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In most parliamentary systems (and my knowledge is mostly about Canadian and other Westminster-style systems), the prime minister is chosen from parliament. In many such systems the prime minister is not technically chosen by parliament, but is chosen by the head of state, and the prime minister must retain the confidence (approval) of parliament to remain in power. Nevertheless, whether the prime minister is chosen by parliament or not, the requirement that the PM retains the approval of parliament means that the PM is generally who parliament would have chosen.

In a purely parliamentary system (i.e. most of Western Europe except for France, all Commonwealth Realms), the head of state may be a directly-elected president, an indirectly-elected president, an appointed president, or a monarch, but they have a largely* ceremonial role and are definitely not the active head of the executive.

It wouldn't make sense to directly elect the prime minister, because the essence of a parliamentary system is that the government (i.e. executive) must have the confidence of parliament.

In most parliamentary systems, certainly in Canada, the judiciary is independent, but there is not a separation of powers between the legislative and executive branches. The link between the legislative bodies and the executive is what makes it a parliamentary system.

* - For an example of why I said that the head of state is "largely ceremonial" instead of "completely ceremonial", see this story about "Crisis in Ottawa", where the representative of Canada's head of state was not merely ceremonial.

A long-standing rule of thumb for "recession" is that it is defined as contraction in the GDP for at least two consecutive quarters (six months).

More info.

By that long-accepted definition of recession, the US is not even yet in a recession. The US GDP decreased for the first time in recent history only in the third (most recent) quarter, by 0.3%. In the second quarter -- earlier this year -- real GDP increased 2.8%.

But how long has the media been ceaselessly hammering it into our heads that we're in a recession, tolling the bells of doom and gloom? How many times have we heard the phrase, "In these tough economic times" inserted into nearly everything we see or hear? How long has the drumbeat of the "recession" been played, when we had nothing but positive growth reports, even in the midst of the sub-prime crisis?

Worse still, many people actually believe that whatever recession we'll end up having is exclusively the fault of only the current President, and can't look back to anything before the year 2000 for any blame whatsoever. The egregious irresponsibility of the sub-prime lending has a long and sordid history.

It is this kind of partisan willful ignorance on the part of many that has enabled the political agenda among some to drive the notion that the US is in a severe recession caused by the ineptness and reckless irresponsibility of the Bush administration, when the US had nothing but growth in the GDP until only a month ago. If you asked most people how long they thought the economy had been shrinking for negative, they'd probably say things like, "A year? Two years?"

Wrong.

Last quarter. And we just found out about it.

So we've heard talk, day after day, night after night, an incessant drilling into our heads that we're in a deep and severe recession -- one that may even now rival the Great Depression! -- creating panic and fear, causing people to pull investments and hold onto their wallets, change purchasing plans, in turn creating bleak forecasts for manufacturers and other business, which causes job loss, and then -- voilà!:

Is it any surprise we're going to have a recession on our hands?

Capitalistic systems only work when the participants have faith in the system -- when that faith collapses, for whatever reason, you get a recession. And that's a normal and accepted part of the cycle.

As a UW Student in their Faculty of Mathematics, I would like to just say that I think it's wondering that UW is attracting such well known people. We have many ties with a variety of people and establishments around the world! This is just an example of how to bring the top people in the field together to help each other out and reap some very large benefits. I do not think this is a bad thing at all. Hawking is the first of 40 people that PI wishes to invite over to the Waterloo area. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081127.whawking1127/BNStory/National/home?cid=al_gam_mostview

The taxes may be higher in Canada, and it is true that healthcare and education costs are lower. However, as an American who goes to university (McGill) in Canada, I can tell you that its far from being a socialist paradise.

You say that infrastructure is crumbling in California, and I think you are probably right (I've only been to California a couple of times). But on the other hand, it is too in Quebec, which has had a spate of lethal collapses in the last couple of years (this being the most recent). Last year a bridge collapsed and killed a person on a busy highway, and the same thing happened several years before that. This spring, a major elevated concrete highway interchange in Montreal (the Turcot Interchange) was closed after the authorities discovered a 1m (!!) deep pothole IN THE BRIDGE. Canadians like to blame the weather, but having grown up in New England, where we get all the same weather, I can assure you that our bridges are not collapsing.

Sure the healthcare is free, and everyone has access, but I'll tell you, having to wait 4 hours to see a doctor (as I have done many times) really sucks.

