Google Street View Circa 1907

It seems Google didn’t invent Street View The idea was 100 years old when it first started to become popular on the Internet!

Behold Vancouver, street view from 1907

Barcelona, Spain 1908
Look at all the bicycles!

Vancouver in 1971, albeit a little shaky camera work.

Moose Jaw, circa 2006, with excellent John Wing humour as background music. I actually know two of the vehicles that go by.

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Hat tip Alec

Barcelona 1908 youtu.be/kJdwzY1o7k8—
Alec Couros (@courosa) July 16, 2012

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And here’s a little unrelated WikiLeaks humour. Use the Fifth.

How to take the Fifth on just about every question asked in front of a grand jury couros.ca/x/106—
Alec Couros (@courosa) July 16, 2012

San Diego’s Big Bay Bust

I’ve witnessed two big American 4th of July fireworks shows, in New York ’02 and San Diego ’10. The San Diego show two years ago lasted at least 20 minutes, and we watched it from a hill near PB. While there we also heard people talk about ice blocking down the hill, one story resulted in someone bailing out and the ice block hitting a car. Charges ensued for that failed sledder.

- It should look like this

Last night’s show in San Diego was a spectacular failure, with a computer program accidentally setting off every firework at once, instead of spaced out among twenty minutes. I’m surprised the amplified explosion didn’t cause any reported damage (other than to egos and expectations).

FIRE ALL THE FIREWORKS!

TAKE ALL THE PICTURES!

What’s better, just another fireworks show, or the #EpicFail show, famous around the world?

Software testing is something moderately important for a big show. What glitches will we see during the Olympic Games this year?

Solar Tour

On the weekend I had a fantastic tour of the Regina area, along with my parents, seeing the sights highlighted by conversions to solar energy. Solar PV, and active and passive solar heating were demonstrated in locations adjacent to the General Hospital, Shannon Road in south Regina (part of where I’m running to be a city Councillor), and as far away as Craven and Katepwa were explored too.

-Solar oven and solar cooker
A garter snake enjoying a pond aerated by a direct solar pump.

-A sponsor who has installed some of the systems seen on the tour.

Wind systems were on display sometimes too. This one was at Jim Harding’s place.

I missed them all posing, but this is an interesting shot, with so many angles in it.

James is facing the camera, Greg is profile, and I’m not sure who is facing away.

-A ‘simple’ battery charge controller, used with one panel on Shannon Rd.

Take a look at inverter statistics from a Net Metered, ground mounted, 15 PV panel array installed in southern Saskatchewan for over a year. It’s using Enlighten micro-inverters.

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Tonight, on the Rick Mercer Report, he installs solar panels with Mike Holmes.

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Here’s a featured Enphase array.

US Blocking UK Travel to Canada

This is completely outrageous. Better hope no one with your name ends up on the US No Fly list. This move makes the financial blockade against WikiLeaks, look like a simple administrative dispute.

Improve Your Mood

Biking to work improves your mood. It also gives you a better perspective on life, and helps you get enough daily exercise to avoid some of life’s more terrible ailments. You could also skateboard to work, since the mood improving properties are directly attributable to physical activity, and travel at a more human pace.

If you wondered why certain radio jockeys are so cranky (about cyclists) all of the time, it’s because they aren’t biking to work and are missing out on the benefits they begrudge their neighbours for taking.

Instead of the Green Party Leader John Gormley who:

…introduced a “Bike Scheme” in January 2009 which promoted cycling to work by offering tax incentives to employees and employers who purchased bicycles and switched to cycling. The scheme is part of a strategy to double the number of journeys made by bike by 2020, and also includes a multi-million euro cycle-path upgrade plan.[14]

We’re subjected to fear and grouchiness:

Biking in the winter. Is this safe? Should bikes be allowed on our roads in the winter?

Is it safe… to let people exercise and be happy while going to work the way they want? The whole effin’ system might collapse if tax payers are allowed to use roads using human powered vehicles!

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I’ve cycled in every month so far in 2012. I’ve gone about 15km on 5 round trips to the south end of the city from home. All of the times I was out, it was warmer than 0 degrees C. at least one direction of the trip. Only twice was my destination work (the rest of the time I’ve walked, and left work by bus or car a couple times each).

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Rick Hansen, the Man in Motion, was at the University of Regina and I stopped by to see his presentation. Here’s a clip:

Montreal Zero One

While in Montreal on our honeymoon, we stayed in an independent hotel.

As with some parts of Montreal, the neighbourhood wasn’t high class, but the staff and accommodations certainly were. Have you ever been offered complimentary apples in a lobby before?

And the prostitutes, down the block at night, won’t say a word to you if you walk by, with your wife.

Toronto and Ottawa

From Church St. looking northish.

View from our hotel room. We paid a little extra over the Hotwire price to get this room, but it was worth it.

Security blanket Harper

I can’t have this photo, it’s a library.

Saskatchewan in Parliament

Harper in photos in Parliament

Elizabeth May’s seat in Parliament. It’s number 309.

Most times I remember being here, it rained.

DJ Six

Flight

April and I are on our way home from Halifax. We woke up at 4;15 to catch the shuttle, which after a short cab ride to catch it was probably not a better deal for two adults going to the airport, than a cab would have been.

I slept through most of the five hour flight, but woke up an hour ago hungry. I brought smores with me, but they wouldn’t let me heat them up for some reason, oh well.

Yesterday we drove from the north shore of PEI, east of Shaw’s beach to the Confederation Bridge. On the way we saw three large foxes in the ditch, near our campsite in the National Park. The bridge was about $20 cheaper than the ferry anyway, and it gave us the chance to go through Amherst to visit Gerry and Inez at their apartment in the Villa. We drove south with the intention to visit the Bay of Fundy, but when we got to Parrsborough, our tourist inclination had declined to the point where we simply drove on to Halifax. We got a good deal at the Atlantica on Hotwire, booked a reservation at The Bicycle Thief restaurant, and walked down the boardwalk. The night started out cool, but got muggy as the sun came out. I walked back to the hotel after getting fuel and dropping off the rental car.

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On the plane the top story is of course the tragic shooting and bombing in Norway. When I first looked at the story on CNN the predictable comments all over it were blaming Al Qaeda, when of course this attack had no hallmark of the Islamist extremist group. The angry anti-Muslim commenters were ironically accusing their ideological brethren of the same thing he claims to have killed 100 people for – perpetuating a war with Muslims in European nations. If you take a look at the KKK in SK during the 1920s, you’ll see these sorts of culture struggles are nothing new, and neither are the whack jobs who exploit ignorance and Christian fundamentalism, and hatred to extend their twisted causes. The right wing needs to look in the mirror and ask if they are willing to again be led by madmen, into random hate killings. The USA is not untouched by this, from the Oklahoma bombing in the mid nineties, to the Giffords shooting a few months ago.

Haunted Friday

On Friday April and I went to Kensington and its haunted mansion. It’s a historic house from the 1800s, redone into a haunted house and theme park with rides. The best parts were the gardens though. As we got to the end of the outdoor part, the sky opened up and it started to pour. We didn’t do the rides for this reason. The vortex in the London basement had us dizzy anyway.
Down the road at the Cavendish Boadwalk, April took a painful slide down the stairs, without serious injury. We later went to Rachaels and had a great supper

PEI and Nova Scotia

Today we ate lunch at the Red Shoe Pub, owned by the Rankin Family sisters. We drove down the coast of Cape Breton to the PEI ferry at Caribou.

Here is the sunset from Whale Cove Campground on Digby Neck. It’s a nice campsite, and the owners, the Tidds are nice people. We met Vaughn’s sister at her restaurant on Long Island, and while we were scoping out the beach at Sandy Cove, we saw a man walking the beach also looking for nice rocks. The man turned out to be Vaughn’s brother! Certainly everyone in the Tiddville area are not siblings, it was quite the coincidence.

Last night we camped at Inverness Beach Village, and it rained, and our site was flooded beside our tent when an umbrella in another site knocked someone’s hose off their tap and caused too much water to flow down the road and into our site specifically. Fortunately we stayed mostly dry, but our air mattress also developed a small leak somewhere, so we kept having to pump it up. Camping isn’t all fun and games. A trip to Canadian Tire should make tonight a bit better with a new mattress.

I just about polished off a bag of barbecue veggie chips. Beets, sweet potatoes and blue potatoes sliced and fried.