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| | 4 JANUARY 2009 |
| NEWSMideast conflict sparks protests in Canada
Updated: Sun Dec. 28 2008 3:07:18 PM
CTV.ca News Staff
Demonstrators rallied in several Canadian cities Sunday, taking sides in the latest conflict between Israel and Hamas militants. The latest Mideast violence has killed nearly 300 people in the Gaza Strip.
In Toronto, about 200 people gathered outside the downtown building that houses Israel's consulate to show their solidarity with the Palestinians.
Some protesters engaged in a shouting match with a few dozen representatives from the Jewish Defence League, who conducted a demonstration across the street.
In Ottawa, dozens of people denounced the Israeli campaign during a protest at the Human Rights Monument. There were more rallies held in Montreal and other Canadian cities.
The Canadian protests mimicked demonstrations in cities across the Middle East, many of which turned violent.
A rally in the Iraqi city of Mosul attracted a suicide bomber on a bicycle. One of the 1,300 demonstrators was killed and 16 others were wounded in that incident.
In Lebanon, police had to fire tear gas at thousands of demonstrators to prevent them from getting near the Egyptian embassy. Egypt has been criticized for acting as a mediator between the Israelis and the Palestinians and for closing its border with the Gaza Strip.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit on Sunday encouraged both sides to renew the truce that had been in place for much of the summer and early fall.
"There has been a calm and we should work to restore it," Gheit said.
In Egypt, thousands of demonstrators gathered at university campuses in Cairo and Alexandria to denounce what they feel is their government's weak support for the Palestinians.
In the Syrian capital of Damascus, more than 5,000 protesters marched toward the city's main square, burning both Israeli and U.S. flags.
A banner belonging to one protester read: "The aggression against Gaza is an aggression against the whole Arab nation."
In Beirut, a representative of Hamas told a crowd of protesters that the militant group would continue to fight.
"We have one alternative which is to be steadfast and resist and then we will be victorious," Osama Hamdan said.
About 5,000 lawyers in Amman, Jordan, marched toward parliament in a quest to have the Israeli ambassador expelled and the embassy closed.
In Turkey, one of the few Muslim countries that has a relationship with Israel, the prime minister denounced the campaign as a "crime against humanity."
The protests coincide with calls from the international community to work together to help bring an end to the violence.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner encouraged other European countries to work together to negotiate a solution to the crisis.
"We have entered a new spiral of despair," Kouchner told the Journal du Dimanche in an interview published on Sunday. "The truce must be restored."
With files from The Associated Pr0 Comments | Send To Friend |
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| | 30 DECEMBER 2008 |
| SLRS
DSLRs typically use a phase detection autofocus system. This method of focus is very fast, and results in less focus "searching", but requires the incorporation of a special sensor into the optical path, so it is usually only used in SLR designs. Digicams that use the main sensor to create a live preview on the LCD or electronic viewfinder need to use the slower contrast method of autofocus.
DSLR optical viewfinder vs. digicam LC
DSLR optical viewfinder vs. digicam LC
DSLR optical viewfinder vs. digicam LCD
Nikon D700 full-frame (FX) digital SLR camera
Depending on the viewing position of the reflex mirror (down or up), the light from the scene can only reach either the viewfinder or the sensor. Therefore, many DSLRs do not currently provide "live preview" (allowing focusing, framing, and depth-of-field preview using the display), a facility that is always available on digicams.
The advantages of an optical viewfinder are that it alleviates eye-strain sometimes caused by electronic view finders (EVF), and that it constantly shows (except during the time for the sensor to be exposed) the exact image that will be exposed because its light is routed directly from the lens itself. Compared to ordinary digital cameras with their LCDs and/or electronic viewfinders the advantage is that there is no time lag in the image; it is always correct as it is being "updated" at the speed of light. This is important for action and/or sports photography, or any other situation where the subject or the camera is moving too quickly. Furthermore, the "resolution" of the viewed image is much better than that provided by an LCD or an electronic viewfinder, which can be important if manual focusing is desired for precise focusing, as would be the case in macro photography and "micro-photography" (with a microscope).
Compared to some low cost cameras that provide an optical viewfinder that uses a small auxiliary lens, the DSLR design has the advantage of being parallax-free; that is, it never provides an off-axis view.
