City Council Gets Its Cumupance

Gee I could have told ya this would happen.

13% sounds fine!
City employees want their pay hikes to match those taken by councillors
Thousands of city employees are expecting a pay hike similar to the 13% boost councillors gave themselves, says a union official.

And the cops are not too pleased with the City's current offer either.




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Tory and NDP Agree: Education Minister Useless

Alberta's Minister of Education, the Liberal turn-coat and opportunist, Eugene Zwozdesky had a bad day yesterday.

First off Tiny Tory Leadership contender Dave Hancock kicked off his leadership bid announcing that his sole platform was the education crisis in Alberta. He denounced Zwozdesky and the government for failing to fully fund public education.Alta Tory leadership hopeful blames education minister for short school funds Hancock can't take the high ground since he too was in cabinet, this is a case of the kettle calling the pot black.

Then a school roof collapsed in Calgary forcing Zwozdesky to rush to Calgary to hold an impromtue press conference saying all was right with the world. While CUPE held a press conference saying that schools in Calgary were unfit for human occupation.

Late yesterday afternoon public school unions in Edmonton held a rally at his office in the afternoon with opposition NDP MLA and former Edmonton Public School Board Trustee Ray Martin calling for his resignation.


Ironically Hancock is running against another former Education Minister; Lyle Oberg, who is also out for Ralph's job. And even the heir apparent in the Leadership Race Jim Dinning leaped unto the bash Zwozdesky bandwagon.

Our education funding crisis goes back over a decade leading to crumbling infrastructure, staff cuts and the need to close schools. Why should we trust any of these guys now.

If it walks like a lame duck, and quacks like a lame duck then it must be an Alberta Tory.


Also See:

Yes We Have No Bananas

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The End Of Workplace Drug Testing?

Here is a victory for privacy, and a condemnation of the unholy alliance between the Construction Industry in Alberta and its unions who collaborate on invading the personal privacy of workers with mandatory drug testing. And guess which company fired the worker involved, why none other than the notoriously corrupt Halliburton subsidurary; KBR.

Casual pot use a disability, Alberta judge finds Human rights legislation cited

EDMONTON - An Alberta judge has ruled that a construction company discriminated against a man when it fired him from an oilsands project after his pre-employment drug screening tested positive for marijuana.

Instead, Justice Sheilah Martin said the man -- a recreational user -- should have been treated the same way as someone with a drug addiction, which is considered a disability in a growing body of human rights case law across Canada.

It is the first time that Alberta's Court of Queen's Bench has addressed the issue of pre-employment drug testing under the province's human rights legislation.

And while the judgment is specific to one company's policy, some are calling it a significant decision.

The decision could place new legal limits on when workers can be tested for drugs.

"It is important for all workers," said Leanne Chahley, an Edmonton labour lawyer who regularly represents unions.

For one, she said, it means that a worker does not have to be disabled to challenge a policy as discriminatory. It also means that companies cannot use drug tests as a tool to automatically weed out potential employees who test positive, she said.

"No one wants to encourage impairment at work, but a drug test is an invasion of your privacy," Ms. Chahley said.

Judge Martin also said that the fact that KBR allowed Mr. Chiasson to work before receiving the results of the drug test called into question both the claim that such testing was essential and that he worked in a safety sensitive position.

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Nudity Upsets the Right

The Blogging Tories had their knickers in a knot this weekend, as usual, over the Gay Pride Parade in Toronto. Apparently they have this thing about being naked in public. Nude folks wandering around flaunting, well you know, what God gave em. In public, in their birthday suits. How dare they.

Wait a minute wasn't that the way Adam and Eve flaunted it until that pesky snake gave them the fruit of the Tree of Life. Funny those right wingers who love Adam and Eve ,and hate Adam and Steve, forget that bit about being naked in the eyes of God.

That same God that all those church paintings celebrate with naked saints, including gay, bi and lesbian ones.

Oh and speaking of heterosexist hypocrites these same cretins cheer young girls and women to show them their tits during Stanley Cup parties on Whyte Ave.

The hate they have for gays, lesbians, bi's and transexuals is only matched by their hatred of unions.

Also See:

Gay

Naked

Homosexuality

Same Sex Marriage

Queer

Sexuality

Gender

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Frank and Gordon Spy On You

Those cute Bell Canada CGI Beavers Frank and Gordon are now going to be spies for the Harper Government.

