14Dec 2009 by R&O No Comments

A passing friend

Cancer, People
A friend and fellow employee passed away yesterday afternoon. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer a relatively short time ago and succumbed to his illness. Randall Kapp worked in a different department but our jobs overlapped numerous times and we worked together on a few projects. He lived quite close to me and we both commuted on the West Coast Express train, sometimes sitting together to discuss work, computers, ipods and music. He was a nice man with a family and is one of many people that deserved a longer life. He was also a talented musician that enjoyed jamming with friends and even invited me over to participate in one of his basement sessions although my contributions were extremely limited that night. There are people we meet that fall…
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11Dec 2009 by R&O No Comments

The ecstatic bozos

Of Interest, Olympics, People
Imagine you've built your drug business from the ground up, securing the manufacturing and distribution systems and building a firm customer base from scratch. You and your two partners are living in a home from which the drugs are distributed, a drug warehouse for your prosperous business that has an inventory of 107,000 ecstasy pills (valued at a cool $1 million) and 170 grams of cocaine. Life is good. But one morning at 7:20 am, after a full evening of dedicated alcohol consumption you return home to your residential drug warehouse in the 4300 block of Nanaimo Street in Vancouver and discover you've lost your house keys. The question at this point is "What to do next" keeping in mind that your house is chock full of highly illegal drugs.…
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06Dec 2009 by R&O 20 Comments

Bad Vet

Observations, Of Interest, People
Dr. Hakam Singh Bhullar of Atlas Animal Hospital in East Vancouver has lost his license. The B.C. Veterinary Association held hearings into the allegations and stated that "The findings demonstrate such a high level of moral turpitude that Dr. Bhullar's conduct is deserving of the most extreme penalty, that of erasure." And what is the good doctor's explanation? Why racism of course. What other reason could there possibly be? Actually there's a number of other reasons. The association posted it's decision and cites 17 charges including "debarking" surgery that led to the death of a dog. I question why any vet would perform such surgery on an animal and support the association's decision based on that alone but there's more to the story. Dr. Bhullar owns the veterinarian clinic which…
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12Nov 2009 by R&O 1 Comment

Chilling 911 Call

Of Interest, People
55 year old single mother Charla Nash was attacked by a chimpanzee last February while helping her friend corral the 'pet' back into her house. The animal was shot and killed by police but not before it savagely mauled Ms. Nash, leaving her with horrifying injuries as some saw when she appeared on yesterday's Oprah Winfrey show. Her injuries are profound and include severe mutilation of her face and the loss of both eyes and both hands (except for one partial digit on her right hand). At first, watching Charla discuss her injuries was disturbing until her character and resilience became apparent and I almost forgot she was so profoundly disfigured. Shortly after watching the show I listened to the original 911 call placed by her friend Sandra Herold during…
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