Butt out, Rob Ford: Jimmy Kimmel sets sights on Hamilton mayoral hopeful

American talk show host Jimmy Kimmel has set his comedic sights on Toronto mayor Rob Ford for months, even inviting Ford to be a guest on his show.

But on Thursday night, the American funnyman turned his gaze to the mayoral race brewing in Hamilton.

In his opening monologue, Kimmel said he's drawn to the "mayor situation in Toronto like Jane Goodall follows her chimps. It's probably the thing I'm most interested in in the world."

Kimmel made fun of the name of Ejaz Butt, the founding president of the Ontario Taxi Workers' Union and the latest contender to enter into Hamilton's mayoral race. (Photo courtesy Ejaz Butt)

However, Kimmel noted he should "start paying close attention to the mayoral race in another Ontario town."

Kimmel then introduced a clip from local TV news station CHCH that announced the entrance of Hamilton taxi union leader Ejaz Butt into the election fray.

"'Ejaz' is a weird start to begin with," he quipped. "But when you throw a 'butt' in there…"

Butt, 62, is originally from Pakistan but has been working as a cab driver in Canada since 1987.

Kimmel to Hamilton: 'Steal me a sign'

"I started from the very grassroots. I have stayed in this city since I arrived in Canada. I have achieved a lot in this city and it's time to give back," Butt told CBC Hamilton.

Kimmel also made a request to viewers in Hamilton.

"Will someone please steal me one of his lawn signs?"

Butt's message for Kimmel

Reached by phone on Friday morning, Butt told CBC Hamilton he heard about the joke through a text message from his sister, who later sent him a link to the video.

"It was funny," said Butt. "I enjoyed it."

He said he took no offence to the joke and wanted to thank the producers of Jimmy Kimmel Live for the exposure.

If Kimmel offers him an invitation to appear on the program, Butt said, he would gladly accept.

"If they want me to come on the show, I will go there and I will thank them."

As for the lawn sign, Butt said he'd happily send one along.

"It will say, 'If you want to save your butt, vote for the Butt.' "

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2-legged dog charms the internet with beach run

9-month-old boxer can balance enough to run on only his front legs

The Associated Press Posted: Apr 04, 2014 4:03 PM ET Last Updated: Apr 04, 2014 6:29 PM ET

A dog in Washington state has no rear legs, but he can balance enough to run on only his front legs, as millions of people have seen in a YouTube video.

Duncan was born with deformed rear legs that were amputated to remove the dead weight.

The 9-month-old boxer belongs to Amanda Giese and Gary Walters, who run a non-profit animal rescue called Panda Paws Rescue out of their home in the Clark County community of Felida.

Duncan runs in the backyard in Vancouver, Wash. (The Columbian/Associated Press)

The Columbian reports the couple took Duncan to Rockaway Beach on the Oregon coast in March and took the video of Duncan racing across the sand and chasing sticks.

Giese says they initially tried to fit Duncan in a special wheelchair, but he hated it and can do without it.

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'Jumping Jesus' snowbound video prompts worldwide laughs

A short video showing a St. John's man trying – and generally failing – to get out of a snowbound house while talking with his frustrated mother has turned into an international sensation.

A two-day spring storm this week dumped 40 centimetres of snow to the greater St. John's area, bringing the city to a standstill. Residents have been shovelling out since.

The video was taken Tuesday of Barry Horlick trying to escape from his mother's home in the city's Shea Heights neighbourhood. He became stuck in a snowbank, and the back-and-forth dialogue — featuring St. John's accents and vernacular expressions — between Barry and his mother Maureen has set the video soaring.

By early Thursday, more than 100,000 people had viewed the one-minute video on YouTube alone. 

"Mudder, I'm stuck," Barry yelled out, as he tried to get through a snowbank right on the family's doorstep. When Maureen told him to hold on to the post, that attempt failed, prompting her to cry, "Oh jumping Jesus tonight!" The phrase is a common expression in parts of Newfoundland.

The back-and-forth banter is reminiscent of a Codco or 22 Minutes sketch, but is very much real — although family members admit they knew they had captured comedy gold, because they couldn't stop laughing at it themselves.  

Laurie Horlick, Barry's sister, said it was originally meant to be shared only for the enjoyment of family and friends.

"[I] just shared for a bit of fun knowing it was going to be an adventure trying to get out," she said.

"But we're totally blown away at how far it's gone." 

The video has attracted media attention in the U.S. and the U.K.  Horlick said that by Thursday morning, the video had 15,000 shares on The Ellen DeGeneres Show's page and 12,000 through Facebook. Laurie Horlick said even friends in Saudi Arabia have already seen the wintry encounter of her brother and mother.

'Our phones have been dinging like mad' - Maureen Horlick

Maureen Horlick said she never expected the video to have such a response.

"We never expected this in a million years," she told the St. John's Morning Show on Thursday.

"Well, actually the whole thing was to put the chair by the door and [for] him to just jump out over, but apparently it didn't happen – and it ended up being quite funny," she said.

