AllTheAmendmentsThatNoLongerFit
IncludingTheFirstOneVille
Lavabit is a US-based Email service that purports to be more secure than those other commercial services that you and I most often use.
And, thus, it was, apparently, used by a fine fellow named Mr. Snowden.
And now it turns out that the owner of the service, Mr. Ladar Levison, has been 'forced' to pull the plug on the entire operation.
Essentially (and this looks like it is likely the real story), it would appear that Mr. Levison has chosen to shut his business down rather than fork over the personal data of his clientele.
Mr. Levison also says this:
"...This experience has taught me one very important lesson: without congressional action or a strong judicial precedent, I would _strongly_ recommend against anyone trusting their private data to a company with physical ties to the United States..."
Most interesting (and sad), all that....
No?
_____
Will soon become a big story, I'm pretty sure...For the moment, there is more at Boing-Boing.....
As for companies trying to sell folks like you and me pieces of their 'cloud'?....Well....This.
.
Thursday, August 08, 2013
Wednesday, August 07, 2013
Listen To What The Keef Says...The Cultists Get A New Moniker.
Hmmmmm...
Leaving aside the notion of pots and kettles, and all that, for the moment...
As a card-carrying member of the old Railgate Cult Brigade, I've got to ask...
Are all things (eg. attempted bribery, serial smears, fake budgets, non-existent jobs and training programs whose ads cost millions, Vegas casino company subsidies, eight figure dance parties, trillion dollar sparkle ponies, the destruction of our public utility, a billion dollar ferry deficit, pay-for-play everything) just trivial moves in a political game that are washed clean with each election as far as Keef is concerned?
Because, if that is, indeed, the case it sure would explain a lot.
.
My Morning Ride...The Drying.
SkyVille
For some reason I thought there was supposed to be some cloud cover this morning.
So I actually had long sleeves on that had to come off as soon as I crossed the mighty Fraser.
And then, about halfway in (just after a pickup truck refused to stop for a bike in a traffic circle on a bike route) I started wondering...
How long can this possibly go on?
And why has there been so little talk of water shortages etc., this summer?
I mean, did we really store up that much of the stuff during that awful, now long-gone, June?
Anyway, when I got in I checked the long-range forecast...
Supposed to be another 10-12 days of sun.
Gosh.
If we do get to, say, the 20th with nothing appreciable in the way of precipitation can't help but wonder if the extreme weather event/drought talk will begin.
________
*Think I might have been fooled by the fact that Rosie and I saw something we thought might have been a little high frontal edgy cirrus in the setting-sun sky above the cemetary on our walk last night.
.
Tuesday, August 06, 2013
The Problem With Pork Barrels Is That They Can Roll Over...
...And Squish Things That Actually Matter.
In response to a post on Snooklandian pork-barrelling gone berserk earlier today, reader S.H. left the following comment:
With apologies to sweet piggies everywhere--the oinkers are getting fat at the expense of our highly trained (self-financed) part-time paramedics.
Curious that the CBC posted this on a long weekend, then quickly closed the comments. Who is pulling the strings?
The province enjoys the comfort of pulling on the teat of essential part-time-rural-rescue-cows for the insult of $2.00 an on-call hour.
****
And now this...
From the CP:
Two paramedics in the District of Stewart quit their jobs as of July 30, including unit chief Cindy Ellwood who said she’s fed up with disruptions that mean the nearest ambulance is hours away...
{snip}
...She said the service is asking Stewart paramedics to go further — sometimes a three-hour drive away — to help people
“I didn’t sign up to go out there and sit with somebody in a critical state while I’m waiting for an ambulance to either fly in if I’m lucky, or somebody to come in from either Kitwanga, Hazelton or Terrace which is … three, four hours (away).”
Ellwood said before she and her co-worker quit, they had six people on staff. Now, there is one paramedic and three are ambulance drivers.
For the last year, Ellwood said she’s driven an ambulance out to emergency calls by herself and then relied on a responding fire-rescue operator at the scene to drive her back in the ambulance while she tended to the patient.
She said work is picking up in the area and all those fire-rescue volunteers aren’t available any longer.
{snip}
...“That’s where I’m fed up, because they’ve pushed us aside and said ‘you know what, we just don’t have the budget to send somebody up for you.’”....
