Slashdot Mirror

I'd say move to Canada, but the situation is worse here. Not only is there the same lack of competition as above, but Rogers now even throttle all and any encrypted traffic on large portions of their network (mine included).

The only workaround to this is to, err, suck it up.

I wish this was going to cripple them, but if a Star article failed to get any response out of Torontonians, I think we're stuck with it.

Why waste so much money? It's now technically and financially feasible to have solar thermal as baseload, with heat reserves for night time and cloud. Indeed, solar baseload could become so cheap that it makes nuclear irrelevant and even competes with coal and gas... and that could be without Carbon Credits. "We're considering many projects in many states at the moment, and all of them are feasible," explains Mills, estimating that California and Texas alone have the potential to supply 96 per cent of all electricity in the United States. "The amount of area we require to generate all of the United States' electricity is 145 kilometres by 145 kilometres." It sounds large, but put into perspective, it's less area than the amount of U.S. land that's mined for coal..... http://www.thestar.com/columnists/article/262069/

They keep it under 3 crystal bells like like my grandma would store a precious shell from her trip to florida in '65 in. Look at the pic: http://www.thestar.com/article/255871

Well, I have the usual Californian's reaction to that.

If the "usual Californian's reaction" is myopic, self-centered, and indulgent, then you're entirely accurate. But California is a highly-populated state, and I refuse to believe that most Californians are as selfish as you are.

Even so, having lived up and down the California coast, I can tell you that it is by no means paradise, if by paradise you mean a place where the average person is willing to live without using heat and AC.

Yeah, that sounds like a ripe hell-hole. It certainly explains the vast quantities of cheap land out there on the California coast. Do you remember what happened in France a few years back when about 20,000 old people were not willing to live without AC? Something tells me their sacrifice was steeper than those who suffer the indignities of living up and down the idyllic California coast. Yes, I've been there. Yes, it's idyllic.

The real problems are (a) too many people

Bring on the misanthropy! Whom should we kill off first? Albertans? Texans? Tell us!

The Iraq war is nothing but a way of paying for the unnaturally cheap energy we get in the U.S.

You should get a blue ribbon for that clause. Not only is it one of the stupidest comments I've ever read about the war in Iraq, but it's also one of the stupidest things I've ever read. How, precisely, do we get "unnaturally" cheap energy? Does George W. Bush pray for it, and Jesus delivers? Do Scientologists audit it out of thin air? And how in the world does conducting an immensely expensive, futile war which necessitates massive expenditures in fuel for the thousands of trucks, humvees, stykers, planes, and helicopters "pay for" cheap energy? The *least* we could have done was steal Iraq's oil, but we're letting them keep it!

The interstate highway system is one big subsidy for fossil fuels.

Nevermind all of the millions of people who use the interstates to get to work, or the millions of trucks that use the interstates to get food and clothes on the shelves, and all those aforementioned people who depend on fossil fuels to do all those things. I suppose that you enlightened Northern Californians, living in your charming, 2.2 million dollar bungalows in Monterrey or Santa Cruz, know the right way that everyone else should live. We should all live like you do.

Global warming is going to be the ultimate subsidy for the 20th century's fossil fuel addiction, and it's a subsidy that's going to be paid for by my grandkids.

Whatever you do, don't read this!

When cities discuss zoning and density, the big issue is always traffic and parking; again, it amounts to a subsidy for the automobile.

All those people should just take the bus. If it works for you, it must work for everyone! Life is so simple in San Francisco! Why can't everyone live like that? They must simply be stupid and selfish. No wonder they inhabit inhabitable places like Alberta and Texas.

The trouble is that people are selfish, stupid, and shortsighted

And the answer is that you are selfless, intelligent, and enlightened. I get it, now! I should add you as a friend because you are clearly as prophetic as your ideas are fresh and new.

Right.

