I always feel rejuvenated by a touch of adventure!

May 2, 1925 - November 19, 2011

Rest in peace, Mr. Neville! I will always remember you as the Baron! May you feel rejuvenated for your next adventure!

Ghost Story Series: Entry 5

Saskatchewan's Mental Hospitals

North Battleford

Called the North Battleford Hospital, this is a mental hospital that back in the early 1900′s was totally self sufficient. All staff and patients lived and died on the grounds.  This building was the first mental facility in the province.

Being the location is on the edge of northern forest, the hospital’s backdrop looks onto a wonderful area of the province.  Which over the years has become incredibly haunted.

North Battleford

By 1929, with approximately 1,000 patients in each institution, the overcrowding became deplorable. Patients were deteriorated and unclean. The only clothing they wore were strong dresses made of canvas. They slept on beds sometimes two to a bed, sometimes the odd one under a bed.

There is an old cemetery hidden away in over grown brush that on many nights lights and sounds are seen and heard.  Whispers can be heard from behind the gravestones but when you look behind the stone nobody is there.

There was also a wing of the hospital that burned down in the early 1930′s and one of the patients was badly burned in the fire. She died a few days later and her ghost can be seen wandering the burned out wing at night.

The hospital is also connected to all the buildings on the grounds via underground tunnels that many staff have mentioned passing by people in these tunnels who simply vanish once you pass them.

It’s been said that those who go to the hospital are left with chills running up and down their spine.  Especially at night.  You never know who may be watching you!

Weyburn Hospital

The next hospital in Saskatchewan we’ll take a look at is in Weyburn.  Weyburn rests on the banks of the Souris River in south eastern Saskatchewan.

Weyburn

The building is the second oldest mental institution in Saskatchewan.  Opened in 1921, it was, at the time, the largest building in the British Empire.  It’s construction was directly affected by overcrowding in the hospital in North Battleford.

During the 1930′s an investigation into patient care took place.  What was discovered was the practices used by the doctors were inhumane and cruel. However, the mental institution remained open.

When the facility first opened, mental illness was poorly understood and the primary methods of treatment consisted of ‘work and water.’ A lot of them worked at the laundry and in the kitchen and in the gardens. They were just glad to have things to do.

One of the favored treatments of the 1860′s was the Water Cure, in which a patient would be immersed naked into a tub of icy water and then taken to a tub of scalding water after their body temperature had sufficiently lowered. In addition, female patients, received a cold water douche, administered with a hose and then they were wrapped tightly in wet sheets to squeeze the blood vessels shut. This was followed by vigorous rubbing to restore circulation. The “treatments” were administered several times each week but not surprisingly, such techniques brought little success and most of the patients never got better.

Other treatments used at the hospital were not so benign. In an attempt to control and treat patients, methods such as insulin therapy, electroshock and lobotomies were practiced.

Although invasive, these methods were driven by a desperate need to help patients who were often a danger to themselves and others. Later, other therapies came into practice.

The fourth floor is sealed off, but people still hear voices from there, and some have said to have seen a woman in the fourth floor window.  She walks back and forth, back and forth, all night.

The building is in the very middle of thick trees. At night it has been reported that people have heard voices in the trees.

Currently, the hospital is scheduled for demolition.

Ghost Story Series: Entry 4

Elizabeth Bathory – The Blood Countess

The Blood Countess

Cachtice castle stands in ruins today, thought in the 16th century, it stood tall and proud. Within the walls of this castle, legends and rumours began. Stories that would lead one countess to be titled The Blood Countess.

Elizabeth Bathory or Erzsébet Báthory as she was known in Hungarian, became famous for her murders of young girls over twenty years.

Bathory was born in 1560, married when she was only twelve years of age to Ferenc Nádasdy. It was Ferenc who gave her Cachtice castle as a wedding gift. Of course as most marriages were for political gain, this one was no different.

Bathory was schooled in Greek, Latin, and Hungarian and as everything but illiterate. It was said that she was a great beauty, thought no one would speak openly about the daughter of one of the most influential families in Hungary.

In 1578, her husband became chief commander of Hungarian troops. Elizabeth was in charge of the estates and business affairs of the lands, later she was also given the power to defend the estates. She intervened on behalf of women who were destitute, including a woman who’s husband was kidnapped by the Turks and her daughter who was raped and impregnated.

Ruins of the Countess' castle

One would think that with a kind heart like Elizabeth’s that nothing grim and gruesome would be going on behind the walls of the castle. She was considered a doting mother to all of her children. It might have even been her husband who turned her on to the idea of torturing her servants for her own pleasure. The real reason why she did it isn’t completely known.

Legends tell that Elizabeth, would beat her servants with barbed leashes, heavy cudgels and then drag them into snow where they would be doused in ice water until they froze to death. Later it was told that she began to use blood to reduce the aging after discovering this after she struck a servant for pulling her hair. Various eye-witness accounts tell vivid details of her crimes, but none saying that she actually took baths in blood.

In 1610 rumours flew around, and soon could not be ignored by the King. He assigned Juraj Thurzo to seek the truth to these rumours. On December 30th, Thurzo invaded the castle to find a dead girl in the hall, and many more dead, dying or awaiting torture in one of the many cells. At this time only a few of Elizabeth’s personal servants were taken; Helena Jo, Dorothea and Ficzko. The evidence and the confessions, probably tortured out of them was enough to convict them within a few days.
The two women were considered witches and had their fingers dipped in Christian blood then the nails removed with red hot pincers, after this they were burned alive. Ficzko was decapitated and then burned next to the women.

