Mr. Mulroney acted inappropriately

Mulroney acted inappropriately in accepting cash, inquiry finds - thestar.com

OTTAWA – A two-year inquiry into Brian Mulroney’s dealings with
German-Canadian arms lobbyist Karlheinz Schreiber has concluded that the
former prime minister acted in an “inappropriate” way when he accepted
large amounts of cash from Schreiber.

The report by Justice Jeffrey Oliphant said Mulroney “failed to
live up to the standard of conduct that he himself adopted in the 1985
ethics code.”

The judge said he could not accept Mulroney’s testimony that his
acceptance of at least $225,000 in cash was an error in judgment.
Rather, it was an attempt to hide the transactions, Oliphant said.

...

Israel attacks Gaza aid fleet

Israel attacks Gaza aid fleet - Middle East - Al Jazeera English
Israeli forces have attacked a flotilla of aid-carrying ships aiming to break the country's siege on Gaza.

At least 19 people were killed and dozens injured when troops
intercepted the convoy of ships dubbed the Freedom Flotilla early on
Monday, Israeli radio reported.

The flotilla was attacked in international waters, 65km off the Gaza coast.

Read the link above for more information.

More related news:

Turks rally against Israeli Attack

Gaza's real humanitarian crisis

On Board the Freedom Flotilla

Dennis Hopper dead at 74

Hollywood hellraiser Dennis Hopper dead at 74 | Reuters
We'll miss you, man.

Curing obsessive-compulsive mice with bone marrow transplants

Curing obsessive-compulsive mice with bone marrow transplants

...

It took months, but the effects were obvious and enormous. All of the
mice displayed far more normal grooming habits; four of the mice were
completely cured, while the other six healed a lot of their wounds and
regrew substantial portions of their hair. The team also tried all the
other possible combinations - normal mice given mutant marrow started
showing obsessive-compulsive data, normal mice given normal marrow
showed no change, and mutant mice given mutant marrow exhibited extreme
self-mutilation and sometimes died from their self-inflicted wounds.

Previous studies have managed to link the immune system with mental
illness, but this is the first time a clear cause-and-effect link has
been demonstrated in which a problem in the immune system directly
affects the proper functioning of the mind. Still, while Capecchi and
his colleagues think similar treatments work for humans, they don't
expect to see bone marrow transplants become a common way to treat
psychiatric disorders. They are among the most painful types of medical
procedures and are typically only used to help treat life-threatening
illnesses.

...

The story of the "Safest car ever built"

How The U.S. Government Killed The Safest Car Ever Built

OLPC tablet coming - sub $100

OLPC and Marvell Tag Team Tablet Market | Maximum PC

Cardinal Ouellet lobbying the government to reduce choice for women.

DAMMIT JANET!: Should Ayatollah Ouellet register as a lobbyist?
From the Ayatollah's
media conference yesterday:

"With my colleague, the Archbishop
of Ottawa, who like me has close ties to governments, I am appealing to
the conscience of my fellow Canadians, women and men, so that together
we may one day call for a change in this unjust situation in our
country – the current legal void in abortion matters."

...

Gulf oil spill "Top Kill" procedure begins

Gulf oil spill: 'Top kill' procedure begins | Greenspace | Los Angeles Times

Harper throws away out money on what?

Montreal Simon: Stephen Harper's Billion Dollar Photo-op
Price tag for security in 2009 at the G20 in Pittsburgh - $18 million US.
Price tag for security in 2010 at the G20/G8 in Toronto/Huntsville - Now, as of May 27, 2010 - at least $1.093 billion (and may go higher). Harper, please explain the excess.

Big city phone books will no longer be delivered

Cyberspace swallows Toronto’s phone book - thestar.com
...

The Yellow Pages
Group, Canada’s leading provider of print and online directories,
has asked the Canadian
Radio-television Telecommunications Commission to no longer require
mass distribution of the residential listings phone book in seven big
cities, including Toronto. In those cities, home and business listings
are in separate directories. The phone book for businesses, the yellow
pages, is still slated for door-to-door delivery.

The requested change would save 35 metric tons of paper every year,
says Annie Marsolais, communications director for Yellow Pages Group.
The CRTC is still reviewing the matter.

