Got $40K? You could cross the Atlantic in a Lancaster bomber

Raw video shot on the Lancaster bomber's final approach and touchdown at Hamilton's airport

Lancaster landing 4:06

Aviation buffs have a shot at a once-in-a-lifetime intercontinental flight on a famous Second World War bomber — and it will only cost you $40,000 or so.

Hamilton's Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum is auctioning off the opportunity on eBay to fly as a crew member on the Avro Lancaster when it goes to England in August. Together with the Royal Air Force's Battle of Britain Memorial Flight (BBMF) Lancaster, it will be involved in a month-long flying tour in the U.K., before returning home to Hamilton in September. It will be the last Lancaster to ever make the trip, says museum CEO David Rohrer.

"You'll never be able to do anything like this ever again," he told CBC Hamilton. "So we thought why not put it out there? Somebody must have this on their bucket list."

'We won't have meal services or in-flight movies, but we will have an outside one.'- David Rohrer, Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum CEO

No bids have been placed on the trip just yet, with the reserve bid placed at a lofty $40,000. But there's "a lot of chatter" about the trip, Rohrer said, and people are likely just waiting until the last minute to bid (as is the norm on eBay).

"I'm very confident there are people out there."

Hamilton's Lancaster bomber is a flying monument to the Second World War's Allied bomber crews. It was bought in 1977 for about $10,000 and a team of volunteers led by Norm Etheridge spent 11 years restoring it to airworthiness. (Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum)

The cash will be put towards the trip's $650,000 costs, as appearance fees the crew will make in England won't cover the costs of getting there and back. The person who wins one of the eight seats on the flight will be trained as a crew member a couple of days before the flight, so they can actually participate when aboard. The plane will be soaring down below 10,000 feet because the cabin isn't pressurized, which will no doubt make for a less comfortable experience than a commercial flight.

"We won't have meal services or in-flight movies, but we will have an outside one," Rohrer said.

The Mynarski Memorial Lancaster is scheduled to leave Canada Aug. 4. The five-day transatlantic trip to England is being done in four- to five-hour hops, with refuelling and rest stops in Goose Bay, N.L.; Narsarsuaq, Greenland; and Keflavik, Iceland. According to the eBay post about the flight, the museum reserves the right to assess the winning bidder's physical ability to go on the trip. You can't be more than 250 pounds, and you have to be able to climb a ladder and manoeuvre in tight spaces.

The winner also has to sign a waiver for a documentary being filmed about the trip.

Bids on the trip are being accepted until May 10. As of Friday afternoon, the museum's eBay post had almost 5,500 views.

The last time Lancasters flew together was 50 years ago over Toronto, at RCAF Station Downsview. The RCAF flew a special formation of three of the bombers in April 1964 to mark their retirement from service.

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French runners trek through 13 km of mud, barbed wire

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CBC News Posted: May 12, 2014 11:24 AM ET Last Updated: May 12, 2014 11:24 AM ET

More than 20,000 runners navigated an obstacle course that included mud, barbed wire and smoke on the outskirts of Paris on Saturday.

Participants faced more than 40 different obstacles over the course of the 13-kilometre route and were rewarded with a shower after crossing the finish line.

Watch highlights from the event in the player above.

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Pothole vigilante ordered to remove gravel, could face fine

A Saint John man who filled in some potholes with gravel has been ordered by the city to undo the work and has been told he could be fined.

Mike Defazio, who owns Defazio Autobody, says he recently blew a tire on one of several large potholes on Broadway Avenue at Simpson Drive.

Mike Defazio, who filled in some potholes on Saint John's Broadway Avenue, has been ordered by the city to remove the gravel. (CBC)

"Some of them were eight or 10 inches wide and two feet long and almost a foot deep," he told CBC News.

"I just got fed up because they had been here for quite some time and nobody looked like they were doing anything."

So Defazio decided to take matters into his own hands last Saturday and spent half the day filling in the potholes using his tractor.

"I've had numerous people saying, 'What you did was a good thing.' I've never had anybody saying it was a bad thing," he said.

But on Wednesday, he got a call from the city's deputy commissioner of transportation and environment services Kevin Rice, informing him he had broken the city's bylaws and could face a fine.

"I thought that I wasn't really doing anything wrong, but he sure straightened me out on that matter," said Defazio.

The city does not allow private citizens to do road work.

Some of the potholes on Broadway Avenue that Mike Defazio filled with gravel. (CBC)

​Defazio says Rice also told him some people had complained about possible damage from the gravel and city officials had expressed concerns about insurance claims.

