dryfly

Snuffy. That is the most logical discussion I've heard on this. Thanks. "And Snuffy, please don't confuse us with those pesky "facts". They get in the way of our conjecture. "Ignore the Texan (rickr) .. he is just spiffing you. Thanks again. Clive

"The fact hat this virus has killed over 4,000 people in the last year and they certainly were all not young or old or were immunity deficient... should indicate this is not your average virus!" Others have already addressed this. For those affected this is a so sad, but 4K worldwide is very (very) low. Never to be trusted for accuracy, Wikipedia states: "Typically, in a year's normal two flu seasons (one per hemisphere), there are between three and five million cases of severe illness and up to 500,000 deaths worldwide..." One hundred times as many people die annually from "regular" flu compared to h1n1 in the past year. "Do you guys think it is the media jumping on something they can dwell on and scare people into reading the papers and watching the news? In turn it like a snowball rolling downhill." The mantra of MSM (mainstream media) is Goods news is no news. And bad news is good news. I am tending to think swine flu is being over sold. Swine flu is tough to call because it is a virus and could get out of hand. Imagine if "the authorities" let it slide and it got out of hand. Oh my. Canadians will long carry the scar of the Red Cross Blood Scandal in which, "More than 1,000 Canadians became infected with blood-borne HIV and up to 20,000 others contracted hepatitis C after receiving tainted blood products in the 1980s and early 1990s." That gets the attention of health authorities. They can't let that happen again.

There is some technical stuff here. Includes some fact sheets. To the best of my knowledge, this is didymo (below.) ... at least the gray-tan gunk is. The bright green algae is something else. There are taken below the OM dam. Didymo has been there almost since the dam was built. It covers rocks and breaks away as is shown here. It is also called "toilet paper" algae. It is not an algae, but a freshwater microscopic diatom. What is confusing is that the references claim it prefers "warm" water. Whereas the water below the dam stays open all year, the water temps are cold all year long and it is chilly even in summer because it is a down-draw dam. Still, it seems to like it there.

It is a moving target. One suspects no agency knows for sure and the media has created a lot of hype..that seems to be their job, eh? At the moment, the case seems to be overstated (i.e. relatively very few deaths globally), yet one assumes it has the potential of getting out of hand fast. Who knows? I've not had a flu shot for years. Am considering it this season. Not sure. I've been using hand sanitizer for years (a wee bit paranoid. .. learned to be that way during my dozen trips to China) and friends used to laff at my hand cleaning. Guess who uses the stuff now? I was in China at the peak of SARS and sometimes wore cheap paper face masks..especially on planes. They offer little or no protection from virus-laden body aerosals, but they sure stop you from touching your face and mouth. You don't realize how often you touch your mouth until you put on a small paper face mask. I digress. This morning, I was feeling a tad off myself ...

Ah alhuger. A great example of an ad hominem attack. You can't argue the science so you attack the messengers. Well done. Clive

"Clive and Sundance's winter hobby" Yeah cause it's too damn cold to fish. We are actually hitting a river today ... might be just a nice drive and lunch. Who knows?

