Tuesday, 21 October, 2014  -( 52˚F / 11˚C –  & Ver cloudy  @ 2:45 pm near Ithaca )-  { Headlines compiled by douglas j otterson & jim wellington }

 { Today is Carrie Fisher’s birthday, ( & more importantly, Diane P. Torres’ birthday ) 🙂 —jim w— }

{ & We had more fun with computers today. The copy and past function wasn’t working at all until I threatened my newest computer, which, you may remember I got from my daughter when she upgraded- anyway, I threatened to pitch it off a mountain- and shut it off, waited an hour and now it’s working. —“gaaa”—  The funny thing is,  instead of getting all anxious and tense, I just kind of threw my hands up and felt like running my finger up and down between my lips? Mading sounds like Porky Pig?  And I went into twiddling thumbs routines more relaxed that I’ve been in a while.   —djo— }

{ We’ve been doing this because we believe the CBC may be more honest and more respectable than Media in the U.S.A., & not a lot of people in the U.S. may know that or have access to anyone who might point them toward the CBC & their web site. }

{ & again, these are not links. If you want to read these stories, listen to sound clips, or see any video -if there is any video- go to CBC dot CA/news.— & You can also find a link to the web cast of the most recent broadcast of “The National” the CBC’s ‘flagship nightly newscast’ under the “Must Watch” heading on their main page. — Thanks. — & Jim W convinced me to take credit for this, above.  ———djo——— }

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 Other Sources:

{   “Anyone who would give up a little liberty for a little security will deserve neither and lose them both” —Benjamin Franklin   }

