They didn't 'leave their back door open' to a thief... they effectively put a table on the front lawn piled high with music with a big sign saying 'come on in, copy all you want!'.... and they shall get what they deserve.
Are they just idiots? There is no excuse here. They knew what their software was doing and if they didn't know they should not have been using it.
Don't like copyrights?... then don't buy the material, don't use it in any form - legitimate or pirated, don't consume the content in any way at all. If you actually have some talent, make your own!
Only by completely ignoring the industry will they get desparate and be forced to relax the licenses they have legally chosen to apply to their property.
Is your life really so empty that you can't get by without your stolen music?
I know americans tend to have a problem with geography, but come on, you must know Canada is just next door... not many light years away. And guess what! We have Wal Mart stores too! And they base their pay on our minimum wage!
Exciting stuff huh.
By the way, I worked while going through university at a gas station and at McDonalds... In 1995, 12 years ago, when I graduated and left those minimum wage based jobs I was making $8.50/hr at the station, $7.55 at McDonalds.
You are right about prices... Many Canadian companies have not passed on the savings that we should be getting since your brutal federal finances made your dollar self destruct. For example cars cost 5 to 8 thousand more up here... but our economy is booming, people have got plenty of money to buy regardless.
... except that we have wal marts up here too, and up here they pay based on our minimum wage. It's just sad that in the 'great' U. S. of A. you have to make $3 / hr more just to meet our minimum wage.
Heck I made $8.50/hr at a gas station 12 years ago... and $7.55/hr at McDonalds at the same time, and i was not a manager.
That actually fits right into my 50 cent comment... here in British Columbia, minimum wage is $8.00... and considering how your dollar has lost its value, the exchange rate to canadian is no longer significant.
I'm talking about the people who work for walmart that must concurrently receive social assistance.
Taking people off the welfare rolls is awesome... If that's what walmart is doing.
Paying them so little money that they must work full time AND draw social assistance... effectively having the taxpayers paying part of wal mart's payroll should be criminal.
It simply prooves that wal mart is 'dumping' products on the market in an anti-competitive way... they are effectively selling products for less than what they cost and having the taxpayers pick up the bill.
yes, absolutely... the cabbies should be allowed to scam every nickel they can from their customers by taking indirect routes.
They should be allowed to get away with all the crap they do! Yes, we should encourage them to shit in the bushes around rapit transit stops, they should be allowed to abandon blind customers that have certified guide dogs... and yes, cabbies should get into yelling matches with you when you dare to pay them by credit card instead of cash!
Power to the cabbies! Screw the people who ride with them!
Personally I think it should be on the cabbies themsevles, and the car.
Here in Vancouver BC, Canada, our cabbies SUCK MAJOR ASS. The cabbies are openly fighting against the measures the city is taking to ensure fair customer service for our citizens and tourists.
GPS tracking would expose how the cabbies will scam you any chance they can by taking indirect routes. It would prove that cabbies violate all posted speed limits.
Tracking the cabbies so closely would expose the locations where they all gather to take a shit in the bushes... For example next to the walking path at the Edmonds Skytrain station in Burnaby... when there is a McDonald's restaurant with a clean public washroom only 2 minutes away!
The tracking system would help expose how the bastard cabbies illegally refuse service... taking short trips but denying customers who need to travel out of the downtown core. In Vancouver you must get into the cab before you say where you are going... or risk eating their dust as they say no and take off. And don't you dare mention that you are paying by credit card until after you get to your destination! I've seen cabbies get infuriated over not being paid in cash. But screw them, I always pay by credit card... I won't enable them to skip out on their taxes by not reporting the cash they bring in.
Of course the GPS system won't help with other problems with Vancouver cabbies. People with certified guide dogs are often denied by the cabbies for religious reasons. They are required to stay with the customer until another cab arrives to take the person... but they usually don't.
Apparently Allah has no sympathy for people trying to get through their lives without their eyesight. Somehow when a Muslim person freely chooses to become a cab driver, knowing exactly what the job will require of him, he can somehow still be excused from serving some of the people who need him the most for religious reasons! There is no infringement of religious freedoms happening... he is free to worship whatever myth he wants, if a job is not compatible with the religous choices he's made then he should have chosen another line of work!
The total lack of any business sense shown by the parent clearly exposes him as an NDP hack who is upset that the Liberals did something about the problem.
Of course if the NDP in general had any business sense, they wouldn't have more than doubled our provincial debts while claiming their budgets were balanced.
