Category Archives: New Utopia

"I recorded it in Auckland with Jonathan Pearce at the end of December 2014, so Ive been sitting on it quite a while," former Dunedin student Christopher Bull says of his EP on a whirlwind visit from the United Kingdom.

"I basically recorded it, then moved out of the country. I planned to release it in London, but I didnt quite plan on how hard London was."

Called The Utopia EP, the songs cover the slightly arrogant struggles of a middle-class 20-something in a big city. Theyre actually having loads of fun, but they kind of see it as a facade.

"The thing that Im almost more shocked by is how things havent really changed, not that I necessarily thought they would get better," Bull says, looking back at the material.

"My version of dissociation was just watching Auckland house prices go insane, and the whole city just fall into this rapture led on by the New Zealand Herald and its calling of the house prices like a horse race, which was just surreal.

"Its 2017 and its still happening and now its taking Wellington too. I wasnt prophetic, but whatever I was writing about hasnt changed at all and if anything, has gotten worse."

The opener is my personal favourite. Called Pile it all on (a toast to the optimists), it is built on a gorgeously soaring and deeply resonant electric guitar that you can feel in your bones and that makes me think of devastating Blur heartbreaker No Distance Left to Run.

As Bull sings of having no money, aspirations to burn, and wondering if he can make it through student loans, it comes across like a plaintive funeral march that just happens to be really, really beautiful.

Later, things turn more abstract and experimental. Utopia, written in a fit of anger after watching John Pilgers film of the same name (and where the EP also gets its title from), is rousing and sad with its psychedelic vocals and swirling distortion.

"Living in London right now is both fascinating and terrifying," Bull says preparing for his return.

"In the two years that weve been there, a lot of what we thought we knew to be true about the world has been upended in the Brexit vote and Trumps election.

"Its especially telling as the divide between winning cities and the rest of the world now feels so stark. London may as well be a different country in the UK. Its providing a rich vein of both anxiety and material, watching in real time as men like Nigel Farage, Donald Trump and Steve Bannon actively try and take apart a lot of things that we took for granted in the world.

"Its also an inspiration for action though; we went to a demonstration against the travel ban on a Monday after work which attracted 30,000 people."

New York pop songwriting sensation Greta Kline, aka Frankie Cosmos, is visiting Dunedin next week, in what is sure to be one of the years most anticipated indie rock shows.

Utilising the spartan, wooden beauty of a band like Beat Happening, and the deceptively simply melodies of the likes of Kimya Dawson, Kline and her band deftly explores life, love, and death in earnest and poetic personal detail.

With dozens of Bandcamp demo releases, and two critically acclaimed albums to her name, she is one of the leading lights of the US indie scene, and it is fantastic to see her visiting Dunedin, especially in the post Chicks Hotel era!

- Sam Valentine

Christopher Bulls The Utopia EP is available now for pay as you like from Bandcamp. christopherbull.bandcamp.com/album/the-utopia-ep

Frankie Cosmos, Wednesday, March 8, at Maori Hill Coronation Hall, 8pm. Tickets $30 plus booking fee, presales available from undertheradar.co.nz

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A taste of 'Utopia' - Otago Daily Times

Utopia/Dystopia A Paradigm Shift March 22August 21, 2017

Hctor Zamora Order and Progress March 22April 24, 2017

MAAT Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology Lisbon Portugal

http://www.maat.pt

Following its official opening on October 5, 2016, the new MAAT kunsthalle reopens to the public on March 22, 2017, with two major exhibitions that take up the whole building: Utopia/DystopiaA Paradigm Shift, curated by Pedro Gadanho, Joo Laia and Susana Venturaand Order and Progress by Mexican artist Hctor Zamora, curated by Ins Grosso.

Utopia/DystopiaA Paradigm Shift is the first manifesto exhibition to be held in the kunsthalle designed by Amanda Levete (AL_A). Installed in three of MAATs galleries, this key-inaugural project will be a large group show featuring more than 60 works by a range of international artists and architects, some appearing for the first time in Portugal. The show will reveal how the two fields have represented ideas of utopia, or anticipated emerging notions of dystopia, since the early 1970s, with a strong focus on work produced over the last five years. Participants include architects such as Archigram, Archizoom, yr, Didier Faustino, Yona Friedman, Aldo Rossi, Superstudio, and artists such as Kader Attia, Jordi Colomer, Tacita Dean, DIS Collective, Cao Fei, ngela Ferreira, Cyprien Gailard, Jonas Staal, Ryan Trecartin, and Wolfgang Tillmans.

