NFL Picks Week Two: Rise of the 53 Packages!

By Scott Feschuk - Friday, September 17, 2010 at 11:46 AM - 0 Comments

Scott Feschuk Last week: 10-3-3

Scott Reid Last week: 8-5-3

Twelve more of these, and we'll have made up for last week's pic of Reid.

Pittsburgh (plus 5) at Tennessee

Feschuk: It’s overreaction Sunday! Let’s all overreact based on what we witnessed last weekend. The 49ers are terrible! Michael Vick should be a starting quarterback! Brett Favre prefers his Metamucil served with a straw! And the Titans are an unstoppable force of nature, like tornados or my hatred for that Papa John guy! I like Tennessee, and I like Chris Johnson, and I like the scent of lavender (not relevant in this context, probably) but I think this spread is too big given how well the Steelers’ D played last week. Let’s see how Vince Young handles coverage and pressure. (Prediction: three interceptions, two girlish screams.) Pick: Pittsburgh.

Reid: Overreaction Sunday! It’s right up there with Hungover Monday or Keep Your Hands To Yourself, Creep Wednesday. I share your analysis: The Steelers D looked pretty solid and I remain far from sold on Vince Young. He has all the emotional durability of Joaquin Phoenix. I say this is a gimme. Take these points, splash some lavender behind your lobes and prepare to be a winner. Pick: Pittsburgh.

•••

K.C. (plus 2) at Cleveland

Reid: When I saw this line I assumed it had to be the work of those guys who designed the antenna for the iPhone 4. It’s that incompetent. Of course, my theory could never be correct. Steve Jobs had those guys skinned alive and Continue…

Has Question Period become so uncivil it needs to be reformed?

By macleans.ca - Friday, September 17, 2010 at 11:46 AM - 0 Comments

Something fishy's going on

By macleans.ca - Friday, September 17, 2010 at 11:35 AM - 0 Comments

A group of Aboriginals and scientists gathered today in Edmonton to reveal what they say is evidence that the Alberta oil sands are wreaking havoc on wildlife. White fish from Lake Athabasca, which is downstream from the oil sands, were discovered with golf-balled sized tumours and incomplete spines, or were discoloured, covered in lesions, or otherwise deformed. Understandably, “a lot of people are afraid to eat fish from the lake,” says one man from nearby Fort Chipewyan. A letter has been sent to Prime Minister Stephen Harper requesting that formal monitoring be done on the lake and its inhabitants. Previous research, including one study by Environment Canada in 2007, recognized the fish deformities, and questioned the safety of the water due to contamination.

Toronto Star

Joaquin Phoenix's Reverse Catch-22

By Jaime Weinman - Friday, September 17, 2010 at 11:17 AM - 0 Comments

When I read about Joaquin Phoenix’s “performance” in I’m Still Here, the first thing that came to mind was that this is like a real-life Catch-22.

“You mean there’s a catch?”

“Sure there’s a catch,” Doc Daneeka replied. “Catch-22. Anyone who wants to get out of combat duty isn’t really crazy.”

There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one’s own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn’t, but if he was sane then he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn’t have to; but if he didn’t want to he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle.

“That’s some catch, that Catch-22,” he observed.

“It’s the best there is,” Doc Daneeka agreed.

So, applying a variant of that logic to the Phoenix situation:

- Joaquin Phoenix wasn’t really crazy; he just spent two years pretending to be crazy.

- However, only a crazy person would give up a thriving career and waste two years of his life pretending to be crazy.

- Therefore, Joaquin Phoenix is crazy because he was pretending to be crazy.

Hey look: My month at the edge of the universe

By Paul Wells - Friday, September 17, 2010 at 11:12 AM - 0 Comments

For 17 days that began in late June and ended in late July, I was at Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ont.

I’ve been there before and written about it often. Usually I write about it as a philanthropic novelty (Mike Lazaridis has spent almost $200 million on Perimeter and related institutions in his adopted hometown). Sometimes I write about it as a public-policy puzzle: How do governments respond when a rich guy shows up with a project like that?

