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I just found out that a lot of you tried to comment and were having issues with the OpenID plugin I tried out this week to allow more people to login fluidly to 1337hax0r. It’s been fixed, and by fixed, I mean I deactivated the plugin since it basically made it very difficult to comment.

Sorry about the issues.

1h

Originally published at 1337hax0r.com. Please leave any comments there.

When I was younger I heard a parable about a man who prayed for God to save him from the incoming floods. I decided to type up what I remember:

An old frail man with no car who had lived his entire life with the good grace of God lived in a city which was about to be hit by the biggest flood it had ever seen. Since God had consistently answered his prayers in the past, the man got on his knees and prayed for God to save him from the floodwaters.

The waters had not yet reached his house when a friend of his drove up in a car and offered to drive him out of the city. The man told his friend that he was fine, that God will save him somehow, and that he shouldn’t worry.

The waters filled his basement and flooded the street in front of his house — Once again, the man got on his knees and prayed for God to save him. In a short while another friend in a SUV which could drive through the waters arrived and offered to take him to safety. The man rejected him saying that God will save him.

The waters filled the first floor of his house, and he was forced to the second floor. More desperately the man got on his knees and prayed for help. Shortly thereafter, a boat arrived at his second floor window and the woman driving it said, “I’m here to help and take you to safety, get in.” The man refused, because this wasn’t the help that he felt God would send him.

Finally, the waters forced the man to the roof, and in a last desperate attempt he cried out, “GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME! I’VE PRAYED AGAIN AND AGAIN FOR YOU TO SAVE ME, BUT THERE’S BEEN NO ANSWER.” Immediately after he cried out, a bright light appeared over his head and blinded the old man. A voice thundered through the storm, “I AM HERE TO SAVE YOU, JUST DO AS I SAY AND YOU WILL SURVIVE.” Hope filled the man’s heart, and then a rope ladder fell in front of the man, and he realized that a helicopter was above his head, offering to save him from the storm. The man, recognizing that this was not a manifestation of God, told the helicopter to leave, and that his God will somehow save him.

The man drowned shortly thereafter.

He was offered help many times, but rejected it because he wanted God to save him.  It’s clear to any outsider that the man had many chances to be saved, and that his prayers were being answered. However, in his irrational belief that salvation would happen sans interference by man, he refused the help time and time again. Sometimes people don’t want to be saved if it means that their beliefs are not quite on the mark. His God was not the same God that was sending help every time he asked.

Just like those who, in their irrational belief in the invisible-hand of the market, refuse to believe that any salvation can come from anything other than way oversimplified free market principles — even though it is clear that the way economies work is not clear, linear and easily determined. In the end, they’d rather have everything burn, than take the chance at fixing the problem. Sometimes people don’t want to be saved if it means they will need to rethink their prejudices and beliefs.

Sometimes people don’t want to confront that their personal Gods are not the real ones.

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Originally published at 1337hax0r.com. Please leave any comments there.

You’ve probably already seen this, but here I go again. Jon Stewart went up one side of CNBC and down the other last night. The link is to the episode on the Comedy Network for Canadians, which I can’t embed because, I guess CTV/Globe&Mail are in such dire straits that they couldn’t possibly have the money to allow embeddings.

However, here’s the American version embedded for you American readers.

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Originally published at 1337hax0r.com. Please leave any comments there.

Your daily supply of ever so polite punditry from Canada.

Thomas Walkom asks the most important question about our mission in Afghanistan.

Stephen Harper now says that Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan can never be defeated. Never.

I find this admission breathtaking. The Prime Minister has hinted before that the war in Afghanistan is far tougher than he once thought. But he has never been so categorical.

And his new position raises the obvious questions: If the Taliban can’t be beaten, what are Canadian troops doing in Afghanistan? If the Taliban can’t be beaten, why are our soldiers still dying? If the Taliban can’t be beaten, why are Canada and its NATO allies encouraging the Afghan government to keep fighting a war that, according to Harper, it may be able to “manage” but can’t possibly win?

