Canada

• Growing fears about Chinese espionage force a Canadian citizen out of her public service job (Thanks, MN).
• 2008 is shaping up to be the first nation-wide white Christmas since 1971.
• Farewell, buck-a-bottle beer.

World

• Attendance at Chruch of England services is expected to fall from 1 million to 88,000 by 2050.
• The shoe-throwing Iraqi journalist was apparently savagely beaten, then forced to apologize.
• For the first time in history, model kits of Nazi airplanes are outselling British and American ones.
• The USA is finally, FINALLY, getting tough with Robert Mugabe.
• Iran closes human rights centres. Well, at least they’re being honest.
• Stray dog wounded in Mumbai attacks is on the mend, has also become a symbol of hope. Just like that pig that survived the China earthquake.

Media

• The Times of London is going back to a broadsheet format…at least on the weekends.
• A survivor of the Continental Airlines crash in Denver somehow managed to update Twitter while fleeing the burning aircraft. His tweet: holy f**king s**t.
• Warner walks away from YouTube after contract talks fall apart. No more authorized Rod Stewart videos for us!
• The Huffington Post is catching flack for stealing content. Little do people realize that the blogosphere is powered by theft.

Science & Tech

• The world’s first designer baby will soon be born in the UK.
• Why not spend the winter solstice in one of Canada’s “dark sky reserves“?
• Carbonate found on Mars. Carbonite – and Han Solo – remain elusive.
• For the awkward post-coital disorder file: the condition that makes you sneeze uncontrollably after orgasm.

Pop Culture

• A UK supermarket has restricted the sale of toy lightsabers over fears they might be mistaken for real weapons. Darth Vader is reassured by their overabundance of faith.
• The 2008 Detroit Lions are now officially the worst team in NFL history.
• AV Club published its annual list of bizarre band names.

My latest theatre review is now live at blogTO. It’s on Moliere, an excellent show on now at the Tarragon.

Check it out! The review and the show, if you can.

One of the top entries on my long and ever-growing list of pet peeves is ordering food or some other service, and then being forced to repeat myself because the person taking my order couldn’t simultaneously hold three pieces of information in their brain. So, imagine my rage when I tried to order lunch today and this happened:

Surly Waitress: Can I help you?

Me: Yes, I’d like a Tuna Sandwhich on Rye, please.

Surly Waitress: What type of sandwich?

Me: Tuna.

Surly Waitress: On what bread?

Me: Rye.

Surly Waitress begins to cut bread. After a few seconds, she speaks again.

Surly Waitress: You wanted tuna?

Me: Yes.

Surly Waitress: Mayo or butter?

Me: Just Mayo, please.

Surly Waitress: Anything else?

Me: Lettuce, and a few pickles on the side.

Surly Waitress: With Mayo?

Me: Yes.

Surly Waitress: And Tuna?

Me: For the love of god, yes.

I probably wouldn’t get so uptight about this were it not for the fact that remembering my order for 3 minutes is this women’s entire job. Ridiculous.

So, it’s snowing or something. Shockingly, things continue to happen around the world.

Canada

• Whistler apparently received advanced warning of safety problems with its gondola system.
• Harper’s ‘fiscal conservatism’ apparently also includes a $30 billion deficit.
• Mats Sundin moves to Vancouver. Enjoy the rain, ye of perennial disappointment.

World

• Mark Felt, aka Deep Throat, aaka the man who brought down Nixon, died yesterday.
• The Taliban has blown up a shipment of Turkeys destined for British troops. They’re like the Grinch, but with more RPGs.
• Ankey, Iowa is using garlic salt to remove ice from its roads.
• Evil bastard Colonel Théoneste Bagosora, one of the architects of the Rwandan Genocide, has been jailed for life.
• A Catholic Priest in Kansas City has removed every book about Barack Obama from his school’s library because of his opinion on abortion. Remember kidsL organized relgion loves censorship.
• The last statue of dictator Francisco Franco has been removed from Spain.
• The $54 million lawsuit over a missing pair of pants has been rejected…again.

