Ottawa off the hook in tobacco lawsuits

By macleans.ca - Friday, July 29, 2011 at 5:16 PM - 1 Comment

Ottawa cannot be held liable for damages in lawsuits against tobacco companies, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled on Friday. Tobacco companies including Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd. had been trying to get the Supreme Court to establish Ottawa as a third party, effectively making the Harper government a co-defendant in the cases. “Unfortunately, the Supreme Court of Canada has decided that the federal government is not acceptable for its decisions and actions, said Imperial Tobacco Canada vice-president of law Donald McCarty. “We nonetheless intend to set the record straight and believe it is important for the government of Canada to answer for its long and sustained involvement in the tobacco industry.” Imperial Tobacco is currently embroiled in a class-action suit waged by customers claiming the company’s light and mild brands of cigarettes did not have packaging that gave accurate information about tar and nicotine levels. Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq said in a statement she was pleased taxpayers would not be on the line for claims against the tobacco industry.

CBC News

The centre in crisis

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, July 29, 2011 at 5:13 PM - 47 Comments

Bob Rae draws lessons from the U.S. debt crisis.

The deep partisanship that has marked the crisis in the United States Congress has some lessons for Canadians.  Polarisation is not the “new normal,” as New Democrats and Conservatives are preaching.  It corrodes the body politic and takes us away from the simple truth that most people want a moderate, intelligent politics that’s based on facts, evidence, good values and compromise … we need to understand that most goals in politics, as they are in hockey or soccer, are scored from the centre.  That’s where the action is, and that’s where most Canadians are. But not the dead centre where it’s safety first and always ‘on the one hand and the other hand,’ but rather an action-filled, resilient, and lively centre that is not afraid of ideas, debate, and looking at issues afresh.  And that’s where the Liberal Party needs to be as well.

Reponse to ‘Opposing prayer in Toronto public schools, with dignity’

By Ron Banerjee - Friday, July 29, 2011 at 3:50 PM - 48 Comments

[This post was written by Ron Banerjee in response to Emma Teitel's article, 'Opposing prayer in Toronto public schools, with dignity']

The Canadian Hindu community has been, and continues to be, victimized by violence and hatred. As representatives of Canadian Hindus, the Canadian Hindu Advocacy is now being subjected to attacks and innuendos, often from biased media.

In the controversy over Valley Park School, terrified Hindu parents had contacted us to complain about Islamic students disrupting classes every week by having imams lead prayers in the cafeteria. They felt that the TDSB was so thoroughly infected with Islamist sympathies that they would suffer consequences for speaking up.

Recently, CHA was approached by a reporter who arrived half an hour before our planned picket and demanded to know on camera where ‘all the Hindus are’. His goal was to discredit the Canadian Hindu Advocacy, despite the known fact that we are a large national group which has published over 100 op-eds and letters to the editor in the National Post, Financial Post, and Toronto Sun over the last few years. All are freely available on our website in our ‘Media’ section.

You cannot get much more mainstream than that. In the current controversy, some fringe Hindu groups are trying to score cheap publicity by attacking our noble organization, or taking contrary views to stoke conflict.

These groups should be aware that we exist to counter hate and oppression, mostly from Sikh and Muslim fundamentalists, that Hindus have suffered from in Canada.

They should note that over 330 mostly Hindus were slaughtered by suspected Sikh Khalistan fundamentalists in the Air India tragedy, while Canadian authorities bungled the investigation, treated victims with contempt, and recently offered a financial package which victim families termed as ‘an insult’.

They should also note that after 9/11, the only religious structure destroyed in Canada was a Hindu temple in Hamilton. When the temple asked the McGuinty government for financial assistance to rebuild, they were told governments cannot fund religious establishments.

The ‘Scamgate’ scandal revealed this same government handed over millions in grants to religious groups, including a dozen Muslim groups and a Sikh temple whose posters celebrate the suspects in the Air India bombing.

These incidents happened because Hindus had no effective clout, while Muslims and Sikhs ran roughshod over Hindu rights with the connivance of Canadian governments and authorities.

Muslims are now twisting the meaning of ‘reasonable accommodation’ to their benefit again. A reasonable solution would have been for Islamic students to pack bag lunches and traipse to the nearby mosque during their hour-long lunch break. Disrupting classes harms everyone and benefits none.

