best of 2020

Where to begin

• zoonotic diseases
• lethal foreign policy - Qasem Soleimani (Jan), Mohsen Fakhrizadeh (Nov)
• UIA Flight PS752 - see above
  
• Wortman massacre - Portapique & Colchester County Nova Scotia (Apr)
• morale-crushing Snowbirds crash - Kamloops BC (May)
• Canadian military report - dire conditions in Ontario seniors homes (May)
• wildfires - Australia, California/Oregon/Washington
  
• Beirut economic collapse & explosion (Aug)

It's Only August - albawawa.com

• US embassy, Jerusalem - Trump "moved the capital of Israel to Jerusalem" for "the evangelicals," lagging 4yrs behind John Baird (Oct)
• Israeli government collapse, again (Dec)
• new strain covid-19
• Alberta government's shoddy "reports" for health, curriculum, post-secondary, municipal spending, Allan inquiry,...)
  

mackay's very awesome airlift

In early 2013, the Canadian Forces (CF) starting charging municipalities and provinces for help in 'emergencies such as floods and wildfires, according to internal Defence Department documents.'

Red River in Manitoba - troops

Alida, in southeast Saskatchewan - troops

southern Alberta - troops

MacKay’s briefing note says that while the Canadian Forces mandate is to defend Canada and help exercise its sovereignty, assistance in the case of an emergency “should be viewed as a ‘force of last resort,’ to be requested only when all other civilian options and assets have been exhausted.” source

Except for fishing trips. In other news, January 2012, 14-year-old Burton Winters walked 19 kilometres before he froze to death in Newfoundland. It was a search start delay of 36 hours and a full night.

9/17/35 - mackay repatriation flites

Sept 28, 2011. "In approximately 50 per cent of the total challenger flights minister MacKay has taken, he has taken these flights to attend the repatriation of fallen military personnel," spokesman Jay Paxton told CTV News in an email.

CTV probe reveals Peter MacKay's $3M jet tab

However, documents show that out of 35 flights, only nine were for repatriation ceremonies. In fact, many of the flights were for press conferences and political announcements. article

"Peace Tower flag won't be lowered for military deaths," April 24, 2006

In 2006: The Conservative government says from now on the flag atop the Peace Tower in Ottawa will not be lowered to half-mast in honour of fallen Canadian soldiers... For more than 80 years Canada honoured its war dead by lowering flags on federal buildings on Remembrance Day. Former prime minister Jean Chrétien changed that in April 2002, when 4 Canadian soldiers were killed by U.S. bombs in Afghanistan. article

speculation: racist hate crime? wai ho tam

This is awful. In July 14, 2010, an old man is going for a walk, then sits at a bus stop to rest (Wai Ho Tam, 79). Some cow comes along and knocks off his baseball cap, and he goes to pick it up. She shoves him, he falls, and hits his head on the sidewalk. The old man is taken to the hospital, and later moved to a longterm care facility - due to that injury! - where he dies. RIP: March 17, 2011.

Coincidentally, it appears to have happened during Calgary Stampede, July 9-18, 2010. Police say drugs and alcohol are not a factor and they don't suspect a hate crime, either, but who would really say.

a wortzel about chuckles and paramilitary parapoops

"The last First World War combatant, who has died aged 110, was staunchly anti-war and snubbed remembrance day despite a 41-year navy career that began when he was just 14. He refused to mark Armistice Day or join other veterans' events like Australia's annual ANZAC Day commemorations." (Claude Chuckles Choules, d. 5 May 2011)

In Canada, the last WWI vet didn't want fanfare, so the government gave it to him. In Calgary, the Calatrava Bridge controversy with overruns and improper approvals nearly bent itself sideways into The Bow - with the other real estate scandal (or another or other or other) - to become the pricey Piece Bridge to honour soldiers, so everyone just forgot about the issues, and the fact there are 2 other foot bridges, not far away, and it appears this one is for the high-end condos?

Memorial drive flags, the foliage hides 'lest we.' And that's not even half of it: the Centre Street Bridge rebuilt upper lion lower deck's vibrations in a jumpy, jumpy late 2008 and the satellite crashes with an (almost) in February '09 on Friday 13th. There were big dreams about it, a city on a big terrible fire, followed by a prorogue or 2 or three, and now there is public transit on the vista.

Initially, the information indicated the space debris was headed for Calgary, but a short time later that was revised to an area 110 kilometres east of the city. read more

A post-blast Аэрофлот space junk.

Knut the polar bear RIP and mysterious zoo deaths

Like Knut at the Berlin Zoological Garden, who was born in captivity and suddenly died on 19 March 2011, convulsing and drowning in front of hundreds of people, there have been a lot of recent deaths at the Calgary Zoo. Before this, there were only sometimes mass butterfly problems, due to heating failures in the old conservatory. It started with the cownose stingrays, which sadly succumbed to something mysterious - even the police investigated - that turned out to be poor oxygenation in the tank of the popular new exhibit (May '08), most likely. I don't know what happened to the second batch after the 1 died in shipping. One day the kids love the critters, in the next days the critters are dead. The capybara (one of my favourites!) was crushed accidentally; they are big rodents, like giant guineau pigs or cavy-deers.

Better days: Knut and Thomas Dörflein (1963–2008)

A baby elephant, a hippo, a wild goat, four gorillas and 41 stingrays. Next, at first unpublicized, a couple of spider monkeys, four feather-tailed sugar gliders, several mule deer, dozens of sebas and pallas bats, woodland caribou and muskox. Injured: African wild dogs and other animals. Since then, an endangered zebra, some Siberian tiger kittens, and 2 engangered whooping crane eggs that froze in a spring blizzard at the zoo's Devonian Wildlife Conservation Centre south of the city. It used to be lousy at catering and a better zoo.

It does seem strange now, over the last 15 years: very restructured and very involved in the special events and banquets, new buildings that are architecturally lovely, and interactive displays that make a lot of noise with crowding on the walkways and Mrs. Harvie's ghost in a Children's Zoo that went missing with the snake & bird building. I'll miss the beautiful old conservatory - many of the plants and little ecosystems didn't make it either. See: Zoocheck

Thomas Dörflein, 44, the Berlin zoo keeper who raised Knut from cub to full maturity,
was found dead in mysterious circumstances in a friend's Berlin apartment.