Prologue: The MOST significant thing about the current cooling trend in global temperatures is that none of the IPCC models predicted cooling. None. We are constantly bombarded with dire warnings of how hot it will be based on computer models and these models were (and are) wrong. They were wrong because they do not take into account all of the myriad of variables that affect climate. They were focused on carbon dioxide as a primary driver of climate which is (and was) utter nonsense. The models did not place enough emphasis on the sun and oceans. But climate is so very complex it will never be modeled accurately even in the lifetimes of the younger set here. Just too complex. And we are planning to waste trillions of dollars based on bad computer models. What a crime, when so many in this world don't have clean water and good health care. Anyone who continues to support the concept of man-made global warming is part of the world's greatest crime against humanity. Yes the world's climate is changing. It always has changed and always will change. The climate in our region (and in the world) is always going one way or another in a quasi random fashion or part of natural cycles governed by things we don't comprehend...can't comprehend. The world's oceans and sun energy being two often cited causes of change. Deal with change. Don't try to fight it ... because that is a war that can't be won. Clive =============================================================== A Cherry-Picker’s Guide to Temperature Trends by Chip Knappenberger Accusations of cherry-picking—that is, carefully choosing data to support a particular point—are constantly being hurled around by all sides of the climate change debate. Most recently, accusations of cherry-picking have been levied at analyses describing the recent behavior of global average temperature... Figure 1 illustrates the various cherry varieties that you have to choose from. It shows the global temperature history during the past 20 years as compiled in five different datasets (three representing surface temperatures, and two representing the temperatures in the lower atmosphere as measured by satellites—the latter being relatively immune form the data handling issues which plague the surface records). Global temperature anomalies from September 1989 through August 2009 as contained in five different data compilations. The GISS (Goddard Institute for Space Studies), NCDC (National Climate Data Center), and CRU (Climate Research Unit) data are all compiled from surface records, while the RSS (Remote Sensing Systems) and UAH (University of Alabama-Huntsville) data are compiled from satellite observations of the lower atmosphere. Figure 2. Cherry-Pickers Guide to Global Temperature Trends. Each point on the chart represents the trend beginning in September of the year indicated along the x-axis and ending in August 2009. The trends which are statistically significant (p<0.05) are indicated by filled circles. The zero line (no trend) is indicated by the thin black horizontal line, and the climate model average projected trend is indicated by the thick red horizontal line. .... I also include several other items of potential interest to the cherry harvesters; first is the dotted horizontal line representing a trend of zero—i.e., no change in global temperature, and second, the thick red horizontal lines which generally indicates the average trend projected to be occurring by the ensemble of climate models. Bear in mind that red line only represents the average model expectation, not the range of model variability. So it shouldn’t be used to rule out whether or not a particular observed value is consistent with model expectations, but does give you some guidance as to just how far from the average model expectation the current trend lies (a cherry picker is not usually worried about the finer details of the former, but, instead, the coarser picture presented by the latter). .... General Conclusions Here are a few general statements that can be supported with using my Cherry-Pickers Guide: • For the past 8 years (96 months), no global warming is indicated by any of the five datasets. • For the past 5 years (60 months), there is a statistically significant global cooling in all datasets. • For the past 15 years, global warming has been occurring at a rate that is below the average climate model expected warming

"Something tells me I know of whom you are speaking." Yes you do, it was either Peter or Geordie...can't recall. We all nearly died laffing when they offered the offending chicken as a peace offering in a casserole. Pretty bizarre. And the pigeon story was too funny. The guy who killed it was a"prominent" member of the school system. I can't wait for free-range chickens to be wandering around "Cow Town. Stay Tuned.

Oh crap .. forgot all about this. Pretty funny. We had neighbors in Brooks who had animals .. pigeons, chickens, bunnies. The damn vermin would wander around their yard and into other yards. This was 25 and 30 years ago. Story #1 One day a chicken pecked one of the neighbor kids (~2 years old) right above an eye. The chicken owner felt bad so killed the chicken and made a casserole with it for the parents of the pecked kid. Probably trying to avoid a law suit. Story #2. They had pigeons. One was particularly aggressive. It once tried to hump one of my rubber boots .. while I was wearing it. Anyway this damn bird liked to perch on one of the other neighbor's porch lights. Naturally it *hit all over the porch, so the porch owner killed the damn pigeon. Well holy cow, the pigeon owner learned of this and OMG she came unglued. She came over to my house and was crying and moaning. I pretended I knew nothing about it all and tried to act sympathetic--while busting a gut laffing inside. She asked me what I thought. I forget what I said, but she finally went away in tears. Kinda funny she'd kill a chicken that was a nuisance, but lose it when someone whacked one of her pet pigeons. It all was very funny. Maybe you had to be there.

From the VERY eco left the BBC in England ..click here. And this has nothing to do with the fact that it is minus 24°C in Waterton this morning...that is just weather. No chance of one last fling at Police this year. And it was still snowing a lot in May and freezing well into June. But that is just weather, eh? The fact is the world has cooled for the past decade and now the BBC has come out of the closet and admitted it.

Sure glad this sort of BS is lowering world temperatures. NOT! This was in Lethbridge two days ago. Single lady driving alone ... of course.

