Florida School Board Shooting

“Dramatic video emerged Wednesday showing a Florida man who burst into a school board meeting with a gun, shooting point blank at the board members before being shot by a security guard.” Fortunately none of the board members were injured during the event. In the video a 56 year old man who goes by the name Clay Duke who is an ex-convict walked into a school board meeting and “scrawled the symbol from the film V for Vendetta on the school board wall before pulling out a 9-mm Smith & Wesson handgun” After that he ordered the females and non-board members out of the room. He then announced to the board members “I’m going to die today” The man proceeded to talk about his wife and how she had been laid off work teaching and their benefits had ran out. One of the board members then bravely tried to talk the man down talking about his own family and saying he could help the man and get his wife “a job somewhere else”

“The school superintendent, Bill Husfelt, also pleaded with Duke and tried to take responsibility for Duke's wife” getting fired. He then asked Duke if he would let the others go because he was clearly the one at which his anger should be directed but “Duke said the other members were part of the scam." As Husfelt kept talking Duke raised his gun at Husfelt and proceeded to fire twice at him and then fired off several more rounds “before district security chief Mike Jones, a former police officer, bolted in.” The security guard exchanged fire with Duke and struck him with four shots “felling him.” Duke then fatally shot himself in the head.

I think it is very lucky for the members of the school board that the man was a bad shot and none of them were injured, but in all actuality how was and armed man just allowed to walk into the building and start doing all these things before security reacted. Shouldn’t security have heard the yelling or maybe been in the room to stop the man from going off like this. Either way the board will defiantly have to step up their security measures after this incident.

To read more:

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/12/15/florida-shooting-school-board.html

DJ Does Drugs

A Saskatoon radio disc jockey touched on a fierce local debate about the hallucinogenic herb salvia on Thursday, by smoking it during a live broadcast. After seeing the video posted last week of Miley Cyrus smoking salvia which is a legal substance sold in hemp stores in the United States, DJ Rider of Wired 96.3 decided to do the same thing but for a different purpose. He was hoping to discourage people away from smoking the hallucinogenic drug by showing what it did to him and what the effects were. Later that day the radio station posted a video of the “trip” Rider experienced on their facebook page to let people see the effects. Also on their facebook page the station posted “an online petition started by Ryder, calling for the federal government to make salvia an illegal substance. The stunt prompted a slew of phone calls and messages from listeners eager to share their views about salvia. Many congratulated the radio show for trying to scare young people away from experimenting with it. Others expressed outrage, predicting the broadcast will have the opposite of its intended effect.”

Personally I find it ridiculous that this station would find it necessary to pull such a stunt, if people want to do the drug or get it they will no matter if it is legal or not and it isn’t anyone’s business but there own whether they do the drugs or not and people shouldn’t be pressured one way or the other.

Read it on Global News: Video: On-air drug use by Saskatoon DJ sparks debate

The Land Of Mis-Fit Cars

Honda announced on Thursday December 16^th that they will be recalling 1.35 million Honda fit subcompacts due to defective wiring in the headlights. “. Subject to the recall are Fit cars built at Honda's Suzuka factory in Japan between November 2001 and October 2007. About 735,000 units will be recalled in Japan, where the Fit is the second most popular car behind the Toyota prius. “ Honda will also recall 143,000 Fits exported to the United States, and 385,000 units in Europe, where the model is called the Jazz. The car will also be recalled in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.” This recall will cost the Honda motor company about $3.6 billion yen or $43 million dollars American. However this will still have neglible impact on Honda’s earnings this year.

I find this pathetic that a multi national, multi billion dollar corporation like Honda can make a product and sell it for so many years and to so many people with such a defect in it. They should be able to make a car that won't have problems with it until it is at least 10-15 years old then need a little bit of work. Not have a huge recall of the size that Honda has created here.

Read more: http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20101216/RETAIL05/101219877/1147#ixzz18LRR5zr6

Ontario snow storm takes a life

The body of a 41-year-old man was found frozen in a field near Chatham, Ont., after he was stranded in the snowstorm that clobbered southwestern Ontario on Monday, police say.

