overthere

In defence of Sony, they are scrambling just to keep their offices open without access to their usual internal networks. They only recently restored voicemail and a basic email system since everything on their previous system is assumed to be compromised.

The federal govt certainly knows their way around the AB till.

Agreed arcobello, but not Lander or Jason Williams??? Teddy Purcell has no point at all. Poor Dreisatl, learning how to lose when he could be in junior where he belongs. Joensuu started well but faded badly as usual. Fourth line should be Gordon Hendricks Pinnozzotto and will be tonight. Somehow, in this alternate universe we now inhabit, Hunt and Aulie are still better than Nikitin. I wish they'd put Nikiitn on waivers, who knows they might find some desperate fish out there. There is zero chance they'd be able to trade him. We have ruined Schultz, he'll also either be gone for nothing at the end of this year or be paid way way too much. Another MacTavish bold move. Petry will be gone soon too, in a trade for very little back or gone for nothing as UFA at end of year. He is, sadly, still our best defenceman. Another horrible situation for and by Mactavish and Lowe.

Public sector union agreements anywhere in Canuckistan always have an effect on other CBAs. The very first words out of a union negotiators mouth are always 'we are below BC, or AB, or the national average'. Forget the supply and demand, forget the fiscal condition of the employer, forget the cost of living indicators, forget the cost of benefits, forget demographics, and forget the economy. But hey, we deserve more because somebody 4000 kms gets more.

Yes but if you ever do get a job, you'll have the enviable advantage of an Ontario Pension Plan! Seriously, I hope things get better for you soon.

Here is a list of some whoppers in the loss department. They would all have big promo budgets and hype, naturally. I was surprised to see Hugo, not a bad flick and won or was nominated for Oscars. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_box_office_bombs

No, hype alone cannot guarantee box office success. But it can help. Heavens Gate, anybody? No, I didn't think so.

Klein had drifted very far from his early fiscal conservatism in the 90s by the time he quit. The main reason the Liberals have slipped from their salad days long ago in the early days was their terrible leadership. For example, the current leader of the Libs is the certifiable idiot Raj Sherman. You'd think the current kerfuffle would give Sherman a big opportunity, but ..... no. There is no way for you or I to assess the fiscal incomtency of the Alberta Libs, since nothing Sherman says or does makes any sense. Smears? The primary failings of Wildrose: 1) to completely miscalculate the actual beliefs of actual Albertans. No, they are not socially conservative. No, they are not creationists. No, they are not right wing. 2) to create a chimera of a party based on 1 ). Once the founding members realized that the party was maxed out in support in 2012, and that support was very soft except for a few social/fiscal hardliners- the jig was up for Wildrose. As we clearly saw in the election and byeelections. Alison Redford was a gift to Smith, but Prentice was a Satanic intervention. And of course, every party everywhere runs hard for the middle, provincially and federally. It is where you find all the votes. What Wildrose shared with the former Reform Party was that neither was ever going to govern as long as they stayed on the fringe. Reform made the transition, in spades. Wildrose could not and folded the tent..

Making tons of money will depend mostly on how good or bad the movie is, but you are right in one sense. It will earn more at the box now than if it had not had official North Korean condemnation and some criminal activity pre-release.

Your analogy is laboured and pointless. Oh, and only Quebec is so navel gazing and self important to fantasize that its Premier is a Prime Minister. Prentice is bilingual, has strong federal cabinet experience in government, good contacts in business in Central Canada, and has worked a virtual political miracle in Alberta in just a few months- and I'm not talking about the crushing of Wild Rose. Your 'too regional' piffle is clearly wrong, perhaps you had not noticed that the country currently has a majority government with no input from your region. Quebec. Every PM came from somewhere. I do not know if Prentice will ever become PM, but his game so far has been very strong.

They are promoting the crap out of it because they want to get whatever they can back from a large investment of money. Is there any other reason for promoting any movie? It would not be the first time a crap flick has been delayed because it is crap. Make no mistake, this gong show will sell tickets and it will end up in theaters. Notoriety sells, obviously. Of more danger to Sony is that if the movie itself was hacked, it will end up on the Internet free and easily seen. The lost box office would be expensive.

It has little to do with Wildrose opposition, since clearly they were already a non -factor when Bill 10 was pulled back. And the bill as shelved improved rights of gay students. Where the controversy lay was in how those students who wanted to foem gay-straight alliances within the schools. The Prentice bill let the Catholic boards off the hook somewhat.... Of course while all this was going on, negotiations were underway with Wildrose over their defection to the PCs. Supposedly the agreements between PC and WR will respect the church school boards to not allow gay staright alliances without a court fight. My hope is that Prentice does the right thing by doublecrossing the former WR MLAs and pass the bill forcing all school boards to treat gay-straight students properly and equally.

