The WTF News Files

[cupper]

He's lucky that the guy didn't hit him with the jumbo bag of gummies.  :facepalm:

 

[CougarKing]

op: Can't wait to watch the movie on this wacky story...

From TIME.com

Tycoon Upsets Gay Daughter By Offering $120 Million to Any Man Who Marries Her

Dad refuses to stop embarrassing his daughter even though she's been in a nine-year relationship with her girlfriend

(...)

From the Associated Press

HONG KONG - The daughter of a flamboyant Hong Kong tycoon whose offer of a massive dowry inspired a movie wrote an open letter on Wednesday asking him to accept who she is after he reportedly raised the price.

Cecil Chao made world headlines in 2012 when he tried to find a man who could successfully woo his daughter, Gigi Chao, away from her partner by offering offered 500 million Hong Kong dollars ($65 million), an offer that a Malaysian newspaper who interviewed him last week said he has doubled.

In a letter to her father published Wednesday by two Hong Kong newspapers, Gigi Chao said she knows it's "difficult for you to understand, let alone accept" how she could be romantically attracted to a woman.

The tycoon made his offer after he learned his daughter had eloped with her partner, Sean Eav, to France, where they had a church blessing in Paris. While Hong Kong decriminalized homosexuality in 1991, it does not legally recognize same-sex marriage.

Gigi Chao, 34, added that "it would mean the world to me if you could just not be so terrified of her, and treat her like a normal, dignified human being." She confirmed to the AP that she wrote the letter.

She added, "I will always forgive you for thinking the way you do, because I know you think you are acting in my best interests."

Sacha Baron Cohen, the actor behind "Borat," is reportedly working on a movie inspired by the tycoon's proposal, according to Hollywood trade publications.

(...)


The South China Morning Post, one of the papers that published the letter, reported last week that since her father went public with his offer, she has received "strange" phone calls from would-be suitors, and that most open by saying, "I want to be a billionaire!"

 

[CougarKing]

:facepalm:

From the National Post:

‘That is f—ed up’: Vancouver Police hunting man who paid strangers to be kicked in the groin in ‘disturbing’ video

Tristin Hopper | February 7, 2014 2:46 PM ET
More from Tristin Hopper | @TristinHopper


VANCOUVER — Vancouver Police are on the lookout for a belligerent downtown bar goer who was apparently videotaped in the act of paying strangers to be kicked in the groin.

“The video is very disturbing. We have referred the incident to an investigative team for review,” Vancouver Police spokesman Randy Fincham wrote in an email to Postmedia.


Reportedly captured on Sunday at 3 a.m., the video — which was posted to YouTube before being quickly removed — shows a man offering an undisclosed cash sum to an intoxicated stranger in exchange for kicking the man squarely in the groin.

As the video opens, the stranger — clad in a gold vest and long black jacket — is seen to be bracing for the kick, which is to be delivered by a large man with close-cropped hair. As the assailant runs in to administer the blow however, the stranger automatically flinches, causing the large man to berate him with expletives. In fact, for the entire one minute, forty second video, the large man will communicate almost exclusively using the f-word.

The stranger then apologizes and once again adopts an exposed-groin stance in preparation for a second kick. “Do you want the money?” screams the large man, to which the stranger thrice replies “I do.” However, despite himself, he flinches again at the second kick.


At that point, an unknown bystander clad in a red tuque then steps in to collect the prize himself. “I’ll do it,” he says, and with perfect posture, spreads his legs to accept the blow. “But not too hard, though.”

(...)

 

[Fishbone Jones]

That's just a tease. Don't post this shit if the video is not available. Sheesh :facepalm:

 

[cupper]

That's just a tease. Don't post this shit if the video is not available. Sheesh :facepalm:

It is up on the CBC Website.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/video-shows-2-apparent-panhandlers-kicked-in-groin-for-cash-1.2525856

The big dude needs to cut back on the alcohol 'cause it threw his aim all to hell.

 

[George Wallace]

Sign of bad things to come.

LINK

Reproduced under the Fair Dealings provisions of the Copyright Act.

Another day, another reason to end human rights commissions

EZRA LEVANT | QMI AGENCY
7:50 am, February 18th, 2014

Engineers wear an iron ring on their pinky finger. It's a tradition that began in 1925 to commemorate a terrible engineering disaster.

