Largest Beaver Dam

I'm not sure whether its the construction or the fact that it was found with google earth thats more interesting.
anyway, here is it, located in Canada of course..

via Kottke

"THE LONGEST BEAVER DAM IN THE WORLD

The longest beaver dam found with Google Earth to date (October 2 2007) is located in Northern Alberta. The dam has a length of about 850 meters (2790 ft). It has at least existed at this spot for over 15 years as it can be observed on the 1990 LandSat 7 Pseudo Color Imagery Provided by NASA World Wind. However 1975 aerial photo's show that this dam did not exist in 1975.

The actual location of the world longest beaver dam (that is until someone find a longer one) is just south of Lake Claire, and about 190 km to the NNE of Fort McMurray, just inside Wood Buffalo National Park. "

The Niqab- An opinion piece from Heather Mallick

some interesting points
"I have two daughters, which makes me a practical species of feminist with a meticulous interest in the daily lives of women. I want to hustle over to women in niqabs and whisper, "You don't have to wear that here." Politeness always triumphs and I have never done this. But I see myself from the black-cloaked woman's eyes — my tight clothing and exposed legs, long hair, lipstick, a real boldness with the men who are my equals — and I assume, perhaps unfairly, that she regards me as sluttish.

So women are at odds with each other over the niqab. It gets worse. A niqab inevitably insults all the men and women who encounter it, just by implication. I can take a niqab-wearer's incorrect assumptions about me personally, but I dislike her stigmatizing men, whose co-operation this feminist needs to build a society that will be fair to our daughters.

Ahmed is comfortable only in the company of females. She assumes that men are only at ease in the company of men (a reference to a brilliant Neil LaBute movie you may not wish to see).

But I believe all single-sex institutions are bad news. Book groups, single-sex schools, male top-heavy workplaces, police forces, armed forces, girl gangs, anywhere where one gender predominates or rules is headed for trouble. Am I alone in noticing that sexual segregation ends in tears and sometimes blood? Just read Margaret Atwood's novel Cat's Eye and study the mechanism.

Ahmed hopes that no man will ever see her face, and that men will never truly interact or compete with her. We had that era in Canada, before the Persons Case (and long after), when women were fired from their jobs when they married, when women, Jews and other undesirables couldn't get into good universities, when men ruled on sexual and reproductive matters, when society was compartmentalized to the extreme.

Ahmed wants Canada to give way and revert to an era of cruelty, nay perversion. Canada asks that she concede. Inevitably, both sides will adjust. But someone has to decide where it stops, and I believe niqabs are it.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/03/05/f-vp-mallick.html#ixzz0hgcJcHme
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Yes Jetset, hockey's on the blog but there is more

its hockey culture! and if you are canadian, its always around you.
and i do love how the girls partied it up after their win, there is a dose of feminism in there somewhere.

i've been in a mental vacuum for 2 weeks, consumed with the olympics and cheering for our guys and gals. i must admit i needed many kleenexes over the past week and my pile of correcting has grown monumental.  it was nice to celebrate others' great accomplishments too, take a look at Marit Bjorgen, she's amazing! and that ice skate by Yu Na Kim? surreal. the americans were all round fab and they seemed to have great spirit. kind of fun.

as i'm a romantic, i absolutely loved the Mahler skate for gold by our Virtue and Moir. so pretty, so delicate. this is where we were at our best.  while lots tried to be flashy and dramatic in ice dance, the talent was made so obvious in these two by the understated choreography. its too bad Vanoc didn't see that thats what canadians do best; the opening and closing ceremonies shows were so-so, the pop songs and big flashy rock didn't get people going, it seemed contrived. it was kd lang singing "hallelulah" and neal young crooning "long may you run"that was best. beauty in simplicity. i suspect russia will be the opposite, everything over the top, it will be interesting for that, and it in their nature.

everyone is talking about how the games unified canada, and it will be interesting to see where we go from here. we've lost our mojo on the world stage in recent years. at one time, we really pushed to be the facilitators for peace, equality, fairness, diplomacy, the environment, etc  i guess this was most apparent in the Trudeau 70's. i'm hoping that now that we are a little more comfortable in our tuques, a little more sure of ourselves, we will once again have the potential to bring people together in other ways other than sport. our non-commitment to the environment, the tar sands of Alberta included, have been very sore spots for me.  not standing up and screaming 'we need to do more' during the summit in Copenhagen was embarrassing. we were acting like the US's little puppy, saying we'll do it only if they do it. 

would i be crazy to say that the world sees Canada and hopes for the best? everyone expected the censorship, the lipsynking girls scandal in China. and in such a big city as London, how can they not have transport issues and protests? but here, they were traveling to the land of polite, peace loving people. i think everyone one wanted the perfect party and then, when the beginning of the games didn't start off great, everyone panicked. us included.

the brits are now saying that we are thin-skinned, that we didn't deal well with their criticism. what is  admirable is the transparency of our process. we may to do wrong but everyone does. isn't it better for it to come out and to deal with it, than to brush them off or scare them away? we were transparent in what we did, what we wanted. i think there is dignity in that. we don't have the efficiency of the germans, the money of the US, the thinking power of the brits. we have what? i'm not entirely sure but i'm hoping something was found that was lost. and not just our patriotism, which has been great, but maybe a sense of obligation to the world?

every canadian athlete i saw was a gracious winner and a gracious loser. we were disappointed midway through but we didn't blame others when it was apparent we wouldn't "own the podium".  we would be sad but we'd get over it and do better next time.

luckily we have amazing athletes and don't have to be sad! i hope the rest of us, the non-althetes do learn from their determinism and faith.

we are what we skate

besides watching great sport. the olympics did provide some interesting issues to consider and some important self-reflection as a nation.
this is among the more fun of those.

hockey gold!

 

"The depth and breadth of hockey’s place in Canadian culture can be hard to fathom beyond the borders. But it now might be heard, echoing from the north, thanks to a 3-2 overtime victory over the United States in the final event of the 2010 Winter Olympics.
To hear Canadians tell it, the hockey gold medal has come home, where it belongs.

Canada did not win as many medals as it had hoped at these Olympics, which closed on Sunday night, but it won more golds (14) than any country in history. The last, an emphatic exclamation point on the 2010 Vancouver Games, will be collectively cherished more than any other."

continued here