The public high schools are sufficient, but are not by any means greatly superior to americans. 50% dropout rates are commonplace in many places and years of price freezes on tuition has greatly hindered the ability of universities to fund their students (everything from research to maintenance of buildings has been cut for the last 5 years at my university). Many of the cuts would be unheard of at an American university. My first year undergrad chemistry class was 1500 students.

To be fair, Canada does a lot of things better than the United States. And we do things better than Canada, although I think we could both learn from each other, and I don't mean to repudiate social democracy or universal healthcare. These are certainly things we could use in the US. But to say that Californians are "royally screwed" is uninformed - Canadians are plenty screwed in other ways (that you take for granted in the states).

Further reporting of this, especially from Canadian news outlets, go into much further detail regarding this aspect of the court judgement.

The Globe And Mail have a particularly good quote from one of the Facebook reps:

"It's certainly beyond his resources, and we have no illusions about getting all of the money," Mr. Schnitt said.

"We're going to get whatever we can. To the extent that he has resources, we're going to try and seize them."

Mr. Schnitt said he mainly hopes the case will act as a deterrent. "[The ruling] sends a message to spammers and would-be spammers," he said.

"We hope this demonstrates the extent to which we're going to expend resources and pursue people to protect users from spam."

They certainly *will* get this company shut down, and then (assuming they find Mr. Guerbuez, who most news stories claimed was notoriously difficult to find,) they'll go after him.

It may take a while, but they'll do it.

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"A toke a day keeps memory loss at bay"

I don't really see a future for Sun. According to this http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081114.wsun1114/BNStory/Technology/home Sun's market cap is below their cash on hand. That makes them ripe for a buyout and breakup.

The Canadian operation has "good strong sales and good earnings over the last several quarters"
the Canadian subsidiary had no choice but to seek the court's protection, which he said "was triggered by the filing in the United States."

Perhaps, "Blame the US" should be invoked? :-)

Apparently in Scotland, it's turning into diamonds all by itself ...

Well, at least with help from those nouveau riche in China and India.

Wow, way to select only the data that fits with your agenda. Actually, a BBC poll found that all 22 countries polled prefer Obama. And a Gallup poll found that only 4 of the 70 countries polled prefer McCain: Georgia, Cambodia, Laos and the Philippines. And then there is this:

The countries most optimistic that an Obama presidency would improve relations [with the world] are America's NATO allies - Canada (69%), France (62%), Germany (61%), United Kingdom (54%), Italy (64%) - as well as Australia (62%) and the African countries Kenya (87%) and Nigeria (71%).

The NDP have never left less government debt in their terms of office.

Of course, Gary Doer in Manitoba has had a balanced budget every year for the last decade, as well as creating a rainy-day fund of hundreds of millions, but don't let that stop you from making black and white statements.

Laytoon[sic] would say anything to get elected [whether] he mean[t] it or not. World readers need to know it is routine that Canadian candidates lie often.

AFAICT, that's par for the course in Canada, the US, and the UK, and I suspect pretty much every other democracy. The Liberals did fairly well during the election a few years ago in part due to Sheila Copps promising to do away with the GST, and we all know how well that turned out. The Conservatives have a similar history, such as this, or these. Federally speaking, we have a lot more reason to distrust Conservative or Liberal election promises, since they have both actually formed the government and then broken those promises, while the NDP have never been in that position. That's not to say that they wouldn't, but it seems strange you'd single out Layton, since his party is the only one of the three that have never actually done what you suggest he would do.

Wow, to be honest I didn't know that. Google shows me this: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081007.wapology1007/BNStory/National/home/ , which states that currently 35 US states have such legislation. It seems to be a fairly new thing, including my own Maryland (passed in 2005)

BTW, Captain Splendid: You must be a real ball at parties.

Actually, they did.
The french motto (also from the anthem): "Des Plus Brillants Exploits" means "Our most glorious deeds"

I'm gonna call bullshit...

The Federal Housing Finance Reform Act of 2005 (H.R. 1461/S. 190). Google is your friend. Use your friend. This gave the power to HUD to include "fair affirmative action", HUD then ordered Fannie Mae to increase it's percentage of high-risk mortgages. The Globe and Mail

...should make one *highly* skeptical about the assertion that congress twisted lender's arms...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are not just any lender. They are government backed "corporations" that operate under restrictions passed by law. They are holding The People's money, taken by force at the end of a gun barrel (see definition of taxation.) As such, they must be much more risk averse than a private mortgage firm with investors who willingly take risks. The change to the law opened the floodgates for making bad loans on a "corporation" that just got investigated for making years of bad decisions and poor financial choices. Which brings us to...