The massive Quebec Bridge across the Saint Lawrence River collapsed - twice. Once in 1907. And again in 1916. The same bridge.

Eighty-eight people were killed.

A Royal Commission of Inquiry ruled "the failure cannot be attributed directly to any cause other than errors in judgment on the part of... two engineers."

That disaster led to an overhaul in the credentialing of engineers. In Canada, it's now illegal to call yourself an engineer without passing difficult exams, and being subject to the oversight of engineering associations. It's similar to the requirements to call yourself a doctor.

But to Ladislav Mihaly, those rules are just too tough.

Mihaly was born in Czechoslovakia (as it was then known) and immigrated to Canada. He claimed he had two master's degrees from the former Czechoslovakia and worked there as a professional engineer for 25 years. In 1999, he applied to become an Alberta engineer and, like all would-be engineers, was asked to take a test administered by the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta (APEGA).

He failed.

So he applied to write the exam again, nine months later. This time, he didn't even bother to show up.

Some three years later, Mihaly phoned APEGA and told them he was a really, really good engineer, and asked to be exempted. They invited him to take the test again. And again he failed.

He started doing weird things. In August of 2006, Mihaley wrote an e-mail to APEGA with the subject line, "Do you want to trade." He said he would rewrite Alberta's Fire Safety Codes for free - and if he did a good job, maybe they'd let him be an engineer without taking the test.

APEGA said no. Aren't you glad they did? Don't you wish they had been around when the Quebec Bridge was being built?

So on Aug. 5, 2008, almost 10 years after first applying to write the exam, Mihaly sued.

He didn't appeal to an APEGA review panel. He didn't appeal to a real court. He had no case. And he had no money.

So he did what you'd expect a ne'er-do-well to do: he complained to the Alberta Human Rights Commission, who were thrilled to have a new customer.

Mihaly is not a minority. He's a middle-aged white male from Europe. The exam he kept failing was an engineering exam - about as non-subjective as possible. In fact, almost a quarter of Alberta engineers today are immigrants. They all passed the exam. Mihaly just wanted special treatment.

But human rights commissions aren't called kangaroo courts for nothing. And for the next five years, they ran with Mihaly's case with a vengeance. He didn't even have to hire a lawyer; taxpayers paid for the whole thing.

And earlier this month, the tribunal ruled in Mihaly's favour.

In the Feb. 6 decision, they ruled that it was discrimination to hold foreign-born "engineers" to Canada's professional standards.

They ordered APEGA to pay Mihaly $10,000 in cash. And they ordered APEGA to contact Mihaly's schools back in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, to find out if in fact Mihaly was a good engineer. Not by testing him. But by talking to the schools over there, decades after Mihaly left.

They had to do more, too. They had to convene a panel of foreign-born Alberta engineers to help Mihaly. They had to find him a mentor. They had to help him find networking parties to go to. All this for a man who confessed at the hearing that he was a layabout. He was unemployed for three years and had worked for five years in low-paying jobs that required only a high-school education. He tried running a bakery which failed.

This is a disgrace. But it's not a surprise. It's a human rights commission, not a real court. But it has legal effect. It sets a precedent. Get ready for third-world doctors who fail our exams to cite it to force their way into our hospitals too.


APEGA will appeal. And they will eventually win. But Canada's obsolete grievance-mongering industry will continue to chug along until we rip out these human rights tribunals by the root.

 

[ModlrMike]

Next up, medicine. I can't wait until all those foreign trained "doctors" have their day in court.

 

[George Wallace]

First reports in Edmonton Journal on the Alberta Human Rights Commission ruling on foreign Engineers.

Sign of bad things to come.

LINK

Reproduced under the Fair Dealings provisions of the Copyright Act.

Simons: Alberta Human Rights tribunal finds APEGA’s treatment of foreign-trained engineers discriminatory

By Paula Simons, Edmonton Journal February 14, 2014

EDMONTON - Coming to Canada is challenging for any immigrant. But it can be especially frustrating for educated professionals, who find their qualifications aren’t recognized here. The lucky and dedicated navigate the intimidating maze of upgrading programs and exams to find work in their fields. Others end up bitter, in low-paying, menial jobs. We, in turn, lose their skills and expertise.

