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advocatus diaboli

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  1. advocatus diaboli
    I'm proud to be Canadian, but I'm currently not proud to be a Canadian, at least not domestically. Why? Well:
     
    Federal Government
     
    1. There's the ongoing Senate scandal. Senators on suspension are having criminal charges placed against them for, effectively, stealing tax payer money. Many things have happened as a result of this:
     
    a. The NDP want to abolish the Senate completely. They feel as if it's a complete waste of time and energy. The Senate is so muddled by party politics that nothing is getting done, so just get rid of it.
     
    b. The Liberals kicked out all their Senators from the party. Two things arise from this: i). If you think they're not still Liberals in everything but name, you're silly. ii). If you think Justin didn't see criminal charges coming against Liberal senators and is distancing himself, you're silly.
     
    2. Harper. I don't even know where to begin. He just needs to go. His time is up. Period.
     
    3. Justin. Firstly, he's riding on his father's coattails politically, I think. He came out of nowhere and suddenly he's federal leader? What? How did this happen? The other thing, is he doesn't know the difference between his opinion personally and his opinion as a politician. When asked what country he admired most, he said China. Why? Their dictatorship-like structure allows them to move quickly and get stuff done. Words do not describe.
     
    Provincial (Ontario) Government
     
    1. Kathleen Wynne. I don't even know where to begin. Unelected. Scandals. No regard for tax payer money. Just... wow.
     
    2. Andrea, the provincial NDP leader. Proping up Wynne's government. Why?! I'm embarrassed - ashamed - to consider myself an NDP because of this.
     
    Municipal (Toronto) Government
     
    1. Leave Rob Ford the fuck alone. He was elected to be the Mayor of Toronto, for which he is doing a fine job. He was not elected to be the Moral Compass of Toronto. If he doesn't want to go to Pride? Fine, no problem. I don't blame him, I don't want to go either. Norm Kelley is a tool, also.
     
    ---
     
    Our government, on all levels (I image other municipalities and provinces have it just as ad) is so broken it's embarrassing and laughable. Can we hurry up and just have the entire system crash, so we can start over? Pretty please, with a cherry on top.
  2. advocatus diaboli
    The statement that is the title is an opinion. To determine if a system is flawed, the purpose of the system must first be established. Once it's established, and only then, can the determination be made if it's functioning correctly or not. So, this prompts the question: What is the purpose of the education system? To educate, of course! But the deeper and real question is, to teach what?
     
    Currently, the education system roughly works like this:
    Elementary school teaches you basic English and math skills. There's also basic religion thrown in there, physical education and... nothing else comes to mind from what I can remember. Science, I guess, but even then, nothing ground breaking.
    Secondary (high) school teaches you the foundation for advanced math, science (atoms, weather, etc then specializes in chemistry, biology and physics), more religion and English. These four subjects are the major aspects of these four years. The anchor subjects, if you will.
    Post-secondary teaches you (more or less - more on this later) the tools you need to be qualified for your chosen career.

    Elementary school, fundamentally, from a curriculum perspective, is more or less acceptable. The basics are there: reading, writing, addition/subtraction/multiplication/division - basic things you need to know to function in society. However, the problem with elementary school is that they coddle their students. I'll take my brother, for example. Let's call him John (not his real name, taken after John Doe). John is lazy, and doesn't do homework. John is in absolutely zero danger of failing his grade. The policy is not to fail students, because it 'hurts their feelings' and affects their self-esteem. Intention is good, I don't dispute that, but it's unrealistic. As a result of this policy, My brother's grown up in a bubble; he has no sense of failure, it's not something he's experienced before. If he doesn't hand in an assignment, the teacher will say something like this:
    "It was due last week, John. You really need to hurry up and get this project in to me."
     
    "John, you're late with your assignment. Once you get to high school, this will be unacceptable."
     
    There's no real incentive to do anything and there's no real understanding of the consequences of inaction. The words of the teacher fall deaf onto John and his peers. They nod, say okay and they understand, and they think they do, but they don't. They've never fallen before. They've never been told that they've failed something and need to deal with the consequences. They've always been caught before they hit the ground, whether they realize it or not, and are living in a false sense of reality. As I'm sure the readers of this are aware, the world does not catch you. This is setting up young children to have unrealistic expectations of life and is setting them up for catastrophic failure.
     