The connection of Fannie Mae to Walter Mondale's campaign manager...

James Johnson was Walter Mondale's campaign manager. He is also Barack Obama's Campaign Advisor. Relevance is up to you...

That "last week" has got to be pre-2004, then...

Wow, if only I'd set off that part as being a quote from a news article, perhaps by putting it all in italics. Shame on me. Maybe this style will help.

ARTICLE QUOTATION FOLLOWS
Fanie's lobbying efforts paid off as liberal politicians such as Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.T.) and Rep. William Clay (D-Mo.) worked to kill any real reform of Freddie and Fannie. The Washington Post reports: "In an internal memo in 2004, Fannie Mae executive Daniel H. Mudd affirmed what the company's critics had long contended: In the political arena, 'we always won' and 'we took no prisoners.'"
END OF ARTICLE QUOTATION

Oh, and Daniel Mudd was just the (is currently the transitional) CEO of Fannie Mae for the last six months. He'll be receiving a $5.64 million "retirement package" thanks to his friends in Washington. And Daniel Mudd has admitted that after 2005, they "stopped internally scrutinizing" their purchases of Alt-A loans and packages. That's a heck of an admission for a CEO of a "corporation" that's supposed to be about scrutinizing and packaging mortgage loans.

Raines also made no mention of...

Again, I must apologize for not setting off the article in italics or something. That was the reporter's comment. Please note that I just might have included this as a means of demonstrating the racial component of the push at Fannie Mae towards high risk loans. Raines being a major player in the Democratic party top brass might have had something to do with it as well. You might even want to use Google or another search engine to actually research the issue as I urged you to do in my initial message. Everything you complained about fell under the "if you're too lazy" block, which says more about you than about me.

Actually, official olympic organizations seem all too eager to attack anything with "olympic" in the name. Remember Vancouver's Olympic Pizza?

Olympic trademark battle snares small businesses

Did you read about the Greyhound bus killer? Seems that in certain cases people can go from zero to crazy in 4.6 seconds. Not all the details are out yet, but it seems like the accused in the greyhound case went from normal to cannibalistic killer in a matter of a few days. No word if there was even a trigger yet which caused him to snap.

but did anyone else notice that this picture from the article would make it seem that you could get 1nm sized cubes by dividing a 1cm cube continuously into EIGHTHS.

So, what psychic told you that he kicked her out?

Ms. Fortin said, however, that the case ended in court after a long, escalating dispute between the girl and her father and stepmother, which ended with the daughter being expelled from her father's house and living with her biological mother since May.

Ottawa brings copyright into the digital age -- The Toronto Star

The federal government tabled new legislation Thursday morning designed to make it easier to track and prosecute anyone caught downloading copyrighted files, such as music and movies, from the Internet. -- The Globe and Mail

Controversial copyright legislation positioned as a made-in-Canada solution to stamp out online piracy -- The National Post

Ottawa warns on gold-backed Web trades

Ottawa warns on gold-backed Web trades FINTRAC sees potential abuse of electronic transactions tied to gold and silver KEVIN CARMICHAEL

Monday, May 26, 2008 OTTAWA -- Canada's financial intelligence agency warns that criminals may be exploiting Internet-based companies that convert cash into electronic gold, exposing a new front in the international effort to restrict terrorist financing and money laundering. While other channels of money laundering are successfully being shut down, authorities are increasingly worried about a proliferation of "digital precious metals operators" websites that offer clients a chance to conduct Internet business in units backed by gold and silver rather than paper currencies.
The Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada, or FINTRAC, says in a report these websites have "achieved critical mass on the Web" and are facilitating millions of transactions on the fringe of the international financial system - the equivalent of a Wild West where legitimate businesses, privacy-seeking individuals and criminals can mingle just out of reach of the law.
At stake is the effectiveness of the financial reporting rules that countries such as the United States, Britain and Canada enacted in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. A network that allows individuals to move money around the world means criminals can avoid commercial banks and other financial institutions required to turn over their records to the government.
"As financial institutions and non-financial businesses increasingly deter money laundering and terrorism financing, adaptable and technology-savvy criminals and terrorist financiers will likely see other unregulated, exploitable avenues to further their nefarious purposes," concludes the report, which was made available under the Access to Information Act.