That’s what makes a new ruling from Alberta’s Human Rights tribunal so provocative.

Last week, the tribunal ruled in favour of Ladislav Mihaly — and against the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta, APEGA.

Mihaly first applied to APEGA for accreditation in 1999. APEGA determined his two master’s degrees, one from the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava and one from the Prague Institute of Chemical Technology were not equivalent to a bachelor’s degree here.

They told Mihaly he had to write three technical equivalency exams before he could be licensed here. He was also required to take the National Professional Practice Exam, a test on Canadian law and professional ethics, which all new engineers, including Canadian grads, must take.

Mihaly took the latter exam three times — and failed each time. He refused to take any of the technical tests. Since engineers from other European Union countries, such as France or Ireland aren’t require to write them, he argued he, a former resident of a EU member state, shouldn’t have to either.

Mihaly filed a discrimination complaint with the Alberta Human Rights Commission.

Last Thursday, the tribunal found in his favour. Chairman Moosa Jiwaji ruled that APEGA’s “one-size-fits-all” approach was too inflexible. He found APEGA relied on out-dated, second-hand information to evaluate foreign universities. He ordered APEGA to pay Mihaly $10,000, provide him a personal mentor, and strike a committee of internationally educated engineers to re-evaluate Mihaly’s personal academic record.

“Many Eastern European(s) and immigrants from Africa and Asia to Canada do experience disadvantage and discrimination in the workforce because of language, culture, and racial prejudice,” Jiwaji wrote.

“While I understand that the imposition of policies to ensure competency and safety in professional fields may be necessary, the nature of certain policies imposed by APEGA on immigrants such as Mr. Mihaly with foreign credentials, appear too restrictive, and categorize immigrants, not based on individual assessment, but rather on country from which qualifications were received.”

APEGA is appealing to the Court of Queen’s Bench. APEGA registrar Carol Moen says they’ll also apply for a stay of Jiwaji’s order.

“We feel very strongly that we should be able to use a consistent and proven approach to evaluating credentials,” she says.

APEGA receives about 9,000 applications for new membership each year. In 2012, 35 per cent came from internationally educated graduates. The largest number, 15 per cent, came from India, with another 13 per cent from China.

APEGA says about 60 per cent of applicants trained abroad are registered without issue. Their credentials are approved by a board of examiners, about a third of whom are international graduates themselves. Examiners have discretion to waive some exams, if candidates have sufficient professional experience.

“It’s very fair,” says Moen.

Certainly, it’s vitally important that APEGA maintain high and consistent professional regulated standards for its members, in the name of public safety. APEGA definitely makes it easier for people from countries such as France, Japan, and New Zealand, to become accredited engineers than others, but that’s largely because of national reciprocal treaties. It might look unfair to an outsider, but it’s hardly ethnic discrimination.

And Mihaly’s refusal to take the APEGA equivalency exams makes him look more than a little inflexible himself. If wounded pride kept him from jumping through the regulatory hoops, that’s not APEGA’s fault.

Yet Jiwaji’s ruling raises critical issues. APEGA doesn’t make it simple for people, especially those who aren’t fluent in English, to navigate its impersonal accreditation bureaucracy.

Moen says APEGA recently hired someone to work directly with internationally trained applicants, which is probably long overdue. But Jiwaji’s suggestion that APEGA exercise more individual discretion in evaluating foreign credentials seems reasonable, too.

The ideal system would maintain high, consistent standards while treating each applicant on his or her own merits. It’s a terrible waste of potential, when we don’t help skilled immigrants to contribute their best abilities to our economy.

But was Ladislav Mihaly really the victim of discrimination? Or did the human rights tribunal overreach, in telling a self-regulating profession how to licence its members? Tough questions — now for the Court of Queen’s Bench to ponder.

psimons@edmontonjournal.com

Twitter.com/Paulatics

Paula Simons is on Facebook. To join the conversation, go to www.facebook.com/EJPaulaSimons or visit her blog at edmontonjournal.com/Paulatics

 

[medicineman]

If he wants to be a professional engineer here and can't pass the Canadian Practice Exam, something expected of anyone here, where is the racial discrimination?  There isn't any - everyone has to do it.  It hasn't worked with physicians and surgeons, why would it be any different with engineers, dentists, lawyers?  Heck, even Canadians that go to medical school abroad and want to come back to practice have to go through the same shyte and abuse as any other foreign medical grad and compete for residency positions like anyone else...it's not racial discrimination, it's discrimination based on standards of practices and training.

