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By John Klein, on June 9, 2013, at 9:46 pm
I found a new way to appreciate my home town through the eyes of astronomers this weekend. Also, I used the astronomers’ telescopes, which is a great way to look from their perspective on the universe. Wood Mountain is the gateway to the East Block of the Grasslands National Park which is designated as a Dark Sky Preserve. The Park and the RASC Regina branch had Peter McMahon from SkyNews Magazine come out to check out the park and give a presentation.
As the presentation ended, uncommon noctilucent clouds lit up on the northern horizon, illuminated by the set Sun.
(Read more…)
. . . → Read More: Saskboy’s Abandoned Stuff: Dark Sky Preserve at Wood Mountain
By John Klein, on May 30, 2013, at 1:40 pm The Sask Party is putting all of the province’s health related laundry into one laundry basket, in Regina. If you don’t know Saskatchewan geography, this borders on insanity. We’re going to be trucking bed sheets 1000km round trip in some cases. Besides costing jobs for the existing employees, a single laundry plant failure in the future will impact every hospital in the province. “A structural failure in 2011 at the Saskatoon laundry plant caused its closure.”
Maybe it would surprise the Sask. government that there are hospitals outside of Regina and Saskatoon, yet still in Sask.?
If there’s (Read more…)
By John Klein, on May 29, 2013, at 1:00 pm “We depend too much on coal” — @MayorMandel #p2syyc; glad someone said that too— Chris Turner (@theturner) May 29, 2013
.@MMandryk IEA says we have ~3 years left (worldwide) to stop building coal power to avoid 450ppm. SaskParty renewables investment is poor.— Saskboy K. (@saskboy) May 29, 2013
The Leader-Post may be giving kudos to the Sask Party’s singular focus on Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS), but I won’t be. The primary reason CCS (clean coal) is getting so much Conservative and Sask Party government funding, is because it’s a hidden subsidy to the oil (Read more…)
By John Klein, on May 22, 2013, at 12:02 pm Another accidental fire in Lafleche last night, this one attributed initially to careless smoking (is there any other kind?). The Flying Goose Inn, the only bar and hotel in town, burned to the ground. Months ago, M.O.M, the bus station, also burned.
The hotel, a few weeks ago, in April.
Adding a little heartache to this story, it’s Lafleche’s 100th anniversary as a town, and Canada Day weekend is the celebration. Now there are fewer places for visitors to stay and visit in town, and there’s just another burned out lot.
Main St.
On January 10, (Read more…)
By Erin Weir, on May 20, 2013, at 3:59 pm Regina City Council has voted to proceed with a 30-year public-private partnership (P3) in which a private company would design, build, finance, operate and maintain the city’s new waste water treatment facility.
The municipal administration’s rationale has been that, although a P3 will be more expensive than traditional public financing, it is required to access federal money from the P3 Canada Fund.
However, Hugh Mackenzie’s recent analysis concludes that the additional costs of a P3 would actually exceed the full value of the federal grant. As my dad noted with the following letter in Saturday’s Regina Leader-Post, that means (Read more…)
By John Klein, on May 20, 2013, at 12:00 pm What’s it like for a Regina cyclist to go see a movie?
Besides homicidal/comical drivers (from Alberta),
there are flooded Multi Use Pathways,
and underpasses that are creeks.
Persist past those hazards, and there are gravelly “Shared” bike lanes with parked cars ready to give you the “door-prize”.
Can you see drivers being as patient and persistent as Regina’s cyclists? Despite the flooded dead-ends without detour signs, I made the 11km bike ride from the south west, to the north east in under an hour, so I could catch the latest “Star Trek Into Darkness” [10/10]. I’d highly recommend trying (Read more…)
. . . → Read More: Saskboy’s Abandoned Stuff: Cycling In Regina Isn’t Always Easy
By Erin Weir, on May 16, 2013, at 10:51 am My op-ed in today’s Saskatoon StarPhoenix (page A11):
Privatizing ISC is a poor deal for Saskatchewan
The provincial government estimates that selling 60 per cent of the Information Services Corporation will raise up to $120 million for infrastructure investment. Is that a good deal for the people of Saskatchewan?