Hindu and other non Muslim students are adversely affected by 400 Muslims marching in and out of class, while Muslims miss an hour of instruction every week.

Canadian Hindu temples and groups have proven themselves unable or unwilling to protect Hindu lives, rights, or property. The Canadian Hindu Advocacy was formed to address this, and our national advocacy shall continue to provide real leadership to our oppressed community, which is by far the most victimized in Canada.

We have formed a multi faith coalition with the Christian Heritage Party and Jewish Defence League of Canada. We will work to restore Canadian values of democracy and freedom, which are themselves a combination of both Hindu and Judeo Christian principles.

Ron Banerjee is a director with the Canadian Hindu Advocacy

It was about Michael Ignatieff

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, July 29, 2011 at 3:45 PM - 43 Comments

I’m a bit late to finding this, but here is Michael Valpy on the last election and Michael Ignatieff.

And at the end of this election campaign, Erin MacLeod, a post-doctoral researcher from Montreal, drew this intriguing distinction between Mr. Ignatieff and Mr. Harper: “Ignatieff demands that you listen to him and think he’s right, while Harper just wanted people to put faith in the Conservative party that they would sort out what to do when it needed doing. It was as if Ignatieff had his book about Canada all ready, presumptuously written–and that’s what makes him paternalistic.”

Thus to summarize. For younger Canadians wanting vision, they looked at Mr. Ignatieff and saw no vision. For older Canadians wanting that mystical thing called “leadership,” they looked at Mr. Ignatieff and did not see leadership. For women wanting someone whom they could trust and not feel threatened by, they looked at Mr. Ignatieff and saw distrust and paternalism. 

I’ve seen the future, and it’s Android over iPad

By Jesse Brown - Friday, July 29, 2011 at 3:22 PM - 79 Comments

As a rule I don’t make technology predictions, for a couple of reasons:

First, my job is to talk about what’s going on in the world right now, not to foretell the future. It’s weird how often tech journalists are looked to for their soothsaying powers (it’s also weird how often they’ll play along). We don’t ask, say, business reporters for their stock picks, but somehow anyone who reviews a gadget is deemed capable of prophesying the fate of massive companies and their products.

Second, guessing at the future of technology is a mug’s game. You will almost certainly be wrong, and therefore you are almost certainly making an ass out of future you. I like future me. I like his hovercraft pants and his metallic beard, and I refuse to embarrass him from this meager past.

That said, I will now break my rule and make a technology prediction. Even worse, I will make a tech prediction that was made by someone else, two days ago.

There will eventually be more Android tablets in use than iPads.

This of course was stated as fact, not prophecy, by a research firm called Informa. Informa should change their name to Obviousa, because theirs is the safest prediction I’ve heard in a while.

The phenomenal growth of Android smartphones illustrates the new normal when it comes to mobile devices: there’s Apple and there’s everything else, and everything else will run Android. Hardware companies have finally got the message that they are hardware companies—consumers don’t want their crappy, proprietary, incompatible software. Android is free, open and good, and as more and more of the unApple world adopts it, it will soon boast more apps than Apple.

But I bet you’d still take an iPad. Fair enough, but consider this: iPads remain expensive toys for grownups in countries like Canada. Teens and kids here would sooner spend that cash on an Xbox, and folks from poorer nations just want stuff that works. Any Android slab—even a lousy one—works. As long as it’s a glowing touchable rectangle running Android, you’ve got the basic functionality of an iPad. Reviewers like to pick at the details—maybe it’s a bit heavier, not as bright, less responsive, whatever.  To 91% of the world’s population it’s 91% of the way there, and if it sells for 19% of the price, then that will be the determining factor.

In a sense, Apple has screwed itself by making the iPad so elegant and simple. How can they continue to differentiate it? Change the colour, make it thinner, slap a camera on each side—and then what? Additions will only subtract.

The tablet is a great invention, but it will ultimately be rendered generic. The race is now on price, and Android will win it.

So it is written, so it shall be.

