Fee for Carriage or Cable Tax?

TV will save us!

If you’ve watched Canadian television at all lately, you’ll have seen the ongoing “debate” ads between television channels and telecommunication companies.

Debate, my arse – they are more like propaganda from both sides. The big television companies are sending out heart-string tugging ads about saving your local station and cable companies are appealing to the fiscal conservative inside all consumers and misrepresenting this as a “tax”.

Neither party’s ad serves to get across the salient points of the issue, and the cable companies’ attempts to get streeter reaction is actually teeth grittingly painful.

Both websites also spin the same basic points in a way that suits their purpose, proving that the issue is muddier than it appears at first glance.

True local stations aren’t getting any money from the cable companies, but the satellite/cable companies are mandated by law to carry those same signals as part of their services.

So which side can any rational person take?

I want local television; but I’m not paying $10 a month for the privilege either, that seems too high for the size of my local market.

Where’s the middle ground?

And why would I trust the CRTC to figure the solution out?

Switzerland – not so much with the neutrality

Minarets!

It turns out that Switzerland is going to lose some of its respect as a neutral country.

On Sunday the population passed (via referendum) a law banning the construction of  minarets on any new mosque in the country. This marks the public exposure of religious intolerance; which surprised its politicians and the media.

That is ridiculous, and such a senseless piece of legislation that really serves no purpose but to polarize the country on the topic of Islam. The politicians claim that they were unaware of the populace’s concern about Islamic integration and potential extremism.

I find that rather hard to believe.  Just how out of touch are they with the general poulace? Even the supporters of the bill didn’t expect it to pass.

To be fair, Switzerland is a country with a direct democratic process. Any member of the country can propose a bill and the entire country will vote on the issue. (Although how much does this cost to run, even if the country’s population is small?)  This is just a topic that exposes a potential flaw in the process.

It is very unfortunate that  Switzerland will be seen as a narrow-minded people on a global scale, no matter if they eventually overturn this law. And if any extremism exists, this will only serve to fuel their rhetoric.

Minarets aren’t even that ugly, I’ve seen worse crimes against architecture…

Science News

Space. The final frontier...

I was going to kick off the week with some honest-to-goodness, legitimate science news, but I couldn’t resist mentioning Latchezar Filipov, the Bulgarian scientist who thinks that aliens are among us.

Yep, an true-blue, standing member of the International Astronomical Union, worked on the MIR space-station, astrophysicist thinks that we’ve made contact with extra-terrestrial life forms.

And, the media is reporting it as such.

I don’t even know what to think about the first point, let alone the second. The poor man has to be having some sort of mid-life crisis, and he’s being subjected to media scrutiny.

The Star went out of their way to interview him for this article, and having had a chance to tour it recently I’m actually kind of surprised they published this at all.

Thankfully, Filipov has left himself an out: “I don’t yet believe that this is absolutely true information,” he told the Star.

It’s good to see that his scientific skepticism is still there in some form.

But, I do wonder sometimes just how many astronomers and astrophysicists do have a tiny desire to believe in aliens.

It must be there somewhere buried under all the years of learning and reasoning, that quiet remnant of when they were children who looked up at the stars and wondered just what was out there…

Travel, you say?

Backpackers of the world, unite!

With the year winding down to a close, some of the lucky few are looking to spend the off-travel season in cool and exotic locations.

The New York Times has released their shopping list for the 2009 Holiday season, and I found the “frugal traveler” section to be the most interesting.

Who knew that you could buy items confiscated by the T.S.A. on eBay? Or that there’s a series of travel guides focusing on the shadier side of cities? Plus the gorillapod picture is awesome!

But some of the suggestions don’t exactly fit in with the category. What use is a book with maps of imaginary locations? Or the $100 raincoat? Plus three luggage suggestions and none of them are hiker’s backpacks?

I think the truly frugal traveler would be looking for gifts more along the lines of a book dedicated to the best hostels around the world, or how to save money on food. (How do you pack a lunch that’ll stay fresh while you traipse around the Amazon?)

At least it’s not as bad as the All American style entry…

Salutations!

And welcome to Want To Learn, a know-it-all’s repository!

I’ll be your host through this madcap adventure of information, science, politics and pop culture.

So sit back and enjoy the ride; because it can only get better from here!