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But government purchasing officers have a mandate to evaluate multiple suppliers and get the best deal for the government.

I can't tell if you're unfamiliar with our government or extremely naive, but our Federal government has spent literally billions of dollars trying to sort out its payroll software, and various governments of various political parties have not managed to figure something out yet in three decades of trying.

This latest attempt by the previous Conservative government, they spent $2 billion on IBM software that IBM said wouldn't work when they began. Now the whole thing is being thrown in the trash and they are starting over.
Phoenix, a timeline: How the federal government has spent nearly three decades struggling to deliver a new pay system for its 300,000 employees.

Reminds me of McCarthyism - whatever was really there was dwarfed by the paranoia, the fear that SJWs are everywhere and anyone could be one.

Except McCarthy was right. It's not that the paranoia of SJW's are everywhere. They declare themselves loudly that they're such, that they're "fighting for social justice". It's the fact that they're having a negative impact on society and people have had enough. This isn't paranoia, when the self-proclaimed actors proudly cheer their actions and fucking people over. So, tell me. Which group is telling people that if you don't want illegals in your country you're: "Racist, sexist, homophobic, misandrist, xenophobes."

You can look at any business in the west and see how SJW's and their various allies have reduced the chances of female employment(you can thank metoo) for that one. You can see the destruction of historical monuments pushed by them. You can see their attempts to reduce free speech. You can see how they align themselves in support of violent actions against people who don't agree with their ideology. You can see them protesting VoterID laws, lawful immigration, cheering the banning of books.

Hey, you want to believe that they're nobodies by all means. But it's far harder to believe when they're in charge of the education system and telling teachers not to teach "How to kill a mockingbird" because racism.

The real story here is that Shared Services was set up to fail almost from the beginning. While the idea of centralized IT is probably a good one from a reducing-duplication standpoint (at the expense of an increasing-bureaucracy standpoint); Shared Services Canada's budget was cut before it was even half-formed, and then cut again in subsequent years (see this November 2016 Ottawa Citizen article: http://ottawacitizen.com/news/...). So of course they are failing to deliver. So while it may be fun to say "Feds Screw Up IT Again, Hurr Durr" let's be sure to blame the real problem makers -- the politicians, mostly Conservative, who dug this hole that Shared Services finds itself in.

The Ottawa Citizen wrote a great article about where the problem lies, and came to the conclusion that Shared Services was doomed to fail before the project even started:

http://ottawacitizen.com/news/...

Basically, it was given a lofty mandate but was then starved of both the resources and authority required to actually accomplish what they were supposed to.

Organic pollutants that were already in the water are binding to the microbeads and then being absorbed into the animal from the surface of the microbead as it passes through the gut. This article, while not fresh news, is a little better:

http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/environmentalists-drawing-a-bead-on-microplastics

It's a little more than that. Studies have shown toxic pollutants bind to microbeads. Other studies have shown fish are eating the microbeads and absorbing the toxins. Humans eat fish. Microbeads are poisoning our food supply, and a number of governments are sponsoring studies to learn more about their impact.

Here's another article:

http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/environmentalists-drawing-a-bead-on-microplastics

The fact is, FORCING vaccines doesn't protect ANYONE from ANYTHING.

But it doesn't dooooooooooooo anything. Fucking derp on a rope.

What if somebody knows he is depressed, gets the apropiate care, and still don't want to spend years with the hope that maybe he could manage the depresion, and prefers to die?

You might want to read what it's really like from TSN's Michael Landsberg.

Medication helps, but there are side effects. Therapy helps, but it's not a cure-all. My latest bout has been going on for more than 6 months; more than half a year of not being able to stay awake for more than a few hours at a time, isolated from the regular ebb and flow of life, unable to concentrate because of the side effects of the meds, reminding myself to keep my promise not to make any important decisions when I'm down in the dumps, trying to avoid the obvious - that it (life) is really not worth all this hassle.

I'd rather be like I am when I'm not in the grips of a major depressive episode; however, if I believed there was no hope of having a "normal life" for at least a while before the next bout, I'd pull the plug. Not because I want to, but because the alternative is worse. Not being "me" sucks.

So why do you put all the blame on the kid for this and want to throw him in prison for 20-25 years? Don't get me wrong, I'm happy wit locking the kid up, but the fault here lies as much with the police, if not moreso. There's a good reason swattings don't exist in other countries, and it's not because our kids are more well behaved.

Except swattings to occur in other countries.

Police fault for what? Immediately responding to an emergency?

