Katrina dumps water on Canada

I know I really can't complain after watching the news on TV the past day or two. Katrina dumped a lot of water on Montreal today and blew it all over the place. I went out at lunch to put some air in my tire with the slow leak (just my luck to have to do it today) and I was totally drenched within 5 seconds of running to my car from the company's front door.. a distance of perhaps 3 meters. I was soaking wet... then had to pump air in the tire with my $9 umbrella wrapped around me spilling water down into my pants. Regardless of the volume of rain it still wasn't all that bad. Nothing really flooded like before but some trees were uprooted in NDG and a couple of cars destroyed. Minor stuff unless you were the owners of the cars.

Some pics (click image to see full size picture);










The TV images of New Orleans though are hard to take. I can't imagine being in their situation. When the ice storm hit Montreal a few years ago I had no power for 2-3 days and I was worried at that point if it went beyond 3 days there would be no fresh food and I would have to go to a shelter. These people are looking at months of no electricity, no work, no income nor available fresh food. It's a nightmarish situation actually. People are looting and there is gunfire at night. It isn't safe to be there. I also read there are even alligators now in the flood zone. Imagine.

The news headline photo on today's Globe & Mail pretty much says it all;




President Bush made a tour in Air Force One and a later a speech where he said it would take years to rebuild the area. Gas prices have gone up in the US. Today it went to $1.34 a litre in some areas here. I paid $1.19 at lunch. I never knew I was getting a bargain so I only put in $30 worth. Damn.. anyways.. hope things work out soon.

My friend who works at New Orleans Airport sent out a general mail to his friends including me to update everyone on their situation. It's a good reflection of what a lot of people must be going through down down there at the moment. At least he still has a job to go to so his situation is probably one of the better ones. He will have to make a lot of critical decisions over the next few weeks unfortuantely. It must be very upsetting and difficult for them. My heart goes out to him.

Today was a day of making various contingency plans for when we are allowed to return home. We are still with my in-laws in West Monroe, LA.

The president of Jefferson Parish, where our house is located, is telling us that we can likely come back next Monday. His advice is to come in, collect some essentials, then clear out again for what could be up to two months.

Our thinking now, and I've been in touch with my boss at the airport with our thoughts, is to take two cars down on Monday, load up one with more stuff to bring back here, and I would stay at the airport with my car. The airport is asking those of us who can get back to do so when we can, and the airport will likely be one of the better places to be down there, and most likely I'll be living out of my office at the airport for the time being.

Regarding longer range thoughts, we are seriously considering our daughters in school up here for the time being. We've already been in touch with the Ouachita Parish School Board and they are quite receptive, and are thinking they'll be getting more similar requests.

Our spirits are good, we're thinking through every contingency we can think of. Of course, our thoughts and prayers are with those left at home.

Again, thank you for all your thoughts and prayers, and we love you all.

Katrina heads for Montreal

Katrina slammed the Gulf Coast. What a mess, on TV it looks like the tsunami aftermath from Christmas. Lots of poor people who were unable to evacuate were killed and the dikes around New Orleans broke open and the city is now flooded. It's pretty much the worse case scenario. There's looting and stranded people in among dead bodies and wreckage.... Spilled oil and chemicals are mixing with the water to create a toxic mess and oil refineries are seriously damaged. Yikes. God help them.

My friend in New Orleans wrote me back to say he had evacuated safely but his home is in the city basin but on slightly higher ground.... but he expects it to be damaged. I haven't heard back since the storm hit. I have another friend in Philadelphia with family in Alabama but he wrote me this evening to say they were 200 miles north of Mobile and only got heavy rain. So at least the people I know of personally in the region are physically safe. That's good news.

The storm will ride it's way up north and go right up the St Lawrence over Montreal on out to the Maritimes and the Atlantic again... so we expect Katrina's remains tomorrow. They are predicting very heavy rains and winds. Remember last time we had heavy rain and I ended up stranded out on the West Island and got home at 9:30 at night because of the flooding at l'Acadie... Tomorrow it will be Pie IX and the 440 both there and back just to be safe. Regardless it will be nothing compared to what hit down South.

I had supper with friends last night at a pretty Greek restaurant on Duluth street in Le Plateau. It was an open air courtyard that went perfect with the warm humid night. The food and conversation excellent. Two of the guests were from New York City and they were touring around Montreal the past few days and seemed to have had a nice time. I really enjoyed myself actually. Eating out like that on a warm night is one of the things I like to do the most.. throw in the pleasant courtyard terrace and it doesn't get better... summer in Montreal at it's best.

Huricane Katrina looming over New Orleans

I've spent some time watching the television news about impending hurricane Katrina which at this moment is about to hit New Orleans. If what the analysts are saying is true it will be devastating. It's a scary thing. Over 1 Million people have been evacuated and the rest are stuck in New Orleans and surrounding areas. I wish them all well over the next few days.

Thanks to the Internet I know of one fella who works at MSY (New Orleans Airport). We've been out of touch over the past couple of years but I sent him an e-mail wishing him safety. Another one of my friends has family down in Alabama which is also on the hurricane track for this storm. Hopefully they too will be safe. It all becomes such a small world when we start interacting on global discussion boards. Suddenly I know or know of people everywhere.

Anyways, apparently New Orleans is in a basin between a lake, a bay and the Gulf of Mexico. There are 18' high levees protecting it but since Katrina is a category 5 hurricane with 280kph winds they predict the storm surge of 20' or about 7 meters. If they break over the levees the city will be submerged. There are 25,000 people held up in the Superdome all of whom will live in the stands above ground level since they actually expect the stadium to flood. I hope the roof stays on. That's one tall massive structure for the winds to hit. All in all it's shaping up to be the Perfect Storm.. Hopefully something will happen to make it veer off and slow down.. Anyways good luck New Orleans.

