mommyerin blog on Absolute Radio

!* meteor update *!

mommyerin — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 01:58:32 +0000

Fragments of a huge meteorite that lit up the skies across Alberta and Saskatchewan last week have been found near the border city of Lloydminster, University of Calgary scientists say.

U of C planetary scientist Dr. Alan Hildebrand and graduate student Ellen Milley announced Friday morning they located several meteorite fragments late Thursday afternoon.

They believe thousands of meteorite bits are strewn over 20 square kilometres near the Battle River.

Friday afternoon, they led a group of reporters to the site — a region called Buzzard Coulee, about 40 kilometres from Lloydminster.

There, close to a frozen pond, numerous small rocks and pebbles could be seen that the scientists said were from the meteorite. No large chunks were spotted, however.

The fireball that streaked across western Canadian skies on Nov. 20 was witnessed by thousands. Researchers believe it was a 10-tonne fragment from an asteroid.

It was also captured on video by a number of people.

Reporters were told those observations, combined with the physical evidence, give scientists a treasure trove of data that could give them a better understanding of the solar system.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/nphotos/slideshow/photo/30112008/11/photo/woman-s-hand-show-scale-scientists-say-fragment-meteorite-found.html

previous story http://www.absoluteradio.co.uk/vip/profile/mommyerin/blog/97250/Meteor_streaks_across_Canadian_Prairies.html

.~ special dedication ~.

mommyerin — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 02:55:33 +0000

this angel is feeling blue, and this song fit perfectly, so here is a special dedication from across the pond xo

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=lxeQKQQ6k4s&feature=related

goodnite and godbless, may your dreams be filled with love xo

~.~ if not for you ~.~

mommyerin — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 01:45:33 +0000

mommy was thinking about great duets and came across this one ... and as most of you know already ... George was, and still is, my favorite singer xo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdvjoIfGViU&feature=related

i hope you all enjoy it ... especially you my love* xo

good nite and godbless, i will watch over you as you sleep with sweet and gentle dreams xo

your canadian angel xo

~* help me *~

mommyerin — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 00:13:28 +0000

this angel needs your help, again ...

my boss is getting worse ... he wants me to write down my time by the minute now, instead of by the quarter hour ... i only have one half hour break during my 8 hour shift everyday ... i am paid peanuts for all my hard work ... and nearly half my pay goes to pay the baby sitter ... so i ask you all to help me to always give 100% at work ...

12% on Monday

23% on Tuesday

40% on Wednesday

20% on Thursday

5% on Friday

do you think you can all help me accomplish this hard task?

teeheehee xo

Meteor streaks across Canadian Prairies

mommyerin — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 16:57:49 +0000

A bright light lit up the sky around 5:30 MT Thursday evening in Western Canada, with people reporting sightings in Alberta and Saskatchewan.

People telephoned the CBC newsrooms in Edmonton and Calgary to talk about what they saw.

"It was a really big flash, lit up the sky, and there was this huge, flaming fireball falling from the sky," said Rowyn Windsor, 12, who lives on the Canadian Forces base in Cold Lake, Alta., about 350 kilometres northeast of Edmonton.

"This huge light in our kitchen window lit up our whole kitchen," said Sabrina Schneider, who lives just outside Lloydminster on the Saskatchewan-Alberta border. "It kinda flashed a couple of times. It was really bright. It was a different light than lightning.

"We weren't really sure what happened ... got up to look out the window, and all of a sudden, we heard this rumbling."

Schneider said her sister saw the meteor while she was driving past North Battleford, Sask.

Torey Van Vam was driving north from Redcliff, Alta., outside Medicine Hat when he saw a bright white streak.

"As it got closer to the ground, it was more visible as a ball of white light with green around it. And as it got really close to the ground, it turned kind of orange, and I'm pretty sure it went straight to the ground," he said.

Bev Ully, who lives on a farm near Unity, Sask., was watching TV when she saw a light through her west-facing living room window.

"It was just like there were headlights right outside the window and that something was moving. It wasn't just one big, bright flash. It was several flashes," she said.

Ully said her daughter in Brooks, in central Alberta, had told her she had seen the light as well.

The fireball was also visible in Edmonton. Kim Wingrove was driving in the city's west end when he saw something in the sky.

"I saw this large orb shoot across in an east-southeast direction, on a very steady trajectory," he said. "It was very, very big. And I've seen a lot of shooting stars from all the world as I travelled, but I've never seen one so large. It was very bright yellow, with hints of green in it. It stayed in the air ... for about two to two and a half seconds."