Gary Mason:

I have no idea how much we’re paying all these lawyers defending the Mounties, but as a taxpayer footing the bill, I’m a little offended by it all. The scales of justice in this case are weighed dramatically against the victim.

Before stepping down from the witness box for a final time, Constable Millington was asked if, in retrospect, he would have done anything differently.

He replied no, not much.

Which, of all the things he said in two days of testimony at the inquiry, was the scariest of all.

Joe Fiorito

What is the point of having a kitchen worth more than my house if you are not going to cook in it?

Hey, moneybags, here’s a tip you might find useful in the days ahead: you know those knobs on the front of your stove? Yes, I mean your stove that cost more than my darling’s car. If you grasp the knobs firmly and turn them clockwise, the burners will light up.

You can cook on that thing.

John Barber presents the incredible benefits of a real high speed rail network in Ontario (Albeit the same arguments work for Alberta).

Of all the possible forms of new infrastructure the current crisis will call forth, they say, the most advantageous would be an electric rail network that transforms a sprawling region into a closely linked network of urban nodes.

“You can’t go any faster by automobile,” Professor Christopher Kennedy, the study’s lead author, said in an interview.

“Even if you don’t have congestion, you can’t go fast enough. But if you go for a regional strategy that’s based on high-speed rail, you can link places like Niagara, Waterloo and Toronto so they’re actually within commuting time.”

Stéphane Gendron crois que c’est le temps pour une réforme électorale au Quebec (et au Canada).

Andrew Hanon has some sobering facts about food bank usage in what used to be boomtown Edmonton.

But that’s changing. Jobs - and wealth - are starting to rapidly vanish here as the global economic crisis sinks its teeth in.

“We’re seeing a big increase of people coming in,” said Susan Kreczy, who runs the food bank in St. Albert, one of the most affluent communities in Western Canada. “A lot of white-collar people are coming in, and they’re citing job losses. There are a lot of tradespeople, as well.”

Others, she added, are just trying to make ends meet because their employers are cutting back on their hours of work.

…

Kreczy said she’s seeing people who’ve never had to ask for charity before.

“They’re totally humbled by it. Some have said they used to donate to us, now they’re having to come in,” she said. “It’s a pretty difficult step for them to take.”

Even though people are clearly suffering from the recession, Kerry Diotte wants the government to cut spending further, because that’s clearly the solution to the problem.

We’re officially in a recession and we already have a predicted budget deficit for this fiscal year of $1.4 billion. That’s the amount of cash the government will spend over and above what it budgeted.

Spending has risen more than 70% from 2003 to 2008 and there’s no thought to pare it back despite our tough economic times and our $35 barrels of oil.

David Suzuki

This is science that has been rigorously peer-reviewed and that has been agreed upon by the vast majority of the world’s climate scientists, as well as more than 50 scientific academies and societies, including those of all G8 nations. There has been no peer-reviewed scientific study that has called into question the conclusions of the IPCC, which represents the consensus of the international scientific community.

So why does the debate still continue? Why are we fiddling while Rome burns? Well, as Prof. Budescu’s research shows, some people don’t really understand how science works. And people with vested interests, many of whom work with the oil and coal industries, are all too willing to exploit that lack of understanding by sowing confusion.

Don Martin

Let’s concede the obvious. Neither Stephen Harper nor his Finance Minister saw the recession coming. Their fall update was a delusional document forecasting fiscal dreams that will never materialize. And without a concerted effort by all parties and the Senate, the five-week-old stimulus package might not reach the construction sector before the summer.

If you have a favourite Canadian pundit that I’m missing, please let me know in the comments and I’ll try to include them in future editions of CAPRU.

Have fun!

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Originally published at 1337hax0r.com. Please leave any comments there.

CAPRU is back, and this time it’s bilingual!

Mindelle Jacobs addresses the latest Conservative schadenfreude:

Despite the widely varying ideological positions, the NGOs agreed that illicit drug use is a public health issue and that the approaches to address the problem should be based on evidence and the mitigation of harm.

