wmldswlxh's blog: "wmldswlxh"

The Vancouver Aquarium released 10 rescued and rehabilitated harbour seals on Wednesday near Deep Cove. The seals – which had become stranded when they were pups – are just a fraction of the more than 80 seals that are cared for at the Marine Mammal Rescue Centre in Vancouver. Although newborn harbour seals are the most common patients at the rescue centre – which is run by the aquarium – the centre has cared for elephant seals, sea otters, porpoises, sea turtles and killer whales. This year they have rescued 145 seals. While preparing to release the months-old seals, Dr. Martin Haulena, the staff veterinarian at the aquarium, juicy couture outlet told media that this was when all the hard-work done by staff finally pays off. "Releasing these guys is fun and going through that process of taking really, really sick, injured marine animals through that process is certainly a feel-good operation," said Haulena. Before releasing the seals, the staff has to ensure that the seals have gained enough weight, are able to actively forage and can compete against other seals, said Haulena, adding that the rehabilitation process provides valuable insight into the lives of the seals and other marine mammal issues. Those clouds include a potential default by Greece, growing worries about the outlook for Portugal, Spain and Italy, and continuingpolitical gridlock in the U.S. over how to address its huge budget deficit and tepid growth rate. “The worst fear of course is that Greece will default. You can’t sugar-coat that because the euro banks will take it on the chin, and this strikes fears of a repeat of what we had three years ago with (the bankruptcy of) Lehman Brothers and the big bank bailouts,” he says. “So here we are in 2011 and we haven’t learned a thing, and the likelihood of some of the big euro banks failing is triggering cries for more bailouts. And of course the bailouts only pile debt upon more debt.” In Ing’s view, the stock market pullback that began a few months shows that “the world has reached a debt ceiling, and the markets won’t abide adding on more debt.” If so, that will put western governments in an increasingly tight spot, as growth falters and the ability of central banks to spur activity shrinks. Can anyone spell global debt restructuring? Looks to me as if that’s where we’re headed, sooner or later.

Showered with paper aeroplanes, garlanded by admiring Nobel laureates, some of the world's quirkiest scientists will be honoured at a sell-out ceremony at Harvard University next week. The 21st annual Ig Nobel Prizes, conferred by Annals of Improbable Research (AIR), have become one of the most coveted prizes in science. Bringing neither personal riches nor offers of future funding, the Ig Nobels do bestow a heavy dollop of cool on their winners who, collectively, seem to put the fizz in physics and the giggles in gigabytes. Recent winners include a UK-Mexico collaboration, for perfecting a method to collect whale snot, using a remote-controlled helicopter; Dutch duo Simon Rietveld and Ilja van Beest for discovering that some forms of asthma can be treated with a roller-coaster ride; and a team from Otago University, air yeezy 2011 New Zealand, for demonstrating that, on icy footpaths in winter, people slip and fall less often if they wear socks on the outside of their shoes. British scientists traditionally fare well at the Ig Nobels (there are 10 categories covering similar disciplines to the Nobels, from chemistry and economics to peace, but also including public health, engineering, biology, and interdisciplinary research). In 2009, Catherine Douglas and Peter Rowlinson of Newcastle University won for revealing that cows with names give more milk than cows that are nameless. Howard Stapleton of Merthyr Tydfil, triumphed in 2006, for inventing an electro-mechanical teenager repellent (a device that makes annoying high-pitched noise designed to be audible to teenagers but not to adults). And in 2005, an award went to Claire Rind and Peter Simmons of Newcastle University (again) for electrically monitoring the activity of a brain cell in a locust that was being shown selected highlights of Star Wars. If it all sounds like a lot of geeks getting together to let their long hair down, whip off their white coats and, over a glass of champagne, sort out some sticky issues (like Edward Cussler and Brian Gettelfinger, University of Minnesota, winners for the experiment: can people swim faster in syrup or in water?), you wouldn't be far wrong.

