Budget '09: Economic Outlook

By Colin Campbell - Tuesday, January 27, 2009 at 4:26 PM - 1 Comment

While the government papers the country with stimulus money, exactly what kind of impact it will have is still anyone’s guess. There is no sure bet that the economy will spring back to life anytime soon. Indeed, most economists will admit that precisely how the short term economy reacts to these kinds of measures is, at best, hard to understand and predict. As Finance Minister Flaherty told reporters, “we’re in uncharted waters.”

The government notes that even with billions of dollars being pumped into the economy, the next two years will be bleak. Canada is, after all, somewhat at the mercy of the larger global economy and the speed with which countries like the United States and China can recover.

Also at Macleans.ca
Budget ‘09: Tories take a final leap into the void
Budget ‘09: The Overview
Budget ‘09: Bailout
Budget ‘09: Stimulus
Budget ‘09: Personal Finance

There remains much doubt as to whether or not people and businesses will start spending and lending like they did before the recession—clearly one of the finance minister’s chief aims. “There is no silver bullet to get capital markets going again,” says Glen Hodgson, chief economist with the Conference Board of Canada.

Another big concern is whether government will be able to break from its deficit spending as quickly and easily as it says it will. This budget plans for a return to a ‘small surplus” by as soon as 2013. “Those are very rosy projections,” says Kevin Gaudet, director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. He points out that national debt is projected to return to the same level it was in 1999-2000—$542 billion, up from just over $458 billion this year. That means higher debt interest (38 per cent of government revenue) that will burden future taxpayers.

The government, though, sees a light at the end of the tunnel. If all goes to plan, the stimulus will take affect over the coming two years, at which time the economy will begin to rebound. Canada, it points out, is in a far better position to weather short-term deficits than the United States and some European countries, which already carried big deficits leading into the recession. So as surpluses return, Canada’s new debts could, theoretically, be paid off relatively easily. As Flaherty summed up in his budget speech: “It allows us to meet our short term needs while serving our long term goals.”

Budget '09: Personal Finance

By Colin Campbell - Tuesday, January 27, 2009 at 4:19 PM - 2 Comments

A recession budget like this one wouldn’t be complete without a healthy dose of programs and promised aid for those who are hurting the most: working, middle class families.

Behind some of the budget’s biggest promises, like the $200 billion plan to help consumers in search of financing, is an effort to make it easier for families to start spending again, whether that means renovating or buying a house or buying a car.

Also at Macleans.ca
Budget ‘09: Tories take a final leap into the void
Budget ‘09: The Overview
Budget ‘09: Bailout
Budget ‘09: Stimulus
Budget ‘09: Economic Outlook

The government plans to spend $7.8 billion to try and restart the housing and construction industries, which have seen huge slowdowns and job losses in recent months. For homeowners, that means a temporary tax credit to renovate their homes (worth up to $1,350). The amount new home buyers will be allowed to withdrawal from their RRSPs to help finance a new home will go up to $25,000 from $20,000. They could also receive a tax rebate worth as much as $750.

Those living in hard hit communities across the country, particularly those manufacturing towns in Ontario’s rust belt, get special attention in this budget. The government plans to spend $1 billion over the next five years to help workers and communities in southern Ontario. Another $1 billion in the next two years will go towards helping communities across the country to “mitigate the short term impacts of restructuring.”

For those who have already had the misfortune of losing their jobs, there are plans to boost funding for training by over $1.5 billion over the next two years.

Employment insurance premium rates will also be frozen for the next two years—a stimulus worth the equivalent of $4.5 billion, according to the budget.

The budget also includes small tax breaks aimed at the lower and middle class. The lowest personal income tax brackets will be raised by 7.5 per cent, meaning that Canadians can make more money before being bumped into higher-taxed income brackets. (The upper limits for the first two tax brackets will go up to just under $41,000 and $81,000). For families with children, the cut-off level for child benefits to lower-income families will also be raised.