More consumers are letting their fingers do the scrolling,
searching online for home phone numbers or storing them on their
cellphones, she explains. Some cellphone users no longer bother with a
land line and aren’t listed in any directory.

“Our industry is evolving and we have to adapt,” says Marsolais.

About two to five per cent of the normal run of home phone books
will be printed. But those who want them need to request them. Consumers
can ask for the 2010 ones by calling 1-800-268-5637 or by visiting ypg.com/delivery.
More than 35,000 printed copies are presently in storage.

This is a long-distance trend. Earlier in May, Verizon, the
largest phone company in New York State, also asked regulators for
permission to end mass delivery. Such approval has already been granted
to distributors in four states.

...

Thoughts on the Bryant case

And Justice For All… « The Reel…
I agree it seems like there should have been a trial, and the issue of fleeing the scene should have been brought up here. If justice was properly served, then, I think there must be facts that are not available to the public here (as they must exonerate Bryant of any wrong-doing in the case).

Dirt can make you happier and smarter

Bacteria can make you happier AND smarter!


Mycobacterium vaccae bacteria are already known to decrease
anxiety, but it might have even more dramatic properties. Recent studies
on mice suggest the bacteria, commonly found in the soils of people's
gardens, also increases intelligence and the ability to learn.

Sigourney Weaver in Red Lights movie

BD Horror News - Sigourney Weaver Signed on for 'Buried' Director's 'Red Lights'

Trailers - Splice, Inception and other goodies

Take a closer look at the worlds of Splice and Inception, plus new hints about Neuromancer

The Last Exorcist - movie trailer

Is Eli Roth's The Last Exorcist scarier than the original Exorcist?

300 wind turbines to add 500 megawatts to Ontario's power grid - maybe.

Lambton County could sprout 300 wind turbines « Wind Concerns Ontario

Hundreds of wind turbines could be built in Lambton County if all the
projects on the drawing board proceed as planned.

When the Ontario Power Authority awarded a new round of contracts to
wind generation projects in April no Lambton sites were on the list.

But a dozen proposals with generation capacity totalling nearly 500
megawatts (MW) in Lambton did make a second power authority list of
projects waiting for Hydro One to open more capacity on the grid.
...

A look at the right-wing Conservatives of North America

Buckdog: Understanding 'Authoritarian' Conservatives
“Conservatives Without Conscience”
by John W. Dean is a worthy read for all progressive thinkers. John W.
Dean was White House legal counsel for President Richard Nixon for
three years but become a key witness for the prosecution in the
Watergate trials. He is a self admitted ‘conservative’.

However,
he was NOT a Bush supporter,
His book, published 4 years ago, provides urgent warnings concerning the
political mind set and aggressive behaviour of the Right-wing in North America.
Continue reading the above link for samples.

Anniversary of a recent coalition government in Canada

Impolitical: Happy anniversary

Bob
Rae writes today about the 25th anniversary of the Liberal-NDP
governing accord in Ontario. Excerpts presented here for historical
reminiscing and well, who cares it's just good educational, timely and
topical stuff in light of the UK events too:

This week
marks the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Liberal-NDP Accord in
Ontario. The election in early May of 1985 had elected a minority
parliament, with the Conservatives at 50, the Liberals at 45 and the NDP
at 25. The vote split was roughly 37/37/25.
...

Inexpensive tablets on the way - $100 Android tablets

VIA Predicts Stiff Competition for iPad with $100 Android Tablets | Maximum PC

If you're in the market for a low-cost tablet, hang tight, because
several affordable models are on the way, says
VIA's Richard Brown, vice president of marketing at VIA. In an
interview with Bloomberg, Brown said he expects about five different
models ranging in price from $100 to $150 to be available in the second
half of 2010, all of which will sport a VIA processor inside.

All five models will be built around Google's open-source Android
platform, which will play a big role in keeping the overall cost to a
minimum.

...

Atom-sized transistor unveiled - first step towards a quantum computer

Small miracle as atom-sized switch unveiled - Yahoo! News

Conservatives shut down EI services and then deny they are doing so

Angus calls on government to explain cuts to EI services | NDP

OTTAWA – A flat-out denial yesterday by Minister of Human Resources
and Social Development Diane Finley that she is making cuts to 15
Employment Insurance (EI) processing centres in Ontario conflicts with
the facts, says New Democrat MP Charlie Angus (Timmins – James Bay). In
Question Period, Finley denied that a major set of cuts to the centres
is in the works. But Angus says the plans are already well developed.

“Perhaps the minister did not understand the question. We are talking
about cuts right across Ontario to 15 centres for EI including
Brantford, Peterborough, Oshawa, Kenora, Timmins and other communities.”

...

Study shows owning books more important for kid's academic achievement than parents' education level

*Kids’ Brain Food « A Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online

According to a new study published in Research in Social
Stratification and Mobility, owning books is more important than
parents’ level of education or job in predicting their kids’ academic
achievement.

If parents have a college education, their children have a 16%
greater chance of finishing college. But just having lots of books
boosts their chances by 20%. Even a small number of books at home makes a
huge difference. Just 25 books predicts a child will have 2 extra years
of schooling.

...

Six pillars of Canadian foreign policy

Six pillars of a progressive Canadian foreign policy | Briarpatch Magazine - Fiercely independent (& often irreverent) news & views.
These should be rules in our foreign policy.
Read the link!

Harper Conservatives caught on lies about environmental regulations in Canada

Reality check: Harper Conservatives mistruths exposed by leading environmentalist | NDP
The Harper government claims that our regulations are more strict than in the USA. This is not true. Read the link.


Also
http://www.ndp.ca/press/us-laws-on-drilling-safety-are-stronger-than-canada-s

Electric car with body made of battery

Electric car powered by its own body work | GDS Publishing
Swedish carmaker Volvo are to team up with Imperial College London on a
3.4 million euro project to develop a prototype material that stores and
discharges electrical energy, allowing parts of a car's bodywork to
double up as its battery.
...

Harper's Conservatives - new ways to be un-accountable.

Accidental Deliberations: Off message
excerpt:
Does a party whose base is committed to personal responsibility actually
think that there's no problem with making "ministerial responsibility"
referable only to a cabinet hive-mind? And is Jay Hill's extended
waaambulance ride the best pitch for a party which normally tries
to portray itself as strong and in control?

The Public Humiliation Diet - hardcore, but effective.

The Public Humiliation Diet: A How-To
This diet might not be for everyone, but there are some great tips in here.

Delaying your child's vaccinations could do them harm

Delaying your child's vaccinations could do them harm, claims landmark U.S. study | Mail Online
Excerpts from the news story:
...
a team of US scientists found that by not immunizing your child at the
earliest opportunity, you are putting them in danger of potentially
fatal diseases.

...

Researchers from the University of Louisville School of Medicine in
Kentucky examined data collected as part of an ongoing monitoring
project being carried out by the US Vaccine Safety Datalink and compared
test results for 1,047 children vaccinated from 1993 to 1997.

Some
of the group were vaccinated on time - they received 10 shots by the
age of seven month – and the rest had delayed immunization.

The
researchers looked at intelligence; speech and behaviour tests carried
out on the children several years later and found few differences
between those who got their jabs in schedule and those whose parents put
them off.

The on-time group did even slightly better on an
intelligence test and a little faster on a test asking children to name
things.

Dr Michael Smith, a paediatric infectious-disease
specialist at the University of Louisville School of Medicine, said:
‘There's not a single variable where the delayed kids did better.

‘This
study suggests that delaying vaccines does not give infants any
advantage in terms of brain development.’ He added that not getting
vaccinated put your child at greater risk from a string of diseases such
as hepatitis.

He compared it to unbuckling your seat belt at 20
minutes of riding a car. ‘You don't know when you'll get hit,’ he said.

...

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1281349/Delaying-childs-vaccinations-harm-claims-landmark-U-S-study.html#ixzz0oyz7HTlR

57 ancient tombs unearthed in Egypt

Archeologists unearth 57 ancient tombs in Egypt - thestar.com

CAIRO—Archeologists have unearthed 57 ancient Egyptian tombs, most of
which hold an ornately painted wooden sarcophagus with a mummy inside,
Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities said Sunday.