Because it wasn't the Liberals who tabled Bill C-60 (which in turn, wasn't defeated when the the Conservatives brought in a vote of non-confidence, admittedly on a completely different subject). It wasn't a Liberal MP who criticized the Harper administration for doing, and I quote, "zilch on this issue." [link] and who was busy this spring crafting a private members bill that would impose stiffer penalties on bootleggers. It's all the Conservative parties faults.

Christ, some of you Liberal mouthpieces make Microsoft FUD look reasonable.

I'm sure we Canadians should get a say, but since Lake Michigan is completely in the states, they probably don't care, and we probably can't do anything to stop them.

Would it really be enforced? Hell, it seems you can do 2-3 times the legal speed limit, t-bone a taxi cab, kill the driver and get 12 months of FUCKING HOUSE ARREST here in Canada.

The judge said they didn't intend in killing the driver, so house arrest? Guess reckless disreguard for human life has no meaning to the canadian legal system :P

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNew s/20060125/street_race_060125/20060125

http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/219249

So I guess we COULD download and use pirated material if we said we didn't intend on breaking the law while doing it?

Well, I'm living proof that more than double your 2.5 km number is wrong. The speed must be set slower, but my 1728/384 kbit link is working dandy at about 5.6 km, TYVM. No remotes, either.

Also, in Ontario/Quebec, you will sometimes find DSL in very remote areas nowadays, areas that may serve fewer than 100 homes! I suppose Bell is losing money on that, but I highly doubt it considering how much pull they have with the CRTC to *not* service areas. That and providers offer service for $29.95 a month (Velcom, Teksavvy, plenty of others) with 5 mbit speeds and unlimited unshaped bandwidth anywhere in Ontario/Quebec. I suppose they could be losing money, but that makes no sense, because some of those ISPs don't even offer colocation, so that would mean they are losing money on the only service they offer.

>Coaxial cable is a far superior signal conductor to the phone lines used by DSL. Look it up, or take a basic physics course.

Yes, it's also a shared medium. Hands up on slashdotter's personal preference:

  - A connection to a 100 mbit hub that leads to the ISPs router with 1,000 other people connected to the same hub.
  - A 5 mbit direct connection to the ISPs router.

If those 1,000 other people use the network a lot, personally I'd go for the 5 mbit direct connection. But to each his own. I've seen cable be very fast for some (25 mbits!) when I see lots of satellite dishes in the area. I've seen cable be very slow for others (250 kbits!) in areas that have several high-rise apartment buildings (it's legal for landlords to ban satellites dishes in Canada, still). Choose your poison wisely. Of course, in Canada, Rogers performs incredible packet shaping (to the point BitTorrent runs at 5 kbits, and *ALL* encrypted traffic at similar speeds) and they give you the boot at 60 Gigs (They offer 100 Gigs, the only catch is the service costs $100 a month, whereas their 60 Gigs service is $44.95. More than twice the price for less than half the service! LOL!).

I think I'll stick with unlimited DSL considering I usually average 1 mbit of torrent at any time of day. It's still faster, even though the line speed is slower. And nobody gives me the boot. :-)

>That is sooooo untrue. In countries where guns are illegal, criminals don't use guns very often. In countries where guns are legal, deranged college students use them to kill their fellow students.

Canada isn't a country anymore then?

In fact, lets look up "canada shooting" in news.google.ca. Oh look, another story, totally unrelated, posted 7 hours ago. Canada's gun laws really do work! Obviously it's just a misprint by the thousands of newspapers covering these stories. And 12 hours ago, ya, another misprint. And 22 hours ago. What's up with the news here, they can't report anything right!

These are all unrelated stories. As a country like the USA has ten times the population, and therefore for the same crime rate ten times the same number of crimes, I expect I should see much more than one story posted per hour if I look up "USA shooting", right? But I don't, I find the number to be less. Why is that, if you are correct? Perhaps more misprints. It's an epidemic, I tells ya!

That agreement apparently refers to a different site:

In January, Odyssey won permission from the Spanish government to resume a suspended search for the wreck of the HMS Sussex, which was leading a British fleet into the Mediterranean Sea for a war against France in 1694 when it sank in a storm off Gibraltar.