All told, a family making between $15,000 to $30,000 can expect to see tax relief averaging about $650.

While a welcome, helping hand for some, this isn’t exactly a windfall for most families. The tax incentives are modest and narrowly focused (too much so, say critics). This, however,  isn’t overly surprising in this stimulus-obsessed budget. Tax breaks typically  have less impact, at least on the short-term economy, than more direct cash injections. A one-time US$150 billion tax rebate in the U.S. last year, for instance, proved to have virtually no impact, as the money was largely saved or used to pay down debts. 

And the message in this budget to average Canadians is loud and clear: we need you to spend money to rescue the economy.

Budget '09: The Overview

By Colin Campbell - Tuesday, January 27, 2009 at 4:14 PM - 10 Comments

In today’s federal budget the Conservative government outlined an unprecedented, two-year $40-billion stimulus plan aimed at trying to rescue an economy in recession during “extraordinary times.” It includes massive spending on infrastructure and home construction, aid to struggling industries, communities and workers, and renewed efforts to ease access to credit to get consumers spending again.

After days of orchestrated leaks and announcements, the budget gave Canadians the first full picture of an “economic action plan” that the government says could add 190,000 jobs and perhaps have the economy on an upswing again within two years. “We must do what it takes to keep our economy moving, and to protect Canadians in this extraordinary time,” said Finance Minister Jim Flaherty in his budget address.

Also at Macleans.ca
Budget ‘09: Tories take a final leap into the void
Budget ‘09: Bailout
Budget ‘09: Stimulus
Budget ‘09: Economic Outlook
Budget ‘09: Personal Finance

The stimulus plan, which will bring a return to the kind of deficit spending not since the early 90s, leaves few stones unturned—there are promises of financial relief for all (from river-boat tourism on the Saguenay to slaughterhouses on the prairies). Stimulus and aid money will be spread far and wide to all of Canada’s hardest hit industries, including $7.5 billion focused on the forestry, auto and manufacturing sectors as well as to fund clean energy.

Much of the efforts are aimed squarely at returning consumer spending habits to those more in line with the boom times. The government will put a total of $200 billion towards easing the so-called credit crunch, making it easier for businesses to get loans and for consumers to borrow to buy homes and cars. That includes an additional $50 billion (on top of $75 billion already announced last year) to buy up insured mortgages to reassure lenders. As much as $12 billion will be put into a fund to support financing of cars and equipment for consumers and businesses—welcome news for the ailing auto industry.

Almost $8 billion over two years will be spent to kick start the housing and construction industries. The provinces are expected to add an extra $1.5 billion to that figure. “A lot of this is about confidence,” says Glen Hodgson, chief economist with the Conference Board of Canada. Ultimately, people and businesses need to feel comfortable spending again.

Middle class families also stand to gain, though only modestly, through tax cuts and reforms. The cut-off level for the lowest income tax brackets will be raised 7.5 percent. Those who have already lost their jobs in the economic storm will be offered more funding and access to job training (the government will spend $1 billion over two years on training) .

All this comes on top of previously leaked plans to spend $12 billion on infrastructure projects across Canada over the next two years—”the largest building projects in Canada’s history,” notes the budget. While critics have questioned the government’s ability to spend that much money quickly enough to act as a useful stimulus, the budget promises that ‘shovel-ready’ projects will begin in the coming months. That won the plan a ringing endorsement from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.

This strictly-business budget—complete with the much discussed $30-billion deficit—was a radical departure from the relatively rosy outlook of last fall’s economic statement. And there was no hint of the political gamesmanship that very nearly brought down the government. This time around, just an acknowledgment that times have changed as the reality of the recession has set in.

The sheer size of the spending plan leaves little ground for the opposition parties, which for months have been demanding more serious fiscal stimulus plans, to find fault with the budget. As a share of GDP, Canada’s stimulus package is larger than those in Britain, France, Japan and Germany, according to budget documents.

