An 11-year-old girl is the fifth victim to be identified in Friday’s deadly head-on crash in northern Alberta that resulted in the deaths of seven people, including one other child. …

CBC – Girl, 11, latest victim identified in Alberta highway crash

Dear Premier Redford,

The people of Fort McMurray demand to see a plan to twin Highway 63. Yes, we’ve heard about the caribou migration and the other issues – what we have not heard is a concrete plan with completion dates and a timeline. We demand that this highway be better patrolled – and frankly I don’t give a damn what it costs to do so. As has been stated again and again we are driving the provincial economy with our oil sands industry – and we are paying for it with our lives on a highway that is inadequate for the traffic it sees. …

Theresa Wells – An Open Letter to Premier Alison Redford – Fort McMurray and Highway 63

… Oscar voters are nearly 94% Caucasian and 77% male, The Times found. Blacks are about 2% of the academy, and Latinos are less than 2%.

Oscar voters have a median age of 62, the study showed. People younger than 50 constitute just 14% of the membership. …

LA Times

They gave one token woman, Kathryn Bigelow, an Academy Award for directing “The Hurt Locker.”

What are those feminists complaining about?

What’s the best “solution” for someone who travels non-stop? Mostly in North America. Occasionally abroad.

• how to phone?
• how to text?
• how to get data when you don’t have a WiFi connection?

What companies?

Is getting a MiFi part of the best solution?

In Canada, I’d consider any carrier but TELUS. … I recommend everyone avoid TELUS. Hate TELUS.

Rogers seems to be the least terrible. I very much like their new One Number option.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Leave a comment if you have recommendations.

1. Iowa … why (since 1972) has the first major electoral event of the nominating process for President of the United States been held here?

Though only about 1% of the nation’s delegates are chosen by the Iowa State Convention, the Iowa caucuses have served as an early indication of which candidates for president might win. It’s by far the most important State. Unfairly.

If you want to be nominated you try to win Iowa. And how do you win Iowa? You buy Iowa …

2. Super PACs (new since 2010):

… which can raise unlimited sums from corporations, unions and other groups, as well as individuals. …

Supposedly independent, both Romney and Gingrich have Super Pacs … run by former employees. They are a joke and a lie.

To mock Super PACs, Colbert legally formed his own — Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow (also known as the Colbert Super PAC)

Here’s one of Colbert’s real TV ads. Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

The Parliamentary Democracy of Canada is not perfect. But I like it far better than the system in the USA.

Isn’t Newt Gingrich the lowest of the low? An egomaniac with no morals whatsoever?

The guy who earned $1.6 million consulting for Freddie Mac?

Why did South Carolina Republicans vote for a guy so brashly amoral?

He can’t win the Presidency. And the Republican establishment knows it.

That would be a disaster for the USA. And the world.

related – Democrat Chris Dodd is a scumbag, happy to sell his soul for $1.2 million / year as chief lobbyist for the movie industry. He and Newt will be in the same circle of Hell, so far as I’m concerned.

… Not long ago, Apple boasted that its products were made in America. Today, few are. Almost all of the 70 million iPhones, 30 million iPads and 59 million other products Apple sold last year were manufactured overseas.

Why can’t that work come home? Mr. Obama asked.

Mr. Jobs’s reply was unambiguous. “Those jobs aren’t coming back,” he said …

How U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work

That article has been getting wide circulation. Not even an embargo of Chinese goods by President Newt is going to bring back manufacturing. Read the article to see why.

applying to work at Foxconn

Foxconn City has 230,000 employees, many working six days a week, often spending up to 12 hours a day at the plant. … many workers earn less than $17 a day. …

related – why you shouldn’t use the new Apple iBooks Author software

But if I could vote in the USA, I don’t think I could get past Gitmo — promise #1.

“I DON’T want to be ambiguous about this. We are going to close Guantánamo.” So said Barack Obama in January 2009, giving himself a year to do it.

Economist – How to close Guantánamo

… Despite promises to close Guantánamo and reverse the illegal policies of the Bush administration, President Obama has attempted to legitimize them. He has signed an executive order formalizing indefinite detentions at Guantánamo, resumed illegitimate military commissions, and refused to hold U.S. officials accountable for torture. …

CNN – Gitmo: 10 years of injustice and disgrace

Read Lakhdar Boumediene’s story and tell me YOU wouldn’t have freed him long ago, regardless of the political consequences.

I don’t care if the President didn’t have the power to close Gitmo. If you can’t deliver, don’t promise.

I’m reading Game Change, the story of what happened exactly 4yrs ago in the American election.

(via Kottke)

For many cities you can get a vehicle for $50/week. Or even $6/day. … At least that’s what their website claims.

So why was my bill — still cheaper than the competition — more than double what I saw online:

$82 / week
$3.61 SEA Concess
$8.13 Tax SEA
$6.59 WA Rental Tax
$.26 WA MotVehTx

$35 CFC … (explained to be some sort of new building fee)
$3.36 VLF

Of course you are hassled with a scary up-sale of insanely expensive daily insurance options.

All in all, a terrible customer experience. Like this guy had:

On a recent trip to the airport rental counter I marveled at the ability of the Avis/Budget representative to make me feel like a criminal, a moron, and an irresponsible lout gambling with my life all in the space of about eight minutes. Welcome to modern car rental. …

Renting a car sucks

Are there any rent-a-car companies who actually tell you the entire cost? …

Canada must have more rules against deliberately obfuscating prices. The same company prices online are about double in Canada for the same vehicle as in the States.

more Fox complaints on Yelp

DJ Earworm just dropped his latest annual edit:

… “World Go Boom,” combines 25 of the year’s most-successful pop songs from artists such as Adele, Britney Spears, Foster the People, Lady Gaga, LMFAO, Maroon 5, Nicki Minaj and Rihanna. …

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

… pretty lame, I’d say.

What was the great Pop hit of 2011? … Adele?

(via Mashable)

Exactly.

The bodies of most of the models H&M features on its website are computer-generated and “completely virtual,” the company has admitted.

H&M designs a body that can better display clothes made for humans than humans can, then “dresses” it by drawing on its clothes, and digitally pastes on the heads of real women …

Jezebel

(via Kottke)