BT Edmonton Blogs

Time to pay, ahem, “lip service” to a very cool spin-off of the Movember movement.

The WHL’s Edmonton Oil Kings have jumped on board the annual fundraiser for prostate cancer research in a big way. Not only will the club raise funds by auctioning off special-edition Movember jerseys following Friday night’s game vs the Spokane Chiefs, several players are sporting (teen) ’staches to help raise awareness as well.

Brett Breitkreuz and his teammates invited me out for a skate as they debuted the new sweaters. Click on the video below for our editor (and fellow Mo Bro) Mike Ormerod’s creative take on the experience…

rpj.

Which do you like best — sunrise or sunset?    Right now as I look at this photo — Sunset wins.    Credit goes to Murray who saw the clouds starting to take on the colours October 16th east of  Ponoka.   

Superb sunset

We get the incredible red, orange, and yellow hues at sunrise and sunset because particles of:  dust, soot, solid and liquid aerosols scatter the sunlight in the atmosphere.     Some say that colours are even more brilliant at sunset because there are more particles in the evening air than in the morning air.    Whatever the scientists say — I say thank you(to Mother Nature AND Murray).

DID YOU KNOW?    There are many sayings about predicting the weather according to colours of the sunrise and sunset:  Red sky at night, sailor’s delight,  Red sky at morning, sailors take warning.

Weather systems; basically, generally, travel from west to east.    And to recap:  because of the low angle of the setting and rising sun,…it illuminates the under-bellies of the clouds.
SO going back to the WEATHER LORE:   If the morning sky is red, it is because the clear sky in the east is permitting the sun to light the undersides of moisture-bearing clouds coming in from the west.
AND,  if there are red clouds in the evening,….that means sunlight has a clear path from the west and is illuminating moisture-bearing clouds pushing east.

SHOW US YOUR SUNRISE … OR SUNSET … OR FAVORITE FLOWER .. OR REALLY, ANYTHING THAT REPRSENTS MOTHER NATURE OR HER CREATURES.    WE OF THE FRESH AIR PHOTO NATION NEED YOU.   UPLOAD YOUR PIC TODAY. 

The end of the day. You’ve been looking forward to that cold beer all day long!

Lovely Lethbridge

Shout out to Lethbridge and the man behind the camera, Kingsley.    He shows us the morning mist and Highway 3 – also known as Crowsnest Pass.    Kingsley is comfortable behind the camera.    He worked for our tv cousins in Ontario shooting for BT.   Gotta love it!

DID YOU KNOW?     Lethbridge is one of my most favorite cities on earth.   But wayy back in the 18 hundreds(even before I lived there),…the economy was driven by its rich and abundant coal mines.    In fact, the president of the North Western Coal and Navigation Company was William Lethbridge.    As for the Crowsnest Pass:  the mountain, pass, and river where originally named by the Cree First Nations people because of the big black birds which nested in the area.    The Cree may have been refering to ravens.

DID YOU KNOW?   WE ARE WAITING FOR YOUR PICTURE.    WHEN YOU UPLOAD YOURS, YOU BECOME A MEMBER OF OUR FRESH AIR PHOTO NATION.    MEMBERSHIP INCLUDES SEEING YOUR ARTWORK – NOT ONLY ON THIS BLOG, BUT ON BREAKFAST TELEVISION AT 7:10AM.

The Wicked Awesomes! joined by Aaron Levine of Weird Canada are in studio rocking out. Check out Wyrd Fest on Saturday, tickets available at Blackbyrd Myoosik.

What’s a month-long Mo grow without an official proclamation from the Mayor?

Absolutely nothing!

That’s why we invited Mayor Stephen Mandel (and Movember Gala organizer Ryan Branting) to swing by the show Thursday morning. Click here to check it out.

The Edmonton Journal’s doing great work supporting the cause. They took a moment to pump our tires on B16 of Friday’s paper along with this article online.

Click here if you’d like to be part of the Movember movement!

rpj.

Morning has broken

Patrick was up before the sun on this day, and what a great shot.    The sky is a beautiful dark purple, the sun gently pushing through the middle of the frame, and the earth waits for the light and the warmth.    OK OK, I am not Elizabeth Barrett Browning or anything, but as you may know — I am definately a morning person.   & I understand that not everyone is.    An anonymous poet once said:  “I’d like mornings better if they started later“.    Something else that comes to mind when I look at the picture is Cat Stevens.    Anybody remember him?    He recorded the song “Morning has broken” in 1971.    BTW – Cat Stevens converted to Islam in 1977 and changed his name to Yusuf Islam.

DID YOU KNOW?    Research has shown that there is truth to the phrase, “You should sleep on it” before you make an important decision.    By “sleeping on it,” we clear our minds which can help relieve the stress.     Here is a website with an article you may find interesting, if you ever have trouble falling asleep.    -Maybe reading the article will make you sleepy

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anne-naylor/5-keys-for-getting-a-good_b_323372.html

ANY HOUR OF THE DAY IS A GOOD ONE FOR SNAPPING AND SENDING … OPERATORS WORK AROUND THE CLOCK, WAITING FOR YOUR PHOTO!

Fear of Friday the 13th is called Paraskevidekatriaphobia.
Fear of the number 13 is Triskaidekaphobia.  

Friday the 13th!!!!!!!