41 year old Neeland Rumble’s body was found in a field on Tuesday. “The man was found in a field near Ridgetown, a community in South East Kent County. His car was about 50 metres away, stuck in a snowdrift.” Which begs the question, why leave your car? If you are stuck in a snowdrift on the side of the road, inside your car will be warmer than outside in the snowstorm.

Even if he was sitting in his car for over a day you would think it to be a better choice than trying to brave the elements and walk through the storm.

“His death is being attributed to the extended exposure to extreme cold weather. Obviously, hypothermia is what unfortunately took his life."

It is not known why he got out of his car possibly he was looking for help at a near by home but either way his choice to walk away from his car clearly was not a good choice for him.

To read the full story go here:

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/windsor/story/2010/12/16/wdr-sarnia-thursday.html

Honda civic named the most stolen car in Canada

“The 2000 and 1999 Civic SiR two-door are the number 1 and number 2 most stolen cars in Canada, according to the Insurance Bureau of Canada.” I personally don’t find this to be much of a surprise because teenagers buy that era of Honda Civic and put expensive stereos and expensive rims on them then park in bad neighbourhoods and are surprised when it gets stolen, That’s just ridiculous. The rest of the top 10 is rounded off by a couple Cadillac’s a few Acura’s and a pair of hummers. This is pretty much a list of do not buy cars because they are so often stolen, however it could just be buy this car but don’t put any money into fancy upgrades and just drive the stock car then hopefully it wont be stolen.

The top-10 list of stolen vehicles:

1. 2000 Honda Civic SiR two-door.
2. 1999 Honda Civic SiR two-door.
3. 2002 Cadillac Escalade four-door 4WD.
4. 2004 Cadillac Escalade four-door 4WD.
5. 2005 Acura RSX Type S two-door.
6. 1997 Acura Integra two-door.
7. 2000 Audi Quattro four-door AWD.
8. 2003 Hummer H2 four-door AWD.
9. 2006 Acura RSX Type S two-door.
10. 2004 Hummer H2 four-door AWD.

To read the full story click this link

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2010/12/16/con-most-stolen-cars.html?ref=rss

Minnesota vikings stadium collapses

On the early morning of Sunday December 12^th, 2010 the roof of the Metrodome in Minnesota collapsed postponing the game that was scheduled to be played that afternoon between the Minnesota Vikings and the New York Giants. The game was moved to Ford Field in Detroit as a neutral setting for the game. Lacy Bryant of Wagerrun.com said she was not surprised that the roof had collapsed because of the severe weather and amount of snow on the roof of the stadium. Personally I find it ridiculous that a multi million dollar stadium can have its room collapse for only 17 inches of snow. That roof should be able to stand up to a lot more than less than a foot and a half of snow before it collapses.

A video has been released from inside the stadium that show the incident, and I’m wondering why were the cameras on in the middle of the night. Unless they were doing test for the game alter that day they should have been saving the power. The video shows workers racing out of the stadium on a little cart on the far side of the field and the roof just falls in and tears under the weight of the snow sitting on top.

To see the video of the collapse:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxuxNLf87_Y

To view the story:

http://www.wagerrun.com/1577/vikings-stadium-collapse-talk-about-a-downer/

Canadian World Junior Championship final Roster Announced

On Wednesday December 15, 2010 the final roster for the Canadian world junior team was announced. The final cuts were made Wednesday morning and among those final nine players cut was “Highly rated draft prospect Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.” He is slated to go in the top three overall at the 2011 NHL entry draft however he did not make the roster. This is different from players such as Taylor Hall, John Tavares and Jordan Eberle who all played for the Canadian world junior team on the year they were eligible for the NHL entry draft. This makes me wonder if he is really top three material for the NHL but that’s not for me to decide. Among the players who made the team are projected first overall pick Sean Couturier of the Drummondville Voltigeurs and Brayden Schenn.

The goaltenders who made the team were Olivier Roy and Mark Visentin.

The defence will have Ryan Ellis, Calvin de Haan, Jared Cowen, Erik Gudbranson, Tyson Barrie, Simon Despres and Dylan Olsen.

