O, Canada......

http://www.canada.com/cityguides/win...d61092&k=66639

Seems astronomy as a science is really big in Canada...they should be
rightly proud.

Matthew Ota

Matthew Ota wrote:

http://www.canada.com/cityguides/win...dcec6-da72-4d6
0-b705-ca7a1ed61092&k=66639

Seems astronomy as a science is really big in Canada...they should be
rightly proud.

I agree, with the national pride often leads to war. Consider this
recent incident, which the governments and the press conspired to keep
secret:

Dubya was in the Oval Office trying to decide who to invade next, when
his telephone rang.

"Hallo, Dubya," a heavily accented voice said. "This is Archie, up 'ere
at the Harp Seal Pub in Badger's Cove, Newfoundland. Canada, he? I am
callin' to tells ya dat we are officially declaring war on ya, he!"

"Well, Archie," Dubya replied, "This is indeed important news! How
big is your army?"

"Right now," said Archie, after a moment's calculation "there's meself,
me cousin 'arold, me next-door-neighbor Mick, and the whole dart team
from the pub. That makes eight!"

Dubya paused. "I must tell you Archie, that I have ONE MILLION men in
my army waiting to move on my command."

Holy jeez," said Archie. "I'll have ta call ya back!"

Sure enough, the next day, Archie called again. "Dubya, the war is
still on! We have managed to acquire some armored vehicles and a navy!"

"And what vehicles would those be, Archie?" Dubya asked.

"Well sir, we got us two combines, a bulldozer, 3 fishin' boats, 2
harpoon boats, a trawler with radar and 'arry's farm tractor."

Dubya sighed. "I must tell you Archie, that I have 6,000 tanks and
14,000 armoured personnel carriers of my own. Also I've increased my
army to one and a half million since we last spoke."

"Lard T'underin' Jaysus, bye", said Archie. "I'll be getting back to
ya."

Sure enough, Archie rang again the next day. "Dubya, the war is still
on! We have managed to git ourselves airborne! We up an' modified
'arrigan's ultra-light wit' a couple of shotguns in the cockpit, and
four byes from the Legion has joined us as well!"

Dubya was silent for a minute then cleared his throat. "I must tell
you, Archie, that I have 10,000 bombers and 20,000 fighter planes. My
military bases are surrounded by laser-guided, surface- to-air missile
sites. And since we last spoke, I've increased my army to TWO MILLION!"


Jeysus, Mary and Joseph," said Archie, "I'll have ta call youse back."

Sure enough, Archie called again the next day. "Dubya, I am sorry to
have to tell you dat we have had to call off dis 'ere war.

"I'm sorry to hear that" said Dubya. "Why the sudden change of heart?"

" Well, sir," said Archie, "we've all sat ourselves down and had a long
chat over a few pints, and we come to realize dat dere's no way we can
feed TWO MILLION prisoners."

--
usenet *at* davidillig dawt com

On 2 Jul 2006 13:20:47 -0700, "Matthew Ota"
wrote, in part:

http://www.canada.com/cityguides/win...d61092&k=66639

Seems astronomy as a science is really big in Canada...they should be
rightly proud.

I think Canada has indeed some important accomplishments, but I suspect
that the article exaggerates in some ways; I doubt that our
accomplishments are more illustrious than those of our neighbors to the
south, for example: and the article seemed to aim at giving that
impression. For a country a tenth the size, and sufficiently further
north that sites for a telescope within its own territory are not good,
yes, our accomplishments are impressive.

We could do even better. When the Turks and Caicos Islands, many years
ago, expressed interest in joining Canada, we should have accepted.
Great downrange. We could have had our own Cape Canaveral, and launch
rockets into space without expending foreign exchange. After all, if one
is to take Dr. Robert Zubrin seriously, it is possible to send a man to
Mars at a cost Canada can afford, since it basically does not have a
defense budget.

Given that we are freeloading off of the United States' defence budget,
we could afford to offer to do the space program for them. But the
United States would never accept such an offer, because why should
Canada have the glory, when the United States is stuck with the
thankless task?

John Savard
http://www.quadibloc.com/index.html
_________________________________________
Usenet Zone Free Binaries Usenet Server
More than 140,000 groups
Unlimited download
http://www.usenetzone.com to open account

"John Savard" wrote in message
...
On 2 Jul 2006 13:20:47 -0700, "Matthew Ota"
wrote, in part:

http://www.canada.com/cityguides/win...d61092&k=66639

Seems astronomy as a science is really big in Canada...they should be
rightly proud.


America...Bad movies, Bad Government,Bad people!!

OH Canada.

Matthew Ota wrote:
http://www.canada.com/cityguides/win...d61092&k=66639

Seems astronomy as a science is really big in Canada...they should be
rightly proud.

Maybe it does exaggerate a little, but on the 1st of July,
I'll take it.

We have no shortage of dark skies in Canada, at least
during the winter. Where I grew up we had 6.5 to 7 skies
in the winter, so many stars you started to lose the
constellations. The summer? Bright twilight, all night.
Even here in Vancouver it doesn't get astronomically
dark for about 3 weeks either side of the June solstice.

Like many countries, we can't afford the big stuff on
our own, even if we had somewhere to put it. Lots of
brains, but not much money. So we collaborate with
others (e.g. Canada-France-Hawaii), doing things no
one country could do by itself. Our best areas for
clear skies (e.g. the Okanagan in B.C.) don't have
much darkness in the summer, so we share better
sites with others. Why not?

The radio astronomers don't care, and do their thing
from places like Penticton and Algonquin Park. Their
view of the centre of the galaxy is crummy, but they
have great views of our spiral arm in Cygnus and
Cassiopeia.

Many things we've done, we've done out of necessity,
like being one of the first countries to use communications
satellites. Or building what was at the time the meanest,
nastiest fighter jet in the world. Which also had enough
range to defend the 2nd largest country in the world...

The Europeans have shown how to do international
projects and make them work (ESA, Airbus). If we can
do half as well, we will do very well indeed.

Laura Halliday VE7LDH "That's a totally illegal,
Grid: CN89mg madcap scheme. I like it!"
ICBM: 49 16.05 N 122 56.92 W - H. Pearce