The Syrup Secret

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Marking Winter’s end
Rahman Mohamed
Updated April 8, 2017

SunThe start of Spring is often marked on March 20; it’s usually the time of the Spring Equinox; day and night are of equal length.  Because the Earth is tilted the length of all days and night aren’t the same year-round.  After the Spring Equinox the days get longer until the start of Summer on June 20, the Summer Solstice; the Summer Solstice is the day of the year the Earth sees the most sunlight.  After that the Earth sees less daylight.  On the Fall Equinox, September 22, day and night are again of equal length; Fall begins.  Nights then start to get longer until the Winter Solstice, the day of the year with the least daylight, December 21 when Winter begins.  The dates of the solstices and equinoxes aren’t always the same but the season starts are.

Maple Syrup bottleSome mark the start of spring on March 20.  Others mark it on Nowruz, March 21.  In Canada Nowruz is celebrated but the start of Spring is more often marked by the maple harvest.

Many believe Canada only has two seasons but it does see all solstices and equinoxes.  To mark the start of spring and fall (the end of winter and the approaching winter) there are harvests.  The Fall Harvest includes wheat, potash, corn, and other common agriculture.  The Spring Harvest is start of the creation of maple syrup.  In Canada if you’ve never tasted maple syrup on pancakes you’re not Canadian.
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Discrimination: Alive in 21st Century North America

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More than ever before
Rahman Mohamed
Updated 5 March 2017

Prejudice: judgement based on a single aspect; considering someone to act and behave in a certain way because of a certain quality. Discrimination: dividing a group of people into multiple groups using prejudice.  Ableism: creating an us and them using disability, a prejudgement of persons with disability second-class to “normal” people or people without a visible disability is a relatively new form of discrimination.  North America has battled discrimination since the landing of the Europeans.  Aboriginals, Indigenous persons, Inuit, and others were classified as second-class.  Although it as made strong gains in attempts to silence discrimination it is still alive in North America, both within society and among social leaders in Canada and United States. Continue reading →

The Freeze: A Sequel to the Big Chill

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Hopefully not something that will effect a lake near you
Rahman Mohamed

3 years earlier in Canada (2014) the Conservative government under Stephen Harper produced what was known as “The Big Chill“.  In this picture, one that was a hit at the box office of Canadians and reviewed across the media landscape, the story was based on scientists who worked under the government being told “Don’t tweet, post or talk to the media about your work.  That’s an order”.

Justin Trudeau was elected as Prime Minister in November 2015; cold was entering the environment in the Great White North when he was elected, but in less than a week the “Science Frost” appeared; on November 8 CBC reported that a short story by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had premiered on screens: “Scientists’ and Government Ministers’ Lips Unsealed“. This new picture was an immediate hit.  In fact, it was so popular that a scientist’s post was reported to be going viral.  After its unexpected premier and a steady run in the box offices “The Big Chill” seemed to have run its course.

It has just been learned that what appears to a sequel to “The Big Chill” is slowly appearing on screens in the United States.  Viewers say that President of the United States of America Donald Trump is tremendous in playing the role of the evil villain, the anti-science silencer in addition to Lead Producer and Director.

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