After seeing these ratings, the producers may have wished they'd buried Charlie Harper sooner. "Two and a Half Men" earned its most-watched episode ever Monday night as the No. 1-rated CBS sitcom helped kick off the fall TV season with the funeral of Harper, the wisecracking heel played by Charlie Sheen. But the night was hardly a farewell to Sheen: The newly contrite actor, who has been trying to mend fences the last few days, happened to turn up Monday night with his own highly rated roast on Comedy Central. The sideshow of Sheen's career derailment — combined with the hiring of Ashton Kutcher as his replacement — lured an enormous audience of 28.7 million viewers to "Men's" Season 9 premiere, making it one of the year's top prime-time broadcasts, gucci outlet according to data from Nielsen. In the 18-to-49-year-old demographic often sought by advertisers, the sitcom delivered a gigantic 10.7 rating/25 share, numbers seldom seen for a scripted program in these days of fierce media competition and splintered audiences. Those were the best stats ever for "Men," which suffered a shortened eighth season earlier this year after producers sacked Sheen, who had engaged in a public war of words with his bosses. In fact, viewing was so high, it put a noticeable dent during the 9 p.m. half-hour for ABC's heavily anticipated season premiere of "Dancing With the Stars," which ended up with a 19 million average for the night. The two-hour "Dancing" was still strong enough to power ABC to a win for the night in viewers, thanks in no small part to curiosity over the introduction of Chaz Bono, the series' first transgender contestant. NBC, meanwhile, suffered a bruising night: Both its reality competition "The Sing-Off" and the new 10 p.m. drama "The Playboy Club" bombed, logging barely 5 million viewers apiece. "Men" even wrapped its ratings glow around a new CBS sitcom, "2 Broke Girls," which averaged 19.4 million viewers, making it the highest-rated fall sitcom premiere in a decade. The next few weeks, however, may cut "Men" back down to size. "I don't think anyone expected that number," said Brad Adgate, an analyst for ad firm Horizon Media in New York. "Unfortunately for CBS, the audience for the comedy will only go one way, and that is down." Once the Kutcher novelty wears off, the sitcom will probably settle this season in the 12 million to 14 million range, which is what it's averaged in recent years, Adgate predicted. CBS Entertainment President Nina Tassler said in a statement: "We're cognizant that it's only one night in a long season, but it's certainly a spectacular and rewarding way to get started." Kutcher was introduced mid-episode in "Men" as Walden Schmidt, a lovelorn Internet billionaire who had tried to commit suicide by walking into the ocean near the Malibu beach house previously owned by Sheen's character. The episode's opening revealed that Harper had died after a girlfriend had learned of his infidelity and, it was assumed, pushed him in front of an oncoming train. Sheen's appeal, however, is far from dead for some fans. Comedy Central's "Roast of Charlie Sheen" — shrewdly targeted as counterprogramming to "Two and a Half Men's" season premiere — drew 6.4 million viewers, a record for the cable network's popular roast franchise. Celebrities who came to insult the troubled actor included William Shatner, Kate Walsh and "Family Guy's" Seth MacFarlane. Though Monday was the official start of the 2011-12 TV season, some new shows jumped the gun last week. NBC may have reason for optimism with "Up All Night," a sitcom about young parents (10.9 million), but the workplace comedy "Free Agents" looked weak (6.1 million). At the CW — a youth-targeted mini-network with a shorter ratings yardstick than its broadcast competitors — Sarah Michelle Gellar fans turned out for the thriller "Ringer" (2.8 million), and the teenage witch fantasy "The Secret Circle" drew a respectable 3 million.

