Shannon Larratt is Zentastic

First of all, this heat is killing me — I think it's above 20^oC (about 70^oF for Americans). Way too hot. At this temperature, the stench of the city (and the dog) is unbearable, and I can't even sit in my back yard because it's so disgusting. Not only is it covered in dog dropping, but there are steaming garbage pails from it… It's a miracle the neighbors haven't sued. I wouldn't blame them if they did.

Anyway, I'm happiest and healthiest at about 15^oC (brisk t-shirt weather).

Anyway, there were two news stories (both featured on Wired) today that caught my eye… The first one is only funny if you're familiar with the movie The Stuff though. The similarity is striking.

The second story (also reported in many local Canadian papers) is really interesting, especially if you're Canadian (since it's about Canadian law). Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms is sort of like the US Constitution, but it effectively defines privacy as a right and makes it quite clear that Canada should never become a police state.

As such, public security cameras that the police have access to may be “unconsitutional“, as they releates to unreasonable search and seizure laws. Justice La Forest just wrote,

This type of video surveillance is equivalent to having individual police officers closely follow, 24 hours a day, every person within a certain geographical space. That would be a police state, not a free society.