New cold virus looks like swine flu

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, November 18, 2009 at 11:41 AM - 1 Comment

A new cold virus is sending U.S. children to hospital with symptoms that resemble swine flu, doctors are reporting. At the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, hundreds of children had a rhinovirus (common cold virus), leading federal health investigators to wonder whether it’s a new strain, and whether it’s impacting other parts of the country, too. “What began to happen in early September is we started seeing more children coming to our emergency room with significant respiratory illness,” said Dr. Susan Coffin, medical director of infection control and prevention at the hospital, which (unlike most U.S. hopsitals) can run a test to diagnose 10 different respiratory viruses, including influenza. While most rhinoviruses cause an illness that can resemble the flu, with more runny nose and less fever, this one was causing severe symptoms and even pneumonia. Some children had to be hospitalized and treated with a nebulizer, which delivers drugs into the lungs to keep oxygen in the blood. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control is investigating, and notes that, while swine flu is above epidemic levels, only 30 per cent of cases of influenza-like illness that are tested are confirmed as H1N1.

Reuters

Having it both ways

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, November 18, 2009 at 11:39 AM - 0 Comments

There are any number of ironies in the story of a former MI5 secret agent suing the London Evening Standard for revealing his name. For one thing, his name circulates freely online. For another, the Standard was bought this year by a former Russian KGB officer, Alexander Lebedev. And finally (and more to the point), the plaintiff is simultaneously fighting his former employers in the name of free speech: he wants to be allowed to publish his memoirs under a pseudonym. His 300-page manuscript is provisionally entitled Siberia after the codeword he was given to use when in danger during a decade-long undercover career that began with other crime-fighting organizations and progressed to infiltrating international terrorists. The issue of his memoirs has already reached Britain’s new supreme court, where a hearing took place last month under the cryptic heading “A v B.” The memoirs case reached the supreme court because MI5 wants the arguments heard in secrecy at the investigatory powers tribunal, with no right of appeal or normal rules of evidence, rather than at the high court. Judgment is awaited on which is the right jurisdiction. The tribunal was set up for a different reason, to hear complaints from people who believed they had been wrongly bugged or burgled.

The Guardian

Pass the salt!

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, November 18, 2009 at 11:37 AM - 2 Comments

Most Canadians know they consume too much salt, and are well aware of the health risks, including high blood pressure, according to University of Alberta nutrition researchers. But only half of the 890 people surveyed are actually trying to cut down. Young people between the ages of 18 and 24, and families with young children are the least likely to know how much salt is too much. They also tend not to read nutrition labels. The researchers say salt-reduction messaging should target these groups.

Canadian Foundation for Dietetic Research and the British Columbia Ministry of Healthy Living and Sport

Scientology faces torture allegations

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, November 18, 2009 at 11:16 AM - 1 Comment

An Australian senator is accusing the Church of Scientology of torture, blackmail, sexual abuse, and forcing women to have abortions, prompting the country¹s Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, to consider a parliamentary inquiry. Senator Nick Xenophon presented letters to parliament from former church officials detailing extreme corruption and criminal activity and is calling for a review of the organizations tax-exempt status. “Scientology is not a religious organisation, it is a criminal organisation that hides behind its so-called religious beliefs,” he told the senate. One letter explained how women were threatened with demotion and hard labour if they refused to have an abortion, another detailed how a girl who was sexually abused by her father was told how to cover up his crimes. Prime Minister Rudd calls the allegations grave but says he wishes to proceed carefully before starting any investigation. The Church of Scientology issued a statement in response, saying Xenophon is abusing his parliamentary privilege and that his witnesses ³are about as reliable as former spouses are when talking about their ex-partner.”

