Six In The Morning

1 HAIL TO THE CHIEF Shawn Atleo is the new head of the Assembly of First Nations after a long, long, long vote that started yesterday and just ended shortly after eight this morning. The 42-year-old Atleo, who comes from Vancouver Island, defeated second-place candidate Perry Bellgarde of Saskatchewan by capturing 58 per cent of the vote, which was held in Calgary. Would-be leaders need 60 per cent support from the AFN, but Bellgarde conceded after Atleo captured 58 per cent of the vote onn the ninth ballot. Here's the story in the Globe and Mail.

2 WORKING CLASS Saskatchewan teens get the legislation they've been lobbying for and now they can start working at age 14 (some restrictions apply). Our teens deserve the right to work five three-hour shifts in the service industry every weekday (they can work extra shifts on the weekend, presumably). I'm just relieved that the bullies in Saskatchewan's business community--who I assume opposed the Sask Party government's changes because conservatives like traditional values, like saving your hard work for school--aren't trying to block this forward-looking legislation. (StarPhoenix)

3 TAZE TRUTH A report on Tasers and policing comes out today. The CBC has a brief report here. I suspect the report will report that tasers are insanely dangerous. Dog Blog will report back on this later.

4 COME ON, YOU GUYS! U.S. President Barack Obama held a high-profile news conference yesterday that observers say was an attempt to sell health care reform directly to Americans. But it's a hard sell because while Americans overwhelmingly (72 per cent in one poll) support a public option in health care, they also overwhelmingly vote for politicians--Democrats AND Republicans--who oppose such so-called socialism. Glad I live in Canada. If I get cancer I won't need my insurance agent's permission to have treatment. (New York Times)

"5 THERE WOULD BE NO UNITED STATES IF IT HAD NOT BEEN FOR GOD" The Guardian's journalists can write all the well-written, impartially-reported stories they want. I say it's time for Texas' school-sabotaging fundamentalist Christians to fuck off. I have no doubt Texas' many smart, sane citizens agree.

6 DAILY MOON: THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE Here's an amazing documentary by director William Karel on how the moon landing was faked. I post it for all you die-hard conspiracy cats. (Stanley Kubrick filmed it? Really?) I saw Dark Side Of The Moon (Opération Lune in the original French) on CBC's The Passionate Eye a few years ago and vouch for its excellence but I haven't watched this particular file to the end so if there are any weird problems please zap us an e-mail at feedback@prairiedogmag.com. UPDATE: well, here's one weird problem...the ending is clipped short and the credits are only partly visable. Which destroys the entire point of the doc, since (spoiler!) there's actually a twist ending. So I'm yanking this video. But if you ever get a chance to see Dark Side Of The Moon, check it out.

Hey Nerds:

Here's some news for you. There's going to be a World of Warcraft movie. And Spider-Man/Drag Me To Hell/Evil Dead director Sam Raimi is in charge. So it's probably going to have a gigantic budget. (Dark Horizons)

There you go--now you can fight for Azeroth with a fresh sense of purpose.

UPDATE: Here's the story in the Guardian (yes, I go to the Guardian for everything, I know, I know. But it's soooooooo good). Also, I've added an image from the game courtesy Friend O' Dog Blog Peakay. It's a gnome warlock named Fidgit. Fidgit rawks.

RPL Update

Things have been kind of quiet with respect to the central library expansion since the initiative was first announced this spring. Until July 31, the RPL has this on-line survey operating to gather further input.

Urge to kill... rising...

What a douchebag. Nothing like being an apologist for your clients, I suppose.

Memo to Wall Street: We hate you because you're double-standard promoting pricks. You spent the past generation telling the rest of us we're the problem because of our insistence on things like basic labour standards, living wages, and so forth. So wear it, assholes, now that you've so totally screwed the pooch that people have started to wake up a bit.

Poor l'il rich boys. Sell a few fucking apples on the street corner, then we'll talk. Or better yet, jump out of your fucking office windows. It's like the congressman said. Do the right thing and kill yourselves.

Oh, and a personal message to Dough Hirschhorn: Coach this, you bald prick.

Six in the Morning

1. SMELLS LIKE MORE TORY HOMOPHOBIA: Word came out yesterday that Canada's Conservative government rejected a funding request from Montreal's gay and lesbian arts festival, Divers-Cite. This despite the fact that the festival met the criteria laid out in the new tourism funding program. And it looks like all was well with the application right up until it was sent to Minister Tony Clement's office for final approval. This all comes on the heels of Conservative MP Brad Trost's claims that the majority of Conservative caucus members don't support funding gay events, claims which contributed to MP Diane Ablonczy losing her job for funding the Toronto Pride Festival, but oh no, the Conservatives aren't homophobes, look at all the senior cabinet ministers leaping to her defense, and see, the organizer of Montreal's gay and lesbian arts festival says they've been funded just fine under the Conservatives.... Gosh. Well, if Divers-Cite is leaping to the Conservatives defense, they can't be homophobes, now can they? I imagine part of what inspired them to defend the Conservatives is they didn't want to put their funding request in jeopardy. How'd that work out for you? Oh yeah, it got rejected. (Globe and Mail)

2. HARPER GOVERNMENT INDIFFERENT TO ABDELRAZIK'S PLIGHT: Apparently, Harper's Conservatives were apprised of the fact that Sudan was planning to "dissapear" Abousfian Abdelrazik, but instead of protesting, they sent a non-committal response. (Globe and Mail)

3. HANG ON, I THOUGHT WE ALREADY HAD A WALMART: Oh bloody joy, Saskatchewan is soon to be home to two Walmart supercentres. One of which will be part of the slab of retail in the Grasslands commercial development in Regina's south west. In other news, the soon-to-be-Wallmartless Southland Mall is gearing up to become an empty shell of its former self a la the Golden Mile. (Leader Post)

4. SASK GOVT TO MAKE CHANGES TO MIMINUM AGE OF EMPLOYMENT: The announcement will come later today. Any guesses on how low it'll go? (Leader Post)

5. GOVERNMENT TO LAUNCH COPYRIGHT CONSULTATION: The Conservatives are launching a national consultation on copyright in the digital age. Bad news is the Conservatives have shown themselves to be leaning towards more draconian copyright measures along the lines of what they have in the United States and this could all be prelude to them putting out something to that effect and claiming it's what the public wants. The good news is that presumably with this consultation coming up, they won't try to drive through their draconian copyright legislation from last year any time soon. (rabble.ca)

6. RCMP CONSIDERING ARCTIC INTELLIGENCE NETWORK: In an effort to thwart organized crime in Canada's northern territories, the RCMP is looking into ways to expand their criminal intelligence network northward. (CBC)

Something To Do

Saw the new exhibition Diabolique at the Dunlop Art Gallery tonight. It's curated by Amanda Cachia, includes 22 Canadian and international artists, is split into two parts with the second half scheduled to run in the fall, and addresses themes of war and violence. Among the pieces on display is one of Douglas Coupland's provocative life-size toy soldier sculptures. The show is definitely worth checking out. In our July 30 issue I'll have a review.

Rosie's Top 6 In The A.M.

1 MOON GRUMP As if we haven't been mooned out enough, take a look at an interview a NASA PR hack did with Apollo 11's command module pilot, Michael Collins (he was the one who stayed in the command module while Armstrong and Aldrin went to the moon). He sounds like your grouchy – but perceptive – grandfather and an environmentalist at the same time. Can't say I don't agree with him. (NASA)

2 MOON? NYET. While we're on the topic, let's spare a thought for the Soviet Union's failed moonshot program (Wikipedia). Plagued by a lack of money, lack of resources, and scientists and engineers infighting like cats in a bag, it's amazing that they got as far as they did. It's doubtful whether their manned lunar lander would’ve worked but the major reason why it didn't work was the N1 rocket (myspacemuseum.com) which stood as tall as the Saturn V but whose engines weren't as powerful. The first stage was comprised of 30 rockets strapped together, and no N1 flight lasted as long as the first stage cut-off. Here's what it looked like when one of the suckers exploded. (metacafe.com)


Russian Moon Rocket Disaster - The most amazing bloopers are here

Three weeks before the Apollo 11 landing, the Soviets tried to launch an N1, but it blew up on the launch pad, killing many launch site technicians and engineers. A good analysis of all that went wrong in the Soviet Union's moonshot program can be found at Encyclopaedia Astronautica (Encyclopaedia Astronautica), along with other NASA, United States Army and United States Air Force plans for moonbases that were formulated in the 1950s and 1960s.

