INSIDE
MAKING GOOD ON MUSIC
COUPLAND ON THE FUTURE
HORSES ON BUNS
the newspaper University of Toronto’s Independent Weekly
Vol. XXXIII N0.
October 21, 2010
By virtue of necessity cArA SABATINI “I don’t think modern people can believe in virtue,” said Dr. Jordan Peterson at last week’s lecture, “On the Necessity of Virtue.” The event was part of Hart House’s annual Hancock Lecture and parallel programming, ongoing until the end of next month. Organizer and lead staff advisor Day Milman describes the Hancock Lecture as a platform to encourage dialogue. Exemplifying Hart House’s new label as a “living laboratory,” the event creates “an open environment for new and old ideas to be discussed,” says Milman. Controversy is welcomed and expected: “we are not afraid of having controversial subjects because we try to engender a civil way of addressing these topics.”
Dr. Jordan Peterson presents his argument for “The Necessity of Virtue” On the topic of virtue, Dr. Peterson’s key tenet was, “A virtuous life justifies being itself.” In slight evangelical intonation, Peterson claimed that life is inevitable suffering, for “pain transcends rational argument.” So did his speech. When I asked if he successfully addressed the “necessity” of being virtuous, Milman answered that Peterson was not the kind of lecturer who supplied a “linear argument,” but rather presented “a part in a series of ideas.” Clinician and revered U of T psychology professor, Peterson referenced such experiments as Stanley Milgram’s, but most of his arguments came from more
Google Street View’ing your e-mail wIll cAmPBEll Canada’s privacy commissioner says Google broke a national privacy law when its fleet of Street View cars captured personal e-mails, phone numbers and other information from wireless access points across the country. Jennifer Stoddart said Tuesday an investigation by her office has found the Californiabased search giant didn’t know its cars were picking up personal Internet communications from unsecured Wi-Fi networks as they rolled along Canada’s streets taking photographs.
“Nobody had an idea that it involved collecting unprotected information as well,” she told the House of Commons privacy committee. A report by her office found the “inappropriate” snooping was in violation of a Canadian law restricting how private companies collect and use personal information. It said a “careless error” by Google allowed the cars’ software to capture wireless Internet transmissions, which included e-mail account passwords, and even a list of people’s names and medical history. The Street View cars, recog-
divine sources. Admittedly shocked at the fact himself, his words echoed those of various religious texts, offering, “If you really don’t know what the hell you’re doing, follow a moral code.” Though his argument seemed to call for some kind of introspection in navigating a virtuous path, Peterson warns against self-consciousness. It pulls us away from engaging, or “being,” in the world, into self-absorption. This resonates with the U of T student in chronic contemplation of what she should do with her life – burdened with how to change the world for the better with such a quality education. Peterson responded to
a question from the audience with, “A lot of people will try to fix the planet, but they can’t fix their car.” So we should be rather than think about what to be. Yes, life is suffering, but what in our lives makes the suffering worth it? To this Milman said, “if you don’t know yourself, you don’t know your own suffering.” In an effort to help students in this endeavor, the Hancock program is hosting a workshop on autobiographical songwriting. These workshops are targeted towards students - an aim that the program didn’t quite fulfill in last week’s lecture, attracting a large audience of gen-
nized by the orb-like camera rig mounted on the roof of the vehicles, roam the country’s streets taking panoramic snapshots of neighbourhoods, which are then used in Google’s online mapping service. Google also outfitted the cars to capture information about wireless Internet networks. The data is supposed to help smartphone users navigate the mapping service. “In doing that, they also got personal information that was unencrypted and not passwordprotected,” Stoddart said. Her office dispatched a team of investigators to Google’s headquarters earlier this year after international reports of company vehicles recording wireless Internet communications.
They found that a Google programmer added a feature to the Street View fleet’s capturing software in 2006 which let the cars “sample” some of the information transmitted on the publicly-accessible wireless networks they passed. The addition was made by an engineer who failed to notify a Google lawyer about the program – a violation of company policy. The software is used by all of Google’s camera-equipped vehicles, which map streets on seven continents. Stoddart said that Google screened all of the Street View software before it was installed, but failed to catch the illegal code, which was outside the scope of the company’s review process.
eration x. “Sing Your Life” takes place Thursday at 6pm in Hart House’s South Dining Room. Students will have a chance to perform their work in next week’s Open Mic Night (so everyone can share in the suffering?). Peterson warns against introspection, but urges to his audience, “know yourself.” In what seemed a preemptive reply to this contradiction, Peterson stated a necessity to “be cautious about being the judge of ‘being;’ there may be a lot of things you don’t know.” What I do know is that I entered the theatre expecting to add more insufferable lecture hours to my day. But I was so engaged I completely forgot about what to do with my impractical pursuit in the humanities. Now who can I see about a lesson in auto-mechanics?
“This is not something that was done intentionally. This is something that was done without Google being aware of the fact that they were scooping up the personal information.” Stoddart, whose office is currently investigating Google for another possible privacy breach, added that Canadians should ensure their wireless networks are secure, and not open to passers-by. She recommended the company delete all the wireless information it collected in Canada. She also called on Google to do a better job informing its employees of privacy laws, and make sure its products are more thoroughly reviewed before release. Germany’s data protection