But some questioned the sincerity of the budget, speculating it’s a thinly disguised effort to appease the opposition. “This is a Conservative budget,” Flaherty told reporters. “Conservatives understand that the government must respond.” Liberal finance critic John McCallum said he wasn’t concerned with the size of the plan, but whether the money is well spent. “The economy needs stimulus. We’re in desperate circumstances,” he said in a television interview after the budget announcement. “We want to make sure the money gets out the door and where it’s needed.”

In the Government Conference Centre, no one can hear you scream

By kadyomalley - Tuesday, January 27, 2009 at 4:12 PM - 22 Comments

10:16:00 AM
Well, hi there, everyone. Greetings from the not-so-distant past before the Jim Flaherty stood up in the House and began delivering his budget speech, otherwise known as earlier this morning. As promised, ITQ is liveblogging from the lockup, although by the time you’re reading this, she’ll be long gone from the hallowed halls of the Government Conference Centre – like the strange flavour of quark she is, and that is the only bit of quantum physics humour I’ll inflict on you today. Probably.

Anyway, as the sharper eyed amongst you have likely noted from the timestamp, I was a little late to the party, which got underway nearly 45 minutes ago, which wasn’t entirely my fault — I’d forgotten about the labyrinth through which one must proceed before being permitted to enter Finance Canada’s vision of purgatory – more on that later, of course; probably much, much more than you ever wanted to know. There are undertakings to sign and wireless modems to demonstrate the utter unoperability of which, and of course, the moment that ITQ dreads more than any other: the seizure of the BlackBerry – her case, BlackBerries in the plural – which are snatched away by a kind but firm Finance official, popped into a baggy and then tossed onto a table with dozens and dozens and dozens of other similarly purloined devices, like that storage locker at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark (in answer to your question, no, ITQ does not acknowledge the existence of that Crystal Skull). Then there is a sigh, and a furtive last glance at the hypnotic blue blink of the outside world, and one proceeds downstairs. Abandon PINs, all ye who enter.

Continue…

Caption Challenge: Special “We’ve Gone and Taken Our Jackets Off – Your Move, Economic Crisis!” Edition

By Scott Feschuk - Tuesday, January 27, 2009 at 2:28 PM - 124 Comments

Wherry has already mentioned the photo op that led to this not-at-all awkward portrait of “Shirtsleevery in a Time of Crisis,” so let us (ie. me) not dwell.

Instead, let us (ie. you) simply come up with a caption that is equal parts hilarious comedy and penetrating insight – or at least one that marvels at the sheer number of inanimate props handed out for the occasion (documents, a coffee cup, Jim Flaherty).

As befits the occasion, the winner shall receive a $40-billion budgetary shortfall. What a precious heirloom to pass down to your children and your children’s children! (Actual prize probably something nicer.)

Theme Song X 2

By Jaime Weinman - Tuesday, January 27, 2009 at 2:23 PM - 1 Comment

I was waiting for this one to turn up on YouTube: this is one of my favourite theme songs for a flop show, and one of my favourite Mike Post themes (though not quite in the class of Rockford). I doubt most people remember Tenspeed and Brown Shoe, a show that lasted all of 13 episodes in the 1979-80 season, but it was a great show and I wish there were clips available online. It was one of the first shows Steve Cannell did after forming his own studio, and it was kind of like a buddy-comedy version of The Rockford Files. Through a series of wacky mishaps in the pilot, two guys are thrown together and wind up defeating the bad guys and solving a mystery: a con man and thief (Ben Vereen) and a nerdy accountant who has read too many bad private-eye novels (Jeff Goldblum). At the end of the pilot they open a detective agency together, and every week they solve mysteries and have lots of odd-couple banter. It was what Cannell did best: comedy, action, strange plots and knowing self-parody of the TV genre it belonged to. And of course, a great theme song. It’s not necessarily a great tune, but it just somehow seems to sum up the tone of the show perfectly in the way that a good instrumental theme song should.