It doesn’t mesh with Stephen Harper’s plan for mandatory minimum sentences for drug dealers, of course. Hard-core gangsters won’t be deterred by such penalties. For one thing, the drug kingpins are rarely caught. Will the Tories ever learn?

Jonathan Kay is Godwin’s law exemplified.

The difference between the two begins with the way Jews are depicted. Look at the images on this page. The one on the left, a poster published in German-occupied Poland in 1941, exemplifies the Jew-hatred spouted by the Nazis. (The caption reads: “Jews and Lice: They cause typhus.”) The image on the right, a poster circulated on Canadian campuses this week to mark “Israel Apartheid Week,” typifies the more recent variant.

Aside from the obvious — the language and style of illustration — what crucial difference do you notice?

Perhaps that one is a racist attack against a significant subpopulation (the Jews) by a nation-state and the other is criticizing the actions of a nation-state towards significant subpopulation (the Palestinians). As an analogy, Jonathan Kay’s argument would also imply that opposing apartheid in South Africa meant you clearly hate white people.

Bruce Arthur

But it was the way Cherry presented his case that left the usual sour taste. Besides the usual anti-European bile — which should perhaps be toned down after Cherry’s attempt to build a junior team in Mississauga without Europeans back in 1999, resulting in a team that won 16 games in three seasons — Cherry showed a montage of soccer players celebrating, and as it showed a group of four enthusiastic black players dancing close to the camera, Cherry said, “Now watch this, look at this — this is what we want our hockey players to act like?”

The charge of racism has been thrown at Cherry over his treatment of Europeans and Francophone Canadians, but because those aren’t traditionally identifiable minorities, the charges don’t seem to stick. But intentionally or not, this looked for all the world like a more familiar brand of racism.

André Pratte fait trop confiance à Harper.

La crise financière étant d’origine américaine, la récession étant planétaire, la capacité pour nos gouvernements de limiter les dégâts est très limitée. Reste que dans la mesure où ils peuvent dépenser pour stimuler l’économie, ils doivent le faire de façon intelligente, ciblée et surtout rapide. C’est pourquoi le gouvernement Harper a eu raison de mettre en place un «financement spécial central» de 3 milliards. Ce fonds sera géré par le Conseil du Trésor. Les ministères qui ont dans leurs cartons des projets prêts à démarrer pourront obtenir dès maintenant le financement nécessaire, sans attendre l’approbation par le Parlement des crédits supplémentaires, fin juin.

Lawrence Martin acknowledges his love for the systematic media bias towards conservatism in Canada, and prays that somehow the media can regain it’s power to force ideology on Canadians through monopoly.

So much of his conservative world is under siege. The National Post, the newspaper Mr. Black founded a decade ago, is hobbled, demonstrably un-national, struggling to survive. The fleet of newspapers that he bought and that, with the Post, helped change the face of Canadian journalism are now part of a CanWest Global empire in dire financial condition. The conservative creed he undergirded with his baroque forays is threatened in Canada and reeling in America.

Writing in the Post, one of the editors lamented on the weekend that “Conservatism, as we know it, is dead.” Many starboard voices south of the border offer similar sentiments. In their dire thoughts, they forget about the cycles, how the teeter-totter of time is likely to relieve them of their perceived perdition.

James Travers:

Two of the many political laws are immutable. One is that principles are more flexible than interests. The other holds that a distraction is the next best thing to a solution.

Britain’s resolute Margaret Thatcher proved the utility of diversions in 1982 when she sent the fleet south to lay a licking on the “Argies.” Rescuing the Falkland Islands from Argentina was such a flag-waving success that voters forgave the wrenching changes she was imposing at home and handed Conservatives another victory.

Stephen Harper doesn’t have islands with more sheep than shepherds to conquer. He does have the sort of economic problem that pummels ruling parties.

You won’t see a tear from me when Canwest stops publishing it’s daily propaganda rag and I think many other Canadians agree with me.

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Originally published at 1337hax0r.com. Please leave any comments there.

So apparently, that polish man who was sentenced to electrocution by the BC RCMP died because the officer was apparently deeply threatened by this:

This is apparently a deadly weapon.

