The B.S. from Gregor and Vision Vancouver Just Can't Stop!

http://globalnews.ca/news/1626699/vancouver-proclaims-non-gmo-awareness-week/

[Old news...]

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson has made sure everyone is aware that he is against genetically-modified foods by declaring "Non-GMO Awareness Week." What will he be against next? Child soldiers, female circumcision, land mines ... and who knows what other hot-button issues that he has little if no control over, just like his current "hot-button issues," like the subway to UBC, pipelines, tankers in the harbor, etc.

I had a good laugh, the tweet in this article is from Nature's Path Foods. You may recall the boss of this company was in deep poo-poo for cutting down trees on his property (see http://www.vancourier.com/news/nature-s-path-owner-agrees-to-fine-for-cutting-trees-1.384201), something in common with his healthy eating pal Gregor, who allegedly voted with his Vision pals to clear-cut hundreds of trees on the East Fraserlands (http://cityhallwatch.wordpress.com/2014/06/16/east-fraserlands-udp-june18/).

Fishiness at Whole Foods

I was walking past Whole Foods on 4th Avenue the other day and noticed that they were selling farmed fish ... but it was "responsibly" farmed fish. What will they be selling next? "Responsibly" genetically modified foods?

Election signs

What I find laughable is that where there is a sign for some election candidate with a Chinese name on someone's lawn in Vancouver, you can bet your bottom dollar that the people who live in this house are Chinese. And if there is some "South Asian" candidate's sign on a lawn, the people living in the house are "South Asian." On the other hand, if the people have a sign of Gregor Robertson on their lawn, they are just idiots.

Only a month till the Vancouver civic election...

Vancouver NPA mayoral candidate Kirk LaPointe is white bread to Gregor Robertson's multigrain bread. He is bland and boring, bending over backwards to be Mr. Nice Guy because of the nasty stuff the NPA did regarding Gregor's split from his wife.

I think it is a waste of time voting for either him or Meena Wong, though many will as a protest against Gregor. They are likely going to split the vote and Gregor will get in as mayor no matter how much people hate him and his ideas.

The only hope is to elect some new people other than the usual Vision majority to city council. For example, newcomer (at least to council) Nikki Sharma should not be elected. Remember when she was the boss of the parks board and there was a meeting about the community centres which went until the early morning and then the parks board turned around voted the way they wanted anyway?

COPE's Tim Louis should definitely be on council because he likes to make trouble and he will be a bug up Gregor's ass. And more Green people should be there too.

Meena has some good ideas, though she is tainted with the "Commie COPE" stigma (remember what happened to the NDP's Gabriel Yiu versus Suzanne Anton in Vancouver South during the provincial election?). I think Meena should have run for council rather than mayor. She would have been elected in a landslide.

London Drugs should get a prize for being funny...

East Fraser Lands Development Shows Vision Vancouver's "Green" Hypocrisy

The East Fraser Lands development (located in the southeast corner of Vancouver near Boundary Road and Marine Way) really puts the lie to Vision Vancouver's "green" agenda:

http://cityhallwatch.wordpress.com/2014/06/17/clearcut-east-fraser-lands/

http://cityhallwatch.wordpress.com/2014/08/05/dewilding-rewilding-river-district/ 

Sure, they are planting lots of new trees and bushes as per the official city WWW pages outlining the development (http://vancouver.ca/home-property-development/east-fraser-lands-efl-policies-and-guidelines.aspx) but what happened to the hundreds, if not thousands of old trees that were cut down? Did developers have to pay the usual "blood money" for cutting down trees? I doubt it. And what happened to all the trees that were trucked out of the area?

See also this WWW page:

http://cityhallwatch.wordpress.com/2014/06/16/east-fraserlands-udp-june18/ 

"The illustration in the agenda shows that land earmarked for development was a woodlot. This is in stark contrast to the barren land south of East Kent Avenue. It may seem a little ironic that the City of Vancouver recently passed a tree removal bylaw and has a “greenest city” policy in place, yet the City approved clear-cutting a section of forest."

