News for Youse: Greenpeace celebrates, NPA commiserates, and PNE workers approve strike vote

If you haven't had time to read the morning papers or watch the news, here are some things you can discuss around the office water cooler:

Today marks the 40th birthday for Greenpeace, which has changed the world with its successful campaigns against nuclear testing near Alaska, whaling, mining in the Antarctic, and industrial forestry. Now, the organization is setting its sights on the biggest environmental scourge of all, climate change.

It’s worth taking a moment to reflect on all that Greenpeace has accomplished. It started in Vancouver with incredible bravery. Ask yourself this: would you get on a rickety old fishing boat and sail into an area where the U.S. government was preparing to set off a huge nuclear explosion?

That's what the members of the Don't Make a Wave Committee did. They were financed by a concert featuring Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, and Phil Ochs.

Think for a moment about Janos Maté, a Vancouver resident and Greenpeace campaigner who helped save the world with a tireless campaign against chlorofluorocarbons, which depleted the ozone layer. It led to the Montreal Protocol, which is the most successful global environmental agreement in history. Maté has also sailed into the South Pacific to protest French nuclear testing and sat in a "whale jail" outside the Vancouver aquarium to protest keeping cetaceans in captivity.

Enough of the cynicism. On Saturday, drop by Jericho Beach between 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. for Greenpeace’s Rainbow Warrior Festival, which is celebrating the accomplishments of the last 40 years.

Greenpeace combines science, direct action, and fun.

This isn’t the only story in the news, of course. CKNW is reporting this morning that the NPA attracted fewer than 100 people to its annual general meeting last night.

That’s a pretty pathetic turnout just two months before the next civic election. After all, these guys basically ran the city for nearly 50 years. Even the Natural Law Party could attract more people. Hell, there have been larger Tupperware parties.

This afternoon, the West Vancouver police will announce the outcome into an investigation of a Prince George Mountie using a Taser last April on an 11-year-old boy. The kid was suspected of stabbing a 37-year-old man, but the RCMP’s decision to used the dreaded stun gun has attracted the attention of B.C.’s representative for children and youth, Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond.

What’s next? Will the RCMP be using a Taser on kids who are caught smoking pot?

The labour situation is also heating up, now that most of the public-sector contracts have expired.

Members of CUPE Local 1004, which represents workers at the Pacific National Exhibition, have voted 92 percent in favour of giving the union a mandate to go on strike.

If they walk off that job, that means the Pacific Coliseum could shut down. That's bad news for the Vancouver Giants hockey team and for anyone who wants to attend a concert there.

There's also a standoff in the teachers' negotiations. A judge will rule on which issues should be addressed provincially and which should be negotiated at the school-district level.

Enough of the serious stuff. Here’s something from the “really weird” file. Las Vegas resident Christine Walton has entered the Guinness Book of World Records for having the longest fingernails. She hasn’t cut them in nearly two decades. We’re going to leave it up to the imagination how she deals with a specific bodily function. In the meantime, you can watch the video below to observe how she eats, does her makeup, and basically lives a somewhat normal life.