Mock Turtle

Marauding bear meets its match in woman, 87

Concerned about the safety of herself and her property, she set a bear snare.

When she returned last week she found a 200-kilogram black bear waiting for her in the trap.

Smith, a longtime hunter of everything from beaver and coyote to moose and caribou, immediately shot the bear.

This bit reminded me rather of GH’s mum:

Catching the bear was the easy part, she said. The real problem was getting the dead bear into the truck with the help of her 81-year-old husband.

“We tied a rope on it, and I couldn’t get it out, so I went up in a tree and I hooked it around some limbs on a big spruce there, and he backed the truck right in under the tree for me, and I lowered it down in the truck,” she explained.

Apparently she doesn’t care for bear meat, so she took it to the dump.

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My Maps app for Google Maps.

Lines, map points, embedded images, shapes – it’s all there, and couldn’t be easier. Back in the day, a year and a half ago or so, you actually had to know a certain amount about Java to do this sort of thing, or at least be willing to go through a lot of trial and error copying other people’s code without really understanding it. (That would be me.)

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Absolutely nobody seems to know what this will mean in practice:

Same-sex blessings not in conflict with core doctrine
Winnipeg, June 24, 2007 — Members of the Anglican Church of Canada’s General Synod in Winnipeg agreed Sunday that the blessing of same-sex unions is not in conflict with the church’s core doctrine, in the sense of being credal.

Debate resumed Sunday morning after being suspended late Saturday.

The motion carried reads: “That this General Synod resolves that the blessing of same-sex unions is not in conflict with the core doctrine (in the sense of being credal) of the Anglican Church of Canada.

The motion was carried by a vote of 152 for, 97 against in the house of clergy and laity and by a vote of 21 for and 19 against in the house of bishops.

Blessing of same-sex unions defeated
Winnipeg, June 24, 2007 — The General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada has narrowly defeated a resolution that would have allowed dioceses to decide for themselves whether or not to bless same-sex unions.
Lay delegates voted 78 to 59 in favor of the motion and clergy voted 63 to 53 in favor.
But the House of Bishops voted 21-19 against it.
As a result the motion was defeated, since it required approval by each of the three orders to pass.

The motion read:

“That this General Synod affirm the authority and jurisdiction of any diocesan synod,

1. with the concurrence of the diocesan bishop, and
2. in a manner which respects the conscience of the incumbent and the will of the parish,

to authorize the blessing of committed same-sex unions.”

What seems to have happened here is that Victoria Matthews, who voted for the first resolution, switched her vote, along with one other bishop, for the second resolution.

For adminstrative and historical reasons, not bad in themselves, there are many more bishops representing northern and rural areas, proportionate to the lay people in their dioceses, than those representing urban areas.

This doesn’t really matter, except in a close vote like this on a cultural hot-button issue like this – the house of bishops will bias to the right of the average Anglican in part because they come from pretty conservative places in the back of beyond.

It isn’t at all clear at this point where this outcome leaves the issue. Can dioceses go ahead and authorize same-sex blessings on their own authority, as New Westminster did? Maybe, maybe not.

Update: Use your words, Jim:

Bishop Jim Cowan of British Columbia, who voted against the motion, said he is in favour of blessings, but, “I’ve been asking for the theological rationale. For it to be an issue of justice, justice is a theological issue, let’s name that and get that all on the table and bring along as many people as possible in this and I think in 2010 we can do that and we can also take it to (the Lambeth Conference of bishops) and see how many in the communion can bring it along as well.”

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The Toronto Transit Commission has not only removed the “walk left, stand right” signs from its escalators, it’s also suggesting that no one should walk on the escalators at all:

“The intent is for the escalator to carry people up the escalator. If they are capable of walking, they should be utilizing the stairs.

Now, being impatient by nature, I’m all for taking the stairs where possible — which would not include, say, King station at rush hour, Union station on the weekend, or any number of other locations where the escalator is effectively the only way to go up or down while the stairs take traffic going in the opposite direction. But I digress.

The reason we should all “step on carefully, hold the handrail, ride all the way to the stop, and then step off” escalators, to quote the Elevator Escalator Safety Foundation of Canada, is because it’s unsafe to walk on a moving staircase.

If only the TTC statistics published with the Globe and Mail story corroborated this assertion:

Number of TTC riders injured on escalators last year: 138

Number injured on stairs: 191

I look forward to next year’s press release detailing the reduction in anticipated escalator injuries — but I won’t expect to see any statistics about stairs on it.

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… on the Georgia statutory rape case I blogged about a while ago.

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So apparently every bright idea about transit anybody has had in Central Ontario for the last 50 years is now public policy, from running GO trains on the midtown CPR tracks to an LRT down Pape (or is it Greenwood?) to reviving the Radial Line in Hamilton, for a total of 52 proposals. Contingent on a lot of money from the feds, or course.

Lots of discussion here.

Do we believe in any of this?

Some random points:

- I prefer the GO link to Pearson in this proposal to Blue22 – it seems like a thriftier use of scarce resources.

- The Science Centre becomes a major transit node, as the Don Mills and Eg LRTs cross the crosstown GO line.

- I’m looking forward to seeing how they plan to run rapid transit up the escarpment in Hamilton. Funicular-style systems have been used in the past. Space in the various cuts in Hamilton is limited – you can’t just blast out more roadway at this point. I guess it could run in traffic, TTC-style.

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Only just caught up with this one.

On the down side, it would suck. On the up side, the out-of-court settlement would send you to Martinique for quite a while. (Garçon!)

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Fireworks!

Foomp!

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This may end up being premature, but I’ll call it anyway: Harper will never lead a majority Conservative government in Canada. He’s lost all the seats in the Atlantic provinces, most if not all of the 12 Saskatchewan seats, isn’t gaining ground in Ontario, and $700 million can’t buy Quebec, according to today’s Decima poll:

The poll also put the Liberals ahead in Ontario, 39-33, and had the Bloc rebounding in Quebec to 38 per cent, followed by the Liberals at 23 and the Conservatives at 16 per cent.

Time of death: June 12, 2007.

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From a Ontario PC Youth Association giveaway at this weekend’s Ontario PC convention:

This year provides us with an excellent opportunity, a chance to get rid of a Premier who has become disconnected with the people of Ontario and that with a man of great vision and integrity because we want a better Ontario, and Leadership Matters.

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