PEARL, which has been tracking ozone depletion, air quality and climate change in the High Arctic since 2005, and contributes data to several international environmental monitoring projects, is run by an informal network of university researchers called the Canadian Network for Detection of Atmospheric Change. The network announced early in 2012 that the station would be forced to cease year-round operations at the end of April that year after being unable to secure the $1.5-million annual funding it needed to stay open all year. The station had been funded primarily by the Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences, a granting agent funded by the federal government from 2000 to 2010. In the 2011 budget, no money was allocated to CFCAS. Instead, $35 million over five years was budgeted for the CCAR program, but it had not yet started accepting applications for funding. The network had applied for other grants, but had been turned down for all of them.

Great news!

But the reason I’m mentioning this is that The Guardian has a great column by English author and education expert Sir Kenneth Robinson  column on how creativity actually works. The headline: “To Encourage Creativity, Mr Gove, You Must First Understand What It Is”. Here’s an excerpt:

First, creativity, like learning in general, is a highly personal process. We all have different talents and aptitudes and different ways of getting to understand things. Raising achievement in schools means leaving room for these differences and not prescribing a standard steeplechase for everyone to complete at the same time and in the same way.

Second, creativity is not a linear process, in which you have to learn all the necessary skills before you get started. It is true that creative work in any field involves a growing mastery of skills and concepts. It is not true that they have to be mastered before the creative work can begin. Focusing on skills in isolation can kill interest in any discipline. Many people have been put off mathematics for life by endless rote tasks that did nothing to inspire them with the beauty of numbers. Many have spent years grudgingly practicing scales for music examinations only to abandon the instrument altogether once they’ve made the grade.

The real driver of creativity is an appetite for discovery and a passion for the work itself. When students are motivated to learn, they naturally acquire the skills they need to get the work done. Their mastery of them grows as their creative ambitions expand. You’ll find evidence of this process in great teaching in every discipline from football to chemistry.

The column is here and you guys should read it. Go!

*Against? Nah, I like “at”.

2 WHAT A WEEKEND As of this morning, two Conservative senators and the PMO’S former chief of staff are holidaying in scenic and sunny resignationland. The Senators, Mike Duffy and Pamela Wallin, have both been subject to probes into shenaniganical expense claims while Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s top man has stepped down because he wrote a $90,000 cheque to Mike Duffy to bail him out of trouble.  Turns out a former legal adviser to the PM brokered the deal between Wright and Duffy. CTV reports that in exchange for the $90K and, apparently, a promise that a Senate investigation would go easy on him, Duffy would promise to repay the expenses. CTV also reports that Harper is “very upset” about this mushrooming scandal. I guess that’s why he’s fled the country.

3 AND THEN THERE’S THIS “Dozens of people appointed to plum patronage jobs have been donating to the Conservative party, despite government rules that forbid it.” Yikes.

4 AND THEN THERE’S ROB FORD The Toronto Mayor, who may have been filmed smoking crack cocaine, made his first public appearance since Friday when he dismissed the accusations without denying them. New York magazine has a list of Rob Ford controversies–which includes DUIs, driving while reading, accusations of unwanted touching, belligerent public drunkenness and offering to get oxycontin for constituents,  and other nonsense The Star has its own list. This whole story is incredible. Ford seems completely out of control. Forget about staying on as mayor–I can’t see how this guy’s going to still be alive in two years.

5 ASSHOLES IN FLORIDA ARE TRYING TO RUIN A GAY TEENAGER’S LIFE BY SELECTIVELY APPLYING LAWS THAT AREN’T INTENDED FOR SITUATIONS LIKE THIS Jesus Christ. Go help this poor 18 year-old.

6 SO WHAT HAPPENED IN THAT BC ELECTION, ANYWAY? Ill-timed boners for policy, possibly.

HAVE YOU SEEN THIS? I HADN’T. IT’S FUNNY! WATCH IT! Patton Oswalt as the Penguin verses a somewhat, erm, dim Batman.