Federal Heritage Minister James Moore needs a lesson in Canadian heritage when it comes to the question of whether Quebec deserves more House of Commons seats, NDP deputy leader Thomas Mulcair said Monday. Mulcair, who is contemplating a run for the party's leadership, said B.C.'s senior cabinet minister is wrong to accuse the official Opposition of "pandering" to Quebec because it has 59 seats in the province. Moore levelled the charge last week when he blasted the NDP for insisting that Quebec, as well as fast-growing B.C, Alberta and Ontario, deserves more seats when electoral boundaries are next redistributed based on the 2011 census. The goal of the bill should be fairness and not "about the immediate politics of pandering to one group of Canadians instead of another because that's where 59 of your MPs happen to be from," air yeezy Moore said. But Mulcair cited a 1991 Supreme Court of Canada decision involving electoral boundaries in Saskatchewan that declared that boundary makers can deviate from "absolute voter parity" when they are considering community and minority interests. "Mr. Moore is showing a singular lack of understanding of Canadian institutions," Mulcair, a lawyer and former university professor, said. Mulcair maintains that Parliament needs to give meaning to the 2006 House of Commons all-party declaration, made after Stephen Harper became prime minister, declaring that the Quebec people "form a nation within a united Canada." "You could ask James Moore, since he is in charge of heritage, what part of Canadian heritage doesn't he understand?" Mulcair said. "Does he not understand that of all the communities of interest that exist, that one that has to be protected is the one that he's recognized constitutes a nation within Canada, when he voted for that recognition?" Government House leader Peter Van Loan on Monday said one of the government's autumn priorities is to introduce legislation to create an electoral boundary redistribution formula that would better reflect population growth. A previous attempt to bring in such legislation proposed a formula that would have expanded the 308-seat chamber by 30 seats, giving 18 to Ontario, seven to B.C. and five to Alberta. Under that scenario Quebec, which now has 24.4 per cent of the seats and a little more than 23 per cent of the population, would see its share of Canadian MPs decline to just slightly more than 22 per cent. The NDP has argued that Quebec should be guaranteed to maintain its current share of the seats. That would require the 338-seat Commons to be swollen further by boosting Quebec's allotment to 82 or 83 seats, from the current 75. Earlier Monday, Mulcair told reporters that such a move is consistent with the 2006 "nation" motion and the 1991 Supreme Court of Canada decision. "It would be an irony to say that Quebec constitutes — the Quebecois constitute — a nation within Canada and then the first thing you do is you reduce the . . . weight of Quebecers within the House of Commons." The 1991 court decision weighed arguments for and against the principle that all voters should be treated equally. "Relative parity of voting power is a prime condition of effective representation," the majority of judges concluded. "Deviations from absolute voter parity, however, may be justified on the grounds of practical impossibility or the provision of more effective representation. Factors like geography, community history, community interests and minority representation may need to be taken into account to ensure that our legislative assemblies effectively represent the diversity of our social mosaic. "Beyond this, dilution of one citizen's vote, as compared with another's, should not be countenanced."

It all started 18 years ago in Stanley Park, when a small group of staff and volunteers from the Vancouver Aquarium decided to conduct a local shoreline cleanup to help avoid garbage from entering the ocean. Since 1994, over 300,000 volunteers from various communities have picked up over one million kilograms of litter along shorelines as part of the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup, an annual event to help prevent unwanted material from reaching seas. On Saturday, September 17, the WWF-Canada Prince Rupert office coordinated a shoreline cleanup at Hays Creek, that was presented by Loblaws. “[There are a number of reason why the shoreline cleanup is important] including local stewardship and that it makes people being aware of their personal actions and the consequences of them,” said Mike Ambach from World Wildlife Fund in Prince Rupert,louis vuitton outlet who was the site coordinator of this year’s cleanup. “What we put through the water systems; the creeks, oceans, etc, doesn’t just stay in one spot, it goes out into the ocean and becomes a global issue.” Like previous years, prior to volunteers picking up trash they are given a list of common found items such as cigarette butts, beverage cans, etc, so that participants could mark down the amount of each type of waste. This is done for the sake of data, so that organizers can see what items are littered most. Last year, because of Shoreline Cleanups held across the country, approximately 227,830 cigarette filters alone were prevented from becoming ocean bound, as well as preventing approximately 83,660 food wrappers and containers, and 55,880 plastic bags from finding their way to the sea. “It’s all the small stuff,” commented Ambach. Unlike previous years, the seventh annual local Shoreline Cleanup took place around Hays Creek instead of at the Waterfront. “We just decided to move the clean-up around for diversity sake. It allows [people to see] the important connection that fresh water does lead to the ocean. Hopefully in future years we can move the cleanup around more,” explained Ambach Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanups held across Canada are one of country’s largest contributors to the International Coastal Shoreline Cleanup, a global effort to help eliminate harmful litter and aquatic debris from shorelines.

