How Pirates Brought About the End of Ancient Rome

Robert Harris has an op-ed in the New York Times that uses ancient Rome as an analogy for the United States of today. Harris suggests that the catalyst for the demise of the Roman empire was the terrorist attack on the port at Ostia -- and draws parallels to the 9/11 attack that brought down the twin towers. Subsequent to the attack on Ostia, the Roman senate voted to grant unprecedented powers to a centralized authority, over Rome and its people. What followed was a massive military build up, military campaigns, abuse of power and the eventual fall of what was once great empire.

Have a read and you decide if we're seeing history repeat itself.

Banned in the USA

The Washington Post is carrying an article by the Egyptian born, British resident, Tariq Ramadan -- a Muslim living in the western world, who's an outspoken critic of extremist behaviour on all sides. Ramadan has spoken out against terrorism and the illegal methods employed by the US government to fight it. Not surprisingly, Ramadan is denied visas to enter the US, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia and his native Egypt. The US keeps good company in its treatment of Ramadan.

Despite the rejection, Ramadan continues to apply for entry to the US -- and challenge the US government in hopes of setting the record straight on his political views and opinions on terrorism, and Muslims and the West. People like Ramadan are few and far between. They are the antithesis of extreme views in the world -- extreme views that are currently keeping Ramadan out of both the US and the Middle East.

In Support of Victims of Torture -- The Irony

On June 26, 2003, the White House released a statement from George W., to mark the UN International Day In Support of Victims of Torture.

Today, on the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, the United States declares its strong solidarity with torture victims across the world. Torture anywhere is an affront to human dignity everywhere. We are committed to building a world where human rights are respected and protected by the rule of law.

... [Read more.]
No people, no matter where they reside, should have to live in fear of their own government. Nowhere should the midnight knock foreshadow a nightmare of state-commissioned crime. The suffering of torture victims must end, and the United States calls on all governments to assume this great mission.

• Congress gives Bush the right to torture and detain people forever - InformationLiberation
• Habeas Corpus, R.I.P. (1215 - 2006) -- Common Dreams
• Are We Really So Fearful? -- Washington Post
• Rushing Off a Cliff -- New York Times

First they came ...

First they came ...
When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

And a variant I like ...

Re-gaining Unconsciousness by NOFX
First they put away the dealers,
keep our kids safe and off the street.
Then they put away the prostitutes,
keep married men cloistered at home.
Then they shooed away the bums,
then they beat and bashed the queers,
turned away asylum-seekers,
fed us suspicions and fears.
We didn't raise our voice,
we didn't make a fuss.
It's funny there was no one left to notice
when they came for us.

Inside Innovation

BusinessWeek's second Inside Innovation supplement was recently published, and it's a pretty good read. There is a great article on consumer research done in China for Lenovo; another profiling Apple's Senior Vice-President for Industrial Design, Jonathan Ive, and the process he calls, "the craft of design;" a quick lesson on how to measure innovation; and insights into crowdsourcing -- the next big thing after outsourcing. The supplement also presents the Eight Rules to Brilliant Brainstorming, by Robert I. Sutton, a professor at Stanford Engineering School. The rules are pretty practical, and you can read the details online -- but I'll summarize them here for your quick reference. Eight Rules to Brilliant Brainstorming

1. Use brainstorming to combine and extend ideas, not just to harvest them.
People should be able to add-to the ideas of others. In a brainstorming session, people bring diverse knowledge, experience and experience. Creativity occurs when people can build and extend on existing ideas.
2. Don't bother if people live in fear.
If people are afraid of putting forth ideas because there may be repercussions to making bad suggestions, your brainstorming session will be ineffective.
3. Do individual brainstorming before and after group sessions.
People need time to prepare for a brainstorming session and to reflect after it has occurred for the sessions to be effective and creative.
4. Brainstorming sessions are worthless unless ideas lead to action.
The ideas are useless unless they are actioned.
5. Brainstorming requires skill and experience both to do -- and especially -- to facilitate.
Not everyone is prepared for brainstorming.
6. A good brainstorming session is competitive -- in the right way.
Competing ideas is good in a brainstorming session. It stimulates creative ideas.
7. Brainstorming sessions can be used for more than just generating ideas.
They can be used to gather input and educate.
8. Follow the rules, or don't call it a brainstorm.

Meet the World

Icaro Doria is a Brazilian artist that has gained notoriety for the flags campaign, "Meet the World." Quite the effective use of flags to convey information graphically.