"He said people were saying that a rock could be kicked up, or, you know, it could chip your windshield, it could scratch your paint, or whatever," said Defazio. "I said, 'Has it happened?' He says, 'Well, I don't know if it's happened, but it could happen.'"

Defazio says he was told city crews would be out to remove his work and he would have to cover the costs.

But he was worried about how much the price tag might end up being, so he offered to return the street to its original pot-holed state himself.

"He said, 'Fine. If you look after it, we'll come out tomorrow morning and we'll do an inspection and if it's up to our standards, then fine. If not, we're still gonna bring a crew in and you're gonna be charged,'" Defazio said.

Defazio hired a local contractor to remove most of the gravel, but he and one of his employees were out on Thursday digging and sweeping.

He says he's out the cost of the original pothole work, plus $450 to pay the contractor.

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Romanian shepherds fight city hall – with sheep

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CBC News Posted: May 09, 2014 2:54 PM ET Last Updated: May 09, 2014 2:54 PM ET

Shepherds in the southern Romanian town of Doftanei protested a land auction result today by using sheep to block the town hall.

The shepherds say the mayor of Doftanei rigged an auction for grazing pastures in favour of people he knows.

The mayor says he wasn't even on the auction committee.

Watch video of the protest in the player above.

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Closure of N.B. bridal shop draws ire of brides left without gowns

Fredericton police were called today to a local bridal boutique to deal with a crowd of upset customers.

Sparkle Bridal Boutique shut its doors Tuesday and posted a sign in the window, apologizing for any inconvenience.

Fredericton police were called to the Sparkle Bridal Boutique on Thursday to deal with a crowd of upset customers. The boutique closed Tuesday. (CBC)

Two days later, several brides and bridesmaids lined up outside the store at 88 York St. to find out about their gown orders.

Melissa Rogers ordered a wedding dress in July for her August nuptials. It was scheduled to arrive in December, but she still doesn't have it.

"We're out about $2,000 for a dress and we're not sure if we're going to be able to receive the dress or have our money back," said Rogers. "As of right now, I have no dress and the wedding is less than three months away.

"I have no idea where I can purchase a dress, who is going to let me buy off the rack or what I'm going to do," she said. "I'm at wit's end.

"Some weddings are coming up quickly and we're all at wit's end. We have no idea what to do."

Const. David Beck of the Fredericton Police Force went into the boutique, spoke to its owners, and came outside to tell the group the boutique is going out of business.

The boutique owners were contacting the vendors who were to provide them with the ordered dresses, to give them the contact information of the customers, said Beck.

"They feel absolutely horrible about the situation they're in," he said. "They were back there in tears because they understand the situation you guys have been put in and they are desperately, desperately trying hard with the vendors right now to make sure you guys are taken care of.

"That's the best they can do at this point in time," said Beck.

An officer who was speaking to a woman inside the shop told the crowd the boutique is going out of business and that it is not a police matter.

Some brides have been complaining about the boutique in recent weeks through social media.

On April 26, Natalie Phillips posted on Facebook the top 10 reasons she "hates" Sparkle Bridal Boutique and "why they should not be in business."

Phillips says the boutique almost ruined her wedding.

A week before the big day, five of her bridesmaids still didn't have their dresses, Phillips wrote in the post, which has received nearly 200 shares to date.

"You assume that by ordering your dresses five to six months in advance, when you're told they'd take three to four months max, that you're in the clear! Wrong," she wrote.

Brides gathered outside the Sparkle Bridal Boutique in Fredericton, demanding to know what has happened with their orders after the store said it had closed its doors. (CBC)

Phillips said she tried to contact the shop by phone, email and Facebook for weeks, and when she finally heard from the owner, she got "excuse after excuse."

"You never once said you were sorry. You never took any kind of ownership for [almost] ruining my special day," she wrote.

Her bridesmaids eventually demanded their money back and found dresses at a different store instead, according to the post.

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Obama to heckler: 'You kind of screwed up my ending'

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CBC News Posted: May 09, 2014 9:20 AM ET Last Updated: May 09, 2014 9:20 AM ET

U.S. President Barack Obama faced down a heckler during a speech at a California fundraiser Thursday.

Obama was wrapping up his speech when a man in the audience began yelling "freedom for Ethiopia."

Obama said he agreed with the heckler, who "kind of screwed up my ending, but that's OK."

He also elicited applause from the audience when he said, "We've got free speech in this country, and that's great too."

Watch video of the incident in the player above.

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The new glasses that could change how we watch movies

Imagine watching a movie from the perspective of two different characters, or reading subtitles while your friend takes in the film without the words on the screen.

