Categories
In the News

Swingers!

Although the news is a couple of weeks old, I haven’t yet had a chance to comment on the ruling by the Canadian Supreme Court that clubs that allow group sex and partner swapping do not harm Canadian society and should not be considered criminal.

Colby Cosh said pretty much what I think, so I’ll let him do the talking:

Hey, guys, maybe you could explain what harm group-sex clubs actually do cause to non-members? Is there even one in your city, and if so could you find it?

…

Socons will find themselves, presumably to their

surprise, in the Bastarache/Lebel camp [these were the two dissenting judges]. They will see some meaning in

the phrase “the Canadian community as a whole” where absolutely none

exists. They will regard the court as having usurped and destroyed a

power of determining “indecency” that belongs to Parliament. In

principle I don’t like genuine “judicial activism”, but this decision also binds future courts; it has the effect of reducing the power of every branch of government, including the judiciary,

to assist in outlawing private behaviour and expressive materials.

Can’t social conservatives tell the difference between judicial

activism that expands the power of the state–like adding

newly-invented “protected grounds” to discrimination law–and judicial

activism that inhibits it?

Nah. What they care about is that the power of the

state be used for their own preferred ends. Hey, some of my best

friends are social conservatives. But when it comes to subjects like

this, most of them posses nothing resembling a philosophy–merely a

reflexive claim to authority.

In fact, it’s the same reflexive claim of authority that socons accuse progressives of touting.

I feel that in the end, we’ll put a uniquely Canadian spin on swinging, giving it a touch of good ol’ Canuck politesse:

Categories
Uncategorized

Apollo 12 Cuff Checklists

One thing that impressed me in the movie Apollo 13 was their use of checklists: in a mission where little differences are actually big differences, there’s nothing like a checklist to take care of the things that our brains are bad at (accurately tracking long lists of procedures and data) and free our brains to do what they do best (evaluating, analyzing and reacting to changing situations). I should probably get in the habit of making more checklists.

The Apollo 12 Lunar Journal site has two PDFs showing two different mission checklists that were mounted on the cuffs of the astronaut’s suits: one for the command module [700K PDF — some poorly-photocopied nudity], and one for the lunar module [900K PDF — some poorly-photocopied nudity]. Not only do the checklists feature the standard tech stuff, they’ve also got some cartoons and photos of Playboy playmates. That sort of stuff wouldn’t fly today, but this was engineering culture in the ’60’s.

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Uncategorized

If David Janes Were Running for Prime Minister

While David Janes and I do not always see eye-to-eye on every issue, our poltics often align in that foggy part of the political landscape where “fiscally conservative” and “socially liberal” meet (according to the Map of Politopia, I live in the northwest suburbs of “Centerville”). Accuse me of wanting to have my cake and eat it too if you must; I will counter (and win) by reminding you that that is exactly the purpose of cake.

The latest series of entries in his blog, Ranting and Roaring, lists the planks of the “Janes Platform”, if he were running for Prime Minister. I generally agree with them:

Strangely enough, what David has to say about paying off the debt — “A Janes government will not pay down the debt, believing that keeping

money in the hands of the Canadian people and growing the economy to

the point where the debt is an irrelevancy is a more effective strategy” — is pretty close to what Lorne Gershuny of the Marxist-Leninist party said about the debt at last week’s all-candidates meeting!

Categories
In the News

More Liberal Copyright Shenanigans

[via Michael Geist] The Conservatives have an ad titled Even Liberals (it’s on their site) that features a clip of (Liberal Party leader and Prime Minister) Paul Martin at a town hall meeting televised on the CBC. In the clip — barely a couple of seconds long — Martin makes the embarassing admission that he approved an “attack ad” that even some members of the Liberal party didn’t like.

The Liberals claim that in using the clip, the Conservatives are infringing on the CBC’s copyright. I agree with Michael Geist — I think that the Conservatives can easily argue that use of the clip is fair use since it’s short, is being used in a critique and is news reporting (for more on what fair use is, see this entry). This is just another example of copyright being misused as a stick — this time to beat legitimate political speech into silence rather than beat cash out of customers.

Categories
In the News It Happened to Me Toronto (a.k.a. Accordion City)

More Questions from the All-Candidates Meeting

Sorry it took so long, but here’s more from the All-Candidates Meeting. If you missed the other installments:

Question 3: The “Psychotropic Drugs” Question

“There’s no right answer to this question,” said the guy who was next in line, “but I’m just as interested in the way you answer it.” The question was about psychotropic medication — there’s a loophole in the law where people can prescribe psychotropic drugs to children. What would you do to fix that loophole?