Forwards on the team are Carter Ashton, Brett Connolly, Marcus Foligno, Curtis Hamilton, Jaden Schwartz, Brayden Schenn, Casey Cizikas, Couturier, Cody Eakins, Quinton Howden, Ryan Johansen, Zack Kassian and Louis Leblanc.

I personally have never really heard of many of the kids on the team unlike other years. The only ones I know of are Brayden Schenn, Ryan Ellis, and Calvin de Haan because they have been in previous world junior championships.

Read the full story here:

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/juniors/2010/12/15/wjhc_cuts/

Aspirin "helps prevent cancer"

Aspirin a long known aid to prevent “heart disease and high blood pressure”

Is now being said to be able to decrease the chances of cancer. On Tuesday a study was posted in “The Lancet” a medical journal that stated “people who took aspirin every day for five years or more were less likely to die from several common forms of cancer. The study examined more than 25,000 people “mostly British and found that Aspirin consumption was also noticed to improve outcomes for pancreatic, brain and lung cancers, though they were less pronounced.” I personally find this to be a load of crap.

In about one week there will be new study saying that taking aspirin that often will give you other types of cancer or some other disease that will kill you sooner than cancer and that study will come out and everyone will be shocked. Personally I’m going to stick with the conventional method of just hoping that I’m not going to get cancer and if I do ill cross that bridge when I get to it but you wont see me popping aspirin everyday any time soon I’m just waiting for the next study to come out contradicting this story. 

http://www.torontosun.com/life/healthandfitness/2010/12/07/16455451.html

The World's Fattest Country

The world’s fattest country as many people may think would be the United States of America. However this is incorrect, the South Pacific island of Nauru, is in fact the fattest country in the world. With 95% of the population considered overweight this country is way worse than the untied states at 79% of its population considered overweight.

The “peoples of the South Pacific often view excess weight as a sign of beauty, wealth and privilege.” On the island of Nauru they “historically held fattening ceremonies in which young women were confined and fed disproportionately.” This however was not done to people of low social status which is pretty much the opposite of what is seen in western culture when the lower class people are usually the ones that are obese. The data to determine the fattest country is based off of the 2010 world health organization (WHO) body mass index (BMI). Which is a number based ratio on height and weight, and if it is over 25 you are considered overweight. I personally thought that the United States was the fattest country in the world but I have been proved wrong by this insightful news story. I was even more surprised to discover that the United States isn’t even in the top 5 they are in 8^th place, behind a bunch of pacific island nations.

View the news story here:

http://beta.ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/dailybrew/world-fattest-countries.html

NHL hockey Quarterly review

What team’s are surprising out of the gate?

Who is the MVP of the league so far for their team?

Mike Brophy of Sportsnet.ca has written his opinion on the highs and lows of the league so far and his opinions on those topics.

He examines the teams expectations and whether they have lived up to them or not.

Steven Stamkos is clearly the top player in the league right now

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/2010/11/25/brophy_quarter_pole_ratings/

Brophy states the two teams that have been a surprise out of the gate

for him are:

out of the east the New York Rangers, because “ the team’s  

young defense rallied around goaltender Henrik Lundqvist” and have held there own in their division so far dispite all the injuries they have had to key players such as Marian Gaborik and Chris Drury.

I however disagree with this statement, my surprise team out from the east is the Tampa Bay Lightning. They have been doin rather well considering the team that they put out this year. Even though they have huge stars such as Martin St Louis, Vincent Lecavalier, and Steven Stamkos some might say they should be doing well this season. However there goaltending on paper isn’t that good and they have been inconsistent over the last few seasons. 

In the Western conference Brophy says that his surprising team is the Phoenix Coyotes saying that they have no real number one scorer and play solid defense to do well.

I disagree with Brophy once again on this, my surprise team out of the west is the Columbus Blue Jackets considering there star forward Rick Nash was injured for a few games near the start of the season they are still holding there own in the western conference and are only in 5^th place in the conference one point out of 4^th

Brophy states that his MVP  is Steven Stamkos saying he “has a legitimate shot at 50 goals in 50 games and he is leading the lightning to a strong season so far. I agree with this 100%, He has been a beast on the powerplay and has been lighting up the league for the Tampa Bay Lightning this season.