Consumed Consumer . org

Free Toronto Movie Screenings

2008-07-08T17:06:00.003-04:00

[tags]movie, free, fido[/tags] Fido, Y&D Square are trying to rock summer Tuesday evenings with free movies at the Harbourfront. The first one starts today. In Toronto, a number of venues show free movies. During the school year, the Cinema Students Union (1) at University of Toronto (College & St. George, Innis College) show their Free Friday Movies. They have also numerous promotions -

Get the Economist at 83% off!

2008-06-29T23:07:00.001-04:00

Technorati Tags: economist, discount, coupon, deal, sale, promotion Many people love the Economist, the "serious" British publication. Reading it is a "guilty" intellectual pleasure that comes with a high price tag. At almost $8 at newsstands and bookstores, the yearly subscription is more than what most people can afford to spend. And here's the promotion that might change all that - 12 issues

Domain giveaway marathon - 25 gTLDs at the top of every hour!

2008-05-12T21:18:00.001-04:00

[tags]promotion, contest, giveaway[/tags] Mydomain.com is having a domain name giveaway. 25 domain names (.com, .net, .org) will be given away at the top of every hour, on Tuesday, May 13, at 12pm-7pm EDT. Mydomain is providing a number of domain services for free, even for domains registered elsewhere. If you like free services, you might find it is worth your while to register a free account

The Top Reasons to Live Car-Free

2008-05-01T10:48:00.002-04:00

I have decided a couple of years ago that owning a car is stoopid. So even though I live mid-town, I am now relying on TTC & rentals only. There are many reasons for my decision: 1. mandatory insurance, increasing without bounds due to 9/11, terrorist attacks and risk spreading in the industry 2. traffic congestions making TTC far more attractive 3. constant headaches with owning a car (though I

How to get acute Hepatitis C from a clinic

2008-03-08T06:15:00.002-05:00

[tags]medicare, health, healthcare, hygiene[/tags] Answer: Move to Las Vegas or any other US city. You might not get it right away, but keep going to clinics for investigative procedures and your efforts will eventually be successful. A clinic had been using unsterilized equipment and reusing syringes resulting in an acute hepatytis C endemic. Apparently, proper procedures were not followed at

Potluck honey and becoming

2008-03-04T06:01:00.005-05:00

[tags]potluck, honey, walnuts[/tags] I recently wrote about a regular meeting of art-minded friends. This coming Sunday we will meet again, but first for a potluck "dinner". Here's the stage-setting email: The idea is, "minimally processed, as natural as possible, wholesome, simple and healthy..." Also, being an inclusive group, we need to be open to the needs of both vegetarians and omnivores

Canadian warship seizes four tonnes of hashish and has a "happy crew that day"

2008-02-28T09:27:00.002-05:00

[tags]hashish, canada, drug trade[/tags] During a "terrorist search", a Canadian warship boarded a Pakistani vessel in the Arabian Sea and found four tonnes of hashish during a 17 hour search. The catch was dumped in the sea. Canadian Press, quoted by Macleans, states that the Canadians were allowed on the fishing vessel by some of the 11 men who were repairing fishing nets on the deck. The

East & West - Unite!

2008-02-25T09:31:00.010-05:00

In what is becoming a regular occurrence, I attended yesterday evening a meeting of the Art Experience Group (AEG). We ate, drank, watched a movie, and plotted to take over the world. The spiritual one, that is :) Here's an edifying quote from my buddy's email: And, we are of course continuing to project the Part III of the legendary Joseph Campbell "The Power of Myth" interview with Bill Moyers

playing with fire while the city sleeps

2008-02-02T22:20:00.000-05:00

I found myself thinking recently about all the hoopla surrounding the last summer round of wild fires (California, Greece, etc). And I remembered this old, old, but awesome hip-hop ditty. Today, the author would be arrested for terrorism. :) It's best to listen to the song late in the evening, but not too late - they say that if you play with fire you might wet your bed (2 clips, move back and

Spot the Serial Killer Quiz

2008-01-31T06:12:00.000-05:00

Try the Serial Killer Quiz and try to correctly distinguish between 10 serial killers and computer language inventors. It's not that hard, I got 9 out of 10 :) And here's the Top 10 "that's what she said" Star Wars moments. What did you get in the quiz?

Debating - an intellectual exercise - part I

2008-01-16T07:22:00.000-05:00

As the Economist Debate series (1) -currently on education - is quickly approaching its end, we find that we can no longer postpone writing our article on debating. I discovered debating quite late in University (2, 3). Deeply disappointed by the lack of flexibility in the engineering curriculum and the unidirectional nature of lectures, I tried to find something to quell my need for interaction

META Happy New Year 2008: a "best of" 2007 BEST OFs

2007-12-31T16:18:00.000-05:00

Let's start by wishing you a prosperous, joyous and all-around successful happy new year! We wish we could join other sites in presenting you with an insightful retrospective; alas, we cannot - we only started a couple of months ago, and we have yet to finalize the "look and feel" of our website. What we can do, however, is throw you a floating device to help you breath through the "must read"

Fraud 101: Spam, spim, chain mail and other time-wasters

2007-12-19T15:11:00.001-05:00

We recently learned that Canada's Competition Bureau (7) took the unusual step of warning the public about several hoaxes perpetrated on the Internet and not only (9). This is a good opportunity for this article, since after getting for the nth time a chain email from a friend, I had already decided it's about time I write this little ditty, in the hope that if I am to receive more junk / chain

Fac(eboo)k off, Canadian Pornking!

