serendipityoucity

The deal will not go through as Mr. Prentice said he is not satisfied that the deal "is likely to be of net benefit to Canada."

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Well it has been 2 + years since I started Blogging!

There have been about 35k + visits, 581 posts, some longer, others better, some good stuff with some intermitten nonsense and overall a really good time with a bit of time wasting on this blog.  Since then I organized a video blogging workshops in India with Naga youth (stimulating 6 blogs), started 5 community blogs (2 Judo blogs, 1 soccer blog, 1 vagina monologues blog, 1 ogwifi blog), 1 political blog on Nepal, I co-author 1 blog datalibre.ca, and have led some intro to blogging workshops mostly with academics.  I will also be teaching a group of women artists to start and take care of their own blog in the next couple of weeks and have inspired a few really interesting blogs.  I have been featured on some, send content to many, follow a ton and drop a ton too, get linked and link to many!  There were good and really bad sentences and some outrageous spelling. I also love comments and commenting on other peoples and I love writing.

Dam! I am still learning how this works and exploring how to tell stories.  I will next learn about recording and making videos as it will be a really useful field work skill. The most fun though has been sharing with others and building an archive of ideas, thoughts and finds. Excellent!

Hey!  Someone googled my family name, got to my blog, and left a trace.  When I went to see what they found, I found my dad, brother and brother in law!  How cool is that!  My dad is one of those snow bird seniors that now has a laptop and he sends from Florida all kinds of cheezy power point pop and sometimes classical music/musac enhanced image sets and bizarre internet urban myths he thinks are true, and they are all entertaining!  What is crazy though, is neither of these three family members use the Internet in any significant way, my borther does not send or read emails, they mostly communicate with long range walky talkies, yet they show up before I do on the name search!  Aw shucks!

Thank you for your e-mail regarding Alliant Techsystems’ (ATK) proposed acquisition of the Information Systems and Geospatial Businesses of MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. (MDA). I regret the delay in replying to you.

As you may know, ATK filed an application under the Investment Canada Act (ICA) for the review of its above-mentioned acquisition proposal.

Under the ICA, foreign investment proposals that are subject to review must obtain my approval before the investor can implement the transaction. My approval is given only where, after a rigorous review process, I am satisfied that the investment is likely to be of net benefit to Canada. The factors considered as part of the net benefit test are listed in section 20 of the ICA.

As part of the review process, Industry Canada officials consult with other federal government departments, and the provinces, to obtain their views and concerns relating to an acquisition. In addition, the investor can provide me with enforceable commitments to demonstrate that the investment is of net benefit to Canada.

Subsection 23(1) of the ICA requires that I notify an investor where I am not satisfied, on the basis of the information I have, that an acquisition is likely to be of net benefit to Canada. I have been authorized by the investor to say that on April 8, 2008, I sent ATK a letter under subsection 23(1). My decision was reached after a careful and rigorous review process during which I consulted with the relevant provinces and federal departments.

After receiving a letter under subsection 23(1) of the ICA, an investor has 30 days to make additional representations and give undertakings concerning the transaction. At the end of this period, I will either confirm my initial decision or approve the acquisition based on additional representations and undertakings provided by the investor.

Once again, thank you for sharing your views on this matter.

Sincerely,

The Honourable Jim Prentice, P.C., Q.C., M.P.

Relief Web Myanmar: Tropical Cyclone Nargis - May 2008.  Below is a list of maps to help with the relief. Note the many data sources implying very coordinated information collaborations.  These are incredible information management logistics.  Relief Web has an amazing data base of information on a per country basis, from lists of who is reporting on Burma, complete sector review, and more.  Imagine if we used the same type of energy during times of crisis toward crisis prevention in down times, the information we would have accessible for planning, war prevention, etc. would be amazing.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Before and After Nargis Images.  Here is a link directly to the NASA Nargis Image site.

Estimated Total Population Living Within Flood-Affected Areas, Myanmar (as of 05 May 2008)

I have a bit of a thing for scent media and art.  This show at the Esther M. Klein Art Gallery in Philadelphia looks fabulous.  I have read the work of one of the curators Jim Drobnick and he has a wonderful way to criticaly analyse scent and society via installation art.  After reading the Diamond Age and a bit about the Experience Economy I am more cautious about my little teeny tiny role in the world of sensory immersive technologies. All ambivalence aside, I would love to see this exhibit.

The Esther M. Klein Art Gallery at the University City Science Center and the Monell Center present Odor Limits, an exhibition that explores the potential of smell in aesthetic experience. The works in this show employ natural, synthetic and imaginary scents to delve into pressing contemporary themes about cultural difference, personal identity, spirituality, and the body.

The possibilities of database design and decision support systems for conflict prevention populated with heterogeneous datasets can lead to really interesting applications.  I think this is one of the many ways we can work together to wage peace.  For people interested in working with data sets derived from uncertain sources and the specificities of data lineage, accuracy (positional, temporal andattribute), logical consistency and completeness evaluations this is the document for you.  While this sounds dry, and well it is, the authors of the report are essentially seeking a way to have the data tell the truth and avoiding mistakes as best as possible in an environment of uncertaintly. 

Building a spatial decision support system for conflict prevention in the Caucasus
Harmonization of heterogeneous sources and data quality assessment procedures

by: Stephenne Nathalie and MacDonald Chris

Institutions: The Institute for the Protection and Security of the Citizen and the Joint Research Centre of the EU.

Just found an interesting series of Communications maps in the Atlas of Canada.  This series includes maps of the telegraph, telephone, television, radio and telecommunications which includes satellites in Canada.  The Telecom map was released in 1984!  Wonder how different the infrastructure is now?

I am surprised at what is on this map.  Just check out the legend below.  I keep forgetting that it takes a long time to build an infrastructures and for the idea of an infrastructure to become sorta  mainstream.  When this map came out I was not thinking of communication infrastructures, no one I knew had a personal computer, silicon valley north was in its very early days of development and I knew a bunch of young engineers fresh out of school working in some of those companies. For some this infrastructure must have been mainstream between and among an interesting group of communications pioneers as here is a map that shows early fiber optic cable deployment.

This is a really interesting book that explores and critically discusses open source coding and community based wireless, open source and technology groups in Quebec.  If you can read french it is well worth it!  The book was published by researchers from Laboratoire de communication médiatisée par ordinateur (LabCMO) at the Université du Québec a Montréal (UQAM). Imagine such a book for Canada or Ontario!

Table of Contents

L’action communautaire québécoise à l’ère du numérique (Nouveauté)

The CAIRS, for Coordination of Access to Information Requests System dbase has been cancelled by the Conservatives.  See a list of articles on DataLibre.ca for more information.