3 NO FREE RIDES One of the strangest things I'm hearing in the entire Saskadome debate (Leader-Post) is the Sask. Party government getting on about how no taxpayers' money will be used to construct the $350 million (estimate? Guesstimate?) cost to build the thing. A lot of those proposals for paying for it involve funds from the Crown corporations or the Saskatchewan Gaming Commission (the people who run Casio Regina and Casino Moose Jaw). Well, they're supposed to be turning over their profits to the provincial government's revenue stream. And if they don't, then the money's going to come from somewhere – either higher taxes or cuts to government programs. Taxpayers will still pay the cost, directly or indirectly.

4 HEAD HORROR Talk about burying your lede, Ian Hamilton … a good piece on Tony Proudfoot's battle with Lou Gehrig's Disease (Leader-Post) leaves the most important part to the second-last paragraph. Are there more football players suffering from ALS? Is there something that makes football players more prone to suffering ALS—head injuries, concussions, that sort of thing? Is the CFL Players Association worried about its members? Are current players worried?

5 TRUE PATRIOT Just when you think Fox News Network can't go any lower … a chickenhawk war correspondent talks about an American solider captured by the Taliban a couple of weeks ago, and says he should be killed. (Crooks and Liars)

6 WINNING WHEELS Oh yeah. Almost forgot. I interviewed two members of the Pile O'Bones roller derby club in advance of their event Saturday night at the Caledonian Curling Club. The first reader who makes it this far and e-mails me (slarose@sasktel.net) gets two tickets to the roller derby.

Watchmen Scoop

Guess this comix/superhero movie gets its DVD and Blu-Ray release tomorrow. Here's one scene that didn't make it into the theatre version but will be featured in Zack Snyder's director's cut. (College Humor)

Six In The Afternoon

So here's what's up:

1 STADIUM STUDY ANNOUNCED It's official (Leader-Post). I love the location and I love that they're talking about a retractable roof, which I think is critical. (It's not football in Regina if you can't hear the crowd cheering all ove the city). There are more important things to spend $350 million on, though. Should be an interesting story to follow.

2 BRITISH COLUMBIA RAIL SCANDAL GETTING UGLY The judge in the case about the shenaniganic privatization of BC Rail orders recently-reelected premier Gordon Campbell to turn over e-mails that may have been illegally deleted (Globe And Mail). Kind of makes the BC NDP look pretty good in retrospect. Don't you think?

3 BC BURNING In other BC news, hot, dry weather is making a bad forest fire situation worse. Yikes. (Toronto Star)

4 DITCHES IN A DRY LAND? Prairie lakes are dryer than usual, say experts. But the experts say they've been dryer in the past. Nevertheless, aieeeee (Globe and Mail).

5 AFN GEARS UP FOR ELECTION The Assembly of First Nations is preparing to elect a new leader (StarPhoenix). You know what would be cool? If everyone with a treaty card could vote, instead of just 633 chiefs.

6 I'M STILL BUMMED ABOUT WALTER So let's see what there is to read... well, here's a good, long blog post on the late Walter Cronkite in Salon by the always excellent Glenn Greenwald. And here's one in the Guardian. And here's one in the New York Times. And here's one in the Washington Post, by Tom Brokaw. And here's the Associated Press story, also in the Washington Post. And here's one more essay in the Huffington Post. And i have to get back to work now.

The Moon Landing, 40 Years Later

Forty years ago today, Neil Armstrong took his first steps on the moon. Thanks to the Dechene Family Moon Landing Archives (ie, a pile of newspapers in an old Zehrs bag) here are some pics from the Globe and Mail announcing the achievement. I do believe you can click on them to see larger versions...