Sowing the seeds for hard times

By macleans.ca - Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 3:38 PM - 1 Comment

The massive amounts of public money being spent by governments to boost the economy will exact a heavy cost in coming years.  In the United States, the trillion dollar deficits of are of particular concerns, says TD Bank chief economist Don Drummond. But Canada will struggle too. The economy could recover from recession next year, but the country will face a prolonged period of slow growth as it comes to grips with deficit financing. Drummond has argued Canada’s deficit could hit $82 billion in the next two years. This is in contrast to the rosier outlooks offered by the Bank of Canada and the federal government.

The Canadian Press

Predicting the economic collapse was the easy part

By macleans.ca - Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 3:36 PM - 0 Comments

Is Nouriel “Doctor Doom” Roubini a one-hit wonder? Having called the global financial collapse when most economists were dancing in the streets, the New York University professor has marketed himself to become the most recognized face of the crisis. His dire predictions are a staple on the business networks, and when he travels the world to spread his gospel of economic apocalypse, he’s greeted like a rock star. Back in his hometown New York, he’s even parlayed his fame to become something of a playboy on the dinner party circuit. But as Portfolio magazine notes, Roubini has been predicting a recession for more than a decade. Eventually he was bound to be proven right. Now that everyone knows we’re in a deep and difficult recession, the real test of Roubini’s prowess as a forecaster will be whether he can spot the recovery before it comes.

Portfolio.com

Maclean's Interview: Neil Strauss

By Julia McKinnell - Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 3:00 PM - 3 Comments

Neil Strauss is a former music critic for the New York Times and bestselling author. In his new book, Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life, Strauss describes how he grew up believing that America was the greatest country on earth until he lost faith in the Bush government and began to fear another terrorist attack. He set out to learn how to shoot a gun and hunt for food. Along the way, he met wacko survivalists and a New York billionaire, who urged him to get out of the U.S. Strauss went so far as to acquire a second passport.

Q: Your book is, in a strange way, like a self-help book, “How to Survive the Apocalypse.” About halfway through, you make the statement, “It’s a strange time to be an American,” and I thought that’s it—that’s the whole nut of the book, right?

A: Yes, that’s a great question because that’s what the entire book came out of, people being born in the ’70s and ’80s, who grew up with a silver spoon in their mouths. America was the lone superpower. All the problems of the world seemed to happen to other people. It seemed like the future was this bright, shiny, optimistic place where anything was possible.

Then, starting with 9/11, all of a sudden everything we thought couldn’t happen to us, happened to us. We had an act of war occur on American soil which hadn’t happened since Pearl Harbor. We had this constitution, which is kind of a holy relic, which makes us the best, freest country in the world, all of a sudden open to interpretation, and these things could change in the name of national security.

Q: And then there was hurricane Katrina.

A: Right. I think that was the real turning point. Katrina wasn’t like 9/11. They knew a disaster was going to strike and even then with advance notice they still couldn’t help anyone. You never think you’re going to see bodies floating in the street, ignored in America. That’s when I realized . . .

Continue…

IRA killings escalate as recession hits

By Patricia Treble - Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 2:40 PM - 0 Comments

A sudden resurgence in killings by IRA breakaway groups in Northern Ireland has experts worried that as the local economy falters, youth could once again be drawn into violence. Almost a decade of relative peace was shattered by the shooting deaths of two British soldiers outside army barracks in Antrim on Saturday, followed by the brutal killing of a police officer on Monday.

While the scale of the operations surprised many, there have been rumblings of violence recently from the Real IRA, which claimed responsibility for the attack on British soldiers. (The second killing, which took place in Craigavon, was claimed by Continuity IRA, another IRA breakaway group.)

Continue…

Ratings for the Barack Obama reality show slumping

By macleans.ca - Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 2:05 PM - 1 Comment

New Neilsen rating numbers reveal the audience for Barack Obama’s Tuesday-night press conference was almost 20 per cent smaller than that for two previous evening televised events. The news special, which bumped American Idol, drew 40.4 million viewers — down 23 per cent from his Feb. 24 address to Congress and down 18 per cent from his Feb. 9 press conference. (Obama’s  attempt to reassure the nation proved good news for CW’s Reaper, the only broadcast show to air against it: viewership climbed 11 per cent to hit a season high.) The President remains guest-star gold, however, driving up viewership of The Tonight Show and 60 Minutes on the nights he appeared.

