Well it would be unseemly to have the Leader of the Most Powerful Province In The World flying in squalor. 
“Most Powerful Province In The World”? I like it! I like it! I mean, no way, that’s just wrong. 
Leaffan niece throws two beautiful shots in the 8th to set up a Team Canada deuce that has them sitting pretty in the Scotty final.
Awe, shucks Gorsnak thanks. It was an amazing bonspiel for these girls, well women, but heck it’s my niece! Undefeated the whole tournament.
I’d like to think these girls (women!) will be representing Canada at the next Olympics.
I’m very proud of my niece, and I can actually say that I recently had supper at Rachel Homan’s house, and went to a Fleetwood Mac concert with her (amongst others)!!!
First team in 29 years to go undefeated! :eek:
I thought I recognized the name from the news story in the sports tonight - congratulations to the girls, Leaffan! What an achievement!
(My curling husband’s comment was, “Children versus children!” )
We’re in first place at the Olympics! Three gold, three silver, one bronze - yay us!
Yeah, this own the podium program is really working. It’s about time Canada supported amateur athletes to the same degree some other countries do.
You think these results are a direct result of that program? I would like us to do really well at the Summer Olympics, too, but if we only dominate in the Winter Olympics, I can live with that.
(All with that caveat that I’m still not a huge fan of the Olympics and all their rampant corruptions and big ol’ waste of money. It’s hard not to get a lump in your throat when they play O Canada at the Olympics, though.)
Yes. Absolutely the Own the Podium program is responsible for our increased medal count.
The summer Olympics has their own program called Road to Excellence. Both programs are managed under the Podium Canada program, and yes I Googled some of this stuff, but there’s no doubt in my mind as of 2006, Canada is a country to be reckoned with, and these programs are the root cause.
You can read all about it on the Wikipedia Own the Podium page.
Here’s the ice boulders I was talking about.
I’m grateful as hell that they cleared the street, but leaving these behind? I don’t want to drive into one of those.
ETA: Here’s another shot of a street in my neighbourhood today - I tweeted it as, “Okay, that’s good enough for today, boys!” #UnionWorkers 
(Sigh). Third time this year, taking the Honda in tomorrow to have the block heater cord repaired, due to stress from driving away while plugged in. (Me twice, Mrs Piper once.)
D’oh!
The other day I plugged in the leaf blower, turned it on and nothing happened. I guess snow got into it and it shorted or burned something out.
So I’m back to brushing off the car and dragging snow off the steps with the scoop held backwards, then shovelling the walks.
It was too heavy for the leaf blower today anyway. Yeah, that’s it. It was too heavy anyway.
Oh, the ignominy.
I’m guessing you’ll be first in line for one of those magnetic extension cords.
Is it an outdoor plug that has a reset button on it? My electrical plug-in in my backyard is like that - it trips occasionally for no apparent reason, then the plug won’t work until I reset it.
Alas, no. The extension cord where it plugs into the short leaf-blower cord has an LED that still lights, so the power’s flowing. I plugged it into the stove to ensure it was on a different circuit, but it still wouldn’t work.
The blower has screws all over it, so I’ll take it apart to see if I can spot any obvious problem. I can’t make it any worse.
Sadly their Kickstarter campaign didn’t reach it’s goal, but they sent out an email saying they had sufficient investor interest that they will definitely go into production. They are supposed to be launching a new, lower goal Kickstarter this month to allow those who pledged the first time round to get a deal and to be first in line for the cords, but I haven’t seen anything yet.
What’s the patent law on that sort of thing? Would they have to get rights from Apple or whoever holds a patent for a detachable magnetic power cord, or is it just too obvious for a patent to apply?
Or until someone comes to market with one, just MacGyver one out of a Japanese appliance magnetic detachable cord.
There are significant safety issues - I wouldn’t want to go MacGyvering this sort of thing. Magnetic plugs have exposed contacts. The design in question can tell if the plug is coupled before energizing the contacts. They’ve applied for a patent that goes beyond anything Apple did, and I’m reasonably confident that you can’t get a patent for using a magnet to hold two objects together.