And it only took them 40 years

By Philippe Gohier - Tuesday, August 18, 2009 at 4:00 PM - 0 Comments

Christian Kay’s work on the Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary started out as inauspiciously as most careers do. “I just wanted a job, to be quite honest,” she says, “and this sounded interesting.” Little did she know she was embarking on a more-than-40-year journey that would have her combing the depths of the English language.

Kay, who’s now a professor of English at the University of Glasgow, joined the Historical Thesaurus project as a research assistant in 1969. Though she would eventually become one of the work’s chief editors, she was initially charged with the painstaking work of transcribing almost every single word in the Oxford English Dictionary—from Old English to its modern incarnation—onto little slips of paper. Each word was then grouped with others sharing similar meanings according to an elaborate classification system. But in a significant departure from the traditional thesaurus, Kay and her fellow researchers sought out every word ever used to express a specific concept and listed them chronologically. The synonyms range from the archaic to the modern to the downright bizarre. Continue…

A lovely time for a vote

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, August 18, 2009 at 3:19 PM - 28 Comments

Rob Nicholson, Nov. 6, 2006. Yet another reason for adopting fixed date elections is that this measure will likely improve voter turnout because elections will be held in October, except when a government loses the confidence of the House.  The weather is generally favourable in most parts of the country.  Fewer people are transient. So, for example, most students will not be in transition between home and school at that time and will be able to vote.  Moreover, seniors will not be deterred from voting as they might be in colder months … The government’s bill provides that the date for the next general election is Monday, October 19, 2009.

John Baird, today. ”I haven’t met anybody who wants a fall election.”

Arrogant? Foolish? Dishonest?

By Philippe Gohier - Tuesday, August 18, 2009 at 3:10 PM - 6 Comments

If I were to make a list of all the adjectives I could use to describe Canadian politicians and political parties, “self-aware” would rank pretty close to the bottom—down there with “fun,” “witty,” “discerning” and “charismatic.” That’s what makes this poll so interesting.

Angus Reid Strategies asked 1,003 Canadians to pick six qualities out of a list of 17 that they would attach to each of the four major federalist parties and then broke down the results to compare how supporters view their own party to how Canadians view it. To the extent that supporters overwhelmingly tend towards positive qualities to describe their favourite party, the results aren’t shocking by any means. What is interesting, though, is just how sharp the divide can be between how supporters view their party compared to the way other Canadians do.

Continue…

Stop dieting. Invest in a diet dress.

By Anne Kingston - Tuesday, August 18, 2009 at 3:04 PM - 5 Comments

If only they awarded Nobel Prizes for self-help books, British journalist Mimi Spencer, the author of 101 Things to Do Before You Diet: Because Looking Great Isn’t Only About the Weight, would rightfully be taking her place on stage in Stockholm next year. And if the plentiful tips in her primer are any indication, she’d look like a cover girl—her best features played up, Spanx sucking in her “soft tummy,” her posture perfect, her heels slimmingly high, her cheekbones perfectly contoured.

The Daily Mail style columnist certainly deserves some kind of award for brilliantly deploying self-help conventions to take on its cash cow: the fad diet book. The fact her “not-a-diet” primer will end up in the diet-book section when it arrives in bookstores next month is richly ironic, given its central message that the obsessive focus on diets of the grapefruit and Zone variety is the problem behind yo-yo weight gain, not the solution to it. The first of her 101 things “to do”: “Don’t read diet books.” Continue…

UPDATED: So the Little Shop of Tories isn't good enough for you anymore, huh?

By kadyomalley - Tuesday, August 18, 2009 at 2:44 PM - 49 Comments

Before joining forces with PMO to mock ITQ’s on-the-fly spelling abilities, Colleague Wherry points out a fascinating tidbit of news from Winnipeg Free Press Ottawa bureau chief Mia Rabson.

Unsatisfied, it seems, with carpet-bombing currently enemy-held territory with ten percenters, the Conservative Party has gone and hired itself  one of those newfangled new media firms — a Manitoba-based one at that. The Mars Hill Group, the Free Press reports, “will be helping individual Conservative MPs and Senators make personal, customized videos”, and that according to the website,  the first — starring everyone’s favourite prime-time-political-broadcaster-turned-senator and “longtime party supporter” Mike Duffy — is slated to “start hitting inboxes this fall”.

Oddly, the announcement — which was prominently displayed on the site last week  – seems to have vanished, for some reason, but luckily, the original text is still available, courtesy of  Google cache.

Continue…

The cupboard is bare…

By Andrew Coyne - Tuesday, August 18, 2009 at 2:17 PM - 36 Comments

Nova Scotia’s new NDP government plays the oldest card in the political deck. Next steps:

1. Announce that you cannot be held to your campaign promises, which were to balance the budget without raising taxes or cutting spending, as the situation has changed utterly.

2. Announce that you are amending provincial legislation mandating balanced budgets, though you forced an election over the previous government’s attempts to wriggle out of it.

3. Raise taxes.

4. Modify growth in spending slightly, announce that it has been “cut”.

5. Run big deficits.

6. Hope economy recovers.

7. As next election approaches, a) raise spending, but b) fudge deficit numbers to show budget balancing, just (at the top of the business cycle). Opposition parties will collude with you in (b) while denouncing (a) as not nearly sufficient.

8. Opposition elected on “fiscal reponsibility” platform.

9. Repeat steps 1 through 8.

Scott Bakula, Thou Shouldst Be Living At This Hour!

By Jaime Weinman - Tuesday, August 18, 2009 at 1:59 PM - 2 Comments

[vodpod id=Groupvideo.3225590&w=425&h=350&fv=m%3D3966210%26type%3Dvideo%26a%3D0]

I was one of many people who thought that The Time Traveler’s Wife sounds like an episode of Quantum Leap, so I shouldn’t be surprised that a U.S. network is making the novel into a TV show, written and produced by one of the creators of Friends.

ABC’s interest in the adaptation substantially pre-dates the movie, however. The network has been talking to [Marta] Kauffman “for years” about bringing the project to the small screen, industry insiders said….

ABC executives believe the complex plot of the original novel will work well in series form, since Kauffman will be able to explore the romantic relationship at the core of the story over the course of several seasons.

Individual episodes will likely feature self-contained storylines as well.

Someone else commented that in addition to the Quantum Leap connection, this sounds a lot like another ABC/Warner Brothers co-production, Pushing Daisies. After all, they’re both about dudes who have mysterious powers that they can’t fully control and that make it tough for them to fulfil their relationships with the girl of their dreams. So it’s like Pushing Daisies if every week he tries to use his time-traveling to help somebody or learn something, instead of using his super death powers to solve mysteries.

Also, if you loved the endless, frustratingly unfulfilled on-and-off romantic tension between Ross and Rachel, think of what Kaufman can do with a relationship that is constantly interrupted by the forces of time itself. I expect the Time Traveler to say “we were on a break!” quite a lot.

(Link via Diane.)

You pay them to leave

By Andrew Coyne - Tuesday, August 18, 2009 at 1:44 PM - 12 Comments

Prostitutes? Consultants? No — pork farmers.

Celine Dion is expecting

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, August 18, 2009 at 1:18 PM - 0 Comments

After receiving treatment from fertility doctors in New York, Celine Dion is pregnant with her second child. Her first son, René-Charles, was born in 2001. According to reports, Dion decided to take a break after her tour ended in March so that she could focus on conceiving. “Celine and René are very happy,” said a rep for the star. “They are crazy in love over the news … they are overjoyed.” The 41-year-old singer has repeatedly expressed her desire to expand her family. That’s not surprising, perhaps, given that Dion grew up in a family of 14.