The Live Feed

Shows Without Music

By Jaime Weinman - Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 2:01 PM - 0 Comments

I just watched the season premiere of In Treatment (based, like the previous season’s episodes, on an episode of the Israeli show it’s based on); the session takes place in a law office, where Paul finds that a former patient will be representing him in a malpractice case. The show still is what it was last year: compelling and claustrophobic. In a way, despite the soap opera format, In Treatment is weirdly reminiscent of a certain type of half-hour sitcom, the Norman Lear type of show that has few characters and few sets, and does many episodes in something resembling real time. Most sitcoms today, even the multi-camera ones, have multiple scenes and sets in every episode, so it takes In Treatment to remind us of the virtues of doing an episode that’s literally like a one-act stage play. Also, the format of the season premiere reminded me a little of some episodes of Frasier in the way Paul uses his therapy skills no matter where he is, and winds up helping people who are supposed to help him. I’m not saying In Treatment is a sitcom, just that it has some of the qualities we used to associate with such things.

It also occurred to me that while I’ve said often that network TV shows have too much background music these days, HBO almost has the exact opposite policy: while they operate on a case-by-case basis, they clearly feel that shows shouldn’t overdo it on the music. They’ve had plenty of shows like The Sopranos and The Wire which use only source music. And one of the big differences between In Treatment and the original series, Betipul, is that the original series has plenty of background music, much like the regular soap operas it’s emulating; it uses mood music to underscore and emphasize emotional scenes.

But on In Treatment, the score is used much more sparingly. The season premiere has only one music sting besides the main title and the ending: there’s a musical score for a silent scene where Byrne walks around the office and gets a sense of what’s in there and what it says about the lawyer. Otherwise it’s all ambient noise, particularly the jackhammers from the street, which are then referred to in an important speech. Even big emotional moments tend to be un-scored. It’s not necessarily better or worse, though I do think that makers of North American “art” TV are a little suspicious of mood music (and correspondingly, a little too anxious to use source music), but just an example of the HBO approach.

By the way, for a sort of backhanded preview of the new season of In Treatment, here is the opening scene of the same episode (that is, the second season premiere of In Treatment) in the original Israeli version. Click “Continue” to see it. Most of this scene, like its counterpart in the American version, is un-scored, but it does use music at the beginning when the main character is walking to the door, which the American version does not.
Continue…

The Man Who Got Canadians

By Brian Bethune - Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 2:00 PM - 1 Comment

His serious works, on history and economics, are beyond dated. His retrograde views on women and his certainty of Anglo-Saxon superiority is, at best, ridiculed. Even the humorous writing he was most proud of has faded badly. But in his best work, in short stories and sketches set in the conservative small-town Canada of his day, where he mercilessly made fun of his countrymen’s inflated self-importance—the writing we still read now—Stephen Leacock got Canadians, got us in a way few others have before or since. According to Margaret MacMillan, the distinguished Canadian historian and author of Paris 1919 and Nixon in China, Leacock could describe us so well, especially in our then-dominant small-town character, because “he was both part of and apart from that life. He grew up that way and then left for the big city, but he had a great love for this country, for its size and scope, its promise and beauty.”

Speaking from her office at Oxford University, where she is now warden of St. Antony’s College, MacMillan, 65, added that writing Stephen Leacock for Penguin’s Extraordinary Canadians series “helped keep me in touch with Canada too.” And with the past. Series editor John Ralston Saul was looking for “unexpected” matches, MacMillan says, when he offered her Leacock (rather than a First World War statesman), and she leapt at it because “the Ontario I grew up in, especially in the countryside, was still very much like the world Leacock describes in Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town: very British and mostly white; a place where people inherited their political allegiances and listened in on party lines shared between houses; full of dry counties where everyone knew where to find a case of beer.”

Continue…

Writing songs in the key of e=mc2

By John Intini - Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 1:20 PM - 0 Comments

Diane Nalini’s two worlds are about to collide. The 34-year-old, an applied physicist at the University of Guelph and professional jazz singer, is set to release Kiss Me Like That, her fourth album, featuring 13 songs about the stars and the moon. While the concept sounds like a gimmick, especially coming from an astronomy buff, it’s only fair to note that Nalini’s previous musical efforts have been well received. A review in the Montreal Gazette from a few years ago noted that Nalini has “a beguiling voice with beautiful intonation.” Another, in the Globe and Mail, praised her “bell-clear tone, meticulous enunciation, playfulness and subtle swing.” Even Bill Clinton is a fan. While studying at Oxford in 2001, Nalini met the sax-crazed former president after performing a 40-minute set at a black-tie event for about 20 that he attended. A year or two later, at a Rhodes Scholars’ reunion, Nalini approached Clinton to re-introduce herself, but was cut off before she could get her name out: “Of course I remember you, Diane,” Nalini recalls Clinton saying. “I have your album on my MP3 player.”

That kind of endorsement might have prompted some musicians to drop everything in the pursuit of fame. But Nalini, while honoured, refused to pick one side of her brain over the other. And this musical-physicist combo isn’t unheard of. Some argue that’s because physics, like music, focuses on patterns, sounds and waves. Others cite the work of Pythagoras, who found there are mathematical relationships between harmonious notes. In any case, Nalini is not alone. This summer an opera about the existence of additional dimensions, written by Harvard particle physicist Lisa Randall, will debut on a Paris stage before touring Europe. And the most famous crossover artist of late is Brian May, Queen’s legendary guitarist. In the fall of 2007 May completed his Ph.D. thesis, a paper on interplanetary dust that he started working on in 1971, three years before heading out on the road with the band. “Most musicians I know have a strong grasp of mathematics,” says Nalini, who was born in Montreal. “They have to. Keeping the beat, counting out divisions of beats, thinking about harmony. Music theory is almost dauntingly mathematical.”

Continue…

Habs for sale? Not likely, says Gillett

By macleans.ca - Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 1:07 PM - 0 Comments

George Gillett, majority owner of the Montreal Canadiens and part owner of the English soccer giant Liverpool F.C., surfaced at a sports business conference yesterday fuming about reports he’s trying to unload his share of one of his two storied franchises. La Presse had reported earlier this week that Gillett had engaged advisors to reassess his holdings, with a confirmation from Habs president Pierre Boivin. Wrong, says Gillett; all I was doing was a little estate planning. “My guess is it’s unlikely that you will see any short-term sales,” he told the conference. “You may see a recapitalization here or there, we may bring in a partner or two. But I think it’s unlikely you will see any asset sales.” Not exactly a stout denial. How unlikely, and what is short-term? Partners where? Partners why? And if this is true—if this was all just a little bit of probate work—why didn’t Boivin just say so?

CanadaEast

I Love Prescott Pharmaceuticals

By Jaime Weinman - Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 1:00 PM - 6 Comments

This isn’t related to anything recent — The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are in reruns this week — but I once did a post on my least-favourite Colbert Report segment (Tek Jansen, of course), and it occurred to me that I never said what my favourite segment is. And that’s an easy one to answer: my favourite recurring segment on any talk/variety show is Colbert’s “Cheating Death With Dr. Stephen T. Colbert, D.F.A.” Every time he does that segment, I give a little internal cheer (internal cheering, by the way, is something that I should see a doctor about).

