Entries Tagged as ''

G20 Madness

Right now in Toronto, Ontario the G20 summit is going on. The G20 is, if you haven’t been paying attention:

A group of finance ministers and central bank governors from 20 economies: 19 countries plus the European Union, a forum for cooperation and consultation on matters pertaining to the international financial system. It studies, reviews, and promotes discussion (among key industrial and emerging market countries) of policy issues pertaining to the promotion of international financial stability, and seeks to address issues that go beyond the responsibilities of any one organization.


In the week leading up to the event, much has been made of Toronto’s preparation for the out-of-town dignitaries and protesters expected. A massive fence with concrete barricades was placed. Trash cans were removed, as were some outdoor sculptures. Police and security were brought in by the thousands from outside the city and province. The pre-event price tag was around 1 billion dollars, an amount many found staggering and excessive.

I admit, I was one of those people. 1 billion dollars is a huge sum by any account, and even more so when you take into consideration it’s for a 3-day event. I agree that heads of state and other important dignitaries should be protected, but I thought the security measures were extreme; that the dignitaries were so far removed and protected from the general public it felt almost insulting. God forbid they come close to the common man. I see know that line of thinking was wrong, and they should stay away from the common man.

Today, on the first official day of the summit, there have been multiple protests and riots. Public and private property has been vandalized, and there has most likely been some looting. As of this writing, two police cars have been stolen and four have been set on fire. It’s unknown if the stolen cars were part of the arson. Tear gas and rubber bullets have been used to disperse crowds. 74 people have been arrested, a number that seems small.

Toronto is a wonderful city. It’s clean and beautiful, and it’s people are friendly. I have many friends and family that live in and around the city, and they are just as shocked at the destruction as I am.  My husband commented that it couldn’t possibly be Torontonians causing this damage and chaos. I’d like to agree with him, but I’m not as convinced. Comments I’ve seen today from other Canadians have expressed similar sentiments; freedom of expression and speaking your mind is a good thing. Protesting against injustices is a good thing. Random and wanton destruction only serves to hurt everyone involved.

I can only witness these events from media reports, but I’m sickened and saddened all the same.  This so-called police state is a result of cause and effect. As long as these vandals- they ceased being called the more respectable protester, keep destroying and wreaking havoc on Toronto, then I fully support any means Toronto Police Services use to protect and serve the people of Toronto not acting like they have lost all sense of reason and order.

Update: 75 people have now been arrested. I also wanted to add that during the week, much was said from the Toronto and Ontario governments about how the G20 would be good for Toronto. Not only would there be the media attention from the event, but added revenue to the city from the extra spending over the weekend and long-term benefits from tourism.

It seems the vandals are too busy breaking things to spend money and the visitors and citizens of Toronto are staying out of the core to avoid everything that’s been mentioned above. The above photos certainly aren’t painting the city in a positive light. At least they got the media attention right, but I’m sure by now they’re wishing the summit never came to Toronto.

Tags: Canadian Life by Nightbird
No Comments »

Paddy!

Paddy is our latest addition to our family.  Paddy is a Turquoise Green Cheek Conure.  He was born on March 17th 2010.

Paddy

Paddy

Paddy is an amazing bird, in that he is very well socialized, and enjoys our company.  He likes to cuddle and play.

He is DNA Tested, and confirmed to be male.  Typical of Green Cheek conures, he is not very loud.  Infact I would say he is about on par to the parakeets for sound volume, but the parakeets are actually more vocal then he is.  Paddy will say hello, but it is hard to distinguish.  He has a very raspy voice.

He is trained well, to step up and come to his master when called.  He will also poop on command which is handy.  If I feel he is about ready to poop, I hold him over the trash can and say ‘poop’ and he poops.  He is an experienced flyer, and can even hover for short periods of time like a humming bird.

I took him to the vet today, and she said that the Turquoise breed is very rare which is pretty cool.  The vet said he was more socialized and better behaved then most birds who come in for their first visit.  He is in good health with the small exception of a possible infection on his eyelid – but that is hopefully being treated with some antibiotics.

I never realized how much a bird in a cage can be a chick magnet.  On the way home from the vet, I stopped at a drive thru, and the girls at the window were fawning over the bird asking all kinds of questions…  It was interesting.

Paddy gets along alright with our male parakeet, Beryl.  However he does not get along with our female parakeet, known as ‘little bird’.  The female parakeet is very young still, but she is very protective of her cage.  It is mostly her who causes the problems.  But we keep them separate, and that is generally alright.

All in all, he is a good birdy.  He cuddles with me while I nap, and will snuggle in beside my neck, and not move at all while I nap.   He also enjoys hanging out while I play games on he computer, or watch TV.  He is getting a little nippy, but I am told that is normal, and hopfully we are training him out of it properly.

Tags: Hobbies by Roadwolf
No Comments »

Global Warming Redux

I believe I have written about this before, however I think I need to re-hash this.

I heard some unknown scientist today talking on NPR about how President Obama should be using this Oil Spill in the Gulf to condem the oil industry and say hey, this may be a disaster, but it is also a similar disaster to use the same oil to pollute the air in our cars.

Well I wouldn’t expect Mr. Obama to say that, because it is utter garbage.  Okay, so maybe if we didn’t demand so much on oil, this spill may not have happened.  But saying that refined gasoline will pollute the earth as much as the crude oil is, is absurd.  Saying that would make Mr. Obama look like an uneducated puppet, which he is not.

I don’t know what they promote in this unknown scientists ‘college’ in Vermont, but I do not imagine it is a well known place of study.