Last year, ISC generated $20 million of profit for the provincial treasury. Losing 60 per cent of this profit, $12 million, every year is a very costly way to get $120 million of one-time cash. That deal would be equivalent to borrowing in perpetuity at an interest rate of (Read more…)
By Guest Blog, on May 11, 2013, at 5:54 pm By: Andrew Stevens | First published by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives on May 3, 2013: Sweeping changes to Saskatchewan’s labour relations and employment standards legislation are on the verge of being passed. Bill 85, the Saskatchewan Employment Act, will dramatically transform the laws governing trade unions and industrial relations in the province. The [...]
The post Saskatchewan: A beachhead of labour law reform? appeared first on The Canadian Progressive.
By Guest Blog, on May 11, 2013, at 5:54 pm By: Andrew Stevens | First published by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives on May 3, 2013: Sweeping changes to Saskatchewan’s labour relations and employment standards legislation are on the verge of being passed. Bill 85, the Saskatchewan Employment Act, will dramatically transform the laws governing trade unions and industrial relations in the province. The [...]
The post Saskatchewan: A beachhead of labour law reform? appeared first on The Canadian Progressive.
By John Klein, on April 17, 2013, at 3:38 pm The last remnants of a unique ecosystem on Earth are entering what is potentially their last years of natural existence. This will lead to the extinctions of some plants and animals that exist only on the Canadian prairies. Extinctions destabilize an ecosystem, and it’s an ecosystem where humans cannot be assured of long-term survival if it becomes destabilized.
The Conservatives removed protection for the community pastures in an apparent effort to privatize the land. The Sask Party, instead of putting the land under provincial management, has opted to sell off the land, following in the Conservative Party’s wishes. This is
. . . → Read More: Saskboy’s Abandoned Stuff: Abandoned Community Pastures At Risk #cdnpoli #skpoli
By John Klein, on April 8, 2013, at 1:54 am
Saturday’s road trip through the mist and fog yielded me the best wildlife photos I’ve ever had the privilege of shooting. Some photos from the earlier part of the trip I posted on Sunday morning.
-Glentworth, SK
Less than a few kms north of Glentworth, just turning toward the highway headed for Lafleche, we saw two herds on different sides of the road. They waited patiently as the humans in the car took many, many photos.
-My digital zoom and the low light didn’t make all of my photos very crisp, but still good enough.
-”See ya!”
–
As
. . . → Read More: Saskboy’s Abandoned Stuff: Deer-Tour Around Saskatchewan
By John Klein, on April 7, 2013, at 9:30 am I went on a road trip Saturday with my friend Adam K., down to my parents’ place, and his grandparents’ farm. On the way around southern Saskatchewan, we saw close to 150 deer and antelope, a snowy owl, a dozen hawks, a handful of Canada Geese, smaller birds, two dead raccoons, and the final resting place of four children who passed away in 1919 (Spanish Flu maybe?).
The road into Regina was ice, and the road to Moose Jaw was quite a bit better, but still partly covered in a thick layer of ice. There was a semi
. . . → Read More: Saskboy’s Abandoned Stuff: Mini Solar Tour in the Fog of Wood Mountain and Glentworth
By John Klein, on April 2, 2013, at 9:17 am I’m severely disappointed in the lack of vision that conservatives have regarding our economy. Faced with information that burning a lot of fossil fuel is not able to be sustained without Catastrophic, Repulsive, Atmospheric Pollution (CRAP), their response tends toward ignoring evidence of damage to their environment in favour of delaying the predictable economic train wreck that would occur if fuel production were to halt in the span of months or a year.
