Artist Gary Simpson created a series of frescos in 2006 based on global indicators from the CIA’s factbook.
“The series embraces the dichotomy of static numbers versus the randomness of the artist’s technique. A collage of numbers and names of countries printed on strips of paper, brass bars, slats of wood in varying lengths and shredded dollar bills, tell the story in a 3- dimensional way.”
Wordless Web is a simple browser plug-in that hides the words on any web site, so the only thing left to see are the pictures.
The man who put Marc Emery behind bars is advocating for the legalization of marijuana.
John McKay was a Federal Prosecutor, appointed in 2001 by President George Bush, when the case of Marc Emery came to him.
Emery sold cannabis seeds globally through a Vancouver-based catalogue company. He was arrested in 2005, and extradited to Seattle, convicted and sent to jail in 2010. He is currently serving a five-year sentence in Mississippi.
On a side note, McKay was one of the Federal Prosecutors let go in the dismissal of U.S. Attorneys controversy in 2007. He briefly served as senior vice president and general counsel to Getty Images, and since has returned to private law.
Now he’s on side with marijuana legalization.
Stop the Violence BC, a coalition of academic, legal, law enforcement and health experts out to overturn the law, organized a press conference with McKay, former B.C. attorney-general Geoff Plant and Emery’s wife Jodie.
McKay says that it was his job to prosecute Emery, but now that he’s no longer a Federal Attorney, he’s free to speak his mind.
“The criminal marijuana prohibition is a complete failure,” said McKay. ”The problem posed by the vast criminal marijuana black market is a threat to public safety both in the United States and Canada. It’s time to rethink our criminalization and prohibition policy.” – John McKay
McKay brings a lot of clout to the lobby not just because he’s a staunch Republican, but because he has an excellent reputation among law enforcement officials on both sides of the border. McKay not only cites the tax grab that both countries could take in, but is promoting the savings to law enforcement.
McKay noted that both Washington and Colorado will vote soon to legalize small quantities of pot for adults, with another 14 states at various stages in a move to decriminalize pot – essentially issuing the equivalent of a traffic ticket for marijuana possession.
Canada Post is suing GeoCoder.ca for providing a free online database of Canadian postal codes, claiming that its postal code list is copyright.
Canada Post’s claim is based on financial reasoning, as the Crown Corporation charges companies approximately $5,500 a year for the same information. The statement of claim filed by Canada Post says it’s losing potential clients and revenue thanks to GeoCoder.ca.
As reported in the Toronto Sun, the Canada Post spokesperson also claims they create new addresses which is a strange comment. I’m not sure how any one can claim they own an address. I’m certain it is a town or city that requires a property to have an address.
“We deliver to 32 million Canadians every day. Each year, we create more than 200,000 new addresses, and countless others are changed or removed from the database. We also process 1.2 million change of address requests annually for Canadians who are moving from one residence to another
“As you can imagine, we invest a significant amount of time, effort and money to maintain our address data, and ensure that it is clean and accurate. Only Canada Post has the breadth of network required to collect and update this information on a daily basis.”
- Canada Post spokeswoman Anick Losier
Geolytica, the owner of the website GeoCoder.ca, says in its statement of defence that postal codes are public data and not subject to copyright law.
This is a court case to watch, especially for marketers and political campaigners who regularly use postal code databases.
Alex Reid is a Canadian who likes a lot of things. Welcome to my world.