Jewish priesthood has multiple lineages: study

By macleans.ca - Thursday, September 24, 2009 at 1:00 PM - 0 Comments

Throughout Jewish history, the priesthood, called “Cohanim,” have had a distinct status. Thought to be the descendants of Aaron, the brother of Moses, their role has always been most important on Yom Kippur, or the Day of Atonement. But in advance of Monday’s holiday, new research is emerging about their lineage. Building on a decade-old study, which identified the DNA marker signature of the Cohanim (the Cohen Modal Haplotype), a group of geneticists have found the priesthood was established by several unrelated male lines. Using a much larger sample, the geneticists have developed a more fully resolved signature called the extended Cohen Modal Haplotype, and were able to tease apart a number of male lines that founded the Cohanim in ancient times. Says Michael F. Hammer, a population geneticist in the Arizona Research Laboratory’s Division of Biotechnology at the University of Arizona, “These findings should motivate renewed interest in historical reconstructions of the Jewish priesthood as well as additional high resolution DNA marker analyses of other populations and ‘lost tribes’ claiming ancient Hebrew ancestry.”

University of Arizona

The Pope? At Buckingham Palace?

By macleans.ca - Thursday, September 24, 2009 at 12:59 PM - 5 Comments

The Pope will come to Britain next year, marking the first state visit by a pontiff. He is expected to meet the Queen, the Supreme Governor of the Church of England, and may stay at Buckingham Palace. The historic event, expected for September, is likely to overshadow even the triumphant pastoral visit of Pope John Paul II in 1982—which almost did not take place because of the Falklands conflict. The pontiff will meet the Prime Minister in a series of events over three days, which it is hoped will finally consign to the past Britain’s post-Reformation legacy of anti-Catholic prejudice. Gordon Brown extended an invitation during an audience in February and preparations have been under way for some time.

The Times

Gretzky resigns as Coyotes' head coach

By macleans.ca - Thursday, September 24, 2009 at 12:58 PM - 4 Comments

Wayne Gretzky is stepping down as the head coach and director of operations of the Phoenix Coyotes. He’s leaving amidst a dispute between the NHL and billionaire Jim Balsillie over the team’s ownership, a battle which has left Gretzky’s $9.1 million salary in question. The Great One said he made the decision because “both remaining bidders have made it clear that I don’t fit into their future plans.”

CBC News

The Cronkite files

By macleans.ca - Thursday, September 24, 2009 at 12:57 PM - 1 Comment

Did the FBI have Walter Cronkite under surveillance? It seems we’ll never know. The FBI did compile a file on the late CBS anchor, who died in July at the age of 92, but destroyed it two years ago. Researchers say it’s part of a disturbing trend.

USA Today

Unfinished business

By macleans.ca - Thursday, September 24, 2009 at 12:57 PM - 0 Comments

Capt. Simon Mailloux was forced to return home from Afghanistan in 2007 after an attack severed his lower left leg. He spent the last two years healing and undergoing rehab, and now he’s ready to go back. According to the Department of National Defence, Mailloux will be the first ever Canadian soldier to return to combat after losing a limb. He’ll be working as a staff officer in the Kandahar Airfield headquarters. “It’s always been in my mind, from minute one. I asked my major when I was on the treatment table: ‘I’ll be back in a week. Just wait for me, I’ll be there,’ he said.

CBC News

eBay not a girl's best friend

By macleans.ca - Thursday, September 24, 2009 at 12:55 PM - 0 Comments

The auction of a drawer above Marilyn Monroe’s crypt at an L.A.-area memorial park made big news at the time. An unnamed Japanese bidder was said to have nabbed the space off Ebay for US$4.6 million. But when it came time to pay, the winner backed out, and as has been the case too often on eBay, the nearest competing bids proved to be bogus. That leaves Elsie Poncher, who inherited the crypt from her husband, without the money she’d planned to use to pay off her mortgage and keep her comfortable through her retirement. It also leaves eBay facing some awkward questions.

Los Angeles Times

On why the NDP hates all the applause

By Mitchel Raphael - Thursday, September 24, 2009 at 12:40 PM - 11 Comments

Coming soon? This is your pilot, Ruby Dhalla, speaking.

