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Rats did not live there (and mostly still don't)

Hahahah yea, sure they don't.

There are rats on Antarctica, someone in Iceland is just living in denial.

Where people go, rats and roaches go.

Just for your information, there are no rats in Alberta. That may be a good place to go if bubonic plague breaks out again.

-Gareth

They're hooked into the albertan supernet.
http://www.servicealberta.gov.ab.ca/1561.cfm
I'd like to know more about their infrastructure, but they don't seem to be the sharing type.

The infrastructure would be a massive undertaking

Over short distances, cantennas or RONJA. Over long distances, see http://www.servicealberta.gov.ab.ca/AlbertaSuperNet.cfm for a successful public utility rollout. We are just about to the point of abandoning the need for tons of copper, or at least for small networks.

decisions about whether to reuse old protocols or create new ones would have to be decided

The beautiful thing about open standards developed by hacker types is that they 1) do what works and 2) fully explain their standard so that other people can communicate with them. The individuals on the networks could decide what they wanted to use. We don't need the ISO, they're just handy experts to rubberstamp de facto into de jure.

hardware support would need to be dealt with

The beautiful thing about open standards developed by hacker types, etc. What hardware support? It's networking. We've been solving this problem for decades. Laser light, radio antennas made from woks or coffee cans, LEDs, they all terminate in an RJ-45 jack. What's the problem?

And at some point, because it's bound to happen, some government(s) are going to want to step in and ruin the work all over again.

More open networks are harder for governments to exploit. All technologies are disruptive, then interesting, then adopted. See Hollywood, radio, and the internet. Yes, eventually an interesting, open, robust, and free peer-to-peer networking solution built by hackers will be taken over by idiots and politicians. But, see, the advantage to being clever hacker types that develop open standards is that it takes us a comparatively insignificant effort to jump to the next, non-exploited, unoccupied technological space that the government/corporations aren't even aware of yet. Yes, sure, in 20 years (or 2), our beautiful new network will be infested with FBI agents posing as little boys and senators looking to write reelection laws. Who cares? We'll be busy establishing interplanetary links built from technologies that don't exist yet and communicating with standards that have been around forever or were developed by a 14-year-old savant who got sick of his mom/government being able to track his network access.

The future isn't perfect, but it's not built by big fat slow organizations that run on power and influence. It's built by nerds with clever ideas and freedom to explore them. By the time the dinosaurs catch up, it's not the future anymore anyway.

Alberta built something called the SuperNet, a moderately high-speed network utility owned by the province and built with the express purpose of connecting public institutions and rural areas. http://www.servicealberta.gov.ab.ca/AlbertaSuperNet.cfm So it can be done. If one were to combine this network with regional darknets or whatever, we would have, in Alberta, a public utility connecting people who shared information, with little or no corporate involvement.

3, 4 and 5 are doing OK.

Oil Sands:

http://www.energy.gov.ab.ca/OurBusiness/oilsands.asp

(not a huge amount of output, but it has every appearance of being 'viable', it just isn't productive enough to satisfy demand so much that prices actually drop)

Roomba is a hit.

There are vaccines for the common cold. They aren't perfect, but they are either well marketed enough or effective enough that millions of people get them. If it's the marketing, they are vaporware, if they work, they aren't.

perhaps we should produce our own power and fuel domestically rather than rely on fickle foreign sources. In the past, this hasn't been a strong enough inducement, but with Opec restricting production to drive up price, we might be reconsidering that position.

Saudi is now promoting it's own oil as being more "cost-effective" than the Canadian oil that is poised to come into the US market over the next few years.

Map, (warning, large PDF) of producing, under-construction and planned heavy oil facilities in Alberta. Many of the "producing" facilities are in Phase 1 (low capacity pilot plants) or 2, with output being doubled, tripled or quadrupled via additional phases.

Oh I get it, I just happen to see profit differently than you do. I see anything that makes the average Canadian have a better quality of life as profit and the high dollar does that.

What you seem to miss is that the dollar is high because the economy is strong; if that changes so will the dollar.

And before I address any of your other points individually, how would any of your concerns be different if the dollar was weak? Would we be taking less oil out of the ground if it were cheaper to do so? No, of course not.

