Data Leak: Real life Manchurian candidates

Two million CCP spies have been outed at EVERY level of business, education, media and other entities around the world.

Two blinking million.  That it happened does not come as a surprise given the known attempts of the mass murderers in Beijing to influence NGOs, the UN, WHO, universities and other international entities.  It’s the sheer number that shocks.

Every single one of them should be rounded up, arrested and either charged with espionage or deported from sovereign states.  I’m sure the CCP will cry “racism” or some other nonsense if that happens, but this is an attempt to influence, intimidate or control foreign nations worldwide.

A data leak shows that over two million Chinese Communist Party members were secretly embedded in organizations around the world including India

In a explosive data leak, around two million Chinese Communist Party (CCP) members who got secretly embedded in some of the world’s biggest companies, banks, media groups, universities and government agencies, have been exposed.

‘The Australian’ newspaper obtained the leaked database which apart from the names of around two million CCP members, has their party position, birth-date, national ID number and ethnicity.

Among the companies mentioned in the list are manufacturers such as Boeing and Volkswagen, pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer and AstraZeneca, and banks like ANZ and HSBC. As per the documents, around 600 people at HSBC, Standard Chartered banks are CCP members.

Canada’s own history of rooting out communist spies (read up on the Gouzenko affair of 1945) says clearing them all out is the best thing to do to protect democracy.

Major leak ‘exposes’ members and ‘lifts the lid’ on the Chinese Communist Party

A major leak containing a register with the details of nearly two million CCP members has occurred – exposing members who are now working all over the world, while also lifting the lid on how the party operates under Xi Jinping, says Sharri Markson.

Ms Markson said the leak is a register with the details of Communist Party members, including their names, party position, birthday, national ID number and ethnicity.

“It is believed to be the first leak of its kind in the world,” the Sky News host said.

“What’s amazing about this database is not just that it exposes people who are members of the communist party, and who are now living and working all over the world, from Australia to the US to the UK,” Ms Markson said.

“But it’s amazing because it lifts the lid on how the party operates under President and Chairman Xi Jinping”.

Ms Markson said the leak demonstrates party branches are embedded in some of the world’s biggest companies and even inside government agencies.

“Communist party branches have been set up inside western companies, allowing the infiltration of those companies by CCP members – who, if called on, are answerable directly to the communist party, to the Chairman, the president himself,” she said.

“Along with the personal identifying details of 1.95 million communist party members, mostly from Shanghai, there are also the details of 79,000 communist party branches, many of them inside companies”.

Ms Markson said the leak is a significant security breach likely to embarrass Xi Jinping.

“It is also going to embarrass some global companies who appear to have no plan in place to protect their intellectual property from theft. From economic espionage,” she said.

The entire network answers directly to Xi Jinping.  It is an attempt to create a worldwide dictatorship.

Why Wait: Cleveland FINALLY plans to change the name

Decades after being told the name was racist, and a year after NFL owner Dan Snyder was shamed into dropping his team’s racist name, the Cleveland MLB team will finally do the same.

Now the question is, how will they rename it?  Spiders and Naps should be the obvious choices, but obvious and good choices don’t guarantee owners won’t choose ludicrous names instead (e.g. “raptors”, “pelicans”) just to spite the fans and media and prove “who is in charge”.

Cleveland MLB team to drop ‘Indians’ from its name

The Major League Baseball team in Cleveland, Ohio, will drop “Indians” from its name, according to a report from The New York Times and later confirmed by other news outlets.

The team declined to comment on the situation, but said it did not dispute the Times report, which cites sources familiar with the decision. Major League Baseball has not responded to CNN’s request for comment.

The decision to change the team name could be announced as soon as this week, the Times reported.
Change the Mascot, a national grassroots campaign, applauded the move on Monday saying it shows a growing understanding that Native people should not serve as mascots for sports teams.

“With their commendable decision to alter the team name, Cleveland’s team is taking an important step,” Ray Halbritter, leader of the Change the Mascot campaign, said in a statement. “For decades, Native American leaders including the National Congress of American Indians have called on Cleveland to change the name and logo. By finally acting, Cleveland’s team is moving the team and professional sports forward down a new path of inclusivity and mutual respect.”

