news feeds sept 22

Months of questions and criticism have come to an end over Mitt Romney's sketchy tax past. Well, sorta. In the report from his accountants, they managed to sum up Mitt's tax returns from 1990 to 2009 on one page. Pretty succinct? Or does it leave out key information? You can probably guess which. It didn't deal in actual dollar figures either, showing just the percentage of tax paid based on his gross income, not once coming in under 13.66%. Pretty good. But a senior exec at the Tax Policy Centre says that the gross income claimed by Mr. Romney just included US interests and didn't take into consideration overseas investments (Mitt's are thought to be fairly substantial). The wealthy use tactics such as this to reduce their adjusted gross income and the resulting owed tax. When asked for a more detailed tax statement, the campaign said it would not provide any numbers or any comparison of tax paid to TOTAL income. Should be fun times leading up to the election, and remember SNL's political Weekend Update prime time show is back on Thursday nights leading up to election day and here is the only clip (from CNN) that hasn't been taken down by NBC (CLICK HERE)

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iPhone 5 came out. I think it did ok. There was a 800 person line at Apple's glass cube store in New York City, and the first in line at the Apple store in Toronto had been there for almost three days. The phone features a slightly bigger screen and is 4G LTE wirelessly compatible (don't know what that is), so I guess that's good. The phone will still be available in a week folks and you won't have to sleep on a floor and smell of B.O. and mall coffee. And that's if you are lucky enough to have your Apple store actually inside. Anyways, all tomfoolery aside, the phone looks great. Thinner, sleeker and the processor is apparently a hell of a lot faster. I'm sure I'll get one eventually… if only something would happen to my lowly 4S!

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Men are from Mars.. I've heard that before. Richard Branson is thinking about the next step to make that an actual reality. The billionaire adventurer told several news outlets that he hopes to start a community on Mars. "Obviously, you are going to want scientists initially. You're going to want physicians, you're going to want comedians, you're going to want fun people, beautiful people, ugly people -- a good cross-section of what happens on Earth -- on Mars. People have got to be able to get on together, because it's going to be quite confined." He believes that in his lifetime that a population could develop on Mars, which at 62 and his crazy income should have a good hundred years left with blood transfusions, titanium bones and such. He actually might be closer to being a superhero than anyone alive. Richie's private space tourism firm plans to offer two hour rides in space for the price of $200,000 in the year or so. Great first date!

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The OLG (Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp) is proposing on building the largest development in Canada, a facility that would include restaurants, retail and convention space as well as the casino. The key point of the pitch I think is that only 10% of the building will be used for table games and slots, and that 12,000 jobs could be created with a total capital expenditure of $2 billion and change. Paul Godfrey, former Blue Jays President/CEO called the facility "a once in a generation opportunity." Godfrey wants the site of the new project to be on the waterfront but sees many areas in the GTA that are equally viable sites. An Ace Rothstein moment (Discrection advised!)

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If you have been watching the news the last couple days you might notice that Mayor Ford has went down to Chicago to improve business ties between Toronto and Chicago, as well re-new that sister city thing we have with them. Not sure what that makes us. Anyways, CP24 in particular followed Ford closely in Chicago, and I have to hand it to them, they didn't Robby look too much like a jackass, and even though I don't agree with a lot of what he does, Chicago is a great city and we should improve business ties with them. The press in Chicago was less than impressed, and with the cities first teacher's strike in 25 years coming to an end, neither the Tribune or the Sun Times reported mayor's visit. One writer from NBC Chicago, who was clearly unimpressed, offered up the following headline for his article which I'll link to below "BIG, OBNOXIOUS TORONTO MAYOR VISITS CHICAGO, BLENDS IN TOO WELL" (actual headline; read HERE)

