Winnipeg and southern Manitoba were hit by torrential rain and windstorms over the past 3 days.  53 mm of rain yesterday (2 inches) and 100 mm in the last three days.  Underpasses were flooded, lawns saturated and rivers swollen.  The city is opening the Floodway gates to help with runoff in the city.  The sewer system has been overwhelmed.  Hopefully that is the end of it for a while

Below are some comparison photos of the Assiniboine river near the Midtown bridge.  The first  and third pictures are from last Wednesday May 26th.  The second,  fourth and 5th photos are from today May 30th.

This is a very subjective list as I am not a movie aficionado and there are dozens of great horror movies that I have not seen.  But here it is.

Number 1

The Exorcist

I saw this movie when I was 14 years old.  Not a good idea.  I was an altar boy at the time and therefore still believed in Angels and Demons.  This movie so terrified me that I almost went to see a priest to discuss my possible possession by a demon.

This movie takes horror to a whole new level.  There is the blatant visceral demonic possession scenes, but at the same time subtle underlying terrifying messages that come at you from all angles.

Number 2

Hellraiser

The Cenobite Demons in this movie are radical.  The torture chambers and dark cenobite world is shocking.  Pinhead causes cold streams of angst to penetrate your very soul.  The Uncle Frank character is a classic.  Clive Barker creates a brand new world of horror like nothing that came before.

Number 3

The Shinning

Jack Nicholson at his creepy best.  What you don’t see in this movie is scarier than what you do see.  The Overlook Hotel is the perfect haunted mansion.  The horrific history of the hotel is something that the moviegoer will ponder for weeks after seeing this movie.

  

Number 4

Alien

Great monster, great spaceship, great planet scene, great story and great crew on the ship.  Enough said.

  

Number 5

Black Christmas

Very creepy psycho in the attic murdering sorority girls.  A young Andrea Martin is worth revisiting this classic.  The strange sounds and noises that the thing in the attic makes is enough to make your hair stand on end.

 

Number 6

Dawn of the Dead

Zombies run amuck in a shopping mall.  Lots of gore which is typical of Zombie movies.  After seeing this movie you will never look at a shopping mall the same way again.

 

Number 7

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 1974

Very disturbing hillbilly killers who also double as cannibals.  These gruesome psychos are on a mission from the Devil himself.  Sticking innocent victims on a meat hook is just one of their nefarious techniques.  The old grandpa killer is an island of hilarity in this dark tale.

 

Number 8

The Silence of the Lambs

The Antagonist in this movie is one of the best of all time.  Hannibal the Cannibal Lecter is a genius killer and cannibal.  His dispatch of the 2 policeman is done with such cunning and precision that it makes your head spin.  Great story combined with amazing characters.  A classic.

 

Number 9

The Thing 1982

One of the most innovative monsters in movie history.  This Thing can copy and replicate any biological form.  You never know who the enemy is.  Your best buddy or pet could be an evil alien life form that wants to eat you whole.  Set in the Antarctic on an isolated base this movie leaves you with a very cold chill indeed.

 

Number 10

The Hills Have Eyes

Grotesque mutants that prey on unsuspecting travellers.  This movie has enough blood, guck and gore to nauseate the toughest horror fan.  The mutants got this way from exposure to radiation from atomic bomb tests in the desert.  They are seeking revenge on the normal folk.  And pity the poor normal folk that wander into mutant territory.

Nations in the world keep fighting wars therefore they keep spending enormous amounts of money on weapons and related materials.  The United States out spends the next country (China) 9 times over.  There is a vast and powerful arms industry in the U.S.  Tens of thousands of jobs and a lobby that is second to none.  This behemoth industry is often called the Military Industrial Complex (MIC).  

After the Cold War ended in 1990 and Bill Clinton came to power, the MIC started shaking in its boots as defense budgets were drastically cut.  There just wasn’t a real and present dangerous threat that warranted the astronomical spending.  The U.S. defense budget in 2000 was 311.7 billion dollars.  And for all intents and purposes it was headed for more reductions.  And then the greatest gift the MIC could hope for materialized: Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda.  And especially the 9/11 attacks.  I honestly believe that cheers went up in the boardrooms of Boeing, Lockheed and the dozens of other defense contractors when that second plane went into the World Trade Center.  Today the U.S. defense budget is 548.5 billion and climbing.  And Osama, contrary to bringing the Great Satan (U.S.) to it knees, you have reinvigorated its factories of weapons and industries of destruction. 

