Sixty-Nine! - Week 69 - Aug 20-27

Hey!  Week 69!  I feel like that deserves some sort of teenage-like celebration/joke.  That is, a bigger joke than Avril Lavigne marrying Chad Kroeger.  Which actually seems fitting now that I know it's week 69.

Anyhow, this week, I got really upset about not voting when I had a chance.  All the information was there.  I should have known where to go and how to do it.  And I feel really badly that my voice wasn't counted and I wasn't a part of the results.  Yes, I missed out on voting for my picks in the Pitchfork People's List.  And I think there is something to be learned here; Voting isn't complicated enough.  Honestly, if we had dozens of candidates to choose from and all the results were broken down by demographics/locations/etc, voting would be a lot more interesting.  Honestly though people...Radiohead?  How predictable.

Finally!  Some action on Robo-Calls!  Against the Liberals.

Congratulations British Columbia!  Highest (non-mortgage) debt levels in all of Canada.  Honestly, all of British Columbia, on average, has borrowed enough money to buy a mid-priced family sedan (most likely with sat-nav)?  That's crazy.  What are you people buying?

Way to go RIAA!  You sued some kid (none of the stories seem to say how old...just suggest that he is "young") for $675,000 US for downloading 31 songs.  Seems fair.  I mean, this one kid personally ruined the careers of all of these artists by downloading these songs and listening to them FOR FREE!  What does he think this is, the radio?

And, the RIAA is about to get a helping hand if the son-of-ACTA goes through.  Short version, a secretly negotiated "trade agreement" that foists all sorts of copyright requirements on signing countries.  This sucker always seem to get found out and stopped though, somehow.  But they keep trying.

And, there's a judge in the US that used to be a copyright lobbyist (for the RIAA) and is ruling on copyright cases.  Seems fair.

Here's a bit more information on the link I posted last week where Enbridge left out a few key features in one of their videos.  Can you see the problem here:

And speaking of Enbridge leaving things out...well, the spill response plan that they have filed doesn't actually deal with bitumen...it's only applicable to crude oil.

The National Post takes on our fearless defender of the North, pointing out that for all of his bluster, Stephen Harper hasn't really done shit for the North.  Yes, for all his Ned Stark proclamations, turns out he's nothing more than a Tywin Lannister.  At least they'll have a new park!  Amongst more resource exploitation.

Great.  Vic Toews and the Canadian Government have decided that it's okay to use information obtained by torture.