Liberal MP Ruby Dhalla was in riding lockdown this summer. She left only twice: for the Liberal caucus meeting in Sudbury, and for French lessons in France. This summer, to mark her fifth year as an elected official, she was raising money for the Ethno-Cultural Canadian Women’s Organization or ECCO (the final O is the symbol for woman). The group’s goal is combatting domestic violence in ethnic communities. Dhalla is also studying to be a pilot; so far, she has only been in simulators, though. Toronto’s Pearson International Airport is on the border of her riding. She often gives herself extra time when flying out of there because security people, many of whom are constituents, stop her to ask about things like immigration problems when she leaves for Ottawa on Mondays. But for the first Monday that the House returned, Dhalla had a downtown Toronto meeting and flew Porter Airlines from the Toronto island airport. Her reading for the first week back was Niall Ferguson’s The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World. Over the summer she read Barack Obama’s books and The Tao of Detox: The Natural Way to Purify Your Body for Health and Longevity.

It’s the much-coveted spot

Conservative backbench MP Brad Trost seems to be out of the doghouse. Several Tory MPs were miffed at Trost after he told a website, “The tourism funding money that went to the gay pride parade in Toronto was not government policy, was not supported by—I think it’s safe to say—by a large majority of the MPs. This was a very isolated decision.” He also alluded to a demotion for Diane Ablonczy, the minister responsible for allocating the funding. But on the first day Parliament resumed, Trost gave the last member’s statement before question period. This is a much-coveted spot since by that time most of the media and other MPs have reached their seats and may actually pay attention to it. NDP House leader Libby Davies says the Conservatives tend to use the last member’s statement simply to rattle Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff. The personal attacks, she says, result in the Liberal caucus rising and extending their applause for their leader. Davies feels that the applause is going on so long it is cutting into question period and lowering the NDP’s chances of getting in an extra question at the end. She has complained to Speaker Peter Milliken. Continue…

Cindy Gomez’s Cinderella story

By Anne Kingston - Thursday, September 24, 2009 at 12:40 PM - 2 Comments

Cindy Gomez is in motion, cruising along Los Angeles’ chi-chi Melrose Avenue in late August in the back of a big black chauffeured SUV. The Canadian singer is travelling with Dave Stewart, who came to fame as the bespectacled guy next to Annie Lennox in the innovative ’80s band the Eurythmics. Today, the 57-year-old British rock legend is a big-picture entrepreneur—performer, songwriter, producer, photographer, activist, new media savant and general connector of cosmic dots.

All of these endeavours dovetail perfectly with his current quest: to turn the multilingual Gomez, with her United Colours of Benetton beauty, into a global, multi-platform superstar. That in itself isn’t the kind of visionary thinking for which Stewart, a Davos denizen, corporate consultant on “disruptive change,” and friend of Bono, is known. What makes it pioneering is that he’s doing it in tandem with US$70-billion Finnish cellphone colossus Nokia as part of that company’s quest to become the world’s biggest entertainment media network. The stakes are big, Stewart says in his soft-spoken, unassuming, sage-like way: “If the experiment works, it will change the way art is made.” Continue…

Halifax to fight stinky suit ruling

By Tom Henheffer - Thursday, September 24, 2009 at 12:00 PM - 1 Comment

Halifax farmer Allison Willis woke up to the smell of raw sewage every day for 19 years. “You know what s–t smells like. It was terrible. I had to keep my windows closed. I couldn’t go outside.”

The odious odour ended last year, when a nearby sewage treatment plant that had been polluting the lake near Willis’s property was closed. But that wasn’t enough for Willis, 70. He sued the city of Halifax, demanding compensation for the years he was unable to enjoy his property. Last month a Nova Scotia court awarded him $81,000 in damages. Continue…

The dirtiest war

By Adnan R. Khan - Thursday, September 24, 2009 at 12:00 PM - 6 Comments

It was a cold, wet February morning when Zaidi Bibi received the headless body of her husband. The details are seared into her brain—how could she forget? “His hands were tied behind his back,” she recalls, telling her story from behind a thick curtain in compliance with her culture’s strict code of separation between men and women. “His head was also tied back there, like he was holding it in his own hands.” Bibi pauses in her narrative; her laboured breath sounds through the dense fibres of the curtain. She’s never had to recount this story before—no one has ever asked her about it. Recollecting her composure, she continues. “There used to be so much happiness in this house,” she says. “Now there is only hatred. To me, it only feels like my husband died yesterday. I still think about him constantly. I still have nightmares about his headless body. There is no happiness left here anymore.”

Hers is a familiar story in Swat, repeated hundreds of times over by widows throughout the lush valley just over 100 km northwest of Islamabad, the Pakistani capital. Ahmed Khan, her husband, didn’t arrive home from his nightly rounds as a rickshaw driver one morning, and remained missing for six days. On the seventh, his brother received a call from the Taliban telling him to come and pick up the “spy’s” body, along with Ahmed’s rickshaw. “My husband was no spy,” Bibi says. “He was a hard-working man who loved his children. And they killed him. They murdered him.” Continue…

UPDATED: EKOS spin-off post: Who's the rich, urban internationalist now, Patrick Muttart?