"rumor has it the NHL is thinking of awarding the Calgary Flames the stanley Cup as they have already won 4 in a row... "

Yeah Ray .. we are all saying the same thing. I sorta agree with you Don, "It's about choices when there is choices." and "sometimes the only choice is junk." There is almost always an option to buy somewhat good quality "stuff." But, too, when you buy Inglis and Maytag the prices skyrocket and sometimes it is just mediocre merchandise with fancy labeling. If we do not buy fancy, sooner or later we won't have the choice. Our first microwave was purchased in 1978 and it lasted about 13 years. (Ha ha. Never today!) But it also weighed more than my truck and birds actually fell out of the sky when the beast was running and emitting evil death rays. (That might explain some of my problems, eh?) But it also cost $800 in 1978 dollars or (what?) about $2,400 in today's money. Today you can get a disposable microwave for about one hunnert bucks. Clive Crap it is cold outside. Many records set in SW Alberta last night. Officially it was -24°C in Waterton last nite. The mean daily temp has been 24 degrees below the "normal mean" for the day. Brrrrrrrrrrr

"Do you know what commercial tying does to your brain........" This discussion is absolutely no different than the "raising home-grown egg" discussion. It is about choices. Buy local. Buy imported. Make/grow yer own. Do without. If we don't like California strawberries in winter because they taste lousy then we don't buy 'em. Same with El Cheapo off-shore flies. We can "grow our own" or buy local at a higher price. (Except you can't get local strawberries in winter, eh? ) One has to be careful about calculating the price of "home made" and "home grown." We can "get our jollies" from growing/making our own but at what cost? Not cheaper that's for sure.

INHO big business will never allow it .. nor will the "arts" community. As for banning copyright for writers and photographers, Flytyer is correct. It is bad enough now, but artists simply will never let their stuff go if it is not protected. That is contrary to the basic tenet of the professors. i.e. it will stifle creation. Eliminating copyright would mean that literature and art are not protected. We could all steal any creation of another. We could photograph original works of art (say, paintings) and sell reproductions. We could steal great works of literary art. That would stifle creation which is contrary to what the professors were claiming. They seemed to be more concerned with protection of technological advances. They mention high cost of drugs. Fine, but when it takes many (many) millions and many years to create a new medicine a company deserves protection. Not offering that protection would mean new medicines are not created contrary to what the profs say. The only way around that is to "nationalize" drug production and let the government handle it all like in extreme socialist or communists states. Humm ... not happening. They make a good case on one point, "The authors argue that license fees, regulations and patents are now so misused that they drive up the cost of creation and slow down the rate of diffusion of new ideas." Most of us could never afford to patent anything. Just too damn many regs and lawyers involved. Let's put the article in perspective. These guys are economists that have scant connection with the real world. If all the economists in the world were lined up end to end up in a row ... that would a good thing.

