« ORLY? | Home | Recent Comments | Categories | the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Dinner »
Quadrocopter Ball Juggling, ETH Zurich
ORLY?
Wikileaks Cables Show Massive U.S. Effort to Establish Canadian DMCA
[Quote]:
Wikileaks has released dozens of new U.S. cables that demonstrate years of behind the scenes lobbying by U.S. government officials to pressure Canada into implementing a Canadian DMCA. The cables include confirmation that Prime Minister Harper personally promised U.S. President George Bush at the SPP summit in Montebello, Quebec in 2008 that Canada would pass copyright legislation, U.S. government lines on copyright reform that include explicit support for DMCA-style digital lock rules, and the repeated use of the Special 301 process to "embarrass" Canada into action. In fact, cables even reveal Canadian officials encouraging the U.S. to maintain the pressure and disclosing confidential information.
How Goldman Sachs Created the Food Crisis
[Quote]:
The result of Wall Street’s venture into grain and feed and livestock has been a shock to the global food production and delivery system. Not only does the world’s food supply have to contend with constricted supply and increased demand for real grain, but investment bankers have engineered an artificial upward pull on the price of grain futures. The result: Imaginary wheat dominates the price of real wheat, as speculators (traditionally one-fifth of the market) now outnumber bona-fide hedgers four-to-one.
Today, bankers and traders sit at the top of the food chain — the carnivores of the system, devouring everyone and everything below. Near the bottom toils the farmer. For him, the rising price of grain should have been a windfall, but speculation has also created spikes in everything the farmer must buy to grow his grain — from seed to fertilizer to diesel fuel. At the very bottom lies the consumer. The average American, who spends roughly 8 to 12 percent of her weekly paycheck on food, did not immediately feel the crunch of rising costs. But for the roughly 2-billion people across the world who spend more than 50 percent of their income on food, the effects have been staggering: 250 million people joined the ranks of the hungry in 2008, bringing the total of the world’s "food insecure" to a peak of 1 billion — a number never seen before.
|
Truck
“China is raping this country,” Mr. Trump said
[Quote]:
“China is raping this country,” Mr. Trump said, adding that the United States has fallen short on technology and innovation.
|
And Mr. Harper did dutifully bring legislation forward, time after time, but his minority governments collapsed too soon each time and the bills died before being enacted. Too bad, so sad. He can say he tried (just not very hard) with plausible excuses that the dog ate his homework.
In less than 24 hours, the results of the Canadian general election will be known. Harper may be looking for another occupation.