The dismissal of Rogers Sportsnet host Damian Goddard the day after he expressed a vehement opposition to same-sex marriage has provided a reminder of the standards to which television personalities are frequently held.

While the channel stopped short of citing the comments Goddard posted to Twitter in response to a firestorm levelled at player agent Todd Reynolds for disagreeing with New York Rangers forward Sean Avery's support of marriage equality, the firing of Goddard was also not seen as coincidental.

Social media, however, has simply provided a more virtual version of a scenario that led to controversies in the past.

The difference now, of course, is such offhand remarks aren't necessarily captured on camera.

Avery Haines, an anchor on CTV NewsNet, was fired in January 2000 after some flustered comments she made early on a Saturday morning. A take of a pre-taped segment in which she stuttered during an introduction about a report on aid to farmers, accidentally aired in place of

Welcome to Morning Brew, our daily roundup of early-bird news:

• An increased amount of Roll Up the Rim to Win prize redemption didn't cut into revenues at Tim Hortons, according to the company's first-quarter earnings announcement, which boasted of same-store sales growth of 2 per cent in Canada. (PR Newswire)

• Dan Aykroyd reported that 21,000 bottles of his skull-shaped Crystal Head Vodka were stolen from a California warehouse, yet hoped the heist will give more people a chance to taste the made-in-Newfoundland drink "at significantly lower than retail price." (TMZ)

• Jeff Melanson, the National Ballet School executive director who was appointed as a special arts and culture adviser to Toronto mayor Rob Ford last fall to help offset tension with the arts community, has taken a job at the helm of Alberta's Banff Centre. (Toronto Star)

Winter may finally be over, but one Toronto graphic designer has some suggestions as to how to make the next one be a little bit easier.

Beth Chapleau designed the Canadian Winter Survival Kit, which provides all the necessities for braving a Canadian winter. About the size of an average six-pack, Chapleau was inspired to create a kit that needed some assembly, and designed the logo, labels and packaging for it. The kit contains wool socks, a lift ticket, a condom, three beers and three bottles of the Newfoundland drink of legend, Screech.

The kit comes with instructions on how to 'assemble' everything, featuring Canadian images like a lumberjack and antlers. Chapleau says on her website she used a red and black plaid pattern throughout the kit to tie everything together and 'serve as a reminder of Canadiana.'

There's no mention of whether Chapleau will try and market the kit. For now, Canadians will have to just take inspiration from her work and assemble the necessities themselves

Seeing a "No Smoking" sign has the reverse effect on smokers and actually encourages them to light up, a new study found.

Researchers at Oxford University say smokers react to the signs by focusing on the act instead of the 'not'.

"When I say, 'Don't think of a pink elephant,' I've put the thought in your head," says researcher Brian Earp in a Mirror article. "It works in the same way."

To test the theory, researchers took a group of smokers in the U.S. and showed them a number of pictures. Some of the pictures included no smoking signs in the background and some had the signs edited out.

The participants then took a "joystick test", which looks at their reactions to the images. Participants move the joystick away from the body to avoid the action and draw the joystick toward the body to bring the stimulus closer. Smokers were more likely to want to light up after seeing the signs compared to those who didn't see the signs.

"It's a significant effect which we think would have real life

Researchers from the University of Newfoundland have revealed children can vividly recall memories from as early as 18-months-old, but lose such memories somewhere down the road of maturation.

The study asked a slate of 100 children from ages four to 13 to recall their earliest memories, including when they believed such memories occurred.

The results showed children could recall memories from well before their second birthday, with their parents able to confirm many of the events and the dates they took place.

The experts spoke with the very same children just two years later, asking them to once again recall those memories they had previously documented. But the results were far less vivid this time around.

The children surveyed were unable to recall the memories they had spoken of only two years earlier. In fact, they were unable to remember those documented memories even when prompted with hints.

"What surprised us is that we would give these really detailed cues to the children

While the comedy "Porky's" was recently surpassed as the most profitable Canadian film of all time, that shouldn't take away from the influence it had in the VHS bins of the nation.

Adolescent romps like "Ski School" and "Screwballs," which appeared in its wake, helped define a generation of movies barely remembered as the golden age of "Canuxploitation."

A film set for release this summer looks to recapture that sensibility, and in both official languages.

"French Immersion" has promised to follow the successful template of the 2006 movie, "Good Cop, Bon Cop" thanks to a common director, Kevin Tierney.

The story was set in the fictional remote northern Quebec town of St. Isidore-du-Coeur-de-Jésus, where four Canadian anglos and one New Yorker have enrolled in a language institute for the summer with the expectation they won't speak a word en Anglais.

And any attempt to sneak away to talk in their native tongues doesn't work because everyone in the town has been trusted to spy and bust

Final exams and spring parties may have ended for most university students in Canada, but they are still going for many in the U.S. and the U.K.

A prestigious British school has come up with a way to deal with hard partiers that may catch the eye of Canadian school officials.

The University of Cambridge is going to pay students up to $150 per night to babysit drunk undergraduates, reports The Telegraph. One of the colleges at the university is offering cash to students willing to look after their peers who drink too much at events celebrating the end of the academic year, such as May Ball.

"This year's May Ball is celebrating its 500th birthday and the committee is promising the greatest party ever hosted in Cambridge," says second-year student Oscar Williams-Grut to The Telegraph. "They are probably worried about things getting out of hand."

Officials at Cambridge have reason to worry after a party earlier this month saw drunk students stripping and vomiting in public as well as

When the Chicago band Styx and the British group Yes came together in the late 1960s, enjoying hits in the '70s and '80s, no one imagined they would still be around to tour in summer 2011.

But they couldn't have done it without a couple of Canadians.

The idea a classic rock act could draw audiences with a different voice earned greater credibility when Scarborough, Ont. native Lawrence Gowan was recruited by Styx in 1999.

With enough success in Canada to assertively fill the falsetto role, vacated by Dennis DeYoung, he's handled a few signature songs like "Come Sail Away" at the keyboards.

Gowan has also performed his biggest homegrown hit, "A Criminal Mind," in Styx shows, particularly when north of the border.

Strangely, no dates in Canada have been scheduled as part of a co-headlining tour with a band with a comparable story.

Three years ago, Yes picked Benoît David as the ideal singer to simulate the high-pitched vocals of Jon Anderson. After all, he'd been performing the same