{ “-Snowden’s Film Tests Hollywood Obama Supporters: – LOS ANGELES — Early in Laura Poitras’s documentary “Citizenfour,”Edward J. Snowden, who exposed vast electronic surveillance by the United States government, tells what pushed him to go public. – “As I saw the promise of the Obama administration betrayed, and walked away from,” says Mr. Snowden, referring to drone strikes and invasive monitoring by the National Security Agency, “it really hardened me to action.”  – But do some of President Obama’s staunch Hollywood supporters share his sentiment? – Her provocative, and deeply admiring, look at Mr. Snowden — which had its premiere at the New York Film Festival on Oct. 10 — arrived here this week amid high hopes, intense curiosity and more than a few raised eyebrows over its sharp critique of Mr. Obama, a president who has enjoyed strong support in the movie world. – The intrigue is especially pitched because several of the companies behind “Citizenfour” — which takes issue with Mr. Obama’s expansion of Bush-era surveillance, and his administration’s attempt to prosecute Mr. Snowden for espionage — are led by some of the president’s close political allies. – They include Harvey Weinstein, the Weinstein Company’s co-chairman, as well as Jeff Skoll, the founder of Participant Media, and Richard Plepler, the chief executive of HBO, who all have been major contributors to Mr. Obama’s political campaigns. – “Citizenfour” has already landed high on the handicappers’ lists of prospects for a documentary features Oscar. The film also promises to jolt the award season with a dose of real-world politics, as happened in 2012, when Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln,” Kathryn Bigelow’s “Zero Dark Thirty” and Ben Affleck’s “Argo,” the year’s best picture, converged on Washington, with screenings, receptions and a Congressional uproar over the portrayal of torture by Americans in Ms. Bigelow’s film, which was about the hunting down of Osama bin Laden. – The role that Mr. Weinstein, whose Radius-TWC unit is backing the film (and distributed last year’s Oscar-winning documentary “Twenty Feet From Stardom”), will play in promoting “Citizenfour” remains unclear. In the past, he has not shied from using his association with Mr. Obama to promote issues-oriented movies. These include the biopic “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom,” which had a much-publicized White House screening last year, and the documentary “Bully,” which was screened for Mr. Obama in 2012, just minutes after he announced his support for a pair of anti-bullying bills. – Also in 2012, Mr. Weinstein arranged a high-profile Washington showing of his “SEAL Team Six: The Raid on Osama bin Laden,” raising complaints that its flattering portrayal of Mr. Obama — who was edited into the film before its election-week premiere — amounted to a campaign stunt. – On Tuesday, it was the Radius-TWC co-presidents, Jason Janego and Tom Quinn, and not Mr. Weinstein, who played host as Ms. Poitras introduced “Citizenfour” to film buffs and some potential Oscar voters at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. – “The film is certainly about the danger of N.S.A. surveillance, but it’s also really about courage,” Ms. Poitras said. (The movie’s title comes from Mr. Snowden’s self-designated code name when he began communicating with Ms. Poitras.) – In a later phone interview, Mr. Quinn and Mr. Janego said they had exercised considerable autonomy in acquiring rights to “Citizenfour” after Mr. Quinn visited Ms. Poitras to discuss the unfinished film at her home in Berlin. Both stressed that Mr. Weinstein and his brother, Bob, co-chairmen of the parent company, were not a driving force in the decision to distribute the film, which is to open on Friday in Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Washington. – “We did not see the actual film until very late in the process,” Mr. Quinn added. –  Promotional screenings and talks are likely among the tech crowd in San Francisco and among political types in Washington, but scheduling has been hampered by that late delivery, he said. – The potential power in “Citizenfour” lies less in its revelations — though its ending points to the existence of another, as yet unidentified, government-surveillance whistle-blower — than in its intimacy and attempt to make narrative sense of the disclosures by Mr. Snowden, a former N.S.A. contractor. – At the film’s core are startlingly close encounters with Mr. Snowden, shot during eight days in a Hong Kong hotel room in 2013, as he began revealing secrets of the N.S.A. to the journalists Glenn Greenwald and Ewen MacAskill, and wrestled with the implications of his leaks. At one point, in nearly silent pantomime, he reshapes his beard and restyles his hair, preparing to slip from the hotel and eventually seek refuge in Russia. – The footage of Mr. Snowden is framed against shots of Mr. Obama and members of his administration, first denying the existence of domestic surveillance, then promising a review of programs, and finally insisting on Mr. Snowden’s prosecution. – In the Oscar race for best documentary, “Citizenfour” is likely to find itself up against some less volatile documentaries. Among those are “Red Army,”about Soviet hockey stars; “Life Itself,” about the film critic Roger Ebert; and “Tales of the Grim Sleeper,” about the predations of a serial killer in South Los Angeles. – But “Citizenfour” recalls a different political dynamic, in 2004, when Mr. Weinstein introduced Michael Moore’s anti-Bush “Fahrenheit 9/11” at the Beverly Hills headquarters of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with a personal tribute to Mr. Moore. The two received a roaring ovation from like-minded Academy members. – But “Fahrenheit 9/11” won no Oscars. It was ruled out of the race when Mr. Moore chose to air it on pay-per-view television shortly before the presidential election. – This time around, though, some key voices are quieter. –  Mr. Plepler, whose top documentary executive, Sheila Nevins, is an executive producer of “Citizenfour,” has not yet seen the movie, an HBO spokesman said. Mr. Skoll, through a Participant Media spokeswoman, declined to comment when asked whether he had concerns about the film’s view of Mr. Obama. In an email, referring to Mr. Quinn and Mr. Janego, of Radius-TWC, Mr. Weinstein said: “This is Tom and Jason’s show. They have autonomy, and it’s all their call.” – Mr. Janego, on Wednesday, asserted that Ms. Poitras’s cinéma vérité approach leaves a comfort zone for both those who support Mr. Snowden and those who find his actions offensive. “You’re left to make up your own mind,” he said. -”  ———djo——— }

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Lead Articles:

Tug tows incapacitated Russian cargo ship to port in Prince Rupert  { * The first attempt to tow it anywhere failed when the rope snapped. The news last night said they were once again worried it might run aground and ruin sensitive areas around Haida Gwaii, B.C. *   —djo—  }