What I love about that segment is that, like most of the best Colbert segments, it’s both a comedy routine and part of a larger ongoing story about this character and his show. The format is rigid: jokes about some health-related thing in the news, followed by Colbert plugging a drug by his sponsor, Prescott Pharmaceuticals, and reading off a list of crazy side effects (usually arrived at by mashing up two or more real-life medicinal side effects into something that sounds even worse). The ritual of hearing Colbert trying to get through the side effects without cracking up is a big part of the fun. But the Prescott Group has taken on a life of its own through these segments; their evil, incompetence and willingness to risk people’s lives to make a buck has made them almost a separate character on The Colbert Report even though I don’t think we’ve ever seen a representative of the company — though that might come later. What we have seen already is Colbert going through the vetting process for a White House job, and being confronted with a list of the Prescott-approved side effects created by the drugs he’s been plugging on his show. And though his character is clearly making money off the company (since his face is all over their products), he tries to deny responsibilty for any of their products, a commentary on media figures and politicians who feign independence from their corporate sponsors. It’s a two-layered segment: cheap jokes with a story arc.

I will say, though, that “Monkey On the Lam” would give “Cheating Death” a run for its money if Colbert used it more often. If only because the graphic is the greatest thing ever.

Robert Botterill 1946-2009

By Nancy Macdonald - Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 1:00 PM - 1 Comment

Robert John Botterill was born on March 16, 1946, in Portage la Prairie, Man., to Edna, a schoolteacher of Scottish descent, and Arthur, a farmer who immigrated from Britain with his family in 1912, when he was five. Arthur’s family had been booked on the Titanic’s maiden voyage, but the luxurious ship had been oversold. The Botterills were refused boarding and left three days later. (When word reached their ship that the “unsinkable” Titanic had plunged to the bottom of the Atlantic, the captain reversed course for three days, fearful that a massive iceberg lurked below.)

Bobby, as he was then known, grew up on the family farm south of Newton, 55 km from Winnipeg, with his sister Margie, three years his junior. A round-faced boy with a twinkle in his eye, he had the “best collection of Meccano sets of anyone I knew,” says his cousin Ted Botterill, who grew up nearby. Ignoring the instructions, the pair built Meccano combines and plows, and drowned their Corn Flakes in Coca-Cola. They attended Elm River School, a one-room schoolhouse that seated 30, until Grade 8, and then Oakville School, in town. There were no school buses then. But the government gave a transport allowance, which, when pooled, was “enough to buy gas for the two of us to drive to Oakville and back each day,” says Ted.

Continue…

Women read at twice the rate of men, survey says

By macleans.ca - Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 12:53 PM - 4 Comments

 According to Ian McEwan, “when women stop reading, the novel will be dead.” He may be right. A recent survey of 2,000 Britons found that 48 per cent of women can be considered to be “page turners,” or avid readers, compared with only 26 per cent of men. A Guardian blogger suggests a few tweaks to bring the boys back: no matter the subject, always have a tractor and a pint on the cover; or perhaps create a TV series (with book tie-in) featuring “a handsome, profanity-spewing librarian.”

Guardian.co.uk

Impressing Jason Kenney

By Andrew Potter - Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 12:34 PM - 43 Comments

The Canadian Arab Federation  is suing Jason Kenney.

They want their money back. Glen McGregor has the details.

My Favourite Drabinsky-Related Quote

By Jaime Weinman - Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 12:25 PM - 1 Comment

With Garth Drabinsky in the news lately, I’m reminded of my favourite online quote about the man who is frequently called “Garth Vader” but rarely “Wanin’ Garth.” It was in a rec.arts.theatre.musicals post back in 2001 by a songwriter who had written a score for one of Drabinsky’s musicals. Responding to my post about whether there were more composer-lyricists (that is, people who do both jobs) than there used to be, he wrote:

For what it’s worth, I remember Drabinsky telling me that he thought a composer-lyricist was a bad choice to write a show – he wanted a multiplicity of collaborators, and felt that the writing should be divided among three parties instead of two. Soon he will be in jail, so take that on advisement.

'Freedom To Create…Spirit To Achieve'

By macleans.ca - Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 12:14 PM - 3 Comments

It cost $4-million and took six months of focus grouping both within and outside of the province, and still Alberta’s new slogan is as confusing and
as forgettable as the old one–”Alberta Advantage”–was solid, direct and unapologetic. Good luck remembering it five minutes from now, don’t hurt
yourself trying to figure out what it means. The Alberta Tories will spend $25 million pasting it up around the province in all formats. “Every time I
watch the video it gets me emotional. It builds my compassion for this province,” said Premier Ed Stelmach, who seems to believe this is just the medicine Alberta needs to battle those nasty environmentalists who have been so successful in besmirching the oil sands. “It’s worth more than $25
million, protecting a $40 billion revenue stream.”

