Well, I’ve been gone for a month touring Europe… hence the longer-than-usual silence on the site. Soon I’ll write a post about all my adventures there… and post pictures in my Gallery, which has been updated to the latest version of ZenPhoto – easier & speedier than Menalto Gallery). Ask me for the password if you don’t have it already!
A quick regurgitation of interesting linkage that I may or may not talk about more in coming posts:
Here’s one that’s too astounding to believe.
On second thought, considering the sheer idiocy of the CYA attitude in administrations far and wide in this country, it’s really not that unbelievable.
As discussed widely on the web, some poor mother was scared out of her wits and subjected to a CAS investigation because a teaching aide working with her autistic daughter got a tip that she was being sexually abused. Where did this come from? A psychic she visited!
The school administration took this as ‘reasonable grounds’ to suspect child abuse and ran with it to CAS. Luckily, the child in question had a GPS device with audio recording capability to prove she’d never been assaulted.
But, a psychic?! Those charlatans? Come on now, they may be fun in a fair, but an allegation of child abuse is no laughing matter. Why hasn’t this psychic been hunted down? (Obviously the school administration is more to blame here, but still, ‘for entertainment purposes only’ disclaimers – whether explicit or tacit – shoudl only go so far).
Playing a little catchup today, with a mishmash of links:
The Harper government has been told to stop referring to “fighting terrorism” and the Sept. 11 attacks, and to banish the phrase “cut and run” from its vocabulary if it is to persuade a skeptical public that the military mission in Afghanistan is worth pursuing.
President Bush’s first surgeon general charged today that administration officials prevented him from providing the public with accurate scientific and medical information on such issues as stem cell research and teen pregnancy.
I heard about this short (58 minute) documentary about culture and remixing (and therefore a nice primer and the current state of copyright). It is entertaining and eye-opening, and really well edited. A must see! And the best part? It’s available free!
(via BoingBoing)
I mentioned the Canadian No-Fly list last October. Unfortunately, it has materialized and is coming into effect shortly.
This CBC article is reassuringly critical, calling into question the government’s unsupported statements that “it works”, pointing out obvious flaws (using a fake ID bypasses the whole thing), and points out the potential to inconvenience — or worse; see Maher Arar — innocent people.
I wish we weren’t becoming more like the US every day. (Although I like our dollar being so high… *grin*).
Updated: Michael Geist points out that the Privacy Commissioners have called to suspend this list.
So I just heard about this story, and how talks between Canada and the US regarding border crossings have broken down. Apparently, the US wanted the power to fingerpring people who ‘approach the border but decide not to cross’. As someone at Bruce Schneier’s blog pointed out, this basically gives the US the power to arrest and detain people at random on Canadian soil.
It seemed the pro-US Harper government even managed to balk at this and tell the states to stick it where the sun don’t shine…
Once again, taking some time off while trying to get some work done this weekend to go through the pile of links I have collected over the last little while. Here they are in no particular order:
I am a Family Physician in Southern Ontario with an overindulgent geeky side!
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