And since I was talking about the DVD release of Blossom, I guess I’m required to note that that theme song was Mike Post’s, too. It may actually be one of his last really iconic themes; you Continue…

'Heads Ripe for Plucking' by Mahmoud Al-Wardani

By Brian Bethune - Tuesday, January 27, 2009 at 1:54 PM - 0 Comments

We don’t get a lot of modern Arabic literature in translation over here, and it’s not easy to find out much about Egyptian short-story writer and novelist Mahmoud Al-Wardani, other than that he is 58 years old, was imprisoned for student activism in the 1970s, had the job of transporting dead soldiers during the 1973 Egypt-Israel war, and is currently deputy editor-in-chief of the weekly Cairo newspaper Akhbar al-yawm and editor of the opinion page of the daily al-Badil. But a brief note on Words Without Borders will bring a nod of recognition from anyone who’s just had the head-spinning pleasure of reading Al-Wardani’s Heads Ripe For Plucking (American University in Cairo Press): “Typically his works are dispassionate and discontinuous depictions of ambiguous, disturbing situations.” No kidding. That sounds just like the writer who, after having his unnamed narrator—dancing for unexplained reasons on the roof of a moving train—forget to duck and end up with his head impaled on an iron bridge and his body on the tracks below, and then has the stuck head open Chapter One with:

“This was not the first time I parted with my head; I had parted with it several times before, just as others who preceded me had likewise parted with their heads.”

Dispassionate, indeed. The long-suffering head goes on to tell a series of intricately interlocked tales of headlessness—the helpless, stultifying effects of oppression, that is. The title comes from an infamous remark by an official of the early Caliphate, just before he brutally suppressed an uprising: “I see heads before me ripe and ready for plucking.” And the novel too ranges that far in time, from Arab history’s ur-beheading (so to speak), that of the Prophet’s grandson al-Husayn, through dictator Gamal Nasser’s prisons, the decapitation of an expat businessman at the hands of his wife and her lover, and into an-only-to-be-expected future where the authorities routinely remove heads for repairs and the insertion of fresh programming. Witty, jarring and strangely, oddly hopeful, Heads Ripe For Plucking is both a window into another world and a fine novel.

This computer is so me

By Steve Maich and Lianne George - Tuesday, January 27, 2009 at 1:08 PM - 11 Comments

The northern countryside of North Carolina is tobacco country. In the Piedmont Triad, named for the three bordering cities of Winston-Salem, Greensboro, and High Point, the farmland is interrupted only by the occasional prefab housing development with names like Hickory Creek and Weatherstone. In field after wide-open field, red soil still sprouts the broad leaves of the cigarette trade—a living tribute to the region’s economic heritage. But right in the heart of the Triad, on 100 acres in the middle of the nicotine crop, stands a gleaming 750,000-sq.-foot monument to a whole new economic future.

Dell Computer’s North Carolina operation is not so much nestled among the farm fields as carved from them—a two-storey, ultra-modern complex of glass and steel, built in 2005. Dell already had plants in Austin, Tex., and Nashville, Tenn., to go along with factories in China, Malaysia, Brazil, and Ireland. But here, the company envisioned something on a different scale: the world’s biggest and most advanced facility dedicated to producing fully customized products, built on demand.

Continue…

L'Affaire Arpin, Or the Case of the TV Czar Who Doesn't Watch TV

By Jaime Weinman - Tuesday, January 27, 2009 at 1:05 PM - 29 Comments

There’s been quite a controversy a-brewing recently over some comments made by Michel Arpin, vice-chairman of the CRTC and therefore someone who has a lot to say about what gets on TV. One of the things he said recently was this comment in a December 2008 interview with Playback magazine:

What are your favorite television programs?

I’m a news and documentary consumer. I’m not that interested in televised fiction or even feature films. I would prefer to read a novel.

