It is described as a: “153.79 acre parcel out of 526 acres of land we own in Edmontons NE corner. This parcel of prime development land is accessed by and is bordered by three major traffic arteries, Edmonton’s 33 Street, Highway 28A, and Highway 15. All of which run towards Alberta’s Industrial Heartland, the fastest growing Canadian Indstrial area.”

You can read more about investing HERE (pdf).

Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada — Braving toxic fumes and the same toxic tailings waste that earlier this year killed 500 ducks, Greenpeace activists entered Syncrude’s Aurora North tar sands operation early this morning and blocked a pipe into the two-kilometre wide tailings pond.

Picture Gallery

While the tarsands tailings ponds are a concern, an even greater concern is the state of security at these mines. If activists can make it on-site with a rolled-up 60-foot banner, what’s stopping whackos with more sinister intentions from bringing an explosive device on-site?

From CBC.ca:

Greenpeace activists said they entered the site around 8 a.m. Thursday, and easily got by Syncrude security and made it to the lake of waste water.

Dave Martin, who speaks for the organization, talked to CBC News from the side of the tailings pond.

“It’s the pond where 500 ducks were killed in April, and we have another team putting up a banner on another major outflow pipe of tailings. We’ve got about a 60-foot large-scale banner we are putting up on the sides of the berm,” Martin said.

Related: Tom Clancy’s Endwar

At the beginning of the video, Keith tries to show people how easy it is to deceive the brain with a simple hand trick. You’ll be fooled, too, unless you notice the point where he pulls his hands apart. At about the 5:31 minute mark, Keith has this to say, in reference to a car stunt he pulls off in the video:

“A lot of people try to come up with a logical solution to what just happened. But because your brains are not trained in the art of deception, the solutions that you come up with will be 99% of the time way off the mark.This is because magic is all about directing attention. If for instance, I didn’t want you to look at my right hand, then I don’t look at it. But if I wanted you to look at my right hand, then I look at it, too. It’s very simple once you know how, but very complicated in other ways. “

I

From the Wiki entry on Steve Jobs comes this little gem:

In the autumn of 1974, Jobs returned to California and began attending meetings of the Homebrew Computer Club with Steve Wozniak. He took a job as a technician at Atari, a manufacturer of popular video games, with the primary intent of saving money for a spiritual retreat to India.

Jobs then backpacked around India with a Reed College friend (and, later, the first Apple employee), Daniel Kottke, in search of philosophical enlightenment. He came back with his head shaved and wearing traditional Indian clothing. During this time, Jobs experimented with LSD, calling these experiences “one of the two or three most important things [he had] done in [his] life.”

The movie, Pirates of Silicon Valley, portrays Jobs’ use (YouTube).

Then there’s this old Playboy interview (4/5 the way down the page)with Bill gates wherein he sheepishly admits to taking the drug.

Did LSD use lead to the biggest industrial revolution of human history? I’d like to think not. Rather, people who are attracted to viewing the world through a different lens are likely to be attracted to psychedelic use. Nevertheless, this fact is interesting, and should prove helpful when conversation at your next dinner party finds itself in an awkward silence.

Related: Jack Black Trips Balls in the desert (YouTube)

Above: Happy soul-selling customers.

http://www.wewantyoursoul.com

We Want Your Soul, Inc. (WWYS®) is a global private equity firm with nearly 250 million souls under management.

WWYS® generates outstanding returns for its customers by employing cutting-edge proprietary soul extraction, containment and suppression technologies, including but not limited to genetic modification, operant conditioning, and thought control. Our firm’s history is long and celebrated, and has allowed us to evolve a global influence in all aspects and at every level of society.

(satire alert).

Related: Adam Vreeland - We Want Your Soul

Extended version: video.google.com

From an Ipsos-Reid poll, as reported by the Calgary Herald a little while ago:

A new Ispos Reid survey says 15 per cent of Canadians would have their province opt out of Canada if given the chance. Alberta and Quebec lead the way, with one in five Albertans (18 per cent) saying they would like to declare independence.

From a new Zogby poll of Americans:

One in five American adults - 22% - believe that any state or region has the right to “peaceably secede from the United States and become an independent republic,” a new Middlebury Institute/Zogby International telephone poll shows.

However, there’s a twist:

Politically, liberal thinkers were much more likely to favor the right to secession for states and regions, as 32% of mainline liberals agreed with the concept. Among the very liberal the support was only slightly less enthusiastic - 28% said they favored such a right. Meanwhile, just 17% of mainline conservatives thought it should exist as an option for states or regions of the nation.

And another one: 44% of Americans believe the country’s too messed up for two parties to fix.

Above: Edmonton goes ‘Om Nom Nom’.

From the Edmonton Journal:

A confidential staff report on the proposed annexation claims the city is running out of developable land and must extend its boundaries to allow for future population growth. Edmonton, says the report, is also in the best position to not only service the International Airport, but deliver rapid transit to its terminals.

This is not the first time city hall has plotted to annex the airport and lands in between. The last bid came during Bill Smith’s final term as mayor. Annexation caused a huge flap then and will cause a huge flap again, for good reason.

When Stephen Mandel replaced Smith as mayor, the city adopted a new strategy on the decades-old regional turf war.

Calgary Herald:

Three Canadian oil companies listed as among the biggest creditors of bankrupt energy trader SemGroup LP said on Tuesday the U.S. company’s filing will have little impact on their operations.

SemGroup declared bankruptcy on Tuesday after $3.2 billion in oil trading losses torpedoed the formerly 12th-largest private U.S. company.

Its Canadian unit has also filed for creditor protection.

Official Press Release: http://www.semgrouplp.com

Not only are Flanagan and Morton U.S.-born, but Cooper is a member of the Bohemian Club, a fraternity of Republican movers and shakers who fork out a $10,000 initiation fee to gather every year in the redwoods outside San Francisco for a policy version of summer camp. In a crowd that has included Henry Kissinger and Vice-President Dick Cheney, Cooper gives a regular talk on Canadian politics – one reason the Calgary School’s views may hold more sway in Washington than Ottawa.

You can google the Bohemia Grove, Bohemian Club and all that booga booga on your own.

One blogger, the Corbett Report actually called Mr. Cooper to ask him about his membership in the club (more analysis and commentary at the link):

Dr. Barry Cooper—a professor of political science at the University of Calgary and mentor of Stephen Harper—joined The Corbett Report yesterday to talk about free speech, Leo Strauss, and his membership in an elite secret society known as The Bohemian Club. The Bohemian Club hosts an annual summer camp in a redwood grove in northern California each year. The membership roster of the club reads like a who’s who of political, commercial and academic elite, including the likes of David Rockefeller, Henry Kissinger and George H.W. Bush.

Find out more about the Bohemian Club and hear an excerpt from Dr. Cooper’s recent appearance on The Corbett Report by watching the video below: