Giant burning TV log sends Regina fire crews scrambling

The Regina Fire Department has stopped fuming about a burning Yule log displayed at Mosaic Stadium's giant TV screens, now that the football club has agreed to change the video.

For weeks, the cheery image of the burning log was displayed on the video scoreboard at the Saskatchewan Roughriders home venue west of the downtown.

The flaming log was also shown on banner screens across the stands.

The problem was, from a distance some people thought the stadium was on fire — there have been four frantic calls to 911 in the past few weeks.

Deputy fire chief Gerard Kay said the callers were very descriptive, reporting "a very bright flame. In some cases the smell of smoke."

'Maybe some snowflakes or Santa or something like that.'—Regina deputy fire chief Gerard Kay suggests alternatives

Standing in the parking lot at the nearby Regina fieldhouse recently, a CBC journalist saw the televised flames apparently looming over neighbourhood houses.

"I'm hoping that we can eliminate this and put something a little more appropriate up," Kay said. "I mean, it is appropriate, but it is a public safety concern."

A fire crew was dispatched to the scene most recently late Wednesday afternoon.

Trying to snuff out the false alarms, Kay said he called around to get the log video replaced.

A banner style of video screen, beneath the stands at Mosaic Stadium in Regina, features burning Yule logs. (CBC)

"Maybe some snowflakes or Santa or something like that," he said.

The Roughriders organization, which is in charge of what appears on the TVs, got the message.

Roughriders CEO Jim Hopson told CBC Thursday that they've just changed the log to a "thank you" message to fans. The flaming banner TVs have also been switched off.

"It's funny, someone jokingly said, 'Y'know, I don't know about that Yule log. Someone is going to think the stadium is on fire,'" Hopson said. "Sure as heck, someone thought the stadium was on fire."

Another holiday-themed display will likely go up later, he said.

What would you put on the Giant TV screens at Mosaic Stadium?

With files from CBC's Dani Mario

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Inmate robbed bank within hour of release, police say

Eugene, Ore., authorities are accusing a man of robbing a bank less than an hour after being released from jail as part of a budget measure.

The Register-Guard newspaper reported that Eugene police arrested 33-year-old Christopher Franklin Weaver shortly after a Thursday robbery at a Pacific Continental Bank branch. He was returned to jail.

Weaver was among about 30 inmates released from the Lane County Jail at 11 a.m. The bank was robbed at 11:55 a.m.

County sheriff's Sgt. Carrie Carver says "this isn't necessarily a worst-case scenario, but it's a very bad case."

Weaver was previously jailed on a parole violation stemming from a conviction for second-degree sexual abuse.

Sheriff Tom Turner said recently he needed to withdraw several dozen jail beds because federal demand for space in the jail had decreased, meaning that the county was receiving less money.

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Teen Two and a Half Men actor sorry for criticism

Teen actor Angus T. Jones has apologized for blasting his TV comedy Two and a Half Men as "filth" and "inappropriate" in a series of interviews about his recent religious awakening.

Jones, 19, issued a statement late Tuesday apologizing to his colleagues on the somewhat suggestive CBS sitcom, on which he has appeared since the age of 10.

"I apologize if my remarks reflect me showing indifference to and disrespect of my colleagues and a lack of appreciation of the extraordinary opportunity of which I have been blessed," he said. "I never intended that."

Jones, who reportedly makes $350,000 US an episode, portrays Jake Harper, the wisecracking son of the uptight character played by Emmy-winner Jon Cryer. In recent years, the young actor's role has been reduced after his character joined the army. However, he recently returned to appear alongside guest star Miley Cyrus.

Earlier this week, interviews emerged in which Jones described being drawn to religion and denounced the hit show that shot him to fame. CBS and show-runner Chuck Lorre declined comment.

The furor over Jones' behaviour even led Charlie Sheen, Two and a Half Men's notorious former star, to weigh in.

"With Angus's Hale-Bopp-like meltdown, it is radically clear to me that the show is cursed," Sheen, whose own outrageous public meltdown and feud with show creators led to his replacement by Ashton Kutcher, told People magazine.

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'Pac-Man' spotted on Saturn's moons

Pop culture references continue to pop up on the subject of Saturn's moons, where scientists have spotted — not once, but twice — what appears to be the videogame character Pac-Man.

The Cassini-Huygens probe turned up the distinct image while reading the surface temperature of Tethys, one of Saturn's numerous moons. It resembles the iconic character that once ate pellets and quarters in video arcades around the world.

Cassini recorded a similar image when it pointed its infrared spectrometer at Mimas, another of Saturn's moons, in 2010.

Mimas was already known to star-gazers and fans of 1980s pop culture as the "Death Star" moon because of its resemblance to the massive space station seen in the Star Wars movies.

The latest Pac-Man sighting and its significance were reported this week in the journal Icarus.

The image indicates higher temperature areas on the surface of the moons caused, researchers theorize, by high-energy electrons from the sun. The electrons bombard and alter the icy surface, causing sections to warm up and cool down at different rates.

Researchers say the findings shed new light on the processes that shape planets and moons.

"Finding a new Pac-Man demonstrates the diversity of processes at work in the Saturn system," said Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in a statement. "Future Cassini observations may reveal other new phenomena that will surprise us and help us better understand the evolution of moons in the Saturn system and beyond."

The Cassini probe is a joint effort by groups including NASA, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the European Space Agency.

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Dirt from Justin Bieber's hometown hits eBay

[View the story "Dirt from Justin Bieber's hometown for sale on Ebay" on Storify]

Storified by CBC News Community · Tue, Nov 27 2012 14:13:53

Imgur

A jar of dirt from Stratford, Ontario is the talk of Twitter today thanks to one enterprising Canadian who put it up for sale.

Imgur

But for a starting bid of $39.99 US, this is no ordinary jar of dirt; It's Bieber dirt -- soil sourced from the hometown of Justin Bieber himself.

Imgur

EBay seller 'thatsridonculus', who hails from Kitchener, promises the dirt was collected personally from the pop star's home town "with love" and includes a certificate of authenticity with the package.

According to the listing, the soil is sanitized and safe for transport to be shipped anywhere in the world. It comes in a vial adorned with a bejewelled "J" for Justin.

Imgur

The dirt was put up for auction on November 13 and as of Tuesday morning had two interested bidders with undisclosed offers. The auction was set to expire on December 13, but the listing is now closed.

Bieber clearly has very passionate fans, like this Belieber who tweeted about the dirt from Russia.

RT @RussianTeamJB: Dirt from the homeland of Justin Bieber on sale / Грязь с родины Джастина Бибера выставлена на продажу. lol http://pic.twitter.com/O9AkgQKtHEY JUSTIN

While the seller hails the Bieber dirt as "great for crafts, inside pendant jewellery, scrapbooking & more!" most of those who aren't hardcore Beliebers are begging to differ.

I lose faith in humanity that this exists on eBay. http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Justin-Bieber-Collectible-100-Real-Soil-from-Hometown-Stratford-Ontario-Canada-/281022792865?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_2&hash=item416e4384a1&_uhb=1#ht_4617wt_956 http://pic.twitter.com/qfBPfUweAndrew Kaczynski

Someone on eBay is auctioning off dirt from Bieber's hometown at $39 (Usually dirt from around there goes for WAY more) http://www.ebay.com/itm/Justin-Bieber-Collectible-100-Real-Soil-from-Hometown-Stratford-Ontario-Canada-/281022792865?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_2&hash=item416e4384a1Andrew Hockridge

Oh America...really? 'Soil from Justin Bieber's home town selling on ebay' http://goo.gl/KtBvCChris Holmes

I'm 18hrs + $39.99 away from losing all respect for humanity. MT @JesseNewhart: Buy Soil from Justin Bieber's Hometown http://bit.ly/YgZsGFAllegra Tepper

& some moron will buy it. MT @YahooOmgCA: eBay seller auctions off dirt from Justin Bieber's hometown for price of $40: http://bit.ly/TgZXdECaitlin McCormack

You have got to be kidding me, people are selling Justin Bieber dirt? #biggestscamoflifehttp://ca.omg.yahoo.com/blogs/north-stars/dirt-justin-bieber-hometown-sale-ebay-195332369.html?fb_action_ids=10151269906514516&fb_action_types=news.reads&fb_ref=type%3Aread%2Cuser%3AqS9PwAOTYMPwY77oYdg1wRv6L0U%2Caf%3Asb&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%7B%2210151269906514516%22%3A306775002760268%7D&action_type_map=%7B%2210151269906514516%22%3A%22news.reads%22%7D&action_ref_map=%7B%2210151269906514516%22%3A%22type%3Aread%2Cuser%3AqS9PwAOTYMPwY77oYdg1wRv6L0U%2Caf%3Asb%22%7D&code=AQD4f6QS34TAA31n9sNT73K5ooX76rzfxn7io5cekeMNitpMiqTDZQc_OF9OlugxrGB8jo4AZcR8hNKCU-rd1KaReBcJSZS3HJ0tflBclWEdKld3sMHvN02rOybyG7PMZsvzo0zec4hFBvpNGDyZ7Mzv1zbIvMrc28LgkSXkaK8rjb16wLeNhhefb8SdeTKqC2eEiyFgNESSIVGZzBOWqTeO#_=_Shay Gavin

This OTT Bieber souvenir is the most ridiculous thing on eBay http://r29.co/TfpCDbrefinery29

You can purchase a decorative jar of dirt from the Biebster's hometown - for just $39.99. This is the world we live in. http://www.refinery29.com/2012/11/39709/justin-bieber-dirtNika Rastakhiz

I can think of 100 better ways to spend $40...Once in a lifetime opportunity to own dirt from Justin Bieber's hometown: http://www.buzzfeed.com/lyapalater/once-in-a-lifetime-opportunity-to-own-dirt-from-juMelissa Ashley Perri

What are your thoughts on celebrity memorabilia? Have you ever purchased something linked to a star you admire?

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'Egyptian Popeye' elicits awe, suspicion with 31-inch arms

Don't tell Popeye. It turns out you don't need to eat your spinach to get the world's biggest arms.

