Beaten UBC grad student’s eyes are ‘beyond repair’

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, July 19, 2011 at 12:37 PM - 0 Comments

Doctors in Vancouver have been unable to restore the vision of a University of British Columbia masters student who was blinded in a brutal beating in Bangladesh. After performing four surgeries, doctors said her eyes were “beyond repair.” Rumana Monzur’s husband has been accused of trying to gouge her eyes out during a savage beating in early June. Monzur will comment publicly on the incident once she recovers, The Province reports. The university has collected more than $61,000 to help Monzur cover her medical expenses. Their goal is to reach $70,000.

The Province

More help for aggressive dementia patients

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, July 19, 2011 at 12:35 PM - 0 Comments

Ontario is bringing in more help for aggressive and “difficult” patients with Alzheimer’s, dementia and other neurological disorders. The Ontario Behavioural Support Systems Project is designed to keep people out of long-term care facilities and reduce medication and restraint use for patients already in institutions, Health Minister Deb Matthews says. The program, which is unique to Canada, will begin with four pilot projects this month and be implemented across the province within a year. Dementia patients often end up in institutions because family and healthcare workers don’t know how to handle them. The province will hire 700 new healthcare workers who will be trained in how to recognize and address behavioural issues in dementia patients.

The Globe and Mail

FBI raids hackers

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, July 19, 2011 at 12:29 PM - 0 Comments

Federal investigators raided the New York homes of three suspected members of the hackers’ group Anonymous on Tuesday, according to Fox News. Anonymous, a loose collection of online activists, has claimed responsibility for a number of cyber attacks against companies including Visa and MasterCard. More than ten FBI agents searched the home of Giordani Jordan in Baldwin, N.Y. at around 6 a.m. They removed at least one laptop. Two other houses were also searched. All three suspects are in their late teens or 20s.

Fox News

Bank of Canada holds interest rate at one per cent

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, July 19, 2011 at 12:19 PM - 5 Comments

The Bank of Canada has decided to keep the country’s overnight interest rate steady on Tuesday, citing economic uncertainty in the U.S. and Europe. Canada’s key interest rate will remain at the record low of one per cent. Economists had been split in their predictions of what central bank governor Mark Carney would do with the overnight borrowing rate. Many thought the bank would boost the rate in July because of rising household debt and inflation. But in a statement on Tuesday, the bank said the debt crises in the U.S. and Europe create an uncertain international economic situation that could affect Canada. In response to the bank’s decision, the loonie jumped to $1.053 U.S. by mid-morning Tuesday.

CBC News 

Mr. Burns and Smithers go to Parliament

By Jaime Weinman - Tuesday, July 19, 2011 at 12:13 PM - 14 Comments

As I write this, I’m still watching the live stream of Rupert Murdoch and James Murdoch testifying before the UK Parliament. And so the pie attack happened right in the middle of my writing it. That was weird. The effectiveness of pie throwing as a political act has always escaped me; since it’s inspired by the Three Stooges and other slapstick comedy, it seems to be a way for ordinary idiots to get close to wealthy dowagers (or whatever you call a male dowager) and invade their space. But Three Stooges shorts don’t have much political significance and neither does this.

All the pie thrower succeeded in doing was changing the focus of the conversation from “Rupert and James Murdoch aren’t doing so well” to “Rupert Murdoch is a victim and his wife is cool.” He helped the Murdochs tremendously, while thinking he was hurting them. The pie throwing was sort of an act of narcissism, which will have the opposite effect from what the pie-er probably wants. If it weren’t for him, the cable news chatter today would be about the scandals. Now it’s about pie.

Before the Pie Man became the star of the proceedings, the thing most people seemed to be talking about was that Rupert and James acted a lot like two of News Corp’s most beloved pieces of Intellectual Property, C. Montgomery Burns and Waylon Smithers. Continue…

Protester attacks Murdoch during hearings

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, July 19, 2011 at 12:12 PM - 0 Comments

Rupert Murdoch was attacked by an intruder during his testimony before a British parliamentary committee. The assailant apparently attempted to hit the media mogul with a plate full of shaving foam before he was intercepted by Murdoch’s wife, Wendi. The hearing was suspended after the security breach.