A disadvantage of the DSLR optical viewfinder system is that while it is used it prevents the possibility of using the LCD for viewing and composing the picture before taking it. Some people prefer to compose pictures on the display – for them this has become the natural way to use a camera. Electronic viewfinders may also provide a brighter display in low light situations, as the picture can be electronically amplified; conversely, LCDs can be difficult to see in very bright sunlight.0 Comments | Send To Friend |
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| | 14 DECEMBER 2008 |
| CHINAt’s an amazing sentence: Iceland goes bankrupt. But that’s exactly what happened yesterday (see BW piece here. See NY Times piece here). That’s a clear sign that the global financial crisis is entering a new and vastly more dangerous phase, where we are paying the price of the lack of a global financial regulator and global central bank.
What ‘bankrupt’ means is just that: The country cannot pay back its external debts, and the Icelandic currency, the krona, has become essentially valueless in the rest of the world. That means the country can no longer pay for imports.
The Icelandic problems have nothing to do directly with American real estate. As Kerry Capell of BW writes:
With the privatization of the banking sector, completed in 2000, Iceland’s banks used substantial wholesale funding to finance their entry into the local mortgage market and acquire foreign financial firms, mainly in Britain and Scandinavia…In just five years, the banks went from being almost entirely domestic lenders to becoming major international financial intermediaries. In 2000, says Richard Portes, a professor of economics at London Business School, two-thirds of their financing came from domestic sources and one-third from abroad. More recently—until the crisis hit—that ratio was reversed. But as wholesale funding markets seized up, Iceland’s banks started to collapse under a mountain of foreign debt.
What’s worse, with Iceland sitting outside the major currency trading blocs, there may be no one with the incentive or ability to save it. The country is looking for loans from the IMF and from Russia. But the United Kingdom is actually threatening to sue Iceland to get back money.
Where does the crisis go next? Most exposed are countries with large amounts of external debt relative to the size of their economy. A quick calculation suggests that by this measure, the U.S. is relatively well off, with external debt about equal to GDP. Japan’s external debt is about 40-50% of GDP, as is Canada’s (these numbers may change as I refine my calculations). Italy is at about 100%, and Germany and France are in the 140-150% range.
From this perspective, the U.S.—with its external debt mostly in dollars—looks like a bastion of stability. The euro zone has some weaknesses—Belgium and the Netherlands have uncomfortably high debt levels, and Ireland is extremely high. But there is a political framework in place which should allow political leaders to take effective action if they want.
The biggest dangers are for the UK and Switzerland. These countries, although much bigger than Iceland, are major financial intermediaries with big external debts. What’s more, they are outside the major currency blocs, with debt denominated in foreign currencies. That means if their currency starts to devalue, their debts will become more and more onerous.
And now we are in very tricky waters, which are looking uncomfortably like the Great Depression. The major players are the U.S., the Eurozone, Japan, and China. The question is: Will they act collectively, or will they engage beggar-thy neighbor policies?1 Comments | Send To Friend |
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| | 9 DECEMBER 2008 |
| TAGGED WHO ARE THEY?Who are these tagged people I asked? Tagged.com is a social networking site. It was co-founded by Harvard graduates and entrepreneurs Greg Tseng and Johann Schleier-Smith. Tagged.com was launched in October 2004 by Tagged Inc. and is privately owned. Tagged Inc. has raised $7 million in funding from Silicon Valley venture capital firm Mayfield Fund. The site initially targeted US high school students but has since opened to all users worldwide age 13 and older. The company reached profitability in early 2007. The site allows its users to build and customize profiles, send messages, leave comments, post bulletins, customize status, browse photos, watch videos, play games, give gifts, give tags, chat and make friends. Early innovations include the use of third-party widgets and YouTube as a part of the site’s graphical interface. Other partnerships include Slide, RockYou, PhotoBucket, Meebo, Razz and Jangl. As of July 2008, the site claims to have 70 million registered users. The site has also shown a surge in traffic in 2008 to date.
Tagged provides a feature whereby users may check their email address books to see if their existing friends are already on Tagged. They then have the option of connecting with friends already on Tagged and sending email invites to friends who are not yet on Tagged. This process has met some criticism in the technology press and from some users. However, in March 2008 Microsoft announced a commercial partnership with social networking sites Tagged, Facebook, LinkedIn, Bebo, and hi5 regarding email contacts APIs. Prior to Tagged, Greg Tseng was Co-Founder and CEO of Internet incubator Jumpstart Technologies. In March 2006, Jumpstart Technologies settled with the FTC on alleged violations of the CAN-SPAM Act. The settlement included a $900,000 fine but no admission of guilt.
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| | 6 DECEMBER 2008 |
| BEGININ OF THE ENDTV.ca News Staff
A series of political rallies were held in cities across Canada on Saturday, some in support and others in protest of the opposition coalition that threatened to topple the Conservative government earlier this week.
