I have heard about the lakes. I didn't know about the coastlines, but it makes sense along with being the second largest country with the most lakes in the world. I think I have read we have the most fresh water too, or fresh water lakes. As water becomes more important as a natural resource, Canada has a lot going for it. I hope we keep our water clean, unpolluted.

In movies about dire futures I never see Canada as a destination for people to escape/ run to. Of course, most of the apocalypse/ dire future movies and TV shows are based in the US and working with the theory that the US saves the world. The reality is likely to be very different.

Canada’s Endless Coasts

Canada has—by far—the longest coastline of any country in the world. Canada is a massive country by overall area in general, coming in second only to Russia in terms of square mileage (or square kilometers, as it were, in the Canadian measurement system). So it makes sense that Canada has a ton of coastline. And because Canada is made up of so many islands, both large and small, in its far northern territories, that amount of coastline rises nearly exponentially while counting all those shores.

The actual numbers are staggering. Canada has 151,000 miles (243,042 kilometers) of coastline. And the next closest countries on the list aren’t even in Canada’s league! That’d be Indonesia (33,554 miles or 54,000 kilometers of coastline), Russia (nearly 23,612 miles or 38,000 kilometers), the United States (just under 12,430 miles or 20,000 kilometers), and China (almost 9,325 miles or 15,000 kilometers). Canada wins!

Canada wins in another way, too: the most lakes in the world. As if saltwater and access to oceans and seas weren’t enough for the Canadians, they also have more freshwater within their nation’s boundaries than any other country on Earth.

In total, Canada has 879,800 lakes all throughout its land. Not only is that the most lakes on earth, it’s actually more lakes than all other countries in the world COMBINED! When you account for the entire globe, Canada holds more than 60% of the world’s 1.4 million lakes. Russia is second on the lake list—if you’re curious—but they are nowhere close to Canada.

ListVerse - Ten Strange but True Geography Facts

I've had this idea for a couple of weeks. Just the idea of a robot left with a zombie sort of creature. Zombie is so over-used so I didn't use it. There is no plot really. It just moves along until I stopped writing.

It was loud for so long I didn't notice when it became quiet. The wounded continued to gather. I did what I could for them. It wasn't enough, they moaned always, but didn't complain. My owner mingled with them all. Often I had to search to sort him out from the crowd. I didn't miss him asking for my services and the service I could give now seemed to make very little difference to him. But, you understand, it was a contract I was built to honour. What is death... no heart beat but still mobile with brain activity. So I stayed.

I didn't need much myself. A sunny spot to recharge without being bumped into. Clean water was harder to find. There were rivers, streams, even skimming from deep enough puddles. As the crowd of wounded migrated around I'd have to find water where I could. I liked being clean. Fresh changes of clothing were easy. There were so many empty places to restock clothing supplies. Of course, I didn't need food. A little touch up of fluids which I could find in wrecked or abandoned vehicles. I carried some steel wool for those odd spots that would get a touch of rust.

We seldom encountered what I cam to think of as fresh people. Some of those were wounded too but, not the same. They would run from the wounded crowd. I'd have to be vigilant and not get in harm's way when they attacked the crowd. I didn't help the fresh people, even when one would notice me, see that I wasn't one of the wounded, and try commanding me to attend them. I was under contract and that hadn't changed. Besides, they just wanted to use me, my services, and I wasn't interested in providing for them.

My life, I think of it as a life, would have gone on that way forever, or a very long time at least. But, one day I noticed the quiet. Not complete silence. There were still moans from the wounded, the odd wild or feral animal, wind blowing, all of those sounds. The overhead noise from bombs, rockets, airplanes, and all the war mongering was gone. I stopped to listen and waited for it to continue. It didn't.

What did it mean? Did people run out of things to throw at each other? Did the war run out of people to keep throwing things?

The wounded didn't notice, but they weren't very aware of much at all. I began to wonder if there was anyone left to communicate with at corporate headquarters. Could I find someone to talk to? I tried. I'd find a location with a bit of height and search for signals, even the old radio waves. I would hear fresh people talking, but no one I could report to and get updates from.

