Sad Good-bye

My good friends Jon and Angela Riemche are off to bigger and better things in Toronto. While I am very sad they are leaving, I wish them all the best in their new jobs. They have been great friends over the last several years. I'm very glad to see things working out so well for them in Toronto and only wish the red-hot Alberta economy would cool down and stop driving such people away.

We had weekend-long send off with multiple meals out and here are some pics. My parents even made it down to Calgary to get in on the festivities. I can't wait to re-connect with Jon & Ang in Vegas next winter.

My Take On Things

If you are wondering why I'm not providing commentary on the news stories I've been posting regarding the Southeast B.C. gas project, understand that this blog is on the very public internet. I cannot disclose any opinions or information (beyond what is already in public news stories). Believe me, I have opinions and extra "color" on the situation but I want to keep my job. I have been posting the news stories though to give interested people an update on what I'm working on.

Now the United Nations

VANCOUVER -- A battle between Montana and British Columbia over the fate of a river that runs south across the Canada-U.S. border may soon be brought before the United Nations, escalating a simmering regional dispute to the highest international level. (Full Story)

Sparwood, B.C.

Here's me in front of the main attraction at the Sparwood visiters center. I was bored between meetings so decided to look about the town a bit.

Monopoly Money?

For years Canadians have suffer the denegration of our currency as worthless monopoly money because of its color and poor exchange value. Times are changing. The cratering US$ has caused the C$ to come to within a few hundreths of a cent of par with the US$ today. And, also today colorful U.S. currency is announced ($5 bill to have splashes of purple, gray).

What does this all mean? The Wikipedia entry for "North American currency union" is insightful. Draw your own conclusions.

The Feds get involved

The international incident grows wider with the Feds now involved. Canadian Ambassador to the U.S. , Michael Wilson, calls the Montana Govenor's cross border review panel "unprecedented and unnecessary." (more) The BP side of the story can be found here. Meanwhile the press from Montana continues their message in picture form:

The Gloves are Off

Special to the Globe and Mail
September 15, 2007

British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell yesterday sent a toughly worded letter to Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer declining his offer of a December meeting on cross-border environmental issues and challenging the state's environmental performance.

Stung by a letter from Mr. Schweitzer three weeks ago that takes B.C.'s performance to task, Mr. Campbell took his own gloves off and offered up a detailed defence of the province's environmental assessment program while casting aspersions, in diplomatic language, on the Montana record.

The two leaders are sparring over potential resource development in the Flathead River area of southeastern B.C. and the possible impact on that river as it flows into Montana. Festering for years, the issue has exploded into a war of words in the past three weeks.

The Premier suggests that the main reason Mr. Schweitzer wants to preserve the Flathead is because the rest of Montana has been turned over to industrial use.

"We recognize in particular that Montana's land-use and resource-development decisions elsewhere in the state mean the Flathead Basin is the only remaining major protected area in Montana," Mr. Campbell says.

Mr. Campbell then takes Mr. Schweitzer to task for negative comments about potential coal-bed methane development, pointing out that while B.C. will not allow energy companies to discharge wastewater from coal-bed methane wells on the surface, Montana does. "I understand Montana has 807 producing coal-bed gas wells," the letter states. (Read full article)

Trip to Victoria & Comox

I had to attend some meetings for work with the BC government (per the below blog post) in Victoria and this provided a lovely excuse for me to zip up and visit Kim & Yan & Nic in Comox. Pat and I also did some site-seeing in Victoria prior to driving up the island to Comox. Our hotel was right beside the legislature and a whole bunch of tourist stuff. The whales weren't jumping much but at least we saw several pods of orcas. The Buchart Gardens were really pretty as well. We had a great time and here are some pics of our trip.

A Massive and Unpleasant Fight

(Washington, D.C.) – The British Petroleum Company can expect “a knock-down, drag-out fight” if it advances a proposal to tap coalbed methane seems in the Canadian Flathead, Montana’s senior U.S. Senator Max Baucus said today

Baucus said BP can expect “a massive and unpleasant fight from Montana that will end badly” for the company should it file an exploratory permit for its Mist Mountain coalbed methane extraction project in British Columbia -- near North Fork of the Flathead River, which borders Glacier National Park and runs into Montana’s Flathead Lake. (Read more)

Internet Trolling

Here is a picture from Taipei of the August 28th Lunar eclipse, with time lapsed overlays.

Think those celebs are pretty? Maybe it's just the makeup. This site has an interesting collection of before and after makeup pictures of women.

This photo animation of a thundercap is pretty cool.Here is the most amazing surfing video I have ever seen. I don't know if the guy survived but it must have been one heck of a ride.

POPURLS.com and is a site which aggregates the most popular and current content on the web to a one-view page. It contains the top of Digg, the most viewed pictures on Flickr, the hottest YouTube clips, top news on Google News, among many other sites. POPURLS.tv uses Google maps to show where in the world the vistors are from. It's kind of cool to see what's popular and where.