Prentice plans new emissions standards for heavy trucks

By macleans.ca - Friday, May 21, 2010 at 2:41 PM - 6 Comments

Heavy trucks, which account for six per cent of Canada’s total greenhouse gas emissions, will soon be subjected to new emissions standards, Environment Minister Jim Prentice said at a news conference today. “These new regulations would apply to new heavy-duty vehicles and engines manufactured or imported for sale in Canada, starting between the 2014 and 2018 model years,” he said, adding that the new rules will also apply to full-sized pickups, delivery vehicles, buses, freight vehicles, service trucks, garbage trucks and dump trucks. Ottawa will work with the U.S. to harmonize standards, with a draft expected to arrive in the fall.

Reuters

Personally, I blame myself

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, May 21, 2010 at 2:19 PM - 11 Comments

Preston Manning endorses the Chong Plan for Question Period, but wonders if the press gallery isn’t part of the problem and shouldn’t be part of the solution.

Most House leaders and Question Period co-ordinators I know feel that no matter what reforms are made, they are likely to be met with skepticism, ridicule and opposition from the media. This is because from a news-generating standpoint, a Question Period characterized by negative, antagonistic, exaggerated and emotional exchanges is much more newsworthy than one characterized by positive, co-operative, moderate and rational exchanges.

Parliamentary and legislative committees addressing Question Period reform should therefore tackle this obstacle head-on by specifically soliciting input and suggestions from their respective press galleries. There must be some way of making Question Period more civil, productive and newsworthy, and the sooner we find it, the better it will be for Canadian democracy.

Most of what happens in QP at present is actively ignored by the press gallery. I can think of one major media outlet that regularly and specifically attends in person. Most of those reporters and columnists who don’t attend would, I suspect, blame the tone and tenor of the proceedings (well, that and the fact that the proceedings are televised, making the arduous journey up to the House not absolutely necessary). So it would seem completely ridiculous for the press gallery, in this imagined world of reform, to equally shun a more substantive and reasonable QP.

And if outsider perspective is necessary, at least a couple of us would be only too happy to fix everything.

Summer's here

By Andrew Potter - Friday, May 21, 2010 at 2:02 PM - 2 Comments

Happy long weekend, Canada.

Memo to MPs: your public wants to know

By Andrew Potter - Friday, May 21, 2010 at 1:40 PM - 27 Comments

Getty Images

Michael Ignatieff used money from his office budget to have a stone wall rebuilt at his family estate in the south of France. Stephen Harper charged hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of musty hockey memorabilia to his expense account. And Jack Layton? Let’s just say Canadians would be shocked at how much it is costing them to keep his moustache trimmed and waxed.

Well, we don’t know for a fact that all of this is true. But at the same time, we don’t know that it isn’t true. And given the parliamentary expense scandal in Britain last year along with the one currently brewing in Nova Scotia, and given what we do know about secret accounts and their relationship to human nature, a healthy serving of cynicism is probably warranted. Which is why it is completely bizarre that the Board of Internal Economy, the body that is responsible for the finances and administration of the Canadian House of Commons, last week refused a request from Auditor General Sheila Fraser to conduct the first “performance audit” of MPs’ expenses in almost 20 years.

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Accountability hysteria

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, May 21, 2010 at 12:34 PM - 30 Comments

Government house leader Jay Hill, a spokesman for the Board of Internal Economy, laments the attention the current debate over MP expenses has received, but acknowledges it might be discussed further at the board. Fisheries Minister Gail Shea isn’t concerned either way. Conservative Daryl Kramp says an auditor general audit is inevitable but unnecessary. The NDP caucus is split: Charlie Angus says it needs to be worked out with the auditor general, Pat Martin, Peter Stoffer and Peter Julian say open the books, Yvon Godin is obstinate. Liberal Marlene Jennings calls for disclosure. Liberal Bryon Wilfert defends the status quo.

Toddler found wandering Vancouver streets

By macleans.ca - Friday, May 21, 2010 at 12:32 PM - 3 Comments

UPDATE: Police have located the girl’s mother, who left her alone at their apartment over Thursday night. At 6 a.m. PT Friday morning, the mother returned to find her daughter missing. Police made contact with the woman at 8:15 a.m. At 10 a.m, mother and daughter were united.