Calgary Herald

Iggy and out?

By macleans.ca - Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 11:59 AM - 8 Comments

After spending the better part of last year defending his party against allegations that they overshot the advertising spending limit during the 2006 election, Pierre Poilievre was only too happy to alert the watchdogs at Elections Canada of a potential infraction by the Liberals. The Ottawa Citizen reports that Poilievre has passed along a pre-convention fundraising e-mail from party president elect Alf Apps that seems to encourage potential donors to give twice — once to the party, once to Ignatieff’s leadership campaign — by pointing out that any “surplus” leadership funds will revert to the party. Ignatieff’s office, however, has distanced itself from the letter, as well as the claim that his campaign is already running a surplus. Poilievre, however, doesn’t seem to be buying that: in his letter to the election commissioner, he says the letter raises “serious concerns”.

Ottawa Citizen

Quitting A.I.G.

By macleans.ca - Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 11:57 AM - 2 Comments

Jake DeSantis, a former A.I.G. executive, wrote a letter of resignation to company CEO Edward Liddy.  He also gave it to the New York Times for an  Op-Ed piece. It’s a lucid take on what some hard-working and guiltless  employees have suffered through in the past year. DeSantis was asked to work for $1 a year to help fix the problems that some former employees caused. He was repeatedly reassured that he would be compensated for the 14 hour-days he logged. Now those contracts won’t be honoured. He won’t give  the money back, but he vows to donate 100 per cent of his ‘retention  payment’ to charities helping people who have suffered in the downturn.

The New York Times

Make jobs, not war

By macleans.ca - Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 11:54 AM - 0 Comments

A years-in-the-making plan to replace Canada’s search and rescue fleet has become the focal point of an interdepartmental spat over procurement policy, the Ottawa Citizen reports. Mindful of the current economic pressures, Industry Canada is pulling out all the bureaucratic stops to try to force Defence to put the bid to an open competition – thereby “creating maximum jobs across the country”. The military, however, is digging in its collective heels, and “sticking to a strict set of requirements for the search-and-rescue aircraft” – which, according to defence industry experts “makes it almost certain the Alenia C-27J aircraft would be selected.” 

Ottawa Citizen

Shovel and/or baton-ready

By Paul Wells - Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 11:47 AM - 36 Comments

Jack Diamond built a very good opera house in Toronto (pictured here), and now his firm has been chosen to build the Montreal Symphony’s new concert hall. Everyone plays to type in their coverage: The Gazette‘s story concentrates on the (much higher than expected) price tag; La Presse notices that locals didn’t get the gig. I’m just happy when a good orchestra gets a good room to play in.

Pentagon report charts China’s military rise

By macleans.ca - Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 11:38 AM - 1 Comment

A U.S. Defense Department report alleges that China is spending massive amounts of money – much of which is hidden or undeclared – in an effort to transform its military and alter the balance of power in a potential conflict with the United States over Taiwan. China considers Taiwan a breakaway province that must be reintegrated, by force if necessary. “The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is pursuing comprehensive transformation from a mass army designed for protracted wars of attrition on its territory to one capable of fighting and winning short-duration, high-intensity conflicts along its periphery against high-tech adversaries,” the report to Congress says. “In the near-term, China’s armed forces are rapidly developing coercive capabilities for the purpose of deterring Taiwan’s pursuit of de jure independence. These same capabilities could in the future be used to pressure Taiwan toward a settlement of the cross-Strait dispute on Beijing’s terms while simultaneously attempting to deter, delay, or deny any possible U.S. support for the island in case of conflict.” China has reacted with fury, calling the report “a gross distortion of the facts” and interference in China’s affairs.

U.S.A. Department of Defense

Should boys take Gardasil?