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/technology/took+patent+troll/8921261/story.html
"Dunkelman doesn't charge for his popular BusBuddy app, but it does include some advertising, which grosses him about $200 a month. If you factor in the cost of computers, programming software and the rest of his expenses, he figures it makes "a few dollars. That's it: a few dollars." It would take years to pay Dovden's $10,000 claim."

"He hired lawyer Geoff North"

Pull the other one lol.
But fair play to him, regardless.

The conservatives in power at the federal level in Canada have been figuratively rounding up all the intellectuals, scientists, educators, and scholars who do not toe the line. It is disgraceful and eerily familiar to historians, who BTW are about to undergo a government investigation of how Canadian history is to be taught since the conservatives do not much recognize anything but their own mythology.

WRONG! The Canada Revenue Agency has requested the information (Which the CBC has a copy of), and if I recall correctly, they announced that they are investing $30 million to create a tax "Swat Team" to investigate offshore tax havens used by some 400 Canadians and recoup some $170 Billion in unpaid taxes held in those offshore accounts.

But that just creates a bit of activity to use as a screen, rather than going full force into the investigation described in TFA.

WRONG! The Canada Revenue Agency has requested the information (Which the CBC has a copy of), and if I recall correctly, they announced that they are investing $30 million to create a tax "Swat Team" to investigate offshore tax havens used by some 400 Canadians and recoup some $170 Billion in unpaid taxes held in those offshore accounts.

Sure, unless you're donating to someone named "Dean Del Mastro", in which case you get reimbursed for your "donations".

Among the European publications, I read the New Scientist, Nature, and The Guardian, and whatever other newspapers appear in Google News. Their science reporting is usually (to use their phrase), spot on. (I also deal with PR people from European agencies.)

If you don't know the difference between the publications and reporters that report accurately on science, and those that don't, then you're not doing your job. In this snow radar story, if the PR department was terrified that the reporter would get the story wrong, they could have searched for his stories in the Ottawa Citizen and seen that he usually did a good job. But they should have known that before he called. It's their job to follow the news coverage.

Journalists are more likely to mis-quote (or ignore) an official answer if you hand them boilerplate generalities that have passed through 11 (!) layers of review and don't say anything meaningful, like the NRC statement. Then the reporters have to ignore your useless statement and figure the story out on their own, for better or worse. You've lost your opportunity to have any input. As the Ottawa Citizen says, as a result of the NRC's stonewalling, the story didn't mention the contribution of the NRC, which is what they were trying to do in the first place.

I know this is Slashdot, but just look at the final Ottawa Citizen story. http://www.ottawacitizen.com/technology/NASA+latest+destination+southern+Ontario+hamlet/6237144/story.html It actually did explain why the research was important: Ordinary radar can't tell the difference between wet snow and dry snow. They were testing new radar that could. It told the whole story from the perspective of NASA, not NRC. What else could the reporter do?

So you're wrong on the facts. The reporter did get the story right.

If you refuse to speak to reporters, you never get your story out, you lose control of the story, you let your critics tell the story for you, and you don't have a chance to correct errors if there are any. If the story's important enough, I'll go around you and write the story my own way. What purpose does the PR department serve?

Lol. Do you read the papers? Most reporters today aren't in the business of making sure they get the right quote. They're in the business of waiting for a mistake (or an isolated sentence or phrase that could be construed as one) - and, if they get one, putting it as a headline and milking it for all it's worth.

This is a fantasy of people who don't read the newspapers and have a vague idea that the newspapers are publishing things they disagree with. The only people who do that are the advocacy sites like Breitbart's, and the right-wing tabloids like Murdoch's. When I ask people like you for examples, they can't come up with them. If you read the actual story in the Ottawa Citizen, http://www.ottawacitizen.com/technology/NASA+latest+destination+southern+Ontario+hamlet/6237144/story.html you'd see that it was accurate.

Now, our gas comes from Alberta as oil, is shipped to the US to be converted into gas, then gets shipped back north to BC (why we don't make it ourselves is beyond me).

Since you live in Victoria, you should know that many people don't like oil refineries. Between the NIMBY people and environmentalists who want to discourage oil consumption, it is very hard to build a new oil refinery.

It seems to me that this price war has nothing to do with the price of oil internationally. I haven't noticed a pattern for the most part.

Correct. Like most businesses, you charge what you can get away with. In a normal market, there would be competition to lower prices.

However, gas companies often collude to raise prices (occasionally they get caught), and government policy has allowed many mergers in the gas business, so the number of competitors has dropped greatly.