‘That this is even a debate in the 21st century should concern any educated person’

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, July 29, 2011 at 2:53 PM - 50 Comments

Brian Dunning responds to Elizabeth May’s wi-fi concerns.

For a politician to be frightened of a tiny, low-voltage device that generates a shadow of nature’s everyday state, at a natural frequency, betrays an unacceptable level of disdain for basic science and knowledge of nature … No branch of science is ever closed. Science is itself the search for new information, and is constantly improving; but when fundamentals are well understood and then confirmed by decades of testing, we can usually be pretty well assured that any new discoveries will not be as Earth-shattering as some politicians seem to fear.

King of the Hill Revisited: “The Arrowhead” and “Hilloween”

By Jaime Weinman - Friday, July 29, 2011 at 2:32 PM - 10 Comments

Season 2, Episode 3: “The Arrowhead”
Written by Jonathan Aibel & Glenn Berger

There’s a term, “filler episode,” that is sometimes used for episodes that don’t move the overall story momentum forward. I don’t care for the term, since it implies that an episode has to advance a story arc or it isn’t good. But I do think many shows have episodes that are… not exactly filler episodes, but “standard” episodes. These are episodes that aren’t bad, but offer the show’s usual elements without a lot that makes them stand out from all the other episodes. A good album of music will have some great songs, maybe a weak song or two, and then a couple of songs that are just ordinary examples of good craftsmanship. The same applies to a good season of television.

“The Arrowhead” is a standard episode of King of the Hill‘s second season. Not a bad episode, but familiar. The story begins with Hank finding an Continue…

Stephen Harper, celebrity

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, July 29, 2011 at 1:25 PM - 52 Comments

First, a Buffalo news anchor hails the Prime Minister’s appearance at a local putt-putt as a “brush with greatness.” Now, we learn that Mr. Harper’s turn on Murdoch Mysteries brought in a record audience, one that easily surpassed a rerun of Dragon’s Den that night.

A guest star shot by Prime Minister Stephen Harper helped Murdoch Mysteries to its best showing ever, 700,000 viewers on City. Harper played an 1890s desk sergeant on the Toronto-lensed sleuth series.

See previously: Humble brag

B.C. Liberal wants Pride Parade banned

By macleans.ca - Friday, July 29, 2011 at 12:52 PM - 84 Comments

A former federal Liberal candidate in B.C. sparked a firestorm of criticism Thursday when he called Vancouver’s Pride Parade “vulgar” in a Twitter post. Shinder Purewal, a professor at B.C.’s Kwantlen University, ran for the Grits in Surrey-North during last May’s campaign. “Vancouver’s so-called Pride Parade should be banned. It is vulgar…to say the least!” Purewal tweeted Thursday. Purewal later said he is not homophobic–he supports same-sex marriage–but he is opposed to overt public displays of sexuality.

Vancouver Sun

Justice, vengeance, and the exculpation of Anders Breivik

By Andrew Potter - Friday, July 29, 2011 at 12:49 PM - 51 Comments

Norway does not have capital punishment. In fact, the longest sentence you can receive there for murder is 21 years. According to an op-ed by published in yesterday’s New York Times by law professor Thane Rosenbaum, these facts render Norway “legally and morally” unprepared to deal with Anders Bleivik’s atrocity.

How so? He compares the situation in Norway to the public reaction to the acquittal of Casey Anthony, and notes how she is in hiding because of the risk of vigilante justice. He follows this with another American example: the case of Michael Woodmansee, who murdered a 5-year old in 1975 and is due to be released next month. Rosenbaum quotes the boy’s father, who apparently said “If this man [Woodmansee] is released anywhere in my vicinity, or if I can find him after the fact, I do intend to kill this man.”

This is where the piece takes a strange turn. Instead of denouncing these expressions or threats of vigilantism as utterly unacceptable in a civilized society, Rosenbaum writes:

Are these vengeful feelings morally appropriate? The answer is yes — because the actual difference between vengeance and justice is not as great as people think.

Or again:

 Such statements of unvarnished revenge make many uncomfortable. But how different is revenge from justice, really?

Rosenbaum’s piece perfectly captures the mood, as well as the style of reasoning, that has taken hold amongst the American right. Take a general truth, add a glaring non-sequitur, mix in some pidgin sociobiology, and – presto – you get the wonderfully reactionary conclusion that justice is just fancy vengeance, so what does it matter if the state does it or the victim?