-Updated- Driver in hit-and-run attack on soldiers was arrested by RCMP in July     { * They’re trying to make this guy look like a probably terrorist wannabe- They shot and killed him this week. Which almost always sends me to my cliché locker, looking for something like, “Oh- isn’t that convenient?”- They seized his passport and wouldn’t let him leave the country, saying they believed he’d been radicalized, but they didn’t have enough evidence to charge him with anything? I don’t know- Something feels a bit ‘off’ here- And the photos they chose to publish: From a weird angle, looking up at him, it looks like his head is shaved and he has a beard but no moustache. In another photo the guy, who has a French name, looks like he’s wearing something like an Arab outfit -I don’t know what they call those robes with the head-dress— and his face is covered, except for his eyes- I took one look and thought, heck, that could be anybody, not necessarily the guy they’re painting as a wannabe terrorist. * —djo— }

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PM Harper calls Quebec attack ‘despicable act of violence’  { * I know several people who think Stephen Harper is a descpicable piece of work. & Yeah, Harper sounds like he studied huard in the Ronny Ray-gun school of reading the lines the puppet masters gave him as convincingly as possible, as if he actually had a mind and thought those words up all by himself, but we know better, don’t we? *   —djo— }

Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent, 53, died in Quebec attack   { God Bless Patrice Vincent. *But  I’m sorry, Warrant Officer Vincent may have been an extremely wonderful person, but if I turned around and told you that he was killed by a ‘radicalized terrorist wannabe’ – I’d be guilty of false witness, I didn’t see it- I wasn’t there, and just because somebody a uniform says something- does not make it true, quite the contrary- the military mindset works like this: The head ice-hole in charge turns red in the face and screams at his ‘inferiors’: “You tell them anything you need to tell them to get them to carry out the orders I just gave you or you can be busted back to private and we’ll get someone in here who can get this job done!” * —djo— }

NBC freelance cameraman declared free of Ebola in Nebraska   {  }

B.C. tax rates on LNG lower than originally proposed   {  }

Bodies of 4 babies found in Winnipeg storage facility  {  }

Canada raises terror threat level to medium do to chatter   {  }

RCMP says it arrested Quebec car attack suspect in July  {  }

Quebec suspect stopped while trying to go to Turkey: RCMP   {  }

RCMP confirms it seized  Martin Couture-Rouleau’s passport   {  }

Police questioned Quebec car attack suspect many times   {  }

Quebec suspect  calls 911 during chase to claim act: RCMP  {  }

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-Ooops, missed it- There was a Live Chat- The truth behind Ebola: Join us at 8 p.m. ET   { * I finally got my computer up and running tonight and now it’s 8:55 pm ET, and they would never give me the kind of ‘Truth’ I’d want anyway. The whole freakin circus keeps screaming, “You couldn’t handle the truth!” because they believe we’re as stupid and as they are themselves. If the truth they discovered is so ugly and mind-blowing — Don’t ya think they would want to share that with somebody instead of keeping it a big ugly mind blowing secret? *  —djo— }

Justin Trudeau says a marriage in politics has its ‘ups and downs’  {  }

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“Offbeat”

Baby snake with broken spine getting help   {  }

8 seconds of white noise from Taylor Swift album tops Canadian iTunes chart   { *Yeah, but, “All you’ll ever be is mean-” <—-<< quote from Taylor Swift song. After I heard that, and after she said she was bullied in school because she liked a kind of music that ‘everybody who was anybody’ in that school didn’t approve of, I pretty much figured that Ms. Swift could do no wrong. — of course she can, but—> That quote is the best answer to, “Isn’t it time you forget about all that kid stuff and grow up, become an adult, just like me?!” Look around, kids, is there anybody out there you want to be like when you grow up?  * —djo— }

Spot a bear? Why you should never get out of your car   { * I really want to make a joke about bears stealing you car if you’re stupid enough to get out when you see one. *  —djo— }

Breaking Bad dolls removed from Toys R Us website after mom’s petition   { * Um, what do you suppose a store would look like if the store’s manager removed anything that somebody found offensive? *   —djo— *** & Hey, Doug- I’ve known some pretty offensive store managers— ***  —jim w — }

