Mid-Week Post

It's like "Game of Thrones" but nothing at all like it...


There are ten more days until Easter.


Says the the school board that would take children to simulated sex-fests:

A warning to parents in Toronto: if you want to chaperone your kid's field trip to the zoo, you may soon be subjected to a criminal-background check.

If today's proposal is approved, the Toronto District School Board will require all school volunteers to get clearance from the police.

Yes, everyone. Even pizza-lunch supervisors and library helpers.

Teachers and volunteer coaches already go through the "vulnerable sector screening," as they have greater contact with the students.

Why are they bothering? They frame their support for the perverted Pride parade as "gay rights" (homosexuals are still hanged in Iran, by the way) yet are adamant that a parent the teachers know very well undergo a police check.

Do naked people simulating sex act undergo similar police checks?

What a farce.


Uh-oh:

The Canada Revenue Agency says it expects its website to be down until the weekend because of a security vulnerability related to the Heartbleed bug.

The tax agency's website took away the public's ability to log in late Tuesday evening, which raised concerns about a the privacy of sensitive taxpayer data.

"We are currently working on a remedy for restoring online services and, at this time, anticipate that services will resume over the weekend," the tax agency said on its website Wednesday afternoon. 

"The CRA recognizes that this problem may represent a significant inconvenience for individual Canadians who count on the CRA for online information and services. Recognizing this, the minister of national revenue has confirmed that individual taxpayers will not be penalized for this service interruption."

Rest assured the tax people will always get their money, bug or not.

Ladies and gentlemen, the Beatles.


But I thought you had Ukraine where you wanted it, Putin?

Russian President Vladimir Putin told state-controlled natural gas producer Gazprom on Wednesday to hold off on demanding Ukraine pay up front for natural gas supplies from Russia.

Some North Korean news-

Persecution of Christians in North Korea (again):

North Korea recently lured two Korean-Chinese civilians in China back to North Korea and forcibly transferred them to Pyongyang, Daily NK has learned. It is alleged that Korean-Chinese families remaining in North Korea are being used to entice specific targets, who are suspected of Christian proselytizing, back across the Sino-North Korean border so that they can be detained.

A source from the border city of Sinuiju in North Pyongan Province reported the news to Daily NK on March 2nd, explaining, “Recently, two Korean-Chinese were captured and taken off to Pyongyang. The word among traders is that evidence emerged that the two had been introducing [North Koreans] to churches.”

Slavery is not dead:

Last month, an important paper by Marcus Noland added strong support to long-standing suspicions about the exploitative arrangements at the Kaesong Industrial Park, the flagship of the Sunshine Policy and the largest surviving “engagement” project.

To the extent the newspapers noticed it, they mostly noticed Noland’s most sensational conclusion — that each North Korean worker there nets as little as $2 a month, out of average of $130 in “wages” and “bonuses” for overtime. Noland isn’t pleased with the media focus on this point (for example), although I’d argue that it’s an important one that deserved even more attention and introspection than it got.

What the Korean press largely missed, however, was Noland’s deeper conclusion that North Korea has negotiated its way to pan-opticon control over Kaesong’s work force, negating the very reformist forces that Kaesong’s promoters once promised.

 

Read the whole thing.

(Kamsahamnida)


At least I know one place is safe:

Days after a ranking system determined Regina was a relatively safe haven in the event of a zombie apocalypse, people in the Prairie city are noting the distinction with a sense of pride.

"This is probably the last place zombies would travel," one Regina resident told CBC News reporter Adrien Cheung Wednesday.

The ranking system was devised by an engineering student from Alberta, Michael Ross, who noted Regina scored well, in part, because of the climate and sparse population.

"It's quite cold, colder than the average Canadian city," Ross said. "It's very lowly densely populated, which is a good thing."

Ross devised the ranking system as a fun project based on the current popularity of zombie-themed movies, TV shows and other pop culture.

Ross evaluated such factors as geography, climate and the availability of weaponry to thwart zombies.
His rankings made sense to many.

"There's so much farm land," another Regina citizen noted, approvingly. "That's my plan: grab the family and go to the farm."

Why doesn't Rick Grimes move his people up north?