 and did nothing to correct the issue. It got many people killed as a result. It is hard to believe that VW is getting so much shit for this. GM got away with murder.

Plain out-and-out racism and denying this kid his civil rights.

You have specific evidence that he was singled out because of his race? Or is that your own bias showing?

If so, why then so much less outrage & support for the kid who pointed a chicken finger at another student, or the pop-tart gun kid, or the kid who wrote a story about shooting a dinosaur? I don't think any of them got invited to the White House.

Well, chicken finger kid got a suspension and sent home for the day. Pop-tart kid got a suspension. Only the Dinosaur Hunter (who interesting, is also the only other teenager on this list) got arrested. And Dinosaur Hunter (in theory) actually *did* talk about guns in school.

So for why, I'd give a couple reasons:

Clock Kid didn't even *do* the thing he's accused of. Which moves us up a rung from "massive over-reaction" to "teachers and cops are just making shit up".

There's some escalating reaction from the community as things just get dumber. Dinosaur Hunter's article even references PopTart. So, every time we hear about this sort of stupidity, you get just a bit *more* angry - which we should, because it gets harder to write it off as "oh, just an isolated incident / overzealous teacher".

To be a bit cynical and flippant for a moment, Dinosaur Guy was doing a creative writing exercise, and no-body cares about liberal arts in America. Meanwhile, Clock Kid may be a case of chasing away a potential STEM graduate (you know, future of the nation, shortage in the country, etc etc).

Also, he's getting a lot of attention from geeks who are watching this and thanking our lucky stars that we didn't grow up in this period. Half the stuff the teachers had us do in school in the 90s would get us arrested these days, I'd think.

This discussion is playing out in Canada as well . The Liberals have vowed to cancel the F-35 if they win the election

Plain out-and-out racism and denying this kid his civil rights.

You have specific evidence that he was singled out because of his race? Or is that your own bias showing?

If so, why then so much less outrage & support for the kid who pointed a chicken finger at another student, or the pop-tart gun kid, or the kid who wrote a story about shooting a dinosaur? I don't think any of them got invited to the White House.