Here’s the key passage:

Every legal system, however dispassionate and procedural, must still pass the gut test of seeming morally just; and revenge must always be just and proportionate. That is what the biblical phrase “eye for an eye” means. Justice requires that no less than an eye can be taken in retaliation for a lost eye, but no more than an eye either.

The general truth in this is that any social institution, to be stable, has to be compatible with fundamental and widely distributed human responses.  But the next clause, “and revenge must always be just and proportionate” simply begs the question, by assuming what Rosenbaum is trying to prove, viz., that “proportionate revenge” is properly a part of justice. (The tacked-on reference to the bible plays no argumentative role here; its sole function is to set the pious a-nodding. It’s the right-wing law-prof equivalent of bringing a hypeman onstage).

So why does Rosenbaum think he can simply assert the equivalence of justice and revenge? Bring on the sociobiology:

Despite the stigma of vengeance, it’s as natural to the human species as love and sex. In art and culture, everyone roots for the avenger, and audiences will settle for nothing less than a proper payback — whether it comes from Hamlet, or from the emotionally wounded avengers in “Gladiator,” “Braveheart” or “Unforgiven.” Recent studies in neuroscience and evolutionary psychology have claimed that human beings are hard-wired for vengeance.

This bit is exactly why people freak out about sociobiology and evolutionary psychology. The “it’s as natural to the human species” is clearly intended as approbation; that is, as carrying normative weight.  But here’s an exercise: substitute “rape” for “vengeance”, and “men” for “humans,” in that paragraph and see how it scans. The problem with it, I trust, becomes apparent.

As he heads for home, Rosenbaum stops even trying to soft-pedal his agenda: “Legal systems should punish the guilty commensurate with their crimes and recognize a moral duty to satisfy the needs of victims to feel avenged.” And then: “Neither justice nor revenge is negotiable.”

These are remarkable things for a professor of law to write. Far from being aspects of the same instinct, the difference between revenge and justice is as fundamental as the difference between a tort and a crime, and the move from revenge to justice marks the step from tribalism to the state or – if you prefer – from barbarism to civilization. Despite what Rosenbaum seems to think, the desire for vengeance is a bug, not a feature, of human motivation.

The central difficulty with it is buried in Rosenbaum’s own argument – the need for the victim to feel avenged. The problem is that if I wrong you and you seek revenge, it is very unlikely that I will think that your retaliation is proportionate and “just”. More than likely, I’ll see your retaliation as a further wrong that needs a response from me, and so on. This is a very common cycle in human interactions; it’s called  a feud, and they can last for generations and encompass entire families and tribes. The crucial step into civilization was taking the right to retaliation out of private hands and putting an end to the cycle of feuds.

Rosenbaum seems to think that the public system of criminal justice is nothing more than the state serving as a referee between private (and negotiable) desires for revenge. It isn’t. It is aimed at upholding the public system of non-negotiable rights. There is a great deal of confusion on this score, partly because of how television drama treats criminal cases (with all the talk about victims “pressing charges”, which they don’t do IRL), partly because the growing fetish for victim impact statements is obscuring the tort/crime distinction. But that should be seen for what it is – a decline into barbarism, not a fulfillment of the demands of justice.

The upshot is this: Despite what Rosenbaum seems to be arguing, victims of crimes do not have the right to feel avenged. To have it so would be to privilege private interests and reasons over those of the public, and is quite literally a counsel of barbarism.

If you don’t agree, think of it this way: Claiming that the public standard of reasonableness is unsatisfactory to the demands of justice is exactly what what Anders Breivik used to justify his actions. Whatever else he is, Breivik saw himself as a vigilante upholding a private theory of justice in the face of a failure of the state to provide satisfaction. Whether he realizes or not, Thane Rosenbaum has written a piece that doesn’t just excuse Breivik’s actions, but actually endorses them.

Ideological purity and governance

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, July 29, 2011 at 12:00 PM - 7 Comments

In light of the U.S. debt crisis, Fareed Zakaria compares the American system to parliamentary governance.

