Update on Warman and the Cools post

The wheels of justice, as the saying goes, grind slowly.

Long time readers will remember that I spent a good deal of time in 2008 investigating the allegation that Human Rights activist and lawyer, Richard Warman, had written a nasty racist screed about Anne Cools, and concluded that this was not possible:

1. the IP address used by the author of the Cools post (which had later been used by Warman) was a load-balancing proxy usable by any of Rogers' close to a million customers;
2. the browser and setup used by author of the Cools Post was different from Warman's in several key ways (here and here); 
3. the 'expert' opinion presented by Bernard Klatt arguing that Warman was the author of the Cools post was deeply substandard in several ways (here)

Warman brought a defamation suit against those who had claimed that he wrote that post, and the case has been inching its way through the court.

I have now seen the Court report related to this case (available here). It dismisses with costs the motion of Levant (the defendant) that Warman surrender 12,000 pages of data without redactions for privilege or relevance.

One interesting point that I noticed there, which might be added to those above: 

Two separate Expert Reports (dated December 17, 2009 and April 23, 2010) concluded that (i) there was no evidence Mr. Warman's computer was even turned on the day the Hateful Posting was authored, and (ii) no evidence existed of the Hateful Posting anywhere on Mr. Warman's computer.

To which my response can only be:

A post-retirement career for Hadfield?

Too cool

Check it out.

Whaaa?

Litigation makes strange bedfellows, I guess.

Blog like a pirate

In honour of the annual talk like a pirate day:

Moving to Canada…

… to escape socialized medicine?  hmmm.

"The only thing I hate more than the Romans ..."

apropos of nothing

Aggregators aggregate and make it easier for me to find interesting blog posts from a variety of sources. Belonging to one does not need to imply approval of other blogs; the removal of a blog from the aggregators that I regularly means that I might miss its posts. That makes me sad.

Gay marriage was a slippery slope after all

Same-sex marriage is a slippery slope. A Sens fan marrying a Leafs fan? Abomination..

Swedish Government Recognizes File-Sharing Faith as a Religion Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/blogs/gear-up/swedish-government-recogn

From Rollingstone:

The Church of Kopimism, a new faith focused on file-sharing, has been officially recognized as a religion by the Swedish government. The church developed from the Young Pirates, a young movement of the Pirate Party in Sweden, who have pushed for the free flow of information online.

What Santa is doing while you sleep

More here.

Two guitar players missed

BCL (and others) have been discussing Rolling Stone's recent list of the top guitarists, pointing out glaring omissions, including Django Rheinhardt. Here are another two who were somehow passed over.

Why punctuation is important

So, the Dalai Lama walks into a pizza shop…

The dog barking that keeps you awake at night…

… is not what you think.

Orwell as Nostradamus

George Orwell, 1984:

"She had without exception the most stupid, vulgar, empty mind that he had ever encountered. She had not a thought in her head that was not a slogan, and there was no imbecility, absolutely none that she was not capable of swallowing if the Party handed it out to her."

Estimating crowd sizes

There has been rather different estimates of how many people are in this picture:

The CBC report that the police estimated this crowd at 5000 (here); Lifesite claimed 15,000 (here), and the National Post, 20,000 (here).

Crowd estimation isn't too difficult a business. The basic procedure is to multiply the crowd density by the area (see the discussion here, from Obama's inauguration)

"A loose crowd, one where each person is an arm's length from the body of his or her nearest neighbors, needs 10 square feet per person. A more tightly packed crowd fills 4.5 square feet per person. A truly scary mob of mosh-pit density would get about 2.5 square feet per person."

How many square feet? Google Earth pro does the calculation for us.

It looks to me like the center walk falls roughly in the 10-square feet per person, and the two sections on the lawn on either side perhaps half that.

