Selection: News

For personal reasons, Joy's coming here has been postponed by a few months.

Peking Acrobats, Butterflies, Sip! Fun Town Farm are all big hits

EDMONTON, AB – Northlands was thinking big when it planned Edmonton's Capital EX for 2007, and many of those big programs are big hits.

Attendance figures for the opening weekend showed 275,911 people enjoyed the exhibition over the first four days. That's up from 268,635 from the year prior.

"We've had a great opening weekend," says Ken Knowles, general manager for Northlands, the not-for-profit organization that produces the exhibition on behalf of the community. "We've heard tremendous response to a number of our new programs this year, such as the Peking Acrobats, Explore Butterflies, Finger Eleven at ED Fest, and Sip!"

Andrea Sardinha works at World FM's booth just outside the AgriCom. She says thousands of people a day pass by her booth raving about the Peking Acrobats. "Most said that just this one show alone was well worth the price of admission," comments Sardinha.

Shirley McClelland, Northlands volunteer and former deputy premier and minister of agriculture, is spending five days volunteering at the Fun Town Farm in the nationally-acclaimed Family Fun Town. "It's wonderful to see so many families out enjoying the exhibition. Many had incredible memories from the Fun Town Farm last year and were eager to enjoy it again this year. But for me, it is especially gratifying to see such innovative programming that engages children in the story of agriculture."

Families and children have other favourites this year as well. Explore Butterflies in the Sportex building offers Canada's first experience of having a unique and personal interaction with some of the world's most exotic butterflies in what is a world record-sized exhibit. American butterfly expert and exhibitor David Bohlken notes that the huge butterfly tent is consistently full and he appreciates the welcoming and respectful attitude of his Canadian guests. "What a great experience, and we're only half-way through. This is my first trip to Canada, and it won't be my last."

Google is introducing a new service called Gmail Paper. From their website:

Everyone loves Gmail. But not everyone loves email, or the digital era. What ever happened to stamps, filing cabinets, and the mailman? Well, you asked for it, and it’s here. We’re bringing it back.

A New Button
Now in Gmail, you can request a physical copy of any message with the click of a button, and we'll send it to you in the mail.

Simplicity Squared
Google will print all messages instantly and prepare them for delivery. Allow 2-4 business days for a parcel to arrive via post.

Total Control
A stack of Gmail Paper arrives in a box at your doorstep, and it’s yours to keep forever. You can read it, sort it, search it, touch it. Or even move it to the trash—the real trash. (Recycling is encouraged.)

Keep it Secret, Keep it Safe
Google takes privacy very seriously. But once your email is physically in your hands, it's as secure as you want to make it.

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Klondike Days is no more, it is now the Capital EX. Check out the new website.

Nikon has today announced the Nikon D200, a 10.2 megapixel digital SLR with professional features and quality in a compact body. From a features and functionality point of view the D200 is much closer to the D2X than the D100. Highlights are a magnesium-alloy body, an 11-area AF sensor, 3D Color Matrix Metering II, 5 frames per second continuous shooting, 2.5" LCD monitor, USB 2.0, 1/250 sec X-sync plus WiFi and GPS support. The D200 is about 100g heavier than the D100 but 240g lighter than the D2X.
See DPReview.com for more details.

A long ordeal of a friend finally came to a conclusion today. After two+ years, a self-admitted pedofile got 6 months in jail. But what is 6 months, compared to the lifetime of pain of two young girls...

When I came home this afternoon, I could not get into our home. Police cars all over the place. I tried parking at a "good" spot so I could see what was going on. Soon an officer came to tell all of us to move way back, "just in case."

So I parked on the south side of McDonalds, next to a police cruiser. These cruisers have a very nice computer screen displaying information. From it I learned that at 216 Abbottsfield Road (second row behind our condo) there was a man holding a woman and her son on the second floor. There was a report of a duffel bag full of swords and machetes, and a rifle.

After a while, tactical units showed up, and it looked like it was going to take a while. So we went for supper at our son's. At 7pm we came to check and all was quiet. I've been trying to find out what happened eventually, but I can't find any news updates...