I wasn't easily surprised but the day the androids came... I was extremely surprised. There was no sign of them and then, there they were. A pack of them, assorted sizes, functions, and state of repair. My people! I decided my contract with my owner was null and void. The first big decision I had ever made for myself, about myself. I was nervous as our group moved away from the wounded. But, most of them didn't notice, just kept moaning and wandering. I did say "good bye" to my owner, to let him know I would be gone. It seemed polite.

I'm starting to get fed up with cookies, especially having those notices half filling my screen and no option to say NO/ deny them. Some sites do let you say no to cookies and then you can go on to see the site. Most do not. Why not, wasn't that the point of being asked? Otherwise why ask at all if the site is still sticking me with cookies I don't want?

The other thing, are sites that try to make me shut off my ad blocker. Yes, they want to make money, fine. But, how can I decide if I care enough to look at their site before I've seen any of it? They could give people an option to at least see the site before they stick me with a bunch of ads which most likely include cookies, tracking and whatever other junk.

Marketing continues to suck the life out of the Internet, like a parasite.

I posted this to the forums on the Curlie site. As someone who reviews, edits, and lists sites (a lot of them) the cookies and assorted marketing junk really get annoying, quickly. Before you think sites are not asking me to list them... you're wrong. I'm reviewing sites which have been submitted to the directory. I'm not usually looking for sites to list, out of the blue.

Also, last night I was thinking about advertising in general. I've written before that marketing and advertising preys on people, finding weaknesses to sell them stuff they likely could do without. Last night I went a bit farther down that idea.

Marketing and advertising finds ways to make us feel incompetent. "You can't do this without buying that." ... "You can't wash your car without buying this or that product because without it you will do a botch job". You get the idea, I hope. Marketing is training people to think they can not succeed at life on their own. It belittles people and softly bullies them. The whole thing about adulting as a verb is a marketing scheme. There is no reason you can't be an adult. Adults are not omnipotent beings. Why make people needy, unsatisfied, neurotic even unless you have the cure/ solution they need for 3 easy payments of $9.99 a month...

AI is set up to "help" us even more because we are just that incompetent. Why can't people make a cake, fix a toaster, etc, etc, etc, as they did twenty years ago? Of course they can. But, they are trained to believe they can not. Think about the ads you've seen lately. How many have told you (not in so many words) that you can't do something? Ads making men look like clumsy fools. Men are not, in general, clumsy or fools. Children are not uncontrollable wild animals and women are not idiot trolls trying to look like Barbie dolls, or whatever the marketing twists people into so it can sell us stuff.

How will people be living in another few generations? If you're not generating money somehow, in order to buy stuff, will people become a nuisance population? Like an out of control population of mice. Will we be herded up like cattle, as some science fiction has suggested? (Even that will dwindle down as supply and demand fall off). Will we be used as sort of living batteries to power the machines, the artificial intelligence? Our abundance of population will only be useful if we contribute to the economy and then... what if the consumer economy tanks?

What happens when there are not enough human consumers to support the industries, the businesses, and services geared to human beings? How much of what exists, only exists for some form of human consumption? Whether physical, mental, or emotional... so much of what marketing sells is based on having a human population with the money to support it. If things keep going as they are and humans become useless, how will that change everything? Quite a lot, I'd think. Hard to even imagine once you start to think about all the pieces falling out of place.

Life after humans... what would it really look like?

Exploring the Abandoned Planet (urban exploration after people)

We may think about life after death but it's our own death we consider. What happens to the planet, the culture, machines, and animals we leave behind when (if) there were no people left on the Earth to maintain and build them?

Whether you think about something small like a goldfish in a bowl or big, like pollution... have you ever wondered how much impact humans have on the planet and how the Earth would change once we were all gone?

Life After People is a video series based on the idea that people (all of us) have disappeared from the planet. There is no discussion about what happened to us. Once the documentary begins we become irrelevant (except for everything we have left behind and how we left it).

If you have seen the series or one of the movies, do you watch it for the science fiction, the illustrations of abandoned civilization or out of curiosity to see what happens to everything when we (who think we are so important) are not here any longer?

I must admit, as an urban explorer (one who explores abandoned, derelict and ruined places and things) I do love to soak in the illustrations. I could spend the entire length of the documentary just pouring over the details of the ruined places. I would enjoy time to look at still images and catch all the details of the abandoned cars, roads, homes, and all the rest.

