Categories: "Politics" or "American" or "Canadian"
Contested Ballots in the Minnesota Senate election
One of the interesting things to come out of the remarkably close election in Minnesota is how many ways it's possible to screw up a simple fill-in-the-circle ballot. Given that these ballots are pretty close to the ones used by Elections Canada (or… more »
The incompetent hand of the marketplace
Truly I don't understand what drives financial markets and currency fluctuations:
Canada's dollar broke southward through 85 cents US in morning trading, slipping to 84.87 cents, down 2.41 cents from Thursday's close of 87.28.
[...]
Other currencies… more »
Snarky
When I first read the linked-to post via RSS, it didn't make a whole lot of sense. This is how it read in NewsFire:
Via the AP:
Al Gore made his
What’s most interesting, though:
second time Obama has
I think its a good strategy, myself.
Needless to… more »
Some bad ideas never die
Yup. Jim Prentice's Canadian uber-DMCA is rearing its ugly head again. Do I hold out hope that the opposition parties will kill it? I guess it depends on how much the studios have been forking over to the various "interested" MPs again...
Anyway,… more »
Extension on Netfile deadline
Anyone who's a little slow filing their taxes -- or putting it off to the last minute -- has found that Revenue Canada's Netfile system has been unusable for the last few days.
Fortunately the filing deadline has been extended for a few days, although… more »
Oil versus Tar
While working on a site up in Fort McMurray a few weeks back, I referred to the awful brewed coffee in the office as "tar sands sludge."
I was then politely, but quite clearly, corrected. It is in fact "oil sands sludge" as only dirty hippies and… more »
"Lost Canadian" law passes
This is good: the bill to restore citizenship to Canadians who "lost" it due to poorly thought-out act has passed into law. more »
Expiry dates on gift cards to be banned in BC
This may well be the first and last time you hear me say something nice about the BC Liberals, but good for them on making it illegal to expire prepaid gift cards.
Regardless of whether one feels that gift cards are a bad idea to start with (and there… more »
Extraterritoriality, the internet and the US
Interesting article from the NYT: if a US government department takes a scunner to you, and you have your domain registered with a US-based registrar, they can and will shut it down. The purpose of the site, the readership, the server location all make… more »
TSA requires cables to be XRayed separately
I never really did like flying and it's getting progressively worse dealing with American airports. It shouldn't be too long until my entire carry-on luggage is composed of smaller bags to be run through security independently.
While traveling this… more »
A good idea gone wrong
Synopsis of link: Police in Rancho Cordoba, California, are pulling people over to give them Starbucks coupons as a reward for appropriate driving.
Comment: The outreach concept is commendable but this is just not the way to do it. The BoingBoing… more »
War Plan Crimson
This one isn't news but it's a reference to various plans the US and Canada had to invade each other over the years. It makes for entertaining reading and fortunately the plans (like the concepts posited in the alt-history writings of Harry Turtledove… more »
The CBC on poor student knowledge of Canadian history
This is the lead paragraph on a CBC story about the poor knowledge of Canadian youth:
If you know why 1867 is a noteworthy year in Canadian history or what top job Sir John A. MacDonald held at that time, then you've already outsmarted most college-aged… more »
