County 'code of the west' includes manure warning

Last Updated: Monday, August 30, 2010 | 3:14 PM MT Comments14Recommend8

CBC News

Rural life in Clearwater County isn't all chirping birds, says the county manager. Would-be residents must be prepared for the sound of running combines at 2 a.m. and the smell of manure. (The Canadian Press)Living in cowboy country ain't as easy as it seems.
A new guide put out by Clearwater County, a vast rural area west of Red Deer, is meant to help people decide if they're up to the challenge.
"I think we have some deep roots within Clearwater County. You know, first, second and third generation farms, and they love that lifestyle and they want to preserve it as much as they can," Reeve Pat Alexander recently told CBC News.
The county's new "code of the west" warns the area can be dusty, it can stink like manure and that some farmers, like Alexander himself, will run their combines until 2 a.m.
The code cautions that most of the county's roads are unpaved and, in the winter, unplowed.
"There are things that take place in rural Alberta that have taken place for 25, 50 or 100 years and, you know, they will continue to take place," said Alexander.
"It's all part of being in rural Clearwater County."
The "code of the west" is a concept made famous by the prolific Old West novelist Zane Grey. The set of rules for living in cowboy country has been modernized a bit and adopted by a number of American communities and at least two in Alberta, Clearwater being the most recent.
County manager Ron Leaf said that while acreage owners have just as many rights as those in the agriculture industry, some people move out to Clearwater seeking an idyllic lifestyle — expecting "no noise, just [hearing] the birds."
"Really what the code is all about is here's what it's like to live in Clearwater County."
But Leaf said it's not meant to make people feel unwanted.
"We by no means want to discourage individuals. We very much are open and welcome people to come and live here," Leaf said.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/calgary/story/2010/08/30/calgary-clearwater-county-rural-cowboy-code-west.html#ixzz0zYBaUl00

Obama endorses mosque near Ground Zero

Last Updated: Friday, August 13, 2010 | 9:53 PM ET Comments661Recommend191

The Associated Press

U.S. President Barack Obama supports the construction of a mosque being built two blocks from where nearly 3,000 people died in the World Trade Center towers on Sept. 11, 2001. (Mark Lennihan/Associated Press) U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday endorsed building a mosque near Ground Zero, saying the country's founding principles demanded no less.
"As a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practise their religion as anyone else in this country," Obama said, weighing in for the first time on the controversy.
"That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community centre on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances," he said. "This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable."
Obama made the comments at an annual dinner in the White House state dining room celebrating the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
The White House had not previously taken a stand on the mosque, which would be part of a $100-million Islamic centre to be built in lower Manhattan, two blocks from where nearly 3,000 people perished when hijacked jets slammed into the World Trade Center towers on Sept. 11, 2001.
Press secretary Robert Gibbs had insisted it was a local matter.
The issue sparked debate around the country as top Republicans including Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich announced their opposition.
While insisting that the place where the twin towers once stood was indeed "hallowed ground," Obama said that the proper way to honour it was to apply American values and show "a way of life that stands in stark contrast to the nihilism of those who attacked us on that September morning, and who continue to plot against us today."

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/08/13/mosque-obama-ground-zero.html#ixzz0z1iXpkRe\

 

Moslems may have the right to build this mosque but surely one may question the sensitivity and motivations behind this particular siting.

Federal funds for N.L. power unfair: Quebec

Last Updated: Friday, August 13, 2010 | 3:23 PM NT Comments171Recommend40

CBC News

Jean-Marc Fournier is Quebec's newly appointed justice minister. (CBC)A top Quebec politician says his province objects to Newfoundland and Labrador's application for federal money to help it transmit power from Labrador to Nova Scotia.
Quebec's newly appointed Justice Minister Jean-Marc Fournier says he wants every province treated equally. That's why his province wrote a letter to the prime minister objecting to the application.
"If Newfoundland and Labrador want to develop their energy we are happy with that, we just ask that it is done the same as with every other province," Fournier told Radio Canada.
He noted Quebec didn't receive federal money to build its hydroelectric power transmission system.
Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia submitted a request to the federal government in late June for federal infrastructure funding to defray the cost of a power line to Nova Scotia from Newfoundland. The line could potentially handle power generated from the proposed Lower Churchill hydroelectric megaproject in central Labrador.
On Thursday, N.L Premier Danny Williams called a news conference to speak out against what he described as "predatory" behaviour by Quebec
He accused Quebec of deliberately blocking the energy aspirations of Atlantic Canada by writing a complaint to Prime Minister Stephen Harper about the funding application from the two Atlantic provinces.
Williams said Newfoundland and Nova Scotia reject the suggestion that they're asking for an unfair subsidy.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/newfoundland-labrador/story/2010/08/13/nl-quebec-fairness-813.html#ixzz0z1eZ0ly6

Is  Quebec afraid this might compromise their already unfair Churchill Falls Hydro Deal?