If we continue to lean on a low dollar between now and then, when it happens we'll have nothing left going for us except the exchange rate. If the government manipulates the dollar to push it down to say .80US for the next twenty years, then expect the news headlines in 2032 to read Cdn$ on par with Peso.

If one is to presume, as you do that the dollar is high only for a short time, then it is the best thing that could have happenned to us. The reason Canada does far less manufacturing than the US is that while the US has been able to take advantage of newer technologies to keep its manufacturing competive(relative to us); Canada's manufacturing has had the worst of both worlds; more expensive than a third world country, but less advanced/efficient than a first. Having industries subsidized by a low dollar does not create strength, it creates a dependency on said dollar.

And thirty years of a low dollar did not solve that problem, so how would thirty-one years solve it?

I have no idea. I have never been part of the forestry industry nor followed it closely. How much do you think, and based on hearsay or can you actually link to some numbers?

Hint, oilsands is an ugly, ugly business. Don't count on the ugly pictures to get your reserve estimates. According to the Alberta Energy website aproximately 2% of the oilsands have been extracted to date. There is an estimated 174 billion barrels in the oilsands alone; there is more oil under Canada than any other country in the world except Saudi Arabia. The oil won't last forever, but don't act like we're going to run out any time soon. (or to put it in your term, we'll be raping it for at least the next 30 years)

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athabasca_Oil_Sands
• http://www.energy.gov.ab.ca/OurBusiness/oilsands.asp
• http://www.rense.com/general37/petrol.htm

I love the foreign ownership debate, mostly because its a load of crap. If its true that companies with foreign holdings are ripping off the countries they are doing business, just plundering and taking all the loot home, then we're in great shape; Canadian companies have greater foreign holdings than foreign companies have in Canada. (I however, tend to think its largely irrellevant to the local economy who owns the company)

They are as follows:

Television (18" and smaller) $15.00
Television (19"- 29") $25.00
Television (30" - 45") $30.00
Television (46" and larger) $45.00
CPUs (including mouse, keyboard, cables, speakers.) $10.00 (basically, $10 for your entire computer)
Printers/printer combos $8.00
Laptops/electronic notebooks $5.00
Computer monitors $12.00

http://www3.gov.ab.ca/env/waste/ewaste/index.html

And if it means all these electronics are going to be recycled/reused in a more efficient manner, I have no problems with theses fees. It's better than my broken 50" TV or desktop computer getting buried in the earth. Most of the fees are incidental compared to the total purchase price of the goods anyways.

Hemp isn't used for paper in China, where I reside, either. Hemp is not cultivated as anything more than a niche item in any country, even though the 1937 law you mentioned only affected the US.

Ne how, You're right hemp is basically only used in niche markets now. However prior to the 1937 act it was widely cultivated in the USA. Thomas Jefferson along with other Founding Fathers of the USA grew it on their farms. TJ even wrote the Declaration Of Independence on paper made from hemp. At one tyme he wrote farmers should be required to grow hemp, he couldn't follow through with proposing such a law though because he knew it would interfer with their rights.

As for other countries, Canada is working on being a big exporter of hemp or hemp products, headed by Alberta. Romania is a big grower and exporter of hemp, and in Europe governments subsidize hemp farmers. Audubon Magazine says it's grown in 32 countries and asks why isn't it legal in the US.

In the US the reason told to the public hemp is be made illegal is that it was called the devil's weed and it made people violent, take a look at "Reefer Madness" which depicts marijuana users as violent and going "mad". However other countries like the Soviet Union made it illegal because, as every study I have ever heard of confirms, marijuana does the opposite. It calms people down and makes them lethargic, "chill babe" or "chill dude". The SU couldn't have it's military unwilling to fight in battle.

Yes, but if you did the same in Canada you and/or your doctor could be arrested for it. If somebody offered private insurance in Canada they would definitely be punished. If the system works so well, then why make it illegal not to use it?

Umm... it's not illegal, dumbass. As an example, private health clinics deliver a variety of services in Alberta.