Bodybuilder Moustafa Ismail eats three kilograms of protein and four kilograms of carbohydrates and drinks 11 litres of water each day to help maintain upper arms that measure 31 inches around — as big as a small man's waist.

Skeptics say there must also be steroids or some other artificial means behind Ismail's beyond-bulging biceps and triceps, and Guinness World Records is waffling on whether to recognize him.

But he insists they are all-natural, the result of a punishing workout regimen he started after a guest at his uncle's wedding in his native Egypt mocked his overweight frame.

"They call me Popeye, the Egyptian Popeye," Ismail, 24, said while working out in the Boston suburb of Milford. But unlike the cartoon character, "I like chicken, beef, anything but spinach."

It's not easy having the world's biggest arms.

Ismail has lifted as much as 272 kilograms but said he doesn't typically focus on how much weight he is hoisting. (Stephen Savoia/AP)

Generous amounts of poultry, seafood and shakes provide the protein he needs to fuel daily two-hour workouts in which he lifts as much as 270 kilograms. He also takes mineral and vitamin supplements and drinks plenty of water to flush out his system.

Then there's clothes shopping. The rest of Ismail's body is average, so it's a challenge finding shirts that fit his arms without making him look like a little kid playing dress-up.

Not to mention the controversy that ensued when Guinness decided to recognize him as having the largest upper arm muscles on earth and critics accused him of using steroids or other artificial methods.

He lost a night of sleep but then decided the criticism "is motivation for me — it's not something that's gonna put me down."

Ismail started building his muscles in his Egyptian hometown of Alexandria before moving to the United States in 2007 and settling in Franklin, southwest of Boston. To pay for his gym membership and dietary requirements, he worked two jobs as a gas station attendant, but gave up one after his wife complained that he was pushing himself too hard.

Then Guinness called last fall, offering him an all-expenses-paid trip to London for a signature appearance with the world's shortest woman and others.

Accusations 'hurtful'

He went, but then the controversy started. Strangers claimed online that he used steroids or had implants in his arms. Others speculated that he might have injected his muscles with a synthetic oil substance, synthol, used by bodybuilders to fluff muscle tissues.

"It is hurtful," Ismail said, noting that he has no scars that would have resulted from surgery and that supporting a wife in the U.S. and family members in Egypt doesn't leave him with spare cash to buy pricey synthetic oils.

He even went to Tokyo to appear in a Fuji TV documentary program in which independent doctors collected blood samples and X-rayed his muscles. They found nothing abnormal, he said.

Still, Guinness hastily removed references to Ismail from its website. Spokeswoman Sara Wilcox said in October that Guinness was conducting research with medical specialists and reviewing Ismail's category. She did not respond to emailed questions later seeking details about when Guinness would conclude the review and what it entails.

Some fellow amateur bodybuilders at his gym, however, support Ismail and say they believe his arms are natural.

"When I first saw him I thought 'Oh my God, he's a freak' — the big Popeye arms, he's incredible, but he works out hard, so good luck to him," said Janice Vincuilla.

Ismail has lifted as much as 272 kilograms but said he doesn't typically focus on how much weight he is hoisting.

"It's not about me lifting heavy weights," he said. "It's about me making the right techniques, even with the light weights, but getting good results out of that."

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Thai inmates dance to Gangnam Style

The K-pop hit that recently became the most-watched music video ever on YouTube has caught on in a Thai prison.

Seventy inmates at the Bangkok Remand Prison took part in a Gangnam Style competition Tuesday, wearing colourful wigs and makeup as they danced for media.

The dance contest, which started in October before being whittled down to 70 finalists, has helped reduce violence among the prisoners, officials told Reuters.

The winning team received a trophy along with food and clothes.

PSY, the Korean rapper behind Gangnam Style, will perform in Thailand on Wednesday.

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Chinese newspaper falls for The Onion's 'sexiest man alive' nod to Kim Jong-un

CBC News Community team, from left to right: Andrew Yates, Andrea Lee-Greenberg, Lauren O'Neil, John Bowman

If you're part of the CBC News community, you're likely to meet one of us: we're the folks working to produce and promote your stories. Read more about us.

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PSY's Gangnam Style breaks YouTube's record

South Korean rapper PSY's Gangnam Style has become YouTube's most viewed video of all time.

YouTube says in a posting on its Trends blog that Gangnam Style had been viewed 805 million times as of Saturday afternoon, surpassing Justin Bieber's Baby, which has had 803 million views.

The blog says the "velocity of popularity for PSY's outlandish video is unprecedented."

PSY's video featuring his horse-riding dance was posted on YouTube in July, while Baby was uploaded in February 2010.

PSY's video has become a global sensation, with many people around the world mimicking his Gangnam Style dance. In their October meeting, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, a South Korean, joked that he had to relinquish his title as "the most famous Korean," and tried a few of PSY's dance moves.

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'Milking' video goes viral

Step aside planking, as a new — albeit messier — internet fad is gaining ground.

Milking is simple: Buy a jug of milk, go out in public and record as you pour the milk over your head.

Last week, some Newcastle University students from the U.K. posted a video of them "milking" on YouTube. Since Nov. 21, it has been viewed more than 60,000 times.

In the video, they pour jugs of milk over their heads in public places, including on a roundabout, outside a pub and while walking on the street.

Some find the video udderly hilarious — jumping at the opportunity to make bad milk-related puns — and are promising to record their own "legendairy" milking videos.

But not everyone is happy with the trend. Many commenters are calling it a waste of milk and money.

However, the video's, perhaps ironic, explanation calling on people to "support British dairy farmers" may provide an answer to naysayers.

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San Francisco approves 220-square-foot micro apartments

This artist's concept released by shows a 300 square-foot apartment proposed for San Francisco. A change to the city's building code will allow new apartments to be as small as 220 square feet. (AP Photo/Panoramic Interests)How much living space would you sacrifice for an affordable pad in the center of a bustling city?

Lawmakers in San Francisco this week approved plans to construct what may become the tiniest apartment units in the U.S., only 220 square feet including bathroom, kitchen and closet.

That's roughly the size of two parking spaces.

Previously, the city's building code mandated that micro-apartments be no smaller than 290 square feet, but with the average studio apartment now renting for $2,000 in San Francisco, officials are reducing that number.

"To confront San Francisco's rising housing affordability crisis, we must be creative and flexible," said city supervisor Scott Wiener said in a statement published by the L.A. Times. "Allowing the construction of these units is one tool to alleviate the pressure that is making vacancies scarce and driving rental prices out of the reach of many who wish to live here."

Wiener hopes that the apartments, 375 units in total, will rent for $1,200 to $1,500 per month.

The space-location-price debate is starting to drive more North American cities the way of Tokyo, where tiny urban dwellings are already the norm.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced a city-sponsored micro-unit apartment design competition in New York this summer, and in Vancouver micro-lofts as small as 226 square feet rent for about $850 per month.

Would you give up space for location and price? Is 220 square feet too small a space for you to live, or would you be happy to land an affordable place downtown in a major city?

POLL: Would you live in a 220-square-foot apartment?

Would you live in a 220-square-foot apartment?

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Justin Bieber receives Diamond Jubilee medal from Harper

[View the story "Canadian Prime Minister presents Justin Bieber with medal" on Storify]

Storified by CBC News Community · Fri, Nov 23 2012 17:28:05

Staticflickr

Stephen Harper is the envy of Justin Bieber fans around the world right now and may in fact be a belieber himself according to his Twitter feed.

The Canadian Prime Minister met with Bieber in Ottawa Friday to present the 18-year-old pop star with a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.

Was happy to present @justinbieber with a Diamond Jubilee Medal today. http://ow.ly/fxaYa #beliebersStephen Harper

Bieber, a Stratford, Ont. native, is one of 60 000 Canadians to recieve the Diamond Jubilee medal this year.

The commemorative award was created to mark the 60th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's ascent to the throne and honours "significant contributions and achievements by Canadians."

The Governor General of Canada > Diamond Jubilee MedalHome > Honours > Diamond Jubilee Medal Diamond Jubilee Medal Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal A new commemorative medal was creat...

While few could deny that Bieber has made an impact on Canadian culture, many were unhappy with the outfit he chose to accept the honour.

WHY IS JUSTIN BIEBER WEARING OVERALLS WHILE MEETING THE PRIME MINISTER OF CANADA http://pic.twitter.com/a6QOvVB0reena▲

Alas, this is how Justin Bieber dresses to receive a medal from our Prime Minister in celebration of our head of state: http://goo.gl/ekw2tAdam Scotti

Please don't ever dress like Justin Bieber when being presented a Diamond Jubilee Medal by the Prime Minister. http://www.flickr.com/photos/pmharper/8212520594/in/photostreamMichael

but @justinbieber ... stephen harper isn't your friend the cowboy. It's the prime minister of your own country.#3Days

Justin Bieber, the boy who meets the Prime Minister of Canada in Overalls..3 days ∞

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mdyrasCC4s1qhft5ko1_500.png Oh God, I'm slamming my head against the wall. @JustinBieber he's the Prime Minister of Canada for crying out loud!!Easha H.

@nannylula harper needed a photo op with a pop star, shoulda just asked @justintrudeau, at least he knows how to dress #cdnpoliLori King

I cannot believe what Justin bieber wore to accept the diamond jubilee award from stephen Harper today. Embarrassing. @justinbieberBeth Whittington

.......................omfg did justin bieber meet steven harper in overalls and a snapback..shaughn april

Justin Bieber meeting the prime minister of Canada looking like a farmer or someone who's ready to paint walls. http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mdyrasCC4s1qhft5ko1_500.pngdzennaн †

My take on Harper presenting Bieber with the <> jubilee.... http://pic.twitter.com/iSnVlu2cStephen Frampton

Bieber himself alluded to the outfit late this afternoon, though it's unclear as to whether he Tweeted this before or after meeting Harper.

Overauhls. lolJustin Bieber

Harper also received some criticism for meeting with a pop star instead of premiers in Halifax.

