WHAT’S UP WITH THE WNBA?

As a sports fan, a one-time amateur athlete, and as someone who has played and coached several sports, I have to ask a question that I’m surprised it’s taken me this long to ask.

What in blazes is going on in women’s basketball, and in particular, the WNBA, or Women’s National Basketball Association?

There was once a time, in a less than perfect life, when a boring Saturday afternoon at home might be enlivened by a google search along the lines of “women fighting,” or some other absurd search that would yield a YouTube video of a bunch of girls fighting after school, in school, at the bar, at the beach, at the concert, hell even at the hairdresser.  I’ll freely admit that watching such videos says as much about the individual doing the searching as it does about the girls scrapping in the cafeteria at lunch.  It’s not a good look for any of us.

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JULY 1st IS MEMORIAL DAY IN NEWFOUNDLAND

It was all over in fifteen minutes.

When Canadians celebrate Canada Day tomorrow, they’ll be commemorating the birth of a nation, cobbled together in a process known as Confederation, a coming-together of former British colonies to form one, single, and united nation that would grow into what it is today one of the pre-eminent countries of the world.  It all started officially on July 1, 1867.

Newfoundland was a British colony as well, but didn’t elect to join the others to become part of the new Dominion of Canada.  They didn’t join the rest of us until 1949, becoming  a fully functioning province of that dominion.

It’s Canada Day in Newfoundland as well on July 1, but it’s not known as that.  In fact, the day is known as Memorial Day, and instead of a day of celebration, it’s a day commemorating the greatest tragedy ever to befall the province known as “The Rock.”  A tragedy that took place on July 1, 1916, at a place called Beaumont-Hamel.

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FORMER WATER TREATMENT PLANT NEEDS A PLAN

At some point, we’re going to have to do something with that water treatment plant.  Not the one currently in operation under the auspices of OCWA — Ontario Clean Water Agency — but rather the older one, the one replaced by the newer one maybe twenty years ago.

Until we do, we’re going to have ourselves a problem, which is a way of saying that we may see several problems emerge from an abandoned building situated between two strands of the Bonnechere River.

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NOVA SCOTIA POWER

With Donald Trump backsliding on a full range of progressive policies, electricity generation through the use of wind power, or wind turbines, is in decline in the United States.

The president has cancelled many initiatives, and rolled back a lot of work previously done to set the United States up as an energy-producing superpower. All this while at the same time encouraging all things oil and gas.

It’s created an opportunity elsewhere, and for others, including Canada.

GENERALLY SPEAKING

As Canada’s top soldier, the Chief of Defence Staff serves at the pleasure of the prime minister.  That means that, while Canada’s top soldier, you’re not the top dog when it comes to chain of command.

And that means that when you appear in public, or comment in public, it’s a really good idea that you exercise the prudence necessary to ensure that you articulate the policies, goals, and aspirations of Canada’s military in a way that’s consistent with what the political masters are saying, in this case both the prime minister and the Minister of National Defence.

So, for Lieutenant-General Jennie Carignon, it means that she needs to keep all the ducks in the proper row, as she’s ultimately accountable to Prime Minister Mark Carney and his defence minister David McGuinty.

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ONEIDA GROUP PAIRS WIND WITH BATTERIES

Use it or lose it.

There are any number of situations or circumstances where that expression is credible, and one of them seemed to be the generation of electricity, whether that be through hydro (water), nuclear, natural gas-fired, or coal-fired.  Regardless of the means of generation, electric power has storage problems that raise the possibility of having a valuable, albeit renewable source of energy being wasted if demand falls short of generation.

Calling electricity a renewable resource makes it sound like it’s clean energy, and there’s no reason why that can’t be true.  Hydro-electricity is about as clean as you’re going to get, but it has limitations in terms of its dependence upon sources of moving water, as in rivers, and the enormous costs involved with the construction of generation dams and the lines of transmission that convey the electricity generated to the markets where it will be consumed.  

All well and good.

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ROB FORD: TRAINWRECK ON NETFLIX

A Netflix series takes a look at the story of Rob Ford, Toronto’s mayor for a single term ending in 2016.

The brother of current Ontario Premier Doug Ford. Robs’s story is one of scandal, bombast, embarrassment, and cringe. Yet at the same time, his demise is as tragic as tragic gets, and offers an insight into the man inside the man who captured international headlines some ten years ago.

Trainwreck: Mayor of Mayhem. Streaming on Netflix.

CARLSON AND CRUZ. TUCKER AND TED.

Two giants of the American right, although the word “giant” is generous.

Ted Cruz and Tucker Carlson, together in Cruz’s office, having a back and forth discussion among friends involving America’s role on the world stage.

A coming together of brothers, like-minded and unified in their allegiance to Donald Trump, where Cruz says “I talked to to the president on Sunday,” and Carlson later says “I talked to him last night.”

A DANGEROUS WOMAN GETS MORE DANGEROUS

Alberta lost around 5,600 people to Covid-19 during the epidemic that swept the world five years ago.  That’s close to 12% of the national total, not bad for a province with just about 10% of the national population.

It’s not clear what those numbers would have looked like had many Albertans not picked up their Covid vaccinations while in the heat of the battle, despite being citizens of Canada’s most vaccine-resistant province, although Saskatchewan has emerged as a bit of whack-job as well when it comes to common sense and vaccines. Alberta, after all, is the province that chased away Dr. Deena Hinshaw, the province’s chief Medical Officer of Health.

Alberta, as you may already know, exists fully a century behind the rest of us when it comes to a lot of the important stuff.  As proud as they are of themselves as being the Texas of the North, that distinction only really applies to oil patches, cowboy hats, and an innate ability or inclination to just simply get everything wrong when it comes to their attitude around a lot of the important stuff, like the environment, or the basic stuff surrounding life and death.  And sadly, many in that province would rather die than admit they were wrong about something.

Totally in keeping with both herself and the hatchet-job government she leads, Premier Danielle Smith has announced that, henceforth, Covid vaccinations of the future will be available only if you pay for them, and not as a result of the government providing them.  The Alberta government estimates that the shots will cost around $110/dose, but Smith and her cronies will escape public discontent since everyone will blame it on the Trudeau Liberals.  Or the Carney Liberals.  Or any Liberals, really.

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A RIVER TRAIL

It’s not the way I mapped it out, but we’re going to have to do things a little differently this morning.

I’ve had nothing but trouble transferring video to my computer so that I could work with it and produce a coherent product. Apparently my storage space is non-existent, despite my efforts at troubleshooting for several hours. I did, however, manage to cheat the media gods and get some of my stuff up on YouTube.

And so, it was my first walk, and likely my last, along the Bonnechere River Trail. Not because it’s not worth the time and effort, but more to do with the fact that it’s a gruelling little journey that I can now claim to have completed half of, but no real need to complete the other half.

It would be kind of cool to fly a drone along the length of the river as it corresponds to the trail, but sadly, I have no drone, and equally sadly I’d have no idea how to fly one if I even had one.

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