Historians believe the almost-50-metre warship was carrying more than eight tonnes of gold coins to buy the loyalty of the Duke of Savoy, a potential ally in southeastern France. Odyssey believes those coins could also fetch more than $500 million.

But under the terms of an agreement, Odyssey will have to share any finds with the British government. The company will get 80 per cent of the first $45 million and about 50 per cent of proceeds thereafter.

http://www.thestar.com/News/article/215550

Incidentally, I mentioned those articles -- here's my collection. Let's get them out there to help build our industry.

They range in subject matters that assist me, with the majority being security related.

http://www.nbc4.com/money/11588165/detail.html
http://www.nbc4.com/money/11588165/detail.html
http://www.wired.com/news/columns/0,71032-0.html
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pag ename=thestar/Layout/Article_PrintFriendly&c=Artic le&cid=1135552209280&call_pageid=971358637177
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM .20050704.gtkirwanjul4/BNStory/specialScienceandHe alth/
http://www.redorbit.com/news/display/?id=176198
http://www.livescience.com/scienceoffiction/060619 _hyperactive_bob.html
http://www.labour.gov.on.ca/english/es/factsheets/ fs_faq.html
http://www.e.govt.nz/policy/open-source/open-sourc e-legal
http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/securi ty/privacy/story/0,10801,108101,00.html
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?com mand=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=storage&article Id=9004274&taxonomyId=19&intsrc=kc_feat
http://www.canada.com/components/print.aspx?id=f6f 548f7-9dfd-49f4-9ff8-8ae8f4a2e2fd
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr 2006/tc20060417_996365.htm?campaign_id=bier_tca
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_37 /b4000401.htm?chan=tc&campaign_id=bier_tcst0
http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,1 781895,00.html
http://panko.cba.hawaii.edu/ssr/Mypapers/whatknow. htm

Actually, as much as our (recently rudely ousted from power after more than a decade of self-indulgent rule) Liberal friends would like us to believe that Stephen Harper and the Tories are only interested in making Canada into a USA North (and that he keeps a dragon in his shed - really, we've seen it), it is a Liberal (Marlene Jennings of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce-Lachine) who is trying to bring our laws in line with our neighbours to the south (link). And criticizing the Tories for not doing anything about it yet.

I guess Stephen Harper really is the evil mastermind the left-wingers make him out to be. Imagine - getting your opponents to implement *your* hidden agenda. Sheer genius!

Anyway, the 1.1 million for 100kW is trivial. Even with these kind of numbers on a demonstration project, OptiSolar signed a deal for a 40MW Solar PV project in Sarnia on this same $0.42 contract. Optisolar doesn't actually have a commercial thin film Solar PV product. The /. coverage Canada to Build 40MW Solar Power Plant

I submitted this story back in January, shortly after the original clam about the spy coins was made and it was rejected. Original link is gone, but a similar one is available at http://www.thestar.com/News/article/170886.

Nobody made an effort to find out if it was a standard coin.
Wow Army defense contractors and Government 'intelligence' agencies

http://media.thestar.com/AP/0506dv_spy_coins_ISDN. mov

In other words, Canada.

Don't believe the FUD. Socialized health care is more efficient and cheaper per capita than your broken free market system:

http://www.thestar.com/News/article/204163

Nuclear power by standard technology requires enrichment.....in the US. In Ontario we have CANDU reactors which use natural (ie. 0.7% U235) Uranium (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candu). Granted there is one reactor up here that has a few channels fueled with slightly enriched (1% U235) fuel, as part of a demonstration intended to increase safety margins (http://www.brucepower.com/pagecontent.aspx?navuid =1221). But, for the most part, there is no enriching of fuel here. CANDUs could even be reconfigured to use spent fuel from lightwater reactors elsewhere (http://www.thestar.com/article/180615) or even weapons grade plutonium (http://www.nuclearfaq.ca/mox.htm) although transporting that stuff around is perhaps not the best idea I've ever heard.

