Oil's not well

After the stories in the paper about oil tanks leaking, and an issue with our furnace, we've cashed in the family fortune and installed a new furnace. One cup of fuel oil can contaminate the amount of water in an Olympic-sized swim pool. My daughter, a hydrogeologist,  has supervised a couple of excavations due to contaminants. It is not pretty. It can affect the air, water and the land. It is a fire hazard, as well.

We read some sad stories:

It all started so simply ...

Ottawa Citizen - Hugh Adami - 22 Jun 2011

Michel Proulx and Carmen Lortie Proulx say their home is worthless and can't be sold following an oil leak

Oil storage tank leak a cautionary tale - thestar.com

13 Sep 2008 – A scary tale of an oil leak in an Ottawa-area home provides a valuable lesson for homeowners whose homes are heated by oil.

Our house, 25 years old, needs some help. I believe that the original house had a wood stove, just like my parent's retirement home. In my late parent's house we installed a new furnace the weekend my Mom died, Mother's Day, 2006. Next, the water heater konked out. We put in a Tankless water heater. While we were living there the propane tanks needed replacing. That was a fun day.

Cast of thousands!

Ian Millar lives in Perth

With a downtown statue dedicated to him and his horse, Big Ben, I found a lovely article that explained all about him and his family!

Watching Perth Skies, you can see where the statue lies.

Deer collisions in Lanark County

OPP urges drivers to put down cell phones, keep eyes on road
Your Ottawa Region

On her cell phone, whilst driving

For the second quarter of 2011, which ended in June, there were eight car/deer collisions, down from a high of 14 in 2009. Throughout Lanark County though, there were 79 car/deer collisions, as opposed to 72 in 2009, and only 63 last year. Salisbury cautioned later that the number of car/deer collisions usually jumps in the autumn.

No laughing matter

My garden 'friends' and flowers

Visit more Camera Critters!

For tourists who want to know Lake Etiquette

What is it about Perth?

'Songs about Perth' CBC's All In A Day Contest
"If you're loaded retire here... 
See a graveyard, taste a beer" !


I thought I could tell a bit more about Perth! And I have the photos to prove it...

Dr. Goldman came to town

Not riding on a pony

Saw Stewart Park 

Thought it a lark

Said Perth, it was quite tony!

For the beauty: Mother's earth
Here: Ontario, in Perth

Summer land and water play

Lots are swimming in the Tay

Weeping willows shed no tear

Stewart Park, Perth, Ontario

In the tent you'll have a beer

Festivals, they call the tourists

Organics they are for purists

In Stewart Park the swimmers frolic
Maple Festivus and garlic

Along the Tay come sit awhile 

Dream away in charming style

Celebrations they abound 

Melifluous music will resound

Kilts on runners, thereupon

Hike for Hospice marathons 

Long-haired hippies can apply

Organic farmer's greens you'll buy

Locavores have many choices

In their Convertibles, Rolls-Royces

Bargain hunters,

Trees and towers

Antique shoppers

Beauteous flowers

Long haired hippies,

Oldsters, youngsters, 

Artisans, chippies

Weekend warriors,

Red-haired, no-haired

Motorcycle courtiers 

Boorish boys of summer

Driving in their hummer

Donuts circling on the lake

Locals in canoes they quake

Is it illegal to name and shame online?

Short answer? There isn't one. But blogs, Facebook posts, must respect the court system.
They must be careful. It is not illegal to post them, but to convict them on-line, without due process, is wrong, just as the rioters have taken out their angst on business owners, cars, and those trying to keep peace.

Also, the courts deem that naming young offenders, who may not know better, is illegal once the offender has been charged. It is not illegal to post the photos, but it is illegal to call them criminals until justice has been served.

'When young people (between 12 and 17) are charged with a crime, Parliament has insisted that no one publish any information that could identify them, their young victims or witnesses, on the basis that reputations shouldn't be tarred forever by public knowledge of their involvement in criminal activity in their formative years.'

Is it illegal to name and shame rioters online?