While the premiers met in #Halifax this week, #Harper stood them up to hang out with Justin Bieber: http://bit.ly/U2JQ4p | #cdnpoli #NSpoliTony Tracy

When the Prime Minister turned down the Premiers, he should've just said he was already booked. http://www2.macleans.ca/2012/11/23/the-bieber-harper-summit/aaronwherry

. @Tony_Tracy Bieber has a better fiscal plan then the @nsndp - it is well documented #babybabybabyAdam R. Bowser

The Bieber-Harper summit: While the premiers meet in Halifax, Stephen Harper meets with Justin Bieber to present... http://bit.ly/T3WONZmacleansblogs

#Harper skipped the Premiers' summit to meet #Bieber. WELL OBVIOUSLY. #duh http://www2.macleans.ca/2012/11/23/the-bieber-harper-summit/ #cdnpoliJesse Robertson

Many observers were amused by the fact that Harper used a #beliebers hashtag, comparing the entire situation to the type of satirical news parody stories produced by the Onion.

Justin Bieber receives medal from the Canadian Prime Minister. (Real life is better than the Onion) http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/justin-bieber-receives-medal-from-canadian-prime-mAndrew Kaczynski

yep, our PM just used the hashtag #beliebers RT @pmharper Was happy to present @justinbieber with a Diamond Jubilee Medal today. #beliebersPeter Knegt

Not The Onion RT @pmharper: Was happy to present @justinbieber with a Diamond Jubilee Medal today. http://ow.ly/fxaYa #beliebersAlex Burns

This really happened. RT @pmharper Was happy to present @justinbieber with a Diamond Jubilee Medal today. http://ow.ly/fxaYa #beliebersjenmacmillan

Justin Bieber and PM Harper... who knew the PM was a Biebernatic? http://bit.ly/R6sy9C #cdnpoliWill

the prime minister of canada aka stephen harper probably fangirled because he just met justin bieber.8 days

I think that bieber tweet will get the higest amout of retweets harper will ever get lolNelly Nutella

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San Francisco approves 220-square-foot micro apartments

This artist's concept released by shows a 300 square-foot apartment proposed for San Francisco. A change to the city's building code will allow new apartments to be as small as 220 square feet. (AP Photo/Panoramic Interests)How much living space would you sacrifice for an affordable pad in the center of a bustling city?

Lawmakers in San Francisco this week approved plans to construct what may become the tiniest apartment units in the U.S., only 220 square feet including bathroom, kitchen and closet.

That's roughly the size of two parking spaces.

Previously, the city's building code mandated that micro-apartments be no smaller than 290 square feet, but with the average studio apartment now renting for $2,000 in San Francisco, officials are reducing that number.

"To confront San Francisco's rising housing affordability crisis, we must be creative and flexible," said city supervisor Scott Wiener said in a statement published by the L.A. Times. "Allowing the construction of these units is one tool to alleviate the pressure that is making vacancies scarce and driving rental prices out of the reach of many who wish to live here."

Wiener hopes that the apartments, 375 units in total, will rent for $1,200 to $1,500 per month.

The space-location-price debate is starting to drive more North American cities the way of Tokyo, where tiny urban dwellings are already the norm.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced a city-sponsored micro-unit apartment design competition in New York this summer, and in Vancouver micro-lofts as small as 226 square feet rent for about $850 per month.

Would you give up space for location and price? Is 220 square feet too small a space for you to live, or would you be happy to land an affordable place downtown in a major city?

POLL: Would you live in a 220-square-foot apartment?

Would you live in a 220-square-foot apartment?

22.55 | 0 komentar | Read More

Justin Bieber receives Diamond Jubilee medal from Harper

[View the story "Canadian Prime Minister presents Justin Bieber with medal" on Storify]

Storified by CBC News Community · Fri, Nov 23 2012 17:28:05

Staticflickr

Stephen Harper is the envy of Justin Bieber fans around the world right now and may in fact be a belieber himself according to his Twitter feed.

The Canadian Prime Minister met with Bieber in Ottawa Friday to present the 18-year-old pop star with a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.

Was happy to present @justinbieber with a Diamond Jubilee Medal today. http://ow.ly/fxaYa #beliebersStephen Harper

Bieber, a Stratford, Ont. native, is one of 60 000 Canadians to recieve the Diamond Jubilee medal this year.

The commemorative award was created to mark the 60th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's ascent to the throne and honours "significant contributions and achievements by Canadians."

The Governor General of Canada > Diamond Jubilee MedalHome > Honours > Diamond Jubilee Medal Diamond Jubilee Medal Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal A new commemorative medal was creat...

While few could deny that Bieber has made an impact on Canadian culture, many were unhappy with the outfit he chose to accept the honour.

WHY IS JUSTIN BIEBER WEARING OVERALLS WHILE MEETING THE PRIME MINISTER OF CANADA http://pic.twitter.com/a6QOvVB0reena▲

Alas, this is how Justin Bieber dresses to receive a medal from our Prime Minister in celebration of our head of state: http://goo.gl/ekw2tAdam Scotti

Please don't ever dress like Justin Bieber when being presented a Diamond Jubilee Medal by the Prime Minister. http://www.flickr.com/photos/pmharper/8212520594/in/photostreamMichael

but @justinbieber ... stephen harper isn't your friend the cowboy. It's the prime minister of your own country.#3Days

Justin Bieber, the boy who meets the Prime Minister of Canada in Overalls..3 days ∞

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mdyrasCC4s1qhft5ko1_500.png Oh God, I'm slamming my head against the wall. @JustinBieber he's the Prime Minister of Canada for crying out loud!!Easha H.

@nannylula harper needed a photo op with a pop star, shoulda just asked @justintrudeau, at least he knows how to dress #cdnpoliLori King

I cannot believe what Justin bieber wore to accept the diamond jubilee award from stephen Harper today. Embarrassing. @justinbieberBeth Whittington

.......................omfg did justin bieber meet steven harper in overalls and a snapback..shaughn april

Justin Bieber meeting the prime minister of Canada looking like a farmer or someone who's ready to paint walls. http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mdyrasCC4s1qhft5ko1_500.pngdzennaн †

My take on Harper presenting Bieber with the <> jubilee.... http://pic.twitter.com/iSnVlu2cStephen Frampton

Bieber himself alluded to the outfit late this afternoon, though it's unclear as to whether he Tweeted this before or after meeting Harper.

Overauhls. lolJustin Bieber

Harper also received some criticism for meeting with a pop star instead of premiers in Halifax.

While the premiers met in #Halifax this week, #Harper stood them up to hang out with Justin Bieber: http://bit.ly/U2JQ4p | #cdnpoli #NSpoliTony Tracy

When the Prime Minister turned down the Premiers, he should've just said he was already booked. http://www2.macleans.ca/2012/11/23/the-bieber-harper-summit/aaronwherry

. @Tony_Tracy Bieber has a better fiscal plan then the @nsndp - it is well documented #babybabybabyAdam R. Bowser

The Bieber-Harper summit: While the premiers meet in Halifax, Stephen Harper meets with Justin Bieber to present... http://bit.ly/T3WONZmacleansblogs

#Harper skipped the Premiers' summit to meet #Bieber. WELL OBVIOUSLY. #duh http://www2.macleans.ca/2012/11/23/the-bieber-harper-summit/ #cdnpoliJesse Robertson

Many observers were amused by the fact that Harper used a #beliebers hashtag, comparing the entire situation to the type of satirical news parody stories produced by the Onion.

Justin Bieber receives medal from the Canadian Prime Minister. (Real life is better than the Onion) http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/justin-bieber-receives-medal-from-canadian-prime-mAndrew Kaczynski

yep, our PM just used the hashtag #beliebers RT @pmharper Was happy to present @justinbieber with a Diamond Jubilee Medal today. #beliebersPeter Knegt

Not The Onion RT @pmharper: Was happy to present @justinbieber with a Diamond Jubilee Medal today. http://ow.ly/fxaYa #beliebersAlex Burns

This really happened. RT @pmharper Was happy to present @justinbieber with a Diamond Jubilee Medal today. http://ow.ly/fxaYa #beliebersjenmacmillan

Justin Bieber and PM Harper... who knew the PM was a Biebernatic? http://bit.ly/R6sy9C #cdnpoliWill

the prime minister of canada aka stephen harper probably fangirled because he just met justin bieber.8 days

I think that bieber tweet will get the higest amout of retweets harper will ever get lolNelly Nutella

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Humane society discounts black animals 50% for Black Friday

The humane society in Windsor, Ont. is joining the Black Friday fever by discounting dogs, cats and rabbits, but only the black ones.

The Windsor-Essex County Humane Society said there is a "Black Animal Syndrome" and will slash the adoption fee by 50 per cent for all furry creatures that are mostly or all black.

Executive director Melanie Coulter said black animals have traditionally been difficult to adopt across North America.

"We don't know exactly why. There are a lot of suspicions that their features are harder to see in pictures and even in kennels," said Coulter. "Maybe people just think they're boring or even in some cases that it's a superstition with black cats."

This is the first time the humane society offered a discount for pets on Black Friday. Officials said they're always looking for creative ways to find homes for black animals that typically have a much longer stay than those with other colours.

The centre is currently seeking a home for 15 black animals.

Centre wants to avoid impulse buys

Coulter said the humane society has done some Black Friday advertising, but wants to ensure the sale is not attracting the wrong crowd.

"We don't want people to impulse buy, so hopefully it's a situation where we're maybe attracting the attention of people who were thinking of coming out in the next week or two," said Coulter "And maybe steering them to some of these guys who get overlooked."

Coulter said she hasn't observed many pet impulse adoptions during the holiday season because an adoption counselling process is in place. People must also wait at least 24 hours before they can take an animal home.

However, Coulter said she hopes people with good intentions will avoid crowded malls and adopt a pet as their deal of the day.

"We don't anticipate the kind of rush that a place like Target or Wal-Mart might see, but hopefully we will see some of these guys find their forever homes [Friday]," said Coulter.

The humane society offers a 50 per cent discount year round on animals over eight years old. It doesn't have any black pets referred to as "Golden Oldies," but if it did, Coulter said the adoption fee would be reduced by 75 per cent.