Wednesday night he’s in town to play a show at Bushwakker Brew Pub (9 p.m. start). To give you a sense of what he’s like, here’s video of him performing the title track off Growing Pains at a 2012 show at a Calgary pub:

During the May 20-25 run of the festival, a whole pile of music, theatre, literary, visual art and other types of creative events will be happening. Probably your best bet to get up to speed is to grab one of the festival guides that was included in our May 16 issue. But if that’s not doable you can find more information here.

To close here’s a video by one of the musical groups that will be playing at the festival. It’s “Slings & Arrows” by Jeffery Straker, and he and his band will be playing at the Holy Rosary Park Main Stage on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. after the Streetfair:

After Gene Roddenberry and Paramount Studios decided to move Star Trek from a television show into a movie, the results left Paramount a little unhappy. Star Trek: The Motion Picture had a whopping $46 million budget at a time when that was a lot of money. And while the film did opening at number one at the box office and made a respectable $139 million worldwide (only $82 million domestically) Paramount was hoping for more. The critics weren’t too kind on the film either. The main complaints were that the movie was boring and talky. Paramount also felt that Gene Roddenberry’s interference during production drove up the film’s cost and created an inferior film. When it was decided that they should make a sequel, Roddenberry was removed from production. Harve Bennett was placed in charge of the franchise and Nicholas Meyer was tasked with directing the film.

The film’s budget was slashed to $8 million and then bumped up to $11 million. Footage, sets, props and costumes were reused to cut costs but redressed so it wasn’t so obvious. The plot followed up an old Star Trek episode called Space Seed to give the film a villain and it kicked up the action too. Meyer wanted the film to be similar to Horatio Hornblower and added a nautical and swashbuckling feel to the film.

The plot has the aging crew of the Enterprise taking the ship out with a group of Starfleet trainees. They receive a distress call from a nearby science station. It appears that the science crew have uncovered someone long forgotten and his wrath is long reaching. What ensues is a battle between two captains over revenge and a powerful science experiment that can be used as a weapon.

The movie opened in June of 1982 and was number one at the box office for a week, kicking the previous week’s winner, Rocky 3 down to the number two spot. It also beat another new film, Poltergeist, which debut in the number three spot. The following week a certain Steve Spielberg movie opened that broke all sorts of box office records and moved Star Trek II into the number two spot. Of course who could forecast that E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial would become the highest grossing movie at the time. Still the success of Wrath of Khan ensured that there would be a Star Trek franchise for a few years to come.

When the scandal first broke the PM released a statement expressing support for Wright.  But today it was announced that Wright had resigned from his position as chief of staff. With Harper set to jet to South America on Tuesday for an official visit to Peru and the Pacific Alliance Leaders Summit in Cali, Columbia May 22-23, the PMO released this statement concerning Wright’s resignation:

“It is with great regret that I have accepted the resignation of Nigel Wright as my Chief of Staff.  I accept that Nigel believed he was acting in the public interest, but I understand the decision he has taken to resign.  I want to thank Nigel for his tremendous contribution to our Government over the past two and a half years.

“Our Government’s top priority is, and will continue to be, securing jobs and economic growth for Canada.  This is the focus of all our efforts and attention.”

Both Duffy, and senator Pamela Wallin from Saskatchewan, whose expense account claims are also being scrutinized by an auditor, have withdrawn from the Conservative caucus.  The Opposition, meanwhile, is pressing for further investigation of what it regards as a serious breach of ethics.

As for the government, maybe the Conservatives should consider expanding the scope of their mandate beyond “securing jobs and economic growth for Canada [or at least their backers in the resource sector]” to include principles like honesty, integrity, compassion, peace, stewardship of the environment, promotion of knowledge, creativity and innovation and other ideals that have  served this country reasonably well over its 140 plus year history.