Testing picture HTML Code

I'm going to test out a new feature in airliners.net and myaviation.net. They now allow us to generate code to view pictures off their sites. So this is one of my shots from my trip to Switzerland and Holland back in June using the code. Hope it works...Click the images for the full size photo



MyAviation.net:




Photographer © Doug Bull




MyAviation.net:




Photographer © Doug Bull




MyAviation.net:




Photographer © Doug Bull




MyAviation.net:




Photographer © Doug Bull




MyAviation.net:




Photographer © Doug Bull


Wow cool... works well. Good to know.

End of Chapter One

What a shock, Chapters, the huge bookstore at Rockland shopping centre closed up. OMG.. It was the only English language bookstore near enough to the East End to be convenient for me. If there are three major English bookstores left in the city region now I'd be surprised. This will mean I will have to go all the way downtown or out to the West Island to buy a book.... bummer... I'm really ticked off about this. Rockland was the perfect place for me.. half way and the turning point between work and home, between the 15 and the 40... I could stop in afterwork and pick something up without even blinking... now it's going to be a big trip.

The stylist that cut my hair at Rockland... yes it does actually grow... said there was a new bookstore at Centre Laval but I'm 99% sure it would be a French bookstore. There's no sizable English population in Laval to support one and downtown Laval is almost totally French. Yes perhaps there will be a small section of foreign language books but that's exactly what it will be. The one at Rockland was huge with many choices...sigh... oh well.. What I should do is start reading French books I guess. It seems like it will come to that at some point anyway. C'est la vie.

Bad weather & assassinating a world Leader?

It's been as typical a week as it can get for me so far. I've had to battle my way through traffic each morning and night. Montrealers must be among the worse drivers out there. I know every citizen claims it's city's drivers are the worst but honestly we're up among the worst of them all. I've driven in Rome and Athens and admittedly they are "special" as people would say here... in fact so special in Rome I was forced off the sidewalk by an oncoming car once... ok so Rome is ahead of Montreal but let me tell ya we're right on their heels LOL..

There are some interesting things in the news lately though. This morning they announced a study that showed that Quebec has the worst weather in all of Canada. Apparently we have the most cloud, the least amount of sunshine, the most rain, the second highest snow accumulation by the end of January and the most rain during the summer months. There were more categories as well we topped but I can't remember them. I'm a bit surprised because I would have guessed Vancouver or some place in the Maritimes/Newfoundland would hold the most rain or cloud category. Anyways, if this is the worse then it's not all bad. It's been a beautiful summer and with all that rain I guess we probably have the lushest gardens in the country...?

Another quirky thing came out of the US last night. This just brings out the irony of American thinking. For all the criticism the US has thrown out at extremist Islamic leaders they now have one of their own to point a finger at. Pat Robertson an Evangelical Minister in the US has called for the assassination of Venezuela's Communist President Hugo Chavez. Ok, I know many people might think assassinating a brutal dictator would be unethical but at the same time would be less risky to the lives of soldiers and of course more cost effective. Forget that it's illegal and immoral and against the principles we fight to protect. Forget the "If we can do it to you then you can do it to us" factor. Forget that we preach freedom and liberties which presumably means the right to be something other that what the USA wants.

Regardless we do mutter about the possibility of this type of action among ourselves. You have to admit it would be a lot cleaner and cheaper than sending thousands of troops to war and potential death... but it would open a pandora's box of countries taking out the leaders of nations they don't like. It would end up like the Old Wild West and the OK Corral. The thing is however if it comes out in public I'd expect it from someone like Howard Stern not Pat Robertson. Now we have radical American religious leaders speaking fire and brimstone. It only goes to prove that even among a civilized democratic society we too can produce nut balls that lack common sense. I'd like to see how a Christian Leader can justify murder as a solution to any problem. Pat, you should have kept this to yourself now you look like an idiot even if most likely a lot of people agree with you. *Sigh*... anyways, Chavez of all people. isn't Iraq's Saadam or instigating brutality like in pre-genocide Rwanda, at least isn't to my knowledge. If he's as brutal then I'd like to know what all the press and media have been doing lately because it sure hasn't made the news if so. This was a totally irresponsible comment which probably reveals a lot about what right wing religion in the US is really all about. I wish the US would genuinely seperate religion and the State. I hate seeing political decisions being made based on religious principles. Not everyone is of the same religion and it opens the door to all sorts of conflicts and accusations.

Sadly there was another plane crash this week. It was a TAN Airlines Boeing 737-200 based in Peru. I think this is the 5th crash in as many weeks. It is a strange blip in the statistics I would imagine. Add to it a nose gear collapse of a Northwest 744 in Guam and a couple of other emergency evacuations that made the news and the public is starting to get a bit jittery about flying again. There is no reason to be like this but the media of course brings out the fear and I guess the reaction is logical.

Sheila and her cousin came over last night to watch The Others on DVD. It was the Nicole Kidman suspense thriller about a family living in a haunted post war English countryside home. It is an excellent film with a real surprise twist at the end. I loved it when I saw it in the theatres and loved it even more after watching it last night. They played off Kidman's character's madness, the strange sounds of the "ghosts" and the fears of the kids perfectly. It had both Sheila and her cousin wrapped up in pillows and squirming all over the couch LOL.

Anyhow… I should get to work. Lots of little projects are on my plate and I have to be in touch with my Dutch counterparts so hope your day goes well :)

They'd sell the hairs on your head if they could

I was looking over the statistics of this website last night just to see where everyone was coming from. I noticed a sudden spike of several hundred percent in people coming here. I figured my link must have been posted somewhere and a large number of random people suddenly had access to it and dropped in. I thought It was odd because blogger.com really doesn't have the tools like other blogging sites to create "communities" or promote your site or seatch and get it out there and known. Anyways not that anyone would care much about my boring little life or what I have to say about events in the world but there are those who are willing to go to every extreme to get noticed and they will attract large numbers of people. In turn advertisers seek them and ultimately people like me out.