Particle Oscillates Between Matter and Anti-Matter

Scientists at Fermilab have announced they've "met the exacting standard to claim discovery of astonishingly rapid transitions between matter and antimatter: 3 trillion oscillations per second." The measurements were made of the B-sub-s meson -- mesons are non-elementary particles that are theorized to be composed a quark-antiquark pair -- in the B-sub-s meson's case, it is a heavy bottom quark and a strange antiquark. The finding reaffirms the validity of the Standard Model of physics by observing the oscillatory behaviour predicted and narrows the possible forms of supersymmetry.

Canadian Alternative

Here's a site promoting Canada to "conscientious, forward-thinking Americans" -- welcoming Americans who are just fed up, to immigrate north. Umm ... okaaay. I'm Canadian, and you know what, I think this is a bad idea. I'm sorry for thinking that. I'm especially sorry for those "forward-thinking Americans" the site is targeting. It's not that I don't like you -- you're probably just the Americans I would want to know -- it's just that, if you leave, you know who's going to take over. We need you, and more like you, to stay just where you are -- in America. America needs you. Think of it as the patriotic thing to do. If you immigrate to Canada, all you accomplish is handing over the nation to the nasty people with guns and Jesus -- and that just can't be good for the rest of the world.

Remanufacturing: The Virtuous Cycle

GE does it. Xerox does it. Even Interface does it -- and as BusinessWeek chronicles, Caterpillar does it as well, in a really big way. The $36 billion heavy equipment, industrial giant has jumped into remanufacturing to tune of $1 billion in sales in 2005, with projected growth of 15% for the next few years. It's an interesting way of thinking of a business' value chain -- as not extending from just raw materials to consumers -- but going from raw materials to the garbage dump. Put into that perspective -- and made to take accountability of the end of the cycle, forward thinking businesses suddenly realize there are untold profits to be made. Granted, Caterpillar didn't go into remanufacturing to save the environment -- but the end result is the same.

Caterpillar has taken the value chain and plunked a virtuous, sustainable cycle within it. Remanufacturing -- the process of retrieving goods at the end of their lives and bringing them back into the value chain -- is a big part of the Caterpillar business. So big in fact, that Caterpillar takes remanufacturing as an input into their equipment designs. If for instance, an incremental upfront investment in quality can be made to prolong the life of their product, Caterpillar spends the money. This is counterintuitive for businesses, where having products with a limited lifespan is great, because they're in the business of selling more, regardless of need.

Caterpillar however, sees it differently. An incremental investment in quality could be translated to a product that is could be remanufactured a number of times after its first life has ended. This is great, because Caterpillar invests in managing their customers. Caterpillar knows who has purchased what equipment from them, and where it's at in its lifecycle. With that knowledge, Caterpillar can reclaim end-of-life products, for which it provides customers with a discount to take remanufactured replacements. The incentive for remanufacturing is incredible. 70% of the cost of a product manufactured new is materials -- for remanufactured products, it's 40%. From the nuts and bolts, to the larger parts -- all have already had the upfront cost investment to manufacture. Remanufacturing amounts to mostly human labour, with half materials investment of new products.

Caterpillar doesn't remanufacturing to save the world. That's just an added bonus. Caterpillar does it because it makes money. How long will it take before other businesses realize that they're throwing away money at the end of their value chain?

Tyrannical Regimes

The US is hardly a tyrannical regime, but it's amazing what a little fear of terrorists have done to Americans. It has made them turn a blind eye to atrocities being committed by their own government, against foreigners -- and sometimes Americans -- in the name of fighting terrorism. Truthout provides a summary from an editorial published in the NY Times. America, this is not truth, justice and the American way.

How Google Destroyed the Future

Bruce Sterling has written this prophetic spoof set in LA, 2029, from the perspective of a 17-year-old who just wants to spew street poetry and get into the horizontal position with his insane classmate, Debbie. Problem is however, the teenage world is totally controlled, with everything, everywhere constantly being monitored by the perpetually on Internet. What's a kid to do when he tries to do, but only succeeds in running smack into "differential permissioning?" Check out Bruce Sterling's "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by Google" in New Scientist, then listen as he talks about "the Internet of Things" on IT Conversations.

Thanks to ubernerd, DH, for finding this.

Clinton Gets Crazed

In a recent interview on Fox News, Bill Clinton tears anchor Chris Wallace a new one, over Wallace's insistence on further the Bush Administration's right-wing neo-conservative scheme of blaming Clinton for not getting bin Laden. Clinton was being interviewed supposedly to promote his Global Initiative -- but Wallace started it all wrong by deciding to take on the former president. [For more, see also on Think Progress: Chris Wallace Never Asked A Bush Administration Official Why They Demoted Richard Clarke, and Chris Wallace Has Never Asked A Bush Administration Official About The USS Cole.]

