Monday, December 31, 2012
Northeast Snowstorm Hits Canada as Blizzard
Intersection
of Peter Dugas Rd & Second Division, St. Martin, Nova Scotia on
Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012. (Photo by Twitter user DanRobichaud)
By Alex Sosnowski, Expert Senior Meteorologist: The snowstorm that moved through the Northeast on Saturday was slamming part of Atlantic Canada as a blizzard Sunday.
The storm has the potential to bring 30 to 45 cm (12 to 18 inches) of snow to northwestern Nova Scotia, much of Prince Edward Island and southeastern New Brunswick and central Newfoundland.
Winds will increase over the region, causing extensive blowing and drifting of the snow on the ground and creating rough seas.
According to Canada Weather Expert Brett Anderson, "This will easily be the worst storm of the season so far for much of the Maritimes."...Continue reading...
Animal Camouflage Pictures - 31 pictures
This well-camouflaged lion hides in
African tall grasses, ready for the hunt. The next animal is camouflaged
so well that you might not even see it.
Image Credit: Kim Wolhuter/National Geographic/Getty Images http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-shows/curiosity/topics/animal-camouflage-pictures.htm
More invisible animals here.
Snowy owl photo gallery by Martin Gregus Jr.
A snowy owl swoops low over the foreshore of Boundary Bay in south Delta.
Martin Gregus Jr. photo Photograph by: Martin Gregus Jr Saturday, December 29, 2012
Pet Chicken Saves Couple From Fire
Cluck Cluck' repays a favor
By the Associated Press
Friday, December 28, 2012
John Duncan tries again to meet with hunger-striking Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence
photo
By
Brigitte Pellerin
,Parliamentary Bureau: OTTAWA - Since she agreed to meet with Liberal leadership hopeful
Justin Trudeau, Indian Affairs Minister John Duncan is hoping
hunger-striking Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence will reconsider his
offer to meet with him.
Duncan's first offer on Christmas was instead met with silence. A day later, Spence welcomed Trudeau to her Victoria Island teepee for a 45-minute meeting.
This prompted Duncan to write another letter to Spence.
"It is my understanding that you met today with a member of Parliament,” he wrote. “Given your willingness to accept meetings now I am hoping that you will reconsider my offer, as minister of the Crown, to meet or speak with you by phone to discuss the issues you have raised publicly."
Spence is now in the third week of her protest, which includes restricting her food intake to tea and fish broth. On Christmas Eve, Conservative Senator Patrick Brazeau, himself an Aboriginal, tried to pay a visit to Chief Spence but was turned down.
Asked why she'd agree to meet with Trudeau but not with Duncan or Brazeau, Chief Spence said: "Trudeau is a person who's there for the youth, and he's seen by the youth as a leader today." She said she was not asking for a private meeting with the prime minister. "I want the [First Nations] leaders to sit at a table with the prime minister, and the Crown, both levels of government," she told QMI Agency in an exclusive interview after her meeting with Trudeau. Read here Attawapiskat chief wants more cash from feds By David Akin
OTTAWA - The chief of the Attawapiskat
First Nation is threatening to call a state of emergency again at her
reserve unless the federal government coughs up $50,000 a month with no
strings attached for the band to use for housing. By
Brigitte Pellerin
,Parliamentary Bureau: OTTAWA - Since she agreed to meet with Liberal leadership hopeful
Justin Trudeau, Indian Affairs Minister John Duncan is hoping
hunger-striking Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence will reconsider his
offer to meet with him.Duncan's first offer on Christmas was instead met with silence. A day later, Spence welcomed Trudeau to her Victoria Island teepee for a 45-minute meeting.
This prompted Duncan to write another letter to Spence.
"It is my understanding that you met today with a member of Parliament,” he wrote. “Given your willingness to accept meetings now I am hoping that you will reconsider my offer, as minister of the Crown, to meet or speak with you by phone to discuss the issues you have raised publicly."
Spence is now in the third week of her protest, which includes restricting her food intake to tea and fish broth. On Christmas Eve, Conservative Senator Patrick Brazeau, himself an Aboriginal, tried to pay a visit to Chief Spence but was turned down.
Asked why she'd agree to meet with Trudeau but not with Duncan or Brazeau, Chief Spence said: "Trudeau is a person who's there for the youth, and he's seen by the youth as a leader today." She said she was not asking for a private meeting with the prime minister. "I want the [First Nations] leaders to sit at a table with the prime minister, and the Crown, both levels of government," she told QMI Agency in an exclusive interview after her meeting with Trudeau. Read here Attawapiskat chief wants more cash from feds By David Akin
Chief Theresa Spence has told federal government officials some trailers on her Northern Ontario that house about 90 people are no longer suitable and she wants to move the people into the community's healing lodge...A group of Attawapiskat elders sent a letter to Duncan's office last December complaining about the band council and urging the federal government to do a full audit of the band's finances. Attawapiskat has received $90 million from the federal government since 2006.
