You might be a kayaker if...

1. Your Mom has stopped saying "be careful this weekend".

2. "Waterproof" only means "a little damp" or "might-float".

3. Your friends or relatives are shocked when you answer the phone at home on a weekend.

4. Houseguests ask where you got the wooden paddle from.

5. You can't drive over a bridge without looking for water under it.

6. The smell of old polypro doesn't bother you.

7. Driving 800 miles for a weekend on a river or a lake doesn't seem strange to you.

8. Your idea of a complete first aid kit is a roll of duct tape.

9. You use a river trip to wash sand and seaweed from your boat.

10. You choose a new car based on whether or not your rack system will fit it.

11. A dress shirt and tie no longer bother you, because they're looser than a drysuit neck gasket.

12. The sight of a person in a tight rubber suit doesn't seem kinky.

13. You have ever gotten frostbitten and sunburned on the same day.

14. You know which leaves make good toilet paper.

15. You're all dressed up and don't notice that you're being rained on.

16. Every once in a while you touch your paddle, just to touch it.

17. You've never set up a tent when it's light out.

18. You have friends that you don't recognize without their PFD, paddling jacket, and spray skirt.

19. Your dog loves to roll in your pile of paddling clothes.

20. You can ID make and model on a car topped kayak at a quarter mile.

21. All career, personal and financial decisions are judged by the criteria of, "How will this increase my paddling time?"

22. You build a two-car garage addition and you still can't park your car inside.

23. You find yourself humming Weather Channel tunes.

24. You change oil in the campground in the evening because you haven't had a weekend home in so long and you can't afford to pay to have it done.

25. You've lost count of the number of boats you have in your garage or back yard.

26. You've gone boating in conditions where you normally wouldn't go outside.

27. You've toyed with the idea of just leaving your boat and gear loaded on your vehicle. (youve toyed with the idea?!?!?)

28. When you hear about a guy in a skirt you think nothing of it.

29. You divide your life into workdays and kayaking days.

30. You're talking paddling to non-paddlers and not realizing when they've glazed over with boredom or left the room.

31. All your rendezvous and evenings out on the town start/end by meeting with your friends at the river.

32. You start thinking seriously about building a paddle pool in your backyard.

33. After a car wreck, the first thing you check for is damage to your boat.

34. You have a huge plastic storage tub that rides in the back seat to hold your wet clothes.

35. You "pour over" streamflow readings the way a stockbroker scans the markets everyday.

36. You practically salivate at the sound of rainfall.

37. There's no room on your speed-dial for anything but gauge readings and the numbers of people with nicknames like Psycho.

38. "Small craft advisories" make you praise the Ocean gods.

39. Window shade means more than keeping the sun out.

40. Pearl means more than a gem in a shell.

41. You co-workers (and non-boating friends, family and your spouse) will not ride in your vehicle between March and October because of the ode de polypro.

42. The sight of a waterfall gives you the uncontrollable urge to urinate in a nearby bush- while you search out the line...

43. You call your buddies in order of shuttle ability

44. Your boat is worth more than your car

45. Even in the dead of winter, you never actually lose the PFD tan lines...

46. You already have several kayaks and are trying to convince your spouse that you really need another one.

47. You build your new house as close as possible to the flood plain.

48. You always have sinus congestion on monday morning..

49. The only thing you worry about when getting naked just about *anywhere* is whether or not you'll get a ticket!

50. You ask the clerk at Eaton's how well these dress shoes hold up to immersion.

51. You measure major purchases relative to the cost of a new boat...('Hmmm, that new computer will cost me about 2 1/2 kayak units')

52. You're the one with the Bright Sunny Smile on the Cold Rainy Day.

53. Every once in a while you let go of your paddle, just to eat something.

54. You have no trouble saying "Rotomolded Crosslink Polyethelyne" ten times fast.

55. You have a bathing suit that's wet from March to October.

56. You start driving around with your PFD and helmet on because you have noticed that other drivers tend to give you the right of way.

57. You've tied up your mate using either a taught-line or trucker's hitch.

58. You can't look at water in a gutter without imagining tiny runs and miniature waves and holes.

59. "Wet, sticky hole" and "blowing a ferry" in casual conversation don't give you pause..

60. You freely discuss how much you and others weigh, and don't feel self-conscious about it (or about asking others how much they weigh).

61. Your only considerations when buying a car are ground clearance, and the size of the rain gutters.

62. You feel all mushy inside when your wife gives you a drytop for Christmas.

63. You visit Niagara Falls and think "This may be runnable."

64. You deliberately watch the whole commercial just to see the kayak on the car...

65. You maneuvre your car on five-lane streets by eddying out behind trucks and making S-moves in the left turn lane. And you lean into the turns.

66. If you live in a town with a river running through it, you give street directions with descriptions like "upstream of the ..." or "two blocks down on river left ..."

67. It takes longer and longer to get your "land legs" back. Solid ground "feels funny"

68. You keep moving the car seat forward, so you can bend your knees and feel good and wedged in for pulling maneuvers on the freeway.

Victor Hugo défend le budget de la culture

 Discours prononcé en 1848 par Victor Hugo devant l'Assemblée Nationale.

« Personne plus que moi, messieurs, n'est pénétré de la nécessité, de l'urgente nécessité d'alléger le budget.

J'ai déjà voté et continuerai de voter la plupart des réductions proposées, à l'exception de celles qui me paraîtraient tarir les sources même de la vie publique et de celles qui, à côté d'une amélioration financière douteuse, me présenteraient une faute politique certaine.

C'est dans cette dernière catégorie que je range les réductions proposées par le comité des finances sur ce que j'appellerai le budget spécial des lettres, des sciences et des arts.

Que penseriez-vous, messieurs, d'un particulier qui aurait 500 francs de revenus, qui consacrerait tous les ans à sa culture intellectuelle, pour les sciences, les lettres et les arts, une somme bien modeste : 5 francs, et qui, dans un jour de réforme, voudrait économiser sur son intelligence six sous ? Voilà, messieurs, la mesure exacte de l'économie proposée. Eh bien ! Ce que vous ne conseillez pas à un particulier, au dernier des habitants d'un pays civilisé, on ose le conseiller à la France.

Je viens de vous montrer à quel point l'économie serait petite ; je vais vous montrer maintenant combien le ravage serait grand.

Ce système d'économie ébranle d'un seul coup tout net cet ensemble d'institutions civilisatrices qui est, pour ainsi dire, la base du développement de la pensée française. Et quel moment choisit-on ? C'est ici, à mon sens, la faute politique grave que je vous signalais en commençant : quel moment choisit-on pour mettre en question toutes les institutions à la fois ?

Le moment où elles sont plus nécessaires que jamais, le moment où, loin de les restreindre, il faudrait les étendre et les élargir. Eh ! Quel est, en effet, j'en appelle à vos consciences, j'en appelle à vos sentiments à tous, quel est le grand péril de la situation actuelle ?

L'ignorance. L'ignorance encore plus que la misère. L'ignorance qui nous déborde, qui nous assiège, qui nous investit de toutes parts. C'est à la faveur de l'ignorance que certaines doctrines fatales passent de l'esprit impitoyable des théoriciens dans le cerveau des multitudes. Et c'est dans un pareil moment, devant un pareil danger, qu'on songerait à attaquer, à mutiler, à ébranler toutes ces institutions qui ont pour but spécial de poursuivre, de combattre, de détruire l'ignorance.

On pourvoit à l'éclairage des villes, on allume tous les soirs, et on fait très bien, des réverbères dans les carrefours, dans les places publiques ; quand donc comprendra-t-on que la nuit peut se faire dans le monde moral et qu'il faut allumer des flambeaux dans les esprits ?

Oui, messieurs, j'y insiste. Un mal moral, un mal profond nous travaille et nous tourmente. Ce mal moral, cela est étrange à dire, n'est autre chose que l'excès des tendances matérielles.

Et bien, comment combattre le développement des tendances matérielles ? Par le développement des tendances intellectuelles ; il faut ôter au corps et donner à l'âme. Quand je dis : il faut ôter au corps et donner à l'âme, ne vous méprenez pas sur mon sentiment. Vous me comprenez tous ; je souhaite passionnément, comme chacun de vous, l'amélioration du sort matériel des classes souffrantes ; c'est là selon moi, le grand, l'excellent progrès auquel nous devons tous tendre de tous nos voeux comme hommes et de tous nos efforts comme législateurs.

Eh bien la grande erreur de notre temps, ça a été de pencher, je dis plus, de courber l'esprit des hommes vers la recherche du bien matériel.