Good points from all. Taco Taco taco .. I may have the original somewhere. Just some quick comments to Mike....IN CAPS .. NOT A FLAME.. My complaint is if I want to buy a non-GM food food gm THE LOSS OF SOME GM PRODUCE SUCH AS POTATOES WAS A CRYING SHAME. OUTSTANDING TECHNOLOGY THAT COULD ALL BUT ELIMINATE THE USE OF INSECTICIDES. AND THE PUBLIC QUASHED THE NEW GM SPUD LINES. WAS A SHAME. THE NEGATIVE MEDIA ATTITUDE COVERAGE OF GM FOODS WAS UNFORTUNATE AND UNCALLED FOR. MAN HAS BEEN ALTERING CROPS FOR A COUPLE OF THOUSAND YEARS. MOST GM APPS WERE MINOR CHANGES THAT COULD HAVE REDUCED PESTICIDE USE. GM TECHNOLOGY 'GENERALLY' IS A GOOD THING AND THE USE OF THE TERM 'FRANKENFOODS' BY GREENPEACE (?) WAS ABSURD. I find it it unsettling that chemical producers like Monsanto etal are now selling seed to farmers with VERY strict conditions. LIKE WHAT? THERE ARE RESTRICTIONS ON REPLANTING. NO DIFFERENT THAN BUYING A BOOK. YOU CAN'T MAKE A PHOTOCOPY OF IT. FARMERS WANT THE BEST POSSIBLE SEED TO GROW PROFITABLE CROPS AT THE LOWEST COST. HI-END SEEDS ARE OFTEN WORTH EVERY PENNY TO PRODUCERS. I think we are losing our diversity in seed etc. THERE IS MORE DIVERSITY IN POTATO GENETICS (FOR EXAMPLE) TODAY THAN AT ANY TIME IN HISTORY. THERE ARE THOUSANDS OF POTATO VARIETIES WORLDWIDE AND BREEDERS INCORPORATE GENES FROM WILD STRAINS TO IMPROVE DISEASE RESISTANCE AND ENHANCE EDIBILITY OR NUTRITION. TELL ME YOU DON'T LIKE TODAY'S SWEET CORN BETTER THAN 30 YEARS AGO. HUGE IMPROVEMENTS IN SUGAR LEVELS AND "BEST BEFORE...." OLD CORN VARIETIES WERE SO STARCHY AFTER ONE DAY THEY WERE INEDIBLE. I do not like the idea that one or two mega corps are slowly taking over food supply. THERE ARE HUNDREDS OF FOOD MAJORS IN THE WORLD. A FEW CONTROL A LOT OF PRODUCTION FOR SURE. My comment about China and other third world producers is concern about the lack of regulations about what can and cannot be used on food crops. TOTALLY VALID. I HAVE SEEN THINGS THAT DISTURB ME IN CHINA. WE ARE IMPORTING SNOW PEAS FROM CHINA. IT IS RIDICULOUS. A CASE CAN BE MADE FOR TRUCKING CARROTS FROM (SAY) CALIFORNIA (INEXPENSIVE AND CHEAPER THAN STORING LOCAL CARROTS FOR SEVERAL MONTHS) .. BUT CHINA? IT SCARES ME A BIT. AND THAT BASTARD Galen Weston HAS THE NERVE TO TELL US THAT SUPER STORE BUYS "FROM A FARM NEAR YOU" I DO NOT LIKE Galen Weston AT ALL...YUPPIE BILLIONAIRE. I WROTE THOSE BASTARDS AT SUPER STORE LAST YEAR BECAUSE THEY DID NOT HAVE A "GROWN LOCALLY" SIGN ON ALBERTA GREENHOUSE TOMATOES AND PEPPERS AND YET THEY HAD "GROWN ON A FARM NEAR YOU" OVER SOME MANGOES FROM COSTA RICA AND ORANGES FROM CALIFORNIA. THEY NEVER REPLIED. THAT STUFF REALLY TICKE ME OFF AND I LET 'EM KNOW. THREE WEEKS AGO I STOMPED OVER TO THE 'CUSTOMER SERVICE' COUNTER AT OUR S/S AND SOMEWHAT POLITELY SAID "THIS PLUM WAS GROWN IN CALIFORNIA. [iT HAD A STICKER ON IT.] IT HAS A SIGN OVER IT TELLING US IT WAS LOCAL AND EVEN HAD A MAPLE LEAF ON THE SIGN. CHANGE THE SIGN." WE SHOUDL ALL POINT THIS BULLSHIT OUT AT THE STORE LEVEL. It also bothers me that we are becoming totally dependent on them for our food. WE COULD DO WELL WITHOUT CHINA. BUT WE DO RELY ON PLACES LIKE CHILE (GRAPES) AND CENTRAL AMERICA FOR MANY FRUITS IN WINTER. IT IS A PERSONAL CHOICE. WE CAN INDEED BY B.C. APPLES MOST OF THE YEAR AND WE CAN GET SOME CARROTS AND CABBAGE GROWN IN WESTERN CANADA FOR SEVERAL MONTHS. (BTW..THE BASSANO