Jan 01
No clear standouts here. Star Wars III provided some closure, however it was a little too far to the dark side. Batman Begins provided a different twist on an old tale. Smith vs. Smith was fun. War of the Worlds provided all the special effects and a nice tribute to the 100th anniversary of Jules Verne’s passing, but….
Statistic: Movie ticket sales worldwide plunged 11 per cent in 2005 despite the fact that studios released 527 films in 2005 versus 507 in 2004.
Jan 01
It’s still The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown.
Note: The Da Vinci Code has celebrated it’s 2nd full year on the various bestseller lists north and south of the border and it has still not hit paperback.
Jan 01
Nothing stands out here either. In the absence of any serious contenders from 2005, I’ll pick an old song called “We Were Meant to Live” by Switchfoot on the grounds that I just stumbled onto it this year.
Jan 01
Including the September 11 terrorist attacks, the number of Americans killed by international terrorists since 1960 is roughly the same number as were killed by lightning strikes over the same period. It is also roughly equivalent to the number killed by peanut allergies or the number killed by collisions with deer. Since 2001 the Americans have spent 100s of billions of dollars (and Canada $8-10 billion) on counter terrorist measures. Meanwhile, 36,000 Americans are killed by the flu each year. Sadly, the American Government cannot afford to foot the bill for a flu vaccine stock. 140,000 people per month die of diarrhea, in developing countries and malaria carries off 165,000 people per month.
Runner up: Canada’s Gomery Commission investigating the $150 million Liberal sponsorship scandal cost’s taxpayers $72 million dollars which is almost 5 times what it cost the Americans ($15 million) to complete their 18 month 9/11 Commission investigating the events surrounding the Terrorist Attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
|
Vital statistics |
Canadian Gomery Commission |
American 9/11 Commission |
| Duration | 22 months | 18 months |
| Documents reviewed | 946 exhibits | 2.5 million pages |
| Public Hearings | 131 days | 19 days |
| Persons Interviewed | 183 (in 2 provinces) | 1,200 (in 10 countries) |
| Witnesses Testifying | 183 | 160 |
| Final Report | 681 pages(still preliminary) | 550 pages |
| Price Tag | $72 million | $15 million |
Jan 01
The Cleveland native is suing NBC for an episode of it’s “Fear Factor” reality TV show that showed a contestant eating a rat. He claims that it caused him to get sick before he could change the station. I have no update on how his case is progressing other than the following brief excerpt from the Reuters News Agency where Aitken said, “I am not at liberty to discuss the complaint unless it is a paid-interview situation.”
Jan 01
While approaching the $60,000,000 point of their public inquiry into evidence of political money laundering under the Adscam scandal, the Gomery Commission stops beating around the bush (i.e. interviewing anyone looking for an all expenses paid trip to the Gomery Commision in Ottawa who could claim to be friends of friends who knew someone who might have once met another person advertising the fact that they knew or received money from a liberal or someone related to a liberal) and calls upon the Ad company executives to testify. Upon hearing damning testimony that many feel should close the book on the case, Gomery attempts to levy a publication ban on the public inquiry.
Related Story: The Air India trial ends, 19 months and $130 million after it began with a non-guilty verdict for two Sikhs charged with conspiracy and murder in the 1985 Air India bombing that killed 329 people. Unemployed and a few temporarily employed politicians are quick to demand a new federally funded inquiry.
Jan 01
Still on the Americans’ blacklist for not assisting them in their liberation of Iraq, not supporting their North American Missile Shield plan and not doling out gobs of money to bolster our borders against the threat of global terrorism, Canada quietly averts a global pandemic when its scientists notice an unlabelled weapon of mass destruction has been mailed around the world by… an American lab.
“Canadian authorities may have helped avert a possible influenza pandemic by discovering that laboratories around the globe had been sent unlabelled samples of a flu virus considered a top candidate to spark the next pandemic, the World Health Organization suggested Tuesday. Between 4,700 and 5,700 laboratories in 18 countries, including 20 Canadian labs, have been told to destroy the samples of H2N2, which were distributed by the College of American Pathologists beginning last October.”
“…H2N2 is the influenza subtype that caused the 1957 Asian flu pandemic, which killed an estimated one million to four million people around the globe. The virus hasn’t circulated in humans since 1968; no one born after that time would have any immunity to the strain…”
…excerpts from a Canadian Press article dated April 12, 2005
Jan 01
They respond to the flood in New Orleans by outlawing radio play of the 1989 rock anthem, “New Orleans is Sinking.” It was banned from the airwaves this year on the understanding that no-one seemed to listen when it was released 16 years ago, so why bother listening now – oops, what I meant to say was in the spirit of compassion and political correctness.
(Hurting) Headitor’s note: The politically correct thing to do might have been to repair the dikes 16 years ago.