We've long known about Internet Addiction but this is ridiculous!

We know more about Chow's face in one day than we've learned in 17months re: Jack Layton's cause of death.cbc.sh/WLQaMEb

— katewerk (@katewerk) January 4, 2013

As Gore was to warming, Obama is to success:

"These companies are choosing to invest in the one country with the most productive workers, the best universities, and the most creative and innovative entrepreneurs in the world, and that is the United States of America," he said. He went on to recognize the company's founder, Bruce Cochrane. Cochrane also sat with Michelle Obama during the president's State of the Union address and participated in a conversation with the president and business leaders about how to create American jobs.

... the small business Angel of Death.

Video at CTV. (h/t John B)

Unequivocal surrender;

I apologise for having spent several years ripping up GM crops. I am also sorry that I helped to start the anti-GM movement back in the mid 1990s, and that I thereby assisted in demonising an important technological option which can be used to benefit the environment.

As an environmentalist, and someone who believes that everyone in this world has a right to a healthy and nutritious diet of their choosing, I could not have chosen a more counter-productive path. I now regret it completely.

Via

Via Hockey Schtick;

A new paper published in The Holocene finds a significant link between solar activity and climate over the past 1000 years. According to the authors, "Our results suggest that the climate responds to both the 11 yr solar cycle and to long-term changes in solar activity and in particular solar minima." The authors also find "a link between the 11 yr solar cycle and summer precipitation variability since around 1960" and that "Solar minima are in this period associated with minima in summer precipitation, whereas the amount of summer precipitation increases during periods with higher solar activity."

I too am skeptical about the notion that the "big glowing ball in the sky" affects climate. But keep an open mind.

Glenn Reynolds - SO I RAN THIS DEFICIT CHART YESTERDAY, pointing out that things were actually improving in Bush's presidency until the election of a Democratic congress in 2007:

I also remember when the Bush tax cuts "rewarded the wealthy at the expense of the middle class."

Peter Foster;

As for Idle No More, the title is profoundly ironic. One of the main problems for native people is the idleness that comes with living on remote reserves such as Attawapiskat in Northern Ontario. However, the Idle No More movement is not aimed at attracting more jobs. In fact, it opposes the very legal changes -- contained in Bill C-45 -- that would facilitate development, such as making the leasing of reserve land easier, and loosening draconian environmental regulation (a process started last year with Bill C-38). Thus the movement might more appropriately be named "Idle Some More."

[...]

Consultation is essential, but the idea that First Nations can be "full partners" in resource development in the immediate future is patronizing nonsense for the simple reason that they lack what wonks like to call "capacity." Similarly patronizing is the claim that native people may be able to bring some unique, spiritual input to environmental issues that are in fact matters of science and technology. Education is the answer to both problems, but the AFN walked out on negotiations over a new First Nations Education Act last October.

Italian superstar Adriano Celentano understood that, in the pop culture realm at least, American English isn't so much a language as an attitude. Oll Raight!

The comments are open, as always, for your Reader Tips.

Glow in the dark highways. (h/t Brian K)

Beck interviews Brian Lilley;

...this is my apology on behalf of all the people in Canada to all the people of the United States of America because we gave birth to what is soon to become Al‑Jazeera USA because before Al Gore bought it, Current TV started out as the U.S. operations of our state broadcaster, CBC. And I can tell you they didn't really change editorial direction when Gore bought them and I don't think they will change editorial direction all that much with Al‑Jazeera at the helm.

Video at the link.

2013 - Welcome to Very, Very Scary Times:

"These are the most foreboding times in my 59 years. The reelection of Barack Obama has released a surge of rare honesty among the Left about its intentions, coupled with a sense of triumphalism that the country is now on board for still greater redistributionist change".

"I have seen their future and it is almost here right now".

Andrew Potter, Managing Editor at The Ottawa Citizen and bridge over troubled water...

I spent the first 17 years of my adult life in academia. I've spent the last five years in journalism.

Potter has a PhD in philosophy. Like many bus drivers.

The key thing to understand about journalists is that they are the lowest rank of intellectuals. That is to say: they are members of the intellectual class, but in the status hierarchy of intellectuals, journalists are at the bottom.

It's hard to find fault with this statement.

That is why journalists have traditionally adopted the status cues of the working-class: the drinking and the swearing, the anti-establishment values, and the commitment to the non-professionalization of journalism.

Along with an instinctive attraction to harnessing their writing to crude stereotypes.

The key thing to understand about academics is that they are the highest rank of intellectuals.

Lest you confuse him with someone who aspired to intellectual bottom feeder, Potter arrived at his current career "more or less by accident". Like many bus drivers.

Despite inhabiting opposite ends of the intellectual status hierarchy, some journalists always saw some appeal in looking up towards academia (instead of down on the working classes) ...

Known in the journalism business as "subscribers".

...and some academics saw the appeal of journalism.

Caste system dirty talk. Don't try to understand it.

Professors, after all, have the cachet of smarts.

Did he mention his three years as a philosophy prof?

