December 17, 2003

The French government is considering banning Muslim headscarves, Jewish skullcaps and large Christian crosses in public schools. Isn’t this like burning down the village to save it? Liberty by banning personal religious expression. 11:31:36 PM

The first flight in Canada was the February 23, 1909 flight of the Silver Dart on the frozen surface of Bras d’Or Lake in Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Built by the four members of the Aerial Experiment Association that included the inventor of the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell and future aircraft manufacturer Glenn H. Curtiss the airplane flew for 800 metres. 11:28:06 PM

But Two Wrights Make An Airplane While the re-enactment was not successful, today was is the 100th anniversary of the 1st controlled powered flight by Wilbur and Orville Wright at Kill Devil Hills, near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. 11:07:43 PM

The Canadian Arrow X-Prize team has opened the Canadian Arrow Space Centre, Canada's first privately run astronaut training centre for members of the public for media inspection. The X Prize is a private $10-million US prize, which goes to the first team to launch a manned rocket twice within 14 days at least 100 kilometres in space before a January 2005 deadline and is only open for private teams. The Canadian Arrow is based on the design of the World War 2 German V-2 rocket, therefore replicating the work of the US military in the 1940’s with the addition of a passenger component. 12:22:52 AM

Writing in Slate.com Fred Kaplan looks at the various unsuccessful efforts to kill Saddam Hussein and one of his generals during the war. In three strikes neither man was hit and 36 people where kill, at least 18 described in the article as civilians. Maybe Nightline should run a show on members of the US military who don’t think dropping bombs in assassination missions is a reasonable tactic to go along with the look at Israel. 12:16:55 AM

Hopefully It Wasn’t Pork Sausage One of my posts is linked to in the first edition of Carnival of the Canucks, a weekly roundup of the best posts from Canadian blogs, hosted this week on Switching To Glide, the Canadian music blog. 12:01:51 AM