O Canada

[Whack9]

I'm gonna be up in Vancouver for a few days in May! Also a few places in Washington.

There's a lot of places to enjoy all around there. Try to get time to take the ferry to San Juan Island or over to Vancouver Island and Victoria. If you're looking for boonies, Olympic peninsula and North Cascades has 'em.

I'll be staying at some spots around the Olympic peninsula for some hiking. Might be in Victoria as well but not too sure yet.

[Whack9]

Spent the day in Victoria, drove up to Nainamo, took a ferry over to Vancouver. Super pretty ferry ride. Well worth it. I'm here for one more day then back to the US to spend a few in Seattle. Checked out a bunch of spots earlier this week in the Olympic Peninsula. Favorite thus far was the forest near Sol Duc springs. The massive hemlocks were something else.

Also I find it interesting that a lot of the trees were similar species to what you'd find in the temperate rainforests of WNC - hemlock, spruce (higher elevations in WNC), big leaf maple (vs our red maple), and fir (higher elevations for us). Lots of trilliums here too which I found interesting.

Plans for tomorrow night include checking out a metal bar but that's about it. Maybe exploring more of the city and dodging crack pipes.

[O Really]

Probably most people wouldn't immediately think of "Washington" if you if you asked them to name places in the US with rain forests. They might also be surprised to know that despite its wet reputation, Seattle has a little over half the precipitation of Brevard, NC.

Yeah, I know its touristy, but Pike Place market really is a good excursion if you have the time.

[O Really]

[Vrede too]

https://static.toiimg.com/thumb/msid-11 ... 393648.jpg

Belated back at ya'!


926 active Canadian wildfires today Good year for you to avoid the smoke, knock on wood.

About 100 burning in the U.S.
Park Fire in NoCal is 300,000 acres = 469 sq miles

[O Really]

Yeah, the smoke is more than annoying - actually dangerous. Most all wildfires are sad, but losing the town of Jasper and much of the park, in one of the most beautiful places in the world is doubly tragic - resources and people. Premier of Alberta was literally in tears reporting on it.

[Vrede too]

Yeah, the smoke is more than annoying - actually dangerous. Most all wildfires are sad, but losing the town of Jasper and much of the park, in one of the most beautiful places in the world is doubly tragic - resources and people. Premier of Alberta was literally in tears reporting on it.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/p/AF1 ... 1360-h1020

Chico man arrested for starting Park Fire, DA says




BUTTE COUNTY, Calif. - A 42-year-old Chico man was arrested early Thursday morning by CAL FIRE arson investigators, assisted by District Attorney investigators, on suspicion of starting the Park Fire.

Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey has identified the suspect as Ronnie Dean Stout II, 42, of Chico.

Ramsey said Stout has two prior strikes.

The first one was a felony conviction for child molestation and this was in Butte County. The second one was a felony conviction for robbery with great bodily injury. This was out of Kern County, Ramsey said.

Butte County DA Mike Ramsey said the man was arrested after he was seen pushing a car that was on fire into a gully near the Alligator Hole in upper Bidwell Park shortly before 3 p.m. on Wednesday.

Ramsey said the car went down an embankment approximately 60 feet and burned completely, spreading flames that caused the Park Fire....

[O Really]

I can't think of anything more appropriate for that guy than to be sentenced to start walking across the desert in 115degree temp - barefooted.

And now the fire's only about 15 miles from Paradise.

[Vrede too]

I can't think of anything more appropriate for that guy than to be sentenced to start walking across the desert in 115 degree temp - barefooted.

And now the fire's only about 15 miles from Paradise.

I saw an interview with a woman who had to drive through flames to escape both the Camp (2018, Paradise) and Park Fires, ugh.

Update, 3pm EDT: Now 350,000 acres (547 sq mi), Paradise under evacuation warning.

[O Really]

Trudeau may be too busy trying to keep his own job to spend much effort playing "yo mama" with Trump, but we've got friends back in BC who have a few choice words for Trump. Most of them can be summarized with "fuck off."

We've spent enough time in Canada that most of the time if you don't see us getting our of our California plated car, we're mostly not identified as not Canadian. But what's the #1 irritant about Americans? Acting like Canada is just an extension of the US. Stuff like expecting stores to take US money. (some do, close to the border, but nobody likes it); or insisting on buying petrol by the gallon; or demanding a conversion from KM to miles or Celsius to Fahrenheit. So one can imagine their reaction to Trump and his "51st state" crap.