I'm a collector. I'll keep anything and everything. I'll keep a record, a receipt, a photo, a magazine, a card, a phone number long since disconnected. Everything. It's a bit of a burden, as any collector knows. At some point, the boxes own you. Moving is a horrific experience. And actually trying to find something in these towers of boxes is always a futile endeavour. But there they sit, the boxes, and every once in a while this pack-rat mentality can be a little bit profound. Like today, randomly coming across a dusty container marked: "Pearl Jam – Stuff/90s." Saved for a rainy day. And here it is. Raining. The timing is interesting. We've been in the editing room for about a year, working on Pearl Jam Twenty, burberry outlet a film celebrating this truly great Seattle band's first 20 years. I thought we'd searched every corner and crevice, called in every random news report and interview, transferred every essential piece of Super 8 from the band's visual archive – and now I find more stuff. It's too late for it to make the movie, though. The box is filled with tapes and bootlegs and music and notebooks. Digging deeper, there's a carefully adorned aeroplane sickbag with these words on it, drawn in a sparkly pen: "From Eddie." In it is a tape of early demos. I remember this tape. We were making the 1992 movie Singles, about twentysomethings in grunge-era Seattle, and we'd given the band jobs in and around the movie. Jeff Ament, the bass player, worked in the art department, and I borrowed much of his stuff to decorate the apartments in the movie. Jeff had the greatest synthesis of art, sports and film on his walls: from David Lynch to obscure metal, from Kings X to the SuperSonics basketball team. That mix of all that was important artistically and soulfully had a big effect on the ethic that would spawn Pearl Jam. Art is everything, Jeff seemed to be saying with his life choices. Jeff's taste, and that of his musical cohort guitarist, Stone Gossard, was inspiring, and genre-bending. It was OK to like disco, hard rock, Kiss, Queen and the blues. It all came out in their music, in the dark promise of their early band, Green River. And look, here's a photo of the Seattle sky, late 1980s. A dark blue horizon speckled with bright northern stars – that's what the music sounded like then: indigo, flashy, melodramatic and fun. With a sky like that, it's hard not to look up. And it's hard not to feel it, even locked away in a garage, slashing through chords and looking for the right mix of influences. It doesn't always rain in Seattle, but certainly music from the northwest has its roots in players who stay indoors and play and listen and listen and play. A lot. Thus, the tradition of musicians who have the time to feel it and get it right. Even from the beginning, there was a generosity about Pearl Jam. Jeff, Stone, guitarist Mike McCready and, later, singer Eddie Vedder all had an openness to music and the world, and an almost superstitious attention to the details of how this band would be different. The band itself sprang from a miracle. Stone and Jeff had been playing with a local luminary, Andrew Wood, a singer and writer of monumental charisma and talent. When Wood died from a heroin overdose on the eve of his band Mother Love Bone's first big tour, the loss was beyond seismic. But when a demo tape for Stone and Jeff's next musical project went forth into the world and found its way to a young San Diego surfer who connected immediately, no one could believe lightning could strike again, much less that fast. Before long, the shy surfer Eddie was sitting among us, staring down behind a sheet of wavy brown hair, barely speaking but trying to fit in. And every once in a while, he would pull the hair out from in front of him, and look at us with those flashing, mischievous eyes and … you knew. This was a guy who shared the same high-stakes love of all that was possible. One night, sitting cross-legged at a friend's house listening to Neil Young tapes, Eddie told me how he'd discovered his biological dad was actually a family friend who'd passed away. It was almost a confession about where some of the finely etched anger in his songs was coming from. But mostly we talked about Pete Townshend of the Who. Besides the Who, then unchallenged as the greatest band in rock, we both loved the Rolling Stone journalism of Townshend. Townshend still is rock's most articulate spokesman, surely the best rock journalist of them all, because he wrote from the inside out. He wrote about a healing belief in the power of rock. There was nothing jaded about his relationship with music. His love of rock was almost religious, and so fervent that when the famous anarchist-politician Abbie Hoffman tried to grab a microphone and say a few words in the middle of the Who's performance at Woodstock, Townshend famously swatted him from the stage with his guitar.