"Digital precious metals may become one of them."


Paper money is about to become worthless. The treasury will need to find a way to prevent people from using alternative currency. One big way will simply be to make owning other currency a crime. My vote is for an outright ban on gold or silver "hording" and jail terms for gold selling web site owners.

Ah, so everybody who disagrees with your assertions, assertions that are provably wrong, must be a fanatic?

Again, you really are just making up your arguments as you go

You make up your own arguments, pull "statistics" out of your ass, and in general scream and shout that you are right though a casual inspection of the real world shows you are wrong

In August 2007, three months before Robert Dziekanski died shortly after being tasered at Vancouver International Airport, Royal Canadian Mounted Police changed its protocol on Taser use, from discouraging multiple Taser shocks to suggesting that multiple shocks may bring a subject under control more quickly, under certain circumstances. It was suggested that multiple taser jolts may lessen the risks of prolonged and dangerous struggle. --Excited_delerium

RCMP revised taser policy to allow multiple jolts

Police say medical evidence shows that, without tasers, prolonged and dangerous struggles occur with people suffering from what they term 'excited delirium'. It prompted the force to release new rules in August allowing officers to use tasers multiple times to more quickly gain control.

Research on pigs has shown that tasers cause erratic heart rhythms when the barbs form a line that crosses the heart. Little surprise, because the heart's rhythm works on electric pulses.

In Canada we had more than one case of death after tasering, including a polish immigrant.

I'm not the person you are pointing this question to, but, yes, they sound pretty natural to me. Arguments can be made that there are moral or ethical issues involved, but they seem like a completely natural part of a developing society.

Yes, they are potential behaviours.

So, lemme get this straight - our brains evolved to the point that we can explore our world and plant food, but to you, that is not natural?

It is eminently natural behaviour.

Ummm . . . what?? Should we be basing our actions on the moneys in the zoo, you know, in an environment completely controlled by humans? So, you're saying that putting them in the zoo is a good thing then, right? Or, should we be basing our actions on monkeys in the wild? [youtube.com] Wait, don't we already do that? I'm lost. What the fuck are you even trying to say??

I am saying that what someone watches on a nature program is a potential behaviour, and saying it's ok to eat meat 'cause jackals do is a bit pathetic. ;)

Calling them ghouls is merely resorting to childish name calling. So if you want to head in that direction then, listen here, you plant murdering fuckface, we don't only eat dead animals, we eat dead plants, too, We just prefer to call it salad. I don't know, I guess it just sounds a little less murderous that way. G'ahead, prove to me that plants don't feel pain.

I'd say "ghouls" is a way of typifying them, but you don't know the people I do. I already addressed the plants vs animal things in another thread.

You remind me of all those former smokers getting all preachy about how you shouldn't smoke. It was ok for them to do at the time, but as soon as they stop, you never hear the end of it. Hold on a minute . . . you stopped eating meat because you got bored of it, not because you had some sort of ethical epiphany. Then get off your fucking high horse, because I'm not bored of it. So don't mind me, I'm still exploring the world of meat. I'll let you know when I'm done.

Sorry, I'm not getting preachy, or on a high hourse. I'm talking shit. But you sound like one of those defensive meat eaters who can't stand to let a non meat eater state their opinions on a relevant thread, because it might challenge you.

Oh, and if you're so bored with the taste of meat, then why do all you motherfuckers have to try to immitate it? I can't tell you how many recipies I've seen for veggie burgers, vegetarian chili or vegetarian meatloaf. Hmmm, sounds like you're craving something. Meat, perhaps?

I have no idea who you are talking to, but I have no desire to "immitate" it. As I mentioned, I discovered there is a lot of other food than meat, though I admit I occasionally have tofu hot dogs because with mustard and onions it is a sublime combination (I have no idea if I'd still enjoy the flavour of a meat based hot dog at this point).

People like imitated foods such as tofu hot dogs, etc because they are in a convenient form factor, or because they have inherent associations, or because it makes meat eaters more comfortable hah hah.

Care to list any environmental reasons? I've seen plenty of arguments that can debunk anything I'm betting you would list. So list some. I dare you.

