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Robert Harris has an op-ed in the New York Times that uses ancient Rome as an analogy for the United States of today. Harris suggests that the catalyst for the demise of the Roman empire was the terrorist attack on the port at Ostia -- and draws parallels to the 9/11 attack that brought down the twin towers. Subsequent to the attack on Ostia, the Roman senate voted to grant unprecedented powers to a centralized authority, over Rome and its people. What followed was a massive military build up, military campaigns, abuse of power and the eventual fall of what was once great empire. Have a read and you decide if we're seeing history repeat itself.

The Washington Post is carrying an article by the Egyptian born, British resident, Tariq Ramadan -- a Muslim living in the western world, who's an outspoken critic of extremist behaviour on all sides. Ramadan has spoken out against terrorism and the illegal methods employed by the US government to fight it. Not surprisingly, Ramadan is denied visas to enter the US, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia and his native Egypt. The US keeps good company in its treatment of Ramadan. Despite the rejection, Ramadan continues to apply for entry to the US -- and challenge the US government in hopes of setting the record straight on his political views and opinions on terrorism, and Muslims and the West. People like Ramadan are few and far between. They are the antithesis of extreme views in the world -- extreme views that are currently keeping Ramadan out of both the US and the Middle East.

On June 26, 2003, the White House released a statement from George W., to mark the UN International Day In Support of Victims of Torture. Today, on the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, the United States declares its strong solidarity with torture victims across the world. Torture anywhere is an affront to human dignity everywhere. We are committed to building a world where human rights are respected and protected by the rule of law. ... [ Read more. ] No people, no matter where they reside, should have to live in fear of their own government. Nowhere should the midnight knock foreshadow a nightmare of state-commissioned crime. The suffering of torture victims must end, and the United States calls on all governments to assume this great mission. Congress gives Bush the right to torture and detain people forever - InformationLiberation Habeas Corpus, R.I.P. (1215 - 2006) -- Common Dreams Are We Really So Fearful? -- Washington Post Rushing Off a

First they came ... When the Nazis came for the communists, I remained silent; I was not a communist. When they locked up the social democrats, I remained silent; I was not a social democrat. When they came for the trade unionists, I did not speak out; I was not a trade unionist. When they came for me, there was no one left to speak out. And a variant I like ... Re-gaining Unconsciousness by NOFX First they put away the dealers, keep our kids safe and off the street. Then they put away the prostitutes, keep married men cloistered at home. Then they shooed away the bums, then they beat and bashed the queers, turned away asylum-seekers, fed us suspicions and fears. We didn't raise our voice, we didn't make a fuss. It's funny there was no one left to notice when they came for us.

BusinessWeek's second Inside Innovation supplement was recently published, and it's a pretty good read. There is a great article on consumer research done in China for Lenovo; another profiling Apple's Senior Vice-President for Industrial Design, Jonathan Ive, and the process he calls, "the craft of design;" a quick lesson on how to measure innovation; and insights into crowdsourcing -- the next big thing after outsourcing. The supplement also presents the Eight Rules to Brilliant Brainstorming , by Robert I. Sutton , a professor at Stanford Engineering School. The rules are pretty practical, and you can read the details online -- but I'll summarize them here for your quick reference. Eight Rules to Brilliant Brainstorming Use brainstorming to combine and extend ideas, not just to harvest them. People should be able to add-to the ideas of others. In a brainstorming session, people bring diverse knowledge, experience and experience. Creativity occurs wh

Icaro Doria is a Brazilian artist that has gained notoriety for the flags campaign, " Meet the World ." Quite the effective use of flags to convey information graphically.

Scientists at Fermilab have announced they've "met the exacting standard to claim discovery of astonishingly rapid transitions between matter and antimatter: 3 trillion oscillations per second." The measurements were made of the B-sub-s meson -- mesons are non-elementary particles that are theorized to be composed a quark-antiquark pair -- in the B-sub-s meson's case, it is a heavy bottom quark and a strange antiquark. The finding reaffirms the validity of the Standard Model of physics by observing the oscillatory behaviour predicted and narrows the possible forms of supersymmetry .