The Guardian

Israeli commandos board Gaza-bound French yacht

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, July 19, 2011 at 11:51 AM - 0 Comments

The Israeli military says commandos have boarded a French boat attempting to breach Israel’s sea blockade of the Gaza Strip. Activists onboard the yacht did not resist, officials said. The military has said it will stop anyone who tries to break the blockade, which Israel says it set up four years ago to combat arms smuggling. A Montreal activist was found on the boat, which is the only vessel left from a larger flotilla that planned to sail weeks ago before being blocked by Greek authorities.

CBC News

Canadian prison costs increase 86 per cent

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, July 19, 2011 at 11:30 AM - 2 Comments

Federal prison costs have risen 86 per cent since the Harper government came into power in 2006, the National Post reports. The cost of Canada’s federal corrections system was $1.6 billion yearly, but projected costs for 2011-12 show numbers just under the $3 billion range. The figures appeared in the annual Reports on Plans and Priorities of the Correctional Service of Canada. Experts say the Harper government’s plan to increase prison construction and staffing have contributed to the higher cost projection.

The National Post

Murdoch “humbled” by parliamentary grilling

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, July 19, 2011 at 11:21 AM - 0 Comments

Press baron Rupert Murdoch, enmeshed in Britain’s ongoing phone hacking scandal, appeared before a Commons media committee with his son, James, on Tuesday to answer questions about what he knew and when. The Australian native called the appearance “the most humble day of [his] life” and said he had been “appalled and ashamed” to learn that murder victim Milly Dowler’s phone had been hacked. James, the chairman of News International, told the committee the company had failed to live up to their own standards. Once seen as the heir apparent to his father’s media empire, James Murdoch appeared chagrined as he apologized to those who’d had their voicemail messages intercepted.

BBC

The same old story?

By Jaime Weinman - Tuesday, July 19, 2011 at 10:10 AM - 0 Comments

The Kobal Collection

The News of the World turns out to be a lot like The Front Page, but somehow that fills us with disgust, not nostalgia. The often-performed, frequently filmed newspaper comedy has defined much of what we know about the good old days of journalism, and it seems a lot like today’s bad days. The lead character of the play, reporter Hildy Johnson, describes his job as, “Peeking through keyholes! Running after fire engines like a lot of coach dogs! Waking people up in the middle of the night to ask them what they think of companionate marriage. Stealing pictures off old ladies of their daughters that get raped in Oak Park.” It turns out that today he’d simply be hacking into a computer to get the pictures, but otherwise, not much seems to have changed.

Hildy’s editor, Walter Burns, will do anything to get an exclusive story and the advertiser dollars that come with it: he hires a small-time gangster to do dirty work for him (including kidnapping an old woman), lies to everyone, plants evidence, and violates all kinds of ethics and laws in his 1½ acts of stage time. The result was a beloved comic rogue who was portrayed by Cary Grant in the movie His Girl Friday. It’s a little different with similar alleged behaviour on tabloids today: instead of getting played by Cary Grant, you get busted by Hugh Grant.

Old-school portrayals of unethical journalism are easier to love because, for one thing, they’re fictional. But they’re also about a time when we could believe that reporters, however awful, served a noble purpose. The story of The Front Page is that by pursuing a sensationalistic story, the journalists manage to expose the corruption of the city government. Most of them don’t seem to care about anything more than their headlines, and they’re happy to ruin people’s lives (including driving a woman to attempt suicide) to get them. Many of their tactics, like bribing the police to get information, would seem at home in a story about News International. But in the end, the play promises us, muckraking reporters will make politics more honest.

Continue…

Light-bulb ban has voters incandescent with rage

By the editors - Tuesday, July 19, 2011 at 9:55 AM - 8 Comments

Reuters/Chris Wattie

It may be the universal symbol for a bright idea, but a great deal of political attention has been paid to the light bulb of late, with results that seem rather dim. Governments are finally realizing there’s more to environmental policy than simply passing a few laws and demanding that everyone obey. The public must believe in these moves as well.

In 2007, both the U.S. and Canada announced new energy efficiency standards for the sale of light bulbs that had the effect of banning traditional incandescent bulbs. In Canada, 100-watt and 75-watt varieties were to be removed from shelves starting January 2012. By January 2013, the familiar 60-watt and 40-watt bulbs would also be forbidden.

At the time, these new regulations were seen by both the Stephen Harper and George W. Bush governments as a way of proving their green credentials with little cost to the public purse. Incandescent bulbs were considered ancient technology, hardly changed since Thomas Edison’s brainstorm of 1879; newer technology promised far greater energy efficiency. All that was required was to take away people’s old bulbs.