The Guardian

US doctors ignore mammogram advice

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, November 18, 2009 at 11:13 AM - 0 Comments

Although new federal recommendations say that women should start breast cancer screening at age 50, not 40, several doctors told the New York Times they would not be following this advice. The new guidelines, aimed at reducing overtreatment, pointed out that the benefits of screening women in their 40s, which would save one life for every 1,904 women screened for 10 years, were outweighed by the potential for unnecessary tests and treatment, as well as the anxiety. High risk women, however, should still have early screening, the panel urged. But doctors said their patients would feel differently. “My patients tell me they can live with a little anxiety and distress but they can’t live with a little cancer,” Dr. Carolyn Runowicz, director of the Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Connecticut, told the newspaper. And the numbers cited don’t “mean anything until you’re the one,” said Dr. Jacques Moritz, director of gynecology at Roosevelt Hospital in Manhattan. “No doubt about it, I’m going to say, “Well, you really don’t need it,” and they’re going to say: “You don’t understand. I’m getting the mammogram. I’m not going to take the chance to be the one person that has it.” ” Most doctors said they’d tell low-risk, younger women that the recommendations said they didn’t need mammograms, and that they would point out that other groups‹including the American Cancer Society and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists‹have maintained earlier guidelines.

New York Times

The half-trillion-dollar debt club and other random constructs

By Paul Wells - Wednesday, November 18, 2009 at 11:13 AM - 69 Comments

Our friend Don Martin this morning has a column saying Stephen Harper has joined Jean Chrétien as only the second prime minister to govern while the country is $500 billion in debt. Stephen Gordon, over at his aptly-named blog, puts this in some desperately needed perspective. Both Harper and Chrétien come out looking better than in Don’s column. First, a half-trillion dollars is a lot less, in constant dollars and in share of GDP, than it was in 1995. Second, 1995 represents a peak for debt by either measure, because Chrétien inherited a runaway debt train and, within three years, those curves had sharply reversed. Stephen’s graph on this is telling.

Whether or not anyone eats it would seem to be besides the point

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, November 18, 2009 at 10:57 AM - 5 Comments

Mac Harb, noted opponent of the seal hunt, dissents on Parliament’s decision to serve seal in the dining room.

“The harp seal that they are talking about and are so excited about, it tastes horrible,” said Liberal Senator Mac Harb, a former municipal politician in Ottawa.

He said he was told by people who have tried seal that it tastes bad, but has not tried it himself. ”If they were to do this, it would be important for them to take a leadership role and have a feast first before any other members of Parliament so they can see first-hand how tasty it is. I’m sure they’ll conclude quite quickly it’s not edible.”

A correspondent with Gourmet magazine sampled seal a year ago. A raw piece of liver was described as “salty, smooth like sushi, and imbued with a scent of sea so strong I felt as if I were eating ocean.” The boiled ribs were “soft and somewhat rubbery, not as tender as pork, but again steeped with that satisfying hint of the sea.” And the brains were “creamy.”

Too cute by half

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, November 18, 2009 at 10:00 AM - 17 Comments

An exchange from Question Period yesterday.

Ms. Paule Brunelle (Trois-Rivières, BQ): Mr. Speaker, by telling us this morning that Canada has to wait longer still to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, the minister for big oil is showing once again that the environment is not a priority for this government. Instead of stepping up efforts to get an agreement on strict reduction targets, he is instead working on derailing the Copenhagen summit and prefers to conduct his business without any regard for the consequences. Does the Prime Minister realize that his approach, which pits the economy against the environment, is viewed as disastrous by the experts?

Hon. Jay Hill (Leader of the Government in the House of Commons, CPC): Mr. Speaker, as I have said before in this chamber, there is no minister for big oil in this government. Therefore, there will not be any minister responding to that silly question.

Ms. Paule Brunelle (Trois-Rivières, BQ): Mr. Speaker, there is not just one minister for big oil, there are several.

The government subsequently refused to acknowledge Ms. Brunelle’s second question. Likewise, the government declined to respond later when the Bloc’s Michel Guimond directed at a question at the “minister of patronage” (Christian Paradis, apparently). That exchange after the jump. Continue…

First, they took Manhattan

By Andrew Potter - Wednesday, November 18, 2009 at 9:43 AM - 1 Comment

Quebec’s slow but steady cultural takeover of Manhattan nears completion. The New Yorker this week devotes four pages to poutine, but for evidence of the full colonization, listen to Calvin Trillin’s podcast in which he and an editor eat poutine and talk about Canada at a restaurant in the LES. It’s almost like we’re a foreign country or something.