Rank		Country	Military budgets 2008 (in constant 2005 US dollars)	% of GDP
–		NATO	825,134,000,000	–
1		United States	548,531,000,000	4.0%
–		European Union	254,633,000,000	1.4%
2		People’s Republic of China	63,643,000,000	2.0%
3		United Kingdom	57,392,000,000	2.4%
4		France	52,565,000,000	2.3%
5		Japan	42,751,000,000	0.9%
6		Russian Federation	38,238,000,000	3.5%
7		Germany	37,237,000,000	1.3%
8		Saudi Arabia	33,136,000,000	9.3%
9		Italy	32,103,000,000	1.8%
10		India	24,716,000,000	2.5%
11		South Korea	23,773,000,000	2.6%
12		Canada	15,940,000,000	1.2%
13		Brazil	15,477,000,000	1.5%
14		Australia	15,321,000,000	1.9%
15		Spain	14,721,000,000	1.2%
16		Israel	12,135,000,000	8.6%
17		Turkey	11,663,000,000	2.1%
18		Netherlands	9,866,000,000	1.5%
19		Greece	9,706,000,000	3.3%
20		Republic of China (Taiwan)	9,498,000,000	2.0%
21		Poland	7,418,000,000	2.0%
22		Colombia	6,568,000,000	6.0%
23		Syria	6,300,000,000	4.4%
24		Iran	6,089,000,000	2.9%
25		Singapore	5,831,000,000	4.1%
26		Sweden	5,205,000,000	1.4%
27		Norway	4,821,000,000	1.5%
28		Chile	4,778,000,000	3.4%
29		Belgium	4,336,000,000	1.1%
30		Pakistan	4,217,000,000	3.1%
31		Algeria	4,156,000,000	3.0%
32		South Africa	3,953,000,000	1.4%
33		Mexico	3,938,000,000	0.3%
34		Indonesia	3,824,000,000	1.2%
35		Portugal	3,766,000,000	2.0%
36		Oman	3,739,000,000	10.7%
37		Kuwait	3,622,000,000	3.9%
38		Denmark	3,541,000,000	1.3%
39		Malaysia	3,479,000,000	2.1%
40		Switzerland	3,381,000,000	0.8%
41		Ukraine	3,206,000,000	2.9%
42		Thailand	3,003,000,000	1.3%
43		Austria	2,811,000,000	0.9%
44		Finland	2,782,000,000	1.2%
45		Egypt	2,585,000,000	2.5%
46		United Arab Emirates	2,559,000,000	1.9%
47		Morocco	2,358,000,000	3.2%
48		Romania	2,184,000,000	1.6%
49		Argentina	2,077,000,000	0.8%
50		Czech Republic	2,024,000,000	1.4%

This little two year old smokes two packs of cigarettes a day (and he inhales) and at the same time is obese.  Lets just hope the old man doesn’t introduce home brew or drugs into this already tainted lifestyle.

New York Daily News

And you thought you had a bad smoking habit.

Ardi Rizal isn’t even out of diapers, but he already smokes around 40 cigarettes every day, according to Metro.co.uk.

The 2-year-old Sumatran boy was given his first cigarette at 18 months by his 30-year-old father, Mohammed. Now, he throws tantrums if he’s denied his two-pack-a-day habit, according to his family.

“He’s totally addicted,” said Ardi’s 26-year-old mother, Diana. “If he doesn’t get cigarettes, he gets angry and screams and batters his head against the wall. He tells me he feels dizzy and sick.”

The overweight tot uses a toy truck to get around instead of being active with other children, according to the report.

The boy’s disturbing habit hasn’t escaped public notice in Sumatra. Concerned officials offered to buy the family a car if Ardi quits.

Mohammed Rizal seemed unconcerned.

“He looks pretty healthy to me. I don’t see the problem,” he said.

