Wii Injuries on a Rise

My family just got a Nintendo Wii for Christmas and I gotta say, it's pretty cool. The Nintendo Wii is a game system where our movements of your arm actually make your character move in the same way. That's kind of what it does. For instance, the game that comes with the Wii already is Wii sports. In it there are games such as Tennis, Bowling and Golf. In Tennis, if you swing your arm at the right time it will hit the tennis ball at the same time.
But now, there have been many reports of Wii injuries. I've got a couple Wii injuries I guess, but mostly just muscle sorness from play Tennis too many times. Many people though have accidentally let go of the Wii Remote and hit someone, one person even let go of the remote and it hit an overhead light ficture and the glass cut their hand. Nintendo did recall the gameing system at first when many people were accidentally letting go of the remote and smashing through their television screens. They then put handstraps on them to keep thme around your wrist but even after that they are still being thrown around the room! Apparently this is such a problem that there are many websites about Wii injuries. Just Google Wii injuries and you're sure to find at least a page full of Wii injuries.
I think this is kind of crazy. All that I can really say though is if you have a Wii, be careful!

Obama and McCain Take Leads After Yeaterdays Super Tuesday

Yes, this is American politics and I know I don't usually write about American politics. Actually, I don't think I ever have so this is new. I think that the way American federal elections go though is kind of interesting though, and to some Canadians it might be wierd.

The way I understand it is that the Republicans and the Democrats each put a bunch of people in the primaries. The primaries are where people decide which person is going to be representing the Democrats or the Republicans when the big election comes. So there's a mini election (a primary) in each state. Yesterday was Super Tuesday where about 20 states have there primaries all on one day! The main two candidates for the Democrats are Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. This is interedsting because if Clinton were to become President then she would be the first woman presdent the country has ever had. If Obama were to become President then he would be the first African-American Presidant the country's ever had. The three main cnadidates for the Pepublicans are Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney and John McCain. There are also other candidates but those are the only ones that have actually won any primaries.

So, for the results after yesterdays Super Tuesday. Obama has pulled ahead for the Democrats with 15 primaries won and McCain has pulled ahead for the Republicans with 12 primaries won. It's very close though. With the Democrats Clinton is only 3 behind Obama with 12. And Huckabee has won 6 and Romney 11, just one behind McCain.

Back to how the American elections are interesting, what I find interesting and a bit strange is that for part of the time the parties don't really have a leader, unless they are the President. That's what these primaries are for. In Canada we have jujst one big political convention to decide.

I think it woud be very interesting to have either Clinton or Obama as President of the United Sates, almost as interesting as having a Liberal Alberta government...

Alberta Election Called for March 3

Alberta conservative leader Ed Stelmach anounced on February 4 that there would be an Alberta provincial election. Premier Stelmach anounced this less than an hour after the speech from the throne.

I talked a little about the election buzz in my latest issue of Die Zeitung. I said that my family would be happy for an election. We love sitting around the TV watching the votes come in. Of course an election is also another chance to get another party in power after 36 years of a Conervative provincial government, all of them being majorities. It would be great just to get a Conservative minority really.

If you look at the past election results there really hasn't been a lot of different parties in power. There are the Conservatives now, then there was the Social Credit, then there were United Farmers and then Liberal in 1905, 1909, 1913 and 1917. If we can make that happen again with a whole four years of Liberal government I think that would be pretty good.

In the past election in 2004 the results were - Conservative: 62 seats Liberal: 16 seats NDP: 4 seats and Alliance: 1. In the next election hopefully we can even out that a little bit more. Maybe.

Alberta Releases New Environment Plan

The other day the Alberta Government released their new environment plan. Let's just say, I'm not impressed.

As I skimmed through the CBC article where I got all the information I noticed it seems kind of like a copy - cat of Stephen Harper's plan a couple years ago. One of Premier Stelmach's ideas is to bury the CO2 underneath the ground. Sound familiar? It should, in fact I think I mentioned it in the Christmas 2006 issue of Die Zeitung. NDP leader Brian Mason doesn't think this is a good idea either. "Carbon capture is not just expensive but potentially dangerous as well. A pipeline rupture near a populated area could be disastrous," Mason says. Another thing they mentioned in the article was that in the long term plan they were going to try to go for reducing 14% of the emissions from 2005 - by the year 2050! Also sound familiar? I believe I also mentioned that in the same article in Die Zeitung. Once again. and I';m getting tired of saying this but reducing by 14% in 45 years? That's just pitiful! Do they really want to stop Global Warming or are they just saying that?