The preview opening will be held on March 21 with special performances by Michelangelo Pistolleto and Allard van Hoorn which will take place outside the new building.

Hctor Zamora presents a new version of the performance/installation Order and Progress, in which the remains of traditional Portuguese fishing boats from different coastal regions temporarily occupy MAATs Oval Gallery. The performance, previously presented at the Palais de Tokyo in 2016, will take place in the Oval Gallery on March 22, at 6pm, coinciding with the museums opening to the public.

The opening programme continues in the galleries at the Central Power Station with a new exhibition from the EDP Foundation Art Collection. What I Am is the thirdin a series of thematic surveys from this collection of Portuguese Contemporary Art. Curated by Ins Grosso and Luiza Teixeira de Freitas, the show examines the autobiographical and self-referential dimension of artistic creation. With Helena Almeida, Jos Barrios, Sara Bicho, Mauro Cerqueira, Miguel Faro, Jorge Molder, Julio Sarmento, Antnio Sena, Joo Queiroz and Joo Pedro Vale, amongst others.

Other exhibitions on view at MAAT include Liquid Skin, by Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Joaquim Sapinho, curated by Alexandre Melo (Boiler Hall), the group showVariable Dimensions - Artists and Architecture, curated by Gregory Lang and Ins Grosso(Central 1), and Archive and Democracy by Portuguese artist Jos Mas de Carvalho, curated by Ana Rito (Ashpit 8).

Exhibitions opening in May with ARCOLisboa 2017 Coinciding with the second edition of ARCOLisboa, on May 17 the museum will open three new exhibitions: a large-scale project by Cuban artist Carlos Garaicoa, which will occupy nearly 1000 sq. m of the kunsthalles Oval Gallery; and two exhibitions in the galleries of Central Power Station, both by Portuguese artists: a site-specific work by Joo Onofre at the monumental Boiler Hall, and APQHome, an art installation by Ana Prez-Quiroga.

ARCOLisboa takes place between May 18 and 21 at Cordoaria Nacional, just a few meters from MAATs new building.

Open call:APQ HomeAna Prez Quiroga We are looking for:Artists, curators, critics, art historians, architects, filmmakers, performers, theater practitioners, choreographers, writers, musicians, textile designers, food artists, interdisciplinary collectives, & other related areas.

APQHome is a project consisting in a domestic spacea house and its objectsand a garden, inside the MAAT exhibition space. It is a total work of art that requires the participants intervention in an immersion that, in a 48-hour period, aim to perform the everyday life, in a total art/life fusion experience.The participants will have the opportunity to spend two nights at the museum, occupying this domestic space in a program taking place between May 16and July 30, 2017.

Open call: Starting on March 8, registration forAPQHomeis open until June 8, 2017.

More info here.

The kunsthalle AL_As kunsthalle, which contains four distinct gallery spaces, captures the essence of the exceptional 38,000 m2 riverside site and its extraordinary light. Blending structure into landscape, and conceived to create significant new public spaces, it is designed to allow visitors to walk over and under, as well as through the building, while the undulating roof offers panoramic views towards the river and across Belm. The building creates a constantly changing place filled with aquatic reflections that interplay with the overhanging faade covered in 15,000 three-dimensional tiles, a reference to Portugals rich tradition of ceramics.

The completion of the architectural project will also include a park designed by Vladimir Djurovic Landscape Architecture, as well as an elegant pedestrian bridge, also designed by AL_A (both set for May 2017), that will land on the new kunsthalle roof, making the campus and waterfront more accessible to the city.

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March 4, 2017 - EDP Foundation - Utopia/Dystopia / Hctor Zamora: Order and Progress - E-Flux

