When Jessamyn West was here for SLA, this topic came up at the after-event gathering. I meant to post something about it at that time when the story was still somewhat fresh but never got to it, being as busy as I was with much more important matters like cute baby pictures and Flash-based Friday Fun Links.
A recent invite to the annual Sask Blogs summer picnic reminded me of the fact that the Sask Blogs Aggregator, a site which creates a rolling summary of posts from various Saskatchewan-based and Saskatchewan-themed blogs, is still down.
But I'm getting ahead of myself...
In mid-April, a right-wing, Sask-based blog named "Small Dead Animals" posted a link to another conservative site named FreeDominion that had posted a story about Canadian civil rights lawyer, Richard Warman. As with most blogs, FreeDominion accepts comments. Warman saw these and made the claim that the comments were defamatory. He sued but in a unique twist, he didn't just name FreeDominion (which allowed the comments) but also sites that linked to the FreeDominion story such as Small Dead Animals (and therefore, were re-publishing these comments indirectly in his view.)
Although the case was still in the works and linking to a third-party site that may contain libelous or defamatory material hadn't yet been defined as legal or illegal by a court, the Sask Blogs aggregator shut down their service completely out of concern that a similar charge could be leveled against them - either for linking to Small Dead Animals or to any of the other dozens of blogs that who were part of their feed and which may contain similar borderline comments which could be actionable.
Here's a summary from the Regina Leader-Post of the whole situation.
I gotta say, I'm with the right winger on this and think that the civil rights lawyer is stretching too way far. If FreeDominion libeled you or allowed you to be libel, that's one thing. But suing every single site that links to the story (or links to a site that links to the story - hey, I just realised, because of all the links I've thrown out to the various sites involved in this case, I'm implicated now too! In fact, because of the interconnected nature of the Internet, every possible site that includes links to other sites is guility as well! Oh-oh - do you know what that means? That's it - shut down the Internet - it's over. Links are no longer allowed!)
Okay, kidding aside, does anyone see the irony in a civil rights lawyer being responsible for an action that's stifled freedom of speech and sharing of information, not only in the original offending site but for numerous harmless bystanders? To me, this is sort of like the copyright issue where someone is trying to apply old-world views of how things work now to a new world. In the old days, yeah, if someone else repeated a libelous statement, they were responsible. But in the Internet age, where a link is a click away, a statement can go out to a million people as easily as to a dozen, the old paradigms simply don't work anymore. "The genie is out of the bottle" is a phrase I think of all the time in situations like this. Warman is trying to corral the spread of whatever libelous statements were made but somewhere, someone is going to be able to access them. That's the new world and we all have to accept that.
At any rate, the Sask Blogs aggregator was a great, volunteer service that I miss a lot. I tend to read blogs that are in my narrow areas of interest or written by people I know so Sask Blogs was a simple way for me to get an overview of what people were writing about across the province - from all viewpoints, all writing styles, all geographic locations, all manner of topics from personal to political and everything in between.
Hopefully this case will be resolved and Sask Blogs will be back soon.
|
||||||||
Search
Recent Entries
Recent Comments
This Month
Month Archive
Links
Categories
|
Monday, June 30
Link to Another Blog That Allows Its Users To Post Libelous Comments - Get Sued Yourself!
by
Jason
on Mon 30 Jun 2008 11:42 PM CST
Sunday, June 29
Link Dump - Middle of the Night Version
by
Jason
on Sun 29 Jun 2008 03:52 AM CST
I'm
not sure if I put Pace to sleep tonight or he put me to sleep but at
8pm, we were both in bed, crashed out. So that means I wake up now and
am going to be completely messed up tomorrow. Oh well - the same thing
we always say when he naps at an unusual time - "he's tired - he needs
it" applies to my little nap tonight as well!
