It is not reasonable to host an event called the "World Series" for a game which is not played outside of America. Since only 2.1% of you are aware that there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable.
Since you don't seem aware that Canada is outside the US's borders, your error is understandable.
Today's Montreal Gazette says the electronic voting used was up to 25% more expensive than paper voting and caused delays in getting the result. (The election also resulted in more judicial recounts than normal because of the inaccuracy of the machines, causing delays in the swearing in of the winners.) The report also concluded that:
Machines misread ballots.
A backup plan covering all possible problems was missing.
The lack of paper ballots in some municipalities prevented judicial recounts.
Only partial testing of the voting machines took place in some instances.
It's nice election officials in Quebec did what seems like a pretty successful review; I'll be happy to approve optical scan voting when these problems are addressed. Until then, it's good at least some jurisdictions in North America realise a lack of paper ballots can prevent recounts.
In Canada, US Customs agents falls under the direction of Canadian laws, specifically the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Preclearnace Act. Specifically:
16. (1) If the traveller chooses to answer any question that is asked by a preclearance officer for preclearance purposes, the traveller must answer truthfully.
(2) If the traveller refuses to answer any question asked for preclearance purposes, the preclearance officer may order the traveller to leave the preclearance area.
(3) The refusal by a traveller to answer any question asked by a preclearance officer does not in and of itself constitute reasonable grounds for the officer to suspect that a search of the traveller is necessary for the purposes of this Act or that an offence has been committed under section 33 or 34.
Also:
25. (1) A preclearance officer may examine any goods that are submitted for preclearance, and may open or cause to be opened any package or container and take samples of the goods in reasonable amounts.
So they are allowed to "examine" your laptop and although you might be able to refuse to answer a question like "What is your password?", if you do they can refuse you entry into the US. However, in general, while your goods may be refused entry, confiscated or even forfeited (the Governor-in-Council regulations on that are harder to find, but likely out there somewhere), you may always leave a preclearance area unless they suspect you of breaking Canadian law (or if you have broken it). Also, they can't search you once you state you want to leave, unless they suspect you of breaking Canadian law (or if you have broken it). Lastly, IANAL and there are lots more interesting things there.
Make it so that instead of just dropping letters, you can drop letters without postage and small to midsize packages. The letters have to be sorted anyway, so just add in a step of the process to have someone calculate the charge for me and bill me. Come to think of it, why hasn't this been done yet?
It's called a postage meter. It was invented in 1912 by Arthur Pitney, who went into business with Walter Bowes in 1920. They're used on pretty much all commercial mailings these days (when was the last time you saw a stamp on your utility bills?), and can be found under "Mailing equipment" in the Yellow Pages (which, by the way, is a telephone directory in nearly every building in the country).
However, the voting list still has problems. During the 2004 demerger referendums, there were many mistakes, including dead people, pets, people who had moved away, and other anomolies that let us vote early and vote often. One of the cities in the west of Montreal had 10% of its voting roll purged of incorrect entries (Senneville, I think). Now, of course, during elections the voter ID thing should catch most of these people from not voting, but when a required voter turnout is imposed (like in the demerger referendums), people who don't vote (because they don't exist) affect the result. The fact that such huge anomalies were caught in only the few days we were able to complain and have them changed, requiring witnesses and forms galore--on Easter weekend nonetheless (IIRC)--just goes to show how there are still some kinks to be worked out in Quebec.
The downside of parlamentary systems is obvious in reviewing the last hundard years of european political history. It often gives far too much power to fringe groups that act as tie breakers.
You're confusing proportional representation parliamentary systems and first past the post parliamentary systems. The former can often lead to one-seat parties getting high Banzhaf power indicies while the latter can lead to one party getting an index of 1 and the others getting all 0 (i.e. majority parliament). If you look at the history of Commonwealth parliaments and/or Westminster systems that still use the FPTP system (UK, Canada, etc.), you'll see that most elections end up with majority parliaments, and while that also has problems (a party getting a majority with 38% of the vote, or a party losing the popular vote but getting a majority), parliamentary systems are not the cause of fringe groups getting some influence, and in these cases, often remove that possibility.
I got the pi/2 discounts on some books I bought from Amazon Monday morning and the article was last updated Monday afternoon, so I think it's safe to say it's still in effect.