The comment was picked up by Denis McGrath, who wrote a memorable post about it and has been covering the controversy regularly since then on his blog. John Doyle of the Globe and Mail picked up on the issue, calling on Arpin to apologize for his remark, and prompting a letter to the editor where Arpin claimed that he didn’t name his favourite show because it would be “inappropriate” — something that doesn’t exactly square with what he actually said. (Generally, “I’m not that interested in televised fiction” does not translate into “I am interested in it but don’t want to talk about what I’m interested in.”)

In a certain sense, Arpin is simply following in a long-standing tradition of broadcasting czars who don’t really like the entertainment aspect of broadcasting, and consider television primarily an education/news medium that is cluttered up with too much fiction trash. This is the Newton Minnow Minow tradition, named for the FCC chairman who used the term “vast wasteland” to apply to anything on television that was even halfway fun. Minnow Minow condemned “game shows, formula comedies about totally unbelievable families, blood and thunder, mayhem, violence, sadism, murder, western bad men, western good men, private eyes, gangsters, more violence, and cartoons.” That pretty much sums up everything we like on television. So to hear Arpin state that he wasn’t interested in fiction TV was more surprising for the fact that he actually said it out loud, so bluntly, than anything else. (And let’s say he had said the opposite, that he mostly watches fiction shows but doesn’t watch that much TV news, because “I would much rather read a newspaper.” That would be just as bad, from the point of view of doing his job properly.) His attempts to pretend he didn’t say what he said are doing him more damage than the actual statement, since there are plenty of people in the broadcast-regulation world who feel the same way. They just know enough not to say it.

Look at us, we're doing stuff

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, January 27, 2009 at 12:19 PM - 19 Comments

In case you’re wondering why various news outlets are currently festooned with photographs of the Prime Minister and various members of his cabinet standing around awkwardly…

PRIME MINISTER STEPHEN HARPER

PUBLIC EVENT

OTTAWA – Public event for Prime Minister Stephen Harper for Tuesday, January 27^th is:

Ottawa

9:15 a.m. – Prime Minister Stephen Harper will meet with key economic ministers.

Office of the Prime Minister

307-S Centre Block

House of Commons

*Photo opportunity only*

And in case you’re wondering how this blog could be updated from inside the budget lock-up, rest assured it couldn’t and I’m not there. Man has not yet invented a lock-up that could hold me.

Cotler on Khadr

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, January 27, 2009 at 12:16 PM - 16 Comments

The former attorney-general, law professor and international human rights lawyer (who lists Nelson Mandela among his clients) keeps up his condemnation of Canada’s treatment of Omar Khadr.

As I have written previously, when our government stands back while one Canadian’s rights are abused abroad, we all become at risk. For our prime minister to leave the decision on Khadr’s repatriation entirely at the whim of the U.S. government is a sorrowing abdication of responsibility — a responsibility that is owed to everyone with a Canadian passport.

Tear down 24 Sussex?

By Paul Wells - Tuesday, January 27, 2009 at 11:27 AM - 50 Comments

I have stalled as long as I could but I’m off to the budget lockup. While we’re all stuck in there, here‘s something else to debate: is 24 Sussex Dr., the residence of the prime minister, a “heritage” building that must be preserved — even though political pressure will always discourage its tenant-of-the-moment from doing necessary maintenance, so the whole place is constantly a tad run-down — or should it be razed in favour of a brand-new building? Or should the PM and his family pay rent on the open market like proper folk? It’s your debate, but I should say I find myself in the unaccustomed position of agreeing with Maureen McTeer.

'It has a split personality, if I may say so'

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, January 27, 2009 at 11:03 AM - 6 Comments

Michael Ignatieff rose at the end of yesterday’s brief debate to a standing ovation from his side and a smattering of applause from the government benches. Various Conservatives then mocked the Bloc and NDP members for not showing similar enthusiasm.

He thanked the two previous Conservative speakers for their contributions and then wondered aloud if this government might be suffering from some sort of mental calamity. When he was through and had moved that the House adjourn for the day, he received a standing ovation from John Baird.

