Liberal Convention this weekend

Rumours of a potential pact between two of the four top Liberal leadership candidates swirled on Thursday at the party's convention as news of a meeting between Gerard Kennedy and Stéphane Dion reached delegates.

Various scenarios were being sketched out that could see dramatic shifts of second- and third-ballot support and surprise surges by either candidate beyond the front-runner Michael Ignatieff and his chief rival, Bob Rae.

Strategists have speculated about Ignatieff's and Rae's teams 'loaning' votes to Kennedy to keep him in third place ahead of Dion, who would then be the next candidate dropped off the ballot after the trailing four bottom-tier candidates withdraw.

'Star Wars Kid' the most-shared footage on the Internet

The most-shared video clip in the world is apparently that of a 15-year-old Quebec teen known as the 'Star Wars Kid.'



Ghyslain Raza, the subject of the video, has had nothing but grief from the exposure. He tried to sue the fathers of three former Grade 11 students who allegedly posted the video online in 2003, but settled out of court earlier this year.

Waits was on The Daily Show tonight. Stewart's a fan.

hehehe.

Is Waits a self-contained artist? The anti-thesis of Madonna? These were JS's questions. Tom admits he takes his own path - and he gets a kick out of those following him. JS has followed him throughout his career!

Tom closed the show with a performance of "The Day after Tomorrow" from the Real Gone album. Maybe not his most dynamic performance, but it's a beatiful song.

I'm now mostly through the "Orphans" album - it came in the mail yesterday. Love it!

Patent suit against Canadian firm could rewrite U.S. law

A patent dispute between a Canadian auto parts maker and the U.S. company suing it could rewrite American patent law as the U.S. Supreme Court considers what constitutes an 'obvious' invention.

Teleflex, Inc., of Limerick, Pa., is suing KSR International Inc. of Ridgetown, Ont. — about 100 kilometres east of Windsor — over a claim that the Canadian company infringed on a gas pedal design that KSR says simply combines existing technologies.

TV is Dead. Move On

The tech-biz blog TechCrunch has posted on an emerging phenomenon that should have advertisers scratching their heads as what to do. The article - Let’s Just Declare TV Dead and Move On, talks about the emerging trend of people watching more video sourced from online, including "standard programming", at the expense of television viewing time. A likely l-t outcome of trend is that people will start abandoning traditional broadcast and cable broadcasts.

Anecdotally I know of many people who now catch their Seinfeld and Daily Show fixes online - no commercials and you can catch a week of shows without owning a TiVo or PVR.

Mike Chong quits cabinet

An old Trinity classmate has been making big news!

(CBC) Mike Chong, who was intergovernmental affairs minister, quit his post Monday afternoon because of the motion, which later passed in Parliament and recognized the Québécois as a nation inside a united Canada by a 266-16 margin.

Chong, who was also minister for sport and represents the riding of Wellington-Halton Hills in Ontario, said: 'To me, recognizing Quebecers as a nation, even inside a united Canada, implies the recognition of ethnicity, and I cannot support that.'

'I do not believe in an ethnic nationalism. I believe in a civic nationalism.'

I support your principled stand, Mike!

Iraq 'on the brink of civil war'

(BBC) The United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, has publicly said that Iraq is teetering on the brink of civil war.

Mr Annan said concerted action to dampen the vicious sectarian violence gripping Iraq was urgently needed.

The continuing and escalating violence in Iraq has prompted a flurry of diplomatic activity this week.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani is due to meet Iran's supreme leader, while US President George W Bush flies to Jordan later to meet Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki.

Mediterranean Tuna quotas cut as stocks decline

Here's a story line that the Canadian Cod fishing industry failed to address and is likely to become all too common in the future:

(BBC) "The annual catch of bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean Sea and eastern Atlantic Ocean is to be cut by one fifth in an attempt to conserve dwindling stocks.

The 42-nation International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (Iccat) agreed the quota cut at a meeting in Dubrovnik, Croatia.

Iccat also agreed measures to combat illegal hunting of the giant fish.

Conservation groups criticised the scale of the cuts as 'weak, scandalous and inadequate'.

Scientific advice prepared for the Iccat meeting concluded that catches in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean were about three times above sustainable levels."