By kadyomalley - Thursday, September 24, 2009 at 12:00 PM - 27 Comments

(Sorry, sorry; just couldn’t resist, given how he characterized the new Liberal ad campaign last month.)

Anyway, given all the excitement over the metropolitan breakdowns in the latest EKOS weekly, which seemed to show the Conservatives poised to paint both Bay Street and the Byward Market blue, ITQ asked EKOS pollster-in-chief Frank Graves if he could provide a little more detail on just what those numbers might mean. Obliging soul that he is, he did:

The Ottawa numbers are quite striking although , as in the case of Toronto, they are an amalgam of the CMA. This is how Statistics Canada defines metropolitan areas but it includes both the metropolitan core and the outer lying suburban and ex-urban areas. In the case of Ottawa this also includes a sizable rural area as the Ottawa-Gatineau CMA is a huge geographical area. Clearly there are major difference between those living in the downtown areas and those living in the dormitory communities on the fringes. In recent history, and this is still largely the case the Conservatives do very poorly in the downtown core. This echoes a similar finding in the United States where Republicans also fare very poorly in the largest metropolitan centers , The Conservatives are much more competitive in the outlying suburban neighbourhoods which include a greater concentration of young families . The Conservatives also do much better in the rural areas of these CMA districts.

Our data are aggregated to the CMA level and we don’t have sufficient cases to break them down reliably by say the 416/905 portions. It may be the case that nothing has changed in the down town metro areas but the CPC has really taken off in the 905 areas.

At some point we may aggregate our data over several reporting periods and take a look at this but at this point it is unclear where the progress is being made by the Conservatives.

One interesting note is that hasn’t been picked up is that the CPC vote is far more committed than the Liberal vote at this point and that should yield a significant advantage at the ballot box. It is also interesting to see that (despite the limited sample size) Ottawa is the hot bed of political commitment in Canada.

The fact that the CPC polled ahead of the LPC in the Toronto CMA is interesting but certainly the aggregated CMA data don’t tell us that downtown Toronto has become a Tory stronghold . It is entirely possible that nothing has changed in downtown Toronto . The coming weeks will tell us whether the rising Conservative fortunes are stable or based on continued public umbrage at the thought of being summoned to the polls yet again, and where those gains are being carved out.

In other words, Bob Rae’s seat is probably safe … for now. (Do the Conservatives have a candidate in that riding yet? I swear, if there’s one out of town all-candidate meeting that ITQ would gladly make the trek to cover, that would be the one.

UPDATE – Now that’s pollster service that goes above and beyond the call of duty: In response to a question that arose in the comments over the Ottawa/Gatineau numbers, Frank Graves checked with the researchers, and confirmed that the results refer only to the Ottawa side of the CMA.

Gordon Landon Maverick Watch

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, September 24, 2009 at 11:57 AM - 4 Comments

As Liberals are now delightedly pointing out, our friends at CityTV reported last night on a Conservative candidate who suggests the riding of Markham-Unionville isn’t seeing stimulus funds because it is held by John McCallum, who is, coincidentally, a Liberal.

Richard Madan’s report is here.

An unlikely story

By Charlie Gillis - Thursday, September 24, 2009 at 11:40 AM - 1 Comment

An explanation would not be forthcoming. That much was clear within moments of the national parole board’s decision last week to free Mike Danton—the latest twist in hockey’s most unseemly saga. As the former NHL player let out his breath, a reporter seated at the back of the room opened his mouth as if to seek clarification from the two parole board members at the front. Before the scribe could utter a sound, though, one of the members held up a hand. “I’m sorry,” said Michael Crowley, smiling sympathetically. “We don’t answer questions.”

Pity, because Danton’s account of his crime during a hearing last week at a minimum security prison near Kingston, Ont., has raised a whole lot of them. Far from demonstrating that he “understands his offence,” as parole guidelines require, the 28-year-old from Brampton, Ont., offered up an entirely novel version of events, claiming he intended to kill his father, not his then-agent Dave Frost, when he tried to hire a hit man back in April 2004. “I just wanted to get rid of the thing causing me paranoia,” said the shaven-headed Danton. “I obviously wasn’t thinking clearly.” He went on to allege that his father, Steve Jefferson, had physically abused him when he was a child, and that—in a sleepless frenzy fuelled by prescription stimulants—he’d become convinced on that night five years ago that his dad was coming to Missouri to kill him. Continue…

Nearer to an AIDS vaccine?