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A twenty five year old bonehead in the Bronx, NYC jumped out of a monorail car above a tiger cage in the Bronx Zoo (not Yankee Stadium). At about 3pm the man let out of the car above the tiger exhibit clearing its perimeter fence. The man suffered multiple puncture wounds while the tiger was 'playing' with him. The tiger pen is equipped with a 'hot wire' which emits a small electric shock to the animals as a way to keep them out of areas with plant beds and other foliage. The man, under instruction from zoo staff, rolled under one of these wires which probably saved his life. The man was conscious and speaking when being taken away by paramedics, although he is in critical condition. It was a tiger cub and considering a tiger could rip your face off, despite the size, in about 2 seconds nothing bad will come of the animal since he was probably just toying around. "I think it's safe to say that if the tiger really wanted to do harm to this individual he certainly had the time to do it," said zoo director Jim Breheny.

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news feeds aug 24

Lance Armstrong has been long battling the US Anti-Doping agency for his alleged doping  allegations and it looks like his fight is over. Armstrong has decided to stop battling the agency saying it was a "one-sided and unfair process" after losing a court case on Monday where he was trying to put a halt to the allegations once and for all. The agency responded by saying he will get a lifetime ban as well as losing all his wins after 1998, including 7 Tour De France titles. "I have been dealing with claims that I have cheated and had an unfair advantage in winning my seven Tours since 1999. Over the past three years, I have been subjected to a two year federal criminal investigation followed by Travis Tygart's unconstitutional witch hunt. The toll this has taken on my family, and my work for our foundation and on me leads me to where I am today - finished with this nonsense," Armstrong said. The USADA has accused Lance the Pants of not only using but trafficking, giving them to others and covering up his own drug violations. It has never been proved whether he did or didn't use performance enhancing drugs, and has passed 500-600 tests in his career. One of his former coaches noted that Lance has never backed down from any fight, including his well publicized battle with testicular cancer, so for Lance to throw in the towel "underlines what an unjust process this has been."

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Best part about 3D movies? The cool glasses right? Or is it the thin storyline to make rooms for tons of 3D effects? While we may never get solid stories with 3D blockbusters, researchers in South Korea have developed a way to view 3D films without any additional hardware. So as it works now, 3D has two projectors running a film in sync with the one running with light polarized left to right and the other up to down, so when we take our glasses off everything looks blurry, since the images are basically the same, omit some light composition, but just slightly offset from one another. It is very expensive to do this, since you have to have two projectors, have the two reels of the film, and make it sync, not to mention hand out 100s of disposable glasses. The new process has a way to go… It basically puts a filter right after the projectors lens that polarizes the light, but unfortunately, the image resolution is fairly low.  "This technology is still in its infancy, but it's a new step that was hidden for a long time, " says physicist John Koshell. Remember the cardboard 3D glasses one of Biff's henchmen wore in Back To the Future? Bring those back!

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Alright, all you smart phone users/McDonald's fans (McDonalds regulars use smart phones?), it's all going down! Thirty McDonalds restaurants in France have been testing out a new smartphone payment system, similar to the ones used at many major retailers including Starbucks, 7-11 and Target. If the company is pleased with the results, expect the concept to engulf all 33,500 other locations the world over. You just walk in, order, they scan your phone (take payments from PayPal), and you get ushered over to a separate line to pick up you food. The 'little square' called "Square" was created by one of the founders of Twitter, which I did not know, is used for most phone scan payments but PayPal has been trying to stay relevant in the online payment game, which they basically invented, by working with McDonalds, not to mention they have recently hooked up with home reno behemoth Home Depot. 

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Kids allowance these days runs you $15 bucks a week, made payable from the age of 8 on. That at least the averages that have been reported in a recent survey. Kids tend to get a slightly bigger allowance when they get older (older being 15-16 not 28-29), but even at the average of $15, kids are making about $780 a year. Not mention, without any bills, from food to phone, kids still don't save, with fewer than 1% of those surveyed saying their child actually saved any money. Parents also cover costs like cell phones, music downloads, and sports costs. So after covering all these incidental costs, it is conceivable, in some homes at least, that kids have more disposable income that their parents do sometimes… and to put it in perspective a kid could buy an iPad and an iPod touch with their years "earnings." I'm going to an inflation calculator to see if my $5 allowance in the 1990s matches up. Nope, I made $8.23 per week or $427.96 annually. It did say good grades were a factor. Shucks.