Bad enough these two artificial spokespersons replaced 10,000 Bell Workers.

Now that the Stanley Cup is over, and they have removed their face paint, the ugly truth is revealed.

Beware Bell internet and blackberry users, your surfing and email is about to be handed over to the State.

One of Canada's largest Internet service providers is warning its customers that Big Brother is lurking on-line, with the federal government expected to revive an Internet surveillance bill.If the legislation is reintroduced, it could allow police unfettered access to personal information without a warrant, experts warn. Big Brother watching you surf?

A tip o' the blog to Andrew Spicer at Bound By Gravity, which is back online, whew.

Andrew who helped found the Blogging Tories, but quit because of their partisan politicking, says this; "If the Conservatives are looking to lose my vote, this would certainly push me close to the breaking point. While my personal online activities are pretty tame - blogging, readings news sites, reading and writing email, and chatting on MSN - I still value my privacy." Right On!

Also see:

Political Imbalance

Frank and Gordon

I Spy

economy
jobs
Bell
BCE
CEP
beaver, Canada, Bell, Frank, Gordon,
Harper, internet, internet-spying, email, blackberry, Bell-Canada, Conservatives, privacy, net-security, Government, internet, ISP, security-state, police, ,

Fire Ants

A couple of stories have apperared in the press about the Fire Ant problem in the U.S. But it turns out that a pest is sometimes not such a pest.

Florida State researcher defends fire ants

A stinging defeat in war on fire ants
Brazilian insects are part of life in South — despite our protests, poisons

Despite the war on the fire ants farmers in the Southern U.S. are now regreting their absence as climate change has killed off many fire ants this year.

Some Texas farmers long for fire ants' return

Entomology professor Bart Drees had just wrapped up his standard lecture to cattlemen on how to get rid of the much-despised fire ant when a rancher approached him with a question.

"What I really want to know is, 'How do we bring 'em back?'"

A decade-long series of droughts haven't just wreaked havoc on Texas agriculture, they have also suppressed populations of the moisture-loving fire ants that have become a scourge to homeowners, landscapers, farmers and ranchers across the South. That might sound like a good thing, and, on balance, it is. But there is something to be said for the bug-chomping fire ant. It can help control other pests, including cattle-plaguing ticks, and the drought is helping to drive that home.

Opps

And as usual as alien species are added to the environment problems occur. The fire ant being a major bug predator it turns out to have a silver lining to their invasion of the Southern U.S. despite being a threat to humans.

It's a bug-eat-bug world
Invertebrate invasion threatens uneasy truce between man and insects

Tick Patrol
New York Times, United States - 26 Jun 2006
... the fire ant, emerged as the unlikely friend of ranchers in Texas, virtually eliminating the tick problem in some areas until the fire ants themselves were ...

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No Smoking At Home

As I warned you before.

Coming soon to a home near you, a ban on smoking.

Parental smoking a threat to kids' lungs, new study confirms

The findings are a "stark reminder" that legal efforts to reduce exposure to cigarette smoke in workplaces aren't protecting the group of people at greatest risk from passive smoking, young children, Drs. Mark D. Eisner of the University of California, San Francisco and Francesco Forastiere of the Rome E Health Authority in Italy write in an editorial accompanying the study.

"Children are primarily exposed to tobacco smoke in the home, where legal restrictions do not apply," they note.

And even the so called libertarian republican administration in the U.S. in now officially on the second hand smoke band wagon. Second Hand Smoke Identified by Surgeon General as Health Hazard

Simplistic moralistic reformers of the 19th Century viewed the social and public health ills as being caused by alcohol.

Today's simplistic moral reformers say the toxic environment of capitalism is caused by smoking.

That's because they can't get enough support to ban cars.

See: Smoking


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The Monument Builders

Ancient civilizations that we are discovering/recovering give credence to the Atlantis Mythos, that ancient humans were more 'civilized' than we thought.

Thus condradicting the 'scientistic' bias that we are advanced and earlier cultures are 'primitive'.

Which also discredits idiots like Erich Von Daniken who belive that primitive man was incapable of advanced momument building so he attributes it to space aliens.

Who is only out done in stupidity by the Creationist Cretins who believe the world was only created 4,400 years ago.

In fact the ancient celebrations of the Sun at solstice, continue with us today. It marks the passing of the year from Summer through Winter. All other markings of the calendar are then based on planting and harvesting times of agrianian cultures.

