Meanwhile in that parallel universe known as North Korea

In the bizarre world of Kim Jong Il’s Kingdom they won the match, in the rest of the world Brazil did 2-1. Imagine living in a world where the sky can be any colour the government tells you it is. I am glad the North Korean team did not lose by to much. I would not like to imagine their fate if they had lost 5-0 or similar. Remember what happened to Iraqi’s Olympic football team when they lost?

Breaking news from the Republic of Nutbar. Apparently they are reversing their policy on private markets which they clamped down on last year. I guess to many of their middle class were dying of starvation in the nicer parts of town.

Get your boogie going!!

Well you guys didn't come here to listen to me whine, so to give you something to enjoy watch this kid go. He has some serious boogie in those fingertips!!! Wait till he is old enough to drink. I used to sit in the Queens Cross Pub and listen to a guy play boogie on the piano. Also part of the Spirt of the West used to play there as well.

Dang Computers

My video card fried yesterday, so I'm borrowing Aishah's computer. Hopefully will get a new card shortly.

UPDATE

Well Dragged out my old P4 with XP on it and hooked her up. 2hrs of updating later......I have a computer again. Although now I have to update links and what nots. Whine, whine.

Let me in!!!!!

Any cat owner will tell you that cats hate being dependent on us for opening doors. They will harass you to open the door and then pretend that they don’t really need to go out. It’s a cat thing…

Mammoth of a find!

The Hawk Minesite
Sixtymile River is a place that flows with the history of the Yukon. I went there for my work in 2006, I met a bunch of miners up there, and between the 3 of them I don’t think there was a full set of teeth! But these are the guys who know how to live on the edge of civilization. Dawson is only 2 hrs away on a sunny day, but an eternity in the winter. Throughout the valley you can see the old cabins of the Klondike gold rush and the land is healing the scars from that time. In the goldrush the hills were stripped bare of all the trees to melt the permafrost in the mineshaft and then to feed the boilers of the dredges in latter years. If you ever get out to Dawson take a trip to the goldfields, in the barren land there used be small communities dotted about of about 2,000 or so to service the men moiling for gold in the land of the midnight sun.
During the goldrush and to this present day, remains of woolly mammoths are found and miners have shown me their personal collection including a sizeable chunk of Mammoth skin with it’s hair still on it. It is amazing to stroke the hair of an animal that died roughly 25,000 years ago. Miners have also discovered that the tusks are valuable themselves. Mammoth tusks have a different grain than elephants so an expert can easily tell if the ivory is from a current species of elephant or a extinct Mammoth.
Miners are a independent lot and their distrust of the government runs deep. Many of the miners would be reluctant to tell the government about their finds. Hawk Mining Ltd should be commended for reporting the find and turning it over. Now many people will be able to marvel at this animal.

The Quartz creek dredge

Gobar Gas, only the dung beattles will be unhappy!

Image courtesy of www.childhaven.ca

This article by Michael Yon is an excellent read and captures the issues around bringing development into 3rd world communities. It is these small scale projects that will make the difference. Sadly most NGO’s, UN and Government agencies are set up for large scale projects. Mainly as no one will get promoted for openly selling the merits of dung. Mind you many a career has been made selling horse manure, but that’s a different story.
I like these types of projects and am a big fan of micro-loans, solar ovens and other small scale projects. Large aid efforts over a long period, destroy the local economy and make it difficult for people to get ahead. Haiti is a clear example of how aid can poison the well. As they say the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Go to the link and take the time to read it. Michael is a stunning photographer and it’s worth going for the pictures alone.

Gobar Gas II

Mentioned in Dispatches

Photo courtesy of Combatcamera


Mentioned in Dispatches is a term from long ago when news from a battlefront was brief and rare. So the honour of being included was deemed very valuable and way to show respect for the acts of courage that our soldiers carried out.
In this day and age of instant and sometimes almost overwhelming amounts of information, the concept is almost lost. Yet it is important to stop and consider what tremendous actions have taken place to create these brief lines. Each is a marco view of an issue that is to large for most of us to digest. Take a moment to read each paragraph and ponder upon what happened that day and that moment and share with these brave soldiers their finest moments.
Mentioned in Despatches by David Pugliese

Timber!!!

My first job out of school (besides being in the reserves) was working for Dave China Tree Service. It was hard, sometimes dangerous work. The climbers varied from skilled to semi-dangerous. One workmate was a reformed alcoholic reborn Christian and the other a career alcoholic that lived in the Granville Street Hotel. It made for some interesting days. It was a great job for a young guy and they played pranks on me like “Get the skyhook” and “Left handed screwdriver” I left that job with 68 stitches in my face, luckily I had a good doctor sew me up and can barely see the scar. Topping trees 60’ up means you have no where to run when things go bad! A good faller is amazing and can read the tree and get it to land exactly where they want it. So when these guys come to work for you, give them a coffee, say thank you. They might make it look easy, but is anything but.

Self defence is a Canadian right

Canada laws are mind boggling. It’s illegal to carry something for self-defence, but it’s not illegal to use force, including deadly force to defend yourself. There has been about 6 recent cases that back this right where citizens used deadly force in self defence.
But it takes more than tools to protect yourselves or your loved ones. The first step is become aware of your surroundings, get to know your neighbours, get to know who the patterns in the area, so you can spot that which is odd. Don’t wander around in a daze glued to your Ipod, especially at night. Awareness is your first defence, If you are going to carry bear/dog spray, get to know how to use it, buy two cans and practice with one. Martial Arts are great being good for mind, soul and body. If you have daughters like me teach them to be aware, have self respect and how to defend themselves. Don’t teach your kids to be victims.