2007-11-09

Hey kids, its mega-sized news roundup time again - part two of...more than two

Lets start off with some newer material: non-Americans are freeloaders say Radiohead.

Whenever I see news stories like this, all I can think about is this.

More blogging competition: Europeans are taking to the medium like gangbusters. Time to fall another 50,000 pages in rank on Technoratti...

A new study says 400 deaths in Toronto are caused by pollution. But they are all Torontonians, so I say build some more cement plants!

Edmonton has its own bomb shelter. You know where it is? It isn't at 146 street and 103rd avenue, as the article claims. I know: I drove by it. Anybody know where the hell this thing is?

I'm not sure if the CBC is more mad that a "ulta-nationalist" performer had a concert, or if only Croatians were allowed inside. Several thousand of 'em showed up at least.

The Hollywood Writer's Strike is upon us. The best quote is from here:

Across the country, the Tonight Show's host, Jay Leno, pulled up on his Harley-Davidson motorcycle to one of the 14 picket lines set up around Los Angeles, with three boxes of doughnuts for his writers. "I've been working with these people for 20 years," he told reporters. "Without them I'm not funny.
Even with them, Jay, you're merely passable.

We're all gonna die.

Stephen Harper makes a trip to Wood Buffalo (Fort Mac). The usual suspects are up in arms about it. Here's a curious thing I discovered: driving from Edmonton to Grande Prairie is about 460km and 5 hours. Driving from Edmonton to Fort Mac is about 441km and 5 and a half hours. I knew GP was a faster drive, but I assumed it was also a shorter one. You learn something new every day.

Dynamite has gone missing from a work site in northeastern Alberta. I need a good alibi. And Jack Layton's itinerary.

Another RCMP officer has been killed in Nunavut, in a "dry town". What? How on earth can that even be legal?

More crazy shit out of Pakistan: police and lawyers clash in the streets. Is it wrong to hope both lose? Meanwhile, a comment from Peter MacKay catches my eye:
KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN -- A human wave of refugees could worsen security in Kandahar as the crisis in Pakistan deepens, Defence Minister Peter MacKay said yesterday during a visit to Afghanistan.
Whoa, whoa...Pakistanis (and apparently many Afghans) are returning to Afghanistan and many more may do so? Doesn't that mean that the BBC and CBC bad-news-from-the-war storyline has to be re-evaluated? We must be doing a pretty good job rebuilding Afghanistan if its becoming the country of choice for Pakistanis worried about Bhutto.

The real reason climate-change-obsessed researchers want Nobel prizes: it makes for better headlines when they try to score political points.

Writers on strike for $400,000 a week? Other writers on strike for $0?

WestJet is setting new records while Air Canada gets excited about a 0.12% increase in load factor.