Regardless of who would or would not care about this site I did come across something that's a bit disturbing. This discovery came after I suddenly got "attacked" by cyber spyder robots who plastered one of my posts with fake comments disguised as everyday bloggers but with the sole aim of promoting their product or service. So when I checked the counter stats I found to my amazement a site that is selling my blogsite traffic to advertisers at a going rate based on the volume running through it. I have a link but I cannot get it to show below: So try this...copy paste the link and just add in the http before the two :// where it should be.

://blogshares.com/blogs.php?blog=http%3A%2F%2Fyulfly1011.blogspot.com%2F

It appears my site along with all the sites on this blogger site is being sold for advertising purposes. This doesn't really surprise me but to see it with a going rate and varying trends is a bit disturbing. It makes me feel like someone is selling part of me without my permission. Because I write about my life and the world around me suddenly someone is trying to profit from me. Everyone on my links also has a similar site and theirs is for sale too.Although it's probably not illegal it is just makes me feel like I should have a shower.

When I look at everyday life and how we are all inundated with advertising it sometimes make me sick. It is everywhere from escalator steps, road signs, television, movies and the Internet. I have a Videotron digital TV package $20 for 20 stations and when I flipped through them the last night I counted roughly 60% of them were showing TV ads as I ran through the channels. It's like that all the time, more advertising than programming. There is even television ads that run for 60 minutes disguesed as ligitimate TV shows...we've even created a name to justify them: "infomercials". It's as if everyone has one hand in your pocket and the other stroking your back saying how great you'd be if only you had my product. Life would be bliss.

Worse still everyday people are now willingly do it for free. This I have a hard time understanding. While Nike is willing to pay someone like Tiger Woods or an NBA star millions of dollars to promote their products kids at High Schools, Universities and even grown adults will help promote Nike by buying shirts, caps and shoes with the Nike Swoosh on it. Free advertising and the wearer gets nothing, in facts pays them to do it so in effect buys into their marketing and thinks he or she looks cool. They paid Nike for their product and agree to advertise for them for free. Why shouldn't they get a share of the profits if they in fact help promote the product line? There's even one step beyond this when some kids shave the Swoosh (insert corporate logo of your choice here) into their haircuts or start pasting it on their suped up car rear windows or as tatoos on their bodies. Do you really think Allen Iverson would wear any product logo for free? I don't think so but these giant companies sure have us convinced that it's the right thing for us to do. Advertising and promotion is necessary in order to sell the product but it's as if we've crossed a line and we no longer realize how "used" we are. Sad really.

Govenor General ducks reporters

Recently Prime Minister Martin appointed Michaelle Jean to the post of Governor General of Canada. This is a largely ceremonial post that ties in Canada's government to the Crown in England. She is effectively the Queen's representative in Canada. Vestiges of colonialism I suppose and something someday we probably should do away with but it still exists and the role still has a purpose.

This 46-year-old woman is a Haitian born immigrant with citizen ship in Haiti, France and Canada. She's a well-known reporter in French Canada and has been seen on the CBC hosting excellent shows like the Passionate Eye and other CBC efforts. My first reaction to her appointment was very positive. She's well known, a black immigrant, multilingual, highly intelligent and successful as well as chic and beautiful. She typifies the idealistic Canadian of the 21st century. A good choice.

My second reaction though was that knowing other Canadians I was sure I would hear people outside Quebec grumbling about the Federal government giving a "plum job" to another Quebecer even if a Quebecer hasn't held the post of Governor General in 19 years. Well that may have happened but honestly I never heard it. Unfortunately though the Separatists got the better of all of us and immediately accused her and especially her husband of being a Quebec Separatist. Typically separatist, they stabbed her in the back before she even officially took hold of the post.

Last night CTV had old film footage of her and her husband at a gathering of well know Separatists. Also, they remarked on a book they both were quoted in supporting the Separatist cause. Her husband, more than her, was supposedly very outspoken about the cause and a lot of the focus has been on him. Well, I have no problem with people being separatists and wanting Quebec to be an independent country or whatever the cause is today. After all we live in a free society where freethinking is openly encouraged and if it is all done through legitimate channels then people are free to want and believe in this. Personally I even see some benefits to it for both Quebec and Canada but I'm not sure I want the disruptions to our lives it would likely create. I do however have a big problem with Separatists holding a job where the primary function is to represent Canada on the world stage and promote Canada to the world. It would be like a Federalist holding the position as head of the St-Jean Baptiste Society, a nationalistic French Quebec organization dedicated to the separation of Quebec from Canada. This is a line that shouldn't be crossed by the other side.

This morning on the radio another issue has come up as well. Now France claims it may revoke her citizenship because according to French law no French Citizen can hold key positions such as head of the military in another country. The Governor-General's title is attached to such things even if it is ceremonial. So she may lose her duel French-Canada citizenship. Well you know France may have done us a favor there. So far Jean has not publicly stated anything about this controversy. Her position is publicly unknown. The Government says the Separatists are engaging in a smear campaign. Perhaps they are but if it is all true it is something people should be aware of. It turns out most Canadians outside of Quebec know little about her and perhaps they should know the truth especially from Jean herself. Her continued silence is starting to make the press uneasy and is raising questions in the minds of many people in the country. Now that France has made an issue over her citizenship she will have to pick what country she's really loyal to and as Governor-General one would presume the choice would be both obvious and easy - Canada. We will see if it is.