Plausible deniability

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, November 18, 2009 at 9:12 AM - 12 Comments

Murray Brewster delves further into this government’s handling of Afghan detainees.

Canadian diplomats in Afghanistan were ordered in 2007 to hold back information in their reports to Ottawa about the handling of the prisoners, say defence and foreign affairs sources.

… There was a fear that graphic reports, even in censored form, could be uncovered by opposition parties and the media through access-to-information laws, leading to revelations that would further erode already-tenuous public support.

The controversy was seen as “detracting from the narrative” the Harper government was trying to weave around the mission, said one official. “It was meant to put on happy face,” he added.

Organization Chart for Stephen Harper's Office

By Scott Feschuk - Wednesday, November 18, 2009 at 6:46 AM - 25 Comments

For all those folks over at Inkless asking to see Harper’s org chart, here it is — as completed by the PM himself…

How I Plan to Break it to My Wife That I’m Buying a Desk Made From Han Solo’s Frozen Body

By Scott Feschuk - Wednesday, November 18, 2009 at 5:30 AM - 7 Comments

Oh, hi. Hi there. Glad your home. Good day at work?

Good. That’s good.

Gosh, you look pretty.

What’s that? That big box out there in the recycling? You want to know what came in that big box, do you?

Oh, you know, nothing. Nothing important, I mean. Certainly nothing worth a lifetime of recrimination and thinly veiled hostility, ha ha.

Here’s a funny story though: Remember how a whole bunch of years ago you half-watched The Empire Strikes Back with me and the kids?

The Empire Strikes Back. You know – one of the Star Wars movies?

No, not the one with the fat man from Boston Legal.

You know, STAR WARS!The one about good vs. evil and it had Harrison Ford and that person who could hardly act.

No, not Working Girl. Listen, the point is you kind of almost watched part of the movie for a few minutes and Continue…

The Commons: Back to the future

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, November 17, 2009 at 8:51 PM - 23 Comments

The Scene. Michael Ignatieff stood with a slight smile. His side cheered, government members jeered.

“Welcome back!” chirped one.

Then to the question, which was, lo and behold, something to do with the environment and the need for urgent action against potential ruin.

“Mr. Speaker, for four years, the government promised a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” Mr. Ignatieff reported. “Today, the Environment Minister has once again postponed the announcement of any action until the end of 2010. We’re three weeks from Copenhagen. How can we protect the environment if the government takes no position?”

This was some riddle.

Up to answer was John Baird, an environment minister in a previous life.

“Mr. Speaker, this government is working constructively with our partners around the world to ensure that we tackle global warming and the challenge of climate change,” Mr. Baird declared. “What we will not do is make promises that we cannot keep.”

It is a testament to Mr. Baird’s abilities as a public performer that he did not here descend into giggles. Continue…

This is perhaps getting personal (III)

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, November 17, 2009 at 7:23 PM - 25 Comments

Oh good, now there’s video.

Heartening for sure to see Mr. Del Mastro championing the cause of common human decency after last year’s use of the word “traitor” and subsequent refusal to apologize for same.

Audible Noises of the Day

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, November 17, 2009 at 5:50 PM - 1 Comment

Government members audibly hissed as Liberal Yasmin Ratansi asked a question about various allegations concerning the Natural Resources Minister.

Later, a Liberal member made kissy noises as Conservative Peter Kent remarked on how “eloquently and firmly” the Minister of Defence has urged the Afghan government to deal with corruption.

Climate change: weak words, strong pictures.

By John Geddes - Tuesday, November 17, 2009 at 4:45 PM - 65 Comments

Environment Minister Jim Prentice’s remarks today to the effect that it will be years—years!—before the Canadian government implements regulations to cut greenhouse gas emissions have to be crushingly discouraging for anyone who regards climate change as an urgent problem.