Here's a site promoting Canada to "conscientious, forward-thinking Americans" -- welcoming Americans who are just fed up, to immigrate north. Umm ... okaaay. I'm Canadian, and you know what, I think this is a bad idea. I'm sorry for thinking that. I'm especially sorry for those "forward-thinking Americans" the site is targeting. It's not that I don't like you -- you're probably just the Americans I would want to know -- it's just that, if you leave, you know who's going to take over. We need you, and more like you, to stay just where you are -- in America. America needs you. Think of it as the patriotic thing to do. If you immigrate to Canada, all you accomplish is handing over the nation to the nasty people with guns and Jesus -- and that just can't be good for the rest of the world.

GE does it. Xerox does it. Even Interface does it -- and as BusinessWeek chronicles, Caterpillar does it as well, in a really big way. The $36 billion heavy equipment, industrial giant has jumped into remanufacturing to tune of $1 billion in sales in 2005, with projected growth of 15% for the next few years. It's an interesting way of thinking of a business' value chain -- as not extending from just raw materials to consumers -- but going from raw materials to the garbage dump. Put into that perspective -- and made to take accountability of the end of the cycle, forward thinking businesses suddenly realize there are untold profits to be made. Granted, Caterpillar didn't go into remanufacturing to save the environment -- but the end result is the same. Caterpillar has taken the value chain and plunked a virtuous, sustainable cycle within it. Remanufacturing -- the process of retrieving goods at the end of their lives and bringing them back into the value chain -- i

The US is hardly a tyrannical regime, but it's amazing what a little fear of terrorists have done to Americans. It has made them turn a blind eye to atrocities being committed by their own government, against foreigners -- and sometimes Americans -- in the name of fighting terrorism. Truthout provides a summary from an editorial published in the NY Times. America, this is not truth, justice and the American way.

Bruce Sterling has written this prophetic spoof set in LA, 2029, from the perspective of a 17-year-old who just wants to spew street poetry and get into the horizontal position with his insane classmate, Debbie. Problem is however, the teenage world is totally controlled, with everything, everywhere constantly being monitored by the perpetually on Internet. What's a kid to do when he tries to do, but only succeeds in running smack into "differential permissioning?" Check out Bruce Sterling's " I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by Google " in New Scientist, then listen as he talks about " the Internet of Things " on IT Conversations. Thanks to ubernerd, DH, for finding this.

In a recent interview on Fox News, Bill Clinton tears anchor Chris Wallace a new one, over Wallace's insistence on further the Bush Administration's right-wing neo-conservative scheme of blaming Clinton for not getting bin Laden. Clinton was being interviewed supposedly to promote his Global Initiative -- but Wallace started it all wrong by deciding to take on the former president. [For more, see also on Think Progress: Chris Wallace Never Asked A Bush Administration Official Why They Demoted Richard Clarke , and Chris Wallace Has Never Asked A Bush Administration Official About The USS Cole .] It is amazing to me, to see the widening gulf between the extremes. Polarization seems to be the state of affairs in the US, and the media, Fox News especially, are wallowing in irresponsibility as they take shots across the gulf. This latest example is just another in which Fox shows that not only is it biased, but it deliberately stokes the fires of conflict in order to generate

The statistics are from the 1990s, taken from the UN and NGOs operating around the world. If anything, the numbers have probably gotten worse. Pause for a moment, click on play on the clip above. If you remain unmoved, you're a person the world needs less of.

AP reports that the situation in Darfur remains unchanged . AU peacekeepers are doing anything but keeping the peace, remaining overwhelmed, underfunded and underequipped. The AU recently made an appeal to NATO for help, but Sudan remains uninterested in bringing the violence to a halt. The AU hope of handing over peacekeeping operations to the UN has likewise been unrealized due to Sudan's lack of cooperation. So the AU continues to maintain a presence -- extending their ineffective stay once again, this time to the end of the year. Meanwhile, people continue to live in fear -- continue to cross the border into neighbouring countries to escape their homes -- continue to die .