The oldest tombs date back to around 2750 B.C. during the period of
Egypt's first and second dynasties, the council said in a statement.
Twelve of the tombs belong the 18th dynasty which ruled Egypt during the
second millennium B.C.

...

Dr. Wakefield, banned in Britain

Britain bans doctor who linked vaccine to autism - Healthzone.ca
Finally, this quack, who convinced a lot of people to stop getting their kids vaccinated, which has resulted in many preventable deaths and suffering, has been banned from practising medicine in Britain. 

Harper government's $75 billion Canadian bank bail-out

THE WOODSTOCK ONTARIO INDEPENDENT NEWS: Bank tax 'unfair,' Harper says
Frankly, this is all BS.
Harper says he didn't bail out Canadian
banks, but that is not the case, it is a lie.

"But Canada has
consistently argued that it would be unfair to impose such a tax on
Canadian banks, given that they didn't receive any direct bailouts
during the crash - a case Harper made again yesterday."

That is
utter crap. Your tax dollars went to support Canadian bank bailouts as
the following global research article points out.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12007

Liberal and Media support for the Harper government

Queer Thoughts: My rant
...
The media need to start asking the tough questions of Harper, Ignatieff
and Layton.  Make them answer and when they side step it go after them.
...

Permanent job losses and economics - why some jobs won't come back.

The Progressive Economics Forum » The job market may be recovering but some jobs are not coming back

Scorsese Directed George Harrison Documentary expected next year

Scorsese Directed George Harrison Doc Expected Next Year | New Music
Martin Scorsese’s documentary about George Harrison entitled Living
in the Material World: George Harrison, is expected to come out
next year the director says. Working with Harrison’s widow, Olivia for
the past three years the film will look at the former Beatles
guitarist’s life before, during and after his time spent with the band.
...

A great summary of recent crap in Canada (mainly)

News of the Restless: Wankers of the Week: Bees in the bonnet edition

Afghanistan war is becoming Obma's Achilles heel

LeDaro: Afghanistan war is becoming Obama’s Achilles heel

Conservative Canadian governement spends $800,000.00 on translated bibles for Africa and Asia

Atta Boy, Gilles, You Tell ‘em Where it’s at!
Excerpt:
Can someone explain to me how the bible being translated into African
and Asian dialects is supposed to help a poor weak and tired woman
feeling nothing but despair, wondering how she’ll feed her kids today? 
Or how does sending preachers to explain how end times are a comin’ to
women whose time has come now or that of her child’s due to starvation
and lack of proper health care? And a question that I share with ACR’s
Pale Cold:  How comforting can a preacher who has translated the Lord’s
Prayer be to a woman who is dying from complications to giving birth to
13 kids in a 10 year span?

Harper and the Religious Right destroying Canada

Montreal Simon: Are the Cons a Threat to National Security?
read the post, watch the video!

Canadians seem to care more about sports than Canada

If Only Canadians Can Have as Much Passion Over What’s Happening to Them as They do About Hockey
Excerpt:
How come Canadians can’t be this passionate and channel all that energy
into politics? I mean, it’s about their futures, for the love of gawd.
To me, it seems that they care more about what happens to their
favourite team and/or least favourite player than they do about
themselves, regarding the most important things; will I be able to
continue earning a living? Will I be able to access health care for my
family and myself? Will we become a nation of Evangelicals waiting
while they engineer the end times (wouldn’t it put it past those
wingnuts to do just that)? Will be able to retire? If we had at least
half that passion, we wouldn’t be living under such scary and uncertain
times, or at least, we wouldn’t allow our governments to ‘boil the
frog’, in turning Canada into a place we are starting to no longer
recognize.

Limewire busted

LimeWire found liable for inducing copyright infringement - The Globe and Mail
Time to find a new replacement for sharing music.

Diaspora - 4 nerds working on a private social network for the general public

About New York - Creating a Network Like Facebook, Only Private - NYTimes.com
4 students at NYU are working on a private, open-source social network alternative to Facebook.

Here is a link to their project site Diaspora.



Update:
Facebook Rival Raises $200K Without A Single Line Of Code

Why to not get a Mac - by Murphy at MaximumPC

Murphy's Law: 5 Reasons Why I Don't Want Apple's OSX | Maximum PC
He recently wrote an article about some utilities to make your Windows operating system look more like a Mac's. After getting a lot of flack for that article (basically, why would you want to do that when the Windows OS is already better than the Mac OS) he wrote this article.

For me and my tech support experiences, the areas where Macs fall short are:

- Price - for the same hardware in the system, you can buy a Windows PC for 2 to 4 times cheaper (in other words, for the same quality and power of hardware, a Mac is anywhere from 2-4 times the price of a Windows PC). When Apple says this is not true, that Macs are cheaper, they are comparing to very specialized brand-name Windows-PCs, not most Windows PCs.

- Compatibility (hardware and software) - I often run into situations with Macs where the person has installed an upgrade patch and now some of their software and or hardware won't work (also including external devices like printers, scanners, etc). Meanwhile on a Windows PC, when you install updates and service packs to the OS, in most cases, your software and hardware will continue to work. Or, the Mac owner wants to add a new part. But, we find out the only manufacturer of said part is Apple and that it is obsolete and you can't buy it, or, if someone else makes it and you can get it, it won't work with their machine. The end solution in many of these cases is that they have to go buy a whole new computer or a new printer or such. In all of these cases in a comparable situation with a Windows PC, I could easily buy a new part, it doesn't cost much, plug it into the computer, it works and there are no problems with the OS or the drivers or such.

- User Interface - No right-click mouse. Extra steps to open or close something. Not able to customize things. - Even Mac users are frustrated by some of the counter-intuitive things about the interface. In my experience with Mac clients, we have found that there are more steps to do things, or that certain things that you should be able to do, cannot be as easily done on a Mac as on a PC.

Want a system that is easy to use and intuitive, that you will be able to easily buy replacement parts for years from now, and that you will be able to add components to easily and inexpensively as the years go buy, and that most software and hardware is compatible with - get a Windows PC.

Britain's Conservatives and Liberal-Democrats to form government.

Britain’s New Labour era ends with Cameron taking power - The Globe and Mail
You can bet that the Conservatives will make sure the referendum they promised will fail (badly worded, little or confusing information to the public beforehand, etc).

Guld Oil Slick - the real story

LiveLeak.com - Amateur Video Of Gulf Oil Slick - Worse Than BP Admits
Watch the video.
"... some speculate it may be closer to 1 million gallons per day." "It's not a leak, it's a volcano spewing oil."

Frank Frazetta, artist, died May 10, 2010

Frank Frazetta, fantasy painter known for Conan art, dies after stroke - thestar.com
Frank Frazetta died of a stroke at the age of 82.
I will miss him. He made so many amazing illustrations and paintings. Below is one of my favourite from the Conan The Warrior book cover:

National Post sued

National Post sued, and it's about time

University of Victoria Professor Andrew Weaver has launched a lawsuit
against the National Post, Terence Corcoran, Peter Foster, and
Kevin Libin. It's about time.

The National Post columnists stated the Weaver is a
"corrupt scientist". They claimed that he fabricated stories about a
break-in into his office.

Weaver did no such thing. His office was indeed broken into, and
there is a police report to prove it. However, Weaver never made any
accusation with regard to who was responsible for it.

Why, then, did it say in the National Post, not once but
on four different occasions, by three different authors, Corcoran,
Foster, and Libin, that Weaver had accused the fossil fuel industry of
being responsible for the break-in?

Because the National Post prints lies, that's why. The editors
and management of the National Post know that Terence Corcoran is
a liar, but they keep him on the payroll, and don't fact-check his
stories.

read on ...

Happy F*cking Mother's Day (from Harper)

DAMMIT JANET!: Happy F*cking Mother's Day
excerpt:
Harper again makes Canada an international pariah.

By the way,
the argument that 'abortion is mostly illegal in the developing world
anyway so what does it matter' is, surprise, surprise, bullshit. Abortion
-- at least to save the life of the woman, and often to preserve her
mental and/or physical health -- is nominally legal in most of the
counties where aid is desperately needed.

