George Carlin

The comedy world lost one of its most brilliant this week.
Rest in peace George.

Here a couple of his more controversial acts. Beware, lots of foul language.

Religion


7 Dirty Words

Gmail - Google Alert - labrador hydro - pardy.mac@gmail.com

http://mail.google.com/mail/?hl=en&tab=wm#inbox/119fc9dd4282c038

The Cost of Survival

Gas is is going up, as a direct result food is going up. But indirectly as well. Today Viet Nam stopped exporting rice because of their own domestic need. All basic foods like flour and corn increasing in price almost as fast as oil! It boils down to everything is less and it costs more.

But does it really???? At our point in human history theres still plenty of fossil fuel for our demands, its just "certain" government interests and big oil companies controling the oil taps that is determining the high fuel cost today. I'm not condoning more dependence and demand on oil but HEY we're all victims of our own over indulgence in cheap, easy, (DIRTY) energy. Until we all take responsibility and make our governments responsible, we will just dig ourselves deeper into human implosion. Humankind as never advanced so much in our history than it as in the past 100 years, but about 30 years ago when big industry and their big influence came on the scene, its seems all human advancement as stalled. We can can spend billions on a war to protect oil interests yet we cant invest a few million on what could potentially be free energy from hydrogen out of regular everyday water?????

And now we have food following suit. Food shortages all over the world, the cost to get the food skyrocketing, farmers not even growing food crops because they cant make any money! Have we reached a zenith in our time on this voyage on earth, is it all a drive down hill from here? I hope not! For a start we can start by changing all the idiots who are at the wheel!

Convenient Truth

It seems Danny Williams doesnt know whats happening within his own government. With the crisis in the Eastern Health scandal he keeps saying that he didnt know what was happening and that it was just his minister of health's responsibility. Funny because he seems to be pretty well up on whats happening with his resource and transportation ministers! Maybe its just that people's health is just not that important to Danny?

But ultimately its the Captain thats responsible for his ship so Danny needs to take some responsibility for the mess in healthcare. He has to be accountable for the bad things in his government, not just the good.

Eulogy For A Maple Leaf

Another hockey season is nearly done and The Maple Leafs have failed to make the playoffs once again. The team was valued at $413 million in 2007 making it what must be one of the most expensive failures in NHL history! The last year the Leafs won a cup was 1967 so tv viewers have never seen a Stanley Cup raised in victory by a Maple Leaf player in colour LOL! Some blame the infamous Harold Ballard for the beginning of the Leaf's downfall and continue to blame his ghost to this day. I've also noticed how Leaf fans seem to want to hold on to the past as well. Case in point, Mats Sundin is now the current record holder for most points by a Maple Leaf. When Sundin passed Darryl Sittler he was actually despised by some Leaf fans!?!?!?!

Good times come and good times go and I'm sure the Leafs will find success again EVENTUALLY!! and hey..........theres always next year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Politics Bigger Than Mountains

The Strand Robyn Holwell Photo

Political interference has effectively put progress on the Mealy Mountain Park at a standstill. The provincial government has put up roadblock after roadblock when it comes to this park to the point where it almost seems like sabotage. Like Lp said over in the Sound Board, can you imagine the Strand being torn up or The Eagle dammed??? Danny Williams looks at the area and can only see dollar signs, not the natural beauty of the area! The first proposed area for the park has been cut up so much by the government that whats left could scarcely be even called a national park. I would go completly in the other direction and say that the original plan for the park area be even expanded to include the Table Bay area which by the way has been discussed already.

White Bear River By Robyn Holwell

So if you are concerned with this issue I would ask you to please take advantage of the Mealy Mountain Park postcard campaign in The Labradorian this week.

Eagle River

The following is from http://www.naturecanada.ca/

The Mealy Mountains are a global treasure worth preserving.

1. The people of Labrador support the establishment of a national park. The Labrador Metis Nation, the Innu Nation, and the Labrador Inuit Association all recognize the material, spiritual and physical benefits of establishing a park in the Mealy Mountains.

2. Establishing a national park here will preserve the environmental, cultural and ecological integrity of several treasured natural landscapes, including five ecoregions that are not represented by any other national park in Canada.

3. A national park acts as an economic driver for local communities, in part through tourism. Adventure and discovery await the hardy nature enthusiast here. Wilderness experiences could include world-class canoeing, hiking, rock climbing, kayaking, coastal walks, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, and wildlife photography.

4. Labrador has many opportunities for forestry, mining and power development outside the proposed national park. Establishing this protected space means there will always be some part of the land left for the people of Labrador.

5. The Mealy Mountains are steeped in the traditional history of the first peoples of the land. For countless generations, the Labrador Innu have been sustained off this land they call Akamiuapishku. The Labrador Inuit and Labrador Metis have strong cultural and subsistence ties to the area.

6. Mealy mountains are home to some of Labrador’s best wetlands and salmon and brook trout habitat, and provide a haven for a threatened woodland caribou herd, along with moose, black bear, osprey, bald eagle and harlequin duck populations. Marine mammals abound in the coastal waters, including six species of seals and 16 species of dolphins and whales.

You can help!

The establishment of new national parks requires strong support from local communities, Aboriginal and provincial governments, and from Canadians. Help protect the Mealy Mountains, one of the last pristine forest wilderness areas on the continent. Write to the premier of Newfoundland and Labrador and the Prime Minister and tell them you want a Mealy Mountains National Park established. Also tell them that you support full interim protection for the park study area.

Write to Office of the Prime MinisterHouse of CommonsOttawa, ON K1A 0A6(no postage required)E-mail: mailto:pm@pm.gc.ca

Office of the PremierGovernment of Newfoundland and LabradorConfederation Building, East BlockP.O. Box 8700St. John’s, NL A1B 4J6E-mail: mailto:premier@mail.gov.nl.ca

Click the link below to download an open form letter to send to the premeir indicating your support for The Mealy Mountain National Park

http://www.mediafire.com/?wrbazxxjnzi

@#%&@#$%@#%# COMPUTERS

Tip For The Day

Want to lead a less stressful and all around more healthy life?????

When your computer is first booting up in the morning.........GET UP & WALK AWAY

First place, anyone?

For all ye Habs fans...a win tonight against the first place Devils will put our Habs,I repeat, OUR HABS in first place in the Eastern Conference for the first time this late in the year since '93! We all know what happened that year*knock on wood*.

How can we not be excited about the team this year? Second in the league in goals, first on the PP, and a league leading seven 40+ point getters..all this from a team with a ripe ol' average age of 26.6.

I don't care that we traded Who-et (ok..he shutout the devils but Price has been, and will continue tobe GREAT) for a 2nd rounder or didn't get Hossa, who Pittsburgh WAY overpaid for by the way. Points since the trade deadline- Mikhail Grabovski:2, Marian Hossa:0. So suck on that Ray Shero, Pens GM! We'll keep Grabovski, Higgins, Lapierre, and our 1st rounder and you can take your gimpy-kneed Hossa, we dont need em! Plekanec (25), the Kostitsyns (23 and 20), Higgins (24), Grabovski (24), Lapierre (22), Latendresse (20), Gorges (23), O'Byrne (23), Price (20), and Halak (22) make up the best core group of youngsters in the league, even better than what they have in Pittsburgh. Not to mention our vets Kovalev, Koivu, Hamrlik, Markov(Norris!!!), and KomiSAURUS, who is among the league leaders in both hits and blocked shots. The only thing we lack is the true game-breaker to take over after Kovalev either a)retires or b)decides he doesnt care anymore (He's been PHENOMENAL this year, but lets face it...its only a matter of time). One thing is for certain, though, Ottawa has seen its last days as the "Beasts of the Northeast".

