A former Disney employee agreed to plead guilty in a federal criminal case where he is accused of hacking into menu-creation software for the company’s restaurants, to falsely indicate that certain food items did not contain potentially deadly allergens such as peanuts, a court filing Friday shows.
Hey aren’t you the guy …
Jean Chrétien: Canadians will never give up the best country in the world to join the U.S.
Today is my 91st birthday.
It’s an opportunity to celebrate with family and friends. To look back on the life I’ve had the privilege to lead. And to reflect on how much this country we all love so much has grown and changed over the course of the nine decades I’ve been on this Earth.
Seriously they’re trotting out Mr. Sponsorship Scandal Jean Chretien as some sort of Patriot?
WTF?
Hobbyist Builds AI-Assisted Rifle Robot Using ChatGPT: “We’re under attack from the front left and front right. Respond accordingly” | ZME Science
The viral video sparked ethical debates about the broader implications of AI weapons.
One of the wildest videos to go viral on… pic.twitter.com/ExHhZZ4nmH
— Owen Gregorian (@OwenGregorian) January 10, 2025
h/t Mauser
Nolte: Domestic Movie Ticket Sales Have Collapsed 46 Percent Since 2004
In the Year of Our Lord 2024, only 817.9 million domestic movie tickets were sold. Back in 2019, 1.225 billion — with a “B” — tickets were sold. That’s a 34 percent collapse in just five years.
If you go back 20 years to 2004, ticket sales have dropped from 1.495 billion to 817.9 million, or an astonishing 46 percent.
I wonder at the long term impact of the LA fires on Hollywood. There has been an ongoing California population and business exodus, will the movie business’s exit gain momentum?
Liberal leadership hopeful Christy Clark says she “misspoke” about voting for Conservatives
Former B.C. premier Christy Clark’s prospects of winning the federal Liberal leadership race took a hit after she falsely claimed she was never a member of the federal Conservative party.
Ms. Clark, whose B.C. Liberal party was a mix of Liberals and Conservatives, was asked about her past relationship with the Conservatives in an interview with CBC’s radio program The House, which aired Saturday.
Watch Christy Clark get outed in her very big lie on the first day of her campaign to lead the Liberal party.
Perfect, I guess for the Liberals.
Watch this —all of it. pic.twitter.com/dl6DOBiBrz
— Melissa Lantsman (@MelissaLantsman) January 11, 2025
New theory emerges over what could have sparked the deadly Los Angeles inferno
Faults along the Los Angeles power grid alarmingly soared in the same areas where major wildfires raged this week, sparking a new theory that they may have caused the devastating crisis.
Bob Marshall, the chief executive of Whisker Labs, a company that monitors electrical activity, told Fox News that the firm saw spikes in faults in the hours before the Eaton, Palisades and Hurst Fires.
He said a network of around 14,000 ‘ting’ sensors recorded faults across the power grid in those areas, which he said can offer ‘extraordinary precision and accuracy.’ Marshall said data shows the power was not immediately shut off after the faults surged.
WATCH: A helicopter makes a critical water drop near the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles as crews battle to save homes from the Palisades Fire.
The drop, captured by KTLA's SKY 5, doused flames that were rapidly approaching houses. Follow live: https://t.co/ox4jbvVsXd pic.twitter.com/r7382xHtxF
— KTLA (@KTLA) January 11, 2025
Canada’s acceptance of refugee claims has ballooned in last 6 years under Trudeau — more for some countries than others
The number of refugee claimants Canada has accepted has more than doubled since 2018. A CBC investigation has found that people from some countries have an easier time claiming asylum than others.
The number of refugee claimants granted asylum in Canada was close to 37,000 in 2023, up from just over 14,000 in 2018.
The recognition rate, which is determined by the number of accepted refugee claims divided by the total number of claims that have been decided by the Immigration and Refugee Board on merit, also increased to 82 per cent in the first nine months of 2024, from 64 per cent in 2018.