I almost never write about the physics. It’s complex. My ability to understand it is cruelly limited, and in modern newsrooms reporters and editors often tell one another readers aren’t interested in difficult topics. But over time, I’ve noticed that even attentive readers don’t really understand what goes on at Perimeter. And they wouldn’t, because nobody ever told them. And yet there’s nearly half a billion dollars, public and private, in the place, and what they’re trying to do is astonishing. This long article is my best attempt to explain it all.

I’ll have other notes from Perimeter on this blog over the next week.

Physicist Chris Fuchs on his porch in Waterloo. He's pointing to his favourite equation.

Why the Tea Party is not like the Reform Party

By Luiza Ch. Savage - Friday, September 17, 2010 at 11:03 AM - 0 Comments

And Sarah Palin is not Ross Perot. Writing in the Washington Post, Democratic strategist  Paul Goldman makes an interesting point: Sarah Palin & company have divided the GOP, but they also served to keep the party intact:

“…contrary to conventional wisdom, the 2008 vice presidential nominee has kept the party strong. How? She has kept the Tea Party faithful inside the GOP tent. Had she instead encouraged these disillusioned voters to mount third-party challenges across the 2010 general-election ballot, dozens of Democratic incumbents, not to mention challengers, would be smiling like Woodrow Wilson in 1912…”

“…she has become a bridge between the old Republican guard and the growing right-wing dissatisfaction with not just Democrats but also Republican officeholders. Palin’s ability to advocate for using the GOP, not a third party, to channel this angst has allowed Republican voter anger to boil, yet not boil over.”Should Republicans run up the score in November, Sarah Palin will deserve a lot of credit she will never get.”

Lafleur's son in trouble again

By macleans.ca - Friday, September 17, 2010 at 10:40 AM - 0 Comments

Guy Lafleur’s son Mark was back in handcuffs Wednesday night after police answered a domestic violence call at the home where the younger Lafleur is on probation, having served 15 months of house arrest for assaulting his ex-girlfriend. The previous case gave rise to a perjury charge against Lafleur, the former Montreal Canadiens star, who gave contradictory testimony during court proceedings against his son. Lafleur was initially convicted but the decision was overturned this summer on appeal. Mark Lafleur was released on a promise to appear in court on Dec. 14.

Montreal Gazette

Another elite special interest

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, September 17, 2010 at 10:31 AM - 0 Comments

The Governor of the Bank of Canada explains to the Globe how changes to the long form census will impact the bank’s work.

Mr. Carney told The Globe and Mail editorial board on Thursday that those changes could have an impact on the quality of research in those important areas and force the bank to supplement the information with its own research. “There is a non-trivial range of data that could be affected,” Mr. Carney said…

When asked which data could be affected, Mr. Carney said, “that’s part of what we’re going to have to work through. Obviously a series of surveys on the household side, and the potential implications for the labour force survey … there could be issues around the productivity data, some of the other national accounts, and then you get into more granular data … some of our longer-term research could be affected.”

Mind-bending mysteries at the Perimeter Institute

By Paul Wells - Friday, September 17, 2010 at 9:00 AM - 0 Comments

PHOTOGRAPHY BY COLE GARSIDE/ ANDREW TOLSON

Not even the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ont., is immune to the rhythms of the seasons. Summer there this year was quiet and casual, with several regular faces away on vacation. And yet there were plenty of signs that the little think tank is heading into an ambitious new era.

Stephen Hawking was on a six-week working visit from Cambridge, England. Every day you could see a caregiver pushing his wheelchair along the footpaths outside the building at surprising speed. The most famous scientist in the world does not like to dawdle. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis has left him no control over most of his body. Twitching a cheek muscle to compose even a short sentence with his speech synthesizer can take 20 minutes. So he is keenly aware of wasted time. “I encouraged lots of people to go and talk to him,” Neil Turok, Perimeter’s South African director and a Hawking friend and colleague of long standing, told me.