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This isn't really news. Anyways, I saw Microsoft was revamping their logo, going for that retro-chic look in hopes of it making them relevant again after the launch of a redesigned Windows 8 and their Surface tablet computer (which looks great.. I posted a story when it was first announced CLICK HERE). I thought I'd put a couple other official logos up and they are pretty hilarious or terrible. Depends. The original logo was a "futuristic" looking text from the 70s, then they moved onto the glam metal fonted logo, and their "blibbet" logo with three concentric circles making up the first O in Microsoft was just ok, but apparently people had a campaign "Save the Blibbet" around the offices, not to mention the Microsoft cafeteria had a Blibbet Burger. 

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And they say the Brits are boring! I don't know anyone who wouldn't want to party with Prince Harry after his £30,000 ($47,442 USD) Vegas weekend. Harry and two of his mates rented a suite with three master bedrooms, private elevator, butler service, massage room, steam shower, 72" TV, gym and a wet bar (not to mention the infamous pool table and soundproofed walls for any royal shenanigans that took place). Harry arrived, checked in in a private lobby and went straight to the SW Steakhouse within the Encore Wynn resort, spending thousands of pounds of bottles on wine. After dinner, they slide over to Surrender night club, built around an outdoor pool, where him and his boys drank Jagerbombs and beers all night with bikini clad go-go dancers swinging on stripper poles. Mellow Friday night. Saturday, they rented out a VIP bungalow at the MGM Grand for one of its Wet Republic pool parties, before Sundays weekend cap of booze by the pool before whisking off to XS night club. The weekends tab was covered by Steve Wynn, billionaire owner of the hotel, who said that no one with the royal party is to pay for anything. This could be the first king to have a nude/semi-picture of himself on the internet, not that I know the complete history of the monarchy.

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Not to fully expose my love for the Back To the Future movies but I have to reference them again.. Back To the Future 2 actually. Remember when Marty saw Doc disappear in the DeLorean after it was struck by lightning and got send to 1885 then Joe Flaherty shows up as an employee from Western Union with a package that had been in their possession since 1885. I like that scene. Anyways, there is a 100 year old package in Norway with instructions not to be opened until 2012. It has been speculated that there is historical documents, some kind of small treasure. It is set to be open today, August 26, 2012. The package has been in small town Norway since August 1912, given to the local mayor by a politician, Johan Nygard, who said that the package would "benefit and delight future generations." Is it going to be a huge joke that will be having Nygard laughing from his grave? We will see. There is something hopelessly romantic about leaving something for people in the future, a message in a bottle sort of quality, but many capsules have often been a mixed bag, from finding nothing, to the contents improperly store and they deteriorate over time. My favourite is still Rivera's opening of the Al Capone vault found beneath the Lexington Hotel in Chicago in 1986. (You can check a previous story, with video, I did on the Capone vault HERE).

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A novelty condom company in New York City have put out some condoms with Mitt Romney and Barack Obama's face on the packaging. Mitt's rubber comes with the tagline "Great For Any Position" while Obama's read "Won't Break As Easily As His Promises" and "Ultimate Stimulus Package for Hard Times." Apparently, company founder Ben Sherman (apparently a side business to nice suits and sweaters), has been producing presidential condoms since the last election with Obama's 08 condom reading "Use Good Judgement," based on Obama's mantra that sound judgement was more important than experience, while his opponent John McCain's condom read "Old, but not expired." Obama's domes are outselling Romney's by a 7% margin.

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Friday song. Elliot's "Calm Americans"

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Say what?

aug 4 - round 1

There has been a lack of updates over the last bit. For anyone who actually cares sorry about that... summer time, you know? Lots of work, a bit of play, checking out the Olympics and a ballgame or two, some beaching and a mean sunburn. But, I haven't seen Batman yet… but here a sweet pic of the Toronto harbour I took last night, so yous know I'm not just sitting at home watching re-runs of Seinfeld. Even though I do do that.

