jasper: wat-cha-ching! glacier melt

It was controversial. No matter. The private observation deck in a public national park was approved by the federal government. It's being built. The Icefields TangleMeltWay Ridge Viewpoint Centre Parkway will be staffed by Brewster's, not Parks Canada.

Artist rendering of a proposed Glacier Discovery Walk at
Tangle Ridge Viewpoint on the Icefields Parkway.
Photograph by: Handout photo, Brewster Travel

The facility will be knocked into the cliff with explosives, and a 42 year lease, disappointing lichen and bighorn sheep. Brewster Travel Canada  is now owned by VIAD of Arizona ("The Business Behind Leading Businesses"). Admission to this GDW skywalker is expected to be $15-$30 per person.

Peter Kent joked about the high-volume form letter complaints (180,000 signatures + 1000s of letters & postcards)(dictionary.com "petition"), as if people have time to write these ministers of industry borg personal fucking letters, every week.

More info here.

knut, siku, human zoos & sculptures

Knut, 2007

Siku, 2011

Knut proponents are riled up about Siku at the Scandinavian Wildlife Park, Denmark. Siku is cute, but it's not Knut. ('The new knut' whose mother had not enough milk is not really an orphan.) Knut fans are mustering a memorial tribute with voting until January 8, 2012 on 42 entries: Pick a knut memorial sculpture. Be prepared, some of the submissions are underwhelming.

Footballer turned curator.  Lilian Thuram's 'Human Zoos: The Invention of the Savage' --- "traces the history behind circuses, stage shows and 'zoos' in which people were the exhibits, dating it back to 1492 when Christopher Columbus displayed six 'Indians' at the Spanish royal court" (Daily Mail article). The exhibition is at Paris' Quai Branly, France, from Tuesday 29th November to Sunday 3th June 2012.
See more, including a video and the museum's website. Following his retirement in 2008, he established the Lilian Thurman Foundation.

In politics, Thuram made headlines during the 2007 French elections by calling out the institutionalized racism of Nicolas Sarkozy. (Article: France World Cup player Lilian Thuram now fights racism, November 11, 2009.)

Speaking of, there was a nazi encounter with swastikas and death threats on Christmas Eve for a biracial couple in Newmarket, Ontario. The man, from Nigeria ('nigger'), and the white woman ('whore'), are considering moving. The couple has already spent $6000 repairing damages. It isn't the first time.

An Occupy sculpture was hauled away from an encampment in Calgary, Alberta.

You can sign the Petition: Keep the “Heart of the Beast” sculpture as a permanent part of Olympic Plaza.