If you fear trivia … back away from the computer, because you are going to get  ”Everything you’ve always wanted to know about Friday the 13th but were afraid to ask”.

Paraskevidekatriaphobia comes from the Greek words: Paraskeví (meaning Friday),  and dekatreís (meaning thirteen), attached to phobía (meaning fear).  

Triskaidekaphobia comes from the Greek words “tris”, meaning ‘three’, “kai”, meaning ‘and’,  and “deka”, meaning ‘ten’.   The whole word means three and ten.    It was derived in 1911 and first appeared in a mainstream source in 1953.

This fear of 13 is strong in today’s world.   More than 80 percent of high-rises lack a 13th floor.    Many airports skip the 13th gate.    Would you stay in room number 13 in a hospital or hotel?

In numerology, the number twelve is considered the number of completeness, as reflected in the twelve months of the year,  twelve signs of the zodiac,  twelve hours of the clock,  twelve tribes of Israel,  twelve Apostles of Jesus,  twelve gods of Olympus, etc.,…whereas the number thirteen was considered irregular, transgressing this completeness.      There is also a superstition, thought by some to derive from the Last Supper or a Norse myth, that having thirteen people seated at a table will result in the death of one of the diners.

Here is the biblical reference to the unlucky number 13.      Judas, the apostle who betrayed Jesus, was the 13th guest to the Last Supper.    As for Friday, it is well known among Christians as the day Jesus was crucified.    Some biblical scholars believe Eve tempted Adam with the forbidden fruit on Friday.  Perhaps most significant is a belief that Abel was slain by Cain on Friday the 13th.

Meanwhile, in ancient Rome, witches reportedly gathered in groups of 12.    The 13th was believed to be the devil.         

Have you heard this one?    A Norse God walks into a dinner party ( ! )   12 gods were having a dinner party at Valhalla, their heaven.

 Loki, the Evil One, god of mischief, was not invited and crashed the party. Now there were 13 at the table.    True to character, Loki incited Hod, the blind god of winter, to attack Balder the Good, who was a favorite of the gods.    All Valhalla grieved.    The Norse concluded that 13 people at a dinner party is just plain bad luck. 

Both Friday and the number 13 were once closely associated with capital punishment.     In British tradition, Friday was the conventional day for public hangings, and there were supposedly 13 steps leading up to the noose.

In 2009—We have had Friday the 13th in 3 months:  February,  March,  and  November.     The next time this will happen will be in  2015.      
Any month’s 13th day will fall on a Friday if the month starts on a Sunday.

 AND … WE CAN’T FORGET ABOUT THE NUMBER 13 AND THE MOVIES!!     

There are 12 films in the Friday the 13th series-featuring Jason Voorhees. 
  All were released on a Friday the 13th.

         These CELEBRITIES like November 13th — even Friday the 13th, that’s when they’ll be celebrating their birthdays:
-> Gerard Butler, Actor 
-> Chris Noth, Actor 
-> Whoopi Goldberg, Actress, comedian, and singer 
-> Jimmy Kimmel, Comedian and talk-show host 
-> Gilbert Perreault, Hockey player/legend 
-> Mel Stottlemyre, Baseball player and coach 
-> Pat Hentgen, Baseball player     

WE ASK …. What’s in a name  ?    if you have 13 letters in your name,  you share that count with: Jack the Ripper,  Charles Manson,  Jeffrey Dahmer, and  Theodore Bundy.     They all have 13 letters in their names.

RELAX!   It’s only a number, it’s only a day of the week.   Besides, if  you are anxious on days like Friday the 13th – you may be more prone to have accidents.    In other words, being afraid of Friday the 13th could be your undoing. 

Plus, the Munsters didn’t mind their address: 1313 Mockingbird Lane.

BE CAREFUL OUT THERE!    By the way, if you have made it this far, (first of all congratulations),  but second of all – let me know.    The first 5 people who send me an email with “Lucky” in the subject line, will win a prize from our BT prize closet!   “Good Luck”!!!!

Terri went to great lengths to get this shot.    Uh wait, I stand corrected … I mean great HEIGHTS to get the pic.    Terri climbed 235 steps to the top of Brock Monument in Ontario – this is about 10km north of Niagara Falls.    We also have a pic of the stairs Terri climbed.   

Monumental View!

Brock monument honours Major-General Isaac Brock.    He was Commander-in-Chief of British forces in Upper Canada was stationed at Fort George (now Niagara-on-the-Lake).    He died there defending the area during the War of 1812.    Of course we and our American neighbours are at peace now,….but at that time,  control of the Niagara River section of this international border was in constant dispute.   Many decisive battles of the War of 1812 occurred along both sides of the river.

235 to the top

TIME FOR YOU TO BE PART OF HISTORY — BT BLOG HISTORY THAT IS.     UPLOAD YOUR PICTURE OF MOTHER NATURE OR HER CREATURES AND BECOME A MEMBER OF OUR FRESH AIR PHOTO NATION.

Thank you to Murray who sent us these images from a Remembrance Day ceremony in Ponoka.    He, like I — maybe even you,  gets a tear in his eye when he remembers.    Lest we forget.

Lest we forget

Cadet at attention

“In Flanders Fields”.    This poem was written by Canadian Lt-Col John McCrae in May 1915 .    

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row                                          
That mark our place; and in the sky                              
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.