Thursday November 20, 2008
Deflation now tops policy-makers' hit list
Cars are piling up in storage because dealers don't want bloated inventories. Chinese factories are running out of room for all the appliances they're turning out but can't ship. The prices of flat-screen TVs are plummeting; and Americans are so sure housing prices will continue falling that they would rather wait than take the plunge back into real estate.
Chrysler Canada seeks $1-billion
Chrysler Canada Inc. has asked Ottawa and Ontario for $1-billion in financial assistance to help it survive through the auto crisis - the only one of the Canadian units of the Detroit Three that so far has specified how much it is seeking.
Conrad Black pursues clemency from Bush as way out
Conrad Black is pinning his hopes on clemency from U.S. President George W. Bush as a last-ditch effort to get out of jail early, and he wants his former publishing company to foot the legal bill.
A chilling note, a man in custody and a family of four's final moments
A father, mother, their two adult children and the family dog were found slain yesterday in a quiet east-end Toronto home where a chilling handwritten note on the front door read, ''Do not enter. Call police.''
Report on Business 
Carney dismisses calls to regulate bankers' pay
The way bankers are paid is an issue that must be addressed to discourage them from taking excessive risks, but it should not be regulated, Canadian officials say.''I firmly believe that regulation of compensation is not appropriate, even though it is in vogue,'' Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney said in a speech to the U.K. Chamber of Commerce yesterday.
Flaherty pushes plan for watchdog
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty signalled at least partial victory in his struggle to create a national securities regulator, saying he intends to proceed with establishing a new body in the new year with any province that cares to join.
Ontario plants hit by Toyota cutbacks
A new Toyota Motor Corp. assembly plant in Woodstock, Ont., that opens on Dec. 4 will halt production for two days just weeks later as part of another cutback in North American production by the auto maker.
'Mark-to-market' accounting rules fuel debate
Two Canadian financial heavyweights have taken up opposite corners in the raging debate over controversial ''mark-to-market'' accounting rules and their role in fuelling the current economic crisis.In a lecture to the C.D. Howe Institute in Toronto, David Dodge, the former Bank of Canada governor, called for the accounting standards to be scrapped, blaming them for amplifying market gyrations and exacerbating the volatility of profits reported by financial institutions. Nick Le Pan, the former federal banking regulator, told another audience that the crisis would have been worse without the current rules.
Report urges Alberta to bank oil revenue
Alberta's aging oil patch is forcing the province to take a fresh look at how to save for the future.A commission struck to study the energy-rich province's savings strategy recommended yesterday that Alberta bulk up its Heritage Savings Trust Fund to safeguard its standard of living as revenues from the oil patch decline.
Globe Sports
GAME SHEET
BURKE GOES HUNTING
Out-of-work Brian Burke went hunting yesterday, but he was not tracking the portfolio of president and general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs.Instead, Burke went game hunting in the Vancouver area and said that negotiations with the Leafs won't likely begin until the weekend.
Roy comes full circle
It ended messily amid rage and recriminations for the man known to many Quebeckers as Saint Patrick, but all is to be put right on Saturday evening at the Bell Centre.
Nothing humerus about Wotherspoon's injury
Jeremy Wotherspoon, the most dominant speed skater on the World Cup circuit, didn't realize it when he was taking a one-year sabbatical, but he was preparing himself for a season on the shelf.
Calderon's return heats up Raptors
For a change, the game came easily to the Toronto Raptors. Or most of it did.They didn't play uphill by handing the ball over to their opponents 20 or more times, as has been their habit lately.
Globe Life
Doctors use stem cells to help create trachea
Doctors have given a woman a new windpipe with tissue partly grown from her own stem cells, eliminating the need for anti-rejection drugs.Both donor and recipient tissue were used in the operation. Only a handful of windpipe, or trachea, transplants have been done. If successful, the procedure could become a new standard of treatment, said Eric Genden, a surgeon at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York who was not involved in the research.