Police in Vancouver are looking for the parents of a little girl who was found wandering the streets alone last night. The girl was spotted by a couple as she walked along East Pender Street in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. When the girl began to walk onto the road, the couple stepped in and called authorities. Vancouver police Const. Jana McGuinness says the girl “seems to speak some English, but she has trouble forming sentences, so even her name is still a mystery.” She spent last night in the care of social workers, while police searched for her family. The girl, who officers think is around three years old, is Asian and 2.5 feet tall. She was found wearing a brown and pink flowered jacket and holding a blond doll.

CBC

Found: ‘The ugly one’

By macleans.ca - Friday, May 21, 2010 at 12:30 PM - 3 Comments

A dog in northern Ontario has dragged a mysterious creature out of a local creek that Aboriginal elders say hasn’t been seen in more than 40 years. The creature, which appears to be dead, has a white, bald face similar to that of a wart hog, and crumpled ears. A scowling expression reveals long lower fangs, and its eyes are rolled back. Its body is covered in thick fur like that of otters, beavers or bears. In fact, skeptics argue that this is actually a water-logged bear. But elders in Big Trout Lake insist that creature is a long-lost oomajinakoos or “the ugly one.” They are right, at least in name.

Toronto Star

China’s most famous swinger heads to jail

By macleans.ca - Friday, May 21, 2010 at 12:27 PM - 1 Comment

A twice-divorced computer science professor who spent the past six years practicing group sex and partner swapping is heading to a Chinese prison for three and a half years, a harsh penalty for a crime the government there calls “crowd licentiousness,” the New York Times reports. Ma Yaohai, 53, organized and engaged in at least 18 orgies, mostly in his two-bedroom apartment in Nanjing that he shared with his elderly mother, who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease. Ma intends to appeal, and says his sex life is his own business, adding that “privacy needs to be protected.” Ma was arrested in August and went on trial last month, drawing attention across the country for the questions his case raises about the government’s attempts to crack down on sexual freedom and privacy, just as economic growth and the Internet are overturning tradition. Tens of thousands of Chinese reportedly engage in partner swapping, even though laws against swingers can result in five-year prison terms. The case is being hotly debated online and even in some official news organizations. “This kind of behavior is a citizen’s personal freedom; this is a part of the private rights of citizens,” wrote a man named Yi Bo on a site maintained by the propaganda department of Shanxi Province.

New York Times

Shooting Jagger

By Brian D. Johnson - Friday, May 21, 2010 at 12:25 PM - 3 Comments

My video of Mick Jagger fielding questions after the Cannes premiere of ‘Stones in Exile’. As one viewer pointed out to me, at the end Mick seems to have had a senior’s moment. When asked to name a favorite film he picks Apocalypse Now, saying that it came out the same year as Exile on Main Street. Not true: Exile came out in 1972, Apocalypse in 1979. But when you’re the Rolling Stones, that decade is probably just one big acid flashback.

This Week's Travel News: News you need to know

By Bruce Parkinson, Takeoffeh.com - Friday, May 21, 2010 at 12:22 PM - 0 Comments

Watch What You Tweet: Hotels Are Watching You
Are you one of the millions of travellers who review hotels following your stay, offering bouquets or brickbats when deserved? If you are, it may be prudent not to reveal too much personal information. According to travel columnist Christopher Elliott, hotels are tracking down who you are, especially if you’re reviewing them anonymously. Industry consultant John Baird says some hoteliers are going to great lengths to deduce a guest’s identity and either contact them directly or note the guest’s review in their guest database. Elliott says guests who write a positive review might receive a reward from the hotel — a gift basket, perhaps, or a discount on a future stay. But those who criticize a property could receive a concerned e-mail from the general manager asking them to reconsider their comments. Some fear their comments could be used against them by marking them as a ‘problem guest.’ Baird points out that most hotels want the information for the right reasons: either to say thanks for a nice review or to reach out to a negative guest to patch things up. Just in case though, Elliott recommends not using your real name, avoiding posting your geographical location and ensuring your online handle doesn’t give away your identity.