Monument builders reveal an agrarian based culture, one that meant peoples remained in the area rather than being nomadic hunter gatherers. The fact that across the world in distant locations but at the same time period, 2000-4000 years ago, pyramid and monument building was being done by diverse disconnected agrarian civilizations, shows that our social evolution is collective.

That it is historical materialist; that is the material basis of production affects our conciousness. Thus as peoples developed settled agrarian cultures they became monument and pyramid builders. In Asia, Asia Minor, Europe and the Americas.

The remnants of our past memories of this time period are reflected in the continuing celebration of our Fire Rituals of Summer and Winter.

A tip o' the blog to John Murney for this.

Stonehenge-Like Tomb Also Marks Solstice

June 22, 2006 — An ancient British tomb monument contemporary with the first phase of Stonehenge’s construction suggests one prehistoric culture built the two structures to mark the summer solstice, according to archaeologists.

The tomb is called Bryn Celli Ddu, which in Welsh translates to "the mound in a dark grove." It is located on the island of Anglesey off the northwest coast of Wales. New radiocarbon dating of postholes outside of the burial monument determined the mound is over 6,000 years old. Stonehenge dates to around 2800 B.C., but some historians think it could be much older.

According to research published in the current issue of British Archaeology and the National Museum Wales Book "The Tomb Builders in Wales: 4,000-3,000 B.C.," both Bryn Celli Ddu and Stonehenge are aligned with the summer solstice.

The heel stone at Stonehenge marks this event, while a passageway and quartz-rich stone located in the back of the burial monument lights up in a dramatic sun show.

In Brazil, a tropical Stonehenge is found

SÃO PAULO, Brazil — A grouping of granite blocks along a grassy Amazon hilltop may be the vestiges of a centuries-old astronomical observatory — a find archaeologists say indicates early rainforest inhabitants were more sophisticated than previously believed.

The 127 blocks, some as high as 9 feet tall, are spaced at regular intervals around the hill, like a crown 100 feet in diameter.

On the shortest day of the year — Dec. 21 — the shadow of one of the blocks disappears when the sun is directly above it.

"It is this block's alignment with the winter solstice that leads us to believe the site was once an astronomical observatory," said Mariana Petry Cabral, an archaeologist at the Amapá State Scientific and Technical Research Institute. "We may be also looking at the remnants of a sophisticated culture."

Anthropologists have long known that local indigenous populations were acute observers of the stars and sun. But the discovery of a physical structure that appears to incorporate this knowledge suggests pre-Colombian Indians in the Amazon rainforest may have been more sophisticated than previously suspected.

"Transforming this kind of knowledge into a monument; the transformation of something ephemeral into something concrete, could indicate the existence of a larger population and of a more complex social organization," Cabral said.

Cabral has been studying the site, near the village of Calçoene, just north of the equator in Amapá state in far northern Brazil, since last year. She believes it was once inhabited by the ancestors of the Palikur Indians, and while the blocks have not been submitted to carbon dating, she says pottery shards near the site indicate they are pre-Columbian and maybe older — as much as 2,000 years old.

Last month, archaeologists working on a hillside north of Lima, Peru, announced the discovery of the oldest astronomical observatory in the Western Hemisphere — giant stone carvings, apparently 4,200 years old, that align with sunrise and sunset on Dec. 21

The Boyne Valley

The Boyne Valley contains the largest and most decorated megalithic sites in all of Ireland and has been described as "the largest and most important expression of prehistoric megalithic art in Europe."

The large megalithic sites were built over 5,000 years ago between 3800 and 3200 B.C., built before both Stonehenge in England and the great pyramids in Egypt. Within a three mile radius in the Boyne Valley are more than 30 prehistoric monuments, including the great passage tombs and their satellite structures, standing stones, barrows and other enclosures.

Neolithic communities built these sites over earlier sacred spots and it is suspected that they were used for a combination of purposes, including use as burial tombs, sacred temples and astronomical observatories.

Newgrange

NEWGRANGE: The most famous prehistoric monument in Ireland, Newgrange, a passage tomb, was built around 3200 B.C. The most interesting feature—a "light" box over the entrance to the chamber designed to capture sunlight to illuminate the chamber on the winter solstice. (Tourism Ireland)

The most famous of all Irish prehistoric monuments, Newgrange was built on a one-acre site around 3200 B.C. and draws more than 200,000 visitors each year. It is one of only three United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Sites in Ireland. It is known as a passage tomb, which is defined as a grave set in a mound of earth or stone with a passage leading to a central chamber. Passage tombs are usually found in groups and Newgrange is no exception, as it is surrounded by 40 other such sites.