In the memo, obtained by QMI Agency through access to information laws, the elders said band members "support a forensic audit as they want to know where the funds were spent."
The federal government has spent $3 million since November providing emergency shelter for band members who were living in housing with no heat or running water.
Earlier this year, Spence asked the federal government to repair and modify the DeBeers trailers and, on Feb. 15, she indicated in writing those trailers had been fixed.
Now, though, she appears to have changed her mind. Read article here, video
Hunger strike gains support. PM urged to meet
Saskatchewan First Nations people and chiefs are supporting the hunger strike of Attawapiskat First Nation Chief Theresa Spence Photograph by: Supplied photo
, courtesy FSIN vice-chief Simon Bird
About 10 women are also standing "in solidarity" with Spence in Regina, beginning a four-day fast set to end Sunday.
Harper need not fear meeting with Spence to negotiate better living conditions for aboriginals would show any weakness, said James Bartleman, who served as Ontario's lieutenant-governor from 2002 to 2007 and is a member of the Chippewas of Rama First Nation.
"If he was to do something like that, he would be doing something that he could be proud of for the rest of his life, but if he doesn't do that, I would say shame on him," Bartleman told Postmedia News on Thursday.
"If she carries on like this, I would think she would die."...Continue reading...
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Blind dog Abby finds her way home in depths of Alaskan winter
In this undated photo provided by McKenzie Grapengeter, the Grapengeter children, from left, Ava, 6, Greg, 10, and Shane, 9, pose for a photo with their dog, Abby, who is blind and went missing more than a week ago during heavy snow storms, at their Fairbanks, Alaska home. After walking 10 miles to the edge of a local musher's dog yard, Abby the brown-and-white mixed breed was found and returned to her owners on Sunday, just in time for Christmas... Read here...
A Frog Sitting on a Bench Like a Human
It is cold in Saskatoon. This old frog is a cool dude, he is watching the girls walk by.
Friday, December 21, 2012
Winter Solstice: First day of winter
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Doomsday 2012: Watch the 'End of the World' Live Online
image
by Mike Wall, SPACE.com Senior Writer:
Anyone worried that the world will come to an end Friday (Dec. 21) can scan the heavens online this week for any signs of death from above.
The online Slooh Space Camera will broadcast a series of live cosmic views all week, beginning today (Dec. 17). The free webcasts will help the public keep watch for any monster solar storms, impending asteroid strikes or other potential agents of the so-called "Mayan apocalypse" that doomsayers claim is set for Friday.
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Golden eagle tries to steal toddler in Montreal - VIDEO
Incredible amateur footage appears to show the moment a golden eagle attempted to snatch a small child in a Montreal park.
The short video, posted to YouTube by MrNuclearCat, is claimed to show a golden eagle swooping down and lifting a toddler off the ground in Montreal. It has quickly become a viral hit.
However, there was much skepticism on social media websites such as Twitter as to whether the clip was genuine.
At the beginning, the clip shows the massive eagle – with a roughly six-foot (two-metre) wing span, circling a public park – said to be the city’s Mount Royal.
Suddenly the eagle then swoops down and appears to lift an unsuspecting toddler off the ground by its coat and carry it a few feet before dropping it on the grass.
After cursing in English, the French-speaking man filming the incident drops the camera so it is pointing downwards and races over to comfort the bewildered child, who starts crying but does not appear to have been seriously hurt. Read here.
The short video, posted to YouTube by MrNuclearCat, is claimed to show a golden eagle swooping down and lifting a toddler off the ground in Montreal. It has quickly become a viral hit.
However, there was much skepticism on social media websites such as Twitter as to whether the clip was genuine.
At the beginning, the clip shows the massive eagle – with a roughly six-foot (two-metre) wing span, circling a public park – said to be the city’s Mount Royal.
Suddenly the eagle then swoops down and appears to lift an unsuspecting toddler off the ground by its coat and carry it a few feet before dropping it on the grass.
After cursing in English, the French-speaking man filming the incident drops the camera so it is pointing downwards and races over to comfort the bewildered child, who starts crying but does not appear to have been seriously hurt. Read here.