Airport Security: Free Flow For Liquid Rules
While travellers are sick and tired of security screening rules, it seems like security authorities are too. Reports from the U.S. suggest strict rules on liquids in air travellers’ baggage are no longer being enthusiastically enforced. “The Transportation Security Administration’s unpopular restrictions on liquids, gels and aerosols in carry-on luggage are history,” MSNBC columnist and travel ombudsman Christopher Elliott wrote recently. There have been no official pronouncements, but Elliott says extensive feedback from readers indicates the TSA has all but stopped screening carry-on bags for liquids. “(Readers) say transportation security officers no longer ask them to remove lotions, shampoos and even water bottles from their luggage, and overlook all manner of liquids packed in their carry-ons during screening,” Elliott writes. According to the TSA, however, nothing has changed. “The policy continues to be enforced, although it is important to note that we empower our workforce with discretion,” a spokesperson told Elliott. Several Canadian frequent travellers canvassed by TakeOffeh report little change in the way rules are being enforced here, although some have also seen incidents when officials displayed ‘discretion.’

Canucks Just Wanna Earn Points
According to a 2009 study, the average Canadian household uses nine different loyalty programs – 50 per cent more than our American neighbours. In a recent Globe and Mail article Bert Archer suggests the phenomenon may stem from our history as “an immigrant nation of bargain hunters averse to debt and big on nest eggs.” He points to Canadian Tire money launched 50 years ago – nearly 90% of those bills still find their way back to the store. Best Western’s Dorothy Dowling told TakeOffeh “Canadians are the biggest point junkies in the world.” While Best Western operates 4,000 hotels in some 80 countries, the 1 million Canadian members of their reward program make up a disproportionate 10% of the global total. “Loyalty has become even more important than in the past,” says Dowling. “We had double-digit growth in all measures last year. Membership was up 25% and our members cashed in 32% more reward nights than the year before.” Dowling says reward aficionados have grown quite savvy in understanding the relative currency of reward points, especially we frugal Canadians.

Porter Airlines IPO Now Boarding At Gate 3
When an initial public offering (IPO) is put forward there are two audiences. One is the retail investor – average folks buying stocks. The other is the institutional investor – organizations which pool money and invest it. In the case of Porter Airlines, currently preparing for its IPO coming-out party, the Globe and Mail likens retail investors to those passengers who line up early to get their seat on a flight, and institutional investors to those who hang out in the bar until the last boarding call. Retail investors are excited about investing in Porter, attracted by the airline’s positive reputation and ‘underdog’ status. But institutional investors are taking a different tack, hanging back while hoping to pressure Porter to issue the offering at the low-end of the projected $6-$7 per share price. They hope to exploit a weak market to get their piece of Porter at the best possible price. It remains to be seen which way the pendulum will swing, but many of the comments on the Globe article were cynical, including one from ‘pilotguy,’ who wrote: “Best way to make a hundred bucks in the airline biz? Start with $1000…”

By: Bruce Parkinson
Bruce Parkinson is a travel industry journalist and regular contributor to Takeoffeh.com as well as sister company, OpenJaw.com

Photo Credits:laflor, sjlocke, Pgiam, flyporter.com

UFC champs brings out the MPs

By Mitchel Raphael - Friday, May 21, 2010 at 11:59 AM - 4 Comments

MPs from all parties joined the long lineup on the Hill to pay homage to Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) champ and Quebec native Georges St-Pierre. He was invited to the Hill by Heritage Minister James Moore. Below, left to right, Moore, St-Pierre and NDP MP Glenn Thibeault.

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Treasury Board President Stockwell Day with St-Pierre.

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Liberal MPs Navdeep Bains (left) and Justin Trudeau duke it out.

