Who said that Canadians are not funny?

Ok… it was almost a week ago during the 39th Federal Elections day . The irony makes it that for some weird reason, last Monday coincided with the most depressing day of the year, as some are trying to convince us. For me it was not depressing at all. After work I did a quick stop at my neighborhood school to express in no time my electoral voice. No time, doesn’t mean that there were not enough people voting. It means that the voting process was very well organized.

Then, I tuned to the main TV stations (CTV and CBC) to watch live the exciting elections results commentaries, analysis and speeches. After RCMP released an investigation news, the common "prediction" was that Conservatives will win the majority. There were though some late news that Liberals narrowed the gap. Elections results started to be very interesting.

While waiting for the vote closing time, CBC cheers the spirits by airing the funny Mercer Report and the other funny show, The Hour Has 22 Minutes. That was a good laugh before the first elections reports started to come. And I’m saying to myself: who said that Canadians are not funny? What happened after that, I’ll discuss next time.

Another beautiful sunrise.

captured this morning.

Why indecision is not an election option.

Canadians are in the Federal Elections fever. I like political elections for different reasons.

First of all I enjoy watching the way the traditional political parties change strategies to win votes.

Then I take a good laugh at the accuracy of the political polls. This reminds me of one of my student paper about the mathematics behind these polls. Well, while mathematics is good, it cannot deal with people's changing feelings.

How can I forget the bloggers, though.

Then I follow the political cartoons and passionate debates on message boards. When serious issues are at stake, people become very passionate.

You could even be Prime Minister of Canada Forever, for free.

I like also the way people become creative to start new parties. Take for example www.randomparty.ca that I've picked up from a forum.

But what I like the most is the freedom to choose. Some people though take this freedom for granted and don't vote because they cannot make a decision about who to vote for. Here it is a demonstration of why this reason cannot be used.

If you are undecided, then willing or not you have to vote for the Random Party but if you do so then you made already a decision, so you are not undecided anymore. Consequently you cannot vote for this party. Just kidding :) The conclusion is that indecision is not an option. Canadians have only few days left to make a choice.

The Region of Waterloo in 2005.

The local newspaper The Record published the usual review of the past year, through photos. This year has two photo galleries.

Here are the pictures that I've found interesting:

From the Year in Review 2005 gallery:
Photo 17- Christopher Plummer at the memorial service of Tom Patterson, the founder of Stratford Festival of Canada.

Photo 25 - The Kitchener veteran Harry Watts recreates a famous Holland Liberation picture taken 60 years ago.

Photo 26 - Mike Lazaridis (RIM's Co-CEO and IQC philanthropist) together with Ray Laflamme and Michele Mosca next to Waterloo's Quantum Computer about which I talked in this post.

Photo 43 - EinsteinFest enthusiasts helped Perimeter Institute organize one of the biggest celebration of Einstein's Annus Mirabilis.

Photo 48 - Bill Gates, the 2005 person of the year visited University of Waterloo (UW) on Oct 13th. His visit is a recognition of the world prestige that UW has. By reading his speach you understand why Microsoft is the software world leader.

Photo 56 - 25 million David Cheriton's donation to the UW.

I would add to this gallery the celebration picture of the opening of the first International office of UW in the heart of Big Apple.

From the A Year of Great Photos gallery:
Photo 2 - birds on hydro lines in Wallenstein.

Photo 17 - menonites from the Kitchener-Waterloo's, small neighbor St. Jacobs.

Photo 18 - hot air balloon in the air (could be this one.)

Photo 25 - nice maple leafs revealing the beauty of the fall.

Photo 38 - Kitchener veteran Harry Watts parading in Holland on a 60 year old vintage motorcycle.

Photo 43 - Waterloo Region participants at the World Irish Dance Championships in Ireland.

Photo 57 - lightning in Kitchener.

Photo 66 - Port Dover extravaganza. These guys don't have a better time to meet than on every Friday the 13th.

That's all folks...if you are in the mood for more local pictures check out the 2004 Year in Review.

Scary prediction.

I've just watched The Fifth Estate, CBC production The Black Dawn: The Next Pandemic a docudrama of what if the H5N1 Avian Flu becomes a pandemic virus. Hairy stuff. The prediction that an outbreak will be similar with the 1918 Spanish Flu resulting in 200 to 300 million victims, is quite horrible.

Lets hope that the next pandemic will never come.

The winter's beauty.

Happy New Year and Best Wishes to Everyone!

Welcome to another year of random thoughts. After more than two weeks of silence caused by a wonderful sunny vacation I've started to work on my new year resolutions and predictions, like most of us. In the meantime I was thinking at what is the best way to start a new year of blogging.

Finally I've decided to post the below pictures as a result of some comments I've picked up while on my way back from the sunny horizons. While it is understandable that winter could feel depressing for a bunch of folks returning from the hot beaches, the winter has its specific beauty related partially to the nature's cyclical purification and rejuvenation. It is true that you would not wish its beauty for every day of the year but I feel that winter's specific beauty is given by the way the nature is decorated in white by the snow. It is a kind of beauty that is appreciated during the winter holidays when people already have an excess of other beauties. Maybe that is why snowy winter holidays are so special. Unfortunately, we had our best snow this winter one month before Christmas.

Below pictures were taken in Kitchener, close to Market Square and Onkel Hans Haus (part of which could be seen on the left side). Oktoberfest folks call this place "Willkommen Platz".

Another view of Willkommen Platz that links the other two pictures. On the right side, the "Clockenspiel" is hidden behind the snowy trees.

"Clockenspiel" is a beautiful mechanical clock donated to the KW community. I'll post some other time pictures with it when the o'clock song of the bells and the "performance" of the mechanical characters take place. For now I'll limit myself to quote the clockenspiel slogan: Clockenspiel and choirsong makes man happy all life long.