The Windsor-Essex County Humane Society's Black Friday special runs Friday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

View the animals online at www.windsorhumane.org

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Missing island may have been caused by digitizing error

A Pacific island that seems to have disappeared from the Coral Sea between Australia and New Caledonia may simply have been created by human error in the first place, a scientist says.

Sandy Island, which is seen on numerous maps, nautical charts and even Google Earth, has captured the popular imagination after a team of geologists travelling by ship through the area found to their amazement that it wasn't there.

'The maps of Mars and the moon are much higher resolution and coverage than what we have of our own oceans.'—Sabin Zahirovic, geologist

Now one of the Australian scientists involved says mistakes made by those who transferred cartographers' charts to digital form may be at the root of the mysterious island's appearance and disappearance.

"It's completely possibly that it was a human error in digitizing these maps at some stage," geologist Sabin Zahirovic of the University of Sydney told Reuters.

"And it's just entered the databases once, and it's stuck around inside the databases, because no scientific vessels have actually been in that region for a very, very long time."

Zahirovic explained that, like much of the world's oceans, the Coral Sea is actually a poorly explored area.

"The maps of Mars and the moon are much higher resolution and coverage than what we have of our own oceans," he said. "So we really need to go back and send more vessels and research vessels out there to map the ocean floor and better understand what's out there."

Sandy Island appeared to lie about 1,200 kilometres due east of the Queensland, Australia, coast toward the French-held archipelago of New Caledonia.

A team of geologists from the University of Sydney, led by Marie Seton, made a 25-day voyage through the area aboard a research vessel, ending earlier this month. They were exploring and compiling information about the sea floor.

When they came to the area where Sandy Island should have been visible, however, they found only blue sea.

"We became suspicious when the navigation charts used by the ship showed a depth of 1,400 metres in an area where our scientific maps and Google Earth showed the existence of a large island," Seton told the Sydney Morning Herald.

The project gathered 197 different rock samples and mapped more than 14,000 square kilometres of the ocean floor.

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Former Price is Right model awarded $7.7M in damages

The producers of The Price is Right owe a former model on the television game show more than $7.7 million US in punitive damages for discriminating against her after a pregnancy, a jury has decided.

The judgment released Wednesday came one day after the panel found the show's producers discriminated against Brandi Cochran. They also awarded her nearly $777,000 in actual damages.

Cochran, 41, is a former Miss U.S.A. from Idaho.

She said she was rejected when she tried to return to The Price is Right in early 2010 after taking maternity leave. The jury agreed and determined that FremantleMedia North America and The Price is Right Productions owed her more than $8.5 million in all.

"I'm humbled. I'm shocked," Cochran said after the jury announced its verdict. "I'm happy that justice was served today not only for women in the entertainment industry, but women in the workplace."

FremantleMedia said it was standing by its previous statement, which said it expected to be "fully vindicated" after an appeal.

"We believe the verdict in this case was the result of a flawed process in which the court, among other things, refused to allow the jury to hear and consider that 40 per cent of our models have been pregnant," and further "important" evidence, FremantleMedia said.

In their defence, producers said they were satisfied with the five models working on the show at the time Cochran sought to return.

Several other former models have sued the series and its longtime host, Bob Barker, who retired in 2007.

Most of the cases involving Barker's Beauties — the nickname given the gown-wearing women who presented prizes to contestants — ended with out-of-court settlements.

Comedian-actor Drew Carey followed Barker as the show's host.

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Heroes of Science action figures get brainiacs buzzing

[View the story "Heroes of Science action figures get brainiacs buzzing" on Storify]

Storified by CBC News Community · Wed, Nov 21 2012 13:51:40

Imgur

They can't morph into machines, crush rocks withtheir fists or travel through time (yet), but many would consider the 20th century'sgreatest scientists heroes in every sense of the word.

Digital artist Russell Gawthorpe certainly thinks so, which is whyhe designed a "Heroes of Science Action Figures" set to honour the likes of Niels Bohr, Alan Turing, Nikola Tesla and 27 others.

Staticflickr

"I've noticed that you can buy Albert Einstein figures, Nikola Tesla bobble-heads and The Simpsons even brought out a Stephen Hawking figure based on his appearance in an episode," wrote the artist on his DeviantART profile. "However, I thought it'd be really cool if there was an entire series of them, based on all of the people who've contributed to our understanding of the world and the universe it sits in."

Ufunk

The concept dolls were created using digital paint and manipulation techniques. Their bodies are based on Star Trek: TNG and Star Trek: DS9 action figures and the entire set took about 50 hours of work to complete, said the artist.

As of Gawthorpe's last update, he has no plans of taking the set into production, but reaction to his work may change his mind. Twitter shows that there's certainly a market for the Heroes of Science.

All I want for Xmas is --> Heroes of Science action figures http://flpbd.it/GiWkB via @vergeMichael Owen Hill

RT @Matt_Muir: Why aren't these real / available to buy? Heroes of Science - the action figures: http://datazoid.deviantart.com/art/Heroes-of-Science-Action-Figures-337514889Andrew Robinson

Why can't this be a thing? Please Internet... make this a thing. Just this once Internet: http://datazoid.deviantart.com/art/Heroes-of-Science-Action-Figures-337514889John Mikael Gunderse

Will the gods of science and engineering please please make these Heroes of Science action figures a real thing. http://www.geekologie.com/2012/11/not-a-bad-idea-heroes-of-science-action.phpMichael Cosentino

#science Now, where's the Kickstarter project to mass-produce these totally awesome (conceptual) action figures?! http://datazoid.deviantart.com/art/Heroes-of-Science-Action-Figures-337514889J. Martin

Why can't these amazing Heroes of Science action figures be real?! I want to own them all. http://bit.ly/WqFw3EJoe Hanson

Gawthorpe explained in his FAQ section that while millions of scientists have existed throughout history, he only had time to make 30.

His criteria was limited to scientists 'alive at some point in the 20th century' in an attempt to make the job of choosing more manageable. Also, "no scientists famous for major medical breakthroughs. Primarily because medical heroes is a category all of its own, and there are hundreds to choose from."

Of course, as with any list of famous figures, there's been some debate over who was included in the set -- and who was left out.

This is BS -- there's no @ninatandon action figure: Heroes of Science action figures - Holy Kaw! http://holykaw.alltop.com/science-to-the-rescue-heroes-of-science-actioe1evation

No Galileo and only one lady, but these Heroes of Science Action Figures are still righteous. http://bit.ly/XgV2AjJason M Harrison

This'd be great if it were real, but no @TheScienceGuy @steltzner @tweetsoutloud or any other folks from JPL or NASA?? http://bit.ly/X4yfYkJennifer Ray

A few users took up issue with the lack of women represented in the collection; a subject Gawthorpe also addresses in the FAQ section of his post on DeviantART:

"Statistically, they're in the minority. I'm not suggesting by any degree that their work is lesser, or that they shouldn't be recognised for their accomplishments, but when you punch up a list of "most recognisable scientists"... there just aren't many women," he wrote.

"Just to point out: I only have one African-American scientist, one Indian scientist, one Hungarian mathematician... Unfortunately for this collection, there are only so many hours I can spend drawing little people." 

Really cool, but token Marie Curie? Binders full of women scientists? "@brainpicker: Heroes of science action figures! http://j.mp/UTgxQy"terfle

Only one female Hero of Science? RT @jtotheizzoe Why can't these amazing Heroes of Science action figures be real?! http://bit.ly/WqFw3EPeter MacArthur

First thought on seeing this lot - http://datazoid.deviantart.com/art/Heroes-of-Science-Action-Figures-337514889 - why only one woman? Where's Grace Hopper? Where's Ada Lovelace? (I'm a programmer)Chris

Heroes of science action figures. Where are the women? http://th06.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/f/2012/317/1/b/1b51c514153da2a54d01ad9484f13592-d5ky45l.jpgAlexis Rudd

http://datazoid.deviantart.com/art/Heroes-of-Science-Action-Figures-337514889 - I would totally buy this, but why does the only woman (Marie Curie) look like she'd come alive at night to murder me?Elizabeth Pearson

Imgur

All-about-psychology

Who would you like to see immortalized as an action figure?

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Anthony Hopkins slams Oscar race as 'disgusting'

Critics predict Sir Anthony Hopkins will be nominated for an Oscar this year, but the legendary actor could care less about the academy. (Getty Images) With the Oscar race now underway, Hollywood types are working hard to secure their own Academy Award nominations, invitations, and maybe even a statue come February.

But not Sir Anthony Hopkins.

"People go out of their way to flatter the nominating body and I think it's kind of disgusting," said the legendary actor in a recent interview with Christopher Rosen for the Huffington Post.

Hopkins won an Academy Award for Best Actor for Silence of the Lambs in 1991, and this year critics are predicting he'll be nominated in the same category for playing Sir Alfred Hitchcock in Sacha Gervasi's Hitchcock, set to be released this month.

When asked for his thoughts on the film's Oscar buzz, Hopkins told Rosen he wasn't aware of any and went on to decry the process of Oscar campaigning - the organized efforts of studios, publicists, and stars themselves to influence Academy members each year.

"You know, kissing the backside of the authorities that can make or break it; I can't stand all that. I find it nauseating to watch and I think it's disgusting to behold. People groveling around and kissing the backsides of famous producers and all that. It makes me want to throw up, it really does. It's sick-making. I've seen it so many times. I saw it fairly recently, last year. Some great producer-mogul and everyone kisses this guy's backside. I think, 'What are they doing? Don't they have any self respect?' I wanted to say, "F*** off."

And Hopkins isn't alone.

Earlier this year, Joaquin Phoenix expressed similar feelings in a Q&A with Interview Magazine. The actor is widely considered to be another contender in the Best Actor category for his role in The Master.

"I don't want to be a part of it. I don't believe in it. It's a carrot, but it's the worst-tasting carrot I've ever tasted in my whole life. I don't want this carrot. It's totally subjective. Pitting people against each other ... It's the stupidest thing in the whole world," he said.