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Alright, back to work:

Retired porn starlet Jenna Jameson has put her considerable, hrmmm, assets to work, backing Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney. She announced her support for the candidate at a San Francisco strip club. "I'm very looking forward to a Republican back in office. When you're rich you want a Republican in office." Interesting for a woman who has done several campaigns for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which doesn't exactly mesh with the views of Republicans. Not to mention the whole Seamus Romney ordeal, where Mitt's family dog took a ride on the car roof, calling on animal rights activists to picket at many Romney events. Mitt also hasn't been a friend to the porn industry in the past, going as far as to vow that he will "vigorously" crack down on pornographers while in the White House. Ron Jeremy spoke a little more eloquently than Jameson on the upcoming election, saying he will be voting for Obama but this Mitt "means well." "I think he's a good man. I think the fact that he's such an amazing father proves a lot. I give him a lot of credit. He's raised some good sons. When a man is a really, really good father, that's very important." Will Romney/Jameson unseat Obama/Jeremy in 2012? Stay tuned.

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Dude! You won't believe who's trying to be my friend on Facebook? She's super hot. 6'3", blonde, has 38DD breasts and is into all the same things I am! How crazy is that? If she looks like the aforementioned Jenna Jameson and wants to be your friend then you are being hit up by a spam account. There is 83 million fake Facebook accounts out there, some quite malicious that can make your account send out virus filled messages without you even knowing about. Others are duplicate accounts for people who are too cool for school and have reached the maximum allowance of 5000 friends.  There's another few million peeps who have way, way too much time on their hands and have created profiles for their pet or baby. Facebook says all these go against the company's terms, saying that pet profiles should be created as pages, and that if you have 5000 Facebook friends then you probably don't have too many in real life so you should look into that.

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A woman from British Columbia was surfing craigslist, probably to find a used waffle iron, only to find that her new baby was available for sale on the online classifieds website. She has posted the picture on Facebook but did not adjust her privacy setting to make her pictures available to friends only. The picture was stolen, then reposted, showing that if you aren't careful with the information you make available on your profile, shit happens. And this isn't even the worst case scenario, that being complete identity theft. This isn't the first baby post on the site either. A woman in Dallas tried to actually sell her child on the same site. So the ad in BC was fake, which could lead to mischief charges when and if the RCMP find the perpetrator, who also has a dead dog available for purchase. It's obviously someone's idea of a joke, but if anyone actually answered either of the ads they might want to take a look into those folks..

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Older and wiser? Snoop Dogg announced on Monday that he has converted to Rastafarianism and will be changing his name to Snoop Lion since referring to someone or yourself as a dog is considered quite insulting in their culture. Snoop visited Jamaica in February (there is even a documentary that shows the transformation), and said he was born-again. He is also well versed in a chief Rasta sacrament "ganja" or marijuana to us North Americans, which "creates peaceful feelings and communal harmony." I hope Snoop didn't put his head up his ass by saying he was the re-incarnation of Bob Marley. He says he will now make music his kids and grandparents can listen to, dropping his first reggae album called "Reincarnated" this fall.

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A sweet unidentified lady from China was upset that drivers always zipped through the crosswalk near her house, and with the police doing nothing about, she took matters into her own hands. On the tree next to the sidewalk she tied a blow up sex doll to the tree in hopes of slowing drivers down at the mere sight of a potential date. It seems to have worked out for her, based on the photo with stopped motorbikes and onlookers. In a related story, the elderly woman's son, who on a trip to see his resourceful mother, was mortified to see his longtime girlfriend tied up to a tree and has filed a report with police, who again did nothing saying "she just looked, based on facial expressions, really surprised the whole time." This is the second time the China has been in the news about sex dolls since last month 18 officers spent the better part of an hour rescuing a blow up doll from a river thinking it was a drowning woman. 

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