It hasn’t been that simple.

In the U.S., the prospect of a light-bulb ban has become a major prop for Tea Party activists eager to prove Washington is overly intrusive and meddlesome. Republicans in Congress are fighting to repeal the light-bulb ban. Texas has already passed such a law. And many Americans are stockpiling the proposed contraband as an act of defiance.

In Canada, the Harper government appears to have anticipated a similar populist outburst by quietly announcing its intention to delay implementation of its ban until 2014. (British Columbia has its own regulations that currently outlaw the sale or importation of traditional 100-watt and 75-watt incandescent bulbs.) Ottawa says it needs more time to address “communication activities.” In other words, it seems the public isn’t quite ready to give up its familiar old light bulbs.

While Canadians have compliantly obeyed or tacitly supported a wide variety of imposed environmental policies, ranging from messy garbage sorting to massive subsidies for solar and wind power, an apparently innocuous light-bulb policy is experiencing significant push-back. What are the lessons for government and environmental groups?

First, the laws were unveiled without significant consultation or public buy-in. It was rule by diktat and objectionable on those grounds alone.

Second, the available replacements—compact fluorescent lights, or CFLs—are demonstrably inferior in terms of performance and cost. As everyone knows, CFL bulbs are more expensive and give off a harsh glow in sharp contrast to the familiar warmth (and low cost) of incandescent bulbs. For most Canadians the light-bulb ban promised a noticeable reduction in perceived living standard.

Third, the claimed environmental benefits of reduced energy consumption were negated by the presence of mercury in CFLs. Given the hysteria regarding minute quantities of mercury or other toxins in many other everyday household products, it seems ludicrous for a government to mandate mercury in light bulbs. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency provides a three-page set of directions on what to do if you break a CFL bulb, including shutting off the furnace or air conditioner to prevent the spread of deadly mercury vapour through the house. The net environmental benefits of the change are thus obscure, and not worth the reduction in living standards.

Environmental groups, such as Canada’s Pembina Institute, have objected to Ottawa’s postponement, claiming “a delay will do more harm than good.” However, this light-bulb episode may mark a turning point in green policy. It appears there are some things the public will simply not accept, even in the name of environmentalism. Taking away familiar, useful and inexpensive products without providing a suitable replacement is one of those things.

Rather than relying on government fiat to reduce energy consumption, there are other ways to achieve green gains. Buried within the 2007 regulations of the U.S. law is the intriguing Bright Tomorrow Lighting Prize, in which Washington has offered $15 million in prize money and the prospect of massive government contracts to the first commercial bulb of any technology that meets tough new standards for lighting capabilities and energy consumption.

If the winning L-Prize bulbs deliver both performance and savings, there will be no need to regulate the sale of old-style light bulbs. Consumer self-interest will accomplish what government decree could not.

Sometimes a carrot works better than a stick. And a prize works better than a ban. How’s that for a bright idea?

Breaking news from the nether regions

By Scott Feschuk - Tuesday, July 19, 2011 at 9:42 AM - 10 Comments

Photo by Jenna Marie Wakani, Getty Images; Photo Illustration by Taylor Shute

Consider the male genital organ: it is essential for pro­creation, urination and losing one’s job as a congressman. Alas, the scandals of Anthony Weiner and Dominique Strauss-Kahn have overshadowed many other recent newsworthy events involving the penis. Let’s get caught up.

Newsflash! The female CEO of Archie Comics is being sued by her own company over repeated profane outbursts, including an incident in which she allegedly charged into a meeting and shouted, “Penis! Penis! Penis!” Obviously, this sort of lewd exclamation is unbecoming of a corporate executive—not to mention a surefire way of summoning the randy brother of Beetlejuice.

Archie Comic Publications filed suit against Nancy Silberkleit after receiving a private investigator’s report in which she comes off as a “foul-mouthed tyrant” prone to making frequent references to male genitalia. Apparently, the female CEO lacks certain mitigating qualities that would make her vulgarities more likely to be overlooked, such as being a male CEO.

Newsflash! What is the loudest creature on the planet relative to its size? A chirping cricket? A singing cicada? A self-aggrandizing Gary Bettman?