"Our phones have been dinging like mad. It made someone laugh." 

Laurie Horlick said family members often kid around with each another.

"We're the type of family, we're always joking and carrying on, and it was just something we do sometimes for our own personal use," she said. 

"I myself, I'm always at it, but it just happened to be one of those things that wasn't planned. We're having such a crappy winter, and you know, [it's nice] to bring the light out of it all," she said.

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Yellowstone supervolcano not about to erupt, despite rumours

Yellowstone National Park assured guests and the public on Thursday that a super-volcano under the park was not expected to erupt anytime soon, despite an alarmist video that claimed bison had been seen fleeing to avoid such a calamity.

Yellowstone officials, who fielded dozens of calls and emails since the video went viral this week following an earthquake in the park, said the video actually shows bison galloping down a paved road that leads deeper into the park.

"It was a spring-like day and they were frisky. Contrary to online reports, it's a natural occurrence and not the end of the world," park spokeswoman Amy Bartlett said.

Assurances by Yellowstone officials and government geologists that the ancient super-volcano beneath the park is not due to explode for eons have apparently done little to quell fears among the thousands who have viewed recent video postings of the thundering herd.

Commentary with one of the clips by a self-described survivalist wearing camouflage, dark sunglasses and a black watch cap suggests the wildlife exodus may be tied to "an imminent eruption here at Yellowstone."

The 4.8 magnitude earthquake that struck early Sunday near the Norris Geyser Basin in the northwest section of Yellowstone, which spans 9,000 square kilometres of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, caused no injuries or damages and did not make any noticeable alterations to the landscape, geologists said.

Though benign by seismic standards, it was the largest to rattle Yellowstone since a 4.8 quake in February 1980 and it occurred near an area of ground uplift tied to the upward movement of molten rock in the super-volcano, whose mouth, or caldera, is 80 km long and 50 kilometres wide.

But neither the quake, the largest among hundreds that have struck near the geyser basin in the last seven months, nor the uplift suggest an eruption sooner than tens of thousands of years, said Peter Cervelli, associate director for science and technology at the U.S. Geological Survey's Volcano Science Center in California.

"The chance of that happening in our lifetimes is exceedingly insignificant," said Cervelli, a scientist with the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory.

Cervelli said the area of uplift that scientists have been tracking since August is rising at a rate of between 10 centimetres and 15 centimetres a year. Geologists who tracked uplift in the same area from 1996 to 2003 also saw elevated seismic activity, he said.

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Hummingbird live webcam takes flight in B.C.

Vancouver Island resident Eric Pittman has become somewhat of a hummingbird expert ever since he picked up a video camera five years ago and starting filming a nest in his backyard.

He has been filming ever since.

"Once you start to do it and they're always around, it's kind of addictive," he said.

Pittman's high quality videos and live webcam streaming from Esquimalt, B.C., are captivating hundreds of thousands of people around the world, who flock to his website for an unfiltered, closer look at the birds.

In five years he has documented over 60 hummingbird nests from egg to flight, making him one of the top experts in the world.

"Before I started following the birds in my backyard so closely, people didn't know hummingbirds had more than one nest a year. But because I was following this [one] particular bird, we were able to prove it had four nests a year," Pittman said.

And what started out as an unusual hobby is now turning into a career. Pittman says he's been asked by BBC Wildlife to help it locate and film a Rufous Hummingbird nest in Alaska.

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Vancouver among Canada's worst tippers

New data gathered on Canadian tipping habits shows Vancouver narrowly avoiding the bottom slot — thanks to the lack of generosity displayed by Calgarians.

Mobile payments company Square analyzed the transactions made on their system in five Canadian cities — Vancouver, Toronto, Calgary, Montreal and Ottawa — averaging out both the frequency of tips made and their value.

Vancouver was found to tip 62 per cent of the time, with an average tip of 13.4 per cent of the bill, far behind Canada's most generous tipsters in Ottawa, who tipped 76.6 per cent of time with an average tip of 15.6 per cent.

Some Vancouver business owners showed little surprise when told about the results.

"I think people really do believe that is the standard —  that it's 10 per cent gratuity," said Christy Denton, owner of Cranberries Spa in Vancouver.

Illustrator Willo O'Brien demonstrates the Square credit-card reader on her iPhone in San Francisco. Mobile payments are expected to hit $670 billion by 2015. (Russel A. Daniels/AP)

She says clients often ask her how much they should tip.

"I will tell them it's really 15 to 20 per cent."

Ian Tostenson, head of the BC Restaurant and Food Association agrees.

"I think you should tip anywhere from 15-20 per cent if you have good service and if you don't have good service I don't think you should tip anything," he said. "That's when you need to go to the business owner and say, 'My experience wasn't great'."

Back at the more generous end of the tipping spectrum, Toronto's tips were slightly bigger than Montreal's (at 14.5 per cent and 14.4 per cent respectively), but Montrealers tip on average 70.4 percent, while Torontonians leave a tip only 65.5 per cent of the time.