Wrong, and wrong:

1) Stephen Harper, the Prime Minister of Canada, formerly was leader of the "National Citizens Coalition", a right wing think tank that supports private healthcare. (source: Macleans

2) In April, a Conservative Member of Parliament will bring forward a motion that will define a fetus as a "person" and would effectively make abortion akin to homicide. (source: Ottawa Citizen

This article from the Ottawa Citizen sums it up nicely. The Playbook is sleek and well designed. It supports Flash and QNX is the best mobile operating system available. The PB's smaller size makes it more portable and therefore more useful. It fits in my jacket pocket or my wife's purse. It is much lighter than carrying a laptop. Wifi is all I need at home or in a hotel room. The bridge to my Blackberry works well when wifi is not available. Yes there are not a lot of apps available yet but I still love it. They make a big deal about not having a native email client but the web based email clients like Gmail work just fine. I am very happy with my Playbook and it will only get better as they release the android app player in a month or so.

"In simple terms, it's illegal because they passed a new law to make it illegal."

An example of this is here http://www.ottawacitizen.com/health/Armed+Forces+major+battles+province+over+slaughtered+shared+with+friend/3536088/story.html

Summary: A guy grew up doing things like raising pigs and killing them for food. He sometimes shares the meat with friends. All of a sudden, because of new laws, it is illegal and he is in trouble with the law. Most idiotic thing about this story is how the guy was caught. Someone was spying on him from a treehouse for a couple days, just waiting for him to kill the pig and share with his friend.

Just in time for the Periodic Table to be changed, making this outdated!

A new kind of hair loss?

Just in time for the Periodic Table to be changed, making this outdated!

Actually, Equador has offered him asylum -sort of- and then withdrew it -sort of-. To many plotchanges to explain, just read it. In short: they are keen in information. http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Ecuador+offers+WikiLeak+founder+Assange+residency+questions+asked/3902251/story.html

I Disagree about the lack of market, I can see several possible uses for this off the top of my head.

As someone mentioned above, there are wind turbine blades (Which are too big to be transported easily via Road or Rail).

However, there are also lots of possibilities for moving parts for the Oilfield. Moving these heavy, oversize parts is Slow, Expensive, and Not Very Popular

This could also be a huge boon for shipping to the North, allowing shipments of heavy Equipment and Commodities year round, rather than waiting for winter and the Ice Roads to freeze up.

Larger loads could be lifted, meaning fewer trips, and less on-site assembly labor.

I agree that it seems impractical, and that it obviously isn't cheap or easy (If it wasn't it would already be commonplace.) But not seeing the market for this sort of transport is simply a failure of imagination, nothing more.

“I lived in California for four years and this one made me go for the doorway

Thus, an earthquake of the same magnitude in southern British Columbia or California would cause more devastation because of the population density, but would be felt over a far smaller distance.

Sorry, bad link. http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Canadian+newspapers+alive+kicking+Survey/2025501/story.html

Is this problem with traditional newspaper a US-only phenomenon? I heard yesterday of a recent study of newspapers in Canada which actually showed growth in their industry. What do others see in their country?

Right. The person who should be sued here isn't Google, who had no choice, but Liskula Cohen, who forced them to release the information.

Apparently, Port *is* suing Google. And from the linked article, she sounds like a spoiled little 29-year-old brat.

- RG>

There's a lot of newspapers with very little news of an value in them. My city has 2 major papers, and you can compare one to the other. The second one linked to often has Paris Hilton and the likes on the front cover. Their top news story for the day is something to do with monster trucks.

Lets save our vitriol about cops for when they kill people's granny's, shoot pregnant women, or kill harmless pets for fun.

Or a road-raging off-duty cop who assaults a taxi driver at the airport in full view of 30 other drivers, flashes police ID and behaves like he's above the law, then gets special treatment when other officers arrive on scene.

Allegedly, of course. Allegedly.

Here in Canada quite a commotion has erupted over the firing of an editor of the Ottawa Citizen for having written an editorial calling for the resignation of our Prime Minister.
In question are the close ties the owner of the media chain has with the Prime Minister due to the fact that it was his very government that allowed the media chain to persue a number of controversial acquisitions that had been previously disallowed by canadian law.
What is clear here, is that politicians will meddle with the media and what they report when given the chance to do so. What is to stop, in this case, an australian Prime Minister from blocking a website whose constant criticism of his policies has aggravated him? Since the list cannot be checked the answer is probably nothing.
This government sponsored censorship raises a serious issue of precedent. The precedent of the governement having the power to block access to information, otherwise publically accessible to the citizen, for unverifiable purposes and results. It is the governement giving itself the right to restrict what a citizen could normally view without restriction in any other country-- without appeal or public review.
In my view, there is a careful balance of power that is being toyed with, both in Australia and in Canada, that needs to be stopped. I hope the Australian courts see the danger here and reverse the decision and I hope justice prevails in the case of this editor who has been wrongfully fired-- in fact it is my wish now that this media group be broken up.
See Citizen story here and here

I feel the same way. Loath it as I may, I actually agree with the MS flack who says you should use the software that's best suited for the job, even if it costs more.