It is well known that global warming is natural, and only slightly influenced by human activities.  A single volcano like the one in Europe that erupted earlier this year, puts out more carbons into the atmosphere then we do in a year.   And volcanoes are erupting every day.  The earth is unstable,  its temperature is never constant.  It is influenced by the Sun, by the Moon, by the internal workings of our planet.  Our influence has very little effect in the long run.

Eventually the earth will not support human life anymore.  Not because of anything we have done (unless it is nuclear war), but because a cosmic event will happen which may change the world as we know it.   These events are bound to happen every few hundred thousand years.  Be it a super-volcano like the one under Yellowstone, which could wipe out all of Western North America., or a comet, or meteoroid.

So all you Global Warming freaks who thing that just because our planet has warmed up by 1 degree – that it is a global emergency; go suck on a lemon.  Sure, being green is good!  I fully support the move for clean energy, and nuclear energy.  But do not panic over it.  Also, Green energy will have its side effects as well…  Everything has side effects.  Solar Cells will reflect / block the suns energy from reaching the ground, and thusly effect the ground under them.   Wind turbines cause issues for birds, and may also un-naturally slow down prevailing winds slightly enough to alter local weather patterns.

Just some food for thought.

Tags: Nature, News by Roadwolf
No Comments »

Into The Universe: How The Universe Will End…

Near the end of the Into The Universe series with Stephen Hawking, he states that there is a force called Dark Energy which pushes space apart.  This is apparently the cause of the big bang, but no one can really figure out how this Dark Energy triggered the big bang, nor can they really prove it exists.  What I find really entertaining is the fact that Hawking himself stated in the same show that gravity is a very powerful and underestimated force (paraphrasing).

It is my belief that the Big Bang was actually a huge black hole, which reached the point of failure.  The point at which it could not hold any more.  It is very possible that a chemical reaction occurred, similar to how stars form.  Black holes behave differently depending on how large, or small they are.  So what about a super massive black hole?  Well, we cant really say how it would react, but chances are, there is a limit to how dense matter can get.

After running many simulations of gravity, I have found that if you leave them long enough, while many particles appear to have been sling shotted far away from a focal center point, they will always eventually find their way back.  Unless of course they run into something else.  Does the force of gravity have limits?  Likely not.  Galaxies millions of light years away from each other do effect each other through their gravities interacting.  I imagine the same holds true to galaxies and stars billions of light years away.  I imagine that the force of gravity will diminish just as visible light would diminish at such distances, but that gravity is still there, pulling on the objects and slowing its outward speed down ever so slightly.

Eventually, it is possible that star systems will end up in a deep freeze type scenario, where we find ourselves far away from other galaxies, seemingly on our own in the universe…  But eventually we should be sucked back into the great crunch.  We may wobble around it a bit, and perhaps form an elliptical orbit around it for many billions of years before we are eventually sucked into a massive black hole.  But I do believe that the universe will eventually collapse into itself again – only to eventually grow too dense again, compress all the particles back into hydrogen atoms, and start over again with another big bang.

This is almost like the war between the Elements and the Forces of Nature, the dominant force in this case being Gravity.

I understand that there are studies which have found that things are moving away from each other in the universe, and things are gaining speed as they move away, but keep in mind this is all a matter of perspective from where we sit here on earth.  It is also possible for galaxies to propel themselves by the many star systems sling shotting around inside the galaxy, thus shifting the balance of gravity, and causing the whole galaxy to speed up.

Eventually however, I think all the galaxies will eventually turn into huge black holes, and the black holes of the former galaxies would eventually gravitate towards each other and merge.  I estimate it would take a trillion years or so in order for the universe to collapse into it self again, re-condense the atoms to the simplest form, Hydrogen, and start the process all over again.

It is possible that there are other universes out there.   Perhaps there were star systems very close to the big bang when it occurred, but the blast obliterated them, or the force of the shock wave sent them flying further out into space then we can see.  Since most stars would of been formed long after the original blast occurred, it is possible that the stars nearest the big bang, were pushed away or destroyed long before the first stars in our universe came into being.  Thus we might not be able to look that far back in time by looking into space.

Either way it is an intriguing thought.  If someone wants to debate these theories with me, I would welcome the debate.  I am interested in hearing the points which support this Dark Energy theory.

Tags: Nature by Roadwolf
No Comments »

The Red Cross Trains Taliban

Lately it has come to the attention of the media that the Red Cross has been not only treating the wounded in Afghanistan, but also training the Taliban in survival and first aid skills, as well as supplying them with the equipment to do so.  While the goal of the Red Cross is to remain as neutral as possible, it admits that this is a unique situation.

Regardless of the situation however, many believe that the act of giving the Taliban gear and equipment crosses the line.  Jerry Agar of Toronto’s Newstalk 1010 argues that this is a kin to equipting the enemy for battle.

A retired Canadian Armed forces general was asked about the issue, and responded with nothing but positive things to say about the Red Cross.  He cleaimed that since our troops are so amazingly trained, we do not need the training or equipment the Red Cross provides.  In fact every Canadian troop is trained Advanced first aid – bordering on Paramedic level training.  When you compare that to the Talibans, or to the Afghan people, you would be lucky to find someone who knew basic first aid in a small village of a couple hundred people.

The International Red Cross also retorted that it is staying neutral.  However in this case since there are no real front lines, it is safer for the Red Cross to train the Taliban, and supply them with the equipment to treat themselves, then it is to try to follow them around and aid them on the move.

Regardless, it is still interesting that the Red Cross is aiding the Taliban, as the Taliban is one group that does not follow the Geneva Convention which the Red Cross helped draw out.

It will be interesting to see how, or if this plays out in US Media.

Tags: News by Roadwolf
2 Comments »