[PHOTO] Annex shed

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

• 80 Beats reports that the drug Truvada failed to protect some participants in a study on HIV infection in Africa from infection as a prophylactic mainly because they weren't taking it.


• Far Outliers quotes from a passage in Christopher Clark's Iron Kingdom to the effect that Prussia in the mid-19th century was becoming increasingly diverse, along ethnic and regional lines.


• At the Invisible College, Otto Spejkers refers to a legal dispute between Belgium and Senegal before the International Court of Justice over Senegal's failure to extradite Hissène Habré, former dictator of Chad. Inadequate national legislation (i.e. a failure in Senegalese law to require the extradition of non-citizens accused of crimes against humanity) is no excuse if international covenants also exist, it's argued.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money's Erik Loomis is quite right to argue that "the major problem with Hugo Chavez is that he is full of shit".


• Is Kazakhstan's denuclearization after the Soviet Union's end a model for Iran? Quite possibly, Registan argues.


• Kyle Bachan at Torontoist interviews the owner of the Silver Snail, a venerable comic book store set to leave its Queen West location after 36 years.


• Torontoist's Rachel Lissner reports on an effort in east-end Toronto to learn lessons in urban revitalization from the Australian city of Newcastle, in New South Wales.


• Towleroad reports on the launching of a concrete project to clone the woolly mammoth.


• At the Volokh Conspiracy Ilya Somin points out that although the Galactic Empire of Star Wars fame may have had famously unpragmatic leadership styles (and failings!), these principles suited an aggressive totalitarian state perfectly. Who said that the Galactic Empire was supposed to be a rational-bureaucratic society?

[CAT] "My Cat Says Hello"

The blog As A Linguist makes the point that systems of communication are not automatically languages. Cats communicate--Shakespeare communicates with me on any number of things--but their communications are simple. (So far as we know.)

The fact is, many people think that animals can use and understand language when they really just mean to say that animals can communicate. All animals and even plants have their own way of communicating, but is that the same thing as human language? It is a matter of controversy, actually. Some claim that systems of communication amongst prairie dogs, dolphins, and chimpanzees have the same characteristics and level of complexity as human language does. Others, however, may concede the relative sophistication of certain communication systems, but argue that they still do not perform all the functions of a full human language.

[. . .]

What about productivity? Animals certainly seem to be limited to certain chunks of informative utterances that aren’t generally productive. A cat may have something completely different in her mind, like “I’d really like a belly rub now”, but there are only so many variations on the meow theme that they have at their disposal, so we humans are left to guess what it might mean. Of course, body language can come in handy, but again – a fluffy tail will always mean “Holy crap!” and will never be used in novel ways to express something completely different.

Moreover, animal communication nearly always refers to the present time, which means there seems to be little or no capability for displacement. Sure, bees have been known to be able to communicate the way to a good pollen source, which is technically speaking, the past tense. But it’s the immediate past tense and never more than that. They can’t dance to communicate something like, “Dude, do you remember that great pollen we found last month? Yeah, that was great. They don’t make flowers like that anymore.”

Mrs. Parker will never be able to explain why she so loves the sleeve of a fleece robe.
And finally, while some animals may have very sophisticated systems that can inform, express intention, and even convey emotion, they are still limited in what they can “say.” Meta-cognition, or meta-linguistics refers to our ability to think about thinking, or talk about talking. We are aware of the behavior itself and can discuss it. We don’t just have feelings; we lie on couches and pay good money to talk about those feelings, to analyze and process and understand those feelings. Who knows, maybe animals can do this too, but aren’t foolish enough to pay anyone to listen to them, but at this time, we don’t know if they can because they can’t tell us, at least not in a way we can understand.

[URBAN NOTE] "Ernest Hemingway in Toronto"

Torontoist's Graeme Bayliss contributed an interesting detailed history of Ernest Hemingway's experiences in Toronto some days ago. I'd known about Hemingway's history in Toronto, writing for the Toronto Star as a correspondent in the 1920s even while he enjoyed the Paris experience.