GROWER CARROTS HAVE BEEN GREAT. $3 FOR 5 POUNDS OF GOOD TASTING CARROTS!! TRY 'EM.) Fresh food is not necessary the best food as far as nutrition. In order to withstand the rigors of shipping, fruits and veggies are picked early and may be a variety that is best for transport and not taste etc. You are better off in some cases using frozen foods which are picked at there peak. EXCELLENT POINT. PROCESSED FOODS INDEED HOLD MANY ADVANTAGES FOR CONSUMERS. TAKE (SAY) FROZEN PEAS. THEY ARE FLASH FROZEN WITHIN 2 HOURS OF HARVEST. MOST OTHER FROZEN VEGGIES ARE PROCESSED WITHIN HOURS AND NUTRITION IS LOCKED IN. (I LIKE FROZEN STRAWBERRIES NUKED WITH HONEY. YUM!) THE MEDIA HAS ABUSED PROCESSED FOODS A LOT AND IT IS UNWARRANTED. YES, I PREFER FRESH VEGGIES AS DO YOU I BET. WE BUY MOSTLY FRESH. BUT PROCESSING ADDS TO OUR ABILITY TO BUY "LOCAL" ALL YEAR..OR AT LEAST CANADIAN. I REALLY LIKE FROZEN SPINACH. GREAT STUFF. WE BUY IT QUITE OFTEN. My local chicken supplier was shut down by a marketing board as he got too popular and my beef/bison supplier quit because he could make a decent living. PROBABLY BECAUSE HIS SMALL-SCALE COST OF PRODUCTION WERE RELATIVELY HIGH. McCains and High Liner are allowed to buy frozen fish in a 1 cubic meter from God knows where, process it and market it as "Made in Canada" I DON'T THINK MCAINS DO FISH BUT COULD BE WRONG. (I CAN'T EAT FISH SO WOULDN'T KNOW). THE "PRODUCT OF CANADA" LAWS ARE ABSURD AS WENDY MESLEY TOLD US. THE PROCESSORS BUY BIN RUN POLLACK (WTF THAT IS??) AND ADD CRUMBLES TO IT AND CALL IT "PRODUCT OF CANADA." NONSENSE. I agree we have the best food production and safety in the world, but my concern is that is being eroded by cheap and not necessarily safe imports. WE REALLY DO HAVE A SAFE AND INEXPENSIVE FOOD SUPPLY. "cheap ... imports" THAT IS MAINLY A FUNCTION OF CONSUMER DEMAND. WE WANT CHEAP FOOD. WE ALL HAVE THE CHOICE TO NOT BUY IMPORTS. " not necessarily safe imports. " THIS IS A MAJOR CONCERN OF US ALL. BUT C.F.I.A. CAN ONLY DO SO MUCH INSPECTING DUE TO BUDGETS. I TRUST FOOD FROM MOST PLACES. I'D EAT CHILEAN GRAPES ANY DAY HAVING SEE HOW THEY OPERATE..TOP-DRAWER. I'VE BEEN TO CHINA TWELVE TIMES AND LEARY OF ANYTHING FROM CHINA. WE HAVE PURCHASED THE SNOW PEAS BECAUSE THEY SHOULD NOT REQUIRE ANY BUG CONTROL. BUT I HAVE WITNESSED UNSAFE PESTICIDE APPLICATIONS IN NORTHERN CHINA. UNSAFE TO THE OPERATORS FOR SURE AND YOU CAN BE SURE MANY OF THE REGS (SAY, 'DAYS TO HARVEST') ARE IGNORED. AND ONE ASSUMES THAT IMPORTERS DO NOT ASK THE CHINESE EXPORTERS FOR PRODUCTION RECORDS..THEY NOT BE ACCURATE ANYWAY. Food is a fun topic. Mike .. there is a lot of misconception about food. It is complex. Most folks have few clues about how food is produce and how complex production is. Off topic a bit. I am not sure if this is in place right now..we are close. You could take a bag of frozen french fries and find out the following about it: where the seed came from, planting date, fertilizers used and pest control products uses, rates and app dates, harvest dates and where it was stored and in what part of a specific storage it came from and when it came out of storage and when it was processed. Mike ... BTW .. I wrote a "codes of practice" for the potato industry a few years ago. You can get a copy here. Even a comment on GM spuds. I am a food expert .. just ask my bathroom scales. Best Clive