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Yoga boosts energy in cancer survivors

By macleans.ca - Friday, May 21, 2010 at 11:55 AM - 1 Comment

According to a new study from Karen Mustian at the University of Rochester Medical Center, cancer survivors should try yoga to sleep better and boost their energy levels. In the study, researchers randomly assigned over 400 cancer survivors, most of whom had been treated with chemotherapy for breast cancer, to two different groups. One did Hatha and restorative yoga, including postures, breathing and mindfulness exercises, twice a week for a month, the BBC reports. The other group was only monitored under standard practice. Those who did yoga could reduce sleeping pills, and saw a 22 per cent increase in sleep quality, nearly twice the improvement of survivors who didn’t do the exercises. It also cut fatigue by close to half and boosted quality of life.

Reuters

Iraq politics, Asian poetics, and sex with a talking catfish

By Brian D. Johnson - Friday, May 21, 2010 at 11:25 AM - 0 Comments

Naomi Watts and Sean Penn in 'Fair Game'

I gorged on four films yesterday, covering all the food groups. They included two aggressive political dramas about Iraq war cover-ups—Doug Liman’s Fair Game from the U.S. and Ken Loach’s Route Irish from the U.K. Fair Game is another message movie courtesy of Participant Media (Inconvenient Truth, Countdown to Zero), America’s designated voice of cinematic liberalism. It’s a ripped-from-the-headlines drama about Joseph Wilson and his wife, Valerie Plame Wilson—respectively the ex-diplomat and CIA spy who became targets of a White House smear campaign after Wilson became a whistleblower exposing WMD fraud. You would think that the politics would be the most compelling aspect of a movie like this, which is based on the couple’s respective books. And to be sure, the official narrative sprints along with the hopped-up, jittery energy of a political thriller. But the political story has been told. Curiously, the most explosive acting from Sean Penn and Naomi Watts occurs in the scenes of domestic tension, and ultimately in a flat-out marital fight. Fair Game is no Mr. And Mrs. Smith, but it does present an extreme example of two working parents with wild jobs. Plame’s character takes the heroism of the working mom to a whole new level—as a mother of young twins who jets around the world doing undercover work in one hot spot after another. She’s almost too good to be true, the all American spy/mom. When not running dangerous covert operations, and keeping her husband’s temper in check at dinner parties, she’s the one who has her eye on the kids in the brief nanny-free interludes at home. Penn, meanwhile, portrays his character as enough of a grandstanding blowhard that, while we’re expected to appreciate his heroism, we have to wonder how happy Joseph Wilson would be with his own portrayal.

Ken Loach’s Route Irish is more extremist stuff. It’s a fighting-fire-with-fire tale of dirty tricks among private military contractors in Iraq. The hero is an angry young Brit, an ex-soldier who suspects foul play in the death of his best buddy from a roadside bomb on the road to Baghdad airport. The story isn’t about the war on terror, but about the war within the war on terror. And it features a novel conceit—one of the good guys who resorts to torturing his own kind. But again, it seems no Iraq message movie is complete without a domestic firefight, as the hero and his dead buddy’s wife engage in some torrid sexual hostilities. Continue…

On why Christians should try to convert Muslims

By Kate Fillion - Friday, May 21, 2010 at 10:30 AM - 356 Comments

Photograph by Steve Simon

Born Muslim in Somalia, Ayaan Hirsi Ali grew up in Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia and Kenya, fleeing to the Netherlands at the age of 22 to escape an arranged marriage. Ten years later, she was elected to the Dutch parliament. A prominent feminist and critic of Islam, she received numerous death threats when she renounced her faith following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In 2004, Theo van Gogh, the director of a short film she wrote protesting Islam’s treatment of women, was murdered in Amsterdam by a Muslim extremist who threatened that she would be next. Since 2007, the bestselling author of  Infidel, a memoir, has lived in the U.S., where she is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. In her new book, Nomad, Hirsi Ali writes about her struggle to assimilate into Western society and proposes remedies to help other immigrants resist the appeal of Islamic fundamentalism.

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The Jonas Brothers: Living the dream, perfectly

By Nicholas Köhler - Friday, May 21, 2010 at 10:22 AM - 0 Comments

Perfection is an angsty state of being, and so the Jonas Brothers, Kevin, Joe and Nick, are always busy trying to sound fun and upbeat. It’s a bit of a contortion.

