False PositivesCthulhu Antenna Ball
It’s cute. It’s an Antenna Ball. It’s an earthly representation of the ultimate evil from beyond the stars.
It’s the Cthulhu Antenna Ball™.
via SF Signal! see also Dear Cthulhu. Time to start a cthulhu category?
Congratulations Canada!
| Party | Seats | Percentage of Vote | Percentage of Seats in the House of Commons* |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | 124 | 36.25% | 40.26% |
| Liberal | 103 | 30.22% | 33.44% |
| Bloc Québécois | 51 | 10.48% (48% in Quebec) | 16.56% |
| New Democratic Party | 29 | 17.49% | 9.42% |
| Independent | 1 | 0 .52% | 0.32% |
| Other | 0 | 5.05% | 0.0% |
Voter turnout is up again after a record low turn out of 60% in 2004, with 64.9 per cent of eligible voters having cast ballots.
My riding of Parkdale - High Park has elected the NDP’s Peggy Nash as our repersentive, defeating Sam “CopyRight” Bulte. In response “Pro-User Zealot’s” throughout the Riding are singing out “Ding Dong the Witch is Dead, the Dead is Dead!“, as well as Hollywood’s MP loses the election — hit the road, Sam!, and Sayonara, Sam.
Question : Any bets on when Sam Bulte turns up as a registered lobbyist for the CopyRight industry? I mean a non elected one 
We may still have a new version of the flawed Bill C-60 to deal with - make it more consumer & artist friendly rather than leaning so far towards big industry interests - , and some milder concerns about a the next Minister of Culture (whether that’s Bea Oda or not), but at least we (a whole host of bloggers) managed to make some impact. Maybe not large, but enough to make a difference.
Update : Michael Geist has an excellent summary in :Lessons Learned, what happen, and what’s next. Northworthy: Blogs Don’t Get the Credit They Deserve? notes that turnout in Parkdale/High Park was up higher than the National average of 64.9 with a 72.3% turnout. and CopyrightWatch.ca has Food for Thought in Parkdale/High Park, where as Rob Hyndman wonders about More on the Growing Influence of Blogs in Politics
Now that the Conservative and Liberals have swamped swapped seat counts, with a gain for the NDP, we have an interesting minority government situation, with a block of progressive parties sitting in opposition. I expect that the they will be able to spin out some pro provincial action with the support of BQ. Also most parties might support some action along the lines of reducing the influence of lobbyist, improving accountability, and – a big maybe – electoral reform along the lines of Fair Vote Canada’s proposal for 100 additional seats in the House of Commons to be elected on a proportional bases*. Otherwise the Tories have an opportunity to show how they want to strengthen Canada – how about that 1% of the GST distributed to municipalities on a per capita basis? – Or not. Show us you are worth our vote. (’cause we will be back again in around 2 years! or 9 minutes as per Diesel Sweeties)
*I’ve inculded the Percent of Seats in the House of Commons to highlight the problem with the First Past the Post system. There is a saying in Canada : “40% of the Votes, 60% of the Seats and 100% of the Power”. The current systems under counts Conservative’s in Toronto, Liberal’s in Alberta, and all other national third parties (like the NDP and the Greens). It also tends to over count regional parties. (which may or may not be a bad thing)
Past posting related to “2006 Election Night in Canada” : Celebrating CopyRight Bulte! and Parkdale / High Park All Candidates debate
Via Niall Kennedy we have a glance into the creatation of WhuffieTracker at Mash pit, which he has hacked together with collaborated with Caterina Fake, Chris Ratcliff, and Josh Kinberg
Whuffie is the ephemeral, reputation-based currency of Cory Doctorow’s sci-fi novel, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom.
WhuffieTracker is an ego surfing tool which aggregates (or will aggregate, when it’s working!) all blog posts, comments, links, tags, photos, conversations and bits of attention focused on you you you.
Which of course sounds like egoSurf, and has shades of Eh List created by Chris Nolan. And beggs the question why technorati is’nt doing this.
It’s still very Beta, but what do you want in four hours?
In less than four hours yesterday afternoon our team brainstormed the product features, designed a site and a logo, researched possible sources of data, registered a domain name, setup and configured a database and server, created database schema, and wrote some PHP.
(check out the whuffietracker transfer device!) Much Whuffie to them!
Parkdale/High Park incumbent MP, Sarmite (Sam) Bulte, is still holding a fundraiser hosted by various lobbyists: Doug Frith (President of Canadian Motion Pictures Distributors Association - CMPDA), Graham Henderson (President of Canadian Recording Industry Association CRIA ), Jackie Hushion (Executive Director of the Canadian Publishers Council), Danielle LaBossiere (Executive Director of the Entertainment Software Alliance ESA) & Stephen Stohn (DeGrassi producer, who spoke to the Copyright Board of Canada) on Jan 19th, four days before a general Federal Election.
She has been critized for the optics of this, but has refused to consider that there might be a problem, or the perception of a conflict of interest.
Via Michael Geist I’m hearing that she is now claiming :
“They are not hosting a fundraiser for me. It’s a celebration of my support for the arts community.”
Yeah, Right. This was reported in the Toronto Star and happened at the yesterday’s - January 16th- All Candidates Debate. (also mentioned on Boing Boing : Hollywood’s Member of Parliament makes national news ).
Like Joey says : Sorry, Sam, But Your $250-a-plate Party IS a Fundraiser. contributions go to her, with a tax receipt for political contributions. Keep on “spinning”, Sam. It still looks and smells the same.
Steve Stinson was the brave and well organized soul who asked, on January 11th, the candidates if they would take the Copyright Pledge. You can watch video of Sam Bulte’s lack of response, as well as the raw video of all the reponses. (She was the only one not to say ‘yes’). Thank you Steve!
Online Rights Canada is holding a Balanced Meal to counter Sam’s Copyright Cartel’s big banquet, same day (January 19th), Time and Place (at the Drake Hotels Corner Cafe, the relaxed coffee house and juice bar on the west side). Cory is now mentioning this on Boing Boing : Skip $250/plate dinner for dirty MP, eat with copyfighters
Canadian News Magazine Macleans mentions it a side bar story in their current Issue in Wrath of the bloggers Toronto Liberal MP candidate Sarmite Bulte lands in hot water over a fundraiser hosted by beneficiaries of her proposed copyright reforms. which gives a nod to Joey aka Accordion Guy and Boing Boing (see : Canadian MP imports US’s worst copyright AND dirty campaign financing
Mark Evans has also written on this in his column in the Financial Post: Sam Bulte’s Bad Optics.
It related news : France softens copyright bill : French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin issued the order to change the bill to enshrine the right of consumers to make private copies of music and film disks... Even the French are pro-user zealots. Mon Dieu!
It also well worth reading an insider’s look inside the media industry in Canada by Matthew Good, one of those the artistic creators that Mrs. Bulte claims to support, a well know Canadian musician out of beautiful - if wet -Vancouver, BC.
previously on FP: Parkdale / High Park All Candidates debate, Sam Bulte : What’s That Smell and is it Cause or Effect, and Sarmite Bulte : Is Canadian CopyRight for Sale?.
For those of you who missed the all candidates meeting held on Monday the 17th are available as MP3 files (or Podcasts) thanks to the Parkdale Residents Association.
Michael Geist, in The Sam Bulte Podcast, has listened to these and found three claims that Sam Bulte makes in about 30 seconds that are all subject to challenge:
“I am not taking money from special interest groups. As you know, you can look at my returns. All of my election returns are noted, they are transparent. Ninety percent of my donations came from individuals. Ten percent came from organizations or corporations. They are not hosting a fundraiser for me. A fundraiser is being held. Individuals are invited. Everyone is invited. It is self-funding. And yes, there will be artists there. It will be a celebation of my support for the arts community.”
Today’s Globe and Mail has a long piece on : Liberal MP’s fundraiser causes controversy
Irony Alert: The Sam Bulte fundraiser at the Drake Hotel will feature a performance by Margo Timmins (who is married to Graham Henderson ,President of Canadian Recording Industry Association CRIA ), who is best known as a member of “The Cowboy Junkies”. In a lovely work of analysis Joey de Villa concludes that she owes her success to copying, the very thing that Sam Bulte and her anti-user Industry friends are trying to stop, in The Cowboy Junkies, “Piracy”, and How it Made Them Big.
Balanced Meal Review covers the non fundraiser. Still looking for comments on Sam “Anti-User” Bulte’s Fundraiser and farewell dinner, although this G&M story : Muckraking — with other people’s muck is amusing :
On Monday, the eyes of the Internet will be on the Toronto riding of Parkdale/High Park. The rest of the election is a sideshow. Will the Liberals be reduced to two seats? Will the door of cosmic justice hit Belinda Stronach on the way out? Who cares? Everyone’s watching Sarmite Bulte.
I just discovered that They (Ami & Yumi) are showing in Canada on YTV, Saturday mornings at 10:30, and were showing the last Episode of season 1 (# 16: Hungry Yumi; The Oddyguard; Song Sung Bad). Hopefully they will repeat.
I discovered them last year November, 2004.
This is NOT a Japanese import,and nor is it anime. The cartoon is based on Ami Onuki and Yumi Yoshimura, the lead singers of the popular J-pop band, Puffy AmiYumi, with many of their catchy J-pop hits are featured on the show. They also appear in each episode, doing live-action skits in a mixture of Japanese and accented English, with songs in the original Japanese (without subtitles).
They started on the US Cartoon Network, and are a big hit there.
They only thing I seen that comes close to this it the 2004 Japanese file Kamikaze Girls, which has it’s own cartoon segments, involves a meeting of 2 girls from different worlds one: one a “Lolita,” the other a “Yankee”. The characters come off as a kind of female otaku. Kamikaze Girls began as a best-selling novel, by cult writer Novala Takemoto, was adapted into a comic and then this film (reviewed here on Midnight Eye).
I suspect it influenced Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi.
I was at tonight’s “All Candidates debate” at Runnymede United Church (432 Runnymede Road, just north of Ardagh ,south of Annette), presented by the Bloor West Village Residents’ Association.
We had six candidates out this evening: Sarmite Sam Bulte, Liberal Party of Canada; Lorne Gershuny Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada; Jurij Klufas, Conservative Party of Canada; Peggy Nash New Democratic Party; Terry Parker, Marijuana Party; Robert L. Rishchynski, Green Party of Canada.
We also had a packed hall with standing room only! Amongst the crowd was Joey deVilla, representing the accordion vote, who made may more notes than I and video recorded some of the proceedings. (He has now put up: All-Candidates Meeting: Opening Statements, and Sam Bulte and the Copyright Pledge.)
After an introductory statement by each candidates, locals lined up to ask questions. This is where it paid to come before 7:30 and get a seat next to where the line quickly formed. Questions asked ranged from closing down Toronto Island Airport and the Toronto Port Authority, psychotropic drugs and children, Education, Guns and crime, Senior’s Health Care, and the Environment.
Oh, yes this CopyRight Thing came up. Three Times!
We had the one person asking if they would take the Copyright Pledge. Sam Bulte avoided answering the question; Peggy Nash and Conservative Jurij Klufas said “Yes”, as did the other candidates.
Joey has video! Sam Bulte and the Copyright Pledge.
A few questions later Sam Bulte was asked about getting a donation for The Stratford Festival (she claimed this in her non answer mentioned above, and on air on CBC radio Ontario Today on January 10th see the archive and listen to part 1 and part 2 (part 2 isn’t working for me. anyone?) and whether she though it was appropriate. She clearly she no problem with it. I think Jurij Klufas made a quip about “when did we go from politicians supporting the arts, to the arts support politicians”.
And the last question of the evening was about Sam Bulte, Jan 19th fund raiser hosted by various lobbyists: Doug Frith (President of Canadian Motion Pictures Distributors Association - CMPDA), Graham Henderson (President of Canadian Recording Industry Association CRIA ), Jackie Hushion (Executive Director of the Canadian Publishers Council), Danielle LaBossiere (Executive Director of the Entertainment Software Alliance ESA) & Stephen Stohn (DeGrassi producer, who spoke to the Copyright Board of Canada) on Jan 19th, four days before a general Federal Election. Again, Sam Bulte sees no problems, it’s all transparent, and so what is all the fuss about?
Doing one of these questions She lost her cool for a moment and lashed out at “Michael Geist, the EFF and their extremist friends” or something like that.
The crowd was very well behaved, save for a couple of Liberal supporters in the back who acted up a couple of times.
See my past postings Sam Bulte : What’s That Smell and is it Cause or Effect, and Sarmite Bulte : Is Canadian CopyRight for Sale?.
Also OnLine Rights Canada’s Money in Politics, Conflicts for Copyright has an online petition calling on Canadian politicians to take the Copyright Pledge, and on Boing Boing : Hollywood’s Canadian politico lies about her approach to lawmaking about the above mentioned radio program.
Update: I fixed the ugly HTML. This is happens when you post at the end of a long day. Sorry. Now I find out that after another long day that I’m getting mucho hits from Melanie McBride : Bulte’s last stand ; Liam O’donnell : Bulte Loses Cool at “pro-user zealots”, Joey deVilla site The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century - who did an amazing job! -, and Michael Geist’s The Bulte Video analysis. All good reading! Many Thanks!
The Globe and Mail story Globetechnology: Chinese ban on Wikipedia prevents research, users say
Wikipedia, which offers more than 2.2 million articles in 100 languages, has emerged as an important source of scholarly knowledge in China and many other countries. But its stubborn neutrality and independence on political issues such as Tibet and Taiwan has repeatedly drawn the wrath of the Communist authorities.The latest blocking of the website, the third shutdown of the site in China in the past two years, has now continued for more than 10 weeks without any explanation and without any indication whether the ban is temporary or permanent.
Can someone confirm this? (The shanghaiist posted about this on Oct 20th, and The Wikipedia itself says)
I’m not in the “Wikipedia can do no wrong” camp but, it is a valuable, fast moving (updating and error correcting), reasonable accurate source, that is complementary to and confuses tradiation media, with resonable key policies, and which will continue to evolve as it passes it 5th birthday.
The Wikipedia currently has 910,469 english articles, and - as of Oct 2004 - the database was ~ 170 GB (excluding images and multimedia) and - as of September 2005 - a compressed full database dump (text only) english only is about 40GB., so my Dream of “Wikipedia on a Stick” i.e. Wikipedia on a USB flash drive (see Barenaked on a Stick) is still a couple of years off. Although having local mirror version is not.
More followup on Sarmite Bulte : Is Canadian CopyRight for Sale?.
Michael Geist asks “Cause or Effect“, and wonders about her inability to comprehend why so many Canadians are troubled by her January 19th fundraiser and her history of accepting copyright-backed cash while simultaneously playing a leading role on Canadian copyright policy.
On Boing Boing we have : Hollywood’s Canadian politician: history of a sellout , where in to is easy to concludes that while the Member of Parliament claims that funding doesn’t influence her politicking, it wasn’t until the campaign contributions began to roll in that she took any interest in copyright law.
And Joey has Today’s Two Minutes Hate for Sam Bulte, with a couple of modified Sam Bulte graphics for you use.
More links at p2pnet, and on CopyrightWatch.ca we have The Bulte Scandal: A “Transparent” Conflict of Interest.
I’ll be at the “All Candidates debate” planned for Wednesday, January 11 at 7:30pm - Bloor West Village Residents’ Association, Runnymede United Church (432 Runnymede Road, just north of Ardagh ,south of Annette). Too See and Hear, and hopefully ask a question (working on that) or 3.
Update : and this from itbusiness.ca Liberal fundraiser stirs up copyright controversy:Critics say a dinner hosted by MP Sam Bulte but sponsored by CRIA and others could spark an unhealthy trend in lobbying. Experts discuss the conflict of interest issues. Plus: Bulte’s side of the story
Bulte said that she is prepared to debate Geist on copyright issues in a public forum. When asked, Geist said, “I would love that. I would welcome the opportunity.”
That I’d like to see, and Jan 19th would be perfect!
Update: Joey is on a roll and has a press release from another voice in the debate, the artistic creators that Mrs. Bulte claims to support, in Indie Musicians Against Sam Bulte, plus a revised graphic for “The CopyRight Candidate”
And Fading Ways Records has a Jan 9 press release to protest the shameless sell out of a Canadian politician and potential Minister of Canadian Heritage to multi-national corporations’ lobbying interests in extremist copyright laws.
Brent Lambs advices: Run Away! Run Away!, although I like his suggetion of Steve Paikin as the next Prime Minister of Canada!
The Canadian Federal MP for my riding of Parkdale/High Park, Sarmite (Sam) Bulte, is holding a fundraiser hosted by various lobbyists: Doug Frith (President of Canadian Motion Pictures Distributors Association - CMPDA), Graham Henderson (President of Canadian Recording Industry Association CRIA ), Jackie Hushion (Executive Director of the Canadian Publishers Council), Danielle LaBossiere (Executive Director of the Entertainment Software Alliance ESA) & Stephen Stohn (DeGrassi producer, who spoke to the Copyright Board of Canada) on Jan 19th, four days before a general Federal Election.
Why is the Parliamentary Secretary for Canadian Heritage, the former chair of the Canadian Heritage Standing Committee, the chair of the Ontario Liberal caucus, and the key player in the Bulte Report (also know as the Interim Report on CopyRight Reform, which lead to the now in limbo bill C-60, with the support of the The Canadian recording industry) having a fundraiser with any copyright stakeholders four days before a national election.