"You are obviously a whore of big corporations and as such are not rational." HA HA. And I am in great company! I generally despise big companies. But, the alternative is not swell either. I am no damn good at making shoes and hewing wood and water and milling corn and drilling for oil.

"So, everyone's happy with Monsanto, Maple Leaf and third world countries including China controlling our food supply?" Not sure what is meant by that. Large companies do indeed produce a lot of food mostly via small family farms. Large companies hewed the wood and mined the "cement" my house is made from. Large companies made my vehicles, clothes, computers, TVs and print the book I read. The general reason is "economies of scale." Oh yes, most folks at FFC are employed by large companies. Western European and North American (and elsewhere) food production is the most productive and efficient in the world. It provides safe, nutritious and inexpensive food to the masses. Less than 2 percent of Canadians supply food to 98 percent of the rest of us and also export a lot. The yields of safe, nutritious foods on modern farms is unbelievably high. The LAST thing any of us want is to revert to a society where over 50 percent of the population is trying to produce food on small inefficient subsistence farms. They are an outrageously inefficient use of humans. I've seen it many times in Northern China, Mongolia and Central and South American countries. In a cold northern climate, the concept of "food miles" (and 100-mile diet) is nothing more than a "feel good" statement with little practical application regarding feeding the vast majority of people. In winter a lot of our fresh food has to come from elsewhere. The Canadian Cancer Society tells use to eat five to ten servings of fresh fruits and veggies daily. We can store Canadian apples well for many months. We can do a great job supplying fresh potatoes (out of storage) for about 8 or 9 months. Carrots and cabbages store "okay" but storages are expensive and it becomes difficult to maintain quality after the early new Year. Oh yes and rutabagas store well. But you'd soon get tired of cabbage, rutabagas, carrots and spuds wouldn't you? You could live most healthily with these few veggies and apples. Producing most vegetables in greenhouses in winter is simply not practical. The light levels are so low in our winters that crops (say cauliflower) that might take 80 days to grow in summer will take 150 pr more days in winter in a greenhouse..I've done it. Yet heating costs in greenhouses are very high in winter. We currently produce tomatoes, peppers and cukes from GHs about 9 to 10 months per year. These are very high-value crops that produce huge yields because of how they grow...they grow UPWARD and produce in a volume of space vs. on the ground like cabbage. We do okay supplying animal meats 12 months per year. So we can get "local" meats and some produce year round. But most of what is in your refrigerator comes from somewhere else for most of the year. We can talk about "the 100-mile diet" at cocktail parties (and in the media), but TRY and abide by it in January. Not happening. That does no mean we should not strive to increase production of locally grown produce for the few weeks a year we can realistically do that. It is hard work and most Canadians simply can make a lot more money working at a job ... to house and feed their family. Clive PS: This is not intended to be arrogant. Just reality and perspective. I wrote the first-ever handbook for market gardeners in Alberta in about 1973 and the first production guide for commercial vegetable producers in Alberta in 1978 and the first production guide for potato producers in Alberta in 1985. I have owned small tree farm and produced several "market garden" crops for sale at farmers markets. I've travelled to these countries as an observer and consultant in vegetable, potato and greenhouse crop production: Iceland, Ireland, several Canuck provinces, many US states, Mongolia (the country) and China. Seen it all. The good, the bad and the ugly. We have it VERY good here regarding food production. Be thankful this weekend...and every day.

"No worries, it won't below zero for long." The mean annual temperature in SW Alberta has been declining for 25 years. Yup..getting colder here.

SL said "...I wouldn't raise chickens primarily because of heating issues and time. That said, using your urban space to raise grass has got to be one of the biggest wastes in our cities." Your first point is totally valid BUT something some will not think about. There will be some successes, but guaranteed some dismal failures. Regarding grass... well stated. I am not sure it is an actual waste but emphasizes the point that the lawns COULD be used for raising veggies. But then what do you do with the area for 7 or 8 months a year? Works for some, but most urbanites are too lazy..me for example. A lawn is better than bare soil, weeds or gravel. A lot of city folks like their space and generally having a lawn is nothing to be ashamed of and attractive. Some of the zero lawn front yards with rocks and gravel and junipers are most attractive. Some look great. Some look like gravel piles. Should we regulate the size of yards per person? Should we force everyone to live in condos and row houses with no yards? Even row housing development have lawns. I think city bylaws require certain amounts of greenspace per unit. Overall, green spaces are good and noting to be ashamed of.

