Liveblogging the Canadian Election from California

J: I just bought a Quebec flag on Amazon. Also, CBC’s glee at Duceppe’s loss (vs. Ignatieff’s) is palpable. J: Ignatieff on the liberals: “I am the humble heir of that tradition. And I didn’t come into politics to see it die.” Um. Oops. C: Are we gonna watch this all night or what? It’s …

The Cost of (Getting Sick Under) Socialized Medicine

I wanted to start this line of posts with the observation that there is no more nationally-specific experience than getting sick. But that’s not necessarily true. In Canada, provinces manage their own healthcare, and when I show you some pictures of where I stayed, you will understand why Michael Moore picked a nice Ontario clinic …

A Few Words in Praise of Public Health

Now that h1n1 has degenerated from a worldwide crisis to a party favor, people have been complaining about how various public health authorities handled the crisis, when the flu turned out to be a regular flu. While I’m certainly not keen on the paranoid behavior of Japanese bureaucrats who effectively shut down the Society for …

Canadians: Tell the CRTC to regulate traffic shaping

Many Canadian Internet Service Providers practice traffic shaping during high-usage periods, which means that while they may sell you a connection at a particular speed (e.g., 10mbps), they may actively slow down your connection if you are using peer to peer software or doing something else they don’t like. To be clear: the regulation issue …