It’s sad to hear about the untimely death of NDP leader and the leader of the Opposition in Canadian parliament. R.I.P Jack Layton!

I am not a political animal but, as the leader of the New Democratic Party,  Jack Layton(July 18, 1950 – August 22, 2011) had proved that he was not to be taken lightly by leading NDP to a historic total of 103 seats (that was 60 seats more than previous all-time-high of NDP seat count) and forming the Official Opposition in the 2011 election.

On February 5, 2010, Layton announced that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. He also told that his father Robert Layton had suffered from the same type of cancer 17 years before and recovered from it. On July 25, 2011 Layton announced that he would be taking a temporary leave from his post to fight an unspecified, newly diagnosed cancer.

Jack Layton died at 4:45 a.m. ET on August 22, 2011, at his Toronto, Ontario, home. A state funeral is planned for August 27, 2011 at the Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto. Jack Layton is the first opposition leader to die in office.

After Layton’s death, his family released an open letter, written by Layton two days before his death. In the letter, he expressed his wishes regarding the NDP’s leadership in the event of his death, and addressed various segments of the Canadian population. (Photo credits – Wikipedia)

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RIP Jack Layton – last words to Canadians

The internet and social networking is redefining how communicate. New words are created everyday and are being popularized by online communications.

To continue the expansion of the vast collection of words and phrases, on it’s 100th anniversary, the Oxford English Dictionary, has added some more technical words to embrace the social-networking crowd. The new 400 words including cyberbullying, sexting, retweet, textspeak and woot have been added in the 12th edition of Oxford English Dictionary

In a statement, the OED has described itself as a word curator and claimed to be progressive and up to date with the current trends of communication.

Earlier this year, OED had added the common shortcuts like LOL and OMG. A new verb to search in internet ‘to google’ made into the dictionary in 2006.

A new series of stamps of Canada Post released on August 17 include four Canadian inventions including BlackBerry. The other Canadian inventions include eclectic oven, cardiac pacemaker, and electric wheelchair.

Thomas Ahearn invented the world’s first electric oven in 1892. The cardiac pacemaker was invented by Dr. John Hopps in 1950. George J. Klein invented electric wheelchair in 1952. Blackberry Smartphone was introduced by Research in Motion in 1999 and it has evolved to be the most popular all-in-one digital communications device. 

Canada Post honored the inventor of telephone, Alexander Graham Bell, in one of the stamps released in 2000.

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Canada Post honors four Canadian inventions including Blackberry

A 98-year-old woman in San Francisco has become the first woman ever to earn Judo’s highest-degree black belt, 10th Dan black belt.

Sensei Keiko Fukuda has become the sixteenth person and the only woman ever to achieve such an honor. Fukuda is one of the only four living 10th dan Judo players. The other three are the men living in Japan.

Fukuda is the last living student of the founder of judo, Kano Jiguro. Jiguro opened his first dojo in 1882.

Fukuda wasn’t allowed to be promoted above 5th dan because of being a woman. After remaining 5th dan for 30-years, she became the first woman to be promoted to 6th dan after the rule was changed in 1972 to allow women to be promoted to higher dan. She also became the first woman to receive 9th dan in 2006.

Congratulation Fukuda!

Calgary city by-law officers have asked a 65-year old Calgary resident, Helen Amber, to remove all the wildflowers she has grown in her garden. The City official say that the wildflowers are a threats to local flora and should be removed to protect

The Alberta’s Weed Control Act mentions some plants (weeds) are prohibited to be planted in Alberta. Some flowers in Amber’s garden banned by the Weed Act are plants like Canada thistles, scentless chamomile, oxeye daisies and blue weeds.

Calary Sun says that Amber had received a 24-hour notice from the officials on Aug. 3 and she is protesting the decision of City officials.

It is true that thistles and other weeds are extremely difficult to control or kill – they spread faster than can be controlled. I think, Helen should should consider a green house to grow them, instead of fighting.

Buford, probably the smallest town in the world, has a population of 1. Yes O  N  E, 1.

The sole resident, of the Wyoming, US town is a 60 year old, Don Sammons, who runs a Gas station, liquor store, and hot dogs, all in one.

The town founded in 1866, the town once had a population of 2,000. The majority of the railway worker moved, leaving the whole town empty. Don moved to the town in 1980 with his wife and son. His wife died and he is all alone now. But, his business draws nearly 1,000 people everyday.

The self-claimed The Mayor of Buford has a site to tell about his business:

Sitting at 8,000 feet, Buford is also the highest town in elevation on Interstate 80, the main cross-country route between New York and San Francisco.