The next step for our Habs is to challenge Pittsburgh for the title of Beast of the EAST. For the next 5 years or so this will be a rivalry with the grit of the Colorado-Detroit series' of the 90's, the goal scoring of the Oilers-Flames series' of the 80's, and the goaltending of the Devils-Stars series of '00 (Brodeur vs Belfour). OK...maybe it won't have ALL of these elements, but you get the point!

Yup, sure is a good time to be a Habs fan..especially considering where those pathetic Laffs are in the standings. And to all you leafs fans...YOU WILL MISS THE PLAYOFFS!! Despite Mats Sundins heroic efforts, the leafs will miss the playoffs and somehow manage to screw themselves out of a lottery pick. No Steve Stamkos, no Drew Doughty, and most certainly no playoffs for a long, long time.

So for all you borderline Habs fans my message is clear. Hop on the bandwagon...and hop on now! This team is for real, and will only get better. In the words of http://www.habsinsideout.com/ (best fan site in the universe..check it out) blogger Mike Boone, join us in all the agony and ecstacy that comes with being a Habs fan, 'cuz good times like these don't come by too often.

Horsepower Blues

Aww yes, once again it is time for our youth to be reminded that they are not above the law. Just yesterday I was discussing with some friends when we had that same ugly reminder at the ripe ol' age of 12. I clearly remember being infuriated at the thought of losing my ski-doo to some power happy cop who had 'nothing better to do'.

Maybe it's the report of an envious parent who can't buy the best for their child...maybe it's a citizen with legitimate safety concerns to ones self or ones property. BUT maybe this should serve as a reminder to parents that it just doesn't look right when your child under the age of 16 shows up to school on a 12,000 dollar skidoo. With standard features such as enough ponies under the hood to shred snow into a ploom of dust at the nip of the throttle.

The thing to keep in mind is that this will all blow over. Nobody wants to keep our children off snowmobiles - not parents, police, or peers. Because, in the end, we all have better things to do.

To The Politicians

They say we in Labrador got no numbers to count in the (voting) come election time, to make a difference, I say it is the way the Govt has put it. Of course there are no numbers, our resources are here but the amount of pay isn`t,, for one thing everybody (in Labrador) gotta move either to the island or across Canada for better wages just to try and provide some type of security and stability for their loved ones. Come on, this is the way it is, This should be a wake up call for all our Elected Politicians across Labrador, my goodness, once we get our own infrastructure (ie for Hydro and the Highways) then i believe things will start to go our way(as for numbers) here in Labrador. I`m sure there are ways to start our own industry to attract even more indivduals from anywhere in the world(if we get our infrastructure), ie.. roads and hydro, and i`m sure this will lead to our younger generation to have the utmost confidence and support from all Labrador as One to go our own way as a Labrador Province. C`mon Liberal delagates, PC delagates , NDP delegates and of course the Labrador Party delagates, Get Together, Bury the Hatchet and for goodness sakes wake-up and see that our resources stay here in Labrador for the good of all Labradorians to build on for once and for all. Put your personal parties aside for once and go with the Labrador People, Your People and i`m sure Your forefathers People that worked like dogs to make it possible for You and Me to be here at this time. Don`t you all (polticians) realise the sacrifices and for sure the Hardships my forefathers and your own forefathers had to endure just to try and survive, but by god they did just that (survive) and just look at how the Gov`ts of the day treated them, shameful if you ask me. Well sir, we certainly knows the difference now, so get away from your personal parties and jump in with all of Labrador, we`ll be so much stronger as one, and our ancestors that endured hardships we will never experience will be just Smiling. What we all got to lose , you can`t take the money with you when you goes(or the saying says) but just look at the power and enthusiasm and of course the self righteous right we so all deserve as a unique and self serving people that can and will prosper,,, God Willing. Thats my 2 cents worth and i`m sure there are many, many more with these same views here in Labrador. (C`mon Politicians From your Homeland, Join as One) and we here in Labrador will be your biggest supporters.

No Dial Tone

I just saw in the news this morning that the Taliban are threatening to disrupt cell phone service in Afghanistan in an effort to hinder communications.



So lets see now.....one of the poorest, war torn, backward countries in the world has cell phone service while most of Labrador does not!

Whats In A Name

After all the guess where pictures from last week I've been thinking about place names in Labrador. While I realize they had names long before Europeans stepped foot in Labrador its still interesting how names sometimes change or evolve over the years. Sometimes its just down to pronounciation of words or some regional dialect differences. Bobbin Joyce, Bob & Joyce, Bob & Joys, Bob Joys (Brook) comes to mind....all the same place! Then are places that seem to have been deliberately renamed at some point, for example whats now known as North River was originally called Cartwright River by George Cartwright in the late 1700's.

Maybe its time to have some kind of official record of the place names while some of the older generation is still around?

The interactive map I had on the website for place names a few years ago was discontinued because it started to get quite inaccuarate because I don't think a lot of people were zooming in on the map enough before placing their markers.

Snow & Chocolate

Valentine's Day is tomorrow, another day where the chocolate flows wilder than the Churchill River. What is it with winter holidays and chocolate? At Christmas we see endless boxes of chocolates, chocolate santas, chocolate Rudolph, chocolate trees and so on.
Easter theres the chocolate bunnies, chocolate eggs, chocolate roosters and I bet somewhere theres a chocolate Jesus!
Tomorrow the chocolate hearts will be everywhere. The chocolate companies take in millions at these three times of year! Makes you want to start a chocolate factory......ohhhh wait.....Joey Smallwood already tried that in just one of his hair brained schemes that went bust.
I wonder would it work any better today?...................nahhhhh thats just the chocolate messing with my brain!

Facebook

I must say I do like most things about the social network site Facebook and have to confess spending too much time on it from time to time. BUT SERIOUSLY the endless funwall requests and having to invite 20 friends to get to see anything all the time is really starting to get annoying. That being said theres still that strange fascination of seeing bits of other people's lives.

Anyway thats my only complaint for the day, aside from the weather that is!

Happy Trails

Why is it Labrador cant capitalize on such a thriving snowmobile market? According to ISMA snowmobilers spent more than $20 billion last year on equipment, accessories and vacations thus creating jobs for tens of thousands of people.

A study in Quebec in 1997 revealed $1.5 billion is generated annually by the snowmobile industry in the province. That same year Quebec saw more than 7600 snowmobile related tourists from other provinces and the USA.

Quebec winter conditions are very similar to Labrador when it comes to terrain and snow conditions. If anything Labrador should be more attractive due to its more pristine environment.

Where Quebec differs is in its government promotion of the industry. Dont see much promotion of Labrador trails by the Colonial Lords in Newfoundland do we?
But where Quebec is one of the premeir snowmobiling destination in the world is in its trail system. The province has more than 33,000 kms of groomed and maintained trails. There are more kms of groomed trails in Quebec than there are paved roads.

Footnote.......Trail Pass Prices In Quebec 2007-08

225 $ for a annual trail permit purchased on or before Dec. 9, 2007
250 $ for a annual trail permit purchased after Dec. 9, 2007
300 $ for a annual trail permit sold on trail*
150 $ for a 7 day trail permit
50 $ per day for a daily trail permit
380 $ for a annual trail permit for snowmobiles used by rental companies

Photo challenge

[John] Hickey in turn challenged [Darrell] Brenton to drive across the test strip of double chipseal that runs in front of his residence in Goose Bay, saying, "You will not find a bump or crack in that double chipseal, and I challenge anyone to try."

— Premier comes to town to make TLH announcement,
Heather George, 53 North, July 1st, 2007, p. 3

So, how about it, shutterbugs?

Fling Out The Flag

I received this in an email last night, the composer prefers to remain anonymous.

Based on that infernal "Fling out the flag..." song, theShanneygannock Nfld. separatist version that CBC plays all the time:

The Flag of Labrador

The blue, the sea and rivers free; The white, the boundless ice and snows;While in between the spruce’s green That o’er our own true homeland grows.

