I don’t cover technology news with an incredible fervor here on the site, but it is something I like to write about from time to time. So, when I read this, I found it way too interesting not to mention. This story is so hot off the presses that I’m burning my hands just handling it, but here it is.

Apple’s new iPhone has been found, in a bar. Yes, you read that right. While it’s been known that Apple have been working away on a new model of their popular iPhone, no details, and certainly not any pictures or prototypes have been released to the public. At least, not on purpose.

Gizmodo, a popular technology website, has just released a complete run down of the new iPhone, an iPhone which, they allege, was found in a bar in Redwood City, California. Yes, you read that right, and it gets even more interesting. Not only was this new model iPhone found in a bar, it was found disguised to look like an older model iPhone. That is, this technology was so new, and presumably so secret, that whoever was using it didn’t want anyone else to know what it was. Interesting, eh?

Gizmodo has had it, they say, for a week and spent enough time with it to know for sure that it’s indeed a new Apple product. The fact that it was found in a bar, left there, I assume, by some Apple insider, is certainly going to rub the super-secretive company the wrong way. Whether they come out and admit that what Gizmodo has found is real, we’ll have to wait and see.

Alright, so for the sake of full disclosure Wes Anderson is probably my favourite writer/director working in Hollywood today. The others, because I know you were wondering, are M. Night Shyamalan and the Coen Brothers. That said, I’m reviewing The Fantastic Mr. Fox from a particular perspective, whether that’s a good or bad thing from Mr. Anderson in the end, you’ll have to read and find out.

Read the rest of this article »

LOST has always been about balance. Whether it’s a balance between good and evil, a balance between two leaders—John Locke and Jack—or a balance between the Survivors and the Others, it’s always been about balance. This week’s “Everybody Loves Hugo” seems to be striking a balance in a new way.

Read the rest of this article »

My friend Luke, who doesn’t have a website to link to, tipped me off to an incredible website called Open Parliament.

In a nutshell, Open Parliament aggregates data from around the web to let you know exactly what you’re elected Member of Parliament has been doing on your behalf. It trolls the government Hansard (the official record of the House of Commons), MPs twitter accounts, and other various media sources and lays it all out for you on a very easy to read page. You can see, at a glance, what your MP has been voting on—and what they’ve been voting. You can see where they’ve been, what they’ve been up to and every time they’ve spoken from the floor. In fact, you can even set it up to get an e-mail every time your Member of Parliament speaks. You’ll have a pretty empty Inbox if your MP is a back-bencher though.

Open Parliament is the kind of thing I love about the digital age; it’s the kind of thing that gives me faith in technology—in a technology like Twitter, especially. Here is a great use of that particular medium, for all those naysayers.

Now I know, I’m a bit of a politics junkie and it’s hard not to get all worked into a fit about this but isn’t it the coolest?! Doesn’t this have the potential to revolutionize Canadian politics?!

I mean, I can see, at a very quick glance, that my Member of Parliament, Peter Braid voted Nay on Bill C-241 to remove the waiting period for Employment Insurance. Now this is a topic that interests me, being ostensibly unemployed for a total of 3 months of the year. With this knowledge I can petition Braid to reconsider similar votes in the future. More than that, I can now closely follow his position on this and other matters by following what he says from the floor. I can let him know what I agree and disagree with. We all can.

Remember, these are our elected representatives. While information about what they were doing, how they were voting, and what they were saying in the House of Commons was never secret, even from its inception, it wasn’t always easy information to find. Open Parliament makes it easy and the easier something is, the more likely people are to check it out. Being able to more closely follow what our MPs are doing invites us further into the process of democracy. We’re more engaged, we’re able to be more engaged and that’s a good thing.

In addition, Open Parliament also gives you run downs of what topics were talked about recently in the House of Commons. You can track Bills as they’re introduced, and follow them every single time they’re mentioned with a record of who said what, when, and what they said. You can also track Debates, too.