Harps said, "On the otherhand, It's nice to raise a few chickens over a summer to let you know that you can....It's not about green, it's about a sustaining lifestyle and the empowerment that comes from knowing you can raise your own meat" That is mostly all valid. I don't buy the sustaining lifestyle argument because of the economies of scale in small operations like the backyard. BUT proving something to yourself is all good. Nothing wrong with that. I think where most will fail will be in the dead of winter. ("Hon?! The power went out and chickens have no clucked since 4 AM!" ) Thinking one is saving the universe by spending $600 on a chicken coop to raise a few eggs will not save the universe.

EDIT: canadensis is "spot on" on this matter..well done canadensis... it is pure hypocrisy and yuppie, eco weenie BS... Another example of "unintended consequences" It is a grand eco-weenie scheme to go "back to the land." The bylaw will crash and burn if passed. Just a matter of time before: 1) There is another bird flu "scare" (real or imagined) and folks will have to kill their birds and they will have to be incinerated at city (taxpayer expense) 2) They start getting abused and PETA and the Humane Society get involved. Chicken-rancher wannabees will get ticketed for animal abuse. 3) They start dying when it is -38°C .. free-range and chickens and winter should not be used in the same sentence. 4) People realize they are a pain in the arse and start abandoning them. 5) They start dying on people and folks start leaving them in the garbage cans when it is 32°C and they start stinking. Yum rotting dead meat. 6) They start attracting coyotes and skunks. 7) Neighbors start complaining about the bloody noise and stink..and many people will NOT go about this right and keep them properly housed. 8) Store-bought chicken is inexpensive (and safe) and people will realize it is a helluva lot less expensive to buy 'em at Costco than raise them. 9) Someone will not look after their flocks properly and sooner or later someone will get sick from eating improperly handled/killed chickens. All or some of the above WILL happen sooner or later. Guaranteed. It is bloody joke doomed for complete failure. Just a matter of time before it is rescinded. Cheers! Clive

max .. you should get out more often. Great stuff. Thanks. Clive

One of the F&W officers in Blairmore asked me to post this on FFC. If you have any information regarding this incident please contact the Blairmore office or call RAP. Thanks, Clive _________________________________________________________________________ On September 15, 2009 the Blairmore Fish and Wildlife Office received a call on the REPORT A POACHER hotline. The caller was concerned about finding evidence of fish poaching on the Oldman River, north of the Crowsnest Pass. The incident took place approximately 5.5 km upstream of Hwy 22 on the north side of the river accessed via the gravel road leading to the Bob Creek Wildland. At a popular parking spot, four fresh fish gut piles lay in the grass. All appeared to be from large trout. When the witness went down to the river, further evidence of poaching was found. Laying in a pile were ten more whole rainbow trout, in the 16-20 inch range, along with a large bull trout exceeding 23 inches. This section of the Oldman River is a designated catch and release only fishery, making the killing and or wasting of any fish illegal. It appears as though the violation occurred on either September 13 or 14th. (Sunday or Monday.) This incident is of particular concern due to number of breeding age fish killed and the fact so many were left to rot. Further to this is the fact that all bull trout in Alberta are protected due to their threatened status. If you have any information about this incident or any other poaching complaint please call the Report A Poacher hotline at 1-800-642-3800 or the Blairmore District Office at 403-562-3289. All callers can remain anonymous and are eligible for a reward.

A question for SL who said, I try to grow a lot of my own food. Just wondering how you do that from October to June? Do you eat out? Do you buy Alberta-grown veggies in December? Do you eat prepared foods? Do yo eat everything raw? How much more efficient (or inefficient) is it for you to produce a kilo of carrots compared to a 500-hectare carrot farm? How much native grassland had to disappear so you can grow a few kilos of veggies each year for a few weeks? Just wondering these things out loud. You don't have to answer. Snide comment... I use public transit, or bicycle to go to work ... Vast areas of Alberta have no practical public transit. It is only half practical in large cities ... you know, those vast, polluting environment destroying monstrosities. Ironically (according so some sociologist-geographer types), cities start become terribly inefficient when they exceed something like 200,000 people because so much time and effort is wasted just getting around. I live in a small burg and although we shop in a nearby city for selection and price for most things, I can still walk to the post office, food market, drug store, barber shop, bank and insurance office...heck they are all in the same block. Maybe public transit is just a way to justify and already inefficient collection of humans.