My opinion is that our Conservative government thinks that they are too good for everyone else. For instance the Kyoto accord. I think we'd be a lot better off if we just joined in with all the other countries and started working with the rest of the world!

To see the article I got my information from click here.

Computer's Back

The Survivor Challenge is done and I finally get my computer back! I actually found that it wasn't that hard. I just read - ALOT! I forgot to mention before but the reason I was doing this all was for a fundraiser. As I said a couple months ago my class is doing many fundraisers to help World Vision. We asked everyone in our class to try to get sponsors for the Survivor Challenge week and the sponsors would go towards the charity. It was quite successful and we raised a couple hundred dollars.

I have a lot to write about on my blog including the promised completion of my interview with John. K. Samson and a follow up of my latest poll. But that will all come in the coming week.

Survivor Challenge

In my class we are doing a Survivor Challenge Week where everyone has to give up something that might have a negative impact on their lives. I am giving up the computer. This means that from Monday (tomorrow) to the next Monday I will not be able to post on my blog. I might try to go longer than a week so if I am still not back by January 21 don't worry:)

Subscribers to my newspaper, I am very sorry it is so late. But, I am sending it out tonight so check your inbox!

Write to you later!

News Stories that Caught my eye this Morning

Yesterday an article came out in the Edmonton Journal called Meet the People who care for the Arts by Todd Babiak. Today someone wrote a letter to the editor called Poet no match for ponies in dash for provincial cash. Basically, both of them talked about how the arts aren't getting enough funding. In the column by Todd Babiak he said that the Alberta Foundation for the Arts received 26.6 million dollars and that the Horse Racing and Breeding Renewal Program received 56 million dollars when Ralph Klein was premier. I think this is a bad thing because it seems that our government is encouraging people to gamble at horse races that are being funded by their government.

Another article in the paper today asked whether or not to introduce a mental health court in Edmonton. A mental health court is where, for instance, a lot of people who are homeless have mental health problems. This could cause them to be drunk in public and that is against the law. If someone from the police saw this they would probably have them arrested just like anyone else. With a mental health court they would be helped instead of just being treated like someone who didn't have mental health problem.

So those are just some things in the news that caught my eye this morning.

Water's Back!

After a long time we finally have our water back! When we woke up this morning we found out there was no water! We were without water the whole day and up until around noon we didn't know why! In the end we found that it was because of a water main brake which seem to be fairly common. When I got home from school today there were big trucks digging holes all over our street! Then finally after 6 - 8 hours of hard work it was finished! And we have water. All is well.

Police are Turning into a Similar Type of Role Model

Some police are turning into a similar type of environmental role model as Stephen Harper it seems. When I was in St. Albert over Christmas we drove past a place along the road where the police radar guy was waiting for people to come by speeding. My Grandparents told me that he was always sitting there in the same spot idling the day away waiting for speeders. When we came back down the hill I noticed he wasn't there but the grass all around the spot that his car was - was gone. The little bit that was left was brown and disgusting. That's what all that idling had done to the grass. I found this astounding and kind of embarrising. I found it embarrising that he would rather be nice and toasty warm inside his car than do his part for the environment. Last year when me and my mom were coming back from my swim club practice we noticed a police car outside our house with no one in it. It was idling. We thought maybe the policeman or woman had just gone into a house for a couple minutes at first. After half an hour though the car was still there idling. Who knows how long it had been there before that, he might have been idling for an hour for all we know! After half an hour he left though. We got the number on his car and sent an email to the police saying that we saw a police car iding outside our house for more than 30 minutes. We got an email back saying that they did not recieve the email because it had been detected as SPAM. I think that these days people who we look up to as role models are giving people the wrong idea. They say that we should all buy hybrid cars and not idel but yet we see Stephen Harper buying 844 SUVS and the police idling for 30 minutes outside our house! It's just plain horrible!

I Guess I Have Pretty Left Wing Readers

According to the poll that just ended I have pretty left wing readers. Here are the results:

What Political Party do you Want (Not Think) To Win the Next Election?
Conservative - 1 person with 7%
Liberal - 5 people with 35%
Bloc Quebecois - 0 people with 0%
NDP - 7 people with 50%
Other - 1 person with 7%

So according to that half of my readers are left wing. That's nice to see.

I will put up a new poll as soon as possible.