Want to be a pilot?

You may want to check out these airport runways before committing to being one. I wouldn't want to be a passenger on any jets landing on these runways.

The Real Saint Nicholas

On the theme of profiles, Christianity Today has a profile on the historical St. Nicholas.

Supposedly, Nicholas was born to a wealthy family in Patara, Lycia. His parents died, and he inherited a considerable sum of money, but he kept none of it. In the most famous story about his life, he threw bags of gold through the windows of three girls about to be forced into lives of prostitution. At least that's the most common version of the story; there are others, including an excessively grim one where the three girls are beheaded by an innkeeper and pickled in a tub of brine until Nicholas resurrects them.

After a couple of miracles (he's sometimes called Nicholas the Wonder-Worker) performed while he was still a boy, Nicholas was chosen by the people of Myra to be their new bishop. But it wasn't long before Diocletian and Maximian began their persecutions of Christians, and the new bishop was imprisoned.

When Constantine became emperor, Nicholas was released with countless others and returned to his preaching only to find a new threat: Arianism. According to one biographer (writing five centuries after Nicholas's death), "Thanks to the teaching of St. Nicholas, the metropolis of Myra alone was untouched by the filth of the Arian heresy, which it firmly rejected as a death-dealing poison." Other biographers claim Nicholas attacked the heresy of Arius (who denied the full divinity of Christ) in a much more personal way?he traveled to the Council of Nicea and slapped Arius in the face! As the story goes (and this should be taken as fantasy because there are pretty good records of the council, and Nicholas isn't mentioned), the other bishops at Nicea were shocked at such rude behavior and relieved him as bishop. But then Jesus and Mary appeared next to him, and they quickly recanted.

You can read the whole profile of Christianity Today's website.

Election 2006

We don't get into partisan politics around here but here are a couple of national news websites that are covering the election.

• CBC's Election Website
• CTV's Election Website
• Globe and Mail
• Elections Canada information :: Not a news site but it has information on how to register to vote and where to vote.

From the above listed websites, you should be able to get all sorts of election coverage. The official party websites in alphabetical order are.

• Conservative Party of Canada
• Green Party of Canada
• Liberal Party of Canada
• New Democratic Party of Canada

I took a look around for some local or even Saskatchewan election coverage but I couldn't find any. If you know of anything, leave me a note in the comments.