Testimonies of witnesses gave accounts of what happened, most were considered hearsay, but ones that were consistent included:

• Beatings over long periods of time, often resulting in death
• mutilation or removal of hands, face and sometimes genitalia
• biting flesh off their faces, arms or other body parts
• freezing to death
• fatal surgeries
• Sexual abuse

The actual count of victims was around 650, but it unknown if that is the true number. Elizabeth, to save face of the family, was not convicted of any crimes. However, she was considered a menace to her family and their name, and was placed under house arrest. Elizabeth Bathory was walled into her bedroom, which had a slot for air and food to pass through.

Four years later, a guard of Bathory’s room, found her face down, dead.

One thing that is incredibly interesting about the lives of people like Elizabeth Bathory, and like Vlad the Impaler, is when you read about them you find they were incredibly devote Christians.  But over the years, that devotion to the Christian faith is given a wash and more focus placed on the atrocities that they committed.

Were they evil and villinous in their lives?  No question, their techniques in war, such as Vlad, were sickening.  The descriptions of how he staked people were horrifying.  Elizabeth’s life became akin to one of the seven deadly sins.  She was so vain in her appearance, but it is believed that can be attributed to everyone around her saying she was so beautiful.  She wanted to retain that beauty and did whatever she could to keep it.

The views of these two by eastern and western Europe are also very different, especially with Vlad the Impaler.  In Western Europe after Vlad’s death, the west painted him as a maniacal madman who took great pleasure in seeing his enemies suffer.  Whereas in the East, his actions were defended as a prince protecting his people, taking on their sins so they could live life free of sin.  As well, he was heralded as a hero for his actions.  In Germany and Russian, documentation has been recorded about Vlad’s exploits, and while some are very similar in the accounts of the events, they paint an entirely different picture.

Elizabeth wasn’t the warlord that Vlad was.  She wasn’t protecting her properties or her homeland.  Her husband had done that already.  But there was a great deal of political intrigue that surrounded the aspect of Elizabeth, especially with her relations to powerful people in Hungary and Poland.  In Hungary, those in power knew that Bathory was slaughtering innocents for her own pleasure, but they couldn’t really do anything about it due to her political connections in Poland.  No one wanted to start a war over this.  Bathory’s accomplises were eventually tried and executed, but Bathory herself was walled up in her castle.  In some of the accounts, you could almost say there was an amount of sympathy for this woman.

What’s even more incredible about Bathory’s history is that she began as a very kind hearted woman. So, what exactly set her off to become known throughout history as the Blood Countess?  We can only really speculate and offer educated guesses, as medical records were not kept nearly as accurate as they are today.  But it may have been a condition of the mind, and as the mind grows older, the mind can change a great deal.  Was Bathory insane?  I think one merely need examine the accounts of her life after becoming known as the Blood Countess to come to a conclusion.

Vlad and Bathory were just two individuals throughout history that lead very villainous lives.  Sure, there were others, but these two had their stories retold generation after generation.  With the telling of each story details may have been exagerated, twisted or even completely changed to make it seem more horrifying than it really was.  Such as the case with the concept of the vampire becoming prevelent in both Vlad and Bathory.  Which can only stand to reason as they both live in an area of Romania where the populous believed in vampirism so readily.

So with these two, no there wasn’t any grim tales of hauntings or any ghostly visits that continue at their castles.  Why do they appear in a list of ghost stories throughout the month of October?  Because their actions in life were equally as horrifying, in most cast moreso, as what ghost stories could ever be told.
One thing I find incredibly interesting about the lives of people like Elizabeth Bathory, and like Vlad the Impaler, is when you read about them you find they were incredibly devote Christians.  But over the years, that devotion to the Christian faith is given a wash and more focus placed on the atrocities that they committed.

Were they evil and villinous in their lives?  No question, their techniques in war, such as Vlad, were sickening.  The descriptions of how he staked people were horrifying.  Elizabeth’s life became akin to one of the seven deadly sins.  She was so vain in her appearance, but it is believed that can be attributed to everyone around her saying she was so beautiful.  She wanted to retain that beauty and did whatever she could to keep it.

The views of these two by eastern and western Europe are also very different, especially with Vlad the Impaler.  In Western Europe after Vlad’s death, the west painted him as a maniacal madman who took great pleasure in seeing his enemies suffer.  Whereas in the East, his actions were defended as a prince protecting his people, taking on their sins so they could live life free of sin.  As well, he was heralded as a hero for his actions.  In Germany and Russian, documentation has been recorded about Vlad’s exploits, and while some are very similar in the accounts of the events, they paint an entirely different picture.

Elizabeth wasn’t the warlord that Vlad was.  She wasn’t protecting her properties or her homeland.  Her husband had done that already.  But there was a great deal of political intrigue that surrounded the aspect of Elizabeth, especially with her relations to powerful people in Hungary and Poland.  In Hungary, those in power knew that Bathory was slaughtering innocents for her own pleasure, but they couldn’t really do anything about it due to her political connections in Poland.  No one wanted to start a war over this.

