Feds Pull FNUniv Funding

Ouch. (Globe and Mail)

Regina's New Brand...

...went live today. Here's the website. I give it a "B+" and I'm picky as all crap with this kind of stuff. Our designer's take: "hm, it's good." One member of our fun little gang hates the ribbony "R" but he's just wrong, so too bad for him. The tagline "Infinite Horizons" is quite good, even if it kind of suggests urban sprawl. But as long as we don't start suddenly scheduling bus routes to Harbour landing Wal-Marts it'll all be fine. (Ha. Such a silly thing would never happen.)

Cities, provinces and countries need brands so the can promote themselves to attract new residents and investment. $400K well spent, I says.

(This post was updated Feb. 11)

And Lord, I want to be in that number ...

Attention Saskatchewan Roughrider fans:

THIS is how you're supposed to celebrate winning a football championship ...

Saints Superbowl Victory Celebration from Cottage Films on Vimeo.

Shot on Magazine Street in New Orleans moments after the Saints defeated the Indianapolis Colts 31-17 in the Super Bowl. (hat tip to Deadspin)

This Week at City Hall: Green Garbage Trucks and the Taxes We Owe

Tuesday, February 9
Finance and Adminstration Committee (12:15 pm): The city's looking into buying a green garbage truck. To do this, Finance Committee will be considering a staff recommendation to enter negotiations with the province towards a cost sharing agreement under the Go Green Fund. The truck they have their eye on uses a Hydraulic Launch Assist technology to capture kinetic energy in braking. No, I do not understand what that means nor how it works. Colour me an ignorant twerp. All I know is the administration claims it could lead to 25 per cent reduction in fuel consumption. A good thing. But if they buy the truck, it would only be a pilot project and they'd be monitoring it to see how it performs in -30° weather. The truck would cost $400,000 and if the province likes the idea, the Go Green Fund would contribute $300,000 and the city the rest.

Meanwhile, tsk tsk Regina, according to a report Finance Committee will be looking at, it seems your tax bill is $5,739,399 in arrears this year. That's $401,0151 more than in 2009. You know we're not getting the extra cash the province promised us? That $5 million would come in pretty handy right about now. I'm just saying....

Reports and agendas can be downloaded on the city website.

Pick of the Day: Ab Ovo

We'll have a review of this show, which is on display at the Dunlop Art Gallery's Sherwood Village Branch until March 21, in our Feb. 11 issue. It's by Aussie native Lyndal Osborne, who since the early '70s has been a resident of Edmonton, where she's currently a professor emeritus at the University of Alberta.

From a young age, Osborne recounted at a January 23 opening reception, she has made a habit of collecting all sorts of natural materials -- shells, bones, stones and twigs.

Inspired by the ongoing effort by governments around the world to staunch the loss of bio-diversity in the plant kingdom through the establishment of seed banks where genetic material from endangered wild flowers, grains, fruits, vegetables and whatnot are stored for possible future use, she's taken some of the material she's accumulated and used it to make hundreds of sculptures based on images of seeds derrived from electron microscopes.

On one hand, ab ovo could be seen as a celebration of human ingenuity. But as I discuss in my review, there's definitely a darker side to the show. Not as dark as John Wyndham's classic 1951 horror tale Day of the Triffids, admittedly. (YouTube) But dark nonetheless. Check it out if you get a chance.