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“Most Viewed”

Canada’s Dumbest Charge: The 5 most frustrating fees  {  }

Dead babies in Winnipeg storage unit ‘tragic beyond belief’   { * And ‘Tragic beyond something or other’ is the fact that they had to point that out. If we were working as a culture, everybody would know that, wouldn’t they? It’s like when they made supermarket check out people wear little badges that say, “I Care” — I mean, I figured then, if they had to wear a badge that said they cared, they probably didn’t. If they tried to look sincere and told you, “I care” there probably would be no credibility in their voices. — Not the voices of the people at the cash registers, who usually most obviously cared, but the ice-holes watching everybody from behind one way mirrors. And calling the fact that they can speak with a mean and loud delivery, “Leadership”? Are you kidding? That’s tantrumming. Not leadership. *  —djo—  }

Renee Zellweger stuns fans with unrecognizable face  {  * Um, put the before and after photos together and I wouldn’t even guess the one on the left hand photo was related to the person on the right- If Paul McCartney changed his looks half this much in 1969 the ‘is Paul dead?’ rumours would have had a lot more believers. *  —djo—  }

Canadian fighter jets intercept Russian military planes  { * Is that a hypothetical statement? * – “NATO scrambled fighter jets twice in two days to intercept Russian military aircraft over the Baltic Sea, it said Tuesday amid reports that Russian military activity in the region is increasing. – Lt.-Col. Robert Gericke said the Russian aircraft were flying in international airspace and had not violated the territory of alliance members. – Two Canadian CF-18 Hornet jets were scrambled from the Siauliai Air Base in Lithuania on Monday to intercept a Russian Ilyushin-20 surveillance aircraft, which they shadowed for some 15 minutes, NATO said.”  –  NATO who? is that somebody’s name? }

Jacob to close all 92 stores  { * Did I wake up today with premature Alzheimers? None of these headlines make sense. Okay- ‘Boutique Jacob Inc.’ is a Canadian Womenswear retailer—> ” -Womenswear retailer Boutique Jacob Inc. is abandoning its restructuring efforts and closing all its 92 stores in Canada. – The Montreal-based clothing chain says efforts over the last few months to “try to breathe new life into the company” have failed. – The insolvent retailer has been liquidating inventory at its Canadian stores since filing a proposal to creditors under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act in May. – ” *  —djo— }

Paralyzed man Darek Fidyka walks after cell transplant, rehab   { *** I heard this on the radio while driving to a store this evening. They reported that some skeptical doctors believed the injured man, whose spike was reported to be ‘severed, except for one thin tissue’ might not have actually been severed. ***  —jim w— }

WestJet plane makes emergency landing in Thunder Bay   { * Thunder Bay is a city, they didn’t land in a body of water *  —djo—  }

Could Ebola rank among the deadliest commincable diseases?  { * Could this ‘Ebola Crisis’ rank among the most contrived bits of fear-mongering ever? *  —djo— }

-6 photo slide show- Swedish sub hunt likened to Cold War-era   { So, -if you’re old enough to remember when- do you feel safer now than you did during the cold war?  }

-Blog- Comedian urges Washington Redskins to adopt “sunburned white person” as their logo  { * Or at least come up with a team like the ‘Houston Honkies’ or the ‘Walla Walla White Trash Players’ – Hey, mad magazine fans out there? We really should organize a couple 43 Man Squamish skirmishes and show up with names like those I just suggested. Or how about the ‘Philadelphia Pink Skins?” —djo— }

 { Ack! it’s 9:45 pm EDT-  I should probably quit while I’m ahead, but here I go, continuing — }

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Other:

-Analysis- The blizzard of fear driving America’s Ebola response: Neil Macdonald  { * Holy Bull Chips! A voice of reason? Quick- Pinch me-  —djo—  }