Continue…

Destination Mars

By Kate Lunau - Friday, September 17, 2010 at 9:00 AM - 0 Comments

Pascal Lee/Mars Institute/Haught NASA/JPL/ Nadav Neuhaus

Viewed through a telescope on a clear night, the planet Mars glows a soft, dullish red. It seems foreign and strange, but familiar, too: like Earth, Mars has polar ice caps, clouds drifting in its thin atmosphere (even snow), and changing seasons. Its day is just 40 minutes longer than our own. And even though it’s now a freeze-dried wasteland, a growing body of evidence suggests Mars was once wet and warm, and might have harboured life around the same time life sprung up here. Human explorers are bound to set foot on Mars one day. And it might be sooner than most of us think.

But our neighbouring planet, fourth from the sun, is also unimaginably remote: at its closest point in orbit to Earth, which happens only once every 26 months or so, Mars is still about 200 times farther away than the moon. At best, it would take a manned spacecraft roughly six months to reach it. By comparison, “the moon is three days away,” says Bret Drake, who leads mission planning and analysis for the Constellation Program at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. “You can go any time, and if things go wrong, you can return any time.” Once a spaceship left Earth’s orbit for Mars, there’d be no turning back.

Continue…

Newsmakers

By macleans.ca - Friday, September 17, 2010 at 8:00 AM - 0 Comments

Is the Lady a mere copycat?
In its way, Lady Gaga’s tireless hunt for ways to shock us is nothing if not ambitious. Last week, it was her pals at PETA who were outraged after she appeared on Vogue Japan’s cover wearing only slabs of meat. Her Warholian shtick is now under fire as not being as original as we think. Yana Morgana claims Gaga stole her late daughter Lina’s flair for theatrics after the two recorded a dozen songs together in 2008. “Every other word she says is from Lina,” she told the New York Post.

Painting the town white
François Croteau, the mayor of Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie, Que., hopes to cool his corner of Earth one white roof at a time. He’s proposed a bylaw making white roofs mandatory on all new buildings in the Montreal borough so they generate less heat. Roofs under repair would also have to be painted white, though residential peaked roofs are exempt. The plan is endorsed by Concordia University engineering professor Hashem Akbari, who is campaigning to get 100 of the world’s largest cities to go white. Changing all the roofs in the world would be equal to parking the world’s cars for 20 years, he says. Councillors vote in October.

Newspapers: the next big thing
Prince, the artist formerly known as the artist formerly known as Prince, is having a boffo summer since he famously declared the Internet “completely over”—as “outdated” as MTV. He’s playing last-minute stadium shows and occasional small gigs, maintaining his reputation as a musical rebel. He gave away for free his new CD, 20TEN, in four European newspapers, including London’s Mirror. Fed up with Internet abuses, he’s banned YouTube and iTunes from using his songs. “I really believe in finding new ways to distribute my music,” he told the Mirror, which, incidentally, was founded in 1903.

Continue…

Werner Herzog emerges from the cave

By Tom Henheffer - Thursday, September 16, 2010 at 10:59 PM - 0 Comments

The Cave of Forgotten Dreams premiere was a mess. The 3D cameras weren’t calibrated properly, the picture stalled briefly near the beginning, and the projector shut down completely just after the climax, forcing the theatre to turn on its houselights and bringing the audience to awkward, premature applause. It wasn’t an ideal situation in which to watch a film, but Werner Herzog’s new documentary was brilliant enough to remain completely enjoyable despite its awkward first steps. Herzog and his crew were given unprecedented access to art that has adorned the Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc cave in southern France for 32,000 years. A landslide sealed the entrance, preserving the art so that it looks as if early man brought burnt timbre to bulging stone only last week.