Here you are. http://www.google.ca/search?q=environmental+meat - here's one at random, http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080122.wcomment0123/BNStory/International/home

I am not going to represent each of the 823,000 odd other results, some of which are no doubt made by frooty loonies (to counterbalance the other opposite point of view), but there are a certain number of well

The press got a hold of it only because the New Democratic Party of Canada got involved!

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080406.wsatellite07/BNStory/National/

If it were for the Social-Democratic watchdogs in government, the Conservative/Liberal Party majority would have turned a blind eye to the sale!

Thank goodness for Jack Layton and his standing up for Canada.

Jack Layton was recently on Lou Dobbs discussing NAFTA, by the way.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_MR7tL7tWs

It took a while, but from the forums I found out that the Globe and Mail was going to have an
article on this subject, and here it is:
| http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080326.RINTERNET26/TPStory/?query=bell
It says that Bell is definitely throttling for third party ISPs, and that's good enough for me.
Thanks, da_guy2!

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080304.RCRTC04/TPStory/Business

From 2001 to 2005, CIBC, a large Canadian bank sent faxes containing customers' fund transfer requests to a West Virginia scrapyard. The faxes didn't stop until the bank was publicly embarrased in the national media.

Then your IT geek card is in doubt, as 1s of googling brings up:

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08012/848675-96.stm/
http://times.busytrade.com/1153/4/Toshiba_Cuts_Prices_and_Increases_Marketing_for_HD_DVD.html/
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080220.RBLURAY20/TPStory/?query=Toshiba/
http://gizmodo.com/344680/the-real-reason-warner-went-blu+ray/

I don't think the payouts nor the amounts are in doubt.

What is in doubt is whether BD will actually succeed. It's price tag makes downloads look inviting.

1) There's a link on the site to report typos. I submitted the 14 vs. 16 issue there.
2) On http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080221.whacker21/BNStory/National/home, they're saying it's 17, and being consistent throughout the article.

I don't know which is correct at this point in time.

I direct you to here:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080213.DONATIONS13/TPStory/TPNational/Politics/

Where Elections Canada told the Liberal party that 'sky is the limit' donations for political fund raising is illegal(the cap is 1,100), and not to do it. In political circles this is just as big a hoopla right now. It's pretty cut and dry.

and that the info that police might keep on them, however false it may be, can affect their lives one way or another...

Bullshit.

Marijuana is a *controlled* substance because it is a mind-altering substance like other illegal and some legal drugs (Oxycotin, morphine, coke, etc.). It's been only been deemed legal for people with a prescription to use it. People that are terminally ill. People that will not drive under it's influence and kill others because their are stoned out of their mind.

Furthermore, pott is more damaging to your lungs than smoking a pack of cigarettes,
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7217601.stm

And it is addictive.

Hell, most sane nations are now in process of getting rid of all the cigarettes as the damage to society mounts.

Only substance that then remains is alcohol though that has its benefits in *small* amounts and just as bad as controlled substances in medium/large quantities... (see drunk driving or http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080130.wsaskgirl0130/BNStory/National )

Anyway, anyone possessing controlled substances without a permit should be jailed for a long, long time. To facilitate people killing themselves, *free* access to these substances should be provided in monitored environments where they can take as much as they want. They will only be released once *sober*. And all people driving intoxicated killing others should be charged with *exactly* the same crimes as other murderers.

I too have the same firehose of work pointed at me, but I choose when to take downtime. That includes going for a coffee with a colleague, reading /., or reading the news online

... Besides being the largest car company in India according to this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tata_Motors

They are in the process of buying Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080103.wford0103/BNStory/Business

It also owns pieces of Daewoo to boot. They're not a small player. The big three might want to take notice.

that's a good start, however for some time now I've been thinking that the government should be publishing real time expenses online through an easy to use interface. I live in Toronto, Ontario and our city has been suffering on the verge of bankruptcy even though the budget from the taxes is over 7.5 billion CAD/year. About 60% of the money goes to the unionized city workers, which is a shame, there is no competition for the city contracts really, it's all government based mafia. This is not a surprise given that the city is governed by an NDP idiot-troll and the province is yet again in the hands of a liberal pathological lier.