[Whack9]

Russian Social Media Manipulation:

https://www.stalbertgazette.com/local-n ... ta-8223476

In the fall of 2023, dozens of demonstrations took place across Canada under the “1 Million March 4 Children” banner. Ostensibly organized against sexual orientation and gender identity education in schools, the events became a flashpoint for the broader issue of 2SLGBTQI+ rights in Canada, leading to conflict between protesters and counter-protesters and harassment campaigns online.

During that time, Reddit forums for several small Alberta cities experienced a sudden influx of accounts downvoting 2SLGBTQI+ related posts and spamming the comments section with inflammatory content.

When Reddit’s year end recaps were released — which give statistics on activity for individual subreddits such as top posts and comments — they indicated Russia was the third most common country of origin for users visiting many of these subreddits, causing moderators to rethink what was behind the trolling activity they had contended with a few months before.

“While I suspected bad actors, such as direction from Take Back Alberta via Telegram, I did not suspect they would be from what this recap seems to point to,” Sherwood Park subreddit moderator u/j1ggy wrote in a post.

“It appears that we were actually being brigaded by Russian troll farms.”

The 2024 US election had an absolute barrage of this on the socials.

On Facebook a lot of the "Patriot" pages were created by users in places like Pakistan and so forth. Very rarely were they created and run by someone in the US. This is all easily accessible information but users are too lazy to check if theyre the target of manipulation.

[GoCubsGo]

This is all easily accessible information but users are too lazy to check if theyre the target of manipulation.

MAGA in a nutshell.

[Vrede too]

Trudeau may be too busy trying to keep his own job to spend much effort playing "yo mama" with Trump, but we've got friends back in BC who have a few choice words for Trump. Most of them can be summarized with "fuck off."

We've spent enough time in Canada that most of the time if you don't see us getting our of our California plated car, we're mostly not identified as not Canadian. But what's the #1 irritant about Americans? Acting like Canada is just an extension of the US. Stuff like expecting stores to take US money. (some do, close to the border, but nobody likes it); or insisting on buying petrol by the gallon; or demanding a conversion from KM to miles or Celsius to Fahrenheit. So one can imagine their reaction to Trump and his "51st state" crap.

No need to imagine any longer.

Canadians Have Come Up With A New Nickname For The United States After Beating Them In Hockey

[O Really]

We've got our order in.
https://wearenever51.ca/shop/

[Vrede too]

We've got our order in.
https://wearenever51.ca/shop/

Good togs for crossing into Canada, best kept in the back of a drawer for crossing back.

[O Really]

We've got our order in.
https://wearenever51.ca/shop/

Good togs for crossing into Canada, best kept in the back of a drawer for crossing back.

If it weren't for the time required to be eligible for healthcare, there wouldn't be any crossing back.

And Musk is becoming persona non grata

"Petition asking PM to revoke Elon Musk's Canadian citizenship garners support"

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/p ... 9056&ei=53

[Vrede too]

Good togs for crossing into Canada, best kept in the back of a drawer for crossing back.

If it weren't for the time required to be eligible for healthcare, there wouldn't be any crossing back.

And Musk is becoming persona non grata

"Petition asking PM to revoke Elon Musk's Canadian citizenship garners support"

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/p ... r-AA1zAot1

Found it:
https://www.ourcommons.ca/petitions/en/ ... ign/e-5353
No option for Americans, but maybe you have a Canadian address?

[O Really]

"Petition asking PM to revoke Elon Musk's Canadian citizenship garners support"

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/p ... r-AA1zAot1

Found it:
https://www.ourcommons.ca/petitions/en/ ... ign/e-5353
No option for Americans, but maybe you have a Canadian address?
[/quote]

Yeah, but I'd eventually get tossed. I'd rather not contribute to muddling the data. I'd like to see a big response.

[Vrede too]

Found it:
https://www.ourcommons.ca/petitions/en/ ... ign/e-5353
No option for Americans, but maybe you have a Canadian address?

Yeah, but I'd eventually get tossed. I'd rather not contribute to muddling the data. I'd like to see a big response.

Think there's a shot? I wouldn't have thought so.

[O Really]

Found it:
https://www.ourcommons.ca/petitions/en/ ... ign/e-5353
No option for Americans, but maybe you have a Canadian address?

Yeah, but I'd eventually get tossed. I'd rather not contribute to muddling the data. I'd like to see a big response.

Think there's a shot? I wouldn't have thought so.

I doubt it will really go anywhere, but it would be a nice message.