They're among the possibilities with Invisivision, a new patent-pending eyewear technology from Waterloo, Ont.-based startup Pipe Dream Interactive.

"It's a set of eyewear that allows the user who wears it to choose between two different streams of footage that they see on a screen or on a TV. It applies to gaming, advertising, film education, the works," said Robert Bruski, chief financial officer and one of the founders of Pipe Dream Interactive.

CEO Ryan Brooks conceived the idea last July, and along with Josh Brooks and Bruski, started working on bringing the technology to life. 

"If you go see a film and you'd like to see an action sequence or a racing sequence from two different characters' perspectives, you can choose that. You can select which character to view from, rather than just from one character or a third-eye perspective," said Bruski.

Robert Bruski is one of the founders of Pipe Dream Interactive, a Waterloo, Ont.-based startup that makes Invisivision glasses. The technology allows the wearer to flip back and forth between two different video streams. (Andrea Bellemare/CBC)

"Another example would be dual ratings. An adult can go see a film that's rated R with blood and guts and all that, while their child that's sitting right next to them can see the PG-rated version of that film."

Multiple layers of images are broadcast onto the screen, and the glasses separate those layers into something the viewer can perceive. The process is similar to 3D technology, where two visual streams are projected to the viewer, and with the help of glasses, the viewer perceives them to be a single image. Currently, the Invisivision displays two 2D visual streams, but according to Bruski, another set of lenses could be added to make both visual streams 3D.

The technology is similar to that already used by video-game makers, for example Sony's SimulView, or LG's Dual Play. 

Samsung is working on a similar pair of glasses for a special LED TV, to allow viewers to flip between two different streams. Their glasses use a button to flip between the streams, and have built-in headphones. 

Pipe Dream Interactive is launching a Kickstarter campaign Wednesday to fund a short film showing off its technology, starring Canadian actor Aaron Ashmore, whose credits include Smallville and Lost Girl, and J.P. Manoux, of E.R. and Community fame.  

Invisivision glasses have lenses that flip up and down, allowing the wearer to choose between two different visual streams. (Andrea Bellemare/CBC News)

"We're going to use that short film that we create to take down to Hollywood, and show it to the directors and producers and studio houses that have already expressed interest," said Bruski.

The startup has a signed letter of intent from Universal, pending the successful completion of an introductory film. The company is also awaiting patent approval for the eyeglass technology.

'There's also been a few directors that have expressed interest, and a company out of Germany that actually wanted exclusive rights to use it, indefinitely, so there's definitely interest for this," said Bruski.

The technology is likely to be attractive to movie studios hoping to lure audiences back to theatres, and according to Bruski, it doesn't take any special new devices or extra work for film studios to be able to produce films using Invisivision. 

An example showing two different perspectives of the same concession screen using Invisivision glasses. The top right corner shows a sample of films available at a movie theatre, while the bottom left corner show the concession menu. (Andrea Bellemare/CBC)

'Actually a lot of films are already filmed from multiple perspectives so that afterwards in post-production when they're choosing which clips to use, now they can choose multiple clips. Directors have more creativity, so they can choose which way to film the film and how it'll work out better in the end," he said.

"Same with video-gaming as well. A lot of video games, the two-player games are already split the correct way, I mean there's always some content augmentation you can do, but more or less everything's already ready to go."

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TV panel spat erupts into desk-smashing melee

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CBC News Posted: May 08, 2014 9:24 AM ET Last Updated: May 08, 2014 9:59 AM ET

Tempers flared and a studio desk was smashed when a Jordanian TV panel debated the conflict in Syria Thursday.

Saker al-Johari and Mohammad al-Jayousi were guests on Seven Stars TV show when their discussion became heated.

They picked up the desk between them and began shoving it at each other. The desk came apart, and studio staff ran onto the set to stop the altercation.

Watch video of the incident in the player above.

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Why you should stop using your phone in the bathroom

You should probably stop bringing your phone into the bathroom with you, because there's more growing on it than you think. 

Anne Bialachowski, manager of infection control at St. Joseph's Healthcare in Hamilton, was testing smartphones and tablets at St. Joseph's on Monday as part of World Hand Hygiene Day, and found that some devices were more than just grimy.

'It's probably not a good idea to take your phone into the bathroom with you.'- Anne Bialachowski, manager of infection control at St. Joseph's Healthcare in Hamilton

Using an ATP test, which measures organic material that gets left behind on surfaces, Bialachowski found some phones and tablets had scads of things living on them — that organic material could be anything from fecal matter and E. coli, to the virus that causes the flu.

