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by sandworm101 3935 days ago
Two points: 1) "The north" is an actual area, with unique technological problems, none of which involve southern Ontario. Canada has particular relationships with "the north" in areas from climate change to Native rights to arctic sovereignty. Canada even has a minister Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development. Waterloo is certainly not on his radar. "The true north" may be in the song, but you won't hear many Canadians refer to all of Canada as any north.

2) "Hack the north" suggests some sort of event dealing with northern problems. HackMIT is accurate because it involves MIT. It's not a call to hack (verb) MIT but MIT is a physical place an it is at least happening at that location. But MIT is not a region of the planet with unique circumstances. Would a HackAfrica or HackOceania event having nothing to do with African or pacific problems be appropriate?
2 comments
VicVee 3935 days ago
> Would a HackAfrica event having nothing to do with African problems be appropriate?

Yeah I would imagine that would just be a hackathon taking place in Africa.

Unfortunately, I think you're just causing a stink for no reason, and you're not too familiar with the undergrad 'hacker' culture.

Take a look at these names and tell me which ones you don't like: https://mlh.io/seasons/f2015/events

Something tells me it will be a lot of them.

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sandworm101 3935 days ago
Actually no. HackTheNorth is unique on that list. Every other one seems, to me, accurate in terms of geography. All but a couple are named after the unique place where they are being held. Those with regional descriptors (Desert Hacks) seem accurate. But only the waterloo event uses both "Hack" as a verb and addresses a region totally outside of its location. It is also the only one to include "the", suggesting that the thought process behind the name was slightly different.
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VicVee 3935 days ago
From now on I will no longer refer to Canada as the North.

I'll call Harper now and make sure the national anthem is also changed.

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zodiac 3935 days ago
"The north" is an actual area

What is the area? Do you have a source for this?

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sandworm101 3935 days ago
"Northern Canada, colloquially the North, is the vast northernmost region of Canada variously defined by geography and politics."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Canada

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