The environmental problems with the smelter in Trail are easily a couple orders of magnitude less than the environmental problems created in the chinese 'recycling' villages.
Perhaps the people of BC wouldn't be taxed so much if the former NDP government hadn't spent 10 years unionizing everything, destroying the BC economy by ruining all investor confidence in the resource industries, and more than doubling our provincial debts by spending $20 Billion more than they had while claiming their budgets were balanced (recall the 'fudget budgets'?).
If it weren't for the current liberal government (despite their own flaws) running the province as a business instead of as a socialist welfare state, provincial bankrupcy would be the problem in BC, not high taxation.
Everyone be scared! Everyone scream at the evil things portrayed in the article!... Or, instead you can educate yourself.
Generally people have no clue what happens in the mining industry, how metals are actually extracted from the ground and refined. I LOVE it when I see people protesting the mining industry in general, while using their cell phones, full of metals, while wearing clothes that were made on metal machines, with their metal car or bike parked nearby. They have no clue. It's great fun showing them the irony of their actions.
This ignorant FUD article is no different.
If it wasn't for smelters, the computer parts being recycled would never have existed in the first place! but people read the headlines and just assume the worst.
What happens when you recycle a pop can?... it gets melted down in a smelter. What happens when your car is recycled?... it gets melted down in a smelter. What happens when to pretty much any metal product when it is no longer useful?... it gets melted down in a smelter.
It's about time the same happened to computer parts.
The government of British Columbia used to sell surplus computers and monitors as scrap.
The news media here caused great embarassment to the BC government a few years ago when they exposed the fact that the scrap ended up in the shocking Chinese 'recycle' system we've all seen on TV... where peasants smash and burn the parts in the open air of their villages and manually stir vats of acids filled with the metallic ashes to recover the metals, where they let all the chemicals run down the streets into the local soils and water sources.
So the BC government actually did something about it.
Smelting it here in BC in a controlled manner where emissions are regulated, where thousands of people will NOT have their lives greatly shortened by the process, where ground water, lakes, rivers, and soil will NOT be destroyed by the process, sounds like a much better system to me.
Yes, please, recommend some good reading for me... I'm sure there's plenty of books in your school system you could have me read.... oh wait, i forgot, your 'Every child left behind' program has eliminated reading from your kid's curriculum, making any remaining books a waste of space in your schools.
I'd like to officially present to you the slashdot award for MOST IGNORANT DUMB FUCK OF THE WORLD.
The mere thought that Canadians are mired in nationalistic thinking... coming from an AMERICAN?!? That has got to be the biggest joke written in slashdot this year!
Yes, we have taken many of your draft dodgers over our history... maybe this is why there's so little reason, and so much war-mongering on your side of the border. All the people that could see through your government's lies came up here!
We have every right to criticize America! You screw up everything you touch! You create most of your enemies by trampling around the world like its your own backyard! You've stripped away the most basic rights of your people that your ancesters fought for independance for! You abandon your own people after major hurricanes! Some of you fools want to eliminate science in schools and teach religion in it's place!
YOU put 'supporting our president' above all logic, all reason, and all evidence before invading Iraq!... In such an extreme way that when some american women spoke their opinion, as is their right, it started a national uprising!... The Dixie Chicks have long since been proven correct. They were able to stick it out.
Learn some world history. Learn about WWI and Vimy Ridge. Learn about what Canada did in WWII... We had our own beach to invade on D-Day. I bet you didn't know that! one of the toughest to invade, and we took it faster than you took any of your beaches! How about Italy? It was Canada that Freed a good chunk of Italy! How about Holland? It was Canada that Freed Holland! How about the thousands of Canadian merchant marines that dies bringing supplies to europe to keep the Allied war effort going?
Learn about more than just the US point of view. You have no clue!
6 Billion people agree... its the US that has the most self righteous, stupid, ignorant, and patheticly nationalistic 'thinkers'.
Tell me who it was that got into New Orlean's lower 9th ward to save thousands of hurricane victims?... CANADA! First! Our rescue teams! LONG BEFORE YOUR OWN FORCES WENT ANYWHERE NEAR HELPING THOSE PEOPLE WHO NEEDED IT MOST! We only cared that people needed help, we didn't ignore them for being black! Your country has 10x our population, a far bigger economy, a far stronger military... but it was CANADA that saved those victims on your soil!