Access, of course, is a
totally different matter. And that's where the West must help,
providing training and supplies and supporting local efforts to improve
access and expand the conditions under which abortion is allowed.

Conservative harsh drug sentancing law up again

Tories revive mandatory sentences for drug crimes
Tenants caught growing as few as six marijuana plants in their dwellings
could face automatic jail terms of at least nine months, under a
federal drug-sentencing bill revived Wednesday that imposes harsher
penalties on home renters than on owners.
...

Election results in Britain may push them to electoral reform

Ludicrous election results in U.K. match those in Canada | Fair Vote Canada

Yesterday’s British parliamentary election provided yet another
breath-taking example of how an antiquated winner-take-all voting system
distorts election results.

With 626 of the 650 seats declared (8am, May 7), the Conservatives
won about 47% of the seats with just 36% of the votes. Labour received
an equivalent windfall of undeserved seats: 40% of the seats with just
29% of the votes.

Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats won only 8% of the seats, despite
winning about 23% of the votes. As Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg
said, it is “abundantly clear the electoral system is broken.”

“As ludicrous as Britain’s election results are, they are no worse than
what we experience in Canada,” said Bronwen Bruch, President of Fair
Vote Canada, a multi-partisan citizens’ campaign for voting system
reform in Canada. "The big difference is that Britain may well move
forward on electoral reform, since both Labour and the Liberal
Democrats, who together represent a majority of voters, are prepared to
scrap the discredited first-past-the-post system. The Liberal Democrats
are expected to demand action on proportional representation.”

...

Religious people more likely to be racist, study shows

Love Thy Neighbor? Not If He's Different | Miller-McCune Online
No surprise here.

Excerpt:

This “religion-racism paradox,” as University of Southern California
social psychologist Wendy Wood explains it, is deeply embedded in
organized religion which, by its very nature, encourages people to
accept one fundamental belief system as superior to all others. The
required value judgment creates a kind of us-versus-them conflict, in
which members of a religious group develop ethnocentric attitudes toward
anyone perceived as different. The study, “Why Don’t We Practice What We Preach? A Meta-Analytic
Review of Religious Racism,” appeared in the journal Personality
and Social Psychology Review.

“Religion creates a very strong sense of a moral right and wrong
within the group,” says Wood. “When you do that, members of the group
will be more likely to derogate anyone who is not part of it.” And
because religion in America is practiced largely along segregated lines
(just 12 percent of U.S. congregations report even a moderate level of
diversity, one study shows) that derogation, and the sense of
superiority that drives such diminishment of others, can extend beyond
religious differences to race, class and ethnicity.

Lack of sleep can be hazardous to your health

Lack of sleep leads to early death, study shows - Healthzone.ca
“Consistently sleeping six to eight hours per night may be optimal for
health,”

How hot would the Earth have to get before it would be unlivable?

How Hot Would The Earth Have To Get Before It Would Be Unlivable? - Posthumanity - io9
If global temperatures rise just 21 degrees Fahrenheit, half of humanity
will be cooked. A recent study shows that the planet doesn't have to
warm up very much before it becomes unlivable. And the death blow comes
from humidity.
...

Listening to prayer halts brain activity

Study Shows that Listening to Prayer Halts Brain Activity - Science - io9
Excerpts:
A team of Danish researchers have found that when listening to a
well-spoken person who claims to have divine healing powers, the regions
of the brain responsible for scepticism and vigilance become less
active.
...
Only in the devout volunteers did the brain activity monitored by the
researchers change in response to the prayers. Parts of the prefrontal
and anterior cingulate cortices, which play key roles in vigilance and
scepticism when judging the truth and importance of what people say,
were deactivated when the subjects listened to a supposed healer.
...

Woman with severe environmental allergies is evicted.

Woman evicted despite chemical sensitivity claim - thestar.com
Those plug-in air fresheners burn and constrict my throat. And I have mild environmental allergies.

Why Americans should never be allowed to travel

why americans should never be allowed to travel
(thanks Glen!)
Hilarious anecdotes from travel agents.