It will be interesting to watch this unfold. I'm also curious to see how the rest of the country takes it as well. Other Canadians often bash Quebec for pretty much everything we get from Ottawa be it a major contract, a government position, money or anything else that can be perceived as efforts to keep Quebec thinking it's benefiting from Ottawa - contrary to what the Separatists claim. We are seen as favorites of Ottawa and a big black hole where money is sent and wasted. French Canada sees exactly the opposite. Recent scandals have only intensified this feeling towards my Province. Also you must question how closely the government looked into her credentials before selecting her. Again, were they sleeping on the job? This has all the potential to turn into an ugly mess unfortunately. Sadly this woman was looking like the hip young ethnic urban success story of Canada's 21st century but now she's ducking reporters. She still might be all that but she or her husband better say all the right things because if not if will go downhill very fast I suspect. Even if it turns out to be true then at least admit that and come clean with the country. I think people would be more comfortable with at least that and then maybe even accept her in the role knowing it. In the end though it's a shame, what started out as a really positive thing has now been tainted.

Waiter, there's a bug in my drink

Clem, Pascal & I headed out for supper yesterday evening. These guys are a gay couple I've known for many years. We thought we'd get a little exercise in and take a walk on Mount Royal for a bit and then head down to the Plateau to find a place to eat. It turned out to be a really nice time.

I haven't really been to the mountain in several years which is a shame because it is basically a massive park and quite quiet and relaxing. We drove up from Cote des Neiges which was really odd to me since in all my life I've never approached the mountain from the west side. Once parked and out we thought we'd head over to the lookout then stroll down to Beaver Lake before going to the Plateau.

There were lots of tourists. I think I heard every language but English and French there. Everyone was getting pics of themselves in front of the skyline. Arabs, Chinese, Hispanics and several unknown European languages. A veritable United Nations of people up there last night.

The view was nice as always. The skyline has changed over the years but it's not all that much different. A few new skyscrapers here and there and just generally more of them be they small or large. The mountain is the ceiling level where no skyscraper can be built higher. The aim to not block out the view of it from downtown and I guess the South Shore. Also visa versa from the mountain to the other side of the river. I'm not totally in agreement with this because in the end you might get two 30 story office towers instead of one 6o story so ultimately there could be just so many buildings it becomes congested and that might block out more general viewing than a handful of very tall buildings. This canyon effect can ruin the ambiance of downtown in my opinion. There's not much to worry about though, Montreal hasn't doubled its population in my lifetime and there doesn't seem to be so much economic activity that there's any need for 60 or 80 story office towers anyway.

Lots of nice flowers up there. I have an 8' high sunflower growing like a beanstalk in my back yard... here's the city's smaller version (mine isn't out yet).






So here's some pics of the cityscape view;











Here's a nice panorama of the skyline






It's actually even nicer at night with all the lights on but still it's a classic image of Montreal that's usually shown to the world when my city is showcased somewhere.

Clem took a pic of me up there... so here's my ugly mug LOL :






Anyhow we then walked over to Lac des Castors (Beaver Lake). All my life it's been rumored the lake was the crater of an ancient volcano. I've since heard none of this was true but I'm really not sure to be honest. It would really have to be ancient though if so.

The Lake however was a huge disappointment. Normally this is a very pretty site filled with people relaxing, getting their feet cooled off and lots of ducks and so forth... but today it was practically dried up thanks to all the heat we've had this summer. There is a water shortage in parts of the city. The walkway around it was a crumbling mess and the building at the far end of it was being renovated. It needs a total renovation actually. So hardly impressive for anyone let alone the tourists. I really don't understand where the city puts it's money sometimes. It sure isn't going here nor is it going into road repair... they city's a crumbling mess in some ways. I know snow and frost damages a lot of the infrastructure but come on, we're not that poor we can't maintain it. God knows Quebecers pay enough taxes, more than most places in Canada. The touristy areas are the one part you want to keep updated, clean and nice especially on the mountain. If anyone comes to this city Old Montreal and Mount Royal are the two places everyone has to see if nothing else. Last night though I would have taken them from the viewing platform straight down to Vieux Montreal and skipped the lake...

Here's a pic at sunset with St Joseph's Oratory way in the background.






Some people exercising too.. lots of joggers and cyclists.






...the dog is cute :)

We parked on St-Hubert in the Plateau. Lucky us, it's one of the most difficult places in the city to find free parking. We walked along ave. Mont-Royal doing some window shopping. They've got the most colourful and imaginative stores along there. Finally we ended up on rue St-Denis, the city's most well known night time street. Tons of restaurants from all over the world, lots of bars and beautiful unique stores. Mont-Royal and St-Denis is a bit to north for the best places. It's several kilometers long actually. We went even a bit higher if not to the very top where any of this activity would begin. Actually I think we ended up in the Brazilian section of the city if I'm not mistaken.. several Brazilian bars and restaurants were along there. We passed one we went to a few years ago in fact... ought to go back really, it was good.

We picked a restaurant called Ouzerie du Plateau. It was a large urban chic Greek bistro with a wine list from here to Athens. I ordered salmon, Clem had Octopus and Calamari and Pascal, Crevettes. I also took a garden salad to begin but it was a meal in itself. Neither of them were overwhelmed with their meals but mine was delicious. So was the white wine Clem ordered. After the meal I had with some home made Greek yogurt with honey and nuts as well as a Grand Marnier, Clem had a tart/pie which he didn't like... so they were disappointed but I really couldn't complain. This is typical of us.. I often order things in new restaurants I'm at least vaguely familiar with and hard to get wrong. lf they get my choices wrong then the place really is no good. They really ought to learn from me LOL.

