LVEC decision delayed

In what has to be considered a partial victory for KCAL and other LVEC opponents, Kingston City Council has decided to look at another site downtown for the LVEC project.

A "last-minute" amendment by Councillor George Sutherland to look at the "North Block" saved the project from the dustbin. It's a four-block area downtown, bounded by Place D'Armes, Ontario, Queen & Wellington Streets. The problem is that King Harvey's Task Force has already looked at the site once and rejected it and the parking and traffic problems still remain the same: very little of the former and too much of the latter.

I'm questioning the "last-minute" nature of the amendment on a couple of grounds: when he introduced it, Councillor Sutherland used the phrase "As you know, Your Worship, I cannot support the Anglin Bay site ...". Obviously, there was a discussion at some earlier point about this. Then, during debate on the amendment, His Majesty pulled out a prepared speech on the matter. Oh, it was a surprise all right ...

I still don't understand what's wrong with the Memorial Centre site. (It's the big grey square in the centre of the map) The city owns it, so property acquisition is nil; it has astronomically better road access and loads of parking room.

It's interesting to note that Deputy Mayor Foster seems to be viewing any opposition to the Anglin Bay site as a personal attack. She chaired the committee that selected that dog's breakfast in the first place. When Council finally listens to the will of the voters (our petition drive is over 4,000 signatures) and chooses an appropriate site that won't impact so heavily on its surroundings, she's going to find herself out in the cold if she doesn't change her attitude in a big hurry.

LVEC vote tomorrow

Well, the next big hurdle for the LVEC project is a vote at City Council tomorrow. If they accept the Market Study as presented, the project continues. If they reject it, we can all relax while the Mayor's cabal goes out and find a more appropriate site. If you're in Kingston, tune in to Cablenet 13 at 7:30. I'm going to my first City Council meeting in 15 years.

I'll be taking my laptop, so if I can pick up a wireless connection, I'll try to post updates as necessary. Word from the inside is that the three swing councillors have split: one for each side and one left ... swinging. The good news is that he represents the rural, Countryside, district, so he has no direct stake in the location. I hope it's good, at any rate.

The celebrities are coming!

New Orleans is suffering through a horrible crisis, no doubt. From an inept mayor, to an ill-prepared chief of police, to a dithering Governor, to a distant President, the citizens of the Big Easy have been let down at every turn.

It got worse this week: glory-grasping, career-stalled celebrities are flocking to the area to "help" and show the world that they really care. Take Sean Penn. Please. The actor and "political activist" decided to do what he could by getting down there with a boat and "rescuing" people. Sounds noble, doesn't it? Until you find out that he brought an entourage including a personal photographer with him. Bystanders desevedly mocked him.

Last night was the big telethon. They seem to be the fashionable way to raise money for disaster relief lately. I wonder when they'll hold one for Iraq?

LVEC Petition

A group that I belong to, Kingstonians Concerned About the LVEC (KCAL), have started a petition drive in an attempt to get Kingston City Council to re-think their disastrous plan for a waterfront arena and entertainment centre.

The response has been good, too. But, an To gather a few more signatures, we'll be setting up in front of Tara Natural Foods (sorry, no website), 81 Princess Street, tomorrow. I'll be there from 3-4, so come on down, say hi and lend your signature to the cause.

The next Council vote on the project is at the September 20 meeting. What I son't understand is how Council thinks they're making an informed decision about this when they still don't have the full projected cost. All that's been talked about is the "$37.3 million LVEC". Guess what? That number doesn't include acquisition and enviromental remediation of the land or re-settlement of a thriving business, Metalcraft Marine from the site. One's mind boggles.

Call your councillor and remind them that there are dozens of other more important things to spend $35-50 million in the City. Do it now. Especially if they're part of Rosen's cabal.

Sharky's staying

Barring any unforseen circumstances, (eating a child, etc.) Shark Bait is to become a permanent member of our family. We had him to the cottage on the weekend and he was fantastic. He played nicely with our neighbour's, fetch-obsessed, dog Coco, he didn't wander off. He just hung out and relaxed. He even wound up going for a few swims in the Lake after frisbees. He hasn't had a lot of swimming practice before, so we weren't sure how he'd do, but it went just fine. It wasn't graceful, but he didn't drown, either.