Antarctic Scotch to be tested, not tasted

Crate of more than 100-year-old Scotch found in explorer's hut

Last Updated: Friday, August 13, 2010 | 11:45 AM ET Comments68Recommend38

The Associated Press

A crate of Scotch that was trapped in Antarctic ice for a century was finally opened Friday — but the heritage dram won't be tasted by whisky lovers because it's being preserved for its historic significance.
One of crates of Scotch whisky is seen after being recovered by a team restoring an Antarctic hut used more than 100 years ago by famed polar explorer Ernest Shackleton. (Antarctic Heritage Trust/Associated Press) The crate, recovered from the Antarctic hut of renowned explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton after it was found there in 2006, has been thawed very slowly in recent weeks at the Canterbury Museum in Christchurch on New Zealand's South Island.
The crate was painstakingly opened to reveal 11 bottles of Mackinlay's Scotch whisky, wrapped in paper and straw to protect them from the rigours of a rough trip to Antarctica for Shackleton's 1907 Nimrod expedition.
Though the crate was frozen solid when it was retrieved earlier this year, the whisky inside could be heard sloshing around in the bottles. Antarctica's -30 C temperature was not enough to freeze the liquor, dating from 1896 or 1897 and described as being in remarkably good condition.
This Scotch is unlikely ever to be tasted, but master blenders will examine samples of it to see if they can replicate the brew. The original recipe for the Scotch no longer exists.

'I just looked at this [crate] and honestly, my heartbeat went up about three paces.'—Michael Milne, whisky lover

Once samples have been extracted and sent to Scottish distiller Whyte and Mackay, which took over Mackinlay's distillery many years ago, the 11 bottles will be returned to their home — under the floorboards of Shackleton's hut at Cape Royds on Ross Island, near Antarctica's McMurdo Sound.
Whisky lover Michael Milne, a Scot who runs the Whisky Galore liquor outlet in Christchurch, described the rare event as a great experience.
Polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton's base camp is pictured in Antarctica. Crates of Scotch whisky have been recovered by a team restoring an Antarctic hut used more than 100 years ago by Shackleton. (Antarctic Heritage Trust/Associated Press) "I just looked at this [crate] and honestly, my heartbeat went up about three paces. It was amazing," he said. "The box was like a pioneer's box with the wood and nails coming out," he said.
Although Milne said he'd give anything to have a taste of the whisky. "It is not going to happen and I am not going to get excited about it," he said. "But if there was ever an opportunity, it could be a wonderful one to have."
Nigel Watson, executive director of the Antarctic Heritage Trust, which is restoring the explorer's hut, said opening the crate was a delicate process.
The crate will remain in cold storage and each of the 11 bottles will be carefully assessed and conserved over the next few weeks. Some samples will be extracted, possibly using a syringe through the bottles' cork stoppers.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2010/08/13/con-antarctic-scoth.html#ixzz0z1b6L3kz

Summer in the City

‘Summer in the City
Back of my neck gettin' dirty and gritty’

The roar of air conditioner compressors and fans competes with the background rumble of the city outside for supremacy. After a night when it barely cooled at mid-morning the thermometer is climbing rapidly toward 90+. Already this week there has been a smog advisory.

‘And I’m stuck in this city
Ain’t going nowhere’

Tomorrow I get driven to the Oakville Hospital, pick a number, and begin the waiting process all over again. In the meantime life goes on and I get myself sufficiently respectable to cross the street for bread, OJ, and cream for my coffee. It being the first of September and Labour Day Weekend approaching returning students are tying up our elevators with their futons and desks. Traffic on Trafalgar Rd is backed up all the way to the QEW  by construction but that doesn’t stop cars from careening around the corner onto my street.

Bread, how does a commercial bakery manage to burn a batch of bread and why was is shipped, Dempster’s should know better. Fortunately I found a loaf that wasn’t scorched. The 24-hour variety store has ‘Lots of Pulp’ orange juice and after some looking I find my Table Cream. The staff all seem to be young, squat, and middle European bappering away in some strange language. I pay for my  purchases and persuade the cashier to use my shopping bag and leave noting that Blockbuster now sports cross-hatched guards in all its windows and doors. The heat assails one the moment one exits cooled space. Litter mars the landscape straws lying in the grass and fast food napkins decorating the garden.

The heat pump above the building entrance still drips water right over the main entrance, inside the floor of the elevator looks like something out of a slum tenement. At the end of my hallway the fire exit sign still hasn’t had its burnt-out light replaced after almost a month.

‘I gotta to get out of this place
If it’s the last thing I ever do’