There has been much debate in recent years over the relevancy of award shows like the Academy Awards.
 

Do you care about the Academy Awards?

What are your thoughts? Are Oscars still relevant? And if so, is it appropriate for studios and actors to try and sway judges' decisions? Let us know in the comments below.

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U.S. college basketball player scores 138 points

After a poor shooting weekend, Grinnell point guard Jack Taylor was given the green light to shoot his way out of a slump.

It only took 108 shots for Taylor to make a mockery of the college basketball record books.

Taylor scored 138 points to shatter the NCAA scoring record in Division III Grinnell's 179-104 victory over Faith Baptist Bible on Tuesday night in Grinnell, Iowa.

Taylor, a 5-foot-10, 170-pound sophomore from Black River Falls, Wis., made 27 of 71 3-point attempts, was 52 of 108 overall from the field and added seven free throws on 10 attempts in 36 minutes.

"It felt like anything I tossed up was going in," Taylor told The Associated Press.

Rio Grande's Bevo Francis held the NCAA scoring record with 113 points against Hillsdale in 1954. In 1953, Francis had 116 against Ashland Junior College. Frank Selvy is the only other player to reach triple figures, scoring 100 points for Division I Furman against Newberry in 1954. The previous Grinnell record was 89 by Griffin Lentsch last Nov. 19 against Principia.

Under coach David Arseneault, the Pioneers press and shoot 3s like nobody else in the country in any level. They've led the nation in scoring for 17 of the past 19 seasons while ranking first nationally in 3-point shooting for the 15 of those past 19 years. But none of them have had a night quite like Taylor — who never saw this coming.

Taylor recently transferred to Grinnell, located about 50 miles east of Des Moines, after playing one season for Wisconsin-La Crosse. He struggled in his debut at the nearby Wartburg Tournament over the weekend by hitting just 11 of 41 shots — including just 6 of his 41 3-point attempts Still, he averaged 23.5 points a game.

But Taylor started Tuesday's night game off slow — at least according to his standards. His coaches figured the best way to get him on track was for him to keep chucking, so that's what Taylor did.

"Maybe my cold shooting from the weekend was affecting me," Taylor said. "But then they started to drop."

Taylor had 58 points at halftime.

Then he got hot.

Taylor was 32 of 58 shooting — including 18 3s — in the final 20 minutes and averaged an astounding four points a minute in the second half.

"I don't think reality has set in yet," Taylor said.

Carmelo Anthony and the New York Knicks were amazed by the feat when they heard about it after their victory in New Orleans.

"I never heard of nothing like that. That's like a video game," Anthony said, an incredulous look on his face. "How can you shoot 100 times, though?"

He joked that from now on when someone asks if he's taking too many shots, he'll mention "that someone shot it 108 times."

Raymond Felton also was astounded by the 108 shots.

"His elbow has got to be sore," Felton said.

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Obama pulls 'not impressed' face with Olympic gymnast McKayla Maroney

CBC News Community team, from left to right: Andrew Yates, Andrea Lee-Greenberg, Lauren O'Neil, John Bowman

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72-year-old grandpa models for teen-girl fashion line

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Stephen Colbert unveils wax figure at Madame Tussauds

Comedian Stephen Colbert is taking his place among the presidents at the Madame Tussauds wax museum in Washington and will be featured in a new media gallery.

Colbert visited the museum Friday to unveil a wax figure created to represent him. The museum says Colbert donated his own clothes to dress the figure in a suit, tie, cuff links and lapel pin. Colbert wore an identical outfit.

The new figure will be the centerpiece of a new media gallery with a replica of The Colbert Report set where guests can sit next to Colbert's figure behind his fake news desk.

Designers from Madame Tussauds went to Colbert's New York studio in June to take more than 250 measurements and photographs of the Comedy Central star to create the wax figure.

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Bieber wins artist of the year at American Music Awards

America proved its Bieber Fever was strong: The teen singer dominated the American Music Awards on Sunday night.

Bieber's wins included the show's top award, artist of the year. His mom joined him onstage as he collected the trophy, beating out Rihanna, Maroon 5, Katy Perry and Drake.

"I wanted to thank you for always believing in me," Bieber said, looking to his mom.

The 18-year-old also won the honour in 2010. He said it's "hard growing up with everyone watching me" and asked that people continue to believe in him.

Bieber and Nicki Minaj performed together — and separately — at the AMAs and were both multiple winners.

MC Hammer, left, and PSY perform onstage. (John Shearer/Invision/Associated Press)

But another collaboration was the night's most colorful performance: Korean rapper PSY and MC Hammer. Hammer joined the buzzed-about pop star for his viral hit Gangnam Style. PSY rocked traditional "Hammer" pants as they danced to his jam and to Hammer's Too Legit to Quit.

Bieber won favourite pop/rock male artist in the first award handed out at Sunday's show and gave a shout-out to those who didn't think he would last on the music scene.

"I want to say this is for all the haters who thought I was just here for one or two years. I feel like I'm going to be here for a very long time," he said.

He also won favourite pop/rock album for Believe. He gave a stripped down, acoustic performance of As Long As You Love Me, then transitioned to the dance-heavy Beauty and a Beat, where Minaj joined him onstage, grinding with the teen for a few seconds.

Nicki Minaj performs Freedom American Music Awards on Sunday, Nov. 18, 2012, in Los Angeles. (Matt Sayles/Invision/Associated Press)

Minaj, who wore three different wigs and four outfits throughout the night, repeated her AMAs wins from last year, picking up trophies for favourite rap/hip-hop artists and album for Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded.

She was in an all-white get-up, including fur coat and pink hair when she performed her new song Freedom. The scene was ghostly and snowy, as a choir — also in white — joined her onstage. One background singer stole the performance, belting semi-high notes as Minaj looked on.

As Bieber won his second award, he was kissed on the neck by Jenny McCarthy, who presented the award.

"Wow. I feel violated right now," he said, laughing.

"I did grab his butt," McCarthy said backstage. "I couldn't help it. He was just so delicious. So little. I wanted to tear his head off and eat it."

Bieber's red and black outfit seemed to be the night's theme, as Taylor Swift and Usher wore similar ensembles.

Justin Bieber is smothered in kisses by presenter Jenny McCarthy as he accepts the award for favorite album - pop/rock for Believe. (Matt Sayles/Invision/Associated Press)

Usher kicked off the three-hour show with green laser lights beaming onstage as he performed a medley of songs, including Numb, Climax and Can't Stop, Won't Stop, which featured a smoky floor and a number of backup dancers, as Usher jammed in all black, with the exception of his red shoes. He won favourite soul/R&B male artist.

Swift won her fifth consecutive award for favourite country female artist.

"This is unreal. I want to thank the fans. You guys are the ones who voted on this," she said.

Swift gave a masquerade-themed performance of the pop song I Knew You Were Trouble. She sang onstage in a light dress while dancers wore mostly black. But then she changed into a red corset and black skirt, matching their dark mood. She even danced and sang on the floor as lights flickered throughout the performance.

Dick Clark, who created the AMAs, was remembered by Ryan Seacrest and an upbeat performance by Stevie Wonder.

Carly Rae Jepsen, who performed early in the night, won favourite new artist.

Carly Rae Jepsen poses backstage with the Old Navy new artist of the year award. (Jordan Strauss/Invision/Associated Press)

"I am floored. Wow," she said, thanking Bieber and his manager, Scooter Braun.

Party girl Ke$ha was glammed up on the red carpet, rocking long, flowy blonde hair and a light pink dress. She switched to her normal attire when she performed her hit single Die Young. It was tribal, with shirtless dancers in skin-tight pants, silver hair and skeleton-painted faces, who also played the drums. Ke$ha was pants-less, rocking knee-high boots and rolling on the floor as she finished up the song.

Christina Aguilera, sporting a blonde bob and a purple dress that matched her eyeshadow, performed a medley of material from her new album and joined Pitbull onstage.

Kelly Clarkson also hit the stage, making a nod to her American Idol roots with a number on her dress and three judges looking on as she sang Miss Independent. Then she went into Since U Been Gone, Stronger and Catch My Breath.

Fellow Idol winner Carrie Underwood won best favourite country album, also performed, hitting the right notes during her performance of Two Black Cadillacs. Luke Bryan won favourite country male artist and Lady Antebellum favourite country group.

Ke$ha performs Die Young at the American Music Awards. (Matt Sayles/Invision/Associated Press)

American Music Awards nominees were selected based on sales and airplay, and fans chose the winners by voting online.

"What makes the American Music Awards special is the fans choose the winning artists," said Chester Bennington of Linkin Park, who won favourite artist alternative rock and performed Burn It Down, as Brandy sang along and Gwen Stefani, Usher and Phillip Phillips bobbed their heads.

David Guetta won the show's first-ever electronic dance music award. Non-televised awards went to Katy Perry for pop/rock female artist, Beyonce for soul/R&B female artist, Adele for adult contemporary artist and Shakira for Latin artist.

Along with Rihanna, Minaj was the top nominee with four nominations.

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Oliver Sacks looks at why we hallucinate

Oliver Sacks, the pioneering neurologist who has exposed the workings of the human brain in his popular books, turns to the subject of hallucinations in his latest title.

Hallucinations, published this week, aims to defuse the stigma around the visions and restore them as a normal, occasionally helpful part of human life.

People are "fascinated and slightly frightened" by the idea of seeing things, Sacks said in an interview Friday with CBC's Q cultural affairs show.

"I think hallucinations, the word, often has an ominous sound. It's a portent of mental illness, of brain degeneration, which is a way people who have hallucinations often talk about them," he said.

Like his previous works, such as The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and An Anthropologist on Mars, Hallucinations includes several case histories. Among them is the story of Rosalie, a mentally sharp 90-year-old who lost her vision due to macular degeneration and suddenly began to have hallucinations.

Although neurologically she had no abnormalities, Sacks determined that the visual parts of her brain, deprived of stimulation, were compensating with a parade of mental images. The diagnosis allowed her to ignore the hallucinations, which she soon found "boring."

