Neil
Voyager
Posts: 7,171
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Post by Neil on Aug 19, 2006 22:47:53 GMT -8
An article in the Globe and Mail the other day cited a study from an American university which showed that cantankerous people who like to argue about facts and things tend to retain their intellectual capabilities to an older age than people who are more laid back.
I take that to mean that when we all reach our dotage, the peaceful, agreeable types will all be sitting there, smiling and drooling on themselves, while I'll still be winning arguments about the land area of Argentina.
I'm not sure that that will do me any earthly bit of good, but I find it comforting somehow.
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Post by Low Light Mike on Aug 20, 2006 7:38:39 GMT -8
This gives me hope for my golden years too.....
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Post by Retrovision on Aug 20, 2006 12:23:34 GMT -8
On a lighter note, seeing how dark the convo has gotten (please don't let me stop you, though, it's fun; just call me an existentialist), here's some new product from the mill...To be added to the list of possible used Northern Vessels to compensate for there not being 3 newbuilds:
The Virana has a similar stern-width as the Sonia, and any passenger-ammenity shortcomings are about equal to all shortcomings of the combination of the fact that we will end up having only 2 new-build northern vessels, not the promised 3, and the fact that one will be, most frankly and concisely put, "the Sonia," ...enough said One of her regular ports of call - Chemainus(as seen from the VIA Rail train 'The Malahat,' that runs between Downtown Victoria and Courtenay)
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Doug
Voyager
Lurking within...the car deck.
Posts: 2,213
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Post by Doug on Aug 20, 2006 20:51:18 GMT -8
What was a car carrier doing in Burrard Inlet? I thought they unload cars on Annacis Island...?
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Post by CN2972South on Aug 21, 2006 8:01:12 GMT -8
But listen, I came to this thread because I was expecting to find out why the sky is blue, and I'm still waiting.Everyone needs to take a break from arguing about cafeteria design on the Queen of Surrey for a little edumacation, once in a while. Why is the sky blue? Simple answer: it's a reflection of the oceans. Light hits the water and is reflected into the atmosphere. ;D There that should satisfy those reading this thread wondering why the sky is blue lol.
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Post by NMcKay on Aug 21, 2006 11:14:06 GMT -8
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Post by CN2972South on Aug 21, 2006 18:06:39 GMT -8
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Post by Curtis on Aug 22, 2006 9:35:07 GMT -8
This Topic is Now Useless.......................................NOT!!!
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Post by Mike C on Aug 27, 2006 21:11:19 GMT -8
THe only reason I'm on right now is because of a recently devoured bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, which has given me enough energy to establish this message.
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Post by Low Light Mike on Sept 2, 2006 15:58:36 GMT -8
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Post by Mike C on Sept 5, 2006 10:59:16 GMT -8
For the record, I now have MSN: mchl_coulson@yahoo.ca . Please PM me if you wish to become a contact.
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Post by Low Light Mike on Sept 17, 2006 12:14:45 GMT -8
I participated in my 4th "Great Lake Walk" event, at Cowichan Lake, yesterday. This is a 56-km ultra-marathon walking event, that attracts runners as well as walkers. I finished somewhere around 350 out of 500 participants, with a time of 11:19:40, or so (official results not yet posted on their website). It was the usual mix of hope, agony, elation, weariness, invincibility, humility, bravado, injury, happiness, dread. That's probably what I like about the event the most: the range of emotions and feelings for the day, which I suppose is normal for any sort of long endurance event. I met all sorts of interesting people along the way; many from Vancouver Island, but others from lower mainland too. Cowichan Lake is a beautiful lake in a mountain valley. The 2nd largest lake on Vancouver Island (or so the brochure says). At one time, there were maybe 5 sawmill towns around the lake, and now all the mills are closed. Funny though, there's still many many truckload of raw logs being taken from the valley every day......... Blister report: 2 big heel blisters (one of which broke, with 4 km to go......so I just continued on). Dr. Scholl's Moleskin did the job on protecting the other areas of my feet (although not the heels, apparantly). IBuprofen was my friend too, along the way. Right now, I am very aware of my shin muscles, calves, and hamstrings.......it's a challenge to stand up! Hydration was good with lots of Gatorade at each reststop, as well as using some Nuun tablets that replenished my sodium & electrolyte levels. www.nuun.com/ I was thinking that having an inland-ferry at Cowichan Lake would have been a good idea.......but walking around the lake seemed to be a "better way" to travel for the 500 of us who registered (and paid money) for the experience of the walk. No idea how many calories I burned yesterday, but I did realize this morning that right-now is probably my lowest body-fat-index of the year.
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Doug
Voyager
Lurking within...the car deck.
Posts: 2,213
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Post by Doug on Sept 17, 2006 19:52:42 GMT -8
Will that burn the fat you put on the four times we stopped at McDonald's on the Sunshine Coast trip?
