Six In The Morning

1 TILLMAN'S GOTTA GO So says the Leader-Post, although they're pretty darn polite about about it. If it wasn't a winning Rider GM who pressed his boner into his babysitter's butt, would they be all like "to his credit, he said he was rilly rilly sorry?" What if it was a panhandler?

2 AT LEAST SOMEONE'S WORKING IN OTTAWA Parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page will release three reports during the ongoing government lockout, sorry, prorogue. One of them, which could come as soon as next week, will look at Canada's structural deficit. What's a "structural deficit"? That's the permanent cash shortfall you get when you don't collect enough taxes to pay for the services Canadians depend on. (Globe And Mail)

3 LET'S ALL SHIP OUR GARBAGE TO GHANA Sketchy private "recyclers" are dumping old electronics in third-world countries, says an e-waste watchdog. Their advice: take your old TVs and computer monitors to municipal recycling depots. (CBC)

4 NO BODY SCANS FOR KIDS AND TEENS Probably a good idea, since nude images of actual children are problematic, but still, this also shows how airport security paranoia is a joke--how can you search some people but not others and call it security? (Toronto Star) In semi-related news I'm still pissed off that Cuba is on the United State's new "watch list" (USA Today) along with Iran and Syria. Give me a break, Cuba just wants to be a tourist haven.

And it also bugs me that Iran has such a shitty, evil governement, because Iranians seem pretty cool. Okay, I'll stop rambling now.

5 YOU CAN CAN'T BOMB WHAT'S BURIED Speaking of Iran, they've apparently made their nuclear program attack-proof by hiding it under mountains. (New York Times)

6 SPIDER-MAN STALLED BY STUPID STUDIO Spider-Man was decent. Spider-Man 2 was decent. Sony interefered heavily with Spider-Man 3, and it sucked. Now they're messing around with the planned Spider-Man 4--and director Sam Raimi's apparently put his foot down. Good for him. I can't believe how stupid the blockbuster movie power-brokers are. (Dark Horizons)

Pick of the Day: Let There Be Theremin

Don't know a ton about Let There Be Theremin, other than that they've gigged around Regina a bit in the last two years or so and that they have kind of an instrumental surf-rockabilly style. They're at Bushwakker tonight as part of the pub's weekly Folk Nights on Wednesdays. Bushwakker also has a jazz series that runs on Mondays. I couldn't find any decent video of Let There Be Theremin on-line, so here's some footage of the inventor of the theremin James Hoffman performing on an old TV show. (YouTube)

Six in the Morning

1. HARPER NUKES UP G8 AGENDA: Most expected the G8 summit coming up in Huntsville would grapple with the international economic catastrophe. Environmentalists hoped it would tackle climate change seeing as Copenhagen was a washout. But Canada, as host, gets to set the agenda and it looks like Harper wants to spend the time worrying about dirty bombs. Dirty bombs? It's hardly a top-of-mind concern for people these days but you can see why Harper and his scandal-plagued Conservatives would want the summit to go in that direction. "We could spend our time dealing with a real, current global disaster like the economy. Or we could spend our time working out a solution to a real, impending global disaster like climate change," goes the thinking, "But Canada's doing pretty well economy-wise thanks to the tarsands. And, because we don't want to screw up our economy doing so well (thanks to the tarsands) we suck at dealing with climate change. So... what made-up, not-yet-impending disaster that'll really freak people out can we be seen talking tough on so people won't notice that we're completely procrastinating on dealing with the problems they're actually facing? Hey! How about scary-sounding weapons that terrorists may or may not someday in the vague future get their terrorist mitts on!" (Globe and Mail)

2. TIMES ARE GOOD FOR ONLINE SHOPPING: The Canadian dollar has shot up to $96.46 US as commodity prices climb and high-financiers recognize that Canada will lead the G7 in economic recovery. Remember to quietly thank Alberta's tarry backside when you're buying those books off Amazon at par. (Globe and Mail)

3. DEBATE ON BODY SCANNERS A PROROGUE CASUALTY: The NDP is saying the decision to go ahead with the installation of full-body scanners in Canadian airports is something that should have been debated in parliament. Should have been, but wasn't because Harper's scandal-plagued Conservatives prorogued parliament. At the very least, Dennis Bevington, NDP MP for the Western Arctic, says the pros and cons of the system should have been considered by the Transport Committee. (Globe and Mail)

