Comments for THE IDEAS LAB

Comment on The media conversation about surveillance: the slowly shifting sands of time by cchellew

cchellew — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 18:00:34 +0000

I think this raises some great issues. I also discuss surveillance at http://www.elchaos.org

Cheers

Comment on Vaccines, Autism and the “Liberal Media Conspiracy” by nhokkanen

nhokkanen — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 04:52:51 +0000

Thanks for writing this column. Funny, until 2008 I felt that the “liberal media” had utterly blacklisted any mention of the vaccine/autism causal link. No mention of the thousands of vaccine injury reports to the Federal Omnibus Autism Proceedings, to the Vaccine Adverse Reporting System, to the CDC’s Vaccine Safety Datalink.

In Congress earlier in this decade, two Republicans led the charge for investigative hearings: Rep. Dan Burton, and Rep. Dave Weldon, MD (recently retired). They and the Libertarians were far more open-minded about parents’ reports of vaccine-injured children. No good Democrat wants to see his/her public health entitlements criticized.

One of the biggest challenges in building public trust is getting well-intentioned public health administrators to realize that their product intended to improve health is having the opposite effect in a subset of the population. As the “autism” rate rises (a misnomer for neuro-immune damage) the critical mass of parents will no longer put up with institutional denial. With lab tests in hand, they increasingly will be storming legislators’ offices. The media cannot help but notice then.

Comment on iWatch: The Power of Surveillance in your Pocket by wellsmon

wellsmon — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 07:39:57 +0000

Interesting Read! Very detailed blog,thanks for sharing

Comment on Terror x Fear = Business Opportunity by Rhys Spencer

Rhys Spencer — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 23:29:15 +0000

Author escapes me, Naomi something, she wrote NO LOGO. Anyway, take a review of The Shock Doctrine. Capitalism holds it greatest (or worse depending on how you look at it, my being more the latter) triumphs on the heal of disaster.

Comment on Surveillance News – Hamilton Gets More Eyes in the Sky by Josh Greenberg

Josh Greenberg — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 00:05:48 +0000

Thanks for the comment Brandon. Interestingly, when video surveillance cameras were first introduced into Hamilton in the early 2000s, part of the rationale was to help “revitalize” the core. This is an essentially economic argument – a proxy for thinking up ways to cover up the symptoms of deep urban neglect (boarded up stores, increased numbers of homeless people, fewer and fewer permanent residents, etc.) by making the core appealing to business again. Problem is that most of the people who used to head downtown to shop now do so on the mountain, in Ancaster, and other areas where suburbs and power centres have thrived. London, Ontario faced a similar challenge (although the dynamics behind its camera program were different) and even after blanketing its downtown area with surveillance cameras it did little to address the economic difficulties of the region, and arguably as much to combat the disorderly behaviour that has always accompanied life in London’s entertainment district (but that’s a problem of too many bars, insufficient public transit and not enough taxis — the cameras there may usefully assist in crime detection and prosecution for drunken disorderly activity, but it won’t do anything to prevent alcohol-related crimes from occurring).

Comment on Surveillance News – Hamilton Gets More Eyes in the Sky by Brandon

Brandon — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 17:54:16 +0000

Very interesting and intriguing.

Although it doesn’t have all that much relevance to your main question, it’s odd that Hamilton would be stepping up surveillance when very little happens in its downtown core anymore. Go down there one afternoon and you’ll see that it’s a veritable ghost town, especially when you consider that it was a relevant place of business and a thriving city center just 10-15 years ago.