“Hey guys,” began a reporter from Omaha on a recent conference call with Les Frères Jonas, “I have two brothers and I know when we were kids and stuff—teenagers, even—we would fight a lot, stuff like that. How do you guys, being stuck on buses and planes for months at a time, kind of get along?”

Omaha—a town of mere mortals.

“I think we kind of got past that once we realized it was very unproductive and nothing really got done when we were fighting,” one of the brothers replied. “And so I think that we choose to have respect for each other, not only for our time that we’ve worked together, but also just as brothers. And I think that’s important.”

Take that, idiot.

The call, in support of the power-pop trio’s world tour this summer (which includes several stops in Canada), as well as the Disney Channel made-for-TV Jonas vehicle, Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam film, which airs in September, and the group’s ongoing Disney series, JONAS, revealed several such instances of forced bonhomie and gritted-teeth determination.

“This question is actually for Joe,” asked a hapless 24 Hours Vancouver reporter, “I was just wondering, since you and Demi are now publicly dating, how do you think that this tour will be different for you touring with your girlfriend?”

The query, a reasonable one, referred to Joe’s squeeze and Camp Rock co-star, Demi Lovato, 17. “I think we’d like to stick to questions about the music or the touring please,” said Joe, with a studied, schoolmarmish tut-tut tone.

His brother Kevin, who married wife Danielle Deleasa last year, was happy to open up. “This will be the first time I’ve toured as a married man, so it should be a little bit different,” he said. “It’s very exciting, it’s new, and we don’t know exactly what the accommodations are going to be—if we’re going to have our own bus, all that stuff.”

Indeed, the lads are growing up (the youngest, Nick, is 17, the oldest, Kevin, 22)—another source of concern for a group whose appeal is mainly focused in the tween set.

“I don’t want to offend you guys,” asked a Pennsylvania reporter sheepishly, “but do you guys think at all about the rising young stars who are coming behind you—like Justin Bieber? I mean, he’s been getting a lot of attention.”

Sure, the Stratford, Ont., kid and pop star du jour, has come up, the brothers confess.

“It’s not offensive at all,” says one Jonas (does it really matter which one?). “It’s definitely something we think about. But I think with all of the younger people that are coming up, we wish the best for them, and Justin Bieber in particular. We’ve had the opportunity to meet him a couple of times and speak with him and he’s entering into a whole new world and really being thrown into it all and we hope the best for him, we think he’s doing a great job so far.”

Elsewhere, the details flowed.

Before shows, the bros enjoy eating protein bars, drinking Red Bull, and sampling the tables of catering laid out back stage. Pre-show rituals for the boys, Evangelical Christians who swore off pre-marital sex, include vocal warm ups, playing video games and a large group prayer, including “everyone that’s about to go on stage,” followed by a group chant of, “Living the dream, baby, living the dream!!!”

Can they hear themselves above all that girlish screaming, asked that reporter from Omaha, “because being an audience member, sometimes it’s a little difficult.” Sure, said Joe: “We speak a little bit louder probably because we’ve lost a little hearing over these few years,” but he added they wear in-ear monitors, though “I honestly don’t really like to use them that much because I like to hear the audience as much as I can because it kind of gives me an energy that’s exciting for me.”

And so, what are they doing to prepare for the future? They have a few collaborations in mind. Paul McCartney would be amazing. Someone like Bono or U2.

Actually, Bono’s given them some advice for how the group can grow old with their fans, Joe Jonas said: “Since he’s pretty much been doing this for a very long time and very successful, he just told me, continue to do what we’re doing—you’re seeing that it’s working. I think when you are just true to who you are and your music and you’re honest with your lyrics, your age group will grow up with you but also a new set of ears will listen also.”

Bizarro world

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, May 21, 2010 at 9:01 AM - 26 Comments

Britain’s new foreign secretary says the coalition government will move forward with a judicial inquiry into his country’s alleged complicity in torture.

“So far ministers have stuck to the mantra that ‘we never condone, authorise or co-operate in torture’,” Hague wrote. “But this does not dispel any of the accusations. If anything, there is now a direct and irreconcilable conflict between such ministerial assurances and the account given by Mr Mohamed. That must be resolved.”