[Read more…]

Remembered Well: The VIC-20 at forty

Commodore International released the VIC-20 home computer in June 1980.  It was Jack Tramiel‘s second attempt to cash in on the growing microcomputer revolution with a low cost yet usable computer to compete with the Apple II, TRS-80, Atari 400/800 and other early personal computers.  It was not Commodore’s first home computer, but it was a major advance over it’s first effort, the Commodore PET.  It was the VIC-20 which brought down prices and “democratized” computing, forcing and allowing other companies to produce low cost machines.  (Yeah, I know I’m six months off the release date.  Let’s pretend we’re talking about the first big “computer christmas”, where they were given as gifts in large numbers.  I’m also doing this now in response to a recent video I saw on youtube.)

Ironically and by pure chance, I’m writing on December 14th.  Noted in the link above, Jack Tramiel was born on December 13, 1928.  The creator of the 6502 chip that powered Commodore’s computers, Chuck Peddle, died December 15, 2019.  Beginning, middle and end.  More below the fold.

[Read more…]

Music Rules: And why homophobia sucks

Billy Squier was born May 12, 1950 (dang, another birthday I missed!), seventy years ago.  His first album “The Tale Of The Tape” was released in May 1980, and for about five years, Squier was one of the biggest names in rock music.  Then within the span of six months, he lost it all.  Not through drugs, not through scandal, and not through lousy music.

His audience left him because of a four minute music video.

“The Tale Of The Tape” contained the single “The Big Beat” (video link), a song that lives up to the name.  His second, third and fourth albums produced many hit singles, five in the top ten, and two #1s.   Three of his albums sold platinum or better.  Squier produced and co-produced his own albums, heavily influenced by Led Zeppelin’s “up front” drum sound.  “The Big Beat” has been sampled by twenty different hiphop or other groups over the years, a cash cow for him.  Several of Squier’s songs have been featured in soundtracks and video games.  Like Nick Lowe, his music has become more famous than he is (more below).

Some people credit Squier as the inventor of “power pop”, bridging the gap between hard rock and pop music.  His music was hard edged and hook laden, a combination that grabbed attention from all directions in the era of synth heavy New Wave and guitar driven Heavy Metal.  (Picture Nine Inch Nails, but ten years earlier.)  Squier, along with Canadian guitarist Aldo Nova created the template for pop metal that would be exploited for years by the likes of Def Leppard and Bon Jovi.

From Squier’s 1981 album “Don’t Say No”: “The Stroke”, a #1 hit; “My Kinda Lover”; “Too Daze Gone”

From 1982’s “Emotions In Motion”: “Everybody Wants You”; “Emotions In Motion”; “Keep Me Satisfied”; “She’s A Runner”

Live, he was great, a singer who never needed autotune.   Listen to his performance of “Lonely Is The Night”. Small wonder he played to arenas.

In 1984, he released “Signs Of Life”, which would become another platinum selling album.   The leadoff single “Rock Me Tonite” is a great song which reached #1 on the charts.  But the video was perceived as “homoerotic” by the media, by MTV, and by the public.  In six months, Squier went from playing to arenas of 20,000 to theatres of a few thousand.  It has been labelled “worst video ever” by many.

This was the 1980s when being or appearing gay could damage your career.  “Rock Me Tonite” was released in June 1984, two months after Queen’s “I Want To Break Free”, a song which harmed Queen’s sales and popularity in the US, which they only got back after “Wayne’s World”.  Americans have never gotten the joke about “camp”.

Squier’s attempts at damage control included firing some of his management team, and the inevitable and awful, “I’m not gay, but I don’t hate them and I have gay friends.”  (Again, this was 1984.)  Nothing worked.  Between 1985 and 1993 Squier released five more albums, several to critical acclaim and had some minor hits, but never regained his earlier success.  He left the music business in 1993, recording only one more album in 1998 (the blues album “Happy Blue”), but has made numerous guest appearances and live performances since.

In 2013, the New York Post (normally a trash heap for news) did a respectful retrospective on Squier’s career and life after fame.  He may have burnt his wings, but he didn’t crash and managed to land safely.

The hip-hop rebirth of Billy Squier

Ask anyone under 25 if they’ve heard of Billy Squier, and the answer is likely no. But that doesn’t mean they haven’t heard him.