 The new school year is underway and Canadian university students are again dealing with tuition hikes that go well beyond a typical increase in the cost of living. Statistics Canada on Friday said the average annual tuition fee for undergraduate students is $5,366 for 2011-12, up 4.3 per cent from last year. That follows a four per cent rise in tuition in the 2010-11 school year. The federal agency pointed out the annual rate of inflation was running at 2.7 per cent in July. Newfoundland and Labrador, where tuition rates have been frozen since 2003-04, was the only province where tuition didn't increase this year, Statistics Canada said. burberry outlet In other provinces, the hikes ranged from 5.1 per cent in Ontario to 1.4 per cent in Manitoba. "We're in a situation where students are actually on the verge of bankruptcy before even getting their first job interview," said Roxanne Dubois, chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students. Previous data from Statistics Canada shows that average undergraduate tuition was $3,447 in 2000-01 and $1,464 in 1990-91. While that seems to indicate costs have risen more than 50 per cent in the last decade and almost quadrupled in the last 20 years, an official with Statistics Canada said the figures are not directly comparable because of things such as changing methodologies in calculation and shifting composition rates across different faculties, for which tuition rates vary widely. Dubois called on the federal government and provincial governments to put more money toward post-secondary education to directly reduce or freeze tuition costs. Asked why Canadian taxpayers should collectively foot more of the tuition bill for students, Dubois said: "Just like health care, education is a service in this country, which means you have a chance to benefit from it when you're going through the system. "Eventually, with getting the training that you require, you'll be able to enter the job market, get a job and re-contribute to the system through your progressive tax system, which would ensure you pay a portion of what you make (back to the education system)." Glen Jones, a professor of education policy at the University of Toronto, said there's no direct link between overall accessibility to higher education and tuition, given that participation rates in Canada have continued to rise in recent years. Rather than focusing on tuition rates, Jones said governments should simply make sure those with more modest financial means get the help they need to attend school. "Whatever the tuition fee level is, it shouldn't get in the way of students deciding to go," Jones said. "I think few people would argue that a student from a multimillion-dollar family shouldn't pay a reasonable amount of money for the cost of their education." Jones added that tuition rates in Canada remain lower than in much of the United States and in the United Kingdom. Not only did Ontario see the biggest year-to-year rise in tuition fees, it also had the most expensive overall cost at $6,640 for undergraduates. Perhaps not surprisingly, post-secondary tuition has emerged as an issue in the current election campaign in Ontario. Premier Dalton McGuinty has promised to slash tuition costs by 30 per cent for students with family incomes of less than $160,000 a year, while NDP leader Andrea Horwath has said she would freeze tuition rates for four years. New Brunswick had the second highest undergraduate tuition costs at $5,858, up 3.6 per cent after having its rates frozen for the previous three years. Quebec is the cheapest province to attend university as an undergraduate this year with average tuition of $2,519, even after a 4.5 per cent rise from last year. By faculty, the highest average undergraduate tuition cost is for dentistry at $16,024, up 6.4 per cent from last year. That's followed by medicine at $11,345, up 4.4 per cent from a year before, and pharmacy at $9,806, up 8.8 per cent. Pharmacy studies saw the highest annual tuition hikes among all undergraduate programs in Canada. The average tuition for graduate programs this year is $5,599, up 3.7 per cent from a year earlier. Besides frozen rates in Newfoundland, the gains ranged from 5.5 per cent in Ontario to 0.1 per cent in Alberta. Ontario has the most expensive graduate programs with an average tuition of $7,578 while Newfoundland has the lowest at $2,456. The most expensive graduate program is for an executive master of business administration, where the average tuition is $37,501, up 1.3 per cent from last year. Law programs saw the biggest increase from last year among graduate studies, up 20.7 per cent to an average of $5,414 a year.