It is amazing to me, to see the widening gulf between the extremes. Polarization seems to be the state of affairs in the US, and the media, Fox News especially, are wallowing in irresponsibility as they take shots across the gulf. This latest example is just another in which Fox shows that not only is it biased, but it deliberately stokes the fires of conflict in order to generate commercial gains. Irresponsible to the public. Fox News, and their ilk, survives on a divided populace, just as the Republican party has demonstrated their deft ability to leverage confusion and doubt for their gains. The end result is a fractured democracy, with a government in place that practices a brand of foreign policy that has made the world a more dangerous place to live in, than the cold war did.

Miniature Earth

The statistics are from the 1990s, taken from the UN and NGOs operating around the world. If anything, the numbers have probably gotten worse. Pause for a moment, click on play on the clip above. If you remain unmoved, you're a person the world needs less of.

Darfur Unchanged

AP reports that the situation in Darfur remains unchanged. AU peacekeepers are doing anything but keeping the peace, remaining overwhelmed, underfunded and underequipped. The AU recently made an appeal to NATO for help, but Sudan remains uninterested in bringing the violence to a halt. The AU hope of handing over peacekeeping operations to the UN has likewise been unrealized due to Sudan's lack of cooperation. So the AU continues to maintain a presence -- extending their ineffective stay once again, this time to the end of the year.

Meanwhile, people continue to live in fear -- continue to cross the border into neighbouring countries to escape their homes -- continue to die.

The Devil and Hugo Chavez

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez may be perceived as a fruitcake by those who's nerves he grates on -- but consider this -- how much more insane is the man than George W. Bush? Yesterday, Chavez went on the rampage against the US and Bush, calling the US president the devil. At the UN, his diatribe drew support for some of its criticisms of America. This is backlash -- backlash against US foreign policy. As crazy as Chavez is, he does get a few things correct -- Bush does talk as if he's "the owner of the world." Chavez seeks reforms in the UN to counter the influence of the permanent members of the security council, while the US likewise has spoken out about reforms -- the US wanting to restrict countries that they see as abusive of human and political rights, from fully participating and being treated as equals in the UN. Both Chavez and Bush have a point. The UN is not democratic, with the US using its veto rights to enforce a colonial perspective on the world. However, there is no way that countries like Somalia for instance should be respected as equals on the world stage. Somewhere in the middle, I'm sure the answer lies -- meanwhile, you can't entertain like this.

Torpark

Surfing the net anonymously is almost impossible. You can use a number of software packages to hide your tracks, but they don't work very well. Enter Torpark, a customized version of the Firefox browser, that was built by Hacktivismo and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Torpark encrypts internet traffic from the browser to the Tor network, then anonymise the traffic by routing it through various routers on the Tor network -- regularly changing the IP address that the traffic appears to be coming from.

For most users, Torpark is overkill -- you don't really need it because you've got nothing to hide. If you're living in a country where your online activities are tracked however, you have a lot to worry about. The government may lock you away for reading up on topics it considers off limits. If you've got nothing to hide, but you're just paranoid and want to use it anyway, you should note that some sites will not react nicely to having you IP address suddenly change during a session. If you're checking your email for instance and your IP address changes, the site may think you're not the same person anymore and ask you to login again.

Lastly, Torpark has been designed to be small. So small that it can easily be carried around on an USB stick, to give you anonymous surfing wherever you go, on whatever machine you use.

Remember When Torture Was Evil?

Wisco Madison has a very well written post on the case Maher Arar -- the Canadian mad who was taken from JFK, shipped off to Syria, and tortured for a year. He was innocent. He wasn't -- isn't a terrorist. His life has been ruined. The American government doesn't care. Quite a few Americans don't care either. Torture is fine if it gets the job done.

Barrick Sells Interest in South African Mine

The Canadian mining company Barrick Gold Corp. declared on September 11, 2006 that it would sell its 50% stock ownership in a South African mine to Gold Fields Ltd. Barrick Gold has been the owner of Placer Dome Inc. and therefore "South Deep" since January 2006. The decision to sell the mine was made because the "asset has failed to deliver the goods" since acquisition, and it will take another one and a half kilometers of drilling to get to the ore deposit yet.

The deal is planned to close in early 2007 and the agreed-upon purchase price of $1.5 billion will be paid by Gold Fields using $1.2 billion in cash and the remainder in shares . According to Barrick, this transaction is consistent with its strategy to raise funds through divesting acquired subsidies in order to develop its own projects in North and South America in the future.

