the gud stuff: midweek roundup Jan 16, 2013

 

Another week goes by and I’m back with an update of some of the stuff I found interesting. Enjoy!

POLITICS

• The Idle No More movement is still going strong and Chief Teresa Spence is still on a hunger strike. Friday saw a meeting between AFN National Chief Shawn Atleo and some other nation Chiefs (not all that were going to attend) with Stephen Harper and the Governor General. From what I gather from reports it went… alright? It’s a rather difficult situation to fully understand as there are so many different parties involved. Watching the news and reading the paper it seems it is too often forgotten that this isn’t a homogeneous group of people. This is many different groups who don’t necessarily view things the same, nor want the same outcomes. Today was a day of action across Canada which was seen in many different ways.There is obviously a problem in Canada that goes beyond the issues with Harper and Ottawa and it isn’t new. It was reported today that Aboriginal students in Thunder Bay were having garbage thrown at them while waiting for their buses to school. That is just horrible isn’t it? (Yes, the answer is yes)

• The teacher’s protest that was supposed to happen last Friday was in fact ruled as an illegal strike by the Labour Board.

• 583, 000 student loan recipients’ personal information has gone missing from federal agency and a class action lawsuit is being launched.

• 6 people were arrested in another gang rape of a bus passenger in India. It is being said that women have been reporting assaults and rapes in much higher numbers – hopefully that leads to change. I’m not going to link to an article because I don’t know where the article I read about this is and I don’t feel like searching for this horrific story. You can google.

• The CIDA website had 2 partisan letters written by Minister Julian Fantino published to it’s website. They have since been removed.

BUSINESS

• Cirque du Soleil announced today that they are laying off 400 employees.

• Vancouver’s Nevsun mining company is being accused of “turning blind eye to forced labour“. They have been under Human Rights Watch for a while now. There employees work 12 hour shifts 6 days a week with poor food and no toilets for less then $15 a month.

SPORTS

• Lance Armstrong has been interviewed by Oprah where he admits to using performance enhancing drugs. I’m already sick of this story. I will say this – If society is willing to ‘forgive’/allow Chris Brown to continue making music/selling records/represent organizations then Lance Armstrong better be forgiven as well.

MISC

• The Rick Hansen Foundation is putting together a wikipedia of accessibility.

• The sanctuary where the Ikea monkey was sent has alleged that the monkey was abused by it’s owner. Poor little guy. The former owner is denying the claims.

• The Golden Globes happened. People won awards and wore pretty clothes. Amy Poehler and Tina Fey hosted for 10 minutes or so. It was a fabulous 10 minutes.

INTERNET FINDS

• Google Doodle. Now. (Zamboni)

• YouTuber iiGethii took a photo of herself every day over 3 years documenting her physical transition.

• Poor lip reading of the NFL.

• This guy built a VIA rail carriage in his basement. All he wants is to be mentioned on Big Bang Theory.

• I don’t think this is what she meant to say… or is it?