We talked about their mini vacation they just took. They headed down to the Gaspé and then to New Brunswick. Pascal is from the South shore of the St Lawrence just west of Quebec City in fact. They made the entire trip around the peninsula including Percé and an incredible bird sanctuary. Then they went into New Brunswick and checked out Magnetic Hill (which they said was a rip-off) and the Bay Of Fundy as well as some really beautiful beaches. I've spent a lot of time in Nova Scotia and PEI but just passed through New Brunswick on the way. My parents had their honeymoon at Percé in the Gaspé many many years ago actually. One day I'll make that trip too... just riding up to LaPocatiere the view across the St Lawrence as it widens in spectacular!! So beautiful with rolling hills and little villages and church steeples... quite the site.

Anyhow we had a good time there even if it was typically noisy. My Grand Marnier had a bug in it though which I noticed as we were talking about the Maritimes.. the waitress was mortified when I showed her and got me a new one LOL. She joked about it when she asked if she could get us anything else with or without bugs. He he.. oh well, it was summer and in Montreal when it's hot like this everything is open air so these things happen.. just like in the Plaka in Athens. This place would have went well in the Plaka actually... brought back some nice memories of it for me :) I really have to go back to Athens one day.

We then headed out for a drink downtown and called it a night. It's rare I see them on a Saturday night so kinda neat.

Canadians are willing to give up civil liberties

A survey out this morning says 72% of Canadians are willing to give up some civil liberties in order to make the country safe from terrorism. I'm sure some politicians must be popping champagne with this news. I'd like to see in detail what "some liberties" really means to most of us.

I hate the notion of terrorism even though I fully understand why it exists. These people come from poor historically torn or corrupt countries. They have no cruise missles, F22's, nuclear power submarines, nuclear bombs or thousands of highly trained specialty forces...nor in most cases any serious money to get even some of these things ligitimately. They have no clout in the major governments of the world and cannot get what they want through ligitimate organizations like the UN and other so called "effective" structures even if that term is truely questionable these days. In fact they see all this as working against them. So they turn to the uneducated and "brainwash" them into suicide bombers giving them an effective bang for their buck. It renders all the high technology of our forces somewhat useless. This in turn tries to instill fear in Western countries and distrupt our economies and hopefully force the population to move our political thinking in a way more to their liking. In short it sells well with their "home audience" because it makes it seem like they are effectively fighting the power nations of the world. It would seem however, despite the many varied reasons for terrorism Al Qaeda just wants us all dead and that pretty much drives home the point why all this has come up.

They are not playing by our game rules so we label them "terrorists" and make sure the local population here sees it exactly like that. For the most part I tend to agree terrorism is like a cancer and does not work towards any sort of peaceful reconciliation with the countries/governments they oppose and it truely must be stopped. It is a genuine threat to peace. If we don't we'll end up living in semi-organized chaos. I think though, part of the solution is for us in the so called West to change as well. It's not all one sided since terrorism did emerge for a reason and so far no one seems to be identifying the reason and trying to deal with the root causes instead of just the symptoms. Bombing men, women and children in third world nations won't get anyone on our side. We are also too focused on the economic fallout and the overall money aspects despite all our claims about human lives and freedoms.

That being said giving up my civil liberties in order to fight these people suggests once again we are giving into them. On the one hand I don't really have a problem with more security cameras around public spaces so long as they are used for seeking out genuine criminals and these so called terrorists. However I don't want them to be used to just pick up anyone they think is suspicious or doing something the user behind the camera interprets as wrong... it then becomes a form of Big Brother... Their use must be regulated and checked.

When it comes to changing the laws we live under and losing rights in areas where we currently have freedoms it is another matter. Governments and corporations would love to be able to have more control over the population. We see that in dictatorships which are really the extreme of this direction. They keep the population uneducated, use force to keep themselves in power and instill fear to prevent any revolt. Well luckily much of North America is well educated but sometimes I think people rarely think outside the box. We live in a structured paradym and accept it without question. Our mass media and other institutions support this. The government does instill the fear or terrorism be it real or not. Given that reality we have to also realize one man's terrorist is another man's mercenary. So it really comes down to all of us to keep our government's focused on the right things and not accept everything they tell us with blind acceptance. In short it's imperative we be able to think for ourselves. The media too must ask the tough questions and not be responsive only to their sponsors. The government must be truely responsible to the people and not just to it's financial backers.

Giving up civil liberties might be the start of a dangerous road we may later regret going down. It's more evidence of the rising tide of Conservatism that's sweeping this continent and one that we should ensure is checked so it won't go beyond what is truely needed if it's needed at all. Canada is one of the best countries on the whole planet to live in and I wouldn't want to see it go from a shining example of human freedoms and respect of fellow citizens to one of suspicious fear and government control.

Peter Jennings Passes Away

Sad news this morning, American News Anchor Peter Jennings passed away over night. He had lung cancer. I remember seeing his last appearance on TV explaining his situation to the television audience looking pretty good but with a horribly horse throat. My dad too died of lung cancer and I knew right then and there listening to this sickly ABC News anchor it might very well be his last appearance, and so it was.

I have to say I used to watch him everynight. I always watch US News because inevitably CTV gets the same feeds as ABC but they actually cut them shorter in many instances. Seeing the full show meant I'd have a fuller view of the event, and an American interpretation. I could then turn to Canadian news at 11pm and see how we saw the same events. To me this is important. I consider myself lucky to be in Canada and have news feeds direct from other countries. CTV/CBC from English Canada, RDI/TVA from French Canada, BBC from England and TV5 from the French nations of the world... but of course CNN/ABC/NBC and CBS from the US. It gives me a more global view albeit still very Western and first world. Still Jennings and ABC were the best of the best in the US. He came across as credible, intelligent, diplomatic, articulate, kind, inquisitve, sensitve and even poetic. There's no one out there today who could match him. He's a Canadian we could all warm up to. So many of us head to the US for global fame and fortune... he headed there to be a more rounded intelligent human being. It would seem he worked hard to get what he got and in the end probably had one of the most interesting lives anyone on the planet could have in the late 20th and early21st centuries.