Alister Ling, an Edmonton-area amateur astronomer who is a member of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, recorded the fireball using equipment from Alan Hildebrand, a meteorite researcher at the University of Calgary.

"When it flares out on the tape, you can see there's several of these multiple flashes, and that's when it's probably partly blowing up, which is also a really good indicator ... that there's multiple stones that have come down," he said.

He said anyone who sees a fireball with their own eyes has a hard time judging where it came down, because fireballs stop glowing when they are 50 kilometres above the earth.

Ling said he will be consulting with other astronomers in Alberta, who will look at tapes from a local network of cameras and assess eyewitness reports to try and figure out where the fireball may have landed.

Although its early in the process, he thinks it may have fallen somewhere in central Alberta, and there could be search parties out looking for chunks as early as this weekend.

"Who knows," he said. "We might be really, really lucky."

Black seeks Bush pardon...

mommyerin — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:46:31 +0000

Former media baron Conrad Black is seeking a pardon from U.S. President George W. Bush in a last-ditch effort to get out of jail early, the Globe and Mail reported on Thursday, citing sources familiar with the matter.

Black, a Canadian-born member of Britain's House of Lords, has been in prison since March, when he began serving a 6-1/2 year sentence for defrauding shareholders of one-time newspaper publishing giant Hollinger International Inc.

Black's lawyers recently submitted legal bills to his former publishing company, some of which referred to work done in pursuit of a clemency plea, the Globe and Mail said.

Under the U.S. Constitution, the president can grant pardons and shorten sentences.

The push for clemency comes after a federal appeals court unanimously upheld Black's conviction this summer.

Black and three ex-colleagues were accused of swindling the company -- once the world's third largest publisher of English-language newspapers -- out of $6.1 million by giving themselves illegal bonuses.

winter storm strands 1,500 cars ...

mommyerin — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:42:41 +0000

Nova Scotia's transport minister apologized Thursday to the hundreds of motorists left stranded overnight on the Trans-Canada Highway after an intense snowstorm struck the central part of the province with little warning.

Murray Scott said his department had launched an independent safety review amid complaints the province was ill-prepared to deal with the first storm of the season, which also caused power outages across the province and in P.E.I.

"I apologize to the people who had to endure through the night being stuck in vehicles," Scott said outside the legislature. "We didn't cause the weather, but I'm accountable for what happens on our highways."

At the height of the storm Wednesday night, amid freezing temperatures and whiteout conditions, traffic was at a standstill across a 12-kilometre section of the four-lane, divided toll highway, about 100 kilometres north of Halifax.

"None of us was warned about the storm coming," said Scott. "This morning, I heard one of the newscasters say even the weather people weren't warning us. They weren't aware of it."

No one was injured, but at one point an ambulance and a police car were dispatched to travel eastward from Amherst on the empty westbound lanes to reach two people in medical distress.

One older man was rescued after he said he was having a stroke, and police brought a Coke and medication to a man who was worried about going into diabetic shock.

Officials with the RCMP, the Transport Department and the private company that operates the 47-kilometre toll highway said they received no warning that a storm was on its way.

The snow started around 3 p.m. About 45 minutes later, a car collided with a transport truck in the westbound lanes near the top of the Cobequid Mountains.

"Once the tractor-trailer got stuck on the hill, then everyone got stuck," RCMP Cpl. Darren Galley said from Amherst. "I'm sure there was a lot of people frustrated."

By 4:30 p.m., the decision was made to close the westbound lanes just west of the tollgate, which is also near the top of the chain of small mountains.

Within an hour, the weather deteriorated, darkness fell over the Cobequid Pass and the eastbound lanes were also closed as they became icy under about 10 centimetres of heavy, wet snow.

"The plows couldn't get through because of the traffic blocking the lanes," Galley said. "We all got blindsided by the storm."

Carolle Crooks was among five contemporary dancers and a technician in a van headed for a show in Moncton when the storm descended on them at 6 p.m., about three kilometres east of the tollgate.

Crooks said there was no indication the westbound lanes of the highway - the main link between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick - had been closed for more than 90 minutes.

"Cars continued to pile up for hours," she said in an interview. "We had no idea what was going on."

For the first few hours, the group played guessing games and ate what few snacks they had before bundling up in their extra clothes and shutting the engine off intermittently to conserve fuel.

Crooks said the local radio newscasts said nothing about the enormous traffic tie-up, which prompted a few members of the group to pick up their cellphones and start calling media outlets and the police.

She said the police provided little information and there was no sign of any officials patrolling the area to ensure people weren't in any distress, even though the eastbound lanes closed later and reopened much earlier.

"We just had to sit and wait," Crooks said.

She said police should have provided some basic provisions and basic information, particularly for those stranded with small children. But that never happened.

"We didn't sleep very much at all," she said, noting that one of the women in their rental van was pregnant.

Finally, after 15 hours stuck in the same spot, traffic started to move slowly at 9:30 a.m. and the dance crew headed for Truro, N.S., for a big breakfast.

A spokesman for the Atlantic Highway Management Corp., the private company that operates the toll highway, confirmed he received no weather warnings.

But general manager Wayne Crossan stressed that the area is know for rapid changes in the weather. A few years ago, that stretch of Highway 104 was closed for 20 hours because of a snowstorm, he said.

Still, Crossan said the number of vehicles stranded Wednesday night was much higher than usual.

He said the company has a contract with the Transportation Department to keep the highway clear, and he was satisfied with the work done in the wake of the storm.

"I think they did everything they could," he said.

Officials in Halifax are trying to determine what happened to conjoined baby girls who died aboard a flight travelling to New York, where they were seeking medical treatment.

Police said the Delta flight was about 35 minutes off the Nova Scotia coast at around 1 p.m. Thursday when the twins' mother noticed the one-month-old infants weren't breathing.

The plane, which was en route from Brussels to JFK Airport in New York, diverted to Halifax.

A spokesman with Emergency Health Services in Halifax said they dispatched an ambulance to the Stanfield International Airport after receiving a call that the twins had gone into cardiac arrest.

"Our paramedics arrived and assessed the situation along with physicians on board and determined that the twins were deceased," said Paul Maynard.

Maynard said a vacationing doctor on board the airliner administered CPR, but wasn't able to revive the babies.

Cpl. Joe Taplin, a spokesman with the RCMP, said the twins were pronounced dead at the airport.

Taplin said the mother and the babies were taken to the provincial medical examiner's office, which is conducting an autopsy.

Carla Grant of the Justice Department said the examiner might have a better idea next week as to what caused the death.

Taplin said passengers sitting near the twins were also interviewed before the plane resumed its trip to JFK Airport at around 3:30 p.m. AT.

Taplin said the twins were headed to the States to receive medical treatment for an unspecified illness. He didn't know where they were joined.

~ kissing ban ~

mommyerin — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:36:34 +0000

The decision by a headmaster in Austria to ban kissing from his school made front-page news Thursday as outraged pupils and politicians slammed the move as medieval and excessive.

Siegfried Biermair, the head of a school in Gunskirchen, Upper Austria, sent a letter to parents on Monday informing them of the kissing ban after teachers complained that the kissing rituals of some girls were getting out of hand.

Instead of simply greeting each other with a light peck on the cheeks between lessons, some 14-year-olds had taken to "theatrically falling into each other's arms and kissing each other on the mouth, sometimes very intimately and for many minutes," Biermair complained.

Such behaviour "could lead to undesirable developments" and boys could also start demanding kisses, he argued.

So, at a meeting, teachers and a number of parents had voted unanimously in favour of a kissing ban.

However, the move was immediately slammed as "ridiculous" and "excessive", not only by pupils, but by politicians as well.

"The ban is not only totally disproportionate, it's also completely counterproductive," said Matthias Hansy, head of Austria's Pupil's Union in a statement.

"There are much more pressing problems at our schools, such as the increasing trend towards violence," Hansy said.

Another pupils' group, "Aktion Kritischer Schueler" or AKS, said the ban reflected an "outdated, medieval world-view".

"We won't allow the dignity and rights of pupils to be downtrodden in this way," said AKS head Vanessa Gaigg.

"School directors are not monarchs who can impose their ridiculous values on pupils."

AKS urged Upper Austria's schools minister, Fritz Enzenhofer, to overturn the ban immediately and the group said it would organise a "kiss-in" protest in Enzenhofer's office next week if he refused.

A politician from the far-right populist BZOe party, Rainer Widmann, saw the ban as an "undue interference in pupils' privacy."

The education expert of the regional branch of the environmental Green party, Gottfried Hirz, agreed.