    Secondary school is a disaster, almost a complete waste of time. For anyone over the age of twenty, someone that may rent, have a job, possibly owns a car or even have considering owning a house, I ask you this: What have you learned from high school that helped you with these things? Personally, my four years prepared me for nothing. There was a half-semester of Careers (which, really, was a joke) and a half-semester of Civics. Both, in theory, are life-essential courses, but the curriculum foundation makes them a joke. Half a semester is several weeks, that's not a lot of time.
     
    Besides Careers & Civics, what is taught that's essential? Geography is arguable, you have a general sense of the world's politics and a rough idea where all the countries are. Math sets you up for higher-level courses (more on that later). Science gives you a general idea of how atoms work and elements, which is nice, but not something you need to know on a daily basis. World Religion is arguably relevant, but even then, it's falls in the category of Geography, which is "nice to know, but not essential".
     
    What is essential in secondary school? I struggle to answer that question. Besides the aforementioned Careers & Civics, I can only think of the Automotive class, which at least teaches you basic vehicle maintenance. That's something that everyone should know.
     
    What about English? That course doesn't teach you anything, besides trying to get you to think a certain way. English teachers are notorious for their "my way or the highway" way of thinking in regards to symbolism. If you don't interpret the piece in the way that they feel is correct, then you're wrong. This is so counter productive, it boggles my mind. One of the goals of high school is supposed to be to teach you to think for yourself, but this is accomplishing the exact opposite. On top of that, it's with the topic of symbolism. Symbolism is one of the most opinionated and subjective topics in the entire English subject. Symbolism is open to interpretation, that's the whole point of it.
     
    Secondly, in regards to English, the courses fail in the very name. In my post secondary education, there was a mandatory (required) English remedial class. The professor explained that there was so many complaints by other professors as to the state of the assignments being submitted, that this course had to be created and made mandatory. The second half was productive - showing us how to write various types of reports (it was a technical campus, associated with a university), but the first half was basic grammar. Literally, basic grammar and usage. We'd have a week dedicated for each topic and a quiz at the end of the week, to determine if we were proficient enough with the topic to not be required to go to extra seminars. Such topics included: commas, semicolons and when to type out or spell numbers. These are all things that should be taught in secondary or even elementary school. I won't even get into the tuition cause and issues associated with this.
     
    Another course that stands out in my mind that I took in post secondary was pre-calculus. The second time I took the course (don't ask), it all became so clear. The random and dis-jointed Math courses in secondary school were all coming together as the foundation to calculus. That made the struggles through those four years seem justified, almost. But, really, how useful is pre-calculus? I can't say that I use it on a daily basis. It's not something that a normal person uses in their day to day lives, besides really cheesy pick-up lines. This, to me, is a sign that the post secondary system is failing at their job: to make us the best possible person we can be in our chosen field. However, it's not really their fault, as they're picking up the slack from secondary schools.
     
    Secondary school is where the blame lies, squarely. Not solely, but significantly. The system needs to change, or it will become like the financial system in recent years, it'll crash in on itself. Much like the financial system dramatically affected society, so will this. A generation of young people is being unleashed upon the world that has no idea how to do basic things: buy a car, rent a house, get a job, buy a house.
     
    I was planning on including an example of a ridiculous mortgage offer from a bank, to prove that I wouldn't know if it was a ridiculous offer or not, due to the failure of my education system. The sad thing, though, is that it occurred to me that I don't even know enough about how mortgages work (and how to get one) to be able to come up with an example. That's pretty sad, isn't it?
     
    Note: My experiences are based primarily on the Ontario provincial education system.
  3. advocatus diaboli
    Disclaimer: In no way, shape or form does this blog entry advocate for or against the use of controlled substances. This blog entry discussed the use of controlled substances and the fallout of the closure of a marketplace that distributed controlled substances. Do not mistake the call for legalization as a call for use, it is not. The author of this blog entry feels that it's the individuals decision to engage in this activity or not, and it's not the government's decision to determine the legality of the individual's choice.
     
    TOR is an interesting concept. It stands for The Onion Router and basically what it does is 'bounces' your signal across so many different servers globally that it's almost impossible to trace your activities back to you. This allows for another interesting concept to emerge. It's called the Deep Web and is not indexed by any search engine. Their domain names end in the .onion top level domain and can only be accessed by the TOR browser. These sites can only be accessed by those that are using the TOR browser and since no search engine can index the site, you have to know the exact web address to view the site. Naturally, this had lead to some very unusual and highly illegal activities on the Deep Web. It's also worth noting that the Deep Web is approximately 4 to 5 times larger than the regular web, but there's no way to know, for sure.
     
