There are pointed questions being asked in Parliament about Snowden's most recent documents showing that the Canadian spy agency helped the Americans set up their spy shop on Canadian soil during the G20 conference three years ago. The documents show this was explicitly with with full knowledge that the Americans were after more than just security threat assessment data.

Like the Americans, our spy agency isn't allowed to spy on our citizens. It appears though that it is allowed to show the Americans where the keys to the back door are hidden.

The only positive thing you can say about this situation is that, like everything else in Canada, our scum are 10 years behind the scum in the U.S.

I've been involved in several backup tape data rescue projects, including tapes that were too far gone to recover anything. No thank you. It's hard to believe a "prolific audio engineer" would miss this point.

I'm currently digitizing a collection thousands of photographic slides, doing individual colour correction on most of them as the dyes have shifted. Most of them have never been viewed more than a half dozen times during their 50 year lifetime due to the hassle of setting up the projector.

  Things I do not miss: film photography, magnetic audio and data tapes, and phonographic records.

Fuck analog. We've lost almost as much to media degradation as we have to DRM and copyright abuse.

Yeah, I quite liked my eReader for extended reading. What brought my eBook purchasing to a screaming halt was the eReader's death a week after the warranty expired. Even if it had lasted another 6 months or a year before the battery required replacement I'm not sure I want to pay a $120 replacement tax every 18 months just to keep reading the stuff I've already bought.

And then there's the inflated eBook prices, breaking DRM to transfer between devices, non-transferability, etc., etc.

Fuck that. Back to dead trees, and loving it.

Just another example that very intelligence, highly successful people are not always smart. Some readily preventible diseases need vaccines, others need knowledge, and some need both if humanity is to be rid of them. To quote Charles Dickens:

'They are Man's,' said the Spirit, looking down upon
them. 'And they cling to me, appealing from their fathers.
This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both,
and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy,
for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the
writing be erased. Deny it.' cried the Spirit, stretching out
its hand towards the city. 'Slander those who tell it ye.
Admit it for your factious purposes, and make it worse.
And abide the end.'

Nice of Bill to be taking care of the girl though, I guess.

Piece of masking tape over the "Do Not Duplicate" stamp, and write "Rm 103" on the tape. Social engineering ain't just for bank cards.

Still have the original Warcraft running in a DOS box. Apparently I need to patch the sound files so the Orcs say "Get of my lawn" instead of "Zug Zug".

Memo to our American cousins:

Socialism isn't all that evil.

Love,
Canada

Good point. The experience of the SARS patients during the outbreak 10 years ago is another example. Even trained medical professionals were reacting negatively towards them long past the point they were no longer infectious:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/sars/

That's consistent with Consumer Report's tests. We've found the same thing over the years, to the extent we only have Sylvania CFLs in every fixture except for the high use area where we've installed LEDs.

My job regularly has me spending weeks away from anything but the occasional email download. Most of the time I don't give a rat's arse cause working the wilderness is awesome, but there are times when a game makes a nice break. The original Starcraft has become my Solitare. Pity Starcraft II needs to phone home regularly.

So, what about the problem that pulp and paper making technology changes in the last 100 years has resulted in paper with a much higher acid content than older paper? Modern paper (especially that used in cheap paperbacks) doesn't archive well. How long will it take to generate a container full of brittle paper fragments?

Good suggestions.

As a Canadian though, I'm always puzzled by the USPS hate and UPS love Americans have. For small parcels going across the border I always specify USPS. No idea what the insurance procedure is like since I've never had to put in a claim. Stuff always arrives and the custom fees are reasonable.

UPS on the other hand has been a nightmare, with all the insurance problems you've noted for USPS. It's at the point where I'll find another U.S. supplier if the only option is shipping by UPS. Anyone can have a bad day but with UPS it seems to be a philosophy. Bit ironic too that they filed a NAFTA lawsuit against Canada Post for shipping parcels and having an unfair advantage with their drop box network. If you can't compete on service and innovation, I guess...

Anyway, I really hope USPS gets its act together south of the border and eats UPS's lunch.

I don't live in a country where I will need a "weapon". I strongly suspect we won't be shooting each other in the face while looting following a disaster.

What I have I will share.

p.s.: I do have a couple of "firearms". Bambis are good food. I'm assuming bag limits and hunting seasons will be suspended for a time.

Frickin' Aye!

And I'm not even an American....

Looks like they want money before they'll let you see possible matches. Smells like Ancestry.com