He added: “We cannot sweep these allegations under the carpet. Until the full facts are known, Britain’s name and reputation will be dragged through the mud – not least by the terrorists and extremists who will exploit these allegations for their own propaganda.’

“It is vital to remember that torture does not help us defeat terrorists; it helps them to try to justify their hostility to us.”

More here and here.

Hey look: Just on the off-chance that luring extraordinary scientists is a GOOD idea…

By Paul Wells - Friday, May 21, 2010 at 8:42 AM - 26 Comments

From the print edition, my column on the Canada Excellence Research Chairs, in which I acknowledge only in passing the concerns about how all the recipients are men. After three days of blanket coverage of that angle, I’m sure my column will seem hopelessly obtuse to many. But I wanted to use the space Maclean’s gave me this week simply to explain what the program is, and why it will have effects on several campuses that go well beyond the parachuting of some exotic hothouse flower into a cloistered perch. No, in every case that I looked at on Tuesday, the arriving CERC will be joined by colleagues in place and by new hires, new equipment, grad students and post-docs — 19 little colonies of well-funded, very ambitious talent on 19 13 campuses (Laval, Waterloo, UofT got two CERCs each; the University of Alberta got four). There’s room for criticism, but it seems to me that we should start from a basic understanding of this program’s goals and the effect it’s already having.

Game changer—big bucks, big brains

By Paul Wells - Friday, May 21, 2010 at 8:00 AM - 28 Comments

Photograph by Ian McCausland

Adrien Owen will move from Cambridge to the University of Western Ontario. He’ll use the best magnetic resonance imager in Canada to study severely brain-damaged patients for clues that might someday restore mobility and communication.

Søren Rysgaard will move from Greenland to the University of Manitoba. He’ll lead a massive buildup of that school’s Arctic science centre.

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Newsmakers

By macleans.ca - Friday, May 21, 2010 at 8:00 AM - 0 Comments

The Bill comes due
For US$5 you can spend a day in New York with Bill Clinton. The former president is raffling himself off in a bid to clear “a few vestiges of debt” left over from his wife Hillary Clinton’s failed 2008 presidential bid. The vestige is US$771,000 in unpaid bills. The innovative idea has drawn much interest and, it being the Clintons, much rebuke. Critics point to another big number: US$109 million, the estimated amount the two have earned since leaving the White House.

A wrinkle in time
Portuguese film director Manoel de Oliveira, a hale 101-year-old, cut a dashing figure at the Cannes Film Festival last week as he plugged his latest work, The Strange Case of Angelica, about a young Jewish photographer. De Oliveira made his first film in 1931, and has grown more productive as he ages. He’s set a high standard for 74-year-old Woody Allen, at the festival to promote You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger. Allen laments it’s “frustrating” he’s too old to get the girl in his movies, in this case Naomi Watts. Still, he’d happily work at 101, if he’s fit, he said. “My relationship with death remains the same. I’m strongly against it.”

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Laureen Harper and high school students have a victory party

By Mitchel Raphael - Friday, May 21, 2010 at 3:00 AM - 0 Comments

Second World War veterans joined students from St. Plus X High School to celebrate VE-Day at the Fairmont Château Laurier as part of The Historica-Dominion Institute’s “The Memory Project: Stories of the Second World War.” Below, Marc Chalifoux of The Historica-Dominion Institute and Laureen Harper.

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Mrs. Harper and a vet.

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Heritage Minister James Moore greets a vet.

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It ain't over till it's over

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, May 20, 2010 at 8:38 PM - 39 Comments

Five months after a federal court ruling on so-called in-and-out campaign financing, it turns out an unpublicized portion of the judgment imperils the political careers of three cabinet ministers. And the commissioner of elections has apparently referred the matter to the office of the public prosecutor to consider criminal charges.

… in a little-noticed detail, he also found that one of the two candidates should have paid — but did not — an equal share of the full market value of regional advertising buys. Rather, the amount charged appeared to have been “purely arbitrary,” based on what the candidate could afford without exceeding his spending limit.