Back from California

After a late night but problem free flight from Orange County via Denver, I'm back in Toronto and once again busily working away.

The visit with Neal and Sarah in San Clemente was great, although I didn't get any surfing in. Instead I hung out with Neal, Sarah and Matthew, went to the San Diego zoo one day and traveled up to Laura and Brian's place in Monrovia.

Was a great (albeit brief) trip.

Hello from Sunny CA!

Arrived last night at John Wayne airport for an American Thanksgiving visit with the brothers. Plan is to head to the beach right now - so gotta run.

UK may transfer Basra 'in spring'

The UK has 'confidence' it may be able to hand Basra's security to Iraqi forces 'at some point next spring', the UK's Foreign Secretary has said.

Margaret Beckett told MPs Iraq's fate was 'hanging in the balance' and said it was necessary 'to hold our nerve'.

'The progress of our current operation in Basra gives us confidence we may be able to achieve transition in that province... at some point next spring.'

The Foreign Office said this did not mean all UK troops would be leaving. The UK has 7,200 troops in the south of Iraq, mostly stationed in and around Basra.

Apocalypse Pooh

A classic mash-up... a favourite movie meets my childhood!

Robert Altman died today.

One of my favourite directors, Robert Altman, died today.

Out of his films. personal favourites include M*A*S*H, Short Cuts (with Tom Waits!), The Player (an all-time personal favourite) and Pret-a-Porter.

TW Orphans Released Today

Today the new Tom Waits album "Orphans" has been released! Here's the Rolling Stone Review.

Hopefully my advanced order copy is in the mail -- maybe I'll just go pick up another copy for tomorrow's trip to load in my iPod.

Jackson Says He Won't Be Making `Hobbit'

Peter Jackson says he will not be directing a movie based on J.R.R. Tolkien's novel 'The Hobbit' or a planned prequel to 'The Lord of the Rings.'

In a letter posted Tuesday on Theonering.com., Jackson and partner Fran Walsh said an executive from New Line Cinema had called to tell them the studio was moving ahead with 'The Hobbit' without him.

The announcement came amid an ongoing dispute between Wingnut Films and New Line Cinema over the amount Jackson was paid for "The Fellowship of the Ring," including DVD payments.

While Jackson hasn't said how much he believes he was underpaid, The New York Times last year quoted his lawyers as saying it was as much as $100 million. He is suing New Line Cinema over the shortfall.

Lebanese Christian Leader Assassinated

At a time of great uncertainty and unrest in the Middle East, today in Beirut a leading Maronite Christian leader - Pierre Gemayel - has been assassinated.

Kissinger: Iraq military win impossible (BBC)

Military victory is no longer possible in Iraq, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said in a television interview broadcast Sunday.

Kissinger presented a bleak vision of Iraq, saying the U.S. government must enter into dialogue with Iraq's regional neighbors — including Iran — if progress is to be made in the region.

'If you mean by 'military victory' an Iraqi government that can be established and whose writ runs across the whole country, that gets the civil war under control and sectarian violence under control in a time period that the political processes of the democracies will support, I don't believe that is possible,' he told the British Broadcasting Corp.

But Kissinger, an architect of the Vietnam war who has advised President Bush about Iraq, warned against a rapid withdrawal of coalition troops, saying it could destabilize Iraq's neighbors and cause a long-lasting conflict.

Borat Review

Saw the movie Borat last night and although very (very) humorous in parts, I'm not convinced that the feature length film is all that successful a transfer.

The rodeo was terrifyingly funny.

The antique shop too. NOT!

Waits Interview in Now Magazine

There's a big article and small photo gallery in Now Magazine about Tom Waits.

The Now Reviewer is giving "Orphans" a rating of NNNNN - their "stratospheric" rating.

Landis urine sample clean? Lab discredited?

Part of the urine sample that disqualified Tour de France cycling champion Floyd Landis for drug use was mislabeled by the lab, Le Monde reported.

Landis's laboratory identification number was different than the one cited on the French lab report of the second half, or B part, of the urine, the French newspaper said, without citing a source. The administrative error doesn't mean the B sample used to verify the existence of the banned drug testosterone didn't belong to Landis, Le Monde said.