Utopia Frozen Yogurt and Coffee House offers delicious bagels, fresh-made salads, frozen yogurt, warm coffee drinks and refreshing smoothies. Whether you are looking for a new morning routine or a place in Ellensburg, Washington to study, Utopia is the place for you. At Utopia we offer an extensive self-serve frozen yogurt bar. Choose from our rotating flavors, including sweet and tart, and load your cup up with your favorite toppings for a delicious sweet treat. For the latest flavors on the frozen yogurt taps click here. You can expect to find the very best coffee and espresso drinks at Ellensburgs Utopia Frozen Yogurt and Coffee House. Ourpremium coffee comes from a local roaster and is filled with flavors that will appeal to many palettes. Whether you are looking for bold flavors to wake up your palette or a rich chocolate flavor with a hint of sweetness, we have the perfect blend for you at Utopia. We serve hot and iced drinks all day long. Choose from our traditional lattes, mochas, breves, americanos and cappuccinos or customize your very own drink. Our coffee specialists will help create the perfect coffee drink for your taste buds. We also sell our delicious coffee beans by the pound. In addition to coffee, Utopia offers made-to-order smoothies with 100% crushed fruit. Choose a smoothie blend from our menu or create your own concoction. We also offer a variety of boosts for your smoothie or blended drinks including protein, vitamin, and antioxidant blends. Pair your favorite coffee drink or smoothie with a hand-crafted sandwich, a fresh salad or a yummy dessert. Choose from a variety of bagels and smears, custom-made salads or freshly baked chocolate chip cookies, brownies and cinnamon rolls. If you have an event coming up, Utopia is a great option for bagel baskets and pastry trays. Visit us today for lunch on the go and a cup of joe at our convenient university location, or give us a call at 509-933-1400! We have a great selection of fun merchandise as well take a look!

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Utopia Frozen Yogurt and Coffee House | Ellensburg, WA

Its the latest extreme reality show designed to place participants in mortal danger.

But Channel 4s attempt to replicate the gruelling journey after the Mutiny on the Bounty added trench hand and hallucinations to the roll call of injuries sustained in the name of entertainment.

A hardy crew of nine men crammed into a rickety 23ft wooden boat and recreated the 3,600 mile journey of Bligh, who was cast adrift in the Pacific Ocean and somehow navigated a path to Indonesia with 18 of his men.

Living off dried beef and biscuits and squatting over the side of the boat for calls of nature, the crew relied on the nautical skills of their skipper Anthony Middleton, a former special forces soldier who tests the physical and psychological fitness of contestants on the Channel 4 series SAS: Who Dares Wins.

The weakened sailors soon fell vulnerable to illness. Youve heard of trench foot? Well I had trench hand, said crewman Sam Brown..

He added: Both my hands had huge chunks of flesh dropping off them. I couldnt undo my fly. I couldnt hold a rope. I couldnt operate a camera.

If it had rained for one more day, I think Id have had to have been medevac-ed. My hands were literally falling apart. I still have scars on them now.

When a fearsome storm lashed the ship five days in, even a bruised and dehydrated Middleton, who led Special Boat Service operations in Afghanistan, feared for his life.

Luke Kane, the boats doctor, said: In the middle of these huge waves, in the pitch black, with torrential rain coming down, I was hallucinating.

Ive never been that scared. Youre totally powerless. All you can do is sit there.I really did think we were going to capsize and die.

Kane, who lost four stone during the journey, treated his fellow seasoned survivalists for dehydration. He said: I couldnt sit down without being in pain. I couldnt lie down. And Im a doctor, I know that the sort of weight loss I was showing was very, very unhealthy.

A rescue boat tracked the replica Bounty but was too far behind to pull anyone out of the water had the storm forced a man overboard.

Middleton said: I made it very clear from the beginning that I only wanted to be involved if it was going to be as authentic as possible, down to the rations, the boat, the islands.

Basically keeping the health and safety team at bay as much as possible so we could remain in our bubble.

Although he did not quite inspire a mutiny among the crew, Kane said of their demanding captain: Its quite weird. Im getting better now, but I couldnt talk about Ant for quite a long time without crying, which is really weird.

The modern-day Bountineers may have got off lightly.

A contestant fell 20ft off a cliff edge in the last series of The Island with Bear Grylls and was aiflfted from the camp.

Channel 4s most recent survival series Eden, a ground-breaking social experiment in which a group of volunteers attempted to create a new utopia within the wilds of the Scottish Highlands, failed to live up to its billing when a third of the 23 volunteers walked out within months.

:: Mutiny, Monday March 6, 9pm on Channel 4

@adamsherwin10

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Extreme Channel 4 reality challenge Mutiny makes its sailors suffer - iNews

Bratislav Milenkovic

A great deal has been written in recent years about the perils of automation. With predicted mass unemployment, declining wages, and increasing inequality, clearly we should all be afraid.

By now its no longer just the Silicon Valley trend watchers and technoprophets who are apprehensive. In a study that has already racked up several hundred citations, scholars at Oxford University have estimated that no less than 47 per cent of all American jobs and 54 per cent of all those in Europe are at a high risk of being usurped by machines. And not in a hundred years or so, but in the next twenty. The only real difference between enthusiasts and skeptics is a time frame, notes a New York University professor. But a century from now, nobody will much care about how long it took, only what happened next.

I admit, weve heard it all before. Employees have been worrying about the rising tide of automation for 200 years now, and for 200 years employers have been assuring them that new jobs will naturally materialise to take their place. After all, if you look at the year 1800, some 74 per cent of all Americans were farmers, whereas by 1900 this figure was down to 31 per cent, and by 2000 to a mere 3 per cent. Yet this hasnt led to mass unemployment. In 1930, the famous economist John Maynard Keynes was predicting that wed all be working just 15-hour weeks by the year 2030. Yet, since the 1980s, work has only been taking up more of our time, bringing waves of burnouts, stress, and work-related depressions in its wake.

Meanwhile, the crux of the issue isnt even being discussed. The real question we should be asking ourselves is: what actually constitutes work in this day and age?

In a 2013 survey of 12,000 professionals by the Harvard Business Review, half said they felt their job had no meaning and significance, and an equal number were unable to relate to their companys mission, while another poll among 230,000 employees in 142 countries showed that only 13 per cent of workers actually like their job. A recent poll among Brits revealed that as many as 37 per cent think they have a job that doesnt even need to exist.

They have, what anthropologist David Graeber refers to as bullshit jobs. On paper, these jobs sound fantastic. And yet there are scores of successful professionals with imposing LinkedIn profiles and impressive salaries who nevertheless go home every evening grumbling that their work serves no purpose. Lets get one thing clear though: Im not talking about the sanitation workers, the teachers, and the nurses of the world. If these people were to go on strike, we'd have an instant state of emergency on our hands. No, Im talking about the growing armies of consultants, bankers, tax advisors, managers, and others who earn their money in strategic trans-sector peer-to-peer meetings to brainstorm the value-add on co-creation in the network society. Or something to that effect.

So, will there still be enough jobs for everyone a few decades from now? Anybody who fears mass unemployment underestimates capitalisms extraordinary ability to generate new bullshit jobs. If we want to really reap the rewards of the huge technological advances made in recent decades (and of the advancing robots), then we need to radically rethink our definition of work.

It starts with an age-old question: what is the meaning of life? Most people would say the meaning of life is to make the world a little more beautiful, or nicer, or more interesting. But how? These days, our main answer to that is through work.

Our definition of work, however, is incredibly narrow. Only the work that generates money is allowed to count toward the GDP. Little wonder, then, that we have organised education around feeding as many people as possible in bite-size flexible parcels into the employment establishment. Yet what happens when a growing proportion of people deemed successful by the measure of our knowledge economy say their work is pointless? Thats one of the biggest taboos of our times. Our whole system of finding meaning could dissolve like a puff of smoke.

The irony is that technological progress is only exacerbating this crisis. Historically, society has been able to afford more bullshit jobs precisely because our robots kept getting better. As our farms and factories grew more efficient, they accounted for a shrinking share of our economy. And the more productive agriculture and manufacturing became, the fewer people they employed. Call it the paradox of progress. The richer we become, the more room we have to shovel shit. Its like Brad Pitt says in Fight Club: too often, were working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we dont need.

The time has come to stop sidestepping the debate and home in on the real issue: what would our economy look like if we were to radically redefine the meaning of work? I firmly believe that a universal basic income is the most effective answer to the dilemma of advancing robotisation. Not because robots will take over all the purposeful jobs, but because a basic income would give everybody the chance to do work that is meaningful.

I believe in a future where the value of your work is not determined by the size of your paycheck, but by the amount of happiness you spread and the amount of meaning you give. I believe in a future where the point of education is not to prepare you for another useless job, but for a life well lived. I believe in a future where jobs are for robots and life is for people.

And if basic income sounds utopian to you, then Id like to remind you that every milestone of civilisation from the end of slavery to democracy to equal rights for men and women was once a utopian fantasy too. Or, as Oscar Wilde wrote long ago, Progress is the realisation of Utopias.

Rutger Bregman is the author of 'Utopia For Realists: And How We Can Get There', published by Bloomsbury on 9 March. This article has been translated from Dutch by Elizabeth Manton.