The Hollywood Reporter has reported:
U.S. studios and music labels were drawn into the Canadian federal election fray Tuesday after coming under fire for a planned Jan. 19 fundraiser for a key Liberal member of Parliament. The controversy follows Sarmite Bulte, a federal M.P. and parliamentary secretary for Canadian Heritage who has backed U.S.-style copyright laws, issuing an invitation for a CAN$250-a-plate fundraiser hosted by the Canadian Recording Industry Assn. and the Canadian Motion Pictures Distributors Assn. The event was scheduled to take place four days before Canadians vote for a new federal government on Jan. 23. The CMPD, the CRIA and other copyright holders have long pushed Canada to tighten lax laws against copyright piracy. A copyright reform bill that Bulte helped write recently died when the ruling Liberal Party dissolved Parliament and called a national election for Jan. 23. The CMPD, the CRIA and other copyright holders have long pushed Canada to tighten lax laws against copyright piracy. A copyright reform bill that Bulte helped write recently died when the ruling Liberal Party dissolved Parliament and called a national election for Jan. 23
Isn’t this a conflict of interest? Doesn’t it look like that “Friends in Industry” are rewarding her for Bill C-60?
Michael Geist, University of Ottawa law professor and columnist on law and technology in the Toronto Star, Ottawa Citizen, and Canada.com, has been breaking the ongoing story. see : The Sad Reality of Copyright Policy in Canada, Business As Usual, Campaign Contributions, Tipping Point, and That’s What Friends Are For
He also has made a few suggestions that would help: 1) The party leaders should take a Copyright Pledge (Cleaning Up Copyright) , than no one that has accepted financial contributions from the Copyright Industries should server in the the Ministry that sets copyright policy, and 2) ( in The Benefits of Copyright Reform) to add exceptions to current laws to recognize “everyday forms of private copying that do not harm copyright owners.” as per Australia.
Over on Boing Boing the story is getting a lot of notice as well: Hollywood’s Canadian Member of Parliament , Canadian MP imports US’s worst copyright AND dirty campaign financing , Bulte (Canadian MP) gets big entertainment bucks, promises new copyrights.
Update : Joey deVilla, aka Accordion Guy, and new resident in the area has An Appeal to My Fellow Voters in the High Park/Parkdale Riding, and Lawrence Lessig asks Is there a Canadian Abramoff of copyright? ( US lobbyist Jack Abramoff has just pleaded guilty in federal court ), and Daren Barefoot blogs : Sam Bulte is in the Pockets of the Canadian Recording Industry
In the meantime, those of us who live in the Parkdale/High Park riding can attend the “All Candidates debates” planned for January :
The NDP’s Peggy Nash ran a close campaign in 2004 in this riding.
This all looks like more of the same as covered in the Sony RootKit story in When Entertainment Companies Become Gangsters, actions by the Canadian Recording Industry Association in Crimilisation and stigmatizing of P2P continues, as well as other stuff on del.icio.us under Copy Right
Update: Brent Lamb has added his 2 cents : Three to Turf
: Looks like the story is starting to get picked up by the Mainstream media, as mentioned by Michael Geist in Tone Deaf, there is a CTV Candain Press story Historian calls Liberal MP’s fundraiser a worry, and the Toronto Star has a piece : Fundraiser a rare glimpse into party power politics which has a couple of interesting quotes..
“How else am I supposed to raise money?” Bulte said yesterday. “There’s nothing to hide here. These people support me. They support me because of my position on copyright.“I’m not being influenced by them. They’re supporting me,” she said. “These people have become my friends and I don’t apologize for that.
“Do I believe in strong copyright laws? Absolutely. I make no bones about it. And, do I believe that stealing and downloading music off the Internet is illegal and should be illegal? Absolutely, and I don’t apologize for that.”
O.K… as Rob Hyndman comments in Sarmite Bulte’s “Friends”: “With friends like these, who needs democracy?”, and linked to Angry in the Great White North entry : Sarmite Bulte, copyright laws, and her staged debate and a report of what went on at the all-candidates meeting (Jan 4th) at the Swansea Town Hall and the sneaky tactics used.
and the terminal velocity of sausage has a few things to say as a performing artist (”singer, songwriter, recording artist, actor, writer, doodler and waiter.”) .
another update : from Michael Geist, the CBC is now out with a story (”Liberal MP takes flak for fundraiser by copyright lobbyists”), and Peggy Nash, Bulte’s NDP challenger, has issued a press release stating that “Ms. Bulte needs to understand that her job as a parliamentarian is to work first and foremost in the public interest. Politicians are held to a higher standard than others and the perception of bias is simply not acceptable.“
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