On A Tuesday

Back in the saddle...

Though the Speaker claims he was not "bullied", it is beyond inappropriate, even criminal, to pursue him and to get him to change his ruling, especially when costly cancelled gas plants and deleted e-mails are the issues:

Laura Miller, who worked in former premier Dalton McGuinty's office, was asked to testify after an e-mail exchange she had with Liberal campaign director Don Guy last September surfaced in a number of documents released to the committee.

After Guy wrote that the "Speaker needs to follow up on his prima facie finding and change his mind" -- an apparent reference to a contempt case against former energy minister Chris Bentley -- Miller said, "Dave is putting the member from Brant on notice that we need better here."

Opposition MPPs allege that senior Liberal aides were attempting to intimidate the Liberal Speaker into changing his ruling, which was unfavourable to their party.

Miller told the committee that she wanted to draw Levac's attention to the behaviour of the PCs who were not following the "spirit" of his ruling that the three parties work together on the disclosure of gas plant records.

"I did nothing wrong," Miller said when the NDP accused her of trying to control information around the gas plants.

(Sidebar: typical chorus)


Over at the Fur, great coverage of the al-Quds Day in which not only children but other speakers blamed Jews for everything and demanded they be killed (but only after a two minute warning). Must-reads.


In Canada, it doesn't matter what colour you are, you will still wait:

Winnipeg's health authority has admitted it failed a homeless aboriginal man in a wheelchair who died during a 34-hour wait in a hospital emergency room, but says race or his social status didn't play a role in the lack of treatment.

William Olsen, lawyer for the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, told the inquest into the death of Brian Sinclair that no single person was responsible for what happened to the double-amputee.
But he said there is no doubt errors were made.

"A perfect storm occurred," Olsen told Judge Tim Preston Tuesday in his opening statement. "The WRHA failed him ... at all levels of the organization."

Sinclair went to the emergency room of Winnipeg's Health Sciences Centre Sept. 19, 2008, with a bladder infection and spoke with a nurse. He stayed in the emergency room waiting room until a fellow patient notified a security guard that he was dead. Preston will hold hearings through August then again in October to determine how Sinclair was dealt with.

Inquests and commissions, by the way, waste time and money. Everyone knows what the problems are. It is only a matter of resolving them.


Chinese hackers are caught trying to take over a false water plant:

The group, known as APT1, was caught by a research project that provides the most significant proof yet that people are actively trying to exploit the vulnerabilities in industrial control systems. Many of these systems are connected to the Internet to allow remote access (see “Hacking Industrial Systems Turns Out to Be Easy”). APT1, also known as Comment Crew, was lured by a dummy control system set up by Kyle Wilhoit, a researcher with security company Trend Micro, who gave a talk on his findings at the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas.

And yet we trade with them.

(Merci)


Why Celebrity Apartheid Week matters:

In an interview with the Guardian published Saturday, Damon revealed that he had just moved to Los Angeles from New York, but that he didn't "have a choice" when it came to putting his four daughters into private schools. The multi-millionaire did say that it was "a major moral dilemma" and then made the bizarre excuse that the public schools aren't "progressive" enough. 

Whatever is the matter with public schools, Mr. Damon?

It's not that he sends his kids to privates schools, As a parent, Matt Damon should do what he thinks is best. It's that he praised to no end public schools but refuses to avail use of them. Are they not to his liking? Not good enough? Does he not think that other parents have aspirations for their children which may include schools other than public ones?


Why, exactly, do people need to own snakes that crush their prey?

The African rock python captured after two young children were killed in the New Brunswick community of Campbellton was not registered and could not legally be kept as a pet, according to information released by provincial officials on Tuesday.

The revelation came after RCMP confirmed a criminal investigation was being held into the death of two children – Noah Barthe, 5, and Connor Barthe, 7, who died after a four-metre python got loose in a home where they were sleeping. 

It is believed they were strangled by the snake. An autopsy was being conducted on Tuesday.

The brothers were staying in a family friend’s apartment, located on the second floor above a local pet store owned by the friend. It was previously believed the python escaped from the pet store and made its way into the apartment above.

Once again, dogs prove their worth:

A 42-year-old Thunder Bay, Ont., man has his schnauzer to thank after surviving a black bear attack at a provincial park in northwestern Ontario.

The man, who has been released from hospital, was attacked Saturday afternoon by a mature black bear while he was camping at Sand Bar Provincial Park. Unfortunately the dog died following the ordeal.

Eat something while reading this:

Workers with Thames Water discovered an enormous, 15-ton blob of congealed fat mixed with baby wipes clogging up the sewers beneath London Road, in Kingston, Surrey (a suburb of London) last week, and the size of this blob has earned it the nickname 'fatberg'.

Well, yeah. Why not have a supposition program instead of a dramatisation?

Shark Week fans are taking to the television event's Facebook page to voice their anger over a fake Megalodon documentary that kicked off Discovery Channel's annual seven-day series dedicated to sharks. The complaints stem from the fact that some viewers feel betrayed by the channel that normally provides facts. 

The subject matter, alone, is entertaining and interesting enough. No need to appeal to the LOL Facebook crowd.


And now, in honour of Shark Week, cats in shark paraphenalia. Enjoy.