Hallucinations often come to people before sleep or those with a fever and it is "wrong to dismiss them as purely pathological when they may also have positive and important effects," Sacks said.

"One sees this sometimes in bereavement hallucinations. About one third of those who have lost a spouse — often after a long, happy marriage — feel this aching hole. This may be filled with seeing and hearing their loved ones and that can be seen as a normal part of the mourning process," he added.

Hallucinations also includes a chapter on Sacks' period of experimentation with drugs when he was in his 30s.

Sacks talks to Q about the role hallucinations play in the human need for transcendence and what he discovered from discussing philosophy with a spider who sounded like Bertrand Russell.

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105-year-old woman turns down preschool acceptance

CBC News Community team, from left to right: Andrew Yates, Andrea Lee-Greenberg, Lauren O'Neil, John Bowman

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Oliver Sacks looks at why we hallucinate

Oliver Sacks, the pioneering neurologist who has exposed the workings of the human brain in his popular books, turns to the subject of hallucinations in his latest title.

Hallucinations, published this week, aims to defuse the stigma around the visions and restore them as a normal, occasionally helpful part of human life.

People are "fascinated and slightly frightened" by the idea of seeing things, Sacks said in an interview Friday with CBC's Q cultural affairs show.

"I think hallucinations, the word, often has an ominous sound. It's a portent of mental illness, of brain degeneration, which is a way people who have hallucinations often talk about them," he said.

Like his previous works, such as The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and An Anthropologist on Mars, Hallucinations includes several case histories. Among them is the story of Rosalie, a mentally sharp 90-year-old who lost her vision due to macular degeneration and suddenly began to have hallucinations.

Although neurologically she had no abnormalities, Sacks determined that the visual parts of her brain, deprived of stimulation, were compensating with a parade of mental images. The diagnosis allowed her to ignore the hallucinations, which she soon found "boring."

Hallucinations often come to people before sleep or those with a fever and it is "wrong to dismiss them as purely pathological when they may also have positive and important effects," Sacks said.

"One sees this sometimes in bereavement hallucinations. About one third of those who have lost a spouse — often after a long, happy marriage — feel this aching hole. This may be filled with seeing and hearing their loved ones and that can be seen as a normal part of the mourning process," he added.

Hallucinations also includes a chapter on Sacks' period of experimentation with drugs when he was in his 30s.

Sacks talks to Q about the role hallucinations play in the human need for transcendence and what he discovered from discussing philosophy with a spider who sounded like Bertrand Russell.

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105-year-old woman turns down preschool acceptance

CBC News Community team, from left to right: Andrew Yates, Andrea Lee-Greenberg, Lauren O'Neil, John Bowman

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Brazil to clone its endangered species

Brazilian researchers are turning to cloning to help fight the perilous decline of several animal species.

The scientists at Brazil's Embrapa agriculture research agency said this week they have spent two years building a gene library with hundreds of samples from eight native species, including the collared anteater, the bush dog, the black lion tamarin, the coati, and deer and bison varieties, as well as the maned wolf.

While still in its early stages, with the birth of a clone likely years away, the project represents Brazilian scientists' first foray into the cloning of wild animals, said team leader Carlos Frederico Martins.

Scientists in other parts of the world have been cloning threatened species for more than a decade, though with a low rate of success, and sometimes with the criticism of conservationists who say more should instead be done to save endangered animals in the wild by protecting their natural habitats.

This Brazilian lobo-guara, also known as a maned wolf, stands in the Jardim Zoo in Brasilia, Brazil. He will be joined by clones if scientists there are successful in their cloning project. (Eraldo Peres/Associated Press)

Martins said that any clones that eventually emerge from the Brazilian project would go to zoos, not into the wild.

"The idea is not to use cloning as a primary conservation tool," Martins said in a phone interview from a farm outside the national capital, Brasilia. He stressed that clones don't resolve one of the main problems facing species with dwindling populations, which is maintaining a sufficiently varied gene pool.

"Let's be clear that cloning can't be a substitute for protecting endangered animals' habitats," Martins said. "It's a way to aid zoos beef up their collections, particularly for animals that don't easily breed in captivity."

Definitive source

The Embrapa project's top candidate for initial cloning is the maned wolf, a towering canine one metre tall at the shoulder, with long legs and a thick red pelt. With an estimated total population of 23,600, the vast majority of them in Brazil, the maned wolf is classified as "near threatened" on the ICNU Red List of Threatened Species, which is widely considered the definitive source on threatened species.

The wolf could prove easier to clone than the other species in the library because it's a good candidate for interspecies cloning. A skin cell from the wolf would be inserted into the egg of a common dog from which the nucleus had been removed, and then implanted into the uterus of a dog, which would serve as the cloned wolf pup's surrogate mother.

Nearly all the samples in the Embrapa team's gene library were culled from the bodies of dead animals, generally road kill brought in from the Cerrado, the vast tropical Savannah that surrounds Brasilia. Sperm, eggs and skin cells are collected from the cadavers and stored in liquid nitrogen at -196 degrees Celsius Martins said.

Expand gene library

If officials approve a pending partnership with the city's zoo, staff there will be trained to take samples from live animals from its collection, Martins said.

"The idea is to be able to expand the gene library to include more samples and also more species under pressure," said Martins.

The cloning of animals became a reality in 1996 with the birth of the Dolly the sheep. Dolly developed a virus-induced lung disease and was euthanized at age 6 — about half the life expectancy of her breed — but she gave birth to four lambs.

Cloning remains a difficult enterprise with a success rate of about five per cent to seven per cent.

The first reported cross-species clone, a wild ox called a gaur which was born to a cow in 2001, died of dysentery two days later. Martins said new techniques might boost the Brazilian team's success rate to about 12 per cent.

A really big challenge

Martha Gomez, a senior scientist at the Audubon Center for Research of Endangered Species in New Orleans, applauded the Brazilian effort but cautioned that any actual clones could be a long time off.

"I like the idea because I feel that it's important, but it's a really big challenge," said Gomez, who has used house cats and interspecies cloning to produce African wildcats.

"When you talk about cloning, you not only need the people, you need the infrastructure, the resources and the animals," she said. "The cloning between species can be very different. It's not going to be the same to clone a jaguar or a wolf, and cloning a tamarin is going to be even harder," Gomez said.

"I think they can do it, but it's a very long term project, that's for sure."

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Movember moustaches may hold hazards

Movember men may want to be extra cautious this month with the care and hygiene of their moustaches, because microbiologists have shown that facial hair is a bacterial sponge.

It turns out that upper-lip scruff could be full of infectious bacteria, and scientists have shown that no amount of scrubbing will keep it perfectly out of trouble.

Moustache-growing men in November who are raising money for causes such as fighting prostate cancer and raising awareness of male mental health issues also have to fight the microbial battle, CBC science columnist Michael Bhardwaj has learned.

"While that may seem well and good, scientists have proven that scrubbing that 'stache may not be enough to prevent the spread of disease," he says.

A study dating back to 1967 and the Vietnam War era has all the evidence — and what can be done about it.

Manuel Barbeito, who was a microbiologist in the U.S. Army's health and safety labs at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Md., told Bhardwaj that he and fellow scientists led an experiment that proved just how hazardous beards could be — in the lab at least.

They were paying close attention to microbiological safety in those labs, trying to figure out why it was so easy for nasty bugs to hitch a ride on doors or clothes or shoes and hands. (Fort Detrick was also reported to be a centre for research in biological weapons from 1943 to 1969.)

But nobody had thought to pay much attention to the growing number of moustaches and beards among male researchers.

Manuel and a few friends decided to see if facial hair was a good vector for infectious bacteria. They became the guinea pigs for part of the experiment.

Strong potential

They spent more than two months growing big, thick, glossy beards, and then sprayed them with non-infectious bacteria. They let the bacteria fester in their beards for a while, then they lathered, rinsed but didn't repeat. Afterward, they swabbed their beards to see what bugs stuck around.

"If you are exposed to a contaminant in the laboratory, there is a strong potential to carry it home… even though you may shower properly," Manuel says.

So washing your moustache does reduce the number of viruses, bacteria or toxins, but Manuel and his colleagues proved there is still a sufficient germs to spread disease on contact with someone else.

The reasons are simple, Bhardwaj reports: location, location, location.

Because your moustache is in between your nose and your mouth, there is heavy traffic in potential contaminants.

"Think about all the things that are either coming out or going in … you'll understand why your moustache might catch and then fester nasty bugs," Bhardwaj reports.

Not all are harmless

"What's more, your moustache lives in a microclimate of warm, moist, steamy air exhaled by your nose and mouth … the perfect environment for most microbes.

Dick Zoutman, a professor of microbiology and infectious disease at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont., says moustaches are full of harmless skin bacteria like certain benign strains of staphylococci or streptococci.

"However, not all of them are harmless," he says. "Some of the staphylococci can be the disease-producing kind — and different fungi, in particularly things that cause skin fungal infections and such.

"So the whole thing gives me the heebie jeebies."

To be sure, plenty of men wear moustaches all year round and they're not getting sick because of it. The risk factor is relatively low if you are good at grooming your moustache regularly.

Worry-free fundraising success

A bit of soap and water reduces the bacteria load considerably, says Zoutman, though he stresses the need for a good deep scrub so that all that upper-lip hair and the skin below it is thoroughly cleaned.

That's unless, of course, the moustache-bearer works in close quarters with microbes, as Manuel Barbeito did during his time in the lab.

In that case, proper face protection — like a sealed face mask — is probably for the best, Bhardwaj reports.

For most men, the advice is simply keep it clean. If you do, odds are you won't have to worry about microbes in your moustache, and you'll be a Movember fundraising success.

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Paul Martin featured as kid crime fighter in new book

A new book about former prime minister Paul Martin hits the shelves Thursday. But it's not what history and political buffs might expect to read about one Canada's most well known politicians.

Showdown at Border Town: An Early Adventure of Paul Martin depicts the Windsor, Ont., native as a 12-year-old crime-fighting detective.