Week in Pictures: September 9th – 16th 2010

By macleans.ca - Thursday, September 16, 2010 at 6:08 PM - 1 Comment

Pope Benedict lashes out at 'atheist extremism'

By macleans.ca - Thursday, September 16, 2010 at 5:58 PM - 0 Comments

Benedict XVI used his first papal state visit to Britain to attack “atheist extremism” and “aggressive secularism.” In a speech before the Queen and other dignitaries at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh, he noted that great damages in the last century have been caused by “the exclusion of God, religion and virtue from public life.” He concluded with the argument that the Nazi desire to eradicate God had led to the Holocaust. He also asked that 21st-century Britain respect its Christian foundations. The other focus of his visit was to offer conciliatory words to the victims of Catholic sexual abuse. Using his strongest language to date on his church’s record on clerical sex abuse, he deplored the church’s failure to act swiftly and decisively in the past.

The Guardian

John Barton | 1957-2010

By Julia Belluz - Thursday, September 16, 2010 at 5:00 PM - 0 Comments

Illustration by Team Macho

John Barton was born on April 11, 1957, in Ottawa. His father, Jack, had arrived in Canada from England as a merchant mariner, met his wife, Susan, and supported his family as a bartender. When he wasn’t working, Jack was an active man, and encouraged his kids to get outside and play whenever possible.

As a child, John relished the freedom of open spaces. With his three siblings, Ron, Jeannie, and Norman, he would stay outdoors, sometimes all day, only returning for meals. He was so enthusiastic about little league he’d sleep with his baseball glove. Another passion, sister Jeannie says, was his bicycle: “I remember he got his first bike really young, and he just loved riding.”

Continue…

Who's the greatest Canadian innovator?

By macleans.ca - Thursday, September 16, 2010 at 4:51 PM - 0 Comments

The line that separates invention from innovation is a fine one. Ideas like the importance of urban density or how to turn the circus into high art require unique minds to articulate them. At the same time, inventions like the telephone and basketball are inherently innovative—no one else had come up with them before.

With that in mind, we’re asking readers to elect the most innovative Canadian in history, whether that person changed the way we think (like Lester B. Pearson did by adding peacekeeping to the Canadian vernacular) or the way we live (like Alexander Graham Bell did with the telephone). We’ve picked our 16 favourites; now we’re asking you to vote for who you think is the greatest Canadian innovator.

With an overwhelming 85 per cent of the vote, Sir Frederick Banting and Charles Best have been crowned Maclean’s greatest Canadian innovators, beating out Peter Robertson for the honour. Thanks to everyone who participated!

• • George Retzlaff
  • James Naismith
  • Mike Lazaridis
  • Robert Mundell
  • Marshall McLuhan
  • Jane Jacobs
  • Peter Robertson
  • James Cameron
• • James Naismith
  • Mike Lazaridis
  • Marshall McLuhan
  • Peter Robertson
• • Mike Lazaridis
  • Peter Robertson
• • Peter Robertson
  • Banting and Best
• • Norman Bethune
  • Banting and Best
• • Guy Laliberté
  • Norman Bethune
  • Alexander Graham Bell
  • Banting and Best
• • Guy Laliberté
  • Michel Tremblay
  • Norman Bethune
  • Lester Pearson
  • Sir William Osler
  • Alexander Graham Bell
  • Sir Sandford Fleming
  • Banting and Best

Final results:
Peter Robertson vs. Banting and Best

Round 3 results:

Mike Lazaridis vs. Peter Robertson

Norman Bethune vs. Sir Frederick Banting and Charles Best

Round 2 results:

James Naismith vs. Mike Lazaridis

Marshall McLuhan vs. Peter Robertson

Guy Laliberté vs. Norman Bethune

Alexander Graham Bell vs. Sir Frederick Banting and Charles Best

Round 1 results:

George Retzlaff vs. James Naismith

Mike Lazaridis vs. Robert Mundell

Marshall McLuhan vs. Jane Jacobs

Peter Robertson vs. James Cameron

Guy Laliberté vs. Michel Tremblay

Norman Bethune vs. Lester B. Pearson

Sir William Osler vs. Alexander Graham Bell

Sir Sandford Fleming vs. Sir Frederick Banting and Charles Best

Let's all hate Toronto (II)

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, September 16, 2010 at 4:49 PM - 0 Comments

Chris Rands uncovers a shocking secret from the Prime Minister’s past.