YOUR MORNING SMILE
Next time you're on Broadway, be sure to take in the mind-bending production of Hello Dali!- Frederick Sweet, Toronto
When it comes to statins, don't believe the hype
The headlines were dramatic and unequivocal:''Cholesterol drug causes risk of heart attack to plummet'' - Fox News.''Cholesterol-fighting drugs show wider benefit'' - The New York Times.''Cholesterol drug cuts heart risk in healthy patients'' - The Wall Street Journal.
God wants you to have sex
Long workdays have left them fatigued, years of raising children have snuffed their romantic fires, and the economy has them so stressed their libidos are tanking right along with it.
MISTRESS FUND: SAY GOODBYE TO THE PRIVATE JET, HONEY
Skimpy gifts, a thinning allowance and a resounding ''no'' to that impromptu escape on the private jet: Times may be getting tough for the mistress who caters to the whims of a millionaire.
Globe Review
GOING OUT: A GUIDE TO THE WEEK'S ENTERTAINMENT
ART and MUSEUMSSotheby's ImportantCanadian Art More than 200 lots (with a presale estimate of more than $9.5-million) include Frederick Horsman Varley's Green and Gold, Portrait of Vera, an arresting rendering of Vera Olivia Weatherbie, the woman whom Varley later declared the ''single greatest influence on my life.'' Nov. 24, 10:30 a.m. (previews, tomorrow to Sunday). Ritchies Auctioneers, 380 King St. E., 416-364-1864.
Still happening after 40 years
The concept was simplicity itself: Find the newsmaker, get him or her on the phone, record the conversation and put it on the air.''The telephone is a delightful instrument,'' explained Phil Forsyth, the first host of CBC Radio's As It Happens. ''It can go anywhere, doesn't cost that much, and on the air it sounds like a real conversation rather than an interview.''
How the world's new realities will play out on TV
NBC is developing a comedy based on the book Making Friends With Black People. The show is described by the network as ''a buddy comedy that will focus on the state of race relations in the U.S.'' As often happens, I need to point out that I'm not making this up.
House builds a dance of angles and distortions
DIS/(SOL/VE)RToronto Dance TheatreAt Fleck Dance Theatrein Toronto on TuesdayNever underestimate choreographer/artistic director Christopher House. Some people may have left the world premiere of House's Dis/(sol/ve)r, his new work for Toronto Dance Theatre, thinking it was a superficial look at shifting romantic relationships, but what lies beneath is an intricate internal structure that is tightly bound to theories governing quantum mechanics.
A field guide to the Smas, Ghetto Fabs, Gabberbitches, Reli-Rockers and more
For the past 14 years, a pair of Dutch artists, Ari Versluis and Ellie Uyttenbroek, have been documenting styles of appearance in series of photographs. They go to a city, notice a particular look that seems to recur, find a dozen or so people who look like this and invite them into a studio to pose. The people tend to look a certain way because they belong to a recognizable social group, defined by region or class or style of music. Versluis and Uyttenbroek put their subjects against a white backdrop and pose them in exactly the same way. Then they create a grid of images and label it ''Skins - Rotterdam, 2007'' or ''Sapeurs - Paris, 2008.'' The results are stunning: The people in each group look identical.
Editorials
Pragmatism in time of economic crisis
Prime Minister Stephen Harper recently warned Conservatives at a party policy conference that, in light of the economic downturn, they had to be ''tough and pragmatic, not unrealistic or ideological.'' Yesterday's Speech from the Throne was an affirmation of that principle, revealing a government that is driven not so much by ideology, but rather by a cautious pragmatism that, if followed by action, will serve to strengthen Canada's economy.
Navies and the rule of law
The Indian Navy's destruction on Tuesday of a pirate ''mother ship'' - a floating base for small raiding boats off Somalia - is an encouraging turn of events, showing a regional power taking effective action against the booming hostage-taking business, in which ransom levels are escalating.
Education by surveillance
Queen's University in Kingston is so troubled by the expression of incorrect thought among its students that it has created a band of ''student facilitators'' to roam university residences and dining halls and stamp it out. These facilitators - spies, more like - will listen for offensive comments on race, gender and sexuality, and on behalf of officialdom take umbrage. The nanny state has hired the KGB.
