|
|
|
|
 |
|
Canada
Entries that pertain to Canada. |
|
|
 |
August 27, 2003 |
The very serious Jim Elve references this news report that states Canadians must have neutral expressions in their passport photos (he might have cited a Canadian report):
"The International Civil Aviation Organization, ICAO, has released a recommendation regarding a new specification for photos in passports," explained Suzanne Meunier, spokeswoman for the Canadian Passport Office. "What they say is that the facial expression should be neutral ... no smiling, no laughing, no frowning -- no expressions, basically."
I had to renew my passport in Ireland, through the Canadian embassy in Dublin. I was apparently prescient, unknowingly satisfying these new requirements. I blurred a few data points to prevent forgery:
Customs people are always flumoxed when they try to run my passport through the reader. As you can see, it's not machine readable.
9:54:23 AM
Canada Technology
|
|
August 26, 2003 |
 |
Mentioning the Beachcombers reminded me a of a related, hilarious phenomenon that I learned about in Ireland. In the seventies and eighties, Ireland's national broadcaster, RTE, apparently purchased the rights to a ton of television shows from the CBC and National Film Board of Canada. So, Irish kids were raised all sorts of Canadian touchstones, including stories of Inuit, The Kids of Degrassi Street (and Junior High and High), Danger Bay, the aforementioned Beachcombers and many others. |
This was handy, as it enabled me to make obscure references to Canadian shows among my Irish friends. They, on the other hand, were kind of bitter about the whole thing, and believed that Canada was composed of grizzled log hunters, moose and canoes. Which, in truth, is more or less correct.
I wonder, will the new generation of Irish kids get to see Degrassi: The Next Generation (regrettably, there are no phasers)?
Incidentally, I had a big crush on Caitlin (pictured above). She was the good girl on Degrassi, and, if I recall correctly, went on to university and much happiness.
10:04:35 AM
Canada The Arts
|
As you no doubt know by now, the BBC plans to put its entire radio and television archive online, free of charge. This amounts to an enormous gift to the world, and to history. It's truly a visionary decision for which the British government should be lauded. Danny O'Brien has some interesting observations about the decision.
That got me thinking about the CBC. What's the state of their archives? Could they undertake a similar project? Imagine if all national broadcasters made such a donation to the public domain. I emailed the CBC archives to see what their thoughts on such a project. Obviously it would be tremendously expensive and time-consuming, but I think it's absolutely a project worth doing. And not just because there are several episodes of Beachcombers that I missed.
9:58:06 AM
Canada The Arts The Commons The Long View
|
|
August 25, 2003 |
On BoingBoing, Cory talks about Bob Hunter discussing the newspapers from his breakfast table. This reminded me of the BBC (in fact, all the British news shows), who regularly review the newspapers each day. The Beeb would regularly get guest pundits in to hold forth on the day's news. Radio does the same thing over there, I think.
When I first saw this, I couldn't believe it. One media organization is giving air time to another? And it suggests that TV news recognizes their inherent inferiority to the print media. It was all very strange, and I never really got used to it. Besides, at its heart it's media reporting on media, and that's always a bit distasteful to me.
9:50:40 AM
Canada Technology
|
|
August 22, 2003 |
Jim Elve brings us Blogs Canada, a directory of Canadian blogs. He's done a nice job of stealing the crappy look of Canadian government sites, right down to the name (until recently, our tax office was called Revenue Canada):
BlogsCanada is a pet project of Jelve Design, a small, 100% Canadian, family business run by a couple of Elves. Really. Check the Whois. We develop websites for small businesses and organizations. We are located in Canada and we pay Canadian taxes but we are definitely NOT the Government of Canada. We say so in the very first bit of text on every page of this site.
Jim also has an intelligent blog about Canadian politics.
8:57:41 AM
Canada Internet Politics
|
Krisitian references an extensive and fascinating poll completed by the BBC: What the World Thinks of America. Here's the full coverage, and it appears that you can even watch the program online. There was apparently a debate, and Canada was represented by the CBC's Peter Mansbridge.
All of the survey data is pretty interesting (and well rendered), but this particular chart stuck out:
I don't know what Brazil is thinking, but check out the American response. Who else do they think the superpowers are?
I've said it before and I'll say it again, the BBC is hands-down the best TV station in the world. This reminded me of some shtick on a hilarious Canadian show called This Hour has 22 Minutes: Talking to Americans.
8:47:34 AM
Canada Politics
|
|
August 21, 2003 |
There are a number of record-breaking forest fires burning in British Columbia and Washington state at the moment. One of them is beginning to threaten the city of Kelowna. Currently there are 3000 people on evacuation alert. This site has some amazing, frequently updated forest fire photos. Some of them are truly apocalyptic.
My friend Jeanette, who lives in Kelowna, writes:
Well, I’m glad that you were able to see the beautiful Okanagan a few months ago BEFORE it all turned to ashes! Damn. This bloody fire is out of control. It’s so nice to walk to your car in a rainstorm of falling ashes every day. Plus, our office building is reeking of smoke due to the air conditioning system sucking it in. Oh, and the apocalyptic red sun is a little eerie too.
3:14:51 PM
Canada
|
|
August 16, 2003 |
My search continues for magazines that I can read in public without being embarrassed by the scantily-clad chick on the cover. Magazines like Maxim and FHM are okay and mildly amusing, but frankly, as I get older, they're a little vapid for my tastes. GQ's concerns are pretty foreign to me, and Details seems to have passed its prime.
A brief side notes: Why is it that whenever I bring up my embarrassment about Maxim, one or more of the women present inevitably volunteer that 'I read Maxim'? It's like they can't wait to demonstrate how liberated they are. When I hear this, I always think two things: a) You probably don't actually read Maxim very much, but want me to think that you're a tres post-modern woman and b) That's hardly a ringing endorsement of your character or intellect.
Recently I've tried two new magazines: Toro and Ramp. Toro is Canadian, and had a pretty interesting feature on Donald Sutherland (as well as an interview with one-day-poet-laureate Gordon Downie). Ramp is American but manages to rise a little above the other mens' magazines. It had a particularly insightful article on Soldier of Fortune magazine (which featured the fantastic line 'SOF's editor is to guerrillas as Dian Fossey is to gorillas). Both magazines had great, fresh designs that avoided the 'chicks in boxes' and side-bar mania that so many magazines have adopted these days.
2:36:35 PM
Canada The Arts
|
|
August 15, 2003 |
One James Norton is a Yank with a bone to pick: he hates Canadian change. More importantly, he wants yours:
...mail in all your worthless Canadian change. Once we've accumulated $2000.00 in Canadian "money," we'll dispatch a delegation to the Canadian capital — whatever that may be, even if it's an igloo or a giant hollowed-out walrus tusk, or whatnot — and sit down with their finance minister for a frank talk about keeping Canadian change where it belongs: in jars. Canadian jars.
So far he's got $2.05. As a Canadian, I think I'm forbidden from participating. However, the next time I'm in the States (Heaven forbid), I'll see if I get any Canadian cents.
9:33:48 AM
Canada Internet
|
|
|
|
|