Il importe, messieurs, de remédier au mal ; il faut redresser pour ainsi dire l'esprit de l'homme ; il faut, et c'est la grande mission, la mission spéciale du ministère de l'instruction publique, il faut relever l'esprit de l'homme, le tourner vers la conscience, vers le beau, le juste et le vrai, le désintéressé et le grand. C'est là, et seulement là, que vous trouverez la paix de l'homme avec lui-même et par conséquent la paix de l'homme avec la société. Pour arriver à ce but, messieurs, que faudrait-il faire ?

Il faudrait multiplier les écoles, les chaires, les bibliothèques, les musées, les théâtres, les librairies. Il faudrait multiplier les maisons d'études où l'on médite, où l'on s'instruit, où l'on se recueille, où l'on apprend quelque chose, où l'on devient meilleur ; en un mot, il faudrait faire pénétrer de toutes parts la lumière dans l'esprit du peuple ; car c'est par les ténèbres qu'on le perd.

Ce résultat, vous l'aurez quand vous voudrez. Quand vous le voudrez, vous aurez en France un magnifique mouvement intellectuel ; ce mouvement, vous l'avez déjà ; il ne s'agit pas de l'utiliser et de le diriger ; il ne s'agit que de bien cultiver le sol.

L'époque où vous êtes est une époque riche et féconde ; ce ne sont pas les intelligences qui manquent, ce ne sont pas les talents, ce ne sont pas les grandes aptitudes ; ce qui manque, c'est l'impulsion sympathique, c'est l' encouragement enthousiaste d'un grand gouvernement. Je voterai contre toutes les réductions que je viens de vous signaler et qui amoindriraient l'éclat utile des lettres, des arts et des sciences. Je ne dirai plus qu'un mot aux honorables auteurs du rapport. Vous êtes tombés dans une méprise regrettable ; vous avez cru faire une économie d'argent, c'est une économie de gloire que vous faites. Je la repousse pour la dignité de la France, je la repousse pour l'honneur de la République. »

Although it would be nice to be the most connected country in the world, trailing on the list offers some privileges: like being able to study the effects of technology on those nations more connected than us. But it seems a lot of people think this is irrelevant, or won't effect us - or they don't understand it.

1) Since April 2010, Facebook has over 400 million users, with exponentially expanding growth. If facebook were a country, it would be the third most powerful nation in the world, second only to China and India. If Facebook, Google or another prolific website were to purchase the micro nation of the Principality of Sealand, they would instantly and irrefutably, become the largest country by population over the smallest land mass. This would change the way the world works. Think it can't happen? Zuck makes *many* allusions to this in his F1 Keynote last year, and TPB has tried on numerous occasions to acquire the Principality of Sealand to house it's servers. It's only a matter of time.

If you party is elected, how will it contend with such major changes in the worldwide political landscape? Would Canada endorse UN and EU seats for 'web nations' ?

2) Since December 2008, the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory ruled that Facebook is a valid protocol to serve court notices to defendants. Australia, a commonwealth country, is believed to be the first to define a summons posted on Facebook as legally binding. In March of 2009, the new Zealand High Court associate justice David Glendall allowed for the serving of legal papers via Facebook.

If your party is elected, what reforms will it bring to the justice system to bring it into the 21st century?

3) In South Korea, the nation boasting the highest level of online penetration and speeds up to 200 times faster than the fastest internet available in Canada, kids who spend too much time online are sent to Internet detox boot camp. The government now estimates up to 30 percent of those under 18, or about 2.4 million children, are at risk. To combat the problem the South Korean government offers treatment at roughly 200 counseling centers and hospitals, and has trained more than 1,000 Internet addiction counselors. Of the 2.4 million at risk, 80% become hospitalized and 20% need medication. But South Korea is not alone. China has over 300 treatment centers which trest about 10 million teenagers. In 2007, the government ordered online computer game operators to set up a "game fatigue system" that encourages minors to play less than three hours per day by reducing their points in the game and issuing periodic warnings: "You have entered unhealthy game time, please go offline immediately to rest." This offers us a glimpse of what is coming to Canada within the next 72 months. Pandemic technology addiction will cripple our healthcare system in unimagineable, unfathomable ways.

If your party is elected, what immediate steps will it take to prepare our healthcare system for pandemic technology addiction?