    This is a very broad topic and can go in many interesting directions, but I want to talk about one site in particular, and the implications surrounding it: Silk Road. Development for this Deep Web site began in the second half of 2010 and the site was launched in February of 2011. Silk Road has been described as the Amazon or eBay of (illegal) drugs. The vast majority of the drugs sold on the site were illegal, but not all. Some were prescription medication that (from my understanding) was sold at a cheaper price than was commercially available.
     
    It wasn't a free-for-all, either. Buyers were able to make an account, for free. Sellers, on the other hand, had to purchase a "seller's account" from an auction, which had a limited quantity. This ensured that the seller was legitimate and serious with their intentions. If someone was looking to flood the market with poor quality or incorrect drugs, they're far less likely to do so when they had to purchase their account.
     
    There's an extra level of protection involved, because the entire site operates on the BitCoin currency, with the owner taking a cut. If you don't know what BitCoin is, it essentially boils down to this: an anonymous, decentralized, purely digital and global currency. BitCoin isn't something that world governments are particularly fond of, and countries like Thailand have already outright banned it. No BitCoin can be used in the country, enter or exit it anymore.
     
    On the 2nd of October of this year, the FBI seized control of the domain for Silk Road and arrested the owner of the site, Ross William Ulbricht. This came as an alarming surprise to most, especially the buyers of the site. Supposedly, the FBI has obtained a bit-for-bit copy of the server(s) that host Silk Road, therefore having all the information on the site, including addresses where product was sent. It hasn't been said if the FBI will be using that information to press further charges against more individuals or not. The sting that brought about Ross's arrest is bizarre and not entirely relevant to the intent of this entry.
     
    The more disturbing issue is the drugs and the buyers. The FBI has noted that the quality of the drugs sold on Silk Road is impressive. Upwards of 70% of the drugs they purchased (in over 100 purchases) were of 'high quality', which is practically unheard of. As well, the FBI seized all BitCoin deposits in the system when they took control of the site. Buyers had no option of withdrawing their BitCoins once they made a deposit into their Silk Road account.
     
    This has created a host of issues for buyers. Many had made deposits valued at hundreds of dollars moments before the shut down of the site. Some had made deposits worth thousands. Even worse, many buyers have stated that the money they deposited into their account wasn't even theirs - it was being fronted to them by other individuals, to make purchases on their behalf. With the FBI closing the site, all that money is gone. Suddenly, hundreds, if not thousands, of people have lost large sums of money and are being held personally responsible to reimburse the lost funds, with money they don't have. The fall out of this will never be properly measured or known, but could be widespread and catastrophic. Supposedly, there's a mechanism in place to return all deposited BitCoins to buyers, in case of a situation like this, but no such mechanism has been triggered... yet.
     
    Atlantis was considered to be Silk Road's competition. However, that marketplace was closed by their owners some time ago for 'security reasons'. As it currently stands, buyers and sellers have no viable fall back marketplace to turn to, to provide the services they desire and need. This has created a very dangerous situation for the buyers, some of whom suffer from an addiction and don't enjoy the luxury of stopping their purchases. The only place they have left to turn to now is the streets.
     
    Before this, they had Silk Road. They had a controlled, quality-driven marketplace where they could pick and choose exactly what they wanted from trusted and vetted sellers. Their drug of choice was purchased anonymously and sent directly to their home by mail, with no one aware of the content of their package. Now, without that service available, they need to turn to the outside world. It's no secret that the streets are not safe. Both from the people roaming it and the drugs that they sell. One former Silk Road user made a post, explaining the quality of MDMA (commonly referred to as Molly) in comparison between Silk Road and the streets. She had a sample from Silk Road, which she tested and found to be pure. She took two samples, each from independent vendors in New York City and found that both had been 'cut'. The MDMA had been diluted with another substance (sometimes other drugs, like heroin or tranquilizers designed for horses, etc.). Both samples were unpure and contained unknown third party chemicals. Even if the now ex-Silk Road buyers survive the violence of the street, the drugs their buying are now killing them, and much faster than before.
     
    Silk Road sold illegal substances. No one is disputing that. The services that Silk Road provided were incredibly illegal. No one is disputing that. However, while the intentions of the FBI were good (they dealt a harsh blow to the drug cartels that were using Silk Road to distribute their products safely), they've done far more harm then good. They've forced untold numbers of buyers to turn to the streets to seek the drugs that they need. Once again, the fall out of this will never be properly measured or known, but could be widespread and catastrophic.
     
    The owner of Atlantis has written a post mortem, from their experiences. The most striking quote from what they had to say is this, in my opinion:
     
    (source)
     
    That really is interesting, isn't it? Ulbricht made some mistakes in how he conducted himself and his business, but it's undeniable that he was smart and knew what he was doing. Why would someone with so much future potential throw it all away? He'll probably never see the light of day, with the charged laid against him. Snowden is forced to reside in Russia, in temporary asylum. He doesn't know what his future holds or where he'll end up. All he knows is that he'll never be able to step foot into his native country or allies of his native country ever again. Manning, whose prison sentence ensures they won't be released until they're old enough to be a grandparent - their life is effectively over.
     
    All these people's lives are effectively over. They also knew this when they chose to do what they did. But why? They all feel, whether correctly or incorrectly, that the government is over-stepping it's bounds, from within the law and the Constitution that created the country. They feel that the government is out of control and they felt they were playing their part to reign that control in. To put a stop to the injustices committed by the government.
     
    The FBI has started an arms race that they have no hopes of being able to win. Look at The Pirate Bay, which is still alive and kicking. They're on the regular web, and they make no attempt to hide what they do and they're still around. Silk Road v2.0 is coming and soon. It'll be bigger and better and far more secure than ever before. If that's taken down, then another one will appear and another one and another one. The people have spoken, the demand is there and capitalism is doing its thing. This will not go away for the FBI or anyone else. Drugs will not go away, they're here to stay.
     
    On a similar but unrelated note, the Ontario Liberal government launched a site to crowd-source suggestions for their next election platform (which is a hint that an election is coming, but that's another blog entry). One of the suggestions was for the government to set up a crown-corporation (of sorts) that produces Methamphetamine. It was immediately dismissed, of course, but is it such a bad idea?
     
    Since the war on drugs was started, the quality of drugs has dramatically improved and the price has dramatically fallen. To me, at least, this seems like the exact opposite of what should be happening. As one former police officer put it, to win the war on drugs, it seems reasonable to completely remove every trace of drugs from the face of the Earth. That would constitute a "win" for the war, wouldn't it? Of course it would. But it is also entirely unrealistic and impossible to do.
     
    The government's problem is that they're too involved with the lives of the individual. I say this as someone that is incredibly socially left-wing. One of the major arguments for the legalization of same-sex marriage is for the government to get out of the bedroom. The same case can be made here. As long as the drug user isn't harming anyone, let them do whatever they want. If they want help, give them the help they need. "But that'll cost money!" you say. However, they'll be doing the drugs anyways, and if they want the help to get better, it should be available to them. You shouldn't put a price on a human life and they'll become a productive member of society (assuming they aren't already, but chances are, if they need help, they aren't).
     
    The government needs to legalize drugs and put an end to the pointless and expensive war. More importantly, instead of trying to squash the drug marketplace sites on the Deep Web, the government needs to open their own site and provide the services themselves.
  4. advocatus diaboli
    Here's some things that the United States government doesn't consider essential:
    Safety inspections for foods and drugs.*

    * Operating in emergency status. Details here: http://www.hhs.gov/budget/fy2014/fy2014contingency_staffing_plan-rev2.pdf
    Public housing.
    No new social security applications are being accepted.
    The CDC and flu shots.
    The Environmental Protection Agency.
    The Head Start program. For those of you that don't know what that is, it provides education, health & nutrition to approximately 1 million low-income children. Approximately 3,200 preschoolers have already been affected.
    Disability benefits in general and disability benefits for veterans.
    Public assistance for women and children near the poverty line.

    (Source)
  5. advocatus diaboli

    Thunder storms.

    By advocatus diaboli,

    I absolutely love them. So much.
     
    The concept of thunder snow gives me shivers and is something I want to see in my life time.
     
    It's just, so pretty. When I was younger, my father lived in a series of apartments. One in particular, the view was spectacular. The outside wall of the apartment was all glass. We used to sit in his room and watch the storms, at night. One night in particular stands out, for no real reason. The storm must have been at least 10 km away, but we could see it perfectly clear. The direction we faced was right into the city, with no other apartments to block the view.
     
    Ontario thunder storms are intense. We get a lot during the summer, and they're huge. I remember once there was a ribbon of storms. It was about 600-700 km long. It was the most impressive storm I've seen. Though I didn't get to experience it.
     
    Actually, that's a lie. That's not the most impressive storm I've seen. Again, at my father's. We saw the storm approaching and it was the biggest contrast I've ever seen in clouds. One part of the sky was literally sunshine and partly cloudy, a beautiful sky. Then there was this barrier and the clouds were black. It was like a line drawn in the sky, there was no transition. He took a picture and sent it into The Weather Network. They actually showed it, too. But it was with a warning to not take those types of pictures and to stay indoors.
     
    That's the biggest thing - at times the only thing - I missed about Ontario when I moved to Newfoundland. Because it's an island and the Atlantic Ocean, storms are really rare. In the 4ish years that I lived there, I remember two. They weren't even that impressive. They were really small in size and duration.
     
    Now that I'm back in Ontario, I'm glad to be back. Right now, I hear the rumbling of thunderclaps and the downpour of rain. But it's not the same. Our city has a bylaw that all lawns need to have a tree on them. It makes for very pretty roads, but terrible for viewing the sky.
     
    As I typed that, with my headboard to the window and my back to the storm, the entire top half of my bed lit up. I'm disappointed that I didn't get to see the beautiful thing that made that light. But I know if I tried to look, I wouldn't have seen it anyways.
     
    Probably the most beautiful image I've ever seen is of a lightning bolt. The sky behind it is a bright red. The bolt is going straight down, but it branches out in the most amazing way possible. It looks like a tree. It's a lightning tree.
  6. advocatus diaboli
    Recently, Google Ventures lead a huge $258 million investment round in Uber. Which is interesting in itself, because it's their largest investment ever. But, things are put into an interesting perspective when you consider some of the rumors floating around.
     
    So... Google wants to build cars and sell them to Uber. Sounds great, really. Uber will corner the automated taxi business, grow huge and go public. Google will cash out and get a huge return on their investment. But why stop there? Why would Google limit themselves to just the taxi business. I mean, they'll need to invest billions into the car manufacturing, no way they'll get their return from just Uber, right?
     
    Google will have to spend billions to do this, but not in the way you may think. After working in an automotive manufacturing plant, I can assure you that they don't just pop up out of the ground, on the cheap. There's hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars of assets in every single plant. There's so much involved in setting up a plant that it'll make your head spin. It'll take too long and cost too much for Google to do it from the ground up, plus it'll give their competition time to get their act together.
     
    Nope, Google needs to buy it. They're no stranger to making obscenely large acquisitions, so Tesla's market cap of $19.94 billion shouldn't scare them too much. They have the money to spend, after all. If that was me, it'd be burning a hole in my pocket.
     
    But you may be asking yourself, why Tesla? Tesla is more of a technology company then it is a car company. On top of that, the CEO, Elon Musk, embodies everything Google wants. He already wants to bring affordable electric cars to the masses. Their Model S is one of the safest cars on the road. When it comes to customer service, they treat their customers well.
     
    Google buys Tesla and has an exclusive deal with Uber. Where's that leave everyone else, though? The technology industry, by and large, won't care. They'll partner with Google to provide in-car entertainment, mainly Netflix, Spotify and Facebook. Amazon and Apple won't care. Microsoft may care, but they'll be so broken that they won't even be able to do anything about it if they wanted to.
     
    The real threats, if you can even call them that, are from the incumbents - Toyota, GM, Chrysler/Fiat, etc. But even then, I don't think Google will have to worry too much. They'll dance circles around the old school manufacturers. The game will have changed and Google will be at the forefront, while the rest will be stuck in the past. It's happened before, to multiple industries. No one will be able to touch Tesla's reputation or Google's savvy.
     
    My prediction: Google will buy Tesla as a way to fully utilize their partnership with Uber. They'll take full advantage, and take over the automotive market, flooding it with automated vehicles. Billions and billions of dollars in profit will follow and the shareholders of Google will become very wealthy people.
     
    When will this happen? I have no idea. All I can for sure is that grand plan has been put into motion and nothing, hell or high water, will prevent it from happening. God help all those caught in the cross fire.
  7. advocatus diaboli

    Valve.

    By advocatus diaboli,

    Valve announced Steam OS today. It's the Linux-based software that will run their living room ecosystem.
     
    They also teased two other announcements in the immediate future. They will be:
     
    1. The new Source game engine. Along with the announcement of the engine, they'll announce their launching titles, Half Life 3 and Left 4 Dead 3.
     
    2. That will lead into their second announcement, the Steam Box.
     
    This is my prediction.
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