Now, having said that I think that Linux/*BSD/ et al will probably have the inside track on most non specialized software (file servers, web servers, maybe even desktop), and I think that in all procurement cases you should try to avoid locking yourself into one provider like those crazy Canuuk librarians.

Not trolling...

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/business/010713/50069 67.html

All were compared to the benchmark car, which emits 248 kilograms of carbon dioxide for each 1,000 kilometres driven on ordinary gasoline:

- A car using grid electric power in Alberta (dominated by coal generation) to make hydrogen would emit 237 kilograms of carbon dioxide per 1,000 km driven.

- A fuel-cell vehicle obtaining its hydrogen from an on-board gasoline reformer would emit 193 kilograms covering the same distance.

- Vehicles using on-board methanol (extracted from natural gas) reformers would emit 162 kilograms per 1,000 km.

- Vehicles using hydrogen made from natural gas at urban retail outlets would emit 80 kilograms per 1,000 km.

- Vehicles using hydrogen made at large natural gas refineries would emit 70 kilograms per 1,000 km.

The favoured option of car makers like GM and oil companies seems to be on-board reforming of ordinary gasoline into hydrogen. That would require the least re-tooling of billion-dollar auto plants and maintain gasoline sales, while passing on the costs of the fuel cell and reformer technology to new vehicle purchasers. The pollution reductions would be meagre, but this option has a huge strategic advantage: the gasoline supply network is already in place.

All were compared to the benchmark car, which emits 248 kilograms of carbon dioxide for each 1,000 kilometres driven on ordinary gasoline:

- A car using grid electric power in Alberta (dominated by coal generation) to make hydrogen would emit 237 kilograms of carbon dioxide per 1,000 km driven.

- A fuel-cell vehicle obtaining its hydrogen from an on-board gasoline reformer would emit 193 kilograms covering the same distance.

- Vehicles using on-board methanol (extracted from natural gas) reformers would emit 162 kilograms per 1,000 km.

- Vehicles using hydrogen made from natural gas at urban retail outlets would emit 80 kilograms per 1,000 km.

- Vehicles using hydrogen made at large natural gas refineries would emit 70 kilograms per 1,000 km.

The favoured option of car makers like GM and oil companies seems to be on-board reforming of ordinary gasoline into hydrogen. That would require the least re-tooling of billion-dollar auto plants and maintain gasoline sales, while passing on the costs of the fuel cell and reformer technology to new vehicle purchasers. The pollution reductions would be meagre, but this option has a huge strategic advantage: the gasoline supply network is already in place.

It has a very canadian bias, but it also contains a lot of great information. For example, many people are stating that fuel-cells are free of emissions, but that is not true. The hydrogen has to come from somewhere, and the most abundant source is fossil fuels!

Depending on how the hydrogen is extracted, the CO2 emissions can be nearly as high as engines currently produce. An onboard gasoline converter, as mentioned in the story, produces 90% as much CO2 as a combustion engine.

-Teldon

Boy takes two years of special ed after getting bum I.Q. results

"Mr. Kumpula hired a psychologist to review the original test results and found the boy's IQ was significantly higher than calculated. On a revised version of the same IQ test, the boy scored 99, which is within the average range of intelligence. Normal intelligence is between 85 and 110, plus or minus five, the statement of claim said.

"Edmonton lawyer Scott Schlosser, who is acting for the Kumpula family, said the boy has subsequently scored 113, which is considered high average. "
...

"The board has denied the allegations, none of which have so far been proved."

(found this via the excellent Obsucre Store)

Considering what's happened (twice) to one of Canada's most wired cities, Ottawa, I'd definitely like some redundancy. First, it was an animal that supposedly bit into the only cable connecting all of us 300,000 Rogers@Home users (including businesses), then some thieves cut the wire again stopping all access to the 'Net, and only two weeks after that, the line was cut again (I don't have a link and I can't remember from what)... so, basically, three times a single wire was cut, taking access away from over 300,000 people... another single OC cable would have solved all the problems... ugh.