Then hail the blue, the green, the white; Long may it fly, for ever moreUnder the skies and the northern lights, To form the flag of Labrador !

From Height of Land to the Wonderstrand, Where we in our hearts or our footsteps roam,Grand River’s side to the Belle Isle’s tide, Our own true flag shall mark our home.

Come what the hand of fate demand, What may be ordained in heav’n above,Come yet the day where we make our way, In this, the land we shall always love.

So fling out the flag o’er Torngat’s crag;Blue, white and green: let it rise and soar!Long may it sway o’er bight and bay, Upon the land of Labrador !

Crime Wave

Break ins, thefts, vandalism....none of which are new to Cartwright or any other town for that matter, but the increase in frequency of of these crimes lately is troubling. Is this the work of different perpetrator(s) each time or are these crimes the work of same individual or group?

As it is with most crimes it is more than likely that more people other than the person(s) who commit the act know of the activity. More often than not these situations tend to end up in a conspiracy of silence where friends and peers refuse to "snitch".

But comfort can be taken in the fact that the truth always has a way of coming out in the end.




One of the old cannon displays vandalised on Flagstaff hill - Feb.04/2008

Back Up Back Up Back Up!

I cant emphasize enough how important it is to perform regular backups on your computer. Trust me, sooner or later your personal computer will run into problems to the point where your data will be at risk. If its a catastrophic crash you may even lose your stuff forever.

You dont need to backup up everything, just things that are irreplaceable. For example your pictures, if all you backed up were your pictures you would be saving yourself a lot of grief down the road.

There are several ways of backing up your files. Probably the most common is storing your stuff on blank cd-r. Depending on the resolution of your pictures you could store hundreds of pictures on one cd and now with dvd burners being common you can store thousands of pictures on a blank dvd.
An external hard drive is another option, some of these drives have the option where all you do is push one button and it backs up your stuff automatically.
USB thumb drives are getting so big in storage capacity these days that they could be an option.
I see more and more people with multiple computers in the home these days, you could share your important data between computers across a home network as a form of backup.

Remember no matter how well you think your computer is running today, it all could crash tomorrow.

SO BACK UP

Exploding gas tanks

from suv1
I saw this morning the report by CBC on the exploding V800,s in Rigolet. First of all I like to wish Mr. Williams a speedy recovery, someone must have been watching over his shoulder, he is "lucky" to get away with his life. Secondly I'm not going to sit on my &#@ and wait for BRP to do an investigation on the matter, we all know how "quick on the trigger" they try to put a "band-aid" on the problem. I don't know if the incident was caused by a default in the V800 models or some other "act of god". I want some answers and quick, I well be on the phone with BRP again today and this time I won't be so "mellow".CBC also reported there was a recall on gas tanks that may explode on this model in the US 3 months ago.Once again I encourage anyone who has 800 4-stroke to call BRP today or as soon as possible, you or your family may be at risk.You don't need to be a V800 4-Stroke owner to do this, anyone can make a complaint. BRP Customer Service 1-800-882-2900Recall: 2007328 BOMBARDIER Date: Oct 10, 2007 Vehicles: 1,155On certain snowmobiles, the fuel tank may crack, allowing fuel and or fuel vapour to leak. A fuel leak, in the presence of an ignition source, could result in a vehicle fire causing property damage and/or personal injury
Where does this leave us, has there been warnings or notifications?

Some interesting discussion on this subject on DooTalk Forums

A town on death row

Grand Riverkeeper Labrador

Off to the woods

Today I am pissed off because someone is felling trees on a small pond on the route to my woodpath. The least people can do is go off the trails and ponds far enough so the fish are safe from sawdust in their gills when the snow melts. I WILL report this abuse if I am asked. There is a responsibility that we have to nature when we pick up a chainsaw, no matter what our background. It may be time for educating our children to the benefits of a healthy environment. Wildlife and Forestry, go into the schools. (note:reminder)