Calgarians proved the most miserly of the bunch according to Square, tipping just 59.4 per cent of the time, with an average tip of 13.3 per cent.

The data was gathered from transactions made using Square's mobile payment technology, and covered retail services that give a tip option to customers, including restaurants, taxis, spas, hairdressers and bars. It also included those offering personal services such as private fitness instruction and massage services.

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Cat picks the bucket in power pole rescue

Video

CBC News Posted: Apr 01, 2014 9:19 AM NT Last Updated: Apr 01, 2014 9:19 AM NT

A cat that found itself stuck in a tough spot got some help from a Newfoundland Power crew, after it made its way to the top of a utility pole in Lord's Cove on the Burin Peninsula.

The orange and white cat perched itself at the top of the pole, and either couldn't or wouldn't make its way down.

Newfoundland Power used a bucket truck to reach the cat…which still needed a bit of a nudge to budge.

Our thanks to Margaret Mary Martin for the video above.

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Hummingbird live webcam takes flight in B.C.

Vancouver Island resident Eric Pittman has become somewhat of a hummingbird expert ever since he picked up a video camera five years ago and starting filming a nest in his backyard.

He has been filming ever since.

"Once you start to do it and they're always around, it's kind of addictive," he said.

Pittman's high quality videos and live webcam streaming from Esquimalt, B.C., are captivating hundreds of thousands of people around the world, who flock to his website for an unfiltered, closer look at the birds.

In five years he has documented over 60 hummingbird nests from egg to flight, making him one of the top experts in the world.

"Before I started following the birds in my backyard so closely, people didn't know hummingbirds had more than one nest a year. But because I was following this [one] particular bird, we were able to prove it had four nests a year," Pittman said.

And what started out as an unusual hobby is now turning into a career. Pittman says he's been asked by BBC Wildlife to help it locate and film a Rufous Hummingbird nest in Alaska.

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Caribou poo 'important baseline' for DNA research

Some hunters in the Northwest Territories are being encouraged to bring home more than just caribou meat when they go on their spring hunts.

It's something most people like Jean Polfus want to avoid: caribou scat — or poop.

"People call me 'The Poop Lady' … Although 'Caribou Poop Lady' is a little bit nicer," she said. 

​Polfus is a student and a researcher, who funnels gum-ball-size caribou droppings into a Ziplock bag because they contain valuable information about the animals' genetic makeup.

Jean Polfus is a student and researcher who is asking hunters in the Sahtu to gather caribou scat to help study the DNA of the Woodland Caribou herd. (CBC)

​"We'll just take a Q-Tip and swab the outside of the pellet once it's warmed up and we will collect the DNA from that," Polfus said.

Each bag someone brings back from a hunting trip earns him or her a $25 gas card.

Woodland Caribou populations are threatened in the Northwest Territories, so the scat samples could help researchers figure out how to save the herds.

​Polfus hopes the samples reveal new details about the Woodland Caribou, specifically if the herds in the Sahtu, a region that runs along the Mackenzie Mountains and includes five communities, have mating caribou that would traditionally graze elsewhere.

"The genetic information as well as the information that people have can be used as important baseline information that can be monitored over time. Especially with different industrial developments that are happening in the Sahtu," she said. 

That's information Polfus — and the hunters — can't wait to dig up.  

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Only in Vancouver? Marijuana oil-infused pizza on the menu

Before this pizza gets baked, it gets baked.

A Vancouver pizzeria is serving up slices with an extra special ingredient — if you're over 18 and have been prescribed marijuana by a doctor.

Anthony Risling explains that at Mega iLL, on Kingsway at Fraser, you can ask the kitchen to add their special ingredient for an extra $10.

"Basically we infuse it through an oil extraction process, where we drizzle the oil onto the pizza and it medicates you when you eat it. It's a little different effect from smoking it. It takes maybe about a half hour for it to activate."

Anthony Risling is fairly certain that Mega iLL, on Kingsway at Fraser, is the only pizzeria in Canada offering THC-infused pies. (CBC)

One customer at Mega iLL told CBC News the added oil has "a little bit of a tangy flavour" but otherwise doesn't have much of a taste on the pizza.

Risling is fairly certain that no one else is Canada is operating a pot-zzeria. He said the idea came from a trip to Cambodia, where a pizzeria called Happy Pizza used a similar process to add THC to the pies.

But the future of Mega iLL's signature product is in limbo, with hew Health Canda rules on medicinal marijuana coming into effect on April 1.

A last-minute federal court injunction is keeping some of the new rules from coming fully into effect, but the final outcome of the case could take the pizza off the menu.

"We'll still be open regardless. We just might not be able to infuse the pizzas anymore," Risling said. "But we will still be open as a pizza place where people can come and medicate here."

Marijuana-infused oil is drizzled on a pizza before it goes in the oven. The special ingredients costs $10 more per order. (CBC)

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