Comment
East is East, West is West? No more
Kangaroos, I read in the South China Morning Post, originally came from China. The paper's source is Australia's Centre of Excellence for Kangaroo Genomics, so it must be true. What next? Pandas from France? Kiwis from Costa Rica?
Unremarkable, maybe - but a prudent blueprint
The smartest part of yesterday's Throne Speech was a line borrowed from Wayne Gretzky: ''We have to skate to where the puck is going to be, not to where it has been.''
Up next: free heroin for addicts
Should we be giving free heroin to addicts?Don't choke. Researchers in Vancouver say yes. And they've just spent $8-million in public money to prove their case. Last month, after concluding a landmark clinical trial, they announced that the best way to treat hard-core heroin addicts is: Give them more heroin! They argue that methadone, a much safer treatment, doesn't work with this crowd. But free heroin makes them happier, healthier and less inclined to steal so they can get their next fix. And since they can't kick the habit, we ought to minimize the social harm and feed their habit, legally.
Why politics must be war
So, the newly re-elected government wants Parliament to act collectively instead of combatively in an effort to ward off the economic tsunami sweeping over Canada and almost everywhere else. Sound good? What could be better than MPs working together for the common good instead of growling and snapping at each other?
Obituaries
Older half of MacLean and MacLean duo took free speech fight to Supreme Court
Blair MacLean was a visual artist, a musician and an instructor who loved teaching children how to draw and how to play musical instruments. He was also a foul-mouthed singer and comedian who, with his brother Gary, achieved the distinction of being the first Canadians to be prosecuted for talking dirty on stage.
CLIVE BARNES: 81
Clive Barnes, long-time performing arts critic for the New York Post, died yesterday at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. He was 81, and suffered from cancer.British-trained, he arrived in 1965 from England to write for The New York Times, where he was its dance critic until 1977. He was also the paper's daily drama critic for 10 years.
JODY REYNOLDS: 75
Jody Reynolds, the rockabilly singer and songwriter whose lone hit Endless Sleep in the 1950s ushered in a wave of tragic teen pop songs, died Nov. 7. He was 75.
CHRISTEL GOLTZ: 96
Soprano Christel Goltz, a stalwart of the Vienna State Opera who performed in German-language roles across the world in the 1950s, died Saturday at a residence for retired artists. She was 96.
LAST WORDS
Independence forever.John AdamsU.S. president, 1735-1826
Science
Scientists closer to a mammoth comeback
An international team of scientists has decoded most of the genome of the woolly mammoth, an important step toward bringing the ice-age giant back to life.The DNA was extracted from the wiry, reddish-brown hair of mammoths which had been frozen in the Siberian permafrost for more 20,000 years.
Education
Teen takes charge to avert school-bus tragedy
Just like any other morning, the school bus picked up the Ranger family's children at 7:25 a.m. outside their home in Legal, Alta.Nicholas, 15, Shailynn, 14, and Jessica, 13, piled onto the bus - three of 17 children aboard - and headed off along Range Road 252. But shortly after the bus pulled away from the Ranger home, it swerved.
Nfld. a 'stakeholder' in Memorial presidential search
Robert Simmonds, the man chosen by Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams to guide the search for a new leader at Memorial University, says the province has an interest in that process.
Queen's fundraiser to head Public Policy Forum
The head of fundraising at Queen's University, David Mitchell, is stepping down just over a year into the job to lead the Ottawa-based Public Policy Forum. Mr. Mitchell, a vice-principal at Queen's, is expected to announce his plans formally today.
Teen credited with averting tragedy in one of two school bus mishaps
A 14-year-old is credited with averting a major tragedy after helping guide the out-of-control school bus he was on safely to a stop north of Edmonton yesterday.
Bad-words patrol
The notion that Queen's University is devoting resources to suppressing speech is more offensive than anything coming out of the average student's mouth (ConversationCops Step In To School Students - Nov. 19).
