There’s a graphical interpretation of swine flu’s impact to this point. It could get a lot worse quickly, but it’s been minor so far.
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Hat tip to Alec
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Civic election results in Regina. Not too surprising, and I was high in my prediction by 6%, for mayor.
Do you like to pack kids into schools as if they are sardines? If not, you might want to vote against the incumbent school board, who tried to close Dieppe school even as its enrollment rose significantly! And you have a chance to vote this Wednesday; what good luck!
You can follow the news on Twitter this time.
What worries me is how Conservative-like Mayor Fiacco’s campaign has been. Like the Conservative candidates in the last federal election he refused to participate in a free-to-attend debate. He only agreed to the $45/ticket Chamber of Commerce sponsored debate at the Centre of the Arts. On top of this anti-democratic policy of only speaking publicly for those who pay to hear, a small group of protesters at the Centre of the Arts were told to leave or they’d be charged with Trespassing! Yes, their Charter rights to peaceful protest were violated by someone at the Chamber of Commerce sponsored event.
The Centre of the Arts is on Wascana Centre Authority land, which is public land that even the Saskatchewan Legislature occupies. Can you imagine a legislature where protest outside of it is “against policy” or even illegal? It seems some people working at the Centre of the Arts want a country with a different constitution where protest of injustice is illegal.
I’m going to soon be buying a new-ish car. It must be automatic transmission, reliable, and less than $11,000. Any suggestions or advice at this time would be appreciated, even if they are funny.
I have a preference for something that gets better than 30MPG in city driving, and has 4 doors or even 5. The trunk should be nice with flipping down back seats for more cargo room.
Are there people interested in ensuring community gardens can stand alone, or who have ideas on how to make this possible? I’ve seen the first community gardens I knew about, plowed under for “development”. (See Broad St. across from the CBC, and here in LA. )
Perhaps this is a normal cycle, where gardens show up where land isn’t being used, then it becomes valuable, and sold out from under the gardeners, and they find and reclaim new land. However, I think some permanence is essential to maintain the communities they create and directly sustain. It’s also sad that many people think of local food production as a temporary solution for vacant, but agriculturally desirable land. It’s not a problem just in the microcosm of a city, but our politicians’ approach to rural Canada as well.
This has been on my mind a lot, since yesterday I learned who ultimately controls the land the South Zone Rec Board Community Gardens resides on. The UofR apparently has control of how this land is used, and since most community gardens don’t attempt to make as much money as property development can, the gardens are at risk of disappearing. They may not be at risk this year, but there are discussions underway where some powerful interests feel the land would be better used for student housing. If that philosophy is allowed to dominate over the need for “backyard” food, I doubt the gardens will exist at this time next decade.
P.S. Further ranting, and thought available: Continue reading
Have you ever found someone’s lost cash? Do you feel bad for them? I do. That’s why I wait where I find it for a couple minutes in case someone comes back looking for it, but they never do. So in a possibly futile, and certainly funny way of trying to pay money-losers back, I’m giving them the chance to claim their lost money through a newspaper, and the Internet.
If they can identify how much lost money I found in College West on Sunday, explain the route they think they lost it on, and describe how it was folded, I’ll give them half of my findings. If they can give me the serial number, they get it all.
Craig Ferguson gets a laugh out of Regina. It’s not the first time the city has made the rounds on American late night comedy. David Letterman spent a lot of time with Dick Assman of the Queen City in the 1990s.
Even Saskatoon got a mention, even though he meant to say “Saskatchewan”. Probably chickened out of trying, even though it’s easy to pronounce (especially since he can make up Polish words)…
“su-Skatch-a-win”.
I watched “Idiocracy” [7/10] last night, and was impressed with a lot of it considering it’s a comedy about stupidity. Some of it’s absolutely hilarious, and other parts are more like an SNL movie. A soldier wakes up 500 years in the future, and even his doctor in the future is only barely bright enough to read.
I picked some crab-apples today, and have to figure out how to use them. The weather was perfect, reaching maybe 30 degrees.