I would like to see the government's bank statements on line. If the city gets the 7.5 billion CAD a year from the taxes, I would like to see the current balance, look at all expenses in detail. If a million is given away here, another million there, I would like to see the details of every transaction.

If the city mayor suffers a defeat on his crazy tax proposals (something he concocted instead of looking at balancing the budget the correct way, without immediately imposing new taxes the NDP way,) then the mayor wants to punish the city with meaningless reduction in working hours of community centers and libraries, I want to see the savings in the budget. Of-course the truth is that there was no savings, since the union city workers are still sitting in those centers and libraries because the union will not allow the city not to pay these people and the only sufferers are the citizens who cannot use these public resources.

The government does not want the citizens to be able to see detail of every dollar that is spent, because if we did see these details, we would revolt.

Overwhelming?

According to this article, an HD-DVD rep said "HD DVD players represented 49.3 per cent of the players for high definition discs sold as of Dec. 22, quoting figures from market research firm NPD." (Excluding PS3).

What timing.

The current government in Canada is getting pretty good at pulling the wool over the public's eyes under the guise of modernizing technology laws in harmony with the US. Yesterday they announced that part of the AWS spectrum auction would be "reserved" for new bidders. This successfully convinced the public and media that they were finally going to encourage competition in one of the most medieval wireless markets in the world. Yay, if Verizon can become open, so can Bell/Telus/Rogers and its bitch, Fido!

Unfortunately, the truth is that due to Canadian ownership laws, the only entities capable of starting an entirely new wireless network from scratch are the likes of cablecos (Quebecor/Videotron) ... as if that's going to bring any of the openness and innovation we really need.

The bottom line is that Harper's government, through the Canadian DMCA or the wireless auction or anything else, is simply out to protect the same old sheltered brats of Canadian big business -- the ones whose lack of innovation render them internationally uncompetitive.

While the US and Australia seem posed to move forward in the next 5 years, unfortunately Canada is in for a slide backwards.

Toshiba has been running 320 slice CT scans for some time now. See here and here. The 256-slice version of the scanner has been running for atleast 6 months now. See here

Yeah, that's great.

I tell you what, I'll vote for a socialized health-care system if you volunteer you and yours to always lose the treatment lotto for cancer patients.
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=5720758a-c427-45b0-96f1-0960771f6278&k=85427&p=1
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20061120.wxcancerdrugs20/BNStory/cancer
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/5413132.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/politics_show/regions/east_midlands/7012406.stm

Or when the treatment stinks, guess what Canadians do?

" In Ontario, new drugs have become bogged down in paperwork and a slow review process, the report says. Private cancer clinics have sprung up to offer the drugs to patients who can afford to pay for them." Quoted from the first link above.

"The United Kingdom in particular comes out badly in the tables, showing cancer survival rates that are among the worst in Europe." Quoted from the article below.

Essentially you're saying that we should scrap the entire US system that has it's ups and downs but has covered the essential needs of all fairly well. For instance, all of Europe lags behind the US in detection and treatment of cancer, therefore survival rates are lower.
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/561737 Reg required (sorry) interesting bits below.
colon and rectum (56.2% in Europe vs 65.5% in the United States)
breast (79.0% vs 90.1%)
prostate cancer (77.5% vs 99.3%)

The above statistics were compiled in a study by an Italian doctor.

Thanks, but no thanks. As the government has been shown to be incompetent at everything it attempts to do, I would rather it do less, so that I can do more. Your inability to cope with responsibility casts a shadow on your parents and educators, who should have taught you more about the ideology behind the USA's governmental system.

According to an Industry Canada study released last week, filesharing is not harmful (to the music industry at least), and actually increases purchasing. Apparently there's at least one other study based on RIAA data that says the same thing.

Speaking of being stretched thin, recently there was another incident where a new RCMP officer was killed while alone without backup: (here). It's not the first time, either, as there have been several incidents like this in the past, including one where four (one of whom had been on the force for only 17 days) were killed while seizing property. There's been a lot of controversy about this.

Here is something else that technology is capable of "Firm to use cellphone data to map traffic in real time" http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20071109.wwireless09/BNStory/Technology/home
In this case its not so much the security risk but a privacy issue.

But my point is, the NCIC isn't some secretive blacklist like the infamous no-fly list. The NCIC is detailed, you can view your record and correct it, if it's incorrect.