Here's some randomness...apologies if you were the person who sent me one or more of these links. I've lost track of where I got them. "The Mother's Milk of Literacy: How Breastfeeding May Improve Literacy" - to which I say, "no duh!" The Science of Early Brain Development - you'll have to click on the first search result to see the PowerPoint presentation Neat New Stuff on the Internet - by librarian, Marylaine Block. "The sites I include are usually free sites of substantial reference value, authoritative, browsable, searchable, and packed with information, whether educational or aimed at answering everday questions." "It Takes A Village of Librarians To Raise A Teen" "Schools should continue to require library research so kids can learn how old folks used to Google stuff." "The Times (UK) Makes 200 Years of Newspapers Available Online for Free" "Reading The Future: Planning To Meet Canada's Future Literacy Challenges" - a new study has lots of stats and info from the Canadian Council on Learning "Dealing With Book Clutter" - includes a list of questions that could be used with slight modification during weeding at your library PaperbackSwap.com - a site that the previous linked article led to which allows you to swap books (and CD's and DVD's) with others. It appears to only be for US-based people right now (or people with access to a US mailing address) but still worth taking note of in case they expand to Canada in the future. "Who Says Librarians and Teachers Don't Like Tags?" And for a big, non-library-related finish, "What skills would be most useful if you could time travel back to 1000 A.D." (Man, it always feels good to get this accumulated kludge off the books!  )Saturday, June 28
So You Wanna Write A Memoir? - An Exhaustive Guide
by
Jason
on Sat 28 Jun 2008 11:58 PM CST
Entertainment Weekly magazine is one of my guilty pleasures. In fact, I had a subscription to it in the early 1990's right after it began publication. And I was surprised to see that last week's issue marked its 1000th issue!
I still read EW on a fairly regular basis but now it's visits to the local public library for a range of back issues (or when I'm in the area, the one local library branch that permits loans of the most recent issues of their magazines - how cool is that?) A recent issue had an article about the memoir and included a list of every possible permutation of the genre - memoirs by geography, occupation, addiction, disease and even who had to die in the author's life to provoke the writing of the memoir, etc. Friday, June 27
Friday Fun Link - 50 Best Cult Books (June 27, 2008)
by
Jason
on Fri 27 Jun 2008 10:59 PM CST
"What is a cult book? We tried and failed to arrive at a definition:
books often found in the pockets of murderers; books that you take very
seriously when you are 17; books whose readers can be identified to all
with the formula "<Author Name> whacko"; books our children just
won’t get…"
50 best cult books - Telegraph 50 best cult books - Telegraph Thursday, June 26
PowerThirst - KENYANS!
by
Jason
on Thu 26 Jun 2008 10:40 PM CST
I was recently introduced to energy drinks by a friend who recommended them as a hangover cure. I haven't had a hangover for - how old is Pace now? - 13 months or so. (Er, not counting the post-SLA conference "Books to Beers" event at the Free House - that one hurt a bit. I blame Jessamyn.)
But that's beside the point. You've probably seen the energy drinks - when Shea ran in to 7-11 to buy me one in Calgary, she said "When did they take over the drink case?" Now, back in the day, energy drinks were named Jolt Cola and that was good enough. Apparently this new version has the added benefit (?) of vitamins. To which I say, "Whoopdee-doo - bring on the caffiene levels certified to give you heart arrithmia please!". Yes, I do have the occasional energy drink. I can justify it because I don't drink coffee. Or smoke crack. Which is all a long preamble to say I was drinking Bushwakker beer I imported to Calgary for a friend (who coincidentally is the brother of the guy who first recommended energy drinks to me.) We're both responsible fathers now (he's a newly certified medical doctor for godssake) so we weren't consuming to the levels we may have at one point in our lives. But when he showed me this video, I thought it was the funniest thing I'd seen in a long time... Wednesday, June 25
My Wordle
by
Jason
on Wed 25 Jun 2008 11:24 PM CST
Saskaboom
by
Jason
on Wed 25 Jun 2008 10:54 PM CST
No, not the catchy Feist song...
Instead, "Saskaboom" was the name given to a feature that CBC's "The National" aired last night on Saskatchewan and our booming economy. The piece included a feature on Weyburn and the impact of the oil sector on the local economy. So if you want a taste of the city where I've spent most of the past year and a more positive spin on the Peak Oil idea that I wrote about the other day, watch the video clip. It was interesting to hear the Mayor of Weyburn talking about losing city employees to the oil patch. We're seeing something similar in our library region. I would say that traditionally, the bulk of our branch librarians were stay-at-home moms and housewives who were married to farmers or other people earning an average (or below-average in the case of most farmers  ) income. Now, with the booming natural resource-based economy, it's harder for us to find women wanting to supplement their family incomes because their husbands are making around six figures in "the patch". Or, if the wives do want to work, they can find higher paying employment with longer hours fairly easily since many gas stations and restaurants are offering $10-15/hr with all the hours you want just to get workers. (And lest anyone think I'm being sexist by talking only about female employees, I will mention that of the approximately 100 employees that SRL has out in its rural branch network, fully every single one of them - ie. 100% if you like easy math - are of the female persuasion. Sadly, the only males in the entire organization are the four professional librarians, our van driver and our shipping/receiving clerk.) In related news (to the "boom", not to the issue of "who has boobs"  ), Shea and I drove out to Stoughton, a town half an hour east of Weyburn for the local library's presentation on "Surface and Mineral Rights" as this is something that is of personal interest to both of us. (I'll preface this by saying "as I understand it", since I always tend to get these things slightly wrong. But, basically, surface rights are where an oil company pays the landowner an annual fee for the right to be on your land as they explore for oil or for continued access after a well has been drilled. Mineral rights are when you earn a percentage from any producing wells that are found on your land. Mineral rights are, by far, the more lucrative although someone with a few producing wells on their land could make a decent annual wage, just from the surface rights.) Now, a quick quiz - what's the most successful library program you've ever attended? How about 150 people in a community hall where said community has 653 people according to the last census? Of course, they'd advertised quite widely and a lot of attendees, including Shea and I, were from out of town. But still, that'd be like getting 45 000 people out to a library program in Regina! (Hmm, maybe the RPL should become the RidersPL?) There's definitely a lesson in there about running programs that meet your community needs no matter the size of your community. Plus, the opportunity to promote the library and its services is huge, especially for a non-standard program like this. (Although it was embarrasing to hear one Government employee who was presenting ask, "Do you have Internet in the library here? I know we do in Regina but I'm not sure about here." Ouch!) Anyhow, I'm off to sing myself to sleep... Old dirt road, (Saskaboom, Saskaboom) knee deep snow (Saskaboom, Saskaboom) Watching the fire as we grow (Saskaboom, Saskaboom) o-o-o-o-old Tuesday, June 24
Slow Reading: The Book
by
Jason
on Tue 24 Jun 2008 08:50 PM CST
I was very happy to hear that my FIMS classmate, John Miedema, will be having a book coming out later this year. I'm also proud to say I may have played some small role in making this happen.
John has said (I think in a comment on this blog or perhaps in an e-mail to me?) that it was the point made in a list by former CLA President Wendy Newman that I reprinted on this blog ("3. In your first three years, become a ranking practitioner-expert in one great thing that becomes your "brand". ) which inspired him to pursue his interest in the area of "Slow Reading". Through his writing on the topic, he's gained attention from librarians all over the world, has presented at a conference, gave birth to a Wikipedia page on the topic and now, this book. Congratulations John - I can't wait to get my copy! Monday, June 23
Shit, Piss, Fuck, Cunt, Cocksucker, Motherfucker, Tits
by
Jason
on Mon 23 Jun 2008 04:46 PM CST
George Carlin died yesterday. Like most deaths, it was inevitable. It also fucking sucks.
I got to see him live in 1995 at Bally's in Vegas when my parents offered to take my sister and I to Vegas for a family vacation the year I turned 21. (I was quite the little gambling addict when I was younger. And that's all I'll say about that.) They offered to take me to one show as my actual birthday gift and out of all the shows available in all of Vegas, I picked George Carlin. As we were sitting in the theatre, enjoying our two-drink minimum, and he launched into his "101 Words for Dicks" routine, and I saw my dad's jaw drop and my mom's face go ashen, I thought, "hmmm, maybe this wasn't such a great idea." But then I thought, "Ah, fuckit! This is fucking as awesome as it gets! I'm seeing George Carlin. Live. In Vegas. With a two-drink minimum!" Carlin probably had the ability to cut through the hypocrisy and bullshit of our society like no one else I can think of (Bill Hicks? Kurt Vonnegut? Hunter S. Thompson? All close but I'd say Carlin beats them all.) So much of my own worldview, my own sense of questioning everything and sarcasm comes from listening to him. I also love that so much of Carlin's material focuses on language - how we use it and abuse it. ("Why do we park in driveways and drive on parkways?" being a very tame example of this.) There's also probably a direct connection between my interest in freedom of speech/freedom to read issues and the seven words that give the title to today's post. MetaFilter has a good thread about his passing (er, there's a euphemism that Carlin would hate. His DYING. His DEATH) which leads to a thread with links to all of his full-length comedy performances. See also: George Carlin on WikiQuotes, YouTube and Wikipedia. Saturday, June 21
A Peek at Peak Oil
by
Jason
on Sat 21 Jun 2008 09:37 PM CST
Peak Oil is a theory that is increasingly relevant as the price of oil and gasoline continue to skyrocket. It was first proposed in the 1950's by an American geoscientist named M. King Hubbert who worked for Shell in Texas and correctly predicted that the supplies of oil were limited in the United States and extraction would peak at some point in the late 1960's then fall afterwards.
This theory was later applied to world supplies of oil with the prediction for when peak oil would occur worldwide ranging anywhere from 2010 to "never" depending on which study you read. (The "never" people are the ones who claim that oil is produced continually by internal earth processes and are sort of like the folks who still deny climate change in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.) MetaFilter recently had a thread about an International Agency study of 400 oil fields that found that, barring a substantial decrease in demand, the world would face an oil supply shortfall of 12.5 million barrels a day by 2015 or 15% of current production. On the contrary, even people who agree with the idea of peak oil and don't think it'll bubble from the ground forever, point out that improvements in technology and/or the rising price of oil will lead to more finds or re-approaching fields that were previously unfeasible or thought to be tapped. But with massively increasing demand from China, India and other developing nations, the odds are that either technology or the promise of massive profits inherent in $200 (or $300 or more) barrels of oil still won't be enough to meet demand. (Oil is at $135/barrel today which is an increase of about 35% since the start of 2008, nearly double what it was at this time last year and seven times the $20/barrel price that oil hovered for most of the 1980's and 1990's.) So instead of gas that's $1.39/litre (~$4/gallon in the US) today, you could be looking at $4-5/litre gasoline ($15/gallon) in the very near future. The other related issue is, of course, climate change. Even if the earth did have unlimited supplies of oil, there has to be consideration of what the burning of so many fossil fuels are doing to our environment. (A digression - "fossil fuels" is a bit of a misnomer and many people think that oil fields are like the dinosaur version of elephant graveyards. The reality is that oil fields were likely produced, not by dinosaurs but ancient micro-organisms and foliage. A great way to understand this that I read somewhere: the weight of all the ants on earth is more than the weight of all elephants.) Ethanol isn't the solution because, although it is renewable since it is fuel made from crops such as sugar cane and maize, it still involves burning which harms the environment plus it drives up the cost of those basic food crops. (Mexico recently capped the prices for tortillas.) The role of speculators, both in driving up the prices of food crops (see the last linked article) and of oil itself, can't be ignored either. In fact, there are some that think the huge increase in oil prices in the last year doesn't have anything to do with peak oil and is completely based on self-fulfilling speculator prophecies (if you bet millions that the price of oil will go up, that will push the price up which leads other speculators to do the same and it becomes a vicious cycle which only end with a massive crash which will make 1929 look like a 16-year old learning to drive versus the coming crash which would be more like Evil Kinevil jumping over a canyon and not quite making it.) Why am I writing this now? I've always been interested in the idea of Peak Oil for all the different areas it brings into contact - economics, environmentalism, politics, geology, etc. - but now that the Saskatchewan economy is booming due to our oil and other natural resources, and having spent the last year living in the epicentre of the Saskatchewan oil & gas industry (Weyburn-Estevan), it's hitting especially close to homebi-. (out of curiosity, I even went to the bi-annual Saskatchewan Oil & Gas Show in Weyburn last year - a place I never thought I'd find myself!) Recent studies have declared that there is a "Saudi Arabia of oil" under Saskatchewan, Manitoba, North and South Dakota and Montana in the Bakken and Torquay formations (the blogger who posted the image below has downsized his initial estimate but it's still apparently the largest find in Canada since 1957).  I drove out to Shea's farm with her family a few months ago and we didn't recognize the area. The landscape now looks like the moon - instead of the never-ending greens, yellows and browns of the farm fields, there is just endless, flattened, black earth covered in rows of pumpjacks.  I've got a lot more that I could say but I hear a baby crying so I might come back to this topic later. I do hope this has given you an introduction if you didn't know about peak oil and maybe some more info if you do! |
 www.flickr.com
This is a Flickr badge showing public photos from shealisahammond. Make your own badge here.
Login
|
||||||
|
|
||||||||