Sam Bulte, Liberal Party

  • The public health agency should be able to help

    •    

  • Will establish a mental health commission

    •    

  • Will also hold dialogues cross-country

Jurij Klufas, Conservative Party   

  • I’m not in favour of commissions

    •    

  • I helped introduce Steven Fletcher, who’s likely to be Minsiter of Health — I’d bring the issue to him

Peggy Nash, New Democratic Party   

  • That’s crazy!

    •    

  • The Ministry of Health should be able to close this loophole

Terry Parker, Marijuana Party   

  • (A lot of indignant mumbling) full disclosure commission

    •    

  • My notes from this point read: “mumble mumble mumble”

Rob Rischinsky, Green Party   

  • I’d establish a commission to reduce the use of psychotropic drugs

    •    

  • We have to recognize that there are alternative treatments

Question 4: Toronto the ATM

Toronto sends a lot of money to Ottawa — in fact, $13 billion more goes out of the city than into it. Would you support the return of one-quarter of that money? It could go to transit, education, social services and the environment

Sam Bulte, Liberal Party   

  • There’s a full GST rebate for municipalities

    •    

  • Money from the gas tax goes to cities

    •    

  • We’ve given Toronto a bonus for the TTC’s ridership, providing $350 million in partnership with the city and provincial governments

Peggy Nash, New Democratic Party   

  • We need equalization

    •    

  • The Liberals implemented the gas tax because of pressure from the NDP

    •    

  • The NDP is the champion of cities

Terry Parker, Marijuana Party   

  • Legalizing marijuana will lead to tax revenues which will provide the city with money

Rob Rishchynski, Greeen Party   

  • We propose a “Green tax shift” — where personal incomes taxes are reduced to 0 while taxes on pollution and waste are increased

    •    

  • We would transfer tax authority to the local level

Lorne Gershuny, Marxist-Leninist Party   

Jurij Klufas, Conservative Party

  • We’ll meet with Mayor Miller and the local Business Improvement Areas

    •    

  • We understand the issues and will introduce initiatives

Question 5: One from the Kids

At this point, they opened the floor to the local kids who were in attendance. The first one: How would you decrease child poverty in Canada?

Peggy Nash, New Democratic Party   

  • Poverty has many causes:       
             

    • Lack of affordable housing

      •        

    • Low minimum wage

      •        

    • Lack of childcare

      •        

    •    

  • We also need program to assist new Canadians to give them assistance in settling in; credentials

Terry Parker, Marijuana Party   

  • mumble mumble social assistance mumble mumble revenues from legal marijuana mumble mumble

Rob Rishchynski, Greeen Party

  • There are ways to solve child poverty:       
             

    • Pay people a living wage

      •        

    • Provide benefits and child tax credits for people with children

      •        

    • Provide daycare

      •       

Sam Bulte, Liberal Party

  • We’ve done a lot — there’s the Liberal child tax benefit that put money directly in the hands of families

    •    

  • I agree with Peggy Nash — combating poverty requires a holistic approach

Lorne Gershuny, Marxist-Leninist Party   

  • It’s telling that a young person asked this question — young people are always most concerned about the future

    •    

  • Canada has vast resources, skills and technology

    •    

  • We can provide for everyone — it’s just that the allocation of wealth isn’t even

    •    

  • We have to stop paying the rich

    •   

Jurij Klufas, Conservative Party

  • Poverty is reflective of the lack of posterity

    •    

  • Prosperity leads to generosity

    •    

  • We would fight poverty with       
             

    • Education

      •        

    • Small business opportunities

      •        

    • Apprenticeship programs

      •        

       

Question 6: Another from the Kids

How is the government going to invest in our future?

Sam Bulte, Liberal Party 

  • Education is the key to prosperity

    •    

  • Access Canada

    •    

  • 50/50 program provides up to $3000 of tuition

    •    

  • We need money for measures to help students graduate

Rob Rishchynski, Greeen Party   

  • We will work with the provinces to decrease tuition

    •    

  • Paying off debts can cripple someone just out of school — loan paybacks should be scaled to match the income from a first job

    •    

  • We believe that there should be apprenticeship programs and a mentorship network to help people just out of school build the skills they need

Lorne Gershuny   

  • The aim of government should be to eliminate tuition fees

    •    

  • Anyone with the motivation and ability should be able to get an education

Jurij Klufas, Conservative Party   

  • We need to encourage people to get into skilled trades

    •    

  • More programs for apprentices

    •    

  • More small business incentives

Peggy Nash, New Democratic Party   

  • We need to reverse cuts to post-secondary education

    •    

  • Need to provide stable long-term funding

    •    

  • Need to establish a program of life-long learning

    •    

  • Need to create a national apprenticeship program

Terry Parker, Marijuana Party   

  • Pass
Categories
In the News

Big Content: Ice Harvesters of the 21st Century

I’m going to talk a little bit more about copyright and Big Content this week. By “Big Content”, I am referring to the corporations that produce movies, televisions, records,

books and even web sites. I thought I’d start by

introducing something that “copyfighters” (those who fight for better

copyright laws and against bad business practices that use copyright as a stick to beat more money out of customers) often talk about: business models. You will often hear a copyfighter

refer to how a Big Content company or cartel will often use copyright

as a means of protecting an outdated business model. Before I talk

about Big Content’s outdated business models, let’s look at a business

model that’s already extinct as a result of technological improvements: Big Ice.

I’ll let one of my role models (especially given my line of work), former Apple evangelist Guy Kawaski do the talking for this one. Years ago, he made a high school commencement address titled Hindsight, a “top ten list” of

advice to the graduating class. Item number eight was “Challenge the known and embrace the

unknown”. It went like this:

One of

the biggest mistakes you can make in life is to accept the known and resist the

unknown. You should, in fact, do exactly the opposite: challenge the known and

embrace the unknown.

Let me tell you a short story about ice. In the late

1800s there was a thriving ice industry in the Northeast. Companies would cut

blocks of ice from frozen lakes and ponds and sell them around the world. The

largest single shipment was 200 tons that was shipped to India. 100 tons got

there unmelted, but this was enough to make a profit.

These ice harvesters,

however, were put out of business by companies that invented mechanical ice

makers. It was no longer necessary to cut and ship ice because companies could

make it in any city during any season. These ice makers, however, were put out

of business by refrigerator companies. If it was convenient to make ice at a

manufacturing plant, imagine how much better it was to make ice and create cold

storage in everyone’s home.

You would think that the ice harvesters would

see the advantages of ice making and adopt this technology. However, all they

could think about was the known: better saws, better storage, better

transportation. Then you would think that the ice makers would see the

advantages of refrigerators and adopt this technology. The truth is that the ice

harvesters couldn’t embrace the unknown and jump their curve to the next curve.

Challenge the known and embrace the unknown, or you’ll be like the ice

harvester and ice makers.

Can

you imagine what things would be like today if the ice harvesters

managed to lobby the government into restricting the activities of the

icebox manufacturers and later on, the refrigerator manufacturers?

That’s exactly what Big Content would like to do to the high-tech

industry.

More on this topic later.

Categories
Geek In the News It Happened to Me

Bulte Round-up

Boss Ross Gets in on the “Remixing Sam” Act

I’m not the only one into the commentary-on-Bulte-by-Photoshop game. My boss, Ross, has taken a crack at it and he’s done a pretty nice job:

Ross won’t mind if you copy this graphic and stick it on your own site.

Ross also notes that he took advantage of advance voting and will gladly tell anyone who asks that Sam did not get his vote.

In This Week’s Macleans: Bulte in the Blogs!

Michael Geist has informed me that along with Cory Doctorow, we’ve been quoted in this week’s issue of Macleans. We were all interviewed by Colin Campbell last week, and our comments appear in a sidebar article titled Bulte in the Blogs: A Dust-Up Over Campaigns and Copyright. Here’s a scan of the bit where your ‘umble blogger gets mentioned:

He sent me a scan of the article [825K PDF], which I have enclosed for your viewing. The scan’s a bit smudged, but I’m planning to buy a half-dozen copies for my portfolio and will see if I can get a cleaner scan posted here.

Doctorow’s Guest Editorial at the Star

Speaking of Cory, if you haven’t read his Toronto Star guest editorial piece on Sam Bulte — Trademark Political Shenanigans — do so now!

My favourite bit is where he talks about DRM — “Digital Rights Management” or “Digital Restrictions Management”, depending on if you’re one of Sam’s God-fearing content corporation buddies or one of those no-good “pro-user zealots” whom Sam condemns. He’s come up a great way of explaining the ridiculousness of region-encoded DVDs (which is why your North American DVDs won’t play in other parts of the world and vice versa):

These are the technological restrictions put on the media that you buy,

such as games, CDs and DVDs, that seek to control how you use works

after you buy them. These DRMs indiscriminately restrict the

enjoyment of your lawful property, allowing rights holders to control

your private use of media in ways not considered under copyright law.

For example, Adobe’s eBook technology blocks your ability to copy and

paste a quotation, even where copyright law would allow it, e.g. in the

course of criticism or in academic research.

DRM technology on

DVDs prevents you from watching discs bought overseas in a Canadian DVD

player, despite the fact that copyright doesn’t give creators the right

to control where their creations are viewed after they’ve been sold.

That’s why you don’t need to leave your Canadian editions of your

favourite books at home when you go on holidays in foreign countries.