From my perspective [Daniel Henry, senior legal counsel at CBC], few citizen publishers know the rules involving media and the law, or that they are subject to them. What's more, it seems that the rationale behind these rules can be easily lost in a post-riot rush to justice.

Police under fire as fresh statistics show charges dropped in 59% of G20 cases

This goes both ways, on either side of the barriers.


What saddens me are the news report of illegal detention, physical violence that tarnishes the name of all police. If the Powers That Be do not take action to remove these officers from duty, it besmirches the good name of all police. It ensures that the public will continue to be afraid with illegal detention, search and seizure, especially those officers with two strikes against them.

Officer faces charges for excess force

The Ottawa Police told The Citizen that Jacobs is on regular duty.
Mother’s Day 2009 was going well for Mark Krupa until the police officer in the black Pontiac pulled up next to him at the red light.

Ottawa Police Const. Kevin Jacobs, Jacobs has been in the public eye recently for another incident. According to a recent court ruling, he broke the rules on police searches by entering a Kanata-area home without a search warrant.

Kenneth Grey asks, What exactly happened?

- Why was Krupa charged with failing to stop for police and stunt driving, then had those charges dropped, and finally was just given a speeding ticket?

- Why was Ottawa Police Const. Kevin Jacobs probed by the Ottawa Police internal affairs unit but cleared while the province's civilian police commission decided that Jacobs be charged for unlawful and excessive use of authority in the handling of Krupa under the Police Services Act?;

This young man, Krupa, was taken to hospital with injuries that appear to be the result of a beating: lacerations, contusions, a black eye, abrasions, at the hands of a police officer who was cleared?

Snakes in Ontario

I don't mind snakes. I can't say I brake for them, as they look like a stick!

I must say I've ridden my bike past a few roadkill snakes. Pretty gross.

I have had to rescue a couple from the cats, and failed with one red snake. Sady must have grabbed (see below).

I have a couple of resources to help me identify snakes, frogs, especially tree frogs, trees, snapping turtles, beavers, painted turtles, ducks and geese, and the other wonders of the rural scene in cottage country.

Lots of snakes about recently. I stepped on one the other day. I don't know how. I screamed like a girl!

Walking across the lawn, which must be an acre in size, I stepped on the middle of something that curled up around my foot on both sides. I guess I was swatting the deer flies, and not watching where I was going. [We've had the odd case of Lyme Disease around here, too. The bugs are bad.]

Rattler range

A garter snake, it was, poor thing. I picked it up and it was alive, took it to the brush. What a surprise!

I haven't any rattle snake photos. They simply aren't around here, fortunately, although I like them letting me know I'm disturbing them. Thanks for the photo by Bruce Clark.

Rattle snakes in Ontario exist more in Central Ontario, around Georgian Bay. As a child, spending summers in Muskoka, I recall them blasting to put roads through the rock cuts. It disturbed the rattlers, and while we saw the odd one before, they began to move out. With habitat loss, and people randomly killing them, their range has radically shrunk.
There are four populations: Bruce Peninsula, SE in the Georgian Bay range, Ojibway and the Wainfleet range.
For more info on Massasauga rattlers:

• New Interactive Quiz
• Identification Guide
• Photo Gallery

ALSO in Ontario: Eastern Milk, Norther Water, Eastern Hognose, Fox, and so on.

Northern Redbelly

Eastern Garter snake

a bit bloodied, but Oliver didn't kill it.

Rattle Snake - courtesy Bruce Clark
Eastern massassagua rattler

Is plagiarism, journalistic navel-gazing, becoming a trend?

Is it me? Or is on the rise? Or maybe it is just more easily found out? Certainly, my blog spam has increased. I've left Google+ because I had 29 strangers add me to their 'circles', which meant either blocking their stupidity, or removing their inane posts from my notifications. How ridiculous and what a time waster. If I wanted to waste time, I'd be doing that reading about people I like!