See, apparently what you don't understand is that the Canada Health Act makes it illegal to *not* provide coverage to all Canadian citizens. However, that does not preclude private, for-profit clinics from existing.

What's dell going to do, have people ship them old computers? Ya, that'll be real cheap.

This is one of those places where you should tax something and have the government provide the service. There are definitely going to be economies of scale.

The Province of Alberta (Canada) already has a program where there is a small fee when you buy a computer and then they recycle old computers for free. You just take the computer to a local depot:

http://www3.gov.ab.ca/env/waste/ewaste/index.html

The rights to the information I search may not be mine to give to Google... Anyhow in following legislation it doesn't matter how information is gathered.

Anyhow the law here is simpler. The law I am interested in particular does not make it illegal to collect the personal information. I may have even given it freely. However I can request all the information they have on me to see what they are doing with it. There are limits to how they can share it as well.

for reference...
http://www.pipa.gov.ab.ca/index.cfm?page=legislati on/act/index.html

but for the good stuff...
5(1) An organization is responsible for personal information that is in its custody or under its control.
(5) In meeting its responsibilities under this Act, an organization must act in a reasonable manner.

Division 4: Use of Personal Information

16. Limitations on use
16(1) An organization may use personal information only for purposes that are reasonable.

(2) Where an organization uses personal information, it may do so only to the extent that is reasonable for meeting the purposes for which the information is used. ....
But whats cooler is we can ask....
  The applicant may ask for a copy of the record, or ask to examine the record, that contains personal information about the applicant.

Section 11: Limitations on collection
  11(1) An organization may collect personal information only for purposes that are reasonable.

(2) Where an organization collects personal information, it may do so only to the extent that is reasonable for meeting the purposes for which the information is collected.

This is not unreasonable. So if they happen to information in Alberta they can not just do with it as they please.

Anyhow google can choose not to collect information here or comply with the act and requests made under it. Yeah every now and then governments protect peoples privacy... For all my stupidity and spelling mistakes I do get the odd moment of perspective.

You can check out the Alberta Wage and Salary Survey at http://www.alis.gov.ab.ca/wageinfo/Content/Request Action.asp?format=html&aspAction=GetWageHomePage&P age=Home

It's from 2005, and it's not as useful if don't live in Alberta, but might be handy if you threaten to move to Calgary if you don't get $X...

And it seems to be working... we've got a pretty good eRecycling program going here.
http://www3.gov.ab.ca/env/waste/ewaste/faq.html

The TI-92 is allowed by the University of Alberta Faculty of Engineering and for Diploma Exams by the government of Alberta.

http://www.edc.gov.ab.ca/k_12/testing/diploma/dip_ gib/08_Calculator_Policy_&_Writing_on_Computers_Po licy.pdf

http://www.engineering.ualberta.ca/calculator.cfm# approved

Goddamn I need to learn HTML if I'm going to post more often.
The link is
http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.n sf/all/acts4705?opendocument
Cut and paste until I learn.
A nice simple online guide reference would be nice if any one knows one.

I'm not saying that the Alberta fields won't become extremely important in the long run -- but we've a long way to go before they produce anything close to the current oil production from traditional sources.

It's called the Fair Trading Act. What section(s) are you referring to?

I know that I will be demanding from Bell every month to delete all personally identifiable information that is not required to do business. Please read for yourself: http://www.qp.gov.ab.ca/documents/acts/F25.cfm

I firmly believe that the rise we are currently seeing is indeed the start of an accelerating trend. One that human activity has very little impact on, or if any, has been slowing the rise thus far by emitting clouds of smoke thus keeping temperatures artificially low. Now that we are cleaning up our soot emissions the CO2, and natural process that drive the climate, are regaining their direction. As you noted, we are woefully unprepared for such an event. I would say that we desperately need to start preparing, clearing the low lying areas, etc., but I'm realist enough to know that there is no feasable way to get the huge fraction of the human race that lives on coast lines to change their residence prior to a devastating catastrophy.