Video:

http://www.break.com/index/two-year-old-toddler-smokes-cigarettes.html

North Korea has once again brought the world to the brink of a possible major war.  For some unknown and incomprehensible reason a North Korean submarine torpedoed a South Korean warship while it was in international waters.  The South Korean ship blew apart and sunk with the loss of 49 sailors.  An unprovoked attack like this in peace time could only come from the dysfunctional and mentally challenged leadership in Pyongyang.

Kim Jung Il (leader of North Korea) is obviously disturbed and mentally challenged.  There are reports that the aging bachelor is a womanizer and heavy drinker.  He should be eliminated immediately.  A preemptive nightime strike from a B-2 Stealth bomber with a 5,000 pound bunker buster bomb should do the trick.  But that would not completely solve the problem.

The military apparatus around Kim would still be as belligerent and irrational as ever.  These Apparatchiks are so brain washed with anti-American and anti-South hatred that they would still be as dangerous as the Kim led regime.

Therefore I contend that the current great powers — The United States, Russia and China — should reach a final resolution.  The complete annihilation of the communist regime in North Korea.  The constant crisis this group of evil doers puts the world through may one day lead to a major war that could escalate to an all out nuclear conflagration.  So lets nip the problem in the bud.  Strategic surgical nuclear strikes on all North Korean military and communist facilities.  Lets put this problem to rest once and for all!

In Quebec they have the language police.  Self-righteous zealots who are on a mission to stop English advertising in the province.  But in Iran there is something far worse.  The morality and religious police.  These Islamic purists are on the prowl looking for anything that doesn’t meet the harsh dress and behaviour codes of the Islamic Republic.  And the punishment is not a fine or limited jail time.  It is physical torture and sometimes death!

 

By Tala Raassi

It all started five days earlier, the day of my 16th birthday. My Sweet Sixteen began as it should have: sweetly. Two of us drove to a good friend’s house for my party. I was wearing what any traditional young Iranian woman would wear: a scarf over my hair, a black coat, and pants underneath my skirt. When I arrived at my friend’s house, I shed my layers, wearing just a black T-shirt and miniskirt. There were about 30 friends at the party, male and female; we listened to music and chatted. It was innocent fun, no alcohol or drugs.

Without warning, not even a knock, the religious police — government-funded groups that enforce Islamic morality — threw open the door and started shouting. It’s illegal in Iran to wear “indecent” clothes like miniskirts, to listen to music if it’s not approved by the government, and to party with the opposite sex — although people hold gatherings like this in the privacy of their homes all the time. (We learned later that a guy who hadn’t been invited to the party had reported us, to get revenge; he thought the party would simply get shut down.) I panicked and ran out the back door with a friend, which is the worst possible thing we could have done. But I was scared; the religious police, with their long, dark beards, are notoriously brutal.

Tala Raassi

The police drove us to a local jail, then separated the boys and girls, throwing my 15 girlfriends and me into a barren, rat-infested room — no chairs, no beds, just a cold concrete floor. I looked around and saw a pregnant woman and a woman with a baby, along with several other sullen young women. One woman had clearly been plucked straight from her wedding; she sat quietly on the floor in her flowing white dress. I wondered what she had done “wrong.”

We stayed overnight there on the floor, with no food or water. We had no idea what would happen to us, or how long we would have to remain there. My friends and I kept mostly to ourselves, trying not to attract any attention. We could hear rats crawling on the floor and screams from down the hall. If we needed to use the bathroom, we had to ask a guard’s permission. There were squat toilets right out in the hallway, and no sinks. One woman informed us that an inmate had been raped with a Coke bottle by other prisoners. I was terrified that this might be my fate.

On the afternoon of the fifth day, the guards rounded up my friends and me, pushed us into a bus, and drove us to a nearby court. We weren’t allowed to have lawyers or to defend ourselves. The sentence simply came down from the judge: 50 lashes for the boys, 40 lashes for the girls. We were guilty of breaking Islamic rules: wearing indecent clothing, having a party with both genders in attendance, listening to Western music. Some of the parents tried to negotiate on our behalf, even offering to trade their businesses for our sentences, but they were denied.

We were immediately driven to a small concrete jailhouse near the courtroom, where the guards lined us up in the hallway, boys on one side, girls on the other. Our parents were there, too, and they managed to slip some money to the guards to lessen the severity of our lashes. I don’t think the guards upheld their end of the deal, though. I don’t see how the beating could’ve been any worse.