Smaller than a thumbtack, an insect called the lesser water boatman has been found capable of producing mating calls of 99 decibels from its home at the bottom of rivers. According to Wired.com, the aquatic creature achieves its impressive din by rubbing its penis against the ridged surface of its abdomen—“like a wooden spoon against a washboard.” The process is considered a marvel of nature. It also just gave Charlie Sheen an idea for the world’s first X-rated jug band.

Apparently, the insect’s call is so thunderous because pursuit of females among its kind is intensely competitive—and only the loudest get the chance to mate. Though this same phenomenon is seen elsewhere in nature, including in certain species of birds and every episode of Jersey Shore, scientists remain uncertain precisely how the insect uses its crotch to attract such widespread attention. Unlocking the secret could be the key to designing future ultrasonic systems and Adam Sandler movies.

Newsflash! A British company has received European approval for a new condom that can enhance the male erection thanks to a gel that increases blood flow to the genital area. The gel—found in the condom’s tip—is formally considered an “erectogenic,” a designation conferred on certain pharmaceutical compounds and all of Scarlett Johansson’s movies. Side effects of the new condom are said to include rashes, inflammation and exploding penis.

Newsflash! Korean researchers have conducted a study in which they measured the finger and penile length of 144 men who had just been put under anaesthesia for urological surgery. Each penis was first measured flaccid—then was grasped, stretched and measured again. The study found conclusively that the men really enjoyed having their surgery.

It also found some science-type stuff. For instance, the researchers now claim you can tell a lot about the size of a man’s penis by comparing the length of his index finger to that of his ring finger. The lower the ratio, the longer the penis.

At this point, I would like to take a moment to welcome back to the column all the men who stopped reading just now to check the ratio of their fingers.

Dr. Tae Beom Kim of Gachon University did not hold back in reaching a conclusion from the data. “Based on the evidence, we suggest that digit ratio can predict adult penile size,” he said. The doctor formally announced his findings to two attractive blonds in a campus pub. Regardless of whether the findings hold up in men who are not Korean, the study is worth deeper consideration: specifically, considering what the person stuck with the ruler must have been thinking. I’m going to go with something along the lines of: Here I am, a highly educated scientist who dreamed of one day using my expertise to help cure cancer, but instead I am measuring the privates of the unconscious and pulling an all-nighter to run the data for the Wang/Finger Correlation Matrix. Oh well, at least I’m not the guy who has to stretch them out.

Shoplifting is flourishing worldwide

By Brian Bethune - Tuesday, July 19, 2011 at 9:35 AM - 0 Comments

Simon Marcus/CORBIS

In 1800, the first known trial of a shoplifter who was not a known criminal took place in Bath, England. Jane Leigh Perrot, 55, was not exactly the Winona Ryder or Lindsay Lohan of her day, but she was a respectable married lady of means, Jane Austen’s aunt no less. Leigh Perrot claimed in court that the shopkeeper was running a scam—that he had inserted the white lace in question into her legitimate purchase so that he could shake her down outside the shop, extorting a bribe for not reporting her to the magistrate.

Leigh Perrot offered no compelling evidence on that point, however, and it seems more likely the jury was swayed by her lawyer’s first-ever use of the so-called celebrity defence, which would echo through prominent shoplifting cases for the next two centuries: why would a prosperous woman like my client risk liberty and reputation to steal a trinket she could easily afford to buy? In any event, she was acquitted, and it wasn’t until the 1980s that Aunt Jane emerged from family records—combed exhaustively by Austen scholars for their own purposes—as a compulsive kleptomaniac. (Nursery plants were particularly at risk when she came to visit.)

It’s no accident this strangely contemporary event took place in England, the first commercially modern nation, argues Rachel Shteir, author of The Steal: A Cultural History of Shoplifting, or that the concept of kleptomania was developed in early 19th-century Paris, home to some of the world’s earliest and most alluring department stores. Kleptomania, Shteir points out, was both a key concept in early psychiatry and a social necessity, a defence that kept respectable women from ending up in the same rat-infested cells as their poor sisters. It still performs that function today, when a defence is needed at all. The rate of detection—an estimated one person caught per 48 thefts—makes shoplifting among the safer crimes to commit.

Continue…

Are they white—or brown?