Attorneys representing Landis are trying to discredit the laboratory in order to clear the U.S. cyclist's name, Le Monde said. The latest information will be presented at a slide show about Landis in Tucson, Arizona, on Nov. 17, the night before the 16th annual Tour de Tucson. Landis repeatedly has denied using drugs.

Microsoft Jumps on Municipal WiFi Bandwagon

Microsoft is initiating a push into municipal WiFi with a pilot program that aims to cover 95 percent of Portland, Ore., by mid-2008. When users log onto the free service, they will encounter MSN-generated content and local news, weather and entertainment information.

Under the deal, the WiFi network will be coupled with a suite of Microsoft-designed Internet services to help users find Portland-centric information. The network will rely on Microsoft's adCenter platform to help advertisers reach local WiFi users.

The Yankee Group expects spending on these networks to increase from less than $50 million in 2005 to more than $150 million in 2006. As WiFi becomes an important vehicle for providing Internet access to rural areas, that number is likely to swell.

BJH Comment: Many firms will likely want to maintain these municipal networks as private ventures. I feel that is incumbent on municipal governments to ensure that this is not the case - WiFi networks should be government owned and talked about in the same breath as water and garbage collection as a public good.

Catholic Ministry recruiting changes? (BBC)

Pope Benedict XVI has met top advisers at the Vatican to study requests from Catholic priests who wish to marry.

The BBC's David Willey in Rome says the average age of priests is well over 60 and in many countries new recruits to the priesthood, inhibited by the celibacy rule, are not coming forward in sufficient numbers to replace the older generation of Catholic clergy.

Correspondents say no change in the mandatory celibacy rule is expected.

Thousands of priests among about 400,000 worldwide have left the Catholic Church in order to marry in recent years.

The Vatican has released no statement yet on the meeting.

Int'l poll ranks Bush a threat to world peace

(ITH) A majority of people in three countries with close ties to the U.S. — Britain, Canada and Mexico — consider President George W. Bush a threat to world peace, ranking the U.S. president right up there with the leaders of two countries he has labeled part of the 'axis of evil' — North Korea's Kim Jong Il and Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Boxercise Video Live

Discovery today - my workout at the King West Club is now live on the gym website - it's an 11MB file (so not for dial-up users).

Want to Live to a Healthy 85? Stay Trim (AP)

One of the largest, longest studies of aging found one more reason to stay trim and active: It could greatly raise your odds of living to at least age 85.

In fact, chances of being healthy in old age are better than even for people who at mid-life have normal blood pressure, good grip strength and several other physical characteristics associated with being fit and active.

These include normal levels of blood glucose and fats in the blood called triglycerides — both also associated with avoiding excess calories and eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables.

Other habits long linked with good health and well-being — avoiding smoking and excess alcohol, and being married — also improved chances of surviving well into the 80s.

No more Paid Posts

I should apologize for the Flash Drive post I submitted yesterday, Karina called me on it and my posting for payment has got to stop. The posts I have been submitting of late that have included a white square at the end have been paid inclusions.

It's not worth my time to spend it posting these types of articles, but more importantly it's not worth your time to read them. So I'm sorry. No more paid posts.

Christmas Idea #2

Now this is an awesome Christmas idea for the tech heads (like myself or Neal) - good as a stocking stuffer certainly (hint hint)! Really it's quite amazing how cheap a flash drive has become - only last year my 256MB USB drive was $80! Now you can get a custom engraved 2GB drive for US$40!

How much data can you put on 2GB? A hell of a lot. My IPod mini holds 1200 songs and has 4GB - it can play for a couple days. Having moved many of my favourite CDs over, I still haven't gone over 20GB on my external hard drive. My 300 photos from the New Zealand trip fit onto less than 200MB of card memory. An average DVD movie is less than 700MB.

Amazing to think that when I started at Infoware I was installing 40MB drives and going "wow" when I was installing 128KB RAM chips. ()

Tom Waits - Orphans "Lie to Me"

Here's a video from Wait's new Orphans release:

Christmas Idea #1

Oh yes, this will be mine... (did you hear that KW?)

Back from Boston - Beautiful City

We're back from our Boston raid-trip. Great city, had a great time with Nenita and Brideshead. Saturday was great weather - after a walk through the downtown core (past John Kerry's house) we headed to Harvard Yard and looked in at the excellent museums. Then had many drinks at Chris' favourite haunt. Will post more later.

