“A group of British and Canadian paleontologists have found fossils that show the earliest evidence of animal locomotion,” CBC reported today.  The fossils were found at Mistaken Point, 150 kilometres south of St. John’s.

The fossilized trails, each about 17 centimetres in length, are about 565 million years old.

In the meantime across the continent, Arnold Schwarzenegger is still hopeful he can beat both records.

According to CBC.ca, Walter Fredrick Morrison, the man accredited with inventing the Frisbee has died at age 90.

In honour of him, or more honestly an excuse to push a post up on my blog, I’ll share with you a quote from a very funny Canadian, Stewart Francis.

Goodbye Walter, and thanks Stewart!

From the Weather Canada website this morning:

Warnings

St. John’s and vicinity
8:41 AM NST Friday 05 February 2010
Blizzard warning for
St. John’s and vicinity continued

An intense low pressure system east of the Grand Banks will spread strong northerly winds and snow to most of Newfoundland today and tonight giving blizzard conditions. This is a warning that blizzard conditions with near-zero visibilities are expected in these regions. Monitor weather conditions..Listen for updated statements. Snow at times heavy and blowing snow presently over the Avalon will move westward today and tonight. Total snowfall amounts between 35 and 45 centimetres are forecast for the Northern Avalon Peninsula and east coast. 15 to 25 centimetres can be expected for the Southern Avalon and Burin peninsulas with lesser amounts expected over the remainder of the island. As well strong northerly winds gusting up to 90 km/h are forecast for Eastern Newfoundland and combined with the fresh snow will give blowing snow and blizzard conditions.

This past Saturday, in the wee hours of a freezing winter’s night, a Moncton landmark, Le Château à Pape Restaurant was destroyed by fire. The building was one of the oldest in the city.

Last Tuesday, my wife and I had dinner at Le Château à Pape with the city manager, Jacques Dube, and his wife, Nancy. We don’t regularly rub elbows with the city’s senior staff members, but my wife bought some tickets at work in support for charity and won the top prize. They were charming, down-to-earth people and the food was great. We had a genuinely nice time. In the days leading up to our night out, we got increasingly anxious about what the heck we would talk about. I mean, this was the city manager and his wife, both of whom we had never met, and we were about to sit in a fancy restaurant with them for 3+ hours. While I resisted the urge to start the conversation with “So… how about them roads?”, at one point I did make a comment which, in retrospect, seems a little eerie. Mr. Dube had removed a lamp from the centre of the table and placed in on the floor. It was tall and was blocking the view for each of us looking directly across at each other. As he went to lay it on the floor, he realized that it wasn’t an electrical appliance, it was a lit candle. I made a joke something like, “Ha! That was close! This building has been here for more than a hundred years and one dinner with the city manager and the place burns to the ground.” Hardy-har-har!

Little did we know that three evenings later…

Canada’s second oldest magazine The Beaver will be getting a new name. In order to avoid confusion and SPAM filter exclusions, the new title will be Canada’s History.

According to Deborah Morrison, as reported on CBC.ca today, “Use of the word ‘beaver’ on the internet has taken on an identity that nobody could have perceived in 1920. And increasingly, if we put ‘The Beaver’ in a heading, we would be spam-filtered out.”

I wish I’d known all this before I paid for the subscription. Boy was I disappointed when it came in the mail.

I would think not. Time to negotiate that into the collective agreement.

I was reading my news feed from CBC today and a couple of headlines jumped out at me.

• Man Sentenced For Abuse Of Puppies Left In Snow. I hope they let him wear his snow boots.
• Mother Urges School and Parents to Stop Bullying. Man! Shouldn’t they be setting a better example?
• Wrongfully Convicted Man’s Trial Delayed Two Weeks. Jeez. It’s bad enough to be railroaded, but to have to wait a fortnight knowing it’s gonna happen is just cruel!

In other news, Condom Truck Tips, Spills Load.