Some political scientists long hoped that American parties would become more ideologically pure and coherent, like European parties. They seem to have gotten their wish – and the result is abysmal.

Here’s why: America does not have a parliamentary system like Europe’s, in which one party takes control of all levers of political power – executive and legislative – enacts its agenda and then goes back to the voters. Power in the United States is shared by a set of institutions with overlapping authorities – Congress and the presidency. People have to cooperate for the system to work.

See previously: Debt and responsibility

Economy shrinks in May, Loonie falls behind

By macleans.ca - Friday, July 29, 2011 at 11:49 AM - 0 Comments

According to Statistics Canada, Canadian mining, oil, and gas activity has fallen drastically, causing the country’s economy to shrink unexpectedly. Real gross domestic product increased 0.3 per cent in May, taking analysts  who expected the economy to grow 0.2 per cent in May off guard. Experts say economic growth in the second quarter will be weaker. The Canadian dollar decreased by US$0.60 of a cent to US$104.49 cents on Friday.

CBC News

Norway victims laid to rest

By macleans.ca - Friday, July 29, 2011 at 11:32 AM - 0 Comments

Funerals were held Friday for some of the victims of last week’s terrorist attacks in Norway. Bano Rashid, an 18-year-old originally from northern Iraq, was laid to rest in Nesodden, south of Oslo. Ismail Haji Ahmed, 19, is scheduled to be buried near Hamar, north of the capital. Rashid and Ahmed were among the 68 mostly young people shot to death by anti-Muslim radical Anders Behring Breivik at an island retreat for supporters of the ruling Labour Party last Friday. Breivik also killed eight people in the Oslo bomb attack. The Labour Party held a vigil in the capital Friday, where leading members repeated calls for openness and tolerance. “Evil has brought out the best in us. Hatred engenders love,” said Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg.

Reuters

Ford chairs longest city council meeting in Toronto history

By macleans.ca - Friday, July 29, 2011 at 11:27 AM - 9 Comments

Thursday and Friday marked the longest continuous city council meeting in Toronto history, The Toronto Star reports. Approximately 168 people accepted Mayor Rob Ford’s invitation to tell the city council what core services should and should not cut. Ford promised committee members and constituents that the meeting would go until the next morning if need be, and it did—officially ending at 6:30 a.m. after 22 hours and 25 minutes of civilian deputations and budget talks. Only 2 of 168 presenters (300 people were signed up originally) proposed any kind of budget cuts endorsed by KPMG, the agency responsible for drafting the controversial budget proposal, with the rest urging the mayor to keep core services like public libraries and the school crossing guard program intact. No official decision will be made until the next council meeting on September 19.

Toronto Star

Environment Canada rejects recycling, buys new office furniture

By macleans.ca - Friday, July 29, 2011 at 11:09 AM - 7 Comments

Federal Environment Minister Peter Kent has remained tight-lipped over his department’s decision to replace a Gatineau, Que. office building’s workstations with new furniture. Environment Canada spent $141,000 to store the furniture for about a year, before putting it up for auction and purchasing new furniture for the building, which was under renovation. However, a spokesman told Postmedia News the government thought it was more “cost-effective” to replace the cabinets, steel metal wall panels covered in fabric, electrical outlets and wiring. The spokesman said the department is working on an explanation as to why it paid to store furniture it didn’t keep.

Postmedia

Woman sues Ottawa police for excessive force

By macleans.ca - Friday, July 29, 2011 at 11:04 AM - 13 Comments

Ottawa woman Roxanne Carr is suing the Ottawa police department for their alleged mistreatment of her when she was arrested and charged with assaulting police, obstructing justice, and damaging property in 2008. Carr claims her arm was broken in the process of detainment. Media outlets, including The Canadian Press, prompted an Ontario judge to release a video of Carr’s arrest, in which she can be seen being dragged through a jail hallway handcuffed. Ottawa police say they probed the incident and determined that no misconduct took place.