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Post by Low Light Mike on Sept 17, 2006 20:17:46 GMT -8
Will that burn the fat you put on the four times we stopped at McDonald's on the Sunshine Coast trip? that'll burn only half of it !
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Neil
Voyager
Posts: 7,171
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Post by Neil on Sept 17, 2006 20:42:05 GMT -8
Congrats on your finishing that marathon, 'Nanaimo, that's a heckuva lot of kilometers, at any speed.
But obviously, if you're going to let these kids drag you into that many Rotten Ronny's on road trips, you're going to HAVE to keep up with the marathons, just to ward off the deep fried arteries. Teen agers are bad for your health.
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Doug
Voyager
Lurking within...the car deck.
Posts: 2,213
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Post by Doug on Sept 17, 2006 21:19:44 GMT -8
Will that burn the fat you put on the four times we stopped at McDonald's on the Sunshine Coast trip? that'll burn only half of it ! You're right. The human body does make very efficient use of its resources.
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Post by Low Light Mike on Sept 19, 2006 13:45:20 GMT -8
IRONY:
from George Carlin:
"Irony deals with opposites, it has nothing to do with coincidence. If two baseball players from the same home-town, on different teams, receive the same uniform number, it is not ironic. It is coincidence ... If a diabetic, on his way to buy insulin, is killed by a truck, he is a victim of an accident. If the truck was delivering sugar, he is the victim of an oddly poetic coincidence. But if the truck was delivering insulin, ah! Then he is the victim of irony".
-----------------------------------------------
Blackadder: Baldrick, have you no idea what irony is?
Baldrick: Yeah, it's like goldy & bronzy, only it's made of iron.
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Post by BrianWilliams on Sept 26, 2006 2:13:32 GMT -8
Oh yeah, OH YEAH!
Bob Fortune was an educator to folks young and old. His chalkboards (remember, there were several - that outlined our south coast, the west coast of BC and the larger Pacific coast of North America).
Fortune taught me well, when he diagrammed a Pacific winter series of high and low pressures.
The weather comes from the NW, but the effects are felt from the SE. Why? Let me show you, said Bob.
Bob Fortune, in a few chalk stokes, showed us why it was raining in Vancouver city, sunny in Delta, and blowing a howling gale in Victoria. And why Victoria's wind would turn to drizzle, while Vancouver would -- drizzle a bit longer.
The man was swift and accurate with his chalk. Fortune could draw a standard map of weather on the big board, then switch to a sea-level view on a blank slate.
"Vancouver Island" scribble-scribble "catches the brunt of today's Pacific storm" scribble-scribble "See how Nanaimo-Ladysmith-Qualicum are sheltered, but the temperatures will be lower because" scribble-scribble "the descending Pacific air gets colder as it drops" Expect frost at sea level on east Vancouver Island, while Vancouver will be warmer with rain"
Bob Fortune was not a scientist, but he was a superlative interpreter. I was 8 years old when I first learned from Bob Fortune on CBUT. And - as y'all see, I've not forgotten.
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Post by Low Light Mike on Sept 26, 2006 17:12:16 GMT -8
re Kilamanjaro:
I have considered that it's supposed to be a relatively easy "walk" all the way to the top. I've never done any international travel, so I've never really considered the possibility of doing that hike some day. I'm aware that there are local groups from BC who do it each year, as fundraisers for various causes.
I'll keep thinking about it, and who knows if someday I might be motivated to do it...
Re Everest: I like to consider conspiracy or contrarian theories, and so I want to believe that Mr. Mallory was actually the first person to summit Everest....but of course there is no proof. I just like the ideas of that.
While I'm thinking of adverturers, has anyone read the stories of the Ernest Shackleton expedition to the South Atlantic? Apparently, the story is used in some business-management courses, as an example of leadership.
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Post by Retrovision on Sept 27, 2006 10:05:52 GMT -8
I'd get there sooner rather than later if I were you... "Five years after warning that the famed ice fields on Tanzania 's Mount Kilimanjaro may melt, Ohio State University researchers have sadly found that their prediction is coming true."Check it out: www.physorg.com/news10862.html
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Post by Low Light Mike on Sept 30, 2006 18:36:53 GMT -8
Today's sky-blue topic: Is/Was Glen Clark a "klutz", as asserted somewhere on this board? (as we know, such assertions are ripe for debate and discussion, especially those reeking of rhetoric or hyperbole or some other fancy word). Who is/was he: Union guy, politician, cabinet minister, Premier of BC, Pattison employee. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glen_ClarkDefinition of "klutz": klutz is a person who is clumsy, foolish, inept, or accident-prone. The term is perhaps derived from the Yiddish ÷ìàÈõ klots ('wooden beam'), cognate with the German klotz, meaning a "block" or "lump". The term has largely permeated into the English language, even amongst speakers of English with no Yiddish or indeed Jewish heritage. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KlutzConsider: Glen Clark was premier for years 1995-1999. The member making this statement was likey the ages of 3-7 years old during Clark's Premier term. I call the question: Was/Is Glen Clark a "klutz"?