Squier has one of the most unusual stories in all of pop culture: a one-time superstar who, in the ’80s, straddled glam, pop and hard rock. Then, in 1984, after his unintentionally camp video for “Rock Me Tonite” hit MTV, featuring Squier prancing around in fluffy hair and satin sheets, his career was over, just like that. “Flapping his wrists like a French chef whose souffle has just fallen,” said Rolling Stone.

Thirty years on, the most famous of rock ’n’ roll exiles has a stealth second career as the most sampled musician in the history of hip-hop.

“I think he has millions of fans that love his body of work but probably thousands of fans that love him,” says Big Daddy Kane, who has sampled Squier’s “The Big Beat” so often he’s lost count.

“He’s definitely someone who helped mold and shape hip-hop with his music,” Kane says. “I would put him in the category of James Brown, the Honeydrippers and Chic. He gave the B-boys and B-girls a track to dance to, but it would only be a DJ or an MC who knows who Billy Squier is.”

What Bubbles Up: They want to be temporary Canadians

Life intrusions kept me from talking about this, which has been a story for over a month.

Canada closed its border to the US out of necessity.  Just yesterday, Ottawa announced that the border will remain closed until at least January 21st, after Biden is inaugurated.  With an average of more than 200,000 new cases and 3,000 dead per day in the last week, it’s unlikely the border will open until at least March.

In the US northeast, states like Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire and others are dependent on Canadian business and trade.  Many towns have suffered higher unemployment rates and business closures than most of the US.  But considering the success of the Atlantic Provinces’ bubble in keeping COVID-19 under control, the Atlantic economy is still functioning, and Canada’s emergency benefits plan, it’s unlikely the border policy will change.

Three isolated areas of the US desperately want to be part of Canada’s bubble: the Northwest Angle in Minnesota, Point Roberts in Washington, and the village of Hyder, Alaska.  And for good reason.  All three are physically isolated from the US, so huddling with Canada would make sense.

I previously mentioned Point Roberts, and won’t mention details again except to note that their economy is now suffering far worse than most of the US.  It’s down 80% because they can’t drive through Canada, Canadians aren’t coming in, and both boat and air travel to the mainland are expensive.  The US hasn’t made an offer to isolate Point Roberts (i.e. banning all travel from the mainland to PR), which would likely be a requirement of joining Canada’s bubble.  The Northwest Angle exclave, based on news items I can find, is not shutting off travel to Minnesota.  (Considering the COVID-19 disaster in Minnesota, joining Canada may not be possible now.)  That leaves Manitoba and Canada no choice but to ban all road traffic.  Not only that, but non-essential travel on Lake of the Woods (e.g. fishing) is banned.  Travel to Minnesota is limited to travel for food and supplies.  In both cases, the problem is the US’s unwillingness to cease travel to and from the lower 48.

On the other hand, the situation in Hyder, Alaska is very different.  Hyder is an isolated village of less than 100 people with no roads connecting to the rest of the state.  The next closest town of Ketchikan is over 100km away by air.   To the east of Hyder is the town of Stewart, British Columbia (population 400), only 5km away.  Hyder is so small it has no local or state police; the RCMP and Stewart’s volunteer fire department attend to emergencies on the US side of the border.

After the school in Hyder closed, their children began attending Bear Valley School in Stewart.  But the border closure from COVID-19 means their children haven’t attended school this year, not to mention haven’t seen their friends.  There are no stores in Hyder, so people drive to Stewart for supplies and the doctor.  This individual provides some amusing travelogue about the area in a 2016 video.

The government of British Columbia claims to be willing and sympathetic to include Hyder, but it sounds more it’s using the national border as a reason to do nothing.  Ottawa and Washington, D.C. need to provide a solution.  Banning travel into Hyder from the rest of Alaska can’t be that difficult.  Airplanes are easier to track than cars.  The two communities need a solution.  Neither has had a documented case of COVID-19.

[Read more…]

Pregnant Pause: It’s not much of an improvement

Abortion in Taiwan was legalized in 1985.  However, the coditions for attaining one were and still are highly restrictive.  From Women On Waves:

A woman does not have an automatic right to an abortion in Taiwan and can only get one under the following circumstances:

1.) medical reasons – danger to the mother or fetus including deformities and defects – this includes psychological trauma to the mother

2.) rape or incest (which must, apparently, be “proven”)

3.) “seduction” – meant to cover statutory rape but can technically be used as a reason by a woman of any age

4.) mental/psychological issues of the parent(s) that could be passed on to the child  A Taiwanese woman must obtain the consent of her husband, unless the husband is missing, unconscious or mentally ill.

