Another Reason Canada Is A Good Place To Live

 

Ignoring the immense natural bounties of the land, ignoring our skills at sports of all sorts, ignoring our brave soldiers, sailors, airmen, and first responders, ignoring our stable regulation and the stable financial positions of our banks, and ignoring our decently respectable economic outlook.... there are still a thousand good reasons to live here, to be proud of doing so, and to be happy one does.

Today, Google unveiled a map of the world, showing the number of Government takedown requests and user information requests it had been presented with over the preceeding the second half of 2009.

Of course, China's stats don't appear on here because they are a State Secret and probably because they'd dwarf all the others put together. But for a nation afraid of Falun Gong and the Dalai Lama, repressing Buddhists and harvesting Falun Gong members for organs, what's a ridiculous amount of censorship and investigation?

I have the good fortune to live in Canada, not China. I daily thank my parents and my grandparents for that. Their choice to come from the Old Country to Canada means I have been born into a wonderful nation, with good people, a good standard of living, and a good position to achieve great ends.

One of the other interesting thing about this graph is the comparitive statistics of Canada and the USA. The USA is known as 'land of the free, home of the brave'. The latter is probably true enough, but I begin to doubt the former. Google is illustrative of my concern: The number of takedowns requests in Canada and the US loosely parallels per-capita populations in the countries and gives nothing one way or the other to comment on. On the other hand, the number of government queries about user information in the US is approximately 100 times (round figures) what the Canadian total is, or 10 times as great adjusted to be per-capita.

Do we really think the States requires 10 times as much data (per capita) about dangerous groups and people (or less dangerous, reasonably innocuous ones) as Canada does? I have a strong doubt. I think this is a further sign of the creepingly Orwellian State of the Land of the Free since the psychic trauma of the 9/11 attacks bent and damaged the American collective pscyhe.

I'm not bashing the Americans; Rather, this one time, I feel a bit of pity for them for the sad state of affairs that have brought about the current situation. But at the same time, I feel proud of our country hewing to a moderate path and generally striking a balance between security (we've busted some bomb plots and stopped others I'm sure we'll never hear of) and insecurity (overbearing legislation that is intrusive in the name of an illusion of security).

I'm marking one in the win column for Canada. And I'm proud of us.

 

Pairing Beer And Cheese - A Brief How To

http://www.slashfood.com/2010/03/23/cheese-and-beer-pairings-101-cheese-course/

Captain Hunter Visits The Cold Wastes of K7M-8X7

 My friend Chris visited Ontario this last fall. We got together at my friend Doug's House and had some good times, except Doug kept the house at a Canadian Temperature which left poor Chris, a hothouse plant from the South, shivering all the time.

Notice Derek wearing a 'Periodic Table of Ammunition' T-shirt. Only one of my friends (or I) would consider that acceptable dress...

The New Job

 

Well, I'm back among the ranks of those expecting to pay taxes.

I am working on a five month contract with Alcea, who has me contracted to bitHeads, who've placed me at Bridgewater Systems. Bridgewater makes hardware and software that supports provisioning of 3G and 4G data networks. I'm working on post-sales support for some major US cell data carriers - feature implementation, bug identification and repair, etc.

It's a big, complex environment with lots to learn (oh boy, is there ever!) and a large degree of customer-focus. There are lots of technologies involved and a lot of internal business processes to grok as well as understanding the technical architecture and who is who in the company and how I relate to them.

Still, it promises to be interesing and challenging. And busy. But it will help keep a roof over my head.

I did also manage to come down with a bronchial infection, but so far its mostly just been 'drag' on my level of function. I've managed pretty much full work weeks and crash out for a sleep after work. I'm taking loads of vitamins, but it isn't showing much sign of shifting... last one lasted seven weeks. This one is heading into its second now.

Still, I'm a lot better off than a lot of folks, so I'm not going to complain.

Good to be back at it.
 
 

For St. Patrick's Day: 10 Guiness Recipes!

 

http://www.chow.com/stories/10971

The Guiness Cupcakes.... Braised Beef.... all sorts of other goodness!