:2c:

 

[George Wallace]

If he wants to be a professional engineer here and can't pass the Canadian Practice Exam, something expected of anyone here, where is the racial discrimination?  There isn't any - everyone has to do it.  It hasn't worked with physicians and surgeons, why would it be any different with engineers, dentists, lawyers?  Heck, even Canadians that go to medical school abroad and want to come back to practice have to go through the same shyte and abuse as any other foreign medical grad and compete for residency positions like anyone else...it's not racial discrimination, it's discrimination based on standards of practices and training.

:2c:

That is the just of the matter.  Are the various Human Rights Tribunals across the land in fact turning us into a "Third World Country" by allowing such trivial complaints find fruition in allowing someone who does not meet the standards set by our various professional bodies and society to have their perceived 'discrimination', not their failure to meet a standard, overturned?  Will this now open the doors to a vast number of future Legal actions to be initiated against these "Failures" who have used to Human Rights Tribunals to gain a professional standing in Engineering, Medicine, Dentistry, etc.?  Perhaps they have already done this in the Legal field, where we find many employed as members on the boards of the Human Rights Tribunals and we can see the results of all future tribunals following their precedence and prejudices. 

Sad.

 

[Strike]

Heck, even Canadians that go to medical school abroad and want to come back to practice have to go through the same shyte and abuse as any other foreign medical grad and compete for residency positions like anyone else...it's not racial discrimination, it's discrimination based on standards of practices and training.

:2c:

Heck, let's not even talk about the hoops people in the medical field have to jump just to qualify to work in another province.

 

[cupper]

Having written the Professional Practice Exam myself, someone who has attempted and failed 3 times to pass it really should not be considered suitable for acceptance as a P.Eng.

If language was the cause for failure, then obviously the person is going to have a very difficult time working with colleagues and clients.

The author points out that people from some countries get "better treatment" because of international agreements between signature nations. The Washington Accord allows for recognition of accredited programs between jurisdictions, however a lot of time and effort has gone into assessing programs to ensure that they are equivalent to those in the other nations. You can be sure that if someone presents a diploma and transcripts from an Engineering School or Institution accredited under the Washington Accord is equivalent to one in Canada, the US or other signatory country.

As for language, cultural and racial discrimination, race does not effect your ability as an engineer. Cultural issues may make the work environment difficult, but again does not effect one's ability as an engineer. But as I stated above, language is a big deal when you are working in a team environment, and are trying to explain the reasons you decided to use this design methodology over another and can't get the points across. Or trying to write a specification on the requirements for a critical fabrication to be incorporated into a structure.

 

[dimsum]

Heck, let's not even talk about the hoops people in the medical field have to jump just to qualify to work in another province.

Off-topic, but if a military medical professional gets posted between provinces, does s/he have to take provincial equivalency exams?  I remember that in some postings, nurses and doctors sometimes work in a nearby civ hospital as well.

 

[Strike]

Off-topic, but if a military medical professional gets posted between provinces, does s/he have to take provincial equivalency exams?  I remember that in some postings, nurses and doctors sometimes work in a nearby civ hospital as well.

From what I got from a family member who moved from ON to NS, it's more of a background/certification process.

So, does that mean that people who don't want to go through the (sometimes crazy long and extremely precise) work to get certified in another province can put in a discrimination complaint because they don't want to go through the hassle?

 

[medicineman]

Off-topic, but if a military medical professional gets posted between provinces, does s/he have to take provincial equivalency exams?  I remember that in some postings, nurses and doctors sometimes work in a nearby civ hospital as well.

At least for medicine, if you have a license in one province, you can USUALLY apply to, and of course pay, the provincial College of Physicians and Surgeons for licensure, limited or otherwise...Quebec has a lot of other rules to get licensed there, which makes it difficult for CF docs that get posted there to moonlight.

