Niagra Falls is overwhelming.
It attracts tourists, honeymooners, stunt men, suicidal people and everyone inbetween.

The authorities on both sides of the border that watch the falls have their hands full, less with the falls and more with people.

This hasn’t happened since 1960.

Saw it on TV?
This guy didn’t make it. You have to feel for his stepdad and friends.
Man. A 4 inch fish.

The Gov-Gen
Canada’s Governor-General is appointed by the Prime Minister.
We have one that has carried out ceremonial duties with a reasonable degree dignity and decorum, and no eye on the taxpayers money.
Hello. Madame Clarkson. You are not the queen. We already have one.
Every bit of flack you get for spending all our money is well earned. Shame.

Amber Alert
The third Amber alert ever issued from Toronto is now for 9 year old Dong-Yue (Cecilia) Zhang. And, it appears this is an abduction. Her bed was empty yesterday morning when her mom went to wake her up for school.

She is a bit of a girl, an inch shy of five feet, 70 pounds soaking wet. She has that wonderful lustrous black hair that the Chinese have, and since that picture now adorning the Toronto Police Web site and the “Missing” posters from Child Find Ontario — wherein Cecilia, grinning into the sun and with trees and water in the background, is wearing a bright blue life jacket and appears to have a paddle or an oar in her hands — she has had blond highlights put in.

She is in Grade 4, in the gifted program at Seneca Hill Drive Public School. Only in March did she turn 9, that magical age when a child may be prone to delicious malapropism, as one of her classmates, a little boy named Martin Ramiser, proved yesterday when he was asked what the social worker had said when she came to his class to break the news about Cecilia, and replied, “The socialist lady just came in and talked to us.”

Amber alerts assure that there is co-operation between police agencies and the coverage of a child’s disappearance is wide-spread from the media to highway signs in the hope….

There have been two previous Amber alerts in Ontario. Alexis Currie, 2, was abducted and murdered by her father in March 2002. Holly Jones 10, was abducted and murdered in May 2003. A 35 year old neighbour has been charged.
Canada
There were 35 kidnappings in 2002.
429 parental abductions.
2092 other abductions.
The number of children abducted has decreased in Canada, and the most terrifying remains the least probable.
62% of children were found on the first day.
86% of cases were closed in a week.
Children looked for under the category “other” are usually taken by a relative or friend away from the parent or guardian.
CPIC classifications are on page 8 of the 2002 report.

UPDATE: The OPP have called off the Amber Alert.
In Canada we have a federal force, the famous and infamous RCMP, which also acts as a provincial force in most provinces and the territories.
Ontario has a provincial force, the OPP, and Quebec has the QPP or Sûreté du Québec (SQ). Toronto Metropolitian Police (municipal) want to keep the alert active.
My hunch on this looking at the police media speak….
Toronto has a suspect. The usual careful wording makes me wonder if he/she may be known to the family.
If it is a kidnapping, Toronto residents are going to be screaming about offender placement laws.
Although Amber Alerts are relatively new to Canada, I don’t think this call-off is a police turf war.
Alberta, Manitoba, The City of Montreal, and Ontario use this system.

British Columbia
Devestating fires. Now floods.
Southern British Columbia is reeling.

40 year old Steven Dunn a chef who also drives a taxi saved 11 lives this weekend. He doesn’t think he is a hero. I respectfully differ.

“It was pitch black,” he said. “I slowed, and for some reason, I stopped. I guess it was my subconscious or a guardian angel. Then I realized this inky blackness in front of me was this void.”

Online
I have to seriously question the thinking of people who say or treat online relationships as ‘not real.’ There is some strange disconnect in their brain that allows them to wander around the web (or not) meeting people and seeing that as passive.
What part of interactive don’t they get?
Predators get it. They count on it. So what the heck is the problem with religious people? Your words are yours. You are you. You are dialoging with real flesh and blood people sitting in front of a computer the same way you are. By designating online time as not real, people can make up all kinds of excuses for bad behaviour or their fear of others, technology or whatever.
AKMA’s Random Thoughts post looks at the premise that the net makes people anti-social from his personal experience.
I think anti-social is anti-social on or off line. As this post points out, it is your choice.
link via Jordon Cooper