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I've lived in the area for a long time, and never heard a good story about the VSE (RIP 1999), it's remains, but not the lingering stench, since composted into the CDNX.

Wikipedia just provided me with a funny story about the VSE I didn't know, but find all too typical.

The history of the exchange's index provides a standard case example of large errors arising from seemingly innocuous floating point calculations. The index was initialized at 1000 and subsequently updated and truncated to three decimal places on each trade. The accumulated truncations led to an erroneous loss of around 20 points per day. Over the weekend of November 25-28 1983, the error was corrected, raising the value of the index from its Friday closing figure of 524.811 to 1098.892

Are these the same people who are proposing to solve the fusion problem with 220 synchronized penises? Good god, I hope not.

For the record, here's what $500m typically buys you in British Columbia.

Fast Ferry Scandal

Amazing, just eight hours ago, a local newspaper is reporting that these vessels have been flipped for $20m.

PacifiCat ferries resold overseas

The Washington Marine Group sold the three ferries the company bought from B.C. Ferries for $19.8 million, to luxury yacht builder Abu Dhabi Mar.

Four cents on the dollar. That beats the old VSE hands down. Vancouver has a world-class ethnic cuisine, has enjoyed some decent success in video games and film production, but has a terrible track record with anything that floats.

Ballard Power being one of the more buoyant exceptions. I just did a search on "Ballard Power profit" and was pleasantly surprised to get a hit.

Ballard Power reports modest profit in Q2

I suppose if General Slammer raises $500m to build the commercial scale reactor, they'll use our excellent BC shipyards to fabricate them. We're good. We can weld aluminum into structures less valuable than the original metal.

While I've never met a lumberjack I didn't like on a personal level, I have to say as voting collective, they're dumb as stumps. We inevitably get the government we deserve. Our big project always make work, but rarely make money.

In rural areas of BC, it's easy to spot the people with jobs at the local mill or the local mine: they've got more equity sitting in the driveway than in their shit-box house (4x4 trucks, boats, campers, skidoos, jet-skis, ATVs, etc.) Big nature, eh? You can't govern in this province without earning this vote.

We do have some nice mountains. Vancouver is planning a party to show this off. You might have heard of it. I think the plan is to lose a lot of money proving we're world class and shrewd at business.

Is it reasonable to assume that every student will carry out their homework assignment in isolation? I don't think it is.

Okay.

This is all legal under current copyright law.

I will grant that only Sony is explictly enforcing there licenses. However in my prior post above, the unnamed music executive said it was true for all music.

http://www.cnet.com/4520-6033_1-6376177.html

And in a deep-dive into the Sony end-user license agreement, the Electronic Frontier Foundation found some astonishing fine print. For example, if you lose the original CD or it's stolen, you lose the right to any digital copies you've made. You can't keep your music on computers at work. You must delete your songs if you move out of the country or if you file for bankruptcy. The list goes on and on.

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/Opinion/Columnists/Mil lar_John/2005/12/02/1333437-sun.html
According to an analysis conducted by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a non-profit organization that describes itself as "working to protect your digital rights," the Sony fine print contains astonishing wording. An example is the requirement that if you lose the original CD or if the CD is stolen, you lose the right to any digital copies you may have made.

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004145.php

      1. If your house gets burgled, you have to delete all your music from your laptop when you get home. That's because the EULA says that your rights to any copies terminate as soon as you no longer possess the original CD.

      2. You can't keep your music on any computers at work. The EULA only gives you the right to put copies on a "personal home computer system owned by you."

      3. If you move out of the country, you have to delete all your music. The EULA specifically forbids "export" outside the country where you reside.

      4. You must install any and all updates, or else lose the music on your computer. The EULA immediately terminates if you fail to install any update. No more holding out on those hobble-ware downgrades masquerading as updates.

      5. Sony-BMG can install and use backdoors in the copy protection software or media player to "enforce their rights" against you, at any time, without notice. And Sony-BMG disclaims any liability if this "self help" crashes your computer, exposes you to security risks, or any other harm.

      6. The EULA says Sony-BMG will never be liable to you for more than $5.00. That's right, no matter what happens, you can't even get back what you paid for the CD.

      7. If you file for bankruptcy, you have to delete all the music on your computer. Seriously.

      8. You have no right to transfer the music on your computer, even along with the original CD.

      9. Forget about using the music as a soundtrack for your latest family photo slideshow, or mash-ups, or sampling. The EULA forbids changing, altering, or make derivative works from the music on your computer.

"At a demonstration yesterday in New York, IBM showed off Cell's processing power with a geology application that would have been right at home in a video game. A computer rendering of Mount Rainier, created using satellite photos and geological maps, allowed an operator to make a simulated flight over and next to the mountain. London Free Press

With graphics rendering like that, there should be some wicked games (or interactive pr0n movies). Though I still like the feel of a keyboard and mouse. Maybe someone would be nice enough to make an interface for PC gamers like me? 0:)

He wore a vest and hat made of duct tape.
His first-floor apartment walls were lined with aluminum foil.
There was no bed in his bedroom, but a deep freezer, also covered with foil.
And, a jury was told yesterday, Ljubomir Ristic, 61, was convinced a woman who lived in his Huron Street apartment building was a government spy.
Carmen Castillo testified that on Aug. 8, 2002, in his duct tape clothes, Ristic sprayed her in the face with a liquid, then hit her on the head with a small crowbar.

The U.S. finds itself at the very end of the world's order line for Tamiflu (Canada, France, Britain and Japan all laid in ample stocks well in advance). What an egregious act of negligence by a government so obsessed with the threat of terrorism and conquering Iraq that it averts its eyes from an oncoming disease tsunami.