As to your comments about peak oil, read the literature more closely and in depth. Yes, oil execs and employees have started falling all over themselves to validate peak oil theories, but apparently, only because they suddenly realized that the peak oil nuts were their best friends. If the oil monopoly (removing Hussein took out the major producer who was not part of the Saudi, Kuwait, Exxon, Shell, Chevron cartel. Russia was broken up to let the cartel take over production there, next in line is Chavez in Venzuela) can convince the world that we have reached peak oil production then they have an indisputable excuse for maintaining higher prices and vastly higher profits. The peak oil advocates love to point out that oil production is down worldwide in recent years. but isn't it interesting that in fact it is down by almost the same percentage at every cartel field world wide. These fields are not connected and shouldn't be suddenly linked in their very close decreases in output capacity. Especially since peak oil states that we can not increase production, not that it will decrease and everyone, including the peak oil fanatics, is very quick to reassure their investors that they have plenty of in ground reserves for X number of years. I propose that this is evidence of global collaboration to set and maintain a specific level of output, regardless of the capacity that could be acheived if it were maximized. In fact, if you research the geophysical scientific papers on new sources and increasing recovery from old sources or souces that were previously inaccessible, you find that not only is there more oil available and accesible today than there ever has been before, but there is far more oil than than we have ever used combined. I would post links to these, but strangely all of the pages I had bookmarked over the last 10 years have disappeared or been replaced by peak oil pages. However, you can find some clue in the investment brochures and independent scientific reports. Now undoubtably these new sources and recovery techniques will cost more, so we have seen the last of cheap oil, monopoly or not.

I became interested in the science and economics of this because of my family's oil wells in west Oklahoma. In the late 60's and early 70's, during U.S. peak production, our 16 wells were producing approx. $200,000 in royalties per month. By the late 80's they were producing about $13,000 per quarter. Basically the oil company explained that, at that time, it cost $32 per barrel to produce from Oklahoma wells, and $6 per barrel to import from the middle east. So all of the wells were placed in maintenance mode, which is basically just enough pumped to lubricate the mechanicals, and at that rate the holding tanks were only emptied once per quarter, instead of weekly or twice weekly. When my mom sold th

As of the '04 census:
Edmonton, AB 666,104
Red Deer, AB 75,923
Calgary, AB 933,495
Source: http://www.municipalaffairs.gov.ab.ca/ms/pdf/2004P op.pdf

The 2001 census (back to Wikipedia article now) recorded 30,007,094 in Canada.

Quick math shows those cities come out to be about 5.5% of the population.

Alberta is pretty damn empty compared to Southern Ontario/Quebec/BC. The cities you mentioned are not the norm.

Quick searching only found a 1976 version, but here's a population distribution map of Canada. Pay special attention to the Southern Ontario/Quebec region: http://atlas.gc.ca/site/english/maps/archives/5the dition/peopleandsociety/population/mcr4064

From this link a good average differential between a processor at load and idle is 40W. If you turn the computer off instead, that's maybe 80W. (Broad average over many computers).

Now Here we see that 2million years of computing time has been used, so (times 40W/hr) that comes to 700,000MWHr.

No the 2000 U.S. consumption of energy was ~21 billion MWHr. (Here, and trust the government to use quadrillions of BTUs as a unit). So to date, SETI has used 0.003% of U.S. annual energy consumption. And that's almost enough energy to power the City of Red Deer, Alberta for 17 months! Someone else can tell us how many libraries of congress you could have read with that much light.

Feel free to check my units and zeros, I've been wrong before, as long as someone can tell the Brits what a quadrillion is.

Duh! It's because of our Alberta's FOIP law. Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. You can't collect any personally identifiable information without a) letting the person know, b) for legimit legal/lifesaving reasons, and c) plain and simple: it's against the law. Plain and simple.

Check out the law here..

From the FAQ on the law...
Your employer can collect personal information that relates directly to and is necessary for an operating program or activity, as well as any information they are authorized by other legislation to collect (section 33).

Under the FOIP Act, your employer must tell you what authority they have to collect this information, and how it will be used (section 34(2)).
Normally, your employer must collect personal information directly from you. However, section 34 of the Act allows for information to be collected indirectly in some cases, for example, to determine whether you are eligible for a program, benefit, honour or award, or for the purpose of collecting a debt owed to the public body.

