Monday, March 20th

1 - The world was not enough... and neither was the moon. No, nobody's trying to impress their sweetheart, but NASA and Google have teamed up to bring the world Google Mars, the internet's first geographical map of the red planet. You can have a look at it by accessing the link above, and begin making your plans for galactic domination (one planet at a time - cue 'Darth Vader Breathing' sound clip).

2 - It's been a long time since the last sign of the Apocalypse, but here's the latest one: City Employee Sues Himself

3 - Making up for lost time. Here's the next sign: Hell's Angels Sue Disney

4 - It must have been a really slow news day at the Edmonton Sun. Columnist Graham Hicks recently devoted a third of a column to things you will never hear in Saskatchewan. Among my personal favorites are "sorry, I don't know where you could find a VLT", "it's just over that hill", and "could I please be served in French". You can access the whole thing by clicking on Graham's name. I think I would add 'no I don't have a relative who lives in Calgary' to the list.

5 - Edmonton people are laughing all the way to the win column after the Oilers last game against the Calgary Flames. For those of you who weren't there, Chris Pronger broke his stick in overtime, then both Calgary defenseman stepped on the pieces and fell over, which allowed Shawn Horcoff to walk in, fan on his shot, and watch the puck trickle through Kipper's legs. That goal was even worse then the one ABHE gave up to Fuerza when they allowed a three-on-0 while killing a penalty. I feel bad for Calgary, but it's nice to see Edmonton finally get a bounce. Edmonton never gets a break (except for that time when Ryan Smyth broke his leg, and Ethan Moreau broke his foot) so they were long overdue. Then to make matter's worse, Calgary, with former Flyer wonder-boy Brian Boucher, got blown out 9-4 on Saturday by Nashville. So much for resting Kipper down the stretch. When it rains, it pours.

6 - Meanwhile, across the pond, a London department store has decided the best way to catch shoplifters is to keep a squadron (is that what they're called?) of police officers close by. With that in mind Selfridges of London has converted old office space into ten new police cells. According to an article in the National Post, the new cells will allow police to deal with suspects sooner, and ease pressure on London's Marylebone Police Station.

7 - I'm not sure if you'll be able to look at this article or not. Here's the meat if you can't:

'Canadian's priorities are shifting away from the office towards a more balanced personal life, according to a nationwide survey released Wednesday.

According to the survey, conducted by Workopolis, an online job search site, family has become more important to Canadians than their careers, reversing the priorities they held five years ago when a persons' career took the top spot.'

Surprising? Not when you consider what's happened over the past few years. 9/11, Iraq, New Orleans, the Tsunami. Society is starting to realize that some things are irreplaceable, and family is one of them. Hollywood is also influencing this trend somewhat. Celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie are having kids, or adopting them. In a decade or so the effects of their influential example will have trickled down to the general population, which means... being a mom will be chic. Remember, you heard it here first.

8 - There's no joy in Ottawa right now, as the mighty Gliebermans are ready to walk away from the Ottawa Renegades, leaving the struggling CFL franchise ownerless, save for minority owner Bill Smith, who hasn't exactly been a shining example of a good business partner. I for one have no sympathy for the 'Gades. They created there own problems by dumping big time money on Kerry Joseph and Kyries Herbert. And now according to this article the rest of the CFL may have to pick up the tab for Ottawa's bad decisions. If the Renegades are losing money they should start dumping talent, like teams in every other professional sports league in the world do. Fortunately later on Glieberman reassured everyone in Ottawa that he's in for the long haul. Good, now if Ottawa fans want a CFL team maybe they should go out and support it. A season-ticket base of 2000 is not going to cut it. Of course, it's hard to support a losing team when there's no light at the end of the tunnel.

9 - The World Baseball Classic Final will feature two teams with a combined total of two major league baseball players. Cuba vs Japan. Go figure.

10 - Speaking of curveballs, a student union in Nova Scotia has convinced Mount St. Vincent University to ditch the website they've been using to stifle plagerism. The web site, www.turnitin.com, is used by over 4000 universities across Canada, and keeps a database of previous essays which professeurs can use to compare to the ones on their desk. The students at MSVU felt they were being taken advantage of (turnitin.com costs money to use), and, to quote student union president Chantal Brushett, "when a student passes in a paper to the professor, they should have the peace of mind that that is as far as it's going to go." Read about it here. I'm sure there are other ways to detect plagerism, and I don't even know if this is the best way, but it looks like the student union wants to have their cake and eat it to, and they are. I would much rather see the website in use though. Students with nothing to hide shouldn't be wary of this. I also can't understand how using a search engine that doesn't store the essays in a database will do the job. If their not stored how can they be compared with other works? I must be missing something here.

11 - Even though PM Harper and David Emerson have been cleared by the Ethics Commisioner the NDP has "vowed to introduce a floor crossing bill" as soon as parliament resumes. As distasteful as floor-crossing is I hope the bill fails, otherwise MP's will be handcuffed by their parties. Floor-crossing was invented so MP's would be free to vote with their consciounce. Of course, there's nothing wrong with sitting as an independent a la David Kilgour. But if this goes through then you'll just see MP's leave their parties to sit as independents, while voting against their former party at every turn. Basically they'd be a member of a different party in everything but name. So the only way this bill will really do what it's intended is to say MP's cannot leave their party... ever. I don't think that is in anyone's best interest.

12 - Saskatchewan is quickly becoming curling's version of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Last Brier Title: 1979, and counting. Not good for a curling hotbed.

Man on Fire