4. CLIMATE CHANGE DENIAL TO INCREASE: One of the world's leading authorities on climate change expects to see denial of the science behind it to increase in the new decade. He also says the delay on acting to curb it that the deniers are promoting will cause serious hardship for the world's poor. (Guardian)

5. WHY IS EVERYONE TALKING ABOUT E-READERS? Seriously. Why? Word is they'll be the talk of the upcoming Vegas tech show. But, I handled one of these things recently and it left me profoundly underwhelmed. Clumsy to use, ugly to look at, an uncomfortable shape and an awkward size -- neither small enough for a pocket nor big enough so that the screen won't feel crowded. Plus, the display reminded me of a first-generation Macintosh from 1984. The technology has a long way to go, if you ask me. And with a $300 plus price tag, I'd rather spend the cash on, I don't know, an ipod and some paper backs. And yet, every time I open the newspaper, the tech reporters are gushing about the damn things. Has tech news really devolved into advertorials for whatever new gadget needs a boost? Has tech news ever been anything but advertorials? Why am I even wasting my time writing about these things? (CBC)

6. NO CRIMINAL RECORD FOR PERVY RIDER GM: Tillman plead guilty to sexually assaulting a minor and while his conviction will stand, for doing so he's getting an absolute discharge. So, no jail time and no criminal record. Pretty sweet deal. Have to wonder what the sentence would have been for someone too poor to hire a decent lawyer or for someone who wasn't, you know, leading our beloved Riders when they won a much-coveted Grey Cup. Personally, I think the guy should spend some hard time getting grabbed by the belt loops by someone larger and more threatening than himself. What? Was that crass? I'm sorry. I'm high on pain killers. I don't know what I'm typing. (CBC)

Pick of the Day: World Junior Hockey Championship

Too bad the Czech and Slovak republics wouldn't consider reuniting, at least as far as participating in international hockey goes. Back in the days of the old Soviet Union Czechoslovakia was a formidable hockey power. Stan Mikita never played for the national team I don't think, but he was Czechoslovakian, as were the Stasnys.

Since separating in the 1992 the republics have enjoyed some success internationally. In '98, most notably, the Czechs rode the back of goaltender Dominik Hasek to Olympic gold. But this year at the World Juniors, neither republic made the playoffs. I'm writing this before the gold medal match up between the United States and Canada, obviously. But unless that game turns out to be a classic the tournament, overall, would have to be considered a bit of a bust from a competition perspective.

In marching to the gold medal game, Canada's only faced one real test. That was on New Year's Eve against the Americans where they trailed 4-2 in the third but came back to win 5-4 in a shootout. Switzerland's 3-2 overtime semi-final upset of the lacklustre Russians was also a great game. But outside of that, not too much excitement. If the Czechs and Slovaks joined forces, they'd have a better shot at winning. It's not likely to happen, of course. But it would make for a better tourney. Maybe Austria and Germany should join together too. And Switzerland could hook up with Norway. And Latvia, Belarus and Ukraine could team up with Italy -- okay, that would probably be expecting too much. It likely wouldn't threaten the existing hockey powers too much, but it would help prevent scores like 16-0.

Anyway, the gold medal game between Canada and the U.S. goes tonight on TSN at 7 p.m.

Six In The Morning

1 CHANGE OF HEART Roughrider's general manager Eric Tillman pleads guilty to a summary charge of sexual assault after pleading not guilty last year. Apparently Tillman told the victim's family he can't remember what happened because he was on painkillers. (Globe And Mail)

2 SECURITY SCARE Passengers flying into the United States from countries including Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Syria and Algeria will be subject to gropey-pokey lookie-peepy inspections at American airports. Oh, and Cuba's on the list because we all know what an al-Qaeda hotbed that is. (Guardian)

3 TODAY IN PHALLIC SYMBOLS Dubai opens the worlds tallest tower. (New York Times)

4 OF DOWNTOWN, GARBAGE, SPORTS AND BUSES L-P City Hall writer Joe Couture recaps four plans shaping Regina.

5 DEMENTIA BOOM Canada could have one and a quarter million sufferers within 30 years. Not fun. (CBC)

6 A FACEBOOK GROUP PROROGUES ALL Mmm-hmmm. Looks like this group's been busy keeping everything prorogued since fall 2008. Can I prorogue work this week until Thursday? (Facebook)

No no no no

Singer Lhasa de Sela has died. (CBC Media Blog)

Danish Cartoonist Threatened in Home

Super Best Friends Club, you guys

Remember when some Danish newspaper published a bunch of cartoons depicting Muhammad in September 2005? Well, some people are still pretty pissed off about it.