"We should be happy that at a time when violent videos and increasing violence in schools, pupils are once again displaying behaviour of mutual affection," Hirz said.

"Don't we have more pressing pedagogical problems in our schools at the moment?"

mommy says kiss and love and be merry while you can, you never know what tomorrow may hold!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

~ we like our chubbies ~

mommyerin — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:14:38 +0000

Obese people have the right to two seats for the price of one on flights within Canada, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled on Thursday.

The high court declined to hear an appeal by Canadian airlines of a decision by the Canadian Transportation Agency that people who are "functionally disabled by obesity" deserve to have two seats for one fare.

The airlines had lost an appeal at the Federal Court of Appeal in May and had sought to launch a fresh appeal at the Supreme Court. The court's decision not to hear a new appeal means the one-person-one-fare policy stands.

The appeal had been launched by Air Canada, Air Canada Jazz and WestJet.

What is your take on this story? I am curious to know everyone's opinion.

mommy love and kisses xo

Racing boss Bernie Ecclestone answers angry Canadian F1 fans

mommyerin — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 00:29:45 +0000

MONTREAL - The head of Formula One racing has a retort for a city so infuriated with him that a leading newspaper carried an editorial cartoon Wednesday that depicts him being tortured. Bernie Ecclestone says he isn't greedy. The F1 czar told a Montreal radio station that he loves the city, that he hopes its popular annual race will return there and that his cash demands have been fair. He scoffed when an interviewer for CJAD asked whether his demand - reportedly $175 million over five years, plus advertising and attendance revenues - was unreasonable. Ecclestone said many other places around the world pay far more to host the race. He said the offer to Montreal was actually a steal, compared with what others pay. Mayor Gerald Tremblay had called it unreasonable. "Unreasonable compared to what?" Ecclestone replied in his radio interview. "We do business worldwide and nobody else thinks we're unreasonable. We've got a queue of people that want races. So we can't be unreasonable. "Financial troubles are in fact plaguing F1 elsewhere. France's current circuit has been dropped from the schedule because of poor attendance, Australia's event is reporting record losses, and China is reportedly reconsidering the event in Shanghai. The Montreal race was dropped from the 2009 schedule when federal, provincial and municipal officials balked at Ecclestone's cash demands. The race generated an estimated $100 million for the city as the downtown core was so full of festivities that some streets became giant block parties for days. The annual influx of international partygoers into Montreal's hotels, restaurants and watering holes also offered a splashy morale boost to a city that had lost its baseball team and status as Canada's business capital. But in recent years Montrealers became accustomed to seemingly annual crisis talks where Ecclestone threatened to cancel the race over financial differences with local organizers. Despite the overwhelming popularity of the event, few locals have expressed any desire for the government to meet Ecclestone's cash demands. An editorial cartoon in Wednesday's Montreal La Presse summed up local anger toward Ecclestone. It ran under the headline: "What event would best replace the Montreal Grand Prix?" Its conclusion was medieval torture. The cartoon showed a man in a black hood standing above Ecclestone and stretching out his limbs over a rack, with a mob of locals cheering in the background. While Montrealers might not feel much affection for him, Ecclestone says he adores their city. He said he wants the race back. In fact, he said he told Canadian officials they could replace any race on the schedule if they met his financial demands. "Everyone in Formula One loves Montreal," Ecclestone told CJAD. "I said (to organizers) you can come to my office, pull any contract out of that drawer for all the overseas races, take any one of them, cross out the name and put your name, and that's what we'll do. "Because what was offered them was less than we get anywhere else in the world. "He refused to discuss specifics of his offer - and said he didn't appeciate details of contract negotiations being leaked into the public domain. Canadian officials said he guaranteed the race for five years in exchange for $175 million and 100 per cent of the revenues linked to corporate boxes and advertising on the circuit. They offered him $110 million over five years plus a cut of the annual profits - but Ecclestone refused. Canadian racing officials had been in a previous dispute with Ecclestone over whether they had fulfilled the obligations of their existing contract. The F1 boss argued he was owed $24 million by the race's previous promoters, and would have forgiven the outstanding sum had he reached a new deal with Canadian organizers. The Canadians came away from last-minute negotiations expressing frustration. But when asked to describe the tone of their talks Ecclestone replied with glowing terms: "Good. Nice. Beautiful."

And as for the future of the race: "Of course we would (want it back) - we didn't want to lose it."

