E-Filler Archives

I plagiarized an assignment in high school once. My teacher caught me. I blamed the internet for providing me with someone else's essay.



I must say, kudos to Bob Rae for providing the media with the split screen presentation.

The Canadian Do-Not-Call registry is supposed to go live today. To add your number to the list visit: Canadian Do-Not-Call registry

Of course, with 35 million Canadians all trying to sign up, the site is down. (Maybe receiving telephone solicitations should be opt-in instead?)

Now this you gotta see:


I saw the SNL skit, but I assumed they were taking a few liberties...apparently not.

Riot. That is my advice to my American neighbours. A good ol' social uprising. It appears to me that that may be your best option in order to straighten out your country's current "credit crisis".

I know what you're saying, "Brian, violence isn't the answer. There is a bailout coming from the government, it will make everything better".

It's true, violence isn't the answer. Neither is a huge cash bailout. Hell, even former speaker of the house, and predominant republican Newt Gingrich feels that the bailout is "unamerican" and tantamount to "financial socialism". See Lee-Ann Goodman’s article Socialism, American-Style.

Back to my rant...

So let's take a rudimentary look at the root of the issue. Large financial companies failed to do their due diligence and started giving out mortgages to many people and corporations that were unqualified. They did this because they saw other financial institutions were doing the same as well as packaging their own high-risk loans with other mortgages and selling the investment packages to other investors, often group investors *cough, mutual funds cough. The group investors however, didn't know that they were buying into these high risk loans because they trusted certified professionals to manage their investment funds. So the trusted professionals, those who essentially run the large financial companies, continued to buy the loan investment packages while financial institutions continued their laissez-faire lending practices. All seemed well.

The American economy then slows a bit, as the economic cycle inevitably does, and some people start to default on the mortgage. Then some more people default. When the people default on the mortgage, the profits of providing a mortgage are no more, effectively lowering the financial institutions revenue. This whole scenario starts to snowball and all of a sudden Fannie May and Freddie Mac go under and a bunch of rich white guys start to panic. A few more companies go belly up and then the lenders tighten their grip on available credit, effectively reducing other large, non-financial institutions purchasing power because they now have limited access to large sums of cash via credit. This eventually leads to our current situation in which huge financial companies are crying at Washington's door, asking for a handout from the tax payers.

Give me a freaking break.

When the working poor of the United States knocks at the White House door, asking for a handout in the form of universal health care or a reduction of tuition, the government's selective hearing fails to recognize the rapping at the door.

It is clear that, especially under the current Bush administration, the gap between the have and the have-nots in America is huge and likely going to get larger before it gets smaller. This bailout is a perfect example of the government caring more for their wealthy business friends than they do for the people who voted for them. $700 billion to the corporate fat cats, not one red cent contributed to ensuring the healthy living of all the American people.

The bailout is like putting a band-aid on a stab wound. Ineffective and artificial.

The bailout fails to attack the heart of the problem. The lax regulations of the financial sector that led to the current economic crisis. Sure the government can bail out the financial sector now, but who is to say that, come the next boom time, the same renegade lending practices won’t continue?

It would be better to have the institutions fail than to hand them this diamond encrusted crutch.

If the institutions fail, there will be a rocky period. In my opinion, that is a given. That being said, the upside of their failure is that new business will grow from the dust, likely, with more prudent management. It will lessen the leverage enjoyed by the larger lenders (AIG for example) and therefore, open the market up to more competition. If I correctly remember what I learned in Political Science 101, more competition is directly correlated to lower prices for consumers.

My American neighbours, I really do like you. It might not sound like it sometimes, but I appreciate you so much. I mean, who else are we Canadians going to sell our crude oil, hockey, and softwood lumber to? But I am afraid that you, through your elected representatives, are about to make a bad mistake. I think it is going to blow up in your face like an M-80 in the hand, except with more dire consequences.

Continuing a current theme....

A very candid Matt Damon talks about Sarah Palin:

Let me start by saying Boo-urns. Apparently the Greens will not be included in the TV debate, but the Bloc will be. How is the Bloc considered a major party when they only run candidates in one province, and their mandate to the break the country up?!

Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion had not objected to May's participation, but said that if Harper refused to participate, he would not either.

What Stéphane Dion should have done was participate...and make Stephen Harper look like a tool. Instead, they all look like tools (at least to the informed) and the Greens will continue to be relegated to second class party status...apparently democracy means 4 choices (3 if you live outside Quebec).

Most of the nerds on here will probably recognize the name Akamai. Akamai is (I think?) the #1 content delivery network in the world. Essentially a content delivery network mirrors data at various places all over the Internet, so that when you request a picture from, e.g., a BBC article, you get that image from somewhere close to your ISP, not the BBC itself. It is the primary reason so many people all over the world can read the same popular webpage and be able to do so quickly.

Akamai was founded in 1998 by Daniel M. Lewin, which grew out of his Ph.D. thesis at MIT.

On September 11, 2001, Lewin was on AA Flight 11 from Boston to LA. There was an attempted hijacking of the plane. Details are a bit fuzzy after that, but Lewin is mentioned in an FAA memo as trying to stop the hijacking. It is believed he was stabbed to death by al Qaeda operative Satam al-Suqami long before the plane got to NYC. The hijacking was, as we all know, ultimately successful.

There you go: computer nerds always trying to save the day. And failing :(

Has anyone seen this or tried Google 411 before? Check it out here: Google 411. Since you're only dialing a 1-800 number, is the whole call free? (Even after connecting to the business?)

I'd like to know what the catch is...maybe Google records all the calls.