News

I have been witness, on many occasions, to inapproprapriate police behaviour. I have witnessed people being roughed up, pushed around and harassed by the police in this city.  Such events are witnessed by other citizens all of the time. A cross between not knowing our rights, atomized individuality (refusing to interfere as it will cause them to be involved - thus somehow reponsible) and just plain denial (what they are seeing is actually unethical, immoral and against the law!) are allowing these situations to continue.  I find it amazing how quickly individuals dismiss one's claim of indiscretion because they have never seen such acts with their own eyes. Folks, especially who drive everywhere and don't participate in the culture of the core, will completely dismiss these observations.  In fact, an acquaintance of mine who witnessed such a situation, with his own eyes (he is a suburbanite who drives everywhere and actively refuses to take the bus), does not recall the event in the same fasion that he did immediately after the incident. He has actively changed what took place in his mind. I would suspect this shift of thought is to justify the occurance so he does not have to deal with the moral responsibility associated with witnessing police indiscretion. If such acts were filmed, there would be no argument. Nor would there be a problem in court proving the police indiscretion. It is so bad in this city, that I was not sure if I should write this, in a blog, that few people read, in fear of the slight chance the police will see it.  I would feel their retribution no doubt. It feels like dealing with organized crime - except these chaps are funded by the state and backed up by the judiciary.  What the hell is our police oversight committee doing about this? Not much.  read more »

Looks like Facebook is looking for more controversy. Probably not actually, but they will run into conflict with their user base as long as they continue to exploit the private information.  This article here explores yet another study that exposes the  workings of Facebook secretly exploiting user's private information without their knowledge.

A simple demonstration of one type of hidden exploitation:

In order to install an application, a Facebook user must first agree to "allow this application to...know who I am and access my information." Users not willing to permit the application access to all kinds of data from their profile cannot install it onto their Facebook page.  read more »

I had to be up bright and early this morning. Another Governance Task Force meeting to get to by bus, so I set my alarm and was lucky enough to hear it when it started to serenade me at 7:00 am. A quick shower and out the door so I could hoof it several blocks over to the Pond Mills SuperCuts. Usually I just buzz it myself (those of us on disability incomes could teach the city a thing or two about frugality), but I didn't want to address the GTF looking like I'd just joined the Marines.  read more »

Documentary Film-maker Robert Greenwald orchestrated a group of homeless American veterans to confront Fox News and Bill O'Rielly. Mr. O'Rielly has made the claim on his show that there are no homeless vets in the US. So being proof of this lie, the homeless vets decended upon Fox News, with crews from NBC and other media outlets, to talk to Bill and deliver him a petition (signed by numerous homeless vets demanding an apology) but, of course, were denied entry. [see below]

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There are some spooky stuff going in the Middle East and South Asia...

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/third-undersea-cable-reportedly-cut/story.aspx?guid=%7B1AAB2A79-E983-4E0E-BC39-68A120DC16D9%7D

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/01/31/dubai.outage/index.html  read more »

The Salvation Army’s shelter on Jarvis Street in Toronto plans to launch it’s WeloBike Project 2008/02/12. The initiative will depend upon volunteers to pedal old exercise bikes that have been retrofitted to allow generated energy to be stored in attached battery packs. That reserve of energy will then be used to light the shelter’s rooms.

Read the rest HERE.

Time to make a donation. The Real News is going to make its official launch for the US presidential election. It's expanding big time, and it needs our money to do so.

If you're online and want a true alternative to corporate media, this is it. And the only way it's going to work is if we fund it. I've donated to DemocracyNow and I just made my donation for The Real News.  read more »