~ frog legs and spinach ~

mommyerin — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 19:25:50 +0000

VIENNA (AFP) - Whoever said spinach was good for you? Even Popeye's stomach would probably have churned at the grisly find made by a 32-year-old mother from Vienna who decided to cook frozen spinach for her family's evening meal, the daily Oesterreich reported Tuesday.

Martina R. told the newspaper she thought the spinach was a bit "lumpy" as it bubbled in the saucepan.

But it was only when she went to dish out a serving for her young daughter that she noticed there was a dead frog in it.

"My stomach turned. It was almost whole, except for a missing leg which I probably knocked off when I stirred the spinach," the shocked housewife said.

She complained to the supermarket where she had bought the spinach and the manager presented her with a free packet of coffee as compensation, Oesterreich reported.

~ rats return to Hamelin ~

mommyerin — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 10:58:01 +0000

BERLIN (AFP) - Just ahead of the 725th anniversary of the Pied Piper reputedly banishing a plague of rats from Hamelin, there has been an "explosion" in the German town's rodent population, officials said Tuesday.

The spokesman for the northern town, known as Hameln in German, said the sharp rise at an abandoned garden allotment site on the edge of the town was because the rats had a plentiful supply of food from an adjacent rubbish dump.

According to legend, a colourful or "pied" rat catcher lured all the rats out of town in 1284 by playing his pipe. When the townspeople refused to pay him, he did the same with Hamelin's children and they were never seen again.

~* parade in the snow *~

mommyerin — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 14:14:25 +0000

Hello my lovely VIPs!

I hope you are all having a wonderfully relaxing Sunday?

The winter storm hit last night, and once again, I woke to find myself in a heap of snow. I really can do without snow, but my girls were so happy, running around and jumping at the sight of all that cold white stuff outside! Today is the Santa Claus Parade (oh why does that Jolly old bugger always bring snow with him)?!

Just to get myself and the girls ready to go, with hats, mitts, scarves, snowpants, winter coats, boots etc... should only take about an hour... and then another half hour to get them undressed cause they had to pee.

Then, once we are outside and I get them in the van to go, it should only take another 30 minutes or so, to clear the snow off the van. Then if we are lucky, we should get to town for the parade an hour after that (as long as the snowplows have been out). It is normally a 20 minute drive in good weather.

Once we get to town, the task of finding parking will start. That should only take a half hour to 45 minutes, and only another 10 minutes to walk to find a spot, to stand and freeze for an hour, while we watch the parade and wait for Santa at the very end. He better be friggin jolly, and wave to my children!

So let's see, it is just past 9 here now, the parade starts at noon. I figure if we start getting ready now, we should just be able to make it in time. I better bring my own hot chocolate, or that will mean another half hour at the cafe waiting for one.

Ah, the things a mommy must do to see her children smile... I wouldn't give it up for anything else in the world.

Look out Father Christmas -- here comes mommyerin and her two girls!!

I wish you all a fantastic day, and I will be back later on, to tell you more about our day, and how cold my toes are.

Warming love and mommy hugs for you all! Stay warm!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

~ still life ~

mommyerin — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 19:20:01 +0000

I found this story rather interesting, please share your thoughts...I will be back in a wee bit to check in on you all. It is snowing and I am going to cuddle up on the couch and watch a movie with my girls. See you soon! Enjoy! xo

Several fire trucks and rescue workers rushed to a German cultural centre in central Cairo on Thursday after hearing a man was hanging from a wall, only to find an arts installation by a German.

By the time emergency services arrived at the Goethe Cultural Centre, artist Johan Lorbeer had climbed down from a ladder, one of the props in the exhibit, and left behind a plastic replica of a human hand attached to the wall.

"We heard a man was hanging from the wall," said one police officer at the scene.

Dozens of Egyptians crowded outside the gates of the institute, craning for a glimpse at the hand. "What happened?" asked one man, before snorting derisively when told it was a plastic hand.

"The Germans are laughing at us," he said before walking away.

Beate Kohler, director of the institute's language department, seemed unfazed by the blaring sirens and crowd of onlookers, enthusiastically telling AFP the institute had been trying to invite Lorbeer for more than two years.

The exhibit was meant to "give the illusion (Lorbeer) was hanging to the wall only with his hand," she said.

http://d.yimg.com/ca.yimg.com/p/081113/afp/icpsoex00131108163753photo00.jpg?x=400&y=275&sig=yrzMNuc6xaE9xSDZehsPJw--