From the TorStar:

Millington, who had been on the force just over two years at the time, testified he used the weapon without issuing a prior warning as he had been trained to do because Dziekanski had picked up a stapler and there was no time.

The last time I checked, a stapler is not a deadly weapon and there is generally more than enough time to defend yourself when being threatened by one. Especially since it really doesn’t shoot that far. Now, I guess if he was on top of you and stapling your eyes, that would be a problem. However, at long range, at worse it’s a heavy object. Not something so serious as to kill a man for.

What’s more audacious about this whole inquiry is the fact that they didn’t just shoot the man with a taser for brandishing a stapler — apparently now a capital crime in BC — but they shot him multiple times in violation of their very own training:

As Dziekanski writhed and screamed on the floor at Vancouver International Airport, a superior ordered Millington to fire his Taser again.

When he squeezed the trigger a third time, it didn’t sound right, so the constable fired a fourth time.

…

He acknowledged he had been advised during training not to use multiple stuns.

The hell, seriously? The hell? This whole situation becomes even more absurd when you see that when the polish man put up his hands in response to the cops threatening him. A standard response to seeing police officers — from the whole, put up your hands so we can see that you don’t have a weapon. The cops took this clear sign of surrender as a threat.

Millington, 32, said he tried to make a gesture indicating he wanted to see Dziekanski’s identification and passport, but when the Polish man threw up his hands, he interpreted that as defiance.

Shortly after which, the poor polish man picked up a stapler, and clearly was threatening the lives of everyone there by pushing little tiny staples at them. Note, this is so absurd that the cops at the hearing laughed at it.

Millington stood up at one point during his testimony to demonstrate how the stapler had been held by Dziekanski.

He held the stapler at shoulder height with one hand, his other a clenched fist.

Members of the public laughed at the sight and retired judge Thomas Braidwood had to request order.

It’s just insanity, pure and simple. If nothing is done about this to prevent it from happening again, it will be clear proof that the justice system and the RCMP in BC is completely broken and corrupt.

Seriously, a man was sentenced to die by electrocution because of a stapler. Does that make any sense?

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ps. If you are in BC, write your MP or your MLA, demand some sanity and justice for this. Clearly the system is broken and is in need of serious repair before any more people die for brandishing staplers.

Originally published at 1337hax0r.com. Please leave any comments there.

After many months of hiatus, it’s back. It’s the ACPRU.

Lysiane Gagnon paints a picture of how allowing private healthcare can create a healthcare utopia,  just like in France. However, private healthcare doesn’t imply the most important “glitch” with her theory (Emphasis mine).

One of the reasons for the sterling performance of the French system is its large network of family doctors - which means that everything is done to closely monitor the patient’s condition and prevent disease. There’s a glitch, though. There are so many physicians that their earnings are not as high as Canadian GPs. Most of them have no secretary, and they answer the phone, set up appointments and fill out insurance forms themselves.

Kelly McParland

Mr. McGuinty may be the one who is surprised. Mr. Rae went from Popular Premier to Deficit Poster Boy pretty quickly as Ontarians absorbed what he’d done. They never really forgave him. Once he gains the crown, Mr. McGuinty may find himself  wearing it for a long time.

Kevin Brooker

Once you add in the security measures, air travel’s protocols have become so opaque and disturbing that standup comics can’t even bring themselves to comment any more.

Still, we can only hope that other airlines follow Ryanair’s lead, just as in our world, it took WestJet to teach the others that passengers don’t really need to present triplicate, red-carbon-paper tickets, complete with five pages of IATA legal boilerplate.

David Suzuki

CCS is a simple-minded idea based on a first impression. You’d think we would have learned from the past that we shouldn’t rush to apply new technologies before we know what the long-term effects will be. Carbon capture and storage may be worth studying, but the technology’s potential should not be used as an excuse for the oil and coal industries to avoid reducing their emissions and investing in renewable energy. After all, we know that energy conservation and renewable energy will yield immediate effects of a cleaner environment.

Lorne Gunter is absolutely certain that the climate change scientists are all part of some massive international conspiracy to keep him from buying cheap gasoline.

