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The difference between a freedom fighter and a terrorist? Point of view.

With all due respect, there are some differences. Of course, we are free to make our own personal definitions as we wish, but terrorists are the guys that kill civilians, with full intent of causing fear, terror, and chaos. (Not to say the Continentals or patriots didn't do this to the British. I haven't heard such, but clearly it's not something we would be proud of.)

There were atrocities on both sides, however due to the nature of the conflict it is those that were committed by "rogue" British commanders that are well documented and probably represent the greatest numbers. Some have been exaggerated in popular culture beyond all reason. (History is written by the victors... however, if you study American history from outside the US you might find a different perspective.)

I am not aware of any large scale massacres of civilians by revolutionaries but there are no shortage of reports of punitive behavior against the so called "loyalists" and their native allies, to the point where tens of thousands left the colonies. While clearly many of these were political refugees there is no shortage of stories from those that settled in Eastern Ontario of how they were forced out.

I grew up along the "Loyalist Highway" in southern Ontario, perhaps things have changed in the past 40 years, but there is still a great deal of distrust and bitterness left in the descendants of the refugees.

Also interesting is the history of Joseph Brant and the general treatment of Mohawk and Iroquois by both British and Americans before and after the war.

Because there were far warmer periods in the past; for example the late Jurassic, when Dinosaurs roamed Canada in tropical conditions.

Canada was much closer to the Equator, so of course it was warmer.

I am not seeing a strong indication of that from the image I THINK that link is directing me to. I found this image which shows that at least 135 Mya Canada was pretty much where it is today (very roughl;y - it wasn't even the same size and shape). Jurassic ended about 145 Mya, (and began about 201 Mya) so I would interpret late Jurassic as being presumably around 150-145 Mya. Does this sound right?

Unfortunately, I haven't found a map covering exactly 150-145 Mya, so I can't judge exactly how close it was to where it was 135 Mya. I'm thinking such projections as to size, shape and location aren't likely to be very exact anyway.

It is also interesting to me that there have been warmer periods in the past during which, at least to my understanding, CO2 was lower than it is presently.

No it wasn't.

Right, I wasn't paying close enough attention to close_wait's specification of 0.5 Mya. However, that still raises the question of how one explains the verdant Greenland of the Norse settlement of about 1000 years ago; the medieval warm period.

Here is the negative option billing scandal from 1995
They did the swap in the year 2000 as you can read here. Telecom companies were only permitted to compete with cable a few years back but before that they were only able to using satelite dishes.

What you describe is not Socialism, it's Keynesian economics

No, Keynesian economics is not concerned with social programs or the basic needs of the citizens, it deals with the variable inputs that can be used to address fluctuations in consumption, employment, investment, etc.

Controlling the interest rates is Keynesian, building roads is Keynesian, lending capital to automotive manufacturers is Keynesian, but these are all temporary means of controlling variables in the economy to control serious recessions. Social Security, Medicare, Unemployment Insurance, etc. are not Keynesian, they are Socialism.

What I am describing is a type of socialism more like that proposed by Fourier who suggested that in a socialist economy workers would be compensated based on there input, I am not describing the type of authoritarian socialism portrayed during the red scare and espoused by Babeuf, Engels, or anyone proposing communism.

I am not redefining Socialism the problem is you seem to only be aware of the type of Socialism that is meant to frighten people with visions of Gulags.

our standard of living is higher than ever because of the efficiency with which private goods can be produced in a capitalist economy

I'm not as familiar with the long term economic situation in Canada but I can tell you the standard of living in the United States is more than acceptable. So when I look at individual median incomes from the 1940s to today and see that, based on inflation measured by the CPI, in the United States the median income has decreased some 30% from the mid 1970s to today I wondered how this standard of living could be maintained.

The answer lies in personal debt. From the 1940s up to the 1970s personal debt in the United States was only a fraction of the GDP value, 30% or less, but after median individual income started to slide personal debt rapidly increased and today in the United States personal debt is equivalent to if not exceeding the national GDP. That is over $14 trillion in individual debt alone!

Telus in British Columbia was "BC Tel". I may be wrong, but I believe that in both BC and Alberta (western-most and adjascent province) they were at least one time partly public entities.

This article mentions Telus as having been provincially owned in Alberta:
    http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=M1ARTM0011790

This article mentions "BC Tel" as having been a public utility:
    http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/BRITISH-COLUMBIA-TELEPHONE-COMPANY-Company-History.html

Canada's installed electrical generating capacity in 1994 was 114 gigawatts (GW = 109 watts): 56% derived from HYDROELECTRICITY, 18% from coal, 14% from nuclear power, 7% from oil, 4% from natural gas and 1% from other sources. Installed capacity is the amount of power that could be generated at a given instant if all power plants were working simultaneously at full capacity.