The strategically relevant industry features include market growth rate and extent of rivalry . The domestic Canadian mining industry is in its maturity, while the international mining industry has only reached early maturity, at best. The sale of South Deep to Gold Fields is the release of an estimated 29.3 million ounces of gold in a mine with a 70 year life-span, into the hands of the competition, who will begin reaping the benefits in about one year's time . This signifies the end of Barrick's expansion in South Africa, as well as the beginning of a period of heightened global competition with its rivals.

Barrick was not pressured by its competitors to leave South Deep, as Porter's model may suggest. The company chose to leave this market because the only perceived profit opportunity for the mine was its outright sale. Gold Fields Inc. is stepping up to take advantage of its competitor's geographical weakness, as Gold Fields has another mining enterprise "just across the street from South Deep."

The trade-off of a mine with potential to last seventy years and produce one third of the world's bullion to a competitor, simply because it wasn't performing exceptionally well within the first six-months, is a very poor one indeed. This seems to be a tactical move on Barrick's behalf rather than a strategic one, considering that the sale of South Deep will bring immediate cash-flow while its retention would have produced long-term financial benefits.

Coke’s New Real Thing

Coca-Cola has decided to leverage its industry power in the beverages business by expanding its product line from soft drinks, power drinks, juices and water products to include coffee, tea, and hot chocolate. Company executives noticed theslow-down of industry performance in soft drink sales and began looking for other venues to sell their products. Coke decided to capture some of the lucrative profits from the booming coffee market and spent five years making the arrangements to do so.

On September 6, 2006, Coke introduced its two new products to the coffee drinkers of Toronto. Far Coast is branded as a premium coffee, and Chaqwa as a convenience blend, however, both are targeted at the convenience market (Flavelle, C10, 1). Coke has provided the coffee grind, the equipment and the service for easy of use, and named this innovation café in a box (Flavelle, C10, 3).

People like Udayan Jatar, Cokes general manager for premium brewed beverages, are trying to grow the companys market share in beverages without invoking direct competition from premium coffee big-name competitors. This is being accomplished by explicitly selling the new products as convenience brews: ...the only thing holding back sales of high quality specialty brews is convenience, which Coke hopes to deliver in their new product line (Flavelle, C10, 2).

I applaud Coke for its risk-taking behaviour and for its excellence in spotting opportunities for growth in a competitive industry. They have researched the coffee market well and understand that current coffee industry leaders can use the experience of enjoying their product in luxurious surroundings to leverage sales something that comes from more than a box. Coke has therefore deliberately avoided competing directly with cafes such as Starbucks and Second Cup. At $2.59 to $3.49 for a cup of their convenience blend however, Coke is branding a truly luxury product in a convenience market (Flavelle, C10, 8). This may complicate coffee sales if customers are expecting convenience pricing.

I believe that the competitions next move will be swift in capturing new markets of their own to match the increased coffee revenues for Coke. There is no doubt that Pepsi is already looking for a means of bolstering profits especially since its consumer base is much the same as Cokes. Finally, the introduction of Far Coast and Chaqwa to the Toronto market raises the question of will these new products have any impact on existing coffee sales?. Starbucks, Second Cup and Tim Hortons are probably watching the every move of Coke strategists and making future plans of their own in the case that these new products perform well on the market.

Airline Combats Gay Terror

American Airlines apparently has a new found problem with some of their passengers -- outward displays of romantic affection, especially between gay couples. In a flight from Charles de Gaulle to JFK, George Tsikhiseli and Stephan Varnier ran afoul of overzealous airline employees, who were hell bent on enforcing their moral code on passengers. Tsikhiseli and Varnier apparently exchanged a kiss, then Varnier nodded off with his head resting on Tsikhiseli shoulder. They were approached by a stewardess who requested they stop their behaviour, as they were disturbing passengers. The request was repeated by the aircraft captain, who told them if they didn't stop, and stop arguing with the crew, the plane would be diverted so they could presumably be kicked off.

WTF? In this new world of battling terror, the airline industry, at the forefront of the war against hijackers, have become emboldened with new found authority to ensure planes don't go crashing into buildings -- whether as a result of a terrorist routing the plane into a building, or gay couples forcing the plane to explode by their sin. Before 9/11, stupid things like this would never happen. Something called customer service would prevent ingrates enforcing their personal moral code on passengers. Now however, everything is up for grabs -- including, apparently, gay couples. This would never have happened if the couple was straight.

Unintelligent Design

The Scientific Indian has a great case to end the intelligent design debate. Meet the Flounder. It must be the worst designed fish ever. Only evolution could have done that.