The chamber inside the mound measures 21.5 feet by 17 feet and has three separate recesses (chambers) off the main chamber. The most amazing and well-known feature of Newgrange is the presence of a roof or light box over the entrance to the chamber. The roof box was specifically designed to capture the light from the sun and illuminate the chamber on the winter solstice (Dec. 21). When the sun rises over Newgrange on this day, its rays enter the roof box and penetrate 65.62 feet into the ground to illuminate the entire chamber for 17 minutes, from 8:58 a.m. to 9:15 a.m.

During the following three days, some sunlight enters the chamber, but not as much as on Dec. 21. The roof box is engraved with a series of eight lozenges that may represent the eight pagan festivals that were held each year. This box was designed so precisely with the rising of the winter solstice sun, that it has shown without doubt that these people had an extensive knowledge of astronomy.

Meanwhile: Midsummer magic, sun and fire

Sun worship is alive and well all over Europe, even in our century. I don't mean the summer invasion of beaches where bodies bake to a shade of toast. Or even the ancient Druidic rites this week in places like Stonehenge, as the midsummer sun astonishes by rising in perfect alignment with the huge stone circle.

I have in mind a custom widely celebrated from Scandinavia to southern Spain, from Russia to Ireland, and even in China. In this midsummer week, pagans, Christians and unbelievers alike will gather for fire ceremonies that have their origins in rites associated with the sun.

Communities and families will light bonfires and dance around them, young lovers leap over the flames together or toss flowers across the fire, flaming brands will be carried around the fields.

The fire ceremony itself probably goes back to the beginnings of human history. But the Catholic Church absorbed the old pagan celebration into its own calendar by setting the feast day of St. John the Baptist on June 24. The symbolism was deliberate: just as, in the pagan and Celtic religions, the summer king gives way at midsummer to the winter king, similarly John the Baptist gives way to Jesus Christ, who will be born around the winter solstice.

Ancient nature beliefs say that such turning points in the year open doors between worlds. The "standing still" of the sun was said to release much magic, and the barriers between nature spirits and humans to briefly fall. St. John's Eve, then, is meant to be a time of special power for gathering healing herbs, or drawing a protective ring of fire around crops and cattle.


Also See:

Here Comes The Sun

Dialectical Anthropology-A.P. Alexeev

Another Prehistoric Woman

Ecology=Equality

Holy Smoke

For a Ruthless Criticism of Everything Existing

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Canadian Blog Exchange Kaput?

Clicked on over to Andrews THE CANADIAN BLOG EXCHANGE and got this message...

Bandwidth Limit Exceeded

The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to the site owner reaching his/her bandwidth limit. Please try again later.

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Apache/1.3.36 Server at canconv.boundbygravity.com Port 80

Which means Andrews blog; Bound by Gravity is also offline.

Temporarily I hope.

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Killer Instinct

This is too stupid for words. Bruno the Bruin who wandered through out Germany, the first wild bear in the country since the 19th century, is hunted and killed. Dumb Bavarians. If they wanted to go Bear hunting they should have come to Alberta.

"That is the stupidest of all solutions," Hubert Weinzierl, president of the German Environmental Protection Association, told reporters. "In other countries, humans and bears coexist in relative harmony. Only in Germany would he be liquidated."

But of course this most wanted of criminals really irritated the Bavarian State officials, so he had to die. Bruno Taunts his Pursuers: Wanted Bear Visits Bavarian Police Station

Of course now that he is dead the Bavarian State says it will welcome bears in the future. Nein danke.

German officials said they weren't opposed to bears in principle, only misbehaving ones. "If a normal bear finds its way into Bavaria, it is cordially welcome," Bernhard said.

Normal Bears? What the hell is a normal bear? Winnie the Pooh?

And poor Bruno will end up..., stuffed and offered to Munich's "Mensch und Natur" ("Humans and the Natural Environment") museum where he will go on display alongside the last bear to be shot in Bavaria, 170 years ago.

Natural Justice would demand that when his killer dies he too is stuffed and mounted alongside Bruno, as the idiot who killed the bear.

See: Bears

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