From the Wikipedia Article:
He survived an investigation by the Ontario Securities Commission
Uh, that depends how Wikipedia defines "survived". If it's defined as
being reprimanded and fined (with his holding company, for only half a million dollars) for insider trading, then yes, I guess he did "survive" it. This slimebag's questionable trading right before the stock tanked caused Corel (and it's nice WordPerfect Suite) to be hampered for years. To quote the OSC:
Mr Cowpland is before the panel because of an egregious error in making a trade without disclosing knowledge of a material fact. [...] This panel however, is of the view that, had this conduct taken place after the amendments to the Ontario Securities Act in April 2003, [...] the sanctions ordered by this panel may have been much more severe.
[...]
[64] The respondents will pay $500,000 to the Investor Education Fund.
[65] Pursuant to section 127(1) (8) of the Act, Michael Cowpland is hereby prohibited from becoming or acting as a Director of a reporting issuer for two (2) years from the date hereof.
[66] M.C.J.C. Holdings Inc. [Cowpland's holding company which he sold his shares from] and Michael Cowpland are hereby reprimanded.
[67] Pursuant to Section 127(1)(2)(a) and (b) of the Act, M.C.J.C. Holdings Inc. is ordered to pay $75,000 to the Commission in respect of a portion of the Commission's costs with respect to this matter.
Time to insert another {{dubious}} into Wikipedia:(
An interesting blog by a homeless man in Abbotsford. There was an report about this guy and the plight of the homeless in general on April 5 on CBC, but the report doesn't seem to be available online.
To take the online census in Canada I did have to use IE on a Windows computer.
Actually, you could have used Firefox on Windows (like I did on census day) or Safari on Mac. And as of May 13th, you could have used Linux. And in French, they even said they decided to support Linux due to "grande demande" (great demand). Just another example of enough people requesting support for Linux and getting it.
The bill bases some criteria on "contemporary local community standards". Does this mean that what is acceptable in Detroit is not acceptable in smaller towns?
Yes. The standards of what is "obscence" was decided in Miller v. California, and is determined using the Miller test http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miller_test. (Obscenity deals with pornography, but the law is amending the obscenity law and it's not unreasonable to stretch obscene from pornography to violence.) The Miller test imposes other requirements for something to be "obscene", but "contemporary community standards" is one of them.
I disagree with the general assumption that violent games are the cause of violent behavior in the first place.
There was a study near the end of summer that showed that kids who play violent video games were more likely to be violent, rude, etc. Of course, the study only showed a correlation, and the authors admitted it showed no causal relationship. It seems this is the kind of "proof" activists/lobbyists/lawmakers are using to promote these laws.
Slashdot Mirror
It is not reasonable to host an event called the "World Series" for a game which is not played outside of America. Since only 2.1% of you are aware that there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable.
Since you don't seem aware that Canada is outside the US's borders, your error is understandable.
It's nice election officials in Quebec did what seems like a pretty successful review; I'll be happy to approve optical scan voting when these problems are addressed. Until then, it's good at least some jurisdictions in North America realise a lack of paper ballots can prevent recounts.
I told him we should go into business to take trash from the U.S. on boats to Uganda
That might be slightly difficult....
Also:
So they are allowed to "examine" your laptop and although you might be able to refuse to answer a question like "What is your password?", if you do they can refuse you entry into the US. However, in general, while your goods may be refused entry, confiscated or even forfeited (the Governor-in-Council regulations on that are harder to find, but likely out there somewhere), you may always leave a preclearance area unless they suspect you of breaking Canadian law (or if you have broken it). Also, they can't search you once you state you want to leave, unless they suspect you of breaking Canadian law (or if you have broken it). Lastly, IANAL and there are lots more interesting things there.
I think you mean security holes; the patches won't come until the second Tuesday of next month.
Make it so that instead of just dropping letters, you can drop letters without postage and small to midsize packages. The letters have to be sorted anyway, so just add in a step of the process to have someone calculate the charge for me and bill me. Come to think of it, why hasn't this been done yet?
It's called a postage meter. It was invented in 1912 by Arthur Pitney, who went into business with Walter Bowes in 1920. They're used on pretty much all commercial mailings these days (when was the last time you saw a stamp on your utility bills?), and can be found under "Mailing equipment" in the Yellow Pages (which, by the way, is a telephone directory in nearly every building in the country).
However, the voting list still has problems. During the 2004 demerger referendums, there were many mistakes, including dead people, pets, people who had moved away, and other anomolies that let us vote early and vote often. One of the cities in the west of Montreal had 10% of its voting roll purged of incorrect entries (Senneville, I think). Now, of course, during elections the voter ID thing should catch most of these people from not voting, but when a required voter turnout is imposed (like in the demerger referendums), people who don't vote (because they don't exist) affect the result. The fact that such huge anomalies were caught in only the few days we were able to complain and have them changed, requiring witnesses and forms galore--on Easter weekend nonetheless (IIRC)--just goes to show how there are still some kinks to be worked out in Quebec.
The downside of parlamentary systems is obvious in reviewing the last hundard years of european political history. It often gives far too much power to fringe groups that act as tie breakers. You're confusing proportional representation parliamentary systems and first past the post parliamentary systems. The former can often lead to one-seat parties getting high Banzhaf power indicies while the latter can lead to one party getting an index of 1 and the others getting all 0 (i.e. majority parliament). If you look at the history of Commonwealth parliaments and/or Westminster systems that still use the FPTP system (UK, Canada, etc.), you'll see that most elections end up with majority parliaments, and while that also has problems (a party getting a majority with 38% of the vote, or a party losing the popular vote but getting a majority), parliamentary systems are not the cause of fringe groups getting some influence, and in these cases, often remove that possibility.
I got the pi/2 discounts on some books I bought from Amazon Monday morning and the article was last updated Monday afternoon, so I think it's safe to say it's still in effect.
From the Wikipedia Article: He survived an investigation by the Ontario Securities Commission
:(
Uh, that depends how Wikipedia defines "survived". If it's defined as being reprimanded and fined (with his holding company, for only half a million dollars) for insider trading, then yes, I guess he did "survive" it. This slimebag's questionable trading right before the stock tanked caused Corel (and it's nice WordPerfect Suite) to be hampered for years. To quote the OSC:
Mr Cowpland is before the panel because of an egregious error in making a trade without disclosing knowledge of a material fact. [...] This panel however, is of the view that, had this conduct taken place after the amendments to the Ontario Securities Act in April 2003, [...] the sanctions ordered by this panel may have been much more severe.
[...]
[64] The respondents will pay $500,000 to the Investor Education Fund.
[65] Pursuant to section 127(1) (8) of the Act, Michael Cowpland is hereby prohibited from becoming or acting as a Director of a reporting issuer for two (2) years from the date hereof.
[66] M.C.J.C. Holdings Inc. [Cowpland's holding company which he sold his shares from] and Michael Cowpland are hereby reprimanded.
[67] Pursuant to Section 127(1)(2)(a) and (b) of the Act, M.C.J.C. Holdings Inc. is ordered to pay $75,000 to the Commission in respect of a portion of the Commission's costs with respect to this matter.
Time to insert another {{dubious}} into Wikipedia
To use a washer, text the word "SLUG" to 91111.
An interesting blog by a homeless man in Abbotsford. There was an report about this guy and the plight of the homeless in general on April 5 on CBC, but the report doesn't seem to be available online.
To take the online census in Canada I did have to use IE on a Windows computer.
Actually, you could have used Firefox on Windows (like I did on census day) or Safari on Mac. And as of May 13th, you could have used Linux. And in French, they even said they decided to support Linux due to "grande demande" (great demand). Just another example of enough people requesting support for Linux and getting it.
the UK's forgotten stepchild (Canada, eh?) is beginning to look warm and sunny by comparison.
Somebody hasn't been to Canada lately.
The bill bases some criteria on "contemporary local community standards". Does this mean that what is acceptable in Detroit is not acceptable in smaller towns?
Yes. The standards of what is "obscence" was decided in Miller v. California, and is determined using the Miller test http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miller_test. (Obscenity deals with pornography, but the law is amending the obscenity law and it's not unreasonable to stretch obscene from pornography to violence.) The Miller test imposes other requirements for something to be "obscene", but "contemporary community standards" is one of them.
I disagree with the general assumption that violent games are the cause of violent behavior in the first place.
There was a study near the end of summer that showed that kids who play violent video games were more likely to be violent, rude, etc. Of course, the study only showed a correlation, and the authors admitted it showed no causal relationship. It seems this is the kind of "proof" activists/lobbyists/lawmakers are using to promote these laws.