1. Apple Snails, a keystone species or "ecosystem engineer" as featured in this 3 minute youtube clip from BBC Earth "Why the Giant Otter Needs the Snail - Secrets of our Living Planet". I love that the apple snail just quietly does its thing and its action of turning muck into food, and it results in a giant ecosystem, proving how all species are connected. According to this article, when taken from its home environment, the apple snail can also be an ecosystem destroyer, having put local rice production and environments at risk when transplanted into new habitats.
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3. CBC Article: Their stories on opting out: Indigenous Artists on Canada 150
4. This CBC opinion article: Canada's 150 Year Celebration doesn't fly here, subtitled why many First Nations people won't be celebrating Canada's sesquicentennial birthday
5. This youtube video of a talk from a 2017 Ancestors & the land conference: Geography of Hope, Lyla June Johnston on Forgiveness
6. This You Are Creators Youtube video: The 30 Day Challenge That Will Change Your Life.
7. This version of Waterfalls, especially the lyrics, as sung by this year's judges for the Voice
8. The song "Spitting Venom" by Modest Mouse, and the entire album it came from.
9. The song "Baker Street" by Gerry Rafferty and this article from The Atlantic about it: "Baker Street: The Mystery of Rock's Greatest Sax Riff"
10. 4 Wounds we all walk around with - article
11. The South Park episode where Stan tries to stop whaling
12. CTV news article with video: Woman resigned to being plump learns she has 63 kg Ovarian Cyst. Take heed ladies, apparently at least 10% of woman have Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome, or PCOS, this article seems to describe a worst case scenario though it isn't mentioned. There is lots online, articles and videos, on PCOS and how to control the symptoms with diet and lifestyle
13. Youtube video: How to Open Your 7 Chakras as Explained in a Children's Show
14. Youtube video from the Bright Insight channel: 6 Shocking Facts PROVE The Truth is Stranger Than Fiction - Our Age of Deception Exposed
15. movie: Legends of the Fall
16. movie: Legally Blonde
17. Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, Season 4 Episode 6. Here is one youtube clip from the episode which ended with a bit about dancing traffic zebras in Bolivia, which can be seen here on youtube at least for now.
Here is a youtube video of some Bolivian Traffic Zebras dancing to psy's 'gangnam style', "Cebra Style"
Haven't posted pics for awhile so here are pics of some pieces in progress.
First up, a big fox that didn't make it into the last firing, as well as a bunch of figurines
Next a large figurine we nicknamed "Peace Pig" for the peace sign tattooed on its haunch. The other haunch has a relief carved flower on it.
Next is a moose sculpture
A raccoon bowl, sheep sculpture and fox sculpture
Elephant bowl and figurine, with lucky upwards pointing trunks, and a rabbit bowl with a relief carved sun on its haunch
Another shot of that rabbit bowl:
That's it for now. I'm on this kick of putting more time into my larger pieces. I've also decided that from now on to only fire my kiln when it's full as possible, to maximize resource efficiency. Where the kiln shed is unheated, firing in cold weather would be hard on the elements anyhow. There will soon be lots of glazing to do, so it'll still be a few weeks at least before the next firing but I'm very much looking forward to this coming tourist season! Tourists, the Canadian dollar is on sale and visitors from all countries are welcome here!
1. Infinite Waters youtube video: How To Stop Other People's Energy From Destroying You
2. CBC Marketplace November 2016 episode, on the CBC News youtube channel: "Real Estate agents breaking the rules: Hidden camera investigation"
3. This article from lonerwolf.com: You're not going crazy: 15 signs you're a victim of gaslighting
4. This Western Investor article from June 2016: "B.C real estate industry stripped of self-regulation in wake of damming report. All Real Estate Council of BC regulatory powers will be transferred to a real estate superintendent."