Guess this is really a moot point. Keylogging, if done discretely, and is without merit other than to spy on activities or productivity, is illegal. Plain and simple.

In Alberta today there is now nothing to stop an immoral parent from forcing his or her kids to take jobs (and telling them to fake "wanting" it, or risk being beaten) and then taking their money.

Alberta has no Family Child Services offices?

Funny, I wonder who made this webpage then?

Steps:

Children's Help Phone -> Police at door of child's home -> Child in foster care (safer than the parents you are talking about) -> Parents in jail.

Not too complicated really.

Either that or a rat free government policty.

Leave it to a bunch of red-necks to come up with a poster that says "Kill Rats at Sight!"

btw try the "rat quizes." My favorite question and answer is:

9. Why do we control rats?
a) because they are ugly
b) because they spread disease
c) because they taste bad

Heh.

btw you can mod me off-topic. But if new-zealanders were a bunch of oil happy gun toting beer drinking rat haters they'd never have lost their precious precious pornography.

Also of note is the fact that the Alberta government estimates saving over 1 billion dollars since the institution of the rat control policy. 1 Billion!

I'm pretty much a non-violent pacifist and all that, but seriously... kill the rats!!

Either that or a rat free government policty.

Leave it to a bunch of red-necks to come up with a poster that says "Kill Rats at Sight!"

btw try the "rat quizes." My favorite question and answer is:

9. Why do we control rats?
a) because they are ugly
b) because they spread disease
c) because they taste bad

Heh.

btw you can mod me off-topic. But if new-zealanders were a bunch of oil happy gun toting beer drinking rat haters they'd never have lost their precious precious pornography.

Also of note is the fact that the Alberta government estimates saving over 1 billion dollars since the institution of the rat control policy. 1 Billion!

I'm pretty much a non-violent pacifist and all that, but seriously... kill the rats!!

It is interesting to see this post, as tomorrow is the one year anniversary of a local political scandal involving the Google usenet archive, a popular Canadian political blogger, and a young hopeful running for office in the Province of Alberta's legislature. Essentially, the blogger, a certain National Post collumnist Colby Cosh, posted a link to anti-semetic comments that a New Democratic Party candidate, Malcolm Azania, made in a newsgroup 10 years previously. In the end, Azania came in third in his riding.

Huh, no it's not. Sheesh.

Alberta cities have lowest cost of living in Canada
http://www.gov.ab.ca/home/index.cfm?Page=834

A single line of an uninformed personal opinion is far, far from insightful.

As of February 1, 2005, persons buying electronic equipment in Alberta are subject to paying a fee ranging from $5 (Laptops) to $45 (46"+ TV)

It came as quite a surprise to most. I received a fax about a week before it became effective and about 2 days before I heard it mentioned on the news.

Electronic Recycling Products and fees

I got mine a few months ago when I moved. The temporary license they give you while you wait for you new one to be mailed to you is ridiculous. It's just a piece of paper with your name on it, so you can't even go for a pint if you get ID'd because the piece of paper is not good enough.

Why don't they just send your new license to the registry and then you can go exchange your old one for the new one when it arrives?

"The true purpose of schooling, according to Gatto, is to produce an easily manageable workforce to serve employers in a mass-production economy. Actual education is a secondary and even counterproductive result since educated people tend to be more difficult to control."

In Canada, the Teacher's Unions seem to be the only workforce for which the school system exists to serve. It might not actually be so bad, if some Employers could make productive use of the average High School graduate.

Unfortunately, educating anyone in any non-trivial topic is very demanding work. It is much easier to drug 5 to 15 percent of the learning population; especially the more active (and thus more exhausting) Boys

The Union backlash against anything that would allow the government to fund non-Union schools (vouchers, etc.) is astonishing. Even though home schooling recieves a fraction of the funding that a publicly-schooled child receives, public school enrollment is falling, with the balance of students going to private or home schooling. Even a huge financial penalty cannot keep students in public schools!

The only "revolution" that is needed, is the ability for parents to send their children to the school of their choice -- not the school chosen for them. The hemorrhaging of students -- and therefore funding -- from the public school system would be instantaneous and dramatic.