By macleans.ca - Thursday, September 24, 2009 at 11:20 AM - 0 Comments

The world’s largest study of an HIV/AIDS vaccine just wrapped up in Thailand, and the results are extremely promising—a combination of two experimental vaccines reduced the risk of HIV infection by 30 per cent. The positive outcome is thought to be caused by a “prime-boost” approach, whereby the first vaccine readies the immune system and the second strengthens its attack. However, the combination is geared toward a specific type of the HIV common in Southeast Asia, and it’s not known whether it will work against other strains. Regardless, scientists say the results show a huge potential for reducing HIV infection rates, and that the discovery is a major step toward finding an even more effective vaccine.

The Guardian

Shades of green

By Hans Tammemagi, Takeoffeh.com - Thursday, September 24, 2009 at 10:50 AM - 2 Comments

Global warming, smog and toxic chemicals are causing you sleepless nights. You’re ready for a vacation, but you’re worried that travel is bad for the planet.

Yes, travel - especially air travel – can carry a hefty environmental price tag and burns fossil fuels — it’s estimated that between 2 – 10% of greenhouse emissions are from aircraft. But if you’ve been saving for a dream trip to an exotic locale, go ahead, indulge yourself. Experiencing different cultures, dabbling in languages, seeing history and learning how others live is rewarding, educational, inspirational and an important part of the human experience.

There’s no question, however, that the planet is in bad shape, so when you travel you should reduce your environmental footprint as much as is practical. Here are six common-sense tips that will lessen your travel impact … and will let you sleep better. Continue…

The donut speech

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, September 24, 2009 at 10:32 AM - 94 Comments

Susan Delacourt is taking a day off her duties at the Star each week to pursue a study of politics and consumerism. Suffice it to say then, she was tremendously pleased with the Prime Minister’s speech yesterday.

So while I guess while others may feel a bit squeamish about our PM ordering double-doubles and dipped donuts   while the world, literally, moved on without him, I, for one, am grateful. The leader of our country has chosen to re-announce a three-month-old decision by a donut company instead of taking part in a conversation at the United Nations. In so doing, he’s given me a whole bunch of fodder for research about how politicians see us now as shoppers/eaters now instead of educated citizens. Thanks, PM.

Government funding to build new Art Gallery of Saskatchewan

By macleans.ca - Thursday, September 24, 2009 at 10:26 AM - 2 Comments

Federal and provincial funding totaling $26 million was announced yesterday for a new Art Gallery of Saskatchewan, to be wrapped around Saskatoon’s Persephone Theatre, creating a new arts hub for the city. The plan is controversial, though. It would replace Saskatoon’s existing Mendel Art Gallery, which is housed in an admired 1964 modernist building, and was largely financed by donations from the meat-packing fortune of the late Fred Mendel. “Moving the Mendel would indeed be a great travesty,” said Terry Graff, it’s former head, now director of Fredericton’s respected Beaverbrook Art Gallery, “demonstrating the city’s cultural amnesia, lack of vision, recklessness with taxpayers’ money and great disrespect for local heritage heritage and founder Fred Mendel’s significant cultural legacy.”

The Star Phoenix (With $26M in provincial, federal funding, new art gallery on Saskatoon riverbank becomes official)

The Star Phoenix (Mendel plan ‘travesty’)

Launch of a love affair

By Daniel Poliquin - Thursday, September 24, 2009 at 10:20 AM - 1 Comment

By the mid-1950s, Quebecers, like most other Canadians, had fallen in love with television. So overwhelming was the coup de foudre that although in some regions near the U.S. border only American broadcasts would come in, unilingual French Quebecers lapped it up anyway. Kids could be seen in the streets of small towns re-enacting their favourite show, The Adventures of Kit Carson, speaking in a made-up mumbo-jumbo language they believed was English. That was how it sounded to them anyway.

Four out of five households in the province had a television set. And when the French-speaking people of Canada were all able to view locally made, francophone productions, they became a tight-knit virtual family, discussing at length the ending of the last sitcom or drama millions of others had watched, adopting as their own actors and actresses they had grown fond of, or, conversely, expressing unanimous hate for TV villains like Séraphin, the miser in the seemingly endless Les Belles Histoires des Pays d’En-Haut, which everybody watched. For good reason, too: there was only one French-language TV station; Radio-Canada’s monopoly ensured that all, and I mean all, francophones growing up in Quebec in the 1950s and 1960s shared a single TV culture. Continue…

Diablo Cody on camera

By Brian D. Johnson - Thursday, September 24, 2009 at 9:53 AM - 1 Comment

Here’s a video of my interview with Diablo Cody during the Toronto International Film Festival. The Oscar-winning screenwriter of Juno showed up for the premiere of her new movie, Jennifer’s Body. She talked about teenage sex, Megan Fox, Steven Spielberg,writer’s block, roller coasters and tattoos, among other things.