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez may be perceived as a fruitcake by those who's nerves he grates on -- but consider this -- how much more insane is the man than George W. Bush? Yesterday, Chavez went on the rampage against the US and Bush, calling the US president the devil . At the UN, his diatribe drew support for some of its criticisms of America. This is backlash -- backlash against US foreign policy. As crazy as Chavez is, he does get a few things correct -- Bush does talk as if he's " the owner of the world. " Chavez seeks reforms in the UN to counter the influence of the permanent members of the security council, while the US likewise has spoken out about reforms -- the US wanting to restrict countries that they see as abusive of human and political rights, from fully participating and being treated as equals in the UN. Both Chavez and Bush have a point. The UN is not democratic, with the US using its veto rights to enforce a colonial perspective on the

Surfing the net anonymously is almost impossible. You can use a number of software packages to hide your tracks, but they don't work very well. Enter Torpark , a customized version of the Firefox browser, that was built by Hacktivismo and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Torpark encrypts internet traffic from the browser to the Tor network, then anonymise the traffic by routing it through various routers on the Tor network -- regularly changing the IP address that the traffic appears to be coming from. For most users, Torpark is overkill -- you don't really need it because you've got nothing to hide. If you're living in a country where your online activities are tracked however, you have a lot to worry about. The government may lock you away for reading up on topics it considers off limits. If you've got nothing to hide, but you're just paranoid and want to use it anyway, you should note that some sites will not react nicely to having you IP address su

Wisco Madison has a very well written post on the case Maher Arar -- the Canadian mad who was taken from JFK, shipped off to Syria, and tortured for a year. He was innocent. He wasn't -- isn't a terrorist. His life has been ruined. The American government doesn't care. Quite a few Americans don't care either. Torture is fine if it gets the job done.

The Canadian mining company Barrick Gold Corp. declared on September 11, 2006 that it would sell its 50% stock ownership in a South African mine to Gold Fields Ltd . Barrick Gold has been the owner of Placer Dome Inc. and therefore "South Deep" since January 2006. The decision to sell the mine was made because the "asset has failed to deliver the goods" since acquisition, and it will take another one and a half kilometers of drilling to get to the ore deposit yet. The deal is planned to close in early 2007 and the agreed-upon purchase price of $1.5 billion will be paid by Gold Fields using $1.2 billion in cash and the remainder in shares . According to Barrick, this transaction is consistent with its strategy to raise funds through divesting acquired subsidies in order to develop its own projects in North and South America in the future. The strategically relevant industry features include market growth rate and extent of rivalry . The domestic Canadian mining indus

Coca-Cola has decided to leverage its industry power in the beverages business by expanding its product line from soft drinks, power drinks, juices and water products to include coffee, tea, and hot chocolate. Company executives noticed theslow-down of industry performance in soft drink sales and began looking for other venues to sell their products. Coke decided to capture some of the lucrative profits from the booming coffee market and spent five years making the arrangements to do so. On September 6, 2006, Coke introduced its two new products to the coffee drinkers of Toronto . Far Coast is branded as a premium coffee, and Chaqwa as a convenience blend, however, both are targeted at the convenience market ( Flavelle, C10, 1 ). Coke has provided the coffee grind, the equipment and the service for easy of use, and named this innovation café in a box (Flavelle, C10, 3). People like Udayan Jatar, Cokes general manager for premium brewed beverages, are trying to grow the companys market

American Airlines apparently has a new found problem with some of their passengers -- outward displays of romantic affection, especially between gay couples. In a flight from Charles de Gaulle to JFK, George Tsikhiseli and Stephan Varnier ran afoul of overzealous airline employees, who were hell bent on enforcing their moral code on passengers. Tsikhiseli and Varnier apparently exchanged a kiss , then Varnier nodded off with his head resting on Tsikhiseli shoulder. They were approached by a stewardess who requested they stop their behaviour, as they were disturbing passengers. The request was repeated by the aircraft captain, who told them if they didn't stop, and stop arguing with the crew, the plane would be diverted so they could presumably be kicked off. WTF? In this new world of battling terror, the airline industry, at the forefront of the war against hijackers, have become emboldened with new found authority to ensure planes don't go crashing into buildings -- whet

The Scientific Indian has a great case to end the intelligent design debate. Meet the Flounder. It must be the worst designed fish ever. Only evolution could have done that.

