The Warpfish Chronicles
"27 years on the planet, and I still haven't figured out what's going on."
Around the World, Warpfish Style -- April 21st, 2001
Very quick tour around the world:
Summit of the Americas
If the protesters could come up with a viable alternative, I might care
to listen to them. Otherwise, everybody knows there are problems with
NAFTA -- I just don't believe that protectionism is better.
Napster
Recently, Napster announced that they had come to an agreement with
another company, to use their digial waveprint matching technology to
try and protect copyright on songs.
Hmmm. The record companies have avoided publishing any concrete
details as to how much money they make off the price of a CD, their
attempt at electronically signing music failed, and now they're
pressuring Napster to come up with one. Perhaps they're getting
Napster to do their work for them? Then they shut Napster down, and
as a part of the settlement, they take the technology. Pretty neat,
eh?
Ontario Government Slashing Costs
Has it occured to anybody that costs may be rising because actual
costs are going up, as opposed to more inefficiencies to be found?
For all we know, things are as efficient as a large bureaucracy can
get, and medical costs are going up because they're going up. (If
the price of gas is high, you would expect costs of everything to
go up, don't you?)
Beyond a certain optimization point, you're just making changes -- any
possible improvement is lost because you lose time and money getting
used to the new changes.
BTW -- when Mike Harris was first elected in 1995, I promised people
who voted conservatives that, when things went bad, I would tell
everybody I told you so.
Well, they've been going bad for the last little while, and the people
of Ontario were stupid enough to give him another majority. And his
response was to stop pushing for amalgamations, just when he realized that
the only places left to amalgamate (and, arguably, the ones most in need
of it) were the small cities in the 905 area code. Incidently, these
also form the core of his voting base.
"I told you so."
Bush and the Koyto Accords
Definite proof that democracy's biggest fault is the purusit of short
term gain over long term gain. In fifty years, Bush's name may be
remembered as the person who doomed the planet to long term suffering.
But why should he care? He'll be dead.
Whatever happened to vision? Isn't that one of the first requirement
for a leader? *sigh*
Pretty Cynical, eh?
Well, what do you expect? It's been a cynical year, with humanity
displaying its stupidity again. My only consolation is that humanity has
always been this stupid -- and that individual humans can impress us all
with their diginity, creativity, compassion and honour. The hope is that
a few extraordinary humans can make up for the rest of us.
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Last Modified: Monday, 11-Feb-2002 12:41:45 CST