The story, written by 17-year-old Caroline Woodward, takes place in Windsor and the neighbouring rural community of Colchester in 1950.

Former Prime Minister Paul Martin risks a deadly showdown for the truth in a new historical fiction book about him.

Martin is forced into action when his friend vanishes without a trace. According to an online video trailer for the book, the plot thickens with a ruthless neighbour with money to burn and a police inspector with a haunted past

"Paul Martin risks a deadly showdown for the truth," the promotion teases.

Woodward said the story is based on an investigation from 1950. She said it involves the sale of illegal alcohol, fishing and a missing person.

"Paul Martin comes in and saves the day," she said.

The book targets readers between the ages of 10 and 14.

Martin read the book three weeks ago and was impressed. He called it "quite nostalgic."

"The way Caroline set it up is very good; walking around Windsor with my father [Paul Martin Sr.], going to riding events with my father. It's all very, very real," Martin said.

Martin said several characters are friends, cousins - even his sister. And the plot includes fishing boats, on which he used to work when he was a 14-year-old.

"All the research she did showed tremendous initiative," Martin said.

The book is the third in Fireside Publishing House's Leaders and Legacies historical fiction series. The first two books feature John Diefenbaker and Sir John A. Macdonald.

Martin and Woodward will meet for the first time at a book launch in Ottawa on Thursday.

"Politics has its ups and downs and this is certainly one of the ups," Martin said.

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Colbert attack on 'Earth's rectum' Windsor extends to Winnipeg, CBC

American comedian Stephen Colbert just can't seem to get off the back of Windsor, Ont., and now he has dragged Winnipeg and the CBC into his attack routine.

On his satirical Comedy Central late-night show The Colbert Report, Colbert took aim at Ontario's City of Roses in his "Who's Attacking Me Now?" segment, saying he's in the "crosshairs of the Canadian media" — which drew loud boos from the live audience Wednesday night.

'The potential for not only visibility but irony and fun easily turn this into a positive.'—Vincent Georgie, University of Windsor marketing professor

Colbert was referring to the brouhaha he created stemming from his latest book, America Again: Re-Becoming the Greatness We Never Weren't, in which Colbert asks in a footnote in a chapter on geothermal energy if Windsor, Canada, is "the Earth's rectum."

"It is my job to ask these probing questions," Colbert said on his show. "It could just as easily be Winnipeg."

He said his description "could be a net positive for Windsor." He then referenced a CBC online question that asked Wednesday: "Is Stephen Colbert's description of Windsor as 'the Earth's rectum' good or bad for the city?"

At the time of the show's taping, 1,800 people had cast their online votes on CBC.ca. The number doubled almost immediately after Colbert showed a screen grab of the survey.

"Apparently the Earth's rectum is an improvement over Windsor's previous reputation," Colbert said. "So you're welcome Windsor. You just got the Colbert bump."

The Colbert Nation website also gave this teaser to its video of the "Who's Attacking Me Now" segment featuring the CBC: "The maple-stream media have their mittens in a bunch over something Stephen said in America Again: Re-Becoming the Greatness We Never Weren't."

'We should take advantage' of Colbert, prof says

Colbert has long claimed that politicians who appear on his show get a surge in popularity and in the polls.

Five years ago, Colbert called Windsor "the worst place on Earth."

University of Windsor marketing Prof. Vincent Georgie said the high-profile publicity isn't a bad thing.

"The potential for not only visibility but irony and fun easily turn this into a positive. He has something to say about Windsor? Awesome. Come and tell us in person," Georgie said. "I would be welcoming Stephen Colbert to Windsor with opened arms. Come check us out. Come for a laugh and stay for the fantastic people and great haunts.

"We should be taking advantage of him. Call him out and get him down here."

On Wednesday a Facebook page entitled "Let's get Stephen Colbert to Windsor" popped on Facebook.

By Thursday morning, it had only 15 'Likes.'

Is Stephen Colbert's description of Windsor as 'the Earth's rectum' good or bad for the city?

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New Facebook relationship pages get thumbs down

[View the story "New Facebook relationship pages get thumbs down" on Storify]

Storified by CBC News Community · Tue, Nov 13 2012 14:26:20

The introduction of Facebook's new, automatically-generated"us" URLs for couples has bloggers buzzing, with many turning their thumbsstraight down at the company over privacy concerns, lack of notice, and a generalized dislike ofdigital displays of affection.

Fb

Facebook has been offering "friendship pages," which pulltogether the interactions between any two friends on the network, since 2010.

But thanks to a recent upgrade, the service nowautomatically curates moments shared between two people listed in arelationship and places them on a joint page at Facebook.com/us.

A New Look for Friendship PagesFacebook's latest news, announcements and media resources - Facebook's latest news, announcements and media resources - News

These "couples pages," as they're commonly beingcalled, display all correspondence, events attended, and photos tagged togetherfor the world to enjoy (or get sick over.)

Ugh puke! The smugness! Facebook launches couples page so users can chart their relationship. http://www.psfk.com/2012/11/facebook-couples-pages.htmlDervla Cunningham

Facebook launches "Couples" pages. In related news, I just threw up all over my desk. http://bit.ly/W1moJ7Peter Shankman

Facebook pages for couples: please kill me and take my eyes out with a rusty spoon: http://bit.ly/ZBoDSvJessica Reed

Facebook launches "couples pages", automatically launching joint profiles for couples. http://soc.li/its9H3Q Excuse me while I go throw up.Trillary Duff

Have an urge to vomit but don't feel nauseated? Solution: check out Facebook's new 'Couples Pages': http://bit.ly/RASze0 (via @rnadworny)Rachel Feldman

The only way to opt out of this service is to remove therelationship status from your personal profile completely, according to CNN,who spoke to Facebook's Jessie Baker by email.

"Youcannot deactivate the pages, but you can control what you share on Facebookusing the privacy settings for each post," wrote Baker.

"The friendship page respects the privacy setting of each post. This means the person viewing the friendship page may see each post elsewhere on Facebook, like on either friend's timeline or in news feed. You can curate your friendship page by hiding stories you do not want to appear."

Wordpress

Still, many were upset over the idea.

Calling Facebook's couples URLs "cringeworthy", The Telegraph's women'seditor Emma Barnett wrote that Mark Zuckerberg is "way off the mark withproactively creating couples pages which automatically curate people'srelationships."

 "You haveinfantilized my relationship for me with the creation of www.facebook.com/us.Only I should get to do that," she continued. "And you may have just forced me,a newlywed, to finally take the plunge and break up with my husband onFacebook."

Jennifer Write at The Gloss pointed out the likelihood of aneven messier digital separation should a breakup occur.

"When you break up, where does theFacebook couple's page go? That is going to be like a knife right in yourheart-brain."

Villagevoice

Barnett and Write were not alone. Many expressed annoyance and made sarcastic quips about the pages on Twitter

Nothing says 'we're totally in love and we totally don't trust each other' like a couples page on Facebook.Jonno T

@artisticdork Oh yea. I just clicked on http://facebook.com/us and THERE was a couples profile of us. UNWANTED.Jen A. Miller

And this is why I dislike Facebook couples pages, they want us to be like this!!! http://pic.twitter.com/sE7o5TdMClaireLHuxley

When you've completely lost your own identity and every word out of your mouth is "WE". @Facebook Couples Pages http://facebook.com/usDavid Stehle

And to love that 'unsubscribe' button. MT @StateStSports: #Facebook created couples profiles. One more reason to love twitter.Dago

#Facebook couples pages is launched and oh so creepy http://www.facebook.com/usNick

I am glad that mr rogue and I never declared our undying love for one another on FB. http://bit.ly/Zo61pO #NoExitStacey Burns

Some were simply curious, and even excited by the idea:

Cute: Couples can relieve their mutual Facebook memories at http://www.facebook.com/us/Christian Zibreg

Hey! You in a relationship? Cool! Imma check out the status of your love. http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/12/tech/social-media/facebook-couples-pages/index.htmlSimone

From http://Facebook.com/us' profile on my wife and I's relationship.Yep, nailed it. http://twitpic.com/bcyubwShawn Hartley

Psst. Facebook now has "couples pages". Visit http://Facebook.com/us to review the page for you & your "boo" lolKishau Rogers

And a striking number of people appear to have gotten ill over the news.

I hate them worse than twitter parody accounts "@BauceSauce: Oh god Facebook Us/Couples pages? *Throws Up Violently*"Brain

I didn't realize they had a url redirect for this http://facebook.com/us ~ Facebook 'couples pages' make me want to retch http://bit.ly/TuorRBDigital Services

Get me a bucket. #puke MT @rribbitz So, your relationship is Facebook-official? Guess what, FB has a page for you... http://fb.me/1ogpDGVhyRealityTC

Because there isn't already enough to make you puke on FB // Facebook Launches 'Couples' Pages http://bit.ly/W1MUSM - PSFKGordon Hurd

Oh good lord. Couples pages on Facebook?? And it automatically makes one for you if you're married and both on FB. Excuse me while I puke.Erin Schultz

Tell the whole world how your relationship is doing thanks to FB's new couple profiles. You know, cuz we care: http://bit.ly/TD32Dk. *puke*Nicole Stockdale

Facebook has introduced pages for "couples." *puke*Jennifer L. Cherry

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Camera-toting bird spurs fish photo mystery

It sounds like a fish tale — a Saskatchewan woman came to the aid of water bird with a camera hanging around its neck ... only to discover numerous fish photos on the memory card.

But it happened to Saskatoon's Karen Gwillim in September, as she was driving through the village of Craven.

Approaching a bridge, she saw a young bird struggling with something, so she got out to investigate.

A cormorant, similar to this one, was found with a camera strap and camera wrapped around its neck. (File/CBC)

"It was a cormorant, a black water bird with kind of a long neck," she said. "It had this silver camera kind of dangling from its neck."

When she approached the bird, which weighed about two kilograms, it didn't try to flee or resist. She took the camera off, it flapped its wings and it was gone.

"I think he was relieved to have something that heavy removed," she said. "He seemed all right."

With the bird saved, Gwillim turned her attention to the camera, a point-and-shoot model that had obviously been in the water for a while.