Plagiarizm or Plagiarism.
In the meantime, back to my point. Plagiarizm or Plagiarism. Depends upon where you live and write, or steal from!
Plagiarizing politician Koch-Mehrin outrages scientific community

Scientists in Germany convinced Silvana Koch-Mehrin to step down from the research committee of the European Parliament. She briefly joined the committee earlier in the week - after losing her Ph.D. due to plagiarism.
She is the latest German politician to lose her doctorate, since former Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg resigned on March 1 after his Ph.D. was rescinded due to plagiarism that earned him the nickname "zu Googleberg."

German defence minister resigns in PhD plagiarism row

Imagine!

Then there was the Canadian medical school Dean who plagiarized a speech to grads. What was he thinking? He resigned as dean, but isn't gone, he's still a professor.

Med School Dean Resigns 

17 Jun 2011 – Philip Baker will stay on at the University of Alberta as a professor after admitting to plagiarizing a speech.

Should Law Grad Lose His Diploma for Plagiarized Speech?

20 May 2011 – Should Law Grad Lose His Diploma for Plagiarized Speech?

With the mess in the UK, journalists hand-in-hand with police, conducting illegal activities, I shudder.

Phone-hacking scandal spreads to other British newspapers

Jul 24, 2011 – Trinity Mirror group, publisher of Britain’s left-leaning Mirror tabloid, is facing allegations of intercepting voicemails

Journalism
Journalism has changed, too. Gone are the days when the journalists would write about the news, they didn't create, or become part of, the news. (This is different from investigative journalism.) Our local paper featured the first person account of one reporter who participated in the 2nd Annual Perth Kilt Run. Seems like navel-gazing to me. Dunno. First-person items that laud themselves, and their journey. I think one needs perspective to write about something as a paid professional. Blogs I can read at my leisure, newspapers delivered to my door I want to have facts and food for thought.

We have several big newspapers, all on-line in Ontario: Ottawa Citizen, and Toronto Star.
What I loathe about these newspapers is that their on-line presence now include time consuming videos, with ads, that slow down my getting information.

I wanted to see Jack Layton, as he spoke at his press conference, 'raw video' that would show his spirit and his demeanour. I had to wait through an ad for cars. The fine print reads, 'Advertisement: video wil start shortly'. What is a pain is that you can embed the video on your own blog, but the ad comes with it.

The big papers in Toronto and Ottawa do not feature many stories about surrounding areas. The Citizen is a little better than the Toronto Star, in that Perth will get covered, e.g., the young man killed in a hit and run [Fatal hit-and-run leaves town reeling July 25, 2011], or the Osgoode man killed in a traffic incident [Single-vehicle crash kills Osgoode man, 22]


But the Toronto Star is hard-pressed to cover a big region, like Muskoka, where a million people might travel on a long weekend.

I love the smaller, more local papers, like Perth Courier (Metroland Media), EMC news. EMC publishes in Smiths Falls, as well as Perth. They kindly featured a story about my interview with Dr. Brian Goldman.

Author's research aimed at caregivers

Posted Jul 14, 2011By Chris Must
EMC News - "It is possible to live and die with dignity, but it isn't always certain," writes Jennifer Jilks in the introduction to her book, Living and Dying with Dignity. Jilks, who recently moved to Perth after living in Toronto, Ottawa, and Muskoka.

I love seeing the sights of Ontario

Along that line: I just heard about a local non-profit blog: The Millstone

  The Millstone is an on-line community newspaper focussing on the town of Mississippi Mills which includes  Appleton, Almonte,  Blakeney, Clayton, Pakenham, and Ramsay Ward,  and on the town of Carleton Place, Ontario, Canada. It provides an intelligent and informed source of news and opinions. Its name pays tribute to the strong history of mills in the area.  

Beaverton memorials to mills
me an' Sir John!

The writers are members of the Almonte Press Club. I like this idea. Having been a published education writer, mentor, and workshop leader in Curriculum and Technology, I am keen on keeping my hand in sharing what I know, what I see and what I do.  (Yes, we old f@rts used technology in our work!)

No longer can I share opinions in the staff room, it is good to be able to discuss world events with remote friends.