People

Robert Novak is dead

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, August 18, 2009 at 12:37 PM - 0 Comments

Robert Novak, the political columnist and pundit whose plethora of Washington insider connections boosted and finally tainted his career, is dead at the age of 78. As a young reporter, Novak teamed up with Rowland Evans to create the Evans-Novak “Inside Report” syndicated column, which reported on Washington D.C. political machinations from the point of view of (often anonymous) political insiders. In addition to writing the column, which he continued alone after Evans’s death, Novak was a popular presence on TV news panel shows, particularly on CNN. In 2003, however his career was hurt by his pioneering method of reporting what anonymous contacts told him: on an anonymous tip from State Department official Richard Armitage, Novak wrote that Ambassador Joseph Wilson’s wife, Valerie Plame Wilson, was a covert CIA agent. The controversy created by this leak helped lead to an official investigation and eventually led to Novak being questioned by a grand jury about his role in the leak.

Chicago Sun-Times

Small car, big controversy

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, August 18, 2009 at 12:37 PM - 0 Comments

Chrysler is said to be planning on building the Fiat 500 compact car at a plant in Mexico. The decision to build the car outside the U.S. and Canada could prove to be a political nightmare, given that the company owes its existence to taxpayers in the U.S. and Canada. Auto experts, however, say it could prove to be a wise move, as the market for the Fiat 500 may be bigger in Central and South America than in the U.S. Observers also expect that upcoming product lines from Chrysler (and Fiat) will include new cars being built in all three North American countries. Fiat owns a 20 per cent stake in Chrysler, and this is the first step in bringing its small car expertise to North America.

The Detroit News

The Wall Street Journal

Sore throat said to have killed Mozart

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, August 18, 2009 at 12:35 PM - 2 Comments

One of the world’s greatest musical minds, Mozart, may have been brought down by a sore throat. For years, researchers have speculated about what killed Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at the age of 35. But now, researchers at the University of Amsterdam think they’ve found the true culprit: a strep infection. The Amsterdam team collected historical accounts of the musician’s symptoms, and compared them to more than 5,000 reported cases of illness at the time of his death. “Our analysis is consistent with Mozart’s last illness and death being due to a streptococcal infection leading to an acute nephritic syndrome caused by poststreptococcal glomerulonephritis,” the report explained. Researchers damaged his kidneys. Previously, popular theories behind the maestro’s death included poisoning, overwork, and eating bad pork.

BBC News

Israel's military rabbis draw fire

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, August 18, 2009 at 12:30 PM - 0 Comments

Most Israelis expect their military rabbis to confine themselves to such tasks as making sure the army provides kosher food and respects the Sabbath. But lately, some of them are asserting their own idea of Jewish virtue at the risk of stepping into the country’s culture wars. Some critics worry that the rabbinate and its charismatic chief, Brig. Gen. Avichai Rontzki, are infusing a militant mix of Judaism and nationalism into a traditionally secular institution that embodies the Israeli consensus. On the Palestinian side, Islamic hard-liners already see their war with Israel through an uncompromising religious lens, and the rabbinate’s critics warn that the Jewish state must not follow suit and risk pushing the conflict closer to a zero-sum holy war. When Israeli soldiers massed on the Gaza border for the country’s offensive against Hamas militants six months ago, uniformed rabbis stood amid the tents and tanks, reciting prayers with the men as they prepared for battle. When the troops went into Gaza, Rontzki went in with them. That might not have seemed unusual, but some rabbis went further, distributing pamphlets that put the conflict firmly in religious terms. One suggested a parallel between today’s Palestinians and the Philistines, the biblical foes of the Israelites. Critics say it was in line with a pattern that goes against the heterogeneous nature of Israel’s conscript army. Although mostly Jewish, the Israel Defense Forces’ estimated 175,000 regular troops include some Muslim Arabs and immigrants from the former Soviet Union who identify as Christians. The military’s advocate-general is an Orthodox Jew, and the editor of its official magazine is openly gay. All soldiers have access to their own clergy and observe their religions’ holidays, though only Jewish chaplains wear uniforms and serve in the military rabbinate. Rontzki has been accused of speaking out against military service for women—he denies it—and after Bamahane, the army magazine, profiled a homosexual major, Rontzki wrote to several senior officers to protest. There is also the issue of rising Orthodox influence in the military’s combat units. Elite troops once came predominantly from the socialist kibbutz movement; today they are more likely to be people like Rontzki—skullcapped, seminary-educated and steeped in an ethos of national service, sacrifice and building settlements. Some estimates say a quarter of the troops now completing combat officers’ training are religious. However, skullcaps like the one worn by 57-year-old Ronzki are still rare among the top brass, who remain overwhelmingly secular.