In some cases, both pro- and anti-coalition rallies took place in the same city.
In Toronto, Canada's federal Liberal and NDP leaders addressed several thousand supporters in Toronto on Saturday afternoon.
Liberal Leader Stephane Dion told a pro-coalition crowd at Toronto's Nathan Phillips Square that Canada urgently needs a plan to help the country's economy.
"We want to help our country to fight the economic crisis that is coming, and for that we need to pull together," he said Saturday afternoon.
He also said Prime Minister Stephen Harper had "wasted time on partisan games and locked the doors of Parliament."
NDP Leader Jack Layton followed Dion and told the crowd that the prime minister had put "a padlock on Parliament Hill" and was "desperately clinging to power."
"By closing down Parliament, he has silenced your voice," Layton said. "He has turned his back on the economy and on the people who are being thrown out of work."
Layton criticized Harper for delivering "an ideological plan" in the government's fiscal update, when Canadians needed the prime minister to look after their best interests.
About two kilometers north of the pro-coalition rally featuring Layton and Dion, a crowd of more than 500 held an anti-coalition rally at the provincial legislature buildings in Queen's Park.
In Ottawa, an anti-coalition rally saw an estimated 3,000 people gather on Parliament Hill in the bitter cold, in order to protest the Liberal-NDP coalition that is backed up by the Bloc Quebecois.
CTV's John Hua said crowd members had told him "the people here are for Stephen Harper, but for the most part they are here for democracy."
"They have come because they have chosen a government, they have chosen the specific people to lead this country, and that it's...not up to backroom deals for people to come together and pull that majority away from Stephen Harper," he told CTV's Newsnet in a phone interview from Ottawa.
Another rally in Calgary saw about 2,000 people gather in support of the existing Conservative government, and just over 200 people showed up to a similar rally in Halifax.
Another 200 people showed up at anti-coalition rally held in front of the New Brunswick legislature in Fredericton.
In Halifax, protesters held placards urging federal politicians to respect their votes, using slogans like "My Vote Counts," "No Secret Deals" and "Respect Our Votes" to convey their message.
Conservative MP Gerry Keddy, who was present at the Halifax rally, called on the coalition to give "its head a shake."
In Montreal, just under 1,000 people showed up to a pro-coalition rally that was organized by three major Quebec unions.
That rally was attended by Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe, as well as NDP and Liberal party representatives.
Duceppe told the crowd that Harper is "trying to make Canada a banana republic" by proroguing Parliament.
Also in Montreal, a crowd of about 30 people held a demonstration outside Dion's Montreal offices, in support of the Conservative government.
All of the protests began at noon ET on Saturday, including about 20 organized by Canadians for Democracy, which opposes the proposed Liberal-NDP-Bloc Quebecois coalition.
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| | 5 DECEMBER 2008 |
| GOIGO WA HITO DE OR SENECA DIXIT!ob·tuse
adj. ob·tus·er, ob·tus·est
Lacking quickness of perception or intellect.
Characterized by a lack of intelligence or sensitivity: an obtuse remark.
Not distinctly felt: an obtuse pain.
Not sharp, pointed, or acute in form; blunt.
Having an obtuse angle: an obtuse triangle.
Botany. Having a blunt or rounded tip: an obtuse leaf.
Not sharp, pointed, or acute in form; blunt.
Having an obtuse angle: an obtuse triangle.
Botany. Having a blunt or rounded tip: an obtuse leaf.
[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin obtusu
Thus it can be used , the equation was obtuse, the dog was obtuse in general, he was obtuse to her pain at eating the obtuse flower. Cum laudes? Where do they get them these days?0 Comments | Send To Friend |
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| | 5 DECEMBER 2008 |
| CHILDLISH SCRIBBLESWhy do the majority of internet users used grade one ablity when on the internet? Super short sentences, kid like short form and the rest, Has the internet lobotomized North America?1 Comments | Send To Friend |
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| | 5 DECEMBER 2008 |
|
OKThey've learned early that diversifying income is key to success.Whether they're recovering from their quarter-life crises or still getting carded at the bar, these precocious celebs won’t be worrying about their retirement funds anytime soon.
these 20 upstarts brought in US$435.5 million between June 2007 and June 2008—though non-'tween actors made a somewhat paltry showing in the top 10. The list belongs to the entertainers and athletes, who cornered the market with heavy branding and juicy endorsement deals.
With 10 Grammys, three solo albums, four movies and a pret-a-porter line under her belt, it's no surprise Beyonce Knowles blows away the rest of the list, raking in $80 million—almost double the US$44 million runner-up Justin Timberlake pulled in this fiscal year. The former Destiny's Child lead released her latest album I am Sasha Fierce Nov. 19, which sold nearly half a million copies in its first week.
