Former Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau once said that the Canada-US relationship resembled a mouse sleeping with an elephant: “No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, if I can call it that, one is affected by every twitch and grunt.” — Quote from Jonathan Malloy, Inside Story, 13 July, 2018.
Last month SpaceX carried out a test launch of its in-development Starship rocket. Liftoff was achieved, but as the company later announced, “Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly during its ascent burn.” In other words, it exploded.
In this insightful book review, Tony Richardson summarises and analyses Cory Doctorow's compelling arguments in his latest book about how a few powerful technology companies have come to dominate the internet and other industries.
First of all, Doctorow deals with how Big Tech took control of the internet. He argues that Lovelace, Turing, and others pioneered the internet. In other words, Amazon could not exist without its predecessors.
The race for Liberal party leadership is on. Former finance minister Chrystia Freeland has announced that if elected Prime Minister, she will get rid of the consumer carbon tax. Former Bank of Canada and Bank of England governor Mark Carney has been cagier about the issue, but may also do the same.
