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| VANCOUVER - A top White House drug policy official is threatening
| retaliation from the U.S. if Canada relaxes its laws against marijuana
| possession.
|
| David Murray, right-hand man to U.S. "drug czar" John Walters, says he
| doesn't want to tread on another country's sovereignty, but warned
| there would be consequences if Canada proceeds with a plan to
| decriminalize the possession of marijuana.
`----

I mentioned this earlier. Changing attitudes in liberal Canada toward pot are going to generate political responses from the US, which will slow the pace of trade. As Canada is our largest trading partner, the drag on the economy could be significant. This may be an important forward looking economic risk. Of course, its going to be a big game of chicken. Are Canada's liberal attitudes more willful then America's interest in controlling pot? Are either of these wills stronger then their respective domestic business interests? If this continues to develop there, at the least, will be a lot to learn about the character of these societies. At the most we could prolong our economic slowdown.

(BTW, the American's arguements are a little silly. Pot creates crime because its illegal. If you are engaged in an illegal economic activity you must also engage in (essentially) violent crime because you have to provide for the security of your own property. It all goes with the territory. Once you have people who are willing to deal drugs and willing to provide the security needed to do so, you are going to generate people who are willing to commit other crimes as well. Gangs are a response to a security vaccum. Government is supposed to have a monopoly the use of force. If we were serious about that in poor communities, where one finds drugs and associated crime, we'd have it. Its not like we can't afford it. We just don't really care.)

CBC News: U.S. warns Canada against easing pot laws

Rattle wrote:

] Who? What is the string you are holding on to in order to
] keep calling this commercial speech..

Apparently there was something in their timeline about a consulting position at a competitor. However, it was dated in 2004, so its not clear what the nature of the relationship is and when it began, or even if it exists or if its a joke.

] ] It is this harm, coupled with the safety of these
] ] academic institutions and their constituents (primarily,
] ] students and faculty) that mandated Blackboard take a
] ] very careful and measured stance. Recognizing that
] ] this is a crime with potentially very harmful results,
] ] we took a position to protect our clients.
]
] Careful and measured, eh?

So, was the section of your complaint that intentionally confused computer source code with long distance access codes the careful part, or the measured part?

] ] Blackboard recognizes that the Hacker Community plays
] ] an integral role in assisting technology companies in
] ] improving their offerings, most notably around security.
] ] I thought the user community might find this
] ] clarification of value.

Backpedal, Backpedal, Backpedal, as fast as we can. Gosh we didn't think anyone cared about that silly little amendment.

RE: politechbot.com: Blackboard responds to criticism of Interz0ne lawsuit

] Japanese PC Watch Site has tons of cool new photos from
] robots featured at this years Robodex 2003 Trade-Show.

Wow... A car show for robots...

[This is cool - Nano]

I4U :: Future Technology News - More Amazing Photos From Robodex 2003

] "At the end of three years, if we are successful, we
] would expect to have demonstrated in a laboratory setting
] that sentinel plants can indicate the presence of
] explosives."

Plants that change color in the presence of certain chemicals or biological agents.

[cool -Nano]

Wired News: Plants: New Anti-Terror Weapon?

] Tiny molecular daggers that latch onto fibres stab and
] destroy microbes have been created, meaning "killer
] clothes" may soon be available. Anti-fungal socks could
] take on athlete's foot while, on a more serious note,
] military uniforms could kill anthrax.

Somehow I get the feeling that there might be useful microbes that would also be killed...

Clothing that kills microbes...

] A massive virus has been found lurking in a British water
] cooling tower. The virus lives in single-celled organisms
] called amoebae and may be able to infect humans.
]
] The virus is so large that at first researchers mistook
] it for bacteria. Most viruses can only be seen with
] electron microscopes but this one was spotted through a
] high quality optical microscope.

hmmm.....interesting.
/me goes digging to see if she can find more info on this.

CBC News: Giant virus discovered in water tower

] "Bombs Over Baghdad" sounds even more like
] self-contained, self-conscious artillery. The title
] promises internationalist fervour, but in fact seems to
] be just a clever metaphor for the repetitive vagueness of
] other hip hop artists - "don't pull the thang out unless
] you plan to bang... don't even bang unless you plan to
] hit somethang" - which is ...ironic... under the
] circumstances. But Outkast impart their message better
] than Dead Prez did on "Hip Hop", and with more reason to
] feel confident; the music is utterly blinding. What
] Outkast, or perhaps producer Earthtone III, seem to have
] realised is that much of the truly scary, fervent
] sounding music made during the nineties (hardcore techno
] and jungle being the relevant examples here) has been
] made in digitalised circumstances, without conventional
] ideas of meaning and feeling propelling them.

Or otherwise the song doesn't really mean anything...

However, I really like it anyway. I think I might buy this CD...

:)

Skykicking - Outkast - Bombs over Baghdad

Apparently there is a petition to save Clone High. Canceling this would be a shame. However, online petitions aren't a very effective tool, and of course we've seen Farscape fans raise hundreds of thousands of dollars and not gotten anywhere.
[Sign it please....I dig Clone High...they took away Daria. - Nano]

Save Clone High Petition

] I'm calling in from the highly-guarded border of Iran and
] Kurdistan. A truck is waiting for us to transport CNN
] staff, our personal belongings, and our television gear
] into kurd-controlled northern Iraq. We're crossing into
] this region to cover the northern front of a potential
] war with Iraq, in an area dense with oil-rich fields
] along the northern no-fly-zone.

This guy is fucking nuts. (With apologies to Elonka.)

That having been said, this could be one of the more interesting weblogs in the coming weeks.... Unless someone actually starts blogging from Bagdad. Or, you know, they actually negotiate a peace. Or the Aliens arrive and colonize the planet.

Kevin Sites Blog