Bathory’s accomplises were eventually tried and executed, but Bathory herself was walled up in her castle.  In some of the accounts, you could almost say there was an amount of sympathy for this woman.

What’s even more incredible about Bathory’s history is that she began as a very kind hearted woman.So, what exactly set her off to become known throughout history as the Blood Countess?  We can only really speculate and offer educated guesses, as medical records were not kept nearly as accurate as they are today.  But it may have been a condition of the mind, and as the mind grows older, the mind can change a great deal.  Was Bathory insane?  One merely need examine the accounts of her life after becoming known as the Blood Countess to come to a conclusion.

Vlad and Bathory were just two individuals throughout history that lead very villainous lives.  Sure, there were others, but these two had their stories retold generation after generation.  With the telling of each story details may have been exagerated, twisted or even completely changed to make it seem more horrifying than it really was.  Such as the case with the concept of the vampire becoming prevelent in both Vlad and Bathory.  Which can only stand to reason as they both live in an area of Romania where the populous believed in vampirism so readily.

So with these two, no there wasn’t any grim tales of hauntings or any ghostly visits that continue at their castles.  Why do they appear in a list of ghost stories throughout the month of October?  Because their actions in life were equally as horrifying, in most cast moreso, as what ghost stories could ever be told.

Ghost Story Series: Entry 3

Myrtles Plantation

Claimed to be the most haunted house in the world, Myrtles Plantation is located in St. Francesville, Louisiana. The amount of paranormal activity here is quite impressive. Hand prints in the mirrors, footsteps on the stairs, mysterious smells, vanishing objects, death by poison, hangings, murder and gunfire — these are just a few of the things that have occurred supernaturally

The house was built in 1794 by David Bradford, who was leader of the Whiskey Rebellion and said to havea price on his head by President George Washington. After trading his home for 230 barrels of flour, he moved his family down the to plantation house where he lived until 1817

While Bradford was alive, he took students in to learn law, one of which married his daughter Sarah Matilda. His name was Clark Woodruff. It was Woodruff that bought the plantation from his mother-in-law. Woodruff and his wife lived there with their three children.

However tragedy befell the family when Sarah Matilda contracted yellow fever and died shortly after, along with two of their children.

In April 1835, Woodruff sold the house toRuffin Grey Stirling. The Stirling’s were a very wealthy family who owned several plantations on both sides of the Mississippi River. On January 1, Ruffin Grey Stirling and his wife, Mary Catherine Cobb, took over the house, land, buildings and all of the slaves that had been bought from Elizabeth Bradford by her son-in-law.

The house traded hands several times over the years and the stories followed with it.

Woodruff was known for his promiscuity and forced himself on a house servant known only as Chloe. Rather than be sent out to the fields to work, she allowed him his sexual demands.  When Woodruff grew tired of Chloe, she resorted to eavesdropping on the family, listening for her name to come out. It was Woodruff that caught her and punished her by cutting off an ear.

Later she had her revenge when she toss a handful of oleander into a birthday cake for Woodruff. While Woodruff didn’t eat any, his wife and two children did. It is said they supposedly died from oleander poisoning.

Fear of their master, the other slaves, dragged Chloe from the house and hanged her in a tree. They then attached rocks to her feet and tossed her into the river.

It’s believed that Chloe still haunts the grounds. She’s been sighted between two buildings on the land. She’s often been sighted when a child cries, and she responds to the cry or leaning down over a sleeping guest.

While these have been accepted as facts, what really happen no one will know as there was no actual evidence that anything like this had taken place.

A mirror in the house is said to have some of the victims trapped within. Causing handprints on the inside of the glass. Oddly enough, the glass was replaced and still the hand prints came back.

More haunting tales of Myrtles are dealing with probably the only movie that was filmed there that wasn’t of a paranormal nature. The cast and crew of The Long Hot Summer experienced shifting furniture. The crew would move the furniture only to return and find it back in the original places.

There have been many claims for Myrtles Plantation, but with a history that’s muddle, broken and missing in places, it’s hard to pinpoint any one true account. Employees have first hand experience with the supernatural beings of Myrtles Plantation. One man was hired as a gate man to meet and greet people as they came to the Plantation. He opened the gates for a woman dressed in white who didn’t speak a word to him. He quit his job and never returned when she vanished through the front door without opening it.

There is even a piano that is said to start playing music by itself and stop when someone enters the room.

The legends and stories of Myrtles will be around for years to come. It’s amazing how much stuff there is lurking in this house. How many people claim to have had paranormal experiences. Things like this will keep people going back year after year.

Ghost Story Series: Double Feature

Since I missed yesterday's post, Here's a double entry!

St. Louis, Saskatchewan

St. Louis is a small community in central Saskatchewan located 30 kilometers south of the city of Prince Albert. Currently, there are around 431 people that live in the small village. St. Louis saw it’s beginnings in 1880 and 1884, when settlers began coming into the area. In 1885, the Northwest Rebellion in nearby Batoche helped shape the lives of those early settlers. In 1897, the Daughters of Providence Sisters arrived from France and built a convent and boarding house in 1919. In the 1970′s, the boarding house only accepted female borders. That continued until it’s closure. One would think that such a sleepy little village on the banks of the North Saskatchewan River would be ideal for anyone to live. In truth, it is. But there are two events which hold a rather ghostly air to the place.

The Phantom Light

This is an actual photo of the St. Louis Phantom light.

1914, the railroad connected the city of Prince Albert and the town of Watrous. St. Louis was a stopping point on that line. As the years went by, rail service was important. But as the end of the 20th century arrived, both CN and CPR began closing rail lines. This connecting line between Prince Albert and Watrous was just one of many to disappear. But in St. Louis, the train still runs. It’s known as The St. Louis Light or the St. Louis Ghost Train. The paranormal phenomenon reported to be seen in near St. Louis. The phenomenon has been featured on the television series Unsolved Mysteries. The phenomenon entails reports of a strange light that moves up and down along an old but abandoned rail line at night, changing colours and varying in brightness. The rail line is located south of Prince Albert and north of St. Louis. Several origin stories exist to explain light, including that it is a ghost train, or that it is the ghost of a drunk brakeman who lost his head to a passing train and now wanders up and down the tracks with a lantern attempting to find it. Non-paranormal explanations include possible refraction of car headlights. The tracks that the train used to run on have since been removed however this phenomenon still occurs on almost a nightly basis. Scientist have attempted to debunk the light, suggesting that it’s distant headlights from a vehicle, but no road runs parallel with the old line. Even reflections that may bounce off nearby clouds has been suggested, but even those trying to debunk the light have dismissed such stories. What truly happened along the line to cause the train to keep running is unknown. What we do know, is the train keeps going.

The Chilling Tale of the Convent

The Daughters of Providence Sisters was one of many groups that arrived in Saskatchewan to create convents and spread the word of the Lord.  The Catholic faith is well entrenched in the province, as many settlers of European decent had Catholic leanings.  Today, churches on the prairies still stand, and some are still in use, of those long gone days.

Not everything in those churches and convents was exactly peaceful.

As the story goes, the convent found one of the sisters became pregnant.  Believing the pregnancy to be the work of the devil himself, the sisters carried the pregnancy full term, and then disposed of the new born baby in a nearby well.  Having believed the evil had been dealt with, the child was forgotten.

The convent has since closed, but chilling tales are being told to this day.  Visitors to the old site have taken a walk around the old grounds and returned to their vehicles to find a dark omen that leaves them feeling unnerved.  Along the lower half of their vehicles tiny hand prints are seen, particularly near the rear of the car.

Whether this tale is true or just legend is unknown, as no information outside of the book Ghost Stories of Saskatchewan has been found. The author of this article even recalls trying to find the convent site after coming back from a vacation to Prince Albert National Park.

He never found it.

Ghost Stories Series

The Winchester Mystery House

Most people know the name surname Winchester, because it was the name on the rifles and other guns the family had created. But what most people don’t know is the dark history that followed the family. In September 1862, during the civil war, William Wirt Winchester married a lovely woman named Sarah Pardee. The wedding was the social event of the season, seeing that Sarah was a well received guest as most social affairs. Having musical, linguistic skill and all around charm.


Almost four years after the couple married, on July 15, 1866, Sarah gave birth to a little girl, whom she named Annie Pardee Winchester. However, the joyous occasion was short lived with the death of Annie. She contracted disease known as Marasmus, an infection that causes the body to simply waste away. Annie died just nine days after birth on July 24.

A distraught Sarah teetered on the brink of madness, withdrawing into herself while she mourned her daughter. For nearly ten year she stayed like this, and she and William never had another child.
Tragedy reared it’s ugly head again when William contracted Pulmonary Tuberculosis and died in 1881, leaving $20 million dollars behind for Sarah. Sarah would also receive nearly fifty percent of the profits the Winchester Repeating Arms Company made and an income of 1000 dollars a day. But the money did nothing to ease the pain of her loss.

Sarah was deeply broken over the loss of her husband, and never fully got over the loss of her child. A friend suggested that she speak to a spiritualist medium to perhaps better deal with the loss. The spiritualist proved to have a message for Sarah from the other side. “Your husband is here,” the medium told her and then went on to provide a description of William Winchester. “He says for me to tell you that there is a curse on your family, which took the life of he and your child. It will soon take you too. It is a curse that has resulted from the terrible weapon created by the Winchester family. Thousands of persons have died because of it and their spirits are now seeking vengeance.”

Sarah sold her property after being told to do so by the medium, and head into the setting sun. She was told her husband would guide her and she would know it when she saw it. Sarah started a new life in hopes of easing her pain and suffering as well as the spirits that haunted her. “You must start a new life,” said the medium, “and build a home for yourself and for the spirits who have fallen from this terrible weapon too. You can never stop building the house. If you continue building, you will live. Stop and you will die.”

Sarah traveled west to California, and settled again in Santa Clara Valley in 1884. There she discovered a six bedroom home that was under construction and paid a hefty sum for the house. While she stayed there, there was construction in the house 24/7 . Sarah hired the best of the local workers, paying them well for them to keep up with her demands of oddities. The house grew to 10 then 26 rooms. She worked close at hand with the overseer, often showing him the plans of the house.

The house eventually became a maze, one which Sarah said would confuse the spirits and perhaps they would leave her alone. But for fear of dying, she never stopped building. Oddities of the house included stairs that lead to ceilings, or to a steep drop to the lawn below, three elevators, forty-seven chimneys. It was also clear that Sarah had an obsession with the number 13. All stair ways except for one contained 13 stairs. The one staircase without 13 stairs contained forty-two steps, which would be enough to take you three stories, unless they were two inches tall.

Year after year construction continued on in this mystery house that Sarah was building. While it didn’t make any sense to outsiders, it made perfect sense for Sarah. The house grew to an alarming seven stories, but an earthquake in 1906 destroyed three of those floors. Still Sarah plodded on with construction, closing off thirty rooms in the front of the house so they would never be completed.
Sarah’s madness came to an end when she retired for the night and passed on in her sleep at the age of eighty-three.

Sightings have been reported of Sarah roaming the halls of her house as well as a vast number of other spirits. Staff and guest alike have heard footsteps, banging doors, glass rattling so hard it breaks.

NOTE: I was inspired to post creepy stories until Halloween by a fellow who did this for a month! Click here to go to his blog if you want to read all of the stories!!

Meeting minutes and other things....

His arm is a little messed up and his lower legs are a little big, but I don't care. I'm pretty proud of my Donatello.

Meeting minutes

A sketch of Happy Noodle Boy:

An evil genius:

A judge:

An air-pirate air ship:

Tee hee!!

And now for something completely different.

 

CUTE!

 

And....

NINJA KITTY!!

What a croc!

Taken from the Ottawa Citizen

Giant 1,000-kg crocodile caught in Philippines!!!


MANILA, Sept 6, 2011 (AFP) - A giant saltwater crocodile weighing more than a tonne was captured in a remote Philippine village following a spate of attacks on humans and livestock, officials said Tuesday.

The 21-foot (6.4-metre), 1,075-kilogramme (2,370-pound) reptile may have eaten a farmer who went missing in July, along with several water buffaloes in the southern town of Bunawan, crocodile hunter Rollie Sumiller said.

A crocodile also bit off the head of a 12-year-old girl in Bunawan in 2009, according to the environment ministry.

Josefina de Leon, wildlife division chief of the environment ministry’s protected areas and wildlife bureau, said it was likely the biggest crocodile ever captured.
“Based on existing records the largest that had been captured previously was 5.48 metres long,” she told AFP.

“This is the biggest animal that I’ve handled in 20 years of trapping,”
Sumiller added, estimating the male to be more than 50 years old.

“The community was relieved,” he told AFP, but added: “We’re not really sure if this is the man-eater, because there have been other sightings of other crocodiles in the area.”

The team, employed by a government-run crocodile breeding farm, began laying bait using chicken, pork and dog meat on August 15, but the reptile simply bit off both meat and line the it was skewered on.

An eight milimetre (0.31-inch) metal cable finally proved beyond the power of its jaws and the beast was subdued at a creek on Saturday with the help of about 30 local men.

The local government decided against putting down the reptile and will instead use him as the main attraction at a planned nature park in the area.

“He’s a problem crocodile that needs to be taken from the wildlife so that it can be used for eco-tourism,” Sumiller said.

Crocodylus porosus or estuarine crocodile is the world’s largest reptile that usually grows to five or six metres long and can live up to 100 years.

While not considered an endangered species globally, it is “critically endangered” in the Philippines, where it is hunted for its hide to feed the fashion industry, de Leon said.

Rest in Peace, Mr. Layton.

July 18, 1950 – August 22, 2011

August 20, 2011

Toronto, Ontario

Dear Friends,

Tens of thousands of Canadians have written to me in recent weeks to wish me well. I want to thank each and every one of you for your thoughtful, inspiring and often beautiful notes, cards and gifts. Your spirit and love have lit up my home, my spirit, and my determination.

Unfortunately my treatment has not worked out as I hoped. So I am giving this letter to my partner Olivia to share with you in the circumstance in which I cannot continue.

I recommend that Hull-Aylmer MP Nycole Turmel continue her work as our interim leader until a permanent successor is elected.

I recommend the party hold a leadership vote as early as possible in the New Year, on approximately the same timelines as in 2003, so that our new leader has ample time to reconsolidate our team, renew our party and our program, and move forward towards the next election.

A few additional thoughts: To other Canadians who are on journeys to defeat cancer and to live their lives, I say this: please don’t be discouraged that my own journey hasn’t gone as well as I had hoped. You must not lose your own hope. Treatments and therapies have never been better in the face of this disease. You have every reason to be optimistic, determined, and focused on the future. My only other advice is to cherish every moment with those you love at every stage of your journey, as I have done this summer.

To the members of my party: we’ve done remarkable things together in the past eight years. It has been a privilege to lead the New Democratic Party and I am most grateful for your confidence, your support, and the endless hours of volunteer commitment you have devoted to our cause. There will be those who will try to persuade you to give up our cause. But that cause is much bigger than any one leader. Answer them by recommitting with energy and determination to our work. Remember our proud history of social justice, universal health care, public pensions and making sure no one is left behind. Let’s continue to move forward. Let’s demonstrate in everything we do in the four years before us that we are ready to serve our beloved Canada as its next government.

To the members of our parliamentary caucus: I have been privileged to work with each and every one of you. Our caucus meetings were always the highlight of my week. It has been my role to ask a great deal from you. And now I am going to do so again. Canadians will be closely watching you in the months to come. Colleagues, I know you will make the tens of thousands of members of our party proud of you by demonstrating the same seamless teamwork and solidarity that has earned us the confidence of millions of Canadians in the recent election.

