Wolves on the Wing

1. If you told me my team would come within a seventh game, sudden death overtime of eliminating the defending champs and going to the Stanley Cup final I'd have called you unforgivably optimistic. Well done on your season, Senators. Well done. :-) And good on you Craig Anderson on your upcoming Bill Masterson Trophy win. If you don't win then call the cops and report the robbery. :-)

2. Are there ANY members of Donald Trump's administration that aren't being investigated by the FBI or skewered by SNL? If I didn't know better I'd think they weren't very good at running the USA. At the risk of acronym overload this whole situation is a SNAFU of epic proportions that is becoming more FUBAR'd by the minute.

Ah for the good old days when a president giving the Russians classified intel from the Israeli's would cause the entire Republican party and its base to have a collective rage aneurysm. I miss you, Obama! :-)

3. The Ontario election is coming up and I'm voting NDP this time. I voted for Kathleen Wynne and the Liberals last time which wasn't a mistake per se in that it helped keep the Conservatives from power but....well, lets just say I held my nose, was proven correct in my concerns, and will vote for the NDP this time as a result. Assuming of course I don't get robo calls from the Conservatives misdirecting me to the wrong polling station so I don't vote. Such mischevious scamps, Conservatives. :-)

And for anyone who wants to ask "Why not just try the Conservatives" I'll just direct you to this article from Maclean's by Scott Gilmore, a Conservative Party of Canada member entitled "Confessions of a Self-Loathing Tory" http://www.macleans.ca/politics/ottawa/confessions-of-a-self-loathing-tory/ that pretty accurately explains why I have given up on ever voting for the Conservatives, at least in their current configuration. It's a good read and articulates the big problems the Right Wing in North America has that prevent it from being palatable to moderate centrist swing voters like me.

4. I read a story about a postal worker who refused to give a comatose woman CPR and considering their reason was "I believed she had fentanyl on her shirt" I don't blame them one bit. After reading about the horror stories, the stats for abuse in my area, and the lethality of fentanyl if I found someone passed out I honestly wouldn't touch them either. I may be for legalization of drugs with proper regulation but when the substance in question is so lethal it can kill people through incidental skin contact then that's well outside the spirit of that concept.

I wish I had an answer but that is one problem that is going to get much worse before it gets better.

5. I wish I had something interesting about me to say but I never do. That's probably never going to change.

I've said it before that the most dangerous animal outside of honeybees in Canada are moose and this video shows why. Take a look at where the animal's centre of mass is compared to the hood of the car. That could have been up to 1500 lbs EACH coming through his wind shield at speed and its not unknown for all that meat to end up in the BACK seat of the car.

Yeah. That's scary.

And as for his driving my hat is off to him. If he'd slammed the brakes instead of letting off when he started to slide he'd never have been able to thread the needle and in all probability would have hit at least one of them.

I really don't. What do I say to 60,000 of my fellow citizens who have to flee their city? I hope its still there when you get back?

Fort McMurray people, stay safe. Its all you can do now.

School should be a place of learning, not bloodshed. I'm sorry that wasn't the case today. Stay strong.

I just clicked on CNN only to be greeted with the headline that the people of Paris are in the midst of a massive terror attack. As stupidly trite as this will sound as someone who was in Mumbai during the November 2008 attacks I understand some of what the people of France must be feeling during these uncertain hours.

All I have to say is that I definitely stand with France in these dark hours. Stay strong and stay safe.

Vive le France.

So according to CNN the Centre for Disease Control has identified the first case of Ebola in the United States. It goes without saying that this is not a positive development and I truly hope that they can nip this in the bud very quickly. The world may be overpopulated and all but I'd still prefer that we not have a global pandemic, thank you very much.

That being said I see a really nice silver lining here, namely that maybe now when something like this starts resources can be more fully and better utilized to deal with this. I realize that generally the developed world doesn't care much about a disease in Africa killing Africans, but in this age of quick global travel it doesn't just stay in Africa very long. Here's hoping we learn from this wakeup call, and that its not more costly than it already has been.

Five university students killed at a house party in Calgary. Four people stabbed in a Regina mall.

What the hell?  This is just nauseating. My condolences to the victims and their families.

I really hope this isn't just part of a chain of copycats. :(

100,000 people in Calgary, Alberta, have been told to gather their items and leave immediately.  I don't know if this is a record for the most people ordered to evacuate in Canada but if it isn't, I'm not sure I'd want to know what topped it.

This pretty much looks like a 100 year flood, and if so, it could be pretty bad.

Here's some video of a house breaking on a bridge:



Oh, and just to clarify I'm in Ontario, so I'm a long way from this disaster.

Those are the words I'd be screaming if I was in this Russian's car. Apparently this was a small meteor that caused this much damage. Reports on casualties are varying from 150 to 500 injured but thankfully so far I haven't read of any deaths.

Here's some video of this. All I can say is I'm so glad this wasn't Tunguska II. If it had of been the effect would have been equivalent to a nuclear explosion instead of just breaking windows, setting of car alarms, and collapsing building roofs.





For more information, pics, video and more informed commentary than I can provide check out this link. I think he does a pretty good job breaking the event down, especially pointing out that this meteor probably isn't part of the close approach later today.
http://mobile.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/02/15/breaking_huge_meteor_explodes_over_russia.html

So Happy Canada Day everyone! Yes it was that day of days, where everyone north of the border parties like its 1867!  :-)

All in all it was pretty quiet. I got down to the waterfront to watch the fireworks just as the last band, a Beatles tribute group, was taking the stage. I only watched a few of their numbers but the band was tight and the singing good, which is what you want from any band.

I did get a few pictures of the band mainly to warmup the camera before I scouted locations to videotape the fireworks, which is when I nearly had a heart attack after a young girl decided to skip over the barrier and try to get closer to the water. Honestly, for a few seconds I was planning what to strip off and in what order, since if she fell in she'd have been in deep water, with a strong current, and no way out for the next hundred meters downstream. Sure, I had a plan to get her out on my own but considering how strong a panicky person can be and the issues I've had with my legs I'm not really that eager to jump in and grab anyone again if I can at all avoid it.

Fireworks wise I managed to get a nice videotape of them, which I'll make a copy of for my sister. She should be happy with them, as should the nephews.

Well, that's all folks. Have a great Canada Day, and for those south of the border I hope you have an epically awesome Fourth of July.