Patricia Robertson seems very confused about how different Harper and Tommy Douglas are.

Mr. Ignatieff, rural Canada — as you may already suspect — currently belongs to Stephen Harper. There’s a reason for that: He’s one of us.

When he’s not proroguing Parliament or scanning the latest National Geographic for any positive words on the tar sands, Mr. Harper is working on a hockey book. You, meanwhile, taught at Harvard and pen brainy non-fiction tomes.

…

Unlike our sainted Tommy Douglas, you don’t have one gram of grassroots folksiness, so don’t bother to affect it. You aren’t a Baptist minister; you’re probably one of those dreaded secular humanists such as Kurt Vonnegut.

Susan Riley

In the U.S. — as outlined in a persuasive speech this week from President Barack Obama — but elsewhere, too, governments are grappling with two urgent challenges: The economy and the environment. In Canada, our politicians are fretting about gang crime.

That’s it for today. Have fun!

1h

Originally published at 1337hax0r.com. Please leave any comments there.

So, the Conservatives are up to their old tricks again — They are announcing to start campaigning outside of an election now that Iggy has ensured they will remain in power for a bit longer:

The Conservatives are scouring hundreds of hours of videotape as they prepare to pummel their key rival Michael Ignatieff with attack ads leading up to the next election.

…

Conservatives say after Ignatieff took over as interim leader they made a strategic choice to spare him the torment they directed at his predecessor Stéphane Dion – but only temporarily. They needed Ignatieff’s support in January’s do-or-die budget vote and heeded his warning at a December news conference to lay off the attacks.

And as the Liberals have very little money (in comparison to the Cons), basically flipped off their grassroots (guaranteeing themselves a weaker volunteer base), and supported the same man just long enough for him to sharpen his knives.

Well, you know the saying. “You sleep with wolves, sooner or later you’re going to get bitten.”

Sadly, I think that with Iggy’s illustrious past, that there’s going to be a treasure trove of quotations and television clips of him that the Cons would love to present to the Canadian public who are already not big fans of the Liberal brand — Quotes and clips which hurt him from both sides of the spectrum.

The only thing I’m vaguely optimistic with him is that maybe he will actually respond to the ads directly instead of sitting on his hands. However, that requires money, and that is something the Liberals seem to be lacking.

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Originally published at 1337hax0r.com. Please leave any comments there.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSO2jh-0WaE

There’s one thing you cannot deny about Kevin Taft, he’s got balls.

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ps. Also, note to the federal Liberals: PUT THE RESPONSES TO YOUR QUESTIONS UP. Questions alone are wankery.

Originally published at 1337hax0r.com. Please leave any comments there.

I found this cute video recently that goes over the current credit crisis and is actually more or less correct with where the problem lies.

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

The question of blame, I think, is left open with this video and instead the feedback cycles in which the credit crisis formed is more clearly laid out. There are solid arguments to put the blame on all of the different aspects of the cycle from the investors to the bankers to the families who bought houses when they should not have. However, the point that the video brings out is that the “money” that was being created never really existed and instead was a function of the inflated values of the houses that people were living in.

Since so many people were buying houses as speculation and not as a place to live the whole things goes out of whack and the system ends up failing miserably.

Perhaps the best lesson to be learned from this is that money, itself, is just a construct and has no value unless people give it value. Taking money and expecting to make money without producing anything is a surefire way to really muck things up.

Either way, it’s an interesting video.

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Originally published at 1337hax0r.com. Please leave any comments there.

So, after attending podcamp I learned about a lot of new and amazing social media tools. One of which I was particularly fond of was micro-videoblogging. Seesmic has built a fancy little tool to allow people to comment using their webcams to my posts, and made it a million times easier for me to add my own video blogs as well.

1337hax0r has video commenting! 

The button is right below, if you click on it, you can comment using your webcam and microphone.

Have fun,

1h

Originally published at 1337hax0r.com. Please leave any comments there.