Belt tightening and all that, right?
Meanwhile...
Bollywood!
And, of course...
Wheelchairs!
.
This Day In Snookland...If Citizens (Really) Scream, Will She Listen?
TurningTheAmpsNextToTheTroughs
UpToElevenVilleRemember how Ms. Clark announced massive post-election pay raises for 'key' staffers?
And remember how Ms. Clark rescinded those massive pay raises a few days later?
And soon thereafter fired a high-ranking apparatchik for, apparently, doing exactly the same thing?
Well....
In the interim, according results of an FOI request filed by the Province's Cassidy Olivier, a whole lot of British Columbians sent scathing messages Ms. Clark's way (via official government Email, btw).
Here is just one of many from folks purporting to be BC Liberal Party supporters.
And then there's this one, also copied to Mr. Coleman and Ms. Polak:
****
So...
Now that the by-election-driven 'listening-to-the-people' period has passed, how will the raises finally roll-out we wonder?
Hmmmm....
Could there, perhaps, be a 'team' working on the logistics?
And if there is (or soon will be) such a 'team' in place that is/will be tasked with charting a course of 'fairness!' and 'fiscal feasibility for all!', we're absolutely certain that all of their Email correspondence will be available for future FOI requests....
Right?
.
Why Did McClatchy Publish The Names?
NotAllCommonKnowledgeIs
CommonVille
Regarding the interception of communications between a couple of bad guys that has led to the closing of a string of American, and one Canadian, embassy....
The NY Times and CNN censored themselves.
McClatchy News did not.
And, thus, McClatchy named names.
Here's why, according to McClatchy Washington Bureau Chief James Asher (in an EMail to the HuffPo):
"...Our story was based on reporting in Yemen and we did not contact the administration to ask permission to use the information. In fact, our reporter tells me that the intercept was pretty much common knowledge in Yemen.
On your larger question about the administration's request, I'm not surprised. It is not unusual for CNN or the NYT to agree not to publish something because the White House asked them. And frankly, our Democracy isn't well served when journalists agree to censor their work.
Don't know about you but I've gotta wonder...
If fine news organizations like the NYT and CNN (and many, many others) had made like McClatchy/Knight-Ridder in, say, 2003....Is it possible that thousands and thousands of people might not have died in Iraq for, essentially, no good reason at all?
_____
Need more background?...A Bezos-free Dan Froomkin's got it.
.
CommonVille
Regarding the interception of communications between a couple of bad guys that has led to the closing of a string of American, and one Canadian, embassy....
The NY Times and CNN censored themselves.
McClatchy News did not.
And, thus, McClatchy named names.
Here's why, according to McClatchy Washington Bureau Chief James Asher (in an EMail to the HuffPo):
"...Our story was based on reporting in Yemen and we did not contact the administration to ask permission to use the information. In fact, our reporter tells me that the intercept was pretty much common knowledge in Yemen.
On your larger question about the administration's request, I'm not surprised. It is not unusual for CNN or the NYT to agree not to publish something because the White House asked them. And frankly, our Democracy isn't well served when journalists agree to censor their work.
As I've told our readers in the past: McClatchy journalists will report fairly and independently. We will not make deals with those in power, regardless of party or philosophy..."
Don't know about you but I've gotta wonder...
If fine news organizations like the NYT and CNN (and many, many others) had made like McClatchy/Knight-Ridder in, say, 2003....Is it possible that thousands and thousands of people might not have died in Iraq for, essentially, no good reason at all?
_____
Need more background?...A Bezos-free Dan Froomkin's got it.
.
Monday, August 05, 2013
This Day In Snookland...Is The Solution To The Private Email Problem Really Just Mo' Blackberries?
AllTheClients,EMailOrOtherwise,ThatFit
WhileNotYappingToThePartyVille
Paul Ramsey, who really understands this stuff, has has an excellent post up over at the Clever Elephant in which he describes how the BC Govt Email system sucks both historically and functionally. He also notes that the system doesn't have to suck but that it does anyway, including at the highest levels.
And while Mr. Ramsey gives examples of how this 'defective-by-design' paradigm can be exploited by those in government who may wish to do so, he does fail to get to the historical root of one other way that these same finest-of-the-very-fine folk can sneak around FOI requests and such.
Which is to, as outlined in what many dubbed the 'Dobell Doctrine' back in the Halcyon Days of Our Gord (eg. 2007), never actually write Emails in the first place.
OK?
______
Need background to the 'more hardware (and a bunch of other stuff) will help fix everything' part of this post's header?...It's here.
.
WhileNotYappingToThePartyVille
Paul Ramsey, who really understands this stuff, has has an excellent post up over at the Clever Elephant in which he describes how the BC Govt Email system sucks both historically and functionally. He also notes that the system doesn't have to suck but that it does anyway, including at the highest levels.
And while Mr. Ramsey gives examples of how this 'defective-by-design' paradigm can be exploited by those in government who may wish to do so, he does fail to get to the historical root of one other way that these same finest-of-the-very-fine folk can sneak around FOI requests and such.
Which is to, as outlined in what many dubbed the 'Dobell Doctrine' back in the Halcyon Days of Our Gord (eg. 2007), never actually write Emails in the first place.
OK?
______
Need background to the 'more hardware (and a bunch of other stuff) will help fix everything' part of this post's header?...It's here.
.
My (BC Day) Morning Ride.
CanTurnAFrownUpsideDownVille
One of the things I like about banksters's holidays is that they make the preceding Sunday a lot more relaxing.
And, for the most part, yesterday was.
Except that E. had procured a gig down on Granville Island (that she was excited about because it allowed her to skirt the ridiculous busking rules down there) and she wanted me to play with her.
Which meant I had to actually practice and, worse, get nervous.
In the end there was no need, especially after an old fellow came up to congratulate us on a particularly rocking version of 'Crash on the Levee' (which is tune #6, here) and we counted up the cash in the case at the end before giving half back to the art kids from Emily Carr who invited us down in the first place.
There was also a first for me (although I'm sure it happens to E. all the time)....After they had dropped a five, a couple listened for awhile and then asked, in the fading echoes of a long medley in E (Darnielle, The Frames, The Parting Glass, Mic Christopher, Neville Brothers) that Em had to finally put a stop to because she knew I wouldn't, if 'we knew any Beatles?'.
Luckily, E. did.
Because I, unfortunately, or fortunately (depending on how you look at) do not.
But enough with all the digressive clauses....
Here's our song, re-worked from a tune by Phil Ochs, for a BC Day we hope is coming in, say, 2017...
_____
Today's image....Road patches along the bike route along 'The Valley' between 21st and 20th avenues.
.
Saturday, August 03, 2013
The Player That Will Not Be Named...
...In The Biogenesis-Driven Suspension Fest, Monday
It's Teddy Ballgame.
Playing for the Padres.
The PCL Padres of his hometown San Diego, that is.
Before he bit the bullet and went east.
_____
Not all did (go east) because back then many of them could make as much, or even more, staying on the Westcoast... '90 Feet of Perfection' had a bunch of their stories yesterday.
Another #PlayerThatWillNotBeNamedMonday...SouthsideSammySosa...
Another #PlayerThatWillNotBeNamedMonday...BAndersonBeforeFifty...
Another #PlayerThatWillNotBeNamedMonday...He who truly came clean...Ken Caminiti...
.
Friday, August 02, 2013
What Would It Take For Rob Ford's Approval Numbers To Actually Go Down?
TheScarboroughHorizonVille
I mean, just look at those lines.
Pretty much flat as a pancake, right through the entire video deal (and all the fallout that came after it).
And, according to Graphic Matt Elliot of MetroNews (Center of the Universe Division), aggregating from Forum's numbers, the overall approval is still bang on 46%.
Crazy, but true.
Then again, it's not like he fit anybody for cement shoes and/or started eating kittens, live, on the six o'clock news or anything.
______
Of course, the real take home message here is that actual Toronto (see red line running along bottom of graph) is being held hostage by those surrounding environs...Message received, loud and clear, here in Lotusland I hope.
.
A Woman's Right To Choose...Does Anyone Really Think They Will Stop At 20 Weeks?
MattersThatReallyMatter
HSTFridaysVille
I like to think that, if I were a young woman, and I had to make the decision for myself, that I would use the 'quickening' as my own personal guidepost.
Which would be around 16 weeks, give or take.
But I am neither young nor a woman so, really, my personal feelings on the matter are moot (which is the real point, right?).
Now.
Setting aside that which really matters, just for a moment...
At first glance my own personal thoughts on the matter should make it possible for me to be comfortable with the latest gambit of the anti-choice crowd, which is that 20 weeks should be the maximum because this may (or, more likely, may not) be the time that the fetus perceives pain.
But, truth be told, even I am not comfortable with this so called 'incremental' change, down from the 24 weeks that is the time of 'viability' as defined by Roe v. Wade.
Why?
Because I agree with Nora Caplan-Bricker in The New Republic, that these people will not stop until, once again, we are back to a place where a woman's choices about her own body do not factor into the decision-making process whatsoever.
Right from from the get-go, including the first trimester.
In other words, back to a time when stuff like the following happened routinely, for no good reason at all:
"And so much for all that. I have to go upstairs and call the hospital. Sandy is in there again with another miscarriage - a real nightmare version, this time, since it puts me head on with the abortion laws. She's only two months pregnant, but the pain is so bad she can't stand up....and the pigs say they can't do a therapeutic abortion. All they do is keep her drugged up on codeine and wait for God to work 'His Will'. The D&C operation is as simple as pulling a tooth, but they won't do it.....and this is Colorado, which recently passed a "liberalized" abortion law. Man, I'm coming to really hate that word 'liberal'"
Which is precisely why 'liberals' have to make a stand.
Right here.
And right now.
OK?
______
Got onto this today because of solid page A1 piece by Erik Eckholm in the NYTimes...
Together with Cathy, I've written about this zealotry 'creep' by stealth before in a slightly different (but not really) context before...
.
HSTFridaysVille
I like to think that, if I were a young woman, and I had to make the decision for myself, that I would use the 'quickening' as my own personal guidepost.
Which would be around 16 weeks, give or take.
But I am neither young nor a woman so, really, my personal feelings on the matter are moot (which is the real point, right?).
****
Now.
Setting aside that which really matters, just for a moment...
At first glance my own personal thoughts on the matter should make it possible for me to be comfortable with the latest gambit of the anti-choice crowd, which is that 20 weeks should be the maximum because this may (or, more likely, may not) be the time that the fetus perceives pain.
But, truth be told, even I am not comfortable with this so called 'incremental' change, down from the 24 weeks that is the time of 'viability' as defined by Roe v. Wade.
Why?
Because I agree with Nora Caplan-Bricker in The New Republic, that these people will not stop until, once again, we are back to a place where a woman's choices about her own body do not factor into the decision-making process whatsoever.
Right from from the get-go, including the first trimester.
In other words, back to a time when stuff like the following happened routinely, for no good reason at all:
"And so much for all that. I have to go upstairs and call the hospital. Sandy is in there again with another miscarriage - a real nightmare version, this time, since it puts me head on with the abortion laws. She's only two months pregnant, but the pain is so bad she can't stand up....and the pigs say they can't do a therapeutic abortion. All they do is keep her drugged up on codeine and wait for God to work 'His Will'. The D&C operation is as simple as pulling a tooth, but they won't do it.....and this is Colorado, which recently passed a "liberalized" abortion law. Man, I'm coming to really hate that word 'liberal'"
Hunter S. Thompson,Letter to Oscar Z. Acosta (his 'Samoan' Attorney), March 1970
Reprinted in: The Gonzo Letters Vol II, Simon and Schuster, 2000, pp 286-7
Which is precisely why 'liberals' have to make a stand.
Right here.
And right now.
OK?
______
Got onto this today because of solid page A1 piece by Erik Eckholm in the NYTimes...
Together with Cathy, I've written about this zealotry 'creep' by stealth before in a slightly different (but not really) context before...
.
My Morning Ride.
LowCloudVille
For the first time in weeks there was an easterly blowing down the back alley this morning.
And it was cool.
And it was just beginning mist.
So I actually went back inside to get my jacket.
The house was quiet, as it has been pretty much all week long. Bigger E. has been felled by some kind of stomach flu...Smaller (but getting taller every day) e. is away in Chicago, tapping (yes, tapping!)...And C. has been away in Victoria, but is now back and has taken the Whackadoodle off for an all-day playdate with another dog of similar size and disposition (much jumping and tumbling will occur I'm pretty sure).
I really should have taken the day off, but I've got a bunch of new lectures to deliver in a few weeks and there is a paper I've got to push out the door before the hordes arrive again...
Anyway.
The silver lining?
Don't know about you but I can see a wee bit of brightness peaking out of the lowest end of that far western sky off in the distance...
****
In case you missed it...Posted up a quick take on the Privacy Commissioner's DybthnicGate report yesterday, but there are now two solid follow-ups from available...The first is from the watchdogs over at Integrity BC who make a bit of a fuss about who the Commissioner did NOT interview...The next is Bob Mackin's very thorough dissection of the report that makes it very clear how narrow the scope of it was and that, despite the sound-bite anchors that the Watercarriers have been dropping, it was not a total exonneration...
****
If you want a killer round-up of recent goings on in Lotuslandian provincial politics...Head on over to Tom 'TopHarbourcat' Hawthorn's place for a whole bunch of gems like this:
...Premier Christy Clark made a surprise cameo this week when sworn in as MLA for Westside-Kelowna. The august ceremony took place overlooking the waters of Vancouver harbour and not of Okanagan Lake in her home-away-from-home riding.
To the everlasting embarrassment of British Columbia’s media, such newspapers as the Vancouver Sun and the Victoria Times Colonist published handout photographs of the event released by the B.C. Liberal’s government caucus.
The swearing in appears to have taken place within shouting distance of the Vancouver Sun and Province newsrooms. No photographers left on staff? Or no invitation?
I can see why the government would like to control its image in the media. I cannot see why the commercial media should play along. Shameful...
Gosh.
With all this kind of most excellent 'alternative reading' available these days (Mr. Hawthorn's piece was also published in The Tyee) it kinda makes you wonder why anybody even bothers to read The Dean pulling his punches (again) anymore, eh?
****
How do we know that certain fine folks in certain finest-of-the-fine circles have taken note of the investigative digging of Norm Farrell?...Well, it would appear that they have sent the flying bot-monkeys after him...In response, Norm just turns straight upfield and makes like Bo Jackson to obliterate them.
Speaking of sports...Kinghell piece by Dave Zirin in The Nation this week about what Johnny Manziel and Trayvon Martin did, and did NOT, have in common....Really dig the fact that Zirin's inspiration came from a Tweet with the ring of truth by an old ballplayer named Charlton Jimerson:
“Johnny Manziel ate Skittles, drank beer, won the Heisman. Trayvon Martin ate Skittles, drank ice tea, got murdered."
****
And, speaking of more sports (but not really this time), Mr. Beer 'N Hockey gives us his take on why the Dippers really lost the last election...The only thing I know for sure after reading it?....The two Bills will not like Beer's missive.
And, finally, the last word on even more sports, pride, and a guy named Putin...From the irrepressible Dan Murphy.
OK?
Thursday, August 01, 2013
The Greatest (Science Geek) Stories Ever Told.
FluorescentlyVille
Well...
Actually.
To be more precise, drawn...
With crayons.
Megan Gambino explains, over at the Smithsonian Institute's blog thingy:
...The idea came to Volker Steger while he was riding his bike from Munich to Milan. For an upcoming assignment with an Italian magazine, the German photographer was instructed to take portraits of a dozen Nobel Prize winners in science. His subjects would sit on his kitchen chair, and, to bubble up their personalities, he would ask them Proust-style questions. But, what if after the commercial shoot, while he still had the Nobel laureates in his presence, he ran his own artistic experiment?
Steger gave it a whirl. He handed the scientists large pieces of white paper and some crayons and asked them, on the spot, to draw their award-winning discoveries. Once they finished, he photographed them with their sketches in poses of their choosing....
****
The image at the top of the post was drawn by a guy named Martin Chalfie.
It elegantly and simply explains his champagne experiment from the early '90's that sent him down the road to Nobel prize immortality, in the Chemistry category, with a couple of other guys, in 2008.
Essentially, what Chalfie's group did was to take a gene already characterized by somebody else (one of the other 2008 Nobel winners) from a jelly fish. The interesting thing about this particular gene is that it codes for a protein that glows green when you shine UV light on it in a test tube.
So Chalfie et al. banged the gene into little tiny round-worms and, voila, when he shined a little UV on the creepy crawlers a subset of their cells glowed green.
The upshot of it all is that we can now attach these little fluorescent proteins, and a rainbow of multicoloured variants (subsequently generated by the other guy who won that 2008 prize) to just about any molecule we want in just about any kind of cell so that we can watch where the molecules go and see what they do.
In real time.
I cannot overstate how this has completely revolutionized cell biology - so much so that even punters like me and mine can use these fluoresenct protein tags to decorate things like wee-little Christmas tree ornaments made up of teeny-tiny balls of cells in a tissue culture dish...
Ha!
_______
And what do these tissue engineered clusters of cells squirt into the hollow central part of the ball?...Well, that would pretty much give away the game if I told you...But feel free to guess...
Not to get all pedagogical on the first cloudy evening in weeks or anything, but...One of the things I always say to the sharp young kids that work with me is..."If you can't explain things in simple language so that your Mom can grasp the gist of it you probably don't really understand what the heck you're doing yourself."...
You can have a look at all of Mr. Steger's photos of the drawings from the Nobelizers....Here
Way, way off-topic, but....Hey, media mavens!...Anybody have any idea where the (soon-to-be-no-longer) VSun's JFowlie is going?
.
Privacy Commissioner Decides Everything Is Fine...Snooklandians Just Need More 'Training'.
WhoNeedsCourtOrders
WhenYou'veHadFourInterviewsVille
The money quote, as actually quoted in the press release from the office of provincial Information and Privacy Commisioner Elizabeth Denham:
“Our investigation did not find evidence that information was shared between government and the B.C. Liberal Party. However, it did reveal the exchange of government information using personal email accounts, particularly among individuals in government departments who have roles closely tied to the governing party.”...
And what is this based on?
Well, it would appear to be based on interviews with four individuals, under oath.
From the actual report's executive summary:
...Given the seriousness of the allegations, this office conducted interviews of four individuals under oath...
Interesting that very narrow, well-defined aspect of the 'investigation', no?
And, it would appear that these interviews resulted in the following, apparently gleaned by someone from CKNW at the presser with the Commissioner this morning:
Sure thing.
No need to check the actual data whatsoever, right?
Meanwhile...
The Snooklandians have agreed to abide by all five recommendations of the commissioner, none of which will lead to any actual consequences of any sort, immediately.
Here they are (from page 25 of the report):
No 1: Government should provide training for its employees regarding the use of personal email accounts for government business in order to ensure that reasonable security measures are in place to protect personal information, and that personal information is not stored or disclosed outside of Canada.
No 2: Government should ensure that copies of all records created by its employees that relate to government business are located in government controlled information management systems.
No 3: Government should provide its employees with sufficient technological resources to ensure that they do not have a reason to use personal email accounts in the performance of their government duties.
No 4: Government should ensure that employees with roles that are closely tied to the governing party participate in mandatory privacy training sessions regarding the need to keep personal information obtained in their government role separate from personal information obtained in any role they might have with the political party.
No 5: The BC Liberal Party should ensure that employees and volunteers who also have roles within government participate in mandatory privacy training sessions regarding the need to keep personal information obtained in their BC Liberal Party role separate from personal information obtained in their government role.
Meanwhile, via the Twittmachine, The Dean says: "Info commish Denham also warned gov't over use of personal e-mail for public business in investigation of Boessenkool departure." .....OK, Fair enough, but.....What are he and his going to do about it?
Update, Lunchtime Thursday.....Let the competition of the Watercarriers....Begin!
WhenYou'veHadFourInterviewsVille
The money quote, as actually quoted in the press release from the office of provincial Information and Privacy Commisioner Elizabeth Denham:
“Our investigation did not find evidence that information was shared between government and the B.C. Liberal Party. However, it did reveal the exchange of government information using personal email accounts, particularly among individuals in government departments who have roles closely tied to the governing party.”...
And what is this based on?
Well, it would appear to be based on interviews with four individuals, under oath.
From the actual report's executive summary:
...Given the seriousness of the allegations, this office conducted interviews of four individuals under oath...
Interesting that very narrow, well-defined aspect of the 'investigation', no?
And, it would appear that these interviews resulted in the following, apparently gleaned by someone from CKNW at the presser with the Commissioner this morning:
1/2 Privacy Commish says #quickwins figure Brian Bonney testified he sent gov info to his personal email, but not to share w/ @bcliberals...
— CKNW (@CKNW) August 1, 2013
2/2 ...and b/c no contradictory evidence, she did not seek court order to search his personal email accounts. #bcpoli
— CKNW (@CKNW) August 1, 2013
Sure thing.
No need to check the actual data whatsoever, right?
Meanwhile...
The Snooklandians have agreed to abide by all five recommendations of the commissioner, none of which will lead to any actual consequences of any sort, immediately.
Here they are (from page 25 of the report):
No 1: Government should provide training for its employees regarding the use of personal email accounts for government business in order to ensure that reasonable security measures are in place to protect personal information, and that personal information is not stored or disclosed outside of Canada.
No 2: Government should ensure that copies of all records created by its employees that relate to government business are located in government controlled information management systems.
No 3: Government should provide its employees with sufficient technological resources to ensure that they do not have a reason to use personal email accounts in the performance of their government duties.
No 4: Government should ensure that employees with roles that are closely tied to the governing party participate in mandatory privacy training sessions regarding the need to keep personal information obtained in their government role separate from personal information obtained in any role they might have with the political party.
No 5: The BC Liberal Party should ensure that employees and volunteers who also have roles within government participate in mandatory privacy training sessions regarding the need to keep personal information obtained in their BC Liberal Party role separate from personal information obtained in their government role.
____
And, as we first noted last fall when we found out about the smear-site shennanigans going down deep inside the Ledge, Woodward and Bernstein most definitely did NOT stop their digging when their story took them deep inside another set of executive offices...Given that, cast your mind back...How much Lotuslandian proMedia follow-up digging can you recall on this matter post-Dyble?Meanwhile, via the Twittmachine, The Dean says: "Info commish Denham also warned gov't over use of personal e-mail for public business in investigation of Boessenkool departure." .....OK, Fair enough, but.....What are he and his going to do about it?
Update, Lunchtime Thursday.....Let the competition of the Watercarriers....Begin!
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The Other (Heartbreaking) Side Of The Guest Worker Equation.
ThereIsNothingMoreEvilThan
PreyingOnTheDesperateVille
Paul Willcocks, who is still in Honduras, has the story. It is a terrible, and terribly sad, one:
...The best way to change your future in Honduras is to find a way to work in North America for a few years. You can send money home and save enough to buy some land or start a little business. (The second fastest way to change your future, I suppose, is the drug transport business.)
But when the would-be migrant workers showed up to board the buses that were to take them to the Tegucigalpa airport, they found out they had been ripped off. There were no buses, no waiting jobs picking apples and grapes. The office was empty...
{snip}
...Some 800 people paid about $500 each to get access to Canada. That’s a huge amount. Not only are their dreams shattered, but their lives in Honduras have been dealt a huge blow...
{snip}
...Jose Antonio Ramirez and his brother Hugo René both lost all their savings...
Please go and read the whole thing.
I'm telling you, if Jody and Paul were to start another kickstarter to help these folks I, for one, would be in.
Like Flynn.
Not to mention yesterday.
OK?
.
PreyingOnTheDesperateVille
Paul Willcocks, who is still in Honduras, has the story. It is a terrible, and terribly sad, one:
...The best way to change your future in Honduras is to find a way to work in North America for a few years. You can send money home and save enough to buy some land or start a little business. (The second fastest way to change your future, I suppose, is the drug transport business.)
But when the would-be migrant workers showed up to board the buses that were to take them to the Tegucigalpa airport, they found out they had been ripped off. There were no buses, no waiting jobs picking apples and grapes. The office was empty...
{snip}
...Some 800 people paid about $500 each to get access to Canada. That’s a huge amount. Not only are their dreams shattered, but their lives in Honduras have been dealt a huge blow...
{snip}
...Jose Antonio Ramirez and his brother Hugo René both lost all their savings...
Please go and read the whole thing.
****
I'm telling you, if Jody and Paul were to start another kickstarter to help these folks I, for one, would be in.
Like Flynn.
Not to mention yesterday.
OK?
.
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