2007-12-18T16:09:00.000-05:00

Just like pop will eat itself, Facebook will one day self-destruct (2). Until then, it's getting an ever increasing mind-share and implicitly expanding media coverage. In the last salvo in this war for our brainspace, we learn that Facebook is taking a Canadian porn site to court over alleged attempts to steal private details of users(1). The lawsuit names Istra Holdings Inc., the numbered

Clean water: filtered, bottled or tap?

2007-12-18T08:58:00.001-05:00

We recently learned that the Canadian federal government has failed to produce reports regarding the state of our water supply for more than five years (1). The Conservatives blame the Liberals, while the Liberals don't seem to care. To sweeten the debacle, Harper claims that they are looking into legislation to ban phosphates in household chemicals (2). This is obviously a good move, since

Download DivX Pro for free!

2007-12-15T12:29:00.000-05:00

We all know that you need DivX (or its free cousin, Xvid) to watch most of the movies available in digital format. There are now even DivX DVD player. For a limited time, DivX will give you a free license for the holidays. This will enable you to author movies in this format easily. Head over to their website for more: http://www.divx.com/dff/index.php UPDATEThey run such promotions regularly,

LB Pearson got his Nobel prize exactly 50 years ago

2007-12-10T21:36:00.000-05:00

If you're anything like me, and you don't happen to know who The Right Hon. Lester Bowles, P.C., C.C., O.M., O.B.E., B.A., M.A., LL.D. is, you might think "So What?!?". I think he was one of the most important politicians Canada ever had and quite possibly the best. He did more to take this country into modernity than any other P.M. (at least that I know of, which is not saying much) and he did

10 Things for Human Rights Day

2007-12-10T15:35:00.002-05:00

I just got an email from an acquaintance working for Amnesty.ca. I reproduce it below: Today is International Human Rights Day - 10 things you can do on December 10 - It's a time to reflect. It's a time to act. Shine your own light on human rights by taking at least one action to mark December 10th, the anniversary of the

HOWTO: Back-up your DVD for free

2007-12-09T13:56:00.000-05:00

In response to numerous requests, we are publishing a no non-sense guide to backing up your encrypted or unencrypted DVD with the use of high-quality, ad/spyware-free gratis programs on Windows XP (it might work on Vista as well). Backing up a DVD you made yourself, such as a mini-DVD from your Handycam, is trivial - we recommend Nero or VOB2MPG if you want to edit or play with it. As you may

Massive, unfixed security flaw at Passport Canada

2007-12-04T10:40:00.000-05:00

We just learned about a very serious security flaw in the Passport Canada website accepting online applications. Other people's information can be easily accessed by simply applying for a passport and then altering characters in your browser's address bar. The flaw was discovered by Jamie Laning, an IT worker at Algonquin Automotive, in Huntsville, Ontario. The available data includes SINs,

EU Commissioner for Consumer Policy Web Chat

2007-12-04T10:03:00.000-05:00

In yet one more sign that the European Commission is more committed to the interests of the individual citizens they represent, EU-commissaris - Meglena Kuneva will engage in a web chat on Wednesday, December 12. The topic of the discussion will be "product safety", particularly the last high-profile incidents with dangerous toys.Information is a key element for making you, as Europe's citizens,

Rise of salaries in 2008: a cause to celebrate or just another sign of inflation?

2007-11-30T19:03:00.000-05:00

The study claims that the increases are calculated after inflation, but we do not find that plausible; not only that this is an inflationary event, but it is, in our view, driven by inflation. Although Global salaries are expected to rise by an average of 6% in 2008, 1.9% above projected average inflation, according to a study of 62 countries worldwide by Mercer.According to study results, India

OLPC - charity or 3rd world profiteering?

2007-11-29T06:35:00.002-05:00

What if we told you that you can buy a cheap laptop and, for the price you would normally pay for a Windows based one, you can get a laptop running a much more stable operating system AND send a similar laptop to a child in Africa? What if that laptop would be useless to a thief? Finally, what if this laptop, called XO, was not only rugged & child-proof, but was actually designed to be used

Private domain registration

2007-11-24T10:37:00.000-05:00

Put simply, private domain registration refers to the ability to protect your private info when registering a website or domain name (a domain name is, for instance, ConsumedConsumer.org). Normally, when you register this name, it is available for anyone to search and display using a whois query, unless you take special precautions and register it privately. Spammers have spam bots (computers or

US elections - the dream contenders

2007-11-24T09:59:00.001-05:00

Why would ConsumedConsumer.org care about the US elections? Frankly, because we cannot afford not to. Most governments take their cues from US. If US talks freedoms, they talk freedom, and torture in secrecy. If US tortures, they kill even more and torture openly. If US encourages stealing and does not punish its high-level crooks, corruption spreads like wildfire in the world. If US endures a