From Redstate:

This past Friday Chairman Michael Steele convened the first ever GOP Tech Summit to open the doors up to smart people from around the country to provide input on how to improve the ways we use technology to communicate, organize, mobilize and electioneer. Over 250 people attended in person and over 600 people followed along on Ustream.

The conversation doesn’t end there. Over at the GOP Tech Summit Ning site the RNC is asking people to keep contributing their ideas.

I agree fully with this, the RNC needs new ideas so they can understand why the Republicans have lost the last two elections so badly(and will hopefully continue this trend.)

Why not go to their ning social network and let them know how they can fix themselves up? I’m pretty sure you have more than a few ideas as to how the Republicans can improve themselves and become a better party for America.

Don’t you?

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Originally published at 1337hax0r.com. Please leave any comments there.

literally.

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Originally published at 1337hax0r.com. Please leave any comments there.

Boom de yada!

1h

Originally published at 1337hax0r.com. Please leave any comments there.

The Conservatives (with their friends, the Blue Liberals) have decided to tear a page from the Bush playbook and enact sweeping new eavesdropping legislation against the Canadian public. All in the name of *insert whatever will convince the public to give up their civil liberties here*. No seriously, they have all of the prime culprits in their reasoning — Child porn, terrorism, criminals, the scary boogieman, etc. Notably missing from their list is people who download music and movies over the internet.

I’m guessing that was just an oversight and not a predetermined effort to hide the real reasons behind this law.

The Conservative government is preparing sweeping new eavesdropping legislation that will force Internet service providers to let police tap exchanges on their systems - but will likely reignite fear that Big Brother will be monitoring the private conversations of Canadians.

The goal of the move, which would require police to obtain court approval, is to close what has been described as digital “safe havens” for criminals, pedophiles and terrorists [Because terrorists and criminals clearly have no concept of encryption or digital security] because current eavesdropping laws were written in a time before text messages, Facebook and voice-over-Internet phone lines [If the police cannot get information from Facebook, they have far bigger problems].

…

“If somebody’s engaging in illegal activities on the Internet, whether it be exploitation of children, distributing illegal child pornography [WHO WILL THINK OF THE CHILDREN!], conducting some kind of fraud, simple things like getting username and address [This should be standard even without eavesdropping] should be fairly standard, simple practice. We need to provide police with tools to be able to get that information so that they can carry out these investigations.”

…

The concern of critics is that unlike a traditional wiretap that cannot commence without judicial approval [To ensure the police don't, you know, use it with no reason], lawful-access legislation in other countries has forced Internet providers to routinely gather and store the electronic traffic of their clients. Those stored data can then be obtained by police via search warrant [or anyone else with a desire to steal it].

“That means we’re under surveillance, in some sense, all the time,” said Richard Rosenberg, president of the B.C. Freedom of Information and Privacy Association. “I think that changes the whole nature of how we view innocence in a democratic society.”

This is insanity, but I’m betting there’s a reasonable chance it’ll go through thanks to the Blue Liberals who will bend over backwards to help the Conservatives any chance they get.

I wonder how badly the Canadian Privacy Act will interact with this law.

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Originally published at 1337hax0r.com. Please leave any comments there.

The Liberals are half-way there. They are posting the questions they ask the Conservatives up on youtube for review, and it’s a nice service. However, they never post the responses. So, the entire exercise is completely pointless. I’ve commented a couple of times on the videos trying to get them to post the responses, but no effect thus far.

However, this was a good question, and I dug up the response from the Hansard:

Hon. Bob Rae (Toronto Centre, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I have a question for the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

The Government of the United States is discussing with a number of its allies the question of what to do with those who are currently prisoners in Guantanamo.

I would like to ask the minister whether or not Canada is participating in these discussions and whether or not discussions about Guantanamo will be held between the Prime Minister and the President of the United States when he comes next week.

Hon. Lawrence Cannon (Minister of Foreign Affairs, CPC): Mr. Speaker, this afternoon we will have the possibility of going into more depth on that. With regard to his first question, the answer is no. [Why?] On his second question, I believe that the agenda that is going to be discussed between the President of the United States and the Prime Minister is still under discussion, and stay tuned. [More stalling from the Cons]

Hon. Bob Rae (Toronto Centre, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, Mr. Khadr’s situation is primarily a Canadian issue. I would like to put my question to the minister again.