The Associated Press

Once again, U.S. protesters bring guns to presidential events

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, August 18, 2009 at 12:29 PM - 1 Comment

The right to protest is a hallmark of any free society, but the right to bear arms a short distance from presidential events is decidedly American. As Obama’s battle for health care reform ramps up, demonstrators have been exercising their second amendment rights. On Monday, a man toting an assault rifle was among about a dozen armed protesters outside the president’s speech to veterans in Arizona. In another incident, a man in New Hampshire turned up outside Obama’s town hall meeting, a gun strapped to his thigh. In both cases, police insist that Obama was not at risk as the gun-toting men were outside the venues where he was speaking. However, they’ve had a tough time explaining to concerned onlookers that carrying a weapon to a presidential event is, in fact, legal.

CNN

Copenhageners get ready to charge up

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, August 18, 2009 at 12:27 PM - 0 Comments

By 2011, California based transport-company Better Place and its partner, French automaker Renault, will market 160,000 electric cars per year in Denmark and Israel. Renault is developing three models of cars—a sedan, a
small city car and a van—with an expected price tag of 200,000 kroner ($42,000). Much like signing up for a cell phone contract, electric car drivers will need to sign up for a monthly subscription with Better Place to get access to the batteries. Drivers will be able to recharge the batteries at home, change batteries at a swap station or top up their batteries at charge spots installed in parking lots and on the streets. The city of Copenhagen is looking to install between 50 and 60 charge spots by December, the time of the United Nations’ climate change summit. Better Place has apparently also been in contact with a number of other European countries about expanding the scheme.

The Guardian

No recession in Lego land

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, August 18, 2009 at 12:26 PM - 0 Comments

Danish toy-maker Lego increased UK market share in the first half of the year, with consumer sales up 20 per cent and total sales in Britain up a staggering 35 per cent. Marko Ilincic, managing director of Lego UK, said ”the continued strong growth in our classic product lines is particularly encouraging and suggests a demand among consumers for trusted quality, particularly in the current economic climate.” Pleased with its performance, Lego is increasing manufacturing capacity and is putting money into new injection-moulding machines in Denmark, Hungary and Mexico and building a new warehouse in the Czech Republic. While Lego said that it is optimistic that growth will continue, it noted that much depends on the run-up to Christmas.

The Guardian

'People with unwiped bums'

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, August 18, 2009 at 12:17 PM - 53 Comments

The Prime Minister’s team learns that spelling is hard. And important.

An unfortunate blunder by the Prime Minister’s Office has residents of Nunavut alternately chuckling and cringing. A news release sent out Monday outlined Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s itinerary as he began a five-day tour of the North.

The release repeatedly spelled the capital of Nunavut as Iqualuit — rather than Iqaluit. The extra “u” makes a world of difference in the Inuktitut language.

Iqaluit, properly spelled, means “many fish.” Spelled with an extra “u,” the Nunavut language commissioner’s office says the word translates as a derogatory reference to “people with unwiped bums.”

The Prime Minister’s Office calls to say they’ve corrected the mistake on the PM’s website and note that various media outlets have published the same error—including, well, this one. “So hopefully our collective typos … will help better inform all of us to not make the same mistake twice,” says Dimitri Soudas, Mr. Harper’s press secretary.

'69 is a Liberal position'

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, August 18, 2009 at 11:59 AM - 7 Comments

Dale Smith looks at Liberal courting of the gay community.

Also at Montreal Pride this weekend, I was reliably informed that the Liberals were out in full force with a cheeky slogan that says “69 is a Liberal position” – referencing of course the fact that it was in 1969 that Trudeau’s bill to decriminalise homosexuality was enacted.

