CCER

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You may or may not be aware, but very soon copyright laws in Canada - particularly as it pertains to the internet and electronic media in general - will be getting an overhaul.

It won't be a good overhaul. In fact, it will be an overhaul that flies in the face of what Canadians said they wanted during the consultation process, and goes against the advice of a number of very prominent Copyright experts.

You can learn more at the Canadian Coalition for Electronic Rights website. You can also go there and take the two or three minutes it takes to use their fancy web gadget to send an e-mail to your MP to voice your protest. Really, it's super-easy to do, and it's important. So please go do it.

Shrew Spit is Awesome

Everyone who thought the cure to cancer would be found in the Amazon rain forests? Well, not quite.

Shrew spit... Definitely not what I expected.

Let's just hope it pans out.

Wikileaks Founder Detained while Abroad

Glenn Greenwald has the story over at salon.com.

Wikileaks is, in my opinion, one of the most important developments on the internet pretty much since ever. It's certainly a lot more important than, say, Youtube - though obviously not nearly as ubiquitous. It provides a commodity that is increasingly scarce in this age of overinformation: Truth.

So this doesn't surprise me in the least. In fact, it's not the first time a Wikileak volunteer has been harassed by a government agency. I hope that Julian Assange doesn't let this intimidation stop him from continuing his work on the site, though he may wish to adopt a more decentralized management scheme from here on out.

Marathon

I ran the Fredericton Marathon yesterday - specifically, the 10K. I paid $45 dollars for the privilege of causing myself a great deal of pain very early in the day, followed by being given a medal for completing the course...



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Bit of buyer's remorse here, but at least I proved to myself I could do it. I made decent time, too - exactly 1 hour, start to finish.

There were shorter course options, like the 5K. There were also longer ones; the 21K half-marathon, and the 42K full-marathon, but I don't hate myself enough to consider doing either of those.

I was a little worried about my left knee yesterday; after the marathon, it was giving off a painful grinding sensation. However, when I woke up today it seemed fine, so that's a relief.

Remote Switches "Too Expensive"

Over at TNR, William Galston asks some rather pertinent questions regarding the loosening of deep-sea oil drilling safety measures around 2003.

Second, the oil well now spewing large quantities of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico lacked a remote-control acoustic shutoff switch used by rigs in Norway and Brazil as the last line of defense against underwater spills. There’s a story behind that. As the Journal reports, after a spill in 2000, the MMS issued a safety notice saying that such a back-up device is “an essential component of a deepwater drilling system.” The industry pushed back in 2001, citing alleged doubts about the capacity of this type of system to provide a reliable emergency backup. By 2003, government regulators decided that the matter needed more study after commissioning a report that offered another, more honest reason: “acoustic systems are not recommended because they tend to be very costly.” I guess that depends on what they’re compared to. The system costs about $500,000 per rig. BP is spending at least $5 million per day battling the spill, the well destroyed by the explosion is valued at $560 million, and estimated damages to fishing, tourism, and the environment already run into the billions.

Ah, the power of hindsight.

Definitely worth reading the full article, though.

Q-Listers

Nothing too official yet, but apparently EA Games is planning on including a number of Q-List teams in their NHL 11 game... Including the Saint John Sea Dogs.

I'm almost tempted to say "Aw, that's adorable," but I that would be unnecessarily condescending and, if I'm being honest, I happen to think this development is pretty cool. So long as EA isn't just yanking anyone's chains (wouldn't be the first time).

Louisiana Coast Oil Spill

By now, anyone who reads this has, I'm certain, heard about the sinking of the BP oil rig off the coast of Louisiana. Well, the Boston Globe has just published a series of photos on the disaster, and it's truly apocalyptic.

Some suggest that the disaster may already be at Exxon Valdez levels, in terms of oil spilt. Of course, the Exxon Valdez spill took place is an enclosed bay where the oil couldn't spread too far... Here, the damage can spread over a much wider area, with devastating results for a number of industries. This presents a pretty clear danger to the Louisiana swamplands, which are of great ecological importance as well (swamplands are precious for a number of reasons, including the number of species that depend on them and their value as carbon sinks.)

Obviously, this bad situation is getting worse. And you know what? If a hurricane hits before this is under control, the entire region could be screwed.

I've read speculation BP Plc might have the ability to stop the leak quite quickly, but it would mean giving up on the well (they'd have to basically collapse the pipeline) and they're still working to save the rig. In order words, if this is true, all this devastation is deemed worth it in order to ensure the well is up and working again in three months. I pray I'm wrong about that, that this speculation is wrong... Because those photos are depressing enough as it is.

UPDATE: Markk II Studios lays out the likely scenarios resulting from the spill. I can't find any obvious flaws in his analysis, sadly.

Also, BP has kinda-sorta admitted their... well, responsibility, if not culpability. Over at HuffPo.