The best teachers would remain employed, would be compensated better (less waste on poor teachers and unnecessary infrastructure). Students with parents that don't give a shit would remain uneducated (not much can be done...). Parents who care wouldn't be forced to both A) pay for an education system through their taxes, and B) pay to educate their own children.

Not to rain on your parade, but you won't get stoned off that.

"Fibre hemp is an annual herbaceous plant which flourishes in temperate regions. All cultivars tested in Alberta have been low-THC (delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol) cultivars. Canada has adopted the 0.3% THC standard established by the European Union as the concentration which separates non-psychoactive strains suitable for legal fibre production from those which are illegally grown for their properties of intoxication. The 0.3% THC designation is very conservative. Most narcotic strains range from 3-5% THC, with cleaned, high potency material reaching as high as 15% THC."

It's no wonder why we're home to ...

And this fat bastard.

Those scenes were filmed in Kananaskis, which is a 4,000 sq. km. region in Alberta. Although it's an easy drive from Calgary, it's a really big area, and certainly "desolate" in parts.

Lest your prez gets any wacky ideas though, I can assure you that we DO NOT have any weapons of mass destruction! ;-)

Oh Really?

"...niche markets that IT hasn't really touched, like agriculture"

I think Canadians make great neighbors. I never got used to that vinegar-on-french-fries thing, though.

Except we do have lots of oil. According to your Department of Energy (search for Canada) we are your biggest source for total oil imports and third biggest for just crude oil imports. There is a nice summary for Canada too. We may even be sitting on more oil than Saudi Arabia if we can ever fully develop Alberta's oil sands.

Maybe Canadians just have a thing against rats.

The province of Alberta has a full-time Rat Patrol team who go around the provinces and kill rats. Alberta is rat free, and these guys drive around the borders with poison, .22s etc. to keep it that way.

Some days I think this would be the perfect job.

The length of notice an employer is required to give depends on the duration of employment and must be in writing. The minimum notice requirements that employers must give are:

one week - for employment of more than three months, but less than two years
two weeks - for employment of two years, but less than four years,
four weeks - for employment of four years, but less than six years,
five weeks - for employment of six years, but less than eight years,
six weeks - for employment of eight years, but less than 10 years, and
eight weeks - for employment of 10 years or more.
An employer may choose to give pay for the required notice period instead of providing notice. A combination of written notice and pay in lieu of notice (termination pay) is also acceptable.

Here at the UofA (Alberta) we're governed under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act passed by the provincial government. I believe most other provinces have something similar, but I'm not sure. Basically under this act we can't devulge ANY information about a student without prior permision. On their initial application form students have to indicate whether they want to be added to the student directory. And we can ONLY contact them on official school business, such registration. One of the main things to come out of the act is that we can no longer publicly post grades of students outside the profs office. Although it was listed with the student id number only, it was still pretty easy to figure out who got what grade.

The nice thing about the act is that it also gives access to information the previously would have been kept quite confidential. For example if I felt that I was turned down for a job under unfair conditions, I can ask to see the interview records to see if the interview process was done in a fair manner, ie was I asked to recite 25 lines of code verbatim from the eepro100 net driver from linux kernel 2.2.6, while the other guy was just asked to describe how he would send an email to someone.

It's too bad sometimes that this Act only applies to public insitutions. It'd be real nice if a applied to everyone.

In terms of Alberta:

1. We have unmetered local calling. So does the rest of the country, afaik. Dial-up is hardly "good enough". People who've experienced broadband almost never go back.

2. The city of Edmonton (capital of Alberta) has a census metropolitan area of 9,000+ sq. km and only 900,000 (and change) people living in roughly 370,000 individual homes (source: Stats Canada). The city of Calgary (also in Alberta) is somewhat more dense, but not by much. The province of Alberta is a bit smaller than Texas and only has 3 million people. Canada as a whole is one of the least dense countries in the world. My point: we're at least as spread out as you guys and yet we're making broadband work even out in the most remote areas.

3. Cable companies hold regionally regulated monopolies in Canada. For instance, in Edmonton there is only one cable provider, Shaw. In Calgary I believe it's Roger's.