The Chronicle Herald

Week in Pictures: July 25th – 31st 2011

By macleans.ca - Friday, July 29, 2011 at 10:55 AM - 0 Comments

The World’s New Theme Song

By Jaime Weinman - Friday, July 29, 2011 at 10:49 AM - 3 Comments

One of the ways the internet has changed the life of the pop-culture trivia searcher is that it used to take years to identify a song we heard in a TV show or an old movie (before they started identifying all the songs in the closing credits of movies). Now a lot of songs are identified in the “soundtracks” section of the IMDB, and others can be found with a YouTube search. So when someone mentioned that the theme song for the U.S. default deadline should be the Yodel music they play on The Price is Right, a YouTube search turned up the actual recording they use – the yodeling begins at 0:53, but they’ve also used the opening music for Swiss vacations and such.

Most wanted

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, July 29, 2011 at 10:47 AM - 18 Comments

Jason Kenney talks to the Post about his most-wanted list.

Back in 2003, the Liberals considered releasing a similar wanted list but decided not to. They said they were concerned about privacy and vigilantism. Why did your government go ahead with this now?

“I read about that. If indeed they took that position I think it was bizarre and irresponsible. The notion that a foreigner who illegally enters Canada, has been found by our legal system to be involved in the worst kinds of crimes possible, such as war crimes and crimes against humanity, who is under a deportation order and a warrant — the notion that such an individual enjoys the same privacy rights as a law abiding Canadian citizen is bizarre in the extreme. And the fact that people are concerned about this just shows the kind of ideological process obsession that some people have that overrides any consideration for the public interest or the integrity of our immigration system. So when this came to light, that we were not seeking the cooperation of the public, Minister Toews and I realized that this was a mistaken approach and that we had no privacy obligation to these individuals under the principles of both consistent use of information and public interest. And under the Privacy Act, we felt there were entirely reasonable grounds to release this information.”

Chris Selley notes that the word “alleged” should be applied to these individuals. One person is threatening to sue. Another is claiming innocence.

A hard right turn

By Alex Ballingall - Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 6:00 PM - 0 Comments

Eliana Aponte/Xinhua/Redux

The far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) is riding a wave of renewed popularity, with support levels hovering around 26 per cent in recent months—rivalling Austria’s mainstream social democrat and centre-right parties for the first time in nearly a decade. That’s raised the possibility that Heinz-Christian Strache, the party’s controversial leader, will become Austria’s next chancellor. More likely, the FPÖ could join a coalition. The last time that happened, 14 EU members temporarily froze diplomatic relations with Austria because the FPÖ in government “legitimizes the extreme right in Europe.”

Under Strache, the FPÖ has reaffirmed its anti-immigration policies and its anti-EU stance. His FPÖ also employs populist rhetoric that blames the country’s problems on the detached elitism of Vienna’s political class. The 42-year-old former dental technician has been accused of xenophobia, and he allegedly has past ties to neo-Nazi groups. But he’s already trumpeting his desire to take the chancellery after the 2013 election. Maybe the prospect of a right-wing nationalist heading the government in “Red Vienna” isn’t as far-fetched as it used to be.

The meticulous planning of the Oslo massacre

By Erica Alini - Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 5:41 PM - 2 Comments

The 1,518-page manifesto posted online by Oslo mass killer Anders Behring Breivik isn’t just a prolix xenophobic screed. It is also a comprehensive how-to guide for the self-made homegrown terrorist. The last pages of “2083: A European Declaration of Independence,” originally posted on a white supremacist website and discovered by American blogger Kevin I. Slaughter, describe how Breivik, 32, spent nine years plotting the massacre.

The handbook, written in sometimes tentative but overall clear English, details anything from how the Oslo shooter financed the attacks to the mental exercises he resorted to in order to preserve his karma. Interspersed with emoticons, his narrative reads like the diary of an amateur home renovator—filled with failed experiments, the occasional trip to IKEA, eBay shopping, and lots of unfruitful Google searches.

Below is a succinct account of what it allegedly took to devise Noway’s worst massacre in modern history:

2002: Breivik, who in the document calls himself Andrew Berwick, becomes a founding member of the Knights Templar group, formed at a meeting in London. The purpose of the organization, he says, is to prevent the supposed Islamization of Europe and annihilation of the continent’s cultural patrimony.