Wireless networks

You may have heard of something called "wardriving". If you haven't, it's not as ominous as it sounds and I gave it a whirl Friday after work. What it entails is running a laptop computer in network scanning mode and logging the results. I also connected my GPS to the computer so that it would log the location of each network.

A couple of things surprised me: Over the route that I took, from my parking space to pick up the boys, to pick up Bridget, then home, I logged 405 wireless access points. What a huge waste of resources! Strategically placed, you could cover the same amount of ground with similar speed and efficiency with less that 100 hotspots. Probably less than 75. Not much one can do when most people don't even know their neighbours any more.

The biggest shock was that more than half of them (206) had encryption disabled! So, anyone with a laptop could sit outside their house (or office, in some cases) and use their internet connection! One of them is in an office where I know somebody. I called her and told her about it. She told the boss and the sub-tenant's response was that he doesn't want any encryption and anything on his computer is already on the internet anyway. Not with a properly configured Linksys router, yah knob!

Even worse, from a network admin standpoint, 42 of them still have the default unit ID. I would guess that a majority of them also still have the default admin password. Sheesh. If I didn't already have a day job, I'd be looking into something to do with this as a consulting gig.

I'm hooked on this, though. I went online and ordered a better wireless card and an external antenna. We'll see what I pick up once those arrive. :-)

Gas prices

Well, there's a shock. Gas prices are up again. Kingston hit $1.33 per litre today. That's an increase of 37 cents (or 38.1%) since Monday. How do they justify it? I watched a petroleum industry shill blathering on about reduced supply on CITY-TV Tuesday morning. I felt sorry for her, actually. It was painfully obvious that she didn't believe a word she was saying.

Let me spell this out: No matter what has happened to refineries in Louisiana, there is no legitimate reason to jack prices almost 40% in one week. It's profiteering, plain as day. They know our government doesn't have the balls to do anything about it, so why play fair with consumers? Hell, the Feds have held a handful of inquiries and the official line is still that there is no evidence of price-fixing in the petroleum industry.Excuse me? Every gas station in Ontario raises prices to unconscionable levels almost overnight simultaneously and there's no evidence of collusion? Look harder, moron!

I'm getting very weary of hearing how much the rest of the world pays for gas as a justification for this, too. Because some poor schmuck in an oil-importing country pays 2-3 times as much as I do for gas, our price has to go up? Give me a freaking break. Do they put up with the oil industry raising prices on the Thursday before a long weekend, then having the slow slide back down only to have it cranked up again? Then, they're as stupid as we are.

Have you noticed that the rhetoric surrounding the government and gas prices has changed slightly? It used to be calling for the government to bring them in line, impose some regulatory control. This time, it's all talk about how reducing the gasoline tax (which pays for our highways, by the way) is the only option. Hello? Do what Hawaii has done: impose some control on the wholesale price! The govt needs that tax income so we don't have more toll roads! Sheesh.

Shark-bait has landed

Sharky for short. So far so good, but he's only been with us for 90 minutes. :-D

As we were strolling around the neighbourhood, I realized that I started gaining weight not long after Toby died. 5 years later, I'm a somewhat rounded 200 pounds. Fairly decent walks around the neighbourhood twice a day should whip me back into shape in a hurry. I'm liking this idea more all the time.

Today is D-Day

That's "D" as in dog. A co-worker friend of mine was looking for a home for his 5-year-old Golden Retriever, and we fell for it. He's a neutered, purebred, friendly animal who loves kids. Hopefully not for breakfast ... LOL

His current name is "Sharptooth". Apparently, that from The Land Before Time movies. Phil was never really into that series, so we've decided to re-name him. It had to be something close so as to minimize confusion for the poor beast. We came up with "Shark-bait". Finding Nemo is one of the favourite movies in our house. Hoo-ha-ha is optional.

I pick him up after dinner tonight, so we'll see how we do. Bridget and I have both decided we're crazy to be adding him into the whirldwind that is our life, but I know I've missed having a mutt around since Toby, and I'm fairly certain she has too (even if she won't admit it).