Maria blew into Newfoundland as a hurricane Friday and was leaving as a post-tropical cyclone, stirring up waves and trees but underwhelming residents who braced for a tumultuous day. Maria had been a Category 1 hurricane, with winds topping 120 km/hr, when it made landfall in St. Mary's Bay on Newfoundland's Avalon Peninsula around 3:30 p.m. NT. Within three hours, however, meteorologists had downgraded Maria, even though its tail was packing a bit of wallop in coastal areas. Some exposed areas were expected to experience gusts as high as 140 km/hr. Nonetheless, officials issued warnings Friday night. Environment Canada and the Canadian Hurricane Centre were predicting strong wave activities across Newfoundland and Labrador, with areas of western Newfoundland, the Gulf of St. Lawrence, longchamp outlet the Labrador coast and the Strait of Belle Isle expected to see waves reaching four to nine metres. Similar conditions were anticipated along the northeast coast. Fire and Emergency Services in Newfoundland and Labrador advised people to be cautious around waterways and coastlines during the next few days. A release from the government organization said "conditions may be severely hazardous," and urged residents to be mindful of the conditions throughout the weekend and avoid coastal areas. Maria was just a shadow of Hurricane Igor, which blew apart bridges and roads in September 2010. CBC meteorologist Ryan Snoddon said Maria was smaller than Igor, and was also a fast-moving system. That speed, he said, lessens the potential for the kind of damage seen during Igor. Snoddon said the downgrade did not mean its potential was dramatically different. "That doesn't really change its intensity all that much. It just changes how it's structured," Snoddon said. After occasionally intense rains, the eye of the hurricane brought calm weather — even sunshine — to parts of the Avalon Peninsula on Friday afternoon. However, Snoddon pointed out that the tail of the hurricane could be troublesome. "The winds are much stronger behind the storm than ahead of the storm," he said. Maria had prompted school closures and airport cancellations hours before it touched land. Memorial University shut down classes in the St. John's area, and police urged motorists to take care on regional highways. But the storm proved to be far less intense than many had feared, particularly those who watched Igor's destruction just one year ago. "Lamest hurricane ever?" said one tweet early Friday evening. Environment Canada said toppled trees, widespread power outages and some damage to buildings were possible.

Betty Fox had a way with words -- most of them straightforward -- and she did not hold back when her 20-year-old son Terry told her that he wanted to run across Canada to raise money for cancer research. "I thought he was crazy," she once said. Having watched her second eldest child battle bone cancer and lose his left leg above the knee to the disease, it did not rest easily with Betty that Terry would take on such a monumental, almost impossible challenge. But, she eventually came round to fully supporting his Marathon of Hope in 1980. After running for 143 days, juicy couture outlet Terry was forced to stop on Sept. 1, 1980, when cancer recurred in his lungs. He died less than a year later on June 28, 1981 - one month shy of his 23rd birthday. His Marathon of Hope came to an end but the spark he had lit in the hearts and minds of Canadians ignited into a cancer crusade that has lasted more than three decades. Thirty one years later, Betty's own marathon came to an end when she died earlier this year on June 17. Betty helped to make Terry's dream bigger than he could have ever imagined. She addressed close to 500,000 students in her quest to share Terry's story and inspired her listeners to think, and live, big. The final words of every one of her speeches: "Set your goals high and never, ever give up on your dreams." Fred Fox, Betty's first born and Terry's older brother by 14 months, continues the legacy. As provincial director of the Terry Fox Foundation, Fred worked with volunteers from 1994 to 2001 and witnessed firsthand the impact his brother's legacy had on countless supporters and cancer research. As manager of supporter relations today, Fred is responsible for managing relations and partnerships between his family, the Terry Fox Foundation, and its stakeholders, including volunteers and donors across Canada. In addition, Fred is a proud and active director of the Terry Fox Foundation, and works tirelessly to oversee and protect Fox's legacy for future generations. "One thing Terry always said during the Marathon of Hope, is that we all will be touched by cancer, maybe not personally, but it could be a family member, or friend, or co-worker," he said. To date, $550 million has been raised in Terry's name. Over the past thirty years these funds made an indelible impact on research and have fueled much of the advances made in the fight against this disease. This year marks the first race since his mother death. "It's going to be difficult. I'm trying not to go there. It will be the first one she won't be at. It will be emotional," Fred said about the upcoming event. Fred, his wife Theresa, and their three adult children will participate in the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows run at Hammond, just like they have for the past 20 years. "We used to go to Coquitlam, which is known as the 'hometown' run because we grew up there," explained Fred. "But being that Maple Ridge is our home, Theresa and I decided a long time ago to do the Maple Ridge run. It's about our hometown," he said. Fred said, "Remember, it's not just a run - you can roll, bike, walk, use a stroller - it's for families." Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to participate in the annual Terry Fox Run on Sunday, Sept. 18.