One of the cartoonists involved, Kurt Westergaard, was threatened in his home on Saturday.

And by threatened, I mean a man broke into his home and tried to confront Westergaard and his granddaughter with an axe and a knife. (CBC)

Did I mention that Westergaard is 75 years old? Or that his visiting granddaughter is only 5?

The cartoonist and his granddaughter fled to his panic room (a must for his line of work, apparently). Police then showed up and shot the attacker in the knee.

Police say that the incident was 'terror-related', which either means that the attacker is a terrorist, or that Westergaard and his granddaughter were terrified because they were almost killed with a knife and an axe.

Disdain for those who hide behind religious beliefs as a means of justifying hatred and violence is a recurring theme in prairie dog, and it's not hard to see why. It's pretty sad if the greatest threat to your beliefs is an old man who makes funny little drawings.

That said, as someone who holds a great deal of affection for cartoons and the cartoonists who cartoon them, I can't help but feel a little satisfied that in an age of spectacular CG special effects and Sham-Wow-miracle products, a few inked lines can still hold so much power to provoke.

Pick of the Day: Avatar

We don't have 3-D capacity here at Dog Blog, but we're working on it. Certainly, it's a revoluntionary technology that has taken the movie indstry by storm in recent years. To give you a sense of what it's like, just lift your eyes from the screen for a sec and look at what's around you. That, in a nutshell, is what viewing a 3-D movie is like. And you don't even have to wear special glasses to experience it. Nor shell out $10 or so. Neat, eh?

Of course, the view you just took in probably can't compare with what star director James Cameron offers up here. So by all means check this flick out. Shane Hnetka, prairie dog's movie listings guy has seen it, and he apparently thought it was pretty good; same with prairie dog's editor Stephen Whitworth. Here's a link to the Dec. 20 post he did (Dog Blog). Jorge though, had a different opinion. Here's a link to a Jan. 3 post he did trashing the flick. (Dog Blog) Finally, here's a link to the trailer (YouTube)

This Week at City Hall

Wednesday, January 6
Regina Planning Commission (4 pm): Considering meeting dates and times for 2010.

Thursday, January 7
Environment Advisory Committee (5 pm): Considering a suggestion to investigate PlascoEnergy's Waste-to-Energy system as an option for Regina's Waste Plan. Also considering sending committee members to a conference and to participate in a workshop; and, considering a request from the Canadian Cancer Society to address the committee on the hazards of using pesticides for cosmetic reasons.

Complete agendas and reports can be found on the city's website.

Pick of the Day: Blueprint Series

For several years now, New Dance Horizons has been presenting this small-scale performance series where local artists in a variety of disciplines (dance, theatre, visual art, literature) have an opportunity to showcase works in progress and gather feedback from the audience on what they felt worked about the piece and what could be improved upon. Most artists do labour in isolation a fair bit when they're creating a work, but at some point, especially in the performing arts, it's important to see how things look on stage.

The Blueprint Series is held at NDH's studio at 2207 Harvey St. in east-central Regina. Today at 3 p.m., presenters will be NDH artistic director Robin Poitras (pictured above from a work called Silk) & Caitlyn Coflin, Jeff Morton & Erin Gee and Kevin MacKenzie and Tanya Dahms. If you saw our Dec. 17 stocking stuffer issue, by the way, Tanya was the My Music subject. And Erin Gee had a video in the recently closed Dunlop Gallery show Mind the Gap!


February 7, Deanna Peters and Traci Foster will be presenting works, then on March 21 the former artistic director of the Youth Ballet Company of Saskatchewan Connie Moker-Wernikowski and Tanya Dahms will be showcasing new works.