By Cigdem Iltan - Tuesday, July 19, 2011 at 9:30 AM - 0 Comments

Martin Meissner/AP

It doesn’t take a scientist to tell a polar bear and a brown bear apart. Or does it? Genetic studies have revealed that all living polar bears have Irish brown bear genetic markings in their DNA. An international team of scientists has traced the species’ collision back to a night of romance between a male polar bear and a female brown bear from Ireland between 20,000 and 50,000 years ago. Researchers believe that, today, climate change has forced grizzlies and polar bears, for example, to move into each others’ habitat, giving them several chances to engage in “opportunistic mating.” In the past, scientists say because the glacial ice sheet extended south into Ireland during colder times, polar bears could also meander into brown bear territory. These shared quarters resulted in hybrid offspring, according to the findings, which were published in the journal Current Biology. “When they come into contact, there seems to be little barrier to them mating,” said Pennsylvania State University’s Beth Shapiro, who led the study.

The Great White tax haven

By Jason Kirby - Tuesday, July 19, 2011 at 9:10 AM - 12 Comments

Getty Images

Until last year, Peter was a successful American fund manager, with roughly 200 employees in New York City and a personal fortune of $100 million. That’s still the case today, save for one detail—Peter is no longer an American. In 2010, the U.S.-born executive took the extreme step of renouncing his American citizenship. “I wanted to remove myself from a society and country that was heading for a financial catastrophe,” Peter said in an email interview through his Toronto-based lawyer, David Lesperance, who specializes in “tax-efficient citizenship, residence and domicile solutions.” In other words, Lesperance moves rich people to places where they’ll pay less tax. So which global tax haven lured Peter (not his real name) away from Uncle Sam? Was it the Cayman Islands? Switzerland? Monaco?

Try Canada. A year and a half ago, Peter moved to Toronto and is well on his way to obtaining his Canadian citizenship. He bought a luxury home in the city, as well as a vacation property. And now he’s in the midst of determining how much of his fund management company to uproot from New York and move across the border. “Five years ago, I would not have considered expatriation as an option, especially to Canada,” he said. “I always thought of Canada as a younger sibling of the U.S.—the same, but less advanced in terms of culture, quality of life, business opportunities and above all, taxation. I now see it as the same, but maybe better in the long term.”

As for those taxes, Peter says he’s fed up with his money going to pay for what he considers needless trillion-dollar wars in the Middle East, and to cover the staggering interest charges America owes on the money it’s borrowed to live beyond its means; by the end of this decade, at least 18 cents out of every $1 of tax revenue America raises will go to interest payments. “I know I get more for my taxes in Canada,” he says. “And the debt levels here are reality-based.”

Continue…

REVIEW: The Gap Year

By Jane Christmas - Tuesday, July 19, 2011 at 9:05 AM - 0 Comments

Cam Livesey wakes up one day to discover that her teenage daughter Aubrey is missing. Or rather, the daughter Cam once knew is missing. In her place is a beautiful yet eye-rolling, lippy, constantly grumpy, deceitful young gal. What happened to the helpful, fun-loving kid who used to snuggle with her and read The Secret Garden? Sarah Bird executes a marvellous rendering of what is surely the Bermuda Triangle of parenting: that cringing stage between a child’s last years of high school and first year of university when a switch goes off in your teen’s head and they transform into cunning, monosyllabic aliens with attitude.

Parents turn into super-valets—so eager to please and be needed as they suffer their offspring’s dismissiveness. When something goes awry even a conscientious parent like Cam is left flailing: “What do I do now? I have no idea on earth where my daughter is. I no longer know any of her friends. And even if I could track her down, then what do I do? Stand outside a locked door and scream at her? Call the police to drag her home? At which point they ask how old she is and hang up when I say 18.” Sound familiar?

Single parent Cam is trying to hold it together for one more day, long enough to get her daughter to the bank to cash out her trust fund to finance her first year at university. Thing is, Aubrey has other plans that involve a life she hasn’t told her mom about, and an enigmatic badass boyfriend with secrets of his own. But this is not a bleak novel; it’s funny and smart. Alternating diary entries penned by both Cam and Aubrey during a particularly icky year bristle with bull’s-eye wit and honesty. Cam’s job as a lactation consultant (she’s known in the neighbourhood as “the boob whisperer”) becomes more ironic as the story progresses: she has a knack for getting infants to latch on to their mothers, and an oblivious inability to detach herself from her young-adult daughter. The story is as much about connecting as about letting go. Think you know your kids? Think again.