Here's what I find when I look further, unvarnished outrage:

• An outraged Canadian MP. There others, including a powerful one representing Toronto.
• Border guards must obey the list and were ashamed of what they had to do.
• That you can go to jail for accessing the information.

The NCIC may not be as bad as no-fly lists but that makes it's abuse more shocking. The three arrests were for protesting and it is clear than the activists are not the violent felons the laws were designed to keep out of Canada. This is an evil political abuse that will keep these protesters legally out of Canada for five years.

Microsoft has had a lot to say about Vista and the market has been listening.

Gobsmacked. That's what the Brits call it when something jaw-dropping happens and you can't think of anything to say. Microsoft's blockbuster quarterly results kind of fall into that territory for me. The cash river keeps on flowing

Someone out there - or 88 million someones - bought a copy of Vista, 28 million of them in the last two months. This brought $4.14 billion in revenue in the quarter, making the Vista doom mongers look a tad silly. Sales of high-end Vista SKUs were the most popular. Vista helps Microsoft's quarterly profits rise 23 per cent"

Microsoft's chief financial officer said the company "outperformed expectations pretty much across the board." But it was led by robust performance of the company's PC software products. Sales in the Windows group rose 25 percent to more than $4.14 billion, while its Office division reported a 20 percent increase in sales to $4.11 billion. ...Growth was highest, he added, in international and consumer markets. ... Microsoft also sold a higher mix of its premium-priced versions of Windows and Office than a year earlier. And Mr. Liddell said the company's anti-piracy efforts were particularly successful, increasing desktop software sales by as much as 5 percent from a year earlier. Microsoft Earnings Send Stock Soaring

The company reported "robust demand" for Windows Vista, Office 2007, Windows Server, and SQL server. The combined revenue of Microsoft's client, business, and server and tools divisions grew by more than 20%. Revenue in the company's video game division soared by 91%, driven primarily by the success of the launch of Halo 3.
Microsoft said Vista sales have been increasing since the release of the Windows operating system to consumers in January. "Customer demand for Windows Vista this quarter continued to build with double-digit growth in multi-year agreements by businesses and with the vast majority of consumers purchasing premium editions," said Kevin Johnson, president of the Platform and Services Division at Microsoft.
A strong global PC market helped sales of Windows Vista and Office 2007 considerably. PC shipments worldwide grew by 15.5% in the third quarter, according to IDC. Much of the growth occurred outside the United States, where PC shipments increased by only 4.7%.
Chris Liddell, CFO for Microsoft, said sales growth was strongest in the international markets, such as Brazil, China and Russia. The fact that Windows sales grew faster than the PC market was an indication that customers were upgrading their PCs to Vista, and also buying the premium edition. Three quarters of Microsoft's customers bought the more expensive version. Microsoft Earnings Boosted By Windows Vista, Office, Halo

The more expensive versions of Vista and a new Office 2007 package also are spurring a larger than usual number of customers to renew three-year licensing agreements, according to Bellini, Institutional Investor magazine's top-rated software analyst. Microsoft earnigns expected to rise

There is a huge deposit of undersea natural gas nearby waiting to be developed and supply energy needs.

You mean Deep Panuke or the other ones?

Similar case in Canada, a few weeks ago, the SOCAN http://www.socan.ca/ (Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada) started to distribute warnings to hair salons, generally businises with low profit and hard time to stay profitable. They can only play the Radio, if they play CD music they have to pay a fee based on the sqwuare footing of the business, just like bars or dance clubs.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070720.whair0720/BNStory/National/home

All this backed up by musicians, including "Daniel Boucher" that I now boycott, as he was unable to answer small hair salon owner barely making it each month, anything else than "Butt, butt, it's our money they should pay, if their business is that bad, they will close soon anyway". How about, if you cannot make it selling shows and t-shirt YOU should go under?

This is really getting out of hand. We need a new global health distribution system in the music industry to still make fitly rich the stars (easily done), and help out the starting artists.

At least in Canada, the pay equity gap has almost been closed based on latest figures. Only the most senior levels of management remain unavailable to women, and this probably is a reflection of experience (e.g. it takes ~30 years to get to be an executive in a fortune 500 company)thank anything else.

I think the hidden story is the real $ household incomes have been shrinking over the past few decades. This has been masked by a) rapid advances in technology/production that allow us to buy more crap, and b) most households are now 1.5 to 2 incomes instead of a solitary breadwinner.