“The international policies, the North American policies, and Canada’s own policies, have to all fit together in a coherent way,” Prentice explained, “if we’re going to get the environmental outcomes we want and protect the economy as well.”

Continue…

This is perhaps getting personal (II)

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, November 17, 2009 at 4:17 PM - 8 Comments

Michelle Simson twitters a clarification.

Nowhere did I make fun of someones weight.

Mr. Del Mastro is apparently displeased. Simson has apologized.

Waning moon

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, November 17, 2009 at 3:14 PM - 1 Comment

With some 70 million copies of her Twilight quartet sold, and New Moon, the second movie in the series, about to open, the queen of teen vampire romance would like to write something else. Asked on the Oprah Winfrey show if she’d consider writing another Twilight book, Meyer said that she had no immediate plans to return to the story of human teenager Bella and her vampire love interest Edward. “I think I need a little break,” she said. “I’ve got to cleanse the palate … I’m a little burned out on vampires right now.” Her next book, she said, was likely to be a follow-up to her one adult novel The Host—about the invasion of earth by a species which takes over the minds of humans while leaving their bodies intact—which she sees as a trilogy, but it could also be something “completely different.” “I have another book that’s kind of been itching in the back of my brain, that’s completely unrelated, totally fantasy. So fantasy it’ll have a map in the front – that’s always the judge, right?” she said. She’s also musing over whether to go back to Midnight Sun, which tells the story of the romance from the perspective of vampire Edward. An unfinished draft was leaked on the internet last year, prompting the author to put the project “on hold indefinitely.” “I need to feel alone with something to be able to write it and I do not feel alone with that manuscript at this point. So many people have chimed in on it,” she said. “I’m over the shock of it but not over the feeling that everyone’s involved now, and it doesn’t feel like mine so much anymore. I’m hoping that with a little time, time to write something else, get my head out of it for a while … it’s so clear in my head, I’d like to go back to it.”

The Guardian

Closed book

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, November 17, 2009 at 2:59 PM - 0 Comments

The Irish county of Fingal, outside Dublin, once had enough money—$5 million—to renovate an old church into a new library complete with 20,000 books 3,000 audio-visual items, and a chorus of architectural praise. But the financial meltdown hit Ireland hard, and a civil service hiring freeze means the new library in the town of Rush stands shuttered for lack of eight librarians to run it. Locals are not impressed. James Reilly said the situation was a prime example of a “penny-wise, pound-foolish” central government. Now, not when better times come, is when his town needs it: “We have such high unemployment. People could use the resources of the library for job hunting and building CVs.” Not to mention those eight librarian jobs.

The Independent

"The interaction now draws to a close"

By Paul Wells - Tuesday, November 17, 2009 at 2:25 PM - 42 Comments

From the Inkless emailbox: Stephen Harper holds a news conference with the Prime Minister of India. Full transcript as provided by the Privy Council Office (ours, not theirs).

UNIDENTIFIED: Your Excellency, Prime Minister of Canada, Honourable Prime Minister, distinguished guests, we welcome you to today’s signing ceremony, where two agreements are going to be signed.  First, we have the memorandum of understanding for setting up the joint study group for examining the feasibility of signing a free trade agreement with Canada.  The Canadian signatory is his Excellency Mr. Stockwell Day, Minister of International Trade, and the Indian signatory is Shri Anand Sharma, Honourable Minister of Commerce and Industry.  The two ministers are requested to come to the dais, please.

(APPLAUSE)

UNIDENTIFIED: Next we have the memorandum of understanding for cooperation between the two countries in the field of energy.  The Canadian signatory is his Excellency Mr. Joseph Caron, High Commissioner of Canada to India, and the Indian signatory is Shri Harishankar Brahma, Secretary, Ministry of Power.

(APPLAUSE)

UNIDENTIFIED: This concludes the signing ceremony.  The spokesman of the Ministry of External Affairs is now requested to conduct the joint press interaction.

