Six in the Morning

1. CANWEST GETS PROTECTION FOR POST AND GLOBAL: A judge has granted Canwest protection for the Global and National Post portions of its media empire as the company struggles to restructure its $3.9 billion debt. (CBC)

2. SPAMMERS TRY TO WATERDOWN ANTI-SPAM LAW: Lobbyists for on-line marketers -- the spam lobby, that is -- are urging Ottawa to include loopholes in their tough anti-spam laws that're working their way to the House of Commons. How're they doing this? I'm guessing lots and lots of emails and phonecalls to MPs. (Globe and Mail)

3. SASKPOWER TO HIKE RATES: SaskPower warns it'll have to hike rates in order to pay for new capacity to cope with Saskatchewan's growing population, and because they have to work to curb carbon emissions, and because they have to replace a lot of aging infrastructure. When can we expect the hikes? At some point over the next 20 years. Thanks for the heads up, guys. I'll put it in my calendar. Oh, and don't think for one second this announcement has anything to do with warming us up to the idea of building a nuclear reactor in the province. I'm sure that has nothing to do with it. (Leader Post)

4. HUGE DINO PRINTS FOUND IN FRANCE: Paleontologists in eastern France report they've uncovered some of the largest sauropod prints ever. (Globe and Mail)

5. U.S. TO DERAIL CLIMATE TALKS: The US is threatening to derail climate change talks in Copenhagen (Phew! Saves Canada the trouble) because it (the US) doesn't want the Kyoto Protocol targets included in the new agreement. China is not pleased. This bickering goes on as big corporations like Apple are pulling out of the US Chamber of Commerce in protest of that organization's lobbying to undermine climate legislation in the States. (Guardian)

6. UPPER CLASS TWIT: Today's the day Christopher Walter, the Viscount of Monkton, presents his screed against science, Apocalypse Cancelled, at the University of Regina. Now, I could go off on a profanity-fueled rage about how every single thing the man has to say on the subject of climate change is likely fraudulent (check this link out too). Or I could note that, yes, he was an advisor to Margaret Thatcher but not, as far as I can tell, a science advisor despite what the organizers of this lecture claim because, you see, he isn't a scientist -- he's a part time "journalist" which means he's about as qualified to speak on the subject as I am (meaning: he isn't), the only difference being, I won't charge you $60 to listen to my incoherent babbling. Or I could demonstrate what a pathetic little toad he is by writing about his attempts to pass himself off as a member of the British House of Lords (he isn't) and as a winner of the Nobel Prize (he didn't). Or I could relate an amusing anecdote about the Viscount in which he invents and markets a puzzle so complex (he claims) that he offers a million pounds to the person who can solve it....... which an unemployed mathematician does just over a year after the puzzle is released and then the Viscount can't pay out the prize money. Or I could mention that he's written that all AIDS sufferers should be quarantined. I could do all those things. Or I could just direct your attention to the photo of the Viscount that accompanies this item and then to this Monty Python sketch and leave it at that....