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Want utopia? Start with universal basic income and a 15-hour work week - Wired.co.uk

austin360 (blog)

Dr. John to headline Utopia Fest in final year at Four Sisters Ranch austin360 (blog) New Orleans music legend Dr. John has been tapped to headline this year's Utopia Fest, a small-scale music and camping festival that kicks off its ninth year on September 24, 2017. Afrobeat all-stars Antibalas and funk band Lettuce also share top ... Utopia Fest Announces LineupAustin Chronicle all 2 news articles »

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Dr. John to headline Utopia Fest in final year at Four Sisters Ranch - austin360 (blog)

Stellaris: Utopia brings even greater depth and variety to a game already celebrated for its story-telling power and near endless possibilities. Are you ready for perfection?

One of the core improvements in Utopia is the introduction of Ascension Perks. As your species advances and gains new traditions, it can choose how it wants to evolve as it is further enlightened. You can choose between a biological path, a psionic path or a synthetic path, with various options within these broad categories. Body, Mind or Machine - how will your species challenge the future?

Utopia Also Includes: Megastructures: Build wondrous structures in your systems including Dyson Spheres and ring worlds, bringing both prestige and major advantages to your race. Habitat Stations: Build tall and establish space stations that will house more population, serving the role of planets in a small and confined empire. Rights and Privileges: Set specific policies for which of the many species under your thumb will have the rights and privileges of full citizenship. Build an egalitarian paradise or follow a caste system. And even more improvements and updates, including (as is traditional with all of our paid content releases) free updates for every Stellaris owner!

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Stellaris: Utopia Path to Ascension release date trailer - Gameplanet

All my bags are packed. Im ready to go.

Oh, let me tell you where were going:

Yeah,that2MASS J23062928-0502285, the only-39.5-light-years-away dwarf star that NASA technically revealed in 2016 but re-revealed last week.

Its a dwarf star, but not just any stupid regular-type dwarf star.

Its classified as an ultracool dwarf star. Like,so dope.

And not dope like Dopey, Dwarf Star 1-of-7. Like, dope likeultracool.

I bet youll find 2MASS J23062928-0502285 kicked back against the bleachers after school.

Leather jacket. Motorcycle.

Wait, thats not ultracool. Thats retrocool.

Ultracool like a modern tech kid with good hair and rolled skinny jeans and high-tops.

Yeah, like someone who used to shop at American Apparel before they became woke and spoke out against the companys practices.

Now theyre concerned about political issues, butnot like, political, you know?

That kind of ultracool dwarf star.

2MASS J23062928-0502285 even goes by an ultra-cool name: TRAPPIST-1, in all-caps like its an acronym, but it isnt an acronymcause thats its name, man, but technically it is the telescope they used to find it is the Transiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope ... I dont know where the I comes from.

There is an I in Planetesimals, so maybe there.

But anyway, thats where Im going.

Well ...nearTRAPPIST-1. You cant live there.

Its a star, dummy. Youd get all burnt up.

But it does have seven planets orbiting it. Four of those seven were just found a couple weeks ago, and five of those seven are roughly the same size as Earth, and three of those seven might be able to support life.

See, weve effectively destroyed our planet, because humans are jerks.

And Earth is actively trying to shake us off. We are absolute parasites, killing our host.

So more and more, globes are warming and earths are quaking and canes are hurriing and nadoes are toring and Im looking to get out while the gettins good.

Where better than TRAPPALACHIA-1 itself?

There arent any planets other than Earth in our solar system that we know can support life.

Maybe Mars, but Mars kinda sucks. I sawThe Martian. Thats a lot of red dust to deal with.

So maybe the right planet for me and us is TRAPPIST-1f or maybe TRAPPIST-1g or maybe TRAPPIST-1h. One of those three Earth-like spots. We can start fresh (First up? Changing those lazy names).

Well gather up the best people (who I havent gathered yet) to load up the space shuttle (which I havent acquired yet) with gear and supplies (which havent acquired yet) and well ship out.

Based on our current tech, itll only take us 1,469,400 years to get to TRAPSVEGAS-1.

Drops in the bucket of time, am I right?

Thats actually a butt-ton of time, so maybe we need a loophole.

Look, Ive seenInterstellar. AND Ive seenGravity.

So you can just shut up. I know what Im talking about.

But even with all of this figured outtechnically, theres still the issue of the hardest part of all of this:

How do we manage the humans heading for the new utopia?

