Thursday, November 09, 2006

Chinese Fat Cat


Not the first billionare in China but a real fat cat.
'Monster' Cat In China Weighs 33 Pounds


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One Child One Dog

In China where population control is in place it appears that they have now expanded the policy to include dogs. Doggone! China's canine crackdown First it was one child. Now authorities say Beijing families will be allowed only one dog.
In a one party state you get to have one kid and one dog.
But you can still have lots of cats.


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Canadian Tire Can Do It


Canadian Tire is providing Canadians with Solar and Wind Power generators, commercially available energy solutions.

Something that the Conservatives deny being able to provide Canadians. Maybe we should privatize the Environment Department and make Environment Minister Rona Ambrose a Canadian Tire employee in the Solar/Wind department.

What Canadian Tire provides commercially the New Conservative Government of Canada eliminated, that is subsidies to taxpayers to retrofit their homes to be more energy efficient.

Coming to a neighbourhood near you geo-thermal solutions. Unfortuantely only if you live in Manitoba though.

Product Name

AirX 400W Wind Generator

Product #11-1861-8

Delivers 400W of power at wind speeds of 45km/h

$799.99

Product Name

30-ft. Wind Turbine Tower Kit

Product #11-1864-2

Designed for use with 400 W wind turbine (11-1861)

$699.99

Product Name

Whisper 100 Wind Turbine

Product #11-1862-6

950W of power at 45km.hr winds

$2,999.99



Product Name

Eliminator 6.5 W Folding Solar Panel

Product #11-1856-2

The world's highest-efficiency thin-film solar panel

$129.99

Product Name

120W Solar Panel

Product #11-1888-6

Delivers 120W of power in peak sunlight

$999.99

Product Name

Eliminator Solar Panel, 30W

Product #11-1885-2

Ideal for charging battery banks in a Renewable Energy System to power tools, appliances and equipment

$349.99

Product Name

Eliminator Solar Panel, 5.5W

Product #11-1884-4

Ideal for trickle charging any vehicle battery to ensure easy-startup

$89.99

Product Name

Eliminator Solar Panels, 2.2W

Product #11-1883-6

Ideal for maintaining vehicle batteries to ensure easy-startup;

$39.99

Product Name

Eliminator Solar Panel, 15 Watt

Product #11-1882-8

Eliminator Solar power panels are an easy-to-use, guaranteed solution to an ever-growing need for alternate power sources or backup power

$169.99

Product Name

Eliminator Solar Panels, 1.8 Watt

Product #11-1880-2

Eliminator Solar power panels are an easy-to-use, guaranteed solution to an ever-growing need for alternate power sources or backup power

$29.99

Product Name

12 Watt Eliminator Folding Solar Panel

Product #11-1857-0

Delivers up to 12 W, 800 mA of solar power

$229.99

Product Name

80W Solar Panel

Product #11-1830-2

Delivers 80W of power in sunlight - one of the highest powered solar panels on the market

$699.99


See:

Ambrose

Environment



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Three Blind Mice

Stem cells let blind mice see again Now if only they could make right wingers see the truth. Embryonic stem cells are neccasary for research.

Contrary to the right wing assertion that adult stem cells can be used instead.
Quotes on the Missouri stem cell measure

They are not as effective as embryonic stem cells.

Stem Cells Could Help Restore Vision

"But there's a catch," he adds. "If this scenario were to be applied to humans, one would have to obtain newly generated [photoreceptor] rods from the state of development comparable to postnatal days 3-7 in the mouse [as in the study].

"This is likely to be in the second trimester [in humans] and is clearly not feasible," writes Reh. Harvesting such cells would mean taking them from a fetus or aborted fetus three to six months into a pregnancy.

However, recent research suggests it might be possible to generate such cells from human embryonic stem cell lines under the right conditions.


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Nothing To Fear Here


Amerika is threatening to call for sanctions against the democratically elected government in Nicaragua.