Take off, eh: Canada's Hadfield blasts off for 5-month space station visit
U.S.
astronaut Thomas Marshburn, left, Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko,
center, and Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, members of the next
mission to the International Space Station, pose for the media after a
news conference in the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan,
Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2012. Hadfield is set to blast off today from the
Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on a mission that is to see him become
the first Canadian to command the International Space Station. THE
CANADIAN PRESS/AP,Dmitry Lovetsky
Pet Photography – Eddie and his Human
Best friends
No one will love you more than your dog does…
"I have a post crammed full of images for you this week as during my shoot I ended up photographing not 1 but 5 pets!Last week I had the privilege of doing a photo shoot with Eddie (the service dog) and Pieter (his human). Eddie and Pieter have been together since August this year and as you can see from the images that follow, they are a match made in heaven. Eddie has changed his human’s life in so many ways, in Pieter’s own words, “Eddie has opened a new door in my life and I cannot put into words what he means to me..." Photos of Eddie and his friends.
Google meets Qumran: Thousands of Dead Sea Scrolls fragments go online
A new website makes the ‘ultimate puzzle’ of biblical scholarship accessible to anyone with an Internet connection.
An
Israel Antiquities Authority worker points to a spectral image
photograph of fragments of the Dead Sea scrolls, at the Israel Museum in
Jerusalem on Wednesday, December 18 (photo credit: Miriam
Alster/Flash90).
Thousands of fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls
went online Tuesday with the launch of a new website by Google and the
Israel Antiquities Authority, part of a move to make the famed
manuscripts easily available to scholars and casual web surfers.
The website
provides access to high-resolution images of the famous scrolls, which
were written 2,000 years ago and first discovered at Qumran, on the Dead
Sea shore, in the 1940s.
The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) is in
the process of photographing the thousands of fragments in its
possession — pieces of an estimated 900 different manuscripts — using
special imaging equipment first developed for NASA. The hi-tech cameras
have rendered visible sections of parchment that were previously
indecipherable.
A team at Tel Aviv University is using the new
images to try to piece together fragments into larger sections which
might yield new information about the content of some of the scrolls.
For scholars, the fragments are “the ultimate puzzle,” Pnina Shor, head
of the IAA’s Dead Sea Scrolls project, said Tuesday.
The scrolls, thought to have been written or
collected by Jews who left Jerusalem for the desert in the time of the
Second Temple two millennia ago, were one of the great archaeological
discoveries of the 20th century. They shed important light on ancient
Judaism, the birth of Christianity, and the evolution of the Bible...Continue reading...
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Beautiful Moments - Scenes from YouTube
Scenes in video OK, worth a look. This old computer is on it's last legs, takes an hr. to post a link, "oh well', keeps the brain working and 'Sally and Sam' happy. image
US sending 20 more F-16s to Egypt, despite turmoil in Cairo
By Maxim Lott
Turmoil in Egypt isn't stopping a shipment of 20 F-16
fighter jets, including this one - already emblazoned with Egypt's flag.
(Courtesy: Carl Richards)
Golden Retrievers Sent to Ease Pain in Newtown
City councillors agree to keep 'Merry Christmas' message on Saskatoon buses
A
number of city councillors are asking to debate whether to remove a
“Merry Christmas” message displayed on the programmable signs on
Saskatoon Transit buses. Photograph by: Gord Waldner
, The StarPhoenix.
Monday, December 17, 2012
Syria: a scathingly beautiful photograph of the edge of starvation
Displaced Syrians wait for the daily distribution of food outside the northern city of Azaz, on the border between Syria and Turkey. Photograph: Maysun/EPA. By Jonathan Jones: This eloquent picture tells of the terrifying hunger crisis now unfolding in war-battered Syria. The children's faces as they reach out their empty pots for food distributed by a Turkish NGO at a camp for internal refugees near the north Syrian city of Azaz are beams of pain and desperation that cut through the fog of news to tell the direct human truth: Syrians are on the edge of starving...Continue reading...
Sunday, December 16, 2012
Cross eyed virgin - WiseQuacks
By wisequack
“What’s a cross-eyed virgin?” my eight-year-old niece asked upon
hearing the Mexican tour guide at Chichen Itza explain how the ancient
Mayans sacrificed assorted cross-eyed virgins to assorted ill-tempered
Gods.
“Well,” I replied physicianly, “It’s when one eye comes across like this and the other…”
“I know that. What’s a virgin?”
“And then usually one eye doesn’t work as well as the…”
“And then usually one eye doesn’t work as well as the…”
“Becky said that Madonna was like a virgin once. What’s that mean?”
“Wow, look at the teeth on that huge iguana behind you! Where’s your mother?”...Continue reading...
The Poor Little Rich Girls of Mexico
The narrative of Mexico as our impoverished and drug cartel–ridden
neighbor dominates most news coverage in America, but that’s only one
part of a large and diverse country. Photographer Daniela Rossell brings us tales of the polar opposite segment of Mexican society with her series Ricas y Famosas, which depicts the children of Mexico’s most privileged class of society...Continue reading, photos...
Untitled from Ricas y Famosas, 1999.
Daniela Rossell/Greene Naftali, New York.
