It's been close to a month, but I've not had much to write about. Basically, I do work all week, and gorge on video games on Saturday. I don't get out of Lawrencetown much either. Maybe once to the next town over to buy groceries, as there is no grocery store here (it is that small), but otherwise it's just school and sleep. It seems my classmates have about the same schedule, plus we still remain rather socially atomized outside of school. It's just Karen and I to ourselves most of the time, so it's pretty quiet.

The course is going well however, and I'm staying on top of stuff, so I'm rather pleased with myself, as I'm not much for staying on top of stuff - at least before, that is.

I'll post some stuff I've done a bit later.

It is with more than a little schadenfreude that I look upon today’s arrest of a local bishop on charges of child pornography. More striking is the completely surreal feeling because this bishop oversaw the release last month of a $15 million settlement for victims of sexual abuse by clergy in the Diocese of Antigonish, with cases dating back nearly 60 years. This is an issue that has touched my family, as there was an abusing priest in Port Hood decades ago. He’s dead now, having escaped any real sort of consequence because of organized cover ups on the part of the Antigonish diocese. This issue was given a fictionalized treatment in the coincidentally timed August release of the novel The Bishop’s Man set in a not quite Port Hood of the 1960s.

Taking pleasure in the Church’s misfortunes has little do with me being an atheist, but rather how it so starkly refutes those who defend the institution’s integrity by attempting to marginalize issues like sexual abuse as ‘personal failings’. Certainly all organizations are going to deal with individuals who abuse the power given to them, but sometimes the institution itself can breed these problems, particularly institutions as profoundly unaccountable as the Roman Catholic Church. To this day Catholic Catechism teaches the divinely sanctioned authority of the Church over its adherents in all aspects of their lives. In practice that means that a handful of unelected and unmarried men are in charge, encouraging a culture of secrecy. Until Vatican II ended in 1965, the Church was generally hostile to liberal democracy, from denouncing it as a heresy to supporting the coup of the reactionary Francisco Franco against a democratically elected government in Spain and was in return granted special privileges after he defeated the Republicans, while a million people died in the process.

Is it any wonder that such misfortune continually bedevils the church? Popular control is about the only thing that can keep an institution accountable, and the Catholic Church is about the last serious bastion of authoritarianism in the Western World. Sure many Catholics want to reform the church so it can do more good, calling for female priests, allowing priests to marry and a reconsideration of contraceptives, but how many are calling for the pope to be popularly elected every four years?

Plain and simple, any good such an undemocratic and unelected institution does are purely ‘personal successes’; the bad stuff is merely normal.

I'll claim to have been busy as a reason for the long silence. That is staying on top of all my course work, which is somewhat unusual for me, and filling my spare time playing Europa Universalis III with the Magna Mundi mod, as the sweet laptop I got for my course is the first computer I owned that can run it (and with gusto). Unfortunately, I do not have administrative privileges on my own machine because of all the licensing issues with cartographic software I have access too. Technically it is a lease until the course ends, but I had to pay the full price up front. Reasons like that is why I am currently working as an activist for the anti-copyright Pirate Party of Canada. If you're in the area, there's a meeting at the Uncommon Grounds on Argyle Street in Halifax at 4pm on Sunday October 4th.

Anyway, cartography has come along way from large wooden tables, constantly re-furling maps and big ass rulers, although we still do all of that. The hot thing these days is Geographic Information Systems (GIS), which is basically attaching a database to a map. This video give a short and flashy overview. Google Earth is a lay man's version, but still very powerful in what it can do. The applications of GIS are virtually unlimited, because it is not so much about the static location of things, but rather how the relationships between things can be visualized in spatial contexts. And you can do this with anything, from the best location to put a coffee shop based on neighbourhood demographics, to more efficient patterns of global commerce, to organizing a revolution to remake the political system. Maps have long been used as a tool of domination, giving a visual legitimacy to political boundaries (the borders of Israel are a good example), to perpetuating imperialism (a pink British Empire), to selling big development projects (omitting the wetlands under a proposed mall). GIS allows everybody to organize and participate in creating a collective map of our world, because maps are one of the most powerful tools we have at our disposal.

Anyway, that's enough of that for now. I've got to think more on the possibilities, and I have a paper to write on my "life goals" and other personal development junk. *Sigh*

As a parting link, the most excellent Karl Schroeder gives us a neat idea for a future GIS application through his concept of "The Rewilding: A Metaphor" (WARNING - MINDBLOWING CONTENT). I had also talked with him at Worldcon about the idea.

Currently in Canada, a public consultation on copyright reform is just coming to an end on September 13th. As I have professed interest in copyright law before, I jumped at the chance to participate, and submitted a letter with my concerns. While most people don't give much thought to copyright, living in an increasingly digital society makes copyright extraordinarily important to the average citizen. The Canadian government last summer attempted to pass Bill C-61, a virtual clone of the restrictive American Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The bill met with a surprising amount of public opposition and died when parliament adjourned for a fall election. This time around the government set up public consultations and the overwhelming majority of participants are against a repeat of Bill C-61 and in favour of less restrictive copyright laws to benefit Canadian artists and consumers rather than a few multinational corporations.

In the midst of this consultation, the Canadian edition of the International Pirate Party is being formed. In short the party's platform supports fair copyright and patent reform, increased privacy protection, net neutrality and open government. I have already joined and am helping to get the party registered. I will also be attending one of their meetings (website has details) this weekend in Halifax. Come if you can, and if you can't join the party.

Beneath the cut you will find a copy of my submission for your reading pleasure and free use to send.

( Copyright )

Well, I'm all set up in my new digs. It's just as rural as my old ones, except the surroundings are considerably more settled, as the Annapolis Valley is a farming region known for its apples, as well as other fruits and vegetables. There's quite literally a roadside farmer's market every couple of miles. Today also had lots of yard sales that had colonized front lawns. I was tempted to buy a tin of Prince Albert Tobacco, still full of tobacco ca 1910. All of that made filling the larder rather easy, and things will get even better as harvest season is just around the corner.

Anyway, school starts on Tuesday, so it's going to be a change of pace since I've been out of school for two years now.