In documents supporting its motion to stay Martineau’s ruling, Elections Canada applies the equal share dictum to all 65 candidates involved in the regional media buys. The agency finds up to 10 of them would have exceeded their spending limits, including Cannon by $7,618, Verner by $13,304, Paradis by $10,188 and Bernier by $20,138.

In its appeal, the party suggests Martineau’s ruling violates freedom of speech guarantees in the Charter of Rights because it “effectively limits a candidate’s ability to run ads if other ridings in the same (regional advertising) pool are unable to contribute to the same level financially.”

The full federal court ruling in its entirety is here. This particularly issue would seem to be raised at paragraph 235.

Lance Armstrong: "I have nothing to hide"

By macleans.ca - Thursday, May 20, 2010 at 6:40 PM - 1 Comment

Lance Armstrong spoke to reporters today in a press conference outside his bus, just prior to the fifth stage of the Tour of California, to refute claims by fellow cyclist Floyd Landis that he participated in illegal doping at some point in his career. Armstrong said Landis—whose claims are currently being investigated by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency—seemingly pointed the finger at everyone still involved in the sport. “We have nothing to hide,” Armstrong said. “We have nothing to run from.” Landis was stripped of the 2006 Tour de France title after failing a drug test, and admitted Wednesday that he has used performance-enhancing drugs for most of his career. It appeared that Landis wanted to bring fellow cycling giant down with him: he claimed that Armstrong and coach Johan Bruyneel paid an International Cycling Union official to cover up a test in 2002 after Armstrong purportedly tested positive for a blood-boosting drug.

UPDATE: Armstrong crashed during the fifth stage of the Tour of California. Just after the stage started, a rider in the main group skidded on some gravel and fell, causing others, including Armstrong, to crash out of the race. A spokesman from his team said Armstrong has stitches in his left elbow and underneath his eye, and will undergo an X-ray on his left elbow. The Tour de France begins with a time trial on July 3 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

Toronto Star

BBC News

At last, justice

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, May 20, 2010 at 6:20 PM - 6 Comments

Seems Ms. Guergis did not report her mortgage to the ethics commissioner in the necessary time allotted. She’s been fined $100.

Have the Brits never heard of the Ookpik Index for mascots?

By John Geddes - Thursday, May 20, 2010 at 6:15 PM - 7 Comments

Evidently our friends in the United Kingdom fail to understand the most rudimentary elements of successful mascot design. All mascots should be tested in advance by applying the simple Ookpik Index scoring system.

A perfect Ookpik score of 67 (as in Expo 67) means that a mascot is every bit as furry, equally goggle-eyed, and just as easily reproduced as souvenirs, as the originals first created at the Fort Chimo Eskimo Co-Operative in 1963. A zero Ookpik score means the unfortunate mascot in question entirely lacks cuddliness, goggle-eyedness, and inexpensive replicability.

The new British Olympic mascots have only one eye each, a major breach of Ookpik design principles, which clearly call for two. They are entirely smooth and thus lacking in fuzzy, furry, or even hirsute qualities. However, they do look easy to manufacture, which earns them a score of perhaps 10 or, charitably, 15.

By comparison, the Vancouver 2010 Olympic mascots scored well on snuggly furriness, and very nicely on ease of manufacture. However, the black-dot eyes of Sumi, Quatchi and Miga meant they registered no goggle points whatsoever, bringing their individual Ookpik scores down to the disappointing 37-44 range.

It is, of course, difficult to maintain Oookpik-inspired discipline. Sometimes mascot designers ignore fundamentals. Dartmouth College’s Keggy the Keg, for example, has terrific eye qualities, but is unavoidably made of aluminum—a flagrant violation of fuzziness values.

At the opposite extreme, the Winnipeg Blue Bomber’s Buzz (half of the Buzz and Boomer duo) is eminently huggable, but wears flying goggles, eliminating in advance any prospect the goggle-eye qualities the Ookpik Index demands.

In all these cases, up to and including the new British fiasco, a few minutes of respectful consideration of an Ookpik would save the designers from frustration and ridicule.