Stephen Harper was born and raised in Toronto — specifically, Leaside for his early years, and then Etobicoke. He even attended his high school reunion in the middle of the 2008 election campaign … Stephen Harper is the first prime minister to hail from Toronto.

Ryan Gosling and his kid co-star's salty oatmeal

By Stephanie Findlay - Thursday, September 16, 2010 at 4:41 PM - 0 Comments

Yesterday, it was a beautiful sunny day at the ‘Blue Valentine’ red carpet at the Ryerson Theatre and it was fitting that on such a lovely afternoon I met Ryan Gosling. He brought the girls out of the woodwork. Of the approximately one hundred people pressed up in a line along the fence of the red carpet, I think there were just four guys. The fans were all holding cameras, some had pictures of his face, and I even saw one who brought flowers. They shrieked every time he faced them. It’s all “still surreal” to him, he told me.

For all the artificiality of the red carpet, Gosling comes off as a down-to-earth guy. He’s not an average Joe, but he’s genuine. He was relaxed and answered questions carefully, though he didn’t pander to reporters. When asked what type of husband he would be (loving? caring?) he sarcastically joked that no, he wouldn’t be a loving husband.

Williams and Gosling’s performances as a dysfunctional couple have gotten early Oscar buzz. When asked about working with Williams, who wasn’t able to attend the premiere, Gosling said “she’s the best.” He explained that it was because they were very good friends before making the movie that they were able to explore a deeper, darker chemistry on screen, allowing them to “go places that we otherwise couldn’t have” with the characters.

As we were talking, 6-year-old Faith Wladyka, Ryan and Michelle’s daughter in the film, came up to us. Gosling picked her up and held her on his hip while I asked her what her favourite part about shooting the film was. Gosling egged her on to “say Ryan.” Wladyka obliged. “He’s goofy,” she giggled.

A reporter beside me began asking Gosling about what his Mom thinks when he takes a woman home. “You’re going to ask an untoward question with a kid here?” said Gosling mockingly. After putting Wladyka down and ushering her away he continued to answer the questions. But when asked what the sexiest thing about him is, he had enough. He gave me a look that said “who is this guy?” and then curtly replied to the reporter that “we should not have this conversation” and moved on.

The director, Derek Cianfrance, came up next.  I asked him whether or not it was difficult working with a child on such a serious movie. “It’s fun working with kids, I have two kids of my own,” replied Cianfrance. “We just try to make it games for her.”

“For instance with the oatmeal, she’s supposed to not like oatmeal. But she loves oatmeal. So I told Michelle to put a little salt in the oatmeal so she wouldn’t like it.

“Pretty soon by the eleventh take she was putting in so much salt and she was still loving it. Finally she was just stuffed, so I finally got my take when she just couldn’t eat any more oatmeal.”

After the red carpet, I had a couple hours before heading over to the Festival Music House at the Roosevelt Room for the third and final night of all-Canadian performances. The venue was packed. I was struck by how eclectic the crowd was. It was full with a mish-mash of industry business types, artist folk, and a smattering of media people like me. I arrived in time to catch BEAST. On their MySpace page, they call their genre “Experimental/Trip Hop.” It can also be described as hip-hop meets spaghetti western. (Singer Betty Bonifassi even mentioned a song was inspired by Ennio Morricone). After BEAST was Zeus, a long-haired rock n’roll band who sounded straight out of the early 70s. The night was capped off with a performance from the Tragically Hip’s Gord Downie.

I took off just as George Strombolopolous walked in. That’s a lot of Canada in one room.

Swing votes

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, September 16, 2010 at 4:10 PM - 0 Comments

NDP MP Niki Ashton will disclose tomorrow how she plans to vote on C-391. Peter Stoffer, previously committed to voting in favour of C-391, says he’ll have something to say on Monday. John Rafferty, another yes vote, says his mind hasn’t changed. Bruce Hyer says he won’t vote for a Liberal motion that would effectively scrap C-391.

Asteroid? Our leaders are on the case.