Telcos are deregulated for long distance and business lines, but you can only get your residential voice services through a single provider in Alberta (may be different elsewhere). However, I can get DSL from, at last count, 4 different providers. One of which (Telus) holds the residential voice service monopoly.

The rates we pay are comparable, or cheaper than the rates most Americans in large cities pay, but in Canadian dollars (meaning, it's WAY less expensive). Our coverage is also much better thanks to government intiatives like the Alberta Supernet.

The Alberta Supernet

Not to mention that cablecos and telcos have been providing steady, stable, and inexpensive broadband in the major centres for 4+ years.

I love living here. :)

Most of the posts so far seem to ignore the fact that this is being held in Kananaskis, which is a provincial park, i.e. wilderness. This location was specifically chosen because of its isolation. I can't imagine that there will be many people affected by this aside from those participating in the summit in some fashion (including protesters).

I doubt they need this for the G8 summit. The jamming of cell phone frequencies seems a little overkill because:

(1) the G8 meeting is held in a park called Kananaskis. It's in the foothills and Canadian Rockies, located in the province of Alberta. Anyway, the place the summit is located (the Rocky Mountain Lodge) is fairly isolated. Cell phone coverage is good in the area (so says my wife who has been there recently) but I'm guessing it's only available in populated areas or along the major roads.

(2) The place is being secured mostly by the Canadian military, with the RCMP in town or along the roads. The military presence is huge (the soldiers are fully armed), their primary role is to secure the outlying areas and they have permission to use deadly force. The air space will be closely monitored (they have mobile radar stations up) and jets can be called up or will be patrolling the area (I think there's a no-fly-zone in effect).

While there is a possibility of terrorists, protestors are probably an equal target of cell phone jamming. Protesters (good & bad) use cell phones as a means of organizing groups of people.

Let's just hope the RCMP doesn't fuck up and, say, jam emergency frequencies or that used by commercial aviation.

Besides, if it's a public place, there should be a public phone nearby. It's not like these people are on a highway in the middle of nowhere.

Hopefully, a stray jumbo-jet will wander in the vicinity while the big cheeses are there, and suddenly lose power and lift while flying over the hotel...

Er, which capital city are you thinking of?

There isn't even a city where the G8 is officially being held (Kananaskis) and Calgary is neither a federal nor a provincial capital.

Toronto, is not Canada's capital either.

Ottawa holds that dubious honour. Toronto just thinks it's the captial of Canada and, of course, many people around the world get fooled.

For good time, you can always check what our southern neighbours think about us.

You could get off the couch, look for the teeny-tiny buttons on the tv itself to change channels, hit the off button instead, and go find a book.

Or you could rant about nothing in particular on /., except your wireless keyboard & mouse are awol too...

Ob-sort-of-on-topic: The province of Alberta, Canada (where I live) is actually rather proud of being rat-free. Unfortunately, it looks like the tales of it becoming so by means of armed rednecks driving up & down the saskatchewan border are, alas, myth.

Isn't this what the alberta supernet is about? Albeit, to government, and public facilities (and not to home... yet, although thats a viable future) - This being extended to the home I think is definately forseeable since while the Alberta government is footing a big chunk of the initial tab, its Bell Intrigna that will take it over - and the Alberta government has promised revenue streams to Bell for the next 10 yrs or so.

When you're salaried, you're paid to get the job done, however long it takes. Hours don't count

Well, that may be true in your juristiction. Where I live, being part-time, hourly or salaried makes no difference. It all comes down to how many hours you work. The only time that is true is when you are a contract employee.

The actual law where I am states that an employee (it's not specified as to any type of employment) is paid their regular salary up to 44 hours per week or 8 hours in a day, whichever is greater. *Any* hours above and beyond that are paid as overtime. The actual text is here. (look in section 4)

What we do in our company is pay a small amount for the stand-by period (the time where you are on call, but not actually working) and then are paid appropriate for the time when you actually have to work.

Typically, it comes down to what you and your employer agree upon. If you have an Overtime Agreement, then it takes precidence to what the actual Law says.