McDonald’s sales slide, Coke flat as consumer tastes shift   { * Yup, we did wake up in a parallel universe. But what I want to know is? If we find out way back to the one we started out in, how would we know? I mean, it’s not like somebody puts markers on the clouds sailing by saying “Earth, Parallel #-97489763551-b” —Help—  —djo— }

Home mortgage risk should be shared by banks, CMHC head says   { * Um, “CMHC” Canadian Mortgage Hijackers’ Club? — Probably not. In the article they call it the “Canada Housing and Mortgage Corp.”  But shouldn’t that be the CHMC?  Let’s aske Thomas Jefferson, Hey Tom, what do you think of this?  “Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies.” <—-<< That’s a direct quote, you can look it up.  The world economic mess we’re in is being manipulated by banks. The stuff you think is money, isn’t. Anybody remember Douglas Adams? Hitch-hikers guide to the galaxy? people on earth really get obsessive about green pieces of paper. Of course, Canadian money comes in several different colours. But- Banksters fraudulently manuever everybody into debt, then manipulate the value of their worthless bits of paper and try to convince you that you should sell your soul to the debt-holder >>—-> Them! HOWEVER— Since they fraudulently manuevered you into this situation, you don’t owe them one copper penny. —> Looking forward to seeing all them cheatin, lyin, ice-holes get what they deserve — When a critical mass of people like you out there wake up and scream, “What the fupp?”  — & Half past human dot com says it’s going to come to: “It’s them or us!” And there’s a whole lot more of ‘us’ than ‘them’.  —djo— }

Michael Sam, NFL’s first openly gay player, cut by Cowboys    { * I kind of wish they’d said, “Let go-” by Cowboys, instead of ‘cut’ Anybody remember hearing Loreena Bobbit on tape? *  —djo— }

-Exclusive- Woman’s ‘private and sensitive’ psychiatric report sent to her employer   {   }

Global science group demands Ottawa restore ‘freedoms and funding’ to scientists   {  }

Luka Magnotta sent email about urge to kill, U.K. journalist says    {  }

Chinese government hackers allegedly attack Apple’s iCloud  { * One guy I met told me that the leaders in China were space-alien hybrids, “And not the good aliens, either.” -Which could be true in the poetic sense, if not literal? But, when you can’t believe anything our government tells us, and you can’t believe anything the corporate media tells us? should we all stand in a big circle and play Kazoo music until they shut up and go home and leave us alone? *  —djo— }

Youngest ever Nobel-winner Malala Yousafzai to become honorary Canadian   { * But, if this puts her in a class with Stephen Harper and John Baird, — If I was her, I’d refuse that ‘honour’  —djo— }

Beijing air pollution forces marathon runners to wear masks   {  }

U.S. Robotic space plane lands after secret 2-year journey around Earth   { * And somebody on CBC teevee slipped today and said that there were a lot of space craft in the sky around Mars looking at the near fly-by of the comet, which was described as ‘the size of a small mountain’ but depicted as being almost round. Kind of like a maginified golf ball after somebody hit it with a sledge hammer from several different directs. *  —jim w— }

-Must Watch- More than 100 snakes found in house   {  }

-Must Watch- CF-18 fighter jets head to Kuwait    { * Why would I want to watch that? Or the 100 snakes that were found in somebody’s house? *  —djo— }

-Must Watch- Underwater pumpkin carving    {  }

-Editor’s Pick- Glenn Greenwalk in conversation about secrets, transparency and digital future  { * Now this is what I would call a “Must Watch” * —djo— }

-Editor’s Pick- Global deaths for communicable diseases compared   { * I wonder if they meant to say “-deaths FROM communicable diseases-” Are we on this planet to serve the bacteria? Are we dying for diseases? Ya think that might have been a Freudian sleep?  😉  —djo— }

-Editor’s Pick- Indian status: Why Lynn Gehl’s court challenge matters   { * Heck yes, When The Angels of Light come here and show everybody what’s been going on, instead of just clearing things up with “life reviews” between lives –  Can you imagine what would happen if they stand there and say, “Well, you’ve got two choices here, you can give the country back to its true owners and pay the First Nations the full value of what you stole from them, or you can go to hell.—”  * —djo—  *** Instead of doing everything you can to turn this planet into hell? ***  —jim w— }