Harper 'twiddling his thumbs' on climate change

Interim Liberal Leader Bill Graham and Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe accused Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Thursday of 'twiddling his thumbs' on climate change as a majority of Canadians say their concerns about the environment continue to increase.

The opposition leaders' comments came as the head of the UN climate change secretariat said Canada has given no indication of plans to withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol.

Graham also called Environment Minister Rona Ambrose the "climate change anti-leader," and said she should be prepared to acknowledge Canada's global responsibility in reducing greenhouse gases when she appears at the UN conference on climate change in Nairobi this week.

Boy, those Liberals have a short memory don't they? I don't recall their party doing anything for more than a decade!

Democrats secure the Senate

The Democrats have gained the final seat in the battle for the US Senate, sealing their mid-term poll victory in both houses of Congress.

Today, Republican George Allen admitted defeat to his Democratic opponent, James Webb, in the close Virginia Senate race.

So with a Democratic Congress, what's the plan now for Iran and North Korea? And domestically? These next two years should interesting .

Heading to Boston tomorrow

My bags aren't packed and I'm not ready to go, but I'm still set for our big roadtrip to Boston tomorrow. My first job tomorrow will be to pick Karina up at the airport at 7ish so that I can be addded to the rental insurance. Rental! That's right! There are six of us going so we've decided to rent a van. A nine hour drive by van! oh boy!

Nevertheless, it will be great to finally visit Harvard and see Nenita and Brideshead (in from NY).

John Bolton Casualty Number Two?

Prospects for extending John Bolton's job as U.N. ambassador essentially died today as Democrats and a pivotal Republican said they would continue to oppose the nomination.

It was another blow to President Bush two days after Democrats triumphed in elections that will give them control of Congress next year. On Wednesday, Bush had announced that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, a polarizing figure and face of the Iraq war, would step down.

On Thursday the White House resubmitted Bolton's nomination to the Senate, where the appointment has languished for more than a year. Bush appointed him to the job temporarily in August 2005 while Congress was in recess, an appointment that will expire in January.

Rumsfeld Resigns as First Election Casualty

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is standing down, President George W Bush has announced after bruising losses for Republicans in mid-term elections.

Mr Bush said that both he and Mr Rumsfeld had agreed the time was right for new leadership at the Pentagon.

Former CIA Director Robert Gates has been nominated to replace Mr Rumsfeld.

The president made it quite clear at a news conference after the election that he had decided beforehand that a "fresh perspective" was needed at the Pentagon.

This means that, win or lose the election, Mr Bush had decided that things were going badly enough to remove one of the architects of the war.

Democrats win House, may control Senate

The Senate seats of Montana and Virginia are center stage today as control of the Senate hung in the balance based on results from those two undeclared races. Democrats, meanwhile, picked up at least 28 seats in the House.

The media is reporting Democratic gains reflect voter discontent over Iraq, government corruption and the economy. The Mark Foley scandal probably didn't win too many conservative hearts, either.

In Virginia and Montana, recounts or legal challenges could delay the final outcome for days. Democrats moved within striking distance by ousting Republicans in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Missouri.

Voting: The Greeks could do it, the US can't

Remind me again as to the benefits of electronic voting? Seems an effective way to disenfranchise members of the electorate.

I mention this topic as yet again their are problems with American polling stations as programming errors and inexperience dealing with electronic voting machines frustrated poll workers in hundreds of precincts today.

Polling machine issues are delaying voters in Indiana, Ohio and Florida and leaving some with little choice but to use paper ballots instead.

In Cleveland, voters rolled their eyes as election workers fumbled with new touchscreen machines that they couldn't get to start properly until about 10 minutes after polls opened.

In Indiana's Marion County, about 175 of 914 precincts turned to paper because poll workers didn't know how to run the machines, said Marion County Clerk Doris Ann Sadler. She said it could take most of the day to fix all of the machine-related issues.

Election officials in Delaware County, Indiana, planned to seek a court order to extend voting after an apparent computer error prevented voters from casting ballots in 75 precincts there. County Clerk Karen Wenger said the cards that activate the machines were programmed incorrectly."

US votes in mid-term elections

Voting has begun today in US mid-term elections that could determine the course of President George W Bush's last two years in office. The whole lower House and a third of Senate seats are up for re-election.