Wimps

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, August 18, 2009 at 11:52 AM - 2 Comments

David Akin reports on lunch from the Prime Minister’s Arctic adventure.

On seals — When cabinet breaks for lunch today — seal is on the menu — fresh, too – caught yesterday. Won’t be raw. More later …

Canada: The new global drug lord

By Misha Glenny - Tuesday, August 18, 2009 at 11:25 AM - 59 Comments

The United States and its allies have been prosecuting the war on drugs for almost a century. They have never looked like they’re winning but they have carried on regardless. In the past year, however, the supporters of drug prohibition have suffered some important tactical defeats. The bipartisan consensus in Washington, although still powerful, is beginning to slip. But there is a strategic issue now facing supporters of prohibition that presents them with their toughest challenge yet, and Canada will be a key battleground. This will unfold in the next decade and may bring an end to the war on drugs, which has consistently failed to achieve its stated aims despite devouring hundreds of billions of taxpayers’ dollars.

At the heart of this problem lie synthetic drugs—pills that are changing the rules, pushing out the old organic masters, cocaine and heroin, and turning the geopolitics of narcotics upside down. It is something that the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) is beginning to fret about. Continue…

NATO on defensive for Afghan elections

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, August 18, 2009 at 11:21 AM - 0 Comments

Afghan and NATO forces will halt all offensive operations on Thursday and concentrate on providing security for the country’s presidential election. This comes as the Taliban threatens to disrupt polls and murder voters, while attacking both the military and civilians with mortars and suicide bombers. One suicide attack on a military convoy killed at least seven people and wounded around 50, whereas another killed three soldiers and two civilians. There are fears that the threats will lead to a low voter turn out, bringing the legitimacy of election results into question.

CBC

'Hi, I'm James Bezan and this is Woody, my horse'

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, August 18, 2009 at 11:04 AM - 10 Comments

The Winnipeg Press Fress reports that the Conservatives will soon be sending out video versions of their highly acclaimed political flyers, the first one featuring noted non-partisan and reluctant senator Mike Duffy. But, notes the Free Press, Conservative MP James Bezan is way ahead of the technological curve, having already set-up his own YouTube channel.

Bezan, the Conservative MP from Selkirk-Interlake, has launched his own YouTube channel and has three episodes so far.

The introductory video comes complete with Bezan riding up on his horse, Woody, and has him delivering an afternoon-nap inducing statistical profile of his riding.

That video is at least twice as entertaining as described. Better still might be Bezan’s Blair Witch-inspired look at Harrington Lake. That bold step forward for Canadian cinema after the jump. Continue…

Fear the reaper

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, August 18, 2009 at 10:49 AM - 2 Comments

Way to bring down a room, Don Drummond. The London Free Press reports that the TD Financial Group’s chief economist has a dire warning for cities and townships eager to partake of the federal government’s ongoing stimulus spending spree: When it comes time to pay the bill, it will be the lowest level of government that bears the brunt of the fiscal belt-tightening that will almost inevitably ensue. Drummond delivered the bleak message in a speech at the annual meeting of the Association of Canadian Municipalities. Although he doesn’t think that the looming deficit crisis will result in “draconian” cuts like those imposed during the 1990s, he also pointed to the rising Canadian dollar—and sliding Canadian auto sector—as having the potential to further increase the pressure on local economies.

London Free Press

Leaving California

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, August 18, 2009 at 10:46 AM - 0 Comments

Writing for the Los Angeles Times, Candice Reed brilliantly sums up how far California has fallen in the eyes of Americans, who for decades idealized the sun-dappled state as a land where bliss and opportunity converged. Now, says Reed, the place is beset with financial problems and devoid of its former sense of community. So her personal romance with California is over. “We can’t pay our bills, and the phone is ringing off the hook with creditors calling from all over the world,” Reed writes. “Children across the state are losing healthcare, more than 766,300 Californians lost their jobs in the last year, and we’re at the top of the foreclosure charts. You need to change, and you refuse to admit it. For the first time in our relationship, I’m embarrassed to say that we are together.”

Los Angeles Times