Random links
- China plans to put out its coalfield fires
- The article mentions that the coalfield fires, some of which have been burning for fifty or more years, consume about 20 million tonnes of coal per year. I already mentioned long-running, large-scale oil spills in Africa's Niger delta, but other sources of pollution, like this Chinese case, may also have more damaging effects than the recent and still ongoing BP oil spill.
- Canadians pay too much for generic drugs: Report
- Noting that brand-name drugs in Canada are less expensive than in the U.S. the situtation is reversed for generic drugs with Canadians paying more than double. The article touches on some of the reasons why.
- GetReligion.org: Religion reporting as public therapy?
- "In other words, when mainstream journalists use the word 'moderate' (as in 'moderate' Muslims) it usually means, 'People that we like.' GetReligion readers already know that the word 'fundamentalist' has turned into an slur that usually means, 'Dangerous, uninformed, simplistic people that we don’t like.' Who cares what the Associated Press Stylebook says, anyway?"
- New credit cards pose security problem: Hacker shows CBC how to crack 'contactless' MasterCard
- One of the reasons that I haven't pushed too much to get one, other than in circumstances in which they're the only way to make payments. Basically, they may be crackable - and some cards, as noted have been demonstrated to be broken. Basically the chip-and-pin approach means that in the case of fraudulent transactions, you're more likely to be held liable.