 In trying to achieve a state of high dudgeon at the very idea of the National Hockey League imposing a restrictive social media policy on players for the coming season, there's just one problem. I'm in favour of it. I wish my bosses would impose one on me. There are dozens of players who use Twitter all the time, more who chime in less frequently, and other than some funny stuff from Phoenix's journeyman forward Paul Bissonnette (@BizNasty2point0), a lively nugget now and then from Joffrey Lupul (@JLupul) and an occasional tempest in a teapot arising from some poor stiff who makes an unfortunate observation and then can't figure out how to unsay it (see Dan Ellis),burberry outlet there doesn't appear to be a lot of joy to be had, picking through the tidbits looking for actual news or insight. Ellis is the former Tampa Bay backup goalie, latterly with Anaheim, who inflamed the Twitterverse last season by lamenting that making a lot of money didn't buy happiness, sparking a flood of derisive tweets from readers under the hashtag #DanEllisproblems. It was hilarious for a while, but then he got all huffy and cancelled his account, and one of the very few players who didn't mostly tweet about personal charities or team-generated public appearances or what he had for lunch went away. Even BizNasty, who pretty much blazed the trail for his NHL brethren, had to reinvent himself for version 2.0, because the original was a little too raunchy and started exploring areas the Coyotes were uncomfortable with. As for Facebook, well ... sorry, can't help you there. No doubt a whack of NHL players are using that, too, but despite a lot of "friend" requests, including from my daughters, I haven't yet figured out how to turn the ignition on, and probably don't want to engage in that much give-and-take, in case a lot of people I barely know somehow see it, too. And yeah, I know there are privacy mechanisms available, but computer experts tell us all the time that every keystroke is preserved somewhere, forever, and one intemperate post can come back on you years later. Ask Scarlett Johansson how happy she is about those nude photos of herself that she kept on her cellphone and thought were private, until hackers stole them and put them online, creating another case for the FBI's Stupid Celebrities division. The NHL would rather not have more than the usual number of its employees crossing into that territory, if it can be avoided. Besides, the new rules aren't terribly restrictive. They just prohibit players tweeting or posting on Facebook before, during and after games or during practices, which isn't really a problem, anyway, except for injured players or healthy scratches sitting in the press box during games, having to resist the urge to dish on what's taking place on the ice. Anyway, it's not as though the public isn't already well-conditioned to NHL teams' efforts to control the message. In Vancouver, as in Toronto and plenty of other markets, the team likes to ensure that it has a video or audio recording of every conversation taking place between players and media in the dressing room at any given time, has employees eavesdropping on all scrums and looking very nervous if ever an unsupervised one-on-one interview breaks out. New restrictions this year on the standard media accreditation form for the Canucks, and no doubt other teams, include limiting the number of seconds of audio or video which may be extracted from the rink on a given day for the purpose of propagation, thus ensuring that the broadest source of information regarding the home team will increasingly become the homogenized version approved by the club for dissemination on its website. Given the blandness of most players' quotes at the best of times, perhaps it would be a fan's secret avenue into the real stories if the lads were saving their really good stuff for Twitter or Facebook. Just not when they're supposed to be working. Of course, the new rules might not take. Maybe hockey players will be like everyone else in offices around the world, who are warned against frivolous use of computers during working hours, then spend half the day sending and receiving jokes, and pictures of restaurants with lewd names, and YouTube links to talking animals. Would the NHL really fine a healthy scratch sitting in the press box on game night and tweeting how much he loves "I Gotta Feeling" by the Black Eyed Peas or speculating how many desserts Dustin Byfuglien had at the pre-game meal? And why do I think BizNasty is going to be the one to push that envelope?