It's a wonderful life

"Our Wonderful Nature" is a funny clip from a young German film-maker that gives us a glimpse into a world that normally takes place in the blink of an eye.

Researchers to study if out-of-body experiences are real

A group of British, U.S. and Canadian researchers will study whether out-of-body experiences are real, as some people have claimed after surviving cardiac arrest.

In a study run by the University of Southampton's Human Consciousness Project, researchers will examine 1,500 survivors of heart attacks over three years at 25 hospitals in Europe, the U.S. and Canada to determine if the phenomenon of seeing a light at the end of the tunnel or floating above as reported by some is genuine.

To test patients, doctors will place random photographs on shelves higher than the beds in emergency and intensive care rooms, which will only be visible if the heart-attack victims are looking down, the researchers say.

The photos will be confidential and changed routinely, they say.

Harper gets my (scape)goat

A staff member resigned and apologized Tuesday for writing a speech read by Stephen Harper in 2003 as leader of the Opposition that he plagiarized from an address days earlier by then Australian prime minister John Howard.

"Neither my superiors in the Office of the Leader of the Opposition nor the leader of the Opposition was aware that I had done so."

Lippert worked for Harper, then leader of the Canadian Alliance, when the speech calling for Canadian troops to be deployed to Iraq was written and read in the House of Commons.

Lippert, a former policy analyst for economic think tank the Fraser Institute, has announced his resignation from his current position working in the Conservative campaign headquarters.

The apology came hours after Liberal foreign affairs critic Bob Rae accused Harper of plagiarizing from the Howard speech.

PHOTO: M.C. Escher, The Scapegoat from Diamond, S. Anger, Madness and the Daimonic, p. 80

Gay bashing in Vancouver investigated as hate crime

Vancouver police say they are treating an attack in the city's West End as a hate crime, after a 27-year-old man was struck in the face while walking hand-in-hand with another man.

Early Saturday morning, a group of four young men approached the pair, calling out gay slurs. One of the men then hit him in the face with enough force that he fell back on the sidewalk and was knocked unconscious.

Smith's jaw was dislodged and fractured in a number of places, and he's scheduled to go in for surgery Monday, which will leave his jaw wired shut for six weeks.

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Michael Moore : Congratulations, Corporate Crime Fighters! Coup Averted!

Film-maker Michael Moore has championed many causes over the years, so you can imagine that he has a few things to say about the recent financial collapse of the U.S. markets. Here is an excerpt from his most recent letter:

Everyone said the bill would pass. The masters of the universe were already making celebratory dinner reservations at Manhattan's finest restaurants. Personal shoppers in Dallas and Atlanta were dispatched to do the early Christmas gifting. Mad Men of Chicago and Miami were popping corks and toasting each other long before the morning latte run.

But what they didn't know was that hundreds of thousands of Americans woke up yesterday morning and decided it was time for revolt. The politicians never saw it coming. Millions of phone calls and emails hit Congress so hard it was as if Marshall Dillon, Elliot Ness and Dog the Bounty Hunter had descended on D.C. to stop the looting and arrest the thieves.

The Corporate Crime of the Century was halted by a vote of 228 to 205. It was rare and historic; no one could remember a time when a bill supported by the president and the leadership of both parties went down in defeat. That just never happens.

... and while you are at his site, you can download his latest film on the state of the world, "Slacker Uprising" for FREE!