She went home, took out the memory card, let it dry out and booted up her computer.

Lo and behold, the pictures were intact. There were about 200 of them, the most recent having been taken in October, 2011.

"Lots of fishing pictures, giant fish, guys with fish, mostly," she said.

There were also pictures from a wedding, some houses and other photos that seemed to be from the Shell Lake area.

She posted them on her Facebook page, hoping the camera-owner would find them, but for weeks heard nothing.

However, following an interview with CBC Afternoon Edition host Craig Lederhouse on Tuesday, a Saskatoon man stepped forward and said he knows whose camera it is.

It was his buddy's and he dropped the camera while hauling in yet another big fish, the man told CBC.

Arrangements were being made today to reunite the man with his pictures.

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Oxford says 'omnishambles' Word of the Year in Britain

Britain's media are in a meltdown and its government is gaffe-prone, so Oxford Dictionaries has chosen an apt Word of the Year: "omnishambles."

Oxford University Press on Tuesday crowned the word — defined as "a situation that has been comprehensively mismanaged, characterized by a string of blunders and miscalculations" — its top term of 2012.

Each year Oxford University Press tracks how the English language is changing and chooses a word that best reflects the mood of the year. The publisher typically chooses separate British and American winners. This year's American champion is "gif," short for graphics interchange format, a common format for images on the internet.

Coined by writers of the satirical television show The Thick of It, omnishambles has been applied to everything from government public relations blunders to the crisis-ridden preparations for the London Olympics.

Oxford University Press lexicographer Susie Dent said the word was chosen for its popularity as well as its "linguistic productivity."

She said "a notable coinage coming from the word is Romneyshambles" — a derisive term used by the British press after U.S. presidential candidate Mitt Romney expressed doubts about London's ability to host a successful Olympics.

Omnishambles was chosen over shortlisted terms including "mummy porn" — the genre exemplified by the best-selling 50 Shades book series — and "green-on-blue," military attacks by forces regarded as neutral, as when members of the Afghan army or police attack foreign troops. (For American English speakers, it's "mommy porn.")

The Olympics offered up finalists including the verb "to medal," "Games Maker" — the name given to thousands of Olympic volunteers — and distance runner Mo Farah's victory dance, "the Mobot."

Europe's financial crisis lent the shortlisted word "Eurogeddon," while technology produced "second screening" — watching TV while simultaneously using a computer, phone or tablet — and social media popularized the acronym "YOLO," you only live once.

The final shortlisted term is an old word given new life. "Pleb," a derogatory epithet for lower-class people, was alleged to have been uttered to a police officer by British cabinet minister Andrew Mitchell. He denied using the term, but resigned.

All the shortlisted words have made a splash in 2012, but editors say there is no guarantee any of them will endure long enough to enter the hallowed pages of the Oxford English Dictionary.

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Taiwanese animators cast 'evil' Obama in Petraeus affair

CBC News Community team, from left to right: Andrew Yates, Andrea Lee-Greenberg, Lauren O'Neil, John Bowman

If you're part of the CBC News community, you're likely to meet one of us: we're the folks working to produce and promote your stories. Read more about us.

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Coffee beans in danger of extinction

A cup of morning coffee could be much harder to find, and much more expensive, before the century is out thanks to climate change and the possible extinction of wild Arabica beans.

That's the warning behind a new study by U.K. and Ethiopian researchers who say the beans that go into 70 per cent of the world's coffee could be wiped out by 2080.

Researchers at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew and the Environment and Coffee Forest Forum in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia looked at how climate change might make some land unsuitable for Arabica plants, which are highly vulnerable to temperature change and other dangers including pests and disease.

They came up with a best-case scenario that predicts a 38 per cent reduction in land capable of yielding Arabica by 2080. The worst-case scenario puts the loss at between 90 per cent and 100 per cent.

There is a "high risk of extinction" says the study, which was published this week in the academic journal Plos One.

That would be bad news for both coffee drinkers and coffee-producing countries such as Ethiopia, Brazil and Colombia, which in 2009/2010 shipped some 93 million bags of coffee around the world, worth an estimated $15.4 billion.

Most coffee is made from Arabica beans. They are prized for their genetic diversity and grow best at between 18 C and 21 C. Above that, the plants ripen too quickly — which affects taste — or grow too slowly. Other coffee stems from Robusta beans.

The study goes on to note that its results are "conservative" because it did not take into account the large-scale deforestation of the Arabica-suitable highland forests of Ethiopia and South Sudan.

"The models assume intact natural vegetation, whereas the highland forests of Ethiopia and South Sudan are highly fragmented due to deforestation," the researchers wrote. Pests, disease and other factors were also not considered.

The authors of the report say certain "core sites" capable of yielding Arabica until at least 2080 should be set aside for conservation.

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50 Shades parody draws audiences of screaming women

Actors Alice Moran and Patrick Whalen are stars of SPANK! The Fifty Shades Parody, which plays at the Panasonic Theatre in Toronto this Wednesday to Sunday. (Paul Schnaittacher/Canadian Press)

After heating up box offices in the U.S., a hit Canadian stage spoof of the bestselling erotic novel Fifty Shades of Grey is attracting interest around the world as it gets set to debut in Toronto.

Mills Entertainment and Just For Laughs will present SPANK! The Fifty Shades Parody at the Panasonic Theatre in Toronto from Wednesday to Sunday after sold-out shows in Springfield, Mass., Hartford, Conn., and Las Vegas.

The comedy is also due to open in Chicago later this month.

"It feels like a rock concert," Jim Millan, the Toronto-based director and co-writer, said of the electrifying vibe from the audience.

"Like, the women are screaming — 900 women, some of whom show up with husbands, but not very many. Mostly it's a women's night out and they sort of scream from the time that the lights go down," he said in a recent phone interview from the Rio Las Vegas Hotel & Casino.

"We anticipated that the love they have for the book would translate into their enthusiasm for a night out but we couldn't imagine it would be like this."

'Mostly it's a women's night out and they sort of scream from the time that the lights go down'— Producer Jim Millan

The response to the unauthorized musical parody has been so strong, in fact, that shortly after its premiere in Springfield in early October, Creative Artists Agency (CAA) signed on to represent it in the U.S.

Now, two different companies are considering touring SPANK! and two different producers in New York have expressed "strong interest" in an off-Broadway production, said Millan, founder of Crow's Theatre in Toronto.

Producers in the U.K. and Australia have also inquired about buying the rights to the show or working with the creators to stage it, he added.

Alice Moran, Patrick Whalen and Anne Marie Scheffler star in the Toronto production, about a wannabe erotic fiction writer who sends her kids and husband away to Disneyland so she can write her racy manuscript.

All original material

While the show is a parody of E. L. James's hugely popular Fifty Shades of Grey, which features bondage, discipline, sadism and masochism, it's completely original material.

Millan says he asked lawyers to study the books and the script make sure there were no legal issues.

The show includes musical numbers as well as improvised material, audience interaction and burlesque-style scenes.

"It feels a bit Second City, a bit Saturday Night Live, a bit Kids in the Hall — at times when the women are screaming, a bit Chippendales,"' said Millan, who's known for directing the Kids In The Hall comedy group, also a Canadian export.

But while there is some sexy stuff in the show, "there's no attempt to be graphic, and in fact what's been fun is watching women from, like, 21 to 60 or 71 come to the show," noted Millan.

Wearing grey ties, shirts

Ticket buyers are encouraged to arrive at the theatre early to get a signature SPANK! cocktail. After the show is a meet and greet with the cast.

Millan said he's seen many audience members wear silver-grey ties and shirts with the words "Laters, baby," which are both references to the book.

"The husbands and (others) that get towed along certainly can understand it and they're laughing, too, and I think it turns out well for them — after they go home," he noted with a laugh.

The show's Toronto-based writers, comics and improvisers also include Jon Blair, Ian MacIntyre and Colin Munch.

Millan embarked on the project in mid-August on the suggestion of his American producer-friend, Mike Mills.

At that point, Millan hadn't read Fifty Shades of Grey so he brought it with him on his summer holiday with his family in Alberta's Rockies.

So many read all 3 books

"I think women would recognize what has become a very famous cover, and so sitting at a cafe or something (reading the book) while my kids played on teeter-totters with the Rocky Mountains as a backdrop, I think maybe women walking by thought, 'He's an interesting dad,"' said Millan.

"But to me I thought it was hilarious and I, each step of the way, have loved and welcomed conversation about the book.... Usually when I asked somebody, 'You've read it?' and almost every woman says, 'Yes.' The other answer I get is, 'I've read the trilogy."'

When SPANK! went on sale in Springfield, the theatre company there had just put their whole season of 17 different shows on sale a few days before that and they sold $15,000 worth of tickets in total.

"Ours went on sale and in the first day we sold $20,000 worth of tickets. So again, it's like, 'Well, that happened,"' said Millan.

Producers were concerned ahead of the Las Vegas opening because it was on the same day as the U.S. election.

"I was thinking we were going to open to an audience of desert sand because we were on the same night as the American presidential election," said Millan.

"Suddenly, from the morning we had a few tickets sold, the line stretched around the casino and we sold out 550 seats in the course of the day while the cliffhanger American election was going on."

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Animal rights group PETA takes on Honey Boo Boo

Reality TV star Honey Boo Boo's new pet chicken has sprung PETA animal rights' activists into action.

The six-year-old girl — a child beauty pageant participant, now famous for her so-called go go juice and "redneckognize" catch phrase — recently got a new pet chicken and named it Nugget.

Now PETA wants the pint-sized star to change her chicken's name to Not a Nugget, which is also the name of their youth outreach mascot.

The organization sent Honey Boo Boo a letter, saying: "Chickens are smart, interesting animals with personalities of their own."

Changing her chicken's name, the letter reads, will "let your fans know that they should be nice to chickens by not eating them."

The group is also sending her a "Not a Nugget" t-shirt and meatless chicken tenders.

In a blog post for PETA, Michelle Kretzer wrote "not eating chickens might earn her a whole new flock of fans."

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