Hawk On Fire

(Photo via: Gawker ) R. Umar Abbasi is busy taking hopeless photos of innocent individuals right before their demise. The guy is basically getting paid to do it. But he's not doing his job right. He now has all of New York in an uproar and countless others describing they won't be picking up a New York Post in the future. And who's fault really is it? That's shameless Journalism at its finest. On Monday December 3rd, 58-year-old Ki Suk Han, a husband and father to a college daughter found himself in the bitter end of a scuffle in downtown New York. As sources indicate , there was a minor confrontation between the attacker and Han, and Han was just there to "calm him down". The attacker retaliated and shoved him onto the tracks into an oncoming train, leaving him fighting for his life. A flash of light lit the station up, but saving him was just too late. If you've seen the photograph,or just happened to pick up a copy of the New York Post T...

Plug your ears because this year's Grey Cup halftime show features Canada's worst. At first I didn’t want to believe it. Then, I resisted, bit back a WTF and then I just shook my head in disgust. That was my reaction when I read who would be headlining the stage during halftime at this year’s Grey Cup. Justin Bieber. Carly Rae Jepsen. Mariana’s Trench. Gordon Lightfoot. Poor, poor Mr. Lightfoot. I’m a fanatic for championship games, regardless of the sport. The teams are fired up, the pinnacle of the game is on the line, the drama is amplified and there’s usually a decent spectacle to go with it. Not to mention the buildup before the big game. For instance, in football’s case, the halftime shows are sometimes bigger performances than the game itself. A few weeks ago, I was really looking forward to watching the 100th Grey Cup, not caring which teams were playing. The key word here is “was.” Canada’s premier football league is celebrating an entire century and we some...

If you haven't noticed, hashtags are everywhere. Well, everywhere online. Nowadays, they’re almost unavoidable. What began as a means of sorting out what's being tweeted at the moment on Twitter has now grown into something more; becoming punchlines on Facebook statuses, daily news and even during your favourite TV shows. In other words, what started out to be a social media trend has progressed into something more meaningful - a communication system that allows you to view a topic of discussion just by searching a key word. Need the next Taylor Swift hit? Hashtag search "Swift" and you'll find a flock of tweeters tweeting a tweet about her latest break-up. But is this just a trend or will hashtag messages progress into something more meaningful? In a pre-Facebook age, believe it or not, not too long ago, the only social networks I remember were MySpace and MSN Messenger. What a wasteland, right? These are the places we went to hang, to chat; these were our reso...

Earlier this week, the City of North Bay announced it was going to be getting the Battalion from Brampton for the next hockey season. BUT, 2,000 season tickets must be sold by the year's end. How is social media playing an impact?

15-year-old Vancouver teen Amanda Todd. Teenagers make a lot of dumb choices. Screwing up is part of growing up. But it has never been this: a world where the errors of youth are remembered for eternity. That potential was horribly realized for Amanda Todd, a teen from Vancouver who committed suicide last week after years of persistent bullying, both on and offline. She was only 15. Amanda's death came about five weeks after she posted a video online describing what happened to her since she was a Grade 8 student. On Friday, news of her death received wide media coverage around the world. And the video she uploaded on YouTube went viral. As is common in these times, several tributes and memorial sites were set up on Facebook and other social media sites. The girl who had told the world in her video, "I have nobody. I need someone," had the support in death she never believed she had in life. Funny how much of a difference can make when you die. What stan...

It’s looking a lot like NHL 13 is going to be the only place to get some NHL action for the time being. The sport that claims its fans are the best in the world, closes its doors to those fans… again. Sorry, Canada, but it looks like you’re going to have to survive winter without watching your favourite players. This past weekend, the hockey season was in jeopardy. The NHL and the NHLPA were in a dispute over a new Collective Bargaining Agreement that recently ended when last season was played. When no motive was given as to an agreement or a negotiation, the NHL decided to lock out its players (NHLPA), given they had a deadline of midnight Saturday night to reach a deal. After refusing to renegotiate for the majority of Saturday, no deal was made. Maybe it has to do with the Leafs being in the Winter Classic this year? But honestly, this is not what the fans wanted. This is not what the players wanted, and I’m sure this isn’t what the owners wanted. So, wh...

It was a shock to all of us, yet we knew this day was going to come. It was guaranteed ever since March that the Liberal government was going to cancel the rail service from Toronto to Cochrane. And since then, political leaders fought; mayors fought; students had their say, but the government didn't listen. I asked our mayor about any kind of response from the Liberals since the cancellation was announced and he explained most of his letters would go unanswered. It was like speaking to a group of people in power who don't treat the North as equal as the South. And in simple terms, that's pretty much what this whole issue is about. Equality. Read more ->

Congratulations, Canada’s Olympic team! You just followed up your country’s greatest sporting moment, the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, by finishing tied with Uganda, Uzbekistan and Grenada in the gold-medal count at the 2012 London Games !  The greatest reality show in history closed yesterday  with all the drama one could imagine. (I really hope they book it for another season). Canada at this Olympics did itself proud in winning medals with humility and losing medals with grace. But here's the thing. Canada would never amount to much knowing we don't have the same advantage as we do in the Winter Olympics. The summer Olympics has a lot more competition and makes it a little harder to qualify knowing we're not on snow or ice. The fact that we won more bronze is a bit heart breaking, but we can certainly do better than one gold. If Canada stays committed to the cause of building a better elite-sport infrastructure in the four years until the Rio Olympics , the likes...

If you're smart enough to read between the lines of that Florida face-eating story ( right ), and the grusome details of the bloody foot left at the Conservative Party's offices in Ottawa, you've already destroyed the staircases in your house while surrounding yourself with rifles and long-handled axes. If you were gullible enough to buy that bath salts explanation, maybe the above list of recent violent assaults (assembled by some nameless person in Australia and I didn't bother to fact-check it in the slightest) will convince you: the zombie horde cometh. Aim for the head. Update 1: Now do you believe me ? This has gotta stop . Update 2: I mean seriously . Update 3: This has got to stop .  Update 4: Not again .

Last week, a Toronto Star reporter was caught around Rob Ford’s Etobicoke home trying to get a possible lead for a story that involved Ford’s property. How ironic. But the lengths of Journalism between what is right and what is wrong was brought up because Mr. Dale was caught “snooping” around the Ford home – somewhere where he wasn’t invited. Whether or not Dale was on Ford’s actual property is immaterial to me. It may be crucial in the court of law, but in the court of public opinion, Ford was (for once) in the right. It’s true the Star went to the mayor’s house to add to an important story on Ford's attempted purchase of a parcel of land next to his property. But there are quite a few details here that don’t work in the newspaper's favour.  First . There was no reason to show up unannounced. This was not supposed to be “gotcha journalism.” Since it was legal and above board, the professional approach would be to let the mayor’s handlers know in advance. ...