During this campaign, members of the GOP have generally tried to distance themselves from Bush as his record of actions and inactions are seen as harmful to the party as a whole.

Perhaps indicating a backlash against the President and the GOP, polls suggest Democrats could capture at least one of the Houses of Congress, although the race remains close.

Wierd News: Season Shot - Ammo with flavor.

OK, perhaps a hoax, but not a bad one! Season Shot is made of tightly packed seasoning bound by a fully biodegradable food product. The seasoning is actually injected into the bird on impact seasoning the meat from the inside out. When the bird is cooked the seasoning pellets melt into the meat spreading the flavor to the entire bird. Forget worrying about shot breaking your teeth and start wondering about which flavor shot to use!

The birth of a quieter, greener plane

A team of researchers in Britain and the US has come up with a revolutionary new aircraft design that could make a dramatic contribution to curbing climate change.

The SAX-40, which has been developed by the Cambridge-MIT Institute, is a radically different shape of aircraft.

Officially, it is what is known as a 'blended wing'. It has a tailless wedge-shaped body with two bat-wings.

A Bad Interview Strategy |Rioting by India police hopefuls

Hundreds of people applying to join the police have gone on the rampage in the northern Indian city of Ghaziabad. About 20,000 hopefuls had turned up on Sunday evening to take the written test assessing their suitability to be constables in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh police. Riots began because many felt a written test was too difficult, officials say.

The mob of would-be officers rampaged along a stretch of the main road to Delhi, attacking people and property. Almost 30 people were arrested. Passengers were forced from their vehicles and reports say several women were molested. It took police an hour to bring the riots under control.

Saddam sentenced to hang

Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein was found guilty of crimes against humanity on Sunday and sentenced to hang for the 1982 killing of 148 Shia Muslims in a town north of Baghdad.

Saddam shouted 'God is Great' and 'You are servants of the occupiers — you are traitors,' before Judge Raouf Abdel Rahman of Iraq's High Tribunal finished reading the verdict and sentence.

Auditors kicked out of Iraq

A US government agency that has exposed corruption in Iraqi reconstruction projects will close in 2007.

Washington lawmakers have reacted with shock at the discovery that an obscure clause in a military spending bill will terminate the work of the auditor.

The Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction has embarrassed the US administration with its reports on corrupt practices.

Critics of the government claim this is what lies behind its sudden closure.

The auditor recently reported that a subsidiary of Halliburton, the largest US civilian contractor in Iraq, had withheld information from US officials.

It said that KBR, formerly Kellogg Brown & Root, had systematically engaged in practices aimed at veiling the facts around its contracts.

Among its more notable findings was a report on the loss of 14,000 weapons destined for Iraqi government use. Many of these are believed to have found their way into the hands of insurgent groups after the Pentagon lost track of them.

US Presidential Speeches Tag Cloud

This is very cool - a fellow has developed a US Presidential Speeches Tag Cloud that analyzes word use frequency in US Presidential Speeches starting with John Adams ("constitution") and ending with Bush ("terrorist").

My God! 'Only 50 years left' for sea fish!

There will be virtually nothing left to fish from the seas by the middle of the century if current trends continue, according to a major scientific study.

Stocks have collapsed in nearly one-third of sea fisheries, and the rate of decline is accelerating.

Steve Palumbi, from Stanford University in California, one of the other scientists on the project, added: "Unless we fundamentally change the way we manage all the ocean species together, as working ecosystems, then this century is the last century of wild seafood."

Israel launches major Gaza raid

Six Palestinians and one Israeli soldier have been killed in heavy clashes in the northern Gaza Strip.

In one of Israel's biggest raids into Gaza in recent months, troops carried out three air strikes and moved to encircle the town of Beit Hanoun.

Israeli forces have made regular incursions into Gaza since late June, following the capture of an Israeli soldier in a cross-border raid by Palestinian militants.

Today's attack comes amid some sign of movement to end the deadlock over Israeli soldier Cpl Gilad Shalit, who was captured on 25 June by Palestinian militants.

A Hamas delegation is in Cairo for talks with Egyptian officials on a possible prisoner exchange in return for his release.

Egypt has been acting as a mediator since Cpl Shalit's capture.