One of these pages above mentions the "development permit" type sign about the deforestation which was planted on one of the side streets where no one will notice it. I took a picture of this sign (above) when it was previously posted at the edge of the former forest on the south side of Marine Way between Kinross and Boundary months ago. This sign was placed along a stretch of road where you cannot legally stop and there was no sidewalk so you could just walk down the street and see it.

How to shrink the Internet

If WWW pages that start with numbers, i.e., "10 Weird Facts About," "10 Most Scenic Roadtrips," "12 Terrible Mistakes," etc., were banned, the total number of WWW pages on the Internet would probably drop considerably.

Fishy business at the Aquarium

What bugs me about the people bitching about the captivity of whales and dolphins at the Vancouver Aquarium is that they are complaining because the aquarium keeps these animals, which are mammals (just like us) that are cute, or, more likely, "smart."

What do these people think about other fish and animals in the aquarium which are not "smart," i.e., they are "dumb," relatively speaking?

I don't get the sense these people's attitude is "let's start with the smart whales and dolphins, and if we are successful at discouraging their presence in aquariums and/or liberating them, we will then move on to the other fish and animals."

It's no great secret that all animals and fish in zoos and suffer STRESS. Remember the pacing polar bears in Stanley Park?

I wonder why we need zoos and aquariums at all, when you can easily see animals and fish in books and on the Internet.

The vinyl "renaissance"

It totally makes me laugh the way people say "vinyl records are having a renaissance," and "vinyl sounds better than CDs." Fuck off, they do NOT sound better than CDs.

I suffered for over 30 years from the 50's to the 80's listening to records with all their scratches and other defects. The number of CDs which sound "bad" to me, including reissues of LPs which I already own, I could count on one hand.

The problem is, when people talk about this "renaissance," they are not talking about classical music which is QUIET. You can actually hear the scratches and so forth, unlike with pop music where it usually drowns out the scratches, except in the gaps between the tracks.

Stupid stuff on Facebook du jour

Aren't you sick of these stupid questions on Facebook which only exist to create lists of people like "Can you name a city which has an X in it? I bet you can't!"
 
How about this one:

"Can you name a Polish city which has the letter Q in it? I bet you can't!"

Out of the mouths of babes...

The friend of mine with the 3 year old daughter was at the supermarket today. While shopping, she picked up some pasta and turned to the kid, saying that she had a recipe using this pasta, and showed her daughter the recipe on her phone (not as if the kid could read it, it was just a symbolic gesture). Without hesitation, the kid said to her in a loud voice "it's a RECIPE FOR DISASTER." Some guy walking by overhead this whole conversation and burst into hysterical laughter.

Another mindless Facebook poll: "Which Surrey community are you?"

There is yet another mindless Facebook poll making the rounds. You know, like the ones which ask "Which sexual position are you?", "Which racially-discriminated-against ethnic group are you?" and "Which bad remake of a TV show are you?"

This one is "Which Surrey community are you?"

It doesn't help that Surrey itself is so ambiguous about its communities, which officially are:

Cloverdale
Fleetwood
Guildford
Newton
North Surrey
South Surrey

Note that some of them like Whalley are not even mentioned!

Typical results from the poll, based on questions that you are asked, would be:

Crescent Beach - you live a secret life; you tell your friends you live "close to White Rock," not mentioning the "S-word."

Cloverdale - you are a nasty person, you don't see treating your pets badly as a bad thing.

Newton - you are a risk-taker, living in a place where there is a high propensity to getting murdered.

Surrey Central - you have aspersions to being a trendy, modern kind of person, living in some cool new condominium, but down at heart you are the SOS (Same Old Surreyite or Same Old Shit).

Whalley - you have serious substance problems, so much so that you cannot even walk or ride a bicycle without falling down.

New Transformers movie

I know nothing about this film. When I half-heard something about it on the radio, I thought the name of the film was "Transformers: Asian Extinction."

Vision Vancouver pushing all the right buttons

According to the June 25th Vancouver Courier, Vision has nominated "young" people for parks board, contrary to what Mayor Gregor Robertson said about the NPA being a party of "angry old men."

One of them is Trish Kelly, described as "a natural food company employee and self-described LGBTQ community member of Métis and Ukrainian descent."

