They are full of shit!

Well they can have fun with the Babylonians, Egyptians, Romans, Byzantines, etc. I'm a Canadian with strong ties to England (mother and brother have English passports) and I believe that they have just taken a giant step in their long decline.

Funny you say that it depends "how much of a friend the UK has in the US", considering that people who voted to leave the EU ostensibly did so because they wanted more independence.

Rush (or at least their drummer, Neil) has been blunt about their desire to control their music. Not outspoken or inflammatory, but consistent and clear that they don't like music being copied and shared without their consent (and without them receiving a cut, it's not clear which is the biggest issue for them).

I bought several of their albums on vinyl, cassette, and CD over the years, and have been to several of their concerts. I've been a supporter even when they weren't "cool".

Interesting that in some of Neil's books he refers to listening to compilations of music made for him by friends, presumably without the knowledge or enrichment of those artists.

Actually, it's until the death of the creator plus 70 years (in the U.S.; in Canada it is plus 50 years), so potentially 130 years or so for a song written when the creator was about 20.

Funny, when I lived in Japan I remember construction on some roads that had started before I arrived and was still going on when I left, seven years later.

Japan may be a model of efficiency in some (limited) ways, but this certainly wasn't one, in my experience.

Even in Canada, with our single-payer healthcare, hearing aids are not normally covered by insurance. Nor are dental or visual issues, which are just as much a part of health as the areas that are covered.

I have trouble believing that it is due to anything other than the established practitioners trying to protect their independence and, not incidentally, their lucrative revenue streams.

In Canada, audiology is a Master's program.

Part of the cost is the lavish trips that manufacturers give to audiologists and Hearing Instrument Specialists who sell their products, the kind of exotic vacations where you have a seminar for one morning out of a week-long stay in a tropical resort. (Not taxed as income for the audiologists, either.)

Doctors used to get these, but now it's typically dinner at a nice restaurant in exchange for listening about the latest devices/medications. Audiologists are still at the trough and saying that they aren't being influenced.

A lot of the people who test hearing and prescribe hearing aids in Ontario have a Hearing Instrument Specialist certificate, which is a two-year college course (can be done online). A bit of a stretch to call that "a professional".

I agree. The University of Toronto (85,000 students, many in the heart of Toronto) has campus police. The University of British Columbia (60,000 students) has an RCMP detachment on campus (not exactly the same as the university having its own police. As far as I know, no other Canadian university has police.

The Southern African country of Lesotho now has a large number of Chinese garment factories, because of the country's no-tariff status in North America (and, I think, Europe).

Just in case anyone is looking for the movie, it is the 2015 release "Suffragette", with Carey Mulligan and Helena Bonham Carter.

> their C interface was the stuff of nightmares

I see that you also have traumatic memories of Pro*C

Clarification: in Canada, engineering students receive an "iron ring" (mine is stainless steel) in a special ceremony when they graduate. No other countries have this tradition, as far as I know. It is also not related to being licensed as a professional engineer (which I have never done).