Jobs are being created to create the doomsday device known as the KXL pipeline. Jobs will be required to [partially] clean up the many spills it
. . . → Read More: Saskboy’s Abandoned Stuff: Oil Spills Create Jobs
By John Klein, on March 27, 2013, at 12:42 am Buffy St. Marie tackled the subject of Aboriginal peoples’ self image. What has been the basis for it? In many cases in popular culture, it’s from philosophers in Europe who never met the First Peoples in their life!
#Buffy event at #FNUniv is almost full 10 min to start. http://t.co/TNO8jZ4K0a— John Klein (@JohnKleinRegina) March 27, 2013
#Buffy lecture opened with an elder ceremony and #FNUniv president. http://t.co/JXQy3d3jYL— John Klein (@JohnKleinRegina) March 27, 2013
The reality is that First Nations civilizations were much more complex, scientific, and peaceful than depicted by European and settler academics and politicians.
. . . → Read More: Saskboy’s Abandoned Stuff: Forward Together #UofR: Buffy St. Marie – Live Blog
By John Klein, on March 25, 2013, at 7:10 pm “Finish your food; there are children starving in… Regina.”
When I first started recovering items from dumpsters, I was of course keenly aware of the social stigma implications. I consoled myself against the probable eventual ridicule by having a personal code, of things I would not salvage. I certainly wouldn’t salvage food, ick. In Regina’s dumpsters, not far from my home, I learned people were discarding money, and cans of food (not opened, not damaged or expired). I couldn’t bear not to save this food and use it, for the simple fact that it was an unexplained waste.
. . . → Read More: Saskboy’s Abandoned Stuff: Doing What’s Right Doesn’t Always Look Cool
By John Klein, on March 21, 2013, at 7:02 pm
On Tuesday I tried to live blog Wab’s lecture from my smart phone, but the WiFi or something else wasn’t working right. The lecture will be online soon, and is on Access Communications coming up very son on Friday and again on Sunday I think I heard. Check it out, it’s awesome. One story involved how he protested against a memo from CBC brass. “Survivors” of residential schools were to be called “former students” according to CBC. More than 3000 children died in those schools. The brass did not heed his caution.
Wab threatened to resign from the CBC. The
. . . → Read More: Saskboy’s Abandoned Stuff: Wab Kinew at UofR Minifie Lecture
By John Klein, on March 5, 2013, at 2:35 pm Wrote this a couple weeks ago, and forgot to publish it. Here it is, in some hindsight. ***
The math outlines the extreme expense incurred by Conservative Senator Pamela Wallin to travel.
Wallin’s travel expenses, which total more than $350,000 over the past 27 months, are currently the subject of an audit.
350K/27mon/30days/mon= $432.09/day roughly She must be absolutely exhausted, because it would take me flying between Ottawa and Regina, and staying in a hotel nearly every other day to make that kind of expense work. The senator from Wadena really must be a workaholic.
This amount doesn’t consider
. . . → Read More: Saskboy’s Abandoned Stuff: Over $400 a day to Travel
By John Klein, on February 28, 2013, at 2:27 am I went to a show tonight with Jesse, after buying a monthly membership at CrashBang Labs (which is in the same building as The Club at The Exchange on 8th Ave.
Real excited to have my song Leaves are falling featured on tonight's episode of @CBCArcticAir! Tune in at 9pm // @Gharv @SaskMusic— Zachary Lucky (@zacharylucky) February 28, 2013
You can listen to Zachary Lucky online or in Saskatoon very soon.
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Dan Geortz was also good. His song about being sold to the circus he footnoted as fiction, especially since his dad was in the
. . . → Read More: Saskboy’s Abandoned Stuff: The Club: Music
By John Klein, on February 21, 2013, at 4:29 pm Meat fraud is taking place all around us. Most people probably can’t tell the difference between similar looking meats sold in stores, were it not for the labeling.
Fish fraud is apparently common in the USA.
Safeway recalled big and juicy E.coli burgers. “Must be cooked” is right on the box, and they weren’t kidding, were they?