Why the USA is hated

A lot of people around the world hate Americans. It's mostly unfair. Yes, there are Americans who should be hated, but they are no different than most people just like themselves around the world -- assholes. Most Americans however are just normal folks like the rest of us. They're nice. They help when they can, don't go out of their way to be nasty, enjoy a good joke and time spent with friends and family. How can you hate those people? Well, you can't. Most of the world that hates Americans though, have never met any of those people. They have however, felt or have been aware of the actions, of the American government and global conglomerates. KryssTal.com documents the various reasons why the USA is hated -- chronicling US backed coups of foreign governments; US political interventions in foreign regimes; the US use of its UN veto rights; the actions of US companies in foreign countries; and, the US use of nuclear, biological and chemical agents around the world. How can one country be responsible for so much shit? Simple. Its own citizens don't know what is being done in their name.

Secrets of the Male Shopper

Traditionally, men made the money and women spent it. Marketers figured this out a long time ago and since then, the stage was set for how businesses sold their wares to consumers. Appeal to the women, and the guys would inevitably follow. Society has been changing since the 1960s however, with the dawn of the sexual revolution. The line separating gender identity have not only been shifting, but they've also been fading -- at least in the first world nations -- let's not even go to some of the jurrasic societies out there.

This has left many guys confused -- and I know some of them. The traditional refuges of the male have been dwindling as women have muscled their way in. Women are acting more like men, and it's becoming more acceptable for men to partake in the roles once reserved entirely for women. This isn't a change that is necessarily happening in individuals, so much as it's an evolution of society. The older generations continue to wallow in the traditional roles, however today's generation is growing up in a new norm, where women have more equality, and men have no problems with it.

Marketers have been waking up to this shift in gender identity -- realizing that there's a huge untapped market of fresh meat that hasn't yet been assaulted. Wake up to the assault. BusinessWeek has identified five types of male shoppers that marketers are now focusing on, fielding attributes of those types to help you figure out just where you fit.

• The Metrosexual -- an affulent, enfeminate, urbanite, betweek 20-50 years old. These men value products with deeper meaning, quality and beauty. They tend to be very superficial.
• The Maturiteen -- a techno-savvy teen, who is at ease with his elders. These teens do a lot of research on family purchases and their influence far outweight their purchasing power in the family.
• The Modern Man -- a sophisticated consumer that dabbles in a little luxury, feels comfortable around women, but doesn't go too far, as it might threaten his masculinity.
• The Dad -- the male consumer that is probably least understood and least marketed to. Dads are usually portrayed goofy and not having a clue about cool.
• The Retrosexual -- he is the antithesis of the Metrosexual. He wallows in the traditional male confines and rejects feminism. These men love beer, burgers and women in skimpy clothing that don't talk too much. They probably burp and fart a lot and find it hilarious.

If you're a male, you probably don't really know where you figure in these profiles. Like women, we're just as complex and hard to reach. More and more, it's coming down to context. Regardless, expect marketers to continue to fine tune their focus in an attempt to reach you.

eBible

Whoo-hoo! The Bible has gone Web 2.0! Just what I was waiting for! If you're like me and you were likewise waiting for this moment, the wait has now gone beta. Very soon, you too can find salvation on the internet. Check it out. The eBible site allows you to very easily search for the punishment that needs to be mete out sinners everywhere. Find out what the sodomites, fornicators and idolaters deserve, and give it to them. God wants you to. That's why the internet was created.

Too Much Homework is Not Enough

The kids are back in school, and for the most part, that seems to sit well with most parents. There are some however, that are up in arms, in the annual ritual flogging of homework. The media being the media, have latched on to the story and it has even made the cover of Macleans. What's all the brouhaha about? Well, it appears that there are some parents who think their kids are getting just way too much homework in school.

Amanda Cockshutt, an advocate of less homework, complains in the National Post: "The whole evening centres around this mad dash to get the homework done -- and then everyone's mad at each other. It cuts into family time and it really sours the night." I think there are a few things happening here, that have spurred comments like Cockshutt's and the rally against homework.

First and foremost, kids in general, with too few exceptions, are just bloody lazy and stupid. Further, they see no problem with this. They live in a world of entitlement. What they want, they should get and it shouldn't necessarily be earned. These kids show up to school and specialize in doing the bare minimum to get by. They complain about their teachers, the amount of work they have to do and their lives in general. They specialize in outfitting themselves with the latest fashion, music and spend way too much time playing video games or surfing the net. These kids are losers. There are many of them.

Second, there are the teachers who are likewise losers -- and there are many of those, compared with the few exceptions. Like the kids they teach, they specialize in giving the bare minimum, and just giving passing grades. They don't challenge, inspire or develop their students. They teach by rote, not questioning what is being fed to them via textbooks and unintentionally conspire to drain any aspirations that students may have -- unintentionally, because these teachers can hardly be counted on to do anything intentionally. While these teachers do the bare minimum, they are guided by provincial standards that require them to complete curriculums and prepare students for standardized tests. The result, the bare minimum being done in class, and the students being left to their own devices with homework.

Then there are the parents, who, with few exceptions, are no better than the teachers who teach their kids -- losers. The education system for a lot of these parents is just a means of babysitting their children. For some, the babysitting is a necessity. Single parents or immigrants with multiple jobs, trying to make ends meet, with the school representing the only community support they are going to get. For others, their lives are just too busy for them to play an active role in instilling the excitement of learning. Their children's education is a job if they have to participate. I read Cockshutt's comments, and I couldn't help but think that maybe homework could be part of family time. The process of learning should be part of what a family does together. Think of what she's teaching her children -- that their education is interfering with her selfish definition of family time. Regardless of the circumstances, the behaviour is the same -- parents who have no keen interest in their children's education, but are ready to throw a tantrum when the marks just don't meet expectations.

Lastly, the government, which specializes in issuing edicts, conducting surveys and tests, and publishing aggregated results that demonstrate their policies are working, while the rot continues unchecked in the details. The government's job isn't to occupy the governing seats, and figure ways of ensuring they continue to occupy those seats. Our elected officials are there to enact policies that will ensure the future viability of our society. One means is the education of future generations. Our children need to be educated in order to be able to compete in the future. There is no inheritance we can provide that would ensure their expectations of the future will be met. The best we can provide them is the means to compete, and education plays a big role.

As I read the articles on this topic, I was reminded of some students I read of recently in BusinessWeek magazine. One article looked at the students and their pace at the Meadowmount School of Music. These students know that to be the best, they have to practice. Their learning is their life. Another article profiles a student from rural India, who wants so much to transcend his caste and the poverty of generations, that he has dedicated himself to the pursuit of a science and math education. With no money, the only way he's going to succeed is by being a brilliant student. He knows this, and he studies like he wants it.

What do our children want? What do we want for them? And since when has our aspirations settled for mediocrity?

Public Domain Torrents

Eventually, copyright protection should run its course -- that's the natural order of things -- unless the movie industry gets its way. When copyright protection runs out for movies, you can download them legally, for free, via a torrent.

Ten Major Stories the MSM is Ignoring

The mainstream media is not here to serve the public interest -- even public media endures pressure to cave to private masters -- so you've got to wonder -- just what is that they don't want us hearing too much. Well, Thomas Kostigen of MarketWatch, has made an attempt to bring public discourse on stories they would rather us not discuss. You figure out what private interests would be compromised by public knowledge of the following stories:

1. Internet freedom, otherwise known as net neutrality -- while this has been a US only concern, don't kid yourself into believing it won't impact us.
2. Halliburton sold nuclear technology to Iran and has been charged in violating US laws. Halliburton was US Vice President Dick Cheney previous employer.
3. The world's oceans are heating up as global warming continues its ascension. Increasing temperature will cause large scale devastation to the oceans ecosystem.
4. Hunger and homelessness increasing in the US. Although if you listen to the US government, you'd think everything was just dandy.
5. The Congo genocide isn't just tribal warfare, it's a fight for the precious minerals the high-tech industry needs.
6. US federal whistleblower protection is slowly being dismantled. Soon government workers will think twice before reporting abuses.
7. Detainees being tortured to death in Afghanistan and Iraq.
8. The US DoD is exempt from the Freedom of Information Act. Now secrets really will be secrets.
9. In a round about way, the World Bank seems to be funding the wall Israel is building on its borders with Palestine.
10. As the US increased bombing runs across Iraq, more civilians are getting bombed. Well, duh!

Leaving Afghanistan

It's no surprise that Jack Layton and the NDP want Canadian troops out of Afghanistan -- the NDP doesn't go to war. But, aside from the complication that our troops are committed as part of NATO's deployment in Afghanistan, is pulling out the right thing to do? I'm of two minds over the whole thing. Removing the Taliban from Afghanistan was the right thing to do. Here was a country that was aiding and projecting an aggressive force at the west. Don't kid yourself and thing it would have only been the US that would have been the target. Removing the Taliban, destroying al Qaeda and finishing the mission in Afghanistan is the right thing to do.