Among the other Vision people being nominated for school board and city council:

Albert Akukalaqq, 28, a blind Inuit man who lost all four of his limbs in an attack by a killer whale. Despite his handicaps, he is the owner of a thriving business which creates authentic circumpolar native carvings. He has also been prominent protesting the Vancouver Aquarium's "confinement" of large mammals.

Da-Xia Xangpao, 30. She became president of the Shaughnessy Residents' Association even though she and her husband Ming-húa arrived in Canada only in late 2013. She is an avid cyclist and wants to ban all cars from her area ... unless they have a value of over $200,000.

Surjit Dhillander, 36, local vegetarian restaurateur who is at the forefront of the "Don't move to Surrey" movement among Vancouver's Punjabi Market merchants.

Favorite cereal?

Many years ago when I was working, I took a poll of the people at my company as to what cereals they liked. I was very surprised that most of the people liked bran cereals, because most of the people there were young. In my experience, bran cereals are associated with old people who have digestive problems. When I told them that I had 4-5 different kinds of cereal in the house, ranging from sickeningly organic to utter trash, and I enjoyed mixing them up with a little bit of each cereal in my bowl, they looked at me as if I was crazy.

Charity donation boxes in Vancouver under the microscope

Vancouver City council is talking about regulating the charity drop boxes which litter the city, just like the litter which is in front of many of them. This is a good thing, because this issue has been in the news for a couple of years and no one has seemingly done much about it.

There was an article criticizing these boxes in the Vancouver Courier two years ago, which produced some nervous responses from local charities that if council regulated or took away these boxes, they would suffer.

A couple of days ago, there was an article in the Province about this issue. And guess what appears in the Metro paper yesterday, a TWO PAGE SPREAD AD FROM VALUE VILLAGE saying how great they are (all of which is attached, along with relevant links to the previous articles).

Value Village, in case you don't get it, is connected with the disposition of many of these articles which are collected by the local charities.

====

June 5, 2014 story, The Province

http://www.theprovince.com/news/Donation+disasters+have+City+Vancouver+working+plans+regulate+mess/9904487/story.html

[The above link no longer works.]

Courier article from March 29, 2012

http://www.vancourier.com/news/dumped-donations-soil-vancouver-thrift-store-sidewalk-1.376303

Courier article from September 2, 2011

http://www.vancourier.com/news/donated-books-for-charity-sold-for-profit-online-1.374347

Letter responding to the above Courier article, from September 7, 2011

http://www.vancourier.com/opinion/editorial-and-letters/letters-of-the-week-1.375399

Letter responding to the above Courier article, from September 28, 2011

http://www.vancourier.com/opinion/editorial-and-letters/charity-bins-play-vital-role-for-non-profits-1.382067

Are you a "record rescuer"?

Every few months there is some article about how there is a "resurgence" of interest in vinyl long-playing records. Current vinyl sales, according to one article I read, are about 2% of all music sales these days, which I thought VERY high. But new records are far from cheap, and there is no way I would ever go back to them because of this and the fact that I suffered for years listening to crappy scratches and so forth.

I think part of the "vinyl resurgence" has to do with people suffering from terminal nostalgia who are what I call "record rescuers" (yes, I count myself among these deluded people). They cannot bear to see records in thrift shops which are going to be abused (if they are not already) and/or "not going to a good home." These rescuers are like people who burst into tears when they see puppy dogs and pussy cats with big sad eyes up for adoption at the SPCA (and, I suspect, a lot of people on Facebook).

An advantage of being 3 years old

A friend of mine's daughter is 3 years old today. Being 3 is very much like being 65. When you are 65, you qualify for lots of cool deals, like an all-encompassing bus pass and discounts all over the place. When you are three, you can finally play with all those toys with a label "Not suitable for children under the age of three"!

Something else on Facebook which is stupid

On the left side of one of my main Facebook pages under "shit I normally never look at," there is this category "What is your relationship status?" Under this is a line "1 more pending item." So I clicked on that. Under this it says that one of my FB pals has "listed you [meaning me] as a family member." Except this guy is NOT a family member. He is no relationship to me whatsoever. There is a drop down which says "Choose relationship," with various crap like brother, sister, etc., etc. (a long list). There is no "none of the above."

