Here's a 3 for 1 post.

First of all there's been a lot of talk lately in Saskatchewan about nuclear power. Some folks think we should build a nuclear power plant to provide energy for the Alberta tar sands oil project. Saskatchewan is a leading supplier of uranium, and the thought is that we should be using it right here at home instead of just selling it. But when some people make statements like this I'm not convinced they actually know how a nuclear reactor works. For those who don't, please realise that you don't just pick up a chunk of uranium, open a door on the reactor, throw it in, and sit back and watch it run. Uranium has to go through considerable processing before its usable in a reactor. More importantly I suspect a lot of these people haven't paid attention to the enormous long term costs to running a reactor. Just ask the folks at Ontario Hydro. There's also been comments from some who do support using nuclear power to aid in tar sands oil production that the reactors will need to be on or very near to the oil sites, not in Saskatchewan, given that steam generated by the reactors would be used, and such steam would be hard to move large distances. So the provincial government better do some very hard thinking even if it accepts the use of nuclear power here.

I was just driving home and listening to Rock 102Fm. The announcer stated he had some "sad news" to report at the next station break. The "sad news" turned out to be that the long range forecast for November says we'll be hitting -20 degrees mid month. And here I thought it was going to be that someone was sick or had died. Cold temperatures are just an inevitable part of a Saskatchewan winter.

I soon changed stations, and heard Madonna's new single, "Hung Up." Boy, has someone been listening to their old technopop records. The music sounds very 1981, especially the sequence that runs through much of the song. Perhaps Madonna herself is feeling nostalgic, as her music career began when bands like the Human League were at their most popular, and her early singles were quite synth heavy. And as i listened to the tune I realised that Madonna will be 50 in 3 short years. Its hard to imagine Madonna and 50 in the same sentence.