Of course, the US went and squandered the world's goodwill -- including that from Muslin states after 9/11 -- by invading Iraq for no good reason. Despite Iraq however, the Afghanistan mission has to be completed and a democratic nation needs to emerge from the ashes of the Taliban fundamentalist state. I've no illusions of what will happen in Iraq. The US will fail there because even the people want them out. But the Afghanistan mission cannot fail. We need to demonstrate that we can bring democracy and a better life to Afghanistan. We need to demonstrate that there is an alternative to fundamentalism -- and I believe that the US can't do this, but countries like Canada, can.

Canada hasn't moved to the other fundamentalist extreme of Islamic fundamentalism -- but more and more, the US is projecting this shift. Canada is in a unique position of bridging the gap between the extremes, but we need to have the capability and the will to do so. Yes, we're losing lives in Afghanistan and will lose more -- and every single loss is too high a price to pay -- but the potential value that each personal loss brings ... too high a price, but for the things that really matter, the costs are always high. If we stop now, we may not get another opportunity for a long time -- and we would continue to lose trust, integrity and respectability around the world.

10 Unknown Freeware Apps

Dmitry has posted a nice list of 10 unknown freeware apps for Windows that you shouldn't live without. There's some cool stuff there. Check it out.

False Flag Operations

Just when is it OK for a nation to execute a war against its own citizens? Answer: never. But that doesn't mean it won't happen. Read about how the US military drafted plans that were approved by the Joint Chiefs of Staff to wage a false war against Americans and then blame terrorists. When the plan was brought before JFK, he turned it down.

CIA Secret Prisons

Oh, don't be fooled by the latest admission by the Bush Administration. This is not about clearing the air on a much debated suspicion. It was well known -- made the news -- and vigorously denied by the Republicans and their supporters. The CIA was taking suspected terrorists to foreign prisons, far from oversight, for questioning. Translation: the beat the fucking truth out of them. Which of course is against American law. But maybe it's alright, after all, those bastards deserve it. Let's just hope that no innocents also disappeared under CIA management.

This announcement by Bush however, surrounded by the families of terrorist victims at the White House, was carefully orchestrated. It was designed to demonstrate to general American sheep that make up most of the voting population -- you know, those that first elected Bush, then handed the country to him for a second term -- that the Republicans are the only ones that can fight terrorism -- and just like the movies, the good guys can and sometimes, must, employ harsh methods to deal with the bad guys.

I predict that the general voting public will lap this up and will hand the Republicans the necessary seats in Congress.

There's a lot to be learned from the Republican party and the Bush Administration. It's not a lesson that most will want to learn however. If you're one of the bad guys however ...

Fighting Terrorism 10-Years Ago

What did the fight against terrorism look like ten years ago? Joseph over at Cannonfire did a quick search on the Usenet to find out what conservative commentators were saying about the Clinton Administration's attempts to tackle terrorism. See if you can find the irony ... and while you're at it, swing over to AmericanBlog for more of the same.

Just in case you're wondering ... politicians really don't care about the public's interest ... only their own.

Tobermory Weekend

In days of old
When knights were bold
And toilets weren't yet invented
People powdered their noses by the road
And walked away contented

September 3/06
I wouldn't necessarily say that was the highlight of the long weekend, but since it was said by my wife less than an hour ago, it has been stuck in my head. She said that as we were driving back on Cape Hurd Road -- it was an after dinner drive up in Tobermory, where we spent this long weekend. My wife didn't want the weekend to end, as we were heading back to the motel for our last night. We've been up to Tobermory a number of times over the past few years, and have never been disappointed with the trip. It's always good up here -- even if you have to suffer through an overcast weekend that regularly erupted, thanks to Hurricane Ernesto.

This morning, after breakfast at the Princess Hotel, we drove down to Cabot Head in the drizzle. It's always fun driving along Cabot Head Road -- a single dirt lane that cuts through a forest of trees, and at times, hugging the rocky shoreline of Dyer's Bay extremely closely -- winding its way to the lighthouse at Cabot Head -- one of many that can be found along the Bruce Peninsula. At Cabot Head, we took in the lighthouse, the outhouse and lunch. We also went down to the shoreline and played among the rocks -- something you do when adventuring in Bruce County.

After Cabot Head, we drove through another forest, heading to Britain Lake. It wasn't a road we drove on -- it was more a trail that was passable for motor vehicles. My wife's Corolla became an off-road vehicle for the couple of hours that followed. Last year, my wife and I also did this trail with my car when we journeyed up to Tobermory -- then it also rained -- and we ended up not finding Britain Lake, but were hoping for better luck this time around. The trail came to an end when a sign warned of private property ahead. There we got out of the car, and decided to hike for a while along the Bruce Trail, following the signs to Devil's Monument. Yes, we actually drove our car onto the Bruce Trail and parked under a canopy of trees while we went hiking.

