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Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Don't Panic, There's Still Time.

It's possible you've forgotten, but if you're a Canadian there's a good chance you need to file your income tax by midnight, April 30th.  Which is tomorrow.  So you'd better get to work if you haven't prepared your tax return.  Fortunately if you're e-filing you won't have to worry about running out to the post office, or the box in front of your local Revenue Canada office, late tomorrow night.  Isn't modern technology cool?

When I Rule The World 21.

One of the top priorities of scientists will be to end the need for going to the bathroom.  Just imagine all the time you'll save not sitting on a toilet, cleaning the bathroom etcetera.

(Betcha in the Star Trek universe they eventually use transporter technology to remove bodily waste automatically, replacing the need for bathroom breaks.)

Monday, April 28, 2014

Gas In Saskatoon, April 28, 2014.

There was a lot of press in Canada last week about gas prices going up.  But in Saskatoon we actually had a drop.  Gas in Saskatoon is now 129.9 cents a litre at most locations. 

White.

White is not the colour you want to see on the ground on the last day of April.  Yet here we are, the ground in Saskatoon covered with a new coating of white, of snow.  And there's still a chance of snow tomorrow.  The whole mess is very annoying and very fatiguing.

Fro the last few days we've had a woodpecker of some sort in the back yard.  That's unusual, because those kind of birds usually stay around only for a few minutes before flying off.  I really feel sorry for the poor thing given what it's like today.

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Minor Hypocrisy.

Having a "No Flyers" sign on your mailbox when you yourself deliver flyers.  More than once I've seen a big pile of flyers on the steps of people with such a sign.

Monday, April 21, 2014

Gas In Saskatoon, April 21, 2014.

There is often the suspicion that gas prices go up before a long weekend.  Last week won't dissuade anyone of that idea, true or not.  Gas in Saskatoon rose to 133.9 cents a litre at most locations.  Rather a jump from the previous price.  So, will it go down this week?  Stay tuned.

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Jays To The World Series!

Well, probably not.  It's way too early to make that claim.  But the Jays are currently leading the American League East with their 8 and 6 record.  It's been a while since that happened.  And the Jays might not actually be the utter disaster many were expecting this year.  Yeah, still a bit early to decide that, but if they can remain around .500 this year it will be a better year that last year's finish at 14 games under .500.

Time Warp.

Waking up in Saskatoon today it may seem like you were sucked into one.  The snow had just about vanished, but now it looks like it's November with all the snow we've had in the last 18 hours.  Unfortunately that's one of the perils of April in Saskatchewan.  Even more unfortunate is that the current weather system looks set to stay around for a while, with snow or rain, or the chance of snow or rain, into at least Saturday.

Gets really annoying, doesn't it?

Monday, April 14, 2014

Gas In Saskatoon, April 14, 2014.

The price is up yet again.  Gas in Saskatoon is now 129.9 cents a litre at most locations.  Of course given the way things have been going of late the price will probably change tomorrow.

Saturday, April 12, 2014

Trouble For Phil.

It seems pro poker players just can't avoid trouble.  The latest facing problems is Phil Ivey.  The Borgata Casino and Spa in Atlantic City is suing Ivey for cheating them out of 9.6 million dollars.  But not for cheating at poker, rather for cheating at baccarat.   The lawsuit claims Ivey and a companion used a flaw in cards to arrange them so they could tell which card was being dealt, and hence enhance their chances of winning.  The company that made the cards, New Jersey based Gemaco Inc, is being sued by the Golden Nugget in Atlantic City, who claim card problems led to gamblers defrauding them of 1.5 million dollars.  And on top of that Ivey is being sued by Malaysia's Genting Group in the UK for cheating at baccarat, alleging he and an accomplice cheated them out of 12 million dollars.

If Ivey did cheat both of these casinos for the amounts they alleged that's a hell of a lot of money.  You'd think someone running that lucky at baccarat would have been spotted fairly quickly, given that baccarat, like most casino games, is supposed to favour the house quite heavily. (It seems that in the UK case the staff at Crockford's Club casino did spot something odd, as they refused to pay out Ivey's winnings.) You also have to wonder why someone like Ivey would engage in such extensive cheating given the damage it would do to his reputation if discovered.  On the other hand we've seen multiple examples in the past of how the big sums of money involved in gambling seem to cloud the judgement of the pros, the most notorious example probably being the goings on at Full Tilt Poker before the US crackdown on online poker. 

Friday, April 11, 2014

What? There Are Two Of Them?

What do you think of when you see the phrase Dennis the Menace?

I think of a little blond haired kid who causes trouble for Mr. Wilson, and has friends named Margaret and Joey.  But that's because I live in Canada, which is saturated with US culture.  If you live in the UK you're likely to think of a small boy with black, spikey hair, who has a small dog as a companion.

Yep, there are two cartoon characters called Dennis the Menace, one from the United States, and one from the United Kingdom.  Even more interesting is that they debuted within a few days of each other way back in March of 1951, and continue to be active in the 21st Century.  The UK Dennis strip is often known as Dennis and Gnasher outside the UK, Gnasher being Dennis's dog.  Conversely the American character's adventures have been simply titled Dennis when they've been offered in the UK. 

It's a bit hard to imagine such co-existence happening these days.   Given the internationalisation of media properties if two creations came out with the same name at about the same time a major legal battle would likely result, with whoever had the most resources winning in the end.

I only found out this interesting fact this morning.  Given how long the UK version has been around you'd think I would have run across him someplace before.

Monday, April 07, 2014

Gas In Saskatoon, April 7, 2014.

A tiny tick down this week to report.  Gas in Saskatoon is now 124.4 cents a litre at most locations.  Boy, just think of what you can buy with the 50 cents or what have you extra you'll have filling up your tank, compared to last week.

Sunday, April 06, 2014

Symmetry.

Yesterday I made no posts.  Yesterday I had no visits to the blog.  Quite appropriate, don't you think?  I'm pretty sure this may be the only day, other than perhaps the first couple of days this blog existed, that I never had a hit.