REVIEW: The Hypnotist

By Brian Bethune - Tuesday, July 19, 2011 at 9:00 AM - 0 Comments

It didn’t take long for the enormous popularity of this thriller in its native Sweden to out the literary couple—novelists Alexandra and Alexander Ahndoril—behind a pseudonym adopted, in part, as a tribute to Girl With the Dragon Tattoo author Stieg Larsson. (Three weeks, in fact, once the media pressure went into overdrive when it was announced the movie version would be helmed by Oscar-nominated director Lasse Hallström.) The nod to Larsson is ironic, given that there is more real dread and sorrow, and far better writing, in The Hypnotist than in all three volumes of Larsson’s Millennium trilogy combined. Not only does evil beget evil over generations—the sins of the fathers (and mothers) graphically laid upon the children—no good deed goes unpunished either. It’s very Swedish, somehow evoking both loneliness and claustrophobia at the same time, disturbing to read, and very, very good.

Shortly before Christmas, almost an entire family is slaughtered in a Stockholm suburb, two parents and a two-year-old girl literally sliced to ribbons. A 15-year-old son, Josef, though cut by as many knife wounds as the others, is still alive; so, too, is an older daughter no longer living at home. Detective Joona Linna is certain that the killer is searching for the absent sister, and that he must penetrate Josef’s coma for the information the police need to reach her first. Linna turns to a doctor who gave up hypnotism for good reason 10 years before. Convinced of the emergency, though, Erik Bark acquiesces. That decision, made for the best of motives, sets in motion a new and equally gruesome series of events.

For all the gore, the novel is primarily a psychological tale, full of twists and turns, and profoundly realistic. Even the happy ending betrays subtle hints that this kind of violence to body and soul can never be considered over and done with: everyone in The Hypnotist is changed by what happens, and not always for the better.

Continue…

The stuff of war, raw and uncensored

By Michael Petrou - Tuesday, July 19, 2011 at 9:00 AM - 0 Comments

Mark Holleron/Canadian War Museum; Emanuela Appetiti

One of the first images confronted by a visitor to the Canadian War Museum’s War and Medicine exhibit is a photograph of a young American veteran of the Iraq war, shirtless, his back to the camera while his mother, a woman with grey hair and large eyes, embraces him. About one-third of the soldier’s head is missing. “There’s this mother who’s going to be caring for her son, who’s in his late 20s, for the rest of her life,” says Tim Cook, co-curator of the exhibition. “This show is not just about battlefield trauma. It’s about the long-lasting impact of war. It’s about hurting and healing and caring.”

A balanced mix of emotion and material history, the show was developed by the Wellcome Collection in London, England, and the Deutsches Hygiene Museum in Dresden, Germany. But Cook and fellow curator Andrew Burtch have adapted it by adding 150 images and artifacts, some from the museum’s permanent collection, others unique and unlikely to have been widely seen before. There’s a ceramic pot for holding leeches—once widely used to “bleed” infected patients—from the Museum of Health Care in Kingston, Ont.; a small display on Norman Bethune, the Canadian doctor who pioneered mobile blood transfusion during the Spanish Civil War and died a hero in China; and a handwritten copy of the poem “In Flanders Fields,” sent by its author, Canadian doctor and soldier John McCrae, to an American friend. The letter is normally housed at McGill University’s Osler Library of the History of Medicine.

Other items are more gruesome. A section of the show titled “The Body” demonstrates the physical damage caused by war and its attendant diseases. There are models of blown-apart faces and syphilitic genitals, as well as other body parts: a punctured skull, a brain traversed by a bullet, a leg bone riddled with holes created when pus from an infection tried to force its way through. “We haven’t pulled any punches. This is the stuff of war,” says Cook.

Continue…

Delivery men in blue

By Alex Ballingall - Tuesday, July 19, 2011 at 8:20 AM - 0 Comments

When a cop pulls up behind you on the side of the road, what do you typically expect to happen? At best, a gentle warning; at worst, some time in the slammer. In Fredericton, it appears you may be treated to a free pizza courtesy of the local Pizza Hut—if you’re following the rules.

The Fredericton Police Force launched an initiative last week giving free pizzas to drivers who choose to pull over when fiddling with their cellphones. Police take their licence plate numbers so they can mail drivers coupons for a free, medium, three-topping pizza from Pizza Hut. Drivers’ names will also be entered in a draw for a Bluetooth headset.