MODERATOR: A very good evening to you all, and welcome to the joint press interaction. First, the Prime Minister of India, Honourable Dr. Manmohan Singh, would be making his opening statement.  Next, the Prime Minister of Canada, his Excellency Stephen Harper will be making a statement.  May I now invite the Prime Minister of India for his remarks?

DR. MANMOHAN SINGH (Prime Minister of India): Your Excellency Prime Minister Stephen Harper, ladies and gentlemen, it is a great honour for me to extend a very warm welcome to Prime Minister Stephen Harper on his first visit to India as the Prime Minister of Canada.  This had been a long overdue visit, and we are extremely honoured, then, that Prime Minister Harper has been able to accept our invitation.  Relations between India and Canada are of long-standing nature.  They derive their strength from our shared values of democracy, respect for fundamental human rights, and multiculturalism.  Canada is host to a large Indian origin community of over one million.  This reflects the strong people-to-people links that exist between us and which have enriched our relationship.

Our bilateral relations have greatly strengthened since Prime Minister Harper assumed office.  Continue…

The flu shot is perfectly safe (almost)

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, November 17, 2009 at 2:05 PM - 19 Comments

When it comes to the swine flu vaccine—or any seasonal flu shot, for that matter—the myths are as virulent as the disease itself. The shot causes cancer. The shot increases the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. The shot triggers autism. But while countless Canadians have decided not to roll up their sleeves for the H1N1 vaccine—fearing the needle might do more damage than the flu it’s designed to fight—the actual stats are quite reassuring. According to Dr. David Butler-Jones, Canada’s chief public health officer, only 36 of 6.6 million Canadians have suffered “serious adverse reactions” from the swine flu vaccine, which include life-threatening illness and hospitalization. One elderly person who received the shot has died, but the death hasn’t been conclusively linked to the vaccine. In contrast, 198 Canadians have died of the H1N1 strain since it first emerged in the spring. “Canadians can be assured that to date the frequency of serious reactions is less than 1 per 100,000 doses distributed, which is what we’ve seen with other vaccines,” Butler-Jones told a news conference this morning. “The benefit of immunization, the prevention of serious illness and death far outweigh any theoretical risk associated with being immunized.”

Toronto Sun

Bestsellers

By Brian Bethune - Tuesday, November 17, 2009 at 2:01 PM - 0 Comments

Top-selling fiction and non-fiction titles (week of November 17th, 2009)

Fiction

Non-fiction

LAST WEEK (WEEKS ON LIST)

Why Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his gang should be tried in New York

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, November 17, 2009 at 1:22 PM - 1 Comment

In a deftly written piece on Slate.com, legal columnist Dahlia Lithwick takes on critics of the Obama administration’s plan to try alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his confederates in a federal court in New York City. To opponents like former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani who griped that trying the accused on New York soil is giving the terrorists what they want, she notes: “The most vocal critics seem to forget that our legal system exists not to grant requests or dash hopes but to bring people to justice.” Taking that argument to its logical extension, she points out, would mean not imposing the death penalty, as Sarah Palin has advocated: “you can’t really argue for Attorney General Eric Holder’s plan to seek the death penalty either, since what they want most of all is to be martyred.” Most of the criticism has been more about “political theatre” than justice, Lithwick writes, adding: “The purpose of a criminal trial isn’t to suppress a political message. It’s to put forth a better political message: namely, that we believe in our legal system.”

Slate

Female Parisian police officers, Coco Chanel unwitting felons

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, November 17, 2009 at 1:18 PM - 1 Comment

An archaic Parisian law dating back to 1800 prohibiting women from dressing like a man–namely by wearing trousers—is still in force, the Telegraph reports. The rule stipulated that any Parisienne wishing to do so “must present herself to Paris’s main police station to obtain authorization.” Though relaxed over the years (in 1892 to “as long as the woman is holding the reins of a horse”; in 1909 to if “on a bicycle or holding it by the handlebars”), the decree was never repealed. And that, says Evelyne Pisier, a law professor whose book Le Droit des Femmes (The Rights of Women) unearthed the regulation, means that Parisian policewomen, who must wears trousers as part of the uniform, are all law-breakers.

The Telegraph