One of the reasons they may have delayed the release is that the industry buzz indicates the movie is a giant turkey anyway, just in time for Xmas. in any case, the movies publicist deserves a big bonus.

It has gotten worse this week. I got my wish for MacT to get behind the bench. Unfortunately, he is there to somehow mentor or tutor the inecpereinced coach he hired, Todd Nelson from the Oilers AHL affiliate. He has only minimal NHL experience, a brief stint as an assistant in Atlanta. That's the third rookie coach in a row. MacTs ongoing excuse is" I've only been here 20 months, be patient". Well no, Oilers fans have been very patient, now we are pissed off and out for blood. MacTavish made a serious mistake when he started by not firing all of the pro and amateur scouting staff, all of them. Between Lowe and the scouts, they failed completely by not providing a solid supporting cast for the kids. The young stars have no help at all in goal, defence or with some heavier players. The OIlers have gotten nearly nothing out of 2nd round or later draft picks. Nearly all their pro trades and free agents have been worse than useless. The only guy with any hope of flushing it all is Bob Nicholson.

I cannot think of a single reason to be impressed by Danielle Smith. Her ideology is based on hate. She turned into the classic political chameleon 5 minutes after throwing away the last election. She kept on that road, which led to the first defections from her party and ultimately her own defection. Perhaps she recognized that Wildrose had both limited appeal, and had peaked in interest /membership in 2012. Unless they moved to the middle, they were doomed. When they tried to move to the middle, they were doomed. They got a horrible slap in the chops at the byelection recently for four vacant seats. They finished third in two ridings where they thought they had a shot at winning, and did not win any of the four.. Prentice has made very few errors, but I do not quite get why he has taken in these Wildrose MLAs. He does not need the seats now or at the next election in 2016. All that is left of Wildrose are the hardcore right and the organized, vocal church people, who now have nowhere to go.

Everything on a health care plan paid for by an employer has been negotiated and specifically approved beforehand by the employer with the service provider/administrator(like Blue Cross). Do you know if Catholic boards approve birth control? I know that public school boards do.

False analogy. The experience of gender reassignment surgery is far more profound than, say, a course of methadone treatment or a stint in rehab.

pffft. Nobody cares, then or now. Oh, and the British print media cited doesn't even rate as fishwrapper, particularly the Daily Mail. If you put the Daily Fail on the bottom of a bird cage, the bird would die of constipation.

He is bilingual, but needs better hair to compete at that level.

^^^ It's passive. No, it's aggressive.

Jim Prentice was clearly the right choice for the PCs!

Which is exactly what I said when it was discussed here and elsewhere. Controlling the 'demand' side of electrical consumption is routinely done by industry, but is much harder for ordinary residential consumers. The demand meters are purely a revenue grab, one that requires relatively little investment and has a quick payback. The benefit to consumers and customers is pretty much nil. It is also a way for Ontario Hydro to maintain profits while spouting a purportedly responsible program of energy conservation. Reducing consumption helps defer giant capital costs for Hydro, and introducing smart meters lets them raise or maintain profits while they sell less product.

They always identify themselves.

Eakins was supposedly a hot commodity when McTavish hired him to- a rookie coach- a four year term. 4 years. And now MacT the Genius is replacing him with another coach with zero NHL experience. As Einstein famously said, insanity is "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Here we go again. Of course, getting an experienced, credible NHL coach to sign in Edmonton is at least as hard as signing decent free agents. What same coach with other options would want to end their career with this gong show? By my count the Oilers are now paying three coaches: Krueger until next year, Eakins for another 2 1/2 years, and now Todd Nelson for an undetermined time. The best thing that has happened for MacT lately is that Nikitin is supposedly hurt and is not playing. The Oilers don't need any more reasons for fans to point and laugh and remember who signed this guy to a four year deal for big money .

Part of WildRose was/is organized church groups who were socially conservative and did not like the inclusive, centrist approach of the PCs . Socially conservative voters are a part of every provinces electorate, but I guess it serves some agendas here to pretend they are some kind of Christian jihad. There won't be a merger, because it is not in the interests of the PCs. They don't want or need the far right in their party, any more than they want or need the far left. As much as it denies the prejudices of the Alberta-haters, Alberta is a place of the center and has been for a long time. But there will be some defections, or rather more defections and that will likely be today..