“Our officers are really excited about it,” Const. Rick Mooney of the Fredericton Police Force tells Maclean’s. “I think it will create dialogue around the issue.” The issue is distracted driving, which Mooney blames for 80 per cent of vehicle collisions. On June 6, New Brunswick enacted a new law stipulating a fine of $172.50 for those caught texting and using their phones without headsets while driving. Ever since, Mooney says, police have noticed a number of people pulling to the side of the road to use their phones. The free pizzas, he says, are meant to reward the public and encourage more discussion about distracted driving. “Why not try something different and actually put a thank you out there and tell people we appreciate that?” Mooney says. “Hopefully we’ll see some good results.”

And if they do, what’s next—candy canes for sober drivers at Christmas?

Lionsgate Signs Charlie Sheen

By Jaime Weinman - Monday, July 18, 2011 at 4:46 PM - 2 Comments

The Charlie Sheen TV sitcom version of Anger Management is somewhat like David E. Kelley’s Wonder Woman show. (Remember that? It seems like it’s been a long time.) It’s getting a lot of coverage but may never actually happen. With Wonder Woman, at least they had someone to write it and a network that ordered the pilot; with Anger Management, all the studio has is Sheen. No one has agreed to write it for him yet, and they don’t have a network for it yet. Though eventually they’ll find somebody who needs the work and is willing to work with Sheen, and since the studio has a long working relationship with TBS, they’re probably going to be taking some meetings with that network, even if it doesn’t wind up there.

It’s Lionsgate as a TV studio that’s marginally more interesting to me than the show itself. Though Lionsgate has mostly shed its Canadian origins, it remains something of an outsider in U.S. entertainment, one of the more successful independent studios and one of the few semi-independents that’s in the TV business. The constant, highly public negotiations over the future of Mad Men are reminiscent of the kind of brawls that used to take place in the ’80s, when networks would battle it out with the smaller companies that produced their shows. They offer the usual combination of shows that are prestigious – Weeds, Mad Men, Nurse Jackie – and shows that are not, like this one. But some of the business strategies involved with their shows are a bit pleasantly outside-the-box, which is necessary when a studio doesn’t have its own network to sell stuff to.

The strategy involved with Anger Management, if they can sell it, is the same that Lionsgate (or its subsidiary Debmar-Mercury) developed for Tyler Perry shows. It’s sort of a combination of cable TV distribution and the old syndication method of producing 65-episode seasons. They make a regular-sized cable season, then if it works, they pick it up for a season of 90 episodes, enabling them to sell it into syndication right away. This system requires that the episodes be made really cheap, really fast, and really bad.

Whether Sheen could work that fast is another question, but if it works out, they’ll have lots of episodes of an inexpensive sitcom with a washed-up sitcom star looking like he’s just doing it for the money. Like I said, it’s kind of an ’80s throwback.

Should the media be talking about Anders Behring Breivik’s politics?

By macleans.ca - Monday, July 18, 2011 at 4:12 PM - 32 Comments

News of the World whistleblower found dead

By macleans.ca - Monday, July 18, 2011 at 2:58 PM - 16 Comments

The former News of the World reporter who broke open the phone hacking scandal by implicating then-editor Andy Coulson has been found dead. In separate interviews, Sean Hoare told the New York Times and the BBC Coulson was not only aware of the hacking, he’d personally asked Hoare to tap into phones. Police say Hoare’s death “is being treated as unexplained, but not thought to be suspicious.” The former showbiz reporter for the News of the World was once a close friend of Coulson’s but was fired from the paper over substance abuse issues.

The Guardian

How do you know when to get screened for breast cancer?

By Julia Belluz - Monday, July 18, 2011 at 2:22 PM - 14 Comments

The Statement: “The benefits of mammography are going to depend a lot on what your underlying risk is, and the current guidelines look only at age… I think that, other things being equal, it’s reasonable for a patient and their doctor at that point to say, ‘we’re going to put off the next mammogram until age 50.’” (Dr. John Schousboe, 07/06/2011)

Dr. John Schousboe, of the Park Nicollet Clinic in Minnesota, is speaking here about a new health- and cost-effectiveness analysis of mammography (breast x-rays) he co-authored, which was published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The study suggests that risk factors other than age—breast density, family history, and history of breast biopsy—should also be taken into account when determining who should be screened regularly. Continue…

Coyne v. Wells on Rupert Murdoch and the News International scandal

By macleans.ca - Monday, July 18, 2011 at 2:20 PM - 8 Comments

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