2005: Charged with drafting an ideological manifesto for the organization, Breivik says he is trying to raise 3 million euros by investing in stock market options—the money is intended to finance the mass distribution of his pamphlet. After failing to raise the desired amount, he decides to turn to an alternative marketing ploy he calls “plan B,” probably an allusion to the bombing and shooting spree he would carry out on July 22, 2011.

2006: In order to save money and increase his operational budget, Breivik moves from his bachelor’s apartment in Oslo to his mother’s basement. His accommodation expenditures, he says, drop from 1,250 to 450 euro a month.

2006-2008: Breivik focuses his energies on writing the pamphlet.

Fall 2009: He creates prospectuses, websites and business cards for two bogus ventures: a mining company and a small farm. Both, he says, will serve as a cover for the purchase of large amount of fertilizer needed to fabricate explosives.

January 2010: Breivik’s funds have reportedly been depleted to a mere 50,000 euro. He is counting on his 12 credit cards to provide an additional 30K. As a daily recreational activity, he plays Dragon Age Orgins, a fantasy videogame. “It’s important to have fun a few hours every day,” he writes.

July 2010: Breivik buries a Pelican case containing police armour and insignia in a remote location he says he randomly selected on Google Earth. Breivik is in all likelihood referring to the police uniform he would wear during the Utøya shooting rampage.

Fall 2010: After an impractical plan to cozy up to arms smuggler in Prague, Czech Republic fails miserably, Breivik manages to buy a Ruger Mini 14 semi-automatic rifle legally in Norway with a deer-hunter application. On his fourth steroid cycle, he relaxes every day by pumping iron.

January/February 2011: Breivik also obtains a Glock 17 pistol—again, legally. He also buys three cylinder-shaped metal containers he plans to stuff with explosives. One of them is an 80-euro IKEA toilet brush holder. He reluctantly sells his Breitling Crowsswing watch and Montblanc pen to raise an additional 2000 euro in funds.

April 2011: Breivik leases a small plot of land outside Oslo from a farm owner due to serve a two-and-a-half-year jail sentence supposedly for growing marijuana. At the end of the month, Breivik moves out of his mother’s house.

May/June 2011: Breivik successfully purchases three tons of ammonium nitrate, a common fertilizer, ostensibly for farming purposes. He spends the next two months turning that fertilizer into powerful explosives he will later use to bomb a government building in Oslo.

July 9: Breivik successfully sets off a test-bomb. In his own words: “BOOM! The detonation was successful!!!:-)”

July 2: Breivik carefully plans travel routes for both the bombing and the shooting attack with a Garmin GPS device.

July 4: He unearths the Pelican case with the police armour he had buried a year before. “As for the content of the case,” he notes, “it was in perfect condition.”

July 5: He replaces his hollow-point ammunition with soft-point bullets that deform into a mushroom-like shape upon hitting a target–to inflict “maximum damage to the vermin,” he writes.

July 16: Breivik transports weapons, armour and explosives to an Oslo motel with an AVIS rental car.

July 22: On the day of the attack:

“I believe this will be my last entry. It is now Fri July 22nd, 12.51.

Sincere regards,

Andrew Berwick
Justiciar Knight Commander
Knights Templar Europe
Knights Templar Norway.”

In the company of whales

By Kate Lunau - Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 5:35 PM - 0 Comments

Eric Cheng/Barcroft Media/Getty Images

Tourist brochures refer to Dominica, a tiny Caribbean island between Guadeloupe and Martinique, as “the Nature Island” for its lush vegetation, its postcard-perfect waterfalls, and its plant and animal life. The indigenous Carib Indians called it Waitukubuli (“tall is her body”), which might be a better name: the island’s volcanic peaks jut sharply upwards before falling away into the sea, leaving a deep oceanic basin on its Western side that’s sheltered by the mountainous island.

Shane Gero came here in 2005 looking for sperm whales. There had been reports of sightings around Dominica (pronounced “Domin-eek-a”), including families with multiple babies, but still, he wasn’t too sure what he’d find. “When we got there, they were everywhere,” says Gero, 31, a Ph.D. candidate at Dalhousie University. That year, Gero spent 41 straight days following one family of sperm whales; he’s returned every year since, splitting his time between Dominica, Halifax and his hometown of Ottawa. By now, Gero has spent literally thousands of hours following over 20 families of sperm whales. He knows some of them so well that he can recognize them by sight when they surface, lingering about 15 minutes to breathe and socialize before diving again. He’s even got names for them, like Pinchy, Fingers and Spoon.