I whole-heartedly applaud a democracy-strengthening endeavor like Open Parliament. This is truly the perfect marriage of technology and democracy in the digital age. I encourage you to check it out.

In my profession I talk a lot and, as a result, I drink a lot of water to keep hydrated. I have an 800ml stainless steel water bottle that’s dinged and nicked from lots of use and sports a purple sticker with a unicorn on it that says “Chiropractic is Magic”—a gift from my wife’s workplace. I fill up my water bottle, on average, about three times a day from the tap, a gesture that I didn’t used to think very much of until I started getting comments from my coworkers.

It seems that tap water has got a bad rap.

Frequently, when filling up my water bottle I’ll hear things like, “Ah, slumming it today, are you?” Slumming it? By drinking water out of the tap? And it isn’t because the water isn’t cold because I always add ice from the freezer. It’s the quality that I’m receiving heck for. The quality of tap water.

It’s clear that the bottled water industry—a billion dollar industry—has pulled one over on us, and it’s a shame because there’s nothing wrong with water from the tap.

I don’t know where the impression arose that bottled water is safer or healthier than tap water but it simply isn’t true. The fact that it seems to be widespread enough that educated, intelligent people would believe it is of concern.

After doing digging I found that Health Canada holds water, in the bottle and out of the tap, to relatively the same standards but the situation in the United States, and other countries around the world is very different. In fact, in these places bottled water can be held to a lesser standard then tap water. So drinking tap water can be better for you. What’s more, some argue that by drinking local water you’re building up immunities to local diseases. I don’t know if that argue holds any water scientifically but there certainly is no data, anywhere, to show that water imported from France is any better than the stuff coming out of your kitchen facet.

But it’s the importing that’s the problem, isn’t it? Consider the manufacturing costs, the wastefulness, the unnecessary shipping and transportation when perfectly good water comes right out of the tap. David Suzuki, in an interview for the CBC called our bottle water consumption “absolutely disgusting” highlighting the fact that we pay more for water in a bottle than we do for gasoline.

OK, so this is my tap water rant. I’m constantly surprised though by people who themselves are surprised that I’m drinking unfiltered water out of the tap. Considering that many of the brands of bottle water out there are, themselves, just tap water in a fancy, wasteful bottle I think it’s time for a reality check.

The Stoning of Soraya M. is a movie akin to The Passion of the Christ, Mel Gibson’s 2004 magnum opus in more than one way. Like The Passion of the Christ, we know from the start that our main character, Soraya M., is going to be killed. We’re told this from the very start. Like The Passion, this movie is also unflinchingly graphic in its portrayal of the violence demonstrated against its main character. And like The Passion of the Christ, The Stoning of Soraya M. too gives us a heroic, messiah-like character who dies a seemingly unjust death at the hands of the law. The result, too, is not unlike Gibson’s film. The Stoning of Soraya M. will leave you breathless, in tears, and quite possibly traumatized for days.

Read the rest of this article »

I came to know Belle & Sebastian a few years before their breakthrough release, Dear Catastrophe Waitress, came out in North America. I remember listening to an Internet radio station looking for some new music with Fox in the Snow came on. I must’ve stopped and thought, “What is this?” because at some point, on a day later, I bought a copy of If You’re Feeling Sinister. And then the band’s complete back catalog.

Fox in the Snow

Fox in the Snow is everything that I love about Belle & Sebastian, and music in general. It’s a beautifully written story punctuated with wonderfully simple and concise music. I like the way that the song builds upon itself, musically, yet it maintains that stripped down feeling of a very simple folk song. And if Belle & Sebastian’s musical chops are sufficiently demonstrated on a song like Fox in the Snow, have a listen to some of their other stuff. Their more recent releases, which are decidedly more upbeat and produced, are a departure from tracks like Fox in the Snow but still showcase a wonderfully talented band.

Belle & Sebastian are possibly my favourite band, so choosing a track was difficult but since Fox in the Snow was the first one I heard it holds a certain sentimental value, too. Check it out.