These quickie news channels really need more communication between the ad department and the news department.
OOOH Snap! I guess not having a car because of having no money all these years was really the smartest idea after all. That's right. Snap.
As oil hits $140, a new low for DetroitWhat we need here is some real initiative and imagination.Chrysler LLC trotted out celebrated retired chairman Lee Iacocca to rally employee spirits on Thursday, but investors were more interested in bankruptcy rumours that continued to haunt the auto maker and yet another fresh high for energy prices that are pounding the entire industry...
...The Detroit auto makers are reeling from a collapse in sales of pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles in the U.S. market amid gasoline prices above $4 a gallon and the U.S. real estate collapse.
It could get even worse, CIBC World Markets Inc. economists Jeff Rubin and Benjamin Tal warned Thursday, saying that gasoline could surge to $7 a gallon, which will cause Americans to abandon some of their vehicles and send sales through the floor.
by jgr80
Given the charged debate around racial and gender lines during the primaries, Obama might be treading on thin ice with this...
Workers Bar Muslim Women From Obama Backdrop
Posted Jun 18, 08 2:53 PM CDT in
(Newser) – Two Muslim women were barred from sitting behind Barack Obama during a rally Monday, with campaign volunteers concerned about headscarves appearing on TV and in pictures, Politico reports. (continue...)Politics 
Every once and a while, there is some interesting news in Nova Scotia.
Police catch man who hid marijuana around penis
June 17, 2008 05:00
Getting caught with marijuana by police is bad enough. But the drug arrest of John Christopher Williams, 34, was particularly embarrassing.
Williams has a lengthy criminal record and had failed to show up for court dates more than once, leading to a warrant for his arrest. When police found and arrested him they didn’t find any drugs on him and Williams didn’t say anything.
It was only when he was being checked in to prison that guards discovered nine grams of marijuana wrapped around his penis. Williams says it was all a misunderstanding.
He appeared yesterday in Dartmouth Provincial Court under charges of smuggling drugs into prison.
His lawyer said Williams now realizes he should have told police about the pot sooner. He was sentenced to thirty days in prison.
Hhhmmm... a clever one-liner to appropriately make fun and demonstrates insight....
From today's Globe and Mail:
Saturday is Tax Freedom Day
VANCOUVER — Tax freedom day — the day average Canadians have paid off the year's tax load and begin working for themselves — arrives Saturday, according to the Fraser Institute.
The free-market-oriented think-tank said today that governments are letting the citizenry keep four days' worth of earnings more than last year. (continue...)
The Fraser Institute calculates that the average Canadian family of two or more will earn $90,678 this year and pay $40,667 in taxes — 44.8 per cent of total income.
by jgr80
I'm an insomniac. Yawn.
It comes and goes. Usually for not much longer than a week. It can downright awful. Days sometimes ooze into one another painfully, both physically and mentally. Or sometimes it's just annoying. I try to sleep and it just doesn't work, although the next day I feel fine. Except for the constant yawning that follows me around. Yawn after yawn.
People think I'm not paying proper attention to them. Yawn. That they are boring me or something. Yawn. I have to explain that I didn't sleep well, which always sounds like a lie to someone who thinks they are boring you. But yawns are contagious, so they usually yawn, too.
My most recent bout of insomnia came earlier this week. After a quite successful band practice, my ears were ringing with the sound of bagpipes and flat drums well into the night. I was feeling energized. And then it was time to sleep and I was still energized. I didn't sleep that night. Yawned all the next day. Yawn after yawn.
Have you yawned yet? That's what I was going for by repeating 'yawn' so many times. And for the pictures.
Anyhow, the insomnia went on for a few days until last night. I was at the point yesterday afternoon where I couldn't do much of anything. So I vegged on the couch and went to bed real early.
During these few days, I noticed a few articles that popped up on Digg and Delicious. Having never gone to the doctor about my insomnia I figured reading something might be useful.
It was not.
These internet 'lifehacks' can be profoundly amusing in their deliberate obviousness.
Here is such a self-help article from EurekaAlert.org. Just in case you have no interest in clicking on the link, one of their tips for the insomniac is to "get a full night's sleep every night" ?!?!?!?!?! (Multiple interrobangs added for effect).
I wonder if the author had to go to Yale for that topical gem.
Here is another one I found from Time Magazine. Again, if you aren't interested in clicking on things despite surfing the internet, the gist of this article suggests that it's healthy to have between 6.5 and 7.5 hours of sleep a night and that veering to either side of this window is bad.
Memories of digital clocks blinking "12:00" race through my head. I've never felt so energized as the moment I wake up and realize the power went out the night before and my alarm clock has reset. One time, I got to my first year philosophy exam an hour and a bit late.... I ended up nearly failing the class. However, showing up late to the exam had no bearing on this since I was well finished ahead of the bell. One of the first ones finished actually, as I recall. Maybe this is why I almost failed. I didn't like philosophy until my fourth year.
Regardless, since we've already established that clicking on things is too difficult for the sleep depraved, I will embed this video. I find it unhelpful to the insomniac, self-proclaimed or not. It is quite funny though, even if it's not trying to be. Especially the wallpaper images at 1:34 and 2:17... they just don't make sense. Enjoy.
As a follow up to yesterday. This was in the New York Times today. My phone (Motorola V3c) must be somewhere in the middle as it's not on either list.
How Much Radiation Does Your Phone Emit?
The technology news site CNET has compiled two interesting lists showing which cellphones give off the most and the least radiation.
In publishing the information, CNET editors note the data aren’t meant to imply that cellphone radiation poses a risk, nor is it meant to say that the phones are safe. As I recently reported in my Well column last week, the data on cellphone safety is mixed, although a few recent international studies have suggested a link with three types of brain tumors. The Food and Drug Administration also says there’s not enough information to determine conclusively whether cellphones are safe or unsafe.
The charts focus on the specific absorption rate, or SAR, of a cellphone, which is a way of measuring the quantity of radio frequency energy that is absorbed by the body, according to CNET.
For a phone to pass F.C.C. certification, that phone’s maximum SAR level must be less than 1.6 W/kg (watts per kilogram). In Europe, the level is capped at 2 W/kg, while Canada allows a maximum of 1.6 W/kg. The SAR level listed in our charts represents the highest SAR level with the phone next to the ear as tested by the F.C.C. Keep in mind that it is possible for the SAR level to vary between different transmission bands and that different testing bodies can obtain different results. Also, it’s possible for results to vary between different editions of the same phone (such as a handset that’s offered by multiple carriers).
Four Motorola phones top the list, with the V195s putting out the maximum 1.6 W/kg. The popular BlackBerry Curve 8330 rounds out the No. 5 spot. To see the full top 10 list, click here.
The list of lowest-radiation cellphones includes the LG KG800 and the Motorola Razr V3x, which put out 0.135 W/kg and 0.14 W/kg, respectively. To see all the lowest radiation phones, click here.
If you don’t see your phone on the list, the site includes lists of cellphones by brand name. My iPhone was listed under “other” brands, but I was interested to learn that its SAR number is 0.974.
MSNBC is conducting a poll about whether or not President Bush should be impeached. Check it.
MSNBC seems to be becoming more and more leftish as we get closer to a Democrat being in the Oval office. Too bad the Dems aren't left enough themselves to ever impeach a President, even with such a clear mandate.
Here's Olbermann
Rupert Murdoch is basically Conrad Black on crack. Whether he meant to or not, in this video he admits that he tries to shape news content to fit an agenda rather than to tell a story the way it happens.
Here is a documentary about the Mr. Murdoch, and more than enough reasons to question everything he stands for.
by jgr80
(Update at the bottom of this post.)How can you frighten a man whose hunger is not only in his own cramped stomach but in the wretched bellies of his children? You can't scare him--he has known a fear beyond every other.
John Steinbeck - The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 19
May 22nd
I recently made a documentary about poverty. It started out as a documentary about the homeless, but we decided to broaden the scope.
Making this movie was an eye-opening experience in more ways than one. Obviously, making my first movie had difficulties in and of itself. But getting to know the life that is being led by people so much worse off than myself and most people I know was a humbling experience.
We decided to cut the tape we had of people living on the street. There were some ethical concerns that just didn't seem to make the tape usable. The focus of the piece is more to-the-point as a result. This is not a movie about poverty, so much as it is a movie about how the media interprets poverty.
Covered Poverty on Video.ca
The film is only ten minutes. I made the film for a class, which was using certain film festival requirements. Had there been more time, the focus of the piece would have been larger to encompass some of the other interviews.
Probably the most powerful moment in the film making process for me didn't even make it in the film. I met one person living on the streets who left his family because of a drug problem. He had been on the streets for years. He's described the mob mentality there is out there between the different street people. For whatever reason, he was not well liked among other panhandlers and squeegeers in the city.
He was having a very difficult time getting off the streets. He had lost contact with his family. And the money he did make went to feed an addiction. He truly hated himself and most people around him.
When I met him, he showed me the slip from the detox centre he had gotten out of that morning. They kept him just long enough for the dilaudids to clear his system. What they didn't do was stitch up the gash on his wrist from when he attempted suicide while in their care. It was about three inches long and perpendicular to the veins running up and down his arm. They gave him about a foot and a half of gauze to tie around the wound. He pulled the gauze back to show me. The natural movement of pulling back the gauze opened up the cut a little bit. It was noticeably a few days old, and oozed pus. His veins were clearly visible. It's amazing he was alive. He had just been in the hands of government-employed medical professionals-- and they left his wrist open.
I don't understand why people find it so hard to help people in need. Sure, bad things happen everyday, and many stereotypes are there for a reason when it comes to dangerous people. But refusing someone help who needs it isn't going to help bridge the stereotypes or help get people off the street or help... anything at all.
I haven't again seen the homeless guy that showed me his cut wrist. I've been looking around for him though. I don't know that I ever will see him again. If I don't, I hope he made his way back to his family in the valley.
UPDATE: June 2
The city has just passed a controversial new panhandling bylaw.
