Rotundus.com

Having been involved with some recent discussions in which people were arguing that all countries had content quotas, meaning that Canadian content on TV should be no crappier than European I decided to see how the systems compared.

Here's what I found on European content quotas:

At the European level they were put in place by the Televisions Without Frontiers Directive(TWF), now the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD), and oblige broadcasters to ensure that a majority of content qualifies as “European works”. At the national level, quotas for “cultural” content are often linked to the use of the domestic language and range from 5% to as much as 50% of annual broadcast programming. ... stations averaged 9.5 hours of European works per day coming close to compliance

So individual countries mandates vary from 5%-50%, with the EU having a 50% European content goal which they seem to fail at, having about 40% European content. That's with a population estimated at 740 million. With Canada having less than 5% the size of the European population, how do it's content quotas compare?

Not less than 60% of the broadcast year and not less than 50% of the 6 p.m. to midnight evening broadcast period must be devoted to Canadian programs

With a quota that's 50% higher than what the Europeans in practice achieve with only 5% the population base, you should conclude that on average Canadian TV is likely to be mediocre at best, even relative to other countries with content quotas. Canadians, as judged by their viewing habits, appear to agree quite strongly - Statistics Canada reports that 72.2% of watched programs were foreign despite 60% of the broadcasting being Canadian.

What makes this even worse is that you should expect Canadian TV to grab progressively more mediocre the better the Canadian economy performs. As the cost of doing business in Canada goes up, you should expect companies to choose to film in locations - even though a fair bit of American media production has taken place in the Vancouver area. And remember... in some areas in Canada the overall impact of government film industry subsidies appear to have a negative impact on GDP.

One Secret That Stops Hackers: Girlfriends

"The majority of hackers "age out" of hacking as they get older and find girlfriends, families, and other responsibilities. Why not invest in educating young hackers sooner, instead of locking them up later?" (I'll ignore how the story uses the word "hacker" here).

Women should marry women, says Facebook COO

In her words: "I’ve said it a hundred times and I’ll say it a hundred times – if you marry a man, marry the right one ... If you can marry a woman, that’s better because the split between two women in the home is pretty even, the data shows." Sexist? I see no reason why women can't be computer scientists - e.g. Marissa Mayer but on the other hand the views of some prominent women in the high tech sector are a bit unusual and perhaps counterproductive. I've been debating whether or not to say more about this talk by the Facebook COO on women in high tech, which is half reasonable advice and half dubious at best, but for now I'll hold off.

You can call her chubby, chunky but NOT obese: How one female scholar is challenging super-size stereotypes with 'fat pride'

"While obesity is considered a disease by medical experts the world over, a group of academics are contesting the issue in a show of 'fat pride'. American scholar Cat Pause, 39, is leading of a movement to reclaim the word 'fat' and remove the negative connotations surrounding it and those it is used to describe." What can I say...

Hellhole: The United States holds tens of thousands of inmates in long-term solitary confinement. Is this torture?

From the New Yorker: "If prolonged isolation is — as research and experience have confirmed for decades — so objectively horrifying, so intrinsically cruel, how did we end up with a prison system that may subject more of our own citizens to it than any country in history has?" Seems to lead to mental illness and stump social development rather than prepare inmates for later reintegration into society. I knew the US hadn't the world's highest incarceration rates - I didn't realize they held that many in solitary confinement (HT: MR)

Look-Alikes, Not Just Opposites, Can Attract, Too

Trying to match people on a dating site based on facial characteristics seems rather gimmicky / shallow. I wonder to what extent this is functionally an ethnic filter, perhaps thereby also conveying some cultural implications.

Credit card users could soon face higher costs for paying with plastic

Following a recent case, it seems as though US companies can now impose a credit card surcharge to customers using such things. Will the same happen in Canada? In Canada fees range "from 1.5 to 3.0 per cent of the value of customer purchases — ... about twice the rate credit card firms charge merchants in Australia, New Zealand and many parts of Europe, but slightly below the U.S. average." Apparently fees paid by merchant are up 30% in the past two years due to premium credit cards.

Julia’s mother: Why a single mom is better off with a $29,000 job and welfare than taking a $69,000 job

"Let’s take the example of a single mom with two kids, 1 and 4. She has a $29,000 a year job, putting the kids in daycare during the day while she works. As the [chart on the page] – via Gary Alexander, Pennsylvania’s secretary of Public Welfare — shows, the single mom is better off earning gross income of $29,000 with $57,327 in net income and benefits than to earn gross income of $69,000 with net income & benefits of $57,045."

Five Men Agree To Stand Directly Under An Exploding Nuclear Bomb

From 1957. Strange... of course there's video. "This footage ... was shot by the U.S. Air Force ... to demonstrate the relative safety of a low-grade nuclear exchange in the atmosphere. Two colonels, two majors and a fifth officer agreed to stand right below the blast."

Based on IQ tests, women are now officially smarter than men

Can't be too surprised to see this - as the Star article notes "Before women feel too self-satisfied, it must be noted that IQ tests aren’t without controversy. These tests measure and reward the kind of intelligence valued by university-attending types in developed nations, and neglect cultural intelligence that might be equally prized in different settings." I've mentioned before that IQ-related gender differences differ between countries. The article notes that "Among high school students, females with an IQ of 100 scored As and Bs, whereas males with the same IQ received Bs and Cs. Perhaps girls are more conscientious, or boys simply have trouble adapting to formal education, Flynn suggested." Could be a few other things as well - the feminization of education, girls being somewhat more submissive, or greater natural levels of energy / aggression amongst boys.

When Is It OK To Spank?

"A lot of what you’ve heard about the dangers of spanking might not be true."

Idaho farm hosts 'weed dating' for singles

A new variant of speed dating - rather than sitting around a table chatting prospective couples try weeding a farm together.

Accountability at Penn State

"A scathing report by former FBI Director Louis Freeh protrays a group of top officials at Penn State as major players in an active cover-up of sexual abuse by Jerry Sandusky on the campus Penn State that that lasted more than a decade. ... 'Four of the the most powerful men at Penn State -- President Graham B. Spanier, Senior vice-President Finance and Business Gary C. Schulz, Athletic Director Timothy M. Curly and Football coach Joseph V. Paterno failed to protect against a child predator harming children for over a decade,' Freeh wrote in the report’s executive summary." Is this a bad thing? Of course. Should you be surprised that a coverup took place? Probably not. How can we make it less likely that coverups take place - there seems to be negative consequences for those apologizing for things ... I imagine that the same phenomena makes coverups more likely.

Why Nikola Tesla was the greatest geek that ever lived

An Oatmeal piece looking at his life and some of the stuff he was experimenting with...