I’m not above eating horse meat. I’ve never done it, however. At least, I don’t think I have. Many French and Italians didn’t have a choice if they bought from a mega-meat distributor who decided for them.
What all this brings to
. . . → Read More: Saskboy’s Abandoned Stuff: ReThink Meat
By John Klein, on February 21, 2013, at 12:11 pm The last of the old Lafleche Red & White grocery store, and the former butcher shop that adjoined it to the north, has burned down. Most recently it was M.O.M a coffee shop and store. The main part of the Red & White had been torn down years ago. It was one of the many local grocery stores which my family used during the 80s and early 90s. I remember the three aisle store well, and its toy section at the back corner where I’d ogle the Transformers for sale, but out of my spending power. Instead,
By John Klein, on February 19, 2013, at 10:49 am Doesn’t SGI know it’s not cool to cause an uprising amongst those most likely to ride motorcycles up and down the streets of SGI brass?
The increase in motorcycle insurance rates cannot be to just break even, since the value of the insurance is past the value of the object it is insuring in some cases! A car’s insurance starts out being 1/25th of the total vehicle at times in its life. Toward the end of the vehicles’ mechanical life, it’s still less than 1/2 (annually) in most cases.
SGI should be fair, and any case where the insurance is
. . . → Read More: Saskboy’s Abandoned Stuff: SGI Bike Uprising
By John Klein, on February 17, 2013, at 7:44 pm Stephen McDavid interviewed by CBC/SRC about climate change action: Stephen explains that the pipeline is a line in the sand. Using it, is crossing that line. I’ll explain why there is a line, further on in this post.
I was also interviewed. The CBC reporter was pleased to learn from me (off camera) that there is a car share co-op in Regina.
I know some people don’t see the big deal with the Keystone XL pipeline, thinking it’s just another way that people can make money. It’s more like a doomsday device, than economic stimulus. Taking into account the truth
. . . → Read More: Saskboy’s Abandoned Stuff: #ForwardOnClimate Support in Regina: Stop the Keystone XL Pipeline
By John Klein, on February 13, 2013, at 9:20 am There are recent solar electricity records set in Germany, and Spain has recently seen a huge increase in wind power production. Meanwhile, SaskPower has solar power research from 13 years ago on its website, claims solar isn’t viable in the northern hemisphere, and is eyeing up more coal fired generation. The U of R has 0 solar panels in productive research (or otherwise), while my parents have 15 solar panels in productive research for the Sask. Research Council. Canada, and Saskatchewan are lagging behind, we’re becoming the technological 3rd World of G8 nations.
Here’s what a Brit thinks about
. . . → Read More: Saskboy’s Abandoned Stuff: More Power Blows
By John Klein, on February 12, 2013, at 3:41 pm
I got to use a device at lunch-hour today that had aspects of a medical tricorder, the near magical medical scanning devices used first by the fictional Dr. McCoy on the Starship Enterprise. This modern, non-invasive scanner can look at skin and detect signs of diabetes, giving the user an indication if they do or do not need further screening soon.
-Scout DS
I got a negative score of less than 50. Woo Hoo!
This continues my longstanding tradition of sharing my non-embarrassing medical test results on the Internet, so I don’t feel so bad when eventually Sask Health
. . . → Read More: Saskboy’s Abandoned Stuff: Medical Tricorder
By John Klein, on February 6, 2013, at 1:39 pm Last week I got a robocall from “Chase Research” and listened to it all, taking notes when I realized it was a Conservative push-poll and would cause a scandal. I waited for the number to push to repeat the message or options, but pressing 9 just erroneously thanked me for responding, provided a contact phone number (306-993-2392) and hung up. I called the number to find out more, right away, and got a message that it was Chase Research and to leave a message, which I did. A friend’s place I was at an hour later also got the call
. . . → Read More: Saskboy’s Abandoned Stuff: ConCalls: RoboCall Boundary Edition #RoboCon 650 days and counting
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