(or maybe Rogers@Home is just bad... hmmm)

Considering what's happened (twice) to one of Canada's most wired cities, Ottawa, I'd definitely like some redundancy. First, it was an animal that supposedly bit into the only cable connecting all of us 300,000 Rogers@Home users (including businesses), then some thieves cut the wire again stopping all access to the 'Net, and only two weeks after that, the line was cut again (I don't have a link and I can't remember from what)... so, basically, three times a single wire was cut, taking access away from over 300,000 people... another single OC cable would have solved all the problems... ugh.

(or maybe Rogers@Home is just bad... hmmm)

Some of the comments I have heard is that it looks like an Alien or a toliet. Considering the stock price, the latter is probally more appropriate.

If you look at the three D version here it looks like a phallus. Maybe that is way Burney has his head in in hands vowing never to higher the Dogbert consulting company again?

...a Ottawa-area 16-year-old got bail after spending a month in the can for reading a story in drama class. I shit you not.

On the one hand, it was a story about a student who blows up his school after years of abuse from bullies and ignorance from teachers. On the other hand, it was written for a drama assignment after years of abuse from bullies and ignorance from teachers, including an incident about a week before where he was pushed to the ground, kicked in the head several times, and went home bloody. His parents contacted the school and police about the incident, but got no help. No schools or students were directly named in the story. Despite a police search of the school and his home finding no weapons, bombs, or "plans", he was arrested anyway on the charge of "uttering death threats".

More details in these Ottawa Citizen stories:

A teen's "Twisted" cry for help - this article also has the story that started it all.

Writer jailed for his 'imagination'

Prominent lawyer to defend teen writer

...a Ottawa-area 16-year-old got bail after spending a month in the can for reading a story in drama class. I shit you not.

On the one hand, it was a story about a student who blows up his school after years of abuse from bullies and ignorance from teachers. On the other hand, it was written for a drama assignment after years of abuse from bullies and ignorance from teachers, including an incident about a week before where he was pushed to the ground, kicked in the head several times, and went home bloody. His parents contacted the school and police about the incident, but got no help. No schools or students were directly named in the story. Despite a police search of the school and his home finding no weapons, bombs, or "plans", he was arrested anyway on the charge of "uttering death threats".

More details in these Ottawa Citizen stories:

A teen's "Twisted" cry for help - this article also has the story that started it all.

Writer jailed for his 'imagination'

Prominent lawyer to defend teen writer

...a Ottawa-area 16-year-old got bail after spending a month in the can for reading a story in drama class. I shit you not.

On the one hand, it was a story about a student who blows up his school after years of abuse from bullies and ignorance from teachers. On the other hand, it was written for a drama assignment after years of abuse from bullies and ignorance from teachers, including an incident about a week before where he was pushed to the ground, kicked in the head several times, and went home bloody. His parents contacted the school and police about the incident, but got no help. No schools or students were directly named in the story. Despite a police search of the school and his home finding no weapons, bombs, or "plans", he was arrested anyway on the charge of "uttering death threats".

More details in these Ottawa Citizen stories:

A teen's "Twisted" cry for help - this article also has the story that started it all.

Writer jailed for his 'imagination'

Prominent lawyer to defend teen writer

You're not the only person who seems to think so. Check out this arti cle that was in the Ottawa Citizen.

This is currently only Rogers@Home, but might be spread by "suitable public concern" (;-)) See the Ottawa Citizen's article here.

This is currently only Rogers@Home, but might be spread by "suitable public concern" (;-)) See the Ottawa Citizen's article here.

-- flameproof --

I don't imagine that you'll be reading this in the American press real soon

--deflameproof--

Oh, and as a further addendum to my own post (I hate it when I find things after I submit ;-). The Ottawa Citizen ran an article on April 10 about the same issues.

It's an interesting phenomenon, call it 'Gold Rush Fever' or 'capturing the face to face synergy'. Why are prices high? Because everyone wants to live there. Why does everyone want to live there? Lots of reasons I suspect. Reasons like:

a) If you want to be perceived as a hot mover and shaker, you have to live in California
(Note: Real movers and shakers can live anywhere they want ;-)
b) The people I want to work for/with are all there
c) I can't be a .com without a california mailing address.
d) What I really want to find is a California Girl ;-)
e) If I don't have a job, I go to where there are lots of jobs and look there.

Personally, I'm seeing coalescing trends like this also in Canada - in Ottawa, they are predicting that the city could double in size due to high tech growth. I don't think that the popularity of these 'hot spots' means that distributed collaboration doesn't work - just that there are other reasons to be in close proximity.

However, I have to say that I think there will be a self-limiting feedback involved. As the cost of living spirals upward, more companies will choose spots like Reston VA, Rockville MD or Ottawa ON.
Of course, the mob mind may rule, and in the land of illusions (California) perception is King.

-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?