Will he acknowledge that it would be better to guarantee guidance and supervision to bring Mr. Khadr back, instead of having a situation where we do not know exactly what will happen in the U.S. courts? Why not take advantage of the situation and negotiate directly with the Americans to ensure Mr. Khadr’s return to Canada?

Hon. Lawrence Cannon (Minister of Foreign Affairs, CPC): Mr. Speaker, the member’s assumption is based on the fact that he does not know what will happen in the United States, even though one of the first things that the President of the United States did was issue an order to close the military base at Guantanamo and to resolve this and every other detainee’s case. [True, but it is unclear what will happen to the detainees] Clearly, what we have to do is have faith in the system that is in place and not question the credibility of the President of the United States. [What system? The system is being shut down!]

Again, as a note for those on the Liberal web team, please learn how to use youtube and such effectively. Simply using Web 2.0 doesn’t help your case if you use it badly. Post the Conservative responses, otherwise it feels like wankery and doesn’t reflect well at all on the party or it’s honourable members.

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Originally published at 1337hax0r.com. Please leave any comments there.

A common argument I hear against building high speed rail in either major corridors (Quebec City/Windsor, Edmonton/Calgary) or long distance (Toronto/Vancouver) is that there isn’t a demand for the high speed rail. However, that argument is entirely baseless. The VIA rail corridor between Quebec City and Windsor is one of the few corridors in the world actually making money, and Highway 2 between Calgary/Edmonton is constantly upgrading to deal with the traffic. As well, this doesn’t include the airport traffic, and the people who stay at home simply because there is no reliable or reasonable option left. What they fail to realize is that if the rail is built, and if it is fast enough, people will most definitely use it.

Case in point is a major rail infrastructure upgrade going on right now in Spain:

The new passengers reflect a revolution in Spanish travel. Domestic airlines have lost a fifth of their passengers in the space of a year. And long-distance trains have gained almost a third.

This shift is the consequence of an ambitious programme for high-speed rail. The streamlined AVE trains, with their sleek corridors, work tables and spectacular views, are stealing the show. Those used to the tedious taxi rides, security checks and crowded shuttle flights traditionally endured by Spanish businessmen will not be surprised. The opening of the Barcelona-Madrid line a year ago marked the beginning of the end of airlines’ dominance. In its first ten months it carried 2m passengers;
in 2008 its share of the total market rose from 28% to 38%. Josep Valls, of the ESADE business school, predicts that trains will carry most long-distance travellers within two years.

The government keeps on talking about shovel-ready projects, or restricting investment to infrastructure which will create jobs and improve the lives of all Canadians. Upgrading our railway and installing new passenger rail will do exactly this. Not only by providing quick, environmentally friendly transit between far-flung cities, but also by providing intermediate cities with increased revenue from people willing to live there and commute.

I promise you, if Canadians build a high speed rail, it will be used and Canada will be the better off for it.

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Originally published at 1337hax0r.com. Please leave any comments there.

This is by far the cutest picture I have ever seen. He almost looks like a toy panda until you see the plastic bag under him to protect the seat.

While his handler is busy handling accounts, panda seems to be working hard at his job inspecting bamboo.

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Originally published at 1337hax0r.com. Please leave any comments there.

Beck has made a nice promotional video about how you can help bring water to African villages which have no water. I think this is great initiative, however it is expensive and takes time before the effects are seen.

charity: water promo featuring “Time Bomb” by Beck from charity: water on Vimeo.

There is another tool which can help them right away — Lifestraw. This straw allows anyone to drink from pretty much any water source without fear of getting viruses, bacteria or parasites into their system.

So you can donate and get more Lifestraws out tomorrow to help people drink today, and you can donate to help find and drill more deep water table wells to help communities drink tomorrow.

It’s helpful either way.

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Originally published at 1337hax0r.com. Please leave any comments there.

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