Today, I’m 27 years old, and my designs are in boutiques in Miami, Los Angeles, San Diego, and Dubai. I also sell my clothes directly through my Website, darbedar.net. I make sexy bikinis, tops, and leggings, all by hand. This past year, I had a show at Miami Fashion Week. Now I’m planning to launch a T-shirt line inspired by the revolutionary movement in Iran. The line is called Lipstick Revolution, in honor of women around the world who are fighting for their freedom.

The punishment I suffered in Iran put my life on a different course. To this day, when I hear the adhan, I’m brought right back to the terror I felt in that Iranian jail. But now, with some distance, I can see that the experience made me who I am — and made me appreciate my freedom, instead of taking it for granted. One thing that hasn’t changed is my faith. I’m still very proud to be Muslim and Persian. I’m excited to be pursuing my dream of becoming a fashion designer, and I hope that I can inspire, and maybe even help empower, other young women. For me, each day is now a dream filled with creativity, freedom, and safety. And yes, I still carry my Koran with me wherever I go.

BP makes almost a billion dollars a day in its worldwide oil and gas operations.  And I’m sure it had insurance coverage in case such an event as the Gulf Blow-Out happened.

But you would think that with such astronomical profits, BP and the other oil companies would have researched contingency plans in case a deepwater blow-out occurred.

Rank	Company Name	Primary Industry	Revenue (US$ billions)	Year to	Market capitalization (US$ millions, as of March 31, 2008)	Employees	Primary Stock listing	Headquarters	CEO, compensation
1	Royal Dutch Shell	Oil and gas	$458.2	2009	$220,110	112,000	LSE: RDSA	The Hague, Netherlands and London, United Kingdom	Peter Voser
2	ExxonMobil Ltd	Oil and gas	$442.9	2009	$452,505	90,800	NYSE: XOM	Irving, Texas, United States	Rex W. Tillerson, $4.12M
3	Wal-Mart	Retailing	$405.6	2009	$210,973	2,100,000	NYSE: WMT	Bentonville, Arkansas, United States	Mike Duke, $12.44M
4	BP plc	Oil and gas	$292.0	2007	$191,844	97,600	LSE: BP	London, England, United Kingdom	Tony Hayward, $4.73M
5	Total S.A.	Oil and gas	$217.6	2007	$178,554	111,401	Euronext: FP	Courbevoie, Île-de-France, France	Christophe de Margerie
6	Saudi Aramco	Oil and gas	$216.0	2007	$781,000(estimated)	51,356	government-owned	Dhahran, Saudi Arabia	Khalid A. Al-Falih
7	Chevron Corp.	Oil and gas	$214.1	2007	$177,265	61,533	NYSE: CVX	San Ramon, California, United States	David J. O’Reilly, $7.82M
8	Petrobras	Oil and gas	$208.3	2009	$208,391	38,908	Bovespa: PETR3,4	Rio de Janeiro, State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	José Sérgio Gabrielli de Azevedo,
9	Toyota Motor Corporation	Automotive	$205	March 31, 2010	$172,166	316,121	TYO: 7203	Toyota, Aichi, Japan	Fujio Cho
10	Samsung Group	Conglomerate	$174.2	2007	$110,100	277,000	KRX: 005930, KRX: 005935	Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea	Lee Soo-bin
11	Ford Motor Company	Automotive	$172.5	2007	$&0000000000014410.00000014,410	327,531	NYSE: F	Dearborn, Michigan, United States	Alan Mulally, $2M
12	General Electric	Conglomerate	$169.7	2007	$369,569	307,000	NYSE: GE	Fairfield, Connecticut, United States	Jeffrey Immelt, $8.3M
13	Sinopec	Oil and gas	$165.4	2007	$135,317	400,513	SSE: 600028, SEHK: 0386	Beijing, China	Jiming Wang
14	ING Group	Financial services	$164.39	2009	$84,358	115,000	Euronext: INGA	Amsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands	Jan Hommen, $1.87M
15	Volkswagen Group	Automotive	$160.3	2007	$101,057	329,305	ISIN: DE0007664005	Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany	Martin Winterkorn
16	ConocoPhillips	Oil and gas	$152.8	2009	$119,002	39,000	NYSE: COP	Houston, Texas, United States	James Mulva, $6.88M
17	Allianz	Financial services	$151.0	2007	$89,502	167,193	ISIN: DE0008404005	Munich, Bavaria, Germany	Michael Diekmann
18	General Motors	Automotive	$149.0	2008	$ &0000000000013180.00000013,180	284,000	NYSE: GM	Detroit, Michigan, United States	G. Richard Wagoner, Jr., $8.51M
19	Daimler AG	Automotive	$146.3	2007	$86,992	362,063	FWB: DAI	Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany	Dieter Zetsche
20	Glencore International	Commodities	$142.3	2007	-	52,000	private	Baar, Switzerland	Ivan Glasenberg

