Dear Charles - Week 5
Dear Charles,
Well, after two weeks of absence, I can't say that I have found very exciting news stories for your reading pleasure. Maybe it was unusually quiet this week, maybe it was the crappy weather that
dimmed my interest.
I tried finding a news story about the arrest of the individuals believed to have killed Constable Mark Bourque back in December, but found nothing. Maybe the news hasn't been communicated to the world yet. I did find however an article asking the question: what is Canada doing in Haiti? The article is very "leftist", but I did find the question interesting, as our media seems to give little or no attention to the missions Canada carries abroad, except for Afghanistan.
What Canada is Talking About
A great story about a CBC journalist finding a classified document detailing Hydro-Quebec's new security procedures on the Montreal subway. This internal document was Hydro-Quebec's response to public criticism following another story where Radio-Canada reporter Christian Latreille made it inside Manic-5, unchallenged.
This story really caught my attention because I am reading The Art of Deception, from Kevin Mitnick. Mitnick is a hacker turned security consultant who argues that the weakest link of a company's security strategy is too often its employees. The book talks about carefully plotted attacks by social engineers who, by asking simple questions to unsuspecting employees, gain unrestricted access to a company's classified information. In the case of the Hydro-Quebec document, a security advisor (none the less) obviously thought it was OK to print a copy of this very sensitive procedure and carry it around. Until his briefcase was stolen... Unbelievable!
Large parts of Manitoba and North Dakota are under water: 40,000 hectares of farmland are now flooded and so is the border crossing.
Peter MacKay is a big fan of Condoleezza Rice. She didn't seem to care much about him and the US will continue to pursue a plan to enforce new passport requirements for people who wish to cross the border. In January 2008, we will need a passport or a special ID issued by the United States to enter the country.
West Coast Stories
Over 100 officers raided 14 different locations in an effort to find Graham McMynn, who was abducted at gunpoint eight days ago. Who is Graham McMynn? The son of a wealthy Vancouver family. Does the police typically invest so many resources in trying to find kidnapped or missing individuals? I wonder...
The Vancouver Canucks are out of the playoffs, I expect rioting to start in Vancouver anytime now. Maybe the fans will feel better knowing that the Leafs were also eliminated! At least the Canucks won their last game of the regular season.
OK, why would someone steal blood vials, I have no idea. But these specific vials had HIV-infected blood, which makes the story even creepier. But apparently, people will steal anything that is
locked away and later decide whether it has value or not.
None the Wiser
On Wednesday, we received an e-mail at work from our Bangalore office to inform us that there would be on an unscheduled holiday on Thursday. Unscheduled holiday? Well, the real news was that a famous and well-loved actor died and that people were sent home for their own safety. Yes, safety, because the death was accompanied by much public confusion and even some rioting... I guess there any many ways to express your grief.
Personally
I was off on Friday for the Easter long weekend. My friend James (I don't think you've ever met him), who is on training for the navy in Victoria, was visiting and arrived Friday afternoon. He was in the mood for sushi and had found a decent all-you-can-eat sushi place on Robson, so we called Lara to invite her to join us. You know Lara never refuses sushi :-) James also wanted to get in touch with his friend Trevor, so he invited him as well. Dinner was really good, Trevor came with his boyfriend Cody and a lab that he training to become an assistance dog. After dinner, we went to Trevor's place for a few drinks. It was a fun evening.
Then, on Saturday, I rented a car and with Lara and James, we drove up to Whistler. We made it just in time to get a few hours of sun. You should have seen your girlfriend, she was excited about the beautiful mountains covered in snow! It was really quite the sight. We had dinner at the brewery and walked around the village, soaking in the rays and the large long-weekend crowd. Then, James left to go visit yet another friend and Lara and I had dinner together. We watched Madagascar, a really cute cartoon from the producers of Shrek.
Today is cold and rainy, so I'm staying in, doing some cleaning and hopefully my taxes. I'm procrastinating this year, I just really don't feel like dealing with them. Oh well.
Kiss, kiss.
Mel
Well, after two weeks of absence, I can't say that I have found very exciting news stories for your reading pleasure. Maybe it was unusually quiet this week, maybe it was the crappy weather that
dimmed my interest.
I tried finding a news story about the arrest of the individuals believed to have killed Constable Mark Bourque back in December, but found nothing. Maybe the news hasn't been communicated to the world yet. I did find however an article asking the question: what is Canada doing in Haiti? The article is very "leftist", but I did find the question interesting, as our media seems to give little or no attention to the missions Canada carries abroad, except for Afghanistan.
What Canada is Talking About
A great story about a CBC journalist finding a classified document detailing Hydro-Quebec's new security procedures on the Montreal subway. This internal document was Hydro-Quebec's response to public criticism following another story where Radio-Canada reporter Christian Latreille made it inside Manic-5, unchallenged.
This story really caught my attention because I am reading The Art of Deception, from Kevin Mitnick. Mitnick is a hacker turned security consultant who argues that the weakest link of a company's security strategy is too often its employees. The book talks about carefully plotted attacks by social engineers who, by asking simple questions to unsuspecting employees, gain unrestricted access to a company's classified information. In the case of the Hydro-Quebec document, a security advisor (none the less) obviously thought it was OK to print a copy of this very sensitive procedure and carry it around. Until his briefcase was stolen... Unbelievable!
Large parts of Manitoba and North Dakota are under water: 40,000 hectares of farmland are now flooded and so is the border crossing.
Peter MacKay is a big fan of Condoleezza Rice. She didn't seem to care much about him and the US will continue to pursue a plan to enforce new passport requirements for people who wish to cross the border. In January 2008, we will need a passport or a special ID issued by the United States to enter the country.
West Coast Stories
Over 100 officers raided 14 different locations in an effort to find Graham McMynn, who was abducted at gunpoint eight days ago. Who is Graham McMynn? The son of a wealthy Vancouver family. Does the police typically invest so many resources in trying to find kidnapped or missing individuals? I wonder...
The Vancouver Canucks are out of the playoffs, I expect rioting to start in Vancouver anytime now. Maybe the fans will feel better knowing that the Leafs were also eliminated! At least the Canucks won their last game of the regular season.
OK, why would someone steal blood vials, I have no idea. But these specific vials had HIV-infected blood, which makes the story even creepier. But apparently, people will steal anything that is
locked away and later decide whether it has value or not.
None the Wiser
On Wednesday, we received an e-mail at work from our Bangalore office to inform us that there would be on an unscheduled holiday on Thursday. Unscheduled holiday? Well, the real news was that a famous and well-loved actor died and that people were sent home for their own safety. Yes, safety, because the death was accompanied by much public confusion and even some rioting... I guess there any many ways to express your grief.
Personally
I was off on Friday for the Easter long weekend. My friend James (I don't think you've ever met him), who is on training for the navy in Victoria, was visiting and arrived Friday afternoon. He was in the mood for sushi and had found a decent all-you-can-eat sushi place on Robson, so we called Lara to invite her to join us. You know Lara never refuses sushi :-) James also wanted to get in touch with his friend Trevor, so he invited him as well. Dinner was really good, Trevor came with his boyfriend Cody and a lab that he training to become an assistance dog. After dinner, we went to Trevor's place for a few drinks. It was a fun evening.
Then, on Saturday, I rented a car and with Lara and James, we drove up to Whistler. We made it just in time to get a few hours of sun. You should have seen your girlfriend, she was excited about the beautiful mountains covered in snow! It was really quite the sight. We had dinner at the brewery and walked around the village, soaking in the rays and the large long-weekend crowd. Then, James left to go visit yet another friend and Lara and I had dinner together. We watched Madagascar, a really cute cartoon from the producers of Shrek.
Today is cold and rainy, so I'm staying in, doing some cleaning and hopefully my taxes. I'm procrastinating this year, I just really don't feel like dealing with them. Oh well.
Kiss, kiss.
Mel
Labels: books, friends, news, random observations
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