Journalists, on the other hand, can become folk heroes.

A sweet deal, as journalists are the primary manufacturers of folk heroes.

And so within journalism there was a natural alliance to be found between journalists who wanted to give their stories some intellectual heft by quoting a serious researcher on the story at hand, and researchers who wanted an audience for their ideas beyond the faculty lounge and the conference circuit.

And that leads us to the punchline...

So far so good.

Surrey man charged with slashing 500 SkyTrain seats.

Fact checking Chief Escalade's hunger strike. The "financials" begin at the 20 minute mark.

The Tennessee Waltz. RIP Patti Page.

Your tips are welcome in the comments.

He's living large on oil money now, dear. RT @katrinanation: Al-Jazeera buys Current TV. What's that mean for Al Gore?

— RB (@RBPundit) January 3, 2013

More: "Mr. Gore and his partners were eager to complete the deal by Dec. 31, lest it be subject to higher tax rates that took effect on Jan. 1."

Related: #CurrentAlJazeeraShowPitches

The plan was to turn this property into our vision of a slice of paradise and to live the good life as innkeepers on the Caribbean Sea. That's what happened...for a while. And not to toot our own horns, but we were a success. We won some awards, received great reviews and filled our rooms. We renamed it the Luna Blue Hotel, and we're quite proud of what it has become.

It wasn't always smooth sailing of course. The swine flu scare and the hysteria over central Mexico's drug wars really did some damage to tourism in this part of the world. But we held on and weathered the rough spots. We weren't going to give up. This was not just our life...it was our dream. We put all of our money, time and heart into making it work. Then we made a mistake. We signed up with Expedia.

Update: SDA gets results!

The best stuff is usually found in the comments;

There is a substantial difference between assimilation into a specific culture or dominant group and integration into the mainstream of socio-economic life. No one is forced to assimilate in Canada. Given the diversity of our demographics, I'd be hard pressed to imagine what you might assimilate with. We are not a homogeneous society that one might find in European countries or the Middle East or even, to a somewhat lesser extent, the US.

Integration is another matter. It relates to joining and participating in the economic system with a view to pursuing economic stability (at minimum) and, for those who choose, pursuing economic prosperity. What you pursue and for what reasons is your choice and you are free to practice your culture and believe in whatever you want while you're at it. Every group that has come to this country from anywhere has done this and achieved some measure of success,

In my view Canadian Natives need to recognize the difference between assimilation and integration and actively pursue the latter. This is essential if you want to have decent living standards, good health, stability for your children and the ability to influence and have an impact on the broader social and political landscape. All the commissions, studies, treaties, white papers and working groups in the world will not achieve this for you. Nor will protests and media events. On the other hand if you choose to live outside the mainstream and not integrate, then you will live forever in the margins and not much will ever change. It is possible to live outside the mainstream successfully but it takes a great deal of self-reliance, self-discipline and talent. It's for the few, not the many.

If you continue to try to leverage guilt, historical grievances or a sense of entitlement, nothing will change. Politicians will continue pay lip service to you. They'll come out for the photo opps and say some supportive words, maybe promise a committee or study but that's about all you'll get. The mainstream has little interest in your issues and no appetite for what are seen largely as demands for special treatment. You don't have the political clout to drive change at the political level and won't until you integrate. That's just the reality of socio-economic systems. Integration means participation. If you don't play you will watch from the sidelines.

Progress is made by those who show up, participate and contribute. If you want the benefits of our economic system, you have to get on board the train. You can practice your culture from the inside and have the best of both worlds.

Dave Barry's Year In Review;

It was that kind of year. Remember back in 2011, when the big sex scandal involved Anthony Weiner, the ferret-like congressperson who committed political suicide by tweet? We all thought, "Oh, well, another Washington politician who wants to regulate everything except his own personal ding-dong. At least there are SOME institutions, such as the Secret Service, the CIA and the Army, where males in positions of responsibility can control their ..."

Sign me up.

Or not...

There are two things left out of most of the reports. The first is that it's completely legal to own these and the second is that if you wanted to kill someone with them, the only way you might be able to do it is by whacking them over the head.

Related: According to a trusted source AR-15 mags, especially PMAGS, are out of stock nationally (h/t ShippedOut)

And that's why I asked Santa for a KA-BAR Full Size US Marine Corp Fighting Knife.

Beginning in the spring semester, American University will offer "Contemporary American Culture: The Fifty Shades Trilogy," a course examining issues ranging from female sexuality to social media marketing in relation to the BDSM-themed Fifty Shades of Grey book series. [...] Tuition for the spring semester at American University costs $19,491 for full-time, undergraduate students.

Related: The admission -- as 2012 closed -- made the university the fourth college or university in that year to admit false reporting of some admissions data used for rankings.

h/t soundofmusak

Nancy and Ann Wilson perform Stairway To Heaven for legendary British rock band Led Zeppelin, at the Kennedy Center Honors. And a darned fine job they do of it, too.

Your tips in the comments.