The entire refugee system needs to be frozen and the staff tossed to the curb.
Our leaders praise ‘diversity’ without prioritizing what the public really needs
There’s an old saying that a conservative is a liberal who has been mugged by reality.
Perhaps after the wildfire devastation in Los Angeles this week, we might also say that a person who has fallen out of love with the cult of “diversity” is a liberal whose home just burned to the ground.
Investigators are looking into the claims of multiple arson attacks that may well have started or whipped along these fires. A lot of blame is going to have to be apportioned in the directions of an awful lot of people.
Meet the people in charge of LA’s fire response.
All of them lesbians named Kristin.
Kristina Crowley – First LGBTQ Fire Chief LAFD.
Salary: $439,722Kristina Kepner – First Lesbian Assistant Chief LAFD.
Salary: $264,468Kristine Larson – First black lesbian Equity Bureau… pic.twitter.com/qzXt5fa7uF
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) January 10, 2025
Toronto’s unemployment rises to 8.4%
Canada’s Top Job Market Is Saskatoon, Toronto Ranks Near Worst: BMO
Toronto is out and Saskatoon is in—at least for those looking for a robust job market. That’s the take from BMO’s latest labor market rankings of Canada’s 33 largest cities. The country added tens of thousands of jobs, but surging population growth means some cities did worse than others. Places like Toronto saw a sharp erosion of its labor market as its population outpaced its ability to create jobs. More affordable cities like Saskatoon maintained robust population growth, but managed to grow its labor market faster—probably since shelter costs didn’t consume its economy.
Toronto unemployment rises to 8.4% https://t.co/3MU8A8NrgU pic.twitter.com/m57hJXWQvN
— Daniel Foch (@daniel_foch) January 11, 2025
In court with the ‘9/11 mastermind’, two decades after his arrest
Sitting on the front row of a war court on the US’s Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, one of the world’s most notorious defendants, appeared to listen intently.
“Can you confirm that Mr Mohammed is pleading guilty to all charges and specifications without exceptions or substitutions?” the judge asked his lawyer as Mohammed watched on.
“Yes, we can, Your Honour,” the lawyer responded.
Mark Carney expected to launch Liberal leadership bid next week, backed by 30 MPs: source
Former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney is expected to formally announce his bid to replace Prime Minister Justin Trudeau late next week, a source close to his campaign told CBC News.
The source, who spoke on the condition they not be named because they were not authorized to speak publicly, said Carney has more than 30 MPs backing him. The source suggested he picked up support after Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc closed the door on leadership earlier this week.
German institutions depart X, a day after Musk’s Weidel talk
Scores of universities and research institutions in Germany and Austria on Friday announced their intention to drop their presence on the online messaging platform X (formerly Twitter), saying its algorithms were opposed to a discourse based on scientific and democratic integrity.
The planned withdrawal in the academic sphere comes as the German government says it is also considering leaving the platform because it was having an “agitated and polarizing” effect on public political discussion.
David Polansky: You need to be angrier, Canada
You need to be angrier.
Of course, anger is most often not a good thing. It clouds judgment, it leads to rashness and poor decision-making. Anger in politics is worse still: it is the food of charlatans and demagogues; it encourages us to see our fellow citizens as enemies rather than just rivals or opponents in the political sphere; it produces bad policies.
Vatican eases restrictions on gay men joining priesthood
The Vatican has approved new guidelines making it easier for gay men to enter the priesthood.
The guidelines for Italian seminaries, released on Thursday, state that the homosexual tendencies of a trainee priest should be put in the “context of the young person’s personality” and not require his automatic expulsion.
No governing party in Canadian history has attempted to switch leaders while on life support
When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his resignation on Monday he set the stage for a leadership race in the Liberal Party to replace him. The winner of that contest will become the party leader and Canada’s 24th prime minister. These are exciting times in Canadian politics but not completely unprecedented.