Media

• Twitter launches two unrelated, but strangely complementary, apps: Tweetmas, allowing you to send Christmas lists to your friends, and Twitpay, a micro-payment utility.
• BBC’s iPlayer is now available for Mac.

Science & Tech

• The Arctic ice meltdown is 20 years ahead of current climate change models. That can’t be good.
• New footballs to be equipped with sensors to help refs make better calls.
• An otherwise healthy hippo has turned bright pink, apparently overnight.
• The universe’s oldest known water vapor has been discovered.

Pop Culture

• Majel Barrett Roddenberry, first lady of Star Trek, has died. The Enterprise’s computers have fallen silent.
• Oliver Twist was  a sham! Victorian Workhouse gruel was actually quite nourishing.
• Baz Luhrmann buys the rights to “The Great Gatsby”.
• Tron 2 will be shot is 3D. Hawt!
• Royal Canadian Air Farce, the least funny show on television, is mercifully taping its last episode.
• Gawker has decreed it is no longer cool to use the word “Douchbag”.
• Help select the 100 greatest Looney Tunes.

There will be extended periods of light blogging on Nunc today, as I will be out doing my annual blitzkrieg holiday shopping. But before I get my Ho Ho Ho on, here are your daily links:

Canada

• A BC man is now the governor of Kandahar. Win?

World

• Barack Obama had a sweet hat in college.
• Watch a video that charts immigration to the USA over the past 187 years.

Science & Tech

• The Periodic Table of Awesomeness!
• Ever wonder what happens when you put a lighter in a blender?
• Tumor in baby’s brain was, in fact, a tiny foot. Ewwww.
• Soon, you may be able to buy the Space Shuttle.
• Fossil of giant, new species of Raptor found in Argentina. Thank you, mass extinction event.

Pop Culture

• Turkish Star Trek!
• Jeremy Piven quits his broadway show over “elevated mercury levels”. David Mamet gets line of the day: “So my understanding is that he is leaving show business to pursue a career as a thermometer.”

Do you carry your lunch around in an old plastic bag? Do you ever wonder if, somewhere, somehow, a better option is available?

Dream no more, friend. Now you can own a one-of-a-kind designer lunchbox created by a genuine celebrity, thanks to the Lunchbox Auction. Presented by Gourmet Magazine, the event features some nifty looking lunch caddies by Mario Batali, Beastie Boys, Gwyneth Paltrow, David Chang, Tom Colicchio, Salman Rushdie, Cameron Diaz, the cast of “Gossip Girl,” Rachael Ray, Eva Mendes, Mike Myers, Ellen Page, Michael Stipe, Liv Tyler, and Diane Von Furstenberg, among others . I’m fond of the one designed by New York Giants’ Offensive Line:

Intimidating, yet refreshingly amateurish. Best of all, proceeds from the auction go to the NYC Food Bank.

So, if you’re tired of plain ol’ brown bags and tupperware, and have a few hundred dollars burning a hole in your pocket, go make a bid. It’s probably the cheapest Von Furstenberg original you’ll find anywhere.

In the face of a ginormous budget surplus ($15.4 billion!), Governor of New York David Paterson has levied a four per cent tax on downloads of music, movies and other “digitally delivered entertainment services”. So, a 99 cent Fall Out Boy single on iTunes will now cost $1.03.

A small charge, to be sure. Still, given the huge volume of downloaded media, it’s bound to deliver some considerably scratch to NY’s treasury. But I’ve got to wonder if they’ve thought through some of the externalities. With all the talk of digital piracy and illegal downloading, this seems like a particularly problematic policy. How many borderline ‘legal’ downloaders will be pushed back into the digital black market by the spectre of a new tax?

Plus, whenever you impose any regulation or fee on the Internet, the response is fast and aggressive. I think Gov. Paterson may have bitten off a bit more than he could chew on this one.