If you are going to sell your old computers make sure you erase the hard drive first. Don't be like this clueless former Canadian Alliance party member who sold an old Powerbook that still contained party membership lists and other confidential info.

This was the adult option. If he didn't throw feces this isn't even the worst principal story of the month. http://www.thestar.com/News/article/198600

Well...

There is a school principal in Toronto who flung poo at a student.

http://www.thestar.com/News/article/198600

He made up plenty of it:

http://www.thestar.com/article/190493

(I like pretty much all of the Frank Miller work I have seen...)

It's difficult not to be skeptical when Canada just had it's coldest February in 28 years. http://www.thestar.com/News/article/188324 We had days where the temperature was around -40 C with the wind chill, and we were being warned about exposing our skin for longer than necessary for fear of frostbite. We did have a milder than normal winter overall, but it's difficult to feel panic about global warming when we're still getting record cold spells.

(Virtual) reality bites

"With the encroachment of big corporations, residents of Second Life say the online world is becoming second-rate, writes Murray Whyte"

This story was discredited, it's a mess of bad stat's and unfounded allegations that are not supported by the actual facts. The original Canada.com story stated
Thursday, January 25, 2007 As much as 50 per cent of the world's pirated movies come from Canada, prompting the film industry to threaten to delay the release of new titles in this country. (someone note the bolded words, I could write as little as 0 % and not change the meaning of the sentence, why? Because it's a weak garbage sentence that implies far more then it supports.)
The link that you posted was a little more bald in it's assertions, but not really that different. Try reading this link to the Toronto Star to see where reasonable minds dispute the "facts" presented by the American Media Companies.

.... That you can read here: http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/187051

Note this quote from the above story:

"This is a company which apparently does not like to have to conform with antitrust decisions," said EU Commission spokesman Jonathan Todd.

Next they'll be saying that the sky is blue and fish swim. Thanks for stating the obvious.

I wouldn't pat yourself on the back too much. As much as I think this is an excellent ruling, the Harper government is working to change the way judges are selected. This way they have fewer problems stepping on civil liberties and fewer problems with the courts striking down laws (see same sex marriage)

Software works in the same way.

If you are using your Web browser to do critical jobs like online banking, you should continue to use the latest iteration of Firefox 1.5. The latest iteration is version 1.5.0.10. If you are still using Firefox 1.5, look under the "Help" option to find the option, "Check for Updates", which will enable your to upgrade to 1.5.0.10.

Continue using version 1.5 until 2007 April 24. On that date, Mozilla programmers will cease fine-tuning version 1.5.

After April 24, switch to version 2 of Firefox. Waiting 2 more months before using version 2 will give vital time to Mozilla programmers to fix any critical problems in the new version.

You mean this story: http://www.thestar.com/News/article/182470

Some quotes:

The family's complicated journey began after the couple fled Iran and arrived in Toronto in January 1995. They lived here for 10 years while seeking asylum, giving birth to a son. But on Dec. 6, 2005, with all legal avenues exhausted, the parents were deported back to Iran.

Apparently, that wasn't good enough:

Once released from custody, they again fled, reaching Turkey with the help of relatives. They bought fake passports and eventually travelled to Guyana, the parents said.

On Feb. 4 they boarded a direct flight from Guyana to Toronto aboard Zoom Airlines, planning to seek refuge again in Canada. The boy's father said the plane was diverted to Puerto Rico after a passenger suffered a mid-flight heart attack.

Something tells me they weren't attempting to enter Canada legally. And further:

Once they disembarked, U.S. officials discovered the family was travelling with the fake Greek passports. They were detained for five days, then flown to the T. Don Hutto Family Detention Center in Taylor, Tex., the boy's father said.

I of course have no idea why Americans would be suspicious of Iranians travelling under phony Greek passports.

Now granted, the child is innocent, but where should he be sent? Does he have relatives in the U.S.? Did Canada request custody? Send him back to Iran? I understand wanting to place the blame on the United States rather than your own country, but it sure as hell appears there is plenty of blame to go around.

