The prefix "proto" is so powerful. Put "proto" at the beginning anything you're linking to and people will click.

Gore's win was inevitable. I thought at the beginning of 2007 that there was a shift in the discussion to a more balanced look at the issue - not necessarily in the mainstream media, and certainly not this morning. Still, I found there has been a pretty wide-spread discussion on the real questions around the issue (not to mention that there's been no GW for about 9 years now and what's been seen in the 20th century was not unusual).

These new technologies were happening anyway, I think. Going nuclear seems to be strongly opposed, so we're left with burning fossil fuels in a cleaner way, but still burning them. There'll be some alternative energy solutions, but for the next several decades we're faced with fossil fuels.

Man-made climate change? We know nothing of the sort. Man-made pollution? That's clear. Doing backflips over carbon trading and things like that don't seem to me to amount to much of a solution (even to the alleged problem), and even take us away from more meaningful steps.

In my view, the best thing that can happen between now and 2050 is a large-scale transfer of cleaner technology to the developing world. Stop measuring and hand-wringing over CO2 levels, just get the technology out there.

Proto... what would a GenX@30 blog have looked like? 8-)

Watch for another James McFadden super-strike!!

I got a tivoli too! I love it. With the little wire stretched up the window frame I can listen to wcny, which gives me YOUR Kingston weather report, which pisses me off because you are 190 miles north and your weather is BETTER, wamrer, dryer, more mild, than most of upstate NY.

Hey, better Gore than Arafat. I certainly prefer this year's choice to 1994's.

And George Bush can consider it an honour that two Peace prizes during his time in office were raspberries aimed at him by the committee. (This one, and Jimmy Carter's.) I think that's pretty cool.

Wait -- actually, it was three -- the 2005 prize went to the IAEA guy.

W's really racking them up. ;-)

***

Re the holiday... have been googling and trying to figure out what's happened in February in Canadian history. "Flag Day" (the 15th) is kinda lame.

My favourite idea for a holiday -- "Abolition Day" is too close to Labour Day (August 29th -- it was 29 Aug. 1833 when the act passed abolishing slavery throughout the Empire; alternatively the act abolishing slavery in Upper Canada passed on 9 July 1793...). Mind you, if a severely anti-union government came into power, that'd be a cool re-naming of it...

The Battle of Lundy's Lane was 25 July 1814.

Oh, here's one: The Battle of Ogdensburg.

Small in scale, a British/Canadian victory on 22 February 1813, and involved taking a town which would later become famous as the site of a 1940 agreement between King and FDR which committed Canada to joint North American defence.

The winning commander was born in Newfoundland and known as "Red George".

So I suggest calling it either "Ogdensburg Day", or "Red George Day".

I rather like "Red George Day". Better ring to it.

It's a good thing we have the government around to tell us to how to save money, you know, 'cause we'd never do it otherwise. There, got that out of my system.

Since Mike didn't mention it, and since CBC strangely hasn't reported it, we all may find this of interest:

<blockquote>
Mr Justice Burton told London's High Court that distributing [Al Gore's film <i>An Inconvenient Truth</i>] without the guidance to counter its "one-sided" views would breach education laws.

<p>
The Department for Children, Schools and Families was not under a duty to forbid the film, provided it was accompanied by the guidance, he said.

<p>
"I conclude that the claimant substantially won this case by virtue of my finding that, but for the new guidance note, the film would have been distributed in breach of sections 406 and 407 of the 1996 Education Act", he said.
</blockquote>

Note the list of errors, better reported here. Besides the alarmist stuff, the key point is second in the list: the historic record says CO2 levels follow the temperature, not the other way around.

I'd vote for Ogdensburg Day!

As for Al Gore's Nobel Prize, I too am bracing for a resulting barrage of indignation from certain bloggy quarters. Maybe this time they will say something they haven't said before.

Does anyone read the archives? I am all over the Battle of Ogdensburg.<p>David, if government is not about telling us how to spend our money, can you tell me why our rural overlords are giving tax breaks for using the bus and playing hockey?

I did, afterwards. (Your search engine is good -- tried it first the other day on Afghanistan.)

I stand by my final choice of "Red George Day", though I think "Ogdenburg Day" is still almost infinitely better than "Family Day".

Red George is good. And Ogdensburg wanted to to be British until after 1812. Plus it is the home of the most humble hard working dining establishment I have ever seen.

Ummm ... they're trying to buy votes?

I see it more as an admission that (or at least passing of the responsbility for) the issue is not partisan and is important to Canadians. If that is how they buy votes it is a good one.

Al - take a stand on this holiday nonsense and commit to continuing to work that day until they come up with a decent name for it!

PS - loafing day works for me even though family day isn't that bad - no point getting all victorian and slathering pomp all over a day off work.

The real horror here is that the City has a February holiday already. Do I now get two?

And where's my hat-tip, Al? Hmmm? Content thief. Oh, and thanks for being so willing to change us for our own good(punk).;)

Having read a bit(both here and at Herr Flea's), what's the bone that sticks in the throat with Catholic Schools? I understand why it's a big deal down here, but I'm not assuming that the set-ups the same up there.

Hah! Inter-denizen intellectual property right handbags? Here on my blog???

I haven't seen what Nick the Flea has said but the public school system in Ontario has separate administrations and schools for the "public community" and for the "Catholic community". Each are funded through a decision that people make to have property taxes directed to one part of the system or the other. Kids who are not somehow linked to the Catholic part of the public system can be refused. But this is the way it has been since the days of the two-province Canada, a few years before the four-province Canada came into being in 1867. This right was then added into the constitution at the point of Confederation through something of mid-Victorian negotiating fluke whereby the majority of two-province Canadians (who were then Catholic) imposed their will on Canada West (majority then not Catholic). But that play of the cards has pretty much been accepted even though it seems bizzare to someone who grew up in the unified system of Nova Scotian eduction.

So it is not really the Catholic funding question but the idea of extending the constitutional privilege to other faith groups including splintering anabaptists, the day-of-reckoning set(s) and other protestant fringers. If it were to pass, I would insist on a Campbellite school board if only for their sense of style.

Even though it is not a bullet point subject today, how did I ever miss that the Segway Enthusiasts Group of America (SEGA) disbanded two months ago? Segway rocks!<p>By the way, this man, Dave, below has found something better to do as my Dave goes off to join the RCMP tomorrow. Here is he four years ago hard at work while others pack around him. Now he'll have a career of tackling teens with dope in the alleys of Burnaby BC or Moncton NB. My Dave is the best Dave:<p><center><img src="http://www.genx40.com/images/2004b/segwaydave.jpg" vspace="10"></center>

Early 19th Century Dissenterism was all about Style, dontchaknow. The growing fervor on this issue out there in the Campbellium has only just begun to percolate. Next time, next time.

1) There was a Catholic school in Sydney Mines when we lived there in 1970. It's possible it was better off financially than the public schools. It couldn't have been poorer. 2) While Cleese and Chapman were doing 1948, Palin, Jones and Idle were doing Do Not Adjust Your Set, and I have the complete series! There's a good police constable theatre sketch, and a backward interview.

I'm just not sold on the funding of Catholic Schools. I must say however, my favorite girlfriends were from Nicholson Catholic College back in ye olde days but that is just because I like plaid.. And repressed Irish girls... But still (I digress as usual) it is 2007... it is time to fund only public school systems but allow others to run their own schools so long as they meet Govt. mandated minimums in terms of curriculum.

I mean, whats the fallout if we cease funding? Will Catholics across the land rebel and move to Nova Scotia? bah..

Plus I am still not thinking a Segway is anything more than a pogo stick without the bounce.

I am such a nay sayer of late.

Its my return to private sector employment isn't it.

Alan. Am I grayer as well as grumpier than I was?

And there was little, what, St. Mary's school in Truro near the Teacher's College soccer field but that wasn't publicly funded. Remember in Greenwood there was that Bible Baptist elementary school, too. Dirt poor.

Just for the record: I have absolutely no recollection of ever having done anything my brother says I did.

Yeah, yeah. The other week Dad said he didn't bar me from playing field goal kicker back before grade ten as well.