An unmarried woman under the age of 20 must obtain the permission of her parents, and a woman who is mentally handicapped needs the permission of a guardian.

This may be about to change, but only one aspect of it: “spousal consent”.  Women will no longer be required to obtain agreement from the sperm donor, preventing them from using pregnancy as a means of controlling women.  There is no mandatory child support requirement, so if a deadbeat abandons a woman after giving birth, she has to legally fight for child support.  In regards to “seduction”, extramarital affairs were still a crime in Taiwan until 2020.

Abortion bill would remove need for ‘husband’s consent’

The Health Promotion Administration (HPA) is drafting an amendment to remove the requirement for married women to obtain permission from their partner before having an abortion, which it hopes to present by March, it said on Wednesday.

Under Article 9 of the Genetic Health Act (優生保健法), induced abortion by a married woman “shall be subject to her husband’s consent unless her husband is missing, unconscious or deranged.”

A petition calling for the removal of the provision was on Wednesday last week launched on the National Development Council’s Public Policy Network Participation Platform, where it had already received more than 7,400 signatures as of yesterday.

Five thousand signatures are needed for petitions to be considered.  The marriage equality petition of 2018 garnered 330,000 signatures.  (I’ll admit that I didn’t sign it, but I didn’t know about it either or I would have.)  Like the change that granted marriage equality but only to Taiwanese couples or a Taiwanese with a foreigner from a country with marriate equality, this proposed change of law is flawed.  There should be abortion on demand with no conditions.

I suspect the Taiwan government is changing it this way because young people drove the Orange Revolution of 2014.  But the government also wants to restrict abortion to increase the population.  In 2020, the birth rate is 8.0 per thousand and death rate is 7.9 per thousand.  Taiwan has the lowest fertility rate in the world and third lowest birth rate, which means an ageing population and shortage of labour.

Limiting abortion is one way to reduce that.  Offering tax breaks and financial incentives would also help, but the country doesn’t offer that.  Women see themselves better off being single financially and career-wise, so they’re choosing not to have kids.

 

 

Shaking All Over: Two big quakes in one day

Two earthquakes hit Taiwan today.  The first was a 5.3 quake at 13:30 local time, about 60km from Hualien.  Building construction here has to meet a high standard, so it’s unlikely anyone was hurt.

The second came at 21:20 this evening, a 6.7 quake off the coast of Yilan, a city of 90,000. I checked google maps, and the epicentre was 61km from my home as the crow flies.  Although the fault lines here are convergent (two plates colliding), earthquakes over 7.0 are exceedingly rare.  The last major one I felt was a 6.4 on Hallowe’en 2013, when I was at work.

My biggest annoyance with this quake was my co-workers.  My desk at work is next to a large window pane, about five square metres in size.  As soon as I felt the quake start and knew it was significant, I got up and tried to move away.  Three co-workers were standing and gawking at everything moving, blocking my exit from the desk.  I didn’t yell “MOVE!” to hear the sound of my own voice.

There are no reports of damage in Taipei as of yet, despite an intensity rating of 4 (on a scale of 5).  I’ve been waiting for news from the east coast to write this (collapsed buildings, injuries, deaths), but none has come through.  That’s not necessarily a good thing, especially if communications were cut off.  Tonight’s earthquake happened at 21:20, so emergency workers will have to work all night in the dark.

In February 2018, a 6.4 earthquake hit Hualien on the east coast.  The Marshal Hotel “pancaked”, the bottom floor collapsing and killing two hotel employees.  It was actually fortunate that it happened in the middle of the night (despite making rescue efforts harder).  In the day, hundreds of people would have been in the lobby.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

A song, to lighten the mood after a scare: “Shakin’ All Over” was a hit for Johnny Kidd & The Pirates in 1960, their most well known song.

If You Build It, They Will Come: Bicycles are winning

COVID-19 has created an opportunity to change US “car culture”, to bring it under control.  The question is, will it be permanent?

COVID-19 brought “regular” transportation to a standstill or at least reduced it, with more telecommuting, unemployment and other issues.  Fewer cars on the road means more space became available, and bicycles have provided a flexible, efficient and cheap solution to transportation. You can’t “socially distance” on a metro train or bus, but bicycles can travel the same speed several metres apart.

COVID-19 creates new momentum for cycling and walking. We can’t let it go to waste!

The COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped our cities in many ways. While the number of motor vehicles on the road has plummeted during lockdown, an increasing number of people have turned to walking and biking, moving speedily and safely through once congested streets. The shift has brought some visible changes: local air pollution has dropped by up to 60% globally, and cities that used to be covered with a thick blanket of smog are experiencing their first blue skies in a long time.

But what will happen now that cities are gradually getting out of lockdown? At the moment, many urban residents feel that public transport puts them at a higher risk of being infected, and perceive private vehicles to be safer. As a result, car use has recovered much faster than mass transit so far—morning traffic in major Chinese cities is now even higher than 2019 averages. That means higher levels of air pollution, more congestion, and a lower quality of life.

But there is an alternative to rampant motorization. If the current public health crisis makes individual modes inherently more appealing to users, why not use this as an opportunity to promote cycling and walking, which would produce greater social benefits, reduce pollution, and improve urban livability?

But encouraging people to ride more requires usable roads.  In cities like New York where riding lanes were disjointed, there wasn’t much of an increase.  But in cities like Portland and Minneapolis, networks of usable “safe” (slow) roads brought out riders in huge numbers.

If you build it, they will come.  From October 2020:

Some cities shut down streets for pedestrians and other uses during the pandemic. A study looks at whether people are using them.

In the nearly eight months since the coronavirus pandemic hit the United States, cities across the county have closed roads, extended bike lanes and turned parking spaces into dining spots as a way to give Americans more space to move around safely during the health crisis.

Now, with the pandemic stretching on and many cities considering extending those closures through the winter, new research offers some indication of how the spaces are being used.

The study, by the traffic analytics firm Inrix, looked at five cities: Washington, New York, Minneapolis, Seattle and Oakland, Calif. It found that in general, traffic volumes on the restricted streets — whether pedestrian, bike or car — remained well below pre-pandemic levels, a finding that is not surprising considering that overall traffic is down as well. As traffic volumes began to increase amid states reopening, so did activity levels on the restricted streets, Inrix found.

However, traffic varied based on the designated use of the roadways. In dense cities such as New York and Washington, for example, activity on the “slow streets” or “safe streets” was underwhelming, with usage lagging behind overall city travel.

Cities that created larger and well-connected networks of slow streets, geared toward recreation, such as in Minneapolis, saw higher numbers of people using the facilities, Inrix found.

Protected bike lanes built for commuting in New York didn’t attract as many commuters because fewer people were commuting, while there are indications of activity picking up in the open-street restaurants and even more on the recreation-focused streets, said Bob Pishue, an Inrix transportation analyst.

[. . .]

The “Open Streets” movement has been embraced by cities around the world in recent years. The programs have various names — open streets, slow streets, safe streets and more — and vary from city to city, but they all have the same goal: restricting vehicle traffic to reduce pollution and promote healthier lifestyles.

The pandemic accelerated the trend, attributed to the need to provide people a place for physical activity while social distancing. Some cities implemented policies to encourage walking, biking and scooter use in neighborhoods and city centers. Some turned busy parkways where commuter traffic had largely disappeared into safe havens for pedestrians and bicyclists.

For people who are unemployed, it’s a cheap means of transportation.  And for those wanting fitness while gyms were forced to close, bicycles provided that option.  Much like when an earthquake hits, bicycles have become and can be used as a cure-all for transportation, and that’s happening now, with COVID-19.  With any luck, the environmental and social impacts will have long term effect.

Social impact?  Yes.  Moving slower and being able to hear and see faces and voices (instead of being in a car) mean human contact.  I doubt there is anywhere near the level of aggression and road raging amongs cyclists that there is amongst drivers.  Talking builds communities, the isolation of vehicles separates them.

Safer roads, social distancing, fitness and transportation, environmental impact – what’s not to like?  Riding season may be over in colder climes, but the effect may last into 2021 because the pandemic likely won’t be over until at least 2022.

Nothing To Say: Brandy Vaughn died of undisclosed causes

Found via Things Anti-Vaxxers Say on facebook.

For those not familiar with the name, Brandy Vaughn was an anti-vaxxer fanatic who founded “learn the risk” and peddled Andrew Fakewield’s fictions.  The story hasn’t hit the corporate media yet, but anti-vaxxer fanatics are all over this, some already claiming “she was murdered to silence her!”  No, she was irrelevant to “big pharma”.  They probably won’t even notice.  There is only rumour thus far about cause of death and where she died, so I won’t include them.

Final note: I mention this not to mock or laugh at her death.  This is a heads up on what’s to come, since this will undoubtedly make the news just as the first COVID-19 vaccines roll out.  I’m sure all the anti-vaxxers and trumpkins will latch onto this.

A synCReTiC idea CRiTiCized: Fifty years of Canadian Content laws

The captalization of the letters CRTC in the words isn’t an accident.

Prior to 1970, Canadian radio and television was the near exclusive purview and stomping grounds of foreign entertainment. Almost everything that was broadcast was either from the US or the UK. (In English, anyway; the Quebec music scene was more developed.) Television and radio stations had neither the money nor the interest in producing or developing Canadian artists and actors. Canadian authors, writers, poets, newspapers, journalist and painters were famous at home and abroad, but at a time when TV was now a household appliance with immediate gratification and popular music dominated by record sales, Canadian culture was being silenced and shut out. The only voices you heard or saw were those popular internationally: Joni Mitchell, The Guess Who, Paul Anka, Wayne and Shuster, etc. There was no domestic-only broadcast culture, period.

In 1970, the Canadian government had the Bureau of Broadcast Governors (in 1976 renamed the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, or CRTC) create what would become the Canadian Content Regulations. Written by Stan Klees and approved by BBG chairman Pierre Juneau, the policies were announced in November 1970. They became law in January 1971, immediately changing the artistic landscape.

For television, broadcasters were required to provide a specific amount of prime time slots for Canadian produced shows, and not just sports. This included dramas, comedies, arts, music programs, movies or others. This forced broadcaster to spend money developing their own shows. And it wasn’t limited to prime time, children’s television benefitted greatly: Mr. Dressup, The Friendly Giant, Circle Square, Polka Dot Door and many other long running shows. Many Canadian television programs ended up being broadcast in the US: You Can’t Do That On Television, The Beachcombers, Degrassi High, SCTV, King Of Kensington, E.N.G., Littlest Hobo, Trailer Park Boys, among others (e.g. 1980s CBS late night shows Night Heat, Adderly, etc.).

Canadian radio stations were required to play a minimum percentage of songs that qualified as Canadian Content. In 1971, it was 25%, becoming 30% in 1980, and 35% in 1999. New stations since 2000 must play 40%. At that time, radio stations and record companies saw Canada as a place to play US and UK music, but now they had to spend money to develop and produce Canadian bands. Talent existed, but the amount of recorded material available was small. You could end up hearing Anne Murray ten times a day in 1972. As years and decades passed, the back catalogue become much larger, making it easy to fill the 35% or 40%. MuchMusic and its sibling channel had a 10% minimum in the 1980s when it began; I don’t know the current standard.

What qualifies a song as Canadian Content (or CanCon, as most call it)? It has to meet the MAPL rules: Music, Artist, Production, Lyrics. For any song produced before 1971, it only had to meet one of the four, so any Canadian artist’s music would suffice. After 1971, it had to meet at least two of the four requirements. That means if a song was written by a foreigner, both the artist and the producer had to be Canadian, e.g. Streetheart’s cover of “Under My Thumb”. On the other hand, songs written by Canadians but recorded by a foreign act would still qualify as Canadian Content – for example, Pat Benatar’s “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” (written by Eddie Schwartz), Santana’s “Hold On” (written by Ian Thomas; his version is better), Bonnie Raitt’s “Something To Talk About” (written by Shirley Eikhart).

Increased opportunities and A&R money meant bands that were once ignored would both get time in the studio and airplay on the radio. Many went on to significant international success: Rush, Frank Marino, April Wine, Prism, Chilliwack, Barenaked Ladies, Sarah McLachlan, Drake, Cowboy Junkies, Alanis Morissette, among many others. The music scene in Quebec is so vibrant that its artists have dominated France’s pop charts for decades (e.g. Roch Voisine, Michel Pagliaro, Isabelle Boulay, Les Cowboys Fringants).

It wasn’t only Canadian artists who benefitted. The increased domestic music system included recording studios and venues for bands to play. Styx (from Chicago) benefitted heavily from their proximity to Canada and received airplay they weren’t getting in the US during their early years. Some male members of Heart (from Seattle) were draft dodgers from the Vietnam war. They lived in Vancouver, recording their debut album “Dreamboat Annie” at Mushroom Studios. Several studio musicians on the album are Canadian (e.g. drummer Kat Hendrikse).

There was a downside to CanCon.  Many US, UK and other countries’ radio stations took (and still take) the chauvinistic attitude, “They’re only on the radio in Canada because they’re Canadian”. Some Canadian groups became popular abroad over the next fifty years, but many Canadian artists have had decades-long careers producing high quality music yet are unknown abroad. If a group sucked, Canadians wouldn’t be watching them in clubs, arenas, or buying their records.  (Country music is a different animal, many artists successful in the US.)

CanCon laws are under threat because of the “trans pacific partnership”, falsely labelled as commercial protectionism.  While some Canadian musicians and TV creators have benefitted from the law, it’s biggest effect is cultural.  It gave Canada a sense of national identity we didn’t have before, unifying the country despite how disparate the different regions are (the Pacific, Prairies, Easterners, Maritimes, the Arctic).  It’s not “for better or worse”, it’s mostly for the better.

More below the fold.

[Read more…]

Just Wait: The uneducated will be all over this in no time

Forget crop circles, here’s a new thing for the ignorant to fawn over and start claiming “aliens”.

A helicopter pilot who monitors wild sheep in the Utah desert found something by accident: an unmarked and highly polished metal monolith in the middle of Utah’s desert.

Helicopter pilot finds ‘strange’ monolith in remote part of Utah

A mysterious monolith has been discovered in a remote part of Utah, after being spotted by state employees counting sheep from a helicopter.

The structure, estimated at between 10ft and 12ft high (about 3 metres), appeared to be planted in the ground. It was made from some sort of metal, its shine in sharp contrast to the enormous red rocks which surrounded it.

To his credit, the pilot said he thought it had a reasonable explanation – a stunt, someone’s idea of art, or some other natural explanation, though the “news reporter” sounded gullible.  Given how many ignorant people believe in nonsense like bigfoot, pizza pedophiles and “trump re-election victory!”, you can be sure some of them will start travelling out to see it.

And no doubt a few will probably have to be rescued after getting lost in the desert.  Here’s a pic from the Utah Highway Patrol‘s facebook page:

Cover Up: Now I have to wear masks everywhere!

I’ve said before how Taiwan was one of the first to act on COVID-19: to test incoming travellers, to quarantine people, and to shut down international travel.  It was also one of the first to mandate masks, though that wasn’t difficult since many are used to it (re: the pollution in some cities).

In advance of flu season, the government is now mandating masks everywhere, come December 1st:  ALL indoor locations, including nightclubs unless “social distancing” is possible.  So much for wearing lipstick when I go clubbing.  (And what about my birthday party in February…?)  I wouldn’t mind so much if I could find the leopard print medical masks some people are wearing.

Taiwan to require masks at most public venues from Dec. 1

Taiwan will mandate the wearing of face masks at eight types of public venues from Dec. 1, with fines of NT$3,000 (US$105.16)-NT$15,000 for non-compliance, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said Wednesday.

The new rules are intended to minimize the transmission of COVID-19 and other respiratory illnesses during their peak season in the winter months, and to prevent the overburdening of Taiwan’s healthcare system, Health Minister Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said at a press briefing.

Masks were already required on public transit, taxis, schools, and certain other places, and many stores, banks and others chose to enforce it.  Now it’s mandatory which means almost everywhere with enclosed spaces or dense gatherings of people.  About the only place people won’t be required to wear it will be home, sidewalks and parks or other outdoor spaces, or while you’re eating in a restaurant.  It’s an annoyance, but nearly everyone is complying already.  Among the foreigner community and in many Taiwan-based facebook groups, there are trumpkins who are anti-mask as much as they are anti-vaccination.  I hope they get deported when they refuse to be innoculated.