Anyways, I'll miss his perspective on everything. It will never be the same watching the news again. I still have Lloyd and that every rising or lowering hairdo which always puts a smile on my face. He's also one of the few great ones left albeit known only in Canada. It seems the world is changing and the old solid structures of the past are moving on. People, including myself, get their news from the Internet now. Seriously, I'd say in most cases I see the news first on this blessed PC before anything then turn to television to see the images.... but like the Air France tragedy in Toronto last week... it still is the one form of media that can "bring the story home". There's little that can match a powerful image and a slightly emotional reporter standing in front of it. Like newspapers it will never disappear but like many reporters said on ABCNews tonight while recanting their memories of Jennings, there will likely never be another great anchor like him ever again. A sad truth... thanks Peter for helping me understand Americans and for bringing me the world from a truely "Canadian" perspective. You did us all proud.

Strange Portugese men in my dream, A shift to the right & backyard Plane spotting

Last night Sheila & I headed out to Au Vieux Duluth in St-Laurent for supper. I have to admit I like Greek food even though they do pile on way too much. We both had the same thing, chicken brochette with garlic scampis. Yes it was delicious.. yes it was too much.. yes we had dessert and yeah we had cheap wine... so I guess it's understandable I slept lousy last night from feeling bloated and tired the rest of that evening. I had the strangest dream though... there were older Portuguese men sitting around talking in my living room.. I could clearly see their faces with one in particular remarking on how much he liked this country....!? weird.. he was wearing an orange shirt. I have no clue where that all came from but it seemed as real a if he was really sitting in my living room talking... accent and all..

Anyways, Sheila went up to see her brother in Ottawa today but I declined to go. They have a nice large pool and three pre teen kids and usually a load of neighbours and family coming over so it gets a little over whelming. Plus I have tons to do on the weekends to keep my house up.. cutting grass and doing laundry and so forth I did my thing and let her spend time with her family. Anyways her brother is a nice guy but a somewhat of a right wing redneck and I have to admit I feel a bit uncomfortable around him at times. I think if we ever sat down and seriously discussed anything political or touched on some of the social issues of the day we'd clash so seriously I might never go back... Once he has had a few beers and some wine he starts and some of the things he says is offensive to me. Sheila is no where near as opinionated but in the past few years I've seen a real right wing bend in her way of thinking and this starting to disturb me. There's good things in both the right and left way of seeing life but once you go beyond certain boundaries in either direction you start infringing on the other to a point where the balance of power starts to shift and that is where if gets dangerous. We're at that point in the world these days and look at the mess of divisions it's created all over the planet. I don't want to have the same sort of thing happen with the people in my life that I love so it becomes a delicate balancing act for both of us. Life can be so phoney once you become a working adult.... rarely does anyone sober tell you what they really think to your face. Everyone just smiles and changes the subject.

I did some arm chair plane spotting from my back yard this afternoon. First off, this plane flew over the city at I would guess around 35,000'... It's definately a blue finned 777-200. I think it's Continental but I don't see any of the gold in the tail.


It's really hard to tell since I've cropped the pic substantially and so it gets "noiser" and less sharp. I can't think of any other blue finned 777s that would be found in this part of the world. ANA would be darker with some white on it, United would have a blue underbelly and mostly white tail, Delta would have red and the tail cone would be painted, Varig would also have a blue underbelly and it wouldn't be over Montreal for any reason... so Continental would seem to fit the plane. The underbelly and engine colours also matches CO and it could have been an early flight off to Europe from Newark or maybe even Houston. It was travelling in an odd directon, NW which probably eliminates Newark.

For the rest.. well the only thing of significance heading into 24L was Air Canada's new Embraer 175 which I saw for the first time every today. It came in around 11am and I have to say caught me by surprise. I took a pic of it thinking it was an A319 in new colours then noticed the larger winglets. It was very quiet in comparison to other planes. The pics didn't turn out because I had a slow shutter speed and they blurred. It was quite nice and sleek. It will be a great addition to the mainline fleet. I'm sure in a year or so I'll be sick of seeing them LOL.

Air Transat was the most significant other however.. a lonely A310 coming up from the Caribbean this afternoon.







I wonder what Transat will eventually get to replace the A310 fleet? It's getting to be an old aircraft now. The 787 would be good for them but probably too expensive. Some older 767-200ERs might also do the trick but they too are about as old as their Airbuses. That will be a interesting order once it is made. There was rumor of them looking at 777s but personally I think that aircraft would be too big for Transat. Who knows, maybe A350s are in their future as they would be compatible to the A330s they fly now... but it's not really an A310 replacement.. only the 787 really fits that category at this point.

Some other shots that made my day.. My sun reflector and some bright flowers..





I wrote an e-mail to Clem this evening to see if he wanted to go out for supper but never heard back from him. So I'm all by myself.. I think I'll update my website. I need to completely redo it. Some of the pics on it are of such low quality it's embarassing. I can get away with the claim they were of old classic airliners though.. but I need a total revamp. So off I go..

New Bathroom fan & the Heat

It was a slightly unusual day today. I worked from home as Home Depot had their subcontractors come in to install a ceiling fan and electrical outlet into my bathroom. I live in a house built in the late 1950s so none of this was standard and I like most of us around here have lived without such things for years. We opted to just open the door and window to vent out the condensation but lately I've noticed some mold and peeling paint so I decided to get the fan installed.

