Please visit my new site here  or copy and paste http://womanatmile0.amfresh.ca into your browser address bar.

I was able to add some great stuff by acquiring my own domain (e.g anti leech). I hope everyone will still come and visit me at my new place.

Check it out here.

The converted Via Genova cafe in the ritzy community about 90 minutes’ drive north of New York sells 10 Thousand BC from British Columbia for $30 US a bottle.

According to the article BC/Canada has some of the cleanest tap water in the world.

Municipalities in British Columbia, Quebec and Saskatchewan have been among the Top 5 winners for their tap water for the past seven years, except 2004.

In the summer, I find the the tap water a bit warmer than I am used to, so we just keep the water jug full and refrigerated. A most refreshing, free summer drink without the steep price NY price tag. Cheers!

Meanwhile two leading Repub Senators have just given Bush notice that his time is up and the troops are coming out next year. The New York Times reports,

Two leading Republican senators said today that President Bush should seek a new war authorization and present a plan to Congress by Oct. 16 outlining contingency plans in Iraq. Those plans, which would include reducing American forces, should begin by the end of the year.

The jig is up for Bush. We just need to hang on a bit longer in Afghanistan because the reinforcements are coming.

Seven all-time temperature highs were set across British Columbia on Wednesday, with most of the records falling in the Fraser Valley, the Greater Vancouver area and on Vancouver Island.

I will vouch that people everywhere in Victoria claim they are melting. The main conversation these days is the weather forecast, creative methods for keeping cool, keeping your office cool, etc.

Naturally thoughts of melting brings up images of glaciers disappearing and sea levels rising. This UVic Ring article examining research on the rising sea levels around Haida Gwaii is worth a read.

The team found that sea levels in Haida Gwaii are rising at a rate of 16 cm per century—twice as fast as sea levels around Victoria. During extreme storms, sea levels rise at more than twice this rate.

Walker and his team also learned that the coastline is eroding at a rate of one to three metres per year. “This will bring a variety of hazards,” he says. “For example, the coastal highway will see increased flooding and erosion in the next 10 to 20 years.”

Then I found this article originally published in the Guardian that had me shaking even with the sweltering heat.

The geological record suggests that ice at the poles does not melt in a gradual and linear fashion, but flips suddenly from one state to another. When temperatures increased to 2-3 degrees Celsius above today’s level 3.5 million years ago, sea levels rose not by 59 cm but by 25 meters. The ice responded immediately to changes in temperature.

We now have a pretty good idea of why ice sheets collapse. The buttresses that prevent them from sliding into the sea break up; meltwater trickles down to their base, causing them suddenly to slip; and pools of water form on the surface, making the ice darker so that it absorbs more heat. These processes are already taking place in Greenland and West Antarctica.

Yikes!! It appears Harper has succumbed to the eventuality of it all and is no longer planning to buy icebreakers for our arctic. I guess it makes sense if you are doing your best (e.g sabotage of Kyoto Accord, refusing a carbon tax plan for industry) to ensure that global warming continues unbated.

Council of Canadians says it has been banned from holding a meeting near next month’s summit of North American leaders in Montebello, Que.

Council organizer Brent Patterson calls it “deplorable” that authorities are preventing the panel of writers, academics and parliamentarians to share their concerns with Canadians. The council says it has since been told authorities will be enforce a 25-kilometre security perimeter around the meeting site.

I am wondering if a 25 kilometre security perimeter is the new distance protesters must keep away from all inter-government meetings or is this 25 kilometre rule only applicable to researchers and scientists hosting an information forum? It seems ridiculous, extreme and completely undemocratic for a country like Canada. What are the Cons doing to our country?

Dion needs to come forward with a position on this issue. I talked to several Liberals over the weekend and it is their #1 concern. People just don’t know where he stands on the issue and it makes them very nervous.