It was, as you might expect, Hemingway’s proclivity for storytelling that landed him a job in Toronto. While cottaging with his family in Petoskey, Michigan, Hemingway was asked to deliver a speech at the local women’s club, sharing with the audience his experiences as a soldier with the Italian army during the First World War, from which he had recently returned.

Of course, Hemingway had never fought with the Italian forces. He had been a volunteer ambulance driver with the Red Cross. He was handing out chocolates and cigarettes to Italian soldiers when his leg was seriously wounded by mortar fire. After extensive surgery and a long period of convalescence, he was sent home to the United States, having served for two months. This, however, did not make for a good story. So Hemingway procured a custom-tailored Italian officer’s uniform and cape, and made up a better one instead.

Harriet Connable, a wealthy Torontonian who was vacationing in Petoskey with her husband, Ralph, was so moved by Hemingway’s speech at the women’s club that she asked if he would consider staying at the couple’s mansion in Toronto. Harriet believed that the courage and pluck Hemingway showed in recovering from his leg injury might serve as an inspiration to her invalid son, Ralph Jr., and so she offered him a position as the boy’s caretaker and mentor while she and Ralph Sr. travelled to Florida on holiday. Through the elder Ralph’s business connections, Hemingway was able to secure a job writing features for the Star Weekly.

Hemingway was excited by the prospect of working for the Star, but less enthusiastic about taking care of Ralph Jr., whom he regarded as an irredeemable bore. The Connables insisted that Hemingway, who was adept at nearly every sport he tried, should attempt to interest their sickly son in athletics. One such attempt entailed taking Ralph to watch the Toronto St. Patricks, who, seven years later, would be renamed the Maple Leafs. Although the St. Pats were not a particularly skilled team in 1920, they were an undoubtedly truculent one, and Hemingway admired their scrappy style of play. That’s right: Ernest Hemingway was a Leafs fan.

Apparently, though, Hemingway's liking for Toronto diminished sharply over time.

Go, read.

[ISL] "Another postcard from the edge: life on the Kuril Islands"

Back in January, Ksenya Semenova contributed a travelogue describing life on the Kuril Islands. Still subject of a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, Semenova argues that there are so many other issues relating to life on the Kuril Islands that for their inhabitants an effectively dormant territorial dispute is irrelevant. Sheer insularity is a major issue.

A historic event took place recently on Kunashir, one of the four inhabited islands in the Kuril archipelago. Almost five kilometres of road were asphalted for the first time ever. Not long ago, something like this would have been beyond the islanders’ wildest dreams, but now the residents are promised that the road-building programme on Kunashir will only grow and grow.

[. . .]

No less glorious a development for the Kunashir islanders was the recent opening at the local port of a new deep-water mooring complex, which cost more than 170 million roubles to build. Many readers might not automatically sense the importance of this. Suffice to say that until now, Kunashir residents travelling by ferry from Sakhalin needed to disembark on a pontoon boat. Getting on to that boat, especially during the frequent Kuril storms, was something that terrified even experienced sailors. The new port complex, however, means that the ship can come right in to the shore. A deep-water docking facility is also being constructed on Iturup (the biggest fishing company in the Kuril Islands has had a similar facility there for some time, but only for the use of its own company ships).

Transport remains a crucial issue for the islanders. Of course, they are used to living far away from civilisation and big cities; they are also used to buying food at prices twice as expensive as on Sakhalin – where things are already far from cheap. But they also expect to be able to leave the island at least once a year — onto the ‘mainland’ i.e. Sakhalin, and from there perhaps to the ‘big mainland’. They want to walk the asphalted streets, see shopping centres, go to the theatre and the cinema, see their friends and family.

Sakhalin, it should be noted, the mainland for the Kuril Islanders and the author's home, is itself a Russian island territory in the North Pacific, although one with fifty times the Kuril Islands' population. Insularity is a relative phenomenon.

[BRIEF NOTE] Is the Conservative Party using robocalling to destroy the Liberals?

The Conservative Party, the CBC has noted, is pushing back at accusations that the Conservative Party masterminded a national robocalling campaign aimed at discouraging voter turnout by pointing to a Liberal MP in the southwestern Ontario city of Guelph who himself authorized robocalling.

Key documents in Guelph robocalls investigation Conservative MPs have seized an opportunity to push back on the robocalls controversy after a Liberal MP admitted his campaign made an automated call of its own that didn't identify who paid for it.

Frank Valeriote, who was re-elected in Guelph, Ont., May 2, 2011, confirmed that one of his campaign volunteers made a robocall before the election that told people to vote Liberal because the Conservative candidate was anti-abortion. Valeriote said he approved the call and admitted the volunteer who placed the call gave a fake name.

Conservative MP Dean Del Mastro said in question period Monday that the calls were dishonest.

"We now know that the member for Guelph, Mr. Speaker, in fact paid for illegal robocalls that concealed the fact that the calls came from his Liberal campaign. They used a bogus number, Mr. Speaker, a fictitious character, they broke the CRTC regulations, they broke Elections Canada laws," said Del Mastro, parliamentary secretary to Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

[. . .]

According to the Elections Act, campaigns must identify who paid for advertising. The law doesn't specifically mention robocalls, but a spokesman for Elections Canada, asked whether the Valeriote campaign call was legal, pointed to the rules for campaign advertising.

The Liberals say Elections Canada has interpreted robocalls differently in the past. In a news release, the party said the agency last spring said on its website that live or automated messages sent to specific phone numbers and email addresses don't count as advertising.

Valeriote says the call doesn't qualify as advertising because it was clarifying his pro-choice position.

"This was a legal, issue-based called directed to a certain group of people who have been misinformed throughout Guelph about my position on abortion over a number of days, leading up to the call on Saturday," he said after question period.

I have to agree with Valeriote. As annoying as I find robocalls in principle, and keeping in mind that using a fake name for the robocalling account does not strike me as the best thing to do, the distinction he makes between robocalls made with the intent of informing people about stated policies of candidates and robocalls made with the intent of misleading people about voting locations and thus deterring them from voting is an important one.

One very interesting thing about the Conservatives' response to the accusations of robocalling directed against the party is that it seems--from the media coverage I've seen, at least--to be targeted against the Liberal Party, even though the New Democratic Party (now the opposition) and the Liberals have both made sustained high-profile attacks on the Conservative Party over the robocalling. It's Liberal Party misdeeds, past and present, that the Conservative Party is focusing on. The NDP, in contrast, is getting off lightly.

Is the Conservative Party trying to destroy the Liberal Party, its long-time rival for power, concentrating its fire so as to put it down permanently? The NDP and the Liberal Party are both to the left of the Conservative Party, but the Liberal Party is easily the most centrist of the two. Are Conservative Party strategists hoping that if they destroy the Liberal Party, a more strongly left-wing NDP won't be able to capture enough Liberal voters to prevent the Conservative Party from being Canada's natural party of government?

(And if the Conservative Party really is linked to robocalling, it's worth noting that the Liberal Party fared catastrophically in the past election, losing some seats by hundreds or even dozens of voters. One good way to make the Liberal Party seem no longer viable would be to go after potential Liberal voters in relatively marginal seats.)

Thoughts?

[BRIEF NOTE] On possible organized electoral fraud among Tamil Canadians in Scarborough

The robocalling scandal has managed to produce allegations of systematic fraud in the riding of Scarborough—Rouge River in northeasternmost Toronto (the former Scarborough).

A CBC News investigation has uncovered allegations of electoral fraud concentrated in the Tamil community in the east Toronto riding of Scarborough – Rouge River.

The allegations, which span both the federal and provincial ridings, centre largely on what appears to be a lack of oversight surrounding election-day additions to the official voters list.

Only Canadian citizens are legally allowed to vote in Canadian federal and provincial elections, and even people whose names are on the voters list must provide identification before they vote. In a federal election, a person who shows up at a polling station without ID can get a fellow constituent to vouch for them. In Ontario elections, voters without ID are asked to sign a form verifying they live in the riding.