However, this series is so great because they go beyond the everyday places and things you would think of. Places like abandoned amusement parks, churches, historical monuments. Things like domestic livestock, family pets and oil leaking from cars in parking lots over time. The series of movies would have to go on forever to capture every last detail but you can find out so much in just an hour, or two.

The Neverending Adventure of our Planet, Life and Everything

I'd like to live forever. Not because I'm afraid of death but because I want to see how the story goes here on our planet. How far do people evolve and what big inventions and changes come along? Can we clean up the planet, control over population and give the animals some habitat back? What happens to the planet.. does the sun die out and leave the Earth cold, barren and out of luck? Does the moon last or some day get hit by space junk we created? So many questions, all leading to the end of time, and farther. How long can the story go? We don't even know where it all began. So many questions and so few answers we can count on 100% as fact. I'd like to know!

We can read so many ideas in science fiction but no one really knows anything, it is all just ideas based on what we know or think we know so far.

If I could have my three wishes... the first would be for health and losing weight, the second would be to live forever and be able to get around exploring the world and seeing it al for myself. Actually seeing it all, rather than reading about it in paper and print. As a bonus I'd take photographs with a digital camera which never runs out of battery life or memory space.

The third wish I would keep in reserve, you just know something will come up and I'm going to need that extra wish somewhere through all time and space.

People (myself included) have a fascination with the end of the world. Maybe it's based on fear. We grew up during the Cold War (some of us). Always there has been war, or the threat of war, hanging over us. School teachers bring it up in current events. Newspapers print about the latest fighting news. It's all around us. No wonder we can't get it out of our minds. No wonder we are curious about what will happen afterwards, to the people left here. What will happen to our planet, our civilization, our governments and our businesses? Will our empire Earth still be around once everything really does hit the fan?

I'd like to know. Of course, I don't expect to live long enough to see it. So, I like to see what other people think about it and see as possibilities. Often the possibilities are on the grim side. But, there is a fascination with death, destruction and violence.

Overcome Fear of Doomsday Predictions

This year the Mayans are the predictors of doom. On December 21st, this year, the Mayans predicted a major catastrophe, an end of the world if not the planet itself. No one knows exactly what to expect. People are afraid, even those who are reluctantly afraid or skeptical.

How do you avoid the fear of this doomsday prediction or the next prediction of doom?

Keep in mind this is not the first time doom, apocalypse, Armageddon the end of the world, has been predicted. Every time the century changes, since people started using a calendar, there have been big upsets over the changing of the date. Predictions are usually about the date, the sequence of numbers or something to do with how the planets are moving in the universe around our own planet.

Look up past doomsday predictions Read and learn about them and see how much they have in common with current and future doomsday predictions. It's easy to be afraid of change - that doesn't mean the world will end.

If you are concerned about a particular prediction, do your own research about it. Don't rely on second opinions, gossip and rumours. Find out yourself and decide what you do or don't believe.

Be skeptical. Don't believe in a prediction just because it made the news, got talked about in school, at work, on the bus ride home, etc. Being popular and talked about, doesn't make it true.

Watch out for people who see patterns and believe in doomsday predictions. You can work on any idea long enough and find some kind of pattern. Try it yourself. Or work backwards and disprove the current pattern or conspiracy theory leading to the end of the world and civilization as we know it.

Stop listening. Stop reading the websites, stop listening to theories or reading about patterns and predictions.

Be optimistic. Don't waste too much time upset about something that hasn't happened and may never happen. Even if we are doomed you can only do so much to be prepared. The rest of the time you could be enjoying your life. Don't waste your time being negative about something that's only a prediction after all.

Curiousity and Urban Exploration

I like to see how the world might look in the future. I like to see buildings, those which crumble, but mostly those that survive and remain standing. I like to see how our roads, and all of our great man-made achievements weather and get taken over by nature and time.

This is the same curiousity which drives me to be an urban explorer. Whether I'm in a city, a town or in the middle of nowhere something like a rusty nail, weathered bricks, or a unidentified object possibly used in pioneer days will lure me over for a better look and a photograph.

Originally posted to HubPages. Laura has been photographing historical, abandoned, and rural ruins in Ontario since getting her first digital camera in 2006.