The bad business of payday loans

In an effort to curb abusive lending practices, the US government has finally issued guidelines – long overdue – on short-term bank loans tied to consumers’ income. The new federal limits will help to protect consumers and, surprisingly, the banks who make such loans. The benefit for consumers is obvious. These deposit advance loans (which are really just payday loans...

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Who are the 'new rich'?

—The group is made up largely of older professionals, working married couples and more educated singles, those with household income of $250,000 or more at some point during their working lives. That puts them, if sometimes temporarily, in the top 2 percent of earners. They are 21 percent of U.S. adults ages 25-60, a proportion that has more than doubled since 1979. —They...

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Five reasons the Arab Spring has not failed

So much for the Arab Spring. In Egypt, history appears to have completed a bloody full circle. The country is back to a “temporary” martial law that will probably last for years. Given the breadth and depth of the fissures that run through Middle Eastern society, it is tempting to conclude that democracy is bound to fail there. Sooner or later, the pessimists now argue, the...

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To end Egypt's violence, a truce on Islamic fatwas

n many societies, religious individuals often feel competing loyalties between their faith and their government. The tension is usually resolved through law, elections, and other peaceful accommodations. Not so in today’s Egypt, center of the Arab world and home to rising violence over how to blend Islam and democracy. In the three months since the Army ousted an elected...

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Saving Islam from suicide bombs

One of Islam’s leading religious figures, the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, spoke out against suicide bombings Thursday. It was not the first time that Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Abdullah Al al-Sheikh has done so. But his words were particularly strong and very general. The possible reason? Suicide bombings – by Muslims against Muslims – are roiling the Middle East. The Saudi...

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4 best holiday gift book ideas

1. "Sense and Sensibility: An Annotated Edition," edited by Patricia Meyer Spacks If you haven't yet seen the Harvard University Press's annotated Jane Austen series, prepare yourself for a major treat. This year "Sense and Sensibility" joins the other novels – "Pride and Prejudice," "Persuasion," and "Emma" – already available. The books are gorgeous. Notes and commentary...

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Comet ISON now an ex-comet, says NASA

Comet ISON sprang into public awareness shortly after its discovery, when its early brightening inspired hopes that it would blaze like the full moon. Quickly dubbed the "Comet of the Century," ISON continued its plunge from the Oort Cloud to the sun, but despite predictions, it failed to brighten much. It buzzed by Mars, where NASA's HiRISE observed it, then it passed through the orbits of all the inner planets before skimming the sun on Nov. 28. Scientists...

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With 'American Hustle,' David O. Russell closes a chapter

Film trilogies these days tend to be epic, “Hobbit”-like affairs, the mythology of one film quite literally picked up and furthered in the next, and often in a world not exactly resembling our own. But trilogies also sometimes come in more subtle flavors, as in the case of David O Russell, whose new film "American Hustle," about cons and criminals in 1970s New Jersey, opens Friday after a whirlwind few weeks of taste maker laurels. After making...

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FILM REVIEW: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Where The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey felt a bit like molasses, its sequel is a fast-paced, action-packed return to J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy world of dungeons, dragons and dwarves, says CBC film reviewer Eli Glasner. As arrows fly and heads roll in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, it feels like director Peter Jackson is finally enjoying himself — especially with the frenetic and fantastic action sequences. As the tale returns to the titular...

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Is food the future of entrepreneurial Japan?

TOKYO In 2008, Tokyo-based entrepreneur Takako Endo partnered with a struggling rice cracker factory in the Niigata prefecture of northern Japan. Her plan: reinterpret traditional Japanese rice crackers with contemporary flavors and packaging, then resell them online to a younger, hipper crowd. “I wanted people to enjoy our product at a party, as something you could serve...

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Pint-size parks: Los Angeles turns parking spaces to 'parklets'

LOS ANGELES Los Angeles sees itself as a city of cars and cutting-edge trends. People here like to drive convertibles and set styles, not follow them. It’s no coincidence, they say, that the word “pedestrian” has two meanings (a person who travels on foot/lacking in vitality, prosaic, or dull.) So the local boosters are saying that, even though Los Angeles didn’t invent...

