G20 and Civil Rights

The New York Times has an article about the apparent erosion of civil liberties in Toronto during the G20 summit:

Canadians discovered Friday that the Group of 20 summit meeting in Toronto has brought not only world leaders but also a temporary suspension of some of their own civil rights, at least in the core of downtown Toronto.

This post is not about whether the police powers have gone too far. Unfortunately, whenever I hear about the protests all I can think about is the patients and their families at the hospitals just south of Queen’s Park (Princess Margaret, Toronto General, Mount Sinai, and Sick Kids) and the impact the protests have on them:

As a precaution, UHN has cancelled many of our outpatient clinics on Friday, June 25, 2010, except for the following: dialysis at Toronto General Hospital; radiation therapy and chemotherapy at Princess Margaret Hospital; medical imaging at all UHN sites. These clinics will remain open for our patients on Friday, June 25, 2010

For me, civil liberties is all about the Golden Rule and they only extend to the point where your rights begin to impinge on the rights of others.

This is a fine balance but it seems like modern-day protestors are no longer just trying to have their voice heard but they are also trying to force their message on an unwilling audience.

iPad Outdoors

This is my second weekend with my new iPad. The iPad was released internationally (I live in Canada) on may 28th. The device is pretty much what I expected but there have been a few notable surprises.

By far the happiest for me is that it works pretty well outdoors even in direct sunlight. It is on par with the first generation iPod Touch I own. The finger prints standout more in direct sunlight but a little bit of elbow grease resolves that. Mind you it is no Kindle. The e-ink screen on the Kindle and other eReaders is gorgeous in direct sunlight.

My second test outdoors with the iPad was a disappointment. Outdoors is one thing but outdoors with sunglasses is another. I wear polarized sunglasses and many screens washout through a polarizer. The Kindle is not impacted at all. The iPod Touch is fine in portrait mode but suffers a bit in landscape mode. Through my polarized sunglasses the iPad is nothing but black in portrait mode. So sad.

This weekend as I sit outside overlooking the lake, I decided to try it again. Notta in portrait mode but to my surprise it’s fine outdoors with polarized sunglasses in landscape mode. WooHoo!!!

Maybe outdoor posts is the only way to get me to blog in the summer.