It’s this polling-station process that lacks the most basic oversight, say candidates who spoke to CBC News. And the lack of oversight allows voters to illegally cast ballots in a practice the candidates say was common in Scarborough – Rouge River during last May’s federal election and in October’s provincial election.

Marlene Gallyot, a federal Conservative candidate who lost to the NDP’s Rathika Sitsabaiesan, has complained to Elections Canada, alleging ineligible voters “by the dozens” turned up on voting day and filed ballots illegally.

"They came with a Future Shop bill,” she told CBC News. “They came in with a Canadian Tire bill. They were coming in without proper identification."

Gallyot alleges that despite lacking the required ID, voters were still allowed to cast their ballots.

She also said scrutineers — party volunteers who oversee voting on behalf of candidates — were approaching voters at polling stations, speaking to them in Tamil and coaching them on who to vote for. Gallyot overheard such coaching inside and outside a polling station she was allowed to visit as an "observer," she said.

Gallyot was born in India but speaks Tamil as a second language. She told CBC she tried to put a stop to the alleged vote-coaching when she saw it but could not prevent it from happening at other polling stations.

"When they got to know that I could speak and understand Tamil, they were shocked, at least to some degree I was able to control it but there were too many polling stations."

Yes, the allegations may have been made by a Conservative candidate, but I find them at least superficially credible. One reason is that they echo complaints made by the local Liberal representative in the Ontario Provincial Parliament, whose provincial riding shares the same name and boundaries as the federal riding in question.

MPP Bas Balkissoon has complained to Elections Ontario alleging widespread voting irregularities in his Scarborough-Rouge River riding, including thousands of names being “improperly’’ added to the voters list.

“People are getting on the list and I’m not sure they’re living here,’’ Balkissoon said.

In two submissions to Elections Ontario totalling 25 pages, Balkissoon, a longtime provincial incumbent, says that between the last municipal election in October 2010 and the last federal election in May 2011 about 8,000 persons were added to the voters list, but only 3,000 names were removed, “a very large net gain of 5,000 voters.’’

He also claims that in the provincial election, 20 to 30 people showed up registering to vote as additions to the list, claiming they lived at 80 Alton Towers, a highrise in the riding.

“Most (of the voters) could not offer evidence of current residence, and declined to show the place of prior residence, but they did complete the statutory declaration,’’ and voted, Balkissoon’s submission reads.

He became aware of the problems after Namu Ponnambalam, a losing candidate in the last municipal vote, approached him before the provincial election, and showed him the municipal voters list.

Balkissoon and Ponnambalam believe thousands of names added to the list are either people without citizenship or have never lived in the ward.

Another reason is that this sort of centrally directed political campaign is common. I've blogged extensively about the substantial Tamil Canadian community of Toronto--concentrated in areas like Scarborough. Most Tamil Canadians do not come from India's large and stable state of Tamil Nadu, but rather from the much smaller and more embattled Tamil minority in Sri Lanka, the first major waves of Tamil immigrants to Canada coming in the 1980s at the beginning of the country's civil war. The Tamil Tigers have traditionally controlled Sri Lankan Tamil communities, a 2006 report observing that Tamils in the diaspora were shaken down for money by Tiger front organizations, these front organizations exerting significant influence elsewhere, representing themselves as legitimate representatives of the diaspora community and organizing political protests. In 2009, as the Tamil Tigers were being crushed by the Sri Lankan military, significant high-profile protests appeared throughout Toronto--I photographed one myself.

Is it outside the realm of possibility that organizations associated with the Tamil Tigers might be perpetuating electoral fraud in areas with large Tamil concentrations to try to ensure the election of relatively friendly candidates? Notwithstanding the emergence of this complaint in the context of robocalling, I don't find it at all implausible given past events. The coaching/intimidation of potential voters conducted in the Tamil language--spoken by very few non-Tamils in Toronto--fits. An investigation is clearly in order.