My rough guestimate, then, is

• 3200 people in the center (32,000 sq. ft. divided by 10 sq. ft. per person)
• 2550 people in the right-hand wedge (51,000 sq. ft. divided by 20 sq. ft. per person)
• 2100 people in the left-hand wedge (42,000 sq. ft. divided by 20 sq. ft. per person)

This puts the total at c. 8000 -- though probably less, since the left- and right-hand wedges are probably smaller and less densely occupied that the above estimates suggest. On the whole, it looks to me like the CBC is closer to being accurate than either Lifesite (who seem keen to inflate for reasons that escape me.)

Strategic voting in Ontario

There has been some talk about strategic voting. Here are my suggestions for how strategic voters might best cast their ballots in Ontario. These are cases where incumbants are vulnerable and there does seem to be a three way race.

Ten ridings where strategic voters should vote Liberal

Eglinton--Lawrence, where Joseph Volpe had 43.99% in 2008, just 4.74% ahead of the Conservative. (The NDP was at 8.42%)

Mississauga South/Mississauga-Sud, where Paul Szabo had 44.22% in 2008, just 4.63% ahead of the Conservative. (The NDP was at 8.85%)

Brampton--Springdale, where Ruby Dhalla had 41.04% in 2008, just 1.71% ahead of the Conservative. (The NDP was at 11.57%)

Brampton West/Brampton-Ouest, where Andrew Kania had 40.33% in 2008, just 0.43% ahead of the Conservative. (The NDP was at 13.6%)

Guelph, where Frank Valeriote had was at 32.22% in 2008, just 3.04% ahead of the Conservative. (The NDP was at 16.49%; Greens were at 21%)

Kitchener--Waterloo, where the Liberal in 2008 was at 36.03% in 2008, just -0.03% behind of the conservative, who was elected. (The NDP was at 14.73%)

Mississauga--Erindale, where 42% in 2008, just -0.71% behind of the Conservative, who was elected. (The NDP was at 8.55%)

Oak Ridges--Markham, where 41.52% in 2008, just -0.72% behind of the Conservative, who was elected. (The NDP was at 9.4%)

Kitchener Centre/Kitchener-Centre, where 35.94% in 2008, just -0.76% behind of the Conservative, who was elected. (The NDP was at 18.09%)

London West/London-Ouest, where 35.42% in 2008, just -3.67% behind of the Conservative, who was elected. (The NDP was at 14.57%)

Three ridings where strategic voters should vote NDP

Sault Ste. Marie, where Tony Martin (NDP) had 40.43% in 2008, just 2.71% ahead of the Conservative. (The Liberals were at 16.76%)

Welland, where Malcolm Allen (NDP) had 32.91% in 2008, just 0.59% ahead of the Conservative. (The Liberals were at 27.93%)

Oshawa, where Mike Shields NDP had 34.73% in 2008, just 6% behind of the Conservative, who was elected. (The Liberals were at 16.05%)

How much access does neo-nazi psychopath have to Conservative data

The ARC points out that Michelle Lisson (aka Michelle Erstikaitis), pictured right, seems to be working for Toronto Centre Conservative candidate, Kevin Moore. (Confirmed by BCL; see also DrDawg)

Two questions.

First, does Kevin Moore know this about Ms. Erstikaitis/Lisson:

TORONTO — A disturbed and violent convict who idolizes sex killer Paul Bernardo and Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh told a judge yesterday she wanted to consent to being declared a dangerous offender.

Michelle Lyne Erstikaitis, 30, a diagnosed psychopath, told Justice Todd Archibald she wanted to plead guilty to assaulting her boyfriend and agreed to being declared a dangerous offender -- which means an indefinite sentence.

Second, what material does she have access to? Given that the Conservative Party has a voter-tracking database that tracks what party's lawn sign is in front of whose house, and what kind of pictures are displayed on whose facebook pages, should voters in Toronto Centre be concerned?

Update. Erstikaitis has been removed from the Conservative campaign (here).

Don't piss Ezra off, PETA

Or the kitten gets it.