5. This 2007 Government of Canada Competition Bureau Report: Self-regulated Professions - Balancing competition and regulation. Included in this report are 5 professions: lawyers, accountants, optometrists, pharmacists, and real estate agents. According to the section on realtors: "Provincial real estate councils regulate the real estate industry in six
of the ten provinces (Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince
Edward Island and New Brunswick are the exceptions). Provincial law and
regulation establish these councils to license real estate professionals
and to create and administer the rules agents must follow. In the
territories and the four provinces without real estate councils, the
governments directly license agents and regulate the profession." This means that the real estate industry in Alberta, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Quebec, and Saskatchewan are regulated by members of their own industry. British Columbia was also on this list of self-regulated provinces up until British Columbians realized they weren't being protected adequately from unethical behaviour and started flipping out, as described in the article above.
6. Question that came up from review of items 2, 4, 5 on this list: where Canadians have so much of their net worth tied up in property, and the Canadian real estate industry must worth a pile of dough by now should it be regulated by the federal government? Even the Canadian Real Estate Association has no regulatory authority over any board or commission in any of the provinces, despite having a national brand and national standards for real estate agents.
7. Good news for our local wild Atlantic salmon and salmon-lovers of all species, though I'm not sure what the date of posting is on the Municipality of the District of Lunenburg website: "The Municipality of the District of Lunenburg Moves to Protect the La Have River". Floodplains in the area will be mapped in order to improve environmental protection, including protection from infilling and development in flood-prone areas.
1. This YouAreCreators youtube video: Nikola Tesla Code 3-6-9 "All is vibrating energy, especially thought"
2. The Ontario Teacher's Pension Plan. It is HUGE (over $170 billion) and prosperous, growing like a money snowball as described on this wiki page, in their annual reporting, and in this Walrus article: Pension Envy. subtitle "Ontario Teachers have the world's best-performing retirement fund. Is it a model for the rest of us?"
Meanwhile in Nova Scotia there has been a lot of media about teachers requests for better classroom conditions and pay etc, which makes me wonder if the NS Teachers Pension Plan could be managed as successfully as the OTPP, whether that could solve some of their problems.
3. New lifestyle decision to stop complaining about anything, or at least try hard to do so, inspired by item #1 on this list, and also in order to test the theory that complaining causes tension in the body and therefore detracts from health and productivity. Hence the hypothesis that in the absence of complaining, health and productivity should improve. I found a few posts on the topic, especially from people trying a 21 day complaining detox. This article explains why Complaining is Bad for Your Brain.
4. Becoming Warren Buffet - a 2017 HBO documentary about billionaire Warren Buffet.
5. Our sweet, sweet Canadian air, especially after reading this article: New Zealand air farmers are cashing in on China's air pollution. Sorry about your air, China, but thanks for all the cheap stuff.
6. Youtube video Sophia Loren Mambo Italiano and Fred Astaire & Rita Hayworth in The Shorty George
1. Salivary Amylase. This enzyme kept popping into my head lately and was a reminder that digestion starts in your mouth, as some digestive enzymes such as salivary amylase and lipase (which break down fats) are secreted there. Therefore while smoothies are delicious drinking them quickly may mean they aren't getting digested as well as they could be, as enzymes are needed to break down plant cell walls, so it's a good idea to chew your smoothies, listed first in this article as one of the 3 Smoothie Rules to Live by.
2. Psychic Jeopardy. This is a fun new way to watch Jeopardy and test psychic ability, by trying to guess the right questions based only on the category title. I thought I maybe invented this but a google search revealed other people had this same idea.
3. Youtube Channel Fitness Blender's cardio kickboxing home workouts. Eg this one but there are other good ones on this channel too.
4. Gogol Bordello videos on youtube. American Wedding, which has an awesome song lyric "have you ever been to American wedding? Where is vodka, where is marinated herring?", Tribal Connection, and Start Wearing Purple
5. More Higher Self videos: 40 Things you soul wants you to know, The 5 Stages of Awakening, Angelic guides - you didn't come here to struggle how to allow with ease, and Awakening - 7 steps to ease the labor pain of spiritual rebirth