No laughs at the fish market

I thought this was pretty funny, thinking "cleaning" means washing the fish (rather than removing guts, etc., which is what it really means) -- especially since this guy was using this weird vacuum-like device to do something vacuum-like in the fish tank.

But then he got all annoyed when he saw me taking pictures of another sign which said words to the effect "Osaka Supermarket is not legally liable if a crab should pinch you," and started screaming at me, "No pictures allowed in the store!"

I guess he thought by doing this I would steal the fishes' souls or something.

A chance in hell is better than this...

CKWX: "Another nail in the Canucks' coffin..."

Later, there was a news item that some guy did a computer anal-ysis of the Canucks' chances of making the playoffs. He said it was 0.01%.

Unsubscribing stupidity

Don't you love it when you get some e-mail from a company you contacted once for some reason and now you want to unsubscribe from receiving further messages -- and this is not just an automatic process through some link? Typically you would have to tell them which e-mail address you want to use to unsubscribe. In my case, I have numerous e-mail addresses forwarded through various domains to my main address, so I have no way of knowing which one it is. This is STUPID!

A bunch of crap

There are numerous Internet postings which suggest that if you leave your toilet seat open and flush the toilet, some "fine spray" will send minute pieces of pee, poo and whatever all over the place, contaminating any toothbrushes, towels, washcloths, bars of soap, etc. in the immediate vicinity (up to several feet away).

I think this is a bunch of crap (no pun intended).

I tried an experiment myself, closing the toilet lid and flushing the toilet. I then opened the lid and ran my fingers along the underside of it. It was COMPLETELY DRY.

[Follow-up: I did a Google search for a Mythbusters anal-ysis (no pun intended) of this phenomenon, and they determined that there actually was some "fecal material" encountered on a testing toothbrush near the toilet after a flush. But they also found this "material" in a room where they had put a testing toothbrush which was far away from the toilet. Their conclusion: shit is everywhere.]
 

What bloggers need

Seriously, all bloggers should have someone standing behind them, like the guys riding in the chariots of Roman generals returning home from the wars, whispering in their ear: "Remember ... thou art but a man [or woman, as the case may be]."

Lottery Lunacy

There is a big ad in the paper today about how I can buy lottery tickets on line. I am too lazy to go to the store, so of course this is appealing.

I sign up, it sends a confirmation e-mail and I click on the link to log in. But I can't do this. You have to have Location Services turned on in your cel phone -- to prove you are in BC, I guess.

I am totally clueless about all this, until I phone the lottery help line. Normally if you have to have Location Services turned on, the app or site (this was a mobile site) will tell you to do that in simple language. You have to have Safari's Location Services turned on, since that is the app the phone uses while doing all this. There is nothing to tell you about all this ahead of time.

Having done this, I can log in. I choose the lottery I want and then choose the numbers. I go to "purchase" the lottery ticket that I have created, and I can't do it. You have to have money in your "account" first and you cannot go back to the main screen without destroying everything you have done so far (again, there is nothing to warn you in advance this will happen).

So I do that. Once I get to the place where I can put $5 in my account, I enter the credit card information and try to pay for this princely sum. Can't do that, it says the credit card (which I used previously at the very beginning of all this to "verify" that I was old enough to do all this crap in the first place) is declined. I try this twice. Finally, I phone the credit card company. There is nothing wrong with the card, but the company won't let you use the card for "gambling" and "betting" sites. Another company's credit card has no such problems.

What a fucking hassle!

WOW! Amazing new Facebook polls!

Does anyone find these name-mining Facebook polls where people categorize themselves to be VERY tiresome? You know, stuff like "Which Game of Thrones character are you," "Which adorable breed of pussy cat are you," "Which 1990's heavy metal group are you," etc.?

There are some such polls that people don't know about.

For example:

Which long-standing international conflict are you?

One person who participated commented: "Wow, I am the South Sudanese conflict ... but I was hoping for 'Insurgency in the Republic of Macedonia'!"

Then there is "Which Nazi concentration camp commandant are you?"

Someone was seriously disappointed: "Darn, I am only Franz Stangl, commandant of Treblinka!"

And finally, there is "Which famous child molester are you?"

Yes, women can participate in this poll too ... don't forget Mary Kay Letourneau, Pamela Rogers Turner or Lisa Biron!