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Neil
Voyager
Posts: 7,171
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Post by Neil on Oct 7, 2006 23:00:21 GMT -8
For students of irony, an ugly example. An American TV crime drama recently featured a plotline that was a blatant ripoff of the killing of Tammy Homolka by Paul Bernardo, and his accomplice, Tammy's sister Karla. Note for note, the show retold the sordid real life account- the smooth sociopathic husband, the acquiescent blonde wife who relished his sadism, her 'present' to her husband of her sister, fatally drugged, for his entertainment. As the plot unfolded, the police found, as with the real case, videotapes of the horrors being committed, which sealed the case against the perpetrators. In the show, a female detective gives assurance that the videos, where you see the Karla character beginning to sensually caress her sister, will never be seen outside the courtroom; obviously, to protect the sensitivities of the family involved. The irony here, of course, is that it is entirely possible that, in real life, the parents of Tammy Homolka might have been sitting down to an evening of television, only to become gradually aware that the drama being played out in front of their eyes was the unspeakably dreadful death of their daughter at the hands of their other daughter and her husband, while the TV detective character earnestly assured the make believe family that their grief would not be displayed for public edification. In Canada, the Bernardo/Homolka madness was not regarded as a thing for public titillation, and the one movie produced died a deservedly quick death. American producers like Jerry Bruckheimer obviously have no such scruples when they have an hour of TV time to fill. Sorry for such a dark post, but this show really bothered me when I saw it, and I thought the ironic aspect of the detective character's assurance was about as grim as you can get. Now, back to our regular programming. Was Glen Clark a 'klutz'? Personally, I'd like a bit more input from a few more fourteen year old American kids before I make up my mind.
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Post by Low Light Mike on Oct 8, 2006 7:19:54 GMT -8
Re the Homolka case:
Sometime in the late 1990's, I made the mistake of buying one of those "true crime" paperback books, that gave a detailed account of a real life criminal....in this case, it was re Paul Bernardo and his wife. I think the book was written by someone who had seen the infamous videotapes, maybe as a legal insider? But the book was for sale at Coles Bookstore, so it must be ok, right (no!)
The details were horrible, and I realised that I probably shouldn't have purchased that book. I'm not sure if that book is still available for sale, or if it was "banned", or if it just went out of printing.
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Post by Retrovision on Oct 12, 2006 22:49:57 GMT -8
Again: Not to divert the convo, but...Looks like they are the ones who were cheated
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Post by BrianWilliams on Oct 16, 2006 20:47:32 GMT -8
Great photo, TsawwassenTerminal!
Re: the Holmolka tragedy ... during the trial, a friend's wife engaged me in heated debate. "Why?" she demanded, "can't we read all the pre-trial reports. Why can't we read about the all the evidence? They're printing it in the US papers, and some of it's on 'Hard Copy' and other TV shows?"
Pardon a little length in this ... the woman I quoted is a tabloid-news junkie, and my arguments had little traction with her.
I said -in milder terms- "It's none of your G*D business."
The families of the victims, and even of the accused, did not need to be terrorized by repeating the horrible details over and over. The Ontario judge, quite rightly, clamped a lid on publishing every sordid event.
Reporters, from CBC down to the most-prurient Canadian publishers appealed the ban and lost in court. They fulfilled their responsibility to try to ensure a free press, but the Charter right to a fair trial succeeded as the greater good.
Paul Bernardo had a fair trial. He and his defenders faced all the evidence in court, as would Karla Homolka, had she not copped a plea.
We did not try the case in the court of *shock-horror* TV shows, thank goodness. American tabloid reporters illegally reported some of the details, but their interest fizzled out quickly, mostly 'cause it wasn't a USA event.
Look for more of this when the Pickton trial finally gets underway soon. I expect, and will support, a ban on publishing detailed evidence in that trial - just as preliminary evidence has been suppressed for general consumption.
Clifford Olson, Paul Bernardo, Karla Homolka and Willie Pickton (if he's found guilty) are some of the most evil people we've ever known.
Our safety is not enhanced by knowing every twisted detail of their crimes. The charges against 'em, with the names of their victims, how they died, where, and when are enough to inform us.
Olson did everyone a favour in that controversial "bodies for money" deal in 1981. We saved months or even years more of evidence-gathering; and a multi-million dollar trial with excruciating pain for the childrens' families.
The two books on the Olson affair that are still in print focus -correctly- on his shabby past, his psychopathic personality, and the painstaking investigation that caught him.
Because the forensic evidence is sealed, the minute details of the torture he inflicted on 11 children is not available for gawkers to read.
PS: An old friend of ours was an RCMP investigator who followed Olson in the summer of 1981. She was at the scene when Olson was arrested in August. The take-down was unplanned, but two more girls were at risk, so the cops had to act.
Our police still didn't have enough direct evidence to convict him, but blowhard Olson gave up his stories for that small bribe. Thank goodness.
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