You want a what where?

Living where I do and fishing as a hobby, I think I've cultivated a reasonable understanding of the locale. Tides, wildlife etc.

There is a company from Alberta which wants to develop the Cable Bay area, which covers a piece of currently unmanaged woodland from the Cable Bay Trail in the West, to the Eastern shore of Dodd Narrows across from Mudge Island. No problem so far. New developments going in all the time around Nanaimo. It's a growing place, even with the world economy in the state it's in.

One of the things I've heard is that the company wanting to develop the area want to put a Marina in the area. My brow furrows in perplexity because the narrow channels in the area make for some quite tricky navigation at certain states of the tide. I know this from trying to fish in Dodd Narrows, which at anything but the brief period of slack water is troublesome to say the least. Mostly the tidal flow jogs along at around four to six knots (just under 7mph or slightly over 11km/h). During neaps and springs the tidal flows are reputed to reach sixteen and a half knots (Just Under 19mph and around 30.5km/h) in the neck of the narrows, which is well above the 10km/h coastal speed limit in BC. Certain types of craft can zip through without noticing if they give it some serious welly. On the other hand, trying navigate against the tide, or even with it in say a sail boat with a relatively small auxiliary engine at the wrong time can prove at best embarrassing, or at worst, alarming, although no one has been killed down there for quite some time. At times (about twice a day) the Narrows look like a set of white water rapids. Even further down where we live, some rather ugly looking vortexes form and you can hear the tide as a sort of background roar.

Local opinion goes that the developers of Cable Bay will try to 'flip' or sell on the land when permission to develop has finally been approved. I have no axe to grind one way or another, but my own thoughts are; they want to put a Marina where?

Good gosh a mighty

Well flabber my ghast and pass the Wellington boots! The media worm appears to be turning; at least where it comes to the UK Daily Telegraph. For over the past 12 months a writer called Christopher Booker has been giving mainstream coverage to those who have serious misgivings about the doom mongering dogma of CO2 driven man made climate change. Now other columns in the same newspaper have elected to voice the doubts often fervently echoed in the comments. Particularly this report.

I stand ready to be toppled by the gentlest caress of avian plumage.

This boy's a fool

Don't normally comment on this sort of thing, but really, some people have no idea.

"...I would argue that climate disinformation online is a form of cultural and political malware every bit as threatening to our new media freedoms, used not to foster a forum for open politics but to create, in Nancy Fraser’s term, a “multiplicity of fragmented publics” that harms not only our democracy, but our planet."

Climate disinformation? Harms democracy? Might one point out that Democracy requires freedom to speak plainly in measured and cogent dissent. All of which this particular Lecturer in Journalism seems to think is a bad idea. To take his view "You can say what you like, but only if I approve." In the words of the late, great Eric Morecambe; "This boy's a fool".

One might also point out that his is a minority view. So his argument could be that 'If you're not in the majority you should shut up'. Ah.

Wow

Every so often this place hits me right between the eyes with the spectacular. Was walking Dog the other day when I stopped to gossip with a Neighbour, who said. "You can see Mount Baker today." We both admired the view, and having more pressing matters to attend to, like retrieving the post and checking we'd got enough to pay the bills, completely forgot about it.

Later that day I looked to see the top third of said snow capped peak clearly visible from where I stood. The thought idly crossed my mind that the peak in question was across the border, south of the 49th parallel in Washington State. Again, more pressing matters pushed the thought to the sidelines and I totally forgot about it. Until this morning when I was making the tea, and recalled the conversation and the breathtaking view of the peak. Booting Google Earth on the 'pooter, I used the handy little utility that lets you measure a line between two geographic points. Result; Over 93 miles.

Wow. Talk about clear air.