Saturday, December 15, 2012
'Merry Christmas' bus message up for debate
A
number of city councillors are asking to debate whether to remove a
“Merry Christmas” message displayed on the programmable signs on
Saskatoon Transit buses. Photograph by: Gord Waldner
, The StarPhoenix
‘Farmer Style’ Viral Video Puts Kansas Agriculture on the Map
By: Heesun Wee
Source: Facebook.com In the latest parody of the popular "Gangnam Style" video, a version
featuring three brothers from a Kansas family farm has gone viral—9.5
million views and counting—and has put small family farms and the
agriculture industry on the digital map... http://www.cnbc.com/id/100310964
Friday, December 14, 2012
27 dead, including gunman, at Conn. school - Twitter & Watch live coverage of shootings @ PIX 11 news
State
police personnel led children from the school, following the shooting.
(Courtesy of Shannon Hicks, NewtownBee.com / December 14, 2012 via
Hartford Courant)Live coverage of shooting.
Justin Trudeau’s decision to address Islamic Revival Conference hurts Canada
image
By Beryl Wajsman:
"Allah is our objective; the Quran is our law, the Prophet is our leader; Jihad is our way; and death for the sake of Allah is the highest of our aspirations."
~ credo of the Muslim Brotherhoocd
Liberal leadership candidate and Papineau MP Justin Trudeau’s decision to give a keynote address at the “Reviving the Islamic Spirit” conference taking place in Toronto Dec.20-23rd . is a disappointing one and potentially disastrous for liberalism. His mere presence will be used to validate some of the most retrograde elements on the political landscape that are associated with this Conference. In that he hurts Canada. Trudeau’s address is scheduled for December 22nd. The Conference’s lead, or “platinum” sponsor (website description), is an organization named Islamic Relief, and other featured speakers include Tariq Ramadan, Jamal Badawi and Mustafa Ceric. All have significant ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. The Brotherhood’s first elected head of government, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, has recently introduced constitutional changes that would give him unprecedented power answerable to no authority not even the judiciary. The past two weeks have seen large-scale demonstrations in Cairo between the secular liberals who drove the Arab Spring and the supporters of Morsi and the Brotherhood who back a system based on adherence to Sharia (Islamic religious law). Sources close to the Conference expect up to 20,000 participants. The Conference website features a video trailer with martial music playing as background to slogans such as “This is our time, this is our moment.”...Continue reading...
"Allah is our objective; the Quran is our law, the Prophet is our leader; Jihad is our way; and death for the sake of Allah is the highest of our aspirations."
~ credo of the Muslim Brotherhoocd
Liberal leadership candidate and Papineau MP Justin Trudeau’s decision to give a keynote address at the “Reviving the Islamic Spirit” conference taking place in Toronto Dec.20-23rd . is a disappointing one and potentially disastrous for liberalism. His mere presence will be used to validate some of the most retrograde elements on the political landscape that are associated with this Conference. In that he hurts Canada. Trudeau’s address is scheduled for December 22nd. The Conference’s lead, or “platinum” sponsor (website description), is an organization named Islamic Relief, and other featured speakers include Tariq Ramadan, Jamal Badawi and Mustafa Ceric. All have significant ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. The Brotherhood’s first elected head of government, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, has recently introduced constitutional changes that would give him unprecedented power answerable to no authority not even the judiciary. The past two weeks have seen large-scale demonstrations in Cairo between the secular liberals who drove the Arab Spring and the supporters of Morsi and the Brotherhood who back a system based on adherence to Sharia (Islamic religious law). Sources close to the Conference expect up to 20,000 participants. The Conference website features a video trailer with martial music playing as background to slogans such as “This is our time, this is our moment.”...Continue reading...
Israel Is Set To Receive 5,000 US Bunker Buster Bombs After Delaying Its Attack On Iran
by Michael Kelley: In March President Barack Obama reportedly offered Israel bunker-buster bombs and other advanced weapons in exchange for a postponing an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities until 2013.
At the time the White House denied that any such agreement was proposed or reached.
Bunker-busters are essential for an attack on Iran's underground nuclear facilities since they can penetrate Tehran's world renowned reinforced concrete...Continue reading...
{Photographers Giving Back} Scruffy Dog Photography
"Illona Haus is the head scruffy at Scruffy Dog Photography, based in Waterloo, Ontario, sharing the studio with her own two rescue dogs. SDP’s clientele spans the province and beyond, with clients travelling from as far away as Chicago, NYC and California, as well as an international client base for commercial and stock photography. For a fun and furry time, “like” the Scruffy Dog Photography Facebook page and follow the Scruffy Dog blog." http://www.iheartfaces.com
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By Bill Sanderson Saudi Arabia's King Salman (right) and Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef walk to greet President Obama in Riy...