By macleans.ca - Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 11:36 AM - 0 Comments

The makers of the controversial HPV vaccine are trying to crack a new market for their product—boys. Gardasil, protects women against human papillomavirus, a common sexually transmitted infection, that can lead to cervical cancer. But vaccination programs for young girls came under fire from religious and parents’ groups who claimed the shots might encourage promiscuity. Now, Merck & Co, the manufacturer, has asked the U.S. FDA to approve Gardasil for males aged 9 to 26. Studies suggest the vaccine would protect boys against genital warts and less common cancers, as well as protecting their sexual partners.

The Washington Post

"A nobody and a nothing" prevails in fight with august medical journal

By macleans.ca - Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 11:35 AM - 2 Comments

Things aren’t looking good for the Journal of the American Medical Association these days. Over the last couple of weeks, a battle has played out in the pages of the Wall Street Journal between the medical journal and a justifiably disgruntled reader. A year ago, JAMA published a study of an antidepressant that didn’t cite the author’s conflict of interest (he received funding from the drug maker) and didn’t mention that cognitive behavioural therapy was just as effective in treating depression as Lexapro. The reader, a neuroanatomy prof in the know, wrote a letter of complaint—to the British Medical Journal. JAMA called him and allegedly threatened his future in science, then called his superiors to have the BMJ letter retracted. JAMA’s editor in chief, responding to a call from the WSJ, reportedly referred to the prof as “a nobody and a nothing”. Long story short, the prof had sent a letter to JAMA citing his concerns, but the journal didn’t run a correction until after the BMJ letter was published. For a full explanation, read this riveting summary on the Effect Measure science blog. The best part: JAMA has decided to make it policy that complaints not be revealed to the press until after the journal has investigated the matter. As the blog aptly observes: “what was just dumbass is being elevated to the level of policy.”

Effect Measure

Schools near fast food make for fat students

By macleans.ca - Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 11:32 AM - 1 Comment

Ninth graders attending a school that’s within a block of a fast-food outlet are more likely to be obese than those whose schools are a quarter of a mile or more away, according to new research from economists at the University of California and Columbia University. The study, which looked at millions of students over the course of nearly a decade, was detailed enough to allow researchers to observe childrens’ obesity rates before and after a new fast food outlet opened nearby. Obesity rates were five per cent higher among ninth graders whose schools were within one-tenth of a mile of a fast food restaurant, they found. “I think we got as close to proving causation as any other study has, and probably as close as is feasible with the existing data,” economist Enrico Moretti, one of the paper’s authors, told the New York Times. Meanwhile, the National Restaurant Association dismissed the study as flawed, as it didn’t take variables like exercise into account.

The New York Times

Darling Buds of … Page? Maybe not: Liveblogging the Library of Parliament committee

By kadyomalley - Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 11:28 AM - 10 Comments

ITQ will confess right here and now that she has no idea what to expect from today’s meeting, but since the NDP made such a big deal about it at Finance yesterday afternoon, we couldn’t very well skip out on our PBOWatching duties, now could we?

11:48:48 AM
Okay, so a quick note before we start: if I should fail to show up for my usual Thursday afternoon parliamentary duties, seemingly disappeared without a trace, send the search party to East Block, where I will surely be found wandering the halls of the third floor – just follow the string and call me Ariadne.
That said, I do, once again, have to confess my deep love for this particular building, which is by far the most spectacular of the Blocks, architecturally speaking. If you ever do the Parliament Hill tourist circuit, make sure to add this building to your list of must-sees — right after the Library.

That wasn’t even intentional, but what a perfect segue that was to the issue at hand – the Libary of Parliament, that is, and its eponymous committee, which is about to hear from the consultant hired by Parliamentary Librarian William Young to provide advice on how to deal with the Parliamentary Budget Office. Or, more precisely, with the current Parliamentary Budget Officer: the one and only Kevin Page.

11:55:49 AM
Well, that was fast — citing her ingrained schoolteachering ways, the chair – Sharon Carstairs – just gavelled the meeting into existence.

11:57:46 AM

Continue…