See http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=a1ARTA0002565 for more info.

The big problem for us is the cold weather sucking the life out of the batteries.

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0008405

Oh I'm off by two years, and it lasted for three. Not really something huge. I suggest using google in the future.

The distinctive brains of psychopaths.

"But for psychopaths, the word 'cancer' and the word 'table' had the same emotional connotations - which is to say, not very many. It's as if they're emotionally color-blind."

Even more staggering were the findings of a study conducted by New York City psychiatrist Joanne Intrator, with Hare's collaboration, at the Bronx Veterans Administration hospital in 1993. The investigators employed the same language test, this time injecting the subjects with a radioactive tracer and scanning color images of their brains. As normal subjects processed the emotion-laden words, their brains lit up with activity, particularly in the areas around the ventromedial frontal cortex and amygdala. The former plays a crucial role in controlling impulses and long-term planning, while the amygdala is often described as "the seat of emotion." But in the psychopaths, those parts of the brain appeared to remain inactive while processing the emotion-laden words. That, says Hare, helps explain why a psychopath's conscience is only half-formed. "I showed the scans to several neurologists," recalls Hare. "They said that it did not even look like a human brain. One of them asked, 'Is this person from Mars?' "

According to Scientific American.
Not surprisingly, psychopaths are overrepresented in prisons; studies indicate that about 25 percent of inmates meet diagnostic criteria for psychopathy. Nevertheless, research also suggests that a sizable number of psychopaths may be walking among us in everyday life. Some investigators have even speculated that "successful psychopaths" - those who attain prominent positions in society - may be overrepresented in certain occupations, such as politics, business and entertainment. Yet the scientific evidence for this intriguing conjecture is preliminary.

One in 100.
One person in 100 is a psychopath, meaning that they lack a moral compass, sense of responsibility or empathy (this is a personality disorder, not a mental illness). And although they are overrepresented in the prison system, according to research by American psychologist Dr. Paul Babiak, and his Canadian counterpart Dr. Robert Hare, psychopaths are also well-represented in corporate environments.

here's a story about what I'd say is a very black & white likely case of psychopathy, and one at its worst, at least on a small scale.

The above link being pretty heavy, I thought I'd offer this lighter fare; A pseudo-scientific test to measure yourself on the psychopath-meter.

If you're going to navigate your pathway through reality, (down the river of life), you need to know where the rocks are if you're going to be able to avoid crashing into them. Christianity and the like has programmed all kinds of self-destructive behavior into human-kind. "Turn the other cheek" is an example of social programming which makes us food for the psychopathic human-type, --the type which I would guess is generally in charge of countries and most of the most powerful organizations which shape our lives; the psychopath recognizes its own and shapes the rules of the world to benefit itself, and study of the power structures over the centuries, doesn't really ever let go once the seat of power is attained. --Christ's supposed dying on the cross, (which I am doubtful actually happened for a variety of reasons, not the l

Well, in at least one case, it means he assisted a client in abducting the client's daughter. The client in question was Colin Thatcher; turned out he had just beaten to death his own ex-wife, the child's mother, the previous day.

Merchant then plea bargained his way down to mischief, and somehow got off with an absolute discharge.

see http://thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=M1ARTM0012968

This isn't true, the CMCC represents only 179 artists.

Also, the CRIA was formed in 1963 as the Canadian Record Manufacturer's Association, and aren't a 'wing' of the RIAA. They are the RIAA's counterpart in Canada.

For those Americans who think Canada is just the benign happy friendly country to the north, look at what happened during Canada's October Crisis (in which only about 6 people were killed in terrorist attacks).

Pierre Trudeau invoked the War Measures Act, sent in military troops to occupy Canadian territory, rounded up and detained hundreds of people without pressing charges, banned a political party, and the RCMP carried out hundreds of illegal searches and wiretaps.

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?P gNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0005880
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_Crisis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Measures_Act

Americans look at Canada's more lax drug laws, or them allowing U.S. draftees to escape to Canada during the Vietnam war, and think that must be how the Canadian government must be about everything... but the Canadian government can be pretty damn ruthless. There was full-on military style domestic counter-insurgency operations being conducted on a huge scale in Canada in most people's lifetime. George Bush could only dream about getting away with some of that stuff in the United States.

