Abandoned Stuff by Saskboy

Went for Bus and Boat tour around city, and saw the islands from the boat. Apparently the city concealed the “clothing optional” beach with weeping willows. One bus the mic didn’t work so they used a megaphone. The guide was at high risk of overhead cable-neck damage.

Went to fringe show called “Big Sexy” with Kelly and Tracy, and had a sub after, similar to lunch. Ate lunch on campus in sci-library cafe which was probably on low gear for the Summer. Got some free Internet time to check the forecast, and hopped on the bus again.

Met CC, Buckets, and some other bloggers and a podcaster after supper. www.godlessradio.ca is the podcast. Bought CC a beer on College St. near the CFI.

Got a free Viva ticket on the way home, woo hoo, and got to bed by 1:00AMish after an evening walk/jog.

Astronauts like to take pictures, and they go onto the Internet. I like the Internet.

A cupola is going onto the ISS too.

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Hat tip to Space Weather

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The garbage (and other services) strike in Toronto looks to me as if it will go on for some time. The city can’t help but to be arrogant, when there are so many clueless taxpayers (I was going to write “citizens”, but many probably wouldn’t qualify in the sense that they contribute positively to the country) complaining about unions on newspaper comment sections. The profound ignorance and greed is tough to bear. They propose things that are illegal, and frankly stupid.

The steady stream of negative comments come from people claiming not to belong to a union, and they make less money and have fewer benefits than the city workers they see as beneath them. Go figure eh? And unions aren’t good because they give their members better benefits and wages, and protection from employers who are abusive?

These people feel so strongly that the city is trying to cheat them and beat them down, that they are going WITHOUT PAY to protest and protect collective bargaining and the spirit of democracy. Sure, they could just quit and get other jobs, but then they leave one of the clueless commenters at the Star to get hired and stepped on by a declining salary and benefit package. So the complainers may get just what they want… a city without unions, and lower paying jobs for city workers, and they’ll get those jobs. Goody for them!

I think it’s cool that owl vomit is teaching us about the animals around us. Sometimes a good ol’ puking is just what the doctor ordered after consuming something that should not be digested. Owls know that better than most animals.

It seems Alberta has a problem of allowing parents to shield their children from knowledge of religions, and sexual orientations. Saskatchewan isn’t faring much better, where we have an sexual education curriculum that optionally discusses pregnancy. Yes, learning about pregnancy is optional in SEXUAL EDUCATION. Isn’t that like learning about fishing, but cleaning and eating fish is an optional component of the course?

Anyway, I’m glad to hear at least one provincial party leader isn’t shy about bringing up sexual education as an issue, because it’s certainly an important topic. Without better education provided to children, we won’t bring down the high rate of sexually transmitted infections in this province, and we won’t reduce the amount of costly teen and even FAS pregnancies.

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ADDED: And I’m glad there are no blogging politicians who sound like this in Saskatchewan.

Outrun a mudslide? Awesome, good thing it was slow moving wet earth. There’s probably some untapped joke about how fast Newfoundlanders are, but I don’t see it. Some CBC commenter Granny figured he should be an Olympic athlete.

Maybe he trained with COLBERT?

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An old building (Grain Show Building) which I noticed last year for the first time, and wondered what was inside, burned to the ground on the weekend.

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Seems the PD is thinking of mostly the same stories I did today. But I was actually at the following announcement ;-) …

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The UofR Arts department picked up a $2.5 Million cheque from the Law Foundation of Saskatchewan.

If I ever got to write a $2.5 Million cheque, I’d be sure to make it have thousands, hundreds, and cents too, just so the wording is longer, and the mock cheque bigger.
Two Million Five Hundred One Thousand One Hundred Thirteen — 2 /100

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I never had to take a “history” class in high school. There was “Social Studies” and that was pretty much history all through grade school. It included a bit about municipal, provincial, and federal governments from at least as far back as grade 3. It’s a crock that we don’t teach Saskatchewan history in more depth, because if we don’t learn it ourselves, who will bother to promote it later?

I took WWI and WWII history in university, as well as eastern Canada in the 1830s, and Ancient Greece, Rome, and pre-historic Europe. And I have no trouble naming the date of Confederation, nor the first Prime Minister of Canada. Have none of those kids ever handled a $10 bill before and never seen a penny with 1867-1967 on it? The culture of dumb is almost upon us.

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I saw this man’s ambulance flying through Wood Mountain on Saturday. He didn’t make it.

Chernobyl is something everyone has heard of, but I would wager few have seen. I was too young to remember the disaster unfolding, but if it happened today it would be at least as huge a news story as the Boxing Day Asian Tsunami, if not bigger.
I came across a lot of different sites. I didn’t realize they had tours to the area. It’s still dangerous.

The unopened amusement park is especially interesting, as are the trees overtaking the untended pavement and buildings. It’s an unintentional park.

ADDED: Kid of Speed has an amazing photo journal of the dead zone.

It’s possible to see through your own finger. You can even take a photograph of the inside of your finger, without the danger of x-rays. Get a bright LED flashlight like the kind that goes on a key chain. If it doesn’t generate heat you can feel, it’s an LED so you won’t burn yourself.

In a dim room, press the light to your finger, and if it’s bright enough you can see the inside. Medical imaging, right at home! Turn your camera to macro or super macro mode and slow the shutter down enough, so that there’s a bright photo. Having a friend hold the camera will make it easier.

I like this speech, it is hopeful, and as he says, the only time it makes sense to be hopeful is when the odds are against you. One way or another the odds are against us, so we all have a reason for hope.

Paul gives a naked, honest, and graceful address [PDF]. You can read the non-PDF version (HTML webpage) here.

Here’s a portion:

The living world is not “out there” somewhere, but in your heart. What do we know about life? In the words of biologist Janine Benyus, life creates the conditions that are conducive to life. I can think of no better motto for a future economy. We have tens of thousands of abandoned homes without people and tens of thousands of abandoned people without homes. We have failed bankers advising failed regulators on how to save failed assets. Think about this: we are the only species on this planet without full employment. Brilliant. We have an economy that tells us that it is cheaper to destroy earth in real time than to renew, restore, and sustain it. You can print money to bail out a bank but you can’t print life to bail out a planet. At present we are stealing the future, selling it in the present, and calling it gross domestic product. We can just as easily have an economy that is based on healing the future instead of stealing it. We can either create assets for the future or take the assets of the future. One is called restoration and the other exploitation. And whenever we exploit the earth we exploit people and cause untold suffering. Working for the earth is not a way to get rich, it is a way to be rich.

And that is why I advocate for a system better than capitalism. That doesn’t mean I’m anti-capitalism, since it’s been the best system humankind has devised to distribute wealth. It just doesn’t suit the needs of 6 Billion people very well, and has no mechanism to protect the Earth, and us, from severe non-renewable resource shortages.

We have to change the assumption that bads are not also produced in the making of goods. If we don’t start accounting for them, and adjust our economy to the realities of living in a finite system which doesn’t renew within a human lifespan, then we’re going to let our greed destroy everything.

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Hat tip to Dr. Hepting

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Here’s someone who needs to spend more time looking at the stars, and less at the TV. It’s not a good thing to drive your truck into the Saskatchewan River.