Sandinista comeback alarms US

Ah freedom and democracy, that of course does not mean what you think it does when it comes from the White House. They mean freedom and democracy to accept American Imperialism. Failure to do that makes you enemies of the State.

However perhaps Americans have more in common with Ortega than they think. After all he is anti-abortion just like them.

Former supporters disillusioned by his deals with a corrupt former president, Arnoldo Alemán, and his support for a total abortion ban, backed the dissident Sandinista candidate, Edmundo Jarquin.

Opportunism is spelled O R T E G A.

The Guardian UK writes:

An editing error in the report below introduced a value judgment on the Nicaraguan presidential election with the phrase, "From a social progressive, he [Daniel Ortega] has changed into an ego-driven opportunist ..." when the original article made it clear that this was the opinion of disillusioned Sandinistas.

It was no mistake he is an opportunist.

A change of policy

· No longer advocates central planning but wants to promote "fair markets" and may renegotiate US trade agreement. Hints that landless peasants ought to receive own plots.

· Preaches reconciliation and appointed Jamie Morales, former Contra spokesman, as running mate. Paid Morales compensation for seizing his home in 1980s. Ortega still lives in it.

· Apologised to Mesqitos, a rural community whose homes were torched by Sandinistas for cooperating with Contra rebels.

· Still chummy with Cuba's Fidel Castro, and also Venezuela's Hugo Chávez, but pledges to seek good relations with all countries, including the US.

· Has abandoned secularism and embraced Catholic church.



Ortega tries to ease worries about reign

Ortega poised to return in Nicaragua

At stake is millions of dollars in potential investment, much of it from foreign companies drawn to Nicaragua by the country's cheap labour, low crime rates and decision to join the new Central American Free Trade Agreement. Many are waiting to see if Mr Ortega wins and stays true to promises to continue free-trade policies.

See:

Deja Vu

abortion


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Leaders of Tomorrow

You know how older folks always talk about you't as the future and leaders of tomorow. Well in Alberta you can be sure that these tiny tinpot tories to be, whom PC Leadership hopeful Jim Dinning wooed last year, are living up to being the future leaders of business and politics in Canada. Its good to see that wildlife is not endangered in Canda's National Parks.

RCMP breaks up Lake Louise party

Approximately 30 students from the U of A along with teams from the universities of Lethbridge, Calgary, British Columbia, Northern British Columbia and Regina were attending the 16th annual Western Business Games (WBG), which was hosted by Paradigm Promotion Ltd, a private company. The event wasn’t officially sanctioned by any of the universities and none of the teams—which were composed primarily of business students—were sponsored or supported by their universities. The U of A stopped funding WBG teams in 2001.

Marketed as a team-building session, and “the best networking opportunities available for students” in the delegate package, many of the events and activities scheduled for the weekend involved drinking, including one dubbed “The Beer Pond.”

“In terms of defending the conference itself, I can’t condone what happened because really there’s no academic content at all and it shouldn’t have any association with the school and we’ve made that clear right from the start,” explained James Matsuba, a co-organizer of the U of A team.

According to a press release issued by the RCMP, they along with other federal and provincial agencies were called out to the hotel numerous times over weekend due to WBG activities. Upon arrival, officers were confronted at times by “students walking around the hotel with open liquor and portable stereos; in underwear and G-strings.”


Of course who can blame them when you have tourist packages like this;
Ski Naked in Lake Louise


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Piracy on the High Seas


Capitalism rules the high seas, eye matey tis true....

Study: World's Fish Population to Collapse in 50 Years; 'The Last Century of Wild Seafood'

Because of this....

Overfishing, technology making fish species increasingly rare in Mediterranean


Many small fishing companies are waging a desperate battle against large, sometimes multinational ones, which see the sea only as a source of money.

The number of fishermen has halved to about 50 000 since 1990 in Spain, which has the largest fishing fleet in the European Union (EU).

At the same time, improved technology has increased the size of catches, leading to an unscrupulous pillage of the sea's resources.