I noticed this a few days ago. I decided to wait on posting about it because the city of Halifax has avid comment posters when it comes to news items. I wanted to see what people were saying first.
From the Saturday Herald:An amendment to the Motor Vehicle Act making it an offence for panhandlers and squeegee kids to ask for money on roadways takes effect Sunday, and fines for breaking it range from $50 to $200.
Effectively, this new law criminalizes people on the fringes of society asking for help. Yeah, they have to pay a fine, which isn't 'criminal,' but where is that money going to come from? What happens when they don't pay fines if they don't have any other assets? More fines. Then jail. Short time to start off, then you get another fine. And the time gets longer.
This doesn't help.
Let me parallel this with a common situation from adolescent life. I recently graduated university in Nova Scotia. Nova Scotia having some the highest tuition rates in the country, I couldn't pay for it by myself, even with student loans and lines of credit. I asked for help. Parents, family, friends... whoever I could get it from. I'm asking for way more money than anyone on the street and I already have a lot more money than they do.
We both need to ask for help. I knew I was going to get it; they don't.
For some reason, this is much more of a hot-button issue in Halifax than it needs to be. There needs to be more compassion on all sides of this issue-- the police, the pandhandlers, the media, but most especially the law makers.
There are basic needs that aren't being met. People on the street aren't going to go looking for a job without an address or a steady meal. I'm broke as a joke, but I know those two things don't cost as much as the city is making it seem. HRM has enough resources to divert enough to put some folks in housing.
This always seems like such a progressive city on some topics... there are well-attended marches and vigils and protests going on every other week for international aid efforts or against the shady dealings of government. Other issues that are just as important to moving society forward, like poverty, always have the same group of people conducting any protests. But it seems like more and more people are against helping out.
There are 90-some comments listed after the article. I didn't read all of them. But check out the vitriol in some of these posts:
The panhandlers can collect tickets all day, they'll have little intention of paying them and the cops will have little intention of jailing them over it. What should have been done was to ticket those that give them money. Those people don't want tickets. Take away the scraps and the seagulls and rats always leave.
If they get caught begging for money, let them beg for their freedom. I, for one, am sick and tired of these people harassing me at every red light in the city. We have the right to be free of this crap, so let em get fines, go to jail etc. If not go to work like the rest of us or get on social assistance programs. You don't see panhandling squirrels in the park, this kind of behavior is not normal or acceptable. It's time it came to a stop.
These people do interfere with traffic. This is a good law, it is like getting rid of mosquitoes.
This is police harassment. Simple and plain. Leave them alone. They never hurt anyone. You may not like the squeegee kids. You may find them annoying. You may be full of self-righteous indignation. But that shouldn't make what they do illegal. Just wave them off and go about your day. Or maybe even... you know... say hi. Chat for a few seconds. They're not vermin. They're human beings. Like you (arguably). It's not a big deal. I'm amazed at how put out people are by these kids. It's unreal. Lighten up. And this has NOTHING to do with safely. That's a smoke screen. What they are doing is making it illegal to be poor.
by jgr80
Big shock. Slate reports that the sinking ship that is the life of Hillary Clinton has a 0.5% chance of success in her bid for the Democratic nomination. Whatever. American politics is a freakshow. I don't care.
I care about the media though. Remember last week... the assassination thing? RFK and Obama have more in common than people think? The I-can't-drop-out-because-my-opponent-could-die card? Right?... yes, that one...
Let's have a look, eh...
Big words mean big news at the New York Post...
The Washington Post may be a bit more balanced... a bit...
The New York Times, again, on the aftermath rather than the comment itself.
Here's what she said...
quite clearly, she is talking about the month of June, and not anything morbid.
and, again, here's how some folks decided to report it...
(haha, the flinch at 1:37)
Debates without opposition can be so one-sided. I love the end of this video when he invokes all of the political violence over the years merely to say that it should not ever be invoked.
Sure, she's had a terrible campaign, and is probably one of the most conservative candidates to run for the liberal side of America... and maybe she was out of the race long ago, but the outrage is on the same absurd parallel as when a boob blinked on stage during the superbowl.
Open your eyes.
MAN PLAYS DEAD AS GRIZZLY CHEWS
Like chewing the gristle on a chicken bone.
That's how Brent Case describes the grizzly bear gnawing on the back of his head.
Mr. Case was trying to play dead, hoping the bear would eventually leave him alone.
“I don't know why I didn't scream because I was in so much pain,” he said. “I wanted to scream blue murder.” (continue...)
SPANISH POLICE NAB BURGLAR PLAYING DEAD AT FUNERAL HOME
Wednesday, April 02, 2008 - Associated Press
MADRID, Spain — A burglar who broke into a funeral home tried to fool police by playing dead, but two things gave him away.
First, he breathed. Plus, he wore grungy clothes rather than the Sunday best of those dressed for eternal rest.
Police and the Crespo Funeral Home said Wednesday they have no idea what the 23-year-old Spanish man was trying to steal in the break-in March 17 in Burjassot, a small town just outside Valencia. (continue...)