UPDATED: EKOS Weekly (with bonus Nanos): WATCH OUT! It's a runaway train!

By kadyomalley - Thursday, September 24, 2009 at 9:24 AM - 92 Comments

Seven point lead! Seven point lead! Seven point one lead, even, if you want to get all decimal about it! Watch out, semi-mythical majority, the vote-seeking missile that is the Big Blue Machine is locked, loaded and ready to — inch ahead from last week by less than a full percentage point.

Not that they shouldn’t feel good about it, mind you — as any number of commenters will soon be along to point out, it’s the trend that counts, not the actual numbers, and that trend shows slow but steady growth by the Conservatives, while the Liberals remain frozen in amber. (Seriously, you guys, are you playing dead to lull the Tories into a false sense of security? Because at the moment, it’s just a little bit too convincing. Maybe twitch a finger or something, just so the audience knows there’s still a twist in the plot to come.)

And then there’s the NDP. Oh, NDP. After the last few polls showed no post-post-convention plunge despite your leader’s dithering, it was like a mantra: “Look! We’re not slumping! You all predicted slumpage, but hah! No slumpers we! Take that, corporate media! Today, Nova Scotia, tomorrow, the world!”  And then your party lost nine points in a week in Atlantic Canada. The End. On the plus side, look at where all that extra media fussin’ got Elizabeth May and the Greens in British Columbia — into the high teens, that’s where!  Start packing up that ministerial office, Gary Lunn!

Numbers first, followed by more caffeine and toasted pita-powered armchair analysis from ITQ — not to mention that extra dose of substance-fortified Nanos goodness teasered in the headline:

National voter intention (MoE 2.1)
Conservatives: 37 (+0.9)
Liberals: 29.9 (-)
NDP: 13.8 (-2.7)
Green: 10.2 (+1.2)
Bloc Quebecois (in Quebec): 36.4 (-2.5)
Undecided:  15.6 (+2.3)

… and the regional breakdowns:

Continue…

Dislike Obama? You must be racist.

By Mark Steyn - Thursday, September 24, 2009 at 9:00 AM - 427 Comments

A year ago, in the final stretch of the U.S. election campaign, I would find myself in New York or Los Angeles or points in between and asked for my thoughts on who would win. I usually answered “John McCain,” more in hope than expectation: I’ve no use for the soi-disant “maverick,” who was a catastrophic candidate, but in those heady days between Sarah Palin’s boffo convention speech and McCain’s characteristically inept response to the economic meltdown there was briefly a faint chance that the Alaskan governor might yet save the Republican party from its rendezvous with destiny.

And at that point the worldly liberal Democrat who had sought my views would nod thoughtfully and agree: yes, McCain would win. Not because of Sarah Palin. But because Americans were too racist to stomach the thought of a black man in the White House. Continue…

Bestsellers

By Brian Bethune - Thursday, September 24, 2009 at 9:00 AM - 0 Comments

Top-selling fiction and non-fiction titles (week of September 21st, 2009)

Fiction

Non-fiction

LAST WEEK (WEEKS ON LIST)

Coyne v. Wells: Potential sequels

By Scott Feschuk - Thursday, September 24, 2009 at 8:44 AM - 10 Comments

Okay, Wells mentioned it on his blog, so we need to get ahead of this sucker. In the wake of Coyne v. Wells on the subject of Canada’s broken democracy, there’s talk of more Maclean’s live events. What do you folks want to see? A few suggestions to get you started:

Coyne v. Wells: Canada’s democracy is still broken. WTF guys?

Weinman v. Feschuk: First one to five obscure, overlong references to Continue…

This is who should win in Calgary

By Paul Wells - Thursday, September 24, 2009 at 8:20 AM - 2 Comments

One night in July, hundreds of Calgarians packed a downtown theatre to watch five architectural firms from Canada, the U.S. and France defend their plans for turning the King Edward Hotel, a decrepit old blues spot where Ralph Klein held down the bar for most of the 1980s, into the cornerstone of a $100-million, 80,000-sq.-foot National Music Centre. A jury will announce the winner on Sept. 23. But the broader public has been invited to follow every step.

“The great thing about this contest’s organizers is they made the contest so open and allowed the competitors to see one another’s work, which is really unusual,” Elizabeth Diller of the blue-chip New York City firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro said in an interview. “It was excruciating, because you come in and you’re so focused on your project. The idea of getting a sense of your competitors is very destabilizing. But it made for a very interesting event.” Continue…