Few things are more sacred to Canadians than the nation's medicare system. After years of health spending cutbacks by conservative politicians, debate rages over whether private providers should now be allowed to compete with the public system. In British Columbia, where the government is shovelling tax dollars into the 2010 Olympics, patients are being left to die in emergency rooms and long-term care facilities due to overcrowding and understaffing. Is it too late to save public health care? Should it be saved?
posted to MetaFilter by 327.ca at 12:00 PM on April 27, 2006 (89 comments)

This is a stunning set of photographs by Robert Knoth, taken in the regions of Mayak, Semipalatinsk, Chernobyl, and Tomsk-7. [via]
posted to MetaFilter by 327.ca at 3:29 PM on April 22, 2006 (37 comments)

The BBC reports that twenty years on "the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power station is teeming with life." Lynx, eagle owl, wild boars, horses, wolves—even signs of bears which haven't been seen here in centuries. British scientist and environmentalist James Lovelock (recently discussed here) speculates whether "small volumes of nuclear waste from power production should be stored in tropical forests and other habitats in need of a reliable guardian against their destruction by greedy developers." Lovelock describes Chernobyl as "a nasty accident that took 45 lives." This article in the New Scientist claims that that the death toll may ultimately reach 60,000.
posted to MetaFilter by 327.ca at 8:26 AM on April 21, 2006 (49 comments)

Remember when US forces "found the weapons of mass destruction?" That announcement was made by President Bush on May 29, 2003 -- one day after this CIA Intelligence assessment was published. In the weeks following, reports emerged that disputed the CIA's findings. Now, three years later, the Washington Post says that the US Intelligence authorities already had "powerful evidence" that Bush's biological weapons claim was simply untrue.
posted to MetaFilter by 327.ca at 9:13 AM on April 12, 2006 (73 comments)

"How are EPA scientists supposed to engage in cutting edge research when they cannot find what the agency has already done?" Good question. As noted in an earlier post, the EPA is one of the agencies that is facing cuts to finance BushCo's America. How? By shutting down its network of libraries and its electronic catalogue.
posted to MetaFilter by 327.ca at 11:48 AM on February 17, 2006 (16 comments)

The Futurliners are imposing vehicles, 33 feet long, 8 feet wide and standing 11 feet 7 inches tall at the top of the driver's canopy. The driver's eyes are about 10 feet off the ground and in front of the steering wheels. This site updates a 2002 post on the restoration of one of these magnificent vehicles. via Boing Boing
posted to MetaFilter by 327.ca at 2:56 PM on January 23, 2006 (35 comments)

Charles Kellogg was born in 1868 in California and claimed to have the larynx of a bird (called a syrinx). Until his death in 1949, he lectured and entertained audiences as a performer of bird calls. He travelled across the continent in the Travel Log, a mobile home carved from a single Redwood log mounted on a 1917 Nash Quad truck chassis. In 1939, he smuggled samples of the Kakaula plant out of Fiji in hopes of providing birth control leader Margaret Sanger with the perfect contraceptive.
posted to MetaFilter by 327.ca at 7:18 AM on March 21, 2005 (4 comments)

Freebord explained. (Rest of life still a mystery.) Via Bifurcated Rivets.
posted to MetaFilter by 327.ca at 12:16 PM on December 17, 2004 (30 comments)

Canadian authorities have arrested US President George W. Bush and charged him with offences under Canada's War Crimes Act. Says (Canadian Prime Minister) Paul Martin: “This decision was not made lightly. But, it was also a decision that was impossible not to make. The United States is not outside the rule of law, and cannot expect to get an unlimited “free pass”. This decision puts a grave strain upon both our nations, and I urge calm and restraint from our American neighbours, as well as from Canadians. I have met with the cabinet, and with our colleagues in the House. This is a time of great crisis for us as a nation. But as people, we will survive this test. Earlier I enacted the Emergency War Powers Act. This is necessary to guarantee our domestic security. This is not a time for panic, for lawlessness, for anything other than a responsible and sobre focus on what lies immediately ahead.”
posted to MetaFilter by 327.ca at 2:22 PM on November 29, 2004 (76 comments)