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baileydog

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Everything posted by baileydog

  1. "Blood" the telepathic dog from the movie "A Boy And His Dog" Blood was voiced by Tim McIntire
  2. [I][B]it seems there is more and more disturbing news about how data that we would like to have remain confidential is being used without our permission or knowledge...[/B][/I] ...from Maclean's A Hot Docs film details how Google and Facebook serve up reams of private data to the CIA, FBI and others Leigh Bryan, a 26-year-old bar manager from Coventry, England, had booked a hotel on Hollywood Boulevard and was looking forward to some wild times in California. Instead, after showing his passport at the L.A. airport, he was taken to a holding room, questioned for five hours, then handcuffed, jailed overnight and flown home the next morning. U.S. authorities had red-flagged Bryan because of tweets heâ??d sent to a friend in Britain three weeks earlier. One read: â??Free this week for a gossip/prep before I go destroy America? X.â? Another message, referencing TVâ??s Family Guy, said heâ??d be â??on Hollywood Blvd and digginâ?? Marilyn Monroe up!â? At the airport, Bryan tried to explain that â??destroyâ? was English slang for drunken partying, and that he had no intention of disinterrring a screen legend, but U.S. officials didnâ??t buy it. Bryan is not alone. In Terms and Conditions May Apply, a documentary feature showing next week at Torontoâ??s Hot Docs festival, his case is one of several absurd stories about innocents targeted by police or government agencies trolling personal Internet accounts. This witty yet chilling film presents a dire portrait of how, with just a few keystrokes, we surrender our privacy to a brave new world of state surveillance beyond anything George Orwell ever dreamed of. We all do it routinely. You download an app, upgrade some software, register on a website and up comes that mass of fine print called the â??terms of serviceâ? contract. Without reading it, you scroll to the bottom and click on â??I agree.â? The documentary, directed by Cullen Hoback, a 31-year-old American, presents an alarming view of how much ground such contracts cover. As a prank, a site called Gamestation put a clause in its user agreement for one day only: â??By placing an order via this website, you agree to grant us a no-transferable option to claim, now and forever more, your immortal soul.â? That day, the site raked in 7,000 immortal souls. By now, many people are aware that data mining is a growth industry, and that all kinds of companies tap online activity to track and target consumer-buying habits. But Terms and Conditions addresses a more sinister trend: Google and Facebook are serving up reams of private data to police and intelligence agencies such as the CIA, NSA and FBI, under terms of service that strip users of any right to privacy. â??Twitter is one of the only companies that has stood up for usersâ?? rights,â? Hoback told Macleanâ??s, calling Facebook one of the worst violators. â??I think weâ??ll see a social-media tool in the future that will have privacy at the forefront. But Facebook is a virtual public utility.â? In North America, Facebook is not obliged to give users their own data. European law, however, is stricter. Austriaâ??s Max Schrems sued the company to obtain three years of his Facebook data, and it amounted to some 1,000 pages, even though he was just a once-a-week user. Schrems says that even after users delete their data, Facebook can access it, and so can the government. Google is another open-pit data mine. In the film, U.S. screenwriter Jerome Schwartz says that a heavily armed police SWAT team invaded his home after heâ??d done a few Google searches for â??how to kill your wife.â? He had been researching a script for the TV drama Cold Case. Freedom fighting in cyberspace has changed in the past decade. Two other Hot Docs filmsâ??Downloaded and TPB AFK: The Pirate Bay Away from Keyboardâ??show how anarchist geeks pioneered social media with file-sharing sites like Napster that envisioned a utopia of universally free information. Under pressure from the music business, authorities shut them down. Now the authorities, allied with the geeksâ?? corporate successors, are engaged in their own form of piracyâ??hoarding a vast booty of personal data. But surveillance can swing both ways. In his film, Hoback ambushes Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on the sidewalk outside his home. â??Are you guys recording?â? asks a peeved Zuckerberg. â??Can you please not?â? Hoback obliges and turns off the camera, which produces a smile from Zuckerberg. But the filmmaker neglects to inform him that heâ??s wearing spy-cam eyeglasses.
  3. as I said ... I am for anyone versus the Habs ... GO SENS GO and, hopefully the Leafs can find their game again on Wednesday a Leafs versus Sens matchup would be great (and would be good for the Ottawa area hotels as those of us from here would have to go there in order to be able to afford a game ticket)
  4. New Year's Eve 1975 - I cheered for Red Army when they played Montreal - I will cheer for anyone but Montreal http://hockeyadventure.com/2007/08/11/the-greatest-tie-ever-montreal-versus-red-army-in-1975/ GO LEAFS GO
  5. LENNY BRUCE !!! and, at the opposite end of the spectrum, reflecting the age when I grew up ... Bob Hope, Jack Benny, that fantastic duo of George Burns and Gracie Allen, Lucille Ball ... etc.
  6. I PVR most TV and watch it later skipping through the commercials but, I have loved all the Volkswagen "Star Wars" commercials, especially the Superbowl 2012 ad where dogs bark "The Imperial March" theme
  7. better late than never, right I hope you had a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY
  8. suicide has not been illegal in Canada since 1972 I cannot fathom why assisted suicide, under closely defined conditions, is still illegal other jurisdictions have been able to define this Canada should be able to as well
  9. she was an amazing woman who I didn't know very much about until I had a chance to attend the play about her life (at the Neptune Theatre in Halifax) a few years ago ... she worked very hard to accomplish what she did goodbye
  10. being snowed in today in southeast Wyoming ... this part of the world is getting smacked with a nasty snow storm and the interstate highways are closed ... and it has been getting worse all day ... a while ago I could look out my hotel room window and see the building across the street, but now all I see is WHITE
  11. why do mobile phone companies take roaming as an opportunity to gouge on prices ... while wandering around the USA, my Rogers bill has jumped from about $100 per month to over $400 and that is after buying their roaming packages ... ouch
  12. I bought a bunch of stuff at various points during my drive up and down Pikes Peak and then around Garden of the Gods today: two hats and a t-shirt at the summit, black leather native made cowboy hat and moccasins, two more t-shirts ... and then I bought beer on the way back to my hotel
  13. who designed this and why is August the only really negative month - a thug, I am not
  14. I could not have said it better ...
  15. well, as I get within 5 months and 4 days of my 60th birthday, I am certainly glad of two things most of me still works fine ... yes, more things ache more than they used to, but all in all, I have been lucky on the health front and, it is nice that the women who have responded to this thread appreciate (or at least tolerate) us older gentlemen cheers
  16. I visited the Goode Company Barbeque on Kirby Drive in Houston and had their three meat combo dinner, with two sides ... it was excellent and was quite a lot of food, and was had for the ridiculously low price of $12.75 I have found in my US travels that you can pay a lot for a meal, just like you can pay a lot in Toronto or Ottawa ... but if you search a little, you can eat for damn near free
  17. I can' imagine that it would make a difference today's dental appliances have made a lot of progress from when I was a kid and the plastic ones don't pose a "shredding danger" lol
  18. hi, my option isn't listed ... I prefer BBBJ, and will usually steer that way when I am looking at ads ... but it is not a deal breaker
  19. all these descriptions of lovely food ... and here I am about to get on an Air Canada flight to Houston, so I will either have a dry sandwich or nothing at all
  20. I have been back in Canada for two days and I have caught a damn cold - my throat hurts and my nose is plugged and I have a headache oh well, I am off to Houston this evening and the forecast high there tomorrow is +28 C
  21. watching my son's swearing in ceremony for Canada's military a little while ago
  22. I hope spring arrives early ... I drove down the east coast of the USA over the last month and stayed in Florida for a week ... but, today was the first day where the daytime high got above 20 deg C ... I was between Panama City FL and Mobil AL ... as I head to New Orleans and then into TX, I hope it stays warm for a while
  23. maybe ... I might be on my way to Montreal for something on the 10th, if that is the case, dropping in to Ottawa on the way would be fun
  24. I could joke that I have never got used to mine, and that is because I occasionally have to "hunt" for the right head angle to see something in focus last year I got a pair of reading glasses, set for 2 to 3 feet away, and they really help with reading a book or computer screen
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