More below the fold.

[Read more…]

They Live On: One biography and one obituary

Friday was Transgender Day of Remembrance (a topic I still need to write about).  The stories of two important women made the news on the weekend.  One is Lynn Conway, finally getting the recognition and apology she deseres.  The other is Jan Morris who recently died.  Morris and her name will live on through her many highly regarded books.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Lynn Conway is a giant in computing, responsible for many innovations that make cell phones, the Internet and reduction of computer chip size possible.  She transitioned in 1968 at a time when even the word “gay” and “homosexual” could get you fired, a year before anyone ever heard of Stonewall.

While it’s good that IBM apologized to her, they haven’t offered any financial compensation for the billions they earned in profits over the next few decades (e.g. her VLSI advances which made Intel’s 80×86 series possible and powered the IBM PC).  She may have done well despite their actions, but words aren’t enough.

IBM Apologizes For Firing Computer Pioneer For Being Transgender…52 Years Later

You’ve likely never heard of 82-year-old computer scientist Lynn Conway, but her discoveries power your smartphones and computers. Her research led to successful startups in Silicon Valley, supported national defense, and powered the internet.

Long before becoming a highly respected professor at the University of Michigan, Conway was a young researcher with IBM. It was there, on August 29, 1968, that IBM’s CEO [Thomas Watson Jr.] fired her for reasons that are illegal today. Nearly 52 years later, in an act that defines its present-day culture, IBM apologized and sought forgiveness.

[. . .]

First finding work as a contract programmer, Conway rapidly ascended the career ladder. By 1971, she was working as a computer architect at Memorex Corporation. Her rising reputation led to her recruitment by the (soon to become famous) Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) in 1973.

In 1977, while leading PARC research into enhanced methods for computer chip design, Conway began co-authoring a book on the methods with Carver Mead, a professor at Caltech. On sabbatical from PARC as a visiting professor at MIT, she created and taught an experimental course on Very Large Scale Integrated (VLSI) chip design based on the draft of her textbook with Mead.

[. . .]

“. . . Among [Conway’s] many foundational contributions to computer architecture are the scalable digital design rules she invented for silicon chip design and the ARPANET e-commerce infrastructure she developed for rapid chip prototyping – thereby launching a paradigmatic revolution in microchip design and manufacturing . . .,” explains John L. Anderson, President of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE).

She was fired personally by Thomas Watson Jr.  It was Thomas Watson Sr. who willingly supplied tabulation machines to Nazi Germany in the 1930s.

To their credit, IBM willingly and openly began supporting Transgender rights in 2018.  Unlike most companies which engage in “pinkwashing”, IBM does not sell products to indivduals after selling their PC business to China’s Lenovo in 2004.  Their revenue now comes from institutions (government, big business, education), some of which oppose human rights for Transgender people.  They are actually putting their profits at risk with their support, not trying to increase profits by slapping a rainbow on them.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Jan Morris was an author and historian who wrote several groundbreaking and award winning books, including “Pax Britannica” (a three volume history of the British Empire), her novel “Last Letters from Hav”, and “Conundrum”, her account about her transition.

Jan Morris, historian, travel writer and trans pioneer, dies aged 94

Jan Morris, the historian and travel writer who evoked time and place with the flair of a novelist, has died aged 94.

As a journalist Morris broke monumental news, including Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay’s ascent of Everest, and the French involvement in the Israeli attack on Egypt in the Suez war. As a bestselling author of more than 30 books, she was equally lauded for histories including Pax Britannica, her monumental account of the British Empire, and for her colourful accounts of places from Venice to Oxford, Hong Kong to Trieste. But she was also well-known as a transgender pioneer, with Conundrum, her account of the journey from man to woman, an international sensation when it was published in 1974.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Unfortunately, the Guardian deadnamed Jan Morris in her obituary.  Perhaps that will happen less now that infamous TERF bigot Suzanne Moore has been “let go” by the Guardian. Unfortunately, the Guardian’s other infamous TERF bigot, editor Katharine Viner, remains in a position she is unqualified for and undeserving of.

Cue the inevitable TERF whining about “censorship” and “deplatforming”.  Trust me, if Trans people could silence TERFs we would.  You know we can’t because TERFs never shut up.