By Scott Feschuk - Thursday, September 16, 2010 at 4:00 PM - 0 Comments

GETTY IMAGES/ REUTERS/ ISTOCK/ PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY TAYLOR SHUTE

Look up, waaaaay up. See anything suspicious? Canadian and American astronauts have warned that our planet is a sitting duck for massive asteroids—one of which may ultimately smash into Earth, dooming billions to death and prompting thousands to turn to their god and plaintively inquire: “Why? Why couldn’t this have happened in 1983 when I still had six LPs left on my Columbia House obligation?”

The warning comes from an organization headed by Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield. It’s called the Association of Space Explorers, which surely ranks among the most badass and awesome-sounding of private clubs out there—although members do have to put up with Buzz Aldrin ending every argument with younger astronauts by hollering: “How did your moon walk go? Oh, right, you never walked on the moon like I walked on the moon! [pause] Moon!”

Continue…

MS Society of Canada earmarks $1 million for CCSVI clinical trials

By macleans.ca - Thursday, September 16, 2010 at 3:35 PM - 0 Comments

The Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada will commit $1 million for a chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency (CCSVI) and MS pan-Canadian therapeutic clinical trial—if research projects into CCSVI funded by the society currently underway indicate such trials are warranted, Yves Savoie, the charity’s president and CEO announced today. “We want to hit the ground running when a therapeutic trial is warranted and approved,” Savoie said in a press release. “Ensuring funds are available to support a Canadian trial will accelerate our ability to get definitive answers to the questions people touched by MS urgently seek.” The charity, which hopes to secure additional funding from the federal and provincial governments, has been under attack by MS patients who must travel to offshore clinics to receive the procedure pioneered by Italian doctor Paolo Zamboni because it is not currently available in Canada.

Globe and Mail

MS Society

'Right now I want to hold you so badly'

By Jane Christmas - Thursday, September 16, 2010 at 3:20 PM - 0 Comments

David Royko/ University of Chicago Press/ istock/ Illustration by Bradley Reinhardt

She had grown into a tall, gorgeous blond, but it was her intelligence and kind heart that won him over. He was thankful to have grown into a taller-than-her fellow, but he was gangly and shy with a prominent Adam’s apple and an even more prominent nose. He fell in love with her when they were just children in Chicago, but he could never muster the courage to tell her how he felt. Instead, he became her best friend, playing Cyrano to her Roxane, and vetting suitors for her. He did such a good job that she married one of them.

Crushed, he packed up for military duty in Korea. But a year later, when he returned to a new posting in Blaine, Wash., he learned that she had filed for divorce. Wasting no time, he grabbed pen and paper and wrote to her, boldly and finally declaring his love.

Continue…

Darren Aronofsky and Vincent Cassel

By Tom Henheffer - Thursday, September 16, 2010 at 3:11 PM - 0 Comments

Black Swan is a masterpiece. The followup to Aronofsky’s 2008 hit The Wrestler, it explores the same theme of performers enduring self destruction for their art. The film stars Natalie Portman as an uptight ballet dancer faced with the most challenging role of her career—playing both the innocent white and sensual black swan in Swan Lake. Maclean’s asked Cassel and Aronofsky about the film before Black Swan‘s premiere at Roy Thomson hall in Toronto.

Oprah forgives Jonathan Franzen

By macleans.ca - Thursday, September 16, 2010 at 2:51 PM - 0 Comments

When Oprah Winfrey picked Jonathan Franzen’s novel The Corrections for her all-powerful book club in 2001, the novelist’s appearance on her show was canceled after he said that male readers might be “put off by the fact that it is an Oprah pick.” Undeterred, Oprah is reportedly about to add Franzen’s new novel, Freedom, to the long list of books that viewers absolutely have to buy. Since the book is about things Winfrey approves of, such as family, redemption and freedom, it’s the sort of novel the talk show mogul likes to endorse. Even without her help, the critically-praised book is already on the best-seller lists. There is no word on how many men will refrain from buying it after her endorsement.

MSN Books