-World- Exoskeleton enables paralyzed groom to walk down the aisle  {  }

-Canada- Six indigenous cookbooks to warm you up   { * & Hey! Nobody caught the miss-spelling of ‘indigenous’ yesterday- *  —djo— }

-Business- Stocks power higher for a 4th day in Toronto, New York   {  }

-Business- Apple’s iCloud believed attacked by Chinese government hackers   { * While the Canadian Prime Minister was busy kissing their butts? *   —djo— }

-Politics- Cyberbullying bill draws fire from diverse mix of critics   {  }

-Politics- Federal government still mum on how to spend surplus   {  }

-Community- ‘Sexy’ kids Halloween costumes ifnite fierce debate about parental responsibility   {  }

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“Local / New Bruswick”

Canaport LNG faces charges for bird kill  { * A photo of an individual bird from the endangered species is at the top of today’s page here. “LNG” = Liquid Natural Gas? – The company can be fined up to $1,000.000.00 per incident.  —djo— }

2nd-degree murder charge laid in death of N.B. teen in Alberta  {  }

Kelvin Constant sentenced to 5 years in fatal Fredericton stabbing  {  }

NDP’s Dominic Cardy will run in the Saint John East byelection  {  }

Tidal Bore sculpture unveiled in Moncton  { *Not that Moncton has boring tides- This granite sculpture looks like the Bay of Fundy tides that surfers sometimes hitch a ride on.   —djo— }

Rexton shale gas protests remembered one year later   {  * I talked to a First Nations man who believes that elemental beings set fire to police cars. Hey, if leprechauns and ‘others’ from that world are on our side, we should encourage them. Thank them and honour them for fighting for us. *  —jim w— ***Update, after I wrote this on Saturday, I fell asleep and had a dream encounter with a ‘being’ about three feet tall & dressed all in black, looking like a leprechaun ninja- scared the hell out of me- 😉 ***  —jim—  }

Residential electricity customers underpaying, NB power says  {* All power companies are way over charging- Jim W says. *  —jim w—  *** Update*** Today, in the news somebody said, “It won’t be long before they raise the rates-” Stick around, see how fast Utility company managers can run away when enough people find out how they buried technology that could have us all using renewable energy that the sun, the wind, the rain, running water, and the tides could give us for free- and become really really angry about being lied to and ripped off. *  —djo—  }

For the birds: NCC counting species in northern N.B.  {  }

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“First Nations”

-New- Lynn Gehl challenges Indian status denial in Ontario court    {  }

Vote with your heart, Winnipeg mayoral candidate pleads    { Robert-Falcon Ouellette is telling voters to vote with their hearts instead of voting strategically.  *** Karma = If you vote for a planet killer who gets elected and kills the planet —> You ARE as guilty as he (or she) is *** —jim w— }

RCMP say driver of semi that hit truck ‘unable to avoid impact’   {  }

Move over Paleo: Six indeigenous cookbooks to warm you up    {  }

Manitoba Hydro evicted from northern dam station   {  }

6 things to know about N.W.T.’s infrastructure plans   {  }

Who gets to be ‘Indian’: 6 reasons why Lynn Gehl’s court challenge matters   {  }

Ouellette announces plan to make Winnipeg safer for Aboriginal women   {  }

University of Regina said the number of First Nations students is up by 50 per cent over the past 5 years  {  }

Food Banks Canada project to deliver fresh food to remote First Nations   {  }

Closing arguments begin in case of underfunding aboriginal child services   {  }

Watchdog says B.C. government ignoring recommendations to help children   {  }

Healing garden planned to remember residential schools in St. Albert   {  }

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{ Almost 11:00 pm EDT — After computer problems and a bunch of life’s little surprises —-> Ready to Rock and Roll— & Thankful for help from Jim W again —   ———djo——— }