Sperm whales are some of the most mysterious animals on Earth. The largest of all toothed whales (males can be 18 m long, and weigh up to 60 tonnes), they have the biggest brains of any known creature. They “see” through dark ocean water using echolocation, emitting a series of clicks that enables scientists to track them with an underwater microphone. (Dolphins and killer whales also use echolocation, detecting a nearby object by bouncing sound off its surface.) Sperm whales’ heads are filled with a waxy substance called spermaceti; some scientists think this serves as an amplifier when whales emit sonar—the most powerful in the world—to find prey. They can dive underwater for up to 90 minutes before surfacing to breathe, and feed on giant squid, which live up to 1,000 m deep. Sperm whales have been found with circular scars on their bodies, wounds from a giant squid’s suction cups.

Continue…

Sheilah Lorraine Wheeler Sweatman

By Alex Ballingall - Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 5:15 PM - 0 Comments

Illustration by Ian Phillips

Sheilah Sweatman was born in Winnipeg on Feb. 8, 1982, the third child of Wynn and Teddi Sweatman. Ever since Sheilah was a little girl, the Sweatman family has been frequenting their cottage at Lake of the Woods, a large body of water dotted with thousands of islands that straddles the Minnesota, Manitoba and Ontario borders. It was Sheilah’s favourite place. “I believe her heart lies at Lake of the Woods,” says her older sister Megan.

When Sheilah was three, Wynn remembers her hammering nails into the deck at their cottage. “All the other kids could walk around a work site,” he says, chuckling proudly. “Not Sheilah. Even at a young age, she was a participant.”

Sheilah’s “ fiery demeanour” first surfaced when she was a little girl. At the cottage, she was always dragging massive branches and logs out of the woods to help her cousins build “the biggest and best forts,” recalls Megan, and she was “always the first one in the water.” It was Sheilah who helped teach people to swim. She was also the go-to guide in the forest and the resident expert on catching fish. “She was our guide, in more ways than one,” says Megan. “She thought of everybody else before herself. Sheilah’s heart was never full.”

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Intelligent viewers have spoken

By Patricia Treble - Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 5:05 PM - 2 Comments

Franco Bellomo/WGBH

In an era of moribund network ratings, PBS’s Sunday stalwart Masterpiece has done the impossible, becoming TV’s standout program, with a 44 per cent increase in ratings. And the show accomplished it not by dumbing down or skimping on content but by doing the opposite: churning out more and more intelligent, sophisticated series. Everyone in the industry gives credit to one person: its executive producer Rebecca Eaton, 63, who’s had the job for 25 years. But the show wasn’t always flying high. Three years ago, it was floundering, a “dusty jewel,” Eaton recalls. The home of classics such as Traffik and The Jewel in the Crown looked and felt dated. Though it was showing acclaimed dramas such as Bleak House, viewers labelled it their “grandparents’ TV.” Making matters worse was a scheduling schizophrenia: a Brontë period drama would be followed by a contemporary thriller like Prime Suspect and then a Hercule Poirot cozy mystery.

Eaton gambled on a down-to-the-studs renovation. She wiped the fuddy-duddy name “Theatre” from the title. To cure the “head snap” scheduling problem, she divided the show into three seasons: contemporary dramas in the fall, classic fare in the winter, and mysteries in the summer. Each section got a distinct new look and a talented actor as a host. Acerbic Alan Cumming (The Good Wife) eagerly snapped up the Mystery! gig. “I think the whole notion of being a host announcing a drama that is about to unfold is a very rare thing these days, and it just really appealed to me,” he explained.

Ratings increased steadily before soaring this past year—its 40th on air—as Masterpiece pumped out hit after hit, including the acclaimed Sherlock, a new Upstairs Downstairs and the blockbuster Downton Abbey. The latter attracted 12.6 million viewers, with another one million watching it online. The drama about an aristocratic family and its servants was a hit in the prime early 20s age group, a market the show doesn’t target.

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