All in all, a stangely interesting 45 seconds or so. 

Full text of his remarks after the jump. Continue…

“Americans are not your enemy”

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, January 27, 2009 at 10:04 AM - 4 Comments

U.S. President Barack Obama has sat down for a long interview with Al Arabiya, a Dubai-based television news network: “I think it is possible for us to see a Palestinian state—I’m not going to put a time frame on it—that is contiguous, that allows freedom of movement for its people, that allows for trade with other countries, that allows the creation of businesses and commerce so that people have a better life.” President Obama also renewed his commitment to “address the Muslim world from a Muslim capital.”
 
Al Arabiya News Channel

Classic Updike

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, January 27, 2009 at 10:00 AM - 0 Comments

John Updike, that prolific chronicler of upper middle-class America at its 20th-century zenith, died today of lung cancer at age 76. He’ll be remembered mostly for his Rabbit tetralogy, two of which won the Pulitzer Prize. But the acclaimed novelist was also a short story writer, art critic, literary critic—and a man who knew his baseball. Consider this 1960 gem from the New Yorker’s archives in which Updike takes in Ted Williams’ last home game, crunches all Williams career numbers in a statistical dazzle worthy of Bill James, and nicely captures the Boston Red Sox star’s icy soul: “a humanist, and a selective one at that.”

The New Yorker

The (latest) Quebec-Labrador border feud

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, January 27, 2009 at 9:55 AM - 1 Comment

The government of Newfoundland and Labrador says it is “deeply concerned” about a Quebec government proposal for a 1,550-MW hydro project on the Romaine River between Labrador and northern Quebec. Quebec’s “unacceptably deficient” proposal, drawn after Quebec officials “explicitly refused” to meet with their neighbours, ignores the project’s impact on Labrador—except for those parts of Labrador the proponent “incorrectly” attempts to depict as part of Quebec, in defiance of a Privy Council ruling nearly a century ago. The value of the project is between $6.5 billion and $8 billion. Premier Danny Williams has actually been trying to downplay any disagreement with Quebec. That strategy is now over.

The Telegram

The teen sex epidemic?

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, January 27, 2009 at 9:45 AM - 0 Comments

A few years ago, talk show host Oprah Winfrey warned of a teenage oral sex epidemic. Data released earlier this month seemed to confirm they were engaging in risky sexual behaviour, when the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics reported the teenage birth rate had risen for the first time in over 10 years. But that’s misleading, the New York Times reports: in fact, teens today are more sexually conservative than the previous generation. Just 48 per cent of high school students had had sex in 2007, down from 54 per cent in 1991, according to the National Youth Risk Behavior Survey. As for oral sex, national statistics are relatively new, but it certainly doesn’t appear to be an “epidemic.” Roughly 16 per cent of teens have had oral sex but not intercourse. Adults, too, take a less restrictive view of oral sex than they did a few generations ago, researchers note. People may think teens are engaging in risky sexual behaviour because dating norms have changed, experts say. While it was once a structured activity, today’s dates are more likely to be a casual gathering of teens, and “fooling around” doesn’t always leading to a structured relationship.

New York Times

A product of the economic crisis

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, January 27, 2009 at 9:40 AM - 0 Comments

Have you noticed TV commercials are getting cheesier? It’s yet another symptom of the economic crisis. Info-style commercials that would normally have run only in the middle of the night are now making their way into prime-time slots. A spot that might have sold for $20,000 a year ago is now going for $5,000. As a result, there are tacky pitches for home pedicure kits in the middle of a CNN broadcast and during breaks from hit shows like American Idol.

The Washington Post

What is this, the Encyclopedia Britannica?

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, January 27, 2009 at 9:33 AM - 0 Comments

Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales, embarrassed by false reports of the death of Ted Kennedy and Robert Byrd, wants future changes to the website’s 2.7 million entries to be approved by a group of editors before going live. Thousands of the site’s egalitarian-minded contributors and users aren’t happy.