MM

 

[ModlrMike]

Off-topic, but if a military medical professional gets posted between provinces, does s/he have to take provincial equivalency exams?  I remember that in some postings, nurses and doctors sometimes work in a nearby civ hospital as well.

Further to what's been written above, an MO, NO or PharmO posted from one province to another will only need to obtain a new provincial registration if they wish to work outside of the military milieu. The requirement to practice solely in the military context is that they be registered with any provincial college, not necessarily the one that governs the province in which they currently reside.

 

[Retired AF Guy]

And from Alabama:

House fire sparked by family cleaning up toilet paper thrown in trees

Posted on: 9:41 pm, January 21, 2014, by Andrew Lynch

DORA, Ala. — After neighborhood kids had rolled a tree in the Crausewell family’s yard in toilet paper last Saturday, Cheryl Crausewell and her son tackled the task of cleaning up the mess on Monday. FOX affiliate WBRC reports that with some toilet paper still left in a magnolia tree, they tried to use a lighter to get rid of it.

But that decision sparked a nightmare for the family when the home they had lived in for the past 12 years went up in flames. The piece of toilet paper they had set on fire was blown into the yard by a gust of wind.

Soon after the grass was on fire. The fire spread to the backyard where it picked up fuel from a grill’s propane tank. By that time, the family was in full evacuation mode.

“You’re just doing what you have to do to get everybody out,” Crausewell told WBRC.

Crausewell, her son, her mother, her aunt and her aunt’s caregiver were all able to safely evacuate. The home was declared a total loss, but the family plans to rebuild on the same property with the aid of homeowner’s insurance.

Crausewell told WBRC that she’s been the recipient of an outpouring of support from her family, church and has received a visit from the mayor of Dora. She said the experience put everything in perspective.

“It just brings it home how precious life is and all these things really don’t matter,” she told WBRC.

More here, including video.

Oh, BTW, in the video I think you can see the tree in the background, still standing.

 

[Altair]

http://vancouverisland.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=294469

Cpl bloggins made the news.

 

[CougarKing]

A rectal bomb?

Man Detained at Airport After Announcing 'I Have a Bomb In My A**

According to the South China Morning Post, a periodical I like to read regularly, a man was arrested and placed in detention for five days after announcing he had a bomb hidden in his rectum while going through a security checkpoint at Terminal 3 at Beijing Capital International Airport on Monday.

According to a report, the passenger was in a hurry to catch a flight and displayed visible signs of anxiety while making numerous complaints about the slow moving security line. Upon arriving at the security screening, the man was asked to remove his shoes. Apparently that was the last straw and he asked the security official the following provocative question: “Do I need to drop my pants as well? I have a bomb in my a**."

The security official then reportedly asked the man what must have been the English equivalent of "Come again?" And according to the report, the weary traveler repeated that he was in possession of bomb and confirmed its location. At that point, a security alert was activated, the checkpoint was shut down and passengers were evacuated for their own safety.

More @ Breitbart

 

[The Bread Guy]

(Liverpool, U.K.) Council to ban people from eating fish and chips with their fingers

Council killjoys want to ban chip shop punters from eating with their fingers.

Chiefs at Liverpool City Council came up with the bonkers idea, which has been slammed as "health and safety gone mad" by locals.

But Nick Small, Liverpool council's enterprise chief said the move was intended to tackle city centre littering.

He told the Liverpool Sunday Echo: "We don’t want people buying chips, eating them outside and  then dropping their litter.”

The new rules will apply to city centre businesses with outdoor seating areas - known as pavement cafes.

Any new business bidding for a pavement cafe licence will now be ordered to serve food on plates with cutlery, rather than in paper bags or polystyrene trays.

The move will mainly affect fast food outlets, chippies, kebab houses and takeaways.

Cllr Small said: “We can see the benefits of pavement cafes being there, we just want them to up their standards.

“For any new business with a pavement cafe, we are going to make sure they give out plates and cutlery.”

Asked whether existing businesses will have to follow this new rule, Cllr Small said: “We can’t go back and review licences we have already issued, but we would like all businesses with pavement cafes to start issuing plates and cutlery voluntarily." ....

More here