Many Spanish and French fishing companies have used EU subsidies to overhaul their fleets, installing sonar systems and new engines.

Fishing boats may have engines four times as powerful as the law allows them to have in the Mediterranean, according to El Pais.

They also use banned gear such as drift nets, which haul up vast quantities of unwanted fish and other marine life, and target juvenile fish despite size restrictions.

Large companies even use radar and spotter planes to track down schools of bluefin tuna, the consumption of which has been fuelled by the growth of the global sushi market.

Tuna are fattened in special ranches around the Mediterranean for the Japanese market, and taken away by Asian ships which pick up the cargo off shore without informing the authorities, according to media reports.

About 50 000 tons of bluefin tuna are captured annually in the Mediterranean and Atlantic, more than three times as much as what experts consider a sustainable amount.


And in Canada the Government continues to be in a state of denial of the fact that overfishing is the result of the industrialization of the sea; floating processing plants with dragnets.

Suddenly the Newfie Joke that is our Fisheries Minister realizes that climate change is affecting the oceans. That of course is the cause. Just like seals were the cause of the cod depletion. Not overfishing or new dragger fleets. Oh no. Its climate change. Something that concerns the Tories. Not.

Of course the fishing stalks will be depleted just about the same time the Tories hot air act comes into effect in 2050.

Fisheries Minister accepts link between climate, declining stocks

Federal Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn reluctantly acknowledged yesterday that climate change could be hastening the depletion of fish off the coast of Newfoundland.

Mr. Hearn said his department was taking seriously a study published yesterday in the journal Science that predicts a collapse of the global seafood industry by midcentury if current fishing trends continue unabated.

But the minister also defended his decision not to sanction a United Nations moratorium on bottom trawling, a fishing technique akin to clear-cutting trees on land and sharply criticized by scientists and nature conservationists.

"It's not just a matter of overfishing or the use of certain technologies," Mr. Hearn told reporters in the foyer of the House of Commons.



And let us not forget that Hearn says Canada's allies on this issue are Spain, Norway, Iceland, and the other illegal mass fishing violators of the high seas. We are in fine company. Historically of course the Maritimes and its politics has been a port for privateers, pirates and the European fishing fleet.

See:

Fishing

Pirates



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Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Hockey Fans



Gee who knew the BQ were hockey fans. Bloc MPs boo Don Cherry in House of Commons

I guess we can now call the BQ the Boo-Q.

What has happened to decorum in the house, why the horror of it. Don Cherry booed.

Good thing he has a thick skin and a big fat CBC taxpayer funded salary.

Of course I am surprized more MP's did't boo him considering the loud clothes he wears. Actually he was dressed conservatively as you can see.

And he wasn't just 'dressed' conservatively. Cherry had nice things to say about the Harper, so look for even more polling numbers to drop in Quebec for the Conservatives.

And at least Don has the Cheeries to go where he might get booed unlike our PM.
Critics slam Harper's EU summit cancellation




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Pelosi Gets Her Wish

Despite these headlines of denial;

Rumsfeld Has No Plans to Step Down, Despite Democrat Gains ...
FOX News - 1 hour ago
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, a key target of Iraq war critics, gave no indication Wednesday that he planned to step down in the wake of ...
Democrats' win alone won't drive Rumsfeld out Washington Post
Rumsfeld not the only one to blame Asia Times Online
First, out with RumsfeldInternational Herald Tribune


It appears that Nancy Pelosi has gotten her wish;Bush Should Replace Rumsfeld for Starters, Pelosi Says

Report: Rumsfeld stepping down
WIS, SC - 16 minutes ago
(Washington-AP) November 8, 2006 - Republican officials say Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is stepping down, according to the Associated Press. ...
GOP Says Rumsfeld Is Stepping Down Newsday




See:

Purple Wave USA

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Deja Vu

It's fitting that the day that marked the end of Reagan Republicanism was the day that this happened; Daniel Ortega: Return of the Sandinista



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