I will not be shocked at all if this legislation passes. Far crazier stuff has gone down in Canada's recent past!

True, but natural monopolies (like the utilities you mention) are normally regulated by the government (some like water are usually run by the government). These regulations are supposed to provide the restrictions that competition would provide in a non-monopoly situation.

BTW, Rogers got slapped in 1995 for it's negative option packaging of new cable channels. If the abuse of monopoly is obvious and enough people complain, the government will eventually act.

When I graduated with a mechanical engineering degree, I took the oath of the order of the engineer and even though I have since become a sysadmin, I still wear the ring.

The oath and ring were inspired by the Quebec bridge collapse of 1907, which resulted in the death of 75 of the 86 workers on the bridge at the time. The point of the oath is essentially "I wont screw up my calculations and get people killed."

Due to the scope of the catastrophe and the importance of the symbolism of the oath and ring, I'm surprised it didn't make the list.

Also, an important addition was made in 1973 in the form of a broad power to conduct wiretap investigations pursuant to executive, as opposed to judicial, authorizations.

I don't think he will be working on Vista, If anything he may be working on interfaces to the Xbox.

Back in the very early 80's, Bill was designing a lot of cool hardware user interfaces to a Synthesizer that was home-brewed at the University of Toronto. Stuff like 'infinite sliders', finger pads, etc that where used to control the synthesizer during live performances. The synthesizer was a blue box with a lot of cables in and out.

He was also doing things like have all the parameters of the synthesizer and the live performance (melodies, timbers etc) displayed as a numeric matrix on the Vt100 (remember Curses?). Using those interface devices, the musician could control the parameters during a live performance and see those change on the VT100 as well as hear them. Using a tablet the performer would select from what to change and then use other interface devices to play with those values. Remember kids we are talking 1981 here.

He may be returning to his roots and doing that kind of work there. He also knew a lot about "psycho-acoustics" but I don't know if keep that up.

For years the musics at the start of "two new hours" was one of his compositions.

A bit of Canadiana here:

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?P gNm=TCE&Params=U1SEC788299

"The first studio (the second in North America) opened its doors in 1959 at the University of Toronto, under the prompting of Arnold Walter, with the collaboration of Hugh Le Caine who was then director of the National Research Council's Electronic Music Laboratory (ELMUS) in Ottawa. The first director of the University of Toronto Electronic Music Studio (UTEMS) was Myron Schaeffer (1908-65), succeeded by Harvey Olnick, and in 1965 by Gustav Ciamaga. The latter was one of the first Canadian pioneers of computer music applications. Since then, the University of Toronto has remained known for computer music applications, involving such individuals as Norma Beecroft, William Buxton, Bruno Degazio, John Free, James Gabura, and David Jaeger. Notable among their major productions are the PIPER II, Outperform and the Midiforth and the SSSP (Structured Sound Synthesis Project)."

1) The exception rather than the norm,
2) Highly publicized and criticized, and
3) Self-corrected.

Case in point: Fred Phelps, the pastor of Westboro Church and the publicizer of the repulsive slogan "God Hates Fags" has been publicly debated and repudiated by ... evangelical Christians.

Rev. Paul Hill, one of a handful of abortion doctor murderers, was defrocked by his denomination.

What I'm saying is that the superficial similarity between those incidents and the incidents that occur on a regular basis under the Taliban, with support of the mainstream religious community, is exactly that: superficial.

American Christians, on the whole, do not tolerate our nutjob extremists; Muslim communities in Afghan, Pakistan, Saudi, and Iran lionize them. That is a significant difference.

CBC is not run by the Canadian government. It's FUNDED by the Canadian government.

Personally I think we should cut all their funding since they run advertisements just like any other station.

I believe the US was also kind enough to drop a nuclear bomb on us.

Well, not so fast.

Both Canada and the United Kingdom have officialised the metric system very recently, and it's in the process of public adoption now...

They're industrialised, adoption isn't easy, but it certainly isn't impossible. Most of Europe just switched to the Euro, after all, and it seems that the advantages of having a standard currency far outweigh a few months of having to calculate. Having a committed government helps.

By the way, the UK changed its entire currency system in 1971 from the old Pound/Shilling/Pence system to decimal.

It's legal in the USA to use the metric system for everything, too. Who can dispute the beauty of a rational, unified standard system of measurement? ^.-

(actually I think Canada has a few WMD of its own too, it would be interesting to check, anyones knows for real?)

Not anymore.