Fisheries, again, and DVDs

As if to prove the point, there is a little piece about fisheries (un)management on cnews, a Canadian site, accusing British Columbia’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans of [caving to political pressure]http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Science/2007/06/26/4291752-sun.html and allowing over-fishing. Of course one may not have all the facts, but by using the country’s Freedom of Information Act the Watershed Watch Salmon Society gained access to emails within the DFO suggesting that department officials were not happy with the decision to extend the season. I wonder how many other similar cases would come to light if citizens had similar access to information -- and used it -- elsewhere?

And in unrelated (Canadian) news, when I visited that cnews site, I saw an advertisement for zip.ca, a netflix clone in that great country. There are 33 million Canadians, give or take, and 58 million in Italy. In Italy, people apparently watch 14.9 hours of (execrable) TV a week, in Canada 14.7. So how come their DVD hire looks so much more interesting than ours?

Because we still need a European postage stamp.