A lot of people around the world hate Americans. It's mostly unfair. Yes, there are Americans who should be hated, but they are no different than most people just like themselves around the world -- assholes. Most Americans however are just normal folks like the rest of us. They're nice. They help when they can, don't go out of their way to be nasty, enjoy a good joke and time spent with friends and family. How can you hate those people? Well, you can't. Most of the world that hates Americans though, have never met any of those people. They have however, felt or have been aware of the actions, of the American government and global conglomerates. KryssTal.com documents the various reasons why the USA is hated -- chronicling US backed coups of foreign governments; US political interventions in foreign regimes; the US use of its UN veto rights; the actions of US companies in foreign countries; and, the US use of nuclear, biological and chemical agents around the

Traditionally, men made the money and women spent it. Marketers figured this out a long time ago and since then, the stage was set for how businesses sold their wares to consumers. Appeal to the women, and the guys would inevitably follow. Society has been changing since the 1960s however, with the dawn of the sexual revolution. The line separating gender identity have not only been shifting, but they've also been fading -- at least in the first world nations -- let's not even go to some of the jurrasic societies out there. This has left many guys confused -- and I know some of them. The traditional refuges of the male have been dwindling as women have muscled their way in. Women are acting more like men, and it's becoming more acceptable for men to partake in the roles once reserved entirely for women. This isn't a change that is necessarily happening in individuals, so much as it's an evolution of society. The older generations continue to wallow in the t

Whoo-hoo! The Bible has gone Web 2.0! Just what I was waiting for! If you're like me and you were likewise waiting for this moment, the wait has now gone beta. Very soon, you too can find salvation on the internet. Check it out. The eBible site allows you to very easily search for the punishment that needs to be mete out sinners everywhere. Find out what the sodomites, fornicators and idolaters deserve, and give it to them. God wants you to. That's why the internet was created.

The kids are back in school, and for the most part, that seems to sit well with most parents. There are some however, that are up in arms, in the annual ritual flogging of homework. The media being the media, have latched on to the story and it has even made the cover of Macleans. What's all the brouhaha about? Well, it appears that there are some parents who think their kids are getting just way too much homework in school. Amanda Cockshutt, an advocate of less homework, complains in the National Post : "The whole evening centres around this mad dash to get the homework done -- and then everyone's mad at each other. It cuts into family time and it really sours the night." I think there are a few things happening here, that have spurred comments like Cockshutt's and the rally against homework. First and foremost, kids in general, with too few exceptions, are just bloody lazy and stupid. Further, they see no problem with this. They live in a world of entit

Eventually, copyright protection should run its course -- that's the natural order of things -- unless the movie industry gets its way. When copyright protection runs out for movies, you can download them legally, for free, via a torrent .

The mainstream media is not here to serve the public interest -- even public media endures pressure to cave to private masters -- so you've got to wonder -- just what is that they don't want us hearing too much. Well, Thomas Kostigen of MarketWatch , has made an attempt to bring public discourse on stories they would rather us not discuss. You figure out what private interests would be compromised by public knowledge of the following stories: Internet freedom, otherwise known as net neutrality -- while this has been a US only concern, don't kid yourself into believing it won't impact us. Halliburton sold nuclear technology to Iran and has been charged in violating US laws. Halliburton was US Vice President Dick Cheney previous employer. The world's oceans are heating up as global warming continues its ascension. Increasing temperature will cause large scale devastation to the oceans ecosystem. Hunger and homelessness increasing in the US. Although if you li

