07 December 2008
News of the Weird
07/12/08 05:51
News of the weird
They found another foot in a tennis shoe this week. DNA has matched it to a foot previously found a few months ago. This makes two full sets, one man and one woman. One other foot has been linked to a depressed person who vanished in 2007. That leaves two single feet not matched. As you might expect we just don't go down to look at flotsam on the beach as much right now.
Yesterday a private plane took off from Nanaimo. A few minutes into the flight the plane lost power and crashed into the sea off of Nanaimo. A rescue hovercraft was dispatched and reached the crash site in a few minutes. Much to their surprise they couldn't find the pilot. It turned out that another plane was close by when the plane went down. He whipped around and landed (the plane was on floats), picked up the pilot and took off. By the time Rescue reached the crash site the pilot of the downed plane, who was uninjured, was back at the Nanaimo airport, drinking hot coffee and drying off. People do look out for each other around here.
In Quebec they have passed a law mandating that all cars must have winter times on between December and March. This has lead to a shortage of winter and snow tires throughout Canada, odd because the law was passed over a year ago but apparently people just now realized that 'all cars' included them. Critics point out that people will have to store the snow tires the rest of the year, no mean feat in an efficiency apartment in Quebec City. They have also asked how police will tell that a particular car on the road has the wrong tires. It is not illegal to have a parked car with summer tires, only to be driving it in the winter, and spinning all tires pretty much look the same.
A Nanaimo man’s $2-billion civil lawsuit over alleged ‘mind control’ was thrown out this week. In the claim he alleged that he was subjected to invasive computer interface technology, research, experiments, field studies and surgery conducted by the University of British Columbia, the RCMP, Microsoft, Google, Telus, Wal-Mart, Cyber Logic, Great Canadian Gaming, the Provincial Sheriff’s Department, the Province of B.C., and all physicians licensed by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of B.C. Rose also claimed the defendants subjected him to satanic situations, chanting and witchcraft. In his written reasons for judgment released this week, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Fraser Wilson called the pleadings frivolous, vexatious, without substance, groundless, fanciful, prejudicial and embarrassing. I think in general courts should be more willing to declare cases as 'embarrassing'. It's also good to know that all the crazies aren't from Oregon.
Lastly, it looks like we may very well have an election soon. The ruling Conservative (or Tory) party is running another minority government. This was only possible because the other three parties divided the vote so badly and couldn't stop squabbling long enough to form a government. (Those of you who aren't familiar with a Parliamentary system are now completely confused. Suffice it to say the head of the largest group in Parliament gets to be Prime Minister.) This week after the PM Steven Harper delivered a budget outlook that essentially did nothing for Canadians hit by the downturn in the economy, the Liberal Party and the New Democrats and the Bloc Quebecois (who normally no one will talk to) set aside their differences and formed a coalition. They were going to table a vote of No Confidence which would have brought down the Tory Government but Stephan Harper did not want to loose his job so first he used a parliamentary maneuver to get the vote delayed by a week. This week he got the Governor General (a representative of the British Crown) to dissolve Parliament until he brings in his Budget Resolution in January. On top of this is the leader of the Liberal Party Stephan Dion, no relation to the singer though both are from Quebec as well and he is amazingly enough even more annoying than she. Dion is quite inept politically and even those who want Harper out in the worst way are not sure they want Dion as Prime Minister. To counteract this, Dion has promised to resign as head of the party, and presumably the PM position, but not until May. Confused Yet? Yeah so are we and most other Canadians. Protests have been held in many cities, even Nanaimo. This is Canada though so they are quite polite protests but nonetheless it was a little strange seeing pickets. The people who support Stephan Harper and the Torys are claiming they were elected with a mandate and it would be undemocratic to replace them now. Remember the Torys got the largest percentage but still only around 40%. It's like the Jesse Ventura Administration. The Coalition supporters say only a coalition with 60% of the vote has a mandate and a group built on compromise and cooperation would do a better job than the autocratic Harper. Privately most of the coalition supporters are hoping that Dion takes a long drive to Nunevit and has car trouble. Nothing dangerous but just enough to delay his return for oh about six months. So at the moment Stephan Harper is still running things and Parliament gets a two month Xmas holiday. If they can't get their differences sorted out next month we could be looking at another election in February or March. ...what fun...
And that's the news of the weird for this week
Take care and have a great week everyone.
P.S. For our former co-workers in FSS, if you want to continue to receive these weekly emails, please reply to this email with your updated address so I can add it to the group. With the dissolution of FSS, Mary will not be able to forward these on any more. Sorry to hear about all of the problems and we wish you all the best.
They found another foot in a tennis shoe this week. DNA has matched it to a foot previously found a few months ago. This makes two full sets, one man and one woman. One other foot has been linked to a depressed person who vanished in 2007. That leaves two single feet not matched. As you might expect we just don't go down to look at flotsam on the beach as much right now.
Yesterday a private plane took off from Nanaimo. A few minutes into the flight the plane lost power and crashed into the sea off of Nanaimo. A rescue hovercraft was dispatched and reached the crash site in a few minutes. Much to their surprise they couldn't find the pilot. It turned out that another plane was close by when the plane went down. He whipped around and landed (the plane was on floats), picked up the pilot and took off. By the time Rescue reached the crash site the pilot of the downed plane, who was uninjured, was back at the Nanaimo airport, drinking hot coffee and drying off. People do look out for each other around here.
In Quebec they have passed a law mandating that all cars must have winter times on between December and March. This has lead to a shortage of winter and snow tires throughout Canada, odd because the law was passed over a year ago but apparently people just now realized that 'all cars' included them. Critics point out that people will have to store the snow tires the rest of the year, no mean feat in an efficiency apartment in Quebec City. They have also asked how police will tell that a particular car on the road has the wrong tires. It is not illegal to have a parked car with summer tires, only to be driving it in the winter, and spinning all tires pretty much look the same.
A Nanaimo man’s $2-billion civil lawsuit over alleged ‘mind control’ was thrown out this week. In the claim he alleged that he was subjected to invasive computer interface technology, research, experiments, field studies and surgery conducted by the University of British Columbia, the RCMP, Microsoft, Google, Telus, Wal-Mart, Cyber Logic, Great Canadian Gaming, the Provincial Sheriff’s Department, the Province of B.C., and all physicians licensed by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of B.C. Rose also claimed the defendants subjected him to satanic situations, chanting and witchcraft. In his written reasons for judgment released this week, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Fraser Wilson called the pleadings frivolous, vexatious, without substance, groundless, fanciful, prejudicial and embarrassing. I think in general courts should be more willing to declare cases as 'embarrassing'. It's also good to know that all the crazies aren't from Oregon.
Lastly, it looks like we may very well have an election soon. The ruling Conservative (or Tory) party is running another minority government. This was only possible because the other three parties divided the vote so badly and couldn't stop squabbling long enough to form a government. (Those of you who aren't familiar with a Parliamentary system are now completely confused. Suffice it to say the head of the largest group in Parliament gets to be Prime Minister.) This week after the PM Steven Harper delivered a budget outlook that essentially did nothing for Canadians hit by the downturn in the economy, the Liberal Party and the New Democrats and the Bloc Quebecois (who normally no one will talk to) set aside their differences and formed a coalition. They were going to table a vote of No Confidence which would have brought down the Tory Government but Stephan Harper did not want to loose his job so first he used a parliamentary maneuver to get the vote delayed by a week. This week he got the Governor General (a representative of the British Crown) to dissolve Parliament until he brings in his Budget Resolution in January. On top of this is the leader of the Liberal Party Stephan Dion, no relation to the singer though both are from Quebec as well and he is amazingly enough even more annoying than she. Dion is quite inept politically and even those who want Harper out in the worst way are not sure they want Dion as Prime Minister. To counteract this, Dion has promised to resign as head of the party, and presumably the PM position, but not until May. Confused Yet? Yeah so are we and most other Canadians. Protests have been held in many cities, even Nanaimo. This is Canada though so they are quite polite protests but nonetheless it was a little strange seeing pickets. The people who support Stephan Harper and the Torys are claiming they were elected with a mandate and it would be undemocratic to replace them now. Remember the Torys got the largest percentage but still only around 40%. It's like the Jesse Ventura Administration. The Coalition supporters say only a coalition with 60% of the vote has a mandate and a group built on compromise and cooperation would do a better job than the autocratic Harper. Privately most of the coalition supporters are hoping that Dion takes a long drive to Nunevit and has car trouble. Nothing dangerous but just enough to delay his return for oh about six months. So at the moment Stephan Harper is still running things and Parliament gets a two month Xmas holiday. If they can't get their differences sorted out next month we could be looking at another election in February or March. ...what fun...
And that's the news of the weird for this week
Take care and have a great week everyone.
P.S. For our former co-workers in FSS, if you want to continue to receive these weekly emails, please reply to this email with your updated address so I can add it to the group. With the dissolution of FSS, Mary will not be able to forward these on any more. Sorry to hear about all of the problems and we wish you all the best.