Next up for the Golden Globe nominee? Set for release in December, Cadillac Records features Knowles opposite Adrien Brody as famed soulstress Etta James. Her thriller debut, Obsessed, hits theatres January 2009. The platinum-piped diva plans a worldwide tour next year as well.
Justin Timberlake found similar success taking his act solo: His 2002 debut album, Justified, went platinum three times over and sold more than 7 million copies worldwide.
Like Knowles, J.T. diversified his portfolio: With an Emmy, six Grammy awards and three restaurants to his name, Timberlake is also co-producing NBC's adaptation of the Peruvian TV series My Problem with Women.
Hot on Timberlake's heels? Los Angeles Lakers shooting guard Kobe Bryant. With deals from Coca-Cola (nyse: KO), Sony (nyse: SNE) and Nike (nyse: NKE), the 2007-2008 MVP pulled in US$39 million just last year.Off the court, Bryant heads up mixed-media ad house Zambezi Ink, which recently produced the promotion for Kobe's Nike Hyperdunk shoe. It's a full media makeover for Bryant, who found himself embroiled in accusations of sexual assault three years ago, scaring some major companies like McDonald's (nyse: MCD) into abandoning endorsement deals.
Bryant leads a quick succession of athletes—Cleveland Cavaliers point forward LeBron James and tennis champs Roger Federer and Maria Sharapova. In fact, athletes take nearly half the top 10 celebs under 30—indicative of the power of endorsement deals and testament to the fact that they reach their peak much faster than actors, who gain recognition and fatter paycheques over time.
The average age of the top ten best-paid actors is a solid 43-and-a-half, while women skew somewhat younger at 38. Nonetheless, according to employment data from the Screen Actors Guild, women over 40 received barely a quarter of all roles surveyed, while older men made out with 40 per cent.
That may help explain why only one bona fide non-'tween actress makes it into this top 10: Keira Knightley. The Pirates of the Caribbean bombshell, who first drew international attention for her role in the soccer flick Bend it Like Beckham, has since starred in more serious fare such as Oscar-winning Atonement and the remake of Pride and Prejudice.
Daniel Radcliffe of Harry Potter fame owes his spot in the top 10 to the magical powers of J.K. Rowling's quill: The fifth movie in the seven-book series, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, grossed US$292 million. Now 19, the boy-wonder is wrapping up his run in the Broadway staging of Equus, which won quite a few double-takes for the young star's nude scene. He's a long way from Hogwarts, Hedwig.
'Tween superstar Miley Cyrus may have the most meteoric rise to fame—her Disney (nyse: DIS) Channel show Hannah Montana debuted in 2006, but it has since evolved into a formidable preteen franchise. Both her albums, Meet Miley Cyrus and Breakout, have taken top spot on the Billboard 200. Listed among Time's top 100 most influential people of 2008, the 16-year-old most recently closed Disneyland for her birthday and lent her voice to the animated film Bolt, which debuted at No. 3 on Nov. 28.
Twins Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen round out the top 10—the waif-like media duo have made some recent and relatively unsuccessful forays onto the big screen (think floptastic New York Minute). Now best known for their fashion choices and tabloid appearances, the former Full House stars reign over vast pan-media company Dualstar, whose clothing and accessories lines cater to the lucrative preteen demographic.
In a testament to the profitability of 'tween sensationalism, the Jonas Brothers and the Harry Potter and High School Musical crews cluster in the bottom half of the top 20. Whether any of them will have the staying power to remain on the list next year—or even climb up a few notches—will depend on their ability to brand themselves and diversify their resume—trademarks of their successful top-10 elders.
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| | 4 DECEMBER 2008 |
| HARPER- "WOMEN DONT NEED EQUAL PAY, ITS TOO EXPENSIVE"Don't let Harper 'duck a confidence vote:' former GG
Updated Thu. Dec. 4 2008 8:17 AM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
The former governor general who presided over the downfall of the Joe Clark government in 1980 says Governor General Michaelle Jean must not let Prime Minister Stephen Harper "duck a confidence vote."
Ed Schreyer told CTV's Canada AM in an interview aired Thursday morning, just hours before Harper is expected to head to Rideau Hall to meet with Jean, that a government must have the confidence of the House in a parliamentary democracy.
The Tories have not said what Harper's meeting will be about, but political analysts and reporters on Parliament Hill have said they expect the prime minister to ask for a prorogation. If granted, the prorogation would end the current session of Parliament before an expected confidence vote on Monday, one Harper would likely lose.