"It's pathogens — so things that we worry about daily," Bialachowski told CBC Hamilton. "And no, it's probably not a good idea to take your phone into the bathroom with you."

A clean reading on the ATP test is a score of 30, but some of the devices swabbed at St. Joseph's had readings of over 100 — one person's cellphone even had a reading of 400.

It's hard to say exactly what part the rise of hand-held devices has played in the spread of pathogens, as few studies have been conducted on the issue, Bialachowski says. But it has added a new level of concern at hospitals, she adds. "With every new example of technology, it adds a layer of intricacy to our work."

According to a U.K.-wide study by scientists from the London School of Hygiene and Topical Medicine and Queen Mary University of London, one in six mobile phones in Britain was contaminated with E. coli bacteria. Fecal bacteria and viruses like the flu can survive on someone's hands and on surfaces for hours at a pop, especially in warm temperatures away from sunlight.

Pathogens like C. difficile can even live on a device for days, Bialachowski says.

And if people really want to use their phone as a replacement for a magazine or bathroom reader, you should get into the habit of wiping it down with a cloth after washing your hands, she says. A test with a simple dry cloth also performed at the hospital removed most problem germs.

But stay away from chemicals and sprays — they're generally harmful for electronics.

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Canadian selling original 1936 Olympic gold-medal basketball

A Canadian is auctioning off the game ball used in the first Olympic gold medal basketball game.

Jimmy Stewart, 74, owns the ball. Stewart's father, James, was a member of team Canada, the Ford V8's from Windsor, Ont. They placed second, losing to the United States in a game played outdoors in the rain on a muddy tennis court.

After the game, Stewart's mother discretely walked off the muddy Berlin court with the ball wrapped in a blanket.

"The weather caused the spectators to wear Hudson Bay blankets for protection from cold and protection from the rain," Stewart said. "[My father] walked over to my mother and told her to put it under the blanket and keep it as a souvenir."

The story goes that James Stewart showed his teammates the ball while steaming back to Canada on a ship.

The ball — a lumpy, oblong piece of leather that looks more like a volleyball than a basketball — has been in the Stewart family ever since. It's marked with the manufacturer's name, "Berg," on one side and the word "Basket-Ball."

"It has not been handled in many, many years – 75 now," Stewart said. "It has been on display a few times."

Otherwise, it's also been stored safely in a vault, said Stewart, who now lives in Pickering, near Toronto.

The Ford V8's, a team from Windsor, Ont., and sponsored by the Ford Motor Co., placed second at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. (Ford Motor Co.)

Stewart said he thought of giving the ball to a museum or hall of fame, including the Windsor-Essex Sports Hall of Fame, now that it has a permanent home and display in the Windsor's new $78-million aquatic centre.

"But I changed my mind," he said.

"Our family never became very interested in the game, other than myself. We got to the point it was not being shared with people," Stewart said. "We've come to the point now, with the [original] rules of basketball going for $4 million, I thought it was time to put it to auction and see what we can get for the ball."

The rules penned by Canadian James Naismith sold for $4.4 million US. It was subject of an ESPN 30 for 30 documentary, for which sports marketer Keith Zimmerman was interviewed.

Zimmerman worked with the Naismith family for years.

Rich Hughes, author of Netting Out Basketball 1936, a book that details the sport at the 1936 Olympic Games, put Stewart in touch with Zimmerman.

Zimmerman is helping Stewart sell the ball through Golden Auctions. Zimmerman says at least one auction house has previously authenticated the ball but says the story alone is enough — the way it was acquired and the fact James Naismith handed out the medals after the game.

"There is plenty of provenance on the ball. That ball has been been with the family from the day it left Berlin to the day it got back to Canada. There is story after story. There are all kinds of tracings," Zimmerman said.

He expects the ball to net "six figures."

"But when it's one of a kind like this, really, nobody knows," Zimmerman said.

A 1936 gold medal won by Jesse Owens recently sold for $1.47 million US. Zimmerman doesn't expect the ball to fetch quite that much.

'I don't want to be disappointed.'- Jimmy Stewart

"We'd be really happy if it was in that $250,000 to $750,000 range," he said.

Stewart won't say what he hopes to get.

"I'm hoping that it's quite high. But I'd rather not say," he said "I don't want to be disappointed."

Zimmerman said almost no one in the U.S. knows the ball even exists, but the story is starting to make the rounds. Stewart said he was just interviewed by Sports Illustrated.

The ball will be auctioned off July 12.

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