1 MORE ON RECYCLING The LP’s Joe Couture assembles a nice batch of interviews on the City’s recycling plan for a good follow-up to his report yesterday. The loser of the bunch is Colin Craig of the Canadian Taxpayer’s Federation, who says “whine whine expensive what’s wrong with the status quo?” The local rep of this self-important, far-right anti-government organization will have to learn to say more interesting things if he ever wants to get quoted by prairie dog reporters. There are better ways to critique this plan–starting with the fact that it will presumably be painful for low-income households.

2 AUSTRALIA IS HELLA-FLOODED “An area that’s bigger than the size of France and Germany combined” is flooded and authorities warn homeowners to be vigilant for snakes and crocodiles. Meanwhile, the southern regions of the country are dry, scorching and about to burst into flames. Happy New Year, Australia.

3 CANADA’S TOP WEATHER STORY OF THE YEAR IS… The weather at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. The city had its warmest winter on record, with an average temperature of 7.1 degress celcius–not the best for ski jumping. Environment Canada released the annual list yesterday. But this is all okay! Global warming isn’t real and it’s not going to get worse and worse and worse and worse and there’s no need to take any action that might hurt the economy even though a global climate shift would turn the world’s economy upside down. La la la I can’t hear anything, climate scientist e-mails hockey stick graph UN socialism etcetera, etcetera. Hey, I hear there’s an outdoor hockey game in Pittsburgh tomorrow and they’re expecting rain. Oh, Saskatchewan was the site of three of the 10 stories on the list.

4 EIGHTY-SEVEN JOURNALISTS WERE KILLED LAST YEAR So says the organization Canadian Journalists For Free Expression.

5 BRAD WALL RENEGES ON HIS DAYLIGHT SAVINGS REFERENDUM PLEDGE Which is fine with me, I like spending half the year on Manitoba time and half the year on Alberta time. Not being sarcastic, I really do.  It’s neato!

6 KODACHROME IS DEAD, DEAD, DEAD The venerable camera film will be made no more. From The Globe And Mail:

It served as a kind of celluloid parchment for the baby-boom era, dutifully rendering some of the 20th century’s most memorable images: the Hindenburg airship disaster, the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, the Afghan girl peering from the cover of National Geographic through those piercing green eyes. Abraham Zapruder used Kodachrome to shoot history’s most infamous home movie, the assassination of U.S. president John F. Kennedy in November of 1963.

Story here. It’s worth a read. And, nostalgic sigh.

WHAT ELSE CAN I TELL YOU? 2011 has begun to arrive. Stephen Harper might get his own undisclosed location. Global warming is changing the taste of tea. The Regina Pats resolve to not suck in 2011. Dude strips in airport protest. Israel has gas. Ivory Coast is teetering on the brink of civil war. Republicans and the U.S. President prepare to do battle over climate change regulations. Gross warnings don’t discourage cigarette addicts. They sure like burning stuff in Montreal. Gold is as good as its name. No more dog custody cases, says judge. Regina’s Ryan Getzlaf has “sinus fractures” (ouch) after a puck to the forehead in the Anaheim Duck’s 3-1 win over the Phoenix Coyotes. Getzlaf is one of the phew non-deadbeats on my yahoo! fantasy hockey team, which is loaded with under-performing wieners like Ilya Kovalchuk, Patrick Marleau and Steve Mason. Speaking of Mason, he helped my beloved Blue Jackets beat the leafs 3-2 last night, haw haw haw. And finally, Bobby Farrell — the one-time frontman of disco heroes Boney M — died in Russia on the same date as Rasputin. Rest in peace, sir.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/dec/30/bobby-farrell-boney-m-singer-dies