PureGin.org

I heard Monday via the Vancouver Linux User Group mailing list (thanks, Syv!) that the province of British Columbia has implemented a Consumer Electronics recycling program via Encorp.

Starting on Aug 1, 2007, consumers will be able to bring selected items to selected Encorp 'Return-It' centres where they will be 'Recycled'. Details of what types of items can be returned are available here

Well, it looks like we have bought a house, with trees and everything. Not just a condo, but a giant, energy and money sucking, portal-to-the-home-depot-lifestyle, house. Of course, since we're not gazillionaires, it's naturally not in Vancouver, or any other actual City, but rather just outside of Ladysmith, on Vancouver Island.

I'm excited that I'll finally get to hear Wade Davis speak when the Atira Womens' Resource Society brings him to Vancouver to speak at a fundraiser for the Digital Storytelling Project.

Wade is one of those icons of our postmodern age - an explorer in a time when the very idea of exploration seems a thing of the past. He is a superstar academic, a guy who has let his curiosity lead him to parts of the world few people have ever seen, and who has let all that he has observed there shape a deeply felt and passionately articulated view of the planet.

The ACM TechNews feed on Tech-Community.CA presented an article from The Economist yesterday, reporting on the remotely readable, biometric passport planned for issue by the USA -- my fellow Americans, prepare to be finger printed, digitally photographed and Iris-scanned when you next apply for a passport.

Furthermore, it looks like anyone with a reader will be able to read your unencrypted electronic file, remotely, without your knowing about it. I suspect that the ID chips that livestock are tagged with have better security than this. Once again, we see that we have more to worry about from our government than from external 'extremists'. Sigh.

Venturing out on a bit of a limb here, I'm going to declare that I feel that the British Columbia Government's decision to increase the film and television tax credits to 30% from 20% is a poor one.

In fact, this particular tax credit is not particularly effective in any sense other than to enrich already wealthy foreign production companies and investors.

There are multiple problems:

• This approach does not promote a stable, sustainable, regional industy - movies are by their nature one-off projects. Production companies will always choose the location which is cheapest. Buying into competing for this kind of 'business' is accepting an invitation for a 'race to the bottom'.
• ITC for large productions is like Welfare for the Rich.
• Most of the money does not stay in BC
• Most of the money goes to big foreign productions; little goes to small and local production
• Local jobs created are temporary, part-time, largely unskilled and not well-paid. There's lots of so-called actors, assistant this-that-and-the-other positions, junior/second/assistant camera, lighting, sound people - all waiting for the next big thing, barely making ends meet by working as waiters, dishwashers, and office temps. This is funding the Arts via Welfare and Employment Insurance. Why not fund the Arts directly?

I thought I heard someone being interviewed in Kiev about the demonstrations against election irregularities in the Ukrainian national elections say something like "Democracy is new to us. We want to learn from Canadians how it should be done."

Seems to me that Canada, along with much of the rest of the world, has a lot to learn from Ukraine, if that attitude is representative. The stance of wanting to learn about democracy, rather than viewing oneself as the source, authority, model or arbiter of what is democratic is incredibly refreshing and hopeful. The attitude that democracy matters, and that it is something we (hoi polloi) can do something about, is equally so. And finally, that people are putting those attitudes into action is truely inspiring.

John Barnako wrote an interesting piece (Blogs - Much Ado About Very Little) in his "Internet Daily" newsletter for CBS Marketwatch, noting that the attention that blogs are receiving in the coverage of the American presidential election is perhaps greater than their small readership (relative to the mass media) would warrant.