It should have been a quick two hour job. I planned on going into the office in the afternoon. No such luck. First off they came expecting me to have all the purchased parts ready. They didn't and had to go to Home Depot to get them. Second, the quote I already paid for didn't included the purchase of the electrical outlet for the bathroom. I had to pay them seperate for it. None of this was a big problem. They guys were Italian and were quite friendly but there's always an undertone of being ripped off when it comes to these sorts of things. The next issue was to vent through the eaves, the side or the roof. The roof was their last option as it is major work. It turns out my home is so well built with large solid materials every option was a nightmare for them. The eaves were not accessible. The roof would be risky and prone to leaks so they opted for the side of the house. It turns out there was 6" thick support beams... brick and wood siding under aluminium siding plus some other layers he had to drill through in 34 degree heat. The guy was a pool of water in the end. He said he never has seen such a well built house anywhere he's worked. He didn't even have the drill to really penetrate the wall in order to vent out the piping.

In the end though I wasn't really all that happy. They broke my dimmer switch and I opted to have them install a regular one in it's place. I'll get a new dimmer myself along the lines of all the others. I love a dimmer in the bathroom... especially at night when it helps cut the shock of facing bright lights coming out of the dark and a deep sleep. Then both around the switches, outlets and around the fan they made the hole in the plaster (yes plaster) too big and it shows in both locations even after the plate was put on. I'm going to have to build that up to hide it later when I repaint the room. So their work was a bit sloppy and I'm out a dimmer and had to still pay for more parts. The guy apologized though for breaking the dimmer which at least was nice. He was mad at himself for doing it.

This evening I just stepped out into the heavy heat and humidity... It felt good to get away from my laptop... working from home is nice since there is no drive to and from work but hell it's distracting with all the beautifuil sunshine, the backyard, the TV and fridge all way too close. I did sit there for 8 hours and only at the end did I start to give up as the connection speed made any really serious work kinda difficult.. so I drifted to the Internet for a bit around 4pm.. Oh well..

The heat though has it's effects.. look at these Cardinals who seem to be enjoying themselves a lot more than me this evening LOL...





Pretty colours on the male....

The news is full of things that make you scratch your head these days. Al Quaeda is threatening the US and the UK again. I guess this signals a warning of major attacks to come. Not a good sign. You have to wonder how they can sleep at night... then again I ask the same question about George Bush. The Space shuttle has been repaired with a space walk and this evening the last of the known threats to the craft have been given the ok by NASA so it should return without incident. The Canadian built robot arm did wonders... Video game developers are at it again. Recently it was a hidden sex sequence that could be unlocked if someone found the key to activating it in a program sold to young people. Now it's a game aimed at mimicking the London bombings and 9/11. We have weird priorities in this world. We freak out over any thing sexual and accept violence and theft without much after thought. Seems to me kids will grow up and have sex but they hopefully are not going to grow up and blow people's heads and limbs off and steal cars and rampage through villages. We ought to have our priorities straightened out. Gas is up to $1.06 a litre! Egads.... I need to ride my bike more...

I guess that's it. Back to the regular routine tomorrow.

Air France A340 Crashes in Toronto

It's the only news in Canada this evening. An Air France A340-300 en route from Paris to Toronto touched down at Pearson Airport in a raging thunder and lightening storm and skidded off the runway and ended up in a ravine in two pieces. Fire broke out as over 300 people evacuated the jet successfully and climbed up the ravine and walked out onto the airport ground and the 401 highway. Amazing....

So it's a good news story actually... tragic in that people were probably scared to death at the moment it happened but knowing it all ended in the loss on one aircraft and nothing else was a relief for everyone especially the passengers and flight crew. It could have been so much worse. When I first saw the pictures of the wreckage burning on CNN I was sure there would be deaths. In fact I listened to live radio reports all the way home from work and people were then discussing the remote possibility of survivors so the image I had in my head was of carnage. Thank God the media was wrong. They run with whatever they can get their hands on when they are live and so often totally miss the truth.

For instance in the very beginning people were reporting the plane to be a Westjet 737. Then once it was established to be an Air France A340 the plane's size and passenger capacity went all across the board from 200 to 400 people. Reporters first started saying wind shear brought it down. Then someone said it was struck by lightening because the plane "lost power" just before touchdown. The lights went out apparently which isn't all that uncommon actually. Others said there was no lightening. Then one passenger said the plane made a sudden drop and fell hard onto the runway. This was followed up by someone claiming the plane came in too high. This was followed up with the plane was landing too fast. Another said the landing itself was quite normal if not smooth. One even said passengers broke out and applauded on touchdown. Another said they thought the plane blew its tires so lost braking power. An early report had an engine falling off. Fire supposedly broke out before hitting the ravine. Speculation led to the plane being low on fuel therefore forced to land. One guy had the plane skidding on the "driveway"... Ok they were emotional and I guess were talking out of sheer adrenalin. It must have been horrific.

I've run scenarios like this through my mind several times especially when I fly. I've seen the emergency instructions so often I can almost get up and perform the instructions myself so I listen only out of one ear when they are presented. One thing I always do though is count the number of seats away from the nearest exit I am in case I have to get off crawling on the floor in thick smoke. It never hurts to have a sense of perspective of the exit from your seat. Normally though I'm not sitting around thinking anything like this would really happen. All reports have said that passengers were expecting a normal landing in rain and were not prepared for anything unusual before hand. That's a bit creepy actually to have a placid normal experience suddenly turn into one of your worst nightmares. Now though their most pressing issue will be to see if any of their luggage survived. What an arrival into Canada.. imagine if their passports also were left on the plane.. you enter a foreign land by simply walking onto a highway with literally the clothes on your back. I hope the airline, authorities and local people take good care of the visitors who are now stuck in this situation. I'm sure they will.

