Snow on Mars
A Canadian laser has found snow in clouds on Mars. It seems appropriate that we would be the ones to make such a discovery, since we’re so knowledgeable about that particular weather condition.
Read all about it here.
Kids help clean up
I was out on a couple of photo assignments this weekend and took a few shots I’m proud of. These aren’t going to be published in the paper, so I thought I’d share them here.
This is Hana … the three-year-old daughter of one of Arnprior’s town councillors. She was out helping the community during the annual shoreline cleanup initiative. According to her dad, she talks about helping the environment all the time.
Ethan found a salamander in the woods during the Scouts shoreline cleanup of Braeside Beach. He left the animal in the forest, but the group took several garbage bags full of trash out of the park.
Traffic in Beijing
The Olympics are over and Beijing’s streets are backed to being clogged just as bad as they were before. So, the government has decided to re-introduce measures to fix the problem for good.
Measures like: on designated days, certain cars will be banned from the roads; employers will be able to offer more flexible hours, so not all workers will start and end their days at the same time – thus reducing rush hour traffic; and 30 per cent of all government vehicles will be taken off the road permanently.
I think the last one is a huge step – officials are setting the example for a solution.
Sunday afternoon football
Sunday afternoons are my very favourite time of the week. I come home from church and crash on the living room couch. While I am no hardcore NFL fan, I absolutely love football season. It’s the perfect thing to have on through the afternoon, as I zone out, read or even fall asleep listening to the crowd cheer and announcers commentate. It’s enough to capture my attention – as I love the game and understand it – but not too intense that I’m glued to the television all day. It also brings back happy memories of watching football with my dad as he explained all the terms, rules, and the difference between the American and Canadian game. It’s my favourite sport to watch next to hockey.
Today I’m watching the New York Jets play the Arizona Cardinals. At the end of the first half, the Jets were winning 34 to 0, with the highest score they had ever gotten in a quarter. The Cardinals have scored two touchdowns in the second half already – good for them!
Like I said, I’m no hardcore fan and I don’t have one team that I cheer for, but each game is interesting in itself and a great way to relax for a few hours. Today I’m rooting for Arizona, because I think a comeback after the smashing they received in the first half would be awesome.
UPDATE:
Final score: 56-35 for the Jets
With Glowing Hearts
The Vancouver Olympic Committee unveiled the motto for the 2010 Winter Games yesterday: With Glowing Hearts.
I think it’s perfect. While being distinctly Canadian, as it is taken from our national anthem, it’s also something that all athletes can be inspired from.
“It says over and over again that there is no such thing as quitting in a Canadian, that we try hard,” said VANOC president John Furlong, who seemed to have a catch in his throat throughout his remarks. “It reminds us that Canadians dream big and have big hearts.”
Check, check
Though I am making progress on the 100-item to-do list I have for my life, there are still plenty of adventures I still need to have. I’ll be marking things off for years to come. Well, here’s a few I’ve accomplished recently …
47. Learn to enjoy cooking
Nope, I didn’t take classes. I discovered the barbecue. :P While it’s true that I love barbecuing anything and everything, I’ve also narrowed down some of my favourite things to eat and I’m working on those. I’m not very adventurous and the farthest thing from a gourmet chef, but at least I enjoy making my meals now. I also love baking – banana muffins, anyone?
91. Send a question to a Strong Bad email
This will mean nothing to those that have never visited this website. My email will probably never be answered, but I wanted to throw my query out there anyway. Below is one of my all-time favourites of the cartoons, just to give you an idea. Yes, it’s completely random.
93. Send a secret to PostSecret
Again, this only has significance for those who have experienced this. It’s a really neat project that Frank Warren started – people send in their secrets on a postcard, completely anonymously. He’s compiled four books of the notes already and tours around the States talking about his inspiration and purpose for PostSecret. Here’s an example:
By the way, season five of The Office premires tonight. Yay!
86. Go up in a hot air balloon
Okay, this hasn’t happened yet. But it will. October 17. I expect phenomenal things. Photos and video footage to follow. Stay tuned!
Once that one is crossed off, it will make eight down, only 92 left to go …
Drama at the debate
Last night I went to an all-candidates debate in my riding, Ottawa West-Nepean. I’ve been to similar discussions before, but always as media and never as a constituent. The candidates here are incumbent John Baird, a Conservative cabinet minister; Liberal David Pratt, a former MP and regional councillor; Marlene Rivier for the NDP; and Frances Coates is the Green candidate.
I’ll just say, straight out - the debate was entertaining and disturbing all at the same time. There were some very intelligent and relevant questions … like the war in Afghanistan, environmental initiatives, etc … and some crazy people that seem to pop up everywhere. The first hour included questions submitted to Nepean This Week, which hosted and moderated the debate. Then there was questions from the floor, where even the extreme, single-issue people had the chance to speak out. That’s democracy for you.
One person asked what the candidates hoped to accomplish with negative advertising, which I thought was interesting. In reality, attack ads do influence voting. But Rivier was right when she urged voters to stick to the issues and not be swayed by negative portrayals.
I was actually surprised at the lack of attacks in last night’s debate. Pratt was the only one who consistently berated Baird and his record in the riding, plus the party in general. It made the atmosphere quite tense, as the room was at least half-full of Conservative supporters who cheered at every other word Baird spoke. I guess Pratt deserved the heckling he got. The other candidates were fairly calm, not saying too much about their opposition but keeping to their platform. Well, except for Coates.
I think she supported – strike that, copied from – every candidate at least once during the debate. She would use almost the exact same wording as the previous speaker, making her sound very wishy-washy.
Like I said, it was entertaining. When the moderator ended the question period to allow the candidates to give closing remarks, one of the ladies in line grabbed the microphone anyway. I couldn’t tell what her issue was because everyone else was telling her sit down and shut up, but she was doing a lot of pointing in Baird’s direction. She obviously had concerns and questions, but she didn’t do a good job voicing them – she was yelling something about the lack of respect, while blatantly disregarding the rules of the debate and inconveniencing every single other person in the room. Marg, I feel for you! I wouldn’t have wanted to be in your shoes, trying to get that meeting back under control. I never thought I’d see a riot break out in the Nepean Sportsplex.
Darfur
Less than half the troops needed to settle the unrest in Darfur, Sudan, have been deployed. Leaders of the mission to the area wounded from genocide and prone to extreme violence say 26,000 soldiers are mandatory to control the situation. Yet countries that promised forces are hesitating.
Instead, U.S. presidential candidates are vowing to send more troops to Afghanistan and Iraq, while Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Canadians will withdraw completely from Afghanistan by 2011. Maybe they should consider sending soldiers to Darfur instead, where we’re not fighting the Taliban and al Qaeda, but Sudanese extremists bent on wiping out an entire people group.
In the middle east, America and Canada are fighting, yes, to rid the world of terrorists and threats to democracy, but also for our interests in oil. Africa’s Darfur might be even more messy than the desert of Iraq, but there troops are fighting for those who are completely helpless and deserve none of the treatment they are receiving.
People like Auriol Miller are my heroes – for being tireless in their mission to see peace and security in Darfur, no matter the cost to their own health and safety. We need more people with that commitment to justice and dedication to help others, without caring about foreign affairs protocol and personal interests.
‘I’m a PC’
Microsoft released their new ads recently, which I think are a hundred times better than the Jerry Seinfeld disasters. They actually make sense and send a message, even if that message is just, “We aren’t creative enough to come up with something better than copying Mac’s commercial ideas.”
Check out the new clip:
Cheryl