The hiking was nice, though it got quite dangerous at Devil's Monument. If you hike along the Bruce Peninsula, you know how dangerous the rocks can be. The hike was pretty exhaustive, and since it was the afternoon, we called it a day to the adventuring and drove back to Tobermory for coffee, ice cream, some walking and shopping, then supper. We didn't find Britain Lake -- it was most likely on private property.

Supper was at the Stone Orchid, an Indonesian restaurant just outside of downtown Tobermory. We've actually had dinner there on a number of trips up to Tobermory. It's always good. If you're ever up there, I highly recommend it. I could detail what we had, but if you check out their site, you'll find a menu. We had their sampler, which gave a little bit of everything on the menu. We were all full afterwards.

Yesterday wasn't much of an adventuring day, but we did get in some sightseeing. We ventured out to the Singing Sands Provincial Park to walk along the beach, then it got dangerous when my daughter took to the wheel to get us back to Highway 6. Johnsons Harbour Road is a winding dirt road which promises a surprise around every bend. Luckily for us, it was pretty tame, and we got out intact. We ate in Tobermory that night, at the Fish and Chip Place. They serve pretty good fish and chips, with the fish being locally caught white fish. Mmmm ... deep fried goodness!

September 4, 2006
Today we left Tobermory early to beat the traffic back to Toronto. We took the long way back however, meandering along the sideroads to make the trip last, enjoying the sights of rural Ontario. On the way out, along Highway 6, we stopped by the Crossroads Coffee House in Ferndale. If you're ever out that way, it's a great place for a cup of coffee and a good chat. The owners moved up there about seven years ago, and brought with them a worldly social conscious. They serve fairtrade organic coffees and teas, to go with light breakfast and lunch.

My daughter did most of the navigating, picking the sideroads to slip and slide our way home. If you ever played a game of snakes and ladders, you'll have a good picture in mind of what our route home looked like. There was much geology and geography to see. Rural Ontario has geography scattered willy-nilly all over the damn place -- so much of the stuff, that I kept screaming out, "Geography!" and stopping the car to take photographs. Along with the geography was a regular quirk of rural Ontario -- the many hidden entrances along the undulating roads. Quite peculiar were the signs that warned of the hidden entrances. After some people went to such lengths to hide their entrances, along comes some civil servant, erecting signs telling everyone where they are.

We also saw many instances of ancient ruins -- history and archeology scattered randomly about the place with no semblance of planning. I didn't stop to take any photos of those, in case ghosts of the past haunt those resting places. One place of history I did stop to take photographs at however, was the Pioneer Cemetery in Lloydtown. Lloydtown is famous for being the site of the Lloydtown Rebellion of 1837, which was part of the Upper Canada Rebellion -- in which rebels wanted to wrest control of what was then Canada, from Great Britain, and create an American style republic. The rebels lost and the rest is history.

Since we were driving through King Township at that point, we happened through Schomberg, and there stopped off at a neat country store: Piety Ridge Primitives. If you want a neat little place to have tea, coffee and treats, it's worth the drive to Schomberg.

From Schomberg, it wasn't that far to home. Once you get south of Aurora, Ontario quickly runs out of rural as you head towards Toronto. We got home tired, but happy. And that was my long weekend in a nutshell.

Pictures ... there's lots of them, and they're coming soon.

Update: Photos are now being added, and you can view them at Webshots. I've only uploaded 160 of the 396 photos I took. Not all are great, but most are typical of the shots I take.

Walt Disney World Fingerprints Visitors

For the paranoid, there's now new evidence that there really is a conspiracy afoot. Walt Disney World has begun fingerprinting visitors to the theme park in an effort to thwart ticket fraud. Is it just a technology upgrade from it's previous anti-scam efforts? It's Disney ... it can't be anything really serious. In the past, Disney has recorded onto tickets, the geometry and shape of visitors' fingers, and this latest effort is being sold as just an upgrade. And it really is, but in the strategic context, what this is doing is conditioning citizens of the free world to assumed guilty until proven innocent. We're all crooks you see, and only by businesses, governments and the public taking security measures, are we prevented from perpetrating crimes. We're being conditioned to becoming a society that records every movement, every transaction, to be analyzed and scrutinized, for our protection. If we have nothing to hide, we have nothing to be afraid of. Privacy is only legitimate if it can be disclosed publicly. What you do is no one's business as long as it's everyone's business.

Next, Mickey will be wanting to frisk visitors and give them rubber glove treatment. Good thing I never liked the rat.