So it looks like we should all applaud the cabin crew for getting everyone out with relative safety. Only 17 people had minor injuries. It will be interesting to see the investigation and what comes out of it. Lots of questions will be asked. Why was the airport opened when the weather conditions were so bad? Did ATC do something wrong in their procedures in helping land this plane? Why did the pilots choose to land when there were alternative airports to go to? What exactly happened to the aircraft and what caused it to slip off the runway? Was there wind shear? Did the landing gear wheels blow? Did the engines fail? Did the hydraulics or reverse thrust fail? Was the runway conditions fit for landing? So was there excess water or some debris on it? Was there pilot error? Did the plane get hit by lightening? Was there a maintenance error? Time will tell.

Anyways it captivated everyone for a few hours this evening. I found myself glued to CNN actually. CTV and CBC were ok but CNN of course had the most people on the story and fed into CTV's images and the occasional live report when the story was worth it. It was a repetitious set of video of the plane burning. I was amazed no television crew could get better pictures than what they got. A fuzzy fixed camera from a high position and an unsteady hand held camera from a car... and that was about it looping continually as reporters did voice overs.

I'm anxious to talk to my colleagues tomorrow to see what they saw. Most of them take the 401 past that runway since our office is right near that location. I've taken it myself dozens of times and have landed on that runway about as many times. In fact on my last trip last Thursday that's the runway I took off of. So I'm sure many of them will have driven right past the wreckage this evening. The plane is a write off. Kinda sad seeing the Air France tail surrounded in smoke. A was beautiful plane at the end of its life. It's last flight. Imagine being the passengers waiting for it at the gate for the flight back to Paris... *gulp*... At least though it can be replaced; we can't say that for the passengers. They however all survived :)

A New Planet is Found

Hey, a once in a lifetime thing has occured here in the early 21st century. It seems astronomers have discovered a 10th planet in out solar system. It orbit is way out beyond Pluto and is apparently half as big as Pluto, the last planet to be discovered back in 1930.

This is not something that happens very often and it gives us living souls the right to put a name to it the rest of mankind will use from here on in. Kinda neat eh? (Canadianism coming through eh...) So what will we name this sucker? Right now it's named Sedna (An Inuit Goddess of the Ocean) or 2003 VB12 but it will likely get an official name sometime soon. I hope nothing too controversial (wish us all good luck on that point)... nothing specificially English or oriented to one language or culture on this planet. Nothing political (Liberty.. Democracy..) or religious (Jesus.. Christ..) or anything that will start some sort of global debate which ultimately will create even more ill will towards Americans who were the founders of the planet. The planetary scientist Californian Michael Brown in fact was the fellow who actually made the discovery.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3511678.stm

It will come down to the International Astronomical Union to make a decision. Probably going in line with the current names based on Roman Gods;

Aesculapius God of Health and Medicine
Apollo God of Sun, Truth, Music, Healing
Aquilo North Wind
Aurora, Mater Matuta Goddess of the Dawn
Auster South Wind
Bacchus, Liber God of the Vine, Wine, Merriment
Bellona Lesser Goddess of War
Ceres Goddess of the Corn, Earth, Harvest
Cupid, Amor God of Love
Diana Goddess of Wild Things, Hunter-in-Chief
Discordia Goddess of Discord
Eurus East Wind
Fauna, Bono Dea Goddess of Fields, "Good Goddess"
Favonius West Wind
Flora Goddess of Flowers
Fortuna Goddess of Fortune
Inuus,Faunus God of Flocks, Sheep
Janus od of good beginnings
Juno Protector of Marriage
Jupiter, Jove Lord of the Sky, Gods, and Thunder,
Juturna Goddess of Springs [Water]
Juventus God of Youth
Libitina Goddess of the Underworld
Lucifer Light-bearer, Star that brings in the day
Lucina Goddess of Childbirth
Luna Goddess of the Moon
Mars God of War
Mercury God of Commerce and Market, Zeus' Messenger
Minerva Goddess of the City, Education/Science, and War
Neptune Ruler of the Sea
Pales Strengthener of Cattle
Persipina, Libera Goddess of Spring [Season], Underworld through Hades
Pluto God of the Underworld and Precious Metals
Pomona & Vertumnus Powers Protecting Orchards and Gardens
Priapus God of Fertility
Saturn Protector of the Sowers and the Seed
Sol God of the Sun
Somnus God of Sleep
Suadela Goddess of Persuasion
Sylvanus Helper of Plowmen and Woodcutters
Terminus Guardian of Boundaries
Trivia Goddess of the Crossways, the Dark Side of the Moon, and Magic
Venus Goddess of Love and Beauty
Vesta Goddess of the Hearth and Home; also Fertility(Greek only)
Victoria Goddess of Victory
Voluptas Goddess of Pleasure
Vulcan, Mulciber God of the Forge and Fire, Workman to the immortals

Lol.. Vulcan is available... not sure which one I'd pick. I actually thought the name Polo after Marco Polo might be good. Someone on CNN thought Apollo but that is a Greek God.. might still be a good one. Regardless of the God the names Aquilo, Ceres, Pales, Sol, Vesta & yes Vulcan sound like planetary names. Libitina might have an edge with an American since it sounds a bit like Libertina or Liberty.

It is kinda important. Look what happened when they namd "America" for the two continents back in the 16th century after their so called discovery. Although Columbus wasn't the first man to land here (Scandinavian Vikings I believe takes that honor after having reached Labrador back in the 1200s) the Spaniards still went with the name of a wife of one of their Kings if I am not incorrect. Americas became the name for North and South America and not Columbus as was originally strived for. Imagine living in North Columbia... and you'd be a Columbian and not an American... the USA would be USC... well not all that bad I guess... but let's hope we get this right this time.

I think I like Aquilo best. It rolls off the tongue, has no really strong relevant meaning, won't insult anyone or be controversial, sounds like a planet (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Nepture, Uranus, Pluto & Aquilo... and would be universally easy to pronounce.

Anyone out there with any other suggestions or perhaps choices from what I mentioned above?