It's no surprise that Jack Layton and the NDP want Canadian troops out of Afghanistan -- the NDP doesn't go to war. But, aside from the complication that our troops are committed as part of NATO's deployment in Afghanistan, is pulling out the right thing to do? I'm of two minds over the whole thing. Removing the Taliban from Afghanistan was the right thing to do. Here was a country that was aiding and projecting an aggressive force at the west. Don't kid yourself and thing it would have only been the US that would have been the target. Removing the Taliban, destroying al Qaeda and finishing the mission in Afghanistan is the right thing to do. Of course, the US went and squandered the world's goodwill -- including that from Muslin states after 9/11 -- by invading Iraq for no good reason. Despite Iraq however, the Afghanistan mission has to be completed and a democratic nation needs to emerge from the ashes of the Taliban fundamentalist state. I've n

Dmitry has posted a nice list of 10 unknown freeware apps for Windows that you shouldn't live without. There's some cool stuff there. Check it out.

Just when is it OK for a nation to execute a war against its own citizens? Answer: never. But that doesn't mean it won't happen. Read about how the US military drafted plans that were approved by the Joint Chiefs of Staff to wage a false war against Americans and then blame terrorists. When the plan was brought before JFK, he turned it down.

Oh, don't be fooled by the latest admission by the Bush Administration . This is not about clearing the air on a much debated suspicion. It was well known -- made the news -- and vigorously denied by the Republicans and their supporters. The CIA was taking suspected terrorists to foreign prisons, far from oversight, for questioning . Translation: the beat the fucking truth out of them. Which of course is against American law. But maybe it's alright, after all, those bastards deserve it. Let's just hope that no innocents also disappeared under CIA management. This announcement by Bush however, surrounded by the families of terrorist victims at the White House, was carefully orchestrated. It was designed to demonstrate to general American sheep that make up most of the voting population -- you know, those that first elected Bush, then handed the country to him for a second term -- that the Republicans are the only ones that can fight terrorism -- and just like the mo

What did the fight against terrorism look like ten years ago? Joseph over at Cannonfire did a quick search on the Usenet to find out what conservative commentators were saying about the Clinton Administration's attempts to tackle terrorism. See if you can find the irony ... and while you're at it, swing over to AmericanBlog for more of the same. Just in case you're wondering ... politicians really don't care about the public's interest ... only their own.

In days of old When knights were bold And toilets weren't yet invented People powdered their noses by the road And walked away contented September 3/06 I wouldn't necessarily say that was the highlight of the long weekend, but since it was said by my wife less than an hour ago, it has been stuck in my head. She said that as we were driving back on Cape Hurd Road -- it was an after dinner drive up in Tobermory , where we spent this long weekend. My wife didn't want the weekend to end, as we were heading back to the motel for our last night. We've been up to Tobermory a number of times over the past few years, and have never been disappointed with the trip. It's always good up here -- even if you have to suffer through an overcast weekend that regularly erupted, thanks to Hurricane Ernesto. This morning, after breakfast at the Princess Hotel, we drove down to Cabot Head in the drizzle. It's always fun driving along Cabot Head Road -- a single dirt lan

For the paranoid, there's now new evidence that there really is a conspiracy afoot. Walt Disney World has begun fingerprinting visitors to the theme park in an effort to thwart ticket fraud. Is it just a technology upgrade from it's previous anti-scam efforts? It's Disney ... it can't be anything really serious. In the past, Disney has recorded onto tickets, the geometry and shape of visitors' fingers, and this latest effort is being sold as just an upgrade. And it really is, but in the strategic context, what this is doing is conditioning citizens of the free world to assumed guilty until proven innocent. We're all crooks you see, and only by businesses, governments and the public taking security measures, are we prevented from perpetrating crimes. We're being conditioned to becoming a society that records every movement, every transaction, to be analyzed and scrutinized, for our protection. If we have nothing to hide, we have nothing to be afraid