"Any group that presumes to govern must be willing to face and seek the confidence of Parliament, and it mustn't be evaded and it mustn't be long avoided. I can't put it any more succinctly than that," Schreyer said.
Schreyer then hammered home his point even more clearly and in no uncertain terms.
"I must come back to your use of the words, 'to duck a confidence vote,'" he said responding to a question.
"That must simply not be allowed to happen."
Schreyer has said that Parliament could take a short break over the holidays, but not solely to allow the Harper government avoid a confidence vote.
Schreyer, a former premier of Manitoba who ran federally for the NDP in 2006, was the governor general when former Progressive Conservative prime minister Joe Clark's government was defeated in a confidence vote in 1980.
He said the Office of the Governor General will make decisions based on procedures, traditions and the law. He added that he had and maintains a very high regard for Clark, but he did not immediately grant his request to dissolve Parliament.
"In the event that an alternative group was willing to come forward to form government, I would have felt obliged to grant a commission to form such a government," he said.0 Comments | Send To Friend |
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| | 3 DECEMBER 2008 |
| PM GOES ALL NUKEGov. Gen. Michaelle Jean is arriving home from Europe today to deal with the political crisis that has deeply divided the country among those who support the government, and those who back an NDP-Liberal coalition supported by the Bloc Quebecois.
It is expected that some time in the next few days Prime Minister Stephen Harper will ask Jean to prorogue Parliament in order to prevent a non-confidence vote on Monday that could defeat the government.
If the non-confidence vote takes place and the government falls, the coalition could then ask Jean for the opportunity to win the confidence of the House of Commons, and could take over as government without an election.
It is widely believed Harper will try to prorogue Parliament first, shutting down the House of Commons until January.
Meanwhile, the Conservatives have launched an all-out war, following up Tuesday radio ads with scathing television ads on Wednesday.
In one of the ads a black-and-white image of Liberal Leader Stephane Dion -- who would take over as prime minister under the coalition's plan -- is shown while a female voice repeats a central Conservative message that accuses Dion of a power grab.
"In the last election just a few weeks ago Canadians overwhelmingly said 'no' to Stephane Dion as prime minister. Now just a few weeks later Stephane Dion is trying to overturn the election he lost and take power through the back door."
The ad then warns that Dion has given too much power to the Bloc, which would support the coalition but remain outside of government.
"Stephane Dion and the separatist Bloc. Shouldn't you get to decide?" the ad asks.
Meanwhile, a University of Toronto political scientist said it isn't clear whether Jean will grant Harper's expected request to prorogue parliament
There have been questions about whether Jean actually has the power to deny the request, but professor Peter Russell said while it is "murky territory," Jean has discretion on the matter.
"I don't think the Governor General is simply a rubber stamp that must do anything the prime minister wants," he told CTV's Canada AM.
"That would make her position as a protector of parliamentary democracy irrelevant and nonsensical if she's there to guard against the abuse of power."
Nelson Wiseman, another U of T political scientist, said while Jean has discretion, it would be "unprecedented" for her to turn Harper's request down. But it is also unprecedented for a prime minister to seek to prorogue Parliament so soon after an election, he said.
Fever pitch
The political showdown in Ottawa reached a fever pitch in Parliament Tuesday as Harper accused his foes of "betraying" voters while the opposition said the Tories have been misleading the country with doublespeak.
During a fiery question period session, where MPs hurled accusations and openly shouted at each other across the benches, Harper said that the Liberals, NDP and Bloc Quebecois want to "scrap" the results of the last election.
Harper also accused Dion of trying to use "parliamentary niceties" to grab power and become prime minister.
"If you want to be prime minister, you get your mandate from the Canadian people, not from the separatists," he said.
The prime minister is also expected to address Canadians in a televised address some time this week.
Dion fired back in Parliament and said the Tories were in a holding pattern and simply prolonging their eventual defeat.
"The prime minister failed," said Dion, pushing for a confidence vote. "If he was a democrat, he would allow this House to show how much he failed."
Dion also said the Conservatives have been blatantly contradicting themselves by saying one thing in English and another in French.
"He's saying that we Liberals are selling Canada to the separatists, and his Quebec MPs are saying that the separatists are selling their soul to the Liberals! He needs to choose between these two lies," Dion said.
NDP Leader Jack Layton, meanwhile, said that Harper himself was prepared to form a government with the Bloc four years ago is making the accusations in order to slander his political opponents.
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| | | | | | | 411: | North York, Ontario | | | Stats: | age 34 single | | | Seeking: | women for anything | |
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