As a side note, I don't care if Canada tightens their restrictions, since it's their country and their right to control who enters it. Those experiencing thrills of schadenfreude as Americans are sent back should realize that most Americans probably feel the same way.

the liberals only pay attention to self-promoting issues

Unlike the Conservatives? You mention trust funds (I think you mean income trusts, genius. Trust fund is what enables Mulrooney Jr to spend all his time at pissups)? Do I need to remind you that your precious Cons campaigned on the promise to eliminate those trusts? And then reneged on their promise and weren't going to do it until the opposition hammered them to do so in parliament?

Also, how about Con Heritage Minister Bev Oda and her tax payer funded limo to the Junos? Or how about how Bev Oda is thoroughly owned by the Recording Industry? You know, Hollywood's Member of Parliament?

I think the Libs deserved to get ousted, but anyway you slice it, he Cons are worse.

They did nothing about it (or anything else for that matter) when they were in power.

You're right. Far worse to do nothing than to sell out your nation to corporate interests.

There is a theory that back in the way back, human hunters used to chase animals into a daze. They just ran them to exhaustion. Pretty cool.

http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/resolve?i d=doi:10.1086/508695&erFrom=-4804578890453717243Gu est
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persistence_hunting
http://www.thestar.com/sciencetech/article/164829

And by 'theory' and 'way back', I mean that there are people that still do it today...

And what do you mean that I have to count that giant bag of Doritos as calories? I just had it for a snack, not at dinner time.

"Engineers who are doing rote jobs like checking valves obviously aren't very useful as thinkers, so they're stuck doing mindless things."

$630-million lawsuit against engineering companies

Suncor alleges in a Dec. 28 statement that the cause of the fire was the failure of a nozzle that didn't meet specifications outlined in a 1999 agreement.
The company says the nozzle, used in the fractionation process that separates the oilsands substance into various oils, was to have been built with a stainless steel cladding. It became severely corroded because it had not been clad and lined with stainless steel.
"The design contemplated that Nozzle N19 would operate for a period of at least 15 years; however Nozzle N19 catastrophically failed approximately 3.25 years after it was put into service," say the documents, filed in Calgary Court of Queen's Bench.
Suncor alleges that "the release of hydrocarbons and subsequent fore would not have occurred, had the stainless steel cladding, lining or overlay been properly applied to Nozzle N19."

Then perhaps you should read this link in the Toronto Star (time limited) and see that the iPhone is nothing really innovative and is in fact still behind the offerings in Asia. Also, it states that the iPhone is only able to utilize the 2G network, rather unimpressive when you realize that Telus in Canada has 3G available. Lastly, with that price tag, only fools with too much money will buy it.

The article below in case the link dies.

Japan far ahead of iPhone

Cellphones there used for everything from buying milk to booking a train
January 12, 2007
Bruce Wallace
SPECIAL TO THE STAR

TOKYO-Tomoaki Kurita presides over racks of cellphones lined up outside his shop on a busy sidewalk in Harajuku, Tokyo's catwalk of youth street culture where people attracted by the riot of phone options can stop to flip open and fondle the latest models of what the Japanese call a "keitai."

From behind his busy counter, Kurita giggles when asked about the excitement in the United States over the arrival of Apple's iPhone cellphone that also could be used to download music and surf the Internet.

"Sounds like business as usual," he says.

As stock markets swooned and techies buzzed over Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs' long-awaited entry into the cellphone market, Japanese consumers could be excused for wondering: Why the fuss?

Many Japanese had a hard time buying Jobs' hype about "reinventing" the phone. The revolution is well underway in Japan, where cellphones are used for everything from navigating your way home by GPS to buying movie tickets and updating your blog from wherever you are.

Oh yeah. Japanese cellphones also download music, surf the Net and make phone calls.

They've been a natural extension of daily life the past few years, spurred by the Japanese decision to be the first country to upgrade to third-generation cellphone networks, or 3G, which increased broadband capabilities and allowed for greater, faster transmission of voice and data. Apple's iPhone, by comparison, will operate on a 2G network.

It was 3G that sparked the boom in music downloads that makes it common for phones to be used as portable digital music players here.

And it is 3G that has led the Japanese into a world where they can watch live TV on their phones, use the phone as a charge card to ride trains or buy milk at the corner store or take a taxi, and conduct conference calls between as many as five people. Ticket Pia, Japan's major entertainment ticketing agency, has been selling email tickets to cellphones since 2003.

Most observers contend the U.S. has begun to close the gap on cellphone use in Japan, South Korea and Europe. Music downloads by cellphone are rising in the U.S. - and the long-term threat to iPod's lead in downloads was a major force behind Apple's entry into cellphones. Other functions are following.

"We plan to introduce one-way video conferencing in the U.S. this year," says Melissa Elkins of LG Electronics MobileCOMM, referring to a function that would allow one person to be visible to the other during a phone call. Two-way telephony has been available in South Korea for about 18 months, Elkins says.

But the biggest difference between the U.S. and countries like Japan is the culture the keitai has created. To wait for a light on a Tokyo street corner or ride a train these days is to see crowds of people with their heads down, thumbs pumping as they send photos, text message or play online games on their phone. Increasingly, they are reading books and manga comics on their phones, too.

The keitai has become an extension of personality.

There is software to create a personalized home page on the cellphone. Young men and women customize their phones, hang posses of tiny dolls off them, cover them with stickers and paints.

"I like it because it's cute," says Mami Nawa, 23, as she shows off the dial pad she has painted in purple and pink to

Let us assume for the moment that there really was a plot. Instead of a photo-op and a few headlines, the smart thing to do would have been to continue efforts to infiltrate the group, gather more evidence and when there is a case, quietly arrest the suspects and let the justice system do it's job. Of course, I am making the huge assumption that the people in charge of the investigation were not subject to political interference at home, or abroad.

You are also assuming that they weren't on the verge of attacking. They were.

Unfortunately, the people who make homeland security policies seem to make decisions based on theater rather than plain-old boring police work. One gets you headlines, and the other gets you results. What a shame that massaging their own egos is priority #1.

In this case the result was a plot broken up just before it was launched. I rather prefer that to cleaning up after an attack.

Heathrow terror suspect set to be extradited Pakistan today cleared the way for the handover of Rashid Rauf, the Briton alleged to have masterminded the plot to blow up trans-Atlantic passenger planes, after a surprise move by a judge to drop terror charges against him.

British officials have been trying to extradite the 25-year-old from Birmingham for five months.

The dramatic ruling by a court in Rawalpindi is being seen as part of an agreement to speed up his return to the UK where Scotland Yard detectives want to question Mr Rauf about the Heathrow plot and his possible links to the 7/7 suicide bombers in London. ......

The official also said they have been asked by Britain to reveal no more details about their investigations into Mr Rauf.

I thought it was now common knowledge that the whole thing was a sham.

What you refer to as "common knowledge" is more commonly referred to as disinformation.

Dry run was planned: U.S LONDON - The terrorist attack foiled by British authorities today was aimed at blowing up as many as 10 airplanes on transatlantic flights and plotters had hoped to stage a dry run within the next two days, U.S. intelligence officials said.

The actual attack would have followed within days. Early reports allege the involvement of the Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Taiba, or LeT.

How Britain prevented another 9/11 A British government source said an intercepted message from Pakistan telling the bombers to "go now" had triggered the arrests. Security sources said they had been planning to break up the cells in the next few days, but were forced to move earlier to prevent huge loss of life; they believed the attacks were to take place in the next two days.......

The American news network NBC quoted an unnamed counterterrorism official as saying that more than one of the plotters had prepared a martyrdom video tape, while at least one had attended a terrorist training camp in Pakistan.

Police hunt 'two dozen' terror cells in UK The full extent of the terror threat facing Britain became apparent on Saturday night as security sources revealed that 'up to two dozen' terror investigations were operating across the country and that a number of suspects associated with last week's plot to bring down 10 airliners remained at large.

Pakistani intelligence sources alleged that one of the men arrested in connection with the bomb plot had been held following the London terror attack on 7 July last year.

British security sources also linked the present investigation to that atrocity, saying the operation that led to Thursday's arrests began days after the 7 July attack. There are also claims that voicemails discovered after the first attack link the two events.

Terror detectives 'find bomb kit' Police probing an alleged plot to bring down flights have found a suitcase containing items which could be used to construct a bomb, the BBC has learned......

A police source told the BBC the case contained "everything you would need to make an improvised device".

I just blogged about this because I read an article in the "Toronto Star" about the launch of Vista in Canada. The best part is the last paragraph:
"Microsoft doesn't have to be the leader. They are a fast follower," Sharwood said.

Well, here in Canada, they're known as the CRIA, and they routinely get their asses handed to them when they try this shit, so they're largely ignored. I assumed the rest of the world felt the same, but sadly, that doesn't seem to be.

Even labels in Canada have split from the CRIA, due to disagreements in the way they do business (including labels for larger acts like Rush and Sara McLachlan). The CRIA was founded to protect Canadian artists and companies, one of the reasons these labels left was because the CRIA was more interested in protecting US companies, than Canadian artists.

Is there anything to indicate the CRIA, RIAA, and the equivalent body in other nations are actually the same companies, though? Seems to me calling the RIAA an international organization is a bit of a stretch. They may have similar goals, but I don't think they're one and the same. Although, I suppose if they're comprised of the same corporations (Sony, EMI, Universal, Warner, etc), they might as well be one entity.

In discussing the copyright lobbying situation in Canada, you missed an item that is by far the most insane thing. One part of the Canadian government is literally funding the copyright lobbyists to lobby the rest of the government to impose increasingly oppressive copyright law.

An internal email explains the motivation to do this was "we should have streamlined, stable funding to an organization whose structure, purpose and activities suit our own policy needs.".

And I really love this entertaining item from the corporate lobbyist group to be funded : "the job of taking on the educational sector on copyright reform is clearly a huge and major undertaking" and that that education was a "well heeled, publicly funded lobby... devoted to abolishing creators' rights on the Internet.". Buahahahahaha.

The copyright situation is pretty bad here in the US, but to the best of my knowledge our government has never taken the mindbogglingly insane step of paying industry groups to lobby itself. That's just.... wow.

-

Nothing like coal and water.

Plus as privately managed companies they have all kinds of fun stuff which I suppose is exactly why the Republicans are "cutting costs" in this area.

Never, ever, use "this" as the only word in the link text.

The above linked URL, fixed.

They also threw a guy in jail, for nine months. http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pag ename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&pubid =968163964505&cid=1152784687286&col=968705899037&c all_page=TS_World&call_pageid=968332188854&call_pa gepath=News/World

What the defenders of thought crime aka "hate speech" don't recognize, deliberately or ignorantly, is how easy the law is to abuse. The Canadian law was almost immediately used abusively by a politician to attack his opponent. The law is also so vaguely written it can cover just about anyone for any occasion. As well, the law includes specifics like "hate" against immigrants. Don't like the country getting flooded with illegal and legal immigration? Voice your opposition and it's deemed hate speech. Wronged by a designated "minority"? You're just a racist/anti-semite and anything you say against them is hate speech. God forbid a minority group gets control of a part of government; you can't speak out because it will be labeled, that right, hate speech. Don't like what Israel is doing? You know.. hate speech. It's also like how the Bush administration labels anyone who doesn't agree with their atrocities terrorists and supporters. The root of these various things are forbidden speech. "hate speech" laws aren't a slippery slope, they are a free fall.

In Ontario, Canada, he would be out of a house.

Besides the fact that Canada is not immune from Islamist terrorism, the idea of this kind of attack being a response to a legitimate grievance of any kind or a root cause that can be mitigated by any kind of appeasement is easily refuted by looking at the terrorist attacks in Jordan or Islamic bloc sanctions against Denmark costing 134 million euros in five months.

From the news three months ago:

Plot began in chat room

Michael Geist writes a weekly column on law and technology for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest newspaper. The Star is a significant venue because its middle brow (not tabloid, but not the New York Times), and always has a populist favour.

He is also frequently called on as a commentor on CBC radio (the public broadcaster, which by law can be heard by Canadians anywhere in the country). CBC radio recieves no ads and no coporate sponsorship (unlike PBS), so is generaly balanced on controversial issues.

In Canada at least, someone like Geist has a greater chance of reaching Jaques Six-Pack than he might have elsewhere.

Gee, that's interesting. I seem to remember ISRAEL invaded LEBANON, not the other way around.

Hezbollah (Hizbullah?) crossed into Israel and kidnapped two Israeli soldiers.

Which is the most simple explanation? That a bunch of people who don't have passports, plane tickets or (if the Register article is to be believed) the remotest understanding of explosives presented a genuine threat? Or that someone didn't really care what kind of threat they represented wanted to present themselves as the good guys by having "saved" us from this threat?

I am often amazed that even so sharp a tool as Occam's razor is unable to cut through the nonesense that gets posted on Slashdot.

Lets try this: It was a genuine plot, under invenstigation for a long period of time, (one of many) that was stopped when they decided to try a dry run. Cash, guns, and a bomb making kit have apparently been found. No word yet on if they are related to the suspected terrorist training going on in various places in the UK. This was as much about "saving Joe Lieberman" as the terrorist activity against Australia... which is to say, not related at all. (Maybe you've heard of the Bali bombing? It is just one of many attacks against Australians and the West in general.) There are many more like it in: Phillipines, India, Russia, Saudi Arabia, etc, none of which are designed to prop up a US president who can't be reelected any way..

Why are we so often the target of terrorism, and not other countries? How come Canada doesn't have to worry about terrorist attacks in their country, despite their defense budget being miniscule compared to ours and their equally (if not more) free and open atmosphere?

Its a mystery to me. Chuckle.

Do you think Palestinians simply have a genetic defect which compels 17 year-old girls who once aspired to be journalists or teachers to strap bombs to their chest and blow up Israelis? Why would a nation with no standing army want to purposely instigate war with the second most well-armed nation in the world--thanks to the billions of dollars of annual defense aid from the U.S.? Because they've got some sort of terrorist gene and the Israeli government just isn't doing enough to protect its citizens?

Here are some reasons the Palestinian Arabs commit acts of terror:

• They are proxies for a wider Arab world who will not tolerate a Jewish state in lands perceived to be Arab and Muslim
• They are victims of a philosophy of hate and death (Wahabism) and are goaded by spiritual leaders
• They cannot successfully wage conventional war against a powerful enemy
• Stalemate with Israel is still preferable to them than capitulation
• They know they cannot be annihilated by Israel because of world opinion so they don't fear reprisals
• There is no indigenious economic opportunity in the West Bank

The Palestinians have received billions in direct US aid, as do Eqypt and Israel

The fact that the military industrial complex exerts enormous influence over our government and is exploiting our position as the world's superpower for its financial interests has nothing to do with the creation of terrorists, I'm sure.

And so it should! Did you see the way the MIC lullabied Zarqawi's ass? Wow!

Next victim please...

The Dutch don't have racial problems?
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pag ename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1 150927809973&call_pageid=968256290204&col=96835011 6795

Really?
http://www.expatica.com/source/site_article.asp?su bchannel_id=19&story_id=30545&name=One+in+10+Dutch +people+are+racist%3A+poll

REALLY!?!?!?!?!?
http://www.antislavery.org/breakingthesilence/slav e_routes/slave_routes_netherlands.shtm

Apparently to most of my fellow Americans, Holland is just a magical place filled with Pot, wooden shoes, dikes (Is levy the new PC word?) and Windmills.