To my fellow Quebecers: On May 2nd, you made an historic decision. You decided that the way to replace Canada’s Conservative federal government with something better was by working together in partnership with progressive-minded Canadians across the country. You made the right decision then; it is still the right decision today; and it will be the right decision right through to the next election, when we will succeed, together. You have elected a superb team of New Democrats to Parliament. They are going to be doing remarkable things in the years to come to make this country better for us all.

To young Canadians: All my life I have worked to make things better. Hope and optimism have defined my political career, and I continue to be hopeful and optimistic about Canada. Young people have been a great source of inspiration for me. I have met and talked with so many of you about your dreams, your frustrations, and your ideas for change. More and more, you are engaging in politics because you want to change things for the better. Many of you have placed your trust in our party. As my time in political life draws to a close I want to share with you my belief in your power to change this country and this world. There are great challenges before you, from the overwhelming nature of climate change to the unfairness of an economy that excludes so many from our collective wealth, and the changes necessary to build a more inclusive and generous Canada. I believe in you. Your energy, your vision, your passion for justice are exactly what this country needs today. You need to be at the heart of our economy, our political life, and our plans for the present and the future.

And finally, to all Canadians: Canada is a great country, one of the hopes of the world. We can be a better one – a country of greater equality, justice, and opportunity. We can build a prosperous economy and a society that shares its benefits more fairly. We can look after our seniors. We can offer better futures for our children. We can do our part to save the world’s environment. We can restore our good name in the world. We can do all of these things because we finally have a party system at the national level where there are real choices; where your vote matters; where working for change can actually bring about change. In the months and years to come, New Democrats will put a compelling new alternative to you. My colleagues in our party are an impressive, committed team. Give them a careful hearing; consider the alternatives; and consider that we can be a better, fairer, more equal country by working together. Don’t let them tell you it can’t be done.

My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world.

All my very best,

Jack Layton

These guys rock...

.... because we have the same birthdays!!

Happy birthday, awesome people (me too)!!

Martin Sheen (Apocalypse Now)	Stephen Graham (Snatch)
Tony Bennett (needs no explanation)	James Hetfield (Metallica)
Brent Butt (Corner Gas)	John McGuinley (Office Space)

A follow up... Truly inspiring!!

Taken from the Ottawa Citizen

Face tranplant recipient Dallas Wiens has been having some allergy problems but it is a small discomfort for a man whose face was burned away in an electrical accident less than three years ago.

“I couldn’t breathe through my nose - I didn’t have one,” Wiens told Reuters.

The 26-year-old Fort Worth man received the first full face transplant performed in the United States in March. He is now at home fielding interviews, doing pull-ups and, best of all, kissing his little daughter Scarlette.

A team of 30 doctors, nurses, anesthesiologists and residents led by Dr. Bohdan Pomahac performed the transplant at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, replacing Wiens’ nose, lips, facial skin, muscles of facial animation and nerves.

Three months after the 15-hour surgery, Wiens’ speech is slightly difficult to understand as he rattles off the details of his recovery. He has a full head of hair now, along with a goatee and mustache. He enjoys being able to shave again.

“You’re going to (get) better or you’re going to get bitter, and I have a 4-year-old reason why I need to get better,” he said, referring to his daughter.

He is wearing sunglasses that conceal a missing left eye, and he is blind, which doesn’t seem to faze him.

“Typically, and I was the same way, you would look at someone and see a defining feature, and the judgment begins,” he said, dressed in a plaid shirt and jeans. “I can’t do that, and I like that.”

Instead, Wiens said, he connects with people from the heart. One of his biggest concerns is being able to “maintain that gift” if he is ever able to see again.

HAD TRANSPLANT FOR DAUGHTER

More surgeries are in store for Wiens this year to help correct drooping on one side of his face. Since the accident in November 2008, Wiens has endured more than 20 major surgeries.

That day, he was in a cherry picker painting Ridglea Baptist Church in Fort Worth when his left temple touched a high-voltage line.

He was unconscious for three months at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, his face burned to the skull, his body damaged from a current he said was equivalent to three lightning bolts.

When he realized his face was gone, “it was kind of a shock at first, but it never really was distressful.”

Wiens said he would have been comfortable as he was, but he had the transplant for Scarlette. He wanted to feel her kiss his face and spare her embarrassment at school.

“I don’t want to downplay the functional benefits at all,” he said. “But when it really comes down to it, it wasn’t what I could get back. I wanted to go to her school events and not feel like I was going to offend the other parents. She’s the world to me.”

Wiens said he’d like to attend college when his recovery is more complete. He’s heading to Michigan later this year for training with a guide dog, courtesy of an area Lions Club.

For now, he’s working on a fantasy novel that he started in his teens and spending time with Scarlette in his grandparents’ home in Fort Worth.

The donor, a man between 35 and 50, remains anonymous, although Wiens said he hopes he can one day meet his family.

“It would mean the world to me,” he said. “I would meet with them and hug them and cry.”

Farewell

Rest in peace, Peter Falk! Thank you for your antics as Columbo and for the story telling Grandfather in Princess Bride.

See what happens when I get sacked? BWA HA HA HAAAAA!!

Taken from the Ottawa Citizen

All roads lead out of Rome as earthquake prediction empties Rome

Italians will evacuate Rome on Wednesday over fears that a giant earthquake is coming following a seismologist's 1915 prediction that "the big one" would hit the capital on May 11, 2011.