 

Specification diagrams have finally come out for the new Blue Bomber-Bison stadium.  This stadium looks interesting.  The upper decks should provide great views of the game.  33,000 capacity that can be extended to 40,000 for Grey Cup games.  There will also be overhead coverage for 80% of the seats.  The seats will be roomy with cup holders.  Ameneties and media facilities will be state-of-the-art.

The bottom bowl will be 25 feet deep in the ground.  So in effect half the stadium will be below ground level.  So the stadium itself will not have a pronounced signature from a distance.  Commonwealth stadium in Edmonton was also built in a giagantic hole.

But overall it looks very impressive and hopefully the Blue Bombers rack up a bunch of wins in the new abode.

I have to thank the Winnipeg Guys at Skyscraperpage.com for the diagrams.

Mt. St. Helens blew up so much ash that there was ash falling in Manitoba for 2 days back in 1980.  I was a witness to this and it looked like light sleet.  It did however dissipate as soon as it hit the ground.

The 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, a stratovolcano located in Washington state, in the United States, was a major volcanic eruption. The eruption (which was a VEI 5 event) was the only significant one to occur in the contiguous 48 U.S. states since the 1915 eruption of Lassen Peak in California.

The eruption was preceded by a two-month series of earthquakes and steam-venting episodes, caused by an injection of magma at shallow depth below the volcano that created a huge bulge and a fracture system on Mount St. Helens’ north slope.

USGS scientists convinced the authorities to close Mount St. Helens to the general public and to maintain the closure in spite of pressure to re-open it; their work saved thousands of lives.

An earthquake at 8:32:17 a.m. on Sunday, May 18, 1980, caused the entire weakened north face to slide away, suddenly exposing the partly molten, gas- and steam-rich rock in the volcano to lower pressure. The rock responded by exploding a hot mix of lava and pulverized older rock toward Spirit Lake so fast that it overtook the avalanching north face.

An eruption column rose 80,000 feet (24,400 m) into the atmosphere and deposited ash in 11 U.S. states.  At the same time, snow, ice and several entire glaciers on the volcano melted, forming a series of large lahars (volcanic mudslides) that reached as far as the Columbia River, nearly fifty miles (eighty kilometers) to the south. Less severe outbursts continued into the next day only to be followed by other large but not as destructive eruptions later in 1980.

  Some people can go up as high as the sky and they don’t think twice about it.  On high ladders, cranes, beams on high buildings or climbing up a soaring communications tower these guys never flinch.

Some of the best photos of this behaviour were taken during the construction of the Empire State Building in New York City.  Construction of the 102 story building was completed in 14 months.  An amazingly fast time for such a giant building.

Excavation of the site began on January 22, 1930, and construction on the building itself started symbolically on March 17—St.Patrick’s Day—per Al Smith’s influence as Empire State, Inc. president. The project involved 3,400 workers, mostly immigrants from Europe, along with hundreds of Mohawk iron workers, many from the Kahnawake reserve near Montreal. According to official accounts, five workers died during the construction. Governor Smith’s grandchildren cut the ribbon on May 1, 1931.

Some photos of the construction workers way way up:

Must be waiting for more girders.

Looks like they ordered out.  No pizza back then so this must be cookies.

And today workers still go very high to construct very high structures and for maintenance.

The photo below shows workers doing maintenance on the highest communications tower in the United States.  It is a TV tower in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.  These guys went up 2,200 feet.  That is a 1,000 feet higher than the Empire State Building.

Workers on the new Hoover Dam Bridge Bypass: