Federal Arbitrators to Rule on Transit Dispute Today

Federal arbitrators will make a ruling on the transit dispute today. City of Ottawa transit drivers were given an exemption from federal work-rest rules when the regulations were first put into place. The dispute between the city and the transit union stems from whether the city can force drivers to abide by the work-rest rules. Currently, drivers can schedule themselves to work double shifts of up to 16 hours.

Newsbits (Like Timbits but Newsier)

-Magnetic North Theatre Festival scheduled in Ottawa from June 3 to June 13.

-Fire in Vanier apartment complex leaves 7 homeless. The Citizen reports that only one tenant had insurance- with the number of fires happening lately, it'd be a good time to sign up for renters insurance. See Geezeo for more information about renters insurance in Canada.

-Maple syrup shortage increases prices. Heavy snowfall and below freezing temperatures have made gathering the syrup difficult. Spring season at the pancakes houses has already begun; see Fulton's and Wheeler's.

-Sens beat the Sabres 4-2 last night.

McCain Taking Part in Twitter Interview Today

This Twitter interview phenomenon is absolutely ridiculous. What is the purpose? I enjoy reading live interviews via webchat but using Twitter introduces unnecessary constraints.

See George Stephanopoulos: @SenJohnMcCain ok, but today: should bonus contracts be broken? Dodd wants a targeted tax on bonuses OK with that?

and McCain's response: @GStephanopoulos i haven't seen it but i would explore every option. i repeat, we wouldn't have this problem if we hadn't bailed them out

via S E N A T U S

weekend ramblings

took a long walk through centretown and down bank to the glebe yesterday. had lunch at the glebe's french baker. i could almost cry every time i go in that place. it's like the platonic ideal of what a quick little cafe should be. went across the street to the papery and discovered little bundles of paper flowers that we are going to use as buttonaires for the guys in the wedding. then we got an earl grey truffle and an aztec hot chocolate at the truffle place and walked back home. saw "revolutionary road" at the bytowne. it's not fair, because i'm sure the book is good, but the entire time i was thinking "mad men has already covered all this". it's also difficult to buy leonardo dicaprio as an adult with children.

polyphasic sleep

In an early mention of systematic napping as a lifestyle, Buckminster Fuller advocated his "Dymaxion Sleep," a regimen consisting of 30 minute naps every six hours, which he said he'd followed for two years. The short article about Fuller's sleep in TIME in 1943 also refers to such a schedule as "intermittent sleeping", and it notes:

"Eventually he had to quit because his schedule conflicted with that of his business associates, who insisted on sleeping like other men."

I'd love to try polyphasic sleep sometime. Also, Buckminster Fuller is awesome and Time magazine used to be good.

ontd_political: ‘Tidal wave’ of homeless students hits s

we're in the middle of rewatching season 3 of "the wire", the season i like to call the "fun" season. i don't know if i am going to make it through season 4.

ontd_political: ‘Tidal wave’ of homeless students hits s

this week

watching the west coast feed of "this week". it's the only sunday chat show i can stomach and today they're throwing george will AND karl rove at me. it's admirable to see katrina van heuvel actually yelling at rove about the mistakes of the bush administration, but you can tell rove loves it so much. what's really disheartening is that the producers will prob be congratulating themselves on what a "spirited" discussion that had at the roundtable.

i also absolutely think that everyone reporting on the budget should have to disclose how much of a tax increase they will get under the obama plan. rove was saying that the dems ran misleading ads during the campaign that only mentioned the tax cut for 95% of ammericans as if the top 5% are a powerless class that needs protection. at least he is not disputing that it will actually be a tax cut for 95%

have seen a few clips from cpac. it's maddening, but i should be happy that this is the new face of the republican party.

commercial note: is that kima giving birth to ally mcbeal's baby on "brothers and sisters"?!