Businesses have reported requests from one in five people to have time off work and many are also keeping children away from school and heading to the beach or country for the day. Romans are taking it so seriously that local newspapers have even been publishing survival guides with tips of what to do if the ground starts to tremble.

The panic has been fanned by Facebook, Twitter and text messages about the 1915 prediction by Raffaele Bendani, who also forecast other earthquakes that have hit Italy in the past 100 years.

Massimo La Rocca, the headmaster of a school in the Trastevere district, said: "We have had quite a few parents calling in and saying they will not be sending their children in. I've told them the school will remain open and there is nothing to be scared about but they are adamant - although this is not a justifiable absence for a pupil."

Bendandi, who died in 1979, believed the movement of tectonic plates and therefore earthquakes were the result of the combined movements of the planets, the moon and the sun and were perfectly predictable. In 1923 he predicted a quake would hit central Italy on Jan 2 the following year. He was wrong by two days.

He was even honoured by the Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini - and ordered not to make any more predictions on pain of exile because officials feared he would cause panic. Modern-day seismologists have been quick to say his theories are without any scientific proof. Alessandro Amato, of Italy's National Geophysical and Volcanology Institute, said: "There is absolutely no evidence to say that an earthquake will hit Rome on 11th May and we have told that to the hundreds of people who have called. There is a possibility that on the day in question the country will have an average of 30 or so tremors but that is normal."

An estimated 20 million people live at risk from earthquakes in Italy. Two main fault lines cut across the country and memories are still vivid of the 2009 earthquake in the city of L'Aquila, north of Rome, which killed 300 people.

Man shows off first U.S. full face transplant

Taken from the Ottawa Citizen

Holy crap that's incredible!

Left: Before, Right: After

BOSTON, Massachusetts — A Texas cherry picker who burned his face off after his head touched an electrical wire showed off his new face on Monday as doctors presented the first U.S. full face transplant recipient.

Wearing black sunglasses and a dark goatee beard, Dallas Wiens, 26, appeared at a press conference alongside doctors who performed the operation at Brigham and Women's Hospital in the northeastern city of Boston.

"To me the face feels natural, as it if has become my own," said Wiens, acknowledging that he still feels numb in some places and needs to continue rehabilitation work to rebuild nerve function.

"I can never express what has been done, what I have been given," he added, thanking the donor family who wished to remain anonymous.

Wiens was injured in November 2008 when his head touched a high voltage electrical wire, causing dramatic facial deformities and burning off his nose and lips.

Plastic surgeon Bohdan Pomahac led the team of physicians, nurses and anesthesiologists for more than 15 hours to replace Wiens's nose, lips, facial skin, nerves and muscles.

The operation was done in March by a 30-strong team at Brigham and Women's Hospital, which said it was "the first full face transplant" performed in the country.

"He was quite literally a man without a face," said Pomahac.

The world's first full face transplant took place in Spain, and was unveiled in July 2010 by doctors at Vall d'Hebron hospital in Barcelona.

The 31-year-old recipient, identified only as Oscar, reportedly suffered injuries in a shooting accident and spoke at a televised news conference with considerable difficulty. He could not close his mouth and his face appeared swollen.

The first successful partial face transplant was performed in France in 2005 on Isabelle Dinoire, a 38-year-old woman who had been mauled by her dog.

Since then face transplants have been carried out in China, the United States and Spain, which carried out its first such operation in August 2009.

Wiens, who lost his eyesight in the accident, also spoke with some difficulty, but said he has already begun to regain his sense of smell.

"The ability to breathe through my nose normally, that in itself was a major gift," he said.

Now he is considering university education and is looking forward to leading a more normal life with his young daughter, who was enamoured by his new look.

"She actually said 'Daddy, you're so handsome,'" he said.

The Power of the Dark Crystal

Wow... a possible sequel to one of the most amazing films made by Jim Henson!!

The Power of the Dark Crystal

Lunch + boredom + puns(paintball) = 30 comments on Jim's Status

Taste for murder

That's a murder of crows in the Ottawa area. Hitchcock anyone?

This is a sickening display of ignorance and assumptions.

Taken from the Ottawa Citizen:

Aslam and a friend signed up for the rally in London Sunday with the help of her friend's father, who is a Conservative.

About 30 minutes after she arrived, she and her friend were approached by two officials and were asked to go outside the door, she told Postmedia News.

One of the men was dressed in a "nice" sweater and carried a clipboard, the other wore a dark suit with a red lapel pin. The man in the suit was also wearing a radio earpiece and a wire in his sleeve, according to Aslam.

Once there, she said the man with the clipboard disappeared and the official wearing the suit ripped off the Conservative stickers that had been previously given to them "and ripped them into pieces."

"He said, "You are no longer welcome here,'" she said. Aslam and her friend were upset and wondered what had gone wrong.

"He said, "We know you have ties to the Liberal party through Facebook.'"

Taken from CBC.ca:

Awish Aslam, a second-year political science student at the University of Western Ontario, told CBC News that she and a friend were trying to attend a rally with Harper on Sunday in London when they were asked to leave by an RCMP officer.

She said the officer told her that she was being removed because of her ties to the Liberals on Facebook. She had a photo of herself and Ignatieff, which was taken at a Liberal event a few days earlier.

The Conservative leader didn't answer whether his party was screening people who are registered to attend party functions.

"I think it is better when you are turning people away than when you can't get people to come," Harper said. "But I don't want to comment on individual cases."

Just because this student had her photo taken with Ignatieff, doesn't mean that she will cause trouble and be disruptive at a Conservative rally. She was only trying to get a better idea on each party's platform so that she could make a well-informed choice.

With prosthetic leg, horse is hitting his stride

Taken from the Ottawa Citizen

ARGYLE, Texas — In a scene worthy of a Walt Disney film, a trio of protective llamas, two curious goats and another miniature horse crowd around while a tiny prosthetic limb is fitted to Midnite’s deformed hind leg.

Bob Williams strokes the 4-year-old miniature horse, puts head to heart for a "bonding moment," gives him a smooch and turns him loose.

Midnite takes a few tentative steps and then breaks into a joyous gallop, weaving among the other once-neglected creatures at Ranch Hand Rescue, a nonprofit sanctuary started by Williams for special-needs animals.

After ProsthetiCare of Fort Worth, Texas, designed and donated the $14,000 artificial limb, a video of Midnite’s first ramble on his new leg became an Internet and TV sensation.

"When he took off, it was literally a miracle," said Dona Schroetke, an Argyle, Texas, councilwoman and member of Ranch Hand Rescue’s board of directors.

Williams can only shake his head in amazement — at both Midnite the unlikely celebrity and the outpouring of touching e-mails and phone calls from around the world.

A mother still grieving her son’s suicide three years ago thanked Williams and Midnite for giving her "a moment of hope."

A woman relayed a message to Midnite from her mentally challenged sister: "Midnight is so beautiful my heart goes out to midnight get well midnight i want you to run like the wind, love erin."

And a 9-year-old Denton, Texas, girl who will have a leg amputated in April, came to meet the little horse. After the operation, she wants Midnite to make a hospital visit.

"Watching Midnite run gave her hope," Williams said.

Midnite’s first stop on his road to recovery was at the Humane Society of North Texas after a Johnson County sheriff’s deputy seized the horse from a family who said they could not afford to care for him, said Sandy Grambort, the agency’s equine and livestock coordinator. The owners said the horse had injured his leg, but veterinarians think he was probably born with a deformity, she said. "He was miserable and extremely depressed. He was standing all the time because he had such a hard time getting up when he laid down," said Grambort, so she called Williams.

Soft-Ride Equine Comfort Boots, a small San Antonio company, helped by donating one of its padded horse orthotics normally used when hauling an animal, Grambort said.

Williams said he took the idea to the next step after he saw a TV show about fitting a baby with an artificial limb.

He called ProsthetiCare. Lane Farr initially thought it was a crank call.

But then he became intrigued.

"It was a huge challenge. A human patient can give you feedback, but with a horse, you’ve got to get it right. I think God had a little hand in it," said Farr, director of operations for the company, which was founded in 1992 by owner Tim Goldberg, who lost a leg in a rock-climbing accident.

Farr, a former University of Oklahoma football player whose father was an amputee, studied videos on horse mechanics and came up with a two-piece clamshell device with gel cushioning that fastens together with Velcro straps. It has a rolled rubber "hoof" so Midnite can keep his gait, Farr said.

At the second fitting of the prosthesis March 22, Midnite accepted it like a horse that was born to run.

"We just planned on him being able to walk, and he took off as soon as he realized it was there. It was almost like he was thanking us," he said.

"I had no idea it would blow up the way it did. I had a friend in Manchester, England, and he saw it on the BBC. We were just donating to a great cause. We didn’t do it for publicity."

But the horse world has taken notice.

"I’ve gotten five calls from horse lovers with injured animals. Usually when a horse goes lame, they have to put it down, and this might help save some of them," Farr said

"We just did what we do. Ranch Hand Rescue had the ingenuity to make this happen."

It’s easy to see where that ingenuity comes from at American Pet Spa and Resort, a kennel operation co-owned by Williams and Marty Polasko on the edge of Argyle, about 30 miles north of Fort Worth.

Housed in a complex styled after an Old West town, the kennel bills itself as a vacation destination for pets, featuring satellite TVs in every stall, landscaped exercise yards, two saltwater swimming pools for dogs, and online cameras so owners can keep an eye on their animal.

Polasko, a former engineer, manages the 23-employee kennel business, and Williams, who formerly worked in human resources for Motorola, runs the nonprofit sanctuary.

Ranch Hand Rescue specializes in abused, abandoned and neglected animals, and the sanctuary houses about 70 animals that include four other miniature horses, potbellied pigs, chickens, ducks, turtles, sheep and goats.

Most were seized by law enforcement agencies from neglectful owners.

Midnite’s "miracle" will surely help the cause, Schroetke said.

"It’s like he knows he has a mission," she said. "He’s going to be a great ambassador."

But his rehabilitation will be a long process.

"It’s expensive. He’s had huge medical costs and requires a lot of care. It takes two people to put the prosthesis on and take it off. We have to massage his atrophied leg every day until he adjusts to it," said Williams, who adds that all the publicity has resulted in a few donations.

"I didn’t do this for notice. We just love animals, and we want to save the ones we can."

Later that night, he went to rescue a potbellied pig.

Found another tattoo design I made

I've Photoshopped them onto some pictures to see what it coule look like: