Lucky for me this only happens about once a year. Perogies and Eggs – fried in butter of course – a real cardiac arrest breakfast.

My friend Keith Gardiner spotted this weed-seeking robot in Engadget today:

According to the Engadget blurb…

A team of scientists at the University of Illinois have developed a robot that searches for weeds, chops them off, and then sprays herbicide all over the weed stump. The as-yet unnamed robot (which we’ll be calling the weedinator for the time being) packs a Windows box with a 80GB hard drive (including WiFi), stands at about two feet tall, is a little over two feet wide and is nearly five feet long.

Which begs the question…do you think I could get a research grant for my brilliant idea for transforming my 2500 psi power washer into a weed eater ? 

I’m working in Burnaby today.  I like it here. It is sunny, but the Starbucks has no coffee because their grinder is broken.

And people think BC’s politics are wacky.

Voters in a Manitoba city will face a weird twist on the theme of law and order when they go to the polls on Oct. 25: Three of six candidates seeking to become mayor of Brandon are fighting criminal charges.

full story here

It’s great to see Pam Williams launching the Chocomap.com, a project we had a lot of fun working on with her.

Google Maps meets Chocolate meets User Input – now that’s a three-way made in heaven.

I’ve posted some interview clips on a blog we set up regarding our local school board’s plans to sell off a forested parcel of land next to the elementary school.

From the BBC:

Operations in which patients had the wrong body parts operated on have risen by a half in the last three years…last year guidance was issued to doctors to ensure consistent methods were used to mark which body parts were due to be operated on.

The story includes this classic understatement:

“This [sic] mistakes have devastating impact on patients”.

I guess if my surname was Googan this would be my home page too…

Our local North Vancouver school board (district 44) is proposing selling a number of parcels of land adjacent to schools. One of them is a lovely wooded area next to Cleveland school. Our kids and their friends love to play in the woods next to the school, it is an amazing thing to have nature right outside the door, and it would be a travesty to see the land sold for development.

To help make sure everyone’s voice is heard, I’ve set up a blog at blog.ambleside.com. The process from initial discussion to eventual sale should provide everyone with a chance to have their voices heard. Kids deserve more than concrete and gravel areas for playgrounds.

If you ever attended Cleveland and remember playing in the woods please add your voice to those concerned about seeing this natural amenity disappear.