WE knew there was no justifiable reason to invade Iraq, while you ran in listening to Bush's easily disproven lies! We knew that as bad as Hussein was, Iraq was already contained and relatively stable, Hussein kept Al Qeada out to protect his own power, and that disturbing things would kill far more innocent civilians than Hussein ever did! Tell me, how many millions of innocent civilians has the US killed in it's loosing war? How many millions of Iraqi's that didn't care about the US before now want to see you dead because of how you've ruined their lives? How many new enemies have you created for yourselves here?
WE DO support the war in Afghanistan, the REAL source of the power behind 911! WE are the forces in Afghanistan that are stepping out away from the safe areas to clear out Al Qeada while other countries sit in safety.
WE lost 42 Canadians in 911... it wasn't just Americans that died that day.
WE, like you, have also lost more armed forces lives fighting Al Qeada than we lost in 911, 66 as of two days ago.
WE DON'T support nuclear military dictatorships! (your best friends, Pakistan)
WE DIDN'T CREATE Osama Bin Laden... YOU DID by training and funding him in the 80's to fight your battles against the Soviets. And he is slowly bankrupting the USA with the war, using the same technique that he used against the soviets that led to the end of the cold war and collapse of the USSR.
Well I guess I do have some sympathy for your problems getting into canada when you chose the french side. Although those Canadian border guards did suck, they probably weren't even armed.
I would have taken a different approach and said nothing to the customs officers except for "I know that I have the right to be served in English or French, and I chose English". However, if it happened while flying into Quebec, say to drive from Gatineau into Ottawa, all bets are off. The Canadian Constitution does not fully apply in Quebec. They literally have language police that enforce laws regarding the prominence of french and suppression of English in many situations. But hey, thats their rules and your choice to enter their jurisdiction. When in Rome...
Out on the west coast, i was forced to take high school french for university entrance... despite Mandarin, Cantonese, Japonese, and East Indian languages being far more prominent here.
-- not surprising as you are, after all, a Canook. First, you are ascribing behavior to Americans in general what is really the behavior (both traitorous and fraudulent) of the transnational corporations
You stereotype me... and then in the very next sentance explain that my error is in stereotyping Americans.
... Now you know why I do stereotype Americans, if in fact you understood the above sentance.
Then... you expose that you think Microsoft is a software company. No. They, like every other publicly owned company are a for profit business that must generate wealth for their shareholders. Their goal is to make profits, pay stock dividends, increase shareholder value. It doesn't matter if they do this with crappy software, the point is the profit, and we all know they make incredible profits so they are obviously doing a lot of things right with those highly educated people they hire.
I dont treat America the way you indicate, in fact i'm shocked America even has border guards! Why have guards when you have no respect for your own borders and treat the world as if your laws apply everywhere?... except of course your laws that are supposed to protect the rights of people, which you no longer apply to even your own citizens.
I'm not at all delusional, I can see very clearly that you screwed up big time somewhere and have some major regrets that you can't deal with... If you really were once a developer of products used by 1 in 6 people of the world... but are now lucky to get work as a labourer.
Wow, it must really sting for you to have thrown out such an advantage. I can see why you are bitter.
When NAFTA was being formulated, I was very much against it. The USA refused to cover important Canadian export resources, leaving Canada wide open to be screwed on Salmon and soft wood lumber, and many other things... which the USA proceeded to do over and over again. In the case of Softwood Lumber, the USA lost... and refused to respect 6 international trade rulings, which proved that Canada never dumped lumber on the US market. But screwing your best neighbour is the American way isn't it?
But, today, I can see that NAFTA has actually been a large benefit to Canada despite all the ways the USA has used it to screw us over. Sure, JUST LIKE YOU, we lost entire sectors of our economy, especially manufacturing to Mexico... but 10 times more jobs were created in other industries because of NAFTA. Our Federal finances have been in SURPLUS for 10 years! Our Federal debt is DECREASING!, Our economy has boomed over the last 10 years, like no other time in our history!
Meanwhile look at your economy. Look at your federal finances!... China just has to drop the slightest hint that they may drop some of the massive American debt they've financed, and your economy takes another crazy step backwards and your dollar drops a couple more percent! Just look at the price of gold in US dollars, in the last 5 years it's gone from $250 / ounce to $650 an ounce... purely due to the devaluation of your dollar! Hardly at all from supply and demand of the actual resource! If it wasn't so tragic, the way the USA has messed up it's finances would be freakin hilarious! You've totally squandered the benefits that NAFTA gave you.
And finally, to shred apart the last point in your pathetic story...
I've been exposing the problems with the president YOU gave yourselves for years, as well as the american people abandoning their responsibility to defend their constitutional rights, and your judges that ignore their job and allow unconstitutional laws such as the Patriot Act to stand. Hell as a good observant Canadian, I'm a better American than you are!
I have no doubt at all the reason for MS coming to Canada. US customs block every temporary work visa they can, with no regard for how the american companies with their american employees will be hurt.
It must be an utter nightmare for MS to bring in the smartest developers available around the world, enriching the intellectual capacity of the USA, helping an American company grow wealth for their American shareholders.
In an unrelated field, my wife, who is a Canadian with two science related bachelor's degrees and a professional registration has been blocked twice from entering the USA on temporary work visas by ignorant american customs officers.
And she was going to perform work needed by American companies that were not able to find qualified American professionals. High end specialized scientific work... we aren't talking landscaping and fruit picking, which you Americans insist on passing off to foreign workers when you could do it yourself.
The first time, the company she was going to consult for made a small mistake on their reference letter. She had to wait for several hours... and be right there at the fax machine in the customs office at the moment an updated letter arrived from the client. If she was in the bathroom when it arrived, too bad, she would have been denied. What a stupid system! She eventually got in, after missing a connecting flight, and the USA company that needed her services, was able to carry on with their business of making money for their American shareholders.
The second instance... The USA company that needed her services just happened to be owned by a Canadian parent company. The dumbass customs officer would not investigate the facts, he could not comprehend the idea that the USA company was a real, USA registered company, with real assets, with real USA employees. He decided the USA company was an empty shell, and that it must really be the Canadian parent company that called her to work in the USA. The officer threatened to declare my wife's actions as being a fraud, which would have banned her for life from working in the USA. He refused entry to my wife.
This fuckwad didn't have even the most basic understanding of the situation... he didn't even understand that for any fraud to have been commited by my wife there would have to have been a criminal intent to deceive. At most there was a misunderstanding created by the American employees of the American company. Not fraud.
Her client nearly lost her services, which would have delayed their project, which would have meant laying off American citizens from their jobs, and would have delayed or pre-empted millions of dollars of economic activity in a remote area of the USA where the jobs are desparately needed.
But many hours later, after missing her connecting flight, she did get through... did the asshat customs officer do a proper investigation and let her proceed?... NO. He was off shift. A different officer gave her the work visa and let her enter the USA without any hesitation, without reviewing the incident with the first custom's officer, or even asking her anything that might have resolved the confusion. He probably wasn't even aware that there had been any incident.... so we went from a brainless shit who was going to block my wife and put a group of American citizens out of their jobs, to a brainless shit who let her pass with no questions asked, who didn't even try to resolve the first shit's concerns. Now that's just awesome security! Tell me, Do you feel safe?
There was another incident... my wife's boss was flying to south america for work, with some simple scientific field gear with her. She had a brief stop over in the USA where she never left the secured area of the airport, she just needed to go through customs (even though she was in limbo, not actually departing for a US destination), and then onw
Significant atmostpheric drag occurs AT much hiGHer elevaTIonS. To say that it starts to have an effect at 75 miles is nuts.
tHE International space station constantly looSEs eleVATion dUe to atmostpheric drag, it's usual elevation is around 500 miles. When the space shuttle visits, it usually burns its rockets to push the ISS back to an elevation close to that.
Just last year the ISS was in a very low orbit becuase solar storms had caused the upper atmosphere to bulge, placing more drag on the station.
(my keyboard is failing, sorry about the mixed case words)
Slashdot Mirror
Growing up, I had a brother that stole things ... mainly my things.
I couldn't hide my stuff well enough, he'd find it. Finally I'd get in trouble for leaving stuff out that he could steal.
Perhaps if the defendants had grown up with my brother, they wouldnt be in this situation.
You actually pay the recordable media levee?
I always figured people who steal music should use stolen media on which to store it. Only seems right.
They didn't 'leave their back door open' to a thief ... they effectively put a table on the front lawn piled high with music with a big sign saying 'come on in, copy all you want!'. ... and they shall get what they deserve.
... then don't buy the material, don't use it in any form - legitimate or pirated, don't consume the content in any way at all. If you actually have some talent, make your own!
Are they just idiots? There is no excuse here. They knew what their software was doing and if they didn't know they should not have been using it.
Don't like copyrights?
Only by completely ignoring the industry will they get desparate and be forced to relax the licenses they have legally chosen to apply to their property.
Is your life really so empty that you can't get by without your stolen music?
The story so nice, they posted it twice. ... and still only 23 comments.
When did Wal Mart open a stor on Rigel 7?
... not many light years away. And guess what! We have Wal Mart stores too! And they base their pay on our minimum wage!
... In 1995, 12 years ago, when I graduated and left those minimum wage based jobs I was making $8.50/hr at the station, $7.55 at McDonalds.
... Many Canadian companies have not passed on the savings that we should be getting since your brutal federal finances made your dollar self destruct. For example cars cost 5 to 8 thousand more up here ... but our economy is booming, people have got plenty of money to buy regardless.
I know americans tend to have a problem with geography, but come on, you must know Canada is just next door
Exciting stuff huh.
By the way, I worked while going through university at a gas station and at McDonalds
You are right about prices
... except that we have wal marts up here too, and up here they pay based on our minimum wage. It's just sad that in the 'great' U. S. of A. you have to make $3 / hr more just to meet our minimum wage.
... and $7.55/hr at McDonalds at the same time, and i was not a manager.
Heck I made $8.50/hr at a gas station 12 years ago
Wow. $8.50
... here in British Columbia, minimum wage is $8.00 ... and considering how your dollar has lost its value, the exchange rate to canadian is no longer significant.
That actually fits right into my 50 cent comment
You've got it wrong buddy.
... If that's what walmart is doing.
... effectively having the taxpayers paying part of wal mart's payroll should be criminal.
... they are effectively selling products for less than what they cost and having the taxpayers pick up the bill.
I'm talking about the people who work for walmart that must concurrently receive social assistance.
Taking people off the welfare rolls is awesome
Paying them so little money that they must work full time AND draw social assistance
It simply prooves that wal mart is 'dumping' products on the market in an anti-competitive way
Far more than minimum wage? How much is 'far more' to you? 10 cents? 50 cents?
Than why do so many Wal Mart employees in California require social assistance to just to scrape by?
The authority of the NSA or any other government agency is meaningless.
You americans have let your government shred your constitution. Your judges don't have the balls to uphold it as is their duty.
Time after time your government has done whatever the hell they want regardless of authority. Wake up.
So you think cabbies should be allowed to avoid paying taxes by hiding the cash they take in?
... and you want to let them avoid their share of the taxes!
I'm not just talking tips, but the fares as well.
They use the road all day that was built with taxpayer money
yes, absolutely ... the cabbies should be allowed to scam every nickel they can from their customers by taking indirect routes.
... and yes, cabbies should get into yelling matches with you when you dare to pay them by credit card instead of cash!
They should be allowed to get away with all the crap they do! Yes, we should encourage them to shit in the bushes around rapit transit stops, they should be allowed to abandon blind customers that have certified guide dogs
Power to the cabbies! Screw the people who ride with them!
GPS on Cabbies is a great idea.
... For example next to the walking path at the Edmonds Skytrain station in Burnaby ... when there is a McDonald's restaurant with a clean public washroom only 2 minutes away!
... taking short trips but denying customers who need to travel out of the downtown core. In Vancouver you must get into the cab before you say where you are going ... or risk eating their dust as they say no and take off. And don't you dare mention that you are paying by credit card until after you get to your destination! I've seen cabbies get infuriated over not being paid in cash. But screw them, I always pay by credit card ... I won't enable them to skip out on their taxes by not reporting the cash they bring in.
... but they usually don't.
... he is free to worship whatever myth he wants, if a job is not compatible with the religous choices he's made then he should have chosen another line of work!
Personally I think it should be on the cabbies themsevles, and the car.
Here in Vancouver BC, Canada, our cabbies SUCK MAJOR ASS. The cabbies are openly fighting against the measures the city is taking to ensure fair customer service for our citizens and tourists.
GPS tracking would expose how the cabbies will scam you any chance they can by taking indirect routes. It would prove that cabbies violate all posted speed limits.
Tracking the cabbies so closely would expose the locations where they all gather to take a shit in the bushes
The tracking system would help expose how the bastard cabbies illegally refuse service
Of course the GPS system won't help with other problems with Vancouver cabbies. People with certified guide dogs are often denied by the cabbies for religious reasons. They are required to stay with the customer until another cab arrives to take the person
Apparently Allah has no sympathy for people trying to get through their lives without their eyesight. Somehow when a Muslim person freely chooses to become a cab driver, knowing exactly what the job will require of him, he can somehow still be excused from serving some of the people who need him the most for religious reasons! There is no infringement of religious freedoms happening
Ordinary paper doesn't stand up to exposure to water either.
But laminate it in a protective coating, like most people's birth certificates, and it will last a lifetime.
Carbon fibre is often used laminated with a resin, similar to fibreglass. The carbon fibre has the strength, the resin gives it the structure.
It sounds like the new carbon paper could do the same thing, but will be stronger and cheaper.
The total lack of any business sense shown by the parent clearly exposes him as an NDP hack who is upset that the Liberals did something about the problem.
Of course if the NDP in general had any business sense, they wouldn't have more than doubled our provincial debts while claiming their budgets were balanced.
The environmental problems with the smelter in Trail are easily a couple orders of magnitude less than the environmental problems created in the chinese 'recycling' villages.
Perhaps the people of BC wouldn't be taxed so much if the former NDP government hadn't spent 10 years unionizing everything, destroying the BC economy by ruining all investor confidence in the resource industries, and more than doubling our provincial debts by spending $20 Billion more than they had while claiming their budgets were balanced (recall the 'fudget budgets'?).
If it weren't for the current liberal government (despite their own flaws) running the province as a business instead of as a socialist welfare state, provincial bankrupcy would be the problem in BC, not high taxation.
The fee occurs when you BUY the product.
Dumbass.
Everyone be scared! Everyone scream at the evil things portrayed in the article! ... Or, instead you can educate yourself.
... it gets melted down in a smelter. ... it gets melted down in a smelter. ... it gets melted down in a smelter.
... where peasants smash and burn the parts in the open air of their villages and manually stir vats of acids filled with the metallic ashes to recover the metals, where they let all the chemicals run down the streets into the local soils and water sources.
Generally people have no clue what happens in the mining industry, how metals are actually extracted from the ground and refined. I LOVE it when I see people protesting the mining industry in general, while using their cell phones, full of metals, while wearing clothes that were made on metal machines, with their metal car or bike parked nearby. They have no clue. It's great fun showing them the irony of their actions.
This ignorant FUD article is no different.
If it wasn't for smelters, the computer parts being recycled would never have existed in the first place! but people read the headlines and just assume the worst.
What happens when you recycle a pop can?
What happens when your car is recycled?
What happens when to pretty much any metal product when it is no longer useful?
It's about time the same happened to computer parts.
The government of British Columbia used to sell surplus computers and monitors as scrap.
The news media here caused great embarassment to the BC government a few years ago when they exposed the fact that the scrap ended up in the shocking Chinese 'recycle' system we've all seen on TV
So the BC government actually did something about it.
Smelting it here in BC in a controlled manner where emissions are regulated, where thousands of people will NOT have their lives greatly shortened by the process, where ground water, lakes, rivers, and soil will NOT be destroyed by the process, sounds like a much better system to me.
Yes, please, recommend some good reading for me ... I'm sure there's plenty of books in your school system you could have me read. ... oh wait, i forgot, your 'Every child left behind' program has eliminated reading from your kid's curriculum, making any remaining books a waste of space in your schools.
Wow.
... coming from an AMERICAN?!? That has got to be the biggest joke written in slashdot this year!
... maybe this is why there's so little reason, and so much war-mongering on your side of the border. All the people that could see through your government's lies came up here!
... In such an extreme way that when some american women spoke their opinion, as is their right, it started a national uprising! ... The Dixie Chicks have long since been proven correct. They were able to stick it out.
... We had our own beach to invade on D-Day. I bet you didn't know that! one of the toughest to invade, and we took it faster than you took any of your beaches! How about Italy? It was Canada that Freed a good chunk of Italy! How about Holland? It was Canada that Freed Holland! How about the thousands of Canadian merchant marines that dies bringing supplies to europe to keep the Allied war effort going?
... its the US that has the most self righteous, stupid, ignorant, and patheticly nationalistic 'thinkers'.
... CANADA! First! Our rescue teams! LONG BEFORE YOUR OWN FORCES WENT ANYWHERE NEAR HELPING THOSE PEOPLE WHO NEEDED IT MOST! We only cared that people needed help, we didn't ignore them for being black! Your country has 10x our population, a far bigger economy, a far stronger military ... but it was CANADA that saved those victims on your soil!