The Guardian

Saudi oil giant fishes for workers in Calgary

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, January 27, 2009 at 9:30 AM - 0 Comments

It’s a reversal not without meaning: oil giant Saudi Aramco is holding a full-day job fair in Calgary today to recruit engineers. “Alberta’s economy, once a sponge that soaked up skilled workers, has cooled significantly since the boom years as funds for mega-projects in the oilsands have largely dried up amidst falling oil prices,” writes Sun Media’s Markus Ermisch. Although private engineering firms don’t typically advertise layoffs, Ermisch quotes Calgary’s Iqbal Ali, CEO of the Petro Staff International recruitment outfit, saying he believes “a few thousand” have recently been let go. “We’re processing a lot more qualified candidates as opposed to six months ago,” he says.

The Calgary Sun

Cutting Calories May Boost Memory Power

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, January 27, 2009 at 9:20 AM - 0 Comments

Cutting the cream out of your coffee will help you lose a couple pounds, but it may also help boost your memory power. A new study published Monday in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests that cutting calories may lead to a better memory. The study involved 50 men and women aged 50 to 72 whose body weight ranged from normal to overweight and were broken up into different test groups. One group kept their regular eating patterns but reduced caloric intake by 30 per cent (through portion size), while the second group kept the number of calories they were eating the same but were told to eat 20 per cent more healthy, or unsaturated fat. A third group made no dietary changes. After three months, researchers at the University of Munster, Germany, say participants took tests memorizing words and the calorie-restricted group averaged a 20 percent improvement in their memory performance while the other two groups exhibited no significant change. The researching neurologists say the improvement in memory may be due to lower insulin levels increasing the sensitivity of receptors in the brain. The study is believed to be the first of its kind linking improved memory in people with lower-calorie diets.

The New York Times

Monty Python’s now doing funerals

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, January 27, 2009 at 9:10 AM - 0 Comments

A survey taken in England found Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, the upbeat ditty from Monty Python’s Life of Brian, to be the best “alternative” funeral song, reports the Telegraph. It appears Britons are turning away from more serious dirges like Robbie Williams’s Angels in an attempt to make the service a more “uplifting” experience. Cabaret placed second, while The Specials’ Enjoy Yourself, It’s Later Than You Think was the No. 10 favourite.

The Telegraph

Dear Sir Richard Branson, Your food sucks

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, January 27, 2009 at 9:00 AM - 0 Comments

A letter of complaint sent by a Virgin Atlantic Airlines passenger travelling between Mumbai and London in early December that describes in hilarious detail a “culinary journal of hell” is being heralded the  “world’s best consumer complaint letter,” says the Telegraph. The unnamed passenger, whose missive is being emailed globally, regales Branson with a critique of his dinner (including photos). Among the highlights is a description of a mystery pudding  whose “only redeeming feature was that it managed to be so alien to my palate that it took away the taste of the curry emanating from our miscellaneous central cuboid of beige matter.”

The Telegraph

The soccer phenom who wasn’t

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, January 27, 2009 at 8:50 AM - 0 Comments

Earlier this month, The Times of London published a list of “Football’s Top 50 Rising Stars.” At No. 30 was a teenaged striker named Masal Bugduv, ie. “Moldova’s Finest.” Unfortunately for the Times, and every other media outlet that chronicled his exploits, Moldova’s Finest was anything but fine. In fact, it turns out he doesn’t exist at all. The whole thing was an elaborate ruse concocted by an anonymous blogger who set out to prove just how quickly an Internet rumour can morph into a mainstream story. His theory was correct. In a matter of weeks, the blogger fooled fellow bloggers, the bloggers fooled the news sites, and the news sites fooled the magazines. A legend was born, even though the real person never was. Remember folks: don’t believe everything you read on the Internet (unless it’s on macleans.ca).

slate.com