Ive seen enough science fiction movies to know that human nature is the worst part of nature, because either someone gets spacecrazy and stabs someone else or someone gets infected by some extraterrestrial somethingorother and then bites a face off or someone decides they can fix the ship and gets snatched out into nothingness or someone lets an alien monster onto the ship by accident which then proceeds to just eat everyone, and thats just a short list.

These are all things that could or could not happen on our trip to NEWTRAPCITY-1.

Not to mention all the problems thatll come up once we get there, like deciding what form of government we should use, or what the best way to grow food is, or how we plan to hunt, or how to avoid being killed by the people or creatures already living there, and you know what this seems like a ton of work after a million-and-a-half years of traveling.

Mars doesnt look so bad now.

Justin Johnson is content editor at the Morning News.

He hopes Reeses Peanut Butter Cups exist elsewhere in the universe.

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JUSTIN JOHNSON: It's a TRAP! - SCNow

Before we all get too excited about those new Earth-like planets discovered in the Trappist-1 star system last week, we should all watch "Alien: Covenant," the next installment in Ridley Scott's "Alien" franchise.

The new trailer, posted by 20th Century Fox today, almost feels like a romantic love story with a ship full of couples, and then the eeriness of the mission sets in.

In director Ridley Scott's "Alien: Covenant," the sequel to 2012's "Prometheus," the crew of colony ship Covenant discover what they think is an uncharted paradise.

But the crew is in for a surprise when they learn that this new utopia is actually a dangerous world that is home to the kind of creatures that gave us all nightmares from the original "Alien" movie.

The new trailer shows scenes of the crew exploring a breathtakingly beautiful world, unknowingly stumbling upon aliens eggs spewing facehuggers, screaming shipmates running through their ship, and best of all, more footage of Xenomorphs attacking.

The film stars Michael Fassbender (reprising his role as the robot David), Noomi Rapace (reprising her role as Dr. Elizabeth Shaw), Katherine Waterston, Danny McBride, Billy Crudup, Guy Pearce and James Franco.

"Alien: Covenant" opens on May 19 in the US, May 12 in the UK and May 18 in Australia.

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Watch brutal Xenomorph attack in new 'Alien: Covenant' trailer - CNET

An empty rail car that was being stored on a stretch of railway in Utopia derailed off the track due to suspected vandalism and the company who manages the cars is reminding people it is a criminal offense to tamper with railway equipment.

Sometime around Feb. 24, railcars that were being stored on a stretch of the Barrie Collingwood Railway had their hand breaks disengaged and a car rolled about 15 feet before derailing.

Cando Rail Services has been storing the railcars in Utopia since last year when they signed a contract with Town of Collingwood. The contract was expected to generate $28,800 per year for the town, which will help offset the $45,000 Collingwood spends annually to maintain the corridor.

We had some rail cars being stored there and somebody came by and released the hand brakes off a section of the cars and they lifted the operating lever which cause the cars to roll, Jeff Allen, general manager of eastern operations for Cando Rail Services, said. It was an act of vandalism.

Police were on the scene on Feb. 27 to investigate after Cando called to report the suspected vandalism. Police say they cant confirm whether it was an accident or vandalism and that they have no suspects.

The railcar has since been put back on the rails.

Steve McKever, who lives within 80 feet of the railroad, had started a petition last year to have the railcars removed. The recent derailment has reaffirmed his wishes to see the cars gone.

Theyre supposed to be storing these cars there safely, he said. Obviously they cant be stored safely.

McKever also noted that the new railcars that were being stored there have been moved and older railcars have since taken their place.

Allen confirmed that they have moved the new cars out and put old ones in their place. He also confirmed that the agreement between Collingwood and Cando Rail Services allowing them to store railcars has been extended.

We extended the contract with Collingwood for another year, he said, noting the first contract expired in January.

McKever was concerned the old cars may still have some product in them and pose an environmental risk but Allen says they have been purged.

Theres absolutely no commodities in the cars whatsoever, he said.

As far as keeping the railway, the railcars, and the public safe, Allen says Cando has measures in place to monitor activity at the site, and that they perform regular inspections as part of their risk assessment process.

We do a regular inspection twice a week to make sure all of the safety appliances are still in order, he said, noting that they discovered the derailment during an inspection on Feb. 24.

Allen noted that tampering with railway safety equipment is a criminal offense.

McKever says he has still has concerns, and that he has seen kids playing near the railcars recently. There is only one solution in his mind.

There is only one solution and its get them out of there, he said.

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Railcar derailment in Utopia due to vandalism: Cando Rail Services - Simcoe.com