One Canuck's Radio Weblog

  Saturday, 16 October 2004

.< 11:29:54 PM >
The Guardian | The making of the terror myth
Since September 11 Britain has been warned of the 'inevitability' of catastrophic terrorist attack. But has the danger been exaggerated? A major new TV documentary claims that the perceived threat is a politically driven fantasy - and al-Qaida a dark illusion.

.< 11:28:00 PM >
Foreign Policy In Focus Policy Report: A Failed
A Failed 'Transition' is the most comprehensive accounting of the mounting costs of the Iraq war on the United States, Iraq, and the world. Among its major findings are stark figures about the escalation of costs in these most recent three months of "transition" to Iraqi rule, a period that the Bush administration claimed would be characterized by falling human and economic costs.

.< 11:26:26 PM >
Calendar of 1,125 US Military Dead in Iraqi War

October 16, 2004
[Via Cryptome]

.< 10:27:08 PM >
High-stakes banking in Mexico - Scotiabank is pursuing the country's young and affluent
But it's Mexican demographics that really make bankers giddy. The median age of the country's 104-million people is just 24; some 60 per cent of the population is under 30. Young people, as everyone knows, like to consume [~] toasters, then cars, then homes, as Scotiabank chief executive officer Rick Waugh is fond of repeating. And consumption requires banking services and credit. Moreover, Mexico is chronically "under-banked," which means that millions of Mexicans don't have credit cards or even bank accounts.

But while the numbers are big, they may not be as big as they seem. Inverlat is focused on more upscale, middle-class customers, a group representing only about 25-million people. And the reason so few Mexicans put money in banks, aside from a residual distrust of the banking system, is that many have no money to put in them.

The minimum wage is roughly $120 (U.S.) a month, and 10 per cent of the population lives on less than $1 day, according to the World Bank. The looming question, then, is whether the benefits of Mexico's economic resurgence will accrue mainly to the privileged, or also to young people struggling to rise out of poverty and into the mainstream. On that unknown rests Scotiabank's billion-dollar gamble.

.< 9:40:10 PM >
The Weather Network - Fall Colour - Ontario
The Fall Colour Progression report is produced each Monday and Thursday during the beautiful fall colour season in the province of Ontario.

This is the report for Thursday, October 14, 2004

Cool! I was hoping we'd have colour into November so that mi Luz could take it in.

< 6:14:14 PM >

< 5:51:08 PM >

< 3:48:58 AM >

< 3:41:59 AM >

There's no such thing as a free lunch. And soon, there may be no such thing as an ad-free RSS feed, either, as publishers add advertisements to their feeds in hopes of making money through the popular content-aggregating technology. By Cyrus Farivar.

[Via Wired News]

.< 3:22:31 AM >
Bittorrent Firewall Port Forwarding for Apple Airport Extreme
The fastest possible Bittorrent speeds are obtained when NO users are firewalled. Conversely, if EVERY Bittorrent user were firewalled, downloads for everyone would slow to a crawl and Bittorrent would be pointless. Today, we are somewhere in between.

I'll probably need to refer to this soon. Getting ready to check out Bittorrent now that I have a bit of disc space.

< 2:34:27 AM >

[Via Scott Young's Radio Weblog]

Coincidentally I needed to do a clean install of Radio today on my new laptop and was surprised to see 8.1 available. There was no mention on the discussion site at that point and in fact half of the download page referred to it as 8.0.8 and half as 8.1.

< 2:31:04 AM >

"Xeni Jardin: BoingBoing reader bryan says, "Jon Stewart blasted the hosts on CNN's Crossfire for hurting the democratic process instead of helping. He also calls Tucker Carlson a dick. Bittorrent: Link, and transcript here.

BoingBoing reader Hal points us to Salon's coverage (Link), and describes the interview/buttkicking alternately: "Tucker Carlson gets his ass handed to him on a platter -- without falafel to sweeten the taste."

Here's an alternate BitTorrent link: Link. (Thanks, yatta)"

[Via Boing Boing]

Stewart was genuinely pissed. This is not the sort of thing you usually see on television. I'm impressed.

< 12:17:44 AM >

(Via Guardian Unlimited.)