... it wasn't just Americans that died that day.
... YOU DID by training and funding him in the 80's to fight your battles against the Soviets. And he is slowly bankrupting the USA with the war, using the same technique that he used against the soviets that led to the end of the cold war and collapse of the USSR.
I'd like to officially present to you the slashdot award for MOST IGNORANT DUMB FUCK OF THE WORLD.
The mere thought that Canadians are mired in nationalistic thinking
Yes, we have taken many of your draft dodgers over our history
We have every right to criticize America! You screw up everything you touch! You create most of your enemies by trampling around the world like its your own backyard! You've stripped away the most basic rights of your people that your ancesters fought for independance for! You abandon your own people after major hurricanes! Some of you fools want to eliminate science in schools and teach religion in it's place!
YOU put 'supporting our president' above all logic, all reason, and all evidence before invading Iraq!
Learn some world history. Learn about WWI and Vimy Ridge. Learn about what Canada did in WWII
Learn about more than just the US point of view. You have no clue!
6 Billion people agree
Tell me who it was that got into New Orlean's lower 9th ward to save thousands of hurricane victims?
WE knew there was no justifiable reason to invade Iraq, while you ran in listening to Bush's easily disproven lies! We knew that as bad as Hussein was, Iraq was already contained and relatively stable, Hussein kept Al Qeada out to protect his own power, and that disturbing things would kill far more innocent civilians than Hussein ever did! Tell me, how many millions of innocent civilians has the US killed in it's loosing war? How many millions of Iraqi's that didn't care about the US before now want to see you dead because of how you've ruined their lives? How many new enemies have you created for yourselves here?
WE DO support the war in Afghanistan, the REAL source of the power behind 911! WE are the forces in Afghanistan that are stepping out away from the safe areas to clear out Al Qeada while other countries sit in safety.
WE lost 42 Canadians in 911
WE, like you, have also lost more armed forces lives fighting Al Qeada than we lost in 911, 66 as of two days ago.
WE DON'T support nuclear military dictatorships! (your best friends, Pakistan)
WE DIDN'T CREATE Osama Bin Laden
Well I guess I do have some sympathy for your problems getting into canada when you chose the french side. Although those Canadian border guards did suck, they probably weren't even armed.
...
... despite Mandarin, Cantonese, Japonese, and East Indian languages being far more prominent here.
I would have taken a different approach and said nothing to the customs officers except for "I know that I have the right to be served in English or French, and I chose English". However, if it happened while flying into Quebec, say to drive from Gatineau into Ottawa, all bets are off. The Canadian Constitution does not fully apply in Quebec. They literally have language police that enforce laws regarding the prominence of french and suppression of English in many situations. But hey, thats their rules and your choice to enter their jurisdiction. When in Rome
Out on the west coast, i was forced to take high school french for university entrance
You stereotype me ... and then in the very next sentance explain that my error is in stereotyping Americans.
... Now you know why I do stereotype Americans, if in fact you understood the above sentance.
... you expose that you think Microsoft is a software company. No. They, like every other publicly owned company are a for profit business that must generate wealth for their shareholders. Their goal is to make profits, pay stock dividends, increase shareholder value. It doesn't matter if they do this with crappy software, the point is the profit, and we all know they make incredible profits so they are obviously doing a lot of things right with those highly educated people they hire.
... except of course your laws that are supposed to protect the rights of people, which you no longer apply to even your own citizens.
... If you really were once a developer of products used by 1 in 6 people of the world ... but are now lucky to get work as a labourer.
... which the USA proceeded to do over and over again. In the case of Softwood Lumber, the USA lost ... and refused to respect 6 international trade rulings, which proved that Canada never dumped lumber on the US market. But screwing your best neighbour is the American way isn't it?
... but 10 times more jobs were created in other industries because of NAFTA. Our Federal finances have been in SURPLUS for 10 years! Our Federal debt is DECREASING!, Our economy has boomed over the last 10 years, like no other time in our history!
... China just has to drop the slightest hint that they may drop some of the massive American debt they've financed, and your economy takes another crazy step backwards and your dollar drops a couple more percent! Just look at the price of gold in US dollars, in the last 5 years it's gone from $250 / ounce to $650 an ounce ... purely due to the devaluation of your dollar! Hardly at all from supply and demand of the actual resource! If it wasn't so tragic, the way the USA has messed up it's finances would be freakin hilarious! You've totally squandered the benefits that NAFTA gave you.
...
Then
I dont treat America the way you indicate, in fact i'm shocked America even has border guards! Why have guards when you have no respect for your own borders and treat the world as if your laws apply everywhere?
I'm not at all delusional, I can see very clearly that you screwed up big time somewhere and have some major regrets that you can't deal with
Wow, it must really sting for you to have thrown out such an advantage. I can see why you are bitter.
When NAFTA was being formulated, I was very much against it. The USA refused to cover important Canadian export resources, leaving Canada wide open to be screwed on Salmon and soft wood lumber, and many other things
But, today, I can see that NAFTA has actually been a large benefit to Canada despite all the ways the USA has used it to screw us over. Sure, JUST LIKE YOU, we lost entire sectors of our economy, especially manufacturing to Mexico
Meanwhile look at your economy. Look at your federal finances!
And finally, to shred apart the last point in your pathetic story
I've been exposing the problems with the president YOU gave yourselves for years, as well as the american people abandoning their responsibility to defend their constitutional rights, and your judges that ignore their job and allow unconstitutional laws such as the Patriot Act to stand. Hell as a good observant Canadian, I'm a better American than you are!
Ju
I have no doubt at all the reason for MS coming to Canada. US customs block every temporary work visa they can, with no regard for how the american companies with their american employees will be hurt.
... we aren't talking landscaping and fruit picking, which you Americans insist on passing off to foreign workers when you could do it yourself.
... and be right there at the fax machine in the customs office at the moment an updated letter arrived from the client. If she was in the bathroom when it arrived, too bad, she would have been denied. What a stupid system! She eventually got in, after missing a connecting flight, and the USA company that needed her services, was able to carry on with their business of making money for their American shareholders.
... The USA company that needed her services just happened to be owned by a Canadian parent company. The dumbass customs officer would not investigate the facts, he could not comprehend the idea that the USA company was a real, USA registered company, with real assets, with real USA employees. He decided the USA company was an empty shell, and that it must really be the Canadian parent company that called her to work in the USA. The officer threatened to declare my wife's actions as being a fraud, which would have banned her for life from working in the USA. He refused entry to my wife.
... he didn't even understand that for any fraud to have been commited by my wife there would have to have been a criminal intent to deceive. At most there was a misunderstanding created by the American employees of the American company. Not fraud.
... did the asshat customs officer do a proper investigation and let her proceed? ... NO. He was off shift. A different officer gave her the work visa and let her enter the USA without any hesitation, without reviewing the incident with the first custom's officer, or even asking her anything that might have resolved the confusion. He probably wasn't even aware that there had been any incident. ... so we went from a brainless shit who was going to block my wife and put a group of American citizens out of their jobs, to a brainless shit who let her pass with no questions asked, who didn't even try to resolve the first shit's concerns. Now that's just awesome security! Tell me, Do you feel safe?
... my wife's boss was flying to south america for work, with some simple scientific field gear with her. She had a brief stop over in the USA where she never left the secured area of the airport, she just needed to go through customs (even though she was in limbo, not actually departing for a US destination), and then onw
It must be an utter nightmare for MS to bring in the smartest developers available around the world, enriching the intellectual capacity of the USA, helping an American company grow wealth for their American shareholders.
In an unrelated field, my wife, who is a Canadian with two science related bachelor's degrees and a professional registration has been blocked twice from entering the USA on temporary work visas by ignorant american customs officers.
And she was going to perform work needed by American companies that were not able to find qualified American professionals. High end specialized scientific work
The first time, the company she was going to consult for made a small mistake on their reference letter. She had to wait for several hours
The second instance
This fuckwad didn't have even the most basic understanding of the situation
Her client nearly lost her services, which would have delayed their project, which would have meant laying off American citizens from their jobs, and would have delayed or pre-empted millions of dollars of economic activity in a remote area of the USA where the jobs are desparately needed.
But many hours later, after missing her connecting flight, she did get through
There was another incident
Significant atmostpheric drag occurs AT much hiGHer elevaTIonS. To say that it starts to have an effect at 75 miles is nuts.
tHE International space station constantly looSEs eleVATion dUe to atmostpheric drag, it's usual elevation is around 500 miles. When the space shuttle visits, it usually burns its rockets to push the ISS back to an elevation close to that.
Just last year the ISS was in a very low orbit becuase solar storms had caused the upper atmosphere to bulge, placing more drag on the station.
(my keyboard is failing, sorry about the mixed case words)