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Arizona meteor totally unrelated to tonight's eye-popping Geminids

Two things are true: (1) A "fireball" meteor lit up Arizona skies Tuesday night. (2) The most dramatic meteor shower of the year is expected to peak tomorrow night. But despite their coincidental timing, they have nothing to do with each other. By all accounts, the Arizona fireball meteor was impressive, flaming orange-red and delivering a sonic boom or two that rattled...

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Obama's Syria policy is pretty much dead, and there are few good options

That it was on life support has been clear for a long time. But with the routing of the US-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) from its headquarters recently by Islamist rebel fighters, the plug should be pulled. The US can insist that its suspension of non-lethal aid (and a trickle of weapons) to the FSA via a group called the Supreme Military Council (SMC) is temporarily all...

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'Knack' adds family-friendly wonder to PS4 launch

Sony doesn’t have a colourful plumber as its family-friendly games mascot, so for a character to launch the new PlayStation 4 it built a golem made up of little stone relics. So, here we are with Knack, an oddly-shaped monster that represents the company’s first new franchise in this eighth-generation of consoles – and the game is a solid initial effort, despite it being...

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'Ryse: Son of Rome' is a Trojan horse with no surprises inside

Why is Ryse: Son of Rome spelled with a “y” and not an “i?” Playing through the game we learn there is no functional reason for the odd spelling. I guess the “y” just looks so much cooler, which actually tells us a lot about this game: It looks cool, but it’s bereft of any reason – or fun, for that matter. (The reason for the “y” is probably less fun too, developer Crytek...

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Poor and vulnerable, Syrian refugee families push girls into early marriage

Some refugees in Jordan are selling daughters into illegal 'protection marriages,' often with much older men. Sexual exploitation and abandonment are key concerns. AMMAN, JORDAN Sara has stopped listening to news from her hometown, Homs, one of the most heavily bombarded cities in Syria’s civil war. Instead, the 17-year-old waits for word of her husband, Fuad, a Saudi...

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GameStop sales slump as gamers wait on next-gen consoles

GameStop Corp, the world’s largest retailer of video game products, warned of weak sales this year, as customers delay purchases ahead of the launch of next-generation gaming consoles. Comparable store sales are likely to fall by between 5.5 per cent and 8 per cent in the current quarter, the company warned. Full-year sales are forecast to remain flat or fall by up to 8...

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GSP steps out of the octagon to rekindle a normal life

His friends will tell you watching a fight card at Georges St-Pierre’s house is an exhausting experience – he’s constantly pacing, texting, whipping up a snack, throwing in a load of laundry. He might also, with a quick glance, predict the outcome of a bout – which ends seconds later, exactly as he said it would. What he won’t do: sprawl on a couch. Now, the guy who...

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PC games we love: 'The Pit' and 'Outlast'

At the beginning of Outlast your objective is to explore an asylum. Barely 10 minutes in your goal has changed to “escape.” Of course, in a “rated mature” horror game like this, from Montreal’s Red Barrels, that’s easier said than done. Did I mention there’s no fighting in Outlast? Your only recourse when confronted by something awful is to run and hide. Or die. You...

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Downtime Download: 'Gone Home' an award-winning game with emotional heft

The setting is everything in Gone Home, recently named the Best Independant Game at Spike TV’s VGX awards. The story that unravels could not take place anywhere else or at any other time. It’s June 1995. It’s late at night and Katie is arriving home in Portland, Oregon, after a year spent traveling Europe. It’s raining. Hard. And there’s no-one at home. Just a cryptic...

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Manchester City crushes Premier League leader Arsenal

Manchester City produced another fearsome attacking display to overpower Arsenal 6-3 in a wild Premier League shootout on Saturday, leaving the leaders in range of the chasing pack in the title race. Prolific strikers Sergio Aguero and Alvaro Negredo scored first-half goals while Fernandinho netted twice and David Silva and Yaya Toure added others after the break to keep...

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